The World Came Tumbling Down

[Jolson]

My fellow GMs, I come with a unique conundrum. I want to pick up a game I played RL in the play-by-post section, with all the same friends and characters, etc. I'll briefly re-cap the story:

The party played a group of supervillains:

Rawket: An ex-merc whose power was being really good at rocket jumping (mechanically a pretty clever character design)
Gordon Freechmant: A familiar-looking theoretical physicist with a high-tech hazmat suit and a minor in ass-whooping
Big Poppa: An even more familiar-looking mutant in an old diving suit. An adorably creepy little girl with enough points in Ride sat on his shoulder.
Wood Man: A robot who is rather paradoxically made of wood. Master diplomat and robot of many faces.
Amigo de Justicia: An honorable luchadore, who, through a series of mistranslations, misguidedly join the team of supervillains. In addition to his wrestling prowess, he could summon folding chairs and open portals to the Wrestling Dimension, a wrestling arena floating through space.
Obsidian: A reluctant hero-turned-villain with a vestigial tendency to monologue and a generic Superman power set.
Phantom Dick: A convicted serial rapist with the extremely creepy power set of Anatomical Separation, Flight (Levitation), Blast (napalm), and Regeneration, all restricted to a certain element of his anatomy. He was by far the strangest, and best roleplayed character I have ever had the privilege of playing with.

During the course of our weekly game, we knocked over a bank, kidnapped a public official, stole the world's largest gem, and killed a colorful gallery of superheroes, including a speedster who would blow up if he ran slower than 40 mph. In our final session, Wood Man talked his way into the knockoff Justice League board room and distracted them while we tipped the whole building into the river. After tricking them into a room and locking them inside, he offered them a deal they couldn't refuse: join our new organization and seize control of Freedom City, or drown in their own building. They reluctantly accepted.

And that's where we ended. I loved this group to death, but we couldn't find anywhere to go from there. That's where you come in! Give me your questions, comments, thoughts, suggestions, and any other kinds of vague feedback I was too lazy to list!

[ripleycat]

First off, love the characters. Villain games can be really hard, it looks like you knocked it out of the park.

Hmm. Where to go from there? Well, once the "Justice League" get dried off and pressed into service with the PC's organization, they could start having second thoughts about the offer. Maybe some of them only agreed so they wouldn't drown, and have no intention of joining the PCs, leading to a standoff. Alternately, maybe some of them find they actually enjoy being bad, and join with the players against their old teammates.

They could run afoul of another supervillain's whacky device, and end up with their minds switched into the bodies of the heroes, and vice-versa. During the confusion, the team and their new "pals" get split up. Now the PC's have to find a way to regain control of their own bodies, while fending off hero-worshiping reporters, confused police trying to apprehend Amazing Woman for knocking over a bank, and requests to help kittens out of trees. Meanwhile, the heroes are trying to convince the authorities of what happened. He's not really the insidious Phantom Dick, he's really Captain Astonishing, and there's been a terrible mistake!

If the team *do* attempt to seize control of Freedom City with their new unwilling allies, the city's remaining superheroes would obviously try to stop them, probably en masse, to counter the boost in numbers the PCs get from the faux-JL. Things could spiral out of control, with heroes, villains and wild cards joining or supporting one side or the other for their own reasons, leading to a full-scale war for the city.


Failing that, something involving time-traveling Nazi gorillas.

[Jolson]

Thanks for the compliment, it was the most fun I've ever had with a tabletop game, and my other games have featured parties defeating encounters by allowing themselves to be hit, dragging zombies behind golf carts, and shooting invincible little girls in the crotch with shotguns.

I didn't consider the "them not cooperating" angle, probably because I didn't mention that Wood Man rolled a Nat 20 on his attempt to convince them to switch sides. I figured that recruiting all the heroes and generating mass chaos would probably attract the attention of higher powers, both literally and figuratively.

[Tereshkova]

That sounds like a hoot.

I second the Nazi suggestion, its like Chandler's Law.

The higher powers suggestion is probably ideal, if there are city-tier supers, than there must be national or international level heroes who can stop the villains, or at least provide a challenge to their rising star of villainy.

[Jolson]

Thanks for the input. I've decided that the only way to keep the Sense of Right Alliance from turning on our group at the first chance they get is by brainwashing them. Not only does this handwave any issues with rebellion, it also acts as a great plot for if the guy brainwashing them (essentially a mad scientist version of Doctor Phil) tries to overthrow our rule.

I've decided that my DMPC Rawket will not be returning. He doesn't fit in well because the other people in the party will not be interested in establishing a police state, presumably because a police state is slightly more peaceful than total anarchy. Plus I want to play as someone other than a Soldier knock-off, most likely a guy who surfs on the hood of his super-car.

[FuzzyBoots]

I didn't consider the "them not cooperating" angle, probably because I didn't mention that Wood Man rolled a Nat 20 on his attempt to convince them to switch sides. I figured that recruiting all the heroes and generating mass chaos would probably attract the attention of higher powers, both literally and figuratively.

Worth noting that a Natural 20 doesn't mean anything special in the rules for anything except attack rolls and toughness saves. Someone who rolls high on their sense motive and has as high or a higher bonus can still see through the deception. Also, even if the character rolls high once, that just means they've managed to fool the target temporarily. Their target is bound to wise up, particularly if there's nothing reinforcing the initial bluff ("So, I can't help but notice that the building you say is flooding is distinctly not flooding... I find this makes it hard to trust you. Hello, 911? I think we may have an escaped lunatic with super-powers. Yes, a real persuasive nut. Sure, I'll hold.").

[Jolson]

The Nat 20 thing is kind of a houserule for me, (it's a joke that we all wish there was a 5% chance of succeeding at anything you attempt, no matter how ridiculous). Either way, they're being kept under control by a villainous Dr. Phil-type who uses Mental Transform to modify their behavior.

[Captain Commander]

That is hilarious. Reminds me when two of my players decided to rampage. They ended up flattening Houston, mentally enslaving Star Knight and over-throwing the Meta-Grue for control over Cuba. My next plan was to have the Star Knights come rescue their own. So I guess the "higher power" play.