Oppressors: First Blows

All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him.
- H L Mencken

The idea: This is essentially Game1 doing Necessary Evil. By which: the Haud invade, sometime after Defenders ends (in game time) and take over. The heroes go to battle them and get killed/defeated - the stories differ; the villains believe they ran away I'd think :) - and the Haud have landed, and are taking over the world as a beachhead in their attempts to conquer the galactic hub.

The army has no hope, the global infastructure has begun to collapse, and the only thing between the Haud and taking over the world are ... supervillains.

Aka the PCs.

How it'll play out: This is up to the players, really. Some characters may be willing to ally with (aka use) others, some may see strategic alliances being vital. I imagine everyone will run into the prisoner's dilemma in some way :)A lot of what is done will depend on the PC, on what made them a villain, their own goals and desires -- some are likely to never consider themselves villains at all.


Character creation:

BESM, 3e. 700 points build. Max levels (see page 9, Superpowered listing) are enforced (though you can ignore the % in each guidelines), along with max level for attributes. The latter can be juggled about on a case by case basis -- if you want to be The Best Teleporter Evar(tm) then you'd want a level or two above the max. But for the most part we'll use the limits in the book to prevent gross overkill.

NOTE: unlike in Defenders, I will be allowing Dynamic Powers in this game. And Nullify, and Mind Control etc..

gm requirement: PCs need to be able to take damage and keep on going. Regen and/or armour and the like are almost a must.

Morality: It will be up to characters how far they go. To be on the safe side, each player may want to make more than 1 character, in case their original one is killed/controlled/put out of commission etc. You are, after all, playing the bad guys. And the player is not the character. I trust people can be adults about this. (And it's comics; even though it's not remotely 4 colour, resurrections can happen.)

The sitrep: The Haud are terribly powerful. They wiped out the heroes (somehow) after all, so the villains are left with the grim reality that, in order for their to BE a world they can rule/take over/get wealth from they have to defeat the Haud, or convince the Haud the planet is too dangerous to take. How they go about this is up to you all.

Toss other ideas/thoughts/etcs. in game1.

Final note: as with Defenders, you do NOT get points for most flaws and defects. You have 700 points; that's enough for anyone.

Caveat to the above:

Defenders had Hero Points. Oppressors will have Villain Points. Meaning: if you do something particularly nasty, you get 1 point. Flaws will translate into 10 of them = 1 villain point, to get something out of them.

Villain point expenditure
1 = divine intervention effect.
2 = +6 bonus to next roll.
5 = Critical Strike effect. (Can be declared once you hit.)
10 = comes back from the dead (somehow, some way)

Others can be added/modified at need.

With the exception of 10, using the same amount of points as someone else does can negate their in game use of villain points. In other words, their use must be declared in channel and other players can elect to use some of the PCs points to stop you. (Others could, conversely, counter the stoppage.) use of points in this manner is unaffected by character location.

And we're baaaack!

Aka, it's no longer November, games are moving ahead.

Defenders will likely wrap up soonish (16-20 sessions, I think) as far as the Main Plot Stuff goes. If the PCs wish to continue the game beyond that, we'll work stuff out.

Conviction will run at some point. Need to find out how many people are interested and what they'd like to play.

As for games after that, no idea at all :)

30 Sessions Into Defenders...

So! We're into session 32 or so, month 4, and it's time for the quarterly report.

To whit:
- So far, we have NOT broken away from 4 colour(1) though the notion that the AI is trying to look for/build a mate was close.
- The game's moved from 2 people to, possibly, 4. Which will take some getting used to but shouldn't be impossible to manage. Having Fen's pc as a hero-in-training/teaching is a fun aspect to things, too.

Current plots:
- One AI, who is kidnapping humans for nefarious purposes and has made bothering the PCs into a hobby for what is, in AI terms, a few million years.
- F.R.O.G, a supervillain team who use frogs and -- okay, they're not really a threat, but they can dream :)
- Chris & Magnificent Man - Superhuman brothers, one of whom can mimic powers, the other who likes to annoy just about everyone.
- Government agents in Purple Suits. Goals unknown at present, but they seem to be in charge of monitoring superhuman activity.
- Regular government agents with terminator robots, who seem to want Arbiter and call themselves the Earth Defense League.
- Doctor Despair, who has yet to show up to more than NPCs, and seems to be on a warpath for Thaumaturge and Arbiter's real names and locations for unknown reasons, but likes to scare people with illusions.
- There are also the Haud, an alien species that is likely coming to earth to invade and Arbiter promised to aid the dinosaurs against their former masters. They are, according to Tumbler, VERY bad news.
- The Tastemaster, a villain connected somehow to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and has hired people to steal hard drives from their and arranged for the entire building to be blown up. Has, via a proxy, made all food in the city taste like broccoli for one hour, and his (or her) long term plans remain a mystery.
- The Living Pyramid, a ... living pyramid (surprise!) who tried to destroy the city to prove his masters thesis was correct. Shoved into a future with robocops by Thaumaturge.
- The hingari, an alien shape shifting species who disguised themselves as all the hot dog vendors in the city and were discovered entirely by accident.
- As well, The Second Cup coffee shop downtown is working on becoming a hangout for heroes and the heroes have a base (well, a blimp :)) that seems immune to alterations in time.

Currently, Arbiter has gone through a portal to another world.


So far, the city has been invaded by the undead, snowed in, telepathically assaulted and had stuffed bears summon forth their god to eat the world on the PCs watch. It can only make them wonder the kinds of stuff Captain Victory deals with :)


Allies:
- Dennis (whom the GM hopes will still, somehow, become a villain :)), a genius whose friend Karen helps him in building and fixing things from junk.
- Lance (police contact; but this IS Lance so there has to be more to him than that :p)
- Benjy, a young telepath who idolized Arbiter and is still finding out what he is capable of.
- Justice Lad, a sidekick whose mentor is out of action for ridiculous lengths of time :)


Future plots:
- Bizarro defenders!
- Evil Twins. Because it has to happen.
- Alien invasion!
- The coffee shop expands :)


Assignment for players (and anyone else who wants to help):
The Second Cup shop is going to be a hero hang out, in and out of costume. If staff guess who the heroes are, they will naturally tell no one. (This IS 4 colour, and there are benefits to it). As such, it's going to have a lot of third-tier heroes in it, and the GM can't be bothered to make 'em all up. So toss some up in comments here or on forum. You don't need to detail them, stats wise: it's more a matter of power and description -- some of them might even be allies, sometimes.

(1) insert obligatory Mitch reference here.

DEFENDERS: THE MANIFESTO

This is, basically, a guideline/my thoughts ON the silver age and what superheroes are meant to be. Debate it in the forum (will be cross posted) and such :)

When we light a candle, we say to darkness: "I beg to differ"

"Silver age" is, after all, just a concept. So here are some worlds to put behind it, to get a feel for the setting, for the kind of character PCs are.

Heroism is, basically doing the right thing. It's hanging on that moment longer, protecting the innocent and serving others. It's about the kind of people who would be heroes even without powers, because they are kind and decent people.

It's about character. Honour. Integrity. The responsibility of being role models as you are, the weight that goes along with that -- of accepting it, but never giving into it, because you are needed. Even if you're hated, or feared, or people turn against you, you don't stop -- because it's about doing what is right, about being a hero no matter what the odds.

It's not taking leaps off the edge of what you know, but standing there to face the darkness, stare at your own demons if need be, and draw a line in a sand. And say to it: "No further. You will not come this point." And standing, and holding it back, if only for another day.

It's about optimism, and the future, and love, and hope, and all those values that are harder to hold to now than they were in the silver age but more important than ever. It's about the possibility of redemption, and the power of compassion.

Because the world isn't Us and Them. It's ALL us, even the ugly parts people don't like to admit. People need heroes, for much the same reason they need gods: to help them believe the world is truly the wonderful place it's advertised as being. And while you can't be everywhere, can't do everything, you do what you can and hope it's enough, sacrificing to a cause greater than yourself, to humanity, because people can be good ...

and because, of all powers, the one that truly matters is hope.