In searching for new worlds to conquer the Crime Syndicate
of America has found a potential victim.
A reconnaissance team has been formed of Superwoman, Atomica, Sea King
and the formidable Grid and sent through to the other dimension. This was made easier by a group of scientists
on their target trying to make contact with other dimensions. The unlucky scientists have now all been
dispatched and the CSA team are surveying the city from the roof of the
laboratory. The world they have found is
Earth 616 otherwise known as the Marvel Universe. The Leader and his newly formed gang, comprising
of Whirlwind, Blizzard, Klaw, Bulldozer and Piledriver have arrived with the
aim to steal the dimensional gate technology and now find themselves the
unwitting champions of their world.
I did more prep for this game and decided to use all the rules including Aces and Fate:-
I also decided my hex terrain didn't really cut it so I printed off some paper office buildings and used a pair of Ainsty Castings shop fronts on a Mars Attacks mat. Annoyingly I couldn't find my urban scenery so I placed a police van in the middle of the street.
Initiative, both sides roll a d10. The Leader’s Team rolls a 4 and the CSA an 8.
The CSA seize the initiative and attack.
Turn 1
This is the position before the game starts.
A closer shot of the Marvel villains.
Grid goes first with three actions. He picks up Sea King and flies him out over
the edge of the building and drops him onto Bulldozer. He then lands on a nearby building roof and
seeing the Leader as the main threat fires a laser bolt at him. The Leader easily side-steps the shot. As he falls Sea King lifts his trident in an
attempt to skewer Bulldozer with a powerful thrust aided by his momentum. He strikes Bulldozer but by a fluke his
weapon bounces from Bulldozer’s helmet.
Superwoman and Atomica argue about their strategy and there is a
turn-over.
The Leader takes aim at Grid and fires a couple of quick
shots, the first misses, the second hits but does no damage. He then plays an Ace, Rapid Fire, uses Fate
to boost the damage and fires again. The shot hits and scores a direct hit,
Grid’s armour buckles but he survives the hit.
Whirlwind speeds towards Sea King, who is locked in combat with
Bulldozer and using his wrist blades slashes at the CSA member. The blades glance off Sea King’s armour. Seeing the Grid is distracted, Klaw takes a
sneaky Sonic shot at him, Grid manages to resist the effect. Blizzard tries the shoot the Grid but instead
there is a turn-over.
Turn 2
The Grid, discomforted by Klaw’s attack fires a Sonic attack
back at the villain but misses.
Superwoman, ignoring Atomica flies down from the roof aiming to punch
Piledriver. She strikes him only a
glancing blow. Atomica teleports onto
the building above Blizzard and increase her mass. Her strength becomes d6 and she has Immobile
d4. Finally Sea King tries to impale
Bulldozer. He hits but the blow is
soaked by Bulldozers armour.
Seeing his chance to alter the flow of the battle, the
Leader uses his Mind Control Power on Superwoman. He enters her mind and using fate to
strengthen the effect Distracts her.
Whirlwind spinning wildy delivers two powerful blows with his blades to
the Sea King. Sea King manages to avoid
damage from either blow. Blizzard takes
a snap shot at the Grid but misses.
Bulldozer delivers a power blow to Sea King and then a swift
follow-up. Sea King hardly seems to
notice the impact. Piledriver tries to
strike Superwoman with a power blow but opens himself up to a riposte which winds
him and sends him staggering.
Turn 3
Superwoman aims to follow up her success, she tries a
powerful attack to finish Piledriver, the ground shakes as her Hulk-like blow
staggers him again. Desperately weak now
Piledriver manages to bypass Superwoman’s defences as she tries to finish him
but as weak as he is he doesn’t harm the super-villainess. The Grid fires a beam at the Leader again but
only the Leader’s pride is harmed. Sea
King seeing Whirlwind as the greater threat attempts to skewer him with his
trident. The aquatic villain
overstretches and Whirlwind slashes him across the chest but the result is only
ripped uniform. Atomica increases her
strength once more her strength is now d8 and she has d6 Immobile.
Piledriver succumbs to Superwoman’s fists and falls
unconscious to the ground. The Leader
fires two shots at the Grid and hits once but with no effect. With blinding speed, Whirlwind slashes at Sea
King, his first flurry of blows allow Sea King to stab at him and his second
results in him being sent staggering back, bleeding from a trident thrust to
the chest. His final attack scores at
hit on Sea King but he is only scratched.
Klaw sends another Sonic wave at the Grid distracting him. Blizzard fires two icy blasts at Superwoman
but she shrugs off the effects.
Bulldozer picks up the van in front of him and launches it at Sea King
who nimbly sidesteps and the van flies on into the laboratory building.
Turn 4
Superwoman flies up and lands next to the Leader and swings
a punch at his oversized cranium.
Surprisingly she missed and the Leader is able to deliver a feeble
punch, which she does not even feel. The
Grid stumbles and there is a turnover.
Whirlwind suddenly realising he’s bleeding collapses to the
ground. The Leader using his Mind
Controller tries to take over Superwoman’s mind and succeeds, he sends her
flying up to attack the Grid. The force
of her attack sends the Grid staggering but her second has no effect and then
the Grid manages to strike back sending her flying backwards. Klaw’s sonic blast and Blizzard’s ice bolt
both misses again. Bulldozer summons up
all the resolve he can and tries to head butt Sea King but is unable to harm
him.
Turn 5
The Grid’s systems, having suffered major damage from
Superwoman’s blow, short circuits and he shuts down. Sea King stabs at Bulldozer but is punched
instead. Atomica having suddenly seen
things go very badly wrong teleports down to attack the Leader, in an attempt
to break his hold over Superwoman. She
opens herself to a kick from the Leader but he is so feeble he is unable to
hurt her.
The Leader calls on Superwoman to defend him whilst using a
Gadget as a Lethal HtH on Atomica who dodges out of the way. Klaw moves into hand to hand with Sea King
with the aim of using his Sonic power next turn, Blizzard doesn’t move as he
rolls a turn-over.
Turn 6
The Leader stands back up and takes a shot at Atomica but
she shrinks out of the way. Klaw rolls a
turn-over.
Turn 7
Sea King realising that unless the Leader is taken down
Superwoman will beat him senseless when she gets back he uses his Ace to gain
Slippery and runs into contact with the gamma irradiated villain. Atomica grows into combat punching at the
Leader but does nothing.
The Leader calls Superwoman back who swoops in and using a
power attack strikes Sea King knocking him backwards to the other end of the
street. Klaw moves back into contact
with Atomica and Bulldozer puts his head down and charges her in the back
delivering a direct hit knocking her out.
Turn 8
Sea King regaining his feet charges at the Leader.
The Leader grins and orders Superwoman to attack whilst
firing his rifle at Sea King. His second
shot knocks Sea King down and Superwoman flies down and delivers a blow. She strikes him but his armour saves him from
harm. The rest of the Leader’s team race
to take advantage of the Sea King’s plight.
Turn 9
Sea King regains his feet and moves towards the Leader with
grim determination. Superwoman gains a
free hack as he passes but misses. As
does Bulldozer but is parried.
The Leader calls Superwoman back to defend him whilst trying
to slow down the Sea King with his Entangle ability but misses. Superwoman flies back but Sea King reacts too
quickly and knocks her back. His
confidence turns to fear as he screams at the other villains to protect
him. Klaw runs back into contact but
can’t do anything else and Bulldozer charges Sea King striking him but doing no
damage. Blizzard moves back as well but
doesn’t harm Sea King.
Turn 10
Grinning ferociously Sea King uses both hands to powerfully
drive his trident at the Leader, he strikes a direct hit and knocks the Leader
out, breaking his hold on Superwoman.
Klaw using his Sonic gun and calling on Fate shoots Sea King
and knocks him out. The other villains
brace themselves for the return of Superwoman.
Turn 11
Superwoman flies back in her fury reflected on her
face. She swoops down to finish the
cowering villains. Only to have
Bulldozer use his Clothesline Ace but he misses. She strikes at Bulldozer calling on fate for
help but only receives a blow from the villain for her trouble.
Klaw uses his Sonic gun but misses. Bulldozer tries an attack but is staggered by
Superwoman’s riposte. Blizzard shoots
ice over Superwoman but she easily smashes her way free.
Turn 12
Bulldozer manages to clear his head but rolls a turnover.
Turn 13
Superwoman makes a power attack on Blizzard delivering a
direct hit which knocks him out.
At that point the remaining villains surrendered. Superwoman gathered up her fallen comrades and returned to her own dimension with tales of a world best conquered, at least initially by stealth.
The stats I used were as follows. The Marvel villains had a points advantage but Superwoman and the Grid were much more powerful than any of the Marvel characters.
Statistics
The stats I used were as follows. The Marvel villains had a points advantage but Superwoman and the Grid were much more powerful than any of the Marvel characters.
| The Grid (1048 Points) | Leader (754 Points) | |||||||
| M | A | S | K | M | A | S | K | |
| d10 | d8 | d12 | d12 | d10 | d6 | d4 | d8 | |
| Damage Resistance | d12+5 | Activation | d10 | Knockout | d8 | Activation | d10 | |
| Armor d10, Ranged Damage d8 (One at a Time ), Flight d8, Regeneration d10, Sonic Attack d8 (One at a Time ), Force Field d10 (One at a Time ), Martial Arts d8 (One at a Time ), Combat Computer , Artificial | Telepathy d10, Entangle d10, Ranged Damage d10, Stunner d10, Gadget d10, Mastermind d10 | |||||||
| Blizzard (464 Points) | ||||||||
| M | A | S | K | |||||
| d4 | d6 | d6 | d8 | |||||
| Damage Resistance | d8+3 | Activation | d6 | |||||
| Atomica (579 Points) | Armor d6, Ice Generation d8 | |||||||
| M | A | S | K | |||||
| d8 | d6 | d4 | d8 | Klaw (606 Points) | ||||
| Damage Resistance | d8+3 | Activation | d8 | M | A | S | K | |
| Armor d6, Mass Control d8, Teleport d8, Stealth d20, Difficult Target , Acrobat | d4 | d8 | d4 | d12 | ||||
| Damage Resistance | d12+5 | Activation | d8 | |||||
| Armor d10, Sonic Attack d10, Force Field d10, Sealed Armor , Vulnerability to Sonics | ||||||||
| Sea King (680 Points) | ||||||||
| M | A | S | K | |||||
| d6 | d8 | d12 | d10 | |||||
| Damage Resistance | d10+4 | Activation | d8 | Whirlwind (883 Points) | ||||
| Lethal HTH Attack d10, Weapon Master d10, Strong Will d10, Armor d8, Superswimming d8, Radar Sense | M | A | S | K | ||||
| d4 | d10 | d6 | d8 | |||||
| Damage Resistance | d8+4 | Activation | d10 | |||||
| Armor d8, Lethal HTH Attack d8, Ranged Damage d8, Superspeed d8, Armor Piercing | ||||||||
| Super Woman (876 Points) | ||||||||
| M | A | S | K | |||||
| d8 | d10 | d12 | d12 | |||||
| Damage Resistance | d12+4 | Activation | d10 | Bulldozer (446 Points) | ||||
| Armor d8, Entangle d8, Flight d8, Strong Will d10, Superspeed d6, Acrobat | M | A | S | K | ||||
| d4 | d6 | d10 | d10 | |||||
| Damage Resistance | d10+4 | Activation | d6 | |||||
| Armor d8, Martial Arts d8, Flying Kick | ||||||||
| Piledriver (380 Points) | ||||||||
| M | A | S | K | |||||
| d4 | d6 | d10 | d8 | |||||
| Damage Resistance | d8+4 | Activation | d6 | |||||
| Armor d8, Martial Arts d8 | ||||||||
Nice write-up. Having played your game, would you make any modifications to the character profiles or did they perform as you expected?
ReplyDeleteThere are a few things I'd change mostly Armour values are too high. The Sea King was in little danger even with Free Hacks walking away from Superwoman and past Bulldozer. As I've converted most of the stats from the old TSR game I've replicated the way TSR designers built characters. Their characters often had higher Endurance (Knockout in Power Legion) than Strength and most had Armour. Which means in Power Legion their defence is boosted. What I can't replicate is the old game’s ways of getting around high defence. I think as a starter I’ll change the way I convert Armour values. I’d used the same conversion table for everything so for example a TSR stat of Incredible converted to a d10 Trait in Power Legion. For Armour I’ll use a different scale so Incredible Armour might only be d8.
DeleteThe only other change to stats I’d make is to remove Stunner (an unofficial Trait basically ranged damage but limited in effect) from the Leader’s profile. I can’t see a circumstance where he’d use the limited Trait when he could use the unlimited version.
I have realised I made several mistakes. Some of the Marvel characters should have been swapped for characters with flight and I didn’t use Leader’s Mastermind and more fundamentally The Grid’s Regeneration. He could have been regenerating quietly for much of the game.
In regards to Armour, I found the higher scores to be a bit frustratingly high, so I've pretty much removed it as an option for someone unless it literally is armour. Without upping the strength, as you said to get around high defence, it's difficult. And unrealistic for many characters.
DeleteI also forgot to use Mastermind in my first test game. Totally forgot to roll it. When I did remember, and the other player allowed me to just throw it right now, I rolled a 12 on a d12. And felt like that'd just be seen as blatant nonsense.
Each play through I find that more and more of it is clicking in my head [and hopefully not pushing other game rules out of my limited brainspace] so games are getting smoother.
However, the one issue I have found with the rules is the range. Just feels like the ranges are a little high. I had a Robin who could throw his batarang a ridiculous length of my table. And with range being tied to the power, making it weaker to make it shorter and more realistic also doesn't seem like a good move.
Eventually we just went and halved the range table lengths for ranged damage. Not sure how you found the ranged damage lengths in your game.
I think the problem with armour is it slows down what should be a fast playing game too much. I wonder if making it 1 point per die so a range of 1 to 6, rather than half the die type might help. I also wonder if making armour piercing a die type power so there was a way to negate d20 armour completely might help.
DeleteI've found each game easier too. I'm working towards playing this with a group of friends and I want to be able to teach the game as well as I can.
The problem I've had with ranges have mostly been with some characters who have devices that allow them to strongly entangle characters at short ranges e.g. Constrictor's tentacles and Wonder Woman's lasso. I've applied limitations to these characters but I don't think it would make the game too much more complex to separate range and power in the game.
Good idea on the halving the armour. That'd be a sensible approach. I have played only one character with Armour, and I don't know if it was the luck of the dice, but he was entirely unbeatable with a character who outdid him in points and attack and, by rights, should have beaten him well before needing to bring in a second guy, severely more powerful, to reduce the KO dice down a few.
DeleteI wonder just how much tougher it would be fighting against someone like Iron Man with some serious armour power.
I too plan on playing with a group of friends. My first play was actually with a friend and it went smoothly, but we didn't push the rules too far. Hammering out a few of the issues before playing with many more people is a sensible plan. Working out halving the range or armour or whatnot before getting into a game and realising no one is going to best a Juggernaut with his armour and then having to change the rules might put some people off a bit.
I too applied some limitations to the range/damage thing. I think I put a limited range on my Thunderball. I mean, he can throw that heavy wrecking ball for some serious damage, but as it's ona chain the range can't be the 2x Long that the strength would give it. Finding the comfort levels is pretty fun though.