Author Topic: Watchmen Inspired Campaign  (Read 52633 times)

clockworkjoe

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2009, 06:26:36 PM »
Ran the first session. It went well. Players investigated a massacre of a rich penthouse party. I'll see if I can get Tom to post his character description.

Please tell me you are recording this game!!!!

Oh yes.

rayner23

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #16 on: March 22, 2009, 08:32:06 PM »
I wish I could have been there.

Also, I can't be there this week, but after this week, my schedule should be free.

Stupid responsibility to school!
I'm from Alaska. About Fifty miles south of Ankorage there's a little fishing town, maybe you've heard of it, it's called fuck your momma.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #17 on: March 22, 2009, 09:58:28 PM »
Sure but that was "before".

I mean you have a point, Rorschach is kind of the exception, not the rule; I just imagined that the characters, operating in a time when their job was illegal, would avoid larger scale events and focus on closer to the ground criminals. If they get caught looking into this than they're going to be arrested (assuming they can, obviously, be caught by the authorities).

I can certainly see how it will make for a dramatic game, I just didn't see it coming.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2009, 08:24:03 PM »
I basically threw the party massacre as the initial hook but it has already led them to many different places, high and low.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2009, 10:11:46 PM »
I get it and I think it makes a good opening. Just surprised me. It's nice to be surprised again; I haven't been by my local gamers for awhile.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #20 on: March 28, 2009, 02:11:56 AM »
Ran session 2 tonight and it was quite a doozy. It went over 5 hours and the players got caught by a military black ops unit and barely managed to escape

Other highlights:

Fighting through a major gang war zone
Finding out that Dr. Jack Sullivan, a noted expert on costumed vigilantes actually sold experimental teleportation technology to supervillains
Learning of a Edgar Allen Poe themed supervillain
Ambush by the government black ops unit

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #21 on: March 28, 2009, 03:18:02 AM »
That's more what I expected to see, especially the government ambushing and fighting in the streets.

Is Mutants and Masterminds working well for the game?

clockworkjoe

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #22 on: March 28, 2009, 02:04:38 PM »
M&M is working a lot better now that I am getting used to the system. It's kinda like 4E in that respect - at first I didn't care for it but as I worked through the problems I had with it and learned its strengths and how to work around its weaknesses, the more I like using it.

Jason

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #23 on: April 01, 2009, 01:03:03 AM »
Well, I joined in this game a little late and actually became a little frustrated while trying to make a character with a new system during game (I'm sure you'll hear me gripe about it at some point when Ross posts part 2).  But I still had fun and really wanted to flesh out my character, so I wrote a back story to really get into the role for the final session.  I'm playing a sort of Ozymandias/Nite Owl/Scarecrow/Dexter cross breed, and will be pushing for my character to go full-fledged villain near the close of the game.  Anyway, Ross suggested I post his background for your viewing pleasure, so check the attached file if you're interested and let me know what you think.

-Jason

clockworkjoe

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #24 on: April 01, 2009, 01:09:02 AM »
Just going to post it so people without word can see it

The Elitism of Calvin Hubert

      As the world had just begun to scratch the surface of genetics with the identification of DNA in 1944, a trio of Adolf Hitler's handpicked scientists commenced the first in a series of gene manipulation trials.  In an attempt to understand the innate attributes of a human being, these scientists took it upon themselves to create the ideal person, an individual with the highest physical and mental capability —the superhuman.  Using their own blood and tissue, the scientists experimented with a host of drugs, stimulants, and electrical impulses in order to reconfigure the cellular structure to the flawless foundation of the Aryan race.  After many long, grueling tests, the trio somehow succeeded in  combining their DNA and essentially cloning their “better” characteristics.  The outcome was a healthy, blond-headed, blue-eyed male infant with an eerily quiet countenance.  By all accounts the child never blinked, almost as if his eyes continually siphoned all information and filed it somewhere within their deep azure pools.

      Before the scientists could replicate the experiment, let alone perfect the procedure, the Allied Forces attacked the facility.  The scientists hurriedly destroyed their research, setting all the files and chemicals ablaze in minutes.  But before they could complete their objective, a squad of American OSI Agents rushed into the lab.  The agents, specifically one Sergeant Oliver Hubert, stared in horror as a scientist dangled a helpless infant over a staircase engulfed in flames as his comrades looked on feverishly.  Responding in unison, the agents gunned down the unburdened scientists, while Hubert leapt toward the scientist holding the baby.  With a swift, precise twist of the wrist, Hubert wrestled the child away from his tormentor.  Subsequently, the scientist pulled away defensively and tripped over the staircase.  The inferno welcomed one of its creators with a resounding roar.

      Reasoning that the Nazis had most likely kidnapped the child for their sadistic experiments, Hubert had every intention of returning him to his rightful parents.  However, as his squad made their way back toward their encampment, Hubert began to second guess his decision.  The infant had barely blinked or made a sound throughout the whole ordeal or thereafter.  Instead of whining for food or drink, the child simply tapped its mouth and tugged on Hubert's shirt sleeve to indicate hunger.  Similarly, when the baby needed to expel its bowels, he tapped his bottom.  Amazingly, the child never once soiled himself.  Believing that the trauma or the experiments had somehow matured the lad, Hubert became increasingly intrigued . . . and yet saddened.  Hubert wondered if the change could only be limited toward the child's enhanced mental awareness.  Physically the child appeared whole and healthy, but emotionally he seemed somehow deadened.  Hubert rarely glimpsed any shift in the child's facial features, and those only occurred in response to taste and smell.  Sudden noises only caught his attention but never startled him.  Laughter nor crankiness were ever expressed, only weak imitations at a smile.  Several weeks had passed before Hubert realized that those smiles were copies of his own.  It was in that moment Hubert understood why he had found the child and refused to let anyone else look after him.  Hubert had been charged with nurturing the child's remaining humanity and perhaps restoring what the Nazis had stolen from him.

      Years passed with little change in the boy's behavior.  Hubert had adopted the child and named him Calvin for his brother who had fallen during combat.  A child prodigy, Calvin had assimilated the basics of the English language before he could walk and had an advanced vocabulary by five years old.  His instructors described him as gifted but disconnected.  Socially, Calvin seemed withdrawn and unwilling to befriend other children.  In his opinion, his classmates displayed a severe lack of logic and reasoning skills.  He secretly referred to his classmates as “plebs” and stylized himself as their king.  By the time he graduated high school at age nine, Calvin considered others beneath him and despised their underdeveloped minds.  He loathed their irrational decisions and the ease with which they bought into the media and social mores without further inquiry.  Issues which were quantified by right and wrong or good and evil never fully convinced him of their necessity.  Laws against murder and theft prevented barbarism while fulfilling the social contract essential to civilization, but why should one not dispose of its violators?  Why provide sustenance and shelter for those who broke the agreement?  Furthermore, why should others have to financially support these criminals?

      Thus, when he attended Harvard, Calvin found great interest in civics and economics.  However, after often losing debates because of his amorality, Calvin abandoned his legal pursuits and devoted the bulk of his time to economics and statistics.  As soon as he received his master's degree at the age of thirteen, Calvin immersed himself in the stock market, predicting subtle fluctuations in the market weeks before any other analyst.  He became a multi-millionaire in a matter of years.  In his spare time, Calvin studied electronics and patented various communication and surveillance devices for military and civilian use.  Contributing multiple inventions and steering marketing decisions for corporations as well as investing in their continued growth earned Calvin a controlling interest in several electronics companies.

      As his empire developed and he went from millionaire to billionaire, Calvin pursued further degrees in criminology and the sciences, specifically chemistry, theorizing that an end to criminality could be discovered within a mixture of specific chemicals.  After a few years of trial experiments on lab animals, Calvin believed he had found the correct mixture.  Aggressive animals became docile when administered a daily dosage, and within months the subjects ceased all aggressive acts, but the chemicals sterilized the animals.  Not only would the aggressive gene be eliminated but future generations of aggressors would no longer born.  Considering the experiment an overwhelming success, Calvin wanted to move on to human trials; however, the government declared any future experiments inhumane and ordered his operation shut down.  Despite having all his files and research destroyed, Calvin retained the knowledge and bitterly declared that humans were not capable of abolishing their aggressive nature.  All the same, he did not relegate his years as a scientist as a complete failure.  Instead, he utilized his extensive knowledge of various toxins and medicines to create a device which rendered him immune to all diseases and poisons.  If others would not accept the gifts of Calvin Hubert, then he would no longer subject himself to their toxic society.

      Still, Calvin's concerns about America remained.  An overburdened penal system, lethargic trials, and lenient sentencing were all too frequent.  On the one hand, Calvin understood the primal urge to extinguish another's life in order to cement one's place as a dominant being within the natural order.  In fact, he had once strung up the neighbor's cat for no other reason than to hungrily watch its life slowly ebb away.  On the other hand, Calvin knew wanton acts of violence could not be tolerated within a just society, and yet America's judicial system failed its citizens.  Rapists, murderers, and child molesters could be released for a fee.  Judges could be bribed, jurors could be threatened, evidence could be conveniently lost, and others could serve as scapegoats.  Since the victims allowed themselves to be placed in their current predicament, Calvin held little remorse for their ignorance and weakness.  For him, no one was truly innocent no matter what the bleeding-hearts led the public to believe.  He surmised that a truly just individual should police himself or herself and accept the responsibilities for his or her own actions.  If not, he concluded, then they could answer to him, their king.

      He started out small, researching the criminals who had been set free due to a technicality.  Then  using a lightweight stealth suit and a host of specially designed chemicals, Calvin, who had claimed himself “King,” silently dispatched society's oppressors and discarded their remains with the aide of a particularly potent acid.  Soon the guilty feared their king.  Years passed and countless of the worst lawbreakers found a quiet end, but crime continued to rise.  Calvin quickly realized his error.  He was concentrating too much on the bottom rung of the criminal ladder.  Therefore in 1980, Calvin assumed a new alias, The Elite, and began targeting the wealthy corporations who perpetuated a world where crime was profitable and the weak could be easily manipulated by the media.  The “plebs” were his to control.  Once again, Calvin concocted a powerful mixture of chemicals to treat his patients, only this time they induced a series of vivid hallucinations and a temporary paralysis.  Calvin carefully picked the executives and stockholders to target first, weakening key members with ravenous indulgences for the items they peddled to the common person.  Soon prominent cigarette chairmen had begun smoking several cartons in one day and developing cancer in a matter of months.  Obesity and diabetes soared among fast food executives.  When questioned about their abrupt behavior, each individual claimed that the company's ad, or in some cases mascot, convinced them to partake of as much of their own products as they possibly consume in one sitting.  Each company's stock plummeted and one of Calvin's many subsidiaries bought the companies and reshaped the product dispersement with public health in mind.  After all, thought Calvin, a healthy public is a paying public.  Satisfied for the first time in years, Calvin continued his war on corporate America without hesitation.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #25 on: April 01, 2009, 01:24:19 PM »
That's a really good backstory. I didn't read it right away because it looked really long but once I started it was compelling. It's reasonable, different enough to be cool, and familiar enough to understand.

Well done sir.

rayner23

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #26 on: April 02, 2009, 11:06:54 PM »
Ross,

Here is my character for tomorrow night. Not the most original story ever, but it is enough to get me through the session. Hope it works!


-C



Fighter - Nangwaya
Ojwang Odinga came to America from Nairobi, Kenya because of a vision that came to him one night. While high on opiates to open his mind into the vast metasphere of uber-conscious, Odinga saw a prosperous world of peace and harmony. He saw a world where everyone was free and equal. He envisioned a world with only one world government and life was perfect. In his trance, he saw utopia and he knew that it was created because of superheroes. Deep down, Odinga knew he had to be part of this great change.

Moving to America, he donned a costume and took on the name of the great Kenyan warrior, Nangwaya. Unfortunately, the future he envisioned was either incredibly far away or some sort of alternate reality because the world that Odinga had to defend from itself was a world that was filled with racial tension. In the 1960's, Odinga tried his best to inspire African Americans to be proud of their heritage and to embrace their color. He was a strong spokesman for young blacks to get in touch with their African roots. For many years, he patrolled the city and spread his message of peace and freedom.

An incredibly strong fighter and practicing chaos magician, Odinga derives his abilities from the trance-like state he puts himself into every night. By getting in touch with the spirit world, Odinga draws upon the power of his ancestors as he fights for his utopian world.

Only a few months before Martin Luther King jr. was assassinated, Nangwaya completely disappeared.
I'm from Alaska. About Fifty miles south of Ankorage there's a little fishing town, maybe you've heard of it, it's called fuck your momma.

rayner23

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #27 on: April 03, 2009, 09:03:50 AM »
I told my students about my superhero and one of them said, "So, basically, this superhero is like 'I saw a perfect future, so I am going to America to punch stuff!'"

My response is: pretty much.
I'm from Alaska. About Fifty miles south of Ankorage there's a little fishing town, maybe you've heard of it, it's called fuck your momma.

Tom Church

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #28 on: April 04, 2009, 12:45:57 AM »
And here's mine.

Nick Hammond; AKA The Revenent

   Nick Hammond loved America.  He said the pledge of allegiance each morning at school and meant every word.  His father, Capt. James Hammond had been a hero in WW2, and young Nick wanted nothing more than to be like him.  Nick enlisted in the Marines the day he turned 18, dropping out of his senior year to do so.  He enlisted because that’s just what you did.  America was fighting a war in southeast Asia, and he wasn’t about to wait for the draft.  He stepped off a C-130 in Da Nang in December of 1967…just in time for the Tet Offensive in early 1968.

   During Tet, the brass recognized some potential in the young Marine and sent him for special forces training that same month.  Nick was thrilled to be given such training, because it seemed to him that many of the rank and file soldiers he served with didn’t know much about war.  The men he met in Marine Force Recon seemed to know considerably more than shit.  When he arrived back in Vietnam in April of 1968, he was prepared to go to war and win another victory for America.

   That didn’t last long.

   It quickly became obvious to him that the Generals and politicians who were running the war didn’t have a fucking clue what they were doing.  During his first tour, he saw green Liuetenants botching the coordinates of an airstrike and dropping tons of ordinance on a village full of civilians, officers ordering men into situations where they were garaunteed to take casualties for no return, and his own squad ordered into the field time and again to take out targets that were utterly worthless.  This was not the war his father had fought.  Where was the will to win?  Why hadn’t the Army started a concentrated effort to make its way into Hanoi?  Where were the masks that had done so much during the second World War, giving the troops an example to follow?  And most of all, why wasn’t America treating this like an actual war?

   Nick signed up for a second tour for no other reason than his utter belief that only the troops on the ground knew what they were doing.  His second tour was filled with equally pointless missions that failed to make even the slightest dent in the war effort.  When he signed on for his third tour, practically all his faith in his government’s ability to govern the war was gone.  He signed on for lack of anything else he knew to do to try to make the war work. 

   His squad of Marine Force Recon troops always had good luck when out on patrol.  They had seen dozens of firefights and many cases of intense battle, and always had come through with only minor injuries.  Their luck ran out during a patrol along the Cambodian border in summer of 1970.  His squad stumbled on an entire brigade of NVA troops.  The fighting lasted only six minutes before all but three of his squad was dead.  The survivors were taken back to the NVA base inside Cambodia.  The interrogators quickly gave up any pretense of questioning and were soon torturing the survivors for amusement.  Two weeks later, Nick was the only one left, beaten and close to death.  On the night the interrogators came for him, he knew that he was only minutes away from death. Nick wanted to fight back, but lacked the strength to even walk, let alone fight.  The last thing he remembered from that night was the sound of fast-movers overhead.
 
      It would not be until years later that he found out that the fast-movers were F4 bombers sent to bomb the encampment as part of a new American offensive.  The bombers dropped several tons of napalm on the encampment, wiping out all of the NVA stationed there.  At daybreak, an advance scout team of US Army troops arrived to inspect the results of the airstrike.  By sheer chance, they happened upon Nick Hammond, alive against all odds.  However, he had been nearly incinerated by the napalm.  They found his dogtags and, realizing he was an American, put him on a medivac chopper for medical evacuation.  No one expected him to survive the trip, but amazingly enough, he survived all the way to the Army hospital.

Nick’s father, now Colonel Hammond, ordered his son sent back to the United States for medical treatment.  He was told that Nick had to be kept comatose, otherwise the pain would be unbearable.  Also, the chances of infection were extreme.  Nick had suffered second and third degree burns on 90% of his body, and a constant stream of powerful antibiotics had to be administered hourly.  Every doctor told Colonel Hammond that there was little chance of his son surviving.

However, Colonel Hammond had access to large ammounts of enhancement technology controlled by the US government.  Calling in every favor he was owed in over a quarter century of military service, he procured an experimental cocktail of drugs and enhancement enzymes that he had been told could allow his son to tolerate the pain and control the infections.  Against the advice of every doctor in the Military Hospital, Colonel Hammond injected the enzymes into Nick and ordered the doctors to bring him out of his coma.  Nick awoke, feeling no pain at all.  Later tests revealed that the infections had completely vanished.  Though doctors said that no ammount of plastic surgery could do anything to fix the extensive damage done by the napalm, Nick could at least remain awake and live a semblence of normal life.

Then the side effects became evident.

The drugs had rendered Nick’s body unable to send or receive pain impulses, but it came at a price.  Nick soon discovered that he no longer needed to sleep.  Though this meant that Nick could remain awake at all times, it also caused his brain to suffer irregularities in normal funtion.  That, combined with the stress of his completely mangled face and body, resulted in debilitating hallucinations.  Nick began to see the world around him as a crumbling ruin, and every person and animal appeared as a horrible monster.  Nick was sent to an institution, but anti psychotic drugs and even sedatives proved useless.  Not only had the enzymes ceased the infections, but it also rendered his body immune to drugs, even beneficial ones.  The hallucinations grew worse, and for years Nick was locked away in his father’s house, unable to step outside for fear of going mad.

Finally, in 1974, sever cabin fever caused Nick to leave his father’s house and go outside.  Immediately, the hallucinations hit him.  For hours, Nick wandered the city, trying to keep the images in front of his eyes at bay.  As chance would have it, Nick wandered into an alley where six thugs happened to be hiding out.  They saw the twitchy, muttering man wrapped in medical guaze and decided to have some fun.  In Nick’s eyes, he saw a half dozen horrible demons advancing on him, gibbering in excitement at the prospect of violence.  At that moment, Nick’s training took over.  He charged at the demons and tore into them with his bare hands.  In moments, they were dead.  Through the adrenaline of the attack, and the rush of battle, Nick’s eyes suddenly cleared.  The hallucinations stopped, and Nick saw the city as it really was for the first time in nearly four years.  The peace lasted for several days, but Nick soon felt the hallucinations returning.  Before they became dabilitating again, Nick set out in the city and sought another fight.  The result was the same.  Realizing what it was that caused his hallucinations to stop, Nick vanished that very night.

Adopting the name Revanent, Nick embarked on a private war against anyone who seemed worthy of extermination.  While he always tried to keep the war to those who were guilty, Nick has generally gunned for anyone that was convenient for his war.  Every battle he get into is soley for the reason to keep the hallucinations at bay for a few days.  Each time, the relief is temporary, and Revanent must go in search of another target.  It is estimated that between 1974 and 1985, Revanent has racked up a body count close to three thousand, and shows no signs of ever stopping.

Since he normally keeps his war to criminals, most law enforcement types are content to ignore him.  Revanent’s father, now General James Hammond, has made it a personal mission to bring his son in alive.  He feels personally responsible for what his son has become, and makes every effort to make sure his son is arrested and brought in unharmed.  He knows that his son is dangerous, and must be brought in for the safety of society, and for his own sake.


"The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes.  The middle class pays all of the taxes and does all of the work.  The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class.  Keep them showing up at those 'jobs'."  George Carlin

clockworkjoe

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Re: Watchmen Inspired Campaign
« Reply #29 on: April 04, 2009, 02:02:18 AM »
Finished the third session of the game and concluded the adventure. It was a great game and over 12 hours of gaming recorded. I think you guys will really dig it.