That actually sounds like fairly normal Venture Brothers bumbling. Except for the throwing a bus thing. Did Tom's character happen to be reptilian in nature?
Yeah, he was a giant snake man. Mike was playing a Doctor Horrible style character based off the Skullcrusher Mountain JoCo song. I was playing Detective LeFrog, an "evil" detective noir style man with a frog head.
Well Dr. McNinja let you go or you escaped pretty easily. I don't even remember what he actually did to you other than chase you off. I remember after that you had to fight some other villains to defend your base and you beat them pretty soundly but you got on a bus and left the city. I don't remember the specifics though.
We pretty much beat feet from Dr. McNinja as soon as Tom threw the bus. We were trying to scout and then BLAMO, all out attack. Then it was retreat time. Tom ripped open a manhole and fled into the sewers. Which ended up with Tom being chased by police through the city and us heading home. Then Dr. McNinja attacked us because of the whole bus thing and Mike and I tried to turn Tom over to him, double-crossing Tom. Then Baron Underbite, who was crashing on our sofa and "mentoring" us got mad and stormed out for double crossing Tom. So, Mike and I, having a pissed off Dr. McNinja, giant snake man, and Baron decided to beat feet, regroup, and eventually strike back. That was roughly where everything ended.
The big downfall was that, while Mike and I were in sync, we had NO idea what Tom was up to or why he was doing the stuff he was doing. So we played off of each other and tried our best to deal with the giant snake man. Since you knew Tom everything worked great between you two, leaving us feeling like outsiders. Then there was the fact that it was Mike and I's first time with M&M, while you and Tom knew it pretty well. In a lot of ways we felt behind the curve.
well basically they went straight up against a competent hero without a plan or any preparations even after their NPC mentor (Baron von Under bite) told them that was a bad idea. So I just ran the encounter straight.
I think that was the big misscommunication. Mike and I were trying to scout him out, see who he is, what he's about, not engage in conflict. I mean, we went into his office and faked illness to get a look at him before he knew who we were. Then once he figured it out, I stole tounge depressors and jumped out a window to flee.
btw I think a bumbling villain losing is a very important Venture Brothters theme - after all the Monarch loses to Brock pretty much every time and so on and so on. Hell, pretty much every Venture Brothers is defined by how badly they lose and how they respond - even Brock gets his ass kicked several times.
It can be a little tricky to mimic with M&M though. The Monarch, for example, tends to lose a dozen or so henchmen to Brock during their encounters. Same holds true even for more physically capable villains like Baron Underbheit. Most of the villains retreat as soon as it looks like there's going to be a clear path between themselves and Brock.
Most of the 'operations' I can recall having any degree of success where undertaken when the henchmen are drunk.
100% agreed. Failure is a HUGE theme for Venture. Everyone fails at something, Dr Venture's entire life is a failure, Brock can't get with the one women he loves, The Monarch can't take down Dr. Venture... its everywhere. It makes it a hard theme to pull off in most gaming groups. We've been conditioned to want to win and even when taking the loosing is funny it still kinda sucks.
Not to mention that no one on the show its a TOTAL failure. Dr. Venture can make a fucking walking eye! Sure, its useless but he didn't fail at making it. You know? Its a weird balance a GM needs to strike.
