So you want to be a superhero? No such thing.
But. You can be a mask, which is why you’re here. You said superhero but you meant a mask.
The difference? Simple. Superheroes didn’t choose to be what they turned out to be. They made the best with what they had. That’s why they died off. Masks want to be masks. Need to be. The governments, all around the world, passed those crackdown laws. That took out most of ‘em. But the call of the mask is still strong enough. Strong enough to call you.
Here’s what I got. First number here is for this company. They make body armor and costumes on the sly. Light weight kevlar sewn in, lead weights on the knuckles of the gloves, maybe a few extras if you got the bucks. Cheaper if you already got a design but they can come up with something. You got an idea on the design? Good. Only hacks let someone else do it.
Next number is a street doc. Stitch your boo-boos right up. Cheap too. Oh and you’ll need that number. Might want to tattoo it on you or put it on speed dial on your wrist communicator. Hey, no need to get cocky. You need this number.
Oh yeah, you got some moves. You’re fast. Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t be talking to you if I thought you couldn’t hack it. But it don’t matter how fast you are. How strong. How tough. You will bruise, you will break bones and you will bleed. But that’s part of the thrill you know?
Masks dance the dance because they’re fucking crazy or they love the thrill or both. Oh sure you gotta stop the bad guys. But that’s not the point. Masks do what no one else can.
Third number is Hal. He’s a trainer. Runs a 24 hour gym in the roughest part of the city. Doesn’t ask questions, about anything. Can get you some weapons too. You gotta keep in shape, right?
You want extra juice? Lemme give you a number. There’s a black market for, shall we say, performance enhancements. My advice is to not fucking touch them. Masks who dip into that shit get burned. The cops have an anti-mask unit you know and they make examples out of any freak who throws a car on the evening news. Not to mention the side effects, cancer the least of them. Lost a lot of good people to them. Your call.
The place? Nah, kid. I gave you a lot but I can’t give you that. You gotta earn the right. It’s the only place where masks can relax and they are a goddamn exclusive crowd. Before the crackdown, there was over a thousand masks worldwide. Now, maybe 100 at any given time. Most masks die or get caught in the first month. Some study said the average mask’s career is 2 years. Oh sure, some go on for decades. Most don’t.
I know you need this. Just pass the cash over and you get the numbers.
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Inspired me to try my own hand at it, Ross. If the online version works maybe I can convince some RL players to give it a chance. Even turns out that half of my players LOVE superhero games so I’ve got good odds at least.
I did expect more… action from the game. Not as much leaping along rooftops and punching out mooks as I like to see in a superhero game, aside from Aaron and those cops.
Fighting is the least interesting thing in the Watchmen so I went that route.
I’m about 30-35 minutes in… No offense, but listening to Aaron roleplay is painful. Now I know Tom has penchant for prefacing some of his sentences with “Its like” and sometimes it annoys me and sometimes it doesn’t because he doesn’t do it all of the time, but Aaron, Christ Jesus man, every other sentence is “Its like”… Its like driving me nuts!!!
I agree with Ross, the fight sequences in Watchmen (especially the comic book) were meant to highlight the emotional struggles, the inner tumult and pathos of each character. I think that was one of the ways that Alan Moore turned the “comic book superhero” notion on it’s head.
I loved it. I loved the PUNISHER game reference that Tom snuck in:
“Is it true you’ve killed over 450 people!?”
“Don’t know. There were alot of explosions”
Great show. I just started playing in a game of mutant and masterminds in my local gameing group. I already like the story line and how you are keeping the characters away from each other so they can’t compaire notes and put the picese togehter.
Fighting is the least interesting thing from Mutants and Masterminds period.
This cut out at the 59 min mark for me. Right before the inexperienced superhero was about to do something dumb!