M+M: Session Two - Behind the Scenes
Metagame:
Well, I managed to retain interest in the game, which I thought was going to be doomed, so that's good. We do have people really looking over their characters and wondering if they did a reasonable job in creating them now that they have a better grasp of the system and opportunities.
As I mentioned, Mike rolled a new char, The Wind Talker - a former WW2 code master/breaker who had worked with the Army on and off over most of the 20th century as a National Hero (although unpowered as far as anyone in the gov't knew). Windtalker sorta went the way of "Hard Traveling Heroes" throughout the 60s to 80s (with all the attendant eco activism and social awareness). After discussion, Mike & I decided that WT has reappeared in the present age following his elderly wife's death (as he is Immune to Aging) in order to find some more meaning in his life, and is passing himself off as his own grandson who is inheriting the role. Being as ProAll loves to have legacy heroes who have a good rep with the gov't, they brought him on without really looking as closely into his story as they could have. Windtalker has a lot of Air Control with a lot of alternate powers, A medium to high amount of flight (which he can bestow to others), and some odd communication skills with Spirits.
In other metagame, I managed to find something reasonable to do with Special Agent Q's Nemesis Gun in order to keep things balanced and on-the-rails. Figuring I knew the encounters as they were going to happen, I decided to go ahead and map-out which powers it would give him depending on which adversary he would be likely to turn it on. This resulted in four "Power Cards" I wrote up using 3x2.5 index cards (cut down from 3x5's) that I passed out depending on when he was using the gun. Xtian seemed to like it and it offered as much power-control as freedom of use, so ^.^b
I had a little trouble filling up 25 pp worth of nemesis powers, though, as I knew SAQ had a damaging blast (spatial control) and so stocking it with more blasty was a little unnecessary. Mostly I ended up going with defense/utility (protection, shield, sensory shield, mind shield depending on the threat) and control powers (stun, paralyze, ranged drain toughness).
As far as other things go, this was the first session in which we see Casey's character, Coltrane (the lovable cybersqueetank) - so I was looking forward to that. Morgan/Untouchable did not make it into the game due to a sudden case of illness, and Dark Queen Mamba's player was a little more concerned with taking care of Morgan (reasonably enough). I feel that maybe she's not as interested in the game - which is fine. And I think that closes the metagame on this session.
- - -
Finale/Wrap Up:
Not much to say here. It was profoundly late (I wanna say later than 4:00 or 5:00 AM). The team gathers up the two villainesses and takes the thanks for the authorities and the ProAll administration. Everyone goes the fuck to sleep.
Analysis:
As I mentioned, Xtian said he liked the Nemesis Power Cards. When I mentioned it was hard to fill it up due to the fact he already had a very powerful blast, he said would prefer to have at least one offensive power, blast inclusive, since SAQ relies on his Spatial Control array to use his TP for combat movement. A reasonable request and I will consider it in the future.
Also, I need to know how some other M+M players are handling large amounts of movement potential? WT's strafing runs weren't awfully heroic in nature and would have put several other members of the team in jeopardy as he wasn't available to be targeted by the two Adversaries or collected minions.
I had an issue with Coltrane's damage saves. By the end, Inhansa was throwing damage 17 lightning blasts at Coltrane (14 normally, +3 via Power Attack). Here's some crunchiness for you and I need some feedback on this:
Say you have a PC with 10 imp. tuff; and an attack with +11 damage. Do you:
1. Say drop the 10's and treat it like 0 tough vs. +1 damage (16 dmg DC)
2. Keep numbers as they are +10 damage save vs +11 damage (26 dmg DC), which means that on a 16 or better the PC can save (same as above)
3. Impervious Toughness takes -10 to NPCs damage (resulting in a 16 damage DC), and then the PC still gets a +10 to the save roll (meaning anything 6 or greater saves?)
I mention this 'cause I was quickly running against the Impossible Damage Save problem. With +17 blasts, Coltrane was having to save against a 32 DC - which he literally could not have done: nat 20 + 10 tuff = 30 - a bruised level AT BEST, which would have weakened his subsequent saves. As I looked at this, it looked like that anything over a +15 damage would make it incredibly difficult for our tank to really absorb damage as he was intended to (at least using save option #1 or #2 above).
On the other hand, this means that the PC's tank is not invulnerable and that he SHOULD be backed up by the other PCs. This might be something I need to bring up with the group. The tank can take damage with less effect that the rest of the team, but he can be whittled down and brought down pretty effectively if he's taking most of the shots. Hmmm.
Follow Up:
At this point, the PCs will get a good few weeks rest before going into the next game (RL and in-game), which is good 'cause the next one is going to be pretty heavy on mystery and investigation.
-12th
Well, I managed to retain interest in the game, which I thought was going to be doomed, so that's good. We do have people really looking over their characters and wondering if they did a reasonable job in creating them now that they have a better grasp of the system and opportunities.
As I mentioned, Mike rolled a new char, The Wind Talker - a former WW2 code master/breaker who had worked with the Army on and off over most of the 20th century as a National Hero (although unpowered as far as anyone in the gov't knew). Windtalker sorta went the way of "Hard Traveling Heroes" throughout the 60s to 80s (with all the attendant eco activism and social awareness). After discussion, Mike & I decided that WT has reappeared in the present age following his elderly wife's death (as he is Immune to Aging) in order to find some more meaning in his life, and is passing himself off as his own grandson who is inheriting the role. Being as ProAll loves to have legacy heroes who have a good rep with the gov't, they brought him on without really looking as closely into his story as they could have. Windtalker has a lot of Air Control with a lot of alternate powers, A medium to high amount of flight (which he can bestow to others), and some odd communication skills with Spirits.
In other metagame, I managed to find something reasonable to do with Special Agent Q's Nemesis Gun in order to keep things balanced and on-the-rails. Figuring I knew the encounters as they were going to happen, I decided to go ahead and map-out which powers it would give him depending on which adversary he would be likely to turn it on. This resulted in four "Power Cards" I wrote up using 3x2.5 index cards (cut down from 3x5's) that I passed out depending on when he was using the gun. Xtian seemed to like it and it offered as much power-control as freedom of use, so ^.^b
I had a little trouble filling up 25 pp worth of nemesis powers, though, as I knew SAQ had a damaging blast (spatial control) and so stocking it with more blasty was a little unnecessary. Mostly I ended up going with defense/utility (protection, shield, sensory shield, mind shield depending on the threat) and control powers (stun, paralyze, ranged drain toughness).
As far as other things go, this was the first session in which we see Casey's character, Coltrane (the lovable cybersqueetank) - so I was looking forward to that. Morgan/Untouchable did not make it into the game due to a sudden case of illness, and Dark Queen Mamba's player was a little more concerned with taking care of Morgan (reasonably enough). I feel that maybe she's not as interested in the game - which is fine. And I think that closes the metagame on this session.
- - -
Finale/Wrap Up:
Not much to say here. It was profoundly late (I wanna say later than 4:00 or 5:00 AM). The team gathers up the two villainesses and takes the thanks for the authorities and the ProAll administration. Everyone goes the fuck to sleep.
Analysis:
As I mentioned, Xtian said he liked the Nemesis Power Cards. When I mentioned it was hard to fill it up due to the fact he already had a very powerful blast, he said would prefer to have at least one offensive power, blast inclusive, since SAQ relies on his Spatial Control array to use his TP for combat movement. A reasonable request and I will consider it in the future.
Also, I need to know how some other M+M players are handling large amounts of movement potential? WT's strafing runs weren't awfully heroic in nature and would have put several other members of the team in jeopardy as he wasn't available to be targeted by the two Adversaries or collected minions.
I had an issue with Coltrane's damage saves. By the end, Inhansa was throwing damage 17 lightning blasts at Coltrane (14 normally, +3 via Power Attack). Here's some crunchiness for you and I need some feedback on this:
Say you have a PC with 10 imp. tuff; and an attack with +11 damage. Do you:
1. Say drop the 10's and treat it like 0 tough vs. +1 damage (16 dmg DC)
2. Keep numbers as they are +10 damage save vs +11 damage (26 dmg DC), which means that on a 16 or better the PC can save (same as above)
3. Impervious Toughness takes -10 to NPCs damage (resulting in a 16 damage DC), and then the PC still gets a +10 to the save roll (meaning anything 6 or greater saves?)
I mention this 'cause I was quickly running against the Impossible Damage Save problem. With +17 blasts, Coltrane was having to save against a 32 DC - which he literally could not have done: nat 20 + 10 tuff = 30 - a bruised level AT BEST, which would have weakened his subsequent saves. As I looked at this, it looked like that anything over a +15 damage would make it incredibly difficult for our tank to really absorb damage as he was intended to (at least using save option #1 or #2 above).
On the other hand, this means that the PC's tank is not invulnerable and that he SHOULD be backed up by the other PCs. This might be something I need to bring up with the group. The tank can take damage with less effect that the rest of the team, but he can be whittled down and brought down pretty effectively if he's taking most of the shots. Hmmm.
Follow Up:
At this point, the PCs will get a good few weeks rest before going into the next game (RL and in-game), which is good 'cause the next one is going to be pretty heavy on mystery and investigation.
-12th