Author: NihilisticWhim

An update from the PBP Villain Team MASKs game.

I finally got back into things after a pretty nasty car wreck earlier this year (had a player drop during that time) but man did we swing back into things hard.

The fun part of running a game for Villains is making enemies that are more evil than they are, forcing them to be anti-heroes as well as a group of people willing to do whatever they want. I came up with the Gaunt Creeper, a swaddled and bound villan(ness) who was so angry at the world for disfiguring them that all they wanted to do was spread their pain by subsonically triggering self-harm centers in the human body.

The Delinquent who is a cybernetic hacker mixed with Harley Quinn short circuited the sound system and pumped in battle music to hype the team up as the Janus used the Gaunt Creeper’s explosive entrance to summon a horde of cockroaches from the sewers to clear out the public due to squeamishness.

The Beacon and Protege directly engaged the new target and our new member (who so perfectly chose my homemade playbook “The Trainer”) used his demonic patrona to burn the costume off the Gaunt Creeper, exposing it to its own image as the Protege tapped and shared her neural networking to force the Gaunt Creeper to look at itself through her own eyes as she deviously slashed and struck at it. The Beacon sword fought the being with the lightsaber I had so kindly graced him with as a bonus for the new Star Wars release last year to scar the being even more.

Once it had been taken out, in true villain style, the Protege took leadership and put the Gaunt Creeper out of their misery and they are now super stars of Halcyon city…and the envy of many heroes who were caught off guard and busy saving the public.

I have never been prouder to be gut punched by my players and had great fun with their rolls and actions. I am even more proud to be able to create villains that are not super ultra mega neonazis to get the villains to want to save people as well as make their own mark on the City.

Next the villains are teaming up with their mentors and parents to delve into Halcyon City government vaults to break out the mcguffin for the Protege’s mentor (who, revitalized like Gadget Gal from the Awesomes has been hitting on the Janus in his hormonal teen self).

To my great players and many more awesome sessions!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TAaco2-5nQ

Masks PBP Call in Volume 2: Bwahahaha!

Okay, playing these villains has been infuriating to me because they have made the right rolls at the right times with just enough of the wrong ones to stay interesting. So, basically, I suffer but I have enjoyed it. This was the first official team mission I based off of many of the troped “villains snatch something from a gala event” style thing to make the guys break into a nice formal event with a new emerald that can obviously power a super laser.

On the way there they blackmail a Tony-Starkesque businessman, defeat two heroines, and then make a surprise entrance that sent people running and the rest of the heroes on edge. They then demolished them in a nasty fashion before heading out. Kudos definitely to our Transformed who just plowed through people and our Beacon who discovered his courage.

Next up: Cape Convention Capers!

Okay, my PBP Masks game just ended their prologue. I really like this system but have had waaaaaay too many bad con experiences to really like one-shot games so I have planned out a larger experience for my players. Here is a run down of what happened:

I started everyone out with something simple – they were investigating a bank robbery for some reason or another: My Legacy was there to represent his namesake, my Transformed was sent by her adoptive villain parents to test her powers, my Beacon was there under his mentor’s advice to get the NPC villain on their side, my Janus was trying to impress his father and other villains, and my Protege was testing out her powers. Sadly our Bull dropped but we are now replacing her with a Delinquent who seems exemplary.

The dice HATED everyone at first, no one made a successful roll until about the tenth total roll. Yet everyone did well.

First the Janus: He was blindsided by his girlfriend and knocked her out, robbing her as well to make sure he was just perfectly villainous. He then attracted the attention of a few other of the supers by botching a few rolls but was the first to work with the Team mechanics. He was fun and has great potential to see what will happen. I think he will be the glue that holds the team together.

The Legacy used his namesake to distract the cops and make them focus on the villains outside the bank instead of those inside. His name carried great weight and the eldest of the police force knew the super name and basically gave up without a fight even with the police chief demanding they try and take him out. He was then able to work with the Protege and smash into the bank to distract the villain inside.

The Protege was a monster, teleporting into the Bank and, in two moves, almost obliterating the NPC villain. She then was able to give her the slip and rob the entire bank as the rest of the group distracted everyone else and was able to teleport to her base while letting her mentor gather up the rest of the team to go to a meeting place.

The Transformed was awesome. She controlled the crowd by making her skin enlarge and flash horrific lights like some kind of debased cuttlefish. When the cops launched tear gas at the group she was able to create natural body-morphing filters for the Beacon and Janus so they could all get to the bank and when the villain exploded into bees and flew past them she protected the team from stings by becoming a living piece of armor around them.

The Beacon was the one who the dice loved. He rarely failed anything and was able to pep talk the Janus from running away or feeling like a schmuck, got the NPC villain to leave the bank peacefully so everyone could escape with the loot as well as cementing the team as more a team by having the backs of everyone he came into contact with.

The Delinquent showed up at the end when a trained “Super Negation Squad” came in, using a jet pack to make a huge explosion in the group and her cyberkinetic powers to overload and destroy the hi-tech weapons of the SNS.

Now, since this isn’t a one shot, the players are now able to set up a few goals. My Legacy wants to dimension hop and kill off everyone who shares his powers to have unlimited power. My Janus is now torn between his girlfriend and the rejuvenated mentor of the Protege who is hitting on him (poor guy just gets older women loving all over him) and is desperate to prove he is just as good as the rest. The Beacon is trying to set up a good team while seeing if he can turn the villain they faced the first time into an ally for the team. My Transformed wants to reacquaint herself with the villains she knew before her warping and is eager to try to make a name for herself as a Transformed who embraces her condition instead of hates it. The Protege is being a bit haughty and is wanting to find a reason to be on the team without being the weak link. And finally the Delinquent is trying to make a name for herself while also making sure her aunt (the only person whose opinion about her matters) never finds out what is happening.

All in all I had a great time with this and am plotting ways to get these people into more trouble with much more excitement. I love seeing their motivations and how they will pull together once the more savage modern age heroes who care little about property destruction and the lives of villains go after them.

I’ll have another update after the next chapter.