The One-shot Diaries

[Wraithstrike]

I don't know if play report from tabletop games work in this forum, but here goes:

The One Shot Diaries
During this semester I am running a series of one-shots in different systems during Monday Free Period. The plan is to provide pregen characters and hopefully get some new players interested in setting up for a Thursday or Saturday night game.
The first game in this series is Spirit of the Century and I’m using it for the world of Ben 10.

The prison scow is bound for the general population sector of the Planet Incarceron. The Captain, a Florauna named Vineri, barely knows these four idiots he’s transporting. Well, idiot isn’t fair to Loboss the Galvan.
So who are these crooks?
Name: Allomando
Race: Vaxasaurian
Charged with: Extortion, Assault, Vehicular Homicide(Acquited)
Prison term: 14 years in Incarceron
Background: During his childhood, Allomando was recruited by the Fourth Hand Alliance as a legbreaker. If you could grow to 20 times your size, you'd be effective at that too.

Aspects: Tied to the Fourth Hand, Vaxasaurian Natural Powers(Size Change, Strength Boost, Defense Boost)

The Galactic War:
During the Highbreed Universal Invasion, the Fourth Hand realized that many of its personal projects would be harmed if the Highbreed won. They joined the rebel alliance until the Plumbers defeated the Highbreed. After this, they went back to their old ways.

Aspects: Hero of the Lost Legions, Galactic Traveler

Solo Adventure: Allomando and the Chaos Creature Feature

After the war, Allomando went back on missions for the Fourth Hand. One such mission took him to the swamp planet of Lepidopterra, where while breaking legs for debts, he was attacked by a creature of pure chaos. Using the chaos power the creature infused him with, he was able to protect the locals long enough to defeat it.

Aspects: Always welcome on Lepidopterra, Chaos Creature Power(Roll a + on one die to access a nearby alien's natural power)
Skills: Superb: Might; Great: Endurance, Intimidation; Good: Fists, Resolve, Contacting
Fair: Pilot, Drive Science, Burglary; Average: Gambling, Resources, Weapons, Guns, Leadership
Stunts: Bounce Back One Hit to the Body Thick Skinned
Now You’ve Made Me Mad Brawler

Name: Vectrr
Race: Megawhatt
Charged with: General Mischief, Disturbing the Peace
Prison Term: 4 Years in Incarceron
Background: Like many of his Megawhatt Brothers, Vectrr loves creating mischief. He was the only one of them to escape becoming Earth’s biggest light bulb.
Aspects: Megawhatt Natural Powers( Electro-manipulation, Flight, Energy Beams) Saw the Omnitrix
Cosmic War: Vectrr stayed out of the war, officially. This is due to being used as a living power source for an Opticoid ship. He now takes his energy from everywhere.
Aspects: I Hate Opticoids, Gotta Get my Juice.
Solo Adventure: Surgical Strike on the Shadow World!
Vectrr, in what would eventually get him arrested, sent himself in a probe to the perpetually dark world of Anur Phaetos. He made a crash-landing, which paralyzed many of the ghostly entities living there.
Aspects: Hated by Ectonurians, Loves a Flashy Entrance
Skills: Superb: Engineering; Great: Alertness, Deceit; Good: Sleight of Hand, Contacting, Burglary, Piloting; Fair: Science, Survival, Guns, Athletics; Average: Stealth, Drive Rapport Art Weapons;
Stunts: Demolitions Con Man Danger Sense Bump and Grab Razor Tongue

Name: Loboss
Race: Galvan
Charged With: Intellectual Terrorism(As explained below)
Prison Term: 13 Years in Incarceron
Background: Loboss as a young Galvan was friends with many alien races. The other galvans looked down upon this, wondering why he bothered.
Aspects: “So tell me about yourself…”; Galvan Natural Power(Hyper Intelligence)
Galactic War: It was during the war that Loboss created his Intelligence Modifier Ray. He used it successfully, making Vulpomancers into tactical geniuses and Highbreed commanders into drooling idiots.
Aspects: IM Ray Projector(Personal Gadget); “I made most of the smartest guys in the Galaxy.”
Solo Adventure: Loboss versus Aicue; Mental Showdown.
Aicue was a businessman on Galvan who sought to exploit other races for slave labor. Loboss opposed him with the IM ray, but was subsequently arrested.
Aspects: “Say something intelligent, I dare you;” “I will return, Aicue, I swear it.”
Skills: Superb: Academics; Great: Science, Engineering; Good: Stealth, Investigation, Resources; Fair: Alertness, Weapons, Empathy, Leadership; Average: Pilot, Drive, Guns Burglary Endurance
Stunts: Scholar Dizzying Intellect Personal Gadget(IM Ray, Miniaturized, Special Effect, Craftsmanship) Mister Fix it Quick Eye

Name: Roh-Fayh
Species: Thep Khufan
Charged with: Assault, Grand Theft Spaceship
Prison Term: 10 years in Incarceron
Background: Roh-Fayh wanted nothing more than to get away from Anur Khufos. Living on a planet on the verge of the Null Void drove him to the brink of insanity.
Aspects: Thep Khufan Natural Powers(Stretching Healing Vacuum Survival); Deep Wanderlust
Galactic War: Roh-Fayh was still trying to outrun his homeworld when he was captured and tortured by the Highbreed. Eventually he overpowered his captors and stole their ship.
Aspects: Known to the Highbreed, Hardened Soul
Solo Adventure: Roh-Fayh and the Zero Wave
Roh-Fayh found himself on Sonorosia where a human called D’Void was trying to restart local evolution from zero. He was hit and now needs to stay active to stay alive.
Aspects: Gotta stay active, Zero by touch.
Skills: Superb: Resolve; Great: Fists, Piloting; Good: Stealth, Mysteries, Athletics; Fair: Guns, Drive, Science, Contacting; Average: Deceit, Empathy, Might, Gambling, Rapport
Stunts: Contortionist Iron Determination Psychic In Plain Sight Acrobat

So, those are the four knuckleheads he’s transporting to the prison planet. He sits down to drink some water, when a message comes from a relatively close ship. “This is Opticoid Vessel Farsight, Captain Multeye speaking. You have my brother aboard that little dinghy of yours. Prepare to be boarded.”
Before Captain Vineri can respond, his ship is caught in the gravity grapples of a much larger ship. The airlocks start coming together. With no other option, he runs down to the cells. Opening the cells, he lets the prisoners out.

“Listen up, you four! Space Pirates have grappled this ship. It’s my last mission before I go home and I’d really like to see my family again. So, here’s the deal. You defend this ship, and I’ll put in a good word with the guards on Incarceron to get your sentences lessened. What do you say?”

Obviously, the four prisoners are in. They head for the airlock, except for Loboss, who stays back to see what he can build with the gear aboard this woefully equipped prison ship.

Both Roh-Fayh and Allomando rush to the airlock to intercept. Roh-Fayh falls over from the sudden shift in gravity as the airlocks connect and three Opticoids rush in.

Allomando attempts a glorious suicide option by growing to massive size inside the six-foot tall airlock. With a neutral result, he stays his normal size.

Vectrr flies in electronic form and possesses the pirate ship’s computer. However, with only one shift, he only manages to get inside the machine, not control it.

Loboss finds the surgical robot and his IM ray in the hold. Using his knowledge of robotics and one shift, he amplifies the robot’s cutting power and sends it to guard the captain. Sadly, this will be one of the few successes Loboss achieves.

Roh-Fayh recovers, and starts beating his chest to force the adrenaline flowing. He grapples with one Opticoid and using his Zero Effect, reverts the Opticoid to a little tadpole with one eye. Allomando steps on this one and levels a punch at the next one. With two shifts, he makes the Opticoid’s whole body a black eye. Finally, the airlocked two push their way into the pirate ship. The Opticoids on the other side didn’t expect this kind of resistance. Roh-Fayh hides In Plain Sight and the Opticoids, despite having so many eyes, can’t find him. Allomando grabs one Opticoid, dangling him overhead, threatening to eat him.

Vectrr tries to use the computer(and his Megawhatt Natural Powers Aspect when that fails) to locate the captain. He doesn’t find the captain, but he does find the chief of security enjoying himself with some holographic porn. Seeing as he “Hates Opticoids,” He flies to that system and administers a painful electric shock that paralyzes the half-naked Opticoid.

(From one of the observers watching the game “Isn’t this supposed to be a kid’s show?” My response: “You should see what I did to Pokemon”)

Back on the Prison Ship, Loboss attempts to use his IM Ray on the Opticoids that made it on. Neutral Result. He rerolls using his Galvan Natural Powers Aspect and it comes up -2. The gun jams. Loboss next attempts to climb into the Opticoid’s head and it comes up -3. The Opticoid finds him, and throws him into the cockpit, where fortunately, his upgraded surgical robot catches him.

On the Farsight, two Opticoids watch in horror as Allomando eats one of their comrades. They point their guns at him, only to have one of them ripped in half by Roh-Fayh(+3 on a Might roll) The other will soon die of blood loss as Allomando wrenches his arm completely off.

Vectrr once again scans the computer, and finds the captain’s “companion.” He jumps into her timepiece, and lets her carry him, unaware, to the captain. Once there, he sees the captain’s Battlesuit and leaps from the timepiece to the suit. However, with only +1 on a Megawhatt Natural Power reroll, he can barely control the suit. The captain sees the movement in the suit and points his gun. He only has enough time to do this before Roh-Fayh’s shows up and forces his mummy tentacles down the throat of the captain. The companion cowers under the main console.

Loboss finally gets a decent +2 result on the IM Ray, and stupefies two of the boarders. With an airhorn and the help of the surgical bot, Loboss herds them into the prison cells.

( Allomando’s Player: “Finally you do something right!” Loboss’ Player: “I can’t help failing! I’m only three inches tall! Anyone want to trade dice?”)

The third and last Opticoid doesn’t know where Loboss is, so Loboss decides to use what systems he can find in the ship to craft a weapon. Unfortunately, his Investigation roll comes up Neutral, and he only has the food service machines, the forcefields and medical devices to do so. His first roll comes up +1, for a decent weapon, but he decides to reroll using his Galvan Natural Powers Aspect and it comes up -4. Another Reroll on the same aspect and it comes up -3. A very embarrassed Loboss has just crippled the prison scow. He orders the bot to get the captain to the escape pod and runs for the airlock.

Once through the airlock, Loboss attempts to disconnect the two ships. He meets Allomando coming the other way, carrying piles of dead and unconscious Opticoids. Allomando smiles a ferocious grin and piles the bodies on the other side of the lock.

Loboss fails to release the airlock, sending the two ships into a tailspin as the prison scow drifts. Allomando rolls his eyes and rolls +3 to decouple the ships.
Now the four of them are in command of a high tech space pirate ship and they all gather by the windows to watch the prison scow explode.

Over the radio, the captain of the scow yells at them from the escape pod. “One week to retirement! You bastards! Let me in!” They bring the pod aboard and the captain and bot emerge.
Captain Vineri looks at the group. “Yeah… ‘Nice’ work. My ship explodes after I order you guys freed. I can’t go back now.”
“Don’t hate us, captain. Spur of the moment and all that.” Roh-fayh starts pumping what passes for weights to keep his adrenaline up.
“Yeah, I hear Mercs make good money in this sector.” Vectrr smiles.
“Fine. We’ll do that. On one condition, Loboss is not allowed within five feet of any critical system. Agreed?”
“Agreed!”
Postscript: In the year 2010, four criminals and a penitentiary official bound for Incarceron never arrived. They disappeared into the galactic underground. If you have a problem, If you don’t care how it gets done, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire, the Z-Team.

(We actually mapped out how each of them corresponds to the members of the A-team. Roh-fayh is Face, Loboss is Murdoch, Vectrr is Hannibal and Allomando is BA)

Thus ends this session. Next Session is Wild Talents 2nd Edition, and will be a crossover between Kamen Rider W and Pretty Cure Max Heart. After that, Monsters and Other Childish Things as I give them a sample of Johto Battlecry.

 

[Wraithstrike]

One-Shot Diaries: Detective Cure?

(I created the characters from Max Heart Pretty Cure and Kamen Rider Double to fit under 300 Wild Talents 2E points, not that the point value would have mattered to my players. I had three players for the riders and one girl for the Pretty Cures, so it worked really well.)

Noon in Futo City, and Hidari Shotaro sits at his ancient typewriter, writing up about his latest exploits. The door opens and Sonozaki Wakana enters, trying her hardest to make a disguise work.(I rolled no matches for Wakana’s disguise, so the two detective knew her instantly.)
“What can the Narumi detective agency do for you, miss anonymous?” Shotaro asks. (I gave the players the cliffnotes version of the backstory for both sets of characters. So it worked pretty well.)

Wakana sighs, knowing she’s been discovered. She drops her Denebic disguise and lays a manila envelope on the desk. “My brother-in-law, Kirihiko died a while ago.”

“Was he murdered?” Phillip asks, straight out.

“*Sigh* Yes. He left this for you detectives. A few dead drop mailboxes around Futo containing information on the sales pattern of Gaia Memories here and outside the city.”

(I slide Shotaro’s player a note.)

“Well, we’ll look into it. I know you’re taking a big risk coming here, but I have one more favor to ask you. There’s a high school group coming up on a field trip to see a sustainable wind powered city. Could you try to keep Dopant activity around the city entrance to a minimum?” Wakana tchs and heads out.

“So nice of Kirihiko to leave his information for his family’s enemies.” While Shotaro opens the envelope, we go over to the bus stop.

Nagisa, Honoka and Hikari have arrived. Nagisa’s apprehensive about this plan. After all, they are bringing the queen of light with them.
They get separated from their tour group(who enter the Wind Tower to see the sights.) Immediately, the Pretty Cure’s player gets nervous. And with good reason. A green and black motorcycle behind them gets possessed by Zakenna. They duck into an office near a pool hall to transform.

After the dramatic introduction, Phillip’s player turns to Shotaro’s player and says “I don’t know why, but I have sudden urge to return to the nearest void.” Yup, the pretty cures transformed in front of the guys at Narumi. Akiko is, as always, uninformed about such things and makes it known.

Before the guys can further respond, the Zakenna grabs the Cures and drags them outside. With nothing better to do, Phillip and Shotaro transform.

(I gave them each 5d in alternate forms, so they’d be rolling ten together. Here’s how the matches work: If Shotaro rolls matching 1-3’s, he assumes Joker Form. Phillip gets Cyclone Form on the same numbers. 4-6 is Metal/Heat and 7-9 is Trigger/Luna. 10 for phillip is Fang Joker)

The two detectives henshin into Heat Trigger form and rush out to rescue the ladies from…

(Shotaro’s player: “Wait, it’s my motorcycle that’s possessed? Dang.”)

Pretty Cure botches the Body+Brawling roll to break free and Double botches the Heat Trigger roll. Fortunately, he thinks quickly and switches to Heat Joker to contain the flame that bursts from the barrel.

The Pretty Cures manage to break free, and just in time, as another combatant enters. Kamen Rider Accel stabs his comically heavy gunblade into what passes for the shoulder of the bike-zakenna.

Shotaro: “Hey, watch the paint job. That’s my motorcycle in there.”
Accel: “Always knew your gadgets would cause trouble. Who are these ladies?”
Phillip: “Some kind of emissaries of light, Pretty Cura, I think.”

The girls dodge an incoming Zakenna fist, and Double moves to fire punch the gastank. They miss, being unfamiliar with the mechanics of Zakennas, and the battle is now joined.
Pretty Cures decide to just Screw it. Marble Screw that is. With 4HD in Harm, Shotaro starts yelling at them to save the bike. After the Max Spark Marble Screw destroys the Zakenna, the riders are kind of thrilled to have an evil force apologize for wasting their time.

“You get used to it.” Cure Black answers. They shake hands and trade contact information just in case. However, the adventure’s not over.
“ZAKENNA” fills the air of the city.

Shotaro and Phillip, who have defused, stand with their backs to whatever it is. They both make pretty good sense + perception rolls.

Shotaro: “Please tell me that the Futo Wind Tower isn’t demon possessed.”
Phillip “You want me to lie to you? Very well. It’s actually the noodle shop down the street.”

The lie’s not very effective. They all turn to see the wind tower walking through the street towards them.
Accel: “I was going to say ‘There’s something you don’t see every day,’ but I’m guessing you young ladies do, right?’

Cure Black: “Pretty much. Roller Coasters, schools, 747… So, what are we going to do?”

Shotaro: “Ever play Shadow of the Colossus? Phillip, Fang time!” They transform into Fang Joker and Akiko is on hand to catch Shotaro’s falling body.

The six heroes start running towards the Zakenna Tower and start rolling Body+Athletics to climb it. Accel flubs his first one and switches into motorcycle mode. From then on they make good time. With a prodigious leap from the Zakenna’s shoulder they reach the lower atmosphere.

Triple Finishing Move! Accel’s Kick and the Fang Slicer move get souped-up by the power of the Extreme Luminario. The Zakenna doesn’t stand a chance and the tower is unpossessed and returned to its rightful spot in the city.

Shotaro: “That’s convenient. How…”
Cure Black: “Not a clue.”

They make a dramatic landing and the papers in Futo the next day herald the arrival of new heroes, complete with a picture of the cures and riders. However, only the chief of police and two detective know the truth. At the end of the previous day, the Revolgarry dropped off three normal schoolgirls five blocks from the tower, and they left. They’ll probably not be back in Futo, but that won’t stop the rumors and the mentions on Futo Mystery Tour.