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January 11, 2005
52 pick-up
I'm running a Mutants and Masterminds game this weekend, in part because one of my group's old pals is back in town for a visit. It's a one-shot, likely, though we could play for a while, too. I talked some with various group members. I went in wanting to see a group mentality of supers, rather than an amalgam of lone vigilantes. I came out wanting vigilantes ... still in a group. We decided we wanted something in the dark-and-gritty vein of super-dom. So, I took that and tried to think of a situation for the game this weekend. Here's what I've got so far ... First off, I told the players the vibe I'm going for. My idea? Quentin Tarantino does a superhero flick. The players are supers of various types who are hired by one Mr. Blake, billionaire of New Atlantis (my supers city -- a NYC clone, basically). Mr. Blake has experienced a terrible family loss to super-villainous ransom-gone-bad. Apparently lacking his own means for physical revenge, he uses his greatest weapon, his money. He hires vigilantes that he knows will do the job he wants, and directs them to track down and put a stop to every villain on his deck of cards hit list. The idea was, obviously, inspired by the "most wanted" playing card deck made famous in the recent Iraq war. Here, Mr. Blake has identified a nasty S.O.B. that he thinks deserves punishment of some kind, and assigned that villain a card. So, the Ace of Spades is the king of all villains in town. The Queen of Hearts must be some femme fatale. And so on. I'm not sure how much i want to detail the deck should have -- only face cards, for example? All 52 cards? What about Jokers! In the end, I'm thinking the players win a card when they deal with the corresponding villain(s). Then, they can take the cards they earn and get some reward. Maybe they "peel back" a card and earn a new gadget or some cash or something. I also thought maybe they could gamble with the cards somehow. They build a deck with the cards they win, and compete against Mr. Blake (renown gambler) for the really big money. I found a treasure trove of character portraits on the Mutants and Masterminds site. They'll be good sources of inspiration for baddies. But I'm looking for more villain ideas. I'd love for people to respond with ideas in the comments section below. I'd also love to hear any ideas for rewards for "winning" cards, and especially if you can think of some way to use the actual cards in the game. I'm thinking new "free" feats and Power Points are appropriate. Maybe the cards also become additional Hero Points with a value equal to the card value, as in Black Jack? That'd be nifty! Or, maybe I go with the gambling angle.
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Comments
Just a thought: The jokers are the actual heroes who failed to save his family members the first time around? Maybe a husband-wife or sibling team who retired from heroing after the Blake debacle? He wouldn't tell the vigilantes as much, of course - give them fake names or whatever, call them retired villains - but when the heroes get there and find out what's going on ...
Posted by: Ivan at Jan 11, 2005 2:51:22 PM
You can't possibly play out the takedown of 52 M&M villains in one session, can you? Maybe there's some way you could use the cards to play through much of the deck quickly, narrating a montage of villain bashing, and then just play out some of the highlights with the M&M rules.
Posted by: Rob at Jan 11, 2005 10:01:27 PM
Elaborating Rob's suggestion: deal out a hand of cards to each of the players, and then they can play the cards for a benefit (eg, add the face value of the card to a roll or something better), if they narrate a flashback describing how that PC caught that villain. The GM's hand are the villains who are still at large, of course.
Posted by: Neel Krishnaswami at Jan 12, 2005 12:12:37 AM
What if the cards weren't just villains but also corresponded to "contacts?" The heroes would have to work their way through the deck, contacting each "card" in order to progress to the next card (as it were). Just a thought.
Posted by: tim at Jan 12, 2005 9:24:28 AM
Excellent thoughts so far, folks. Thanks. I like the jokers idea, and I love the "explain your bonus based on flashbacks" idea.
Rob's right, of course. There's little chance of me working through more than a few of the 52 + 2 cards. Some will be grouped together for a fun group brawl -- maybe even by card suit. For example, all the diamond face cards are a super-villain group. But, there's little chance of me getting though it all.
One idea I had was to make all the face cards and aces the baddies (and maybe the jokers), then hand the players the rest of the deck. It's a "group" deck from which they can draw to get a bonus, etc. They get in a tight spot, then someone decides to draw a card for help. They describe how and why it helps them.
As they defeat the other people, they get the cards and mix it in with their deck. So, now the more powerful and useful face cards are in the deck for their disposal. They might draw, say, the Jack of Diamonds (after defeating that villain) and get a much better bonus.
I do know one thing I want to do. However many cards I have cast as villains, I want to make a poster board or table layout. When they defeat the villain, the remove the card from the poster, and revealed beneath the card is some bonus. For example "Everyone earns 5 Power Points" or "Choose a gadget with power level 6" or "You now have access to a hideout with the following benefits (training room, computer, etc.)"
Keep the ideas coming! This is very helpful for me, folks.
Posted by: Matt Snyder at Jan 12, 2005 10:45:05 AM
I like going with just the face cards as the villains; that keeps it managable and the feedback on a per-villain basis is good. Taking down one card out of 52 looks trivial; taking down one card out of 14 (with jokers) is impressive.
Maybe you could use the non-face cards as thugs and minions? I don't recall how elegantly M&M handles such things, but perhaps the 10s are non-super lieutenants, and the 9s are squad leaders, and other cards represent that number of thugs.
Posted by: Bryant at Jan 13, 2005 3:22:40 PM
Bryant, I have considered just that -- using numbered cards as minions of various kinds. But, I'm quickly running out of time to get that done. So, I've opted for: face cards, aces, and jokers. Here's the rogue's gallery so far:
Ace of Spades: (no name) alpha superhuman
Ace of Hearts: Red Ronin, master of Tiger Clan, aka Kusonuki Ryuji
Ace of Diamonds: (no name yet, but will have no nickname), psychic extraordinaire
Ace of Clubs: Azazel, demon
King of Spades: The Reaper, death dealer
King of Hearts: Helix, master of evolution
King of Diamonds: Matrix, the living machine
King of Clubs: (no name yet), airborne terror
Queen of Spades: Little Tiger, smiling assassin, aka "Ichizen Kitsune, aka komokai-tora"
Queen of Hearts: Hellcat, red hot mamma
Queen of Diamonds: Medusa, the last gorgon ? "Regeneration, poison (blood)"
Queen of Clubs: (no name yet), (Poison Ivy-esque villainess)
Jack of Spades: Deadeye sharpshooting killer
Jack of Hearts: (no name yet), the faceless man
Jack of Diamonds: Razor, slice and dicer
Jack of Clubs: (no name yet), gangland strongarm
Joker: Solitaire, the forever woman
Joker: (no name yet), black magician
Clearly, I've got some blanks to fill. But, I found a nice inspirational picture for each of the characters above.
Now, I'm considering how / if to align these into different groups, trios and even duos.
Posted by: Matt Snyder at Jan 13, 2005 3:54:54 PM
Hmmm.
What if, instead of pre-assigning the numbered cards, you use them as your resource pool? I.e., you can keep the minions coming as long as you have the appropriate cards to play, but when you run out, you run out.
Posted by: Bryant at Jan 14, 2005 11:37:15 AM
