I finally got a chance to start running my All This and World War 2 supersystem conversion for my kids. Here's a report on the first few chapters, with a big disclaimer: I made a huge mistake on the Soulless characterstic. I thought it was immune to all attacks that were defended from with Mental Resistance, which include Soulfire attacks, Hypermove Attacks, and Density Decrease attacks, but doesn't mean Dominate. In fact, the real rule is that it's immune to all attacks that use Mental Attack dice, which is the exact opposite. That rules out Dominate, but lets Agility-based Hypermove and Density Decrease and Agility attacks harm it. Whoops!
INTRODUCTION
With their respective reputations as guardians of order spreading, it was only a matter of time before the Criminal Hunting Agency of Super Espionage (C.H.A.S.E.) and Teen Girls of Justice (T.G.O.J.) came to the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. And that attention came in the form of an anonymous package sporting a two-way video link to none other than Nick Fury himself. Commander Fury wanted members of the two super teams to help him test a new anti-supreme military weapon, the Cavalier Infantry Support Robot, by taking it through its paces in mock combat. DE FLASH and STRYKER of C.H.A.S.E., and STEALTH-WATCHER and AQUA of T.G.O.J. agreed to the mission, and soon they were on the way to a top-secret research facility a few miles outside of Albequerque.
Nick Fury welcomed them to the site and gave the teenage super-heroes a quick tour of the facility, introducing them to top scientists Klaus Kruptmann and Jack Cooper. Once the super-heroes were acclimated to their new surroundings Nick recommended they head back to their quarters for some sleep. He wanted them back at 7 am shaarp ready for combat. Barely had the words left his mouth, however, before a series of explosions knocked everyone from their feet.
Fury, with the young super-heroes at his heels, raced outside the research building to discover the Cavalier Robot's holding facility had been been blown apart. Two nearby warehouses, caught in the explosion, were partially destroyed as well. The cause of the destruction became quickly apparent, as the giant Cavalier Robot stepped out of its containment facility and began firing its multi-megawatt-blasters at the warehouses in an apparent attempt to collapse them. Nick Fury immediately got on his handheld radio, demanding to know who was responsible for the cock-up and how to bring the giant robot back under control. As the mechanical monster turned toward the group, its laser sites locking onto Stealth-Watcher, the super-heroes realized that their combat would begin immediately, and there would be nothing "mock" about it.
(battlefield overview)
(Cavalier Robot)
(Heroes from Left to Right: De Flash, Nick Fury, Aqua, Stryker, Stealth-Watcher)
THE BATTLE
TURN 1
Stryker immediately drew his grapple-gun and launched himself onto the roof of the partially-collapsed warehouse (agility based super leap).
Stealth-Watcher called her Pegasus to her side and launched a blast arrow at the robot. Hitting the massive monstrosity was no problem, but damaging it certainly was. Even the magical force of the blast arrow failed to penetrate the robot's ceramic plating.
All Stealth-Watcher's attack did was draw the attention of the robot, which responded with a blast of its own. The massive attack (12D [3]!) launched Stealth-Watcher backward against the perimeter fence, and threatened to KO her in a single blow. She fought the concussive force through sheer force of will and managed to remain lucid (Resolve save).
De Flash used his super-speed to race up to the beat and punch it a million times a second. This was enough to KO most living opponents, but it had absolutely no effect on the mechanical creature (misinterpretation of Soulless). Realizing he couldn't damage the robot, De Flash ended his turn by racing up into the research office building and hiding.
Aqua the mermaid-fairy summoned a waterspout that launched her over a blast wall and out of sight of the robot (agility based super leap).
The Pegasus picked up Stealth-Watcher and flew her to the top of the research lab.
And then strange men who looked like World War 2 re-enactors ran through the security gate as if they owned the place, yelling with thick German accents, "Destroy them, Robot! Destroy them for the Third Reich!"
TURN 2
Stryker switched his gyro-pistol from grapple mode to sniper mode. Calm and collected, he lined up a shot at a weak joint of the robot and fired. The bullet penetrated, causing the Robot to stagger and spark! (Strain attack with a massive hit against an almost wiff on the robot's damage resistance resulted in 6 vitality -- half the robot's health!)
Aqua began to sing her siren song. The unique vibrations and fluctuations of her voice caused the robot's delicate circuit boards to malfuction, and in particular, it's friend or foe recognition sequencing (Dominate 6D[1] versus the Robot's mental Defense of 1 was no contest, though this, too, was a misinterpretation of soulless).
The anachronistic world-war 2 equipped Germans rushed forward, yelling "Heill Hitler!" in an ecstatic expectation of victory behind their invincible robot friend.
Nick Fury, realizing his crew had completely lost control of the robot, let out a blast with his needler pistol before taking cover behind a wall corner. Surprisingly, some of the high-density needles found their way between the joints in the robot's armor (1 vitality).
De Flash, sensing human opponents, zoomed into the Germans' midsts and KO'd three before zooming back out behind a wall, immune from potential return-attacks.
The Pegasus flew Stealth-Watcher over the blast wall between the research lab and holding facility, bringing Stealth-Watcher within close range.
The robot, confused by Aqua's siren song, turned on the Germans and blasted them, taking out the remaining two in a single burst of fire.
Stealth-Watcher let fly another arrow, this time into the back of the robot's head, and the resulting explosion seemed to damage it further (2 more vitality damage).
TURN 3
Aqua contined to sing, continuing to confuse the robot (second use of Dominate, and even with +2 on its Mental Defense roll, the robot had no real chance to defend).
Stryker lined up another shot, but this time his rocket-bullet pinged harmlessly off the robot's armor.
Nick Fury rushed forward to take up another firing position behind the corner of the warehouse.
The robot, confused by Aqua's singing, tried to leap up onto the office building. It didn't even come close, smashing into the containment unit before falling back down with a crash. The armor protected it from taking damage, but it did end up prone.
De Flash, thoroughly frustrated that he couldn't help the robot, hypermoved on top of it, urinated on it, and then hypermoved back out of sight.
Stealth-Watcher's Pegasus charged the robot but missed (!).
Stealth-Watcher hit the robot with another arrow at point-blank range, but again failed to penetrate its armor.
TURN 4
Stryker lined up a third shot with the gyro-pistol, and this time he hit the robot's CPU. The mechanical monstrosity was finally destroyed.
AFTERMATH
In the Aftermath of the battle, the teen heroes were given the chance to interrogate the captured Germans. But the Germans said nothing other than name, rank and serial number. The weird thing was that the serial numbers didn't coincide to any military in the world. Stealth-Watcher, having first-hand experience with time-travelling Nazis in the past (see Rocketship Down), suggested Fury check serial numbers from World War 2. Stealth-Watcher's hunch was right. These were real Nazi commandos travelling to the future from 1943!
The heroes decided to talk to Dr. Klaus Kruptmann, who they remembered was working on his own Time Travel experiments. But when they confronted him in his lab, Aqua stole a glance at his notes and quickly realized most of his research weren't breakthroughs, they were logical leaps. Dr. Kruptmann wasn't reasoning out a time travel machine, he was reverse-engineering it from a working example! This discovery led their interrogation of the Dr. to take a more aggressive twist. Dr. Kruptmann panicked and reached for an experimental laser gun hidden in his desk. But Stryker beat him to the punch, knocking him out with a single shot from his gyro-pistol. A quick search of Krauptman's lab yielded a machine Kruptmann used to clone his security badge. Apparently he'd been in contact with the Nazi Commandos and had provided them with base security passes.
The heroes next investigated Kruptmann's home. There they found camping equipment that belonged to the Nazis, as well as their orders. A quick translation revealed that the time-travelling Nazis were "Blautot commandos" sent by Hitler to the future in order to steal technologically advanced super-weapons so the Wehrmacht could use them to win the war. Kruptmann, it turned out, was a Wunderkind Nazi scientist at age 12, had worked on the original time machine experiments, and had known a commando group would be travelling to 2012 his entire life. He contacted the Commandos, told them about the Cavalier Robot project, and had attempted to help them secure said robot. Obviously, Kruptmann and the Commandos failed, thanks in no small part to C.H.A.S.E. and T.G.O.J.
But the Commandos' orders reveal that other units were sent to other points in time. And Kruptmann's notes reveal that one such unit succeeded in their mission, bringing a super weapon back from the year 2136.
The heroes report their findings to Nick Fury, who immediately grows concerned. Perhaps they have nothing to worry about -- the war was won and history is what it is. Or, perhaps they in danger of changing history. Nick requests that the heroes go back in time, find the new Nazi superweapon, and destroy it. The heroes agree to do so, track down the Blautot Commandos' time machine in the sewers of San Diego, and hit the "recall" button.
01 April 2007, 06:51:33 PM