Super Mission Force! (Erethor's Supers AAR/Log)

[Erethor]

Here's a battle report playtesting the new Goalsystem game Super Mission Force!

First, we're playing the Weapon scenario, but with a slight change...Instead of trying to destroy a weapon, the villains are trying to break into (and loot) an armored car!

Nighttime in Gotham City. An armored car rolls along through an intersection when suddenly, a rocket streaks out from the darkness up ahead! The armored car is struck, the blast destroying the engine! Luckily the rest of the car stays in one piece. As the drivers bail out, Batman and Robin swoop down to investigate. They are surprised to see Green Arrow swing down and join them! Why is he in Gotham? No time to talk though, as Roman Sionis, AKA Black Mask, and his gang, the False Face Society, race towards the truck! From down the other street, the hulking form of Killer Croc appears, tossing aside a used rocket-propelled grenade launcher. He rushes in for the kill!

Starting Positions:



Our heroes in the middle of the map.



Black Mask and his gang come down one street, while Killer Croc comes from another.

We roll for the subplot. Green Arrow and Killer Croc are the main players in this encounter, dealing with the Resource and Underworld subplots. The heroes get 3 subplot dice, the villains get 1.

Round 1 -



First move of the game and already a mistake! Killer Croc charges Batman, but I accidentally double his move instead of adding an extra half (darn you SuperSystem muscle memory!)

In any case, Batman dodges Crocs charge.



Green Arrow adds 2 subplot dice to a ranged attack, and targets Black Mask. A combination of great rolls by Green Arrow and poor defense rolls sees Black Mask taken out in one shot! The henchmen move forward to avenge their boss and start shooting at Green Arrow, dealing him 1 damage.

The rest of the round sees Batman and Robin gang up on Killer Croc, dealing 2 damage. Crocs Rage kicks in, and he becomes near unstoppable!


Round 2 -



Killer Croc somehow regains focus, and goes after the truck, breaking off from Batman and Robin. Again, a set of poor rolls sees Croc swiping feebly at the armored vehicle. Green Arrow circles around the truck and fires a net arrow (entangle)! Croc fails to score even a single goal to defend, even with using his subplot dice! He's wrapped tight and no sign of him getting out any time soon!



Black Mask's henchmen continue walking forward, this time pouring their fire on Robin. The Boy Wonder manages to dodge their shots, as Batman charges their group...



...and teaches them a lesson...



...taking all but one of them out.



Robin closes the round by charging Killer Croc.

Round 3 -



Batman finishes off the lone henchmen, while Croc tries (and fails) to break free of Green Arrow's net. Green Arrow charges forward, pulling out his trusty Boxing Glove arrow (melee weapon) and fires a shot at Killer Croc at point blank range! Croc is woozy but manages to stay standing until Robin uses his staff (and last subplot dice) to knock Croc unconscious!

Game Over!

All in all, a fun game and a fantastic set of rules. Other than the opening mistake, the rules were all easy to memorize.

The character makeup for the game didn't follow the rules exactly as written. I selected powers I felt represented the characters, but still kept the number of powers the same, to keep some balance (though the bad guys rolled so poorly they didn't stand a chance anyways). The characters were:

Batman (Brawler) - Scrapper, Iron Will, Super Agility

Green Arrow (Blaster) - Archery (with Melee Weapon, Entangle, Super Agility), Stun, Clever

Robin (Street Level) - Super Agility, Melee Weapon

Killer Croc (Wildcard) - Armor, Super-Strength, Rage, Amphibious

False Face Society (Henchmen) - Power Blast, Veterans

Black Mask (Street Level) - Power Blast, Savant

Now to play another game and figure out what Green Arrow wanted with Killer Croc...

[fourcolorfigs]

Great report! Loved the terrain and seeing the rules in action!

[Erny]

Looks like loads of fun was had. Shame the villans didn't roll any good dice but an easy win for batman isn't a bad thing.

I must sort out some more street furniture for my own city.

[fergal]

Awesome report!  Thanks for sharing.  I can't believe I haven't gotten a game in yet

[Erethor]

Thanks all!

I think the scenarios will run better and be more balanced with more figures on each side. I plan on playing a few more games with various numbers and combinations of archetypes to see how it works.

In the meantime, I was working on a Character Stat Card for SMF when I saw a post by BaronVonJ on his blog (specifically this post http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2016/11/central-city-supers-gauntlet-of.html)

There's a card in the post that looked perfect for what I was trying to make, so I repurposed a "SMF version" for myself. Here's a preview:

Still tweaking it in MSPublisher to remove some minor (but unobtrusive) artifacts that crop up when printing as a PDF. Thoughts so far?

And a big thanks to BaronVonJ for the inspiration. Check out his blog for all kinds of gaming inspiration. #notsponsored

[fourcolorfigs]

Great little card!

[Erethor]

Another foray into the SMF playtest. Continuing from the last battle...

Green Arrow reveals he's found evidence of Killer Croc acting as muscle during a recent heist on Sagittarius Enterprises, located in Star City. He's chased him back to Gotham to find out what went missing. Whatever was taken wasn't listed on the company's inventory. There's a definite cover-up and Green Arrow aims to find out over what.

After some minor interrogation from Batman...



Green Arrow finds out that Croc doesn't know what it was he was stealing, just that afterwards he transported the device to a warehouse in Star City. Green Arrow heads back to Star City, and to the address Croc gave him...

Green Arrow calls Black Canary for help. Black Canary shows up with fellow members of the Birds of Prey: Katana and Batgirl. As they close in on the warehouse, they see the villain Captain Cold! He's leading his Rogues: Heatwave, Golden Glider, and Mirror Master. The two groups spot each other and clash! Little do they realize a stranger watches from the shadows...

The villains have 1 subplot die, the heroes have none. Today's game is the Team Up scenario, where one team will get an extra member.  Each side rolls off to see whose side the guest star is on, with the villains using their one subplot die to assist. The heroes still manage to win the roll, and a guest star will show up later on.

Beginning Deployment -

The Rogues


Team Arrow


Full Table Overview


Round 1 -

Both sides move in closer to fight. Batgirl swings up to a nearby building...



...while Mirror Master teleports across the field and fires his Mirror Gun at Katana!



Katana dodges the blast, while unbeknownst to Mirror Master, Black Canary comes around a nearby shipping container and charges him from the back!



Mirror Master remains standing, though just barely.


Round 2 -

The mysterious stranger arrives on the field...



Merlyn! Long time nemesis of Green Arrow! What could he want? While he enters the battlefield, Katana charges Mirror Master. With Black Canary's help, they easily overpower Mirror Master.



Golden Glider swoops in on Black Canary, but she dodges most of her attacks.



Green Arrow fires a shot at Heatwave, wounding him, but he keeps on coming.



Merlyn helps Black Canary! He charges Golden Glider and sends her flying! She crashes into Heatwave...



...who unfortunately has increased the ambient temperature to surround himself with flames, and accidentally sets Golden Glider alight!



Captain Cold tries to freeze Black Canary...



...and when that fails, he runs behind the building, unaware Batgirl is sneaking up beside him.




Round 3 -

Captain Cold circles around the building to fire another shot at the heroes, but misses.

Batgirl drops in on Captain Cold...




..and takes him out before he knows she's there!




Heatwave charges Green Arrow, and wounds him. Katana charges in to defend Green Arrow, but she is overcome by the flames!



Green Arrow attacks Heatwave, but he too is overcome by the intense heat from Heatwave's modified flamethrower. Heatwave is finally taken down when Batgirl and Black Canary team up!



With all the villains down, the heroes win again! But why is Merlyn assisting the Green Arrow? Is he involved with the heist from Sagittarius Enterprises? What is he hoping to gain? Find out more in the next battle of Super Mission Force!

This game seemed to move by really quick. A couple questions popped up about how Teleport works, but nothing derailing. Overall the game ran smooth. Mostly used Street Level archetypes. Even with 1 less hitbox they feel much more squishy, but it seems to work out well. Combat feels just a bit "swingy" but you can still strategize to minimize that, and it makes for quick, furious games!

Hoping the next game will include mostly non-street archetypes, or maybe even a powerhouse!

Stats used were:

Heroes-
Green Arrow/Merlyn (Blaster) - Archery (with Melee Weapon, Entangle, Super Agility), Stun, Clever

Katana (Street) - Melee Weapon, Fast

Black Canary (Street) - Stun, Melee Weapon (to represent close combat training)

Batgirl (Street) - Super Agility, Melee Weapon


Villains -
Captain Cold (Wildcard) - Entangle, Power Blast, Stun, Fortune

Mirror Master (Street) - Teleport, Power Blast

Heatwave (Street) - Power Blast, Damaging Field

Golden Glider (Street) - Flight, Melee Weapon

[fourcolorfigs]

Dynamite report! Thanks!

Can you expand on the "swingy" nature of the combat? Exactly what does that mean? Just trying ot get a handle on the play dynamics for you.

Thanks, again!

[Erethor]

Apologies for being unclear. By "swingy," I mean that in some cases it seems like characters mostly either stay standing all fight, or are taken out in one hit. Basically, one good roll vs one bad roll can take out a character.

For example, in the last game, Captain Cold and Golden Glider were both taken out in one hit. Somehow, Golden Glider managed to make her KO roll, but then was knocked back into an ally's Damaging Field, taking her out! (pretty great moment!)

Heatwave blocked everything thrown at him, until he was charged and taken down in one hit. Sure enough, he made his KO roll as well, but he went down on the next attack, which ALSO would have done enough damage to take him down in one hit.

Overall, two characters somehow made the difficult KO roll, but if they hadn't, they would have been out after one attack. They didn't really build up damage overtime. Even if they weren't street-level, they still took enough damage to be knocked out as other archetypes.

As a thought experiment- A Brick with Leaping and Armor vs a Street Level with Melee Weapon. If the Street Charges (getting 5D) and manages to score 7 hits after re-rolls (totally plausible- in fact, and please believe this I swear I'm not making this up, I just rolled 5d6 as a lark and got 7 goals, no joke!) the Brick will take 6 damage and has to make a KO roll on 4D, which is possible, but more likely to lose than win. One hit and down.


Of course, these may be some extreme examples and shouldn't be representative of the whole game.

Now, interestingly, the game doesn't suffer because of this like others might. In fact, this seems to work in it's favor! With a low model count, even if you are in the lead, you can still have your own models taken out quickly and your numerical advantage nullified. If you're the one outnumbered, you know you're not out just yet, and can probably even the odds. This plays to the game's strength as simple and fast, and helps the Supers flavor!

I don't think there's anything that could/should be done to the system to change this dynamic. I was just pointing out the feel of it. It's a fantastic game!

[fourcolorfigs]

OK, excellent.

It can go very fast and I am happy with that. The key for us at this point is to just pile up a bunch of games played and see what needs tweaked.

Thanks!

[kimryoung]

Erethor,

From your example it doesn't look like you gave the Brick his opposition roll to the attack?

With average luck he would score 2 or 3 goals, and reduce the 7 down to 4 or 5, then the Armor would reduce this to down to 3 or 4 damage. It would take two such lucky shots to take him down, which even that would be quite unlikely.

Kim

[Erethor]

Erethor,

From your example it doesn't look like you gave the Brick his opposition roll to the attack?

With average luck he would score 2 or 3 goals, and reduce the 7 down to 4 or 5, then the Armor would reduce this to down to 3 or 4 damage. It would take two such lucky shots to take him down, which even that would be quite unlikely.

Kim

Sorry my example wasn't clear. The intent was that the brick rolled no goals on defense. Once that's happened, it's not that he'll be severely wounded or impaired, he'll just be removed because of a single bad roll. And so far, though anecdotally, its happened quite a bit during my games. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing!

[fourcolorfigs]

Unlike SS4 (or any other version of SS) SMF is less forgiving when it comes to tanking a roll.

There is not that second damage/soak sequence. So when you tank a defense roll, you're more likely to get hammered, and KO'ed.

One minor thing that we could do is reduce the base KO check from TN4 to TN3. This way you're a little more likely to make that KO check at least.

Any thoughts on this?

[fergal]

Unlike SS4 (or any other version of SS) SMF is less forgiving when it comes to tanking a roll.

There is not that second damage/soak sequence. So when you tank a defense roll, you're more likely to get hammered, and KO'ed.

One minor thing that we could do is reduce the base KO check from TN4 to TN3. This way you're a little more likely to make that KO check at least.

Any thoughts on this?

I'm ashamed to say that I have yet to play a game, but my first inclination when I heard that everything is all wrapped up in one roll was concern about some really deadly combat.  I think combat is deadly in reality, people spray lots of bullets that mostly miss.  When you get hit by military weapons, it's pretty much game over, not necessarily dead, but you are pretty much done for the day.

Comics on the other hand are long drawn out battles.  Lots of Hollywood drama an multiple punches thrown, falling off buildings, all the stops before someone goes down.  Perhaps a max of 3 damage from any one attack as an optional rule for heroes? Henchman can go down like a house of cards?

Or a larger body damage pool?  Would the game suffer from that?  Like I said, I haven't play tested SMF yet, so I could be way off base.

[fourcolorfigs]

I'm ashamed to say that I have yet to play a game, but my first inclination when I heard that everything is all wrapped up in one roll was concern about some really deadly combat.  I think combat is deadly in reality, people spray lots of bullets that mostly miss.  When you get hit by military weapons, it's pretty much game over, not necessarily dead, but you are pretty much done for the day.

Comics on the other hand are long drawn out battles.  Lots of Hollywood drama an multiple punches thrown, falling off buildings, all the stops before someone goes down.  Perhaps a max of 3 damage from any one attack as an optional rule for heroes? Henchman can go down like a house of cards?

Or a larger body damage pool?  Would the game suffer from that?  Like I said, I haven't play tested SMF yet, so I could be way off base.

I am loathe to move too far away from the core of Goalsystem. So I don't want to go there yet.

But I have considered it! 

The KO check change is milder in my mind. The games are fast and furious because of this combined attack / defense mechanic. It's just striking that balance that's the trick.