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Old 05-02-2010, 08:59 AM   #1
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default going out with a bang

In my GURPS Supers campaign Sovereignty, I've just run the penultimate session. I wanted to end things dramatically! One of the player characters had an origin story involving her and her archenemy being given superpowers by Ares and Athene and commanded to defeat each other, leading to recurrent battles over the millennia. I took advantage of that to have the archenemy, who had been working behind the scenes to direct sovereign-level supers into attacks on the PCs' team, decide that a team that could repeatedly defeat sovereigns could mount a credible threat to gods, and propose an invasion of Olympus to battle Ares and Athene and demand that they rescind their command. To add temptation, he offered to undo his work in organizing sovereigns into a military alliance.

To make things more interesting, I recruited a player from my other campaign, one who has a far better tactical sense than mine, to play the npc. They spent last session negotiating over the arrangement, and in this session they all got together in the underlevels of the Cathedral of Naples, where a Hermetic ritual magician opened a certain door that gave access to Mount Olympus after the proper spells were cast.

I rolled the dice and found that Athene's Oracle power had enabled her to foretell that something was up, though not all the details, and that she had set up a camouflaged site where she and Ares could wait to see what their worshipers were doing. Another roll showed that Ares was unable to resist his Impulsiveness and charged out to the attack, followed not long after by Athene, shouting in Greek, "Ares, you idiot!"

I'm pretty happy with the results. I managed to build two characters with divine powers who were tough enough to take on half a dozen 1,500-point supers and stand up to them. Probably the most important things behind this were high Will (20 and 25) to stand up to mind control, ridiculous defense rolls to avoid most attacks (even with extreme deceptive attack strategies, the PCs mostly just got to "narrowly avoided" rather than "hit"), and high HT (15 and 20) to go on fighting after major injury. On the other hand, the PCs were able to resist the Terror effects of Ares's ululations (at -5) and Athene's uncovered Aegis (at -10).

Probably the most spectacular move on the PCs' side was Shifter, in his new humanoid dragon form, throwing his magical returning sword at Athene and having it sever her left arm. A dice roll showed that the Aegis fell face down, which was just as well. On the gods' side, after Concussion had tried a couple of "shaped-charge" explosive blasts at Athene, she became annoyed with him and hurled Zeus's borrowed thunderbolt at him, hitting him in the face, which inflicted major burns and shorted out his tactical electronics. I was also particularly pleased with the scene where Lyra, in her dark form, charged forward to grapple with Ares, inflicting severe injuries on him with her abrasive skintight energy field, but not taking him out of action . . . whereupon Athene, seeing through the sphere of darkness with her owl eyes, did a deceptive attack with the thunderbolt . . . throwing it through Ares's body to strike at Lyra; as a cosmic attack, the thunderbolt ignored both Ares's orichalcum armor and Lyra's defensive force field, but I figured that part of its energy would be used up on Ares's flesh. Then there was Shifter picking up Athene's shield, pulling her arm out with his teeth to hurl it away, and becoming mildly euphoric on the taste of her immortal ichor (much sweeter than mortal blood), leaving him at -1 to all skills and self-control rolls. . . .

And as I anticipated, we ended the session in mid-battle, with more combat to be played out next month, and no sign of either side being ready to lie down and die. I'm happy with the way this is going; combat isn't usually my strongest point as a GM, but I was able to set this up in a way that really challenged the PCs. And the players have been doing some very creative things to deal with the situation, including some good roleplaying of their attitudes as they go into battle. I think this will make a good dramatic finish to this campaign.

Bill Stoddard
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Old 05-02-2010, 10:23 AM   #2
Ts_
 
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"Meh. A real climax needs more barfing dwarves."
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Old 05-02-2010, 11:10 AM   #3
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Default Re: going out with a bang

Thank you for the description!
Really nice and congratulations.
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Old 05-03-2010, 12:39 PM   #4
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Default Re: going out with a bang

Bill, that sounds really awesome. Well done! I look forward to reading the write-up of your finale. :)
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Old 05-04-2010, 06:40 AM   #5
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Default Re: going out with a bang

Not only a bang, but an over-the-top bang! Sounds like lots of fun. Makes me want to try running a 1000+ point game someday.
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Old 05-04-2010, 08:17 AM   #6
lachimba
 
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Default Re: going out with a bang

I think the little that I have read about Sovereignty as shown me how great a high points value Supers campaign can be, and completely shifted my perception that the best Supers campaigns were gritty low secret powered campaigns.
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Old 05-04-2010, 09:12 AM   #7
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Default Re: going out with a bang

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
..... I'm happy with the way this is going; combat isn't usually my strongest point as a GM, but I was able to set this up in a way that really challenged the PCs. And the players have been doing some very creative things to deal with the situation, including some good roleplaying of their attitudes as they go into battle. I think this will make a good dramatic finish to this campaign.
Love the recap!

Its it speaks highly of your game that combat doesnt preclude Role Play, but can instead be used to enhance it.

Were you using a hex-may/tactical combat? If so, were there any special 'tricks' you used to record facing and position? When I have to end a session mid combat, starting back up leads to some "er...uh...I think he was here" kind of moments. Ive tried sketching and camera phone shots but other than going fully digital, I dont know of a way to speed this process up.

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Old 05-04-2010, 09:59 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Nymdok View Post
Were you using a hex-may/tactical combat?
Also, I'd be curious to know how long the combat takes, both in real time and game time.
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Old 05-04-2010, 11:25 AM   #9
whswhs
 
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Were you using a hex-may/tactical combat?
No, I kept track of their positions mentally. But at the end I sketched a map, and I'm thinking of taking along a hex board next session.

Bill Stoddard
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Old 05-04-2010, 11:27 AM   #10
whswhs
 
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Originally Posted by pyratejohn View Post
Also, I'd be curious to know how long the combat takes, both in real time and game time.
I think it took us about two hours to get all the preparations done and have the PCs (and the guest star NPC) go through the portal. The combat took the remaining three hours, and isn't done; it might last two or three hours more.

In game time? Maybe ten seconds.

Bill Stoddard
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