The ForeFront Champions Game Log

[Josh_Kablack]

Post I: explanations:

This is a thread where I brag about the awesome that occurs in my ongoing tabletop Champions (FRED) game. As per usual Den ettiquette, I expect you all to encourage, ignore, swipe stuff for your own games, and/or just cuss - whatever you see fit.

There's a whole lot of backstory, the short explanation I ran the game weekly or biweekly from Jan-Sept of 08 - then had to drop out because of workschedule changes, but the players enjoyed the universe so much that one of them stepped up to start running the game again in dec 08, and I rejoined as a player in jan 09, and we've been gaming biweekly since then - so we're something like 40-60 sessions into the game before I even post anything.

Not everything in all of those sessions was awesome, and some of the game has been retconned with the GM handoff, so I will try to keep backstory to a minimum, use spoilers to hide the lengthy bits, and concentrate on the most current awesome.

That said, here're the early handouts that served as the rough starting point for the campaign:

1 We can't say "mutant", Marvel might litigate: We are going to use the term Anomoly or “Moly” in place of mutant for this blatant rip off of Claremont's X-MEN.

2. Not tomorrow, yesterday The year is 1985. To get a good idea of what sort of gizmos that comic-book high tech organizations have just take a look at a current gizmo website. Certain technologies which are staples of the comic book genre, like power armor, are more advanced but only in limited production.

3. And he was terribly mysterious: Mankind has a long history of Mystery Men with access to exceptional training and technology. But the emergence of Anomalies with “Real Powers” is a recent trend.

4. Dr. Strange is in a different comic: No “Magic” Characters. Magic is as subtle and internal as it is in the real world.

5. I'm sensing great pain: Limited Psychic powers can be developed thru training but the truly powerful psychics are all Anomalies.

6. Welcome to the big leagues: The player Characters are some of the most powerful beings on the planet - but they are new to their powers and untrained.

7. What kind of lame ability is that? 99% of Anomalies have NCM, a Single “lame” power and a DF.

8. Why don't you pick on someone your own size: The Characters must be motivated to protect weaker Anomalies.

9 No, I don't want to help you conquer all of mankind, but thanks for asking: The player Characters must all have previously turned down an offer by The Zenith (this setting's Magneto analogue) to join APEX

10. A world that hates and fears them:Humanity is inherently fearful and bigoted, as it is in the real world.

• Anogen - Contraction of Anomolous Pathogen. Blood factor present in over 99% of Anomolies. First isolated in 1976.
• Anomoly (aka 'Moly) - A human who possesses abilities not present in normal humans and a unique anogen in the bloodstream. The word is a bastardization of “anomaly” due to typographical errors in early reports. See also A-factor, Anogen, Double-A-Hole.
• A.C.E. - Anomoly Catalog Engine. An experimental AI in use by PRIMUS's Seattle Task force. It is a living database that tracks known Anomolies and tries to predict their movements and actions.
• Apex - Group of anomolies recruited and augmented by The Zenith. They espouse the Anomoly Ascendent viewpoint, which holds that Anomolies are are separate and superior species not subject to the laws of baseline humans. Prominent members include: Tornado, Typhoon and Inertia, but Apex is believed to comprise at least several dozen Anomolies.
• Baseline - Term used for non-anomoly humans. See also flatline, de-base, obsolete, etc
• Baseline Fundamentalism - A Christian religious view of Anomolies derived primarily from Matthew 4:1-4:10. It holds that Anomolies are individuals facing a unique temptation to power and that they should live as normal humans by refraining from using any metanormal abilities, since the use of such is a sin of vanity or even hubris. Unlike many other activist groups, they are eager to accept anomolies into their ranks, so long as those Anomolies renounce their powers and refrain from the sin of using them. The most prominent figure of Baseline Fundamentalism is The Reverend Roberts, a nationally viewed televangelist.
• The Gardener Argument / Gardnerites - The Garner Argument that Anomolies are a diseased stock of humanity and, just as with a diseased plant in a garden, anomolies should be quarantined away until a cure can be found or a resistant strain bred. Most Gardnerites only advocate enforced separation of baselines and Anomolies and research towards a cure, but the most extreme go so far as to actually advocate for pruning via forced sterilizations or outright exterminations.
• Heather Onasis - Wealthy heiress and advocate of globalization. Majority owner of Olympic Airlines and Olympic Shipping. In response to the sinking of The Orion, she has recently placed a multi-million dollar bounty on The Zenith and key members of Apex.
• Helix Army - The largest public organization of Anomolies in the United States. Membership is open to anyone with proof of Anomoly status, although some local chapters conduct bizzare hazing rituals. They hold conventions and rallies open only to Anomolies, and frequently have incidents with local law enforcement at such events.
• Los Nuevos - Codename for Soviet-sponsored Terrorist group believed to be utilizing Anomolies in South and Central America.
• The Minuteman - Costumed crimefighter famous for helping to break The Syndicate's drug ring in Atlanta.
• Nephilim - An enigmatic class IV+ Anomoly who claims to have lived from the time of legends into the present day. Suspected of possessing time-travel abilities.
• Power Bailbonds - Bail Bond company specializing in Anomoly cases. Their Power Trace division is responsible for tracking and restraining Anomolies and frequently pioneers the use of tactics and equipment not yet approved for general police usage. Note: edited out of continuity before game began.
• PRIMUS - Primary Response and Interdiction Military Unified Service, the US government law enforcement and response agency for managing incidents involving Anomolies and combating Anomoly crime.
• PRIMUS Psi Division - Recently canceled project to train and develop mental powers to aid in the prediction of and response to Anomolous incidents. Controversy erupted when USA Today revealed the presence of Anomolies with questionable pasts inside the program.
• Project Doctrine - Secret CIA attempt to weaponize anomolies for field deployment against Central American Drug Cartels. Suspended pending Congressional hearings.
• Resplendent Dawn - Secret Japanese society dedicated to reviving the Empire. Basically a crime syndicate specializing in corporate espionage and political blackmail. Currently aggressively recruiting Anomolies to work as saboteurs .
• Representative Keene - Congressman known for his tough on crime stance. Currently lobbying for mandatory minimum sentencing in felonies where Anomolous abilities were used.
• TIER system (transhuman ideopathic effectiveness rating) - A way of ranking the destructive potential of an Anomolies abilities. Scale devised by Dr. Ryan Carmen for PRIMUS project ACE. The most current PRIMUS brief for local law enforcement contains the following guidelines:
  
  Tier 0 - presence of anomolous pathogen in blood tests, but individual has not exhibited any outward symptoms nor exhibited unusual abilities. Should be monitored for manifestation and, if possible, tested for concealed abilities.
  Tier I - possesses minor unusual abilities, which do not pose siginificant additional danger to others. Should be monitored for propensity towards erratic behaviour and for signs of psychological instability.
  Tier II - possesess unusual abilities roughly as dangerous as small arms or an out-of-control automobile. Treat as armed and dangerous.
  Tier III - possessess unusual abilities roughly as dangerous as heavy arms or military equipment.. Treat as heavily armed and extremely dangerous. Notify PRIMUS immediately, attempt to avoid engagements without military backup or drastic numerical superiority.
  Tier IV - possess unusual abilities which should be considered as weapons of mass destruction. Notify PRIMUS immediately and attempt to evacuate the area.
  Tier V - none verified to exist yet. possess unusual abilities capable of ending all life on earth.
• The Zenith - Powerful Anomoly with mental and augmentation powers, leader of APEX

Some Suggested Drawbacks:

Social Limitation: Age. Anomoly powers usually manifest during adolescence, and Anomolies have only been around for 10 years. This means that in most cases the PCs are teenagers or young adults. They may be restricted from driving, prohibited from entering certain venues, or legally required to be in school.

Age can also serve as a springboard for other drawbacks, as many characters will still be in school (high school or college), and may still be living with family members unaware of their Anomoly status.

Social Limitation Public/Secret ID: These will generally refer to whether a character's Anomoly status is known or not. A public ID Anomoly is known to be a potentially dangerous individual and will frequently be treated as such, a secret ID Anomoly is generally afraid of the consequences if their Anomoly status were to become known. Think of the distinction more like “closeted” / ”openly out” than the traditional superhero / secret ID.

Reputation: Tier IV Anomoly: Not just dangerous, but considered a walking weapon of mass destruction by the authorities.If you buy this as a drawback, you should probably also buy it as a positive reputation to add to intimidation.

Watched: PRIMUS. Any character with a notable history as an Anomoly will be on PRIMUS's watch list. Even those with unremarkable histories could be of interest to their ACE project. As a hunted, PRIMUS should be bought As Powerful with Non Combat Influence, watching only.

Many of the other organizations can also serve as hunteds, but it is strongly recommended that you do not buy hunteds above 8- unless multiple players purchase the same hunted(s) or they are bought as “Watching Only”

Psych Lim: Since characters are to be protective of other Anomolies, there are a variety of appropriate Psychological Limitations. As this campaign will focus somewhat on the philosophical ramifications, it can matter what type of motivation you character has. While they are all valid motivations, there are key differences between a “'Moly Rights Extremist”, a “Believer in 'Moly/Baseline equality”, an “Anomoly Supremacist”, and someone who just “Hates Bullies, especially those in positions of authority”

Here are 11 suggested backgrounds for player characters in the Anomoly Campaign:

· ACE Collaborator
· Former APEX member
· Lapsed Baseline Fundamentalist
· Helix Army Chapter Leader
· On the Run
· Olympia Undercover
· PRIMUS Psi Division Trainee
· Project Doctrine Escapee
· Resplendant Dawn Dishonoree
· Typical Student

These backgrounds are ways to tie your character into the campaign world, but they are suggestions only, they are by no means an exhaustive list, it is possible to have backgrounds radically different from those presented here.

Each background contains a package of skills, talents, perks, powers and drawbacks to buy to represent that background. Again, these lists are suggestions, it is certainly possible to tweak the elements in each package to better customize your character. Of course, the primary machanical benefit of having a background package is as a way to expedite chargen. In some cases, the GM may allow background package disads to exceed the normal cap on the limits of disads inside a category.

ACE Collaborator

You were one of the anomolies who stepped up early to volunteer for PRIMUS's ACE project. You are registered with PRIMUS, you traveled to their Seattle HQ, where they tested, poked and prodded you to determine the extent of your powers, and they sent the results to all major law enforcement agencies. While your status as a Tier IV anomoly is now public knowledge, the authorities see you as at least co-operative, or even helpful. Some of your fellow anomolies see you as a sell-out or something worse.

-Reputation: Co-operative with authorities (both advantage and disad)
-Reputation: TIER IV Anomoly
-14- Watched A.C.E.
-AK: Seatlle, WA and environs
-KS: Computers
-Contact: primus technician
-Contact: primus silver guardian
-May not be hunted by any law-enforcement agency

Former APEX member

You signed up with the Zenith for a while, but then regretted it and left due to philosophical and/or personal differences. You didn't leave on particularily good terms, and they either want you back or want to beat the stuffing out of you. One or two of them are still friendly enough to tip you off on occasion, but not enough to risk their own necks.

-KS: APEX
-Contact; Apex member
-Hunted: Apex (either want to re-recuit (enslave) you or kill you, depending on the circumstances of your leaving)
-Rep: Apex member (both advantage and disad)
-Hunted: assorted law-enforcement agencies
-Hunted: Heather Onasis

Lapsed Baseline Fundamentalist

You're a beleiver in the word of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When your abilities first manifested, they caused you great pain and confusion, and it took the teachings of Reverend Roberts for you to see that this was a challenge God had posed you. You spent some time as a poster child for his Humble Anomoly movement.
Then something happened and you had to use your abilities to save the lives of several members of his flock. Having better control now, you've come the realization the reverend is mis-interpreting scripture and Matthew 25:14-30 is far more appropriate to the abilities of anomolies. Unable to convince the reverend of the rightness of your vision, you left to seek your own path and use your talents to help as many people as possible. Despite the argumentative nature of your parting, the Reverend is still willing to take you back just as soon as you renounce your abilities again. In fact, he's helpfully tipped off a number of sheriff's departments to look out for a runaway anomoly who is confused and might be dangerous.

-Psych Lim: Christian
-KS: Bible Studies
-AK: US Deep South
-Acting
-Contact: Reverend Roberts
-Watched: Local Law Enforcement agencies throughout the US South

Helix Army Chapter Leader

You are a leader of a local chapter of the Helix Army. At a local anomoly pride rally, you found yourself in a bad situation. You were caught between a group of Apex supporters and local police determined to "bust all those freaks". You had no choice but to defend yourself to the full extent of your abilities. You didn't expect the national news to pick up the incident, nor the overwhelming support of other anomolies in your city.

-Membership: Helix Army
-Contact: Lawyer
-AK: Home City
-KS: Anomolies
-KS: Anomoly Case Law
-KS: Helix Army
-Oratory
-Watched: PRIMUS
-Hunted/Watched: Local Law enforcement in ____ (less, NCI, limited geographic)
-Hunted: Apex
-Watched: Tabloids
-Public ID
-Reputation: TIER IV anomoly

On the Run

You've had some trouble in your past. Maybe you couldn't control your abilities when they first manifested and injured people, or maybe you gave in to the temptation of your powers and commited crimes on purpose. Whatever the case that was in the past and you regret it now. But you're not going to jail for it. You've learned to hide your past and keep moving, you have people who tip you off when they're getting close, and you can live off the grid if you need to

-Anonymity or Deep Cover
-Concealment
-Forgery
-Stealth
-Streetwise
-Survival (urban)
-Contact: Organized Crime Informant
-Contact: Corrupt Cop
-DNPC
-Psych Lim: Feels guilty about past
-Reputation: Criminal Record
-Hunted: Law Enforcement 8-

Olympia Undercover

You've been hired directly by Heather Onasis to make sure that another incident like the sinking of the Orion never ever happens again. You are to infiltrate the Anomoly community and monitor and weed out the truly dangerous elements. It would also be appreciated if the APEX bounties didn't have to be paid to an outside party.

-Wealth
-Social Lim: Harmful Secret
-Social Lim: Subject to Orders (only 8-)
-Contact: Heather Onasis
-May not buy Code vs Killing.


PRIMUS Psi Division Trainee

You were one of the few anomolies recruited for PRIMUS's experimental PSI division. You were trained as an agent and your talents were to be put to use in apprehending Anomolies with mental powers. Then a USA Today investigative report exposed your involvement in the project and ruined your cover. The public outcry over PRIMUS wasting taxpayer money on a Psi Division and the public distaste for having PRIMUS use Anomolies to apprehend Anomolies eventually resulted in a media circus which only ended with PRIMUS disbanding the entire division. You're on "indefinite leave" pending final review, but they haven't yet made you turn in your badge. Maybe there's a way for you to salvage the reputation of the division by working on your own.

-Analyze: Mental Powers
-Bereaucracy
-Criminology
-Sci: Psychology
-Perk: Federal Police Powers/PRIMUS Agent
-Perk: Membership in PRIMUS
-Perk: Security Clearance
-Mental Awareness
-Mental Defense
-Public ID
-Reputation: (negative) Anomoly who infiltrated PRIMUS / Sellout, traitor to your own kind
-Watched: PRIMUS
-Hunted: The Zenith


Project Doctrine Escapee

You were kidnapped from your own home and kept isolated in a dark, damp cell in the jungle until they thought they broke you. Then the men in the white coats measured, poked and prodded you - you still have the scars. Then they put you with the others and they began to train you to seek out and eliminate the enemies of the US. You played along, partially because of the implants that let them rattle your brain from a distance with their dog whistles, but mainly because you knew they'd let their guard down. When they did, you seized the opportunity to escape and hitailed it back to the US. You didn't go home, you knew they'd be waiting for you, maybe using your family as a lever against you. You had to take them down, and you couldn't do it by force, so you sent anonymous documentation of their kidnapping of American Citizens to the media and went to the Congressman who controls the budget commitee.

The project is now officially suspended pending a full congressional inquiry, but those involved in it bear you quite a grudge.

-Combat Driving
-Combat Piloting
-KS: Drug Cartels
-KS: Project Doctrine
-Language: Spanish
-Navigation
-Stealth
-Survival (Jungle)
-Systems Operation
-Tactics
-Teamwork
-Weaponsmith (guns)
-Contact: Representative Keene
-Hunted: Central American Drug Cartels
-Hunted: CIA
-Susceptability: 3d6 Stun/Phase from ultrasound

Resplendant Dawn Dishonoree

You were recruited for your powers by the Resplendant Dawn. They trained you in ancient ninja secrets and modern coroporate espionage. But you failed them, and developed a conscience. The Resplendant Dawn does not tolerate failures, and they want you dead before you can talk. They've seen to it that Interpol has a complete file on your abilities, history and the criminal activities you were involved in when you worked for them. You've fled to the US, but for now you are on your own.

-Stealth
-Security Systems
-Concealment
-Language: Japanese
-Martial Arts
-Shadowing
-Demolitions
-PS: Corporate Saboteur
-KS: Resplendant Dawn Personel and Operations
-DF: Clan Tatoos
-Reputation: Dishonored
-Hunted: Respledant Dawn
-Hunted: Japanese Authorities and Interpol
-Any DNPCs must be recent acquaintances

Typical Student

You're still in school, (either high school or college) trying to live a normal life, and you figure the best way of doing that is by keeping your powers secret. Sometimes you wonder if your powers mean that once graduate you'll automatically become a super villain, a spy, an escaped cyborg, a federal agent, a ninja assassin or if it will still be possible for you to live a normal life.

-AK: School or Campus
-KS: Major or Favorite Subject
-Perk: Membership in national Fraternity / or National Affairs Council
-DNPC: family or roomates (group DNPC)
-Social Limitation: Age
-Social Limitation: Must maintain GPA
-Secret ID

Much like Heroes, the X-Men rip is still apparent, but had been given a number of cosmetic and major twists by the time the first session even started.

And yes "Moly" is an in-joke as the game is run at the house of the player with the nickname of "Mole"

[Josh_Kablack]

Post II: Team Roster

update: character portraits added

Original Player Characters Still Active:

Rumble - Originally with powers of sound and vibration which nearly destroyed his own body. His powers have since altered to powers of psychic resonance and a form mainly made of psychoplasm, which allows him to read minds and implant ideas in those he is in close contact with. His not-quite-secret identity was as the black-sheep grandson of Charles Lindburgh, which ties into the campaign metaplot involving competing eugenic conspiracies within the Lindburgh and Kennedy families.


Perfect Zero - Pro Skateboarder with ice powers. Initially a secret ID character, who chose to out himself and his abilities towards the end of "Season 1" with an exclusive interview to Thrasher magazine which is where the Forefront Manifesto was originally published. He has since become the public face and media relations genius of the group.


Geo - Conspiracy theorist with power over rocks and minerals. He was a member of APEX until the Zenith tricked him into sinking the Orion. Feeling upset about the deaths he had caused, he left APEX and joined forefront. The Zenith is still upset about the desertion and the authorities have not been understanding about the circumstances.

Active Player Characters who joined after campaign start

Tarantula Hawk - Metamorph with serious trust issues. She has an assortment of powers involving manipulation of her own body in various ways. She is also working as at least a double agent within Forefront, reporting on members and activities to an unknown secret organization. It has been strongly implied that the shapeshifting assassin who attempted to off Oversight (see below) was in fact a version of her who had time traveled back from the future to prevent horrible things from coming to pass.


Gold Apple - Naomi_Campbell as a 15 year old tempermental model with powers of destiny reading and probability manipulation and social sabotage. As in the real world, breaking the race barrier in modeling at the time. But in game, also trying to juggle the start of a modeling career with abilities that cause her to perceive much of reality as through an acid trip. Also possibly shares the same mysterious father with Tempest.

(img)Pic Goes Here(/img)
The Mahareeshi
A wandering holy man, self-identified as a journalist for the cosmos and one mean banjo-picker. He sought out Forefront for very important and yet terribly mysterious reasons.

Player Characters gone inactive:

Iron Lotus - Ninja with superhuman reflexes and mutant anomoly powers he calls the "Buddha's Palm". Character disappeared when player's work schedule caused him to leave the game.


White Buffalo - A native American with mental and illusion powers. Mythically the savior of his people. This character vacillates between raw drug humor and deep spiritual insight depending largely on the sobriety of the player. It's also led to some really interesting cameos by historical 1980s occultists and psychadelicians (youtube, sound, stop at exactly 2:30 to get the joke). Character actually died in play, but his spirit guided other members of the team to find a nexus which allowed them to travel back in time and save him, causing player characters to remember continuity wherein he died only as a shared dream. This incident is very likely is part of a larger metaplot yet to be revealed.


Configuration - undercover FBI agent working as a mob lawyer to gather evidence. His anomoly status is public knowledge, but not their true extent. Character is still undercover in continuity, but faded from active play when player's original character was returned to life via time travel adventure.


Tempest - Former shiphand whose weather control abilities manifested to save him from the sinking of the Orion. After which, threats against his family were used to force him to use his abilities to serve on a south-seas pirate crew for months. Of note, he is of African American descent and one of the statistically rare anomolies of non-european descent. Had a major falling out with Forefront during their investigation of the Berlin disco firestorm attack and has recent become the agent of Project Thunderbird.


Tantrum - Proto-emo goth rocker from Pittsburgh with anger management issues and telekinetic powers. Pioneering an unique sound for anomoly music, he very probably will end up supplanting Trent Reznor within the campaign continuity. Currently on honeymoon in Europe until such time as his player's real life issues are settled enough for him to move back into town.

Second-team characters

as this is a large group of PCs with world-shaking abilities and divergent interests, every player also has a lower-tier anamoly that sees play when their primary PC is busy and/or when the session involves lower-power threats

"Doc" - a medical student from Boston whose skin is bright safety orange and who tests positive for the anogen. He has yet to find that he possesses any other anomoly powers, but sometimes he injures himself in creative ways trying to find them.

Gorilla Greg - a talking gorilla and avid Lepidoterist. It is intentionally unclear both in and out of game if Greg is a human who has the anamoly power to be a gorilla or a gorilla with the anomoly powers to speak and think like a human.

Bottle-Rocket Betty - With the power of self-propelled skydiving, she can launch herself straight up into the sky and then glide safely back to the ground landing at the same spot she blasted off from. An extreme sports enthusiast, she's a loose romantic interest for Perfect Zero.

The Detroit Dragon - he's one bad mutha... shut yo' mouth. With the karate skills he learned from Bruce Lee he stands up against both criminal scum and The Man. And with the anamoly powers he thinks he has there just ain't no stoppin' this cat. While he is played deadpan, he's really HERO-system joke character - through a very narrow focus and mild exploitation of the martial arts rules he manages to be as combat effective as some of the primary PCs despite being built on far fewer points and having only normal human abilities.

Thought Bubble - New York city cab driver with telepathy that only works underwater. Of course given that he grew up next to the Hudson, he hates large bodies of water. Had to flee his home when the Mob discovered they could use his abilities for their own gains. A character made truly hilarious by the two actual new yorkers actually from fucking new york and you ain't fuckin' doing the accent right, it's like dis, fuckin' -easy no? among the players.

Erosion - Southern Belle and lapsed Baseline Fundamentalist. She has a touch that can disintegrate inorganic materials. Romantic interest pursed ardently by Tantrum, she uses the voice she trained in choir for lead vocals in his band and the two have recently become engaged.

Agony - basket-case in constant pain who projects it to everyone nearby. Loose romantic interest for Rumble, who no longer has enough of a physical form to feel it.

Major NPCs

root] - A mysterious AI with seemingly benevolent motives that gives the team access to the 21st century internet in 1985. It has been strongly implied out of game that this is the anamoly power of Rosemary Kennedy which manifested as a reaction to having her own mind lobotomized.

The Saint - superspeed global scale teleporter teenager who became entranced with global activism after exposure to The Ethopian Famine intruded into her suburban John Hughes-esque existence. This is the current DM's player character from when he was a player and she serves the role of team vehicle.

Oversight - formerly US Senator Keene and The Minuteman, whose precognitive anomoly powers and seemingly hypocritical double life were exposed when Forefront thwarted an assassination attempt upon him. Having nowhere else to go once exposed, he joined the team and uses his abilities to alert them to forthcoming crises. He's sort of the grumpy old father to the much younger team, and has gone through a serious bout of depression due to his changed circumstances, but recovered when he took a romantic interest in Mrs Asch (see below)

Note: The above three NPCs combine to give the team early warning, instantaneous transport and unmatched communications abilities on a global scale. Since their integration into the team, the game has been a tad less X-Men and a bit more Authority.

Tony Hawk - originally Perfect Zero's rival on the skate circuit, he was the first one to back Zero when he went public and has now become a hanger-on and unofficial documentarian of the team. In the game world, Zero gets the endorsements and video game licenses that Tony Hawk got in the real world.

Farmboy! - a 10 year old orphan with powers of plant control. A blatant gambit to force the PCs into confronting responsibility and share babysitting duties. Geo and the Saint have taken it upon themselves to provide a meaningful, if non-traditional education for him.

Mrs. Asch - aka Geo's Mom. She's serves the role of "den mother" to the group and provides some of the common sense and grounding in reality that the young PCs tend to lack. Currently a romantic interest for Oversight, which causes Geo to be the butt of more than a few jokes.

Riley - Tempest's misbehaving younger brother. A straight up swipe of The Boondocks character. (youtube, sound, racial epithets). Serves alternatingly as comic relief and as a serious challenge of responsibility to the family.

Land Lindburgh - Rumble's brother. Laywer for APEX with secret jury-influencing empathic control abilities. Originally hostile to Rumble, Land has been pivotal in some recent negotiations between APEX and Forefornt to work on a couple common goals. Whether these arrangements are to be trusted or are the start of a lengthy scheme remains to be seen.

and because it's easy to cut-n-paste, our manifesto, format cribbed from another 1985 manifesto that someone might recognize

What is Forefront:
Forefront is an alliance of anomolies who believe that everyone must be free to use their talents to make the world a better place.
We hold that:
No one should live in fear of achieving their potential
No one should need to hide their talents from society
No one should attempt to tyrannize others with their abilities

Why there must be a Forefront:
Today anomolies live in fear. Fear of persecution from their governments, fear of rejection from their loved ones, and most dangerously, fear of their own capabilities. These fears prevent many anomolies from achieving their potential or even learning how to control their abilities.
Forefront must be a beacon of hope for those in fear. We shall stand against persecution we shall stand for acceptance and we shall discover safe methods for all to learn to manage their capabilities.

Today anomolies need to hide their talents. They need to hide from their friends, from their neighbors even from their own family members. Many are forced to hide what they are or give up on having a normal life.
Forefront must be a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. Only by the shining light of example can we hope for understanding and acceptance.

Today anomolies use their powers to tyrannize and terrorize others. APEX's actions and statements against non-anomolous humans and world governments amount to an unprovoked, unjustified and unproductive war that serves only to further the false ideologies of racial supremacy and genocide.
Forefront must stand against APEX and others who share such ideologies of destruction and dominance. We hold that everyone has a right to speak for themselves. We reject the Zenith's claims to speak for anyone but himself.

Forefront holds that: Anomolous abilities are fundamentally no different than the genius of a rocket scientist, the athleticism of a hall-of-famer, or the talent of a virtuoso musician. They are gifts that can bring forth the fruit of great accomplishments and yield a inspirations a hundredfold over. As such, these gifts must be allowed to flourish in the open. And as such, these gifts confer no special authority over others to those who possess them.

Why Forefront Will Be There:
We must make these stands today simply so that there will be a better tomorrow for us all. If we fail, tomorrow will be no better than today. If we do not at least try, then tomorrow may never come.

How Forefront will be available
When anomolies are persecuted, when anomolies are dangerously inexperienced in their abilities and when anomolies seek to use their abilities for tyranny, we shall intercede. We will work with existing agencies, law enforcement and governments when possible, but we shall work on our own when necessary.
If you are an anomoly in need of help, you can call us at 555- 44F-RONT any time, anywhere.

Why YOU need to Help:
This is your world too. Whether you are"baseline" or "anomoly" we need you to use your talents - whatever those may be - to make it better for all of us.
If you fear to try, if you remain hidden, then you let others decide for, you let others speak for you, and you allow the chance for others to tyrannize you. Stand up, be strong and achieve your own potential.

How You Can Contribute:
Get informed: we need more concerned citizens who understand the scientific, legal and economic issues and impacts of anomolous abilities.
Get involved: contact your leaders and governments, let them know that persecution, fear and tyranny harm us all.

Why All Will Benefit:
Everyone is best off when each individual is free to achieve their own best. Holding anyone back from their potential holds the entire world back from its potential. If everyone is free the achieve their best, then the entire world is free to be the best of all possible worlds.

[Josh_Kablack]

Post III: reserved for additional campaign doccus/background materials

[Josh_Kablack]

Last Session's Awesome:

After a session of tense but lengthy negotiations with authority figures where a couple of the team members with checkered pasts agreed to co-operate with a seemingly helpful representative of the usually not-entirely-on-the-level PRIMUS and others agree to harbour not-entirely-trustwothy, but likely helpful fugitives from their own checkered pasts - we needed a brief action sequence to end the game. A couple of rolls on ye old random catastrophe generator later and we're off to save another crashing jumbo jet. Having previously dealt with JAL 123 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123 ); Arrow Air 1285 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Air_Flight_1285); and the Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_and_V ... rt_attacks ) in game, the team members on hand are ready for this sort of thing.
This time the plane is a fully booked 747 to lost multiple engines due to birdstrike shortly after takeoff and there are only seconds to act:

The Saint (teleporting superspeedster) gets the relevant team members onboard the plane and begins to evacuate the passengers.
Rumble (Lindburgh family member and expert pilot when he's not a psychic mutant) takes control in the cockpit and talks to the tower to find an open runway try to set it down.
Tantrum (telekinetic proto-goth rocker) uses his powers to compensate for the aircraft's blown systems, deploying the landing gear and adjusting the flaps.
Tempest (former pirate now master of the weather) changes conditions to low winds and a light drizzle to help with control and reduce the risk of fire when it crashes.
Tarantula Hawk (metamorph) uses her biokenetic abilities to boost her strength to the highest possible levels and braces to catch the plane on the open runway.
Perfect Zero (former sk8 pro turned party face with ice powers and a love of extreme sports) Uses his ice entangle to cling atop the fuselage, ready to ice up the engines or fuel tanks if they even spark as the plane nosedives. He then proceeds to get the best roleplaying line of the evening, with "Alright root] everyone's in place, so I just need you to pipe some Dick Dale over the communicators while I surf this baby in."

[Username17]

OK, the Dick Dale makes you win.

-Username17

[Josh_Kablack]

This session the awesome is not nearly as concentrated as last session's, sorry, but this time around it's a bit subtler. The session was fairly low-key with heavy RP and no real action sequences. The episode was linked via a sub-theme of family ties.

Late February/Early March 1986:


White Buffalo continues his vision quest in the as-yet undiscovered Cueva de los Cristales of Chihuahua accompanied by Mr. Wilson. Buffalo's possibly illusionary alchemical bride states that her role in this quest is done, and gives him a mandate to choose a new spirit guide from among the multivaried pantheons of human history. He decides that his next step on the quest is learn to experience emotions fully, by focusing on just one at a time, so he claps his hand and uses his illusory powers (or perhaps they are using him) to select his new spirit guide.


Goldapple participates in Paris fashion week, having begun to come to terms with her altered perceptions she is a stunning success. With the patronage of Yves Saint Laurent, who has reason to resent mistreatment of minorities she lands work as the center of a print campaign championed by Bob Geldorf to draw attention to the exploitation of African nations and resources and raise money to help. Of course, given the actual history, it's quite possible that some of the funds are being diverted to The Derg who have actively opposed The Saint's relief efforts in the past.


Tempest brings The Saint home to Seattle to meet his family, and tries to decide if they are safer in Seattle or if they should move to the secret Forefront HQ in Jericho Gap.. Riley gets a few good quips in and eventually Tempest brings his mom to meet the other team members and see what Forefront is striving to do.

The most awesome dialogue of the session comes here, during the interaction between Geo, Tempest and Tempest's mother.
Geo: You have a younger brother? You never told me you had a brother?!
Tempest: Yeah, his name's Riley
Geo: Is he like you?
Tempest: not at all-
Tempest's Mom (at the same time): -completely.


Meanwhile, having been seriously injured straining to catch that crashing 747 last session, Tarantula Hawk decides that it's time to take a break from the team and heads home to San Antonio in an attempt to further build bridges with the family that had disowned her back in her origin story. She drags Rumble along - both to talk about some common issues, and also because he's the most freakish looking member of Forefront - which should test her dad's newfound tolerance for anomolies.

En route, there's a brief exchange of family histories, in which Rumble reveals that the entire Lindburgh clan has powers as the first real in-game indication of the big eugenics plot and T.H. reveals that she is a descendant of Gregorio Esparza, a defender at the Alamo who had been all but erased from history, and whose tale may relate to the alternate histories remembered by the PCs. Plus it relates to the sesquicentennial celebrations happening around them.

Boring Footnote:

It's long been implied in game that anomolies in some way get the powers they truly need during their eruption - sometimes as a response to the crisis that triggers it othertimes as a manifestation of subconscious personality traits. However one of the NPCs recently encountered in the ongoing "recruit them before Zenith does" subplot had a power set that was very clearly developed slowly over time to emulate abilities from a popular work of fiction that the character admired. This recasts the metaphysics of super powers within the game world, as it now appears that anomolies get not merely the powers they need but the powers they want.

The small talk ends and things get awkward when she asks him "Why don't you even want to be human anymore?". After the initial surprise and a bunch of rather obstinately in-character RPing between the two, Rumble finally explains to her, and more importantly to himself, that his powers stem not from a desire to cease being human - but instead from a desire to connect to all of humanity at once.

Then they get to the family, where things get creepy. As T.H.'s dad has now gone beyond reluctantly accepting anomolies and over into helpful and frighteningly well informed - he knows Rumble's real name, offers insightful criticism of team tactics and suddenly reveals extensive knowledge of Anogen testing and related science issues.

[Josh_Kablack]

Session out of character notes:

My day working at the Unversity before the game had sucked hardcore, reaching new levels of institutional stupidity - this immediately following the incident where they wrote me up for being early 2 days in a row. So, as an alcoholic, I chose to cope by getting steenkin' drunk at this session - and yet I was among the more sober by the end of the evening. beer that in mind for these notes.

Remember that "character who emulated powers from a work of popular fiction" - well it looks like I have to stop being coy about it, as 'Critter' has stopped by a game session for the first time since he moved during my 3e epic-level game. It's great to see him, and we hand him that character. So now I have to specify that the character is "Jedi" (a youngster who developed his powers by emulating the Jedi from the Star Wars movies he had seen - and remember the game is set in 1986, so just the good movies). Unsurprisingly, he does a bang-up job roleplaying a nerdy obsessed kid who is just beginning to come out of his shell and consider the larger world - and this adds a lot of depth to a character that was pretty one-dimensional previously. Jedi has powers of leaping, low-level telekinesis, psychic sensitivity, tricking weak minds and a number of moves around the lightsaber he built for himself. He also has some issues in that before he was recruited into Forefront a few sessions back, he hacked the arms of a couple of perps. While this may have been justified, it is an issue within the setting where 'molies are feared and loathed to begin with and comes up repeatedly.

Geo's player has to leave almost right after showing up, so the action sequence the GM had planned around him does not happen this week. That made for another deep-immersion, heavy RP low action session.


In-game:

Still late Feb/Early March 1986:

Oversight calls the available members of the group together, as Gust Avrakotos (himself a graduate of the Unversity) has been in touch with the former Senator about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Apparently the PC's prior involvement working against the Soviet occupation (in a revisionist version of Charlie Wilson's war, but with superpowers) may be resulting in the Taliban coming to power much earlier in the game world than happened in real history. Or maybe the Soviets have just begun using Anomoly agents of their own to further destabilize the region. Details are sketchy, but Oversight's precognition hints at large danger and sets the stage for a return visit. Or something like this, I was stuck working so I was late and then Beer for this part.

Next up, Tantrum, Perfect Zero, Gold Apple, Tempest and Jedi all head to London to continue Forefront's efforts to "recruit them before Zenith does". Working from the stolen copy of what I (OOC) presume to be the A.C.E.-II database, they have two potential TIER 3 recruits within the London-area Helix Army: Alpha and Dragon.
Zero goes as the face of Forefront, Tantrum goes as the man who knows the Helix Army, Gold Apple goes, as she's still actually a Londonite, and Tempest and Jedi are just dragged along as the action scene got cut - this works out later though.
After some secret handshakes are exchanged, they meet with Alpha - who has vaguely defined super-charisma and co-operative boost leadership abilities. He has used these to transform the London-area Army chapter into a functional activist organization instead of the scared 'moiles hanging out in an abandoned building they call a sekrit clubhouse that most Helix Army chapters are. (remember these guys were originally the settings' anologues to Claremont's Moorlocks). Alpha is sympathetic to Forefront's aims, and the meeting goes well, but he has built up his own chapter and is unwilling to leave it to join Forefront. Eventually a loose agreement of information sharing and cross-training opportunities between Forefront and the Alpha's chapter is reached. There were more details here, but, as I mentioned before, Beer

Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Captain Fox of the USAF sneaks his injured daughter and Rumble into his medical laboratory at Brooks Air Force Base. They both undergo this new and exciting imaging procedure MRIs which gives some insight into Tarantula Hawk's iinjuries and Rumble's odd pyschoplasmic form. Captain Fox also drops a bunch of big reveals here:

• He was active in the early research on Anomolies about 16 years back. (date not specified, but from some other setting stuff it makes a lot of sense if this was happening in 1968).
• They found drugs and procedures that may be able to activate latent anomoly powers within TIER 0 individuals.
• They were also working on ways to counter such abilities and trigger them in baselines.
• His involvement back then may have indirectly been responsible for his daughter's development of powers a few years back. Or perhaps not so indirectly, Rumble's telepathy turns up some things he was unaware of himself.
• Some of the other researchers from the early days went on to form what became Project Doctrine.
• And because some of those researchers are still unreachable due to concerns of secrecy and national security, he has surmised that Project Doctrine was not in fact shut down (despite the earlier actions of the PCs).

The exchange of the evening comes at the end of this, as Rumble (both in and out of character) is getting bored with this whole thing, while TH (both in and out of character) is enjoying RPing through the family situation and getting the various reveals:
Rumble: "I know you can shapeshift to grow your damn foot back, so why don't you just do it now and we can get back to Jericho?"
Tarantula Hawk: "Well I know you can lift a car,over your head, so why aren't you doing that right now?"

Then we switch back to London, where Alpha's organizational powers have him already working with the other potential recruit. He provides the introductions between the Forefront members and a 15-year old, shy girl with the ability to turn into a giant fire-breathing dragon - or to just manifest the tail, wings or a claw of her dragon form. She's a little reluctant about using her powers and believes very much in solving all problems through the direct use of force. Also, she's obsessed with fantasy novels and the like - her abilities doubtless stem from such fascination. Some brilliant and hilariously meta roleplaying happens here, as Jedi immediately sees a kindred soul - with similar introversion and geeky obsessiveness - and an instant romantic subplot is developed as they exchange nerdy comments about Star Wars and playing D&D. (remember, this is a group of gamer nerds who alternate the Forfront game with a D&D game every other week) Due to the persuasiveness of Forefront as a whole and this budding romance, she agrees to join nearly immediately, and gets the grand tour. The group returns briefly to Jericho Gap - where there's a comical exchange as The Detroit Dragon insists that "Sister, I'm the only dragon around here", but the two end up tight due to their common interests of Bruce Lee films and punching bad guys right in the face. The PCs then take Dragon to their newer project - our created island of Asgard in the Pacific (which deserves its own background post later). With the encouragement of the PCs, and a wide open space without buildings or bystanders to worry about, Dragon overcomes her shy reluctance, and performs a dramatic full transformation and pushes the envelope of her size, flight and firebreathing.

And then Rumble has a covert meeting with former President Jimmy Carter about the potential of getting some relief agencies to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan if Forefront can restore stability. There are some really ominous undertones and some subtle foreshadowing here, but as I may have mentioned Beer.

[Josh_Kablack]

Season 3 Episode 11: Things fall apart.

We open with White Buffalo returning to Jericho, bringing Mr. Wilson with him.

He's welcomed back by those at the base, and introductions between Buffalo and the new characters as well as between the old characters and Buffalo's new self-illusory spirit guide.

The reaction is best summed up:

Rumble: "So in addition to our normal issues, we now have to deal with the characters from fiction, you're bringing to life"
Zero: "Well, there is a Jedi downstairs"

Curiously Gorilla Greg recognizes Mr. Wilson, and apparently they've met previously...

Buffalo explains about the Cueva de los Cristales and that he's only in the middle of his spirit quest, and he will be leaving again shortly to go try to use his mental powers to confer with General Sherman

Then after some admonitions that there is about to be Serious Business going on
(Oversight "you're not going to be able to just walk around here with your bong helmet on anymore")
the various members are summoned/gathered to the meeting room for the briefing and conference on the Afghan situation.

Goldapple is unable to attend due to the demands of her modeling career, and the schedule of the player.

Something similar, yet less defined happens for Tempest.

Before the meeting starts, Tantrum has a gift for Tarantula Hawk - it's a model kit for a 747 - as a commemoration of the one she injured herself catching.

Rumble gives the briefing: "As everyone recalls we had this incident in Afghanistan where we collapsed the economics of the soviet occupation and they pulled out. However, the aid that was promised by our government hasn't materialized -"
Oversight: It is being held up in committee - a shameful practice
Rumble: "So they are balkanized, and being destabilized by the KGB and Spetsnaz, warlords are controlling the poppy fields, criminal cartels from around the world are being enriched by the opium trade. Carter's people can offer humanitarian aid, but only after the area is stabilized. This is something that we broke, so we have to fix it."

As this sort of involvement and nation-building is a step beyond just punching the Rooskies, and well beyond the standard missions of saving people from disasters and energy blasting mobsters and terrorists, this sets off firestorm of disagreements amongst the PCs.

Rumble sees this as a mess caused by the actions of Forefront, as Zenith had told him about 8 episodes back, and is therefore eager to have Forefront fix it. It's quite likely that his major motivation here is just to prove that particular taunt wrong.

Perfect Zero makes the point that we've been saving people from burning buildings, this is a chance to save people from a burning country

The Saint, who has always been about helping people and never really cared what governments thought about it has no reservations at all.

White Buffalo starts by insisting we need a clear goal, and then points out that our enforcing stability means that we would be picking the new rulers of a sovereign country and therefore acting as a secret Illuminati conspiracy ourselves.

(and just in case you missed that, Robert Anton Wilson is downstairs when this happens and the situation being discussed is meddling in the next great cold-war standoff, White Buffalo was first seen within the game working in Las Vegas and a bunch of deadly secret government experimentations in mutation were just revealed last session)

In response, Geo asks "So what then, A forefront Afghanistan?"

Tarantula Hawk wonders what Afghanistan's stability has to do with Anomoloies and whether Forefront is really ready to do this. It's not entirely clear if she means logistically ready or ethically clear on the likely repercussions.

Everybody talks at once for a few minutes, until White Buffalo outright quits the team.: "I'm interested in turning in my resignation from Forefront - you are all deciding to play God here. Before you do anything like this, you better hope that you've talked to them first, the world is gonna turn against you, the whole world. The eye is gonna turn against every single one of who sits at this table for this decision ! " and he storms out.

Zero responds with: "Fine! Go talk to a tree!"

Geo: Well *I* have no problem taking over the country and just telling them: " You will behave!" He then storms out to pursue exactly that.

The remaining members of Forefront discuss things a bit more, deciding to pursue things cautiously and begin with careful gathering of actual intelligence on the ground.

Tarantula Hawk insists that she's not going to be much use for this sort of thing until she finishes healing, and leaves but says to call her if the team needs to go stop or save Geo.

Someone points out that when you help one person everybody likes it, but when you help a country, the countries you are not helping resent you - therefore any such action can be a paradox.

The silent until now Tantrum ends with the perfect in-character quip for a proto-goth rocker 80s kid in over his depth: "I have a pair of Docs"

****

The remaining members of the team start to plan strategy for gathering intel and call a couple contacts, only to be interrupted when they learn that Geo has gotten himself to Afghanistan (much faster than anyone realized he could) and is now tossing around the tanks of a Spetsnaz task force.

After a few rounds of much needed action ends with several tanks flipped over (because the HERO armor / weight differences makes that far and away the easiest way to disable them), the commander of the task force emerges to talk terms with Geo. Surprisingly, (given the prior tenor of the game and the 1980s worldview), he's a Chechyan who is presented as having his own ambitions and not merely as a cog in the monolithic Soviet war machines. He surrenders outright and says that his men will be leaving the country rather than fight more unwinnable battles like this.

Back at Jericho, watching this unfold via communicator link Oversight comments "Sometimes, the Robert E Howard method of getting things done, works."

But during the surrender, the Chechyan asks Geo some pointed question about whether his government and Forefront know he is here.

To which Geo replies "I have no government - I am an Anomoly, not an American"
(This echos Zero's earlier renunciation of American Citizenship back at the start of season 3.)
Geo continues: "As for Forefront, this has brought to a head, some things that have been boiling around in me - Some of it is the actions I have done; Some of it is that Asgard as a nation should not be affiliated with Forefront. I am severing my ties with Forefront. What I am doing cannot be affiliated with the group."

Back at Jericho, Zero's media reflexes kick in: "We need to call a press conference"

[Josh_Kablack]

<<this post still woefully incomplete>

The Dead Letter Office Game Outline - currently just intro and outline, but wll never expand if I don't put it here

This was a three session mini-arc that ran in-continuity of the main Forefront game. It was supposed to be a mystery-men style adventure set in 1958 that established some backstory to the game world. Every single person decided to play an actual historical figure as someone who secretly had superpowers, so we also got sort of "League of Extraordinary Anomolies" vibe going during chargen. Several of these characters died in or shortly before '58 in real history, so it was decided that the deaths had merely been faked and the game became "The Dead Letter Office"

In practice it was a near total disaster, due to the difficulties of folks' holiday schedules and an alternate GM who was overwhelmed with both the stress in his own life and the inability of key players to show up for the parts of the game where their characters were key. Record snowfall didn't exactly help there, but you are all a bunch of bastard people! try getting your shit together! And, I can say that as I am buying the beer for yinz tomorrow.

So this is going to be a brief outline of how it went that is going to focus on the parts that worked in-character and gloss over a buncha crap. If characters disappear and reappear randomly in this outline you can assume it was due to work, family, injury, hissy fit, and/or litigation involving the player. Parts have been slightly edited to make it more coherent.

We start in a large warehouse somewhere on the outskirts of DC, with a speech *somebody* was prepared enough to have prewritten:

Greetings, you'll be callin' me Director Clarion,

I suppose you're wondering why I've gathered you and what we are doing here. But first:

This here is a boll weevil on a pedestal - it'll go back to the monument in Enterprise, Alabama tomorrow. Back in 1915 the boll weevil came up from Mehico and invaded Alabama. It destroyed whole years' cotton crops. Except for a couple of gents who had the bright idear to grow a different crop. They switched over to growin' peanuts - which the buggers couldn't stand. So the guys made a bundle sellin' off their first crop for seeds to the other locals and inside a couple of years, the diversified crops of Coffee County are outproducing the rest of the area - they were so well off that they got together and had an Italian Artise make 'em a marble sculpture. Then they put a big bug on top to celebrate their victory. That's this guy, <thumps bug> and I brought it here to tell you that when we don't adapt, he wins.

I'll get to what that's gotta do with you in a bit, but first lemme tell y'all a bit about myself. After I graduated the academy, I was trained to be a cavalry officer they had me "Equitation School" for riding horseback in a war. But today, the US army ain't made a mounted charge for 17 years next month, and I don't reckin there'll be another. So if I'd just learnt what they taught me I'd be obsolete already - but I got meself involved with the Pentathlon Team. I sees the looks on yer eyes - you don't know what the pentathlon is or why you should care - so I'm gonna tell you. The Pentathlon goes back to the days of the Greeks - back when they were inventin' cavalry and formations usin' them to tell Xerxes to shove it! It was the sport they used to train their soldiers. They had running, jumpin and throwin' discs and javelins and then wrasslin' - all stuff a Greek soldier would have to do in a war. But when he's puttin' the Olympics back together, Pierre takes a look at this and says soldiers don't 'zactly toss javelins at each other - so he makes a new version with saber fencing, target shooting, free swimming, jumping obstacles on horseback and a cross country run - all stuff that a soldier would have had to do if when they were fightin' against Napoleon. But as you might have noticed, we weren't 'zactly using sabres and show-jumping when we rolled into Berlin. So after that, Henri decides to come up with what he calls the Military Pentathlon - this one's got rifle shootin', obstacle courses, runnin cross country, throwin' dummy grenades and a supply relay race - and that's more or less what they still do today. But if we keep doin' the same thing tomorrow that we're doin' today, this guy <thumps bug> wins.

Mebee you didn't notice, but when we went at it in Korea the fighter planes were all jet powered and we replaced the ambulance with helicopters - we're just startin' to put guns on those, and mark my words, their ability to hover, fly under radar and land without needing airfields is gonna make them the big deal in the next little war we fight with the commies. That's what I was training on at Fort Rucker before Dean tipped me off. But I left to come here, because this ain't about the little war, this is about the Big war. It's a new kind of war - a Cold War - and we can't just keep doing the same things or <thump> the bugs win.

That's where you come in. Each and every one of you does something entirely new - some of you we know how you do it, others we ain't even quite sure what yet, but I'm here to make sure our side adapts first - because that's the only way we're gonna win the Big one without a bunch of mushroom clouds.

We then move to a series of flashbacks on how each character was recruited
In addition to Director Clarion, we have Deputy Director Pipes and Deputy Director Bass

Paroquet
Fred Mcgee
Tony Zale
The Butcher
Dr. Green

II. recruitment flashbacks
Director Clairion - speech
Deputy Director Pipes (Jack Parsons
Deputy Director Bass (Eliot Ness)
Paroquet (Nicolas de Gunzburg) (meet calvin) accosted in office by Deputy Director Ness.
Fred Mcgee, http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/02 ... battl.html
The Man of Steel (Tony Zale) buddhist with beaten hands
The Butcher (Julia),
Dr. Green




III. Unveiling the DLO

Remember to mention Corporal Hiddel, who is Clarion's(?)
assistant from the USMC. Chuck, who is Dr. Green's assistant from Sid
Gottleib, and Victoria Ashe, who is the girl genius crypto/math
college student who I guess is their "receptionist". Pun intended.

faraday cage
tesla car
mechanical switches for ionized lights

cut scene "angel has started work up again"

IV. The rocket-fuel robbery
at Red____
"old shaky"

V. The motel fire
radio distortion

VI. Med investigation of first Human-itan

receiver
sputnik III


VII. radio distortion detected in florida and embassy
the plane
paraquet infiltrates, butcher at liberian embassy

VIII. The shootouts

IX. The interrogation
numbers don't match

X. Realization / Moon Landing

Forefront Season IV Outline - also, currently just outline

session zero: goldapple and heather vs the critter crew

session one: tantrum's wedding and transformation, TH, Saint and Chuck Senior

session two: the La Belle firebug and Chernobyl

session three: the bombhaus, goldapple confuses Geo, Tempest storms off (pun intended)

session four: Geo captured on Asgard

session five: Blowing up Alcatraz

one-shot annual: TH, Saint and Jon Lindberg. The truth about Zero's family.

session six: The search for Saint

session seven: the long road home

Session eight: re-Return of the plant people

Dark Future #1: Nuclear Winter plot outline still just outline, very thin one too

1: Back at the ranch
2: Welcome to the Jungle
3: Destruction Island
4&5: Eye of the Needle part I-II

and then after all that season five issue zero goes here

[Josh_Kablack]

Season 5 episode 1:

Okay, there's the whole "1958 campaign arc" and then a whole "season" of the regular game and a "dark futures arc" and then like two "episode zero / teaser issue sessions that really started season 5 missing since the last post. It's totally the government's fault (they like paid me well enough to make it worth working two jobs at once for the past 9 months), deal with it. I'll throw what I can remember and that compé didn't eat up in the above post as time permits.

It's really okay, because as we had a new player joining and another player back from national guard duty (again, the gov'nment messin' with my gaming) we did a largely recap episode this time around.

Late April/Early May 1986:

The session opens with Geo waking up - which is odd as before his capture, transformation and amnesia he didn't need to sleep. He's where the PCs left him at the start of the "Dark Future #1: Nuclear Winter" arc: The Ranch. Which is a previously established "synchronicity nexus" full of weird happenings and inexplicable phenomena. Geo has has coffee and breakfast with Col. Dylan Pick (who has truly bizzarre anomolous powers indirectly responsible for most of the happening, but does not realize it, and none of the PCs in-character understand how that works either, so you'll have to wait on any explanation) They talk about the fossilized dinosaur Geo dug up on the grounds. Pick playfully suggests that Geo could use his rock alteration powers to muck with evolutionary theory, and perhaps even go to the Smithsonian and make similar subtle changes to their entire collection. As tends to happen in conversations with Colonel Pick it promptly turns into a discussion of whether and how we can be sure that someone hasn't done so already as the basis for a Cartesian demon puzzle and whether Geo's tremor sensing would let him solve the Schroedinger's Cat puzzle and unravel Heisenberg uncertainty.
Geo: "Thanks for the completely absurd conversation and those excellent scrambled eggs. Have you ever thought about turning this into a tourist spot?"
Pick: "Absolutely not! This compound is supposed to be secret. More than enough people show up here as it is."
Geo: "See, it's a good spot. Put a gate in the fence, put up some signs, sells these eggs as a concession, and-
Pick: "Okay then" and he promptly holds out his hand for payment.

Geo then Rabbit-Hole Tunnels back to Jericho Gap, meets up with Rumble on the bank steps, "After doubting reality for a couple hours, you realize that scrambled eggs aren't enough" He then notices the new player character, who he somehow has retained memory of despite his amnesia "Madareeshi, how do I know you again?" This is doubly weird as OOC, we're all pretty sure they've never ever met.

He is then re-introduced to the extended secondary and supporting cast assembled at Jericho over brunch - again a big deal, as Geo didn't used to need food, and now seems to be always hungry ("I feel like I haven't eaten for years" ) He remembers some of the characters and has no recollection of others. Notably he draws a blank on Gorilla Greg, who is surprisingly sensitive for a talking Gorilla "You no remember Gregg? Greg gonna cry now. Bhwaaa!" He also draws a blank on FarmBoy!, which is a big deal, as the pre-Amnesia Geo was his adoptive father figure. Those two getting upset sets off his mother, who he couldn't recall from the big rescue mission at the climax of season 4.
Detroit Dragon wanders in for some toast, and gets what's probably the line of the session "Hey man, people call me one bad mutha - but you just gone and made a gorilla, an eleven year old and your own mother cry!"
The other PCs quickly decide that this calls for "Emergency Ice Cream in The Winter Palace" and they attempt to cheer people up by relocating everyone to the secret subterranean chamber.

It's an unnaturally, impossibly large cavern filled with winter sports courses and games. There's seriously a ski-slope in here, and Perfect Zero's snowboarding stunt course, and a bunch of crazy audio-visual display stuff.
Geo is a bit taken aback by how crazy and obviously unnatural the rock formations are
Perfect Zero explains that
"You made this for Jack's wedding - the first one, where he left Erosion at the alter. I put in the ski slope and half-pipe after that"
Geo recalls some garbled parts of his memory here and recalls that Jack used to go by Tantrum, but is shocked that he would leave Agony at the alter. Zero tries to remind Geo of his own role in the wedding-that-wasn't, but his memory is stuck conflating Agony and Erosion into one person.

A whole lot of minor PC and NPC interactions happen here. Potentially Noteworthy:

Gregg and Mrs. Ashe are calmed down, largely due to the influence of the Mahareeshi
It is revealed that Mahareeshi and Detroit Dragon have common musical interests. A Banjo/Saxaphone jam session at a later date is agreed on.
FarmBoy! eats too much ice cream and has a snowball fight in the shorts and tee appropriate for the desert above as nobody bothered to take responsibility for him.
Zero teaches Geo to snowboard, kind of. Geo can now power down to being merely twice human weight, making it possible if not graceful.
Tony Hawk tries to remind Geo of their times getting stoned together, and offers to show Geo any video footage that might help Geo pretend to remember better.
Tarantula Hawk storms in mad nobody told her Geo was back, as she's taken it on herself to keep a watch on him post-transformation in case of any unpleasant surprises and is worried that somehow something might happen with him that the rest of the PCs (remember, among the most powerful beings on earth) couldn't handle.
She and Doc have not yet made progress analyzing the recovered fragment of Dr. Greene's injector suit
The mention of Doctor Greene triggers another set of memories - as he is the one responsible for Geo's changes, he's the figure bridging Geo's old and new personalities.

This turns to discussion of Geo's initial capture from his artificial island of Asgard, and rather than try to explain it in pieces, the PCs decide to just have the Saint take them there.

They are welcomed by Jedi, who has been overseeing the island ecology and anomolous refugees since Geo's capture. Geo tours the geo-thermal power station he set had up with Tempest, then follows the access tunnel back to his city of monolithic stone buildings which still set empty. He gets down on himself for having done such impressive works in such a worthless way. "This whole island, and then a whole station that feeds just one cable - to a city that's empty." and wonders why anyone would but such effort into building things nobody could use.
The Mahareeshi tries to cheer him up by pointing out that in the building of this island "you made a home for 3 dozen people who had no other place in the world" and then is very curious how his powers allowed him to do some of the architectural flourishes and stone inlays and insists "Show me your art."
After some demonstrations of obsidian etching methods, Geo (and his friends) are summoned to the luau that the refugees currently inhabiting the island throw in honor of his return (skipping detail on the additional half dozen or so minor characters here - the important bit is that these folks all idolize Geo as the builder of their refuge and protector against a world that hates and fears them - and yet he does not remember any of that). The throw the luau on the beach, everyone eats, Jedi, Madhareeshi and Farmboy! have a lengthy side conversation about the the sustainability of vegetarianism on the island ecosystem and how that ties into overall morality and Forefront's goals and then it's surf and sand time.

Tarantula Hawk insists on testing Geo's bouyancy, since he didn't used to float- and would always just sink like, well a stone- and also whether he needs to breathe now. We find that Geo floats well enough to at least dog paddle now, but can still hold his breath indefinitely. Discussion of Geo's floating/sinking and ability to go without breathing leads to the PCs trying to gently recap his backstory role in the sinking of the Orion and how he literally walked the ocean floor for months after. He has a strange partial / conflated memory where he remembers parts of this, but remembers himself as being on a Forefront mission when it happened and in his confusion remembers the various PCs in place of the APEX predators who were really there. This seems extraneous, but Mahareshi makes some comment about destiny repeating and the ending of The Wizard of Oz, which leads has some odd resonance with the following part of the explanation about how Tempest saved the crew of the Orion before he was Tempest and how he has currently ran off to join Project Thunderbird for operation El Dorado Canyon. This makes Zero uncomfortable, as Project Thunderbird was the main antagonist in the Dark Futures arc, and since returning to the present, the PCs have not yet had a chance to do anything to investigate.

After some hypothoses and aphorisms about the nature of time, Mahareshi meditates on the beach, demonstrating his previously unseen levitation abilities, a giant tree sprouts up behind him growing from acorn to oak in a matter of minutes. It's intentionally unclear if this is part of Mahareshi's powers, or if Farmboy! was using causing the growth, or if somehow the two of them were collaborating.

Meanwhile the beach party and swimming continues. Tarantula Hawk drags Geo far out to sea to have a private conversation with Geo.

T: "I like the new you better"
G: "It seems like I used to be kind of an asshole who never thought things through"
T: " I wouldn't say that. But I brought you out here to talk about you and Joanie" (that's the Saint) "You need to be careful, she's young and naive."
G: "What do you mean?"
T: "When we were coming back from Frisco', you held on to her constantly for a nearly week straight"
G: "It's not like that. It's like she was there and I had to help here and then it's like she was a part of me. I don't know how to explain. It felt maybe like if you lost a limb whenever I set her down, and then like it grew back if I picked her back up."
T: "Comprendo. I'm still curious about your healing and that crystal cocoon - you were bonded at a molecular level, and I want to find out how you did that......So she's just a teammate to you? Because it sure looked like there was more going on when I found you recovering in that cave."
G: "Uh, yeah. I was just confused and she needed help."
T: "Still, you, we need to be careful, she's innocent and fragile and the team can't function without her. But you really still don't need to breathe?"
G: "Nope."
T: "Then I wanna to see how long I can hold you underwater"
G: "What, you mean like wrestling?"
T: "Shaddup and kiss me."

<session ends>

[Josh_Kablack]

Season 5: Episode 2: Coincidence?

Still May 1986

Out of game: once again the player on whom the night's adventure was supposed to revolve had a crisis and could not be there. So once again we get an off-the-cuff adventure.

Before we begin, a relevant piece of background info, you can skip or come back to it after the asterisk

Way way back in the game, in "season one" when I was still running, the PCs infiltrated assaulted the secret Project Doctrine bunker in Nicaragua and uncovered unwholesome experiments involving not merely training and brainwashing kidnapped anomolies for warfare, but also other experiments involving vivisection and surgical grafting of abnormal organs from donor anomolies onto receipiant anomolies. Most of the evidence got cleansed in the airstrike that defeating the load-bearing boss triggered. BUT in the first time travel arc, just after Gator took over the game and where the PCs went back to the bunker to save White Buffalo, the PCs did manage to save the primary donor anomoly. Due to his(?) horrific chitinous appearance the PCs dubbed it "lobster-boy", and due to its wounds it remained in a coma. We left it in the med-lab at Jericho and it faded into the background

We start off with the PCs helping amnesiac Geo going through his pre-amnesia journals, secret plans for world-shaking projects and paranoid conspiracy theory newspaper clippings. This is played up for irony, as the player gets to play dumbfounded at how far-out some of the pre-amnesia version of the character's conspiracy theories were, even though one or two of the most out-there are likely true in game.

At some point Rumble shows up with his grandfather's (Charles Lindbergh's) handwritten manuscript on "Primitivism" - which appears to be a 1930s era attempt at Asimovian psychohistory and also seems to be an encoded cryptographic text that was left for Rumble to discover when he reached the correct age. This is certain to become a bigger deal later, but for now it was just tangential to some of the conspiracy talk and in-character musing about the nature of anomoly eruptions and powers received.

The discussion turns towards anomolies and darwinism and whether or to what extent anomolous abilities are genetically inherited and whether and to what extent anomolies get the abilities they want or need or if it's all just random coincidence. We get probably the best exchange of the night as the conversation turns from Darwinism to Lamarkianism:

Thought Bubble: So, uhs, tell me this if we get the powers we want hows come I woulda wanted to talk with my mind underwater?
Perfect Zero: Because you were afraid of being drowned by the mob and afraid nobody would know about it.
Thought Bubble Oh, I uh guess that makes sense
Geo: No. It doesn't work that way! You don't just wake up one morning and decide that you're going to glow
Tarantula Hawk (activating bioluminescence): you mean like this?
The Saint (activating quantum halo): or like this?
Geo: Fine, o-kay. Well then, what about lobster-boy* did he just decide he was going to be a chitinous monster? And did he ever wake up?

At this point ROOT] alerts everyone that the patient in the medlab is missing and several of the nearby security cameras are offline. The PCs rush to the medlab to investigate and find that Lobster Boy has escaped or been taken back from us. He's gone and someone knew how to get to the cameras without being recorded by any of them.

We then think to wonder why Oversight's danger sense didn't trigger, and seek him out only to find that Keene is missing from his usual station in front of the monitor banks. We also find that he's sneaking a plate of cookies, obviously off of the diet that he and Mrs. Asche agreed on when they went on the Alcatraz raid adventure. But while Keene is missing, his chair is still spinning, so Geo and Perfect Zero race off down into the underground tunnels that pre-amnesia Geo dug beneath Jericho gap. Meanwhile Rumble and Tarantula Hawk discuss lobster-boy's motives. "He was in a coma when we rescued him, he woke up in an unfamiliar med-lab" "He probably thinks he's still being held by Project Doctrine" "He's probably just angry, scared and confused" "Yeah, we have to stop him from hurting anyone else without hurting him" "You think it was coincidence that he woke up just when Geo mentioned him?" "I'm not sure I believe there even are coincidences"

A lengthy establishing chase scene follows, with the two of them getting separated as they pursue different trails. The tunnel network is much bigger and stranger than anyone remembers, but that might not even be weird, as Geo built them before he had amnesia and was clearly working on some odd personal projects that he didn't tell anyone about. While Geo is wondering how he remembers a tunnel full of rattling chains and Perfect Zero is wondering why the old-model Geo carved out what must be a mammoth underground nursery for hundreds of kids, there's a scream over the communicator. Shortly, we figure out that the creature attacked Bottle-Rocket Betty in the pantry and abducted her too. After this it ceases being a chase and we decide to circle the wagons. The Saint gathers everyone in one place so that nobody is left alone.

With everyone in a single room, Geo decides to push his tremorsense and scans the whole compound for anything else moving - he finds faint movement below the abandoned motel where most of the residents of Jericho Gap sleep. Rumble tells everyone to give him a 30 second lead and sneaks over to find it. Rumble and the critter very nearly get the drop on each other but end up bristling in doorways at either end of a short hallway.

The creature has some type of anomolous fear-aura power and triggers revulsion that Rumble's psychic defenses barely manage to withstand, but he hangs in there enough to make a calming speech to the critter: "I'm not going to hurt you. We are not the ones who took you. You are free to go if that's what you'd like. But those are my friends behind you, I'm going to them now, and if you don't let me help them then my other friends will hurt you." The critter hisses, chitters and backs off a bit. After ascertaining that Keene and Betty are paralyzed but breathing okay, Rumble attempts to initiate telepathic contact with the monster as the rest of the PCs rush in to corner it. However, the mental contact induces a horrible spasm in the creature and it flails around destroying walls in the motel. Geo gets there in time to hold it down, but after the spasm passes, lobster-boy seems to be back in a coma.

The PCs return him to the med lab, see that his EKG is flatlined again and scratch their heads for a few minutes. Perfect Zero wonders if perhaps the spasm was due to some other mentalist controlling this otherwise mindless creature remotely. He confers with his communication for a moment and then ROOT] re-broadcasts a transmission from an airplane on a nearby flight path - a child has had a severe epileptic seizure and requires medical attention immediately. The time of the transmission lines up perfectly with the cameras being destroyed. The plane will be landing in Dallas/Fort Worth shortly.

Between having a teleporter, a shapeshifter with medical knowledge, a psychoplasmic construct who can rewrite others' memories and a self-aware supercomputer to provide fake credentials and manipulate duty schedules, Forefront easily infiltrates the airport crisis response team and gets to be the crew of the ambulance that takes the kid from the airport to the hospital.

Since she's posing as a nurse, Tarantula Hawk decides to wear the face and nametag of Anita Cobby who in-game was an anomoly with healing powers and a victim of not merely random violence but an anti-anomoly hate crime which Forefront helped investigate in the middle of season 2.

The PCs safely get the kid, little Stevie off of the plane and into the ambulance. He bit his tongue pretty badly and fractured his risk against the seat restraints but is otherwise gonna be okay. His mother, Anita Mack is initially worried, but is reassured when the in-disguise Tarantula Hawk diverts her attention with the coincidence of their shared first name. During the ambulance ride we determine that 7 year old Stevie is an anomoly, which is noteworthy as anomolous eruption usually occurs during adolescence. In talking with Stevie and his mom, we find out that the kid has a rare and not-understood seizure disorder, but this was his most severe episode yet. In fact he hasn't had any for over a year until this one. Stevie has an interest in special effects and scary movies, as his late father was a special effects guy in LA. Stevie also has rare but very vivid nightmares. With some comicbook superscience and anomolous abilities we puzzle the obvious conclusion together: little Stevie and his mum are unaware that he has the anomolous ability to make his nightmares come true and/or summon the boogyman - and "lobster boy" is a manifestation of his ability.


So, we hand the two of them off to the real hospital staff and as we return the ambulance the PCs debate on whether or not to pull strings to have the kid officially tested for anogen to let him and his mom know what is really happening and provide an excuse for Forefront to step in officially, but 3 of the 4 PCs are dead-set against any form of anogen testing. So instead, Zero in his civilian ID (which is now public but less obvious) visits the hospital and a pulls a prof X, giving Anita a reference to a specialist in stevie's condition and assurance that all costs will be covered.

And to end off the session, Rumble and Zero then sum up the causes of all this in front of a still perplexed Geo

"So wait, the US Government kidnapped this kid's closet monster to use as a weapon in the Drug Wars?"
"Yup."


PS:

Feel good if you caught the reference. Because I didn't get it until I was writing the summary. Cute.

[Red_Rob]

Great, now I have to add a Supers game to the long list of campaigns I want to get round to running

I love the way the convoluted backstories, intertwined characters and mix of personal and superheroic problems really reflects the subject matter. This reads just like a summary of a long running comic series.

My favourite quote has to be "in the first time travel arc". Because only Supers games have more than one time travel arc

[Josh_Kablack]

I love the way the convoluted backstories, intertwined characters and mix of personal and superheroic problems really reflects the subject matter. This reads just like a summary of a long running comic series.

Thanks. This game really has been a blast so far.

In the last few months it became the longest running game I have ever played in, so yeah there is a lot of in-game history and it's all layered on top of the HERO system's drawback system which heavily rewards creating characters with comic book backstories and personality types. As to convoluted, I really need to post a picture of the wall in Mole's attic. We have like a hundred different historical figures, character portraits and organizational logos tacked up over an entire wall like the charting of a paranoid conspiracy nut.

On of the other contributing factors is that there is a very high degree of trust familiarity among the players. Everyone in the core group has known each other and gamed together on and off for over a decade at this point, which helps the group dynamic a lot. We still have hissy fits, but are generally more forgiving of each other.

My favourite quote has to be "in the first time travel arc". Because only Supers games have more than one time travel arc

There's some very lengthy and only partially explored subplot about fractures or ripples in the time stream or something. The first arc was also used to retcon by smoothing over stuff in the GM handoff that the players might remember but the new GM might not - altering recent history provided a plausible explanation for why the characters can remember doing things that did not actually happen.


****


Also, it's good to know that someone's actually enjoying all this text. The lack of comments had me wondering if I was just writing for the other players who lurk here while the regular Denizens merely enjoyed reading about others' train-wreck campaigns