[Super Force Seven] Tactical RPG

[mratomek]

After another long, long, long reworking of the rules, I finally got another playtest together. Most of the changes came from the great suggestions and feedback I received from this forum—which I appreciate very much.

The game was a 2 scene scenario surrounding the smuggling of a Cold-War nuclear device into the US.

Each player started with a team of 6 heroes or villains.

Scene 1 involved player 1 selecting a single hero to make the nightly rounds and fall upon a dingle villain. This game was a simple one-on-one grudge match, but was useful in teaching the game to the other players.

If the hero could capture the villain, he could possibly earn an advantage heading into Scene 2; if not, the villains gained the advantage.

The game would last only 5 Rounds and pitted The Green Gargoyle versus Tsunami. Although the Green Gargoyle could easily possess the body of Tsunami—the possession did not count as a capture. Tsunami nearly offed the Gargoyle with her water powers, but in the end, Gargoyle fled the scene, to prevent the villains from gaining a superior advantage.

In Scene 2, the heroes learn that the villains are attempting to hijack a nuclear bomb that someone else is trying to smuggle into the US. The heroes are playing a bit of catch-up at this point, and so rush to the cargo ship heading for the US east coast.

Since the heroes failed in scene 1, they would not deploy until the beginning of Round 2 in Scene 2, giving the villains a full Round to find the bomb and get it off the ship.

Each player picked 3 of the remaining characters, but could not use the character they had already played.

The heroes picked Mr. Invisible (a good utility character), Electro-Max (A ranged blaster), and Psycho-Girl (a psychic).

The villains picked Power Claw (the brick), The Human Torpedo (a mixed blaster/melee specialist) and the Pearl (a villain that controlled powerful kinetic forces).

In the first round, the Human Torpedo rushed to the designated location aboard the ship and began preparing the bomb for movement. This task took 3 successful rolls vs. a TN 12. He was able to complete two, but would have to wait until next Round to complete the task.

Power Claw and Pearl moved into position to protect him, since he was not sure where the heroes would deploy. If they could win initiative, the could possible score a quick win by moving the bomb off the ship.

At the beginning of Round 2 the heroes landed, taking up position on the other side of the ship, where they would be blocked from view by the ships tower.

Mr. Invisible won the initiative and all other initiatives with his Mastermind special ability--the villains didn't have anything to counter his Mastermind ability. Quickly, Mr. Invisible ordered Electro-Max into position.

Electro-Max flew ahead, roughly 12" in the air--keeping himself away from any possible melee attacks--and then blasted away at the Human Torpedo. His first attack hit for 1 Wound which he used to slam the Torpedo back away from the bomb.

As the battle waged on, Psycho Girl was able to effectively take Power Claw out of the combat with her Mind Blank power; however, she was often disrupted, which left her at Power Claws whim. He nearly took her out, but ultimately the mix of Psychic Blasts, Mind Blanks and Electro Blasts (from Electro_Max) took the giant down.

Meanwhile, Pearl was trying to keep Mr. Invisible and Psycho Girl busy while Torpedo went after the bomb. Later in the game, Psycho Girl fell to Pearl's repeated blasting.

As the game wound down—it was only 10 Rounds—Torpedo finally finished prepping the bomb for departure and started moving towards the stearn of the ship. In fact, he got to within ½" of ending the game. But Mr. Invisible switched from his power glove to a teleportation ray and teleported Torpedo back to the bow of the ship.

With the remaining turns, there was no way the villains could move the bomb back to the stearn without chancing detonation, so they changed tactics and tried to take out the remaining heroes quickly.

At the end of the 10th round, the heroes successful stalled the villains and were able to recover the bomb.

Since streamlining the system, the mechanics were far less clunky. Several wounds—other than damage—came into play. Slam was used extensively to push people around the ship—perhaps too much. Need to work on that.

Electro-Max used a 3-point Malfunction on Power Claw that weakened his power armor and ultimately led to his undoing.

The stealth defenses (Mr. Invisible's invisibility and Psychic Girl's telepathic conceal) proved to be very effective primarily because the villains didn't have any area effect powers to counteract them.

Psychic Girl's Mind Blank and Mr. Invisible's Teleportation Ray proved to be the game winners. Although the villains packed more firepower, at the end of the game, it was more strategic thinking that won the game.

[Valamir]

Since streamlining the system, the mechanics were far less clunky. Several wounds—other than damage—came into play. Slam was used extensively to push people around the ship—perhaps too much. Need to work on that.

Why too much?  Is that not the most common special effect in a super hero comic?

[mratomek]

Damage is broken down into three tiers: Severe, Critical and Fatal. Whether or not a character can choose a Severe wound versus a Critical or Fatal wound depends on how much higher his total action roll is versus his opponent's roll or TN:

1-9      Severe
10-19  Critical
20+     Fatal

During the game, I had Slam as a Severe wound, that just about any character could score. The problem was that a character could Slam an opponent everytime he hit him. Slam threw a character 1" per point of Strength or strength of the power used. So if a character hit an opponent with his 10 PL Force blast and slammed him, he would send the opponent 10" away--and then, the character would have to spend Actions to close the gap.

A character could also dump 2 wounds into a Slam, throwing the opponent 2" per point in distance.

The game was played on a small ship with a standing rule that a player could option to only go to the edge of the ship--and not in the water--but take 1 point of damage in doing so. That would save the player from having to have his opponent fly or swim back to the ship--possibly only to get slammed again.

So I think I am going to try it as a Critical wound, at 2" or 3" so that it is more infrequent, but when it happens you can really send your opponent sailing away.

Thanks for the question.

[Callan S.]

Hiya,

In chess, if one player decides to give up, thats a functional end - it's answered the question of whether he could win. In this game, could one side just give up and it'd be a functional ending? The other side could cheer at their win? Or would there still be a question lingering in the air of 'we don't know what would have happened next!' and a dissatisfaction at that?

[mratomek]

Depends on the game. If it is a one shot and there are not end-game consequences or points assigned for capturing an opponent's characters, then escaping from the game board simply ends the game quicker.

However, if the game does have end-game consequence (only those characters remaing can be used in the next game) or if you earned points for each opposing character that you capture, then there would be some strategy in choosing when and if it is smart to pull-out of a losing situation and minimize your loses.