Started a new, weekly session of Monster Rules this week, and ran a Big City Heroes game--love the capes and tights.

Had a couple of people show up--hope they will be regualrs. Played at the local game store--the owner is nice enough to let me use his tables, so I make sure and spend as much $$$ at his store as I can to support the cause.

The game pitted Captain America and Iron Man against the villainous Mr. Mechanical and his hench men.

Monster Rules allows you to compress a standard RPG game into a head-to-head minis game, with many of the same features and strengths of traditional RPGs.

I split the players up into two sides, the heroes and villains, and I just stood and observed and answered questions.

The game was a two-part scenario. Part I had Captain America discover a group of mercenaries attempting to break into a hi-tech manufacturing plant to steal some technology. This game was intended to be short, with the winner gaining a decided advantage in the next game: Ambush.

The narrative for the heroes was along the lines of "several hi-tech robberies have been occurring in the Richland Industrial park over the past few months. There are several rumors on the street--one has to do with Mr. Mechanical!"

"You recently coerced a tip out of a 2-bit thug that another heist was going down tonight, so you decide to go on a stake out."

From that point, each player placed his models on the game table--I made some great terrain pieces out of some boxes, random hardware parts and pieces, and some random toys from the childrens toy chest--sorry kids.

The player controlling the mercs won initiative, so he started sending partrols around the building looking for security officers--cap was around the cornder hiding. One the Mercs stumbled upon Cap and warned the others, but since none of them had a clear shot, there was nothing else to do.

Cap charged the first merc and laid him out cold, he ran towards the others and let fly his shield, taking out one other Minion, and then recovered his shield for added protection.

The Mercs were in a bit of dissarray at first, feeling severly out gunned--but then the player got smart and started moving his mooks into flanking positions why Cap duked it out with the mercenary leaer.

Cap was easily handling the thug, strategically using Knockdown and Disarm attacks to brutalize him. Seemed like it was going to be a quick finish--but then the mooks got into position and opened fire on the Cap from the rear and he went down.

Cap made good use of his Acrobatics power, that lets him make small 1" movements when attacked, to find some extra cover and avoid further damage.

In the end--it was only a 5 Round game--neither side was able to vanquish the opposition, so no one earned the Ambush advantage.

The narrative followng the fight allowed the heroes to learn of Mr. Mechanicals hideout, but not what he was up to.

The next part of the game included Mr. Mechanical, his hired help, Camouflage, and a few additional Mercs. There was also a few clue markers placed on the game table.

There heroes needed to detain the brains behind the heist--Mechanical--and find out what was going. This is all part of an on-going story that I am starting to work on. Mechanical, of course, needs to escape, but cannot leave the board until after the 5th Round.

The heroes set up on the opposite side of the table and used their Movement and Sneak powers to quietly approach the abandoned ChemCo building. They were able to remain hidden, while they watch Mr. Mechanical and his crew busy at work.

Then one of the mercs got a lucky roll and spotted Cap in the rafters. He opened fire, but Cap was able to easily deflect the bullets with his shield.

Iron Man flew around to the side of the building and smashed through the windows, he plowed into one of the Mercs and took him out. Cap started up with his shield throwing, and took out another merc.

That's about when Mr. Mechanical opened up on Iron Man. Up until now, the heroes had only been dealing with mooks, which they could throw around like rag dolls. Mechanical scored a critical hit with 4 Wounds on Iron Man. He could choose to do 4 points of damage or select a more tactical wound--such as Slam or Destroy. He chose to Destroy Iron Man's, reducing its effectiveness by Half--that turned out to be very decisive in the game.

The next couple of Rounds involved exchanges of blows and damage--but with Iron Man's armor being damaged, he was far easier to hit.

By the 6th Round, the heroes had taken out all the Mercs, had severly damaged Camoulfage and had knocked Mr. Mechanical unconsciouss with a successful shield throw from Cap and a lucky Kockout. If Mr. Mechanical were awake, he could easily had escaped ending the game.

The hereos weren't better off, although Cap had avoided taking too much damage, Iron Man was over his Life score by 3 points and had been remaining in play with a few lucky Fatality Rolls.

At the start of the next Round, everyon--except for Mr. Mechanical--made their initiative rolls. Camouflage was the weaker of the three, but happened to win. Mr. Mechanical used the opportunity to use his Vile Recovery special ability--didn't realized he had it--and awoke from his unconscious state. He used another action to stand up and with two remaining actions, he could easily escape and win the game--but he didn't.

The player instead decided to try and take out Iron Man with a final plasma blast--which he did--but then realized he did not have enough actions to escape off of the game board--whoops! That was a very funny moment.

Camouflage tried to tie-up Cap by freezing him in place--but Cap was able to avoid the attacks and got one final attack on the Mechanical. The first attack hit but Mechanical one his Fatality Roll--and the second attacked missed.

At the begining of the next Round, Mechanical easily won initiative with his superior intellect and escaped!

The game was suprisingly close--the player playing Mechanical who chose to damage Iron Man's armor proved to be the difference in the game. With Iron Man weakened, he was easier to take out. And Cap just didn't have it in him to stop mechanical.

Furthermore, Iron Man had the scientific skill neccessarily to uncover the clue marker left behind in the hideout, so the heroes missed out on that as well.

All in all, the game was great fun and took about an hour to play out.

Next tuesday, the players are going to create their own characters and form up a team to fight against Mechanical as his evil plot unfolds! (evil laugh)