Experimented with the custom scenario aspect of Monster Rules. It worked out greaat

At first we were going to play a fantasy-based game of Monster, but decided to stick with the supers for now. Jake, my opponent, created his own group of villains and a scenario. I was to supply the heroes.

My goals were to protect Dr. Farnsworth, a research scientis who had finally found the cure for cancer. Apparantly, someone wanted him dead. I also had to protect the computer system in his lab from being compromised and attempt to apprehend the criminal mastermind Sly Guy.

Jake, of course, had to kill Farnsworth and steal the data from the computer system; Furthermore, if he were capable to do so, he could steal several other confidential files from the computer for additional victory points.

Both of us could also win points by eliminating eachother's characters.

The game board was a single research facility with a safe room, the computer and some defensive turrets, all of which were nuetral to the extent that anyone could use them.

Jake also paid for a piece of loose equipment, a bomb he intended to use to destroy the facility and everyone inside.

The game started with Jake winning initiative. He moved his Mad Bomber into position and started blasting away at my characters who I inadvertently grouped together for him. However, we started on a large table, so the range penalty helped most of my characters survive the raid.

Next he used Pelican to make a move on Farnsworth by teleporting into the building. I immediately countered with Goddess, who could also teleport, catching up with Pelican and using her Time Control powers to start withering him.

I also controlled Farnsworth, who immediately used his Science skill to put a higher-level of encryption on the computer and to enable the defensive turrets.

As we finished moving the rest of the characters, it became obvious that Jake had created a team of long-range strikers and was effectively using them to shoot me up.

I figured I had to get my team inside the building where we could exploit our hand-to-hand capabilities.

At the end of the round, Pelican use his Extra Effort special ability to gain one additional Turn and killed Farnsworth.

My only hope at this point was to protect the computer and apprehend Sly Guy.

As the battle went on, there were some great exchanges of powers and tactical moves. In one Turn Goddess used her powers to hit Gishnu, an evil sorcerer, and rather than damage him, she used the wounds to Glitchehis armor (Equipment). Then Volcanic and Sentry blasted away at him in a severely weakened state, taking him out.

Equipment powers are cheaper than normal powers, but are subject to malfunctions and destruction, leaving a character powerless.

Another brutal exchange occurred when Captain Amazing directed the fire of several Minion-level R.A.T. troopers to support Pelican's attacks on Volcanic. The added bonuses added up and just about brought the volcano to his knees.

The best situation was when I had finally moved all my characters inside the building. We were hammering on Sly Guy who decided to enter the building to place his bomb. We encircled him immediately, making it difficult for him to escape.

He placed the bomb which would go off at the end of the next round. During the remainder of the current round and through the next round, Jake moved his whole team in front of the main doors to the building, shooting through the doors using his ranged attacks to his advantage. However, at the end of the round, Goddess teleported with the bomb into the middle of his team and then teleported back.

Up until this point, things were looking bleak for me. I was trapped inside a building and getting shot to pieces. It looked like he was going to win. Then the bomb went off. It severily weakened half his characters and through them all over the board.

At the begining of the next round, Goddess was in position to gain a surprise advantage on two of his characters, Mad Bomber and Gishnu, and finished them off.

Inside the building, the remaining crew used a knockdown and a glitch to weaken Pelican and finish him off. Suddenly the tables had turned.

In the end, Jake decided to use one of his characters to simply destroy the computer--a penalty for me and then flee the game board. It looked like I was going to lose. But, only one of his characters had enough movement to escape from the board. And when Captain Amazing left, he inadvertantly freed Goddess, wh he was holding in his control with a Domination power.

Free to move, she quickly caught up with the last remaining villain, used a Temporal Distortion boost to lower all of his rolls by -2 and then blasted away at him. By the end of the round, he had been hit enough that he had to start making Fatality Rolls, but survived.

Whoever won the initative roll for the next round would most likely win the game. The villan rolled a 7 and Goddess roled a 6--looked like the villain one. But wait! He reminded me about the Temporal Distortion effect which reduced his roll to a 5. Goddess won and finished him off.

I won--even though Farnsworth was dead and the computer destroyed, I had captured enough villains to make up the difference.

It was a lot of fun. More non-combative powers are starting to show up to create interesting strategic combinations, such as Domination, Time Control, Dimensional Travel, Devour, Mighty+Invulnerability, Invisibility.

Although Jake ruled the battlefield initial with his high-powered Equipment-based characters--towards the middle and later rounds, I was able to damage quite a few key powers that crippled his capabilities.

Gameplay was really smooth with not too many rule discussion going on. We talked about Surprise in confined spaces. Using the Deadeye boost to bypass or reduce cover, and a few other clarifications.

All in all it was a great success. The next few games, we are going to look at testing a fantasy-based scenario. With one player playing a party of adventurers seeking a mythic sword and the other player is playing a evil wizard who will use all sorts of tricks, traps and creatures to prevent the party from gaining the sword.

This scenario is also going to incorporate some narrative play to setup the main adventure. Should be interesting.