In honor of the new "Heroic Age" at Marvel right now, I'm in the process of writing a brand-new adventure featuring the Classic Marvel roleplaying game from TSR. For complete rules and forums for this long out-of-print but still popular game, go to Classic Marvel Forever.com.
I post this first Chapter just as a way to continue my own writing enjoyment, and I am fully aware this isn't playtested. Perhaps you might want to read just for your own reading enjoyment, fully aware that you really wouldn't ever play it. Feel free to keep reading, but realize this is more draft-ish. When I'm done, I'll have the whole thing free to download as a .pdf and you can read, run the game, or find someone to be your Judge so you can play it! Regardless, I hope you enjoy...
CHAPTER 1: The Call Goes Forth!
Summary
The heroes receive individual distress calls to alert them of the menace of the monstrous Glob!
Set-Up
Invite the heroes to embellish the following scenes of a regular weekday morning… a morning that just might get interrupted!
- Amadeus Cho is in the middle of the Arizona desert, sitting on top of a cage with a half-dozen wild chupacabras (think of a monster-mix of reptile and kangaroo that eats goats) inside. The battle was long and draining, and he’s just waiting for an Olympus Group transport to arrive so they can relocate the beasts to Monster Isle.
- Rockslide, in disguise as much as he can be, is in New York to catch the upcoming Unlimited Brawling Championship match, and it:s about to start. The game is still very much “underground,” so he:s right to feel more than a little nervous. Still, Rockslide:s teammate Anole had dared him to not only catch a game but to get the autograph of the villainous Man-Killer who is about to go on stage.
- Captain America is waiting on a rooftop to rendezvous with the Black Widow; she:s on a mission and he managed to get some sensitive intel she might find useful.
- Firestar (as Angelica Jones) is in line at the admissions office for her school, hoping to finalize some paper work before today:s deadline, and after three earlier trips failed to do so. Thankfully, she:s only one person away from the next available window!
- The Black Cat is in a pawn shop, undercover, tyring to photograph evidence that the owner is fence for stolen jewelry. She:ll need to ask to see the jewelry then use a secret camera, but he seems spooked. If she doesn:t get it now, the fence will move the merchandise before she can return a second time.
The call to action (in this case, a literal call to action!) will occur, of course, at the most inconvenient time. For Amadeus and Rockslide, the call may come after answering their cell phone. For Captain America, the call comes simultaneously over a closed-circuit comm link reserved by SHIELD, while for Firestar, the call comes through the television that serves to distract students from the boredom of the admissions office line, interrupting the daytime talkshow. The Black Cat will hear the call over the pawn shop:s in-store radio. (Note that while the players are aware of the same call being heard five different ways, the characters are not.) Read the following to the players:
'Whee-oo! Whee-ooo! The alarming signal certainly does its job of attracting your attention! A mechanically-distorted, disguised voice declares: “Attention, Network! Class 5 villain now wreaking havoc at the Wickhessian Quarry, New Jersey. You and four others will engage and recruit for our destructive ranks! The Network grows! Coordiantes as follows…”'
Sure enough, if the heroes investigate (by switching to a news channel or by checking in with teammates/Contacts) they will hear reports of a monster who suddenly appeared and is currently rampaging in a New Jersey quarry, and lives and property are in danger! They must somehow excuse themselves from their respective situations to investigate. Let the heroes role-play out their response—they are free to fulfill their scene, or they may want to drop what they are doing and run! After everyone has described their scene, give a bonus to Karma to those who described how they stayed for a while to fulfill their personal obligations.
(I'll post the remainder as an extended entry just in case you want to be surprised!)
Encounter/Battle
Regardless of the individual time it takes to complete each set-up, all the heroes more or less arrive at the quarry at the same time (darn the traffic on the turnpike!). The heroes are at the top of the quarry in a good vantage point. Below them, the quarry opens up like a great canyon, the size of several city blocks. There are numerous buildings for offices, storage, and shelter, as well as a variety of equipment such as containers, conveyors, and mid- to large-sized machinery. Much of the jagged cliff faces have scaffolding from top to bottom. Vehicles of all kinds pepper the scene: dumpsters, cranes, bulldozers, and the like.
None of the heroes recognize the Glob, unless Captain America or Amadeus Cho specifically researched, asking SHIELD or the Olympus Group for more information. The Glob is in the middle of his rampage, dead center. Equipment is overturned, offices and vehicles are smashed, and various piles of rubble are … even more rubbley? Quarrymen have tried their best to find shelter; the armed security and police who have responded aren:t faring very well.
The Glob:s poor reasoning skills and mechanical voicebox make communication frustrating and difficult, not much more than a few expressions “Glob smash!”, “Pitiful guard-men!”, and “Where is rock?” If the heroes hold back for too long (after all, the call to action did imply that other villains should be arriving), it becomes obvious that they better jump in and stop the Glob—particularly the pair of quarrymen who have hidden behind a propane tank at one corner of the scene. The one where an overturned truck has been leaking fuel and a stray spark from some Glob-thrown debris sends flames headed their way! A hero would need a Yellow FEAT (of a movement Power or Endurance) to get in and get them to safety.
The Glob won:t actually engage the heroes directly, but he will if he perceives the heroes are “in his way” or if the heroes touch him physically. At times, he might even turn away from the heroes. His only dialogue is short, clipped phrases about some “pretty rock,” the “Jin-stone” or “ku-ku rock” or some variation of that. The Glob is smart enough to use his environment in his tactics—fighting with thrown debris or baseball bat-like crane arms.
What he is really doing here is searching for the Jinku Stone, a mystical artifact that featured in an aborted mission when the Glob was used as an agent, of sorts, by SHIELD. The Glob is nothing if not single-minded, and he has been trying to fulfill his mission long after his SHIELD program was disbanded. The search has led him to this quarry, and his rampage is nothing more than a “monstrous” misunderstanding. While the Glob can:t express his full memory, the Judge can leak some of this information through the Glob:s special dialogue. Warm-hearted heroes might catch on to the fact that the Glob is more misguided than malicious, and may attempt to end the battle through dialogue.
Aftermath
In the unlikely event the heroes are defeated, Glob will stop himself just before disposing of one of the heroes. He will instead return to his original task—finding the Jinku Stone. The heroes are welcome to observe and follow along, leading into Chapter 2. If the heroes were taken out, they will recover to find the Glob giving the stone to Captain America, fulfilling what he understands as his mission (retrieve the object for SHIELD.) He does really hope to be a hero.
If/when defeated, Glob will try to explain as best he can that he had a mission, and his disappointment in failing his mission should be obvious to all. After some questioning, hindered by Glob:s poor reasoning and limitation of his voicebox, it should become clear he was connected to SHIELD, and from there heroes such as Captain America could easily verify his original, if obsolete, mission. If a hero gets the idea to help the Glob, award that player with some Karma and move on to the next chapter. Otherwise, you can move ahead by having the heroes contact SHIELD and allow them to take custody of Glob. In that case, move directly to investigating the mysterious alert calls in Chapter 3.
Dangling Questions
What is the Jinku Stone?
What to do with the Glob?
Who called the heroes to the scene?
What is the Network?
Comments