Sunday, November 16, 2008

Play example: Jason the Kineticist and some poor assassins

Combatants:
  • kineticist (as described in previous post)
  • 2 assassins (as described and statted on page 226 of the core rulebook, except these guys are carrying katanas [+3 damage] and light pistols [+3 damage] rather than rifles)

Setting:
  • Jason Randall's (aka. the kineticist) 15th floor inner-city apartment
  • 7pm, dinner time

Jason sits down in front of the TV for yet another dinner. While flicking through one useless inane channel after another, he hears the microwave finish nuking his dinner. Leaning forward slightly so he can peer into the kitchen, he uses his powers to pop open the microwave and bring his dinner to him. (what? wouldn't you use your powers to be even lazier than you are? I would). At this point, he hears a door close in the other room.

Getting up to investigate, he reaches instinctively for the balaclava he keeps in his jacket pocket. Slipping it on over his glasses (custom-made to fit snugly against his face for this very purpose), he takes one more bite of his meal before pulling it down to his neck. He readies his mind to form a force field, while at the same time, crackles of living energy form around his hand, ready to throw a kinetic blast at any intruder (mechanically, just readying the force field). Pulling open the door to the next room, he peers inside.

Opposed stealth + notice checks ensue:
  • Jason = notice 19+5 = 24
  • assassin 1 = stealth 10+11 = 21
  • assassin 1 = stealth 6+11 = 17

Jason bursts open the door, and sees two men dressed like ninjas rifling through the drawers in his bedroom.

Noone is surprised, so round 1 ensues. Jason uses non-lethal damage on the intruders so he can question them later. The assassins obviously attempt to use lethal damage.

Initiative:
  • J = 12
  • A1 = 14
  • A2 = 18

Round 1:
  • Jason uses his readied free action to activate his force field. A shimmering field of air surrounds him. His toughness save becomes +11 (10 impervious, bwahaha)
  • The assassin to Jason's right (A2) turns around and draws his sword as he sees Jason enter the room. He draws his katana, leaps and swings wildly at Jason.
  • Attack roll = 10 vs DC 15 (miss)
  • The other assassin (A1) is across the room from Jason. He drops to one knee and fires off a few shots from his pistol.
  • Attack roll = 24 vs DC 15 (hit)
  • Toughness roll = since the forcefield is impervious 10, this is an automatic save
  • The bullets ricochet harmlessly off Jason's shield
  • Jason unleashes a kinetic blast on the nearest assassin (A2)
  • Attack roll = 30 (natural 20, hit)
  • Toughness roll = 5 (natural 1) vs DC 32 (normally 27, +5 from critical hit)
  • Failure by> 15 = unconsciousness
  • The assassin flies across the room, hitting his head on a bookshelf and losing consciousness immediately, slumping to the floor.

Round 2:
  • Assassin A1 looks surprised at this turn of events, then suddenly turns, takes a run-up, and bursts out of the nearby window. As he falls, he uses a grappling gun to hook onto a neighbouring building's roof, and starts climbing up
  • Jason says "I don't think so, buddy. It's not going to be that easy for you", and takes a running leap out of the window, activating his flight power as he does. He dives at the assassin, who is still climbing up the side of the building, and delivers his paralysis attack.
  • Attack roll = 16 vs DC 15 (hit)
  • Will save = 6 vs DC 22 (save failed by>5, so paralysis complete)

As the assassin fell, Jason swooped down and plucked him out of the air, taking him back to his apartment to tie to a chair.

The first thing the assassins saw when they awoke from their slumber was a gun to their face. "I think you'd better start talking before my friend here ..." Jason nodded at the gun "has some fun. Who do you work for?"

Note: This was going to be a short play example, but I got carried away. Ah, well. It was fun, and I learnt a lot about who actually rolls for what, and how powers work and so on. Please let me know if I've gotten anything wrong. I'm keen to learn from my mistakes.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks good to me.

One thing that's great about M&M is that you can have 2 or 3 round quick combat scenes between heroes and opponents who are much weaker than then (ninjas, goons, etc) and they're still action packed. This reflects the comicbooks pretty accurately where Batman (or whoever) can take out a couple of thugs without breaking stride.

Then there's the Minion rules where you can toss 30 or 40 goons at the heroes and make the whole thing one great big slugfest :D

Lovely stuff.

PS: Working on your render today!

Anonymous said...

How about something like this http://microlite20.net/images/kineticist.jpg

He's showing a ninja it's not a good idea to mess with a kineticist in his own apartment :D

Maestro said...

that's awesome. That ninja is about to get told in a very painful way who is boss.

Do you mind if I put that picture on my blog?

Anonymous said...

Go right ahead. It's all yours :D