I like the Doombot. I also like the way the module gives character's w/cosmic awareness and various senses/psionics the chance of telling something is amiss in the air. It reminds me of Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it's a good nuance to give characters with those types of powers.

The set-up for fighting the Destroyers reminds me too much of the Crusader Citadel battle.

V&V has a problem w/overlap in other areas two: Terror by Night and Organized Crimes are both modules set at a circus w/an albino villain; Sensei and Honor are both ninja/Japan modules with a key villain who is basically a Samurai w/armor and a sword. Organized Crimes and Greater Good both have a charismatic villain android who doesn't know he's an android and will go berserk if he finds out.

Here's what I find of interest about the Destroyers:

SPOILER ALERT

Iron Maiden (did her last name have to be Stark!?!?) is an engineer w/only 9 intelligence and a spotty career track.

It's interesting that Shapeshifter doesn't have nat. weaponry but can fake it. Either due to generous GM-ing or training.

Behometh can lift 100 tons and do 6d10 damage, one of several modules showing that heavy-hitters can exist in the V&V universe even if they don't come up randomly very often.

This module and Dr. A. are the only modules that show original edition and revised edition stats, which is fun to compare.

Ultimately, I give the first part of the adventure four stars and the second part (against the Destroyers) three stars (but only if the characters didn't go up against the Crushers).

Well I didn't rate Death Duel with the Destroyers all that high. I gave it a 6/8. Only because of the Destroyers fight. I think the Destroyers are probably one of the best looking villain groups to appear in V&V. My problem lays in the fact that they are kind of posers. But I will get to them soon enough.

The set up for the Mod is truely memorable. The storms and psychic visions... we played that out for nearly two sessions (My players liked that sort of thing). When it finally came time to battle the Doomsday Robot it was quite a fight. The Brick Titan went to run up and punch it and was kicked (unintentionally) by it as it walked and it launched him across the city. Thunderstar had to pull from combat (their fastest flyer) to fly and catch Titan before he hit the ground (Fortunately he missed buildings when he was rocketed away).
It was a good fight... course it was a while before they figured out the thing was being driven. Once they figure that out... they were all over it.

Okay... the DESTROYERS...
The only redeemable members and the ones I think their boss Dr. A would have actually picked to head an event like this of such importance is;

SHAPESHIFTER: ruthless, cunning, smart, savvy with a corporate mind. I played her like Mystique (Because that is who she reminded me of... only more powerful). I made her shape change into members of the Crusaders (yes... I changed her ability to just mammals - including humans) and messed with them. Using her stretching powers she took on the brick... until he brought down a portion of the building on her. Her biggest fault was her over confidence in my game.

ANNIHILATOR: Great motivation. I can totally see him in league with Dr. A. I played him like he "truely" enjoyed combating the heroes. He actually knocked out the hero Thunderstar (Star spanning Capt Mar'vell type) and he fell 20 stories. After that it was on between those two. Yes Thunderstar survived, but only due to his minor invulnerability and armor.

IRON MAIDEN: First off... awesome name. Super cool look. I actually pumped up her intelligence to a 19 thinking it was a typo. She was smart and used the base against the heroes. Including causing a bunch of machinery suspended in the air to swing and hit the brick from behind (She basically used a garage door opener to cause it to release and swing down). I was surprised she lasted as long as she did against the brick... well... until Dreamweaver smashed her in the face for a special attack with the debris of machinery she had used on Titan.

The last three I think he might have picked other villains to do his bidding... but they are standard villain templates so I guess they had to be there.

BEHMOTH: Though loyal... He is just a big stupid brick... I think honestly the only reason Dr. A. would have him there is he is such an EXTREME BRICK for the V&V world (There are others even more powerful... but we will get to them eventually). He was fun to play. There was a great scene when Speed Demon, Blizzard and Laserfire were fighting him... He had knocked them all down by causing an explosive impact on the floor. Laserfire flew up and blinded him and Blizzard made a sheet of ice under his feet, as Speed Demon pushed him out of the window of the Destroyers Tower. Kinda funny.

ELECTROCUTIONER: Gorgeous look... but lame personality. He was extremely frustrating to the team as he kept running away. he was actually knocked out when Evergreen pinned him down with fast growing plants then clawed him, for good measure Manta Man paralyzed him.

RATMAN: My least favorite of the villains... though he was a tough cookie. He and Speed Demon and Sister Indigo fought. I would say he was easily outmatched. He was super agile... but Speed Demon reacted faster. Sister Indigo kept making it hard for him to escape and he finally gave up after being nearly knocked out.

I think the team could have used at least one more member. Another artillery chara or possibly a psionic one.

It was good fun. But like was already mentioned... it did contain another building fight which did mirror CRISIS@CC.

Of course... the sister mod to this... I loved... we will get to that soon enough I suppose.

Cya guys.
G7

Guardian7 wrote on Sep 11^th, 2009 at 12:11am:


Hey! This I gotta take umbrage with! 

If Speed Demon and Indigo had fought Shapeshifter instead and clobbered her, would she be your least favorite?
Ratman was a great personality. Funny backstory too. When the PCs were sneaking around the Destroyers base and found his bedroom full of comics, porn and rpgs, it was a campaign highlight.

I liked Ratman and Cockroach both. Speaking of which, the next thrad should be about Dawn of DNA. Now there's a module worth discussing! It has the good, the bad, and the not so pretty.

Guardian7 wrote on Sep 11^th, 2009 at 9:29pm:


I'd say just post in whatever order the mod hits you, as we've got people popping in and out, as their schedule allows.

I loved Death Duel, It was one of the first modules  I got when I got back into the game.  I remember  back when we played it, it was the first time we had created characters that we wanted vs. rolling them randomly.  They were quite a bit tougher than the random characters, but it was a perfect match up for the Destroyers.  I still remember the character Jets, who was like Canonball of the X-men.  High Invulnerability, but only when flying.  Flew into Behemoth at max speed, knocking him out of the building.... good times.   We had a Captain America knock-off with a disintegration ray pistol named Searcher who ended up fighting Ratman, and I remember it being a good fight.  I don't remember much about Shapeshifter... Annihilator had a battle in the sky with our flyers, and we had a guy on a winged horse that ended up fighting with Iron Maiden.  It was one of the classic battles.  We didn't role play all that much back then, mostly just doing battles, and this group was well matched to our heroes.  The first time we battled them was one of my most memorable combats.

Gotta say I loved this one.  Granted, my first experience with the Destroyers was in Elementals, where I first saw Bill Willingham's work.  However once I knew that this story was also a V&V scenario I went hunting high and low to find it.  Primarily because I think this is probably one of the best groups of bad guys I had seen up to that point.

Anyway the module did not disappoint, and spun off into (the less impressive in my opinion - but still DAMN FINE!) Island of Doctor Apocalypse.  Great stuff.

My only problem now is that my copy of it was recently destroyed in some nasty weather we had here in Oz and I haven't been able to get my hands on another copy.  Pretty much all the other modules I've either downloaded or found on eBay but I'm just not having any luck with this or FORCE.

As I mentioned before, I've run this one at least three times.  The write-up for the first time is extremely simple, as it was the adventure that led off our original high school Sentinels campaign:

#1 / Sentinels of Justice / Sentinels formed, group includes Thunderbolt, Pulsar, and Disrupter.  Joined by Avengers Captain America, Wasp, and Captain Marvel, they defeat the Doomsday robot of Doctor Apocalypse.

#2 / Death Duel with the Destroyers / Same group defeats Destroyers in their headquarters.


The next time I ran it was early in our current campaign, with the group Justice Force (which took place again early in the campaign, this time following only Crisis at Crusader Citadel chronologically):

#3 – Terror in Times Square – The entire eastern seaboard of the U.S. gets caught in the grip of a massive, violent, unnatural storm.  Five days later, the ominous Doctor Apocalypse claims credit and demands the evacuation and secession of the island of Manhattan.  His demonstration of power, a gigantic Doomsday Robot, lands in Times Square and begins causing massive destruction.  The more than sixty-foot tall goliath is disabled by Panther, Tempest, Spectre, and Enigma, and the human crew that manned it is all captured.

#4 – Death Duel with the Destroyers – The trail from the robot leads to the Destroyers, a group of super criminals acting as Doctor Apocalypse’s advance force in New York.  Invading their headquarters in a Manhattan skyscraper, Spectre, Tempest, and Panther assail Annihilator, Shapeshifter, Behemoth, Ratman, Electrocutioner, and Iron Maiden.  The vigilantes disengage after a major clash, barely surviving.


The third time I ran this, was recently (a few years ago) at our annual GuardianCon.  The original (for our current campaign) was so long ago (now 18 years ago) that my current players hadn't ever had a chance to go through it, so they made new characters and we played it just for the fun of it (no campaign, just a one-shot).

Curiously, each time I run it I find myself emphasizing the unusual storm at the beginning more than I did the time before; the first time I ran it I don't think I even included it at all.

Great module, and a lot of fun for both GM and players!  I could go on and on about all the great things (the classic villains, great plot, comic pages, etc.), but Doctor Foom summed up those elements well enough that I'll just agree 100% with what he said.   

Guardian7 wrote on Sep 28^th, 2009 at 2:11am:


I really like how you turned this into an exciting and thrilling segment of the adventure.

Well done!

We did this as a crossover adventure, with us heroes traveling to the world of the Elementals. The "death duel" was literally a death duel. Behometh killed one of our members, Drummer Girl. We were hoping that she'd be alive again when we returned to our home dimension but that wasn't the case.

Doctor Foom wrote on Sep 11^th, 2009 at 5:14pm:

Not a big fan of the porn collection in Ratman's quarters. And Iron Maiden was kind of a drip. The Crusers were more my style.