The Villains and Vigilantes Forum. Check out our latest discussion threads! - How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M."

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Question: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M."

Amazing Game! A V&V Highlight!

1 (7.7%)

A great game, very entertaining. Loved it!

2 (15.4%)

A pretty good game --- nice plot

3 (23.1%)

An okay game, parts of it were iffy

4 (30.8%)

Mediocre game. some flaws here in there

3 (23.1%)

Not so good of a game, playable, but had issues!

0 (0.0%)

A blah game...blah blah blah

0 (0.0%)

Not so good. (*tears*)

0 (0.0%)

Total votes: 13

« Last Modified by: The Cougar on: Mar 21^st, 2010 at 12:09pm »

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How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." (Read 2430 times)

The Cougar Avenger Offline Roll 1d20 against ... Posts: 438 Location: McKinney, TX Joined: Oct 4^th, 2009 Gender:	How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Mar 21^st, 2010 at 12:06pm	Print Post
	The next in the series of our community sharing their feelings and experiences for a published V&V module. How useful was it? How did you modify it for your campaign? How did it play? and How well did the PCs enjoy it? Share with us how is was To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M.
	« Last Edit: Mar 21^st, 2010 at 12:07pm by The Cougar »
	totem_small.jpg ( 15 KB \| 9 Downloads ) V&V character creation is too much fun. - Doctor Foom Megalopolis PBEM http://vav-megalopolis-pbem.blogspot.com/
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The Cougar Avenger Offline Roll 1d20 against ... Posts: 438 Location: McKinney, TX Joined: Oct 4^th, 2009 Gender:	Re: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Reply #1 - Mar 21^st, 2010 at 12:44pm	Print Post
	This was a module that I used actually as is when I was a GM. At the time, I only had a single player but instead of playing solo he created his own team. It has been 20 years so I only remember 3 of the characters and only 1 of their names. The team leader had willpower, one character had Heightened Speed and Claws (yes, he was every bit as powerful as Mercury Mercenary and Sabresonic) and the other character was Dragon. It wasn't only his name but who he was. A Dragon in human form. Two really awesome moments still are very vivid in my memory to this day. At the musuem, most of the T.O.T.E.M. characters were easily defeated, except for Jotunn. He escaped and as he was running away, Dragon flew after him. When Dragon caught him, they were toe to toe at it. Trading punches. Jotunn held his own for several turns. When it became obvious that Jotunn was going to lose, I strongly considered using the carrier lightning attack on the next punch. I decided against it. Jotunn couldn't take Dragon out with one punch. So I decided to make it apart of the storyline that Jotunn understimated Dragon and when they meet next Dragon would be surprise with the punches in the form of a carrier attack. The battle came to the close with Jotunn completely out of power. I roleplayed Jotunn standing there panting, barely able to keep his guard up. Then Dragon rolled a perfect 1 to finish him. Robert (the PC gamer) gave out a yell and fist pump. Until then I wasn't sure if I had gmed it right until I saw the look on Robert's face and I knew it was a success. The second moment came when the team with Tomahawk attacked T.O.T.E.M. H.Q. While Tomahawk was locked in single combat with his brother, Dragon and the clawed speedster mopped up everyone else, the team leader charged the Purple Mask. I declared the Purple Mask would attempt to Mind Control the leader. It was Mind Control versus Willpower. Purple Mask missed his roll and the leader layed him out with one punch. Afterwards I asked Robert if that was too simple to be meaningful. He said "No, the tension was fantastic. One roll!! If the Purple Mask has made the roll, I had no idea what my team would have done. I was really sweating that roll!" The only disappointment in the game, was my failure to get the PCs to support Tomahawk. I don't blame the module but my gm'ing and situation of having a single player. Robert basically ignore Tomahawk's fight. Tomahawk is no match for Bear Claw and that is how it played out. I basically had to ask the team to save Tomahawk. Pleading "Bear Claw is killing him"!!
	« Last Edit: Mar 21^st, 2010 at 1:21pm by The Cougar »
	V&V character creation is too much fun. - Doctor Foom Megalopolis PBEM http://vav-megalopolis-pbem.blogspot.com/
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Troy Teen Titan Offline Posts: 108 Location: CA Joined: Jan 7^th, 2010 Gender:	Re: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Reply #2 - Mar 21^st, 2010 at 2:24pm	Print Post
	It sounds like you had a great experience! Thanks for passing this along!


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Majestic Justice Leaguer Offline Guardian of Earth Posts: 5179 Location: Seattle Joined: Jun 8^th, 2009 Gender:	Re: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Reply #3 - Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 4:34pm	Print Post
	Agreed - great summary! Thanks for sharing it with us! Also, thanks for carrying the torch with these polls!


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Majestic Justice Leaguer Offline Guardian of Earth Posts: 5179 Location: Seattle Joined: Jun 8^th, 2009 Gender:	Re: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Reply #4 - Mar 23^rd, 2010 at 4:42pm	Print Post
	Like most V&V adventures, I've run it at least twice, and I think it's fantastic. I don't recall much from when I ran it back in high school (in the 80's), but it was the early 90's - in the early days of the Guardians - that I ran it again. T.O.T.E.M. is a great organization, and one that we've used for many, many different plots over the years. I'm including issue #9 below because (more than probably any other module) the repercussions from the missiles made a significant impact on the campaign: #7 - The Big Parade - The Guardians establish a headquarters in the Organizer's former hideout on Staten Island. Dr. Desist is chosen as the group's leader and Entropy is made security chief. Entropy, Crocodile, and Zap travel to Tucson to celebrate the opening of the Hall of Modern Heroes in the Cogan Museum. Following the disruption of Congressman Phillip Maxwell's speech by a large group of unruly Brown Shirts, a diversionary explosion marks the entrance of Jotunn, Mariah, and Karnage. As the heroes, aided by Spectre and Gigantor, quickly disarm the terrorists, other villains enter the museum and steal a dimensional transporter. One of them, Tomahawk, finds himself mysteriously drawn to his namesake weapon in an exhibit, which floods him with power and frees him of T.O.T.E.M.'s brainwashing. #8 - To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M. - Guided by Tomahawk's information, Crocodile, Zap, Spectre, and Freeze assault the T.O.T.E.M. base in nearby Silver Wolf Mountain. They clash with Gila, Bear Claw, Chillblade, Faultline, and their leader, the Purple Mask, and are soundly defeated. After being heavily sedated, the heroes are extensively scanned and studied, and T.O.T.E.M. scientists extract cell samples to create clones. The adventurers awake to find themselves strapped to missiles beginning to launch! #9 - Directions - As he escapes, Zap disrupts his missile enough to cause it to land short of its target in China. It still causes a massive explosion many miles from Beijing. China is guarded about the effects but reports light casualties. Crocodile’s missile strangely disappears. The Guardians get a new member, Quiasar, and formulate a charter. Senator Matthew Bennet receives a death threat from the American Freedom Force (A.F.F.). C.I.A. analyst Henderson gathers the Shadow Company for a covert operation. I was able to follow up - years later - with clones of the original heroes - and it made for some great moments in our campaign!


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Guardian7 Avenger Offline VOLCANO MAN!!! Posts: 413 Location: Jackson, Michigan Joined: Aug 30^th, 2009 Gender:	Re: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Reply #5 - Dec 8^th, 2014 at 8:47pm	Print Post
	Well, first off this has art by Don Heck... Who at one time was frickin amazing. His designs here are so so/hit and miss,. Stand outs? Tomahawk (great chara too!) Gila... Cool look! and Karnage (though I gave him more sweeping wings),loved his optic beams. I hated Purple Mask then... Cause I DESPISED suited heroes and villains. That has changed... So now I like him... But oddly enough even back then, I kept him in the suit... Usually I altered what I didn't like. (Like Evergreen's hair). He escaped... What a dick he was... His identity was never revealed in my games... Though he was just about to be found out by several heroes after he turned one time ally Sen Matthew Bennet into an advocate against them... Trust... it got ugly. But I quit GMing before I had his plot to get the heroes... He had infiltrated CHESS and MEDUSA and was on the cusp of causing all kinds of trouble for the heroes of my game... Everyone else was so so. Bearclaw was unn... He was tough though! Chillblade was typical... But she was deadly, nearly killing Dreamweaver and almost getting punched to the moon by PC/boyfriend Titan for it Faultline reminded me of Yellowjacket... A design I like... Not on FL... So I altered him. Jotunn... Ugh! Changed him to Thunder, altered his costume and changed his origin. Mariah... Really? Yuck... I kept it... She had great powers... But the only thing that saved her from my PCs was her lvl... She eventually returned to Mexico and became a heroine, combining her talents with Avalanche... Until they were both kidnapped by the Tarot Masters!?! Another story... For another time. I liked the mod, it played well... I did increase the volumes of guards... The heroes won, making it especially easy was the fact that they recovered Tomahawk early thanks to Justice (Justice-Avenger) using her telepathy on him. Discovering his truths. The rest was good... In the end... When the heroes stopped the Missiles... Purple Mask blew up the base injuring everyone and nearly killing Thunder and Chillblade. Museum was fun too! I'd go into more detail but it was a lot of mostly interaction with my team of the Crusaders. Tomahawk became a reserve member too! G7


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Majestic Justice Leaguer Offline Guardian of Earth Posts: 5179 Location: Seattle Joined: Jun 8^th, 2009 Gender:	Re: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Reply #6 - Dec 9^th, 2014 at 1:59am	Print Post
	Thanks, G7. I find it really fun to hear how other groups played things with these familiar characters!


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Guardian7 Avenger Offline VOLCANO MAN!!! Posts: 413 Location: Jackson, Michigan Joined: Aug 30^th, 2009 Gender:	Re: How would you rate "To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M." Reply #7 - Dec 17^th, 2014 at 6:33pm	Print Post
	Same here... Nice to known someone enjoys it... I always feel like maybe I tell too much. But I so love telling how much we and particularly I had. But I also had great players who totally got into our rpging... ...and it didn't hurt that I was a very good GM! It was all in the details...


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