For variety, we're going back and reworking classic V&V adventures in a mirror universe where all of the established heroes are villains, and a few other NPCS are redressed.

Is there a Tantalus Field?  Do they all have goatees?

Impressive, sounds like to was really fun and different spin on it.

Did you make Bokyo as gang leader as well?

Here are some more notes from our Reverse World campaign.

With the exception of Shocker (who's a member of the villainous Crusaders), to the best of our knowledge most of the other Crushers from the original module don't exist in the campaign world (or perhaps they never got powers)--with one possible exception...

Our still-unnamed supergroup is getting a financial backer. It's Stanislas Laird (who never became Stormlord in our reality). As the descendant of the supervillain Excalliber (a weather-controlling British villain who fought against the Allies during WWII) becoming the benefactor to a super-team is his way of paying familial penance.

This sounds interesting...

Thanks for the kind words everyone. So far the new game has been fun.

I should add that the Tabloid pdf from the FGU site has already been incorporated into the campaign. Players have those articles as background. Everyone's been warned that it doesn't mean any of the tabloid articles are necessarily accurate (or that anyone mentioned in the tabolids necessarily exists in the Reverse World campaign)--but it gives us a frame of reference as to the general public's perceptions of super-beings and the paranormal. I'll post more summaries as the game continues.

Too funny, Mike.  Especially how the werewolf is good and the doctor evil.  Love how you're putting a twist on these familiar characters!   

Session Five brought the heroes to Washington, D.C., after a U.S. missile silo was severely disabled by an attack within.

Soon after the heroes arrived, but before they could thoroughly investigate or were fully briefed, an energy portal opened up--almost like clockwork.

Out walked Voltroid and a pair of Trojan robots, the signature mechanical mercenaries of CHESS (Criminal Headquarters for Evil Sabotage and Savoir-faire). The heroes are now second level, but this was no easy battle.

CHESS was last heard from several years ago, when the mind-controlling villain called Rook seized control of then-President Homer Grimsby, turning him into a de facto operative of CHESS. The mysterious vigilante-archer known as Diana exposed the conspiracy at that time and assassinated Rook. Afterward, vice-president Alexandria Huntington became Commander-in-Chief.

Mike wrote on May 16^th, 2010 at 9:23pm:


Session Six: With some hard-earned Inventing Points, the heroes managed to recreate the energy portal the droids had used, and trace its location to a spaceship camouflaged within the asteroid belt.

On board, were four villains who had been trained by the Rook: the square-jawed Conductor, Hummingbird, Katana, and Powerpath. This assortment of foes got really pissed when one of the heroes called them "the Rookies."

Accompanying the villains was Alexander Tissaveerasinghe. "Lex" (as the heroes called him) was a future descendant of the Rook who brought his Aristotle starship back through time to use as the secret headquarters for CHESS.

After the fight, the heroes re-opened the energy portal to bring the captured villains back with them to Earth when ... something suddenly came up ...

To be continued!

Mike wrote on May 30^th, 2010 at 8:16pm:


That's a cool way to introduce a grizzled veteran into a campaign.  Well done, Mike!   

Here are some world-building decisions in place for the campaign.

For the time being, the heroes are staying active in the States. But to prevent the world from being Americentric, we're basically saying that some of the heroes listed in modules/adventures have been active as villains in other part of the Reverse World game. This doesn't mean the heroes will encounter these characters, though. For some of them we don't even have stats.

Devil's Domain: Gravitron (a hero referenced in the module) was a villain in the Russia of our campaign.

Great Iridium Con: The Ring of Saturn, including Epsilon and possibly Serena (heroes in the module) may have been active as villains in Reverse Europe.

This Empress Earth: The team of Canadian heroes in this magazine adventure may have been Canadian villains.

Search for the Sensei: Shiro Kenogoki and Rising Star may have been active in Japan as Reverse Wrold villains.

Some of the heroes from the modules or magazine articles definitely won't exist--either because they don't fit well into the campaign or because I persoanlly don't like them no matter what side of the law theyre on.

I could post some more world-building notes down the road if anyone would like.

Hammer wrote on May 31^st, 2010 at 10:26am:

We've decided not to use them.

Majestic wrote on May 30^th, 2010 at 8:28pm:

The new guy might not bee too girzzled--just established.

Session Eight (actually another solo-hero session) adapted Battle Above the Earth.

The National Inquisitor Newspaper offered to donate $5000 to charity if the new hero in 1933 agreed to investigate the legendary Wisconsin Lizard Man! Instead of the alien invasion described in the module, the hero went face to face with the real creature (from the optional encounter in the module).

Gamewise this was a good choice because a) the Lizard Man is more than 500 years old and would have been around in 1933, b) the Lizard Man is Neutral, and disinclined to kill the hero (like evil Garotte), c) for the rest of the campaign (set in the present) we're using the current tabloid office from the FGU pdf, and d) we have absolutely no plans to use the rest of Battle Above the Earth. The only extraterrestrials who are definitely in the gameworld are the Greys from Dave and Stacy's tabloid office pdf.

Defeating Garotte, Lizard Man, and earning the charitable money takes the world's first hero to 2nd level. We're not running any more solo stories. He's coming to the present to join the established campaign.

Pre-Emptive Strike, the last module adapted for our group, made reference to a heroic, dimension-traveling magician named Mythryl. Some of the players have long wanted a D&D vs. V&V crossover, so I turned Mythryl into a classic D&D wizard who decided to come to the V&V universe because it's a lot less fatal here (with the addition of power points)!

Using V&V rules I randomly rolled his level and stats, then raised his abilities following V&V rules.

Because classic D&D characters have the starting equivalent of a 10 to-hit base (instead of 5 in V&V), I rule that D&D characters have Heightenened Expertise with approved weapons.

Because he ended up with 7 Hit Points in V&V, and at 15th level D&D would give him 11 + 4 Hit Dice, I gave him Willpower B: + 10d4 Hit Points (which turned out to be +25)

MYTHRYL
Sex: Male
Side: Evil (Chaotic Evil in D&D)
Level: 15
Training: Agility

Powers:
1. Heightened Expertise: +4 to hit with daggers.

2. Willpower B: +25 Hit Points

3. Magical Spells (variation): 5 first-level spells, 5 second-level spells, 5 third-level spells, 5 fourth-level spells, 5 fifth-level spells, 3 sixth-level spells, 1 seventh-level spell. Spells function as they do in D&D; opponents make D&D saving throws as Fighters when applicable.

4. Special Requirement: Mythryl must spend one hour each day memorizing his spells before he can recast them.

Weight: 100 lbs.,
Basic Hits: 2
Agility Mod. +2

Strength: 10 (raised from 7)
Endurance: 18 (raised from 17)
Agility: 14 (raised from 9)
Intelligence: 15 (raised from 10)
Charisma: 15 (raised from 12)

Hit Points (7): 32
Power: 57

Origin: (Extra-Dimensional) Mysticism, Scholar. Fluent in gnome, goblin, halfling, salamander, and common tongue.

Common tongue in Mythryl's dimension is equivalent to the Old English heard in American movies. I randomly rolled the other languages from the chart published in the original Dungeon Master's Guide.

The Broyko back story is true genius.  I love it!  This is a very special campaign you have going.

Cougar and Hammer, thanks for the kind words. The next adventure is going to use a great idea from the Tabloid pdf on FGU's site.

One of our PCs is from the Prohibition Era and got his powers by drinking a secret serum (think Hourman or Captain America).

Now, 77 years later, townsfolk have found a not-quite-right backup supply of the super formula, and started drinking, with super-powered results ...

This will leave the hero team up against the Moonshine Mutants, a randomly generated horde of intoxicated super-opponents!

Majestic wrote on Jun 12^th, 2010 at 2:51pm:


Thanks, Majestic. To jump ahead, I've decided that the Moonshine Mutants will keep their powers only for short periods of time (even though the original hero's powers are permanent). That faux-beer went unpredictably stale after all these years! This will treat Session Ten as the day a town got drunk with super powers rather than a way to introduce another super-team.

But with several batches of super-villains in custody since our Reverse campaign started this spring, it's time to formalize that Wonder County Penitentiary from the back of the rulebook is open. The warden at the super-security prision is Frank Streeter (developer of the prototype FIST armor). Of all the Crushers from the classic Crusader module, FIST was the best fit to revamp into this role.

FIST stays at the prison at all times--he doesn't go on adventures.