caeman

I have done a glancing readng over the book. That is my usual habit...then I go back and do a more thorough reading.

I have pet peeve witht his book...the use of the word aether. Sorry, but I hate the word as I believe it has been over-used.

Other than, the book has a beautiful layout, is easy to read, and general a very pleasant book. Now, don't be insulted if I go through the entirey of the book and redact out every reference to aether.

Okay, Agents of the Crown is now in my possession. Creatures, too, but that one was an impulse buy.

It is now on its way to my door.

Oh, well now. This certainly has some possibility.

caeman - have you seen Scott Pyle's new monograph: Agents of the Crown? It sounds perfect for your campaign.

Never heard of it. I readily admit that I don't follow the comic book scene, so that this is new to me should surprise no one.

Subscribed and available to play test with my Sunday night crew if needed.

I assume it's the "Late Doctor Nathaniel Jones".

No, Dr. Jones is well-alive, and will be for at least the first 5 minutes of the adventure. :innocent: Now, should the players fail... >:->

Friday, May 2, 1890

The Royal Conservatory is eager to open their most recent exhibit for the elite of London. Set to be unveiled is the latest mummy to be found in Egypt. The most recent finding was at a dig sponsored Lord Alfred Hennyworth of that entrepid explorer Doctor Nathaniel Jones. A viewing of the mummy in its sarcophagus and its vast treasure will be opened Saturday to guest list filled with dukes, duchesses and yours truly.

-Herald Rames

Sunday, April 27, 1890

The city of London was shocked on the late evening of April 26 to its streets over-run with dinosaurs! Several late-night Londoners described a creature of most horrible attributes, with teeth as long as knives and claws the size of person's head. The heroes of London swept in to protect the revelers from this foul creature. Once again, the city of London owes this brave band of men a debt of gratitude.

-Herald Rames

Mr. Rames like to exaggerate at times, since it sells more newspapers.

HbG #3, A Rift In Time, is in the books. The heroes managed to defeat or scare back through the time doorway every last dino. I played fast and loose with what dinos actually may have lived at the same time as each other to keep the fun factor up.

#4 (Amun Ra), #5 (Mechanical Monsters) and #6 (Under the Full Moon) are up next. I have loose plot ideas for up to 8 adventures ahead of time usually.

Adventure #4 will have to involve zombies, or something similar to zombies. My group has a tradition of any genre we play in, somehow, there is a zombie adventure.

I am thinking an Egyptian mummy is going to come back to life and zombify masses of Londoners for his legion of followers.

Never heard of it. When it comes to comic books, I am illiterate. Though I love the superhero genre, I've read next to nothing in the way of comic books. I do have a small collection of Batman, though. Just no one else.

I will check out this Ruse thing you write about.

Adventure #3 is now ready for my group. After much though for a more-action-less-investigation adventure, I have settled on a plot.

"Dr. Julius Bernes is a brilliant scientist, but lacks common sense. In his zeal to study time, and then create a time doorway, he fails to think through the ramifications of his actions."

Dinosaurs in London. >:->

How will the heroes close the stuck-open time doorway? Will the city of London be over-run by dinosaurs?

Look out for the next newsprint article from Reporter Herald Rames to find out!

I am finding part of my adventure planning to avoid too blatant of name rip-offs. I used Fagan, but I suppose his name is now in the public domain.

Here is the setup of the tunnel lair of the Jester that was going to blow up the circus and the many people above.

The tunnel was about 100 feet long, what might have been a subway station, but one end was collapsed. Along each side were 5 large piles of gun powder. Above each was a vile of nitro, on a hook, attached to a rope, which was attached to a long rope at the center of the tunnel ceiling. It was fuse cord. As the fuse burned downed the length of the tunnel, the attached rope would be released, which allowed the nitro to fall and set off the gun powder.

There were player throwing themselves underneath torches that were being thrown at the gun powder. My gadgeteer pulled out his multi-use pistol and shot a 'water balloon' to dowse one almost-fire.

The funniest flub of the night was Dr. Sym rolling a 100 on his super jump. He was going to flying-tackle the jester. He ended up hitting the ceiling and falling down in the midst of 6 attackers.

Low ceiling!

Completed part 2 of Adventure #2 tonight.

My third player, absent from the first part of this game, was introduced into the game at the scene of the Jester trying to blow up a bank that the Jest used to work for -- before he went completely insane.

The guys never did track the clue that would have sent them to Finsbury Sanitarium, but then did figure out successfully that the Jester has purchased 2000 lbs of gun powder and that he was probably storing it in a disused subway tunnel segment running under the London Circus.

The 3 heroes subdued several of the thugs, but the others ran, as the Jester and Dr. Sym fought it out, including one attempt by the Jester to throw a torch at a pile of gun powder. Ultimately, though, the Jester was defeated when Otori (the Ninja) slashed the Jester across the gut. He would succumb to his wound. Hundreds of people were saved and the city of London once again owes the Heroes of London a debt of gratitude.

The Jester was pronounced "dead" at the scene. Several thugs arrested.

>:->

The end.

Part 2 of "Crying on the Inside" will have to wait for two Sundays from now.

HbG #3 is going to be more action oriented. #2 is a little lacking in action, so I want to give the players a chance to stretch their powers. I think the time has come for an Egyptian mummy to rise up in London.

The Jester is insane. He went insane a few years ago, after an accident at the circus due to a head injury. He spent every waking hour working on his physique and skills and escaped. Now, he is seeking revenge on all his past employers, including the circus. He blames them for making him insane. Because, that is what insane villains do.

If the players catch on to the clue about the Jester talking to himself and acting crazy, they will check out the local insanitarium and learn lots about The Jester.

The climax of this symphony of insanity will be the destruction of the London Circus itself! Explosions, bombs, fireworks...ah, the fire, it lights up the night sky so well. Don't you agree, my dear HEROES of London? >:->

Okay, ran part 1 of HbG#2 Sunday night. The game start was slowed down a tad due to my gadgeteer needing to finish his character.

Dr. Sym and Weatherby investigated the scene at Admiral Tombaughm's estate and found a piece of the bomb bag the Jester threw. "PRO RT F T LO CIR " was written in a circle on a swatch of the cloth. I threw hints at the players that the Jester was talking to himself a lot during the heist, that he used to work for the Admiral 5 years ago. They did catch on to the clue of the circus and think they have spotted the Jester. But, when they went back to the evening big top show, the jester wasn't there. He was out robbing Brooks Savings. The circus owner commented that he thought the man in question seemed familiar from having worked at the circus 2 years ago.

There is a reason to this treason and a rhyme to his crime. Will the players discover the Jester's grand plan before he blows the top off the circus?

Any more update, caeman?

Game #2 has been scheduled for the 15th. One of the guys had an idea for CoC that they just HAD to run, an adventure called Murder of Crows.

And then comes in the alien mindset of not understanding a species as 'primitive' as Humans. I don't want my aliens to just be humans in rubber suits. According to their thinking, we would be willing soldiers in their fight and not question things, because of our perceived primitiveness.

So, eventually, the humans may join the war because the Big Threat will eventually find Earth, but what humans do with the galaxy after that would be up to them.

But, that is progressing too far to really predict. I don't know if I have the chops to pull of such a long-span campaign and keep the end goal coherent.

One of the premises I am approaching this idea from is that the aliens had been living in peace for a long time. They had evolved their species through technology and genetic manipulation to the extent they were at a dead end. They had lost their ability to improve anymore and are trying to cling to their existence. They didn't become god-like beings of pure energy. Through their genetic folly, they made their species impotent of power.

Enter the humans. Untouched. Pure. And ripe for the picking.

The ultra-powerful threat is only ultra-powerful because the aliens don't have the power to fight a war, at least one with the weapons they know how to make, the new enemy is immune to them.

So, kids born after the raining down of nanites via meteorites begin developing power upon puberty. 1 in 10 kids. All over the world. This sort of change in humans would have a rather disturbing end result in some places, and maybe a happy result in others.

Phase 1 - uplift the humans

Phase 2 - make contact

Phase 3 - begin the war

When Phase 2 begins, I imagine the humans may not be as pleased with why the changes happened as the aliens had hoped.

Aliens: "But, we gave you vast power!"

Humans: "But, it happened too fast! Look at our economies!"

The teaser I just sent my players for game #2 of Heroes by Gaslight.

Sunday, April 20th, 1890

A new villainous brigand has struck the city of London! A mad man calling himself "The Jester" ,and dressed in like manner, entered a grand gala held at the resident of Admiral Tombaughm. Everyone who was anyone -- including this reporter -- were in attendance, but what a day to be on the A-list of the social ladder. This mad Jester and his gang of thugs -- all of whom were wearing comedy or tragedy masks -- proceeded to relieve the guests of their jewelry and money purses. As a parting "gift", as the Jester called it, he tossed a lit stick of dynamite into the ball room! No one was killed, but many were injured by the blast. Many thousands of pounds of valuable jewelry were stolen that night. This Jester is surely a bold thief to have committed this crime. Will the heroes from the fortnight ago rise to the challenge and stop this mad scheme as well?

-Herald Rames

Game #1 of Heroes by Gaslight is in the books. Fagan's Game saw the introduction of three super villains: Fagan, Brick and Pinache.

The heroes in the game are Dr. Ian Sym (accident in a lab gave him ape-like features) and Otori Kimoto (super martial arts).

Fagan is a fire wielder (3 levels), creating jets of fire from his hands. Brick has a 40 STR and Armor-like skin, but not much intelligence. Pinache has super-skill with a sword and is very acrobatic. He also has a major attitude because he is French, and believes himself superior to the English. I had fun taunting the heroes during the game with him.

In game #1, Fagan had begun organizing the street urchins of the city into a gang of crime. Their latest crime involved a bank robbery and the death of a constable. The heroes, following a constable report that kids were involved correctly presumed that following some street urchins might give them some clues, and it did. They eventually found a secret entrance and entered the lair of Fagan and his street urchin thieves. A big fight later, the shuttered-factory location is on fire. Brick manages to connect a punch onto Otori, sending him flying and unconscious across the room (and with a broken rib or two). Sym, now outnumbered, flees with Otori. The damage was done, though. Fagan, Brick and Pinache escaped, but the thievery ring is thoroughly busted. The three are now wanted for a laundry list of crimes by the constables. Scotland Yard has taken a keen interest in this and will following up with the heroes.

Dr. Sym, due to his appear, does not have a secret identity, but it is not widely known. The police know. Otori is completely secret. I am going for an X-men feel for the game. The levels of power are not huge. The presence of these heroes is tolerated and appreciated by the constables. The public knowledge of them is hearsay and rumor, the stuff of tabloids.

The bad british accents were out in force in this game. It was fun to run and the players had fun playing.

I LOVED Voltron as a kid. The lions were my favorite.

I had an idea come to mind and thought I might bounce if off of people

smarter than I when it comes to world creation. Um, that would be you

guys. Stop turning around to look behind you.

Here is the paragraph from my notebook:

Aliens have come to Earth and found humans to be primitive, at best,

by their standards. They have decided to use us in the upcoming

galactic war by 'uplifting' us to a higher level more quickly than

evolution was permitting. The aliens unleashed a vast cloud of

nanites across the entire globe. These nanites would invade our

bodies and change us, giving 1 in 10 people supernatural powers.

So, that is the basic concept. Super powers come to Earth as a result

of aliens manipulating us for some greater purpose. That aspect would

come in to play later in the game. The first phase of the game would

be a planet that is suddenly changed and has to cope with millions of

supers. How would the different governments respond? How would the

world's religions respond? How would the common man respond,

especially those not changed by the nanites? What effect on the world

economy would this change have? Medicine? Technology?

I have much to think about. Feel free to offer up thoughts