Heroic Dilemma: Help Us!

Meta Info:

Mutants and Masterminds, PL 6, Pulp-style game. Set in 1934.

Characters (there's a lot of them):
[sblock]Tarot - Gypsy mystic that derives her power from items corresponding to the Tarot deck. She can control and manipulate the mental capacities of her foes.

Sgt. Signal - Military man with the ability to "tune in" to radio frequencies mentally. He's got a lot of skill with technology, as well.

The Collector - A robot that can remove his limbs, teleport, and open portals. His name says it all: he's a creation developed to collect items of great power and bring them back to the organization he works for. Also - he's got a quirky sense of humor.

Ace Avero - All-too-passionate military man with a strong sense of duty and responsibility. He's a flyer and a plasma blaster.

Son of Rasputin - A healer and mentalist - his words alone are enough to make masses of foes flee in terror and confusion.

Roulette - A super strong woman that seems to be blessed by the Fates. She's just so damned lucky.

The Escapist - A magician of sorts. He can twist the minds of his enemies, telekenitically manipulate the world around him, and - obviously - escape from any predicament.[/sblock]


Campaign Info:

War of the World-type aliens invade in 1934. They are a sort of hive-like super force that interact biologically with their ships and walkers. Rarely do they imerge from their metal crafts.

Their invasion is devistating. Within hours, they destroy most of the world's major cities.

Our heroes are approached, while fighting to save President Roosevelt, General MacArthur, and the few remaining members of the Department of War, are rescued by Dr. Tesla and transported to his underground lair... somewhere.

It is here that they learn that some 37 years ago an alien ship crashed near Aurora, TX. Since then, Tesla and a number of scientists have been preparing for this attack. As they experimented on the craft and the three aliens they found within the ship, they discovered that the aliens were likely alive upon impact. Not until the aliens stepped onto Earth's terrain did they perish.

It became obvious that the aliens have a startling weakness: common human illnesses - such as the cold - are deadly.

Tesla believes that the only way to save the world is, essentially, to step inside his "Chronobridge" and agelessly sleep away the next 70 years. To stay and fight is to assure the destruction of the entire human race.

Tarot, with her ability to see the future, explored the two possible paths.

If the party stays to fight, they will almost inevitably have to team up with the Germans. After years of fighting, there will be a few "free" human settlements... none of which will possess the ability to overcome the Alien overlords.

... and they'll have to team up with THE GERMANS. And that presents a lot of problems.

If the party goes with Tesla's plan and Rip Van Winkles themselves into the future, the alien forces will have enslaved almost all of the Earth's population, but they are obviously weaker and it maybe possible to defeat them.


The Decision:

So. Do we live free or die? Or do we sleep away the next 70 years while humanity is enslaved in order to defeat the horrible Alien foe?
 

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I'm no historian (actually, I really, really hate history), but a I did a very brief bit of research on Wikipedia... and as far as I can tell, there's no reason for your characters to be so vehemently against working with the Germans. World War I is almost 20 years in the past, Hitler's just coming into power in 1934, and while the seeds of the holocaust are already there, it has not yet begun. I'd tend to think that an alien invasion destroying the world's major cities would unite humanity against a common foe and prevent the holocaust and the German atrocities of WW2 from occurring in the first place, but maybe I'm being a bit optimistic. Actually, if I were running the game I'd probably put the nazis in league with the invaders, but that's because Nazis make such great villains... but I digress.

All that said, I'd recommend going to sleep if it's what you think the GM wants. If that's what he's looking forward to, then chances are he's got better, more fun material planned for that.
 


Note however that the vision of the future might show what appears to be emergent Nazi tendencies that work with the aliens. Sounds like future travel is the way to go. Neat background.
 

How does Tarot's future sight work? Are the two visions she had fixed? Is it sure that they will have no chance after only a few years of fighting? Can't they just go out and promote a clandestine campaign wiping used tissues on doorknobs and telephones and generally promote sickness among the humans?

If there is no way to win, then I guess the future is the way to go. If the future is changeable and the party's actions could be the difference, then I think letting the human population suffer for 70 years while jumping to the future when the aliens will be easier to defeat is the cowards way to go.
 

Tarot's visions aren't FOR SURE. They're POSSIBLE futures.

The problem with the bio-war is that the aliens pretty much stay in their less-vulnerable shells because, it would seem, they are aware of their weakness. Smart little buggers, they are.
 

I'd first make sure the GM is really open to you staying in the present. Of course, a good GM will try to be open to anything, but if he's done a lot of work already on the "future" plotline, it would be a shame for that to go to waste.

That said, as far as an interesting story goes, staying in your present sounds like it would be a lot more drama; a lot more humans to interact with, and the conflict with working with the Germans could be a lot of fun (for some gamers).

Purely as "what should our PCs want to do here"... hmmmm. Are you the only heroes in existance? The best solution would be to do both; send some heroes into the future and some stay behind to try to win the war now. Preferably, one group or the other would be NPCs, of course.

Most heroes I've played would trust in his own powers to solve the problem now, than trust a scientist or precog to be right that it can only be won in the future. Is there some time constraint? Couldn't you fight the war now, and if things get desperate, then do the time travel bit?
 

That's an excellent point, Telsar... there's not a lot stopping us from TRYING to fight and then, if necessary, giving up and heading to THE FUTURE.

Of course, right now, some of the players would argue that we've reached that point already. The foes are simply too strong... it takes the might of our entire group of supers to bring down a single scout craft. So I can't imagine how hard it would be to try to take on some of their more combat-tastic ships.

At current, the characters don't have any indication that there are any other supers in the world. As a player, I'm almost certain that there must be some SOMEWHERE...
 

I'm not quite understanding the dilemma... Tesla believes that in 70 years, earth viruses will have weakened the overlords sufficiently to launch a successful counterattack? While giving them time to completely entrench themselves, and possibly discover and address this weakness? Even if this is so, surely such a theoretical future counterattack could only be aided by 70 years of resistance activity? The prophecy doesn't make a lot of sense to me either - many human settlements working towards a goal for 70 years will be incapable of a task that a small group will be able to while letting the enemy get nice and comfy? Is Tarot confirmed as dependable that far out? Are the PCs assuming they are the last superhumans the world will ever see?

I might be being unnecessarily harsh on fictional characters (not out of the question) but the main reason for the sleep plan I can see is ego, mostly on Tesla's part - perhaps he considers himself more qualified to make the "final" attack than any future individual ever could be, so he MUST be there at the crucial juncture rather than laying the tedious groundwork for a group that could eventually get all the glory and see the happy ending finish the job.

Honestly, I would choose both. Let Tesla and those who either feel their talents are best suited for a direct assault or just can't cope with working with people of a nation they were at war with go to sleep, and let those who wish to keep a flame alive stay awake laying the groundwork for a resistance which will be there waiting with 70 year worth of intel on the current world structure when the others wake up. The players of the latter group make new PCs who have spent their whole lives in resistance hearing garbled tales of a prophecised future battle and the heroes from the past who will emerge to wage it, and the game restarts with them digging out the Chronobridge which the "staying" PCs had buried to keep the others safe and introducing themselves to the older group.

(And make one of the new PCs a German. :p )

(beaten to most of this by others while typing slowly. :o )
 

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