Home Game Notes and Summaries

Started the game...FINALLY
After incredible delays - including a rather extended Call of Cthulhu campaign, at the end of which, all PCs but one were rendered insane, which marks it, for me, as a good Lovecraft-faithful conclusion - we've put together our first ICONS game, which turned out to be a lot more involved than I thought. Picking the extras and the limits, putting the qualities in place, trying to decide what they mean...as I told the players, this game (and Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures, which shares many of the same game-engine components) is part of what I consider the first iteration of the post-d20 generation: Moving away from statting out characters, situations and all game elements to the point where human interaction is a secondary consideration, and possibly no more than an irritant; it's all about the numbers. ICONS is, I believe, something where players and GM must cooperate and see each other as equal partners in storytelling and story construction.

Anyway, all that stated, the first run-through (which was simply an adaptation of the two sample-scraps given in the AE book, put into a Stark City location), ended up going fairly smoothly - the only real pull-back was looking up what specific extras did, how to rules-lawyer particular points, and my having to put the GM boot down occasionally and say, "This is what happens." Despite the difficulties, things managed to go pretty darn well, and we're doing another "four-page backup" tonight before getting the whole gang together next week to try out "The Skeletron Key". Hoping to hear from others who are getting games going in the current misery (thank God above for Zoom), and looking forward to more communications and books from Steve Kenson and Dan Houser, among others.

--Black Talon (talk) 11:57, 13 February 2021 (EST)

And the game is ON
Like Charlton Heston says at the end of Planet of the Apes, "We finally, really did it..."

Our first official issue opened up on Saturday evening. Rather than playing through "The Skeletron Key", as I indicated here previously and which I do intend to use in the not-too-distant future, I put together a game that I tried to arrange as an introduction for the players into ICONS as a whole and Stark City in particular. Most significantly, I've informed the players that Stark City's history and personalities are largely by-the-book; the big change is that the Gloriana Invasion of '72 has been replaced with the Terminus Invasion of '93 (ripped off of from Mutants & Masterminds, another Steve Kenson work; I don't think he'd mind), which resulted in pretty much all superheroes leaving the planet to hunt the monster down in the Terminus; they never returned, but neither did Omega. Hence, Stark City has been largely without metahuman heroes for nearly twenty-eight years. Playing off of first-thing-I-thought-of tropes, I used the rather tasteless and offensive idiocies of QAnon as the roots for a conspiracy-story involving interactions with the SCPD and Capt. Jesus Ramirez, reporting staff from WSKC and The Siren (Carmen Burana; I used a picture of Emily Rickards for her and have no regrets whatsoever), meeting up with Crepes of Wrath owner Paul Krevitz, aka the Wrathmaster, and Knightley Community Center manager Frank Stargell, and even managed to get a few interactions with The Midnight Angel. Not to blow awaiting secrets, just on the possibility that one of the players might check out this site and read up on what's happening, but we ended up running out of game time just as the gang was about to get to the Big Final Scrap.

Difficulties involved the continual research on "What does this power do/How do maneuvers and stunts work again/Can I try x,y or z with this power...?" slowing things down, as well as my general unfamiliarity with ICONS from an operational perspective. To offer another quote, this time from Dr. Leonard McCoy, "Oh, I've studied the anatomical types, I know where all the organs are...but that's very different from actual surgical experience." I also didn't utilize villains' qualities nearly enough and didn't encourage the PCs to use theirs. Lower damage-dealing heroes ended up being little more than supporting cast in the game's penultimate scrap. All this is going to be addressed as we start getting ready for March 6, which is when we reconvene to close the issue off.

Despite whatever difficulties we encountered, the point is that the entire gang felt the game, and the game engine and system, was a very positive experience. This game cleared up a number of difficulties we've encountered in other systems, and opened up door for player invention that doesn't get used very much in several notable game systems. Overall, we have nothing but positive reviews to give ICONS, and look forward to enjoying the heck out of this for some time to come. To Mr. Kenson and Mr. Houser, first among equals in this circumstance: Thank you.

--Black Talon (talk) 02:20, 23 February 2021 (EST)

The Apocalypse approaches...and it's looking not bad
Was kind of hoping that this could make it onto the MeWe site as well, but this certainly falls into the "More than good enough" category. I just want to make clear how much I raise the fist of approval and give thanks to Mr. Kenson and all those involved in the crafting and detailing of ICONS, and what it's given us - and gave us last night.

We've been running our first "issue-arc" for the past near-half-year, with unpleasant but unavoidable breaks brought in by family issues, personal requirements (professional and otherwise), and of course the games being conducted on Zoom because of the ongoing pandemic. Last night represented our first chance since last September to get together and actually meet around the table (in the backyard, true), and throw real as opposed to virtual dice.

One of the difficulties I've worked with, over the course of the story-arc, is finding villains of strong enough a nature to pose a real threat to the PCs, and to be familiar enough with, and utilize, the game engine to full effect. We've had more than a couple of scraps where the PCs basically did the Steve-Rogers-at-the-punching-bag routine on the bad guys (we've exchanged pictures of guys in full-body-cast traction wards exchanging stories about which of the Midnight Men did them the nasty), and I wanted - in what was going to be likely the penultimate confrontation - to have something that would stand out for the PCs...even if it ended in defeat for them.

For this scrap, I utilized the samples given at the back of the AE book and took Ultra-Mind, Speed Demon, Troll and Warbride as mercenaries working for Dirge as he - or it, really - was readying a final ritual (which involves the sacrifice of a gifted child) to bring Shigg (aka Cthulhu) back to this reality. The scrap was damn, damn tight - the PCs took more hits, and more Stamina damage, than ever before, and were using multiple Qualities to gain advantages, and Determination Points wherever they could find them to even, or tip, the odds. The players all showed unprecedented invention and resourcefulness in using game rules, options and tactics, especially in the most desperate moments, and this required that I do the same for the bad guys. The night brought to mind a V&V scrap from decades ago where we, as a team, fought Leo the Lion...and the single scrap took the entire night. We had something similar here, and I'll just conclude by saying that the PCs had taken out Ultra-Mind and Speed Demon, and were one lick away from putting Warbride down, when the last of them was taken out. In fact, if it hadn't been for a lousy initiative roll (we do a page-by-page recalculation rather than sticking with a single progression order for the entire fight), Our Gang would almost certainly have taken her out too. What they would have done about Troll is another question...but the point being that he would have been (and was, pretty much) the sole survivor in the villains' numbers. We started the game at just before 7:00 p.m. - we had planned to finish at 10:45, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to end it before we knew what the PCs' final outcome was...and we ended after midnight. None of us regret the extra time spent.

As we now move into what will be the last half of our final issue in the arc (call it a giant-size special), the PCs are now in an extra-dimensional castle's dungeon, with the gifted child in a cell next to theirs. What happens next will determine the fate of a universe...and whether a child lives or is used as the sacrificial key to bring a reality-ending monster/deity through the door to our own. Again, Mr. Kenson, Mr. Houser, and all others who have made this game what it is...all our past, present and ongoing thanks.

--Black Talon (talk) 12:48, 13 June 2021 (EDT)

Honestly I disagree that this is good enough, seriously, more people should be seeing this, so if you're amenable I would like to post it for you on MeWe's ICONS group, and keep "Black Talon's Game Thread" going until you get a functioning account going there. And regarding THAT, I would like to create one on my end and turn it over to you. If that doesn't work then there's something extra suspicious going on.

Short of that, then at the very least, this needs to have its own page here, not buried at the very end of this discussion page.

--Blue Lightning (talk) 13:46, 13 June 2021 (EDT)

Heh. Blue Lightning, thank you for the (very rapid!) reply; when I first saw the words, "Honestly I disagree that this is good enough..." I thought this was going to be some major thumbs-down, give-it-the-raspberry criticism on how badly the game had been run ("With Qualities and Determination Points, you couldn't have been more wrong if your fanny was on backwards."), but am very happy to have the opportunity to have our experiences brought to a venue with a somewhat larger audience. I graciously accept your offer to start up "Black Talon's Game Thread" on MeWe (I'll take a look for it today!) so that my - and others, including yours - game plans and game sessions can be brought in for mutual appreciation and encouraged theft of ideas. I'll keep knocking on MeWe's door and hopefully we can get that French guy with the outrageous accent to finally open the castle gate and skip the cattle being catapulted onto our crew. There were a couple of points re the game that would have taken up more space than I'd have been comfortable with at the moment (e.g., quickly: one player, character being Dr. Midnight, Gimmick origin, has almost always played Paragon-types and has just seemed to open a Horn o' Plenty of imagination and resourcefulness with his new role, and how this one individual almost turned the tide in the last stage of the scrap; and he very well might have if not for a crap initiative roll), and I would love the opportunity - whether through direct submission or using a bit of relay hand-off, as you mentioned - to tell, and re-tell, how these games become something we talk about and remember for years to come.

--Black Talon (talk) 15:29, 13 June 2021 (EDT)

House Rule for Ability Boost
A recurring challenge I encountered in converting various DC and Marvel characters to ICONS was that for many, their power levels probably exceeded 10, especially with conversions from DC Heroes by Mayfair Games that used its exponential MEGS scale. My work around was having an Ability Boost power for those types of characters with a limit being that it could only be for specific power(s) to replicate actions like Superman pushing his strength to god-like levels or Iron Man having JARVIS redirecting all power to his unibeam for a mega-blast.

Naturally, the challenge that follows is preventing overuse of that power that would throw off overall game balance. After reflecting on my previous campaign and some play testing, here's a quick snapshot of the house rules I developed for refining this work around better:

1) Ability Boost may allow a character's ability or power to exceed 10 for that action or attack.

2) Once a player declares using Ability Boost, it takes one panel before it occurs. This replicates the heroic character powering up or saving up his or her strength before that action.

3) After the player completes the action, he or she cannot use Ability Boost again until at least the same number of pages as the Ability Boost power level occurs.

For example, the hero Omnicron has a Blast power level 7 with an Ability Boost of 4. He's slugging it out with an epic villain, Death Incarnate, and in an act of both heroism and desperation, redirects his reserve power (Ability Boost) in his armor into his blast and takes evasive action while his suit powers up everything to his weapon systems. A panel later, he fires and hits Death Incarnate with a Blast that is now level 11. Omnicron sees some success in finally penetrating Death Incarnate's defenses and wants to do it again, but has to wait at least four pages to have passed before he can do it. --Fdw3773 (talk) 19:32, 20 June 2021 (EDT)

I like this set-up very much, Fdw3773, and I'm probably going to institute it for our next game on July 10, when The Boys (referred to colloquially as The Midnight Men) take on Dirge, with his mercenary punks Speed Demon, Ultra-Mind, Troll and Warbride in a battle to save not just Stark City, but the world (and possibly this entire dimension) from being overwhelmed with the incalculable darkness and reality-annihilating power of Shigg (aka Cthulhu). Just as a quick point: Is this "Death Incarnate" you refer to any relation to the super-villain who shows up on page 32 of the V&V second edition softcover core book? If so, may I ask how you've statted him out? During the golden hours of our misspent yout', we spent a considerable space of time trying to figure out exactly how tough that guy was, and what his powers were. No, our ruminations on such did not achieve us a CEO position at Dupont Chemical in our maturity, but it's something we still consider as a worthy goal.

In any event, all thanks for the house-rule proposition, and looking forward to a response on the Death Incarnate question. (And that's Death as in existential being, not general concept)

--Black Talon (talk) 21:42, 21 June 2021 (EDT)

Yes, the example I gave was a "shout-out" to the first superhero RPG I ever owned and played, Villains & Vigilantes where Omnicron was a character I created for me inspired by Iron Man and yes, the Death Incarnate I referenced was the same villain illustrated in that rulebook. I didn't have the skill to create stats for him back then, and focused my energy on writing up stats for cartoon villains Metlar, Decompose, and Tendril from the show Inhumanoids who were the main antagonists in my campaign.

V&V source books were hard to come by for me growing up, and even now the ones I've come across at used book stores did not have stats for Death Incarnate. From my understanding, Death Incarnate was meant to be one of the main antagonists in that universe, so off hand, I'm thinking he's en par with Marvel's Dormammu, which may have been the inspiration behind his creation.

Expect me to create a write-up for him out of nostalgia for the V&V page featuring that universe on this forum soon. While whatever I adapt with Photoshop will never be as good as Jeff Dee's original illustration of that character, I hope that image does a proper homage. --Fdw3773 (talk) 07:11, 22 June 2021 (EDT)

To the best of my knowledge, Death Incarnate has never been statted out (and isn't that appropriate? Really?  You'd need someone/thing equally primordial in order to balance that out), and I've been relying on Noble Knight, largely, to pick up some stuff that was either a) never grabbed because we were doing the "Meh, we'll get it later," bit, or b) has fallen into a state of fall-leaves disrepair over the years. This includes some V&V material that could serve as excellent steal-it-for-the-game resources, and again, the character never seemed to make an appearance after that cameo. If I do happen to run across this NPC's write-out at some point, I'll certainly make a note of it here. Otherwise, looking forward to how - based on the bare elements given - Death Incarnate ends up being translated into ICONS terms.

A quick point: The "yout'" misspelling above was deliberate, specific to the never-to-be-forgotten My Cousin Vinnie. There's no better summation of a childhood spent in pursuit of utterly worthless (from an existential-adult perspective, anyway) disappear-in-the-mist dreams that only another child can understand, and that said existential-adults dismiss as the foolishness of "yout'", using that as a proxy for more pejorative terms. I've restored the reference to its original form.

Anyway, Fdw3773, will see you on here again soon, hopefully, with some news about how The Boys (aka The Midnight Men) turned out in their rematch with Dirge and his band of punks. Later.

--Black Talon (talk) 15:34, 22 June 2021 (EDT)

End of the arc: beginning of a campaign
Everyone: The material following is a copy/paste job from the summation I left on the MeWe ICONS forum; I hope it provides a reasonably to-the-point breakdown of what happened this weekend.

"Figured the time was right for this: Saturday, July 10, The Boys and I did our ICONS issue #4 (giant-size) wrap-up. While I won't give a play-by-play, hit-by-hit recount of the entire session - which stretched from 6:30 p.m. to 10:45 - the condensed version involves the four heroes - Dr. Midnight, Black Bolt, Gatekeeper and Masked Justice - beaten by Dirge's villains at the end of last game and locked in a medieval-style prison block, where DM and MJ were left unrestrained in their cells but with absolutely no equipment, and both GK and BB had Fantastic (9) spells on them, bringing both their respective powers down to Weak (1). To cut to the point, they did end up ultimately freeing themselves (I love it when players invoke inventiveness that I hadn't even conceived of) and went to take on Dirge before he sacrificed an eight-year old IT genius, who had been in captivity since the first issue, to Shigg in order to open a gateway - "the stars are right" - to this world. The protagonists had managed to take out Speed Demon and Ultra-Mind before and find out what the plan was, and thus faced Dirge, the Troll, and Warbride for the final scrap on a rising platform to a spire's summit, where Shigg's avatar was roaring and craving the sacrifice. The monster at the peak was exuding the same madness quality that Dirge does, only increasing in strength as they neared the top. The Boys managed to take out all three villains only three pages before the platform would have reached the pinnacle, and Shigg's avatar vanished from our existence with a frustrated, infuriated roar. The boy - Malcolm Graybridge - was returned to his overjoyed, weeping parents and the legend of The Midnight Men has been established in Stark City. I am so fricking happy that we pulled this off, and am looking forward to a couple of weeks from now when I pull out the modules and start us with Dan Houser's Rise of the Phalanx. Wishing all out there just as much fun and good times as we had with ICONS this weekend."

As a further point, I've been in contact with the gang and they all raise the fist in favour of continuing our ongoing experiment with ICONS. Will be continuing to post material regarding our ongoing sessions both here and on the MeWe site.

--Black Talon (talk) 02:39, 13 July 2021 (EDT)

As previously, doing the MeWe post quote as a quick summary of our last game:

"Just wanted to note that, once more, we had what I would call a pretty damn good ICONS night on Saturday, Aug. 21. I had decided to go with a professionally published module, rather than do self-created stuff, which is my usual modus operandi, and utilized Mr. Dan Houser's Rise of the Phalanx. Going through the rather expected customization, the setting was relocated to Stark City, and the long-vanished Phalanx is now being succeeded by the Midnight Men; hence the new self-appointed title of the arc, Midnight Rising. Nonetheless, the conflicts that were set up in the first issue, the various specialty tasks listed, and so forth, made this something where everyone got a hand in giving the bad guys What For. Grue, as a solo villain invading the Stiletto on the dark side of Mercury, gave the team some serious trouble, and it took some marked inventiveness and team sacrifices to pull him down. Very much looking forward to our next game, and thanks to both Messrs Houser and Kenson for the game they allowed us to stage last night."

Once more, really, really hoping that ICONS seriously catches on as the superhero pen-and-paper RPG of choice for the roleplaying crowd. Our next game remains unscheduled at current - pretty much all five group members have real-life stuff like families and careers to pay attention to - but the hope is to get something going by September 11 or thereabouts. Will keep the gang here apprised with both in-game and significant administrative developments.

--Black Talon (talk) 02:21, 24 August 2021 (EDT)

And ONE MORE TIME - here's the most recent copy/paste bit from the MeWe ICONS board, all relevant stuff included:

"Okay, latest from the Western front: On Sept. 11, we held our final half of the Midnight Rising (nee Rise of the Phalanx) session. The game went okay, overall, with the good guys taking some hits (serious on occasion), but managing to use the Determination Points, and team qualities (I cannot overstress how important I think those are for a group, and what an advantage and identity they create when utilized properly) to turn things around. I also can't congratulate the players enough on their sheer inventiveness when applying powers, specialties and qualities in terms of solving problem - there are a number of points where I've listened to a proposed solution to a module/GM-created problem, and just shrugged and said, "Yeah. I honestly don't see why that wouldn't work," and things move onward. The issue ended with the Midnight Men's triumphant return to Stark City and the acceptance, by both administration and population alike, that The Phalanx - vanished now these twenty-eight years - have been succeeded by a group of guys with their own distinct characters and approaches.

One thing that was stressed in the after-action report - and I agree with this entirely - is that the way I gamed out the module didn't leave a lot of room for the NPC villains to really play off characters' qualities as weaknesses and get them involved personally. This is something I'll have to amend in future games, and have decided to use the next game night (Oct. 16, as proposed) for a self-created interlude preceding issue﻿ #2﻿ of the arc. Not to give stuff away, but this one is going to deliberately play off the characters' qualities as weaknesses, and, I do trust, the players will find a way, or ways, of turning the coin over and turning weaknesses into strengths.

Once again, all thanks to Messrs Kenson and Houser for having put together a game engine that we are enjoying the heck out of, and looking forward to giving another game summary in a few weeks. Best to the gang here."

That's it for current events. If anyone else is running ICONS, I'd really like to know how the games have developed, the settings, the characters, and what sort of enemies/rogues' gallery is the GM using. Will be posting in the next bit, with - hopefully before the next game - some points on how I intend to build up a real and credible threat that strikes at the PCs' quality-festooned hearts. Till next time, best to all out there.

--Black Talon (talk) 02:41, 15 September 2021 (EDT)

Some further points: quite recently, on the aforementioned MeWe page, I was asked about The Midnight Men, our ICONS group, Stark City's first true super-team in twenty-eight years (won't go into the details unnecessarily, but Earth as a whole has pretty much been without superheroes since 1993); the questions, specifically, were about team qualities, which I find to be a highly innovative and extremely useful item. As per usual, I'm doing the copy/paste thing here below:

"Thank you very much for the expression of the curiosity, Mr. Propolis! Before I give with the list, I should note that the boys in The Midnight Men team went through...a few drafts, shall we say, before settling on the current versions (as per the Assembled Edition, I am going to allow some amendments/reconfigurations if circumstances dictate, especially in these relatively early days). Some of the original proposals fell into the outright juvenile ridiculous category (okay, yeah, we had a few laughs over those, but the, "Aw, c'mon, guys, let's get serious," line fell over them as a conviction after a while), but they did eventually push themselves to settle on the following:

1. At the Eleventh Hour, Call The Midnight Men 2. Relentless Hunters 3. Obliterate the Darkness

One thing I like about their choices is that they all (ahem, spoiler alert, if you're in the Midnight Men and happen to have come across this page) have the potential to be turned around and played on as game-impacting negatives, should someone work at doing so. In any case, that's where matters stand currently, and I'll certainly provide ongoing updates with regard to game and/or character progress. Hope to hear from others with their own experiences in the near future."

So that's the flare-in-the-sky update. Hoping we can get some people on this board to contribute as well, and get some ideas lobbed back and forth. Posting soon...

--Black Talon (talk) 00:32, 16 September 2021 (EDT)

Latest from the front
As per the usual, doing a copy/paste from the material submitted to the MeWe site, but hoped it might provide at least a degree of interest for those who encounter it here:

"Unrelated to latest posts, but just to provide an update. Our Gang got together last night for our ICONS game, meant to provide an interlude of sorts between issues one and two of Rise of the Phalanx/Midnight Rising, and which I had concocted in order to make serious play on the characters' qualities, both for good and bad effect. I will report, quite happily, that Our Gang had a very positive reaction to having personal traits played up on, and that this allowed conflicts to take on a somewhat more personal edge.

"The basic premise was that an evangelical preacher from the South-West (I used a shot of Jerry Falwell to provide identification) has come out over the last nine months since the Midnight Men's introduction, spreading the message that these individuals and their powers are a violation of God's law; the world has been empty of superheroes for the last twenty-eight years, supervillains (or a good number of them) are locked up in secure federal penitentiaries, and the world has been a quiet and better place since the Terminus Invasion ended. The preacher played up on obvious qualities, both physical and origin/conduct-oriented, to make it look like the Midnight Men were "in league with the Devil". At a rally the preacher staged in Stark City, the team were somehow identified and attacked by super-armoured goons called Purifiers (I used the basic image and power-sets for thugs of the same name and type from God Loves, Man Kills), two per PC, and the scrap took pretty much the balance of the night. It ended with the preacher scurrying from the scene and Black Bolt, a character with a very much Frankenstein's-monster appearance and bearing, grabbing him, pulling him face-to-face and saying (great play-up on the actual quality), "The monster wants to kill you...the man won't." Local, state and national media all saw the scrap, and the attitude toward the Midnight Men has become more split than ever. The game concluded with the characters doing an in-depth investigation into how the hell this preacher came into the resources to have a private army like this in the first place, and the results have been disquieting to say the least..."

Obviously, The Gang has got more to do to finish this off - and I have already started plotting out and started specifying opposing forces - so am working to try to make next session (tentatively set for Nov. 13) to have even more personal involvement. All best to the group here, and will be submitting again soon. Hope to hear from other players/GMs with their own experiences.

--Black Talon (talk) 12:46, 17 October 2021 (EDT)

Latest from the front, part II
Okay, we had our game on Saturday, November 13; following the usual pattern, the events are copied/pasted below from the entry on the MeWe ICONS page:

"After last game, the Midnight Men continued their investigation into the origins of the "Purifiers" - the battlesuited jerks who attacked them at the rally - and also into the First Kingdom Coalition, the organization behind the evangelical preacher who started all this up in Stark City to begin with. The effort involved a couple of pyramid tests - and I honestly cannot overstate the gaming/storytelling value of this mechanic, if the GM's had some time to do planning on it - and discovered that the FKC had begun at almost exactly the same time the Midnight Men first appeared. They traced its origins to a Dr. Fred Phelps (yeah, I used the name and image of the [expletive deleted] individual behind the creation of the Westboro Baptist Church, and all its acidic separatism), but also found that, aside from signing documents and video appearances, no one could recall actually meeting him. They traced the arrangement and signing of various documents to an office in Sentinels Citadel - and, to mention, in our game, where superheroes on a worldwide basis have been absent since 1993 - which has been used largely for civic business purposes. After sneaking in after hours, they managed to isolate the fact that Fred Phelps never, in fact, existed; all birth/education/employment records were put together that same nine months ago. His image had been a proxy for someone - or someones - else to begin discrediting the nascent superhero movement, exemplified by the Midnight Men.

"At that moment, a gateway opened in the office and the true founder of the FKC, Doctor Zodiac, stepped through, and he started an oration that clicked into the characters' qualities in ways that, I hoped, were played on as vulnerabilities: Black Bolt, essentially a superpowered Frankenstein's monster type, was given the image of himself as a normal man with a family and productive life; Doctor Midnight free to engage and indulge his obsessions and enjoy a life of scientific experimentation; Gatekeeper, to investigate the mysteries of the universe; and Masked Justice, able to reconcile the conflicts of his search for justice, and the fact that, with the Midnight Men, he has, on a number of occasions, killed enemies without bringing them to trial (yeah, a case could be made for justifiable homicide, but still - no official due process).

"While this was going on, they became aware that they were under psychic attack from somewhere else in the room: Madame Muse and Earworm had both been brought along as backup to attack from the psionic point of view, and Spartan, hired on as mercenary muscle, was plowing through the building in order to reach them. I'll skip the specifics of the scrap, simply to note that, while they certainly caused the Midnight Men some serious quality/character-related trouble, Doctor Zodiac and crew were taken out. I will also proclaim that a major damage-dealing experience wasn't really the goal with this issue; it was more about playing up on the characters as characters and making the qualities something that gave them life, both in positive and negative aspects, as opposed to just being essentially throwaway notes on the character sheet.

"We've decided to continue on with issue ﻿#2﻿ of Rise of the Phalanx for next game; hope this hasn't proved too overdrawn or boring, but just wanted to celebrate how we managed to turn qualities into a genuine gaming mechanic and gaming experience. We've discussed reconvening on December 18; looking forward to the gang chiming in here, and hoping to read about how things are turning out for other individuals/groups. Be in contact soon."

So that's it for current - again, really hoping that others can start putting their own experiences on here, both for entertainment and to, perhaps, rip a couple of ideas off of. Looking forward to hearing from the rest of the gang here.

--Black Talon (talk) 12:19, 16 November 2021 (EST)

And another update - nothing of real import this time; just to note that we wanted to get together this weekend, but couldn't. Also, making sure that the Miraheze activity personnel see this place is still in motion. Quoting from MeWe,

"Just to mention, I was scheduled to have our Christmas game this evening, Saturday, December 18, but one of our four players has a daughter in the hospital, doing recovery from a surgical procedure. Nothing major major, but it still requires him to be out of the picture for a while. The Gang debated it a couple of days ago and concluded that it just wasn't worth it going through as a threesome as opposed to a quartet. I heartily agree; if this was a six-member-plus group, where various powersets/specialties, and qualities, to an extent, likely overlapped, yeah, maybe. Thus, we've let matters slide at current, with looking at getting together on Jan. 8, 2022...a little hard to believe I'm even writing that. The Tyrell Corporation should be effectively running the world right now, although the environmental degradation that the movie predicted is, unarguably, in full force at this point. And it ain't just film noirish atmospheric background.

"Just to mention, am doing Rise of the Phalanx, issue #2 (retitled Midnight Rising) for this next game - I've been spending some considerable time and effort custom-tooling the narrative to have some personal (read: Qualities) impact on the players, rather than just have it turn into a superhero dungeon crawl. Am very much looking forward to Steve Kenson and Dan Houser's work continuing on ICONS in '22, and hoping we can see more input here from the superhero RPG crowd in the months to come."

So that's about it for the current calendar year - again, hoping I can be back here after the January 8, 2022 game and let people know how ICONS is evolving for our group. Best to all out there, with a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

--Black Talon (talk) 14:52, 19 December 2021 (EST)

This should probably go under "Latest from the Front, part MCMLXXIV", but just throwing this on to confirm that, yes, the gaming continues (even if in a somewhat truncated fashion due to current circumstances), and to ensure that Mirzheze has the activity it needs to confirm this sites as viable:

"It's been an overly long time since I posted here, but just to provide general updates: The Gang and I did, in fact, get together on Saturday, Jan. 8, for ICONS - the big difference here was that we'd moved back on to a Zoom format, something we hadn't done since last May. While all five of us have had both the two prescribed shots, as well as the booster, there were family members who weren't comfortable with us meeting up in person. Thus, we consigned ourselves to the online bit and did our best with it.

"This particular game involved a return to the Rise of the Phalanx module progression, beginning issue ﻿#2﻿. The Plagues, as indicated, escaped mobile custody in the prologue due to a bridge traffic accident with a gas tanker, and while it did take our entire evening - we tend to do things on a somewhat abbreviated schedule with Zoom - the scrap was concluded with The Plagues taken back into custody, and with only minor public injuries, with one exception: a driver that RedKap stabbed before the Midnight Men's arrival had CPR/First Aid performed on him by a thoughtful PC (he got a Determination Point out of it), but was unable to resuscitate the victim (as indicated by the module narrative, this was pretty much a fait accompli). I was pleased that the PCs managed to pretty much take out one villain each, using character-﻿specific maneuvers, and although the villains didn't manage to do much damage, overall (I can rationalize it by saying it was the prologue and things haven't gotten too heavy yet), the players all felt that we managed to overcome Zoom's limitations and call it an enjoyable evening. We are, at least as currently scheduled, going to be getting back together on Jan. 22 (if we're gaming for slightly shorter sessions, I'd like us to meet up a bit more often), and we'll see how The Midnight Men do in the first couple of official chapters of Rise of the Phalanx, with a hopefully somewhat more challenging opposition.

"Once more, will be back in contact within the next couple of weeks, and hope to pass on the next phase of how Our Gang deal with, at the very least, RedKap and his malignance. Hope to hear from others with their own tales to relate, and be in contact soon."

As always, inviting one and all to note their own exploits and/or debacles here (and I've got your basic truckload of both), as I - and others - would love to know what's happening. May your d6 never need a reroll,

--Black Talon (talk) 22:49, 14 January 2022 (EST)

And it's Midnight Rising...ONE MORE TIME!
Everyone,

Just to provide a quick bit of catch-up: Yes, The Boys and I did get together on Zoom for Jan. 19, and the session turned out okay, but the qualities of Zoom did end up draining us somewhat further than actual face-to-face does, and we were done after two and a half hours. Now, with things opened up a touch, we did succeed in meeting up on Saturday, February 19, for an actual sit-down, person-to-person, roll-the-dice-in-real-life game. Our session that night went on for closing on four and a half hours, the essence of which has been transcribed on MeWe, and is copied/pasted here:

"The game went, from my perspective, extraordinarily well, and I think the general outcome was assisted by the fact that everyone present made an effort to have this evening come off as well as possible. The game started off with The Midnight Men doing some in-depth research on the repurposed drones from last game, and finding out that Russia's Science City 7 was a focal point for illegal activity, including Arsenal's creation, imprisonment and ultimate escape. In short, they took on and scrapped the Patriot (who, due to some very sharp tactical thinking on the group's part, was taken out like your basic chump), and which led them to, at the city's core, taking on a somewhat disabled shell of Sigma-9, who - and this gives me some real indication as to what to put Our Gang up against for future outings - still gave them a serious hard way to go. We finished with Our Gang getting ready to head to Science City 13 for the major showdown, and after what they experienced, taking on a single handicapped super-villain, they are going to be using Determination Points by the truckload in order to get out of this one alive.

"We're next set for March 12, God willing, and am looking forward hugely to seeing how this turns out. All best to everyone here, and special thanks to Lysander Propolis [MeWe ICONS thread manager] for the continuing submissions to, and management of, this discussion board. In contact soon."

So that's it until next time, which, from my standpoint, can't come soon enough. Once more, I have to give all thanks to Messrs Kenson and Houser for the game they've put together for us, and which we get to dive into, full head-on. The whole Gang feels we have a wonderfully detailed and optioned but straight-forward engine for resolving everything from romantic escapades to life-and-death thumb-wars...wait, I mean battles to save humanity. Yeah, that's it. Hope to see all online soon,

--Black Talon (talk) 17:04, 22 February 2022 (EST)

Diamond..."the Greatest Fraud to be Discovered"
Brief input, just to ensure that Miraheze doesn't end up shutting this site down due to inactivity, and also to provide a bit of prelude to - very hopefully - our concluding game in this two-part arc. I decided to take a character swathed in mystery from ICONS: Adversaries - Diamond, specifically - and brought her in as a bit of an off-the-wall experience for the players. Our particular "world" - Fainting Goat Games' Stark City - had virtually the entire superhero population, and more than a few of the villains, leave to track Omega (ripped off directly from Steve Kenson's Freedom City) in the Terminus, where he retreated after killing The Sentinel (Superman analogue), back in '93. None have ever returned, but neither has Omega. In our game, Diamond - who left Earth with the others - returns on one of Omega's scout-ships. She proclaims that the entire meta-human population, hero and villain alike, was killed fighting Omega in the Terminus, with her as the sole survivor. It has taken her almost thirty years to learn how to repair and pilot one of Omega's craft, but she has now come back to reclaim her title as Earth's most important superhero and protector. The PC's group - The Midnight Men - were more than a little ticked off at being told by Diamond - who spoke with a clear faux regret - that they have, through Diamond's decree, been relegated to being little more than spear-carriers in her show.

After conducting some detailed investigation - and every thanks, again, to Mr. Kenson for putting together a skill system that works so cleanly, simply and thoroughly - The Midnight Men found that Diamond's ship had no indication of having gone through the kind of repairs that she had described, and, in fact, seemed to have no battle damage whatsoever. Diamond herself has given only the vaguest descriptions of how specific heroes met their end, claiming that she was "too busy fighting Omega's forces and protecting others to really determine what happened to whom." Our Gang are starting to suspect that, while Diamond may have left with the others, she quite possibly never faced Omega and his armies, choosing instead to hide while others courted almost certain death. They are working on the supposition that, rather than having made any supposed repairs to the ship, it simply took her almost three decades to make her way back after having confiscated the vessel.

The Midnight Men are now engaged in a long, detailed examination as to exactly who Diamond was before she appeared on the scene back in '85, and have found that virtually all traces that could have served as clues were erased - and that includes being killed - in the months before she appeared. The trail now appears to lead to Zimbabwe, with a particular individual named Karl McGavin who traveled there, with his girlfriend, to provide assistance through the Peace Corp, and who simply disappeared not long before Diamond arrived.

This is where things left off, and due to a number of unfortunate circumstance - including one of our guys picking up COVID, although it's been a pretty mild case, all thanks to powers above - we've been put off time and again from meeting up to bring this cliffhanger to a conclusion. We are, at least at present, scheduled for June 24, and I am very much hoping to be able to give a full (and this includes the GM module "notes") breakdown after that date.

Best to all here, and hoping very much to be in communication with everyone on this site before the game. May your d6s always roll boxcars, and looking forward to seeing activity from the rest of the gang soon.

--Black Talon (talk) 01:10, 5 June 2022 (EDT)

Sounds like you got Diamond and her motivations right.

--Blue Lightning (talk) 00:46, 8 June 2022 (EDT)

Yes, your story arc involving her is amazing! It reminds me of Amazon's series, The Boys while being consistent to what Diamond is as described in ICONS. You also have plenty of mainstream/sensationalist news media to draw from involving celebrities and/corporate leaders who present an amazing facade that in reality, hides deceit and a profound lack of substance behind the style in character portrayal. --Fdw3773 (talk) 08:57, 9 June 2022 (EDT)

And now the follow-up: First of all, thanks to that individual who broke off this topic from the "A funny thing happened over lunch recently..." thread that it was attached to previously. Secondly, we did finally have our second-part of Issue #8 last Saturday evening, and it was, I would venture to state, every bit the year-end closer we had hoped and worked for.

I do plan on doing a copy/paste of the module write-up I drafted, just for general look-over and commentary, but prior to that, I want to indicate that our games start at 6:30 p.m. and finish at 11:00. This is because all the other dudes in Our Gang have actual lives to attend to - and that includes other actual lives, meaning kids that they've got to do more than hand out the occasional birthday card to. That stated, game night went on till 12:30 a.m. - and there was no way on God's green Earth that we were calling it quits before things finished. I will state here that I cannot thank Steve Kenson and Dan Houser enough for having conceived, built and actualized (through publication and the in-game art) a superhero game system that has given us no end of enjoyment and just plain fun. Additionally, one of the players has started up a blog - which I'm going to link here - to detail our experiences with ICONS and, as will be the case, other RPGs that we decide to give a shot to. All thanks to the gang here for looking over the site entries, and very much hoping to be able to see some details on the games that others have put together so that I can rip off - ADMIRE I mean; ADMIRE - the game concepts and some of the little tricks the GMs have thrown together.

Passing on wishes for a wonderful Summer for everyone here, and will submit the full written draft in the very near future. All best,

Black Talon --142.114.121.9 18:06, 27 June 2022 (EDT)

https://howlofthehellhound.blogspot.com/

And here it is: The Midnight Men, Issue #8, the year-end blowout
What follows is pretty much a copy/paste from the entry I left on the MeWe ICONS page; on that site, I invited comment and/or criticism from those who chose to read through this (a lengthy task, admittedly), and compose some thoughts on it. Please keep in mind that our game world, while incorporating Fainting Goat Games' Stark City, is one where the superhero (and a chunk of the super-villain) population has been erased for almost thirty years (following the 1993 Terminus Invasion, which resulted in the death of our Superman analogue, the Sentinel, and a mass migration to the Terminus to wipe out Omega [shamelessly ripped off from Freedom City]), never to return.

Okay, here we go:

It's way too damn long since I last posted here, but The Gang and I have been doing ICONS stuff over the last couple months. Specifically, we were on the year-end (Issue ﻿#8)﻿, the point of which was to give the PCs a big blow-out, and to hopefully construct a game narrative that had some real suspense and investigation aspects to it, in order to utilize game engine components that didn't just involve, "Roll to-hit."

I don't know if anyone's interested, or if this is a huge time-waste on everyone's part, but I am now going to post the game-narrative that I wrote up for what turned out to be a two-part game; the second evening stretched on for six hours, a major time commitment when you consider that four of our five guys have wives, children and professional responsibilities they have to address on a daily - sometimes hourly - basis. Yes, it was Sunday morning (when we finished), but that still doesn't remove the cloak of responsibility from anyone's shoulders. Nonetheless, The Gang participated with full enthusiasm, and we finished off with a big round of mutual applause.

Also, I'm including a link to a site one of our players created, for the purposes of celebrating our RPG adventures; ICONS in this case. Write-ups, and pictures, for all the characters are included on the site, so you can get an idea about what the structure of the game was attended to address and play on character Qualities, among other things. The site is next paragraph; if you're interested in what follows, I would suggest giving the site a look-over so you've got at least a familiarity with the PCs.

https://howlofthehellhound.blogspot.com/

So, for those who might be interested - and if the desire comes across, feel free to rip off any elements presented here - this is the text of our issue ﻿#8﻿.

ICONS Issue ﻿#8

Prologue

Determine what the PCs are doing on Walpurgis Nacht, 2022, to establish normal routine and indicate budding romances for MJ (Caroline MacWhirter, former prosecutor who has grown disillusioned with Stark City criminal justice and is looking for a viable alternative) and DM (Hallie Pinright, company employee, divorced, mid-level manager, may or may not be setting herself up as a gold-digger); BB is getting regular messages from Carmen Burana (Siren reporter), asking for personal interviews; attempt to get PCs out on dates when arrival occurs

At approximately 8:30 p.m., air raid sirens go off throughout the city, and the Mayor comes over the public address system, advising all citizens, “Please return to your homes, locate your children and lock all doors and windows. Please keep attention on local television stations, local government websites, and radio broadcasts for further alerts.”

The PCs can see, descending from the sky, something that looks like a giant saucer of the type that was used by Omega's forces during the 1993 invasion. It comes to a halt above City Hall, and Diamond emerges

She hovers over the city, arms spread and head back, eyes closed, and announces, “People of Earth, people of America, people of Stark City – Diamond has returned! I am home!”

Caroline MacWhirter Prowess: Poor (2) Coordination: Average (3) Strength: Average (3) Intellect: Fair (4) Awareness: Average (3) Willpower: Fair (4)

Specialities Law Business

Qualities Seek absolution

Hallie Pinright Prowess: Average (3) Coordination: Average (3) Strength: Average (3) Intellect: Fair (4) Awareness: Fair (4) Willpower: Average (3)

Specialities Business Investigation

Qualities Get ahead

Carmen Burana Prowess: Average (3) Coordination: Fair (4) Strength: Average (3) Intellect: Good (5) Awareness: Good (5) Willpower: Good (5)

Specialities Journalism Business Paralegal

Qualities Seeks the Truth Draw of Mystery & Power

Chapter 1: Diamond background

The PCs are summoned to a meeting of city administration, SCPD officials, including Capt. Ramirez, the Mayor and several Silver and Business District leaders. Diamond is also present, with a host of U.S. media, print, Internet and radio, surrounding her and asking where she has been, how she got back, what took so long and where the rest of Earth's superhero population has disappeared to

Diamond states sorrowfully that Omega destroyed all of Earth's forces, superhero and villain alike, and that the battle left only wreckage on Omega's ruined home planet in the Terminus. It took Diamond almost thirty years to figure out how to work his machinery, rebuild the saucer and the “universal transfer drive”, as she calls it, and to figure out the coordinates home

Carmen Burana states that Diamond, whatever her superpowers, had never been noted as a mechanical or technical genius before; how did she manage to figure out how to make all these amazing advancements if Omega's homeworld had been almost completely destroyed, and gain the skills that were needed to plot the course home?

Diamond replies that, although the devastation was thorough, she was able to piece together enough of the military's texts to eventually rebuild the craft and learn how to use it

If one of the PCs ask whether she can teach them how to duplicate this device and give humanity not only space - but dimension-jumping power, she replies, regretfully, that the equipment worked only the once and is now useless

Diamond states, in a low voice, about how overjoyed she is to be home again; a WSKC television reporter asks what she is going to do with the crime situation, now that she and The Midnight Men are the only superpowered forces, working for law and order, seemingly left in the world?

Diamond replies, with false sympathy, looking at the PCs, that, while travelling back to Earth, she received word through the saucer's reception about The Midnight Men's appearance in Stark City and the good they have accomplished. Diamond states,

"I know that all those in The Midnight Men have tried very hard to live up to the standard we established in the golden age of the superhero on Earth – and they've certainly had some successes – but what's important now is that we work together in making sure that the people of this city, this country and this planet remain safe and free. I look forward to everyone here making their contributions and allowing people to be happy."

Diamond's speech and attitude begin to activate these PC qualities: Black Bolt: “Rage in My Heart” Dr. Midnight: “Up to the Challenge” Gatekeeper: “Know the Unknowable” Masked Justice: “Justice Will be Served”

In order to address the qualities' demands, the PCs will need to start addressing the passive-aggressive tone Diamond has taken with The Midnight Men, and seek to counter her stance, while recognizing that any overt conflict will rebound upon The Midnight Men by stripping away popularity. If the PCs ignore this, they will experience -1 on Prowess/Awareness/Willpower tests as a result of internal distraction

The saucer has been aerially towed to an Air Force holding facility about a hundred miles out from Stark City; the PCs, if they do not ask directly to examine the craft, are requested by the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs, backed up by PATRIOT, to look the vehicle over

If any of the PCs decide to look over Diamond's autobiography, In the Rough, she describes her origin as a gift from God when seeking justice after her boyfriend's murder. The book does not specify where, when, how or why the “boyfriend” was murdered, or who he was (supposedly to protect the family against unwanted intrusion)

The PCs find, after making a pyramid test of difficulty 5 Technology or Science checks, that the saucer, aside from its degrading anti-gravity drive - which would allow it to travel to the Moon in several hours - has no capacity to make the sort of dimension-jump that would allow access to the Terminus

It is possible that the mechanism was activated a number of years, perhaps decades, ago, but it does not seem like the saucer would have been capable of making the sort of trip that Diamond claims she has made recently, unless some major instrumental errors have been made by the PCs, which is always possible

The PCs receive a call from Capt. Ramirez, who says, in a low and sincere voice, that while he is enormously grateful and relieved that a paragon like Diamond is around to protect the population, he feels that The Midnight Men are no less valuable and necessary a resource to Stark City. He tells them that, unless he is directed otherwise by municipal or state forces, he will make The Midnight Men his first call in the event of a civic disaster or meta-human attack

Chapter 2: Stryker Breakout

The next day, the PCs are just hearing, through television or radio, about Diamond having rescued several people from a burning building the night before. She is interviewed and speaks about the joys of seeing people given a hope of a safety net for the risks in daily life. The audience surrounding her bursts out into applause and begin chanting, ''“Dia-mond! Dia-mond!”'' over and over

Throughout the day, there are numerous mentions of how Diamond is being publicly celebrated, and how the near-shuttered businesses that supported her brand are experiencing a major surge of interest and reinvestment. Diamond, asked how she feels about the restart of her businesses, replies, “Just as long as the people are benefited and have something to assist with happiness, I'm perfectly willing to put my name on the front line.”

Almost immediately after this, the radio/television/Internet news agencies make an emergency announcement: There has been an unprecedented break-in at Stryker Federal Penitentiary, which has resulted in a complete failure of both the security force-field, and the nullification barrier which the Phalanx helped to put into operation, almost thirty-five years ago. A number of super-villains are in the process of breaking free, and right now the BMA personnel are, at best, slowing them down as they break free of the last of the containing walls

Stryker Warden Ambrose Pierce is putting out a desperate call for any and all meta-humans to assist in closing this down; the announcers state that, according to the latest information available, Diamond is currently in Africa, doing a combo public relations tour on equal rights for both Black/White relations, and assisting in helping with the damage caused by a 7.0 earthquake in Algeria

If the PCs head over to Stryker, they will see the SFP in flames, with both corrections personnel and super-villains in the yard, the power negation field flashing off and on, seeming to catch flight-capable NPCs just as they try to take off. As the PCs approach, they see that several super-villains have trapped a number of the SFP personnel and look as though they are going to take out their anger on these men

The villains are Blood Diamond, Bombshell, Gargantuan, and Hooded Cobra

As the PCs approach, Hooded Cobra calls out, “There they are! Finally!” The super-villains turn immediately from their captives and attack the PCs; at that moment the negation field seems to go completely inoperative

If/when the PCs are experiencing real trouble (have the negation field flash-activate at appropriate moments if the PCs are getting too much of an easy ride), this is when Diamond shows up, rocketing down from the sky and slamming into the ground in a knight's kneeling pose. She stands up, looks at the super-villains and says, “Playtime's over,” and then immediately attacks the toughest super-villain still standing

When villains are defeated, media start breaking through the police cordon, and Diamond turns to The Midnight Men and says, “A really nice effort, boys...but the grownups are back.” She goes off to speak to the media, who seem to concentrate almost exclusively on her

Before the MM leave, Warden Pierce comes out with a group of BMA guards, shakes his head and says, “What a mess.” He looks at Diamond, totally surrounded by reporters and admirers, then turns to the MM and looks distressed. He says,

"There was no way that the force-field and the power negation barrier could have gone down at the same time. It's impossible. There are so many safeguards and redundancies built into the system that even if one does collapse, even for a millisecond, the other barrier is double-set and the administration here are put on high alert until we've found what caused it and fixed it. (shakes head) The only way something like this could have happened is if it was planned. Deliberate. (looks to Midnight Men) You four have kept watch over Stark City – alone – for well over a year. (looks to Diamond) Some other people have other things on their mind...I am asking you, would you put your resources together with ours and find out exactly how this happened?"

Pierce gives them his private number and e-mail address, then says that Capt. Ramirez has also expressed some private doubts and concerns to him; Diamond is a genuine force for good, but her endless press-push and turning superheroing into a business – although a serious chunk of that income is donated to charity – strikes both men as an inherent conflict of interest. Pierce looks at The Midnight Men and says that, although he has no doubt that they have their own lives and money-making concerns in their secret identities, the whole point is that it is secret – the two are given as little chance as possible to come into conflict. Looking at Diamond again, he asks The Midnight Men to investigate...and share what they find with authorized law enforcement alone

As The Midnight Men begin investigation, it is revealed that Diamond has ended up damning them with faint praise: Black Bolt is a subhuman battery with arms and legs that pretends to have feelings and care about people; Dr. Midnight is a mechanic who only comes alive when working on a project in the lab; Gatekeeper is an otherworldly ghost who flits between realities so often that he's probably not connected to this world any more; Masked Justice is someone who obviously failed in a law-enforcement related career and is expressing his inadequacies by taking it out on helpless punks

If/when investigation is done on how the media got hold of this information, an Investigate 3 test will show that Carmen Burana, Caroline MacWhirter and Hallie Pinright were all sources on the PCs various character points and potential flaws. If the PCs confront the women, they all deny having made any negative comments about The Midnight Men, and were simply giving their opinions on what provided them with motivations – the comments were altered and taken completely out of context

Further investigation shows that Burana, MacWhirter and Pinright have all been offered substantial bonuses in return for their cooperation in revealing all “dirty secrets” connected to The Midnight Men: Burana was promised a plum assignment in Europe by the Siren; MacWhirter given a return to the D.A.'s office, in addition to the funds needed to start a victims' right organization; Pinright told that she would be pushed up the company ladder to the Board of Directors, possibly leading on to CEO

If/when confronted, all of the women acknowledge that they were made these offers, but they all turned them down, and gave nothing more than vague, general character descriptions that were purely positive

Conducting a successful level 4 test in Investigation, Law, or Law Enforcement will show that there were three senior S.F.P. employees who have made major purchases recently; a cottage in the Hamptons, a sports-car, and paying off a mother's successful cancer treatment

Rounding up and interrogating these individuals – who were all on record as having resigned their positions for “stress-related reasons” - are packing up and getting ready to leave town with their families. The offenders are all employed at the Stark Penitentiary power grid Richard Ramon, Chief Power Engineer William Levent, Chief Assistant Structural Repairs and Maintenance Logan Michaels, Administration assignment

Use of interrogation, through Willpower or Magic, at a level 5 resistance (Willpower Average [3]) will convince at least one to reveal the source of the funds: a dummy bank account that was set up the day before, and which has now been shut down. Making a level 4 Business check will reveal that the ultimate source of the funds were from one of Diamond's charities, specializing in relocating the homeless

At this point, any PCs who have started investigations make an additional pyramid test roll at difficulty 4. If successful, the result indicates that one of the police informants recruited by Capt. Ramirez and Warden Pierce has come forward with information on Diamond's buried past. The PCs are told to go to Geartown and speak to Lazy Ivan

Chapter 3: Pulling Back the Curtain

When met in Geartown, Lazy Ivan indicates that he has been contacted by both Capt. Ramirez and Warden Pierce – through underworld contacts – hoping for insight into what has been happening with The Midnight Men, and that, when something was found, The MM were to be contacted directly, to avoid implicating the two law enforcement officials. Lazy Ivan states,

"Dis girl you seek...I remember stories from before Terminus Invasion. Before dis. (points at eye) There are rumours about man who know her, before she got powers...best you go to to country of Zimbabwe, in Africa, last place he was recorded. All my investigations show is that he was last person to be with...whoever Diamond was before she become Diamond. Great barrier of security around him and wherever he is, now. Diamond-hard, you could say. Man's original name Karl McGavin, but be aware he likely living under several layers of pseudonym now. This all I have. (looks at PCs) You not like old Phalanx...but you perhaps what Stark City need now. Please advise how matters develop and will be looking to make assist in future. If price is right."

Burana, MacWhirter and Pinright have left messages with BB, MJ and DM indicating that the offers of profit for betraying The Midnight Men are starting to take on a threatening “Or Else” edge. MacWhirter and Pinright are both deeply scared and want to leave town, but Burana is furious at a) someone thinking she would compromise her journalistic integrity for some career “candy”, and b) believing that she would cave in to scare tactics like this. She is planning on making it look like she's cooperating out of fear, and having law enforcement trace what's going on and expose the perpetrators. The Siren has an exclusive on this, but other major media outlets in Stark City, and across the state, are also interested in joining in

Conducting a difficulty 5 check into Business, Investigation, Law, or Military will show that all three women have experienced phone or e-mail contact from a source on the Dark Web, which has been linked to a series of linked military/para-military organizations that seem to originate with both ousted military juntas in African countries, and U.S. organized crime

However the PCs travel over to Zimbabwe, any questions on Karl McGavin have no response or zero results. If a difficulty 5 Investigation or Military test is made, the PCs find that an individual – white, strong vital signs but with no intellectual capacity whatsoever – was left at the doorstep and admitted to Parirenyatwa General Hospital in Harare (capital city) approximately thirty-eight years ago. He was admitted as a charity case, expected to die shortly, but has somehow held on throughout the decades. No attempt at reaching him has succeeded, and some Zimbabwean superheroes with Magical origins and background determined – before the Terminus Invasion – that, whatever happened to him, it was not of natural origin

If the PCs approach Perirenyatwa administration, they find that the staff here have heard of The Midnight Men, and are pleased that the PCs might be able to shed some light on, and resolve, this extremely frustrating and tragic case

If/when the PCs approach McGavin, they see an extremely desiccated man in his sixties. Conducting a difficulty 4 Occult test will show that his body is alive but the soul has been ripped away by otherworldly – and likely unholy – forces

If a PC utilizes Magic to conjure up Cosmic Power, this will allow access to Detection, which will give the ability to go through McGavin's memories; these are dimmed with age and the effect of the soullessness, but are at least clear

Karl McGavin, thirty-eight years ago, was a young civil engineer who had decided to spend some time working for the Peace Corp. He had travelled over to Zimbabwe with his fiancee, a young lady named Carol Foster, who had just dropped out of Michigan State University in her second year of Fine Arts, specializing in theatre, and who was apparently ready to make a life with McGavin. Foster craved positive attention but seemed to lack the willingness and patience to put in the time and effort – and maturity to experience and accept failure – needed to achieve fame, and wanted it as something that the world owed her

When they got to Zimbabwe, Carol became part of a start-up theatrical organization, specializing, in addition to performing, in the group's finances, advertising and marketing, and was approached by a group of cultists in the group (and who had, in fact, founded it for this purpose) who recognized her emptiness and made her a once-in-a-lifetime offer: Her spirit was drifting, unaligned, and lacking dedication...but with the correct motivation, she could go in any direction she wanted, have whatever powers she wanted. All she had to do was sacrifice the soul of the person closest to her, and with this individual's spirit condemned to Hell, the world could be hers

Almost immediately, Foster agreed to this proposal: Her entire life had been empty of purpose, high school and university had been experiences that served to kill time and boredom, hopefully leading onto something better...and now this would give her real purpose and the ability to be noticed, worshiped and adored, which she craved more than anything else

McGavin was sacrificed in a horrible, unholy ceremony, with Foster's full participation. As a reward, she was granted almost unmatched super-human powers, which Foster had agreed she would use to help the cultists achieve world domination

Instead, Foster killed every member of the cult, dropped McGavin's soulless body off at Perirenyatwa, took off for Stark City and began her new life as Diamond

As the story concludes, the PCs notice that the room is being enshrouded with darkness, and very quickly cut off from Prime reality. As the PCs look around, they can see that they are in an apparently endless mist-clouded stone chamber, with Diamond sitting on a throne at the centre

Diamond states,

"I really didn't think you had it in you...all of you looked so pathetic compared to the guys in the Phalanx. Any one of them, especially the Sentinel, could have just pulled you to pieces without even thinking about it. (shrugs) I guess I was wrong...none of them even thought to look at the places you did, probably because I was doing so much good that it would've been bad for the people, bad for the group...bad for their image. (sighs) No more real superheroes on Earth...except for me. No one in Stark City will miss any of you...a scientist who loves his test tubes more than people, a failed lawyer in a jet-pack who flies around and bashes second-rate punks so he can forget how much of a loser he is, a third-rate magician who'd have trouble doing tricks at a kid's birthday party...and a freak who deludes himself that playing at being a human makes him something close to human. You'll all be better off gone...and when you get to Hell, let Karl know that I still think about him...that I don't regret a moment of it, and that his sacrifice made all of this possible."

With this, Diamond gestures to her left, then her right, and swirls of mist thicken and being to construct human forms. Caroline MacWhirter, Hallie Pinright and Carmen Burana stand revealed, whole and clearly all terrified. The women look around, at each other, at Diamond, then at The Midnight Men – all three of the women have a look of shock and guilt on them

Diamond says,

"And this is what you're being offered, ladies...Caroline, you get to be able to enact the true justice that you've always wanted since your brother was murdered in Geartown. Hallie, you can lead an entire multinational company into greatness and finally be able to show your mother that you're the success she never thought you could be. Carmen, you can take that freak's power and use it to reveal truth and make the world a better place. Your choice. Choose wisely."

MJ, DM and BB must now make efforts to reach out to these clearly conflicted women, making Willpower (5) rolls to overcome Diamond's corrupting offers. If the PCs make especially heartfelt attempts, they get a +1 on the roll, in addition to whatever other bonuses they contribute

Presuming that the PCs all succeed, the women all turn to Diamond furiously and denounce her as a liar, thief and fraud – all of them promise to use their positions, in law, international business and journalism, to ensure that Diamond's truth is finally revealed to the world

Diamond shrugs, shakes her head regretfully, says, “You'll never know what you've given up, ladies. I made the sacrifice. And now that's what all of you – all of you – are going to become.”

While this has been going on, GK should make an Awareness (5) roll – if successful, he picks up that this place, although mystical in nature, is becoming a focal point for magical transport

If Awareness roll succeeds, GK can warn other PCs about incoming forces. After warning is/is not given, the mist swirls, infused with fire, reappear on the platform and resolve themselves into Blood Diamond, Gargantuan, Lord Kisin, and Skeletron

Diamond will join in the fight only if it appears that her cohorts are about to be taken out. If an Awareness (4) check is made by anyone in the group, it is clear that Diamond does not like taking part in an unplanned and uncontrolled situation. As the fight with her draws on, her eyes begin to burn with a cold light, and her skin begins to go a grayish rock colour. If the PCs make another Awareness (4) check, they realize the Hell-force that has been inside of her for almost forty years is beginning to manifest in the physical world

Pinright, MacWhirter and Burana all scramble away as far as possible from the fight, but will shout out warnings and advisements to the PCs if there is an opportunity to do so

Presuming the PCs win the fight, the magic sustaining the world Diamond has conjured begins to fade, and the PCs, along with the three women, find themselves back in Zimbabwe, at Perirenyatwa hospital. People are scrambling around, realizing something terrible has happened that they were unable to affect or stop If any two of the PCs make a Willpower (4) check and speak to the hospital staff and population, order can be restored

Karl McGavin is still in his soulless coma, and any attempt to restore him to normality will require a Cosmic Awareness (5) check; it reveals that McGavin is has been lost to this world and any attempt to restore his soul will require at least as long as he has already spent in this condition

The women all state that they are willing to act as witnesses to what happened here, and to deliver Diamond to whatever justice can be arranged

How the PCs resolve their own personal situations with the women is up to the players themselves, with reasonable response by the women

PCs receive one minimal achievement point at the game's conclusion

And that's it, dudes. Anyone who took the time and energy/effort to read this over, commentary is welcome and appreciated. Till next time,

Black Talon --142.114.121.9 01:28, 2 July 2022 (EDT)