Season 8 Session 1 Beginning of the End?

 

Cast

• Amie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.”
• Beauregard K. “Bo” Ratnam aka Wirerat (Played by Brice): Technopath, inventor, and hacker. He specializes in co-opting enemy systems and tech assets. Tagline: “Nice tech – I’ll borrow that.
• Stainless Steel Rat aka “Sir” (NPC Ally): Bo’s best friend and assistant. A sentient drone in the shape of a stylized shiny metal rat mindlinked to Bo. Specialties are rapid repair construction and modifications. Imagine if K-9 and R2D2 made a baby and it looks a bit like a rodent. Tagline: “Repairs and upgrades in progress”
• Derrick K. Ratnam aka Ledgerdemain (NPC Ally): Spin doctor and media liaison for Project VANGUARD. Twin to Bo. Tagline: “Well, actually that’s not how it happened.
• Rafe Hanlon aka Nyx (played by Chris D.): An umbrakinetic petty thief still on work release several years later, on his way to becoming a true agent and hero. Tagline: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
• Layla A. de Blackburn aka Nox (NPC): CIA-trained child assassin all grown up to be Daddy’s Little Monster. Maybe a little mad. Argues with her shadow often. Tagline: “No, we shouldn’t do that…should we?”
• June B. O'Neill aka Prodigy (NPC): Savant with hyper-intelligence that may have cracked the universal power-dampening conundrum. Fresh out of the Meraki Institute for the advanced and gifted. Extremely intelligent, but young (she's 16).
• Vincenzo L. dePrezzo aka Threshold (Played by Rory): Doctor, Mathematician, and Scientist (yes, capitals) and Spatial Manipulator. Threshold can bend space like a pretzel, teleport, obliterate things, and has extraordinary senses. He’d rather be in a research lab than fight. Better known for his work with Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations, and disaster relief than famous battles. Tagline: “I can be there in a snap!”
• Nawang Sonam aka Wan Shi Tong (NPC): Martial Artist with a mysterious past. Thresholds mentor, experienced and highly capable, indeterminate age.
• Eleanor C. Bulli aka "Bubbles (NPC): Manipulates bubbles of energy, short range teleportation, can fly on the bubbles, use them for shields or attack and even see through them.
• Grant L. Wojcik aka Fridge Boy (NPC): Can control ice/cold, but mostly the ability to create ice that explodes. 16 year old emancipated orphan, Our janitor. 
• Rudy A. Coldwater aka Gimmick (NPC): Mildly hyper-intelligent savant. Stutters. Makes very accurate guesses. Typical nerd, not yet 20. Wants to make a difference, assigned to support duties.
• Summer Stratos aka Chain Jacket (NPC): Ferrokinetic
• Vargas Manwell Tilium aka "Impulse" (NPC): Speedster.

Dates: Friday May 8th.

Prison Breakout

We start the new season a few hours after the last session. Most of the prisoners from Rikers got away and the National Guard and a special federal team are on site at the prison.

The Nomads (our team) are told to be "On Call" as were one of, if not the most mobile teams in NYC.

Several members can teleport, pretty much everyone has some form of improved mobility, and of course Threshold can transport the entire team using his portals.

We have some members out on patrol to keep visibility up and reassure the citizens that were on top of things.

Wirerat is in sickbay, again. Complaining about the healthy diet.

The team is reviewing what we know, gathering more intel and distributing it. 

It appears that a group planned the break out and coordinated it very quietly and well. Its possible the attacks on the team were to get blood samples for cloning, though Lindy appears to have a personal reason as well. And Threshold seems to have played an important part in their plans as they made copies of him to create some form of large field that helped facilitate the mass escape.

A few hours after the briefing MedEvac pops in to urgently request Thresholds medical skills. Turns out a high profile patient (name redacted due to Doctor/Patient privilege's) had shrapnel in the brain that prevented MedEvacs healing powers from working. Threshold uses his powers to teleport the pieces out of the brain, MedEvac can then work her magic and the patient will be fine.

He then teleports back to base with the shrapnel which hinders his powers but does not stop him.

Threshold analyzes the shrapnel, determining it is a form of Orichalcum, but silver instead of the usual gold color. It appears to be a power dampener ally instead of the usual energy producing version and it exhibits a slight vibrational frequency. He makes notes and will have Wirerat work up a detector for it when he is feeling up to the task.

Wirerat and his pet A.Is create an army of surveillance drones and hack all the local cameras and surveillance equipment.

Nyx uses his Shadow View power (Clairsentience with lots of modifiers, including Area Perception, +300%) to keep an eye on the area.

The doorbell rings and Threshold decides to check the camera and it appears to be Fracture at our our front door. He goes to talk with her and lets her in where we can all talk in relative privacy.

Fracture says she was used to help with the escape, she was forced to leave and is afraid for her life. She writes a full confession and hands it to Threshold. The only new information she can provide is that their is a mind controller involved.

We elect to hold her in our custody, Nyx suggests we deputize her and explains that will help provide her some protection from being sent back to Rikers until after the emergency is over. Threshold objects to the deputizing but accepts Nyx's argument and does it anyway. Threshold asks her about her powers, specifically if she can sense duplicates she made. She never really tried but can tell when her clones die so he asks Wan Shi Tong to work with her. Prodigy and Fridge Boy jump in to help, making a sense dep chamber to help her focus.

We end the session there. One player was already out and another had to leave for work.

The phone lines started heating up, expecting lots of action next time.

Aftermath

We need to catch some of the bad guys but obviously this was no ordinary breakout. A lot of effort went into this and so something is expected of  significant value from at least some of those freed. What those plans are is our job to figure out. However it appears this was the end game of most of Season 7, of course what happens next is likely to be a whole new ballgame.

Player Comments

I spent some points on less lethal powers, increasing Medic! a level, and getting some medical powers.

An important aspect of a super heroes game to me is the verisimilitude of characters using their powers for something other than crime fighting.

Often characters can apply their abilities to do more regular things faster or better, or otherwise be a useful member of society outside of wearing spandex.

Threshold can teleport and disintegrate things, both useful in real world applications. However he has a strong medical and scientific background and his powers let him see through solid objects and very small details (Scanning Sense, Pararadar with Microscopic 6 and Penetrating 2).

I wanted him to be able to use those powers to do surgery, and the GM let me buy the rest of that toolset,

He has Pararadar with Bioscan, Scanning,  Penetrating 2, Microscopic 6 - allowing him to act as a very good diagnostician. This gives +4 to Diagnosis and he has Medic-22 with some complimentary skills.

It also gives +4 or +2 to things like First-Aid, Forensics, Poisons, Chemistry, Bioengineering (Tissue), and several other skills. Profiling adds another +4 to some of those rolls.

Quick Gadgeteer (Medical), Photographic Memory,

Power Perks: Accessory (Surgical Tools); Expulsion; Expulsion Others; and Medical Sampler to represent teleporting things out of a body and scalpel precision disintegration.

And finally Spatial Surgery which is Healing (Affects Self, +50%; Disease and object removal only, -30%; Reliable 10, +50%; Spatial Manipulation, -20%; Xenohealing, +100%) [150] with cost CP and as an alternative ability for a cost of 6 points.

This last power I am rather proud of. His powers do not make much sense for healing people by restoring HP. But he is basically a built in medical scanner, and the fine tuned disintegration can act like radiation therapy that is more portable and far more precise than most modern medical equipment. He can disintegrate individual cells, teleport or disintegrate bullets and shrapnel. Cut away any tissue, etc.

Pretty much a walking OR, though his powers wont let him stich up or suture anything directly he can guide his hands to do the work with precision (also has Manual Dexterity 1).

I do not really expect this power to come up in game very often, his Medic! skill though is another matter. Costs CP (we use wildcard points) lets him do something very unusual as needed. Even though the campaign has healers who can regenerate flesh his power still gives him an unusual utility, as demonstrated this session.

Technically the Expulsion perk would have probably done the job, or normal use of Medic! in the operating room. But this just looked cooler and was much faster than normal surgery.

These kind of creative uses of a power set or theme really help make the world and characters more fleshed out to me.

Season 7 Session 10 & 11 End of Season!

 

Cast

• Amie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.”
• Beauregard K. “Bo” Ratnam aka Wirerat (Played by Brice): Technopath, inventor, and hacker. He specializes in co-opting enemy systems and tech assets. Tagline: “Nice tech – I’ll borrow that.
• Stainless Steel Rat aka “Sir” (NPC Ally): Bo’s best friend and assistant. A sentient drone in the shape of a stylized shiny metal rat mindlinked to Bo. Specialties are rapid repair construction and modifications. Imagine if K-9 and R2D2 made a baby and it looks a bit like a rodent. Tagline: “Repairs and upgrades in progress”
• Derrick K. Ratnam aka Ledgerdemain (NPC Ally): Spin doctor and media liaison for Project VANGUARD. Twin to Bo. Tagline: “Well, actually that’s not how it happened.
• Rafe Hanlon aka Nyx (played by Chris D.): An umbrakinetic petty thief still on work release several years later, on his way to becoming a true agent and hero. Tagline: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
• Layla A. de Blackburn aka Nox (NPC): CIA-trained child assassin all grown up to be Daddy’s Little Monster. Maybe a little mad. Argues with her shadow often. Tagline: “No, we shouldn’t do that…should we?”
• June B. O'Neill aka Prodigy (NPC): Savant with hyper-intelligence that may have cracked the universal power-dampening conundrum. Fresh out of the Meraki Institute for the advanced and gifted. Extremely intelligent, but young (she's 16).
• Vincenzo L. dePrezzo aka Threshold (Played by Rory): Doctor, Mathematician, and Scientist (yes, capitals) and Spatial Manipulator. Threshold can bend space like a pretzel, teleport, obliterate things, and has extraordinary senses. He’d rather be in a research lab than fight. Better known for his work with Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations, and disaster relief than famous battles. Tagline: “I can be there in a snap!”
• Nawang Sonam aka Wan Shi Tong (NPC): Martial Artist with a mysterious past. Thresholds mentor, experienced and highly capable, indeterminate age.
• Eleanor C. Bulli aka "Bubbles (NPC): Manipulates bubbles of energy, short range teleportation, can fly on the bubbles, use them for shields or attack and even see through them.
• Grant L. Wojcik aka Fridge Boy (NPC): Can control ice/cold, but mostly the ability to create ice that explodes. 16 year old emancipated orphan, Our janitor. 
• Rudy A. Coldwater aka Gimmick (NPC): Mildly hyper-intelligent savant. Stutters. Makes very accurate guesses. Typical nerd, not yet 20. Wants to make a difference, assigned to support duties.
• Summer Stratos aka Chain Jacket (NPC): Ferrokinetic
• Vargas Manwell Tilium aka "Impulse" (NPC): Speedster.

Dates: Thursday May 7th?

Sessions combined as Session 10 was very short due to bad internet issues.

The Big Reveal

We did some tidying up and trying to figure out where to go next. We had a few leads yet to follow but nothing really panned out.  Then Threshold gets a massive headache and we hear an explosion and Session 10 ended.

Session 11 we pick up with a fight. The news tells us of three explosions and we head to the one in our jurisdiction using Thresholds portal.

Threshold, Nyx, Nox, Whisper, SSR, and Wirerat all get involved. We see a young woman, Lindy McCall surrounded by a couple of cats and rats.

Also a big hole in the ground with what looks like Threshold's obliteration beam coming out of it.

We quickly deduce that the animals are fracture clones with the powers of various metas. Perhaps a bit more quickly due to the names of the tokens ;)

Space Cat is a copy of Threshold

Wire Cat is a copy of Wirerat.

Gemini a brick and associate of Fracture (her brother) is there in rat form, as is Fracture.

The rest of our team apparently did not get copied, nor the honor of being cloned as a cat.

We are in a construction site.

Fight!

Nyx teleports under a nearby construction office. Nox teleports closer and behind the enemy on the ground. Whisper runs towards them. Wirerat scans the area nd gets his brain fried for his trouble (again). Threshold tries to obliterate Space Cat as he is off by himself and near the big hole in the ground.

Space Cat teleports away and Nox squeeks about Threshold trying to disintegrate her.

Fracture Rat makes another Gemini Rat and both of them attack Whisper.

Lindy exclaims how Threshold will now regret what he did to her father, Threshold has no clue what she is talking about, this does not go over well. (crit failed his IQ roll to recognize her)

Nyx binds Fracture Rat in darkness.

Space Cat gets Fracture Rat out of the darkness by exporting her (GM pointedly points this trick out to Thresholds player).

Hey Export is expensive!

Threshold uses his Create Singularity to try and take out Fracture Rat and make life rough for the Gemini Rats.

Our Face of Darkness (Nyx) taunts Space Cat using his clairsentience with speaking power and knocks out Lindy with Draining Touch.

Whisper enjoys herself fighting the Gemini Fractures, tossing one into the singularity and watching one miss a slam and run into the hole..

Threshold uses his Spatiokenesis Control power to try and lockdown Spacecats powers, hoping the cat has all his power but not much of his skill.

SSR tazes Space Cat who can't teleport away.

There is a big boom and the hole stops glowing. We look down into it and see a big sphere that Whisper picks up and opens up and it has a Threshold head strapped into a wire harness. Threshold says to kill it and put it out of its misery.

We hear from the radios that there is a massive breakout at Rikers Island and the session ends there.

Aftermath

This is the end of the season and so we get to spend some of our saved CP on upgrades and given the option to pick up a few hours later or a few weeks later. We opt for a few hours.

Were called to MAPS HQ to get briefed on what happened and keep Lindy as a prisoner and Nyx seems to have charmed Space Cat. Our Face of Darkness may add another villain to his retinue of converts/conscripts.

Media Bias

 People claim that there is a media bias and that the media cannot be trusted, except perhaps their favorite media. Conservatives will tell you that the media has a liberal bias.

None of that is really very accurate. First look at the source of revenue and platform when evaluating media sources. Media used to be funded by the government (PBS, CSPAN) or advertising. Hover as cable companies got more powerful they became a major revenue source by paying carriage fees to certain stations.

Fox News is mainly right wing and gets some money from advertisers but most of its funding is from carriage fees. It is owned by the Murdochs who after President Nixon left office decided the GOP needed its own media outlet to spread propaganda. Rupert Murdoch was a billionaire who enjoyed GOP tax cuts and wanted to keep them coming.

MSNBC and CNN are accused of being Liberal Media by conservatives, this is not actually true. MSNBC is a democratic propaganda tool to  match FOX and CNN is a bit more balanced - or at least less obviously a Democratic Party platform but still leans toward them. This is less a situation of being funded by Dems and more an effort to carve out their own lane. FOX News is the biggest cable media provider and the others need to do something different to try to compete for viewers.

However, MSNBC and CNN are what we call corporate democrat, not liberal democrat. Want proof? Think about who they have on and especially the attention they give to Presidential candidates. The most left wing candidates are ignored as much as possible and when they are on they are questioned harshly by the hosts. But the establishment candidates are mostly given praise and softball questions. Senator Sanders was largely ignored in the 2016 and 2020 races even though he was winning many early primaries. I recall once night CNN went on and on about Buddiget for coming in 5th and talked about every other candidate except Sanders who actually won that states primary. This kind of thing happened repeatedly.

CSPAN is the most unbiased source of media as it is publicly funded and lets you hear unedited speeches. We should try to watch or listen to more than one source and check out data for ourselves. We all know most media and most politicians lie, so why trust them? research adn check them out for yourself, most tings are in the public domain. And if it sounds click baity? its probably not full honesty.

When evaluating a news channel listen carefully to what they say and do not say. Odds are good you can see the bias and once you identify it you will have a better idea when they might be lying to you. Also see if they ever admit their mistakes. If someone tells you they are never wrong or never make an a mistake, or simply just refuse to own thier mistakes and make excuses odds are good you cannot trust them.

Converting Mistborn Magic into GURPS

 Awhile back on the forums someone asked about converting the magic systems in the Mistborn series into GURPS. I just read the first book and have a better feel for it.

I see two fairly obvious ways to do this. Powers and Ritual Path Magic. Powers is probably the more obvious and easiest but RPM appears pretty straightforward to me as well.

Alumnancy

There are 11 metals or alloys discussed in the first book. Most people can only control one metal, though mistborn can control all of them. Each metal is a different power or path.

Some of the powers would have very few abilities or if using RPM a very narrowly focused path.

Powers would be built using a Power Modifier (PM) that includes having to imbibe a metal to use it and that it is burned up during use. Also a minor nuisance effect  for most metals, such as sense sensitivity for Tin or the mass restriction for attracting or repelling metals using Iron or Steel.

RPM would require Ritual Adept for the speed of casting and most effects could be cast as Blocking - especially Iron and Steel. I would change the path skills from M/VH to M/A, reflecting how easy they seem to be to learn and the very narrow scope.

Dueling with Iron and Steel I would handle as a Martial Style.

Required Skills: Acrobatics, Body Sense, Throwing

Feuromanchy

This might be a bit more complicated but again can be done using either RPM or Powers.

The magician takes a temporary disadvantage and then stores the advantage for the duration. So you could take a penalty to Vision for an hour so that later on you could use that stored hour as a bonus to vision.

Using RPM we just cap the duration of any effects to the time the caster did without to save them up. Most things should be a Lesser Effect, a trade off for having to do without in advance.

Powers would be purchased with Limited Use and a Nusiance effect representing the time without the advantage being stored up.

the only complication is the sheer volume of possibilities, so alternative abilities or Modular abilities is a must.

I would probably go with Modular Abilities and a UB as these guys are rare in the setting.

AEON Season 7, Session 9

 

Cast

• Amie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.”
• Beauregard K. “Bo” Ratnam aka Wirerat (Played by Brice): Technopath, inventor, and hacker. He specializes in co-opting enemy systems and tech assets. Tagline: “Nice tech – I’ll borrow that.
• Stainless Steel Rat aka “Sir” (NPC Ally): Bo’s best friend and assistant. A sentient drone in the shape of a stylized shiny metal rat mindlinked to Bo. Specialties are rapid repair construction and modifications. Imagine if K-9 and R2D2 made a baby and it looks a bit like a rodent. Tagline: “Repairs and upgrades in progress”
• Derrick K. Ratnam aka Ledgerdemain (NPC Ally): Spin doctor and media liaison for Project VANGUARD. Twin to Bo. Tagline: “Well, actually that’s not how it happened.
• Rafe Hanlon aka Nyx (played by Chris D.): An umbrakinetic petty thief still on work release several years later, on his way to becoming a true agent and hero. Tagline: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
• Layla A. de Blackburn aka Nox (NPC): CIA-trained child assassin all grown up to be Daddy’s Little Monster. Maybe a little mad. Argues with her shadow often. Tagline: “No, we shouldn’t do that…should we?”
• June B. O'Neill aka Prodigy (NPC): Savant with hyper-intelligence that may have cracked the universal power-dampening conundrum. Fresh out of the Meraki Institute for the advanced and gifted. Extremely intelligent, but young (she's 16).
• Vincenzo L. dePrezzo aka Threshold (Played by Rory): Doctor, Mathematician, and Scientist (yes, capitals) and Spatial Manipulator. Threshold can bend space like a pretzel, teleport, obliterate things, and has extraordinary senses. He’d rather be in a research lab than fight. Better known for his work with Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations, and disaster relief than famous battles. Tagline: “I can be there in a snap!”
• Nawang Sonam aka Wan Shi Tong (NPC): Martial Artist with a mysterious past. Thresholds mentor, experienced and highly capable, indeterminate age.
• Eleanor C. Bulli aka "Bubbles (NPC): Manipulates bubbles of energy, short range teleportation, can fly on the bubbles, use them for shields or attack and even see through them.
• Grant L. Wojcik aka Fridge Boy (NPC): Can control ice/cold, but mostly the ability to create ice that explodes. 16 year old emancipated orphan, Our janitor. 
• Rudy A. Coldwater aka Gimmick (NPC): Mildly hyper-intelligent savant. Stutters. Makes very accurate guesses. Typical nerd, not yet 20. Wants to make a difference, assigned to support duties.
• Summer Stratos aka Chain Jacket (NPC): Ferrokinetic
• Vargas Manwell Tilium aka "Impulse" (NPC): Speedster.

Dates: Wednesday May 6th.

Meeting Restarted

We get back to the meeting and go over the news. Threshold kind of pushes everyone for a specific action, seemingly in a hurry. 

Nyx takes Gimmick to Rikers for a follow-up with Fracture and to see if anyone knows anything about her missing father.

Whisper will check on the arms dealer, Dion "Die Die" Crawford.

Bo heads to the lab.

Impulse and Prodigy head out on patrol.

Having mostly cleared the building Threshold goes to the medical lab and gives himself a very though testing. His cells are genetically altered and exhibiting some kind of energy and "hyperactivity". He can regrow tissue, bone, etc in minutes. Also experiences no pain at all and seems to be less vulnerable to exhaustion with little or no need for sleep. He carefully documents everything and decides to test and measure the results daily to see if this state changes, remains stable, or does something else.

Junkyard Dogs

Whisper sets up a meeting for a gun buy and winds up at a junkyard in Brooklyn for the actual deal. Dion has three large dogs guarding the place, the results of an escaped lab experiment. They are highly intelligent and he has explosive collars on them to keep them under control.

While talking a sniper lights up Whisper who then bends a piece of rebar as a means of intimidation. This works really well and Dion gives over some information, though mostly its of little use. the sniper shuts off the laser targeting and vanishes. He also gets and disarms the control to the collars.

Whisper calls Threshold for an emergency exit and he comes through a portal. After a brief conversation Whisper, Threshold, and the dogs go through back to the base.

Threshold recognizes the dogs for what they are, calls Bo to set up a big keyboard for them to use to communicate, and schedules them for a quick medical evaluation. They have been mistreated and need some shots and better food.

Bo happily whips up something for the dogs and gives them speaking collars. Bo also continues sifting data and his pet AI comes up with a nifty search algorithm to help.

Back to Rikers

Nyx, and Prodigy all go to Rikers to talk with Fracture. They get a little bit more information, again using donuts as bribes. Also they some information from the guards on Prodigies father who had been acting weird lately.

Aftermath

Another short session. We broke up after this to discuss ideas for the next campaign and told to post our plans for next session in Discord so the GM can prepare the leads we take up.

AEON, Season 7, Session 8

 

Cast

• Amie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.”
• Beauregard K. “Bo” Ratnam aka Wirerat (Played by Brice): Technopath, inventor, and hacker. He specializes in co-opting enemy systems and tech assets. Tagline: “Nice tech – I’ll borrow that.
• Stainless Steel Rat aka “Sir” (NPC Ally): Bo’s best friend and assistant. A sentient drone in the shape of a stylized shiny metal rat mindlinked to Bo. Specialties are rapid repair construction and modifications. Imagine if K-9 and R2D2 made a baby and it looks a bit like a rodent. Tagline: “Repairs and upgrades in progress”
• Derrick K. Ratnam aka Ledgerdemain (NPC Ally): Spin doctor and media liaison for Project VANGUARD. Twin to Bo. Tagline: “Well, actually that’s not how it happened.
• Rafe Hanlon aka Nyx (played by Chris D.): An umbrakinetic petty thief still on work release several years later, on his way to becoming a true agent and hero. Tagline: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
• Layla A. de Blackburn aka Nox (NPC): CIA-trained child assassin all grown up to be Daddy’s Little Monster. Maybe a little mad. Argues with her shadow often. Tagline: “No, we shouldn’t do that…should we?”
• June B. O'Neill aka Prodigy (NPC): Savant with hyper-intelligence that may have cracked the universal power-dampening conundrum. Fresh out of the Meraki Institute for the advanced and gifted. Extremely intelligent, but young (she's 16).
• Vincenzo L. dePrezzo aka Threshold (Played by Rory): Doctor, Mathematician, and Scientist (yes, capitals) and Spatial Manipulator. Threshold can bend space like a pretzel, teleport, obliterate things, and has extraordinary senses. He’d rather be in a research lab than fight. Better known for his work with Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations, and disaster relief than famous battles. Tagline: “I can be there in a snap!”
• Nawang Sonam aka Wan Shi Tong (NPC): Martial Artist with a mysterious past. Thresholds mentor, experienced and highly capable, indeterminate age.
• Grant L. Wojcik aka Fridge Boy (NPC): Can control ice/cold, but mostly the ability to create ice that explodes. 16 year old emancipated orphan, Our janitor. 
• Rudy A. Coldwater aka Gimmick (NPC): Mildly hyper-intelligent savant. Stutters. Makes very accurate guesses. Typical nerd, not yet 20. Wants to make a difference, assigned to support duties.

Dates: Tuesday, May 5th, to Wednesday May 6th.

To Rikers we a go!

The team is trying to figure out who this guy is and how to deal with him. So far the villains goal is to take out the team, possibly with an emphasis on Threshold since he gets hit the most though as far as he knows he has no real enemies. It could be just Threshold is a target of opportunity since he has the mobility to get to events fast and is not at all stealthy about it. His portals look like the portals from the Dr. Strange movies. he can teleport without a portal but that still leaves a visible heat shimmer effect.

Nyx and Nox can also teleport but they are much more stealthy.

Threshold and Whisper go to Rikers Island to talk with Fracture after determining that she probably duplicated the murder hobo. We have a nice discussion, bribing her with some donuts.

She seems not to have any info we directly need but does provide some interesting bits about duplicating lab rats for someone a year ago.

We finish up and take that back to the group, though Nyx is sound asleep so we wait for a team meeting.

Boom!

Wednesday afternoon were having that meeting and hear a scream just outside the base.

Threshold creates a portal and walks out to see what is going on. He immediately gets shot twice with an anti-material rifle, once in the chest mostly stopped by his trauma plate and his leg which again gets wrecked, almost blown off. However he feels no pain.

Nyx scans the outside and sees the shot came from an ice cream truck just outside. Its empty, robot controlled, and Nyx manages to read the serial number off the rifle. Threshold disintegrates the rifle and the truck blows up. A few civilians are wounded by the explosion but no one is killed or seriously hurt.

This villain does seem to try and minimize the risk to bystanders.

Whisper goes out and takes pictures of everyone, hoping someone might be part of the scheme. Fridge Boy freezes the area around the truck, putting out the fires.

Threshold teleports to the roof to bandage his leg and Nyx follows. She is curious as his leg starts to visibly heal and remarks that Threshold is now kind of cool (she also liked his Singularity in last session) and should test how well he can heal by shooting himself in the head. Threshold pops off to the north pole to work on his leg and think about things with some quiet solitude.

Aftermath

Short game session.

ST in GURPS

The ST attribute is scaled around human realistic capabilities. For most campaigns this is ideal, but super heroic campaigns it is very expensive to  preform some of the lifting feats we see in comics.

ST does not boost a lot of skills but increases damage dealt with low tech weapons and punching plus is a big help in grappling. It also increases HP, meaning you are harder to kill. Also you can carry more so its useful even in a high tech society.

Grappling

Combat in GURPS is probably among the most flexible and tactical of all RPGs out there. Grappling is a bit anemic in GURPS Basic and I would like that to change in a Fifth Edition.

GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling was a very sophisticated and detailed take on improving this. The author later wrote Fantastic Dungeon Grappling a more streamlined take on the topic. I would like to see this added to a GURPS Fifth Edition, either in that version of GURPS Characters ort a Martial Art or combat supplement. I feel the material is solid but could use a little more detail for nonhumanoid's and special situations. A New Take on Grappling, Pyramid #3/34 Alternate GURPS is another effort to improve grappling and also worth a look and has several interesting articles.

Lifting Great Weights

The standard system is good enough for most purposes, even really strong humans. However for a Supers setting I recommend Knowing Your Own Strength, Pyramid #3/83 Alternate GURPS IV which offers a Logarithmic lift rating. This is a solid way to resolve the issue.

Another option is Super Effort on ST, a +300% Cosmic enhancement introduced in GURPS Supers.

I find the first better but the second is still pretty simple. Write down ST as two numbers, the base ST and the modified ST for when you pay that FP to boost it.