Opponents Unlimited: Crossroads final notes

It should be easy to see the repeating patterns in the campaign design – every Ep 3 is the carnival, every Ep 4 is a school sports related problem, each season has at least one tie back to each prior season in it – that should help cement the campaign together as a coherent whole.

The last 2 sessions feel like an ambush because they are. I don’t want to railroad the game to force the players into that conflict, so instead the Floop Brothers ID and target them all on their own, without a real chance for the PCs to see it coming (barring any PCs powers like Ht. Senses, Cosmic Awareness or the like that would give them advance warning). If this were a dramatic series it would be built up more, but it’s a role playing game and most players are happier when they feel they have a fair shake. That the Floop Brothers have extensive criminal connections, super powers and a telepath makes the attack fair, especially since the PCs have a ‘if the players can’t think of a way out there’s an established NPC who can rescue them’ escape hatch to turn the tables.

Alert V&V players might recognize Emerson Electronics from FORCE and Assassin, Vanguard from Organized Crimes and Enter the Dragon’s Claw: HONOR, New World Genetics from Dawn of DNA and the Prest travelling circus from Terror by Night. These are, of course, intentional laying of groundwork for the next stage of the campaign. 

Opponents Unlimited: Crossroads Season 4

Season 4: True Heroes

After the emotionally wrenching events of last season this final season is a more physically taxing one. The Floop Brothers and their Executive Retreat business are their main threats, a direct attack by actual super-criminals

4.1: Brothers: Psi Demon and mobsters

The PCs witness a hit and run killing in town and chase the driver/killer to the Floop Corporate Retreat. Things seem more than a little fishy there before the PCs are attacked by a ‘sand demon’ (telekinetically animated earth, via Psi-Demon). The creature is unkillable (because, well, telekinetically animated earth) and after a short while it returns to the compound and drags off the hit and run driver, forcing the PCs to rescue him before it kills him – If they do so the killer is found dead in the jail, his lungs full of earth. This is the Floop Brothers cleaning up after an idiot who brought the cops down on them. Let the PCs spin mad stories about anything (likely the spirit of the person killed in the accident) before giving it an ambiguous X-Files ending.

4.2: Compound Problems

A guest at the Floop Compound goes nuts in town, shooting things up, and the PCs have to intervene. But once he is in jail other people start acting out of character – revealing secrets, committing crimes – and having no memory of what happened. Sgt. Ramble reappears in his creepy way and asks for the PCs help in capturing the real culprit, Sir Lemur, freshly arrived through a dimensional portal on the Floop Compound from a world where mind controlling animals have dominion over mankind. Sir Lemur was the first of these, and Ramble hints in the endgame that the other world is chronologically ahead of ours so this world’s Sir Lemur might appear any day (setting up for the origin story in the book).

4.3: Carnival IV

Carnival Time Again! The PCs are by now doubtless expecting some new menace to arrive with the tents – and there is a horn-headed man doing feats of strength and seducing women (is name is Ram-Beau) – but the threat comes from Ida discovering her husband in flagrante delicto with one of the carnival workers. Ida flips out and constructs her Rocket Ma’am fireworks theme gear to get revenge on her husband and the whole Carnival. If the PCs can’t talk her down she ‘goes out in a blaze of glory’ which is actually a faked death, but one that leaves her with her facial scars for the future.

4.4: Waves

The daughter of one of the wealthy families in town goes down in a boating accident, meets the thing that made Cosmic Zoom. With her new powers as Wavemistress she returns to destroy the swim team in town. While this is going on the Floop brothers analyze recent events and realize that they are, despite some of them having powers (Psi Demon was part of the same experiments that made Zairobs, Whippet had a dimensional accident in the woods, Blastin’ Butch found his magic amulet at a dimensional portal), potentially outgunned. They make a deal with George Ronky for super-powered gear, getting even more gear – Psi-Demon’s claws, Captain Floops flame and force field devices, Whippet’s helmet and ice gear. Psi Demon’s telepathy has tracked down the PCs

4.5: Retreat

The Floop Brothers, aware of who and what the PCs are due to Psi-Demons telepathy, go after them directly. This should be a pretty brutal battle with the PCs off kilter and still trying to keep their secret IDs. The intent is to get them off balance and nearly defeated so don’t hold back. If any of them have a way of escaping or faking their deaths let them develop it and use it. If not Sargent Ramble returns to pull them away. They should recognize the Floop brothers in this, especially when Psi-Demon makes an earth demon figure again. (You might want to let the players know in advance that this is the dramatic intent and the penultimate session of this phase of the campaign).

4.6: Crossroads:

Payback time. Having been broken down now is the time for the PCs to build back up – give them a costume montage, let them finally adopt real heroic IDs and return the favor on the Floop brothers, who think that they are dead or gone. During all this the PCs friends and family are wondering if they will be making it to the High School graduation ceremony. Hopefully the fight doesn’t spill over into that. 

Opponents Unlimited: Crossroads Season 3

Season 3: in the shadows

So we’ve faced a criminal conspiracy and alien incursions – it’s clearly time for evil magic! The over-arching plot of this season is Mr. Noman/Oliver Daniels, the Latin professor who took over for Mr. Kling/Proditor Capella, is trying to recruit someone for his nascent villain group by ‘helping them become a hero.’ This can be one of the PCs but if no one bites it will be Miss Douglas, whose powers (but not memory) will then be returning and strengthening over the course of the season. If you go that route Miss Douglas becomes one of the opening credits regulars for the season.

3.1: Islands

… but not just yet. The first episode of the season opens with one of the PCs, or someone close to them, witnessing Sgt Ramble materializing somewhere in the school. I like the idea of a cat and mouse thing where a disoriented but skilled Ramble is trying to get away from the PCs in a chase where they have to maintain their secret IDs, but at the end of the day Ramble isn’t a threat. After 25 years of dimensional wandering he’s just happy to be home. He can fill the PCs in on the original experiment and the threats that are massing in other dimensions. Mr. Noman starts recruiting

3.2: Shrouds

Bodies are going missing from the graveyard. Again people immediately blame ANT labs (man, you steal some kids for their organs and no one trusts you again) but the real culprit is the Shroud in his secret ID as the town undertaker. As an aside, characters like the Shroud who make up for the clunkers like Hoopsnake – he has a nice self-contained story for the PCs to investigate and resolve right in the sourcebook. I don’t really need to add anything. Mr. Noman may assist in thwarting this, either directly by advising the PCs or indirectly by advising Ms. Douglas, who tells them.

3.3: Carnival III

Hey, hey, the Circus/Carnival is back in town! This year’s new star/threat is Dr. Wraithman, who has arrived in town looking for magical artifacts that are in the school science lab storage area, having appeared some 10 years ago. Their first point of appearance was on the Floop Executive Retreat compound, so the PCs will have their first point of investigation/conflict being there. Wraithman blew through their security (the Floops are out of town, save Whippet in his ridiculous pants) to find the artifacts gone, so he has to track them to the school, giving the players several shots at them. Ida Rollins is, of course, working double time and sees the PCs as her Scooby gang.

3.4: Game, Set, Match:

We learn that Mr. Jenkins (aka Hoopsnake), the gym teacher since Coach Gummins went all nutso and iconic in S1E4, is also pastor of a small church in town that are actually Set worshippers. The tennis team, made up of the school’s wealthiest kids, is having an award winning year. Jenkins is using that to hypnotize more and more of the community elite to Set worship, and when one of the students turns up dead from snake venom for falling out of the cult the PCs have to unravel the mystery. Mr. Noman’s recruitment efforts continue as in S3E2 except pressing the need to treat such evil ‘definitively’.

3.5: Bow Before Zoom!

Cosmic Zoom is back! He managed a blood sacrifice of a mouse to get his powers back and easily escaped jail with his shrinking ability. He keeps appearing and disappearing around town (being able to shrink to 1/8^th of an inch can do that) and creeping the heroes out, but he’s also planning for his first human sacrifice to get back in his master’s good graces – this should be someone close to the PCs. Mr. Noman, one way or another, pushes that Zoom’s ability to escape means he must be killed to protect the world, knowing that murder would bind the hero to him forever.

3.6: Tower:

The final revelations about Mr. Noman fall into place this session, either with him bringing the PC in to his lair or doing the same with Miss Douglas, now Justice-Avenger, and trying to get them to do something irrevocable; bear in mind Mr. Noman’s superhuman charisma will be at work. This should be a chance for the PCs to have a lot of emotional role playing about good and evil, about powers and responsibility, and then tear into the fledgling Tarot Masters in their base. Justice Avenger might well slide to the dark side if the PCs aren’t able to convince her. 

Opponents Unlimited: Crossroads Season 2

Season 2: Aliens Among Us

Doing from conspiracy theory to alien invasion, we start to see the interconnectivity between seasons as the Robotoid attack from S1E2 is revealed as being the result of UIY 2249’s activities. Since this is modeled on the TV shows it means nothing of import happened over summer vacation. The PCs all reconnect and get back into the rhythms of the school year.

2.1: Fun and Games: Prankster and Sirrandor. B: Justice Avenger as Gifted and Talented teacher

Back to school, where things have gone screwy from word one – the school and its grounds are under ‘attack’ by the Prankster aka Paolo Phelps, a fellow student and class clown who was given a ‘magic wand’ by the curious alien Sirriandor who was here to see how events at the nexus would play out if poked. (Assume all of Pranksters powers come from the wand) This isn’t really a threat episode, and Sirrandor will, when located and confronted, wipe out ay memories Paolo has that might point the finger at the PCs before he leaves. He will mention the Other Ship. The PCs will also meet young and pretty new teacher Lucy Douglas, who is the new Talented and Gifted teacher tasked with, among other things, keeping track of Nick Ward.

2.2: Operative, part 1:

Nick and his buddies have gone missing again, and Miss Douglas will let this drop in conversation to the PCs. The rest of the town is immediately fearing another Jhamoka incident and the police are investingating ANT Labs/Vanguard. Tracking down the Mensa-punks will lead them first to the destroyed Emerson Electronics building. Nick is another legitimate superhuman (Ht. Intelligence B +17, total is 30) created by the town’s strange multi-dimensional nexus, and he will have an escape route for UIY set up that makes it look like the robot has been destroyed. In a cut scene Nick complains to his mentor, George Ronky, who advises the child to practice patience, and when alone, opens up the secret back room of his office, filled with alien tech.

2.3: Carnival II:

The Circus/Carnival is back in town! This time around the villain of the piece is the new strongman/acrobat Blake Seagle, aka Boosterman. After watching him perform an impossible feat and then stop some minor crime at the Carnival with some superhuman physical ability we see Blake return to his trailer and lay out the plans for Ronky’s place. The PCs spend some time with Ida, watching her deal with how her husband is flirting with the carneys. With the police overstressed on Carnival duty Ida ‘deputizes’ the PCs to help her on radio duty that night, where they pick up a call from someone who saw a strange figure breaking into Ronky’s place. The PCs are able to interrupt Boosterman’s first attempt but one of Ronky’s defense mechanism gives a distraction for him to escape. Investigate a bit and then deal with Boosterman when he makes another attempt on the store.

2.4: Weighty Matters

Back to problems at the school. None of the PCs have spent much time with young Karla Truesdale since her dad started homeschooling her in 1^st grade. Now 10 years later Karla is back and huge, having been raised in a heavy gravity environment. Her attempts to fit in and dealing with bullies. As the PCs deal with this they also have to deal with Miss Douglas, who suspects them of being more than they appear. Her observation should make all of this harder. We begin to suspect that Miss Douglas’ dreams are preternaturally accurate.

2.5: Clothes Make the Superman

The PCs get a break from Miss. Douglas’ unwanted attention when her fiancée, Arnold Kling, returns from his sabbatical and resumes teaching Latin classes at the school. Unfortunately he returned with the Proditor Capella suit and the alien mind within it driving him to start undermining humanity. After some midnight attacks on tech businesses in surrounding towns the PCs, if they aren’t investigating, are asked by Miss Douglas to check on it, hinting she knows their secrets. Once they confront and defeat Capella he loses his memories once the alien suit is pulled off him. During the fight Ronky secretly unleashes an attack on the Proditor suit that gives them an edge. Nick sees that, seethes and makes plans.

2.6: Operative, Part 2:

Nick Ward has completed his repairs on UIY 2249, but the robot still needs ship repairs. UIY and Nick attack Ronky’s shop (Nick is furious about his keeping secrets) and, if the PCs don’t stop them, get away with what they need – to make it more likely for this to happen the other G&T kids should show up as a distraction. If the PCs are stymied Miss Douglas will point them in the right direction with her heightened senses and insist on coming along, because she has seen that UIY will be turning Nick and the other G&T children into battle cyborgs. During the fight Miss Douglas is bathed in radiation from the ship and when she wakes up remembers nothing about the heroes and their powers. Whew!

Opponents Unlimited: Crossroads Season 1

Season 1: Before they were BAD

This season starts with the hero’s origin event, whatever that may have been. They then have to learn how to use their abilities while keeping up their secret IDs as High School Freshmen (in a TV series they are likely those Freshmen played by ‘youthful’ appearing 19 year olds who are curiously well established in school activities…). Complicating this are the various oddities of the teaching staff, the school bully and his mother, the school nurse, who is running a biological matter theft ring for a local agribusiness.

1.1 Pilot

The PCs have their origin event, and their temporary disappearance causes some panic because several other children have gone missing lately. A run in with the school bully, Senior Class loser Melvin Barton, sends at least some of them to the nurse, his mother “Auntie” Philomena. Another child disappearance gives the PCs the clues to track down Ben Jhamoka, who is using his ice cream truck as part of his organ-legging business. He won’t give up whose paying for him, but we have a cut scene with Auntie Phil lamenting the loss of such prime biomass….

1.2 Testing Ground

The PCs have to find a place to test their powers, and the only logical place – out of the way, no chance to hurt anyone – is the abandoned Emerson Electronics manufacturing plant. They have to chase away a bunch of ‘Gifted and Talented’ 8^th graders who, led by ‘boy genius’ Nick Ward, are also using this as a very unsafe play space. The whole effort is complicated by the emergent Robotoids, who have gained sentience and are building new forms for themselves. The fight will doubtless bring down the building, and Auntie Phil will show up quickly to berate the PCs and do medical care (and take tissue samples) from all the kids. (Possibly even the PCs, which might change some of the motivations for the rest of the season as Auntie Phil tries to work out the PCs secret.)

1.3: Carnival

In the 1995 a base closure shut down the old army base, and while most of that is now the Executive Training Compound run by the Floop Brothers the remainder is a big field used every year for the Prest Travelling Circus to come to town (this is a smaller version of the full circus that Prest himself fronts for, but it’s still a decent one tent + travelling carnival affair. This year’s star performer is master illusionist The Amazing Kudebuck, a dwarf magician. Realizing he has real powers Auntie Phil uses her super-haranguing power (If you aren’t familiar with Opponents Unlimited, she really does have super-haranguing powers) to get him to break into the New World Genetics buildings in the new office park to steal medical samples. Depending on how the PCs get involved he may need multiple tries to either get past them or give them multiple shots at catching him. The PCs will also meet Police Dispatcher Ida Rollins, who assist the PCs and also runs the fireworks for the carnival (and other civic events).

1.4: Pinned

Back to trouble at the school – it’s wrestling season and Coach Gummins is putting the freshmen through the wringer. Unfortunately the PCs powers are interacting oddly with Gummons own – we see in Flashback Gummins being an intelligence officer at the ostensibly closed army base 15 years ago when something happened and Army Intel closed the base for good – and his psychotropic skin starts acting up and his sanity starts to slip. Seeing Auntie Phil for help she uses her super-haranguing power to direct him at the PCs and make a big distraction while she and Melvin make a delivery to the Vanguard subsidiary Agribusiness Natural Technologies (ANT) Labs, one of the last big employers in town.

1.5: Sacrifices

The PCs discover the fallout of Auntie Phil’s and Melvin’s last action – cattle mutilation, with lips and livers and other organs missing! – and likely jump to a lot of Alien Invasion theories. However attention will fall on school janitor Roger Ford, who becomes increasingly twitchy, acting every more guilty. The PCs can find evidence of his monthly sacrifices to ‘the thing in the water’, as he calls whatever it is he is sacrificing to in the lake/river. When cornered by the PCs, in a preferably isolated spot, he explosively uses his growth powers to engage them. As Zoom either escapes or is captured the PCs can realize that the cattle mutilation is against his MO. Auntie Phil gets her payment from ANT Labs and the Bartons prepare to skip town once doing so would no longer draw suspicion.

1.6: Swarmed

Melvin shoots of his big mouth at school, giving the PCs the clues they need to tie him and Auntie Phil to the other events of the school year. Auntie Phil, if confronted, will face the PCs with her super-haranguing and her energy pistol, but Melvin will run for the ANT base to lead the PCs there. Once on site the PCs are confronted by the ANT Labs security chief, SWARMaster. The bio-thefts (including the organlegging) have been to provide specialized biomasses for insect experimentation at ANT labs. Despite a fear (planted by Auntie Phil) that bringing this to the police will shutter one of the last big businesses in town, ANT Labs owners, Vanguard Inc, instead cut loose the ‘bad apples’, make restitution and promise to stick around in such an interesting community. Maybe end the season with the containers holding the PCs blood and skin samples from S1E2 going into a Vanguard lab….

Opponents Unlimited: Crossroads Character Creation and Development

The shows this is based on have a core hero with a bunch of non-powered but helpful friends. This can work in a gaming sense (the RPGs for Buffy and Smallville both work quite well) but it’s not natural for V&V. My recommendation is everyone design PCs as if the 1d6 roll for number of powers came up a 2. The PCs will end up with 2 powers or 3 powers and 1 weakness.

Life is much easier with a shared origin story for the PCs, but given the Crossroads nature of the game you aren’t wedded to one. Still if everyone could decide which of the tables will be their go to for rolling – Powers, Devices, Magic/Psionic items or Magic/Psionics – it will set a tenor for the game. The advanced training implied by the Skills table doesn’t lend itself to a teen hero game, but one way to make it work is to have some of the PCs be prodigies rather than superhumans – opting to take all of their rolls on Skills. These kids have exceptional potential, but end up being one of the normal people helping out the secret superuman(s) in their class. Given how V&V works there shouldn’t be a lot of balancing issues with this at the table.

Another option is to be completely “normal”. One or more players skip rolling Powers and instead roll play a character who acts as the team’s heart, confidence, emotional support and plucky sidekick. Give that PC Luck points per session equal to 1/10 C * Lvl that let them stumble into things, show up at key moments, have other people show up at key moments, reduce fatal blows to incapacitating and other blows to stunning, etc. If the GM doesn’t like giving unfettered story point manipulation you can force a d20 roll against C for this to work, or maybe d% vs. Cx3. If a player opts to do this they can give one other PC an extra power roll, keeping the team power level balanced.

To look at this through the lens of season 1 Smallville, Pete is the ‘normal’ guy, giving Clark an extra power roll. Clark has Ht. Strength B, Invulnerability, Ht. Speed and Ht. Senses (stretching a little originally this is his lightning calculator ability, but he quickly develops X-Ray vision) and Vulnerability. Chloe is a Prodigy with Ht. Senses (Wacky Theories Are Always Right, Catches Things On Camera) and Ht. Charisma A. Lex has Heightened Intelligence B and Pet, which my group has always given the option of using as a sidekick or, in this case, a support organization and resources.

As characters gain experience they get better at fighting, but they also learn new ways to use their powers. I strongly recommend a house rule where inventing rules can be used to expand powers. (A bunch of other house rules here might help:
http://subplotkudzu.blogspot.com/2013/02/heroes-of-united-worlds-3.html)

If you watch any of the Monster of the Week shows the first 5 minutes are dedicated to the origin or first local appearance of this week’s monster, and more time is spent later showing what the monster is doing while the PCs try to track it down. In this paradigm the MOTW should always claim a first victim/victory. The PCs start investigating that event while the MOTW moves to event 2.

Depending on how well the PCs are doing on the investigating they may interrupt event 2 but it is likely that the MOTW has some secret ability that lets it evade capture or overpower the PCs temporarily, people show up on the scene that kicks in the need for secrecy or become endangered civilians. The GM shouldn’t necessarily force an inconclusive result, but it’s fitting. This may continue in event 3.

In and around event 4 the PCs succeed in taking care of the threat, having discerned its origins, motivations, weaknesses and perhaps invented a means to defeat it.

While these are going on we have personal subplots for the PCs – there are likely longer term investigations of the seasonal arcs and the melodrama that make up teen angst stories. How much your players want to engage in this is up to you, but something is needed to fill out some of the time. Alternately you could rely on multiple cut scenes to the MOTW and longer term adversaries to show what the other people in the campaign are doing. This might goad your players into action.

Opponents Unlimted: Crossroads Series Pitch

Unlike Most Wanted, which I read so much as a pre-teen that I remember the secret IDs of most of the villains some 30 years later, I was never a fan of Opponents Unlimited. By his own account Stefan Jones was never a big fan of the super hero tropes, and did much better work when he was mashing supers with space and fantasy. That’s A-OK considering how supers as a genre took a kitchen sink approach to genre, but the Opponents Unlimited book carries a feel of “aren’t the tropes for this just a little ridiculous?” which I don’t care for.

Until Now…

I pulled it out to see if I could follow up on the Most Wanted Conspyramid, an idea for which it is spectacularly ill-suited. What it is really well suited for is a Buffy/Smallville style TV series. Much of the book carries a small town feel in the origin stories and villain bases. Many of the villains in it work best for a Monster of the Week problem, there is a good mix of dimensional/magical villains and outer space/SF villains and Jones goes into some details of the villains mundane secret IDs. Add into this that many V&V games of the 80’s involved teenage players playing themselves with powers and the idea of a contemporary game trying to marry that to the Buffy model has potential.

My design goal is a 24 session ‘series’ where we have 4 ‘seasons’ that are short story arcs. Each one covers, theoretically, a year of time so the PCs go from being Freshmen to Seniors. At the end of series 4 they graduate not just from High School but into being costume wearing, full-fledged super heroes. You can then start a more normal campaign with them, and they will have backstory with the OU villains as you bring them back into play.

The small towns of these shows are full of weird events but those events have a central reason – Buffy’s Sunnydale has a Hellmouth, Smallville is coated with lots of little mutagenic Kryptonite rocks. In our case the central reason is that 25 years ago an experimental beam weapon was fired in the weapons testing lab of a nearby army base. That generated a pinpoint dimensional rupture and inadvertently made this town functionally a dimensional crossroads. (Crossroads becomes our series name and means the series is set in Indiana, Crossroads of America.) The energy remnant is a beacon for magical forces and hyperspace drives alike; those who can sense it come here to see what’s going on, leaving wisps of chaos in their wake.

These stories focus on secret identities, and hence have secrets. The plots center around events plaguing their hometown, not the world. Their venue is often their High School, not their penthouse base or space station. Characters start much less experienced and combat worthy (V&V is great for this with the Level v. Level table) and the fight:investigation ratio runs much higher to investigation. Even if they do have costumed identities those costumes are donned for the final conflict as identity protectors, not worn through the whole investigation as iconic uniforms.

(One variation is the PCs having a public base in a bustling urban locale but they are still teenagers in their secret ID. These are the menaces they fight when they’re at home – these adventures become a tonal shift, the “back on the farm” sessions were the expectations are different. I don’t recommend it for fear of breaking the tone of this series, but it is possible.)