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stevekensonThe Sunken Stone
Following clues about the Malay Coins to Shanghai, the Midnight Society meets with a dealer of antiquities at the Shanghai Club, to negotiate to buy—or at least view—the coin in his possession. The meeting goes well, but the dealer is kidnapped outside of the club by a group of thugs, leading to a chase through the streets of Shanghai and a running fight between the kidnapper’s sedan and the Midnighter’s “borrowed” truck. A bricked roll leads Skyler “I can crash anything!” Hawkins to drive the truck off a construction ramp and into the back of another truck. Buster “I do my own stunts” Corrigan and Jason St. George manage to deal with the kidnappers, although not without crashing their car into a wagonload of fireworks. The greatful victim gives the Midnighters the coin they’re looking for, which is the key to determining that the coins are a map to a location in the South China Sea.
Hiring a ship, the Midnight Society follows the map, discovering nothing but open ocean at the locale. Then their ship is attacked and sunk by a high-tech submarine, which surfaces to take the survivors prisoner. Aboard the sub is Li-Ming Tzin and her father, the infamous Dr. Sin! The Midnighters are imprisoned on-board while the sub dives towards the ocean floor. Escaping by means of St. George’s mystic talents and Max Cain’s herculean strength, some of the heroes seize control of the sub’s engine room, while Max and Jason confront Dr. Sin on the bridge. They learn of the sunken pirate ship and its treasure, as well as the real object of Dr. Sin’s quest: not gold, but a special jewel, a recording crystal from an advanced ancient civilization, containing untold technological secrets! Li-Ming has recovered the crystal and Dr. Sin takes an escape route to her while his crew tries to hold the heroes at bay (unsuccessfully).
In the confrontation, Max and Li-Ming—along with the crystal—go into the deep, shark-infested waters, followed by St. George, as Dr. Sin makes good his escape. Evading the sharks (after Max wrestles one into submission), they get back aboard the sub as Skyler manages to reverse the damage done to its ballast pumps to get it back to the surface. The forgotten crystal sinks to the ocean depths, and the Midnighters destroy the coins showing its location, before returning to shore to turn the captured Li-Ming and Sin’s crew over to the authorities.
Game Play: There was really no noticeable absence to cutting back on the characters’ aspects, except perhaps that they were slightly more inclined to seek outside aspects to tag and exploit, rather than using their own.
The players also loosened up a bit regarding things like bad die rolls in this session, letting some of the chips fall where they might to make for more interesting scenes as their characters occasionally messed up. (Skyler crashing the truck being a prime example... he’s a pilot, not a driver!) There’s something somewhat odd about the spread of the 4dF in that there seem to be more “bad” rolls, even when there actually isn’t. Even rolling four “+” dice, while cool, seems to lack a bit of the thrill of getting a natural 20 on a d20 roll, but maybe that’s just because of my preponderance of experience with d20-based still of late.
Following clues about the Malay Coins to Shanghai, the Midnight Society meets with a dealer of antiquities at the Shanghai Club, to negotiate to buy—or at least view—the coin in his possession. The meeting goes well, but the dealer is kidnapped outside of the club by a group of thugs, leading to a chase through the streets of Shanghai and a running fight between the kidnapper’s sedan and the Midnighter’s “borrowed” truck. A bricked roll leads Skyler “I can crash anything!” Hawkins to drive the truck off a construction ramp and into the back of another truck. Buster “I do my own stunts” Corrigan and Jason St. George manage to deal with the kidnappers, although not without crashing their car into a wagonload of fireworks. The greatful victim gives the Midnighters the coin they’re looking for, which is the key to determining that the coins are a map to a location in the South China Sea.
Hiring a ship, the Midnight Society follows the map, discovering nothing but open ocean at the locale. Then their ship is attacked and sunk by a high-tech submarine, which surfaces to take the survivors prisoner. Aboard the sub is Li-Ming Tzin and her father, the infamous Dr. Sin! The Midnighters are imprisoned on-board while the sub dives towards the ocean floor. Escaping by means of St. George’s mystic talents and Max Cain’s herculean strength, some of the heroes seize control of the sub’s engine room, while Max and Jason confront Dr. Sin on the bridge. They learn of the sunken pirate ship and its treasure, as well as the real object of Dr. Sin’s quest: not gold, but a special jewel, a recording crystal from an advanced ancient civilization, containing untold technological secrets! Li-Ming has recovered the crystal and Dr. Sin takes an escape route to her while his crew tries to hold the heroes at bay (unsuccessfully).
In the confrontation, Max and Li-Ming—along with the crystal—go into the deep, shark-infested waters, followed by St. George, as Dr. Sin makes good his escape. Evading the sharks (after Max wrestles one into submission), they get back aboard the sub as Skyler manages to reverse the damage done to its ballast pumps to get it back to the surface. The forgotten crystal sinks to the ocean depths, and the Midnighters destroy the coins showing its location, before returning to shore to turn the captured Li-Ming and Sin’s crew over to the authorities.
Game Play: There was really no noticeable absence to cutting back on the characters’ aspects, except perhaps that they were slightly more inclined to seek outside aspects to tag and exploit, rather than using their own.
The players also loosened up a bit regarding things like bad die rolls in this session, letting some of the chips fall where they might to make for more interesting scenes as their characters occasionally messed up. (Skyler crashing the truck being a prime example... he’s a pilot, not a driver!) There’s something somewhat odd about the spread of the 4dF in that there seem to be more “bad” rolls, even when there actually isn’t. Even rolling four “+” dice, while cool, seems to lack a bit of the thrill of getting a natural 20 on a d20 roll, but maybe that’s just because of my preponderance of experience with d20-based still of late.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-10 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 02:55 am (UTC)(Man, I hope I'm not the only one that watched that show...)