Background Information

[K Man]

[glow=orange,2,300]Orange Glow[/glow]

---

Hauptfeldwebel Richsmann slammed his gloved fist onto the counter, rattling the whole length of the lab table, beakers and all. It was not often that the officer was prone to using his fists in lieu of a gun, but the frustration was evident.

"Why has there been no progress?" He growled.

The scientist--Richsmann couldn't even think of his name--recoiled in fear. "It is complicated. The amber is not reacting with the device as expected. There is no exact science to..."

"ENOUGH!" Richsmann bellowed. "I have three hundred of the Reich's finest waiting for this 'miracle'. The Angel of Death is producing nothing but deformities from his experiments and now you're telling me that that I can only claim the same?"

Richsmann took a step back and narrowed his gaze.

The scientist exhaled softly and closed his eyes. He had seen it a hundred times before; an argument, a failed explanation...and then a single gunshot to the head. There was no sense fighting it, this was the end. At least a dozen scientists--some of the brightest the Fatherland had to offer--had all passed this way, now it was his turn. He briefly thought back to his days at college in Berlin.

An explosion, far off. A flash of light.

The scientist cracked one eye open, just barely. As to be expected, he stared at the end of Richsmann's luger, but Richsmann had his head turned, looking out the window. Richsmann's gloved finger was wrapped around the trigger, the slightest flinch and the scientist would have perished. Whatever it was had saved the scientist from a fate he had rightfully predicted.

Another explosion, some prattling gunfire, more flashes of light.

Richsmann holstered his weapon and yanked the scientist to his feet by the collar of his lab coat. The young technician turned eyes so he wouldn't have to meet the gaze of the officer.

"Get the crates and load it all into the machine. Now!" The officer ordered with a growl.

All of it?! The scientist thought, but would never dare question.

Richsmann dropped the scientist, practically sending him backwards over the lab table. He turned with the precision that only those in the SS are trained to do, and marched towards the door. The remainder of the scientists parted like rabbits scurrying to their homes to avoid a wolf. They could clearly hear Richsmann shouting orders even when he was halfway down the hallway. If the orders were followed, the lab was about to be packed with two dozen of the "Reich's Finest"...

And they were going to load the amber into the machine and turn it on...

~**~

The following communication is classified:
Top Secret EYES ONLY.[/font]

Report from the field:
The Iron Regents have failed to report in after an attempt to seize the Amber Room during project 'Handshake'. Project Handshake is a top priority mission to recover the national treasure of the Soviet Union in an effort to fuel US-Soviet relations and end the war.

The Regents were last reported just outside of Königsberg where they said they had located the crates of amber being moved by Nazi forces. It has been three days since that transmission.

It is assumed that the Iron Regents are lost.

Advise new mission to recover Amber Room...

~**~

The radio squelched to life in Flight Lieutenant Liam Brand's cockpit. "Lieutenant...you see that?"

Liam recognized the voice, his Wing Commander Henry. "I sure do Henry. What do you make of it?"

"Krauts making a run for it I guess."

Liam watched the plane bank and head Northwest, far from the battle that raged South. It was unmarked, save for a single Swastika on the rudder and underbelly. It was a black, single wing transport--probably unarmed.

Liam's unit--the Flying Bulldogs--had been called to this mission last minute. It was a bombing run over some god-foresaken city on the coast of Poland, something about a munitions factory and entrenched Nazi soldiers. Liam didn't really care; killing Nazis was killing Nazis. To date, his RAF unit had the highest number of kills and he hand selected his men from pilots that had lost a loved one to the Germans...made them better killers in his opinion.

The Germans had scrambled some fighters in an effort to stave off the bombers, and that's why the Flying Bulldogs were brought in. The dogfight was fierce. Planes littered the sky, streaks of tracer bullets arced everywhere. The last of the German planes were in the process of being shot down by some of Lieutenant Brand's finest pilots; 'Good Chaps' as he would call them.

But here was this Kraut plane running for cover...and to where?

Brand pushed the throttle on his Bristol Beaufighter forward, the engines thundered in response. The plane surged forward and his Wing Commander followed the lead and surged forward to follow.

"No survivors, no mercy." The radio squelched as the fighters turned into a dive, guns blazing.

Seconds later, Brand and Henry would be shot out of the sky by a bolt of energy unlike they had ever seen, or could have ever expected. A thin wave of hellishly hot and devastating energy. It would kill them both and tear their planes right out of the sky.

But not before their bullets severed the tail of the Nazi cargo plane...

~**~

Somewhere to your right, a thick trail of smoke wafts into the morning sky. At its base, a fire rages and fuels the smoke with choking black fumes--fuel? You can barely see a piece of metal over the hill...a piece of the wing maybe?

A crash...

Your head swims. You fingers clench at dirt blanketed in frost. Something misshapen...a potato? You push yourself up on your elbows. You're surrounded by bodies. Some of them American, most of them German. Only your friends and fellows are stirring.

You are the only survivors.

What happened at Königsberg? You remember most of the assault; the Nazis, the lab...but then there was a glow of blinding orange and nothing more.

Now, here you are in a potato field, the wreckage of a plane nearby...

...And you swear you're glowing with power...

~**~

"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."

- General George S. Patton

---

I will get character creation guidelines up later, but for now assume the rough rule of creating a D20 Modern PC about 3rd or 4th level and then adding Super Powers to it using M&M rules (I'm thinking around 50 pts to spend on powers).

I am still detailing the rules on how using the powers will weaken you, so don't ask on that just yet.

Some Other Additional Info;

The Amber Room is a real (and still lost) national treasure of Russia. I'd suggest you google it and read up on it.
A Good Site: amberroom.org (And they report that it was just found!)

Also, read up on Nazi's and their obsession with the occult, and just WWII in general.

Use this post to discuss clarification of background and discuss character ideas.

Please wait until I make the official call for players before trying to secure your spot.

[Rojito]

ok well since no one else has stated anything about this i figured i would start the talk. Are we to choose our superpowers, or you? Are we playin as the Nazi's or RAF? D20 Modern, ok what choices do we have as starting Occupations? Nazi Scientist would be understandable, but for the most part it sounds as though Military would be the most appropriate occupation. albeit the Draft would make any of the available huh? Also what about age groups? What about "piloting" since the ships were all 1 man crafts should we all have some in pilot? I am sure i will come up with more, but please give me a rough estimate thanks.

[K Man]

Thanks for the questions Rojito.

In short, I'm still trying to hammer out the details of creation. I should have that post up by the end of the week. To address your questions though;

You will play US armed Forces, specifically the surviving members of The Iron Regents. (See the Maps & Handouts section for more)

You will choose your own superpowers with guidelines laid out--that are soon to come. (Need to scan and OCR like forty pages out of a book.)

Occupations are your own to choose, but in essence you will all be soldiers drafted into the military. So you could be a teacher or a bus driver that was drafted etc.

Age is unrestricted, but needs to be reasonable. No 15 year olds and no 80 year olds for instance.

[TheUdjat]

rojito said:

ok well since no one else has stated anything about this i figured i would start the talk. Are we to choose our superpowers, or you? Are we playin as the Nazi's or RAF? D20 Modern, ok what choices do we have as starting Occupations? Nazi Scientist would be understandable, but for the most part it sounds as though Military would be the most appropriate occupation. albeit the Draft would make any of the available huh? Also what about age groups? What about "piloting" since the ships were all 1 man crafts should we all have some in pilot? I am sure i will come up with more, but please give me a rough estimate thanks.

To answer some of the other questions...

Read through the post KMan indicated. It will outline that all characters are US soldiers, and paratroopers of the Iron Regents. We will all have some similar training, therefore, but considering the draft, it's certainly possible that characters have other expertise and so forth.

Note, though, that it would be fairly unusual for a drafted soldier to achieve the rank of Captain. Officers (lieutenant and above) are typically individuals that elected into the military.

On another little note, you're thinking of WWI planes as the small one-man ones (actually two-man in most cases). WWII planes could be pretty freakin' huge, including paratroopers planes (with a capacity of about 20 men), and multi-man bombers (six of seven or so crew). Planes had advanced significantly in just 22+ years.

[Rojito]

kk thanks guys. So now on to the confusing thing. Wealth, how are we doing money in this one?

[chunker]

I’m looking forward to this one. I assume I’ll get in since I’m currently gameless… Power-wise, I’m thinking maybe the Alternate Form power (Absorbing Man/Metamorpho/Sandman+Colossus type).

D20 Future would have worked well for tech heroes, cyborgs, and minor mutants just allowing the heroes access to higher PL’s (+ some psionics/magic/mutations), in an otherwise “normal” world. However from the background, it sounds like we’ll all be altered humans, no gadgeteers or battle suits.

I like the idea of using the D20 modern as a base. I think using d20 levels for attack/HP/Feat/etc. progression is better than M&M’s Power Level approach. It also fits the campaign theme well, humans becoming super.

M&M is great for its thorough inventory of powers, but conversion will be tricky. You may have already worked these issues out, but here are a few thoughts:

1) Converting M&M toughness/damage: You’ll need a progression of some sort for damage on powers like Strike/Blast. Does Blast 5 = 5d4 damage (Burning Hands)? 2d6+1 (D6 pips)? 3d6 (d20 Size progression from d4)? For reference, the M3 machine gun in D20 Past does 2d8. Then how do Protection/Force Field convert? Natural Armor/Deflection Bonus to AC? Temp HP? Impervious = DR? Improved Damage Threshold?

2) Point costs, particularly for ability score affects: In M&M Enhanced ability = 1 point per ability score point. However, the scores don’t affect combat (or skill points) so enhanced Str, Dex, and perhaps Int should be modified. For example Dex: Increasing Dex by 6 in M&M would only give a +3 to Initiative, Dex-based Skills and Reflex Save (for a cost of 6 points). It would cost another 6 points to increase Defense by 3 and another 6 to increase Attack (both melee and range). So in the D20 conversion, Enhanced Dex 6 should probably cost 15 points (6 for the base + 6 for Defense + 3 for Ranged Attack), or maybe less to account for flat-footed rules and max Dex bonus with armor (not a factor in M&M). Enhanced Wis, on the otherhand, would still just be worth 6 (in the absence of Spells).

3) Will we be able to buy Feats with power points? In M&M, feats are cheap, which can be good (no toiling over feats for base character creation) or bad (everyone will have Shot on the Run and Spring Attack; maybe this is good too).

4) Flight & Super Speed? M&M has a wide open time/movement system.

No need to respond directly to my post, just wanted to give some input. I'm sure you'll work it all out.

[Toptomcat]

rojito said:

kk thanks guys. So now on to the confusing thing. Wealth, how are we doing money in this one?

Probably entirely ignoring it, except concievably to bribe NPCs with. If we need anything important, we'll have to requisition it.

[K Man]

toptomcat said:

rojito said:

kk thanks guys. So now on to the confusing thing. Wealth, how are we doing money in this one?

Probably entirely ignoring it, except concievably to bribe NPCs with. If we need anything important, we'll have to requisition it.

This is fairly acurate on TTC guess. All soldiers will be given standard gear accurate for the time, the rest you will find or have to take.

As for Chunker's post, that's partly why this is taking so damned long to do. Converting the powers to D20 in terms of distance, health etc is taking longer than expected. I hope everyone know this will be a first for me and learning experience for everyone. If you find fault in what I've done when I post it, let me know.

I wasn't actually that interested in this game when you merely wrote up the summary in the poll. However, the more I read about it the more it seems to grow on me. I do have lots of other games I'm currently in, so I'm going to let others have first choice in the game, but just want to say K-Man that this does sound quite interesting the more I read about it.