emerald city Emerald City Crime Wave!

[Ari]

The As-You-Will Gold-Banded Staff is an incredible weapon and stealing it from, say, the Pacific Museum of Art with nobody the wiser would be a pretty classic Emerald City heist. Unfortunately somebody else just learned it's there and that some folks want to steal it.

 

How it got there in the first place can tie into Sun Walker's metaplot, how about?

[Raveled]

Hm, that works. Now the question is do I want is as a heavy-ass column (that needs a big truck to move) or as a tiny needle (that constantly gets lost)?

[Raveled]

So here are my plans so far.

• Citizen is at work when the Water Dragon, demigod descendant of Sha Wujinn, appears to create chaos on the waterfront. This turns out to be a cover to let a group of smugglers sneak onto a cargo ship and steal some high-end cars coming into Emerald City.
• Emerald Spider is at work on the HVAC systems of Atlas Mall when a dozen shops are burgled at the same time. She has to catch up with the multiplying thief and figure out what ties all the items together.
• Sha'ir is checking out the control systems for an Olympian distribution facility (themselves a subsidiary of Mars Tech) when the loading arms go mad and start attacking people! He has to save the workers, and if possible the expensive robot arms, from the hacker.
• Asad is attending a charity gala for the Pacific rain forest, when the party is crashed by a nasty-looking sort in a nasty-looking suit. Asad's dinner companion is snatched into the air and it's up to him to save her!
• Warp is attending a presentation at ASTRO Labs-Emerald City, where Professor Zed is showing off his latest dimension-hopping technology. The student has to jump in and save the day when they're attacked by super-powered thieves.
• Sun Walker is enjoying a meal in Jadetown when a truck backs up to the restaurant and pulls out one of the support columns! He has to save the other patrons and track down the criminals -- then wonder why the column is jade and gold.
• Blue Jay is caught in a traffic jam that turns so much worse when explosions rock the road! She has to stop an armed-car heist and figure out who is starting fights in the middle of her city

 

Woo. Did I miss anyone? Have we gotten literally every single PC in Emerald City involved in this? It feels like it.

 

So here is seven separate solo threads that are going to converge on a single mega-thread. That seems... unweildly. Perhaps Emerald Spider and a couple others will go investigate a different spur of the conspiracy while the rest fight Big Brain and his lackeys directly. But the fact is I'm going to need some help running even these solo threads.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Raveled

[Ari]

Rav, Salmon also is a PC of EC. He can get mixed up in a Katanarchist attempt to assasinate a FOE potentiate and renegade ninja during THEIR attempted assassination, then go with Spider's gang. Nothing more classic than ninjas.

[Ari]

Also will be happy to help run some of these.

 

Stop laughing I'm serious.

[Avenger Assembled]

My advice would be to double up PCs in threads. Too many solo threads will mean the event runs as slowly as the slowest person. 

[Raveled]

34 minutes ago, Avenger Assembled said:

My advice would be to double up PCs in threads. Too many solo threads will mean the event runs as slowly as the slowest person. 

 

That's good advice, but I'm struggling to figure out how to do it. Warp and Sha'ir could both be at ASTRO Labs and Salmon and Spider go together just because of PL, but I can't see how to put the others together.

[Ari]

What about using the individual crimes as sort of like intro scenes? So each of the PCs has that as their reason for being in the larger thread, but we start with those larger threads instead of playing out the individual crimes?

[olopi]

Okay, a few suggestions, take them or leave them:

Not all at the same time, but a few on how the PCs could be connected. Also, for the most part, keeping your original suggestions.

Due to being mobility based, Warp and Salmon can in theory probably get to most threads, so it's mainly a question of why with them

 

 

Warp/Sha'ir: ASTRO Labs, as you mentioned

Salmon/Spider : You can probably still use Spider's Mall setup here, or perhaps have something happen out in the street as she is working, and Salmon happens to be in the area/hear of it happening? Speedsters are mobile, that can help with the setup.

Sun Walker/Citizen: Perhaps the Water Dragon is helping with the Pillar? Demi-god off!

Asad/Sun Walker: Asad's dinner party is part of the plan of getting to the Pillar, for a reason the two have to figure out!

Spider/Sha'ir : Spider is doing maintenance in the building when the hacker attacks, meaning she now can help out there, while also having to deal with the hacker attacking the HVAC (and potentially unleashing something nasty?) // Sha'ir is doing IT duty in a few of the sotres in the mall, as it gets robbed!

Warp/Spider: Spider's doing maintenance at ASTRO // Warp has taken some time off and is enjoying the city, as she hears of a mall being robbed.

 

There's probably a lot more, but here's a few to, hopefully, set off a few ideas!

 

[Avenger Assembled]

A post or two for everyone in the individual threads sounds promising, as Ari suggests.

 

By the same token, Citizen could be nearly anywhere as far as partnering - he's a science hero who does lots of public appearances.

[Raveled]

I don't want to downplay the individual threats, though. I want FOE to be seen as a major player in the supercrime market, and I think giving each PC or group of PCs a good fight with folks who are just minions of FOE is a good way to go about creating that feeling.

[Ari]

How about this then: the individual threads are played through but the GM and players do all the rolls in advance. That way they don,t get potentially bogged-down and it flows better, along with letting there be more collaboration and less reactive/"I dunno what to do" stumblings.

[Avenger Assembled]

Okay, so we do the group threads, then scale it into the main event. 

 

Sounds good - let's use the whip hand and get at it. 

[Ari]

I'll take the Warp and Blue Jay threads, if there's no problem with that.

[Raveled]

I will take on the Spider/Salmon thread.

[Ari]

If Avenger doesn't mind, how about Citizen is part of the attendees for Prof. Zed's interdimensional enchantment extravaganza. Asad andBlue Jay are teaming up for a car chase through the lovely rainforests of Oregon.

[Raveled]

Are we keeping with the notion of two different climax threads, one where the heroes uncover FOE's plan and one where they confront FOE itself?

[Ari]

Sure, works as a nice division of labor for the differing PLs. 

[Raveled]

The problem with the notion of dividing the PLs that we have a PL 7, a PL 8, and a bunch of PL 10s.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sounds good, Ari. 

 

Don't forget PL 12 Citizen! 

[Exaccus]

I was informed by Ari that it would be a good idea to post some potential threads here too in addition to bad puns so here i goes.

 

Unwitting Corporate Puppet angle: FOE is hired by panstar to attack a rival, and tekton is sent by panstar to pull said rivals butt out of the fire, both disgracing them and making panstar look good by preventing what could turn into a ecological disaster and in doing so starting friction between panstar and FOE that leads to further adventures.

 

Sponsored Super Angle: Tekton is obligated to not only save the day but make it look good, particularly when it comes to certain super villains, chances are he might actually be sent out to hunt for one in specific and agitate an otherwise quiet "Eco-Terrorist" into an outright attack against some fixture or other, maybe not panstars even but as a tactic to again replace another company when the facility is damaged beyond repair.

 

Vampires angle: Tekton is Super-Duperstitious so an encounter with the cryptid clans, a haemokinetic and/or an outright vampire would play into that.

particularly if you wanna go for the eco-warrior werewolves angle,

 

Any of those sound good? 

Edited February 13, 2017 by Exaccus

[Ari]

@Exaccus @HG Morrison

 

That last I really like. Also it helps foreshadow the Nightwatch infiltration(can't miss something we don't know is there). So how about this: Tekton and Kukson end up in the middle of a three-way collision between the Blood Brothers vampire society, a F.O.E. magician and the gestalt of bound spirits they were hired to settle down.