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Danger Platoon by Mike Wight (aka stupidgremlin, Gremlin Legions)
Pocket Danger Patrol by John Harper
GMless procedure and house rules


The Players

Erin Sara B-G. as Kilby Razmuss the Demonblood Pilot, a fallen angel AWOL from Hell
Special Abilities: Dark Powers, Super-Demon Strength, Mechanical Knowledge, Advantage in the Air
Quote: "Mother of pearl!"

John B. as Special Agent Tembo the Mystic Warrior, a British witch doctor
Special Abilities: Occult Knowledge, Fortune Telling, Voodoo Talisman, Machete, The Evil Eye
Quote: "We will destroy you abominations!"

Shuo M. as Dr. Judith Potato the Undead Scientist, a fastidious brain-dead genius
Special Abilities: Ever-Sharp Surgical Scalpel, Test Tubes, Super Strong Stitching String, Languages, Undead Hunger
Quote: "Lungs are so overrated."

Terence T. as Special Agent Macha Hernandez the Psychic Mutant, an experimental weapon
Special Abilities: Telepathy, Telekinesis, Mental Blast, Mind Control
Quote: "Now all we have to do is kill this guy."

Seth M. as Major "Big Jack" Burbank the Two-Fisted Daredevil, an action hero
Special Abilities: Fearless, Brass Knuckles, World Traveler, Guns Blazing
Quote: "Die, you bastard!"


The Threats

Mysterious Runes (GM: Seth), glowing inscriptions on the walls of a Nazi-occupied castle in the Black Forest
Weakness: Insight, Guarded by Extra-Dimensional Enigma

Extra-Dimensional Enigma (GM: John), the quasi-Latin language of the Runes, possibly from a parallel world
Strength: Strange

Horrific Squadron (GM: Erin Sara), crippled Nazi soldiers forced to keep fighting by the Unearthly Trooper's Hypnotic Device
Strength: Action, Weakness: Science, Horde: Unearthly Trooper

Nazi Creature (GM: Seth), body parts from perfect Aryan test subjects stitched together to form a giant monster
Weakness: Science

Psychic Assassin (GM: John), an evil mastermind who narrowly escapes the Danger Platoon every damn time!
Weakness: Strange, Guarded by Nazi Creature

Unearthly Trooper (GM: Terence), a parallel version of the Psychic Assassin from a world where the Nazis have already won
Weakness: Strange, Horde: Horrific Squadron

Hypnotic Device (GM: Shuo), controls minds, projects visions of parallel worlds, opens portals when fed enough power
Weakness: Science, Guarded by Horrific Squadron, Countdown: 2


Threat / Scenario Generation

(We began by writing a dozen or so random Threat Styles and a dozen Roles on post-it notes, moving them around on the table and discussing the possibilities. We paired them up appropriately, then chose our favorite seven to keep as Threats, establishing a few facts about them in the process. The only ones I can recall were that the Mysterious Runes were engraved on the walls of a castle, that the Psychic Assassin was an old foe we'd encountered in the past, and that the Unearthly Trooper was his parallel self from an alternate universe where the Nazis had already conquered the world, possibly by using the Hypnotic Device.)

Erin Sara: I like the idea that the Horrific Squadron is being mind controlled by the Hypnotic Device... It put them into some sort of trance. They've been fighting non-stop so they've got frostbite and stuff like that. They seem sort of undead because they just don't stop ever, and they're missing arms and stuff.
John: So they're mental zombies, they're not really undead?
E: Yeah yeah!
J: That's really good.
Seth: Let's add a little difficulty, I think we have time for it... Let's say that the Runes are guarded, in some sense, by the Enigma... So we can't fight it yet, we have to figure it out first.
E: I want to be guarded by an Enigma!
Shuo: I know!
S: And we should have plenty of time, so let's pick three of these to be tougher than the others. They'll require a little more effort to take down.

(We ended up deciding that the Horrific Squadron, the Nazi Creature and the Unearthly Trooper should take eight hits to defeat instead of six.)


Character Generation

Terence: I've decided to be a Psychic Mutant.
E: Cool...
Sh: Should we all pick something different from each other?
S: We could. The only thing it really affects is your Special Abilities. They should always directly relate to either your Style or your Role... so yours should all involve being Psychic or being a Mutant.
T: OK.
S: Or, I guess, being a soldier... I think I'm gonna be a Two-Fisted Daredevil.
E: Cool. I want to be Demonblood. I don't know what the other half of me is.
S: I'll be an American... Let's see, surname... (rolls on the Everyone Everywhere List) ... Burbank! Colonel? Major Burbank! I'm a major... I don't know what that means. I don't know what his first name is either.
E: I'm gonna be a Demonblood Pilot.
S: Is it your instinctive understanding of how to fly, with your demon wings, that makes you such an ace pilot?
E: I think it's maybe my super quick reflexes. I'm gonna be Kilby Razmuss... I want to be able to steal crazy machines and then use them...
S: Mm hm, maybe a Mechanical Aptitude?
E: Yeah!
S: Engineer?
E: Yes!
Sh: I am an Undead Scientist. And for her rank, do we just make it up?
S: I made mine up. I'm a major, I don't know why. I don't know what that means, or if I should even be here.
T: I'm just going to call myself a Special Agent.
E: Ooh, me too.
S: Oh yeah, because you guys... who here is paranormal?
Sh: I am.
S: OK, I'm gonna be as mundane as possible... you guys are the special squadron, the Danger Platoon, and maybe I'm the liaison with the regular army.
T: Are we supposed to be American or can we be whatever?
S: You can be whatever, yeah. She's a demon from Hell, so I think it's a multicultural effort here.
T: I'm going to be Special Agent Macha Hernandez.
S: So, everybody take a look at those top three Abilities and pick one to be a 2, one to be a 1 and one to be a 0... and then do the same for the bottom three... So, I'm gonna say Action, obviously, is my best Ability, so I'll put a 2 there, and I'm not Cunning, so I'll put a 0 there, so Effort will be a 1. And then, I guess I don't understand the Strange, so I'll put a 0 there. I'm not very Scientific, so that's a 1, and Insight, I guess I must have some Insight, it's at 2.
E: I'm gonna put 2 in Strange.
T: Yeah, I put a 2 in Strange since I'm a Psychic Mutant.
S: If you want to get the maximum benefit, think of the kinds of things that you'll be describing your character doing to stop the Threats and put your top numbers in that.
J: I went with Strange and Action.
Sh: I have Cunning and Science.
T: Effort and Strange.
E: Cunning and Strange.


Character Introductions

S: Let's introduce our characters, or at least what we have in mind for them so far. I'm "Big Jack" Burbank, Two-Fisted Daredevil. I guess I made a name for myself by just jumping into foxholes and punching Nazis, uppercuttin' 'em into no-man's-land with my Brass Knuckles. And maybe, in fact, it just occurred to me, maybe that's why I'm here with you guys, because HQ suspects that there may be something paranormal about me. I mean, how is it possible that he keeps just wading into machine gun nests unharmed?
J: OK, I'm Special Agent Bongo Tembo, originally from the Congo. He's a British citizen. I gave myself (inaudible) in secret pathways (inaudible) some form of African witchcraft. I've got limited fortune telling ability, so I can peer into the future sometimes. And also minor hexes and curses, I'm not sure exactly how that will play out...
S: Ah, the Evil Eye!
J: Yeah, and I also carry a machete and a lot of weird talismans.
S: And as we see in a lot of fiction, I'm sure that you guys are allowed to get away with a lot because you are unique assets who they can't afford to throw away. So I think you can wear whatever you want to wear.
E: Cool. Um, so, Kilby Rasmuzz. I think that he just showed up because the Nazis are using this clunky magic. He thinks they're totally abusing it and that mortals should not have control over it, so he's gonna team up with you guys temporarily. But he's kinda become more attached to people since this all started... He looks really freaky. I think he's actually got horns. He's a pretty big dude, and I think he's got pilot goggles with little horn-holes cut out.
S: Did he show up from Hell knowing how to pilot all aircraft?
E: No, he learned. At first, he didn't want to get into an airplane but once he did, he thought, "Alright, I'm going to learn how to do this..." And I learn super fast.
S: Is he a fallen angel? Is that how Hell works in this world? And so does he have an intuitive grasp of wind speed, velocity...
E: Sure!
S: ... aerial maneuvers? But maybe he hasn't been able to fly ever since the Fall?
E: Yeah!
S: Maybe that was part of his agenda. He just wanted to get back into the sky, and if he has to bomb Nazis to do it, fine.
J: I've got one more question, so... does Kilby want to make sure that humans have no access to any magic by the end of all this? Is that the ultimate goal?
E: Um, that was initially his agenda, but I'm not sure if that's actually what he wants to do now... He's got a soft spot for people now.
S: Cool.
Sh: OK, I am Doctor Judith Potato, special agent, physicist, mathematician, everything else in science. I am an Undead Scientist. I'm a little bit of a germophobe, so it's a bit harrowing to be inside of a dead body, but I try to do the best I can. I wear very thick glasses because my vision is starting to go a little bit wonky because my eyes are decaying. I'm gonna find a short term patch-up as soon as I get enough materials. But yes, um... Happy to be here!
S: Wow.
E: So are you getting materials from other dead bodies?
Sh: I think so. As a Scientist, I think she probably does all things doctor-related, so she can also perform surgeries... She has very intimate knowledge of the human body, being undead.
E: Did you resurrect yourself?
Sh: I think so. Someone had to do it! They didn't have the math. I did.
J: Were you killed in the war? Or was it before?
Sh: It was one of my assistants, you know, they misplaced a zero and suddenly I was...
S: Oops, dead.
Sh: Yes.
J: (inaudible)
Sh: (inaudible)
T: I'm Special Agent Macha Hernandez. She's about average height and completely bald. It's one of the side effects of her mutation. When she uses her abilities, I'm gonna say that the pupils of her eyes look really freaky. She started displaying her abilities probably when she was a teenager and they were out of control at the time. That was how she ended up getting pulled into this military operation. They wound up training her and molding her into a psychic weapon. She's never really had much of a life outside of being a special soldier for them, so she's very one-track-minded. The Abilities I wrote down were Telepathy, Telekinesis, Mental Blast and Mind Control, but just a single target.
S: Awesome.


Flashback 1: Big Jack and Tembo

(The flashback round for this session was an experiment that I haven't repeated, more of a fast demonstration of the dice mechanics than an actual round of play. I allowed the players to keep any overkill earned, ignore the mechanical effects of danger and refresh all of their bonus dice afterwards.)

S: Everybody roll a d6... OK, I go first and then we'll go clockwise. So, as I said, we're going to have a little flashback scene where I rescue Special Agent Tembo. When you take an action in this game, you roll a big pool of dice that'll tell you how effective you were, and also what consequences you took as a result. The worst thing that can happen to you is being Taken Out, which means that you quickly need to be rescued. Until you're rescued, you're out of the game, and now the Platoon might lose because we don't have enough people to deal with all of these Threats. So let's imagine a previous scene in which Tembo got Taken Out. It could have been in a situation related to the current mission in some way? If this is the last scene of a war movie, what were some previous scenes leading up to it? ... Maybe we could start with the beginning of the mission? Maybe we were dropped in, we were reconnoitering and we ran afoul of one of these Threats and you got into a situation where you had to be rescued? Let's just say there's a flashback to us parachuting into the Black Forest... which is where this castle is located? OK, and accidentally running afoul of a small patrol of Nazi soldiers? You landed first, they got the drop on you, then I dropped on them. So, I describe my action. which is that I paratrooped right on top of them. Then I say which two Abilities I'm using. Maybe it would be Action and Effort? What does everybody think? Paratrooping down on top of a guy, it's definitely Action.
T: Action and Effort?
S: It could be Cunning because I have to be careful and quiet about it... Let's do that, Action and Cunning, which means a 2 and a 0, so I get a total of 2d10. d10's are your Ability dice, Threat dice are d6's, Danger dice are d4's, and over here are Bonus dice, which are d8's. Next, "tell your allies what is challenging about your move and grab one or two Threat dice." I think it's dangerous because I could make noise, the rustling of my parachute might give me away and they might turn and fire. I would say that's worth a couple of dice, so I'm gonna add 2d6 there. Now... "Is it actually more challenging? Each ally can tell you another complication or difficulty and give you an additional Threat die, up to a maximum of five." I have two at the moment. If anybody else wants to say what else might happen to me, what other things I'm risking, they can add a d6.
J: I want to say that I'm surrounded by a lot of soldiers.
S: That's another d6... OK, and I'll throw in one of my d8 bonus dice for being Fearless, and let's say I use my Brass Knuckles too! Hell yeah, I'm Fearless and on the way down, I punch a guy in the face. Another d8 for that. And you guys can help by contributing bonus dice. If, for instance, you're bringing your Machete into the situation and, you know, decapitating a guy while they're distracted...
J: Right.
S: ... you could maybe pitch in a bonus die or two.
J: Let's throw one in.
S: You have to do six hits to a Threat at once to take it out. Hits are 4 and above, regardless of the die size. 1, 2 or 3 is bad. I'm now going to roll and see what happened when I tried to rescue Mr. Tembo.
(S rolls 3 hits and 4 danger)
S: So, these three hit, and none of the rest. Now I'll mention the best thing about bonus dice, which is that they never count as danger. I'm just gonna remove that one completely, it doesn't hurt me. So I got three hits, which is not six, not enough to rescue you from your situation, and I got four danger. So, I could get 4d4 that I'd have to roll next time, which is bad. Or the DM, aka Danger Master, aka Kommandant, could trade in two of the four danger to create a Hazard, which is kind of a mini-Threat. It's like a negative Aspect on the scene, you write it on a card on the table and if it ever complicates anyone's action, then they suffer a penalty for it. Or the Kommandant could trade in all four danger, if they're feeling particularly masochistic, to create a new Threat, maybe something to do with my screwing up the rescue... So anyway, in that previous scene, I tried a sneaky maneuver and only got you halfway out of there. Looks like my Brass Knuckles didn't help. We ended up in trouble and had to fight our way out.


Flashback 2: Tembo and Kilby

S: And over in another scene, Tembo had to save Kilby. What did that look like?
J: I think we were doing some kind of research.
E: Yeah!
J: Perhaps it was (inaudible) ... our research trail led us (inaudible)
S: Oh, so maybe years ago? Maybe on a previous mission?
E: Yeah.
J: And we had to... There's something we encountered that endangered you? That maybe would suck you back into Hell or something like that.
E: Ooh, OK. Some sort of dark ritual or something?
J: Yeah, we had uncovered one of these sources of (inaudible) ... trying to deactivate... (inaudible)
S: Like an exorcism? You got too close to one?
E: Yeah! (inaudible) That's great.
J: (inaudible)
E: Yeah, so I was being torn from this world...
J: Right. And I... (inaudible)
E: I'm being torn through a portal by (inaudible) or something like that. I don't know if that's cool or not.
J: OK.
E: So, what did you do to stop that? I think I was probably going, "Raaarrh, I'm really angry!" (inaudible) and it wasn't working so I was being... my skin and everything is all stretching out towards this point of blackness...
J: I use my Strange and my Action. Maybe there are other people there that are trying to get through first, to get to you.
E: Uh huh!
J: And then I'm able to use Strange to understand the process that's at work here, so I can deactivate it...
E: (inaudible)
J: I need to read the rune or shut it off or something like that.
E: Yeah, you knew where the power source was. Did you... was it an artifact that you had to break or something? Or were you punching your way in and (inaudible)
J: I found an artifact that (inaudible) in some way, Indiana Jones style, and it had to be broken.
E: OK. So you had to push your way through...
J: (inaudible) ... I'm thinking Action to break through the entry, and then once I get inside the inner sanctum area where the rune is, I have to apply Strange...
E: To understand it?
J: (inaudible)
E: OK.
S: OK, that's 4d10.
J: I think I need two Threat dice, because one of them is combat-related and the other one is spiritual-device-related?
S: That's cool. I think that there is also a danger of you being sucked into Hell yourself.
J: Right!
S: Anybody else?
E: I think you're going to have to act really fast. Does that make sense, taking another die for that?
S: Sure!
E: You're gonna have to do it really quickly. Before they have a chance to retaliate or (inaudible)
J: Is there anything about the lackeys who get through that would add another die? I mean, I already put one in for combat-related (inaudible)
S: Ooh, well, here's where we could bring in one of these specific Threats, right? Years ago, maybe you first encountered... the Psychic Assassin?
J: Yeah!
S: Is that right?
J: Yes!
S: The Psychic Assassin! OK, and maybe you have to guard your mind against him?
J: OK.
S: So that he doesn't see what you're about to do, you're double-bluffing him in your mind... OK, and now, Special Abilities? Do you want to bring in any d8's, any bonus dice? I mean, there's no harm.
J: The Machete makes sense...
S: OK.
J: ... since I'm hacking my way through these people. And maybe I give the Evil Eye to the Psychic Assassin to buy me time...
S: Sure! OK, let's see what happens...
(J rolls 9 hits and 2 danger)
S: So, put the 1's, 2's and 3's off to one side... Threats usually take six hits to defeat. If you do seven or more, you get Overkill.
(I decided to use the d12 Critical dice rule from DangerQuest because d12's are fun.)
S: You get a Critical die, a d12 that you can use once. Go ahead and name it something, give it a little inspirational name.
E: Ooh ooh, "The Artifact"! You've got The Artifact, you can use it to (bomb?) something!
S: That's awesome.
J: Should I just call it The Artifact?
S: Sure, just something to remind you. When you bring in that d12 later, you'll need to narrate something about it. So, good job, Kilby was totally rescued from the exorcism. And you got two danger, so you could have gotten 2d4 as some kind of consequence to yourself. Maybe you got injured or maybe it took some sort of psychic toll. Or instead, we could have created a Hazard, a little mini-Threat, called Mystic Backlash or Freed Spirits or something like that.


Flashback 3: Kilby and Judith

E: I think, if this is alright with you, I had to pull Judith out of the underworld... You lapsed back because you're undead, does that sound good? So I had to go back and pull you back into this plane.
Sh: You mean my soul?
E: Yeah!
Sh: Totally!
E: Maybe you had some kind of lapse or something where you left your body again because you weren't securely tied... So what does that look like?
S: Ooh, could it be the Psychic Assassin again? Could he have somehow broken the link between your body and your soul psychically so that you were then catapulted into the afterlife?
Sh: Sure!
E: Yeah! I'm picturing some kind of crazy dark (inaudible) of souls...
Sh: Maybe I'm dangling over a pit of hands that are trying to grab at me, to keep me there...
E: Yeah yeah yeah!
Sh: I'm hanging from this thin little thread, trying to kick the hands away from my feet, but sometimes they get a grip, and I get pulled lower and lower...
E: OK!
S: And then here comes a big brawny hand, your big buff demon monster hand...
E: Yeah yeah!
Sh: Ooh, do I see your true form? While we're down there?
E: Um, yeah yeah, I'm all black and red with this dark light radiating out...
Sh: Maybe... do I recognize your furry hat?
E: Yeah yeah!
(Laughter)
Sh: OK, cool.
S: I can see it, the aviator cap with the dangling chinstrap...
E: And my eyes are like red coals... I'm hovering above and I'm gonna try to tip something onto the hands below you...
Sh: Are you flying?
E: Yeah, I think I can fly in this form.
S: And you're throwing things down the pit to distract the hands? Is it... Nazi soldiers?
E: I think it's something more like giant stones or lava or something... molten something... and then I'm gonna try to pull you up using the string you're holding onto.
S: The silver cord of her own soul?
E: Yeah... I think that's Strange and Effort, does that make sense, because it's having to do with the crazy dark weirdness and it seems like a (inaudible) thing... and I think I get the advantage of being in the air, flying through the air, I'm good at that...
Sh: I think I can help with my Ever-Sharp Surgical Scalpel... Is that something I have on me? On my soul?
S: Sure! The memory of it in your hand, it's like an extension of your own soul.
Sh: Yes.
E: Are you cutting away at the hands below you?
Sh: Maybe I swing it next to you in case they get too close...
E: Or you could stick it in the ground and pull yourself back up?
Sh: Yeah yeah!
T: I'll say that I'm there trying to help pull you out psychically.
Sh: OK!
J: Maybe I'm doing some kind of a ritual to help fight the pull... That's a d8...
S: OK, can you get six hits with that dice pool? Hmm, maybe not. So, what's dangerous about this situation? Are you in danger?
E: Yeah, I think I'm running the risk of falling down and getting pulled back into Hell.
S: OK, so one or two, you can choose. And I'm going to say that you also risk drawing the attention of Our Father Below...
E: Sweet.
S: You really don't want him to notice that you're not there anymore.
E: And that I'm hanging out with mortals!
(E rolls 5 hits and 2 danger)
S: So, you almost did it, but it still required somebody else to follow through and complete the rescue. And as a result, you took two danger. And now I want to bring in one of my favorite house rules, let's start flavoring our narration based on which dice hit and which missed. In this case, one of your Ability dice came up as danger, which must mean that you weren't quite as capable as you'd hoped. Tell us a little bit about that. And also a d6 missed, so maybe one of the dangers that we just thought up came true... And these bonus dice came in and helped, but these three didn't... So, just in general, what does that look like? Whose bonus dice helped?
E: I think I was flying through the air, and I think maybe you knocked into me, and I wasn't able to recover from that as fast as I thought, so I started falling down and sort of spiraling out of control. At the last minute, I was able to lift you up closer to safety, but we're not totally out of it.
?: So there's a cliffhanger moment.
E: Yeah yeah, literally.
S: And we'll leave it up to our imaginations to say what happened after that, just to keep things moving. But you survived somehow, and became closer as a platoon as a result.


Flashback 4: Judith and Macha

T: This is just an idea... I think it's possible that when Macha first arrived, she was too powerful. And because of her science background, Judith was able to help her.
Sh: Yeah, I think I gave you a psychic dampener helmet to help you. Maybe you were tearing people apart because you couldn't control your power. And since I was dead anyway, I wouldn't mind if I lost a few limbs. So I built and put this psychic dampener on you... (inaudible)
T: And you'd actually be a good person to work on her because I would think that since you're undead, I can't do anything to you mentally.
Sh: Mm hm, no brain.
T: You're the perfect person to help her.
S: That's interesting, that your power works on the brain level, not on the soul level, and that there's a split there. And that Judith's brain is dead!
Sh: Mm hm.
S: There's no brain activity whatsoever, that's funny.
E: Yeah!
S: Cool, so you need to be rescued from your own power... Sounds like Science... And what, Insight?
Sh: Science and Cunning?
S: Hm, what's the difference between insight and cunning?
E: Insight is knowledge of something, right? And then Cunning...
S: Is it like Intelligence and Wisdom? Or Reason and Intuition?
Sh: OK, Insight and Science.
?: Can anybody help?
Sh: Kilby, we could work on the helmet together...
E: Yeah, that's one of my things, I'm really good with machines and building things, so I can totally help you build it.
Sh: Yay! OK, anyone else?
J: I have a lot of advice on controlling power, so maybe we talk about it in the research phase.
Sh: Alright! Um, so, my danger is that perhaps your psychic powers work on more than just brains? So, I could still be torn apart?
T: Well, she does have telekinesis, anything physical could get ripped up...
Sh: Yes.
S: You could be inconvenienced.
Sh: Any other dangers? Or help? ...
S: Good luck!
(Sh rolls 5 hits and 2 danger)
S: So close! Again, it would have required an additional boost from someone else to resolve it. And you took two danger, which would represent some sort of consequence that you suffered.
Sh: I think that when I went to put it on your head, perhaps your telekinesis tore my fingers apart and I dropped it and now I can't put it on your head. Some of my d10's failed... so I did not see it coming, which is very disappointing. I should have calculated some delta waves, but I didn't, I did alpha waves instead.
S: Without the help of your brain, it can be difficult to do math.
Sh: (inaudible)


Flashback 5: Macha and Big Jack

T: Well, I'm not really sure... I was thinking that you were ambushed by the Psychic Assassin somehow.
S: Yeah!
J: Cool.
T: I'm not sure if he or she just tried to wipe you out and make your body shut down... or maybe somehow manipulated others in the area to attack you, and I try to find some way to psychically free them.
S: Or maybe you have to control me, and keep me from attacking everyone else?
T: Oh, that would be good!
S: Not only did you have to shut me down, you had to put some sort of blocks in my brain to keep that from happening again? That's cool.
?: Were you at a cafe in Paris? (inaudible)
S: Oh sure, we're just sitting there, chatting!
?: (inaudible)
(Laughter)
Sh: (inaudible)
S: And I've got my hand on my sidearm... Will I draw it? It's all a conflict over whether I'm gonna draw... on myself! That's what it is, he's trying to make me shoot myself!
T: And because I'm psychic, I realize what's happening and move in to try and stop it.
S: That's right! We're just having this seemingly civil conversation at the cafe... I'm all, "One day, you're gonna make a mistake..." and he laughs, "You cannot touch me, Major, it is ridiculous that you would even try." ... "Some day, I'm gonna..." and I'm acting all tough, but little do I know, I'm about to shoot myself in the head. The conversation is just to distract me from control over my right arm.
T: It's definitely Strange.
S: It sounds Strange.
T: I'm not sure what the other one would be.
S: It might take an Effort to defeat it...
T: That would be good, I have a 2 in Effort.
S: OK, 4d10. It sounds like you're using Mind Control and/or Telepathy.
T: Right.
S: OK, so maybe a couple of d8's for that. And I don't think I can help. Anybody else? Is anyone at the cafe in Paris as this is happening?
Sh: I don't know if this is helping, but I could throw my scalpel to cut the muscle that would disable your arm?
S: OW!
Sh: (inaudible) or I could have test tubes... (inaudible)
S: Sure!
E: I don't know what I could do to help...
S: Let's see, Macha's psychic, and if you guys are connected in some way...
T: So we'll say... You hear telepathically, "Help, help! He's trying to make the Major shoot himself!"
E: Ooh ooh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try and, like, fly a plane into the place.
(Laughter)
E: I was just flying a plane outside and it'll... (inaudible)
(Laughter)
S: OK, so, dangers? I guess there's a danger that we're gonna get killed by an airplane crashing into the cafe.
E: I'm really good at crashing planes, though.
S: I think there's also a chance that the Psychic Assassin is going to declare Macha a prime target when he detects her psychic powers...
(T rolls 9 hits)
S: Check out all the bonus dice hits... Crashing the plane helped, the scalpel... I'm gonna say... helped?
E: One of them didn't help.
S: Maybe his psychic defenses were too strong? You tried to Mind Control him, but there was just no way.
T: Yeah, that makes sense.
S: Cool, OK, you cleaned house, so you get that Overkill die.
T: We break you free of his control and you drop your gun.
J: (inaudible) assassin...
T: Oh, that would be even better! You whirl around and shoot! But the assassin's already gone.
S: Right! I fire, and then I blink, where did he go? Was he ever here?
E: And afterwards, I'm arguing with the cafe owner about having crashed the plane into his place... (inaudible)
T: (inaudible)
S: So that's a one-shot d12. What should we name it?
T: "Psychic Shield"? That would make sense.
S: OK, those are the flashbacks.
E: So, basically to win stuff, we all have to help each other.
S: Right.


Turn 1: Big Jack vs. the Extra-Dimensional Enigma

S: Now I'm gonna write "Mission Status" on a card and put eight checkboxes on it. That's the number of hits that it can take before the mission is considered over and we've officially failed... And so here we are on our mission! We have already been briefed... Do we want to take that as canon, the whole thing about parachuting down in the Black Forest to get to the castle, does that make sense? OK, so let's just say that we're there! We have already reconnoitered the situation, and we have determined that these are the Threats in front of us. Defeating them is our mission. And since there are no rules for initiative, the first person to have an idea as to how they want to try to stop one of these Threats, just call it out and we shall begin... So what are we dealing with here? We're dealing with an Enigma that's guarding Mysterious Runes, we've got a Nazi Creature guarding the Assassin. Damn that Assassin!
E: Does it matter whether we go after the easy ones or the hard ones first?
S: Well, at the end of each round, the Threats that haven't been defeated yet will each roll a die to try to inflict a hit on our Mission Status. And they each have a 50% chance. So we should take out as many Threats as possible as quickly as possible. We might want to focus on the little ones before the bigger ones. So... we have reconnoitered the castle? Maybe we're already at the castle? I guess? I guess we must be at the castle, since someone is just about to take direct action against one of these Threats. Let's start inside the castle.
E: Yeah!
S: OK, we are sneaking around in the hidden tunnels. They're damp, they're hundreds of years old?
E: Yes.
S: I think they're small, as those tunnels tend to be. I think that probably the demon is having trouble squeezing through there.
E: My shoulders... I walk up to a doorway and CLUNK, I have to go sideways through.
Sh: Judith is mortified by how filthy it is. She has her eyes closed and she's holding onto Macha as they brave the tunnel. She's just trying to think clean thoughts.
S: ... I'll go ahead and start us off... We're walking along and I think Big Jack has been looking at these runes, he's got his Zippo out and he's reading them... (gruff voice) "I think I've seen these before! This looks like Latin! Yeah, like the nuns taught me! If I could just remember what this says, I think this could be important!" So, he's trying to decipher the runes as we make our way through, to somehow unwrap the Extra-Dimensional Enigma.
E: OK, cool.
S: I believe that's Insight... Whose is that? Who's the Enigma?
J: That's mine.
S: Does that make sense to you?
J: Mm hm.
S: Does that sound right? OK, I'm using Insight and I'll go so far as to say that it's a bit of an Effort for me? I have to really strain, it's not exactly my forte. So I have 3d10.
J: (inaudible)
Sh: I can help you. Judith probably knows Latin but her eyesight is too bad to see the runes. You'll have to describe it, try to spell it out or read it out loud to her and she'll try to help you decipher it.
S: OK!
J: And I have experience with these matters, as we've seen...
S: I think I'm going to add a Daredevil Special Ability and say that I'm a World Traveler, which gives me a knack with languages. So I'm going to add that, and I'm down to three bonus dice left.
T: When does this get refreshed?
S: You have to skip a turn and take a Recovery. Instead of acting, you clear off any d4's you've accumulated and also recover two of your bonus dice... I would say that this is dangerous because by muttering these words, I may be drawing a lot of supernatural attention to myself. Anything else dangerous about this?
T: Some soldiers might hear you?
S: Oh yeah, I'm being loud, OK. There's one. Anyone else?
J: What if you say the wrong (inaudible)
S: Oh, I could summon something, maybe? Or trigger something? Some sort of extra-dimensional problem. Alright, let's try that. Let's see what happens...
(S rolls 8 hits and 1 danger)
S: Well well... Good job, sisters. So, the Extra-Dimensional Enigma is solved! What does that mean? What do you think I just learned?
J: I'm gonna say, some kind of flawlessly perfected phrase that deactivates the runes?
S: Ah, OK, right, I'm able to parse the language... These Runes, they're very Mysterious. But now we've figured out the mystery, which is the language they're in, and the way to deactivate them. Very good. Oh and I guess I skipped the whole dice flavor part, but I think it's pretty clear what happened. And also, I've noticed that in this game it's very easy to slip into action mode and forget to roleplay, so I'm going to say, "Holy cow, I think we figured this out! I think if we... I think I understand these runes, they're a version of Latin. I think I understand what they're trying to do here... and I think I know how to stop 'em!" And that's my action.
E: Do you get a d12 for overkill?
S: I totally get a d12!
J: What should we call it?
E: The special phrase...
J: Or the special word.
S: Ooh, "The Word"!
E: It's the bird, everyone knows that!
S: Only I know that.


Turn 2: Tembo vs. the Horrific Squadron

J: So... maybe we're making our way down the tunnels and we happen upon part of the Horrific Squadron.
E: OK, that's mine.
S: In the courtyard of the castle?
E: Uh huh.
S: We step out of an alcove?
T: Maybe we cross the courtyard, so we're exposed temporarily.
E: So... you think you're stepping over a dead body... but then the eyes open and they're all white, and it's just (zombie voice) "Blaargh!!!" And there's five, no, ten doors that open up on this courtyard, and every door has one of these guys who steps out. Their hair is in patches... "Uuungh..." And they've got guns too! They're all, "Uuungh..." and maybe one of them steps forward and signals them to stand down. And they can talk, some of them can talk!
S: Ooh, let's hear it!
E: Uh... (inaudible) I don't know what he says, um, "Raaaahhh..."
S: Don't forget the German accent!
E: (German zombie voice) "You... are not... permitted... heeeere!!! You must... zurrendaaahhh!!!"
J: "We will not do anything of the sort! We will destroy you abominations!"
S: "Surrender? We'd rather die!"
E: "And you vill!!!" And he's gonna draw and start shooting.
S: Nice! So there's a gunfight in the courtyard!
J: I'm gonna go at it with gun and machete, in my full commando outfit.
S: Wow, so you're taking on the Horrific Squadron?
J: Yeah.
E: That's one of the harder ones.
S: Oh right, it'll take eight hits. But even if you only roll, say, five hits, the next person to attack that Threat gets to roll five bonus dice for free. So it's not all or nothing, but it's not exactly hit points either. Oh and also, it's a Horde, partnered with the Unearthly Trooper. So if he's nearby, that's an extra danger... which should be easy to justify... Is he in the scene?
T: Sure.
S: Unearthly... Oh that's right, he's from another Earth, another dimension.
J: The Assassin's alter ego.
S: The Fuhrer wannabe.
T: I'm gonna say that he's dressed in a tan military uniform, and he has perfect Aryan features, with high cheekbones, blue eyes and short cropped blond hair. And he has some sort of alternate universe swastika tattooed on his... um...
E: On both hands?
T: Yeah, on both hands. And he carries several military style weapons. "Ach! We will purify you!" He's on an upper level looking down on the courtyard, sort of lording above it all... (inaudible)
S: Doing his Mussolini impression.
T: (inaudible)
J: So I assume your Squadron is...
E: Yeah, I think they're swarming out now. It started out with one in each doorway but now there's a mad tangle of them.
S: Fantastic! This is what I was hoping for. A courtyard full of zombies.
E: You can't tell where one starts and the next begins, they're just a writhing mass.
S: That is Horrific.
J: I will risk taking Action against them even though that's their Strength.
S: OK. It might not come up!
J: It seems like Action and (inaudible) which is only two dice.
S: You can bring in anything you want, you just need to justify it. If you're saying that you're using your blessed machete that you just spat chicken blood on, that could be Strange.
J: That's true, let's fight Strange with Strange. I will be using Strange and Cunning... Maybe I'll use the Multi-Dimensional Grenade Artifact that I brought back...
E: They'll all go flying!
S: Oh, the artifact from the exorcism, right? What could be better?
E: Yeah yeah, exactly!
S: What should we call it? The Exorcism Grenade?
J: I think it's some sort of cleansing force, it cleanses the earth.
Sh: Uh, should Judith worry about this? Because technically she is a zombie.
E: And apparently this thing works against me too.
Sh: OK.
J: So, if you'll just stand back...
S: In the same way that we would all be careful of, say, an actual grenade.
E: I love the idea that there's this grenade that just doesn't hurt you three.
Sh: Yeah.
E: We're totally vulnerable to it but to you...
S: It's very refreshing!
E: I'm adding a Special Ability, Super-Demon Strength. Not Super-Human, Super-Demon! So, I think I'm going to pick up some of the zombies and hit the other zombies with them! I'm throwing them through other zombies and they all go flying.
S: Awesome, I'm seeing freeze frames of the impacts.
Sh: I'm going to use my Super-Strong Surgical String that I use to stitch myself back together, and I'm going to use it to garrote some of the zombies. And I'm going to mock them as I do so. Like, (dismissive voice) "Lungs are so overrated."
E: Yeah, cause they're still...
Sh: Still breathing.
E: Yeah, they're mentally zombies.
S: Maybe you step behind one of them and I yell, "Don't say it!" and you say, "Don't lose your head." And I groan... "Get a new joke, Judith!"
Sh: I've done it to every single one of them, over and over again.
S: Well, you can't think of any new jokes. The brain is not working. And it's just as funny to you every single time! You don't see what my problem is.
T: So, could there be a bunch of rubble or a stone wall?
S: I don't see why not.
T: Let's say there's a partial stone wall left in this courtyard and some of the zombies are going by... Macha is going to use her telekinesis to topple what's left of the wall onto them.
E: Yeah!
S: OK, I can see that, and you're garroting zombies, and you're smashing zombies into other zombies, and John, you're using the Holy Hand Grenade...
E: When you drop it, there's going to be light, just BZHHHH!!!
S: And I think I'm having the time of my life, with my Brass Knuckles, I'm bringing those in. And I'm just punching zombies in the face over and over. Punching through one and into another. This is what I signed up for!
J: I wonder if I could throw a hex where the Unearthly Trooper loses his voice temporarily so he can't command the Squadron. To break up the Horde? (inaudible)
S: Sure, voodoo dolls and affecting people from a distance...
J: He starts choking for a little while.
S: A pin through the neck of the doll?
J: So he withdraws temporarily.
S: Yeah!
J: So what about dangers... I think there's two dice worth of physical danger here.
S: What else? We need eight hits to take these guys out.
J: The grenade, the risk of (inaudible)
E: I think this is crazy enough that you could even create a danger to yourself by tearing open the fabric of spacetime or something, yeah? You could create an accidental portal.
?: (inaudible)
(J rolls 9+ hits and 2 danger)
Sh: Did you fail at all?
S: We totally did it, all the helping worked... except for the Hand Grenade, strangely.
(Maybe because they weren't really zombies, as we all kept forgetting...)
S: So, two danger. And its Weakness was Science, but that didn't come up. And the Horrific Squadron is no longer. You can take that card as a trophy.
E: And you get an overkill, another d12.
S: You do! A new bonus d12 to represent something else, maybe "Momentum"? Due to the fact that we're crushing these guys?
J: We'll just call it "Winning".
(Laughter)
S: Excellent. And so, you did get two danger. Dang, I skipped that part on my turn, so we'll do mine in a second. But you are the Kommandant in this situation, you are the DM.
E: Oh yeah yeah.
S: And so that means that you either give John two d4's to represent some consequence to him, which could be physical wounds or maybe he's just shaken up or whatever. Or you can trade them in to create a new Hazard.
E: Can I put Piles of Bodies? That's what I'll do.
S: And Hazards can be defeated and removed for just three hits, but it does take your whole action. So now there are Piles of Bodies that we as DM's, as Kommandants, should try to justify bringing in to hamper the heroes. Alright, good job John, you are Winning! ... And I failed to take danger for myself last turn, so what happened to me? Did I take 2d4 or did a new Hazard get placed on the scene? I'll just take 2d4 and say that I'm still troubled by the arcane language of the Enigma.
J: I think that you've been touched by a negative force that isn't happy about you learning that language.


Turn 3: Kilby vs. the Nazi Creature

E: So, can I bring in something that's not established and say it's there because I want to take it on right now?
S: Sure. It's just up to you and the Kommandant of that Threat to explain how it's there.
E: Yeah, so I want to try to take out the Nazi Creature.
S: Is that me?
E: Yeah.
S: That's mine. Ahem. OK, he comes smashing through a wall!
E: OK! There are ten doors, but OK.
S: No, these doors are not big enough. It's big... let's go with ten feet tall and made up of stitched together... It's a Frankenstein's Monster of steroided-out Aryan athletes who were put to death and experimented on and put back together as this weapon.
E: Is it on, like, four legs?
S: No... I think it has multiple legs stitched together somehow, and multiple arms... It's the muscle mass of multiple people stitched together in this horrific way... and I think it's asymmetrical, so one arm is larger, more mass was stitched onto that side. It's actually dragging it along on the ground and it has a gigantic fist. Maybe some sort of chemicals were used to promote its growth as well. I'm thinking of an Akira style monster with out-of-control muscle growth. It's shrieking in horror and hatred for all non-Aryans. For it is the perfect Aryan! What could be more Aryan than a bunch of Aryans stitched together?
Sh: Judith is getting excited! She takes out a syringe. She wants one of its eyeballs.
S: It scoops up, let's say, four dead bodies in its horrible mitt and hurls them across the courtyard and everyone has to duck and dive for cover as they splatter against the courtyard walls! And it roars again!
E: I want to try and figure out a way to trick it into hurting itself somehow. Maybe I'm just jumping around, off of things, to try to get it to crack the walls and make stuff fall on it. Maybe Effort? Does that make sense?
S: Sounds good. It's swiping at you... Oh, and its speed belies its mass, as usual. "So fast for something so big, how is it possible!" You know, as usual.
E: "You hulking deformity!" And I'm jumping between railings and support beams and it's just swinging wildly at me, is that OK?
S: Sure! Yeah, it's swinging and grabbing pieces of masonry and hurling them at you! (guttural voice) "Swine!!! You can run but cannot hide from ze Reich! All mongrels shall be destroyed, even zose from Hell!!!" And his fist smashes through the wall next to you!
E: Cool!
S: So how many dice?
E: Effort's 0, Cunning's 2.
S: There's your two dice. Keep going!
E: Um.
J: Can we chime in whenever?
E: Yeah yeah!
J: I think we need to use our remaining momentum from the previous battle.
S: Oh sure!
E: Sweet.
J: I'm just pure (machine gun sound effects), commando styling in, "Die, white trash!"
S: And according to the rules, bonus dice can also represent gear like sidearms and army equipment, so I guess you could totally throw in a d8 just for providing covering fire.
Sh: I'm going to use my scalpel. I'll jump on it, after it smashes its fist into the ground, there's a pause before it can lift it up again, and during that time, I'm going to try hitting it (inaudible)
E: To distract it!
S: Are you cutting along the stitches?
Sh: Yes. Yes!
S: Right, I'm going to say that the Piles of Bodies come in.
E: Yeah.
S: They're slowing you down and providing the Creature with something to throw at you, so that's going to be an extra danger automatically.
E: I'm gonna do some crazy acrobatics, jump on his back and launch myself off of him. This is a big courtyard, right? There are upper stories, and I'm jumping from him to them and back off, and being, um...
S: Nimble?
E: Yeah.
T: The Creature probably doesn't have much of a mind to manipulate, but I'll reach in and try to confuse its senses so it starts having trouble distinguishing exactly where everything is, making it harder to hit Kilby. And, who knows, maybe more likely to run into something and hurt himself?
S: I think, in fact, it's safe to say that there are multiple minds in there.
T: OK.
J: Is it called the Reich? Is that its name?
S: Eh... I don't know. I bet there's a good name for it, I'm not sure what it is yet, let me work on it... But I'd better hurry, you guys are about to take it out! Oh wait a minute, look at this pathetic dice pool, it's not going anywhere. So what else you got, folks? You'll need more! What's dangerous about the situation?
E: I could get smashed.
S: Here, have a couple for that. You could get crushed.
Sh: Can we give you (inaudible)
T: I want to add that it's lashing out blindly now with the telepathy messing with its vision, running around smashing pillars and whatnot, maybe you could be hit by falling rubble? Especially since you're jumping around.
J: I want to pitch in my idea that I mentioned earlier, I have a canteen of chicken blood and I splatter it on him, and now I can do some kind of curse and disrupt its nervous system or something.
E: I'm gonna roll these.
S: OK... (monster voice) "You vill die!!!"
(E rolls 6 hits and 2 danger)
J: Drat.
T: If it had been a regular Threat, we would have taken it.
S: OK, so what does that look like? Who actually helped?
E: I think the Mind Control helped me.
S: "Get out uff our minds!!!"
Sh: Is there a mouth for each of them?
S: Ah yes! Or maybe just one, but with a weird harmonic so it sounds like an echo, like several male and female voices all speaking at the same time?
E: I've managed to confuse it but it's still too fast! I'm on its back but it's all thrashing around and it throws itself back and I'm crushed beneath it.
S: That's two danger plus the Piles of Bodies makes three, so I could either give you 3d4 and maybe call them your injuries, or I can trade in two of those for a Hazard. I'm just gonna give you 3d4, and it could be as simple as "Injured"?
E: "Crushed".
S: Cool, "Crushed, 3d4", and the next time you try to do anything, you have to roll those dice. Same thing with me and my "Watched by Evil Forces, 2d4". And you can clear those off by taking a recovery, which also gives you back two bonus dice. I'm going to write "6d8" on the creature because I don't have enough d8's to just leave them on the card. So, the next person to attack it gets to add 6d8 to their roll. And I think those represent the beating that this thing just took, it beat itself up trying to get to you. And it's safe to say that those six dice will probably count for, what, four hits? So it's kinda like it's down to four hit points, but it's uncertain.
E: Cool.
S: Which I think makes it more fun. OK! It's all, "RRAARGH!!! Ve vill crush you!!!" Uh... What's another German insult... All I know is schweinhund... Oh well... (miming picking up Kilby in one hand) "Little demon shall be destroyed! Seig heil!" And he straight-arms you into the wall! "Seig heil!" And again! "Seig heil!" (sound effect of breaking wall) So that's happening.
E: I've cracked one of my horns and I'm like, "Uuuugggh..."
S: Alright, who can do something? Somebody help him!

Turn 4: Dr. Potato vs. the Nazi Creature

Sh: I'm going to try (inaudible) ... Judith sees all of this going on and she's definitely excitable. She decides that, you know, sometimes science can't solve everything so she's going to (inaudible) and eat his face.
(Laughter)
Sh: That's Effort and Strange, maybe?
S: Who are you attacking, the Creature? You're jumping after it and eating it, that sounds Strange. It also sounds like Action?
Sh: OK, great, so 1d10.
S: We can negotiate! You can add some thoughts to change which Abilities you're using. If it's Effort, I guess I'd expect that to be like endurance, maybe if you're trying to hold onto it and you have to climb up its arm, maybe that's more like an Effort.
Sh: OK, I'm open to that.
E: And we know that its Weakness isn't (inaudible)
S: Right, you should definitely try to figure out what its Weakness is! We know that it hasn't come up yet.
E: Probably Science or Strange. We know it's not Cunning or Effort... But I think eating its face is Strange.
Sh: I agree, Strange is better. Yeah, so I'll roll Strange and Effort.
S: OK.
T: And I can recover bonus dice by passing my turn?
?: (inaudible)
Sh: Yeah, I think we're gonna refresh after this.
S: Well, I do have a couple of bonus dice left. I run up and punch it right in the back of the leg! POW, with the Brass Knuckles. I'm trying to make it drop to one knee so you can climb up onto its face. I can see what you're up to and I'm all for it, I'm a big fan of this plan!
E: I'm clutched in his hand, so I think he's distracted... But in addition to that, I think as he's about to smash me into the wall again, I just stop it with this ball of dark energy. And the energy blasts back at him, forming in front of me and cracking a wall.
S: OK!
Sh: So, danger?
S: Right, what could possibly be dangerous about this?
Sh: Well, being eaten is a possibility.
E: You're right near its mouth.
S: And it's bigger than yours!
Sh: It is.
S: So, your head might get bitten off.
E: You can get a new one.
Sh: Plenty of bodies around!
E: Can you just take a new body part and sew it back on?
Sh: (inaudible) ... So I could still get crushed by the Creature.
E: You could... I was thinking you could accidentally get hit by the ball of dark energy, but I just gave you a helping die for it.
S: Yeah, we could say that! That's totally something that works as both. That's great, so we've got the dark energy, and it might bite you... "Ve vill rule for 1000 years!!!"
(Sh rolls 8 hits and 2 danger)
Sh: Made it!
S: Nicely done! And that was Strange and Effort, so you were not playing into its Strength, very good.
E: What was its Weakness? Insight?
S: It was Science.
Sh: Right, so she climbs up one giant muscle at a time, almost like climbing a cliff... She gets to its face and just starts having at it. Yeah, it's a gruesome sight but it brings him down.
J: You're chewing its brains?
Sh: (inaudible)
E: The eye?
Sh: No actually, I need the eye! Because I need to replace one.
E: Ooh, so you have this huge eye now.
Sh: (inaudible)
S: They're hand-picked! They're perfect Aryan eyes.
E: You have a giant blue eye.
S: Oh weird, so maybe the pupil is abnormally large.
Sh: Yeah. But it's perfect, it is the best that the Aryan race can produce!
S: And what's your... oh, you didn't get overkill, that could have been your eye. Although you could totally add that as a new Special Ability.
Sh: Oh yeah, "Aryan Monster Eye"! So, she's feeling quite a bit better after she (inaudible)
S: She doesn't like to think of herself as a zombie, but sometimes...
Sh: No no, it's a dirty word, that's not how she sees it at all... (inaudible)
S: OK, so the Creature is devoured! The Piles of Bodies are still a Hazard, and I think it applies to this situation. So, you took three danger, and I guess I'll make another Hazard out of two of those, and you take 1d4, I think, for maybe Loss of Control?
Sh: OK.
S: And the Hazard... I think the Nazi Creature is not quite dead, it is dying and flailing about, which is a problem.
Sh: OK.
S: So, "Dying Nazi Creature, 2d4".
Sh: Without a face.
S: With no face. "Faceless..."
Sh: "Eyeless..."
S: "... Dying Nazi Creature, 2d4". So it is no longer a Threat to the world, it's just a Hazard to be avoided.


Turn 5: Macha vs. the Psychic Assassin

T: I'm going to go after the Psychic Assassin.
S: OK! So what's going on with him... Oh right, he was guarded by the Creature... Who's the Assassin? So, was he in the shadows this whole time, controlling the Creature? Maybe he's been standing there in his Somebody Else's Problem Field, nobody even paying attention to him. But now that the Creature is dying, maybe the Assassin suffered some psychic backlash and now stands revealed?
J: Maybe he's sad, he had an emotional moment, and then his presence is made aware to your psyche. And then he'll sort of withdraw to recoup his psychic energies.
T: I'm going to just reach out and throw a Mental Blast to try to fry his brains before he can slip away.
S: One shot before he vanishes again! Cool, OK, so what does that look like? And more importantly, what do you say as you do so? We're falling down on the roleplaying and I apologize for that.
T: Actually, I'll just shout out, "The Psychic Assassin is here! And you're not escaping!"
S: Big Jack turns from what he was just doing, punching the Creature in the leg, "What! Son of a BEEP!" You know, because I think this is more of a made-for-TV movie. The kind of movie where the violent sieg-heiling and bloodshed is fine, but as soon as anybody says "bitch," the censors bleep it.
J: His lips say "bitch," but in voice-over, it's been changed to "jerk."
S: Do we have a name for the Psychic Assassin? I really want to know what his name is.
J: It is... Heinrich... something. Gunter Heinrich!
S: (writing it on the Threat card) "Son of a JERK. It's Gun-ther! Remember that bullet you were gonna send through my head, Gun-ther? I got it right here, I saved it for you!"
J: (refined German accent) "My name is Gunter, you (inaudible) And now I'm going to finish what I started in Paris."
S: And I'm walking towards him, bang bang bang, just missing every time. (sound effect of psychic powers)
J: And I'm deflecting your aim?
S: Yeah!
T: So, I think this would be Strange... I don't know what else.
J: It could be Effort if you have to exert yourself.
S: Makes sense, psychic powers tend to be very endurance-based.
T: So that's 4d10.
S: Off to a good start. And now that his Creature is out of the way, he should be easy to take out, finally! "If I could just hit him!" Bang bang bang!
T: Any helping dice?
S: Oh, hell yeah. I just wrote in my fourth Special Ability which is "Guns Blazing"... So there's a d8 for that, and I'm down to one bonus die left. Anybody else able to help?
E: I've only got one left. Although you guys have zero, so maybe I should...
S: I'll throw in another one, I think I bring in Fearless because I'm fearlessly walking towards the guy who nearly killed me last time... OK, no one else helping? So what's dangerous about the situation?
T: Well, I think that he would probably psychically try to push back at me, frying my brain. It's a battle of wills.
S: Right, so one or two for that... Anybody else?
J: I think he could succeed in making you shoot the wrong person.
S: Yeah yeah, I could shoot you!
T: OK.
S: I like that... There's a psychic battle of wills, your psyche is being battered... maybe he's also trying to take over your mind so that he can utilize your telekinetic powers, which he does not have?
T: OK.
(T rolls 8 hits and 3 danger)
S: And you used Strange, which was his weakness, so these dice count as double hits and you get massive overkill! Alas, you still only get one d12 for it. And you still have that d12 Psychic Shield from before... You could say that your shield is 2d12 now, if you want?
T: OK.
S: OK, so go ahead and narrate what just happened, bearing in mind these dice won massively, and these ones caused you some difficulty.
T: We'll say that these dice represent how I was able to push into his mind and basically fry his brain but he was (inaudible) ... so these cause difficulty?
S: Yeah, the d10's indicate your own abilities and half of them worked, so your plan worked to some degree, but in a couple of ways, your own innate abilities failed you. Maybe it was too much effort? It required too much endurance and you just didn't have it?
T: We'll say, maybe... during the battle, I started to lose some of the psychic dampener that Judith built for me and now I'm starting to feel backlash from that.
S: It shorts out?
T: I'm feeling a loss of control, I think.
S: And these Hazards may have come into play, but that's up to you as Kommandant to say whether they cause additional danger in the situation. It's optional, but it's also your role as Kommandant to make things as hard as possible on the players. So, let's decide whether it's justifiable to say that the Dying Nazi Creature or the Piles of Bodies played a part...
J: You could have a vision where you think that these Piles of Bodies are still alive? You're hallucinating?
T: OK.
S: Maybe the psychic residue of their recent deaths?
J: You can hear them.
T: Their screams, I can hear their thoughts.
J: And you can't silence it. (inaudible)
T: So what should we call it, "Psychic Damage"?
S: And since that's four danger, you choose whether to give him 4d4 that represent damage that he'll have to deal with, or you can trade in two of those for a Hazard and just give him 2d4, or you can use all four to put a brand new Threat on the table. If, as Kommandant, you feel that the way to really screw us is to add another Threat that we'll need to defeat before the game can end.
J: Hm, well, I feel like the Creature is enraged...
S: Oh yeah, it could come back! It could actually... it could have regenerated?
J: Right.
S: And it's now a Threat again? That's awesome.
J: I like that.
S: So, Macha doesn't actually take any d4's. That damage is all just flavor, you're not affected mechanically.
J: (inaudible) ... his consciousness, he started out as a backup, that if he was ever (inaudible) his consciousness would be pushed into the Creature?
T: OK.
S: Who, the Assassin?
J: That's what I was thinking, yeah. It was his backup hard drive.
E: He was protected by the Creature in more ways than one.
S: How did the Assassin die, exactly?
E: You pushed him out.
T: Um, I could say that... I telepathically pushed his mind and body, and unfortunately, either just because it happened or because maybe they planned it that way, his consciousness now wound up in the Creature.
S: That's cool. Yeah, in fact, maybe... That cunning Heinrich! He knew that if he ever died, he'd only have a split second to take possession of another body. And maybe it's not that simple, it has to be somebody who's ready to accept it. And the Creature is his creature. And it has multiple brains, it can afford to sacrifice one of them! That's great!
J: How difficult should it be to take out?
S: Mechanically, it's a new six-hit Threat.
J: Should I add this Hazard to it, maybe?
S: You know, I like keeping that as a Hazard too. Let's keep it. So, unfortunately, the Creature was ... (writing on Threat card) "NOT defeated by face eating". And the Psychic Assassin is dead, you can take that card as your trophy. The Nazi Creature, however, has returned as a Threat with the mind of the Psychic Assassin, and it's also kind of out of control so it's still flailing about and causing this Hazard.
J: I think we (inaudible) huge combat scene...
S: Yeah yeah!
J: And suddenly, "WE LIVE AGAIN!"
?: (inaudible)
Sh: He has no lips though, because I ate them.
J: Oh.
Sh: How does he speak?
J: Telepathically!

(Ten minute break)

S: What's your character's name again?
Sh: Judith Potato.
S: Dr. Judith Potato, scourge of the Nazis! I'm seeing a shot of Hitler at his desk, reading the latest report... "Bring me Potato, dead or alive!!!"
Sh: It'll have to be dead.
...
S: Does anyone mind if I say that, after you pushed his mind out, I finally shot the Assassin in the head?
T: No!
S: OK, I shot him in the head! Awesome!
(Laughter)
S: Finally! Revenge!
Sh: Well... (inaudible)
S: Aw, come onnn...
J: He's so excited about it.
Sh: Oh, OK.
S: Yeeaahhh, finally! "I told ya, didn't I! I toldja, Gun-ther. I was gonna get you. And I did!"
T: (Gunter / Creature voice) "Did you now?"
S: "Oh BLEEP!!!"


End of Round, Threats vs. the Mission

S: We're doing great, we've knocked out three of them, only four left. So, everybody who still owns a Threat, roll a d6 for each of them... 1-3 is danger, which is bad. OK, that's the Hypnotic Device, the Nazi Creature and the Mysterious Runes. That's three off the Mission Status, boom, boom, boom. Let's now take a moment and say what just happened, what were these three things that just happened that have suddenly brought us almost halfway to failing the Mission.
Sh: I'll say that the one guy's (inaudible) the Hypnotic Device, before it was (inaudible) and now it's awake.
S: So maybe the Trooper, who we haven't seen in a while, managed to get to the Device.
Sh: Yeah.
S: And activate it.
Sh: Yeah.
S: OK, what does it look like?
Sh: It's kinda like a big red LED eye, and it's in a mirrored room so it could (inaudible) if you want to get into it, but maybe it's just a little... maybe you can hear the alarms...
S: Right, maybe the preparations are still being made but it's getting close? We haven't failed yet, but things are proceeding.
T: And the Unearthly Trooper laughs maniacally! "HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
S: I think it's pretty clear how the Nazi Creature is causing trouble and harming the mission. But the Mysterious Runes... What do we know about the Mysterious Runes? They're in Latin and they were guarded by the language puzzle that's been broken. We know there are evil forces watching the situation... so I think that a deep sense of foreboding starts to grow, and voices start whispering Latin in the background. And the runes start to flicker disturbingly... Maybe in fact, patterns of energy are flickering quickly across these runes all around the courtyard walls and all across the castle, even on stones where you didn't notice the fine etching before. They're all flaring for a moment, and working in tandem with the Hypnotic Device, building power. So that's what's happening. And it's next round!


Turns 6-9: Dr. Potato, Macha, Tembo and Big Jack recover

S: Who wants to go first? Or who wants to recover? That would be easy enough.
Sh: I do.
E: I do.
J: Me.
T: So, we get two back?
S: Two bonus dice, yes, and clear off any d4's that you have. And let's hear a little bit about that, why are they no longer a problem? And what you did to recover your bonus dice... Who wants to go first?
Sh: Um, I could go first. My undead body has digested the extra nourishment from the Aryan monster face, and now that I've fed, I feel a little bit more in control. I was angry, I don't want to be angry, but now I'm a little bit more at peace. And especially now that I have a new eye.
T: I just sit down... Especially after that difficult psychic battle, I sit there and meditate for a few minutes to restore my mental balance.
S: Hm, may I say, maybe moments instead of minutes?
T: OK.
S: Because I think the monster is still on the rampage, and things are proceeding. And in fact, that's pretty badass, stoically gathering your power as the monster is rising from the rubble. OK, who else wants to recover?
J: I do, I have a similar sense of returning power. I've expended a lot of my occult powers, so they kind of regenerate. Because I didn't really do very much in the last couple of turns (inaudible)
S: I'm reloading, that's for my Guns Blazing, and I'm whispering the Lord's Prayer, which gets rid of the "Watched by Evil Forces, 2d4". They hiss and skitter away...


Turn 10: Kilby vs. the Hypnotic Device

E: So I'm gonna have to fight this thing!
S: Somebody's gotta do something, everybody's just sittin' around lollygaggin'...
E: Yeah, I think I'm gonna (inaudible) ... since (the Hypnotic Device Countdown) is about to blow up.
S: It's true, it'll do two hits to the Mission Status at the end of this round.
E: You guys all better help me with my action! I think I hightail it out of there. I've got to get to the room where the Device is, right?
S: Where were you last seen? You were smashed, sieg-heiled through a wall...
E: And Crushed against the ground.
S: Right.
Sh: Is anyone following you to the room where the Hypnotic Device is?
J: You're running away from the huge Nazi Creature?
E: (inaudible) and it's blaring down the hall behind us.
S: Yeah yeah, he's chasing after us! ... (inaudible)
Sh: OK, you get into the room with the Hypnotic Device and it's dark. And then all of a sudden, the lights come on and you see your own reflections and it's all (inaudible)
E: (inaudible)
Sh: No, you see yourself. The Hypnotic Device makes you see that which you most fear and is the most threatening, so you see yourself, with an iron collar... (inaudible)
E: Yeah yeah yeah!
Sh: And you can't get out, there's no escape, the bonds are too great and you see...
E: (inaudible)
Sh: Yes! And above you, you see millennia of time pass and (inaudible) ... and for everyone else... Major Jack, you're old and feeble, you're just weak and frail, and Tembo, he's (inaudible) his powers are not working...
J: My connection with the spiritual world is messed up.
Sh: It is, it's totally been sundered. And Macha just looks like an ordinary person, no psychic abilities, no mutant (inaudible)
T: (inaudible)
Sh: Yeah, so everyone faces this illusion...
E: OK, I think that the first step to fighting it is going to be the Insight to know that I'm being tricked. I'm gonna be momentarily stopped by it and wrapped up in it, and think, "Oh no, this thing tells the future! ... Wait! No, this isn't the future! This doesn't have to be!" So then I'm gonna... um... Is it like a box? (inaudible)
Sh: It's like a ball with a glowing eye, which right now, in your illusion, looks like the sun in the sky... (inaudible)
E: I'm gonna try to disassemble it, so I'm gonna use my tools to try and pry it open and see if I can pull it apart.
Sh: OK. (inaudible) and you can see when you look in the mirror, it looks like other demons are trying to press you back down, and you kind of feel that weight on your shoulders.
E: OK, cool. I think I'm using Insight and, what else?
S: It could be Science since you're using tools, or Effort?
E: Science is fine. I'll use Insight and Science. And then I'm also using my Mechanical Knowledge, which is a d8... (inaudible)
Sh: (inaudible)
T: Alright, since you're in its (inaudible) ... We can give you help too, right? As you're being bombarded by negative mental energies, you feel this mental wall come up between you and the energy emanating from the Device.
S: You're shielding Kilby from its effects?
E: (inaudible)
J: I can give you my whisper of support with Occult Knowledge...
E: Totally.
Sh: Oh, maybe you channel my knowledge of devices too... (inaudible)
E: (inaudible)
T: Maybe I could be conveying it telepathically?
J: Professor X style.
E: (inaudible)
S: And I'll say that I'm Fearless, and that is conveyed as well? I'm stoic... even as I saw myself as the worn withered old man, I didn't fear it! And that stoicism is communicated to you.
E: Yeah.
S: So, one d8 for Fearless and another one for the fact that I'm going to draw my sidearm and just start shooting the mirrors, "Fuckin' magic!" Pow pow pow!
E: "Forkin' magic!"
S: Oh, right. "Flip you, melon farmers!" Pow pow!
E: "Mother of pearl!" ... So, what's dangerous, guys?
Sh: (inaudible) Maybe you believe at one point... you lose faith and believe the illusion.
S: Demoralized? That's a good consequence.
Sh: Maybe you lose control and lash out at the others?
E: What about... what if I break the thing wrong? I'm pulling... (inaudible)
Sh: (inaudible)
S: Make it worse?
E: Uh huh.
S: Some kind of Hypnotic Backlash...
E: Should I roll this?
S: Did the Weakness come up?
Sh: (inaudible) ... Its Weakness is Science.
S: Fantastic, so all maximum results you get count as double.
(E rolls 8 hits and 2 danger)
S: Only one double, the d12... you got it, with overkill!
J: Wooo!
S: And it's up to you, do you want to say that either of these Hazards came into play?
Sh: I don't know about the Piles of Bodies...
S: Right, we left those behind. And maybe the Creature as well? Although, he could come smashing through the mirrored wall right now, if you wanted!
Sh: Um... as you shoot out the mirrors, all of the images become cracked and flip multiple (inaudible) of everyone... and through that bursts the Creature!
S: Right on.
Sh: It's just all bloody horror.
S: "OH YEAH!!!"
(Laughter)
S: OK, so you take three danger. Go ahead and narrate what just happened based on the dice that succeeded and failed.
E: I think I'm under the Device, working on it. I've got my tools out and I'm listening to hear the thoughts that are being relayed to me... "The red stream of energy, not the yellow stream of energy!"
J: Don't cross the streams!
E: And you're giving me information about it too. And maybe there's hypnotic beams bouncing off the mirrors, but they're disrupted when one of the mirrors breaks so it can't focus in... and the bad visions, the lake of fire, are slowly fading, and I'm reaching my hand in and pulling out a bunch of the, I don't know, energy guts... I think they're like energy lines that look like wires, until they break and then they just disappear into ash.
S: That's cool, and maybe they're glowing and fluctuating in sync with the mystic runes of the castle? And this chamber is just covered, floor to ceiling, with inscribed runes? As DM of the Runes, I'll just say there's some sort of energy reaction when this happens, but it's undefined for the moment. So, cool, go ahead and take a d12 and name it something. Maybe it's the Hypnotic Device? Maybe you have it now and can use it?
E: I think my fist got supercharged while I was in there.
S: Ohhh, cool, Hypno-Fist! Your fist has hypnotic powers!
(Laughter)
S: And three danger... you choose whether Kilby gets 3d4 as some sort of consequence, or 1d4 and another Hazard... the Creature just busted in, so there's glass everywhere...
Sh: Maybe because the Device (inaudible) ... the castle's kind of become a labyrinth? It's just harder to maneuver around?
E: "No Way Out"!
Sh: Yeah... (inaudible) walls (inaudible) changing (inaudible)
(We add the Hazard: "Labyrinthine Corridors, 2d4".)
S: Cool, and also 1d4 that you'll have to roll next time...
E: Oh, I forgot to do that this time! I was supposed to roll these...
S: "Crushed, 3d4", that's right! Ohhh! OK, roll them!
(E rolls 3 more danger)
S: Just when you thought it was over, your internal injuries come into play... So now it's six danger and you have more options. Six is Taken Out, you could be Taken Out and need to be rescued. Or Shuo can spend two of the danger for a Hazard, or four of them for another Threat...
(We forget all about the Labyrinthine Corridors we'd just added.)
Sh: How about (inaudible)
J: (inaudible)
E: (inaudible) get rescued!
Sh: (inaudible) and everyone's here.
J: That's very heroic!
S: OK! So you're taken out by those internal injuries that we all forgot about... Go ahead and make a new card that says "Rescue Kilby" and put a little two-box countdown on there... You need to be saved! So what are we rescuing you from?
E: I think I pull out my fist and I'm like, "RAAHHRR!!!" and I go to stand up and then I just collapse. I look like I'm in a coma, but in my mind, I'm back, chained to the lake of fire (inaudible) so part of getting my Hypno-Fist is that it's now coursing through my veins... and so my physical body is wiped out from all the internal bruising and stuff, but my mental body is trapped on this fictional plane...
S: So we're trying to rescue you from the coma?
Sh: I think the monster...
S: Oh, should the Creature pick you up at this point and be about to kill you?
E: Sure!


End of Round: Threats vs. the Mission

S: So, roll a d6 for what's remaining. I've got the Nazi Creature and the Mysterious Runes, there's the Unearthly Trooper... Should the "Rescue Kilby" card attack the Mission Status? The fact that one of us is down? Does that make sense?
E: Sure!
S: OK! No demon left behind!
(Rescue Kilby and Unearthly Trooper hit.)
S: So, Kilby's about to die and we can't let that happen! And the Trooper, what's he up to? We haven't seen him in a while.
T: We'll say, I'm thinking that maybe after his army got destroyed, he slipped away and... maybe he's trying to reconstitute the Hypnotic Device somehow?
S: OK... Is the... Nazi Creature bringing Kilby to him?
T: Oh, that's a good idea.
S: To remove the Hypnotic Device from his fist?
T: Yes!
S: OK, so how far do we want that to proceed? Is there a scene change where that's now happening, where the Unearthly Trooper is trying to remove your hand? Or just the Hypnotic Device from it?
E: Sure!
S: I mean, we could say that the Creature smashes through some more walls back to the Unearthly Trooper's laboratory, or wherever this is happening, and we have to give chase?
E: Yeah!
S: We run after them and find this situation here with Kilby on the slab... Does that all work? Am I going too far? OK!
J: I love that the alternate timeline self is now in this monster's body, still trying to help himself.
E: Right.
S: Oh yeah, they're arguing! They're arguing with each other in a way that only they can, knowing each other so well.
J: (inaudible)
S: "If you'd only listened to Father!" "Well, you didn't listen to him either!"
T: (inaudible)
S: "How could you do this to yourself!"
E: And I don't get an action this turn because I'm knocked out, right?
S: If you're rescued before the end of the round, then you can go. And we've got about 30% left on the Mission Status...
E: We have to knock out everything on the board?
S: Yes. To finish the mission, to save the world, we have to take out all three of the remaining Threats, and we've got 15 minutes to do it!


Turn 11: Tembo vs. the Mysterious Runes

J: I want to rush (inaudible) the nexus of all of the runes, maybe I can do some sort of ritual.
S: OK, so you stay back while we try to rescue Kilby?
J: I'll take care of the Runes... (inaudible)
T: I link us telepathically, maybe there's a way that we can help you even though we're not actually there.
J: (inaudible)
S: I've got zero bonus dice to help with this...
J: That's Strange and Effort.
S: Sounds good.
J: So that's 2d10.
S: Plus the voodoo.
J: And a danger... There could be feedback from the runes (inaudible) because I'm in the heart of the runic activity, I could be psychically overpowered... and then one extra die to use my Occult Knowledge (inaudible) ... so I'm sort of in this trance state.
T: Let's say, it's not as strong as my own, but let's say that I put a telepathic shield around you, trying to fend off the energies that are bombarding you.
S: I think another danger is that the runic language is confusing. It's important to get every syllable right... What else do we have? Oh yeah, "The Word"! I telepathically tell you The Word, d12! I forgot that one, I'm glad I looked down at my sheet. OK, excellent, what else? You can take up to three more d6's, it looks like you need it. Anybody else? The runes... I think maybe there's a chance that you summon up something? I mean, there were evil forces that were plaguing me just for reading the runes, now I think you're risking their full wrath... What else? There's a bunch of glass lying around? You might cut yourself?
E: I think the Labyrinthine Corridors... you get split up from the rest of the group and you aren't able to maintain a telepathic connection with them...
S: Oh, maybe it's not just physically a labyrinth but psychically as well! It's difficult to maintain your fix for some reason, it's like he's still moving around even though you know he isn't?
T: Is there a danger of it actually damaging you? Because of that?
J: Maybe.
S: You have to increase power and that might hurt you?
T: Is that too much danger already?
S: That's the question. If we want to look at the probabilities, one of these d8's is probably going to hit... and those will probably hit... and maybe these 2d10 will hit... and this one will fail? So, the probability is that you're close. But who knows? They're dice.
T: Should we add another d6?
S: I can't think of anything.
J: I think I've gone too far as it is.
E: I think just roll.
T: Well, there's been so much structural damage to the room... It could just collapse on you.
(J rolls 7+ hits and 2 danger)
Sh: Nice.
S: And you get a d12 out of it. The Mysterious Runes have been defeated. Insight was its weakness, did you use that?
J: I used Effort and Strange.
S: So there's the card as your trophy and your d12, however you want to describe it. Oh, and I'm the Kommandant, so that's two danger plus I guess... the Labyrinthine Corridors came into play, so I'll call that three danger on you. I'm just going to say it is in fact 3d4 on you... What consequence do you suffer as a result of all these things? Let's see, all these dice hit except for some of the danger...
J: Could the room fall on me? We can make it non-spiritual, non-occult.
S: Yeah!
E: "Crushed by Walls"...
S: Right, and yet you withstood it and you finished the ritual even under a pile of masonry...
J: And this d12, maybe I have Occult Mastery or something like that.
S: Oh sure, maybe you command the Runes now! The light has vanished, the power has dispersed... or perhaps, has it been absorbed?


Turn 12: Big Jack vs. the Nazi Creature

S: So, meanwhile, in the other room, in the evil lab, let's say, we have the previously described scene. Who's going to save Kilby? ... OK, sure, I'll rush in there!
J: Seems like it's tailor-made for you!
S: That's right!
E: Do you need to save me to save the world, though? You guys should totally try to save the world instead of saving me! If the world ends, I end too!
T: If we rescue her, then she gets an action too.
S: Right, so as long as she isn't rescued, we're not performing optimally. But we could probably knock these guys out this round, so...
E: I don't know...
S: ... Alright, I'm running up and punching the Nazi Creature.
E: OK.
S: (Gunter's voice) "You zaught you could keel me, you vere wrong!" (Jack) "Oh, I'm right!"
J: (inaudible)
S: Yeah, I think it's Action and Effort, so that's 3d10, I have no bonus dice, I think there's 2d6 chance that it's going to beat the hell out of me, any other danger? We've got an Unearthly Trooper there from another dimension who's trying to remove the Hypnotic Device, so maybe he's able to use the Device somehow?
J: Or he could just shoot you.
T: Yeah, that's what I was thinking, he pulls out his gun and starts firing.
Sh: Judith's there as well (inaudible) but she might be hungry for another snack.
S: Ah, you start chomping on the Creature? So it's you and me attacking this guy, I'm punching, you're chewing?
J: (inaudible)
S: And we know the Trooper's name, it's Heinrich! Heinrich Gunter Two. The Assassin was Gunter Prime, I guess. So, he's opening fire! Anybody else? More danger, even?
Sh: Well, a danger could be (inaudible) I could bite you by accident.
S: Yeah, you might be losing your mind! "Not me, Judith!"
J: I think I suddenly appear in the doorway (inaudible) learning how to command the runes to (inaudible)
S: Yeah yeah, definitely!
J: You all look over and I'm just barely alive in the doorway.
S: Right! After that dramatic moment when the runes faded and went dark, now suddenly they flicker back to life and they surround you? And then surround the Creature? That's awesome.
(S rolls 6 hits and 2 danger)
S: Got him! ... It looks like I punched him, and you bit him, there's the biting die, there's the punching dice, all the punching worked very well. The danger of getting my ass kicked did not happen. But you did bite me.
Sh: Awww...
S: No no no, that's fine.
Sh: Your muscular legs...
S: It's fine, it's fine, I understand, we, this has happened before.
Sh: I like that this is not the first time.
S: Yeah, I've got some bite marks on me. You know, we've been working together for a while, sometimes it happens, it's friendly fire.
Sh: It's a friendly bite!
S: It's the Danger Platoon version of friendly fire... So, alright, he is destroyed, finally!
Sh: Yaaay!
S: "Die, you bastard!" POW! And let's break out the Brass Knuckles one more time, he just smashes the thing into the ground over and over. "I... have had enough... of YOU!"
J: Punching through the (inaudible) right in the brains.
S: Yyyeah, it's pretty gnarly, it mostly happens off-screen...
Sh: It's just the shadow cast on the wall.
S: Right... you can't see what's actually happening. "Neinnn! Zis cannot be! Gott in himmelllll!" No overkill, I took two danger, and I'm going to say another one for the Dying Faceless Nazi Creature Hazard. So I think I did get my ass kicked a little, let's just say "Injured, 3d4", to keep it moving. And that's me, that's my move.
J: Just the boss left.
S: Oh and may I just say, as my last action as the Kommandant of the Nazi Creature and the Psychic Assassin who dwells within him? That the Psychic Assassin once again cries out... "Nein, nein! Ich... bien... Heinrich... Gunter!!!" And whoosh, his spirit now occupies...
Sh: Oh come on! Awww!
S: ... the body of the Unearthly Trooper! He is now both Heinrich Gunters! And they are warring with themselves, within the two halves of his brain.
J: The dimensions have combined!
S: Right, so he has both the unearthly powers and knowledge of the original Trooper and also the psychic power of the Assassin.
J: Too awesome.
S: Over to you, whoever that may be.


Turn 13: Macha rescues Kilby

T: I shouldn't go after my own Threat, right?
S: Eh, it's fine, I just did. We're playing it pretty fast and loose here at the end of things.
T: I'll try to save Kilby. We'll say I reach into your mind, trying to figure out what happened to you...
E: I think I'm totally out cold and my mind is within that fiction that the Hypnotic Device has created, so I'm struggling against invisible bonds to pull myself up from it...
T: OK, I try to telepathically force reality back onto you, to try to bring you out of your coma.
E: Cool.
S: Very good.
T: We'll say Strange and Insight this time, so that's 3d10.
S: I've got nothing left to help with.
E: You could hit me with my own Hypno-Fist!
T: ... OK!
(Laughter)
T: And I guess I'll spend my last two bonus dice to add more telepathic power...
S: And how are you in danger?
T: I suppose there's a chance that as I try to pull him back, I get trapped in a hypnotic dreamscape as well.
J: I think that Gunter could be...
T: Shooting at me too?
J: Yeah, you're sort of vulnerable.
T: OK.
S: Gunter Squared?
T: Anything else?
Sh: (inaudible)
S: In these last moments, I really want the Unearthly guy to do something unearthly, something that only someone from another dimension could do, but nothing's coming to mind...
T: Maybe he can open a portal?
S: Ooh, I got it, here's another danger. You face permanent emotional scarring when he telepathically shows you what happened to you and your family in his world...
T: Cool.
S: And what's going to happen to you when he is Fuhrer... Anything else, is that good enough? You do need to get six to rescue him...
T: OK.
(T rolls 6 hits and 2 danger)
E: I'm free!
(Everyone cheers)
S: So, what was this d8? Was it the Hypno-Fist?
T: Slapping him with it actually helped bring him back, slap slap slap! So, we'll say that this represents me getting drawn a bit into the dreamscape that the Hypnotic Device was creating, and it fractured my mind further. I don't know what it should be called...
S: "Unsettled"? By the visions of that other world?
T: Should we bring in one of these Hazards? Maybe the Labyrinthine Corridors were mental too...
S: Yeah!
T: And it confused me...
S: Right, even though he's standing right there, mentally it seems like he's not, you had to go through a circuitous psychic route? I like that.
T: So, we'll say that's "Unsettled, 3d4"... And Kilby wakes up! Now all we have to do is kill this guy.


Turn 14: Dr. Potato vs. the Unearthly Trooper

Sh: I'd like to go after the Unearthly Trooper.
T: Alright, he says, "You cannot defeat us! We were genetically engineered to be superior beings! HAHAHAHAHA!"
Sh: Judith is going to take the Hypno-Fist, and then...
E: Oh, it's gone.
Sh: Is it gone?
E: Yeah, it got rolled.
S: Well, it can't... I mean, it doesn't have to be gone, it just won't contribute a d12.
Sh: Oh yeah, that's fine.
S: You can use it as color, though.
Sh: I just wanted to leverage it for... could it be Science? It's got all these weird energy plasma streams, I'm gonna say it was drawing power from the other dimension too. So I wanted to use it to create a portal and send him back to the alternate universe.
S: Wow! Maybe he brought the Device here with him?
Sh: Yes!
S: Ah, very good. In fact, the hypnosis was showing us different versions of ourselves, right? So maybe it has more to do with revealing extra-dimensional parallel universes than just creating illusions to make you feel bad. Maybe it actually shows you the terrible things that are actually happening to you in another dimension!
T: Which two Abilities are you using?
Sh: Cunning and Science... (inaudible) ... Judith says, "Your visa is about to expire, it's time you went back to your own country."
T: "Never! We were meant to rule!"
Sh: "Your body cannot handle so many personalities at once. You will degrade and become something... less than a man, less than perfect." She starts setting off the Device, and let's say there's a danger... I might get sucked into the portal too.
S: Yeah!
E: He might hit you, you might get shot.
T: Yeah, we'll say that he's trying to shoot you even as we speak.
Sh: And maybe I can't control it, can't stop it. I can't close it and it might just be like a black hole that sucks up everything?
T: And since he actually has both beings inside him, he's trying to reach out telepathically and get his mental hooks into your mind.
Sh: Does that work if I don't have a brain?
T: Oh, that's right. OK, that one doesn't apply.
S: Although we could go so far as to say that he was psychically able to determine how Macha is able to move things telekinetically, and now he can too.
Sh: Hm.
S: I don't know if we want to upgrade him to that point in these last moments...
T: Or he could control... (inaudible) ... we established that earlier when he was controlling you to shoot yourself.
Sh: Anything else?
S: We need to get eight hits on this guy.
Sh: Are the walls collapsing still?
S: Oh, of course!
J: (inaudible)
Sh: Oh, and maybe, can the Piles of Bodies be reanimated?
T: Maybe we could say that part of what he was doing while he was away, besides starting up the Device, was trying to bring back his men somehow, bring back the Horrific Squadron...
S: I was thinking... what do you think, there's this portal to his universe, is there a danger that more of his men come through it?
Everyone: Yeah!
S: Parallel Nazis, just what we need...
(Sh rolls 3 hits and 6 danger)
Sh: That's a no, that's a no, no, failed, failed, failed, and those three, oh, how did this happen? OK, well, that's that.
S: So, three hits are placed on the card... and the danger, is that six danger? So, it's up to you, you are the Kommandant, do you want to take her out?
Sh: Take me out! Take me out!
T: You get sucked into the other dimension!
Everyone: Oooh!
S: Yeah, you're Taken Out of the universe. I love it.
Sh: Could I be in some sort of jail cell with my alternate self?
S: Yeah!
E: Your alternate self who's alive?
Sh: Yeah!


Turn 15: Kilby vs. the Unearthly Trooper

E: And just for the hell of it, really quickly, I'm gonna try and grab the portal... like a sort of lion tamer or circus performer move, where I use my magic power fist to grab the portal and drag it... and try and catch him in it as if it's a net.
(Laughter)
Sh: Awesome.
E: Like I'm throwing a hoop but it's all black and blue lightning...
J: (inaudible)
E: Which is Strange?
S: Sounds strange to me.
E: And I think it's very Cunning.
J: And don't forget your three bonus dice from before.
S: Which indicate his being, I would say, off balance?
T: Yeah.
S: He was nearly pulled in with Judith but, "Nein! NEIN!"
E: And so what's dangerous?
S: You'll get sucked into the portal and you'll end up right next to your imprisoned hellbound self?
Sh: Yeah.
S: Under that rock in that big iron collar.
E: Totally.
S: But maybe you can help him!
J: I think the Hypno-Fist could short out and cause you physical damage.
E: Yeah, it's starting to shake and my hand might break off!
S: Right, you're holding the interface between two dimensions, probably not such a good idea.
Sh: There's also... (inaudible) ... he's still shooting at you, he still has a gun... (inaudible)
E: OK, I'm rolling before I can't hold anymore.
(E rolls 8 hits and 4 danger)
Sh: You got it!
(Everyone cheers)
E: What was its weakness?
S: It was Strange!
(Everyone cheers)
S: So, take it away! You just won the game, so tell us how you did it, how you completed the Mission!
E: Yeah, I think the portal is this weird thing where I reach up and (inaudible) and I throw it down on top of him, and there's now a circular hole in the floor but he's no longer there. And then... I'm sorry, Judith. I have to seal up the portal. But we'll come back for you in the next episode.
Sh: Cool.
E: I think there's some sort of dark magic incantation and then I close it with a big punch.
J: A big punch!
S: I love it. You punch it and everything freezes, and then the portal implodes.
E: Yeah, and that's my new thing, I've got a portal in my Hypno-Fist.
S: Awesome.
E: So I can punch into, I don't know.
Sh: You can literally punch a hole into another dimension.
(Laughter)
S: And with a couple of tweaks... You're an engineer, right? You can punch someone into next week.
E: Yeah.
S: Alright, the mission is completed and the world is saved!
(Everyone cheers)