Atlantaverse: Blink

   I finally get to play a new Champions character!

Meet Blink

Dungeons and Dragons is the Best at What it Does

   The Fun Lads Four and I are prepping for what we call "The Season" - in late Summer and early Autumn we tend to play a lot of RPGs. We're also talking about the various systems we're using: AD&D 1e and 2e; HERO; 5e; Pathfinder; the various D% system books from FFG's Warhammer 40K line; and we are all knee deep in WEG's D6 Star Wars.

The second weekend of August in 1990 a friend from a gaming group introduced me to a brilliant, beautiful woman. On our first "real" date we played WEG's Star Wars. Next weekend our sons are hosting a WEG Star Wars game to celebrate 30 years of being in love.

We started discussing how D6 is an excellent universal system and it has a cinematic feel, making it perfect for recreating movie worlds (which makes sense as the D6 system grew out of making the Ghostbusters and Star Wars RPGs) and that HERO, another cinematic universal system, is likewise really good at "imitating" a setting from fiction.
But discussed the limitations of GURPS, HERO, and D6 to do "generic" fantasy smoothly. As Nick said,
  "Sure, you can make a HERO Fantasy setting, but it can't be 'Europeland in general'; it has to be distinct and frankly a little gonzo to really feel right. I think D6 is like that but more."
  And from Jack,
  "And none of them dungeon crawl well. In the end the best system for a good dungeon crawl is still AD&D with a scant handful like Rolemaster, T&T, and, yes, even Palladium right on its heels."

  Which is why I am writing this - it was my turn to opine. Later I will discuss Rolemaster as an under appreciated universal system.

  HERO is one of my favorite systems of all time because with just a bit of thought you can do anything. Want to be Green Lantern? I know 3 approaches in HERO. Want to duplicate Traveller? HERO can easily do that, too. Want to make a Kojak/Beretta/Starsky & Hutch crossover? Sure! It is amazingly flexible.
GURPS is likewise supremely flexible (and let's face it, we all know GURPS is a HERO clone). D6 is likewise capable of doing about anything and has a few great ways of adapting dice pools to reflect scale (HERO 6e Damage Reduction rules are probably derived from D6's scaling rules).
  But these games share a problem that you also encounter in D&D 3/3.5/5e, Pathfinder, and some others and to a lesser degree in some others - "breaking the system".
What I mean by this take a little lead in, so bear with me. In these you have to make sure that people have reasonable limits on their dice pools/point allocations/feats that are essentially the GM not just laying down guidelines but also vetting every character and adjusting the villains and even campaign to match specific character builds. Here's an example from HERO -  a character I made called Basement Dweller/Shadowman. Without getting into the mechanics his powers allowed him to stay in bed at home while beating up someone on the other side of the world. All strictly RAW, all properly configured, not even a high points guy. But Shadowman forces the GM to specifically make villains, scenarios, etc. just to counter him.
In a oversimplified shorthand, IMO in a system where you need to seriously discuss, limit, inspect, and react to "character builds" a large amount of (for lack of a better term) gameplay occurs away from the table. And I am when I say 'gameplay' I don't mean getting supplies, talking to an innkeeper, etc., I mean 'deciding the outcome of traps and fights and such or forcing the GM to build them for you'.

And there is nothing wrong with this. After all, if I thought this was "bad" why the heck have I been playing HERO for 35 years, right?

  But I think AD&D is best at dungeon crawls because that isn't the case in that system. Here's the contrast:
  1) I have an underground adventure I made for HERO back in 1986 that I have used maybe 12 times. Every time I run it I must adjust it for the specific characters that have been built and brought.
  2) I have a similar thing in my AD&D 1e campaign that I also made in 1986 (same weekend, in fact). I have run it about 10 times and I never need change anything.

  Yes, personal anecdote, but I hope it conveys a bit more of what I mean. To sort of boil it down a bit, here is my core conceit:

To a very real extent AD&D is much more dependent upon what you do during play at the table vs what you do in character design and out-of-play metagaming. This leads to more emotional buy-in and tension during a dungeon crawl. Consequently, AD&D is "better" at dungeoncrawling than other systems.

This is one of the reasons I prefer to not abstract things like ammo, lighting, encumbrance,  and such any more than they already are - those 'precision counts' elements, IMO, add to the emotional buy-in at the table.
  Another illustration. When the Fun Lads Four did their very first dungeoncrawl as a team in years gone by (man kids grow up fast) they got lost underground. They had to keep careful track of every bit of food and water. They limited their use of light sources and carefully tracked every turn of light left. They were getting negatives for hunger and were worried the puddle they drank from got them sick and had only 20 minutes of candle left when they ambushed kobolds and got - a ham! Tension and anxiety followed by rejoicing!
To my mind that immersed them into the game much more than,
  "Roll to see if you have more illumination"
  "A 4; we do."
  "OK, roll to check for supplies"
  "A 13, but Betty has allocated an extra encumbrance zone, so with her +2 we make it."
  etc. ever could.

  In the end this is one of the main reasons I like AD&D so much and still play it.

Atlantaverse: Psychotronic World Building

  When I am doing worldbuilding for fantasy games I may spend too much time on verisimilitude - making the world at least internally consistent. Seaward, Blackstone, the Patchwork Lands - I work to make them sensible, consistent and familiar without being boring. But there are always little things, like the steam-powered war moose construct.

  Now that I am making a Champions setting I am in full-on Psychotronics mode!

  Psychotronic is a slang term used in parts of the movie buff community to describe a certain sort of movie. I've never found a good universal definition of what 'Psychotronic' means that covers all the bases, but here I go with my own idiosyncratic one;

Psychotronic: 1) the blending of genres, typically with low budgets

                       2) Low-budget exploitation films

                       3) Films with very non-traditional manner of storytelling

Champions: The Atlantaverse - WASP

ICICLE CLASSIFICATION: RESTRICTED

ONLY SANCTIONED, CLEARED, OR ACCOMPANIED PERSONNEL MAY VIEW

WASP OVERVIEW

Classification: WASP is a Criminal Terrorist organizetion and is believed to be the largest and most powerful criminal terrorist organization in the world.

Confirmed Origins: ICICLE can confirm that as of 1981 WASP existed as a mature, global organization.

Unconfirmed Origins: The Strangers claim that WASP is an outgrowth of the fabled International Crime League founded in London in 1887. Various superheroes claim to have fought WASP as WASP as early as 1968.

Name and Meaning: WASP is no longer considered to be an acronym; various internal leaders assign local backronyms (such as 'War, Assassination, Strength, and Power', 'We Always Stand Proud', etc.). The meaning is ultimately unknown.

Estimated Members: Non-combatant: ~1 million. Combatant: ~200,000

Confirmed Structure: WASP is organized into Nests, Cities, Areas, Zones, Regions, Spheres, and the Globe.

Champions: The Atlantaverse - StarWatch

  because what kind of superhero universe doesn't have spacecops?

StarWatch

History of the Watch

120,000 years ago a group of civilizations near the galactic core were saved by the actions of a member of the Galaxars. Formerly rivals these three races banded together to create a group for the Milky Way similar to the Galaxars. The Galaxars themselves, always willing to assist such efforts, helped create the technology for the StarRods and train the first members of the Watch.

Within 10,000 years StarWatch had grown to cover the Milky Way.

Members of the Watch

StarRanger- The backbone of the Watch they are armed with StarRods, protected by their uniforms, and have individual bases with support staff. There are slightly more than 300,000 StarRangers at this time.

StarRangers have ranks: regular, 'sergeant', 'lieutenant', 'captain', and 'major'. Sergeants are senior Rangers and while they formally supervise no one regular rangers obey them on joint missions. Lieutenants supervise groups of 10 rangers (including themselves); Captains supervise groups of 100 (including themselves); Majors supervise groups of 1,000 (including themselves).

StarMarshal- These members of the Watch specialize in battle; they have more weapons and better defenses. Each StarRanger major commands a detachment of 10 StarMarshals.

StarScout- Specialists in stealth and speed, these members of the Watch are less heavily armed but are much faster and have sophisticated stealth capabilities. Each StarRanger major commands 10 StarScouts.

StarMedic- These members have advanced skills in care and medicine at the expense of attacks. Each StarRanger major commands 10 StarMedics.

StarWarden- Often semi-retired StarRangers, the Wardens maintain and guard the Watch's various prisons. Each major has 10 StarWardens.

StarCommander- These are the leaders of the Watch based in one of the three StarWatch Command centers. There are 30 'colonels' and 3 'generals' each split evenly between the 3 bases. Each of them has his own commands of 30 StarRangers, 3 StarMarshals, 3 StarScouts, and 3 StarMedics. Each base also has 30 StarWardens.

Others- StarWatch has a fair number of support staff that are not members of the Watch itself but still are loyal employees. Each base has a minimum of 3 staff; pilot, mechanic, communications. Some bases (in busy sectors; the base of a Captain; etc.) have up to 30 staff doing everything up to public relations and charity coordination. The three Bases each have an average of 1,000 staff members. All told the Watch has more than 1,000,000 staff members.

Staff positions, especially in remote areas, often serve as a recruiting ground for new StarRangers.

Organization

Regions- StarWatch divides the galaxy into 4 regions. The Core Region consists of the 20,000 light year diameter center of the entire galaxy. The thee bases are placed equidistantly around the perimeter of the Core and they share responsibility for the region. The rest of the galaxy is evenly divided into wedge-shaped regions, the inner edge of which is centered on the base responsible for it. These outer regions have what a human would call 'letter designators' that roughly correspond to D Region, R Region, and U Region; these are based on the names of the founding races. 1/3^rd of StarWatch is assigned to each region.

[Note: the solar system is less than 100 light years spinward ['clockwise'] inside R Region from the boundary with U Region.]

Sectors- Each region is divided into 100,000 sectors. These are designated in such a way that would translate into English as 'U-9357' or 'R-84231'. While each sector averages about 1,000,000 stars each this can vary greatly – a sector on the galactic rim halfway between two arms that holds no spacefaring race may be vast in distance and have 2,000,000 stars or more while a sector close to the core on the main of an arm with a handful of spacefaring races might have 500,000 stars and be a fraction of the volume.

Earth is at the almost-center of Sector R-77975.

Champions: The Atlantaverse

I have been running a Champions campaign for about 4-5 years, now, and am making it 'more official'.
Since the campaign grew from 'dead average points heroes in Atlanta' to add 'street level in Hudson City (i.e., Jersey), 'high points in Vibora Bay' and now my 4th son is running 'mid level in San Mateo' we're calling it the Atlantaverse.

Here's some background!

Play Report: First Game in the Dosmend Campaign for HERO System

  I love Champions and the HERO system. I've been playing Champions since it came out and it is my default superhero system. HERO is my default system for damn near everything that isn't fantasy or horror.
  Recently Son #4 told us that phrase that all people who play superhero games both love and dread.
 "Play anything you want".

The Shuffling Madness of Locomotive Breath

All Players in the Champions of Atlanta Campaign-
  SPOILERS!!

  Ahem.
  I just tricked superhero team one (Crusader, Gale, Alien Hunter, Nova, Mandible, Skywave, Ellipses, and Dierdre) into boarding Prof. Impossible's 1970's era spaceplane and being sent, on autopilot, to the north pole of the Moon.

  But that is for another time.

  In the meantime team two (Flaming Hammer, Tombstone, Forest Warrior (actually Ghost-like Warrior of the Celestial Forest), Kaleidoscope, Thunderclap, Nighthawk, Bone, and Bob Perkins-Defender of the Universe) are investigating the strange disappearances around Oakland Cemetery. The homeless report to Bone (King of the Good Hobos) that homeless and petty criminals have fled the vicinity after several of each have gone missing, including one memorable incident where a minor drug dealer was dragged, screaming, into the sewers by something Bullets Couldn't Stop.
  The team is has hints that these things are related to the mysterious phrase uttered four months ago by the dying StarRnager Url/Matosk who said 'the Riders are coming' just before he died and his Power Rod selected a new StarRanger.
  What is going on?
  The Necromancer, an evil mystic, is conducting experiments, that's what! He is trying to fuse living flesh with both undead flesh and machinery in the hopes that the result will be something as new, a controllable minion that cannot be stopped by machine or magic! He has called in several favors and taken out a third mortgage on his soul to 'lease' the services of a powerful evil spirit who calls himself Baron Cimetiere - this dark loa inhabits the bodies of the recently dead as a sort of super-zombie: tough, fast, and terrifyingly smart. The baron is behind the recent disappearances.
  The Necromancer, though, is almost finished with his creation. he has taken Mean Ron, former King of the Hobos (a foul tyrant who lost power when Bone arrived), and transformed him into something rather odd.
  The Necromancer was never very stable; his new pacts have driven him even further around the bend. In addition to never wondering why only Mean Ron has survived any of his procedures (unknown to anyone but Mean Ron's late mother he is the illegitimate son of 1970's supervillain Iron Ron) he has grafted Ron with the machinery he had at hand - an abandoned train from the 1860's, formerly of the Southern Railroad History Museum.
  While Ron survived the transformation his mind isn't doing so well. When he realized the extent of the changes and the reality of his new existence he went even crazier. Now he spends his time wandering the sewers and drainage tunnels during the day, haunting back alleys and lonely lots at night, and humming to himself. And it is always the same song...





  If the party gets past the Baron they will face the transformed Ron who now calls himself Locomotive Breath

Champions: Flashback to William, the Strongest Man in the World

  Earlier I wrote about the very creative character from the first Champions campaign I played in. Another very creative member of the party was my buddy Gregg. Gregg liked what I called 'simple, yet extreme, characters'. He had a tendency to make characters so over-the-top they were terrifying and yet so simple, direct, and interestingly flawed you wanted him to play them and play alongside them.
  The character of his I remember best was William. I have recreated him here in 6th edition HERO as I remember him as a beginning character.

  William
  Background/History: William's parents were simple, rural Kentuckians. They didn't have a great deal of money, but they were devoted to their children. When their son, William, was born he was a typical, healthy boy. He grew abnormally quickly and was freakishly strong. Concerned at how others treated him his parents moved to as remote an area as possible and raised him in near seclusion.
  Eventually a rabidly anti-mutant terrorist group attacked his family. Despite his great strength William was unable to save his family and fled before the terrorists and their anti-mutant robots. He chanced across the Victory Squad who helped him defeat the robots and sheltered him. He soon joined their team. In his 'secret identity' is is, effectively, a ward of the hero Crimson. While most of the world believes the huge superhero to be a grown man he is, in fact, barely 15 years old.
  Personality/Motivation: William is a typical 15 year old boy; he is rambunctious, emotional, easily distracted, and sometimes forgetful. But he was raised to be honest, just, courteous, and respectful and he honors his slain parents by doing his best to be a good person. He is essentially illiterate and knows little of television, the internet, etc. but he is a good judge of character and is no fool, no matter how many think him to be one.
  His parents were very careful to teach him to control his strength so he is usually very careful not to break things (he has no limitations based on his incredible strength).
  Because of his youth and the loss of his parents seeing innocent people, animals, etc. harmed can cause him to lose his temper and attack someone with all him might.
  Quote: "You shouldn't ought'er have done that." clobber!
  Powers/Tactics: William is strong and tough. Very strong. He is very resistant to physical damage. And he is very, very strong. He can also leap fair distances. But mainly he is very, very, very strong. On the other hand he his defenses against energy attacks are fairly low and he has no unusual defenses (like flash defense, etc.) or life support. But man is he strong!
  He is an unsophisticated fighter; left to his own devices he will simply close with the foe that looks toughest and swing until they go down. Of course, this is typically very effective. He does take instructions well and the Victory Squad is very good at setting up foes for William to take down quickly while also protecting him from energy projectors and mentalists.
  Appearance: William stands 7' 2" tall and is massively built with broad shoulders, a deep chest, and huge muscles everywhere. He has brown eyes, sandy brown hair, and weighs about 500 lbs. He typically dresses in bib overalls and heavy work boots.

  William has a very respectable PD 35/30 and, of course, a 20d6 punch!! During play villains would far rather engage anyone to avoid getting hit by him. On the other hand anyone with a taser could, in time, bring him down.

  Next time: the energy projector.

Champions: Flashback to Granite

  I got a copy of the Champions RPG for my birthday in 1983 and I am forced to admit I read it once and put it down.
  The shame I feel about this is tempered by the fact that at the time I was still in high school as well as working a job 20-40 hours a week, running two different AD&D 1e campaigns, playing in a Traveller campaign, and trying to make my girlfriends happy. Regardless of how much the single read-through impressed me, though, I didn't do anything with Champions for years.
  Flash forward to the Autumn of 1985: I have finished Army Basic and have reported to the Defense Language Institute. I have struck up great friendships with my classmates already. And a guy in a different class invites some of us to a game of Champions he had started.
  Williams' game was a ton of fun. He had us start on a 200 base/100 disads point build and if we could explain why the active point caps could be flexible. he also let us all make characters, play them for 3 sessions, and then re-write or replace them. Before long Chuck, Brian, Gregg, and I had a team we called the Victory Squad or the Victorians, we never really agreed.

  Those first groups we are in are very influential. I remember the first session of D&D I played and the first party I DM'ed for still influences how I GM everything to this day. The amazingly creative, fun, and nuanced characters from that first, year-long campaign meant a lot to how I see and approach the superhero genre, and I would like to share some of that.

  This flashback is to Chuck's character, Granite. I am recreating him in the newest version of Champions (HERO system, 6th edition) as I remember him when he was a new character and using the point allocation from my own campaign. I am beginning with Granite because he was my favorite character concept from the campaign - I was a bit annoyed with myself for not being as creative as Chuck!

  Granite
  Background/History: In his civilian identity Granite is a prominent geologist with a number of well regarded papers on his CV. He makes his living with a mixture of teaching positions and consulting jobs.
  While it is known he did not always have super powers the time and manner in which he gained them is a bit mysterious; he asked he gives vague, sometimes contradictory, responses and ignores any further discussions. Mutant scanners do no register him and there are hints his powers may be mystical.
  Personality/Motivation: Granite is the personification of 'cool in a crisis'. A good friend with a dry sense of humor in battle he is invariably cool, calculating, and focused.
  He is a staunch foe of crime and injustice and will sometimes focus his attention on those whom he thinks takes advantage of children or the poor.
  Quote: "Perhaps you should cool down."
  Powers/Tactics: Granite can transform himself into living stone, greatly enhancing his toughness and strength. While in his stone form he can also increase his size, further enhancing his strength and toughness. He can also travel through rock, stone, and earth at high speed.
  Granite is a brick, but a smart one. He will take advantage of his growth powers to attack foes that felt they were out of combat due to distance or to 'crowd' enemies, reducing their room to maneuver. His ability to see through dirt and rock and his tunneling ability give him a great deal of mobility on the battlefield and few things are as surprising as a fist striking from a wall of solid granite.
  Appearance: Granite looks like a living statue of black granite ranging from 6'6" to 13' tall and weighing between 1,750 lbs and 7 tons. In his normal form he is a well-dressed Black man of 6' 2".

  As you can see, at full size Granite will have a 12d6 punch and a very impressive PD34/ED34.

  Granite was a tremendous resource for the team and a really good scout. But, oddly enough, he wasn't the top brick!

  Next time  the Strongest Man in the World.

Super Heroes at the Dinner Table

  This past Saturday I hosted my very intermittant Champions game. All of the players were introducing new characters and we were adding 2 new players. All the layers are teens or close enough, so I was prepared to have a ton of fun.

  The players (sex and age) and characters (powers) were:
  KF (M/18) - Senor Iago (A Portuguese Knight of a Holy Order placed into a cursed slumber by a witch and recently awoken. Wears enchanted armor and shield as well as a number of magic items, fights with an enchanted mace, can summon a pegasus)
  JS (M/17) - Bob Perkins, Defender of the Universe (an array of energy attacks, drains, and boosts)
  KB (F/17) - Thunderclap (Power armor user with a number of sonic attacks)
  DB (F/16) - Speedre [rhymes with the typical pronunciation of 'Dierdre'] (full-body cyborg super-speedster)
  AS (M/15) - Tombstone (Pilot of a war machine that can transform between being a 36' tall battle mecha and a large RV; he is from a parallel dimension where nuclear weapons were never developed and battles were fought in huge anthropomorphic war bots)
  JB (M/15) - ...[Ellipses] (Gadgeteer) because of his physique and his sewer base sometimes called 'sewer urchin' or 'the swole mole'
  SS (M/14) - Сжигание Молот ['Flaming Hammer'] (WWII Polish warrior who was forced to be a super-soldier for the Soviets; put in cryo-stasis after the war and only recently awoken. Super gadgets and armor as well as an enhanced body and martial arts)
  TB (M/13) - Xianke (A Shaw Brothers/Wuxia style martial artist)
  NS (M/12) - Mandible (A scientist who, post lab accident, can transform into a sort of 'were-insect' with a variety of insect powers like vast leaps, clinging, etc. Also quite tough)

  Whew!
  So, as background:
  Senor Iago and Flaming Hammer were in Atlanta because of the Temporal Displacement Research and Treatment Center at ICICLE Tower, near the CNN Center [ICICLE (Intergovernmental Committee on International Criminal Law Enforcement) is the SHIELD/UNTIL/UNCLE/etc of my campaign)], Tombstone's RV pierced the dimensional barriers near Atlanta because of events related to the last session. Mandible and Speedre came out of local high-tech labs. Ellipses and Thunderclap are from the 'local high-tech scene' in Alpharetta. Xianke won't tell anyone why he is here. Bob Perkins, who just got back from the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal, isn't really sure why he's here.

  The session started with some of the heroes learning that there was something falling from space into Atlanta. The various heroes, who had not yet met, converged on the CNN Center, the estimated impact point. Thunderclap saw the impact from a distance - whateveritwas landed in the intersection between the CNN Center and ICICLE Tower. Flaming Hammer and Iago saw the impact and donned their armor. Ellipses and the rest also heard or heard of the impact and began to close in.
  At that moment Bob Perkins appeared a few feet away from the impact crater. He asked a passerby what planet and year it was and then approached the impact - it was an alien in a Star Ranger uniform whom Bob recognized as the one assigned to the local region [No, not a Green Lantern!]. Obviously dying, the Ranger ordered his staff to find a replacement and then told Bob,

  "The Riders are coming"

  Before he died.

  The various supers are all there or almost there when everyone hears a sonic boom  and sees a vapor trail heading towards them. A moment later the Brute lands in the intersection! The only creature on Earth labeled an Omega Level threat, the various rookie supers collectively hold their breath.
  The massive, gray-skinned Brute looks at the Star Ranger and shouts,
  "Who killed my friend?!?!"
  and just then - an energy bolt fired from the ICICLE Tower strikes the Brute, which promptly triggers his Berserk and its time for combat.

  -Speedre does a move by at full speed: hit, no effect
  -Thunderclap hits with her biggest gun: hit, no effect
  -Xianke and Mandible start to close with the Brute
  -Ellipses and Flaming Hammer get to a roof for sniper work
  -Bob Perkins drains the Brutes strength: after defenses 1 point is drained, which is enough to trigger another berserk.
  Did I mention that each berserk triggers a strength boost?
  net result - Bob made the brute stronger
  -Tombstone fires his vortex cannon: hit, no effect
  -The Brute makes a short leap and grabs Thunderclap
  -Senor Iago, who has been holding his action, makes a Presence attack: he slammed his mace down to get the Brute's attention and said,

  "Sir, I do not know you, but I ask you to calm down. None of us are your enemies; none of us hurt your friend. We are good people made afraid by our anger. I beseech you to cease fighting and we will help find the people who killed your friend."

  And he rolled really well, giving the brute a chance to try to recover from one of the berserks, which he did.
  Everyone goes to post phase 12 recovery.
  Next turn Thunderclap tries to break free from the Brute's grasp, but it is like this

  Even with power armor.
  Bob Perkins also makes a Presence Attack to try to calm down the Brute, as does Iago, again. The Brute is rapidly calming down!

  Then Xianke kicks him.

  Perfectly in-character, too. He doesn't do any damage through defenses, but the Brute might have noticed. This upset Flaming Hammer who uses his maser rifle to...
  ...snipe Xianke, knocking him out with a mostly invisible beam.
  But not invisible to the sensors on Tombstone's mecha. Tombstone tracks back the point of origin, zooms in and sees...
 ...a filthy Commie! [Flaming Hammer still has red stars and the hammer and sickle on his armor) Originally a soldier in a much hotter Cold War Tombstone draws his "pistol" (a 3' long cannon) and fires on Flaming Hammer. He hits but Flaming Hammer can take it.
  The Brute then glances around before hurling Thunderclap north.
  Very, very hard.
  There is a sonic boom as she vanishes toward Dalton.
  Speedre (who has been holding her action) sprints off at her overdrive speed, hoping to catch Thunderclap on the way down.
  And the Brute leaps away to the East, also causing a sonic boom as he goes.
  At this point Mandible steps between the various PC heroes who have been (or are about to) fighting each other c\and calls for calm. The 7' tall cockroach man succeeds in reasoning with everyone and various mutual introductions and apologies are made.
  At this point Bob Perkins wants to know where the closest McDonald's is. 3 blocks down Marietta Street later and the heroes are all eating big macs and talking (Thunderclap picked up the tab; Bob had lost his wallet on a planet near the Garnet Star a few weeks before).
  After a few minutes two Icemen (ICICLE investigators) arrived and began to debrief the heroes. A few minutes after they left a young man in the uniform of a Star Ranger arrived: the staff had picked him and he was there to recover the body of his predecessor and return to the local Star Ranger base for training. The group assisted him in getting the body and he then vanished into the sky.
  The heroes exchanged various methods of contacting each other (except for Bob. He said he tends to be where he's needed). Bob vanished into thin air as he was about to bite into his 4th big mac and everyone else was soon heading home.
  I was a little pleased with how much fun this intro session went!