So my efforts to stick to a schedule have so far not worked out too amazingly. Yesterday it was because something actually important came up, but today it's because my younger brother finally sent me our old copy of Spider-Man 2 for PS2 and I spent like three hours playing that today.

Anyways, Super Villain Quest is back on! You, the IRON MASTER, have seized control of the Avalon Goblins after removing all opposition to the set leader Rica Rivera, whom you have recruited as one of your minions. Meanwhile, the hero Amp and his sidekick Kestrel have been sent letters threatening to reveal their secret identities (a high school teacher out in Santa Monica and the daughter of EdenTech's head of R&D, respectively) unless they hang up the cape and cowl permanently. Since then, there hasn't been any word on either of them as far as you know. Perhaps your gambit has worked?

The Morelli Outfit on Catalina Island is putting pressure on the Avalon Goblins, however, and worse, the series of killings throughout the island have drawn the attention of the police at large, and the county has promised to shuffle some resources around in the immediate future to stop the turf war from claiming any more lives.

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 2 (6)
Resources: 3
XP: 0

Athletics: 1
Cunning: 3
Technology: 4
Insight: 2
Observation: 3
Nefariousness: 2
Stealth: 0

Powers: Terminators, Ghost Whisperer

>Link to powers list: http://pastebin.com/VbnAkDVq

Minions:

4 Warrior bots at H4 A4 C0 T3 I0 O3 N0 S2
2 Info gatherer bots at H0 A0 C2 T4 I2 O4 N0 S4
Julio Pedone at H3 A1 C3 T2 I3 O3 N3 S2

Archives:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20111739/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20131254/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20194301/

File: 1344398693856.jpg-(572 KB, 1755x1275, Villain Quest Gang Map.jpg)

Oh, and this map of LA should've gone up with the sheet/archives, but didn't. Oops.

Also, although my efforts to stick to a schedule have not been awesome so far, from here on in I will try to run Super Villain Quest from 14:00 daily. This DOES mean that some days I'll only be around for two or three hours, but it's when my audience seems to be most active.

Wow, good thing I'm changing schedule.

LET'S DO DIS

We know Rica's stats yet?

Sorry catching up on shit I missed.

>>20229397

Oh, hey, yeah, I just haven't updated the sheet. Here you are:

Minions:

4 Warrior bots at H4 A4 C0 T3 I0 O3 N0 S2
2 Info gatherer bots at H0 A0 C2 T4 I2 O4 N0 S4
Julio Pedone at H3 A1 C3 T2 I3 O3 N3 S2
Rica Rivera at H2 A3 C1 T2 I2 O3 N2 S4

Oh, also, I've forgotten to mention. In order to help give the quest a better sense of direction, I've reworked the events to be more visible. Rather than a series of mostly hidden objectives which, when solved, suddenly give XP, I've decided it's better for a huge number of reasons to announce them instead. I don't know why I wasn't making events transparent in the first place.

ARROGANT BEGINNINGS
Objective: Seize control of Catalina Island.
Reward: 3 XP

SOUND AND FURY
Objective: Defeat Amp and Kestrel.
Reward: 2 XP

>>20229676
in that case op make sure you keep some secret objectives and special bonuses if we pull off something epic

So what's the Iron Master's next move?

As for suggested actions how is our domination of Santos Espada doing?
as i have a few thoughts.
1 we create a elite specialized Santos Espada Representative bot.
2 through the bot we say there are other "blessed"(us) who may assist them at times but make it clear that they also have their own objectives but always for the patron saint and to not mess with them.
3 on the map i noticed the minor gangs area i would like to suggest we scout it out and begin advancing on that area taking it over.

Thoughts?

Can we dispatch some more ghosts to watch the heroes i would like to know if they are planning anything as i am damn suspicious of their lack of activity.

>>20229790

The "minor gangs" area was added by the anon who made the map, presumably because I left a chunk of the LA metropolitan area without a specific gang in control. There are no actual rules for it.

Can we dispatch some ghosts to watch the heroes we threatened? I am damn suspicious over their lack of activity plus is there any labs for tech pillaging? Also how about establishing an Assembly line or factory for bot construction among other things?

>>20229832
ah i see was just curious can we still dispatch some bots to check it out if it doesn't screw with your plans?

>>20229804

Your ghost spies can't really provide constant surveillance on anything. The process behind them is to summon up a bunch of ghosts and ask them to spy on someone for no other reason but a lack of anything better to do. Then out of those that say yes (a number sharply decreased when you ask them to do something clearly super villainous like uncover the secret identity of a hero), some of them will get distracted or lost and never actually do it. Some of the ones who actually make it will get bored and decide not to bother reporting back. Of those who do report back, some of them will report back early because they were too lazy to watch them for as long as they'd originally agreed to. If Amp and Kestrel (or rather, Kurt Dobek and Sofia Span) are planning anything, they're doing it in the ~40-50% of the time your ghosts aren't looking.

>>20229857

Mechanically speaking those territories don't exist. So, I guess technically you can scout them, but all they're going to report back is that there's nothing of interest there.

While we're on the subject of map weirdness, Anaheim is filled in as red for no particular reason; it should be Chimera territory. Probably I should've pointed this out immediately, but anon made it for me unasked and I didn't want to turn around and say YOUR GIFT IS INSUFFICIENT, MORTAL.

>>20229836

The construction thing is going to be added as a power to Machines sooner or later. It's sort of a longterm goal, though, you don't have nearly the materials for that right now, so you don't need to worry about it.

>>20229880
I DO NOT like that sound of that of course their planning something their fucking heroes. oh shit fuck can they possibly identify the ghosts and follow them back to our lair? Bah fuck now i am paranoid in that case can we beef up our bots and work on fortifying our lair a bit including setting up a bunch of ghost, magic, ect detection throughout our base including lovely little pop up defense turrets?

>>20229790

Oh, and concerning the Santos Espada: You've gotten the leaders to give token gestures of support, but have yet to test their actual loyalty to the Muerte-bot. Various plans for solidifying control over the gang have been proposed, but none of them ever got much support, so I've ignored them so far.

>>20229978

Fortifying your hideout is going to take up one action for every attempt. If you don't make the Technology roll you'll have to try it again, but your Technology is insane so you are very likely to get it on the first try. You don't have a huge pile of sets to manage anyway, so you can probably afford to do that, as there's little else to spend your now copious amount of actions on.

Amp has no evidence of any access to ghost suppression technology that you know of, but Kestrel got her suit from EdenTech, who also have ghost-repellant technology and might also have ghost tracing technology. Still, that's a speculative IF EdenTech has that capability and IF Kestrel got it from them.

Alright considering the Santos Espada i suggest we just let or represenitive bot offer communication for any members for the newly dead. Combine this with a over-watch kinda deal if we spot something that we can do to help out we do so. This will slowly allow us to establish loyalty throughout the ranks, please the fanatics, and aid them at the same time. This will take a little while but it will allows us to slowly entrench ourselves and will aid with the eventual take over.

we keep our eyes out for any potential Espada bosses who show promise we can support and ally ourselves with in other words the eventual boss of them hopefully.

>>20230064
In that case lets scout them out to find a good lab to raid to tech after all if we use ghosts so can others.

For actions i suggest we began fortifying our base but not obviously so in other words its all hidden including the turrets basically players worse nightmare.
as for improvements
Detection tech of any and all kinds throughout the base.
pop up turrets, reinforcement of the structure including doors, cover pop ups for us defending,
develop some stealth bots
upgrades for bots
targeting software, armor reinforcement, specialized bot weaponry considering how this guys don't have the limits of your average human we can have some fun weapon development wise.
include some more anti hacking software i don't what our bots to turn traitor.
Can we develop some basic AI for the bots to help with their purpose?

>>20230115

Are you also going to fortify your base, then?

An IRC chat distracted me for a bit, back now.

Most of the upgrades to your bots are too minor for the system to bother tracking, the ones that aren't are basically just powers that you haven't unlocked (for example, armor reinforcement is just the durability power line from the Super Human Abilities set). Stuff like targeting software and stealth capabilities are reflected in the stats of the bots: They have high Athletics which also covers gunplay, so I assume you programmed them to aim at some point.

Your fortification of the base is a bit frustrating, as the tunnels weren't originally built to be a supervillain lair, but your genius and the help of your AI Mick sees you through it. Your Muerte-bot remains in contact with the Santos Espada, periodically giving them strange and cryptic spiritual advice which you usually make by mashing together two random horoscopes from the LA Times and some quotes from scripture. Occasionally you show particular favor to some up-and-coming leaders, like the head of the Santos Espada Noveno, a relatively recent leader after the last one got pulled off the streets in a police raid a few months ago.

During the week, however, the super hero Behemoth, an eight-foot tall man with incredible strength and durability, raids a Santos Espada base, placing dozens of Santos behind bars. He leaves them with a message, that next Wednesday he will challenge the powers of the so-called emissary Santa Muerte and prove that she's just another ploy by the criminal element manipulating the Hispanic culture in Eastside, not a genuine messenger from God.

>>20230575
In that case we are gonna have to develop a elite Representative bot also we can perhaps development some tank bots to counter the fucker. Have our Santos Espada related bots be based of a skeleton so their head is basically a skull ect.

For a course of action a suggest pimping out the Representive bot and developing a tank and stealth bot. When the fight comes around have the avatar talk about the blaspheme he is speaking and saying that god's will acts in many ways. Then after finishing that have some modified bots including the new bots attack.

The tank bot will do as their name implies and attempt to tank the hero. Have to stealth bots ambush while the fight is going on and then offer cover fire. The Representative soon to be elite boss bot hopefully also attacking from a distance and trying to keep its distance.
For this plan to work i suggest we offer a location for the fight next Wednesday. This will also give a week to modify set up traps ect through out the battlefield and terrain creating a home field advantage. Then we stash bots we are going to use throughout the battle zone who will be activated as necessary to take out the hero. That way we can even set up more bots then we can control so when they are eliminated we just activate more of them as necessary.

>>20230781
But, fuck. It's gonna be pretty obvious to the Santos that these are bots. How can we make sure they aren't around for the fight or are able to look through the wreckage?

>>20230781
during the some time we will also have the Representative bot smuggled out to be upgraded then when we return the bot stating that it had left to pray and seek consul from their patron saint and god. Then say the saint offers her blessing and said that the hero can look forward to a most unpleasant suprise as she has taken offense that the hero would say that about god saying that a champion(Iron Master) has been alerted and has decided to take action for such affront for both the offense to god and vengeance for the taken gangsters.

If we do this right we could take over the Espada by the end or become damn close atleast.

>In that case we are gonna have to develop a elite Representative bot

What makes you think you intentionally built your existing warrior bots to be worse than your hypothetical limit? You've only got four of them, it's not like you're cutting corners for mass production. These guys are already elites (if you look through the archives you'll note that three of your then-unarmed bots took on a total of five assorted Family gangsters with pistols, SMGs, and assault rifles, and your bots took only one casualty, and that your fight between four bots and ~6 Family and Goblin thugs ended with none of your bots incapacitated despite a lucky shot to the head from the leader of the Family thugs). Your warrior bots have already got more Athletics and more Health than the vast majority of your opponents' mooks, how much more powerful do you think they can get?

>>20230824
by the fact we will modify them into appearing skeletonish and the fact that we make clear that god acts in many mysterious ways. After all why can't a believer use machines for god's work if it saves lives?

>>20230896
However strong we can get them. i just want the Representative to be extra special due to its position. as it appears they are all the same model in other words i just basically want an extra special deluxe model. basically boss level strength to face up against the hero as is commonly seen the hero will be expecting nothing less. Then we have our shenanigans with the terrain and reinforcement bots to give the hero a very VERY bad day. Cause we are a villain we don't have to worry about the usual limits a hero undertakes.

>>20230986

If you want a boss machine, get 4 XP and buy the Mechs power (their minimum height is only eight feet). Your existing terminators are already as powerful as they can possibly get.

>>20231020
Do we have that much? Cause that would totally be epic Representative.

>>20231051
Fuck scratch that just noticed we have zero damn.
Gonna make sure to put that on the to do list. In that case what about the other parts of the plan?

>>20231020
Yeah, I don't think it matters if we have a "tank" bot. We lose a bot to make a distraction, who cares, we can build another one. That's what's great about them.

Set the Muerte-bot as the centerpiece to distract Behemoth, use the rest as ambushers. Hope for the best. I guess self-destruct mechanisms if we lose, so as to prevent Santos from figuring out that they're mechanical?

>>20231051

No. You have 0 XP, and if you converted all of your current resources to XP, you'd only have 2 (3 resources is not a lot). But it's something to keep in mind for the future.

>>20231075
there in lies the beauty of the rest of the plan with stashing additional bots that we can't control as they get destroyed we wake more of them. Then we modify the battlefield and wallah.

>>20231104

The idea behind the limits on minions is very specifically that you CAN'T replace them instantaneously. You have to wait until the battle is over to build new ones. Presumably you have limited materials. I'm working on some new powers that make this less of a problem, but that's not really relevant since you don't have the XP to buy anything.

>>20231159
Man op you are not gonna make this any easier are you?

Fuck can we at least pull off the choosing and modifying of the battlefield including some nifty transportable and deploy-able turrets perhaps?

Alright, so the current plan is:

-Rig up bots so that they self-destruct upon incapacitation, and in such a way as to leave little physical evidence behind, which basically rather than blowing up they release lots of acid onto themselves to melt away their mechanical parts into what will hopefully be unrecognizable slag

-Make all your warrior bots look all Muerte-ish.

-Have a single bot waiting for Behemoth at an arranged location (question: arranged how? How will you tell Behemoth where you will meet him?).

-Have remaining bots ambush Behemoth, beat the tar out of him, then use victory to solidify Muerte-bot's position within the Santos Espada.

Is that the plan you want to go forward with?

>>20231258
We have what we have, and the whole point is that we're starting out low-power and building up. Just wait.

>>20231278
Sounds fine. We'll just spread the word amongst the Santos where/when we'll showdown, since apparently he's listening in/is aware of those conversations.

>>20231278
include some booby traps and were good

>>20231258

I'm not going to make it easier by allowing you to exploit infinite power loops or ignore the rules of the quest, no.

>>20231301
What're you thinking? The best would be something reasonably attributable to Santa Muerte, so what, poison gas traps? Failing that, explosion. Explosions are always good.

>>20231318
ooh good suggestions poison is sneaky and wont effect the bots but explosions are oh so pretty.................tough choice why not both?
As in poison is pumped out once the battle is join and at the end we blow everything up to make sure there is no evidence left.

>>20231339

Well, obviously every explosive trap you set up is one less poison trap you'll have time for.

can we use sleep gas or something?
i dont want any oh his friends coming back with a fatal vendetta against us

>>20231405

Behemoth is extremely resilient. You are unlikely to kill him by accident.

Final decision on sleep or poison gas?

poison gas

Alright. One moment while I write up the first portion of the showdown. This may take a bit longer than my normal, shorter responses.

After assigning Rica to publicly lead the Avalon Goblins, with Julio advising her in secret, you begin setting about making ready for the showdown with Behemoth. These heroes are turning up rather frequently these days...

You're able to rig up a number of poison gas and explosive traps around the abandoned warehouse over on Eastside that you've arranged to have the showdown in. It's a large and mostly empty space, with a few catwalks overhead and some offices built onto the second floor. You have the lights smashed out and replaced with lanterns you've designed to give off a light that is pale and ghostly in nature, giving the whole place a properly eerie feel to it. Tuesday night, you move your bots into place, then retire to your home in Long Beach to watch the showdown. In accordance with tradition, it is to be at high noon.

Behemoth arrives about fifteen minutes early, throwing up the large cargo door and then letting it slam shut behind him. He's close to nine feet tall, huge and thickly proportioned, and wearing a slightly bulky costume in dark colors. Your bots' sensors read slight tremors with each footstep.

An earpiece pings Behemoth when the clock hits noon. Having distributed the location of the showdown through the Santos Espada, about three dozen of them have shown up to watch the fight, despite the obvious risks of being in the same room as a super hero.

An earpiece attached to Behemoth's cowl pings him at the appointed time. "Noon," he says, stepping forward to square his shoulders towards your bot. "Let's see just how miraculous you REALLY are," he says.

>Anything to say before the fight begins?

>>20231676
Spanish-speaking audience, facing off against much larger opponent... There is only one thing to say.

"Toro!"

"Toro!" the bot says as Behemoth charges. He is much faster than you expect, however, and before the bot can leap out of the way, he's already grabbed it around the throat. Your robot may not be as big, but it is possessed of a mechanical strength far more efficient than organic musculature, and it is soon able to pry Behemoth's hands off and get free...But not before Behemoth rips the white clothing off to reveal the clearly robotic frame underneath.

>Wat do? Specifically, when do you spring the ambush/traps?

>>20231860
Ambush goes now. Traps, wait until we can hopefully lure him towards with the ambushing bots.

Your other bots emerge from the shadows, robed in black for increased stealth, their skulls gleaming only faintly in what little available light there is. Behemoth is taken by surprise, focused as he is on the fight with the main bot. The bot in the middle dodges and weaves around Behemoth's massive blows, slowly leading him towards the poison gas traps. Behemoth, despite his size, is well-used to avoiding gunfire from oncoming mooks, but nevertheless he can't dodge it all as your bots fire upon him, and a few bullets pierce into his thick skin.

He bellows with rage and throws a massive fist into your main bot, ignoring the three firing on him from the sides. The bot is only minimally damaged, and the poison gas traps activate, but he shrugs off the initial dosage. Even as the gas rises, it seems to have little effect. He grabs your central bot by the torso and lifts it up, but rather than attacking, he begins fumbling for something within a few of the pouches on his costume. Strange...Behemoth is a metahuman hero, he doesn't usually use gadgets. As he fumbles, one of your bots is able to score a solid shot with an assault rifle into his back, and he grunts with pain as the bullets dig in. He's only just barely slowing down, however.

>Wat do?

>>20232127
Blow the self-destruct on the bot he's grappling with and just focus fire with everyone else. Herd him towards the explosive traps if necessary.

>>20232127

More specifically: At what point do you use the explosive traps on him?

>>20232170
ASAP, if we can get him over to them. Don't care too much if bots are in the blast, as long as it doesn't take out the majority of them.

With a loud banging noise, the bot he's grappling with releases its acid capsules, melting the steel away and burning Behemoth's hands. He drops the bot before the acid can spread very far, however, and then runs at the angle that will give him best cover from the remaining bots, holding up one enormous hand to act as a shield while the other continues fumbling with the pockets on his costume. Out comes what looks like a flashbang grenade, some stun-type thing, and...You recognize one of them as a few anti-magic charms. What? Behemoth doesn't usually carry ANY of this stuff, and the specific thing he's looking for he apparently hasn't found, because he's tossing all of this stuff aside.

Your bots continue hemming him into a corner with the explosives, and he makes no particular effort to fight them as he searches. "Aha!" he shouts finally, as he pulls out a pair of round, metallic cylinders with what you recognize as adhesive gel on the bottom. Just then, the explosives go off, knocking him to the ground and sending the cylinders rolling across the floor. Your bots close in and open fire, the bullets pushing deep inside of him. He grits his teeth and a few of the bullet wounds seal up, but the effort leaves him breathing hard as he dives for the cylinders.

>Wat do?

>>20232273
Nearest bot MUST get those cylinders, or at least get them far away from him. Whatever they are, Behemoth seems to be pinning his hopes on them. Grab them or kick them away, just have to delay until the lead slows him down.

One of your bots dives for the cylinder, but Behemoth smacks him away with enough force to nearly disable the otherwise unscathed bot in a single blow. He picks up the cylinders and charges towards the damaged bot, hefting it up into the air and attaching the cylinder to its head. The cylinder latches on, and then...

"Hackers, mate!" Mick says, and you immediately tab over to your raw code screen to find Mick furiously keeping an attempt at hacking the bots at bay. You spring to your keyboard to lend aid, and fortunately your pre-emptive defenses with regards to this is enough to prevent the bot from being compromised, but so long as that cylinder is still attached, all of your focus will be taken up with combating the intrusions, which learn and adapt to your defenses as fast as you can throw them up. Your bots are autonomous, however, and will continue fighting Behemoth on their own.

>Wat do?

>>20232380
I guess there's not much we can do. Fight the hacking on our side, and hope the bots' AI is good enough to finish the fight. Hopefully, Behemoth can't fight at full potential whilst he's hacking with the brain-'puter.

The cylinder is attached to the head of your bot, not Behemoth.

The question here is mostly whether you want to destroy the bot to prevent the hacking attempts.

>>20232500
Oh, durr. Well, we don't have anything to add to the fight, really, so it doesn't really matter too much either way. If we can, have the bot jump on him and then acidize him, if not, wait and do it when he gets close. If it doesn't look like he's going to get close to it, just blow it to save us the effort to stop the hack.

Behemoth drops the bot as the acid destroys it, and then charges another of your bots, taking less damage now that the hail of gunfire is thinning out. He grabs the bot but does not attack, instead ripping its black robe off to reveal the mechanics below, and attempting to pin the robot into place. One of the Santos Espada, meanwhile, standing far off to the side of the others on the catwalks, lifts his hands towards the ceiling, points his fists at one of the skylights, and a sonic blast shoots out from his hands, shattering the glass. As the shards fall to the floor below, Kestrel swoops in from above and dives towards the bot Behemoth is grappling with, striking with the razor-sharp tip of one of the metallic, feathery wings attached to her arms, but the blow glances off the metal shell on the bot.

>Three targets, two bots. Wat do?

>>20232565
Ah fuck. This is not good. Melt our bots down and cut our losses. This is gonna end in nothing but tears now, so we might as well bail. We might be able to take down one of them in an unfair fight on a good day, but not even close to all three.

Fail-safes activate. At least they can't link anything back to us, and it's rather flattering that we're worth three capes' time.

As the bots begin to melt, Amp shouts from the catwalk "stick it on now, we've still got a few seconds left!" Behemoth slaps the second cylinder onto the bot he's grappling with even as it begins to dissolve, and the hacking attempts immediately begin again, but you're able to stop them from seizing control of the bot until it's reduced to corroded scrap.

You can't see what happens next, what with all your bots being destroyed, but the front page the next day says that Behemoth, Amp, and Kestrel arrested a whole mess of Santos Espada during a gang ritual, while revealing "Santa Muerte's emissary" to be nothing more than a pack of robots, no doubt from some super villain or another, and defeated by a heroic team-up just like always.

With your Muerte-bot now scrapped, you are no longer in contact with the Santos Espada, and are not aware of how they're taking the news.

Thread is archived here:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20229204/

I'll be around for a little bit longer to deal with the aftermath and wind down, but that is, for the most part, the end of today's run. I'm up way later than I should be, so 14:00 is actually looking a tiny bit iffy as far as tomorrow's start time is concerned, but definitely it's going up sometime in the 14:00-16:00 area.

>>20232711
Bad end for this thread. I am yawning a bit as well, but a fun ride tonight. Let's see if those headlines can't be a little more fun next session.

I have made a new list of what I hope are complete rules for the thread, although I'm certain I've missed a few things...Hopefully this is readable:

>http://pastebin.com/YdF9QA3p

This includes A powers list, but it is the outdated one, without nearly as many Machines powers and a few missing from Necromancy too.

The santos are probably onto us at this point, so we might as well focus on having the goblings expand and take over the rest of the island.

Also, contact our fence and tell him that we have the identities of amp and kestrel and we are looking for someone willing to buy them.

You guys gave up on the Santos? Ah well, it was inconvenient manipulating them with religion anyway.
>>20233064
Do that.

Although, we could take out Amp and Kestrel ourselves if they're not inherently bulletproof. Though that'd violate the truce thingy, so never mind.

>>20233064
Holy crap I missed the thread. Thoughts:
Half assed attempt at blackmail was half assed, and backfired horribly. Not really suprised.
When planning for a final showdown, make sure to convert all noncombat bots to combatants.
No xp for taking over the goblins? I is sad
Where to go from here:
Find a way to get ghosts to be more helpful, (I'm thinking email from beyond the grave)
Take over Island stat
Find a corruptible hero/sidekick
Increase personal combat ability (we can still play puppet master, but when we step out from the shadows I want a grand show)
Agree on a build (I want to unlock energy next)
Use techy powers to upgrade goblin gear

Hey, this thread is still around! Alright, then, SVQ is up, let's go.

Also, one note on this:

>No xp for taking over the goblins? I is sad

Remember that it's just the Avalon Goblins you've taken over, not the entire Goblin Gang. You get XP for taking over, destroying, or in any other way removing from play any complete gang, just not for individual sets.

As a recap, you, the IRON MASTER, were attempting to take over the Santos Espada by having your robots impersonate an emissary of Santa Muerte, a figure of quite some reverence among the Santos. You also tried to blackmail the heroes Amp and Kestrel, whom your ghostly spied had discovered were actually Kurt Dobek (a highschool teacher) and Sofia Span (teenage daughter of the head of R&D for EdenTech), into giving up their capes for good. Soon after, Behemoth challenged "Santa Muerte" to a fight. Although the fight went well enough initially, after it became clear that Amp and Kestrel were involved, and that they were attempting to hack your network, you melted your machines to prevent them from tracing you back to your hideout on Catalina Island, or worse, your Long Beach home. Although the heroes did not trace you, your bots defeat rather quickly ended the faith of the Santos Espada.

Meanwhile on Catalina Island, you have recruited Rica Rivera and seized control of her former set, the Avalon Goblins, who are still at war with the Morelli Outfit. Increasing violence between the two groups has resulted in the police stepping up their presence on the island (which isn't saying much, considering there were about five cops previously).

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 2 (6)
Resources: 3
XP: 0

Athletics: 1
Cunning: 3
Technology: 4
Insight: 2
Observation: 3
Nefariousness: 2
Stealth: 0

Powers: Terminators, Ghost Whisperer

>Link to rules (including powers list): http://pastebin.com/YdF9QA3p

Minions:

4 Warrior bots at H4 A4 C0 T3 I0 O3 N0 S2
2 Info gatherer bots at H0 A0 C2 T4 I2 O4 N0 S4
Julio Pedone at H3 A1 C3 T2 I3 O3 N3 S2
Rica Rivera at H2 A3 C1 T2 I2 O3 N2 S4

>>20236842
Actions: use one resourse and roll tech to upgrade goblins firepower and defenses (give them kevlar jackets and stuff)
Build more combat bots.
Have ghost spy on the supers motivate them with the possibility of getting to write an email to freind family from beyond the grave. (They have to pretend it's something they made earlier and left on a deadman switch.
Then raid the enemy gang! with both bots and goblins

Testing...

Well then, lets get this thread moving and earn some xp like good murder hobo's

Okay, sorry, was running some numbers.

Rica Rivera gets a bunch of her less spineless goblins together and says that, with the help of their new super villain boss, they're going to get rid of the Morelli Outfit once and for all.

When the Goblins and your bots arrive in Two Harbors in the dead of night, you don't make much effort to conceal yourselves, finding the front business (a mom and pop store, Two Harbors doesn't have a whole lot of business) where the Morelli Outfit is holed up, and showering it with gunfire. Half the Outfit is dead within seconds, but the leader and his goons escape to a boat and begin speeding towards the mainland.

"It's those robots again," one of the Morelli thugs said, "I've been hearing rumors about them. Some super freak called the Iron Master, think he's working for the Goblin Gang?"

"No," one of the others says, "super villains don't usually work for gangs, usually it's the other way around."

"Well, looks like we got the drop on this one," the leader says as he reloads his shotgun, "time enough for revenge once we get back to Hollywood."

Back on the mainland, Rica is pulling out one of the other boats and trying to smash open the ignition so she can hotwire it. "Come on, we can still catch 'em before they reach their turf back in Hollywood," she says.

"Step away from the boat," you say through one of your terminators.

"What? You're going to let them get away?" she asks.

"I'd hate to lose a brand new henchman to hesitation," the bot says, "step away now."

Rica says "yeah, alright," and then steps back from the boat, glaring at the retreating Morelli thugs on their own boat.

That's when all of the half-dozen boats in the harbor and the one being piloted by the Morelli thugs exploded. Rica's thrown off her feet by the blast, but is far enough away as to not be significantly harmed. She stares at the flames illuminating the dark water as tiny pieces of burning debris drift out of the harbor. "I forgot which bomb was which," your bot explains, "so I decided to set them all off."

Rica starts laughing as the other goblins run over to see what happened. "Alright, boys, looks like we're done here, come on," she says.

Just then, you can hear sirens in the distance...Lots of sirens. Sounds like Catalina Island's new and improved (or, at least, bigger) police force is inbound.

>Wat do?

>>20236905
I like it. The Behemoth fight made it pretty obvious that we simply don't have enough firepower using just our bots. The living will have to do for now.

>>20237292

One thing I'd like to point out about the Behemoth fight is that every single one of your bots was destroyed by YOU and not your enemy. Two of them hadn't even taken damage. And on the other hand, Behemoth spent a lot of time trying to get the hacker stuff latched onto your bots instead of doing direct damage. It wasn't a straight fight to the finish on either side.

>>20237307
Well, just that the fight went long enough that it became a problem. A supervillain without overwhelming force ain't very super at all, right?

>>20237286
That's more like it. So... stay and fight, or would we rather not mess with the police right now? Thinking fleeing might be the smarter option at the moment.

>>20237369
Don't stay and fight. Currently there are no living witnesses who know we are backing the goblins. Lets keep it that way. Pitty we don't get to loot the hidout though.

You tell the goblins to abandon the two cars they came in, and then blow them up so the police won't be able to figure out who owned them. Then you instruct the goblins to make their way back to Avalon on foot (it's about five or six miles, but whatever, they'll live), while your terminators return to your lair.

By the time the police arrive, there's nothing but burning debris and terrified citizens with vague reports of gunfire and explosions.

Note: The Morelli Outfit was destroyed and not subverted. This means in order to take control of Two Harbors (and, thus, solidify your control over Catalina Island and get the shiny 3 XP), you need to invest at least three resources into Two Harbors. That'll bump the island's local Morale up to 1, which is enough to create a set and occupy the area. You can also wait for the Morale to regenerate naturally, one per turn, and since there is no set in Two Harbors, there's no upper limit to how much Morale can regenerate, but then another gang might step in and seize it, since that Morale is totally unclaimed.

I'll put up a post about the different kinds of sets next, and I should've put that in the collected rules, but I didn't. Oh, well.

Also missing from the rules: The "acquire resources" crime action for you or your henchmen, which is only the most iconic crime of the entire genre! Gah, I'm really bad at being thorough.

Note that the "cost" is just the cost of pumping more resources into the area using the bribe action. If a vacant neighborhood already has some unclaimed Morale, this will decrease the cost of recruiting a set of that type. Of course, since you just barely reduced the Morale of Two Harbors to 0, that doesn't apply here.

Worker Set
Warfare: 1
Morale: 2
Cost: 3
Upkeep: 1
Business: 4/3/3/2/1

Footman Set
Warfare: 2
Morale: 3
Cost: 6
Upkeep: 2
Business: 3/2/2/1/0

Bruiser Set
Warfare: 3
Morale: 4
Cost: 10
Upkeep: 3
Business: 3/2/1/1/0

Specialist Set:
Warfare: 2
Morale: 3
Cost: 6
Upkeep: 2
Business: 4/2/0/0/0

Elite Set:
Warfare: 4
Morale: 5
Cost: 15
Upkeep: 3
Business: 4/3/3/2/1

>>20237626
How much does it cost to upgrade a set from one type to another? Anyway establish another worker set posthaste. Then we need to decide if we want it to pretend to be goblins, or create our own unique gang.

Oh, I forgot to ask, is there anything preventing us from creating a quirky miniboss squad and using it as our own swat team equivelent?

>>20237707

You can't. Once established, the only way to replace a set is to stop paying them and wait for them to disband, which leaves the neighborhood vacant and vulnerable unless it's well behind your lines (and there isn't really any "behind your lines" right now, because of how tiny you are).

Also, since this is a set for your gang, you're going to need to decide what they look like (although there's nothing stopping you from copying another gang's look if you want to run a false flag operation) and, more importantly, how you prioritize the five illegal businesses (which are, for reference: Drugs, Hookers, Arms, Extortion, and Robbery, and the last one includes mugging, carjacking, burglary, anything that works better with lots of soft, rich white people around to steal from).

>>20237773

Not sure exactly what you mean, but it turns out the answer is yes in both cases.

Your Henchmen, being individual people, require no upkeep and can hang out wherever you need them. If you get enough of them together, they can be a pretty formidable crew (especially once you start getting super powered henchmen).

You can also create a set and then (this is a set action I also forgot to include in the rules, goddammit I'm bad at this) order them to leave a neighborhood without putting them into a new one. Then they'll act mostly like a SWAT team in that they have no neighborhood and can thus hit pretty much any set or precinct in the city (so long as it's not shielded) without fear of retaliation, however they generate no income, so you'll need a reasonably well-oiled economic machine to field a team like that.

Alright, so! Which set type do we want to post up in Two Harbors? I would think Worker, since the lower our upkeep now, the faster we can grow.

Worth noting, by the way, that the Avalon Goblins are a worker set (and so were the Morelli Outfit before you iced them).

>>20237981
Well then, maybe Footmen? The bump up in Warfare might be wise. Anyone else have thoughts?

Maybe a footman or specialist set. Since we can only do one crime at a time what's the disadvantige of creating a specialist set vs a footman?

>>20238132
I would assume if you were in an area that didn't have the right clientele for their business?

>>20238132

Neighborhoods have fixed businesses, which can only be changed by committing a special crime to ruin the area (or developing it), and that costs actions and might not work. So, for example, Two Harbors is an Extortion neighborhood, so whatever set is assigned there must use the Extortion score for their income.

The prioritization of your businesses is fixed across all sets you create once you decide on it (i.e. if one of your sets has its highest score in Robbery, all of them do). Sets you convert from other gangs retain their original business scores, though, so it's possible to steal someone else's specialist sets to help diversify a bit.

>>20238258
Well, since Goblins prioritize Drugs/Hookers/Robbery/Arms/Extortion, we have to go with Worker or Elite to get anything out of Two Harbors, since those are the only two types without a zero in their stats. A stat of one won't do much for us anyway, income-wise, so I'd say we're better off taking some Footmen and using the Attack Another Set action.

I think I'm getting the hang of the gang rules, now.

>>20238258
Well, anyway create a specalist set.
Have the ghosts on the supers (promise them that if the help out we will deliver an email to their loved ones that they get to write)

>>20238329
Whoops, these gonna be our trained guys and not Goblins, aren't they? So we pick our business prioritization. Disregard this, go with >>20238348 then, taking Extortion as either our #1 or #2 business.

>>20238329

You are not the Goblins, and you can prioritize sets that you, personally, create, however you want. However, once you set the prioritization for your sets, it applies to ALL of your sets and cannot be changed. The different businesses each have their advantages and disadvantages, and all of them are reasonably well balanced.

Robbery neighborhoods are wealthy and thus give the police a lot of money, which means in order to maximize your profits, you'll be putting a lot of effort into bumping up neighborhoods, and you'll also have to put a greater emphasis on keeping the police suppressed to stop them from getting active precincts going in Robbery neighborhoods that will give them a lot of income. It does mean that, in terms of fluff, you will be undisputed kingpin over a super-awesome rich city if you actually pull it off, however. Robbery neighborhoods also see little competition (most gangs are bad at Robbery).

The advantage to Drugs is that it's the most common, but there's also a lot of competition. A lot of gangs are good with Drugs. Since the police only break even on Drugs neighborhoods, they don't put a whole lot of effort into protecting them, either.

Arms neighborhoods are very rare, but also give the police zero income whether or not there's an active precinct, which means it's easy to suppress the police there since they won't be putting a whole lot of effort into protecting worthless neighborhoods. If you invest the actions to ruin enough of the city, you'll be making bank while the ground shrinks under the cops' feet.

Hookers are like drugs, in that they provide the police little income, but unlike drugs they are less common. Also unlike drugs, there is not a whole lot of competition for them.

Extortion is something the police will fight for, is reasonably common, but also has a fair amount of competition. To be honest, Extortion is basically the Hard Mode option. It's still the third most common business in the city, though, so you don't necessarily want to make it your dump stat even if it's not wise to make it your high stat either.

>>20238486
Sorry, for some reason I thought we were using Rica's Goblins for this neighborhood.

So I'm thinking we dump stats Drugs, since competition is not worth it and go with... Arms/Robbery/Extortion/Hookers/Drugs. Dumping hookers and drugs also makes sense, because, y'know. Robots and the undead.

Alternately, sexbots? Maybe H/R/A/E/D would be fun/funny.

Hookers/Robery/arms/extortion/drugs. I should be relitivly easy to get drug sets, so they can make a good dump stat.

>>20238609

Hmmm...I wonder what the legal status of sexbot hookers is?

>>20238642
Either way, we should spend one point of our new XP on Synthskin. The alternatives are not pretty.

>>20238642
Probably depends if it is sentient. I'm sure there are enough self aware robot heroes around for them to have been granted full citizenship. Otherwise it's a very expensive vibrator. On that note, is the a power for creating a fully sentient robot henchmen? (limit 1 obviously)

>>20238668
We have a limited number of bots. We are not spending any on making hookers. Unless we are using them to blackmail the mayor or something.

>>20238724
Ah, right. Still, synthskin probably would be worth it for our infiltration.

Oh, yes, by the way.

First off, for completing ARROGANT BEGINNINGS, you have gained 3 XP! Do note that new powers cost DOUBLE the number of stars listed next to them, however, so Synthskin costs 2 XP. Still something you can buy, though. Also, the robotic henchman thing is something I'll have to write up, but it sounds like a 3 or maybe even 4 star power anyway.

You also gain a 3 resource profit from the last turn, since the Avalon Goblins are awesome at drugs. So your current main stats are:

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 2 (6)
Resources: 6
XP: 3
AP: 2/2

Keep in mind that Julio also currently has 3/3 AP, and Rica has 2/2 AP. Also, there's a new rule which I actually just added now, so for once it's not that I'm terrible at recording rules but rather that this system is actively being patched. As an action, your henchmen can lead a set, which gives bonuses based on what trait that particular henchman has. Multiple henchmen can lead the same set, and one henchman can lead multiple sets (each additional set costs another action). Two henchmen with the same trait leading the same set do not stack their bonuses, however. Rica's trait is Aggressive, granting a +2 bonus to the Warfare stat of any set she's leading, while Julio has Experienced, which gives him a +1 bonus to all the set's businesses.

If you need some extra XP, do keep in mind that the first few XP you buy with resources are super-cheap (of course, you also have some pressing economic needs right now).

>>20238733
Oh yeah, I still want to send a bot to go to kestral's school to befreind amd spy on her and stuff. Preferably a fully sentient AI.

>>20238825
Well, we could just patch in directly and control it, as long we don't have to multitask, right?

>>20238807
And yeah, I realized that each star is 2 XP right after I wrote that. Also, I think you need to merge the newest powers list with the rules pastebin? Synthskin, I don't see.

Yeah, I'm working on a new version of the rules list that includes the updated powers list and also all of the actual rules, since I missed a few, including some critical ones. Should be up by the end of today.

Okay, build thoughts:
For our build we should have two main phases schetched out.
Phase 1: Mastermind
This is us mostly building up our robots by purchasing robotic skills and Geting power for more bots, and stealth because it will help us prolong this period
Phase 2: the big reveal
Working behind the scenes can only work for so long, so eventually we must make our dramatic entrance. Currently the Iron master is quite weak in personal combat, so we need to fix that. When we do step onto the stage we want to kick ass and for people to think we were always this powerful. So in game terms: grab a personal combat set (I'm thinking energy personally though it would need to be fleshed out a bit) and pumping athletics and health.
The tricky bit is when to switch from one to the other.

Alright, so it looks like you're agreed on Hookers/Robbery/Extortion/Arms/Drugs? Which type of set are you going to create? Also, any word on what your gang is going to look like, what it will be called, etc. etc.?

>>20238983

In terms of personal combat effectiveness, few sets can top Super Human Abilities. It gives a whole mess of powers related to making you personally murdertastic and you only have to unlock one set. It's definitely something you could fluff as power armor or cyborg parts.

>>20238896
We won't always be able to directly control it. Also when she inevitably finds out that her new freind is only a lie its better if of is a "real person" instead of a simple program. That way she will feel more conflicted and confused and stuff instead of just blasting it. Plus, more likely to work.

>>20239035
True. Any chance we could fluff the super vehicle as power armor?
Also is it possible to implement this evil plan in any reasonable timeframe?
Have fully seintient (but unpowered) robot infiltrator infiltrate Kestral's highschool and try to befriend and then gradually subvert her? The differences between it and sythskin would basically be fluff as I am not asking for a full fledged henchmen.

>>20239170

Yeah, you can have an effectively sentient terminator just because. He still doesn't have powers and is barred from using his Nefariousness score to complete actions in the gang management system, so it's not a big deal and I like the idea.

Oh, also yes, a super vehicle can be powered armor.

>>20239207
Yay! That makes this build a lot easeir.
Okay grab sythskin and 1 stealth for now. Make our unique sentient infiltrator than call up that shady guy we use as a contact, time to begin operation subversion.
Next purchase will be aditional PP for more bots

So, this updated sheet is good, then?

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 2 (6)
Resources: 6
XP: 0

Athletics: 1
Cunning: 3
Technology: 4
Insight: 2
Observation: 3
Nefariousness: 2
Stealth: 1

Powers: Terminators, SynthSkin, Ghost Whisperer

How did you plan on having the bot get close to Sofia Span? Getting registered for the school is easy enough with your super Hollywood hacker abilities, but what are you going to do once enrolled?

Also, are you just going to leave Two Harbors for your rivals, or what?

can we cook up some fancy plasma guns or something for our self so he doesnt get caught undefended like when the goblins robbed us on the street?


can we set up some wiretapping thing to listen in on anyone and locate them with gps and stuff? seems like something a tech focused guy like us would do

>>20239472

Plasma guns would just be Energy Powers.

The citywide wiretap is a logistical nightmare. How do you install all those bugs unnoticed? How do you make sure they aren't found, when there's got to be at minimum tens of thousands of them?

>>20239472
can we recruit people and take it over?

iron giants. hows that for a gang name?

>>20239539

Take what over?

two harbors

>>20239411
Try to get our bot into the same classes she is in. Once in the class our bot (call him steve, and we probably want special stats for him) is try try to be her freind has to how? I dunno, be nice to her, ask her for help on homework, help her on math and science (He's a fully sentient AI with an internet link, he should be able to do/look up on internet pretty much anything) and think on his feet. Obviously trying to avoid being obvious or creepy about it.

As for the empty territory, put a specalist set on it with Rica in command. Have it sheild the Our goblins set which has pur other henchman in command. Anyone have any nice ideas for other actions? I'm thinking forment a war between the mainland goblins and the morrelli should be relativly easy and keep them occupied, and the police off our backs.
Also, have our ghosts keep tabs on the police on our Island

Oh, and can we use Infamous 1 and 2 as example of how to make our gang? Also, we shouldn't distingish ourselves until we've got that gang war up and running.

oh
sense the cops arrested a bunch if those spanish death cult gang members after our fight, they must have been really weakened. could we hit em hard and take them over?

>>20239633

Sure. I'm fine with pretty much any flavor of super heroic stuff, and inFamous definitely counts even if it's a really different (and refreshingly so) take on the genre.

Also, why a specialist set? A specialist set has an upkeep of 2 and, since Extortion is your 3rd ranked business, will produce an income of 0. A footman set with identical stats, cost and upkeep will be breaking even and costing you nothing.

>>20239604
Make that help her on her weak subjects. She might be good at math and science, and with the internet link he should be able to look up anything he needs for history or whatever. Upgrade the link to make it nearly impossible to detect.

>>20239888
Whoops, then lets do that.

>>20239777

The cops arrested, like, thirty dudes out of a gang of thousands. The LA metropolitan area has like fifteen million people in it, if only 0.1% are criminals and only 1/8 of those are Santos Espada, that's still about two thousand members. Those are both pretty small estimates, too, since the criminal population is really probably closer to 0.5-1%, and the Santos Espada probably make up more like 1/6 or 1/5 of the criminal population.

Okay, what stats are you putting up on Steve?

>>20239888
I was thinking a cross between the Vermach-88 and First Sons? Dead serious non insain military types with a first sons belief in technology. The infamous series has the best superpowerd gangs around.

>>20240084

Sounds good to me.

health: 1
Athletics: 1
Cunning: 4
Tech: 2
Insight: 4
Observation: 2
N: 0
Stealth: 2

>>20240194
Drop a point in both Health and Athletics to gain one in Observation and Stealth might be my only suggestion.

It's trivially easy to get Steve enrolled in Sofia's private school and then convince the school's database that all the proper fees have been paid without actually paying a cent. Sofia's grades have been dropping off a lot lately, actually. Speaking with some of the teachers, you glean that she used to be getting A's and B's, but now maintains a C-average and apparently plans on coasting 'till graduation.

Steve offers to help tutor her, and as he has a brilliant record with the most glowing reports imaginable from his old teachers at PS 404 high school, naturally her teachers gratefully accept. Mr. Span is an important part of EdenTech, the school's sponsors, and thus the school is very distressed at the current state of his daughter's schoolwork.

Sofie is kind of isolated. She has a few friends, but no one's terribly close. Despite Steve's efforts to get to know her better, she's repeatedly brushed him off and told him to make friends with someone else. She doesn't have a whole lot of choice once he's assigned as her official tutor, though.

Sofia doesn't seem actively hostile towards Steve, but she does seem distant.

>Wat do?

>>20240527
That drop in grades occured right after we tried to blackmail her, didn't it?

rolled 1 = 1

Have Steve do his job and help tutor her. Then we wait and watch while staying distant and mysterious with a pinch of douche-bag. While watching what happens bitches love douche-bags and MYSTERY. Then i don't know what else i no only how to pick up chicks or get them interested.

I suppose we just wait and watch.

maybe have steave behave slightly heroic by standing up to bullys and shit? seems like a undercover hero would like that.

we unmasking of the heros? they did fuck with us after all

>>20240726
Don't be mysterious last thing we need is for her to actually check out our background. But do be patient, make it clear that we aren't going to push too hard into her life, but if she ever needs to talk about anything we'll be there. In the meantime the iron master (who IC is letting his sentient robot more or less run the show, still takes an action ofc) forments a gang war between the goblins and family more or less the same way he did on the island. We want to make it seem if the gang war spilled over onto the mainland if at all possible.

>>20240825
What bullies? Plus we have one athletics and don't bleed; we don't want steve to get into fights. And no, we aren't blowing their cover, we are trying to subvert the sidekick.

>>20240825

Oh, yes, about the unmasking plot, you've informed Whisper that you have the identities of Amp and Kestrel and are looking to sell them off. He should be able to find a buyer sooner or later, but these black market sales usually take a week or two. Naturally he also gave you a spiel about how you'd better be sure it's really them and etc., but that's no issue. You aren't guessing, here, you're using ghost spies.

Concerning Sofia's school performance: It's been dropping off for the entire year. It doesn't seem directly related to your blackmail plot, which only started about ten or eleven days ago.

Concerning bullies: Having isolated herself, there are definitely ugly rumors and people talking behind her back. But about two months ago someone insulted her to her face and she broke the other girl's nose. She was suspended for three days, but no one's dared talk shit to her face since.

Still waiting for a consensus on how to approach the situation.

>>20240967
Er I'm pretty sure we don't have consensus to do that. We should try to subvert her first. If that fails we can always sell things off later, but if we unmask her now I doubt we will get through to her.

>>20241103

Okay. We seem to have a split playerbase, so let's go with this.

1) Roll 1d100 for unmask Amp and Kestrel vs. don't just yet.

2) Roll 1d100 for however you want to have Steve go about getting close to Sofia.

rolled 60, 40 = 100

>>20240869
Rolling for don't unmask (yet) and my advice. Highest wins right?

>>20241155
I'm torn. Subverting her would be nice, but I don't think odds are great for that happening. And the sooner we get her out of the picture, that's one fewer cape we have to worry about while we expand. But just unmasking her now seems like we could benefit way more from it. Gah.

rolled 94 = 94

can we unmask them whemever? we should wait for the most opportune moment.

well she is a hero so seeinng steve be brave and good and shit would get her to like him. i dont mean standing up to bullys that harrass us or her but any that he sees picking on someone while she watches.

or reaserch het friends to find out the brst way to approach her. interest and personality wise

rolled 5 = 5

>>20241155
Don't unmask her unless this subverting thing fails. It probably will, but there's a chance it will work.

By the way, how independent is Steve, does he have any incriminating info on him, and are there any defenses in place to cut off his access to our systems should he become compromised?

>>20241305
Would this be an optimum moment?: don't reveal now, but once steve has become her best freind have another villain shout her ID from the rooftops. Then we offer her a port in a storm. Get rich selling hero ID and us it as the final push to turn her to our side.

Steve does some snooping into Sofia's interests. She's such a recluse these days, no one really knows how she spends her days after school and she's dropped out of basically all her extracurricular activities. She used to be on the girls soccer team for the school, though, and she was good at it, too. Not the best player the school had ever seen, but still probably the best player attending the school right now. People tried to talk her out of dropping out for a while, but she said she needed to leave to try and stop her grades from sinking, not that it seems to have made much of a difference. She had been shooting for honor roll previously, but now she's coasting on a C-average. A lot of her old friends tried to talk her into getting back onto the team or into helping her pass a test or even just to go see a movie, but more and more she refused any real contact with them, and as her popularity plummeted they eventually began returning the favor. A lot of people suspect she got into drugs or something.

Cross-referencing the time frames for Sofia's fall from grace with news reports dealing with Kestrel, it looks like the hero business has been pretty rough on Sofia. Kestrel's debut corresponds pretty much 1:1 with the start of Sofia's slip. Of course, that raises the question of whether Sofia became Kestrel because she was failing elsewhere, or if being Kestrel took a toll on the rest of her life, or maybe some other third thing caused both of them. The nice thing about being a villain with high Technology and Cunning scores is that you understand the whole correlation/causation deal.

>>20241510
Okay, have steve focus on gradually getting closer to her and helping her out with her studies. In the meantime have our villainous eminence start a gang war between the mainland family and goblins. They should be on edge after the wars in the island, just waiting for a spark.

>>20241667
I dunno, it doesn't seem that she can't make the grades, it's that she doesn't care to. So that may not get us close enough.

hmm just a thought but how about we reveal that steve knows her identity. saying we asked around and noticed that her grades slumped when the hero guy appeared?

just throwing that out there csuse ive no other ideas

Alright. You've taken the identities of Amp and Kestrel off the market.

Steve and Sofia are in the library after school one day, their second study date so far. Sofia seems pretty zoned out while Steve goes over the latest chapter of Calculus for the third time (fortunately you did not program him with impatience). "Sofie?" Steve says insistently, and her eyes come back into focus. "Come on, at least try to pay attention."

"Sorry," she says, "I'm just distracted."

"Yeah," Steve says, as he catches something out of his eye. The librarian is out and a couple of basketball jocks are talking to a member of the debate club. Could it be...?

"Oh, yeah, you held hands with your land whale girlfriend when mommy wasn't looking, right? That totally counts!" one of the basketball guys says. YES, Steve thinks, opportunity is knocking.

"Yeah, why don't we take a break?" he says, getting up from his chair, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Okay, sure," Sofia says, "I'm going to grab something from the vending machine, you want some chips or something?"

"No, I'm fine," Steve calls over his shoulder. If she leaves the room...No, the vending machine is right there by the door, Steve sees as he approaches the other table, she'll still be able to hear. Hopefully these jocks will make a scene that'll be hard to miss.

"Hey," Steve says, just a little bit too loud, as he reaches the table, and then, looking innocent, "what's up?"

"Just chattin'," one of the jocks says, with a grin that manages to be both menacing and stupid.

"Hey, aren't you tutoring that one psycho bitch?" one of the others says.

"Yeah, guess a busy little bee like you isn't gonna get much without something to grease the wheels, but pro-tip, Calculus doesn't get the girls undressed," another of them says.

"Hey, maybe you could teach some crazy bitch how to sperg out professionally!" one of the jocks says to the debate kid, "it's got to get you more action then you're getting right now!"

"Is that what this is about?" Steve asks, "just leave him alone, go be jerks somewhere else."

"This is a public place, you can't make us leave," one of them says.

"Just go, stop ruining it for everyone else," Steve says.

"What'll you do if we don't?" one of the jocks asks.

"Maybe he'll sic his study buddy on you," Sofia says. Nobody else seems to have noticed her walking up...Sneaky girl.

The jocks are quiet for a moment, and then one says "I really should knock you off your feet for hitting Chelsea. Too bad I'm not the sort to hit a girl."

"That is too bad, 'cause I'd love to see you try," Sofia says.

MEANWHILE

AP:
Iron Master: 1/2
Julio Pedone: 3/3
Rica Rivera: 2/2

You have not assigned any henchmen to either of your sets. Your income at the end of this turn will be +3 resources. You have total control over the Catalina Island underworld, and can easily reach Long Beach or Palos Verdes (the territory of Chimera and the Nine Rollers, respectively) from there. Attacking opponents outside of the reach of your sets is very doable, but will require that you or your henchmen operate alone, without the backup of a set.

Still, random thugs have never given you trouble before.

>How do you plan to use your remaining actions for the turn?

>Any ideas as to how Steve should react once we flip back to him and Sofia?

>>20241939
Rica manages the footsoilder set and Julio manages the other. We will hold a meeting with Rica and julio (using a sythskin bot that looks nothing like us) to discuss a path forward. FYI unless its steve you should assume we don't use sythskin, as we want to keep that ability a secret.

>>20242076
Then ofc try to start the whole gang war thing if possible. Oh, and what crime is running gambling and such btw. I assume running "escorts" is mechanically the same as prostitution.

>>20242076

You whip up one of your terminators in to look like Andrew Scott, put it in a nice suit, and then send it to meet with Julio and Rica "face-to-face" for the first time. You meet in a pool room in the back of one of the two bars in Avalon, which is closed off for private use only. Rica's playing with a bunch of goblins, her in her mask and the others not. Julio's joined the game when your bot arrives. "You here for something?" Rica asks.

"I'm here for the meeting," your bot responds.

"Right," Rica says, you can hear the smile in her voice even though her face is covered, "alright, boys, clear out, the boss is here." The other two goblins grumble, but put up their sticks and leave the room. "Said I'd get you a beer sometime," Rica says as she tosses "you" a Budweiser, "hope you don't mind that it's kind of shit."

"Hope you don't mind if I cut to the chase, boss," Julio says as he starts gathering up the pool balls into the triangle to start a new game. "We gotta get the police heat off of Catalina Island, and that means pushing it somewhere else. Make a big huge scene somewhere on the mainland to help things blow over out here. Biggest mess we can make smack in the turf of whichever gang bugs you the most, doesn't really matter which one in particular."

"Fuck that shit," Rica says as she pulls the last few balls out of one of the pockets and rolls them towards Julio, and then as an aside, "hey, you wanna play, boss?" She offers you a stick.

"Sure," you say, taking the stick, "Julio, you break, Rica, talk, what's your plan?"

"Shock the system," Rica says, "clear out every good cop that we can. Which means me and your murderbots, we head up to Two Harbors, they've still got a bunch of cops down there from when we took out those Morelli fucks. We kill a few cops, talk the others over to our side, get the whole damn precinct completely suppressed. Me and your tin cans, we can do it, might be close, but we can do it. Julio, meanwhile, he focuses on roughing up the 43rd precinct out here in Avalon. He's not exactly a front line guy, but Avalon's a drugs town, cops won't be going crazy keeping it in one piece. Two Harbors is the place we need suppressed and fast, 'cause if we suppress them completely today, they can't bring in an army tomorrow."

"Way too risky," Julio says as he breaks, balls scattering across the table, "we leave even one good cop standing in Two Harbors, he'll have a hundred buddies by tomorrow and you can say sayonara to the whole set, probably the Avalon set, too."

"Alright, say we deal with the cops, one way or another," you say, as you take aim at the 6 ball. "What's our next move after that? Suggestions?" you ask, and tap the cue just hard enough to sink your target.

"We hit Compton," Julio says, "it's already broken up between the Hounds and the Stalkers, which means both of them are tiny and weak, kind of like us. Unlike us, they don't have a super villain on their side. Stalkers is bigger, even if only just barely, so we side with the Hounds, take out the Stalkers, then stab the Hounds in the back. After that, we've got enough neighborhoods under our belt to compete with most of the other gangs, Santos Espada, Ronin, Goblins, whoever. Just not Chimera or the Family, both of them have got too much firepower on their sleeve, we wanna save them for last."

"I hear you on Chimera and shit," Rica says, as she takes another shot. "But we need to hit Palos Verdes first. Compton's right in the middle, other gangs all around, they'll be snatching up neighborhoods as fast as we can. We'll be left with scraps. Palos Verdes is more in the corner on the coast, and the Nine Rollers are weaker, and, most important, they've get these two sets, I used to buy acid off of one of 'em back when I was up in Santa Monica. The Dream Boy Nine Rollers and the Easy Nines. They're weak, but they are the best drug dealers in the entire town. They make insane amounts of cash. I have seen richer street dealers in the Easy Nines than set leaders in the Goblins, not bullshitting you on that. Now the other sets in the Rollers keep 'em protected, but if we can convert them to our team, they'll be making us all kinds of profit."

"You're the boss, you got a plan?" Rica asks while Julio sinks a ball of his own. "Guess I'm takin' eleven up," Rica says as he does.

"My plan," you say, "is to spark a gang war between the Family and the Goblin Gang out on the mainland."

"That'll definitely get some heat off our backs here in Catalina," Julio says.

"Exactly," you say.

"Yeah, alright, you're the boss," Rica says, "but I still say that we gotta hit the cops here on Catalina now, before they can bring in more of 'em, and if we're gonna do that we gotta do it now, with everything we've got. I mean, you want to play it safe, I'll do it, but come on, can't the Goblin/Family war wait a few days?"

>>20242566
Side with Julio on the mainland distraction and with Rica on the Palos Verdes plan. Just gotta figure out something suitably flashy to distract the cops.

>>20241951
Try to solve it through words. He might be able to take them due to being made of metal, but the fight will probably expose him and he's statted for talking anyway.

Plus he's already shown a potentially suspicious interest in Sophia, solving problems the exact way Sophia would is too good to be true.

If things do come to violence, act wimpy and let Sophia take care of it. Be thankful for her saving you.

>>20242587

I don't typically like to go with a single vote for major decisions, so I'll give this another five or ten minutes, but if no one else is going to vote on it I'll just go with this.

I agree with >>20242587, I guess. While killing those pesky cops is tempting, even if it succeeds it'll draw plenty of super attention. We might want to look into getting them on our payroll, though.

lets take down the good cops in two harbors but be sneaky about it. get. a stealth bot or something set up their gas valves to blow if they are living alone and have bots crash into them while theyre driving home and flee the scene. that kind of thing. if we fail we can take his suggestion and do the war thing to distract cops

lets take his suggestiob on territorry. i want us to completely own that place

Dead, OP?

Crap, real life came up, but I'm back now.

Hm, looks like this thread may have died.

If my audience comes trickling back, however, is there any consensus about how do deal with police presence on Catalina Island and where to expand towards next?

julios plan seems to have won 2 to. 1

the expansion vote is tied, i think

I'll wait for word on the expansion vote, then, mostly so I can make sure my audience is still around. We can always pick this up again tomorrow if the audience has dried up, after all, though I'll only be able to run it for a few hours.

"Rica makes a decent case," you say, taking another shot. The ball hits a corner and goes spinning off into a cluster, nothing sinks. "Even if only because I find it hard to pass up the opportunity to kill some cops."

"You and me both, boss," Julio says, "but you want to do this longterm, like how the Frightener took over Chicago way back when. You bleed the cops out slow, a little bit at a time, and then once precincts start collapsing from the slow bleed, that's when you spring your all-out attack, before they can react. And with all the SWAT teams they got these days, that's even more important. Even if we take out both precincts in one night, what're we gonna do when they send the SWAT in to clean up the next day?"

"Me and the boss will be free by then," Rica says to Julio, "we can handle it."

"Way too risky," Julio says as he knocks the cue ball and sinks another ball.

"I think I have to agree with Julio," you say, "we don't want to provoke the police this early in the game, even if it would be a lot of fun."

Decision as to what to do on the mainland, then?

>>20244272
Whatever it is, we should probably false-flag it to keep heat away from us and our friends. Thinking bomb threat or hostage-taking with a synthskin Chimera? Using our tech prowess to make it look like Chimera's taking credit for it online and via police radio. Their turf is optimally places to draw the right cops away, too.

I guess my plan would be to wait until some sufficiently high-ranking city official will be passing through Chimera neighborhoods and have a bot nab him for a standoff.

>>20244374

"We need to draw police attention away from us and onto the mainland," you say while Rica bends over and tries to line up a shot. "Kidnap someone, pin it on, say, Chimera?"

"Sounds good to me," Julio says, "officials are making public appearances all the time. We don't want to rock the boat with the current police chief, Lenore Slemp, though. She's been real easy on crime, practically asleep on the job, and we don't want that to change. There's that one politician, uh, Jessie Doyal I think, she's some kind of Congress person, I forget which, exactly. Or Mayor Pellitier, he's overdue for a shock. Maybe hit one of their family members instead? They're all married, 2.6 children, you know."

Looks like we're done here, I will be around for about another hour, and will start things up again (for a few hours at least) tomorrow at 14:00.

>>20244650
Can you add the gangs and their descriptions (and maybe their business priority, if you think appropriate) to the pastebin when you get that all compiled?

>>20244718

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Next time I update the rules (probably on Friday, tomorrow I have a scenario for an IRC game I still need to write half the crunch for), I'll throw in descriptions of the gangs.

Meh, that last post should've been saged. Oops.

Okay, this thread is archived so I'll check it for other questions and answer them next time, but all the time between now and when I need to go to sleep is time that could be spent playing Spider-Man 2, so that's what I'm going to do rather than waiting for questions that are probably not coming anyway.

So wait, kestrial is planning to coast to graduation? Isn't she 16? Two years is a long time to coast.