This environment is written with an eye toward using it with fairly low-powered supers without a lot of flyers (although even they may struggle a bit). If your campaign is accustomed to power levels where heroes casually rescue falling jumbo jets and catch toppling skyscrapers with ease, you probably want to use something that fits your game's scope better. Street level (literally, in this case) heroes or Golden Age mystery men with less flashy physical powers will be a better fit for this.
The Overall Layout
The whole scene is centered on a large Ferris wheel near the base of an entertainment pier jutting out into the local city's neighboring lake/ocean, with some lesser shoreside attractions (food stalls, amusements, curio sellers, etc.) scattered around a large cleared area around the wheel itself. How big is it depends on the era, but at 200-250' is reasonable for most time periods. This is a big permanent setup rather than a little mobile carnie wheel, and a landmark in the city.
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Locations
For purposes of movement and positioning, the Ferris wheel itself is divided into four locations. There's also a boarding stage location at the bottom of the wheel, and a combination ticket booth/equipment shed next to it, each of which is its own location. The whole setup is surrounded by a patch of clear ground (a seventh locations) where civilians can be found strolling around (potentially providing cover for lurking criminals or disguised supers). Supers capable of flight can also move to an "airborne near the wheel" position, which is treated as an eighth location.
Some locations have specific rules:
The Ferris wheel proper has four locations, each of which has several semi-enclosed passenger cars attached to it. You can cram as many as six adults in each car, but there are only safety restraints for four. Characters can also clamber around on the wheel's support arms or climb between cars, changing locations using the usual rules. Anyone not seated safely or possessing a suitable power like Wall-Crawling runs a risk of slipping though. If you roll any ones on your dice, you take "Slip Damage" based on how high up your part of the wheel currently is, which can narratively be physical bumps and bruises and a perhaps short fall before you catch yourself, or the psychological impact of a dangerous near-fall. NPCs (particularly minions) who go Out from this damage usually plunge to their doom, barring some kind of heroic intervention.
Going clockwise from the "noon" position, the quarters of the wheel are either:
- At The Top - Slip Damage d10
- Going Down - Slip Damage d8
- At The Bottom - Slip Damage d6, and you can move to the Boarding Stage location from here even if the wheel is in motion
- Going Up - Slip Damage d8
As long as the wheel is spinning, each round at the start of the environment turn each wheel location moves one step clockwise.
Characters in the Boarding Stage location may move to whatever section of the wheel is currently At The Bottom, risking Slip Damage if they do so. Characters with suitable powers like Leaping can try to move higher, reaching the Going Up or Going Down sections of the wheel, again risking Slip Damage. You can also move to the Ticket Booth/Equipment Shed location or the Surrounding Grounds from here. There are likely to be some people waiting to ride on the stage, although they'll flee screaming at the first sign of danger. A single harassed Carny Worker minion is here helping people on and off, and will react badly to anyone starting trouble or trying to ride without a ticket.
Characters in the Ticket Booth/Equipment Shed can loot the till as an action, or they can turn the wheel on or off, either starting or stopping its rotation one round later (momentum delays the effect a round, which might give someone else a chance to reverse the controls). You could also Overcome to permanently disable/destroy the workings. Twists are likely to start a fire-related challenge. There will generally be a pair Carny Worker minions here, who will try to keep intruders from messing around with things to the best of their ability.
The Surrounding Grounds are just an open grassy area with some paved walkways running through it. It might be thronged with civilians enjoying a night out, but they'll quickly scatter if danger threatens. Characters can flee the scene altogether from this location, losing themselves in the nearby streets or attractions.
Flying characters can position themselves in the sky near the wheel. This may put them at risk from some environmental twists. They can attempt to land on the wheel itself - either landing in a car or grabbing on to the support frame - but if their die pool includes any ones on the turn they do so they suffer Slip Damage from mistiming their approach. They can also escape the scene entirely from here, vanishing into the clouds overhead.
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Biggs' & Higgs' Wonderous Whirling Wheel environment
Unsteady Footing d10, Innocents In Danger d8, What Safety Inspection? d8
Green Zone
(Minor Twists)
Greasy Mess: Oiling the machinery is messy work, be careful where you put your hands. Roll the environment dice. Hinder one hero on the wheel or in the Ticket Booth/Equipment Shack using the Min die. This penalty is persistent and exclusive.
Guy (or Gal) With A Gun: A sudden glint of gunmetal! Add one Armed Patron environment minion riding the wheel.
(Major Twist)
Sniper!: A shot rings out from nowhere! Roll the environment dice. Attack one hero target using the Max die.
Yellow Zone
(Minor Twists)
Ominous Creaking: An entire passenger car is working its way loose! Accident, sabotage or hit by a stray attack? Start a timed challenge. Pick an occupied car to be at risk. Re-Secure Assembly 00 Timer 0 Expires: Start a Falling Car challenge. Safely Catch Falling Car 00 Timer 0 Expires: The car and its occupants crash to the ground with dangerous force.
Precarious Position: A civilian has slipped and is in danger of falling! Start a timed challenge. Pull To Safety 0 Timer 00 Expires: The civilian falls from the wheel, with results varying based on how high up they were.
Sudden Gust: The wind surges for a moment, throwing people off balance. Roll the environment dice. Hinder one hero and one non-hero target currently on the wheel using the Mid die. Also Attack one target flying near the wheel using the Max die.
(Major Twist)
Old Foe: A familiar face, but not a welcome one. Add one lieutenant to the scene anywhere you like, representing an old enemy of one or more of the heroes. If you don't have one in mind that makes sense in context, use the Fanatical Cape-Hunter lieutenant below. Roll the lieutenant's die and deal that much damage to one hero target.
Red Zone
(Minor Twist)
Second Wind: If the lieutenant from the Old Foe twist is active in the scene, increase their die size by one step (max d12). If not, add them to the scene with a d8 die size.
We Can Handle This...Right?: Roll the environment dice. If there are any active challenges in the scene, Hinder all heroes using the Mid die. If not, Boost all heroes using the Mid die and make those bonuses persistent and exclusive.
(Major Twist)
This Is Getting Ridiculous: Start three challenges from the list above. Extend the scene tracker by adding one extra Red zone box.
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Armed Patron d8 environment minion
Description: A civilian dressed for a night out, armed with a pistol. They might be a paranoid criminal who's decided the heroes are after them, an off-duty police officer or just a drunken citizen who's panicked, but for whatever reason they brought a gun and they're going to use it. Usually an indiscriminate danger to everyone around them, although actual police might be a little more selective depending on how they feel about masked vigilantes.
Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang!: You may only take Attack and Hinder actions, and can't change locations unless your gondola is at ground level to allow you to disembark.
Carny Worker d6 environment minion
Description: Your basic ticket seller, ride operator, and all-purpose roustabout. Usually unarmed but still pretty scrappy and doesn't take any guff from the patrons, even super-patrons. Always has help within shouting distance.
Hey, Rube!: Whenever you have to save versus damage, if the result after mods is 2-3 add one Carny Worker to the Surrounding Grounds location. If the result is 4+ add two Carny Workers instead.
Fanatical Cape-Hunter d10 environment lieutenant
Description: A trenchcoated figure, armed to the teeth and out for blood. Hero blood.
At Any Cost: After you roll a save versus damage from an Attack, you may opt to automatically fail. If you do so, deal the Attacker damage equal to the result of your save.
Implacable: Whenever you would gain a penalty, reduce the size of that mod by one.
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Building An Action Scene With All This
Given that you want to focus attention on the Ferris wheel and give the players a reason to interact with it, one way to set things up is for the heroes to have learned about a planned meeting between two criminals on the wheel itself. This gives them some isolation for privacy, but also limits their escape options. A perfect time to take them in for their evil deeds!
Spend your budget on a couple of villains (upgraded or not, depending on how difficult you want things to be) and have them start the scene in civilian guise in one of the passenger cars. Add the environment itself, and spend the rest of the budget on the villains' minions and/or lieutenants, who are also passing as civilians riding the wheel and in the crowds below.
Spotting the villains is automatic but requires you to be on the same section of the wheel that their passenger car is on or flying nearby, or for you to be on the Boarding Stage when the villains' car is At The Bottom of its rotation. Unless all the heroes are in disguise, each environment turn that there are no active villain targets, H villain minions or H/2 lieutenants will panic and Attack the heroes, revealing themselves.
Once spotted the villains will shed their disguises and begin hostilities, with one trying to escape on the ground (possibly robbing the till and wrecking the wheel's motor in the process) and the other doing their best to reach and stay At The Top of the wheel. Their minions will assist as best they can, providing distractions and extra Attacks. The heroes win the scene if they KO both villains before they can escape. If the scene tracker runs out, the villain who was climbing the wheel will escape, carried away by a flying craft (zeppelins are very appropriate for Golden Age games) that makes an unexpected appearance from the clouds above. If the villain attempting to escape on foot is still in the scene, they'll be cornered by arriving police and surviving heroes, letting them be interrogated about the meeting.
This is just one possible way to use the setting, of course. You should edit as desired to fit your own campaign, or come up with something else entirely. Hostage-taking schemes, using the wheel as a flashy distraction from another crime, stealing the wheel and other civic landmarks for ransom, or wiring the wheel up into a superscience dimensional portal are all obvious possibilities.
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