Monday, April 15, 2024

Mega-Wreckage Site, A Versatile Environment

This environment is intended to provide fairly generic twists for an action scene taking place on and around a colossal mass of wreckage, the aftermath of a disaster or super-fight that hasn't been fully secured by whoever takes care of such things.  It might represent a crashed starship, a mostly-destroyed villainous base or giant war machine, or even something like a slain kaiju or disabled ocean-going vessel that's been run aground to avoid sinking.

You'll want to tweak elements of this to fit your own campaign but the writeup should serve as a solid foundation at least.  The first time I used this environment it represented a crashed Ro-Man invasion saucer with the environment minions re-skinned as repair drones as suggested below.

The Overall Layout

An action scene taking place in this environment will occur on and around the wreckage, which is usually separated from the rest of the world by the ruins and debris thrown up when the mega-wreck was created.  There are still ongoing fires, arcing energies, secondary explosions and collapses as the debris settles, as well as shaken survivors attempting escape or repairs, and that's on top of whatever the actual villains are up to.  The game master should lay out the locations in the scene and explain any special rules for moving or taking actions between them, although I'd keep it simple in that regard myself.  Heroes and villains and scene challenges should be placed appropriately (with newcomers on the perimeter).   

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Locations

The scene should be divided into about H+1 separate locations, one of which is an abstract "perimeter zone" representing the area just outside of the wreckage itself - often the rim of a crater or a zone of rubble and debris from collapsed buildings.  Targets in the perimeter zone are only counted as nearby or close to one another if they've deliberately moved to be so (ie when chasing a fleeing opponent), and they can move into any wreckage location from there.  

The other H locations represent accessible parts of the wreck itself and should be described to suit its nature.  For example, a fallen giant robot might have the torso, limbs and head as separate locations you can move between, while a crashed starship might be divided into locations represanting engines, power core, hanger and one or more main gun turrets .  The interior of the wreckage is usually mostly collapsed so the action with take place mostly on and around exterior features.  Moving from one location to another generally follows normal rules, although you might make it more difficult (requiring an actual action) for characters lacking mobility powers that let them bypass masses of twisted debris, flames, radiation or similar issues.  Some locations may also be disconnected from one another (eg a torn-off mega-robot limb) and be harder to move between quickly without powers.  Actions (like Attacks) can generally reach adjacent wreckage locations unless something (like an huge chunk of debris that used to be a giant sword spiked into the ground) is obstructing things, and targets within one wreckage location generally count as nearby one another.

Leaving the scene altogether (often a goal for villains or survivor minions) requires you to start in the perimeter zone unless you have powers like powerful flight, leaping, teleportation, etc.  If actively pursued you'll need to succeed at an Overcome to get away clean.

Of course, if you play pure theater of the mind you can skip all this, but I find it helpful to be a little more explicit about positioning, in part because it makes mobility powers more meaningful during play.  

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Mega-Wreckage Site environment

Power Surges d12, Damaged Technology d10, Smoking Debris d8 

Green Zone

(Minor Twists)

Live Power Conduit: Start a challenge.  Deactivate Damaged Systems 0  Outcome: If the scene tracker runs out while one or more Live Power Conduit challenges are incomplete, the wreckage self-destructs with effects on par with a doomsday device going off.

Survivors: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Survivor environment minions to the scene equal to the Min die (while the scene tracker is in the Green zone), Mid die (while in Yellow) or Max die (while in Red).

(Major Twist)

Dangerous Energy Accumulation: Increase the number of successes required by one challenge in the scene by three.  

Yellow Zone

(Minor Twists)

Massive Power Surge: Roll the environment dice.  Attack all hero targets using the Mid die.  If there are any Live Power Conduit challenges in the scene, use the Max die instead.  Pick an Element/Energy type for all damage dealt this way.

Shifting Wreckage: Roll the environment dice.  Attack and Hinder two targets using the Mid die.  Move both targets to new locations in the scene.

Useful Debris: Roll the environment dice.  Boost one hero using the Mid die.  That bonus is persistent and exclusive.

(Major Twist)

Impending Doom: Advance the scene tracker by one space.

(Minor Twist)

Maximum Effort:  Roll the environment dice.  Boost all heroes and villains using the Max die.

Weapon System Back Online: Roll the environment dice.  Attack all hero targets in one location using the Mid die.  Then, start a timed challenge.  Final Overload 00  Timer 0  Expires:  Attack all targets in the scene using the Max die from the current round's environment die roll.  

(Major Twist)

Sudden Ambush: Roll the environment dice.  Add a number of Survivor environment minions to the scene equal to the Mid die, then Boost those minions using the Max die as well.  Those minion take an immediate Attack action during this environment turn.  

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Survivor d8 environment minion

Description: These are surviving crewmembers of the wreck, somewhat worse for wear but still capable of putting up a fight.  Their morale's pretty shaky though, and a hero might be able to talk them into giving up without further violence.

Demoralized: Any hero may attempt to convince all nearby Survivor minions to surrender or flee with a successful Overcome action.  Apply a penalty to this action equal to the number of minions affected divided by two, rounding fractions down.


Wrecks that wouldn't have crew members as such (such as fully-automated automated war machines and many giant robots) should re-skin these as Repair or Security Drones, and their Demoralized trait becomes Vulnerable Programming, with the Overcome representing them being hacked or jammed into shutting down.  More organic "wrecks" like fallen kaiju still have Survivors, but these will likely be some kind of parasite or very young spawn, and they'll flee or be captured as specimens rather than surrender if a hero successfully exploits their Demoralized ability.

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Building An Action Scene With All This

There's two obvious basic stories to be told around a mega-wreckage site.  On the one hand, one or more of the villains who were operating the thing before it was destroyed my be trying to escape the site, while the heroes are trying to prevent that.  On the other, the heroes may be responsible for guarding the wreck against intruders bent on tampering with it.  You can dress either up by including suitable challenges to Overcome, perhaps representing the need to recover vital equipment, safely disarm dangerous ordinance, free prisoners, or even repair and make off with the wreck for future use.  You can also flip the script and have the heroes trying to get past perimeter guards or escaping the wreck in the face of incoming opposition.  Lots of potential variations here, and I've tried to write things so the environment is as versatile as it can be and can potentially be re-used (with suitable tweaks so it isn't too recognizable) multiple times.  


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