Playtest #4 - Enter Doc Stalwart, Stage Left

The Mighty Doc Stalwart
Legendary Hero (D12/6[3]); Hits 24; Move 30’; Hero Points 8
Might D16 (8); Mind D12 (6); Power D6 (3); Reflex D8 (4)

Invulnerable; Leaping; Flight (jet pack 60’)

Brawl (+1); Popularity (+1); Profession (Science +2); Stalwart (+2)

Goonsquad Brawler

Normal Thug (D6/3[1]); Hits 12

Might D6 (3); Mind D4 (2); Power D4 (2); Reflex D6 (3)

Machine Pistol (D8); Kendo Stick (D8)

Gila the Monster

Paragon Villain (D8/4[2]); Hits 18; Move 30’; Villain Points 4

Might D10 (5); Mind D4 (2); Power D6 (3); Reflex D6 (3)

Amphibious; Invulnerable (5); Weapon, Claws (D12)

Brawl (+1); Popularity (+2; lizards/amphibians only); Sneak (+2)

Limitation: -1 shift if he is out of water for more than 24 hours.

I moved Doc up to D16 might - (in Eddie Murphy Gumby voice) because he’s Doc Stalwart, dammit! Also, I want to roll D16s. Because they are my preciousssss….

I decide that the ninjas were not replaced (those are not cheap), but four goonsquad bouncers are now standing watch in the warehouse when Doc arrives. He knocks on the front door, and then rips it off the hinges (I rolled a 2 on the first try, so he breaks the door handle; then I rolled a natural 16). “Guess you all didn’t hear me knocking. No problem. I’ll just let myself in.”

He doesn’t bother rolling initiative. He lets the brawlers each fire their auto pistols at him. Two of them hit, rolling 4 and 1, but all of these bullets just bounce off of his skin. He strolls in among them and starts swinging. He rolls 4, 8, 2, 6, 6, 5. These become 5, 9, 3, 7, 7, 6. He hits six times. He deals (rolling D12 six times): 8, 6, 5, 4, 7, 1. He drops the first with the 8 and 6, drops the second with the 5 and 7. He uses the 4 and 1 on a third, breaking his arm and forcing him to drop the pistol. They both fail their morale check (decided that will be DT 6; added that to the core rules draft).

He descends the stairs (seeing the blood from the ninjas) and enters the sewers. Gila uses 1 action to gather a found weapon (just added those to the rules as well). He has a chunk of concrete and rebar that he smacks against Doc’s back. He hits for 5 damage, but the entire thing just crumbles against Doc’s back. Doc turns and hits him with 3, 11, and 5 (which are 4, 12, and 6 after his brawling bonus). He hits three times, dealing 4, 13, and 9. Gila soaks 5 from each, so suffers 8 and 4, for 12 damage. He’s at 6. 

Gila claws twice, (I just realized I was letting Zealot take 5 attacks when his max is 4… oops. Not that it did him much good - he still got thumped good). He hits with a 6 (misses with a 2). However, the claw only deals 6, so Doc is able to soak the whole thing. Doc punches him with a natural 12. I rule that this is critical damage (see below). Doc rolls 16 for damage, and puts Gila 6” into the concrete wall. He then uses an attack action to finish him. He carries Gila’s limp body (not dead, but hurting like crazy) towards the lair of Sudoku. Trouble awaits…

Analysis

• Doc barely worked up a sweat; this makes sense. Captain Marvel is not going to have much trouble with Killer Croc; Thor is going to rip through the Lizard. These are not comparable foes, so it makes sense that the fight would be one-sided. I’d hope so. If Doc was taking on the entirety of Zealots’ rogue’s gallery (oooh. Maybe he’ll do that next!) it would be different. We’ll see.

• I started thinking about critical hits during the fight. It doesn’t make sense to have a max roll be a critical hit, because a D4 would crit 25% of the time, while a D20 would only crit 5% of the time. That makes no sense. I could see crits happening if your attack exceeds the dice rating of your foe; so Doc would score critical damage (+1 die shift) if he rolls an attack of 9 or better against Gila (since Gila has a D8 dice value). You can’t land crits against foes in the same tier (unless you have a bonus to hit) or higher, and the greater the difference between you and a foe, the more likely you are to crit. This makes a lot of sense.