Kapow! Introductions

We had our first real session of Kapow! on Sunday.  Mostly the group just role-played through getting together.  Mike D’s character Redline is putting up a warehouse to serve as the group’s base, and started the ball rolling by getting in touch with the sole remaining member of the Beacon City Police Squad, Public Defender (Mike B’s character).  He figured that, even though the Police Squad had been stood down by the city after cost overruns and a disastrous mistaken battle with the world’s premier super-team, the Astralnauts, they might have some idea of where to find some supers who would be willing to form the core of a new, private team.  Public Defender ran it by Captain Carlson, who didn’t want to hear anything about it or anything that would lead to the Department being seen even remotely to be involved in forming a new team, however unofficial.  That said, he conveniently went for a cup of coffee leaving the file containing the information PD was looking for open on his desk.  From this PD gleaned the name The Wraith (Doug’s character) and set out to contact him.

Oddly, before he could do so, the Wraith (a former undercover officer with the Police Squad) showed up…the Wraith has good sources of information.  Using his myriad contacts throughout the city, the Wraith tracked down some potential recruits and persuaded them to go to the warehouse where the group’s not-so-mysterious backer would meet them.  There was a certain amount of hilarity as Doug strove to find exactly the mysterious voice he wanted to use for his character…particularly because it strayed perilously close to Montgomery Burns at times (“From time immemorial mankind has dreamt of … blotting out the sun!  Er, forming a group of do-gooders, I mean. … Eeexcellent.”)  But they all showed up anyway:

• Redline, Mike D.  Founder of the group, paraplegic ex-motorcycle racer and inventor of the powered armor that transforms into a motorcycle; or is it a motorcycle that transforms into powered armor.
• Akela, or Jungle Gal as she’s called by the press, and her jaguar Nushka.  Wendy was busy with Google, as you can see.
• Namaste, the yogini, Elyssa.  Super strength, flexibility, breath control, and mental tricks, plus the power of Karmic Retribution.
• Public Defender, Mike B, a force-field projector.  Police officer, last member of the disbanded official police superteam Police Squad.  The rest turned in their equipment, but it was built into Public Defender, so…
• The Wraith, Doug, mystery figure in a trench-coat, with gloves that can drain super powers and stun.
• Andrew Jackson, Dan, no super name yet.  Has-been extreme sport star with the power to phase through solid objects.

Together they form….  um, actually, the group hasn’t settled on a name yet.  I’m sure they’d be grateful for suggestions.

After their introductions, they did a little light sparring so the players could get used to the system and the characters “wouldn’t seem like a bunch of big doofuses in their first battle”, to quote Mike D.  That went pretty well, though I realized that I hadn’t fully defined how control powers work if they don’t achieve a “knock out.”  (I have since rectified this: a partial victory lets the controller command the target to perform one action, then the control lapses.)  It went pretty quickly, anyway, and I expect it will be quicker still once people get the hang of it.