And So It Came To Pass...

In the city of Meridian, did six young heroes come together in a crisis, and took matters into their own hands for the cause of justice.  It was on this day the [NAME TO BE CHOSEN AT A LATER DATE] were formed!

So, yeah. I ran ICONS today.  First time I've done so since Owlcon in 2013, so it's been a while.  Since this is meant to be an ongoing game, I started things off properly, with random chargen at the table. 

I have six players.  Two have played ICONS before, two others have played a lot of Champions (if you saw my previous post, these are the guys who were in the Strike Force campaign).

One player had already done one as a means of learning the game (note to Steve Kenson, this game is responsible for a couple of online sales of the pay-what-you-want first ed. PDF), and I approved it, partly to speed things up a little (one less PC to create) and partly because it was an ICONS version of The Mighty Pinchus, his old Champions character from back in the Dawn Time.  Imagine a four foot tall version of Kirby's original-look Thing, but bright pink and lost on Earth.  With earth control powers and a lot of strength.

The other PCs were as follows:

Typhon (played by my son): A Greek god? A Titan?  Whatever he is, he wears Greek robes, has long flowing hair, and is insanely powerful.  Seriously.  The boy rolled Unearthly for his origin, then Birthright both times.  He's only got 1 Determination, but he's got 5's in every stat, Weather Control, High-level Illusions, and Telekinesis.  Also, he's an arrogant jerk.

The Detective.  May get another name later, but right now it will suffice.  Has Blinding and Mental Shield gadgets, an incredible intellect, and the aspect "World's Greatest Detective."  We're playing him like Amadeus Cho crossed with Sherlock Holmes.  Also, he's associated with a mysterious organization called D.I.O.G.E.N.E.S.

Lineman:  A blue collar hero with electrical and light powers.  A county lineman who got his powers, the traditional way: by accident.  Catchphrase: "This is no time to take a vacation."

Eugenia Marsh, Agent of AEGIS:  Descendent of the Innsmouth Marches, Eugenia server multiple tours with US Army Special Forces, before getting attached to AEGIS in Meridian.  She possesses LOTS of skills, above-average physical stats, and a mastery of assymetrical warfare that lends itself well to superpowered combat.  Oh, and she also possesses a family heirloom that allows her to copy a power from anyone she touches.  So, there's that too.

Myrmidon:  A flying slab of beef who loves to fight.  Fortunately, he's strong enough to lift a skyscraper, so he's pretty good at it.  Wears gladiator armor, flies, and is the only person who can communicate with Pinkie (via Telepathy).

Character creation took about two hours, which isn't bad.  I decided to run with the adventure out of the back of the core book.  One thing that I loved was the way the heroes put rescuing people ahead of stopping Troll and Recluse.  To me, that's just aces.

Of course, they DID manage to stop Troll and Recluse.  The latter was fairly easy, as Lineman stunted to turn his personal force field into a restraining cage.  Troll was a tougher prospect.  Myrmidon and Pinkie both put him in partial wrestling holds, while Typhon flooded his consciousness with illusions of being surrounded by dozens of Recluse.  Finally, Eugenia (who'd copied Typhon's Weather Control) picked up a chunk of subway rail (she's STR 6), and then (with my coaching) Stunted, charging the rail with a lightning bolt and she whacked the prone Troll upside the head.  I let her combine the kinetic and electrical damage into one, and she rolled a +4 before adding everything else.  Troll failed the Stun check and was O. U. T.

In the aftermath, they learned of Sin's attack on the museum.  Typhon picked up a phone, and, without dialing, connected to Iris, the Celestial Operator.  She connected him to Monkey, who helped identify the stolen tablet as being important to Chinese alchemy.  The Detective checked with DIOGENES about Sin, while Eugenia did the same via AEGIS.  The White Specter Peony powder pointed them to Little China, so they went to investigate further.

After The Detective was rebuffed at the third shop, we get a final panel: Typhon is sitting in a cloud shaped to look like an easy chair, looking down at the van where most of his new-found colleagues are waiting.  He can't help but notice a large number of dark clad figures approaching.  Carrying swords.

To be continued!