Everway: Infinity Powder

This was Kat Miller's Everway Supers game. Rather than make up 20 point PCs, we had a pool of 130 points for a base (suggested allocation: 10), a leader (suggested allocation: 25), a sidekick (suggested allocation: 15), and 4 regular team members (suggested allocation: 20 each). We were given an hour to create team and base. Kat also asked for a mundane contact for each PC. I only remember 2.

Harbinger, aka Harry: Alien, come to warn Earth about a different group of aliens. Team leader -- and we actually listened to him!

Shifty-3-X8-2/A Mark 2 (Nick Wedig): Harbinger's robot companion. The sidekick, usually linked in to the internet.

Nero: Genius, rat. Can control ordinary rats.

Harbringer's Angels: The 3 swordsisters, not related to each other, but each wielding a sword forged by the same craftsperson:

Dawn (Kacy): Child of 2 Science Heroes. One of 3 swordsisters, she becomes a strong woman when drawing on this power. Contact: Best friend at school.

Skuld (Josh): The second swordsister. Can open portals to distant places with her sword.

Tanestra (Me): The least bright of the bunch, but strong. Her sword can hurl the occasional force bolt. Contact: Martial arts instructor who uses her to demonstrate technique to the class.

The Base: The secret hideout beneath Dawn's home, donated by her generous parents. Had these qualities:

--secret

--communication abilities

--airplane (cannibalized from Harbinger's ship

--rat army, thanks to Nero, who would have preferred a swamp for a base minivan

The world has always had superfolks. Currently, there are four types:

1. Those whose power comes from science

2. Those whose power comes from the occult / magic

3. Aliens

4. Mutants

There was some prejudice against mutants. Not X-Men level, but it didn't help that there had been an upsurge in mutant crime in the city. For the third time, Kat explained, the team had thwarted a robbery. As in the other cases, the robbers were mutants who had not been heard of before. As before, a van came to collect the captured criminals.

Kat said that the first 2 times, no one had questioned the van, but now, we were realizing that it was the same van and that no one had seen the criminals from previous cases since.

Nero crawled under the van and held on as it drove off. Shifty ran the license plate. It proved to have been issued twice before, to the same van for each of the previous pickups. Harbinger called first the mayor, and then the chief of police. Both conversations had the same opening.

Mayor / Police Chief: Harbinger! Is it aliens?

Harbinger: Not yet.

He found out that the police were not holding any of the recently arrested mutants. He asked what the mayor knew about all this.

Mayor (to his secretary): What do I know about all this?

Not much, as it turned out. There were vague official orders that the folks in the vans were to collect the mutants and that the rest was no concern of the mayor's.

Two companies seemed to be involved. One was Desco, run by a Thornton Wells. His brother was in the other, and I think this was where the truck Nero was on arrived.

The driver spotted Nero and the rat's small communicator. Picking him up, the driver told someone to contact a doctor to say that one of the special rats had gotten out. Nero bit the man, who dropped him. The rat scurried deeper into the complex, reporting via communicator.

Dawn learned that her school chum was missing, and Tanestra was told by the martial arts teacher that one of the students at the dojo had an odd kind of drug. He was very angry when the teacher took it from him, yelling at her that he'd had to sell his car for it and that it would change everything. She got a cop to arrest him informally -- to toss him in a cell, without filing charges -- and she gave Tanestra the tube of rainbow colored powder.

Shifty analyzed this, if at something of a disadvantage. His systems picked a computer virus. Said systems were quarantined, so no damage was done, but he had to use a keybord to type. Still, he was able to determine that Tanestra's odd powder contained mutant DNA.

Someone: It's Soylent Green!

Tanestra: It's Soylent Mutant Green!

The martial arts instructor had suspected as much. Further research indicated that this powder created mutant powers in those that did not have it. Alas, this was soon followed by spontaneous combustion.

Tanestra: That guy should have kept his car.

Teammate: The car is better than spontaneous combustion.

They figured out that some of the drug-created mutants had been the ones they had captured. These had been picked up by the vans, so Desco and the other company were probably involved with the drug. Tanestra had a theory about the fate of the captured mutants.

Tanestra: They're recycling! Recycled Soylent Green!

Skuld used her sword to open a gate to the building where Nero was. Several children, including Dawn's schoolchum, were rescued and escorted through the gate. Dawn almost killed one of the wandering scientists, misunderstanding her instructions to "take him down", but managed to pull her blow.

Nero reported finding a naked winged woman. She, too, was rescued, with an utter lack of distraction.

Josh: Wow, this is the team that cares -least- about a naked woman.

Yep, a pre-pubescent school girl, 2 heterosexual women, an alien with a Mission, his servo robot, and a rat who was far more interested in the winged female rat in a cage.

As Nero freed her and got better acquainted with her, the rest of the team was confronted by Felicity, a mercenary super.

Felicity (sneering as only the French can): It's Harbinger and his fighting swordswomen.

Tanestra (knocking her out): Never underestimate the power of fighting swordswomen!

Unfortunately, Tanestra was knocked out by a robot. Shifty contacted it, and it was overjoyed to find another of it's kind. The two had an instantaneous conversation.

Shifty: Don't kill these people.

Robot: These are not people. These are animal buglike things.

Shifty: They're -my- animal buglike things. They're my pets.

Robot: Oh. Why didn't you say so? I suppose I'll retrieve my pet. (encases Felicity): These animal buglike things are so fragile.

Shifty agreed and convinced the other robot it didn't really need to keep the team out. Dawn and Skuld used their swordsister power to revive Tanestra. More kids were freed, these having become mutants via the drug. It seemed that pre-pubescents didn't get the spontaneous combustion side effect.

The surviving mutant criminals were found. They were being made as comfortable as possible until combustion. A few scientists were captured, but the higher ups had either not been present or had escaped when the team set off subtle alarms. The police were summoned. While they agreed to deal with the abandoned base, Kat made it clear that dealing with the main bad guys was the PC's job.

The team went to Thornton Wells' home. Wells was out, and his computer gave Shifty the same virus the robot had picked up before. Nevertheless, with a bit of detective work, the team learned Wells was at a presentation at a nearby hotel.

The team headed over, converging on a ballroom where a woman was trying to get financial backing for the drug.

Woman (as slides show the winged woman and the mutant kids released by the team): If you could be anything -- do anything -- what wouldn't you pay?

One of the potential backers asked for more information about the cost. A man stood up to answer that. His name tag identified him as Thornton Wells, but his appearance was that of Thornton's brother.

Mr. Thornton (surprisingly earnest): The cost has already been unbelievably high. But when this becomes easily available, the cost will be just as unbelievably low.

The woman glared at him, and he sat down. Tanestra loudly asked if anyone had mentioned the spontaneous combustion. Harbinger and Skuld confronted the woman. She ordered them to lower their weapons. They found themselves obeying. Nero sicced rats on her. She ordered them back as well, but was sufficiently distracted that Dawn was able to knock her out. Shifty secured the presentation equipment.

She turned out to be the evil mastermind, getting Thornton and his brother to do what she said with her command power. Thornton was the first human test subject. After his spontaneous combustion, his brother took on his identity, and rats became future test subjects.

Speaking of rats, Nero would discover that his children by the winged rat were not susceptible to his mental powers, although his paternal authority went a long way. The children, while very smart, would not have superpowers. Maybe their grandchildren would. All Nero had to do was keep his wife, who wasn't a natural breeder, from eating them.

Kat: If you get another female to nurse the kids, you'll have the perfect marriage.

Nero: Excellent! Never let the kids get in the way of the relationship.

Voting: We each voted for two people who weren't us. Nero's player was quite good, but Harbinger's player took the prize for best roleplayer, deservedly so. Harbinger had a clear, four color, but not overwhelming personality. He was actually listened to by an extremely varied team.

This was a quiet little game, surprisingly low on combat, considering the genre. I liked how well Kat wove elements from the PCs' background into the plot and how players and PCs made an effective team. Everyone got to do cool stuff, and I don't think anyone hogged the limelight.