With Great Power: Teen Power

Friday, 9 am: With Great Power: Teen Power

All of the PCs were members of the 5 person team Teen Power. They had received bracers from some Mysterious Unidentified Source and none knew any of the others' secret identities.

• GM: Kat Miller
• Morgan Ellis: Sean O'Shea: Code Yellow. Actually, the package was meant for his brother, Simon. Shea was the Bad Boy, but, as Code Yellow, he was trying to make good.
• Michelle Michiko: Jessica Jackson: Code Blue. Captain of Teen Power.
• Me: Pacey Palmer: Code Red.
• Jonathan Davis: Zoe Zachary: Code White.
• Michael Miller: Roland Reardon: Code Green. I think he was also the captain of Teen Power.

In With Great Power, all PCs have four aspects. In this case, there was a group aspect. which was defined differently for all. Pacey Palmer and Zoe Zachary, thus, had slightly different definitions of The Teen Power Code. I'm not sure whether Sean had that aspect. Jessica had The Teen Power Captain, as did Roland. Everyone had Team Power Bracer in his or her own color.

I collected three of the character sheets after the game:

Zoe Zachary's aspects: Teen Power White Bracer, The Teen Power Code, No I in Team, and Bad Boys. This last represented her attraction to Sean O'Shea.

Jessica Johnson's aspects: Teen Power Blue Bracer, I am MORE than just Code Blue, The Teen Power Captain, and A normal boy, like Pacey.

Pacey Palmer's aspects: Teen Power Red Bracer, I'm Not the Hero They Think I AM, The Teen Power Code, and THE Girl. Pacey was terrified that if his teammates found out his identity, they'd kick him off the time as a liability, and he had no idea that Jessica also returned his interest.

Each player needed to choose one aspect as the Stress Aspect for the PC.

Green: I'm choosing Teen Power Captain.

Blue: As am I.

White: The Teen Power Code.

Yellow: Imposter.

Red: Not the Hero They Think I Am.

If Kat managed to force us to devastate these aspects and then managed to gain control of them, they would change. She decided this would happen as follows:

Green: Most Wanted

Blue: Martyr

Red: It was my fault! All My Fault!

White: Some things are not to be questioned!

Yellow: Supervillain!

She then explained that there were two types of redshirt villains, minions and lieutenants. But, the big villain was Machina, as in Deus Ex Machina.

Machina was a he, an AI that could rebuild itself as necessary. His powers included:

• copy machine
• can copy any <ability that injured it>
• universal remote
• minions

We started with an enrichment scene for Code Green. He wanted a Training Session, with himself in charge, on Friday, the day of the dance!

Stakes: The others agreed to come OR Code Green was locked out from sending, but not receiving, texts on his bracer.

Green: I saw online that Dr. Venom escaped from the asylum -- didjahear?

White: That Dr. Venom -- he almost took out the whole team last time!

Green: That's why I want to call a training session for Friday.

Red (via the Thought Balloon): The Dance! But -- The Code! Besides, who'd go out with me anyway?

Jonathan: Oh, poor guy!

Green lost the conflict, and his bracer showed him the following: Unauthorized Teen Maintenance Abuse

Red: Where'd he go? Was it something I did?

Next was Red / Pacey's enrichment scene.

Stakes: Jessica agrees to go with Pacey to the Dance OR Jessica has a sprained ankle -- She couldn't dance if she wanted to!

I lost the conflict, so there was a close up on Jessica's throbbing ankle. She had, in fact, sprained it in Teen Power's last battle.

Pacey: You're not going to dance at all?

Jessica: No... (as Pacey shuffles off, not hearing the rest)... but I'd go to the next one!

As Roland tried to work his way to asking Zoe to the dance, Sean made the issue moot.

Sean: Zoe -- you -- me -- dance?

Zoe: Yes!

Code White's enrichment scene was that she was trying to pinpoint Code Green's location, using her bracer. After all, he suddenly stopped sending text messages.

Stakes: GPS Unlocked OR the bracer was Completely Drained.

Code White managed to unlock the GPS function of her bracer, to discover that Code Blue was in the same bathroom she was in!

Machina scene -- if lose, then Kat gets lower of 2 cards.

Taps into GPS vs Can't Beat Team As Is, present configuration

Sean's enrichment: One of his friends was in the middle of committing a crime.

One of the bad kid's friend's doing a crime.

Stakes: Prove I'm deserving of the bracer. Salvage reputation by crashing their party, successfully, and everyone knows it. OR Simon gets a package -- _Another_ package. The package has Sean's name on it, but Simon opens it anyway.

Kat as Simon: Coincidentally, he's my _twin_ brother -- I'm older by 2 minutes.

Escalation! This meant that there was a tie, so the conflict went another round, and the stakes got bigger. So, in addition to the other stakes:

The bracer supports Sean as Code Yellow. The two dots Code White picked up for Code Yellow became one dot. The Dumb Friends would have poisoned everyone. The paper runs story: Bad Boy Turned Good! OR Simon's (Sean's) package is from Machina!

Escalation! And he gets the respect of Teen Power members!

Alas, Sean lost. He spilled punch on Zoe, and a package arrived at home from Machina. It had Sean's name on it, and Simon opened it.

Code Blue enrichment: Code Blue went to the power company, reasoning thus: Machina uses a lot of power.

Stakes: Code Blue finds Machine OR Machina is at the school!

And, indeed, Machina was at the school, and we moved to a combat scene. Blue at power company. Machina uses lots of power.

The PCs' goals:

Green: I want to lead the team to victory!

Blue: That's funny, because _I_ want to lead the team to victory. In fact, I'm texting everyone to meet us here. Sprained ankle and all.

Yellow: I totally want to take down Machina. No, change that -- I want to find out who Blue leader is!

Michelle: Way to go, _Team_.

White: I want to selflessly protect the team and save students.

Red: I want to prove that I'm not a liability.

Kat listed her counter stakes for each PC, should one or more be forced to yield. Mind, yielding progresses the story arc and shifts the odds into the PCs' favor.

Counterstakes:

Red: Red is a liability!

White: Violating the Code Endangers Students

Blue: Leaves with Machina

Green: Gets knocked out.

Yellow: Identity revealed!

And so, the battle began.

Green: Normal people understand and respect me -- why can't the team?

Machina's minions were Ultra Power: Code Ultra White, Code Ultra Blue, Code Ultra Red, Code Ultra Green, and Code Ultra Yellow.

One of the Ultras: The time of Teen Power is over!

Code Yellow: Who the hell's Ultra Power?

The two Code Blues fought, apparently identical!

Michelle: There Can Be Only One Code Blue!

Kat: How do you differentiate yourself?

Lisa: You could unmask!

Morgan: That's kind of the superhero equivalent of flashing which -- I really didn't want to see that! Put your mask back on! We're in a public place!

And Code Blue was suffering from a wounded ankle.

Code Blue (possibly via the thought balloon): I knew I should have taken painkillers!

Things weren't looking good for our heroes.

Me: I'm thinking we can yield at this point.

Michelle: A leader never yields!

Me: Right, but I'm a liability -- not a leader!

Green yielded:

Green: Code White's too far away -- if I reduce my energy enough to help her, I'll lose consciousness! (and does)

Code White: Wow, a team captain would _do_ that!

Someone: If you were team captain, you'd know that!

Sean decided to pretend to be Ultra Yellow.

Sean: Way to go boss -- we totally got 'em!

Simon: Way to go boss -- we totally got 'em!

Sean: Sean, is that you?

Simon: Simon, is that you?

Sean: No, stop copying me!

Simon: Shut up! Stop copying me!

As the two twins fought a verbal battle, Morgan and Kat kept canceling each other's action.

Simon: Sean, you poser! If Team Power finds out you stole their suit, you'll be in a lot of trouble! I can't save you from this!

Sean: Simon, what are _you_ doing? You're fighting with the _bad_ guys! (cancel)

Simon: I think I have a better idea of what kinds of friends than _you_ do! (cancel)

Sean: At least _I_ know enough to choose to be _on_ the Teen Power! (cancel)

Simon: I can't believe Teen Power'd _ever_ actually choose you? Because _I_ know _this_ outfit was for _you_! (cancel)

Code Blue (as Michelle cancels Simon's action): I have no doubt in Code Yellow! He has proved himself again and again!

Code Red (via thought balloon): Well, that just breaks my heart -- he belongs on this team more than I do!

Machina yields to Blue. Blue led the team to victory. Yellow learned Blue's identity. Red was not a liability

Michelle: Why does this feel like an empty victory?

White: My bracer is charged with power. I'm holding Roland's unconscious form in my arms. I'm flying us out of the gym at sonic speeds! Must protect Code Green!

Kat: That's a good set up to allow me to yield to you.

So, White succeeded in protecting the team and the students.

Roland's aspect of Code Green was Undone, but still could not be transformed until the last space in the story arc was filled in. This is something that rarely happens in a four hour convention slot. If we were playing a full game, the Devastated / Undone aspect would be transformed at that point, unless it were rescued first. If it got rescued, whoever rescued it would define the new relationship between PC and aspect.