. It was originally published in 1984 by TSR.
There are a number of adventures where players can take the role of their favorite Marvel hero. The hero's attributes (i.e. the player's skills) use what is called the FASERIP system (Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, Psyche).
I had previously run this game a few years ago. While some of the core group remains, I have a few new players for these adventures.
Rather than using the predetermined heroes for each adventure, I let the players create their own characters and roll to determine their own superpowers. I have also written my own stories/campaigns for these characters, but to ease the players in and get them acclimated to the game, I am using some standard 1984 campaign adventures. Below is the recap of such adventures:
Upon completion of his studies at the Polytechnic School in Styria, Elon went on to the forefront of the Augmented Reality field, and many of his contributions are in wide use throughout Earth 769. He still dreams of the day that one man helicopters are standard modes of transportation, and has begun work on one himiself.
From: Earth 521 (1984)
How it differs from our Earth: After the Roswell crash in 1947, the aliens didn't just sit back. Instead of this primitive planet having access to their technology, they launched a nuke at the the site in 1949 and turned it into a horrible, radioactive crater. Fortunately for Earth, scientists had made very quick advances and spread the technology across the globe so that this one strike didn't destroy it all. Unfortunately for Earth, there was a nuclear winter and the peace and prosperity that was at hand soon disappeared, and the world was back at each other's throats.
The American Southwest was deemed uninhabitable, and the occupants left in droves. Some succumbed to the large doses of radiation. Many of these people had procreated in their time in the zone and gave birth to strange children. Large orphanages sprung up, and it seemed clear that while 99% of these children were weak and deformed, some of them were thriving.
John Doe 238 was a very durable child. Though somewhat slow witted, he had an ability to probe minds and this gave him the advantage that his slow brain needed. He was teased because of this, and to make matters worse, he developed claws. He currently goes by the nickname he was given in the orphanage, Claude Bawls. The American government soon caught wind of his powers and sought him out. Thankfully, one of the caretakers at the orphanage got advanced warning, packed Claude a bag, and got him out of there in time. While traveling east, Claude helped many strangers fight off marauding bandits looking for their share of the irradiated waste. He caught on with a group of families that were impressed with the child's physical and mental abilities and fondness for making armadillo stew. Never having a real name, Claude adopted his family's nickname for him as his crime fighting moniker, The Armadillo.
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You were all teleported into my funeral home, Hoffs Dwarlar, which will serve as our base of operations. Using my Lorentz, I showed you a news clip from a few weeks ago. A team of heroes known as An*l C**t was ambushed and slain by Kang the Conqueror during an alien invasion led by Thanos himself. Kang was upset at An*l C*nt for continually foiling his plans and decided to strike when they were distracted.
Kang also took this opportunity to relieve Thanos of some of his Infinity Gems, particularly the Time Gem and Soul Gem, the latter of which now had the souls of the fallen An*l C**t. Upon grabbing the Time Gem, Kang siphoned off some of its power, giving him the ability to not only move throughout the 616 time stream, but the time stream of any reality. Taking this power for himself also caused the Soul Gem to shatter, sending the fragments into multiple realities. Kang dropped the Time Gem, no longer needing it, and disappeared.
Kang is moving through multiple realities, including your own, and altering history as he desires. He is posed to become the ruler of all reality. I'm no doctor or lawyer, but I am smart enough to know this is not a good thing. He must be stopped! I need you to travel to these realities and stop the ripple effect from Kang's machinations.
You will not be going in blind against Kang. You will be joined by the sole surviving member of An*l C**t, Chester Copperpot. He wants to find the missing Soul Gem fragments. You see, An*l C**t fell right outside of Hoffs Dwarlar and I was able to recover their bodies. Even in its depowered state, I used the discarded Time Gem to travel to the future and get the technology needed to restore the bodies of the fallen heroes. All that we need now is the recovered fragments and I can bring the team back! Once I came in the possession of the Lorentz, I was able to locate you and bring you here.
You each have been provided your own QUARC, a QUantum Alternate Reality Communicator. This device allows you to communicate with me no matter which reality you are in. It also has a healing agent which can instantly heal all wounds. It can be used only once per day however.
Now fully geared up, you went to your first Kang-altered reality. You were sent to a reality where Spider-Man, the Thing and Captain America had vanished. In the original reality, Peter Parker was enjoying a picnic with his Aunt May under a large oak tree, Captain America was taking a stroll with his best gal Bernie down by the lake, and Ben Grimm was attending the opening of a new hospital wing. These events were all in, or at the edge of, Central Park. You were sent to these individual locations.
Armadillo and Great Visionary decided to keep an eye on May Parker. It was a good thing too because they prevented a no good punk from robbing her. While Armadillo calmed may down, Great Visionary (eventually) stopped the petty thug and returned her purse. She was so grateful, she offered you the contents of her picnic basket - two great big pieces of Mott's Apple Pie!
While flying around and keeping an eye on Bernie, Mussolini saw two suspicious guys, Turk and Grotto, rush into the Krupp building across the street. Going after them, he saw Turk reaching into a broken display case. No big deal! Ensnaring missile bullseye! And another for Grotto. Michael Krupp, hearing the commotion from his office came out to see what was happening. He was relieved that Turk wasn't able to steal the contents of the display case: blueprints for the original Mandroid armor, along with a suit from the initial production of the armor. Krupp was so thankful, that he let Mussolini keep the suit!
What happened when Chester and Crimson Stain checked out the hospital?
PART 2
PED: 16170820
While the other heroes were dealing with Aunt May's would-be mugger as well as Turk and Grotto, the Crimson Stain saved Aldo and his pretzel stand!
The police made their way to apprehend Turk and Grotto inside the Krupp building, causing a large crowd to gather around. Our heroes followed to rendezvous with Mussolini inside the Krupp building. Lucky thing they did, because they were ambushed! Scorpion, Radioactive Man, The Beetle and Fixer were no match for the team!
Radioactive Man set the building on fire and managed to escape with an unconscious Scorpion, but the team managed to apprehend The Beetle and Fixer. Fixer mentioned something about Doctor Octopus using them as a diversion to steal the blueprints for the Mandroid armor and its power source, the Solectropack, from the display case. Fixer also mentioned Octavious' plans to build a giant robot to level the city!
The team used some clues (the dried black liquid on Beetle, the getaway van's license plate,witness interrogation) to an LGM rental auto agency. Rondo, a clerk at the agency gave up the name of Jim McGreed who frequented Squid's, a local tavern.
Making their way to Squid's, the team bribed the bartender (Moe) $20.00 to point out Jim. The joke was on them though, as they over-bribed by $10.00.
After questioning Jim and getting nowhere, The Great Visionary proposed a wager, who could sink more balls on the pool table! Lady luck was on the team's side and Jim told them all he knew:
A guy in a trench coat paid him the money to rent the van. He had an oriental accent. Before it was commandeered by the team, he was supposed to drop the van off afterwards at the Elliot building, near the old Globe printing building.
The team now has a good idea of where the villain's hideout is located. Time to take down the Doctor!
PART 3
PED: 16240820
Between the clues that were discovered and Jim McGreed's information, Jerry's Kids had a pretty good idea that Doc Ock was holed up in the abandoned Globe building. Wanting to be stealthy, Mussolini and The Armadillo flew up to the roof. The rest of the team soon joined. Not seeing any light passing through the skylights and hearing a low hum, JK decided to break the window after The Great Visionary reduced the sound on the glass. Success! They were able to get in! Jerry's Kids saw cables running from each skylight. They ran all the way down to the first floor. Realizing these cords were powering something, the team cut the wires.
As they reached the first floor, they saw the Octobot, a huge robot ready to unleash havok on New York City! What's worse, the thing looks exactly like Doc Ock! Yeesh! Some of the robot was hidden by 3 huge printing presses, so Mussolini and Armadillo decided to take to the air. They saw a few figures hiding behind some shelves. Chester, The Great Visionary and The Crimson Stain went to investigate. They found Scorpion and Radioactive Man. A fight ensued! Radioactive Man decided to shoot out some Gamma radiation at Armadillo. He is not a nice man! Eventually, Visionary was able to grapple both of the villains. While not an extraordinarily strong guy, he was able to hold them each long enough to take them out of the fight.
While this was going on, Mussolini and Armadillo spied Doc Ock maneuvering around the printing presses. They decided to engage the dastardly villain! Mussolini made many dark force statues and attacked! It wasn't the first or maybe even the second, but eventually Mussolini's dark force statute was the knockout blow! As he was fading out, Otto spoke the word "rosebud," causing the robot to activate! It smashed through the wall and was now on a warpath to bring NYC down!
Armadillo had also been attacking the Doc with mind bullets, but the printing presses came to life! The Fixer had done some tinkering and had forged each one with a dozen Ock-like tentacles. Using knockout gas, web bombs, rockets, laser beams and a sonic discharge, all of Jerry's Kids, save Crimson Stain who went rogue, were knocked unconscious and pulled into the presses.
Jerry's Kids all awoke in separate rooms.
The Great Visionary was locked in a 30 foot square room and it was quickly filling with sea water. As GV was 14 feet tall and there was a hatch door 15 feet high, he didn't need a lifeguard to save him! He did see and briefly scuffle with a squid though! GV would have preferred it to be Ariel!
Armadillo and Chester were in the same room! Chester was tied to a metal beam with his hands bound. In front of him, there was a giant slingshot with a boulder loaded onto it. Knowing this would not be a pleasant feeling, he turned into a gaseous form to escape. It's a good thing too! Because Armadillo had been hypnotized into firing the boulder, believing it to be Radioactive Man who had been tied to the beam.
Mussolini woke up in a chamber, enveloped in total darkness. As air was running out, Mussolini used the point of a dark force statue to repeatedly stab an area of the wall and escape.
With the team now free, it was now time to end the Octobot!
(What could have been!)
Crimson had not turned coat, but was in fact tracking the robot as it was knocking buildings over like dominoes. Jerry's Kids tried a number of attacks, but nothing seemed to penetrate its armor. As a long shot, the team retrieved the slingshot from the previous trap and launched a vibranium Chester like a cannonball! It hit and caused the robot to stagger!
As this battle was happening, The Great Visionary save a father and son (who may or may not have been Kord and Junebug) whose car had stalled in the robot's path. Armadillo also save the life of a "slightly" effeminate photographer named Lance Bannon.
After noticing a hatch at the bottom of its right foot, Mussolini was able to time it, break open the hatch and enter the robot. Making his way to the head, he saw the CPU! While Armadillo was distracting it and the Chester/Great Visionary duo using the slingshot from the outside, Mussolini conjured many dark force statues internally. Jerry's Kids killed the robot and saved the day!
