Werewolf XLI - Apocalypse Awakens - Game over!
 

The battle began a day ago, when Mr. Sinister appeared at the X-Mansion to report that Apocalypse had resurfaced after a long slumber. Although many of the X-Men wonder why Sinister would warn them of this, the conversation was interrupted by reports of a massive space ship appearing over New York City.



The Avengers, and other local heroes, gathered to defend the city against a swarm of robotic insects unleashed from the hull of the ship. Many heroes fell against the initial surge of robots, as well as a cadre of Dark Riders.

In Latveria, Dr. Doom sensed the arrival of a great source of power. Color Doom intrigued ...

Each of the gathered had their own reasons to face down Apocalypse in this conflict. Whether it was a sense of self-preservation, heroism, or desire for power, twenty five heroes (?) were able to gain entry into the mammoth ship to face their would-be-master. A mammoth spectral image of Apocalypse greeted the intruders.



"So, it appears that the strong have indeed survived while the weak have perished attempting to gain entry. You remaining heroes will have the opportunity to prove your worth against me and my four horsemen - we live here amongst you, disguised by the Celestial technology that now surrounds you. Know that this will be my greatest triumph, as unharnessed power that is now separated will come together at the end of this conflict."

The greatest defenders of humanity are gathered together in this ship. If they fail, no one will be able to stop Apocalpyse from delivering his dark vision upon a terrified populace.

Moderator Source Note #1 - There have been a pair of superhero games on BoardGameGeek, one involving Thanos and another that was an X-Men based game, that got me looking at comics as source material.
The Werewolf Gauntlet: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/112679
X-Man: The Cure: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/117348/page/1

Moderator Source Note #2 - this game will be based very loosely upon the X-Men story "The Twelve". This was a story that was hinted at for a decade before a clumsy cross-over event was launched sometime in the mid-90's. For me, it was a case of expectations far exceeding the delivery. Hopefully this game does not parallel the comic in that respect ...

Here is a summary of the original story in the comics. Note that I will be quite liberal with my adaptation to werewolf and that events are likely to deviate substantially from the comic version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocaly...lve#The_Twelve

Background:
"The Twelve" were first mentioned by X-Men foe Master Mold and later referenced in the diaries of noted precognative Destiny. The names of the twelve are unknown, but they are closely tied to a future where Apocalypse rules the earth with an iron fist.
Each of the heroes finds themselves in the deserts of Egypt after an encounter with the minions of Apocalypse, the Dark Riders. You have battled your way into the inner sanctum of Apocalypse to face the world's oldest mutant once and for all.

Players: 25
Evil/Werewolves: Apocalypse and his four horsemen
Good/Villagers: Everyone else
During sign-ups, each player selects a Marvel comics hero or villain that they would like to play during this game. The moderator has the right to refuse a selection (Apocalypse can not be selected) but will try to accomodate any reasonable selection. Once twenty five players have signed up and selected their characters the moderator will assign roles/powers.

The game begins with randomly assigning the role of Apocalypse. The player who is assigned Apocalypse will retain the guise of his selected character, but will gain the extra abilities associated with this role. Apocalypse can then choose his four horsemen, with the knowledge of the players and their hero/villain, but not knowledge of their roles/powers. The game then proceeds with 20 good guys and 5 villains.

Win Conditions:
Evil: eliminate "The Twelve" from the game. Evil knows the identities of the Twelve (out of 20 heroes). When all of these characters are removed from the active roster Evil wins the game
Good: defeat Apocalypse and his four horsemen.

Characters:
Each character will be assigned a set of powers, as well as ratings for Health and Energy.
Health - how much damage a character can sustain before they are killed
Energy - the currency for taking actions. All powers cost at least one point of energy
Powers - these will differ from character to character. As you would expect with a comic book theme, some characters will be inherently more powerful than others

All characters recover 3 energy and 1 health per day unless otherwise noted. Health cannot exceed the starting value, but there is no cap on energy levels. If a character does not launch an attack during the Day cycle they will only recover 2 energy. This is in place to encourage participation and to remove any incentives to skipping an action during the day.

Day Cycle:
Each character declares their attack and their target in the thread - use caps and bold at the bottom of your post to declare this. A post in the thread assumes that one point of damage will be delivered. However, characters have the option of delivering additional damage. PM the moderator if you want to deliver extra damage. Once an attack is issued it cannot be revoked. Additional attacks may be initiated, assuming there is energy remaining to execute the attack. There is an
additional one point of energy required to launch a second attack, two points required to launch a third attack, etc. This is only applicable to a character's "standard attack" - special attacks are limited to one use per day. A special power can be used in conjunction with a standard attack with no additional penalty.

At the end of the Day cycle, the character who receives the most effective damage (some damage may be negated by use of active or inherent powers) is eligible for lynch. If the effective damage is greater than their remaining health, that character is removed from the game. Additionally, a second character who sustain a level of effective damage greater than or equal to twice their health rating (ex: Health of 6, if reduced to -6 or less they would fall under this rule) will suffer the same fate. So it is possible for there to be no "lynch" or for their to be two "lynches" in a
given day. The tie-breaker for 2nd kill, if it comes to that, is 1.) furthest value from zero 2.) most damage sustained in current day.

In the event that there is not a day kill (excluding Day 1) the forces of Apocalypse will have the option to execute an additional night kill. Since the amount of total damage sustained is not published, the order of attacks and the player executing the "kill shot" will be noted in the end of day summary. The characters faction will be revealed upon death, and it will be revealed if the character was a member of the "Twelve".

Night Cycle:
Many characters will have powers that can be used during the Night Cycle. Additionally, the forces of Apocalypse will be able to initiate a night kill that is not related to expending health/energy. Heroes may be able to impact the night kill through use of powers. Below is the order for night actions. In cases where multiple actions fall in the same sub-category and order does matter (two attacks on same target, for example) a random number generator will be used to process the order.

Order of Night Actions:
1. Defense actions
2. Research actions
3. Attack actions - heroes first, then villains
4. Energy/health regeneration

Powers:
There are four classes of damage: physical, energy, psionic, and magical. Characters may have resistances to some or all of these damage types.
Characters may have active or passive powers. Active powers must be declared - in the thread or via PM, as specified by the character description. Passive powers are always active.
Example:
Active Power:
Laser Beam (1) - does one point of damage for each point of energy used
Passive Power:
Tough Skin (0) - subtract one point of damage from all physical attacks against the character

Expect that there will be some duplicate powers, depending on character selection (Iron Man and Doctor Doom, for example) but a ton of unique powers as well. Powers should be a reflection of the comic book character, but likely will not be an exact representation. In rare cases different powers have been assigned. This is done for both game balance and to introduce some elements of unpredictability in the game.

Teams:
Heroes may form "teams" by mutual declaration. When a team is formed, they have the opportunity to deliver additional damage by acting in unison (+0.5 additional damage for every member of the team, rounding down) . However, if there is a villain participating in the team they have the opportunity to sabotage the effectiveness of a team's actions (-2 cumulative damage). Teams can be formed and broken up at any time. The declaration of a team must be agreed upon in the
thread. The team should be announced in bold, with the name of the team and all member of the team. Additional benefits may become available for teams who remain together for a sustained period of time.

Additional Notes:
1. If you try to use a power and do not have enough power to use it the power will not activate
2. If you try to use a power and use more energy than you currently have, the moderator will assign all remaining energy to the power
3. No editing posts
4. Actions are processed in the order posted. So if someone issues an order such as "protect Solecismic with a Force Field" that will impact future attacks but have no bearing on attacks already launched
5. Character powers will take precedence over any rules posted in this thread. The rules here are meant to apply to the majority, but in some cases may not apply to a small minority
6. This is a comic book setting. Expect some new mechanics for this game that pay homage to a comic book universe.
7. Playing in character is highly encouraged. The moderator reserves the right to reward players for especially good role play, either publicly or privately.
8. If a character is driven below 25% of their health, but still lives into the next day, they will be listed at 25% of their health (rounding up) heading into the night cycle. Regular healing will take place at that time.

Player List:
1. Schmidty (Hulk)
2. Path12 (Silver Surfer)
3. Barkeep49 (Magneto) - killed Day 6, hero
4. Blade6119 (Moon Knight)
5. DaddyTorgo (Professor X) - killed Day 7, member of Twelve
6. AlanT (Warpath) - killed Night 3, member of Twelve
7. Swaggs (Storm) - killed Day 6, hero
8. Anxiety (Hawkeye) - killed Day 3, member of Twelve
9. Chief Rum replaced Day 3 by Qwikshot (Gambit) - killed Night 7, member of Twelve
10. Ardent Enthusiast (Daredevil)
11. Thomkal (Cannonball) - killed Day 5, member of Twelve
12. WVUFAN (Dr. Doom) - killed Night 4, Horseman of Apocalypse
13. Spleen1015 (Mystique) - killed Day 2, member of Twelve
14. LoneStarGirl (Captain Marvel) - killed Night 3, Horseman of Apocalypse
15. Bonegavel (Wolverine) - killed Night 6, member of Twelve
16. Jonathan Ezarik (Spiderman)
17. gi (Captain Britain) - killed Day 8, born again and killed Night 8, member of Twelve
18. Raiders Army (Deadpool)
19. ntndeadcon (Mandarin)
20. Mr Wednesday (Mathemanic)
21. SackAttack (Captain America) - killed Night 5, member of Twelve
22. GoldenEagle (Juggernaut) - killed Day 4, hero
23. Grammaticus (Venom) - killed Day 7, hero
24. Eaglesfan27 (Iron Man) - killed Day 1, member of Twelve
25. Talgian (Mr. Sinister) - killed Night 2, memeber of Twelve

Day 1 Results: Post #854
Night 1 Results: Post #948
Day 2 Results: Post #1385
Night 2 Results: Post #1722
Day 3 Results: Post #2291
Night 3 Results: Post #2412
Day 4 Results: Post #2897
Night 4 Results: Post #2926
Day 5 Results: Post #3309
Night 5 Results: Post #3393
Day 6 Results: Post #3728
Night 6 Results: Post #3779
Day 7 Results: Post #4037
Night 7 Results: Post #4070
Day 8 Results: Post #4146
Night 8 Results: Post #4188
Day 9 Results:
Night 9 Results:

PMs will begin going out shortly.

Checking in, got my role pm. Heading to workout at the office gym then coming back to see who else has shown up.

Having permission to start talking I think it would be helpful if our more comic book aware friends were to perhaps group the players by powers. Those of us with superior powers, mutants that is, and those with other powers, despite their failing to be a mutant.

Also, I think the last small game showed that players can be evil and slip through the cracks by going UTR. I refer to Ollie girl who I thought it would have been hard to discover if she hadn't been found in a stroke of good fortune. So I will be even more inclined than normal to attack those, literally in this case, who are not around.

Finally, I think it's very much to our advantage to start groups. I think groups can even be used as a passive seer if we suspect that a group's attack has been sabotaged by Apocalypse or his minions. I would therefore encourage all mutants to join me for the betterment of all, and join soon so that we may get the bonuses alluded to in the rules.

PM received.

I am disappointed to have to work with the X-Men again. Where are Nightcrawler and Rogue? Surely they would be valuable in this fight.

Good guy checking in.

Last night, I was thinking about who I would pick if I were Apocalypse. The first idea that I had would be to get the good players because they would be better suited to help me win. I think this might be a good starting point for looking at who we need to go after.

Sounds good to me, I'll join up in a group with you if you would like. I think the groups should stay somewhat smallish though to make it easier to track down where the sabotage came from if you feel your group was sabotaged.


I thought alot about this during the week. I think I have found some players who are excellent players tend to get alot of attention from seers/others and likely would avoid those. I also think I probably would avoid people who are newer to WW games as they tend to be more unpredictable (both for the good and bad).

I think if I had been picked to be Apocalypse, I would have chosen players who were very underrated players in my mind, I would have tried to get an assortment of type of characters as well. (not all physical or mental types).

I agree that if I were apocolypse I would not choose a big name, or only do so reluctantly. I would guess that only one, if any, of the "big" name powers would be chosen.

However if Apocolypse is someone who is new to the game I think it's more likely that he would go off of comic book strength. In which case I would have been chosen. Therefore, I dismiss that possibility.

Warpath you would certainly be a welcome addition to my group. A most welcome addition indeed. As would Mystique. Why feel the need to work with X-Men when you can work with some real mutants?

All roles have now been sent.

As a reminder, all PMs should be addressed to both moderators. This is to avoid any kind of confusion. I'm not quite as worried about early questions, but this is critical for any kind of attack/defense actions as we will be cross-checking results with each other.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I think the higher profile players need to be looked at very carefully.

But now I need to make sure I understand the rules. Silver Surfer checking in.

This would be very helpful. I know very little about the Marvel world and it's inhabitants, but of course I've spent most of my existence in another part of the galaxy.

It would be a priviledge to work with you again Magneto.

Love my character hoops!

It would make sense to add one more member to our team (because of the .5 rounding down bit). I'm a bit weary of Silver Surfer, as I think path is exactly the sort of under the radar good player than many an apocalypse would chose, and would prefer a different member.

Checking in - got my PM. I'm going to need help with this so bear with me as we go along :)

I make you tired?

Doom is above this "checking in", as you call it.

I'd be interested in joining up with those I;m comfortable with - Captain America, Captain Marvel, Moon Knight for example. Steve (Captain America) trained me and I recruited Moon Knight for my West Coast team for a while. Plus, Monica and I have worked tirelessly beside each other for years.

-Anxiety

Even though he stole my woman, I could still respect Daredevil enough to work with him. Same with that Spiderman fella.

Doom has superior powers, above paltry mutants. Doom knows what lies in your heart, Magneto, so be wary.

Doom KNOWS.

Path is an excellent player who usually stays quiet and out of the limelight. It worries me that early on he is already trying to point people to a line of thinking that I already stated that I don't agree with.

I think path12 would be a good choice for two reasons: One the uber-powerfulness of his charatcer in comics might translate into a powerful character here, and two, he'a good player with an UTR style.

Checking in, heading to go read the rules again

Well, let's have this discussion and get it over with then.

I appreciate the appraisals of my mad skillz and all, but when I first saw the rules, my initial thought was that if I had been Apocalypse I would be first off looking for players who had demonstrably played bad guys admirably.......that list would have names such as Alan, Blade, Anxiety, Ardent, Swaggs, RA on it. I frankly didn't think of just names in the 'second tier' of players, where I might place myself along with about 15 of the other players who are in this game.

For the record, Apocalypse apparently doesn't agree with this sentiment that I would be a great choice for an accomplice.

So to sum up, this is probably a dangerous line of thinking, since there are 5 out of at least 20 viable candidates. If we have a seer or someone who can clear me, let 'er rip. In the meantime, I would like to find a bad guy.

lol, reading my wikipedia entry i cracked up at this:

"Moon Knight is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, he first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975)."

I am not surprised at all that I mandarin have made it past this first line of defense from this would be interloper in my plans. I could take him alone with one hand tied behind my back. That way Istill would have 5 rings to bring to bear against my enemies.

Beware Apocalypse and your sordid horsemen!

Anxiety, i should thank you...wikipedia says you designed all my weapons when you were in egpyt..thanks bro!

WVU, just a reminder that not even Doom may edit posts in this realm.

WHO ARE YOU TO SPEAK TO DOOM IN THAT MANNER!!!!

... er, yeah, sorry. Wanted to edit a typo and forgot. :-(

You originally said the higher profile players need to be looked at. To me that means people who are constantly the topic of discussion in every WW game. Blade, Lathum, Hoops, Barkeep, etc. I completely disagree that someone who is a high profile would make an ideal pick for Apocolypse because as we found out in a few different games (Tombstone comes to my mind where Hoops, Lathum and Barkeep were the 3 badguys to start), sometimes having a setup with high profile players is a curse as they are targeted early for seer scans, witness following, etc.

You just now listed a few people who I don't view as high profile players, but instead are the people whom I think would be good choices. Very solid players who often stay out of the limelight like yourself, Swaggs, etc. That is what -I- would do if I was Apocolypse. In fact I had already decided if I ended up being Apocolypse the people I would choose would be Swaggs, Sackattack, Eaglesfan27 and Jonathan Ezarik. (no offense to everyone else, thats just who my list would have been).

Maybe I am completely wrong if you and Spleen think that Apocolypse would pick high profile players, then others probably do also (And perhaps the person who got picked to be Apocolypse agrees and did so). I just know I wouldn't have done that and I fully assume with this number of people, at least one if not more of that group will be scanned/followed/something tonight.

Nice. :D

Although i think i actually have a rather horrid record when evil, i appreciate the nod. I may not fully agree with your line of thinking, but alan and barkeep are already saying it for me

I was just using it as a starting point for the discussion. That was the only thought I had given it before midnight or so when I realized that I'm not going to get that special PM.

I agree with you. There are a lot of things that need to be considered.

Moon Knight needs friends...who wants to be Moon Knight's friend?

Yeah, my initial thought was something along the lines of "man, that could be a killer bad guy lineup", and I frankly didn't even think about the reasons you stated about being early targets for scanning, etc. I think we were just coming at the same sort of thoughts from different directions.

i apparently have a PM. havn't checked it yet though.

Doom needs no friends, but you may be Doom's lackey.

Since Magneto didn't seem to be interested in my help, I would be happy to team with Moon Knight.

Silver Surfer and Moon Knight are now friends...do we need more, or do you want to fly as a duo?

Note - if you want to form a team enter as a post:

TEAM WITH TYRITH (UATU THE WATCHER)

Or something along those lines.

If we form a team, can we add member without disbanding?

Yes.

BLADE6119 (MOON KNIGHT) TEAM WITH PATH12 (SILVER SURFER)

Heading to class...path, i leave it up to you if you want to add more member...pick wisely though(cough cough not Dr. Doom)

Eric...perhaps we might work together again to thwart this terrible evil which threatens both mutantkind and humankind, as per our earlier discussion my old friend?

FWIW I don't think Apocalypse went after the high-profile comic characters either because he didn't choose me

I'm fine either way -- I think overall we want an even number in order to maximize the bonuses, so I wouldn't have a problem with two more worthy allies.