Informal Survey: On a FRUA/SHUA CROSSOVER idea

[hans]

I mentioned an idea for a ForgottenRealms/SuperHero Crossover mod on the SHUA thread, recently.  Although I may never get around to doing it, just in case I do, someday, I thought it would be nice to get some feedback (big question down below). 

The main idea is to pit a party of SHUA-created (make-your-own) superheroes against a roll call of familiar Forgotten Realms UA monsters (as close to their original SpecAbs as possible after importing them over to the SHUA Worldhack). 

My framework story idea would be to transport the superheroes to the FR almost immediately, perhaps after only one or two modern world dungeons to set up the plot.  The main villain may be Hellminster, an evil Elminster.  In a blatant rip-off...er, make that a respectful homage...to X-Men Apocalypse, Hellminster may have four under-bosses of similarly evilized versions of known FR characters.  There may then be five McGuffins, --five items that must be found, destroyed, or altered from different places in the FR in order to end or reverse whatever evil plan or spell Hellminster has put into motion that requires our superheroes to save the world(s) from.   

So, my question is:

What would you like to see in a FRUA/SHUA Crossover mod...?

[hans]

Really?  No suggestions?   

Say you have a party of the Avengers, or the X-Men, or the Indefatigable Untimers, or some superhero team that you have made up from whole cloth, and you have just arrived at the Forgotten Realms.  You have no thoughts about where you'd like to go, or who you'd like to meet, or who/what you'd like to fight? 

No "They must visit Phlan!"
Nor a "They should get trapped in Moander's giant, mostly-dead, floating body!"...? 

No "They should totally join forces with Olive Ruskettle!"
Nor "They should go to Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, Archmage of Waterdeep,for advice!"...?

No "They should fight Thri-Kreen!" 
Nor "Vegepygmies!--and more vegepygmies!!!"...?

No "Hellminster's four horsemen of his apocalypse should be Alias, Dracandros, Drizzt Do'Urden, and Silk of the Swanmays!"...? 

No suggestions at all...?

[manikus]

I really should venture out of the Dungeon Craft section of the forums more often.

I think this sounds like a great idea. Assuming that all of the mechanics can be worked out, you should totally go for it.

Who should these super-powered folk meet? Three things spring to mind:
#1  An Evil Necromancer and her army of the undead.
#2  Beholders and mind flayers underground (to effectively negate flyers).
#3  An archdevil and their diabolical hordes.

Plus, there should be some trolls - mutant regeneration vs. troll regeneration and get-up.

[hans]

...Who should these super-powered folk meet? Three things spring to mind:
#1  An Evil Necromancer and her army of the undead.
#2  Beholders and mind flayers underground (to effectively negate flyers).
#3  An archdevil and their diabolical hordes.

Plus, there should be some trolls - mutant regeneration vs. troll regeneration and get-up.

 

I'm continuing to meditate on the plot of such a mod. 

After I finish my contest mod (which should not wait on me--as between monsoons and jury duty, I sadly failed to get much done in August), I plan to work on expanding SHUA's items (and maybe slightly modifying a few existing ones) to release as part of Rocco Taku's big SHUA mod. 

An easily foreseeable problem with a FRUA/SHUA crossover mod is that some monsters (certain Undead, Iron Golems, etc.) can only be hit with "+" (magical) items.  Since, as I recall, SHUA contains no such items, the choice then is to take away those SpecAbs, or to add some of those to SHUA. 

My current plans do include the inclusion of Undead and Beholders as major players, and Trolls would be thrown in someplace.  I hadn't thought of Devils or Mindflayers--perhaps because I've been thinking along the lines of using the GoldBox usual suspects, ...mostly. 

My plot, as it currently sits in my brain, would be to start a party of neophyte superheroes in Phlan, then let them out onto the Dalelands map.  The story would mostly reference persons, places, and past events found in PoR and CAB, with possibly a few thrown in from SSB and PoD. 

[Nol Drek]

Any SHUA Villain who has "Immune to Normal Weapons" or "Immune Weap < +N" is effectively INVULNERABLE to all physical attacks. This was done on purpose, with the idea that Heroes have unlimited castings of Magic Missile, Fireball, etc. and should be using those Super Powers instead of trying to bash away with their fists. The Heroes themselves can also have this INVULNERABILITY to physical attacks.

The only FRUA creature that I can think of which has BOTH "Immune to Normal Weapons" and "Resistant to Almost All Magic" is the Iron Golem. You can make some of the Items have magical bonuses, make Iron Golems vulnerable to at least one type of elemental damage, or avoid the issue by not including any Iron Golem combats.

[manikus]

True enough that devils and mind flayers don't appear in GB games. My thinking was that they would make great stand-ins for a super-villain team and evil psychic, respectively. However, demons do appear in the games and they could serve the same purpose.

Whatever you end up doing, I am sure that I will enjoy playing the design.

[hans]

Any SHUA Villain who has "Immune to Normal Weapons" or "Immune Weap < +N" is effectively INVULNERABLE to all physical attacks. This was done on purpose, with the idea that Heroes have unlimited castings of Magic Missile, Fireball, etc. and should be using those Super Powers instead of trying to bash away with their fists. The Heroes themselves can also have this INVULNERABILITY to physical attacks.

The only FRUA creature that I can think of which has BOTH "Immune to Normal Weapons" and "Resistant to Almost All Magic" is the Iron Golem. You can make some of the Items have magical bonuses, make Iron Golems vulnerable to at least one type of elemental damage, or avoid the issue by not including any Iron Golem combats.

 

Hmm.  This does call for some thinking.  These are just thoughts, raising possibilities, not conclusions: 

Invulnerability in current SHUA uses the SpecAb "Immune All Weap."  And since there are no magical weapons in current SHUA, that means "Immune Weap <+2" and "Immune Weap <+3" are unused (and would be redundant) SpecAbs. 

But, if magical plusses were introduced into an expanded (and slightly revised) SHUA, those SpecAbs could be utilized.  Perhaps a range of Invulnerabilities could be tailored, similar to how there are levels of Super Strength, say, to have "Invulnerability 1" thru "Invulnerability 3." 

Now, currently, if a PC buys Invulnerability then they cannot be hurt by melee attacks, even from Bizarro or Black Adam.  Maybe that's too Invulnerable, even for a hypothetical "Invulnerability 3."  After all, Superman was able to kill General Zod by using his super strength to break Zod's neck in the movie Man of Steel.  And in comics, Superman was beaten to death by the super-duper strong Doomsday. 

If the proposed hypothetical "Invulnerability 3" (using the "Immune Weap <+3" SpecAb) still had a few melee weapons that could do it damage, say "Super Strength 4" and Thor's "Mjolnir" hammer, plus an added magic sword, or something, it could be beneficial to game combat dynamics. 

Along that line, if "Adamantium Claws" were given an unseen "+2" then they still cut an enemy with the inferior Invulnerabilities 1 & 2, but not the highest "Invulnerability 3."   

Now, this would eliminate the possibility of creating a truly indestructible and unbeatable Supervillain for combat events, but maybe that would be just as well.  Rather than frustrating those players who bitterly complain against such things, a fight with an opponent so vastly superior as to be truly unbeatable could be handled through a text event, without unnecessarily elevating anyone's blood pressure.   

Again, I'm just putting down some possibilities that have come to mind, as I have not yet made any decisions (and have not even seriously experimented to see how or how much I can expand the current SHUA items inventory)... 

[Null Null]

They could go on quests to obtain the +2 or +3 weapons, though. With suitably over-the-top names--who needs a Long Sword +3 when you've got an Eternal Blade of Tertius?

This is mercifully easy to implement as all you'd have to do is copy the default FRUA monsters into the SHUA mod and then import fantasy-related art.

But you want to put them into the Realms? Well, Zhentil Keep's been the standard punching bag through the Realms games, and Manshoon does like to make clones of himself...this could easily be played for laughs. Superheroes have unlimited spells and high attack damage, so they are considerably more powerful than most starting parties. It would be funny to have them roll through a pre-liberation Phlan and watch Yarash poop his pants.

But, they cast spells from items, which means all their spells are cast at 6th level, if I recall correctly. Magic resistance will stop most spell use cold in that case--a 1% magic resistance will still cause spell failure in 26% of cases. So throwing them into the post-apocalyptic Realms of Pools of Darkness might provide them with an interesting challenge.

You could even have them run into the original Goldbox Heroes of Phlan (or Ascore) and see who wins.