Murder of Crowes (actual play)

Icons

Because it came up in Facebook, and because James doesn't have it tagged as ICONS...

• James' writeup of our original edition essay at The Murder of Crowes is here
• My notes on the same evening copied from LiveJournal and made to live here.

Last night, the regular GM was not feeling well, so I filled in with Icons. I used the "Murder of Crowes" adventure, with some things added. Everyone played the characters they had rolled up the last session or before, so I think they're happy with them, more or less.

I'm sure James will do (has done) a write-up, but here are some things for me (as GM) to remember, if we do this again. I'm going to try not to repeat James or the original module.

It's mid-July, and the local RCMP call in the heroes to deal with a murder in a small town. The town is so small there is no Tim Horton's; that's towns away. The autopsy is about to happen at the local funeral home.

Mighty Absorbo "flies" by turning into air, or (when available) helium. He wafts where he wants to go; this won't work if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

We didn't name the town, so for records it's the (fictional) town of Little Anglia, by the French Road. The town has a mine—the father of the murdered boy worked there as a mechanic—and a dairy farm.

• Because it's important to Weather Witch: To get the local (barely adequate) coffee, you go to Flo's Diner.
• The murdered boy (Jacob Crowes) liked engineering and building (non-super-sciencey) gadgets. He was planning to study engineering at Dalhousie, if he was accepted.
• He had one friend—or at least one person he was close to—named Cheryl Elicott.
• The Mighty Absorbo calls the group's white panel van The Mole Van.
• From looking at James' writeup, Scorcher was sent to jail, and Mighty Absorbo was dating Princess at the end of last session. In backstory we don't have to belabour, I assume that the Princess thing didn't work out. The Clique are probably being held on what, property damage and forcible confinement? And Scorcher's brother and father have powers so presumably they have money—supervillains is the idea that comes to mind, but maybe they're heroes or Just Working Stiffs. Scorcher could easily be out on bail with a "recognized superhero" to keep her out of trouble.
• Scorcher also has a ranged fire attack now; as originally written, she didn't. Her brother and her father can fly, and she's quite put out that she didn't get the flying power. "No, turn into flame. That's all. And burn stuff. And then you know what I do? I walk away. Because I can't fly!" (No, she never said it. But that's in character.)
• In my mind, The Laughing Skull's son pawned the Ruby of Antiquity to pay for the retirement home, but that's not canon because no one talked about it.
• Mr. Mystic died in 1979; he retired in 1965, and was shot while taking his granddaughter out for a stroll. Closed by the police, who figured it was an old enemy with a grudge.
• No word on who the current mystic master of North America is. (If any; it just now occurs to me that maybe the whole idea of a mystic master for the continent might be based on a mistranslation or something.)
• The three bullies were Tommy Grinaldi (shoe size 11), Frank Cheshire (shoe size 7), and Dan McIntyre (shoe size 12). (This is important because Streamline tracked them by shoeprints.)
• No one checked to see if any of the cows were super, but the secret is the farm had only one cow in 1969, with duplication, and now they apparently have 48 cows; the chickens and pigs are unaffected.
• The Evil Eagle was looking for Mole-Man—but it turned out to tell him that he, EE, had taken a job out over on the mainland, out west, so he couldn't be an arch-nemesis any more. He'd put out the call, but got no takers for a replacement. (But it leaves me free for anyone else to claim to be the Evil Eagle. Not looking at MA's sister's ghost, not at all.
• Everybody got +1 starting Determination