[AAR]The Adventures of the Atomic Archduke

[Syt]

I bought on a whim Comic Book Hero by Grey Dog Software yesterday. GDS make text based games, their best known ones being Total Extreme Wrestling (wrestling league sim), Bowl Bound College Football and MMA. At 25$ I'm willing to gamble on the quality of the game.

I've also downloaded a mod for the 1990s Marvelverse which has 470+ Marvel figures from A for Abomination to Z for Zzzax.

You "roleplay" a hero through his or her comic book career.

You have 4 options to start a new game: take an existing hero with his/her powers and relationships (Spiderman, Thor, Union Jack or Cyclops), "clone" a hero's powers and abilities but start from zero, have a new one generated based on backstory (Mutant, Found Mystical Artifact, Martial Artist, Time Traveller, Exiled Deity . . . ) or create one from scratch.

You forge relations with other heroes, choose your base of operations (like New York, Europe, Asgard or Limbo, and then do stuff like going on patrol, tracking baddies nd thwarting their plans, forging relationships with other heroes (or joining a supergroup), imporving your skills, recuperating from combat or concealing your true identity.

This AAR will be screenshot free, as this is a text based game, and the only graphics are the hero's images.



Atomic Archduke - Backstory

Leopold Kaiser was a young nuclear scientist at IAEA and assigned to monitor the construction of the Osirak reactor in Iraq in 1981. He disappeared during the Israeli bombing raid and was presumed dead. He was found in an Iraqi high security prison during the 2003 invasion. He has no recollection of the 22 years of his imprisonment. His liberators found him in surprisingly good health, and he seemed to have aged by only a few years, not two decades. His knowledge was full intact up till the air attack. He was debriefed and examined all through 2006. During that time he managed to hide from the scientists assigned to him his new powers - manipulating radioactivity and nuclear energy. He joined the IAEA again in 2007 as nuclear scientist. But he uses his powers to fight evil superpowers . . . as the Atomic Archduke!

Following his mysterious captivity he's somewhat distant and suspicious. He's highly intellectual and calm, but also rather approachable. He's reacting rather than acting proacticely. He's very humble and pessimistic.

He's not a very phsical fighter. He banks on his scientific knowledge, stamina and endurance. He has a variety of radiation energy attacks, and if he chooses, his inherent radiation can cause dizziness in others. He's rather susceptible to physical attacks.

[Syt]

A hero is nothing without friends. So the first step will be to find allies in Europe. Atomic Archduke (Archie) is still unknown, so he checs out what other heroes are there in Europe. Crimson Dynamo and Darkstar are similarly unknown in superhero circles. So he flips a coin and approaches Darkstar in a friendly manner.

It was probably something he said, but she snuffs at him, and the two part ways again on hostile terms.

He next travels to Russia as part of an IAEA conference to meet the Crimson Dynamo. Certainly a fellow scientist would be open to friendship?

Archie follows the Dynamo's tracks around Moscow and eventually catches up with him - but he thinks Archie is an attacker and goes on the offensive!

The Dukester manages to get a quick advantage at the beginning of the fight, stunning his foe and launching a nuclear dart on him. But Crimson shakes it off. His mini rockets prove too powerful for Archie. He goes into cover and tries a few more beam attacks. Crimson Dynamo dodges them and finally knocks out Archie with an electric shock.

When the Archduke recovers in a dark, cold alley, Crimson Dynamo is nowhere to be seen.

[Syt]

While Archie recuperates, other heroes busy themselves.

New York. Dagger, Night Thrasher, Nova and Thundra stopped Scorpion, Jigsaw and Whiplash from committing a robbery.

Japan. Lady Deathstrike, Silver Samurai and Snapdragon planted a bomb at a corporate HQ (Game says "committed an act of terrorism", but allow me to embellish). Elektra and Sunfire arrived too late to stop them.

Genosha. Scalphunter went on a rampage with a killerbot. Wolfsbane culdn't stop him.

Deep Space. Annihilus tried to kill the Silver Surfer but was defeated by Nova II.

[Syt]

Fully healed, Archie reaches out again to a fellow superhero. This time the Red Guardian (Nikolai Kyrylenko) who is rather happy to meet the Austrian hero, and the two strike up a friendship.

The friendship pays off. While on patrol, Archie receives news that the CEOs of an oil company are held captive. He rushes to the scene and meets Red Guardian there. Turns out the perp is Crossbones.



Red Guardian attacks Corssbones in hand to hand combat. He takes quite some punishment from Crossbones' arsenal. Archie stands back, shooting radioactive energy at the villain. Eventually, Red Guardian succumbs to Corssbones barrages. The perp is too exhausted by then, however - a hit by the Atom Splitter, followed by a Nuclear Dart sends him packing. The CEOs are safe, but Crossbones makes an escape.

Still, hooray for the Atomic Archudke's first victory!

In other news:

Russia. Siberion tried to defile mother nature but was stopped by Ursa Major.

Asgard. Ulik ambushed Sif. He was beaten by Fandral the Dashing and imprisoned.

Europe. Phoenix was helpless when Baron Strucker and Andreas Fenris bypassed a laboratory's security features using magic, stealing experimental technology.

[syk]

Fun read! 

[Syt]

Trying to get himsefl out more, Archie has met up with Meggan. They enter a friendshp - they're incompatible for anything beyond that.



They go out on patrol, and later on they meet socially. Travelling back home, Archie is, however, ambushed by Avalanche!



It's a very close fight. Avalanche sends wave after wave of debris at Archie, who shoots back with his radioactive beams. They're both on the verge of collapsing when Avalanche ducks from Archduke's Fallout attack and knocks him uncnscious. Another bad blow to Archie's bruised ego.

[Syt]

Elsewhere.

Europe. Union Jack and Nightcrawler thwart a plot by Hydra.

New York. Black Widow fails to stop a robbery carried out by Chamelon, Carrion and Bulldozer.

Canada. Snowbird stopped Ultimo from running amok in the streets.

Asteroid M. Amelia Voght stopped Pyro's rampage and the villain is locked up.

L.A. Black Knight, Spider Woman, Tigra and Goliath defeated Abomination, Grim Reaper, Blizzard and Thunderball. Thunderball is now in jail.

Dr. Cornelius has returned from the dead - turns out it was all part of a plot.

New York. Venom tried to ambush Iron Man but was instead defeated by the Human Torch, Hercules, Vision and Marvel Girl

[Syt]

While regenerating, Atomic Archduke's psychology rating is dipping ever lower. Should it hit 0, he'll have to give up crime fighting.

So when he's finally healthy again he immediately goes on patrol. He comes across a hostage situation - Flag-Smasher is at it! The two fight, and while Archie is hurt, h handily defeats the bad guy, hooray.


In New York, Spider Man, Ant Man and Vision defeated Sandman, Beetle, Deathwatch and Yellowjacket.

[Syt]

Trying to find a new ally, Archie tracks down Pennance who has just moved to Europe. She mistakes Archie for an attacker and hands his ass to him.

Archie falls into depression from which he doesn't recover. He gives up his life of crimefighting and ends thus th tale of Atomic Archduke.




Huh. That was short. The problem was that when you lose a fight, you lose psychological score, and you lose more psych score during recuperation. The only way to recover is to beat baddies. Which, at the beginning, is hard to do.

[The Brain]

Which kind of radioactive beams?

[Syt]

Concentrated gamma radiation. Powerd by comic bullshit science.

[Syt]

Anyways it was still fun. I consider starting a new career.

[Syt]

Having played a bit more I've realized that you can play beyond game over by having the comic series "revived" - you keep you powers, but your popularity gets bumped down. You can also disable the psychological aspect, but where's the fun in that?

My recent playthrough was a female demon. She had all kinds of bad luck. She underwent a procedure that was supposed to make her invisible - but instead made he blink, which makes her highly visible in combat, i.e. enemies are much more likely to attack her. Then she tried a new wonder drug that was supposed to make her skin tougher . . . she ended up vulnerable to piercing attacks (and I already gave her vulnerability against cold to be able to buy additional perks).

She had two romances: with Falcon, who died stopping a a plot by jigsaw, and Union Jack who died stopping Doctor Doom and Adolf Hitler reborn - both of which give her a high "tragedy" score. She joined up with the Winter Guard for a spell, but those guys turned out to be so incompetent (got their asses handed to them first by Alpha Flight, then the Marauders) she left two issues later (each fight is one "comic book issue"). The final straw was when her friend Mimic was killed by Master Mold (the latter seems a bit overpowered - same as Living Lazer and Multiple Man who are pretty invulnerable in combat due to their skills).


Still, the game is quite a bit of fun, especially if you don't go for maxing out your stats but rather roleplay a bit. If there's interest I might go and make a new AAR with a Languish hero. There's a few ideas:



The Bondsman - A gruff Baltimoran vigilante anti-hero, specializing in gun combat.
The Zion-Borg - A technologically enhanced IDF spec ops soldier. Has an arsenal of guns implanted.
The Warsaw Tackler - Lawyer by day, close combat specialist by night.


Open for any other suggestions, though.

[Neil]

This whole thing was cool.