I
had a chance to run another session of Anthropomorphic USR this
morning when the full game group could not suit up and show up. When
we last left off with Yak 'n Ape they were still in the lab fending
off security robots. And another one showed up. Fortunately another
of the players was able to eventually make the game session so the
party was now up to one Yak, one Ape, and one Badger. The combat
encounter took place in an equipment room and the Yak tried to
operate some of the gear lying on the racks. He managed to discharge
a “smoke fountain” which obscured vision for the PC's. I levied a
-2 penalties to attacks because of the thick black smoke. The robot
of course is unaffected by the discharge. The Ape evens the odds with
a well aimed fling of poo and blinded the security bot. The battle
seesawed back and forth for a couple of rounds. I then remembered I
was playing the USR rules relatively straight, not the simultaneous
combat method I use in USR Sword & Sorcery. The PC's got the
upper hand on this third robot and than began to fool around with
more of the equipment and the defeated robot. The Ape decided to bath
the Yak's wounds in the brain fluid from the robot. This triggered a
random mutation and the Yak was endowed with bulging chest and neck
muscles. He will now receive a +2 on any strength related Action test
as long as the condition persists.
Further
exploration of the lab reveals equipment monitoring all sorts of
media and radio communication, laser scanners harmlessly strobing the
PC's in blue light, a fluid bath which heals enhanced anthropomorphs
and a room with strange wired instruments mounted on a pulsing purple
jell. The Badger decides to chew on the purple stuff and gets
electrocuted for his troubles. The party picks up the fact that the Capitol City Zoo is wrestling with the bizarre and mysterious disappearance of four zoo animals; a lion, snake, yak, and silverback gorilla. This was squawking out of all the comm equipment alcove.
All the while the rooms and corridors
of the complex are getting extremely hot and start to cause the PC's
heat damage. Not finished with their investigation they stumble upon
the power grid for the lab. Utilizing their homemade battery grenades
they toss them into the machinery and flee to the last room they
haven't explored hoping against hope for a way out.
They do manage to leave the lab complex emerging into a dank sewer tunnel. They also feel a deep shuddering through the earth as if terrible explosions were occurring underground. The sewer tunnel eventually leads to a subway tunnel and the party decides to scurry up onto the busy metro platform. This has the predictable response of freaking out the crowd in the station waiting for the next subway. While people flee for the exits a transportation cop steps out to confront our heroes. The cop draws his gun on the Yak (he is carrying an alien laser rifle) and orders the anthros onto the deck with their hands up. With a well directed fling of poo the cop was gagging and incapacitated. The PC's take advantage of the horrible distraction reigned down upon the poor civil servant and duck onto a subway just pulling out of the station. At the next stop scared patrons flee the car and other passengers are hesitant to get on, except one hippy looking woman. She gives the party a thumbs up and compliments them on letting themselves be themselves. Show their true identity. Not the social masks we are all trapped under, you dig? And yeah, she knows which stop the zoo is.
So there we ended the second ever session I am aware of of Anthropomorphic USR. We are now at a classic, and formative event of fuzzy animal comics; the heroes first encounter with the real world! What started as a side game for when our regular session can't run has now sprawled into a full-fledged comic book adventure! Time to start creating the principle hooks and adversaries found in Capitol City. We know it has cops and hippy chicks.
The session also helped motivate me to finish the POD of the Anthro core rule book. The only section of the rules which now need a rewrite are the damage and healing rules. I am modifying the straight USR rules as written to better represent four-colored comic book action.
