Originally posted to Google+ in July of 2018:
Ran a game of Young Centurions for my local group today in honor of my dear friend KJoy’s birthday. It was specifically a “supercut” game that remixed characters and elements of our other campaigns into one delicious self-indulgent party, at the birthday girl’s request. 🙂
We had four Young Centurions:
The Spirit of Hope, the “wolf-boy of the frontier” who was basically Tarzan but with wolves and the American Pacific Northwest.
The Spirit of Courage, the “Spritely Stuntress of the skies,” who was this brilliant stunt pilot who was only in her element when behind the stick.
The Spirit of Discovery, the “Prince-hearted Pauper” who was a basically a Baker Street Irregular who used her black cat to untangle secrets and protect the homeless kids of the city.
The Spirit of Justice, the “junior journalist” who was all about setting things rights but was a little crippled by anxiety and fear.
I took the “Apothecary Murders” scenario from the book and dressed it up a little: Le Monstre hired Petoskey to turn his emotion decoctions into a true mind control serum known as “Siren.” Petoskey was using Charlie (“the shadow of leadership”) as muscle to protect the lab. Petoskey was using his delivery boys as Guinea pigs, and Le Monstre’s girl Friday — The Shadow of Fear — used them to target Le Monstre’s political enemies (witnesses and accomplices from previous jobs who have fled France).
I sucked the Centurions in with a Peace without Victory propaganda air show put on for visiting German diplomats at which the Spirit of Discovery’s street urchin friend tried to kill the Spirit of Courage’s stunt pilot crush. Justice was in attendance as a reporter and got the scoop on what went down from the stunt pilot victim after he was safe, while Hope caught up with Discovery and her friend and took them to the local Century Clubhouse to get to the bottom of things.
It was a hugely fun game featuring newspaper scouring, a backroom game of cards, an ambush in a lab, a fist fight in a fire where Charlie was pantsed by our heroes, a daring underage jalopy chase, and a thrilling aerial battle between Courage and Le Monstre’s private Air Force!
The climatic scene was Hope battling Le Monstre, where he realized Le Monstre had crashed the plane with Hope’s parents aboard — the crash that stranded Hope in the wilderness, making him the Wolf-Boy of the Frontier. Hope got gassed almost immediately and struggled with his fear the whole fight, getting his butt handed to him before finally overcoming it and using a bunch of Free Invokes from “believe in yourself” to get a +13 on his final attack roll.
Meanwhile Discovery and her cat tried to crack the safe aboard Le Monstre’s dirigible to get her hands on the master sample of Siren — without it, Le Monstre’s mind control plot was at an end.
Courage protected the people on the ground, the police, and her mentor from harm and had a dog fight with one of Le Monstre’s aerial aces.
Justice played spotter for Courage by using the public address system at the aerodrome where this all happened, corralled the police to prep them for Le Monstre, and fired a grappling hook found in the Century Club’s car to tether Le Monstre’s Zeppelin to the ground.
A job well done for the Young Centurions, and a very fun birthday for all!
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