Urban Metropolis
For every adventure that a group of mighty superhumans has in deep space, extradimensional realms, living planets, or alternate timelines, they often have at least twice as many in more mundane locales. Most costumed good-doers call a large city their home, whether it’s Megalopolis, Rook City, San Lazarus, New York, London, Tokyo, or someplace else. And when a nefarious villain rises to threaten their hometown, those heroes will fight that much harder to protect the inhabitants of their city.
Urban Metropolis
Crime and Super-Villainy
Crowded Population Centre
Sprawling Infrastructure
GREEN
Minor Twists
- Civilian Crowds: Crowds of innocent citizens have been caught in the crossfire.
Evacuate the civilians
Until the above challenge is Overcome, heroes act in the Green zone for the purpose of status dice and access to abilities. - Livewire: Some electrical lines have been damaged and are showering sparks and electricity everywhere. Roll the environment dice. Attack all targets in this location with the Min die.
Major Twist
- Imminent Collision: A tanker truck carrying highly explosive oil is on a collision course with something.
Prevent the collision
Challenge timer
Triggered: The truck hits, the driver is killed or severely injured, and the oil explodes in a fiery conflagration. Roll the environment dice. Attack all targets in this location with the Mid die.
YELLOW
Minor Twists
- Opportunistic Criminals: A band of crooks have taken this opportunity to try to profit from the heroes’ struggle. Roll the environment dice. Introduce a number of Mean Streets Shooter minions (see page #415 of the Core Rulebook) to the scene equal to the Mid die.
- The City’s Finest: A squad of police officers have arrived on the scene. Roll the environment dice. Introduce a number of Police Officer minions (see below) to the scene equal to the Mid die.
Major Twist
- Minor Villain: A lesser evildoer makes a bombastic entrance. Introduce a Minor Villain lieutenant (see below) to the scene. Then, roll the environment dice and Attack one target with the Mid die.
RED
Minor Twists
- Collapsing Building: The battle has taken a toll on the city’s architecture. Roll the environment dice. Attack all targets in this location with the Mid die.
- Deus ex Machina: A friendly hero has arrived to aid our protagonists. Introduce one Hero Ally lieutenant (see below) to the scene.
Major Twist
- Endangered Schoolbus: One of the heroes’ foes has taken an entire bus full of school-children hostage and is dangling them over the edge of a bridge! Select one villain or lieutenant in the scene. That target is immune to damage until the below challenge is Overcome.
Save the schoolbus
Urban Metropolis Threats
Hero Ally
Lieutenant
Description
One of the many stalwart heroes of the world has come to help out.Abilities
Principled Defender: The Hero Ally has +1 to Overcome Actions and to damage save rolls.
Super-Schtick: The Hero Ally has +2 to one of Attack, Defend, Boost, or Hinder actions.Tactics
Every costumed crime-fighter possesses a unique fighting style.
Minor Villain
Description
The underbelly of super-villainy contains countless costumed crooks and numerous nefarious ne’er-do-wells. Choose one of the following abilities.Abilities
Equity — Unsettling Gaze: When Equity takes the Attack or Defend action, he can also Hinder one target with the same roll.
Heartbreaker — Escalating Insanity: After Heartbreaker takes the Attack action on his turn, he also Boosts himself with the same roll.
Professor Pollution — Toxic Fumes: When Professor Pollution takes the Attack action, she can Attack up to 3 nearby targets.
The Radioactivist — Surplus of Power: The Radioactivist has +3 to Attack actions. When he Attacks a target, he also Boosts that target with the same roll -3.
Tantrum — Deflective Shields: When Tantrum succeeds on a damage save roll, she also Attacks the attacker with the same roll.Tactics
The tactics of the world’s various villains are as varied as their vile visages.
Police Officer
Minion
Description
These officers run the gamut from upstanding paragons of integrity to corrupt cops lacking in any morals.Ability
Cuff 'Em: Police Officers have +1 to Hinder actions.Tactics
Usually, cops will fight against any villains present. However, if there is significant anti-hero sentiment in the populace, they’re just as likely to make trouble for both heroes and villains. Furthermore, there is the possibility that a villain has paid them off to solely fight heroes.
Editor’s Notes
As any astute reader will likely perceive, there is significant thematic overlap betwixt this environment and the Megalopolis environment featured in the Core Rulebook’s Archives, as well as some minor mechanical overlap betwixt the two. In fact, I encourage mixing-and-matching the twists of the two environments if one wishes to do so and perceives the need for such variety. (Perhaps, for example, one is running a lengthy scene with a prolonged scene tracker of 11 spaces (see page #188 of the Core Rulebook).)
Part of the genesis for this environment was me thinking that Megalopolis isn’t a generic city environment, what with the giant magic tree and all. Plus, I thought that any city full of supers ought to reflect that in its environment. What’s more, I felt it somewhat strange that the Megalopolitan Police were represented simply as a single Attack action rather than minions. Also, while it makes sense that Megalopolis the Perfect Shining City of the Future doesn’t have much crime, the same is usually untrue for most other cities.
Oh, and by the way, the name “Urban Metropolis” is simply an entirely generic name that means “a large, important city”; it’s certainly not an allusion to any city in particular.
For a brief time I considered simply directing readers to use the Megalopolis Police Officer minion stats from the “Conspiracy of Clones” adventure issue (page #272) in the Core Rulebook, but I ultimately decided that since the name, Description, and Tactics didn’t fit with this environment, I should go ahead and steal their Ability while rewriting everything else.
For the Minor Villains, I just looked at the Mini-Nemeses page on the Wiki and chose some that fit with the role. There were, of course, several that would decidedly not make sense in this capacity, such as Zhu Long or Revenant (who are too major to just be an environmental twist), Omni-Blade (which no longer exists), or Rahazar or Balarian (who are relatively athematic). And, of course, several others have graduated up to full Villain-status (e.g. most of the Slaughterhouse Six and almost all of the villains in The Guise Book). Additionally, it should go without saying that a GM is free to use another minor villain of their own devising, or just Char—sorry, I mean Firearm (page #414) or Seer (page #416).