Happy Birthday Dr Null
“This is Chip Chopper, high in the sky in the Channel Four Action News Copter!”
“There’s a swarm of… what look like bugs, big metal bugs, crawling up out of the bay. Each one is as big as a car. They climbed right up the bridge tower, and now they’re spread out across the road, right in the middle of traffic…”
Dr Null: Battle on the Bay Bridge was released two years ago today. Technically Dr Null’s first appearance was in a game about three years before that, but this was the first time he was unleashed on the world at large, so it’s evil birthday cake time!
I released it as a free download partially as a public service, because there was a crazy lack of intro adventures for M&M, but also because I wanted to showcase things like Action Shticks, Revelations, Silent Sound Effects, user-friendly stat blocks, annotated maps, GM cheat sheets, all that stuff — not to mention good old fashioned superhero action that was more about saving the day and protecting the innocent than beating people up.
I’ve heard from all sorts of people that played it (like this glorious evidence from the NC Game Day), but I have no idea how many gaming groups total have tried to save the Bay Bridge. Even now I see the same pattern every week: as Thursday and Friday roll around and the weekend approaches, there is a sharp increase in downloads. I like to think it’s because every weekend there is some GM somewhere who really, really wants to run a game but doesn’t have something ready. Dr Null to the rescue!
Have you played it? Did you save the bridge or hang your head in shame as it crashed into the bay? Pop in and take a bow.
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@John McMullen: Ironically, Dr Null was called Dr Apocalypse in the original campaign, but Steve Kenson wisely pointed out it would be a bad idea to publish using the same name as the seminal V&V character. Hence the name change.
Yeah, I haven’t played M&M in quite a while but it’s awesome to hear that you’re putting him to good use!
Hi, Ben.
I ran the Bay Bridge adventure wayyy back when I was running M&M second edition, and then more recently I ran it using ICONS. And now the Attack of the Atomic Supermen is going to happen tonight in 3rd edition M&M with Dr. Null altered to the new identity of Dr. Apocalypse (Thornbird–it’s a longish story, possibly worthy of a comic book).
In this version, the attack of the Atomic Supermen is actually the villain’s dry run for protecting the earth against an invasion by aliens who can control machines…but the heroes don’t know that, and the villain is known to be nuts on the topic of alien threats anyway. (“How many times do we have to be attacked before you take the threat -seriously-?”)
Do you want the ICONS and 3rd edition versions of the characters I’ve run, or is the whole series part of the past for you, and you have no interest in producing alternate versions?
I ran the Battle on Bay Bridge using Wild Talents. It certainly gave the battle a grittier feel. My players had a harder time with the bugbots than I planned, I think I might have made them a little too tough.
After arriving at the bridge; Hammer (brick) when straight after the tripod. I had Dr Null in full monologue mode (using the voice of the Monarch from Venture Bros.) While the rest tried to save the civilians or battle the bugbots. El Fuego Amigo (Firey Telekinesis) was throwing the bugbots off the bridge as fast as he could. Hammer ripped into the tripod and Kid Cthulhu (Were-Octopus) went after the escape pod, but was stopped by Dr Null’s robot sharks. They did manage to evacuate the bridge and Velocity (speedster) stopped the bugbots from self destructing.
After the fight they were set upon by the hostile local media and they were peppered with questions about why one of them attacked a police wagon on the bridge. Which led them into the Day of Dr Null.
I ran it as the M&M intro adventure for my group. My players had a blast and saved all the civilians, even though the bridge was lost in a firey explosion. We loved our characters and the adventure, but ended up deciding that M&M wasn’t our cup of tea. We ported thje campaign to a FATE 3.0 hack and ended up putting it on Hiatus. If we return, I plan to run an adventure were modified bug bots run amock in the sewers.
I’ve run it once, it was a great adventure that I ran some teen heroes through. Had some hilarious complications as they tried to find places to change on a crowded bridge.
Overall it was a great adventure, and the Players enjoyed themselves immensely.
I’ve run it a few times. Most recently it was set in Freedom City – with Overshadow standing in for Dr. Null.
I had a large group (large by my standards anyway – 6 PCs – playing archetypes either straight out of Freedom City or the Freedom City Archetype pdf) – so I inserted some armored SHADOW thugs with jetpacks as escorts for Overshadow in the robotic walker – to give the heroes something else to deal with.
While the heavy-hitters handled the SHADOW thugs, the bugbots and the various issues on the bridge, Bowman – surprisingly – managed to McGyver a way to deal with the tripod walker and Overshadow.
I used the Attack on the Bay Bridge as the initial scenario for my Golden Age 2007 (now 2008) campaign. The heroes saved innocent bystanders, almost captured Dr. Null, met the future Libra (from Zodiac Ring), and met each other (this being a meeting engagement kind of first scenario) and their sponsor, the ever-dynamic Doc Bronze. Everyone had an excellent time and we have followed the adventures of the mad Doctor Null through his career, though they haven’t noticed the Earth moving out of orbit, yet (Evil Genius 1).
Hi Ben,
Dr Null became Dr Automaton in the Watchverse, my homebrew campaign. The robotic constructs of the good doctor have appeared a number of times, but not Dr Automaton himself, and the heroes are a little confused as to why.
The first modern appearance of Dr Automaton occured as described in the Battle on the Bay Bridge. The heroes did very well, with their primary concern being the safety of innocents first. Finally, with most of the heroes occuppied with helping people, the team’s main paragon attacked the giant walker. After a brief battle, the top of the walker ejected out into the ocean and the paragon chased it, tore it open and found nothing inside.
The team did find the storage cell for the mechanical spiders (under the bridge itself) and sow to dissembling all the ‘bots, still none the wiser as to why the Doctor’s robot minions where attacking the bridge, or what they where hoping to achieve.
Great adventure Ben. I loved reading it, and my group loved playing in it. Not only was it a memorable adventure, but introduced a new, recurring villain into the game.
I ran it as a recruiting tool a year ago, linking it directly to the Death of Dr. Null. As I recall, the heroes won after one of their members teleported into the tripod, and Dr. Null bugged out. It was a good game.