What if, The Nightlords invaded Heros Unlimited...

[Rallan]

The invasion would fail. HU supers aren't generally as good at kicking ass as Guardians or Nightbane are, but they've got one massive advantage: they live in a world where people accept the existence of freaky paranormal stuff.

In Nightbane, if Gary the Guardian finds out that the mayor is secretly a tentacled horror from another dimension, who can he tell? He can't even show his face in public because drawing attention to his mere existence is potentially dangerous. And even if he found a way to get the message out, everyone would think he was just some lunatic.

In Heroes Unlimited, if Sammy the Psychic, resident mind-reader for the Big City Super Allstar Win Team tells the channel 6 news team that the mayor is secretly a tentacled horror from another dimension, they pay attention, broadcast his warning to the masses, and do some investigative journalism to find out if Sammy's shocking accusation is the truth.

[drewkitty ~..~]

snip...

On the other hand, any hero or villain who has a public identity, or is in prison, will more then likely be replaced by a doppleganger (or at least the attempt will be made). Depends on how common you make dopplegangers and whether or not everyone has one.

That is if the super heros and criminals had dopplegangers. I the dopplegangers were awakened in the nightlands and it turned out that they had 'good' alinements, it would be hard for the NL's to control them. They just might form their own super hero doppleganger teams to combat the NL's in the nightlands.

it might be that the NL's were coming to from the nightlands to get away from the 'hero' dopplegangers.

Or it might be that, like nightspwan, super empowered people don't have dopplegangers in the nightlands. (doesn't go into any of the "why's" this would be)

[Nekira Sudacne]

Dr. Evil Genous would invent a cannon the size of a skysraper and start shooting Nightlord strongholds from a mile high.

[Glistam]

Honestly, from the Nightlord's standpoint, the first thing they should do as part of the invasion is turn humanity against the super powered. By controlling key politicians they can enact new laws that make heroic activities illegal. They can discredit heroes. They will have killed a bunch unexpectedly during Dark Day - making sure they kill the right ones, they can sow confusion across the superhuman population.

The Nightlords can release key villains from prison early, and can have them working for them in ways, either deliberately or covertly. Certainly some villains will figure out their world is being invaded and will ally with heroes. But there will also be villains who will gladly work with the "winning team". There are also some heroes who may decide to ally themselves with the Nightlords, whether to fight for the "winning team" as well or because they have family that is being threatened by the Nightlords.

Maybe superheroes have dopplegangers. Maybe they don't. But their family will likely have dopplegangers and that can be used to confuse or control heroes.

The Nightlords invading a super hero dimension may work slightly differently, but there's nothin in the books to suggest they would be unable to do it effectively. Moloch did his research before he invaded the Nightbane Earth. He knew where to strike, who to strike against, and delivered a swift powerful first strike towards his ultimate goal. He did it with cold, calculated cunning and decades, if not centuries, of planning. A super powered world offers an interesting twist, not an insurmountable challenge.

The HU2 GM book offers a scenario where the Nightlords were successful in their invasion against a Heroes Unlimited world. While that adventure's focus is on the aftermath and the few survivors left, it serves as an indication that the Nightlords are not to be taken lightly, even if you do posess super powers.

[AzathothXy]

I think if Dark Day happened , the HU populace would probably be like 'Dr. Nighty-Night is doing his block the sun thing again. How long do you think it will take the Super Fun Pals to shut him down?'. IMHO.

Of course, Golden Simian, the solar powered chimpanzee mega hero would be alittle upset. And his arch-nemesis Gothica, the night powerd mega hero would be esctatic, in a apathetic teenage angst kind of way.

[Glistam]

In the context of the 24 hour duration of Darkday:

The general population would be afraid, but hopeful that their champions will work to take care of the issue. However, as the evening wears on and turns into night, the heroes don't show up.

The news is continuing to report strange phenomenon and disappearances. But the heroes? Nowhere to be seen.

Any hero with a public identity is of course attacked right at the beginning. Dopplegangers of family members can be used to confuse the hero, making it easier to defeat and dispose of them. Remember too, superpowers aren't extra-effective against Nightlord minions, not like the Nightbane abilities are.

Heroes without public identities can still be tracekd to team bases, or perhaps Rebecca Reporter or Phil Photographer is replaced by a doppleganger and used as bait to draw them out.

Now it's true that the heroes, being heroes, may not all succomb to an initial attack. But then there's the panic and civil unrest happening. There's villains who won't know what's happening but will do their best to take advantage of the confusion. For many heroes, they'll keep busy just working to contain local problems. And that's how nightlord minions will end up finding them and trying to take them out.

By late night, early morning the initial onslaught should have abated enough that the hero survivors could be contacted and rallied by some other, knowledgable parties. Maybe some wizards, nightbane or both who understand what is going on. Although remember that wizards and potential nightbane were also targeted. And newly transformed nightbane will likely find themselves at odds with surviving heroes, at least initially.

If heroes have dopplegangers, then that opens up a whole new element to the attack: Taking known, powerful Heroes and having them replaced with evil counterparts. Having team leaders replaced with dopplegangers and use their status to lure out unsuspecting heroes. Also there will be heroes who decide to surrender when faced with the ultimatum of surrender or let someone they care about die. Surrendered heroes can be led to the nightlands to be jailed, exterminated, experimented, or even just killed on the spot.

Back to the initial few hours, there will be so much going on at so many levels that the heroes will be too busy trying to survive and then get a grip on the situation to inspire any hope amongst the general populace. Live reporters tryign to broadcast info about the heroes will draw attacks directly to the heroes.

Ultimately how this ends is totally GM interpretation. The nightbane book offers little in the way of clues in how Darkday could be ended prematurely. To use Darkday as a one-shot alien invasion plot, then the surviving heroes and some villains who have been alerted to the true threat, will congregate and end the dark day ritual prematurely - possibly returning the dimensional barrier back to its former level and preventing much of the rest of the nightbane book events.

Otherwise, it would be smart of Moloch and his allies/minions to lay a trap for the protectors of humanity. Leave false clues that point to a way for the assembled hero survivors to stop the invasion. Then make that a major trap designed to destroy the remainding heroes.

Some things that should be going on with the supers that will only help the invasion:
-Because of dopplegangers or Ashmedi, suddenly they lose the ability to trust many of their close human associates (or even each other).
-Any public TV appearance draws attackers to them like a moth to the flame.
-No more of a clue as to what's happening than the rest of the world.
-Dealing with the sudden deaths and disappearances of fellow heroes.

You don't need dopplegangers to copy a super - Ashmedi can too. A few well-timed public appearances can ruin the super's reputation, make the public fearful of him and make his allies distrustful of him. If that happens enough times, then the public may already turn completely against all heroes before Dark Day even ends!

Of course this is just my interpretation of events should a crossover like this happen. It can just as easily be handled in a more super heroic manner, like a standard alien or demon invasion. The attack begins, the super's are tougher than the attackers realized, and eventually the supers rally together to repel the invasion and end the threat.

[Cybermancer]

I've played in two campaigns with this theme.

The first was one where Dark Day caught everyone off guard and the invasion was more or less successful. This is how the DM handled certain issues:
-Superbeings that were born mutants, mutant animals or were otherwise born as something than strictly human didn't have dopplegangers.
-Superbeings that were born normal humans could have dopplegangers but those dopplegangers didn't gain super abilities when the originals did. Under the right circumstances, they might gain those same powers.
-Those with super training could have dopplegangers and those dopplegangers could have their knowledge and skills (though not gear-until they killed the originals).
-The invasion wasn't as total and a lot more subversive and subtle. There was no supernatural event around Dark Day. It was a day like any other so there was no reason to ask, "What was happening?" People were replaced slowly, and methodically. Policy changes in the goverment weren't immediate. They were phased in gradually, over the period of years.
-The game was very Marvel, Days of Future Present in feel. In fact, that's what we thought we were doing until we finally ran into our first minions.

The second one I'll get into later since I just ran out of time for the moment.

[Rallan]

Honestly, from the Nightlord's standpoint, the first thing they should do as part of the invasion is turn humanity against the super powered. By controlling key politicians they can enact new laws that make heroic activities illegal. They can discredit heroes. They will have killed a bunch unexpectedly during Dark Day - making sure they kill the right ones, they can sow confusion across the superhuman population.

Getting there is half the fun. If the Nightlords just have a whole bunch of politicians and other important folks replaced by supernatural doubles on Dark Day, the truth will come out almost immediately and they'll be unable to use the governments and militaries of the world to crack down on superheroes.

What they'd have to do is try something far more subtle. Basically they've got one of two options.

1) Manipulate events from behind the scenes to try and get perfectly normal human beings from the Cults of Night into key positions and have these new laws and crackdowns enacted long before Dark Day ever happens. If it all pans out, the world's superheroes will be despised fugitives in no position to help rally the planet against the Nightlords, and the villains will either be dead, working for the government, or hiding out with the heroes. On the down side it'll be tricky to do. Lots of superheroes keep a close eye on the government,either to stop nefarious schemes to kidnap and replace politicians, or to make sure the state isn't about to recycle old Marvel plots and try to outlaw superheroes. And plenty of villains are keeping an eye on the government too, since at any given time about half of 'em probably have some cunning plan that involves manipulating the governmnet. And of course, you're essentially relying entirely on your mortal minions and hoping that a small conspiracy with unlimited funds is enough to pull this off.

2) Make fake supers and have them go on the rampage. New hero teams "cleaning up the streets" with vigilante death squads. Corrupt cops testifying that they and a well-known superhero were taking kickbacks in exchange for not going up against certain criminals. Villains suddenly going in for mass murder and terrorism on an epic scale where before they were a tad more discrete. Rape scandals. Politicians who turn out to have been under the supernatural control of a shadowy cabal of supers working towards an unknown end. Heroes who accidentally cause horrendous property damage and loss of life in the persuit of villains. If you can manufacture enough scandals and atrocities, the governments of Earth will eventually do your work for you and start cracking down on supers without the need for direct Nightlord control. But you'll have to be tricky about who witnesses these acts. Governments in a world full of supers will probably have teams of special agents trained in identifying and taking down evil badasses, and the last thing you need is some Psychic And Supernatural Crimes taskforce from some law enforcement agency realising that the perps they're trying to catch are actually monsters masquerading as superheroes.

[Cybermancer]

Good day,

As promised, I have the second Nightlords invade Heroes unlimited campaign I was in.

This was our groups 'flagship' Heroe's game. It had lasted for three or four years. The original characters were experienced, powerful and influential. Their kids were now old enough to be played as characters in their own right-and we often did play them when we wanted a 'lower-powered' game session or adventure.

The GM started the new arc in the campaign with the Nightlands Adventure found in the Heroe's Unlimited GM's Guide. We rescued the refugees, laid some hurt on the Nightlords and destroyed the portals behind us. We thought that was the end of it. But what we really managed to do was draw the Nightlords attention.

Gradually, and in between more regular adventures, the Nightlords began making their move. With months to spare before their final invasion, we discovered their plans and went into overdrive trying to thrawt(sp?) them. We gathered allies among other supers, called truces with some villians and brought some government agencies in on it. Then the game became a very cloak and dagger campaign while the Nightlords and us kept making moves in the Shadows against each other.

Long story short, we were able to prevent Dark Day and helped found an international agency to watch for and prevent similar events in the future. It wasn't the last we ever heard of the Nightlords but the GM allowed the victory to stand (perhaps primarily because as a group we were pretty burnt out on the Nightlords by now and wanted to go back to regular super-heroing).

The group, by far, preferred the second version. Campaigns where there's no real hope of victory for the players or the odds are hopeless or the whole world is against you have some appeal to us on a very short term basis. But we tend to tire of them fairly quickly. That may be why our Heroes Unlimited and Palladium Fantasy games are our favorites and most long running. Because while difficult and at times the odds seem overwhelming, we can usually persivere and eventually grab a victory (though often after many setbacks). Our Heroes make a definite and positive impact in the world.

We've tried Nightbane on it's own a few times but when played strictly as described in the books, it can get a little depressing. I'm sure other player groups have had different experiences and would enjoy different combinations of Heroes and Nightbane. The above two examples are what we tried and enjoyed.

[drewkitty ~..~]

the one game setting (Undefined's SDC Madness) where there are heros and nb/ns and a NL invasion, was a mix of all the SDC settings but PF. The GM's vision of the setting was where the public knew about and interacted with those with hero powers, but each ended up in it's own subcultures. The subcultures mixed together at all levels of social status as all do when living in crowded cities, but remained having their separate identities. The NL's never had their DD,but infiltrated slowly into the power bureaucracy.
The mage char I used for SDC M was a mage that was employed by a corp that dealt with/in supernatural dealings and situations.

[AlanGunhouse]

It would really depend on the nature of your HU setting. If the hero team is the only heroes in the setting and villains are fairly scarce, then the Nightlords would overwhelm (and probably replace) the heroes.

On the other hand, if heroes are so everyday that every moderately large town has at least one hero protector and a city like New York has hundreds or thousands of supers, then you can bet the heroes would win...possibly with help from the villains, possibly not.

Another question is power level, if you are playing "street level" characters, then you might wind up almost like the original scenario. If you have "Cosmic Level" characters, then things get rather strange for a short while, but the heroes probably find out what is going on and stop it.