Secret Invasion

[clackey]

I was just reading through my old back issues and that stuff was amazing!

I keep thinking about how to make it cool for players. Who's a Skrull? One of the Player characters, maybe? Would they even know if they were a Skrull? Start a campaign and say to one of the player characters, 'hey, how would you like to play a Skrull impostor for a whole campaign, then at the end the real you shows up and kicks his (your) ass?'

The possibilities!

Is this for sure on the line up, or still something folks are talking about?

[CaptainMarvel5]

alot of those skrulls were sleepers. don't tell your players who the skrull is or maybe you just role the die a a pivotal point whaala skrull. maybe there's more, maybe not.

[N01H3r3]

It's got some awesome possibilities, but to be honest, I don't know if I'd want to run it without all the build-up it got in the comics. I'd love to have the time to run a full "What If? New Avengers" game, starting from Breakout, moving through Civil War and Secret Invasion with an evolving cast of characters. Certainly, Civil War helps breed the divisions and mistrust that Secret Invasion really feeds upon.

With regards to picking which characters are Skrulls and which aren't... what about something like this:

Who Do You Trust?
Gain 1 XP when somebody doubts that you are who you claim to be
Gain 3 XP when you provide a compelling reason to either accuse someone else of being a Skrull or of proving that you are who you claim to be.
Gain 10 XP when you are conclusively revealed to be either yourself or a Skrull infiltrator.

Several characters take this milestone... none, some or all of them might end up being Skrulls... but nobody knows for certain until the endgame begins.

[CaptainMarvel5]

I like that. the players goal "I am who i say i am!" (oh crap, I'm a Skrull)

[clackey]

Well, I think it's gotta be a player choice. So maybe XP's is the way to go.

[CaptainMarvel5]

forcing someone to play with something out of their comfort zone is good i think. i don't think i'd let them know.

[Mouse]

If I were running the game...

I'd sit down with the players and ask them what sort of setup they'd like. Do they want to know as a group who the Skrulls are among the PCs? Do they want to decide as individuals but keep it from the group? Do they want it to be randomly assigned in the open? Randomly assigned and hidden from the group but not the individuals? Or randomly assigned and hidden from everyone until the reveal?

Different groups will have different preferences. Your simplest and most productive course of action is to figure out what everyone wants by just asking them. This is the least amount of effort for the most effective way to make sure everyone has fun.

Then, once everyone is clear on what they want, you're free to act within the bounds of what you as a group have decided.

[CaptainMarvel5]

another way would be slip everyone a piece of paper. each one has your secret motivation. "Who do you trust" some are normal, some know what they are and have an agenda for the empire. maybe one thinks he's human and ends up being a sleeper. but will he fight as a skrull? or the hero he thought he was? experience will buy his freedom either way. with experience you could decifer who's really who. buy into other players experience force the truth. whether they like it or not.

[Majestic]

Great Milestones, N01!

You show some of the possibilities of Secret Invasion, and what fun and intrigue are possible for a campaign focusing on this Event!

[konate]

I'd look to the "Battlestar Galactica" board game for some inspiration.

I'd probably keep the idea that the group is being infiltrated a secret. I may introduce the idea that other organizations have been infiltrated, but not the PC group. I might, like the BSG BG, hand out cards at the beginning and middle of the game that have mundane info on them except the "You are a Skrull" card (the only real card that matters). These cards would actually be disguised "loyalty" cards, like in the BSG BG.

You'd need to have at least 2 cards per player to have enough cards for both the beginning and middle of the game. This way, if there is only 1 Skrull card, there may not be a Skrull at the beginning of the game; and if players start to suspect at the beginning that a PC could be a Skrull (but there really aren't yet); that's when the paranoid-fun really starts to kick in.

Also, at the beginning, a player may not be a Skrull and actively hunt out Skrulls; only to find out that he/sher is a Skrull later in the game. So, BSG BG players will recognize that you may not want to play too well in the beginning because if you end up being a Skrull in the end, it would be just that much harder to undo what you've done. But, this is turning the game much game-ier; not very Super-heroic.