Colors Explained

Part Seven: The Tactical Model

At this point I blew the whistle and moved all action into the tactical model. The battle started with the Nighthawks at a disadvantage, as they were out in the open and their enemies were shooting at them with superpowers and automatic weapons. The strategy of both Arctic Light and the Nighthawks was very confused, which was mostly my fault: it was later pointed out to me, that it would have been a good idea to let teams that had experience in working as teams decide the actions of their members together, especially since the characters had more tactical experience and know-how than the players. As the four villains attacked the tactical model proved to be a fast-moving and efficient way of running superpowered combat in a live-action game: if we had attempted to run the battle without it, we'd probably been there days. As it was, it only took an hour and a half.

The players - a couple of which were pretty hard core live action fanatics who didn't really play tabletop RPGs at all - didn't seem to mind the shift to a miniatures battle; nobody complained about it. Small wonder ­ it was raining slightly outside, and I don't think anybody fancied standing out there waiting for others to complete their turns.

The Nighthawks fought for their lives; Arctic Light tried to keep out of the battle at first, as well as get the civilians (the doctor and the pilot) out of the crossfire. The villains had a well coordinated strategy, and the scale model of the house was slowly demolished as their superpowered attacks blew entire walls away. Fighting was really fast and furious, and the scale model made it possible for players to see their surroundings get devastated. I don't think there would have been any way to achieve that effect in reality; it would have taken forever to put up "Destroyed" stickers everywhere.

Scourge and his mercenaries hit the heroes with all they had and finally managed to kill three of the Nighthawks, including their leader. At this point Scourge decided he had had his revenge, and told his squad to withdraw, which they did. With the battle over, the game was returned to live-action format. Fury, the only Nighthawk still standing had a brief shouting match with Scourge, where Scourge told her they had killed his lover; then he retreated as well. Then all there was left to do was pick up the pieces.

The game ended some hours after that, as people still wanted to play. The psychic Arctic Light member had captured the souls of two of the slain Nighthawks in her mind; they weren't really dead, but lacking bodies there was little they could do. The wounded (and in some cases comatose) Nighthawks were taken into custody by the police, except for Fury, who managed to escape. Scourge fled the area, starting to feel very sick about what he had done. Arctic Light helped the local authorities clean up the mess; then they played a team meeting which happened the following day. After that, we called it a night.

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