Ben Grimm's Poker Night

The idea for this campaign is taken from several issues of the old Marvel Two-in-One comic that featured Ben’s interrupted poker nights.

BACKGROUND: There are few things in Ben Grimm’s life that he enjoys more than poker night with the guys. He’ll put something together once a month or so. Nick Fury will come whenever he’s in or near New York. Ol’ Shellhead usually shows up, as does Cap, Hawkeye, Hank McCoy and Wonder Man. Ben’s a little suspicious of girls in a poker game, but there’s no denying that both Carol Danvers and She-Hulk can play a mean hand. Occasionally, they’ll meet at the Baxter Building, but with such a high percentage of the group being Avengers, the Mansion became the usual meeting place. Jarvis makes good sandwiches anyways.Yes, it was always a time that Ben looked forward to. Or it would be—if only they weren’t always being interrupted by the necessity of saving the world yet again.



GENERAL RULES: The following is a series of four linked scenarios. Each scenario represents a situation that arose during one of Ben’s poker nights. Players will keep a running total of points throughout the campaign, with the high scorer being the winner.There’s two ways of playing through this. The first way has one player fielding Ben and his buddies in every scenario, while the second player fields the villains.


The second method has the players taking turns being the good guys or the bad guys. In this case, the two players roll dice. The high roller then picks one of the four scenarios in which he’ll play the poker buddies. After that scenario’s been played, the other player will choose which one comes next while he fields the good guys. And so one. The scenarios in this campaign are not interconnected other than by the poker night theme, so there is no requirement to play them in order.


For each scenario, the Poker Buddies will have several figures they are required to field and a pool of characters from which to build the remainder of their force.The players may not used named duplicates in these scenarios. (Only one Thing or Cap per game.) But, in order to give the players more leeway during while team building, different versions of each may be used in different scenarios.


WARNING: Each scenario requires using a different map. If that particular map isn’t available, then players should be able to decide on a good substitute. Use a dice roll to resolve any disputes.

FEAT CARDS: Neither player may use ICWO or Lazarus Pit. Otherwise, Feat Cards may be assigned freely.


SCENARIO #1: TROUBLE AT THE TRUCK STOP


BACKGROUND: Ben and Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) are the high winners. Carol’s just won a big hand, beating Ben’s flush with a full house (a pat hand, for gosh sakes, she didn’t even draw), when the alarm goes off. The Abomination is up to no good—he and some cronies are hijacking some trucks that had been transporting an experimental jet fuel to New York.

TEAMS: Both players form 600 point teams.


The Poker Buddies must field any version of Thing, (or the Ben Grimm LE), Nick Fury and Captain Marvel (the Carol Danvers version). The following figures with the Avengers keyword may also be used: Captain America, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Falcon, Beast, Quasar, Black Knight, Hercules, Swordsman and Ant Man/Giant Man (choose one ID or the other for Hank Pym for this scenario).  He may also Sharon Carter, Dum Dum Dugan, Clay Quartermain and/or Gabe Jones.


The bad guy fields any version of Abomination. He may also use any figures with the Sinister Syndicate keyword, EXCEPT Doc Ock or Kingpin (neither of these guys would work for the Abomination).. The bad guy can also use any number of HDC troopers to represent a mercenary team that’s helping Abomination with the robbery.


SET-UP: If available, use the truck stop map from the old DC starter set. Roll for 1st player, then choose sides and set up normally. If this map isn't available, see if you have a map that justifies the use of SPECIAL RULE # 2 in some way--otherwise drop that rule from the scenario. Any map used should represent a normal Earth location and not an outer space or alien location.


SPECIAL RULE #1: Carol’s riding high going into this fight after taking Ben in that last hand. Throughout this scenario, she hits on any roll of doubles other than snake eyes. (Snake eyes is still a critical miss.)


SPECIAL RULE #2: One of the jet fuel trucks was damaged in the initial attack and there a small fire burning inside. It may explode at any moment. To represent this: the Earthquake Battlefield Condition card is in effect—accept that the damage inflicted if it goes off will affect fliers and non-fliers both.The battle lasts 12 rounds, with normal victory conditions. Remember to keep track of points scored


SCENARIO #2: THE WASP’S STING


BACKGROUND: “Okay, so Nick couldn’t make it tonight. That’s no big deal. Janet Pym offers to sit in for him. That’s okay too ‘cause though Jan’s got more than her share of brains, she’s never played a hand o’ poker in her life. We figured we’d be rakin’ in the chips from her. It even made up for the fact that Bic Head tagged along kinda uninvited to the game. But it didn’t work out that way—oh, no. Instead, she fills an inside straight THREE TIMES IN A ROW! Had half the chips piled in front of her in no time. Jeez, it was aggravatin’! Then, to make matters worse, I had just drawn a four jacks when the blasted alarm went off! Turns out Morgan le Fey was bustin’ into the Natural History Museum, lookin’ to steal some ancient mystical artifact. We had to leave the game in a hurry to intercept her..”


TEAMS: Both players form 600 point teams.



The Poker Buddies must use any version of Thing, any version of the Human Torch and any version of Wasp. He may also use any version of the following figures with the Avengers keyword: Captain America, Falcon, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Quasar, Beast, Black Knight, Hercules, Swordsman and Ant Man/Giant Man (choose one ID or the other for Hank Pym for this scenario). LEs of any of these characters may be used if they have the proper TA. He may also include any number of SWAT cops (who have also responded to the scene).


The bad guy uses Morgan le Fey. He also uses Ulik and any number of Rock Trolls, Fire Demons and Mindless Ones, all of whom Morgan has vamped into helping her.


SET-UP: If available, use the Museum map that came with the old DC Premiere set. Otherwise, players can agree on a reasonable substitute. Roll dice to choose 1st player, then set up and begin normally.


SPECIAL RULE #1: The mystical energy that permeates the museum during the battle does strange things. At the end of each player’s turn, that player rolls one die:


1-2: Nothing happens.
3: An enemy figure of your choice heals one click
4: A friendly figure of your choice heals on click.
5: An enemy figure of your choice takes one click of damage.
6: A friendly figure of your choice takes one click of damage.


SPECIAL RULE #2: Ben’s so aggravated by Jan’s dumb luck at poker that he’s off his game slightly in the initial part of the fight. Ben subtracts 1 from his attack during the first 4 rounds.


The battle lasts 12 rounds. Normal victory conditions apply.


SCENARIO #3: SHE-HULK’S RAMPAGE


BACKGROUND: She-Hulk joins in the game tonight, but the group barely gets started when the Mansion is attacked by Kang, who has recruited both former Masters of Evil and Serpent Society members to aid him. Kang is up to his time traveling tricks again as well, bringing in an evil version of one of the Avengers from a parallel dimension.


TEAMS: Each player builds a 600 point team. The Poker Buddies must use any version of Thing, She-Hulk and Nick Fury.  He must use the Jarvis pog. He may use any version of the following figures that have the Avengers keyword: Captain America, Falcon, Wonder Man, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Beast, Black Panther, Quasar, Black Knight, Hercules, Swordsman and Ant Man/Giant Man (choose one ID or the other for Hank Pym for this scenario). He may also Sharon Carter, Dum Dum Dugan, Clay Quartermain and/or Gabe Jones.


The bad guy uses any version of Kang. He may use any figure with the Avengers keyword, including a duplicate of someone on the Poker Buddies team. He may use any number of Manhunter figures from the DC universe (here representing robot soldiers from the future.) He may use any figure with the Masters of Evil TA (except for Ultron) and any figure with the Serpent Society TA.


SET-UP: Use a map representing Avengers mansion--either the old-school one from the old Marvel adventure set or the new one from the Avengers Fast Forces set.. Set up all but one of the Poker Buddies and Jarvis in the conference room near the center of the map. The bad guy is automatically first player in this scenario.


SPECIAL RULE: If the evil Avenger is a duplicate of a figure on the Poker Buddy team (meaning if they have the same name--even if they aren't the same version), then either of these figures scores double points for KOing the other.

The fight goes on for 12 rounds and normal victory conditions apply


SCENARIO #4: THE LONG DAY OF FRANKLIN RICHARDS


BACKGROUND: “The mansion ain’t available—some sorta government inspection tonight--so we end up moving the game to the Baxter Building. On the way over we run across Spider Man while he’s nabbing a couple of muggers and stop to help him out—that took about three seconds. Shoulda seen the expressions on those two guys faces when we all charged in towards them—it was sweet! We invite the Webslinger to sit in on the game. Reed and the matchstick were out somewhere—but Sue brought little Franklin in to watch us play. I figured the little guy would enjoy seein’ his Uncle Ben clean everyone else out. But, as usual, the game didn’t last long. Turns out one of our old buddies from the Negative Zone had managed to bust in on us through the portal. Not only that, but he’d cut a deal with the Super Skrull and a Brood Queen to help out with his latest “Let’s conquer the world” scheme."Gee whiz, just ONCE I’d like to have a quiet night of poker!”


TEAMS: Both players form 600 point teams.The Poker Buddies must use any version of Thing, any version of the Invisible Girl/Woman, and Nick Fury. He must use the Franklin Richards pog if available, but does not count him towards his point total. He may use any version of Spider Man. He may use any version of the following figures with the Avengers TA: Captain America, Falcon, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Hawkeye, Beast, Black Panther, Quasar, Black Knight, Hercules, Swordsman and Ant Man/Giant Man (choose one ID or the other for Hank Pym for this scenario). He may also Sharon Carter, Dum Dum Dugan, Clay Quartermain and/or Gabe Jones.


The bad guys use Annihilus and Blastaar. He may use Super Skrull. He may use any number of Skrull generic figures. To represent Negative zone minions, he may use any number of Saurian Troopers and Parademon generics. He may also use any one Brood Queen and any number of Brood Warriors.


SET-UP: Use the Baxter Building map that came with the FF starter set.


SPECIAL RULE: This rule is in effect if the players have the Franklin Richards pog available. The Invisible Woman MUST keep Franklin Richards next to her at all times. Franklin does not move on his own. Sue may carry him and may not carry any one else unless he’s been KO’d. The Poker Buddies may not use Energy Explosion or Pulse Wave as long as there’s a chance Franklin could be hurt.The battle lasts 12 rounds. When all four scenarios have been played out, then add all point totals together. High score wins.