Who Watches the Watchmen, Counterspell

For the longest time my favorite super hero movie was the first  Batman with Michael Keaton and Jack as the Joker. The first Iron  Man usurped that but it's reign was short lived as Dark Knight  replaced it quickly. The reign of Dark Knight was ended with the  release of Zack Snyder's Watchmen in 2009.

In comics Alan Moore has always held a high place in the pantheon  of comic book writers. I am not sure anyone can touch him except  for perhaps Frank Miller. Neil Gaiman is someone that one day  might be considered a contender but that is yet to be determined.  The man that has given us The Killing Joke, V for Vendetta and The  Watchmen will be hard to topple.

Who Watches the Watchmen is a a module released in 1987 for the  first edition of DC Heroes. It was one of the harder modules to  find and easily out prices others from the era except for the   Watchmen source book. Taking Out the Trash can also sell for  higher prices. This module is set about 20 years before the main  story in The Watchmen. I won't go into too much detail on it.

The module is a nice one to have in that it has game stats for all  of the characters in the Watchmen even the one that is really not  used in the adventure. It also has stats for one of the major  villains. If you do not have the Watchmen Sourcebook this is the  next best thing to have. The adventure itself is one that will  focus more on investigation and role playing than it does on  combat. There will be both but it is an adventure more in line  with the comic. The module is also good in that it is designed to  allow all of the heroes to be a focus at some point in the  adventure.

Being set in 1966 changes the atmosphere of the setting quite a  bit from the book and the gritty setting is part of the comics  charm. This will be a detractor for some and I would prefer the  later setting myself but this gives the players a chance to be a  lot less cynical in how they play the characters. With all that  being said the theme is right in line with what I would like to  see.

I can not recommend this module enough. I am not saying it is the  best adventure ever written but it does get you the stats for some  of the best comic book heroes ever written. On the flip side if  you like a more traditional comic book adventure or super heroes  this will not be for you. It is still a good one to have though as  it is most likely the best of the early DC Hero modules. Let me  close by saying, and I mean this in the most heterosexual way  possible, that Rorschach is a stud!


Spell:


Counterspell

Level: Second
Range: 9"
Duration: Permanent
Ares of Effect: Target Spell
Components: V,S
Casting Time: One Segment
Saving Throw: None

The use of this spell will allow the magic user to counter the  magic of the spell that this one targets. The magic connected with  countering the other spell is not something that the caster will  want to take using lightly though. The Counterspell caster  actually absorbs the energy of the target spell internally.

Counterspell will counter the magic of a spell as it is being  cast. It will not work on a spell that has already been successfully cast. The spell that is being countered will finish being cast but the magic connected with it never happens. The  spell is used up by the caster though.

The magic user countering the spell will have a number of side  effects from casting this spell though. The first effect is that  the caster will not be able to cast any further spells for a  number of rounds equal to half the level of the spell rounded up.  There is also a cumulative chance equal to the level of the spell  countered that the caster will age 11 to 20 years and suffer a loss  of one point of constitution. If the casters constitution were to  ever drop below three they will become a Shadow and be flung into  the Ethereal plane. In addition for each time this spell is cast  there is a 5% chance that the caster will suffer some permanent  random physical side effect or deformity.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the  write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the  80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other  than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be  slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of  spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :)  Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on  me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please  let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.