How can it be that you’ve never noticed the house? You been down this path a hundred times, surely you would have noticed a house like this before.

It must have been beautiful once, this grand Victorian, before the paint all peeled off. Before the hinges lost their hold on the shutters and the tiles began cascading off the roof. Just as you convince yourself that it must be abandoned, condemned, the front door creaks open and a man steps onto the porch. He’s short and portly, bearded and with thinning hair that seems to be permanently caught in an updraft from somewhere below. His ill-fitting three-piece suit may have been in style ninety years ago. Maybe. But probably not. He stands on the porch, simply taking the air for a moment before he spies you. Making a noise like a mouse, he comes running awkwardly down the walk, beckoning you to come close with one hand while shushing you with the other. In a moment he is upon you, one arm thrown companionably around your shoulders.

“Welcome, welcome!” he says in a stage whisper, while at the same time furtively looking around. “I am so glad to see you. Oh! The stories I have to tell you. But we must be quiet about it or my brother will overhear, and then he’ll want you all to himself.”

“Abel!”

“Oh. Oh my.” The portly man jumps, winces, then grudgingly makes an introduction. “My brother. Cain.”

For brothers they are as opposite as can be. Cain is as tall and rail-thin as his brother is short and fat, as cool and in control as his brother is a bundle of nerves. “Where are your manners, brother? Why do you not invite our visitor in? No doubt they’ve been walking a long way and would welcome the respite. Perhaps pass the time with a little entertainment. You’ll have to excuse my brother,” Cain says, addressing you for the first time. “He’s a bit feeble-minded. So tell me, do you enjoy a good tale? A blood-curdling ghost story that will send shivers down your spine? Or perhaps one of psychological terror that will keep you awake nights and leave you quite unable to trust your fellow man ever again?

“No,” he continues, his tone a mix of disappointment and disgust. “I can see by the look on your face that such things don’t interest you. Bah. Kids these days. If a comic doesn’t feature some muscle-bound clod in spandex or an over-endowed heroine spilling out of her bustier, you won’t even pick it up off the shelf, let alone buy it. No appreciation for the versatility of the genre. Why, in my day...”

Abel interrupted him by tugging on his coat. “What is it?” Cain snapped, irritated at having to break his stride. Abel whispered something to him. One of Cain’s bushy eyebrows rose. “Indeed,” he muttered pensively to himself, then turned to address you once again. “For once my idiot brother has actually had a thought. There is a story that might suit you. It features the colorful heroes of the Justice League, but perhaps not the Justice League you’re familiar with. It’s the League of another place, a place where magic is far more prevalent and things you might consider superstition are hard fact. In fact, it is the story of his this Justice League came to pay a visit to us here, right here, in this very house. The House of Mystery...”

Welcome to the newest, and one of the most ambitious set of games by Flyingicarus and me. The Year Without JLA, which will run parallel to The Year Without the Avengers, is a set of games set to span a year. We imagine it with 12 games total, the first 2 to go simultaneously, the final to be a big showdown and everything is between to just be ....fun. These games have little rules to them, except that the winner of each game banks a bonus 10 pts to use in the final towards a character or feats. Otherwise we're real loose here, planning this to use creatively for different kind of games set up (like our Crazy 8s games, where rolling 8 or 9 involves exchanges of characters). Since our characters are lost outside of time so to speak, we can have any Avenger play an Avenger or 'alternate' choices where Cyclops is a member or the Joker has joined the JLA. On towards the fun!.

In this game, we’re covering a few things at once. Not only are we handling the next game in this series, we’re also indulging in our tradition of an annual Halloween game. Our character selection is suited to the theme and we’ll have a few special rules for our Haunted House scenario.

First we will playing one of our figure replacement games, where when one figure is KOd, he’s replaced by another from our bench. Overall, we’ll be using a total of 2500 points worth of figures, six at a time. Replacements may come in either in a player’s staring area or in the square vacated by the figure they’re replacing.

We’ll be using the IAP2 Mansion map.

Starting on turn 3, any figure in the outdoor portion of the map at the end of that player’s turn takes 1 click of penetrating damage. No avoiding the risks of going in by hanging around outside. The house really wants you to come in...

At the beginning of each player’s turn, that player first must roll 1 die to randomly choose one of their figures. Only those on the indoor portion of the map are included.

Then they roll a second die to determine what random event will happen, centering around the character chosen.

1. Door Slams Shut! – Nearest “door” to that characters becomes blocking terrain until the end of the turn. If two “doors” are the same distance away, it’s the player choice which closes
2. Secret Passage - Choose one square of wall within 4 squares from the character. It disappears until the end of your turn
3. Attacked by Ghosts! Make an attack roll to Incapacitate with an AV of 9 against the chosen character and all characters within 4 squares of that character, ignoring all defensive powers. Any character hits gets a token.
4. Get Out! – The character is teleported to the nearest outdoor square.
5. Possessed! – Give the character 1 free Mind Control action as if that character had that power. If there are no legal targets, nothing happens. The character does not get a token for this action.
6. What Happened to the Lights! – All characters indoors gain Stealth. All range and movement values are halved, including range for Outwit, Perplex and PC.

I suppose I should define what consitutes a "door" for random happening #1.

Any opening connecting indoor and outdoor portions of the map. L19/L20 for example would be a door. I-J/12-13 would also be a door, even though this one takes up two spaces.

Also, any opening connecting two rooms or a room and a hallway. L9/L10, M6/N6, even P-Q/10-11 would all be valid examples of doors. A character in L16 could have the option of closing off the upper room (K16/L16), the lower room (L16/M16) or even the hallway and the living room (L15/L16)

Does this make sense? Any other bits of the random events we should clear up first, before we start?

My starting 6.

V Dr. Fate (Force Field)
Zatanna (JL - Armor Piercing)
U Batman (CJ - Thwart)
Mento (TK Reach)
V The Demon (Unstoppable)
Creeper (Pounce)

Spectre, Deadman, E Blue Devil, V Raven (IK), V Wildcat, Dr Strange (SI), Gargoyle,
V Ghost Rider (FF), Gypsy
Mystery points: 987

Feats used: Force Field, Armor Piercing, Thwart, Pounce, Unstoppable, TK Reach

Initiative roll : 5

My initial set:

Of which the following are my 6 starter members

Catwoman (Alpha) (Thwart)
Psimon (Mental Shields)
Clown Prince of Crime (Alpha) (Lucky Break)
Grim Reaper (Revenge)
Mephisto (Contingency Plan)
Norman Osborn (Nanobots)

Skullbuster V, Mordru (Crisis), Selene V, Trigon, Ghost Widow,
Nightmare, Morbius, Dark Beast

Mystery points: 975

Lucky Break, Mental Shields, Nanobots, Revenge, Thwart, Contingency Plan

Initiative: 7. Placement is yours then.

Looking at the list I guess I do need some clarity on some of the special 'event' rolls:

First question is for starting. Let's say I roll a 1, that's Catwoman based on how my characters are listed on the page. Do I roll again to see what she gets? Or is it just a single roll and I get to choose the character whom it effects?

1 . Think I'm clear doors are only within the 'house' though, right? Since after the third turn all figures will be in the house or face a click of punishment. Let me know if I'm right.

2. This seems clear enough, only doesn't effect the character if somehow he's not within the wall.

3. A bit confused here. If a character rolls this whom is he attacking? Or is this saying this character gets an av of 9 and can incap any character within 4 squares if he makes the roll? (Only opponents right? It isn't like pulse wave where the attack effects both sides is it?)

4. Clear.

5. Anything w/mc is a bit tricky. Does the normal mc feebvack damage apply? Or can Joker mc Superman without reprecussions?

6. ALL characters gain stealth? Meaning I can't see you unless you're next to me, is that right? If I have a character w/charge is his movement halfed twice in order for a move/attack combo?

4.

You have the right of it. First you roll for the character (say Catwoman, to use your example) and then for the event. Whatever happens centers around her.

2. The disappearing terrain doesn't directly affect the character. Just helps you determine where the passage opens. In the right circumstances, it may give you LOF to an opponent you may not have had otherwise, or let you take a shortcut through a wall rather than around it.

3. In this case, the character is being attacked. So the ghost would attack Catwoman, AV9 on her DV17. If she had Super Senses or ESD or Combat Reflexes, none of those would apply here. In addition, say I had the Demon adjacent to Catwoman and you had Psimon and Mephisto all within 4 sqaures of Catwoman, you'd compare the ghost's attack against all of them. (So if they have DV17 for Demon and Mephisto, DV16 for Psimon and the Ghost rolls 7, Psimon would get a token, the others would escape. If the ghost rolled 8, then all 4 characters would take action tokens.)

5. I hadn't considered that, but let's say feedback doesn't apply in this case. And in the example you gave, the Joker could use his MC on Superman, but since the MC was a free bonus action (and no action token given to the Joker), Joker could still attack Superman normally on your regular turn.

6. All characters gain Stealth, but they'd still have to have hindering terrain for it to matter. So if I'm in M14 and you're in P14, I could still attack you, since there's no hindering terrain in my LOF. Unless we'd placed an object somewhere in there, of course. And yes, I'd say Charge or RS you'd get half of your already halved move, so the Demon on his second click, with 8 movement, would only be able to move at most 2 squares and still attack.

Since we always seem to do top/bottom on this map, let's twist the orientation a little.

V Dr. Fate (Force Field) O2
Zatanna (JL - Armor Piercing) P2
U Batman (CJ - Thwart) Q2
Mento (TK Reach) O1
V The Demon (Unstoppable) R2
Creeper (Pounce) P1

HO: N8, O10, K10
LO: I11, L11, Q12

Spectre, Deadman, E Blue Devil, V Raven (IK), V Wildcat, Dr Strange (SI), Gargoyle,
V Ghost Rider (FF), Gypsy
Mystery points: 987

Feats used: Force Field, Armor Piercing, Thwart, Pounce, Unstoppable, TK Reach

"Yes, this is the place. This is where I saw them," Mento confirmed.

"Yecch! They're not only notorious bad guys, they've got lousy taste. Who'd want this dilapidated old dump?" Creeper asked.

"This house is a Nexus," Zatanna explained to him. "From here, it's easy to access other planes of existance. If they establish a stronghold here, they'll be able to strike almost anywhere in the mulitverse witout warning."

"So...that's a bad thing," the Creeper said.

"Yes," Jason Blood sighed. It was useless trying to explain anything to the Creeper. "That is a very bad thing."

"Are you well, Batman?" Dr. Fate took the Dark Knight aside and asked after him.

"The thirst is...under control. For now," Batman said. "Don't worry about me. I know what I'm doing."

"Very well," Dr. Fate conceded. "But be warned all of you. In addition to its properties as a dimensional hub, or perhaps because of it, supernatural activity is very high in this house. We will probably have to deal with not only our enemies, but the spirits that inhabit it as well."

"Ooooh, creeeeepy. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!" the Creeper laughed, the sound piercing through the still night air. Zatanna shivered, despite herself.

Never answered your question 1. Yes, doors only within the house, though a door to the outside could be the one that shuts (L19/20, for example)

K2 Catwoman (Alpha) (Thwart)
L2 Psimon (Mental Shields)
M2 Clown Prince of Crime (Alpha) (Lucky Break)
O2 Grim Reaper (Revenge)
P2 Mephisto (Contingency Plan)
N2 Norman Osborn (Nanobots)

HO M6, N6, O7 LO Q7, M10, K8

Mystery roll is 6. Stealth ---a good start I guess.

Goblin carries Reaper to L7, he's L8 (stealthed).

Catwoman moves to M6, stealthed.

Joker to N6, stealthed.

Mephisto to P6, also stealthed.

M6 @ Catwoman (Alpha) (Thwart)
L2 Psimon (Mental Shields)
N6 @ Clown Prince of Crime (Alpha) (Lucky Break)
L7 Grim Reaper (Revenge)
P6 @ Mephisto (Contingency Plan)
L8 @ Norman Osborn (Nanobots)

HO M6, N6, O7 LO Q7, M10, K8







Skullbuster V, Mordru (Crisis), Selene V, Trigon, Ghost Widow,
Nightmare, Morbius, Dark Beast

Mystery points: 975

Lucky Break, Mental Shields, Nanobots, Revenge, Thwart, Contingency Plan

"They're near," Catwoman says.

"How do you know?" the Grim Reaper asks.

"A cat knows movement. Sounds."

"And she's right," Psimon adds, "I sense six minds."

"And the minds have it!" the Joker exclaims.

"Perfect then. They're inside and they're ours to destroy!" the Green Goblin says. "Let's go!".

Mephisto stands by and wonders if aligning himself with a ragamuffin group of villains is worthy of him. He takes only a moment and joins them. Even a semi-devil needs to be entertained, after all.

That was my side, but not a big deal. I haven't got a real strong preference.

No one's in the house yet on my side, so no random occurrences

Fate grabs the Creeper, Phases to M19. M18 for Creeper.

Zatanna taxis Mento. Zatanna to L19, Mento L18

Batman to K15

Demon to L20

V Dr. Fate (Force Field) @ M19
Zatanna (JL - Armor Piercing) @ L19
U Batman (CJ - Thwart) @ K15 (Stealth)
Mento (TK Reach) L18
V The Demon (Unstoppable) @ L20
Creeper (Pounce) M18

HO: M6, N6, O7, K15, Q13, R13
LO: Q7, M10, K8, S12, K13, M13

Spectre, Deadman, E Blue Devil, V Raven (IK), V Wildcat, Dr Strange (SI), Gargoyle,
V Ghost Rider (FF), Gypsy
Mystery points: 987

Feats used: Force Field, Armor Piercing, Thwart, Pounce, Unstoppable, TK Reach

"The Joker," Batman frowned. "And Catwoman."

"I'm more concerned about Mephisto myself," Jason Blood said.

"Let Zatanna and I handle Mephisto," Dr. Fate said. "The rest of you will need to keep his allies busy."

"I can do that. I can keep Catwoman very busy," Creeper said, waggling his eyebrows.

"Don't...even...think about it," Batman bared his fangs.

"Whoa whoa!" the Creeper said, backing away, "Kidding. Kidding."

"Watch out for the Joker. He's more dangerous than you'd think," Batman said, forcing himself to turn away fromt he Creeper. Having warned them all, he took offf into the house.

"Well, we'd better get in there too," Zatanna said.

Character roll is 3, the Joker. Mystery roll is 6. Stealth again.

Psimon to O6.

Reaper to S9.

Guess I can't resist. Can Goblin attack Mento? Shape change says 4. Goblin will rs to L12 and attack. Needs 6 + 1, rolls 9. 4 to Mento.

Everybody's stealthed.

M6 Catwoman (Alpha) (Thwart)
O6 @ Psimon (Mental Shields)
N6 Clown Prince of Crime (Alpha) (Lucky Break)
S9 @ Grim Reaper (Revenge)
P6 Mephisto (Contingency Plan)
L12 @@ Norman Osborn (Nanobots)

HO M6, N6, O7 LO Q7, M10, K8







Skullbuster V, Mordru (Crisis), Selene V, Trigon, Ghost Widow,
Nightmare, Morbius, Dark Beast

Mystery points: 975

Lucky Break, Mental Shields, Nanobots, Revenge, Thwart, Contingency Plan