Disney Villains Victorious: Gridlocked - Rise of Heroes

I'd rather not. Blips as a mechanic wasn't all that great an idea anyway as I'm starting to realize. I'm already throwing you guys in the deep end with a battle with Judge Doom right off the bat, I don't wanna go overboard
I'm going to state.

Blips make sense as a mechanic, the problem is what the result was turn 0. Chances were 90% of results would have been fine. It's the fact Toffee came online during the prologue that caused such a strong reaction. (To be honest there was always going to be a strong reaction, but that's besides the point)

It's a great mechanic that just came online a bit too early.
 
Thanks. And we KEEP this Blip, even if it is lower than a 3. We just put it in a stasis-like state somewhere in the world, until the narrative(you) decide that our dear Doof is ready to start his story for real. [Meaning:we keep the Blip, but no repercussion at least until Turn 1.]
Exactly. This is staying dormant until Doof is in a better place to fight Toffee off (for instance, not having only a couple of hero units).
I'm going to state.

Blips make sense as a mechanic, the problem is what the result was turn 0. Chances were 90% of results would have been fine. It's the fact Toffee came online during the prologue that caused such a strong reaction. (To be honest there was always going to be a strong reaction, but that's besides the point)

It's a great mechanic that just came online a bit too early.
...Thanks. I really needed to hear that.
 
While I maybe would've till turn 5 for it to get online I absolutely adore Blip as a mechanic, hopefully obvious given the sleep brain full mcu villains idea lockdown, so while I've got to readjust my scales of severity given a nat 1 could be Thanos or full Jafar invasion I think it should stick around and keep what we rolled.
 
Okay, clearly this Blip is causing a lot of confusion and I've come to realize that it's completely upending the plot. So, in light of that, I'm going to cut the Blip mechanic. It was from the days that this quest was basically a DoofQuest fix-it and it needed something extra so it wouldn't become boring after five turns. So, it light of that, it's going. The RER roll of 72 stands, but Toffee is no longer an issue.

I gotta agree that the Blips are a really cool and interesting mechanic.they shouldn't just be gone, they are like the RER that allows to shake things in a funny and unexpected way. Getting Toffee turn 0 was really unfortunate, but it should stay and we deal with it when we can. Thats the fun of playing quest with dices, you gotta roll with the punches so to say, wherever is a Nat 1 or a nat 100, we need keep this train going!

And honestly no offense, but maybe you shouldn't have just outright showed us what we got on the Blip, maybe just a few hints or an interlude for it. Or not at all and let us find out later. Cause yeah, straight telling us that will make must of us super paranoid and worried.
 
Shrug I think striving for an alternate timelines hero units to try and recreate some bond is limiting and doomed to failure personally. Janna is great but this Doof is not that Doof, this worlds Janna would not be the same Janna. Neither would have been through the same things and as such turned out the same way. It wouldn't be the same. Better to just forge ahead with the new life granted.
 
At this point Janna hasn't even been born I think?
The way blips work is arggh, I can't put this any other way. They retcon history at extremes, so the low roll meant that Tofee taking over Mewni as in canon jumps to that moment in SvTFE canon with the cast and everything placed in our present without the time in between existing.
No. This is canon DVV:Gridlocked Toffee, who stole the wand from Star and conquered Mewni, taken straight from the info docs.
The entire plotline of SvtFoE is happening now rather than in 2010 as I had originally planned.
No. That'd be stupid, because that would be a dues ex-machina. I don't do those.

Blips basically put things in the timeline that wouldn't be there normally. Factions, heroes, items, and, if your luck is sucky, even the Wasteland! Blips aren't completely rewriting the timeline, they either a) shuffle things around or b) add new stuff
And here is the explanation QM gave when asked "Blips are not retcons?"
 
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Just want to state that I'm fine with Blips how they were, it seemed fun to have a random thing outside the timestream pulled in each turn. This one just got some flack from people because it was quite a negative result.


Also, while we're vaguely on the subject of Blips, an idea has been percolating in my head for a while now, and this has given me enough of an excuse to share it!

So, way back in Doofquest I remember there was some discussion on what fell in Gridlocked and what fell in Classic, and Facilier from The Princess and the Frog fell on the Classic side of things. And my thought process was something along the lines of "side of things -> Facilier is almost straddling the line of the Gridlocked/Classic divide and Has Friends on the Other Side -> what if Facilier/his shop was kind of unbound from time such that it enabled travel between Classic and Gridlocked?".

Basically, my thought process was that Facilier could act as a kind of shady merchant and questgiver to both settings. He could barter, pay, or steal some super tech from Gridlocked and sell it at huge mark-ups to people in Classic, and also do the reverse by getting some of the abundant magical stuff in Classic and selling it to interested parties in Gridlocked. And as for the questgiver part, my thought was that he'd have some people who go to him seeking something, whether on the orders of a King or just independently, and he'd be willing to facilitate travel between Classic and Gridlocked in exchange for them doing certain things for him; maybe sending a team from Gridlocked to loot a temple or slay a monster over in Classic, or sending a team from Classic to steal corporate secrets or alien tech in Gridlocked, and so on.

Sorry if that was a bit off topic, but I wanted a chance to talk about it and figured offering it up as a potential Blip would be the best way to do so.
 
What if Facilier/his shop was kind of unbound from time such that it enabled travel between Classic and Gridlocked?".

Sorry if that was a bit off topic, but I wanted a chance to talk about it and figured offering it up as a potential Blip would be the best way to do so.

It could work, both as a Blip, a Random Event(Some Soul finally paid back their debts...) or something else.
But you would have to contextualize how it happened, and if anyone else in this VV world knows.
Maybe as an Apocrypha it would make more sense.
 
Blips sound like a fun mechanic to me, but I do agree that the idea of facing Toffee before even having set ourselves up is quite the scare.
 
Blips do seem like a fun mechanic.

I think the entire issue was that it was such a negative result that had incredibly huge repercussions. It instantly turned the whole focus of the quest into everyone vs toffee instead of just exploring the new doofquest setting. During the introductory phase... Before we even had our first turn...

Maybe Blips shouldn't be so powerful that they dominate the quest depending on the roll? Like, having toffee become a active player seems fine, but having him show up as his victorious variant before anyone else gets established at all seems... crushing really.

Everyone else is trying to start up or establish themselves. Most kings still have their heros to fight or haven't even started their storyline.

Victorious toffee suddenly existing makes him the main threat instantly. So glad that's getting a bit of a rework.
 
I don't mind the severity tbh, because it can just as easily be a 97 next turn and we get...idk King Arthur and Merlin? He's about the only one I remember at the drop of a hat that is ridiculously powerful and has a full kingdom backing. Could have chose Triton I suppose? Heroic forces on that power tier that don't ball out of control (looking at you Stark.) can be tricky to find it seems.
About the only thing I would have changed is I would've kept the mechanic hidden for a turn to two, maybe introduce it at the start of turn 3. Early enough to be a major pitch, late enough that we're atleast off the ground.
 
Everything aside, you know who I really want to get on our side?

Macbeth.

Not only do his goals align with our own, IE killing Demona, he's an all around great martial and occult unit who can only be killed by Demona.
 
I think the blips are fine so long as the effects are roughly equal in effect

If a 3 calls forth Toffe then a 97 should call forth some powerful Allies.
 
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You know I can think of an in-universe explanation for why the Book of Doof doesn't have as detailed info on the Kings and other villains, it as intended to be sent to a Doofenshmirtz who has just taken over, which is after basically all of the other Kings are already public cooperate figures. On the other hand, the heroes who are even still alive at the time are in very bad situations and have little to no reason to trust the guy who runs Doofensmirtz Evil Incorporated.

Therefore future Doof included in depth analyses on the heroes for the express purpose on trying to get a head start on the powerful people who could help and would most likely have some in depth info of their own on the respective King they delt with. Unfortunately the book got sent much farther back due to the space time continuum trying to not drown in its own sick and arrived before any of the Kings had became a thing.
 
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Saving the Punchline, Part 1: Advanced Studies
You are Betty "Dr." Director and you absolutely love this Book.

It didn't look like much at first. Just a plain, old red book with a weird golden hand on the front. You had first seen it when you met Heinz Doofenshmirtz at the beginning of your assignment. You had thought it was a joke at first: a man with angular features straight out of a villain movie claiming he knew the future because it was written in his magic book? The man was obviously either insane or a con, and you and GJ had much better things to do than listen to his rambling.

Then you went on a mission with the man and lost your eye because you didn't trust him. So you wisely shut up about his knowledge.

(The most shocking thing was that he never held your skepticism and obvious disrespect against you. Part of that was because he wasn't that type of man and the other part was that it was "par for the course" for him. When you asked for clarification, he sang you a song about his mother's love being inexplicably linked to kickball and somehow got Love Händel to play for his flashback. You don't know how he managed that and you continue to be too scared to ask.)

The advantages and knowledge of the Book became clear after the next several months of knowing the man. The ideas Doof was able to pull from the inventions (particularly the evil ones) were truly inspiring. Plus, Doof proved himself quite the strategist as he was able to come up with several plans on how to deal with several problems before they became a threat.

But this? This knocked it out of the park.

When it became clear that Judge Doom was only hours away from gaining power, Doof quickly leafed through the Book, searching for something that would get the pair to LA quicker than a train or plane. He immediately found the solution: Future Doof's Trip-to-the-Desert-inator. With a few alterations to the schematics, it quickly became the Trip-to-LA-inator. A quick blast from that ray and the pair of you were off.

However, he did something before you both left that… honestly left you speechless. You had tried to read the Book of Doofenshmirtz on your own before (it had been orders from the top), and all you had seen was blank pages. Apparently, the Book was enchanted so only Heinz could read it. However, before you left, he took you aside, placed your right hand on the cover of the Book, and said "Betty Director, I deem you worthy of my secrets."

The Book had glowed briefly before returning to normal. Upon opening the Book, the pages that had been blank to you were now filled with writing and drawings of various inventions and people. You looked back at the man in shock. "Why?" you couldn't help but ask.

Heinz simply smiled. "Betty, you've been a wonderful friend and companion to me since… well," he chuckles, gesturing to his eye, but then his face falls and he becomes serious. "And where we're going? With whom we're facing? We're going to need all the help we can get. Which means I can't be the only one who knows what's coming." He grasped Betty by the arms and gave her a sincere grin. "Besides, I trust you. We can do this."

Your heart fluttered.

You cleared your throat and shyly looked at the agent in front of you. "I… thank you, Heinz," you said. "I won't forget this. And I won't let you down."

He chuckled. "You're my friend, Betty. I doubt you ever will." He straightened the lab coat he wore over his suit for whatever reason. "Now, then. Read up on what you can. We'll be leaving once I finish with the inator."

You had nodded and sat down to read, only to find very familiar words.

"It all began on the day of my actual birth. Both of my parents failed to show up…"

…it would probably be safe to skim this. Doof had told you his various backstories already-

Hello. What have we here? This definitely wasn't Heinz's handwriting…

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Learning Action: Prepare for Quest
Critical Success
For the rest of the quest, the bonuses of the Book of Doofenshmirtz apply to both Betty and Doof.
No Intrigue checks are required to discover the identity of the plot's major players or Doom's master plan.
Other benefits will be revealed after the quest.

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When you teleport into LA, you land immediately in a dark movie lot. By this point, it was night time and all the stars and workers have gone home. The place looks absolutely deserted.

But if the Book was right, this would be the place that R.K. Maroon joined Marvin Acme in the afterlife to cover up Doom's involvement in Acme's murder. All you had to do was catch the assassin in the act, saving Maroon and quite possibly Valiant.

Heinz brushes himself off, lab coat long gone, and looked up at the sign. "Maroon Pictures," he affirms. "Good, wasn't sure if that coordinate system I hooked to the inator was accurate. Those things tend to blow up on me." He then looks around. "Now, two important things: where's Maroon and where's Valiant?"

The sound of a car coming quickly alerts you both. You take Heinz by the hand and drag him over to a nearby warehouse, hiding inside with the door propped open. The two of you slowly peak out.

There, driving up, is a small, blue car. Looked like a Volkswagon Beetle, but you can't see the logo in the dark. It pulls to a stop in front of one of the offices.

"Let's forget it, there's nobody here!" a high-pitched voice nervously squeaks.

"Is that it, or are you scared?" grumbles a deeper voice.

"P-P-P-Please! Me, scared? Don't be ridiculous!" the first voice assures, only to ruin it by audibly chattering his teeth. The doors open to admit a short-ish man in a trench coat, fedora, suspenders, and a collared shirt and tie. His appearance practically screams private detective.

"Eddie Valiant," you whisper. You look at the Toon that also exited the car, a bipedal rabbit with bright red overalls and a polka-dot bow tie. "Which makes that Toon…"

"Roger Rabbit, currently wanted for murder," Heinz whispers as the two begin to plan. It seems Valiant is convinced Maroon is behind Acme's murder, and plans to confront him by pretending to have the will. He leaves Roger with the car and heads up the stairs, telling him to keep an eye out. Even after he's gone, Roger continues to make grandiose promises of keeping his watch, making it easy for you to slip by. However, as you approach the stairs…

WHAM

You both wheel to see Jessica Rabbit standing over the konked out form of her husband, frying pan clutched in her fist. It doesn't seem like she sees you, but that could quickly change.

You look at Heinz, who already has a cute smirk on his face that says he has a plan.

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What do you do?

[ ] Continue Following Valiant
You came here for Valiant and to catch the attempted murderer of Maroon. Roger will be fine as long as you can get the evidence to aquit him of the murder charges.

[ ] Confront Jessica Rabbit
Although you're positive Jessica doesn't mean Roger any harm, any Toon drawn that shamelessly can't be up to anything not shady. If you want to save Roger as well as the other two, you need to make sure he's safe.

[ ] Split the Party
Both? Both? Both? Both! Both? Both. Both. Both. Both is good.
-[ ] Send Betty ahead to find Valiant and leave Doof to confront Jessica
-[ ] Send Doof ahead to find Valiant and leave Betty to confront Jessica
 
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[X] Split the Party
-[X] Send Betty ahead to find Valiant and leave Doof to confront Jessica

Doof is shockingly good at talking to women, so I think he'd be able to handle Jessica without tripping over himself, while Betty would be able to discreetly tail Eddie and keep an eye out for Doom. It also means that we potentially will have Jessica and Roger as allies for a confrontation.
 
[X] Split the Party
-[X] Send Betty ahead to find Valiant and leave Doof to confront Jessica

We break the Sacred Rule of DnD, but I'm confident it won't be bad...
 
[X] Split the Party
-[X] Send Betty ahead to find Valiant and leave Doof to confront Jessica
 
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