(played this a few weeks ago but there was so much to write about it took me a while to write it all up)

gameplay summary: everyone plays heroes sitting around bragging about their various accomplishments battling monsters, or telling stories of defining events in their lives. Each of the heroes "fights alone" so there is little interaction between them, but much of the defining of the heroes comes from the other players so it still creates a rich, interconnected world.

Setting

Timecops! All-around bad-asses who work to protect society today, tomorrow and yesterday!

Heroes:

He may be blind in one eye from a mission gone wrong, but when evil comes knocking Nicholas "Bullseye" Poole does the talking. Poole is a veteran on the force, well known for ability to read any crook like a book and unphased by pain that would cause others to want to curl up and die! But watch out! A temporal accident has caused him to become a little unhinged... literally. One moment he is drinking his morning coffee and the next he's right in the middle of action! Good thing for him his trusty Velociraptor, Arsenic, is always by his side! For with Arsenic, no challenge is too great for “Bullseye”, because Nicholas Poole fights alone! (played by JC)

The strongest and fairest of the Knights Of The Round Table, Zed was always meant for greater things. Now, armed with all the spoils, including the Holy Grail itself, which Zed has obtained from the quests of yore (you'd be surprised how much easier a time machine makes questing) the battle hardened Zed Dragon works for the Timecops restoring peace both then and now! But Zed's foes are always one step ahead of him for the evil warlock Mordread once cursed him with a curse most fowl: Zed Dragon's thoughts can be read by all! Temporal bandits should take little solace in this fact though, it merely serves to balance the playing field. Armed with only Lancelot's Sword (another thing Zed has merely... borrowed from the past) and other medieval arms, Zed Dragon's skills in combat are unparalleled. Evildoers beware: "The Endless Knight" will eventually fall upon even the most crafty of villains and when it does there will be no escape for Zed Dragon fights alone. (played by Drew)

Far in the distant future, where animals have learnt to converse with humans and integrate into society, there lived a Lion. But this Lion did not live a normal lion's life (even by 450th century standards) for this Lion had the powers of Magic. From his deadly Fireballs to his razor sharp claws, the beast known only as Magician Lion strikes fear into the hearts of evildoers across the timeline. If the fact that he is a Lion who is also a magician isn't enough to spot Magician Lion in a crowd, the cursed Egyptian amulet around his neck is sure to give him away. But trust me, if you have any reason to be on Magician Lion's bad side and you can see him its far to late for you. Limited only by his tendency to go off the rails, "The Mad Conjurer" fears neither Magic (from which he is immune) nor Death nor anything else evil may throw his way as Magician Lion fights alone. (Played by Alex)

Monsters:

The first android ever built, Adam was a little... too well designed. But a few fatal flaws in his programming enabled him to become self aware and well the rest is history (or the future, or right now, cause time is weird). Adam is cold and calculating and is able to process all of time and space, from his robot fortress deep within the molten core of the world. Nothing can hide from Adam for he is the All-Seer.

When she’s not sneaking around the world from Kiev to Carolina, this sticky-fingered filcher is stealing the world’s most priceless artifacts from all of human history! Carmen Sandiego puts the “miss” in “misdemeanor” and the ”bad-ass” in “time traveling super thief”. Her network of contacts span the globe for all of history and her elusive behavior makes it impossible to lay a hand on her. If someone is going to get to Carmen, it’s probably through one of her bumbling henchmen but even then, no one has gotten close to taking down The Lady In Red.

Walt just wanted to bring some joy and happiness to the world. Well, that and brainwash the masses through subliminal messaging transmitted via cartoons of a mouse. Cryogenically frozen until his utopia could finally be obtained, Mr Disney now resides along with his adoring followers in the magical world of Tomorrowland. Equipped with his magical pen that can bring anything to life and his conductor’s baton to coordinate the music, Uncle Walt really is making your dreams come true. (Just try to ignore the fact that he’s kinda a racist dick)

Time changes everything and everyone. It collapses empires, destroys buildings, and turns heroes into distant memories. Some men manage to survive the corruption of time at least for the duration of their mortal life but some lions are not so lucky. Future Magician Lion is a changed beast. Thousands of battles have hardened him. His claws, while still razor sharp, have become infected -- constantly inflicting him with roaring pain that would kill a normal soul. He has fully embraced his Egyptian curse and now uses the Staff of Ra to control the spirit locked within his amulet in an almost symbiotic relationship. Future Magician Lion is Madder and Conjurerer and is probably best avoided.

(I wrote so much meetup is making me use TWO POSTS)

Combats:

Poole vs Adam:
Poole’s tendency to accidentally jump through time while drinking his morning coffee seemed to have gotten the better of him when he found himself at the world’s molten core against a super-powerful all-seeing android. However, all hope was not lost! He managed to exploit Adam’s weakness for the first law of robotics (and also pent up feelings of the memories of the second robot, Eve) to distract Adam just enough to defeat him!
Magician Lion vs Carmen:
This took place on top of the Hindenburg. Airships, steam punk, misplaced fireballs… let’s just say it didn’t really go well for Magician Lion…
Zed Dragon vs Carmen:
Zed had sorta developed a knack for… borrowing… various historical artifacts during his travels but Carmen was often one step ahead of him. So he confronted Carmen on the bridge of the Hindenburg. Things went slightly better than they did for Magician Lion, but ultimately all Zed Dragon succeeded in doing was making a big mess and Carmen still got away.
Magician Lion vs Future Magician Lion:
All of the secrets of how Magician Lion turned into his corrupted self are revealed in a battle fit for Robert Heinlein himself. Future Magician Lion has taken up residence inside some Egyptian Pyramid, and Magician Lion knows he can find him there because he knows how he thinks. The battle is hard fought (Magician Lion fights alone, but Future Magician Lion brought friends), and as is only fitting it ends in a draw – this lets Magician Lion defeats his future but only at the cost of becoming his future self.
Zed Dragon vs Walt Disney
Zed heads to Tomorrowland to find the one thing sure to win Guinevere’s heart -- Cinderella’s Glass Slippers. Unfortunately for him, he accidentally wakes up Uncle Walt in the process. The two of them have it out in front of Walt’s adoring fans. Mr. Disney eventually strikes Zed down, but the loss is only temporary for when the Endless Night falls, Zed Dragon rises again. He strikes down Walt and then proceeds to abandon time travel and live out the rest of his life by Guinevere’s side.

Thoughts

This was an hilariously entertaining game. Mechanics allowed us to essentially have free range of pop culture and history to pull from and yet still tell an interesting story which was a fun change of pace from normally being restricted to one setting (which is still fun in its own right). I think part of why it worked so well is all three of us didn't back down from making big, bold choices which let us all feed off each other with "that is awesome" I imagine it also would work with a more restricted setting but the Timecops setting is so limitless that you might as well do it again.