ANIMATED FANTASIES FROM YESTERDAY AND TODAY, a.k.a. WONDERWORLD
A Virtual Mekton arena

This one looks like a 20x20 km2 huge tematic park "a la Disneyland". Originally it was meant as an arena for smaller kids to play in, buuuuut.. we all know how this things wind up. Today most parents won't allow his kids to play on this one.

The limits of the arena are marked by largue walls of bricks of several shades of red, from orange to brown. These walls are 10m high. The rolling hills you can see behind them are only the rendered wallpaper of the arena's boundary; anyone slapping against it is gonna have to re- read the collision rules.

The space inside is ocupied by many, many stalls, sideshows, and all things you may expect to find in such a place, but with the time almost all of them were taking a twisted touch.

To begin with, all the park is full of SD Roadstriker-sized (for the stats, all are all-around MW servos and armor, with IA level 5) popular characters of many cartoon companys, and they are figthing each-other, between rival company's characters (and even betwen that of the same) with all sorts of WA -3 Corvette-sized SD weaponry. If you get shot/ sledgehammered/ wathever by one of these weapons, you'll get Bonked for sure. Choose a side or choose a target.

Someone with a weird sense of humor coded for the floor to be full of small, 1/100 Scale, white-dressed, blue pesties which sing with high- pitched voices and scurry about betwen (hopefully not below, wath kind of psychosmurf you are!) the VM's footplates. Also, the same one coded for an almost-constant rain of 1/10-sized SD characters dressed as a Victorian-England young nanny with umbrellas, which gentle float towards the ground, singing something about sugar and salt, until they crash loudly. If a directional mike is aimed towards them, you can hear them saying "But on the movie this workeeed!" as they splater on the ground. They dissapear afterwards (Lemmings-style). More on these later.

The arena has some places of interest which are mecha sized (they all have 50 Kills):

- The Dancing Hall(s): This ones are mecha-sized grand ball halls of great luxury and ostentation and mirror-like floors. It would be a pitty to start firing into one, rigth? Not to speak that the floors are very slippery (-5 to all Piloting rolls). On the tables are dishes of food and drink, and there are penguin-dressed (literally), plate-carrying waiters meandering about. Any VM eating or drinking (don't ask, this is virtual) is exposed randomly to the efects of one of the "eat me" and "drink me" power-ups; it either gets scaled to 1/10 (SD) or 10/1. Of course, the exact effect of the food and the drink tends to be a bit random betwen games.. Alternately (50% chance), he could get transported to ANOTHER grand ball hall which is itself upscaled or downscaled! There are at least two halls of each size.

- The Switchback: Pertty standard, but for the big Kaiju monster (Beastform, MgH servos, no armor, all servo Spcs traded for Kills, SH Hydraulics, TL 10 regenerating techno-organic, IA level 7, claws, bite and entangling Tail) permanently breaking them and the hordes of small (1/100), helmet-clad, orange lint covered, SD workers incesantly repairing them. Choose whom to help. Both choices are fun. Don't forget the weapon that can be found in this area: Orange and blocky on one end, avocado green and round on the other, connected by three bright chrome shafts, WA +1 6K melee weapon, scales itself to fit the user, AKA "the Doozerdonker"

- The Sleeping Beauty's Forest: Normal limited-LOS and rough terrain do apply there. Pretty standard. But for the Sleeping Beauty being Garfield (see below).

- Snowwhite's House: But for Snowwhite being a clone of Aretha Franklin, nothing of interest. There you can find the 7 Dwarves (see belov)

- The Big Mushrooms: 30m wide, 20 high ones. About two scores of them. Sitting above one of them is The Apperion (see below). You can bet what may happen if you eat from the left or right half of any mushroom. Also you can bet for the growing half and the shrinking half to be randomly choosen each time the arena is started.

- The House Cards: Lotsa them. They have 50 Kills per card, lots of cards per house, and they have a nasty tendence to fall if messed with. Ramming damage rules do apply for the falling cards. For EACH card.

- The Flowers: On all flower beds there are big, red letter, signs forbiding to step on the flowers. Anyone choosing to disregard them (or being forced to -polite for "thrown head-on by anyone else") will find all the flowers to be a coctail of 5 to 10K mines, 2 to 7K automated EMWs, or/AND 5 to 10K Shock-only weapons. The sign then switchs to "You Were Warned, Right? :-D" (yes, including the "laugh AT you" smily)

- The Well: a deep well. So deep that it has wraparound to the arena's low orbit. Ouch. The location of this thing seems to be a bit unstable..

Also, this arena has some denizens which actually interact with the players (other than returning fire):

- The Apperion: Sitting on his mushroom, smoking his pipe, and NOT liking to be disturbed; his pipe is a 5K flamethrower (an "Hydro" gun with about 1000 shots and with the Incendiary and Scattershot modifiers). If aproached politely, he can tell you which side of the mushrooms makes you grow and which one doesn't quite.

- Duffy The Duck: A black crazy duck jumping around, banging his head with a 20K sledgehammer while shouting "I get good tone! I get good tone!" and trying to "talk" you into getting good tone, too.

- Tweety: If you happen to target him, he will shout "I think I just saw a cute VM.. Yes, I saw a cute VM! Heeelp, Mom, Heeelp!" and will instantly appear Mama Mer-Mek from the Flooded City arena, wearing a white wig and looking for trouble. She (MMM) has an Awareness roll of 16+1d10.

- Garfield: He's placidly sleeping wrapped on a blanket. If someone DARES to awaken him (no, you don't need to kiss him) he will look VERY upset and attack the first person he sees with his Remote TV Control. Level 10 Piracy system to turn all your systems off!
If anyone has a beast form mecha that looks like a dog, he'll *PUNT* them into orbit, too.
- The 7 Dwarves: Yes, they are 7 and all sing along "Aibooo, aiboo". But if anyone atacks them, they'll stop shouting "Aibo" and switch to "Baruk Khâzad! Khâzad ai-menu!" (*), chopping and bashing around with 7K, WA +3, Quick, AP, SFX: Kinetic, two-handed axes, pickaxes and war/sledgehammers.

- The Coyote: This one is very friendly and tries to help a player at random with all kind of gadchets and inventions (exact effect at GM's whim). Not to need saying, this is the MOST dangerous character of the entire Arena..

- (Sorry, I dunno what are the names of these characters and series on English: on Spanish they are Oliver and Benji, from Campeones -that series of football (soccer for you USA) players)- and Kappei Sakamoto from "Dash Kappei": They have the nasty habit of kicking - bounce you to the Arena's low orbit (Melee atack, SFX: Escape Velocity Knockback). Ouch again.

- The Rabits: There are several rabbits on this arena, they are like:
- Killer Rabbit. A Kawaii +5 1/100 cute white rabbit which suddendly turns into a -5 Kowai killer machine whith out-of-Scale Corvette-sized jaws (40K AP damage). IA level 10. It has little Kills to speak of, but it also has a 50K Reset 0 shield..
- Alice's Rabbit. Running and running and running and watching his clock, which happens to be a Fused 12K clock bomb that he throws at anyone firing at him. He has the nasty custom of jumping into The Well, which casually happens to be just before your VM's feet..
- Roger Rabbit. People near this guy tends to be shoot (5K AP, Disruptor, Kinetic, roll 13+1d10)
- Buggs Bunny. He's called "The Luck's Rabbit" sometimes, so if a player MANAGES to catch him, he'll be at +2 to all rolls for as long as he's strapped to your torso servo.. GM's whim of exactly how he can be captured/avoid that.
- Battery Rabbit. It keeps and keeps and keeps banging his drum until someone gets tired of the GM saking "keeps" and blast him into a ball of plasma-scorched pink flint.

- The Lion King: he has tiger stripes. Cool roll at dif. 20 to avoid start laughing. A laughing player is at -2 to all rolls.

Power-Ups:

- Umbrellchute: If someone manages to get one of the raining nannys' umbrellas (Dif 15 Skill Roll, takes an Action to catch one of them before they hit the ground and dissapear), it can work like a re-entry Ballute + mecha 'chute. Apt for only one use. Dif 30 Cool roll to avoid start singing along while falling holding an umbrella.
- The Holy Hand Grenade: Needed for the Killer Rabbit, of course.
- "Eat me/Drink me": As in Alice on Wonderland, anyone using these P-Ups (which DO need a Head servo to be used) will either grow one Scale or become a SD 1/10 character.. both permanently (or until reverted by the inverse P-Up). Of course, they are NOT like on the book; the exact effect of each one are changed randomly each game.
- Rabbit costume: after putting this mecha-sized costume, your mecha will gain Ninja Leaping of 4 (with the Conditional Movement of only being able of jumping straight forward!), Mega Heavy sensors w/ Radar (that HUGE ears), and a -3 Cool modifier for obvious reasons.
- Skunk Costume: NO ONE can enter a 5-hex radius centered on the mecha wearing this -3 Cool modifier powerup
- Spaghetti Dish: if Thrown, this works as an Tangler attack of 5K
- Cream Pie: if Thrown, this powerup will have two effects: the hit VM will lose a level of Sensors (as if jammed by EW), AND every SD character present on the arena will produce a few of them out of Piespace (Tm) (while a few icecream trucks full of pies, driven by Woodpeckers, will appear for the players to use), shout a war cry and start throwing them indiscriminately. I wouldn't be on the shoes of the one hit by the Kaiju's or Mama Mer-Mek's.
If a VM's Sensor Rating drops below SL, a SD character looking like Mr. MagOO will give him a blindman's cane, to wit, the model Madrid 2 (the same one the author of this arena and powerup uses, so stop talking about "polite correctness"), which is plegable on five parts, has a black foam straigth grip, reflectating stripe, rotating tip, etc.., and which allows the wearer to move around with the usual -4 penalty and also to make 5K attacks, restricted to the ankles, but whith the Tangler modifier added.

Games played: Well, originally there was the intent of playing team battles etc on this one, but since almost inevitably all games degenerated on a "free-for-all", rampage game, right now they only let the gamers loose and watch the show.

Arena crated by Isabel Gutierrez

(*) "Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!" War cry of the dwarves of J.R.R. Tolkien's world