Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Title says it all. My group is meeting the Sunday before Halloween and I'd like to run a themed session for them, but I'm a little short on ideas at the moment. Anyone care to throw their two cents in for what I could do? I run a standard power level Champions game(all the heroes are 400+ pts at this time) and the adventure can either be a one shot or have lasting repercussions....doesn't matter.

 

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[Certified]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

The Red Moon Falls on All Hallows Day. A small cult of mages use this celestial event to open a gate into another realm unleashing energies unknown to the mortal realm for centuries. Throughout the city those tuned to these occulted forces awaken to visions of the nightmare that shall plague the world. IS this warning enough? The dead have been awakened and walk the earth sowing the seeds of the Restless One's rebirth, as the foolish sorcerers become the vassals of the new ruler of the realm of man and his children.

 

Does that help?

We have Astrological and Seasonal Events, Cults, Psychics, Zombies, Dark Gods from another realm. I think this should cover the bases.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

I had made the Harvester up a few years ago ... might be able to help you out a bit Though, keep an eye open ... I have some plans for something soon

[Sketchpad]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Oh .. and for something a bit less superhero-ey, but creepy ... check out Childhood's Monsters

[Flames]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

I'd say go for the classic, the Halloween Party Episode.

 

The PCs attend a costume party in their secret identities, a party being thrown by Brendan Zingapan, a successful corporate CEO one them knows, and wackiness ensues.

 

The setup is that the Zingapan tells his PC friend (in his secret identity) to dress up as him for the party, since that would be a great gag.

 

By a funny coincidence, Zingapan comes dressed as that PC's costumed hero identity.

 

While the PCs are standing around trying to guess whether or not Zingapan knows any of their secret identities, a group of VIPER agents crashes the party hoping to take Zingapan hostage and gain access to a secret military defense system being developed at Zing Labs.

 

The agents are convinced by the PC's "Zingapan" costume, and attempt to herd him into a waiting armored vehicle.

 

Will the PCs ditch their pirate and ninja costumes and fight the agents in the street, or will they let their teammate be taken away to the agents' nest and bring the fight to them there?

[Pariah]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

How about a murder mystery? And here's the twist: the victim (or their ghost/spirit/essence, more properly) appears to one of the heroes on All Hallow's Eve and implores them to find their killer so they can finally rest. Perhaps it was someone who's been dead for years and the crime was never solved, or maybe it's someone young and innocent who only died recently under mysterious circumstances. At any rate, the heroes have to decide A) Do they believe this epiphany, and If so, what do they do about it? How do they find and apprehend the killer?

 

Of course, this scenario will probably involve more role-playing and less combat. It would work just fine with my gaming group, but YMMV.

[Asperion]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Here is a classic scenario that is so cheesy that the PCs might never suspect anything:

 

The PCs secret ID is invited to a costume party. During the party everyone starts acting in their percieved manner of whatever costume that they are wearing. EXample: someone dressed as a wolf would get on all four "legs", start howling to the moon, and act however they believe a wolf would act. Fortunately, (among others) the heros dressed as their heroic selves. As a result, they are free to solve this problem as they truely would.

 

As stated earlier, this scenario is extremely classic and cheesy but I hope that your spin on it makes it enjoyable for everyone.

[Houston GM]

It's a Costume Party

 

Background: Superhero and supervillain costumes are big sellers this year for children and adults. The best selling costumes include one or more of the PCs.

 

The Heist: Several villains (gang members, Viper agents, Grab, or whomever) steal the MacGuffin while dressed as the superheroes and flee the scene.

 

The Heroes Arrive: The police are already at the scene when the players arrive. When the PCs speak with the lead detective, he/she assumes that they're normals in costumes, not the actual heroes. Alternatively, some normals in costumes have already shown up claiming to be the heroes, been given access to the crime scene, and are either taking pictures or stealing evidence to sell on eBay.

 

The Red Herring: As the heroes begin their investigation, they hear a disturbance. Some low-power criminals are committing a crime dressed in hero costumes. These criminals had nothing to do with the original crime; they're just using a similar idea.

 

Confrontating the Enemy: The criminals have taken the MacGuffin to a nearby location where they can examine/activate/etc. it. They anticipated pursuit, so they set up the perfect cover. One of the villains (in his/her secret ID) organized a costume party and invited all of his/her friends and coworkers. The attendees were instructed to dress as their favorite superhero or supervillain. The PCs need to locate the real villains in this crowd. On the other hand, the villains will be operating under a similar handicap.

 

The Complication: Foxbat heard about the party, and decided to show up as his favorite supervillain ... Foxbat! He believes the superheroes have also come to the party, and has been stalking them (even before they actually arrived). He has guessed that they will attend the party as their favorite supervillain ... Foxbat! He has already knocked out two "superheroes" (normals dressed in Foxbat costumes) and has them stashed in a closet. If the superheroes use blatant powers, Foxbat will try to sneak up on them one at a time and attempt to capture them.

 

 

It's up to you to decide what clues will lead the heroes from the scene of the crime to the confrontation.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Lets see - I *LOVE* doing Halloween flavored games.

 

One year (for our Star Wars game), I took the team and let them play the same characters, just turned to the Dark Side. It was fun letting them rampage across the universe, tearing up the game according to their whims. I even started it off great too - I always try and do cinematic intros and stuff, so I let them do a little bit of role playing warm up before the camera pans over to a tall smoking man in a dark suit, just off stage. "Submitted for your approval, four heroes flush from victory over their latest foe, content in the knowledge that seemingly everything is going fine. But in a world of shadow and substance, not everything is as it seems, and that human nature has a darker side than any of them had considered" (paraphrased, mind you, from a 3 year old memory).

 

The next year, I stole and modified the plot to an old West End Games Ghostbuster module called "Pumpkin Patch Panic" with a little bit of the Real Ghostbusters episode "When Halloween Was Forever", and threw Samhain against the Superheros. That one was fun because everyone decided that it was a brilliant idea for Natasha my Tanker (who was tough as hell, but *very* vulnerable to magic) to carry the Lost Ark of the Covenant (long story behind that one) into battle against a magically charged god. Yeah, she wasn't too thrilled about that.

 

Last year, I hit on the idea of a magical spell going horribly wrong on Halloween night, and everyone who was dressed up turned into whatever they were dressed up as. It was fun to take the shy characters and turn them loose as drunken, sword swinging, swashbuckling pirates while trying to control the chaos and stop the demon that was summoned (the costumes into people was a side effect of the summong spell).

 

This year - and I was thinking of starting a thread, but perhaps we can brainstorm here - was to unleash the zombie apocalypse on the world. The problem here, of course is that a zombie apocalypse tends to - you know, include the end of civilization as we know it. I like the idea, but I don't want to turn the game on it's ear for just for the sake of one night. I'm thinking perhaps something like a portal to hell (think Doom) unleashing the zombie hordes, something they have to fight, and the stakes are really high - but ultimately something reversible.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Every year (I was in St. Loius) my GM did a Halloween special. Each year the demon Hellbender would somehow or someway unleash his evil machinations forcing we heroes on a one-way journey to horror.

 

Great fun!!!!

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Hmm... Halloween themed adventure you say?

 

Well, folks have already mentioned several wonderful options (BTW - I believe there was a WWYCD last year about this time that had a plot bunny hanging out in it, something about costumes taking people over... already kinda mentioned here, but again, it has possibilities.)

 

Of course, if you're looking for a slightly less(?) cliched approach, have your resident Mad Scientist install a Voorhees Unreality Engine (VUE for short), into his latest creation, only to have it get loose and menace the city's promiscuous teen population (bonus points for doing this *in* a Teen Champions game!)

[Great Beyond]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

It's probably too short notice to help you out now, but I hit upon an idea driving home yesterday that's a keen game plot.

 

October 30, 1938 - Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the Air broadcast an "alien invasion" that panics large portions of the listening audience. It was, indeed, just the audio equivalent of soaping your windows and stealing your fence gate as Welles said, and the incident fades into memory as a quaint incident, a look how goofy we were back then.

 

Meanwhile some 69 light years away, a race of aliens intercept this transmission (or as much of it as they can, thanks to the garbling, static and interference of outer space) and determine that the Earth is in dire peril and humanity needs their assistance! And so these aliens (who use similar tripod war machine technology - perhaps the leaders believe that a rouge element of the race has acted inappropriately, and a sense of duty drives them to help) gather up the armies and deploy at once for Earth.

 

So just outside the campaign city, the first craft lands - a meteor crashes into a farm's field. The heat is tremendous, the hatch unscrews and the parabolic mirror emerges (a sensor array, but no heat ray). Ascertaining the landing zone is secure, they unpack their tripod war machines and start heading for the closest city, looking for the none-existant occupation force.

 

As these things tend to do, eventually the military is going to start shooting first and asking questions later - and of course the aliens will defend themselves or assume that the invaders are controlling the locals somehow. Suddenly the earth is involved in its first interplanetary war over a misunderstanding.

 

With alien war machines landing all over the planet, the players either get to beat down some aliens, throw down with the military to get them to stop attacking or otherwise get to the bottom of things, find out why the aliens are REALLY here and stop the real war of the worlds.

[map_fl]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Scary adventures….first Shades of Black is definitely creepy. If you have not run it, do so! Another thing to remember almost any adventure can take a creepy vibe…horror is more in the way you present it than the content – to a degree.

 

Here is an adventure off the top of my head. I might run this with my group tomorrow, if I flesh it out more. If you guys have ideas to add to it feed back appreciated.

 

----------

 

Background

 

The Heroes have learned that Talisman is in town and up to no good. She is currently wanted by the police and the police have learned that she is meeting with a DEMON agent to make a trade. Evidently Talisman has an artifact DEMON wants and DEMON is willing to pay handsomely for the item. The local police agent contact for the heroes contacts the team. He asks them to help make an arrest – the arrest of Talisman. Of course this takes place on Halloween night.

 

Scene 1

 

The heroes have surrounded an alley way, where the detective has explained the deal will go down at 7:00 p.m. (just as the Trick-or-Treaters come out). The police are a block away ready to assist the heroes and take the bad guys into custody. This takes place in downtown Millennium City. Talisman and the DEMON agents arrive as scheduled. Unfortunatly for the heroes Talisman has her Visions spell up and detects the police and/or the heroes’ moments before they attack. A fight breaks out. To amp up the scaryness the DEMON agents will black out (using a darkness spell) the entire area, I will also add in some creepy stuff prior to the attack (black cats, freak rain shower) all of this foreboding what is to come. The players will mop up Talismin and the agents in a tough fight. Moments before the fight is about to end, as a last ditch effort to escape Talismin or a DEMON agent casts a quick spell to summon a lesser Demon to distract the heroes. Well things go wrong…

 

Monster is summoned in place of the DEMON. Sacred yet? My players will be. Durign this first encounter I will make monster a bit tougher, with more defense than normal. He will put a hurting on the players and possibly kill the DEMON agents. Sensing more innocent blood to kill he then runs off into the night….

 

Scene 2

 

The players have to clean up the fight area. Investigate and find where MONSTER went. Shortly after Scene 1 another super hero team responds to the report monster is on the rampage. They will get defeated, and severely hurt. This will tell the players they need to go into the fight very prepared.

 

Scene 3

 

The players catch up to Monster and some how defeat him. Perhaps they find something in Scene 2 to help them defeat him.

 

----------------

 

OK guys. Help me finish this Questions and ideas needing to be fleshed out.

 

1. Flesh out Scenes 2 and 3
   
2. Where does Monster go on his rampage?
   
3. How do the players track him down?
   
4. What clue might the characters find along the way to help them defeat Monster?
   
5. Any scary plot hooks that can be added?
   

[quozaxx]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

I specifically remember a Fantasy Hero halloween "episode". My brother was the GM.

 

He turned out the lights and lit the candles.

 

The heroes were helping move some stuff around in an old castle, his NPC had just inherited. It was, of course, a dark and stormy night.

 

The NPC had found some candles in a box.

 

The NPC lit the candle (as did the GM), and had us "cristened" the room with our words as our heroes sat in a circle, and took a turn and held the candle. Of course, we players held a candle, and role-played it.

 

Not long after that is when it got weird. We were slowly picked off one, by one, starting with ALL of the NPC.

 

Not only did we have to try to defeat the strange attacks (one character tried to leave by the front door, and was eaten by a dragon - his Psy dias.). We also, had to face one disad or another.

 

(One of my characters had a code against killing and could shrink stuff, he shrunk a box to move it, and killed the living animals inside - I think they were kittens.)

 

As it progressed, our characters actually died! One by one. And we couldn't escape either.

 

When the last character, was about to die. (by this time my brother was pacing the room behind us, talking quietly.) He reached out quickly and shook us awake. Yes, awake.

 

The candles were nothing but a hallucination infecting candles. (NND not being able to breath.) An NPC who had entered late, had walked in us, while we were still seated around, in a circle, still holding the candle.

 

We had a dazed look on our face, so he woke us up.

 

It may not fit your campaign. but it was THE most memoriable halloween "episode" we had.

 

Quozaxx.

[map_fl]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

quozaxx - cool idea.

[map_fl]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Well I rewrote and tweaked my adventure. Thought I would share for anyone interested. I am running this tonight. Let me know if you are interested in how it goes.

 

 

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

 

Background

 

In her quest for the Karathos Orb, Talisman recently took a trip to Germany. In Germany she went through the remains of a former NAZI party member who recently passed away. In his remains she found an empty scroll case. The case is made of human bone and very ornate and is obviously magical itself. It has a faint green-yellow glow to it and the face of a white ivory skull engraved on it. Around the outside there is a Latin cipher inscribed with gold lettering. She was unable to decipher the text or determine what the scroll case is and turned to a contact in Millennium City names Kesi. What Talisman does not realize is that the case held is a material component for summing the most powerful creature to ever walk the earth – The Monster! The scroll that was inside the case was captured by US forces during World War II. The scroll has since been put into deep storage in the Millennium City PRIMUS facility. The scroll provides information on how to summon and banish The Monster from this realm. The Latin cipher on the scroll case is required in order to decipher the information on the scroll.

 

DEMON has found out abut the secret meeting between Talisman and Kesi. DEMON captured Kesi on her way to the meeting, tied her up and left her on nearby train track to die later tonight. DEMON then sent agents in Kesi’s place. DEMON has set up an ambush in the alleyway outside the bar where the meeting was to take place.

 

A local PRIMUS agent has learned about Talisman’s meeting. The agent contacts the hero team and asked them to assist in the apprehension and arrest of Talisman. Kesi is not wanted but will be detained for questioning. PRIMUS is not aware the DEMON will be staging an ambush of their own at the same time. The meeting is to take place Halloween night, in downtown Millennium City outside a small seedy bar.

 

Scene 1

 

At the start of this scene trick-or-treaters will be out on the streets of downtown Millennium city for the annual city festival. During the festival the roads are blocked off and businesses stay open late and allow trick-or-treaters to walk around. Lots of forbidding happens here. A nice fog patch may roll in, black cats and other creepys are out.

 

The heroes have surrounded an alley way, where the PRIMUS agents have explained the deal will go down at 7:00 p.m. (just as the Trick-or-Treaters come out). Silver Avenger Mayte Sanchez has joined the heroes on this mission. The PRIMUS agents will coordinate with the heroes and wait where the players feel necessary. When the Heroes arrive the DEMON agents are all ready in place. Moments later Talisman arrives. Unfortunately for the heroes Talisman has her Visions spell up and detects the agents and/or the heroes’ moments before they attack. A fight breaks out. The players will mop up Talismin and the DEMON agents. Moments before the fight is about to end, as one of the last spells is thrown, it backfires! The back fire causes a meld between The Monster’s realm and our own allowing him to enter our dimension (scared now?). During this is a brief period of darkness to all senses, The Monster appears. While in darkness those with combat sense will be the only ones to make melee combat happen. All senses and vision sense powers will not work, with the exception of being able to hear the screams of pain from The Monsters victims. When the blackness lifts, after about 6 segments, the players will be face to face with The Monster. He will put a ‘wuppin’ on them and possible kill or severely injure NPCs in the fight. I might have him critically wound Silver Avenger just as the blackness fades. After he proves just ho bad he is to the players he will run off into the night. The players probably wont chase, knowing they probably can’t stop him, an there are innocents dieing at the scene.

Scene 2

 

Monster senses the scroll – located in the PRIMUS base. That is why he left. He is looking to destroy the scroll, to prevent people from using it against him. The players have to clean up the mess form scene 1 and get people to medical attention as necessary. Talasmin will still be alive and not physical damaged by The Monster. I will have her there laughing at the whole mess – just to play with the heroes.

 

At this point the players need to find where The Monster is going, why he is here, and how to stop him. The DEMON agents at the scene do not know specifics of what happened, but can tell the players about Kesi. The heroes may find her and gain some clues. Leading them to Scene 3. by the end of this Scene the players need to know:

 

• The Latin cypher from the scroll

• Access to a Latin dictionary, skill, computer translator, etc

• That The Monster is heading to the Primus facility

• The scroll for the case is in the PRIMUS facility

• The Scroll has the key to banishing The Monster

 

Scene 3

 

On there way to the PRIMUS facility some agents, outside the facility say they have lost communications the base and that the base is on lockdown.

 

Monster has entered the facility and reeked havoc. The facility went on lockdown and a power surge caused all power to the building to be shut off. All blast doors have been shut and now monster is locked inside the building. For story purposes I will say the walls are tough enough to defend against his 5d6 HKA! Therefore he is locked inside and unable to get into the scroll storage room.

 

From here it gets easy. The players will have to get in the facility, help innocent people along the way, head to the storage room, figure out a way to open the doors, fend off The Monster, read the scroll using the cipher they hopefully brought, recite the incantation to banish The Monster.

 

I have not worked out the details of the banishment but it will require doing something during combat with The Monster. Perhaps throwing him into the middle of a symbol the players had to etch on the floor. Oh, ya, that should be easy.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Shamless bump, for the Season is upon us again.

 

No ideas - yet - on what I'll do to my players for my annual halloween game. I'm thinking of perhaps something like "All the Halloween archtypes - vampires, werewolves, ghosts, a Frankenstein and so on - all show up in town and start running amuck. No idea on the why tho - cover for some other crime, perhaps? A harmless halloween party spell gone horribly wrong? Oooh, perhaps Dracula himself has rolled into town and set up shop, and all these other monsters are just side effects.

 

Perhaps I need to go watch Monster Squad again.

 

Anyway - so what are you guys doing this year?

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Perhaps I need to go watch Monster Squad again.

 

My favorite line from that movie: "Wolfman's got nards!"

[Redmenace]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Some party uncovers the ritual the Thule society preformed prior to World War Two, the same one that flooded the Champsverse with super power enabling magic. They aim to recreate the ritual in altered form that will allow them alone to use magic/superpowers.

 

Certain magical parties, light, dark or neutral don't want to upset the arcane status quo and task the heroes in a 11th hour mission to save the world.

 

 

1.) Maybe the RE-Casters have to travel back in time and alter the original spell and the pcs must follow, which could be interesting for Legacy characters.

 

 

2.) Maybe it is a grand occult conspiracy and Demon and many other occult groups are in on it. This probably to big an idea for a one night game though.

 

 

3.) Maybe the heroes wake up to the nightmare scenario after the fact and have to travel back in time to undo it.

[kingk]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

An idea I think would be cool is to have an adventure in the normal horror movie vein, i.e. Serial Killer, Zombies, etc. and have the heroes actually die. Kill them all off, and maybe give the last one a chance to survive, only to be doomed in the end or something, and then end the adventure by telling them they witnessed an alternate dimension/timeline.

[Shaft]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Jail of the Living Dead...

 

The heroes are visiting Stronghold (to interogate a villain perhaps) when one of the prisoners, infected by a zombie mutagen, takes a chunk out of one of the prison guards. Hilarity ensues as the metahuman prisoners start chomping one another and transform into zombies that keep their powers.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

Ok, change of plans. After reading over the thread again, I realized that I never did my War of the Worlds game idea, so I took what little I had and fleshed it out. I post the results of the brainstorming here for you guys to share and enjoy!

 

We open in 1938, the 20th floor of the CBS broadcast studios at 485 Madison Avenue in New York City. A young Orson Wells at the microphone, reads from a script:

 

We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

 

The camera pulls back and up, out from the building and up and up into space.

 

With infinite complacence people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs. Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. In the thirty-ninth year of the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

 

Wipe to, an alien battle fleet, hanging in the darkness of space some 70 light years away from Earth.

 

It was near the end of October. Business was better, the war scare was over, more men were back at work. Sales were picking up. On this particular evening, October 30, the Crosley service estimated that thirty-two million people were listening in on radios. . . .

 

The Grand Admiral, a three eyed multi tentacle thing, receives a report from a sebordinate and quickly becomes agitated. "The invasion! It begins!" he shouts, subtitled, of course. "Subcommander, prepare the fleet! We join in glorious battle TONIGHT!"

 

The fleet begins moving out. Destination: Earth!

 

Wipe to -

 

A lively Halloween party at one of the player's place, in full swing. Trick and Treaters come and go, dressed up as the various local heroes. To mess with their heads, a dead on perfect replica of one of their nemesis shows up. It's not him, but it should make them twitch just a moment.

 

The Mad Scientist of the group gets a ping on his Blackberry, from his Spacegeek.com RSS news feed: "At twenty minutes before seven, central time, Professor Spengler of the Mount Jennings Observatory in Chicago reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. Doctor Carter of NASA confirms Spengler's observation, and describes the phenomenon as (quote) like a jet of blue flame shot from a gun (unquote)."

 

This of course is NOT the aliens taking off from Mars, but them sterilizing several potential launch sites to prevent any further landings by the hostile aliens. With Mars now "Pacified", the aliens launch their landing craft towards Earth.

 

Anyway, back at the party, an hour or so later, there is a tremendous WOOSH and a bright light as the landing craft streaks overhead. The first of the many Martian probes has landed at a farm just outside of town, forming a huge crater with a mighty thump. Time for the host of the party (and several of her guests) to excuse themselves post haste.

 

Arriving at the crash site, The ground is covered with splinters of all the trees the lander struck on its way down. The smooth metal cylinder is about 30 yards in diameter and sticking half out of the ground - and is blinding hot. Police have tried to cordon off the area, but the crowds are plentiful, aid and fire crews are trying to get through, a constant stream of scientists are poring into the area, and the news people have already set up shop. It's a three-ring circus of fun.

 

The group's Mad Scientist will probably be over the moon with excitement. After sufficient time to let them take readings, talk to the local cops, try and restore order or whatever - a low scraping sound, the grinding of metal on metal. A hush falls over the crowd as all eyes fall on the hatch on the top of the ship about to open.

 

One of the occupants of the craft comes out about half way. It's skinny and black-ish, with lots of slobber and drool and long tentacles. It scans the area looking through some kind of sensor thingie. It's a long tense moment that stretches on and on - at last, real life contact with a visitor from beyond the stars. . . .

 

And then some redneck in the crowd panics and blows him away.

 

The hatch snaps shut as the police pig-pile the moron with the gun. Moments later the heat ray pops out and atomizes the bum (and pretty much anyone standing next to him - it's a pretty indiscriminate weapon). The pod unfolds three massive legs and sets off towards town. Note that the Aliens don't attack the humans until they're attacked first - which will be in short order as the military finally gets on the scene.

 

There are three responses here:

 

* Fight!

Probably the most satisfying course of action. The running battle in town will be hot and heavy, and the players have to be careful of the civilians in the way. Actually the side effects are almost as bad as the tripod:

 

- Collapsing buildings, with people hanging off fire escapes

- Fleeing crowds of civilians

- A school bus full of Trick or treaters, overturned and directly in the path of the Tripod

- That fire is getting mighty close to that tanker truck full of Really Explosive Gas

- A brave cop in the way, emptying his gun into it (to no real good effect)

- Buildings on fire

 

Effective ways to fight the tripod:

- Attack Pattern Delta! Lots of cable and entangle the legs should slow it down

- Lure it over a hollowed out area (subway, sewer exchange - somewhere where the ground is thin-ish)

- Throw explosive things at it. That tanker truck of Really Explosive Gas? Perfect!

- Topple something over on it. Big statues, a half constructed building, that sort of thing

- Floodlights to blind it. It won't stop it, but it might slow it down.

 

* Get the military to stop

Yeah, that'll happen.

 

* Talk to the aliens

Tough to do since they don't speak Martian. Also the aliens are caught up in the moment - while they're not invading, they're kind of like Vikings spoiling for a fight. They're eagerly looking for their wayward companions.

 

If things are too easy for them - Alien reinforcements! There was more than one tripod in that cylinder (the Martians do things in three), so his two buddies show up and start the fun all over again.

 

After one of them is pounded on enough and takes enough damage (around 3 or 4 body left), it abruptly stops moving and starts to glow - the aliens inside have activated the self destruct instead of letting the machine fall into "enemy" hands. The glow begins to pulse, slowly at first, but more and more rapidly, with a loud whine coming from inside. This - in short - is going to get real ugly. They either have to finish off the last couple of body, get a super genius to shut it down or somehow move the thing away from downtown.

 

At the last second before explosion, the aliens eject in an escape pod. Weaponless and stuck on an alien world without their death machines, NOW they're willing to try and talk to the natives. Its here that they learn that the aliens intercepted the transmission (or as much of it as they can, thanks to the garbling, static and interference of outer space) and determined that the Earth is in dire peril and humanity needs their assistance! And so these aliens (who use similar tripod war machine technology, and believed that a rouge General has acted inappropriately, and a sense of duty drives them to help) raced to Earth's rescue. It was all a big misunderstanding.

 

But hey - there was plenty of press and headlines for all the heroes. This will make a great comic book!

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Sorry! But I must!

 

...and believed that a rouge General has acted inappropriately' date=' and a sense of duty drives them to help) raced to Earth's rescue. It was all a big misunderstanding.[/quote']

 

[Emphasis added] My only complaint about an otherwise flawless and excellent tale:

 

Rouge is a makeup. A Rogue is an independently-minded individual who rejects the constraints of society to pursue his own interests at whatever cost. ...Unless the Tripodians have a problem with reddish generals, anyway.

[assault]

Re: Sorry! But I must!

 

Unless the Tripodians have a problem with reddish generals' date=' anyway.[/quote']

 

You've heard of Red Martians, surely?

 

Even though Tripodians aren't really Martians, the same logic applies.

 

Clearly the original text was correct.

[bubba smith]

Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas?

 

15 mins. of fame

dramatis personae characters that are normally npcs of heroes

the gang attends a costume party disguised as thier super-hero friends i.d.s and while there the witness another guest being kidnapped is it a play acting gag of the party or something else unable to change to street clothes the characters deal with the matter in costume finding out what its like to be a super-hero