A Very Special Chrstmas Episode...

[bigdamnhero]

Just curious what kind of Christmas-themed stories you've done in your games?

 

I've only done it once, a few years ago when Christmas in-game happened to coincide with Christmas out-of-game.

 

It seems Foxbat managed to get his hands on a high-tec flying platform made up to look like a sleigh and fitted with a short-range teleportation device, and spent Christmas Eve flying around the country teleporting presents into kid's homes. But of course it's Foxbat, so his idea of appropriate presents included things like nail guns and other power tools, small explosives, and the occasional Hooters gift card. Our heroes lept into action to stop him!

 

Quickly deducing that Foxbat was basing his deliveries off a list Time Magazine had done of "nice" kids who had won awards that year for one thing or another, they're able to anticipate where he's going and head him off. The sleigh turns out to be protected by a strong forcefield, and Foxbat Santa had equipped his minions elves with Ping Pong Ball Guns, so it turned out to be a tougher fight than expected.

 

Things got Even More Complicated when the sleigh's real inventor - calling himself Secret Santa - showed up to reclaim his tech that Foxbat had stolen. A massive 3-way donneybrook ensued, with the PCs trying to defeat both sets of would-be Santas while keeping anyone else from getting hurt in the crossfire. Eventually, both Foxbat and Secret Santa were defeated and taken into custody. One of the PCs used her contacts with various charities to get companies to donate age-appropriate gifts to replace the ones Foxbat delivered. Yay! Christmas is saved!

 

 

What's been under your tree?

[bigdamnhero]

If anyone's curious, here's my write-up for Santa's Sleigh:

 

Secret Santa's Sleigh

VAL    CHA    Cost    Notes
3    Size    15    Length 4m,  Width 2m,  Height 2m,  Volume 16m^3  Mass 800 kg,  OCV +2,  KB -3
50    STR    25    HTH Damage 10d6  END [5]
18    DEX    16    
6    OCV    15
6    DCV    15
5    SPD    30    Phases:  3, 5, 8, 10, 12
10    PD    12    10/25 PD (10/25 rPD)
10    ED    12    10/25 ED (10/25 rED)
13    BODY    0

Movement    Cost    Meters    Notes
RUNNING    -2    10m/20m    END [0]
SWIMMING    0    4m/8m    END [0]
FLIGHT        60m/240m
TELEPORTATION        100m/200m - Only For Presents


Characteristics Total: 136

Cost    Powers    
45    Jet Engines: Flight 40m, x4 Noncombat [Notes: Move-Through damage: 10d6 +v/6 => 17d6.]    0
40    Super-Jet Engines: Flight 20m, MegaScale (1m = 1 km; +1) (40 Active Points); 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Day (-0)    [1 cc]
55    Force Field: Resistant Protection (15 PD/15 ED) (Protect Carried Items)    0
4    Bag Of Presents: Cosmetic Transform 4d6 (Inanimate object into same object with 1/10th size and mass, healed by removing item from bag), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (18 Active Points); OAF (-1), Items cannot be used while in bag (-1), Item must start out small enough to fit through opening (-1/2), Limited Target Inanimate objects only (-1/2), No Range (-1/2)    0
39    Present Delivery System: Teleportation 100m, No Relative Velocity, Usable By Other (+0), Grantor pays the END whenever the power is used, Grantor can only grant the power to others, Grantor controls the power totally, Safe Blind Teleport (+1/4) (137 Active Points); Limited Power Inanimate Objects Only (-1), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Limited Arc Of Fire (60 degrees; Oriented Down; -1/2)    0
13    Radar Array: Radar (Radio Group), Discriminatory, Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Telescopic:  +14 (32 Active Points); OIF Bulky (-1), Affected As Sight Group As Well As Radio Group (-1/2)    0
4    Communications Systems: High Range Radio Perception (Radio Group) (12 Active Points); OAF Bulky (-1 1/2), Affected As Sight And Hearing Group As Well As Radio Group (-1/2)    0
19    Sealed Environment: Life Support  (Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing)    0

Cost    Skills
6    +3 with Flying

Cost    Talents
3    GPS: Bump Of Direction
4    In any weather...: Environmental Movement (no penalties in high winds, winter storms)

Value    Complications
10    Distinctive Features:  (Concealable; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures)
25    Hunted:  Secret Santa Very Frequently (As Pow; Vehicle has a homing beacon; Capture)
10    Vulnerability:  2 x BODY High-frequency lasers (Uncommon)

Total Vehicle Cost: 368

[phydaux]

I seem to recall an old 2nd or 3rd Ed. module with a write up for Anti Claus.  He wore a black & white outfit instead of red & white, and he had powers like "Sees you when you're sleeping" and "Knows when you're awake."

[steriaca]

I seem to recall an old 2nd or 3rd Ed. module with a write up for Anti Claus. He wore a black & white outfit instead of red & white, and he had powers like "Sees you when you're sleeping" and "Knows when you're awake."

Anyone familer with the stories about Krampus, Black Peter, and/or Father Whipper? All three are dark counterparts of Santa Clause. Krampus is a demon enslaved by Saint Nicholas, who sneaks into homes and grabs "bad" children and places them into his sack. Some people believe he eats them, others believe he drags the naughty to hell. Black Peter and Father Whipper, on the other hand, are discipline characters who punish bad children for Saint Nicholas.

 

So, as you can see, one can create an extremely gruesome adventure set at Christmas.

[Scott Baker]

I haven't run any Christmas-themed adventures (that I remember), but I must say that I think all Christmas adventures should feature Foxbat.

[pinecone]

Many moons ago I ran one where a confused alien sociologist wanted to understand earth customs. So he took a "sample" in the form of a small city/large town, just before x-mass. This was noticed, heroes did hero stuff...x-mass returned to normal. The town was stuck in a sort of time loop...think "Groundhog day" crossed with "It's a wonderful life", oh, and bioenginered soldier beasts

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Haven't run any Christmas adventures as my group is usually on hiatus due to my job. We DO have winter/New Year's themed adventures though.

[steriaca]

I would love to see Hero stats of Krampus.

[segerge]

My TASK FORCE series featured a Christmas special which took on a more real-world "friends and family" vibe than some of the ideas covered above.  Without spoiling too much of "O Little Town," it combined a subtle retelling of the Christmas Truce story from WW1 with a Demonhame's summoning gone horribly right on Christmas Eve and some other scenes setting up longer-playing story arcs in later years.

[steriaca]

Demonharm summoning gone right? Someone is trying to summon Krampus. Here is a hint. Just bring a bunch of roudy kids in to a single room, and feed them sweets and soda.

[bubba smith]

x-mass ?

[BoloOfEarth]

I ran a Christmas adventure with Black Harlequin distributing a bunch of explosive dolls around town, blackmailing Foxbat to steal things along the way.  Foxbat left clues, hoping the heroes would figure out he was doing this against his will.  The heroes followed the clues to a warehouse, where they found a TV that played the message from BH:

 

 

 

Merry Christmas, heroes!  I must say, I am disappointed in Foxbat for getting you involved in our little holiday fun.  Still, in the spirit of the season I give you this small present [ceramic angel with a timer ticking down]:  when it reaches zero, a radio signal will be sent to detonate every Cuddly Cailey doll in Chicago.  All *you* have to do is get to Santa’s office in time to stop the signal from being sent.  Have fun, heroes!

 

They then had to get past a series of death traps to find:

 

 

 

Santa’s office, in the center of the workshop, contains a desk, behind which sits a demonic-looking Santa robot going through a computerized list (displays name and address, with two buttons “Naughty” and “Nice”.  Of course, he is pushing “Naughty” for each one while saying, “She’s a ho, ho, ho!” or “You’re getting COAL, pal!” or “You’ll shoot your eye out!” or “Santa doesn’t like whiners!” or “Santa’s lactose-intolerant, you little brat!” or “No cookies, no present!”

 

There are four buttons flashing below the “Naughty / Nice” buttons.  They read:

• “All Naughty”
• “All Nice”
• “Cancel Christmas” and
• “Sleighing Time!”

 

Only one button stops the countdown to blow up all the Cuddly Cailey dolls.  (Cancel Christmas, as stopping the bombs would effectively be cancelling Black Harlequin's Christmas.)  The others immediately trigger the bombs.

 

Yeah, it was kinda simple to solve, but IMO it was fun.

[winterhawk]

I ran two that were pretty cool:

 

On December 13th, Danny Bonaduce is kidnapped and a home improvement store is broken into, the only thing stolen, a pear tree.  On December 14th, a freezer truck is hijacked, the only thing stolen, 2 ice cream bars, Dove bars is the brand, flavor, turtle.  On December 15th, 3 women of a certain age are kidnapped, all of French descent.  On December 16th, the heroes track down Foxbat attempting to steal five antique gold rings from a museum, foiling his 12 days of Christmas crime spree.

 

Chicago experiences extreme weather crisis...artic temperatures on the North Side, desert heat on the South Side...where the two fronts meet in the middle, tornados threaten to tear Downtown apart.  The cause, Heat Miser and Cold Miser from the Rankin Bass 'The Year without a Santa Claus' holiday special apparently come to life.  They are actually robots created by Black Harlequin.

[BoloOfEarth]

Want to make the players paranoid?  Have somebody deliver truckloads of toys to the local Toys for Tots collection location, in the heroes' name.  It could just be some well-meaning millionaire whom the heroes once saved, and he's trying to boost their public image.  But they'll practically tear the toys apart looking for the explosives / poison / retractable blades / whatever other deadly thing they can imagine, as sure as can be that someone is setting them up to take a fall.

 

Oh, I also ran an adventure where Union, the mentalist for the Corporate Raiders, was using a very subtle AoE Cumulative Mind Control to cause shoppers at various malls to riot and trash stores in protest for the "gross overcapitalization of Christmas."  And since the Raiders are hunted by darn near everybody imaginable (VIPER, DEMON, ARGENT, mutant hunters, etc.), there were agents from two other groups on hand to cause a very merry free-for-all when the Raiders came to Boston to pull their shtick. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

In the spirit of the post, a very Christmas Star Wars.

Because I'm giving

 

[Cassandra]

I seem to recall an old 2nd or 3rd Ed. module with a write up for Anti Claus.  He wore a black & white outfit instead of red & white, and he had powers like "Sees you when you're sleeping" and "Knows when you're awake."

 

It was in The Adventures Club.  The Aztec Goddess villainess from the Protectors used her amulet to turn Santa Bad.  He had many powerful weapons but none were deadly.  The heroes had to get the amulet away from Santa to turn him good.