The Smurfs and The Happy Halloween Hazard

Hello my little Smurfs! A spooky and smurfy Halloween season to you all! 

I've been preparing to run a Halloween-themed Smurfs RPG One-shot for months now and I finally got the chance. I was so smurfing excited to play this scenario and hoped to share all the creepy and kooky Halloween fun with all of you.

It went over well enough with the players but I wasn't all that pleased with how it turned out. My pacing was off, the Players/PCs took a while to interact with each other and with the story, and things just didn't feel smurfy until the very end. The whole thing was just not as good as I'd hoped for given how much thought, energy, and time I put into creating the adventure.

Group #1: Sir Smurfsalot (Questing Smurf), Smurfanise, Smurfevergreen,

Smurfnightshade (who ended up not joining us sadly), and Spelly Smurf.

Luckily, I got to run the adventure a second time with a different group and it worked a lot better, at least for me. The Players/PCs in this second attempt got what I was going for early on and that helped a lot towards making the execution of my intended ideas easier to pull off. 

Group #1 consisted of four of the five players in that usually make up our mid-week gathering.

Group #2 had six players - 6! - which proved tricky towards the end of their session. At the same time, I am traditionally better with more players [up to a point], which might be another factor that enabled me to run the second team's game somewhat more smoothly than the first. 

Group #2: Brash Smurf, Smurfhoneysuckle, Apathy Smurf, Smurfhawthorn, Smurfgrevillea, Conscientious Smurf.

I'll focus my discussion on the scenario itself and refer to the play throughs only to point out what worked, what didn't, and maybe how it could be improved. 

The Smurfs and The Happy Halloween Hazard!

(Alternatively 'The Smurfs and The Hazardous Happy Halloween)

Premise: The Smurfs of Smurf Village and Smurfy Grove are joining together for their annual Halloween Celebration! 

In addition to a smurfy party thrown in both locations featuring costumes, treats, dancing, and decorations, each group of Smurfs have their own unique Halloween tradition. 

The Smurfs of Smurf Village have Spooky Smurf; each year a random Smurf is chosen to be Spooky Smurf, the Spirit of Smurfy Hallow's Eve and serves as the Master of Ceremonies for the holiday festivities. Since they wear the Spooky Smurf mask and costume, no one knows who they are until the end of the night. Remember, everyone else is in disguise as well!

The Smurf Girls of Smurfy Grove have the All Hallow's Tree; an old, naturally hollowed out tree is decorated with cobwebs, jack o' lanterns, candles, and other holiday appropriate faire. The tree's hollow spaces are filled with little gifts, treats, and even some tricks. Everysmurf is welcome to reach in and see what they get.

While the Smurfs are all enjoying the party, strange occurances start happening that threaten to ruin the fun. The weirdness escalates until Spooky Smurf summons five ghosts to spread fear throughout the smurflands!

Who is under the Spooky Smurf mask and why are they doing this? How can they be stopped? Can this horrendous holiday hassle be transformed back into a Happy Halloween? 

Overview: For the most part, I had this idea for a Spooky Season Smurf adventure that might have had too much going on or there were too many expectations on my part. 

I started by introducing each Smurf PC and their costume. I intended to give each Smurf a +1 Stat bonus related to their outfit, treating their disguises as Special Items. Unfortunately, an early action by one of the Players/PCs in Group #1, a humorous bit they wanted to have with...themselves, would've been smurfed by having such a bonus, so I never included the idea in that group's outing. 

Hoping to prevent a similar situation, I let Group #2 know about the +1 Costume bonus from the onset. This made them lean into the gimmick a lot more. 

Their costumes were:

Group #1: Sir Smurfsalot came as a Dragon (one hunting for Sir Smurfsalot - very cute), Smurfanise came as Azrael the Cat (voted 'most frightening' costume), Smurfevergreen came as a Mouse/Rat (a cheaply made, poorly assembled costume she made herself), and Spelly Smurf came as Smurfalf (basically a parody of Gandalf the Gray).

Group #2: Apathy Smurf came as a Ghost (just a burlap sack with two holes for eyes - whatever. Who cares?), Brash Smurf came as a Superhero, Conscientious Smurf as a Clown, Smurfgrevillea as a Witch, Smurfhawthorn as a Fairy Princess, and Smurfhoneysuckle as a Scarecrow.

Hawthorn didn't like her costume, which was made by Grevillea. It was too frilly, too colorful, and she felt silly. Meanwhile, Grevillea was dressed as a Witch because she borrowed Hawthorn's regular clothes...without telling her. This made me laugh and started us off on a great note given these were both brand new characters. 

When I introduced the party itself in the very beginning of the session; bobbing for 'Appleberries', telling scary stories, dancing, and eating lots of sweets, I got very little energy back from Group #1. One fellow got into it but not many of the others did and none with as much investment as that first fellow. This meant very little talking with the other PCs, any NPCs, etc. Definitely some but the mood just wasn't very festive or smurfy and it kind of through off my momentum.

My buddy Nick - who plays Sir Smurfsalot - came up with the idea of Appleberries, basically Smurf scale apples. That's what the Smurfs use to make Candied and Caramel Apples and for the purposes of bobbing. I thought that was pretty clever. 

Group #2 on the other hand acted like the party WAS the adventure! They were having so much fun competing with each other, making up drinks and foods, and drawing items from the All Hallow's Tree, that they were genuinely surprised when the ghosts showed up and Spooky Smurf went all supervillain on them. 

There were hints as to who was dressed up as what so the PCs could figure out which Smurf was in the Spooky Smurf outfit. Booth groups did a pretty good job determining who was who and Spooky Smurf's true identity.

Baker Smurf - A Cupcake

Brainy Smurf - A Ghost

Grouchy Smurf - A Mummy

Handy Smurf - A Werewolf

Hefty Smurf - Frankenstein's Monster

Papa Smurf - Santa Claus

Smurfbegonia - A Clown

Smurfette - A Witch

Smurfstorm - Robin Hood

Smurfwillow - Mother Nature

Vanity Smurf - A Vampire

And this year's Spooky Smurf?

Jokey Smurf!

While both also used that knowledge to counter the effects of the mask that was possessing the wearer, Spelly Smurf from Group #1 came up with a really creative way of using magic to trap the evil spirit and the other ghosts [turning jack o' lanterns into Spirit Jars]. In addition, Sir Smurfsalot delivered the final blow by starting to sing the Smurfs' theme, 'La La-la la-La La', and getting everyone to participate. No evil can survive that song . Singing a happy song was the perfect defense against a fear based entity.

Group #2 initially thought it was a prank, a Halloween 'trick', and not a true spirit possession. Eventually they got what was happening and, when they figured out it was Jokey under the mask, used laughter to fight the fear generated by the sinister spook. As it turned out, Gargamel had summoned the frightful fiend in hopes that it would drive the Smurfs out of their homes and into the surrounding woodlands. 

As for the ghosts that were summoned, there was a Fiery Fiend, a Lantern Phantom, a Screaming Spectre, a Slimey Spook, and a Stinky Spirit. All had an Effort Max of 5 and were Difficulty Level 5D6. 

Each had a weakness of sorts that would reduce their DL. Water for the Fiery Fiend or blowing out the candle in the Lantern Phantom's lantern for example. 

In the end, as already noted, both groups had a lot of fun and so did I. I just felt, deep down, that I didn't execute the adventure as well as I could have with Group #1. A PC action early on through me off my smurf, I just couldn't get my smurf back the way it needed to be. 

With that, a Very Happy Halloween to all my readers!

AD

Barking Alien