Direct Hits

Yes folks, I know this one is late. OK, really late. My plans for the close of my September theme had to take a backseat to my Real LifeTM, which just got a lot more interesting. I am soon to be the owner of my own business. Details coming soon.

The next few posts are not all I have to say on the subject of comedic RPGs by a long shot, but they are all you're going to see of the theme month gimmick for September. As we are now into October already, I want to switch to my next theme, Horror, and Fantasy.

Just like September, I am going to play fast, and loose with the overarching motif, so some remaining material from September may yet find its way into the new month of posts.

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My next guests first hit the scene in 1987, where they found a niche with fans looking for a different kind of sound. Not truly indie, they were also not emulating the bands that were topping the pop charts at the time. In many ways, they were very much a part of the new wave movement of the late 80s.

Here promoting their self-titled album, sentients and sophonts across the cosmos, please give it up for our musical guest...

Teenagers From Outer Space!

 

'Ride On Shooting Star'
From the Anime FLCL, or Furi Kuri
By The Pillows

I've said it before and I have no problem repeating it here:

Star Trek is my favorite setting to game in.

Star Wars D6 by West End Games is my favorite system.

Superheroes is probably the genre I've run the most at this point.

 

Teenagers From Outer Space however, that's the game that has my heart; green, eleven-valved, and methane producing as it might be.

Over the last twenty-eight years that the game has been in existence, I have easily run Teenagers From Outer Space, or TFOS, dozens upon dozens of times. Sometimes, I've even used it to run Teenagers From Outer Space!

Yeah, I'll explain...

I've told this story before, but about a day after reading the rules for TFOS, I modified them by changing the D6 standard to a D10 standard.

In addition to giving the game a bit more range, it made the system more compatible with R. Talsorian Games' other 'Interlock System' games, such as Cyberpunk 2013/2020 and Mekton. Other advantages to this alteration included facilitating some additional house rules, and homebrewed sub-systems, as well as making TFOS adaptable to outside systems, most notably Ars Magica (more about that below).

At a Japanese Pop Culture convention in 1995 or 96, I met with the editor of R. Talsorian's V-Max Magazine, a house periodical dedicated to Anime, Manga, and gaming with a lean toward their Anime related titles. I described to him my modified Teenagers From Outer Space game, which I had come to call 'Advanced TFOS'. He loved the idea, and had me work it up as a full article for V-Max. Unfortunately, RTG folded up the magazine before the article could see print.

While I'm not a huge fan of universal systems (believing a game's mechanics should be tailored to the game it's supporting), I do have a scant few games that I believe can be used for a wide variety of genres, subgenres, and settings. My Advanced TFOS, and even standard TFOS, are among the most versatile, and effective in my opinion.

The main reason is their simplicity. TFOS is a Stat + Ability/Skill + Roll system, with very little else going on to get in the way. Perhaps my favorite idea in the game though, is that if you roll too low, you fail, if you roll the difficulty number or higher you succeed, but if you roll too well...it can end up backfiring on you royally. Exceed the required difficulty number by more than double, and things can get out of control. It is recommended that the GM embellish the success to the point of extreme, over-the-top, you'll-wish-you-failed-the-roll, comedic annoyance.

 

As I mentioned, I've used the 'Advanced TFOS' rules to run a plethora of games, including several set in my homebrewed campaign setting of Blast City Blues. The Blast City Blues universe is similar to the default idea for TFOS but my variant allows for more character and story options. Magical Girls in stylized sailor suits, Giant Robot Pilots, adolescent Cyborgs, and Psychic School Kids can all be found somewhere in the milieu of Blast City.

 

However, the default premise of the game isn't what I want to address with this post so much as what else can be done with the system. As the focus of September's entries are comedy games, I would like to tell you all about some other humorous trips I've taken using this very versatile map as a guide.

 

Some of my most successful alternate uses of TFOS include:
  

Galaxy Quest

 

My first Galaxy Quest game, a one shot that turned into a campaign (that became a phenomena! Um...yeah), was originally based on my Advanced TFOS rules. I added the Jobs, and Character Types, and the rest is history. It was a hell of a thing.

Near Miss

A Science Fiction Comedy campaign very much in the vein of Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy meets This Is Spinal Tap.

The PCs were members of a musical group of misfit aliens travelling around the universe getting into one crazy mess after another. The name of the band, Near Miss, was also the name of a garage band I was in with some buddies from high school (who were incidentally the players in the group plus one, or two others).

Neo-Tokyo Crimebuster - Furiransu Keikan

Using a hybrid of the Advanced TFOS rules, and the rules of Mekton II (foolishly trying to make the R. Talsorian 'Interlock' systems actually interlock), Furiransu Keikan (roughly, Freelance Police) was an Action/Comedy set in a cyberpunk future where various corporations police various regions. Citizens are welcome to chose, and pay for whichever 'Law Enforcement Provider' they wish.

The PCs represented a small-ish, independent police precinct trying to make a name for themselves in the crime ridden, high tech city of Neo-Tokyo. Inspirations for the game included (but were not limited to) Dominion Tank Police, Blade Runner, Mobile Police Patlabor, Barney Miller, and Starsky and Hutch.
 

Once Upon The End of Time

A Science Fiction Time Travel/Action-Adventure/Murder Mystery campaign inspired by my friend Avram Grumer in which the entire plot is revealed in reverse order, starting from the end of the story in the first session.

 
Each session afterwards was set a few days to several months before the previous one. The last adventure had the players joining the Time Patrol, and being confronted on their first mission by their older more experienced selves who were out to stop the campaign villain's creation.

Wizard of Oz - End of the Rainbow

 

I ran a campaign set in L. Frank Baum's Oz and its surrounding magical lands using my Advanced TFOS system crossed with (get this) Ars Magica. A significantly simplified Ars Magica to be sure, the combination of the two worked incredibly well. I was very happy with the outcome and would love to try running it again.

 

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I haven't played, or used the game in quite some time, and that is a shame. Not just because I love it so much, but because I feel it's the kind of game my Barking Alien Gaming Group could really get behind. So why haven't I brought it to bear with my regular gang? Well, it goes with something I am hoping to bring up in a future post, but in all honesty, I may just say to hell with it, and do it. We've been experimenting with the occasional one-shot comedy game here, and there recently, so there is no reason we couldn't give it a go.

We're going to pause one last time for a commercial break, but we'll be right back after this...

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Barking Alien

 

Belated Happy Birthdays to Groucho Marx (Oct. 2), Jim Henson, and Steve Whitmire (Both born on September 24th!). 

The RECESS Report - Part I

I'd like to preface this entry by saying it should have been posted much sooner but it's been a doozy of a week lads and lasses.

In additional to seeing my girlfriend Jenn perform last Wednesday, running two games at RECESS and spending additional hours at the Learning Center on Sunday (more about that at a later time), my Mom hooked me up some freelance illustration work. A client of hers needed some drawings to go with a presentation of some kind. While I love being about to get paid to do something I enjoy, it wasn't the easiest job and had a very tight deadline.

So, on maybe seven hours sleep in the last two days, here is my report on the one, the only...RECESS!

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A Day At The Races, A Night At The Muppet Theater

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This RECESS was unique and special to me in many ways. First, and foremost, my girlfriend came to watch me GM. She has sort of seen me in action before but mostly what she's witnessed is the BSing my regular group does before we actually start playing. It was sooo awesome to have her there.

At her gig last week in New York's Greenwich Village, I met one of her friends, a woman named Lisa who, it turns out, has known Jenn since they were little kids. It also turns out that Lisa is a huge Muppets fan. Jenn told her a bit about what I would be doing at RECESS (that is, running a Muppets Role Playing Game) and Lisa wanted in.

I met up with Lisa at the event after I found my table and we waited for Jenn and for the game sign ups to get underway. At about 15 minutes to game time I had only 1 person signed up for the Muppets, not including Lisa who was waiting for the staff to call her number.

I decided to go up front and play barker (as in Barking Alien? Aaahh! See what I did there?) in an attempt to drum up some interest. No sooner had I asked the crowd, "Hey gang, what's up? No love for the Muppets?", than one of the staff members tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Dude, you've got 5 people already".

I did an honest to gosh double take. In the 25 seconds it took me to get up to the front of the room, whirl around, and start my pitch, four more people signed up for the game. Lisa confirmed the time.

I ended up with the following players: An incredibly tall fellow named Matt, his equally towering brother Chris, Matt's wife Lily, Lisa, and Emi, a young lady who's boyfriend would end up playing in my later session of Galaxy Quest.

Neither Lisa nor Lily had every played a role playing game before and I was ecstatic to be the one to usher in their inaugural experience. It's like I've said many time, I don't know why people automatically assume D&D is a good starting point to get non-gamers interested. What's always worked for me is recognizable brands or IPs these people would be familiar with thanks to pop culture so there is little need to explain what the game is about. Have you read a Spider-Man or Captain America comic? You have? Awesome. Marvel Heroic is like that (as an example).

On to the game itself...

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Matt: As Bunsen: "Oh Kermit! I am so glad we found you."

Me: As Kermit: "Not now guys, I'm in a jam. The guest cancelled and the show is about to start."

Bunsen: "Then you're in luck Kermit. Say hello to our latest invention - The Muppet Lads Celebrity Time Displacement Shower."

Emi: As Beaker: "Bee-bee-mee!"

Kermit: "Time Displacement...Shower?"




Bunsen: "Celebrity Time Displacement Shower. It can transport any celebrity in the past from their shower to this one. All we have to do is match the water temperature, adjust the suds, close the curtain, and power it up."

Kermit: "...Will it work?"

Bunsen: "Well, it has yet to have a full fledged test run but in theory it should work perfectly."

Kermit: "You know what guys...go for it. I believe in you. That's what the Muppets are all about isn't it? Get this thing up to the guest's dressing room and bring us a star."

Bunsen and Beaker head upstairs, set up the machine and within a minute or two the device is whirring and banging, steam and flashes of light are all around it. After a loud pop and a bright, white flash, the two Muppet Labs scientists can hear singing in the shower. Then another voice. Then a honking horn. Startled, they pull back the shower curtain to reveal...

Just then, Scooter enters...

Lisa: As Scooter: "Bernie Brillstein...Fif...WHA?! THE MARX BROTHERS?? Um...OK...Fifteen seconds to curtain Marx Brothers!"

The basic plot of the episode was that the Marx Brothers were sent through time to be on the show but would have to return so as not to damage the time stream.

At the same time, the machine that brought them here, a steampunk contraption of Muppet Labs origins, had both a leak and a clog in its pipes creating numerous time paradoxes and time travel hazards.

For a subplot of sorts, entertainment critic P. Hamilton Monstros (of the South Hampton Monstroses of course, as he never tired of reminding everyone) has come to the Muppet Theater to do research for an article series he is writing. Kermit is initially excited until Mr. Monstros reveals the series is entitled, "Modern Vaudeville: A Really Bad Idea". Kermit vows to show him he's wrong, if only the guests, the Muppets, and time itself will oblige him.

Highlights!

Matt's Bunsen and his technobabble theories of how the Time Machine Shower worked.

Matt as Bunsen and Emi as Beaker had great timing and worked well together.

Chris as Gonzo The Great, gets inside a cannon that is then placed inside another, larger cannon. So one cannon fires out another cannon which fires out Gonzo. It would've proved a fantastic stunt if it had worked. No chickens were harmed in the making of this scene.

Lily did a very cool and active Miss Piggy. Great routine between Piggy and Groucho. She also did a pretty good Sam the Eagle and we did Sam with Chico and Harpo in a routine that mixed parts of 'A Night At The Opera' and 'Horse Feathers'.

Lisa must be applauded for her Pepe, the King Prawn, Hokay? Very good and very heroic portrayal. Pepe, being a Prawn, offered to swim down the drain, through 'de time stream, hokay? and find out what was clogging the drain. He did so and it turned out to be the fur of Bobo the Bear. Bobo, still attached to said fur, was trying hard not to drown or be swept back in time. Needless to say, he had his hands (paws?) full.

One of the better Veterinarians Hospital sketches. I helped as Rowlf who no one chose to play initially.

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Behind The Scenes Notes

The guest who had to cancel was Bernie Brillstein and his Beatnik, Barber Shop Quartet.

The magazine P. Hamilton writes for is called We Know Entertainment! And You Don't.

The 'P' is his name stands for Pretentious. Character name is a joint effort by my girlfriend and myself.

I actually found Hamilton in the garbage about three weeks before the game day. He is one of the F.A.O. Schwartz Toy Store 'Build Your Own Muppets' and someone just threw him away. I picked him up and checked the puppet for stains and damage. None. He was on top of (not inside) a thick shopping bag and must have been disgarded very recently when I saw him.

One player told me I did an excellent Harpo Marx impression. I reminded her that Harpo is the one who doesn't talk. She said, "And still...I know it's him every time."

During a minor lull used to take bathroom and food runs, one or two players suggested doing the sketch where Kermit interviews the guess star. I said sure, we could do that, but right now I am playing all the parts myself. I was Kermit, Groucho, Chico and Harpo. The players said that was no problem. One said, "I am fine with listening to you just riff off yourself for the next twenty minutes. You're hilarious."

In addition to the Marx Brothers, the leak in time brings forth Vikings, Cowboys, and Roman Legionnaires from the past.

I am a huge Marx Brothers fan, as was my Grandfather. Thanks in large part to him I have seen virtually every Marx Brothers movie a dozen times, as well as Groucho's days as the host for the game show 'You Bet Your Life'.

This Muppet Show session of the Muppets RPG was dedicated to my girlfriend Jenn for all the inspiration and support she gives me and the late Jerry Nelson, who recently passed.

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Next up...Session 2...GALAXY QUEST

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Barking Alien