Here's a recap of the latest session of my Sentinels RPG campaign "The Alternates"! As per usual, there's a narrative recap (written as if it was in-metaverse) and then I go over the actual running of the game, and any lessons I learned as the GM.
If you're lost, you can catch up with the previous Game Recaps! There's a lot of them, but they're all in this forum!
The Premise of Our Game: In the meta-verse (where Sentinel comics is a published comic book multimedia empire), there is a premium cable animated television series (in a style similar to “Into the Spider-Verse”), which itself is based on a comic series called "The Alternates." This RPG campaign represents that show, with each game session (ideally) representing one hour-long Episode of the show. The recap below is written in-metaverse as if it was an article on a popular website that posts recaps of episodes.
Player Characters/Protagonists:
- Cytoblast: Dr. Douglas Hemlocke can control plants, including transforming himself into a plant form, all thanks to his mystical knowledge and his ancient magical staff.
- Dr. Comet: Possessed by a demon that travelled to earth inside a comet, Dr. Diana Aster can magically control fire and ice, though her powers often go often out of control when her emotions flare up.
- Jersey Devil: A barely human cryptid of mysterious origins, "Mr. Leeds" is both man and monster, able to teleport by way of a parallel dimension.
- Kid Radical: A highly skilled autodidact with a strict code of behavior, Kid Radical has a superhuman ability for following trends and learning new skills, although it often seems like he can't quite connect with modern society.
- Quasar Kid: A superhero teen from the far future, Quasar Kid has a cosmic metabolism, super strength, and the power of flight, but he hasn't yet adjusted to being in "the past."
Recurring allied NPCs/Supporting characters:
- Starshadow: A retired intergalactic adventurer, Starshadow possesses mighty cosmic powers that he is reluctant to wield.
- Bouncer: An invulnerable action movie star, Bouncer is also super-strong and capable of mighty leaps (hence the name "Bouncer"). Affected by traumatic stress during the Oblivaeon Crisis, Bouncer spends less time "in the field" but remains an auxilliary member of the team.
A Very Quick Story Synopsis: In an alternate timeline where Baron Blade was killed decades earlier (causing countless changes to the world of Sentinel Comics), the heroes of the Multiverse are almost all killed in the "Oblivaeon Crisis." The few remaining heroes, especially the Alternates, are left to deal with the villains and interstellar threats that still endanger the Earth!
I've also done some very amateur sketches for the game! You can see them in this Google Photos album.
And now, an imaginary recap of an imaginary episode of an imaginary television show about an imaginary superhero team!
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The Alternates Episode #35 - “Ghosts of Future’s Past”
Season 3 continues to be a fun ride, and this episode builds out the world a bit while creating great interactions between the Alternates and two of Sentinel Comics’ most popular characters. Let’s dive right into the Recap!
Episode Recap
The cold open for this episode features the “mysterious stranger in black” who we’ve seen in previous episodes this season - this time, he’s in France in 1815.
Napoleon is about to enter the Battle of Waterloo as his forces chase when the mysterious man in black enters his command tent. He’s wearing a military outfit appropriate to the 19th century, but as usual, it is entirely black. Napoleon reviews his plans of attack for the next day, and the man in black nods his approval.
“Very good, Your Imperial Majesty,” the man says. “I will ride back to Paris tonight.” We do not see the man’s face, but there is a hint in his voice that he knows Napoleon’s unfortunate fate.
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The episode begins about where it left off - Guise and the Scholar are manifested as energy versions of themselves. Guise is very excited, and immediately starts wisecracking with Quasar Kid, who seems extremely irritated with the shapeshifter already.
The Scholar tells the Alternates about their own backstory - he and Guise were on Dok’thorath when they encountered Oblivaeon, who attempted to crush Guise into nothingness. To save them, the Scholar channeled all of his power in an attempt to turn Guise into an energy form. He expected the effort would be his end, since his powers were out of control in the first place, but instead, it turned both of them into immaterial energy forms.
From there, the duo found their way back to earth, flying through space in their energy forms until they finally made it home.
The Scholar asks the Alternates for their help returning them back to flesh - he has a plan to get them back to their mortal form, but he needs the help of the Alternates, especially the magical knowledge of Cytoblast! The Alternates agree, and the Scholar clues them into his plan.
Outside of Rook City, there’s an old place called the Commodore Hotel, located where two ley lines converge. The Scholar explains that there was a horrible fire in the hotel in the 1920s. After it was rebuilt, the hotel had a reputation for being haunted, and eventually it shut down completely a few decades ago. Thanks to all the spiritual energy of the place, it should be the perfect place to perform a magical ritual to reverse their permanent alchemical transmutation.
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Meanwhile, at a country church in France, Bouncer is fighting members of the Cult of Gloom. It seems like he has the upper hand, but suddenly one of the cultists casts a spell which suspends Bouncer in the air. With no surface to “bounce” off of, Bouncer is caught hovering and spinning in place.
“Excellent!” says the lead cultist. “We have captured a member of the Alternates! Begin the ritual!”
The cultists start chanting. “Uh oh,” says Bouncer.
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The Alternates, meanwhile, have reached the Commodore Hotel.
“This place is very dangerous,” the Scholar tells them. “The spirits within are not hostile, per se. They aren’t going to attack us or try to hurt us. But the magical energy coursing through here can have any number of effects on us, and the ghosts certainly don’t help.”
The Alternates enter and find themselves in the midst of a full 1920s swinging ghost party. The room looks like it’s straight out of The Great Gatsby, with drunken revellers dancing and carousing all over the room.
With the prompting of the Scholar and Cytoblast, the Alternates all take their places to begin the ritual. But in a hilarious action scene, the ghosts keep getting in the way. Whether it’s a drunken ghost asking Quasar Kid to dance, or flappers doing the Charleston and running into Dr. Comet, it’s a pretty funny scene.
The Alternates figure out a way to work around it, though. Cytoblast, at one point, sits down next to a ghost to play a duet on the piano. Jersey Devil poofs around, at times fighting the ghosts, and at other times draining their spiritual energy with his infernal powers. Kid Radical uses his knowledge of slang and trends of the 1920s to convince the partygoers to get out of the way by getting them into a line to sign up for a dance marathon. “23 skidoo!” he tells them.
Meanwhile, Dr. Comet combines her scientific knowledge with her instinct for magical (and her considerable magical power) to help the Scholar and Cytoblast complete the ritual.
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Back at the church, the Gloom Cultists continue their ritual. Finally, it reaches its crescendo, and the cultists speak the final word… and nothing happens.
“It didn’t work,” says one of the cultists.
“How could it have failed? It was extremely well-researched. This is the precise and careful ritual I’ve ever performed!” says the lead cultist.
“Maybe you read it wrong?” suggests another cultist.
“Of course I didn’t read it wrong!” shouts the leader. “Every word is precise. Every syllable is guided toward snaring the dark energies from the death rattle of Asteraxxal.”
“Asteraxxal?” Bouncer asks. “Oh, I wasn’t there for that fight.”
“What?!” explains the leader. He turns to another cultist and shouts, “He wasn’t there!”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that? We were told, ‘The Alternates killed Asteraxxal.’ He’s one of the Alternates! He should have been there!”
“Clearly, he wasn’t!” shouts the leader. “Mother-” he begins, but he is interrupted by a savage punch from the now-freed Bouncer. In rapid succession, Bouncer knocks out the Gloom Cultists until they are strewn about the floor of the church, groaning.
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The ritual in the Commodore Hotel finishes, and Guise and Scholar are transmuted from energy back to their mortal forms! The Scholar thanks the Alternates, and Guise changes shape about a dozen times in the span of a few seconds, making a dumb joke with each new shape.
The Scholar and the Alternates hurry out of the hotel. Guise is still busy cracking jokes when the Scholar shouts, “Guise! Get the heck outta there!” Finally, the jokester joins them outside.
The sun rises over the outskirts of Rook City, and “Mess Around” by Ray Charles plays over the credits.
Final Thoughts
This was a fun episode with some of my favorites - the Scholar and Guise! Also, the Alternates encounter yet another magical problem, furthering the “magic” theme of Season 3.
I absolutely love the Cult of Gloom making a basic logistical error in their kidnapping of Bouncer, resulting in a fun scene of Bouncer laying out cultists left and right.
However, the last few episodes don’t really feel like they’re strong supports for a plot arc for this season. Obviously, there are some hints in the cold opens about what might lie ahead for the Alternates - a time traveller, perhaps? There are also hints of a “time lost” message intended for them. But these few episodes don’t seem to really contribute to that. So where does all this go?
That’s all for this week’s Recap! Join us next week for a Recap of Episode #35, titled “Under the Guise of Friendship.” I wonder which newly-returned character might feature heavily in that episode?
Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.
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Running the Game
The scene in the old speakeasy was a fun example of how flexible the system can be - I ran it precisely like a combat, but the actions of the ghosts were not "attacks" in the standard sense, but rather each Attack roll represented the ghosts attempting to pull the Alternates into their party (which subsequently drained life from their mortal bodies). Sure, Jersey Devil did end up fighting some of the ghosts in the way one might expect, but generally, the PCs "Attacks" represented them taking other actions to either further the ritual or to keep the ghosts busy.
Meanwhile, there was a Challenge in the room that was not marked by boxes in the standard way. Instead, the puzzle was a sort of "Hangman Jumble". When a PC did an Overcome, they could guess a letter (or two, depending on their level of success), and all instances of that letter was revealed in the phrase. However, the letters in each word of the puzzle were also jumbled. It took them five or six Overcomes to solve it (which is about what I expected), so the ghosts were not very powerful enemies to offset that. The Challenge was open-ended in how many rolls it might take them, but it worked out just fine. In the end, it was a fun scene to run and it was a nice change of pace.
The phrase they had to guess, by the way, was "ENERGY BACK TO MORTAL FORM" (a reference to The Scholar's "Mortal Form to Energy").
Puzzles, for me, are always a hard thing to do right. In the end, I tend to follow these guidelines:
- A puzzle should be almost impossible to solve without hints, and the GM should give hints out based on what the PCs are good at, either just giving them hints based on their knowledge or background, or letting them roll them dice to get hints.
- Hints should be spooled out to them one-by-one in a way that adds a little tension, but the hints should eventually just reveal an obvious answer.
- Do not make puzzles that depend on the players making logical leaps, knowing facts, solving riddles, or remembering something you told them earlier in the campaign, or even earlier in the session. If they do have to solve a riddle or something, it should be paltry, trivial, kindergarten-level stuff.
I tend to think of RPG puzzles as being best served like jigsaw puzzles. Solving a jigsaw puzzle is essentially inevitable - it's not usually a task that can't be done because you lack some knowledge, skill, or talent. It's just finding the pieces and matching them to where they go. Similarly, solving a puzzle challenge in an RPG should be inevitable. It should be a thing that looks crazy at first, but is resolved within an hour or two.
Now, of course, there's room for really hard puzzles and things if you plan around the headaches of it, but this is my "simple approach" to it.
Oh, and I'm sorry I'm still WAY BEHIND on Recaps. The whole world right now is kinda draining, and it hits me just like everybody else! Here I am with a Recap of Episode #35, but we just played Episode #39 this week, and that's not even mentioning the Holiday Special and the Alternates "Bizarro" Episode that one of my players ran, called "The Exceptionals" (where I got to play an alternate-universe "edgey" Starshadow!), and I'll also be writing a Recap for that.
As always, thanks for reading!