The Alternates Episode #37 Recap - “Space Invaders”

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! 

========================

The Alternates Episode #37 - “Space Invaders”

The Alternates jaunt across the world once again as things keep unfolding at a breakneck pace for them and the planet. This time, we meet some old friends, and things take a very weird turn. Read on!

Episode Recap

The cold open of this episode features, once again, the mysterious man in black. We continue to see evidence that he’s a time traveller of some kind, and his voice is recognizable as being the same as the man who froze Bouncer in a stasis bubble last episode.

This time, the man in black is wearing a long black coat, standing on a grassy hill in Dallas, Texas on November 22nd, 1963 (according to a title card). This, of course, is the day that JFK was assassinated, and it appears the man in black is there to observe the historical event.

JFK’s car rounds the bend of the street and slowly crawls in front of the book depository building, with the President waving from the back seat. Suddenly, there is a ear-splitting crack, and everyone turns to see the ground opening up in the lawn across from the book depository building.

Magma begins to seep up from the hole in the ground, and a massive three-fingered hand reaches up from inside the magma. Soon, a gigantic humanoid magma monster pulls itself up from the ground and shouts, “I am FLAME-TOR! The surface world must burn!”

The man in black shakes his head as people scream and flee around him. “That’s not how this was supposed to go at all,” he mumbles to himself. In a blink, he disappears as fire and magma engulf the area.

-----

The episode opens with the Alternates back in their headquarters, sitting around the main room, while Unity and Omnitron-X stand talking to the group. We join them as Unity is mid-sentence, saying, “...and that’s when we transferred our consciousnesses to these new bodies.”

“I understand everything now because you’ve explained it so well,” Kid Radical tells her.

“And I want to apologize for that sandwich joke earlier,” Jersey Devil interjects. “I realize now that it was insensitive.”

(Clearly, this is meta-humor. The writers of the show have excluded the audience from learning about what’s going on with Unity and Omnitron-X, while indicating that the Alternates themselves are privy to the information. I wonder if this will come up again, or if the writers were just leading us on to think there was something important going on there.)

Unity then explains that the newly-dubbed “Void Guard” have arrived at the building and are coming up for their meeting with the Alternates.

The Alternates and Void Guard sit down, and Dr. Medico immediately begins to explain that, in their adventures through space, they had come across worlds that had been visited (and devastated) by Oblivaeon, and it had led them to discover a substance called “Element Oh-Zero.” This material was the cosmically-charged remains of Oblivaeon’s “Oblivion Engines,” which had simultaneously exploded across the universe when Oblivaeon disappeared.

The Void Guard are concerned about Element Oh-Zero, because they’ve observed that organic beings who are put in contact with the substance develop super powers and abilities. This creates upheaval and imbalance, of course, and the first thing the Void Guard investigated when they returned to Earth was the presence of this substance.

Unfortunately, Dr. Medico and Writhe explain, the Oblivion Engines which exploded on Earth spread Element Oh-Zero, in particulate form, all through the atmosphere. Therefore, it’s everywhere on Earth in small quantities. The substance, however, also has an “accretion” property, meaning that it will, over time, form clumps and deposits as small particulates are attracted to each other.

The Void Guard have located one such deposit in the Himalayas. Unfortunately, they were trailed to Earth by a gang of space pirates who are also hunting Element Oh-Zero, and those pirates will be on Earth imminently! The Void Guard ask the Alternates to join them in flying to the Himalayas and acquiring the deposit.

The Alternates agree, excited to once again fight space pirates!

-----

Meanwhile, somewhere else, Bouncer finds himself strapped to a table and enclosed in some sort of nullification field. Nearby, the man in black, with a full armor mask covering his face, approaches the table.

“I found you in the nick of time, Bouncer,” he says.

“Alright, Darth Vaguer,” Bouncer jokes, referring to the man in black’s armor and helmet, “Who are you and what’s your deal?”

“I am Chronoclash,” the man responds. “And I am here to fix your timeline.”

-----

The Alternates, in the Alternajet, and the Void Guard, in their own alien spacecraft, fly over the Himalayas and land at the foot of a snowy mountain. Outfitted in some degree of cold weather gear, the two teams exit their craft and meet.

Dr. Comet produces a device from inside the Alternajet - some sort of detector device that Starshadow left inside the vehicle, which she has modified to detect cosmic anomalies. With Quasar Kid’s help, she’s managed to narrow down the anomaly that is Element Oh-Zero. Dr. Medico confirms her work, and together the two teams find the glowing purple grape-sized deposit of Element Oh-Zero.

Writhe explains that the substance is highly volatile, and it needs to be removed carefully. He and the Void Guard start that process, when suddenly the Idealist spots an incoming craft! She points it out to the Alternates, and they agree to go engage the space pirates while the Void Guard extract the Element Oh-Zero.

The Alternates rush to meet the landing craft, which they find to be of strange alien design. However, when the crew of the craft disembark, they are clearly agents of F.I.L.T.E.R., not space pirates at all.

Quickly, the agents of F.I.L.T.E.R., never failing to engage super people when they see the chance, aggressively attack the Alternates. Naturally, the Alternates respond in kind, and it’s not long before the Alternates - very confused about this turn of events - defeat the F.I.L.T.E.R. agents.

The Alternates rush back to the site of the deposit only to find that the Void Guard have grabbed it and flown off into the horizon.

Extremely angry and confused, the Alternates rush to the Alternajet as “Ziggy Stardust” as covered by Bauhaus plays over the end credits.

Final Thoughts

Surprise! Betrayal! Mystery! What’s up with the odd turn the Void Guard have taken? Also, I’m frankly disappointed with the lack of space pirates (although I don’t mind seeing F.I.L.T.E.R. agents getting beaten up.)

I do hope we get some sort of flashback or something that further explains what’s up with Unity and Omnitron-X having gone from dead to existing as some sort of computer spirits to combining into Unity-X to separating back into their individual selves to now having bodies. It’s quite a ride, and I want to take that ride.

On a different note, Element Oh-Zero is an idea from “The Alternates” comic book series that’s been brought into the TV show now, although under different circumstances. In the comics, it was a kind of purple dust that was blamed for a surge of super-powered people, and it seems like it might have the same role in the TV show. After all, we see a slew of previously-unheard-of heroes and villains with superpowers. Perhaps Element Oh-Zero explains some of them?

Well, that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading, as always. Be sure to check back next week for my Recap of Episode #38 - “Null and Void”.

Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.

========================

Running the Game!

First of all, my players decided it would be funny if I didn't explain how Unity and Omnitron-X have bodies now, and we played it off in media res as Unity finished explaining it to the team. So if you find that unsatisfying, it's totally their fault!

So, this episode was mostly my players and me just talking and making up nonsense and not doing what we were supposed to do because it was our first game back after several weeks doing other things (holidays, and alternate game sessions, like the Christmas Special). As a result, we glazed over a lot of mechanics and just made up story, which turns out to be a lot faster. We're all friends who have known each other from between 8 to 24 years, so when we get started with bullsh***ing instead of focusing on the game, well... the result can be a bit rushed.

But given the times we're in, I just kind of let it go. It's not the time to be hard about keeping to a schedule and such. And in the end, this game, for us, is more about the stories and the mechanics, so we can always tell a quick story when we spend our time socializing instead.

Also, I tend to be one of the most guilty when it comes to, "LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THIS THING THAT IS NOT THE GAME." So uh... gotta take responsibility myself, too.

It's important to read the table and try to know when players just need to talk or complain or yell about current events or something. But it's also important to try to read the table to figure out when players are frustrated by the lack of focus. It's a hard thing to balance.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

What a thing, to be a villain making your on-screen appearance immediately after one of the most important moments in US history. XD

Chronoclash, huh? Well, that's certainly a name...

Wow, I just have no idea what to make of that turn of events at the end. :O There's a whole bunch of crazy stuff that happened in this episode, but not a lot of time to take it all in!

Flame-Tor! X D

It appears The Alternates' timeline is diverging from the main Sentinels one. . .

Unity and Omnitron's condition would probably just explained with technobabble, anyway.

Speculations about Chronoclash:

  • The name makes me think there's a connection to Chrono-Ranger. . .
  • Both his name and Element O-0 introduced in the same episode. . . Coincidence? I think not.
  • He says "your timeline," so what timeline is he from?

Void Guard says that there's space pirates, but they turn out to be F.I.L.T.E.R.? I knew something fishy was afoot! (Besides, if a "real" hero team actually showed up, there'd be no need for the Alternates. ; ))

The real betrayal was that the Alternates invited the Void Guard to hang out at a diner after the mission, and they just ghosted. They also offerred to let Void Guard fight the space pirates because "We've alrerady done it. Everyone should get a chance to fight space pirates at some point in their lives."

The Void Guard are terrible guests. :C