Here’s a recap of a 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:
- Aegis: A futuristic space knight, Aegis wears power armor and wields a powerful techno-magical shield. He came from space to fight evil!
- 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.
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 #44 - “The Not-So-Great Beyond”
In this week’s episode of The Alternates, the team goes from traveling through time to sitting around a table, but in an interesting way. Come along as I recap Episode #44 (Season 3, Episode 14) of The Alternates!
Episode Recap
This episode opens with a gigantic spider-shaped spaceship floating through space towards Earth. Inside the spaceship, humanoid spider-aliens with six arms and many eyes go about crewing the ship. At the helm, we are introduced to Captain Ungol, who leads these spider-aliens.
As the ship enters Earth’s orbit, Captain Ungol announces, “Finally, we will find those responsible for the death of Asteraxxal!”
[Note: Asteraxxal is the demonic space alien entity that once existed inside Dr. Comet, but has since been exorcised and destroyed.]
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After the opening credits, we are brought back to Alternates Headquarters. With Chronoclash parting from our favorite timeline, the Alternates (including Bouncer, Unity, and Omnitron-X, as well as non-Alternates Aegis and Starshadow) are taking a breather.
Aegis asks if there are any openings on the team, and there’s a short discussion about him joining. Cytoblast seems a bit uneasy about a new teammate, but the others all give their approval. Jersey Devil mentions that Guise did plate-spinning while dancing the Can-can when he asked to join, but Kid Radical insists that is not a requirement.
As everyone begins to relax, Bouncer explains the situation with the Cult of Gloom in Europe. (As a reminder, he was investigating the Cult of Gloom in Europe when he was captured by Chronoclash.) The Cult of Gloom are up to something, he explains, and it involves Asteraxxal (the space demon who used to possess Dr. Comet) but he doesn’t know where to look for them. The Alternates agree to tackle that problem… after a good night’s rest.
The next day, Jersey Devil shows Aegis around Alternates Headquarters in a montage. Unfortunately, he does so by using his teleportation, so in the end, Aegis doesn’t really learn how to get anywhere. (He does teleport Aegis to both the “good” Morebucks coffee shop and the “bad” Morebucks coffee shop.) Aegis does manage to bond with Kid Radical after the tour, as the two of them compare their technical gadgets and signature equipment.
The team discusses the Cult of Gloom and Asteraxxal, which causes Dr. Comet a great deal of stress (she freezes half of the kitchen while pretending not to listen). Cytoblast suggests they ask the seer Randolph Carter for help finding the Cult. Randolph is a friend of Cytoblast who lives in Massachusetts, and the Alternates all head to the Alternajet to head to New England.
In New England, the Alternates meet with the wizard Randolph Carter, although Carter insists he is an “oneiromancer” - a practitioner of “dream magic.” Using the power of dreams, Randolph explains he can derive the location of the Cult of Gloom. However, he warns that such a spell risks attracting minions of Gloomweaver from the Realm of Discord.
As protection, Jersey Devil cloaks all the gathered persons in infernal energy. But their new friend, Aegis, objects to this on the grounds that it is dark magic. He explains that he was given his powers by the “Paradrons,” a race of heroic space robots, and that dark magic is a corrupting influence. After a short spat, they move on, with Jersey Devil leaving Aegis out of the “dark magic.”
Cytoblast and Randolph Carter begin their ritual (which resembles a seance, with all the participants holding hands around the table). Of course, things go wrong! As the chanting of Randolph reaches a fever pitch, portals to the Realm of Discord open up around the room, and the Alternates stand up to fight the menace.
As one can expect, otherworldly horrors flow through the portals - monsters with tentacles and eyeballs and slimy exteriors. While Jersey Devil is very excited to “out-horror” the horrors from beyond with his own terrifying visage, Kid Radical is quite upset by the squamous enemies. Still, the Alternates persist and defeat all the gross monsters that emerge.
In the end, it’s ironically Dr. Comet’s scientific knowledge and her use of some of the “transdimensional” equipment she inherited from Starshadow that allows the Alternates to close the portals to the Realm of Discord.
After the portals to the Realm of Discord are closed, Randolph Carter opens his eyes and gasps. He explains that the attack of the Discordian entity allowed him to connect to the Gloom Cultists and find the root of their machinations - a small town in Luxembourg.
The Alternates all nod to one another, including Jersey Devil.
“What’s Luxembourg?” Jersey Devil asks, still nodding.
The final credits roll under “Magic Moments” by Perry Como.
Final Thoughts
This episode is something of a filler or transition episode, as the focus of the season shifts suddenly from time travel to the Cult of Gloom. Or, in some ways, back to the Cult of Gloom. There are a couple of yucks, a fine combat scene, and a strange cold open that hints that some sort of spider-aliens have come to Earth for revenge, but not a lot of major plot developments otherwise.
One major function of this episode is to introduce us to Aegis, who is a walking toy commercial. From his action-figure armor and his extraneous addons to his mention of giant space robots, Aegis is a character straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon made to send kids screaming to their local toy aisle.
While Sentinel Comics certainly had their share of comics based entirely on toy lines, they don’t own those licenses wholly. So Aegis is a character that’s never actually appeared in comics before - his first appearance was in the Alternates comic book run. Nonetheless, there are at least a dozen toy-based comics to which Aegis is a walking reference.
Overall, Aegis is a fun character, but I’ve heard from a lot of fans that they already miss Quasar Kid. Hey folks, that’s how it goes - Quasar Kid was a character whose arc had a beginning, middle, and end, and he’s gone back to his own time. I’m sure we’ll never see him again…
That’s all for this week! Join us next week as the Alternates will track down the Cult of Gloom in Episode #45 - “Caught in the Web”.
Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.
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Running the Game
What? I’m back? Where am I? Where was I?
Well, life comes at you fast. You get sidetracked, you have some interruptions with real life and all its issues, and the next thing you know, you haven’t posted a game Recap in SIX MONTHS or so. Holy crap!
But I’m trying to get back on track with this stuff. Running and writing about roleplaying games is a thing I want to keep in my life, so I intend to finish what I started here! (And once I get my gaming blog updated, I’ll try and drag you over there, too.)
The weird news is that, due to lots of swirling insanity, we haven’t had the chance to finish too many more Episodes in the last eight months or so, so we’ve only just finished Episode 58, so I’m only about a dozen Recaps behind. Not bad!
Luckily, I take great game notes! Well… I don’t take great notes, but I take good notes and I’m okay with kind of making stuff up after-the-fact to fill in these Recaps.
The hardest part about running the game by this point, after more than 44 sessions, was keeping it interesting. I’m not sure I succeeded, but players kept showing up! So, as I continue to tell the story of Season 3, I’ll also fill you in with how I tried to keep it interesting.
Season 4 will be the end of the Alternates (for the time being). That will happen at about Episode #64. I was writing my own RPG for our next campaign, but then I suggested a Spelljammer Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and my players went nuts for that. Sooo… I’m currently writing a 5th Edition Spelljammer fan content book. If my ramblings about D&D and other games might interest you, stay tuned and I’ll tell you where to follow me.
In any case, I’ll be back soon to Recap Episode #45 of the Alternates!
Thanks for reading!!!
Was there a tool you used to create the first two images?