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: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, Game 6, Game 7, Game 8, Game 9, Game 10, Game 11
Brief Description of the Game: In the meta-verse (where Sentinel comics is a published comic book multimedia empire), there is a premium cable computer-animated (in a style similar to “Into the Spider-Verse”) television series (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:
- 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:
- Starshadow: A retired intergalactic adventurer, Starshadow wields mighty cosmic powers, but he is now reluctant to use them.
- Bouncer: An invulnerable action movie star, Bouncer is also super-strong and capable of mighty leaps (hence the name "Bouncer"), but he hasn't been the same since the Oblivaeon Crisis.
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!
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 #12 Recap:
“A Really Big Mess”
By Eddie Jaczerkowski
It’s the Season Finale of The Alternates! We’ve finally reached Episode #12, and I wasn’t disappointed! Let’s get right into my spoiler-filled recap!
Episode Recap
This episode starts where Episode #11 ended - on a space station orbiting Jupiter with the superhero Starshadow. Alarms are going off, and a map of the United States shows a big red circle around Megalopolis.
“The computer’s tied into local emergency services, so that alarm means they’re all engaged,” Starshadow explains. He runs over to the computer and changes the display to show a local newscast. The live footage of Megalopolis shows robots attacking the city! (The robots are, of course, the same model as the heroes found in previous episodes.)
Starshadow tells the team he can “transmaterialize” them to Megalopolis to help out. However, Starshadow can’t send himself, but he offers to join them there as fast as his faster-than-light powers allow. The heroes gather at Starshadow’s transmat pad and Starshadow activates it. (Jersey Devil, using teleportation, grabs more ice cream just before Starshadow turns on the transmat beam.)
The team suddenly appears in Megalopolis, atop a bus stop shelter, robots swarming around them, civilians screaming and running in all directions. The heroes snap to action, rushing to save the civilians around them.
To rescue a bystander, Quasar Kid uproots a blue mailbox and pulls a kid out from under it. Seeing this, Kid Radical cringes. “That’s a federal offense,” he mutters under his breath. Jersey Devil utilizes his powers to siphon the “souls” of the robots, which drains their electrical energy and empowers him.
Dr. Comet, seeing a water tower about to collapse on the street, talks herself up. She is a scientist. She doesn’t understand her powers, she doesn’t understand how magic works (nor does she want to), but if she can turn the water into ice, it’ll stabilize the water tower - that’s just science. She focuses and applies her power to the water tower, freezing the water inside. The water tower collapses down harmlessly onto the roof of the building, and Dr. Comet balls her fist in quiet victory.
As the final robots fall, we hear a rumbling off-screen. The heroes turn quickly, concern growing on their faces. But as the camera cuts to show us what’s approaching, we see it’s a small group of superheros, dressed mostly in red, white, and blue - it’s the Guardians of Freedom!
First up is Ms. Rushmore, a woman who can transform parts of her body to stone. Second is Captain Constitution, who flies over to the heroes. Finally, there is the reformed Fright Train, now called Freedom Train! Finally, taking up behind them is the mathemagician we all know, The Arithmetist!
Freedom Train rolls up on the team and says, in a booming voice, “Well, whoever you folks are, you’re on the right TRACK!”
Ms. Rushmore, having turned her fists into giant hunks of stone, eyeballs the team suspiciously. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Ms. Rushmore, of the Guardians of Freedom, and this is Freedom Train. Behind me are Captain Constitution and the Arithmetist.”
<<Editor's note: Images of the Guardians can be found below, or follow these links to see Ms. Rushmore, Freedom Train, and Captain Constitution.)
“Ah, Ms. Rushmore!” the Arithmetist interrupts. “I met these heroes in San Francisco just a few days ago! They’re a team.” He floats down and lands a few feet from our heroes. “I’m sorry, though, I don’t think I caught your team’s name…”
The team members all look at each other a bit uncomfortably, until finally Quasar Kid says, “Frazz it. We’re the Alternates.”
“Well, it’s good to have your help here,” Ms. Rushmore tells them. They discuss briefly, and it’s agreed that the Guardians will take the east part of the city, and the Alternates will take the west part. They all split up and start fighting more robots. “Alternates, away!” exclaims Quasar Kid.
While fighting some more minor robots, the Alternates also spot Starshadow flying over the city, zapping robots with energy beams.
As the heroes round another corner, they come face to face with a gigantic, 30-foot tall robot. The silver menace with purple armor plates calls itself “Violetron” and proceeds to attack the team!
During the fight, the giant robot shouts out things like “Adapt!” and “Diversify!” and its body slightly shifts to adjust to the heroes attacks. The fight drags on as Violetron is able to adapt and defend itself against the Alternates’ attacks.
Cytoblast charges the giant robot, landing two massive punches that stagger Violetron. Meanwhile, Kid Radical observes how the giant robot’s internal mechanisms are initiating self-repair, and he charges up his Turbo Glove and discharges a pulse into the right spot on Violetron. Violetron’s adaptations and repair subroutines slow down.
Finally, Cytoblast uses his enormous strength to launch himself into the air over Violetron. Cytoblast makes his body dense and woody, and he falls down onto Violetron’s head with a crunch! The robot keels onto its chest, laid low by the mighty blow from the plant monster.
As Violetron falls, the Guardians of Freedom make their way over to the heroes. Freedom Train exclaims, “You folks are good! You gotta tell me where you TRAIN!” The Guardians are congratulatory on the Alternates’ victory, and say they defeated the robots on the other side of the city. Starshadow arrives as well and says all the robots are deactivated.
“But… where did they all come from?” asks Quasar Kid.
The credits roll and DEVO’s “Big Mess” plays.
But that’s not the end of the episode!
At the end of the credits, there’s a post-credits sequence! This sequence opens in a large room with no windows that appears to be largely empty. There’s dim light illuminating the faces of four figures in the room. One is Hippocampus and another is DJ Doctor Dancefloor. The third is a monstrous but feminine form made of red and black shadow, and the fourth is a young woman dressed in red (who looks a bit like a younger version of Citizen Dawn).
The camera cuts behind the four figures, who are watching a large screen. On the screen, we see surveillance footage of Starshadow and the Alternates standing in Megalopolis near the fallen form of Violetron. The footage zooms in on Starshadow and pauses.
A voice comes from the screen, over the shot of Starshadow, saying, “Finally, I have lured Starshadow out of hiding! I knew he couldn’t resist rushing out to help that team of second-rate reject superheroes! All is proceeding according to plan.”
The shot of Starshadow on the screen is replaced by the staticy image of Baron Blade! He continues, “And with the help of you and the rest of my Vengeful Seven, I will finally vindicate the wrongs that the heroes of Earth have done to me!”
The episode cuts to black, with the words, “To be continued…”
Final Thoughts
Finally, the Alternates are calling themselves “The Alternates!” It only took twelve episodes!
First, obviously, Baron Blade is alive?!? And he’s survived all this time without making himself known or striking out against the heroes! Where has he been hiding? It looks like we’ll have to wait until Season 2 to find out more.
While the Baron Blade reveal at the end is great, let’s focus on what was really great about this episode - Freedom Train! I can not get enough train puns. I hope we’ll see a lot more of this character in Season 2. Honestly, if he joined the team, I wouldn’t be upset.
We also meet the rest of the Guardians of Freedom in this episode, but we really don’t learn much about them. I’d expect to see more of them in Season 2, as well, but I doubt we’ll see too much more.
Now, let’s cover some nerdy notes!
- Dr. Comet trying to handle the water tower is a great insight into that character’s real struggle - she is a woman of science who has been cursed with magical powers. Is her lack of control due to her anger issues, or due to her refusal to accept “magic” as a real thing? Why not both?
- The Guardians of Freedom are the official superhero team of the United States government, thus the red, white, and blue uniforms. The Arithmetist’s costume is only white and blue, but he wears a flag pin on his lapel.
- Freedom Train’s costume also incorporates military green. On his shoulders, you can see two chevrons, indicating the rank of corporal. That’s the rank he had when he served in the U.S. Army, so that seems to indicate that Steven Graves’ rank was reinstated!
That’s all for Season 1 of the Alternates! Before you know it, Season 2 will premiere, so be sure to come back here for all the Season 2 Recaps! Until then, thanks for reading!
Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.
Running the Game!
Where have we been?!? I took some extra time after last week's game to finish sketches of the Guardians of Freedom before I posted up here. This week, we didn't have a game, but we did a session recapping Season 1 and having a "retrospective" to figure out what we're doing well and what we can improve. (Mostly, this applies to me as the Game Master, but there were things for everyone to learn!) I also did an anonymous survey of the players, and the average satisfaction with the game is 9 out of 10 (which was "very satisfied" on the scale).
Anyway, Violetron was an Adaptive Titan with a couple upgrades, which made him fun at first, but possibly annoying as the fight went on. Still, while annoying to hurt, he wasn't very effective at hurting the PCs, so I think the fight felt pretty good.
And then there was the BIG REVEAL of Baron Blade at the end. Obviously, this isn't a thing the PCs actually see, but it was a thing I narrated to the players. I can count on my players to keep the things they know out-of-character from the things they know in-character, so it's very cool, within the structure of an animated television show, to show things to the "audience" (the players) that the protagonists (their characters) don't know. Dramatic irony!
I think the players are calling this second Collection "Finite State Machine," but that's not official yet.
I'm working on a few more ways for my players to use Collections, but it's not ready for prime time yet, but stay tuned!
Finally, here are sketches of the Guardians of Freedom!
Thanks for reading! We'll be back next week with Season 2!