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! You can find links to the first "Season" (the first 12 episodes) in the Recap for Game12, and here is the Recap for Episode 13.
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 #15 Recap:
“Ghost From the Machine”
By Eddie Jaczerkowski
Welcome back to another recap for The Alternates! Last week’s episode was pre-empted by the PCI League Summer Curling Semi-Finals, but the show returned this week for Episode #15 (the third episode of Season 2), “Ghost From the Machine”! Let’s dig right in!
Episode Recap
This episode begins with another vignette far from the eyes of the protagonists. The scene is set in the same subterranean room where we saw Baron Blade chatting with his new minions at the end of Season 1. This time, we see Hippocampus alongside an unidentified blue-skinned man who is dressed in a lounge suit straight out of the late 1970s. They are watching footage of a woman dressed in red (who we also saw at the end of Season 1) who looks a bit like a younger Citizen Dawn. The woman is firing blasts of light from her hands, flying around, and destroying drones in what looks like a training exercise. The footage is cut very much like someone is recording a demonstration of her powers.
From off-screen, we hear the voice of Baron Blade. “This is our newest recruit, gentlemen,” he says. “I’m sending you to immediately bring her to me.”
Hippocampus pipes up, saying, “You expect that someone with the apparent powers of Citizen Dawn herself will readily acquiesce to a request to follow a man in a hippo suit and a gentleman with blue skin to meet a mysterious benefactor in an underground complex? I should think Safe Bet and I would have a difficult time making the case, Baron.”
“I’d say it’s a safe bet we’d get our butts kicked so hard they’d be a second set of shoulders,” the blue-skinned man (whose name, indeed, is “Safe Bet”) says.
But Baron Blade (who remains off-screen) assures them, “Don’t worry, gentlemen. I think you’ll find her quite agreeable to the arrangement. Do as I command and you will be rewarded.”
We see the footage continue as the woman on-screen melts her way through a steel door, and the scene cuts to the Alternate’s office headquarters.
.....
The Alternates are in a major rush, taking all the appliances and electronic equipment that Unity-X had been inhabiting last episode and piling them into a copper mesh cage. (Kid Radical describes it as a makeshift Faraday cage.) They are trying to save Unity-X and “give her a place to live” - it seems like she’s unable to keep her “essence” cohesive enough to “manifest” herself.
As the Alternates rush, Dr. Hemlocke is interjecting constantly, insisting they handle the pieces with care, and overall adding a sort of “surgeon’s care” to the process. Kid Radical, with Dr. Hemlocke’s caring supervision, begins wiring and cobbling all the pieces together inside the cage. Quasar Kid comes into the room with an enormous box of electronics (it looks like hard drives), which Kid Radical wires into the whole mess.
Finally, we see the finished product. It’s a large mess of electronics and appliances - the dishwasher, the toaster, the laptop, the refrigerator, Kid Radical’s Turbo Glove, Quasar Kid’s wrist computer, and a pile of hard drives.
“I don’t know what else to do,” Kid Radical says. “There was something magical about Unity, so maybe one of you magicians can do more.” His gaze moves to Cytoblast and Dr. Comet.
Dr. Comet frowns. “I am not a magician,” she says sternly.
Cytoblast pipes in to break the tension. “They need time to recover. We have to let them convalesce for a bit before we subject them to any more trauma.”
With a deep sigh, Kid Radical says, “Alright, let’s call it a night. We can see if the system stabilizes and maybe try again tomorrow.”
Overnight, Jersey Devil seems to be “babysitting” the pile of Unity-X. He is eating Hostee fruit pies, and he notices the slots on the toaster in the pile. “Ya hungry?” he asks the pile of contraptions. He gently “feeds” the toaster with his fruit pie, telling it, “You’re gonna need your strength to get better! Eat up!”
The next day, Kid Radical is ready to try to “reboot” the system, with all the Alternates standing beside him. Quasar Kid lends his “living cosmic battery” powers to the attempt, infusing the pile of tech with a massive energy boost. However, the whole system soon threatens to overheat! But with quick thinking, Dr. Comet applies her ice to the system, cooling the electronics. Finally, Unity-X boots up!
With their face on the laptop screen and their voice emanating strangely from inside the pile, Unity-X crackles out a “Thank you!”
Unity-X then explains that they had a great deal of difficulty keeping their “signal” cohesive enough to make clear communication with the Alternates (including Bouncer and Starshadow). However, they insist they must get to the bottom of Operation Pipeclamp.
The television (which had fallen from the wall and was laying somewhat cracked against the wall) fires to life, and surveillance footage begins to play on it. From a high vantage point (probably a drone), we see footage of Hippocampus and Safe Bet walking through the woods.
“So I don’t get it,” Safe Bet tells Hippocampus. “This dame is just here in the woods and we’re just gonna pick her up and take her with us? It don’t make no sense.”
Hippocampus goes on to assure his partner that the target is “on ice” and she won’t be putting up any struggle whatsoever.”
“Who is she, anyway?” asks Safe Bet.
“I’ve no idea as to her name and general identity, my blue friend,” Hippocampus says. “Suffice it to say that she is some sort of reject from Operation Pipeclamp.”
“I don’t even know what that is,” Safe Bet replies.
“All the better,” Hippocampus says. “It’s not important to our mission here today. Don’t let it distract you.”
The duo continue through the woods to a spot with high chain link fences topped with barbed wire. “High voltage” signs adorn the fence, and inside the perimeter, it looks like some kind of electrical substation. Hippocampus effortlessly knocks the gate down, then smashes down the front door, and the two proceed inside.
Minutes later, we see the two come out of the building, with Hippocampus carrying an enormous, icy tube over his shoulder. Kid Radical remarks that it looks like a cryogenic tube of some kind. The footage cuts out at that point, and Unity-X explains that the drone ran too low on power to continue following and recording them.
Naturally, the Alternates spring into action and ask Unity-X where the footage was filmed. Another shattered monitor in the room powers up and displays a remote location in northern Maryland, and shows that the footage was taken about six months ago.
Soon, we see the “Alternajet” landing in a clearing in the woods of Maryland. The crew proceeds carefully through the forest until they find the exact structure they saw in the video footage. In fact, the fence is still broken down, and the front door is still smashed in. There’s a bit of overgrowth, but it seems like no one has been here since the footage was taken.
The team carefully enters the building and finds that the first floor is very empty, aside from some metal shelving and simple metal chairs and desks. However, a metal staircase descends downward into darkness. The team proceeds with trepidation, and finds a large subterranean research complex beneath the building.
The research complex hums with power, but very little equipment remains. There are a few monitors and terminals built into the walls, and lots of shelves and desks that have been emptied of all their contents. There are massive power conduits running through here, and almost all of them end in a gigantic machine at the far end of the room - a cryogenic cooling chamber. However, there’s a massive hole where there was once a cryogenic tube.
Kid Radical turns off the power that had still been running to the machine, remarking that it was an enormous waste of electricity - “People know to turn the lights off when they leave the room! How did those dolts not know to turn off the cryogenic freezer when they left this place?”
In an incinerator on one side of the room, Cytoblast finds the ashes of burnt papers. He draws upon the magic of the forest and of the plant matter itself in an attempt to learn more about the papers that were burned. He receives a vision of the laboratory complex when it was fully operational, with the cyro tube still in place. However, the staff of the complex - scientists, researchers, and technicians - moved things out in a big hurry. Boxes and enormous panels of computers were moved up the stairs in a rush, while other papers were tossed into the incinerator. It seems like whoever once worked here, they packed up and left in a very big hurry… but they left behind whoever or whatever was in the cryogenic tube.
Seeing Cytoblast perform some sort of magical ritual, Jersey Devil grabs a handful of the ashes and shouts, “By the souls of your twice-slain brethren! Reveal your fate!” Everyone turns to stare at him. “Uh… nevermind,” Jersey Devil says. “Trees don’t talk.”
While most everything in the room is gone, there is a metal nameplate over the space where the cryogenic tank was situated. The nameplate reads, “Project Dawn.”
The team discusses briefly why the scientists and researchers who were working here would leave behind the biggest piece of evidence when they evacuated, but Quasar Kid suggests that maybe they had no interest in taking whoever or whatever was in that tank with them.
Suddenly, a klaxon sounds in the room, and one of the few remaining screens pops to life. Onscreen, we see a recording of Safe Bet. He says, “Heya. You don’t know me, but folks call me ‘Safe Bet.’ And I figured it was a real safe bet someone was gonna come snooping around here some time, so I left ya a little surprise! Enjoy!”
Alerts flash all over the room - the power conduits are all set to overload! The building will be rubble in mere minutes! Metal security shutters come down over all the doors and windows upstairs, and hidden robots activate and attack the heroes! The situation looks desperate!
“Robots. Why does it always gotta be robots?” asks Jersey Devil.
Cytoblast charges upstairs, turning into his plant monster form and sending tendrils of wood and vine all through the room, attempting to force the security shutters open to allow the team to escape. Quasar Kid charges himself up like a cosmic battery, and infuses that power into his teammates, making them faster, stronger, and quicker.
Jersey Devil and Dr. Comet blast robots left and right, leaving bits and pieces all over the room. Cytoblast continues to work the doors, and in one of the coolest scenes so far this seasons, Kid Radical grinds his tech deck down one of Cytoblast’s tendrils, using the momentum to crash into the door.
The security shutter breaks open, and one final robot steps in the way. Cytoblast rears back a mighty fist, transforming it into a massive caber and slamming it with full force into the robot. The last robot shatters, and the team runs outside as the building is demolished in a small explosion.
“I guess Safe Bet was wrong!” Cytoblast says. “Always bet on green!”
“What?” says Kid Radical. “No, green is really bad! Have you ever even seen a roulette wheel?”
Laughing, the team walks back through the forest toward the Alternajet.
The credits roll while the song “The Ghost In You” by The Psychedelic Furs plays.
Final Thoughts
I love this episode! It’s got world-building, story-advancement, the return of a favorite character (or, I guess, two favorite characters)...kind if… plus, more information about Baron Blade’s new Vengeful Seven!
Here are my nerdy notes:
- The constant references to Hostee products is a reference to ads that used to appear in Sentinel Comics, especially in the 1970s and 1980s.
- The internet theory machine has already taken off with ideas about Safe Bet. Is he related to Greazer? Is he some sort of spawn of Wager Master? Does he have luck powers? He’s a new creation for the television series, so we’ll have to wait to find out.
- And how about that cryo tube? We can assume the “Citizen Dawn” lookalike is in the tube, right? But who is she? Is she a clone of Citizen Dawn? Obviously, “Project Dawn” and her powers are a glowing neon sign pointing to Citizen Dawn, but how are they related?
- What’s Operation Pipeclamp? Actually, I know that one - it’s a plot point from the original Alternates comic book series, but that’s all I’ll say here.
- Reminder: The heroes still have no idea Baron Blade is alive, or that he’s behind what’s been going on since Season 1! They must assume someone is behind all of this, but do they suspect it’s Hippocampus? At this point, they don’t seem to be talking a lot about their theories, but…
That’s all for this week! Join us next week for Episode #16, entitled “The Earth Is Your Home” - until then, thanks for reading!
Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.
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Running the Game!
This is coming to you pretty late! It's actually a recap of last week's game, but we didn't have a game this week, so I'm all caught up!
The games continue remotely, which we're getting better and better at, including getting the "writer's room" vibe back for a lot of it, despite the difficulty of voice-over-internet chat.
The first scene with Unity-X's reconstruction was really something I threw entirely on the table of the players. I said, "Here's the idea. Unity-X needs your help, so the opening of this episode is a sequence where you all work together to bring them back to a semblence of life." I specified Unity-X wouldn't be back in a robot body, and they wouldn't be back to (either of) their former selves, but the goal was to stabilize them. The players did a bang-up job of telling that story!
Then I got to do the slow reveals of more and more of Baron Blade's minions by telling some more story about whoever "Project Dawn" is, and introducing the super-fun (for me) Safe Bet! Oh, he's gonna be so much fun!
So if you're keeping track at home, Baron Blade's Vengeful Seven are:
- Hippocampus
- DJ Doctor Dance Floor
- Safe Bet
- Night Terror
- "Project Dawn"?
- TBD?
- TBD?
The story of this Season is, of course, a little bit of teasing out of this conspiracy and the culmination of the Alternates facing off against these villains. But I'm also laying seeds for Season 3! You won't have seen many of them yet, but much like Season 1's second half laid out the groundwork for Season 2, as we creep towards Episode #20, there'll be subtle hints for what lies in store in Season 3.
Not to delve into personal details, but I've sought out some help for some of the anxiety I've been experiencing during this whole... thing! And it's very much helped, and I feel like I am back on my creative game. At least... 90%, let's say!
So I want to make a quick public service message here - if you feel wrong, and especially if you cannot handle the anxiety you might be feeling, and you feel like you're not yourself, seek out help! Mental health issues are health issues. There's no shame or stigma to being treated for them.
Thanks for reading!