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, Episode 14, Episode 15, and Episode 16.
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!
Also, some important villain stuff going on - Unbeknownst to the heroes, Baron Blade has reappeared (after being presumed dead), and was secretly striking at the heroes during the last season. He has assembled a Vengeful Seven team, which is being lead by Hippocampus (the Hippo, except now he's super-smart). They are working behind the scenes on some sort of revenge plot
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 #17 Recap:
“Upon the Hill of Stars”
By Eddie Jaczerkowski
Alternates in space! This week’s episode, “Upon the Hill of Stars,” continues the Alternates adventures in the Ascendant Empire, a far-off region of space where their buddy Starshadow is the Duke of a noble household. Let’s blast off!
Episode Recap
At the beginning of the episode, we once again touch upon what’s happening with Baron Blade’s “Vengeful Seven.” If you haven’t been keeping up, Baron Blade (who was supposed to have been utterly disintegrated by Starshadow many years ago) is secretly alive, plotting behind the scenes to get revenge on Starshadow and the Alternates. His minions, the Vengeful Seven, are lead by Hippocampus (a super-smart version of the Hippo), and include Safe Bet (a blue-skinned man in an out-of-style suit), Night Terror (one of The Dreamers manifestations who escaped that event), DJ Doctor Dancefloor (a DJ who can control minds by manipulation sounds), someone name Highwire who we don’t know much about, and a young woman who looks a lot like Citizen Dawn. There’s probably a seventh member as well, but they haven’t been introduced.
The scene opens with two thick metal doors being blown off their hinges. Hippocampus appears on the other side of the door and strides proudly inside. We see federal agents taking positions in the hallway, kneeling, and opening fire on the huge man in front of them. Hippocampus chuckles as the bullets bounce off his armored hide.
“Federal agents! I told you this was no mere credit union,” Hippocampus shouts above the din.
“Fine, I owe you a $20, big guy,” Safe Bet replies. The blue-skinned villain walks casually through the gunfire as bullets whiz by him. He stops to adjust his tie, tilting his neck, and a bullet flies right where his head would have been.
“You cops can’t hit nothing!” Safe Bet says in his idiosyncratic “1920s gangster” accent. “Where’d ya learn to shoot - Coney Island?” He chuckles.
From behind Hippocampus, a man in red circus tights and a eyemask (this is the as-yet-unseen Highwire) slides into view. He twists his wrist, and a long metal whip flails out and strikes one of the officers, wrapping itself around his arm. Highwire’s eyes light up, and electricity courses through the metal wire, shocking the officer into unconsciousness. Highwire pulls the whip back and strikes again.
Elsewhere in the hallway, the shadows move in unnatural ways. From within them emerges Night Terror, whose touch freezes the officers bodies in place in utter fear.
Soon, the gunfire stops, and the guards have been neutralized.
“This is where they’re keeping the good stuff, huh?” Safe Bet asks Hippocampus.
“Indeed,” Hippocampus replies. “Beneath the unassuming front of a local credit union, the federal government of the United States has placed a treasure trove of rare and valuable items. We need but one of these things, and I know almost precisely where it can be found.”
Suddenly, from the far end of the hallway, a strange whooshing can be heard. The villains all turn to see a circular portal of light opening, and The Arithmetist (the “mathemagician”) steps through it. Through the portal, Freedom Train (this universe’s version of Fright Train, who became a hero after the death of Bunker) and Ms. Rushmore (who can turn her body to stone and change its shape) step out. These are three of the core members of The Guardians of Freedom, the official super team of the United States government!
“It really chafes my caboose when villains try to steal from the good people of America!” Freedom Train shouts down the hallway.
The camera focuses in on Hippocampus’s face, as his lips form a wide smile. “Oh, this will be fun,” we hear him say.
This vignette ends, and the episode cuts back to the Alternates' space adventure.
The scene opens the “star galleon” (which we learn is named the Blackmoore Stingray) that the Alternates have taken through space to the Ascendant Empire, along with the aliens Grosshak and Gommesh. Gommesh is exclaiming that he has a fix on Duke Blackmoore’s (a.k.a. Starshadow’s) position from a tracking device. Grosshak rushes for the captain’s chair and starts the starship off through the “starstreams” and towards the signal.
The ship ends up in orbit of a barren world, where one of the “Astral Domes” (a kind of advanced space stations) of the Ascendant Empire can be seen. However, unlike the beautiful structures of gold and glass that we had seen in earlier depictions, this dome is angular and industrial. “That’s no Astral Dome,” Gommesh explains. Grosshak adds, “This looks like some kind of cobbled-together waystation for pirates!”
The crew talk about the plan to rescue Starshadow, and Jersey Devil pipes in. “Since Starshadow is basically invulnerable, can’t we just blow the whole place up and pick him up afterwards?” Grosshak laughs and comments that he admires Jersey Devil’s style, but tells him they don’t have the firepower to pull something like that off, and the base might have valuable information on board.
Grosshak explains that he plans to fly the ship right at the pirate base, open a gangplank from the side of the star galleon, and board the base. The Alternates, however, seem a bit concerned about leaping headlong into space. Grosshak offers the team some “Emergency Atmo Packs,” which are small hexagonal boxes that are attached to their chests.
Moments later, Grosshak pilots the star galleon right up to the decrepit star base and pulls alongside. A hatch in the front of the Blackmoore Stingray opens, and a gangplank extends toward a hatch on the base’s exterior. Grosshak and Gommesh charge across the plank and, notably, the surrounding void of space seems to have no effect on them whatsoever. Grosshak (who is a tall, muscular reptilian humanoid) tries to open the hatch by force, but Gommesh uses a device, which he wires to the door’s controls, to open it. The Alternates follow close behind, crossing the plank through space without any sort of space suits, etc.
Obviously, the space-faring technology of the Ascendant Empire is optimized to make for the coolest scenes.
Inside, the team finds the base itself is run-down and seemingly abandoned. Some lights flicker in the hall, and boxes and crates are stacked about. At the end of the hall, a small group of space pirates see the heroes coming and shout out an alert. “Oh snarg!” the pirate says. “They’re here! Get the guns!”
The pirates attack, lead by an enormous pirate the others call “Big Boss” whose arm, leg, and eye have all been replaced by metal prosthetics. Grosshak calls for the Alternates to take out the guy with the “Cybonics,” which is apparently what they call cybernetic augments in this part of space.
The Alternates end up fighting about a dozen space pirates, and they clearly have the upper hand. Jersey Devil uses his strange teleportation powers to wield his “photon cutlasses” with blinding speed. Kid Radical ends up “hacking” Big Boss’s cybonics, causing them to malfunction, making the brute a lot easier to defeat.
However, Dr. Comet, still forgoing use of her powers so she can appear like an “average” Benedouli alien (see last episode’s recap for details), is having problems using her “mass blaster” against the pirates. As per usual, her frustration boils over, and she overloads the futuristic pistol with her ice magic and tosses it into a crowd of pirates. It explodes with dramatic effect, completely blowing half a dozen pirates all over the place, and also burning several of her allies in the process.
After the pirates are defeated, the team hear Starshadow from down the hallway. When he realizes the coast is clear, Starshadow intangibly walks through the bars of his makeshift jail cell. (He, too, is pretending he doesn’t have any superpowers so he can pass as one of the human-like Benedouli aliens.) He explains he was hoping to learn more about these pirates who kidnapped him, but didn’t find anything out while waiting for his “rescue.”
The team turn the decrepit base upside down for clues, but only find a digital record with several sets of coordinates on it. Gommesh suggests they might be coordinates for other pirate bases. However, Starshadow tells them they don’t have time to track down those leads right now - they must get back to House Blackmoore’s estate, the astral dome called “Nevermore.”
“Duke Blackmoore” explains along the way that the Thrice-Blessed Emperor’s Naming Day Ball is that very night, and he wants House Blackmoore to make an appearance. He suspects that Duke Sato Malsecretus is behind his kidnapping, and hopes to throw his rival duke off by making a surprise appearance at the party. He also admits all the members of the Alternates as nobles of House Blackmoore so that they will be welcomed at the party as well.
Starshadow has another request for them - talk to the other nobles at the party and try to figure out why some of the other major houses are putting their weight behind Duke Sato to be the next Emperor, and see if they can win more support for Duchess Trova Mariatus instead. It won’t be a simple task, but Starshadow hopes luck might be on their side.
Dr. Comet chafes at the suggestion that she has to have some noble title to be respected, saying that “Professor” should be enough. Starshadow explains that the Ascendant Empire is something of a meritocracy, and all the best scientists and industrialists are scooped up and initiated into noble houses. Thus, a scientists without a noble title must not be a very good scientists. Dr. Comet seems to see the sense in that, and so she agrees to be Professor Eminent, High Minister Diana Aster.
Jersey Devil says that he wants to be the royal food taster, but Starshadow explains that sort of thing would be considered really odd in that culture - to have someone to volunteer to be poisoned for you. But Jersey Devil retorts, “No, I just want to be the first one to taste all the food.” He is given the noble title Lord Chemist and Master of Security, Sir Leeds, Esquire.
Quasar Kid chooses Fargo, Lord Puissant of Calidamus, as Starshadow suggests he would get along well with the people on Calidamus.
Cytoblast is Sir Willoughby Sattler, Lord High Botanist and Kid Radical, after first suggesting “Lord Hot Dog,” becomes Baron Radicliffe, Lord High Doge of Cybonics.
The crew arrives at Nevermore, and Starshadow shows them around a bit, introducing them to other important people in House Blackmoore. There are few Benedouli on the station, as it seems House Blackmoore has invited a wide variety of alien races into their ranks. The team all go to quarters set aside for them and change into a variety of outlandish suits and gowns for the Emperor’s Naming Day Ball, although Dr. Comet does pull a few of the more ostentatious ornaments off her “supernova gravitational wave” themed gown.
The Alternates all board House Blackmoore’s most elaborate starship for the trip to Benevolence, the capital astral dome of the Ascendant Empire.
The team arrives at the ball, which is being held in an enormous, elaborate ballroom which looks to be about the size of a football stadium. The ceiling is an enormous lobed dome of glass which looks out onto a glowing blue gas giant. Various terrariums of flowers and trees adorn the room, along with a variety of works of art from different cultures.
When the party from House Blackmoore arrives, an older man in elaborate robes flanked by two stern-faced bodyguards approaches them. “Duke Blackmoore!” he says. “I had heard a rumor that you were dead, my friend!”
“No, only that some people wish I were dead, your Eminence,” Starshadow replies. He briefly introduces the heroes as members of House Blackmoore from the Bleak Reaches, and then introduces the older man as the Thrice-Blesssed Emperor, Deciotitus. The emperor, of course, has other people to greet, and parts ways with the group.
Once the Emperor is gone, Starshadow looks around at the Alternates and says, “Alright, this is just like all those fancy parties you’ve been to on Earth, so act naturally.”
The Alternates all turn to him and give Starshadow a variety of odd looks askance (as if to say, “What fancy parties?”).
Starshadow nods nervously. “Yeah, me neither. Uhm… just do your best and mingle.”
The band strikes up a tune as the Alternates start to mingle with the partygoers, and the camera pans up through the glass done of Benevolence as the song “Ballrooms of Mars” by T. Rex plays and the credits roll.
Final Thoughts
Star pirate fights, crazy space nobles, and lots of different aliens in the background! This episode is a space opera dream! Let’s get right to my nerdy notes:
- The song “Ballrooms of Mars” is a wonderful glam rock song that really captures the mood of the end of the episode for me, plus the name matches up pretty well with that final scene. The music selections for the credits sequence of this show always reveal a little extra.
- Oh and “Upon the Hill of Stars” (the title of the episode) is a lyric from the song “Ballrooms of Mars.”
- We get to see Highwire in action - he looks like a circus performer with electric whips? There’s a lot going on there, but I guess they tried to stretch dual meanings out of the name “Highwire.”
- Next episode - Hippocampus versus Freedom Train? I hope we’re that lucky!
- The way the Alternates worry about the laws of physics whereas Grosshak and Gommesh have no concerns about jumping through space without so much as a helmet is a funny way to illustrate how the old space adventure stories dealt with things like gravity and the cold vacuum of space and… y’know, science in general.
-
Dr. Comet’s personality really shines through in this episode, between her frustration with her space gun to her insistence that her academic prowess should be important enough, the writers really favored her this episode.
- In the next episode, I think we’ll get to see the Alternates try to socialize with highfalutin, stuffy, and possibly pompous alien nobles whose culture they barely understand! That oughta be good!
That’s all for this recap. Join me next week for a recap of Episode #18, entitled “Here We Are, Born to Be Kings.” See you then!
Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.
Running the Game!
This is last week's game, so the recap is over a week late, but I hope to catch up this week and post a recap this weekend. I'm not really busy, I've just been playing way too much Stellaris. Waaaaay too much Stellaris. And Animal Crossing. But mostly Stellaris.
So, the secret for this recap is that I totally screwed up the game itself. I didn't have the opening vignette ready, so I wrote that after the game and sent it to my players. I made the first pirate fight way too long, so I didn't have time to do the ballroom scene at the end, like I planned it. So, the game itself ended very awkwardly, and then I wrote some stuff to make it feel more like a television episode ending. And I ran it past my players before I made it "official" (which is part of the delay, too). I also end every game by actually playing the "End Credits song" for my players (because I pick music that captures a certain mood for reflection on what happened during that game), and I totally forgot to play "Ballrooms of Mars" for them. And T. Rex is one of my favorite bands, so I was extra sad.
I've said it before - framing this whole thing as an animated television show gives us the feeling of "wide permission" to retcon and rewrite and rehash details, and the Recaps provide the "official canon" for what happened during that episode. So when we need to remember something, we can always go back to the Recaps!
Most importantly, admit your mistakes, come clean on your failings, and work with your players to fix them.
Also, even if you're not doing a television show, I strongly suggest using the framework of "writing a comic book issue" or any other sort of meta framework when running this game. Obviously, the comic book setting lends itself to that, but it really adds so much flavor and so much freedom to the game. I wouldn't exactly run a D&D game like this, maybe, because there are a different set of expectations at a Dungeons & Dragons session, BUT... I will say running this game this way will strongly influence how I run games in the future. The whole "Writers' Room" feel of our game has really made it 200% more fun (I measured and this number is accurate).
That's all for this Recap. I think this week's game was really phenomenal, so the next Recap will hopefully be a fun read!
Thanks again for reading and keeping up with the Alternates!