Tales from the Rocket House
Actually, you can write up an adventure like a movie treatment, with a brief page or two about the cast and a general outline of the plot, so long as you do not hold the players too tightly to your premade plot, and be all right. After all, this type of game does involve a non-trivial degree of consensual railroading. Everybody needs to be upfront about it (if you look at columns 28 and 29, you'll see what I'm talking about), and everybody needs to be okay with it, or the experience will be bad.
So forgive me if I write this up with a lot of “the players will do X” type statements. Understand that if the players have a different idea, roll with it. Adapt the plot to meet them where they are. Part of keeping the pace up is not letting the players' choices lead them to dead ends. Give them the clues they need, or just change the plot on the fly so what they're doing takes them toward the action (toward the “fun parts”) rather than away.
The players, through their characters, are the stars, so warp “reality” (the plot) to fit their actions, whenever possible. Don't let them run into dead ends, and don't take control over their actions. Make the “road rise up to meet them,” as the old Irish Blessing says, rather than letting them wander off into nothing, or forcing them back to the path.
If you're not used to thinking on your feet, practice can help. Another thing that can help you think on your feet is to consider some of the possible ways the players might go “off the rails,” and brainstorm ways you might get the adventure to come to them. Even if the players wander off in a direction you didn't anticipate, having run through several possibilities in your head will generate several possible solutions. One of them might fit, and even if it doesn't, you at least have the brainstorming practice.
In the worst case, if you get stumped, take a break, go to the restroom, or go get a drink from the fridge – give yourself a couple of minutes to think of something. If that doesn't work, talk to the players and get them to help you. They are, after all, your friends. You're all in this together to have a fun time, so get them to help if you get stuck.
Five Swords Against the Darkness
Five warriors, representing the five Elements, must face a demoniacal Vampire Lord and his inner circle to save their city from a supernaturally violent “crime wave” and a young child from a fate worse than death. The genre is wire-fu martial arts mixed with urban fantasy (vampires these days are rarely played for horror, anyway, and most of the vampire stuff we see and read falls into the urban fantasy category, if not the supernatural romance category).
Character Outlines:
These are given as guidelines, and can be altered by the players to whatever degree they want. The only requirement is that each character be skilled at fighting in a way that relates to his or her element, and that one of them have a infant or toddler sibling, niece/nephew, or child living within the city and in regular close contact.
Water (Lisa Han): A young woman whose parents own a martial arts school. She’s even-tempered, with an ability to laugh at herself and disarm tense situations. She’s leader material. She fights with sweeps, holds, throws, and also knows how to use knives and swords.
Wind (Nikolos Stavros): A smallish, young man. He’s intense, but not unstable. He’s really into martial arts, particularly speed-based martial arts like Jeet Kune Do, or striking arts like Muay Thai. He fights with an extremely fast striking style. He’s a direct descendant of the Vampire Lord, and his little sister is the VL’s target. He’s clean-cut and very intense.
Fire (Linda Bleys): A fiery, tough-minded female cop who fights with a hard-hitting, no frills style. She’s used to working in a traditionally male profession, so she’s basically tried to be twice as tough as the boys. It’s worked. She’s used to being in charge, but also being part of a hierarchy and strictly obeying rules.
Earth (Jack Duggan): A big man, maybe a former soldier, now a bouncer. He’s really solid, the kind of guy who puts up with a lot, but doesn’t budge. He’s a brawler, the kind of guy they’d cast a pro wrestler to play if this were a movie. His style is power, but with skill – he knows how to take people off their feet and control them on the ground.
No-Thing (Mason), Their mentor an old vampire hunter who knows all the secrets of the vampires and has been pursuing this vampire lord his entire life. He has a large scar on his face from when he “caught” the vampire lord, who ripped his face open and left him alive, just for kicks). He keeps referring to himself as “nothing,” and saying things like “I’m nothing.” He teaches them about the elements and their powers, which eventually become borderline supernatural, allowing them to defeat the vampires.
The Vampires:
The vampire lord plans to sacrifice the child in order to raise an army of zombies, ghouls, and monsters which will make him the most powerful vampire of all. The fact that the city will be devastated, if not utterly destroyed, is a bonus. To do this, he needs a child that is descended from his mortal bloodline. The vampire lord’s inner circle are four supernatural fighters, and he can make more vampires as cannon fodder if he needs to.
The Regular Vampires:
Newly-created vampires are held under the VL’s sway; he made them, so he commands them. The Mentor says the only way to return them to normal is to kill the Vampire Lord, the first of their bloodline. They’re not very powerful, and can be beaten down with unarmed attacks (it just takes a lot of unarmed power to do it).
The Inner Circle Vampires:
Dark Water: The poisonous flower, Dark Water is a deceptively delicate warrior. She uses razor-sharp metal fans, poisoned daggers, and even a naginata to dispatch her victims. She prefers never to drink directly, but to drain her victims’ blood into a cup and sip it delicately. She’s incredibly intelligent, cunning, and ruthless, second only to the Vampire Lord himself . . . and she’s sort of his mate, as much as vampires go in for that kind of thing.
Dark Wind: A brutal, animalistic vampire who hunts savagely and without mercy. He can outrun a car, but he usually paces himself, herding his victims into dark alleys where he disposes of them in privacy. He’s seen in the opening scene. There’s nothing stupid about him, though he operates more on instinct than conscious thought sometimes.
Dark Fire: (Dora McLean) A mercenary and demolitions expert, she was a survivalist contract killer who worked with torture states all over the Third World before the VL made her immortal. Her fighting style is direct and brutal, and she loves modern weapons.
Dark Earth: (Turos) A primitive looking giant, like some kind of unholy, undead tribal warrior. The Vampire Lord is the Alpha Male to him, and he doesn’t give him any trouble. Dark Earth is loyal and devastatingly effective. He’s all but indestructible and has been known to use small cars as weapons. He’s not slow, either, despite his appearance.
The Vampire Lord: Lord Telios Phaeton Stavros
Dracula-ish, basically any vampire lord from any cool vampire movie; especially the one from Vampire Hunter D. He’s cunning, arrogant, machiavellian, extremely powerful, and condescending. He’s very suave, with impeccable taste (a little flamboyant). He’s rich and doesn’t mind showing it. He probably has a sword-cane, and a very ornate, silver-plated or pearl-handled firearm. A quote: “All things move towards their appointed ending. The fates guide us all. In that you can trust.”
The Story
Part One: Gathering the Elements:
Introductory Scene: Earth and Fire:
Earth is sitting at the door of the bar he works at, telling a story about a pale guy who got a chair broken over his head and didn’t even flinch. Says he must have been on PCP or something. A teenaged girl runs past the bar, obviously terrified and fleeing for her life. Earth stands up and looks after her. He sees a dark, shadowy blur blast past. At this point, Earth should do something, like tell the bartender to call the cops and run after the girl and the blur.
Fire, the cop, is driving the squad car with her partner. They get the emergency call, which is right on top of them. Fire parks the car. The partner sees the girl running past, then, as he’s opening his door, a dark form, almost like a shadow. Fire’s partner gets out and chases after them as they run into an alley. At this point, Fire should do something, like drawing her gun and following. She’s behind the wheel and has to go around the car, so she gets there a little too late…unless the player thinks of something that would trim the time or get her there faster
Earth has just about caught up to the cop car when we hear a shriek, a woman’s scream, and a man’s scream. Fire turns into the alley and levels her gun. The girl is standing against the wall, screaming in terror. A shadowy figure is holding the broken remains of Fire’s partner against the wall, hissing and shrieking. If Fire shoots him, it will not drop him. The vampire turns and looks at her. Earth turns the corner behind Fire, his huge frame dwarfing hers. The vampire glances around, then runs in the other direction, vanishing into the shadows in the alley.
At this point, most likely Fire will check on her partner and Earth will check on the girl, or one or both may pursue the vampire. The vampire is Dark Wind, and is too fast, and will get away. Fire’s partner looks like he was torn apart by a wild animal. The girl is in shock from the traumatic events she’s witnessed, but she’s physically unharmed. This whole exchange took only seconds. Fire’s partner never even had time to fire his gun.
Introductory Scene: Water and Wind
Clear the actions with the players first, of course. The situation is set – after the martial arts class, with several of the advanced students standing around talking – but don’t dictate the player characters’ actions.
Across the city, class is letting out in the dojo Water’s parents own. Water is working out, going through a kata with a pair of wooden Chinese broadswords, in a corner of the large practice room while several of the advanced students are standing around talking. Wind is among them. He’s one of the best students in the striking-oriented class, and knows it. These students are all young and male, and so they’re talking smack about how tough they are, how fast they are. Wind says “prove it,” and shuts them up by moving almost twice as fast as they can. After showing them up, Wind says something (loudly) about being “the best that ever was” or “I’m the greatest.”
Wind looks around him, hoping the teacher didn’t hear that last one. The only other person besides the group of students there is Water. She smiles coyly. Wind glances away, embarrassed. “Really,” Water says softly, “can you show me?” The other students kind of push him forward, and one says “be careful, that’s master Liu’s daughter.” Water puts down her swords and they meet in the middle of the dojo.
They bow and start sparring. Wind is much faster, but Water moves so smoothly he can’t seem to get any advantage. Water tries a few of her moves, and they work, but Wind recovers so quickly that not only do they have no real effect, they don’t even make him look bad – sometimes he recovers from the throw before he even hits the ground!
Wind and Water don’t notice it, but Dark Water has slipped into the dojo very quietly and has taken a seat in the observing area where parents wait to pick up the students too young to drive themselves to class. She smiles slightly and watches them spar. After a few more futile passes at each other, Wind and Water step back and bow. “Its seems we are at an impasse,” Water says. “Let’s call it a draw,” Wind answers, “good game.” Wind extends his hand. “Yes, good game,” Water says, shaking Wind’s hand. “Yes,” Dark Water says to herself, standing and applauding silently, “good game, both of you.” With that she turns to leave.
The other students come over to where Wind and Water are. Wind asks Water “you know her?” Water says “No, I’ve never seen her before.” By then the other students are there, most of them talking about how hot she was (Dark Water was wearing a very flattering, form-fitting silk dress. It was modest in that it didn’t show any skin or reveal too much detail, but what it did show was wow).
Adventure Outline
Note: At each “stage” in the adventure, each training session, each major battle, the PC's elemental powers should increase somewhat, from basically nothing at the start to fully equal to the Inner Circle vampires (and strong enough to stand against the vampire lord) at the end.
To begin with, they all encounter the vampires, or at least hear of them peripherally (the introductory scenes, above).
The mentor contacts them all separately, telling them to meet him at a certain time at Earth’s bar if they want answers. They do . . . and he’s arranged for them all to be there at the same time. He explains everything to them. They’re hesitant to believe him, but they really don’t know what else to do. He explains that he believes they are all the chosen heroes, destined to destroy the vampire lord. He also explains that his family has been hunting this vampire lord for centuries, waiting for a time when all the great elements would align against him. The Mentor explains that he believes they are Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water, and that together they can destroy the vampire lord. Since they’ve all got a stake in it (the child the Vampire Lord wants is Wind’s little sister), they (hopefully) agree to at least meet with him again.
It turns out the vampires were spying on them, and attack that night as soon as the mentor has left. The vampires are just regular ones, and not very many of them, though Dark Water watches from the shadows, taking it all in. The four should win, barely, by working together. They decide they don’t have much of a chance, but they don’t have a choice, either; they’ve got to work together.
The PC's work with the Mentor, who trains them to master their elements. They have a couple of more run-ins with vampires, and this time they learn to defeat the basic mook-level vampires.
Darkfire goes after the PC's, setting a bomb in the loft the mentor rented for them to train in. The mentor has an intuition, and they escape just before the blast goes off. Darkfire tries to kill them with sniper shots, but they escape . . . right into the waiting arms of Darkearth and Darkwind. They barely manage to escape by working together, 5 on 2, to defeat the Inner Circle vampires. Most likely, they will not be able to destroy either of the Inner Circle vampires, but if the players are really sharp, don't steal a victory from them. It's okay if they kill one or both of them, though Darkwind will run away too fast to follow if it looks like he's starting to lose.
That day, the mentor finishes teaching them everything he knows. He say he hopes he’s unlocked enough of their inner strength for them to succeed, because tonight at midnight is the “zero hour.” That night is the big showdown.
Dark Water steals the child and returns (silently) with her to the high-rise where the vampire lord has his headquarters. If the PC's keep the girl with them, all the Inner Circle vampires will attack at once, overwhelming them. Mason gives his life to let the PC's escape, telling them “Midnight at the _____ building! Take my strength with you!” Dark Wind will run off with the child, forcing the PC's to retreat in the other direction and regroup. The Vampire Lord isn't stupid, and he'll send whatever forces are necessary to secure the sacrifice. Besides, the climactic battle kind of needs to happen.
As midnight approaches, the vampire lord’s power grows, and the city takes on a nightmarish hue. People seem to be going mad under a full moon that has turned to blood (well, it’s deep red, at least).
The heroes have to fight their way up the building and onto the roof, where the sacrifice is to take place. On the roof, with a storm brewing in the distance, they battle the Inner Circle. Their powers should have increased to the point that they are beating the inner circle. The vampire lord draws his sword cane and says “I guess if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” and joins the fray.
They fight him and hopefully defeat him, too, rescuing the baby, and foiling his plan. At midnight, the bell tolls, and without the baby to sacrifice, the dark forces the Vampire Lord summoned take his life instead. He ages 1,000 years in a matter of seconds and is destroyed forever. The nightmare sheen vanishes from the city, and the moon turns back to its normal color. The end.
Finishing Thoughts
Like a movie, the PC's should win, and there doesn't need to be a huge amount of suspense and wondering. Unless the players just act like complete idiots, not just standard action movie meatheads, they should win.
Besides, it would feel kind of arbitrary if they lost. No dice, no hard stats, no way to really document why they lost. In action movies, the good guys win, even if sometimes some of them sacrifice their lives to obtain the victory. That's the action movie ending. The fun is in getting there, and making as many memorably cool scenes as possible.
