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Thursday, January 21, 2016

Mini Adventure -- Fully Clothed Lunch

I’ve recently re-read Naked Lunch and was inspired to design another 90-minute adventure. I have ran it six times in different schools this year and it was a whole lot of crazy fun each time. To avoid the Gor kerfuffle from two years ago, let me start by stating that Naked Lunch is absolutely, totally and utterly unsuitable for children (or adults for that matter). However, between the plethora of degrading drug abuse, underage sodomy and murder for sexual gratification, there are several nifty game ideas. I have used one paragraph from the entire novel for this adventure and even this one was heavily altered. Please don't taze me, bros.

So, with that hot plate out of the way, let’s get to the juicy part:

Background
The PCs are agents of an unnamed and unknowable organization. They are sent to stop a conspiracy about which they are given absolutely no information. Their mission starts in a city on the border triangle of Mexico, Morocco and a colony of insects from another galaxy, in an Aztec-themed café called “The Café Tangier.” The Café Tangier is owned by a giant centipede and is serviced by two young women who never speak and two rude cockroaches. The crowd consists of half a dozen rowdy American marines on vacation and two British snobs who make snide remarks on everything they see.

Across the street, the muezzin is summoning the faithful for prayer. Near the mosque, a demonstration of six-foot ants is restrained by the Mexican police. No one knows what they want since no one speaks Insect. However, everyone is assuming the worst and urges the police to shoot the ants.

Character Generation
Choose one one of the following agent types. Then write down one primary skill, two secondary skills and something you're afraid of or are very bad at.
Senders: telepaths who can put secret chips into people in order to telepathically control them. Chips must either enter the blood stream via an injection or be ingested.
Liquifcationists: cannibalistic maniacs who can liquefy objects and people by spewing powerful acid. They can then assumed the shape and personality of their victims for a short period of time.
Dividers: freaks who can divide into new persons as much as they like. However, each division has a 1-in-6 chance of dying on the spot. New persons are not always identical to the original or friendly towards the party. In fact, they are not always human.
Writers: normal people who are able to tell weird things from normal things and can subsequently understand all creatures and languages on an intuitive level. Only an insane person would play a writer.

System
When facing various challenges, roll three dice for your primary skill, two dice for your secondary skills and one die for everything else. If you have an advantage, add an additional blue die and substitute your lowest roll with it. If you have a disadvantage, add a red die and substitute your highest roll with it.

Combat tests are opposed checks. The party that rolls the highest wins. Weapon and armor grant additional dice according to GM discretion. Yeah, it’s super deadly, but it’s not really an action game, so deal with it.

Source: QunteroART

What’s Going On?
The insects conspired with the General to poison the water supply with a poison that causes humans to have insect children. The general and his allies believe that humans are belligerent, fragile and bigoted. Therefore it’s in both human and insect interest for everyone to eventually become an insect.
If the PCs don't uncover the conspiracy within 90 minutes, the General and his centipede allies will win. This may, or may not, be a bad thing, depending on PC morality. Surprisingly, I've had some vehement argument on this subject.

Who's Who?
  • The ants are supportive of this endeavor in theory, but don't know any details and are not part of the conspiracy. Their demonstration is in fact against police brutality, not against humanity in general. The ants are pacifists and will not fight anyone under any circumstances. 
  • The police are violently bigoted against insects and will not stand in the way of anyone who wishes to harm an insect. On the other hand, anyone who shows sympathy to the insects is pushed into the ant demonstration and is instantly accepted by the ants as one of their own, which in turn causes to the police and the citizens to treat this person as if they were an ant as well.
  • The general commands the army, which includes one sniper dodging from rooftop to rooftop and tens of fairly harmless office workers. His safe contains two jugs provided by the centipedes – one contains deadly poison that kills instantly and the other contains poison that alters DNA in order to turn human babies into insects.
  • The centipedes are the true power behind the conspiracy. They operate out of a flying saucer parked in the jungle east of the city since they are not allowed into the city. The bar owner is a high-ranking member of the conspiracy and the only centipede tolerated within city limits. If he suspects the PCs are getting near the truth, he will take his cockroaches and attack the party when it least expects it. 
  • The waitresses are also aware of this conspiracy but, being mute and illiterate, they have a problem communicating this information. However, investigation will reveal that the two are mute due to being part of the cult of the Holy Blood that forbids its members to speak with anyone except for the leader of the cult, señor Alejandro. 
  • Señor Alejandro is an old narcissist whose cult consists solely of women who are not allowed to speak with anyone except for him. However, if the PCs bribe or scare him, he will agree to allow them to speak with the women through him.
  • The Americans can be easily persuaded to go to war against any of the above parties provided the PCs speak with enough zeal and conviction. However, there is a 50% chance they will call a massive bombing of the area, just to be sure.
  • The British will not help anyone with anything. They will only fight in self defense, which is quite likely since they make it their business to belittle anyone who approaches them.

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