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| Motorheads, sportos, geeks, sluts, bloods, they all think Damien Chaos is a righteous dude |
After a long hiatus, I finally got to run Action Movie World again! Last night, we played a sequel to the Cop movie "Satan's Game." The first installment revolved around a plot by a manic cult to addict a city to destructive drugs. During play, I decided one of the supporting henchman, Damien Chaos (Michael Ironside) was a Manson-style bigamist and serial killer. But he didn't really get to do much, as he was vaporized in a magnificent barfight explosion. I thought it might be fun to have his wives try to avenge his death (and also include all the campy Eighties elements I didn't get to bring to bear in the previous game).
The cast was as follows:
- Anna Citizen as Kelly Bishop, City Accountant turned. P.I. (Gina / Thespian / Lead)
- Javier Simpson as Faustino Ramirez, Ex-Cop turned P.I. (Jerry / Smartass)
- Chase Brody as Damien Grace, Smooth Operator Cop (Greg /Smooth Operator). Greg wanted to try out a new Playbook, so he gave the Smooth Operator a shot.
- Berkeley Blower as Captain Angus Bellows (Bill / Yeller)
- Benjamin Baird as Sgt. John Cobb, SWAT (Frank / Gunslinger). Cobb was straight-up killed in the last game and the player asked if he could come back for the sequel with absolutely no explanation as to why or how. Of course I said yes.
This game was intended as a riff on the Satanic roleplaying scares of the Eighties, popularized by Mazes & Monsters and Pat Pulling. The plot is literally about a Satanic cult using a roleplaying game to turn kids into homicidal psychopaths. The story opens with a bunch of kids playing an RPG called Mazelord in a footbridge tunnel. After rolling a critical failure, one of them (I described him as Troy from Final Sacrifice) goes berserk and starts killing all the other kids. Combine with a montage of a mysterious female biker gang driving into the city to the tune of blaring (and dangerous) rock music. Roll opening credits!
The scene opens a year after the events of the first movie. Kelly Bishop has been training with Damien Grace in the style of Terminator 2. Where she was "all girly" (Gina's words, not mine) in the previous movie, now she's buff and ready for combat. Bishop and Faust have opened a private investigation firm and are trying to get their business off the ground. Bishop has a conversation with Lana Williams (Pamela Hensley), the Channel 5 news reporter from the previous movie, about these "Mazelord Murders" that are rocking the city. High school and college kids have gone berserk with the rock music and pretending to be elves!
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| Lana Williams (Pamela Hensley) |
Blower, who is tailing Grace to keep tabs on his bad behavior, runs into Patsy Meddles, my own take on Pat Pulling. She's played by Edie McClurg and runs MAM (Mothers Against Mazelord). She reveals her son Dwight (Eddie Deezen) runs a game shop and she fears for his life because of "this awful game." Blower promises to investigate on her behalf.
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| Yes, Lilith Chaos wore sunglasses. Yes, we made jokes about her being a lizard person. |
The investigation eventually leads Bishop, Cobb and Faust to an occult bookstore, which I named the Albigensian Heresy. ("I have no idea what the fuck that is," said one player.) They interrogate the proprietor about Mazelord, who assures them snootily that "imagination is not a crime" and that Mazelord could not turn kids into murderers. Shortly thereafter. Lilith Chaos and a group of bikers show up outside and assault Bishop and Faust.
Faust fails a One-Liner roll and then fails his ensuing Stunt. I judge Lilith wraps a chain around his neck and starts dragging him behind her motorcycle. Faust's player asks if he can "just die" and I say sure. Faust is horribly beheaded, Jerry collects 2 XP and becomes the Stunt Coordinator. Bishop, traumatized, lays into the bikers with her sword (!) Vengeance move against Lilith is now in play. (But is Lilith the villain? Not really! More on that soon.)
Cobb (who, by the way, has been dressing like a ninja and sharpening his knives at every opportunity this entire time) throws a knife to support Bishop. I decide the proprietor is in on the attack, and he brains the cop with a heavy copy of Frazer's Golden Bough. Lilith manages to get away, but the rest of the bikers are cut down. In the shop, Cobb discovers some mysterious green ink, which he deduces is being used in the printing of the Mazelord books. The green ink is "Lids," the psychoactive drug from the first movie. Mazelord really is turning kids into crazed killers!
After Faust's funeral, the group decides to end this once and for all. Gina rolls a Soliloquy move for her Thespian and declares the biker gang is holed up in the Church of Holy Waters, the location where the last movie ended. Cool, this will really keep the budget down! The PCs make a frontal assault in Action Movie World style. Bishop drives her truck into the church and starts a fight with Lilith. Outside, Grace and Blower begin mowing down bikers, but a "succeed at cost" roll from Grace means a biker rocket-bombs his Ferrari and blows it to smithereens. "Can I have a Vengeance move for my Ferrari?" the player asks.
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| Tragically not appearing in this episode: Eddie Deezen |
The highlight of the battle comes when Cobb's character picks up an assault rifle, takes five harm, and is gunned down in exactly the same fashion as the first movie. He's even standing in the exact same place. 2 XP for Frank.
There's even the same soundtrack and the same flock of doves flying into the sky. Bishop finishes off Lilith with her sword. The remaining bikers are killed or driven off, and we pull back from the wreckage of the burning Church of Holy Waters. The threat is over... or is it?
Cut to a final scene. Bishop is packing up Faust's personal belongings at the P.I. office. Lana Williams, the reporter who has been Bishop's only friend, stops by to see how Bishop is holding up. She drops off a file with information on the Brides of Chaos. "Turns out there was one last Bride," Williams explains, "the mastermind behind the whole thing."
Bishop opens the file. Inside is information on Clytemnestra Chaos, the right hand of Damien Chaos. The picture is of Lana Williams. Bishop hears the click of a revolver hammer being drawn back. Stealth villain! This was the unveiling of the "villain reveals she has been in disguise the entire time" move.
"Do you really want it to go down this way?" Bishop asks, looking at her gun lying in the desk drawer.
"You take what you can get," says Clytemnestra.
The players decide the session ends there, with a hard cut to black and the sound of a gunshot.
Mechanical Notes
- This was my second session running with a Smooth Operator in the group, and I have to say that playbook isn't my favorite. I find the harm-nullifying move kind of disruptive and drab. But it's not a game-breaker by any means, and as long as the players are having fun, I'm fine with it.
- I put together some custom moves for this game (here's the actor script if you want it), which ended up with mixed results in execution. I need more practice making them fit the "feel" of the game.
- Camaraderie went almost totally ignored this game, except to bump it to 3 and leave it there for the bonus XP. That's becoming by far the most common use of Camaraderie in our group.
The players are already anxious for Satan's Game 3!
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