Free RPG Day 2018 - Silver Screaming with Steve James & Friends

I wasn't planning on doing a recap for this game originally, but it was just too good not to share some bits and pieces of the event. I was so nervous that my first game following our move would be a complete bust, but it turned out to be such a fun session. One of those kinds of games where the players are riffing off of the GM's ideas, and everyone is totally involved with the storytelling, and there are smiles all around.

So good!

Last month I let you all know that I was moving to the Philadelphia area, Glen Mills to be more specific. Well we're here, and we're still unpacking, and at this point I don't think we'll ever be done unpacking. 

But just because our apartment is completely filled to the brim, doesn't mean that we didn't want to miss Free RPG Day! I reached out to The Games Keep in West Chester, PA, and found out that they would be participating in the festivities. I offered to run some Dungeon Crawl Classics, and reserved a table. 

For my Road Crew offering, I ran Forrest Aguirre's Beyond the Silver Scream, albeit highly modified. While it wasn't my intention to break the original plot of the adventure, my players were just coming up with too many cool ideas about their characters' backstories. 

Cast of Characters

• Ryan: Turd Ferguson, I. P. Freely
• Robert: Gomer, Tonya (Skater), Frank
• Rob: Lars, Charlie
• Will: Todsworth Stevens, Steve Jones III
• Carrie: Mateo, Gray
• Evie: Duke Willington, Mating Marty, Steph
• Cody: Leopold McMaster, Todd Chadstein, Butch 

Character Tidbits 

I used these to heavily flavor the adventure, and alter the plot.

• Steve Jones III was searching for his missing father, and somehow had the ability to detect his dad's genetic material by tasting blood.
• Lars carried around a shield made out of a Yield Sign (Yield Shield?). Stealing this shield was the first of his three trials needed to join the "CCPR", or "Card Carrying Punk Rocker's" Organization/Guild. Each trial required Lars to break a law with witnesses.
• I. P. Freely, a movie geek, was so into the movie Die Hard that he didn't wear shoes.
• For all intents and purposes, "Tonya" was Tonya Harding. She carried a sharpened ice skate as a weapon initially, but preferred bludgeoning devices so that she could "go for the knee."

Adventure Overview

• The session opened up in the year "198X" (read that as "nineteen eighty ex"). I didn't want to be too specific as to "when" in the eighties the game took place, only that it did.
• The PC's had all gathered in a small Oklahoma movie theater to watch a screening of Aliens. 
• During the screening of the movie, several PC's noticed a young lady get abducted from the front row by a really long, robed arm coming out from the side of the screen.
• The party followed the robed figure to the alley behind the theater where they found a mystical parked van blasting Blue Oyster Cult, adorned with a bitching warrior & wizard mural and bone handles.
• The van itself was a dangerous adversary! The warrior on the side attacked with an axe, and grabbing the bone handles caused corruption. Even the wizard could shoot cold ice at targets. The shag carpeting inside the van could turn into grappling vines.
• The party overwhelmed the van's defenses. The axe-wielding, two dimensional warrior fell off the vehicle, dropping his axe. Lars picked up the enchanted axe, a weapon that he could either carry in his hand, or wear as a tattoo. 
• Mateo grappled the warrior, picking him up, rolling his two dimensional form into a ball, and carrying him in his pocket.
• Leopold jumped into the van, turning it off before it could cause anymore harm.
• While it appeared that the robed man had fled to the vehicle, the van was empty sae for an open portal in the floor leading to an inter-dimensional well.
• Traveling down the well, the party dealt with a cultist before discovering a spinning demon head mechanism. Without realizing it, by messing with the rotating demon heads, the party changed the target of the inter-dimensional well. No longer did it face Earth, but instead a myriad of fantastic worlds.
• The rooms near the demon heads led to several arcane chambers:
• A shrine of magical car keys that could summon mural-adorned vans. Nine remained, and one was obviously missing.
• A giant face that led to a trash chute. Later, when fantasy world natives Butch and Steph appeared, it was revealed that this chute was an escape route for those trying to flee the Master Wizard.
• An armory of two dimensional weapons guarded by a pair of armored worm guards. Actually, the guards were worm-like creatures inside human armor. I added this tidbit just for kicks.
• A portal to the Master Wizard's shrine.
• Once in the Master Wizard's shrine, the party realized that the robed figure was about to sacrifice Stacy, the woman he had stolen from the screening of Aliens. 
• During the last scene, the Master Wizard revealed himself to be Steve James II, the father of Steve James III. The Master Wizard convinced his son to join him. 
• There was a brief standoff where Tonya held Steve James III hostage to try and force Master Wizard Steve James II to surrender Stacy. Steve James II unleashed some magic cold to blast Tonya, and Steve James III continued to run to his dad.
• Butch, the former barber/executioner of the Master Wizard's lieutenants, got his revenge on his former lord by chucking a bottle at Steve James III, killing him instantly. Yay PVP!
• The party won a crazy pitched battle against the Master Wizard and his cultist minions. Once the wizard was defeated, the structure started to collapse, and the party fled outside, only to find themselves in an open field on a weird fantasy world. 

Open Story Points

• Just who are the Card Carrying Punk Rockers (aka, the CCPR), and has Lars completed the required Three Acts of Vandalism necessary to join the holy order?
• We know that both Steve James II and Steve James III have been destroyed, but what happened to Steve James the First? 
• What will become of Stacy, the woman the party rescued from the clutches of Master Steve James II?
• Player Will kept saying that certain aspects of the game were "so metal." But can we get MORE metal next game? 

Character Crematorium 

• Gomer
• Mr. HiBald
• Todd Chadstein
• Duke Willington
• Leopold McMaster
• Mating Marty
• Butch
• Steve James III
• Gray
• Steph
• I. P. Freely 

What's Next?

I want to make this a monthly thing! I'm thinking of continuing next month with Sky ov Crimson Flame as both an adventure and ongoing mini-campaign. Those who survived this first session can level their PC's, while new players would get a 1st level character.