No comments on my first ever attempt to run the Muppets RPG live for people who don't already know me? No opinion on our guest, Master Chief? (The moment his name was mentioned most of the players tried to gasp and laugh at the same time. There was much coughing as they caught their breath.) Huh. Well, no matter. The show must go on...
Before we started I gave the players and overview of the mechanics and goal/idea of the game. Complete an episode, make everyone laugh yoohoo through their noses and try to find and then follow the general theme or plot of the session. In this case, the players would come to learn from the cold opening that Master Chief believed an alien invasion by the Covenant was coming to wipe out the Muppet Theater. Er...not exactly. Please read on...
Me (As Kermit): "Hi-ho everyone and welcome once again to the Muppet Show. We have a great show for you tonight and our very special guest star is Master Chief of HALO. Yes! So to get things rolling and keep with the theme of interstellar action and adventure, I present to you Muppet Laboratories... "(I do a sweeping arm gesture toward Wit, the fellow playing Bunsen, as a step away a little to the side of the table.)*
Wit (As an incredibly accurate Bunsen): "Well, hello there! I am Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, here at Muppet Labs where the future is being made today. In honor of our guest, I would like to test my latest invention. What you see here is the Muppetronic Augmented Armor Exoskeleton. Here to help me test it is my assistant Beaker. Now Beaker if you'll just step inside the suit..."
(Beaker's player did a damn fine job of not only sounding like Beaker but sounding like him apprehensive. He uttered by a few low Meeps and you totally knew he was not looking forward to getting in that thing.)
"Now, now Beaky I assure it's perfectly safe."
(Beaker climbs in as the Heads-Up-Display activates. The suit asks if the pilot/wearer wants to go to Automatic Mode or Manual Override. Beaker beeps indecisively at first and then give an 'OK' type sound. The computer asks for a code word, he meeps and I (the Director) say, "Code Word Confirmed" without missing a beat. It was all so funny and cool it was like we rehearsed it).
"Excellent", said Bunsen enthusiastically. "Now we will arm the weaponry and defenses and all systems will be online. Perfect. Now Beaker, if you would simply focus the Digital Targeting Array at, um..."
Player #1 (As Sweetums - and again, an excellent imitation): "Excuse me Dr. Honeydew, where do you want this?" (Sweetums' player incidates that the ogre-like Muppet is carrying a thick, metal door with a crude target painted on it.)
Bunsen: "Oh anywhere over here is fine." (he vaguely motioned to where it should go).
(Beaker decides to get a little revenge on Bunsen for all the experiments that have backfired on Beaker. He aims the suit's weaponry at Bunsen and opens fire. Bunsen counters with Oblivious, certain that it's either a glitch or incompetence on Beaker's part.)
Bunsen: "No, no, no Beaker. You are pointing those things the wrong way."
(Sweetums assumes he put the target in the wrong spot so to help he basically walks in front of Bunsen and attempts to, well, block/catch the attacks with the door. When the smoke clears Bunsen is unharmed, the door is dust and the Muppet Labs set is full of holes. Dave says that Beauregard the Janitor pokes his head through one of the gapping holes.)
Beauregard: "Hey guys...your making a mess."
Bunsen: "As you can see the suit still needs some minor adjustments but otherwise it is the ultimate technology for all your personal, military armor needs. Now I'll just press this button and get Beaker out of there." (Presses button).
(Beaker overrides with a synthetically modulated Meep-Meep!)
(Bunsen presses the button again).
(Beaker walks off stage, smashing through things and saying "Meep Bee Bee Me" like he's some kind of super bad ass. Bunsen chases after him).
(Beauregard walks on stage shaking his head.)
Sweetums: "Don't worry Beau. I'll help you clean up."
Next...Backstage with Master Chief
AD
Barking Alien
*I don't sit down while GMing very often. I'm so known for standing up and walking around the table in fact that when I was sitting at one point during the Muppet Show game, another GM, my friend Doug, saw me and said, "He's sitting. Is...is he all right. Are you feeling OK Adam?"
Showing posts with label HALO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HALO. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
MEGA MUPPET MONDAY!!! Part 1
Player 1 (As Scooter): "Master Chief? Master Chief! 15 seconds to curtain Master Chief!"
Director (Me, As Master Chief): "Thanks Skipper."
"Um...That's Scooter sir."
"Sorry. I should remember that. I need to remember that. For when you die."
"*Gulp* Die?"
(Master Chief nods and then turns to a small assembly of various Muppet Custom Characters, Whatnot Pigs, Bunnies, Rats and Chickens.)
"There is an invasion force coming. Very soon, aliens called 'The Covenant' will come down and wipe out this colony. Skitter, what's the name of this colony. My artificial intelligence companion, Cortana, is offline."
"Er...it's Scooter...and this is the Muppet Theater."
"Muppet Theater? Must be running out of good colony names. Cortana's last transmissions were garbled. No matter. We need to prepare for the invasion. Can I count on your help Skimmer?"
"Scooter!"
"I'm not gonna take the time to remember that. After all, you're just gonna die."
(Animal's Player 'drum rolls' on the table with her hands)
(Me, As Kermit - Doing my best Kermit impression): "Ladies and Gentlemen, it's The Muppet Show with our very special guest star...Master Chief from HALO!"
And with that, my Muppet Show RPG event at NerdNYC's RECESS had begun.
The event, planned for 4 hours but running only 3, featured 7 players, each playing 4 Muppets. The theme for this RECESS was video games and so I decided to choose the most visually interesting, inappropriate character I could think of. From out of a very short list, Master Chief emerged victorious.
For the purposes of the RECESS convention I went with pregens, creating almost 30 of the Muppet characters. All were Customs, with Whatnots being used primarily as NPCs unless someone had some good appropriate dialog for one and wanted to take it over for a moment (which happened a few times).
The players consisted of 5 guys between their late 20's-early 30's and 2 girls around 16-18 years of age (I am assuming). The guys were very gung ho about playing a Muppets RPG and did some amazing impressions of the characters. In addition, they were less self conscious, willing to sing (including the opening theme) and generally act silly or crazy. The gals seemed to be at a disadvantage. It definitely appeared they had never played a game like this before (though they were experienced gamers according to their parent/guardian. They were also not as familiar with the characters. This struck me as odd at first until I realized that it's been some time since a 'Muppet Show' of any kind has been one the air.
I apologize to those who played in this scenario for not remembering all your names. As I said, I'm bad with names until I've heard them or said myself several times.
As such I am going to name those I can and simply indicate a Player # for those I can't.
Steve was the performer for:
Gonzo
Scooter
Waldorf
Uncle Deadly
Wit was the performer for:
Bunsen Honeydew
Janice
Sam The Eagle
Lew Zealand
Sophia was the performer for:
Animal*
Crazy Harry*
Big Mean Carl*
Julius Strangepork
Dave was the performer for:
Beauregard
Rizzo
Floyd Pepper
Johnny Fiama and Sal Minella**
Player #1 (I want to say Alton but I may be spelling it wrong) was the performer for:
Dr. Teeth
Sweetums
Link Hogthrob
Pepe the Prawn
Player #2 (Again I apologize. This guy was great too and really excited about being in a Muppets game) was the performer for:
Beaker
Rowlf
Statler
Swedish Chef
Player #3 (The other young lady. I. can't. remember! Gah!) was the performer for:
Miss Piggy
Clifford
Fozzie
Zoot
Tonight, a recap of how we played the music, lit the lights and raised the curtain on the Muppet game...Alright!
AD
Barking Alien
*Usually a Performer can only perform a single Muppet in a single scene. I waved that a bit in the case of Sal and Johnny as long as they didn't appear in a scene at the same time. In other words, if Johnny Fiama is on stage performing and the camera cuts to Sal off stage giving him the thumbs up or saying something encouraging, I'm not going to ask the Performer to spend any Stars.
**Do you see a theme here? O_0
Director (Me, As Master Chief): "Thanks Skipper."
"Um...That's Scooter sir."
"Sorry. I should remember that. I need to remember that. For when you die."
"*Gulp* Die?"
(Master Chief nods and then turns to a small assembly of various Muppet Custom Characters, Whatnot Pigs, Bunnies, Rats and Chickens.)
"There is an invasion force coming. Very soon, aliens called 'The Covenant' will come down and wipe out this colony. Skitter, what's the name of this colony. My artificial intelligence companion, Cortana, is offline."
"Er...it's Scooter...and this is the Muppet Theater."
"Muppet Theater? Must be running out of good colony names. Cortana's last transmissions were garbled. No matter. We need to prepare for the invasion. Can I count on your help Skimmer?"
"Scooter!"
"I'm not gonna take the time to remember that. After all, you're just gonna die."
(Animal's Player 'drum rolls' on the table with her hands)
(Me, As Kermit - Doing my best Kermit impression): "Ladies and Gentlemen, it's The Muppet Show with our very special guest star...Master Chief from HALO!"
And with that, my Muppet Show RPG event at NerdNYC's RECESS had begun.
The event, planned for 4 hours but running only 3, featured 7 players, each playing 4 Muppets. The theme for this RECESS was video games and so I decided to choose the most visually interesting, inappropriate character I could think of. From out of a very short list, Master Chief emerged victorious.
For the purposes of the RECESS convention I went with pregens, creating almost 30 of the Muppet characters. All were Customs, with Whatnots being used primarily as NPCs unless someone had some good appropriate dialog for one and wanted to take it over for a moment (which happened a few times).
The players consisted of 5 guys between their late 20's-early 30's and 2 girls around 16-18 years of age (I am assuming). The guys were very gung ho about playing a Muppets RPG and did some amazing impressions of the characters. In addition, they were less self conscious, willing to sing (including the opening theme) and generally act silly or crazy. The gals seemed to be at a disadvantage. It definitely appeared they had never played a game like this before (though they were experienced gamers according to their parent/guardian. They were also not as familiar with the characters. This struck me as odd at first until I realized that it's been some time since a 'Muppet Show' of any kind has been one the air.
I apologize to those who played in this scenario for not remembering all your names. As I said, I'm bad with names until I've heard them or said myself several times.
As such I am going to name those I can and simply indicate a Player # for those I can't.
Steve was the performer for:
Gonzo
Scooter
Waldorf
Uncle Deadly
Wit was the performer for:
Bunsen Honeydew
Janice
Sam The Eagle
Lew Zealand
Sophia was the performer for:
Animal*
Crazy Harry*
Big Mean Carl*
Julius Strangepork
Dave was the performer for:
Beauregard
Rizzo
Floyd Pepper
Johnny Fiama and Sal Minella**
Player #1 (I want to say Alton but I may be spelling it wrong) was the performer for:
Dr. Teeth
Sweetums
Link Hogthrob
Pepe the Prawn
Player #2 (Again I apologize. This guy was great too and really excited about being in a Muppets game) was the performer for:
Beaker
Rowlf
Statler
Swedish Chef
Player #3 (The other young lady. I. can't. remember! Gah!) was the performer for:
Miss Piggy
Clifford
Fozzie
Zoot
Tonight, a recap of how we played the music, lit the lights and raised the curtain on the Muppet game...Alright!
AD
Barking Alien
*Usually a Performer can only perform a single Muppet in a single scene. I waved that a bit in the case of Sal and Johnny as long as they didn't appear in a scene at the same time. In other words, if Johnny Fiama is on stage performing and the camera cuts to Sal off stage giving him the thumbs up or saying something encouraging, I'm not going to ask the Performer to spend any Stars.
**Do you see a theme here? O_0
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