Friday Game Session: A Primeval Christmas
As mentioned earlier today (and in a couple of yesterday's blog posts), last night I ran a Christmas themed game session of the Primeval RPG with the Friday night gamers.
Rather than a game set within the framework of the current (or should that be ongoing?) campaign of the Primeval RPG, I had decided well in advance to do a Christmas-based game for the players on Boxing Day night, and so the players did not play their own characters, but instead took a handle on the cast of the final season of the UK Primeval tv series.
Once the players got to my place, I explained what would be happening in a bit more detail, and the players chose their characters for the night. The good news was that all of the players had seen the tv series, and so had a passing familiarity with the characters in question. The central characters in Series 5 of Primeval are Matt Anderson, Abbey Maitland, Connor Temple, Captain Hilary Becker, and Jess Parker, as well as James Lester. With only five players, the players chose their characters as follows: Kathy decided to play Jess Parker for the game, Angela took on the role of Connor Temple, David took Matt Anderson, Ellie played Abbey Maitland, and Mark played Captain Becker.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not going to go into the usual detail of the plot and adventure session that I usually do. Not that type of game, to be honest. But here's some of the basics on what happened in the game last night. (Behind the cut, for those folks who don't care about my roleplaying game posts, of course.)
The player characters started out in the ARC office on Christmas Day, when they received an Anomaly alert and a phone call from someone who wouldn't identify themselves that there was an open Anomaly, and a couple of dinosaurs were coming out. They arrive at a large shopping centre to find the Anomaly has opened in what is left of the Santa Claus area of the store that's been set up for the Christmas season. The dinosaurs they have to deal with are relatively harmless, although there is one predator that causes them a bit of trouble. Suffice it to say, they are able to deal with the dinosaurs relatively quickly. However, the team discover that the dinosaurs all have one thing in common: they come from the North Polar region, but back in the Cretaceous period. As they mull things over, a figure emerges from the Anomaly and begs them to come and help them - it's Kris Kringle!
Suffice it to say, the rest of the scenario was a rollicking fun time with the Christmas weirdness factor thrown in, which had the player characters encountering a futuristic/surreal workshop at the Cretaceous North Pole, robotic dinosaurs, "elves" who were strangely goblin-like, more (real, this time) dinosaurs, a villain called Mr. Grinch with seeming control of the Anomaly (who turned out to be a familiar villain from the series), the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future - Stephen Hart, Nick Cutter, and Sarah Page! - and of course, Kris Kringle himself. (Oh, and were they ghosts? hehe) And the session wrapped up where a certain character (whom I won't reveal James Lester) woke up, and realised that it was Christmas morning, and they had been having a nightmare!
When the game session ended, somewhat later than we usually stop, since there was a lot of plot to do and Kathy was giving Ellie a late night Christmas gift, the players were all enthusiastic about the session, having really enjoyed "A Primeval Christmas". They loved the Primeval tv series touches, the ghosts (of course!), the Christmas themes in the adventure, had a really "that was neat and crazy!" vibe going, and thought that I really should make the Boxing Day game session a tradition! All of them rather enjoyed themselves, especially Mark; he really loved playing Captain Becker, and engaging in some Christmas mayhem ("I got to kill some dinosaurs, even if they were robotic ones!"), though at one point he got rammed by a pachyrhinosaur as well!
Overall, a terrific evening's worth of gaming, a fun time for me running the Primeval game system again, and a fabulous, fine way to end the gaming year of 2014.
Just one thing... It really made me want to run the Primeval RPG again! :)
Rather than a game set within the framework of the current (or should that be ongoing?) campaign of the Primeval RPG, I had decided well in advance to do a Christmas-based game for the players on Boxing Day night, and so the players did not play their own characters, but instead took a handle on the cast of the final season of the UK Primeval tv series.
Once the players got to my place, I explained what would be happening in a bit more detail, and the players chose their characters for the night. The good news was that all of the players had seen the tv series, and so had a passing familiarity with the characters in question. The central characters in Series 5 of Primeval are Matt Anderson, Abbey Maitland, Connor Temple, Captain Hilary Becker, and Jess Parker, as well as James Lester. With only five players, the players chose their characters as follows: Kathy decided to play Jess Parker for the game, Angela took on the role of Connor Temple, David took Matt Anderson, Ellie played Abbey Maitland, and Mark played Captain Becker.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not going to go into the usual detail of the plot and adventure session that I usually do. Not that type of game, to be honest. But here's some of the basics on what happened in the game last night. (Behind the cut, for those folks who don't care about my roleplaying game posts, of course.)
The player characters started out in the ARC office on Christmas Day, when they received an Anomaly alert and a phone call from someone who wouldn't identify themselves that there was an open Anomaly, and a couple of dinosaurs were coming out. They arrive at a large shopping centre to find the Anomaly has opened in what is left of the Santa Claus area of the store that's been set up for the Christmas season. The dinosaurs they have to deal with are relatively harmless, although there is one predator that causes them a bit of trouble. Suffice it to say, they are able to deal with the dinosaurs relatively quickly. However, the team discover that the dinosaurs all have one thing in common: they come from the North Polar region, but back in the Cretaceous period. As they mull things over, a figure emerges from the Anomaly and begs them to come and help them - it's Kris Kringle!
Suffice it to say, the rest of the scenario was a rollicking fun time with the Christmas weirdness factor thrown in, which had the player characters encountering a futuristic/surreal workshop at the Cretaceous North Pole, robotic dinosaurs, "elves" who were strangely goblin-like, more (real, this time) dinosaurs, a villain called Mr. Grinch with seeming control of the Anomaly (who turned out to be a familiar villain from the series), the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future - Stephen Hart, Nick Cutter, and Sarah Page! - and of course, Kris Kringle himself. (Oh, and were they ghosts? hehe) And the session wrapped up where a certain character (whom I won't reveal James Lester) woke up, and realised that it was Christmas morning, and they had been having a nightmare!
When the game session ended, somewhat later than we usually stop, since there was a lot of plot to do and Kathy was giving Ellie a late night Christmas gift, the players were all enthusiastic about the session, having really enjoyed "A Primeval Christmas". They loved the Primeval tv series touches, the ghosts (of course!), the Christmas themes in the adventure, had a really "that was neat and crazy!" vibe going, and thought that I really should make the Boxing Day game session a tradition! All of them rather enjoyed themselves, especially Mark; he really loved playing Captain Becker, and engaging in some Christmas mayhem ("I got to kill some dinosaurs, even if they were robotic ones!"), though at one point he got rammed by a pachyrhinosaur as well!
Overall, a terrific evening's worth of gaming, a fun time for me running the Primeval game system again, and a fabulous, fine way to end the gaming year of 2014.
Just one thing... It really made me want to run the Primeval RPG again! :)