Tim Cox on a Scenario
from Alien Invasion
As with the two previous books in The End of the World
series, working on the new scenarios for the Alien Invasion book was a great
experience that promised a wealth of variety. Each of the five scenarios
presents a totally different take on the premise of an extraterrestrial attack.
There are a lot of planets across the galaxy, after all. With such a diversity
of potential alien types and invasion methods, it’s impossible for me to pick a
favorite scenario. That would be like comparing giant ants and shape-shifting
reptilians (not to put too fine a point on it). Still, at the risk of offending
our future or secret alien overlords, I’ve always found the War Between Worlds
scenario to be particularly fun.
At the onset of this scenario, Earth becomes the target of a
sudden attack by, surprisingly enough, the Martians. Thanks in part to a
considerable language barrier, the reasons for the invasion and the aliens’
intentions are an utter mystery. Yet the appearance of the aliens and their
craft are also bewilderingly familiar. Out of all the scenarios in Alien
Invasion, this is the one that likely offers the most instantly recognizable
antagonists.
War Between Worlds
includes a number of elements that you’re sure to find familiar. Small Grey
aliens, flying saucers, abductions, and ray guns have been staples of science
fiction and Hollywood movies for decades. As the Player Characters will
discover in the most unpleasant way, these concepts are so persistently popular
because they’re all based in truth. That these tropes are so familiar, even
cliché, makes the revelation of their reality even more shocking. Fleeing from
a Grey armed with a heat ray might be an almost surreal experience for PCs.
Plus, I’m quite amused by the idea of a terrifying sprint away from something
you might have found comical on paper.
In actuality, there is certainly a fair degree of comic
absurdity in an invasion of chrome saucers and Martians straight out of a 1950s
comic book. The dichotomy between this almost laughable situation and the
horror of your hometown suffering rampant destruction by the Martians should
make for some interesting and memorable gaming moments. Fittingly, there’s a
noticeable undercurrent of dark humor that runs through the whole scenario,
which Game Masters can, of course, play up or down as fits their game and their
group.
PCs are likely to recognize many aspects of the Greys,
including their technology and their behavior, from pop culture books and
movies—not that this familiarity is very comforting in the midst of a
destructive alien invasion. Still, some PCs might find their knowledge of UFO
lore and sci-fi films coming in handy as they struggle to survive the Martian
attack. Of course, this lack of distinction between character knowledge and
player knowledge is one of the great things that sets The End of the World
roleplaying game line apart from other RPGs. If a player knows something (or
thinks he knows something) about the threat the PCs are facing in the game, he
is encouraged to make full use of this knowledge. Whether or not his knowledge
turns out to be accurate is another matter entirely.
On the surface, War Between Worlds seems like a fairly
simple scenario, and in some ways this is true. The Greys, hailing from Mars,
launch an all-out attack on Earth without warning. It is, perhaps, the classic
alien invasion. Flying saucers destroy monuments and abduct hapless citizens,
while heat rays and atomizing beams decimate our military defenses. However,
any PCs who survive long enough might learn some surprising truths behind the
Greys’ aggression, and those who live into the post-apocalypse will—spoiler
alert—encounter an even more dangerous enemy.
War Between Worlds offers you and your friends the chance to
experience a familiar situation and threat from an entirely new perspective.
Whether you’re able to find some grim humor in the nature of the alien threat
or react with sheer horror to the rampant destruction, I hope you all—players
and GMs—enjoy the scenario as much as I did.
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