[PTA] Crashspace

Last night I started up a new show of Primetime Adventures with my Grand Rapids group. I had been doing DitV with them for a while, but I needed a change, and PTA seemed right.

The premise of the show is this: a group of extraterrestrial college students crash-land on Earth and are staying with a group of Earth college students, all the while trying to stay hidden from the MIBs and attempting to find a way home. We wanted some drama, with a liberal dash of comedy. Some ultra-violence found it's way in too.

There are five players and they divided up the roles, with three playing aliens and two humans.

First off, the humans:

Corwin Dawson, played by Greg is a Comp Sci/Physics major, who is so disaffected with his life that he wants to help the aliens and go back with them.

Owen Cristobal, played by Kub, is a conspiracy theorist/journalist major, who is a major fast-talker. He has found himself on the other side of an alien cover-up, and is not sure how to handle it. He is also fairly fluent in Basque. Wait for it...

Now the aliens:

Jim is playing Benat, a koala like alien. Yep, he's a cute little fuzz-ball. But, he has been trained from birth to command starfleets. See, his race is to be the warriors of the galaxy. But here on Earth, he is considered a cute pet. He is desperate to return to his home and way of life, though he has recently discovered alcohol and is very fond of it. The language he speaks is a lot like Basque, and since his translator was destroyed in the crash, he can only communicate with Owen. Oh, and everyone call him "Mr. Snuggles."

Bob Waters, played by Dave, is a sentient liquid alien. His people are part of a collective that sends parts of itself out to experience life and learn things, then come back and share with them. The problem is, since the crash, he has developed a self, and he does not want to lose it, which would happen if he rejoined the collective. He really does not want to go back. He has learned to maintain a human form, but it can be tiring.

Ed is playing Glim, who can actually pass for human. Back at the alien university he was "someone." A cool dude, the life of the party. He's not sure where he fits in here, but he is sure gonna try and find out. This might change, as Ed told me after we ran the pilot that he was not entirely happy with Glim.

I had so many more clues about PTA than I did when I ran Unseen. The pilot was kinda short -- we didn't start playing until 11:30 p.m. and we were all pretty tired. There were 8 scenes, mostly taking place at a house party that Glim had been invited to, almost all character oriented. I figured it would be nice and low pressure, and give the players a chance to see and use the system. It went well.

There were a lot of highjinx at the party, including a drunken koala-like alien, a voyeuristic water-alien, and the electrocution of a nemesis on the part of Corwin -- he just stunned and humiliated him. Then the MIBs showed up, and captured Owen and Mr. Snug... er, Benat. The drunken, militaristic, koala-like alien opened a can of destruction on them. I'm pretty sure they consider him a major threat and will act accordingly if they find him again.

Our "Next Time On..." seemed to feature a lot of Agent Neon, the gorgeous MIB who is Glim's nemesis. I can't wait.

-- Joe