Day 5 of #RPGaDAY brings us to the first one-word prompt that gave me a lot of options other people might take, but personally stumped me: "TRIBUTE."
I've done a lot of tributes to my friends and fellow players over the years, but none of my remaining, awesome friends jumped out to me for an "Ode to."
So I'll write a short tribute to actress Kim Cattrall, the woman who saved my Christmas in July RPG session.
I usually don't run holiday games, but with our online game, I've regaled enough tales of Christmas-themed games I've played in the past, and Krampus-related games yet to come, that I offered to run one last year. It was a 5e game using the ongoing campaign's characters and went quite well.
That allowed me to pencil in a Christmas in July game, and at the time, I had this for my inspiration.
I did some "research," outlined a revised version of the movie, and despite the concept, I wasn't getting things to gel, and it languished over the months of COVID.
As July neared closer, I did two important things.
Ode to Charles
Ode to Dave
Ode to Wooly
Ode to Bill
Ode to Scott
I've done a lot of tributes to my friends and fellow players over the years, but none of my remaining, awesome friends jumped out to me for an "Ode to."
So I'll write a short tribute to actress Kim Cattrall, the woman who saved my Christmas in July RPG session.
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| But not from this movie.... |
That allowed me to pencil in a Christmas in July game, and at the time, I had this for my inspiration.
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| God Bless the internet |
As July neared closer, I did two important things.
- I made the characters the Spice Girls. I had run a secret-agent/Charlie's Angels-style game in the Fall using the Spice Girls, with the punchline in the title, "The Search for Pumpkin Spice." The best problem of all? Using Risus, it was near perfection. Using a bit of Girl Power and some new characters, rescuing either the truck, the hero, or heroine seemed to lack some depth. And yes, I understand I'm complaining about depth in regards to the Spice Girls.
- Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall's character from Big Trouble) was not going to be the damsel in distress or the heroine who needed support, not in 2020 dammit! In fact, to allow some plot progression, I reached back into Kim Cattrall's TV and filmography for some basic plot hooks.
As a man who dated women in the late 90's and early 00's, I've spent many hours sitting on the couch with them, watching Sex and the City. Samantha Jones is a perfect character to get involved in some weird high-stakes/kidnapping intrigue. Let's queue her up as the missing person the Spice Girls must find.
And after dealing with the Sex and the City vibe, we throw a curveball and have witnesses put her in the direction of an old department store with an inordinate amount of mannequins, a fight sequence with the rival department store's staff, and some more clues with Sam's long-forgotten ex-husband, who is now the manager of the department store.
A few more clues and role-playing, and we can get them seeking out, and tailing a truck full of toys into a strange part of Chinatown. Insert big fight at the beginning of Big Trouble, with a twist and it satisfactorily made for a great session.
A quick view of Wikipedia reminds me how many more movies she was in and how much more I can use in future Spice Girls games. It also questions my moral core why I haven't cobbled together a Police Academy game.
...And just in case anyone wants to read all my Odes to my fellow players, from 1979 to present:
Ode to Charles
Ode to Dave
Ode to Wooly
Ode to Bill
Ode to Scott
Fabulous idea :-)
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