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Obligatory Warning
If you are spoiler-wary, this entry and this series is full of spoilers for a six-year-old product. If you don't want to know what's in one of Fainting Goat's first eleven Improbable Tales adventures, well, don't read this. Okay?
Okay.
Today we'll talk about the fourth volume in the series, Vampires of Red Square, written by Mike Lafferty, Dan Houser, & Chris Groarty, with art by Adrian Smith, John Gibbons & Dan Houser.
I have not run this one.
Precis
A time-traveling Nazi commando unit arrives in Moscow, and the head Nazi decides to create four dozen vampires and take over.
Likes
Uh, what part of “time-traveling Nazi vampire commandos” did you not like?
I'm totally biased: vampires and werewolves are two of my favourite flavours. The military aspect of it initially put me off, but once I got the vibe I quite liked this.
It's goofy fun with an emphasis on fun: The bad guys are undeniably bad (there are no shades of gray in this one).
One of the optional endings has a big fakeout which I like; there's no explanation of how Mannheim knows the important detail, so you'd have to invent that, but it's a really nice fakeout, and it gives the whole thing a fine reason to actually be in Moscow.
These are pretty decent vampires, in mild and spicy flavours. Haven't tried the werewolves out.
Oh...there's another optional ending with a giant undead Lenin striding through Red Square. That's just cool.
And later you have Nazis who want presumably to get back to their home time and “fix” things.
Dislikes
None of these are big dislikes, but they did come to mind.
The bad guys have created a few dozen new vampires...that is, killed a few dozen people. If you're running a strictly G-rated campaign, then you need to think about this. Maybe it's a spell by Mannheim and the vampires get better if Mannheim is himself destroyed (hey, it worked in Batman comics when Doug Moench was writing it). Maybe the sudden appearance of light will shock them back to human because they're only pseudo-vampires at this point.
PATRIOT gets bigger and bigger: in this adventure, it operates in Russia. On a per-adventure basis, it exists to make things easier to set up, but it feels like as a whole, there's an organization that could do some harm.
Given the organization's name, I feel like it should be restricted to the USA, and it's a paragraph to introduce the Russian or the international agency. Not a big deal to fix in your game; they're actually working for MATRYOSHKA or IDES (International Directive for Espionage and Supers) or COINS (Cooperative Oversight for Investigation of Normals and Supers).
One of the villains, Dr. Night, has magic at a level of 7. The appearance of a wizard with magic 7, a vampire infestation, possible werewolves, and a couple of sorcerous totems has to get the Necromancer's attention, but he's not mentioned. I understand that the adventures are not really joined, but the existence of the PATRIOT name does indicate some kind of shared world, so it would be nice to include a line like, "Off fighting Dark Pharaoh."
Changes and Consequences
Well, you need to justify the absence of the Iron Hand and of Necromancer.
Dr. Night has Magic (well, originally Wizardry) 7. Necromancer, from last adventure, has the same power but at level 8. You'd think Necromancer would care about the appearance of Herr Doktor Nacht, but he does not show up. (In the real world, that is because John Post didn't write the adventure, and because adventures come in when they come in, but we are not concerned with such mundanities.)
Or I'd throw it all in: the Iron Hand brings a sub up the Moskva River, Necromancer appears and is immediately caught up with the Dark Pharaoh, giant ants appear...okay, strike that one. But I might consider complicating it even more, especially if it's early in the campaign. (Complicate early, prune later.)
The growth of PATRIOT is a seed you can cultivate for later: does every UN country have a version of PATRIOT? Is PATRIOT a loose association of organizations? Or is it a single “super-organization” that fights its own political battles? In these adventures, PATRIOT is used as a means to hand PCs stuff in a convenient way, but you could do a whole PATRIOT centered organization, or you could do a Captain America: Winter Soldier thing where you bring it down—“Patriot? But patriot to whom?”
Or I'd create some kind of excuse—that PATRIOT was helping unofficially—and I'd springboard the creation of some global spy/superhero agency from it. Then you could call them when you need to go to, say, Tokyo in an upcoming adventure.
Having said all of that, this is actually the last time that PATRIOT takes an active role in Improbable Tales, Volume 1. In adventure 5 (Dr. Warp) the army takes their place; they get name-checked in adventure 10 (Through the Looking Glass) but don't actually show up.
Assembled Updates
Part of the drill is that Invulnerability becomes Damage Resistance; Life Drain becomes Energy Drain; Wizardry becomes Magic (except when it becomes Gadgets).
Vampires in general
- Invulnerability becomes Damage Resistance, with the Limit: Not vs. silver or holy weapons.
- Immortality gets the Limit: Negated by sunlight or beheading.
- Life Drain becomes Energy Drain.
Vampire Troopers and SS Vampires
Replace their aspects with these three Qualities:
- Undead vampire
- Vampire weaknesses; a stake through the heart causes a Stun result that lasts until the stake is removed
- Must drink blood to survive (only Energy Drain recovers Stamina
Baron Mannheim
Replace his aspects with these three Qualities:
- Time-Traveling Nazi Vampire Commando
- Vampire weaknesses; a stake through the heart causes a Stun result that lasts until the stake is removed
- Must drink blood to survive (only Energy Drain recovers Stamina
In the normal case, Nazi and Vampire are his prime motivations.
Doctor Night
Replace Wizardry with Magic; replace Summon with Servant. Perhaps ignore the mental attributes of the demonic minions; I discussed this in the last adventure.
His aspects become thse Qualities:
- Undead Egyptian sorcerer
- “For the glory of Set”
- The true goal is ruling Egypt
Fafnir
To his Hellfire Thrower, add this Limit: Blows up for Amazing damage if ignited by called shot.
And his aspects become these Qualities:
- Occult Nazi Stormtrooper
- Grotesque physical appearance
- A melding of man and magic
Blutwolf
Change the Invulnerability to Damage Resistance (Limit: Not vs. silver); the Alter-Ego should be Transformation into an animal form with a limit that each Blutwolf becomes itself as a mundane wolf...or I'd drop the power, because it's really no different than Billy Batson saying "Shazam!".
Its aspects become these Qualities:
- Forest creature mutated by Mannheim
- Extra vulnerable to silver (+1 degree of damage)
- Bloodthirsty Feral Berserker
Night Hunter
I'd actually give him a level 5 in Vehicle because I'd beef up the cycle a bit. (See next section.)
His aspects become these Qualities:
- Agent of PATRIOT
- Brusque demeanor over a caring heart
- Finds and kills vampires
Vehicles
This adventure presents three vehicles that have to be updated to the Icons Assembled rules: a cargo truck, a helicopter, and a personal skybike, apparently part of PATRIOT issue for some agents.
However, the vehicles really are movement devices and should be represented as vehicles.
PATRIOT Air-Cycle
| Handling | Great (6) |
|---|---|
| Speed | Fair (4) |
| Structure | Fair (4) |
| Armor | Weak (1) |
| Extras |
|
Cargo Truck
| Handling | Fair (4) |
|---|---|
| Speed | Fair (4) |
| Structure | Great (6) |
| Armor | Weak (1) |
Helicopter
| Handling | Great (6) |
|---|---|
| Speed | Good (5) |
| Structure | Average (3) |
| Armor | – |
| Extras |
|
Conclusion
A lot of moving parts to play with. I'd still say this is an A, but if you have used PATRIOT or vampires before, it may leave consequences for you to clean up.
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