Road Trip APs

Road Trip Session 0 – Ed’s Diner

• Description: Why is this session called “Session 0″? Because this entire adventure is non-canon. As I said, I wanted to playtest some scenarios for my other group, so this was going to be a set of disconnected one-off games. Shortly after we played this game, though, everyone agreed we should play the whole campaign. This session is remembered and occasionally referenced elsewhere in the campaign, and it’s the first game that we (The Drunk and the Ugly) ever played together.

Road Trip Session 1 – Prologue to a Travelogue

• Description: School’s out for kids at Casimir Polaski Junior High in the city of San Frandiago, CA!  As the kids are leaving school and getting ready for summer, they receive some bizarre messages scrawled on the walls of their school.  While discussing various summer plans at the local Dairy Queen (apparently unfazed by the bizarre graffiti) the kids contacted by Jack Blackguard, a mysterious young boy who has some urgent news to relay to them.  After a meeting at the museum and a few quick fights, the kids find out they are now on a journey to save the world from an evil cult.
• Episode Time: 1:34:15

Road Trip Session 2 – Sunny Vale (Part 1)

• Description: The kids have found out that their monsters will be sacrificed as tribute to some kind of ultimate monster.  Their only lead on the case was pulled through a black hole into another plane of existence.  Fortunately, the kids stumbled across five bizarre and unique postcards from their recent contact Jack Blackguard alluding to various machinations of the cult. One of the postcards mentions Sunny Vale, CA, a place apparently hounded by a team of monster fighting superheroes who call themselves the Sentai Rangers.  As it happens, Sunny Vale isn’t more than a 3-hour drive from San Frandiago, so after a few “air-tight” alibis and managing to coerce someone with a car to take them there, the kids are off!
• Episode Time: 3:32:39

Road Trip Session 3 – Sunny Vale (Part 2)

• Description: The kids managed to reunite Zoltron and the Sentai Rangers, but the meeting was not as sweet as they had hoped:  Zoltron was furious at the Rangers’ significant lack of effort to rescue him, and the Rangers became enraged at Zoltron’s lack of gratitude.  Zoltron and the Rangers split up and decided they all knew what was good for themselves. This did not, however, solve the problem that the kids came to Sunny Vale for in the first place.  They managed to rescue Zoltron from his kidnappers, but they have not stopped the Rangers from destroying the city.  With the Rangers being unwilling to talk, the kids decide to deal with them the only way they know how. (Hint: It involves punching)
• Episode Time: 2:54:50

Road Trip Session 4 – The Wizard

• Description: Following recovery time for Daniel in the Sunny Vale hospital (after he and everyone else got beaten up by the Sentai Rangers), the kids move on with the Road Trip to their next destination:  Sucrose Park in Las Vegas, NV.  On their way up, the kids find a hitchhiking kid holding only an aluminum briefcase and a sign saying “RENO OR BUST.” After Donny picks the kid up, they find out that he’s going to a video game tournament with a $50,000 prize.  He found out that there’s supposed to be a new BattlePets game revealed there.  When asked what happens if he doesn’t when the competition, the kid taps his briefcase and says that he’s got it covered. You’re gonna love this episode.  It’s so bad.

Road Trip Session 5 – Sucrose Park (Part 1)

• Description: Following the grace of Daniel saving BattleTonia from certain Battlemageddon, the kids awaken in the convention hall with some very confused and excited Japanese BattlePet players.  They manage to escape in the confusion and continue on their way to Sucrose Park, making a late-night stop at a small town hotel.  Following much hijinks (and attempted monster cannibalism?), the kids get to Sucrose Park the next day. The kids enter into the park looking for lost kids and secret underground robot factories, but mainly looking for fair food and park rides.  It’s not long before they run into the park’s main mascot, Coolrat.  He’s bright, cheerful, able to skateboard and juggle simultaneously, and always willing to throw candy to kids.  In fact, he seems a little eerily into our heroes. . . Note: I was in the midst of a terrible sinus infection when I ran this game, so it’s very short and kind of sloppy.
• Episode Time: 1:39:12

Road Trip Session 6 – Sucrose Park (Part 2)

• Description: Max and Charlie awaken in a barren concrete room and are greeted by a robotic nurse which goes by the name of Ratchet.  She answers their questions (and ignores their attempts at wit), and informs them they will be given a new life of perfect happiness.  After an extremely brief survey, she gives Charlie a cowboy costume and Max a ninja costume, and proceeds to take them to their new home. On the surface, Daniel hauls around the drugged and semi-unconscious body of Everett while running from park security and looking for an exit.  In a desperate attempt to escape, he breaks into one of the attractions and barricades himself.  What he doesn’t realize, though, is that Coolrat is watching and waiting.

Road Trip Session 7 – Sucrose Park (Part 3)

• Description: On the park surface, Daniel, Prince Bos, and Everette have reunited and start to make a game plan to attack the heart of Sucrose Park and attempt to find / free their friends.  After a veritable gauntlet of challenges, they run into an old friend much sooner than they expected. Meanwhile, in the secret level, Charlie is released from the Coolrat Funtime Chillout Zone (TM) and is escorted along with Talia and Max to see Coolrat’s DAILY FUNTIME COOLSHOW!  Forced enjoyment is had by all. But first, Buttz the Battlefrog finally awakens in a mysterious cell and no idea where he is.  Only a piercing and somewhat radical voice comes over the crude loudspeaker in his cell, and a familiar figure appears on the screen.

Road Trip Session 8 – Sucrose Park (Part 4)

• Description: Everett, Daniel, and the Monsters are finally nearing the end of their journey, guided by Robbie Drake, when they come up against a quite unexpected obstacle. Max, Talia, and Charlie are released from their stay in the Coolrat Funtime Chill-out Zone, and begin looking at options for escape. All kinds of chaos breaks out in the barracks (mostly nerd-bashing). Adventure, madness, and epic samurai duels await you in this, the conclusion to Sucrose Park.  Sit back and relax, *puts on sunglasses* because this is gonna be one bumpy ride.

Road Trip Session 9 – Smile (Part 1)

• Description: Following yet another week in the hospital, the kids start making their way to the Florida Everglades.  Cash has started to get tight, though, and the kids have to make a stop in Summerset Valley and spend the end of their cash on a Super 8 room in the meantime.  Following a few weird antics, the kids head to sleep, only to be awakened by a knock from a mysterious stranger.  He doesn’t have much to tell them, other than the fact that their lives are in danger. . .

Road Trip Session 10 – Smile (Part 2)

• Description: The children start getting tormented by the Grinning Man, as he slowly but surely makes his presence known.  New allies are discovered, and plans are made to possibly stop the Grinning Man once and for all.

Road Trip Session 11 – Smile (Part 3)

• Description: As the night rages on, Doug, Charlie, and Max have a very “fun” car ride on their way to complete the ritual to seal away the Grinning Man.  Additionally, the kids continue to see more and more “friends” along the way. Everett stays with the less able members, but quickly finds that her friends are not all that surround her.  As party members continue to vanish, the kids really start to lose their cool.  The sky grows red, but the sun still does not shine.  Will the kids reign in this new hell, or will they simply vanish like the others?

Road Trip Session 12 – “. . .For the Camera!”

• Description: Following an epic struggle wherein the Grinning Man was dealt with, there is a lot of destruction and panic left in his wake:  Large portions of the town were damaged by the Grinning Man, people can’t account for lost time, many people are wounded, and some are missing. On the player side, 4 kids were checked into the hospital, Donny’s car (their sole mode of transportation) was destroyed, and they now have no money for anything.  The worst of it?  A strange police officer has arrived at the hospital and has a few questions for Donny Chang. . .