Scene_Stealers.pdf

zapguns is a scene.

1.2 These Games We Play

Scene Stealers

The crew is captured by the Gamesters of Omegacron-5 and

are forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena. Between battles, they

try to convince their fellow slaves to stage a revolt against the

Gamesters.

The New Generation!

Here's the section where every role-playing game describes what

a role-playing game is. It's pretty straight forward. It's a GAME.

Where you PLAY a ROLE. Look, just go to

http://landfill.thesnakefarm.com/aboutrpgs.php and read a

delightful comparison between Our Town and a cyberpunk

game.

1.1 A Quick Overview

There's going to be a group of people sitting around a table or

at least in the same room with each other. All of the players

(except one) control an actor in a television show. (This

character is referred to as either an "actor", "character", or "cast

member" intermittently throughout these rules. They all mean

about the same thing.) The other player controls everyone and

everything else as well as describes the settings, determines the

results of the cast's actions, and pretty much knows the whole

plot of the episode before the others start to play. As this is a

game that is about a television show, we're tempted to call this

player something cute like "the Director" or "the Executive

Producer" or "the Gene Roddenberry", but we'll call him "the

GM" instead. ("The JMS" would work in a pinch.)

The HMSS Xerxes suffers a mishap in hyperspace, shooting it to

the far reaches of the galaxy. The crew meets a princess fleeing

a tyrannical overlord; she promises to help the crew of the

Xerxes to find their way home if they help free her people and

restore her to power. (Pilot, 2hrs.)

In Scene Stealers, you're playing a member of an ensemble cast

of a science fiction action show that's primarily watched by

teenage boys. Teenage boys that belong to the science club.

Each game takes place during one episode of the show.

During the episode the cast members are not only trying to

overcome obstacles, they're also trying to steal the spotlight

from the other cast members.

All the people that aren't the GM are referred to as "players",

even though the GM is playing the game with everyone else.

Role-playing game terminology is pretty silly that way.

Each episode is broken up into several “scenes”. These scenes

are basic major chunks of time: The crew breaking into an

abandoned space station is a scene, running from a bunch of

angry natives is a scene, fighting a bunch of bad guys with

1.3 Set Up

On a botched attempt at rescuing a stranded vessel, the crew is

mistaken for pirates. Can they prove their innocence to the

system authorities before the third moon rise?

just need to get a computer to define 'love' so it'll self-destruct,

this is the statistic you'll be using.

Each player chooses a character sheet (or creates his or her

own cast member using the incredibly simple actor creation

rules that follow). The other characters aren't used in this

episode. Separate the plot cards from the script cards and

place both decks face down in the center of the table. You'll

also need a couple six-sided dice and some markers to keep

track of how much star power the actor has.

Action! shows how convincing your actor is during fight scenes.

It also works to resolve any tasks that would rely on physical

actions -- you'd use this to dodge the styrofoam rocks the

stagehands dressed up as yetis throw.

Hot! shows how telegenic your actor is. You'd also use this to

complete tasks such as sweet-talking the guards over so the

Commander can slug 'em or convincing the antagonist's

number two to switch sides and help your crew out.

The script deck contains 36 cards, all of which can be used to

help your cast member outshine the others or add

complications to the plots. Each player gets to draw five of

these cards. With a full cast of six people, six of these cards will

not be used.

If you decide to create your own cast members, here's all you

need to do. Take ten points and allot them to the three statistics

making sure that none of them is greater than a five. Then pick

one of the script deck cards and use that for your character's

special ability. Or just make up your own special ability. Look,

it's your game, so go ahead and make do with what you want

to do.

If you have more cast members than six, go ahead and divvy up

the cards so everyone has the same amount.

For this version of the game, there's just some squares you can

cut out and use as cards. If this was created for something

called “7 Day RPG”, these would be actual cards with artwork

and everything.

1.5 Task Resolution

1.4 About Actors

The HMSS Xerxes encounters the HMSS Heracles, long thought

lost from Alliance Space. The commander of the Heracles has

gone power-hungry and has used Alliance technology to make

him the ruler of the Reynolds system.

The HMSS Xerxes, needing repairs after a battle with the

K'lipsian Armada, stop over at a recreation planet where the

entertainers are not all they appear.

Each actor's stats run from 1 to 5, representing the number of

six-sided dice to be rolled when completing a task. When

rolling dice, just get rid of any die that's higher than a two.

Count what you've got left; this is the number of successes your

character had.

Each character sheet has the name of the character on the

show, a portrait and short description of the character, the

actor's statistics, and a special ability the actor has.

Acting! shows how well your actor can deliver lines. If you need

to spew forth some technobabble because the ship's

hypermatter condenser coil is about to rupture, argue your

innocence before an intergalactic tribunal of higher beings, or

If you're competing against another cast member (or one of the

guest stars or extras), just see who got the most number of

successes. If Commander Biff Manhunk is trying to shoot the

time portal controls before the Space Mook can jump through,

both Manhunk's player and the GM roll Action! dice and

compare totals.

Example

GM: ... as the K'lipsian moves towards you two, you hear

Ensign Redshirt shout from the catwalk above, "Here! Catch

this!" He tosses a laser zapgun down to you.

If the task isn't opposed, the GM will decide the number of

successes needed to complete a task successfully, using this as

a guideline:

Player 1 and Player 2 [at the same time]: I catch the laser gun!

Difficulty Number of Successes

Easy

GM: Okay, this is an opposed Action! roll. Go.

Moderate

Hard

[Player 1 rolls 1, 2, 5, 5, which is three successes. Player 2 rolls

1, 1, 1, which is three successes.]

Difficult

Insane

GM: The two of you scramble for position to catch the zapgun,

but wind up slamming into each other. The zapgun bounces off

your hands and lands in front of the K'lipsian.

"Easy", "Moderate", "Hard", "Difficult", and "Insane" are all left up

to the discretion of the GM.

Player 1: "You idiot."

1.6 Initiative

Player 2: "Jerk."

Tired of running from the K'lipsian Armada, the HMSS Xerxes

goes on the offensive, infiltrating part of the K'lipsian Stellar Net

at Far Reach Outpost 14. But what they find on the outpost is

completely unexpected.

As you can see, this can be a loud game.

The GM can also decide that if a character isn't in the shot (that

is, the actor isn't in the focus of attention at that point), the

character cannot declare an action if it's unlikely that the actor

would be able to influence the action. For instance, if the shot

is the Commander wrestling a Frigidarian for the amusement of

a brain floating in a jar while the crew is forced to watch, the

GM would probably only allow actions for the Commander at

this point. (An enterprising cast member can decide that's the

time to overwhelm the guards, grab a ceremonial spear, and

throw it at the Frigidarian just as it's about to kill the

Commander, which the GM might allow.)

Most games have rules for determining who goes first and

allows everyone to act at least once during a "turn". We don't

have any rules to determine who acts when except for this: If

you say it, you get to do it.

If one player starts to say that their character is doing just

seconds before another player begins to speak, the first player

does it. If two players shout the exact same thing or want to

take the same action at the same time, the GM can decide

which one of them said it first or have the actors engage in an

opposed test to see who gets to act.

Oh, and there's no interrupting the GM. The GM has to be

able to fully set the scene before the players can act on it.

1.7 Taking Damage

for the next scene.

The HMSS Xerxes, heavily damaged from the events in

“Initiative”, is forced to return to the Reynolds system and

explore the hulk of the HMSS Heracles in search of a vital ship

component. But when they find out the Heracles isn't as derelict

as she appears, all heck breaks lose.

1.8 Back on the Railroad

The crew is blackmailed into a raid on a hover train carrying

supplies on a mining planet. But the supplies they're forced to

steal aren't exactly what they were told.

Knocking other people out by punching or wrestling or Minarian

Neck Strike generally is an opposed Action! test. If a cast

member is knocked out, he'll come to near the end of the

scene.

Railroading is an RPG term for a game scenario that forces

players to only take one course of action. This is generally

frowned upon in the gaming world as it removes the ability of

players to do whatever they want to. However, as this is a

game that emulates television show episodes that follow a basic

plotline, the GM may feel free to railroad the other players as

he or she sees fit. (In other words, if you want the Scientific

Officer to miss Lord Zarquath with the zapgun even though he

has ten successes -- bang and a miss!)

Laser zapguns are odd weapons. When shooting a mook, the

mook gets killed instantly. When a mook shoots a cast

member, the cast member winces in pain and holds his hand on

his shoulder. "Don't worry," the cast member usually says. "I

wasn't hurt that badly." He probably also has fallen to the floor.

Until the next scene, the cast member only counts ones as

successes on Action! rolls.

For instance, if the plot involves the ship's crew to show up for a

diplomatic meeting and the room is filled with knockout gas in

order for everyone to be captured, then the room fills with

knockout gas and everyone is captured. If the players want to

roll dice, let them. Most number of successes is the character

that succumbs to the gas last and is the last one on camera, just

as the ominous music plays and we cut to commercial.

Non-mooks don't get killed right away from zapguns. A minor

antagonist might get wounded, but they usually escape to go

warn the major antagonist, using the rapidly-dying mooks as

cover. Major antagonists might be shot up, but that never

seems to do them in. As any science-fiction action fan knows,

minor and major antagonists get their comeuppance. This

means that if they're actually killed off, it's because they've been

tricked onto a ship that's in a decaying orbit around a sun; the

computer is trying to calculate the last digit of pi and blows up

the station; the teleporter is rewired sending him to where the

asteroid is supposed to crash into the planet instead of to his

escape shuttle; or the cast members have convinced the robot

slaves to overthrow their master. Lord Zarquath of the

Torpidian Armada doesn't get killed off by shooting him in the

back. He's got to go out with explosions. If you're a GM and

the players really want to shoot Lord Zarquath in the big

showdown, just use the nex t section to help Zarquath escape

1.9 Star Power

The HMSS Xerxes arrives at a research station, just after a

K'plisian raiding party. There, they discover that the raiding

party has the final piece needed to complete the Stellar

Cannon. It's a race against time to stop the raiding party from

rejoining the Armada.

In addition to surviving the episode, each player is trying to steal

each scene. To do so, they've got to do something significant

that makes for good television. Generally, this would be

equivalent to a successful task roll, but not all the time. Take

combat against a bunch of space pirates. Shooting each

individual pirate isn't as exciting as taking out the pirate captain,

but taking out all the pirates at once with a Big Ol' ZapGun is.

• Defeating a minor or major antagonist.

• Being the last one to pass out from the earlier-mentioned gas

attack.

Example

• Staging a comical diversion allowing the technician to sneak

on board the K'lipsian vessel and plant the homing beacon.

GM: The airlock door opens and suddenly six space pirates

burst in and cover your crew at gunpoint. "We'll be taking your

cargo, Commander," says the first one.

• Planting a homing beacon in the K'lipsian vessel.

Player 1: I'm up on the catwalk with the huge gatling-zap gun at

my hip. I'll open fire on the pirates. [rolls dice and gets ten

successes].

• Using your feminine wiles to seduce the keycodes to the

technician's cell from the K'lipsian security officer.

• Defeating a group of K'lipsian mooks on the way out.

GM: Okay. The zapgun buzzes and fires all around the cast

members, hitting every single one of the pirates but the leader.

All of the other pirates fall to the ground, dead.

Important GM Note: Give out star points as they are earned.

Do not wait until the end of the scene to award star points.

Player 1: "All yours, Commander!"

1.10 It's in the Cards

Player 2 (Commander): I slug the leader. [rolls and wins the

Action! test] "Get. Off. My. Ship." Pow!

Back at the commerce planet, a Licansian Card-reader tricks the

Commander and his crew into a dreamworld full of peril.

Together with an old enemy, the crew must find a way to escape

the dreamworld and return to the ship.

GM: He goes flying back into the airlock.

In this example, both players would get 1 star point. If Player 1

wasn't up on the catwalk with the zapgun, and the other cast

members started a free-for-all, they probably wouldn't get any

star points as the main focus would have been on whatever the

pirate leader was doing.

You'll notice your character starts out with five cards, each with

something funny on them and some sort of game effect. You

can play these at any time the GM is not talking. A card that

counters or modifies a just-played card has to be played within

a reasonable time -- generally a few seconds -- after the card it

changes. The same goes for star point awards: cards that

modify these have to be paid within a reasonable time after the

star point is awarded.

Here's a very short list about things that can get star points:

• Impassioned speech about something relevant to the plot.

• Technobabbling your way out of a cascading positronic core

shutdown.

At the end of the episode, if you have any cards left you may

play them. If you don't, you don't.

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