We decided that about two weeks had gone by. Jackson and Janet were part of a survivor group, who were raiding the nearby Whole Foods after dark, picking through the adjacent strip mall under cover of night to avoid the flying rock vultures. While there, they noticed that people with guns were hoarding the canned goods. When others confronted them, they brandished their weapons.
Jackson and Janet snuck off, morphed, and came out to talk to the people with the guns. They tried to talk with the gun-toters, who were terrified. But, when the green and pink Seraph Omega rangers chose to be gentle, they calmed down a bit and explained they were just trying move the cans into a nearby underground storm shelter. When the Seraph Omega Rangers asked if the others could share the cans, they were told that could be arranged. Everyone relaxed
Everyone minus two. Jackson and Janet realized that two people had just... vanished... while the talking had been going on.
They didn't show up again the next day.
Two more people vanished after the next foraging foray.
And the one after that.
This next time, Janet and Jackson noticed that George, an older man, had different colored eyes: they were supposed to be blue, and were brown instead. He also moved with an odd predatory grace, which was subtle but evident enough. Nobody else seemed to notice. George glided up to Janine, a 14 year old girl who had just lost her parents the other day, and seemed to be comforting her. But it wasn't actually George, and Jackson and Janet knew they couldn't leave Janine with George.
So Janet and Jackson followed, quietly. They took great care to not be spotted as George and Janine drifted farther and farther back. Suddenly George turned fuligin, the color darker than black, and began to wrap around Janine like a bedsheet. His body thinned, and his head grew and began something that resembled a pterodactyl's.
Jackson and Janet morphed immediately, and the surprised "Pterrordactyl" dropped Janine. Jackson and Janet knew that if they didn't hurry, the stone vultures that soared the skies would descend upon them in the dozens. Janet pulled out her pink ranger bow, and Jackson pulled out his green ranger lance. They stabbed and shot the Pterrordactyl, who died surprisingly fast, without a scratch to either ranger. They quickly demorphed, and Jackson picked up the unconscious Janine.. only to have the freaking stone vultures see them.
They barricaded themselves into the strip mall. And outlasted the stone vultures, who were trying to break in. When daylight came and the stone vultures left, they went back to their homes.
I was... informed... that I was going to run a Power Rangers RPG campaign. I warned my young players that I was gonna run Power Rangers the way I wanted to, and they’d have to deal with it. They agreed. They’d already made characters: a Jackson, green ranger with a lance, and Janet, a pink ranger with a bow.
No, I did not smile at their names. They wouldn't have gotten it. But don't think I didn't chuckle.
I have had the core rulebook sitting around for a few years and they just picked it up and presented me with completed character 24 hours later. Turns out, sometimes you just have people who are ready to go.
Why Did I Warn Them?
To me, the best Power Rangers episodes were always about desperation. My blood was always pumping for that show when the stakes were so absurd that the Rangers' powers made the odds better... to just being outmatched. Green With Evil and the Psycho Rangers are fantastic examples of what I'm talking about: the Ranger powers do not actually bridge the gap, but merely make it possible for the Rangers to win by their wits and courage.
So, to hilariously overstate: Power Rangers it the kid's equivalent of Conan or Solomon Kane: eldritch horrors, kickass action, and gumption, in a bubblegum sci-fantasy wrapper.
So What Happened?
It actually went really well! I had to do a quick crashcourse, but once I'd done that, I was feeling pretty confident I could avoid borking the game.
The Crash Course
I sat down and listened to Milestone Play's excellent crash course. I didn't have the time to go through the whole thing, but I skipped around his well put-together video, and learned very quickly that I needed to have the combat and rules marked. I explained to my players that I was going to run straight out of the book, and that it would take me a minute to sometimes figure out what the rules wanted me to do. The Power Rangers RPG actually has a ton of depth to it, and I didn't want to sacrifice that depth for "fun" and "speed". I explained to my young players that rules are meant to be followed, if possible, and that taking the time to learn them was worth the effort. So we were going to ruin a tutorial session of sorts, just with foot soldiers.
The Black/Phoneout
So we had Jackson and Janet at a park with some other people, just hanging out. They weren't Power Rangers, but just highschool students were older souls.
Suddenly all phones lost their networks, and the streetlights, which had just turned on in the gathering twilight, went out. Janet made a stupidly high Technology roll, and Jackson made an even higher Science roll. From these rolls, I gave them the following information.
All cell phones, regardless of carrier, were out. This meant a pretty big infrastructural outage. The fact that everyone was experiencing it meant that everyone for about a hundred square miles was isolated from the greater world.
The power going out at the same meant that yet another big piece of infrastructure was down.
An EMP blast would have been big and ugly and extremely noticeable. Nothing big and ugly and extremely noticeable happened.
Jackson and Janet realized that either a bunch of somethings went wrong at once, by accident, or there was something purposeful going on. They stood there a moment, filled with dread, as they watched everyone else in the park just figure out that multiple carriers were down.
And then there was a horrible grinding sound
Like a bunch of concrete being dug up... all around them. And these vulture-like... things.. dug came up. Made of the red soil all around them. They immediately threw themselves at the nearest humans, and began to eat them... and flesh and hair began to sprout from the monsters' bodies... forming wings. Everyone else ran, screaming.
But not Jackson and Janet. When they asked me what should be done, I simply asked: "Do you want to die well, or do you want to die poorly?" After a second, they realized what I was saying: there were too many monsters, they were too powerful, and they were too fast. It was either go down screaming or go down fighting. Pick one.
They ran straight at the things.
There was a nearby pond, and they each threw an earthen monster into it. The monsters struggled, getting weighed down by the water. Jackson and Janet ran at another two monsters, and knocked them off the people they were savaging. Others started helping. Jackson found a metal bat nearby and literally pulverized one of the monsters in a few quick blows.
And then two of the monsters jumped on him, and one got a big bite out of him, almost killing him instantly. Once again, the players asked me what should be done, and I asked the same question: "Do you want to die well? Or do you want to die badly?" They nodded. "Let's die well."
Janet charged one of the monsters on Jackson and tackled it to the ground. The other people tried drag the remaining monster on Jackson off, but couldn't. So Jackson choked up on the bat, and pushed the monster over, and pulverized its head through close hits with the bat.
They both got up, to see the other people were fighting back. They weren't cowering in fear anymore! They had an example of resistance, and were following! Of the original seven, four were dead.
Grind. Grind. Grind.
And now they were back up to a dozen. Jackson and Janet looked at me, overwhelmed. This wasn't going to work! How could they win without powers? They'd literally built a tank/sniper duo, and I'd said they couldn't use their powers, because they didn't even have them yet! What on earth could be done but die?
I asked the question, one more time: "Do you want to die well? Or poorly?" They both took a second, and looked at each other. Both of these players have extremely strong affective imaginations. They were there. They could hear the screams of panic, they both had flinched when Jackson had gotten bit. They didn't get mad at me for saying "No powers, yet." They were just trying to understand what the fuck they should be doing.
"Let's die well. We're going down swinging," they both said.
"What if I told you that that question about dying well or poorly was a question your characters heard, in their heads?" I asked. Everytime I had asked the question, I had no clarified whether or not it was in-game or out of game. This one little clarification turned on the lightbulb. Suddenly they understood they were being tested.
"Now, shout 'RISE'," commanded the voice. Neither knew the other heard it.
But they did. And they shouted.
Suddenly they were in full Ranger form. Six fiery wings (Yes I know the stupid AI put on four). Jackson's bat had transformed into a lance. Janet held a bow. Fire radiated from them, and halos of fire floated above their heads. The park, which was getting dark, was suddenly illuminated by the green and pink flames.
And the dozen monsters were running, in surprise. So were the people! They thought something worse had showed up!
Jackson and Janet went and looked into the pond. They saw their new fiery forms staring at them. And then suddenly they were normal. The dark was closing in. So they went back to their houses... to find nobody had power. Or cell phones. Still.
And there were things circling in the sky. Things with wings.
