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| "But I got 5 successes on my Stealth roll!" |
Deep Blue Sea has a lot going for it. Isolated base? Check! Confined underwater? Check! Something has gone wrong and the life support systems have failed? Check! One of the researchers messing about with Things Man Should Leave Alone? Check! About to get eaten by a monster way out of your league? Check and double check! Deep Blue Sea is the very epitome of thing on a sea base. But it is more than that. We get 2 wonderful extras!
Thing One: There is More than One Monster. While the trid has no possession-based thing, that is easy to add. But having a second threat from something that wants to eat the Crew, that is priceless. When the troll is trying to close the huge hatch against the rising water level, and the hacker is trying to turn off the electricity before the Crew gets fried in that water, and the mage is trying fight the giant isopod insect spirit in astral space, and the rigger is trying jury-rig the escape vehicle, all while the street samurai tries to fight to super-brainiac shark, you have a game…
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| "When does our Edge refresh?" |
Thing Two: The Shock Kill. Director Reny Harlin is mostly known for destroying the pirate genre (until its resurgence in Pirates of the Caribbean!) But he knew exactly what he was doing here:
Samuel L. Jackson’s corporate executive Russell Franklin is the trideo’s voice of reason. That is, up until he gets eaten. Reny said he did it for two reasons: 1, it happens on land, out of the water - nowhere is safe! And 2: He kills off the Big Name actor! The one person who you thought would live, gets killed early - no one is now safe! These are great concepts to jack up the tension among your players! You want them to think nowhere is safe, and anyone, at any moment can die. It is just a matter of time until all the NPC’s are gone, and now it is time for the characters to start dying...
Let that sink in before we continue.
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| "Why is the spirit-y Thing copying my face?" |
Next up is The Abyss. It has all the trapping we are looking for, but little of the menace. In fact the most menacing thing up until the thing shows up is a deranged Michael Biehn. Here he plays Lieutenant Hiram Coffey, a special forces type, becoming a More than One Monster. Being in a claustrophobic space with a murderous elite Street Sam type will do that for you. Note that if you want to add a “Hiram Coffey”, make sure he holds rank in the Corporation’s military. It will up both the tension (if he works for the Corp he cannot be trusted!) and the immersion (Corps have militaries! Militaries that are mostly full of special ops types!) With that down we need to amp up the menace. The key is to change the things. Put the sea base near a portal to an astral plane, and have water spirits investigate the metahumans before possessing them. Then once the life support fails and the Wuxing Maritime Security Division/EVO YNT Marine Commandos decide to close the portal with a nuke, you have a race for survival…
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| "Tell me again why the psycho with a nuke is duct taping me to bulkheads again?" |
Next is Leviathan. This completely lines up with our template, so much so that after the last 2, it is a bit of a let down. A thing that possesses the crew? An uncaring Corp CEO that sends the Crew to their doom? Yep. Still, it has good creature design…
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| Someone is getting possessed... |
Just to keep the rabble at bay, we can talk about Underwater and Sphere, both set on sea bases, but without a lot of possessing, and only Underwater has things. But if you really need more undersea base design inspiration they are there.
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| And Underwater has a great creepy vibe... |
Sector 7 gives a two-fer! This time we get rid of those pesky entitled white people, and let South Koreans fight for their lives. And it is set on an oil rig, giving you another place for fear to strike.
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| I don'y think a Taser is going to cut it.... |
The Rift’s one saving grace is R. Lee Ermey. Well that and a giant starfish-like creature...
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| Someone is going to end up like that soda can... |
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| That is nasty... |
Lastly we have Deep Star Six. A mutated extinct sea scorpion* is our thing, which gives us a two-fer, awakened beastie AND insect spirit! It also has navy personnel with nukes, so that’s nice. But an ancient aggressive anachronistic thing from beyond time and space? On second thought, a nuke might be just the right choice…
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| Looks pretty insect-y spirit-y to me... |
So armed with choices, and lots of inspiration, go and scare your players. And don’t forget, they can’t dawdle, there is a major storm about to hit the dive area, and the last LAV out lifts off in 20, so they need to grab their go bags and board with what they have with them!
Next up is using your environment to isolate your Crew...
*Yes, Mr. Black knows a scorpion, sea or otherwise, isn’t an insect, but needs must, neh?
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