Welcome to the BASHtacular holiday scenario Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus! [Yup, we know it means the same thing in two languages], in three acts.
Preliminary Note: In addition to dice, pencils, etc; you will need the following to play through this scenario:
• BASH RPG Ultimate Edition – You can get by with the earlier edition, the changes are not substantial.
• Awesome Powers – I make some use of powers from these books.They are cheap and good ones to have.
Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus! is a collection of scenes and the Datafiles you will need to run them, set up in a logical way to tell a story. It is intended as a plot that you can choose to follow to go from the Opening Act, through the Second Act to the Final Confrontation. But it could work in other ways. Maybe you don’t want to use the Forgotten Children as your supers because you have a bunch of PCs already set to go. You probably won’t need Act 1, Scene 1 then. Fair enough. Feel free to employ the Forgotten Children in another way, perhaps in need of rescue by heroes with more experience. Or maybe you want to make sure this plays as a one shot, starting and finishing in a single session, so you abbreviate the first scene, and cut short investigation in Act 2, just handing the heroes the fact that one of the evil children was wearing a straightjacket from Arkhangel Sanitarium. Not a problem. Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus is yours to do with as you like.
Or maybe you already have a holiday scenario in mind that blows this one out of the water, and all you need is some heroes and villains to make it sing. Take these ones as written, or alter and/or re-skin them as necessary. That’s fine too.
What Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus is not.
1] It is not a heavily detailed description of each place and person, with every little detail attended to. The BASH RPG Ultimate Edition contains all of the info you need to determine things like perception checks, skill attempts, gathering information and investigation. The character briefs are, well, brief. You can add in the little details [that you would never remember if I wrote them for you anyway] as you go.
2] It is not an accurate representation of life. OK, this is obvious and doesn’t really need stating, since there are superkids and evil Anti-Santas and such, but this is not our world. It is intended to follow the tropes of comic books. In comic books good is a little more pure, and evil is rarely understated, sanitariums [sanitarii?] are never good places, and straightjackets are used regularly as a way to restrain and retrain. The shadowed alleys of the inner city are a bit narrower, a lot darker, and hide threats more dire than a mugger. This doesn’t mean that the world is dreadful, bleak and without hope. It is still fairly four-color, in terms of comics. It’s just that one of the colors is definitely black.
3] Although Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus is written with superhero children as the protagonists, this is not really a scenario aimed at children. There’s nothing really out of line if you want to run this for kids around the age of the protagonists, but it is not really intended that way. Krampusnacht is intended to play PG-13 or so. But feel free to adjust the ages of the Kinder to fit your play experience. So if you want the kids to be in their mid-teens because the players don’t feel like they have any frame of reference for playing 11 year olds, go for it.
Setting – Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus can fit into a poorer unban portion of just about any city. It has something of the darkly humorous feel of Gotham, but could easily find a place in New York, Chicago, Starling City, or a fictional city of your choosing.
Level of Lethality – As written, grownups get transformed into hideous monsters who torment children, and they must be defeated, probably physically some of the time. How often people actually die is up to you. You can easily run the game with a body-count of zero if that’s what you want, even the big bad, Krampus himself, simply being banished until next December. The heroes, even those with seemingly lethal attacks, like Kindle, are assumed to be doing non-deadly damage in good comic book fashion unless specifically stated. You can remind the players that the evil Kinder are victims of Krampus, as are the adults transformed into bestial monsters.
Finally, with Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus! we are poking a little fun at a bizarre bit of medieval folklore. The Krampus myth is as much fairy tale as anything to be found in the works of the Brothers Grimm, in which a lot of the same tropes hold sway, and people are mutilated or killed regularly, usually in ways that modern sensibilities see as ironic. But just as ‘Hansel and Gretel’ does not promote the idea of eating children, or of pushing old ladies into ovens, in the same way, this work is intended for entertainment, and in NO way condones the exploitation of children, etc.
Now that all of that is out of the way, on with Krampusnacht: Night of the Krampus!
Cast of characters:
Krampus – for those of you playing along at home who may need a bit of a history lesson, Krampus is Santa Claus’ evil opposite-number. Where Santa rewards good children with presents, Krampus presents bad ones with lumps of coal, beats them with birch switches, throws them in chains and drags them off to the underworld. Krampus is depicted as large and bestial, with horns and fangs that enhance his devilish aspect. The roots of the legend may lie in ancient Germanic myth from the alpine region of central Europe, in which he is variously said to be the offspring of the goddess Hel, or a ‘tuifl’ [German: ‘devil’]. You can get more info about Krampus and his practices from an easy internet search. So go do that, then come back here and read on.
Back? Let’s move on:
The Heroes – The Forgotten Children
St. Nicholas Orphanage is a church-run orphanage of the sort rarely seen anymore in real life, but utterly typical of film and fiction portrayals. It is situated in a poor neighborhood, is crowded and underfunded, with a mixture of staff - devoted and callous, sometimes embodied in the same person. Many of the children have been in and out of institutions just like it for years. The five children below are those intended for use as Player Characters. Each has a Datafile as a hero, as well as the roleplaying tips in the character brief below. Distribute the Datafiles and the matching character brief in whatever way works for your group. If you have fewer than five players, feel free to leave any that are not chosen aside, possibly as reinforcements if one of the heroes is captured or otherwise removed from play. If you need more than five heroes, you can work out some of your own, or adapt any number of the street level archetypes from BASH Ultimate Edition.
The children are often assigned a gender in the write-ups, but these can be altered to suit your purpose. Racially, for the most part the kids could be of any race, with the possibly exception of Rae-Anne [Red Shift]. The age range is up to you, depending on the play style and preferences of your group. The key thing is that as long as the Forgotten Children remain children, they are immune to the Krampus Curse that affects adults. You might want to keep the ages consistent between the characters. Since Kindle is sort of the leader, it would be odd if she were younger than the rest by four years for example.
If you use a bunch of heroes who are adult, whether you age the ones provided on use your own, you may wish to subject them to the Krampus Curse when they fight Krampus. This could be a lot of fun and allow the players to cut loose a bit as a villainous [and large and horned and hairy] version of themselves.
Kindle – Kendall, age 12-16, knowitall eldest of the Children, Kendall is also keenly aware of the responsibility this places on him/ her. Her greatest fear – One of the other Children is hurt, or worse, on her watch. Kindle’s fire and heat powers are strong, but untapped. She is never sure exactly what will happen when she uses them, but is also creative in suiting them to the situation.
Terryn – Tara, age 11-15, quiet kid, just arrived at the Orphanage. Her mother recently died and Tara is hurt, confused and terrified of what her life has become. Her greatest fear – That is can still get worse. Tara also has great capacity for compassion – She is deeply conscious of ecological issues, animal rights, etc. and she is the most likely to reach out to someone else having a bad day. Terra’s abilities arise from her concern of the fate of the earth and manifest as transformative and earth control powers.
Chiron – Keirin, age 10-14, delivered two years ago as a ward of the state to St. Nicolas Orphanage, when his parents were killed and Keirin crippled in a car crash, all Keirin had with him was a centaur action figure, which he still treasures above all else. He is friendly and very bright, and reads constantly, pretty much anything he can get his hands, or the Orphanage computer, on. His greatest fear is also his secret hope – that the worlds of fantasy and miracle that he envisions might actually be real. Keirin’s escapism manifests in his powers, where he actually creates a physical representation of himself embodies as Chiron the Centaur, his favorite character and action figure. His own body remains behind, unconscious and vulnerable. Generally Keiron tries to be in bed, sot it appears that he is asleep.
Peril – Perry, age 11-15, Perry is a tough street kid, housed at St. Nicholas by the last act of a social system that has failed him time and again. Think pre-teen Wolverine in mentality and you won’t be far off. Greatest fear – that his toughness of mind and body will be revealed for the façade that it is. Yet there is a terrific core of will, and capacity for loyalty in Perry as well. Peril’s powers are dangerous and indiscriminate, especially when he is angry. Unfortunately not everybody is a durable as he is.
Red Shift - Rae-Anne, age 11-15, Rae-Anne is nearly as old as Kenni, but small for her age, such that everyone thinks she is younger. Rae-Anne is not inclined to correct them, using her pretty red curls and diminutive statue to get what she wants.
The villains – The Kinder
How ‘evil’ these kids actually are, is up to you. They were at least bad enough to attract Krampus’ attention, but Krampus is not particularly discriminate in his appellation of the term to children, taking an approach of ‘The more, the merrier.’ The Kinder could easily be in as much need of rescue as anyone else. There are four Kinder compared to the five heroes, to make it easier for the GM to run them.
Generally, the Kinder should be a year or two older than the average age of the Forgotten Children.
Tween Werewolf – Since his 10th birthday, Will has been dreaming of hunting and fishing in the mountains, living like an old-time ‘Mountain Man’ with no one to bother him. After running away a number of times, he was found filthy and howling in City Park. Lately his dreams have become bloodier. In his normal form, WiIl is reserved and quiet. In werewolf form, he is definitively neither, and not entirely in control of what he has become. Greatest Fear – That he will do something terrible to someone he cares about.
Grim – In the past, Gerda has been described by social workers has detached, moody, emotionless and possibly a danger to others. One foster parent complained that ‘she sucked the life out of a room, y’know?’ Whether that was true in the past is unclear, but it is definitely the case now. Grim’s unsmiling features preside over an area devoid of hope or happiness. Greatest Fear – That the emotional state she inflicts on others will consume her.
Gargoyle – Garret never stayed in the same foster home or facility for more than a day or two, preferring to live on the streets, or rather, high above them. A gifted climber, Garret would seek out a tenement rooftop and move in, fashioning whatever comforts he could from the stolen goods of others. Now, as gargoyle, Garret can move about with even greater ease, and take whatever he wants without fear of resistance, or of bullets. Greatest Fear – that he will lose his powers.
Darklord – Darrell is obsessed with a particular movie and video game franchise that recounts the eternal struggles of psychic knights of the distant future in a remote galaxy. As many do, he like to insert himself into the story, living through the lives of the heroes and villains portrayed. But Darrel was always drawn to the dark side of the struggle. When he got the Krampus piece of coal, he was thrilled when it game him the dark energy he had always craved. Greatest fear – that the opposing ‘force’ will triumph.
Opening Act – Have You been Good Little Boys and Girls?
• Scene One - Christmas Comes Early - the Forgotten Children at St. Nicholas Orphanage get an early visit from St. Nicholas, who gives each one an elaborately wrapped ‘present’ not to be opened ‘Until it is time’. The present is superpowers and the time is when Krampus begins to steal children. You see, other children, held at Arkhangel Sanitarium have been visited by the Krampus in their dreams, and received lumps of coal for their gift. Krampus wants to form his own little army of demon Kinder.
The first hint of the evil to come, several of the adults involved in running the Orphanage are subjected to demonic possession at the direction of the Krampus. These could be nuns, security guards, the ‘warden’, etc. [See ‘Evil Orphanage Officials] As written there are five Hit tracks on the sheet, but suit the number to the number of heroes, roughly one to one. If the players need encouraging, you can tell them ‘It’s time to open your presents!’
• Scene Two – Suffer the Children – The Kinder track down the Forgotten Children and try to defeat them for their master. As the Kinder flee, they leave behind evidence that leads the Heroes back to their base of operations – Arkhangel Sanitarium.
Second Act – It’s Krampusnacht, Tonight!
• Scene One – The Last Light of Day – This is the opportunity for the Heroic Kinder to get a jump on Krampus, possibly tracking his evil children to his lair, even rescuing them while Krampus is off preparing for his ascension later that night.
• Scene Two – The Krampus Collective – As night falls on Krampusnacht Krampus appears in the city streets in his Hellcart, either in reprisal for the Forgotten Children rescuing his prizes, or simply beating and kidnapping children in the city and must be stopped. The Krampus flees, to finish his ritual, which leads directly to . . .
Final Act – Krampusnachtocalypse!
• Scene One - Krampus conducts a ritual [perhaps in the basement of the Asylum, a derelect building or an overgrown city park] with the core of his transformed minions, a capering circle of raging, drunken lesser krampusses that lend him enough power to extend his transformative power to the city, possibly beyond. The Heroes must disrupt the ritual by defeating or scattering the minions. They need not deal with the Krampus, though they can try.
• Final Scene – As Krampunacht unfolds, grown ups all over the city begin to transform into lesser Krampusses. If the Forgotten Children have succeeded in disrupting the ritual, the effect is localized to a few city blocks. If they failed, thousands of adults all over the city and beyond become sadistic fiends. The heroes have to put a stop to the chaos by defeating the Krampus and his horde of minions. Krampus is contaminating adults, transforming them for a Krampusnachtocalypse. If the Forgotten Children can’t stop him, the adults of the world are doomed.
What happens then:
If the Forgotten Children fail, the world become a horror movie of demons hunting children, with the heroes as the only ones able to resist. You are welcome to explore this world through further play, as a post-apocalypse dominated by the bloodthirsty Krampus. Possible plots could involve the Forgotten Children rescuing Santa Claus from imprisonment, or leading a covert resistance, seeking allies, protecting the confused and terrifies normal children bereft of parents and protectors.
If the Forgotten Children succeed, they may become the heroes of the day, propelled instantly to fame that stretches across the city and beyond. What will they do with their powers henceforth?
Next up: Datafiles start to drop! see you tomorrow, same bat-channel!
