FEMA UFO MANUAL FNORD

[athelind]

Back in the early 1990s, I ran a GURPS Supers game down in the Oceanside area. The premise was that the players were all playing versions of themselves, who got too close to a UFO crash site and wound up with Amazing Philadelphia Experiment-Based Powers when the thing exploded.

Really, I just planned to have a completely conventional spandex-and-secret-IDs superhero game.

Three things thwarted that goal, however:

1. I've always had a "pick up on player input and run with it" style of hosting games.
   
2. This was the heyday of the World of Darkness and The X-Files.
   
3. One member of the group was a Marine MP, active duty at the time, whose previous assignments had included working with FEMA.

When we got to the point where the UFO crashed, our MP friend said something to the effect of, "I can't really say if FEMA has plans for this. But, if they did...."

And for the next few minutes, I just kicked back and let him do my job for me.

This turned the game into a classic Fugitives Hunted By The Government exercise, which I soon compounded by adding an unhealthy dose of Dean R. Koontz Sociopath-With-Powers.*

Well, it turns out that he wasn't making things up.

---

*Have I mentioned that sooner or later, every game I run that lasts more than a session or two turns into a horror game? I don't particularly like horror games, but I do have a knack for them.

Comments

[tephra]

Speaking of your game settings that go creepy, a song about Brookline, MA to entertain you. :D

[silussa.livejournal.com]

I've been told the same in the past about superhero games. Although fortunately I don't have any sort of dislike for them....just for years a schedule which makes running or participating in any sort of rpg impossible.

[drakegrey.livejournal.com]

I had seen that firefighters manual in the past and I'm always divided on this - part of me wants to say OMG they DO know UFOs ARE real! -

And the other part says, that when this manual was written they found it a bit short, and the guy writing it said "we need more material and... Hey! You know what would be REALLY funny..." :)

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I take the third route, especially given the phrasing of the actual text (once you winnow it out of the unformatted commentary from the Mulder who posted this):

"We better have some kind of protocol in place in case this DOES happen, because we'll look REALLY stupid if we don't."

with a little bit of "Sometimes, Unknown Shit DOES fall from the sky, so the safest bet is to cordon it off until we can figure out what it IS."

[silussa.livejournal.com]

Having skimmed over the text, I think they basically covered all their bases...assuming the "UFO" was probably not extraterrestrial, but potentially hazardous, while leaving open the door "just in case".

[shdragon.livejournal.com]

On April 25,1991, radio station KSHE in St. Louis, Missouri was fined $25,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for broadcasting a mock warning of a nuclear attack during the Persian Gulf War.

Hometown pride! Go KSHE. ;)