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d21jaydeeSo I mentioned long ago to some people that I made a campaign heavily based on The Fall of Reach with my group of players, with them being Spartans. Initially I wanted the original group to be witness to this session, but ultimately two of the players remained, while we got two new ones, one of them completely alien to Halo (no pun intended).
Disclaimer: I've read the original book religiously, but never read the graphic novel and only watched half of the animated series, so pardon if there are coincidences or muck-ups in the way I re-intrepreted the canon.
This... it was the session I wanted to play out for a long while. I had them in the podium, but in a diversion from canon, I had the Spartans be with other captains and ONI officers as well, and have Halsey introduce them to Vice-Admiral Preston Cole (who smelled of alcohol). I played the pics of what Harvest was, to the song Solitude from Skyrim...
... before showing the Covenant, and their emerging presence, to the first parts of the track LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring Track Prologue - One Ring to Rule Them All.
... and finishing with what Harvest became with the Halo track Spirit of Fire from Halo Wars.
The reaction of the newer players was amazing, and during the entire chaos, they were discussing on what to do, clearly tense and realizing they'd have to sacrifice everything to win (Bit of a local thing: One player freaking suggested that people would rather die fighting an unknown, powerful alien enemy than dying on a bed of the mexican IMSS. It's a whole thing.). As a change from canon direction, I merged both the Second Battle of Harvest from which Cole first fought the Covenant, as well as the infiltration of the Unrelenting.
The catch was, it was a CAS/CSO cruiser. 40 human ships would not cut it. Not by a long shot.
So they had a plan -- while the fleet rained everything they had at the ship, shoot off both pelicans and ODST pods at the ship the moment the shields went down...
... None of you know for how long I've mentally heard this track whenever I read The Fall of Reach. Drifting through space while seeing the wreckage of human ships, before cellos sound the moment they dive first into combat. I first threw jackals at them, which they dispatched with reasonable efficiency when they first came in, almost getting shot after a few bad rolls. ODST squads followed right after to follow them.
For the next encounter to introduce the new players to the lore, I was going to throw hordes upon hordes of grunts at them, foreshadowed when they infiltrated maintenance hallways, but... they had a cunning plan. They left C4 on the hallway, proceeded up front, and saw the ODSTs above them when they saw another group. They snapped the methane tank off a Grunt, leaking the gas in the area, then ordered the ODSTs to throw their grenades, AND detonate the C4's they planted earlier.
Everything became an inferno. The Grunts ran panicked left and right as they had no idea what was happened, and they all converged to kill the stragglers. Everything was going well, but I constantly reminded them they were racing against time, and that ships were being winked out of existence just outside, which tensed the newbies a lot. Then, the ODST squads broke off communications... and I allowed them to face their boss fight for the session.
An Elite Zealot, in Golden Armor, in Legendary/Nemesis difficulty.
The minute 1:50 of Liberi Fatali had always made me imagine a golden zealot appearing in front of Blue Team, holding the corpses of ODSTs that tried facing it, taunting them menacingly by its sheer fanaticism and hatred for all enemies of its religion... before charging.
It was also the first time I have ever brought these bad boys into the gaming table. So when that lid popped open and they saw opal dice for the incoming fight, they knew this was going to suck.
The players rolled first. Their rocket went wide and missed. I rolled the 1d4. It first charged against the newbie. It almost sliced down one of the players on its path, before pinning the newbie to the ground and having the plasma blade far too close to him. The new player told me afterwards he got fucking tense the moment he had the Elite onto him. I revealed to them later I was open to killing any of them for this session.
Then, they got to push him back, just by raw luck, before removing his shields, gunning him... but he still charged. This time against the sniper. Needless to say, a luck roll saved his arse from becoming bisected by the plasma sword... and finally, got to kill him. They planted the nukes, ran like hell back to the pelican... and got to see the CSO glow like a sun, before exploding.
The players got to hear the celebrations. By pure luck, I had a track from Two Steps from Hell, Men of Honor II, which played just as they succeeded their mission and heard the cheers from the captains when they triumphed. And, given they survived with their entire party alive, in spite of the heavy losses the UNSC suffered in that battle, I allowed them to have a Happy Ending for this mission since they downed a terrifyingly massive enemy, with all of them surviving all odds.
They arrived to troops and crewmen clapping and whistling cheerfully for their success... I got far too much pride when the players all gave Halsey all of the alien loot they found on the CSO. ... No joking, they legit presented the Elite's plasma sword like this. I finished the session with the mention they would be fighting now on the surface of Harvest. It will be there when I will introduce them to brutes and hunters.
This... was one of the best sessions I've ever GMed, and had the most fun GMing. I love having new players because they are incredibly eager for what they see and find, and find a world of possibilities and awe when they first come in. My players were thrilled an ecstatic as well.
I know very well I ripped nearly everything off from canon, but I am incredibly proud and happy for the way I narrated the whole thing to my players (soundtrack, enemies, and all), and for all of the emotions of fear, awe, thrill, terror, and strategy they all applied.
Thank you all for listening to my babbles. All of this reminded me why I love GMing.
Disclaimer: I've read the original book religiously, but never read the graphic novel and only watched half of the animated series, so pardon if there are coincidences or muck-ups in the way I re-intrepreted the canon.
This... it was the session I wanted to play out for a long while. I had them in the podium, but in a diversion from canon, I had the Spartans be with other captains and ONI officers as well, and have Halsey introduce them to Vice-Admiral Preston Cole (who smelled of alcohol). I played the pics of what Harvest was, to the song Solitude from Skyrim...
... before showing the Covenant, and their emerging presence, to the first parts of the track LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring Track Prologue - One Ring to Rule Them All.
... and finishing with what Harvest became with the Halo track Spirit of Fire from Halo Wars.
The reaction of the newer players was amazing, and during the entire chaos, they were discussing on what to do, clearly tense and realizing they'd have to sacrifice everything to win (Bit of a local thing: One player freaking suggested that people would rather die fighting an unknown, powerful alien enemy than dying on a bed of the mexican IMSS. It's a whole thing.). As a change from canon direction, I merged both the Second Battle of Harvest from which Cole first fought the Covenant, as well as the infiltration of the Unrelenting.
The catch was, it was a CAS/CSO cruiser. 40 human ships would not cut it. Not by a long shot.
So they had a plan -- while the fleet rained everything they had at the ship, shoot off both pelicans and ODST pods at the ship the moment the shields went down...
... None of you know for how long I've mentally heard this track whenever I read The Fall of Reach. Drifting through space while seeing the wreckage of human ships, before cellos sound the moment they dive first into combat. I first threw jackals at them, which they dispatched with reasonable efficiency when they first came in, almost getting shot after a few bad rolls. ODST squads followed right after to follow them.
For the next encounter to introduce the new players to the lore, I was going to throw hordes upon hordes of grunts at them, foreshadowed when they infiltrated maintenance hallways, but... they had a cunning plan. They left C4 on the hallway, proceeded up front, and saw the ODSTs above them when they saw another group. They snapped the methane tank off a Grunt, leaking the gas in the area, then ordered the ODSTs to throw their grenades, AND detonate the C4's they planted earlier.
Everything became an inferno. The Grunts ran panicked left and right as they had no idea what was happened, and they all converged to kill the stragglers. Everything was going well, but I constantly reminded them they were racing against time, and that ships were being winked out of existence just outside, which tensed the newbies a lot. Then, the ODST squads broke off communications... and I allowed them to face their boss fight for the session.
An Elite Zealot, in Golden Armor, in Legendary/Nemesis difficulty.
The minute 1:50 of Liberi Fatali had always made me imagine a golden zealot appearing in front of Blue Team, holding the corpses of ODSTs that tried facing it, taunting them menacingly by its sheer fanaticism and hatred for all enemies of its religion... before charging.
It was also the first time I have ever brought these bad boys into the gaming table. So when that lid popped open and they saw opal dice for the incoming fight, they knew this was going to suck.
The players rolled first. Their rocket went wide and missed. I rolled the 1d4. It first charged against the newbie. It almost sliced down one of the players on its path, before pinning the newbie to the ground and having the plasma blade far too close to him. The new player told me afterwards he got fucking tense the moment he had the Elite onto him. I revealed to them later I was open to killing any of them for this session.
Then, they got to push him back, just by raw luck, before removing his shields, gunning him... but he still charged. This time against the sniper. Needless to say, a luck roll saved his arse from becoming bisected by the plasma sword... and finally, got to kill him. They planted the nukes, ran like hell back to the pelican... and got to see the CSO glow like a sun, before exploding.
The players got to hear the celebrations. By pure luck, I had a track from Two Steps from Hell, Men of Honor II, which played just as they succeeded their mission and heard the cheers from the captains when they triumphed. And, given they survived with their entire party alive, in spite of the heavy losses the UNSC suffered in that battle, I allowed them to have a Happy Ending for this mission since they downed a terrifyingly massive enemy, with all of them surviving all odds.
They arrived to troops and crewmen clapping and whistling cheerfully for their success... I got far too much pride when the players all gave Halsey all of the alien loot they found on the CSO. ... No joking, they legit presented the Elite's plasma sword like this. I finished the session with the mention they would be fighting now on the surface of Harvest. It will be there when I will introduce them to brutes and hunters.
This... was one of the best sessions I've ever GMed, and had the most fun GMing. I love having new players because they are incredibly eager for what they see and find, and find a world of possibilities and awe when they first come in. My players were thrilled an ecstatic as well.
I know very well I ripped nearly everything off from canon, but I am incredibly proud and happy for the way I narrated the whole thing to my players (soundtrack, enemies, and all), and for all of the emotions of fear, awe, thrill, terror, and strategy they all applied.
Thank you all for listening to my babbles. All of this reminded me why I love GMing.
