After recently watching the sequel to both “28” trilogies, I realized this is a perfect IP to merge with our beloved scifi TTRPG. So today I will set the stage for you to run mini campaigns for all four of the “28” movies.
Let me get this out of the way, we are about to enter the spoiler zone so if you haven’t seen these films and plan to, maybe stop here. After you watch those glorious films, come back here and let’s talk about how we can run this world through the mechanics of Mothership.
28 Days Later
Your players find themselves working at a hospital or medical facility on the day of the rage virus outbreak. There’s an opportunity here to have this location be planet side or ship based. If you decide to have it planet side, I would drive home the theme that all nearby ship evacuations have left and the goal should be to seek safe shelter. An easy tool for dread generation could be evacuation sirens going off in the distance as your players watch spaceships launch away from their location reminding them the futility of their situation.
For a 28 Days feel, have the session start as a normal day at the hospital and tease out the impending viral doom. For your players who have seen the film they should be locked in on each interaction, waiting for you to reveal how this zombie rage snowball begins its evil tumble. Throw them off the scent once or twice through interactions with normal angry people, but not anybody actually containing the virus.
The first 1-2 sessions will more than likely be spent at the hospital during the day of patient zeros arrival. Use the hospital as a multi level dungeon for the players to explore. You can have scientist and teamster characters be the doctors and maintenance workers for the hospital. Marines could be security workers and androids could be your jack of all trades class. I can see an android being a doctor, maintenance worker, security guard, administrative assistant and more so don’t be afraid if your players get crafty with it!
The hospital can be used as a multi level dungeon for your players to explore/escape. I imagine some areas may require keycard access that only certain classes may have. Set up some scenarios for body saves that may cause players to lose their keycards which may cause them to go searching for other keycards. Scenarios for sanity saves can be watching people become infected with the rage virus.
After you’ve survived the hospital, the next goal should be to either look for a spaceship off the planet or find shelter to hunker down in and prepare for life in the apocalypse.You could have the players have an NPC or two join their group during the hospital disaster or have them find some other survivors to group up with. Then in true 28 days later fashion, have them build rapport with these NPCs then every session or two one of those beloved NPCs end up meeting their demise. Plot hooks to keep your characters progressing the story could be finding a military map of escape ships or doomsday bunker locations to establish as a home base.
As dark as it may seem, when I think of 28 Days Later, I think of the huge themes of futility and resilience. Life in this situation is bleak, but some people decide to push through whether in pursuit of an end goal or just to exist as safely as possible. You should have a conversation with your players on how strong they want the harsh themes to be prevalent in your mini campaign. I know some players like to have a sense of achievement within a campaign or session, and if things are constantly going wrong, that can wear down some players. After you’ve had that conversation and you’ve read the above layout, I think you’re all set for your 28 Days Later mini campaign!
28 Weeks Later
It’s been 7 months since that dreadful day at the hospital and it’s been reported that the last remaining infected has starved out. It’s time for this planet to re-build and re-populate so life can continue on in the great commerce galaxy! There has been a planetary and national blockade of the island/location where the outbreak first began. Have any of the original characters from your 28 Days campaign survived these harsh months?
I don’t often have the opportunity for large time jumps in my campaigns, but today’s exercise offers that option! Ask your players if they want to continue with their characters from the 28 days campaign or if they want to make new ones to explore our new landscape. If all your characters are returning, ask your players for a list of significant events that have occurred during the past few months. 1-3 events should be plenty for you to work with and easy enough for your players to come up with. Ask them if they’re at the bunker/location we last left them or are they somewhere new now? If you’re getting all new characters, narrate the campaign from the perspective of former locals returning to their town after being led through the planetary blockade. If you have a mix of returning characters and new characters, collaborate with your players to find a way to connect them. They could be former lovers, family members, friends, former co-workers, etc.
The main theme you want to hit home for this mini campaign is the fragility of peace with this virus. Is there anyone taking advantage of the current state of things? Who is leading the re-building and return of this location to its former glory? Something or someone somewhere will be your small match to re-light the flame of the rage virus. Tease your characters with fakeouts of a potential cure or false hints of the return of the virus. Where will this campaign take place for your group? A small town, big city, or even out in the farmlands? Wherever you decide to locate for this campaign, another point of emphasis should be emptiness. Exploration of abandoned locations should lead to the rare item or two that could be used to hint towards the impending doom of the world again or be used to help survive that impending doom.
Make sure you emphasize the presence of military soldiers and scientists during this re-building phase. Perhaps the androids are used as nurse bots or welfare aids to the doctors of the area? What are the relationships between the two and the relationships they have with the returning locals? Depending on how the players interact with each side could set up beneficial or harmful situations during the return of the outbreak.
In the end, the virus returns and we are reunited with the theme of futility from 28 Days later. Will your players return to their original bunker or will they go deeper out into the world looking for a better resolution? Who among them wants to continue to refuse to be broken by this harsh world? Maybe one of your characters is a scientist from the quarantine city that still believes a cure is possible.
28 Years Later & The Bone Temple
Remember those themes of fragility and futility we talked about in the first two movies? Now we’re going to see futility take the back seat and fragility commandeer the driver’s seat. You can do whatever you want with your TTRPG campaigns, but if you were to take one suggestion from me, definitely do this mini campaign with a “kids on bike” vibe. You’ve grown up on the isolated safehaven of Lindisfarne and today is the day you’re allowed to go to the mainland for the first time. (You could also see if one person would like to play a surviving elder who lived through your 28 day and 28 weeks mini campaign.)
Your homebase for the campaign is a coastal secluded alien with a roadway connected to the mainland that only pops up during low tide?!! THAT IS FRIGGIN COOL MAN. You grew up on this island, you’ve listened to the elders with their stories about the mainland, you’ve trained during self defense days over and over again, but now it’s your turn to experience the mainland your way. Who makes up the party? Is it all kids? A few kids and an elder sibling? Or what about all kids plus one kind of wacky android companion?
On the day of their first exit from the island, use NPCs to remind the players how significant this is. The journey is dangerous, exciting, and unknown. What waits out there for the players to explore? In the films we’re given three types of infected, standard, “slow lows”, and an alpha. Each introduction, in my opinion, should be used as separate scenarios. The variety of infected alters the methods to consider in combat and also in scouting. Abandoned cottages, babbling brooks, dense woodlands, overgrown hills and stampedes of deer give you a plethora of locations to generate interactions and scenes with.
The stopped train cars are a great combat and exploration encounter set up for you already. If your players venture into it, what can they find in the abandoned luggage that would interest or help them? Imagine the tension of trying to keep a low profile and crawling underneath the booth seats in order to prevent being spotted by nearby infected. Maybe your players can find a way to clear out the train car and establish a mainland base for themselves. This could be a long term recurring goal for your players, given them reason to routinely return to the mainland.
What’s a reason the players should visit ol Dr. Kelson and the bone temple? Curiosity, sickness, or safety? Such an iconic location should be visited at least once. Kelson could provide medical tips or advice on traversing through his neck of the woods. I could see a scenario where there is some sort of item he is looking for and he requests the players to find it for him in exchange for medical supplies. In a world with no doctors, Kelson distinguishes himself as a vital contact in this harsh world.
Now for Bone Temple, you are supplied with your “big bad” threat of this mini campaign. Jimmy Crystal and his fingers roam the wasteland with their cruel and satanic ritual violence. You can foreshadow Jimmy’s appearance with branded bodies reading the word “Jimmy” on them found in different locations throughout the mainland. Give your characters a glimpse from afar as they watch Jimmy command his Jimmies to attack innocent people. A good formula to get more “value” out of Jimmy would be the following: 1. Foreshadow, 2. Introduction from afar, 3. Introduction up close, 4. Run away from Jimmy, 5. Confront Jimmy.
To wrap this campaign, I would ask your players early on what a “life well lived” looks like to their characters as kids and then see if those views change later on in the campaign. How do these kids cope with their situation after finally getting exposed to the harsh world outside of their peaceful island. Some might have the hunger for adventure, others may fear to never leave the island again, and others may find themselves between the two.
Well there you have it! I hope you enjoy my springboard of ideas to run a “28” style mini campaign for your Mothership crew. If you have some ideas that would fit within the world and meld with Mothership TTRPG, shoot us an email and we might update the blog with your submission. As always, keep questing!
We Took The Quest 