All Outta Bubblegum

Josh is back in Busan for a month, and last night we (me, Josh, Pat, Steve and Alex) gathered at a local beer mart (a sort of bar that's run like a convenience store--it saves money somehow, but that's beside the point) for a few games and catch up with Josh.

While we were waiting for Pat to come, we played two quick games of Coloretto, then when Pat got there we got out All Outta Bubblegum RPG. 

I'd printed up a few copies of the rules, and a few One Page Dungeons and 5 Room Dungeons in case I was stuck for ideas while we played, but it turned out I didn't need the help.  I figured they'd want to play something either modern or sci fi with the game, rather than bog standard fantasy, and I was right. 

At first they thought sci fi, then zombies (Josh suggested Evil Dead as a setting).  Of course, They Live was mentioned, and Steve said he wanted to play Rowdy Roddy Piper.  That clinched it for me.  We would play 80's WWF wrestlers in the zombie apocalypse.

Pat quickly chose The Ultimate Warrior and Alex was Hacksaw Jim Duggan.  Steve decided to switch to Macho Man Randy Savage.  Josh had never really watched wrestling as a kid, so he wasn't sure who to be.  He was about to default to Hulk Hogan when I suggested Mr. T. 

I decided it was Wrestlemania 10, in 1985 (not sure if that's when it actually happened, didn't really care).  Vince McMahon is just going out to open the event when zombies (the bush-league wrestlers who are there just to get beaten by the big name guys in the early matches) climb into the ring and rip him appart.

The guys swing into action, trying to take down the zombies.  But since they've all got full supplies of bubblegum, they're not kicking much ass.  They quickly figure out how to start losing gum and the chaos commenced.

In short order, all four of them have been turned into zombies.  Then the game switches to "let's turn NYC into their zombie kingdom."  Except the Ultimate Warrior, who was trying to pump himself up on zombie 'roids, but failed a roll.  I decided he injected himself with hemorrhoid cream.  His next roll ended up converting himself back to normal.  Preparation H was the cure.

In the meantime, zombie Mr. T had escaped the city, Hacksaw Jim Duggan was leading zombified wrestling fans, hookers & junkies from Times Square, and the zombified cast of Cats into New Jersey, and Macho Man was having existential crises as he had pissed off Miss Elisabeth by grabbing Cindi Lauper's ass.

Somehow Zombie T goes and crashes a plane into the Pentagon and hits the big red button.  Then he makes it back to New Jersey after failing to escape Earth on the space shuttle Challenger, and all four of them engage (with zombie Hulk Hogan who had gotten pulled into the mix) in a cage match in the Pine Barrens just before the bombs dropped.

Tons of fun.  Even Steve, who dislikes RPGs, had fun because it was just a lark, rather than some over-serious attempt at simulationism or narrativism or even gamism.  Just goofing around with some beers, some gum, and some dice.