There were many fine entries, but Gnome Stew reader ManiacClown is the winner with his brilliant mash up of holiday cheer and cold war espionage in this gem of a comment:
Kris “Santa” Sinterklaas is many things. Among them is an international criminal mastermind, kept alive on a life-extending alchemical mixture. For centuries he has schemed to bring the world under his jolly boots of doom, earning the trust and admiration of people the world over so that none would suspect until it was too late.
Through AURORA (Arctic United Resistance Of Recognized Authority), he sends his elves out into the world to carry out his means of achieving and maintain the finance of his operation, namely counterfeiting of patented and trademarked material.
As special agents of the World Intellectual Property Organization, charters under top-secret provisions of the Berne Convention, you have been tasked with bringing down Sinterklaas’s elven crime ring before he can amass enough of a fortune through his knockoff goods that he can buy sufficient influence to guide United States policy and with it the reluctant cooperation of the rest of the world.
The players will encounter Santa’s minions in a transport hub in a small town in Germany, an undersea logistics center in the ruins of Atlantis, a candy cane-styled space station for distribution of production materiel, and a bleeding-edge (especially for the PCs!) high-tech factory in the jungles of South America before following the trail to Santa’s lair in Egypt. What, you think he’d be in a place as obvious as the North Pole?
“Do you expect us to talk?”
“No, Agent Krampus. I expect you to jingle all the way… to Hell!
The twist of Santa’s lair being in Egypt is what sold me on this being the kind of game that I want to run for my group around the holidays. Just imagine the climactic final struggle as Sinterklaas and the PCs duke it out on the back of the sphinx while the peak of the Great Pyramid slowly opens to reveal Santa’s doomsday weapon that will plunge the entire world into a new ice age!
I’m telling you that the gift of this game concept is a gamer geek’s Christmas miracle! *Sniff!* I think my heart just grew three sizes! I am still keeping all of the roast beast though…
Congratulations ManiacClown! You will be receiving an email for your $25 Drive Thru RPG gift certificate as soon as I get your email address from the Gnome-in-Chief!
Please join me in congratulating ManiacClown by leaving a comment below, and I wish you all a joyous holiday season!
Congrats ManiacClown, and Happy holidays to all the rest!
Awesome! Now. What system would you run it in?
For me, it would be a tossup between Savage Worlds and FATE. Maybe d20 modern.
For someone that knows GURPS or Hero System well enough, those might work too…
Congrats and Merry Christmas.
“Ho ho ho-ly crap, he’s got a LAW!”
Love the Invader Zim reference too!
A well-deserved win. Congrats!
Nice entry, ManiacClown!
For some reason, I think Toon or (with a darker twist or two) Dread would be very well-suited to running this.
Even as a huge Savage Worlds fan, I think something with strong player empowerment would be the most fun… I’m thinking Cortex with the Plot Points, or maybe FATE/Fudge, with ‘player input’ turned up to 11.
Excellent choice. This one got my attention as I read them, too.
Congrats, ManiacClown!