Target: Alice

All right, so a long time ago, this douchebag decided that it would be a hilariously awesome idea to take d20 Modern and set up a long-winded campaign in which the PCs were members of a specops team in the Resident Evil universe, and were tasked with hunting down infamous ur-example Mary Sue Alice, from the Resident Evil movies.

What ensued was a three-day campaign easily amongst the most retarded ever seen, yet was one that at the end of, everyone was cheering raucously (in various levels of inebriation, no less) at.

This is their story.

Pre-Campaign Analysis

As a fan of the Resident Evil series - before it had completely vanished up its own ass, mind - I always had a very special hate for Alice. The Mary Sue label gets thrown around an awful lot around /tg/ and the internet in general, but it is rare indeed that one comes across such an example as genuinely terrifying as Alice is. In order to properly establish Target: Alice and the objectives for the players, I had to dig deep - and hard - into Alice herself, and find out why she was as bad as she was.

I eventually came to the conclusion that Alice herself is manifold:

• In the first movie, she's competent, but not exactly overpowered; indeed, short of one unbelievably stupid scene with a Cerberus, Alice is pretty much just a regular character. At this point, she's exhibited few of the Sue traits that she would display in the later movies. Indeed, had the movie series ended at the first one, Alice probably wouldn't be as hated as she is now.

• By the second movie, the need to turn Alice into the only competent protagonist is on full display: everyone else is completely inept, and literally exists only to validate Alice's existence as the coolest character evar; the existing characters from the Resident Evil series are introduced solely so Alice can outshine them. From her initial intro where she rides a motorcycle into a church and kills a Licker with a shotgun loaded with coinshot, to her entire scene directly copying the intro from Resident Evil: Code Veronica, to her finishing literally everything useful another character tries to do, Alice has gone into full-blown Sue mode. The god-mode Sue traits are fully unearthed at the end, where she not only exhibits psychic powers able to explode heads through security cameras, but is basically able to walk out of the research facility she is held at through rule of cool.

• From the third movie onwards, the formula repeats: Alice is the only competent protagonist and all other protagonists exist to validate her existence as the most powerful thing in the world. The psychic powers continue to come and go as plot circumstances demand, there's apparently dozens of Alice Clones, and the entire plot winds up plunging up its own ass like a FATAL player trying to hide in another player's anus.

Right away, several things became apparent:

• One, I could run multiple Alices at once with varying power levels because clones. The Alice Clones would have any number of different class-combos, and would range from Alpha-Level Alice Clone (level 15), to Omega-Level Alice Clone (Level 25). "Alice Prime" would be level 30.
• Two, the best time-period to run the campaign would be after the second movie and before the third movie decidedto screw its own continuity in the urethra. This would allow me to have power groups that the PCs could work with and would have a vested interest in seeing Alice destroyed.
• Three, I would need to allow my players to completely circumvent the usual Alice tropes in these movies by out-clevering her, something that I knew my party was going to be all-too-keen on. With that in mind, I drew out a campaign outline, sketched up NPCs, and got to work.

Character Creation

As most of my players are not only d20 modern veterans, but characterization wunderkinds, they quickly drew up an international team to begin the hunt. They were free to use any of my available d20 modern books; to my surprise, most of them stuck with the original, though a few decided to go with The party was level 10:

• One was a former KGB interrogator with psychic powers.

He was a Charismatic Hero 5/Telepath 5.

• One was a former Marine Captain who had a fondness for airboat racing.

He was a Tough Hero 5/Soldier 5.

• One was a tech expert and a former contract killer.

He was a Smart Hero 5/Tracer 5.

• One was a mercenary field medic who had developed a taste for "monster hunting" in the wake of a viral outbreak.

He was a Dedicated Hero 5/Medic 5.

The idea eventually became that they'd all be members of the BSAA, and would be assigned to eliminate Alice - claiming that she was a sentient biological weapon and potentially capable of triggering a mass viral outbreak (this is not much of a stretch). They kitted themselves out in a colorful array of weapons and armor, were issued some choice equipment, and cowboy'd up to head to her last known position and start hunting the bitch down.

3 weeks later, we had out first session.

Mission One: Operation Silver Hammer

• Target: Escaped
• Casualties: 2 Alpha-Level Alice Clone, 1 Beta-Level Alice Clone, 4 USS Operatives, 6 Zombies, 4 Cerberus, 1 Licker.
• Team Status: Minor Injuries.

The first mission began, as they so often do, with the group heading to the target's last-known position - one which had recently seen a low-level outbreak - a former Umbrella test center. The group were airdropped in, and after surveying the situation, determined that the worst of the situation had already passed: most of the organisms were destroyed and there was little clue what had happened.

Penetrating the facility through use of some creative hotwiring from the Tracer, and dealing with the few remaining infected targets (some Zombies, and later, a Licker that tried to ambush the group), the group found what had really been going on down below: A pit full of deceased Alice Clones. The group ran into an Umbrella Secret Service (USS) team which was there for much the same reason the players were, but some words were said by the Medic, and the Soldier elected to escalate breaking and entering to pre-meditated quadruple-homicide.

Having got the drop on the enemy in the worst possible way, the Tracer and the Soldier wound up cutting one of the enemy USS members to ribbons on the opening round, with the Telepath rendering of the enemy squad squad easy pickings the following round. The final one hightailed it, and the group pursued.

Eventually, the group chased the USS Soldier to the facility floor, and were engaged (as was the soldier) by two Alpha-Level Alice Clones (Dedicated Hero 5/Psionic Agent 10) the pair opened fire, and the USS soldier was critically injured. Our intrepid heroes opened fire, the Telepath using Brain Lock to hold one still so the others could cut the pair down piecemeal despite their superior position. The second one fled, and the group, save the Medic, who stabilized the USS operative before tying him up, chased after the fleeing Alice Clone, badly-wounding it before they encountered another - the Beta-Level clone [Tough Hero 7/Battle Mind 10]. The group responded to her presence with heavy weapons fire, the Tracer lining up shots as the Soldier started pitching incendiary grenades. The Telepath tried using Attraction to stop the Alpha Clone's retreat, but unsuccessfully; on the following round, he started unloading his combat shotgun as the Soldier continued firing off his grenade launcher. With the Beta Clone weakened and the Alpha Clone crippled, the Medic re-joined the battle from another angle about 7 rounds in, lighting up the Alpha with his SMG to finish her off, before a lucky critical strike from the Soldier popped the Beta the following round.

Exhausted and low on ammunition, the group took their prisoner - and the corpses of the Alices they had killed - and called for extraction. After fighting off several Cerberus that had been lurking around the facility's edge, they returned to base and gave their report: Clearly, not only were statements regarding Alice true, but there was more than one! Determined to track down these dangerous biological weapons before they could wind up in the hands of one of the big corporations, the group followed after Alice using the best intel the BSAA could dig up, and soon was headed into South America, re-armed, re-equipped, and 3 levels higher for good measure.