Random Encounters: The Bar Outside Area 51

It's a tumbledown roadhouse on a desert highway, no cute signs, no come-ons for tourists. Inside it's shabby but comfortable. The customers are mostly crewcut types with sunglasses. But the photos on the walls include shots that can't be anywhere in the Solar System. This is the bar where the people who Know The Secrets go to hang out after work.

ENCOUNTERS AT THE BAR OUTSIDE AREA 51

(As always: roll d20 when you're moving around the bar, d10 if you're seated for a long period.)

1. Roll Twice and Combine
2. Plot-advancing encounter: Someone or something related to whatever has brought the player-characters to a remote highway in Nevada.
3. Alien: It's a spindly, huge-eyed "Grey" alien in a tacky tourist cap and Hawaiian shirt, drinking strawberry daiquiris and trying to pick up humans for some "examinations." In conflict it uses its telepathic blast power.
4. Artie: The resident bore, skinny and intense. He's full of secret conspiracy theories, all of them guaranteed wrong. In actuality he's trying to find out what you know and who your masters are. He packs a small revolver in a leg holster, which everyone can see because he wears shorts.
5. Bob, the dog: He's part Golden Retriever, part everything else, and thanks to a mutation his IQ is about twice what yours is. He is curious about people, especially if they smell interesting. Other dogs are in awe of Bob.
6. "Doctor G": He's a con man selling "genuine alien artifacts," typically for 1d100 times 10 dollars (no checks), though he's more than willing to haggle (and loves to swap merchandise). Roll 1d100 for what he's selling. 1-50: useless junk, 51-80: military salvage worth a tenth of what he's charging, 81-90: actual secret Air Force or NSA cutting-edge tech, 91-95: inert alien machinery or metal, 96-00: actual working alien tech. Note that Dr. G's descriptions of what items do often have nothing to do with what they actually do.
7. Men In Black: (Actually they hire women, too.) 1d6 government agents in black suits and dark sunglasses, armed with automatic pistols and one ray gun. They're very suspicious of strangers.
8. Poltergeist: It's been haunting the place for years — a disembodied psychic presence which uses telekinesis to play puerile practical jokes on customers.
9. Power Failure: The lights and air conditioning go off for 1d6 minutes. That might provide cover to do something . . .
10. The Thing Under The Table: It's a shapeless purple blob, 1d100 lbs. in size, which glows faintly when it's eating. The staff have tried everything to kill it, but even the tiniest scrap of purple goo eventually regenerates. It tries to swallow anything smaller than it is.
11. Abandoned newspaper: It's yesterday's Las Vegas Sun, except that every news story begins with praise of the Pharaoh Nyarlathotep, who reigns over America from his palace in Baltimore. All the news is strange (except the sports results, which are exactly the same as in any other newspaper). The waitress says a trucker left it.
12. Angie: She's a lovely runaway looking for a ride, and if you look into her violet eyes you'll have to use all your willpower to resist falling in love with her. When you're alone she reverts to her true form, a large insect with a paralyzing sting who wants to lay eggs in your abdomen.
13. Bikers: 2d6 members of the Los Chupacabras motorcycle gang. They're tough, tattooed, and have alien implants giving each of them a different low-level special power. They all have knives and half have pistols, and they don't want to be bothered by anyone.
14. Bulletin Board: Mostly cards for local businesses, but there is a tattered flyer offering "Good pay for risky work" with a single tear-off phone number remaining at the bottom of the page.
15. Graffiti Table: The surface of this table is covered with names, jokes, numbers, and crude little pictures, drawn or carved by generations of diners. Reading it all gives anyone a bonus to knowledge of conspiracies or the secret history of the world.
16. Haunted Jukebox: It has a large selection of vintage rock-n'-roll and country songs, but whatever song you pick will influence what happens to you in the next 24 hours.
17. Mister H.: An incredibly old and frail-looking man, he insists on eating with new, still-wrapped utensils, and always has steak and green peas. He knows a lot about secret aerospace projects and old Hollywood secrets, and tips the waitress with a new hundred-dollar bill.
18. Party Room: Right now it's hosting 2d6 Reptilian aliens in human disguise, drinking ridiculous "tropical" cocktails and dining on plates of live rabbits. Anyone who isn't on the bar staff is assumed to be the "special main course" they're waiting for.
19. Polybius Game: A beat-up old coin-operated video game which implants a hypnotic command in anyone who plays it for more than 10 minutes.
20. Tracks/aftermath: Reroll to see what you find traces of.

SITUATIONS IN THE BAR OUTSIDE AREA 51

(Roll 1d6 to determine the situation, then roll on the table above to identify who is involved.)

1. A desires B
2. A wants to capture B
3. A wants B dead
4. A wants to go somewhere
5. A wants to solve a mystery
6. A wants X

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