So I've decided to put the GI Joe game on hiatus. I'm afraid I could burn out on it. With not playing for almost a month. Then the point the players are at in the game transitioning into the Angola portion. I think this is a good place to take a break. So I sent out an email with a bunch of choices of stuff I would like to run. Asking the players their opinion. I repost it here for you to read. (Oh, and yes I ripped a lot of stuff from wiki as I was in hurry. Not to mention I figured if would be easier, plus has all the links built in it.)
Ok this is the follow up to the last e-mail about sunday. I'm going to run a game this sunday. I would like a little bit of your input on it. I have several ideas. So let me throw them out at you. Please look them all over. Follow the links as they provide more info. Then if you could please e-mail me back. Let me know if your interested in playing sunday and what sounds interesting. Again I'm sorry for the short notice. Things have been kind of crazy.
Thundarr - The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn... A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil. He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!
Loosely inspired by
R.E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian , Thundarr the Barbarian was set in a future (at the time of production)
post-apocalyptic wasteland divided into kingdoms or territories--the majority of which are ruled by
wizards--and whose
ruins typically featured recognizable geographical features from the
United States, such as
Las Vegas,
Los Angeles,
Mount Rushmore,
New York City, or
Washington, DC . Other episodes with recognizable settings are located in
Central America, while one is in
London. Another notable feature of this future Earth is that the Moon is now in two pieces, though both pieces still orbit in proximity to one another, and seem to orbit at roughly the same height as the intact Moon once did. The shattered moon and the ruins of the former human civilization were supposedly caused by the passage of a runaway
planet between the Earth and the Moon in 1994, which, from scenes shown in the opening sequence, caused radical changes in the Earth's climate, geography, and tidal effects, the latter presumably because of the damage to the Moon. However, by the time period in which the series is set (2000 years later circa 3994 A.D.), the Earth and Moon seem to have settled into a new balance.
In this setting, Thundarr, a muscular warrior, and his companions
Princess Ariel (who was a formidable sorceress) and the
Wookiee-like
Ookla the Mok travelled the world on horseback, and battled evil wizards who combined magical spells with technologies from the pre-catastrophe world. Other enemies included werewolves, a predatory, malevolent alien being, humanoid lizards, and mutants.
Roadwarrior -
The story is set in
Australia in the near future, depicting a poorly-funded police unit called the
Main Force Patrol (MFP), which struggles to protect the
Outback's few remaining townspeople from violent motorcycle gangs. The film depicts the future Australia as a bleak,
dystopian, impoverished
society that is facing a breakdown of civil order, the causes of which are not detailed in this film but which the sequel explains as being caused by widespread oil shortages and a war following the shortages. The film introduces a young MFP police officer,
Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), who is considered to be the MFP's "top pursuit man". Max has become disillusioned with the MFP's dangerous and ill-matched fight with the violent biker gangs, and has given the MFP notice that he intends to quit the force. Max has another reason to stay out of the line of fire; he has a wife and a new baby at home.
One of the biker gang members, nicknamed the Nightrider, manages to escape from police custody and steal a police car. Max pursues the Nightrider in a high-speed chase, which results in the Nightrider's death in a fiery explosion. After this dangerous chase, which resulted in injuries for a number of officers, Max reminds his commanding officer that his days as a police officer are numbered. Max's commanding officer offers Max an incentive to stay: a customized, black
Ford XB Falcon "
Pursuit Special " with a powerful 600 horsepower,
supercharged V8 engine.
The biker gang, which is led by the Toecutter (
Hugh Keays-Byrne) plans to avenge Nightrider's death by killing MFP officers. Toecutter's young protegé, the biker Johnny the Boy, sets a trap for Max's close friend and fellow officer, Jim Goose (played by actor
Steve Bisley). When Goose's vehicle is flipped over, the bikers burn him alive ("the Goose is cooked") in retaliation for the Nightrider's death. After seeing Goose's charred body in the hospital's burn ward, Max becomes further angered and disillusioned with the police force. To recuperate, Max takes a leave from the police force to spend time with his wife and infant son in the relatively peaceful areas north of their region.
Meanwhile, the gang's vicious leader, the Toecutter, is still thirsting for revenge against Max. The two once again cross paths when Max and his family are on vacation in a remote beachfront area. The gang runs down Max's wife and son, leaving their crushed bodies lying in the middle of the road, and Max arrives too late to intervene. His son is pronounced dead on the scene, while his wife suffers massive injuries to her internal organs.
Filled with a burning, obsessive anger, Max once again dons his leather police outfit and straps on his sawed-off shotgun. Driving the supercharged, black Pursuit Special, he goes out to avenge the death of his family. He hunts down and kills the gang members one by one, including the Toecutter. When Max finds Johnny the Boy, he
handcuffs his ankle to a wrecked, overturned vehicle with a ruptured gas tank. Max lights a crude time-delay fuse and gives Johnny a hack saw. He says "The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel. It'll take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now if you're lucky, you can hack through your ankle in five minutes. Go." Soon after, an embittered Max drives off into the desolate Outback as the fuse he constructed explodes behind him, leaving Johnny's fate unknown, although a previous scene in which Johnny tries to act tough by burning himself with a lighter and 'wimps out" would suggest that he probably lacked the fortitude for such a gruesome means of escape.
Criminal - Now we've tried this one before. But I think we all learned a lot from it. I think we need to have an agreement of what kind of criminal game we;re going to run. Violent like a Guy Richie film (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch). Or others like Layer Cake, Way of the gun, Get Carter, Lucky # Slevin or Payback. (Which by the way is based on
Point Blank) Or do you want to run more of a criminal with a heart kind of thing. Like the Italian Job, Sneakers, or Oceans Eleven.
Conan - 'Know, o prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyberborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.' The golden age of fantasy is brought back to gaming as Conan and Hyboria stride into the realms of gaming once again. This 360-page, lavishly illustrated book realises the world of Conan as never before.Exhaustively researched, Conan The Roleplaying Game features new innovations to ensure combat, magic, character creation and development reflect the epic writings of Robert E. Howard. From the shores of the Western Ocean, to the Sea of Vilayet, the countries of Hyboria are explored, detailed and illustrated. The cultures, religions, traditions, legends and more are all explored to ensure this is the most definitive Conan roleplaying game of all time. This complete roleplaying game lets players and Games Masters alike step into the world of the greatest fantasy hero of all time and shake the world of Hyboria
This is a D20 based game like D&D. So i know all of you will be familiar with the rules. It does change a few things. Like armor absorbs damage as opposed to making harder to hit you.
Mech Warrior - The BattleTech universe
BattleMechs in combat on the cover of Storms of Fate by
Loren L. Coleman. Art by
Fred Gambino.
The breadth and volume of material written for BattleTech has yielded a
fictional universe with a richness and complexity that rivals
Star Wars and
Star Trek. A detailed
timeline stretching from the
21st century to the mid-
32nd describes humanity's technological, social and political development and spread through space both in broad historical terms and through accounts of the lives of individuals who experienced and shaped that history. Individual people remain largely unchanged from those of modern times, due in part to stretches of protracted interplanetary warfare during which technological progress slowed or even reversed. Cultural, political and social conventions vary considerably between worlds, but
feudalism is wide spread, with many states ruled by hereditary
lords and other nobility, below which are numerous
social classes.
A key feature of the BattleTech universe is the absence of
non-human intelligent life. Despite one or two isolated encounters in novels, mankind is the only sentient species, making the incessant warfare among humanity's feudal empires seem a more realistic and direct extension of the past and present. Though not the norm, fictional futures in which humanity is alone have been explored in a number of other popular series, including
Frank Herbert's
Dune,
Isaac Asimov's
Foundation, Grant Naylor's
Red Dwarf, and Joss Whedon's
Firefly.
Above all, the central theme of BattleTech is conflict, something to be expected given the franchise's
wargaming core. Interstellar and civil wars, planetary battles,
factionalization and infighting, as well as institutionalized combat in the shape of arena contests and
duelling, form the grist of both novelized fiction and game backstories.
History
Main article:
History of the BattleTech universeMost events in BattleTech occur during the early to middle decades of the
31st century, though a few publications concern earlier ages, including a technical readout describing 2750s-era technology. MechWarrior: Dark Ages and its related novels take place in the first half of the
32nd century.
[5][6] [7][8]Technology
Main article:
BattleTech technologyThe level of technology evident in BattleTech is an unusual blend of the highly futuristic and the nearly modern. Radically advanced tech like
faster-than-light interstellar travel and
superluminal communication mix with such anachronisms as
internal combustion engines,
projectile weapons and
artillery.
Artificial intelligence ,
nanotechnology,
androids, and many other staples of future fiction are generally absent or downplayed. Incessant war is generally blamed for the uneven advancement.
[9][10] Political entities
BattleTech's universe is governed by numerous
interstellar human governments that vie for supremacy. Described below are the major areas into which these factions fall.
Terra
Main article:
Terra (BattleTech)Terra is the homeworld of mankind (no longer called Earth) and former capital of the
Star League. Many planets around
Terra were rendered uninhabitable during the first two Succession Wars, and surviving planets suffer from the damage even centuries later. Several dozen of these worlds, in what came to be known as the
Chaos March, briefly gained their independence between 3057 and 3081. Historically, whichever faction controlled
Terra has held more political power than any single Great House. Several groups have held
Terra, including the
Terran Alliance,
Terran Hegemony,
ComStar,
Word of Blake, and
Republic of the Sphere; most of these nations fought bitter struggles upon
Terra, scarring the motherland of mankind.
The Inner Sphere
Main article:
Inner SphereThe
Inner Sphere, heart of the BattleTech Universe, contains all worlds within 500 light-years of Terra. It is dominated by five "Great Houses":
House Davion,
House Liao,
House Marik,
House Steiner and
House Kurita. (The term "Inner Sphere" sometimes refers to these houses collectively). The leader of each Great House claims to be the rightful successor to the rule of the Star League, and so their nations are known as the Successor States.
BattleMechs on the cover of Patriots and Tyrants by
Loren L. Coleman. Art by
Fred Gambino.
There are few other significant nations in the Inner Sphere. The
St. Ives Compact was a short-lived state that broke away from the
Capellan Confederation after the
Fourth Succession War, and was reabsorbed following a brief war in 3062. The
Free Rasalhague Republic was created in 3034 by a deal between the
Draconis Combine and the
Lyran Commonwealth. It rivaled the Capellan Confederation for size, but by 3052 it had been almost entirely conquered by the Clans; in the 3070s, much of it was incorporated into the
Ghost Bear Dominion (which is known as the
Rasalhague Dominion by 3130).
The Periphery
Main article:
Periphery (BattleTech)The space surrounding the Inner Sphere contains a number of independent nations, known collectively as the Periphery. The largest of these nations (the
Outworlds Alliance,
Taurian Concordat,
Magistracy of Canopus, and
Rim Worlds Republic) predate the Star League and rival the Successor States themselves in size, but are inferior economically and militarily. More moderately sized nations, such as the
Marian Hegemony or
Bandit Kingdoms, also lie near the
Inner Sphere. The Periphery contains countless other independent nations, many consisting of a single star system each and rarely playing a significant role in
Inner Sphere politics. The mostly uncharted space beyond the nearby Periphery states is known as the
Deep Periphery and contains numerous pirate havens and lost
Star League colonies.
The Clans
Main article:
Clans (BattleTech)BattleMechs on the cover of The Legend of the Jade Phoenix by
Robert Thurston. Art by
Fred Gambino.
During the Fall of the above-mentioned
Star League, the
Star League Defense Force exiled itself and eventually settled in the Deep Periphery. They reformed into
the Clans, a warrior-centric
caste society relying on
genetic manipulation and artificial birth. The four strongest of these Clans returned to the Inner Sphere as would-be conquerors in 3049, were reinforced by three more Clans a year later, and were joined in the late 3060s by another two. Of the original twenty Clans, by 3067 three were
absorbed, two were
annihilated, two fragmented, two defected, and one was
abjured. The Clan Occupation Zones together occupy a region roughly equivalent to one of the Successor States.
[11]Mercenaries
Main article:
Mercenaries (BattleTech)Inner Sphere has many
private military companies. Some of them are quite powerful, and their actions have influenced the history of the known universe. Among the most famous mercenary groups are the
Wolf's Dragoons,
Eridani Light Horse,
Kell Hounds,
Northwind Highlanders,
Gray Death Legion, and
McCarron's Armored Cavalry.
[12][13]The Mechwarrior game would be divided in to two parts. The normal RPG with normal characters and etc. When it comes to Mech combat and vehicular combat. It will be done with Mech Warrior clicks.
Star Frontiers -
Setting
Star Frontiers takes place near the center of a spiral galaxy (the setting does not specify whether the galaxy is our own
Milky Way). A previously undiscovered quirk of the laws of physics allows starships to jump to "The Void", a hyperspatial realm that greatly shortens the travel times between inhabited worlds, once they reach 1% of the speed of light (3,000 km/s).
The basic game setting was an area known as "The Frontier Sector" where four sentient races (Dralasite, Humans, Vrusk, and Yazirian) had met and formed the United Planetary Federation (UPF). The original homeworlds of the
Dralasites, Humans, and Vrusk were never detailed in the setting and it is possible that they no longer existed. The Yazirians were native to the Frontier Sector. A large number of the star systems shown on the map of the Frontier sector in the basic rulebook were unexplored and undetailed, allowing the
Gamemaster (called the "referee" in the game) to put whatever they wished there.
Players could take on any number of possible roles in the setting but the default was to act as hired agents of the Pan Galactic corporation in exploring the Frontier and fighting the aggressive incursions of the
alien and mysterious worm-like race known as the Sathar. Most published modules for the game followed these themes.
Sapient Races
Dralasites are short, gray
amoeboid creatures capable of changing their form to a limited extent by extending and retracting
pseudopods. Lacking a
digestive system, they consume their food by surrounding and absorbing it. A network of nerves and veins intersects at a Dralasite's two eye spots. They cannot see colors, but have a well-developed sense of smell. They have a sense of humor that the other races often find strange or quirky, and a love of bad puns.
Humans are a race of beings virtually identical to Earthly humans. The most notable difference between these and earth humans are that the humans of the Frontier have a 200 year lifespan (possibly due to the advanced technology of the setting).
Vrusk are an insect-like (arthropoid) race with eight walking legs and two five-clawed manipulating arms. Their ant-like heads included two
antennae and two
mandibles. They are omnivorous. They are noted for their logical minds and their society is structured as commercial ventures. Many Vrusk give their company name before their given name.
The Yazirian race are somewhat reminiscent of apes. They are muzzled, lightly furred, and have membranous wings stretching between their arms and legs which they can use to glide over short distances in low gravity (their home worlds are all low-gravity). They are descended from a nocturnal species, and prefer to wear tinted goggles to protect their eyesight during the day. They are said to be rather violent and pushy, and have a custom to choose a "life-enemy", which could be anything; a company, person, or a concept. The fictional species was rehashed as Shadow People in
TSR's later
Dragonlance series of campaign modules. Both the Yazirians and the Shadow People also bear a strong resemblance to the
High Martians of
GDW's later
Space: 1889 RPG. Yazirians bear a passing resemblance to
Wookiees in
Star Wars especially in the matter of
battle rage or a
berserker state of mind.
These races were altered slightly and reused in
TSR's
Spelljammer , and have now been republished in original form for
d20 Future by
Wizards of the Coast.
The Sathar are a race of mysterious, worm-like beings who are the enemies of the UPF (they are not intended to be used as a player race). They have wormlike bodies of 3 to 4 meters in length with two tentacular arms that end in fine tentacles for manipulation and two tentacles that end in paddles that can be used for heavy lifting (including acting as "legs", lifting the front of the creature off the ground in a humanoid-like stance). Their eyes have two pupils each, giving them good peripheral vision. The races of the Frontier know little about them other than their basic anatomy and the fact that they are hostile, as no live Sathar has ever been captured. Some of the behaviors and motives of the Sathar were revealed in the printed adventures for the game, and adventures commonly featured mercenaries working for the Sathar to undermine the UPF as villains.
There are also other non-player races in the Star Frontiers universe, including many in the printed modules, but these five are the only races who developed space drive technology within the Frontier.
There are many different directions we could go in this. The group could be free traders. Running there own ship. Shipping cargo across the galaxy. This could a legit business or it could be shadier not unlike Han Solo and Chewy. Or maybe somewhere in between. Or the character could work for law enforcment. Or the military, and/or special forces. Or as Mercenaries. Skies the limit.
The Star Frontiersman is a fantastic resource for star frontiers. It even has all the books ever made for the game. Cleaned up and mader as PDF's.
Planet of the Apes - Now it doesnt just have to be the movie. It could be a different post apoc future. Where the humans and apes battle. The monkeys being less high tech. Or a pulp adventure in 20's africa. Or maybe like the movie
Congo. Or the apes are invaders from an alternate dimension. Perhaphs intstead of playing humans you play the apes.
Heres a sampler of the possibilities and system.
Zombies - Ok this can be a no brainer.(Ha, Ha, ya get? Thats a joke son.) Surviving the zombie hordes. Perhaps fighting zombies in WWI, or WWII. Or many other themes. Shop smart shop S-mart.
WW II - lastly but certainly not least WWII. Play any of the factions. You could be grunts or special forces. Perhaphs pilots, or tankers. Africa, Italy, Europe, and the South Pacific. Are but a few of the locals we could focus on.
Well we ran the third session today. There were only three players again. But that's OK. So once again it was Omar the Yarizian Merc, Gesh the Dralasite Medic, and Loran the former military man. They are approached by a man in the bar they are hanging out in.
This man here. He has a simple proposition. He would like to hire the characters to deliver six crates no questions asked. To a mining camp out in the wild lands. He offers them 3000 credits up front and 3000 after delivery. They bargain with him and he pays them 4000 credits up front and 2000 after delivery. He gives them directions to a warehouse on the outskirts on the city. Tells them to talk to Roy. Well they go across the street to Crazy Ralphy Mays Rental Center. Who as you can guess is quite a character. Hes a large dralasite that wears an oversize foam cowboy hat. They negotiate with him. He shows them a hover truck and some other vehicles out back. While talking with him they see his guard pigs which are huge hogs with big tusks. Finally they rent a ground car, a PGC Escort sedan to be specific. They finally proceed to the ware house. Its a large tan stucco building. Out front is a human in a blanket poncho and large hat leaning against teh wall. They approach him and he turns out to be Roy. Roy unlocks the door to the building, shows them the crates and returns to the front of the building. Seemingly going back to sleep. They enter the building. Which seems to be filled with years worth of boxes and junk. In one corner are six green crates. They proceed to load the crates into the car. Half way through the process. Another car pulls up. Three men dressed in grey suits (similar to the type wore by Mao Zedong). They tell the characters to give them the crates. The players are less then responsive, as you can guess. Well the gangsters pull guns. So the characters respond in kind. A shoot out ensues. Two of the gangsters are hit by a needler pistol. Knocking them out. The last is killed by gunfire. They search the gangsters and find some ammo. Then take their watches and a big gold ring. They lock the two knocked out gangsters in the trunk of the gangsters car. Telling Roy that he might want to get rid of the car. They finish loading up the car and head out to the wild lands. Following the coordinates they are about half way. When they see a vehicle approaching them. They stop the car and get behind it using it as cover. A hover bike zooms up on them. With a rider dressed in green helmet and leathers. Spraying the car with bullets from an auto pistol. They return fire. Injuring the rider. Causing him to lose control. The hover bike noses down. Tumbling, sending the rider rag dolling across the hard pack desert. They search him recovering several ammo magazines for an auto pistol. They get back in the car and continue to the mining camp. Once they reach the camp it is not like any other mining camp they have seen. It is surrounded by a chain link fence topped with razor wire. Behind that they also have the beginnings on a burm. Being constructed, using the dirt dug up from the mine. On the main gate there is two guard towers. Equipped with machine guns. They are told to halt by security. Which look to be mercenaries dressed in brown Merc Co uniforms. They are armed with gyro jet rifles. they are checked out then let in. They are directed to the main building. They are greeted by a head guy. He inspects the crates. Revealing that the contents were a sonic devastator and a heavy laser. He tells them that he will contact Rolento. To let him know that they successfully received the crates. So the characters can go back to him to get paid. As the characters are going back to the car. They see something headed toward the camp. The head guy tells them its nothing to worry about. As they have been raided a couple times. That they are ready for them. Suddenly the fence explodes. It appears they didn't expect that. Four hover bikes rush in. Piloted by men in green leathers and helmets. Each one has a rocket launcher mounted to the bottom. One of them heads right at the characters blowing up their rental car. They engage the biker. They hit him but he moves out of range behind some buildings. Another approaches which they kill. The hover bike slamming into the burm exploding. Explosions happen around the camp. The characters acquire a hover truck. They then play chicken with on of the hover bikes. They miss him with the truck. But get a shot off on him as he passes. Sending him careening into a building. The Merc Co, guys seem to have things under control at this point. The characters examine the bike and body. The guy in green leathers has Galactic Task Force Incorporated markings on them. GTFI is the enemy of Streel and Merc Co. GTFI works for the Pan-Galactic Corporation.
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