The Future of Dark Champions

[Lord Kryptman]

In my gameing group there is a very low level of exp. They are all realatively new to gameing, and I dont mind so much except that well my games always have to have some root in a movie or the like. The newest game is based on Doom, Starship Troopers, Farscape,Aliens, Preadators and a few other semi military based scifi medias.
I have had to build all the gear from scratch and Im running out of ideas for stuff that my group might want and need. I have a lack of inspiration concerning equipment and it bothers me cause I like my guys to have choices.
If any one has any Ideas plot seeds, evil Aliens they have dealt with or thought about ways to do planets and things like that. I would really be happy about that stuff. Im also working out how to deal with death in a run where all the guys are a special forces Black Bag opperation.
To give you an idea My players are as follows:
3rd Lt. Templar Squad Leader, and computer spec.
Spc. "Doc" Team Medic
Spc. Hicks Sniper
Spc. Castle (Female) Weapons expert
Spc. Wrought Iron Breach Spec.
and one undecided
so the team is out there and has potential im just a little short on ideas.

[ghost-angel]

Pick up Alien Wars.

[Remjin]

It might help if you list what you already have. With a military style campaign, gear can be very defining of the individual. Give me a basic overview of what you have and I'll lay down whatever else I have.

I'm kind of a gear nut, we can talk overall concepts and such once I can get to a keyboard (using my phone right now).

[Dholcrist]

I second the motion to just pick up Alien Wars.

But I'm kind of hazy on exactly the kind of setting you're looking to create. If you're looking for an interstellar war type setting (a la Starship Troopers), then Alien Wars sets you right up. But if you're looking for a near-future interplanetary military sci-fi, then you're going to have to make up your own equipment anyways.

Saying "the Future of Dark Champions" makes me think next hundred years or so, but listing Starship Troopers and Farscape as inspiration makes it sound much bigger than that. If that's the case, then, once again, just pick up Alien Wars and/or the Star Hero book.

[Remjin]

Alien Wars is a pretty good resource, actually.

[Shaft]

As I recall, Blade Runner and Alien/s/ses are supposed to be set in the same continuity.

Alien/s/ses also has crossed over into Predator.

Predator and Terminator have crossed over in Dark Horse Comics.

Terminator and Robocop have crossed over too in DHC.

Blade Runner is based on Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". If you look at other movies based on the "Dick-iverse", you have Minority Report, Total Recall and Paycheck.

Combining all those sources into a cohesive whole can give you a butt-load of Dark Future material to work with.

[wcw43921]

Well, you obviously need a campaign setting.

Here's a suggestion for Dark Champions in the future--you could call it the Highly Unstable and Dangerous Zone. Otherwise known as--The HUD-Zone.

And the main population center would, of course, be--HUD-Zone City.

I'm sure you can flesh it out from there.

:D :p :snicker: :lol:

[clsage]

Pick up Alien Wars.

I think I'd add Gadgets and Gear and possibly The Equipment Handbook
too. Both of those have plenty of fodder for the "gearhead imagination".

-Carl-

[ghost-angel]

I think I'd add Gadgets and Gear and possibly The Equipment Handbook
too. Both of those have plenty of fodder for the "gearhead imagination".

-Carl-

definitely. If you want a suite of books to pick up for this style of gaming:

Ultimate Vehicle
Ultimate Skill
Equipment Guide
Combat Handbook
Alien Wars
Dark Champions

optional really useful stuff:
Spacers' Toolkit (for more futuristic gadgets and vehicles)
Predators (for enemies to work with)
Worlds Of Empire (for planets)
Ultimate Mentalist (if you wish to include psionics in the dark future)

[Major Tom]

Have you taken a look at the "Imperialize It!" thread? There's some ideas there
that you could probably use.

As far as the undecided position in the squad that was mentioned in the first
post goes, just about any black ops team could use at least one penetration
specialist -- you know, the guys who're trained to sneak into enemy strong-
holds without being detected so they can use yet other parts of their training
to confront the forces of darkness and injustice... and kill'em deader'n hell.


Major Tom :sneaky:

[Vestnik]

Blade Runner is based on Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". If you look at other movies based on the "Dick-iverse", you have Minority Report, Total Recall and Paycheck.

Combining all those sources into a cohesive whole can give you a butt-load of Dark Future material to work with.

Those movies are only vaguely like the universes of Dick. For one thing Dick's religious obsessions have been taken right out. It's central to Do Androids Dream?

(I think Dick was mainly a religious writer, especially later in life, but that's a digression.)

[Remjin]

Okay, as far as gear goes, most of your guys seem to be taking pretty normal roles. I'm sure all the weapons you may have put together should be sufficient, and the book suggestions a lot of people gave are perfect for your needs.

The weapon specialist will want a lot of fancy gear, and the sniper will probably fall into one of two big categories, and the undecided guy may come up with another need. Oh yeah, and the door breacher guy... so let's cover basic weapons and stuff to add:

Pistols - dunno what kind of tech you're going for, but the basic sidearm is always a nice little personal thing to a special team. Pistols are always kind of last ditch for the most part, with a few instances where they're preferred. Having different sizes, configurations, calibers, fire rates is nice. Having one with autofire makes for a nice change. Look at the Beretta 93R for a little inspiration perhaps. There's always the big boomer, the itty bitty hideaway, and everythign in between. I think revolvers and the like are sexy. Also remember the usual "ops" type attachments: a light (usually on the front of the frame), a laser (from grip, guide rod, or perhaps a funky attachment on top like the old school units), extra long magazines, fancy sights like the holographic dot sights or even the tubular dot sights.

Rifles - so many ways to go here, takes similar accessories, tons of info out there. For sheer accessorizing, look at the AR-15 and everything you can buy for it. Its really quite ridiculous. You can probably triple the weight of the gun with all the crud some people attach to it. It'll give your weapons specialist a month's worth of crud to wade through.

Shotguns, old standby, the shorter and basically rougher you can make it, the better. A few fancy versions, but most people don't want fancy shotguns. Takes a lot of the similar stuff rifles will. If you look at tactical shotgun sights, though, you'll see all matter of craziness.

You're likely to get someone who wants a really big gun.. you know,the old Predator mini-gun and stuff like that. I'd prepare for that.

Sniper types usually fall into one of two general classes. There's the guy who wants to use the biggest, meanest, loudest rifle that can be used, similarly to the big .50s in our age, or even the 14.5mm, and I think there's even a 20mm out there somewhere. I can't remember. I know the 14.5mm has two iterations in Dark Champions, though. Then there's the guy who wants the silencer or a more reasonable rifle. Having break-down versions is always a plus for them. Scopes will be important, as will fancifying them with IR or night sights and stuff of that nature. Having a spotter is normal, but not usually in movies. =)

Just a few thoughts, use if you like, people have given you a lot of good resources. Be sure to check out what people use now, and just use an equivalent in your world with whatever tech you use, and that'll give you lots of options. The more extreme you want, the more extreme "tactical" or "spec ops" type of websites you should check out. Most of them are kind of ridiculous, but they're fun for games. =)

[Mister E]

The novelization of Total Recall was written by Piers Anthony (read it as a kid... one of his better books, if I *ahem* recall). I'm a bit shocked to hear that both Blade Runner and Alien exist in the same continuity. Going to have to confirm that if I can. Wildness, Shaft. :D

Beyond that: I'm a huge fan of mixing and matching settings, too.


... Doom, Starship Troopers, Farscape,Aliens, Preadators... Throwing Farscape into the mix is awesome.

[Thia Halmades]

And no one thinks to point this guy to HERO: Combat Evolved? You poor, poor man. I've been designing (for... what, six or eight months now) a HERO conversion of the video game HALO. The same game that is basically the non-sucky version of playing through Aliens, Starship Troopers, etc. & so forth. Just follow the linky in my signature and you can see a whole ton of stuff I created just for people like you. Am I great cat or what?

[Mister E]

And no one thinks to point this guy to HERO: Combat Evolved? You poor, poor man. I've been designing (for... what, six or eight months now) a HERO conversion of the video game HALO. The same game that is basically the non-sucky version of playing through Aliens, Starship Troopers, etc. & so forth. Just follow the linky in my signature and you can see a whole ton of stuff I created just for people like you. Am I great cat or what?

Oh, yeah. Lord Kryptman... check out Thia Halmades' "HERO: Combat Evolved" thread. :p

As a side note: I just discovered that the entire run of "Red vs. Blue" is accessible on the internet for free. I just watched it on google-video... all of it... in one sitting... which makes me both dumber and more knowledgeable. If you dig it, don't forget to also check out the bonus mini-series, "Out of Mind," which follows Tex on a five episode adventure between her disappearance in season 4 and her re-appearance in season 5.

[/side note]