Military Campaign that morphs into Sci-Fi or even Horror

[Erkenfresh]

OK, so I've got a neat idea for a campaign. I'm sure things like this have been done before but any input on improvements are welcome.

 

The idea is this. The players are a team of highly trained Marines. But, these Marines have special powers, like incredible strength or mind reading, which they keep secret. They get sent out by their commanding officer to stop a planned terrorist attack to destroy the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The storyline would lead them to the terrorist camp where they of course whoop some butt, but then find evidence that there's more to this attack than the players originally knew.

 

The leader of this attack was some type of archaeologist. In some ruins of Egypt he found evidence of an alien spaceship, but kept the evidence to himself. With some more research, he eventually found out that the Great Pyramid and it's close neighbors were constructed with the help of these aliens as a communications device to their home planet. (There's a lot of research showing how many mathematical and astronomical truths there are surrounding these pyramids, and if I ran this campaign I'd read up on it some, so it lends some credibility to the story (note I don't really believe the pyramids were made by aliens, end note)). Eventually, he encountered one of these aliens, which conferred enough information for him to belive they had bad intentions. He began to believe the only way to save humanity was to destroy one or all of these pyramids.

 

So, back to the party, knowing this, they might pick up the trail to seek out these aliens and when they do, the alien of course dilvulges their entire plan before trying to kill them. The aliens can shapeshift, and have put themselves in prominent positions thoughout human history to encourage wars among us (for example Alexander the Great, Caesar, etc.). The reason for this is that they believe wars bring out the best genes of a species, destroying the weak and promoting the strong. (Truthfully evolution doesn't work this way since the weak guys stay home ). And the aliens want the best genes as part of their genetic experiment to become the ultimately powerful race. Also turns out that the party's commanding officer is an alien, sending them out to get captured for the aliens' experiment.

 

The PC's fight the alien, which could range anywhere from a wimpy humanoid alien up to something truly horrific that the PC's barely beat. (I'm leaning towards the latter). Whether they decide to destroy the alien communication device is up to them of course, but then they might become the world's most wanted criminals.

 

The details:

- Characters built on 25+25 or maybe 25+50 and don't pay for equipment. Characteristic maxima is 20.

- All character are prebuilt by moi, the GM Players choose which they want to play. I'm doing this to ensure that each player fulfills a specific role towards the story. I might allow players to spend 10-20 of the points (and of course all the XP) on whatever they like to give them some creativity and investment in the character.

- Players should try to keep their "special powers" secret unless in dire straits, the big reveal should be an interesting scene.

- Campaign would be fairly railroaded with a set ending. In total, it could take about 5-6 hours.

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: Military Campaign that morphs into Sci-Fi or even Horror

 

Destroy the Great Pyramid how? Probably need someone with a mondo 'Demolitions' skill, a ####load of explosives and a LOT of time to carefully place said explosives. May be easier to steal a nuke from someplace and set that off in the guts of the Pyramid.

 

The Marines have special powers which they have kept secret. Clarification needed here. Kept secret from the Corps and each other? Which raises the apparent "coincidence" of them all being in the same unit - possibly explainable if their villainous CO somehow knew about said abilities beforehand. Or are they some kind of specially-established paranormal-type unit?

 

Seem like several gaps in the aliens' logic to me, not just the ones mentioned. For instance, why would one basically turn traitor to his/her/its entire species? Maybe need to expand on this - maybe there are much MUCH bigger stakes involved somehow. Plus the incredible inadvisability of deliberately making a potential foe much tougher - bad bad idea.

[Erkenfresh]

Re: Military Campaign that morphs into Sci-Fi or even Horror

 

Thanks for the input Ian (isn't that Magneto and Gandalf?).

 

Sure, nuke sounds good to me. But, I'm guessing a ####load of explosives in the middle of it would do the job too. Remember Billy Bob Thornton's discussion about firecrackers from Armageddon?

 

I haven't fully decided on if the players are a special "paranormal" unit or not. I think I'd prefer that they have a secret from both the Marine Corp and each other. The villianous CO may have some way of detecting this in their DNA and gets them all together for this very special mission. Perhaps a DNA scanner. Considering these aliens are all about gene research, it doesn't seem farfetched. Also, don't all military recruits have to submit blood for testing?...

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "turning traitor to his own species?" Are you referring to the aliens or the humans? And, deliberately making a potential foe much tougher? Maybe these aliens actually prefer a fair fight, while simultaneously looking for new genetics. Or perhaps, they're trying to find new technologies that they missed along the way. "Hmm, we never thought of fission, it's 20% more efficient than using dilithium crystals..." Furthermore, the aliens might just be cocky, believing there's no way the humans could defeat them. (Think of the Saiyans from Dragonball Z... if you've ever seen it).

[The Monster]

Re: Military Campaign that morphs into Sci-Fi or even Horror

 

This brought to my mind that one TV episode (was it Twilight Zone??) where aliens came to Earth and warned us we had thirty days to prepare ourselves to be judged worthy of membership in the Galactic Federation or be destroyed, and we were only getting a warning because we had shown great potential. The Earthlings went to work, made a world govenment, established world peace, set up poor relief for everyone, and so forth. When they proudly presented the evidence when the aliens returned, the aliens laughed riotously: they had been impressed by the Earthlings' ability and cleverness in making war; by eliminating it, they had sealed their own fate.

 

Here's a thought: the pyramids (and other ancient wonders) are actually parts of a galaxy-wide network of power (perhaps a vast computer grid or navigational beacon or something), which is in the process of self-destruction, or is being destroyed - either way, the destruction is not something under snetient control, but is a self-perpetuating prcoess (Doomsday Machine, anyone?). A few aliens are trying to stop it; some are trying to garner some advantage from the demolition (even something as simple as filing jumper claims on the minerals once the world is uninhabited; or trying to steal the long-forgotten technology which built the thing in the first place). So you've got the humans, who are trying to save Earth; a few aliens who are willing to work with them (either out of sheer altruism or the promise of future trade/diplomatic benefits), and some aliens who don't want them to interfere at all.