Barrier Peaks type scenarios?

[Chris Goodwin]

Has anyone run or played in Fantasy Hero scenarios where the point is to investigate a crashed starship or other science fictional elements?  If so how did it go?  What source materials did you use?  

[Old Man]

We ran a FH campaign through a couple of Star Frontiers modules once.  Conversions were pretty straightforward--it's not as though Hero is incapable of representing Star Frontiers tech.  The only hard part is roleplaying cavemen fumbling their way through, and with, technological devices.  We handwaved it, but the best strategy is for the party to see bad guys using tech.  From that it's reasonable to think that certain characters could figure out how devices should be used.  Otherwise, it's hard to imagine a situation in which a fantasy character picks up a plasma rifle they've never seen before and figures out how to use it in a way that doesn't end in friendly fire.

[zslane]

Maybe you could borrow the technology flow chart idea from Gamma World for that sort of thing.

[Ninja-Bear]

12 hours ago, Old Man said:

We ran a FH campaign through a couple of Star Frontiers modules once.  Conversions were pretty straightforward--it's not as though Hero is incapable of representing Star Frontiers tech.  The only hard part is roleplaying cavemen fumbling their way through, and with, technological devices.  We handwaved it, but the best strategy is for the party to see bad guys using tech.  From that it's reasonable to think that certain characters could figure out how devices should be used.  Otherwise, it's hard to imagine a situation in which a fantasy character picks up a plasma rifle they've never seen before and figures out how to use it in a way that doesn't end in friendly fire.

Old Man have you read the High Crusade from Poul Anderson? He deals with that question. And I believe a serf or two died by friendly fire and maybe a knight.

[Duke Bushido]

Did a sci-fi game back in 88 that ran a year and a half, 3 sessions a week (man I miss being young).  It culminated with the PCs crashing a trade colony (massive hollow asteroid, generation ship, artificial world--one of those things that puts hundreds of sentient species in one place, some people come and go; some put down roots and raise great-grandkids-- you get the idea) into primordial planet.   There actually was a reason for this (not a _great_ one, mind you, and far to long an explanation to go into on a phone) but it's the direction the players chose, partly as "ultimate solution," partly as "well the campaign has climaxed and pretty much resolved, and this are is more about finding a new direction anyway," partly "we've nearly died fifty times doing something stupid; let's chose to die as heroes instead," and a healthy dose of good old burn out.

 

We took a hiatus for about 6 months, falling back to a weekly session of board games, poker, and combat Uno while we brainstormed ideas for the next game.  First decision was that Jim and I would run it (so you know: another long campaign where I wouldn't get to play a character.  Yay! Ugh....)

 

Next decision was it would be Fantasy (not my favorite, but so long as it was Champions-based and had no Tolkien, I was willing).  Jim and I got to work desiging, and eventually the game went on.  At about the three year mark, the PCs make an astounding discovery while on a search-and-rescue in some mountain caves, and the rest of that year they continued to investigate and learn. 

 

Short version:

They had come across the remains of the trade colony, heaved closer to the surface throu some earthquake ten thousand years ago.  All monsters, beasties, Fantasy Races, etc, were in fact the descendants of those that life-boated before the crash, or found some other miracle of survival. 

 

 

I thought it would be little more than a fun anecdote.  They were, to borrow a phrase, "super pissed." 

 

I didn't bother enlightening them as to the specific nature of the various "magic items and artifacts" floating about the game world, even if those they had already come across (some of which they were actually using). 

 

I thought it would be kinda neat, and I presented it in such a way as to make pretty much irrelevant fluff to the game we were playing. 

I also changed my plans for the after-the-campaign story (gets a bit hotter and more humid every year, and there are more and more varied dragons the last few years.  Cursed things may end up inheriting these lands if it doesn't cool off....) 

 

Turns out Fantasy folks don't want science in their magic, even if it's completely ignorable.

 

That the kind of thing you were looking for?   

[Christopher R Taylor]

The easiest way to do it is to use an established and published starship of some kind and plop it into your campaign, but as Duke Bushido says, I never liked that concept.  I want my fantasy to be fantasy.

[grandmastergm]

On 1/29/2019 at 1:53 PM, Chris Goodwin said:

Has anyone run or played in Fantasy Hero scenarios where the point is to investigate a crashed starship or other science fictional elements?  If so how did it go?  What source materials did you use?  

 

There is an adventure in the Fantasy HERO Battlegrounds book that features similar elements and storyline.

[Duke Bushido]

8 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

but as Duke Bushido says, I never liked that concept.  I want my fantasy to be fantasy.

 

You've got a solid point: drop in a ship you can already get a map for-- a relatively well-known ship if you think you want the extra clues for your players; that is definitely a huge work-saver. 

 

I just wanted to clarify: I am the guy who thought it would be a fun twist.  I even vaguely dreamed of turning it around in a grand, twenty-year plan (you know when you're young and thin the same group will game together, twice a week at least, forever and ever, Amen?) that saw the fantasy earth slowly give way, through various "magical" and geological machinations, to the rise of the dinosaurs, then the ice-age, through which the various mammal-type endured best... 

 

On through to two or three historical-set games, then a modern campaign or two, then a couple of sci-fi that took us further and further into the stars.... 

 

Then a big opera that took things back to that one specific trade colony... 

 

Yeah.  I knew it couldn't happen, but man was it a glorious vision! 

 

It was my players at the time (and likely the bulk of them now) that didn't want the chocolate in their peanut butter.  Me?  I don't even like too much Fantasy in my Fantasy.  I prefer low fantasy (when I do fantasy) or a more occult-type magic.  My favorite fantasy games I've ever been involved in were a pulp/voodoo thing and an occult/Western thing, both of which featured what I referred to (for lack of a better term) "shamanistic magic," when there was magic at all. 

 

 

Duke

[Ninja-Bear]

When I was younger, I didn’t want my Fantasy mixed with Sci-Fi. Which is odd ‘cause in Star Wars we had more than one primitive world. Now? I’m game.