Barton

Re: The Network: Campaign Setting Idea

The Network

12 weeks ago, a total of six thousand pods were shot from an alien craft orbiting modern day Earth. The trigectory of these pods specifically targeted major military institutions in all corners of the globe. The craters from the impact themselves were enough to completely disrupt modern military capabilities. But the pods which all survived impact opened and hostile aliens began attacking and destroying the military forces at these bases. Most island countries are left untouched. Japan and England have but a single pod each to contend with. Shortly after the invasion begins, all satellites are destroyed.

 

11 weeks ago, most military heavy countries in the world have managed to regroup and provide enough force to dramatically slow what is now believed to be a full scale military invasion of Earth. Fortunately for the inhabitants of Earth, the aliens seem limited to ground forces only. The oceans have remained safe from attacks. Air forces, while difficult to use successfully due to the loss of most strategic air bases, also are effective in pushing back alien advances.

 

9 weeks ago, it has become apparent that a wide spread of forces is unsuccessful. China, Russia, and the United States have been forced to give up portions of its soil to the Aliens in order to sustain a force strong enough to defend crucial remaining bases and industrial resources. Due to the lack of alien naval power, the US retreats to its western and eastern coasts, leaving the middle of the United States unprotected. Russia withdraws to its western borders and forms an alliance with all contries with Atlantic Coast line. It will offer naval power and support in exchange for supplies to secure its remaining land.

 

8 weeks ago, the President of the United States issues orders to declare on alien controlled Panama. Large invasion force begins taking control of Panama, giving the United States access to the much needed Panama Canal. The Panama Canal becomes the third most defended location by the United States after its naval shipyard in Groten, Connetticut and the Naval Command Center in Norfolk, Virginia.

 

7 weeks ago, the alliance in Europe strengthens and all countries involved create the the European Network. England, like most smaller island nations, has been left relatively untouched and becomes the central command point for the European Network. The United States, whose West and East coast have been limited to easily jammed radio communication, establishes a communication grid using Submarines.

 

5 weeks ago, the United States extends its underwater communication grid across the Atlantic and contacts a Russian sub. The EN assists the United States in forming a communication chain between all remaining countries. The project is code named: The Network.

 

4 weeks ago, negotiations between the US and the EN conclude. First priority between the nations is to support expanding the Network to contact all countries still in the game. Second priority is to retake coastal lands with access to crucial resources needed. Astronomers who have been monitoring the activity of alien orbital crafts report that the crafts have seem to left orbit.

 

2 weeks ago, French scientists discover that it is possible to send electronic text transmissions overland by creating impedence on alien transmissions. The transmissions are restricted to 10 kilometers. The system is named Voleur Transmissions or VT for short.

 

Last week, a team of US special forces successfully deploy a team within Alien control lines by means of a night time HALO jump. The team begins reporting back the first intelligence of Alien operations beyond the battle zones.

 

Yesterday, the US Special Force team discovers that aliens are relying on high powered transmission relays to establish their communication grid. They propose that it may be possible to redesign chief components in the transmission relays to extend the VT Grid deeper into alien controlled lands.

 

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I'm mostly curious if anyone would find a setting like this interesting and worth playing a campaign in. Players could be anything from Military Personal going on HALO drops to Vigilante/Rebels with communication to The Network by means of the VT Grid.

I would find it interesting, but I would love to play the "normal guy in the wrong place" rebel. Some small arms, no high tech weapons or body armor. No high end training. It would be interesting to see what info/sabatage you could do. Maybe 25+25 characters with limited equipment.

Aliens??? What are they like biologically (I have many hours of graduate level biochemistry)??? How do they think? What do they want?

Re: Purely Positive Thread

I love 5ER! I love Hero!

I play in a Champions game, a FH game, and GM a Champions game. I tried the Fantasy game and I liked using Hero for fantasy. Hope to GM pulp soon.

I love Hero for it can simulate anything.

Our great Steve Long, I have a question:

Is this correct, a character can do multiple move-thrus if the targets are in a straight line?

Re: Questions and Suggestions for my next campaign.

Ethiopia, Fascists (both kinds, Italian and German). Need I say more.

Re: GM Resources/Support Materials

Steve Jackson Games Modern Cardboard Characters and the plastic stands they sell. GREAT, includes police, firemen, and civilians for the by-standards you might need.

BattleMat by Chessex.

Dungeon Stamps by Green Dragon Studio (http://www.greendragonstudio.com) stamps for the battlemats. They allow you to make a map quickly that looks nice. Use unsented babywipes to clean the map.

HeroClix. Cheap ones, you can find them in huge buckets at some game stores. At 20 cents to one dollar a piece they are cheap.

Re: City of Heroes to HERO conversion?

COH is doing a pencil and paper RPG game, I have signed up for it at GenCon. I will be interested in how they do it, and of course I will post my impressions after GenCon.

Re: Superhero Football

This would be a good idea for two superhero groups do "play" a game for charity. Of course the GM could:

a) have the game become more a grudge match and less friendly as it goes on

supervillains show up to fight or maybe want to "play" against them

c) supervillians show up to steal the charity money

Great idea that I may have to use in my game.....

Re: Creative uses for Change Environment

SFX:

 

crazy clown/wizard character can fill up rooms entirely with balloons wich decrease character's perception, cv, and dex. MMMMM did this to my mom's boss's new office once

 

Ballons Ballons Everywhere and not a place to stand:

Environmental Change

Radius 8", Multiple Combat Effects: +5, Long Lasting 1 hour: +10, -2 CV, -2 perception, -2 dex characteristics and skill rolls: + 36, total [AP 71]

if room is smaller than 8' then change effect stops at walls of room, cannot go through walls -1/4, gestures blowing up a balloon -1/2 (have you ever seen someone blow up and tie a balloon with one hand?), side effect character is lightheaded and slightly dizzy suffers 1d6 drain intelligence and 2d6 drain dex everytime he uses power -1, extra time: extra phase -3/4, OAF fragile Balloon -1 ¼ , [Real Cost 15]

 

oh, if you see a problem with this let me know, he's one of my NPCs

I love it, rep to you.

Re: 2 4th Ed. Qs: CP "loans?"; Multipowers & advantages?

My GM in a Champions game "loaned" my character 2xp. I payed it off after the very next game day. It allowed me to add a robotic follower which helped in the big battle the GM had cooked up for us. I as a GM would allow a small loan of xp but they must be paid off at end of the next game day.

Re: What's the most outrageous plot your PCs have ever been subjected to

Actually, you aren't alone. We had a guest GM who knew full well the group consisted of triggerhappy bloodthirsty vengeance oriented vigilantes striving to hit a body count in the Pol Pot range who decided it would be great fun not only to whip CLOWN out on us, but to run a zany, whacky, make the characters look like chumps CLOWN game. About an hour into the session two of the other players openly told him it didn't fit the tone of the campaign and that they didn't like the tack he was taking (he was using CLOWN to humiliate rather than cause laughs - and it was very unfunny).

 

He was shocked and ingignant when we reached wordless consensus, pulled out all the stops, and got positively bronze age (gilgamesh bronze age, not spidey bronze age) on them. The final scene ended with Merry Andrew (the last survivor) trying crawl away from the battle site in a trail of blood and my character, Pinstripe, walking up, kicking him onto his back, slamming his wingtipped shoe down into his chest, and emptying his clip into Merry Andrew's face. I looked up at the GM and told him Pinstripe said: "now that's comedy." He stormed out, indignant.

 

The truth is, CLOWN could, in the right game with the right GM and the right players, be fun. I've never had a fun experience with CLOWN. Every CLOWN experience I've had has been either in a campaign where it was completely inappropriate, or if it was appropriate (tone and character wise) the GM didn't have a good feel for how to make them funny. Instead, every time I've seen them used, they've been used to humiliate and the only person at the table laughing was the GM. As a result, I'm not a CLOWN fan. Sad, but true.

CLOWN may not have been funny to youl, but this post was VERY funny to me, rep to you!

Re: Does Unluck Really Screw You?

Several of characters have unluck and I have played characters with unluck. It is fun both cases.

As a player I had three levels of unluck (bought down to 1 level and kept it there) for a powered armor character. It was a Marvel based game so we were fighting the Hulk and my unluck came up as I was flying. The GM said the rocket boots just slowly failed and I was able to land safely... next to the very mad Hulk. My last words in the fight were "Hi Hulk..." before Hulk smashed him into next week.

For my players unluck is annoying, but fun. Sometimes the unluck "helps" them. For example, one of my players had is unluck activate and cause him to fall during an attack (he of course missed his attack completely on his enemy). But the villians left him alone the next round and he got the drop on them.

Re: Real world Pulp characters

A.Earhart. First women to fly across the Atlantic, flew all over the world, Purdue University professor, spokeswoman, and a generally interesting person.

Re: Children

Do not forget Legal minor; no adult legal rights as a disad.

"Yea, kid I don't care you are a superhero but you must be 16 to drive a car"

Re: Where is Professor X when you need him?

I'm a new GM and one of my players is trying to built a multipsi character with telepathy' date=' pyrokinesis,telekinesis, and teleportation. I cannot figure out for the life of me how to economize points or to get each slot within his multipower based on ECV and CON(at least for his telepathy and TK). Can somone give me some pointers?[/quote']

I would you a couple of multipowers, one for communication/mind control the other for attack/defense powers. Why base powers on Con?

Why not use ECV (remember to buy based on ECV [bOECV])? ECV rolls are naturally LOS and ECV typically is lower in most characters than CV. This is just my two cents worth.

 

PS Also maybe a drain on EGO with BOECV would be great; good for mind control.

Re: Beyond Conquerers, Killers, and Crooks: Your favorite villains?

Well' date=' since Foxbat is in CKC, he doesn't belong on this thread... but then, that's the sort of rule Foxbat would ignore anyways [/quote']

Thanks you made the point very well, when you are a loon, rules are "fluid" or non-existent.

Re: Beyond Conquerers, Killers, and Crooks: Your favorite villains?

Foxbat, has to be Foxbat. Loony, did I mention that he is a loon, a somewhat lovable loon (at least in my game), but still a loon.

Re: A pulp picture...the USS Manhattan

Good job on photo and backround, okay to "steal"... oops, I mean use in a pulp game of mine?

PS rep to you.

Re: Essence of the Golden Age

A favorite idea of mine would be an all Allied power force, with Free French, South African, Austrialian, New Zealanders, British, American, Canadian supers vs. the Nazi bad guys (maybe with a Italian super also).

Re: Essence of the Golden Age

Also remember to have your heroes taunt the bad guys. I would not have them use all of the racial/country slurs that were common in the 1940's, as some are quite insulting. But remember that in WW2, it was a total war, and many people in the West thought (correctly IMO) that the Allies could lose the war.

Women's rights were not what they are today. Women in the US got the right to vote in 1920. Women were expected to defer to men, and were often not leaders.

Re: Looking for Firearm Resource

We are talking World War I here. There aren't any submachine guns until the development of the Bergman in spring1918 ! Thompson's design just missed the war (1919) and all of the others are later than that !

The Thompson Submachine gun was in production during WWI and almost saw combat service. Thousands were in crates on the dock in NYC awaiting shipment on 11/11/1918 the day WWI ended. If the war had continued into 1919 it would have seen service.

Re: Guns vs. Armor

GEWING:

I find your last post very interesting, and giving what I have too have heard in rumors it makes sense. The US is increasing the firepower at the solider level dramatically.

What this means is new "toys" for DC games.

Peace thru firepower... my favorite is "if you want peace prepare for war"; still true over 2000 years after the phrase was coined.

Re: Advice needed: Which conversions are okay to post?

Non-legal advice:

Please mention the owner(s) of the copyrighted material. Please plug the material you are basing the conversion on.

Re: Media Darling

I ran a game (not my current game) that a player took a contact (20pt) who was the Society Editor for the Chicago Tribune. She was a great contact. Knew everyone who is anyone in Chicago's high society. I played her a middle-aged Dame Edna-type, complete with a bad British accent. A very great contact to get invites to "the" events in the city, she was friends with the mayor and police commissioner. She has friends in other departments of the newspaper that could give the player info. A great plot hook, and a great way for the player to get info. A perfect fit for a Media Darling player as DNPC or contact.

Re: Who is your campaigns "Bad Guy they love to hate"

Foxbat, it had to be Foxbat. My group loves to hate him. He is not a supervillian or superhero in my game, but a SUPERLOON; a very rich loon, but still a loon. He has many resources and influence to make my players lives miserable, but they still "love" him.

Re: Difference between Ultraviolet Perception and Nightvision?

UV needs a source. In Vietnam rotting vegetation was the source of the UV for early night vision goggles. So in a completely dark room a character with UV perception would not see anything at all.