Dungeons in Space Part 2

In which I gush about another out-of-print RPG.

I don’t know how many of you have owned, played, or are in any way familiar with the (Swedish?) RPG Mutant Chronicles. Yes, it was made into a rather poor film on the SciFi channel starring Hellboy and that guy from Hung (wow, do I watch a lot of TV or what?). For what it’s worth, the premise of the game is much better than the premise of the film…’course, as I said the game is still out-of-print.

[though per Wikipedia, the rights have been picked up by Paradox Entertainment, another Swedish company though one operating out of the USA]

The game setting is A LOT like the Warhammer 40,000 universe, save that it takes place entirely within our own solar system, there are no aliens (there ARE demons), and humanity has not yet been united by a single religion of humanity, instead being factionalized by a number of mega-corporations. The gear and the tone, however, are even closer to WH40K, though, and prior to GW’s own Rogue Trader RPG, etc. I would have pointed to Mutant Chronicles as the closest thing to a WH40K RPG on the market.

While the 1993 RPG may be (currently) out of print, the MC setting has been recycled and re-used many times over the years: in addition to the film, there were several novels, comic books, a collectible card game, at least two miniature/war games with the associated minis, a video game, and a board game.

I don’t know which was published first, but my first introduction to the Mutant Chronicles setting was the Siege of the Citadel board game. This was circa 1995 for me…I had graduated from college and suddenly had a bunch of spare money burning a hole in my pocket, which led me to a rabid frenzy of wargaming and miniature purchases. SotC is NOT a wargame, but it does have plastic miniatures, which I dutifully painted up to look like the characters on the box (for the most part, all the Mutant Chronicles products have excellent, excellent artwork).

Although Siege is a board game, it has some RPG qualities to it…each player is responsible for a team of “Doomtrooper” (a pair of warriors) each of which is somewhat customizable with equipment. The team improves over time, gaining experience points for killing monsters, and credits (money) for completing mission objectives. The experience system translates directly into increased effectiveness in-game with better chances to hit, and better ability to resist damage.

While there is no “game master,” per se, players of the board game take turns playing the antagonist “Dark Legion;” the demonic denizens of the Citadel to which the Doomtroopers are laying siege. Even though the DL’s Doomtroopers are not present during the mission, the DL player can earn XP and credits by damaging/killing the other players’ Doomtroopers or thwarting them in their mission objectives. Doomtrooper teams can be antagonistic to each other (they all work for rival mega-corporations) or somewhat cooperative in defeating the Dark Legion player…most games of SotC are a good mixture of both.

THIS is the “space dungeon” I was referencing in my original post.

It would be fairly easy to turn Siege of the Citadel into a B/X like dungeon crawl RPG. To me, it reads as if the designers said “if we wanted to run a Dungeons & Dragons game that included power armor and heavy weapons, what would it look like?”

It would look pretty much exactly like SotC.

Here’s the gist: it’s the far future. Earth has been used up, but the mega-corporations have colonized many of the planets in the solar system (the Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and the asteroid belt). A group of Imperial Conquistadors accidentally break an ancient, alien seal on the mysterious “Tenth Planet” (Nero) unleashing a demonic horde to plague humanity.

In addition to insidious infiltration and corruption (of both human spirit and technology) the demons have huge war machines and churn out plenty of monsters, some bio-engineered from normal people, including human corpses (yes, there are undead legionnaires, in addition to cybermantic monstrosities) all housed in huge mobile citadels similar to the “crawling towers” found in Rifts Wormwood. These citadels dot the planes of Mars and the jungles of Venus, spewing forth creatures and engines of destruction to wipe out the human cities on these distant worlds, even as they push in towards Holy Luna.

The Doomtroopers are crack special forces types drawn from the elite soldiers of each mega-corp, charged with infiltrating the citadels and bringing them down from within by dint of combat skill and massive firepower. They are humanity’s proactive defense in the fight against demonic encroachment. Each Doomtrooper team consists of a pair of fighters, one expert in hand-to-hand while the other is a fire support specialist.

[within the Mutant Chronicles RPG and certain expansions to SotC, players can also be members of the Holy Inquisition of the Cathedral of Luna…think assassins, librarians, and inquisitors of the WH40K universe]

Does that not sound like dungeon delving in space? No you don’t get gold directly from the “dungeons” you’re raiding, and any “magic items” found are likely to be cursed and best left alone. However, your team WILL get rewarded by their employers (the Cathedral or the Cartel of maga-corps) as well as growing in power and ability. Also like D&D, improvement of effectiveness is somewhat linked to the acquisition of new and better gear, such gear being made available to the teams that perform better.

And who doesn’t want to hose a bunch of blade-toting zombies with a micro-gun?

The Mutant Chronicles RPG is a lot more than the Siege of the Citadel board game…it is a hugely detailed futuristic world/setting. Perhaps to its detriment…there is SO much information there, so many splat books, so many options, that it can be a bit over-whelming to decide how best to situate the campaign (no, it’s NOT as dis-jointed as Rifts). The fact that it has kind of clunky combat (for my tastes) coupled with a combat-heavy atmosphere, and yet a “story flavored” (a la World of Darkness) fiction-heavy quality to the writing kind of kills it for me. Oh…and the skill system of course. Especially considering each new splat book offers a handful of new skills to incorporate into the game (much as the BECMI gazetteers did for Mystara).

But I think it would be pretty easy to turn it into a basic 64-page RPG. And I do mean “Basic” a la the Tom Moldvay or Holmes edition rules. I wouldn’t take this one OUT of the dungeon…er, “citadel.” The adventuring classes (Doomtroopers, Inquisitors) lose the need for their turtle shell/carapace armor – not to mention panzerknackers, chainsaws, and heavy flamers – outside the subterranean setting. For a combat-heavy dungeon delve in space, the Mutant Chronicles really fits the bill.

Of course, my version won’t include a skill system.
; )

[by the way, any new readers who missed it before might find my Chronicles of Mutation micro-game to be of interest. This is NOT the Doomtrooper/Siege of the Citadel setting, but rather “urban adventuring” in the MC setting. Characters are freelancers working for the Cathedral helping to root out heretics and demon worshippers. You can download the one-page micro-game here]

Post-Apocalyptic Fantasies

The sun was shining today…I mean REALLY shining after weeks of grey, wet misery (that January-February kind of Seattle weather that will eventually beat down even diehard rain lovers like myself…too much mud and sickness) and even though we haven’t even got to Groundhog’s Day it feels a tiny bit like the beginning of Spring…I mean you can feel we are on the upside of days getting longer and such.

And so I find myself thinking of the Apocalypse.

I don’t know why…the last couple-four plus years that’s just what Spring and Summer start doing to me. Thinking about The End of the World is hard to do when in the midst of the happy holiday season…or is perhaps too depressing to take out and look at period during the grey, wet winter days. But Spring time…the Easter season, a time of renewal, etc…makes me think about the death of our world and the rebirth of the next.

Not to be morbid or anything…I don’t clean out the bomb shelter or re-stock the canned goods and ammo or anything. Me…I start getting in the mood for post-apocalyptic fiction and role-playing.

Post-apocalyptic fiction/lore (I’ll just call it PA for short from now on, or this post will get waaay too long) is something that’s held great interest for me for a looong time…so long I’m not sure when it started. It’s like my interest in astrology or fencing…from the moment I discovered such a concept existed it has held a great and terrible fascination for me (not that astrology or fencing are “terrible,” but they would draw my interest to the point of distraction even years..decades!...before I started practicing either).

Using Wikipedia to see the release dates of the earliest pieces of PA fiction I remember might give me a clue to when I first started dwelling on the subject. The Day After (1983) was a horrific made-for-TV movie that I remember watching as a 9 or 10 year old…though I also recall falling asleep before the end and having to ask my folks what happened (spoiler: everybody dies). Thundarr the Barbarian I watched religiously on Saturday Mornings and it aired from 1980-81 (age 7 to 8). Sometime around the same period I recall watching George Peppard in Damnation Alley on television and wow, did that one haunt my nightmares as a kid…but it was released in the theaters in 1977 so it was probably not broadcast on television for at least 5 years (’82 or so). Definitely I saw Planet of the Apes early-early in life, and found that pretty horrific…though I’m sure I didn’t see that until the 5-7 year old range (again on TV). My aunt and her friend almost took me to see the Road Warrior in the theater (US Release circa 1982), but at the last minute ended up taking my brother and I to see The Secret of NIMH instead…and I can recall vividly having a long conversation about the Apes movies on that summer day in Montana, so I must have already seen a couple of the films (possibly more than once).

But the earliest PA fiction I can recall is watching the Logan’s Run television series on TV (broadcast 9/77-1/78…’round about the age of 3-4!!). While not dealing with the horror of nuclear holocaust (or did it? Was that the one where there were these crazy scarred mutants wearing gold masks and black cowls to hide their disfigurement?), it certainly involved dystopian societies and bubble cities.

Hmm…I wonder if I can get that one on Netflix. I might need to re-watch it.

Anyway, I’m sure growing up in the Reagan "2^nd Cold War" 1980s helped fuel the paranoia/fascination with the coming apocalypse and “what happens thereafter.”

[Hmmm…just remembered that I also saw the 1978 version of the Time Machine on television when I was 5 years old, and the whole Morlocks/Eloi-cannibalism depiction of THAT film had more impact on my young psyche than any other version of the Time Machine I’ve seen since…this might even have something to do with my whole squeamishness regarding cannibalism]

Yes, long before I ever picked up a copy of Gamma World (2^nd edition, found used in the usual Montana bookstore) I was watching and reading tales that would depict (either in plot or background) the End of Civilization as We Know It. Hell, what 13 year old spends his own money to pick up a paperback of After the Bomb? Probably the same kind of kid that grows up watching Buck Rogers (with the nuked Earth surrounding “New Los Angeles”) and videotaping Chuck Heston in The Omega Man to watch multiple times. Yes…I am weird.

So it might strike some as odd that I’m kind of indifferent about most PA RPGs on the market.

But allow me to clarify: I love-love-LOVE the IDEA of the PA RPG. When I first started designing RPGs myself (as a hobby…my B/X Companion is going to be the first thing I actually publish, folks), I had a half-dozen fairly different RPGs all of the PA variety. I even figured I would call my “company” (whoa! Delusions of grandeur!) something like “Post-Apocalyptic Games.” I just felt there was such a dearth of material out there…and I wanted MORE.

Here’s the short-list of published PA RPGswith which I’m familiar:

Gamma World (1^st through 3^rd editions)

Rifts (and After the Bomb, etc.)

Twilight 2000 (and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs)

Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Car Wars (post-peak oil)

Mutant Chronicles (more Cyberpunk than PA)

Shadow Run (more Cyberpunk than PA)

Cyberpunk (see above)

Paranoia

And of course other assorted weirdness that can be categorized as PA: Obsidian, HOL, World of Synnibarr, some versions of Terra Primate (of course) and AFMBE (zombie apocalypse!), etc. And of course there’s Mutant Future, the OSR’s current darling of whimsical PA mutation & exploration.

The problem for me is: none of these games really satisfy my itch for PA role-playing.

I suppose I should look for a copy of Aftermath! (which I’ve never owned, nor read). But the reputation for being especially fiddly is off-putting to me, even as I like the idea of a grim survival based game.

'Cause that’s 50% of the problem…”grim survival” is the thing that is really missing from all the RPGs I listed above. Gamma World has the potential to be an excellent metaphor for man and his relationship with technology (especially the 1^st edition with some minor 2^nd edition tweaks), but usually gets bogged down in silliness like fish that turn people to stone and rabbits that turn guns to rubber (not to mention all the rest of the well-known gonzo mutants). Rifts and DL:HOE are waaaay too over-the-top to ever be considered grim in a semi-realistic way...and most of the other games don’t even come close.

I’ve never owned Twilight 2000. My friend Jocelyn DID, but we never played it…and her descriptions of the game to me did nothing to entice me to play (she made it appear to be a WWIII simulation fought with conventional weapons only, rather than a broken military in a PA world which might have been intriguing). I DO own Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, a true PA meets Lost World type pulp game that uses the same system as Twilight 2000. Unfortunately, I find the system to be incredibly BORING. I’m not sure exactly why (I’d have to pull it out and read it again), but after picking it up (recently…within the last 12-18 months), I was left feeling like I REALLY wanted to read the Xenozoic Tales comics instead of playing the RPG.

Grim survival ain’t present in these games, system-wise…and that’s something I’d want to see (yes, yes, a GM or referee can certainly tailor events to be “grim” but I want it INHERENT, dammit!) for a real PA game no matter WHAT the nature of the apocalypse. I mean, look at Reign of Fire (the film). Here’s a world that’s been burned to a near-cinder by DRAGONS but (as with all the best PA stories) still there is the over-reaching story of the GRIM STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL. Not, oh dragons exist maybe we should study magic. Not whimsical stories of captured maidens or bad guys allying themselves with the beasts. This is HIDE OR BE EATEN. Which is a common theme in many types of PA fiction (even without dragons).

But as I said “grim survival” (or lack thereof) is only 50% of my dissatisfaction with PA RPGs. The other 50% of my dissatisfaction comes from the other missing integral part of the genre: COMMUNITY BUILDING. The PA story is NOT simply concerned with 'O woe is us we don’t have electricity/plumbing anymore.' Most PA stories involve some sort of rebuilding/rebirth…a rise from the ashes and possibly a redefining of what community and “civilization” means to those left behind.

Now maybe this is just the Plutonic/Scorpio part of me (Pluto, ruler of Scorpio, is greatly concerned with volcanic upheaval that leads to karmic transformation within our lives) but that shit fascinates me. Surviving the apocalypse? That’s tough enough. But re-building the world from the rubble up? Now THAT’s a heroic task.

And again, while this can be simply “injected” by the GM of the game, I’d prefer it to be a real and integral part of the rules, hopefully directly linked to the “reward/advancement” system in the RPG. Reward systems based on behavior encourage that behavior that engenders rewards. Call that Axiom #3 of RPG design. If characters are only rewarded for killing monsters and getting treasure, guess what: that’s what they’re going to do (unless they wander off on a tangential Creative Agenda like, say, Story Now…hello Trollsmyth and Oddysey!). If characters are rewarded for “good role-playing” (whatever the F THAT means) then you’re going to get some hammy play-acting from your players (or you’re going to get players leaving the group disgruntled ‘cause they’re not into being judged on their improv abilities).

Now again, Gamma World (2^nd edition) comes O So Close to establishing this in its Status/Rank reward system…after all, what is being measured in GW appears to be characters value TO their particular community (or Cryptic Alliance, should they join one). Defeating mutants raises their “standing” in the eyes of their people, as does turning in valuable (and working) artifacts with the instruction book attached.

However, while community is INVOLVED in the advancement process, it is not being directly BUILT (perhaps INdirectly, depending on how many mutant monsters get killed and how many tribesmen the PCs arm with Tech III weapons). And community building is the main component of the PA genre…after the grim struggle for survival of course.

[as for the non-Gamma World games, they don’t even come frigging close to addressing this]

Community building or defining: you see it in the Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. You see it in A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Postman. You see it in The Stand, The White Plague, and even Battlefield Earth and the Matrix films. In all these stories, the grim survivors of the Apocalypse (no matter what form the Apocalypse takes) must come together and redefine what their community is, what it stands for, what they’re all about and how they are going to relate to each other in this changed world. Heck…even those little rag dolls in 9 do this!

Yep, there is the ever-so-faint smell of Spring in the air and I’m itching for some Post-Apocalyptic action. I’ve yet to see The Road or The Book of Eli but I fully intend to see both if possible at my earliest opportunity (watched It’s Complicated on Friday which was very good but certainly not “apocalyptic” in subject matter). I’ve also been meaning to check out S.M. Stirling’s Dies the Fire, which seems to be a rip-off of Steven Boyett’s 1983 book Ariel (though without the unicorns). I just discovered Stirling in the last year with his throwback planetary romances (Mars and Venus) and Marching Through Georgia, but his PA series has gotten some of his ravest reviews and I’ve yet to peruse any of ‘em. As I finish up work on the B/X Companion and its companion adventure module, I find myself more and more enticed with doing a new 64 page RPG…and I wonder if I have enough junk material (and new ideas) to distill some sort of Post Apocalyptic goulash that will meet MY particular needs of gaming in a world gone mad.

; )

A Wolf From The Stars

One of the beauty's of Traveller is its short succinct stat blocks for characters. I LOVE this. Truly. I know I've railed against big "stat blocks" here and elsewhere in the past, so it should come as no surprise, but its difficult to articulate enough how damn ELEGANT it is in practice with this particular game.

I'm not sure I've posted any particular characters of mine on this blog before, but here's one I'd like to share:

WULF

Homeworld: Fenris (poor, ice-capped)

UPN: C9D875

Age: 46

Profile: 2 terms with Imperial Marines (ground assault), until severely injured. Mustered out and re-joined barbarian tribe on home world rising to rank of Chieftain after waging 20 year war of unification. Current whereabouts: unknown, but off-world.

Skills: Animal 1, Athletics 0, Battle Dress 0, Carouse 0, Gun Combat (slug thrower) 2, Heavy Weapons 1, Jack of All Trades 2, Leadership 1, Melee (blade) 3, Melee (unarmed) 1, Stealth 1, Tactics 1, Vaac Suit 0

Known Holdings: Combat Armor, PGMP (TL 14), Ally, Ship Share (Corsair), 9000cr

That's actually a lot fancier than it needs to be...you could delete the "homeworld" and "profile" sections and you'd still have a complete character ready to rock n' roll. I like to include that kind of thing for color.

"Wulf" is one of the first characters (maybe the only completed one) that I created when I got the Mongoose edition of the rules (I've only ever been exposed to Mongoose and Classic Traveller). He is largely inspired by the doomtrooper Sean Gallagher from the Mutant Chronicles RPG (shown here from his illustration on the board game Siege of the Citadel). In my head, though, I picture him with more beard.

Oh, yeah...and I think Fenris is the home world for the Space Wolves.

[heh...I should start a blog for my Death Guard...shoot!]

I was blogging the other day about the virtues of random character generation (well, not really except by way of contrast with the current vogue in RPG chargen systems), and Traveller is certainly random. In the Classic version one had to balance the number of terms of service/advancement versus the very real chance of character death mid-creation process. Beautiful, really...though potentially frustrating, of course. The Mongoose version does it one better by keeping in an "Iron Man" option (for the hardcore, Classic players) or simply allowing your character to suffer a career ending injury should he fail a "survival roll." I have to admit, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of the updated version.

But again, the real beauty is in the end product. This example character was created across a full seven terms...28 years of "leveling" complete with Events, Mishaps, Skill selections and "Mustering Out" benefits. And it all boils down to one stat line, a handful of skills, and some starting equipment and cash. I had fun with the character creation process, I never got bogged down choosing "feats" or skills (skills are determined randomly by career path or from a slim selection of options depending on your homeworld) and there is nothing un-wieldy about the character sheet itself...totally practical.

I have Wulf saved in a Word doc on my zip drive and every time I look at that handful of writing I truly marvel. I could drop the extraneous, reduce the font, and easily fit eight to ten complete characters on one sheet of paper. What is not cool about that?

And it FITS with the game as written. Your character is one soul amongst billions on millions of worlds scattered across galaxies...you are a small part of a greater whole, what needs you an elaborate character sheet and write-up?

Wonderful, says I. A fun and fairly elaborate chargen system, that does not hesitate or stutter-step like other games and that distills down to the bare essentials. I couldn't ask for more out of a science fiction RPG.

And man...I'd love to take Wulf out for a spin some day in someone's Traveller 'verse!

A Chronicle of Mutation

In a decidedly inspired fit of creativity, I created my second one-page micro-game today (my first being the “Weird Western” micro- Clockwork, for those who missed it).

The new one is called A Chronicle of Mutation and is available for download here.

Heavily based on the setting of the old Heartbreaker game The Mutant Chronicles (duh!), the rules are a fairly radical departure from the original. It’s also greatly reduced in scope, something that I see as a decided plus (if I do say so myself). The earlier RPG suffered a bit from the over-whelming options: if one person wanted to play an Imperial Blood Beret, one person an inquisitorial assassin, and a 3rd a Mishima corporate samurai in giant robo battle gear, and the last one as a freelancer journalist…well crap, how are you supposed to GM THAT type of freakshow? My micro-version tunes it down to the simple freelancer level, though with a twist: you’re nominally associated with the Holy Inquisition (my version of the Cathedral) and thus have a definite type of objective (sniffing out heretics) for missions/adventures.

All-in-all, I’m quite pleased. As with Clockwork, any comments, suggestions, and feedback are truly appreciated.

Sunday Evening Musings (mostly about Aliens)

I've been relaxing all day, today...meaning napping, watching TV, going for walks, humorous off-line reading...basically enjoying a lazy Sunday.  

I am a man of eclectic tastes. I was driving around yesterday evening, picking up Thai food and listening to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde on the radio, then coming home to check out the Mutant Chronicles movie on the SciFi channel to see if it was in any way true to the RPG. 

Right now, I am watching the classic film Aliens (this time on AMC), thinking about how to adapt it to Traveller.  

Is there an RPG that effectively mixes Action-Horror with Military-SciFi?  Not that I'm aware of...the Mutant Chronicles RPG tried, but eventually gave it up for a miniatures-skirmish game they now bears its name.

The thing is, its difficult to emphasize the action-horror aspect without introducing a hefty dose of mortality into the game.  But in RPGs, players are supposed to be the protagonists of the story...which means they shouldn't be dying in droves.  That's why board games like Space Hulk provide the player with multiple soldier-pieces.

[visited teardown today...still trying to work out their legal issues with THQ, dammit]

Albedo actually uses a similar approach with it's multiple PC squads (each PC has a commanding officer PC and 4-5 follower PCs...like henchmen or grogs controlled by the player).  As I haven't had a chance to play it, I can't tell how the system would work in practice.  I think it sounds like a cool idea, but then I picture 3 players each controlling 15 characters and it seems like a lot to juggle.

3:16 is a cool SciFi war RPG...a razor sharp satire of WH40k warmongering (actually, more similar to the original Rogue Trade rules, which I found to be semi-satirical anyway).  But the role-playing of the game is more concerned with the larger issues of "the War" rather than the terror of war. Inspired by films like Aliens and Starship Troopers, the game itself feels more like John Steakley's book Armor in play...which is not really what I'm looking for.

What I want is something like old school D&D, truth be told...basically an on-going campaign of bug hunts from planet to planet centering missions ("adventures") on a small party of soldier-mercenaries ("adventurers").  Some may die on campaign, and be replaced by younger guys, some may retire (or get promoted).

I just can't imagine that there's enough there for an extended saga.  While there's fun to be had, there's no sense of discovery as there is in D&D. Magic items? New monsters? Traps and tricks?

Even Gamma World, with fewer "character options" then D&D has more exploration inherent in the game system...ancient ruins and sealed installations? Technological artifacts? Crazy-ass mutant monsters? Weird societies?  That's D&D, though in a "non-magical" setting.

I think that exploration component is what keeps folks coming back to certain games.  So even though I like the idea of playing a "space marine" facing near insurmountable odds with tremendous firepower, I can't see how that type of game would have lasting appeal...for myself or others.  This is always a consideration of game design.

Hope your weekend was a good one!