Warlock's wildcard.....

[.45cultist]

A mysterious man chose survivors and lead them to unused Morrow freeze tubes. None of the people can give descriptions of their benefactor. The 4TH Ed. has civvie careers, One would need to look in Gary Gore's website if using 3RD Ed. rules. These prewar survivors could be a real help to the Project.

[ArmySGT.]

alternatively,

The end has come. The missiles are inbound. All that is civilization is about to be shattered in multiple rounds of nuclear exchanges.

Certain persons who are or would be valuable to the Morrow Project but were unsuitable to be recruited have extensive dossiers and their activities casually monitored.

The final day. Select teams of Morrow personnel snatch these persons off the streets, out of their offices, from their homes and push them into cryotubes.

A Frozen Watch but, without prior MP training. Really great at something...... Maybe a Federal Judge and noted Constitutional scholar. A renowned architect or city planner. A virologist of epidemiologist with a Nobel Laureate.

They wake up together in a bunker with supplies and a Morrow Briefing folder. The expectation that a functioning Morrow Project would be there to wake them and assist them in the transition.

[.45cultist]

Yes, somehow people who might be needed are frozen.

[ArmySGT.]

That could be an adventure in itself.

The PCs are all MARS and tasked with transporting all these specialists to Prime Base from the collection depot.

So 4-6 PCs are tasked with 10-25 NPCs of various specialties.

The NPCs have had no training and were essentially kidnapped.

Except it is all the usual funnies. 150+ years. No functioning project.

One V-150 APC, One V-150 with Turret. Then one Rhino Runner bus (http://www.damninteresting.com/retired/the-worlds-toughest-bus/) to transport all these people.

http://www.thearmourgroup.com/pages/runner.html

You should have enough tension and drama for a made for tv movie just having the interactions between the protected assets themselves. Then their reaction to being kidnapped and the kidnappers are their saviors.

Then you have to keep them safe from a world that would exploit them or at the least eat them.

[RandyT0001]

TMP could have staged some "conferences" for collecting some of these individuals into concentrated locations. Send out special invitations to important doctors, scientists, scholars to speak at these conferences stationed in remote areas unlikely to be hit by bombs but with good "vacation" appeal. Honorarium and expenses paid for the individuals and thier guests by TMP. If TMP can afford to build fake towns in the desert then it can afford to build a few "luxury" hotels in more remote regions to protect the highly valued doctors, etc. in basement cyrotubes.

[ArmySGT.]

TMP could have staged some "conferences" for collecting some of these individuals into concentrated locations. Send out special invitations to important doctors, scientists, scholars to speak at these conferences stationed in remote areas unlikely to be hit by bombs but with good "vacation" appeal. Honorarium and expenses paid for the individuals and thier guests by TMP. If TMP can afford to build fake towns in the desert then it can afford to build a few "luxury" hotels in more remote regions to protect the highly valued doctors, etc. in basement cyrotubes.

How do you time that with the final day? Even Bruce Morrow could not predict the actual day.

[kato13]

An Indo-American businessman purchased the abandoned mining town of Kitsault,_British_Columbia for the purpose of making it a distractionless facility for advanced research.

http://www.bcbusiness.ca/natural-resources/repurposing-bcs-ghost-town

The project could do something like this. For people that are wanted for the project but deemed a security risk they could just live here year round.

[stormlion1]

While the Morrow Project might not be sure of the exact day they do have a roundabout time frame so they could do a few judicious kidnappings in the months prior to the Nukes. Best bet would be to make it look like they either went up and disappeared on there own or stage fake deaths. People would notice if too many people, important people went missing.

[RandyT0001]

How do you time that with the final day? Even Bruce Morrow could not predict the actual day.

If the Morrow teams wait for the "Final Day" when the bombs are starting to drop to start trying to snatch people off the street and out of offices then race out of the city with their captive the chances of success are slim. Considering that the EMP of the attack wrecks the communications and telephones how will the really "know" it is the final day. However, people do know about 2017 EM9 several months in advance. It's arrival can be predicted to a degree. Morrow would know about EM9 before the astronomers do. If TMP built the hotels about two or three years before EM9 and started the weekly, week long conferences about six months before it's estimated arrival in locations like Franklin, NC; Port Charlotte, FL; Lake Placid, NY; etc. then a number of doctors, scientists, etc. would periodically attend as it would be a "retreat" without them having the reputation to be a "asteroid prepper survivalist". The Morrow personnel snatch them out of their rooms (along with spouse, children, mistress, etc.) take them to the secure location where the cyrotubes are. You are not going to get the very best minds in the various fields though. With 2017 EM9 approaching the government will already do that themselves like in Deep Impact.

[Gelrir]

Are these people going to be any use to the Project? They didn't choose to leave their friends and family behind, had no say in joining, and may not believe the Project is particularly beneficial. Plus, the giant kidnapping scheme could go tremendously wrong ... suddenly the entire Project is a giant target for law enforcement, less than a year before The Big Event.

"You knew the atomic war/meteor was coming, but didn't care to share your survival systems/fusion power/cryogenic hideout bunkers with the world?" Sure, player-character members of the Project are required to believe that load of hooey, but why should anyone else? They haven't drunk the kool-aid of Bruce.

And after all, these people are "unsuitable for recruitment" by definition. What's the purpose of this?

--
Michael B.

[.45cultist]

The people I'm adding were "picked" by a mysterious benefactor and eventually shown the cryotubes post war. Most will be useful, all have 21st century knowledge, skills. Sometimes "Mr. Warlock" would give a person a lottery ticket. Then see how they used the money. Sometimes he would be "rescued" by a good Samaritan.

[ArmySGT.]

If the Morrow teams wait for the "Final Day" when the bombs are starting to drop to start trying to snatch people off the street and out of offices then race out of the city with their captive the chances of success are slim. Considering that the EMP of the attack wrecks the communications and telephones how will the really "know" it is the final day. However, people do know about 2017 EM9 several months in advance. It's arrival can be predicted to a degree. Morrow would know about EM9 before the astronomers do. If TMP built the hotels about two or three years before EM9 and started the weekly, week long conferences about six months before it's estimated arrival in locations like Franklin, NC; Port Charlotte, FL; Lake Placid, NY; etc. then a number of doctors, scientists, etc. would periodically attend as it would be a "retreat" without them having the reputation to be a "asteroid prepper survivalist". The Morrow personnel snatch them out of their rooms (along with spouse, children, mistress, etc.) take them to the secure location where the cyrotubes are. You are not going to get the very best minds in the various fields though. With 2017 EM9 approaching the government will already do that themselves like in Deep Impact.

Far easier to be selective and pick up one or two off the street or from their homes with 2-3 personnel. It is about the best persons, not suitable ones.

[ArmySGT.]

Are these people going to be any use to the Project? They didn't choose to leave their friends and family behind, had no say in joining, and may not believe the Project is particularly beneficial. Plus, the giant kidnapping scheme could go tremendously wrong ... suddenly the entire Project is a giant target for law enforcement, less than a year before The Big Event. I don't go for the mass kidnappings in the months prior. Maybe within three weeks. It would take a Team of profilers to make the connections to why someone would want these people. If law enforcement ever actually made the connection that it was one entity at all kidnapping all these people.

Are they of special use to the Project itself? Depends upon the specialty, really. Medicine, and engineering, yes. Law, Economics, Education, those persons are saved for the reconstruction phase and would not have typically been woken up for the 3-5 year beginning of the project.

The Project IS a big target of the U.S. Government. Has been from the start. Hence, the Snake Eaters. The Government has always been suspicious of this secretive entity it does not control.


"You knew the atomic war/meteor was coming, but didn't care to share your survival systems/fusion power/cryogenic hideout bunkers with the world?" Sure, player-character members of the Project are required to believe that load of hooey, but why should anyone else? They haven't drunk the kool-aid of Bruce.

Good, more drama for the story line!

These would all be selected because they are the BEST. That was the selection criteria. The Project has to make many, many, many compromises for personnel that are acceptable. These people are the greatest in their fields and would have the most effect on the recovery period. Items like family, fame, fortune, politics, location, political orientation, etc; mean these people are to well known, or their sudden change of behavior/disappearance would draw to much attention and speculation.

Sure the Projects doctors are great, some advanced in specialties. However, having one or more Nobel Laureate awarded virologists and epidemiologists on the Team to fight a Soviet biowar plague could save hundreds of thousands.

And after all, these people are "unsuitable for recruitment" by definition. What's the purpose of this?

To gather the BEST (top 1%) of many disciplines and career fields for the recovery period who could not be brought in without notice being taken of their disappearance prior to War Day.

As NPCs these characters would have skill levels far above normal. PHDs with 150% or 200% skill level in one or two advanced educational skills like Medical Doctor (NeuroSurgeon), Virologist, Nuclear Power Generation, Applied Physics, Urban Design and Development, Jurisprudence, Political Science, etc.

[mikeo80]

I just had a WONDERFUL Idea. One that fits into this thread.

With Universal Antidote and a Medibed, MP can cure advanced ALS. Other wise known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

One Name comes to mind.....

Stephen Hawking.....

Arguably the most intelligent human being on the planet at the time of the Big Bang. No matter what date you use.....

I can see a small group showing up at Stephen Hawking's house about 6 months before the meteor....."Dr. Hawking, we can help you....If you help us....":D

My $0.02

Mike

[RandyT0001]

Since the 4th edition added 2017 EM9 asteroid to the doomsday mix and made it known that it would hit the planet a little over a year's advanced notice the bigger national governments are all going to protect their most important people. They will try to set up special survival arks like in the movie Deep Impact to save their culture, heritage, and way of life regardless of what the odds of survival are. The very best minds, art, etc. will be saved for future generations. Before, in 3rd edition, TEOTWAWKI was a suprise to everybody. TMP was preparing for it and the national governments in the US and Canada put some Special Forces in freeze tubes to maintain the democratic way of life just in case the fools were right. Otherwise, people lived their lives out as normal and the government continued to function cutting taxes, trickle down economics, etc. In 4th edition the asteroid changes all of that. There is foreknowledge of the disaster and people and governments will react differently. (Borrowing from the movie Deep Impact, the survivors in the ark in the limestone caverns in Missouri could morph over 150 years of time into the "Frozen Chosen". Another ark in the Rockies could have been the start of the "Breeders".)
IMO

And Sheldon Cooper is smarter than Stephen Hawking.:p

[ArmySGT.]

I just had a WONDERFUL Idea. One that fits into this thread.

With Universal Antidote and a Medibed, MP can cure advanced ALS. Other wise known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

One Name comes to mind.....

Stephen Hawking.....

Arguably the most intelligent human being on the planet at the time of the Big Bang. No matter what date you use.....

I can see a small group showing up at Stephen Hawking's house about 6 months before the meteor....."Dr. Hawking, we can help you....If you help us....":D

My $0.02

Mike

I don't think it can. ALS isn't a virus or a bacteria. It is a genetic disorder.

[Gelrir]

A couple more points:


What happened to "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Mission"?
It would take a bold referee/PD indeed to role-play a group of people who are all far more intelligent and skilled than any player-character; AND require the player-characters to try and convince these Wise Ones of anything.*


--
Michael B.

* Without it sounding like, "Okay, you rolled well, so you talk to Mr. Hawking for a few hours, and convince him of the virtue and correctness of the Morrow Project concept."

[ArmySGT.]

A couple more points:


What happened to "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Mission"?
It would take a bold referee/PD indeed to role-play a group of people who are all far more intelligent and skilled than any player-character; AND require the player-characters to try and convince these Wise Ones of anything.*


--
Michael B.

* Without it sounding like, "Okay, you rolled well, so you talk to Mr. Hawking for a few hours, and convince him of the virtue and correctness of the Morrow Project concept."

Waking up 150 years after the apocalypse, I would hope they are smart enough to see the options.

Besides I have met some really smart people that come to work in mismatched shoes.

[Gelrir]

Waking up 150 years after the apocalypse, I would hope they are smart enough to see the options.


What if those are options that don't align with the teams'?

I can see, of course, LOTS of opportunity for drama and role-playing; but what's the Project's stated goal for Operation Paperclip? "We'll need to make sure the elite survive for the five or so years after the Atomic War."

Remember, a team won't have Bruce Morrow's "proof that the War is inevitable and inescapable" (whatever that is). You wake up a bunch of constitutional scholars, nuclear engineers, brain surgeons, Nobel laureates in biology, etc. five years after the Atomic War and tell them: "We kidnapped you a few weeks before an atomic war was predicted to occur without warning, and froze you in secret cryogenic bunkers. No, you can't go looking for your family, you have to do what we say -- the Project isn't a democracy. Your task is to assist us in rebuilding American civilization after the War."

Of course, the team will have a fusion-powered armored car, which is proof they aren't just escaped lunatics.

--
Michael B.

[Gelrir]

Stashing a bunch of kidnapped elites in a big, not-Recon-Team bunker gets more interesting when you consider that's also the kind of bunker the Project puts non-deployable personnel in: people who got injured during training, people who couldn't pass training, people who failed the psych/political evaluations too far into training, snoopy reporters and government investigators, the entire staff at the Morrow Industries reactor factory, the folk who kidnap the elites, etc.

--
Michael B.

[ArmySGT.]

A couple more points:


What happened to "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Mission"?
It would take a bold referee/PD indeed to role-play a group of people who are all far more intelligent and skilled than any player-character; AND require the player-characters to try and convince these Wise Ones of anything.*


--
Michael B.

* Without it sounding like, "Okay, you rolled well, so you talk to Mr. Hawking for a few hours, and convince him of the virtue and correctness of the Morrow Project concept."

I stated from my perspective I would use them as Non Player Characters (NPCs) and build the PCs mission around them.

Whether that is to take them to Prime Base or Raven Rock. Have them wake up in a MP Regional base that was looted and burned by Warriors of Krell. (except the hidden non MP cryosleep bay).

The Team a combined Science / MARS is intended to safeguard these people and transition them assisting to the Morrow Project, the U.S. Government (FEMA), or return to academia.

If they don't want to......... Well they don't have to. The Morrow Project is the good guys. I don't see the Morrow Project squandering a resource like people with multiple PHDs or highest honors in their career fields.

It is at once unethical and at the same time holding the moral and ethical high ground.

You are saving them to save civilization.

[ArmySGT.]

Stashing a bunch of kidnapped elites in a big, not-Recon-Team bunker gets more interesting when you consider that's also the kind of bunker the Project puts non-deployable personnel in: people who got injured during training, people who couldn't pass training, people who failed the psych/political evaluations too far into training, snoopy reporters and government investigators, the entire staff at the Morrow Industries reactor factory, the folk who kidnap the elites, etc.

--
Michael B.

So I take it you have agreed to disagree then?

[Gelrir]

Well, I think it'd be very dramatic -- the elites are a group of people who are probably smarter than the player-characters. A referee who can hold up "their side" of a conversation with a dozen articulate, smart, annoyed people is quite a good thing. Especially since some of those people will be talking among themselves.

I'm interested in establishing "what the Project told the team about the Paperclip project":


the team's part in all this
why we kidnapped these people
their choices after awakening
what they are expected to do 5 years after an Atomic War
what can the team tell them ... and not tell them
where are the elites going to end up, and why there?
do they get coveralls, machine guns, and armored cars like the non-doctorate-level team?


The Project's reasons for Operation Paperclip should sound well-thought-out and benevolent. Actions like kidnapping have to be presented as "better than any non-violent alternative".

--
Michael B.

[Gelrir]

So I take it you have agreed to disagree then?

Oh, every campaign is different; every campaign has something going on that another referee/PD wouldn't use. Variant game mechanics, ideas on what the Atlantis Project is up to, concepts of what's up with the rest of the world, giant nuclear badgers, etc.

And the players -- and the referee/PD -- are around the table to have fun. A bunker full of overage, overweight, unhealthy, highly-educated, super-intelligent people, that your team has been told are vital to the reconstruction of the United States five years after the Atomic War ... all sorts of opportunities for conflict about goals, unexpected qualities, heroism and romance, tragic mistakes, and so forth.

I'm not sure how I'd justify it as a "plan of the Morrow Project", but the main reason I wouldn't use it would be that our current campaign is meant to be "low Morrow exposure" so far -- teams aren't popping up left and right, and the current team is gonna be the only player-character team for a while.

--
Michael B.

[ArmySGT.]

Well, I think it'd be very dramatic -- the elites are a group of people who are probably smarter than the player-characters. A referee who can hold up "their side" of a conversation with a dozen articulate, smart, annoyed people is quite a good thing. Especially since some of those people will be talking among themselves.

I'm interested in establishing "what the Project told the team about the Paperclip project":


the team's part in all this
why we kidnapped these people
their choices after awakening
what they are expected to do 5 years after an Atomic War
what can the team tell them ... and not tell them
where are the elites going to end up, and why there?
do they get coveralls, machine guns, and armored cars like the non-doctorate-level team?


The Project's reasons for Operation Paperclip should sound well-thought-out and benevolent. Actions like kidnapping have to be presented as "better than any non-violent alternative".

--
Michael B.

Still remains in the vein of the established modules. Team wakes thinking they are going to have a relatively simple mission (exception B&B ofcourse) and find themselves alone and in a much larger, more complex situation than anticipated. The loss of the project support is just the icing.