New on board

[Darkwing]

Hello,

I'm new here, recently got interested in the Morrow Project. Never played it, never saw it in the store, but I always heard about it, and liked the idea, so a little searching, and here I am.

I play and/or run FASATrek, Star Wars, Timelords (2E), D&D 3.5, Runequest, Traveller, 2300AD, Top Secret (NOT S.I.), Star Frontiers, Marvel Super heroes, and occasionally other things.

I recently started thinking about running a Thundarr-based campaign, and it occurred to me that a source of PCs might be a Morrow Project-like group, so I started looking things up. Now I'm thinking an MP game might be fun on it's own, as well.

For me, post-apocalypic games and literature go back to Alas, Babylon and A Canticle For Liebowitz.

This brings me to a possibly controversial suggestion. How many of y'all dislike Bruce the time-traveler? I think a precog with a bit of telepathy to help convince people is a better idea. I know if I were a time-traveler with a silver tongue, I'd probably pull Ike aside and tell him to make sure the Interstate fallout shelters get built according to plan, instead of deleted. I'd visit the Joint Chiefs and tell them to squirrel away more huge supply caches, and do everything I could to push the public building their own shelters.

The disadvantage of making Bruce just a precognitive is that you have less high-tech - no Resist Weve, no fusion energy, no laser weapons. OTOH, radio-isotope generators were available, and this would excuse pushing to make them small enough to power a vehicle without fossil fuel.

The other thing I noticed is that y'all seem to have very small shelters. Before I saw the material, I had envisioned shelters inserted into unused mines and caves with a population of 50-200, with a maintenance element that was woken on a schedule to check and repair the freezers and equipment, and a recon element to be woken up and sent out when scheduled or if anything unexpected happened. This also meant that if a freezer failed, the team had replacements available, and when specialists were needed, you just thawed them out. If Eddy can't make the game, tonight's team is made up of most of the PCs plus John running his second character, a guy with Eddy's specialty from another team at the shelter.

Yeah, there'd be more equipment and supplies, but also a chain of command who decides what to issue the PCs and reins in their wilder requests and to occasionally remind them why they're there and why the cache has to last.
When the PCs run through too much ammo, their supervisor can blast them for the waste and reduce their issue for next time to make them less profligate, but he's also available as voice for the gamemaster to help the PCs with suggestions when they're stuck.

So, glad to be here, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on my ideas.
Darkwing

"Blessed Saint Liebowitz, keep 'em dreaming down there!" -Astronaut Randy Claggett, Space, James Michener

[Matt W]

Welcome, Darkwing! Hopefully, Saint Canard can be spared the worst of the Apocalypse.

We don't often see newbies to the game, so perhaps you'll let me sketch over some of the things that come up again, and again?

Bruce as time-traveller has been argued over for, well, decades. Is he visiting the future? An alternate Universe? A possible future? Does that future change every time he "returns"? It gets messy.

Then you have the "Is Bruce Good or Evil?" discussion. Which gets even worse

And when you refer to "shelters", do you mean bases? Or the places where a team's cryotubes are hidden (usually called boltholes). Again, the exact structure of the Morrow Project has ben argued over. It's usually best to go with whatever works for you and the players

Having said that, an active chain of command is something that a number of Project Directors have experimented with. It's sometimes referred to as an "awake" or "semi-awake" Project. It has advantages and disadvantages.

Personally, I like the idea of a "semi-awake" Morrow Project consisting of something like a specialist Task Force (probably with about 200 to 300 people)

And - if you want an example - Recon CA-4 is an ongoing example of this sort of thing http://henrick.com/ca4/ I recommend it.

Matt W

[Darkwing]

Originally Posted by Matt W

Welcome, Darkwing! Hopefully, Saint Canard can be spared the worst of the Apocalypse.

Thanks.

Bruce as time-traveller has been argued over for, well, decades. Is he visiting the future? An alternate Universe? A possible future? Does that future change every time he "returns"? It gets messy.

Well, when I first read that he was a time-traveler, I thought that was unnecessary, and that at most a good precog could fill the role, although a Council that simply sees the possibility of WWIII would suffice as justification. So I wanted to see how many others here had had similar thoughts.

Then you have the "Is Bruce Good or Evil?" discussion. Which gets even worse

Not interested - the project is a good idea either way, so even if he were evil, I wouldn't want to bust him til TEOTWAWKI.

I started out envisioning a Thundarr / Horseclans post-apocalyptic world with D&D 3.5 / GW1 and a touch of Saberhagen's Empire of the East, when it occurred to me that there might be sleepers from our world, which made me think of MP, so I started looking into it, which has me thinking about a straight MP game, now, too.

So, comments, suggestions, ideas?

[mikeo80]

We do not have many new persons to The Morrow Project. Welcome! Send us your ideas on how you see TMP working in your universe.

As stated above, we have discussed Bruce Morrow, TMP and many assorted topics. We even number some of the original developers and new developers here as well. Read all of Nate Hale's posts. He is one of the most prolific supporters of TMP.

Hope to see more of your posts!

Mike

[Matt W]

Originally Posted by Darkwing

I started out envisioning a Thundarr / Horseclans post-apocalyptic world with D&D 3.5 / GW1 and a touch of Saberhagen's Empire of the East, when it occurred to me that there might be sleepers from our world, which made me think of MP, so I started looking into it, which has me thinking about a straight MP game, now, too.

So, comments, suggestions, ideas?

So, are you looking for advice on setting up a "straight" MP game or a semi-fantasy game?

[Darkwing]

Originally Posted by Matt W

So, are you looking for advice on setting up a "straight" MP game or a semi-fantasy game?

Both. As soon as I get some players, I intend to run the Thundarr game, but I'd also be building notes for a later straight MP game. Down the road, I'm thinking of applying the MP idea to Traveller.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Darkwing

Both. As soon as I get some players, I intend to run the Thundarr game, but I'd also be building notes for a later straight MP game. Down the road, I'm thinking of applying the MP idea to Traveller.

Well, you may want to start by watching a few shows of a series called "After Humans", you see it on the Discovery Channel every so often. Its a useful look at what the world would look like 150+ years down the road. Useful for getting an idea of what may last...and what it would look like.

Next, pick an area that you would like to place a team. I like to start with a state and research it, where are the people, the cities and towns; how are the roads, highways, railroads laid out; what about lakes, rivers, streams and creeks; natural resources such as oil, natural gas, minerals; what types of industry; military bases to include the national guard, any ammo plants or depots. Once you have a good overview, now comes the hard part...

Look over the TM1-1 target list, take the time to check the various FEMA, Civil Defense, nuclear warfare websites and develop a good feel for what and why a location may be nuked, as well as possible fallout patterns.

Decide how large a Project you will run. Do you follow the old Timelines method and through a dart at a map and there your team will start? Do you have Regions and Regional Command Bases? Just how many teams will be in your operating area? Sizes? Roles?

Maps. I say it again, maps; road maps, topographical maps are especially useful, get a decent highway atlas and then pick out likely locations to bury teams and their supply caches. Place any supply depots, command bases, etc. Where will the MARS teams go?

Now you are ready to organize a team...so what kind of team are you looking to run? A MARS Team would expect lots of action, guns blazing sorta thing, a Science Team would be better suited for players more into the nuts and bolts approach, a Recon Team would be the first ones out, with the job of exploring the area and determining where the Project can be of use. For a first time PD, a Recon Team may be the better choice, it allows for a more free-wheeling approach.

Size of the team will be important. In TM1-1, it is suggested that teams can be as few as 2-3 people. In a real life situation, this would be very unlikely. I perfer a team of twelve in 2-3 vehicles. This allows for enough people to cover those dull but necessary jobs. SO yes you most likely need to develop a few NPCs.

Hope this helps!

[Matt W]

Welcome, Darkwing! Hopefully, Saint Canard can be spared the worst of the Apocalypse.

We don't often see newbies to the game, so perhaps you'll let me sketch over some of the things that come up again, and again?

Bruce as time-traveller has been argued over for, well, decades. Is he visiting the future? An alternate Universe? A possible future? Does that future change every time he "returns"? It gets messy.

Then you have the "Is Bruce Good or Evil?" discussion. Which gets even worse

And when you refer to "shelters", do you mean bases? Or the places where a team's cryotubes are hidden (usually called boltholes). Again, the exact structure of the Morrow Project has ben argued over. It's usually best to go with whatever works for you and the players

Having said that, an active chain of command is something that a number of Project Directors have experimented with. It's sometimes referred to as an "awake" or "semi-awake" Project. It has advantages and disadvantages.

Personally, I like the idea of a "semi-awake" Morrow Project consisting of something like a specialist Task Force (probably with about 200 to 300 people)

And - if you want an example - Recon CA-4 is an ongoing example of this sort of thing http://henrick.com/ca4/ I recommend it.

Matt W