New game in the planning: advice welcome.

[simonmark6]

OK, I have a great opportunity to run a FtF game of Twilight once again.

Basically, a group of ex-pupils want to get together and play. One was in the roleplaying group at school but the othes are friends of his and newbies. He learned the T2K system (V2.2) as part of a youth award scheme that goes on in the UK and really liked it. He's convinced the others to have a go.

So, during the summer holidays I've held preparation sessions wehere the newbies have become familiar with the rules and some of the background. They've opted for a "Polish Quartet" game starting as the Fifth gets ploughed under.

The game will start with them crewing a M-88 ARV and the final attack on the 5th.

There are six PCs in all and whilst they have a general idea of where the campaign goes, I've made it clear it won't stick to the books entirely. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to throw out RESET and I'm not sure about the Black Maddona.

I've sketched out the first few sessions, the escape with a set piece running fire fight, then an engagement with marauders and a potential lull in a farm. After that I'm re-cycling another set piece I've used before where the group has to assault a PACT strong point on a convoy route where they'll find a few things that will become plot twists later.

So, to my point. Does anyone have suggestions for encounters, NPCs or interesting variations they've done during these adventures? I have plenty of ideas, but more are always welcome.

Cheers,

Mark.

[kato13]

I agree with you that RESET has aged horribly and would be hard for someone with a modern take to accept. If only 1% of Personal computers that existed in 1997 survived there would still be multiple millions of them (and that does not take into account servers which are generally in much hardier facilities). It seems much easier to retask those computers than to try to build millions of chip surrogates.

I have suggested in another thread that RESET be replaced with something similar to the Linux OS.

[simonmark6]

Yes, I've read that thread before and I liked the idea. The other issue I have with RESET apart from the unbelievability of the macguffin is the fact that it is something that everyone wants, whilst that works well in a game of high adventure, in a military RPG like Twilight you eithe rhave to fudge things or eventually someone's going to show up with enough forces to screw you over.

I also don't know if a newbie group could cope with the intricacies of that sort of role-playing, hell, in twenty five years of gaming I've met maybe three people that could and I exclude myself from that category.

Still, as an operating system it wouldn't necessarily be so important as to have the WARTA, Polish Government, Criminal Cartels, KGB, DIA, CIA and the little old lady down the road after you to secure it. I'll think about that aspect and maybe I'll be able to keep RESET in.

Thanks for the input.

[Legbreaker]

RESET as a piece of technology definately needs updating. Even when first published, the idea of it was odd at best, totally insane at worst.
As a game concept it's not bad - something that everyone wants, is relatively easy to transport, etc. The problem is as you say Simon, balancing it all so that the PCs believe in it's importance, and the opposition, whoever they may be, don't completely swamp the PCs in their efforts to get hold of "it".

[pmulcahy11b]

To me, RESET reminds me of the old Overdrive chips -- if your motherboard came with a second CPU socket, you could make it into a primitive sort of dual-core computer. That was an early-1990s idea that never really went anywhere; not many people took the trouble to put an Overdrive chip in because they were so difficult to configure in the BIOS.

[simonmark6]

Thanks for the input both, you are right, getting the balance right could make the inclusion of RESET fun for the players, I'll keep it in mind and see how they handle the earlier plot points I insert.