Celebrities in your T2k-Universe

[B.T.]

We had some thoughts about James Blunt, the Pope and King Charles III., here on the board. Has anyone of you introduced "people of interest" as NPCs in one of your games?

These could be entertainers/artits, caught behind the frontline during an United Service Organizations (USO) engagement, totally surprised by the starting of the nukes.
Or maybe a former Rock- or Moviestar, who joined the forces during WW III (You remember Lance Carter from The stomach Turns, mentioned in the "Contacts"-paragraph of Ver 2.n?).
Or maybe a well-known journalist, who had been reporting about the war, who just could not get back home.

Right at the moment, I think about the possibilities, to let my players stumble upon a former "celebrity", who now sits in Poland, not knowing, what to do, or where to go.

I think, such a character could be used for different reasons. If it works, such a person could be a perfect "comic relief". Or the person could be used for adding a little more "depth". Or it could lead to some unusual encounter with no relevance, but still be "Quite Interesting" (as in: "Hey, buddy, you remember that Stephen Frye guy, we encountered in Lüneburg? That was one weired situation!"). But such an incident could provide the background for a new adventure: The former CNN team, that still wants to work as journalists, may need help, to get from village A to settlement B, with the help from friendly NATO soldiers!

As a GM I've made the experience, that most players like the incorporation of well-known persons, no matter, if those persons are real life persons or fictitous characters (In a Call of Cthullhu adventure we made friends with Houdini, as an example. In a nother one, some of the characters met Batman.).

So, fellow members: Have you experiences with "people of interest" in T2k? Did such characters occur in one of your campaigns? Which characters were these?

[Legbreaker]

And there's always the possibility of "didn't you play a doctor in that movie back in the 80's? Come stitch up this wound will ya?"
Or, better yet, an action superstar who turns out to be a real coward when the bullets start flying for real.

[B.T.]

Something like Ned Diederlander in Three Amigos, where he shall fly the airplane?

[Rainbow Six]

years ago I was part of a game set in the US. The PC's were all former Warsaw Pact POW's who escaped from their POW camp in Florida and were trying to make it to Texas to link up with Division Cuba. Somewhere in the southern US they encountered a bunch of refugees that included a certain Ms Britney Spears. IIRC she ended up married to one of the PC's (I think it was Junior Sergeant Ivanov of the VDV but I could be wrong).

(obviously she wasn't a celebrity in our T2K timeline as the World had gone to hell before then - she was just another semi anonymous refugee, so I suppose technically this doesn't count).

Only other one that springs to mind was a very brief cameo NPC appearance by a Bundeswehr officer named Michael Schumacher in one of our European campaigns. I think his WVD skill was 99 or thereabouts...

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Somewhere in the southern US they encountered a bunch of refugees that included a certain Ms Britney Spears. IIRC she ended up married to one of the PC's.

I'm guessing it only took a few hours and a couple of six packs, you know, just like her first marriage IRL?

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I'm guessing it only took a few hours and a couple of six packs, you know, just like her first marriage IRL?

LOL...Would have been even better if there had been a Junior Sergeant Federenko in the group...

Originally Posted by Olefin

Or you have stars trying to serve their country like Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable did - i.e. you see an F-15 go down after an aerial battle a la Red Dawn overhead and you get to the pilot who ejected to find out that its John Travolta (who is a qualified jet pilot) or you run across a squad of soldiers in Poland led by Matt Damon or Tom Hanks who had been thru the mini-boot camp for Private Ryan and joined up after the US got nuked in late 97 for real.

Wasn't there a famous American football player that quit the sport after 9/11 and joined the US Army Rangers?

I'm also reminded of the scene in the Postman where Kevin Costner's character meets Tom Petty...

[Olefin]

Take a look at World War Z for how such things could be handled - they mentioned a lot of celebrities there but not by name to avoid getting into legal issues

another way would be having them show up before they were celebrities - i.e. look at how many future Hollywood stars served in WWII (Lee Marvin and Walter Matthau come to mind right off the bat) - same here could happen

Or you have stars trying to serve their country like Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable did - i.e. you see an F-15 go down after an aerial battle a la Red Dawn overhead and you get to the pilot who ejected to find out that its John Travolta (who is a qualified jet pilot) or you run across a squad of soldiers in Poland led by Matt Damon or Tom Hanks who had been thru the mini-boot camp for Private Ryan and joined up after the US got nuked in late 97 for real.

[Silent Hunter UK]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Take a look at World War Z for how such things could be handled - they mentioned a lot of celebrities there but not by name to avoid getting into legal issues

Hope no-one minds a thread bump here.

I'm reading Warday at the moment (now on Kindle), which has Meryl Streep and Brooke Shields both mentioned in the California section.

[pmulcahy11b]

I've always wanted to do that, nut never actually had the players meet one (or more). As Criminal Minds is one of my favorite shows, it would be fun to have a PC group meet the Criminal Minds team.

[James Langham]

A few random thoughts:

Vladimir Putin is probably still in the KGB (IRL he resigned after the abortive coup in 1991). What an ideal nemesis... there is even an ideal picture here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_putin

Bruce Willis is a service brat and is keen to support the US military - maybe he runs a charity for ex-servicemen?

How many entertainers might get stranded in Europe/Korea/Iran/etc entertaining the troops?

There was a character in the Caribbean module was was a TV star - the bosun from memory. He could easily be replaced by a real character.

I used a few (disguised) characters from Soldier Soldier as NPCs - the players have never forgiven me for having Dave Tucker (can't remember the name I changed it to) in their section - especially when his wife Donna turned up!

Imagine Richard Holmes, Paddy Ashdown or Peter de la Billiere commanding a local town militia in the UK...

Bear Grylls would still be serving in 21SAS...

[Olefin]

'Bear Grylls would still be serving in 21SAS... "

Ok now that would be one heck of an NPC to meet

"You think you ran into some weirdos. Let me tell you about this SAS guy we met who ate a fish while it was still moving and showed us all how you can drink your own urine!"

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by Olefin

'Bear Grylls would still be serving in 21SAS... "

Ok now that would be one heck of an NPC to meet

"You think you ran into some weirdos. Let me tell you about this SAS guy we met who ate a fish while it was still moving and showed us all how you can drink your own urine!"