Merc 2000 and Other Alternate Settings

[Frank Frey]

Greetings,

I was wondering what everyone here thought of the Merc 2000 setting? Also, for those of you who remember the T2K GPS Survey at the back of the 2.2 rulebook, what proposal intrigued you the most?
I personally liked the Alien Invasion background. BTW, the Kafers from 2300 would make excellent invaders.

[Double Deuce]

I actually preferred the Merc 2000 setting. My group started with the regular 2K timeline but got burned out on the WWIII theme and later switched to a Merc 2000 campaign based in Africa (Nigeria actually). I can't remember much on the details since that was some years ago though but that's my story and I'm stickin to it.

[Rainbow Six]

I'm afraid I never owned or played Merc 2000 or the 2.2 rulebook, so can't really comment on either...

[Adm.Lee]

We had fun with Merc in the mid-90s, after it was apparent there wasn't going to be a USSR again. I ran for a group of 6 or 7 (usually 4 at a time). I think we did more of the "episodic" style missions than a war/campaign, and slowly moved into some of the Special Operations missions from that book.
- Their preferred hiring hall and resupply source was "Big Bob's House of Boom" with branches in Miami and Las Vegas.

- I remember using my Squad Leader maps sometimes, as well as handmade counters for PCs and NPCs.

- I remember one guy had been reading Peter Capstick's books, so he played a S.African big-game hunter turned merc. He rarely ever wore a helmet, because, "Cape Buffalo don't shoot back!" Guess who got hit most often?

- About half of the group had SCUBA skills, so I tailored a few aquatic missions for them.

- I think they bought themselves a seaplane after several big scores, I remember looking for stats on small Grumman flying boats.

- I remember assigning them a recon mission in Biafra, which they "solved" by building recon drones <= model airplanes with TV cameras!

Sorry, I never bought the 2.2 book, so I didn't see the survey.

[Raellus]

I've toyed with the idea of running a Merc-style game using the standard T2K rules. I don't think I would need/use any supplemental, Merc 2000 rules or resources. I think a copy of Pelton's World's Most Dangerous Places would cover the setting and background fairly well.

As for the survey, I vote for "Stay the Course" and "The Iron Dream".

The Far East theater of operations was unfortunately neglected before GDW went belly up. A lot of us would have liked a Korea sourcebook or Korea-based modules. Post-apoc Japan also presents a lot of intriguing gaming possibilities.

As for WWII, there are a lot of cut-off-behind enemy lines scenarios one could run using T2K rules. I almost ran a campaign based on a group of misfit Red Army soldiers tasked with infiltrating Berlin to secure Nazi nuclear program secrets ahead of the other allies. We've discussed several other historical applications of the T2K principles in a couple of threads here.

[Frank Frey]

Raellus,

I've been using Savage Worlds for years now. I just got the Weird War II setting book which is pretty good. I also have their Tour of Darkness Vietnam setting which I really like. I've found the system to be easy and fast moving. BTW, I'm also finishing up an adventure campaign module for Weird Wars II featuring the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

Frank Frey

[Jason Weiser]

Actually Rae,
The truth can be just as much fun as fiction....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Alsos

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Jason Weiser

Actually Rae,
The truth can be just as much fun as fiction....

Dang it! I knew I couldn't have thought of it first. In preparation for my game I did a bunch of research on the German nuke program, the NKVD, Smiert, and the Red Army scouts- much of it on Wikepedia- and never come across any references to Alsos, per se.

My idea was slightly different, though. My team was going to be expendable, made up of recently liberated Red Army troops (rarely trusted by the NKVD, many of them were sent straight to the Gulags), Red Germans, and such, dressed as German soldiers, and slipped in ahead of the Red Army, just as the Battle of Berlin was getting underway.

Oh well, I still think it would make for a cool T2K-like campaign.

There's also a really cool suggestion for an Escape from Kalisz-type game in the back of Osprey's campaign series title (#205), Bagration 1944. It describes a running fight of about a squad of German infantry (and maybe a vehicle or two) against randomly rolled Red Army units.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Frank Frey

I've been using Savage Worlds for years now. I just got the Weird War II setting book which is pretty good. I also have their Tour of Darkness Vietnam setting which I really like. I've found the system to be easy and fast moving. BTW, I'm also finishing up an adventure campaign module for Weird Wars II featuring the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

I'm not familiar with those systems, Frank, but they sound interesting. I'd love to see your 509th module. The parachute drops preceding D-Day are one of the WWII ops that made our list for good T2K/WWII crossover campaigns.

[Marc]

My vote is for Iron Dream, too. WWII always exercise its own special ad strong magnetism.

In my opinion the other options in the Twilight GPS Survey seemed a little too repetitive. Biohazard, Mean Streets or Contingency Forces can be run by any imaginative referee using Merc:2000 or Twilight:2000 with only a new timeline and some adjustments. And Traveller:TNE (a true jewel ,for me) allows a range of options wide enough to recreate any futuristic background, included an alien invasion.

[Double Deuce]

Originally Posted by Frank Frey

I've been using Savage Worlds for years now. I just got the Weird War II setting book which is pretty good. I also have their Tour of Darkness Vietnam setting which I really like. I've found the system to be easy and fast moving. BTW, I'm also finishing up an adventure campaign module for Weird Wars II featuring the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

Funny you should mention SW. I have recently purchased the Fantasy Grounds II VTT and the Savage Worlds core rulebook (since there is no T2K ruleset for FGII) and have started work on a project using that system. This thread has actually started me thinking about a Savage Merc style campaign as well.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Frank Frey

Greetings,

I was wondering what everyone here thought of the Merc 2000 setting? Also, for those of you who remember the T2K GPS Survey at the back of the 2.2 rulebook, what proposal intrigued you the most?
I personally liked the Alien Invasion background. BTW, the Kafers from 2300 would make excellent invaders.

A friend ran a number of Merc:2000 games including a campaign set in Australia dealing with Indonesian inflitration forces and brigands running amok in Western Australia. He voted for "Armor 21" rather than any of the other offerings, I remember he was quite keyed up for it's potential release when he saw it advertised in a Challenge magazine just before TSR pulled their stunt.

Originally Posted by Raellus

I've toyed with the idea of running a Merc-style game using the standard T2K rules. I don't think I would need/use any supplemental, Merc 2000 rules or resources. I think a copy of Pelton's World's Most Dangerous Places would cover the setting and background fairly well.

The Merc: 2000 book had a few supplemental rules that are still very useful though, such as the noise level and patron sections plus some new maps

[kota1342000]

I actually started running Merc 2000 just a couple of years ago. My last game group was enjoying it, and I ran some game blocks at the conventions in Denver that everyone had a blast with too. Havent had a recent chance to run but the Merc stuff is pretty relevant and a good side road for the game that just wont die! heehee

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by Frank Frey

Greetings,

I was wondering what everyone here thought of the Merc 2000 setting? Also, for those of you who remember the T2K GPS Survey at the back of the 2.2 rulebook, what proposal intrigued you the most?
I personally liked the Alien Invasion background. BTW, the Kafers from 2300 would make excellent invaders.

Hi Frank.

I'm currently running a Merc 2000 campaign that I started last year.
Unclassified info about the campaign is located here : http://forum.juhlin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12

The campaign started with a "simple" rescue mission in Mexico and moved from there... The characters have been since then involved with various situations like:

EGYPT:
Beduin attack in the Sahara
Some assination attempts by hired guns
Stealing egyptian national treasures from a discovered temple
Reanimated mummies

Somalia:
Somali Pirate attacks while guarding a research vessel
Deep diving in the waters outside Somalia
Shark attacks (giant)
Discovering a Nazi cruiser on the bottom of the sea

Chicago US:
Industry-espionage and retrival of new technology

East Europe
Retrival of professor for research
Buying weapons from local mobsters
Assasination on Russian mobsters encountered in first mission in Mexico -
Just before assaination is completed, target is approached by humanoids/unidentified for the moment...

Longview,Texas,US
****current mission****
Hired to rescue an inmate in Longview Insane Asylum
Discovers that said asylum is a front for an unnamed group doing loads of unethical experiments borderlining to the occult a la "doom" (the video-game)


GP

[Cdnwolf]

I really really hate you guys....

and another PDF file added to my collection.... curse you ...lololol...

[firewalker]

BTW, the Kafers from 2300 would make excellent invaders

Not merc:2000 but i did have an idea for the USS constitution to run into a kafer/alien occupation heading into the Chesapeake bay. not so much an invasion more like a pirate group that stumbled across earth and decided to take advantage of the situation or artlenterly a lost military/colonization fleet(small).

[unkated]

So, I'm about to start dinner the other night, and turn on the TV just for some background noise. A familiar opening followed by a guitar riff told me a James Bond was starting.

Within five minutes, a US Gemini Space capsule had been captured and presumed destroyed, and a very angry American diplomatic official was warning a his Soviet counterpart that in 20 days, the US would launch another space mission, and any interference would be considered an act of War. The Soviets were all innocent, insisting they knew nothing about it, which only made the American more annoyed.

Within another 10 minutes, James Bond had been laid, killed buried at sea in Hong Kong harbor, taken aboard a British sub, briefed on the way to Japan, and shot out of a torpedo tube. Some guys have all the fun :-)

At any rate, if Bond was running a little late, here is a fine reason for a mid-60s T2K-style setting, if that is to your tastes. You could even have your band of survivors working against Ernst Blofeld's bullies in the wake of a limited nuclear war.

Uncle Ted
(or to be true to the period, the Ted from U.N.C.L.E.)

[Adm.Lee]

I've been musing for a few years about a double campaign, half spy and half merc/commando.

The GM would run a session (or two, or whatever) with a spy character (or two? no more than three) who are tasked with gathering information on a site or subject, until they can get away.

Then, the GM and spy player(s) recruit a few more friends to play commandos/mercs/whatever. The next game session or three is a strike on the target(s). The spy players can either play their spies, acting as briefers/guides/interpreters to the strikers, or take new characters among the strikers.

[Sanjuro]

A long time ago, I thought about an rpg I would call "Europe Ablaze"; the players would be SOE agents during WW2. Unlike almost any conventional war scenario, a small group would be normal- running into ANY large opposing force would be suicidal, so concealment, evasion and subterfuge skills would be just as important as combat skills.
An extreme variation would be the small "stay behind" units, trained and prepared for a potential Nazi invasion of Britain. Some of these were relatively well equipped, with underground caches and hideouts. None were expected to survive longer than a few weeks, so they had limited aims. Interestingly enough, most had target lists including the local Chief Constable (the only local official who would know their identities).

[jester]

About 12 years ago we ran a campaign where we were part of the French Resistance during WWII. I had a character who was a former naval officer severely wounded when the French Fleet was destroyed....who turned to civil service.

Very few of the characters were the normal combat types.