City of Angels? (moved from archive)

[kato13]

Snake Eyes 02-02-2003, 07:43 PM So . . . what is everbody's beef with this one? Granted, I was only a dopey teenager unschooled in the ways of the world when I last played through it, but it didn't really seem that bad. Was I just not paying attention?

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TR 02-02-2003, 07:57 PM For me it was simply that we had numerous examples up until that point of good writing. plot and scripting... when GDW lent the license to let COA get printed that all went away... all the research and materials GDW had used to craft the world seemed to fade away... and the gaps of logic and military knowledge were hard to swallow... and yes before anyone asks I own it.


Of couorse I generally want one of everything for my collection... but I'm funny that way.






Until Later


TR

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pmulcahy 02-02-2003, 08:10 PM The truth is, I don't have a big problem with City of Angels, but you do have to do a little work to get it to gibe with T2K canon. There is a lot of interesting stuff in it, however, such as the rules for generating civilian characters, which until that point didn't exist in any published material for T2K. (They are for Version 1, but work rather well for that version.)


The plot seems screwy, but I think that a military unit (long out of touch with higher headquarters) going to the home of their dead, but highly-respected leader just to keep a promise is something that might happen in a Twilight 2000 world.

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orrin_ladd 02-03-2003, 02:20 PM I'm in agreement with TR on City of Angels. All the GDW stuff researched and scripted. The general tone of GDW T2k material was of a serious, post-nuke survival nature.


Then City of Angels was released. Before I go on, keep in mind I was a Los Angeles resident for 10 years, and I do not have the module in front of me.


I was gravely disappointed. I had expected some scholarly work on the general situation of the T2k Los Angeles area. What I got was some comic-bookish type adventure in someone's vision of LA. I didn't have problems with the premise of the adventure (returning the deceased officer's medallion to his mother), but rather the details.


My beefs:


No realisitic orbat of Mexican forces in the area (Orange group, yellow group, etc with Soviet equipment?) Compare this with Red Star/Lone Star.


Little discussion of the nuclear blasts in Torrance, Wilmington and the other targets. I think there was brief mention in the one page timeline, that was it.


Trivializing the survivors still in LA. Where are the Bloods and the Crips? What about any other gangs or groups? Call me PC but a picture of an Vietnamese guy (Eddie Tran) with a fu-manchu type beard and wearing some Chinese style getup?


What about the numerous landmarks in the area? I realize all the refineries were nuked and nearby NAVSTA Long Beach and the LA airport were wrecked. But what about numerous universities, theme parks, etc in the area. There is more than one amusement park in the Los Angeles area. How about Hollywood, the sign, the aerospace industry, etc...? Compare this with other T2k modules.


I could go on, but you get the point.


I had expected a lot more, but got little. However, I did use some of City of Angels for my California OOB. Namely the Raiders as a marauder type gang. Which, considering what some of the Raider Nation did after the Superbowl loss isn't too far from the truth!


This just serves as inspiration to add more to my California OOB. I should just turn it into a sourcebook. I know some people have problems with the Mexican Army invasion aspect, but hey, it's a 'sci-fi' game after all!



In parting, I think it is interesting to point out that the author of City of Angels, Craig Shelley, is also the author of East Europe Sourcebook. I have my issues with some parts of that sourcebook as well.

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Aaron 02-03-2003, 03:24 PM Also something you wouldn't see as a player is the module was rigged, it really didn't matter what the players did the outcome was the same (assuming the characters don't get killed). Doesn't matter how fast or slow they the players are, the outcome is the same whether they push on without sleep, dragging their wounded for days or sit around for a week after each encounter healing up, brewing fuel and basically lollygagging their way through the module. Bad form for a module in my book.

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Jason Weiser 02-03-2003, 09:24 PM Hi all,

My opinion abt City of Angels...PU...It needs a major facelift, and I ran it with a lot of changes, dropped the cannibals, and added a New American angle (New American advisors to the Mexicans, forshadowing the 2300 timeline)..and a few other wrinkles.

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Dogger 02-03-2003, 10:34 PM Originally posted by Jason Weiser

and added a New American angle (New American advisors to the Mexicans, forshadowing the 2300 timeline)..and a few other wrinkles.


I like that, I too have had the NA showing up behind the scenes of much of Milgov's troubles.

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Ed the Coastie 02-04-2003, 01:02 AM I had to do quite a bit of re-writing before I was comfortable enough with City of Angels to run it for my players. Most of the re-writes were relatively minor, but some of the major ones included:


1) A complete revamping of the gang stronghold in the amusement park. It's obvious from the text and the illustrations that it is supposed to be Disneyland, so I made it Disneyland. Lots of changes made there...when the PCs entered, it was no longer the scripted "walk in the park" (pardon the pun) that the module would have it be.


2) I moved the Hollywood gang from Paramount Studios to Universal Studios, largely because I am more familiar with the latter.


3) I set up a timeline that was operating independantly from the actions of the PCs. The players really felt the pressure.


I did a bunch of other stuff, too...when I get around to updating my web page, I'll post the changes to it and several other modules on which I've done some re-writing.

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