Unorthodox, or just plain weird!

In the spirit of Twilight Nightmares! supplement stories, has anyone ever encountered or ran a game that included weird stuff like zombies, dinosaurs, demons/ghosts/poltergeists, mutated people/straight up mutants, or something similar to this?

[kato13]

The GDW book Twilight Nightmares encourages this. They have aliens. intelligent dogs, super ants, electric giant slugs, plus a few more.

[Targan]

My campaign contains supernatural elements, esoterica and Call of Cthulhu-esque elements but (with a few exceptions) the PCs are never sure exactly what is going on or whather what they have experienced is paranormal.

[weswood]

I haven't fleshed out the details, but I'm working up an island in the Bermuda Triangle. An alien spaceship crashed cenutries ago and has been disgorging "specimens" collected from various planets. The character will be shipwrecked in a wooden sailing ship, they must locate suitable timber for repairing a hole in the hull and replacing a mast or two. The only place on the island where trees straight and tall enough for masts grow is near the crashed spaceship.

Other than the alien species on the planet, there is a tribe of humans who never got past the stone age. I'm toying with the idea of having more modern people there also, from disappearances in the Triangle throughout the centuries. Maybe a couple of 17th century pirates, some of those aviators that got lost, maybe some civilians from lost ships. A certain plant growing only on the island stops them from aging.

The spaceship crashed due to a deadly disease then sickened and killed most of the crew. The survivors fled the ship to a peninsula, and built a huge wall across it to keep the vicous beasts out of thier safe area. I'm not sure if I want any to be surviving when the players arrive. Any alien artifacts- weapons, superior technology, etc will be battery operated with no way of recharging batteries. I'm even thinking the crew's personal weapons will be crossbows and short swords. I would think any combat aboard a spaceship both sides would want to be careful. Oh, dang, that laser bolt just fired the environmental system for the whole ship, we're all dead.

[Littlearmies]

Originally Posted by bigehauser

In the spirit of Twilight Nightmares! supplement stories, has anyone ever encountered or ran a game that included weird stuff like zombies, dinosaurs, demons/ghosts/poltergeists, mutated people/straight up mutants, or something similar to this?

Funnily enough I came across this website this afternoon:

http://gurps.fallout.free.fr/

While the headers are in French the rest is in English, and very good it is too, very much in keeping with the atmosphere of the first two games.

[pmulcahy11b]

I've dumped players in the Giant modules of D&D through a "time-space vortex." The players had lots of fun, until the ammo ran out...

[Grimace]

I actually ran one of the Twilight Nightmares modules in the middle of my Twilight game once. It was with the zombies and things that go "bump in the night". Can't remember the exact name of the little module. I ran it right after the group collected the Black Madonna. I intended it, and ran it, as a dream. When the last PC died, they all woke up, back in the farmhouse they had holed up in. Needless to say, they vacated that farmhouse right away.

The players thought it was interesting after it was all said and done and I explained it away as a dream. They weren't real happy when they "died" during the dream, but once they realized it was part of the a dream, a module from the Twilight Nightmares, and linked so closely with the Black Madonna, they said it made sense. They, of course, didn't ever want me to run another module from Twilight Nightmares again, though.

[Legbreaker]

If you're looking for a little horror, etc in your GDW game, why not go with Dark Conspiracy?
Basically the same rules as 2.2 (it's a house system after all) and the entire world history, etc is set up specficially for aliens, horrifying creatures from nightmares and interplanar encounters.

[Marc]

I totally agree with Legbreaker.
We started to run a Dark Conspiracy game this last year. I usually reserve "Dark Conspiracy" for the ocasions when some of the players in the Twilight:2000 group can't play and the "harcore", "always-ready-for-a-game" players are eager for a roleplaying session. Then we run my current Dark Conspiracy campaign, only three players and the GM with smooth lights and appropriate music.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by bigehauser

In the spirit of Twilight Nightmares! supplement stories, has anyone ever encountered or ran a game that included weird stuff like zombies, dinosaurs, demons/ghosts/poltergeists, mutated people/straight up mutants, or something similar to this?

My first experience of role-playing was at a wargames club. A role-player we knew put on a game. We played Vietnam-era US marines, who went through a green mist. When the mist cleared, we found ourselves in a D&D setting, fighting trolls. None of us had any idea that normal bullets wouldn't work, and it was pure luck that we killed them with white phosphorous grenades. I can't remember much more about that session, but it was good fun.

Some time later, I ran a part-wargame, part-RPG game set in Vietnam, and the characters went into a green mist. When weird shit started happening, they were convinced their characters had ended up in a different world

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I've dumped players in the Giant modules of D&D through a "time-space vortex." The players had lots of fun, until the ammo ran out...

From the depths of the archives, I bid you...RISE!!!!

Sounds a lot like "Doomfarers of Coramonde" and "Starfollowers of Coramonde", in which an VIetnam-era APC with a squad of infantry aboard gets "conjured" from an ambush in SE Asia across a dimension by a spell that wasn't worded quite right. The troops encounter a dragon, Lizardmen, evil magicians, and a world in which magic works as do the soldiers' firearms and heavy weapons.

Alternately, how about an alternate universe where the Twilight War never happened, and technology advanced a bit more; and where a small laboratory has come up with a portal that enables the non-T2K world to first observe, then shuttle to and from the Nuked World. A small A-Team of adventurers are recruited under absolute secrecy ( the company doesn't want the government to know about this yet) to jump across the gap with some essential supplies and devices (obsolescent chips and memory for T2K computers, improved medications, a 3D printer, etc.) .

[swaghauler]

I did a "28 Days Later" Biohazard scenario once. It was very well received UNTIL the team found out that they had to "subdue without unnecessary casualties" (to prevent the virologist equivalent of "brain drain"). Tasers and tranquilizer guns backed by shotguns with baton and sock rounds. Pistols ONLY for Lethal force. The only good thing was that the team had control of the biolab's cameras, comms, and doors. I still proved to be a very tense adventure.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

...

Alternately, how about an alternate universe where the Twilight War never happened, and technology advanced a bit more; and where a small laboratory has come up with a portal that enables the non-T2K world to first observe, then shuttle to and from the Nuked World. A small A-Team of adventurers are recruited under absolute secrecy ( the company doesn't want the government to know about this yet) to jump across the gap with some essential supplies and devices (obsolescent chips and memory for T2K computers, improved medications, a 3D printer, etc.) .

Sounds a little bit like this scenario from John Tynes (the guy behind Delta Green & Unknown Armies etc. etc.)
http://johntynes.com/revland2000/rl_thezone.html
It was Tynes write-up of this idea that put me on the path to discovering the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games via the novel Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky) and the movie Stalker (by ‎Andrei Tarkovsky), all of which feature Zones containing some strangeness (to say the least!)

I have tried every few years to get a campaign up and running around the idea of the Zone from Roadside Picnic/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but could never seem to get enough people interested to get it started (it seems most people want to play fantasy rpgs, especially those rpgs that cater to the "power fantasy") but I have used one or two Twilight Nightmares scenarios in a Merc: 2000 campaign I had running a long time ago.

[Draq]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Sounds a little bit like this scenario from John Tynes (the guy behind Delta Green & Unknown Armies etc. etc.)
http://johntynes.com/revland2000/rl_thezone.html
It was Tynes write-up of this idea that put me on the path to discovering the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games via the novel Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky) and the movie Stalker (by ‎Andrei Tarkovsky), all of which feature Zones containing some strangeness (to say the least!)

I have tried every few years to get a campaign up and running around the idea of the Zone from Roadside Picnic/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but could never seem to get enough people interested to get it started (it seems most people want to play fantasy rpgs, especially those rpgs that cater to the "power fantasy") but I have used one or two Twilight Nightmares scenarios in a Merc: 2000 campaign I had running a long time ago.

I would totally be down for playing in the Zone.

[aspqrz]

Extinction Game by Gary Gibson is an interesting take -- and 'The Authority' is rather like a TW2K world!

https://www.amazon.com/Extinction-Ga...se+Game#navbar

Phil

[unkated]

One of the things I liked about Twilight Nightmares is that it "proved" that Merc: 2000 was the prequel setting to Dark Conspiracy.

I had designed a Merc: 2000 scenario where the PCs are hired to go to an "empty research facility on an island" off Central America to collect some biological samples. The corporation hiring you had sent an agent, but lost track of him, and they heard that the facility was temporarily abandoned due to a storm. The island should be deserted, but the team should be armed just in case. Power had been shut down, so there would not be much in the way of security surveillance equipment operating.

The briefing included detail on the size of the samples and how to transport them; it included a rough idea of where on the island to find the lab with the samples.

For operational security, the team is only told roughly where in the world they are going.

As the team is lifting off in a CV-22 to take them to the island, their nervous looking (or is that guiltly looking/) contact tosses them a small paperback book. As they gain altitude, they read the cover Field Guide to Dinosaurs (These were more rare 25 years ago).

The team, of course, is headed to Isla Nulubar, a few days after the events of the first Jurassic park movie, to get the samples that Dennis Nedry was supposed to recover.

Uncle Ted

[LoneCollector1987]

First I want to play T2k. Then MERC but then....

After reading some of the Posleen books by John Ringo I would like to play against the Posleen. Yes I know it is not supernatural but still ASB.

And yes, if the Posleen would land somewhere safe, e.g. rainforest of the Amazon, where they could build their whole technology they would overrun a T2K / MERC world. So they would have to be dialed down.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

While I haven't read the books, I have looked into the series and I vaguely recall that the posleen did have some trouble with jungle insects (ant swarms if I remember right) so I reckon you wouldn't have to dial it down too much. It could even lead to other avenues for the PCs to fight back e.g. locating and catching certain insect species for mass breeding and then releasing in posleen controlled areas.

[LoneCollector1987]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

While I haven't read the books, I have looked into the series and I vaguely recall that the posleen did have some trouble with jungle insects (ant swarms if I remember right) so I reckon you wouldn't have to dial it down too much. It could even lead to other avenues for the PCs to fight back e.g. locating and catching certain insect species for mass breeding and then releasing in posleen controlled areas.

The Posleen are genetically engineered to survive even biological or chemical warfare.
In the book "Yellow Eyes" you refer to, it is seen that the Posleen can survive jungle. It is only when a totally dumb Normal Posleen uses his monomolecular boma-blade or his railgun / plasmagun to wipe out one ant and forgets that these weapons kill not only the impact point but also the surrounding area that they can wipe each other out. This happens when a colony of soldier ants attacks a Posleen column.

One of the intelligent God-kings makes clear he hates the animals that hide in his skin like leeches or mosquitos. It just forces them to use sticks against leeches to remove them or eat more.

When the point of view shows the humans side the area known as Darien is mentioned that is a jungles jungel, e.g. a 1000-times wetter / mosquitoe infested etc. But the Posleen survive this with only small problems.

No, why the Posleen have to be dialed down is the following point:

The Posleen land with their army and then conquer nearly the entire territory south of the Panama-canal. Then after one or two years max there are not only millions of more Posleen, no, those are also equipped with weapons. Their space ships are only for transporting Posleen. No factory equipment.

In the case of Normals we are talking of at least shotguns, but God-kings have an antimatter powered antigravity tenar (a disc shaped object big enough for one or two Posleen to fly with) that has either a railgun / plasmagun and a sensory package to locate and shoot down even a Mach 3 jet with ease. (This means if a Posleen tenar is in the middle of the ocean with no obstructions, as soon as a jetplane crosses the horizon it is detected and can be shot down.)

The Posleen have their entire knowledge in their DNA. So they build the technology base from sticks and stones to antimatter production in less then two years and also a production capacity to equip millions of them.

So with these capabilities they have to be dialed down because once they have a few tenar no air force can touch them and if they can procreate freely earth is doomed.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Ouch!
Point taken. Yeah they have to be dialed down!

And a nice summation of what makes the Posleen a threat (aside from their ravenous appetite). Because I never got around to reading the books I didn't know most of that info.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by LoneCollector1987

First I want to play T2k. Then MERC but then....

After reading some of the Posleen books by John Ringo I would like to play against the Posleen. Yes I know it is not supernatural but still ASB.

And yes, if the Posleen would land somewhere safe, e.g. rainforest of the Amazon, where they could build their whole technology they would overrun a T2K / MERC world. So they would have to be dialed down.

Sounds like a good campaign for T2300 or Dark Conspiracy. Or to go with Twilight Nightmares.

[WallShadow]

Heck, having the human factions have to band together to take on the giant ants ("Them?" fron Twilight Nightmares), the electric slugs, the extradimensional beasties from "The Fog", and throw in the gengineered Eber "Nightmares" from 2300 AD "Ranger" book about Kormoran.
That's a whole buncha stuff that's already formatted for GDW combat systems!