Adventure Idea

[cyric]

Hello there!

I`m currently planning a campagin in the year 2320 on the planet of Montana (chinese arm). I`m still working things out, but it will be about an alien race that looks like humans but seems to be mentaly more powerfull. The governments on earth see this as a major threat and are doing everything to stop any informations from leaking out. After the Käfer war they are afraid of freightend people all over the colonial worlds and about an enemy that might have allready been infiltrating human space.

So they came up with some secret organisation calles "Operational Group Twin Annihilation" which will be the main nemesis. It is lead by Konteradmiral Wilhelm Lutke who can be called experienced in matters like these.

The players will get sucked into this step by step - first getting info about this system, crossing blades with minor agents and after going there being hunted by the bigger guys of the OGTA.

Does anyone have tried something like this before? Any ideas?

greetings
cy

 

[jcmenal]

Well, I'm working too about the Omicron2 Eridani system. Some of my work:

Tantalum was discovered in "San Martin" (Omicron2 Eridani III, based in the 2300AD:Colonial Atlas) in 2304, such find was kept in secret until 2319.

A shipyard and orbital base was constructed around Gabriel (Omicron2 Eridani V) were the "new" INAP warships classes were built (Battlecruisers, Cruiser, Destryers, Frigates and others).

The major fleets in this region are the "Manchurian Star Navy", "Argentinian Space Force", "Brazilian Space Navy", "Mexican Space Force", "Texan Space Navy" and a couple of old Incan ships.

As for 2320AD the 4th Rio de la Plata has started and due San Maritns tantalum resources, the O2E system is croweded with Mexican and Argentinian ships, Manchurian squadrons arriving to Dukou at Epsilon Eridani (1 system away), Texan and Incan warships at Austin's World (1 system away), many Brazilian ships escorting cargo to Paulo.

 

[rfmcdpei]

As for 2320AD the 4th Rio de la Plata has started and due San Maritns tantalum resources, the O2E system is croweded with Mexican and Argentinian ships, Manchurian squadrons arriving to Dukou at Epsilon Eridani (1 system away), Texan and Incan warships at Austin's World (1 system away), many Brazilian ships escorting cargo to Paulo.

Does the Republic of Heidelsheimat fit into this? The Texan colony on Austin's World is a major trading partner, somehow.

 

[jcmenal]

Yup, due the growing rivalry between Heidelsheimat and Texas (plus Incan and ex-Bavarians closer ties), Mexico strengthened its relationship with the ex-Bavarians. A post-Santisima Trinidad cruiser was sold by Mexico to Heidelsheimat and currently such cruiser is the Flag ship of their young raumwaffe

 

[Anders]

I wrote up a military organisation that sounds like it fits in perfectly in the anti-alien plot:
http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/Game/2300AD/Joint Fleets Strategic Commission.pdf

"Mentally powerful" - does this mean psychic powers, or the more interesting possibility that they are just smarter? Roleplaying smart or genius NPCs is tricky, but it is rewarding. Corner the alien, and he sets off the sprinklers, rendering all the laser weapons useless. If pursued by an international military conspiracy, they drop off a McGuffin that will be so tempting that the different national interests immediately start fighting each other instead. The aliens do not have to be superintelligent to be very slippery; think of how an adult can outdo children.

Lutke could be a very interesting NPC. He could of course be played as the standard xenophobe, but it is more fun to make him complex. He killed the Kafers because of what they did to humans, not because they were aliens. In the process of committing xenocide and during the quiet years afterwards he developed the view that there are some ruthless things that must be done to ensure species survival, but that it is better to keep them in the hands of a few people willing to "Shoot the Dog" rather than let it be a policy of mankind as a whole. So he ends up in a kind of moral stratosphere: his backers might just want him to do the dirty job, but he realizes that he has a choice and that he can - and should - decide for himself what is right to do. So his operational group are actually gathering the relevant information and may go in any direction, even against his superiors. Which doesn't mean the group isn't ruthless and dangerous: the stakes are definitely high enough to allow for a bit of collateral damage.

 

[cyric]

"Mentally powerful" - does this mean psychic powers, or the more interesting possibility that they are just smarter?

The idea was to display them as some race with more psi powers than human civilisation. Maybe some priest caste that is not only powerfull because these aliens still strongly believe in their god(s) but because they take care that every child found with mental powers is brought to their order.
So instead of nobles or companies leading their empires it would be priests and missionaries...

Lutke could be a very interesting NPC.

I think he is indeed. He changed to some genocidal charakter because his soldiers died around him during the Käfer war and bacause of what the Käfers did to the human inhabitants of the planets they invaded.
So even if what he is standing for now appears just evil it is something like giving the aliens a payback for what they had done first.

I still want Lutke to be the evil nemesis - so maybe some dark grey guy instead of simple black opposed to the charakters white souls... but yeah, I think this guy can be really fun.

Thx for the pdf! It`s great!

 

[Anders]

When I ran Invasion back in the day, Lutke was always the reasonable and friendly guy when the PCs had to deal with the big commanders - Rochemont was cold and arrogant, Borodin was too brilliant and busy. So the description in 2320AD is jarring - but not at all implausible. Some events completely change people. That might make Lutke a really chilling nemesis. He is willing to do anything to safeguard humanity, yet may be a pretty reasonable character otherwise. He just thinks that most people have not seriously thought through what is at stake - if they really understood what he understood they would be compelled to do the same. But he really hopes that most humans will never reach that level.

Hmm, I wonder what happens if one of your aliens reads his mind and understand him? Might lead to some very surprising results.

 

[epicenter00]

re: Lutke, isn't that how "bad guys" and people who do "bad things" should often be?

If you read the bios of a lot of some very bad people in history, there's a some of them who are deviant in their personal lives, but a lot of them are exactly as you describe: They're actually pretty likeable (or average) people ... until certain topics come up. They'll have a wife, 2.5 kids (if the guy is older, they'll be grown up and he'll have grandkids) and if he didn't have a perfect marriage, from all reports they had a reasonably happy one. Most of us, for instance, probably know someone who fits the definition of a hate-monger. They might be racist, or hate people purely on their religion, or because they're gay. Often, besides this particular wart on their personality, they're otherwise decent people - they're employed, they pull their weight, or whatever.

"Yes, I released the bioweapon on the Kafers. You see, I toured Station Arcturus and spoke with the survivors afterwards. I spent a lot of time on the ground in Aurore. I visited Hochbaden, Joi, and every other place that the Kafers had touched. I've also visited the Kafer planets. Do you know they have weekend hunts of the sick and maimed? Ah, miss, I see your college-educated smirk. You think I am stereotyping. No, I am not just taking some strange custom of some small village of Kafer inbreds and applying to the entire race. It is like this in every one of their cities. Every single one. That sounds like hyperbole and stereotyping, but I am serious. Check it if you wish. We have art and wine festivals, and besides the English, our football games are civilized affairs, exciting, but nobody gets killed. Their idea of fun is hunting their own people through the streets of their cities. My daughter, Karin, recently finally decided to settle down and I met my grandson, Gerard, for the first time six months ago. I held his tiny hand, and the way he looked at me and recognized me, and his tiny hand squeezed my finger. I'll be damned by God, and burn in every Hell before I let the Kafers get anywhere near that."

 

[cyric]

Yeah, this is just how I want to play out Lutke. He will be the nemesis of the PCs but he's still a human being that acts much more out of experience than out of genetic heritage.

I think it would be good to give the players a taste of the Käfers, too. To experience the horrors of this war could help to get them more into the story and to see sense behind the unscrupolus charakter of Lutke. But damn it... there were no Käfers ever in the Latin Finger of the Chinese arm, right?

Hm... how to solve this... is there some other known alien threat I can play with? Or will I have to create something on my own?

 

[Colin]

Make them veterans, and start the game with a flashback scene, ala the Serenity pilot for the Firefly TV series.