Unorthodox, or just plain weird!

[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]

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]

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!