Merc 2000 and Other Alternate Settings

[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]

You Only Live Twice

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.