starting a new campaign?

[pmulcahy11b]

I forget, has SouthCom moved from Panama to Miami in the T2k timeline Might it be trying to evacuate now, or hold on to the Canal Is that even worth anything

The Canal itself is of militarily very limited value, due to its small size and the slowness of its operation. However, the Canal Zone could serve as a useful base for operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, and South America. For that reason, it might be useful to hold on to. As I've stated elsewhere, I don't think the Russians would bother to nuke the Canal.

Come to think of it, these Americans are close enough to the States that they might try to go home. Or, they may become a thorn in the rear of the Mexicans.

[weswood]

Oooh, I like this one. great thing about it, is that you can start it almost anywhere - Africa, South America, etc.

Some great ideas in this thread. I love the embassy one, but the Korean idea, along with prisoners from Siberia and the Mediterranean one have my creative juices starting to flow

A former member of the board here started a very short lived campaign based on this. The players were Embassy personnel, mostly Marine guards, in Africa. The game started with the players in 2 Landrovers just missing the last U.S. plane out.

[Grimace]

Yeah, some interesting ideas.

Here's one:
The group is a special advisory group dispatched to meet up with Soviet divisions in Alaska who have ceased allegiance to the USSR. While there, they get attacked by the bad guy Soviets. So that way they'd have to work with Soviets and fight against Soviets and have to always figure out which is which. Plus, it would be in Alaska, which isn't a usual game location.

[Rainbow Six]

A former member of the board here started a very short lived campaign based on this. The players were Embassy personnel, mostly Marine guards, in Africa. The game started with the players in 2 Landrovers just missing the last U.S. plane out.

I know the one you mean. If memory serves the game originated from a thread on the board (probably RPG Host) where the scenario was discussed. I did try and see if I could track down the original thread in the archives here last night, but couldn't find it.

Going from memory, another suggestion on that thread that someone (sorry, don't know who) came up with was for the PC's to be a group of East German or Polish troops who had been posted to the Chinese theatre earlier in the War and were now trying to make their way home overland.

I think the thread had more details on both scenarios - someone may remember it and have a copy of it archived somewhere (I think there are some details of the game Wes refers to on Antenna's site).

Cheers

[jester]

I remember both campaigns.

The embassy game was run by Law. It was on another site all together.

The other campaign, I remember some of the players but forgot who was the GM. That was on Yahoo Groups, if they haven't deleted it, they files may still be there. I was a lurker there for a time when I had the time but lost track. It was interesting.

[Trooper]

Norway

How about classic behind the enemy lines in the Litsa front in december 2000 Long journey from Kola peninsula to Narvik. Players can fight their way through northern Norway or they can try get in Narvik through northern Finland and Sweden. Even that wouldn"t be an easy option- FDF units would probably send NATO stragglers straight to POW camp but some units like 6th infantry brigade in Kilpisj$rvi- (garrison of free city) might even help them.

In northern Sweden local separatist movement is quite capable to defend local villages. Marauders have short life span there but they are willig to help God fearing NATO soldiers in need

Somewhere between Kola peninsula and Narvik players should find out why soviets are invading northern Norway You can recycle Boomer after your players have found an NATO unit in Norway.

[Tegyrius]

An idea that was suggested on one of the old boards was that of staff from an Embassy overseas trying to get back to their home country. Could include Military personnel (e.g. US Marine Security Guards), Intelligence agents, and civilian workers / dependents (as well as nationals from allied nations).

When I was demo'ing 2013, this is the setup I used for my usual scenario. Marine task force sent into Central Africa to evacuate embassies and American citizens and stranded there by the nuclear exchanges and general breakdown, then making their way overland to a port city to try to find a ride home. The action centered on arriving at said city (I used Abidjan) and liberating a freighter from the local warlord. Always thought it'd make a good kernel for a longer campaign.

- C.

[cavtroop]

Great info guys, thanks for all the tips. I think I'm going to go with the 'Embassy Staff trying to get out' theme. I think it give the players flexibility in the characters they want to play - almost anything goes, and can make sense in the theme of the game.

Another question - I debated opening another thread for it, as it's a different subject, but we'll see.

The players I have lined up for this game are all time-constrained by family, jobs, etc. I'd like to have a game where if one of them can't make it, the rest can still play, but keep the reasoning plausible, so the missing PC doesn't have to get played as an NPC. Any thoughts on this I was thinking of making every game session a mini-adventure, where the team runs out of a central base or something, and if one guy cant make it, he just doesn't go out of the wire with the team. However, that limits the size and complexity the adventures can be.

Anyone deal with this, or have any thoughts

[pmulcahy11b]

With the Embassy Staff theme, an interesting wrench to throw in might be a dependent. Nothing like a whiney 8-year-old with a teddy bear to throw a wrench into the works...

[Rainbow Six]

With the Embassy Staff theme, an interesting wrench to throw in might be a dependent. Nothing like a whiney 8-year-old with a teddy bear to throw a wrench into the works...

Nice idea...as an added twist how about if said kid is the child of a senior diplomat who is part of the group. Then have said senior Diplomat "think" he (or she) is the one in charge and start throwing their weight about...

[cavtroop]

While its an intriguing idea, and would add a very interesting and real twist to a game, I generally don't have children in my games. Not a place I generally want to go given RL circumstances.

[TiggerCCW UK]

While its an intriguing idea, and would add a very interesting and real twist to a game, I generally don't have children in my games. Not a place I generally want to go given RL circumstances.

I'm the same, I usually avoid having kids in the game as I find it a bit too close to the real world. Funny isn't it, that we have no problem with society being destroyed and devastated and the whole world going to hell in a hand basket, but yet the idea of kids in peril makes us uncomfortable. I think its probably a good healthy sign for us though The only time I've had kids involved was when the PC's had to rescue a group of kids who had been seized for medical experiments by a lunatic neo-nazi fringe group in Poland. Thankfully the group bought straight into the premise of rescuing them and went in without any of the excessive force they sometimes use and rescued them all, without injury to any of the kids

[TiggerCCW UK]

[QUOTE=cavtroop;24680]
The players I have lined up for this game are all time-constrained by family, jobs, etc. I'd like to have a game where if one of them can't make it, the rest can still play, but keep the reasoning plausible, so the missing PC doesn't have to get played as an NPC. Any thoughts on this I was thinking of making every game session a mini-adventure, where the team runs out of a central base or something, and if one guy cant make it, he just doesn't go out of the wire with the team. However, that limits the size and complexity the adventures can be.

Anyone deal with this, or have any thoughts[/QUOTE

I'd go with a number of mini adventures designed towards a major goal. For example they need to get out of the area using a helicopter extraction. First one could be securing fuel, then a seperate adventure each for finding a pilot, spare parts, a helo, a landing site and transport to get them to the site and then of course the journey to the site and the actual extraction.

In my group we have 6 regulars, 5 players and a gm for whatever game we happen to be playing. The rule of thumb we use is that if one person can't make it we play on with one of the players controlling 2 PC's for that night. If 2 people can't make it we still have a session but just play one of a selection of board games instead - Talisman, Battle Cars, Risk, Mall of Horror, that sort of thing.

Hope that helps.

[Rainbow Six]

While its an intriguing idea, and would add a very interesting and real twist to a game, I generally don't have children in my games. Not a place I generally want to go given RL circumstances.

I'm the same, I usually avoid having kids in the game as I find it a bit too close to the real world. Funny isn't it, that we have no problem with society being destroyed and devastated and the whole world going to hell in a hand basket, but yet the idea of kids in peril makes us uncomfortable.

Perhaps this is an area where the mindset is influenced by whether one is actively gaming or not...

I haven't gamed for somehere in the region of ten years and if I'm being honest it's highly unlikely that will change in the next ten years. However I do enjoy creative writing, and at the moment my primary outlet for that is T2K. Reading this thread purely from a writer's perspective, I immediately began to envisage various characters that would fit the outlined scenario (I just can't help it doing that - character generation has always been the best part of RP'ing for me). Paul's suggestion just happened to fit in with a few thoughts I had had (not so much the kid specifically, but the idea of an entire family, the head of whom was the senior remaining diplomat so was, nominally at least, in charge).

Maybe the key difference is that as a writer, one ultimately retains full control of all of one's characters...you can determine what level of threat (if any) the eight year old kid - or any other character - is exposed to and what the consequences are, whereas in an RPG many factors are determined at random by the roll of a dice...

Hope that makes sense...and to you guys who are playing any RPG regularly (but especially T2K!) I envy you!

[TiggerCCW UK]

I wasn't intending any citicism of the idea of having a kid in a game Rainbow, and sorry if I sounded that way I know what you mean about the creative control element for writing v gaming as well, and I know that your suggestion was not likely to involve any harm coming to the child. That doesn't come across very clearly reading back over it, but I hope you know what I mean