Twilight:2000-Different Direction

[M-Type]

Hey all, in watching the new season of Falling Skies, I started forming the idea of running a T2k campaign that would run host to an alien invasion in the year 2000, maybe even earlier and breaking up the Twilight War.

I figured I could find some sort of Traveller stuff for either vehicles/equipment/species, as I know there's stuff can links up with v2.2, which I would be running.

Anyone have any good idea on anything I should look at or buy

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I can't remember if it's from Traveller or from 2300AD (I think it's from 2300AD but I'll have to wait till I finish work to check my books), they have a few alien races that are really alien compared to the normal "it looks like a human just different" type.

I'm thinking about the Pentapods specifically because they had a range of human compatible bio-tech that could leave the Players thinking "I don't care what benefits it has, I am NOT putting that thing on my face!"

2300AD used to be called Traveller 2300 but got a name change because it doesn't actually relate to the Traveller universe but being a GDW game, it has some familiar stats and some that are close enough to enable some easy changes to suit the Twilight 2.2 rules.

P.S. I just realized, the Dark Conspiracy game probably has plenty of material you could use and again being a GDW game, it's rules are the same as T2k 2nd edition. The main rules book even has a small section on converting from T2k to Dark Conspiracy.

[Targan]

The Kafers from T:2300 would make great alien invaders and there are lots of pictures and stats available for their weapons, vehicles and equipment.

[M-Type]

The Kafers do look like a good source. The Pentapods sound like they could work too, as the players could begin to adapt and try to use their technology against them as the campaign progresses, especially if it's compatible with humans.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Some of the Dark Conspiracy equipment could be interesting, specifically the gear in the Dark Tek equipment book (ignore the artwork, most of it is really, really, really bad!)

There's some alien items that have an interesting side effect for humans - if you use them, they have a cost, they require the user to provide lots of their own body energy and this must be replaced, typically by eating x-number of kilograms of meat...
Except that the meat has to be raw... and fresh...

Or they make the user more open to mind-control from the aliens.
I'll have to wait till I get home to check the books for specific details but if you don't want to wait, you can get the books as PDFs through places like DriveThruRPG for a reasonable price.

[Adm.Lee]

I'm not familiar with DC, but I used to like 2300AD a lot. I'd say you really want to use the Kaefers, they're plenty scary.


2300AD, the 2nd edition, was very close to T2k v2.2. There is a new edition out this year, but that uses the Mongoose edition of Traveller rules (pretty close to Classic Traveller).

[M-Type]

Took a peek at the sneak peak of Darktek on RPGnow. Looks useful. I could have it as humanoid alien race with this bio-technology. Then it could be compatible with humans after a "gestation period" or "evolution cycle" or something.

The Pentapods stuff was out of this world, literally. That re-breather crab-squid thing No thanks :P

[StainlessSteelCynic]

...The Pentapods stuff was out of this world, literally. That re-breather crab-squid thing No thanks :P

You know, that was pretty much my reaction when I read about it. Sure it's useful but DAMN it's creepy and it reminds me of Aliens just a little too much

[weswood]

Every now and then I go through a phase where I want to be an author and try to come up with some ideas. Here's my alien invasion idea:

Primary alien race has been spying on Earth for years, at least decades. While this info gathering is taking place, the aliens are putting together an invasion fleet. Said fleet contains at least 12 big ass ships, probably more. The fleet moves to Earth's solar system, parks in an orbit on the opposite side of the sun from eath. At least 2 "factory" ships break out of the fleet, hit some asteroids, mine asteroids and manufacture the various assault craft needed.

The main fleet is keeping out of earth's view by orbiting the sun on the same path/speed as earth. The majority of the assault forces have been in deep sleep until now.

There are two alien races involved, the "masters" and the "grunts". The masters are the fleet crew and the officers of the assault force. The grunts are basic cannon fodder. Instead of transporting the millions of needed grunts God knows how far across the galaxy, I thought it would be easier to have some breeder stock in stasis sleep and awakened just prior to the invasion. I wanted a race that was quick breeding and quick to grow to adulthood and at least smarter than a rock. Pigs fit the profile but pigs can't carry weapons, so in my mind I crossed pigs with humans to come up with the grunt race....And ended up with D&D orcs. Okay, whatever, works for me anyway. Breeder orcs awake, put to work. My space orcs grow to young adulthood in app 5 years, I gave the fleet 20 years hidden to grow armies and for the factory ships to produce assault craft.

Assault begins. The fleet, consisting of 10 primary battle craft, is assigned 1 ship per continent. 7 continents, 3 primaries are reserve. My storyline didn't include T2K so the first thing the masters do is drop a series of nukes across the world, set to airburst and wreck the power grid and infrastructure. After the nukes, kinetic energy weapons -barely guided rocks- strike major military bases. The aliens wait 3 months for the mass deaths caused by starvation, disease and anarchy created by no electricity, very few vehicles and no way to move tons of food off the farms and into sities.

Then they drop. Here's where things might seem goofy to some. My brain just doesn't alway work normal. The main forces are dropped from orbit on giant eggs. Some type of super ceramic shell that will stand up to atmospheric entry burn and not crack on landing. Of course there will also be space to earth dropships and air/space assault craft but fewer of these. I just like the idea of some poor yokel standing in his field and sees a meteor shower crashing and house sized eggs land. Hiding in the tree line watching these giant eggs crack and hatch and out comes....

Giant mechanical insects. I didn't want to go with standards wheeled and tracked vehicles for my aliens, so I went with mechanical insects. Giant spiders would be the armored personnel carriers, scorpions for main battle tanks, mosquitoes and wasps for troop and assault helicopters. Birds- primarily raptors, hawks and eagles, take place of jet fighters. Large cargo aircraft would be normal (futuristic) craft.

Leadership positions and all the vehicle crewmen would be of the master racer. My master race ended up being based on drow elves from AD&D. They've always been my favorite bad guys and they've always used goblin races as slaves.

The three reserve primary battle ships are all drow, better armed and armored than the general fleet orcs. They're used in trouble spots.

My small arms ended up being electo magnetic railguns shaped like crossbows. Smaller versions are carried as sidearms. The drow are armored and have helmets that look like full face motorcycle helmets while my space orcs are generally unarmored. I haven't worked out how they're armed.

Not for everybody's taste but sounds fun to me.

[M-Type]

That's crazy. In a good way. I decided to go with the Kafers, bought the sourcebook. Started converting their vehicles to T2k v2.2 stats. My plan is that since they see humanity as their mythical "boogeyman", they're attacking Earth as a preemptive strike, to try and rid the universe of them.

They just come smack-down into the middle of a broiling world, two steps from WWIII.

And they really enjoy a "good fight", so I feel like they won't nuke humans before they land, but instead challenge them with their military might. If/when humans become a REAL problem, they'll resort to nuclear bombing.

I also thought that they might attack weapons silos and manufacturing facilities, but leave population centers alone because of their nature revolving around "troops" and others.

The more people alive, the better the fight y'know

EDIT: I've been using Random.org's geographic coordinate random generator to decide on some initial landing zones. The 'winner' so far North Africa/Middle East. Might have to incorporate some RDF in there!

[mikeo80]

Nice!!!

I especially like the idea of Orcs as your "grunt" force and drow as your "Special Forces".

Eggs from the sky. Not so far fetched. Heinlen's immortal Starship Troopers used an "egg" to get the MI from orbit to planet. Multiple layers, self ablating to take care of heat issues. Yours are probably a little bit bigger...so what. Idea works for me.

Depending on size of invasion force, Earth is pretty much screwed based on your scenario. Sounds a lot like the movie Independance Day. Except bad guys use nukes and kinetic warheads vs. ray guns.

Earth is going to need some kind of "Ace up the sleeve" to survive this....

A group I played with toyed with an idea of invaders in TMP universe...Morrow was one of the last, organized forces left. And it is not truly military in nature....

Any Who.....

I want to see more!!!

My $0.02

Mike

[stg58fal]

Weswood, interesting idea. I like it.

[M-Type]

Long post ahead

Alright, the tallies are in. Here's the list of kafer Zones and accompanying Landing Sites:

TF-Africa:
Latitude: 30.30551, Longitude: 22.72491 (Libya)
Latitude: 17.71649, Longitude: 23.65413 (Chad/Sudan border)
Latitude: 10.04314, Longitude: 31.48368 (Sudan/South Sudan border)
Latitude: 28.03690, Longitude: 30.32798 (Egypt)
Latitude: 29.53853, Longitude: 25.39280 (Egypt)
Latitude: 24.64701, Longitude: 21.95893 (Libya)
Latitude: 9.83741, Longitude: 50.09875 (Somalia)
Latitude: 9.37103, Longitude: 46.96373 (Somalia)
Latitude: 2.45910, Longitude: 18.59487 (Congo)
Latitude: 28.72209, Longitude: -3.60839 (Algeria)
Latitude: 14.17226, Longitude: 7.15210 (Niger)
Latitude: 7.69726, Longitude: 33.38167 (South Sudan/Ethiopia border)
Latitude: 15.06227, Longitude: 3.39281 (Mali/Niger border)
Latitude: 24.80019, Longitude: 16.40162 (Libya)
Latitude: 8.60560, Longitude: -1.41711 (Ghana)
Latitude: -33.51074, Longitude: 18.45996 (South Africa)

TF-Antarctica:
Latitude: -81.81271, Longitude: -33.76586 (Antarctica)
Latitude: -84.02254, Longitude: -133.87114 (Antarctica)
Latitude: -85.22012, Longitude: -33.06584 (Antarctica)
Latitude: -80.34345, Longitude: 33.16060 (Antarctica)
Latitude: -82.16520, Longitude: 5.49866 (Antarctica)
Latitude: -70.73540, Longitude: 90.76352 (Antarctica)

TF-Indian Ocean/South Pacific:
Latitude: -31.16759, Longitude: 119.08155 (Australia)
Latitude: 16.28864, Longitude: 99.49356 (Thailand)
Latitude: 19.16922, Longitude: 79.42678 (India)
Latitude: -15.86917, Longitude: 127.15646 (Australia)
Latitude: -19.88341, Longitude: 121.95495 (Australia)

TF-Middle East:
Latitude: 45.94177, Longitude: 69.81704 (Kazakhstan)
Latitude: 39.51683, Longitude: 63.91462 (Uzbekistan)
Latitude: 44.56383, Longitude: 60.04057 (Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan border)
Latitude: 39.32952, Longitude: 62.08549 (Turkmenistan)
Latitude: 18.32606, Longitude: 43.63435 (Saudi Arabia)
Latitude: 39.35482, Longitude: 67.05784 (Uzbekistan)
Latitude: 19.33118, Longitude: 45.09730 (Saudi Arabia)
Latitude: 31.17852, Longitude: 73.02840 (Pakistan)
Latitude: 35.16016, Longitude: 66.26751 (Afghanistan)

TF-North America:
Latitude: 64.67088, Longitude: -158.67668 (Alaska)
Latitude: 39.12533, Longitude: -103.52299 (Colorado, US)
Latitude: 35.37953, Longitude: -109.42933 (Arizona, US)
Latitude: 47.00874, Longitude: -81.70060 (Ontario, Canada)

TF-North Atlantic:
Latitude: 71.64703, Longitude: -21.77599 (Greenland Coast)
Latitude: 58.33981, Longitude: -4.77477 (Northern UK)
Latitude: 58.33981, Longitude: -4.77477 (Northern UK)
Latitude: 54.10364, Longitude: -0.48261 (UK)
Latitude: 68.33370, Longitude: -34.56636 (Greenland)
Latitude: 78.40506, Longitude: -22.43946 (Greenland)

TF-Russo/Asia:
Latitude: 60.99247, Longitude: 115.69902 (Russia)
Latitude: 36.66270, Longitude: 121.30036 (China)
Latitude: 59.31081, Longitude: 106.47137 (Russia)
Latitude: 23.06051, Longitude: 120.31345 (Tiawan)
Latitude: 54.00312, Longitude: 157.78873 (Kamchatka)
Latitude: 37.42400, Longitude: 108.89143 (China)
Latitude: 47.08324, Longitude: 40.86853 (Russia)
Latitude: 33.47646, Longitude: 100.74075 (China)
Latitude: 58.01858, Longitude: 90.01667 (Russia)
Latitude: 45.36790, Longitude: 103.74632 (Mongolia)
Latitude: 48.49300, Longitude: 91.12623 (Mongolia)
Latitude: 34.70280, Longitude: 108.90575 (China)
Latitude: 58.99492, Longitude: 128.22900 (Russia)
Latitude: 38.89846, Longitude: 100.42309 (China)
Latitude: 29.23262, Longitude: 89.20704 (China)
Latitude: 38.25517, Longitude: 90.84879 (China)
Latitude: 66.59919, Longitude: 78.43736 (Russia)

TF-South America:
Latitude: -32.18313, Longitude: -63.87699 (Argentina)
Latitude: -14.51724, Longitude: -68.76138 (Bolivia)
Latitude: -46.45255, Longitude: -74.55375 (Chile)
Latitude: 8.55332, Longitude: -63.35993 (Venezuela)
Latitude: -34.89654, Longitude: -65.24072 (Argentina)
Latitude: -21.56322, Longitude: -45.79673 (Brazil)
Latitude: -5.70830, Longitude: -78.65820 (Peru)
Latitude: -15.72970, Longitude: -74.49838 (Peru)
Latitude: 0.90667, Longitude: -79.04195 (Ecuador)
Latitude: -24.73065, Longitude: -53.95693 (Paraguay)
Latitude: -2.18486, Longitude: -63.19453 (Brazil)
Latitude: -6.24561, Longitude: -52.93872 (Brazil)

They're kind all over the place. Any ideas on troop movement/base placement you can think of Also: first time in history the US isn't invaded by aliens :P

The Kefar vehicle stats I worked out are pretty good, their 'bugbuses', 'crawlers', and 'jeeps' are relatively equal to human vehicles in armor, but their tanks are above and beyond. It'll keep the players from trying to charge a tank head-on if they get an Abrams. Or three. Their hover-tanks though, so I gave them low suspension 'armor' so to include the tactic of knocking out the anti-grav generators and grounding the lumbering beasts.

[Panther Al]

Is it just me or did Europe make out OK in the landing lotto


Looks like while Russia and most of the rest of the world get stomped, Europe (and to a lesser degree) the US is doing alright.

Pity about England - they got landed on by both feet...

[M-Type]

Yeah, I just kinda hit 'Pick Coordinates' and logged it anytime it landed on something that wasn't water. Which was a lot, all things considered

I'm building a Google Map with all the locations marked. I'll have to share it when I finish it.