31 Questions for Barking Alien - Question 13

Whoa, Question 13 falls on a Friday the 13th? Sooo spooky! Except I don't have any specifically spooky questions. Bummer. Oh wait, I do have something awesome though...

Activate...The Omega 13!

Question #13 comes from Carl Stark, who Never Gives Up and Never Surrenders!

What RPG system would work best for a Galaxy Quest one-shot or campaign?

The YouTube channel RedLetterMedia recently featured Jack Quaid (Huey on THE BOYS and the voice of Boimler on Star Trek: Lower Decks) as a guest for a video discussing Galaxy Quest, which is apparently one of Jack's favorite films. It's very funny and if you're a fan of the movie, of Jack's, or RedLetterMedia's material I highly recommend checking it out.

It immediately got me reminiscing about the times I've run Galaxy Quest RPG games, including looking through my old notes. This question popped up in my email the next day. Kismet!

It's a hell of a thing.

On to the subject at hand...like Jack Quaid, I LOVE this movie. It is definitely one of my all time favorites and as I mentioned, I've run both a short campaign and a few one-shots of Galaxy Quest over the years and honestly it's some of my best work and the most fun I've had as a GM. The trifecta of Science Fiction + Comedy + Star Trek Parody/Homage is simply made for me. It's also an IP and I do love me some IP gaming. 

The system I've used in the past has been my modified version of Teenagers from Outer Space by R. Talsorian Games, which I refer to as 'Advanced TFOS'. The main difference is that I switched the D6 for a D10. Additionally, I added special abilities for each of the roles on the ship - Commander, Doctor, Engineer, Operations, Pilot, Science Officer, and Security/Extra - and character types such as Feature Alien (originally Token Alien), Background Alien, and Prodigy. I go into more detail on this homebrew in these three posts:

It's a Hell of a Thing

By Grabthar's Hammer, We Live to Tell the Tale

This Fine Ship, This Fine Crew

If I were going to run Galaxy Quest today, I might not use the same system (more on that in a moment) but I would definitely incorporate the special abilities I attributed to each 'Job' or ship's position. Those unique capabilities, such as the Commander's 'Overdramatis Persona' and Security's 'Glorified Extra', have been lauded by my players and blog readers alike as the key to making a Galaxy Quest game feel like the Galaxy Quest movie. 

What set of rules would I use if not my variant of TFOS? Well, there are actually a lot of options. I've considered using Starships and Spacemen, Far Trek, or even Star Trek Adventures.

While it may seem strange to suggest Star Trek Adventures, it being 'too close to the source material' as it were, keep in mind that STA has a published 'Lower Decks' supplement. It is certainly possible to use this system to facilitate a comedic campaign. I've used it to run a Lower Decks game as well as The Orville, so theoretically it would seem appropriate for Galaxy Quest. The role abilities I mentioned could become Talents I suppose and Momentum might be renamed 'Fanmail' or 'Star Power'. Threat can be 'Interference', as in interence from the studio execs. 

A note: When I've run Galaxy Quest previously, I've done so with the assumption that the PCs are characters living in the universe of the mock TV series. I don't directly incorporate the Meta nature of the characters being played by actors on a show but treat it the way most people treat playing a Star Trek or Star Wars RPG. 

However, outside of the events happening in-game the players and I have joked about the actors, episodes, writers, and the special effects budget for the series. I would describe it by saying that during 'Time Out's we are aware its a television program and during 'Time In' we are unaware of that and it's the 'real world' for the PCs. 

Honestly, after all this recent discussion about the film I decided to watch it again and damn it holds up perfectly. I'd really love to run it again if given the opportunity. 

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Barking Alien

Slippin', Slippin', Slippin' Into The Future

Yesterday FOX Television released a trailer for a new Science Fiction Comedy-Drama created by, and starring Seth MacFarlane. It's called The Orville, named for the Planetary Union exploratory starship whose crew is the focus of the series.

Take a look.

Is it wrong that I'm already working out the game mechanics and adventure ideas for an 'Orville' campaign? 

No. No it is not. Before I get into that...

I'm pretty impressed with what I am seeing. Although I'm not a huge fan of MacFarlane's, I enjoyed the early seasons of Family Guy, and American Dad, and I found the humor in the trailer to work for him - and for me - even if it isn't lose-your-breath hilarious.

What was far more intriguing was the universe they are putting together - a definite parody/homage to Star Trek, but getting right a lot of the Space Opera tropes the recent efforts have gotten wrong.

This looks fun, features neat looking tech, cool spaceships, and interesting, genre appropriate aliens (including a gelatinous crewmember, and a weird, water dwelling, Muppet snake-worm-thing - haven't seen that in Star Trek). I like that the female alien security chief has seriously formidable super strength, and that the big alien Bortus is shown in command of the ship during a space battle at some point. Add in a robot crewmember who looks classic 60s-70s Sci-Fi robotic, and I'm totally sold.

Now back to gaming it...

My very first thoughts after seeing the trailer were, 'How best could I run this as a game?', and 'What system says, 'The Orville'?

Obviously I could simply adapt an existing game such as Starships & Spacemen (which this show basically is), the recently released Retrostar (that'd be neat), or even my old homebrew Galaxy Quest RPG.

At the same time, I'm getting a vibe off the show that a better approach might be a hybrid. It seems like it has funny characters, but a fairly serious premise. I am looking at something crunchier, and more serious than my Galaxy Quest rules, but at the same time lighter, and more - I don't know, 'wacky' maybe - than Starships & Spacemen.

I have some ideas rolling around in my head already. I'll develop them a little further, and see where it takes me. If anything pans out, I'll share them with you guys. If you have any ideas, please pass them on to me.

Looking forward to the adventures of the USS Orville, and whatever they inspire.

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Barking Alien

In The Works

Whoah. I got a lot to talk about.

I'm not going to dump it all into this one post, but suffice to say there are some interesting games on my horizon. Let's cross our fingers, and hope they work out.

Coming down the pipeline we've got...

The Masked Age '66

Bell-Bottoms, Tie Dye, The Beatles, Vietnam, Gemni 8, Luna 10, Star Trek, The Monkees, Capes, Masks, and Superpowers!

Using a doujinshi (self-published small press) Japanese tabletop RPG about Western-style Superheroes, I am going to run a campaign for 'Dan's Group' set in New York City, NY with an in universe starting date of March 11, 1966!

The premise will start out as a classically Silver Age Superhero romp, with spandex clad villains and crazy capers, then slowly introduce the trials, tribulations, and turmoil of the late 60's.

I'm really looking forward to this and already think the [PC] characters are fantastic. They lend themselves easily to both action packed comic book adventures and the possibilities of deeper pathos.

Next...

I have two ideas for my next RPG project with my Barking Alien Gaming Group. Before I talk about them, I need to update you all a little on what's been going on with them.

As it stands, I haven't run anything for them or with them in over a month. I ran a one-shot/test game of Star Wars Traveller* and while it went over pretty well and I definitely felt the system worked, it didn't really inspire me the way I was hoping it would.

I could fall back on regular Traveller again and honestly a part of me is tempted to do so, another stronger part of me wants to do something different.

Different, as readers of this blog may know by now, is difficult with the Barking Alien Group. Everything is a little harder to run with this group than I feel it should be. Many, many times I've assumed that it's me but I know it's not only me. As a matter of fact, one of the players let me know quite clearly it definitely isn't just me.

Anyway...I've taken enough time off from the group and I really want to get back to a regular game with them so I've come up with two concepts...

Wares Blade

You want different from Traveller? I got different from Traveller!

Wares Blade, the Japanese TRPG set in a world of Medieval Fantasy and Giant Robots is a favorite of mine that I have not run in a long time. I'd love to get an ongoing campaign of Wares Blade going and I think the group is a good fit as many of them are into Anime/Manga (though not necessarily Mecha Anime/Manga)**.

Space Opera Adventure / Comedy

I have a really fun idea I'm having trouble locking down.

I am seeing a game heavily inspired by the French comic book krrpk, the Anime Space Dandy, and the games Hunter Planet, Star Frontiers, Starships and Spacemen, and Teenagers from Outer Space.

I'm thinking of a group of space adventurers who perform some sort of job (maybe explorers, maybe salvage, maybe they're Galactic Patrol) with a slight tongue-in-cheek nature to the whole thing. Kind of like my old Galaxy Quest game but not exactly.

I can see it clearly but I'm having a little trouble putting it into a pitch. I think once I can explain what the PCs will be doing I will have a better idea of how to 'sell it'.

OK, off to work. Expect to see more on these and other subjects very soon.

Ta-ta for now!

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Barking Alien

* More Star Wars Traveller posts are going to be dropping out of hyperspace in the very near future. I am also hoping to incorporate material from the upcoming Rogue One film when more information on it is released.

** Which in my opinion is un-Japanese the way not liking Superheroes is un-American. That's the most political any post of mine will ever be

The RECESS Report - Part II

There will be a bit more recap-i-ness coming up after this post and then, onward to some new ideas.

I was only able to talk to a few of my fellow GMs at RECESS and all but for the briefest of  moments. However, one mini-conversation in particular bares sharing but again, not until the recaps are over.

Now you've got something to look forward to and a reason to return to Barking Alien.  Aren't I a clever pooch.

***

Following the Muppets RPG session I went to lunch with my girlfriend Jenn, her friend and hopefully now mine Lisa and my good buddy and GM of our current Hunter X Hunter campaign, Ray. Lunch was good, the beer I had was surprisingly tasty and I was ready to return to the frontlines. The ladies left us to do their own thing and Ray and I went back in to RECESS, he to his game (He ran Marvel Heroic) and me to mine...GALAXY QUEST!

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'A Riddle, Wrapped In A Mystery, Inside An Enigma'

***

Taking in a little of R&R over at a Thermian Space Station while their vessel underwent some important repairs and upgrades, the commander and crew of the NSEA Daring, NTR-6269, receive an emergency request from the station's Chief Administrator.

It seems the Thermians have intercepted a weak and continually fading distress call from the NSEA cruiser Vindicator. The Vindicator, commanded by our own commander's long time rival, is a tough and powerful ship. What could cause it's CO to call for help?

Highlights!

First - AWEsome Characters!

The Commander was played by my good friend Andy who I know through the group I gamed with and ran for over at my FLGS, The Compleat Strategist. His character, Commander Thaddeus Shaw, was a almost a cross between Futurama's Zap Brannigan and Ben Stiller in Zoolander. He seemed to have the miraculous ability to slip out of his NSEA uniform and into a floor length, velvet robe, complete with martini in hand, and back again in the blink of an eye.

The Science Officer was played by a great guy named Ed who I got the chance to game with at my first RECESS. He played the Security Chief in a game of Starships And Spacemen run by the incomparable E.T. Smith. Here, in the Galaxy Quest game, he did not disappoint.

In addition to being the Science Officer, he was also the Token Alien. A member of the Cerebellian species, his name "To you would be a stream of unintelligible static. Do not try to say it, you do not have the parts. Call me Primus." To say Primus was pompous and full of himself and his vast intellect would be an understatement. He was hilariously, gratingly intelligent. Any time anyone said pretty much anything, Ed would reply, "Yes. I know."

The Pilot was played by a fellow named Don and he worked out a bit of backstory on the actor playing his character, Lt. JG Clive Britten. Originally a popular actor on the British version of 'Galaxy Quest', where he played the Commander, the actor was let go when budget constraints eventually forced the BBC to cancel the show. Now, getting this second string part on the American version, with its better special effects but weaker writing (heheh, so British), the actor has turned to smoking up a bit and trying recreational pharmaceuticals. This last bit has been worked into the character of Clive Britten, an ace pilot hooked on 'Space Drugs'.

A really nice and interesting guy named Will played The Doctor. Will, it turns out, is the boyfriend of Emi, who was in the morning Muppets game. Will played Old Hock, an old country doctor with a preference for moonshine, banjo music and Kentuky Blue Grass underneath his feet. He had replaced a section of the floor in his Med Lab with soil and grew a mini lawn, "Right 'thar on the gol-durn spaceship."

I say Will was interesting because he did several things that impressed me. Most notably, his boisterous, 'Southern Redneck' accent was hysterical and nothing at all like his regular voice which was mellow and subdued. Also, he stated that this was only the 4th or 5th RPG session he had ever participated in. None of his previous games included any form of D&D, so I took a liking to the guy right away (snark!). Furthermore, he felt by creating this neat character, he also created a situation where he didn't interact with the other characters or the adventure very much. Old Hock didn't want to leave his comfort zone and sure as hell thought all this other folks on board were plum crazy. He thought that he may have designed him 'wrong' for the adventure.

I told he that if he was having fun, it wasn't wrong. We make the characters we want to play because before we sit down (especially at RECESS) we really don't know what kind of adventure it's going to be exactly. On the other hand, if you think it would be more fun to get more involved, find a way.

He honestly thanked me, we talked a bit more and I must say, it was a great experience to feel like I helped a new gamer find their gaming zen as it were. He eventually opted to join in by helping get a Shuttlepod over to this alien object we found floating in space. The object absorbed energy from starships but Old Hock had, in the ship's docking bay, an old solar sail shuttle that might be able to get around the issue. He also had some ideas, modified by the all knowing Science Officer, on how to vent oxygen to move the shuttle with resorting to powering up the systems. We imagined his shuttle was held together by duct tape and baling wire. It had a gun rack and an old confederate flag draped over one of the bunks in the back. It was referred to a few times as 'The General Lee'.

Almost forgot, Old Hock was also The Prodigy. What Geordi LaForge has for sight, Old Hock has for hearing. Large headphone like domes with TV antennae sticking out cover his ears enabling him to hear everything from a tiny pin drop to the subspace wake creating by an enemy starship hiding behind the fourth moon.

The Engineer was Shayara 'Zero-Gee' Jones, a firecraker of a young woman played by a firecracker of a dude named Floyd. No one asks why they call her 'Zero-Gee' and she ain't telling. Lots of great Technobabble from Tech Sgt. Jones, who was so in tune with her ship she could feel a power coupling loosen on 'A' Deck while walking through the cargo hold on 'U' Deck. There appeared to be a bit of a rivalry between the Engineer and the Science Officer to see who was smarter and more knowledgeable about NSEA technology and Sci-Fi physics.

Finally, where would Galaxy Quest be without the Glorified Extra, Security Chief Harkin. Yes, he got a name! Actually he did so well, the other players voted him Ensign Harkin by sessions end! With one hit point but jacked up combat skills, this brave and stalwart Crewman (played by a nice guy named Hans) saved the Vindicator with a well timed barrage of Pulse Missiles launched into a time travel slingshot effect that enabled the Daring to save her sister ship and then arrive to warn the Vindicator before it got into trouble in the first place.

Ridiculous you say? What part of 'Sci-Fi-Space-Opera-TV-Show' did you not understand?

In the end, the bizarre space artifact, named 'The Black Spot' by our Science Officer (even though it is not actually black. Nor a spot), turned out to be a manned satellite/space station of an alien species who were merely studying the region of space where the satellite had been placed. With the help of the Doctor, Ensign Harkin made first contact with the sexy, female alien captain before the Commander moved in and presumably made second, third and perhaps even fourths contact with her.
 
Great game, many, many laughs and a wonderful group of guys. I may run this again next RECESS, although I am not sure as there are a number of other things I want to try. We shall see.

***

A lot of inspiration on a good number of topics lately so, more to come.

If you're not hanging out with the cool kids on Google +, come round, take a load off and I'll put on a pot of coffee so we can talk.

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Barking Alien

And The Children Shall Lead Them

I wanted to take a quick break from the Star Trek entries to catch you all up on some updates of other things going on here at Barkley's Den.

My Champions campaign is ending, with the first of the 'two-parter' finale already completed last Saturday. We are skipping this coming Saturday as my friend and player Ray will be attending GenCon. And I am not jealous at all. Nope. Not one bit. I...oops. Seem to have broken my third stress ball.

In all honesty I am happy to see this campaign end, before it got to the point where I was really disliking it. I went back and read my accounts of the early part of the campaign and then compared those posts to the ones related to the latter half and you can clearly see...things changed. I think I will hold off from Superhero gaming for a bit, at least with the current group dynamic. It's a shame. I am still a huge fan of Supers games and this one had so much coolness that I didn't get to.

My amazing girlfriend Jenn (no, seriously, she is amazing. I am amazed.) has agreed to give gaming a try. The introductory game of choice? Faery's Tale Deluxe! Didn't I tell you she's amazing?

***

The main focus of today's post is an update on the RPG/Storytelling class summer program I continue to teach on Sundays in Brooklyn.

For this particular summer session, I wanted to focus on something a bit more light-hearted and humorous but more importantly, to teach the kids about cooperation and teamwork. Now it has been working...for the most part...but I am up against the mentality of 3rd-to-6th graders, some of whom are related. Having trouble with your cousin outside of the game means you don't want to help him in the game.

One lad in particular has a tendency to be a bit troublesome and self-centered, although strangely enough, he didn't act that way at all when he was a Starship Captain in a Starships & Spacemen one-shot I did with the kids a ways back. There he was fantastic,. letting each person voice their opinion, taking everything into account and going with the choice that best solved the problem at hand and benefitted the crew and ship as a whole.

It took some time, I had to get all 'tough teacher' on him, followed up with extra homework and then a little one-on-one conversation but I did finally find out what the issue really was. He was indeed having issues with his cousin (another player/student in the class). In the end, I think we worked out an understanding, even if everything may not be completely squared away.

I don't know that I will never see the same bad behavior again but I honestly believe he'll think about it before doing something in the game that hurts his allies (who are, in truth, his friends) or stops the game from being fun. He's a good kid, one of my favorites but like all of us at his age, he's got a lot to learn about life and growing up. Luckily he's got time.

I think I really like this teaching thing. Who knew? I sure didn't. I despised school. But then again, none of my teachers used RPGs to try to teach us stuff.

I'd love to get back to that Starships & Spacemen idea with this class. Not only would it be fun but I wonder if I could make each planet a mini-lesson on a different subject. Ooh. Wonder if that would work with my regular gaming group. They could use it...

***

Also, I wanted to acknowledge a few happenings, both joyous and sorrowful, that have occurred within the last month or so.

GenCon is this week! AHHH! I cannot go (weep) but my good buddy Ray will be. I am going to try for next year. If my business is as slow next year as it is this year it should be no problem to get the time off.

Congratulations NASA on the successful landing of the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars. Nice work ladies and gentlemen.

While our brains were placing robot explorers on the red planet, our athletes were taking the gold on the green and pleasant isle of England. Kudos to our Olympic participants.

We may be a gun-toting nation of rich people treading on poor people's backs, without money, jobs or a decent health plan but we really do kick ass at the cool, fun stuff don't we? Boo-yah!

On a more serious note...

Rest in peace Joe Kubert, father, teacher and comic book artist and pioneer. The man who taught me nothing's ever easy in Easy.*

Well, looking forward to the weekend! Another session with the kids, a game with my girl and hopefully cool news from the floor of GenCon. In the meantime, more Star Trek RPG talk is on the way!

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Barking Alien

*From the classic DC war comic 'Sgt. Rock and The Easy Company'

My Mind At Warp

Hmm...no responses to my previous post on the intro to my new BattleTech Reborn campaign are a bit discouraging. I was hoping someone out there would tell me if I was hot, luke warm or just plain cold with the lead in to the game's setting and main premise. -Sigh-

The problem with me is that sometimes, when I don't see any reaction or enthusiasm to my ideas, I start to get distracted and drift toward other ideas in hopes that they may wow where the previous one has perhaps failed.

This is especially true when other things are occupying my mind and double-plus-so if they were lurking in the gray matter before the current project even got started.

No, I am not dumping my BattleTech Reborn idea but I am in the 'lull before the season starts', not as excited about it as I was when I came up with it or as I will be when I am ready to start running it. And I will be excited when I am ready to go, of that you can be certain. Right now I am in a holding pattern, trying to complete our current Champions game and prepping for BR but not quite set to launch.

Other things bouncing around the padded room that is the inside of my noggin' are Star Trek-like games and Vegan Pancakes.

When I say Star Trek-like games, I include Star Trek itself of course but what I am really thinking of is Starships & Spacemen (especially E.T. Smith's variant, which I played at RECESS some time back) or my Galaxy Quest games or any number of other alternate 'Trek' themed settings, systems or campaign ideas. I recently read Redshirts by John Scalzi and while I didn't end up liking the book very much, I liked the initial premise and it definitely inspired me to start toying with a pet project I started a while back but haven't looked at again in a while.

I had this idea of mixing the aforementioned Starships & Spacemen game with the resource management elements of Meikyuu (Make You) Kingdom, the Japanese TRPG where you play the ruler and court of a small nation who go adventuring in dungeons to build up the coffers and expand your country.

One of the neat ideas in Meikyuu Kingdom is that each PC has a number of minions, little more than pips on his or her character sheet, that serve the sole purpose of adding bonuses to certain rolls the PC makes or dying in the PCs stead. For example, if you are attacked for 5 hit points you can put three of these minions in front of you and shave the damage done to 2.

Imagine that in a Star Trek-like setting. Each PC can beam down with a number of extras that are pretty much there just to die when the group is caught in a cave in or attacked by an Altairian Flint-Eel or whathaveyou. Perhaps a system could be put into place that differentiates them as Science Extras, Security Extras, etc. Maybe you can use your experience points to bump one up from Extra to Reoccurring Character and get a more useful henchman.

I really like this concept and I think I'm going to put some work into it on the side while I force myself to work on BattleTech Reborn...ooh...did I say that out loud? I didn't really mean it. I just...so...Vegan Pancakes...

By Vegan I don't mean the pancakes originate on a planet orbiting the star Vega. Those are much more difficult to make and digest if you are not a solinium based life form. No, see, my girlfriend is Vegan and I love to cook and I make awesome pancakes so now I want to make ones she can eat and enjoy. This may be a tougher task than getting my current gaming group to agree on a single course of action but then again I have never been one to take the easy route when it comes to creative problem solving.

Wish me luck...in all endeavours. Hey, if you're already wishing you might as well...

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Barking Alien

Not Quite Feeling It

Yet.

That is, I am not quite feeling the Traveller campaign I am preparing to run.

I am in one of my moods. I am incredibly inspired, partly thanks to a new relationship, partly because I just finished my campaign at the Learning Center with the kids and I'm looking forward to the summer program. Unfortunately I am also a little unfocused.

I say a little because my head is still in Sci-Fi mode but it isn't really on Traveller.

I've been reading and re-reading InSpace, the rule lite space exploration variant of the game InSpectres which explores the type of 'Big Science Fiction' mysteries found in Solaris, Forbidden Planet and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The new edition of Starships and Spacemen has had the effect of making me look at the original once more, as well as E.T. Smith's super cool update.

Then there's all the IP setting ideas I have, most notably something a big more tongue-in-cheek (after the deadly seriousness of much of our Champions game) such as Red Dwarf or Galaxy Quest (yeah, haven't revisited that in a while).

Anyway, I'm sure I'll come around. In the meantime I do have other things to address and hope to get back to regular posting pretty soon. Maybe it'll help me sort things out.

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Barking Alien

Labor (Day) of Love

I know I promised to begin my series of articles covering my personal take on D&D but I got sidetracked. Yes, yes I still haven't finished my Smurfs RPG either. Sigh.

I am waaay behind schedule. For largely enjoyable reasons I have been extremely busy of late. Real time intrudes upon fun time once more, although these days it brings in own kind of fun as well. In addition, I've been getting the chance to game so often that writing about gaming and sending to the blogosphere has taken a backseat.

Too many good ideas can be just as much of a pain as too few I'm sure, though I rarely have too few so I'll just have to take your word for it. *WinK*. More often then not it's like there's an avalanche of cool concepts in my mind, I'm a terrible skier and there's not a Saint Bernard to be found.



If this Labor Day weekend was any indication of what being buried under awesome game ideas is like, hold your shovels, as it rocks on toast! I got to run two very different games and play another and all were amazing.

On Sunday I ran a game for the Learning Center I mentioned in some of my previous posts. Our original 'campaign' ended and I decided to run a sort of generic Sci-Fi/Star Trek thing based on a super-duper-simplified Starships & Spacemen. I tried to be inspired by E.T. Smith's awesome RECESS game, while at the same time modifying it for use with a younger player unfamiliar with old school game or Star Trek. Not only did it go over really, really well (this time) but the kids (mostly 5-7th graders) were great at it. They had more team work, more effective decision making approaches and more knowledge of the setting then I expected. I was very impressed. We explored two planets, battled an alien monster on one, fought an enemy starship in orbit and then prevented a volcano from wiping out all the animal life on another world. So fun!

Sunday night was the Legend of the Five Rings game run by Erin Palette on Skype. Very cool. I have really good camaraderie with one of the other players and our adventures and misadventures remind me a lot of the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle team of the ol' early 90's Justice League comic (and the later 'I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League' mini-series).

Finally, the Labor Day session of my Champions game was...it was...I don't have the words. Me. I don't have words. It was that good. I tried explaining part of what happened to Erin Palette and I think I mostly just confused her.

It was an 8-hour session, three players and myself and we covered a lot of ground. This was our 9th or 10th session/issue and it dealt with subplots (both major and minor) from earlier sessions including (but not strictly limited to):

The whole team finally unites (sorta), as Jeff/Syphon Zero decides to ally with the other heroes in hopes of capturing the villainous Dr. Helix who he's been after since issue 4 I think.

Marcus/The Power comes up with a pretty clever plan to call out either Dr. Helix, his lackeys or an another major villain who may be working with Helix. While preparations for the sting operation are underway...

The PCs all find themselves in an alternate timeline due to deal Syphon Zero made with a time travelling weapons collector back in issue 5. Actions by the time traveller (one of my ol' NPCs 'The Weaponaire', not really a hero or villain) create an alternate history in which a more controlling and militant approach to handling superheroes creates a Wildstorm-y Authority/Stormwatch feeling version of the campaign world. Only Night Knight knows the original timelines history (a high Presence score but otherwise it's a mystery why he remembers and not others), although Syphon Zero and a few NPCs remember fading bits and pieces.

With the help of an NPC scientist specializing in temporal and dimensional travel, Night Knight is able to uncover what caused the timeline to change but in the process reveals the truth behind one of the settings major mystery/conspiracy situations. The revelation is big but higger is the question, 'what happened after the event that, once altered, created a divergent timeline'?

Meanwhile... (ah, Meanwhile. Don't you just love a good Meanwhile...) the heroes are attacked by Dr. Helix who has under his control Integral (aka Integra), Primal and a psionic powerhouse called Ego. In the correct/original timeline Integra and Primal have been freed of Helix's influence and are allies of Syphon Zero. Here and now, Integra's first move is to try and kill Syphon.

The Power and a few NPCs (Pulse and Overload specifically) try to engage Primal while Omni (Super Psionic NPC and leader of the primary Superhero team) faces off against Ego. Brutal and wild battle. Lots of TK, teleporting and psychic wrestling.

Finally, Omni gets super-pissed when the actions of the villains endanger lives to the point where the heroes need to take capital action against them (Power, Syphon and Silver Sun* kill Primal and Ego using Integra's Intrinsic Field Energy attack using a plan brillantly choreographed by The Power). Just before Ego dies, Omni does the forced mind meld type move with his telepathy that he would never, EVER do in the main timeline. By doing so he discovers Dr. Helix's whereabouts. He telepathically broadcasts it to the team (including the PC heroes).

That's when Night Knight finds the Weaponaire and convinces him to fix the timeline. It takes some fancy wordplay but Night Knight is successful and within moments of Weaponaire's departure into the timestream things return to the previous pre-mishap status quo (at least it seems that way).

Night Knight remembers everything and tell Omni to read his mind to verify. Omni is in shock because of the revelation of the conspiracy I mentioned above as well as his own actions in the alternate timeline.

That is just the tip of the iceberg as far as consequences from this one guys and gals! Crazy stuff went down and even crazier stuff is coming. I can hardly wait.

OK, off to work. Next up, back on target for D&D and Smurfs...

Laters,

AD
Barking Alien

*In some scenes my pal Dave switched to another PC alt he is using from time to time called Silver Sun.

Pigs in Spaaace!

Pigs in Space!

I have been waiting three years, that is, the entire life of this blog, to title a post 'Pigs in Space'. I am not kidding. I'm tearing up over here.




Pigs in Space.

It's the Muppets. It's Star Trek. It's Muppet Star Trek

.

OK, while we try to get my disintegrated best bud into a reintegrator, I, your old pal, cosmic connoisseur and intergalactic diplomat extraordinaire, Bartholomew B. Barkley will guide you through the continuing, thrilling adventures of the Starship Swinetrek...

Why does a Muppets TV series have to be based around the Muppet Theater and putting on a Muppet Show. It doesn't. I know what Adam said before but the truth is these guys are professional actors capable of playing ongoing parts...

"Why thank you Barkley. It's always wonderful to have someone recognize my commanding presence and talent along with my handsomeness."

...for which they've already been typecast, so the harm has been done.

"MmYes, I...Wha?"





Might as well make the best of it.

Now for the best of it, look no further than Pigs in Space.

Imagine this as a set up for an ongoing Muppets RPG campaign...

Pigs in Space: The Next Germination PCs are all members of the all new, upgraded, USS Swinetrek. USS stands for United Swine Ship in my mind. The vast majority of the crew are pigs with the classic command team of the narcissistic Captain Link Hogthrob, the obsessional First Mate Piggy and grandiloquent Dr. Julius Strangepork still in charge of the mission.






However, Adam had some ideas for adding new crewmembers and expanding the bridge slightly. Maybe they could modernize it a tad without going overboard. You'd want to keep it just a bit tacky and B-movie looking to get the right atmosphere.

Each session would be approached like a session of Star Trek, Starships and Spacemen, Star Frontiers or similar Sci-Fi RPG game. As a matter of fact, giving any of these games the Pigs in Space twist would probably be hilarious. I'm thinking one part Muppets RPG, one part Galaxy Quest or Red Dwarf.

The Director, in the form of the omnipresent Announcer, would introduce the adventure, often already in progress. For example, the Announcer might say, "When we last left the Swinetrek, Dr. Strangepork's latest invention has attracted a group of strange Anomalies." The dialog assumes this has already occurred even though this is the beginning of the game and has no bearing on the previous adventure. Strangepork's Performer (Player) should then tell the group what he's invented.





Other characters, Player or Non-Player, could include the command crew of other ships, enemy or allied aliens and perhaps other crew members who are normally 'below deck'. In traditional sci-fi space adventure fashion a token alien or two among the many pig crewmembers would be fun. I think it would even work to have a dog, bear, rat or other animal as long as there aren't too many of them.

Of course a good portion of the sessions would have to revolve around the Muppets' favorite alien planet, Koozebane. Home of the shapeshifting Koozebanian Phoob, the liquid life form known as the Spooble and the mischievous Merdlidops, this place is crawling with strange aliens and potential adventure. Why, it's even possible the SwineFleet now has diplomatic ties with or a permanent base on this wacky, weird world.

I'm thinking of popping over to Koozebane for breakfast. I hear the Phoob is delicious.

Tune in next time for another amazing episode of...Pigs in Spaaace!




Barkley
Barking Alien



Muppet Quotes

First Mate Piggy: [Link's mind in her body] Wha - ? But this is terrible, I can't live my life being you.
Link Hogthrob: [Piggy's mind in his body] You think you've got troubles!
First Mate Piggy: I can't captain the Swinetrek looking like this, though I am kind of cute.
Link Hogthrob: Hey, don't you dare touch you!

Announcer: Is this the end of Pigs in Space?
Crowd: YES!
Announcer: Tune in Next Week when...
Crowd: NO!
Announcer: All right, then don't. See if I care.

Here's A Muppet News Flash!

Something we never saw in the original Muppet Show sketches was 'the rest of the fleet' but there must be a SwineFleet Command or SwineFleet Mission Control. I like the latter name better for some reason.

My apologizes to IX for the liberties taken with the incredibly cool image of a space suited astronaut I found on that blog. I don't know why but the moment I saw it I heard Link Hogthrob's voice saying, "By Golly, it's full of those little twinkley things."



 
 

Best Buy...In

In a recent comment on my blog Zak S. said,

"The new school ethos you represent requires everybody be very serious about the fiction that the game creates."

To which Velaran said in my defense of sorts,

"Plenty of his previous posts would seem to say otherwise. BA seems to like a lot of games across the genre spectrum. 'Fiction'? Saying a game generates 'fiction' (rather than anecdotes or memories, whatever...) sounds kinda fringe 'New School-y', don't it?"

I wouldn't be so quick to discount what Zak S. is saying here. As a matter of fact, he is on to something that is further illustrated by my latest failed attempt at testing out a new campaign idea. I throw fish at porcupines until one sticks. Its frustrating but at least I'm not a fish or a porcupine.

The games I run do require a bit more of a buy-in to the universe and/or genre I'm covering then I think most old school and even some new school GMs ask of their players. In many cases, I don't care if you're familiar with the subject's specifics as long as you 'get' what I (and the rest of the group) are trying to create, a shared world to set our games in.

For example, I've said numerous times that you don't have to be a Star Trek fan to play in one of my Star Trek RPG games. If you are, hurray for you, as you'll love all the Easter Eggs and side references I throw in for guys and gals like us. Rarely will knowledge of a given episode or element be mandatory to accomplish the goals of the adventure/mission.

Its not important that you know DC Comics if I am running a 4-Color Superheroes game, even one set in the DC universe. It is important (vitally so) that you understand you're going to be in a 4-color campaign and not a gritty Iron Age one.

Today, I tried running a modified version of Starships & Spacemen, largely inspired by the one run by E. T. Smith at RECESS in NY. Another major influence however was my desire to get a new side Science Fiction game started and to make sure I've given every Space Adventure game ever made a fighting chance to prove itself. Stars Without Number...you're up next.

Now I did make some changes from Smith's version and the classic incarnation. I tried to expand the game into more 'Next Generation And Beyond' territory since that is the Star Trek style mode preferred by many of my players. At the same time, I wanted to keep the old school mechanics and the Sandbox feel that Smith was so good at portraying in the game I played it. Somehow, none of this worked.

Why? Well for starters, the buy-in price was a bit too high. I'm asking a bunch of new school, tech loving, serious business, setting fans to play an old school, limited gear, slightly tongue-in-cheek*, sandbox style game. Not my best plan ever to be certain.

While the idea of a sandbox game is something that sounds good going in, many of my players**, including and especially my good friend Dave, are setting junkies. They need a good setting to get into a game. Telling them that are going to play a Space Adventure game or a Star Trek like universe gets some nods and "ok"s. Staying your going to run Star Trek, Star Wars, 'canon' Traveller or Galaxy Quest is met with enthusiasm. When I asked, "But you wanted to play in my D&D-But-Not world and that's sort of Sandboxy. How come?" I was told, "All the stories you've told us about it from your old groups make us feel like we know enough to want to play there."

It's not about a licensed world or even a familiar one. Its, for many of them, about a world/universe with a history, theme or overarching idea they can learn and get behind. I can understand where they are coming from to some extent but I do miss the world-build-as-you-go style we use to have in our games.

As Dave put it, "I'm about the setting. Supers is one of my favorite genres but tell me Supers and it doesn't excite me. What kind of Supers? What's the world like? Who are the major players? I need to know a bit more then just the genre to get me pumped."

For the most part this is not true for me. Tell me we're running Supers and I'm excited. I love Superhero games. Tell me we're playing TFOS and I'm beside myself. I sometimes find too much setting stifling. World of Darkness drove me away with that years ago (except Changeling: The Dreaming which is just so cool).

RIFTS is therefore popular while I dislike RIFTS.

What is the best buy-in? How do you balance sandbox and predetermined setting? Can you get players excited about a world without giving away too much of it?

I will ponder this some and we shall reconvene. Until then.

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Barking Alien

*To say tongue-in-cheek may not be quite right. There is however a certain degree of parody felt when playing Starships & Spacemen. You know you're in a no-frills Star Trek.

**Many of my players but not all. Specifically, none of my NJ players or players who are part of that extended group (including my ex-wife Selina). These people are eager to discover and build a setting as the game is played. Having a known setting is fine with them but they excel at contributing to the world building process bit by bit as the campaign progresses.

Far Out Space Nut

I still seem to have Science Fiction gaming very much on the brain.

I have taken to downloading Starships & Spacemen, looking over all my ol' Star Frontiers stuff and generally trying to come up with a way to finish my Aliens & Astrobases project.

None of which seems to be getting me anywhere.

I know what I want. I want fast action, blaster battles, exploring weird planets and meeting strange aliens, operating a starship, messing with psychic powers, robots, a little tactical stuff, a little resource management and some fun PC/NPC interactions. Sounds like a typical Adam game but for some reason I can't put my finger on I'm having difficulty locking down the specifics.

One issue is I think my brain is in one mood and my spirit* is in another. I'm in one of those 'I want to try a new game' modes. That or an old game I haven't played before (which is much harder to find than a new one). I also miss my 'Serious Comedy' games. Oh man I miss those. Galaxy Quest, Ghostbusters...See, here's where Hunter Planet would totally rock! Maybe West End Games' 'Men In Black'. Maybe mix InSpectres with Men in Black.

Madness I tell you. Madness.

On a related note, I have big plans for posting in March that revolve around a project I've worked on on-and-off for the better part of 15-20 years. Its nuts and I doubt I can get anyone to play it but I feel its high time I talked about it so expect something very strange in about a week.

It could be that thinking about this side project is distracting me from the now. It could also be that I am secretly a bit scatterbrained and indecisive.

Anyway, Happy President's Day to all and I'm sure I'll post something more meaning meaty later on.

AD
Barking Alien

I Need My Space - Part 2

Apparently, though comments have gone down, viewership over here at Barking Alien has gone up. For reasons unknown, I had something in the order of 46 page views at 3 am this morning. 3 am? Much as myself, I have to assume that a large part of those who enjoy reading this blog are nocturnal. Well, to the aliens from Pitch Black and Vampires I say welcome. Hope you enjoy the show.

In 1982 I discovered the Star Trek Role Playing Game by FASA during my first excursion to my FLGS. I was 13 years old. It changed my life. Basically.

I won't recount that tale just now as I have already covered it in the past but for those who don't know it it's a fun read if I do say so myself. You can check it out here.

Just a few months before finding the FASA Star Trek game a friend and I had purchased Villains & Vigilantes. Between the two games, D&D got pushed further and further aside in favor of exploring the final frontier and leaping tall buildings. Drudging through yet another dark, dank dungeon had lost its appeal.

Star Frontiers by TSR had also come out around this time and I did purchase it and play it fairly often. Unfortunately for SF, ST existed. Star Frontiers might've gotten more play if there was no Star Trek RPG but there was and it rocked.

Star Frontiers also suffered from a few handicaps. Its alien species were limited (only 3 PC species other than Humans) and came off as a bit silly. The mechanics of the game made actions feel too easy somehow. When compared to the 'Am I going to make it?" percentages of Star Trek, Star Frontiers made everything feel like it was a breeze. Not having my books in front of me I forget why that was. I seem to remember many skills starting at 100%, being brought down by difficulty levels/numbers and than you add percentile bonuses from your attributes. I remember one player having a 110% chance of doing something. I guess that's what all those football coaches are talking about when they ask you to give 110%. Who knew?

After about 82-83' it became 'a thing' for my group and I to experiment and try new games. We played a lot of Space Opera I recall (though for the life of me I'm not sure how. I looked at it again recently when James M. at GROGNARDIA was talking about it and I couldn't make heads or tails of the damn thing). Though the focus was primarily Sci-Fi and Superheroes, comedy games got their fair share of attention as well. For the most part, I wouldn't try or play many Fantasy games until the late 80's or even early 90's. We weren't rich, so we only tried games one guy or another in our group was willing to purchase and few of us were that into Fantasy. That changed a bit when our group expanded and many of my new friends had very different interests.

By 1988-89 the Science Fiction related games (other than Star Trek) I had played or run included...

Cyberpunk, FTL: 2448, Gamma World/Metamorphisis Alpha (we often combined these two), Mekton (love me some Giant Robots), Paranoia, Space Opera, Star Frontiers, Star Wars (WEG D6 and a lot of it!), Starships and Spacemen, Traveller (Gave it a second chance, loved it, still do), Traveller: 2300 (awesome Aliens, only an ok game) and probably a dozen more I don't recall.

When all was said and done...eh, who am I kidding. We never really stopped loving the idea of trying new games. Still and all, Star Trek, Star Wars and Traveller always won the popularity contests in the end.

Which brings me to an interesting observation that I've noted before but feel is very important...

For a good chunk of my time in the hobby of RPGs I've played Sci-Fi and Supers campaigns. These are games that often share a few key elements for me...

1. They are modern or future settings with a greater focus on or importance of laws than traditional Fantasy. Kill a guy, take his stuff, get in really big trouble.

2. The players are often law abiding or they are the law. Again, no killing enemies and taking their stuff. Not so much a rule from the GM, just not in genre unless you're playing the crooked cop.

3. Its not about stuff. Starfleet officers have stuff like Tricorders, Phasers, etc. I don't need your stuff. I got my own stuff. Superheroes don't need stuff. Some are richer than Richie Rich (Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne). For others, why take the bad guy's ray gun when I can shoot rays from my own eyes. End result, no culture of adventuring to gain treasure.

4. No (or rarely any) arguements over whose the leader. In Sci-Fi, the Captain is usually the leader. In Superheroes, whoever best fits the mission is leader. Going into space? Lead the way Silver Surfer-type guy and Green Lantern-type guy. Tracking down a serial killer? What do you think we should do Daredevil-type dube and Batgirl-lady?

5. Easier to explore the milieu when you have a homebase to go back to. For Sci-Fi its usually your ship or a space station. Why wait til '10th level' to have a castle. Start with one that flies around with you to each adventure local. For Supers its your headquarters. No roaming endlessly with no real purpose or sense of community. Side benefit: PCs care about NPCs because they see them all the time. They're part of the neighborhood. They become family.

I veered a bit too much toward talking about Superheroes in this installment then I wanted to but I have been playing both genres so long they often play off each other in my mind. That said, more differences between Sci-Fi and Fantasy (as I see them) in the next post.

Have a Great Weekend!

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Barking Alien

If These Were The Voyages

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending NERDNYC's two-day gaming event/convention known as RECESS.

I had a lot of fun, met some very cool people, and played two very good games. I also discovered some surprising things that struck me as quite amazing considering I've lived in New York all of my life.

First, there is only one real FLGS in the five boroughs that really matters and yet there are still gamers close to my age that don't know about it. I find that mind boggling.

Second, apparently there are a significant number of very attractive and intelligent female gamers in the New York City area. I've known and had the pleasure of playing with quite a few over the years but the sheer number here was stunning. I have to assume that they either fall into the category of the above (not knowing about the Compleat Strategist and hence I've not casually run into many of them), only come out of temporal suspension to go to conventions, or are otherwise normally cloaked to hide their identity (possibly using shape-changing abilities, advanced holographic technology, or telepathic-hypnosis).It all makes perfect sense now.

Third, the internet is a terrible depiction of how the old school and new school interact with each other. While diehards exist on both sides of the fence, I found a lot more people who, like myself, tend to blur the line. Most play the same way they've played for a long, long time and would likely be considered 'Old School' but story and character do matter to them. One fellow said, "I don't want to go all 'Forge'-y. No GM, bizarre cards, or things like that but I do want a story. The hack and slash days are over for me. I've grown up. I want more than that."

Now on to the main though not unrelated topic; A fellow by the name of E.T. Smith ran a game of Starships & Spacemen, which I have to say was absolutely excellent. He brilliantly simplifed and expanded upon the original game, with custom character sheets, starship reference sheets, and a really cool way of depicting Space Combat. Smith made starship operation, not just combat, a real resource management mini-game within the game and it was more fun than I would have imagined. We were limited in what we could do based on power concerns but it made our decisions matter a lot more. Kudos Mr. Smith!

The setting of his 'adventure' (it really wasn't an adventure but more on that in a moment) was Starships & Spacemen's alternate Star Trek-like universe of the Galactic Confederacy; with its logical, green, pointy eared Taurans, blue furred, pacifist Andromedans (which we apparently believed to look like a cross between a Wookiee and Cookie Monster) and the dread Klingon-esque Zangid (who started as swarthy and orange only to be described as giant, angry Oopa Loompa's later on). The session had a feel far more akin to Galaxy Quest than Star Trek but with enough serious adventure and tension to make for fantastic time. If Goblinoid Games is thinking of bringing this classic game back, they could do far worse than to talk to this fellow first before expanding on the game.

One last point, E. T. Smith didn't run an adventure. What he ran was a series of random encounters based on which of several different hexes on a star map we (the PCs) scanned and than went to investigate. As we scanned and more random rolls told him what was in each star system, he started to tie together certain elements of the encounters and soon a plot of sorts made itself known. It was a very Sandbox-y approach that I was incredibly impressed by. I have to say it gave me a new perspective on how to develop stories and adventures for my own Star Trek games. Awesome stuff.

I'm looking forward to going to another of these RECESS events. Sadly I could only go yesterday as I have to work later today.

Until next time, 'Exist For A Extended Period and Do Well'.

 

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Barking Alien