The Cardinal
First Post
...using a hard science fiction setting & GURPS:
On Saturday (March 1st) I've started a campaign that was born from the GURPS Greece / Transhuman Space crossover idea from ITW [all PCs live in the High Arcadia theme park in Mars orbit: and they - and the players - really believe to be in mythic
Greece! I told the players the game would take place in a "Hollywood Mythic Greece" setting: Jason & the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, Xena, Hercules, and every cheap "sandal epic" from the 60s. I even created a yahoo group for this where I posted several dozens Vallejo & Frazetta pics with the right "flavor"] - and it was a blast! It rocked on toast with cheese!
I played this with "open points", i.e. I gave
the players exactly the character they want, without regard to the
final point value of the PC. *I* created all the PCs: I interviewed all the players thoroughly, then I custom-build their dream "Mythic Greece" PCs as a Transhuman Space incarnation. And their character sheets look completely
harmless... (I often build PCs for my players that way, especially for
beginners and for those with a weak grasp of the rules but a complex
character concept: so this method didn't arouse any suspicion)
the PCs (players):
A (27, m)
a once beautiful, strong, and wise young man who was punished for his
hybris by the gods: now he must live in the grotesque body of a
humanoid with the head of a dog, living in a cave surrounded by his
pack. He is still wise and intelligent, but humans fear him, and his
voice sounds like the barks and growls of wild dogs [a
Spartan bioroid with xenosculpting, very high ST (22), and a very powerful implanted infomorph; he owns a self-steering "magic" shield (think Captain America – armored diamondoid hull, responsive, internal repair nanobots, a tiny genius computer, etc.)]
B (26, m)
the centaur Chiron, wise and powerful, teacher of many greek heroes
[a SAI/cybershell combo with IQ15, a bow skill of 20, a complete cyberdoc skill package, and "ointments & leeches" that are medical nanobots]
C (27, f)
a beautiful young woman who is the child of a sphinx and a human:
normally she has only the eyes of a cat, but she can transform at
will into a hideous lion-beast – she works as a thief, sometimes selling worthless fake jewelry to "blessed ones"... [a modified Felicia II bioroid (unlicensed) with highly experimental quadragrafting (from Bio-Tech, but it costs fatigue and cannot stay activated for more than one hour, max. activation time is 2 hours per day) and high bio-tech fur (only short fur)]
D (20, m)
a 8'3'' tall two-headed giant, grandson of Hephaistos, armed with a
strange double-axe (like in D&D3e), and with two pistol crossbows [a
SAI/cybershell combo based on an experimental military design – final ST40, almost none of his former armor (DR24)]
E (32, f)
a former gladiator, now cook [an early Spartan bioroid with lots of
enhancements that suffered brain damage in the field, now
being "recycled" in the theme park; like A he was (illegaly) declared officially dead & bought for cheap by the park, which then erased most of their memories]
F (21, m)
a handsome demigod and son of Ares (hated by Aphrodite who cannot
tolerate that her lover chose a mortal woman over her) who uses only
a simple rope as a deadly weapon [a variant of the Deep Indigo
infiltration cybershell with a SAI with several experimental
coordination programs; also includes Accelerated Reflexes from UT2; the rope is an experimental "smart rope" made out of nanotubes and memetic materials that can change its form and qualities in reaction to electric signal from the androids hands – he even has a supply of "magical black oil" that can repair the rope, or even create a new one...]
G (27, f)
a stunningly beautiful "bishonen" with sex-changing abilities that
works as a kind of "soulcatcher" for the underworld: He has a kind of
lightning-throwing halberd (electrolaser), a living "cloak of souls" (cyberswarm "swarm wear" with chameleon option) and a swarm of deadly
butterflies (devourer swarm) at his command. He also suffers from
strange flashbacks... [this is actually one of the few surviving
Guardian "homo superior" designs from the Pacific War: he has been
heavily modified with combat implants, and a
hermaphromorph modification, so that he won't be recognized yet his
precious DNA pattern is conserved. One of his "fathers" works for the
theme park as the chief of R&D...]
...now, what happened:
All PCs were currently in the "Theben" area of High Arcadia – and with one exception they remembered to have always lived there. They knew all about monsters, humans, the gods, their temples, their all-too-human tempers, and those humans who – while often being quite stupid, foolish, or just plain crazy – were "blessed" by the gods: Those "blessed ones", who sometimes were recognized by the priests and marked with strange shards of amber or crystal that they wore over their eyes, were almost unbeatable in combat, no serious harm ever befell them, and those who denied them their wishes and requests always were sure to regret it...
Then, on a beautiful day, all PCs had the strange experience of animals (sometimes their own!) talking to them: they all heard the same speech about a great doom that would come over the world, and that they would need to visit the nearby "Cave of the Serpent Oracle", if they wanted to save the world from a terrible fate... Only minutes later they all witnessed how the sun turned red (and stopped moving as they soon learned)- chaos and mayhem ensued: a slain cyclop rose again & killed the band of heroes that had just defeated him, "blessed" women were being raped by satyrs, harpies attacked a "blessed one" and hacked out her eyes, etc. etc.
So the PCs all met at the cave: the oracle (a naga) was asleep with her head in the lap of a man who claimed to be an avatar of Prometheus – he told them a wild story about a kind of "war in heaven" which might result in the end of the world, or just eternal slavery for all: unless the PCs would help him storm the Olymp itself! He then performed some magic on them, and gave them some items to aid them on their quest – then he send them to the Silver Sphinx of Corinth to receive further instructions on their course. He told them they would have a maximum of 1-2 days to complete their quest, probably much less, but that his magic would shorten the usual travel times drastically (they had received implants or programs from the park that messed with their time perception – he deactivated them, so that a walk of one mile would no longer feel like a walk of *ten*)
What followed was a harsch and brutal journey through all sections of High Arcadia, including parts of the "Underworld" (tourist "dungeon adventure" areas, and also large service tunnels). It included lots of doubts about Prometheus' motivs, gruesome scenes with out-of-control slaves and demons in Corinth (pleasure models, including some of the SM/Hentai/Tentacle kind), combat with very powerful faceless demons of all kinds (security personnel in various kinds of combat suits, armed with electrolasers, tanglers, stun batons, and riot shields) – including a "boss battle" against *real* monsters (guards in battle suits) before the Acropolis in Athen. From the Acropolis the PCs (still all alive, but some with grieveous wounds) were able to enter the "sky sled" of the gods(thanks to a stolen "amulet" (ID tag) of the chief of the arena in Sparta) and traveled to Mt. Olympos. A strange & scary place, cloaked in flickering dark red lights, where the stars seemed close enough to touch & were in some parts *anyone* seemed to be able to fly... Here they met a wounded Prometheus (actually just an exact twin of the guy from the cave) who told them that they had to flee: things had not gone exactly as planned, and the gods would soon reassert control, more rigid than ever before. He, and some others, had succeeded in freeing some more like the PCs, including a lot of "bodyless souls", but now he could only present them with one choice: stay, let the gods take their memory of the last day, and live in blissful ignorance forever after - or come with him, learn the whole truth about the gods, him, themselves, and the world, but leave their old lives forever behind...
They followed him, all, but angry & paranoid – then they saw from his ship how silent white flashes consumed parts of the Olymp, and how it quickly became a small cylinder in vast blackness behind them..
...the last 90 minutes (including lunch and dinner the session lasted 14.5 hours) of play were spent in a great in-character explanation and discussion session between Prometheus (Phillip Kwan from a radical arm of the BBF) and the PCs: 6 out of 7 players want to play this as a campaign, and yesterday every single player called me on the phone to thank me for maybe my (and their) best rpg session ever. IT WAS %!"§ING GREAT
P.S.: some observations:
1. the point range of the PCs lies somewhere between 400 and 800 pts. – GURPS worked like a charm.
2. the high point value and "bleeding edge" nature of many PC designs leads me to believe that this group could end up being part of a low-powered (for TS standards) Supers campaign...
...but there are probably not enough "black/white" morals in the setting for this
3. what I've heard so far about the plans of the PCs for their new life sounds promising: the player of the "Guardian" homo superior will seek out a new way to rule, now that he/she is no longer a prince of the underworld...
On Saturday (March 1st) I've started a campaign that was born from the GURPS Greece / Transhuman Space crossover idea from ITW [all PCs live in the High Arcadia theme park in Mars orbit: and they - and the players - really believe to be in mythic
Greece! I told the players the game would take place in a "Hollywood Mythic Greece" setting: Jason & the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, Xena, Hercules, and every cheap "sandal epic" from the 60s. I even created a yahoo group for this where I posted several dozens Vallejo & Frazetta pics with the right "flavor"] - and it was a blast! It rocked on toast with cheese!
I played this with "open points", i.e. I gave
the players exactly the character they want, without regard to the
final point value of the PC. *I* created all the PCs: I interviewed all the players thoroughly, then I custom-build their dream "Mythic Greece" PCs as a Transhuman Space incarnation. And their character sheets look completely
harmless... (I often build PCs for my players that way, especially for
beginners and for those with a weak grasp of the rules but a complex
character concept: so this method didn't arouse any suspicion)
the PCs (players):
A (27, m)
a once beautiful, strong, and wise young man who was punished for his
hybris by the gods: now he must live in the grotesque body of a
humanoid with the head of a dog, living in a cave surrounded by his
pack. He is still wise and intelligent, but humans fear him, and his
voice sounds like the barks and growls of wild dogs [a
Spartan bioroid with xenosculpting, very high ST (22), and a very powerful implanted infomorph; he owns a self-steering "magic" shield (think Captain America – armored diamondoid hull, responsive, internal repair nanobots, a tiny genius computer, etc.)]
B (26, m)
the centaur Chiron, wise and powerful, teacher of many greek heroes
[a SAI/cybershell combo with IQ15, a bow skill of 20, a complete cyberdoc skill package, and "ointments & leeches" that are medical nanobots]
C (27, f)
a beautiful young woman who is the child of a sphinx and a human:
normally she has only the eyes of a cat, but she can transform at
will into a hideous lion-beast – she works as a thief, sometimes selling worthless fake jewelry to "blessed ones"... [a modified Felicia II bioroid (unlicensed) with highly experimental quadragrafting (from Bio-Tech, but it costs fatigue and cannot stay activated for more than one hour, max. activation time is 2 hours per day) and high bio-tech fur (only short fur)]
D (20, m)
a 8'3'' tall two-headed giant, grandson of Hephaistos, armed with a
strange double-axe (like in D&D3e), and with two pistol crossbows [a
SAI/cybershell combo based on an experimental military design – final ST40, almost none of his former armor (DR24)]
E (32, f)
a former gladiator, now cook [an early Spartan bioroid with lots of
enhancements that suffered brain damage in the field, now
being "recycled" in the theme park; like A he was (illegaly) declared officially dead & bought for cheap by the park, which then erased most of their memories]
F (21, m)
a handsome demigod and son of Ares (hated by Aphrodite who cannot
tolerate that her lover chose a mortal woman over her) who uses only
a simple rope as a deadly weapon [a variant of the Deep Indigo
infiltration cybershell with a SAI with several experimental
coordination programs; also includes Accelerated Reflexes from UT2; the rope is an experimental "smart rope" made out of nanotubes and memetic materials that can change its form and qualities in reaction to electric signal from the androids hands – he even has a supply of "magical black oil" that can repair the rope, or even create a new one...]
G (27, f)
a stunningly beautiful "bishonen" with sex-changing abilities that
works as a kind of "soulcatcher" for the underworld: He has a kind of
lightning-throwing halberd (electrolaser), a living "cloak of souls" (cyberswarm "swarm wear" with chameleon option) and a swarm of deadly
butterflies (devourer swarm) at his command. He also suffers from
strange flashbacks... [this is actually one of the few surviving
Guardian "homo superior" designs from the Pacific War: he has been
heavily modified with combat implants, and a
hermaphromorph modification, so that he won't be recognized yet his
precious DNA pattern is conserved. One of his "fathers" works for the
theme park as the chief of R&D...]
...now, what happened:
All PCs were currently in the "Theben" area of High Arcadia – and with one exception they remembered to have always lived there. They knew all about monsters, humans, the gods, their temples, their all-too-human tempers, and those humans who – while often being quite stupid, foolish, or just plain crazy – were "blessed" by the gods: Those "blessed ones", who sometimes were recognized by the priests and marked with strange shards of amber or crystal that they wore over their eyes, were almost unbeatable in combat, no serious harm ever befell them, and those who denied them their wishes and requests always were sure to regret it...
Then, on a beautiful day, all PCs had the strange experience of animals (sometimes their own!) talking to them: they all heard the same speech about a great doom that would come over the world, and that they would need to visit the nearby "Cave of the Serpent Oracle", if they wanted to save the world from a terrible fate... Only minutes later they all witnessed how the sun turned red (and stopped moving as they soon learned)- chaos and mayhem ensued: a slain cyclop rose again & killed the band of heroes that had just defeated him, "blessed" women were being raped by satyrs, harpies attacked a "blessed one" and hacked out her eyes, etc. etc.
So the PCs all met at the cave: the oracle (a naga) was asleep with her head in the lap of a man who claimed to be an avatar of Prometheus – he told them a wild story about a kind of "war in heaven" which might result in the end of the world, or just eternal slavery for all: unless the PCs would help him storm the Olymp itself! He then performed some magic on them, and gave them some items to aid them on their quest – then he send them to the Silver Sphinx of Corinth to receive further instructions on their course. He told them they would have a maximum of 1-2 days to complete their quest, probably much less, but that his magic would shorten the usual travel times drastically (they had received implants or programs from the park that messed with their time perception – he deactivated them, so that a walk of one mile would no longer feel like a walk of *ten*)
What followed was a harsch and brutal journey through all sections of High Arcadia, including parts of the "Underworld" (tourist "dungeon adventure" areas, and also large service tunnels). It included lots of doubts about Prometheus' motivs, gruesome scenes with out-of-control slaves and demons in Corinth (pleasure models, including some of the SM/Hentai/Tentacle kind), combat with very powerful faceless demons of all kinds (security personnel in various kinds of combat suits, armed with electrolasers, tanglers, stun batons, and riot shields) – including a "boss battle" against *real* monsters (guards in battle suits) before the Acropolis in Athen. From the Acropolis the PCs (still all alive, but some with grieveous wounds) were able to enter the "sky sled" of the gods(thanks to a stolen "amulet" (ID tag) of the chief of the arena in Sparta) and traveled to Mt. Olympos. A strange & scary place, cloaked in flickering dark red lights, where the stars seemed close enough to touch & were in some parts *anyone* seemed to be able to fly... Here they met a wounded Prometheus (actually just an exact twin of the guy from the cave) who told them that they had to flee: things had not gone exactly as planned, and the gods would soon reassert control, more rigid than ever before. He, and some others, had succeeded in freeing some more like the PCs, including a lot of "bodyless souls", but now he could only present them with one choice: stay, let the gods take their memory of the last day, and live in blissful ignorance forever after - or come with him, learn the whole truth about the gods, him, themselves, and the world, but leave their old lives forever behind...
They followed him, all, but angry & paranoid – then they saw from his ship how silent white flashes consumed parts of the Olymp, and how it quickly became a small cylinder in vast blackness behind them..
...the last 90 minutes (including lunch and dinner the session lasted 14.5 hours) of play were spent in a great in-character explanation and discussion session between Prometheus (Phillip Kwan from a radical arm of the BBF) and the PCs: 6 out of 7 players want to play this as a campaign, and yesterday every single player called me on the phone to thank me for maybe my (and their) best rpg session ever. IT WAS %!"§ING GREAT
P.S.: some observations:
1. the point range of the PCs lies somewhere between 400 and 800 pts. – GURPS worked like a charm.
2. the high point value and "bleeding edge" nature of many PC designs leads me to believe that this group could end up being part of a low-powered (for TS standards) Supers campaign...
...but there are probably not enough "black/white" morals in the setting for this
3. what I've heard so far about the plans of the PCs for their new life sounds promising: the player of the "Guardian" homo superior will seek out a new way to rule, now that he/she is no longer a prince of the underworld...
