For some crazed reason I volunteered to run the GURPS
session this week. It was
either that or no GURPS game since no one else was speaking up. Also
for some
reason Shannon and Dave had the mistaken impression that I was thinking
of
running a game, so that kind of subconciously forced me to agree to do
this.
What to run, what to run? My original concept (when I sent out the fake
"what's
up this week" message last week -- even with stuff I make up I usually
have a
more fully realized idea than what I indicate) was borrowed from a
series of
movies I saw on television when I was a kid. I think each movie was
composed of
two episodes of some defunct science fiction show.
The concept of the show was like Metamorphosis Alpha (the RPG): a world
ship
flying through the stars, more of a zoo really. Each section is a
separate
environment with peoples and animals that don't know they're in a space
ship.
Although they do know they're in an enclosed space, they all just
assumed that
was the way the world was. But one group of people finds a way out of
their
world and explores the rest of the ship, visiting the different
environments
and interacting with a strange new civilization each week.
So my idea was to have the characters appear in one of the worlds.
Since there
is no real sky they'll think they're underground or in a some sort of
building.
I was thinking of an empty part of the ship, where the characters can
wander
around trying to figure out what's going on. But at that point I didn't
have
any idea of what the ending was supposed to turn out like (this is an
adventure
after all, not a campaign).
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Underground complex, I need a map. Amazing how few good
complex maps are
provided in the games I have. I didn't want a building, but more of a
futuristic
base. First I actually looked through the materials in this old RPG I
have,
The Valley of the Pharaohs. It's a small RPG made in 1983 by Palladium,
at about
the same time they came out with The Palladium RPG and before they
standardized
on a house system. TVofP has a short booklet of rules and a bunch of
looseleaf
drawings: maps, schematics of pyramids and other buildings, people,
etc. I was
hoping for a nice pyramid map but all the drawings don't have much
detail and
pyramids are in general rather simple internally.
Next I turned to the Star Trek games that I have. Last Unicorn doesn't
provide
many schematics. What is it about modern RPGs that assume you don't
need
detailed maps with encounter keys? The FASA Star Trek game also was
lacking in
detailed maps. But I did find one FASA module that had Regula-1 deck
plans and
short descriptions of the different areas. That's more like it. But
once I
started reading it I realized that Regula-1 is huge, the maps are not
that big
for the amount of detail, and where the hell are the turbo lifts? You
can't get
from level to level!
Still, this led me to another idea. The characters start out in
Regula-1, just
before Khan arrives to retrieve the Genesis device. Obviously the
characters
have to stop him, dealing with his minions in a game of hide and seek
throughout
the mostly inactive levels of the space station. But I thought this
would
require a few days to prep. I would need to familiarize myself with
Regula-1
and with the kinds of materials that they can use to defeat Khan. I
don't run
a scenario without having an idea of how it will run, the different
plot points
and action scenes and how the characters can defeat the villains. I'm
not really
the kind of GM who sets up an open-ended scenario and lets the players
have at
it.
Continued in the next entry...
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