Following on from my last post http://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/crisis-games/ here are some possible Crisis scenarios, the members would be cut down or expanded depending on interest. 

Australia

A world similar to our own the main difference being after the Java bombings Indonesia was subject to an Islamist military coup and has been bullying it’s neighbous including Malaysia and the Philippines.

Characters the Australian Foreign & Defence Cabinet Committee:

The Prime Minister

Attoney General

Minister for Foreign Affairs

Minister for Home Affairs

Minsiter of Defence

Chief of the Defence Staff

Director Austrlian Secret Intelligence Service

Director Austrialian Secuirty Intelligence Organisation

COBREX

1978 In a world where aliens exist but are secret and things go bump in the night in addition to the COBRA committee for ‘normal’ emergencies COBREX (Cabinet Office Briefing Room X) exists for unusual emergencies, membership can include some or all of:

The Prime Minister

Foreign Secretary

Home Secretary

Head UK UNIT (Dr Who – pre 1968 Intrusion Countermeasurse Group)

Head British Rocket Group (Quatermass)

Head Department for Observation and  Measurement  of Scientific Work (Doomwatch)

Director CI5 (The Professionals)

Commander United Kingdom Space Command (Dr Who rump RAF organisation.)

DEVA

After the Romans left Britain the Romano-Britons had to try and cope on their own this is the Court of Deva (Chester) City of Legions

Dux of Chester

Master of Horse

Centurion of Foot

Steward and Castellean

Chancellor

Bishop of Chester

Natural philosopher and astrologer

This is a game which combines elements of roleplaying and wargaming.

Each player represents a character who is a Government minister, official or senior military office dealing with a crisis formed together in some form of Committee like the USA’s National Secuirty Council or UK’s COBRA committee. The players are faced with a crisis and debate the solutions in character and agree a response the gamesmaster then considers the effectiveness and informs the ‘cabinet’ of how circumstances change, then takes there response and so on until the crisis is resolved.

Characters can have their political or departmental agenda and you can fit players to roles – so for example a military nut can play a General but the Prime Minister could be played by a player who knows little or nothing of those things.

Such a game could be done by email or skype (or both depending on the player’s preferences,) as well as face to face (where an appropriate setting and element of cosplay helps the mood.)

Real life example would be the Cuban missile crisis where the White House Situation room dealt with Russian nuclear missiles being deployed to Cuba – a humorous film variant would be Dr.Strangleove.

This isn’t just limited to real world scenarios – crisis could be gamed in fantastic settings involving for instance:

• A space colony – the ‘cabinet’ being made up of department heads from science, medical, security, environmental, engineering, HR etc;
• A Fantasy Court – with the situation room being populated by the Lord and his officers steward, castellan, master of arms, treasurer, astrologer, wizard, priest etc;
• The inner circle of a Vampire Lord or Werewolf chief in a variety of settings
• The board of SHIELD or similar super spy group.
• A Government dealing with a zombie outbreak,  lovecraft mythos related incident or other horror trope.

I’ve played a few of these but often they’ve been attached to a figure based wargame which slows down the the most fun bit which is the arguing, banter and decision making element swiftly followed by the cock-up.

Testudo Protection tanks are ambushedby Zomboys & the Living Liches in the shanty town

Following a competitive bid from the Creative Carpetbaggers Inc the Juggernaut Incorporated Combined Strike Unit advanced into the Necopolis a ruined settlement subsequently colonised by death cultists from across the island.

What a force! – giant ‘mecha’, smaller combat robots, the most advanced tanks, artillery and highly trainedinfantry aganist a small force of ragged stoned miltia men with only the odd rocket propelled grenade to complement their assault rifles.

Indeed the forces of Galtania did triumph but not without the rough and ready insurgents gangs – the Ghouls, Liches, Wraiths, Vamps, Deathwalkers, Zomboys and others inflicting surprising casualties on the attackers.

The Necropolians proved to be canny fighters attacking from ambush and darting from cover to cover. They failed in their efforts to knock out the command post for the varies remote operated ‘robot’ units but their RPG teams managed to knock out not one but both ‘mecha’ accompanying the attack. Infantry also manage dto severely deplete the smaller battle bots.

A bruised and batter Juggernaut force eventually took control of the battlefield – but despite the victory their has been a fall in the secuirty coproations share price following news of the battle.

What if they worked together

I am thinking about a plan ‘B’ if my current game becomes logistically difficult with various life changes.  My thoughts are that a superhero game would be quite easy to work with chopping and changing characters and the capacity to run single player games when people can’t make it. Rather than run with entirely home designed world I’ve been thinking of a world where the various Superhero (and various non-Superhero universes have collapsed in on each other.) These means lazy players can potentially play their favourite super and creative ones can generate their own character.

For a bit of fun I’m thinking that various established characters first appeared in their original publication date. Characters have aged so Superman at 72 is probably not in his silver-age prime making him more comparable with Marvel characters power levels , Batman is still going but it’s unlikely to be the same man behind the mask (and there was some unfortunate incident in the mid-80s involving him and Superman.)  Black Nick Fury (ultimates)  is a younger relative of 60s Nick Fury etc;

People are aware universes collapsed in 1986, but they are also aware of the merged time lines that exist but have a foggy memory of what their ‘original’ timeline was. It can lead to such fun scenarios as@

• How does Buffy and her (reduced) army of slayers dealing with not being as special anymore? Mind you there are so many varieties of Vampire out there (Buffyverse, Morbius, Marvel descendent Marvel types etc;) she probably has her hands full.
• In Europe, Marshal Vashkov became Russian premier in 1991 and has renamed the country reunified with many former soviet states as the Volgan Republic (2000AD). The presence of Western European superheroes such as the UK’s EAGLES (Games Workshop’s Golden Heroes) has prevented them attacking Western Europe (yet.)
• The Latveria Leader Victor Von Doom (Marvel) also keeps a close eye on potential Volgan aggression and many people are unsure if he is a hero of a free central Europe or a terrorist villain.
• What effect does all this have on Weatherfield, Walford or Holby? (various soap operas)
• Does it affect the chances of Melchester Rovers (Roy of the Rovers) to beat Harchester United (Dream Team) in the Cup?
• What does Danish Premier Brigette Nyborg (Borgen) make of it all and who are the Danish Superheroes?
• How does New York (Marvel) cope with the competition from Gotham and Metropolis (DC) and vice versa.
• Who’s the favourite superhero of the Bash Street Primary School kids (Beano)

Obviously this is a very flexible (and plagiaristic) mash up universe which is just a bit of fun for silly roleplaying game 9and I will freely admit utter fanw$&k.) It will lend itself to many inputs and hopefully different people can have goes at game mastering it and even people not playing can contribute ideas:

So over to you –

What superteams could so see formed in this universe – who from what comics would be in them? Espically what would any British superteam(s) look like?

What villainous alliances would there be?

What other fun  mash-ups could there be?

What characters would you like to play, in what part of the world and on what kind of adventures?

Twitter @Clarkythecruel with #CrisesCollapseInfinite, use the comments or email Dissectingworlds@yahoo.co.uk with any ideas, concept or interest.

Lee Grice the man who started the madness has passed on his list to me and here it is…

The Dozen:

Pvt Kelly (Clint Eastwood - Kelly's Heroes)

Sgt Oddball (Donald Sutherland - Kelly's Heroes)

 

Capt Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen - The Great Escape)

Maj Reisman (Lee Marvin - The Dirty Dozen)

Maj John Smith (Richard Burton - Where Eagles Dare)

Capt Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck - Guns Of Navarone)

Cpl Dusty Miller (David Niven - Guns Of Navarone

Col Joseph L Ryan (Frank Sinatra - Von Ryan's Express)

Sgt JJ Sefton (Willian Holden - Stalag 17)

Sqn/Ldr Quint Munroe (David McCallum - Mosquito Squadon)

Wng/Cdr Roy Grant - (Cliff Robertson - 633 Squadron)

S/Sgt Rolf Steiner - (James Coburn - Cross Of Iron)

This follows from a ‘game’ that Lee Grice of Small Press, Big Mouth played on twitter – put together your own ‘Dirty Dozen’ from war movies. The rules are that you don’t use the same actor more than once and that you don’t use any ‘real’ characters nor more than two characters from one movie.

Here’s my dirty dozen then..

Telly Savalas as Sergeant Guffy from ‘the Battle of the Bulge.’

Jack Watson as Scots-Canadian Corproal Wilfred Peacock from The Devils Brigade

While we’re still on the Tam O’Shanters here’s Michael Caine as cynical combat medic Private Tosh Hearne.

Thora Hird as gung ho Land Army girl Ivy Dawking who helped foil a German invasion in ‘Went the day well.’

Stanley Holloway as Private Ted Brewer, the essential tommy from ‘The Way head/The Immortal Battalion.’

Given this is a world war lets also have Sergeant Major Tambul from the Sudan Defence Force as ‘Sahara.’

Humphrey Bogart as Sergeant Joe Gunn from ‘Sahara.’

Nigel Davenport as Captain Cyril Leech, shifty renegade desert special forces commander in the North African desert.

Kirpal Singh, sapper officer from the English Patient, played by Naveen Andrews though unfortunately I can’t identify his rank anywhere – any help would be appreciated.

Jack Hawkins as Commander Ericson from The Cruel Sea, a ruthless and dedicated naval officer.

James Robertson Justice as Sir Ernest Pease KBE FRS / Lt. Farrow RN - top scientist and acerbic boffin mascaraing as an Royal Navy flyer.

John Mills as Able Seaman ‘Shorty’ Blake

A Maosit column consisting of a Category B Battalion with supporting artillery and armoued tractors bumped into the rearguard of a FIPPS occupation force vacating the province. The FIPPS rearguard was the James Parish militia and their Commanding Elder, the Reverend Salmon. The Armoured car did take an early objective.

Unfortunately the Maoist infantry had got lost on route to the battle and so the intial stages where a skirmish between the Armoured tractors and supporting gun battlery aganist the Salmon lead miltia.

Eventually the Maoist infantry came on in a  flanking move catching Salmon in the open but losing their Recoiless rifle portees to fire from the St.James’s Milita they were unable to fire with telling effect, briefly panicking and the FIPPS General fled into the hills accompanied by his guards.

The Category B Battalion catches the FIPPS general in the open

Further FIPPS reinforcements came on in the form of the Congression of Saints Mortar battalion the were met by the Maoist infantry and a small arms battle resulted.  The FIPPS miltia routed off their objective and the Maoist broke off the firefight to take that objective, slightly imedped by their HMG truck having broken down. The Maoist General took a second objective. Eventually from harrassing fire only 1 Miltiia platoon survivied and sheltered on the lee of the hill.

FIPPS Mortar battalion engages the Category B Maoists

Victory was denied though as Elder Salmon had snuck down the foothills and taken the original objective to fall to FIPPS. They then charged the Maoist artillery but the Tractors and Infantry sped to retake the objective – and holding three objectives to  achieve final victory.

Unfortunately the FIPPS Archangel Gabriel Mechanised GrenadierBattalion had come on as reinforcements and caught the Moaist general as he cowered from suppressing fire from the sole surviving miltia platoon. Killing him they caused the Catergory B battalion to break once again and Elder Salmon to reoccupt that objective.

Mechanised Troops save the Day for FIPPS

Despite the efforts of the Armoured Tractors & artillery despite casualties to stop them the Elder stayed in place.

To add insult to injury the mechanised platoon took an objective and a the sneaky surviving miltia platoon took the third turning a possible defeat for  FIPPS into a victory! As a reward the suriviors of the militia platoon where given the repaired Maoist HMG truck as the Independent (James Parish) Motor Machine Gun Company.

The worn Moaist surviors short of motor transport slink back to whence they came.

]]> http://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/ne-t2-p1-the-2nd-battle-of-small-press/feed/ 0 clarkythecruel x 008 x 009 x 011 x 010 http://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/2011-in-review/ http://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/2011-in-review/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:07:17 +0000 clarkythecruel http://clarkythecruel.wordpress.com/?p=1665 ]]> The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,800 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

What about this year?

Well on the personal side I feel me and Mrs K have been very lucky – there are still come things to work on career wise but generally life has been good, some debts have been paid off, the house coming on and all the preparations are laid for a new arrival at the end of January (Gods be good, please Gods be good.)

Looking back at my intentions ‘to be to be a bit more considered, a bit more temperate and a bit more organised in how I approach life – that’s whether it’s running, gaming, career, podcasting, writing or whatever sphere. A bit more methodical and ultimately I hope with better outcomes.’ Did I succeed?

Hmmm ish…the RPG seemed to go okay, the wargaming seemed to run more on track (though with the odd hiccup), the podcast appears to have worked well and some comic writing things have verged tantasilingly close to being drawn which is an improvement on last year. In real life I think things have been better but could do with further improvement but I have broadened my experience and getting an idea, of an idea, about what I want to do long term.

Physically I’ve but some weight on (due to gluttony) next years going to be involved in throwing that off. On the plus side I got driving again which gives us more options as a family and me more independence for me.

Well that’s all well and good, but the fact is life is going to change with our first child  and that will change everything not least my perspective and priorities – so I go into the New Year with the same ambition to be more focused, more organised and more considerate. Bit I do so with a new motivation,  no longer as some academic exercise in self improvement, but for our daughter, her benefit and comfort.

A battalion of Parish miltia stands againist the victors of Mongo a multi-battalion combined arms Migard viking invasion force.

Thats young boys, farmers and old men aganist seasoned rampaging professional warriors, which outnumbered them 3 to 1.

THE VIKINGS ARE COMING! THE VIKINGS ARE COMING! IN TANKS!

THE VIKINGS HAVE US SURROUNDED!

THE VIKINGS HAVE WON!