Thursday, December 04, 2008

Blue Planet Scenario idea

So I had this idea today on an interesting scenario for Blue Planet.

One of the things that gets me about Poseidon is that there aren't a lot of large naval vessels surface or submersible. It seems something of a shame to me that there aren't huge navies roaming about. Granted the politics and industry haven't been there to generate the need or capability for the most part. So what happens when those things start occurring?

The basic story idea is that somebody (any one the myriad groups involved in the Serpentis system) is building a large battleship. A full all out 15-18 inch main gun batteries, etc, etc battleship. The idea here (and my science is weak so this might not hold up) is that a large heavy warship like this can ride out the storms in the storm belt without too much suffering or sinking and then pop out and raid, threaten, or otherwise intimidate the areas around the storm belt and then disappear back into the weather before serious calvary can arrive.

Naturally the players must investigate and find out if these rumors are true and if they are find this battleship before it is complete since it will be nigh unstoppable even for the GEO. As a matter of practicality I'd figure this ship also acts as a mother ship for smaller craft including submersible and possibly jump craft or VTOLs. I don't think it could submerge (although def. drifting away from hard science fiction I can't help but think of the ghost ship from Blue Sub 6). It would be armored to the hilt like the true old battlewagons and so a lot of the firepower that local forces could bring to bear would be unable to sink it. Most would create superficial damage.

When the players did finally locate the island or atoll that this vessel is being built at I'd also toy with the idea that the ship is gone and all that they find are dead crew members and yard workers who seemed to have turned on each other. What happened and where did the ship go? Only the aborigines know!

That's the plot in a nutshell, pretty good I think!

Thoughts on Gaming V

Looks like (assuming everything goes to schedule) that Exalted will pick up Fair Folk, Infernals, and Alchemical Exalts next year, possibly see the return of the Empress (although she may wait for 2010) and we'll finally get to see the South (and 101 new ways to destroy Gem) and the North and Malfeas. Also we'll get a book on playing mortals in Creation and a book on major players in Creation (this will be interesting to see how they execute it as there were a lot of complaints about how this was done in Dreams of the First Age however White Wolf has shown a willingness to learn of late).

I am attempting to read completely through Hunter before attempting to run a game of it online after Dani's D&D game wraps up this winter. I'm about 2/3rds through and if I complete it'll be the second RPG I've finished ever. Ptolus has first honors but I figured if I was gonna spend that much on an RPG I'd better read it.

Thing to keep an eye out for in 2009 are definitely Cthulutech, Alpha Omega, and Blue Planet (Red Brick picked BP up so hopefully we'll get to see the setting expand, considering how amazing it is I am quite excited).

For 4th Ed D&D I am up in the air. It's painfully tactical and although there are times I like that I think prefer more opened ended combat like Exalted. Especially after Brady actually ran a game which I got to play in. 4th Ed just seems to be drifting slowly away from the more standard gaming goodness I like. Ironic that Carl loves it (he was entirely skeptical at time of release) and I am more indifferent now. Total role reversals.