From: Ml10@aol.com Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 6:56 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Player hooks I've have always favored the detective agency approach. Since most of my players are college students, it is always a pain to get to plan ahead enough so that they don't miss sessions. Running a detective agency allows players miss or join a session and still maintain continuity. It also allows me to run at many social, political, and danger levels without turning the game into Shadowrun. Mike Z *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Tun Kai Poh [t_poh@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 12:35 AM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Player hooks JIM wrote: >After reveiwing the history and gathered the atmosphere as I interpret it, >I went to the gang with a prepared "speech" about the BP world in its >current state on Poseidon. I guessed if they were interested then they >would ask questions about how this or that happened. I guessed well - the >more I talked the more they asked about it. That is probably the best >outcome, so I guess I was lucky. This part is good - strong setting. >The other hook I used for a different group was to tell them about a RPG >where they could be any character type they wanted to portray. This >immediately set off a barrage of questions, like "how?", "what are you >taling about?", "even if its a bum?", "what's the game supposed to be >like?", etc. Yeah, BP doesn't immediately throw particularly strong campaign concepts your way. I find that it really helps to build a PC party around a central theme. Have the players agree on the party theme before they build their characters. Some good themes: Mercenaries - All military types plus support crew, very flexible in party makeup. Anything goes, from civilian pilots to moonlighting Wardens to ex-miners to dolphin crack whores [1]. Very very popular in my groups. Multi-disciplinary GEO taskforce - Anything from GEO Shock Troopers to sub pilots to an Assistant Magistrate and his staff. Provided there's a goal of some kind to stick to (for instance, enforcing peace in Westcape after Hanover Industries' bush war becomes public [2]) you can usually come up with an excuse to keep a disparate party together. As long as they're all GEO. Emergency Response Team plus support crew - For a change, more rescue missions and less "kill everything in sight". I favour running these kinds of games, but have rarely gotten very far because of external circumstances so I have yet to report if this theme can hold player interest over the long run. Support crew could include military escort personnel, crash investigators, mechanics and engineers. HIST/Incorp Survey Team - I suppose most scientific expeditions on Poseidon have to get sponsorship from either HIST or one of the Incorps. This could lead to a nice mix of intrepid scientists, native guides, a support crew of pilots, techies and medics, _and_ Incorporate scumbags working together in the most remote regions of the planet. Plenty of potential for wildlife/Aborigine encounters. I find the idea of struggling against the elements far more interesting than your usual cyberpunkish Incorporate espionage wars [3]. Of course there are other PC group themes, like Shock Trooper Platoon or Independent Prospector Collective...but these tend to be better for one-shots and con games. The four suggestions listed above are probably better for the long run. Kai Poh Malaysian Lagomorph [1] Yeah, that old story. If anyone HASN'T heard this story already, and I know there's always some newcomer asking about this, I plan to write it up once and for all and put it on the Professional Casualties site soon, okay? [2] Besides Jeff, has anyone else implemented this event in their campaign? [3] If I wanted to shoot cyborgs and hack computers, I'd play Shadowrun or Cyberpunk 2020. While I'm on Poseidon I'd much rather trek through the pulsing verdant biomasses of a Poseidon Mangrove, or document the breeding habits of polypods. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Heivilin, Jim [banzai@missouri.edu] Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 10:06 AM To: 'blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com' Subject: RE: [BLUE PLANET] - Undercurrents? > -----Original Message----- > From: Kevin L. Nault [mailto:jskln1@uas.alaska.edu] > Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Undercurrents? > > > possibility of a short introductory leaflet and I know of > > at least a couple of people besides myself who have tried > > to concoct something along these lines. > Any of the material from the website might serve in this capacity. > The ability to play cetaceans, and "...to the service of Justice." > That'll usually hook 'em. > That piece still sends shivers up my spine four years after I first read it. Sounds just like a John Woo film. As to Undercurrents what I do is to write up ideas I get (for example I'm doing a number of things on the history of the GEO Heavy Cavalry - Shock Troops - right now) and then give them to Jeff to fit into the scheme of things as he sees fit. Some of them (for instance, Operations Order 98-003 [Raid of Vostonya International Food Processing Plant #2, April 2098]) may not see the light of day for a little while. Jeff is currently out of town but I'm sure he'll have an answer to the "upcoming in Undercurrents" thing. Jim Jim Heivilin, Webmaster Biohazard Games http://www.biohazardgames.com *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Tom Barnes [twb3@primary.net] Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 8:33 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Player hooks My longest-lived and best Traveller campaign had a "Private Eyes in Space" theme - it does seem to work well. You could make the player characters 'associates' of a retired GEO Marshal (or maybe not, I'm not sure if GEO Marshals leave their job any way but in a body bag) who has opened up a detective agency on Poseidon. I would recommend making the head of the agency an NPC to maintain control of the campaign and keep the players from having to deal with mundane details like making payroll for the office staff. Tom Barnes *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.