Guns of Navarone and other movies used as inspiration

Hopeless

Mongoose
Have been interested in running a game using some second world war movies (Guns of Navarone, Force Ten, Dirty Dozen, etc...) in a Traveller game.

So far for Guns of Navarone I figure having the PCs know they're being sent to infiltrate a star system currently used by enemy forces to target passing shipping.
They have inside help but the difficulty lies in getting inside the enemy base and blowing it up.
However it occurred to me that I really ought to get a second opinion before trying to run this as it would require i either come up with pre-gens or allow them to generate up or select characters from the mongoose character supplement once they know the backdrop.

What do you think?

Are there any other movies not just limited to the second world war that might be worth turning into a game campaign like Ice Station Zebra for example?

Hmm Characters from Guns of Navarone

Mallory: Mountaineer and Major in the army
David Niven's character whose the explosives expert
The Greek Colonel who knows Mallory
Greek Soldier whose a native of the island played by one of the people from the time tunnel as i recall,
Stanley Baxter playing the mechanic and knife expert
There was a british officer who broke his leg and had to be left in german hands so he could receive medical treatment...

Definitely need to rewatch it and reread it!

So its set in the future maybe T2300 based with a greek colony being overrun by Argentinian forces who have a massive base towed into the system where its weapon systems prevent allied forces from breaking the blockade.
I think I might be better off saying there's an intelligence station as well as military base onworld thats attacked with the PCs escaping before metting up with whatever forces that survive and are ordered to take out the base by whatever means necessary.
So they need to get inside perhaps get captured and escape using stolen identities to get inside and before they get spotted find a means to sabotage the base or better yet find a way to blow it up and escape the resulting carnage before the next arrival of allied forces gets blown up...

Still leaves why they need to disable the base, perhaps it has a means of disabling arriving shipping say like remote control cannons in the asteroid belt thats seeded in the outer system so the arriving ships jump insystem and find themselves being blown apart before they can mount a serious defence?

Still think I need to rework the enemy, instead of a nationality perhaps an organisation just have to work out why they're so bad and why the allied forces have allied with each other even if they're such a great menace that still leaves why they're such a problem?
 
Hi
As Gravity wells force ships out of jump. Then this could be based in a empty area on a small planetoid.
The base has a massive gravity generator which causes ships to fall out of jump.
This area will need to be on a main shipping route.
 
Captain Brann said:
Hi
As Gravity wells force ships out of jump. Then this could be based in a empty area on a small planetoid.
The base has a massive gravity generator which causes ships to fall out of jump.
This area will need to be on a main shipping route.

Just need some interdictor cruisers.
 
I once based some Star Wars adventures on classic WW2 movies.

Two more good examples for such are Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes.

Dare has the usual stealth + action but has the added twist of a supposed mole. You would need to make sure your characters are either not knowledgable of the movie or have no idea what your sources was.

Heroes seems like a classic Traveller adventure to me. Ragtag group put together to go behind enemy lines under the guise of an official military attack all to get at something valuable. Lots of fun there when interpreted to 2300AD. Hmm, maybe I should save this idea for Signs and Portents or Colin..... :) A group of current Navy and Marines (I supposed could be ex-military) sneak off with a small Frigate to drop behind Kaefer lines and grab some very valuable equipment that they learn was left behind when the Kaefer's invaded. During the process of taking out a small Kaefer outpost, they accidentally start a small but successful counterattack when the allied human naval forces seize the moment and join in.
 
Hopeless said:
Have been interested in running a game using some second world war movies (Guns of Navarone, Force Ten, Dirty Dozen, etc...) in a Traveller game.

So far for Guns of Navarone I figure having the PCs know they're being sent to infiltrate a star system currently used by enemy forces to target passing shipping.
Been done (in its own way) in the original BattleStar Galactica... where they had to get to an ice mountain then climb up the side at least several hundred feet in order to disable the monster weapon that was placed there to kill the fleet when they came to close.


BTW... space is 3d, why do tv shows and movies insist on treating it like its flat 2d.

"ok, we have 500 ships spread out in a screen blocking the primary route from the Romulan Empire to the Klingon homeworld.... they can't get past without being spotted" (cloaks not withstanding).

Um... ok how about going *around* that nice web of ships, or over to another planet then around to the klingon homeworld via a different route entirely?

While the scenario of the Guns of Navarone were quite plausible (I don't know how historically accurate it is) how can a single weapon on a planet or a ship or moon be able to target the entire sphere of space to block shipping or ships entering the system or whatever? The idea is good for some light reading or a so-so tv show but hey, y'know, whatever you like is what's best for you.

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GamerDude said:
Hopeless said:
Have been interested in running a game using some second world war movies (Guns of Navarone, Force Ten, Dirty Dozen, etc...) in a Traveller game.

So far for Guns of Navarone I figure having the PCs know they're being sent to infiltrate a star system currently used by enemy forces to target passing shipping.
Been done (in its own way) in the original BattleStar Galactica... where they had to get to an ice mountain then climb up the side at least several hundred feet in order to disable the monster weapon that was placed there to kill the fleet when they came to close.


BTW... space is 3d, why do tv shows and movies insist on treating it like its flat 2d.

I'de like to know how the slow colonial fleet evaded the three basestars trailing them after destroying the pulsar...
 
AndrewW said:
I'de like to know how the slow colonial fleet evaded the three basestars trailing them after destroying the pulsar...
Heck, how did the slow colonial fleet avoid them week after week...

Although early on they did disclose that the Galactica's shields had been tweaked/modified so they could encompass the entire fleet.. well with the fleet pulled in much closer together than they would have liked.
 
GamerDude said:
AndrewW said:
I'de like to know how the slow colonial fleet evaded the three basestars trailing them after destroying the pulsar...
Heck, how did the slow colonial fleet avoid them week after week...

Although early on they did disclose that the Galactica's shields had been tweaked/modified so they could encompass the entire fleet.. well with the fleet pulled in much closer together than they would have liked.

In the original series they were basically heading away from what they thought was Cylon space as for those three base stars they probably didn't learn about the weapon's destruction once they didn't hear anything from them and sent a probe in to investigate after all Baltar isn't going to endanger himself and it wasn't his fault so the fleet had time to head on and hopefully beyond the range of the Cylon sensors so the three base stars couldn't coordinate an attack without some kind of an advantage over the humans.

In the new version they had cylons hidden aboard so they didn't have that problem...

Remembered the Galactica episode and thought it encompassed Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and the Dirty Dozen although only after it was pointed out here!
 
Heroes of Telemark, is another good commando raid movie.

Female Agents is a resistance movie with agents infiltrating to rescue someone.
 
Hopeless said:
In the original series they were basically heading away from what they thought was Cylon space as for those three base stars they probably didn't learn about the weapon's destruction once they didn't hear anything from them and sent a probe in to investigate after all Baltar isn't going to endanger himself and it wasn't his fault so the fleet had time to head on and hopefully beyond the range of the Cylon sensors so the three base stars couldn't coordinate an attack without some kind of an advantage over the humans.

Those three basestars where pushing the Galactica towards the pulsar. They wanted the Galactica to know they where there so would have kept within sensor range, assuming same sensor range as the Galactica they could even trail a bit outside the Galactics range and still pick up the tail end of the Colonial fleet. It's a bit hard with the colonial fleet being limited to the speed of the slowest ship to outrun basestars.

Of course that's not the only issue with that episode. Why couldn't they work with the clones and not destroy the pusar? The clones where going to help them take out the Cylon garrison but not destroy the pulsar so they could use it to defend themselves against a Cyclon return. Without Cylon gunners to man the pulsar the Colonial fleet could have passed by, perhaps the clones would have had a chance to then turn the pulsar on the Cyclon basestars that where following.
 
Hopeless said:
GamerDude said:
AndrewW said:
I'de like to know how the slow colonial fleet evaded the three basestars trailing them after destroying the pulsar...
Heck, how did the slow colonial fleet avoid them week after week...

Although early on they did disclose that the Galactica's shields had been tweaked/modified so they could encompass the entire fleet.. well with the fleet pulled in much closer together than they would have liked.

In the original series they were basically heading away from what they thought ...
I think my point was missed... I was commenting on how did they manage to avoid them throughout the *entire series* and that they had given an answer to that question for at least part of the time.

There were several times in the series that the fleet destroyed base stars, but it makes sense the "Fearless Leader of all That Is Cylon" had more than just three of those monstrosities in his um... her ehh... its garage" *wink*
 
If you are looking for one involving setting up the Merc ticket as well as the raid itself, there is Dogs of War starring Christopher Walken. That one I saw as a kid. It also had my first exposure to auto/semi-auto grenade launchers.
 
GamerDude said:
I think my point was missed... I was commenting on how did they manage to avoid them throughout the *entire series* and that they had given an answer to that question for at least part of the time.

There were several times in the series that the fleet destroyed base stars, but it makes sense the "Fearless Leader of all That Is Cylon" had more than just three of those monstrosities in his um... her ehh... its garage" *wink*

I suspect he wasn't trusted with any more than that and wasn't about to give his "superiors" the idea that he couldn't do the job (Though why they'd think that I really wouldn't know! :roll: )

Interesting point about taking the pulsar and using it against the cylons though... had the remake been able to do a variation of this it might have even explained why but thats another story!

The original movie had Baltar exceuted, it was reshot for the series so they had a recognisable villain guess they wasn't interested in it being strictly led by Cylons for tv purposes.

Makes me wonder how much of their forces were left since the Pegasus escaped and from all accounts was raiding the cylons before they met up with Galactica again... it could be they felt they could leave Baltar to his devices whilst they handled the more troubling problems...
 
I always thought that the Dirty Dozen would make a great framework for kicking off a new Traveller campaign - a group of prisoners facing execution (or at least permanent exile to a nasty prison planet) are "recruited" by an for a dangerous mission into space occupied by an enemy force. If they successfully complete the mission, they will be granted a complete pardon and a brand new identity. But of course, nobody really suspects them to survive. And a ruthless bastard has been appointed as their commander for the duration of the mission to make sure that they do exactly what they are told.

Heck, Terry Nation always claimed that the Dirty Dozen was one of the original inspirations behind Blake's 7. And if you look at the first couple of episodes, the inspiration is obvious....
 
Hopeless said:
The original movie had Baltar exceuted, it was reshot for the series so they had a recognisable villain guess they wasn't interested in it being strictly led by Cylons for tv purposes.

He was 'liked' too much to kill off. During the series they also gave the actress that played Apollo's wife (Sabrina) the option to not kill her off (Lost Planet of the Gods) but she declined.
 
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