PrinceYyrkoon
Mongoose
A little while ago I asked for help from you guys, as I wanted to run a RQ game for my teenage sons and their mates. They asked me to GM a game of D&D, but I wanted to stealth them with a good session of RQ, although I was stumped for ideas for an intro type game (its been so long since I GMed for 'noobs').
Well, a lot of your advice was great and it got me thinking. Taking a some thoughts into consideration, I sort of went off at a tangent, but your ideas got me there, so I thought I'd tell you want happened.
Rather than a RQ version of a D&D world, I did something totally different. I decided to go with an Aliens pastiche using Basic Roleplaying. I was aware that none of them had seen the film Aliens, so I had a free hand to plagarize. Theres stats in BRP for an Alien type creature, and I rolled up 9 Colonial Marines no problems, one with a good pilot skill, one with a good heavy weapons skill, etc., (I found that I only needed the front sheet of the character sheet too). The science guy they would need, (to figure stuff out), was an android survivor in the place, and they found him pretty early on.
I let them decide which guys (7 in total), to take in the drop ship to the planet surface where, strangely, an outpost on a moon named L57 had gone silent. They had to decide also, what equipment they were going to take for the mission, as there was limited room in the drop ship, especially, if they were going to pick up civilian survivors, (they rejected the possibility of empty seats on the return journey...). Unfortunately, they left the heavy flamethrowers behind, but latched onto the cool Pulse rifles. They also took along the heavy weapons guy, fortunately, with his shoulder mounted heavy duty rock 'n' roll.
They were pretty creeped out by the whole thing, and it was a great success, it seems. At one point, they accidentaly shot the lights out when in a room with a facehugger, and one of the marines 'bought it' soon after being splashed by an aliens acidic blood during close quarter combat. A few bit the dust in quick succession, but, as the character sheets were communal, I didnt need to worry about players not having a charatcer.
Four got out alive, plus two survivors, one android scientist, and one civilian they found in a cocoon...They didnt venture into the subterranian caves below the outpost, however.
They want to have a return journey, to flush out any aliens still surviving, not that they are aware of what lurks in the deepest chamber.
I found the rules to run like a dream. They really got off on whether to 'one shot' or 'fire burst' or 'autofire', (They autofired a lot!). I got them to keep track of their ammo, which they did really well and honestly. I gave them some spare clips each, as Im not that cruel, although, at one point, at a great dramatic moment too, one marine's gun jammed.
I sort of went to town a bit on the visuals, I made a GM screen with just the Aliens 'light shaft' on it, I used the stand up cardboard minis from my Aliens boardgame for the aliens and the characters, and I mapped the whole outpost in 1" x 1" squares.
All in all, I think they really enjoyed it, I did too, and it got them away from their X Boxes for an evening, at least.
Thanks guys for the suggestions, and even though I may not have used them directly, they were a great help in getting me to be creative.
Well, a lot of your advice was great and it got me thinking. Taking a some thoughts into consideration, I sort of went off at a tangent, but your ideas got me there, so I thought I'd tell you want happened.
Rather than a RQ version of a D&D world, I did something totally different. I decided to go with an Aliens pastiche using Basic Roleplaying. I was aware that none of them had seen the film Aliens, so I had a free hand to plagarize. Theres stats in BRP for an Alien type creature, and I rolled up 9 Colonial Marines no problems, one with a good pilot skill, one with a good heavy weapons skill, etc., (I found that I only needed the front sheet of the character sheet too). The science guy they would need, (to figure stuff out), was an android survivor in the place, and they found him pretty early on.
I let them decide which guys (7 in total), to take in the drop ship to the planet surface where, strangely, an outpost on a moon named L57 had gone silent. They had to decide also, what equipment they were going to take for the mission, as there was limited room in the drop ship, especially, if they were going to pick up civilian survivors, (they rejected the possibility of empty seats on the return journey...). Unfortunately, they left the heavy flamethrowers behind, but latched onto the cool Pulse rifles. They also took along the heavy weapons guy, fortunately, with his shoulder mounted heavy duty rock 'n' roll.
They were pretty creeped out by the whole thing, and it was a great success, it seems. At one point, they accidentaly shot the lights out when in a room with a facehugger, and one of the marines 'bought it' soon after being splashed by an aliens acidic blood during close quarter combat. A few bit the dust in quick succession, but, as the character sheets were communal, I didnt need to worry about players not having a charatcer.
Four got out alive, plus two survivors, one android scientist, and one civilian they found in a cocoon...They didnt venture into the subterranian caves below the outpost, however.
They want to have a return journey, to flush out any aliens still surviving, not that they are aware of what lurks in the deepest chamber.
I found the rules to run like a dream. They really got off on whether to 'one shot' or 'fire burst' or 'autofire', (They autofired a lot!). I got them to keep track of their ammo, which they did really well and honestly. I gave them some spare clips each, as Im not that cruel, although, at one point, at a great dramatic moment too, one marine's gun jammed.
I sort of went to town a bit on the visuals, I made a GM screen with just the Aliens 'light shaft' on it, I used the stand up cardboard minis from my Aliens boardgame for the aliens and the characters, and I mapped the whole outpost in 1" x 1" squares.
All in all, I think they really enjoyed it, I did too, and it got them away from their X Boxes for an evening, at least.
Thanks guys for the suggestions, and even though I may not have used them directly, they were a great help in getting me to be creative.
