The Black Campbell

Here is another battlestar group for your roleplaying game’s fleet (and the one we’re using in our campaign.)

The flagship for Battlestar Group 55 (BSG-55) is the Minerva-class battlestar Pleiades, and she is usually deployed with a pair of Berzerk-class gunstars, two Vanguard-class assaultstars, and a Demeter-class tender.  Like Galactica, Pleiades must retract her landing pods for FTL jumps — her FTL sinks are spaced far and the displacement bubble generated is not large enough to handle the pods otherwise.

BATTLESTAR PLEIADES

SHIP DATA:
Class: Minerva     Length: 4777.7′     Beam: 1742′     Draught: 841.5′     Decks: 30     Scale: Spacecraft     Crew: 1500 standard, 10,000 max

ATTRIBUTES:
Agility: d4     Strength: d12+d4     Vitality: d6     Alertness: d8     Intelligence: d8     Willpower: d10

Life Points: 26     Armor: 6W, 4S     Initiative: d4+d8     Speed: 5 [SL/JC]

TRAITS: Formidable Presence (d4), Viper Construction Facilities (d4)

SKILLS:  Heavy Weapons d6, Mechanical Engineering d4, Perception d6, Pilot d4

ARMAMENT:  Heavy Skirmish Range Point Defense System  (d12W Planetary-scale ), 32 Capital-range Heavy Railguns (d12+d2W Spacecraft-scale), 22 Short Dradis-range Heavy Missile Systems (d12+d4W Spacecraft-Scale), 12 Long Dradis-Range Nuclear Missile Systems  (d12+d8W Spacecraft-scale)

AUXILIARY VEHICLES:  110 (4 squadrons and 10 spare) Mk VII Vipers, 25 Raptors, 10 Marine Landing Shuttles, 3 standard shuttles, assorted work vehicles

Orthographics by tanj from scifi-meshes.com.  See more of his spectacular work there.

ASSAULTSTARS DEMOSTHENES and HEKTOR

The Vanguard class is an older model, the original models as old as thirty years in service, but they are nearly all still active as of the attacks. They carry up to a battalion of Colonial Marines for up to three months, which can be deployed using specialized Marine Landing Shuttles (uparmored standard shuttles.)  The MLS can carry 25 marines and either a tank or two APCs or CAWS, or 50 marines in a drop.

SHIP DATA:
Type:     Assaultstar/Escort     Class: Vanguard     Scale: Spacecraft     Registry: DD-72     Length: 1867′     Beam: 360′     Draught: 377′     Decks: 13     Crew: 270 standard, plus up to 500 marines

ATTRIBUTES:
Agility: d6     Strength: d8     Vitality: d6     Alertness: d8     Intelligence: d6     Willpower: d8

Life Points: 16     Armor: 4W, 4S     Initiative: d6+d8    Speed: 6 [SL/JC]

SKILLS:  Heavy Weapons d4, Mechanical Engineering d4, Perception d4, Pilot d4

TRAITS:
Lucky Ship [d4] (for Demosthenes.)

ARMAMENT:  Heavy Skirmish Range Point Defense System (d12W Planetary-scale ),  7 Short DRADIS-Range Medium Railguns (d10W Spacecraft-scale),  12 Short DRADIS-Range Medium Missile Systems  (d12W Spacecraft-Scale) *Can be fired from Railguns.

AUXILIARY VEHICLES:  10 Raptors, 6 Vipers, 10 Marine Landing Shuttles, can carry 10 tanks, 20 APC or CAWS, or a combination for landing with the MLS.

HISTORY:
Demosthenes is part of BSG-55 (Pleiades), but is often released to detached duty for search & rescue and smuggling interdiction missions.  “Old D” was constructed in 35AC, and is one of the older vessels in her class.  She has a reputation for being “lucky.”

Demothenes is the design and property of Rick Snider.  You can find this and other examples of his work on scifi-meshes.com.

GUNSTAR HERAKLES and MEDEA

Berzerk-class gunstars act as protection for main-line battlestars like Pleiades.  These are relatively modern assault craft and require a fairly small crew.  Their computer systems are fully up to date, complete with the Command Navigation Program (unlike the older Vanguard class), and Mk VII vipers.

SHIP DATA:

Ship Class: Berzerk     Ship Type:  Gunstar Escort
Length: 2779.6′     Beam: 709.5′     Draught: 389.4′     Deck: 16
Crew: 600 standard [Includes 90 pilots, 20 marines]

ATTRIBUTES:

Agility:    d6     Strength: d10     Vitality: d6     Alertness: d8   Intelligence: d6     Willpower: d8

Initiative: d6+d8     Speed: 6 [SL/JC]     Life Points: 18     Armor: 3W, 4S

TRAITS:

SKILLS:

Heavy Weapons d4, Mechanical Engineering d4, Perception d4, Pilot d4

ARMAMENT:   Medium Point Defense System [skirmish-range, vehicle-scale]:  d8, Vehicle-scale]; 22 Heavy Railguns: d12 [short DRADIS range, spacecraft scale]; 32 Heavy Missiles: d12 [short DRADIS, spacecraft scale]

AUXILIARY CRAFT:
20 Vipers, 20 Raptors, 10 Shuttles

Lieutenant Marie “Three Point” Auram

Born 27AC in the “Great City of Lydisius” on Virgon, Marie is the second daughter and fourth child to Robert and Caroline Auram.  Her father is an architect of note in the city and her mother an artist of some quality and little note.  Her eldest brother, Robert Jr., works for her father, and her elder sister, Elise, is a union representative for the Virgon Teacher’s Union.  Her younger brother is a contract pilot for Intersun, flying space liners.

Artistic as a child, Marie paints, draws, and is frequently working of crafts.  Somewhere in her childhood, she started building models with her brother Jean.  Her favorite subjects for modeling were past and current aircraft.  She was a gregarious child and was popular in school.  Marie dated both boys and girls in school, having lost her virginity to her best friend Alyssa when she was thirteen.  While mostly heterosexual, she is very attracted to the female form.

She attended the University of Virgon’s illustrious School of Art, with a minor in astronomy.  While there, she modeled semi-professionally.  She also had her first serious relationship with another art student, Don Loga, whom she subsequently binned after a spectacular threesome for the girl they were with, Rachel Nyes.  That relationship didn’t last long, but they stayed friends.  When Marie graduated 49AC, she surprised everyone by joining the Colonial Fleet…and not even on the usual reservist list.
Raised in one of the most beautiful cities on Virgon, Marie is not the usual military-type: she is fond of fashion, has good taste in food and drink, and is an inveterate sunbather.  But Auram had always dreamed of flying something fast and dangerous, and requested pilot training.  She was commissioned after OCS on Picon, and directed not to combat flight training she desired, but to Raptors.  Somewhat disappointed, she nevertheless threw herself into the training.  Her basic flight skills were top notch for a nugget, and she earned the name “Three Point” for her consistent ability to bring a bird in on all skids, every time.  She aced her navigation and electronic operations courses and was finally released into the fleet at the end of 51AC.

She was assigned to the aging Atlantia as part of the Raptor squadron.  She had been aboard the ship for only six months, but quickly gained a reputation for her skill and recklessness.  Auram did so well, she was sent to Delphi’s Combat Flight School in 52AC.  She returned to the fleet as a viper jock on Pleiades, doubling as a raptor training officer.

Her gutsy style and skill has made her one of the ship’s top pilots, and her sexy, playful good humor make her popular with officers and deck gang, alike.  (The player chose Monica Vesela as the face for the character.)

Agility: d10   Strength: d6   Vitality: d6   Alertness: d10   Intelligence: d8   Willpower: d8

Initiative: 2d10   Life Points: 14   Endurance: 2d6   Resistance: d6+d8

Age: 25   Height: 5’4″   Weight: 125 lbs.   Hair: Black   Eyes: Brown

ASSETS:  Allure d4 [sexy, more than beautiful], Dogfighter d4, Lady Luck d4, Talented ECO d4 [adds to Tech Engineering/DRADIS and /Electronic Warfare]

COMPLICATIONS: Allergies [mold & mildew] d2, Dull Sense [smell] d2, Gloryhound d4, Wise Ass d4

SKILLS: Artistry d4, Athletics d4, Covert d2, Discipline d4, Guns d4, Influence d6, Knowledge d2, Mechanical Engineering d2, Perception d6, Performance d2, Pilot d6 [Raptor d10, Viper d8], Planetary Vehicles d2, Science Expertise d2, Survival d2, Technical Engineering d6 [Electronic Warfare d8, DRADIS d8], Unarmed Combat d2

Corporal Artemesia Vasco

Artemisia Vasco is the only daughter and youngest of six children to Fred and Madeline Vasco of Turbury-on-Ayl, a small farming community on Arelon.  Born in 32AC, she grew up in a small, quaint village where much of the land was owned by rich men and companies, and most of the people worked the fields and never got more than 20 miles from their home.  As a girl, she dreamed of getting away from the boredom and poverty of her home, where her father worked twelve hours a day in the fields, and her mother tended bar at the local pub.  The only girl in a household of boys, she grew up a tomboy.  She enjoyed sports, liked to wrestle, fight, hunt, fish, and otherwise carried on in a masculine fashion.
Always pretty, she quickly filled out at puberty,and took an immediate interest in boys and frequently entertained herself in fields, barns, and anywhere else she and her latest boyfriend could be alone.  She had a close call at fourteen, but the pregnancy failed in the first month.  She has since been on birth control.  When she was seventeen, bored with school and looking for a way out, the Colonial Marines recruiter came through Turbury.  The day after her graduation from school, she was on a train to Arelon City to the MEPS for her swearing in, and the next day reported to basic training at Sandy Downs on Arelon.

Her father had always told her Artemis had given her a gift: long-sight and a steady aim.  Starting with bows and light rifles when she was young, Artemisia has been shooting since she was a little girl.  In basic training, her tomboy nature came in handy and she excelled in hand-to-hand combat, basic rifle marksmanship, and getting into trouble by having “four feet in a two-foot rack.”  She was given follow-on training as a sniper at the CMC training grounds on Leonis and is a qualified sniper and spotter.

Her first assignment as a marine was in battlestar Atlantia.  Easily bored and a bit lazy, she was soon getting into trouble by sleeping late, making herself scarce when off duty, or fraternizing.  Despite this, her work on search and rescue teams, disaster relief, and other missions allowed her to advance to squad leader and corporal by the time of the Cylon attack.

Vasco is a tough, brash, and somewhat crass woman.  She is a complete hedonist, and is fond of good food, drink, clothes, and sex.  Brave and adventurous, she is willing to fight hard, but she is lazy when it comes to work and things that don’t interest her.  (Player chose Giuliana Marino as the face.)

Agility: d10   Strength: d6   Vitalty: d6   Alertness: d10   Intelligence: d6   Willpower: d6

Initiative: 2d10   Life Points: 12   Endurance: 2d6   Resistance: 2d6

Age:  20   Height: 5’6″   Weight: 118 lbs.   Hair: Brown/Auburn   Eyes: Gray

ASSETS:  Allure d4, Athlete d4, Sharp Sense [Sight] d4, Talented Sniper d4 [Rifles and Perception/Tracking]

COMPLICATIONS: Lazy d4, Loyal d4, Lustful d4

SKILLS:  Animal Handling d2, Athletics d6, Covert d4, Discipline d4, Guns d6, Heavy Weapons d4, Perception d6, Planetary Vehicles d4, Ranged Weapons d6, Survival d6, Unarmed Combat d6

I’m a big fan of Greek mythology.  Always have been.  Despite Roger Ebert’s claims to the contrary, the Greek myths are populated with intriguing characters and situations that were replicated around the Mediterranean, and heavily influenced the Celtic mythology.  Norse myth, for me, is essentially a series of stories about powerful gods/ heroes getting drunk and brawling.  It’s like one long Friday night in London.

A friend of mine had heard I was working on a retelling of the Perseus myth, and loaned me the first volume in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series.  The teen fic turn of phrase was annoying to me, but the story was a speedy and imaginative modern version of Perseus.  When I heard a movie was being made, I was not particularly interested.  Still, I went and had a look last week.

The Lightning Thief was pulling 50% on Rotten Tomatoes when I checked today, and I found most of the criticism was unfair and biased.  Largely, these movie “buffs” saw the movie as a Harry Potter knockoff with an American accent.  Fair enough, it’s teen fiction about a coming-of-age loser turned hero with a supernatural basis, but they miss the skilled retelling of the Perseus story (minus the Cassiopeia and Kraken elements.)

The cast is solid, but it’s the bit players that really make the movie shine.  Pierce Brosnan does a good, if not great, job as Chiron, the centaur that trains heroes.  He does look good as centaur, however.  Uma Thurman — not one of my favorite actresses — chews the scenery as Medusa, and does it the same way Brian Blessed can:  it’s gloriously over the top, but somehow still spot on.  Steve Coogan is particularly good as Hades, playing the god of the underworld with a panache and careless humor that makes him the most interesting of the gods we meet.  Sean Bean, who I think has a contract with Hollywood requiring him to be in every movie made since 2000, is Zeus and brings his usual near-histrionic style to the Lord of the Gods.  Wasted here is Melina Kanakaredes as Athena — mother of one of the main characters.  She has two lines.

The main characters are played well by Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth), and Brandon T Jackson (Grover the Satyr.)  Jackson does the usual hipster sidekick/comic relief that all black actors seem to have to endure.  He’s funny, but I always find this character archetype forced.  Daddario has a spectacular look that works for her “daughter of Athena” role.  (Athena…the chaste goddess.  Um…)  Lerman is annoying, at first, as the loser kid with ADHD and dyslexia (because his brain is hardwired for ancient Greek, being a demigod), but as the story progresses and he starts to be more comfortable in the role, there is a bit of a swagger over the teen anger that works well.

There is an attempt to be relatively faithful to the spirit and tropes of the Olympian myths (minus the Athena having a child thing…)  It’s not a Harry Potter knockoff, but more of a reimagining of Greek myth.  Perseus is a loser — the grandson of king Acricius that sets his daughter and her son off in an small boat to die [Perseus is the son of Zeus in the original story.]  He is pushed into hunting Medusa in a moment of pique and with the aid of Athena and Hermes, goes on to become s great hero — slaying Medusa and the Kraken, before doing in his grandfather and becoming king.  The movie swaps Zeus out for Poseidon, and Percy’s aid comes from Annabeth and Grover the Satyr.  (The gods are forbidden from contacting their mortal children by Zeus, but that’s part of the plot and I’ll not do spoilers here.)

The special effects are good — especially the gait of the satyr and centaur characters.  They look right.  The pacing is good, fast, and the movie has a light humor that is perfect for the teenage audience it’s aimed at.  I do wish the movie had given us the reason for the entrance to Olympus being in the World Trade Center — they do in the book:  as civilization progresses, and the center of civilization changes, the link to Olympus changes — from Greece, to Paris, to London, to New York.

Without the English accents and boarding school chic of the Potter series, I can see where people would view this as a low-rent version of that series…they’re wrong.

Overall, I’d give it 3 out of 4 stars.  It’s definitely worth a matinee showing, and I didn’t feel gipped going to a full-price evening show.

Captain Gaius “Professor” Horvath

Born in Delphi, Caprica in 22AC (After Articles of Colonization), Gaius is the oldest of two boys to Zacarius and Melina Horvath.  He grew up in the second largest city on Caprica and the seat of military presence on the world.  His father is an admiral in the Colonial Fleet and commander of BSG-55 (Pleiades group.)  His mother is a respected lawyer and professor of colonial law at Delphi University, where he would later school.
Both boys, Gaius and his brother Augustus (Gus), grew up without the pampered background of other wealthy families, but he did reap the benefits of a classical education at Delphi Academy – one of the finest private school on Caprica.  He excelled in various sports, but was particularly good at Pyramid – enough so that he won a scholarship, despite his family’s means, to Delphi University.

At college, his main course of study was military science, with a minor in literature.  He finished his basic degree with firsts in classic literature and history.  He continued to his master’s degree in political science at Caprica University, with a specialty in interplanetary security.  After he graduated, most expected him to continue into government.  Instead, he joined the Colonial Fleet as a reserve officer and trained as a flight officer at Delphi, finishing basic flight near the top of his class.  Nicknamed “Professor” for his intelligence and higher education, he was considered by some an elitist snob, but his winning personality and good-humor won him more friends and admirers than not.

He continued to advanced combat training and in 48AAC, he was graduated into the fleet.  His first assignment was aboard Atlantia as a junior lieutenant and Viper jock.  He trained on old Mk II’s, but aboard the flagship of BSG-70, he flew Mk VII’s – the finest space superiority fighter ever made.  He quickly made friends amongst his fellow pilots, and drew the attention of Admiral Nagala himself.  He was promoted to full lieutenant a year later – very quickly!  By 52AC, he rotated onto reserve duty.  It took him three months to realize that he missed the excitement of flying vipers.  His father pulled strings and got him assigned to Pleiades, his father’s ship.  He was promoted to captain and made a squadron leader.

Smart, savvy and charismatic, Professor is a popular officer.  His weaknesses lies mostly in his grandstanding and overconfidence, which have more than once nearly splashed him.  However, he has always managed to pull his fat out of the fire.  A natural leader, most of his peers expect one day he might be an admiral.

When off-duty he can often be found reading, and he is fond of showing off his knowledge to anyone who will listen.  He is a connoisseur of fine wine, whiskey, food, and women – he has a long line of lovers –  and he is particularly taken with the technology and tactics of the military.  His love for his Viper is almost unnatural.  He calls her “Galatea”, after the statue in the Pygmalion myth – more to humor those who think him a bit too fond of the plane.  (Player chose Casper van Dien as the face for the character…)

Agility: d8   Strength: d8   Vitality: d8   Alertness: d8   Intelligence: d8   Willpower: d8

Initiative: 2d8   Life Points: 16   Endurance: 2d8   Resistance: 2d8

Age:  30   Height: 5’11”   Weight: 190 lbs.   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Blue

ASSETS:  Advanced Education d4, Dogfighter d4, Good-Natured d4

COMPLICATIONS:  Gloryhound d4, Overconfident d4

SKILLS:  Athletics d6 [Pyramid d8], Discipline d6, Guns d4, Influence d6 [Leadership d10], Mechanical Engineering d2, Perception d6, Pilot d6 [Viper d10, Ship Cannons d10], Planetary Vehicles d4, Technical Engineering d4, Unarmed Combat d4

This week I’ll be posting some character portraits from our Battlestar Galactica campaign.  The initial series are from the “second fleet” group (we also had a ground group that will be posted later.)  Enjoy…

Admiral Zacharias “Zack” Horvath

Born 3BAC (Before Articles of Colonization) in Argus, Libran.  He is from a famous line of Libran politicians.  His father was Ferenc Horvath, defense minister of the world prior to the First Cylon War, and later Quorum member.  His mother was a lawyer of some note.  He grew up during the Cylon War.  Five years after the war, he joined the Colonial Fleet and attended Delphi Military Academy on Caprica.

He served as a fighter pilot from 19-26AC, rising quickly to major.  During his time at DMA, he met a Caprican law student, Melina, and married before his first duty assignment.  A son, Gaius, was born in 22AC, and Augustus followed in 26AC.   He attended the War College at Picon HQ, then followed it up with three years at the Defense Ministry HQ on Picon.

Horvath was CAG for the battlestar Galactica from 30-32AC.  He was operations officer in Athena for two years and became colonel and XO for the small batlestar Bellerophon in 36AC.  He succeeded to command of the vessel in 40AC, then took command of the battlestar Acropolis in 45AC with the rank of commander.  In 48AC, he was promoted to rear admiral and took command of the Delphi Spaceport and Colonial Military Base, where he remained for three years.  He took over Pleiades group in 52AC.

Admiral Horvath is a 33 year veteran of the Colonial Fleet and an inveterate politician.  He is known for his connections, savvy, and his rivalry with Fleet Admiral Nagala.  Horvath is a big man, and incredibly strong, with a reputation for his martial arts skill.  At the time of the attacks, he is 55 years old.  (The player chose an older Dolph Lundgren for the look.)

Agility: d6   Strength: d10   Vitality: d8   Alertness: d8   Intelligence: d10   Willpower: d10

Initiative: d6+d8   Life Points: 20   Endurance: 2d8   Resistance: d8+d10

Age: 55   Height: 6’4″   Weight: 230 lbs.   Hair: Dirty Blonde [greying]   Eyes: Blue

ASSETS:  Brawler d4, Formidable Presence d4, Political Pull d6, So Say We All d4, Tough d4

COMPLICATIONS:  Competitive d4, Duty d6, Gloryhound d4, Prejudice [civilian government] d4

SKILLS:  Athletics d6, Covert d4, Discipline d6 [Leadership d8], Guns d6, Influence d6 [Administration d8, Bureaucracy d8], Knowledge d2, Melee Combat d4, Perception d6, Pilot d6 [Vipers d8], Planetary Vehicles d4, Survival d4, Technical Engineering d4, Unarmed Combat d6 [Kickboxing d8]

These wee beasties showed up in Razor, and  thought it was time they got some stats for the Battlestar Galactica RPG.  I looked over the orthos from Eric Chu and it seems all the heavy ordinance is on the weapons/launch pod amidships.  There are eight launch pod-looking greebles on either side of the flight line, aft and fore, and dual barreled railguns on the top of the pod, as well as two forward-facing cannons. There are four turret-like greebles on the head of the gunstar, as well, but they look most likely to be missiles turrets, rather than railguns.  I didn’t include them in the current specs. The big barrel-looking thing on the underside I assumed was a retrofire reaction system.  Feel free to fanboy it into a massive supergun, or something…

The Berzerk-class gunstars act as protection for main-line battlestars.  These are relatively modern assault craft and require a fairly small crew.  Their computer systems are fully up to date, complete with the Command Navigation Program (unlike the older Vanguard class), and Mk VII vipers.

SHIP DATA:

Ship Class: Berzerk     Ship Type:  Gunstar Escort
Length: 2779.6′     Beam: 709.5′     Draught: 389.4′     Deck: 16
Crew: 600 standard [Includes 90 pilots, 20 marines]

ATTRIBUTES:

Agility:    d6     Strength: d10     Vitality: d6     Alertness: d8   Intelligence: d6     Willpower: d8

Initiative: d6+d8     Speed: 6 [SL/JC]     Life Points: 18     Armor: 3W, 4S

TRAITS:

SKILLS:  Heavy Weapons d4, Mechanical Engineering d4, Perception d4, Pilot d4

ARMAMENT:   Medium Point Defense System [skirmish-range, vehicle-scale]:  d8, Vehicle-scale]; 22 Heavy Railguns: d12 [short DRADIS range, spacecraft scale]; 32 Heavy Missiles: d12 [short DRADIS, spacecraft scale]

AUXILIARY CRAFT:  20 Vipers, 20 Raptors, 10 Shuttles

Often, romance is an element missing from roleplaying game campaigns, especially with male gamemasters.  There is a stereotype of the male gamer as somehow clueless, nerdy, and out of touch with women, but this is strangely not my experience; most are married or dating (often a gamer.)  This was not always the case:  in the early phase of the hobby, I’d say 90% of gamers were male, young, and way too into Conan the Barbarian.  We looked like the two guys from the Fear of Girls shorts on YouTube.

Romance, in those days, revolved around the character getting laid.  “I want to have sex with her,” enthuses Raymond in Fear of Girls, when confronted with a sexy elven priestess.  Doug, the DM, responds, “Gimme a roll…”  That was a pretty good example of “romance” in the early days.  Rape, pillage, get the treasure, repeat as needed.

Early on, I moved out of fantasy settings to modern day espionage.  Femme fatales are standard trope, and romancing them still was mostly to get laid and get information.  But the reality of the femme fatale is the honeypot:  the girl that makes you fall for them so that they can play you for information (or assassinate you…)

But by the late 1980s, I regularly had at least one female in the gaming group, and throughout the 1990s and 2000s, I average two women at the table.  Many were drawn in by different genres of RPG — there was the advent of “steampunk”, with it’s Victorian setting that brought the romance of the period to bear.  The period also saw the rise of the White Wolf settings, the World of Darkness, with the heavy-handed sexual innuendo of vampirism, and courtly style of interaction.  It, and steampunk in the Castle Falkenstein game,  favored LARP-style gaming, so they got to dress up, as well.

Women, I think, often bring more maturity to the table.  They are looking for more than macho self-aggrandizement.  They want story, they want character interaction outside of quaffing ale and randomly fighting each other (leave that to the English on a Friday night.)  And they want romance.  Not just sex.

Gamemastering romance can be tough, but it’s almost always fun, if you relax and enjoy it.  First thing:  don’t assume that characters romantically involved mean the players want to be romantically involved.  Yes, it’s often a hint –quite a few players with characters involved were themselves having a relationship…or were thinking about it.  But it’s not always the case.  Mature players will know this;  immature ones need to have rules laid out up front about the in-character/out of character situation to avoid misunderstandings.

Second, look at movies and television for ideas on how to run a romance.  There’s the popular “slow burn” romance — where the characters are attracted to each other, but don’t quite get to act on things, either because bad guys are distracting them, they sometimes misunderstand each others’ queues, or professional relationships forces them to pretend they aren’t into each other.  Even if these things aren’t in the way, real life has a habit of slowing things down a bit.

Start the relationships off slow — often a few well-placed and thought out NPCs can catch the attention of the players’ characters.  Don’t make the NPCs too easy if the players show interest.  Cock block them with missions, family issues, or put the love interest in danger.  Make them work for it a bit.  You’ll find that the players will take to it…even the guys.

This brings us to the inevitable conclusion of romance:  sex.  How much is too much?  As with violence, how (or if) to play out sex really relies on a few things.  1)  Is it something the players are going to get embarrassed by?  Making them play out the blow-by-blow is usually unnecessary, and unless everyone is feeling a bit randy, is probably not the way to go.  2) Are the players mature enough to handle it (especially if two players’ characters are getting involved)?  3) Is it necessary to the plot?  Probably not.

There’s the quick gloss over.  Think about the movies of the 1940s and ’50s.  The couples go for the kiss, then we pan to the blowing curtains, and then it’s the next morning.  This is usually enough for the players.  Some might be interested in their performance, however, and if they feel the need, you might have them test for it in some way.  (And it’s a hoot for all when they biff the roll!)  Essentially, it’s very hard to say how far a scene should be described…it’s up to your discretion and the maturity of the players.

Romance, however, is ultimately about relationships.  They connect characters to each other (or NPCs.)  If they care about these connections, they can be used as plot hooks (the kidnapped wife/husband/kid or the murdered lover or relative is always good material.)  they can also define the character for the player, giving them motivations and something to care about.  It’s easy to fly off for an adventure in Borneo when there’s no one home to leave alone.  The loss of a loved one can plague the character with guilt or doubt (if their fault), or cause them to act in a manner that might not be conducive to their safety.

Remember to use romantic attachments not just for cheap thrills, but to help the plotting and the definition of the characters.  The players will thank you for it.

It might seem a bit silly to do a piece on violence in roleplaying games.  From Chainmail and Dungeons & Dragons, to Twilight: 2000 and Space: 1889, to the Vampire and other White Wolf titles there is one overarching connection — fighting.  For D&D, the whole raison d’etre is violence — against monsters, against people, against other races in the hopes of glory and wealth.  Vampire and Werewolf appear to be more courtly, and more backstabbing in their type of violence, but ultimately you’re still playing creatures that eat people.  Or war on each other, ala Underworld.

However it’s the approach to violence in the various settings that I want to address, and how you can capture the appropriate tone for your game.  Over the years, I’ve tried to make violence fairly realistic in my games.  That doesn’t necessarily mean gory, but violence has real consequences beyond how many “hit points” you lose.

I’ve run espionage games most of my life.  The goal is frequently to avoid violence, or even the hint that you were operating in the enemy’s AO.  But when it happens, it’s usually fast, messy, and not well choreographed.  (The latest James Bond movies have captured the frenetic pace and hurt of fights for your life.)  So how far do you go with describing the attacks, the injuries?

The easiest genre to attack is War, and combat-oriented games like Twilight: 2000 or Battlestar Galactica.  War is dangerous, fast-paced, confusing, and often deadly.  you might not have to give graphic depictions of everything happening around the characters — in fact, often “fog of war” keeps people on the battlefield from having a full picture of the proceedings.  Think of the beginning sequence of Saving Private Ryan — the chaos of the battle, the randomness of injury.  The character has his hearing go out temporarily, time seems to speed up and slow down.  There a re moments, like the soldier looking for his lost arm, that catch his attention.  This give you an idea of the kind of flavor you might want for this kind of campaign…

Here you would go over the effects of the injuries sustained, as much as the hit points/life points/whatever points lost.  Say a character has 14 life points and is shot with a high-caliber rifle — say a .50 caliber.  The damage they sustain might only be 5 points (they get really lucky), but that’s still roughly a third they can take…they’ll live, but they’re mashed up pretty good.  Maybe they lost an arm or a leg.

Smaller caliber weapons do different things.  The 5.7x28mm of Galactica‘s colonials is a .224 round.  It does a lot of temporary damage through hydrostatic shock, but it’s a small wound.  They tend to close and not bleed heavily.  9mm rounds in ball zip right through a person, even in the chest cavity, with some possibility of doing slight damage.  Or they can paralyze you.  The exit holes tend to bleed worse the the entrance wound.  Knife wounds hurt! and they bleed!  They also have a higher chance of doing permanent nerve damage.  Even a fist fight, the person delivering the blows — in my experience — rarely walks away without bruised knuckles or some kind of mild sprain.

You don’t have to go through the blow by blow, as in The Morrow Project, of what is happening as a bullet passes through someone.  Usually, most people aren’t that self-aware, and often an injury incurs some level of shock.

But say you’re not interested in the traumatizing effects of violence.  For a more genteel campaign, like Space: 1889 or Castle Falkenstein, you might want to keep the description of violence to a minimum, instead going with a “movie style” or “TV style” of violence.

Think about the way violence was portrayed in old Westerns, pulp movies (including the Indiana Jones series.)  There might be blood squibs, but often there’s just a clutching of wounds and collapsing.  Only during the truly horrific — the wrath of god or the evil fiend torturing an NPC do you see anything.  (Or not even then.  Think about the end of the flying wing fist fight in Raiders of the Lost Ark, for instance…)  No hero loses limbs, and no shoulder wound involves the brachial or subclavian arteries and bleeding out; no brachial plexus that means no feeling or movement in the arm.  The character, if tortured is given their resistance rolls, as the villains move in to do their dirty work and we pan away to the sounds of their screams.  (Think Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back…you didn’t need to see the torture to know that it sucked egregiously.)  This sort of violence style is much more appropriate to the pulp campaigns of Hollow Earth Expedition or Savage Worlds, and it works well if you want the more campy period of James Bond.

Even TV-style violence varied from the weekly “shot in the shoulder but I’m okay” violence of Starsky & Hutch, to the more serious effects of gun play in Miami Vice.  Magnum: PI avoided gun play for the most part, and when it happened, it was sanitized for the prime time audience.

Cartoony violence, in which violence is used as slapstick comedy might be appropriate to Paranoia or Toon campaigns.  The horrific ends the character might face are mitigated by the internal logic of the campaign itself.  Similarly, a “golden age” style superhero camapign would involve a lot of collateral damage and knockback…but ultimately, the villain is only knocked unconscious and taken into custody (only to escape later.)  People rarely die prior to the angsty-realistic comic themes of the 1980s and later.

The key is to 1) Know your audience.  Are they mature enough for graphic violence?  Are they the kind to go into vapors if their character is tortured, raped, scarred or physically impaired by injury?  2) Is it appropriate to the setting?  More realistic campaigns the answer might be yes, but for light entertainments of pulp or romantic adventure..?  Probably not.

Following yesterday’s post, here’s some ideas to post-attack “second fleet” campaigns for Battlestar Galactica.

Key to this is the idea that another ship or ships survived the apocalypse.  In our campaign, the players’ battlestar and one of its assaultstar escorts survive the attacks on the Colonies because they are out investigating the lack of communications from Armistice Station.  They do run into the basestar there, and they lost much of their fighter group to the CNP attacks.  Fortunately, the assaultstars were upgraded, and the crew of the battlestar figure out the issue quickly enough to save the vessel (barely.)

Returning to warn the fleet, the ship misjumped due to problems related to the Cylon hack, and they were out of action for hours, trying to repair their vessel and get back into the fight.  By the time they do, Galactica and her fleet are gone.

Another idea is an exploration task force, out on patrol on the edge of the Armistice Line (or elsewhere) on a mission to look for Cylon activity, map the surrounding systems, and do science.  We encounter one of these in our campaign that has a science vessel (a Space Park style vessel), and agroship for supplies, and a tanker/tender, in addition to an older battlestar.  It’s a good assumption that there would be a few of these task forces, and that the Cylons might know where they are, thanks to their access to the Colonial Defense Mainframe.  Maybe they were held up on their patrol and aren’t where they’re supposed to be, saving them from attack (or warning them of the attacks when they get hit.)

There are two main storylines you can use here:  1) the ships stage a guerrilla war to free the Colonies, 2)  they haul ass into the Black, looking for a place to live.  If you don’t care about show canon, you could have them eventually find the fleet and aid them in their attempts to find Earth.

Some ideas for the guerrilla war option:

1.  The fleet does a series of dangerous recon missions with raptors to find out what is going on in the Colonies.  The opposition should be big enough that they cannot just go right at the Cylons.  I think we had something like 32-36 basestars (so thousands of raiders), and the Cylons were retrofitting battlestars they captured to fight.

2.  Deep Space Interferometer Telescope.  In our campaign, the SDIT was a series of telescopes rigged together in an interferometer, and controlled by a space station that the Cylons hadn’t discovered yet.  They rescued the crew, and reprogrammed the telescope to take orders from their battlestar.  With it, they were able to get reasonably fresh intelligence on the Cylon movement, and pick up transmissions from the survivors on the surface.  (Works well if you have a ground group, as well…)

3.  A series of search and rescue missions, or recon missions to connect with people on the surface of one or more of the Colonies to organize resistance.  A good twist here is that the survivors are sick from radiation, etc. and the rescuees or crew that liaise with them bring illness back to the ship.

4.  Staging a mission to capture mothballed ships (if you have enough crew to man them), or destroy Cylon bases of operations.

5.  Discovery of Scylla and her fleet.  these civilians have had everything of use stripped off of their vessels by Pegasus and they need help.  Play up the inhumanity of the move by Cain and co. to push the players to moral conundrums.  A good twist:  the fleet was seeded by Cylons with sleeper agents following the Pegasus event, and the ships have signaled the Cylons of the rescue attempt.  Have the Cylons show up right when the SAR is underway and muddies the rescue effort.

Here the key is to give them some hope that their loved one might have survived; having a relative of a character or two be found can heighten this.  Another important element is that they have to constantly move on the outskirts of the Colonies, and occasionally leave the system to hide — leaving them out of contact.  There should always be the element of discovery and a real battle in the offing.

For the Second Fleet idea —

You might start with some of the above and realize at some point that the Cylons are too many and have too tight a hold on the Colonies.  Lighting out into the Black, they come across Cylon fueling bases, mining operations.  A possible idea is that they keep coming across evidence of Galactica‘s fleet, leading them to Kobol, etc.

1.  Some kind of malfunction or sabotage causes the fleet to need water, fuel, or some other material.  Maybe it’s material to make repairs to the vessels.

2.  Murder mystery:  a young girl is found in a 55 gallon drum.  There is little forensics evidence (or no facilities to really follow up on the evidence) and the characters must scour the fleet looking for the killer.

3.  Mutinous Intent:  without hope the crew is trying to force the leadership to return to the Colonies.

4.  Religious Hints:  pick one of the characters and have them get messages from God (the Gods) leading the fleet to their next home.  Maybe they link up with the Galactica fleet and you replay/rewrite the last few seasons to suit your group, maybe they are lead to another world (maybe God wants to hedge his bets…)

5.  Disease — either natural or Cylon-caused.  How far do they have to go to seal off the infection?

There’s a wealth of ideas here to work from.  For my group, they aren’t working with the Scrolls of Pythia, but of Sybil — another oracle who wrote about another cycle of time.   The tale follows the Jericho/Masada/Troy idea of the noble resistance that eventually falls, but those that escape found the next major civilization.