Since battlefield earth came up in another thread, and we were asked to stop talking about it there, here's a thread  to talk about it.

I'd say if the book, which i read and survived, had been written in the 30's-50's it might be considered a great classic scifi novel. I'm certain it was meant to be a tribute to the golden age, the Gernsback era. it sure read like a massive 30's pulp scifi novel.

The movie...bleah. (Did the main actor, who played taylor, ever get another role? haver to bing that.)

But the book had a massive amount of storyline in it ad i suppose it wouldn't be too hard to make a fairly detailed RPG sourcebook for it. Obviously as to a system, a simple one would be best. Fate, savage worlds, hell, even FAST.

I know there's a 30's scifi style rpg setting for savage worlds called slipstream meant to do the 30's style serial scifi like flash gordon. Plus they have a flash gordon setting so those would work.

Since at least a couple people here like the novel i wondered what they'd think of a RPG setting for it. I don't think it'd be my thing, i like high tech more than retro. I will say the connection to scientology wouldn't bother me much, I don't care for scientology but honestly, I think that it's bullshit that scientology gets so much shit thrown at it but no one slams on Nation of Islam, which is far worse.

I don't know if there's enough meat there to be a RPG. It was a good book though.

Now, for a setting? The Mission Earth series.

Quote from: horsesoldier on May 10, 2021, 03:10:37 PMNow, for a setting? The Mission Earth series.

You know that thing in Raiders of the Lost Ark where dude's face melts?  That's me right now.

Quote from: ThatChrisGuy on May 10, 2021, 04:03:29 PM

Quote from: horsesoldier on May 10, 2021, 03:10:37 PMNow, for a setting? The Mission Earth series.

You know that thing in Raiders of the Lost Ark where dude's face melts?  That's me right now.

post a video?

I am sure the book is better than the movie, but I think the movie was so bad, any future franchise potential was dashed by the impression it made.

There are bits of the book that have stuck with me even though I read it about 40 years ago; FWIW that's as good of praise as I can give it.  The BASIC STRUCTURE of the film actually follows the plot of the book, but it keeps going to the point where the Earthlings actually meet and interact with other species.

Needless to say the Psychlos (?)  (That's from memory) aren't the morons they are in the movie, its more hubris than stupidity; but at its best, it's phone-booked sized wordy beast, with the same implausible Fallout 3-4-esque functional tech.

Oh, I forgot, the lead was the Sniper in Saving Private Ryan.

It's not a bad setup for a Gamma World-esque campaign, where the world was conquered by aliens, humanity survived in tiny pockets, and most of the aliens have left and basically ignore the survivors.  I'd divorce it from the source material entirely and just build up from those basic premises.  Hell, make it an alternate War of the Worlds where the martians sent invasion 2.0 of just robots while they figured out the problems of earth's ecology on their physiology.

Battlefield Earth (82) reads like a rip-off of La Planète Sauvage (aka: Fantastic Planet) from 73. Except not on such a massive scale disparity and the hero is not taken as an infant. Otherwise...
Humans live as savages? Check. (except in FP they are savages transplanted to an utterly alien and hostile environment)
One human is taken as a pet and inadvertently has his intelligence boosted? Check. (Though in BE the boost is semi-intentional if recall right.)
Said now uplifted human uses the teaching device to uplift others? Check.
Uplifted humans use this knowledge to turn the tables on the aliens and nearly wipe out their civilization? check (except in FP they build their own rockets to escape the planet and inadvertently land on the neighboring one where the aliens periodically mentally project to share knowledge. And kinda wreck it.)

I've seen the cartoon (Not anime) savage planet. Nota bad call, except the aliens in it were simply unaware of humanities intelligense and saw them as animals. The psychlos in BE were actively sadistic and made so by brain implants.

Battlefield Earth will never became an RPG setting without the lawyers from the Church of Scientology getting involved. Anything produced with the blessings of Scientologists that would give them any profit whatsoever is something that should be avoided like the plague.

Quote from: Omega on May 10, 2021, 09:40:17 PM
Battlefield Earth (82) reads like a rip-off of La Planète Sauvage (aka: Fantastic Planet) from 73. Except not on such a massive scale disparity and the hero is not taken as an infant. Otherwise...
Humans live as savages? Check. (except in FP they are savages transplanted to an utterly alien and hostile environment)
One human is taken as a pet and inadvertently has his intelligence boosted? Check. (Though in BE the boost is semi-intentional if recall right.)
Said now uplifted human uses the teaching device to uplift others? Check.
Uplifted humans use this knowledge to turn the tables on the aliens and nearly wipe out their civilization? check (except in FP they build their own rockets to escape the planet and inadvertently land on the neighboring one where the aliens periodically mentally project to share knowledge. And kinda wreck it.)

Not so much intellect as educational boosting. Terl needed Johnny to have at least an understanding of Psychlo technology. He was counting on keeping Johnny in check using explosive collars on Johnny's girlfriend and little sister.

(I admit, while the movie was ass, the ultimate fate of Terl was rather amusing -- trapped in a cage as he'd done with Johnny, surrounded by the gold he could never have)

Jeff37923 is right though. Anything Scientologists touch is tainted. I dunno how many of you remember Project Chanology and Clambake, but it tore the mask off Scientology in a big way.

HAHAHAHA stupid man-animal!

I'd rather see a Manos: Hands of Fate RPG than anything associated with fucking Battlefield Earth...