TheRPGSite

Let's say you were playing a modern game, about an alien invasion.  What would you want it to be?

An "Independence Day" type game of military and experts fighting a vastly more powerful force?
A "V"/"Conspiracy" game of aliens secretly taking over the world?
A game of playing average joes dealing with the conquest?
A game where you play characters that are uber-powered in some way to be able to face the aliens on an even keel?

A game where the aliens were mindless monsters? Evil geniuses?
Or where they were actually not that bad (ie. they are actually trying to save humanity from itself, want to force humanity to become their vision of utopia whether they like it or not, or are just plain old imperialists that are willing to give humanity a place at the table and lots of potentially good things in exchange for their becoming a colonial tributary power)?

Chat away.

RPGPundit

Likely something along the lines of Alien Nation and V.

There is a greater conspiracy there, which you may or may not be aware of and your typical game revolves around what most modern games do.  However as you go further into the rabbits hole you uncover the greater conspiracy at hand and are likely at a power level where you can start directly interfering with it.

Also would allow some alien types to be PC's that are actually good guy aliens that aren't aware of the conspiracy either.

Anyone remember those X-com PC games where you sent your little group of marines out to examine landed/crashed UFOs and then bring the technology back home to learn from?  I always felt the X-com games were very similar to that old TV show, UFO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RfzkhqBLY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RfzkhqBLY).  

I think something like that would be a great setting for an Alien invasion tabletop game.  The mystery element of trying to figure out why the aliens are there and how to defeat them would be fun, as well as the strategic military aspects for raids on UFOs.

Something like this :

http://www.elfis.net/elfol4/e4term.html

Regards,
David R

I always thought this (http://www.nobleknight.com/ProductDetail.asp_Q_ProductID_E_11805_A_InventoryID_E_2147393670_A_ProductLineID_E_2137419217_A_ManufacturerID_E_26_A_CategoryID_E_12_A_GenreID_E_) was fun.  Not a total kitchen sink, but still a pretty open take on it.

Quote from: TorikoAnyone remember those X-com PC games where you sent your little group of marines out to examine landed/crashed UFOs and then bring the technology back home to learn from?  

Otherwise known as the greatest game of all time. (It was X-com: UFO Defense in America but UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe, according to Wiki.) I have this sneaking about on my harddrive and every year or two I go back and play through it.

QuoteI think something like that would be a great setting for an Alien invasion tabletop game.  The mystery element of trying to figure out why the aliens are there and how to defeat them would be fun, as well as the strategic military aspects for raids on UFOs.

I've generally thought the same thing. The squads were sometimes the same size as a PC-group and you had different types of missions. Like, ruining an alien scouting mission, protecting a terrorized city, defending your base from a frontal assault, and then invading an alien base to capture an alien officer for interrogation!

All the while, you're slowly gaining new tech and weapons cause you're reverse engineering alien stuff. And you have to make all the countries happy since they supply your finances. If you don't protect a country enough, they'll pull their funding, or hell, they might even enter into an agreement with the aliens!

Oh man, it makes me want to go back and play!

GURPS had a supplement a while back called Black Ops that looked cool and seemed like a great idea. But you had player characters that were experts at EVERYTHING. But it had some of the same ideas as X-com.

We discussed something like this (http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=178815) a while back.

Edit: now I'm playing the good old musical War of the Worlds! Ah, HG Wells...

We have learned now that we cannot regard this planet as being fenced in and a secure abiding place for Man; we can never anticipate the unseen good or evil that may come upon us suddenly out of space.

Quote from: kryystLikely something along the lines of Alien Nation and V.

There is a greater conspiracy there, which you may or may not be aware of and your typical game revolves around what most modern games do.  However as you go further into the rabbits hole you uncover the greater conspiracy at hand and are likely at a power level where you can start directly interfering with it.

Also would allow some alien types to be PC's that are actually good guy aliens that aren't aware of the conspiracy either.

That would appeal to me as well.  However, I wouldn't mind an occassional "I just stole one of their spacecraft and now they are chasing me...:)

Ummm...somewhere between V and Independence Day for me:  a conspiracy-laden potboiler which, halfway through, blows all to hell when the "helpful" aliens show their true, bug-eyed nature and by then, why, you've got no recourse other than to shoot their ugly asses.

Preferably with their own lasers.

As mentioned in Kyle's thread, Xcom was the basis of my spycraft campaign setting.

But more recent spins on what I would like to see would be somewhere near Earth: Final Conflict (Perhaps not the best TV show, but a very nice setup for a game) and Larry Niven's Draco Tavern (the aliens are peaceful, but like humans, not all of us have our best interests at heart, and there's some culture shock.)

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Ummm...somewhere between V and Independence Day for me [...]

I reckon you just want to see Diana again.

Quote from: Kyle AaronI reckon you just want to see Diana again.

(http://thevisitors.info/images/artwork/photo-diana.jpg)

I don't mind seeing some badassery from Micheal Ironside :D

Regards,
David R

If its going to be Alien Invasion, then I'd want something similar to David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series or Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's Footfall. I know that there is a GURPS book for War Against the Chtorr, I just don't have the damn thing. Grrr...

How about a game where Earth is contacted, infiltrated, and/or invaded not by one but two different alien groups--essentially we're caught between rival interstellar superpowers?

Oh and of course different Earth factions/countries may ally with different sides, be given weaponry by them as clients, & so forth.

Well I wrote a setting for a Champions Apazine (Haymaker)  called Lunatik Legion, where grey's invade, are uber telepathic and can out maneuver us because they easily read our minds (and have advanced technology.) The catch is we figure out some slightly (comedic style) insane people are immune to mind reading--and outfit them with counter alien technology. Chainsaws, armored bunny and santa suits, tinfoil hats, and so on and send them off to fight for humanity.


So let's just say I like alien invasions with a bit of humor and fun :D


However if I were playing a game I think it depends on the aliens, out and out war is more action oriented and fun for the combat happy players, while the investigation/infiltration style is suitable for other more contemplative players. A lot for me depends on how it is presented--I like them all, pretty much.

I'd like to play or run Starship Troopers on earth.  Something squad based with a premise similar to Twlight 2000, but with bugs instead of Communists.  I'm sure it's been written/done, but I still think it would be pretty cool.  

Pete

To me the most interesting campaign would be one where the Aliens are here to save us from our own self-destruction, by force if necessary, possibly due to some weird religious convictions.

RPGPundit

I would go for ordinary Joes caught in some 'safe' location when the aliens turned up then they have to form a little resistance group. So kind of like the 2000 AD story Invasion 1999 (only with aliens not crypto Russian Nazis) or Red Dawn again without communism or Patrick Swayze.

*cue Roswell Conspiracies TV series*

I, personally, liked your humans have some great eqalizer against the aliens.  I've used psionics in one of my games.  Rebel aliens helped the humans increase their "mental acuity" with machines.  Humans became terribly powerful psions that could rival the power of the aliens themselves (though there weren't near as many).

I liked the idea of the factions of aliens playing humans against each other.  Actually, I'd introduce several factions of aliens to keep in interesting longer.

I do like the idea of the humans finding out that the aliens are actually trying to help them, but they have to decide upon the issues of order, equality, and freedom.  A bit like the episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles I've watched.  You can save the planet, but what will you have to pay to do it in the meantime?  Interesting ideas, for sure. :hehe:

Quote from: RPGPunditTo me the most interesting campaign would be one where the Aliens are here to save us from our own self-destruction, by force if necessary, possibly due to some weird religious convictions.

RPGPundit

Spunds like militaristic Vulcans or Minbarri that you're describing.


 I'd like to see an alien Invasion where the humans werew surprised - but DO have a fighting chance of winning in the long run.


- Ed

The scenario:Similar to the Tripods trilogy. The aliens have taken over. No plot device about the common cold could stop them. It's up to you to do something about it.

The characters:Anything will do, but mundane in terms of skills and equipment (except what they can steal from the aliens and such.. make 'em work for it in any case).

The aliens:They don't need to be totally alien, but make them look very unlike humans and give them one or two key psychological differences. Maybe really spooky tech, too. Whether they're "evil" is one of those things that doesn't matter as much... they're scary and they are most certainly not acting in your best interest.

Yeah, I loved those books.  They had a Tripods comic in the back of the Boy's Life (Boy Scout magazine) when I was growing up.  It was excellent.  They showed the aliens extensively.  It was great.

Probably either my own unfinished Song in the Dark deal, (alien takeover, apocalyptic darkness, struggling wasteland humans fighting a massively technologically superior foe), or Half-Life 2.

You know what would be fun? A silly game based on the Invader Zim cartoon. It would be pure Beer & Pretzels in the style of Teenagers From Outer Space, but damn if that wouldn't be fun to do.

Quote from: teckno72I, personally, liked your humans have some great eqalizer against the aliens.

I like the ideas from Harry Turtledove's WorldWar series and David Brin's Uplift - the aliens may have higher tech, but humans are feindishly adaptable and very capable at the art of war.
In WorldWar the aliens didn't expect the humans to advance so fast inbetween the scouting mission and the invasion fleet and were expecting horses and spears not early WW2 tanks. Finding that ginger (the spice, not the spice girl) was an addictive narcotic to the aliens also helped the human resistance.
 
In Uplift the aliens were highly reliant on their technology and their central library to tell them what tactics countered others, and the human ability to adapt and outwit evened the odds on more than one occasion.