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View Full Version : Converting world war two movies to a science fiction game



Hopeless
2012-08-10, 07:32 AM
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?

Hopeless
2012-08-10, 08:12 AM
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?

link16
2012-08-10, 02:15 PM
I think the game "Dust" by fantasy flight games is based on a similar idea.

I would look into it if I were you, perhaps it might have some ideas for you.

Inkpencil
2012-08-10, 03:46 PM
Ever seen/read Bridge Over the River Kwai? It's about British POWs who are forced to build a bridge for the Japanese in WWII. The thing is, they decide that the bridge is their way of proving that they are still men despite the inhumanity of the prison camp. They're going to do it right, like true British soldiers, even though the task would be exceedingly difficult even for well-nourished men with quality tools. They cling to the idea that building the bridge would actually be a victory over the Japanese.

Then the Allies send a strike force to blow up the bridge.

Switch it to space stuff and let your characters deal with determined, fanatical dreadnought/warp gate defenders that should be helping them blow it up.

Ravens_cry
2012-08-10, 03:54 PM
Eh, one potential trouble with making it World War Two. . . IN SPACE! is if you make the Axis some kind of alien threat, you take away one of the most potent and horrific parts of the whole thing. Namely, that the atrocities committed were not committed by some Muck Faced Monster from Sector Evil, but by fellow human beings.

dps
2012-08-11, 05:07 PM
Eh, one potential trouble with making it World War Two. . . IN SPACE! is if you make the Axis some kind of alien threat, you take away one of the most potent and horrific parts of the whole thing. Namely, that the atrocities committed were not committed by some Muck Faced Monster from Sector Evil, but by fellow human beings.

The enemy in a SF setting doesn't have to be aliens--it can stil be rival human nations/factions.