Bulldrek v3.0

Yesterday our gaming group started a new campaign: Hong Kong Containment Zone, in which the Chinese government has locked down Hong Kong because of SARS. Although we're using SR3 rules, the date setting is today, so no bio, no cyber and (probably) extremely low magic [ex-lo-ma :o) ]

Inspired by a piece of gossip I caught during a meeting at work, HKCZ is the first game I've had any creative involvement in besides character creation. As always, Dennis is director/producer of the game - and is responsible for the story and the pre-gen characters, which is quite a break from the norm for us, seeing as how we're used to creating our own.

As a three-to-four week interval in our current D&D campaign, I hope this game will prove to us that current affairs-based roleplaying is not only possible, but compelling for everyone - not just to those who've memorized the Player's Handbook. ;o)

Hey! Just because I can calculate the amount of damage a Meteor Swarm will do at the periphery of the secondary explosions doesn't mean that this wouldn't be fun as heck to play.

Best of luck in your game.

Hhmm, eeenteresting.

This is such a cool idea!

As for power, though. You must be talking like 40-50 point characters, tops, neh?

You could so easily give this a Resident Evil twist where a facility you must break into for recovery is a testing bed for an acceleration of SARS. Everyone in the facility is damn near walking dead and HIGHLY contagious!

Daki wrote:You could so easily give this a Resident Evil twist where a facility you must break into for recovery is a testing bed for an acceleration of SARS. Everyone in the facility is damn near walking dead and HIGHLY contagious!

While developing the story, Dennis and I tried to steer clear of doing a blatant Resident Evil rip-off, and - this was me, mostly - it being SR, but set today. I quite badly want this game to be different, but getting players into a non-SR mindset is /hard/.

Eva wrote:I hope this game will prove to us that current affairs-based roleplaying is not only possible, but compelling for everyone.

Astonishingly cool. This had never even occurred to me, this kind of thing. Please, please give us updates about how it goes.

The first session went pretty bad. The players weren't aware - with the exception of Eva - that this was going to happen, and they were introduced to pre-generated characters for the first time. I don't use them - because I don't like them - and it took a little getting used to. Mostly I got stuck on trying to have this wrapped up in three or four weeks, so things got a little rushed. Also, I hadn't had time to think of some of the practicle details of it all.

Basic story breaks down like this; Everything up to about a week ago is like it is in the really real world. However, a week ago, the Chinese government starts sending home all healthy foreign diplomats and ex-pats from the Hong Kong peninsula and it's surrounding islands. Two days later, they quarantine everything. Another day later, all communications to and from the island are either cut or jammed, and an official press release is sent out saying that the Chinese authorities are "dealing with it." The only thing the world can do is sit there and watch sattelite footage of riots break out in the streets of Kowloon, Victoria Island, Lantau Island, North Point, etc.

A few people are invited to come to a small, remote, non-descript airstrip in the jungles around Ft. Dauphin, Madagascar.

The Cast of Shadows

• Lluisa de la Peña, a resource adjustement executive at Pfizer, Incorporated.
• Walter McAllister, a special agent for the FBI, virologist for the Center of Disease Control.
• Marlena Haußman, a bio-engineer for UNESCO and former head of R&D for a large pharmaceuticle company.
• Vladimir Czyrek, an ex-Russian staff-seargant and currently a mercenary urban warfare specialist, relying on his experiences in places such as Chechnya and Yugoslavia.
• Lancelot "Lance" Zane, a smuggler and son of the former Chief of Police in Hong Kong, flying all over south east asia trading in drugs, Kevin Kline jeans, Dunghill cigarettes, pirated copies of DVDs and CDs.
• Fei Long, fellow smuggler and best martial artist in the world. Born and raised on the mean streets of Kowloon, this mute is now Lance's business partner and bodyguard.

There was going to be a George-Clooney-from-the-Peacemaker type of UNATCO military dude there, but nobody wanted to play him.

Anyway, they have been gathered in Madagascar for an extra-ordinairy mission on behalf of the United Nations. This mission - of course - is a secret because if it would ever become public knowledge, China's veto in the council would be undermined. So, NDA's for everyone. The problem is as followed...

Pfizer corporation, a multi-national pharmaceutical company - also in the really real world - has made a bit of a boo-boo. While researching a strange new metapneumovirus in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong something went wrong and the virus became airborn. One of their researchers, Dr. L. Andolini, considered to be the man with the most knowledge about SARS, is currently somewhere in Hong Kong after fleeing there when the outbreak hit.

The characters are asked to go in, deliver fresh water and medicine to the local Red Cross faction in Hong Kong and find Dr. Andolini, who should be residing at Pfizer's Hong Kong office in down town Kowloon.

After being decked out with communications equipment, body armour, gas-masks and more goodies, the characters are flown into Hong Kong by Lance and Fei, under the cover of night, going on short at North Point, a fancy neighbourhood being looted and plundered. After stealing a van, the characters make their way towards downtown Kowloon, some 50 miles away, with the supplies.

On their way there, they encounter men in hazmat suits setting fire to small piles of bodies with compact flame throwers. The bodies seem to have been bleeding from most of the orifices.

That's where things stand now. On the outskirts of a city that is looted in some places, empty in others, and warzone yet other spots.

The bodies seem to have been bleeding from most of the orifices.

Mmm. Ebola.

Hhmm, Ebola-Cola. The drink that refreshes.

Ebola-Cola, the drink that dissolves your internal organs slightly faster than regular Coca-Cola!

So last night this ultimately _hilarious_ campaign - and it really was rewarded the "Most Hilarious Campaign in a Long Fucking Time" award - everyone died before doing anything important or significant. Literally..._ANYTHING_ important or significant.

How the hell did they all die before they did anything?

Sheesh.

[quote="Deev]The bodies seem to have been bleeding from most of the orifices.[/quote]

Hmm, sounds like Outbreak. Whatever the problem, I see it seriously hampering your sex life.

Brineshrimp wrote:How the hell did they all die before they did anything?

Well, I don't think anyone will believe this, but...

...well, they ran around Hong Kong for about 20 hours trying to steal enough mopeds and scooters for all of them.

Then they got killed by one of the many Chinese Republican Army death squads [five men, four carrying assault rifles, one with a flame-thrower]. I wish it wasn't so...

Damn dude! That would have been a game to see.

Just a silly suggestion, but wouldn't it be freaky-deaky if the virus reacted to their bodies in unpredicatable ways (blame it on microwaves or something) and gave them minor spell-casting or physad abilities (and some bad symptoms to go with it)?

But damn, cool idea, though I wasn't aware SARS made people bleed from all their orifices. Maybe it's that SARbucks coffee, I dunno.

if you want a really interesting scenario, check out this one anime called "Stink Bomb". Basically, it's about a guy who accidently takes this pill which causes his BO to kill everything (except for plants) the fun thing is that the smell goes through gas masks, jams missles and tanks, messes up snipers, and you need a space suit in order for it not to affect you.

Add a variation of SARS to it, and you'll make things fun

This still has my vote for the most hilarious gaming ever done.

We fucked up big time on that one...but we had fun while it lasted

Blast from the past. Holy shitballs, this was a fucking hilarious campaign.