Alien Invasion: Earth! (Idea for an RPG)

[Erika]

Dear Pants

I have the feeling that you are born after the years 90, because, if you were older you would remember the great japanese cartoon Starblazers.

Here it is the intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5oniErmeuE

The official website is
http://www.starblazers.com/home.php

The story of the first series:
In the year 2199, Earth was threatened by a deadly interstellar empire, and humankind was driven underground with only one year to live. Then from space came a message of hope, and an ancient fighting spirit would be revived to answer it!
The epic SF adventure that created a generation of anime fans begins here, with the first Yamato TV series! Planet Earth is counting down its final days to extinction at the hands of the mysterious Gamilas Empire. Space Battleship Yamato, the first to break the speed of light, embarks on a journey to Iscandar with the mission to retrieve the Cosmo Cleaner D, a radiation removal system which will hopefully rescue the Earth. What awaits Yamato is humankind's first-ever journey of 296,000 light years.
Originally broadcast in Japan back in 1974, this unprecedented SF series struggled against overwhelming odds to eventually be considered a classic of the genre. In 1979, the English-language version, Star Blazers, took America by storm and ignited a passionate fire that still burns bright today! Its unforgettable heroes, dangerous villains, suspenseful adventures, spectacular battles, and emotional stories will continue to fascinate audiences for generations to come.

And so on with severa other series of episodes.

GREAT ANIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In fact, your idea looks like this cartoon.

You may also ask here how to create a webpage to run a game like that one your are thinking about.

I think that it could be an interesting idea, but pay attention that there are other things in life that are more important. So, please, just set the priorities in the right place.

Cheers

[pants]

Thanks a lot Jocke, now everybody knows about my crying...I'm so lonely.  Well at least I have my stash of porn mags to keep me company.  Ahem.

Anyway I'm telling you bro that even if your idea has been covered you can still come up with a unique spin or new idea using the same framework.  Sometimes you don't have to re-invent the wheel you just slap some kick ass rims at that sucker!  I'm not sure that analogy works but then again I'm not Shakespeare.

tpc your idea is good but now you need to come up with a reason for why everyone turned into zombies.  If your setting it in the Aliens universe then the zombies could be the result of a biological warfare experiment that the Company are secretly conducting.  The Company can be a bunch of evil sods when they put their mind to it.

Cheers Erika for your input but I've heard of Starblazers before, although never actually seen it, and that isn't what I want to do with the game I have in mind.  Perhaps I haven't explained it well but let me recap about what I want the game to be

- 2 separate systems, 1 a traditional tabletop RPG the other a wargame possibly using small scale models to represent an acutal campaign/mission or else maybe a set of cardboard counters with unit representations on them.

- The setting is in the modern era and the earth has been invaded by an unknown alien force (unknown cause I haven't thought it up yet!).  This leads to a world wide war against the Alien incursion, with each country standing strong against alien attacks.  Real world politics will be in play with a simulation of what each modern day country would do as well as how various Alliances and so on would work.  America would probably do pretty well against the aliens as a lot of people have guns and most of them like to shoot them (I'm looking at you Jocke).  New Zealand on the other hand would be hard pressed to do anything major and would take a while to gear up to start producing weaponry and troops.  I have no idea what Sweden would do, if Nick or Jocke are examples though then they'd probably do pretty good.

- The Aliens technology level is slightly better than our own but not insurmountably so and they are vulnerable to most things that can kill regular humans only it takes more to kill them.

There's more but I've got to think it out.  I'm happy to hear suggestions though!

[Erika]

Hello

your idea sounds like the book "The War of the Worlds" (1898), by H. G. Wells, and later "The War of the Worlds" as an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938 and aired over the CBS Radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. (rerferences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of ... ds_(radio))

Yes, this novel had been adapted to the cinema with a movie in the years 50 and another with Tom Cruise. I prefer the movie of the year 50. I also enjoyed the TV show where the invaders could transform the human in zombies under their control.

In the 50/60, you have a bunch of movie based upon the idea that an alien race invade the world and what the actual politics and military will do. YOu can choose among nice aliens trying to help the Earth but misunderstood and then fought, you have aliens that transform people in zombies under their control (a sort of beans), aliens that kidnap people on the Earth, aliens that try to invade the USA (in the manga of the 70 the aliens try to invade Japan, but luckily the Japanese had developed great robot to defend the Earth or they could count upon a good alien who owns a mega-strong robot), aliens that create the trouble among the humans to conquer the planet Earth, and so on.

The other classic is the TV show "VISITORS", great fun.

I am telling you all of this because it is important to gain a knowledge of what already exist in order to find some original ideas.

I am trying to help you to gather as much information as possible to realise your idea, because if you come out with an idea (ex. the bad aliens are beautiful girls) people may say "this had been already done" (in fact, in the manga Capitain Harlock, the aliens who invade the Earth are beautiful women, but they are vegetables and not animal like the human beings).

I mean, you work a lot to develop your idea, and once you have developped your idea somebody says "NAH, it is old and not original, you have already something like that that exist and it is this movie or book" then it is a deception. On the contrary, if you already know many of the movies or books about your idea you can answer telling "Yes, this is taken into consideration in that book in this way, but I am taking into consideration this in this other way, so go to the corner to cry my dear!"

I hope you understand that I am trying to give inputs to you to develop a real original idea and not a RPG based upon this or that movie/book.

Other option, it could be an RPG based upon a novel or a movie with some modifications.

I hope you do not mind my attitude, I am really trying to help you to develop your idea, but sometimes my English is not very diplomatic. In addition, I have discovered that when you discuss about an idea with somebody who contredicts you, it helps to better develop your idea, and this is what I am also trying to do with you, to help you to deepen your project and your idea.

If you whish that I do not do that, please let me know.

Cheers

[pants]

Thanks for your input Erika and your english is excellent by the way.  I fully understand that you are giving me constructive criticism and I that you are.  If people don't point out problems early then I'll never be able to work around them, like when Astro Boy pointed out that my TECHNO SPACE ZOMBIES looked an awful lot similar to the Strogg from Quake, damn Quake always stealing my ideas.

Your right this is a genre that has been done many times and I'm hoping that my idea will put a fresh new spin on things or at least gain enough interest that people want to play it and maybe give me some money!

I think I've got a better handle on what the aliens are and how they are going to operate.  Now it's just a matter of brainstorming and then writing down something coherent followed by some polishing it off. 

I'll ruminate on what I've got and then I'll hit you guys with some new HOTNESS!  Hopefully it's not old and busted.

[Bullet42]

I'd like the idea of zombie's overunning a colony or city. Then the Colonial Marines could be called in to clean up. Also I like the idea of the xeno's taking over Earth ( I've never read the books.) and the idea of the strogg or some type of zombie robotic lifeform. How about us fighting some type of aliens like the covenant from Halo. They are smart they have their own weaponary religon and ranks. They are just as well taught as the human's. Or maybe some type of civil war with two factions including the Colonial Marines. Thats just my two cents.

[AstroBoy]

I like pants' conventional war idea. You need to do the cool stuff ideas for the aliens too now.

[Pale Rider]

Hmmm, in the not too distant past Nick, one other, and myself were working on a zombie type game where the zombies were not traditional zombies in the beginning. They still functioned as normal humans but as their body decayed they lost their humanity. It was the result of a experiment to successfully cure cancer and other molecular level illnesses. The scientists cooked up basically a super amoeba that was designed to eradicate the bad cells. It did this but it also took over the host. Pants if your interested in more give me a hollar.

[Morse]

A larger combat field might be fun


I liked the idea of a big war between us and them.

I aint to sure how it'd be done, but i think it's a good idea, or hell even a large war between 2 human factions, that sounds good too.

just throwin up my input


And i finally put up my character, I'm still doin the medical thing, but that aint my main this time, i'll leave it to quinn this time around

[Erika]

Hmmm, in the not too distant past Nick, one other, and myself were working on a zombie type game where the zombies were not traditional zombies in the beginning. They still functioned as normal humans but as their body decayed they lost their humanity. It was the result of a experiment to successfully cure cancer and other molecular level illnesses. The scientists cooked up basically a super amoeba that was designed to eradicate the bad cells. It did this but it also took over the host. Pants if your interested in more give me a hollar.

Hello my dear,

just to say that this idea is quite freaky.

It sounds like some autoimmune disease like Lupus or the Sjorgen Syndrome when your immunitary systems turns against you and in the first case tries to destroy you and in the second case the immunitary system destroy all the water in your body...

A great and original thing for monsters for a RPG...

What do you think?

[Dugan]

Hmmm, in the not too distant past Nick, one other, and myself were working on a zombie type game where the zombies were not traditional zombies in the beginning. They still functioned as normal humans but as their body decayed they lost their humanity. It was the result of a experiment to successfully cure cancer and other molecular level illnesses. The scientists cooked up basically a super amoeba that was designed to eradicate the bad cells. It did this but it also took over the host. Pants if your interested in more give me a hollar.

This plot is similar to 'I am legend', in that a cure for a cancer mutates and introduces a virus that turns people into zombie like creatures. Still no harm in a little plagiarism (it helped me get my degree, lol)!

[Hunk]

Hmmm, perhaps I can have both.  Create a wargame that focuses on the strategic level as well as a RPG focused on a small unit of soldiers, with the players as characters. 


Any thoughts on what I've got so far?

Give the players there own squads of recruits or in case for the aliens a squad of biomechanical creatures. Order units from dropships so you don't have to build a base requiring a tech tree (you need a power plant and a barracks to build a vehicle factory) Get away from that everyday RTS building bullshit it takes to long. Also in the squads you could have a group of players or NPCs

Let me know if Im painting a picture for ya or at least contributing to your idea pants!

[pants]

Good ideas everybody, I think I'm going to steal them and take full credit!  Hahaha I'm totally kidding...or am I?

On a completely different track I've come up with an idea for a fantasy game in which the orcs, goblins, trolls are the good guys and the humans, elves, dwarves and halfings are the bad guys!

I was thinking that the dwarves could be hermaphrodites cause you never really see any lady dwarves, and they create living metal suits of armour in which they slaughter hordes of goblins. 

The halflings on the other hand are a ruthless bunch of murderous barbarians who go around shooting up the place with primitive firearms. 

The humans are religious fanatics set on a crusade by a 'Good' pantheon of gods to wipe out everything that's not considered good by them.

The Elves just like to conduct magical and scientific experiments on any poor orcs they can get their hands on.

Thoughts?

[AstroBoy]

Good ideas everybody, I think I'm going to steal them and take full credit!  Hahaha I'm totally kidding...or am I? Wink

If you've read that link, it says dont create more than you have to. i.e. steal it if you want.

On a completely different track I've come up with an idea for a fantasy game in which the orcs, goblins, trolls are the good guys and the humans, elves, dwarves and halfings are the bad guys!

You see, you've hit an extra idea already. It's a curse tell you.

[Pale Rider]

Pants, I and a graduate school chum of mine created a universe similar to your concept the only difference was the normal good guys were the good guys. The entire planet except for a small section that the chief diety of the universe sacrificed his life for was evil. It was your characters goal to go out and transform the world beyond the mountains of the One True God.

[Jocke]

So if you want to keep this within the realm of "hard" scifi, how would the aliens land? Common sense would dictate that everything that looks even remotely dangerous would get bombed to bits before an alien even sat foot on the planet.

But then again, perhaps the human race is lucky, and the conquering overlords aren't too rich with common sense.