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Ursus Maior
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Soviet Tales: Mixing TftL with T2K?

Sat 23 Oct 2021, 14:49

I have just been pointed towards this short documentary by the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09zf8v2 ... -in-poland

It dips into the history of a Soviet base in Cold War era Poland that "suddenly" appeared on official maps in 1988. Long story short, it's a secret military base that had previously been kept off maps for obvious reasons. My initial idea was to explore such a story as a blend of Tales from the Loop mixed with Twilight: 2000. A secret town full of military high-tech and soldiers would have not only a lot of secrets and gadgets, but also kids, right?

So, what happens to such a town, once the world-wide threat level rises during a late Cold War crisis or during the fall of the USSR?

All ideas, comments and impulses welcome.
liber & infractus
 
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Icculus
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Re: Soviet Tales: Mixing TftL with T2K?

Sun 27 Feb 2022, 18:42

I love that idea. Why not? To me, as a kid of the 80's, there is so much depth that comes from the Stalenhag images. A real-world situation like this just ups the ante for the game group. I think the possibilities for the world are endless.

I have run 2 different groups for TFTL and thoroughly enjoyed it each time. I began both groups in Boulder City (as an American, relating to a Swedish setting seemed a little bit stilted), with many of the NPC's as laid out by the Four Seasons scenario. The first game lasted 3 or 4 months (weekly sessions), but I felt I had just scratched the surface of the setting and characters, so for the second go around I expanded the story, and the game went on for 6 months, until I felt it had reached a conclusion. By then, one of the kids was aging out and going off to military school, and his NPC brat little sister stepped up to be the PC to finish the scenario. I loved writing it, playing it (in a group where 3 of 5 players had never played a TTRPG before), and inhabiting that world helped get me through 2020.

I haven't been able to convince my regular game group to try T2K. There is a general sense of "this world is too bleak to play in right now," and also, "it's a sandbox world, with no clear sense of what to achieve except barest survival." For me, I agree that it is a little bleak. One idea I had that I would love to explore was to combine the T2K world with some post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy. My thought was to have the PC's very quickly in the process of surviving in/escaping from Poland stumble upon the mysterious disappearance of entire villages of survivors. Then they become the targets of mysterious superhuman beings in the night. An engineered viral weapon has turned some people into viral bloodsucking killing machines. I'm picturing a world very similar to (okay, maybe totally ripped off from) The Passage (by Justin Cronin). I think this would make the setting more palatable (the antagonists are not always human beings) and there would be a recognizable goal (stop the spread of the vampire plague). Maybe one day....

Combine away! Good Luck with your idea.
Pebbles and marbles like things on my mind
Seem to get lost and harder to find
When I am alone I am inclined
If I find a pebble in the sand
To think that it fell from my hand
-Tom Marshall

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