Sorry, I'm going to have to pull out if you're going ME with this.  I can get enough RPG out of the setting by plopping in a disk, thanks.

... unless you added Command&Conquer to the setting, ala the fanfic Renegade, though I would understand if you didn't.

[System:]

I need some Gamer XP before I can take a level in GM, so count me in for playing.

Some thoughts:
System: Still only have 2.0 books (and RAHEROes) to work with, sorry.
"Magic": Don't care, probably wouldn't use it even if it was part of the system.
SCIENCE!!: As long as it sounds probable, don't care.  “Just repeat to yourself, it’s just a show…”
Tansmechs: Cool as it sounds, unless the PCs happen to have a mad scientist backing them up, I doubt that bounty hunters would have transforming robots, piloted or otherwise.  Unless you want to add a space-fighter-mech as a vehicle choice, of course.
Tech level: The thing about a Space Western in the likes of, say, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Firefly, the Terrans in Starcraft, Coyote Ragtime Show, Rochard, etc., is it tends to have what I like to dub a “low-high” tech level, in that while it can have some crazy advanced stuff (plasma, FTL, nanotech, and so on), what is readily available to the main characters isn’t necessarily so, or is via lower tech means (piston powered armor for instance).
In fact, Japanese-style space westerns have this interesting habit of just porting a modern tech world (guns, ‘copters, cars) in to a space setting with some wacky stuff tossed in, which would allow us to just take the 2.0 gear tables wholesale and just go “oh, and there are FTL ships and android assassin maids, too”.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention: Bebop setting definatly.  Like I pointed out, we could just use the 2.0 gear with some add-ons then.  Saves work.

At this point I'm really over the whole modern zombie genre, so an apocalyptic/dystopian game would probably have to go somewhere interesting. Something along the lines of Eclipse Phase for instance would do nicely.

What about one where aliens invade, humanity punches back hard enough to defeat them but "breaks their arm" while doing so, but humanity planned for that so they put select people in cryogenic freeze.
Fast forward 200 years, humanopsicles wake up, and try to rebuild civilization in a world transformed by all the weapons used in the war.  The wilderness has mutated, some of surviving humanity has mutated, even a few surviving aliens have mutated.
And speaking of aliens, some of the invaders still survive with tech akin to humanity's before the war (sort of their version of being tossed back to the stone age), so the original 2.0 gear tables could still be used with some "flavor" editing.


Also, if for some crazy reason you guys don't mind me GMing, if I were to do a Space Opera game, it might lean heavily towards an Aliens/Starship Troopers vibe in style (kinda dirty, kinda gritty, fairly human centric).  Though considering how much trouble I'm having with the one setting I am doing... yeah.

[Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr]

File April Fools
Subject: Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr

An interesting specimen to be sure, the Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr was discovered in a crashed UFO sometime in the late 1990s.  Initially hostile, after incident 7059b, with which personnel from Operation: Minuteman were captured briefly, relations quickly improved to the point that a mutual understanding was met, and diplomacy was initiated.
It was soon discovered that the UFO was a refugee ship from a planet called "Eruyt", although the navigation systems were fried, and we are still trying to pinpoint the system's location.
Soon thereafter, following an intensive year-long investigation into the species' origins that found no conclusive proof of hostility towards humanity, the subjects were granted refugee status.
Unfortunately, due to the Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr's unique physiology and psychology, it was deemed that the subjects would only be allowed limited contact with the world at large, often under close supervision.  As such, many Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr decided to make many of the Minuteman military bases that they were being held their home.
Over the following years, the sight of a Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr became commonplace in the cement-filled holes that the project often used, though a number of subjects did leave to join a number of Minuteman's sister organizations.  A few were even successful in joining civilian life, though these were, and still are, closely monitored to prevent any possible leaks to the "truth".
The ties, however, were not as strong as the ones brought on by the 98-99 incident.  During this time, many subjects gave their lives right along side humanity, even sacrificing themselves to save a small few people.  Now, despite being much fewer than they were, it can be said that they will have a home on planet Earth.

Subject Physicality Report:  Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr is a carbon-based biped-humanoid, sharing many traits with Homo Sapient Sapient.  It fact, there are a surprising number of similarities, one that has many scientists theorizing a possible shared ancestry between the two species.  Until we can make it to their Eruyt to get proper samples, however, we can only theorize.  However, this does mean that many foods edible to humans are also edible to Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr, although the species happens to be entirely vegetarian, possibly because of the other species that Leporidae Sapient Gunnicus shares similarities: The common bunny rabbit, although the only visual hints towards such are the long floppy ears, and the differing body proportions (longer, more muscular legs; skinnier arms).
Because of the otherwise similar physical traits to humans, a Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr could pass itself off as one, though it often requires tying their ears either behind their heads or underneath a hat.  Because of this, many grow their hair long, which they often tie back in a way to hide their ears.
Speaking of hair, another trait they share with humans is their lack of fur, although the top of the head seems to be the only place where they grow hair.  The rest of the body is remarkably bare.  Might be genetic engineering at work here, though we will need a more "raw" specimen before we can come to a conclusion.
Another similarity to humans: reproductive system.  At least, as far as we can tell the proper "tools" are in the proper places, although we only have the female of the species to observe (more on this later), and males have been confirmed by both subject testimony and genetic observations, as before until we can find one, we can only assume that the same "dance" is required to propagate the species, which has more or less been confirmed by personnel testimony.
And speaking of personnel testimony, the mere fact that Human-LSG relations can go so far as to produce offspring is remarkable.  Even more remarkable is what species the offspring can be.  Namely that all the sons are human, and the daughters are not.
This should not be possible.  We have studied this at length, and have concluded that it is, in fact, not possible.  And yet somehow it happens.  More extensive study will be required, but the current theory is some sort of sub-conscious psychic quantum genetic manipulation happens during the gestation period.  Of course, as a colleague has pointed out, considering some of the scientific impossibilities that faces CETT on a daily basis, something like this shouldn't be too surprising, and that we should be glad that no freaks of nature can be a result of this particular inter-species relationship.

So much to study...

Subject Psychology report:  The most bazaar part of Leporidae Sapient Gunnildr, and in fact the cause of the last part of its name, is the psychological profile.  They seem to have some memory of a previous culture, but don't seem to remember the details.  When discovered, they had some highly advanced technology available to them, yet once friendly relations was established gave all of it up willingly, and became practically enthralled in human technology, particularly that of firearms and military tech.
Because of this, occupations often have some relation to firearms, whether it is the construction, modification, maintenance, and/or use.  Hence the rather obscure "Gunnildr" monicker at the end, since as far as we can tell, this behavior is consistent across the entire species, or at least the part we have made contact with.
Considering how unusual this is, it is believed that we may have discovered escapees of some sort of genetically engineered army, although why they would be modified in this way is still a mystery.  However, given their consistent record of loyalty to the agencies they have worked with, as well as records well within nominal perimeters, we don't believe that they pose a possible security risk, though the current rate of psychological testing should be continued just to be safe.

[End File]

Doug Walker's take on the Ninja Turtles movie news.

(click to show/hide)

Racist Alien Big-Boobed Explosions!

Hey guys!  Let's play Good News, Bad News! (I'm just full of 'em, aren't I?)

Good News: I have a line on a copy of the Stargate RPG, and in good condition, too.  Yay internet!

Bad News: The thing's practically a collector's item, so even used copies fetch a healthy price.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but (and get this) I am currently saving up to pre-order XCOM: EU.  Curse you, irony! 

Well, I'll try to make it up to you guys.  I'm gonna hunker down and try to get some stats done in the next couple days this week when I can.  Before I do, though, I want to gauge you guys on something: mainly, do you guys want "weirder" character options?  By which I mean abhumans and psionics.
Please note, I only have the 2.0 books (plus RAHEROes) and glim's Mass Craft to work with, so if you guys want psionics, I'm gonna have to mod glim's biotic system to do so.
Abhumans (ie humans modified to the point that they are a separate sub-group) is much simpler, but sort of, kind of doesn't fit the theme of "Humanity stands alone!!" that UFO (and UFO, and UFO) has, except for UFO: Aftershock.  And if I allow them, I will have to limit the number of PCs that have them to one per group.
So, let me know if you guys want them.
Actually, I should probably start a poll somewhere...

PROGRESS REPORT: *Groan* There is still so much I have to do.  I've got the stats for CETT almost finished, and maybe CETT's custom assault rifle, but I have to stat out everything else.  And to top everything off, my main computer is on the fritz. 

On more good news, I can at least confirm the existence of the Sectoids and Snakemen for this setting (under different names, of course), though I'm still working on their "partner races", and that I'm working one or two other races besides (in my head at the moment, still need to get it down on paper).  I also have the "state of the world" pretty much down pat, as well as the direction it will try to take without PC interference.

I am also considering snagging myself a copy of Transmechs and the Stargate RPG to try to help out on some things that are still bugging me.

Wish me luck.

Was there anything that stuck out as good?

Might yoink the biotics, tech, and fleet rules for Aurora Skies, if that's a good enough recommendation for your work.

Away from Mass Effect 3 - Firaxis may have my money.  I want this game, alot.  The worst thing about this is that now I wanna run an X-COM game... Dangit.

Hey, feel free to join in on building Aurora Skies at any time.  Just sayin'.   

[Threat Condition Codes]

[Excerpt from IFABFOS]

Threat Condition Codes

Like any military organization worth its weight in bullets, CETT uses a color-coded "Threat Condition" system to help communicate how dangerous any given situation might be to its personnel.  For CETT, the system is as follows:

(examples in ())

PURPLE: No threat, stand down
GREEN: Minor infiltration (single alien in small city)
YELLOW: Minor assault (small alien patrol squad)
BLUE: Medium level infiltration (single cell in small town)
ORANGE: Medium level assault (platoon with minor support)
BROWN: High level infiltration (most of a large town)
RED: High level assault (battalion with support)
BLACK: Extreme infiltration (most of a city)
WHITE: Extreme assault (army level)
NOVA: WARNING: CODE LEVEL NOVA IS ONLY TO BE USED IN EXTREME EMERGENCIES.  MISUSE OF CODE LEVEL NOVA IS GROUNDS FOR SEVERE PUNISHMENT.
[End excerpt]

"When Aliens Attack" - Discovery Channel programme.

I so wanted to see that, but I just can't hunt it down.   

Torchwood esp Children of Earth mini-series.

Yeah, CETT's not as oversexed as those guys.

Stargate esp original Film

Indeed.   

Apollo 18

I just wish to repeat.  There is no base on the moon.

And just to add some reading for people:

The Polseen War series, by John Ringo
Into The Looking Glass series, by John Ringo
Monster Hunter International series, by Larry Correia (not alien invasion, but includes shooting monsters with guns)

Also, am currently fudging around with the guns, hope to post about them soon.

Was the print version.. Odd Jobs?  I know there's a collection of PDFs that went to print.  Be damned if I remember what the title was.  But if you can find it.. WELL worth the price.  

Shadow Play has the Big Score PDF, as well as Back to Basics (I believe), with translates the "Base Classes" concept from d20 Modern, which would fit the more "down to Earth" feel of zombie apocalypses.  Odd Jobs has Fragile Minds, as well as the Survival Horror pdf ("Evil to the CORE", which was an entry for Signs & Portents magazine, and is a free download on this site), in case you need some zombie stats.

[*Click-Claclick*]

*Click-Claclick*

“To be clear, ‘First Contact’ is a joke.  Humanity has probably been having ‘First Contact’ with extra-terrestrial life…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…since when we were still squatting in caves, happy that we had just invented fire.  Heck, we could take months discussing possible evidence linking alien contact throughout human history.”

*Click-Claclick*

“From the Egyptian pyramids…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…to the battle of Troy…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…to the Crusades…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…to what exactly goes into a Twinkie.  However, we should probably let the eggheads and UFO conspiracy nuts burn valuable brain cells trying to figure those things out.  The point of this history lesson is…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…us, the Counter Extra-Terrestrial Taskforce.  Or, if anyone not us asks, the ‘Counter Extraordinary Terrorism Taskforce’, as the official papers calls us.  Founded turn of the 21st century, though its roots are a bit deeper than that.  In fact, two incidents that you probably have heard of are key to our origins.”

*Click-Claclick*

“The Tunguska Event in 1908 Russia…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…and the Roswell Incident in 1947 America.  As mentioned before, alien contact has been made in these two countries prior to these events.  In fact, we have been able to recover records of an incident in the American west during the mid-1800s.  However, it was these two incidents when both nations finally realized, somewhat, what they were dealing with, and had any ability to do something about it.”

*Click-Claclick*

“Unfortunately for Russia, the Red Revolution kind of put a kibosh on anything they might have been able to achieve.  In fact, according to what we have been able to figure out from surviving records, all research essentially grinded to a halt soon after the Hammer & Sickle started flying over those territories.  It wasn’t until 1943…”

*Click-Claclick*

“Hey!  You might laugh at those things now, but those ‘oversized children’s toys’ almost allowed the Nazis to regain the initiative.  In fact, while the history books would go on to say that the Soviets got the atom bomb because of lax security between them and the US, it was actually from them reverse-engineering what they had captured during this time.”

*Click-Claclick*

“Meanwhile, back in the States, while the US government had been dealing with their own ‘close encounters’, it was Roswell when they finally had enough information to act on.”

*Click-Claclick*

“Ironically, while the object that crashed there was a weather balloon as part of Project Herald, what they conveniently left out was the fact that there was a spaceship attached to it.  That’s right; the first ‘kill’ against a UFO made by the US Airforce was done by a balloon with machinery attached to it.  You can pick on the American Interceptor pilots later, as is custom.”

*Click-Claclick*

“Anyway, an interesting point of fact was the approaches the two countries made for dealing with this new front.  The Soviets decided on a single organization, the Vodianoi Directorate, that, while small, had overarching powers that allowed them to shanghai any resources that they deemed necessary, keeping the whole thing quiet through threat of death.”

*Click-Claclick*

“The Americans, on the other hand, sort of went crazy with the number of specialist groups within larger bodies of government.  The Army had Project: Blue Light, not to be confused with the Airforce’s project of the same name which was for something completely different, the Airforce had the Aurora Initiative, the FBI had the Variance Studies Group, and the CIA had a bunch of guys in even dorkier looking ties.”

*Click-Claclick*

“In fact, the only organizations that didn’t have some special ‘alien hunters’ group was the Navy, who didn’t really need to do anything special when dealing with UFOs…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…the Marines, who felt that they didn’t need to do anything special when dealing with UFOs…”

*Click-Claclick*

“…and NASA, who have been kept in the dark, since it was felt that it would be better for humanity to learn space travel the long way, only using scientific shortcuts in the name of defense.”

*Click-Claclick*

“Now, before any of you ask, any actions done during the Cold War against extra-terrestrial forces are still technically classified, and many of you don’t have need to know them yet.  So don’t bother.”

*Click-Claclick*

“However, what you do need to know is that by the time the Berlin Wall had fallen, there was an anti-UFO force in practically every nation that could afford it.  Even in those that couldn’t, there was enough alien activity that a number of ‘civic minded’ vigilante groups had also formed.  I know of a group of former Aussie ‘crocodile hunters’, in fact, a few of which are currently within our own ranks.”

*Click-Claclick*

“Even though the Soviet Union was no more, the Vodianoi was retained by the new Russian Federation, and continued their efforts despite much reduced resources available to them.”

*Click-Claclick*

“On the American front, with much of their Cold War funding no longer available, as well as the rise of Special Ops usage, it was decided to create a specialized command that pooled all the former groups together.  Dubbed Operation: Minuteman, it became the forefront of the ongoing effort to defend the Earth.  In fact, a number of practices used by CETT began with Minuteman during this time.”

*Click-Claclick*

“So overall, things were looking pretty good for the human race.  While the origins of the alien threat still eluded us, and the mortality rate of soldiers was still a bit too high for many leaders, overall it seemed like we were gaining ground.  UFO activity had been declining, what action there was had been becoming easier to deal with each time, and much of what had been learned during the fight had started trickling into the rest of the world.  You can thank ET for that HDTV, for one thing.”

*Click-Claclick*

“Unfortunately, it turns out this ‘down time’ was actually the aliens building up their numbers.”

*Click-Claclick*

“While we won’t go into detail right now on what happened during the years 1998 and 99, if you live long enough we will.  Just know for now that it was dark times.  They caught us off guard, and a great number of good men and women died during this time, many that I knew personally.”

*Click-Claclick*

“We were able to drive them back, barely preventingblowing our cover, but the damage had been done.  Our numbers had been majorly depleted, and alien activity just seemed to be picking back up.”

*Click-Claclick*

“In August 2000, a secret UN summit was held.  It was decided that we could not afford to work separately from one another any longer.  In a bill dubbed the ‘Earth Defense Initiative’, a taskforce was created from the remains of many of the world’s UFO organizations.”

*Click-Claclick*

“The Counter Extra-Terrestrial Taskforce.”

*Click-Claclick*

“All right, that’s all we have time for today.  Next time we will be going over the contributions made by other member nations, and then we will go over the last 15 years.  Be sure to be there for Gunnery Sergeant Miller’s weapon’s briefing, I hear that they’ve cleared some of R&D’s special toys for rookies now.”

*Click-Claclick*

Its cool.

What about some Alien Implants, attached to human brain stems, which turn captured CETT operatives into double-agents ?

Trust me, CETT's anti-infiltration measures are very thorough.

(Fear the Pink Stuff)

I wonder what their nefarious plans for humanity are.

Don't worry, I have a general idea what the alien's goals are going to be for this setting.  Of course, I'm not saying what they are just yet.   

@Catodon- Thx, I'll keep that in mind.

@Snake- Thx for the name.  As for your character, though, unfortunatly, due to a number of reasons, chief of which being I'm am extremely new to this whole GM thing, for now I will be mostly focusing on the tactical infantry combat (with minor armor support).  So, for now, any Wheelmen will have to be drone experts, VTOL pilots, driving around in mini-tanks, and/or jetpack experts, with the occasional car chase (if I can swing it).
However, once I become more comfortable doing this, I might be up to opening up the aerospace campaign against the UFO threat.  But for now, any fighter action will have to be background...