Creating Cloverfield...

[TheTSKoala]

Yes.. the subject says it all.  I'm starting a new SC2.0 campaign next week.. or the week after.. and it's going to be a survival / Alien invasion / subterfuge style.  Now.. I want my opening mission.. for the players to survive the initial onslaught of the enemy's juggernaught.  ..seeing as Cloverfield was a kick-ass movie... I want to try to stat him out.  Anyone have any ideas?  Oh.. and use {Spoiler} tags to protect those who haven't seen the movie yet.

[TheTSKoala]

Let me go a little deeper in that idea.  The NPC system is great.. but.. I don't think it could handle a Cloverfield monster type thing.  That's the crux of my Q.

[Mister Andersen]

Not having seen the film, I'd simply say that the monster is essentially an ongoing force of nature

[Krensky]

If you want anything resembling a kaiju, don't give it stats. Use Mister Andersen's idea of calling it a force of nature effect.

[mouthymerc]

It is a plot device.  No sane PC (not that I think PCs are sane in the first place) should or would want to go head to head with this beastie.  The parasites, though, would make good fodder.

[TheTSKoala]

Well.. okay.  I want to have the first mission have a bunch of Optional reqs.

Save X people = XP.
Do X amount of damage to Creature = XP.
Destroy X amount of other things = XP.

#2 would be the trick.  How do I measure damage against something that tough?  I want them to go face to face.. go.. RUNNNN! shoot for a round or two.. and get them to escape.. but I need a metric to merit the XP.. or at least in my mind I do.

[Mister Andersen]

That's why the mission design system has goals and outcomes.

1. Identify the threat
2. Contain threat.
3. Save lives.
4. Minimise collateral damage.

That's a simple list of goals to which you can attach an XP reward.


Something that operates on the scale of a force of nature is just something you are not going to be able to do any qualative damage to - short of a strategic-scale effect like a nuke or some special vulnerability like sunlight. At best you might be able to kludge a sort of dramcon together that would be reliant on the players getting their hands on one or more McGuffins.

Zoids: Chaotic Century has a fairly good example of this in action where the characters have to complete various tasks to allow the final WMD duel to take place.

[Krensky]

#2 would be the trick.  How do I measure damage against something that tough?  I want them to go face to face.. go.. RUNNNN! shoot for a round or two.. and get them to escape.. but I need a metric to merit the XP.. or at least in my mind I do.

Simplest, and likely the best, way would be to award them something like 1 XP for every 25 or 50 or whatever points of damage they do it. Said damage doesn't really DO anything to the thing, it's just a way to keep score.

[Mister Andersen]

That's a horrible idea, because you're rewarding them for standing there and doing effectively nothing.

[Krensky]

That's a horrible idea, because you're rewarding them for standing there and doing effectively nothing.

Regardless of your or my opinion of the idea, it does what he wanted to do.

TSKoala wants to give them XP for shooting the thing. Since it's a stat-less plot device, they can't actually do anything to it. He wants some way to meter out the XP he gives them for ineffectually shooting it. The simplest way is to pick a threshold and give then an XP every time they pass it. The threshold should be set so it's a minor chunk of the mission, but the specific number relates more to what sort of equipment they characters will have available during the mission and how large a reward he wants to give out in total.

[Mister Andersen]

it does what he wanted to do.

That's the horrible idea.

If I recall correctly, there's a reward for making a story critical save. I this case it'd be a sucessful will save not to stand there shooting uselessly and getting squished.

[TheTSKoala]

While shooting the thing does sound futile, it's more a test of will than it is intel.  Any soldier who has served, whether it be Nam, Korea, the Gulf, WW2, ..etc..,  can tell you in their tour, they had some damn stupid orders, however, they had to follow them out.  So, if my team is ordered to hold the line, I wanted a metric for how well they hold the line instead of being like.. "Screw this, I'm out of here."

[Mister Andersen]

Will saves & Morale checks.

[TheTSKoala]

Will saves & Morale checks.

Over a round duration instead of X damage? ...that could just work.  Instead of focusing on the shooting.. focus on the scene.. *nods nods*  *writes that one down*