One Thousand and One Nights and One Night
a role-playing game campaign design ’zine
Round Two!
As evidenced in the first issue, I’ve
been on a kick to mix various games
together to create something new. I
continue that with this issue, mixing
GURPS and an old favorite of mine,
The Morrow Project.
Corvis Monkey Troupe
This issue is dedicated to my Friday
game group, the Corvis Monkey
Troupe. I've been gaming with these
guys for a good long time, so three cheers for
present and past members: MW, XO, TE, GM,
PP and BC!
Great Webcomic #2
Another great webcomic is Girl Genius Online
(www.girlgeniusonline.com) by Phil and Kaja
Foglio. In a world controlled by super-scientists
called “Sparks” who build amazing machines,
with missing legendary heroes, the Heterodyne
Brothers, this comic focuses on the “Spark”
Agatha Clay (the lost Heterodyne heir). My
favorite characters are the Jägermonsters,
creatures created by House Heterodyne long
ago – they’re humorous killing machines who
often lose their hats, which leads me to the next
topic . . .
Baron Munchausen's Jägermonsters
The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron
Munchausen (Hogshead) is a great game that
was first published in 1998. The premise of the
game is to tell a story, with the other players
adding complications that have to be included.
It’s a fun game for beer & pretzels play. This
variant requires each player
play Jägermonsters from
Girl Genius Online. The goal
then is to tell a humorous
story where you don't lose
your hat, for, as every good
Jägermonster knows, “a plan
where you lose your hat is a
very bad plan!”
Content © Wooden Leg Named Smith Productions 2007
Website: 1001nightsand1night.110mb.com
Vol.: 1, Issue: 2, March 15, 2007
Actual Play: GURPS Technomancer
/ Morrow Project
History
I’m a big fan of the post-apocalyptic genre of
games and I’ve collected a large number of
them, like The Morrow Project (Timeline),
Gamma World (TSR/WotC), Aftermath!
(FGU), Tribe 8 (Dream Pod 9), Year of the
Phoenix (FGU), Twilight 2000 (GDW), and
D20 Apocalypse (WotC).
The Morrow Project was first published in
1980. It is currently in it’s 3rd edition, with a 4th
edition on it’s way (waiting, waiting). A man
named Bruce Morrow (probably with psychic
time-travel powers) “convinced” some of the
leading industrialists to fund
a program (The Project)
which cryo-froze teams of
specialists buried in bunkers
all around the U.S. Five years
after the bombs dropped, the
teams would be thawed out
and help rebuild the U.S.
Didn’t work out that way,
though, as the main base (Prime Base) of the
Project is attacked with biologicals and the
teams sleep for 150 years. The world they wake
up in is very different.
Sounds like a pretty good game to play, right?
But I’m on my crossing genres kick, so I picked
up GURPS Technomancer
and thought “this would be
an interesting mix.” In
GURPS Technomancer,
history changes after the
Trinity Test in Alamogordo,
New Mexico, on July 16,
1945 . Oppenheimer says
some words, which end a
Necromantic Ritual and
Magic flows back into the world. Spells and tech
mix over the next 50+ years in this alternate
world.
(continued on Page 2, First Column)
published in association with the Corvis Babbage Cliological Society
’zine art is either open source or through fair use of copyrighted works
One Thousand and One Nights and One Night
a role-playing game campaign design ’zine
My Style: Cut-Scenes
I picked up an issue of Dragon Magazine a
number of years ago that had an article on
using different techniques for narration. One of
them was what I call “cut-scenes.” At the start
of each game session, I describe a number of
short scenes, letting the players know what the
important NPCs and NPC groups are doing. I
allow the PCs to notice things by making sense
rolls and that sort of thing. I usually progress
the “cut-scenes” as play continues, so if the first
view is of a Mysterious Man in Black reading a
book with the title obscured, the next game
session has him reading the book with the
“Poisons for Professionals” title visible. It
allows the players to become familiar with the
good guys, the bad guys and the don’t know
which they are guys. Give it a try!
Actual Play (continued)
System Choice
GURPS was the obvious system choice, it has
magic rules and technology rules and, with
GURPS Technomancer, a mix of the two as
well. Converting The Morrow
Project to GURPS is a no-
brainer. I gave each player the
guidelines for making their
characters based on GURPS
Lite. I used weapons listings
from GURPS High Tech and
Modern Firepower. The thing
that took me the longest to do
was to convert The Morrow Project equipment
lists into magic enhanced technology using
GURPS Magic without overbalancing the game.
I made the magic items pretty standard,
vehicles had magical protection, weapons had
accuracy and damage bonuses, and so on.
Scenario Choice
The easiest adventure to run, I decided, was
Liberation at Riverton. 150 years before, after
WW3, the locals of Riverton along with some
surviving Army MPs from a nearby military
base fought off violent refugees that flooded
Content © Wooden Leg Named Smith Productions 2007
Website: 1001nightsand1night.110mb.com
Page 2
Vol.: 1, Issue: 2, March 15, 2007
into the area. After the battles were over, the
MPs returned to their base. Over the next
century and a half, the MPs became known as
the “Imps,” a violent gang of thugs who
dominate Riverton, armed with Army weapons
(pretty much the only guns in the area) and
quasi-military know-how.
How I Changed the Adventure
First, I had the adventure set in my local area
instead of the Midwest, since there’s a military
reservation nearby and the players, all locals,
are familiar with the area. With magic common,
I let the main bad guys, the
“Imps,” be controlled by a
powerful Mage who cast a
spell of deep winter all over
the land (snow everywhere,
all the time). The “Imps” still
had the same bad history but
I let their standard uniforms
be scrounged from a Lucas
Arts warehouse – they wore prop Star Wars
Imperial Stormtrooper armor (they really
became “Imps”) enhanced with protection
spells. Also the Mage created zombies, put
them in extra Stormtrooper suits and placed
them in strategic areas around the land. They
wouldn’t harm the locals (unless attacked) but
would fight any strangers with weapons (like
the PCs).
Wake-up and Deploy
I reviewed the PCs made by JD, CD, KH, EH,
GT and PW, and we started with “de-thawing”
from “cryo-sleep/suspended animation.” They
exited the bolt-hole and one of the PCs was
possessed by the ghost of a recently dead
special NPC, gaining insight into the local area.
They found out that more than 100 years had
passed and could not contact Prime Base,
which concerned them. They ran into some
zombie “Imps,” shocked by the Stormtrooper
armor. Unfortunately, I could only run about 4-
5 sessions before my work/school schedule
interrupted the game. I think the players
enjoyed themselves and I know that I did. I’m
sure that I’ll get back to it sometime!
published in association with the Corvis Babbage Cliological Society
’zine art is either open source or through fair use of copyrighted works