Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Sangennaru on October 19, 2014, 12:07:30 AM
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Hi everyone!
I've been discussing the whole evening with a friend, and we are looking for a setting for our miniatures. We do have some factions, but we have yet to paint them, and "contextualizing" them in a known setting would be great.
- The first though was of course Star Trek, but the style of the species is far too fixed and... trekky.
- Another idea was DUNE
- Another was the Metabaron Saga from Jodorowsky
- The Iain Banks cycle of Culture
- A Mutant Chronicles setting, although that's a bit far from the plain scifi we were looking for
in general, rather than just a good setting, we were looking for something with some products attached, movies or good books, so we can get the feeling of what's happening, rather than just playing with miniatures as tokens. Basically, we are looking for something just like historical wargaming, where you know who your minis represent.
Thanks for the help!
Jack
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Forgot to say: we are playing skirmishes, so max 20 troops per side. That's ok even for star trek, where rarely more than 10 people were on the scene (mostly, i suspect, for economical reasons).
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I vote for a mash-up. If the trek races are too trek, just take what you really want from it and add it to something else. Like Starfleet or the Federation or whatever. A group of self-governing planets that are all members of the same interstellar organization. The have a combination of a military, exploration corps and service organization called Starfleet. Anyone with the right mind set can join and work with Starfleet. Their ships use antimatter nacelles and warp coils using dilithium crystals and their favored weapons are photon torpedoes and phasers.
I also noticed that no one on LAF has posted a link to Star Trek: Axanar's Prelude to Axanar video:
2:54 length trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4JbLhH_8w
21 minute full video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1_8IV8uhA
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The trekkie design aesthetic was mostly restrained by special effects budget. The books, and especially the original animated series reveals just how expansive the galaxy was and how far the aliens could diverge from the bumpy-head norm. The one that springs immediately to mind was the Edoan helmsman from the animated series. (3 arms and 3 legs). I think the trak universe can contain a lot and just feature the basic window-dressing that informs the milieu.
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There are a series of Doctor Who New Adventures Novels and Big Finish Audio plays set sometime in the 25th(correct me if I'm wrong?) Century. Humanity has allied with the Silurians and Ice Warriors to fight the Sontarans and Draconians. The Daleks are rocking around, causing trouble and only penal legions are sent to fight them because regular soldiers refuse to go. The Cybermen are a long-forgotten threat who pop up on occasion and there's a galaxy-wide Shadowrun-esque internet.
Give me a day or two and I can find the names of the specific stories/books.
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I have not been able to pull it off, but I have long thought the Stargate background would make an excellent skirmish game template.
Most actions are skirmishes near gates, boarding actions, storming enemy encampments, etc.
Most figures can be sourced:
Earth - current/near future special forces, SWAT, Spy-Fi;
Transplanted Humans - historical analogs;
Goa'uld and Jaffa - a bit tougher - various "not" figures, SF Celts, Romans, Egyptians.
If you already have any of the above types of figures, wilderness and/or ruins terrain, then all you need is a Stargate!
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Well, Metabarons is basically Dune with awesome tech and extra squick, so why not do that? ;) Lots of skirmish potential in it, although it might be tricky sourcing minis that look as aesthetically pleasing as the source material - but I'd love to see what someone with your skills could produce.
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There are a series of Doctor Who New Adventures Novels and Big Finish Audio plays set sometime in the 25th(correct me if I'm wrong?) Century. Humanity has allied with the Silurians and Ice Warriors to fight the Sontarans and Draconians. The Daleks are rocking around, causing trouble and only penal legions are sent to fight them because regular soldiers refuse to go. The Cybermen are a long-forgotten threat who pop up on occasion and there's a galaxy-wide Shadowrun-esque internet.
Give me a day or two and I can find the names of the specific stories/books.
I considered something simliar with the 26th Century.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/26th_century
You have Humanity bumping heads with the Draconians and the Daleks bumping heads with both, Human colonies getting caught up in the Sontaran/Rutan war and as you say, the Cybermen popping up. My big problem was finding proxies for Draconians as I'm not keen on the Black Tree figures.
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First of all - thank you all for your suggestions.
For star trek (and dr Who and even Stargate) the main problem is that we are not huge fans. I kinda like those, but i don't feel "expert" enough to game in their settings.
other settings (such as starship troopers, which unfortunately has only two factions) can be "learned" through a movie or a series season, but those need a LOT of learning.
Metabarons are supercool, but the setting can be a bit too much "elaborated", and the design is extremely specific too.
Never heard of Shell worlds: what can you say about it Scurv? (but briefly, just to have an idea)
there's the Fundation from Asimov too, but it's a bit dispersive, since even though there are factions, they are rarely interfering...
however, even a less super-known setting but with enough diversity and depth (again, so bad that District 9 has only two factions!) could be great!
Thanks for your future suggestions, and for the past ones too! ^_^
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First of all - thank you all for your suggestions.
For dr Who and even Stargate) the main problem is that we are not huge fans.
I know I've got a pitchfork and flaming torch around here somewhere, ;)
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The name Iron Empires has been popping up a lot on my RPG feeds. Its a comic series with new ones coming out I believe. Also the base for the burning wheel RPG system. Honestly don't know much beyond that but maybe something worth checking out.
Also a rather radical suggestion 40K. Especially the older fluff leaves so many room for other species and human factions. I think some people's work on this forum shows the potential there is there, even if there is a pungent GW smell hanging over it.
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Metabarons would be great :D
My alltime favourite comic-series.
Red "Castaka" recently, the prequel to the "Barons", and decided to convert me some minis for that.
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I know I've got a pitchfork and flaming torch around here somewhere, ;)
i beg for mercy!!!
I'm not looking for Iron Empires, sounds nice!! Maybe a bit unknown?
40K is great, but the design is rather fixed and the style is too fantasy and... it's GW :S
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I kinda like those, but i don't feel "expert" enough to game in their settings.
Which is why I suggested a mash up. You take the things you think are cool from everything that's been discussed in the thread and built your own universe with it. You don't need to be an expert in a published commercial franchise. It's going to be your miniature gaming, not some company's.
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Picking up on the mention of District 9 you could look at maybe combining it with Elysium giving you several factions, NGO's, Prawns, armed criminals, corporate types, security droids, mercenary's (both loyal and rogue), and of course any governmental forces that might want to get involved.
Another idea is using Jodowrosky's version of dune as your setting tying in two of your suggestions.
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Maybe you could give us some more insight into the factions you already have in mind, somebody might go "Oh that sounds a lot like..."
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Hard core sci-fi?
Magic (psionics) mixed with tech?
Dystopia or utopia?
Aliens? Lots? Few? Friendly?
Star rise universe vs. Dune Universe?
Realist History or non-realistic?
Character driven or Unknown Soldier driven scenarios?
You can check this if it helps in some way:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=71237.0
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Maybe you could give us some more insight into the factions you already have in mind, somebody might go "Oh that sounds a lot like..."
Hard core sci-fi?
Magic (psionics) mixed with tech?
Dystopia or utopia?
Aliens? Lots? Few? Friendly?
Star rise universe vs. Dune Universe?
Realist History or non-realistic?
Character driven or Unknown Soldier driven scenarios?
You can check this if it helps in some way:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=71237.0
Actually, i've just some groups of 20-ish "pew-pew" soldiers that i want to contextualize, some more elite some less. I'm not looking for a vast setting, i'm looking for a famous and known setting.
In napoleonic wargames people try to follow the uniform colours for each faction, they immedesimate in the setting.
I'm looking for something similar: just like warhammer 40K, where you use a specific chapter of space marines and people know what you're using!
So: even if there are super-cool roleplaying settings around, i want something that is "common knowledge" rather than that.
Mixing District 9 and Elysium could work, but mixing too much will make something further from the "common knowledge", once again. :S
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Another interesting setting could be the Gundam universe: what do you know of that? Do you think there is enough reference for creating a few different factions? Or maybe some other scifi-esque manga setting? Akira (Jimbibbly docet)? Jin Ro?
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Sorry for the triple-posting, but i cleared my head about it, and here are some requirements:
- There must be a war, or some kind of reason why people from different factions (aliens? not necessary but not a problem either) fight each other
- It must be known by a few people, so it won't be us playing a misterious setting... at that point there's no different than choosing a RPG manual
- We need illustrations, or maybe a wiki, just like Gundam, Star Trek or Star Trek
- We are not 40K lovers... that's the evil, isn't it? :D
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How about Star Wars? There's so many wildly different planets and peoples that you can use any minis you want and it lends itself well to skirmish games.
You don't need Imperial or Rebel troops - this could be a border conflict or proxy war between two planetary systems, a crime war, bounty hunt, or grey conflict between smugglers or militia. There's no limit to game scenarios or the figures you use. If you want to go for a different time period from the original trilogy, it's even easier. You can make up your own Republic uniform, jedi or dark jedi outfits, or uniform for whatever crime boss/border faction/insurgent group/dark jedi minion army that the Republic might have to fight against.
Star Wars as a background is something everybody knows, but you'll have lots of freedom to work out the details yourselves.
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How about Star Wars? There's so many wildly different planets and peoples that you can use any minis you want and it lends itself well to skirmish games.
You don't need Imperial or Rebel troops - this could be a border conflict or proxy war between two planetary systems, a crime war, bounty hunt, or grey conflict between smugglers or militia. There's no limit to game scenarios or the figures you use. If you want to go for a different time period from the original trilogy, it's even easier. You can make up your own Republic uniform, jedi or dark jedi outfits, or uniform for whatever crime boss/border faction/insurgent group/dark jedi minion army that the Republic might have to fight against.
Star Wars as a background is something everybody knows, but you'll have lots of freedom to work out the details yourselves.
ufffffff, star wars is laaaaaaaaame! lol lol lol
Just kidding... of course, it is a rather nicely developed universe (although a bit random). The problem is that the main factions (the one that are known) are really lame, and nobody knows the others. so we're back at the beggining. :(
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Well, some others that are very visually distinct might be:
- Mad Max
- Fallout
- Blade Runner
- Terminator
- Mass Effect
- Firefly
- Aliens/Predator
- Cowboy Bebop
- Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers
- Godzilla and other KAIJU BIG BATTALLLLL films
- Netrunner
- Cyberpunk 2020
- Thunderbirds
- Ghost in the Shell
- Tron
- Judge Dredd/2000AD
- Half-Life
- The Matrix
Just about all of which have been gamed at some point, I think!
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My vote is for Firefly.
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Seconded. From that nice list FramFramson has posted I'd say Firefly is the best option for scifi gaming. Or, if we are a bit pedant, space opera gaming.
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I would go for the culture universe
it is not in danger to become a franchise, You have anything You can want in it, and any kind of special circumstaces action will be small and skirmish like, planetary adventure.
and You can pop a spaceship battle game on top anytime :D
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Another interesting setting could be the Gundam universe: what do you know of that? Do you think there is enough reference for creating a few different factions?
Quite. Especially with many of the series taking place in the same universe you have two main factions, with many splinter groups, mercenaries and rebels who in a few cases were the focus of their own series. There are many eras and ages to choose from. BUT I'm not sure how you could play gundam without the gundams... They are a very big focus of the setting.
This does however remind me of something else. VOTOMS. Much more down to earth, still has multiple factions tough most of them are simply another colour uniforms more then anything else. The VOTOM robots are a lot less over the top then the gundams and infantry combat appears a lot more common. There is still a lot of source material to take from but less overwhelming quantities then gundam.
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http://theculture.wikia.com/wiki/Shellworld
that's a great picture! is it from a game?
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I considered something simliar with the 26th Century.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/26th_century
You have Humanity bumping heads with the Draconians and the Daleks bumping heads with both, Human colonies getting caught up in the Sontaran/Rutan war and as you say, the Cybermen popping up. My big problem was finding proxies for Draconians as I'm not keen on the Black Tree figures.
Thanks for this Onebigriver, it'll be great for my Who roleplaying!
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From FramFramsons list I'd suggest maybe Mass Effect. Loads of races and factions including a sentient race of Networked AI and 3 Mercenary companies with distinctive uniforms. There are a wealth of Games, comics and books. Also a detailed wiki with lots of information about the universe.
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_Wiki (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_Wiki)
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No just some artists art. It's the best pic of one on the web though.
THX
the other alternative I would recommend and one of the best SF I have read in the last years is the Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro. It also has it all, but is extremely Hi-Tech, so the setting would contain a lot of rules that are basically magic in their expression. I don't know if You want to go there
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The problem with limiting yourself to a well known setting is that you're then having to decide what is, and what isn't canon in that universe. Given that for eg Star Wars most of the smaller 'factions' are only partially fleshed out, there's still going to be a lot that you have to invent anyway. But, if you don't get it right, there'll inevitably be someone who will tell you so (usually loudly and publically... >:()
That's why I've gone with a 'sandbox' approach for my own setting. There are 'tropes' (I prefer the term 'themes') from numerous sources, but they get mutated to fit into my milieu. It also allows me to use figures from a wide variety of sources without having to worry whether I'm plagarising or destroying the setting.
Other settings to consider:
Gordon Dickson's 'Dorsai' series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childe_Cycle with plenty of Human factions in conflict.
Blakes Seven: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake's_7
How about the Traveller universe? http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Main_Page RPG it may be but plenty of potential for conflict.
BTW there are at least three factions in Starship Troopers (the book), the skinnies, who start off allied to the 'bugs but change sides being one and there are a couple of Earth factions too (pro and anti-war, at least until the rocks start fallling).
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I would agree with the trope statement, however, from my own perspective - I need incentives and inspiration too. A good fictional background as orientation how things "work" is never wrong.
The tropes are useful for creating scenarios.
There are many fictional backgrounds that can be combined without any problem, and all without limiting oneself
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Having recently got back into gaming and minis after some 20 years away I am already mashing up my own settings. My principle is simply this: How do I mash up all my favourite stuff from a lifetime of geekery into the settings I want to game? I've got a Lovecraftian thing happening, a sci fi, and soon some variation on a fantasy world in the works.
The Sci Fi is most progressed. I effectively look at the 'tropes' or archetypes of various races etc and think of novel ways to integrate them. I want the ability to either do 'elseworlds' version of beloved things or bring in the actual things so to this end I'm pinching an idea from the old RPG 'Rifts'. Effectively I'm allowing a future earth, or world, where doorways to other worlds and dimensions are a part of the fabric of things. Maybe the slightly corporate/fascist Human community tries to control this by visiously putting down an incurring beings. I can slip in versions or direct copies of almost anything really.
It's still in formative stages right now but I'm already working on my own 'Cylon empire' force. not the ones from the existing series but just taking that archetype and weaving it into the world I'm creating.
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to be honest (and without any intention to hijack the thread), I am actually in search for a good SF setting of my own, but with a different flavour and without any rules relation like here. I therefore understand very well if someone looks for a well structured setting.
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By the way Jack, I was thinking about your objection to Star Wars as a setting and it occurs to me that as long as one side has at least one fellow with a red laser sword and the other side has at least one fellow with a blue or green laser sword, then everyone will know EXACTLY what universe you're playing in, even if your game has nothing to do with the Empire era.
I mean, it's one of the clearest signals in all of sci-fi.
Of course if you just don't like Star Wars as a setting, period, that's a different can of slugs.
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Picking up on the mention of District 9 you could look at maybe combining it with Elysium giving you several factions, NGO's, Prawns, armed criminals, corporate types, security droids, mercenary's (both loyal and rogue), and of course any governmental forces that might want to get involved.
Nothing to see here move along... :D ;)
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By the way Jack, I was thinking about your objection to Star Wars as a setting and it occurs to me that as long as one side has at least one fellow with a red laser sword and the other side has at least one fellow with a blue or green laser sword, then everyone will know EXACTLY what universe you're playing in, even if your game has nothing to do with the Empire era.
I mean, it's one of the clearest signals in all of sci-fi.
Of course if you just don't like Star Wars as a setting, period, that's a different can of slugs.
C'mon, nobody doesn't like starwars! :D
it's just that it's a bit... star wars! XD
But the concept of lightsabers is not bad at all...
about the tropes: What i'm looking is exactely the opposite: I want to recreate factions from a specific setting just in the same way another one can do with the napoleonic units, or with the specific commando teams during WWII. Of course, i don't have to do things EXACTELY like the original work, but i'd love to have a reference for that.
On the other hand, i'm not looking for rules limitations, the game and the miniatures are not necessarily so bound together.
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Thanks for this Onebigriver, it'll be great for my Who roleplaying!
Glad I could help. Sange, have you considered looking at the fluff and figures for the Void and Urban War games?
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about the tropes: What i'm looking is exactely the opposite: I want to recreate factions from a specific setting just in the same way another one can do with the napoleonic units, or with the specific commando teams during WWII. Of course, i don't have to do things EXACTELY like the original work, but i'd love to have a reference for that.
On the other hand, i'm not looking for rules limitations, the game and the miniatures are not necessarily so bound together.
I think you may be putting the cart before the horse here. Jump back to tropes for a second. If you're dead set on an established setting and specific factions from that setting, first let us know what kind of figs/tropes you are most interested in painting and playing and we can then suggest a setting that has those elements in it.
Otherwise we're just throwing out random suggestions with no real idea what you're looking for.
Our club went the opposite way. We play several different sci-fi games, but we have been trying to tie them into a unified setting of our own invention. If you'd like to see it, you can check it out here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/p/galactic-frontier-homebrew-sci-fi.html
This setting works particularly well for our club where the various members have different interests and different pet sci-fi factions, so we mostly build the universe around them rather than the other way around.
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I think you may be putting the cart before the horse here. Jump back to tropes for a second. If you're dead set on an established setting and specific factions from that setting, first let us know what kind of figs/tropes you are most interested in painting and playing and we can then suggest a setting that has those elements in it.
Otherwise we're just throwing out random suggestions with no real idea what you're looking for.
Good point. :)
I'm looking for
- War, or at least tensions that can explode in small skirmishes.
- various technologies, not necessarily alien civilizations, but why not
- an infantry based warfare, possibly with a few vehicles
- infantry mainly with uniforms... unfortunately that's what you find around in miniatures.
Which is, afterall, not much.
BUT i need also that
- A setting that is kinda shareable and famous. A famous videogame, movie or comicbook series.
- References and visual appeal in order to inspire the factions and the scenery. Comicbooks should be the best, i suppose!
- it must be relatively quick to assimilate. a series of 12 books or 3000 seasons of star trek might be a bit too much.
- A setting that is not too strict on the factions. Playing on battlestar galactica without centurions is ...inconsistent.
For now the settings that are in this requirements that i've seen (thanks to your suggestions, mostly!) are:
- Star Trek: using less known factions might work.
- Star Wars: as above, plus lightsabers. lol
- Metabarons: i've also found a RPG rulebook that gives more "solidity" to the factions. However, the story is not much about war, and most of the factions are barely nominated.
- the Culture cycle: super-cool, but no visual reference at all! Shellworld is part of it!
- Dune: not much visual references (please forget the Sting movie! lol ), and a huuuuuge (but cool, i heard) book to read.
- Stargate: a bit too specific in the design :(
- Starship Troopers: not enough factions?
- Judge Dredd: mostly scavengers, not many soldier-factions shown anywhere.
- Iron Empires: Super cool, i'm reading the comics right now! might be really good!
- Firefly: If i'm not mistaken, there's not much about different factions there, no? beside reavers of course.
- Gundam: Mostly mecha, requires a lot to watch enough to have knowledge.
- Mass effect: should i play the game? are there lots of comics too right?
thanks again,
jack
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Still saying "Armored Trooper Votoms" has everything your asking for. :D
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Still saying "Armored Trooper Votoms" has everything your asking for. :D
does it have enough infantry combat? And most importantly, how's with playing with no mecha at all? =(
anyways, comicbooks are now the best option i think! Any suggestion is welcome!
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does it have enough infantry combat? And most importantly, how's with playing with no mecha at all? =(
The entire first season, widely considered the worst but still, has one Mecha in action and only at the end of the season as its broken most of the season. The rest is mainly gang warfare.
I recall a lot of infantry uniforms being shown in the out of combat scenes, but don't think there is a huge amount of infantry combat displayed in the first few seasons, has been a while tough. I recal one of the ova's series main character actually being a Infantry man, the lone survivor of a unit who were issued anti mecha rifles, no training and sent to a mecha front rather then a infantry. Which implies there is in fact such a thing as infantry combat, just not shown all that much. Which might give you a lot of freedom or not a lot to work form, depending on how you see it.
Honestly I'm beginning to feel I need to re-watch it to be able to answer those questions correctly.
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- Mass effect: should i play the game? are there lots of comics too right?
I strongly recommend playing the Mass Effect series. It's really good. There's also a movie called Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, a novel called Revelation and a series of comics published by Dark Horse. Well worth a look.
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I've never gamed it, but based on your requirements I think that Firefly/Serenity might actually be the best good choice. No aliens, but you've got at least 4 major factions and probably some minor ones. Reavers, independent operators of various types (like the firefly crew), Browncoats (rebels in light gear, brown uniforms), Alliance (bad guy troopers, well equipped, body armor). There are also various settler groups underworld types and security operations in the series too that could be their own factions.
IIRC, it has had a couple RPG publications to expand a bit beyond the series and movie. So it wouldn't be too hard to take it all in, but there's enough background material for a good gaming universe. For miniatures, if you decide to go specific to the firefly crew, there's a number of "not" versions of them, but there's lots of other options that could work for them and the other factions. Lastly, it's still relatively popular among sci-fi fans so your group might get into it more easily.
My last suggestion, would be to go with a faction that excites both you and your friend. Even if it ticks all the boxes, if it doesn't get both of you fired up, then it's not the best choice.
Best of luck whatever you decide.