Weird Cold War?

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

Hi all,

Is there some game that has rules for aliens & monsters with a mid-to-late (1960-1990) cold war setting? I'm looking to get into WW3/Team Yankee and would be interested in some kind of cold war thaw where aliens invade and NATO & Warsaw Pact must unite against these new intergalactic conquerors.

Main reason being, one side is not very popular among my friends and it would be a chore to all of us play the same side; there's only so many training exercises one can do! If there's an external bad guy, then one of us could play as the unpopular side without having any qualms.

Thanks in advance!

[v_lazy_dragon]

There are a couple of Weird Vietnam settings (e.g. Black Sun), but that's not exactly what you're after.
Likewise, B-movies have more than set a precedent for slightly earlier (50's-60's forces) forces fighting Kaiju/Martians/giant insects/saucermen/whatever in the whole Atomic Horror genre.

Not 'Weird Wars' per say, but the Winter of '79, cold war era British Civil War could be another option depending on which side of the Iron Curtain folks want to play.

[3Fingers2]

What about Cthulhu  horror in that era ?

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

There are a couple of Weird Vietnam settings (e.g. Black Sun), but that's not exactly what you're after.
Likewise, B-movies have more than set a precedent for slightly earlier (50's-60's forces) forces fighting Kaiju/Martians/giant insects/saucermen/whatever in the whole Atomic Horror genre.

Not 'Weird Wars' per say, but the Winter of '79, cold war era British Civil War could be another option depending on which side of the Iron Curtain folks want to play.

Black Sun might be a good place to start for infantry rules, thank you!

What about Cthulhu  horror in that era ?

I'm afraid I'm not too familiar there in terms of wargaming, I've only played the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Acthung Cthulhu is the only wargame I know of, and it's skirmish level. It might be good for inspiration so I'll check it out.

[Inkpaduta]

Dark War is one you should look at. It doesn't have aliens
but it does have a number of monsters and is set in the WW3 1980s.
A couple of books have been written to go along with it.

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

Dark War is one you should look at. It doesn't have aliens
but it does have a number of monsters and is set in the WW3 1980s.
A couple of books have been written to go along with it.

Very promising, thank you!

[Daeothar]

Ooh; that's a very interesting premise indeed!

There's only one movie that comes to mind, and that's Outpost, a 2008 Ray Stevenson schlock about a group of PMC's sent into a WW2 era bunker on some off the books errand, where weird shit hits the fan.

Not quite what you're looking for I suppose, but it's the only thing close enough I could come up with.

But immediately when I read the OP concept, my mind ran with it; so much possibilities!

Basically, you could take any cold war scenario and insert something weird. This obviously is just like WWW2, but that has been doen so many times, there are now quite a few established tropes, while the eighties offer a fresh new take on the concept, with loads more new possibilies.

Of course you could insert ghosts from the past, such as in the aforementioned Outpost, or Dead Snow, but adding aliens, modern science gone wrong or even gothic baddies in a new environment would feel suitably weird (again).

Oh; while writing, this just came to mind: I do have a WWW3 reference!

For the original Twilight:2000 RPG, there were several scenario books, and one of those had a particular scenario called 'You're not from around here, are you?', where the players encountered a UFO in the woods and had to deal with the aliens and shady terrestrial organisations trying to get their hands on it.

I never played it myself, but the scenario has always fascinated me. In fact; I'm running a T2K campaign right now (the new version), so I'm now tempted to work something like that in there...

[Sgt_T]

It doesn't quite fit your question, but how about Stranger Things Season 3 (Soviets opening an interdimensional gateway in a subterranean facility beneath a small town in 1980's USA).

You could diverge from the storyline in the series towards the US and the Soviets secretly cooperating to fight the nasties from the other dimension.

Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes and Wasteland Warriors has rules for aliens and monsters. You may need to look for another ruleset if you want to game company level or above though.

T

[Cypher226]

For the original Twilight:2000 RPG, there were several scenario books, and one of those had a particular scenario called 'You're not from around here, are you?', where the players encountered a UFO in the woods and had to deal with the aliens and shady terrestrial organisations trying to get their hands on it.

Twilight Nightmares is the full title.  The zombie scenario in that book is a personal favourite.

[Daeothar]

Twilight Nightmares is the full title.  The zombie scenario in that book is a personal favourite.

I'm pretty sure it's in the Mercs2000 Special Operations book; I have the old core set, plus Mercs2000 and Spec Ops, and it's in one of those for sure. I'll have a peek this evening...

+++EDIT+++ Correction: Cypher was right (as a Dark Angel player, that actually feels odd saying ). I don't have that expansion, but I must have read its description in the GDW catalogue I got in the boxed set, because I distinctly remember my interest in the title...

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

Ooh; that's a very interesting premise indeed!

There's only one movie that comes to mind, and that's Outpost, a 2008 Ray Stevenson schlock about a group of PMC's sent into a WW2 era bunker on some off the books errand, where weird shit hits the fan.

Not quite what you're looking for I suppose, but it's the only thing close enough I could come up with.

But immediately when I read the OP concept, my mind ran with it; so much possibilities!

Basically, you could take any cold war scenario and insert something weird. This obviously is just like WWW2, but that has been doen so many times, there are now quite a few established tropes, while the eighties offer a fresh new take on the concept, with loads more new possibilies.

Of course you could insert ghosts from the past, such as in the aforementioned Outpost, or Dead Snow, but adding aliens, modern science gone wrong or even gothic baddies in a new environment would feel suitably weird (again).

Oh; while writing, this just came to mind: I do have a WWW3 reference!

For the original Twilight:2000 RPG, there were several scenario books, and one of those had a particular scenario called 'You're not from around here, are you?', where the players encountered a UFO in the woods and had to deal with the aliens and shady terrestrial organisations trying to get their hands on it.

I never played it myself, but the scenario has always fascinated me. In fact; I'm running a T2K campaign right now (the new version), so I'm now tempted to work something like that in there...

Many thanks for this information, you've given me a lot to work with, much obliged!

It doesn't quite fit your question, but how about Stranger Things Season 3 (Soviets opening an interdimensional gateway in a subterranean facility beneath a small town in 1980's USA).

You could diverge from the storyline in the series towards the US and the Soviets secretly cooperating to fight the nasties from the other dimension.

Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes and Wasteland Warriors has rules for aliens and monsters. You may need to look for another ruleset if you want to game company level or above though.

T

Season 3 is interesting, as I was expecting an Anglo-Soviet alliance and was surprised that they "played it straight" so to speak. The Upside-Down roaring to life and warring across the Fulda Gap would be loads of fun. FFoL might be good to look at!

[DivisMal]

Well if it’s meant to be inspired by the movies of the time: get a zillion large ants and a couple of giant spiders and you can replay Them! and Tarantula. You‘d only need somekind of engine to make these move and you can even play cooperatively vs the swarm. 

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

Well if it’s meant to be inspired by the movies of the time: get a zillion large ants and a couple of giant spiders and you can replay Them! and Tarantula. You‘d only need somekind of engine to make these move and you can even play cooperatively vs the swarm. 

Radioactive giant arthropods are always fun!

[Cypher226]

@Daeothar - I'm framing your correction so I can point out to the wife that my memory isn't always terrible 

Another source of inspiration I would recommend is the small-press RPG 'Cold City'.  It's set in post-war Berlin and is themed around a covert multi-national task force cleaning up Nazi weird experiments and left-overs.  I'd suggest something like Patrick Todoroff's wargames as a base for a co-op tabletop adaptation.

[WitchQueenofAngmar]

...

Another source of inspiration I would recommend is the small-press RPG 'Cold City'.  It's set in post-war Berlin and is themed around a covert multi-national task force cleaning up Nazi weird experiments and left-overs.  I'd suggest something like Patrick Todoroff's wargames as a base for a co-op tabletop adaptation.

Very nice!


I've been looking at the Khursana 15mm sci-fi range; worst comes to worst I can homebrew some aliens in TY once I get my hands on all these wonderful resources.