Really Retro Lunar (Equipment Mods and Baseplates)

[Rick]

Even the Expanse has its interstellar gates.  It’s really the best way to have freshness and aliens…as the idea of Venusian invasion forces and 4 armed or tentacled martians were fairly exhausted by the 1960s. UFO did a good job, but even then, i expect had the show clicked on, it would have had for SHADOW to take the offensive to the aliens at some point.

But why do you need aliens or interstellar distances to bring freshness to a game? That's just lazy thinking - you can still keep modern military or spy games fresh and interesting by introducing different groups, motives and backgrounds so there should be no problem when expanding that out into the solar system. Why do you need aliens if you have something like a Yakuza Oyabun out for revenge on Mars or in the asteroid belt? The differences are already there, no need to introduce fanciful aliens or long space voyages just to crudely hammer a point home when a bit of creative thinking would be far better.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

I agree to a certain extent, but i bet most producers don’t.  Those who don’t go to the spy/crime genre where there is no expectation. 

[Cat]

Spy/Crime gives a lot to work with.  Hot Moon brings in the USAF space spooks from the planned Blue Gemini program.

From actual history, there are great nuggets popping up in Harvey's Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration book. 

The Russians didn't have radiation hardened film for the cameras they sent to the moon — but US spy balloons had that sort of film, and we were delivering it right over them!

In 1959, a few months after the Soviet launch of the first Automatic Interplanetary Station, Ye-2a (later branded Luna 2 in 1963), they sent a mock-up to an exhibition in Mexico.  Turns out they sent a fully functioning back-up unit.  With a nod from Mexico, the CIA intercepted it and managed a couple of hours of study before sending it back along its way.

In spycraft adjacent activity, Jodrell Bank Observatory was monitoring transmissions from Luna 9 in January 1966.  When the transmission sounds changed, the PR officer recognised the sound of the fax machine used in newspaper offices.  They scurried off to the Manchester Daily Express, brought the fax machine back to the observatory and scooped the first photos being sent direct from the surface of the Moon.  Nikita was not amused.

Another good alt-history take would be if Kennedy survived and went on to develop a joint lunar landing with Moscow.  There had been preliminary flirtings of such a plan, but Johnson would have none of it.  If that had gone forward, there would of course be endless spy vs. spy activity all along.
 
Moon Zero Two does a nice start on the crime angle.  A motion for more moon crimes is always in order.

[Cat]

There is a The Expanse RPG.  Not much forum discussion on RPGGeek.  Seems to be a run of the mill RPG.
 
Another one that never gained traction, and no discussion on RPGGeek: The Jovian Chronicles for an anime/mecha sort of solar system colonising affair.

Orbital Cold War is a new one this year that appears to be as titled.  Orbital 2100 with the same system goes a bit further into the future.
 
See folks on the flip side after the great migration!

[mikedemana]

I thought you guys might be interested in a program they are hosting at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum here in Ohio. It sounds right up your alley!

Project Horizons, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2-4pm
"In 1959, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force had control of America's space program and proposed an ambitious plan: to build a military base on the moon. In the STEM Inspiration Center at 2 p.m., learn about the mission's development, the challenges of it and why it was ultimately abandoned and explore whether the dream could become a reality today..."

I'm half thinking of going... 

Mike Demana

[Cat]

Mike, you should definitely go — we need an intrepid reporter on the scene!  I'm sure there's no danger you might start wanting to play a new game...
 
Since we were last all gathered here, I did buy the Orbital Cold War RPG.  Still another week or so before the print copy from Lulu arrives.  But fortunately I went poking at Zozer's website and found that if I sent them the Lulu receipt, they would send me the pdf version.

The Cepheus game engine and this campaign are derived from the Traveller System Reference Document and other Open Gaming License content.  Contains enough of the Cepheus rules to play.  Orbital Cold War is pitched as a techno-thriller setting and campaign themes can be run as Military, Espionage, Adventure, or Mystery.  The player party is a team from NASA, ESA, or Glavkosmos.  Essentially works as the For All Mankind TV : The RPG without the royalties.
=^,^=
 
Game is set in 1990, Tech Level 7.  Apollo era was TL6.  The player team also chooses a secret faction within their national one and also try to achieve factional goals without tipping off mission control or any NPCs — choice of any number of competing intelligence agencies, security agencies, and corporations.

Contains a lot of solid material for GMing, including tables of travel times to various destinations from low earth orbit to the lunar surface.  Would be a very solid reference for running any sort of campaign.  Good stuff.
 
In related books, Zozer has also done Orbital 2100 as another stand alone TL 9 campaign, that expands out beyond Luna to the full Solar system.  And Far Horizon, a scenario book for the first TL9 exploration ship heading out to Tartarus, a passing rogue planet beyond our system.

[Cat]

In 1970, Japan was the 4th nation to launch their own satellite, the Osumi, into Earth orbit.  I scored an Aoshima 1/20 scale model for a semi-decent price on EBay.  Since I'll be using this with the 1/35 MPC figures it will be a larger variant for lunar use, the Makugafin (Jap. 'MacGuffin') for a scenario objective.
 
The equipment tower on the model is clear plastic so you can see the array inside.  With very careful repeat scribing using a tiny curved blade, I was able to cut a hatch piece out of the tower without fracturing the brittle clear plastic.  The hatch is glued open to reveal the equipment array inside. 

The hatch either popped open when the craft pranged, else some nogoodnik got it open just before the excitement of the scenario starts.

Added the flag decal and did the outlining and lettering with a Micron pen.

Also with the kit is a 1/150 model of the Lambda-4S rocket that launched Ohsumi.  Bonus points to Aoshima for not coming close to making the models 'box scale'...
=^,^=

[HerbertTarkel]

Awesome!

[AKULA]

That satellite is perfect 

[Cat]

Thanks folks!

In related news, caught a matinee yesterday of the 30th anniversary re-release of Apollo 13 movie at IMAX.  Front row center seat for the Saturn lift-off — Cowabunga!
 
Last fall, I had started prepping and spray painting figures well before I picked up the Lunar rules , since I had been waiting for the Black Friday sale to spring for them.

Once I had the actual rules, and especially the deck of additional equipment, in hand; then it seemed worth doing some modifications to model some of the special equipment options.  However, since I have found no glue that works on the sort of polyethylene plastic of the MPC astronauts; I figured out ways to do the mods with green putty and mechanical bonds.

Stock equipment/weaponry can be carved a little as needed, and styrene rod slid over the polyethylene.  I used a bit of CA glue inside the tubes to help pin them in place; it's not really a permanent bond by itself, but helps hold things together.  Then I finished it off with green stuff that completely wraps around portions of the polyehylene and creates the mechanical bond that will actually hold it together.

The tube technique was used to mod sextants into small mining drills, and carbines to heavy drills.

Pistols converted to sawed-off shotguns by carving the top of the pistol barrel into a wedge shape, and then attaching a pair of styrene rods (glued to each other with Plasticweld) on top, tacked in place with some CA glue, and then wrapped with greenstuff.  (Yes, there is a chance that the user will get knocked back and down with this weapon!)

And the ubiquitous 'box with a hose' pose converted to a sonic screwdriver (ultrasonic mining pick technically) by drilling a tiny pilot hole, inserting a model railroad rail spike using needlenose vicegrips, and trimming off the head.  The ridged spike gets a pretty solid grip when shoved into the polyethylene.  Added some green stuff just to get more of a visual distinction from the stock hose thingy.  (I'll be using the stock ones as suit repair kits that can do a quick spray patch.)

Also in the nothing-will-stick-to-this-stuff department, I've been making preparations to mechanically affix the figures to their bases.  I'll be using clay poker chips which have a good size and weight.  Will use a hot glue gun, and with the glue wrapping around the edges of the figures' puddle bases, that should hold them pretty good.  For engineering overkill, I've also carved out a pair of bevelled holes in each puddle base for hot glue 'rivets' to form when I stick them down.

Some of the poses do not come with puddle bases, and I needed to add baseplates so they can be held down in the hot glue.  Cut out baseplates from a thin tin pie plate, drilled pilot holes up into the calves, and affixed the plates with the model railroad spikes.  The spikes will hold the figures and the hot glue will hold the tin.