Mission to the moon! UPDATED, with blurry pictures!

[Chairface]

Why do there have to be bad guys? In the colonial period they were pretty much all various levels of good and bad. Just have competing empires and forget the whole good/bad thing.

[Red Orc]

But everyone thought they were the good guys. The entire colonial period is based on the idea that 'we' (whoever 'we' are) are the good guys, and everyone else is the bad guys. Which does lead to competing empires, because that's what empires do. But 'no man is to himself evil'. They all justified it with rhetoric about civilisation and progress and whatnot.

But YPU has already said that there will be a DM faction - in fantasy RPGs that's the orcs, because no-one plays gallant orckish heroes heroically raiding human settlements, so what is the VSF equivalent? That would depend on the 'party' faction really. If the 'party' is British, and the DM faction needs to be human, then Prussian, French or Russian would all work. If the party is from the US, then Spanish, Mexican, Japanese or indeed British might be good. If the party is Japanese, then American, Russian or Chinese baddies might work, if the party's French then German, British or Spanish baddies might work etc.

Of course, setting it on the moon does at least allow Moon Men to be the enemy (ie transfering the fantasy good humans v bad goblins into space); but an evil human faction in 1890 probably belongs to or is allied to some human nation - unless it's a trans-national 'evil scientist-cum-criminal mastermind-cum-secret conspiracy' faction of course; Captain Nemo joins forces with Professor Moriaty and the Illuminati...

[YPU]

The moon men will start out as villains, but probably will end up as allies.
Evil empires make things easier, it takes away moral questions a bit, and that’s the sort of campaign my players are looking for right now.

Ok, here is a plot idea:
For some time now the Prussian moon base has been the only supplier of Lunarium, However recently the shipments (which are shot to earth using a big cannon (which I will build)) have stopped and all communications, trough light flashes, have stopped.

The British will send out a space exploration force to investigate. However they will find that the Imperial French were faster, those sly frog eaters have been after the Lunarium supply ever since it began and often try to capture wayward shipments.

The Prusian base turns out to be abandoned, for no apparent reason, and the locals aren’t making it easier.

[YPU]

I have started statting up the normal troopers in savage World, but I think I need something to differentiate the troops from each other a bit.

I would like to take one thing at which the troops should be better than the rest, and perhaps one at which they are worse.

But to be honest I am having a hard time doing this, tough I find it interesting I, as mentioned know next to nothing about this era.
So I implore the more historically minded people here, what defined the british and the French from each other in this era?
And suggestions for the goblin moon men would be nice as well. (tough I have something in mind for them already)


You know I am wondering if perhaps I would be better of switching to gaslight, as I hear it mentioned often, then again does that handle little green men with bow and arrows well?


Oh and I finished First men in the moon, was a nice little work and the fact that its somewhat light-hearted without loosing interest inspires me to do the same.

[Gluteus Maximus]

GASLIGHT can handle pretty well any type of weapon and troop type, so moon-goblins should be a doddle!

As to British Vs French - and this is very simplistic- the British would be more solid and phlegmatic, very tough but unimaginitive, whilst the French would have more attacking flair, capable of spectacular success or dramatic collapse.

A bit like the present-day rugby teams, in fact 

[Dewbakuk]

If you want to go with sterotypes (which Savage Worlds is good at ), then I'd make the British Infantry slightly better shots and slightly braver. However the French Officers should be better than the British ones and have the higher edges which boost their troops.

The result in Savage Worlds would be that the French troops would react, fight and take casualties better than the British (though not shoot) as long as their officers were around but would lose a lot of benefits should the officer die. The British on the other hand would usually benefit from having an officer but should be able to function pretty well without one.

Foreign Legion however could be argued to get both benefits and be a true terror on the battle field.

[Plynkes]

If it's after 1871 and before 1915, the French should be absolutely committed to the offensive. Attack in all situations, defence is a waste of time.  Maybe some kind of "impetuous" trait where units might head off towards the enemy of their own accord (especially if you just plonk them in cover and leave them there to shoot the enemy), plus bonuses to charging and getting stuck in with the bayonet, perhaps.

[YPU]

Here is an idea, the French invasion of Russia left napoleons army broken and his own body in ruins, it was then that he decided a army reinforced by machines would be the future of his empire.

Currently trying to relocate my old make knight golems, and seeing if I can get some from friends as well. (we used to play MK together)  and deciding on what colour scheme a French robot should have, any suggestions?

hm, I have been re using quite a few MK miniatures of late, perhaps I should purchase the few that the local game store still has lying around for dirt cheap.
 

[Red Orc]

French should be blue. Napoleonic French should be dark blue, and later French should be lighter. Almost sky blue.

I believe that there are a good many people using Mage Knight converted robots and what not, there's one at http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=15712.15 that is  shortly to be gracing Atlantean shores, I hope...

PS the Manga books about Captain Nemo and the steampunk French Empire are actually called "Captain Nemo" and set in 1894.

[YPU]

Ok I found the buggers, I have two of these:
,
the models looks pretty VSF to start with, but its left hand is a rune inscribed blade tied up with leather straps. This doesn’t work for one, and would be ridiculous of two had the same thing. I think I will replace that arm with 40 ork guns. Give them some ranged power. These might do well as batlesuits, their roster eyes and size would allow it.

And I have one of these,

now actually like this mini. He has a good powerplant on his back and he just looks villainous. Not big enough to fit a person in. Down side is that he has some asian ish symbols on his arms and shoulders. I could cover those with Greenstuff I guess, or I could use him as some sort of special character mercenary. (his tetsubo suggests it)

those bases are 35mm for scale referrence.


Red Orc
Yes, that was the topic that got me going on this,
and I still cant find that manga, I think I found its Wikipedia page, but I cant find it for sale anywhere.

[Jonas]

The images are not shown, there is just a message that the pics re taken without permission from troll and toad...

[YPU]

and thats what I get from using the images I got from google. Lets see what I can do.

EDIT: there, that should do it.

[The_Beast]

Ok I found the buggers, I have two of these:
,
the models looks pretty VSF to start with, but its left hand is a rune inscribed blade tied up with leather straps. This doesn’t work for one, and would be ridiculous of two had the same thing. I think I will replace that arm with 40 ork guns. Give them some ranged power. These might do well as batlesuits, their roster eyes and size would allow it.

***snippage***

First post, be gentle...

From this angle, the blade  looks 'pierced' down the center. Couldn't you just slice the point, and make them pincers?

Doug

[Red Orc]

...
Red Orc...  I still cant find that manga, I think I found its Wikipedia page, but I cant find it for sale anywhere.

Honestly, I've never seen it for sale. But my local library has a copy which is where No. 1 Son came across it. Vol. 1 is currently lying on his bedroom floor.

I'm calling it a 'manga' - turns out it was produced in Canada in 2005. Author - Jason DeAngelis. Art - Aldin Viray. Published by Seven Seas; www.gomanga.com

In my defence it looks Japanese (big eyes, pointy noses, everyone looks stretched), and reads back-to-front.

Oh, and it's set in 1893.

Hey, I'm rubbish at this...

[YPU]

Red Ork Don’t worry, wikipedia calls it a English origin manga or something. So your correct both ways.

Beast, I have long ago cut the blades apart (which is their normal angle I believe, for some reason the tips fuse in the mould. However they only look more fantasy blade like now.

So I found a few ork guns, a lot fewer then I thought I had, I guess I have used them quite often on these sorts of projects. I’ll harass one of my buddies for his ork guns some time. Anyhow, I have some appropriate ish guns and two steampunk looking ork chainsaws. From what was mentioned the French should be aggressive so a close combat monster seems appropriate.
On the other hand it already has a circle saw perhaps some ranged weapon would also be good. And finally I wondered, considering its size, I wouldn’t field a unit of these anyway, they would be wild cards in savage world and function as individual units, so cant I just have one chainsaw and one gun? A mark I and a Mark II or something.