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Post by ironhold on Sept 17, 2024 14:55:47 GMT
if you really want to throw down; make them so annoying that nobody in-country wants to help them; so the team essentially has to promise to take them out of country and make sure they never come back. In real life, a lot of rank-and-file young political activists are indeed trust fund babies who think they're saving the world by doing their activism when in reality their upbringing left them so out of touch with reality that they usually have no idea what's actually going on. In extreme instances, their "help" can make a situation a lot worse. Depending upon how things go, I foresee these individuals needing to be rescued *a lot*. |
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Post by the light works on Sept 17, 2024 15:17:01 GMT
if you really want to throw down; make them so annoying that nobody in-country wants to help them; so the team essentially has to promise to take them out of country and make sure they never come back. In real life, a lot of rank-and-file young political activists are indeed trust fund babies who think they're saving the world by doing their activism when in reality their upbringing left them so out of touch with reality that they usually have no idea what's actually going on. In extreme instances, their "help" can make a situation a lot worse. Depending upon how things go, I foresee these individuals needing to be rescued *a lot*. Just keep in mind the ones who tend to go places to spread American freedom, and find themselves in trouble tend to be the ones who go with guns and bibles in their suitcases. |
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Post by ironhold on Sept 17, 2024 17:33:40 GMT
In real life, a lot of rank-and-file young political activists are indeed trust fund babies who think they're saving the world by doing their activism when in reality their upbringing left them so out of touch with reality that they usually have no idea what's actually going on. In extreme instances, their "help" can make a situation a lot worse. Depending upon how things go, I foresee these individuals needing to be rescued *a lot*. Just keep in mind the ones who tend to go places to spread American freedom, and find themselves in trouble tend to be the ones who go with guns and bibles in their suitcases. "The Green Inferno" is an infamous film in which a group of college students travel to the Amazon for the sake of environmental activism, not realizing that their "sponsor" is a drug dealer who is looking to use the groups' movements to mask his smuggling efforts. As a result, when their plane goes down he bails on them to save his own skin. Instead of being found by the authorities, however, the students are found by a native tribe who don't take kindly to outsiders. In the end, the "final girl" is rescued by mercenaries hired by the logging company the students were in-country to protest against; the company has had trouble with this tribe in the past, and so decided it was worth hiring some muscle just in case. I was thinking something along this line, to where an ill-prepared and idealistic group of youngsters go off half-cocked and meet with disaster at the hands of some of the very same people they were seeking to "protect". |
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Post by ironhold on Sept 17, 2024 18:23:34 GMT
Also -
operative code name: Winstreak
As a youth, Winstreak proved surprisingly adept at "shooter" video games, winning several solo tournaments outright and often being the key player in winning many a team tournament. This was due to a surprisingly innate ability to read his team, read the opponents, analyze the map, and predict where the best spots to be were based on everything that was happening, ensuring that he was in the right place at the right time to steal the victory away.
This came to a head when he won a battle royale event where some of the adult players were active law enforcement and military. He was soon plied with recruitment offers, including a couple of offers from fellows in black suits.
As these were youth tournaments, most of his "winnings" came in the form of scholarship money for college. Between this and his solid GPA in school, he was easily able to get into a credible college that had an ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program, where he got his commission and was immediately shunted into the Army Reserves.
Officially, he's now a "professional" gamer who travels the world winning tournaments, consulting with video game developers, making public appearances, and having the occasional cameo. His Reserve Obligations are likewise ostensibly related to public affairs, recruitment, and morale. A reservist is still a reservist though, so it's understandable if there are "emergencies" to where he has to head off to the nearest military base for some reason.
In reality, his in-game skills proved to be the tip of the iceberg for his real-life skills. Winstreak is in fact a tactician of high ability who can easily determine where best to place what forces for the optimal outcome, and his training as a grunt infantryman means that if needs be he's quite capable of actually going out in the field and getting it done in person.
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Post by ironhold on Oct 30, 2024 18:27:36 GMT
The more younger gamers I've talked with, the more I've come to realize that a lot of younger individuals literally cannot imagine life before they were born or have very stereotypical images of what it was like. Thus, I'm switching to preparing a modern-day campaign setting if I do get that G. I. Joe gaming group going.
The gist of it is that a covert operative blew the whistle, noting that several key organizations the US was relying on were either too incompetent, too corrupt, or too short-handed to properly protect the nation against a series of emerging threats, including Cobra. This, combined with the public release of mountains of evidence to this effect, led to the Secretary of Education becoming the new POTUS because she was the next-highest person in line of succession who hadn't been arrested or forced to resign.
One of her first acts as POTUS was to take what had previously been a conceptual idea for the G. I. Joe team and make it real. In the haste to get the team operational, however, a random slew of operators from across all six branches were selected and thrown together at a base which was still functionally under construction (allowing for the Joes' underground base to be carved out beneath the buildings that were going up) along with a mix of standard-issue & experimental hardware. The team is in the process of gelling & becoming more effective, but there are still gaps in the team's functionality.
Basically, I used an artificial filter to thin the number of characters & vehicles, and this inadvertently resulted in several mission specialties - like mortar operator, K9 handler, and several types of terrain specialists - having nobody to fill those roles and other specialties - like fixed-wing pilot, laser trooper, and arctic terrain specialist - only having a single person apiece.
This is where the party comes in. They're the newest inductees to the team, possibly brought on board to help plug these gaps. I'll allow the party three characters each, with the understanding that past the first mission (a heavily reworked version of the intro mission from the core manual) they'll be rotating through their characters as appropriate.
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Post by the light works on Oct 31, 2024 3:45:59 GMT
The more younger gamers I've talked with, the more I've come to realize that a lot of younger individuals literally cannot imagine life before they were born or have very stereotypical images of what it was like. Thus, I'm switching to preparing a modern-day campaign setting if I do get that G. I. Joe gaming group going. The gist of it is that a covert operative blew the whistle, noting that several key organizations the US was relying on were either too incompetent, too corrupt, or too short-handed to properly protect the nation against a series of emerging threats, including Cobra. This, combined with the public release of mountains of evidence to this effect, led to the Secretary of Education becoming the new POTUS because she was the next-highest person in line of succession who hadn't been arrested or forced to resign. One of her first acts as POTUS was to take what had previously been a conceptual idea for the G. I. Joe team and make it real. In the haste to get the team operational, however, a random slew of operators from across all six branches were selected and thrown together at a base which was still functionally under construction (allowing for the Joes' underground base to be carved out beneath the buildings that were going up) along with a mix of standard-issue & experimental hardware. The team is in the process of gelling & becoming more effective, but there are still gaps in the team's functionality. Basically, I used an artificial filter to thin the number of characters & vehicles, and this inadvertently resulted in several mission specialties - like mortar operator, K9 handler, and several types of terrain specialists - having nobody to fill those roles and other specialties - like fixed-wing pilot, laser trooper, and arctic terrain specialist - only having a single person apiece. This is where the party comes in. They're the newest inductees to the team, possibly brought on board to help plug these gaps. I'll allow the party three characters each, with the understanding that past the first mission (a heavily reworked version of the intro mission from the core manual) they'll be rotating through their characters as appropriate. I'd say reduce the scope of the rot - limit it just to the alphabet agencies; such that there was a massive purge, and they've basically taken the ones who have passed the new security screening process into one agency that has to cover all the bases until they can rebuild everything. - so now they're filling the gaps with people with less history to wade through, which lets the screening process go faster. |
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Post by wvengineer on Oct 31, 2024 13:51:29 GMT
The gist of it is that a covert operative blew the whistle, noting that several key organizations the US was relying on were either too incompetent, too corrupt, or too short-handed to properly protect the nation against a series of emerging threats, including Cobra. This, combined with the public release of mountains of evidence to this effect, led to the Secretary of Education becoming the new POTUS because she was the next-highest person in line of succession who hadn't been arrested or forced to resign. Secretary of Education is 16th in the presidential succession line. That is LOT of people that would need to be removed to get to them. Having that many people get arrested or resign really isn't believable. What are the other implication of this scandal? In addition to nearly everyone in leadership, how many senators & congressmen are also out? Supreme court justices? You can see where this is going. There would be SOOOOOO many people out that I don't know how the government could function. From there, the fallout is staggering. Basically the government would be falling apart and public trust would be utterly gone. The public couple potentially be on the verge of revolution. How is the country going to prevent public uprising and replace SOOO many people that got caught in the scandal all at once? Really think about the implication of what you are suggesting. TO have that many people out at once, I think a war or terrorist attack would be more believable. Sounds kinda like Tom Clancy's book "Executive Orders". |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 31, 2024 14:14:55 GMT
The gist of it is that a covert operative blew the whistle, noting that several key organizations the US was relying on were either too incompetent, too corrupt, or too short-handed to properly protect the nation against a series of emerging threats, including Cobra. This, combined with the public release of mountains of evidence to this effect, led to the Secretary of Education becoming the new POTUS because she was the next-highest person in line of succession who hadn't been arrested or forced to resign. Secretary of Education is 16th in the presidential succession line. That is LOT of people that would need to be removed to get to them. Having that many people get arrested or resign really isn't believable. What are the other implication of this scandal? In addition to nearly everyone in leadership, how many senators & congressmen are also out? Supreme court justices? You can see where this is going. There would be SOOOOOO many people out that I don't know how the government could function. From there, the fallout is staggering. Basically the government would be falling apart and public trust would be utterly gone. The public couple potentially be on the verge of revolution. How is the country going to prevent public uprising and replace SOOO many people that got caught in the scandal all at once? Really think about the implication of what you are suggesting. TO have that many people out at once, I think a war or terrorist attack would be more believable. Sounds kinda like Tom Clancy's book "Executive Orders". Trying to think about how deep I'd have to go to find someone in the order of succession that would be able to do the job but would be so far out of the loop that they would basically be having to learn on the job, thereby justifying why things are such a hectic mess. |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 31, 2024 14:20:01 GMT
I'd say reduce the scope of the rot - limit it just to the alphabet agencies; such that there was a massive purge, and they've basically taken the ones who have passed the new security screening process into one agency that has to cover all the bases until they can rebuild everything. - so now they're filling the gaps with people with less history to wade through, which lets the screening process go faster. Some months back, as a thought exercise to get my brain flowing on a day when I was having trouble focusing, I did a "what-if" in which I tried to think of all the figures from the 1982 - 1994 line that had *not* been recolored in any way, shape, or form, not only as concerns the US release but the British, Brazilian, and Indian releases. I then tried to see if I could assemble a functional team from this. That's what the present roster descends from. For example, in 1987 Hasbro released Fast-Draw, an anti-aircraft trooper. He was such a non-entity that there was no call for him nostalgia-wise, and so outside of a mail-in promotion in 1993 where he was available as part of a bundle of figures he's never been re-released. Thus, he made the cut. In contrast, all four versions of Army Ranger Stalker, first released in 1982, were given at least one new deco scheme at some point (such as his 1989 figure being given a new color scheme as part of a themed "Arctic Combat" assortment in 1993). So I'm going to have him joining a "Men In Black" type agency instead of the Joe team. |
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Post by wvengineer on Oct 31, 2024 14:55:41 GMT
Trying to think about how deep I'd have to go to find someone in the order of succession that would be able to do the job but would be so far out of the loop that they would basically be having to learn on the job, thereby justifying why things are such a hectic mess. Maybe the Attorney General? #7 in line. They could have the extra clout as being part of the team that uncovered and are prosecuting the corruption. That could help to get the public on board with him/her because they see them as a hero for taking everyone down. |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 31, 2024 17:00:18 GMT
Trying to think about how deep I'd have to go to find someone in the order of succession that would be able to do the job but would be so far out of the loop that they would basically be having to learn on the job, thereby justifying why things are such a hectic mess. Maybe the Attorney General? #7 in line. They could have the extra clout as being part of the team that uncovered and are prosecuting the corruption. That could help to get the public on board with him/her because they see them as a hero for taking everyone down. Thanks. ** Hasbro themselves introduced the idea of UNIT:E, a Men In Black type group that operates behind the scenes to fill the jurisdictional gaps of various groups and handle anything not explicitly assigned to anyone else. I'm likely going to have a number of Joes who didn't pass through my filter either wind up with them or get seconded to other related organizations. Basically, there were about 200 Joe characters who Hasbro introduced between 1982 and 1994 (ballpark figure), and there's no way to plausibly put all of them in play alongside the player characters without crowding the characters out, which is why I filtered them despite how arbitrary the filtration process I used was. Yes, in 1994 Hasbro *actually released a series of evil space aliens* as part of the Star Brigade sub-line. I'm thinking they and the Cobra-La guys from 1987 aren't going to make an appearance regardless. That being said, the idea from a few pages back about the operative who "retires" to open up a comic book shop? I'm reusing that here. I'm having it that the whistleblower's hometown is a fictional small town in Texas that's near Eagle Pass, and that he's a member of the ranching & business family that essentially runs the fictional locale. IRL the Texas government is looking to set up a permanent staging area near Eagle Pass to support the National Guard efforts at the border, and so I'm going to say that this is a cover, with the "base" that Uncle Sam is setting up to support border security being the Joe team headquarters, with the public construction up top hiding the secret construction underneath. This is actually in keeping with the Marvel US comic books, where the team's first headquarters was a facility underneath the motor pool at Fort Wadsworth and the second headquarters was a facility underneath The Presidio. |
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Post by ironhold on Nov 2, 2024 18:44:24 GMT
Mission idea -
Even though intelligence reports indicate no Cobra activity in the South American nation of Rio Lindo, the folks in neighboring Sierra Gordo, a US ally, have presented photographs of what appear to be a type of pre-fabricated Cobra fortification known as a Terror Dome just inside Rio Lindo. They are demanding that an investigation take place immediately.
The players, under command of infantry officer Captain Grid-Iron and assisted by communications trooper Dial-Tone, will be air-dropped into the region. Team equipment will include one AWE-Striker combat dune buggy that has a .50 machine gun in the turret, one AWE-Striker combat dune buggy that has a recoilless rifle in the turret, a Silver Mirage combat motorcycle, and possibly a third AWE-Striker if there are more than six players. V/STOL pilot Cloudburst will be on standby inside a Sky Hawk V/STOL (twin machine guns, twin air-to-air missiles, twin anti-tank ballistic cannons) in case the party calls for air support.
The Terror Dome is actually a mock-up created by Rio Lindo's ground forces to intimidate Sierra Gordo ahead of upcoming scheduled negotiations over water rights. Two platoons of soldiers with jeeps, cargo trucks, and AK-series assault rifles are on-site alongside some towed cannons and some communications & surveillance gear.
Twist: Cobra is also aware of the ostensible Terror Dome, and has sent forces of their own to investigate. Six FANG gyrocopters and two Water Moccasin combat swamp boats protect the disguised freighter that deployed the landing craft used by two teams of Cobra forces: a recon-in-force team (1 Stinger anti-aircraft jeep, 3 Ferret combat ATVs, 1 comms trooper, 2 infantry commandos) meant to investigate the site and a sweeper team (4 Paralyzer light tanks and 8 troopers) meant to hastily move in and eliminate anything the recon-in-force team designates.
The recoilless rifle on the one AWE-Striker and the rockets on the Silver Mirage will be enough to cripple or even destroy the Paralyzer tanks and Stinger jeep, while the .50 can threaten the FANGs if they deploy. The real threats will be the Ferret ATVs and dismounted infantry forces (troopers and commandos), who can quickly flank the players if they're inattentive. The Rio Lindo soldiers likewise have just enough firepower to stagger the Cobra forces, but *only* if they're able to organize themselves in time. The Sky Hawk's anti-tank cannons can easily sink the Water Moccasin boats if it discovers the freighter, but one Sky Hawk by itself just doesn't have the firepower to seriously threaten, let alone sink, the freighter; the party will have to instead stay alive long enough for the Sierra Gordo or Rio Lindo forces to mobilize their (aging) attack helicopters and then direct the helicopters into position.
The party "wins" if they can identify the ruse and escape back to friendly lines. Destroying either the FANGs or one of the two ground units will be bonus objectives for which the party will be "rewarded" by being able to piece together enough bits of a Paralyzer and/or FANG for them to have their own custom ride. Taking out the freighter will be enough XP to level the party up.
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Post by ironhold on Nov 20, 2024 0:12:44 GMT
Probably a very, very silly idea, but...
Guy likes to sic his very vicious dog on anything and everything smaller and weaker than it, using various plausible enough excuses to justify why animal control shouldn't seize the creature.
Guy pushes his luck too far one day and tries to sic his dog on some church people who are tracting in the neighborhood.
Big beefy action hero type who is escorting the church people eliminates the threat.
Guy is so horrified that he has a fatal heart attack.
Guy is reincarnated as the kind of critter that he used to sic his dog on.
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Post by the light works on Nov 20, 2024 14:20:18 GMT
Probably a very, very silly idea, but... Guy likes to sic his very vicious dog on anything and everything smaller and weaker than it, using various plausible enough excuses to justify why animal control shouldn't seize the creature. Guy pushes his luck too far one day and tries to sic his dog on some church people who are tracting in the neighborhood. Big beefy action hero type who is escorting the church people eliminates the threat. Guy is so horrified that he has a fatal heart attack. Guy is reincarnated as the kind of critter that he used to sic his dog on. yes, it's a silly idea. and I'm not sure where it would go, apart from being a strange sort of object lesson. the most farfetched part is the part where he gets away with it for any length of time before running into something that isn't as weak as he thinks. |
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Post by ironhold on Nov 23, 2024 1:55:38 GMT
Not something I'm actually going to write per se owing to how *deliberately* ridiculous it is, but I plan to have a character be a devout fan of this particular series as an example of their rather questionable taste in fiction. Might even have it that the character takes things they see in the series in tries them out in real life -
"You Want Me To Marry My Over-Powered Cousin?!"
Once upon a time, a particular ninja clan hired themselves out as assassins. Pay their price, and they'll kill anyone. One day, the head of a prominent yakuza syndicate called for the death of an American who was investigating the syndicate's activities. The clan sent one of their rising stars, a young woman nicknamed the "Bloody Sunflower", to do the job. Three days later, the clan received a coded message chastising them for "sending a flower to kill a lawnmower". In the message, believed to be from the American, it was explained that he found the flower "too pretty to mow" and that he had decided to "replant her elsewhere" at her own insistence, with the "Bloody Sunflower" offering herself up as a peace offering so that he wouldn't annihilate the clan.
As seeming proof of his abilities, within hours of the clan receiving the message, the yakuza syndicate was obliterated. Over a dozen of their nastiest thugs died horribly, and threescore - including the head of the syndicate - suffered fatal heart attacks brought about by what was likely pure fear given the expressions on their face.
Fast forward 20 years. The ninja clan went legit, and is now hiring itself out as bodyguards, detectives, and the like. Nadeshiko, a young woman often compared to her aunt the "Bloody Sunflower", is both a student at a private high school that caters to VIPs and a plainclothes bodyguard helping to protect those VIPs. One day, she's informed that there will be a new student at the school, an American boy her age. Her mission is *not* to protect him from trouble, but to protect trouble from him; for now she is just to stick close to him and make sure nothing gets out of hand. Things are amiss with him and his, and her clan needs to investigate.
Long story short, the mysterious American boy is her cousin, the oldest son of the American and the "Bloody Sunflower" (now a June Cleaver-esque housewife). He has his father's intellect & raw overwhelming physical power (it's a running gag that despite being a teenager his "battle aura" can quickly lower property values for how it kills vegetation and cracks concrete), but it's guided by his mother's grace and finesse. *Something* has caused the American to come back to Japan with his entire family, and the clan is so terrified that they're willing to offer up Nadeshiko to appease his son just as her aunt offered herself up to appease the American 20 years earlier.
"What... what the bleep is this, and why do so many people devour it like it's holy writ?"
"Dude, we're talking about very impressionable and very, very stupid teenagers. Half of them want to be as powerful as their favorite character, and the other half somehow think it's so incredibly romantic."
"That's the teenagers. Doesn't explain why I saw a group of moms reading it."
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Post by the light works on Nov 23, 2024 3:42:14 GMT
Not something I'm actually going to write per se owing to how *deliberately* ridiculous it is, but I plan to have a character be a devout fan of this particular series as an example of their rather questionable taste in fiction. Might even have it that the character takes things they see in the series in tries them out in real life - "You Want Me To Marry My Over-Powered Cousin?!" Once upon a time, a particular ninja clan hired themselves out as assassins. Pay their price, and they'll kill anyone. One day, the head of a prominent yakuza syndicate called for the death of an American who was investigating the syndicate's activities. The clan sent one of their rising stars, a young woman nicknamed the "Bloody Sunflower", to do the job. Three days later, the clan received a coded message chastising them for "sending a flower to kill a lawnmower". In the message, believed to be from the American, it was explained that he found the flower "too pretty to mow" and that he had decided to "replant her elsewhere" at her own insistence, with the "Bloody Sunflower" offering herself up as a peace offering so that he wouldn't annihilate the clan. As seeming proof of his abilities, within hours of the clan receiving the message, the yakuza syndicate was obliterated. Over a dozen of their nastiest thugs died horribly, and threescore - including the head of the syndicate - suffered fatal heart attacks brought about by what was likely pure fear given the expressions on their face. Fast forward 20 years. The ninja clan went legit, and is now hiring itself out as bodyguards, detectives, and the like. Nadeshiko, a young woman often compared to her aunt the "Bloody Sunflower", is both a student at a private high school that caters to VIPs and a plainclothes bodyguard helping to protect those VIPs. One day, she's informed that there will be a new student at the school, an American boy her age. Her mission is *not* to protect him from trouble, but to protect trouble from him; for now she is just to stick close to him and make sure nothing gets out of hand. Things are amiss with him and his, and her clan needs to investigate. Long story short, the mysterious American boy is her cousin, the oldest son of the American and the "Bloody Sunflower" (now a June Cleaver-esque housewife). He has his father's intellect & raw overwhelming physical power (it's a running gag that despite being a teenager his "battle aura" can quickly lower property values for how it kills vegetation and cracks concrete), but it's guided by his mother's grace and finesse. *Something* has caused the American to come back to Japan with his entire family, and the clan is so terrified that they're willing to offer up Nadeshiko to appease his son just as her aunt offered herself up to appease the American 20 years earlier. "What... what the bleep is this, and why do so many people devour it like it's holy writ?" "Dude, we're talking about very impressionable and very, very stupid teenagers. Half of them want to be as powerful as their favorite character, and the other half somehow think it's so incredibly romantic." "That's the teenagers. Doesn't explain why I saw a group of moms reading it." my first thought was "so... the next Twilight..." |
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Post by ironhold on Nov 23, 2024 23:45:08 GMT
my first thought was "so... the next Twilight..." I want this to be the cause of a *lot* of bad decisions on the part of various characters as well as a lot of pseudo-intellectual paperwork & critiques in-world. |
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Post by the light works on Nov 23, 2024 23:48:34 GMT
my first thought was "so... the next Twilight..." I want this to be the cause of a *lot* of bad decisions on the part of various characters as well as a lot of pseudo-intellectual paperwork & critiques in-world. so... the next twilight. |
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