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Tema69 · 01-16-2016, 01:37 PM

Hi!
I’ve been running a post-apocalyptic weird-war two campaign for about six months now. It’s heavily based around the PCs exploring, looting and finding valuable technological remnants, and it’s fairly sandbox. The PCs wish to keep a somewhat middle-ages feel to the campaign (so there’s plenty of hand-to-hand combat, few vehicles, and most settlements are essentially feudal mini-nationstates). I’d love some help getting the ideas flowing, especially regarding steering the PCs a bit towards interesting areas (and filling those interesting areas with interesting things).

The setting, in it’s basic elements, revolves around a WWW2 setting with advanced technology and an unbroken Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, and a more limited American intervention in the European/African theatre. There’s nothing supernatural or arcane, but plenty of futuristic gadgets, space programs, cyborgs, etc - although essentially all of these technological advances are used for military purposes. Civilian life in the period would be fairly similar to real life, but with more interesting stuff to read about in the papers.
WMDs are used on a large scale from 1943 (starting with american nuclear bombings of dozens of japanese islands) to 1945 (europe is laid to waste as allied forces cross into german territory). Some of the weapons are nuclear, some are biological/chemical, and others are just real big bombs. The PCs started the campaign about twenty years later, in a small isolated settlement called Malevil in Alsace (less than 300 people). The PCs know fairly little about the cataclysmic events 20 years ago, except that they were lucky to survive. The PCs have been on one “main” adventure, in which they went to investigate a recently crashed german spaceship (that had been in orbit for over 20 years), finding hundreds of humanoid drones (who actually house a human brain, designed as expendable space crew), and a single surviving human crew member. Long story short, a bit under 400 drones have been brought to Malevil, and are being schooled and raised from scratch (although they learn and mature at an accelerated rate), and the surviving crew member is slowly recuperating from severe hibernation sickness. They also brought back some nifty tech with them (that are essentially magic items to the characters), but unfortunately also attracted the unwanted and fairly hostile attention of a settlement to the west, consisting primarily of former Allied soldiers.
Recently the PCs have established diplomatic and trade relations with a larger settlement to the south, called Rosenau, and have exchanged a dozen hostages/experts to assist the respective settlements and cement their diplomatic alliance. Malevil consists mostly of rural inhabitant, and are thus able to survive fairly well on farming, cattle, etc, whilst Rosenau consists of former Wehrmacht units and urbanised civilians - their ability to feed themselves is poor.

The PCs consist of three characters from Malevil (in their thirties) and two from Rosenau (in their fourties).
Sebastien - former history/politics-student, works as political advisor to the leadership in Malevil, as well as being in charge of expeditions, exploring, raids and on-the-spot diplomacy. The player likes interaction-based roleplay, and the thrill of exploring.
Alexandre - former amateur-boxer turned blacksmith, has been put in charge of Malevil’s protection, as well as the protection of expedition members. The player likes to break stuff/people, and cares very little for any other types of encounters.
Michel - woodsman/carpenter, a somewhat reserved character that excells at smashing things with axes. This player is down with most encounters, as long as there’s variation.
Alfred - former Pioneer in the Wehrmacht, he’s a mechanic and is the navigator on the crew’s truck. There’s a lot of synergy/overlap with Alfred’s character. This player is down with most encounters, as long as there’s variation.
Verner - former Pioneer in the Wehrmacht, he’s the driver of the crew’s truck. There’s a lot of synergy/overlap with Alfred’s character. This player absolutely loves to problemsolve both ingame and game-mechanics-wise. Somewhat of a min-maxing-munchkin at times.

The PCs are not necessarily nice people, but do what they think is best for their settlements. Some of them supported the nazi party, others fought for Nazi Germany, some are extremely suspicious of strangers, and so on. Twenty years later, however, the politics of a destroyed civilisation matters less. They do try to avoid letting harm come to innocents, although their definition of innocents varies.

The PCs have turned their attention to an area in the Alps where they expect to find some sort of space-related base (clues were found in the crashed spaceship), and are planning an expedition there.

The alpine base will be home to the german Silbervogel program. The base will have been attacked in the final days of the war by allied commandos, but not captured.
I’m planning to give this fortress-in-the-mountains a VERY fantasy/middle ages feel, without resorting to supernatural elements. The plan is:
The base is controlled by “the White Prince”, his henchmen, and dozens of “ghouls”. The Prince and his henchmen will be partial cyborgs (head, brain and vital organs are still human, the rest is a robotic chassis), giving them a knightly feel. Similar to the drones mentioned earlier, the original intent of the partial cyborg design was to create the perfect astronauts, but this proved too costly. Drones ended up being used alongside regular human crew instead.
The ghouls will be severely deteriorated drones (same as the ones they are raising in their settlement) that have gone somewhat mad, but are being controlled by the prince and his henchmen due to built-in tech.
The partial cyborgs have been slowly deteriorating over the last two decades, and have been sending out the ghouls to acquire spare parts (both mechanical components and human organs). Due to the commando attack on the base during the last days of the war, the physically large cyborgs are unable to leave without losing the ability to come back, whilst the smaller and slimmer ghouls can slip in and out.
I want the Prince to have a lich-king kinda feel, harvesting human organs, controlling an army of “undead” minions, etc. What I need is some sort of over-the-top grandiose scheme for him to be planning. I want him to be an absolute megalomaniac, but not quite insane. I’d also like for him to be a recurring villain, so I’ve set up and escape plan for him and what remains of his henchmen/minions when the PCs start winning decisively.

So, what does a megalomaniac german warrior-aristocrat turned cyborg plan for twenty years atop a mountain base surrounded by post-apocalyptic wasteland, and what happens when he’s kicked out by annoying PCs looking for loot?

01-16-2016, 01:37 PM	#1
Tema69 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Denmark	[Help needed] Post-apocalyptic world-war-two campaign Hi! I’ve been running a post-apocalyptic weird-war two campaign for about six months now. It’s heavily based around the PCs exploring, looting and finding valuable technological remnants, and it’s fairly sandbox. The PCs wish to keep a somewhat middle-ages feel to the campaign (so there’s plenty of hand-to-hand combat, few vehicles, and most settlements are essentially feudal mini-nationstates). I’d love some help getting the ideas flowing, especially regarding steering the PCs a bit towards interesting areas (and filling those interesting areas with interesting things). The setting, in it’s basic elements, revolves around a WWW2 setting with advanced technology and an unbroken Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, and a more limited American intervention in the European/African theatre. There’s nothing supernatural or arcane, but plenty of futuristic gadgets, space programs, cyborgs, etc - although essentially all of these technological advances are used for military purposes. Civilian life in the period would be fairly similar to real life, but with more interesting stuff to read about in the papers. WMDs are used on a large scale from 1943 (starting with american nuclear bombings of dozens of japanese islands) to 1945 (europe is laid to waste as allied forces cross into german territory). Some of the weapons are nuclear, some are biological/chemical, and others are just real big bombs. The PCs started the campaign about twenty years later, in a small isolated settlement called Malevil in Alsace (less than 300 people). The PCs know fairly little about the cataclysmic events 20 years ago, except that they were lucky to survive. The PCs have been on one “main” adventure, in which they went to investigate a recently crashed german spaceship (that had been in orbit for over 20 years), finding hundreds of humanoid drones (who actually house a human brain, designed as expendable space crew), and a single surviving human crew member. Long story short, a bit under 400 drones have been brought to Malevil, and are being schooled and raised from scratch (although they learn and mature at an accelerated rate), and the surviving crew member is slowly recuperating from severe hibernation sickness. They also brought back some nifty tech with them (that are essentially magic items to the characters), but unfortunately also attracted the unwanted and fairly hostile attention of a settlement to the west, consisting primarily of former Allied soldiers. Recently the PCs have established diplomatic and trade relations with a larger settlement to the south, called Rosenau, and have exchanged a dozen hostages/experts to assist the respective settlements and cement their diplomatic alliance. Malevil consists mostly of rural inhabitant, and are thus able to survive fairly well on farming, cattle, etc, whilst Rosenau consists of former Wehrmacht units and urbanised civilians - their ability to feed themselves is poor. The PCs consist of three characters from Malevil (in their thirties) and two from Rosenau (in their fourties). Sebastien - former history/politics-student, works as political advisor to the leadership in Malevil, as well as being in charge of expeditions, exploring, raids and on-the-spot diplomacy. The player likes interaction-based roleplay, and the thrill of exploring. Alexandre - former amateur-boxer turned blacksmith, has been put in charge of Malevil’s protection, as well as the protection of expedition members. The player likes to break stuff/people, and cares very little for any other types of encounters. Michel - woodsman/carpenter, a somewhat reserved character that excells at smashing things with axes. This player is down with most encounters, as long as there’s variation. Alfred - former Pioneer in the Wehrmacht, he’s a mechanic and is the navigator on the crew’s truck. There’s a lot of synergy/overlap with Alfred’s character. This player is down with most encounters, as long as there’s variation. Verner - former Pioneer in the Wehrmacht, he’s the driver of the crew’s truck. There’s a lot of synergy/overlap with Alfred’s character. This player absolutely loves to problemsolve both ingame and game-mechanics-wise. Somewhat of a min-maxing-munchkin at times. The PCs are not necessarily nice people, but do what they think is best for their settlements. Some of them supported the nazi party, others fought for Nazi Germany, some are extremely suspicious of strangers, and so on. Twenty years later, however, the politics of a destroyed civilisation matters less. They do try to avoid letting harm come to innocents, although their definition of innocents varies. The PCs have turned their attention to an area in the Alps where they expect to find some sort of space-related base (clues were found in the crashed spaceship), and are planning an expedition there. The alpine base will be home to the german Silbervogel program. The base will have been attacked in the final days of the war by allied commandos, but not captured. I’m planning to give this fortress-in-the-mountains a VERY fantasy/middle ages feel, without resorting to supernatural elements. The plan is: The base is controlled by “the White Prince”, his henchmen, and dozens of “ghouls”. The Prince and his henchmen will be partial cyborgs (head, brain and vital organs are still human, the rest is a robotic chassis), giving them a knightly feel. Similar to the drones mentioned earlier, the original intent of the partial cyborg design was to create the perfect astronauts, but this proved too costly. Drones ended up being used alongside regular human crew instead. The ghouls will be severely deteriorated drones (same as the ones they are raising in their settlement) that have gone somewhat mad, but are being controlled by the prince and his henchmen due to built-in tech. The partial cyborgs have been slowly deteriorating over the last two decades, and have been sending out the ghouls to acquire spare parts (both mechanical components and human organs). Due to the commando attack on the base during the last days of the war, the physically large cyborgs are unable to leave without losing the ability to come back, whilst the smaller and slimmer ghouls can slip in and out. I want the Prince to have a lich-king kinda feel, harvesting human organs, controlling an army of “undead” minions, etc. What I need is some sort of over-the-top grandiose scheme for him to be planning. I want him to be an absolute megalomaniac, but not quite insane. I’d also like for him to be a recurring villain, so I’ve set up and escape plan for him and what remains of his henchmen/minions when the PCs start winning decisively. So, what does a megalomaniac german warrior-aristocrat turned cyborg plan for twenty years atop a mountain base surrounded by post-apocalyptic wasteland, and what happens when he’s kicked out by annoying PCs looking for loot?