Issue 6 - The Trouble with Space Marines (Part 1)

I'm going to run a space marines play-by-post game soon. There's just one problem...

Welcome back.

I’m thinking tonight about one of my very favorite genres for RPGs, and realizing I’ve never deeply immersed myself into these heavy-metal laden waters. I dabbled with post-apocalyptic armored troopers in the 90s with GURPS. I use jack-booted power-armored thugs frequently in my supers games. Exo-suit-wearing marines briefly featured very prominently in an old Jovian Chronicles PBEM game of mine in the late 90s / early 2000s. Fully equipped space marines have made the odd appearance in Alien and Mothership games I’ve played and run.

But I’ve never done it properly, never sat down and said, “time to run a full-on space marines game.” So, inspired by the recent and brilliant Helldivers II video game, I’ve decided it’s time.

I dearly love bug-hunting, armored space marines. Always have, always will. Time to run a proper campaign!

Great! Sweet, it’s about freakin’ time! But wait wait wait, Harrigan. Not so fast. there’s a problem.

What’s that problem, you ask?

I own a lot of space marine RPGs. Or at least a lot of RPGs that are aimed at or fairly deeply explore that subject matter, sometimes among other things. So I’ve decided to do a bit of an evaluation of the games I have that could fit the bill, and the idea occurred that I could use my blog to lay that out — on the rare chance someone else out there might find this interesting.

Cutting right to it, this will take a while… note the “(Part 1)” in the title of this post. There are more than a few games I want to look at, and a good number of criteria I’ll use to evaluate how they match up with what I have in mind.

INSPIRATIONS

There are many. If you’re reading this, you likely know most of this stuff, which comes from movies, books, comics, video games and other nerd media. Including, but certainly not limited to:

• Books: Starship Troopers, Leviathan Wakes, Old Man’s War, and many I’ve long forgotten

• Movies: Aliens, Starship Troopers, Edge of Tomorrow

• PC / Video Games: so many. Off the top of my head: several Alien / Aliens efforts, a few X-Com games, the Halo series, Destiny 1 and 2, Warframe, Helldivers and Helldivers II, the Mass Effect games, Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun, various Doom, Quake, and Unreal titles, many Earth Defense Force games (EDF! EDF!), quite a few Gears of War games, certain Fallout productions, Titanfall, the tragically cut-off-at-the-knees Anthem… and a special call-out to Vanquish. So good.

I have lots of big gaps. Haven’t seen The Expanse in its entirety… don’t have a ton of experience with Warhammer 40k games, comics, books, etc.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR

I’d like the following things to matter in my space marines game:

• Badassery: I don’t want the marines being creampuffs, even at the start of the game. They should be forces to be reckoned with. I’ll be looking at their staying power in combat, how powerful their weapons are, mob / swarm rules, the harm, healing and death mechanics, and more.

• Foes: interesting things to shoot, stomp and blast, please.

• Stress: it’s difficult work being a space marine. It’s hard on the psyche. R&R helps, but this is one bitch of a job. How does that take its toll in and out of combat?

• Weapons & Gear: I want varied, powerful, and interesting guns, grenades, drones, scanners, kits, etc.

• Armor: in some ways very much the star of the show. (Not really, that’s the PCs, but the armor should feature prominently.) On both sides — marine armor should make you immune to small arms fire, and big bug carapaces and chitin should make them immune to everything except heavy weapons.

IN THE RUNNING

Here’s what I’ll be breaking down. If you have other ideas for games I should look at, feel free to suggest them in the comments, but I’m starting with stuff I already own:

1. Stay Frosty

2. Extinction

3. Warpstar!

4. 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars

5. Aliens & Asteroids

6. Alien

7. Mothership 1e

8. Jovian Chronicles 2e

9. Tiny Frontiers: Revised

I might consider Coriolis 1e, Frontier Space or Stars Without Number, but I need to draw a line somewhere and currently these haven’t made the grade. If none of the above games pan out I’ll probably cast an eye towards some generic RPGs I know can handle this subject matter — Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, Cortex Prime, Everywhen, Fate, Index Card RPG, etc. Golgotha and various Borg games also almost made the list, so we’ll see if I decide to include those as I dive in.

Okee, cutting this short tonight. More to come on this as I begin the comparo.

Till next time…

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