Friday, December 14, 2012

Campaigns I'd Like To Run: The Star Harvest

First off, sorry it's been so long since I updated. I've had lots of fun freelance RPG work that's kept me busy. 

So anyway, we're in pitch season again in our Tuesday group. I like to write pitches as movie trailers.

This'd be Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, using a hodgepodge of various RPG stuff for source material. (The ION Guard, some Vigilance Press stuff, and stuff I'd lift from the upcoming Annihilation sourcebooks.)

Cue John Williams Music

EXTERIOR, SPACE: Computer sounding voice over.

VOICE OF ION PRIME: For millions of years, the ION Guard have protected the universe from cosmic threats.

PANS DOWN to see the artificial world ION PRIME. It's the size of a small moon surrounded by an orbiting ring of linked towers. There are small golden dots flying around, members of the ION Guard.

ION PRIME: In that time, they have never been defeated.

Swarming into space are the insectoid ships of The Star Harvest.

A space battle ensues, with the ION Guard flying up to meet the Hive Ships. The sky is full of explosions and beams of golden light.

ION PRIME: Until now.

On the surface of Ion Prime, the once proud citadel of the Ion Guard is in ruins. A handful of Guardsmen are looking around, shell-shocked.

CUT TO Space, the Harvesters on the move, cutting through the defenses of the LOKK Empire's warships. Cut to interior of one of the ships. The LOKK are a cloned race, the bridge crew is made up of 3 "models."

SECOND IN COMMAND: Captain, we must retreat.

CAPTAIN: We leave and those colonists are dead.

SECOND: We stay and they die hours later. The Hive Ships will track them down and... consume them along with us.

The CAPTAIN thinks for a moment. He rubs his chin, Kirk style. "Dammit. Order the-"

THIRD: CAPTAIN, multiple inbound signatures.

CUT TO SPACE: Warping in are a group of heroes, flying in formation around a badass little ship. (Something like the Defiant)

CUT TO LOKK Command Ship. On the view screen is Enkidu, a super-intelligent Gorilla from Savage Titan. Enkidu wears glasses perched on his nose and has a bandolier of tools ending in a big pouch (like Chewbacca's, but his are covered in tools, not clips.)

ENKIDU: Greetings, LOKK Fleet. This is the Excelsior. We are here to assist. Cover the evacuating colonists. We will cover you.

LOKK SECOND: Captain, they are a single ship, with four meta-beings.

LOKK THIRD: Captain, those four signatures are registering more power than half of our fleet.

The Captain smiles.

CAPTAIN: Thank you Excelsior.

Cut to the command deck of the EXCELSIOR. Enkidu is standing at the command post (like where Nick Fury stood on the Helicarrier or where Commander Shepard stands on the Normandy. Other gorillas are manning the other stations. They've got similar bandoliers, but Enkidu's is gold, showing he's the Apex Ape.

ENKIDU: Ladies and gentlemen, you know what to do.

In space, the four fliers are:

TEMPEST SHEPARD, ION GUARDIAN from Earth: She's scarred from battle but going total badass on the ships. She throws spheres of golden energy like a baseball pitcher, and each sphere tears through a ship.

ODYSSEY, a near-human alien with the standard Flight Invulnerability Strength and Speed, but on a cosmic scale . She tears ships in half and beams just bounce off her.

MARAUDER, a battlesuit hero - the battlesuit is big and bulky, like Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor. There's a giant cannon running along his arm, just as long and almost as thick. The cannon glows brightly and a huge energy beam punches through ships. Maneuvering jets have him sliding through screens of Hive fighters like they were in slow motion.

OUTRIDER, the Quantum Magician: He looks like the Babylon 5 Techno-Mages. Robes covered with arcane symbols and circuitry. He is standing on an asteroid and gestures with a staff. As he does, other asteroids accelerate to near light speed and slam into the giant Hive Command Carrier. At first, they bounce off of the ship's shields, but then the shields shatter under the bombardment.

OUTRIDER: I've disabled the shields on the command carrier.

CUT TO the bridge of the Excelsior.

ENKIDU: Team Two, Transit now.

CUT TO the interior of the COMMAND CARRIER. In a flash of blue light, a group appears. There's a squad of Ape Soldiers, each carrying BIG GUNS. At the front of the team are, Shamus Starhawk, Galactic Gumshoe (imagine Tars Tarkas dressed like Sam Spade - he's got blasters in each of his 4 arms) and Pulsar Dragon, a human martial artist wearing a gi made out of the same starfield stuff that Star Boy of the Legion wears. She's holding a staff.

SHAMUS: We're in. Heading for the engine room.

In swarms a bunch of bug-aliens. The apes open fire. Shamus opens fire, targeting different bugs with each blaster. Pulsar Dragon glows with a chi energy aura and wades into the bugs. Whenever she strikes something, there's a flash of green chi energy.

CUT TO: Interior of the Black Harvest's Queenship. A drone is standing next to the Queen (who is eclipsed in shadow). They are watching all this on a holo-monitor.

DRONE: These Guardians may be trouble, my lady.

QUEEN: They will fail. ... They will fall.

The Queen leans forward into the light. She's an HR Giger nightmare.

QUEEN: And the Harvest will continue.