STARSHIP TROOPERS THE ROLEPLAYING GAME By Bill W. Roberts “I do now, of my own free will, after having been duly advised and warned of the meaning and consequences of this oath, enroll in the Federal Service for not less than two years, and as much longer as may be required by the needs of the Federation.” --Federal Service Oath I don’t know why, but there’s some subliminal message in the film Starship Troopers that makes me, for some unknown reason, want to watch it over and over again. Maybe it’s the cool special effects, the wickedly designed Arachnids, half the cast of Total Recall, or those hammy propaganda FedNet broadcasts. Maybe it’s just Fleet officers’ cool boots. No matter why you like it, Starship Troopers crammed lots of combat scenes, teenage relationships and all-around sci-fi mind candy into two hours. Sounds like good roleplaying game fodder. I wrote this game because someone who knew I enjoyed the movie far too much suggested it. It uses the D6 System from West End Games, one of the reasons you should be able to find this text on WEDGE (West End’s Dedicated Game Enthusiasts) at “http://rpg.net/wedge.” This game is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. It’s about blasting things and having fun, not being a scientific simulation of the movie. Come on, we all know MI’s mortality rate is high. Don’t worry if your trooper’s going to make it through the next encounter. Just grab your rifle, wink at your Fleet girlfriend, shoot some bugs, and have a good time. Before you play, it helps if you’ve seen the movie. This is not based on the book. Sit down with a bucket of popcorn and see it first, jot down a few catchy quotes, get the MI attitude down, and you’re ready to play. Legal Note: This game is in no way meant to challenge ownership or copyright of the Starship Troopers movie from Sony Entertainment or the D6 System from West End Games. It’s an unofficial, unauthorized game with no profit involved at all other than the sheer fun gleaned from such a roleplaying experience. And if that’s a crime, maybe Earth really is run by the Federation.
Scores Instead of attributes and skills, this game just lumps both together as “scores.” These represent the number of six-sided dice you roll when you attempt any action with a possibility of failure. All troopers begin with every score at 2D (average). Players can distribute 10D among the scores (adding them to the 2D) to improve their abilities. You can’t add any more than 4D to any one score. The higher you roll, the better. You tell the gamemaster what you’re trying to do, and he determines how hard it’ll be. You roll the number of dice listed next to the appropriate score and add it up (including any bonuses the gamemaster tells you about). If you roll equal to or higher than the difficulty number, you succeed. If you roll lower, you fail. Standard D6 System game mechanic. Use the guideline difficulties and difficulty numbers below:
Difficulty Number Example Very Easy Easy Moderate Difficult Very Difficult Nuts grenade in.
(5) (10) (15) (20) (25) (30+)
Firing a rocket nuke at a target. Running away from a nuke blast. Hitting something in combat. Keeping your cool while dissecting a bug. Tossing a grenade into a tanker bug’s mouth. Jumping on a tanker bug, blowing a hole in it and shoving a
Scores are divided into two categories: combat and other scores. In the spirit of the movie, they’re all named for character quotes...except one; see if you can guess it.
Combat Scores Bug Hole...There: Shows how perceptive you are, used for general patrols and specific visual searches. Field binos add +1D to Bug Hole...There rolls. You can also call this score I Think You’re Gonna Wanna See This or What’s That Look Like To You? Big and Dumb: Use for climbing, lifting, swimming, or any other test of strength and endurance. Do You Get Me? Measure of authority, command and influence over subordinates. Anyone ranking corporal or sergeant requires at least 3D in this score, lieutenants (if you live that long) should have at least 4D.
Emergency Evasion: Easier to say than the more appropriate Flip Six Three-Hole. Mobile Infantry troopers don’t dodge, but if you need some measure of your bodily coordination and agility, roll this score. Should you need to dodge, the number you roll is subtracted from any damage you take. Fire at Will: Your overall skill firing any gun: rifles, rocket launchers, machine guns, the works (but not including grenades). The one skill you’ll use all the time. In most cases you don’t have to worry about shooting Arachnids. Your score pretty much helps determine damage. Hitting a specific bug (a flyer, one attacking your buddy over there, or a bug climbing the wall) requires a Moderate (15) roll. Same number a bug needs to hit you at close range. If a bug is farther away, use good judgment. Lieutenant Rasczek hitting the flyer bug torturing his sergeant was Very Difficult (25). Sometimes known as Nuke It or You Want Some? Your score also determines damage. Fire in the Hole: Ability at throwing grenades; also used to see how accurately you throw any hand-held object or weapon (for instance, knife-throwing might be called The Enemy Cannot Push A Button If You Disable His Hand). Most targets require a Moderate (15) roll to hit. Follow Me: Measures your presence when influencing peers. Sometimes called You Made Squad Leader on Your Own. Knock Me Down: Your skill at brawling and martial arts. To hit, just make a Moderate (15) roll on this score. If you hit, your total becomes the damage you deal (though if you like, you choose how much to inflict, from one point to the maximum rolled). Useless against Arachnids, okay to impress your peers, fun to use on Fleet personnel. Let’s Get Out of Here: Used to run to someone’s aid, reach a goal, or simply escape with your life. Nerves of Steel: Your cool, guts and ability to hold up under combat and social pressure. With a Moderate (15) roll, you can recover from being stunned from an attack to act next round. On a Very Difficult (25) Nerves of Steel roll, you can make one action (often your last) while an Arachnid warrior tears you apart.
Other Scores (Sometimes called “Useless Scores”)
Get Me an Uplink: Roll this when operating any technology: working comm packs, fiddling with computers, rerouting security systems. Stuff most troopers would normally solve with a rifle burst (except the comm pack...). Also used for making very light repairs to tech gear (called I’m Working on It, Sir). Remember, if troopers were to fix stuff, they wouldn’t be MI. Besides, if your rifle’s broken, just grab one off that dead guy over there....
I Just Hope You Learned Something: Represents your past education, overall intelligence and general common sense when presented with intellectual-type situations. Also called MI Doesn’t Mint Stupid Troopers. Never Pass Up A Good Thing: Your savvy street sense (or lack thereof), used for pulling off slick stuff like conning, gambling and wheeling-and-dealing. Nice Boots: How sharp you look in a uniform to members of the opposite sex, even if the MI dress and duty uniforms are ill-fitting and baggy. Anyone in Fleet automatically gets a +2D bonus to any Nice Boots roll, no matter what uniform they’re wearing. Also known as You Look Great in a Uniform.
Critical Successes and Failures “MI does the dying, Fleet just does the flying.” --Johnny Rico This game isn’t about heroes--it’s about MI troopers, guns, bugs, and lots of gore. And ultimately it’s about telling a good story, hamming up your character, and having fun. If you roll well, that’s cool. If you don’t, well, make a new character. This game is deadly enough you don’t need critical failures. If you game mechanic junkies absolutely must have a critical success/failure rule, here it is. If you roll all sixes on your dice for any score, roll them again and add them to your first total. If you roll all ones, your character trips, cuts himself on something sharp nearby, goes into shock and bleeds to death within seconds. Or dies in some similar hideously grotesque and violent fashion. Happy now?
Character Creation “A citizen has the courage to make the safety of the human race their personal responsibility.” --Johnny Rico Now that you know a little about the scores your MI trooper gets, you’re ready to create a character. Just grab the character sheet (or a blank sheet of paper) and follow these easy steps:
1. Add Score Dice Everyone gets 10D to add to their scores, no more than 4D to any one score. Remember, all stats begin at 2D, so the max in any one score is 6D. This is a good time to familiarize yourself with the stat names and their applications. Just recall the movie quote’s context and you’ll remember what the score’s used for.
2. Hits Hits represent the amount of damage troopers can take before they’re toast. Each trooper gets 1D6 plus 25 Hits. When enemies hit troopers, the damage points are subtracted from Hits (though body armor negates 10 points right off). If the total reaches zero, the trooper’s dead. You can read more about this in Medic! in the Combat section.
3. Assign Equipment “Warm it all up...everything you’ve got.” --Lieutenant Rasczek Everyone gets the same gear: see the Equipment section below for a list (including game information). Every trooper gets a helmet and body armor (-10 points of damage from hits), rifle (+2 single-shot/+5 burst damage bonus to Fire at Will total), and one grenade (+100 damage to Fire in the Hole total). Your unit might be assigned extra stuff, including field binos, a comm pack and a sniper rifle. Check with your gamemaster.
4. Choose Motives “You think I joined the Mobile Infantry because of you?” --Dizzy Flores Why’d you sign up for Federal Service? Most troopers are new recruits, fresh out of school and looking for something. Just list a motive that might affect your character’s attitude during the game. For instance, Johnny Rico initially wants to get out on his own, but soon realizes he joined for a girl: this influences his relationship with Dizzy Flores and Carmen Ibanez. Ace Levy wanted to be a career officer, so he strove to do everything well...or at least boasted he could. Here are some suggestions why you might have joined the Mobile Infantry: Benefits of Citizenship: Federal Service is the gateway to citizenship...and a host of financial and career benefits. Career: A Federation junkie, a loyal citizen-to-be, you someday aspire to be a career officer, maybe even Sky Marshal. Escape: You’re fleeing pushy parents, a boring life on a farm planet, bullies at home, a tedious future as a wage slave. Get Out on Your Own: Maybe you didn’t do well in school. Perhaps you’ve been pampered all your life. You have something to prove, and think you can do that in the Mobile Infantry. Love Life: To find some, or get away from someone. Pick one, come up with a one-sentence reason or explanation, and play that as your major motivation during the game. Other than wasting bugs.
5. Determine Rank “What makes you even think you’re going to make Squad Leader?” --Ace Levy Everyone starts the game as a private, unless your gamemaster feels nasty and wants to make one of you a corporal, sergeant or lieutenant to suit the plot, character mix, or his sick sense of humor. Rank is listed as “Rank: Private.” If you’re anything else, you have a number or range of numbers after your rank, like this:
Corporal 1 Sergeant 2-3 Lieutenant 4-6 The numbers represent the chance a bug will single you out for an attack in individual combat. In mass combat, everyone gets assaulted. But in ambushes, lone bug attacks or dives by flying bugs, the Arachnids tend to single out threats. When the gamemaster needs to determine which character a bug attacks, he secretly rolls 1D6. If he rolls within the range for that rank, anyone with that rank is in line to get hit. Is more than one character a corporal? Randomly determine which of the two gets it (unless, of course, there are multiple single-bug attacks). Squad leaders are just as good as privates for this purpose. Privates don’t count; they’re just bug fodder. If the roll specifies a rank not present in the group, the bug attacks any random trooper. Treat anyone with a special weapon (machine gun, nuke rocket launcher, sniper rifle) as a lieutenant--bugs like to target these troopers before they go for any others. Example: A lone flying bug ambushes the group: a sergeant, two corporals, and five privates. The gamemaster rolls a 2--the bug attacks the sergeant. If he rolled a 1, the gamemaster would determine which of the two corporals the bug targets. If he rolled a 46, he’d select a character at random to attack (unless one of them carried a special weapon). Warning: If you play anything but a private, you’ll want to have a replacement character waiting....
Join the Mobile Infantry and Save the World
6. Character Fluff Yeah, you need a name. That’ll help. Nicknames are cool, too. The Mobile Infantry doesn’t discriminate between men and women, so choose your sex if it makes a difference. Height, weight, pet’s name, favorite color and other character fluff would be nice, but remember, your trooper’s probably not going to live very long...at least long enough for any of that to matter.
Character and Hero Points “Are you trying to be a hero, Watkins?” --Johnny Rico There are no heroes in this game, just the Mobile Infantry. Troopers rely on their superior boot camp training and loyalty to the Federation to achieve their goals. Nobody gets any special “character points” or “hero points” to spend and improve their scores. Okay, if you must, give everyone 5 “Trooper Points.” They can spend up to two on any action, after it’s rolled, to roll one or two dice and add that to the total. Save them up; they’ll go quickly.
Combat “Come on you apes, you wanna live forever?” --Lieutenant Rasczek
Initiative Troopers shoot first unless they’re surprised (or hesitate). To avoid surprises, they must make Moderate (15) Bug Hole...There rolls to detect anything unusual and prepare themselves. If you run into a stand-off situation, roll the trooper’s Fire at Will score and compare it to the bug’s Crunch score: the higher one goes first. Sorry, it’s that easy. If you really need some kind of initiative roll to make combat feel real for you and your gamers, use the stand-off rule to determine which side or which individual combatant goes first.
Hitting Stuff Combat uses the same basic D6 System concept of rolling your skill at blowing things away. When you want to attack something, use the appropriate score: Fire at Will, Fire in the Hole, Knock Me Down. To see if you hit a specific target, roll your score dice and add them up. You must equal or beat a difficulty: in most cases, Moderate (15)...the same number a bug needs to hit you at close range. If the bug is farther away, use good judgment. Rasczek hitting the flyer bug torturing his sergeant was Very Difficult. (25). Example: Trooper Bob needs to whack that Arachnid warrior attacking his friend. Firing his rifle, he rolls his Fire at Will score of 5D. He gets an 18 and hits the target.
Hurting Stuff Weapons inflict set damage bonuses...added to whatever you’ve rolled to hit. The higher you roll, the more damage you deliver. Example: Trooper Bob rolls an 18 for his Fire at Will score to hit the Arachnid. An 18 is good enough to hit--now he figures how much damage he inflicts. His rifle delivers 5 points of damage, plus his score total, for a whopping 23 points of damage. Needless to say, this only slightly phases the Arachnid, who turns to attack Trooper Bob. Knock Me Down attacks inflict damage equal to the score roll only. Some hand-held weapons (knives, chairs, bottles) might add 1-5 points to that total, depending on their size and edge. As a rarely used option in combat, the aggressor may choose how much damage to inflict, from one point up to the maximum damage rolled. This might be useful in disabling an opponent. Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to grenade or tactical nuke damage. Sorry, nobody gets to roll their Strength (or Big and Dumb) score to resist damage. Just lock and load and do good death: roll that Fire at Will score, see if you hit, then, if you do, add that damage bonus. The target gets to knock off damage for any armor, then loses Hits equal to the damage left.
Emergency Evasion MI troopers don’t usually dodge: they either stand and shoot or run for their lives. If you absolutely feel it necessary to “dodge,” roll your Emergency Evasion score. Subtract your total from any damage you get that turn.
Example: Let’s say that Arachnid warrior attacks Trooper Bob, and he tries “dodging.” He rolls his Emergency Evasion score of 2D and gets 11 (lucky guy). The bug attacks and does 35 damage points to Bob (for the blow-by-blow explanation for this, see the example below under Medic!). Bob subtracts 11 from this damage for his Emergency Evasion maneuver, then subtracts 10 points his armor absorbs. He only takes 14 points of damage.
Multiple Actions Just like in most D6 System games, you can take multiple actions per round. You get one “free” action, but for each one after that, you get a cumulative -1D penalty to all actions that round. Not only does this reduce your chances of succeeding at actions, it cuts down your damage potential.
Medic! “Mobile Infantry made me the man I am today.” Every trooper has a set number of Hits they can take. If your Hits drop to 10 or less, you’re incapacitated, and all scores get a -2D penalty. If your Hits are reduced from their maximum to 5 or less in one attack, the body part targeted is amputated (meaning death if that body part is your head or torso). Once your Hits drop to 5 or less, you’re mortally wounded. Roll 1D6 every “round” (or action you take). If the roll is equal to or below your current Hits, you manage to hang on to life. If you roll higher than your current Hits, you’re toast. In combat, though, medics aren’t really concerned with mortally wounded guys...they’re usually running for their own lives. If you make it back to your ship or base alive, you’ll be okay. If you’ve lost an arm, doctors can replace it with a cybernetic limb, though it’s only functional: no special cyber benefits or penalties...other than you get your arm back and return to your MI tour of duty. If you’ve lost a leg, well, you’ll be given some administrative desk job for the remainder of your Federal Service. Example: Trooper Bob’s just upset an Arachnid warrior. The gamemaster rolls 5D for the bug’s Crunch score and gets a 20. He adds the total of 20 to the bug’s damage bonus of 15 for a total damage amount of 35. Trooper Bob only has 27 Hits. His armor subtracts 10 from the bug’s damage, lowering it to 25. Bob now has only 2 Hits left. Ow. Something’s been amputated. Rolling a 2 on the hit location table, Bob discovers he’s lost an arm. And is mortally wounded, suffering from a -2D incapacitation penalty. Unless someone blasts that bug, Trooper Bob will soon be toast.
Hit Locations: Humans Roll 1D6 to see where you get whacked.... 1 Head 2 Arm (pick one) 3-4 Torso 5-6 Leg (pick one)
Nerves of Steel Each time you lose Hits, you’re stunned for one round while everyone else gets to act...including your opponent. You can avoid this by making a Moderate (15) Nerves of Steel roll: no multi-action penalty, but including the incapacitation penalty of -2D if you’re below 10 Hits. If an Arachnid is busy tearing you apart or crushing you with its powerful torso mandible beak, you can take one final, heroic action if you make a Very Difficult (25) Nerves of Steel roll. Example: Trooper Bob is down to 2 Hits left. Nobody’s come to his aid, so the Arachnid warrior he’s ticked off is busy tearing him to shreds. He’s still suffering (and stunned) from having his arm ripped off, but he wants to make one final attempt to waste this bug before he’s toast himself. He rolls his Nerves of Steel score of 5D...3D after the -2D incapacitation penalty...and gets a 14. Too bad, not enough to keep it together and get one parting shot at the bug. Medic! During the Klendathu invasion, Johnny Rico uses his Nerves of Steel to keep blasting away at bugs until Rico’s Roughnecks arrive to drag his wounded body to safety.
Arachnids Bugs use a variety of body parts to attack. Arachnid warriors use their pincers and mandible beak, sometimes use their legs if necessary. Tanker bugs rely on their flammable bio-corrosive spray, and flyers use deadly swooping attacks. In combat, bugs use their Crunch score to see if they hit and determine how much damage they inflict. They also add damage bonuses to their Crunch scores, and use Hits to see how long they can keep going under fire. Unlike humans, Arachnids have no incapacitation penalties when their Hits drop below 10. Instead, they keep going until their Hits are blasted down to nothing. Bugs sometimes withhold damage, inflicting fewer Hits than needed to kill soldiers. In these cases, the Arachnids have more devious plans for the troopers, mostly involving brain bugs sucking their gray matter out or manipulating them to lure other units into traps.
Sorry this information isn’t more comprehensive. Why waste time providing lots of data and comprehensive material on something you’re going to blow away (or will tear you apart) in a few combat rounds? Remember, the game’s point is to blast these bugs and have fun. Feel free to make up your own, or add stats for other Arachnids seen in the movie. Use these stats for the main bugs troopers run into:
Arachnid Warrior Crunch: 5D Damage Bonus: 15 Hits: 150
Tanker Bug Crunch: 5D Damage Bonus: 50 (bio-corrosive spray) Hits: 200
Flyer Bug Crunch: 5D Damage Bonus: 20 Hits: 100
Hit Locations: Bugs Roll 1D6 to see where you whack the bug...like it’s going to matter. 1 Pincer 2-4 Torso 5-6 Leg/Wing
Equipment “The Federation will give me everything I need for the next two years.” --Johnny Rico
Trooper Gear MI troopers are equipped for every situation. Their gear is state-of-the-art combat technology. Here’s equipment every trooper carries: Body Armor: This hardened material covers your torso, shoulders, shins and knees. It subtracts 10 from any damage you take to those areas. Gracious gamemasters might just
give in and say it absorbs 10 points of damage no matter where you’re hit. (This is highly recommended considering Arachnids do mega-damage.) Helmet: Your M3 tactical helmet protects the back and sides of your head. Most of the time. It subtracts 10 points to any damage to your head. The built-in comm set provides communication with your fellow troopers and any other units nearby. Rifle: Your Morita MK1 SmartRifle discharges in three modes: single shot, fully automatic burst, or shotgun. Your Fire at Will total determines both whether you hit and how much damage you inflict. For damage, you add 2 to your roll when you hit with a single shot; add 5 for a burst. Using the underslung shotgun attachment adds 5 points of damage to your Fire at Will total. You are outfitted with enough ammo to make the mission’s plot interesting and intense. Grenades: Every trooper gets one MX-90 grenade. These fist-sized explosives can be set to blow on impact or timer delay (up to 30 seconds). Most targets require a Moderate (15) Fire in the Hole roll to hit. A miss only inflicts one-quarter damage on anything nearby. Some targets are harder to hit; use your best judgment. Tossing one into a tanker bug’s mouth is Nuts (30). Grenades inflict damage equal to the thrower’s Fire in the Hole total plus 100. Double the damage if it explodes inside something.
Unit Gear Sometimes special gear is assigned to an entire unit to be split up as needed. Units often get one each of the equipment listed below (except the nuke rocket launcher and machine guns, given to units only for specific missions): Comm Pack: This backpack transmitter unit and hand-held receiver allows communication with most planetside units in a region. In most cases it’s also capable of transmitting and receiving messages with craft in low orbit, drop ships in the atmosphere, and ground installations. The pack also helps determine location coordinates for the unit and transmissions it picks up. This gear is often assigned to a non-commissioned officer. Field Binos: Electronic binoculars help scout farther than the human eye. They add +1D to any Bug Hole...There rolls. Nuke Rocket Launcher: Rocket crews often use MK55 launchers to send low-radiation yield tactical nuclear devices at large targets like plasma battery bugs and bug holes. The fire-and-forget MR7 rocket engines just have to be pointed at the target: a Very Easy (5) Fire at Will roll locks the target and sends the MN3 nuclear warhead on its way. Unless you’re at ground zero (where you’ll be vaporized), you can escape a nuke’s direct effects should it explode to close. An Easy (10) Let’s Get Out of Here roll allows any character to run for cover. Failure might cause residual detonation effects to slightly harm troopers: falling rocks, shock wave, dust. Rocket crews get one launcher and five warheads with rockets.
Sniper Rifle: A standard MI rifle outfitted with enhancements for sniping, including targeting scope and infrared/night-vision instruments. It adds +2D to Fire at Will rolls for single-shot mode only, though it inflicts damage as if in fully automatic mode (adding 5 to the Fire at Will total for damage). It’s often assigned to a non-commisioned officer. Twin-50 Machine Guns: These large emplacements usually guard outposts and other MI installations. Using them requires a Fire at Will roll. Damage bonuses are 150 against a single target, or 30 against five separate targets. Machine guns also make great priority targets for flying bugs....
Other Game Stuff Experience Rewards Federal Service guarantees citizenship. A citizen (and a citizen-to-be) accepts personal responsibility for the body politic, defending it with his life. Citizenship is a reward of Federal Service, though your tour might also build character and responsibility. If you survive a mission, you get 1D to add to any ability. (For those wimpy players insisting on using “Trooper Points” described in Character and Hero Points, add 3 Trooper Points to your total.) If there’s an opening in your squad, you can be promoted; not that it’s a good thing....
Psychic Abilities MI carefully screens out anyone who might possibly possess psychic abilities. Who wants to send potentially powerful psychics into close ground combat to face a sure death? Therefore, if you’re in MI, you’re not psychic, though one might influence you without you realizing it.
Service Guarantees Citizenship
The Starship Troopers Universe We’re not going to cover much about the universe here. Watch the movie a few times and you’ll get a good sense of what’s in this galaxy and the attitudes of the folks in it. Still, here are some things you might find helpful in running a Starship Troopers roleplaying game.
Fleet “MI and Fleet don’t mix.” --Dizzy Flores The Federation Fleet provides the “mobile” in “Mobile Infantry.” Fleet starships carry MI troopers and drop ships to hot locations throughout the Arachnid Quarantine Zone, and to other areas within Federation space which require force to set things in order again. Fleet pilots fly drop ships which insert and extract trooper units into hot zones. Fleet provides support for all MI operations. Unfortunately there’s lots of tension between Fleet and MI personnel. To MI, Fleet has the easier job and the fancier reputation. Fleet sees MI troopers as rowdy jarheads with no manners who do nothing but kill. Although players don’t run Fleet characters, a gamemaster might want to include a few in missions to interact with troopers (and let players roll all those “other scores”). Perhaps a trooper is involved with a Fleet officer of the opposite sex--or joined MI because of a Fleet relationship gone good or bad. Maybe one trooper had a run-in with a particularly snotty Fleet officer and snaps at him every chance he gets. A Fleet officer could help troopers now and then: lobby to get them better assignments, arrange for extended leave together, brown-nose with their commanding officer. Of course, ticking off Fleet personnel has equally damning consequences. Besides serving as good foils to offset the players’ characters, Fleet personnel can generate some good scenario ideas. Check out Mission Briefings below for some examples. Typical Fleet Officer. All scores are 2D except: A Little Round on the Stick (piloting) 5D, Bug Hole...There 4D, Emergency Evasion 3D, Fire at Will 3D, Get Me an Uplink 4D, I Just Hope You Learned Something 3D, Knock Me Down 3D, Never Pass Up A Good Thing 3D, Nice Boots 3D (plus that +2D bonus...).
Fleet personnel don’t carry much equipment. Drop ships include helmets, body armor and rifles for the flight crew, just in case troopers need support during extractions. Fleet escape pods also carry two rifles, a blade (2 damage bonus), a small comm transmitter, an electronic location finder, and some basic survival rations. Fleet tolerates MI, but gets along a little bit better with Military Intelligence. This still doesn’t keep the intelligence folks (and psychics) from manipulating Fleet to their own ends. Military Intelligence does not discriminate between Mobile Infantry and Fleet when it comes to messing with people’s minds.
Locations Your Starship Troopers missions can take place on some of the planets seen in the film, or on others not seen. Federation space includes many colonies, including industrial and agricultural facilities which sometimes need MI to help restore order during strikes, revolutions and rare bug incursions. Here are some brief descriptions of locations from the film: Any Bug Planet: Harsh, dry and rocky, these planets are packed with bugs and inhospitable terrain. Lots of eroded sedimentary rock to hide behind. Plenty of crumbly ground for bugs to burrow through and surprise you. Way too much sand. Earth: Boring. Just as tedious as any other human colony throughout the rim, be it a bustling commerce system or farm planet. While you might feel some distant, sentimental attachment to your home world or colony, you probably joined MI to get out of there just to escape a tedious “normal” life. Run by a Federation Council and government created by veterans. The head honcho and your commander-in-chief is Sky Marshal Tehat Maru. Fleet Battle Station Ticonderoga: Deep within the Arachnid Quarantine Zone, this massive space facility is the staging point for Federation Fleet activities. Star cruisers come here for repairs, refueling and maintenance. MI and Fleet personnel mix in areas catering to personnel on shore leave. Great place to lay over and put some of those “Other Scores” to work interacting with military peers. Klendathu: Everyone hopes they don’t try invading the Arachnid homeworld again anytime soon...at least until their term of Federal Service runs out.
Mission Briefings “Everyone fights. No one quits. You don’t do your job, I’ll shoot you.” --Lieutenant Rasczek Most MI missions include landing somewhere, patrolling an area, or exploring a region...and then blowing away all the bugs they find. With the emphasis on “blowing away.” Here are some ideas for those gamers who need a bit more than the usual “hack and slash” adventure.
Search and Rescue The troopers’ unit, patrolling a hostile Arachnid world after a Fleet bombing run, receives orders to search and rescue a rescue pod jettisoned from a starship hit by bug plasma during the initial insertion. After whacking a few bugs investigating the pod, the troopers realize one of them knows one of the Fleet officers they’re rescuing...somewhat intimately. Another trooper recognizes the other Fleet officer as one he’s run into before...in a no-so-pleasant way. This should make for some interesting character banter on their way to a safe extraction zone. Of course, along the way they have to blast a few bugs intent on ripping them all to shreds.
Twin Sister A colony near the Arachnid Quarantine Zone reports a huge meteor hit on their planet, and the players’ MI unit is sent to investigate. After landing at the main colony facility, they meet a woman identical to some female Fleet officer (good or nasty) they’ve met before--twin sister to the woman they know. Meanwhile, the colony loses contact with farms near the meteor site. When the troopers investigate, they discover the meteor contained bug spore which has since developed into full-grown Arachnid warriors, with a few tanker bugs and fliers for good measure. Half the fun is getting out alive to report this invasion and get Fleet support.
Bad Insertion During a drop ship insertion into a hot zone, a bug plasma burst nicks the vessel, sending it spinning out of control. When the unit picks itself out of the crash, only the character and one or two of the Fleet pilots are alive. They must fight their way back to the main MI force. Along the way, the Fleet pilots (dressed in helmets and body armor) try proving they can use a rifle just as effectively as trained MI troopers. Uh-oh. Misfires, bad field protocol and arguments over who’s in charge abound. Hopefully everyone survives.
STARSHIP TROOPERS UNOFFICAL RPG Trooper Name:
Trooper Gear: Body Armor and Helmet (-10 from all Damage you receive) Grenade (damage = Fire in the Hole score + 100) Rifle (damage = Fire At will score +2 single shot, score + 5 burst/shotgun)
Rank: Motive:
Additional Gear:
Hits: (Hits: A one-time roll … 1D6 + 25)
(Trooper Points:
)
Combat Scores: Bug Hole…There: Big and Dumb: Do You Get Me? Emergency Evasion: Fire at Will: Fire in the Hole: Follow Me: Knock Me Down: Let’s Get Out Of Here:
Other Scores: Get Me an Uplink: I Hope You Learned Something: Never Pass Up A Good Thing Nice Boots (All scores are 2D unless otherwise noted. Beginning Troopers start with 10D to distribute among scores, with no stat above 6D. )
Picture :
