Role-playing is really my roots in Wargaming. I was a role-player before I was a wargamer. I often find it easier to get into Role-playing groups than it is to find fellow miniature Wargamers. Therefore, RPGs have always been close to my heart. As a designer, I am still pretty fascinated by the overlap between the two genres.
I all ready have a Drive Thru RPG account that I publish on. Therefore, it made sense that I should finally give RPG Design its own space and header on the blog. If you search the interwebs you will find a lot of people with a lot of opinions on RPG design. You will find way more than you will ever find on Wargame Design. I am just a dabbler in this space, and if you want serious thoughts on RPG Design you should really go elsewhere.
Today, I am talking a bit about something I put together because I wanted to play a game of Renegade Studios G.I. Joe: Role-Playing Game. If you want to play a game, you first have to be willing to Gamemaster the game, and to do that you really need an adventure to run! Therefore, I set about creating a simple, introductory campaign so I could play the game with my group. Hence, Into the Snake Pit was born.
Of course, the campaign made a few assumptions. Despite the cover, you don't actually play as named characters like Scarlet or Snake-eyes. Instead, it is intended to be a campaign that runs from level 1-4 for original, starting characters. The campaign is designed for 3-6 players and 1 GM. Each scenario will last between 2-5 hours for about 20 total hours of gameplay; give or take. Scarlet does plays a part by acting as the "Quest Giver" in this campaign.
The focus of this campaign is simple. The players are sent into a dangerous neighborhood that is being destabilized by COBRA weapons. Their job is to infiltrate the neighborhood, eliminate the weapons, and cut off the source. This plays out over the course of 4 scenarios as the new recruits infiltrate the area, find leads, and track them down. There is also a time element to the adventure.
There is also a semi-sandbox nature to the campaign as it lays out the details of the Snake Pit neighborhood to explore, while having a clear linear path laid-out. However, players being players you can't always expect them to follow the path and there is enough meat there to go alternate routes with some improv to fill in. In addition, these details could easily act as springboards to further adventures in the Snake Pit neighborhood.
The campaign includes up to 7 pre-generated Level 1 characters with just enough backstory and hooks to get them into the game as recruits to the Joe team for this mission. With these, new players can quickly jump into the game and get into some Role-playing. They cover a variety of skills and archetypes that are valuable in the campaign, but nothing is stopping gamers from creating and using their own unique characters. They include:
- A front-line officer
- A commando infiltrator
- An urban combat specialist
- A stunt driver
- A computer hacker
- A former wrestler and soldier
- A former mercenary turned Joe
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| Concept art for Lady Jaye from G.I. Joe : Renegades by Jeff Johnson |
- Role-play
- Infiltration
- "Street" Level threats - limited firepower and weaponry
- Vehicle combat
- Small unit combat
- Urban setting
This campaign does not feature globe-trotting adventures, exotic gear, bizarre doomsday weapons, absurd plots, and comic-book level villains. This is a more grounded, low-level, down-and-dirty espionage/crime campaign with sci-fantasy elements and a mix of close quarters combat. Do not look for Weather Dominators or Pyramids of Darkness-style shenanigan's here. The most exotic vehicles are a beat-up van and motorcycles. The most common weapons are pistols, batons, knives and fists. This is a low-level, low-fantasy campaign where social, exploration, and combat all play a role in defeating COBRA's plans.
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| Crimson Guard from the Core Rulebook |
Final Thoughts
This is a free module I put together for the best reason possible; because I wanted to! You can find it free on the Blood and Spectacles Drive-Thru RPG page. My patrons have had early access to this work and got to see some of it coming together behind the scenes. That is a great way to get access to content early from Blood and Spectacles Publishing for either RPGs or Wargames. If you like what I did with this module, you may want to look at a few of the games I have built as well.
Overall, this took about a year to get from concept to reality. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed putting it all together.
Until next time!
Or purchase all out games at the Blood and Spectacles Publishing Wargames Vault Page!
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