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Mars Revolts!

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root root's picture
Mars Revolts!
root@Mars Revolts! [hr] Has anyone run a campaign on Mars, making use of social unrest and revolutionary activity? Did your players work for the Planetary Consortium, or Stellar Intelligence to quell the rebellion; did they join the Barsoomians or the clanking masses? Or did Firewall just have a job that needed doing in the midst of a bloody insurrection?
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Sepherim Sepherim's picture
Re: Mars Revolts!
And why not the Tharsis League? xDD
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Mars Revolts!
Haven't done it, but I have a barsoomian backstory going on in an adventure I am writing. My group also ran a quite successful 2320AD campaign where they were La Resistance, http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/Game/2300AD/ The basic problem is that as the setting is written there is little real chance for an exciting storming the barricades rebellion. One can certainly run a campaign of terrorism/freedom fighters that harass the Consortium and other bad guys, losing them a lot of money and resources. But it is not really feasible to incite a popular rebellion and win - the vast majority of the population are quite content and have everything to lose from political upheaval. Of course, a really successful group might slowly push public opinion in the right direction, eventually changing things so that a real political change is possible. But that would be a pretty major campaign with plenty of political slogging. We skipped over part of it in my 2320AD campaign, using a system to fast-forward events. In the end, somewhat surprisingly, the PC rebels actually won thanks to driving the government into pure repression and the timely heroic sacrifice of the PC rebel leader that turned the international pressure. Still, colonial unrest can be fun. Remember the key rules: the guerilla wins by not losing, you need a steady income from something to fund your war (illegal things pay best), your almost-friends are your bitterest enemies, learn to enjoy having strange and horrible bedfellows, sympathetic journalists are your heavy artillery, and... don't be squeamish.
Extropian
Axel the Chimeric Axel the Chimeric's picture
Re: Mars Revolts!
I'm usually of the opinion that, in a civil war, the most interesting place for players to be is in the middle of it. If you're on one side or the other, who's a friend and who's an enemy is so clear-cut that it can get boring (unless you have factional in-fighting). That said, there's still plenty of fun to be had playing up both sides. A guerilla campaign of symbolic terrorism and memetic warfare can be incredibly fun if done well. It can be equally rewarding to play as Oversight or a similar organization working to "disappear" troublesome elements. There's also the possibility of exsurgents being behind the uprising, or simply taking advantage of the carnage. Imagine a group of terrorists so desperate as to think that unleashing the Exsurgent Virus on their enemy and accusing them of working with the TITANs is a good idea.
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Mars Revolts!
Here is an adventure idea (the title will of course be a pun on the red planet): Firewall is concerned that someone is smuggling TITAN artefacts, and send the PCs to investigate. They have to go undercover in a barsoomian group to try to find those responsible. This will require them to engage in various more or less questionable activities, but might also expose them to some tragic stories about the conditions on the planet. Meanwhile, the smugglers are not just making a fast buck, they are actually figuring out how to use some of the old nasties as makeshift sabotage methods: a pinch of replicator dust in the inputs to a terraforming factory, and - bang! - no more factory, and a very expensive containment operation. As the PCs begin to get close to the smugglers they discover something really worrying: they have some way of protecting themselves from exsurgent stuff that ought to eat them alive. A new strain of Watts-Macleod? Some bizarre tweak in their medicines due to their resident mad scientist? Or a secret TITAN ally? In any case, the priorities suddenly change: Firewall *wants* that immunity, and that becomes top priority. Forget the smuggling or sabotage, this might be a key breakthrough. Meanwhile the forces of oppression are also trying to strike, and the sentinels might have to protect the valuable secret. It is just that it almost looks like the enemy is targeting the smugglers and people in the know rather than rebels in general, as if they were keen on keeping the secret of how to protect against exsurgent infection out of the hands of people. In fact, there might be evidence coming up that the method (whatever it is) has been discovered before and brutally suppressed - someone or something wants to keep mankind vulnerable. And it seems to have excellent connections with security corps and government forces... maybe a revolution isn't such a bad idea after all.
Extropian
valen valen's picture
Re: Mars Revolts!
I am planning on a mix of what Axel the Chimeric and Arenamontanus are talking about for my EP campaign. The PCs will be Mars based firewall agents and caught up in the expanding terrorism and insurrection. The big bad of the campaign I have in mind would be a radical barsoomian that will do "anything" to win.