General Pulp/DieselPunk/Occult/Nazi thread.

[BowenSilverclaw]

Thanks

Too bad Xyber 9 isn't that well known at all, there isn't that much to find about it on the net unfortunately, haven't been able to find any screenshots or online episodes...

At least I found some action figure goodness, should help somewhat with the tech
http://www.altavista.com/image/results?itag=ody&q=Xyber+9&mvf=mpeg&mvf=avi&mvf=qt&mvf=msmedia&mvf=realmedia&mvf=flash&mvf=other&mvd=all

[Tema69]

Hmm... Neither have I. Some of those machines look pretty neat though.
Speaking of tech and machines, I'll just look through my harddrive, I think I have some mecha/walker drawings lying around.
Edit: Nevermind, I'll just post a link to the guy who created the drawings. Look in the links section.
Btw. Please tell me what you want in those lists, and if you want new lists.

[trappedslider]

Heres a few more items that just need to be stated out

The Rosetta Stone

any of the artiifacts from the Indinia Jones movies too would do well here

[Tema69]

Rosetta Stone? Sure, probably a bonus to the Linguist talent or something.
Let's see, what do we have in Indiana Jones:
-Arc of the Covenant;
-Holy Chalice;
-AlienFace & friends;
-Sankara Stones (not really sure of what they do);
-?

[trappedslider]

Rosetta Stone? Sure, probably a bonus to the Linguist talent or something.

That what i was thinking but wasn't sure so how baout this :

Rosetta Stone

Item grants the user the Linguist Talent along with granting the Decipher Script as class skill. Without the stone,you need to be a smart hero to and met all the prereqs for the talent.

[Tema69]

Hmm... I'd say +2, +4, +10 or whatever to any Linguist check made by a character who already has the Linguist talent. Because the guy who decifered it was surely a Smart with the Linguist talent.

[trappedslider]

Hmm... I'd say +2, +4, +10 or whatever to any Linguist check made by a character who already has the Linguist talent. Because the guy who decifered it was surely a Smart with the Linguist talent.

*faceplams* I completely forgot about thsoe hwo already have the talent...lol hmmm

[Tema69]

Hehe. I'd say, perhaps also add some time to the required time to perform the check - because of the need to stop and use references on the stone.

[trappedslider]

Hehe. I'd say, perhaps also add some time to the required time to perform the check - because of the need to stop and use references on the stone.

Maybe you should just stat it since you know more than me,lol

[Johannixx]

@ Johannixx: Alright, that was pretty much what I figured. What happens to the people the alien takes over?

They effectively become aliens.  Their minds and bodies are assimilated by the thing.

The interesting point is that the thing is similar to polyps in that every piece is a discreet organism.  To kill it, you have to destroy every cell in its body.  Cut it, and the blood spatter crawls away.

[Herbert West]

Great stuff there, how do you see the PCs come in to either of those stories? I remember reading a book about Solomon's Mines when I was younger. IIRC, it didn't end too well for the main characters.

Ah yes, you probably read "King Solomons Mines" by Sir H. Rider Haggard if I'm not very much mistaken. The 'real' mines were the source of the biblical King Solomon's great wealth.

I have a good idea of how they would fit into the first (golem one) idea: Basically the Golem contacts the allies in the hopes that they can help it escape Nazi Germany. Basically think Roger from the Hellboy comics.

As for my Solomon idea I think that a Nazi raid on the British Museum would catch the allies attention, especially if they only stole one, old medieval manuscript of questionable origins and no real worth.

Thats just my two cents (does this saying apply to the british as well or is it twenty pence for us brits?)

[Tema69]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nyIePE07o - I'll add it to the OP. It's in German, and about a V3 Cannon. Even though you might not understand German, the schematic and computermade illustrations kinda say it all.
150mm
100+ meter long cannon
1500 m/s velocity

Here's something in English:

[Johannixx]

Folks have been trying that multi-chamber idea for centuries.  Nobody's gotten the tolerances right yet. 

[Tema69]

Yeah, I heard Saddam Hussein tried to build one too. The 'Baby Babylon' or something.
But hey! It's Pulp/SteamPunk/Occult/Nazi!

[brokenoakleys]

Tema,

You have a lot of neat ideas here!  Here are a couple of things off the top of my head:

1)  You said that the Allies are holding onto a foothold in Normandy.  In RL history, the Allies WERE bogged down in Normandy due to hedgerows.  Hedgerows were squares of land sectioned off by nearly inpenetrable hedges.  The Germans used them as defensive sites.

Perhaps the Allies need a secret weapon, like the Golem, to push through the hedgerows, and the team has been sent behind enemy lines in Poland to contact the Jewish underground and get the only known plans for the Golem.  The Jewish underground is naturally suspicous, and wants the Players to prove their worth with a little mission....

Or maybe some nasty undead thing that lives in the Hedgerows has been woken up by the fighting, and is feasting on both Nazi and Allied troops.   A German and Allied patrol are stranded together behind a hedgerow as something nasty picks them off one by one.  Will the Waffen-SS and Jewish American Rangers learn to trust each other and defeat the nasty?

(In RL, the hedgerows were defeated when US troops put blades on the front of Sherman tanks that literally ploughed the rows up, and no undead were mentioned in unclassified war records).

2)  In the RL Polish campaign in '39, 15,000 Polish officers were captured by the Soviets.  Their fate was a something of a mystery* until around 1990, when the former Soviet Union admitted it had executed them in the Katyn forest.  Perhaps the players are sent to investigate, and discover signs of some bizarre military experiment where the Soviets are turning the Polish Troops into super undead soldiers....

*Actually, everybody knew the Soviets did it.  Despite the official Soviet position that the Germans were responsible, Stalin's son as much as admitted guilt when he said:  "That's nothin'.  We killed three million during collectivization alone!"  That, along with some good CSI work at the massacre site, pointed the blame at the Reds.

3)  Now this post is going South.  Literally, as in the South Pole.  In RL circa 1947, The United States sent a task force to the South Pole to locate a secret Nazi base.  They (officially) didn't find one.  But what if it did exist?

This would be a great way to have a Zeppelin adventure.  Perhaps the players go to the South Pole in one of the Los Angeles class Airships, which came complete with tiny scout planes berthed in the underside of the airship*.  Airships could travel great distances:  the Hindenberg routinely made trips from Germany to Brazil.

*In RL, three out of four crashed prior to WW2 due to bad weather.

[Tema69]

Thanks BrokenOakleys!

I must say, I have not been contributing very much to these ideas, so you should actually credit the people like Herbert West, Johannixx, TrappedSlider, BowenSilverClaw, etc... who are the main contributionists to this thread.

1) I know, Operation Cobra took care of getting out of the Hedgerows. One of the PCs has taken part in it, but to include the great ideas like undeads and golem-hedge-smashers, it could easily be changed a bit (Op Cobra only managed to break out in the northern or southern part and some forces are still bogged down).
I can see the PCs being tasked with extracting the Golem (after having made contact with the Jewish underground some time before), but receiving new orders (bringing it to battle in Normandy instead of England or USA) along the way back.
Uuuh. Nasty undead things. Me likes. I really like it in movies or books when people who normally hate eachother and would shoot on sight at the other, end up cooperating (again, reference to that u-boat movie).

2) Yeah, I've heard of those 15.000 officers. Indeed, turning them into zombies would be cool. *

3) Neue Schwabenland. It was supposedly planned as a submarine base, but could include all kinds of cool stuff like the AmericaBomber, etc...

That's some great ideas. I'm gonna edit the OP.

* perhaps there should be some kind of disclaimer in this thread. It's not like I wanna offend the relatives of any casualties at all. This is purely for roleplaying purposes, with no relevance to actual historical facts, only using those as inspiration. R.I.P. to all the fallen of pretty much any war.

Edit: How about this: The PCs are tasked to make contact with the Polish Underground, to have them make a Golem. The underground wants to test the PCs, and they are tasked with sabotaging something (train station, HQs, or whatever?). Assuming they manage to do that, they will now be tasked with retrieving some documents thought lost about the creation of Golems. These documents are located in . After retrieving the documents, they receive a new mission from the Allied Command (going to the south pole, whatever, something to have them leave Poland for a while). Returning from that mission (which should be an adventure in it's own right), they hear that the Golem has gone mad and violent, and during the ensuing bloodbath, it gained sentience. Now it contacts the PCs, hoping to get out of the country and be able to live quietly somewhere safe. Out of the natural good will and kindness (hinthint) of the PCs, they accept, but when the Allied Command hears of this, they are tasked to bring him to Normandy instead, where it will be forced to fight through the hedgerows. The PCs will be tasked with controlling it and will have a small squad assigned to help, but they end up separated from the Golem. The squad start loosing men, and the PCs find chewed remains of the disappeared. At some point, they discover a similarly treated body, but this one is an SS officer. Soon after, they encounter said SS squad, and they might ask them (while everybody is in cover - they shouldn't trust the PCs at first/at all) if they know what is picking off their men. From there on, they might decide to join forces with the SS, or fight them, but then facing a dangerous night behind enemy lines with an undead creature attacking them. After killing the creature, or fighting it off, the PCs will have to decide whether to fight the SS or simply walk back to their own lines. According to whether the PCs have been friendly or hostile, the SS will also decide to fight or let the PCs go.
Upon arriving back, the PCs are asked to find and eliminate the Golem before it starts attacking friendly forces. The PCs might not want to speak out too loud about the SS incident, as they could face court martial for fraternizing with the enemy.

[nemafow]

Edit: How about this: The PCs are tasked to make contact with the Polish Underground, to have them make a Golem. The underground wants to test the PCs, and they are tasked with sabotaging something (train station, HQs, or whatever?). Assuming they manage to do that, they will now be tasked with retrieving some documents thought lost about the creation of Golems. These documents are located in . After retrieving the documents, they receive a new mission from the Allied Command (going to the south pole, whatever, something to have them leave Poland for a while). Returning from that mission (which should be an adventure in it's own right), they hear that the Golem has gone mad and violent, and during the ensuing bloodbath, it gained sentience. Now it contacts the PCs, hoping to get out of the country and be able to live quietly somewhere safe. Out of the natural good will and kindness (hinthint) of the PCs, they accept, but when the Allied Command hears of this, they are tasked to bring him to Normandy instead, where it will be forced to fight through the hedgerows. The PCs will be tasked with controlling it and will have a small squad assigned to help, but they end up separated from the Golem. The squad start loosing men, and the PCs find chewed remains of the disappeared. At some point, they discover a similarly treated body, but this one is an SS officer. Soon after, they encounter said SS squad, and they might ask them (while everybody is in cover - they shouldn't trust the PCs at first/at all) if they know what is picking off their men. From there on, they might decide to join forces with the SS, or fight them, but then facing a dangerous night behind enemy lines with an undead creature attacking them. After killing the creature, or fighting it off, the PCs will have to decide whether to fight the SS or simply walk back to their own lines. According to whether the PCs have been friendly or hostile, the SS will also decide to fight or let the PCs go.
Upon arriving back, the PCs are asked to find and eliminate the Golem before it starts attacking friendly forces. The PCs might not want to speak out too loud about the SS incident, as they could face court martial for fraternizing with the enemy.

^ This works really well. Gives many choices for the players at each turn, and helps them contribute to the storyline as well.

I really like the aforementioned ideas relating to the undead super soldiers. I'm not sure what side Poland is on in this world (allies axis ect) as I haven't read it anywhere (but I might of missed it) but it would be very interesting to have 'friendly' super soldiers blowing apart holes in the allied forces line, and Poland claiming that a section (or what ever would be the size of the troops) has gone rogue.
From here the PCs could be sent to investigate why the 'friendlies' are attacking allied forces, not knowing that they are actually super undead soldiers. As all encounters with the force has left no living.*


* These super soldiers could be a 'super super soldiers', being able to assimilate their victims to join their ranks. They wage into battle as a wall of men (as they aren't very intelligent) and assault the enemies position. After defeating said enemies, they somehow confer the undead super soldier gene into the dead soldiers (biting maybe?) and they join the force as new fresh troops. A never ending army that must be stopped.

Added: Intelligence reports could come in to the allied forces that the soldiers in the force have many different types of uniforms (as all defeated soldiers join their ranks) and the consensus is that there is a massive coup of allied forces.

Edit: Added some thoughts

[Herbert West]

What about the PCs having to steal an ancient scroll with the words of animation on it from a private Thule society collection?

[Tema69]

@ Y'all: I was away to the ex-thousand-year-reich for a few days, just got back. So sorry for not answering.

@ Nemafow: The politics of the setting are pretty much just like WW2, with the exception of the soviet union being neutral (which is having dire consequences for the Allied).
So, Poland, just like during WW2 is part of the Allied, and some of their troops are fighting alongside the other Allied armies (Polish Paratrooper brigade, for example). I assume the government has fled in exile, like the de Gaulle did. But 12 years later (1939-1951), polish troops thought gone rogue start attacking Allied lines, that's pretty good.
Having biting transfer the genes/drugs/mutagen is kinda cool too, having a real oldschool classic zombie. I have some rules for classic zombies somewhere on my harddrive. I'll see if I can find it.

Having intelligence rapports claiming a coup is real good. The PCs could be tasked to find and eliminate the leader(s)? Except there are none (present - the scientists are a few hundred miles to the rear), and all the troops move around weirdly/stiffly with no apparent goal.

I see this becoming a very interesting plot. :evil

@ Herbert West: Like, you mean, an Animate Dead scroll?

Edit: Found the zombie notes.

Note: I'm not claiming any ownership of this. I found it on the internet somewhere (probably that other forum).

In our game, we use hit location and other aimed shot rules, but your campaign(s) might not include that, so as for zombies, you could use these rules. I like the idea of zombies with alot of HP in the body, but real few in the head. That way, it is possible to 'kill' or incapacitate it without hitting the head (like breaking its spine and pretty much all the bones of its body), but a clean headshot would do the job a lot quicker.

[Tema69]

So, I'm gonna start working seriously on the second Chapter of this stuff.

Chapter 2:

-Magnus von Wedderkop has radio'ed for VTOL extraction, and the aircraft arrives, hovers, and drops a ladder to the PCs believing they are von Wedderkop and his bodyguards (poor visibility is a bitch). So, they get on board, probably wanting to hijack the aircraft to get home. The airplane has a small passenger compartment (only good for 4 persons; yes, that would have meant that von Wedderkop would have left some of his guards behind) and if they try to open the door to the cockpit, they find out it is locked. The pilot says on an 'intercom'/loudspeaker in German: "Please sit down, Mr. Von Wedderkop, the door has been locked for your own safety, you are in an armoured cabin, and opening this door in flight will compromise the aircraft's structural integrity. We will arrive shortly at the base.". The base is located somewhere in Germany.
Now, depending on how the players prepare, the landing hangar will either be empty and the pilot will simply open the door to their cabin to tell Magnus & Co. to follow him to his quarters, but, surprised to see the PCs he will draw his pistol (hopefully, the PCs will be waiting for him with knives or other silent weapons) and fire, unless prevented to do so (this is if the PCs talk about sneaking around the base, start removing armour and drawing their knives, etc...) or, the exit hatch will open to reveal a group of SS bodyguards waiting outside who should have escorted him to his quarters (if the PCs start gearing up and readying grenades, etc...). Firefight ensues.

-SS Bodyguards (CR 9):
--4 Bodyguards (NCOs with MP40) Mid-Level Strong/Tough Ordinaries
or
-Pilot (CR 5):
--1 Pilot (Officer with Luger) Mid-Level Fast/Dedicated Ordinary

Quotes:
German Pilot:
- -see above
-"Verdamnt! Wo ist mein Luger?!" - "Damnit! Where is my Luger?!" (while drawing his pistol, upon seeing the PCs)
Bodyguard Commander:
-"Amerikanische Spione! Feuer frei!" - "American Spies! Fire at will!"

-Any shooting (or really loud noises) will trigger an alarm 1d4+1 rounds later, forcing the PCs to seek cover or hide somewhere. In any case, hiding would be a good idea. In the hangar (which is roughly the size of a small football [soccer, for you yanks out there] field, there are 2 more VTOL transport aircraft, and 6 VTOL fighter aircraft. In addition, there are 2 recon and 1 transport helicopters. There are fuel tanks, mechanical kits, and a medic kit scattered around the place. There seems to be a large front door leading out to a plateau/platform carved in rock. There are several doors to the left and right, and 2d4+2 rounds after the alarm is triggered, the first squad of guards arrive, and for each 1d4+1 rounds, another squad arrive from a random right/left door (9 squads in all). These guards are reluctant to fire at the PCs if they are near any of the VTOL aircraft or fuel tanks and will try to move around for a better shot. Instead of fighting through all the guards, the PCs can run through a big door (big enough to fit small trucks/transports), in the opposite side of the front door.

-1 Squad (CR 9) consists of:
--1 Squad Leader (NCO with MP40) Mid-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinary
--2 Riflemen (Privates with G43) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinaries
--3 Riflemen (Privates with StG45) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinaries
--1 Rifleman/Bazookaman (Private with MP40 and Panzerschreck) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinary
--1 Machinegunner (Private with P38 and MG42) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinary
--1 Machinegunner Assistant (Private with P38) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinary
Note: None of the Bazookamen are carrying their Panzerschrecks, these have been left in the armoury. Instead, each Bazookaman carries a Panzerfaust for emergency situations.

-Opening the door (Technology [or Disable Device] DC 18) reveals a long corridor that turns slightly to the right and ends in another door, similar to the one they just passed. Damaging the door-opening system of any of the doors (there's a padlock on both sides of both doors) forces it to close and lock (safety precaution) all access, requiring either a Master Key (carried by one of the base commanders) or the destruction of the door. Any guards left in the hangar will try to open it with their passwords first, but then try to run around through one of the small doors, to intercept the PCs and alert the rest of the base.

-Opening the second door (Technology [or Disable Device] DC 18; +2 to the roll if the PC successfully opened the first one) reveals two guards, standing with their backs to the PCs, observing two huge zeppelins in a hangar twice the size of the first one, and the crew and equipment getting loaded. One of the guards is in the midst of a sentence (in German) when the door opens: "Yeah, they have just finished loading the bombs on board. Captain Janussen over there *nods towards an officer amidst the hangar* will probably ask us to move this PCD into the left airship *gesticulates towards a forklift and a shipping container*. I wouldn't want to be in New York or Chicago anytime soon. *laughs* ". The PCs have 1 round to act before the guards turn around (bewildered by not seeing any friendlies pass them), and then a surprise round before the guards alert the rest of the hangar. In the hangar, the PCs can see about 100 men moving around and loading various gear, ammo and fuel into the zeps. The PCs can also see the multiple AA defense turrets positioned around the fuselage. There is plenty of cover for hiding and observation nearby, including empty crates, a small forklift/truck-like vehicle, and a shipping container.

--2 Riflemen (Privates with G43) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinaries

-Crew
--Crewmen (60 Privates with P38/knife) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinaries
--NCO (10 NCOs with P38) Low-Level Tough/Dedicated Ordinaries

-The Captain
--Gunther Bilhartz (Captain with Mastercrafted Lange 'Artillery' Luger, Mechanized Claw, eyepatch and leather trenchcoat. ...and a limp) High Level Fast/Dedicated 'Hero'

Notes:
-The Composition B that the PCs are bringing along only have a 30 seconds fuse. It will take a couple of hours work to change that delay, and even so, 5 minutes is the maximum time available. This should force the PCs to stay on board for a few days.
-The Natter rocketplanes are used as droppods. Once activated, they fly for about half a mile horizontally, after which they automatically break apart, leaving the pilot with a parachute strapped to his seat.
-The He-162 are so easy to fly that a feat isn't necessary to pilot them. An untrained character rolls a Dex check with a -4 penalty instead of the appropriate Pilot/Vehicle Maneuvering check. They include ejection seats.
-The Parasuits impede a -2 to Acrobatics/Tumble checks to paradrop, due to their bulk.

So, how about pressurized stuff in d20 Modern terms? Any ideas?
Also, how would you run this stuff? I mean, destroying a Zep in air and reaching the ground safely? None of the PCs can pilot anything.
I think I'd like the Captain of the Zeppelin to be a real archetype pulp villain. Eyepatch, mechanized claw instead of his right hand, long leather trenchcoat, greyish hair; an aging 'pulp-pirate' nazi.
I'm gonna need some ways to destroy/disable the Zep:
-Blowing up the fuel tank
-Set pretty much anything ablaze
-ideas?

---


Here, I'm not sure how I want to continue. I'm not sure how to get them involved in Egypt, and I think I'd like to postpone the Mafia-stuff a bit. I'm thinking of simply having them discover the two Zeppelins loaded with a Psionic Compression Device each and a lot of bombs, getting ready for a raid on some major US cities. The Zep the PCs don't board (assuming they board one), runs into a storm and crashes in South America, becomes infested with Ghoul-stuff (see previous discussions), and a month later, it starts to steer against NY. The Zep the PCs do board steers out of the storm and continues towards its target. The PCs will have to stop the Zep, and destroy the PCD, and get down to earth safely (and hopefully in a civilized area). In the works.

---


When they land/reach Allied forces, they will immediately be asked to go undercover in Poland and link up with the Polish Underground (see previous ideas), work for them a while, retrieve the golem-document, and will be exfiltrated after finishing the mission (which was: go help the Poles grab the document).
Upon returning, they read in the newspapers about a nazi zep moving towards NY at low-altitude, and that a film-crew will be covering the entire trip from airplanes and baloons, as the zep does not seem to be manned and thus not dangerous - a note by the Army in the same newspaper reads: "Any usefull information about the airship will be rewarded". The PCs recognize the Zep as the one they didn't board, and (hopefully) contact the Army with the information (if not, they will be contacted by the army). The Army decides to have them board the vessel and bring it down in one piece, knowing the Zep has a PCD aboard. The film crew will force the PCs to operate by the book, and will reward them with some fame if the thing goes well.
After the Ghoul-Zeppelin adventure, they will have a few days' rest in a Hotel (possibly besieged by reporters), before being asked to retrieve the Golem they helped create. Once departed, they are asked to bring it down in Normandy instead, and get it to work for them (see above Golem-discussions), where it starts running away (and since the PCs have been told not to let it go at any costs, they will follow it, but lose its track after a few km): the PCs are stranded behind enemy lines and start to lose men to the "nasty undead thing", and as the night approaches, more and more men disappear, until they start finding the mutilated corpses of their comrades, plus a dead SS officer. They encounter the SS (see Friend&Foe discussions, above), and will be forced to interact with them, and possibly work together to fend off the undead. The next day, killing/leaving the SS, they are tasked with finding and killing/destroying the Golem, before it starts attacking friendlies.
Thoughts?
Sorry for the uncoordinated note-like appearance of the text above, I hope you'll PEACH it anyway.