Diving Into a New Project

Like hundreds of thousands of other players, I’ve been playing a lot of Helldivers 2 lately. I’ve been a fan of Arrowhead’s games since Magicka and when I put this many hours into a videogame I typically end up thinking about how I’d adapt it for the table, if it would even work, and if there’s something out there that could capture those Verhoevenesque feelings.

A Copy of a Copy of a Copy of a Copy…

A long time ago, some time between the Clone Wars and reading Old Man’s War, my group bandied about the idea of playing a campaign where everyone would play clone soldiers on some military campaign. We called this nascent idea Xerox Company but it never got off the ground. We ended up playing a very fun campaign using the Savage Worlds Sci-Fi Companion that ran a bit more Default Sci-Fi.

Perhaps around the same time, I picked up the groundbreaking 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars, which was one of these indie games that had a lot of meta commentary on the nature of war and violence in rpgs. It’s a superb concept that unfortunately never hit it off with my group due to the slow burn nature of its primary goal, to gradually and naturally steer players into rejecting the constant missions of genocide and taking the fight to their homeworld.

This week I got my copy of Deathmatch Island, Tim Denee’s excellent take on the Paragon system. I’ve played AGON before and enjoyed it – I gladly count it as inspiration for my ongoing White Line Nightmare project. The Paragon system works best when heroes travel to different exotic locales where they have to contend with trials and showdowns before moving on, all the while working as a team while striving for individual renown.

I think I could finally make Xerox Company happen as a Paragon game or playset, using 3:16’s antipatterns of violence as a foundational element, something on your sheet from the beginning, then coating the entire thing in some Helldivers paint.

Vatborn to Kill

Coming soon. Available here: https://admiralducksauce.itch.io/vatborn-to-kill