Movie/TV plots adapted to BT

[Colt Ward]

So over on the AS forum someone shared some pictures of their Battle for Harlech during Feral and one of the little 'alliance of convenience' they offered in the game was this infantry commander named Kelly supported by a armor commander who goes by Oddball trying to make it across the map to the Outreach bank for a withdrawl.  I really would have liked to read the briefing, but its some fun veiled references that can be included for some scenario enrichment and helps keep it from a Last Mech Standing game.  The Bounty topic got me thinking about it- particularly setting up a 'Smoking Aces' merc game- but what other movie or TV plots could be easily adapted to plug into a table top game?  Have you experienced any?

[dgorsman]

Pretty much anything popular:

• A team
• Macgyver
• X-Files
• Ronin
• Seven Samurai/Fist full of Cbills
• Crank

And that's just off the top of my head.

[Colt Ward]

Hm, yeah the plot of A-Team episodes definitely can be the main mission for the PCs . . . I was more looking for something about how people had adopted bits.  For instance, a MacGuyver I remember has them racing to the location of a crashed USSR plane to steal technical data and get out of the area that has a cordon being thrown up- the ideal being to get away without being detected.

One other thing separating is that Kelly's Heroes has actual military forces, and is sort of scripted for them to be sneaking in between two sides battling for higher reasons.  Not sure X-Files drops that plot so easily into the BTU setting for a table top.

[glitterboy2098]

unless it involved agent's mulder and scully investigating the UFO sightings and rumors of a crash and alien bodies on New Avalon in the 3030's (actually a program to recreate star league aerospace technologies using helm core data.)*





*the program, and the UFO flap it caused, are mentioned by Kai Allard-Liao to Deidre Lear on Alyina in the novel "Lost Destiny". apparently a rebuilt Hammerhead fighter was being tested and crashed, and conspiracy theorists went nuts with the sightings.)

[dgorsman]

There's the rise in covert operatives with implants, plus the MD (at least prior to their public revelation).  And there's the classic Star League research facilities, such as Frobisher.  Derelict space stations, scuttled WarShips and JumpShips.  The Queen of the Void is supposed to be out there somewhere (is that 'pirate ghosts' or 'ghost pirates'?).

And I'm sure with the number of inhabited worlds there's a whole host of monster of the week unsubstantiated rumors to be had.

[Ogra_Chief]

I have always wanted a Team Yankee, film adaptation. A BT scenario/film would make a great backdrop.

Setting: 4th Succession War
Perspective: Davion
Planet: Sarna
Protagonist:: Armored Company Commander
Title: Team Davie
Prologue: Bringing freedom to the commies.

Let's make this happen.

[Colt Ward]

I have actually made some MM maps matching the battlefield as possible- unfortunately, Team Yankee were the defenders, so being Lyran with a few Davie advisers against Dracs might be the set up.

dgorsman, I am sure you could do a X-Files set up- for AToW, but I was looking for a TW table top conversion.

[Kibutsu]

I did the Kelly's Commandos thing in the Harlech battle. At another point in our ongoing campaign the player unit was sent to a planet in the FWL to "eliminate" a rogue mercenary commander who had disappeared into the jungle and raised a private army. The little 3 mission mini arc was a direct parallel with Apocalypse Now, which makes it a cover of a cover if you really think about it. Fun stuff. I also have it the back of my mind to do yet another Yojimbo/Fistfull of Dollars/Last Man Standing reboot set in the BattleTech universe.

[SCC]

Firefly, the party have their hands on an old JumpShip and/or DorpShip

[SteelRaven]

Always thought Kelly's Heroes had potential.

"It's a wasted trip baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Mad Cats."

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Always thought Kelly's Heroes had potential.

"It's a wasted trip baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Mad Cats."

I was going to recommend Kelly's Heroes myself.

"To a New Avaloner like you,  a hero is some type of weird sandwich, not some nut who takes on three Mad Cats."

[glitterboy2098]

I could see Dirty Dozen being adaptable fairly easily. especially since there are some similarities to the Combine's Chain Gang Raids.

The Devil's Brigade could also easily be adapted, replacing the american and Canadian troops with Steiner and Davion troops respectively as a joint fedcom unit.

[Orwell84]

Not sure if these count, but there are overt references to Firefly and Battlestar Galactica in Historicals Reunification War and Liberation of Terra, Vol. 1

The Drost IIA DropShip looks similar to the Serenity and its H:RW entry quotes a bit of dialogue from the series - "She'll be with you for the rest of your life" "That's because it's a deathtrap". There may be references to the Browncoat-Alliance War in that book, but none come to mind.

The TAS Dreadnought is an aging veteran warship converted to a musuem, then unexpectedly pressed back into service and escorting a civilian fleet following a devastating surprise attack. IIRC Dreadnaught's last CO is a reference to the Miami Vice character played by Edward James Olmos, who also plays Galactica's Commander Adama.

There was also a bit of Star Wars dialogue in one of the Jihad sourcebooks, an aerospace pilot getting mauled by the Snow Ravens yelling something about "lost Tyree, lost Clutch".

[Tymers Realm]

I've always felt that a lot of the ideas and concepts of, at least of the front half, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and of Tekkadan itself could do well in a post-Jihad or post-Blackout setting.
Something on a small scale type of thing.

[Colt Ward]

I could see Dirty Dozen being adaptable fairly easily. especially since there are some similarities to the Combine's Chain Gang Raids.

The Devil's Brigade could also easily be adapted, replacing the american and Canadian troops with Steiner and Davion troops respectively as a joint fedcom unit.

Yeah, unlike some of the other special forces movies, I think Dirty Dozen can easily be a mech company scenario plot.

Devil's Brigade I can see being a War of 3039 (new FedCom regiment story) or Operation Guerrero (FWL & CapCon team up w/FS baddies) as the main plot.  It could definitely work out as the planetary invasion arc for a campaign.

Like the aforementioned AS scenario where Kelly's gold raid happened during the main story fight . . .

What about doing some sort of Edge of Tomorrow?  PC side gets 2 additional mechs that try to storm off during a beachhead assault, they try to breakthrough the perimeter while the PC team who is hot dropped tries to form a perimeter for follow on forces- either a 2nd wave drop guided by these pathfinders (easier landing roll?) or a DS coming down to add mechs/armor/BA.  The two (or maybe 4) mechs will cause some damage on their way out, but they are not going to cooperate completely nor hold any section of the perimeter.

[marauder648]

You could easily adapt Pentagon Wars, make it a somewhat comedic movie about a boondoggle design.

[abou]

Oh man, just use *insert Star Trek: TNG episode here*.

Some of the better Star Trek episodes could definitely work. Although it might place emphasis on diplomacy, intrigue, and problem-solving more than fighting. But that can definitely be a welcome change if done well.

[Colt Ward]

For a RPG, sure- just like most if not all the Firefly episodes, or lol reverse it and take the Expanse stories to make a RPG adventure (yes I know where it came from).

But I was looking for the harder table top battlefield conversion.

Hmm, could you use a Superheavy and do the recent WWII movie 'Fury'?

[Natasha Kerensky]

Rat Patrol
Terminator Salvation
Fury

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

How about Jaws?

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

Baldrick: Look, Black Adder, isn't that a lovely black Warhammer with red trim coming towards us?
Black Adder: Didn't the briefing warn us that the Dragoons were on the other side? Oh, that buggers the day, doesn't it?

[Daryk]

I could totally get behind a "Black Adder 3025"...  ;D

[R.Tempest]

I could totally get behind a "Black Adder 3025"...  ;D

 
 Only problem would be that Baldrick would have become too stupid to even talk.

[glitterboy2098]

which faction would they be in, sincethere aren't any 'british' ones (aside from the Davions, which are far too french)
and what would they be piloting?

[Daryk]

I think Davion would work just fine.  I could see Blackadder in a Dervish (and constantly plotting for an upgrade), with Baldrick in a Valkyrie.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

I think Davion would work just fine.  I could see Blackadder in a Dervish (and constantly plotting for an upgrade), with Baldrick in a Valkyrie.

  I actually have a Black Adder character in my fanfic, further along the timeline, along with a dysfunctional mercenary unit based on "Archer" but that story line is much too adult to post here. I GMed the "Archer" campaign, for the players to go crazy and everybody had a blast, especially when every player was pumped up with negative mental/emotional traits. It led to the "Clan Archer" campaign, which was even more hilarious...and adult themed... I'll let you know when (and where) I post the fiction.

[Colt Ward]

Do you want sibkos?  Cause that is how you get sibkos stravag!

Yeah, I could see Archer being a BT merc unit . . . have to mention that to the wife.  Archer would pilot something Star League vintage to cover the classic car love.  Lana would pilot something cutting edge with lots of dakka . . . say maybe a -5D or RAC Hammerhands?  Cyril would get something with accuracy problem- MRMs!  Catapult K5, SURPRESSING FIRE!  You need a redshirt named Brett in a minor zombie mech.  Pam . . . first I was thinking a quad, but a Penetrator 6T has a good shape.  Kreiger would be the head tech, Mallory would have her office on a dropship she was trying to turn into a palace (pygmies died to bring me this table . . . ),

Barry would be a MD bad guy
Conway would be a Drac agent
Rona Thorne could be a Liao baddie

[glitterboy2098]

  I actually have a Black Adder character in my fanfic, further along the timeline, along with a dysfunctional mercenary unit based on "Archer" but that story line is much too adult to post here. I GMed the "Archer" campaign, for the players to go crazy and everybody had a blast, especially when every player was pumped up with negative mental/emotional traits. It led to the "Clan Archer" campaign, which was even more hilarious...and adult themed... I'll let you know when (and where) I post the fiction.

it occurs to me that Steiner would fit well.. Black Adder is usually presented as a semi-competent but not very social man under the command of more important but incompetent leaders. sounds like Social Generals to me.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

Yeah, I could see Archer being a BT merc unit . . . have to mention that to the wife. 

  I took the entire show and transferred ISIS into a Galatia-based merc unit, with the office staff as the Admins and the agents as mech pilots. The players were all drunks or drug addicts, or worse, all with problems with authority...All the players had silly pseudonyms, like Gloria Snockers and Ben Dover...to name the printable ones. For some reason, all the players agreed to hate Capellans, which meant a merciless slaughter of Capellan units, whenever encountered...which also made the only Chinese member of the party, from a FS border world, the target of merciless pranks...and that player intentionally could not speak English...

[abou]

Just hit me: The Warriors.