"Secret Underground Volcano Lair - KKBB" Topic

OK all of you 28mm MI6 types, I have been working on the development of the Artizan/Copplestone Kiss Kiss Bang Bang concept into a workable game. This means a campy objective, surrounded by lots of retro-futuristic terrain, and a spattering of lead-ladies for ambiance.

In the construction of Dr. Evil's/Blofeld's secret lair/control center, I have turned to Megamini's bridge crew set for the "quasi-futuristic-retro" control consoles and chairs. They are far less expensive than Copplestone's brand of missile launch control center, and have a more Our-Man-Flint flair than Copplestone's resin furnishings. This leads me to a question concerning KKBB's concept.

My greatest complaint about the launch of KKBB is that it appears to be a series of figures without a well designed scheme, and most importantly, sans rules.

I have dug up my James Bond RPG rules, and find them lacking in miniatures application. So where are we headed?

We have lots of agent figures. We have cats in the arms of bald men. (That's a start, especially since a cat owns me and I am bald). We have UN-: Pussy Galore's, Blofeld's, Bond's, SPECTRE type's, Harry Palmer types and even one figure that could pass for Woody Allen's Dr. Noah…. We even have the announcement of SOUL SECTION, ala, Live and Let Die,…. but no rules.

I have searched on-line high and low for an example of these figures used in a game, ala Back-of-Beyond, etc. But so far, I have found nothing. In fact, if it weren't for Ebay, for plastic frogmen and sharks, Chip who is supplying Thunderball miniatures rules, and Walgreens, who supplied the basic components of my minisub, I probably wouldn't be doing much more with KKBB than staring at the blister-packs.

If all of this sounds like a complaint of arguably an unimaginative wargamer, I stand defenseless. I do stand brazenly among those who have just shelled out a great deal of recession-scarce bucks on a game concept, that has so far, produced no viable game/rules in which to use my liesure-dollar investment.

I am, therefore, exposing my opinions and imagination-vulnerability to all of you, in hopes of stimulating debate, ideas, criticism, of what to me appears as a concept premature of context.

"and most importantly, sans rules."

WYO.

Write Your Own. Surely not too hard?

OTOH, any set of Pulp rules should do the trick:

TMP link

Or at least serve as a starting point for a KKBB modification.

Of course! Why didn't -I- think of rugged American individualism, when starting out in this gaming direction? So for next three months of writing, play-testing, and application, I'll be indisposed. Got that boss? I won't be at work for a while! The servers will just have to sit there.

Next suggestion……

No offense, but writing rules is a very time-consuming endeavor when engaged in other activities like staying employed. Not to mention, my cat demands more than a fair share of attention. Thanks, but that won't work for me.

"So for next three months of writing, play-testing, and application, I'll be indisposed. … but writing rules is a very time-consuming endeavor when engaged in other activities like staying employed."

I have never found it so. On the contrary, I find it a pleasurable and rewarding part of the hobby. I have just completed work on a new set of rules for the AWI. I have spent no more than one evening a week on the project in the last 3 months.

Each to their own I suppose … and I did offer an alternative suggestion …

I always liked the Top Secret rpg, and the later version, Top Secret/SI seems suitable for miniatures….but I haven't tried it as yet. The good news is they are invariably cheap on Ebay.

Flying Buffallos MSPE RPG will also work or E4Ms Combat Zone although with some mods for both systems.
Just needs that basic resource application, finger out.

I think Rattrap Productions' .45 Adventures might work. Warhammer Legends of the Old West or their Lord of the Rings game would be pretty easy to adapt too – you definitely need a system where the heroes can take out grunts (i.e. anyone with a boiler suit) with ease and can perform heroic tasks.

I am putting on an event at Cold Wars, entitled, "I Expect You To Die, Mr Bond."

I'll be using my own 'Astounding Tales!' pulp era rules, because a fast car driven recklessly along a cliff edge is the same thing, whether it's a 1934 Packard or an Aston Martin DB5. I'll have a selection of gadgets, many of them miniaturized, as the Shadow and Doc Savage did thirty years before Q made the same sort of things for 007.

There will be some minor modifications for extra 1960s elements, but probably not that many. Mostly bikinis, I think.

I have used "Hour of Glory" in a KKBB game recently. We used it pretty much unmodified to play an infiltration and extraction of information from the bad guy stronghold; but, I suspect your game is more than that…

"Geezers, Shut It" ("GSI") did a great job making the 1970's era cop game very playable. There is a KKBB-era set in the works. But that does not help you now.

That said, I just packed "Vice Palms" to read over my Christmas Holiday. It is a GSI variant to play Miami Vice, Rambo, etc. 1980's-type games featuring cars, speed boats and helicopters. Sound's close enough that I suspect this may work very well for the KKBB universe.

Grab the Savage Worlds Explorer Edition at 9.99 USD. You can't go wrong with this set.

Some members of my club have used Savage Worlds Showdown rules for all sorts of mini games from samurai and Star Wars to Stargate. I think the Showdown rules are free and maybe with a bit of Google Fu you could find a Savage Worlds 1960's Spy setting.

Ed G.

Use the cards from "Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond" (Cheapass) to spruce up that underground lair. You could probably work them into the scenarios as well.

It is very difficult to get the Bond feel to a game using pulp rules, the hero is just too powerfull.

Bond used skill and evasion just right for RPG rules not that much fun for wargamers

I will second .45 Adventure as a good set of rules for the genre – plenty of pulp to deal with the Blofeld's out there.

MSRyan
I have been thinking the same thing. Hour of Glory would work great for Bond type games. I have also been thinking about tweeking it for a Star Wars game.

Templar72 is right. Showdown would work great. A guy over on the PEG forums has done a really nice home brew called Savage Bond 007 it is on revision 2.2 now. I'm not sure where he has it posted but if you pop on the forums in the homebrew section I'm sure you could find it. Here's the link:
link

As far as the Showdown rules go they are beeing revamped right now so they are not up but I'm sure you can find the current version out there somewhere. If not I will gladly send them to you.

Alright everyone, do please try and pay attention, as those of you who are familiar with the Geezers rules will be aware, the men at the ministry of Killer B Games are indeed working on Geezers Royale rules which will allow you to engage in all manner of international skullduggery.
The rules will be supported by a number of miniatures as per your requirements.
God save the Queen.
Expect a Spring release.
Now once you have read this message please destroy your computer.
That is all.

Cool images for inspiration:

TMP link
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CC

Like you i bought the mega miniature chairs for my evil lair board room.

I am using a shark from HLBS for my shark pool, maps printed on clear plastic for holographic computer screens plus a few other ideas along those lines.

As for rules, i think i will tinker with the rules i have at this stage – might even mod arc of fire to see how that goes.

Does "mood music" help with the espionage gaming experience?

TMP link

CC

KKBB game is being written by Nick Lund who wrote Killzone.
Killzone is a gang-skirmish game with rules for strong Heroes.

You could easily game one spy-hero against a gang of henchmen.

Game is free online.

"Game is free online."

Where?

Here?

mts.net/~gisby/kizo/kiki.htm
link
PDF link
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CC

As always, thanks troops. You're my inspiration.

Incidentally Captain Gamma, my PC did in fact fail to boot this morning, costing me hours of grief. I guess that's just a part of the intelligence racket.

Cheers,

PC

That Geezers Shut It….what a hoot! It's crazy enough to just might work. The figures are incredible!

"Here?"

mts.net/~gisby/kizo/kiki.htm

Oh, those are Killzone. I thought you meant Nick Lund's KKBB game was free on-line.

Matakishi has made rules that (who knows?) may end up being useful to this cause:

matakishi.com/mib.htm
link

CC

Ah sorry, I meant the Killzone rules.

The problem with gaming the spy genre is that, except for the climactic battle, it's about individuals working alone – at most with a cute girl on their arm, and usually emphasizes hand-to-hand combat and other types of encounters (like seduction, intimidation, disguise, etc.).

Of course, that actually makes it ideal for solo gaming – but you need a system that will help you create linked encounters and includes some roleplaying elements.

Most of the attempts to create skirmish games from similar genres (like Private Eye games) just turn them into heavy-handed shootouts.

Wow. Not underground, but still awesome:

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CC

Have driven past this earlier in the year. Looks awful at ground level considering its purpose in real life, but for a evil hideout, brilliant.

I've run a lot of skirmish games with competing factions with each player having 3-15 figures, 1 being the hero, & sometimes with teams of 2-3 players vs other teams. Each player or team has specific motivations & goals (mutually exclusive) & compete with each other as well as the central villain. I think that this will work for KKBB: U.S. & Brits vs KGB & Bulgarians vs Chinese vs SPECTRE vs the Grays, all against Dr. Megaloman & his minions (1/2 in jump suits & 1/2 in bikinis). I'm thinking of using Chain Reaction 2 by THW for the combat rules.

The radio station looks like you could modify a hamster maze to make it work

I was once a participant in an excellent game run by a 1st class gamemaster. It was a wild west game in which the gamemaster maintained a Clint Eastwood looking figure.

It was the equalizer. When the game started taking a turn that upset the flow of the game, Clint would change the balance. Kind of like Johnny Depp's character in Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

That's what the Derek Flints, James Bonds, Matt helms, etc. are in the games I conceive. They make their appearance to intervene only when necessary, or planned.

Anyone done something like this, but in miniature?

picture

CC

Jewel foods had a sale on a plastic X-mas tree holder that has promise. 6 bucks.

How about the agents thwarting this 3-part evil genius plan?

TMP link

CC

Is there really a need to post so many topics and then add to it by cross-posting to every topic you'vs done on the subject, too? With all due respect, yeesh.

Apologies but, with all due respect, it will happen again.

Two good reasons for it . . .

1) It reduces the number of minutes/hours looking for a related (though not identical) subject when you can't think of the title; and

2) It keeps down the number of questions from newbies about topics already discussed in the past.

In the end, it's just a link. Take it or leave it. "Yeesh".

CC
PS. I often link to threads others have started – not always to mine.

I plan to do my KKBB games using To Be Continued…by GASLIGHT. As long as the games have objectives beyond "kill the enemy",TBCbG should work out. This kind of game needs to be more about the story or narrative and less about the shoot'em up…sort of a halfway house between role-playing and miniatures.

I'm going to use Hour of Glory, but I've also got a copy of Geezers on the way (sounds cool). I'm hoping Recreational Conflict starts selling copies of the Vice Palms supplement!

Plan to run something on my Oil Rig at some stage.

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Just getting some minis painted as we speak…

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This is a cool "tutorial" for underground shelters/bunkers:

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Dan