"Ever Gamed Anything Like An Alien ZOO Specimen Catcher?" Topic

I seem to recall reading or watching a story about an interplanetary zoo specimen catcher.

Anyway, whatever the story was, do you think it would make for a fun game, as the alien tries to catch humans for his cargo, but finds that dozens of his previously caught creatures are getting out. He has to catch them alive, but that brings with it a whole new set of problems.

So . . . .

What do you guys think? Is that scenario something that would appeal more to kids or adults?

Would you make the zoo keeper a Grey alien, or something else?

If anything, it would give people a chance to go into their dusty bins and use a lot of aliens and monsters they may not have gamed with in a long time, right?

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CC
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Now I remember . . . it was an old Lost In Space episode, appropriately called "A Day At The Zoo":

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Man, those alien costumes were awful!!!

Same premise here, in a horrible 70s film called "The Alien Factor":

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CC

I used this profile with old Traveller RPG games…in two different directions:

scout ship with an indy team of collectors, traders, merchants, etc…collecting alien critters for the pet, zoo, private collections trade

and

the ancient giant ship that appears and is collecting a few of nearly everything and the characters are dealing with it
(could end up collecting with the alien or going against it)

Never tried it, but it's a common theme in SF – And the variant version of alien bounty hunter. It could mak a pretty good game, and yes, it might be popular with any kids who aren't against zoos in general.

I am thinking the TUSK rules could be an asset in such games . . .

Isn't that Pokemon?

You could throw in some police, military, etc., and panicked civilians (once the runaway "animals") start showing up …

CC

There's also a Dr Who episode set around such a theme – an excuse to get out dinosaurs, Pulp & Dr Who figures in a single game! link

I remember the Lost In Space episode….Michael Rennie as 'the Keeper' with the glowing glass staff…

(they spent most of the budget on him I bet, which is why they re-used the same alien costumes over and over when Dr. Smith 'accidentally' released the Keeper's Cargo??? (they just used several different camera angles while the same 3 monsters came down the ramp…with scarey music and alien howling noises….Looks 'cheesy' now but scared the BOOGERs outta me when I was 10? And the flying 'bat' thing that looked like a pinata on a wire and the spiderbat-thingie that attacked the chariot??? It also attacked the Keeper in the ship (and Maureen Robinson 'saved' the Keeper…and the Keeper 'threatened' to throw smith into it's cage to get 'will and penny' as specimens?

Good stuff that….the mouthless aliens from 5th dimension wanted will's brain to replace 'broken computer' in another episode…another merchant destroyed robinson's food supply to get a 'human'/dr smith to 'sell himself' because humans were a 'curiosity'…(most of the aliens certainly LOOKED more human than the Star Trek 'nose-job/forehead mod' of the week club…only with silver or gold paint?)

There were always 'slavers'…or 'collectors' or 'space hillbillies' that raised cannibalistic plants needing humans to eat…etc. (notice a theme here???)

But none of them ever found/wanted to find/were INTERESTED in, EARTH…(even toyman closed up 'Macy's like shop' access to earth as 'too backwards'…

There was an Charlton Comics episode of Space 1999 that had a Zoo ship too!

And an episode of Voyager too!!!!

I'd think a ship like the one featured in 'Starlost' with more domes than the 'Valley Forge' from SILENT RUNNING would be one way to preserve a mini-eco-system, ala Silent Running, for an interplanetary/galactic Zoo…unless you had a ship the size of the DEATH STAR to 'play with?'

Even the 'poor Krell' (with their fully functional doors), visited earth in the distant past and brought tigers, deer, monkeys and butterflies to Altair IV, but no 'cro-magnons???

Of course…maybe one of the other worlds like Altair III, etc…or whatever…could have been a 'zoo world' with automatic controls??? I'd love to publish my 'sequel' to Forbidden Planet!

A planetary 'zoo' mothership with collector ships would be cool…(what about Disney's 'Flight of the Navigator' for example?????)

So many plots…so little time!

Slish!
Sgt DWW-btod

I haven't run them yet, but have the pieces for scenario variants along zoo collector idea. One involves the ship landing for repairs, a couple of critters get away, and both humans and aliens end up trying to capture the alien critters, local critters and each other.

I've also made a "birdman" museum, for my little "out west" town, that features a nearly complete fossil of a kroot in a big chunk of rock, as well as lesser fossils. I have a number of scenarios that involve the Kroot accidentally discovering their long lost home-world, and then trying the recover the fossils for proper burial, looking for mythical religious sites, etc.

That is a great idea for a game, it shuld appeal to both adults and kids.

I can see this being a hit as an participation game at a show
I think grey aliens have other "obsessions" that collecting!

How about the alien specimen being an endangered species on it's homeworld and the park rangers trying to stop the collectors from getting it?

The new TV series "Sanctuary" essentially follows this theme – although the setting is "all the weird monsters on Earth" the plots and monster types could easily transfer.

Thundarr and The Hurculoids did this one too. The zoo keeper is always the bad guys.

The best idea is always King Kong and Jurassic Park, classic nature kicks mans butt theme.

We ran a Judge Dredd participation game once set in a Block Zoo. A gang of muties had infiltrated the city in search of their mutated hounds which formed one of the exhibits. In releasing them they also opened all the other cages and the players, taking the roles of judges, were faced with fighting muties, recapturing escaping animals of varying degrees of lethality and silliness,and handling a number of other problems including a visiting alien ambassador who looked just like another exhibit and organ leggers in a fake ambulance.

In true Judge Dredd style most players fired first and worried about claims for compensation later and a good time was had by all.

I ran a Traveller adventure where the players had to go to a preserve planet and steal a bunch of endangered life forms for the private collection of a wealthy man. Each segment played out like a short adventure as the players moved into different eco systems.

Dragon Gunner,

OOOoo. Please tell me more. What kind of wildlife? What sort of ecosystems? Were they solo adventures (one mission per player)?

Thanks.

CC

The players were part of a team dropped off in a large ATV towing a trailer full of supplies. Once they had collected the specimens they were to signal a rogue free trader for extraction.

1. Tree dwelling sloth type creature in jungle, the players tranqulized it and it fell to it's death.

2. Giant Mastodon creature living in a tundra ecosystem. It was easy to hunt and tranqulize then the players realized they neglected to bring a cage big enough to haul it away.

3. Saber tooth Tiger in mountain environment. The players tranqulized it in a remote area and they could not bring the vehicle for loading. The players then proceed to make a sled and attempt to drag the critter to their vehicle. The tranquilizers wear off and there was some serious blood shed and medical emergencies.

4. The Great White Buncada, a swamp dwelling giant albino anaconda. The players attempted to wrestle it like they were on Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom. Several of them are nearly drowned and had to be revived after being dragged to the bottom.

5. The final critter was a small timid racoon like creature living in decidous forest. The players trapped it with a live trap and threw the cage in the back of the ATV. What they forgot to check for was the GPS transponder chip attached to it's ear. Imperial game wardens swooped in and arrested the entire group so the next adventure was escape the prison planet…

That sounds like an extremely fun game!

Ever plan to do it all over again?

Dan

It works as a role playing game but I am not planning on doing it as a miniature wargame.

As I recall SPI had a boardgame "Voyage of the Pandora" which covered this theme. They also had game called "Wreck of the Pandora" in which something nasty happens to the ship and the specimans get loose on board"

This might work as a UFO raid site of sorts.

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Dan

This is cute:

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Dan

"Voyage …" and "Wreck …" were both excellent SPI board games IMHO.

Voyage:
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Had 9 different planet surface maps, a small section of space with planets to visit, and two scales: the solar month where you flew your ship from place to place, and then the surface scale where you had to race against the clock to find, capture and leave with a beastie.

A solo game where the rules played the opposition. Well done. One of my favorites from "back int he day".

Wreck:
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Another solo game. This time it takes place on your ship. You wake up too quickly from hyper-sleep, so your brain is fuzzy (you have forgotten the ship layout). The map remains the same, but what each module is changes each time you play (counters tell you what the pods are, and these are shuffled and placed face down in each area IIRC).

So you go about trying to bring power back up, and find weapons and recruit helpful robots to get the cells working again, and get the beasties back in their cages, before … they get you.

Another very fun solo game.

Guess what they played on tv just now . . . ?

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Dan