"Turning a conventional scenario Sci Fi" Topic

Yesterday I was watching "The Wild Geese" and it struck me that the basic plot would make an entertaining science fiction game: a platoon-sized force of mercenaries is hired to rescue a popular political figure and spirit him/her/it out of/off of a hostile country or planet.

Designing the forces would be a lot of fun. Are the mercenaries all human? Cyborgs? What a about a pan-galactic legion force with various humans and aliens?
Do they drop in pods a few kliks from their objective or use a drop ship and land on the roof? What about their escape? Would they need to capture enemy vehicles or VTOLs?

The enemy could be some kind of horde-like alien, or maybe even a large force of not so AI security bots.

The whole thing started reminding me of Xenophon's Anabasis. Instead it could be Xenomorph's Anabasis.

What other conventional scenarios, either fictional or historical, have you used or considered for Sci Fi games?

This reminds me of a thread I did a while back where I was shot down in flames.
I will have another quick go…

I think very very few stories can only be told in a sci-fi setting.
As you have stated the basic story is one of rescue.
That could be cavemen, knights, musketeers, paratroopers, stellar marines or robots that are the main good guys.

The story itself is generic, but you can play it in a sci-fi setting.
That would make the game a sci-fi game (with knights it could be historical etc) but I don't think the story itself would be sci-fi.
Nothing about it can't be done in a non sci-fi setting.

As such I think most sci-fi scenarios are genre-less scenarios in a sci-fi setting.
As such I think pretty much any historical scenario can be re-written to be set in a sci-fi background.

Starship Troopers Whiskey Outpost is Rorkes Drift for example..

Some of the Sharpe stories would suit skirmish well.

Yes, I agree. Another one that I noticed recently was the raid on the Chinese embassy in the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It reminded me of the SAS storming the Iranian embassy (which would also make a compelling skirmish game).

Most of sf is repackaged history… if it's good enough for the movies. And sometimes they rip off other movies.

Agents penetrate secret base, rescue captured high ranking General, and make good their escape … whilst killing lots of stormy troopers.

It's the plot of star wars, but I was thinking of where eagles dare.

If you watch any action movie with even a vaguely military theme… you normally have a simple plot for a war game.

Putting things into game terms with science fantasy can be a challenge,

Planet crawling with xeno – let's nuke it from orbit.
Solution it's a rescue mission
Let's drop right on target with our drop ship.
Solution – three shielding towers need to be,knocked out to disable the planetary defensive grid.

You can layer defensive systems, use accidental failures,

Alternatives for xeno games
Black hawk down
Zulu

For opponents that think….
Asymmetry – insurgency

Any Vietnam movie – apocalypse now! (Being of course a book called heart of darkness written before the Vietnam war)

Anabasis. (Lost fleet series of books by John Campbell)

If you struggle with inspiration, there are somewhere on the web a free set of downloadable story cards to overcome writers block. With a bit of inspiration they can be used on the fly to make up a scenario.

I'm not lacking in inspiration or questioning whether any scenario can be placed in a Sci Fi setting, my question was what other conventional scenarios, either fictional or historical, have you used or considered for Sci Fi games?

In that case I don't know.
Sorry.
I just make them up.

Chances they are made up from half remembered real life missions and various episodes of this that and the other, but I couldn't tell you what.

I don't think I have ever lifted another work and simply changed the names though and kept everything else pretty much the same.

I was about to elaborate, then stopped myself!

:D

Yes, I have borrowed from fiction for my historical games.

I have borrowed from history for my sci fi games.

I have always tried to create a role playing environment within the game to fix people from just nuking the site from orbit. (Because it makes for a negative play experience)

Special missions on D day have been played as scenarios,
I even rethemed the landing in saving private Ryan into the storming of Cadiz two hundred and forty years earlier in my wargames show game entitled the steep atlantick stream… watching half sections of platoons trying to form up with wet powder on a surf wracked beach under the hail of shot from the fort made for an entertaining game, with over fifty casualties amongst the allies in most games.

…my question was what other conventional scenarios, either fictional or historical, have you used or considered for Sci Fi games?

Any and all media sources can be rich fodder, especially if role playing aspects are included. Almost anything I watch or read can inspire a scenario. One I have always wanted to do is Ork's Drift (yes, with 1880s era British)! One I'm working on now is based on the Walking Dead series, season 3 (the Governator vs the Ricktator) as a platoon level, Post Apocalyptic skirmish.

Sure, we thought about taking, say scenarios for AH's Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader, SL, etc., etc. … Just replacing the forces with Sci-fi forces. Like replacing Panzers for GW Leman Russes, etc., etc. …

Yesterday I was watching "The Wild Geese" and it struck me that the basic plot would make an entertaining science fiction game: a platoon-sized force of mercenaries is hired to rescue a popular political figure and spirit him/her/it out of/off of a hostile country or planet.

Do you need the whole rescuee, or will his head in a jar do? What about his personality on a chip? (and if the latter, how do you make sure it's not hacked or corrupted?)

This sort of thing has kept GW going for decades. :) They've already appropriated Isandlwana and Rourke's Drift, and the 2nd war for Armageddon is Operation Barbarossa with Orks playing the part of the Germans.

Heroic last stands against impossible odds such as Rorke's Drift and the Alamo sound like good solo games or 'all on one side' games. The zombies,aliens, bugs, or what have you could operate on automatic pilot while the defenders are controlled by player.

Legion 4's suggestion of using old Avalon Hill classics for scenario fodder reminds me that I still have 'Tobruk' around her someplace and that had very armor-heavy scenarios that might be fun, though I would make the terrain heavier than in the Western Desert.

Many years ago we had an Ork 40k boxer rebellion with 4 forces holding out against them.
You may have inspired us to do another. We now have Necrons and Tau options.
Firefly has created a good excuse to do old westerns in a sci- fi flavour aswell.
Babylon 5 ,Farscape, star trek etc.. Episodes have great scenario themes too that have been sci-fied from old stories already.

David Drake has raised repurposing lesser-known historical incidents to SF into a high art.

Yes, Drake wrote some of his stories from his time in Vietnam with the 11 ACR. And some right out of history …