"Antarctica-Centered Scenarios?" Topic

What fictional/real Antartica finding do you think would provide the basis for fun wargame, skirmish or even RPG scenarios?

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A lost human culture living in volcanic tunnels living comfortably under the thick ice?

An abandoned alien base camp with left over colonists and their "pets"?

Nazi labs?

Something else?

CC

I meant to also include this Antarctica mining map:

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CC

For Nazi's… you want to research:
New Swabia / Neuschwabenland / Neu-Schwabenland

Lots of weird-wars ideas out there…

Global warming proves to be real, and a worldwide drought ensues, melting most of the polar ice caps.

A naval force is sent to escort some cargo vessels towing the last remaining icebergs north to supply drinking water to the local populace. The only problem is, other nations' citizens are thirsty too, so they try to hijack the shipment.

If you haven't already done so, have a read of HP Lovecraft's Antarctic-set "At The Mountains of Madness".

For an interesting Nazis-in-Antartica story try Clive Cusslers, "Atlantis Found"

GWAR rumble in Antarctica
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You could place it in a near-future setting, with Antarctica becoming a more temperate zone!! (OK, I'm exaggerating – a little!) ;-)

back in the 1980s, someone did a folio boardgame on such operations.

"If you haven't already done so, have a read of HP Lovecraft's Antarctic-set "At The Mountains of Madness"."

Damn albino penguins get in everywhere… :)

What about the old "War in the Ice" game from SPI? Might make a good campaign rules set for generating microarmor battles.

Metagaming's "Ice War" is set in Alaska, but some of the ideas (and unit types) might be useful.

Rich

Why not a variation of the alien "artifact" found in the ice near the McMurdo Sound base? Similar to the old movie The Thing?

Try reading "Raising Atlantis" for some more ideas.

What about as a site of a global fuel rush after severe global warming . . .

As I added on a related thread, there would be lots of land if all that ice were to melt:

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Area, according to the Factbook:

14 million sq km
14 million sq km (280,000 sq km ice-free, 13.72 million sq km ice-covered) (est.)

note: fifth-largest continent, following Asia, Africa, North America, and South America, but larger than Australia and the subcontinent of Europe

Area – comparative:
slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US

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As for most of Antarctica being under water after the pole melt, was it under water before it shifted to the current position?

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And, would it "lift" up once the weight of the ice was no longer there, like some other parts of North America and Europe did after the end of the last ice age?

CC

Arctic Fox computer game

There's the old.. RAFM, I think, horror sets, one of which is the Polar Expedition.. Good squad-battle game, the explorers holding off a swarm of pengies…

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

I love satelite photography!

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CC

Hey Guys,

I've extended a Pulp Scenario to take in Kashmir, the Himalayas and Antarctica. Thsi involves rumours of a mythical stone with mysterious powers found hidden in a Monastery high up in the Himalayas, a Bristol Blenheim bomber painted white, with an artic camo scheme; lots of stipply upper lipped Brits and a fair few Gestapo types, and a handful of bad ass Indian monks!

The Indians want to keep the stone in the monastery, the Germans want to secret it away in the Blennie to their secret antarctic base, and the Brits want to verify the stone so they want it back in the Srinagar Archeological Survey Offices…

If you don't have Doug McClure in it, you might as well quit.

Cacique Caribe 08 Jul 2006 9:12 a.m. PST wrote

"As for most of Antarctica being under water after the pole melt, was it under water before it shifted to the current position?"

The South Pole elevation is over 9000 feet above sea level

The high point in Antarctica is Mount Vinson at 16,067 ft.

"And, would it "lift" up once the weight of the ice was no longer there, like some other parts of North America and Europe did after the end of the last ice age?"

Much of Northern NA is in the process of isostatic rebound and ten thousand years or so it should make for some great farmland in the far north.

Unless it already is , Antarctica should start rebounding once we get can get of a(Come on GW!) few thousand feet of ice.

It makes me curious as to what would remain of artificial structures buried beneath several kilometers of ice, for a hundred thousand years. I assume anything short of Peter Jackson architecture would be squashed and scattered beyond recognition, with only a few odd arifacts to be discovered.
It also may be awhile before any eldritch caverns are either accessible or even formed, but it does get the creative juices flowing.

"For Nazi's… you want to research: New Swabia / Neuschwabenland / Neu-Schwabenland"

Yes, Ken Hite's Anarctic Space Nazis. Great fun!

When I typed "GW" I was refering to Global Warming, not GWB or Games Workshop. Nothing political or gamist was intended.

Nazi penguins.
Trying to take over the world.
You gotta love it…! ;)

OOPS! [edit]

I meant "Killer Nazi penguins"….

;)

Re: Nazis at the Pole.

Brigade Games has started a new range called "Polar Wars", which includes a re-issue of the HLBS 28mm-sized U-Boat:
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I bought an RPG sourcebook for the Fright Night game called 'Polar Terror'. There's a link here: link

Obviously based on Carpenter's 'The Thing', but quite a nice horror RPG.

This "Delta Green" short story about a Nazi base in the Antarctic is good inspiration: link

If you can find a copy, Chaosium's "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" RPG campaign is a really great sourcebook. I ran the campaign for my CoC players in 2000, and am running it again for my new players now! The appendices are just astonishing, ever want to know about what to wear in polar regions, how to harness and drive a dogsled, what to pack in your snow tractor for a short exploration, etc, it is ALL THERE !

I really think you need to rent the original "The Thing." Even if the scenario isn't what you are looking for, it will inspire you.

How about SPI's old War on the Ice. A great game dealing with a US/Russia war down there. You also have the option for adding South American and alien forces to the fight.

The biggest oil field in history is discovered in the near future right about the time the last barrel is pumped out of the middle east.

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! Indeed! I can't recommend Chaosium's "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" RPG campaign enough!!! The sourcebook is massive and has all the information you could want to run a game in the Antarctic. Unfortunately its out of print at the moment and goes for between £80-£100 on eBay!

How about a left-over (and therefore not at their peak) colony or outpost of the "Voth" in tunnels in Antartica?

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CC

Operation Highjump (OpHjp):

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See this too:

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Could be combined with other things mentioned above.

These would make a nice start to the scenario:
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I have done two recent scenarios.
Nazis Versus Russians
Martians Versus USMC

I like the idea of Martian survivors on Antarctica, having left Mars when the atmosphere made the planet unlivable.

The Martians could be done as if they had retained their technology, or made to look like degenerated primitive survivors.

Endless possibilities.

CC

Alien V Predator,or a variation of?
All that ice must be hiding something!

"All that ice must be hiding something!"

The idea is slowly taking shape:
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CC

Or a time-travel scenario where you find Capt. R.F.Scott and his surviving team and the old conundrum comes up. Save his bacon and change history,or what?

I've been thinking about scheduling two games simultaneously at Historicon next Summer: one as a dog sled race using Jamie Davis' Future Race rules and the other as a Pulp or VSF game. The two games would be running at the same time and the Pulp/VSF game might get in the way of the race. It could be a wild and wooly time. The Copplestone dog sleds are very nice and are available in the U.S. through RLBPS. I have started with Pulp Miniatures Sergeant Preseton and the Northland sets. Also, Eureka makes Inuits that could be adapted for an Arctic or Antarctic game.

From en.wikipedia:

An esoteric Hitlerist legend recounts that Adolf Hitler did not commit suicide in 1945, but fled to Argentina, then to an SS base under the ice in New Swabia during the early 1950s where he either disappeared into the hollow earth or resumed his career as a painter. According to this account, Operation Highjump, the largest expedition mounted to the Antarctic, is claimed to have been sent to wipe out the Nazi presence.[citation needed]

How about some of these guys in the real down under (Antarctica):

ravenscraftcybernetics.com/wotw

CC

Long Hibernating Dinosaurs awakened by melting ice for water at a science station? Wetas freeze solid and there were dinosaurs down there as the climate became frigid.

I happily mix penguins, polar bears, yetis and snowmen. I am trying to talk myself into the Abominable Snowbeast just put out by Crocoldile, but the pricetag makes for second thoughts.

What about an extreme global warming scenario?

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CC

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CC

Post-apocalyptic gaming potential?

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CC

I wonder if UFO sightings increase when the temperature drops in the northern and southern hemispheres – a clear indication that their homebase must be in Antarctica!!! :)

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CC
PS. I am just joking of course.

Read "The People's Republic of Antarctica" by John C. Batchelor. Lots of interesting stuff in that book.

Those maps are sooooo wayyyyyy off!!!

Where the polar opening leading into Pellucidar?!?!? ;-)

I am just going outside to roll some dice, CC, and may be some time, especially if your scenario includes a race to find the treasure.