Zeus

RPG system: I Love the Corps
Participants: 1 GM, 6 players

By

Chris Dean

Description

Short Description: A top secret Corps-funded science lab has not sent its weekly transmission. You are part of a (highly expendable) Rapid Response squad sent to see what fate has befallen the lab, and if it’s bad, get out with whatever classified intel you can recover.

Long Description: Zeus is a planet shrouded in electrical storms; this phenomena is perfect for shrouding activities on the surface, and disables any vessel flying through the atmosphere without sufficient shielding. Zeus is home to nothing but jagged rock, and a single top secret Corps-funded science base. Every week, a shielded ship leaves the planet to transmit an encoded data packet to Corps Command, and then returns to the planet. This week’s transmission has not arrived.
You are part of a United Colonial Marine Corps Rapid Response squad; like all such squads, you are largely made up of marines who are not deemed “suitable” for operating in larger outfits. You’re used to knowing very little, and you’re surprised every time you survive a mission.
You’ve got to head into the science base on Zeus and determine if anything has befallen the facility. If you can help fix the problem, do so. Otherwise, if the base has been compromised, you are ordered to recover the classified intel the base possesses, and get out of there. And no, you have no idea what the facility actually does.
I LOVE THE CORPS is a published tabletop role-playing game of military action, horror and military sci-fi.
The game uses a straight forward 1d6 + score and situational modifiers mechanic. However, passive abilities (score, +3 for narrative scenes, +1 action) allow you to do plenty of cinematic things without rolling the die; you’re trained marines afterall. One ability total covers a range of connected actions. In a narrative scene, you have three beats, and in each beat you get one active (dice roll) and one passive ability. The position you are in at the end of the scene’s final beat dictates the nature of the next scene, or whether it becomes an action scene. Do you love the Corps, marine? Only one way to find out.

Trigger Warnings: This is very difficult to say in this particular scenario, as the horror that features is very much down to what the players and their characters decide to be paranoid about, rather than a fixed theme. I will do my best to talk to players at the start of the game, to ensure we can avoid any triggers for players; this is a particularly psychological scenario, though heavy gore can feature, depending on approach.

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