Monday, June 11, 2012

The Leif Ericson Relaunch - A Campaign Idea


I've been wracking my brains the last few days coming up with a "new " campaign idea for Stars Without Numbers & some of the other science fantasy games in my collection. I have a weekend off from role playing due to a cold. Then it occured to me that I still have the Leif Ericson kicking around in the back of my head! I covered it right Here
As you'll recall from the original television show pitch by George Pal for his War Of The Worlds.That Matt Jeffries did the original design on the Hyperspace Carrier Pegasus as well as the original Star Ship Enterprise. 



This design would later become the Leif Ericson




And then the Leif Ericson was used by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle as the INSS MacArthur in "The Mote In God's Eye"!





The Pitch 


Set against an Earth recovering from the aftermath of WWIII & the failed Secondary Martian Invasion. The Earth is launched into The Tauran Wars. This time with a much more powerful alien enemy.
A group of desperate free lancers is brought together by an interstellar disaster of epic proportions
Outgunned with no fire power of their own they are pushed into an incredible gambit to obtain a starship & weapons.

Ancient enemies offer a devil's deal to this ragtag group of freedom fighters
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend & yet they embroil the PCs into the thick of things.

This will take place in between the time period of 2018-2160.
 The Tauran Wars are looming & the Earth is just starting to recover from the secondary failed Martian Invasion. A series of brush fire wars with the Sarmak & some of the Mythos races.
The Rigellians have destroyed  a number of orbital outposts & are in the employ of whomever will offer them cash.
Secrets of The Setting 


  1. WW III is a result of Sarmak interference. Mutants & the like are the result of Sarmak experimentation. 
  2. The Selenites from the First Men In the Moon are information brokers of the highest order & offer the human race a devil's bargain
  3. The records from WW III are fragmentary at best the various Mythos races have been operating with impunity 
  4. There have been several organizations that have proceeded the Federation & Fleet. The still operate the various space lanes 
  5. Magic & psionic powers are available to several isolationist colonies & the like. Think Herculoids here 
  6. Androids were perfected decades before the start of WW III & helped with the recovery of Earth 
  7. The universe is fraught with various races that have been operating for thousands of years before the human race ever even set foot into space. They're really not liking the intrusion. 
  8. The Elder Gods IE Nodens & various other pantheons of gods unknown to mankind have been out in the universe but are mostly gone. 
  9. The tradition of Gamma Knights & the like are still out in space operating as paladins with mecha 
  10. Free lancers operate where the United Planets & Star Command can't . They act as merc forces close to private armies & the like are in the real world 
  11. The MI Go, The Deep Ones, & other Mythos races are part of the galactic community & more then capable of dealing with man 
  12. The Old Ones exist & are worshiped on various worlds with colony worlds of their own. 
  13. Space Command, The Fleet, etc. exist but are fragmentary at best 
  14. Rigellians have been taken in by the mythos & are being used as fodder for them at present 
  15. Technology is based on reliable designs & nano technology is distrusted because of its role in WW III 
  16. There are various political  elements from the days of WW III still out in space causing trouble ie The Cryptic Alliances from Gamma World 1st & 2nd edition. 
  17. Stars Without Number along  Star Ships & Space men will be providing the background along with Terminal Space 

8 comments:

  1. I've been thinking about mixing some Starships & Spacmen with my Stars Without Number gaming as well! : )

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  2. Thanks for the comment Bill.
    There's plenty more where this came from I'll be mixing in my fair share of Event Horizon,Outland,Promethues, This Island Earth, Forbidden Planet, etc. there's also the Carcosa, Algol, War Of The Worlds, etc. Influence & in the meantime I'm waiting for my books & studying the free Stars Without Numbers pdf.
    There's more awesome sauce to come! Glad you liked the idea.

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  3. This ship was either used as-is or kitbashed with a Klingon D7 for a 1970s Strasenburgh Planetarium show called The Archive Project. The ship saw combat in an interstellar war. I am trying to get the Planetarium to dig up the archives on this for a forthcoming FATE SF RPG blog I will be launching in a week or two.

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  4. That's cool everything I've been able to glean about the Leif Ericson comes from this site which might help you John. http://www.projectrho.com/leifstub.html
    This might help you determine if this model from the Strasenburgh Planetarium was used as is or kit bashed.. I look forward to seeing the new blog man. Keep me informed.

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  5. That's cool! My brother had a copy of this model kit when I was a kid, so it has some memories for me.

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  6. Thanks Tony for the comment!
    I picked this & another model kit from Auroa on clearance as a kid from the local Woolworth here in the neighboring town of Torrington, Ct back in '79 so this one has always had some memories for me. There's more to come! Stay tuned! Very glad everyone has had such a good reaction to the Leif Ericson.

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  7. @Needles: Thank you for the link to that incredible Leif Ericson archive!

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  8. John Till you are very welcome! I want to share my sources so that folks can get the maximum bang for their buck out of the great stuff on the interwebs! Enjoy it man! Thanks for the kind words as well.

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