Space Truckers 1996 As Fodder For The Alpha Blue Rpg System And Your Old School Campaigns

So Venger Satanis's Alpha Blue rpg setback is over now its time to get back on board to get a campaign together for Alpha Blue. Now I've been doing some hot and heavy thinking about some ancient rpg's in my collection and Waste World was one in particular that I won't mind returning back to at some point but that's a blog post for another day. But why mention that wonderful relic of  '97? Well besides being a post apocalyptic nightmare it featured some very cool stuff from Bill King and co.  A year before that Space Truckers came out and then found new life on the VHS  rental circuit. In a nutshell it's plot seems like something straight out of Heavy Metal. One of the last independent space truckers in interstellar space gets stuck with a cargo of psychotic military grade cyborgs. I still own a VHS copy of the movie and play it from time to time and here's why. The film is a campy homage to pulp magazines, vintage golden age science fiction, and monster movies.


So why did I mention Wasteworld? Well, because in the film are some of the meanest and nastiest pieces genetic manipulation to ever grace the screen. I'm speaking of the square pigs, these are a genetically modified pig species made to easily be transportable with a mean streak a mile wide. They spend their short and brutal lives inside a cargo space waiting to get slaughtered but anyone comes close enough to a cage is going to lose an arm as these bastards tear chunks of flesh from their victims.

Frequency: uncommon
No appearing 1d6
Move:non
Hit Dice: 6
% in lair: 100%
Treasure: Nil
No of Attacks 1
Damage/Attacks: 1-10
Special Defenses Stink Cloud
Magic Resistence: Nil
Intelligence: Animal (mean as hell)
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Medium
Psionic ability: Nil
Experience Value:10 per pig

In Waste World I had a pachyderm class space hauler with a load of  square pigs in cryo cargo pods in the wastelands buried and still viable after centuries once the indict came down to seal Advernus off from the rest of the universe. Two rival gangs of mutant scum were going to tear the desert apart and the ship, its cargo, and more would be destoryed. Square pigs give twice the normal calories and ham that a regular pig does. Don't ask about the GMO's in the pigs though you might have nightmares for weeks.



Here's the fast breakdown according to Wiki: "Space Truckers is a 1996 American-British-Irish comic science fiction film directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Dennis Hopper, Stephen Dorff, Debi Mazar and Charles Dance. It was filmed at Ardmore Studios, County Wicklow, Ireland.
The story concerns John Canyon, one of the last independent space transport entrepreneurs. Bad times have forced him to carry suspicious cargo to Earth without asking questions. During the flight the cargo turns out to be a multitude of virtually unstoppable killer robots."  Actually they were cyborgs created by the late Nabel played with total over the top fun by Charles Dance (who happens to be very much alive btw)

So what does this have to with Alpha Blue? The film portrays a particular sleazy and downright weird interstellar universe that might do with talents of the Alpha Blue Space station and her crew. Given the cult status of this 90's film and the downright creepy tone lurking in the comedic background this film might be a damn good fit as an influence on Alpha Blue.  This might also be one of the only films that your going to see a member of the cast of 80's classic Cheers sucked into the vacuum of space by the way.



There is a ton going on in this film and it might not be to everyone's taste but given some of the humor, situations, plot and there's plenty to mine here for an entire Alpha Blue campaign's worth if you know to look.  I have a feeling that this might happen more often then not in Alpha Blue at times.






Given the background and ideas of Space Truckers, basically Earth is a festering boil of a planet and much of the interstellar scene is a blue collar nightmare. Corporate and commercial interests hold a good portion of the galaxy in peril and there is plenty of room for the various elements already in Alpha Blue to take center stage.

The space ship rules from Girls Gone Rogue are perfectly suited to the not up to par interstellar hi jinks of the various space factions in the universe of Space Truckers and there's a ton of work that can be done to mate both of these universes together quite easily.

Note that this blog entry is for entertainment as well as educational  purposes and none of the maker's of the rpg systems mentioned in this blog post have endorsed this. This blog post is not a challenge to trade mark and copyright of Space Truckers or the Rpg's so named. The writing and ideas are the property of the blogger.