 August 29, 2012 - 8:19pm | Would Logan's Run, both the novel and the movie well I guess even the TV mini-series too, would it make a great setting for SFs? The "world" has all the elements of SFs; blasters of sorts, robots not so future like but like the ones in SFs. Computers, vehicals, money/credits everything is all pretty much in line with Logan's Run. Ok no real aliens, but maybe this is a planet the PCs come across and like every episode of origional Trek they stick their noses in and make an adventure of or mess it up. ( Prime Directive, when did Kirk ever adhear to that? ) Cogito ergo sum; I think therefore I am. Batty [Blade Runner] I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die. |
 August 29, 2012 - 9:14pm | Well Logan's run had a societal mystery, at least the TV series did. the whole kill off the young before they are old thing and there is a ruling council of geriatrics. i think you would need to work in some societal mysteries diferent from that one for the players to unravel in the course of the campaign. Soilent Green suggests an angle for that but is close to the original mystery. other entertainment properties come to mind as well involving clones. So yeah other than the aliens you certainly could use SF rules for a Logan's Run campaign fairly seemlessly. its just that I think to maintain the flavor of the original setting you need that element of mystery and revelation about the society, perhaps even a past mystery that lead to the dystopian society. Might spend some time thinking about various dystopian societies and pick about 3 elements of them to have as major threads in the campaign. No matter how screwed up the society is though, every one has to be happy happy kiss kiss. that said you may just want to raid the paranoia rpg for content too. As a mater of fact the paranoia module "Hill Sector Blues" has a pull out card stock map of a dome city- you may just get some great material from it as well as a nice color map to use. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 29, 2012 - 9:14pm | Well to my memory, I think in the original book Logan left the Earth in a rocket ship. What I did remember, was how young all the people where. They aged-up `last day` from 21, to 30, for the sake of the actor Michael York. I also remember civilization spread-out in domes across the globe, connected by transit-tubs. Once Logan made in to the outside, the world was a lifeless wasteland, instead of the ruins and undergrowth seen in the movie. Oh yeah, smoking is strictly forbidden. The Book and the movie where vary different on many things. It could work, but the PCs would start-out as weak, incompetent hedonists or highly cleaver coldblooded killers. The only objection some player would have, is all the horny little children. By the book, it would mostly focus on dealing with the underground, and dodging the Sandmen. By the shows, it would have the above, but with more post-apocalyptic elements. I would start with the movie, then work-in elements from the book, and use what works. I run a Wiki for a Gamma World-clone game called Mutant Future. At the Mutant Future Wiki, I added an article on the Eloi. The Eloi where from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, but I added elements from Logan's Run (as well as Conan, Barbarella and Zardoz) as they work really well together. |
August 30, 2012 - 10:56pm | I read your article on the Eloi, great info! I guess I was thinking that perhaps the PCs come across a soceity or maybe an entire planet like Logan's Run.. They some how get tied into the mess and have to perhaps "educate" this culture on what life is actually like else where. After all humans live 200 years now, gee-wiz people why die at age 30, LOL.. Though the more I thought about it, the PCs would probably simply yawn and then shuttle back to the ship and say "now what?" Thank you both for the comments. Guess I need to rewatch the show, I haven't seen it in years!, and take some notes... Cogito ergo sum; I think therefore I am. Batty [Blade Runner] I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die. |
 August 30, 2012 - 5:18pm | Stelk, In Issue #17 of the StarFrontiersman there is an article using the Deep Sleep gun from Logan's Run. It is on page 47. That might inspire you too. Like Gamma World used in it's modules, you could have an all human pc group start out in this society to begin the campaign. Later they find a ship and then introduce them into the Frontier from there. Just a thought. |
August 30, 2012 - 6:31pm | If its PCs finding Logan's run planet then work the angle of: OMG! you guys are so old! WOW how long before the sandman taking you to the to the transition station? Fairly quickly the PCs have to go into the underground and fight against the society- works better then them being hedonist children. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 1, 2012 - 9:31pm | Logan's Run was my first taste of Science Fiction. My Uncle read me the novel when I was like 5 or something. Not all of it sunk in, of course, because I had the attention span of a little tyke. But I remember it. We played "sandman" all the time, using toy guns and other props, chasing imaginary runners. Due to a divorce and much passage of time, I haven't been in touch with that side of my family since I was a small boy, but if I was I am sure we would have used Star Frontiers to play Logan's Run stories as I grew up. It does fit quite well, though it takes some effort to make it mesh properly with the rest of the frontier setting, unless you're going to go fully variant-setting and ignore the rest of the frontier. In the setting of Star Frontiers there are several plague worlds that are quarantined. Nobody knows what goes on there, none of the setting material goes into much detail. You could play out that one of those quarantined worlds have this Logan's Run setting. Your PCs can start there. Then, if and when you EVER run out of stories to tell on that one world, it would be fairly easy to integrate them into the rest of the frontier by somehow getting them off world. If you thought Logan and Jessica were shocked to meet the old man in the Library of Congress... imagine what they'd think meeting a Dralasite or a Vrusk! 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
September 1, 2012 - 10:28pm | By the way, I have the DVD to Logan's Run. You can find an Easter Egg in the menu screen, by highlighting the "palm flower" (the crystal it the hand). This would bring up a new menu talking about the age-ranges of each color. I also recommended the commentary by the detector and York. What I find interesting was how they wanted all the (I assume grown) woman to wear the same type of gown seen on Jessica 6 from the circuit (as in the pic for the above Eloi link), but the fact it drapes over the hips, and one have to go commando to make it look right, kept it from being used beyond the circuit scene--do to the logistics of keeping everything taped-down and such. That would have been awesome!  Oh yeah, originally Logan and Jessica would have been frozen in an embrace by Box (the robot that like to freeze people), but they changed it. I dont know why they did that, as it would have ended the movie too quickly and anticlimactically. It was said that they put a lot of money and effort into making the ice statue. |
