Stuck in a bit of a wicket here /tg/
My players are a cyberpunk hit squad for the totalitarian empire ruling the last cybercities on a mostly nuked earth.
They fight terrorists and win a lot.
They ran into some guys who call themselves HYDRA. One sleeper agent got in their squad as a medic, and then "betrayed them" partway through a mission by blowing himself up with hidden nanoexplosives. Lots of fearful reactions, as the guy passed all screenings and didn't reveal he was a secret agent (good at his job).
Some other minor run ins aside, they know HYDRA had wiretaps on a ton of the highly regulated Internet traffic, and that agent, but not much else in the way of presence in the game. Players have decided they are on the side of evil.
Far from it, they are the only organizational that knows the eldritch gods have awoken, and HYDRA is trying to stop them at all costs.
>>43623281
and this is a problem because......
Hail!
>>43623281
And the problem is?
>>43623281
>>43623281
So HYDRA is the good guys. Like always.
No problem
>>43623281
Well, okay. But what's the issue?
>>43623281
>Players have decided they are on the side of evil.
>Far from it, they are the only organizational that knows the eldritch gods have awoken, and HYDRA is trying to stop them at all costs.
They can fight against the Old Ones and still be evil, you know. They are just the lawful evil against the chaotic evil of the ancient space gods.
Also if they are against Cthulhu why they have tentacles in their symbol?
Sorry. Went though a tunnel
With the aforementioned elder gods bleeding unto our wrld, the party has had to deal with weird shit. Big damn monsters once or twice. Psychic brain slugs that nearly self destruct the hazmat / R&D area. A plot to end all humanity.
During all this they came to the conclusion that the government is the last line of defence, and that HYDRA is working WITH the elder gods.
And due to this assumption their actions have led HYDRA to distrust the government more (as they should, it's full of brain slugs), and specifically target the party with bad stuff.
So how do I get the train back on the rails, so to speak, and get the party and HYDRA working together?
>>43623520
Why force it? If the party want to be soldiers for the Elder Gods, let them.
>>43623515
>Also if they are against Cthulhu why they have tentacles in their symbol?
>skull + tentacles = death to my enemy?
>>43623515
>They can fight against the Old Ones and still be evil
Yes! Definitely. But the party keeps putting themselves at odd with them!
>>43623535
>If the party want to be soldiers for the Elder Gods, let them.
They don't! The party wants to shoot hydra, the elder gods, and anyone else in their way. I'm just trying to get hydra back on track...
>>43623536
Well, that is actually pretty good explanation.
>>43623520
>>43623535
>If the party want to be soldiers for the Elder Gods, let them.
This. And if HYDRA is anything like HYDRA from Marvel Comics I would even argue that both options are equally bad. It is either total destruction or total enslavement of humanity. Personally I would prefer the first option to latter.Finally I have an excuse to post all my HYDRA pics.
>>43623609
>They don't! The party wants to shoot hydra, the elder gods, and anyone else in their way. I'm just trying to get hydra back on track...
My advice is still the same. Let them shoot Hydra, the Gods, the Government, and an apple pie if they want.
They'll have more fun and you wont railroad them.
>>43623675
Well, not to say I want to railroad them.I just wanted an Npc group I made work with the pics instead of directly opposing them. There would have been ideological conflict, sure, with a splintered terrorist cell working for the government somehow, but it still would have been easier than picking up guns from the hands of dead hydra agents to shoot at The Old Ones...
>>43623281
>>43623609
Is the organization like the original one? Is Red Skull or any other supervillain involved?
>>43623712
They're PCs, they don't want it the easy way. They want it whichever way they want it.
And they want to punch everything in the face it seems. With bullets. Repeatedly.
>>43623727
Been on the fence about that the entire game. Rough timeline is
>WW3, mindful ayers wake up
>recovery, Japan taking over
>mind flayers start fucking with society to stop tech advanced man
>hydra opposes mind flyers and uncovers the conspiracy/infiltration of the government
And then on from there. I've toyed with "the mind flayers own the emperor and have for years!" As well as "the infiltration of society and government is a recent reaction to HYDRA" ... but I remain undecided.
To complicate the universe with being a marvel universe alternate earth? Feels kinda 4 color comic, and I've been riding the gritty 80s vibe this whole time
>>43623778
>I've been riding the gritty 80s vibe this whole time
Warhammer 40,000 and Judge Dredd were both incredibly gritty and incredibly cheesy at the same time. But I see what you mean. I guess you could use HYDRA members with different names and darker attributes? Like giving Red Skull a... well he is already pretty grimdark so I guess you could just change his name to "Totenkopf" or something?
>>43623863
Bring him in as a shell of his former self; his impersonal tangential defeat when WW3 reduced the earth to squabbling mutants and a totalitarian empire that doesn't bear his name. A shell of a man, maybe even literally an emulated consiousness or a brain in a jar...
I like this. Could work :)
Okay, assuming it's a century after ww3, who is an iconic marvel character that red skull could conceivably have under his wing in a dystopia post nuclear future?
And wolverine is dead; just sayin'
>>43624126
Zola? Or maybe Madam Hydra?
>>43624171
Okay, neither of them is iconic, but they are connected to HYDRA.
>>43624126
Why not Ultron or something?
>>43624126
>>43624224
Just don't use movie-Ultron. He was too talkative and sarcastic to be a serious threat. And he had a silly face.
>>43624287
>movie-Ultron
>Not the only good thing about that movie
Kill yourself.
>>43624126
MODOK with AIM
Winter Soldier
Baron Zemo
http://marvel.com/universe/Hate-Monger_(Adolf_Hitler)
>>43624325
Let me rephrase my statement then.There was absolutely nothing good in that movie.
>>43624414Nothing?
>>43624171
>>43624224
>>43624287
The problem I have with Ultron and the like is they are too late game; there was a nuclear apocalypse in the early eighties. No real record of humanity exists from prewar except Japanese paper copies, and there's no evidence of supers on the scene in any capacity since. So this is early gritty marvel era, where everyone was still mortal and using tube transistor mag tape pcs, and no gods have made it to earth.
I live the idea of Arnim Zola, as he was already a brain in a jar. I doubt I'd include anything from beyond the silver age/ww2 era. Really, I want to emphasise to my players that the age of heroes passed in nuclear fire. Man needs to take up the torch against The Old Ones.
>>43625123
Baron Blood (John Falsworth), Crossbones (Brock Rumlow), Red Skull (Sinthea Shmidt) or Baron Wolfgang von Strucker maybe? Baron Blood is a classical vampire, British nobleman and a nazi, Crossbones is mercenary and assassin, Sin is daughter of the original Red Skull and Baron von Strucker is the original founder of HYDRA in the comics.
