Monday Memories - Divin' through the Stargate!

I thought I would try my hand at doing a weekly feature. So, from now until I no longer want to, Monday mornings will have a blog I call Monday Memories. This is where I will talk about the games I played in the past, and how I feel about them now.

For my first entry, let’s talk about the Stargate SG-1 RPG from Alderac Entertainment Group.

The System: Based on the d20 mechanics, Stargate used the rules from Spycraft, and re-created the long-running TV series, based on the 1994 film starring Kurt Russell. Because of the heavy military influence of the show (which was almost unique in that it had actual active duty Air Force personnel as advisors), Spycraft was a perfect fit.

The Campaign: Our campaign centered around our team, designated SG-4, and it was commanded by my character, Ltc. Matthew Valentine, a former Special Forces officer, now working a desk at the Pentagon (and played, in my mind, by George Clooney). We also had a Marine, a former astronaut, a former Para-Rescue, a CIA agent, and a defecting Jaffa. The marine left early on (due to the player having to back out), but the rest of us continued on. And the group even played during my own absence after I moved away a couple of years later.

Most of our early adventures centered around a group of Goa’uld system lords based on Greek deities, specifically, a nasty bitch called Artemis. These were interspersed with some one-off “episodes” (including one based on the idea of the Doom video games).

Eventually, the team found their way to a Ringworld, and were set to spend the rest of the campaign exploring that. It was at this point that I had moved away, so Valentine was promoted to full-bird Colonel, and put in charge of the Ringworld station. That way, should I make it back down to San Diego for a visit, he would be available to jump in on a mission. However, the campaign eventually fizzled as people drifted apart.

I actually built a website for the campaign, if anyone is interested. Sorry about the pop-ups and ads. It’s old, as is my website that hosted it, but still fun to look at for me.

Memories: We had a lot of fun with this one. Between myself and the player with the CIA agent, we had enough real-world military knowledge to add a lot of details to the game, differentiating it from the Air Force-heavy show, including a lot of Army-heavy influences (like weapons, tactics, etc.).

We had a few running jokes. Like diving through the Stargate; we made it a point to do that occasionally, even if it wasn’t necessary, just because it always looked so cool on the show (much to Gen. Hammond’s chagrin). And grenades; we were the team who took the old adage that “any problem can be solved with the proper application of explosives” to a whole new level. I believe the team was responsible for the destruction of at least two Goa’uld system ships this way.

In short, this was one of my all-time favorite RPG experiences. And I would totally love to play the game again.