Campaigns and Stealing a Nuclear Reactor

["Eric Benson" <ebenson@xxxxxxxx>]

The "Stealing a Nuclear Reactor" subject line made me think of Eddie Murphy
"You can't steal a house!" line from Beverly Hills Cop 6.21 Beta or whatever
it was.

> In point of fact, I once built a fast-breeder nuclear reactor on a dare.
> Needed to raid the Physics department, but I was able to get one built out
> of a shoebox, a few sheets of metal foil, carbon paper and a sample of
> Pu-238.

Um, did you have a troubled childhood?  :-)

Did you run the reactor in your dorm room?

> Any nuclear reactor can be converted to a fast-breeder reactor.  Once you
> have a fast-breeder, you're halfway to creating any fast-fissile isotope
you
> want.

More realistic question: once it's obvious that it's nuclear related, why is
a four to eight man team with no nuclear experience or knowledge (i.e. a
BlackEagle cell) going to be the one leading the case?  It's unlikely that
the BE/BE team will have significant exposure equipment beyond a MOPP suit
or two (if they even bothered to bring them).

In other words, why doesn't the case get handed to the DOE, state police,
FBI, etc.?

As a GM, I'm not really big on 'save the world scenarios'.  We played a game
(not ME) for about a year (~40 - 50 sessions) in which every time we turned
around, we had to go stop some bigger and badder horde of evil creeping
death.  Eventually, the characters said, "it's someone else's turn".  You
really run the risk of jading the characters.  Is there a reason why this
particular group of four to eight operatives *always* seems to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time?  In a superhero game, sure.  The heroes
always will be saving the world.  Unless they are "Bond, James Bond", it's
not likely in a 'realistic' game.

Not to say that saving the world sessions aren't fun (they can be a lot of
fun and add a good pressure to the game).  It just shouldn't happen every
week.  I would suggest following the save the world session up with
something much more mundane...

* Red Herring Investigation: client wants you to investigate a person. The
client is sure the person is up to something.  No, not really.  They happen
to be completely innocent.  It's a bit of a screw job for the players
because they will most likely
assume that the person is *guilty*.  They will have a hard time with the
concept of "no, he's really innocent".

* The Panty Raid: Rich male student client hires the operatives to steal
lady's unmentionables from a sorority house.  To make matters worse, his
father is a frequent client of BlackEagle/BlackEagle, so you really *can't*
say no.  Just don't get caught.  Can you imagine the humiliation if the cell
gets caught in a sorority house?  It's a nice way to take down the egos that
have gotten out of hand.

-Anyway
Eric