With the advent of the latest installment in the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation, Terminators are once again in the spotlight. As the ultimate robotic villains made flesh, they are well-suited as gaming opponents.
The most recent installment in the Terminator video game franchise is a third-person shooter based on the upcoming movie. There's also an online game.
A new type of game that's only recently come about on the Internet is the Fan Immersion Game (FIG). Fan Immersion Games are casual, massively multiplayer online games that are free to play but allow players to buy advantages with real cash. Terminator Salvation has its own FIG.
Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) uses an interactive narrative to tell a story, immersing the players in a form of online role-playing. Terminator Salvation has its very own ARG at SkynetResearch.com. You can even submit designs and videos to Skynet, thereby helping facilitate the destruction of mankind and life as we know it. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Believe it or not, there was actually an officially endorsed Terminator miniature combat game, set in the post-apocalyptic future of the movies. Titled Terminator 2: Year of Darkness and published by Leading Edge Games, the game covered everything from skirmish combat to larger scale battles. GURPS Reign of Steel also features a Terminator-like apocalyptic setting, complete with robot overlords and human freedom fighters.
If you'd like to put your own spin on own Terminators in your favorite role-playing game, the best place to start is The Terminator Files, one of the most comprehensive sites about Terminator on the web. There are also plenty of fan efforts, including Christopher Shields' exhaustive re-imagining of the Terminator future at Terminator 2029: Rage Against the Machines and Lizard King's Universe of Skynet.
Game masters who want to use Terminators in their game have a choice of a variety of timelines, from the far flung past to the dark future. The Terminator series plays fast and loose with the notion of time travel, mixing the theory that time travel creates parallel universes that continue to exist independently of the current timeline with the theory that one can change the future. These two ideas are fundamentally incompatible: if time travel creates alternate timelines, you can never really change the future, which means Terminators can’t go back in time to save themselves. But why quibble? That’s part of the charm of the series.
The movies and series have always taken place in the present day, with flashforwards to a future that hasn’t yet arrived. There are considerable challenges in taking on a Terminator in modern day, including lack of resources and advanced technology to disable a killer robot. That said, post 9/11 society is generally better equipped to handle a random attack on civilians than in the past, so Terminators should have a much tougher time of it.
The other challenge in placing a Terminator attack in the present day is that for the player characters (PCs) to be involved, they should have some significance in the timeline that affects Skynet. Of course, given the two conflicting time travel theories, a seemingly insignificant gesture could alter the time stream (see A Sound of Thunder for an example).
Most players will probably find the future more appealing, if only because it’s a full-fledged war of resistance against hordes of giant killer robots. Although humanity is on the run, it does have access to some of the same weapons and technology Skynet employs. This has always been the appeal of the Terminator series for gamers. Many of the first-person shooters take place in the future, so it was inevitable that the upcoming movie takes place there as well.
It’s also possible to play in the past, present, and future by using the time travel device that the Terminators and Kyle Reese used. There are some disadvantages however, including the fact that it’s a one way trip and that the PCs must travel naked, which really takes away some of the appeal.
Whatever system you use, Terminators make terrifying villains that will put the fear of metal in the most stalwart heroes. Use them wisely.
Comments