The ORIGINAL Oil Rig Mission - 2001

Since Pete and I are revisiting the Oil Rig Project, I felt it was important to re-post the mission that inspired the project.

Back in 2001, I was running a Cyberpunk campaign using a homebrew ruleset based on Top Secret/S.I. At the time (when I had more time), I was chronicling the campaign on a now-defunct website. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, parts of that website still exist, so I can resurrect them here.

Now that I am currently running an Interface Zero 2.0 campaign, you might see some more pages from the old site be resurrected...

Contract Intel:
The PCs go to their fixer's place and get a quiet room where they negotiate a deal to infiltrate an Oil Rig, retrive a data file, and leave the rig. Each team member gets 3000cr retainer for supplies, a total of 5000cr for securing the rig, and a total of 10,000 for a recovered data file.

Data about the rig:

Manufacturer:  Erdel Type J-3 Rotary Drilling Rig
                        Manufacturer based out of Houston, Texas
                        Now defunct

Current Owner: unknown

Location:      Approx. sight distance from New Tokyo bay

# of Crew:     Support for 38
                     The previous owner had approx. 12 when he lost possession of the rig.

Communication: No land lines
                           Possible satellite uplink

Location of Data File: unknown

Type of data: Entire database

Computer System: unknown, possibly UNIX-based

The Actual Mission
This mission was set up as a "test" mission for a higher-end employer. The employer is basically just pitting two mercenary teams against each other. One team defends the rig, the other assaults it. The team that survives wins future contracts. It doesn't matter which team attacks and which defends, I just chose to have the PCs attack. I figured it would be more interesting and I had a decent "contract" idea that involved all the players.

The oil rig has been derelict for at least 15 years, probably more. With the development of CHOOH2, drilling for oil became more expensive. This particular rig made several taps with minimal result. It became more cost effective to leave it where it sat at the last tap, than to pull up shop, weatherize it, and dry-dock it. So, questionable elements set up shop in it soon after it was abandoned.

Their usual contact informed them that the rig was in his parent organization's possession and was recently raided, overrun, and occupied by an opposing organization's mercenary team. Normally, blowing it out of the water would be the order of the day, but when it was previously owned, they used it as a waypoint for illegal contraband, and all their shipping records were stored in the rig's local database. The PC mercenary team's primary objective is to secure the entire database. A secondary objective is to recapture the rig, if possible. The payoff is 10,000cr per person for the database intact. If no database, then 5,000cr per person for the rig. Not to exceed 10,000 per person. 3,000cr in advance are provided for expenses. Unregistered weapons and small equipment provided up front, with understanding that the weapons will be returned upon completion.

If the players asked, their contact was only able to provide them with a mangy copy of the emergency exit floorplan of the sub-deck.

Oil Rig Emergency Exits: OilRigEmergencyPlan.gif missing. I hope to find it someday...
If they pried some more, their contact informed them that his organization had previously set up IR motion detectors, but they may or may not still be functioning. He was able to provide approximate locations of some of them.

Oil Rig Recon: OilRigDeck.gif missing. I hope to find it someday...
The above map also shows the observed sentry locations when the PCs did some preliminary recon.

It took me a while to put together a working map of the oil rig. I found a gem of a website at http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~gavenda/oilfield (NOTE: This link goes to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine as the original link no longer exists). The guy who put it together did a great job of explaining, simply, the regular goings on on a "jackup" oil rig, including plenty of photos. Thing to note: a jackup rig is really a big ship that has three huge extendible legs. It is towed to it's next drilling location and then it jacks itself up about 100-150 feet above the ocean and begins drilling. I highly recommend reading it and passing on the address to your more ambitious players.

Oil Rig Layout

The detcord on the dock level is of a blue plastic variety. It is wrapped many times around the support legs, just above sea level and, upon casual inspection, just looks like water-level paint markings.

The generic explosive in the survival capsule off of the control room is a bundle of pipe bombs with a mercury switch to prevent them from being moved.

The shaped charges are pre-manufactured and look like small inverted plates. One is intended to discourage helicopter landings, the other two are placed behind the diesel fuel tanks to engulf the main deck if necessary.

All explosives have been modified to accommodate a small black box with a red numeric LED display, and a short rubber antenna. This box is a remote receiver controlled either by the com officer through the control room computers or the demolitions expert with a small handheld controller. The com officer can only start the 5 minute timer or detonate the explosives. Only the demolitions expert can shut them off (he can also start the timers or detonate).

The infrared motion detectors are simple. They have a 90 degree field of detection (indicated by the legs on the symbol on the map), can easily be defeated by an IR suit, and have no operational feedback loop (no on/off indicator). If tripped, they will trigger a simple alarm heard throughout the rig.

There is a small data hutch on the main deck that has two log files in an antiquated VAX system.

They are left over from when the rig actually served it's purpose, and will only slow the players down if they try to get the VAX up and running and try to interface with it to get the files.

The operations database in the control room is bogus. Even so, by the time the players get to it, it should be pretty well jibberish due to the virus the com officer puts on it.

All opposing units are equipped with a NeuroProcessor, SmartGun Link, SpeedWires, a com link, medium body armor, a 10mm Glock, a SmartGun Linked 9mm H&K MP5, and a combat knife and have above average skills to use them.

1. Commander - Begins in the control room
   Extremely strong with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth.
   Husky, clean, and commanding.
2. Sniper - Begins on the monkey board of the derrick
   Above average strength with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Sniper Rifle, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment.
   7.62mm H&K G3SG1 Sniper Rifle instead of the MP5.
   Big, relaxed.
3. Com Officer - Begins in the control room
   Very high intelligence with other attributes above average.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Radio Operator, Interface.
   Combat CyberDeck and CyberDeck Link.
   Thin, sure of himself.
4. Pilot - Begins sleeping in the crews' quarters
   Above average strength with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Piloting most transportation forms.
   Vehicle Link and Chip Jack.
   Big, cocky.
5. Demolitions Expert - Begins having a snack in the kitchen
   All attributes above average to high end.
   Boxing, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment, Demolitions.
   Short, bulky, grouchy.
6. Underwater Ops - Begins in the starboard crane cab
   All attributes above average to high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment.
   4-shot speargun, armored wetsuit instead of body armor.
   Skinny, quiet.

If motion detectors go off:

• alarm will sound
• 4 and 5 will wake up and get to the upper deck
• 1 will order to attack

If intruders spotted:

• observer will call into 3
• 3 will alert the others
• 1 will order to watch then attack if needed

On first attack:

• 1 will coordinate
• 3 will jack in, monitor motion sensors, cameras, and explosives
• 6 will dive overboard, disable any intruding craft, and prep the escape boats

If control room computers are hacked:

• 3 will fight via software
  If defeated:
  • will initiate a virus to destroy the data
    If virus defeated:
    • will detonate the terminals
    • will set all other explosive timers for 5 minutes

If overpowered:

• will try to escape by diving overboard
• will get into the escape boats
• will detonate the oil rig remotely

The Outcome
At the time, I was also producing semi-regular newsletters for the campaign I called New Tokyo Screamsheets. This was the report in the Screamsheet issue that followed that game:

SPECIAL REPORT:

FIRE ON THE HORIZON

Early this morning, emergency officials were notified of several explosions and fire spotted just above the horizon over the ocean. Preliminary investigation revealed that the fire is located on a derelict oil rig miles offshore. Witnesses report that there was an initial fiery explosion followed by several smaller ones.

From https://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgpress/4541155893

The cause of the blaze is not known at this time.

Oil Rig Build Log - Part 5

It's been a while since I posted something, so here's a photo update. The miniatures are coming along nicely and we're experimenting with railings:

Oil Rig Build Log - Part 4

As promised, here's the Oil Rig Build Log Update!

Pete cut 1" steps from some extruded polystyrene foam sheet insulation (otherwise known as "pink" or "blue foam"), glued them in place, and coated them with some left over household latex paint. The paint seals the foam so we can spray paint it. Without it, the propellant in the spray paint will dissolve the foam.

At this point, we're pretty much done with the playtest mockup. All we needed was a placeholder for the oil derrick. So, some scrap cardboard later, and voila!

To maintain overall proportion, we decided upon a 20" tall derrick.

Here you can see the scale of this project. Our stand-ins are a couple of PanOceania mins from Infinity.

(Check out those railings...)

Here's the PanO guys boarding a helo for a quick escape!

As I had mentioned, we planned on spray painting the rig to unify the appearance and hide the imperfections. Here's an action shot of Pete!

Four cans of cheap grey spray paint later and here's the finished product. Lookin' good!

That should suffice as far as usability for play testing!

Now on to the miniatures!

We had briefly discussed using the existing Infinity miniature line, but in a very specific scenario/terrain such as this, we figured we'd streamline the rules to minimize the complexity. As such, the mins weren't as important. That meant we could return to the concept of an SpecOps attacking force, and a "goon" defending force.

For the attackers, we found the Eureka Miniature line and really liked their NATO Special Forces Frogmen (this is the Eureka Miniatures USA link - they're based out of Australia). Here's what they look like cleaned up, their bases sawed off, and pinned:

For the defenders, after an exhaustive search, we settled on 'Guards in Hard Hats' from Copplestone Castings in their 1960's Characters line. I don't have a picture of them, so this will have to do:

We ordered 12 of them as we are assuming the defenders will be at a disadvantage, so a 2 to 1 numerical advantage should help.

Just a cool picture Pete took showing the scale of the bits we've assembled so far:

Reboot on the horizon...

...means another link dump. I'll update the Oil Rig blog soon, I promise!

Cooking Quinoa
Quinoa Cooking Tips
How to Cook Quinoa Perfectly
TED Talk - Charter cities
Element Case
TRON Gaming Mouse and Mat
Movie T-shirts
www.geeksaresexy.net
Greg Rutter's you should have seen this and you should have also seen this
Headless Hollow's Free Game Sheets

Hey, this is related to the Oil Rig: North Sea Oil and Gas
Plastruct Complete Catalog

Oil Rig Build Log - Part 3

Making progress! We've got it to a point where it's definitely playable terrain, but still needs some work.

Before we move on to the build report, a couple of interesting notes:

 Upside down it would make some totally awesome  terrain for Battletech!

 Also, it's built like a tank! Here we're using two tubs full of Lego to weigh it down while the glue dries. Lego aint light! (Yeah, Pete's got a ton of Lego. Plus check out that carpeting!)

Okay, back to the build! This round, we decided on and built the upper deck layout, mounted the support columns for the cranes, and tried out the helipad.

This was done on Saturday. Since then, we've been moving forward on some of the cover and loose terrain bits. Pete's put together some nice real wood pallets (1" x 1") and some crates:

I decided to scour the internet and start purchasing some of the more difficult to obtain items. In particular:

• The oil derrick. This is going to be tricky. Not only is it the biggest and most recognizable feature of the the project, but there are very few pre-built ones in a scale close enough! We decided to go ahead and order the Plastruct Electrical Towers & Oil Rig Kit from Hobbylinc. It came in today. However... the oil rig kit looks... a little... small. The girder bits are small and the base is only about 4" across. The instructions are almost useless, but the drawings are worthwhile. It might be useful to try building it as-is with the same philosophy as the cardboard mock-up.
• Forklifts. After some extensive searching, I found some roughly 1/64 scale die-cast forklifts made by Welly toys and bought two red ones off eBay for $5 each. They arrived today as well. The forklifts are pretty neat and look in-scale. They come with cheap plastic pallets that are 1" x 1 3/8", so Pete's should work fine.
• Winches. We are contemplating building winches from scratch, but seeing how work-intensive this project will be, we are weighing the price-to-work savings of some kits or pre-built parts. In this case, I found a Tugger Winch kit across the pond in the UK. I've sent them an e-mail for a quote, but it's looking like they'll end up being around $10 each. And we're talking about needing SIX...

P.S. We got the quote back - a $70 total. Looks like we'll be scratch-building them...

Oil Rig Build Log - Part 2

This past weekend, Pete and I were able to bang on the project and push forward. We now have the catwalk section and lower deck all glued together. We also cut 5" wide strips of cardboard to make the center structure. We decided to put in several alcoves to provide some sort of cover for the miniatures to duck into. You can see what I'm talking about here:

Obviously, the cranes have arrived and really give the project a sense of scale. We are using styrofoam and shoe boxes as placeholders for the next phase. In preparation for that, we have started doing some research into 1/64 or S-Scale modeling supplies. I have gone ahead and put in an order for a Plastruct Electrical Towers & Oil Well Kit. I'm curious to see how involved building a derrick from scratch will be...

Oil Rig Build Log

As I had previously mentioned, Pete and I are in the process of building a miniature scale oil-rig for use in tabletop wargaming.

Many years ago, I ran a Cyberpunk game session that took place primarily on an off-shore oil rig. Pete and I thought it would be fun to build a scale model of that oil-rig. We took that a step further and thought it should be playable terrain.

Our first step was to cut cardboard blanks (currently 24" x 24") to get a feel for the scale:

(Okay, this wasn't the FIRST attempt, but, alas, I lost those images in a phone shuffle...)

Actually, our first step was to try out a few sci-fi tabletop miniature games. We looked into:

• AT-43 - Although I have a slew of AT-43 miniatures, we never got around to playing as we did not want to purchase the rulebook for a "test" game and the rule summary I found was useless as it expected you to have the book. (Also, it looks like they are now discontinued...)
• Infinity - The rules are simple in theory and provide a nice defense/response mechanic, but once you start adding in all the weapon and special ability rules it becomes daunting.
• Rezolution - Nice simple rules. Possibly TOO simple.

We ultimately decided to go with Infinity due to its defense/response mechanic.

Shortly after, we were invited to participate in an Infinity game by a fellow we met at Fair Game. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and, in discussion with the host and other players, discovered some interesting notes:

• Infinity requires a LOT of terrain. It's pretty deadly otherwise.
• Usually, a field of play is 4' x 4', however... 2' x 2' x 2' is doable.

Based on our experience, we decided to go ahead and upgrade from "get a feeling for the scale" to a playable cardboard mock-up. Hopefully we can get it done by the next Infinity game and ask the gents to try it out so we can get even more feedback.

Here's where we got so far:

Quite exciting!

I have also gone ahead and ordered two remote control(!) cranes from Hobbytron. The scale is a bit on the big side, but they are awesome and may just add that extra oomph!

Oil Rig Pix

So, Pete and I have decided to try building a scale model oil rig to be used as miniatures combat terrain. This is some pictorial research:
Marine Engineering Marvels
Rig Pic 1
Rig Pic 2
Rig Pic 3
Rig Pic 4
.