Systems Failure is a small oneshot Tabletop RPG designed by the good folks at Palladium Books and serves as their take on both the Y2K hysteria and Bug War tropes. It all began at the turn of the new millennium when a sudden global event known as "The Meltdown" occurred and many things began happening at once. Power grids and computers all across the world began experiencing strange glitches, malfunctions and even total failure. But the planet's rapidly collapsing infrastructure would soon be the least of humanity's worries, for something far more sinister arrived on that day... a race of power-hungry giant insects hellbent on taking over the world and enslaving humanity to serve as slaves and living incubators for their offspring!
Many years later after that terrible day humanity has found itself on the frontlines in a nightmarish war to reclaim their lost homes, friends, families and lives. Bugs infest nearly every major city and urban area and can convert their bodies into pure energy to strike nearly anywhere on earth at a moment's notice... or beat a hasty retreat if the humans manage to get the better of them. Things won't be easy for the human race from here on out, but if folks can work together and successfully strike back against their monstrous new insect overlords, they might just manage to survive another day... and eventually take back America from the insectoid menace!
This tabletop game provides examples of:
- Area 51: The entire state of Nevada is now referred to as Area 51 and something very strange is going on there. Rumor has it that anyone who enters the territory disappears and is never heard from again and that both Reno and Las Vegas are bugged, though any actual concrete facts about the place are in short supply. NORAD might know some things about Area 51 but refuse to say anything on the matter, leaving it a mystery.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The main monsters of this game are alien bugs, and come in several varieties, from the lowly Silkworm to the mighty Lightning Bug.
- Bug War: The main enemies in this series are a race of strange insectoid aliens that feed on power and can convert their bodies into pure energy to travel through the electrical system.
- Cowboy Cop: The Peacekeeper O.C.C. seems to have been designed with this trope in mind and comes in two main flavors: Town Marshals and Badland Vigilantes. The Town Marshals behave similarly to the small-town sheriffs of the old west and keep the common folk safe from bandits and other threats while the Badland Vigilantes are a more nomadic type of lawman who travel across the US looking for wrongs to right.
- Crazy Survivalist: Many people became this in the wake of the Bug invasion. They also serve as one of the available player classes.
- Dual Wielding: This is the primary special ability of the Exterminator O.C.C. though it's normally limited to just Guns Akimbo unless the Exterminator is willing to burn a skill selection to upgrade it to allow melee weapons as well.
- Grease Monkey: The Grease Monkey O.C.C. is (unsurprisingly) a mechanic focused class that specializes in scavenging and jury-rigging.
- Half-Human Hybrid: NORAD Splicers are an optional character class made up of humans that have willingly infused themselves with Bug DNA to gain some of their powerful abilities.
- Insectoid Aliens: The Bug invaders. They come in a few different variants but generally look like giant grasshoppers, ants or preying mantises.
- Intrepid Merchant: The Freebooter O.C.C. is a more modern post-apocalyptic take on this trope. He begins the game with a lot of gear to trade and his abilities lean towards negotiation and scavenging.
- Millennium Bug: Taken quite a bit more literally than most other examples of this trope. The Bug War the whole setting revolves around started at midnight, January First, 2000.
- Next Sunday A.D.: A sci-fi RPG focusing on an alien bug invasion at the turn of the millennium that was first released in 1999.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Eggheads can easily be designed and played like this thanks to their wide range of selectable skills and Brainstorming special ability.
- Power-Upgrading Deformation: NORAD Splicers are explicitly mentioned to look inhuman to the common man because the genetic splicing procedure that gives them Bug powers also give them random insectile features.
- Psychic Powers: The main ability of the NORAD Psychic O.C.C. is (surprise surprise) psychic powers. Most are only minor psychics with a small handful of psionic abilities at their disposal, but a few rare master psychics exist with the potential to acquire over a dozen psychic powers, including super psionics!
- Ride the Lightning: This is the main power of the alien bug invaders and also what makes them so dangerous. Their ability to move through electronics allows them to ambush humans from virtually anywhere in the world and beat a speedy retreat if things start going badly for them.
- Rocky Mountain Refuge: The remaining forces of the U.S. military are those of NORAD, based in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex near Colorado Springs.
- Science Hero: The Egghead O.C.C. is your typical genius scientist or hacker character that specializes in solving complicated problems. Their special class ability can even give them a large temporary boost to their Science, Mechanical and Technical skills once per day.
- Trick Bomb: One of the more potent weapons in humanity's arsenal are the J1 and J2 "Water Balloon" Bug Juice Grenades. While harmless against normal humans and animals (unless ingested) they serve as a powerful sort of acid insecticide against Bugs that deals crippling damage to any that they come into contact with.
- Wrench Wench: Any woman who takes the Grease Monkey O.C.C. will be this. In fact, the illustration for this class depicts a female mechanic holding a wrench.
