Guest bblackmoor Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Co-opted from a thread about super-prisons... Apart from the crappy Silver-Age silliness like gorillas and super-pets... Heh heh. Yeah, I hate that crap. On a complete and utter tangent, I ran a one-shot game a few months ago that featured a mountain gorilla that was given sapience and psychic powers as a result of a mad scientist's experiments. After the two supers investigating the matter talked him out of taking his revenge on the last of the surviving scientists (he was three down, one to go), they took him back to Africa and let him go. I have been toying with a way to bring him back, but I haven't found an idea I like enough to use it. He's likely to be the only talking gorilla (much less talking psychic gorilla genius) ever to appear in our game universe, and I want it to be a good one. I'm not even sure I want him to be a villain or a hero. I mean, from his point of view he's definitely a hero, but that isn't saying much. I'm thinking he'd make a good mastermind (either good or bad). Any suggestions? (He doesn't actually speak: he uses Telepathy, if that matters to anyone.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallet Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Have him raise up an army of Gorillas, monkeys, and other animals in an attempt to create a perfect "Animal Nation" free of human hunters, polluters, etc... His own little kingdom in Africa without humans. Now, from his point of view he is a hero, liberating the lands for it's original inhabitants (the animals) but to the people who live there and the government that controls it, they are "animal terrorists." Now it's up to the PC's to step in and sort things out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBikle Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla He could always be like a parrot ? Maybe he just repeats stuff he overhears ? Admittedly, it's not really much to build a scenario on.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Have him develop a more friendly way of enhancing other gorillas. He starts doing so, developing an advanced psychic gorilla society. Perhaps one of the things he does is telepathically probes a prospective gorilla to see if it would be interested in such an advance, then does it as a temporary process - the enhanced ape then will be able to decide whether or not they want the process to be permanent. If not, it wears off, and they are returned to the wild, but are still subject to being protected by the enhanced gorillas, and their offspring can be given the same opportunity in the future. How will the PC's react to it? View him as bad as the mad scientists who created him? View him as the liberator of his people and help him? Something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Retconn him into becoming a latter-day version of Idi Amin. He could pull it off, except for the scadzillion wives thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bblackmoor Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla One of the things that I had toyed with was that he may no longer be satisfied in the company of other gorillas. How would you feel if you were exiled to a colony of people who were so severely mentally impaired (comparatively speaking) that even communicating basic concepts to them was a chore, much less having a decent conversation? I was thinking that he may come to regret his gift, or perhaps grow bitter and lonely. Perhaps spiteful. He might come to hate other simians, even, at the same time that he envies them. These are just ideas. I do kind of like the idea of his gradually enhancing other apes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaxiMan Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Have him develop a more friendly way of enhancing other gorillas. He starts doing so' date=' developing an advanced psychic gorilla society. Perhaps one of the things he does is telepathically probes a prospective gorilla to see if it would be interested in such an advance, then does it as a temporary process - the enhanced ape then will be able to decide whether or not they want the process to be permanent. If not, it wears off, and they are returned to the wild, but are still subject to being protected by the enhanced gorillas, and their offspring can be given the same opportunity in the future. [/quote'] That's a good one. They form a small "country" in deep Africa, a country for gorillas. They are peaceable, but their laws don't brook being messed with by humans. Poachers are imprisoned, and might die because they don't know how to care for humans. Maybe they have the death penalty, but that doesn't seem very great ape-ish. In short, a new sapient species is forming and growing in Africa. Many will see a threat to mankind, many will welcome our brothers, and most will want to know more. Throw in (a) insistence upon legal parity with humans ( return of ancestral homelands © reparations (d) manifest destiny (lower Africa = apeland!) (e) insistence that other animals are sentient too (and thus repeat items a-e all over again!). You get a real mess. I've no idea where PCs would go from here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamo Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla What if other gorillas get smart around him, but only while he's present. Sort of like a psychic terminal connection, his software wringing every last bit of performance out of their hardware. Complications: Over time, the effect is detrimental to the normal gorillas. Over time, the effect becomes permanent, but results in insanity. The effect is temporary, and not only do the gorillas revert to normal in his absence, but when he returns there is no memory from the previous period of upgrade. More likely to be of import in a deep roleplaying campaign where the PCs get to know an upgraded gorilla and experience the tragedy of "personality death". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakboy6117 Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla how about he tries to find his long lost love and turn her into another psycic gorilla have him attcking zoos robbing eloctrnics warehosues and high tech facilities. and then try to kidnap the surviving scientist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla What if other gorillas get smart around him, but only while he's present. Sort of like a psychic terminal connection, his software wringing every last bit of performance out of their hardware. Complications: Over time, the effect is detrimental to the normal gorillas. Over time, the effect becomes permanent, but results in insanity. This sounds suspiciously like the managers at a former employer of mine. Y'know, it makes a lot of sense that that place was run by murderous psychic gorillas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bblackmoor Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla What if other gorillas get smart around him, but only while he's present. Sort of like a psychic terminal connection, his software wringing every last bit of performance out of their hardware. Over time, the effect is detrimental to the normal gorillas. Over time, the effect becomes permanent, but results in insanity. This is giving me some neat ideas. Perhaps he's starting to build his uplifted-ape utopia, but there some apes who are spontaneously going bonkers after being "normal" for months. Not having the experience to deal with such issues, and not being willing to admit even unconsciously that what he's done might be causing this, he appeals for help to the two supers who set him free. He really can't appeal to anyone else, since there are only two humans (well, they're mostly human) who even know he exists (the one surviving scientist assumes that all of the experiemntal apes were killed in the explosion that destroyed the lab). Man, will he be pissed when he realizes that he's going to be alone forever.... This is an excellent start. Feel free to continue woith the suggestions, though: what I don't use now I may use later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla An intelligent gorilla no longer fits into the animal kingdom, but isn't recognized as anything more than an anomoly by human society, is likely to get bitter quick. Plans to raise gorillas to sapience, or drive humans back to animal intelligence, isn't too hard to fathom in a comic-book-inspired game. You have all the makings of a Grodd-like character on your hands. He could easily be a tragic villain. Have him start small, trying to raise the intelligence of a single female gorilla. Something goes wrong, he's wracked with guilt and remorse and bitterness, and slowly starts coming unhinged. Yep, lots of possibilities there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bblackmoor Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla You have all the makings of a Grodd-like character on your hands. He could easily be a tragic villain. I don't really know anything about Grodd, other than the couple of times he's appeared on the Justice League cartoon. I suppose it would be useful to read up on him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla I don't really know anything about Grodd' date=' other than the couple of times he's appeared on the Justice League cartoon. I suppose it would be useful to read up on him.[/quote'] Well, Grodd himself is one of a race of intelligent gorillas, and not a nice ape to begin with. What I meant by my earlier statement, though, was that you could slowly bring your intelligent gorilla to be the level of threat that Grodd is in the comics (and on the cartoons). An intelligent ape with psionics with a serious penchant for domination. A good recurring villain-type with the potential to play on the PCs' sympathies ("I never asked for this! Humans did this to me!"). That sort of thing. Sorry for the confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla First thing I thought of was Grodd too. But Grodd comes from an entire secret society of (relatively) peace loving hyper intelligent gorillas. He is not the only Psi amongst them. He is also considered a dangerous criminal by his own people. So there are definitly a lot of differences here. Villian or hero, I think going with a messiah image could be an interesting twist. Imagine the reaction a evnagelical gorilla could get out of Creationists and Evolutionists alike. He could strive to create a society where all primates live in harmony. Might write a few books, do some talk shows and become an overnight celebrity. You could work in assassination plots against him or have eco terrorists take his message and twist it horribly (or were they really mind controlled by the ape all along?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bblackmoor Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla You could work in assassination plots against him or have eco terrorists take his message and twist it horribly (or were they really mind controlled by the ape all along?). I was actually thinking of tying that in later on, as a more light-hearted sideline. Have you seen the Zot!: Hearts And Minds web comic by Scott McCloud? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Nope, that would be the first I've heard of it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallet Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Have his psychic powers keep growing as an unexpected side effect of the expariments on him. Soon his psychic powers are so vast that they begin having an unintended effect on people over a vast area. This is beyond the gorilla's control (and if he is far apart from human society he might not even know that it is happening), but all of the human's in the ever growing range of the powers effect (think megascale here) are begining to take on Gorilla-like traits. Picking fleas off of each other, beating their chests, walking all gorilla-like, etc... As the effect keeps spreading out across the globe the heroes have to find the source and some way of stopping it (hopefully with out killing the gorilla). Maybe they could find the last original scientist and get his help? Whatever happens, it could be good for a laugh to have the NPC's and the PC's unable to help but act "gorilla-like." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transmetahuman Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Depending on which point in his development the process that changed him happened (or if he only retains dim memories of his pre-sapient life), he might well identify more with humans than with gorillas. He's more like us than he is like them, after all. He might try to find humans that accept him before undertaking the huge effort to duplicate all the research & experimentation that led to his existence. With his strength, intelligence, and psionic abilities, he might not find it all that difficult to be appreciated in a world with much stranger things running around. Especially if he approaches outlying, fringe people who aren't as tied into the whole social fabric. Then, as the defender of his new family/tribe/friend/whatever, he can find himself in conflicts that can put him on either side of the good/evil line - whichever way you want to play it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard00 Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla You know, if you don't have him already you could make the gorilla into a Dr. Silverback like character. Change his history a bit to fit your story and use what's left to map out his involvement in human affairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bblackmoor Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla You know' date=' if you don't have him already you could make the gorilla into a Dr. Silverback like character.[/quote'] I skipped over the Dr. Silverback section in that book because I have a prejudice against talking monkeys, "simian rights", super-pets, and other "Silver Age silliness" (to use someone else's phrase). I'll check it out, though. I may as well -- I paid for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaxiMan Posted September 23, 2005 Report Share Posted September 23, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla Have his psychic powers keep growing Great idea! Rep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted September 24, 2005 Report Share Posted September 24, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla An intelligent gorilla no longer fits into the animal kingdom, but isn't recognized as anything more than an anomoly by human society, is likely to get bitter quick. Plans to raise gorillas to sapience, or drive humans back to animal intelligence, isn't too hard to fathom in a comic-book-inspired game. You have all the makings of a Grodd-like character on your hands. He could easily be a tragic villain. Have him start small, trying to raise the intelligence of a single female gorilla. Something goes wrong, he's wracked with guilt and remorse and bitterness, and slowly starts coming unhinged. Yep, lots of possibilities there... If you're going to be set apart anyways, might as well be set apart by being at the top... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted September 25, 2005 Report Share Posted September 25, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla For a twist on the conqueror ape idea, here's a thought: the local villagers nearest to wherever he is ask him to protect them from the incoming army of [insert local strongman here]. This leads to that, and before you know it, Psi-Ape is ruler of an African nation. . . more or less because the people asked him to. Additional element: perhaps some quantity of locals worship him as a deity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incrdbil Posted September 25, 2005 Report Share Posted September 25, 2005 Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla ::must resist bad pun.,.ack, rolled an 18 on Ego roll!:: He starts a banana republic? Ok I'm terribly sorry. But, back to the basics here, for super gorilla there's all sorts of ways he can go, but the ending I keep thinking of is totally from "Flowers for Algernon" as really the only way he'll be happy, barring creating a permanent society of intelligent apes, or totally disassociating himself from other simians. Hmm, now there's another option--he takes the 'algernon option" after consulting with those who once hel;ped..and right after, now that hes back to 'normal and happy' some type of problem comes up only Supergorilla coudl solve--they ave to find him, but this time, they are pretty certain the process will be irreversible. Or just steal book, have the process reverse, and have him trying to get help..maybe from Telios, or ARGENT, or whatever super-bad scientist you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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