oryanfactor Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 I've been involved with a thread in the Pulp Hero section regarding who strange the real world is compared to the worlds of science fiction, fantasy, comic books and other fictional wierdness. in the interests of promoting really cool, esoteric gameplay, and just sparking the imagination of players everywhere, I thought it might be a good idea to begin a thread here regarding bizzare people, places and things which either exist in real life, or did, or might have. Posters are encouraged to relate strange stories, myths, tales and news reports that describe odd bits that go to make up the real world, and with luck, our games will all be the richer for it. To start the thread, I thought I might find a good topic as an example of what might work, but found that one single idea might be too specfic, so I'll toss out a few: Take the platypus, for instance. Originally thought to be a hoax, this ridiculous little animal might actually make a formidable foe as a "comic book" villain. Although most people are not aware of this, the platypus is venomous and it's rear claws contain a poison which causes excruicating pain for months, and it locates prey by detecting it's bio-electric field, actually called electrolocation. Or, for strange places, try Cap d'Adge, on the South coast of France. This town of 60,000 people is unique in the world because everyone walks around nude. It does have a post office, a gas station, resturants, a bank and stores, and yep, not to many clothes there either. How you work this into a game I have no idea, but it's plenty odd anyway. One case of strange people might be Ramzia Tukmatullina, a 14 year old girl found by police in Karzan, Russia last year, who they suspect has been raised by wolves (I'm not making this up, I swear) since the age of two. Let the strangeness begin..... oryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Nor is she the first person confirmed to have been raised by wolves. What are called "feral children" have turned up from time to time throughout recorded history - children raised by wolves, or other beasts, or just plain "we found him in the woods, we don't know WHERE he's been growing up all this time." Lucius Alexander Raised by a palindromedary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Interesting bit of "super science" I ran across several years ago (and have lost the link to). A group in the UK uses old ink jet printers to "print out" skin grafts. Apparently the nozels in those old ink jets (they were using HP Deskjets I want to say) are perfect for spraying skin cells onto a specialized strip for the purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book She was raised by wild dogs, actually, I think. But same difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilkmanDan Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book As for a city of nudists, how does one keep a secret identity in a nudist colony? Sure, you can wear a mask, but you may have "other distinguishing characteristics" that would make secrecy difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book As for a city of nudists' date=' how does one keep a secret identity in a nudist colony? Sure, you can wear a mask, but you may have "other distinguishing characteristics" that would make secrecy difficult.[/quote'] Retractable body parts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilkmanDan Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Retractable body parts? Only when really cold outside (-1). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowcat1313 Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book as it was put so well in Men in Black, supermarket tabloids make great adventure source material... Art Bell and his Coast to Coast late night radio show make for some great ideas too, and some really scary callers at times http://www.coasttocoastam.com/ hes also had guests like George Takei and Dean Koontz, so its not all out in left field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vestnik Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Only when really cold outside (-1). Code Name: Shrinker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Mann Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Let the strangeness begin..... For Real World Weirdness, my favorite has always been Rasputin and the more outlandish stories about his death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oryanfactor Posted June 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book As for a city of nudists' date=' how does one keep a secret identity in a nudist colony? Sure, you can wear a mask, but you may have "other distinguishing characteristics" that would make secrecy difficult.[/quote'] Squid, I was actually worried about that snipit, that it was too out there, even for us open minded gamers. But, you know how you conceal your secret ID? It's easy, wear bikini bottoms. No one is looking at your face. oryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlestaff Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book A webstie I came across a while ago. I knew this might sometime come in handy. http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted June 30, 2006 Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Well I have a negative PRE score. Is that real life super? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Links stolen from other threads: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=389357&in_page_id=1770 http://www.break.com/index/basejumpfly.html Lucius Alexander The palindromedary opines that flies were not meant to man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stmichaeldet Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Hmmm... real world strangeness that makes excellent gaming fodder? Heck, I've been getting it in monthly doses for more than a decade, from Fortean Times magazine. This month's offerings: Flying Saucers from Hell! Are Aliens Coming to Steal Your Soul? Death Worm - Men and Monsters in Mongolia Penis Thefts - Privates Go Missing in African Panic Animal Patrol - Family Pets that Came to the Rescue Ogopogo - Canada's Biggest Lake Monster Hunt And that's just from the cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamashii2000 Posted July 2, 2006 Report Share Posted July 2, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book as it was put so well in Men in Black, supermarket tabloids make great adventure source material... Art Bell and his Coast to Coast late night radio show make for some great ideas too, and some really scary callers at times http://www.coasttocoastam.com/ hes also had guests like George Takei and Dean Koontz, so its not all out in left field. the people who call Art Bell (George Norry now adays hosts the show through) realy realy realy scare me..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Limmer Posted July 2, 2006 Report Share Posted July 2, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book No one's mentioned diamagnetic levitation yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transmetahuman Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book No one's mentioned diamagnetic levitation yet? Now Magneto just has to explain how his force field can stop lasers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stmichaeldet Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book OK, here's a good one for anyone in need of a truly strange mystical tome - the Voynich Manuscript. It's a book of mysterious origin, written in an unknown and so-far indeciperable script, with loads of bizarre illos, including unidentifiable plants in what appears to be an herbal section, astrological charts that don't correspond to any known system, and really weird pictures of tiny women floating through systems of tubes and pools. Plus, it's been known to drive at least one major-league cryptographer off the deep end into crazy, conspiracy-laden theorizing. It's always pleasant to see the looks on your players faces when you drop something like this into a campaign and then tell them that all the background you just gave them on it is true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book OK' date=' here's a good one for anyone in need of a truly strange mystical tome - the Voynich Manuscript. Ah yes, fascinating object. We recently had a thread on it. See: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45655 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewings Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Don't forget the Antikythera device. It's an ancient Greek analog astronomical computer, which forced a complete revision of our views on the era's sciestific and technical abilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book A few months ago, our local paper printed a weird news item that I just had to clip, save, and use in a campaign some how: "Recently opened archives in Moscow show that in the 1920's Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered his top animal breeding scientist to create interspecies "super warriors." Stalin's half-men, half-apes would be "invincible", "insensitive to pain" and "indifferent about the quality of food they eat". I think I also read somewhere that he was also trying to create dog-men too. "Holy Commie Canines, Batman!":D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkwleisemann Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Now Magneto just has to explain how his force field can stop lasers... Ah heck, that one's easy! A sufficiently powerful magnetic field can actually 'contain' a laser or other energy source, forget about deflecting it. Same way it can levitate a frog or train. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzMike Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book David Icke. A former British professional footballer and television personality who became a spokesperson for the British Green Party. David Icke. Self proclaimed "son of god" and "channel for the Christ spirit" who claims that the world is ruled by a secret group called the Global Elite. David Icke. Who claims that this secret 'Illuminati' in fact consists of a race of shape-changing reptillian humanoids called the Babylonian Brotherhood with member including George W Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, and Kris Kristofferson(!) He has been accused of being anti-Semetic because he attacks and accuses the Rothschilds but maintains that he isn't because the Rothschilds aren't Jews, they are shape-changing baby-eating reptiles who secretly rule this planet. Check him out on wikipedia or his website http://www.davidicke.com. He's almost too weird, isn't he? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 Re: Real World Stuff That Only Sounds Like A Comic Book Death Worm - Men and Monsters in Mongolia Included in Asian Bestiary II (IIRC). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.