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Monster Hunter International and Special Circumstances


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I finally gave into curiosity and googled MHI. Sounds interesting. Am I reading correctly that it is Dark Champions meets Buffy and parallels John Ringo's Special Circumstances?

 

Cuz if that's the case, I definitely think I can get my table-top DnD crowd interested.

 

Close, but with no slayer and the scoobies are all special forces or have lots of combat training. The game/book is mostly about monster hunting. Of course this being Hero there's no reason that you have to play in Larry's world and play by his rules :P 

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I would explain it this way. Urban Fantasy is always a mix of at least two genres: one modern, one fantasy. They differ on which genres they choose in each category. For example, I'd say Dresden chooses Hard-Boiled Private Eye for the modern genre and a kind of high fantasy for the fantasy genre. From my wife's description, a story like Twilight seems to choose Romance for the modern genre. They can also choose a mixture in either or both categories--Dresden is probably better thought of as High Fantasy and Horror crossed for the fantasy genre rather than pure High Fantasy. But it's always a mix.

 

In those terms, MHI chooses (Para-)Military Action Adventure for the modern genre and a sometimes humorous take on Lovecraftian Horror for the fantasy genre, with bits of High Fantasy getting dragged in as part of the humor. So if you think Mack Bolan vs. Vampires, you're not too far off.

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Thinking more, I wasn't that accurate. The universe is mainly Lovecraftian and the humor often funny stuff stolen from high fantasy, true, but vampires and werewolves aren't really either of those. Pehapse I should have said it's an all-legends-are-true pastiche Earth set in a Lovecraftian universe with Lovecraftian magic (not fantasy magic), so he can bring in Elder Gods and their cults and truly nasty Vampires both. And maybe most accurate of all is to say that it's a B-movie earth set in a Lovecraftian universe. Correia says his two favorite things are guns and B movies, and he has managed to write books that involve shooting B movie monsters. Breaking the fourth wall, that's the real design--a universe made for defeating monsters with Mo' Dakka. Guns & Monsters, Monsters & Guns.

 

You know, I'm also forgetting Government Conspiracies, which is part of the Modern category. So maybe Guns & Conspiracies for Modern crossed with Monsters, Elder Gods, & Satirical Fantasy Races for Fantasy.

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I would explain it this way. Urban Fantasy is always a mix of at least two genres: one modern, one fantasy. They differ on which genres they choose in each category. For example, I'd say Dresden chooses Hard-Boiled Private Eye for the modern genre and a kind of high fantasy for the fantasy genre. From my wife's description, a story like Twilight seems to choose Romance for the modern genre. They can also choose a mixture in either or both categories--Dresden is probably better thought of as High Fantasy and Horror crossed for the fantasy genre rather than pure High Fantasy. But it's always a mix.

 

I think you got to the real heart of what Urban Fantasy is. A mix of Modern and Fantasy genres. That works really well as a working definition.

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I'd beg to differ

Both Owen and Buffy are the chosen ones

just different Powers That Be are doing the choosing

 

Both are disliked by the government(1 really pissed the other just annoyed)

 

 

Close, but with no slayer and the scoobies are all special forces or have lots of combat training. The game/book is mostly about monster hunting. Of course this being Hero there's no reason that you have to play in Larry's world and play by his rules :P

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Special Circumstances it is.

 

Fluffy Bunnies Rule!

 

Don't know what I'm talking about? Go read Princess of Wands and Queen of Wands by John Ringo

 

Ringo has a real love of Sluggy Freelance's BunBun. he's not only in the Wands books, but he's there in spirit in the Posleen invasion books (mascot of one of the Antimatter mega tanks)

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I'd beg to differ

Both Owen and Buffy are the chosen ones

just different Powers That Be are doing the choosing

 

Both are disliked by the government(1 really pissed the other just annoyed)

Buffy is a supernatural being herself with lots of powers (healing, strength, extra speed, Vamp Detection). Owen is just a well trained guy that seems to have a ton of luck and is tougher than any person has a right to be. Both are Mary Sues(Stu?) so you got that part right.

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Owen was the only one who could open the portal to let the old ones in(MHI)

He also is the only one to resist lycanthropy and zombie infections and manipulate the ward stone to kill an old one(MHI vendetta
Owen has plenty in the super natural dept

Buffy is a supernatural being herself with lots of powers (healing, strength, extra speed, Vamp Detection). Owen is just a well trained guy that seems to have a ton of luck and is tougher than any person has a right to be. Both are Mary Sues(Stu?) so you got that part right.

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Ringo has a real love of Sluggy Freelance's BunBun. he's not only in the Wands books, but he's there in spirit in the Posleen invasion books (mascot of one of the Antimatter mega tanks)

Actually the Fluffy Bunnies comment refers to the acronym used by the Foundation for Love and Universal Faith (FLUF). As related by one member of FLUF to the newbie, a Wiccan Priestess was assigned as a SC (Special Circumstances) Consultant to the FBI and said priestess was a vegan pacifist. She had no problem killing demons, but their human thralls was another problem. One of the Feebs called her a 'Fluffy Bunny' as a means of mocking her.

 

So "Fluffy Bunnies Attack" sort of became a battle cry for one of the Asatru Warrior Priests who was also a member of FLUF.

 

Surprisingly, the only pop-culture reference (at least that I caught) was a reference to Warehouse 13 (in the second book).

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Owen was the only one who could open the portal to let the old ones in(MHI)

He also is the only one to resist lycanthropy and zombie infections and manipulate the ward stone to kill an old one(MHI vendetta

Owen has plenty in the super natural dept

When did he "resist lycanthrope"? If you are referring to book one he was never bit, only clawed.
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Refence made by his friendly mentor ghost at the end of MHI Vendetta or Leigion(on both subjects)
and to add the guy call talk to GHOSTS and READ YOUR PAST BY SHAKING YOUR HAND to add to the supernatural aspect he has

Besides if he was only clawed then there would have been no need for Franks to even threaten to shoot him

 

When did he "resist lycanthrope"? If you are referring to book one he was never bit, only clawed.

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Refence made by his friendly mentor ghost at the end of MHI Vendetta or Leigion(on both subjects)

and to add the guy call talk to GHOSTS and READ YOUR PAST BY SHAKING YOUR HAND to add to the supernatural aspect he has

Besides if he was only clawed then there would have been no need for Franks to even threaten to shoot him

Yes, there was. 1) you can read the entire werewolf fight and he is never bitten.  2)  Franks is an A-hole who didn't care whether or not he was infected (and didn't know definitively if he was bitten or not).  3) they claim even getting scratched has a small percent change of getting turned.

As to the rest, I am not arguing for or against "chosen one" status, I was just responding to the lycanthrope resistance.  I should note that most of the supernatural stuff you attribute to him came after interacting with old ones and the artifact while the werewolf incident came prior.

EDIT: That being said I haven't read Legion but I don't recall the ghost mentor mentioning it in Vendetta, but I wouldn't bet my life on my memory...

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talking w/ ghosts happened before encountering the artifact

also his father being brought back after having been shot in the head before Owen or Mosh are born
So I'd say runs in the family(at least aid from POWERS FROM BEYOND the mortal realm)

I believe it happens in Legion

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The key here is that nearly all Owen's supernatural "powers" are actually meddling by higher powers and fall somewhere between No Conscious Control powers that help if the GM feels like it to zero-cost GM plot points that are more of a liability than anything else. We know a bit about how he's been spending his XP--his mind-reading started as plot point and he bought it NCC and then I think bought the NCC disad down a bit so he at least can try to use it--unreliably. The "chosen one" stuff is, out of story, mostly off-the-books(*) stuff that happened in play for dramatic purposes, and in story stuff he hates having and wishes he didn't have.

 

That does *not* compare with Buffy. She sometimes didn't like being chosen, but she controlled most of her powers as she learned them and usually didn't regret having them--she just regretted the responsibility and things that came with them. In MHI *Powers* are so freighted with risk and strings that the characters regret having them at all.

 

In hero terms, Owen's player may have given the GM some unspent points and said "I'd like some kind of GM-option cosmic destiny," but he didn't buy them all with his extra points. By all appearances, he must have spent them on obscene luck, or perhaps a houseruled version of a GURPS power I saw once called something like Destiny where *you can't die* until your destiny is fulfilled--the GM has to contrive it somehow.

 

Hmm--how much do I have to spend to be The Mary Sue? ;)

 

pH

 

* Of course, in the handbook they're statted out, but that's not the point. If you need to communicate campaign plot points hero provides the best language to do it, but that doesn't mean the points were spent by the player rather than out of the GM's bottomless fund.

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