ThothAmon

Re: Horror Hero: Cliches to Avoid Cliches to avoid? Authority = Stupid. Typically this applies to the LEOs or the Army. It is nice to occasionally see authority or governmental figures as real people with even average smarts e.g. 'Slither' and 'Dog Soldiers'. Sex = Death. I believe this cliche arises from the T&A factor and the idea that the inherently good / pure will win through. Doesn't wash with me other than the idea that you should be saving your energy for running and fighting instead of wasting it on shagging. Purity & Innocence >> Evil. It really bugs me that the mighty Powers of Darkness are consistently pimpslapped by 12 year old virginal idiots-savant Evil = Suave & Charming. One of the most overused cliches, more so in modern times as it panders to Goth tendencies. Closely related to the 'misunderstood' evil villain. Save the charm / angst for the poseur crowd. I'll take King's Mr Barlow over Coppola's Vlad Dracul on any full moon of the year Horror = No Need For Logic. This one is my biggest PITA and comes primarily from Hollywoodland output (with a few notable exceptions). I may be watching a horror genre flick but I still expect logic and common sense to apply to plots and, where appropriate, to character actions. Nobody would ever go down into the dark basement armed with only a candle and a baseball bat. Get a grip! Horror = Gratuitous Violence. Second biggest one for me and again something that is prevalent in the flicks. I find this to be an overused substitute for good writing and plotting. Often times less is more.

Re: why the lack of.. They do. You're looking in the wrong place. Try Digital Hero, Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth etc etc...

Re: Zombie Nazis in the Desert! Some rep for you! There's always room for zombie Nazis

Re: Help needed: Sadistic "April Fool's" Jokes How dark do you want this? A motorway (freeway) pile up caused by the a number of vehicles behaving like dodgems. Post-crash investigation reveals they were rigged for remote control. A number of fire hydrants are doctored to pump gasoline from nearby petrol stations instead of water. Set light to a few buildings and watch the results when the fire crews arrive to put out the flames. Set up fake road works / redirection signs in time to snarl up the rush-hour traffic (or mess with the traffic light control systems and deliver cute messages a la 'LA Story'). Cue city-wide chaos and numerous outbreaks of commuter violence. Create a bomb-and-hostage situation in a local high school. Blackmail the Mayor and the city via telephone. Have the bomb go off, spraying confetti all over the bomb disposal team. Spike the supplies of cakes / muffins / brownies for a number of fast food joints whilst the stuff is in the distribution warehouse. Arrange for it to be delivered out to the eateries in time for April Fools' Day. See literally hundreds of people going nuts on a sweet lil combo of sugar rush, LSD and skunk cannabis. Do a vehicular on a famous celebrity - a handsome / glam news anchor person would be ideal. Have them rushed to hospital by fast-arriving ambulance (a plant). Whilst they are out, do a little facial reconstruction, breast augmentation, hair replacement or similar. Dope them up to the eyeballs and then release them back into their natural environment with a TV crew nice and handy.

Re: An Old Quiz, But A Nice One. I got: Storyteller - 92% Method Actor - 75% Butt-Kicker - 58% Tactician - 58% Power Gamer - 50% Specialist - 42% Casual Gamer - 17% Not surprising really since I'm usually the GM. From the looks of the results I'm in good Storyteller company

Re: Night of the Living Dead Hero Plot Ideas Stolen from Zelazny: The Cure PCs stumble across an operation medical facility that is under seige by hordes of zombies. Significant amounts of gunfire and HE attract their attention. The defenders are putting up serious resistance. Arriving at the last possible moment the PCs are able to find only one living person, Doctor Smith. The good Doc has been bitten and is sitting waiting with a bottle of JD and a shotgun poised to self-administer the coup-de-grace. She tells the PCs that the lab has been developing a serum for a plague that has infected a populated enclave some days away. The zombies have wrecked the only air transport on the ground-level helipad (a chopper) and everyone is gone. The PCs must deliver the serum and save the people and they have to do it before the serum degrades. There's an area map handy and a portable GPS system in the chopper. There are a few salvageable road vehicles and some fuel. The Doc gives them her ID (dog tags), the keys to the intact storage area where the serum is kept and tells them that they will be heroes when they deliver the ready-packaged serum - they will have all the food, booze, fuel, ammo and women they can handle. She takes a final swig, hands the bottle to a PC, tells everyone to back off and then eats both barrels from the shotgun How far to the enclave? Is the GPS still functioning? Can the PCs beat the clock and deliver the serum by going overland? What will they meet on the way? And how will they be welcomed at their destination?

Re: WWYCD: Hi! We're your Sidekicks! You wish to be my student? Excellent! We will test your abilities. First you will fight student #1. Then you will fight student #2. And then you will fight student #3. After that you will fight student #4, student #5 and student #6. Then we will travel to Los Angeles and you will fight my students there. And then to Hong Kong, Beijing, London...

Re: Build Me A Villain Team I don't have the majority of the 5th edition universe books. Taking from older books I'd choose: Primary Firewing - natural leader (Classic Enemies) Black Paladin - scheming leader wannabe (Classic Enemies) Durak - uber brick (Classic Enemies) Mind Slayer - female psychokinetic psychopath (Mind Games) People's Commando - professional killing machine (Classic Organizations) Mechassassin - ruthless technician (Classic Enemies) Secondary Menton - sneaky addition by, and on behalf of, the good Doc, who would want a mole in this lot (Classic Organizations) Jaunt - teleporter support (Enemies Of San Angelo) Keeping any villain team together is a tough prospect. Although the above are all suitably villainous (with perhaps the exception being Jaunt) the personality conflicts could be massive (e.g. Durak vs People's Commando). I have to agree with Scott's POV that there has never been a world-class villain team. Most of the time I've used pick-and-choose published villains alongside home-grown villains. The published teams just don't cut it. In defense I must say that I'm picky and rarely use any pre-gens without modification.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? 'Permanent Solution' by Paradise Lost

Re: Dyson Sphere (shell) - Dysonica Anyone? Dyson Sphere implies very high levels of technology and intelligence on the part of the creators. Are you planning for the creators to still be around? Are they the PCs? Or are the PCs going to be 'fallen' descendants of the creators? Or something else entirely? I'd echo the comments on reading 'Ringworld' for a look at how a large world can be explored by lower-tech protagonists.

Re: Making colonization attractive? I've been watching this one grow and want to add my suggestions now Motivations One fantastic way to get the colony situation in place for a game is simple brute force - the John Varley Nine Worlds scenario - the Earth is overrun by uncommunicative unkillable unseen gas-giant aliens who consider tool-using species to be inferior life forms to (for example) cetaceans. Earth is a complete no-go zone. Any ships that enter Earth atmosphere are never seen or heard from again. The remnants of mankind on the fledgling Luna and Mars colonies are forced to colonize the remaining planets and other bodies in the Sol system. Varley novels such as 'The Ophiuchi Hotline' and the other stories in this setting are brimming with ideas for you to grep. It's all STL and all set within the Sol system A good GM driving force for colonization is religious or philosophical ideals. Someone has already mentioned fundamentalist sects, something to which I'd give serious consideration. A plausible near future scenario might involve the Western world turning fundamentalist Christian with a true Space Race between the Islamic nations, the West and China. You also have fringe religions and cults which could theoretically lead the way in colonization. I'm thinking of the real-life Raelians and Scientologists but there is nothing to say that stranger fictional religions couldn't feature (see Transhumanism below). An eceonomic driving force also works given the right factors. Consider a scenario like that in the classic SF novel 'The Space Merchants' where Earth is so crowded that the world's premier ad agencies are engaged to sell the idea of mass colonization to Joe Public. This is (in a small way) very similar to the backstory in 'Bladerunner' and other such cyberpunk future-in-ruins tales i.e. when the corporates take to space there is nothing economically worthwhile left on Earth. All industry and tech is up the gravity well and the only way to get ahead is to become indentured to the corporation of your choice. Closely following that is a military driving force. The problems there are obvious in that support infrastructure of some sort is required. I could run with the idea of military-driven colonization in response to Earth-borne disasters (natural or man made), perhaps in a manner similar to the classic SF movie 'When Worlds Collide'. There is a complete very gritty campaign setting available online (by Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere) that presupposes military colonization of Mars as a response to deterioration of Earth and the end of civilization in a very post-apocalyptic manner Alternatively, there is the GM fiat of technological driving force. The SF novel 'Accelerando' tackles the idea of a technological Singularity, a point in time where technology and intelligence advances so quickly that standard economics simply falls apart and new social models are required. AIs become prevalent and Luddite mankind is forced away from the inner Sol system as transhumans and AIs seek to become hyper-efficient Matrioshka brains competing for energy. This is a heavy area to discuss on a forum so I'm going to point you to a starting links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Singularity The Transhumanist philosophies make for very persuasive background on colonization. There are a lot of very intelligent people who would jump at the idea of colonization on the back of these philosophies. Tech Considerations Getting up the gravity well in the first place is one of the biggest issues for real-life colonization of space. It costs sooo much to put mass out of Earth's gravity well that, to date, we haven't really had a Space Program, we've had expensive technical exercises designed to advance geopolitical ideas. If we could establish a permanent zero G presence, either at La Grange points or on Luna, we could remove one of the major hurdles to STL colonization of the Sol system. There are two novels which IMO provide very good discussions/arguments in the areas of the economics of Sol colonization; 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress' by Robert Heinlein and 'Web Between The Worlds' by Charles Sheffield. The former deals adroitly with the idea that a Lunar colony could eventually outstrip Earth as an economic powerhouse due to decreased G. The latter, even after umpty years, is still a marvel of intelligent thinking on how to solve some of the problems inherent in STL travel and overcoming gravity. One additional key point for mass STL colonization is the availability of hydroponics and other life support systems that actually work on a micro and macro level. After that it's a matter of reaction mass for your vessel and energy requirements. If you're prepared to ride out the worst bus journey ever, you can get there. Something that makes STL colonization unattractive is the time to get anywhere. That could be mitigated by (for example) the realization that lifespans can be greatly extended by the benefits of life in zero G. Alternatively, access to excellent medical technologies and gene therapies could theoretically prolong the average lifespan to 200+ years, making boredom and suicide the major threat to life expectancy Deus Ex Machina I like the GM potential of small colonies being forced to grow when Earth is out of the picture. How the GM removes Earth is the clever part. If you want a horror flavour then the stars come right and the Great Old Ones are released from their prisons to bring about the End Times. If you want to play the hard physics card then Earth is hit by a planetkiller asteroid that causes tectonic slippage and nuclear winter/desert all at the same time. All you have to decide then is, at the time of the destruction, what the smaller details are. How advanced have the colonies become (first generation children, second generation or further)? What tech levels are available to the colonies and what infrastructures do they have available? How diverse are the colonies?

Re: Lost World Map Rather nice

Re: Western Hero; advice please. Looks like a fellow Scotsman My tips would be: (1) Ensure you get a balanced group of PCs. Scan them well beforehand to ensure that you have all the skillsets you need. (2) Backstory is essential. Hook every PC into the backstory. (3) Plotting. Lots of it. All running at the same time. (4) Play such that each weekly session ends on a cliffhanger. It allows for GM sleight-of-hand and it gives players time to think up reasons why they are going to survive instead of die messily. (5) Avoid gunfights early in the session. If you're using realistic rules your PCs can die very quickly. Also note that no antibiotics => infection and lingering death from untreated wounds. (6) NPCs. Lots of them. All well drawn and able to interact appropriately. Even if they are just stereotypes, you need 'em to counterpoint the actions of the heroic NPCs.

Re: pulp inventions Edison and Tesla get some pretty heavy pulp reworking in the novel 'Expiration Date' by Tim Powers. A lot of those devices get explained in entertaining fashion

Re: Recent Lost World novels 'The Descent' by Jeff Long fits the bill exactly. It starts off with a couple of fantastic premises but loses focus in the later chapters: http://www.amazon.com/Descent-Jeff-Long/dp/051513175X/sr=8-1/qid=1157498002/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7762721-9942433?ie=UTF8&s=books Similarly, 'Atlantis Found' by Clive Cussler will probably float your boat http://www.amazon.com/Atlantis-Found-Dirk-Pitt-Novel/dp/0425177173/sr=1-1/qid=1157498126/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7762721-9942433?ie=UTF8&s=books Both these novels contain good ideas that could be adapted and executed in a much better fashion by an enterprising GM. Oddly enough, I mentioned the Cussler recently in another post in relation to the giant Antarctic-crossing vehicle that features near the end. Finally, you might want to try 'Hive' by Tim Curran. It reworks one of H P Lovecraft's lost worlds for the modern day: http://www.amazon.com/Hive-Tim-Curran/dp/0975922947/sr=1-18/qid=1157498227/ref=sr_1_18/002-7762721-9942433?ie=UTF8&s=books

Re: Supervillain Monologues One of my faves comes from a David Gemmell story (may he rest in peace). I'll paraphrase: The hero takes a mighty punch from his opponent and responds "If that's the best you've got laddie you are in deep trouble!"

Re: Future submarine warfare? Frank Herbet did an interesting future sub warfare piece called Dragon In the Sea. The story involved WWIII / Cold War submarine tugs being used for surreptitious collection of petrochemicals from seabed sites. Lots of good stuff on the risks of being a submariner in a world that is radioactive. Essentially a potboiler with a lot of ecology and psychology thrown in. I guess the future-sub scenario is heavily dependent upon tech levels. If you have anti-grav and inertial dampening for starships then logic says that your subs (if they exist as a separate class of vehicles) make use of something similar to assist in survival at pressures. Likewise if you have force-fields, self-repairing hulls and exotic sensor arrays. Areas in which I have yet to read significant SF propositions are the creation of artificial water-worlds (c.f. the research facility / ecology satellite in 'Web Between The Worlds') to overcome habitation issues in space or the use of submarine tropes when considering exploration of gas giants or very large planets with significant bodies of water (c.f. Jack Vance's novel 'Big Planet'). The latter would seem to offer some scope for roleplaying i.e. ships specifically built for operations inside a gas giant - ramscoops for reaction mass, limited sensor capability, extreme meteorological effects in place of underwater currents, claustrophobia, pressure and the possible nullification of advantages from satellite monitoring.

Re: Weapon Designs -- opinions wanted Nope. In the main game. It also features in DM IIRC.

Re: Map of Mongo redux Sweet Have some rep...

Re: Let's keep cruising the Pacific! Next stop, Nan Madol! It also sees action in 'Call Of Cthulhu'

Re: Weapon Designs -- opinions wanted Mac version? PC certainly had zoom, I recall it rather clearly...

Re: Weapon Designs -- opinions wanted If that's the railgun from Quake II, you missed out the zoom function for long distance sniping Wasn't it the axe in Quake vs the chainsaw in Doom? What about a writeup for the Quad Damage and the Berserk Medpacks?

Re: HP Lovecraft movies Nah. IIRC 'Who Goes There' predates the Lovecraft. Too lazy to check the bookshelves so I may be wrong but it's worth checking as I've been in one of these discussions before

Re: Looking for a way around Antarctica? The Snow Cruiser was resurrected for a Dirk Pitt novel IIRC. It was the instrument of travel to a neo-Nazi base in 'Atlantis Found'. Cussler proposed interesting solutions to the problems of traction and the lack of cooling surfaces for the engines. One of the best things about the whole novel frankly. Much of the rest was a formulaic plod.

Re: Map of Mongo! Aaaah, the Rocket Railroad What an idea to conjure with...