Ian Mackinder

Re: Historical Nexus Points Even harder than that. The Spanish Armada was, in every respect, a disaster looking for a place to happen. They were critically short of just about everything. A lot of the ships were in poor shape or (due to lengthy time in harbour) had inexperienced crews. The command structure was so messed up as to be incoherent - loads of nobles running ships who were clueless, or wouldn't accept the authority of others because of either squabbling OR because the other guy was an inferior rank. Ship guns were unevenly distributed (many nobles used their rank to glom onto as many as possible), which also led to absurd situations like some ships having as many as a dozen different gun calibres. There were also language problems - not all ships in the Armada were Spanish, quite a few came from elsewhere. Then, to cap it all off, when the Armada reaches the Netherlands (where they are to pick up Parma's army and ferry it to England), they find out (a) Parma had not been informed they were coming, and is thus not ready; ( There are no piers and very few small craft with which to load said army on said ships; © Their anchorage is far from secure from the English, the Dutch rebels OR the weather. So, for the Armada to be a success, one needs to go much deeper, and perhaps as far back as when it was first formed. For instance, the guy in overall command was (arguably) not an incompetent, but never wanted the job in the first place and certainly never had the authority or resources he needed.

Re: [Warming Rant] GM feeling uninspired QM, I go with some of the other posts here. Sounds like burn-out and you are best off taking a proper break before you actually start hating what you are doing. It is a rare gamer that doesn't have this happen one time or another So, explain the situation to your Players, put your campaign on a temporary hold (couple of months, minimum) and do something different for a while. Have the rest of the group go through their game stashes for card or board games to try out, have somebody GM a totally different game for a while, watch DVDs instead of gaming, go to the movies, etc..

Re: Historical Nexus Points Another thought from another book. 'Hitler & Stalin - Parallel Lives' by Allan Bullock. Comparitive biographies of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. Strange but absolutely true. There was a period of a few weeks when both men actually lived in the same city. It was Vienna, some time in the 1920s ( book gives the exact period, but I cannot find the entry just now), well before either became (in)famous. Adolf was a street artist, Josef was part of a delegation at some international conference. There is no indication that the two ever met - Vienna was and still is a fair-sized city, and they moved in entirely different circles. But, as the book itself says, it is fascinating to picture how Hitler and Stalin could have unknowingly brushed shoulders on a busy street or some such thing. Plus, if one brings alternate histories into the mix, to quote the great philosopher: "That do raise some mind-boggling possibilities, don't it?"

Re: Historical Nexus Points Other possibilities: (1) Vladimir Ilych Lenin lives in reasonable health for somewhat longer than he did historically. It is often held that, towards the end of his life, he was starting to REALLY distrust / dislike this Georgian called 'Stalin', but was too durn sick to do much about it. If Lenin had lived for longer, he might have been able to do something more decisive. Which could have benefitted the USSR tremendously, all things considered. (2) Mao Tse-Tung successfully allies with the West. Supposedly, he was looking at this possibility to help modernize China during the late 1940s. The only other alternative was Stalin, who could be trusted about as far as he could spit. Which means that the Korean and Vietnam Wars would have been very very different, IF they occurred at all.

Re: Historical Nexus Points There is a very interesting book that mentions this possibility, called 'The Ship That Changed The World' by Dan Van Der Wat. It also provides what could be the pivotal event. At the outbreak of ww1, Germany had two warships in the Mediterranean, the Goeben and the Breslau. They were somewhat grandiosely called 'the Mediterranean Squadron'. and were more than outgunned by the French and British forces. Anyhow, when war broke out, they were well and truly trapped, and were ordered to make a dash for the then-neutral Ottoman Empire. The British and French naval commands made several astounding blunders so, despite mechanical problems, the two German ships made it to Ottoman waters where they and their crews were politely detained. It is worth noting that Germany already had a fair amount of influence within the Ottoman Empire. The eventual presentation of these two modern warships (and their crews) to the Ottomans formed part of the inducement for them declaring war on their traditional Russian foes (and, by extension, the British and French). Goeben and Breslau spent much of the war in the Black Sea, making the Russian fleet there look like total ninnies. (Worth noting here that Goeben survived the war and remained in Ottoman / Turkish naval service until 1950, and wasn't finally scrapped until the 1970s!) (It is ALSO worth noting that amongst the crew of the Goeben and Breslau was a very young Leutnant named Karl Doenitz) Indications are that the Ottoman entry prolonged ww1 by as much as two years. It cut off the main supply line between Russia and the West, with all the problems that this also entailed. It certainly sped up the end of the Ottoman Empire, with its holdings in the Middle East and North Africa being split up willy-nilly amongst the victors at war's end. So, arrange for something to happen. Maybe the two ships unexpectedly hit "mines" and sink during their initial run, or the British and French naval commands actually get something right. Therefore, the Ottoman entry into the war is delayed, possibly just long enough to reconsider the whole idea. Germany and its (other) allies are forced to make peace circa 1916 (and thus kill off the notion altogether). Russia's destabilization is delayed, as is the Ottoman Empire's break-up. The punitive and downright savage requirements of the Treaty of Versailles in 1918 are lessened (or completely avoided), therefore Germany does NOT become a total basket case in the 1920s, opening the way for Hitler and the Nazis to take over. (Implication: No ww2 as we know it. One semi-valid school of thought has it that ww1 and ww2 were in fact one conflict with a LONG cease-fire in the middle. In this timeline, it doesn't happen - at least, not as we know it.) The Middle East has a chance to be less messed up in terms of borders and displaced / split ethnic groups than in reality. Millions of lives and vast quantities of resources and wealth squandered in the war and its aftermath are preserved.

Re: Pulp Music Soundtracks to 'The Mummy' and 'The Mummy Returns'. Assortment of "spooky" music, rollicking "fight" music, and others.

Re: You Gotta Have PULP Character

Re: WWYCD?: The blatant-ening. Likewise. What would my Character(s) do in this event? Does not matter at all what Character, campaign or system is used. First, verify the situation. Has either the GM or I been mixing medications, perhaps? Is it April 1st? Is the GM having problems at home? Is this all some kind of dream sequence, with my Character supposed to wake up at some point, presumably screaming? Am I, as a Player, actually dreaming the whole thing? Gee. I'm getting all existential here. If the GM is just being a ####, then walk. It really is that simple. Possibly give thought to kicking him in the maraccas on the way out.

Re: [Hooks] News articles that could be Pulp Adventures I strongly recommend 'Fortean Times' magazine as a steady source of ideas. FT's website also provides a daily listing of "weird" newsreports from all over the world. http://www.forteantimes.com

Re: Build Challenge: Mythbusters! LOVE the show. It seems to me that if the Mythbusters existed in a classic comic-book superhero reality, most of them would certainly have acquired superpowers of one sort or another several times over. Think about it. Consider how often they have been doing weird stuff involving chemicals, explosives, radiation, electricity, magnetism, unusual devices and so forth; usually in totally bizarre combinations. Add to that how some of them have led quite ... interesting lives prior to the show in any case (Jamie being the most obvious example). Just a thought.

Re: [Worst Ever...] Reasons to be a superhero "The voices told me to dress like this." "I want to get even with all those bullies from high school."

Re: Thrilling Places!

Re: Help Me Pick A Book Space :1889 is very good as a steampunk resource. Don't have GURPS Steampunk, so I honestly cannot make a proper comparison. However, if anywhere near the standards of most other GURPS products, it would be pretty good as well. Just don't try to use 1889's character generation or combat rules as written - they are incomplete and generally FUBARed. This game came out during GDW's terminal decline, enough said.

Re: Supervillain Monologues That scene from 'The Watchmen' graphic novel, with Ozymandias, is one of my all-time favourites.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... My '7th Sea' group ... The party are privateers about to battle a Montaigne warship. Montaigne? Think France, pre-Revolution, only with bigger fops and worse dress sense - and that's just the naval officers. Anyhow, a couple of Players fancy themselves as sharpshooters, so they climb up into their ship's rigging and get ready to fire. As the other ship comes within range, the PC Captain orders: "Shoot their officers!" As Referee, I have to ask: "OK, how do you spot the Montaigne officers?" Captain thinks for a couple of seconds, then orders: "Shoot anybody on that ship who is wearing a silly hat!" Much laughter. What could I do? All things considered, it made perfect sense. Since then, 'looking for the silly hat' has become a sort of catchphrase in my group for spotting leader-types

Re: Background help Any bigwig (or not-so-bigwig) from the non-VIPER organizations (DEMON comes immediately to mind) or even a megacorp could conceivably have done the brainswashing thing, as an experiment or attempted powerplay.

Re: Recent Lost World novels As well as Lin Carter's 'Zanthodon' series, there are his 'Callisto' books ('Jandar Of Callisto', 'Black Legion Of Callisto' and 'Sky Pirates Of Callisto' being the original trilogy) and the 'Green Star' series (5 books) - all being very worthwhile Burroughsian-style epics. The Callisto books are what got me hooked on Burroughsian adventure in the first place. LC also did four books set on a Mars inspired by Leigh Brackett's works - 'The City Outside The World', 'The Valley Where Time Stood Still', 'Down To A Sunless Sea' (warning - there is also another book by another author using this title) and 'The Man Who Loved Mars'. All are also worth finding. Whilst not strictly Lost World-style stories, 'Footprints Of Thunder' by James F David, 'Ancient Shores' by Jack McDevitt and 'Wildside' by Steven Gould all have something of that flavour - and all could be used as the basis for some kind of Lost World setting.

Re: Pirates Addiction (or Dependancy?): RUM would seem a strong possibility. For the grungier forms of Pirate (as typified in a couple of movies I can think of), perhaps a major aversion to soap, bathing and dental hygiene.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... 7th Sea (Swashbuckly pirates and magic RPG). The party was on Isla du Bete. For those of you not up on the game background (probably 99.5 %), think the second half of 'Jurassic Park' - only with no high-tech and UGLY, totally psychotic monsters instead of dinosaurs. The Characters had a few very close calls, and had already lost a couple of NPCs in nasty ways. Oddly enough, they started being extra-cautious. I was slightly irked by this uncalled-for display of common sense, and asked (rhetorically): "Hey, what happened to the spirit of adventure?" Immediate response from one Player (the quiet one): "It got eaten by something very big."

Re: The Beverly Hillbillies Hmm. Their Mansion "base" would have been incredibly tough. Look at all the stuff it underwent during the show - people and things crashing through walls and doors, or splash-landing in the cee-ment pond, Granny's still and Ellie-May's cooking (think about what THEY would do to the house's plumbing!), and so on.

Re: What does OMEN stand for? In a continuing spirit of silliness ( ... which I am enjoying greatly - and that disturbs me): Occupational Mentalists' Ethereal Network (sounds kinda like a PBS thing) Obvious Mockery Enrages Nazis Oblong Menhirs Extinguish Negativity ... And has anybody else noticed that when the spelling of OMEN is reversed, we get ... NEMO.

Re: The Things I Learned Playing A Villain...

Re: Super Hero Names Also consider his origins. Might be possibilities there. Could also be some aspects of his armour that come into it - have the colour as part of the name (eg. the Blue _____ ). The armour might even have some styllistic aspect to it that emulates a particular myth or creature or trait or whatever. Otherwise: Guardian? Shield? Barrier? Maybe putting a colour in front of one of these names (or the others) would work for your Character.

Re: What does OMEN stand for? Office of Mentally Enhanced Neanderthals?

Re: The Things I Learned Playing A Villain... Openly support at least one high-profile charity or other public service. Your dealings, in this case, should be absolutely honest and above board. This achieves two things: 1. An improved reputation with the general public; 2. Your foes drive themselves crazy, trying unsuccessfully to figure out what you are REALLY up to.