redknight

Re: Elements, Energies, and Wierd Science The Ultra-Earth campaign is set in the year 2030, which gives a more realistic justification for moon bases and other scientific breakthroughs I catalogue. My aim is to have enough background material in place to justify all origins and explain why super-science works. I have more than a 1000 villains and heroes (though few have fully worked out character sheets yet) spanning 100 years plus some cosmic and immortal types that have been around much longer. I'm updating a table listing regional perceptions of all supers for the 2010s CE, 2030s CE, and 2050s CE (and might go all the way back to the pulp era later). I've worked out the DNA chances of having unmanifested super children for all combinations of super and normal parentage for the 2 current DNA-based types of supers in my campaign. I'm also working on and off on a city map of Angel City, the post WWIII city taking the place of the blasted radioactive nightmare land that was once L.A., and the sight for the 200+ point campaign. By the time it’s done, the galaxy will be mapped out for star empires, Earth history will include everything from the planet forming to our sun swallowing it when it goes supernova, and I'll have the reason why magic and super powers really exist. I'm digging up anything of genuine historic value that I can squeeze some interesting fictional stories from - comet crashes in Russia, witch-hunts on the Eastern seaboard, insane ranting of holy men...whatever!I figure it will be almost done when the year is really 2030 CE in our own dimensional time-stream... I realize there is lots of existing official campaign stuff already published, and while I have read it all, I want the Ultra-Earth campaign to be my own baby. I'd love to put the (near) finished work up on the Internet some day but I suck at HTML stuff. At the present it needs a lot more work anyway. I'm sure this is more than you wanted to know but it was fun blabbing about it so I hope you can forgive me.

Re: Help needed: Sadistic "April Fool's" Jokes My first reaction is for Harlequin to poke fun at accepted reality. He's nutz so making others question the world and their place in it would be a kick for him. Institutions, social conventions, and civility are the foundations for society so they will be turned on their heads. Religion: A very respectable leader of the religious community declares a campaign to "revitalize the church". Think Buddy Jesus from the movie Dogma but with a darker twist. The brainwashed clergyman is convinced that he has received a new revelation from above and his town needs to be prepared to be ground zero of Armageddon (that happens April 1st of course!). The guy is such a good speaker he riles up half the city and the other half reacts with a violent backlash. It’s not the second coming but it might as well be... Class: Disrupt the stock exchange (or banks of the city for something more local) so that the rich loose their shirts and the poor are forgiven their debts from loss of records. This could also be accomplished by H. printing "Fun Money" that looks normal until 12:01 AM April First. Suddenly all the people with lots of money on hand are broke. Education: Students are sold illicit "smart pills" that makes them into (1) mindless goons, that will follow the directions of anyone wearing bells on their head; (2) ultra-smart people that are incapable of doing anything practical while they contemplate the big questions; (3) cultists that wear makeup and costumes similar to Harlequin. (The last is a great way to spread confusion when the heroes start looking for him.) Society: All the rich people in therapy are simultaneously advised check in to a particular sanitarium. They are coerced with drugs, hypnotism, etc. to comply. Simultaneously, everyone in the local Home of the Criminally Insane are released and told who they "really are" -- all those rich people that just disappeared. Maybe while the crazies were locked up they were treated to some free plastic surgery and psychotherapy to help them assume their roles more thoroughly. Age: the quiet communities of retirement homes are given something that peps them up (like in the movie Cocoon). Meanwhile, all the students of local schools are given downers in their school lunches and become apathetic and lethargic. Morality: people get punished for their guilty pleasures. Basically, rip the synopsis from the movie Seven. A "lady's man" gets gang raped by militant women, a preacher is exposed for excessive (fill in your own sin), a peacenik killed in self defense when he goes on a violent rampage, etc. Irony. Reality: The water is doped and make things look...odd. At the very least, when the April 1st release of this drug hits the city it will cause a lot of accidents and general mayhem as people try to cope with hallucinations (ala Batman: the Beginning). Preservation: People are given a death-trap choice of doing something against their nature or dying. (ala Fight Club, Liar Liar, and a million other plots). A small bomb implanted in skulls of a doctor’s family will detonate unless all of his patients die on April 1st, etc. I hope some of this helps.

Re: Elements, Energies, and Wierd Science Wow, great stuff guys. I'm amazed with how many replies I got so quick. I think I'll stick around and hopefully contribute my self.

I was looking for some input about strange properties of elements (as in Table of...), types of lasers, and just weird pseudo-science concepts. If it’s based on or inspired by real science that would be a plus but dramatic and weird is my main focus. Weather it’s from the real world, comics, or your own fertile imaginations is fine. (If there is already a threat about this I'd appreciate a link) Off-the-top-of-my-head example: Darknium. An element that does not naturally appear on earth or other planets at the furthest extent from the galactic center. When naturally combined in sufficient quantity this dense and relatively light metal has crystalline angles. The material is most often employed for military purposes by species with access and knowledge how to shape it. [Fictional] Oh, and if it is real or inspired by such, please meantion that too! Thanks