Fulci's Zombie From A Torg Perspective

[There are some spoilers for Zombie here and Torg geek talk. You've been warned!]

When I was on vacation in late August there wasn't much on Digital TV in Winneconne, so I was watching some horror DVDs on a rainy day. I had also got some old Torg novels & short story collections for a dollar a piece at the Chimera Hobby Shop in Appleton. After watching Lucio Fulci's Zombie, it struck me that Zombie could be seen in a Torg light very easily, particularly the realm of Orrorsh.

Because I always thought this cover was cool...

Here are some brief thoughts:

The horror originates on the distant tropical island of Matool. Although Orrorsh in canon Torg in centered in Indonesia and the Philippines, the tropical setting is very apt.

The boat that floated to New York from Matool is a floating hardpoint for the Orrorsh reality. Because the reality of New York is so overwhelming, it would be considered a Mixed Zone. The obese zombie that falls into the could be Possibility Rated.

Many of the Gothic tropes prevalent in Orrorsh can be seen: mad science, the obsession with knowledge, brushes of colonialism, zombies, lonely houses in the middle of the jungle surrounded by the unknown.

It seems that at the beginning of the film, the recently dead are reanimating. As Zombie goes on the dead become more violent and hungry. The reanimation of the older dead comes later in the movie, namely the cemetery scene.

Peter (Ian McCulloch) seems to be more able to kill the zombies as Zombie goes on. He is definitely a Storm Knight. The rest of the cast are Ords except maybe for the good Doctor Menard (Richard Johnson), who probably has some Corruption points too.

The final scene can be viewed different ways. You could go the typical zombie apocalypse route, but there's no possibilities to be harvested when zombies kill everybody. A more Torg approach is the fear of a zombie epidemic as Bryan (Al Cliver) slowly becomes a zombie on the boat. If I remember right, the classic "zombies are taking over" voiceover at the end was part of the American version of Zombie.

The legendary Zombie/Shark battle can appreciated by fans of ANY RPG!

 

 



From The Past: My Random GURPS Campaigns

I was, for most of the 90's, I was a big GURPS 3rd Edition fan, and am stil very fond of the rules. I even joined a Amateur Press Alliance dedicated to GURPS called All of the Above and was a member for almost a decade. Fellow AotA member Brett Slocum recently mentioned his nifty GURPS Random Campaign Generator and posted some of his old campaigns on his blog. I decided to post some of the campaign ideas I posted on the Campaign Generator. These are only edited for spelling, grammar and formating. And check out the Generator for a lot of great character and campaign ideas.

A Different Kind of Magick
(Castle Falkenstein, Psionics, Fantasy Folk)   

Investigations into an untapped reservoir of Magick leads to the discovery of a race of lizard men who have tapped the powers of the mind to dwell in New Europa. Will they join the Second Compact or fall under the iron fist of Prussia?

 Autoduel: The Conflict
(Undead, Autoduel, Vampire: The Masquerade)

Vampiric autoduelists battle in the dark highways of the nations for money, glory and blood.

It gets a little confusing. . .
(Illuminati University, Mage: The Ascension, International Super Teams)

Take two IST Teams on vacation, add a field trip lead by the Dean of C. T. H. U. L. H. U. , stir in a vortex caused by a Sons of Ether experiment gone awry, and an Umbral spirit who calls himself the Jester of Naught who likes to play games. Then it gets really weird. . .

The Joker Went Wild
(Technomancer, Illuminati, Wild Cards)

The Wild Card virus ran rampant in a world that was already experiencing the rebirth of magic. The Secret Masters attempt to use the emerging aces and jokers for their own games of conquest after the fatefull words of Oppenheimer. 

The Magistrates
(Blood Types, Psionics, Martial Arts)

Ten years after tomorrow, mankind still survives in a crowded world. The creatures of the night stalk the teeming multitudes of people with fang and claw. But Man is not defenseless. Psychics, masters of strange mental powers must join with the increasing numbers of chi-weilding martial artists to fight the oncoming vampiric horde.

Visions of Vanth 7: More Gods of Vanth

Here are four more gods and goddesses from the Mighty Land of Vanth. But first a word of warning...

From the Wanderings of Werdna H'Tedirem 

Many are the gods and goddesses of Vanth. In my journey across the lands, I have seen and witnessed many beings who claimed divinity. Here are some of the lesser known entities I have encountered. One note: NEVER mock any being that can wish horrible horrible things to you from vast distances. You have been warned.

Eclai Fortune

The Prince of Vultures, Ringmaster of the Last Great Caravan, Death God of the Funfair Nomads. 

Eclai Fortune flies eternally over the Funfair Nomads, descending to Vanth when death approaches one of his own. The worshipers of Eclai are the sad clowns and fortune tellers of the Funfair Nomads. The dead of the Nomads are left in roadside shrines guarded from the living and the dead by well fed Giant Vultures and the morbid Raven Knights. For a Death God, Eclai is considered quite friendly and fair, and often offers his subjects advice and games to prolong their lives. His realm is the Great Road, a heavenly road where the Funfair Nomads roam, every stop full of money, food, and entertainment. 

The Golden Maria 

Oracle of the Steel Warlords, The Empress on the Throne. 

Legend says that the Golden Maria was the first Robodroid to tread Vanth, ages before the Vulkins even discovered the Medieval Sector. The Steel Warlords found her bound to her throne deep within the Hidden Caves and moved her into the capitol city where they ensconced her in the Hall of Ancestors. Most of the days she sleeps while autoscribes dictate her murmurings and augur their meanings. When she wakens, a kirilian halo emanates from her as Maria speaks to the Warlords in a voice mechanical yet rich with wistful emotion.

Bentwit the Clown

The Betrayer at the Gate, The Instigator of the Marks, The Slayer of the Rubes 

If the Funfair Nomads have a god of evil and greed, Bentwit the Clown is it. Formerly the right hand clown of the Grand Ringmaster, Bentwit grew jealous of the other peoples of Vanth and began to cheat and kill them heedless of the Law of Luck. The Grand Ringmaster cast Bentwit from the Great Exodus but he exists off the road, tempting Funfair Nomads to pillage and slaughter instead of trade and fun. Bentwit rules the hell called Choryżart, a wasted expanse where evil Funfair Nomads are entombed in pillars of salt, never to roam the Afterlife like their kin.

The Shadow Man

Perdisdioj of  the Unwanted Truth, The Cloak of Midnight

One of the more unusual claimants to divinity are the Perdisdioj, personifications of the Concepts of Forgotten Terra, beings of amazing powers and strange flaws. How the Perdisdioj got to Vanth is a mystery to scholars, but their powers are a force to be reckoned with. Some denizens of Vanth have met the Perdisdioj, and have bargained for their favor. Forever in the shadows in a strange suit and coat, a Perdisdioj known as the Shadow Man speaks knowledge to the lies of power of corruption. However such knowledge is used or the consequences reaped  (good or ill) is of no consequence to him. Those who get too close are lost in the smoke and mist that clings to him. 

Inspiration: DeviantART Fun

I'm running around a few ideas round my head as the summer rolls on. Maybe some of these cartoon and crossover ideas from Deviantart can be blended into a strange campaign idea:


Masters of the Universe 300 by ~Killersha on deviantART
80s Spread by ~Eleyre on deviantART
Disney VS Capcom by *Tyrranux on deviantART
TMNT Vs. Aliens by ~BrianJMurphy on deviantART

I'm Back and the Pokémon Apokélypse Fan Film Trailer

Hey I'm back!

To my dozens of friends I thank you for your patience and hope I will deliver more blog fun after this little sabbatical I took. In May I was helping an old friend of mine move his brother out of his apartment (the brother had health problems). So after working 7-8 hour at work I would go and help my friend for 2-3 hours. I was exhausted. When someone brags to you that they kept everything from the several businesses they owned, sometimes they ain't lying.

So I found this little trailer while watching for fan film trailers on YouTube:



Beyond the initial chuckle at the premise of Pokémon Apokélypse, one could make this into an unusual but interesting RPG campaign. Imagine your PCs' surprise when the underground fighting ring that the players are investigating isn't human or robot, but colorful elementally powered pet monsters battling for supremacy.

With some tweaks you could use Monsters and Other Childish Things by Arc Dream Publishing for this type of campaign. If you want to do some searching check out anime RPG classic Big Eyes, Small Mouth and add the Cute & Fuzzy Seizure Monsters sourcebook.

I LOVE the original cover. It is so the truth.

Or just have the fact that there are underground rings of fighting pet monsters just be part of the background. Just because you can.

Morlocks In Tripods: Discuss

Just had an idea I had to share.

How about

driving these?

Could be awesome...

Deja Vu Blogfest: Yellow Rhapsody

Here's my entry for the Deja Vu Blogfest. A Tale of Terror I call Yellow Rhapsody...

This is yet more game material written when I was a member of All of the Above, the GURPS APA. Yellow Rhapsody is an adventure seed featuring The King In Yellow. It was written in the systemless style of Steve Hatherley's Tales of Terror. I first saw this format in Pagan Publishing's legendary Call of Cthulhu zine The Unspeakable Oath. Written in 1997, I consider Yellow Rhapsody one the best things I have ever created. The only changes made here are spelling and formatting. Enjoy.


Yellow Rhapsody
A Film by "Alan Smithee"

Excerpt:

Man in the Mask: To what do you hold dear?
Robert: Life, love, happiness, what all men hold dear.
M in M: They mean nothing in the Tremors of the dance.
R: Then why do you dance if you have no pleasure?
M in M: There is no question in the dance, no why, no how. We dance for the king. That is enough.
R: Who is the King?
M in M: The name is all around you.
R: I see nothing.
M in M: That is his name.

The packaging is deceptive. It is a video box decorated by colorful computer generated art with the title Tales of the Weird set in garish red. The back has text that promises terrors from these three college films. The only film company mentioned on the cover in "Weird Press Films".

The first and second films are normal horror films. "Early for Dinner" is an EC Comics-style fable involving a grifter who attempts to con a beautiful gourmet cook. He gets his comeuppance when she makes him the meal for a family of ghouls. "Last Call" is a bizarre black and white blending of German Expressionistic film and Italian zombie films. Two couples spend a night in a deserted Midwest farm and stumble onto a devilish device that alters their reality.

"Yellow Rhapsody" is the highlight. It is an animated film done in a minimalist, Alex Toth-like style. The plot involves a young man named Robert Chambers who gets a strange book from his grandfather—The King in Yellow. As he reads the play, characters inspired by it begin to haunt him day and night. Helped by the mysterious Man in the Mask and the lovely Cassilda, he pierces the veil and walks the halls of Carcosa. After a surrealistic journey he meets the King, who envelopes him in voluminous cloaks of yellow. The film ends with Robert dancing with Cassilda in the King in Yellow's court. The Man in the Mask looks to the screen and pulls of his mask, revealing nothing but a starry field and a yellow rune where his left eye should be.


Tales of the Weird has become a cult classic due to the amount of disappearances connected to it. According to the legend that has grown up around it. The legend claims that "Yellow Rhapsody" was animated by a recluse who slit his own throat over the original cells of animation. It is a challenge, they say, to watch the film the whole way through. Something about the colors and the sound has a tendency to lull the viewer asleep or blur his vision. The ones that do claim that the camera plunges in the starry field and the credits begin to roll. An evil looking little boy with milky white eyes grins insanely as the credits begin to blur and break up, becoming unreadable.

Police are starting to take this case seriously. The suicides and disappearances on college campuses are starting to mount. Most of the original print run of the film has been seized and/or destroyed. Weird Press Films cannot be reached for comment.


Possibilities

1. The film itself is not the problem. It is the spirit of the animator that is the cause of the disappearances. The Mythos references were unintentional; he simply liked the King in Yellow. "Alan Smithee" lives within the original print of Yellow Rhapsody. He can perceive anyone who watches the entire film. After each viewing he attempts to take over the watcher. If he succeeds, Smithee drains life force or implants commands to watch the movie again. The disappearances are caused by the eventual destruction Smithee can visit upon a victim by draining them until they turn to dust.

2. The film is actually nested with subliminal messages put in by cultists at Weird Press Films. Throughout the video the Yellow Sign and other Mythos sigils and symbols are present. The other two short films also have references to the Mythos hidden within their narrative. The subliminals are a tool used by the cultists to recruit and identify. The curious ones are drawn to join the cult, while those who investigate the Mythos can by drawn out and eliminated. If innocents are driven to harm, that is not their concern.

3. "Yellow Rhapsody" is a cleverly disguised gate to Carcosa. If a person watches the film in its entirety (up to the grinning child), they become touched by the film. The viewer begins to watch the film over and over again and begins to see more detailed backgrounds. The sky forms into strange runes, the details in the clothes, and the characters' lines not heard before all become apparent. As the viewer becomes more drawn into the animation, the film becomes more nightmarish and surreal. The landscapes beyond the window become strange and alien, their inhabitants staring back. Screams of torture can be heard beneath the etherial music. Hallucinations begin to set in as the victim sees the characters come to life around him.

When sanity finally slips away, the Man in the Mask comes to snatch away the viewer, while Robert and Cassilda hold open the way to the city of Carcosa. The victim becomes one of the dancers whirling away to the dance of the Yellow King. A friend who watches the video might be lucky enough to see an old friend dancing for eternity in wild abandon as the Man in the Mask laughs mockingly.

Seventh Sanctum Generator Fun: Weird Fantasy

These 4 entries were all generated by some of the fine random generators at the Seventh Sanctum website. The paragraph below each of them was genrated by me. Use them for your weird fantasy/pulp/horror campaigns.

The Fourth Sultanna Who Hates Possibility

In the lands of the Plutocracy, hidden in the shadows of the Pantheons is the veneration of the Sultannas. These ancestor goddesses are worshipped by the native peoples who asked for various intercession with the deities of the Land. They are not named fearing that those who know the true names of the Sultannas will bind them to the will of men. The Fourth Sultanna Who Hates Possibility is called upon when someone is threatened by the changing of the staus quo. If the Sultanna is placated strange things will happen until change is stopped or averted.

The Dark Emperor of the Garnet Arrow

The Symbol of the Dark Emperor

A demon lord of moderate power, this servitor of Demogorgon appears as handsome 9 foot tall human with iron infused skin and an ornate suit of garnet armor carved in swirling runes describing abhorrent deeds surrounding the Garnet Arrow. His only weapons are a demonforged morningstar and a longbow made of dinosaur bones. The Dark Emperor tempts rulers with promises of vast wealth and land. His abyssal demense Elazguro has pathways to all of the Realms the Dark Emperor has corrupted. He sits at the center of intrigue, watching as his minions plot and poison for his favor.

Ooze Children From Thognyia

Thognyia, the City of the Swamps,  is a remnant of the Fifth Planet that lies buried underneath the swamps of Lousiana. The once men that walked it's streets were infected by an ancient curse to become one with the land. Within three generations the once proud beings became caniballistic ooze creatures that soon sank in to the swamps to feed at their leisure. Thognyia soon sank into the swamps, but legends tell of strange beasts the shamble in the night to capture the unwary.




Subterranean Spiders Of Shaictha the Vermillion Blasphemy

Ancient tomes speak of Shaictha the Vermillion Blasphemy, one of the Lords of Beyond, entities of Malevolent Power. Many are the servants of Shaicatha, but the best known are the Spiders. Lurking underneath the Realms of Men, the Spiders plot ans plan to replace man as the true rulers of reality. In their true shape they appear as spiders the size of men, each with a deformity that marks them as not of this plane. The Blessed of Shaictha, some say, can change into the shape of man to walk among us to look, to listen, and to feed.

Just An Idea...

The 27 planets stolen by Davros and the Daleks in the Doctor Who Episodes "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".

How about this for a science fantasy campaign, inspired by the 4th season of Doctor Who, Spelljammer, and the Savage Worlds setting Slipstream:

A cosmic being steals random worlds from across the Multiverse for an unknown purpose. The being places the planets in a pocket dimension bordered by various dimensions. The worlds orbit each other in a complex pattern, and the dimension seems to light and darken to give the impressions of day and night. With that, the cosmic being disappears.

After the initial chaos of the Stealing, the denizens of the various planet go out to meet each other. Alliances are made, battles are fought, and conspiracies are begun. World that have not contacted the other planets are marked for exploration. Travel between the planets is made possible by ships powered by science, magic, psionics, and other motive forces. And the greatest question of all is the mystery of why the planets were taken in the first place.

Take a bunch of worlds you always wanted to have interact with each other and throw them in the mix. May do something with this in the future...

Visions of Vanth 4: Video Game Art

Random Spelljammer Ideas

I love the Spelljammer fantasy space setting by TSR. Every once in a while I have ideas that pop in my weary mind when I really should be working...

Battle Against The Horde

A great idea for a high powered Spelljamming campaign could involve the Evil Horde from She-Ra Princess of Power. The PCs are each from a different crystal sphere. On route to a Horde prison world, a fellow prison tells of a rebellion that started on the world of Etheria. The first adventure begins as the PCs take over the prison ship. During the campaign the players travel to different worlds to either escape the long arm of the Horde or too spread the message of the Great Rebellion to other worlds.

Blackstar Opening Could Be Spelljammer

I imagine a Spelljamming flying into a crystal sphere may look like this:

Key To A Crystal Sphere

Season 16 of Doctor Who, which involved the Key to Time, would make a great source for a crystal sphere. Each episode has a planet/idea or two that can be used as a planet in the sphere.

• The Ribos Operation: Ice planet with inhabitants underground, home of barbarians, scoundrels and exiles.
• The Pirate Planet: An artificial planetoid that devours small planets for energy.
• The Stones of Blood: Prison ships/asteroids that drift in space.
• The Androids of Tara: A renaissance-era world that specializes in android (read golem) construction.
• The Power of Kroll: Swamp world with colonies from the other planets in the sphere. The native people fight against the invaders.
• The Armageddon Factor: A war between neighboring planet with an evil shadow planet sowing discord throughout the sphere.

Wargolems in Spaaaaacee!

Since Spelljammer came on the market, several games have presented variants on the fantasy mecha/golem concept. Add that to Spelljammer and you add new possibilities for adventure. Imagine a magic item or helm variant that channels whatever force you wish into move a gargantuan golem body. An alternate idea is the wizard who can control a variety of golems (call jacks, constructs, etc.) ala Warmachine. Spelljammer explored this idea with the Sentinel construct from the Wildspace adventure (SJA1). . I'm seeing Iron Kingdom Warcasters in steampunk ships battling against the Bralian Golem Defense Force in the flows of the phlogiston. That could be interesting.

[Risus] CIZR Cryptozoologists

Submitted for your approval, some Risus characters for a modern-era “weird” campaign.

The Chambers Institute for Zoological Research

The Chambers Institute for Zoological Research (CIZR for short) is one of the premiere clearing houses of zoological data and theory in North America. Less well known is CIZR’s secondary mission: quantifiable proof of crypto zoological beasts and other anomalies. These expeditions are funded through a trust fund set up by CIZR founder Alistair Chambers at the turn of the century. Below are five of the agents who investigate these paranormal mysteries.

William Chambers



For most of his adult life William Chambers had no contact with the Institute that his great grandfather had founded. Making his fortune early in life, William retired and began the life of an avid hunter and conservationist. If you meet him in the woods you would have no idea that he was a wealthy and very shrewd businessman. William came back to CIZR when his father Trevor Chambers (below) was attack at his cabin by rival crypto zoologists. Most people who meet William think he likes his dog more than most of humanity. They’re right.

Brooding Avid Hunter who Lives in the Woods (4), Bare Knuckles Brawler (3), Wealthy and Shrewd Businessman (3), Reluctant Cryptozoologist (2)

Hook: Not much for other people.

Cassilda Albright



Cassilda was once a highly paid corporate attorney until her firm took a case defending a firm accused of toxic dumping. A cliché, yes, but the dealing she witnessed touched her conscience and she left the firm she helped build up. Soon after her exit, CIZR hired Cassilda to act as legal counsel for the Institute. She has found herself on several “unofficial” expeditions not covered by her initial job guidelines. She gets along with most people, although William has the tendency to draw out Cassilda’s more argumentative side. She also babies William’s dog way too much.

Beautiful Legal Counsel for CIZR (4), Extremely Limber Self Defense Junkie (3), Realistic Environmentalist (2), Uncontrolled Lucid Dreamer (2)

Hook: Argumentative

Dr. Trevor Chambers



Dr. Trevor Chambers was once one of the premiere biogeniticists in the Northern Hemisphere. That was the case until Trevor published several pages on subjects as Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, and the possible origins of the changeling myth. (He was never the same after his wife, William’s mother, had died.) Soon afterward Trevor was allowed to quietly dwell in the corner of the university he taught at so he wouldn’t hurt anybody. His brother soon contacted him in his retirement, asking Trevor to come and claim his birthright at CIZR.

Hyper Intelligent Biogenticist with No Social Skills (4), Animated Fortean Cryptozoologist (3), Ex Government Employee (2), Budding Master of Beasts (1)

Hook: Absent Minded

Jackson Napier

Trevor made some friends during his time with the government. The best friend he made was a cheerful young CIA assassin named Jackson Napier. When Mr. Napier tired of the assassin lifestyle, he retired from the Company and disappeared. A man like Napier grows bored rather quickly, and he was almost tempted to seek his old job back. Ennui was dispersed when his old friend Trevor Chambers called him with a job offer. Jackson is the pleasant face of any CIZR Expedition, whose easygoing charm soothes feathers rustled by the others. His past job as an assassin, though, does come back to haunt him.

Whimsical Ex CIA Assassin with a Conscience (4), Handsome Gentleman of Means (3), Collector of Interesting Gadgets (2), Amused Cryptozoologist (2)

Hook: His past comes back to bite him

Rex the Wonder Lab

To the world, Rex appears as an average black Labrador retriever who loves dog treats and chasing after birds who get to close to his porch. And this is all true. Rex is also more intelligent than an average dog, coming from a canine bloodline bred to hunt down monsters. He is protective of everybody at CIZR, but he has a definite love for his master William and Cassilda (who always sneaks him doggy treats). Any attacks or threats to either of them will result in an angry, angry dog who is a lot smarter than people imagine.

Unnervingly Intelligent Black Labrador (4), Hunter of Game on Land, Sea and Air (3), Tracker of the Unnatural (3)

Hook: Still a Dog

[Supers] Some Scattered Campaign Ideas

I've been on a Superhero clip of late. With my tax return I picked up Supers by Simon Washbourne and pre-ordered Steve Kenson's Icons from Adamant Entertainment. This, with my love of BASH Ultimate Edition, is on my mind right now. Tooling around the net, I rediscovered some Superhero posts that I had scattered on message boards. All three involve dimension travel and alternate super earths. They can be used for campaign ideas.

Below are two posts I made for a forum.rpg.net thread entitled A Moore/Ellis like Super-Hero Campaign in a line.

***

"I don't understand it. A 3-subject notebook a day. He just keeps writing and writing. Just stops for sleep and eating."
"Have you read the notebooks, Doctor?"
"Yes. It's just story upon story about metas. The Justice Battilion, Paragon, everybody and more. Except he's writing as if he was watching year upon year of history . Each notebook is different-each a 'different world'."
"Did he ever say why he was spinning these tales?"
"Simple. He claims that he is helping infinity heal itself from it wounds."
"How?"
"By telling stories, Sir. By telling stories of better times."

Part of a recorded discussion dealing with the mental state of former metasorceror Professor Chimera. The Professor, as you know was instituonualised after an brutal encounter with Typhon Shiva, one of the New Avatars.

***

Remember the disappearances of dozens of the second-tier heroes several years ago? The media followed it for a while. Blamed it on several arch-villains, but soon it was overran by other big metafights and crisises.

It wasn't a villain. It was a coordinated effort to gather those heroes for one reason--each of them are the soul survivors of their earths:

Electric Johnny--Earth 45. Thorion Applebum, Rocket Halfling--Earth Shire. Miz Turquoise--Earth ACE. The Scarlet Rebel--Earth 6. Reflex--Terra Q. Galactic--Erde 3.

And others that I know of. All great heroes on their own earths. Each one a piece of the puzzle used to build the world.

You see, 17.8 earths is not enough to create a new world. There are remnants of many other worlds scattered throughout this one. I think its for background. Sometimes it's a building, sometimes it's a book. Sometimes the remnant is a person

I think someone is trying to collect these pieces of dead realities for a definite reason. To either somehow heal this world or to ressurect the other eaths. If there is a way to do that.

Who am I? Oh. Forgot my manners. They call me The Traveler. Last survivor of Earth-Pi.

***

The next idea I have is the concept of the Randoms, dimensionally displaced heroes. This is one I've worked on for years. I originally posted this in the Mutants & Masterminds message board the Atomic Think Tank. The post is entitled Halfling Rocketeer!

***

In our year 2000, a being of great evil called the Godhead was summoned to the European island of Sterling. The summoning rent the fabric of the multiverse. As the Godhead approached the Earth, the after wake of its passage began to rip champions of good away from the alternate earths, as if to balance the evil approaching. Sir Thorian was caught up in this after wake while helping evacuate a city during a natural disaster. The woman he was saving was flung into the arms of a fellow Rocket Knight; he seemed to disappear in a flash of lightning. On the world of Lunkartor, Sir Thorian was hailed as a fallen hero.

Sir Thorian and the other heroes and heroines that appeared on Sterling began to battle the twisted minions of the Godhead alongside the weary Sterling Royal Guard and scattered European heroes. After the summoning was averted, mages tried to send the heroes back to their world, but the residual dimension energy was to great. The summoned heroes could not go back to their worlds. The Randoms, as they were named, were given identities and citizenship by a grateful nation of Sterling. Many of them formed a group called Patchwork, Inc., a non-profit group of superheroes who can support other teams in times of need. Some have joined established superteams, others have went solo.

Crisis of Infinite Terminators

Another idea that was siting in my head...

Imagine one of the versions of Skynet destroying the Human Resistance. Without the humans to fight, Skynet (now referring to itself as Skynet Prime) seeks to increase it's technological base exponentially. So it discovers dimensional travel technology, and begins to search the multiverse for other mechanical life. Three parallel earths later it discovers another Skynet. Logically, Skynet Prime's superior technological abilities would make an alliance between the two Skynets as foregone conclusion.

The war that broke out was much greater than Skynet Prime had anticipated. And it soon involved the Skynets from other timelines.

Skynet Prime has won many initial battles with the alternate Skynet timelines. A stalemate soon developed that was only broken when the final breakthrough was found. A stray probe found the coordinates for Terminator Prime, the original timeline that all other timelines branched out from. Now each Skynet plots to reach Terminator Prime to either rule the universe or end the mechanical madness once and for all.

Ideas for alternate Skynets include:

*A world where the technological basis of the Terminators was reverse enginered by the remenants of alien invasions. From the Dalek and the Cyberman invasions of the 70s and 80s.

* On a parrallel world where the Reich overran the free world fifty years before, the Nazi's rule a terrified world. As the fires burn over the last city in the United States, a signal goes to a secret bunker deep within a secret location. A red light begins to burn in the eyes of an army of skeletal robots, and soon the Nazis will know fear...

* A world where Skynet was infected with the ramblings of a madman. The book the madman was carrying was Necromicon Ex Mortis, the Book of the Dead.

* Skynet is a giant babbage machine built after the first invasion by the Martians. It soon goes rogue, and man must fight the clockwork army that was meant to protect its creators.

* Skynet was the first bio-computer created that could tap into the limitless storage capacity of the DNA Helix. The Terminators created by this Skynet are amongst the most terrifying things man can see.

One could play this as a superheroic dimensional travel game as supers try to keep the Skynet war from spilling out into the multiverse. Even more fun could be is for the players to each play a Skynet. This is perfect for miniature or board game type play. Each Skynet would have a set amount of Hunter Killers, Infiltrator Terminators, aircraft, etc. A system would be provided to individualise each faction.

When Terminators Make War

Robocop vs Terminator: A great miniseries, the main source of this idea.

GURPS Reign of Steel: Great reference for two reasons. First, it shows one way how AIs would wage war, both hot and cold, against each other. Second, it's probably the closest you'll get to a Terminator roleplaying game.

Terminator: The main wikipedia entry on the Terminator franchise.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The late Fox TV series, which had hints of alternate timelines and different versions of Terminators working against each other.

Torg. Powered by Risus. Some Thoughts.

Had this thought at work: Running Torg using Risus as an engine.

Some ideas:

*Character creation would use 10 to 15 dice for picking cliches.

*Each players get 2 dice in a named home reality cliche. If you're from the cosm (reality) of the Nile Empire you would have Reality [Nile Empire] (2). A player could use dice given in character creation to raise the dice in the Reality cliche. A Reality cliche can be used in a fight to represent a Storm Knight using his home reality's rules to his/her's advantage. The GM can devise other uses.

*"Storm Knight" is added to one of the cliche descriptors.

*Cosms themselves can be rated like a character. Each Cliche can be used for or against a player, or to add flavor to an encounter. I got this idea from High Octane, a Risus supplement by Vin Diakuw. (Link below)

Sample Reality I Made Up:

Orrore Romano, the Italian Horror Movie Reality

Description: This reality is a brightly colored but deadly place. On the surface it appears to be similiar to Earth circa 1980. Underneath the normalcy is a nightmarish world of demons, zombies, witches, psychotic killers, and mad scientists. Over them all rule the Three Mothers, the Ladies of Sorrow who seek to bring their dark dominion over the earth. But there are those who fight the darkness, and each victory keeps the darkness at bay.

Cliches: Italian Horror Movie Reality (3), Monster Infested (3), Dark Undercurrent of Nightmare (2), Fighters Against the Darkness (2)

*Possibilities could be represented as a pool of extra dice that can be spent to add to rolls or other Risus tricks from the main rules or the Risus Companion (all up to the DMs discretion, of course.)

This is just a collection of thoughts. I may do something with this idea someday.

Torg on Wikipedia

Risus the Anything RPG: The current version of the rules onling.

Storm Knights: Jasyn Jones' Torg website. Chock full of great material for the Torg game. I wish I could come up with stuff like this.

High Octane: The inspiration of the Reality Cliches idea by Vin Diakuw.

Secret War 1948: Mystery Men vs Monsters!

By the end of the 40s both superhero comic books and Universal Horror movies were in a decline. Now you know the real reason.

Mix



and




When Count Dracula gathers together the world's greatest monsters into a virtual legion of doom, the greatest superheroes of the Golden Age must band together to fight this monstrous onslaught!

From the courts of Europe to the jungles of the Congo a new war is waged. Not for the fate of nations. For the fate of Mankind itself.

This is

Secret War 1948: Mystery Men vs. Monsters!

Author's Note:

I get my best ideas at work. I had watched the 1994 cartoon Monster Force (monster hunters in super suits vs the Universal Monsters) the night before and my mind began to wander. I took ideas from that cartoon and mixed them with an alternate earth idea I had involving monsters vs superheroes. Ken Hite did this first in the masterful Adventures in Darkness with a Lovecraftian/Golden Age hybrid . I wanted to do it with Dracula.

There are an amazing amount of Golden Age heroes in the public domain. So I had the supers When to set it was important--I wanted the setting post WWII because Nazis pretty much overwhelm any supernatural evil. The monsters would be a mix of monsters, murderers, and mythology. Finally I decided the year: 1948, the year that Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was released, when the Universal Monsters became the butt of jokes.

I probably will never run or stat this, but I had to share the base concept. Enjoy.

Inspiration:
Public Domain Superheroes Wiki
Universal Monsters on Wikipedia
Monster Force on Wikipedia

Goblinoid Games, Public Domain, and Sinistar

Yeah, I know it's been a while since I've posted, but the writing just wasn't there. But now I feel more ideas coming on, so it begins again.

Goblinoid Games

*The Advanced Edition Companion by Goblinoid Games is a stroke of genius. Like many gamers, I started out with Red Box D&D. The people who were DMing often pulled goodies from the AD&D game and grafted them on. The AEC for Labyrinth Lord shares this spirit as well. More spells, classes, monsters, and stuff that brings back memories. Other people have explained the coolness of the AEC better than I could. Just get yourself a copy.

*Mutant Future Mania: The recent upswing of the Mutant Future goodness in the blogosphere is fun. My current favorite blogs are The Savage AfterWorld with the masterful Thundarr Thursdays and Brutorz Bill's Green Skeleton Gaming Guild, who had me when he stated Sleestaks. A ton of great material has already been produced. I may have to stat up some Mutant Future stuff, too. Maybe I should go the Grindhouse route...

Public Domain

*Two days ago I was looking up the Earth Alpha blog for some BASH RPG stats that the person had posted. One of the posts was a discussion about public domain superheroes. Following the public domain tag, there was a post about a wiki dedicated to the superheroes and supervillains that have fallen into the public domain.

Aslanc has posted his thoughts about using the characters here.

The link for the Public Domain Super Heroes wiki is here.

I love the work that others have done with these characters from the comics of Bill Black, Alan Moore, and Alex Ross, to Ken Hite's Lovecraft/Superhero opus Adventures Into Darkness. When I was a boy, I wrote up stats for many of these characters using the Marvel Super Heroes RPG game using entries from Jeff Rovin's Encyclopedia of Superheroes.

If you're looking for some superhero campaign inspiration, or trying to fill in your character's background, check out the Public Domain Super Heroes wiki.

Sinistar

People over the age of 25 will remember this. Turn up the volume up to really loud before you hit play.

Happy Friday the 13th: The Series!

For your entertainment, on this Friday the 13th I have a treat. The first episode of one of my favorite guilty pleasures from the Golden Age of Syndicated Cult TV. It's The Inheritance, the first episode of Friday the 13th: The Series (or Friday's Curse in Canada and Europe)! Join Micki, Ryan, and Jack on their first adventure!

For More about the series and the cursed antiques check out the Wiki entry below.

The Friday the 13th the Series Wikipedia entry.

Enjoy!

[HF2009] Yellow Rhapsody, A Tale of Terror

This is yet more game material written when I was a member of All of the Above, the GURPS APA. Yellow Rhapsody is an adventure seed featuring The King In Yellow. It was written in the systemless style of Steve Hatherley's Tales of Terror. I first saw this format in Pagan Publishing's legendary Call of Cthulhu zine The Unspeakable Oath. Written in 1997, I consider Yellow Rhapsody one the best things I have ever created. The only changes made here are spelling and formatting. Enjoy.


Yellow Rhapsody
A Film by "Alan Smithee"

Excerpt:

Man in the Mask: To what do you hold dear?
Robert: Life, love, happiness, what all men hold dear.
M in M: They mean nothing in the Tremors of the dance.
R: Then why do you dance if you have no pleasure?
M in M: There is no question in the dance, no why, no how. We dance for the king. That is enough.
R: Who is the King?
M in M: The name is all around you.
R: I see nothing.
M in M: That is his name.

The packaging is deceptive. It is a video box decorated by colorful computer generated art with the title Tales of the Weird set in garish red. The back has text that promises terrors from these three college films. The only film company mentioned on the cover in "Weird Press Films".

The first and second films are normal horror films. "Early for Dinner" is an EC Comics-style fable involving a grifter who attempts to con a beautiful gourmet cook. He gets his comeuppance when she makes him the meal for a family of ghouls. "Last Call" is a bizarre black and white blending of German Expressionistic film and Italian zombie films. Two couples spend a night in a deserted Midwest farm and stumble onto a devilish device that alters their reality.

"Yellow Rhapsody" is the highlight. It is an animated film done in a minimalist, Alex Toth-like style. The plot involves a young man named Robert Chambers who gets a strange book from his grandfather—The King in Yellow. As he reads the play, characters inspired by it begin to haunt him day and night. Helped by the mysterious Man in the Mask and the lovely Cassilda, he pierces the veil and walks the halls of Carcosa. After a surrealistic journey he meets the King, who envelopes him in voluminous cloaks of yellow. The film ends with Robert dancing with Cassilda in the King in Yellow's court. The Man in the Mask looks to the screen and pulls of his mask, revealing nothing but a starry field and a yellow rune where his left eye should be.


Tales of the Weird has become a cult classic due to the amount of disappearances connected to it. According to the legend that has grown up around it. The legend claims that "Yellow Rhapsody" was animated by a recluse who slit his own throat over the original cells of animation. It is a challenge, they say, to watch the film the whole way through. Something about the colors and the sound has a tendency to lull the viewer asleep or blur his vision. The ones that do claim that the camera plunges in the starry field and the credits begin to roll. An evil looking little boy with milky white eyes grins insanely as the credits begin to blur and break up, becoming unreadable.

Police are starting to take this case seriously. The suicides and disappearances on college campuses are starting to mount. Most of the original print run of the film has been seized and/or destroyed. Weird Press Films cannot be reached for comment.


Possibilities

1. The film itself is not the problem. It is the spirit of the animator that is the cause of the disappearances. The Mythos references were unintentional; he simply liked the King in Yellow. "Alan Smithee" lives within the original print of Yellow Rhapsody. He can perceive anyone who watches the entire film. After each viewing he attempts to take over the watcher. If he succeeds, Smithee drains life force or implants commands to watch the movie again. The disappearances are caused by the eventual destruction Smithee can visit upon a victim by draining them until they turn to dust.

2. The film is actually nested with subliminal messages put in by cultists at Weird Press Films. Throughout the video the Yellow Sign and other Mythos sigils and symbols are present. The other two short films also have references to the Mythos hidden within their narrative. The subliminals are a tool used by the cultists to recruit and identify. The curious ones are drawn to join the cult, while those who investigate the Mythos can by drawn out and eliminated. If innocents are driven to harm, that is not their concern.

3. "Yellow Rhapsody" is a cleverly disguised gate to Carcosa. If a person watches the film in its entirety (up to the grinning child), they become touched by the film. The viewer begins to watch the film over and over again and begins to see more detailed backgrounds. The sky forms into strange runes, the details in the clothes, and the characters' lines not heard before all become apparent. As the viewer becomes more drawn into the animation, the film becomes more nightmarish and surreal. The landscapes beyond the window become strange and alien, their inhabitants staring back. Screams of torture can be heard beneath the etherial music. Hallucinations begin to set in as the victim sees the characters come to life around him.

When sanity finally slips away, the Man in the Mask comes to snatch away the viewer, while Robert and Cassilda hold open the way to the city of Carcosa. The victim becomes one of the dancers whirling away to the dance of the Yellow King. A friend who watches the video might be lucky enough to see an old friend dancing for eternity in wild abandon as the Man in the Mask laughs mockingly.

The Obelisk of Kronos Redux--In d30!

In the spirit of the really fun science fantasy material that is appearing in several blogs throughout the RPG Blogosphere, I present this random table. Set in the mighty world of Vanth from Encounter Critical, this table originally appeared in the world famous Encounter Critical Mailing List Files section using a d20. I’ve dropped some of the reference notes, but added 10 more possibilities, ‘cause daddy’s using a d30!

The Obelisk of Kronos

An Encounter Critical Adventure Starter

The Players touch a strange obelisk and are swept away to a strange new place.

The Obelisk of Kronos: An indestructible 6-foot tall crystal carved in the shaped of an obelisk. References in the Dimensionomicon tie these artifacts to the mysterious Kronosians. An Obelisk of Kronos not bound to a Table of Thoth is prone to cause a lot of chaos.

When a character touches the obelisk they must make roll against the Saving Throw skill. Success leaves the victim shaken but not hurt. Failure results in a multiversal shift.

Roll a 1d30 and Check the table below.

1 Alternate Vanth—Roll a d6

1 Reverse Alignment Vanth: Evil guys are good, good guys are evil.
2 High Tech Vanth: No magic, just psionics and technology.
3 One Race Vanth: One intelligent race on Vanth, with many variants.
4 Robodroid/Lizardman War Vanth: terminators vs. serpent men for control of the world.
5 Super Vanth: Vanth with superpowers and comic book tropes.
6 GMs Choice. Go nuts.

2 Throneworld of Price Dax, Protector of the Insector Alliance

3 The home of the gods. Pick a pantheon and run with it.

4 The World of Mythika

5 Asteroid 1618

6 The Bridge of the Starcruiser Durandal

7 Victorian England Roll a d6

1-4 Historical
5-6 Steampunk stuf

8 Megatheira: Gargantuan monsters rampage this world

9 The Planet Klor, rotating around the star Betalguese

10 One of the Elemental Planes: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Others

11 The Prison Dimension of Lord Dire Killblade, Thanatosian Overlord

12 Camelot Roll a d6

1-2 Classic Arthur
3-4 Twist on the Legend
5-6 Alternate Arthur

13 The plane of Limbo. Roll again or make up something REALLY weird.

14 The jungle realm of the Animal Lords

15 Post Apocalyptic America during the Neo-Luddite/Cyclor Empire War.

16 The Citadel of Honor, New Liberty during the Megaforce/Allied Battalion reunion

17 The Realm of Shatterstone, Crystal Warrior sector

18 The castle of Baron Bramm von Vulkav, country of Vulkavia

19 The Known Lands

20 Neo Chicago, 2255. You land in the middle of a battle between the Defender and Conqueror factions of the Transchangors.

21 Carcosa. One of them (Biercian, Chambersian, Tynesian, or McKinneyian)

22 Harlem, 1970s. Prince Mamuwalde is gathering monsters to his noble cause to fight inhuman creatures worse than he is.

23 Atlantis. Pick one of the thousands of version of Atlantis.

24 The Gothic Empire of Terra during the Andromedan Crusade against the NecroOrks of Antares.

25 The Keep on the Borderlands

26 New Georgia Megastracture, Mecha Police Squad

27 Modern day Earth, Illuminated.

28 The middle of an active wormhole. The players get stuck wherever the wormhole leads, and with whoever was going through it.

29 Somewhere in the history of Vanth.

30 GMs Choice: Anyway from TV, movies, books, other games or anything else.

Some Notes:

Multiversal Shift: The act of traveling through the multiverse at random.

The Dimensionomicon: A tome containing vast amounts of information on the multiverse and the omniverse. There are many different editions and versions of the Dimensionomicon, so not all of the information is valid, honest or up to date….

Kronosians: A morphic race of mutiversal travelers who observe (or try to protect) the omniverse. They can incarnate 9 times before their energies fade into the omniverse. All Kronosians have a tendency towards overconfidence and curiosity.
Thanatosians: The opposition of the Kronosians, the Thantosians are a morphic race that feed of the death and destruction of the omniverse. Whiles they do not Incarnate like the Kronosians, they can take over bodies and make them their own.