seneschal

Hercules, Atlas, Goliath, Ursus, and Maciste say hello. Wear that scanty loincloth with pride and pop those pecs!

That does it! You must direct the next Justice League movie. Just because you're paranoid and xenophobic doesn't mean They are not out to get you!

No, no. DuckDuckGo! You don't want those bat cultists tracking your investigations.

Re: uneven technological levels John Carter and Flash Gordon use swords in space because of the Rule of Cool. Hard to swashbuckle without one. But there are practical reasons why a sci-fi setting might have varying types of gear. I mean, on our modern Earth we still have stone age and medieval people groups living on a planet with high speed air travel, global communications, cars and computers. And the best way to reach the floor of the Grand Canyon is still a sure-footed donkey. Affordable and portable gadgets (e.g., cell phones) make it to remote locations where you might not expect them, but not everyone can afford a personal drone, F-35 or ballistic missile. Historically, Edison, Ford, Bell, et. al., were inventing our modern electronic goodies in New York while cowboys and Indians were still duking it out in Oklahoma. All the latest high-tech goodies aren't evenly distributed across the galaxy (or 21st century Earth) because: 1) Various cultures don't develop technology at the same rate. Some groups have smarter people or more resources than others. Or maybe they just got lucky. If this is true on one planet, how much more so as people spread out to multiple planets? 2) The locals missed out on the distribution chain. Either because of their remote location or because of the political or economic quirks of transportation and trade, they're last on the route to get the fancy gear. 3) The latest goodies are just too expensive. The average Joe on Planet X can't afford them. 4) The technology in question, particularly if it has potential military applications, is restricted by the planet or group that developed it. Whether to protect national security or trade secrets, the holders of better tools want to keep them to themselves. In "The Prisoner of Zenda," the villain had access to pre-WW 1 guns but armed his retainers with medieval melee weapons because he didn't want firearms turned against him during a time of political instability. 5) Older tech is more reliable. If it ain't broke, don't upgrade it. Low tech may be cheaper and easier to produce, Or perhaps it is the simplest and easiest solution for the problem or environment at hand. After all, we're still using mountains of pencils in the age of smart pads. 6) Galactic civilization is just now recovering from societal collapse. Sci-fi empires are typically huge and old and have gone through cycles of rapid expansion and dramatic setbacks. Sometimes there have been multiple previous galactic governments overthrown by civil unrest, alien invasion, disease, scientific overreach, or loss of resources. The latest would-be overlords have become stable and wealthy enough to attempt to "restore order" to former imperial members and colonies, who may have regressed socially and technologically in the interim. After all, some advanced technologies may require massive economies of scale to develop and maintain. And there's no guarantee that the current conquerors are as technologically sophisticated as their predecessors. Maybe tools left over from the last empire are essentially D&D magic items that can't be reproduced with current knowledge and equipment. Or all of the above. In classic Traveller, non-lethal dart guns and old-fashioned cutlasses are the typical shipboard weapons used against would-be boarders because the more advanced weaponry available would likely burn a hole in the starship's hull or damage/destroy its engines. Explosive decompression is a harsh mistress! Battle armor, powered or unpowered, and plasma guns are restricted military items, hideously expensive, and battery hogs to boot. Besides, wearing them into the local convenience store would freak out the cops, never a good thing, even on worlds with more relaxed governments. For adventurers, the best balance between effectiveness and cost is widely available ballistic cloth and a standard automatic pistol. And the lower tech gear is fairly concealable and less likely to attract unwanted attention than other options. Since even a fistfight can easily be lethal in Traveller, PCs are much more likely to sneak around and avoid confrontation than engage in Han Solo-type antics anyway.

To be fair, folks (NPCs) in the Creature movies did scream and run when he was roaming around loose rather than safely chained in his enclosure. Context matters. Abe Sapens is freaky but perhaps a bit less so while politely asking you to turn the page of the book he's reading from the other side of his thick glass aquarium. And the first thing biblical angels always say to the people they are sent to is, "Don't be afraid." Never mind that I'm glowing like a neon sign and demonstrating a total disruption of the natural order. Quit screaming and banging your head against the wall; God has a message for you. It's amazing that so many Bible characters manage to talk back to them. (Spoilers!) The discussion reminds me of a movie I recently re-watched, "The Last Starfighter." Its protagonist encounters all sorts of inhuman goings on by beings he never suspected existed and he does express various degrees of unease, shock and terror. But the confrontations are played for laughs and he never totally loses it despite being an ordinary high schooler rather than a typical movie action hero. Think about this happening to you either in real life or to your character in a CoC game: You're kidnapped and taken off planet by a fast talking stranger who proves to be inhuman, dumped into boot camp at an alien military base where no one speaks your language, introduced to fellow recruits consisting of assorted aggressive unearthly creatures, threatened by an alien dictator whose giant image appears in your midst Wizard of Oz style, encounter a robotic duplicate of yourself when you manage to make it home, then are stalked by foul-smelling, shape-shifting monster assassins sent directly to your house by said dictator. And we haven't gotten to the climax of the movie yet. How many SAN rolls would you have to make, and would the odds against your passing them be cumulative? Or would you reach a point of outrage overload where you'd roll your eyes and say, "Oh why not? It isn't any crazier than anything else that's happened today." Contrast Starfighter's relatively fast-paced peril to the slow-burn creepiness experienced by "Dark Shadows" governess Victoria Winters. She takes an out-of-state job at an isolated, ill-lit mansion where the townsfolk immediately warn her off, her employers and co-workers treat her with suspicion, and her young (and possibly crazy) charge hates her on sight. Locked doors open and close on their own, her belongings are gone through despite her locking her bedroom, nighttime sobbing echos loudly from empty rooms, the basement (and the heavily padlocked door therein) are declared off-limits after the fact, and everyone around her seems to be keeping secrets when they aren't actively lying to her. Oh, and several people are all too eager to tell her about the unfortunate fates of previous nannies. How many SAN rolls are required here, or does the fact that you decide to keep the job mean you're nuts already?

Which begs the question: Why does seeing Bigfoot or the Wolf Man cost you SAN but catching a glimpse of Chewbacca in a seedy bar doesn't? He's packin' heat, they aren't. Why could thousands of tourists view the Creature From the Black Lagoon at Ocean World without freaking out in "Return of the Creature" (and the gal in "Shape of Water" even makes out with the equivalent) but Deep Ones are horrifying? What have they got that Abe Sapiens hasn't got? Why is Dracula terrifying but Babylon 5's Londo Mollari (who has the same fangs, pale skin, weird eyes, black formal wear, and a really bad haircut) is just this guy, you know? Personally, I'd have pulled out the ash stakes and garlic as soon as he came through the airlock, intergalactic treaties be darned!

So, the PCs are essentially members of a private security service. Or bounty hunters. As long as they stay out of interstellar politics (perhaps difficult to do) and help the weak local governments maintain order (for a modest fee) the local warlords might welcome their efforts. The problems (and adventure seeds) begin where there are conflicting agendas and priorities among the adventurers' potential clients. What if the gangsters/drug dealers/kidnappers/smugglers the heroes are trying to stop turn out to be hirelings doing dirty work for a government faction, just like the PCs? What if various subscribers have jobs that present a conflict of interest? Can the PCs manage to satisfy multiple sides without betraying one or the other? Do they follow the money or some higher moral code? Would they avoid this by eschewing government contracts and working for wealthy private patrons instead? But then we're into justice only for those who can afford to pay for it. Lots of Westerns with that theme. "Who was that masked man?" "I dunno but he gave me a bill for 50,000 credits."

Reminds me of the challenges faced by the inhabitants of Sealab, which I researched a couple years ago. Air pressure (and its composition) also affects what and how enclosed voyagers can cook. Tinned and microwavable stuff (and NO SMOKING!).

Now, if the Beacon was Mavis, eVerything would be neatly typed in a reasonably sized font and we could read it easily:

Nah, the satanic panic was ancient history long before the Internet was even invented. (I'm an old fart. I was there for both events.) And it is ardent young liberal secularists that write the algorithms at Google and YouTube. The folks who worried about D&D back in the 1970s and early '80s have either passed away or are much more concerned about video games these days. Something as archaic and passé as in-person tabletop pen-and-paper roleplaying just isn't on their radar anymore. 😉

It is. The string of comments criticizing the PM is endless.

Just like Galaxy Quest was the best recent StarTrek movie. You gotta love and respect the genre you're trying to emulate for your efforts to succeed.

I've noticed YouTube creating "playlists" for me of the same 5-10 items I most recently watched. If I let them pick, I'd never hear or learn anything new ever again. Meanwhile, their selections on search topics can be pretty wonky. A list of videos about the West End Games d6 Star Wars rpg included one on recovering from demonic possession. Because Emperor Palpatine was planning to take over Rey's body, I guess? Maybe?

Downloaded random free Star Wars paper minis and noticed they were close enough in scale to work alongside the usual Call of Cthulhu silhouettes. That's ... unsettling. The galaxy suddenly got much more dangerous! 😳

Um, why do their eyes and foreheads look alike? 😳

I chimed in to contribute sympathy as someone who also dwells where fires sometimes present a danger. I apparently wasted my breath. Found fire coverage only when I specifically searched for it. No mention of it popped up in my usual news channels over the holidays, although other.stories did. Since Ian objects to everything I post on any conceivable subject, I've learned to discount his opinion.

I'd go for a film version of "Splinter of the Mind's Eye." Does it fit continuity and canon? No, but then neither do the sequels. 😉

It doesn't fit the tone and morality of the rest of the series. The Rebels were the good guys, resisting the ruthless Evil Empire. Our Heroes didn't slaughter Imperial minions for sport, but the latter were clearly on the wrong side of the moral scale. The heroes could defend themselves without remorse. Just like Legolas could pick off cannibalistic orcs without shame or James Bond could eliminate SPECTRE agents that were trying to kill him anyway (not that he had qualms in the first place). If you humanize and make sympathetic the heartless foot soldiers that casually murdered Luke Skywalker's family, an entire clan of Jawas, and the unresisting population of the planet Alderan, you've changed the dynamic and inner logic of the whole saga. And, as I mentioned, that's exactly what happened in the last three movies. The bloodthirsty troopers are now victims and the self-sacrificing Resistance fighters are ruthless killers. With competent plotting and characterization (not in evidence in the sequels) that sort of thing might make an interesting story -- but it wouldn't be Star Wars. FN-0000 is a missed opportunity, and as a character he never gets a break. He refuses to participate in a massacre (good) but strips off his gear and runs away from Captain Phasma rather than fighting her and attempting to thwart her evil plans (is he a coward?). He never gets to be the hero but is consistently depicted as incompetent comic relief (but we already have C3P0 for that). In fact, the first thing that happens to him after his escape is that he gets beat up by a a girl half his size with no military training (Rey). Later, it is implied that he is falling in love with Rey -- but since she is the Messiah-ess she's above such things even if FN wasn't merely the hired help. Except she heals and kisses Kylo Ren, the emo villain wannabe who has only been trying to kill her for three movies. Women! Poor FN eventually meets a nubile former Stormtrooper with a life story similar to his own -- but the relationship goes nowhere and he STILL doesn't get the girl. No fair!

Must be the hot chocolate and ski babes. Oh wait, that was "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Darn! Why can't Delta Green have as much fun as George Lazenby?

Well, Matango involves spore infection and the other two long distance mind control. If your creature can psychically lure victims to it and/or give them orders, it doesn't need to roam around and hunt. Or it can ride its prey as it consumes them, exercising its powers on the hoof to infect as many people as possible. It can spore-blast would-be rescuers even if they aren't under its domination -- and they'll still turn into a fungus brain even if they retain their personalities to the last. Transformation could be as slow and horrible as you want to make it. Or a proto-fungus could go on a murderous rampage before collapsing into a mycelium heap, with each corpse supporting a new brain growth. Your fungus brains are not mindless zombies. They can read a target's thoughts, call to him or her with the images or voices of loved ones, lie in wait where they know the potential victim is going to hole up. They don't even have to be violent. Perhaps contact with a victim's skin or breathing/swallowing passages is enough. They explode in a cloud of choking spores or a sticky tangle of mycelium as soon as prey gets within range. Yuck! No combat occurs, and the host is toast unless he is encased in a hazmat suit. Its only a matter of time.

Matango meets Donovan's Brain meets Beast With One Million Eyes. I like! But you consider it a minor threat??? It's like three or more B movies in one!

Stormy About Imperial Stormtroopers WARNING! Possible Minor Spoilers! Not That They Matter At This Point. After listening to various YouTube reviews I had decided to skip "The Rise of Skywalker." "The Force Awakens" needed to go back to sleep, and "Rogue One" -- while well done -- was simply depressing, quite unlike the energetic, hopeful tone of the original trilogy. However, when we went to the movies as a family during Christmas, RoS (in IMAX 3-D!!!) was the only thing available. "Spies In Disguise" was full, and we decided to let "Frozen 2" go. In addition, my wife bought me the 30th Anniversary reprint of the WEG Star Wars d6 RPG (30% discount!), and I later spent a whopping $1.10 to print out an army of Star Wars paper minis at the public library (why are Stormtroopers easier to find for free than generic fantasy goblins?). And all this got me thinking again about those ubiquitous Stormtroopers. In "Star Wars" you weren't sure at first whether the skeleton-looking armored things were alive or not. They might have been as robotic as R2D2. Mid-film it seemed that they might be human since Our Heroes could slip into their armor -- but that wasn't a sure thing since stealthy sci-fi good guys had been hiding in robot outer shells at least since "The Phantom Empire" (1935). Much later, the prequels established that Stormtroopers were mass-produced clones designed to mindlessly follow orders, which helped explain why they were such indifferent soldiers. Suddenly in "Force Awakens" FN-whatever peels off his gear during combat and flees rather than participate in a massacre. He later claims he was kidnapped and forced into First Order military service as a child, a nasty real-world practice that the former Empire never found necessary. Now, in "Rise of Skywalker" we have whole contingents of forced-labor Stormtroopers-of-color risking instant death to lay down their arms out of conscience in the middle of battle -- and despite everything we've seen in eight movies about the martial competence of Stormtroopers they managed to defeat their officers and escape sans weapons, armor and powered vehicles. Remember, they simultaneously all laid down their arms. And their officers presumably didn't. Hmmmm. Since when do Stormtroopers possess cowardice (lookin' at you, FN) or morals or a reasonable sense of self-preservation? Why make any of them sympathetic, or a member of a supposedly abused group, when they're the Bad Guys? See, you can mow down hordes of Stormtroopers without guilt as long as they're faceless white male clones with conservative political leanings. But their deaths seem much more plentiful and personal in RoS than in previous Star Wars films I've seen, multiple exploding Death Stars notwithstanding. Since "Force Awakens," they're now innocent victims of Imperial ambition -- yet the alleged heroes of the tale murder them more aggressively, nay, eagerly than Luke, Han, et.al., ever did. What next? Lord of the Rings orcs and the White Witch's Narnian monsters are sympathetic victims, too? Sure, and Count Dracula will retire to run a quiet resort and care for his children. Next ya'll will want to, I don't know, run Cthulhu for president or something!

Haven't heard a peep about these in the U.S. news. Sorry you're having to go through it. Our reporters are too busy trying to un-elect a president to let Americans know what is going on overseas. Worked as a reporter in rural Oklahoma where small volunteer fire departments and dry conditions are the norm. I sympathize.

As I poke around I find more and more old movies featuring plant monsters -- vampiric trees, animated tiki idols, strangler vines, Venus mantraps, etc. "The Thing From Another World" (1951) is probably the best known, featuring a super-intelligent vampiric carrot (which looked and acted more like the Frankenstein monster than a space alien). However, the Japanese "Matango" (1963) based on William Hope Hodgson's "A Voice in the Night" is pretty creepy and true to the spirit of original tale. Are you sure you want the mushroom burger? Songs aside, have you used plant monsters in your games? What types? There are plenty of inspirations to steal from.

"The Beast With A Million Eyes" (1955) has a different execution but similar premise to "The Color Out of Space." A rural family is menaced by crazed animals and people after a "plane" buzzes their homestead and lands in the desert. Then there was the "G.I. Joe" cartoon episode where Cobra was trying to release an entity from an ancient well, thinking the creature would assist their efforts at world domination. You can imagine how that little scheme worked out. 😱 Armitage: "There are things Man was not meant to know." Duke: "And knowing is half the battle!"