seneschal

See, if the Rotarians and Moose guys were a tad more assertive in their recruitment efforts their clubs could prosper again!

It's not about contempt, emotional or otherwise, for anything. It's about appreciation for a literary and cinematic genre convention. Homework assignment: watch 13 Universal horror movies, 5 Republic movie serials, read 10 Doc Savage, The Spider or other heroic pulp novels, 4 old sci fi novels from the 1920s and '30s. The depictions are based on illustrious scientists and inventors such as Einstein, Carver, Franklin, Edison, Bell -- none of whom were spring chickens when they received public acclaim for their achievements.

"Is this a Scientist Stereotype Experience Package?" [Robin Williams as the Genie voice]. "Yes! He can be taught!" RPG character packages have nothing to do with your petty real-world experiences of ... anything, really. Otherwise we'd end up playing Walmart the RPG. They're about rewarding a player for modeling a fiction convention faithfully to recreate a mood or type of story. It's why all RPG elf maidens are beautiful, all dwarves are brawny jewel smiths, all cowboys can play the guitar and croon soulfully as well as shoot with deadly accuracy, all biker gangsters wear black leather jackets and comb their hair in ducktails, all gangsters have Italian accents and pinstripe suits (don't forget the Boss's lapel carnation!), all deformed henchmen drool as the Big Bad goes on and on about his Master Plan, why when the bright one pops ups up and says, "Oh, I get it, Boss" the Big Bad responds, "If I really thought you were capable of understanding it I'd kill you!"

Favorite line from "Scooby Doo On Zombie Island" (as the Mystery, Inc., gang are surrounded by the shambling undead): "You're not a skeptic, Freddie. You're in denial!"'

It's a Yithian plot!

It's a genre thing on both counts. Look at the pop culture from the 1930s through the 1960s. With very rare exceptions (whiz kids like Tom Swift) the scientist is almost always an older gentleman with enough life experience to have arch enemies and grandchildren as well as a Nobel prize or three. Our modern concept of the youthful genius didn't develop until Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did it for real in the 1970s and '80s. Same deal with the occult. Scientists were riding the coattails of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Religion and superstition were going to, ahem, magically disappear as science guided by rationalism and materialism explained everything worth knowing. A pop culture scientist had to deny any phenomenon that smacked of the mystical to maintain his worldview even as the witch doctor's curse took hold or the werewolf gnawed on his shoe. It wasn't until the 1980s and '90s that advanced physics started sounding awfully theological. Again, we're dealing with a stereotype here, but the typical brainy guy you'd see or hear or read about in media was too old to box with the Big Bad and skeptical enough to make Mystery, Inc.'s Fred Jones look like a believer. That's what the character template reflects. (Alchemy, by the way, was the father of and evolved into modern chemistry.)

Thanks for sharing. It is an interesting comparison.

I would run both time periods and sets of protagonists simultaneously within the same "episode," bouncing back and forth. So when characters in time period A finish their turns, the time period B PCs spring into action. My reasoning is that events in the past will immediately cause the future to shift and change -- and you'll be able to adjust the plot on the fly as NPCs, information or artifacts alter of disappear entirely. An investigator in the past breaks up with his fiance, and a future adventurer's wife and kids vanish or become someone else. Allies become cultists or vice-versa, Mythos tomes crumble into ashes or expand like shaving cream to double length, neighborhoods or cities or even technologies ooze into new configurations around the heroes as the story progresses.

I'm not sure I understand. What sort of scientific stunts do you imagine the PC researcher performing? The sudden development of some weird science gadget or miracle medicine?

Similar theme, different execution: Womaneater (1958), a British film about an exotic plant that devours, well, you know. Pretty victims but no songs. Too bad!

"Hurry, Fritz. Activate the isometric sublimator!" "Yessss, Herr Doktor!" (lightning flash)

Although the discussion has wandered ... a bit.

Heh, the inestimable Dr. Robotnik is sort of an amalgam of sub-types. Nubile -- Usually an ingenue, although she has the scientific chops to help the player-character with his experiments. Occasionally, however, she is an unfaithful wife scheming with the pencil-thin mustache to steal the adventurer's money or discoveries. Robotic -- Think the Mysterious Doctor Satan's prototype soldier or Doctor Zorka's 8-foot toothy automaton. Our hero scientist wouldn't have built his android for nefarious ends but such metal servants have a way of either falling into the wrong hands or developing malevolent minds of their own. Hunchback -- Fritz (Frankenstein) or Daniel (House of Frankenstein) are the prototypical hunchbacked servants, skilled at manual tasks and mechanical assembly as long as they aren't too complicated and reasonably loyal since they'd have trouble finding employment elsewhere. They tend, however, to develop moral defects such as falling for the hero scientist's lovely fiance or feeling somehow slighted by the boss or having criminal friends from their past show up and demand favors. Pencil-Thin Mustache -- An associate or supposedly friendly rival of Our Hero, handsome and cultured but somehow not quite as skilled as the PC, and he resents it. He has his own ideas of how the research should proceed or how the adventurer's discoveries should be used. And he's unprincipled enough to sneak around behind the scientist's back to have his own way. He'll also make a play for the hero's love interest with much more confidence than the bashful hunchback. Brawny -- He's big and athletic, maybe youthful, maybe a stern war veteran. He's the unsympathetic orderly at the asylum, the college athlete who took the job at the lab only for quick cash or a shot at the professor's daughter, the grim-faced employment agency recommendation who has the skills but maybe a criminal or foreign spy background as well (and he's not telling). Like the hunchback, maybe he has bad friends, or maybe he angled for the position specifically to steal the scientist's work.

I like it. Fits the genre stereotype well. Only thing lacking is an assistant/henchman. These come in three flavors: nubile (often a daughter), sinister (pencil-thin mustache, big and brawny or a wiry hunchback), or robotic. The scientist doesn't have to be a bad guy for his NPC associates to go wrong.

No movie made after 2005 counts. But the Marvel/Dark Horse Comics continuity is a must! My Star Wars heroes need to meet a race of green Bugs Bunnies and fierce psychic feline bounty hunters..

"Your temperament's wrong for the priesthood, and teaching would suit you still less; So be a dentist. You'll be a success!" We've had CoC adaptations of Clue, RUR, even Murder On the Orient Express. Has anyone tried to adapt "Little Shop of Horrors"? It's got a setting similar to "The Horror At Red Hook," a cast of disreputable characters/suspects, and an unusual (and ravenous) monster. I'm not so much a fan of the original 1960 black-and-white movie, which I found boring, but I absolutely love the musical and the 1986 film. Why throw mere cultists at your players when you can confront them with all-singing, all-dancing critters of ultimate destruction? I can envision a buzzing Mi-Go chorus line accompanied by kazoos in addition to whatever main monster you want to include.

Nearly 2,000 views and nobody has statted up Rey or Kylo Ren or FN-whatever or a double-bladed lightsabre yet? Gee, Disney really has ruined the franchise. Not a fan of the prequels but those locust/lizard things from Attack of the Clones were sort of interesting. Anyone ready to stat them up?

I've read literature critics that claim "Shadow Out of Time is H.P.'s best work, but "Shadow Over Innsmouth" is the tale that fired my imagination the most. The thought of being stalked through a rickety small town at night by things that used to be human (and they know the territory better than you) still sends shivers down my spine. "Dunwich," "Dexter Ward" and "Kadath" are also favorites but just not as personal as "Innsmouth." Wilbur is after the manuscript and his brother will eat anybody. The events of "Dexter Ward" are happening off in a corner somewhere and murder sprees are commonplace these days. "Kadath" seems more of an Indiana Jones type romp, maybe with a bit of Baron Munchausen thrown in. But the creatures in "Innsmouth" are after YOU!

Herding those cats West will be even more difficult than fighting the Mythos. And now we know why Easterners consider folks on the other side of the Appalachians Delaplorables. 😉

So just to be clear, y'all want to be Gaslighted? 😱

Another idea I never got to game out. But you know the climax had to feature an aerial battle between flying Nazghul and Crimson Skies style biplanes.

My take on this was to adopt a pulp adventure trope, where one of the PCs buys a ring at a dodgy pawn shop and the adventurers find themselves being stalked by shadowy, half-seen figures in dark trench coats and slouch hats plus a pint-sized would-be assassin who seems to follow them everywhere.

Thank you. Hey! Its even my favorite color. But wouldn't bright yellow make it an easy target against the snow? Don't want to scuff the paint job. Unless that's a form of camouflage ("Don't eat the yellow snow!").

Recovering from surgery, didn't get to run it. But I did watch the Clue movie with my extended family on Halloween night. No mecha though (daughter can't afford robot insurance).

Man, this thread has drifted far afield! "Colonel Mustard did it, on Penopolous III, with plasma cannon mounted on his Danguard Mark VII!"