What could weird science do?

[Gray Raven]

On 10/19/2023 at 6:31 AM, Pao said:

I feel like there other way of doing that, without harvesting people brain.

That might be true for humans making use of those brain cylinders, but the Mi Gos have different motivations than us, mere humans.  The story that prominently featured them was Lovecraft's The Whisper in the Darkness.  

The Mi Gos used humans to front their mining operations on Earth.  Often taking over and replacing their human hosts to more easily control them and use them to deal with other humans, hence the brain cylinder device.  But sometimes, they do it for what they consider a special favor for their pet humans.

As it says in the 7th edition of the C of C Keepers Manual on page 301:

Mi-go are inquisitive scientists, capable of astounding surgical feats, including the placing of living human brains in life-sustaining metal tubes. They can then attach speaking, listening, and seeing devices to the tubes, so that the brains can interact with those around them. Such contained brains may then be carried around and taken into the vacuum and cold of space, allowing their favored human servants the opportunity to visit distant stars and other mi-go outposts.

[Gray Raven]

On 10/20/2023 at 3:34 PM, g33k said:

The more of the Mythos that comes within reach of humanity, the less Cosmic Horror the setting holds:  even if it has come with some SAN-loss, a human who is still (mostly) sane, and has a reliable Shoggoth-creation process in-hand (particularly a process that others can use, with minimal SAN-loss to them) has advanced humanity's reach, has gained us all some mastery over the Mythos...

I would agree.  Having humans, even NPC villains, have access to this mythos technology seems to take away the Cosmic Horror and the implied vast distance between humanity's levels and the Mythos beings.  I think that it would be only through Mytho's direct connections and support via 'Gods' or Alien species that the villains would seem to get access to that tech.  It keeps within the Lovecraft worldview for humanity not ever to truly have this kind of knowledge that they could make use of on their own.  

But, as always there is the 'Your mileage might vary' principle, and therefore the GM/Keeper gets to truly decide how to run their game.

[Midas]

On 10/19/2023 at 8:17 AM, Pao said:

What is the propuse of Mi-Go brain container?

I just figured that the Mi-go used them like in (benevolent) Ship Who Sang, or (malevolent) Plague of Demons. If you can do it, just taking the brain is a whole lot more efficient than taking the whole body, life support wise.

[soltakss]

Weird Science covers those bits in films, books and TV Shows, where a mad scientist comes up with a load of pseudo-science babbling to justify something. If you can do that then you can make it with Weird Science.

[Ian Absentia]

I think the over-arching question, relative to Call of Cthulhu, is: Where does the inspiration for "weird science" come from?

In the first scenario on the old Shadows of Yog-Sothoth campaign, that inspiration was...

Spoiler

Nyarlatohotep

So, in my opinion, yes to all of the above.  It's "weird" in the classic sense of being not just strange, but uncanny or supernatural.  The ego of the scientist may lead them to believe that it was their own genius that led to their discoveries, but there's something lurking in the corner of the laboratory.

!i!

Edited November 25, 2023 by Ian Absentia

[hasevir]

On 10/15/2023 at 5:58 PM, Pao said:

Would human-level weird scinece able to revesed engineer a lighting gun?

Sure, certainly follows the good vein of adam -dr frankensteins monster and other such examples of weird science.

Go visit a library and dig out those old classic books. Invisible man! Dr moreau.. a magnetohydrodynamic submarine that draws its power and motion from water and staying under for years. Dont expect a version of good old natilus to be buildable without loads of other skills and a kingdom or two of wealth tho, CreditRating 99% becomes even more useful, and would be a requirement for Nautilus or a spaceship operating on a (Erasmus) darwin engine.

Edited December 11, 2023 by hasevir
erasmus added, should help googling