THE EIGHT TRACK MIND
Ramblings on RPGs, SF, and Misc.
Number 13
July, 1995
Virgil Greene
Faithful readers may recall that in IR #11, in a comment to George Phillies, I noted my "current apocalyptic scenario". This suggested the possibility that if a Democratic President and Congress were elected in 2000 after four years of a Republican Presidency and Congress that there would be an attempt to overthrow the government by "extreme Conservative True Believers".
Then we had the Oklahoma City bombing. Loonies bombing a government building. The existence of anti-government and anti-gun control "militias" (from my reading of the US Constitution they aren't proper militias) came forcefully to public notice.
Did my scenario come true five years early? Not really. The folk who appear to be involved are the crazies of the crazy. Isolated individuals who are not representative of the "militia" groups. And they certainly aren't representative of Republicans or supporters of Speaker Gingrich and his Newtlings; they may well not be supporters of the GOP. We're not talking about the average American Conservative here.
No, my scenario is a broader revolt; possibly featuring the various militias but not a one shot terror action. I would keep in mind that while the Oklahoma bombing is the deadliest terrorist act in American history there are other terror acts by various small groups and individuals in the West against smaller government offices and Federal employees. There are people who presently reject much of the authority of the central government; particularly over public lands. One rather strange notion assumes that the highest legitimate government authority is the county government; there are claims that this develops from something in the traditions of English common law that are passed on to the US. Weird, considering that last I checked there's higher governmental bodies in Britain. There's certainly a possibility of my scenario coming true in the future, however.
What does this have to do with gaming? How about a campaign set in the US after such a revolt producing a collapse? Or perhaps the PCs are members of a Resistance cell after extremists (some anti-government groups are Nazi clones) have seized power. There was once an RPG from West End Games called The Price of Freedom, written by Greg Costikyan, in which the characters were Resistance fighters against Soviet invaders. Possibly it could be adapted to a fight against home-grown Fascists. It would be a difficult campaign, and perhaps too close to reality for some, but it is potentially interesting.
THE OFFICIAL TOPIC!
PLOT HOOKS!
Rather than describe a plot hook I've used as such, I'd like to talk about a Player Character trait or aspect that acts as a sort of plot hook; the GURPS disadvantage, Weirdness Magnet. This is a -15 point disad from GURPS Horror, Supers, Illuminati, and possibly other supplements. Essentially, if you're a Weirdness Magnet strange, often inconvenient, things happen to you with some frequency. The things won't kill you, at least not immediately, but they can be annoying and can attract undesired attention by other people.
I see this as a way to introduce strange plot elements and introduce a character to potential adventures. I've used it to introduce NPCs and what could be described as plot hooks. It's pretty wide open; A GM can do most anything that won't in and of itself kill the character. Of course if a dimensional rift opens in front of you and you jump through it there's certainly a possibility that something there could kill you. :)
Of course this requires the player to willingly take the disad unless the character concept involves some aspects of the PC to be created by the GM; things like Amnesia, for instance. And the player may well regret taking the disad; the player of a Goblin merchant in my magic and modern technology campaign (Scott Ferrier of "I Matey" fame) was considering buying off the disad. Actually getting rid of it would probably be an adventure in and of itself.
I don't know if other game systems have a similar disadvantage, but it could be incorporated as part of a character concept in any appropriate campaign. This would require serious thought by the GM before they allow it; is it appropriate to the type of campaign?
IMMORTALITY REVISITED
I missed a few sorts of Immortality in Kerlix's adventures in 8TM #12. Kerlix got tired and decided not to travel for awhile, but there's some other options I'd like to cover.
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Harvey Smith was terrified. The invasion by the Mechanicals, horrid machine creatures that hated other intelligent life, had killed almost all his family. Only his wife, Sara, remained. Sara had been involved in a secret project to thwart the Mechanical's plans. She'd not been free to tell Harvey about it until this morning. But it was far from what Harvey had expected. The Mechanicals were nearly immune to any known attack. Their nanomachines repaired them as fast as they were damaged; only by totally destroying one almost to the last atom could you kill one. And their war machines were generally highly shielded. The scientists were not able to develop any effective attack or defence. They determined that something entirely different must be done to save the biological races of the galaxy.
Humanity and the other races had come across a few energy beings. They had been analyzed to the extent that the beings would allow. One had even used a transmat which recorded much about its patterns. The scientists determined that the only hope was to become energy beings. Experiments were conducted as the Mechanicals advanced on the core systems. The breakthrough was made.
Now Harvey stood before a modified transmat. Everyone from his colony had passed through the transmat except for him and his wife. She had helped work the apparatus and had set it on automatic when only the two of them were left.
"It's our turn now," she said.
Harvey paled. He'd never liked transmats; for all that he knew that they really didn't convert you into energy and reassemble you as they seemed to he still felt that it was like a death. "How do we know that anybody survived? Nobody's came back to tell us," he said. He suspected that people were just being disintergrated as a sort of merciful death.
Sara looked at him with some exasperation. "You know good and well that the instruments tell us that the transfer is successful. We don't have time for people to come back from the other station; the Mechs are in the system now. I'm not going to wait for you. The system is set on auto, come when you're ready." She passed through the Transmat.
Harvey's fear paralyzed him. He just couldn't pass through the Transmat. Maybe the Mechs would miss him, see no intelligent life, and pass by, leaving him to live out a normal life. A life humans were meant to live.
A sudden ground shaking knocked him to the floor. He heard explosions. Apparently, the Mechs were going to destroy the colony even if almost nobody was here. He heard air leaking from a breached dome. "Well, at least I'll not die by suicide," he thought.
But a sudden bright light broke him from his acceptance of death. He saw a glowing figure before him. A familiar figure. It was his wife, Sara, but transformed into a beautiful being of light. She took his hand, and much to his surprise lifted him to his feet. "Come," she said, " it's time for you to join us." Harvey followed Sara into the Transmat and became like her, and like the rest of the biological intelligences of the galaxy. They were now safe from the Mechanicals, who they now regarded with pity. Without enemies, with no way of gaining the glorious existence they'd achieved, what purpose would the Mechs now have? The Mechs warred amongst themselves to their destruction, and beings of light walked on the many worlds.
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This idea was actually conceived as my way to end the Trek universe. I figured that the Borg weren't stoppable and that the Feds could not hold them off forever. But they've had various energy beings to study and had even had one Q who had thought she was human use their transporters. And Captain Picard had at one point been converted into an energy being; while it wasn't successful in the long term it should have given them valuable data. Federation scientists should be able to figure out how to convert biological creatures into energy creatures who can not be assimilated by the Borg. Facing certain defeat by the Borg they would attempt to create Q like creatures; perhaps initially to fight the Borg but later as a way to escape them.
This could pretty much only be used in initial character creation, and it would lead to a rather weird campaign. If most NPCs aren't energy beings the PCs would essentially be demi-gods. A campaign of almost all energy beings would be rather bizarre, probably.
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Arlie Thornberg travelled the long trade routes of a aspiring great empire. Trade was her business; rarities from one place swapped for rarities from another. She also was an accomplished minstrel, singing the news and tales of the lands she travelled in. She usually travelled in caravans, but on this occasion she travelled alone. The Empire was noted for its safe roads, but that didn't seem to have helped the poor soul she saw on the road before her. He'd obviously been attacked; his clothes were rent and bloodsoaked. The man clearly could not have survived his attack, judging from the amount of blood soaked in his clothes.
Arlie stopped to offer a brief prayer for the dead. Then she heard a groan, and a gasp. Arlie looked for the survivor she'd not seen. She saw no one else, and then realized that the sound was coming from the supposedly dead body!
"Oh, am I ever hungry! Do you have anything to eat, friend?" the "dead" man said. Stunned, Arlie dug up some jerky and a waterskin out of her travel pack and gave them to the man. "Much obliged, friend," the man said.
Arlie blurted out, "How is it that you're alive? From the state of your clothes and the amount of blood on them and on the ground you should rightly be dead!"
"Hmm? Oh, that," the man said as chewed on the jerky. "You've never heard of Ank Yorlyz, the man who can't die? Maybe the legend has faded out, or changed, or something."
Of course Arlie had heard of Ank Yorlyz! The legend of how Yorlyz had offended a goddess and been cursed with immortality was a story that predated the Empire by at least two thousand years. The story varied; in one version he was the goddess's mortal lover who'd fallen for a mortal woman and was cursed to never age or die while the woman aged and went the way of all flesh. In another he'd gained immortality by his devoted service to the goddess (in one variant the "devoted service" was a rather explicitly described night of passion, this was a special favorite of hers) but had been cast out of her sight after some minor slight.
"That's just a bunch of morality tales about how one should be content with one's own mortality. Ank Yorlyz is supposed to bemoan his immortality and wish for a normal death so that he may properly reincarnate or go on to his final reward or whatever," Arlie said. "Are you claiming that you are like him, unkillable no matter what?"
"No, I'm saying that I AM Ank Yorlyz! Got any fruit, friend?" the man said.
"I have some raisins." Arlie dug into her pack and gave the man a handful. "So you claim to be a two thousand year old man of legends? I suggest that you instead are a a remarkably lucky traveller who fought off some attackers, tearing your clothes and getting them soaked in their blood. You passed out from exhaustion after fighting them off and were awakened when I stopped to pray for your soul."
"Right...I fought off some attackers wounding them so severely that my clothes are soaked in their blood but I myself have taken no wounds at all. Is that easier to believe than that I'm Ank Yorlyz?" the man said. "I was traveling by myself down this road because I wanted to see the city of Parack again; it's been 476 years since I'd last passed this way and the last time I was here it was a lovely place. Well, as I rode my horse past that rock outcropping, " he pointed at a group of granite spires about a hundred meters away, " I was jumped by eight bandits who were hiding there. I put up a valiant fight but I'm immortal, not superhuman. I was stabbed in the heart, and head, and neck, and probably a few other places. I passed out and just woke up when you came along."
Arlie thought about it. Well, he _could_ be Ank Yorlyz; that made more sense than the notion that he'd fought off a horde of attackers. There were no other bodies about, after all. "Okay, Mr. Yorlyz; I'm willing to believe you. I make some of my living as a singer of tales. I'd really like to hear the truth about you."
"Call my Ank, my dear. Or Lodez, that's the name I go by these days," he said. "The truth is, well, less exciting than some of the tales. The goddess M'yen occasionally liked to take mortal lovers. She took me to her palace and, well, after that evening she proclaimed me a Priest. But I didn't want to be a priest; I wanted to just be a normal man with a wife and family as opposed to devoted to the occasional needs and lusts of the goddess. So M'yen cursed me with immortality; I ceased to age, and never died. When I married, my wife aged and died with no children to honor her; only I, as young as the day when I met her.
"I've lived over seven thousand years; I've never married again. Watching your love age and die while you remain unchanged is...unpleasant. Apparently I've even outlived the worship of M'yen; I've seen no mention of her even in histories for thousands of years. She told me during our night together that the gods move on when they they ceased to be worshipped, or get bored, or when other gods replace them."
"So your immortality really is a curse?" Arlie asked.
Ank seemed to meditate on that for a few moments. "Yes and no. I cannot have the life of a normal person. I do not seem to be able to have children. I cannot in good conscience promise myself to a woman for more than a short time. But I've seen empires rise and fall. I've met many of the greats of history. I've learned a hundred languages, wrote a hundred books, loved however briefly thousands of women, made thousands of friends. M'yen meant this as a curse, but after I got over my wife's death I realized that it was a great blessing."
"If you are travelling in the direction of Parack, may I travel with you? I could use the company and perhaps a bit of a loan as I've lost all my possessions to the robbers, " Ack Yorlyz said.
"You certainly may travel with me. I've some clothes that could be modified to suit you and I can certainly use the company. Perhaps we can be partners for a time, Ack, " Arlie said, with a smile. Maybe she'd find out if there was any truth to her favorite story.
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Sometimes immortality is assumed to be a curse. There's the story of "The Wandering Jew" who cursed Christ and was condemned to live until the Last Judgment. He seems to make an appearance in the SF novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz; although I could be misinterpreting it. Sometimes vampirism is assume to be a curse for evil acts.
I have real problems with the notion of "The Curse of Immortality"; commit a great wrong and live forever. Yeah, that's some punishment. Of course if the life is a life of perpetual torment I suppose it could qualify. I think this form of immortality should usually only be used for special NPCs; while it could be that a player character could be created and played effectively with this type I think it would be difficult and potentially abused. "I can't be killed, I'm immortal. I can take on the whole Orc army by myself after the rest of the party is dead. But it's a curse." Uh-huh, sure.
SARPADIAN WARS REVISITED
I made a few errors in my "Magic: The Sarpadian Wars" article in the last issue. I neglected to include "Orrg" in the list of creatures for the Orc and Goblin Hordes; I see Orrg as a mutated orc created by goblin wizards. I also failed to note just how few of certain creature types there actually are. My overall rule is that pure Merfolk, Thallid, Homarid, Thrull, and Dwarves may have eight of the appropriate common Fallen Empires creatures. Also, in general, common and uncommon white bordered spells other than those Unlimited cards that were not reprinted in later editions may be used except for mass land destruction (like Flashfires) or land punishment (like Karma), or spells that give flight.
The Elves of Deep Shadow
Some Sarpadian Elves sought to strengthen themselves against the thallid onslaught, the encroaching homairds, and the orcs and goblins by combining their traditional practices and worship with the rituals of Tourach. They embraced darkness and allied with the Ebon Hand in an effort to regain control over both their rebellious creations. These elves are known as the Elves of Deep Shadow. They were ostracised by most of the other elves of Havenwood, but a few tolerated and worked with them.
I suggest two sorts of "Deep Shadow" decks. One variety features a mix of cards appropriate to both Elf and Ebon Hand decks, plus the Elves of Deep Shadow and Dark Heart of the Woods from The Dark supplement for a unified army. The other (and I think more appropriate) features no black creatures but the does have the spells and land appropriate to the Ebon Hand in addition to all the normal Elven cards plus the Elves of Deep Shadow and the Dark Heart of the Woods. Both decks may have eight Elves of Deep Shadow. An extreme variant may have the Marsh Goblins from The Dark; they are enslaved by the elves.
[When I played M:tG, I had a great fondness for "theme" decks. At one point, I even made a deck whose whole purpose was to tell a story of a short. But the vast majority of M:tG players seemed to want to make super killer crush your opponents like bugs decks. Those are boring, and no fun to play against.]
SFTV: THE CLASSICS
What shows are the classics of SFTV? Well, it depends a bit on how one defines a classic and on how one defines SFTV. I see a "classic" as being a show that develops a dedicated (not necessarily a large) following, that actually had some degree of quality, and that has influenced science fiction television and even the general popular culture.
While "SFTV" is "science fiction television" I'm broadening the definition a bit to television with a significant fantastic element. This gets around the fuss and argument over whether or not a show is really science fiction when there's not much of a scientific basis for plot elements. The important thing is that Sense of Wonder; the neat and cool things and stuff, the inspiration to the imagination, the impetus to say "Wow!"
I am excluding (generally) shows where there is perhaps one fantastic element but that are primarily action adventures. I'm excluding shows where the fantastic element is a alien/robot/whatever neighbor/border/boyfriend that does wacky things. I'm also excluding animation because that is such a huge area that I'm not familiar enough with and that deserves specific treatment. I've also excluded anthology shows like "The Twilight Zone".
These are not in an order of quality. It's not a Top Ten list; just what I consider to be classics.
Star Trek
We all know it. We mostly like it. Original Trek to an extent defines the popular perception of SFTV and even SF in general. It was perhaps the first regular SF series to really be more than a kiddie show. It was relatively well acted. It had generally good stories, some written by SF writers as opposed to regular television writers. And the special effects were pretty good for the time. We liked the character. Some of us admired the ideals expressed. It was far from perfect; some stories are flat out dumb and they did occasionally play fast and loose with the science. The woman's uniforms were really pretty silly. :) But all in all, it was a good show and undeniably a classic.
Star Trek: the Next Generation
There are those who despise this show, looking for any reason to tear it down. And this is not without reason. Look at such elements as Wesley The God, Troi's empathy that almost never works if it would actually be helpful, the absurd emphasis on the Prime Directive to the point that they would allow the death of a race and a culture from NATURAL CAUSES rather than lifting a finger to help them, the peculiar emphasis on avoiding almost any connection with stories and most races from the original series, things like that. But let's be realistic. The show had some great acting (Patrick Stewart is a FAR better actor than William Shatner), some good stories, some good special effects, and was influential in popular culture. It spawned two series and is moving onto the Big Screen. Can't get much more classic than that.
Dr. Who
Yes, there's SF outside of America! :) This British series was the longest running SFTV series ever, running for over twenty-five years and possibly coming back as a coproduction of the BBC and Universal. It is unique in that several different people played the main character, The Doctor, over the course of the series. Our Hero is an human looking alien who can "regenerate" and restore his body to health with a different appearance and a somewhat different personality if he is near death. His race, the Time Lords of Gallifrey, possess the secret of time travel, much of the knowledge of the universe, and have a civilization that is perhaps three million years old. They are also decadent, and avoid interfering (mostly) in the affairs of others unless they are threatened; if they are threatened they have little problem time looping worlds or moving or destroying planets.
The Doctor "tends to get involved" however. He left Gallifrey out of boredom or perhaps for other reasons and travels through space and time sometimes as a tourist but often getting caught up in the affairs of the locals. He usually has traveling companions he picks up along the way; often from his favorite species, humans. In some ways the Doctor is a superhero, but not generally in the physical prowess sense. No, he's smarter and cleverer than his enemies and he often seems to know something or even to have a secret plan. Dr. Who has cheap but sometimes effective special effects, neat stories, good acting, great recurring enemies (don't we all love Dalaks?), and just a great fun spirit about it. Definite classic, here.
The Prisoner
This is pushing it a bit. The Prisoner is not an SF show as such...or is it? The Village is a sort of alternate reality; a different world. There's a lot of SFish elements, a lot of surreal stuff, and an overall SF-ish feel about the show. Lots of SF fans love the show. It is regarded as perhaps the best television series, ever, by some. It was unusual in that the series was conceived with a definite beginning and end, instead of just running until the ratings went down. It wasn't perfect; I think the final episode was perhaps intentionally nonsensical but a bit rushed. It isn't really clear what all was going on, but that may well be a large part of the appeal of the show; people look for hidden meanings. And there's a appeal in the whole notion of the Individual against The Group and Conformity. Be seeing you.
Red Dwarf
Hey, any show that starts out by killing off almost everyone in the show in the first episode has a lot going for it. :) We have Dave Lister, who is the only person to survive what killed the rest of the crew and who may be the last surviving human. We have Cat, a descendent of Lister's cat, whose offspring evolved intelligence during the three million years Lister was in stasis on the ship Red Dwarf. We have the hologram personality Arnold Rimmer who is based on the recorded memories of Lister's bunkmate. We have Holly, the artificial intelligence program that runs the ship Red Dwarf that changed from a male appearance and personality to a female appearance and personality and is going a bit insane. And we have Kryten, an android that they found along the way. From all that we get what I believe to be the best SFTV comedy ever. the type of humor may not be for everyone; they can be crude and some stuff can be hard to follow. They freely abandon continuity sometimes, but overall it is pretty much a real SFTV show. It's a British show, and I suspect that nothing like it could be produced for American networks. Of course there was an attempt, actually a couple of pilots, that never got aired. Perhaps that proves my point. :)
Max Headroom
The first cyberpunkish SFTV show. This show about a intelligent computer personality and the reporter whose memories he is based on was like nothing else before or really since. Its somewhat surreal future and the strange people and companies and society inhabiting it had a feel of a unique and different universe. It suffered from being just so different and from the overexposure of the Max Headroom character in commercials and a sort of talk show; this led to its ultimate demise. But Max Headroom was probably closer to the written SF of the time than most SFTV series generally are.
The X-Files
The X-Files is a in some ways a Kolchak: The Night Stalker for the 90's. But while Kolchak was a reporter who somehow managed to stumble onto weird monsters every week and survive, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of X-Files actively seek out bizarre incidents in their jobs as FBI agents. We have Fox Muldur, a train psychologist who firmly believes in alien visitations and who's sister was apparently abducted by aliens when he was a child. He's obsessed with investigating the FBI's "X-files"; cases involving unexplained phenomena not just involving supposed aliens but other strange things. We also have Dana Scully, who was apparently assigned to spy on Mulder but has become his friend and ally but still rejects extraterrestrial or supernatural explanations for phenomena.
One major recurring plot element is the notion that there are massive cover-ups going on, orchestrated by vague entities in the government. The government is hiding secret projects, and most importantly the existence of extraterrestrial visitations. Mulder and Scully are manipulated by these entities to prevent any real information from getting to the public. There have been some who seem to be helping them, but there's evidence that they are pursuing their own agendas that have little to do with the pursuit of truth.
The X-Files is a very paranoid show with a lot of general weirdness. Not just alien encounters, but bizarre cults, magic, mutants, and monsters. I could see a "Call of the X-Files" RPG, after a fashion. There was an article in Shadis #14 covering the first season of the show and giving some gaming suggestions. "The Truth is Out There."
Babylon 5
On the surface, Babylon 5 looks like a space adventure set in a space station. But it's more than that. The Babylon 5 station is the one place where all the major peoples meet to attempt diplomacy and to pursue their other agendas. Almost anything that happens impacts at B5 and events on B5 can have major impacts elsewhere.
"Babylon 5", like "The Prisoner", has a planned beginning and end. The five year story arc covers a major period in history dubbed "the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind". There's at least two conspiracies going on; a plot to take over the Earth Alliance government which seems to be at the very least supported by Psi Corp and the manipulation of the Centauris in their war with the Narn by the Shadows, a mysterious ancient race that is preparing to return in force. There's counters to the conspiracies, disputes amongst the Minbari people involving their bizarre surrender to the the EA, and the true nature of the mysterious Vorlon, Kosh. It is far more complex than Trek or most other SFTV. It may well be the most ambitious show on television.
[Ambitious, and perhaps not totally successful. A valiant effort, though.]
LINKS