| From: | Pete Sims <petesims@********.demon.co.uk> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Space - The Final Frontier |
| Date: | Tue, 24 Sep 1996 02:28:06 +0100 |
<chaos@*****.com> writes
>>>Ok, that's it! I officially change the name of this list to: Conspiracy
>>>Theories! Ok, that's it then... All you can talk about is conspiracies!
>>>It's all we do anyways...:)
>>>
>>Ah rubbish, there are other conversations other than conspiracies, but,
>>and I hate to mention it to you, but the above is not a theory - it's
>>fact. On several occassions, an immortal elf, has saved the sixth world
>>from a fate worse than death - Harlequin's Back for instance. The
>>experimentation that is occurring in Tir Tairngire at the moment, is
>>shrouded in secrecy, but I know what it is. There's also the rumours of
>>Atlantis/Thera - another elven plot, and the gods only know what Tir
>>NanOg is doing. Oh, no, it's not a theory, it's a FACT. :-0
>>
>I know that, I was just joking a bit, but it does seem like the first time
>something odd happens, everyone immediately goes it's a horror/immortal elf
>plot. I don't hear (at least not often enough in my opinion) that it's a
>Humanis Policlub plot. Everyone seriously underestimates them. They're a
>makor player, and a new thought that came into my head was the possiblity of
>some of the hire ups in the org. to be allying themselves, if not controlled
>by, Aztecnology and Atzlan... No eveidence, but it wouldn't surprise me...
>
Yeah, everyone does tend to jump onto the horro/elf bandwagon, but it's
a safe assumption that the Horrors are actually an elven plot. You see,
it's due to the unified power of the Elves, and their desire to bring
back the glory of the old ways that the rift is opening that will allow
the Horrors through. The only creatures with enough power to withstand
them are the Dragons, but there aren't enough of them to do the job this
time. If the Elves combine their power with the Dragons, they can
probably produce enough to withstand an onslaught of the Horrors, but in
the process (hopefully?) destroying the Dragons' influence on the
planet, and (possibly?) killing the majority, or at least trapping them
in some region, between the Horrors and Earth. This would enable the
Elven nations to concentrate more fully on world domination, and the
return to the glory of previous Elven empires, but on a global scale,
with of course, the lesser races, Orks, Dwarves, and Humans "serving"
them. Why do you think they don't like infiltrators in their nations,
and why else would they limit visitable areas to small enclaves, or
walled trading cities (i.e. Portland). Don't discount the Elven plot,
it's a lot more sinister than you give it credit for.
The Humanis Policlub, are a minor player in this, but the only real
opposition to Elven domination. They have a certain amount of political
and physical clout, but not sufficient to stand up and be counted, all
they *can* do is snipe at the Elves from the sidelines - chasing them
politically and occassionally through terrorist means. Unfortunately,
as has been proved in many other parts of the world, terrorism is not a
politically acknowledged or recognised *correct* form of expression, and
this is where the Humanis lose their credibility. If they could
distance themselves from teh Red Hand, and the other militant sections
of the organisation, maybe people would sit up and listen.
>>>Bull shudders slightly and hides in the corner...
>>>
>>That's not an answer....
>>
>
>No it's not. <sigh> Ok, here ya go... Bull has really been through hell,
>as I'm sure most of you can relate. Bull lived in Chicago, and found out
>about the bugs very gradually, which of course, culminated into Bug City.
>And although I read everything I can about Shadowrun, I was not allowed to
>read anything about the bugs (ie, Burning Bright, Bug City, or even the
>newer printing of Into the Shadows with the mantis story.) Steven Tinner
>really did a good job of making that whole plotline very realistic and very
>terrifying. It was a wonderful exggperience, but has left Bull more than a
>little emotionally scarred.
>
Strange, my players visited Chicago, after the CZ slammed down,
extracting a couple of people. They went in, stayed there for 2 weeks,
and the biggest threat they met, was a turf incident between two
Warlords. Bugs... What Bugs??? (Mind you, they deliberately didn't go
looking for them) The only close encounter with something of
inexplicable nature was near a park, some shadowy figures were moving
amongst the trees, and a short while later, several screams were heard
coming from an "oil-drum camp". The team went the opposite direction
and took cover. - Cowards! 8-)
>Also, we've broken rule number 1 of shadowrunning at least four times,
>although the first time has been repeated several other timesm sort of.
>We've gotten the pleasure of dealing with Perryanwyr from Mecurial, two
>dragons in Bottled Demon, and the feathered serpent in Paradise Lost. We've
>actually turned Perry into a contact, once he got over the fact that we shot
>him with a rocket...Twice..., but fortunately, he doesn't hold a grudge, at
>least not for too long...:) Bull's sort of got problems with dragons too,
>due to this. Of couurse, he now fits Wyverns into this catagory, ever since
>one tried to use his son for a light snack... Fortunately, Billy's a tough
>ork kid, so he lived...
>
Never deal with a dragon.... Hmmm, I know a certain SR team who broke
that rule, let's see now, .... yep, 5 times, although on the fifth
occassion, they got to meet Dunklezahn personally. The team had fallen
asleep in the forests near the foothills of the Rockies, after a
particularly harrassed mission (retrieving large eggs from an endangered
nest - teehee). Unfortunately they forgot to set a guard, (somewhat
assured of being safe - fools). The team leader woke up from his
position under one of the team vehicles, face to face with the biggest
set of teeth he'd ever seen. Screech - he shattered glass several
hundred klicks away. It's surprising how good natured Dunklezahn is
(not a typo) even when greeted by panicking, howling humans.
As for Perianwyr well, he's still got a score to settle with the team.
The mere mention of the two gets the players running for deep dark holes
in the nether regions of the planet.
>Bull's personal life is exgtensive and highly detailed. At least one out of
>every three game sessions has been a personal life thing, exgploring that
>facet of our lives. Let me tell you, it gets really wierd, but a little
>strange. And also why I tend to make oddball comments from time to time...
>After all, have you ever played with an NPC who was losing his mind and
>spent half the time looking for his gum? He was an older character from
Not a gun, but yes I have played a character who was losing his mind, it
can be very wearing, but makes for some interesting evenings. I have a
character in my game at the moment, who is convinced he's going crazy,
after all, demons are mythological - right? They don't *really* exist -
right? (He think's they do, seems to think he met one once.)
>Tinner's college days who became an NPC in our game. He'd done a run where
>they went back in time like 20 years, and his character was always chewing
>gum. Well, he got hit in that back of the head, and lost his gum, along
>with some teeth. He thought nothing of it when theyg went back to the
>future, but things ggot tough when a mage in the past started casting ritual
>magic through the saliva in the gum... Time warped the spell, and it was
>driving him insane... Needless to say, we had to fixg this...
>
Ouch, evil GM, even I wouldn't be this cruel. 8-) (glad none of my
players are in this list, they might disagree, though I can't imagine
why).
>Well, like I said, this is a character that has been played quite
>extensively for three years, and I've gotten to know him VERGY well, and
>unfortunately, I tend to think like him somedays as well, which mayg not be
>all bad, but...:)
>
I have a player who may agree with you, he almost killed his boss the
one day. They were a couple of storeys up on scaffolding, painting a
house. Pete (the player not me) was asked by his boss whether anything
was wrong, Pete said, quite calmly, that he had been accused of murder,
but he was innocent, he couldn't have done, and proceded to explain why.
Needless to say, his boss took a coulpe of quick steps backwards, almost
off the scaffolding.
Another occassion, was quite recently, he was working at our local
college a Government training scheme with the Network manager, when he
suddenly thumps the table top, announces that he's cracked it, he knows
where the fragger has hidden, and how did that silly bitch know what had
happened to him in Chicago anyway??? Charged out of the Office, and
phoned me to ask some game related questions. When he returned, he had
a little explaining to do - shortly after this explanation, the NM
started referring to him as his personal "fuckwit". He doesn't really
"live" the game, but he's thinking about it a lot, and occassionally
dreams about it. I've considered suggesting psychiatric help, but he's
one of my best players, and hasn't shot anyone in MacDonalds - yet.
>I've posted quite a bit of Bull's historygg here and there, and I
>apologggize about the SPAM... Unfortunatelgy, I have to exgplain mgy
>idiotic comments...:) Thanks for putting up with it...:)
>
>>>Champions... <shudder> Gero System... <cringe> Way too many
numbers...:)
>>>There's a reason I was an english Major, although it wasn't because of my
>>>wonderful typing skils...;-)
>>>
>>Hated math myself, but the GM for chanpions was an accountant, so he
>>added all the figures up for us, made the game a lot faster too. Used
>>him extensively when I GM'd Rolemaster (spit spit barf) :-)
>>
>
>Well, our campaign was brief and painful. We lost an average of a char a
>night, sometimes two... And everything was tougher than us, includingg the
>fragin' animals...
>And roll master... my condolences to ya, man...
>
Thanks, I need them, jeez that was hard work. A game where the players
dare not attack anything, not even a gnome. And the tables.....
Arrgghh - 'scuse me, I need to take my pills now... 8-)
>>>>The Brotherhood, ah what a wonderful organisation that is, so innocent,
>>>>so helpful, so *dark*. The mere mention of the Brotherhood sends
>>>>shivers up my players spines, though I don't know why, there's no
>>>>conclusive evidence that "all" of the Bortherhood is *bugged*.
>>>>
>>>
>>>Bull shudders again and closes his eyes, praying to never hear that name
>>>again...:)
>>>
>>My players do that a lot. What you people don't realise is that the
>>Brotherhood are perfectly innocent. What is happening is that other
>>forces are taking advantage of the facilities provided by assorted
>>chapterhouses. :-)
>>
>
>Do you still have them around? I know officially the brotherhood was shut
>down by the government about the time bug city hit... Although we've been
>hearing rumors that something similar has been set up by the bugs outside
>the containment zone, and that this time theyg are ALL working together...
>Except Mantis...
>
No, I've still got them around. The linkage between the Brotherhood and
Bugs was disproved by Governmental investigation. Chapter houses now
have a regular inspection to pronounce them "clean", much like brothels
in Germany and the Netherlands. (Not that I'd know that of course). But
then, how much can you trust the Government???
>>>Nahh, much as I like King, he gets boring after a while... Besides, Horrors
>>>the one genrte I can't quite do well...:)
>>>
>>OK, Gibson then... Asimov... Piers Anthony.... ??? No, not E.E.Doc
>>Smith??? :-/
>>
>>
>Actually Eddings, Weis and Hickman, a bit of Star Wars, a bit of
>Shadowrun... Ginson and Asimov were alwayggs too hard core sci fi for me...
>I like low sci fi... a space opera or mixg in some fantasy:) I like Piers
>Anthony, but can't quite get that off the cuff humor down...:) Ah well...:)
>Just don't ask me to do Poetry, in that area, I am full blooded Vogon...:)
>
Eddings, found him too repetetive, but entertaining nonetheless. Early
Weiss and Hickman was good, but I loathed their later stuff.
Can't agree about Asimov being hard core sci fi, The Caves of Steel was
such a ridiculous piss take of humanity, it almost failed to qualify as
scifi and nearly made "novel noir".
Space opera can be entertaining in certain circumstances, but I found
that Doc Smith and *** (can't remeber his name) went a little overboard.
With all the scifi happening in the states at the moment, it would be
rather nice if FASA used some of their vast 8-) influence and tried
pursuading Hollywood to churn out a couple of Shadowrun movies. Oh, but
I dream.... 8-)
And WHAT may I ask is wrong with Vogon poetry. I thought "Ode to a lump
of grey putty I found in my armpit" was very moving, and well
constructed, the underlying tones of suffering and joy were music to the
ears..... but I digress.
Good luck sorting out your mind Bull, sounds like you're going to need
it.
--
Pete Sims
