Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Call of Cthulhu => Strange Aeons => Topic started by: Hoser on September 29, 2015, 09:30:37 AM
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Basically what the title says: has anyone tried adapting Strange Aeons to work in a sci-fi environment? I was thinking about using a 40K Inquisition team (Threshold) vs Chaos (Lurkers).
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Well, my brother and I have played it as an experimental rule set for INQ-28. You would think it work well...
And it works great! ;) I think the second edition rules work best, because of the increased number of baddies and the flamethrower make it feel more like 40k. The core rule set is certainly robust enough. The sceneros require no modification.
Perhaps mike should make a rule set entitled "laser burn 2.0"
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I think you just have to substitute the weapons listed in the rulebook for some sci-fi weapons or make them up yourself and you're ready to go. There are also people that play SA in a medieval setting with modified weapon stats, so why not sci-fi?
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I have played some post apocalypse SA and it worked well with no problem although I wasn't using sci-fi level weaponry.
Last couple of weeks I have been tempted to pick up The Others: 7 Sins and battle systems urban apocalypse terrain for a sci-fi post apocalypse campaign (although may have to pull out of the latter due to upcoming house move leaving a black cloud over my finances).
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We have tossed this idea around the lab a few times, what do you guys think? It would/is easy enough but what do people want? Torn between 'Post-Apoc.' and 'Space Opera'...thoughts?
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I have always wanted to see a modern setting for Lovecraft gaming.
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We have tossed this idea around the lab a few times, what do you guys think? It would/is easy enough but what do people want? Torn between 'Post-Apoc.' and 'Space Opera'...thoughts?
I'd go for a Post-Apocalyptic version, a Fallout style Strange Aeons would be awesome...Fallout 3 has some Lovecraft references in it. The nice thing about Post-Apocalyptic settings is the fact that weird creatures easily fit in as there tend to be many mutants and such in the wastelands.
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I'd go for both post-apoc and space opera. As mentioned above, mutants etc. would seem to make PA a no-brainer, but I'd like to see something along the lines of Inquisitor too.
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Post apocalyptic Cthulhu sounds pretty solid. The hopeless last days of man where the end isn't reckoned in the solemn perambulation of stars. It's already upon us and the story is simply a document of the last days. A very fatalistic setting I'm just curious how it would function if the elder gods were the actual vector of the fall; sounds like the agents would get stomped like nothing. I like the idea of Cthulhu in space as well but more as Star Trek: Enterprise, Kubrick's Space Odyssey's or Event Horizon than full blown Space Opera. There is something about exploration and being a pioneer into the unknown that make the concept more horrifying to me. High technology but travel in the stars still means isolation in the black.
edit: A Firefly-like setting would work well too. Isolated backwater settlements and reaver cultists? Hell yeah.
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I wouldn't mind the an over the top space opera style expansion. Darkest of the hillside thickets Spaceship Zero comes to mind with the over the top 60s tv style.
I would also equally like post apocalypse setting as well though.
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"We have tossed this idea around the lab a few times, what do you guys think? It would/is easy enough but what do people want? Torn between 'Post-Apoc.' and 'Space Opera'...thoughts?"
Mike- Right now you have a unique ecosystem that is looking for a rule-set that can handle generic dystopian space opera in small scale gaming. You should capitalize on pushing the Strange Aeons ruleset/hobby/brand in this direction- if for no other reason than the approach of Heroes-Lurkers is a great fit for this genre.
Please make a downloadable version of Laserburn 2.0/Dune/40K/StarWars/MadMax/HungerGames/Fallout/Inq28/JudgeDredd
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Dune. Now that is hot. Last year I read Ian Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych; Weird War 2 with mythos flavor. If I remember right the outsiders only became aware of humanity when they invoked magic something like the way we don't notice insects until they are ignorant enough to buzz in our ears or land in our coffee. Maybe the act of using spacefolding technology would be a, "Hello" to elder beings that might attract them to ending us. I'd push the hard science quality otherwise someone's IP division might claim they invented warp technology and HP Lovecraft.
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I'd push the hard science quality otherwise someone's IP division might claim they invented warp technology and HP Lovecraft.
My gut feeling is that chaosium is going to work hard to bring its properties back into fold- and a great deal of CoC is actually their intellectual property.
A dystopian colony overrun with corruption and criminals is not new- necromunda or Blakes 7...
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@wallytwest
I don't think Chaosium, Frank Herbert's estate or the BBC would be cause grief. The guys who used to sell Necromunda are known to take creative liberty with other people's ideas and with IP law in regard to their own.
Edit: It isn't the original works so much as the derivative material that ape Lovecraft's imaginings that would be a concern. The 40k universe in particular is a science as magic/religion setting that I think should be approached with caution. In adhering to Lovecraft's own position I think a basis in science (even pretend science) is more faithful to the genre.
Mythos IP is pretty hard to nail down and I am not a lawyer. There is a pretty article here that examines it's nebulous state;
http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS15/ns15nf01.htm (http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS15/ns15nf01.htm)
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So where do you throw that emphasis? What would you choose to emulate? What is that basic element you are trying to emulate? That "feeling" or setting?
You've got me looking to completely revisit my INQ28 experment.
*Edit- make a very simple 4 page PDF that contains expanded weaponry and a quick setting brief with a few new lurker profiles. You could easily do the 3 variants we have seen in this post as a fan project. Strange Fallout, Strange Inquisitor and Strange Trek.
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Mike, dumb question- why did you never look at Gothic Horror?
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@WallyTWest
"So where do you throw that emphasis? What would you choose to emulate? What is that basic element you are trying to emulate? That "feeling" or setting?"
I'm not sure if this was for me but if I were trying to capture the feel of Inquisitor or Cthulhu in Space I see them as different answers. This is long winded so for now I'll talk about Inquisitor skirmishes and the qualities I'd like to see.
Inquisitor: I visit the Inq28 boards on Ammo Bunker on and off. I really enjoy the modelling the crew there does but have never had any appreciation for the Inquisitor rules set. I found it cumbersome and about as much fun as doing sequences of simple math exercises; Just not fun. As I understand it the creators looked as at the low model count as an opportunity to spend more time crunching numbers at the game table. If I ever manage to find the right combination of rules to play in an Inquisitor style game it will have to best emulate the stories that Dan Abnett wrote within the setting. I believe the only good thing that came out of the Inquisitor project was the Eisenhorn Trilogy and the stories that followed in it's wake.
In order to do that I've looked at the elements of the stories that were so appealing;
Action/Tension: Abnett writes damn good action. Off the top of my head the only writer who can trump him is Bernard Cornwell. To simulate that back an forth tempo U-go/I-go is out the window. I'd steal the turn mechanics from a system like TNT because there is so much potential for variation. The back and forth between players forces provides uncertainty, keeps things tense and is fluid enough to be resolved with a single roll of the die.
Spycraft/Solving mysteries: So many games are about killing every model on the other side. There are some objective based offerings out there but why would you table an Information Technologist in most games when you could bring, "dude with plasma gun"? Collecting the microfilm, Hacking the central core, interpreting a clue in the forbidden library; I'd like to see objectives that validate the niche skills of experts. There is always room in a game for guns blazing but it seems to me there is a whole other part of the story that is being neglected. I'm eagerly awaiting Osprey's Black Ops rules next month and hope that they provide some guidelines for doing this. The blurb on Amazon sounds like this is what they are trying to do. I hope so otherwise I'm going to have to think of something and I won't be getting paid to do it.
Corruption/ Sanity/ Magic: This is a component that needs to be addressed in an Inquisitor story. There are on table effects in the original rules but it usually amounted to more stat adjustments and excessive table consulting. I haven't read SA through yet but I from what I have skimmed the feel is right. Things should be scary, agents are whittled away at by what they have seen over time. Cumulative and inevitable; I like the fatality of it. I think it's an important distinction that in Mythos stories this is the end of the line. In an inquisitor styled game I see it as a new beginning. The progression from puritan to radical over time and the horror of, "crossing the line". In a 40k styled game I see an Inquisitor's war band changing over time. Certain types of agents might leave or become availible as the main character evolves. This would have to be a campaign level meta game activity but to provide the right feel I think it would be worth the trouble of hashing it out.
Big Mysteries: What would drive an Inquisitor campaign? There has to be a higher purpose. Again it's a meta game action off of the table that might have a bearing on what could be discovered. In my head I simplified it to point it might be similar to Mordheim exploration. Again encouraging players to employ savants or investigators in their retinues maybe these types would have better luck at these activities than the guard vet.
In closing I think the greatest difference between Mythos and 40k punkhorror is emphasis and circumstance. In Inquisitor demons/daemons are things to be shot and defeated. The Action is foremost and the terrifying vista or gribbly otherworldly thing are volcano lairs and henchmen with metal hands. It's Grimdark Pulp and I like it a lot. Elements are borrowed from mythos as scenary but the nature of the narrative is an entirely different beast.
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Gimme a cool mechanic for some wacky anomalies and I think you would have Stalker nailed; done & dusted; tied-up with a bow...
This Pripyat (https://www.google.com/search?q=Pripyat&safe=off&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCgQsARqFQoTCL2U2NHKncgCFZVZiAodMZcB1w&biw=1299&bih=790) Calling, can Yog Sothoth come out to play? ;D
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I switched over to an IPad a few years ago- it hurt my posting on forums and it has made it difficult to write long responses. You covered alot of gaming questions/ideas I had in that post.
All I can do is promise to explore some of those concepts in future posts on this forum.
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I hit my electronic writing limit on that post so I know where you are coming from. I'll babble about Space Mythos later in the thread but my eyes are burning o_o.
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Wow! That is a bit of reading. :o Lots of stuff to talk about...but I'm tired, coming down with some sort of sickness, so I'll answer the direct question at the top of the page for now at least.
Never did Gothic Horror as we felt there were already quite a few games out there already that seemed to have it figured out. Love the genre/setting personally and one day might throw something together but it could be played now by just putting emphasis on aspects of the existing second edition rules. More Torches and Wolfmen would be the first thing that comes to my mind. Our goal was to make Strange Aeons a pretty versatile beast.
Also, if we did it would be called: Peerless Vampire Killers! (at least if i get my way...)
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For toolbox gaming Strange Aeons actually fits the bill pretty nicely. I feel like you can do Victorian through PA quite handily with it as is, perhaps restricting the weapons available to be appropriate to the time period.
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I haven't got a trope list together for the Sci Fi Cthulhu setting but I did a quick mood piece in my notebook that sums up the "feel" as I imagine it. Having all the words and just transcribing them to Word made it easier than extended screen gazing;
Tarkahn IV, High Orbit, 0401, 20 August, 2490
I just died on the surface of Tarkahn IV along with the rest of the reclamation team. My last engrams were drawn almost 12 hours ago. Before the lander drop. I don’t even know how I died down there. I know it happened because I’m on my hands and knees retching and the white hot pain of rez sickness is lancing through my skull.
Fayette and Patel are coming round. Their eyes are open in surprise their pods cycling. Kelly looks so perfect; eyes closed, like a dreamer. Her pod display bleeds letters; Initialization Failure. Perfect forever.
Mags is thrashing like he is being boiled alive. The amniotic is bubbling furiously as a tainted fluid coalesces and sinks to his feet. He is ramming his head against the transparent wall. The red cloud is growing, obscuring my view of the interior but I could see he no longer has a face.
Was it a minute or hours I stared across the chamber? I come to my feet and the world floods my perceptions. Now Fayette and Patel are on the deck retching. Useless. The Ship’s proximity alarms are droning. The lander is approaching and the computer says that Mags is on board but he is dead. True dead. I have to reach the bridge and the auto-destruct for the lander. I can stop it but my legs betray me, protesting like I’m wading in amber. Whatever is left of Mags, whatever is inside of Mags cannot reach the ship.
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I think the SA rules work well for a lot of things without much need for adaptation. Post apoc is pretty cool, especially with the new Mad Max movie reviving interest. My friends and I have been using the SA rules for some pseudo-mad max gaming lately.
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@Mike
I partially dislike this edition because it's got so much content crammed in there. It's overwhelming- I have no idea how this next campaign is going to play out- the baddies seem to have access to so many enemies and there is so much data to keep track of compared to the last edition.
But I got to hand it to ya- this is about as awesome as Narative gaming can get. You broke away from the "Mordheim Formula" and it has resulted in a supremely playable game. Low model count, low play space requirements, great versatility. You should be really proud with the results. I think this may be one of the best miniature wargaming rule sets on market.
I can't wait to see where you take this next-
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So i have been toying around with a Strange Aeons Sci-fi game for a while. My vision (for what its worth) is a Rogue Trader/Firefly sort of them where your band of "thugs" and "criminals" fly around from planet to planet trying to make enough money to eat and keep their vessel in the air. Keep the model count similar to SA (3-6 crew members) with aliens, robots, etc. The joy of this style is that it would allow you to use all sort of random sci-fi models as you encounter different aliens on different planets.
I have a crew painted (yay!) and have worked on a first round of weapons. I attempted to increase the range slightly to make shooting a little more prominent while still letting HTH be useful or a viable theme for the good guys and the bad guys. In this sci-fi world, armour is more prominent and I think high armour models replace some of the big monsters in terms of the big point bad guys. It needs some play testing to see if what I think sounds good in my head will actually result in a fun game, but in my head I think it will work quite well...
I have always felt the strength of SA is the generic bad guys. It allows you tap into your collection and change up who you fight each game. For a sci-fi game, this is even more true and your band of good guys fights robots, orks, corrupt local militia, big aliens...
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The best thing is that S.A. provides a very flexible framework for scaling encounters to match any crew of space-traders or group of rogue-mercenaries.
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Ok- I vote for Rogue Trader/Firefly. You have sold me. Let me think about this one a little- I have some ideas for photography and models.
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My two cents....
Post-apocalyptic Mythos is only logical. Simply, the stars finally are right, and Cthulhu wakes from his "death", summoning Yog-Sothoth and through It the rest of the pantheon. Human civilization collapses within days. There are just a bunch of survivors, having to carve a living in a planet where, suddenly, we are very low in the food chain.
I see such a setting as action-oriented, with little to none involvement of the Gods themselves, for whom the human survivors would be but pitiful insects they wouldn't bother about.
And for a space-opera setting, I'd look primarily to Event Horizon for inspiration. There's something outside the space-time continuum, and when hyperdrive engines pierce the continuum to travel to the stars sometimes some of the entities living outside notice and approach the voyagers. Perhaps just to study them, out of sheer curiosity. Perhaps with an evil intent. Or perhaps they are so totally alien that trying to apply any moral compass to their actions is a fallacy. Of course, exposure to their alien essence transmutate the voyagers. And when they are sent back to our side of the continuum they bring the madness of the void with them (yes, a reference to Firefly's reavers, too).
Oh! And I wouldn't rule out xenomorphs as a Mythos monster. After all, they are based on a design from Giger's Necronomicon book. Maybe there's an immortal Empress somewhere, a true deity in herself, and the xenomorphs are her thousand young. Or maybe they are bio-weapon engineered by some alien civilization for a cosmic war.
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I came back to this one because it was a neat thread throwing different sci fi settings into the mix. Has anyone read(or watched) The Expanse? Im just cracking open Cibola Burn (book 4) and think it has some serious potential here.
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Wow- this was one of the greatest little threads in recent memory- I actualy have been referencing it as I have been collecting and preparing a minimalist collection centered around this concept. I just bought the deadzone terrain for this purpose alone.
I thought alternative settings could be handled with small rules packets- the core system and available weaponry would not change much.
I still think the time is right for this kind of project... And with osprey publishing every set of rules under the sun... Why not?
HorridPerson's post has had a huge effect on my approach to gaming this- trying to find a game that has done a decent job of hacking the investigation formula without being a subtle Clue variant.
But I did find this gem going through the thread- a late edit I must have missed. Sorry HP.
HorridPerson - "Edit: It isn't the original works so much as the derivative material that ape Lovecraft's imaginings that would be a concern. The 40k universe in particular is a science as magic/religion setting that I think should be approached with caution. In adhering to Lovecraft's own position I think a basis in science (even pretend science) is more faithful to the genre."
I actualy think Lovecraft did this perfectly, and 40k did a marvelous job carrying that torch. In the "Lovecraft Cinimatic Universe" that he built the earliest stories refer to magic and gods. But as the stories progress we learn (as HPL grows as a writer too) there are no gods... No magic... These gods and magic are actualy technology, aliens or unspeakable cosmic truths. It's 40k's occupants that call these warp creatures gods, and the writers or men of higher understanding who inhabit that world who understand them to be a plague brought on by natural phenomena.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
-HP Lovecraft, COC
If you could build a scenerio towards this ultimate horror while retaining the tension of it all- that would be amazing.
-The expanse is on my radar, re watching trailer and first episodes now.
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An awesome series of novels loaded with inspiration for gamers of many stripes!
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Oh! And I wouldn't rule out xenomorphs as a Mythos monster. After all, they are based on a design from Giger's Necronomicon book. Maybe there's an immortal Empress somewhere, a true deity in herself, and the xenomorphs are her thousand young. Or maybe they are bio-weapon engineered by some alien civilization for a cosmic war.
Funny you should mention Xenomorphs on a Cthulhu thread as, in my opinion, Alien is one of the finest mythos movies ever made. It's influences are many, its a haunted house movie in space for instance, with the Nostromo taking the place of a Gothic Mansion (take another look at the design of the ship itself) It plays on body horror, the fear of losing control of our own bodies, the parasitical, pseudo rape life cycle of the Xenomorphs designed to perfection by Giger (specifically for this film, not from a pre-existing book). And then of course there is the cosmic horror. Humans on the edge of known space coming into contact with an unknown alien creature that has itself come across a creature that has no agenda, no sympathy and no regard for the human race. The Mythos element was spoiled by subsequent films but the original still hold up as a Lovecraftian classic.
The Expanse is great space opera and promises some sort of vast alien menace beyond human understanding as well, as long as the writers hold up on the promise they have shown so far. What is it out there in the dark that destroyed an alien civilisation so far beyond humanity that we barely understand them?
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So happy to see this thread continue and the different views/interests/inspirations...
I just wanted to let people know that Strange Aeons Sci-fi is brewing slowing in dark basements around Uncle Mike's Lab. The idea would be to create a stand alone game that also aligns with all the current model profiles so that sci-fi horror is very doable with SA models and rules.
My playtest ship crew are painted up and will be my Round 11 LPL entry on Sunday.
Now I just have to get my ship built/painted...
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I just wanted to let people know that Strange Aeons Sci-fi is brewing slowing in dark basements around Uncle Mike's Lab.
Wow. Oh wow. :o o_o
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Sweet Christmass!!!
You've got me looking at everything I have collected for my Sci-Fi/Gothic Noir project now... I would be happy to participate in any playtest material.
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Thanks Wally. We will keep that in mind as we go forward as the sheer number of options for guns/gear/races will make lots of playtesting needed.
Mike has been collecting some great art for the rules...and a few fun miniatures are being considered...
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I'm a big fan of "keep it simple"- then tack a compendium on if it's needed.
Check out Frostgrave and Rogue Stars by Osprey. Rogue Stars is going to occupy a similar niche when you're nearing completion. I would also review the weapon layouts in X-Com as a baseline.
I feel Strange Aeons is very similar with regards to the layout of the core game- I would keep to a Gun/Armor/Item1/Item2* format. In Scifi it's very tempting to become weighed down with equipment options but I think you will find that the inventory will "right size" with time.
I view SA 2nd Edition as a divinities edition that will not likely receive additional content and contains several optional rule modules that are not required for play.
It would be really fun to keep a similar/identical point scale on the monster side of the house, you could present alternative stat lines and allow monsters or missions to bounce between systems/settings. An expansion and alternative narative at the same time!
One concept I am looking forward to is the possibility of infiltration missions or disguising defending monsters as "blips".
I have a very simple miniature set laid out for my "Strange Aeons Scifi"- 4 EM4 "investigators" and a small shuttle. For the baddies I turn to strange aeon monsters or Orks, Necromunda Mutants and Genestealers, but the options are limitless at that point-
I look forward to your efforts and encourage you to post your work and efforts.
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I would also review the weapon layouts in X-Com as a baseline.
I feel Strange Aeons is very similar with regards to the layout of the core game- I would keep to a Gun/Armor/Item1/Item2* format. In Scifi it's very tempting to become weighed down with equipment options but I think you will find that the inventory will "right size" with time.
I think you are on the money there Wally. SA2 is already pretty close to that with the way weapons are handled, so handling sci-fi devices / tech in a similar manner would make sense.
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X-Com is a funny beast from a design perspective- it started life as a boardgame.
A number of other miniature wargames take design concepts from it. (A strength in my opinion) with regards to how miniatures interact with environments and cover, as well as the use of actions (flavor wise).
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Good builds Wally and Peabody.
Xcom is definitely an influence...on some levels...and was playing it again last year on Steam after a 20 year hiatus...
I think the "keep it simple" mantra is a good one as the desire to include everything is very strong. The model we have been using is to start with is include as much as we can think of to start...and then scale back from there. This lets you capture the best elements in the core game and identifies the other areas where expansions are possible.
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Same concept we used in boardgame design- kill your pretties.
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Suggestions for sci-fi themed Special Agents
Super Soldier
'At least I got to see a Space Marine before the end'
(http://static1.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/11119/111195325/5039316-7926781518-art-l.jpg)
UNSC Spartans. The Adeptus Astartes of the Imperium of the Emperor of Mankind. The Doomguy. Light the blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance.
Action Hero
Dodge
Sprint
Rugged
Cybernetic Armour
Double barrelled shotgun, Rocket launcher
Survivor
'Who's Snow White?'
'She's supposed to be some kind of consultant. Apparently she saw an alien once'
(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/vsbattles/images/9/99/Isaac.png/revision/latest?cb=20160211060716)
They survived the original incident and fought their way to safety. Now they are going back in with the THRESHOLD team to finish the job.
Hates nonhuman lurkers
Mining Suit
Repurposed mining and construction equipment
Honourable Alien Warrior
'I can save these people! Help me!'
'Many have said that. But you are the first I believe could do it!'
(http://www.halopedia.org/images/d/d0/H2A_-_Arbiter.png)
Disenchanted with the leaders of his people he has forged an alliance with his former enemies to foil their schemes to bring forwards the End Times
Alien Armour
Lightning gun
Corp Executive
'I work for the company. But don't let that fool you I am really an okay guy'
(http://cdn.hark.com/images/000/661/142/661142/original.jpg)
Roll a dice before game - on a poor roll the THRESHOLD agents are forced to take along a representative of The Company to safeguard their investment.
He is a brave and resourceful ally who can do much to aid them in their mission.
Handyman
'Your plastic pal who's FUN to be with!'
(https://whatsyourtagblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/alien-isolation-en-oferta.jpg)
Able to carry massive weights and repair most equipment but with behavioural limiters that prevent them from making violent actions. Said safety limiters constantly fail so handymen are also a common lurker type.
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Dez, that stuff is pure gold.
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Kinda disagree with the inclusion of alien allies...
Deadspace; part of the "horror" is exploring the cosmos and finding out that although there is evidence of alien civilization- we are alone. And the only thing in the dark that we found... Is us, or worse than us, or incomprehensible and Inchemical to human existence.
It's a dark uncaring universe.
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Kinda disagree with the inclusion of alien allies...
I'd (clearly) allow it.
Partly on grounds of relatable aliens being a staple of many sci fi universes.
And from a lore justification point of view there is a bit in At The Mountains Of Madness where the main character reflects that although the elder things looked funny they were, when it came down to it, people.
And now, when Danforth and I saw the freshly glistening and reflectively iridescent black slime which clung thickly to those headless bodies and stank obscenely with that new, unknown odor whose cause only a diseased fancy could envisage—clung to those bodies and sparkled less voluminously on a smooth part of the accursedly resculptured wall in a series of grouped dots —we understood the quality of cosmic fear to its uttermost depths. It was not fear of those four missing others—for all too well did we suspect they would do no harm again. Poor devils! After all, they were not evil things of their kind. They were the men of another age and another order of being. Nature had played a hellish jest on them—as it will on any others that human madness, callousness, or cruelty may hereafter dig up in that hideously dead or sleeping polar waste—and this was their tragic homecoming. They had not been even savages—for what indeed had they done? That awful awakening in the cold of an unknown epoch—perhaps an attack by the furry, frantically barking quadrupeds, and a dazed defense against them and the equally frantic white simians with the queer wrappings and paraphernalia... poor Lake, poor Gedney... and poor Old Ones! Scientists to the last—what had they done that we would not have done in their place? God, what intelligence and persistence! What a facing of the incredible, just as those carven kinsmen and forbears had faced things only a little less incredible! Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star spawn—whatever they had been, they were men!
But mostly just because I think it would be nifty to field a Yithian cone dude with a lightning gun in my squad.
(http://petersengames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Yithian1.jpg)
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I have to go with Dez on that one. Why even bother with SciFi without doing aliens? Heck, that is at least 1/2 of the fun of scifi for me. :P
Scott
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That is undoubtedly going to be a personal taste issue. I'm not sure if I want aliens in my stories but I'm considering modified humans or androids so I don't really see the difference.
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Yea! Elder Things, MiGo and Yithians are probably bros once they stop looking at you as meat bags that deserve to be exterminated!
Elder Thing is the best science officer ever! Too bad the blue shirt does not fit! :(
***Edit***
The universe hates you. Humans can't think like aliens. Their technology is so advanced people think of it like magic. Microbes on most planets will eat your flesh. Worms eat brains. Human tollarance is a tiny bubble encompassing a tiny fraction of planets. Most things you meet will want to eat you, and if they are intelligent they want to cut you into tiny bits and understand how you work with such simple body chemistry. Civilizations die. Civilizations die when they figure out what elder gods are. Civilizations go mad and nuke themselves. Civilizations nuke themselves when they learn what's out there out of fear, and would encourage you to do the same if you could only communicate with them. There is no higher intelligence that can tolerate your presence. Non RNA based life looks at you like a sack of nutrients to be harvested. Nothing out there has 2 arms and 2 legs. Nothing out there has ten fingers. You die without oxygen. You die when exposed to most forms of cosmic radiation. There is nothing waiting for you outside that airlock except an excruciating death, where your eyes pop out of your head, your lungs burst and your central body cavity ruptures.
The universe hates you and you are a cosmic joke. Nothing. Nobody. You deserve nothing, your morals have no bearing. Everything either wants you dead or does not even care. You are an ant.
Now... If you are a threshold agent, and the year is 2214... The proximity alarm near the fourth way station has gone down... Strap that pistol on your hip, throw on your carpace armor and grab two thermal grenades. Things could get ugly...
Friendly aliens are for Stargate, Trek and Star Wars fans- there are plenty of those games out there. Why not explore the Mythos?
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You are a threshold agent, and the year is 2214... The proximity alarm near the fourth way station has gone down... Strap that pistol on your hip, throw on your carapace armour and grab two thermal grenades. Things could get ugly...
Yes! OMG, yes. ;D
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There is definitely a need to build some creepy, dark space ship corridors. I was think of trying to build corridor floors with about a 180 degree "curve from floor to ceiling and see how a mock up might look. I've seen "flats" like the space hulk stuff but they aren't that inspiring. I'd like to try to strike a balance between functionality and cool factor.
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Suggestions for Sci Fi themed Lurkers
Cyber Maniac
Evil gets an upgrade
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZsPwQvbJLNY/VR7jm25OLhI/AAAAAAAAPY8/ejXwD9KG6JQ/s1600/jasonx-ubersparks.jpg)
See also Cyberdemons, Cyberzombies and Cyberhounds of Tindalos
Handyman
'You’ve got to listen to me! Elementary Chaos Theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok in an orgy of blood and kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving.'
(http://www.threedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Annex-Brynner-Yul-Westworld_NRFPT_04.jpg)
Often minions of the Rampant AI (see below)
Alien Apex Predator
'Can you see him yet, Brad?'
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ijSsFSr3D6g/UCYsNJL6HuI/AAAAAAAAAWM/gptkHQWjPFM/s1600/Figure_Bioraptor_PitchBlack03.jpg)
Not Mythos related so generally considered to be Someone Else's Problem by THRESHOLD teams
Rampant AI
'Look at you hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?'
(http://markandrewholmes.com/hal9000.jpg)
What happens when an AI runs out of sanity points.
Generally immobile but with a command ability that enables the sub-activation of several lurkers with the 'robot' trait when activated. Also tend to develop powerful spellcasting abilities as they race towards a twisted singularity.
Malfunctioning Nanoassembler Swarm
Grey Goo
(https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/9103/214291281.95/0_1bf85b_d6d59f88_orig.jpg)
The gestalt intelligences that control nanoswarms have turned out to be as susceptible to the sanity blasting effects of the Mythos as more conventional AIs.
Once it has Got Religion a nanoswarm cultist can dissolve a THRESHOLD operative in a matter of seconds and transform a corporate research station in to a temple to the King in Yellow in hours. Faster as they become able to warp reality by thought alone.
(Once transformed in to a temple a colony configured to generate spin gravity will act as an enormous prayer wheel and draw the attention of extradimensional entities across vast distances of 12-d spacetime)
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'Can you see him yet, Brad?'
By the by I have, after many years of looking, finally found the ancient beer advert this is from:-
https://youtu.be/uwuEkDaRk4c
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Thanks for bringing this thread back to the surface. It's still a trove cool ideas. I still wish I had done something with some of this material. Always a pleasure to revisit this thread.
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Yes, this is the good sort of necro... The kind that reminds me why this is such a great forum. :-*
Post-Apoc / Sci-Fi SA all the way.