The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: J is for JFK

Can't talk about conspiracy theories and not talk about JFK.

Though I am not talking about the 35th President, but rather the 1991 Oliver Stone movie.  Anyone that has even a passing interest in conspiracy theories needs to check this movie out.  It is a master class on conspiracies, but not in the way Oliver Stone wanted it to be.

The premise of the movie (and the conspiracy theories) was that Kennedy was killed by multiple gunmen. 

Kevin Costner gives a fantastic performance as Jim Garrison the District Attorney obsessed with finding multiple killers.  The film and most of the conspiracy theories fail on two main points.   1. A great man like Kennedy could not have been killed by a nobody like Lee Harvey Oswald.  2. The importance of "back and to the left."  Kennedy was shot from behind but his head snapped "back and to the left" this was taken as "proof" of a shooter in front, say from the Grassy Knoll.  

The problems with these ideas are pretty simple to point out.  1. Great men are killed by nobodies all the time, flying in the face of the Great Man Theory.  2. Ballistics testing, even from people like Penn & Teller, shows that shots with this type of rifle (an Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle) do exactly this. Even an untrained marksman like Teller (who does have experience with stage guns) can fire off as many shots as Oswald did.

Many conspiracy theories fall apart once some real testing is done.

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I honestly would recommend watching JFK over such movies as "Angels & Demons" or "Da Vinci Code."  The reason is that there is the underlying assumption that everything portrayed could have happened that way AND you can see how it could have happened that way.   Obviously, the realization of the underlying fallacies pulls the rug from under the whole thing.

Otherwise, it is a great step-by-step process on how to create a conspiracy theory investigation.  Oliver Stone may be obsessed, but he knows how to tell a good tale. Plus Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant in this. If you set your game in the "Paranoid 90s" then this is a must-see.

There is an old joke about time travel and Kennedy's assassination that there were so many time travelers on the Grassy Knoll when Kennedy was killed that there was no room for another gunman.  This got me thinking about a potential time travel story with Kennedy.  The Umbrella Academy did it. Quantum Leap did it. I think there was even a Star Trek episode planned, but never filmed that wanted to do it.   Just not 100% sure I would want to do it.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: I is for Illuminati

This one is obvious.  So obvious in fact that I debated on whether or not to do it in favor of some other "I" entry.  But that would be doing a disservice really.

The term "Illuminati" brings up images of secret meetings of the ultra-rich and powerful in dark rooms plotting the power plays of the world.  

The "real" Illuminati was the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded in the 18th Century.  They were a secret society and they did have ideas on how to better the world.  Like many secret societies they started and fizzled out in a matter of time.  Their legacy has largely been in rumor and conspiracy and, let's be honest, outright fiction.

While the intentions of the original Illuminati might have been good, the fictionalized Illuminati really captured people's imaginations.  None more so than writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson in their "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" which if I remember right is made up of five books.  That sounds on point, to be honest.  I remember seeing ads for it in Dragon magazine from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club.   And I remember with much annoyance when people in various Usenet groups would discover "Fnord" and try to be all funny and cool.  

The rumors and fiction of the Illuminati grew over the years and were popularized by Shea & Wilson books and other popular books by Dan Brown (remember when everyone was reading him?) seem to be far more interesting than what is more likely the truth.  Not that there is a secret group of people that control the world, nor that there is no one controlling world, but rather there are sever groups out there that fancy themselves as the modern Illuminati and they are all working in their own self-interest and often cross-purposes to each other to really get anything done.

Or to quote the great Alan Moore:

“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory.

The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control.

The world is rudderless.”

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Following the steps of Shea & Wilson, but honestly more into the steps of Umberto Eco I have always wanted to have the character investigate a conspiracy theory to it's ultimate source.  The proverbial head of the beast, only to discover there is no head and the beast has been dead for a while.  I call these "anti-endings" and they are like what you read in "The Dream-Quest of the Unknown Kadath" or even in the TV series "The Prisoner."   It's just sometimes they are interesting (Kadath, "Foucault's Pendulum") others they are frustrating (Prisoner).

Finding the Illuminati in a game should be a never-ending quest. Find a group that seems to be in charge and very powerful only to learn they take their orders from someone else. 

Plus it is convenient and, like Moore says, comforting to think there is one monolithic organization in control. But it is also not great for a game.  Think back to the X-Files.  Had they uncovered the alien conspiracy in Season 3, what would they do next?

The Illuminati really doesn't exist.  But that might be exactly what they want you to think!

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: H is for Hollow Earth

Actually of all the conspiracy theories I have presented here, the Hollow Earth is one of my favorites.

It is just so crazy and so much fun.

In truth, many of these ideas come from my father-in-law who had a rather impressive collection of books and underground films about this stuff.  I like to pretend he didn't believe them all and like me, he just got a lot of enjoyment out of them.  Well, this is true, but ask me again when we get to Tesla.

So the Hollow Earth.

This one is a topic I have talked about a bit here in the past.  

From the fantastic Ubiquity powered game from Exile Game Studio,

• Hollow Earth Expedition
• Hollow Earth Expedition Supplements
• and even Revelations of Mars

To the Hollow World of Msytara,

• Mystara, The Known World of BECMI
• BECMI: Immortals Set Review
• GAZ13 The Shadow Elves

Tales of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Pellucidar filled my childhood.  So as far as conspiracy theories go, this one was a welcomed one, but one that never left the realms of fiction for me.

Great tales when you are a kid, bad science when you are older.  

It was not until my father-in-law introduced me to this strange book he got about the Hollow Earth by Raymond Bernard.

It ties then UFO literature and research to the Hollow Earth.  A lot of it is crazy pseudo-scientific nonsense, premises stretched thin and beyond credulity, and shoddy correlations that are not even remotely connected.   So it is easy to see why people who are not trained in science are taken in.

Yet, unlike the Flat Earthers (who are as you recall morons) the Hollow Earthers seem almost quaint in a naïve, harmless old uncle in his dotage.  "Of course, the Earth is Hollow, now let's get you back to bed." 

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On Monday I mentioned two "alien" species that came from under the Earth.  Could their origin be the Hollow Earth?  It certainly sounds fun to think about, but I think I much prefer an "underdark" sort of Hollow Earth with large pockets of emptiness where these communities of Derro and Ophidians can live and where they do battle with the Reptilians in their underground bases. 

Maybe not full-on Agartha or Pellucidar, but more akin to Jules Verne.  There are Pulp roots to NIGHT SHIFT if one cares to look.  The Hollow Earth also had pulp roots.  It is therefore not inconceivable that a group of adventurers from NIGHT SHIFT could find themselves on their own Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

There is a lonely farm. Perhaps the last in the village, for everyone else has left, their farms abandoned. This last, lonely farm has been in the Polotnikov family for generations. Behind the farm is an old stone wall—broken in two places—which separates it from an ancient field of high grass, worn paths, and long abandoned buildings. It is said that the field behind the farm is cursed and that this curse is the cause of the other farms failing and being abandoned. It is taboo to enter the field, so no one does, not even the Polotnikovs. Mother Galina Polotnikov knows a little of the old ways, but is nowhere near the witch that her grandmother, the one-eyed Elena, was, nor as strange as her mother, who disappeared in her old age, so perhaps she knows about the curse? None of the Polotnikov family has been heard from in many days, and Piotr—Galina’s husband—has not been seen at the nearby market which he always attends. Thus, Andrei, Piotr’s brother is growing concerned. What secrets are the Polotnikov family hiding? Have they broken the taboo and entered the field behind their farm? And if so, what happened?

This is the set-up for Where the Wheat Grows Tall, a scenario which describes itself as an ‘Agrarian Adventure’. It is written to be used with the Old School Renaissance retroclone of your choice, but the stats and numbers are relatively easy to adapt to your preferred roleplaying game and its mechanics. In terms of setting, it is another matter. Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is set on a peasant farm and in its neighbouring field that together are caught between the competing desires of two sister spirits… One of whom has had her idol destroyed in the field, and unfettered, The Noon Lady has risen, and where her gaze drew the farm labourers’ sweat, soothed their rest with its warmth, and made the crops grow tall, now it falls cruelly upon the labourers’ backs with sunstroke and the crops grow wildly. Her sister, The Midnight Maiden, is secretive and playful, watching over men from the shadows and easing their sleep with dreams, but where her sister is unfettered, she is broken—perhaps by abundant growth encouraged by The Noon Lady. In the wake of this upset order, Barstukai, Children of the Crops, stalk the unwary, Night Goblins invite others dance and steal from their new dancing partners, roots snake and entangle, Turnip Jack searches the field for light to eat, and Likho, the One-Eyed Witch, watches, one eye at a time…

Where the Wheat Grows Tall is a deep, dark descent into Slavic myth and fairy tales played out across two halves. First, there is the ‘farm crawl’ where the Player Characters have an opportunity to get hints of what might have happened to the Polotnikov family and suggestions that they will need to break the taboo and go over the wall. Second is the ‘field crawl’, where the Player Characters will encounter all manner of the weird and the whimsy as they explore the area in search of the missing Polotnikovs. None of what they might encounter is necessarily dangerous, the dangers likely arising because the Player Characters are either careless or discourteous when comes to interacting with the inhabitants of this whimsical world. Some will want to dance or play, some to be left alone, and others happy to enjoy the company of visitors such as the Player Characters. The Game Master will find herself portraying a wide cast of characters and creatures—there are no real monsters in Where the Wheat Grows Tall —and imparting a fair bit of information as the scenario very much emphasises interaction and investigation.

The scenario is written in a very concise, bullet point fashion, style, and that has both benefits and issues. The benefit is that its information, whether background, location details, or NPC descriptions, are all easy to grasp, but the issue is that often, they do feel underwritten. Some of the NPCs could have done with a little more information as to what they will and what they will not tell the Player Characters. The advice for the Game Master, which most consists of hooks and rumours, along with suggestions on how to shorten the scenario as a one-shot or due to time, is also underwritten, making the scenario that much bit harder to prepare than should really be necessary.

Physically, Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is ably presented. The writing style is short and to the point, but still packing a lot of description into its terseness. The artwork, done by Evlyn Moreau, is excellent, primarily because it absolutely fits the wonder and the whimsey to be found in the field beyond the stone wall. The map is clear and easy to read, but two of the scenario’s locations, both underground, are not included on the map. Both of course could be anywhere in the underground of the field, but their depiction would have been useful. In places, the scenario could have been better organised, the map placed somewhere more readily accessible, and arguably the overview of the scenario at the beginning could have been stronger.

As delightful as Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is—and it really is—another issue hampering it, is its genre and mythology. Fitting it into an ongoing campaign is going to be challenging given its strong use of Slavic mythology, but there are settings and supplements that the scenario would work with and work well. Older supplements would include Mythic Russia and GURPS Russia, but more recent settings suitable for Where the Wheat Grows Tall would be that of Kislev of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and the Hill Cantons of Fever Dreaming Marlinko.

Where the Wheat Grows Tall is charming and challenging, weird and whimsical. It presents an utterly disarming excursion into lands beset by long summery days and barely soothed by nights of Moon-lit shadows, where there is a mystery to be solved, a family to be rescued—perhaps, and a restoration to be made…

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: G is for Global Warming

One of the biggest conspiracies out there today is the one that Global Warming is fake or somehow a grift to get more money out of us.

Honestly, I can't even start with these morons. Though they are not as bad as the Flat Earthers.

Human-caused climate change is a fact. We have too much data from too many different sources to argue this.

But yet the Climate Change deniers and conspiracy theorists are always shouting "follow the money!" or ... whatever the hell else they say. Likely blaming George Soros or the Clintons.

You want a conspiracy theory on climate change?  Ok I'll give you one.

Climate change is being caused by Demons.

For NIGHT SHIFT

Or maybe the Reptillians.  Let's look at both since both are active in the various worlds of NIGHT SHIFT.

Demons did it:  The thinking here is that as the world gets hotter resources begin to dry up, water is more scarce, food is more scarce, and horrible things like England exporting wine to France now become a reality, and it all points to evil intent.  

We know that the world's average temperatures have risen by about 1.8°F (1.0°C) since the 1800s.  At this rate, the world will be unsuitable for humans in a few more centuries.  But in a thousand years, it will be perfect for demons for a literal Hell on Earth!

Reptilians did it: Ok, Demons too far-fetched?  What about the Reptilians? They are after all reptiles and like the warmer weather.  Also if they are breeding human-reptile hybrids maybe it is because they can stay on Earth (or our dimension as some authors claim) and need to Terra-form the Earth to something more suited for their own liking.

Crazy?  Yeah, but no crazier than some of the things I have heard passed off as truth.

Now it is entirely possible that these ideas came to me from Doctor Who, in particular the 3rd Doctor era which was heavy on environmental themes.  The serial "The Daemons" even featured a large demonic-looking creature that could generate heat over vast stretches of land.  I am sure that somewhere along the way the Silurians or Sea-Devils even wanted to warm up the Earth a little for their return.

So next time someone comes at you with the idea that climate change is fake, turn back on them and say "oh it's not fake and the reptoids are all behind it!"  

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The Gutter Prayer is a fantastic novel of worldbuilding and tumultuous change. The debut from Gareth Hanrahan—an author best known for his many roleplaying credits, from The Persephone Extraction to The Pirates of Drinax—and much more besides, it opens with a prologue written in the second person that narrates a burglary upon the House of Law in the city of Guerdon. It gives a strange, almost impersonal point of view to the beginning of the novel, the identity of the narrator not quite clear, but oh so important as the events of the story reveal later. The burglary though is a failure, forcing its perpetrators, Carillon, an orphan newly returned to the city after years away as a refugee, Rat, a young Ghoul not wanting to his kind below, and Spar, a Stoneman, cursed with a disease which causes him to ossify into stone, and ultimately die if he does not receive injections of the serum, alkahest, to flee. In the wake of an explosion they know nothing about, the trio splits up, chased by the Tallowmen, waxworks which keep going as long as their wick remains alight, created by the Alchemists Guild to help enforce the laws and keep the peace. That explosion and the identity of the narrator in the prologue set off a chain of events which reverberate throughout the rest of novel.

Guerdon stands at the heart of the novel, a fantasy-industrial city-port which remains neutral in the ongoing Godswar afflicting other nearby nations. Religious strife underlies its history though, religious freedom allowed in the city because the Church of the Kept Gods threw down the dark rule of the Black Iron Gods and their vile servants. In recent times, the influence of the Kept Gods has diminished as the power and influence of the Alchemists grew and turned Guerdon into the soot-strewn industrial powerhouse that it is today. In the narrow streets and through the warrens of the smugglers’ tunnels lurks the Brotherhood, the city’s thieves’ guild—of which the novel’s central trio are members—whilst below are stranger factions still. Both are Lovecraftian in nature, the Ghouls feeding upon the city’s dead lowered into corpse chutes by the Church of the Kept Gods, whilst the Crawling Ones, amorphous collective masses of worms which can take on humanoid shapes, plot for greater power and influence in the city above at the expense of the Ghouls.

Once past the prologue, the story switches back and forth between character points of view, initially Carillon, Rat, and Spar, in turn providing different views of the city and building and building Guerdon. They counterpart each other, Carillon impulsive and impatient, Spar physically slowed into terminal patience, with the pragmatic Rat between them. Guerdon though, forms a character of its own as the author serves up one aspect of the city after another, often seeming to throw them away before moving onto the next, leaving the reader to wonder if he will ever return to explain or expand. The three central protagonists, plus Guerdon itself, are not the only characters given time in the spotlight. Carillon has a starchy cousin, Eladora, who provides a different perspective upon their extended family; the three are hunted by Jere, a thief taker with connections; and Aleena, foul-mouthed and weary, who as a Saint of the Kept Gods channels their power. Not all of the other characters in the novel are accorded such treatment and consequently, some are underwritten.

The Gutter Prayer is also a tale of responsibilities, each of the three central characters gaining them, often unwillingly, due to the events of the novel, in the case of Carillon coming to the prologue. In turn, they pull each of the three away from their central friendship which is so strong at the beginning of the novel, especially as the pace of the book picks up and up as their stories and the book comes to a climax.

Most obviously, in terms of genre, with its guilds and gods, thieves and cults, The Gutter Prayer is a dark fantasy, and whilst the industrialisation of alchemy in Guerdon does push it towards the steampunk genre, the novel is neither pseudo-Victorian nor obsessed with mechanical technology. It is rather Dickensian in both its character and its griminess, but The Gutter Prayer is ultimately more of a horror story, and whilst the author’s depiction of the Crawling Ones and their servants is suitably Lovecraftian, the truly creepy creations in the novel are the Tallowmen and the Gullmen. The latter appear only a few times in the novel, but that is enough, because seagulls given arms and legs is not something that you want to be thinking about. The former though, are a constant presence and threat—chasing, watching, guarding, herding… Each is the facsimile in stretched wax of their former self, vaguely self-aware, but always knowing that if their wick is extinguished, then so is their soul.

Throughout it is interesting to see the author going through the process of world-building through the narrative rather than the construction we are used to seeing done via roleplaying supplements. Although there are mentions of the wider world and then just the one fantastic excursionary scene, the action of The Gutter Prayer is confined to Guerdon itself. As much as the city is brought to life, there is still very much left for the reader to wonder at and hope that the author returns to in later books. Were The Gutter Prayer a roleplaying supplement, then perhaps it would be a different matter. In terms roleplaying, any number of rules sets could be used to portray Guerdon and its inhabitants, for example, Into the Odd would work.

The Gutter Prayer is a fast-paced—sometimes too fast-paced as the reader tries to keep up—and grim and grimy dark fantasy. It evokes a wonderfully sooty and tarnished sense of place in Guerdon and explores it through a cast of engaging characters who face difficult choices and undergo often traumatic transitions. The Gutter Prayer is a great introduction to Guerdon and the Black Iron Legacy series, and an exciting and engaging debut novel.

Testing a few things on my social media manager, but I figure this is also a good time to show off the latest art I had commissioned from OdinDoesArt.   I am quite pleased with it, to be honest.

Now to see how far and wide this one went!

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: F is for Flat Earth

Over the years I have seen and read about some really interesting conspiracies.  The movie JFK starring Kevin Costner really made you think that maybe Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone, or maybe that Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna could be alive somewhere, or maybe Roswell was about aliens.   

While thought provoking, all of these are dismissed once the evidence is carefully examined.  Oswald did act alone, DNS proved Anastasia's death, and the government did lie about Roswell, but not about aliens.

But the dumbest conspiracy theory ever has to come from the lead-paint chip-eating crowd behind the Flat Earth Theory.  I even hate to call it a theory since no part of it acts like a true theory.

Essential this brain trust believes the Earth is flat and NASA has been covering up to support the notion of "Globeists."   They are all invariably ultra-religious and start with the claim about God and the "four corners of the Earth" that they take literally.

Let's ignore the poet license people are allowed to take. Or the fact that the Bible was originally written by people that honestly had no idea where the sun went at night AND it was translated, rewritten, re-translated, and so on for centuries.  OR even that Greek mathematician Eratosthenes not only showed that only the earth was round, he also calculated its circumference with an astounding degree of accuracy prior to 200 BC.

They have all decided that not only is the Earth flat, but NASA has been lying to the entire world to...well I am not sure why they think NASA is lying.  Normally in a coverup there are reasons. Money. Power. But the Flat Earthers think NASA is hiding something. 

Let's be 100% honest here.  Flat Earthers are morons.

But what can to give me when it comes to running a NIGHT SHIFT game?

For NIGHT SHIFT

The biggest gripe that Flat Earthers seem to have is that NASA and all the world governments are conspiring together to keep information out of the hands of the ones that seek the truth. 

Let's ignore the fact that such a vast conspiracy would be impossible to pull or let alone maintain, what does NIGHT SHIFT have that the world's governments want to hide?  Easy.  Magic.

The governments of the world, or at least sections of it, know all about magic and their job is to keep that knowledge out of the hands of the unwashed masses.  To that end, they have magical practitioners that help clean up everything and erase memories.  Something akin to an Arcane Men in Black or even like the Cleaners from Charmed (who, interestingly enough wear all white and not all black like the MiB).  In some ways, they are also a bit like the  Technocracy from Mage: The Ascension, but are "pro" magic and "anti" people getting their hands on it.

This group's job is to protect magic, but more importantly, their job is to protect magic from all the "mundanes" and mortals out there.   I am thinking of calling them "The Guardians" or something like that.  They monitor all magic in the world and keep it out of the wrong hands and the wrong minds.

The Guardians either appear as angels, devils, fey creatures or tall humans as the need arises.  In truth they prefer not to be seen at all.

--

Now I should note that one of my favorite games, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea assumes a Flat Earth and it works fine there. In fact a lot of the "reality" of AS&SH is built on a lot of the ideas I have been talking about all this month.

Really there is only one Flat Earth worth talking about and that is the 1984 album by Thomas Dolby.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: E is for Extraterrestrials on Earth

Getting back to some of the aliens I want to talk about some of the aliens found on Earth and how they can be used in the game.

There are some generally accepted aliens in UFOlogy (yeah that is a word I typed). Let's go over them here and then see what we have.

Nordics

These aliens are called this because they, generally speaking, are tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, human-looking aliens.  Seriously I can't help but think about how many of these ideas are so steeped in racism and these are the Poster Boys.  Though, and to be fair, maybe they are more like the Asgardians of the Marvel Universe? Nah, that is giving them too much credit.  

The Nordics supposedly come from the Pleiades star cluster.  They seem to have a more benign nature that the other aliens. 

Reptilians 

OR Reptoids I have mentioned already this month and they have a much more sinister motive here.  They have infiltrated various levels of government (more on that later this month), but their true purposes are still unknown.  They can shape-shift and appear to be human and are believed to be somewhere from the Alpha Draconis system. 

Greys

These guys are jerks. They visit trailer parks in the middle of the night and abduct people.  Ok that is a bit glib.  These aliens are some of the most seen and are responsible for many of the close encounters. Indeed they were featured in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (one of my favorites), Roswell, Strieber's "Communion," and the various "Alien Autopsy" movies. 

Popularly they are considered to be from Zeta Reticuli.  This is based on a drawing from one of the most famous alien abductees ever, Betty Hill.  

While generally believed to be benign, there is the opinion that they see humans as little better than animals to be experimented on. 

LGMs

The Little Green Men are common in Sci-Fi but have not featured much in conspiracy theories or alien sightings for a while.  They were commonly believed to have been from Mars.  

As their name implies they are shorter than humans, even shorter than greys.  

Insectoids

These aliens are spotted far less frequently than the others.  The Selenites are often depicted as insectoids.  Because of this, I am tempted to give them a temporary base on the moon. It was just set up.

Alien Species Concepts by Deimos-Remus

For NIGHT SHIFT

These five alien species all are active on the Earth of NIGHT SHIFT, in particular Weirdly World News.  Their motivations are pretty simple.  Nordics are observing and helping where they think is best.  Greys and LGMs are abducting humans and trying to figure out what makes them tick.  Insectoids are new to Earth and are rivals with the Reptoids. Their true motivations are still unknown.

That leaves the Reptoids.  They are going to be detailed in more posts here, but basically, they are here to take control of the Earth and its people. There is a lot of speculation on what they want here from human slaves, or they are draining our psychic energy, to needing a new home after their world was destroyed.  

Like the Ophidians I mentioned on Monday, the Reptilians/Reptoids can't use magic. Nordics do use magic, or at least they do something that seems similar to magic.

There are a couple of good game resources that cover all these aliens.  First, there is the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS - The Cryptid Manual (review) a great resource on all sorts of cryptids and aliens.  And secondly an old favorite of mine, The Unexplained (review) a Fudge-based RPG. 

Both are excellent resources.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

I interrupt this A to Z Blogging with my newest acquisition/restoration project.

Over the winter break, I worked on my new Color Computer upgrade to a full retro gaming machine.

Well, I am moving on to a larger project now.

It is the case for a TRS-80 Model III, the first computer I ever used.  

The cabling for the CoCo mod was tight, but this is so roomy on the inside.  Not to mention 2 full-height 5.25" drive bays.  I still have drive rails and even a hot-swap chassis for USB to IDE drives.  I even have DVD and Blu-Ray drives I could put into this.

Honestly, I am high with anticipation about what I could do with this.  The monitor is the limiting factor of course and I would need to design a bunch of new parts to 3D print, but those are just details, and minor ones at that.

Nothing it happening though for a bit.  That case needs some serious care.  When I UV bleached my other one it was recommended that I just paint it.  I might do that here. It is frankly a wreck, but not so much so that I can't make it work.

Now to decide...Windows, Linux or TRS-DOS?  Nah just kidding, this will be Windows I am sure. 

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: D is for Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

A slight shift today.  I CAN'T talk about Conspiracy Theories and not talk about Carl Sagan's last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

I have mentioned before that Sagan and his book Cosmos had a deep and profound effect on my thinking coming out of the "extra hippie shit" coming out of the 70s into the 80s.

This book is now 25 years old but reads like it could have been written just 2 years ago.   So many of the Conspiracy Theories I am going to be talking about here have been so masterfully destroyed by Sagan and his "Baloney detection kit" that I do feel a tinge of professional guilt talking about them here when they should be ignored.  But that is not the point to these posts this month is it?

Listening to the Demon-Haunted World recently (on Audible with Seth MacFarlane and Cary Elwes) I am impressed that so much of what Sagan had to say still is appropriate today and, sadly, how much things had not changed since he wrote it in 1995. 

I really cannot recommend it enough.

For the conspiracy and pseudoscience minded it is worth a read/listen to put some of these ideas into perspective.  It is a bucket of ice-cold water on the idea of magical thought.

For NIGHT SHIFT

So how do I use this for NIGHT SHIFT?  Simple.  In many of the worlds (Night Worlds) of NIGHT SHIFT, it is assumed that magic is NOT real, even if it is.  So maybe unlike our world, the average man takes the point of view of Sagan and his Baloney Detection Kit.  It helps explain the world a little bit better. 

It is also great to help create obnoxious arguments when your characters are to convince someone that magic is real.

If there is a pet conspiracy theory you are expecting to see here and don't it is likely for 2 reasons. First, and most likely, it is because I did not find a good game application for it. The other reason, and it is not a small one, is because this book so convinced me they can't happen that I am not even considering it anymore.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: The Dragon of WantleyPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: SR Sellens

Setting: Jazz Age North Yorkshire (sans Jazz).
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-Two page, 17.57 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: What evil hides behind an elopement?Plot Hook: How far will the cultists and Investigators go in determining the aims of the cult?Plot Support: Straightforward plot, staging advice for the Keeper, two maps, thirteen handouts, ten detailed NPCs, one Mythos tome, one ballad, and five pre-generated Investigators.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Ferroequinology# Lambton Worm-like scenario grounded in classic English folklore# Decent background introduction to England# Excellently done handouts and photographs# Gentility hides a nasty little plot# Nobility hides a dark secret# Huge potential to disastrously break Yorkshire (a bit) # Roleplaying opportunities amongst the manners and mores the English Class system# Can be run as part of Day of the Beast, Masks of Nyarlathotep, or Tatters of the King
Cons# Needs an edit# Mummies feel like a red herring# Underdeveloped in places# Needs an area map# No hooks for Day of the Beast, Masks of Nyarlathotep, or Tatters of the King
# Huge potential to disastrously break Yorkshire (a bit) 
Conclusion# Nicely supported scenario which twists classic English folklore
# Plenty of roleplaying opportunities amongst the manners and mores of the English Class system as the Investigators winkle out a dark secret.

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: C is for Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis

(and a Special Monstrous Monday!)

The Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis is the "hypothesis" (really just an idea, it's not a good hypothesis in the scientific sense) put forward by Mac Tonnies and based on, among other things, the writings of Richard Shaver.  

The idea is that all the so-called "extraterrestrials" on Earth are all really natives.  Not cryptids per se, but whole other species. They have existed, in theory since the dawn of time.

Exploring the Shaver aspect, we have the "Deros" or his "detrimental robots" as a possible Cryptoterrestrial species. If we use the D&D versions, the Derro, then we have more to work with.   I think I would also like to take another page from Shaver's book magazine and have the language the Derro use be Mantong. 

Another species that fits this idea for me is the Ophidians.  This is a species that I have used in the past and really enjoy them.   

What separates cryptoterrestrials from extraterrestrials are their origins. While both can seem "alien" to humans, cryptoterrestrials are Earthlings.  They evolved from the same processes that gave us trees, lobsters, and humans.  Generally speaking, the same things that affect us, will affect them. They need to eat, breathe, and even sleep. They can be affected by poisons, just different ones, and bullets still hurt them. 

For NIGHT SHIFT

Since today is also a Monstrous Monday I think I should have some monster stats here.

Derro
No. Appearing: 8-80 (8d10)
AC: 4
Move: 20 ft.
Hit Dice: 3
Special: Pack tactics, Can fight in complete darkness, vulnerable to sunlight, madness.
XP Value: 60

Derros are a race of subterranean human-like creatures.  Their skin is a dull gray, their hair is typically a few shades lighter, and their eyes are a uniform white.  They speak an unknown, guttural language, but a few (1 in 10) can speak any surface language that is common nearby.  

Common Derro Abilities

• Pack tactics. Derro are ambush attackers and will set traps and snares to incapacitate interlopers into their realms.  The derro will kill any they suspect is a threat, usually the largest, and keep the rest as slaves. 
• Fight in Complete Darkness/Vulnerable to Sunlight.  Derro fight in complete darkness as if it were dim light. They take no penalty in attacks.  In any light greater than torchlight/flashlight they take a penalty of -1 (-5%).  In anything brighter, the penalty is -3 (-15%).  In full sunlight they cannot attack at all.
• Madness. A full 25% of all derro suffer from a form of racial madness.  This usually manifests as a form of delusional behavior where they feel they are the superior species of the planet.  Their layers are fill with giant machines they refer to as "The Death Ray", "The Sun Destroyer", or "The Gravity Enhancer" that are designed to end the world, but never work.  Derro spend decades building these, or more to the point forcing slaves to do it, only to have them end in their own destruction.

Derro are cruel and delight in torture for torture's sake. 

Ophidian
No. Appearing: 4-24 (4d6)
AC: 6
Move: 30 ft.
Hit Dice: 1 to 4
Special: Cold-blooded, enhanced senses (sight, smell), poison, magicly impaired.
XP Value: Varies

Ophidians are snake-like humanoids that have existed on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs.  They remember the great age of reptiles.  They hate humans, and really all mammals, and seek to destroy them so they can reclaim the Earth as their own.  If they hate anything more than humans it is the Extraterrestrial Reptoids. They feel the reptoids caused the great blast 65 million years ago that destroyed the dinosaurs (they didn't but the ophidians are not convinced) and they fight them for control of the Earth.

Common Ophidian Abilities

• Cold-blooded. Ophidians live in deep rain forests, inhospitable deserts, and even underground near magma pockets or anywhere that is warm.  They prefer temperatures that are 75 °F / 24 °C or warmer with places of variable temperatures.
• Enhanced Senses. Ophidians have superior senses of sight and smell.  Their sight extends into the infrared spectrum.  They are only surprised on a roll of 1-2 on a d10. 
• Poison. The bite of some ophidians (1 in 6) can paralyze or (2 in 6) painful death (take 4d8 points of damage).  A Constitution-based saving throw can reduce this to 2d8 hp of damage. 
  
• Magicly Impaired. Whether due to their reptilian brains or the fact they evolved from different progenitors than humans ophidians are incapable of magic.  They can, and many do, have psychic powers, but never magic.

Ophidians and Derro hate each other, often encountering each other and fighting great underground battles below the feet of unknowing humans.   It is possible that the only keeping these species from taking over is their hatred for everything and everyone that is not themselves.

--

Both Derros and Ophidians have a nice long history in my games.

I have to admit they did grow out of a lot of fringe theories and weird fiction from the 80s.  But I will admit that the Snake People were really sold to me from the Duran Duran video "Union of the Snake."

It was the 80s, I took my ideas from where they came.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: The Dilemma in the DesertPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ryan Graham Theobalds

Setting: The Desperate Decade, Death Valley.
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-Seven page, 49.63 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Death, distrust, and derangement in Death valley.Plot Hook: How far will the cultists and Investigators go in determining the aims of the cult?Plot Support: Detailed plot strands, staging advice for the Keeper, two maps, five handouts, six detailed NPCs, one avatar, and four pre-generated Investigators.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Desert-bound one-shot# Initiates or Investigators, Investigators or Initiates?# Interesting real world location, Scotty’s Castle# Potential for paranoia# Potential campaign starter# Potential link to Cult of Starry Wisdom# Decent handouts and photographs# Investigators could become cultist NPCs in a campaign
Cons# Needs an edit# Maps upside down versus the photographs# Plot strands not clearly explained before they occur# Mythos mish-mash
# Floorplans left unmarked and undescribed# Weird cult initiation to murder mystery plot and back again# Crucial antagonist’s ultimate aim included as an aside# Crucial Investigator/Player decision decided by a die roll 
Conclusion# Possible played through background for cultists in a campaign?
# Oddly plotted and often initially underexplained murder mystery/cult initiation where ultimately, the dilemma of whether or not to turn to the Mythos is out of the players and their Investigators’ hands.

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
A Site to Die For is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the adventurers participate in a week-long ceremony of building and protecting a shrine for a Greydog Clan Hero.

It is a thirty-one page, full colour 2.57 MB PDF.

The layout is scrappy and the scenario requires development and editing.
Where is it set?
A Site to Die For is specifically set along the Starfire Ridges on the lands of the Orlmarth Clan.
Who do you play?A set of six pre-generated Player Characters is provided to play A Site to Die For.
If played using other Player Characters, the assumed default is that they are members of the Greydog Clan. Ideally, the Player Characters should number at least one worshipper of Orlanth amongst their number. It is also assumed that Humakti not be part of the scenario.
What do you need?
A Site to Die For requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha as well as The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack for wider information about the clans living along the Starefire Ridges. The RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary will be useful for details of some of the encounters.
Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes and The Sartar Companion will useful for background on the Greydog Clan..
What do you get?
A Site to Die For centres on week-long ceremony to construct and protect a shrine to a Greydog Clan hero. Unfortunately, this has to be done on Starfire Ridges, lands held by the rival Orlmarth Clan, which will object to both the intrusion by the Greydog Clan members and their task. The feud between the two clans has run for generations and sees no sign of being put to rest. Once the Player Characters have ascended into the steep hills—possibly assailed by ghosts of long dead clans, harassed by Orlmarthi hunters, and overcome environmental hazards, they can begin the ceremony. This takes place over the course of the week, involving the sacrifice of Magic Points and Rune Points—and even permanent points of Power(!), the erection of an ugly totem pole as an insult to the Orlmarth, and a small personal sacrifice to the hero, Tao. 

Throughout the week, the Player Characters will face the changing nature of the weather as it switches from one Rune-associated day to the next and a mix of encounters both planned and random. The planned are linked to the Rune-associated days, for example, a gang of wild Trollkin will attack on Freeze Day as it is associated with Darkness. Other encounters are random, whilst others will be with those known to the Player Characters, some of whom will support their quest, some of whom will wonder why they are provoking the Orlmarth by establishing the shrine?

A Site to Die For is nicely thematic and strengthens the Rune associations through the encounters and tasks that the Player Characters need to perform. There is actually more to the story than is obvious at first, though the likelihood of that full coming to light will depend upon whether the Player Characters completely fail to set up the shrine, or do so with a cost.
However, A Site to Die For is written in both a stream of consciousness style and in a style that keeps the players and their characters as ignorant as to what is going on as it does the Game Master. This primarily shows in the all, but complete lack of background for either in the opening stages of the scenario, even to the point where neither knows that the scenario actually comes with six pre-generated Player Characters—and the Game Master only knows this when she reads the last twelve or so pages.

A Site to Die For initially reads as toolkit to run the scenario, but it is a proper scenario that the Game Master really, really needs to read through and prepare a lot of information up front that the author does not. As a one-shot, with the given six pre-generated Player Characters, the scenario is probably too long for a single session given the likely number of combat encounters they will have with those wanting to stop the ceremony. With players roleplaying their own characters, this is less of an issue, and one of the potential uses of A Site to Die For is as a template for the Game Master to run a similar scenario for her players and their characters, though not one necessarily one involving either the Greydog Clan or the Orlmarth Clan. In some ways this is actually made all the easier by the amount of preparation the Game Master would have to do even if A Site to Die For was being run as written.
Is it worth your time?Yes—A Site to Die For presents an interesting clash between clans and Rune-themed encounters, especially if the Player Characters are members of the Greydog Clan, which could be adapted to other clans.No—A Site to Die For presents an interesting clash between clans and Rune-themed encounters, but if the Player Characters are not members of the Greydog Clan or they are not combat focused, then the scenario may not be suitable for them.Maybe—A Site to Die For presents an interesting clash between clans and Rune-themed encounters, which is perhaps too combat focused, but which could be adapted to explore the relationships between other clans.

3,2,1…Action! is designed to play fast and easy. When a player wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls a ten-sided die and aims to roll low—typically under a stat rated between two and nine. If the task is challenging, then the Game Runner can impose modifier of +1, +2, or +3 to the roll, depending upon the difficulty of the task. Likewise, if it is less challenging, she can add a bonus of -1, -2, or -3, depending on how easy the task is. Equally, combat is also simple. The Player Characters always go first, unless they faced by an ambush or a trap. Instead of rolling to hit an opponent, both player and Game Runner rolls damage inflicted, again on a ten-sided die, modified by the weapon’s damage modifier. Damage is deducted not from a Player Character’s Hit Points, but his Luck. Thus, a Player Character’s Luck can literally run out and so he would be dead. Luck can be replenished by the application of a first aid kit or at the end of each gaming session. Movement is done by weapon type. A lighter weapon does not slow a Player Character down, whilst a heavier one would, but in either case, the Player Character is ready for action and has his weapon aimed.

Two rules encourage great roleplaying and inventiveness in 3,2,1…Action! First, at the end of each session, there is an awards ceremony in which every votes for the Best Comedy moment, Best Action Sequence, and Line of the Night, the winners gaining one, two, or three points of Luck respectively. Second, player are encouraged to improvise and creativity, in effect, develop their characters by filling in ‘plot holes’. Whenever a player wants his character to do something out of the ordinary or unexpected, the Game Runner is not expected to answer, “Yes, but…”, but rather, “Yes, but tell me how your character can do that and tell me two sentences.” 

For Gayle needs to make contact with someone on the inside of crime boss’ gang and knows that they will be meeting at local restaurant. A very good restaurant, famed for the standard of its service. Gayle’s player tells the Game Runner that she will go undercover as a waitress. The Game Runner asks her player if Gayle has any experience as a waitress, especially a siler service waitress. Gayle’s player explains that in high school she got the role of a waitress in a play, but did not know how to be waitress. Fortunately, her uncle Ross, who worked for a fancy French restraint did, and he showed how, and she was so good that actually got a job as a silver service waitress during high school. The Game Runner accepts this explanation and lets Gayle’s player to pass herself off as a waitress with just a -2 penalty.

A Player Character in 3,2,1…Action! has four physical and mental stats—Action, Brains, Brawn, and Charm, and two survival stats—Cool and Guts. Cool is mental fortitude and Guts is physical fortitude and endurance. If a Player Character can keep his Cool, his player can gain boosts to his rolls, but conversely, gain penalties if the Player Character (literally) looses his Cool. Failing three Guts Checks reduces a Player Character’s stats by one, whilst failing a fourth means that he has died. A first aid kit or the expenditure of five Luck Points will reverse a failed Guts Check. A Player Character has a backstory consisting of just three lines (everything else is filled in via the Plot Hole rule) and four items in his inventory. He also has a role, which improves one stat, whilst also reducing another by a point. For example, a Journalist might be +1 Brains and -1 Action, or Tax Inspector, +1 Brains, -1 Charm.

To create a Player Character, a player rolls a ten-sided die six times and assigns the results to the six stats in any order he likes. He selects or creates a role and applies its modifiers, rolls another ten-sided die and add twenty to the result to get his character’s starting Luck, chooses the four items in his inventory (this includes armour, which takes up a slot in the inventory), and writes his backstory. A player Character may or may not have a Special Ability, which the Game Runner and player can agree on and typically adds a two-point boost under certain circumstances.

Robert Borkowski
Power Loader Operative
Action 7 Brains 4 Brawn 9 Charm 2 Cool 9 Guts 9
Luck: 29
Special Ability: Pack Horse – Robert can carry two extra items in his inventory
Inventory: Comlink, Toolkit

Backstory:
Born on a space hauler and doesn’t like being on the ground
Knows the best places to hide things on a space ship
Loves Poker, but never gets a winning hand

So that is 3,2,1…Action!, a set of rules which can be explained in a few minutes and a Player Character created in a few more. It fulfils its aim of emphasising fun and the story over physics, and keeps everything simple and fast. It is also the ruleset for Rocket To Russia: A Sci-Fi Survival Adventure, a one-shot RPG (and scenario) published following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Although published as part of ZineQuest 3, it is very much a mini-roleplaying game rather than a fanzine, and at one hundred pages in length, is very much larger than most of the titles released as part of ZineQuest, let alone ZineQuest 3.

Rocket To Russia: A Sci-Fi Survival Adventure takes its cue from the Predator series of films and the Contra run-and-gun shooter video game. A madman has crazy on a mysterious tropical island, which until recently was the site of a super science programme run as a joint operation between the USA and the USSR. Someone has to stop him before he does something terrible—and that someone would be the Player Characters. Assembled as a clandestine clean-up crew, the Player Characters are delivered to the island, armed and ready to deal with whatever they find, or so they believe. They have just over twelve hours to locate the madman , thwart what he has planned, and get off the island via the designated extraction. The Player Characters are going to need more than their fair share of good luck, because once they up onto the island, they are on their own. 

Rocket To Russia: A Sci-Fi Survival Adventure is a Special Forces, military Sci-Fi horror which begins with a hunt for a soldier gone rogue who begins a hunt for the Player Characters. Then it gets weird because there are monsters on the island—piscine or batrachian and cephalopodic, and very nasty they are too. Plus they are really not very happy with anyone human. They are prepared to deal with humanity though, which sets up some very creepy scenes, as the Player Characters go in search of their quarry. That said, the quarry will come in search of them and much of the scenario is one of a cat and mouse chase from tropical clearing to another. Along the way, there are opportunities to discover more about what is going on, traps and hazards to avoid, and chances for the Player Characters to be heroic in service of their country!

Besides the scenario and the rules, Rocket To Russia: A Sci-Fi Survival Adventure comes with seven pre-generated Player Characters, descriptions of numerous weapons, and full write-ups and stats for the scenario’s monsters and more. It is entirely possible that the Player Characters might not encounter all of them, and if that is the case in their play through of Rocket To Russia: A Sci-Fi Survival Adventure, then the Game Runner could easily create a sequel and use them in that. The book ends with optional rules like ‘Cheese It!’, which enables the Player Characters to retreat and regroup if a combat gets too tough, ranges and reloads, and more.

Physically,  Rocket To Russia: A Sci-Fi Survival Adventure is solidly presented. If the cover is underwhelming, the excellent internal artwork more than makes up for it.

Rocket To Russia: A Sci-Fi Survival Adventure nicely balances the action with opportunities to introduce some storytelling, but ultimately, it is a batrachian blast ’em up which should provide a big bag of cheesy, cliché eighties action movie machismo which the players can play up to or undercut as is their style. 

An alien force has invaded one galaxy after another. Assaulted one world, followed by another. Reduced colonies to glass and moons to floating collections of rubble. Civilisation is at the invader’s mercy, and as hard as it fights and as desperately as it fields one more newly developed weapon, it cannot withstand the onslaught. How long before survivors huddling on isolated worlds with oxygen and food supplies dwindling are all that is left? Soon, but perhaps there is one last hope, the fabled Reaper’s Gambit. Myth and legend say that it can be found on a world beyond the borders of civilisation, buried deep underground. Now that world has been located and an expedition been sent to excavate a possible site for the device. So far, the Bridge, a Landing Pad, and Ship’s Power has been established on the world along with a force of Marines. It is time to begin digging, exploring, researching, and defending.

This is the set-up for UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers from the publisher of RISE: A Game of Spreading Evil and DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game. All three are map-drawing games for one player and each involves the drawing and building, populating and defending, and exploring and exploiting of great underground networks. Both RISE and DELVE are fantasy games, themed around building and exploring dungeons and telling the story involved in this. UMBRA is a Science Fiction solo roleplaying and journaling game inspired by the Science Fiction and Science Fiction horror of Alien, the Halo and Dead Space video games, The Thing, and Starship Troopers. In the game, the player takes the role of the Commander of an expeditionary base. From one turn to the next, as Commander, they will manage, expand, and defend the colony as well as sending out excavation and exploration teams which continue to dig out and dig down deep below the planet’s surface in order to locate the Reaper’s Gambit. Managing primarily means ensuring that the base has sufficient power and food to survive. Expanding the colony means constructing new facilities—barracks, crew quarters, charging stations, fabrication bays, genetic labs, power plants, hydroponics, cloning bays, alien beacons, research laboratories, and much, much more.
To defend the base, the Commander can recruit Marines and Hackers, build Support Droids and Robots, clone Mutants, and hire Alien Mercenaries. Once they have built a Fabrication Bay, they can begin installing automated machine guns, laser grids, psychic mind crushers, and more, whilst installing barriers—both defensive and offensive, and even secret passages, the latter to get around invading enemies. Together, they may need to defend the base against alien hive drones, war drones, and many more threats.

Exploring means finding resources, funding, natural formations, remnants, and other things. Natural formations include chambers full of eggs containing parasites; eruptions of lava; and strange anomalies. A remnant could be a monolith strange markings which might scan an adjacent area or turn some Marines hostile; a buried alien probe which a hacker could hack; or a dormant war machine already to go to battle…

The designer’s previous games in this family have all been about exploring and building underground—DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game about exploring and building down and RISE: A Game of Spreading Evil about exploring and building up. UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers is also about exploring and building down, but it adds a new dimension—the outside. Or rather the surface. A colony breach at the surface can cause decompression and loss of units not protected behind airlocks; armed aliens might stage an invasion; an alien ship might conduct a strafing run or an asteroid might crash into the base; and once a Motor Pool has been constructed, Expeditions on the surface can be launched and discoveries made, such as finding a strand alien mercenary, a previously undiscovered civilisation, and even a lost relic.
To play UMBRA, the player will need squared paper, a deck of ordinary cards, some tokens to represent units, a notepad in which to record the expedition’s progress, and pen and pencils. They will also need dice—a four-sided die at least. The game starts with the player drawing the Bridge, Landing Pad, and Ship’s Power on the grided paper at the top. Then on each turn, they choose an unexplored location on the map—which is a cross section of the base and its underground facilities—and draw a card to determine what is found. Hearts are Resources, Diamonds are Funding for hiring troops, Spades are natural formations, and Clubs are remnants. Both natural formations and remnants require the player to draw another card and refer to the respective tables. Combat is a matter of attrition, comparing the Strength values of the combatants and deducting the lower Strength value from the higher Strength value. A troop unit whose Strength is reduced to zero is removed from the Hold, but a Medbay on the same level where the unit died can revive it. The rules also allow for ranged combat. The player can trade and exchange Resources for Funding or vice versa, and finally they can build new features in the base—facilities, security features, and much, much more, and hire new troop units.

Once the Commander has excavated to the Level Five and beyond, the deck of playing cards’ Jokers are added back into the deck. When drawn Black Jokers represent Alien Terrors, bigger challenges that the Commander will need to overcome, and Red Jokers are Alien Artefacts which will help them in the long term. When the Red Joker is drawn, two further cards are drawn to determine its traits, and if they are face cards, then the Commander has located the Reaper’s Gambit. In which case, it is shipped off to support the Galactic War, the base and its facilities are given full colony status, and so the player has achieved victory in their play through of UMBRA! If however, enemy units reach the base’s Bridge, defeats the troops there, the base has been overrun or captured, and the Commander’s efforts to find the Reaper’s Gambit thwarted. The Galactic War will continue until the civilisation is destroyed—and so the player has been defeated in their play through of UMBRA.

If a player is victorious, they need not stop playing. There is something dark and dangerous in the abyssal depths of the planet, a truly monstrous threat—perhaps one greater in the long run to that being faced in the Galactic War. UMBRA contains options also for theming the planet’s levels, for terraforming the planet and making it even more difficult to explore, and a list of challenges that the player can overcome and so gain a little glory. Rounding out UMBRA is a selection of prompts and a quick reference page for ease of play.
Physically, UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers is a cleanly presented, digest-sized book. The writing is clear and simple such that the reader can become a Commander and start exploring and drawing with very little preparation.

UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers is closest in design to DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game. Both are sedate in their play with strong procedural and resource management elements, and these elements along with the map—or rather floor plans of the base in the case of UMBRA—are what the player builds and tells their story around. UMBRA can be played in one sitting or put aside and returned to at a later date, but it does take time to play and the more time the Commander invests the more rewarding the story which should develop. And as good as successfully finding the Reaper’s Gambit feels, playing UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers and not finding it and having the base fail can be as narratively interesting and satisfying—if not more so. The story of discovering that tale though, might be for another roleplaying game and an entirely different session.

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: B is for Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle might not be one of the big conspiracy theories, but it is an important one for me. 

The Bermuda Triangle was a gateway drug for me for all sorts of quasi-normal, pseudo-scientific ideas.  I think it was a set of "documentaries" I saw in the late 1970s.  The one that comes to mind most often to me is 1978's Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle.  I remember watching it at the Times theater in my old hometown.

The movie was presented as a documentary and to my 8-9-year-old mind that meant that it had to have had some scientific rigor to it.    The movie was a collection of "true stories" like the loss of the Navy's Flight 19 and other tales.  Many that still get repeated today.  It also included a lot of conjecture as to why this area had so many disappearances.  My favorite was one about a malfunctioning energy collection crystal from Atlantis that would zap ships and airplanes and either destroy them or send them to alternate dimensions.  Like many documentaries of this time it tries to make connections to Egypt and even to the Maya and Aztec cultures. 

Statistically speaking, the waters of the Bermuda Triangle are no more or less dangerous than any others given the number of ships.  In a 2013 survey of the most dangerous shipping areas, it doesn't even rank in the top 10.

I have been through the Bermuda Triangle twice now.  Once while flying home from Jamaica (our flight was not allowed to fly over Cuba) and once on a cruise ship.

For NIGHT SHIFT

I am going with the crystal idea for NIGHT SHIFT.  The Triangle was the site of some ancient alien base that later had to be abandoned. There is indeed a giant crystal that charges "Vril" (more on that on V day) from sunlight.  Periodically it releases its built-up energy in a blast that discorporates whatever is in its path. Does it destroy the object or, as some scholars believe, does it transport it to somewhere else?

Some even believe that these crystals are pyramid-shaped and have the same dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

The remains of the Bimini Road are also part of this base, but so far no one has figured out how they are connected. 

The biggest problems here are 1.) discovering the crystal and it's nature and 2.) getting down the crystal and turning it off. 

I would say that there are smaller crystals that are connected to it.  This can give the PCs some clues.  Especially if the crystals glow and pulsate in time with the larger one.  Someone would need to correlate the brightest flashes with disappearances.   

Given that reports of missing ships seem to have dropped off (that darn GPS!) and the height of the reports peaked in interest in the 70s I am thinking of setting this in my Spirit of 76 campaign. Another chance for me to use some ideas from "The Fantastic Journey."

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, is a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2021’, the publisher released two booklets. One was an anthology, the DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack, which contains three adventures. One for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, one for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, and one a preview for Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth. The other was Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass. This is a classic Character Funnel, one of the features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass begins with the Player Characters being brought before the Black King. A few days before, he and his band of brigands took over the village and demanded that he and his men be fed and treated with respect. Unfortunately, he has not come to the village merely for a series of good meals, but for the secret of eternal life. Just outside is The Devil’s Maw, a series of caverns from which flames regularly gout and no-one in living memory has ever entered and return. Thus it is forbidden to enter the caverns and descend the well found inside. However, the Black King proclaims that The Devil’s Maw holds the secret of eternal life and he wants to claim for his own. Not that he plans to enter a place as forbidden and as foreboding as The Devil’s Maw himself, of course. No, instead he chooses a random group of villagers and send them in his stead, promising that if they do not return with the prize, the lives of the other villagers will be forfeit!

Designed to be played in one session, Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass is a short adventure, running to just twelve locations. All of which are nicely detailed and with good reason. This is not scenario which emphasises combat—though there are a few scenes where fights can occur—primarily because none of the Zero Level Player Characters are really capable of withstanding much in way of a clobbering. Instead, there are puzzles to solve and not so much traps, as environmental effects to avoid or overcome. The short network of caves which make up The Devil’s Maw are soot-stained and flame-touched, and the danger of being burned is a constant threat throughout the caves. There is also the danger of a ‘Total Party Kill’, for one group of player’s characters, if not all of the players’ characters. This is no necessary scenario-ending, as the Black King will simply feed replacement villagers and thus replacement Zero Level Player Characters into The Devil’s Maw.

As the Player Characters delve deeper and deeper in The Devil’s Maw they will hopefully pick up a clue or two that helps them solve the big puzzle towards the end of the scenario. It will definitely help if they clear away a level of soot or two, but there are still plenty of clues otherwise. The big, literally big, puzzle is a killer if not got right, but fortunately, the author does not stint on the clues… Along the way, there are even opportunities for advancement and empowerment, some of which will have a telling effect on the individual Player Characters in the long term. One of these, a nasty version of the ‘lady in the lake with a sword’ (or at least an arm), will really present a player with a roleplaying challenge too—if the character survives.

Ultimately, whether the players have completed the scenario with their original batch of Zero Level characters or are on their first, second, or third sets of replacements, they will return to the mouth of The Devil’s Maw, hopefully with a treasure or two, perhaps with what the Black King sent them in for, and definitely with a desire for revenge. The scenario provides means to circumvent the brigands or even team up and beat a few up, if the players decide to look for those opportunities, but otherwise is linear and straightforward, from beginning to end.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass is decently done. The artwork is fun and the map clear, but needs a moment or two determine its layout as it is not quite clear what goes with what at a first glance.

So the question is, why play yet another Character Funnel for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game? The most obvious reason is that they are fun to play and it can be really entertaining to roleplay four Zero Level Player Characters and build the relationships between the player’s four and the Player Characters of the players. The scenario could be played by a standard group of First Level Player Characters, but the effect would not be the same. Another reason is that Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass is actually a prequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics #100: The Music of the Spheres is Chaos. Finally, Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass is a thoroughly fun and engaging scenario, one which should be easy to run with a minimum of fuss and preparation.

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: A is for Ancient Aliens 

Let's kick this A to Z challenge off right and dive right into Ancient Aliens.  This will be one of my bookends for this challenge since I plan to use Zecharia Sitchin as my Z entry.

Now while there is a ton I could say about these theories today and the rest of this month, I do want to make it 100% clear that I do not buy into any of these notions.  They are good for RPG material though.

Ancient Aliens is the notion that ancient people were visited by aliens (extraterrestrial advanced lifeforms) and not only did these ancient people regard them as gods they shaped the cultures of these people and even, in some theories, shaped their DNA. 

I want to address the biggest issue with ancient alien ideas.  They are all notoriously racist.  There is an underlying notion that "white people couldn't figure it out, so brown people must have had help from an advanced species."  Which is pure bullshit.  We do have better ideas on how the pyramids were built and why.  We know how the stone heads on Easter Island were transported. We even have better hypotheses on how places like Stonehenge were built. None of these involved magic or alien technology.  Renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass has been particularly critical of these ideas saying they take away from the ingenuity of the Egyptian people.  I agree.

Once you start reading into this (and I even found a couple of questionable documentaries) it opens a whole rat's nest of crazy topics.  I am not going to go into any of these topics in detail. No room here and way off scope. But I am going to link some of the more *interesting* ones and the ones that had the most effect on my work here.

• 5000 BCE
• Anakim
• Nephilim
• Reptilian conspiracy theory
• Serpent gods/worship 
• Serpent symbolism
• Serpent Seed

This all makes one think about the movie and TV series "Stargate."  And it was looking into all of this that made me realize how much stuff I can use here.

For NIGHT SHIFT

Most ancient alien/god "theories" are centered around Egypt and the Pyramids.  But many also pull in myths, legends, and stories from ancient Babylon, Sumeria, and the Fertile Crescent.  Others also involve American cultures like the Mayans, Aztecs, and the Toltecs.  While Egypt and the Fertile Crescent certainly had interactions, the Central and South Americans had no contact with them. In fact, that is a central thesis of these theories; "They had no human contact but there are similarities, therefore they must have had divine/extraterrestrial contact."  Ok, technically that is not a theory but more of a poorly worded research position trying to move to a hypothesis.  I am going to suspend my years of doing and teaching research design though for now.  This is for a game, not a grant.  

In NIGHT SHIFT Ancient Aliens DID exist, but they did not give humans high-tech materials or help them build the pyramids.  Humans were slaves and many times they were food.  To quote Dr. Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters II, "And that is the whole problem with aliens, is you just can't trust them. Occasionally you meet a nice one: Starman, E.T. But usually they turn out to be some kind of big lizard!"

The ancient peoples feared them, but I am going to say they mostly tried to fight them.  There were organizations created then to combat this alien invasion and some still exist to this day. 

These ancient aliens were those lizards.  They invaded ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and gave gods like Set, Apep, and Tiamat.  Then they went over to Central America and gave Queztcoatl.   The world of NIGHT SHIFT is absolutely overrun with alien lizards and their genetically modified lizard people.  

The ancient alien theories claim they are "reptoids" and are from stars in the constellation Draco. IT doesn't matter it seems that some of the stars in Draco are only 20 ly away (σ Dra) and others are as far as 7,000 ly away (V571 Dra) and everything in between.  But for NIGHT SHIFT let's pick Thuban (Alpha Draconis) as their homeworld.  It is 303 ly away, so a good distance.  It could explain the gap in time between visiting Ancient Egypt and Meso-America, they had to go back home.

I will get into the details of these lizards and what they can do.  But this is a start.  They have been here since the beginning and are still here now.  Maybe they are connected to the dinosaurs and responsible for all the myths about dragons.  

Who knows. 

I guess we all will soon.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

Be sure to visit all the A to Z blogs this month at the Blogging from A to Z blog.