Headcanons about your favorite settings

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Even Ripley didn't do a great job because she didn't do much of a presentation that warned them.

To be fair, though, they kept blowing her off when she tried to tell them about the xenomorphs.

That was one thing that I though was a bit unrealistic. Actual marines (space or otherwise) would have wanted as much intel about the enemy as possible, particularly something that is completely new.
 
The Star Wars Prequel and Sequels are Propaganda. Only the original three movies tell (most) of the truth. Anakin was a brave (older) pilot and one of the lastJedi, who was killed by Darth Vader. However Darth Vader's is so powerful and is able to resist shorting out and dying at the Emporer's hands for a little while is because everyone he actually killed he absorbed some of their essence.

So yes, Vader isn't Anakin, but is in PART Luke's father. There is a reason Vader can force choke someone halfway across the galaxy and the Emperor didn't. The propaganda of course is to make Vader seem like he not a soul eating lich in cyberarmor but was a real human once upon a time. Of course the part of Anakin inside Vader makes him turn to aid Luke, Anakin WAS strong in the force so being eaten didn't destroy him per se. Darth Vader is indeed his name not a title.

Jedi mostly died off hundreds of years before the movies. Only Ben, Yoda, Anakin and maybe a few dozen others were left. (Hence "hokey old religions" is true.)

Sure the Empire is new (ish) but its had a senate as a figure head for at least a century.
 
To be fair, though, they kept blowing her off when she tried to tell them about the xenomorphs.

That was one thing that I though was a bit unrealistic. Actual marines (space or otherwise) would have wanted as much intel about the enemy as possible, particularly something that is completely new.

One thing I liked is the subtle shift they don't ever overtly acknowledge: which is that alien life is unknown in Alien.

While in Aliens, they're apparently common.

"She saw an alien."

"Yeah, so what?"

And apparently Marines are used to destroy alien wildlife commonly.
 
Stranger Things is just straight up set in the World of Darkness with the Technocracy having a Construct there, a Progentior psychic experiment, and Void Engineers attempting to breach the Penumbra but attracting Nephandus/Wyrm creatures due to the cruelty of their human experimentation.

Ironically, the Technocracy helps explain one of the sillier elements of season three as the Technocracy didn't think anything of using Correspondence "Enlightened Science" to move a large number of Russian assets to the area to resume their research as well as build a massive underground base under a mall despite the absurd impracticalities during the Cold War.

Mind you, no one really wants to admit a bunch of frigging pre-teens helped bring down an entire Construct.

Twice.
 
Agreed. I was objecting to the "untrained" part only:thumbsup:.
Even Ripley didn't do a great job because she didn't do much of a presentation that warned them.
...no matter how good your presentation, it doesn't help if people just assume you're speaking out of your madness.

The story becomes very different if they'd all gone in with flamethrowers and torched the hive from the beginning.

:smile:
And again, agreed! They really should have.
But then it would be "Star Rangers/Marines" movie, not "Aliens":grin:!
 
Purple worms are an invasive species found throughout the galaxy. They are typically delivered to a planet by asteroids expelled by a greater one of their kind. Kind of like how Cthulhu is just a very old Xothian aka Star Spawn, there are purple worms who, under the right conditions and millions of years, grow to immense size and power. There's one on Pluto in my Hyperborea campaign worshipped as "The Worm God" by an obscure cult.
 
Ghostbusters

+ Peter Venkman actually didn't believe in the supernatural until he encountered the Librarian ghost. Part of the reason he had the appeal of a con man was because, in fact, he was and became a Parapsychologist out of the assumption he could make up any results he wanted. The existence of the supernatural proved to be something he wanted to make a fortune from.

+ Ray, of course, DID believe in the supernatural and never cottoned to the fact that Peter didn't.

+ Egon, by contrast, not only did believe in the supernatural but was educated at Miskatonic University and took it for granted that the supernatural was real the same way you would gravity. He could also cast spells, summon spirits, and communicate with the dead but never really felt the need to prove any of this because no one else was operating on his level.

+ While it never comes up in the movies, Winston Zeddmore was actually an electrician and only a few credits shy from his Masters in engineering that he eventually completed. He actually became instrumental in making a lot of their equipment more useful, less dangerous, and less subject to insanity.

+ Walter Peck actually was a lobbyist at the EPA and had no authority to do any of his actions. If he had reported the Ghostbusters activities to the Nuclear Regulatory Committee, they probably would have been under arrest (or hired by the US government for making homemade nuclear ray guns). However, he didn't actually believe any of their activities were real let alone they had an actual nuclear reactor in their basement.

+ Walter actually did have a somewhat tragic reason for his beliefs because his mother had been taken advantage of by a con man who claimed to speak with spirits.

+ Ray WOULD have believed Egon about Gozer's cult in AFTERLIFE but the latter deliberately left him out of the loop. This is because Egon had done various seances and rituals that discovered if he involved the other ghostbusters that they would die too. It also caused him to avoid his family because he believed the Cult of Gozer would target them.

(The Cult was long dead but, well, that wouldn't stop them)

+ Paul Rudd's blase reaction to the Ghostbuster's equipment is because he is in fact the fifth Ghostbuster from the video game who Egon recruited.

+ Gozer, also known as Hastur, was running on fumes after three failed summonings.
 
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Accidentally deleted my last post...

- I have said this on other threads, but I really like to think of "Alien," "Aliens," "Blade Runner," "Soldier," and the original novella "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" as being in the same universe, and will probably use them in a campaign at some point, if I can find enough players. I don't really include any of the other movies, comics, or books attached to those things, though. I do like the "David" synthetic model from Prometheus, but only that one character.

- The characters in "The Shining" (Kubrick film - I don't care about King's original) were psychic, and were dealing with the psychic echoes of years of bad stuff happening in the hotel. There were no ghosts, no malevolent entities or forces, and nothing they saw was real. I can accept the idea that the hotel itself had attained a kind of semi-sentience, though, at least to the extent of it having memories of a sort. "Dr. Sleep" is not a part of that universe, and would have been better if the "True Knot" had just been its own story, not tied to "The Shining" in any way.

- Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" was a sociopath. The editors of the book were absolutely correct in rejecting the final "redemption" chapter when they put out the American edition. You don't "grow out" of sociopathy.

- I reject most of the "World of Darkness" stuff that followed the original setting - particularly the later changes to "Vampire" and "Mage" - with the exception of a few bits and pieces here and there (like the Prometheans). I always ignored all the metaplot stuff. Vicissitude is a power, not a virus, disease, or parasite.

- The essence of Lovecraftian "gods" is that they are so totally alien that they can't really be understood, at any level. All attempts to categorize them, assign roles to them, relate them to each other, put them in hierarchies, etc. (a la Derleth) is blasphemous ignorance of the most horrendous kind.

- "Midichlorians" don't exist. Neither do the sequels to the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Only about one hour's worth of material from the prequels is real. Most of "The Book of Boba Fett" isn't canon (particularly the changes to his personality and the "mod" people). Much of "The Mandalorian" can be, though. The best parts of the EU are canon, particularly the parts set in the earlier history of that universe, the "Service Corps," and the other force traditions. Nothing from any Star Wars video game or MMO is canon. None of the comics or books produced after the EU was renamed "Legends" count as anything other than a disgusting nightmare.

- There is no "light side" and "dark side" to the Force. It is just "the Force." It all gets down to how you use it and your motivations for doing so. The Jedi and Sith both made a big mistake by treating it like it was a dichotomy.
 
- Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" was a sociopath. The editors of the book were absolutely correct in rejecting the final "redemption" chapter when they put out the American edition. You don't "grow out" of sociopathy.

I headcanon a different take that is completely contradictory - having realized his (smarter) friends became cops to indulge their vicious evil side and that he is incredibly vulnerable as a ex-con in a society built on hypocrisy, Alex devotes his life to creating a mask of reform.

He later becomes one of London's richest and most respected citizens.

- There is no "light side" and "dark side" to the Force. It is just "the Force." It all gets down to how you use it and your motivations for doing so. The Jedi and Sith both made a big mistake by treating it like it was a dichotomy.

I take it that the difference between yourself and the Force is actually trying to find a separation that doesn't exist. A person who taps into rage, hatred, and violence is using his own rage, hatred, and violence to tap into a universal well of the concepts.

I further have the take the Jedi have a balanced force of emotion vs. logic called the Living Force and Unifying Force that represent Yin and Yang. The Dark Side actually represents rejecting balance and placing yourself over the Force.
 
Oh, and the real point of going into the cave it so discover the nature of the hollow voice that says "plugh." It's name is ineffable, of course, but in the end it is all about the journey and the meditation on the nature of the universe, not the destination or some cold hard fact. "Xyzzy" is just a red herring, and "plover" is, obviously, a corruption of the divine "plugh," meant to lead the faithful astray.
 
The Star Wars Prequel and Sequels are Propaganda. Only the original three movies tell (most) of the truth. Anakin was a brave (older) pilot and one of the lastJedi, who was killed by Darth Vader. However Darth Vader's is so powerful and is able to resist shorting out and dying at the Emporer's hands for a little while is because everyone he actually killed he absorbed some of their essence.

So yes, Vader isn't Anakin, but is in PART Luke's father. There is a reason Vader can force choke someone halfway across the galaxy and the Emperor didn't. The propaganda of course is to make Vader seem like he not a soul eating lich in cyberarmor but was a real human once upon a time. Of course the part of Anakin inside Vader makes him turn to aid Luke, Anakin WAS strong in the force so being eaten didn't destroy him per se. Darth Vader is indeed his name not a title.

Jedi mostly died off hundreds of years before the movies. Only Ben, Yoda, Anakin and maybe a few dozen others were left. (Hence "hokey old religions" is true.)

Sure the Empire is new (ish) but its had a senate as a figure head for at least a century.
Yes! And "General Obi-Wan Kenobi" was previously known as Benny Lars, brother of Owen Lars, and that screwup moisture farmer who grew up on some farm partway between Anchorhead and Toshi Station. Benny was sort of a scam artist who did the whole "Jedi Knight" thing until Darth Vader (his name, as you said, and not a title) started killing Jedi and Benny had to decide to fight or flee. Clearly, hiding for 20 years in the desert was preferrable to having to confront Darth.

And "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" is the sequel to Star Wars, not ESB.

Somewhere I detailed a whole bunch of characters in this alternate take on the original. I'll have to see if I can find where I saved it. :grin:
 
I'm still partial to the fan theory that Firefly is based on Whedon's Traveller campaign, and that several of the characters are actually based off characters from that campaign.
  • Malcolm Reynolds and Zoe Washbourne are ex-army adventurers, maybe rolled up with Book 4.
  • Wash is a pilot who never rolled any combat skills.
  • Simon Tam is a doctor with a high social standing, as one tends to roll in Supplement 4.
  • Jayne is a career criminal rolled up as an other or rogue
  • Kaylee Frye was rolled with a low education but had really high mechanical or engineering skills.
 
And "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" is the sequel to Star Wars, not ESB.

I didn't post my Star Wars headcanon because it contradicts my Marvel headcanon: only the original movie (specifically the version that was available on VHS in the 80s) and Splinter of the Mind's Eye are true.

I suppose if I talk about my own homebrew setting, then it's just canon, not headcanon, but anyway: dragons are mammals that give live birth. There are no dragon eggs.

Batman movies: Batman Forever and Batman & Robin are fan-films made by someone who lives in the world of Batman (1989) & Batman Returns.
 
This is actually canon.

Demon: The Fallen and Werewolf: The Apocalypse take place in the same world.

And both Demons and Werewolves absolutely know the other side to be completely insane.

Yet both are right.
 
To clarify, if I don't specify a setting, I referring to about a dozen or so published Mythos/fantasy/sci-fi settings that are part of my combined universe. It would be tedious to mention each of them in every post.

  • Hyperborea is the cosmic petri dish of a potent Old One.
  • The Nightmares Underneath setting exists in Lovecraft's Dreamlands
  • Iconic Mythos sites such as R'lyeh and the Plateau of Leng seemingly exist on many planets due to spatial anomalies beyond the understanding of man.
  • Cats protect beloved humans from Mythos creatures. One of the reasons the planet Carcosa is so fucked up is because there are no cats!
  • Juiblex is an Old One worshipped as the Slime God on Carcosa and The Faceless King in Hyperborea.
  • Demogorgon is an Old One worshipped by deep ones, troglodytes, aboleths, and other creatures of the slimy depths.
  • Yeenoghu is an Old One worshipped as the Lord of Murder by cannibal cultists and hyena-men (gnolls)
  • Bugbears and vhoormi are variants of Clark Ashton Smith's voormi.
  • Orcs are the loathsome, degenerate offspring of man and swine-daemons
  • Ogres aka mountain apes are an aggressive, cannibalistic cousin of man and ape men.
  • Millions of years ago, the star-spanning empire of the snake-men collapsed almost overnight after unleashing cosmic forces beyond their control. They terraformed planets to suit their reptilian physiology (hot and dry, hot and humid) and used man and his shambling, ape-like cousins as subjects for sorcerous experimentation. Much like lab rats who escaped captivity and live on after nuclear war, humans remain on many of these planets although most have degenerated into barbarism or worse (ape-men, ogres, morlocks, mutants, etc).
  • Black puddings and gibbering mouthers are degenerate, primitive forms of shoggoth. A few shoggoths have evolved to become quite intelligent.
  • The Elder Things aka The Progenitors or Primordial Ones who seeded the galaxy with life have succumbed to idiotic savagery due to a widespread psychic disease.
 
Dragonlance

+ Good, Neutrality, and Evil more properly translate to Selfless, Balanced, and Selfish.

+ Wizards of High Sorcery can actually be one alignment level from their robes. Neutral Black Robes, Good Neutrals, and so on.

+ Black Robe philosophy actually makes a decent case for itself on the premise of "everyone outside hates wizards, so why not use your magic for yourself while giving the ignorant bigoted public no consideration."

+ The Kingpriest of Istar by achieving Epic Levels, became a god himself and was attempting to use a ritual to bind the gods with their true names. This was Fistanadalius' "original" plan and he was smart enough to have someone else do it.

+ Kender know EXACTLY what they're doing. It's just good way of deflecting blame for their thievery by pretending to be ignorant/naive.
 
+ Kender know EXACTLY what they're doing. It's just good way of deflecting blame for their thievery by pretending to be ignorant/naive.

I'd say that my big one for Dragonlance is that Tas is just A kender with his own quirks and personality, not THE Kender which all others act exactly like.
 
Dragonlance

+ The Kingpriest of Istar by achieving Epic Levels, became a god himself and was attempting to use a ritual to bind the gods with their true names. This was Fistanadalius' "original" plan and he was smart enough to have someone else do it.

+ Kender know EXACTLY what they're doing. It's just good way of deflecting blame for their thievery by pretending to be ignorant/naive.

You can actually find textual support for these two if you go back to the prototype material and Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Krynn evolved a lot along the way even within what many fans call the "Holy Six."
 
More Star Trek headcanon because I'm an addict:

* Historically, the original timeline of humanity was TOS and that was how the Enterprise appeared before time was altered. Starships were big, blocky, and while sturdy they were not seemingly as advanced or visually appealing as before. Furthermore, Starfleet was significantly more militant and harsh.

+ The first divergent point in Starfleet history is First Contact where Zephram Cochrane met Starfleet and became a significantly more idealistic figure who helped influence the United Earth Probe Agency to become more focused on exploration versus conflict.

+ The second divergence point is far more dramatic due to the Temporal Cold War when the Suliban ROYALLY screwed up the timeline by accidentally diverting a Klingon to Earth in "Broken Bow." In the original timeline, Jonathan Archer was known as a test pilot and warp engineer who failed to get the NX-01 off the ground and the first Enterprise would not launch until the Constitution-class decades later.

Due to the Klingons arrival, Archer gets his chance and suddenly the Earth enters space decades earlier and mucks with the timeline. This is why Daniels is so surprised the Federation ceases to exist in "Shockwave" if Archer is removed because Archer SHOULDN'T be that important. Originally, he was just a random NASA guy but is now elevated to George Washington as well as Neil Armstrong.

+ History proves robust and the Federation still unfolds much the same way as it did in normal history even with things like the Xindi War and a much friendlier relationship with the Andorians. The Federation forms out of mutual interest instead of a reponse to Romulan aggression. Technology gets a few decades leap ahead of itself and the USS Enterprise is now a much more advanced exploratory vessel with less focus on militancy.

(This notably affected the Kelvin timeline as well)

+ Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds are the result of this new and revised timeline as is the first Klingon War that happens before the events of "Errand of Mercy." Events are still eerily similar and ironically are probably due to Daniels and other time cops trying to make sure things still are broadly the same. This sadly includes making sure Christopher Pike ends up crippled by his experiences.

(If you absolutely need an explanation, Robert April's father married another woman in changing timeline as well but is functionally the same man historically)

+ Notably, in the original timeline, Michael Burnham's family lived a perfectly normal life due to the fact the Federation (or Section 31) never developed an interest in time travel or stealing Klingon time travel crystals. The theft of the time crystals that triggered Michael's parents' murder happened only because Archer discovered time travel a century earlier than Kirk and widely advertised it. This resulted in Sarek adopting her and her sudden appearance in Spock's life, resulting in him being slightly more comfortable expressing emotions.
 
As far as Aliens and Ripley goes, I think the idea that an insect-like species that uses a different species to house and breed its young isn't even remotely implausible, there's numerous Terran examples.

The whole thing really is explained by Corporate Fuckery. W-Y wanted the Alien, so they pushed HARD on influencing everyone who would listen how crazy Ripley was. Once you have a black mark like that (blowing up a fortune because you're nuts), it's not easy to get anyone to listen to you, no matter how logical you are. Ripley still having trauma from the experience didn't do her any favors.
 
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More Star Trek headcanon because I'm an addict:

. . .

(This notably affected the Kelvin timeline as well)

+ Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds are the result of this new and revised timeline as is the first Klingon War that happens before the events of "Errand of Mercy." Events are still eerily similar and ironically are probably due to Daniels and other time cops trying to make sure things still are broadly the same. This sadly includes making sure Christopher Pike ends up crippled by his experiences.
Dang, that is really clever.

I think I'm gonna have to take Macho Man's advice on this:

 
I have this theory that everyone in Gotham knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, he's just this insanely rich crazy guy playing out a childish fantasy of dress-up, but everyone just goes along with it because Wayne enterprises essentially owns the city and if it went under it would cripple Gotham's economy.

That's why villains keep "escaping" from Arkham Asylum - the authorities just let them out occasionally to keep Bruce busy.

Ultimately, Alfred organizes the entire thing, and was secretly behind the creation of "supervillains" for Bruce to fight in the first place.
 
I have this theory that everyone in Gotham knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, he's just this insanely rich crazy guy playing out a childish fantasy of dress-up, but everyone just goes along with it because Wayne enterprises essentially owns the city and if it went under it would cripple Gotham's economy.

That's why villains keep "escaping" from Arkham Asylum - the authorities just let them out occasionally to keep Bruce busy.

Ultimately, Alfred organizes the entire thing, and was secretly behind the creation of "supervillains" for Bruce to fight in the first place.

Oddly, that was a short story in Gaiman's Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader.
 
I have this theory that everyone in Gotham knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, he's just this insanely rich crazy guy playing out a childish fantasy of dress-up, but everyone just goes along with it because Wayne enterprises essentially owns the city and if it went under it would cripple Gotham's economy.

That's why villains keep "escaping" from Arkham Asylum - the authorities just let them out occasionally to keep Bruce busy.

Ultimately, Alfred organizes the entire thing, and was secretly behind the creation of "supervillains" for Bruce to fight in the first place.
I've always wanted to see a story that frames Bruce Wayne as a sociopathic Billionaire that masquerades as Batman to terrorize the poor and downtrodden. Commenting on how he could be spending his time and money funding Gotham PD or setting up social programs that would deprive the supervillains of their rank and file thugs.

Another idea I had is that Batman is the figment of a young Bruce Wayne's grief stricken imagination. All the characters, Commisionor Gordon, The Joker, Cat Woman, are just regular people in his life that he re-imagines as characters in his fantasy. Each issue is just a regular day in Waynes life, intercut with how he imagines it. Kinda like those Calvin and Hobbes strips where Calvin imagines he's Spaceman Spiff, when really he's taking a test.
 
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A take on Alan Moore's classic Whatever Happend to the Man of Tomorrow I take it? Never heard of that one, will have to look it up, do love me some Gaiman.

Yeah, it's Batman's funeral and one of the stories is Alfred admitting that all of Batman's foes were people he'd hired and he was the Joker.

Notably, he does this with the Joker sitting at the funeral.

Because, TWIST ENDING, it's meta and a Gaiman story. :smile:
 
Any established setting I run (or really even play in) becomes MY setting. I'll try not to completely violate it (though I may slay a few sacred cows if the group seems OK with it), but whatever the players have consumed in whatever books or media is, at best, what they think is going on, and, at worst, utter propaganda.

A couple few examples:

40K: The Emperor is dead, though he became another chaos god upon his death. The entire Imperium are essentially nothing more than Chaos Cultists of the 5th major Chaos God (who is more or less the Chaos God of Tyranny). This would be a bigger deal, but I am entirely sold on the idea that 40K IS Orkish "Valhalla" and anyone who doesn't realize it is missing in on the fun. Gork and Mork (or what the Orks call "Gork and Mork") created the universe and populated it with fun bits for the Orks to play with, that or their collective ability to muck with reality made it that way at some point and now it always HAS been that way. That said, this is close to "Re-Boring" in the other thread since I still enjoy the more "official" books and such. I do still prefer the original Rogue Trader 40K, but at this point it could have been that way, but the Orks changed it to be more fun for them.

Star Wars: Like a lot of folks, I only accept some of it as canon. The prequels are, at best, a poorly made in-setting TV show (perhaps on purpose, with the backing of Darth Jar Jar to completely cover his tracks) and anything post Mandalorian is essentially really expensive fan-fiction. The Boba Fett events likely occurred, but the show was a hack job funded by one of his enemies (probably Cad Bane, who wants to take a vacation and is using some misdirection).

World of Darkness: It's all lies and propaganda, all the time, and good luck even trying to sort it out. Powerful entities dueling over what amounts to reality with humans stuck in the middle. It's actually worse than 40K in terms of grimdark, but you can at least go out trying.

LotR: The Red Book of Westmarch is the writing of a very gullible halfling believing the lies of the side they were on. Orcs are "corrupted elves" only in the sense that they are more technological and reject the "fashions" of the other elves. It's just the victors writing the history to make themselves look good. All the events occurred, it's just not any where near as black and white as depicted.

Mythos: More or less what Brock wrote. It's all aliens and advanced tech and I like a lot of Brock's additions.

All settings: Magic and the supernatural is all subject to Clarkes 3rd Law, though many practitioners are not aware of it. All settings touch on the Cthulhu Mythos at least a little.

And so on....

I try to keep settings more or less feeling the same in broad strokes, but in details, it's probably just sides, both believing they are the heroes of the story.

That said, I tend to run my own settings, but when asked to I will run an established one, but it's NOT going to be entirely by the book.
 
40K: The Emperor is dead, though he became another chaos god upon his death. The entire Imperium are essentially nothing more than Chaos Cultists of the 5th major Chaos God (who is more or less the Chaos God of Tyranny). This would be a bigger deal, but I am entirely sold on the idea that 40K IS Orkish "Valhalla" and anyone who doesn't realize it is missing in on the fun. Gork and Mork (or what the Orks call "Gork and Mork") created the universe and populated it with fun bits for the Orks to play with, that or their collective ability to muck with reality made it that way at some point and now it always HAS been that way. That said, this is close to "Re-Boring" in the other thread since I still enjoy the more "official" books and such. I do still prefer the original Rogue Trader 40K, but at this point it could have been that way, but the Orks changed it to be more fun for them.

Interestingly, I go with the opposite that the Chaos Gods are actually able to represent positive traits as well as negative ones. It's just the hatred, xenophobia, infighting, an pettiness of the Imperium attracts the worst of the Chaos Gods and their manifestations.

Also, the Emperor was such an enormous shit and literally "worse than Hitler", the greatest thing to happen to the Imperium is his death and his deification more or less mutilated all of his teachings that they actually teach a much-much nicer person than he ever was.

If he ever did die and ascend, the Emperor-God would be NOTHING like the Emperor and a good thing for everyone.

Star Wars: Like a lot of folks, I only accept some of it as canon. The prequels are, at best, a poorly made in-setting TV show (perhaps on purpose, with the backing of Darth Jar Jar to completely cover his tracks) and anything post Mandalorian is essentially really expensive fan-fiction. The Boba Fett events likely occurred, but the show was a hack job funded by one of his enemies (probably Cad Bane, who wants to take a vacation and is using some misdirection).

I don't mind the sequels characters but have the idea that they were written by people who were attempting to ascribe royal lineages to them by historians many times later. There was a Kylo Ren, there was a Rey, and they had absolutely jack all to do with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia other than being passing acquaintances.

Which is a very interesting new movie trilogy if they'd gone that route.
 
I've yet to find a way to work this into a game but every cop/investigative show takes place in the same Purgartory of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. The trick is working out whose dead and whose guiding them.

Luther committed suicide after murdering a paedophile and is guided by Alice through an increasingly dark afterlife as he gets further and further away from redemption.
Murtaugh died of a heart attack after a life behind a desk. Riggs is guiding him towards realising the cop life he envisaged as a youngster.
Regan is being subtly led through the afterlife by Carter.
NO ONE knows whats going in Lucifer - whose dead? Whose guiding who? Its a bloody mess.
 
Interestingly, I go with the opposite that the Chaos Gods are actually able to represent positive traits as well as negative ones. It's just the hatred, xenophobia, infighting, an pettiness of the Imperium attracts the worst of the Chaos Gods and their manifestations.

Also, the Emperor was such an enormous shit and literally "worse than Hitler", the greatest thing to happen to the Imperium is his death and his deification more or less mutilated all of his teachings that they actually teach a much-much nicer person than he ever was.

If he ever did die and ascend, the Emperor-God would be NOTHING like the Emperor and a good thing for everyone.
The positive sides of the chaos gods used to be explicit canon, before the grimderpification of the warhammers really set in. Like, they were always awful, but there were at least plausible reasons one might turn to them. The cheerfulness of Nurgle is the only bit that's really survived.
 
The positive sides of the chaos gods used to be explicit canon, before the grimderpification of the warhammers really set in. Like, they were always awful, but there were at least plausible reasons one might turn to them. The cheerfulness of Nurgle is the only bit that's really survived.
Yeah, people forget that Slaanesh has always been the patron of art as well as pain.
 
Yeah, people forget that Slaanesh has always been the patron of art as well as pain.
Or khorne as a patron of warriors and honor, and not just bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed.

I think the chaos factions as a whole would be much more interesting if they were limited by their virtuous side, in the same way as the good factions are limited by their negative sides.
 
I have a couple related to D&D metasetting in general and Planescape in particular

1) Different species don't crossbreed.
1a) Orcs, Humans, and Elves are Ring Species
1b) Other cross breeds (half-dragons, tieflings, aasimar) are the result of the influence of the creature or plane or because of explicit magical "gene splicing", not because of parents of entirely different species get busy.

2) I keep 3e notation regarding creature alignment (often, usually, always, etc.). Creatures that are always a given alignment (like outsiders and dragons) don't have what might be called "free will" in the metaphysics of the setting. This lets humans (and most other PC races) have a high-fantasy-esque "special" status that let them escape what might otherwise be "destiny".
 
Or khorne as a patron of warriors and honor, and not just bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed.

I think the chaos factions as a whole would be much more interesting if they were limited by their virtuous side, in the same way as the good factions are limited by their negative sides.
I think that was partly down to the removal of the Law gods. Before that, it was clear that actually a complete victory for Law would not be a good thing. But the removal meant there was only one antagonist and there was no nuance left in the cosmic struggle apart from Khaine (who felt like a leftover from the old days with the approach).

To be fair, 2e did move further into nuance in other directions. It was the first time when it was made clear that the vampires hated chaos more than humanity did.
 
I don't mind the sequels characters but have the idea that they were written by people who were attempting to ascribe royal lineages to them by historians many times later. There was a Kylo Ren, there was a Rey, and they had absolutely jack all to do with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia other than being passing acquaintances.

Which is a very interesting new movie trilogy if they'd gone that route.

My headcannon went a bit Game of Thrones on the first (not)sequel when it was just the first (it became non-canon for me once I realized they had no plan at all). I doubled down on the family connection and figured Rey was the daughter of a child Luke and Leia had from a tryst they had BEFORE they knew they were related. They broke off once they found out. But before that they just felt very connected through the force and didn't realize it was the familial connection (and apparently separated sibling can find each other attractive if they were raised not knowing each other). Leia knows this (which is why she's so familiar with Rey at the end of the fist (not)sequel) but neither Luke nor Han were aware (she IS a politician). I never expected Disney to go that route, but I thought it was an interesting idea (again, thanks to Game of Thrones). This would consider Splinter of the Minds Eye as canon to explain it further.

Alternatively, I was thinking maybe Rey was the daughter or granddaughter of Kenobi and his Mandalorian Queen (from The Clone Wars series, which I did enjoy way more than I expected).

At this point I consider the EU more reliable than anything Disney has done for anything after RotJ in the timeline (I loved Rogue One, and I didn't hate Solo (didn't love it either)).
 
I have a couple related to D&D metasetting in general and Planescape in particular

1) Different species don't crossbreed.
1a) Orcs, Humans, and Elves are Ring Species
1b) Other cross breeds (half-dragons, tieflings, aasimar) are the result of the influence of the creature or plane or because of explicit magical "gene splicing", not because of parents of entirely different species get busy.

2) I keep 3e notation regarding creature alignment (often, usually, always, etc.). Creatures that are always a given alignment (like outsiders and dragons) don't have what might be called "free will" in the metaphysics of the setting. This lets humans (and most other PC races) have a high-fantasy-esque "special" status that let them escape what might otherwise be "destiny".

When I run fantasy settings I lean heavily into all of them being different species and halves are only possible through bio-magic of some kind. Which may or may not be popular and/or common from one setting to another. I don't have a problem with having "Halves" I just think they should be much rarer and require more dedication to create from their parents. It also means that just about any half-orc is the product of loving parents, not the spoils of war or raiding, unless there is a particularly vile bio-mage running around. Also my Daughter is playing in my current Fantasy game (Savage Worlds as the system) so I'm pretty much not having any kind of unfortunate implications of any kind. Orcs are just another species running around, a bit rough around the edges, but not complete monsters. "Orc" is the option instead of "Half-Orc" and my wife (and her mother), is actually playing an Orc in the game as well.

I rarely run D&D of any kind anymore, but when I do I think of most servitors as robots more than free actors, so I like that take if people are using alignments.
 
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