- Joined
- Aug 16, 2017
- Messages
- 16,748
- Reaction score
- 36,590
my copyThat was one of those films that back in the 90s it was impossible to get a hold of on video. I remember buying a VHS bootleg at a convention, along with Rock & Rule.
is a VCD
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
my copyThat was one of those films that back in the 90s it was impossible to get a hold of on video. I remember buying a VHS bootleg at a convention, along with Rock & Rule.
Oh, he's a failure. But then he quickly morphed into a conman/scammer. I've seen the same behaviours and transformations in the "real world" unfortunately. Easy money and no real work are powerful motivators in the heart of the weak willed.I read an interview with Ken Whitman once, in Shadis or Cryptech, maybe even Pyramid right around when Wizards came out and people were mad at him about T4. He described himself as a big guy who got things done. For some reason I always feel a little sorry for him because he always falls short and keeps trying. I mean, I'm still mad as hell about T4 though I recall him posting on therpgsite at one point that he was out of the picture before Marc Miller finally pulled the plug. Still, I don't see him so much as a con artist as a failure who keeps on trying, using other people's money. He's also the reason I've never tried to crowd fund the publication of my own games because I'd never want to be him.
I dig Femforce. Sure, it's goofy and tacky, but honestly its brand of lowbrow seems kind of quaint these days. It's also one of the only indie superhero comics to survive from the 80s to the present day (along with the similarly cheese-cakey Champions stuff from Heroic). With a fully developed (har har) universe that has seen pretty much zero rebooting/retconning (not gonna get that from the big three). Like the Heroic stuff, quality varies, but when it's good, it's really good. As far as Superbabes!, it does a great job of bringing its source material to life. Would Superbabes! be my game of choice? Nope. Could it be an awesome game for one-offs or infrequent goof-off sessions? Sure looks like it to me.How about a game where you play busty superheroines and have tables for wardrobe mafunctions and other juvenile crap? Based on the cruddy Femforce comic book.
View attachment 3223
Think I remember seeing an advert for that in a comic, way back when. Is the premise that you wake up and realise you've been a mind-controlled slave and now you've thrown off the influence the queen's guards are coming to kill you?I've got Zero. Never played it. It's basically a bit like a more insectoid version of Paranoia, but played straight and horrific. It's D6xD6 sytsem presents some interesting maths.
The game was included in the D6xD6 Sytem book released a few years ago, but that doesn't have weird alien-like art.
Yep, that's the one. Very slim volume, and the greenish photo-quality art is reminiscent of Alien.Think I remember seeing an advert for that in a comic, way back when. Is the premise that you wake up and realise you've been a mind-controlled slave and now you've thrown off the influence the queen's guards are coming to kill you?
It actually worked in a very "Wizard of Oz" way.Puppetland, wherein you play a puppet trying to rescue the world from an evil puppet?
View attachment 3232
Heh! I have Puppetland too (not saying I'm weird or anything…).It actually worked in a very "Wizard of Oz" way.
He sounds like an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.Whatever his initial intentions are (up to and including stealing other people's ideas for products), it's how Whitman handles the situations when they fall apart that speak for his character. I would definitely call him a scammer.
He sounds like an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
I read an interview with Ken Whitman once, in Shadis or Cryptech, maybe even Pyramid right around when Wizards came out and people were mad at him about T4. He described himself as a big guy who got things done. For some reason I always feel a little sorry for him because he always falls short and keeps trying. I mean, I'm still mad as hell about T4 though I recall him posting on therpgsite at one point that he was out of the picture before Marc Miller finally pulled the plug. Still, I don't see him so much as a con artist as a failure who keeps on trying, using other people's money. He's also the reason I've never tried to crowd fund the publication of my own games because I'd never want to be him.
Wikipedia said:Unlike other time travel games (and fiction), which usually depict time travelers as either lone explorers or as an all-powerful "time police", C°ntinuum assumes that time travelers (spanners) would eventually evolve their own society, with its own laws, rules, slang, groups, art movements, and the like. Time travel would color such a civilization in the same way that any other major technology (such as television or the automobile) has changed the human race. C°ntinuum states that the core question of the game is "If you could learn to span time at will . . . what form of civilization would you be entering?"
The Continuum, the main spanner civilization, extends through the whole of human history (and beyond, although the post-Human society of the enigmatic "Inheritors" borders on both sides). A primary focus of this civilization is to increase the knowledge and acceptance of time travel by the human race, so that when time travel is discovered and announced (approx. 2222 AD), humans will be ready for it, and moving into the next step in their evolution (becoming Inheritors). Another focus of the Continuum is the complete documentation of history.
The Continuum civilization also has "time criminals", called "Narcissists", so called because they seek to remake history in their own image. (In the late 1990s the publisher announced they would be releasing a version of the C°ntinuum book with the background material retold from the Narcissist standpoint. As of 2015, it has not been released, but a pre-release edition circulated in 1999 and 2000.) The Continuum has members trained to "repair" damage caused to the course of history by the Narcissists.
The game's solution to the issue of time travel paradox is the concept of frag. The universe does not tolerate paradox caused by time travelers, nor are parallel worlds created by paradox. Instead the universe begins to "erase" those for whom the paradox exists. (The frag concept appears to be based partly on the ideas in Alfred Bester's "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed".) Too much trying to change history (too much frag) and time travelers become something not quite real anymore. Frag can also be generated on purpose, a tactic in "time combat". The Continuum society is partially built upon the repair of paradoxes that affect its members.
To explain frag by example, using the Grandfather paradox, a Narcissist might decide to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. If he "succeeded", he would return to his own time to find his grandfather alive. (The Continuum would step in to "repair" the murder.) The Narcissist would then begin to fade out of existence due to the conflict between his own memories and "actual" history. He has been "fragged".
The game also has immersion techniques to bring players "into the game". Most of the book claims to be, and is written as, an anachronistic artifact of spanner culture, aimed at increasing public awareness of time travel to further the Continuum's ends, and to prepare for the public announcement of time-travel. For example, players are required to quote the Maxims of the Continuum before advancing to the next level, and track their time travel, in exactly the manner their characters in the game do. Artwork in the books is also credited to spanners and often depicts the particular aspects of spanner culture.
If it is the '90s and you want to make a game that nobody will ever actually play, Michael Kaluta is your go-to guy for the cover.Continuum: Roleplaying In The Yet. A 90s game that bears more than a passing similarity to CWoD. Players are "Spanners", or time travelers (the game has its own lexicon, like many 90s RPGs). It had a highly detailed explanation of time (you were supposed to cut up a specific page of the book in order to fully understand it - no, really). Combat was a head-spinning flurry of time travelling tricks. And there were downloadable PDF supplements that could only be unlocked with a password hidden somewhere in the rulebook.
As I said, the game seems very CWoD, with the "good-guy" Continuum versus the "bad-guy" Narcissists, pseudo-goth-cum-steampunk art, and loads of pretension. Still, I'd like to try it one of these days. I have heard it alternately described as "brilliant" and "unplayable".
Dat Michael Kaluta cover art doe...
This is currently available for free if you have Amazon prime. Watched half of it last night.my copy
is a VCD
What theories if you don't mind?based on 1880's scientific theories being actually correct
That's awesome. But my favorite comic book sound effect goes to the Snowball(tm) 99, crowd control device from Howard Chaykin's American Flagg!He was also a good sound effect in Green Lantern/Green Arrow:
View attachment 9393View attachment 9394
If it is the '90s and you want to make a game that nobody will ever actually play, Michael Kaluta is your go-to guy for the cover.
I have heard people speak very highly of Aria, but I've never played it.Never even heard of that one, though Kaluta I know from way back when he used to contribute to the yearly Tolkien Calendar. What's the deal with it - as a "game no one would play"?
What theories if you don't mind?
So, putting some thought into it I haven't seen a few mentioned:
Theatrix and it's Iron Wood fantasy setting where there was a serious black market for stuff from our world like cigarettes and Big Macs.
Reminds me of Macho Women With GunsHow about a game where you play busty superheroines and have tables for wardrobe mafunctions and other juvenile crap? Based on the cruddy Femforce comic book.
[ . . . ]
Goblinoid Games has this available in pdf. Being unfamiliar with the IP, I have no clue what it's supposed to be about. I like the Pacesetter system and own Cryptworld and Rotworld, so I am potentially interested in anything compatible with these. Is it any good?Sandman from Pace Setter
Cool I'll pick up a copy soon, even just for the research. I love that sort of Alt-Science stuff, ever read Greg Egan's Clockwork Rocket series?The Nebula theory in astronomy, Unified Atoms as etheric knots in atomic theory, Fast Evolution and Lamarkian inheritance in biology, Valences without atomic bonding (unified atoms) in chemistry, Dual Current in electricity, Catastrophism in geology, and Panspermia in evolution. Only the last, Panspermia, is still possibly valid, neither confirmed nor refuted. The implications are staggering.
Cool I'll pick up a copy soon, even just for the research. I love that sort of Alt-Science stuff, ever read Greg Egan's Clockwork Rocket series?
I think it's a nice piece of science coming back on itself that Peter Tait's work on knot theory started by the vortex theory of atoms ended up being relevant in the study of gases and quantum computers. You might find the following interesting if you haven't read it already:
Atiyah M. F. , The geometry and physics of knots, Cambridge University Press, (1990)
It has a good summary of what vortex theory had going for it back in the day.
I hadn't looked at it in a few years, just reading it there it is a short summary on p.5 and p.6Also looks fascinating! Thank you, Seadna!
I have that. The premise is fun but the presentation and execution are not especially interesting. I would not mind playing the concept with a better game. Extreme Vengeance is similar but you're playing '80s-style action movie stars (Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Seagal, etc.). Haven't read the whole rules yet so I can't say if it does it any better.It Came From The Late Late Late Show where you play actors in a B movie trying to move your careers ahead.
I hadn't looked at it in a few years, just reading it there it is a short summary on p.5 and p.6
I have that. The premise is fun but the presentation and execution are not especially interesting. I would not mind playing the concept with a better game.