Messages

346

RPGs / Re: Freaky Architectural Stuff for Ruin

« on: February 25, 2015, 07:45:30 PM »

Evidently you can find bomb shelters/terrorist holes anywhere.

http://wshu.org/post/toronto-police-try-uncover-riddle-mystery-tunnel

During a news conference Tuesday, Toronto Deputy Police Chief Mark Saunders said the hand-dug tunnel is about 33 feet long and contained a gas-powered generator, moisture-resistant light bulbs, and food and beverage containers.

Saunders said the tunnel appeared to be well-constructed and that there were still tools inside, along with a wheelbarrow and a pulley system, when it was found. Police also found a rosary and a Remembrance Day poppy nailed to a wall.

But Saunders said the tunnel doesn't appear to go anywhere. There are questions about whether it was just unfinished or was it meant to be a single chamber.

This proto-bunker was found by the tennis courts at York University.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31609167

There's more photos (and maps!) here: http://www.blogto.com/city/2015/02/toronto_tunnel_mystery_gets_even_more_bizarre/

Ghoul's nest?  Urban survivalists?

...homeless people?

347

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Upcoming RPPR One Shot games

« on: February 23, 2015, 06:47:12 PM »

Ross and I agreed to go ahead a do both games despite the lack of any death on our part (or possibly due to the fact that I'm supposedly a witch).  It just may be a while before we can get to running them with real life commitments and longer campaigns coming up.

So what will the tone of the Mecha game be?

Real Robot:


Super Robot:


or Gonzo:

348

General Chaos / Re: Introduction

« on: February 23, 2015, 06:33:01 PM »

Looks like I’ve made five dozen posts here without introducing myself.  I guess that was a bit rude, so:

Hi, I’m Bryan (that's me in the avatar), I’m 41 years old and I’m an Architectural Technologist (aka draftsman)  in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada.

I started playing rpgs in ’84 or ’85 when my friends and I played a lot of AD&D and a little Champions & Robotech; I was also introduced to wargaming by way of OGRE & Car Wars at that time.  I had a hiatus from gaming during my highschool years, but got back into rpgs, wargames, comics, etc. between highschool & college in the mid-90’s.  Since then I’ve played (off the top of my head) AD&D 2e, Shadowrun, CoC, Bushido, Heavy Gear (mostly the wargame), Jovian Chronicles (mostly the wargame), D&D 3.x & a bunch of d20 derivatives, LUG Trek, Mega Traveller, GURPS, WFRP 2e, Legend of the Five Rings, Marvel Universe rpg (the one with the stones), LUG Dune, Fading Suns, Feng Shui, Deadlands, Metabarons, Exalted, Artesia, Vampire, Scion, D&D 4e, Dark Heresy…

I'm on a bit of an rpg hiatus again now, but I still play occasionally, and I’m wargaming as well.  I heard about RPPR while listening to the Unspeakable! Podcast, so here I am…

349

General Chaos / Re: HAY GUYS HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THING (Forum Shout Out Thread Thing)

« on: February 21, 2015, 03:55:49 PM »

I recently discovered the films of Peter Watkins.  I heard about one of his films (guess which one) from The Atomic Age blog and Podcast at Ground Zero, and when I went looking for it, I found that a local independent video rental store (is there any other kind these days?) had a number of his films in their directors section.

The War Game: A 1965 docu-drama that takes a realistic look at the possible effects of nuclear war on Britain.  This film so scared the British government that it was banned for twenty years.

The Gladiators: Predating both The Hunger Games and Battle Royal, this film is a cold war satire in which generals from east and west preside over a series of televised “Peace Games” in which soldiers fight to the death over nonexistent objectives.

Punishment Park:  Filmed in 1970 and set in a near future American dystopia in which President Nixon has declared a state of national emergency, this is an oddly prescient film from a modern point of view.  Punishment Park depicts a militarized U.S. in which police and national guard troops brutalize civil rights and antiwar protesters.  Crazy right?  Never gonna happen.  What stood out most to me, when watching Punishment Park in 2014, was the lack of heavy duty military equipment; the cops are armed with revolvers & shotguns and drive around in Crown Vic’s without any body armour.  Compared to the cops in many modern U.S. cities, even the national guard troops in this film look woefully under-equipped.

350

General Chaos / Re: Best Internet Vidyas

« on: February 19, 2015, 06:40:38 PM »

FLORIDA MAN

https://vimeo.com/118532076

351

General Chaos / Re: Image Thread

« on: February 18, 2015, 08:14:38 AM »

352

RPGs / Re: Freaky Architectural Stuff for Ruin

« on: February 15, 2015, 07:01:38 PM »

Oh, and speaking of "Freaky Architectural Stuff":

Photographer Victor Enrich Reshapes an Existing Hotel, 88 Times

https://vimeo.com/81182837

353

General Chaos / Re: What are you reading?

« on: February 15, 2015, 05:53:51 PM »

Well, it's been a while since I've posted to this thread.  But since I keep my goodreads page up to date (link in my sig) there's no need to do an infodump on everything I've read in the past few months.

Before getting to the second volume of Tim Cook's history of the Canadian Corps in WWI, I thought I'd skip back a bit and read Margaret MacMillan's The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914, now that I have it in paperback.  The first sentence of the introduction is darkly amusing, and should have some significance to listeners of the RPPR AP podcast: "Louvain was a dull place, said a guidebook in 1910, but when the time came it made a spectacular fire".

354

RPGs / Re: Freaky Architectural Stuff for Ruin

« on: February 15, 2015, 05:21:06 PM »

So in the latest Game Designer Workshop podcast, Ross was talking about the phenomenon of the built environment changing people, and it reminded me of this documentary on urban planning:

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

Have you seen it?  Perhaps it's a little broader in scope than what you're thinking of for Ruin, but I suspect it has at least some relevance to it.

355

General Chaos / Re: Image Thread

« on: February 04, 2015, 01:36:52 PM »

356

General Chaos / Re: Reviving Raillery and video game joy

« on: February 04, 2015, 01:27:59 PM »

The co-op chaos ones are the most fun.  I still chuckle when I remember Caleb saying: "I found the zombies.  I found all the zombies".

357

General Chaos / Re: Image Thread

« on: January 20, 2015, 10:38:06 AM »

http://i.imgur.com/uTXu9sO.jpg

I remember when the future looked like that.

358

RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder

« on: December 13, 2014, 04:21:46 PM »

The day the sun turned blue above Toronto

“Toronto’s sky was filled with weird wonder,” the Globe and Mail reported. “A great saffron-colored cloud filled the sky. Around it rolled steel grey clouds, shot by blackness and rippled, as water is rippled by a sudden light wind. Far off to the north and east the cold white light of the horizon accentuated the darkness that hung over the city.

“It was beautiful with a strange and dreary beauty and filled with ominous portent…”

The sun was most ominous of all. For most of the day, it was hidden behind those dark, swirling, purple clouds. But in the few brief moments when it did shine out from between them, it was shining the wrong colour: a frightening blue-mauve. It cast no shadows. And it shone with no rays.

359

General Chaos / Re: Kickstarter: Cool Stuff

« on: October 30, 2014, 11:42:07 AM »

And the Puppetland kickstarter is live
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcdream/puppetland-the-storytelling-rpg-of-grim-make-belie

And already funded.

360

RPGs / Re: Freaky Architectural Stuff for Ruin

« on: October 29, 2014, 06:36:43 PM »

I own and have read survival city - I even ran a game themed around it http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2010/07/genre/horror/fear-itself-survival-city/ and reviewed in an episode of RPPR http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2009/08/podcast-episode/rppr-episode-35-gencon-2009-preview/

Cool, I hadn't heard those podcasts, they're from before I started listening to rppr.