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Messages - SynapticError

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1
General Chaos / Re: Best Internet Vidyas
« on: September 18, 2018, 02:27:40 PM »

2
RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« on: July 26, 2016, 05:45:10 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV0I-iA5lJU

The Agents have failed.  The stars are right.  Someone runs the tape, then turns off the light. 


3
Scorn: The fleshy surreal FPS inspired by H.R. Giger 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEE4yZgphFk

5
I've been thinking of believer sects and I came up with a few that might come up as 'heretic' sects of existing cults.  Here's one from the Meek.

The Sin-Eaters

There are rumors going around that somewhere in the Loss there is a group of the Meek who regained whatever sense of spiritual responsibility they had before the Crash, and now fear for their immortal souls.  Instead of seeing the Casualties as holy, they began to see them as the embodiment of sin.  After atoning for their sins by slaughtering their brothers in the night, they took over a small church and converted it to fit their needs.  They removed the dividing wall of the confessional, hanging a restrained Casualty there instead.  This was done to force a person to confront their sins face-to-face as they confessed, which is described below.  A Sin-Eater will find a willing or unwilling person he believes has sinned and force them to list every single one of them, while restrained in the confessional and required to maintain eye-contact with the Casualty.  During this, a chunk of flesh will be removed from the Casualty and given to the confessor to hold .  After the sins are listed, the Sin-Eater rotates the casualty to face him.  The Sin-Eater will then recite all of the sins of the confessor, taking personal responsibility for all them (i.e "I killed Mary Helwig.", "I stole food from my Enclave.", etc.).  When that is complete, he will ask the confessor to hand him the chunk of flesh, which he will then eat.  A metal screen will drop between the turning vector and the presumably traumatized victim, as the mangled apologies of the Sin-Eater absolve the confessor of his sins as he is forced to watch the victim fully turn into a vector.  The confessor is then unceremoniously ejected from the church while the vector is put down and incinerated.  The group, while not intentionally malevolent, is known to have a fanatical hatred of Latents because they believe they are sustained entirely by sin and should be purged at every opportunity.  They are known as well to venerate the Immune but have yet to find one willing to stay with them, rumored to have kidnapped at least one, who they treat as an unwilling messiah. 

6
RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« on: May 01, 2016, 05:36:35 PM »
"It's all there!  Can't you see?!  I am the chosen!  I have been shown the way!" 

Shicheng, "Lion City" the rediscovered flooded city lost in 1959.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140711-chinas-atlantis-of-the-east] [url]http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140711-chinas-atlantis-of-the-east[/url]

Also, this German forklift safety video because goddamn.  Makes Coronet look downright pleasant.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do7lYmr2fPs

Radiodurans, the bacteria that can survive in the slagged remains of Reactor Number 4. 

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/07_02/deinococcus.shtml

7
Well, it seems like the Pre-Crash United States had a major energy and environmental crisis of some sort.  Since that probably means most laws and rights were suspended, maybe some private or governmental organization tried to crack into the Yellowstone Caldera?  The geothermal output would be staggering, and even if they couldn't finish or implement the system correctly an industrialized enclave could set up crude turbines over the geysers.  Yes, Old Faithful would be an ugly mass of piping but exporting electricity in batteries or setting up charging stations could mean a massive profit if the surrounding enclaves don't have a sustainable source of energy.  Not to mention the lumber, stone, wildlife, and geographic security and isolation Yellowstone would contain.  An energy-independent Enclave with massive amounts of resources and security could be sharpening their knives in Wyoming and daring the Recession to try something.   

In terms of exports that the Recession cannot produce, the vast majority of the US mining industry is located in what would be the Loss, so outside of international trade precious metals would largely be confined to there.  However, the place that has the highest chance to produce something that the Recession cannot is California.  It has a diverse climate, advanced infrastructure,  is responsible for the largest proportion of America's GDP, has many institutions and companies based out of it, and is entirely coastal.  If I was in the Recession, I would be terrified of California getting it's shit together and resisting integration.  That or China invading it for loot.  In addition to the above Geothermal scenario, most of the solar panels in the U.S. are located in the American Southwest, as is Hoover Dam.  The potential energy output of the Loss is HUGE.           

Route 66 goes from Chicago to Santa Monica, so it could get a taker group from the West Coast all the way into the Recession.  A silk road, with plenty of roadside services and attractions to loot and settle. 

I grew up in California and can personally attest to the strangeness of the Bay Area weather.  Alcatraz would be amazing!  I would be worried about raiders from Pelican Bay, though, no matter how secure it was.

8
RPGs / Re: Red Markets Inspiration
« on: April 12, 2016, 11:26:11 AM »
Tiny shantytown on an island in Lake Victoria.  Up to 1500 live in it.   

   


Mokoko, the floating city of Lagos, if you want to live somewhere that's less cramped.   



A LOT less cramped!




I noticed in the Brutalists that there has been some significant climate change in the Red Markets 'Verse, so maybe some people on the West Coast decided to stay, water levels be damned?  That, or someone decided to try and colonize Lake Michigan.  Those lake pirates have to raid something, after all.

Also, ships for the artistic pirate in us all.




9
Upcoming Lovecraftian horror game in a 1920's Massachusetts city that's being flooded by a supernatural force. 

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3383009/3383009/

10
1) What are people using for drugs?  Since nobody can import heroin, cocaine, or opium, they can't get those outside of a dedicated farming operation and even then they can't really grow in the states.  Synthetic drugs would be outside the reach of most people in the Loss due to technological and supply limitations.  Tobacco was produced in what is now the Recession and they won't export it if they can even grow it.  The only things I can think people would be able to get or make is pot, mushrooms, things to huff, and alcohol.  Are a new breed of dealers creating new types of drugs from what's left?

2) Are the vectors or casualties smart enough to dig?  If someone was underground in a bunker or tunnel would they dig down or run for an entrance?  If not would a collapsed mine or a landslide be a minefield of trapped casualties? 

3) Would a psychopath-turned-vector attempt to deceive others into coming closer instead of shouting at them to flee?  I can see a person running is away from a group a casualties towards a taker group, shouting for them to help, only to tackle one of them when they run over.  Maybe an Abberant's voice sounds much clearer than the other infected and it can still form sentences? 

4)  Would a cult dedicated to infecting others, upon their turning into vectors, intentionally slash up and augment their mouths and hands to better transmit the Blight?  I can see a taker getting grappled by a Casualty, confident his chain mail will protect him, only to find out someone drove a bunch of needles into its hands as his shoulder begins to burn. 

5) Would feral people like Paddywhack or people too young to remember the Crash be bothered at all by reminders of the old world?  After a while, would people be unaware the Recession even exists or would they see it as a mythical place?   




   
         

11
General Chaos / Re: What are you reading?
« on: March 07, 2016, 02:24:25 PM »
Because you could throw a rock and hit a used bookstore in my area, occasionally the family will buy an armload of older books for cheap.  Because it isn't uncommon to get books from the early 20th century to the early 18th century, I like to collect them for historical interests.  Bible and religious texts are the most common, often gifts judging by the inscriptions you'll find, as are books of poetry and anthologies.  I recently came into possession of a very old copy of the Malleus Maleficarum, which I found wedged between the endless shelves of used bibles in the religion section.  It was basically falling apart, so I got it for cheap.  Because it was falling apart, I couldn't tell the date it was printed, but I was told by the owner it was some time in the 1700's.  What interested me was that there were notes written by some type of theologian or something nitpicking every aspect of the book.  His handwriting was really, really, bad though, so I'm going by the number of exclamation points he used.  He seemed to hate the section about the interrogation methods the most.  After have read it, I can safely say the Malleus Maleficarum is the most misogynistic, paranoid, and illogical book I have ever read.  Fascinating, though.           

13
RPGs / Re: Anecdote Megathread
« on: January 30, 2016, 06:32:14 PM »
The first game system my friends and I really started playing together was Cthulhu Dark, and my friends each took turns GMing and really enjoyed themselves, but I never did due to my pathological fear of criticism.  Eventually, they got me to do it, and I had to come up with a campaign that would scare them but at the same time be funny.   They loved their black comedy.  So, I decided to have them be spin doctors for a powerful but relatively benign electronics corporation called ExecuTech, now unveiling a controversial but safe and effective nuclear power system.  (Yay, Azathoth!)  The first "spin" they were tasked with was that the cases could rupture and leak radiation, to get them in character.   That quickly devolved into them and their coworkers attempting to cover up or mitigate employee possessions, dimensional tears, temporal anomalies, and rogue creatures while holding onto their sanity and lives.

I called it "Mistakes were made", and it got up to 15 casualties before the game ended and was the first time I felt successful as a GM.

I can post highlights, but it might take a while, my friends really ran with the setting and left me corpsing more than once. 

14
General Chaos / Re: What are you reading?
« on: January 16, 2016, 12:32:42 PM »
I've just wrapped up a few books.  14 by Peter Clines, kind of like a Cthulhu Mythos novel focusing on architectural horror that I liked, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which I loved,  Embassytown by China Mieville, a really weird sci-fi horror novel focusing on xenolinguistics, and Dune, which I've tried to get into on my father's recommendation but it seems like I need a dictionary on the world to really enjoy it.     

15
RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« on: November 13, 2015, 08:02:56 PM »
The Cape is called the Ocean's Graveyard.  One fifty-mile stretch alone has over 3,000 shipwrecks.  People would run out after the ships had crashed to steal the cargo and items on any dead men who had washed ashore.  The winter meant as many as two wrecks a month and people who managed to swim ashore would freeze on the sand.
(http://www.nps.gov/caco/learn/historyculture/shipwrecks.htm)
Call of Cthulhu Adventure?  Shadow over Innsmouth mentioned Fiji cultists were there.  Or Delta Green, for a more "frozen in time" feel.

Quotes!
"Lighthouses, from ancient times, have fascinated members of the human race. There is something about a lighted beacon that suggests hope and trust and appeals to the better instincts of mankind"
Easily manipulated by a corrupted keeper, like some weird tweed-wearing siren.

"East of America, there stands in the open Atlantic the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land. Worn by the breakers and the rains, and disintegrated by the wind, it still stands bold."  The Cape, historically, was a dark, harsh, lonely place.  It reminds you of that occasionally.   

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