Game Fodder / Story Fodder

[Setherick]

Britain releases UFO files: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/17/ufo.files/index.html

[robotkarateman]

Centralia is a borough and ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States.

The Door to Hell.

The Derweze area is rich in natural gas. While drilling in 1971 geologists accidentally found an underground cavern filled with natural gas.  The ground beneath the drilling rig collapsed, leaving a large hole with a diameter of about 50-100 meters. To avoid poisonous gas discharge, it was decided to burn the gas.  Geologists had hoped the fire would go out in a few days but it has been burning ever since.

-- Wikipedia, "Derweze"

English Russia has a wealth of photos of abandoned Russian cities, military bases, and underground complexes.

[Setherick]

Geotagging on Twitter: http://twitter.zendesk.com/forums/26810/entries/78525

How do you make people ignore you've moved to a society of total surveillance? Make them self-surveil. This is so amazingly Orwellian that I almost nerdgasmed.

[Setherick]

Unmanned drones the size of a Boeing 737, check: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/21/world/AP-ML-Israel-Drones.html?_r=1

[Setherick]

A story about vampyres published in Harpers' in 1855: http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=harp;cc=harp;rgn=full%20text;idno=harp0010-5;didno=harp0010-5;view=image;seq=0691;node=harp0010-5%3A11

[robotkarateman]

Ted's Caving Diary.

Old, but good stuff. I re-read it whenever I want to create a claustrophobic underground atmosphere for players.

[robotkarateman]

How do you make people ignore you've moved to a society of total surveillance? Make them self-surveil.

Or loan them equipment that can spy on them, but don't tell them you can spy on them.

Parents of sophomore Blake Robbins last week filed a lawsuit against Harriton High School alleging that the school monitored him via Webcam while he was at home. The family filed the suit after a school administrator accused Robbins of engaging in "improper behavior" in his home and offered a still image from the laptop Webcam as evidence, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week.

-- Security Experts Baffled By Pa. School Webcam Spying Case

[Setherick]

How do you make people ignore you've moved to a society of total surveillance? Make them self-surveil.

Or loan them equipment that can spy on them, but don't tell them you can spy on them.

Parents of sophomore Blake Robbins last week filed a lawsuit against Harriton High School alleging that the school monitored him via Webcam while he was at home. The family filed the suit after a school administrator accused Robbins of engaging in "improper behavior" in his home and offered a still image from the laptop Webcam as evidence, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week.

-- Security Experts Baffled By Pa. School Webcam Spying Case

Oh yeah, that's a crazy case.

[Mckma]

Ted's Caving Diary.

Old, but good stuff. I re-read it whenever I want to create a claustrophobic underground atmosphere for players.

I don't know what to say...

I think that was the most terrifying thing I have read in a long time if not ever...

I'm am completely at a loss for words.  I mean I thought it was real at first, now I'm not sure just because it was so crazy, but in the end it doesn't even matter that much.  I don't usually swear much, but shit...

EDIT:  I don't know what to make of this, but I wanted to try and do some more work tonight, but I don't know if I'll be able to focus on anything that requires a lot of thought for a while...

[Setherick]

Zombi stories for the 19C. I have read all of these yet, but I intend to. I'm more or less just putting out links right now so I can come back to them.

Two stories by Lafcadio Hearn in his 1890 collection Two Years in the French West Indies:
Un Revenant
La Guiablesse

A story attributed to a Mrs. S. H. Colman in the 1869 edition of The Ladies Repository called "Sebastian Gomez." Found this in a collection called Deeds of Genius, which was attributed to Mary Jane Piercy as well. And again in The Home Friend. And at least two other places, so I stopped keeping track.

An unattributed republished story in the 1838-39 edition of The Ploughskeepsie Casket called "The Unknown Painter"

For you French readers Le Zombi by Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, which apparently was written in the late-17C. More info here you have to scroll down. Someone tell me if you find an English version of this. Mentioned in a footnote in this work (page 24).

[robotkarateman]

I think that was the most terrifying thing I have read in a long time if not ever...

Like I said, it's really good for showing how to set a terrifying mood. Whenever I want to scare the beejeezus out of the players, I always remember Spielberg's rule of thumb - give an idea of what the monster can do, but don't actually show the monster until the last possible minute. Ted's Diary is a good example of how well that works.

Another good story for a horror atmosphere - Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows". One of Lovecraft's inspirations. it set the tone for future vague, "ancient horror" stories. Good fodder for "spooky woods" settings.

[Murph]

More than 300 fall sick on Caribbean cruise
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/02/23/caribbean.cruise.illness/index.html?hpt=T2

Zombie outbreak, or just regular deadly virus attack?  Either way, being stuck on a huge boat in the middle of the ocean could be creepy, especially if someone or something goes crazy.

[Setherick]

More than 300 fall sick on Caribbean cruise
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/02/23/caribbean.cruise.illness/index.html?hpt=T2

Zombie outbreak, or just regular deadly virus attack?  Either way, being stuck on a huge boat in the middle of the ocean could be creepy, especially if someone or something goes crazy.

That's a great idea for a different RPPR collaborative project. You should post some thoughts on what a zombie outbreak would look like in the RPPR section of the forums.

[clockworkjoe]

holy shit http://buncheness.blogspot.com/2010/02/most-disturbing-submission-letter-ever.html?zx=52258aecb5e0c0d7

[Setherick]

holy shit http://buncheness.blogspot.com/2010/02/most-disturbing-submission-letter-ever.html?zx=52258aecb5e0c0d7

They should have sent a poet.