Re: [DSII] Aeons of the Stranger Sort

Right.	Back to the e-mail, finally!

>Okay, I'll go with your premise, though the semi-official "stars are
>right" supplement for _Call of Cthulhu_ (sold as the _End Times_
>monograph from Chaosium but available for free on yog-sothoth.com) has
>humanity on Earth pretty much reduced to gibbering psychopaths,
trembling
>survivors, and Cthulhusnacks in pretty short order. But, hey, if you're
>going to give Humanity an actual _shot_ at surviving, who am I to
>complain? Or maybe your scenario is just a hopeful dream of one of the
>folks surviving on the Mars colony...

Official, sha-shmisshal!  This is to be pure fun, with many explosions
and 
eldritch...thingies.  For RPG purposes, the End Times will remain nice
and 
incredibly depressing.

There is, by the way, apparently an RPG called Cthulhutech in the works.
 
The whole premise appears to be Mecha vs. Mythos, with humanity kicking
much 
ass.  Or whatever it is that Elder Gods sit on.(*)

> >
> > So I'm looking for ideas as to Battlefield Magic that fits the
following
> > criteria:
>
><<snippage>>
>
> > I've a few ideas, involving Strange Angles and various manipulations
of
> > the time-space continuum, but I wanted to get some entirely
different 
>ones
> > as well.
>
>The first thing that hit me was along the lines you mentioned about the
>time-space continuum. The Grey spaceships created by the Mi-Go are
>actually just mobile platforms for a Type II gate (I think it's Type
II).
>So you'd want reinforcements handy with your own mobile gate. Think of
a
>Stargate gate mounted on a vehicle.

Which could not only bring things through, but could also suck things in
-- 
assuming that the gate opened into deep space.	Alternatively, a bit of 
alien atmosphere could make things very unpleasant.

>Also with Mi-Go technology, their ships use glyphs to affect gravity.
>That makes for a pretty nasty weapon (which is, of course, what MJ-12
was
>hoping to get out of their pact with the Greys). Assuming these glyphs
>are just too hard, or dangerous, for humans to use as projectile
weapons,
>I could see someone burying a glyph and using it as a very nasty
>minefield. Stand on the glyph and, whoosh, you're in orbit!

This feels like the kind of thing humans would do with bastardized 
Eldertech, which is all well and good.

>For the bad guys (the Corrupted, as it were), there is more scope to
>maneuver. Troops can be the cocoons for all sorts of nastiness. Kill a
>guy and out creeps a spawn of Yog-sothoth. A group of 10 unarmed,
average
>looking soldiers dissolve into a massive carpet of little bug-like
brood
>of Eihort. Speaking of bugs, it would be a real bummer to have Shan
take
>over some of your tank commanders and then blast away at you with your
>own vehicles. There are all sorts of magic in the Mythos involving
>control of human beings, from Shan to Great Race of Yith. Lots of room
>for units to switch allegiances in mid battle.

Yessss....  That can be great fun from a play standpoint, too.

>I think your best bet is to think of a bunch of effects and then PSB
the
>Lovecraftian flavour over top of that. Another option is to look at the
>spells that affect individuals and then assume that you can train a
bunch
>of guys to do that as a unit. Pretty much anything is possible; you
just
>have to give it Mythos-based special effects.

And be sure to use words like "Squamous", of course.

>I suggest you go onto The Miniatures Page and ask folks in the Fantasy
>area if they know of anyone who does 6mm fantasy "fishmen" (Deep Ones),
>"lizard men" (Serpent men), "wolf men" (ghouls), or swarms of insects
>(Shan, Mi-Go, Byakhee, etc.)

Good plan, that -- I'll give that a shot this evening.

(*) The answer, apparently, is Washington D.C.	Appropriate on *so* many

levels.

  John Crimmins

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