HinterWelt Fora

Question #1: How in the name of the Holy Tabernacle of the Sci-Fi Mutant Princess was that bare bones outline of an thumbnail idea for two opposing power groups extrapolated as being "anti-Christian"?

Most post-apocalypse settings tend to be extrapolations of modern society, taken to the ludicrous extreme, and projected forward through the prism of whatever cataclysm brought the "end" or "fall" or whatever. For the most part I have been trying to keep away from overtly obvious representations of "faith groups" (the pseudo-Mormon Empire not withstanding, that's just too cool an idea) and Iridium does have a "piety" attribute.

Question #2: Do you all really feel using piety and having psuedo-religious groups in MD is going to be a major problem?

I can always do away with piety, granted Bill might say I don't need much of an excuse to do that , but I'd like to keep some of the wild and wacky wahoo pseudo-religious groups.

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Currently working on Mutant Dawn.

Okay, quick update. . .

I went through the MD draft. There was only one reference to "Mormon" and that now reads "Oot". I changed them to the "Empire of Man" a while ago anyway and had them referred to as "Ootahians", now they're just the Oot, from Ootah.

But the Elvites and Holy Rockers stay. And, no, they are NOT elves. But they do rule Vegaaz.

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Currently working on Mutant Dawn.

As noted above I've already made some changes.

I just hope no one takes offense to there being a "Sasquatch Confederacy" in part of what was Canada? It seemed liked a good idea at the time. Let me know if anyone feels that has any potentially offensive connotations I am unware of.

Long story short: The Sasquatch Confederacy is centered on a old military base in central Canada. It's called the "Sasquatch" Confederacy because, obviously, one of the largest member groups are Sasquatch's (from the region of Saskatchewan). Yes, I've incorporated Big Foot into our PA world.

I hope no one minds?

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Currently working on Mutant Dawn.

See! I knew that effect didn't look quite right.

I want to evoke a sense of "Dayum this is OLD!" not "Ooooh, neat, it's the old west!" Problem is most of the really old photos I've seen aren't just color faded to sepia tones they're crackled, have finger print marks, sun faded, stained. . .

Though if pics like that were made available for D/L so your GM could print them out as handouts I suppose they could crinkle and stain them.

Bill?

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Currently working on Mutant Dawn.

Heh,heh
just keep on going
sounds fine to me

yep, we could all get the old teabags out and dip em over the photos

Hello!

I guess I should post again to clarify my recommendation regarding misrepresentations of faith groups. In short, I'm not massively bothered but I do find it frustrating that almost every pseudo-religious group represented in recent RPGs seems to carry a negative connotation, eg. Catholicism being aggressively anti-anything-weird, or Christians Evangelicals all being extreme right-wing political groups. It is a distortion of the actual ethics and politics of the majority of Christians - in those cases, people holding those views within the world-wide Church are a minority. Alongside it, I don't see many pseudo-representations of Islam (for instance) because we don't like to upset Muslims for fear of being bombed - another distortion representing a major minority within Islam as the norm.

My position is simple - draw on those ideas, those stereotypes without directly linking them to a real-life faith group. Gamers are intelligent enough to see through the mist but it allows you to say, "this IS fiction" and silence anyone you upset. Far more interesting, however, is the use of such faith organisations as humanity's last hope - something which most people would probably reject and is therefore a good source of conflict in any story. Even better if your fictional extremists ARE actually also the real last hope for your fictional setting... how awesome would that be?! Especially if noone in your setting could see and accept it.

Bottom line: faith is regarded as important by over 90% of people on Earth. Why not just keep it all fictional rather than risk someone rejecting your product on the grounds of a harmless misunderstanding?

Nuff said.

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Cheers,
BlackFalcon

What kind of pics were you thinking of?

Bill

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HinterWelt Enterprises
Bill Corrie
815-557-7365

Maybe I am wrong here
but, if, as I think you are, you are trying to get across the impression of a post apocalyptic wasteland
you dont actually want pictures of such, you just want the mundane sort of photos that you would
find in someones family album or holiday snaps, pictures of your dad proudly standing in front of his
classic sports car, that sort of thing

maybe it kind of evokes what we have lost?

Alan Hume

just been playing Fallout 3
(I really, really wanted it so I juggled the budget until it was mine
and I saved £10 on the price )
but I reckon their graphics have it down right when you see their photograph type background screen, it has burn marks and holes and stuff otherwise it's just a normal photo, it works well for giving that
ruined, post apocalyptic feel

The more I tried to tinker around with creating faded/crinkled/weatherworn photo effects the more my computer started to throw fits. And working with lower rez images just isn't an option. When you start to get blue screens when you're shutting your computer off I figure that's the universe telling you it's time to give up and try something else, either that or nuke Microslush from orbit. Alas as I would never do the latter I took a break from working with graphics.

I've been working, when I have time, on the European sector. Long story short, after many false starts, a story began to develop around a non-mlitary UN humanitarian task force with a cyborg scientist who, as the Old World began to collapse, became a defacto field commander. She pulled together remnants of UN field units and military stragglers when the central authority collapsed. The legacy of this group lives on in a organization baring her name that operate not unlike the Knights Templar of old, as a loosely connected group of mobile units and bases.

Europe is in shambles. Without a central authority all the old ethnic and territorial conflicts reasserted themselves. Refugees and conflicts spilled over borders until there were no borders left. Now children run wild, like dogs, in the ruins of abandoned cities. And there's not a lot of real organization, above perhaps the feudal level, left to be found outside the pocket territories of warlords.

How's it sound so far?

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Currently working on Mutant Dawn.

Hey Kester, how's the game coming?

On the game mechanix front I was kicking around the idea of including a meta stat for GMs called "Wahoo Factor" that would allow the setting to be adjusted. Mostly this would be for including optional rules, setting modifications, and/or monsters (like zombies). But haven't done too much with that idea.

Started, but stalled on, an "Improvised Weapons and Armor" section. Mostly just ideas for players to get them thinking outside the box of standard FRPG equipment lists.

Sadly setting development's been sort of on the back burner. Been waiting to see if we have the economic collapse leading to Mad Max for real everyone and their favorite TV pundit seems to to think is coming our way. Personally I think it would be terribly rude of the world governments to allow this to happen as it would throw most of my post-apoc setting totally out the window. Not to mention people will probably not be interested in playing such a game.

*waves impotent fist at harsh reality*

What?

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Currently working on Mutant Dawn.

Yeah, harsh reality sucks big time

hope you do get something moving forward again on this though
post apocalyptic games are always good

Having just looked through my files I came across a outline for a scenario. Basically the PCs find a techno-widget that sends them into an alteranate reality where the apex of evolution was occupied not by apes but rodents. This world, which also suffered an apocalypse, is mainly populated by mutant squirrels.

Hmm. Wonder where I got that idea from.

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Currently working on Mutant Dawn.

Hmmm, I wonder

like you r Tom Baker piccie by the way