When Science Catches Up With Your World

I got a bit of a thrill today when I found an article in Daily Science that validated something that I've done a few times in my world.   The story ... our Heroes had been shrunk down to tiny size and were riding on the backs of aphids through a tangle of vines on the wall of an old ruined tower in order to escape the deadly attack of a wolf-wizard and his shadow-dogs.   Whenever they got within range of a human they noticed that their gigantic opponent seemed to move much more slowly than in 'real life', and they were able to spring away in time to escape.

As it happens my sci-fi conjecture for my world turns out to be exactly how insects escape from human attacks!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916102006.htm

Neat.  :)  How cool is that?  Ever have that experience with your world?

A New World - The Present

The Vigilantes

The next phase of the Closed Beta Test has been running since August and it's been going great.  One of my play testers, Chris, has GM'd a lot of worlds and systems and is giving Elthos ODS a whirl.   We're playing in his world named "The Present" and we're playing costumed vigilantes on a mission to protect the citizens from criminals while the police spend their time waddling around the local Duncan Donuts.

We've got four Vigilantes - Pericles the Mexican Wrestler and Saint of Luche, Scotty the wild roughian, The Paladin the religious zealot on a mission from God, and Black Out, a kid with technical savvy and a hyped up sense of idealism.   And a mysterious benefactor, named The Patron.

So far we've had three adventures.   The first one was our introduction where we met the Patron and setup our HQ in an old warehouse on the edge of town.   The second was where we investigated an attack on a local Synagogue by Skin Heads.  The third where we were setting up cameras around a nearby Synagogue and wound up in a violent confrontation with the Skin Heads.   Luche was the first to attack, but it was definitely Scotty who had the most impact on the villains.  Three of them died.  One by Scotty backing up their own van (white) over one, and the other two who died when Scotting backed the van up the stairs into the doorway of the then burning Synagogue.   The rats had thrown Molotov cocktails into the place, and Scotty, well, got his revenge, though he didn't intend to actually kill them.   The next adventure was the escape, which didn't go as well as I'd hoped.  Black Out wound up being caught by the police, but because he's under age, and pretended not to know anything, they let him go.  He got a real ear chewing from his mom.  And that's when he decided to leave home, and go live at the HQ so he could pursue his Vigilante goals.   All the while questioning whether or not Vigilantism is truly noble, or not.

It's been really fun, and really interesting!   What do you think of Costumed Vigilantes?  A noble cause in a time of Chaos - or a can of worms destined to turn?

Credit:  The above drawing was done by one of the Play Testers, Milo Barasorda (playing Pericles), a phenomenal RPGer, and artist!  Thanks Milo!

How Tolkien Leads the Digital Revolution

I ran across this article today... hmmm... rather interesting how Tolkien's awesomeness has influenced the world, isn't it?

How Tolkien Leads the Digital Revolution