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Inspiration |
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Writing Some authors I
enjoy and would recommend to others: Peter F Hamilton Possibly the
best sci-fi author in the Western world, well in my opinion anyway. His two
main series are the Nights dawn trilogy (quite good) and the excellent Greg
Mandel series (Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder and The Nano Flower). My
Urban Myth RPG draws a lot from the Greg Mandel books. Simon R Green Author of the
Deathstalker series, the Hawk & Fisher books and some other stand alone
novels (including Blood & Honour, Down among the dead men and Blue Moon
Rising). An excellent writer, although he does have a habit of over-using
certain stock phrases. Jack Vance I am not a great
fan of his Dying Earth stories but loved the Demon princes books. Eric S Nylund I would
particularly recommend ‘A game of Universe’ which I think is probably the
best book I have ever read. One of these days I will get round to writing an
RPG based
on it.
Film
Some
inspirational films include: Blade Runner: just an all round brilliant film. Ridley
Scott on top form. The Last Unicorn: an animated film based on the Peter S
Beagle book. Fantastic. Aliens: I have chosen this over the other films
in the series because I am a gun bunny at heart J The Haunting (original version): very scary if watched late at night on
your own. Count of Monte Cristo (French TV
adaptation starring Gerard Depardieu): about 9 hrs long.. easily the best adaptation of this
excellent book. Star Wars: an excellent film, even watching it now
the death star trench battle raises the hairs on my neck. Empire Strikes Back: a totally different feel to Star Wars and
it complements it perfectly. Star Trek II- The Wrath of Khan: head and shoulders above any other star
trek movie.. the Reliant / Forbidden Planet: Wow!!! It just doesn’t age. Blade: the opening sequence in the ‘blood’ disco is probably one
of the best scenes I have ever seen in a film. It’s worth the price of
admission for this one bit alone. The Legend of Bagger Vance: a great film, very understated and
undersold. Will Smith is very good. |
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Games My own game
collection is pretty extensive. These are some of my favourites & why. Amazing Engine: weapons in amazing engine have a damage
value and a lethality value. When you hit with a weapon you compare the d100
units die of the attack roll to the weapons lethality to determine if it
causes Stamina (Stun) damage or Body (Lethal) damage. This is a fantastic
mechanic. DC Heroes: DC heroes best feature, imho, is the AP
system for determining the relationship between characters attributes and the
real world. I started work on a Sci-Fi game using a system loosely based on
DC Heroes here. The Empire game I am currently
working on uses, at least in my opinion, an improved exponential system which
draws from DC Heroes, Nexus & Feng Shui, amongst other sources. Ringworld: the mechanics for handling variable
knives and flashlight lasers work excellently. Its action/initiative system
also works very well. Living Steel: the way that hit location is the most
important factor by far in damage effects is great. The damage system in
Urban Myth draws from this. Maelstrom: a fantastic single book game which came
out in the mid 80’s. One of its best features was the handling of damage by
dividing it into wounds & endurance damage which worked inwards to meet
in the middle. Sovereign Stone (non-d20): the worst mistake the author made was to
move a d20 based system. The original system used polyhedral dice and was
superbly quick and easy to play. I have a number of variant backgrounds and associated
rule mods zipped up here. I
don’t actually think much of the game background, just love the mechanics. Elric (non-d20): in my opinion probably the best of the
basic role playing system rules sets produced by Chaosium. Call of Cthulu: what a strange idea for a game.. but
didn’t it work well. Part of the fun is the disposability of characters.. you
never expect them to last more than a few sessions which makes it good. |
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