needle Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 After a fag & a cup of tea, am feeling better tonight. Sorry about the gloom & doom of the White wolf release thing but... Anyhow after going through my old files I got to thinking about what other superhero Rpgs have you drawn inspration in my game. My camapin is a mixture of Pulp with some anime influence. Superheroes are my bread & butter to say the least. I'll list what I think are interesting pull downs or have elements that fill nitches in the Aeon continum. Marvel Super Heroes, Dc old & new style, Champions, Call of Cthulu, Heroes Umlimited, James Bond, Justice Inc.,Mercenaries,Spies,& Private eyes,etc. In the twenty years there have been alot of changes in the comic industry as a whole. Life has changed & continues to at a rapid rate. So what are the influences in your game. :Alient Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heritage Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 Hmm. Good question. I think a lot of my ideas come from who I am: a film student in his early thirties who read lots as a kid, but didn't really get into comics until I was in my early twenties. So some of the authors who had the biggest influence on me were L. Frank Baum (wrote the original Oz books), Steven Brust, William Gibson, Jack Vance, Glen Cook and Richard Grant. And the whole Wild Cards series edited by George R.R. Martin, too.I love films by Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Tim Burton (though they're almost always 20 minutes too long), Francis Ford Coppola and George Romero, as well as both classic Universal and Hammer horror films. I've been watching a lot of teen movies lately, and they've been having an interesting effect on my games as well. :lookaround I tend to use horror imagery in non-horror games, borrowing from Call of Cthulhu and Tri-Tac's Stalking the Night Fantastic. GURPS Horror also did a great job of defining what makes horror work, even if the mechanics of GURPS are a little dry for my taste.And Alans Moore and Davis, Frank Miller, Chris Claremont, John Bryne, Grant Morrison and a lot of other comics folks have scarred me creatively as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M’ryw "Ed" Posted January 17, 2002 Share Posted January 17, 2002 At the risk of sounding childish, I'm a bit of an animation buff, and enjoy watching shows that have a lot more depth than people might suspect at first. Shows that come to mind I have loved are (don't worry if you've never heard of them) EXO Squad, Beast Wars/Machines, ReBoot. All of these have a war, sci-fi, tyrant themes to them, but the reason I think I am drawn to them is there intense characters. Almost all the shows have some very deeply defined characters. I am especially attracted to the tyrants, as they have some very interesting reasoning and quirks.I actually tend to prefer fantasy settings, but I am less then impressed with a lot of fantasy writers lately. It seems to devolve into to much of a Black/White situation. "We kill Orcs because Orcs are EVIL!" Yawn. At lest Tolken explained why they were evil in his stories. A lot of writers just have people being "evil" just because.I actually have a point! Wait for it! :colgate The point is, I rather like the gray area of Aberrant a lot, and try to play that up, but not too much. I do believe in wrong and right, black and white, but I also believe in gray. I like characters with motives, weather they made sense or not. Not everyone has a motive that makes sense, but it is still there.One other theme I like is POWER, and what you DO WITH IT. I liked this theme way before I picked up Aberrant. That is another reason I liked the shows mentioned. They dealt with some very ambitious people with a lot of power, and what they did with it. Most used it just to get more power, but it was interesting how they did it. I know people think power isn't every thing, but it is something. And when people use it in creative ways, it can get very interesting. "You know have the power you always wanted. What do you do with it?" What do you do when you are an anarchist who wishes to tear down the "establishment" and now you can? What do you do after wards? do you make a new government? How do you keep peace? Do you care, or are you just destructive?Megabyte from ReBoot was simply obsessed with power, enough never being enough. He seemed to need it to lord over others and be cruel to them as he saw fit, Hexadecimal had all the power Megabyte craved, but she never seemed happy with it. Instead she seemed tortured by her own power, as it made her dangerously, some times suicidal, insane. A poster child for a Prime Threat Aberrant if I ever saw one. In contrast, Bob seemed protect his friends with his power and simply enjoy his life with them. Others goals and dreams mattered to him, and he did not feel he had the right to impose on others just because of his power.Megatron from Beast Wars/Machines was fascinating in that his quest for power and conquest was philosophical as well as selfish. The ultimate goal of his power hunger was quite interesting, with him actually desiring to become ALL. Comics I like? Hum. I used to like Spiderman because of the main character's growth. But that has obviously stopped a long while ago. Now they just try to keep him eternally young and unchanged, and then act baffled when people stop reading. They THINK people liked him because he was young. That is wrong. They liked it because he changed, and grew, and failed, and succeeded. They lost that, and I lost interest. I used to like Batman because he was very human, and I used to feel the characters had some depth, but he fell victim even worse than Spiderman to the "keep them the same and cereal" comic effect. Let's not let the character grow, let's see how many times he can beat up the Joker. Just how many times can the Joker kill hundreds of people and murder police officers before someone just kills him anyway? He's not bullet proof. That or the city has no more people to kill!Anyway, I try to learn from those writer's mistakes and try as much as I can to encourage character growth in my games. I also enforce practical repercussions. Not the infamous "ST BEATDOWN" that gamers dread, but just simply have practical repercussions. "You want to kill that person? Fine. You have free will. Kill them if you like, but people will want to know why that person is squashed flat! An investigation is going to happen, and you might go to jail. Yes, I know he was shutting peoples minds off with his telepathy, but no one but you knew about that. Why would they believe his murderer?"Simple, practical problems. I even enforce it with any "villains" I might have. The Joker would be dead in my little RP world. You simply can not go around killing massive numbers of people and never get killed! People carry guns, police officers will just shoot you dead, even if you surrender. Do you think anyone will investigate them for it? You're a mass murderer! Anyone who kills you is a hero, legal or not! Some officers might not even care if they will be arrested and tried, as long as they stop you!I was getting into newer, less stale comics before I stopped for a while during that big comic craze of the early 1990's. Namely I was attracted to the now defunct Ultraverse, which had nothing but character depth and development! Unfortunately, I learned afterwards that Marvel bought them out and shut them down, but not before ruining ALL the artist’s plots. Can’t have any originality, now can we? Recently, one of my friends is getting me into the kind of comics Heritage mentioned, like Rising Stars, The Authority, and others. They seem interesting.I also think the more classic “monster Movies” are better than the splatter films we see a lot of today. There is simply more tact and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needle Posted January 17, 2002 Author Share Posted January 17, 2002 Nice to see that people that I consider friends have such good taste. As for myself I love all of the authors mentioned. The cartoons are on my to watch list & I share a passion for Tundarr the Barbarian. Theres just something about watching Boomerang on a Sunday evening with your girlfriend & watching the Exo-boys knock the snot out of each other. In real life the family business has come to eat up most of my time. Seems that now my bestfriend is got a real serious problem with Everquest. I've recently discovered an interest in silent films namely,Metropolis.Abberant is near to my heart because of the moral complexity of the game. The is also the fact that the game is brighter than the Wod of Darkness. :Baaa Talk later guys :Devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 22, 2002 Share Posted January 22, 2002 They still have EXO Squad on!? Where???? :cry I MUST KNOW! Tell! Please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needle Posted January 23, 2002 Author Share Posted January 23, 2002 I have this system called Dish network & we get Boomrang by cartoon network. Its been RERUN (no new episodes, well not since the Mars thing anyway) truth is that I've been rewatching alot of old stuff. Pirites of darkwater, thundarr, fantastic four, old jonny quest, sky commanders, etc. Exalted really pissed me off. Long story. Later :Alient Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chloe Posted January 24, 2002 Share Posted January 24, 2002 Exalted was/is cool. But only if you like Anime....Does anyone remember the old FF role-play system, 'Dungeoneer' ? I grew up with that and have been playing it for some eight years now...hehehe...I suppose someone had to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeon Posted January 24, 2002 Share Posted January 24, 2002 Mmm, my influences?I used to read loads when I had more time on my hands. I have my roots in sci-fi and fantasy books and I suppose that they have contributed alot to the way I think and roleplay. Comic wise, I never got into stuff like the Beano and the Dandy, which as some here will know are very British comics. Only recently have I picked up stuff like Ghost in the Shell, Preacher and Dark Minds. I am not too into comics still, but I like to borrow them and have a good read. And I must agree with Ed, everything is a shade of grey. Computer games have had an influence on me, and my favourites ( I must recommend them) are Deus Ex, Thief 1 and 2 and Planescape Torment. They are examples of where a new media should be heading, dealing with issues rather than being "instant pleasure fixes" that many PC games and most console games currently are.Well, I started gamig with Games Workshop which is evil and bad and should be burnt down to the ground. Luckily, I soon moved on from that phase (I was only 10!) and started with Star Wars (and I do not even need to ask, I can just assume that everyone here loves it) the RPG which was great (the 1st edition.) Since then I have played loadsa stuff, but the Aeonverse games are the best. I hate WoD, too many spin-offs, and they are all too similar.Better stop rambling now! Oh. Needle, of course we have good taste, and you also seem to! :cool PS - I remember Reboot and that stuff. But TMHT forever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHILL Posted January 24, 2002 Share Posted January 24, 2002 ooh.... influences and stuff.Oh the shame of it I started out buying a copy of the first 'Lone Wolf' 'fighting fantast alike' books back when I was (erm, counts on fingers).... well, a lot younger than I am now !I drifted into lots of other FF alike books, including the official FF ones (on a whim I started recollecting them for some reason about a year ago.... nostalgia eh? ) .... Chloe: I remember Dungeoneer Then came Games Workshop........ can't 'quite' remember how to be honest..... but I was into that stuff until I dunno, 12 / 13 perhaps? (PS, I read alot even at a very young age).Then a friend tried to introduce me to RPG's - it was a one-on-one session of Rolemaster - needless to say it was disastrous. Rolemaster! for a newbie! UG.The same friend tried again about 6 months later with AD&D - which I stuck with for a long time, and eventually ended up running 2nd Ed games (I got a feeling I ran a game for Senior Mal at some point around then)....Then I got bored of DnD, and bumped into Vampire - which 'sold' me on WW......... and eventuallly after spending stupid amounts of money on the WoD, I moved onto Aeon (Aeon DAMMIT! ), and left WoD far behind.In between all that there has been my constant 'reading' - S/F & Fantasy - I've got absolutely stacks of novels (one of my bookshelves even famously 'fell on me' during the middle of an RPG session - just ask Mal )There you go, I admit it, FF, GW & DnDawww....... god I was such a sad kid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHILL Posted January 24, 2002 Share Posted January 24, 2002 PS.I also played an LRP fantasy system for 5 years, which I then took over and ran for nearly another 3, but day job stuff got in the way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heritage Posted January 25, 2002 Share Posted January 25, 2002 Aeon- I completley agree on the Theif games. It's one of the coolest fantasy setting I've ever seen - I especially love the Hammers. All the writting that appears between levels is excellent and often quite spooky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeon Posted January 29, 2002 Share Posted January 29, 2002 Definitely! Have you played Deus Ex Heritage? Anyone else? It rules! :0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thingmaker Posted January 29, 2002 Share Posted January 29, 2002 Influences? Me?*Looks around at credenza and a half full of gaming material, looks across room at three bookshelves of scifi and fantasy novels and two bookshelves full of mythology and technical material, glances toward stairs and thinks about boxes of comics, looks over to entertainment center and half credenza full of scifi & fantasy video*I don't have any influences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeon Posted February 1, 2002 Share Posted February 1, 2002 LoL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needle Posted February 2, 2002 Author Share Posted February 2, 2002 There are times when the damn &*&*(%.) computer really pisses me off. Well since we're talking about influences, how old is the average gamer here? ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeon Posted February 4, 2002 Share Posted February 4, 2002 I am 17, but the average age on the site is about 23 / 24ish, from what I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHILL Posted February 4, 2002 Share Posted February 4, 2002 Im 26, 27 in March Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.0 Posted February 4, 2002 Share Posted February 4, 2002 I am an artistic individual. I have no influences. Just things I watch to criticize with no mercy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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