From: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org (deltagreen-digest) To: deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Subject: deltagreen-digest V1 #192 Reply-To: Delta Green List Sender: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Errors-To: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Precedence: bulk deltagreen-digest Monday, October 26 1998 Volume 01 : Number 192 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 Oct 1998 09:02:29 GMT From: "Jacob Busby Bsc." Subject: DG: Names for NPC's From: Jacob Busby, Trainee IT Analyst/Programmer, Tech Futures, IT Data Centre, Hampshire County Council, The Castle, Winchester. Tel: (01962) 845375 >ObDG: "Okay, Keeper, what are the names of the five random patrol officers >who came when we dialed 911?" Here's a mixture of common and not-so-common names and surnames. Next time the PC's want to question that NPC-of-no-significance 2d20 should see your right. MALE FEMALE SURNAME 1 Alfred Angela Adams 2 Andrew Anne Brown 3 Anthony Catherine Coleville 4 Benjamin Emma Cooper 5 George Jane Eames 6 Jack Jennifer Fielding 7 John Juliet Grant 8 Joshua June Jackson 9 James Louise Jones 10 Henry Lyndsey McKay 11 Lee Marilyn Nesbit 12 Matthew Philippa O'Connor 13 Mark Rachel O'Reilly 14 Nigel Rebecca Piper 15 Paul Rita Punter 16 Robert Sally Robinson 17 Roger Sarah Sampson 18 Stephen Sharon Smith 19 Stuart Susan Walters 20 William Tracy Wright Anybody out there able to expand this for French/German/Spanish/Chinese etc. names. _________ Show me a man with a song in his heart and /__ __/ /__ I'll show you a man with an AM/FM pacemaker __/ / / . / /___/ /____/ "Out one ear and in the other", Johnny Hart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:33:04 -0000 From: "Crossingham, Adam" Subject: Re: DG: Re: MJ-6 Project PLUTO/ARC DREAM : Technology Analysis Phil Ward writes about "Life during Wartime" by Lucius Shepherd: <<< Definitely Lucius Sheppard, the book was great, and I definitely remember the protagonist watching a pit-fight versus a jaguar, some guy on Sammy, nasty stuff. There was a tribe of lost soldiers out in the jungle who had a large supply of the drug, had taken it forever and stopped sleeping. A _really_ good novel, even though it felt a lot like Apocalypse now. >>> I'd third that opinion, I stole large chunks of the imagery for a very surreal Twilight:2000 campaign - especially the madman called the 'War Artist' who created Guernica-esque artworks in wrecked buildings and then booby trapped them. And then there was the downed helicopter gunship, sitting wrecked in a tree; pilot's skeleton still strapped in the front and a still-operational AI system onboard, which had been adopted as a god by the local tribe and had evolved to meet the requirement. - -- Adam Crossingham Work: adam.crossingham@octavian1009.e-mail.com Home: tigger@the-wolery.demon.co.uk Alder Valley Gamers Society for the best gaming in Hants/Surrey/Berks! See http://members.tripod.com/~avgas for details. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 10:41:57 +0100 From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Jesper_J=FChne?=" Subject: DG: Re: Names for NPC's >From: Jacob Busby, Trainee IT Analyst/Programmer, >Here's a mixture of common and not-so-common names and surnames. Next >time the PC's want to question that NPC-of-no-significance 2d20 should >see your right. When I need a random name, I simply use a list of actors/actress/technicians from a movie (from imdb). If you keep away from the most famous of them, your players will never know. E.g.: Martin Jarvis, Rosalind Ayres, Rochelle Rose, Jonathan Evans-Jones, Brian Walsh, Rocky Taylor, Alexandrea Owens, Simon Crane, Edward Fletcher, Scott G. Anderson, Martin East, Craig Kelly, Gregory Cooke, Liam Tuohy, James Lancaster, Elsa Rayen, Lew Palter, Reece P. Thompson III, Laramie Landis, Amber Waddell, Alison Waddell, Mark Rafael Truitt, John Walcutt, Terry Forrestal, Derek Lea, Richard Ashton, Sean M. Nepita, Brendan Connolly, David Cronnelly, Garth Wilton, Martin Laing I am not saying my idea is better, just different. - - Jesper ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:53:04 -0000 From: "Crossingham, Adam" Subject: Re: DG: A Nit Graeme Price writes about the arcane practices of UK universities: <<< [snip] and Chancellor (usually an honorary appointment: often to a minor royal in the UK). >>> Or a clapped-out retired politician who is either now a) an embarrassment to his/her party; or b) surplus to requirements; or c) embarrassed by their useless previous existence and want to make a mark in academia instead. - -- Adam Crossingham Work: adam.crossingham@octavian1009.e-mail.com Home: tigger@the-wolery.demon.co.uk Alder Valley Gamers Society for the best gaming in Hants/Surrey/Berks! See http://members.tripod.com/~avgas for details. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 03:13:40 -0700 From: Scott Cleverdon Subject: DG: "the Ancients" >I found MiB's comments about "uplifting" other species to be used as a >slave race >in an intergalactic war to be just too damn funny. > >Does this make the Mi-Go the lost patrons of the wolfling Human clan (Brin >reference). snip! Perhaps I'm showing my age but aren't the Mi Go perhaps what used to be called in Traveller (the original Sci-Fi rpg) - "the Ancients"? The Ancients were responsible for genetically honing the human race and creating a "slave-species" known as the "Vagr"? Who were half wolf/dog incidentally. If I remember correctly, "the Ancients" actually were insect-like creatures in posession of incredible technology. Has anyone else thought of this piece of Marc W.Miller trivia? ... or do none of you know what I'm talking about, and I am merely showing both my age and my obscure rpging history? I can't remember who said it but it is true for both the Ancients and the Mi Go that; when one is presented with a high enough technology in relation to one's own, it will appear to be magic. A rather elegant way I thought of explaing the Arcane as Science/technology. regards scott cleverdon ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 10:48:23 +0000 From: Phil Ward Subject: Re: DG: "the Ancients" Scott Cleverdon wrote: > Perhaps I'm showing my age but aren't the Mi Go perhaps what used to be > called in Traveller (the original Sci-Fi rpg) - "the Ancients"? > The Ancients were responsible for genetically honing the human race and > creating a "slave-species" known as the "Vagr"? Who were half wolf/dog > incidentally. They took the vargr from old earth hunting canine stock (what was the traveller term 'chaser'? and populated their new home-planet (lair?) with gened-up versions of wolves. > If I remember correctly, "the Ancients" actually were insect-like creatures > in posession of incredible technology. You're not the only one who remembers Marc W Miller :) The ancients left behind a primitive and devolved survivor race, called the Droyne, but they were definitely more inseect-like than the Mi-Go, smaller too... There was also one surviving Ancient (Great old one?) called grandfather, and I believe in one of the adventures you actually got to track him down.... though I never read it. > I can't remember who said it but it is true for both the Ancients and the > Mi Go that; when one is presented with a high enough technology in relation > to one's own, it will appear to be magic. Is that a Clark or an Asimov? There are probably alien books on the subject of the droyne which might go a little way to explaining mi-go behaviour and psychology to us... Phil Ward ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 05:46:00 -0500 From: "John P. Yuda" Subject: Re: DG: Names for NPC's >Anybody out there able to expand this for French/German/Spanish/Chinese >etc. names. Magic & Tactics Unlimited puts out a name list which they call "The Everyone Everywhere List" which I picked up for $5 at my local gaming store. It's 20 solid pages of names, with just about every nationality present from assorted european to african to middle eastern to east asian. The only groups really left out are Native Americans/Eskimos, but I think we've seen a pretty large selection of these. Anyway, each ethnic group has somewhere between 20 and 200 each of male first names, female first names and surnames...and that's for 35 nations. It's awfully thorough, and if you can't find anything appropriate from that, then your needs are very intense. Anyway, if you can't find it, the stock number is MTU 1010, and I find it very much worth the $5 investment. I thought about putting a randomizer on the web which just gives you names of the appropriate ethnic group, but i decided that the copyright infringement isn't worth it when it's only 5 bucks for the item. If that didn't make much sense, it's because i've been awake for a _very_ long time now. - --Yuda - ------------------------------------------------------- John P. Yuda 17 Atherton Hall University Park, PA 16802 (814)862-6011 yuda@psu.edu jyuda@omegafinancial.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:54:44 GMT0BST From: Robert Thomas Subject: Re: DG: BEETLE - What were the skies like when you were young? > > OTOH, the French are famous for eating horsemeat. Cannibalizing French > > horse mutants? Now, that's comedy! > > Every day, a new reason to mock the Frogs, life is good :) Mock frogs! DG uses only the finest dew picked baby frogs, hand picked in Iraq lightly killed and then encased in a chocolate case > > Honestly, I figured it was a bit cheesy. But, given a Man in Black > > Treatment(TM), I figured it had potential. Anyhow, I've got notes on a > > couple other projects. Care to see VERTEX or SCRAPE? Rob (very bored) J.R.E.Thomas. Science Library PC Room Advisor ext 6135 / 5128. MScII City and Regional Planning Student. ThomasR@cardiff.ac.uk 'Memory is the only afterlife I have ever believed in. But the forgetting inside us cannot be stopped. We are programmed to betray.' Michael Ignatieff. "Scar Tissue". ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 04:58:51 -0800 (PST) From: Illuminatus Primus Subject: DG: One of those asides... Good for a few snickers. http://www.gweep.net/~crimson/lovecraft.html is the site of a semi-random Lovecraftian phrase generator. Visit the page, and rejoice in the verbage of the Old Man himself! Of particular mention is one that I'm sure the MiB will enjoy. Occasionally the generator will print the name of the rather obscure god of the Mythos, Shub-Wankalot. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 13:32:20 +0000 From: Phil Ward Subject: Re: DG: One of those asides... Illuminatus Primus wrote: > Of particular mention is one that I'm sure the MiB will enjoy. > Occasionally the generator will print the name of the rather obscure god > of the Mythos, Shub-Wankalot. Occasionally, it only took me two goes :) Very nice, I might have to play with this for a while to get some good stock phrases out of it :) Phil ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 22:24:23 +0900 From: "David Farnell" Subject: DG: Bloody Trail of Vengeance This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - ------=_NextPart_000_0027_01BE01F8.8C7D6D60 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-2022-jp" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The MiB revealed himself for the treacherous running dog he is by writing: >>>Mr. Van Oxen was recently sighted on the big island of Hawaii. My sources tell me that they believe that he launched a project called "Lech Van Oxen's Bloody Trail of Vengeance - World Tour 1998" wherein he planned to "take care of everyone who's ever annoyed me." This would go far to explain the deafening silence of the diverse others mentioned.<<< Oh great. Well, let's hope he doesn't scrape together enough to visit Japa [message abruptly terminated] - ------=_NextPart_000_0027_01BE01F8.8C7D6D60 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-2022-jp" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
The MiB revealed himself for the treacherous running dog he is by=20 writing:

>>>Mr. Van Oxen was recently sighted on the big island = of=20 Hawaii. My sources
tell me that they believe that he launched a = project=20 called "Lech Van
Oxen's Bloody Trail of Vengeance - World Tour=20 1998" wherein he planned to
"take care of everyone who's = ever=20 annoyed me." This would go far to
explain the deafening silence = of the=20 diverse others mentioned.<<<

Oh great. Well, let's hope = he=20 doesn't scrape together enough to visit Japa [message abruptly=20 terminated] 
- ------=_NextPart_000_0027_01BE01F8.8C7D6D60-- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 15:10:54 From: Davide Mana Subject: Re: DG: "the Ancients" Greetings. Just a pedantic aside >> I can't remember who said it but it is true for both the Ancients and the >> Mi Go that; when one is presented with a high enough technology in relation >> to one's own, it will appear to be magic. > >Is that a Clark or an Asimov? Arthur C. Clarke. "Any science advanced enough can be mistaken for magic" (or some other wording to the same effect) is known as Clarke's Third Law. The First should be "The only way to widen the scientific bounduaries is by leaving them behind" (or something similar, IIRC) The Second is "When an old respected scientist says something's possible he's probably right; if he says it's impossible, he's probably wrong" And this is it, almost. I only wanted to add that: - - I remember Marc Miller too. - - I have Shepard's "Life during Wartime" on my shelf and never succeded going over the first 12 pages. Must be the translation. Time for another try. - - Has someone else visualized the Cultists of Shub-Wankalot? Do you agree that they are pale, almost blind and with hairy palms? Sorry. Take care. Davide Mana Torino, Italy doctor.dee@iol.it ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:33:00 -0500 From: graemep@immagene.mcg.edu (Graeme Price) Subject: Re: DG: Bloody Trail of Vengeance Dave's dying words were: >Oh great. Well, let's hope he doesn't scrape together enough to visit Japa >[message abruptly terminated] > > > > > > > > > >
The MiB revealed himself for the treacherous running dog he is by >writing:
>

>>>Mr. Van Oxen was recently sighted on the big island of >Hawaii. My sources
tell me that they believe that he launched a project >called "Lech Van
Oxen's Bloody Trail of Vengeance - World Tour >1998" wherein he planned to
"take care of everyone who's ever >annoyed me." This would go far to
explain the deafening silence of the >diverse others mentioned.<<<

Oh great. Well, let's hope he >doesn't scrape together enough to visit Japa [message abruptly >terminated] 
Oh man! They got his computer too! Graeme graemep@immag.mcg.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:32:00 -0500 (EST) From: "Andrew D. Gable" Subject: DG: What's the Simonomicon? On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, mykenator wrote: > I might if I knew what you where talking about. He is planning on > subscribing to the Weekly Worlf News, though. You should be able to find the book easily enough in most bookstores. It purports to be a copy of the original Necronomicon, translated by a guy calling himself "Simon." It contains a lot of references to Sumerian/Babylonian mythology and several pseudo-Cthulhuvian references, as well. Excellent COC "prop," IMHO. It'll get said player near the truth but so far away (is that a U2 song??)... The Weekly World News, though, is excellent. BENJAMIN and others of Delta Green's data-gatherers make frequent use of the News. As BENJAMIN says, "much of the content of said tabloid is either outright disinformation or highly suspect in nature, although our organization finds the rare gem mixed in among all the dross. We are currently involved in an investigation near Seneca Rocks, WV to find the truth at the heart of the infamous Batboy saga which you'll find in that paper." [Before anyone asks, BENJAMIN is from my campaign.] And that's my two cents. Andrew D. Gable agable@falcon.lhup.edu The CryptoWeb: www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/7270/ "Suddenly, the mad cultists throw their copies of The Revelations of Glaaki at you, and bean you in the cranium with all 13 volumes." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:38:05 -0500 (EST) From: "Andrew D. Gable" Subject: Re: DG: Names for NPC's There's a program available on one of the Shadowrun pages called GameName or something. A few datafiles (English, Japanese, & Spanish, I believe) are included, along with directions on how to make more (for German, Russian, etc.). Although made for SR, I use this program a lot for COC. It'll randomly generate an NPC's name drawing from the datafiles created. It seems to have a few bugs (at least on my computer, it does) but these are nothing major--certainly nothing that will prevent use of the program. Little things like occasionally it'll throw in "1" for a first name or last name...useful, I guess, if you're making a clone. Because everyone knows clones don't have real names, anyhow. And that's my two cents. Andrew D. Gable agable@falcon.lhup.edu The CryptoWeb: www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/7270/ "Suddenly, the mad cultists throw their copies of The Revelations of Glaaki at you, and bean you in the cranium with all 13 volumes." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:45:55 -0500 (EST) From: "Andrew D. Gable" Subject: DG: Ia, Ia, Shub-Wankalot!! On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Davide Mana wrote: > - Has someone else visualized the Cultists of Shub-Wankalot? Do you agree > that they are pale, almost blind and with hairy palms? LOL. (Un)holy symbols (geez, that brings back memories of D&D clerics...ugghh) of the cult include large posters of scantily-clad and bathing women, a series of publications which must remain nameless (although the name Guko'neh has been connected with one) with curiously immobile pages, and a pile of videotapes of cult gatherings which are curiously unlabelled... A bit off-topic, but today's attempt by me at a humorous post. And that's my two cents. Andrew D. Gable agable@falcon.lhup.edu The CryptoWeb: www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/7270/ "Suddenly, the mad cultists throw their copies of The Revelations of Glaaki at you, and bean you in the cranium with all 13 volumes." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 10:35:26 -0500 From: graemep@immagene.mcg.edu (Graeme Price) Subject: Re: DG: Names for NPC's Andrew wrote: >Because everyone knows clones don't have real names, anyhow. You mean apart from "Dolly" and "Cumulina"? ...He said pedantically. Graeme graemep@immag.mcg.edu ------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 1998 15:30:21 GMT From: "Jacob Busby Bsc." Subject: DG: The Masons From: Jacob Busby, Trainee IT Analyst/Programmer, Tech Futures, IT Data Centre, Hampshire County Council, The Castle, Winchester. Tel: (01962) 845375 Time for a new topic. Anybody out there in delta-green list-land know anything about the Freemasons and masonic lodges? Do they have a lot of influence within the (British) police force and judiciary or is this just a common social rumour? What is the history behind this group? What secrets (if any) lie behind their closed doors? _________ Show me a man with a song in his heart and /__ __/ /__ I'll show you a man with an AM/FM pacemaker __/ / / . / /___/ /____/ "Out one ear and in the other", Johnny Hart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 07:44:13 -0800 From: Michael Daisey Subject: DG: Shadow over Innsmouth. The Ain't It Cool News site has info and pictures from an upcoming production of _Shadow Over Innsmouth_ at this link: http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=2377 His grammar is terrible, but his info is always good. - -- Michael Daisey - ---- "Omnia dicta fortiora, si dicta latina." (Everything sounds more impressive when said in Latin.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 15:59:36 +0000 From: Phil Ward Subject: Re: DG: Names for NPC's Graeme Price wrote: > You mean apart from "Dolly" and "Cumulina"? > > ...He said pedantically. OK, I know who/what dolly is, but I've obviously been slack on my reading of late. Just what is "Cumulina" a lone of? Phil-I-WRD-1 :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 10:10:11 -0600 From: Shane Ivey Subject: DG: RE: The Masons Wheee! That's another big one. The internet is loaded with websites that will tell you every legend and theory you want to hear about Masonic groups, from the Templar history beloved by Eco to modern theories of Satanism at the secret upper levels of the lodges. As was mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the P-2 Masonic Lodge in and after WW2 was seen by many as a critical secret juncture between the US government, the Nazis, European financiers, and the Vatican. I would LOVE to see or write some DG stories or a campaign exploring that history and its possible implications on Majestic and the original Karotechia; I like the idea of the modern "three old geezers in the jungle" Karotechia trying to use international terrorist groups and occult societies with political connections to regain some of the influence of the original Karotechia and some of the secrets that were stolen and extrapolated by the Majestic group in PAPERCLIP and (possibly) HIGHJUMP, and then running into the true powers-that-be that are indeed connected by the "Illuminati" networks of Bilderberger influence-peddlers and one-world UN manipulators. . . And that's not even getting into the Mi-Go and the Elder Things and the Witch-cults and the Cult of Transcendence. Maybe when I win the lottery and don't have to work anymore I'll try to write it. :P Unless Glancy & co. want to give it a go . . . (HINT) Shane Ivey AKA CroakerJr@aol.com http://w3.one.net/~deltag/ > -----Original Message----- > From: Jacob Busby Bsc. [SMTP:ITDCJB@hants.gov.uk] > Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 9:30 AM > To: deltagreen@nocturne.org > Subject: DG: The Masons > > From: Jacob Busby, Trainee IT Analyst/Programmer, > Tech Futures, IT Data Centre, Hampshire County Council, > The Castle, Winchester. Tel: (01962) 845375 > > > Time for a new topic. Anybody out there in delta-green list-land know > anything > about the Freemasons and masonic lodges? Do they have a lot of influence > within > the (British) police force and judiciary or is this just a common social > rumour? What is the history behind this group? What secrets (if any) lie > behind > their closed doors? > > _________ Show me a man with a song in his heart and > /__ __/ /__ I'll show you a man with an AM/FM pacemaker > __/ / / . / > /___/ /____/ "Out one ear and in the other", Johnny Hart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 08:19:46 -0800 From: Michael Daisey Subject: DG: King In Yellow... John just sent me these links to his work: "Broadalbin" http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/redlion/157/broad1.htm "Ambrose" http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/redlion/157/ambrose.htm I haven't read them yet, but I plan to soon. - -- Michael Daisey - ---- "Omnia dicta fortiora, si dicta latina." (Everything sounds more impressive when said in Latin.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:25:14 -0500 (EST) From: Daniel M Harms Subject: Re: DG: HPL Titles Shorthand? On Tue, 27 Oct 1998, Davide Mana wrote: > I hope someone can help me with this. > I decided to refurbish my on-line annotated bibliography of HPL Italian > editions, so I started adding a few graphics and would like to list each > story in each book (big work, this). > Now, my question: is there some kind of established shorthand for Lovecraft > Story Titles I can refer to? > You can find one in S. T. Joshi's _Index to the Fiction and Poetry of H. P. Lovecraft_. It's also possible that you might find it somewhere on Donovan Loucks' excellent HPL page here: http://www.hplovecraft.com/ Yrs., Daniel Harms ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:35:31 -0500 (EST) From: Daniel M Harms Subject: Re: DG: Re: mthos research On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Jeffrey Moeller wrote: > (Rubs hands in delight at prospect of torturing newbie player) > Here is what I'd do with this guy, just to give him a real feel for the > Mythos. > Mythos tomes are not (or should not be) just lying around to be checked out. > Mythos tomes in public institutions (like the LOC) are either 1) hidden by a > conspiracy that is careful to control the basic fact of their existence; > and/or 2) probably known about by cultists and their colloaborators who are > keeping tabs on who is looking into them. Oh, come on. What fun is that? Tell him to go to the largest nearby library and see if they have anything by Kenneth Grant. He can actually try the Library Use himself, and he'll get a gen-yoo-ine Mythos tome complete with baffling allusions and difficult writing style. Then don't tell him that you don't really care what Grant says. Yrs., Daniel Harms ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:37:14 EST From: theherald@juno.com (Michael Layne) Subject: Re: DG: mthos research On Mon, 26 Oct 1998 21:22:12 -0500 mykenator writes: >Andrew D. Gable wrote: >> >> Did you already give this player access to the (in)famous >Simonomicon? >> > >I might if I knew what you where talking about. He is planning on >subscribing to the Weekly Worlf News, though. > The Weekly Worlf News? That Klingon has his own news service now? :) Michael theherald@juno.com ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:37:14 EST From: theherald@juno.com (Michael Layne) Subject: Re: DG: Character Generation On Tue, 27 Oct 1998 08:07:57 +0000 Phil Ward writes: >The Man in Black wrote: > >> An ICE CAVE project if I ever heard one. List of kewl equipment, >with >> photos, a brief description/cost etc, and then the most important >part: >> some anecdote concerning Our Line of Work. (wink wink, nudge nudge >;) >> > >Heh, if nothing else, I can plunder my old bookmarks and post most of >these interesting toy places to the list :) > >Any takers? > >I have arms manufacturesr, and suppliers of 'tactical equipment', >etc. Probably much easier than importing photos of the stuff from the various sites (and less legal problems, too)! I'll hunt up some of the URLs I've collected to add to the list. Michael theherald@juno.com ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:37:15 EST From: theherald@juno.com (Michael Layne) Subject: Re: DG: "the Ancients" On Wed, 28 Oct 1998 03:13:40 -0700 Scott Cleverdon writes: >>I found MiB's comments about "uplifting" other species to be used as >a >>slave race >>in an intergalactic war to be just too damn funny. >> >>Does this make the Mi-Go the lost patrons of the wolfling Human clan >(Brin >>reference). >snip! > > >Perhaps I'm showing my age but aren't the Mi Go perhaps what used to >be >called in Traveller (the original Sci-Fi rpg) - "the Ancients"? >The Ancients were responsible for genetically honing the human race >and >creating a "slave-species" known as the "Vagr"? Who were half >wolf/dog >incidentally. >If I remember correctly, "the Ancients" actually were insect-like >creatures >in posession of incredible technology. No, these are different beings entirely (although the two may have been acquainted...)! > >Has anyone else thought of this piece of Marc W.Miller trivia? >... or do none of you know what I'm talking about, and I am merely >showing >both my age and my obscure rpging history? Not especially.... IIRC, the "Ancients" were the second and third generation descendants of "Grandfather" (closest English translation), an immortal mutant Droyne (the "insect-like" race mentioned above -- which have no particular resemblance to Mi-Go). "Grandfather" had mental and psionic abilities far beyond those of normal Droyne. Paraphrasing from GDW and SJG sources (no copyright infringements intended): "Grandfather" still exists in the 57th century, hiding out in his own private "pocket universe". Born about 305,000 BC, he was an incredible specimen of an otherwise fairly ordinary race of intelligent beings. (They resembled our friends the Fun Guys about as much as a chicken resembles a Dimensional Shambler (I hope you can tell them apart...):) They look a bit like small bat-winged bipedal dinosaurs, and stand an average of about a meter high.) His special psionic abilities enabled him to regenerate damage and halt aging. The latter was a good thing, because he was determined to learn anything and everything. As he began his studies, he decided he needed some competent assistants. (Good lab assistants were hard to find, even back then!):) His first effort at producing some was to sire 20 children, each of which in turn had 20 children -- all nearly as intelligent as "Grandfather"! Then he decided that 420 descendants was sufficient, and stopped with that approach. He decided to experiment with other lifeforms (not unlike the Mi-Go here -- wonder if he genetically manipulated the proto-Mi-Go?). Among the species he tried out were primitive Humans (leading to Human civilizations on a number of worlds after the Ancients fought their Final War), but in the long run these proved less than completely successful. He uplifted some Terran canine species, producing the Vargrs, but they were still not quite what he had in mind. (Although that is the reason the Vargrs are flourishing out in deep space by the 57th century...) He built advanced robots, and these were apparently the most successful of his experiments at building assistants. (I wonder if some of these robots later went rogue and were known as "Berzerkers"?) He assigned research projects to each of his children and grandchildren, and they pushed the scientific and technological state of the art up far beyond even what Humans and their fellow races would enjoy in the 57th century. They manipulated space and time, matter and energy, stars and planets. They built Ringworlds, Dyson Spheres, and far more advanced and impressive artifacts. Grandfather, with his offspring hard at work, took a vacation, and went sightseeing through (and beyond) Known Space. In about 390,000 BC, "Grandfather" came home from his vacation, and decided to "explore some of the remaining frontiers of existence". (I'm not sure what he had in mind, but, then, I'm not "Grandfather"...) He called in all his children to help him out, but they had projects of their own going, and told him they were too busy to help out just now. "Grandfather" started up his own project anyway, but soon found that some of his children's experiments interfered with his present work. He decided that his decision to have children 85,000 years ago was an error, and now he must do something about it. All 420 would have to go... When the above 420 descendants found out about this, they were unhappy, and resisted. The resulting war lasted 2,000 years, using weapons ranging from superweapons E.E. Smith and John Campbell would have loved, down to routine stuff such as nukes. When it finally ended, around 388,000 BC, "Grandfather" had wiped out all 420 of his descendants, and the Galaxy was somewhat the worse for wear, due to the crashing planets, exploding suns, and such. The war apparently never reached Earth -- perhaps, after obtaining some Human and canine stock for their biotech experiments, none of the Ancients considered Earth worth revisiting... Deciding to stick with robot assistants in the future, "Grandfather" pinched off a pocket universe around his base system, and retreated there to pursue his studies. As of 1998, he is probably still in there (a "Traveller" adventure ("Secret of the Ancients") set in the 57th century permits some intrepid Humans to actually meet him and learn of what has gone before -- which the government of the Third Imperium probably immediately classified with the code "Delta Green", while the conspiracy checked into recruiting these folks!) :) > >I can't remember who said it but it is true for both the Ancients and >the >Mi Go that; when one is presented with a high enough technology in >relation >to one's own, it will appear to be magic. Clarke's Third Law -- postulated by science and SF writer Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke's Laws: 1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist says something is possible, he is usually right. When he says something is impossible, he is probably wrong. 2. The only means of discovering the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. 3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Michael theherald@juno.com "Traveller" player and GM since 1977 ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:08:00 -0800 From: Joseph Camp Subject: RE: DG: A Nit >Right, but when are we going to hear it from the horse's mouth (Joseph)? The "professor" title often seen before my name is a nickname, gained during my WWII service. It's stuck ever since. At the time I was recruited in '42, I was an assistant professor at Harvard, and that's as far as I got in that particular squirrel cage. be seeing you, Alphonse ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 09:13:37 -0800 From: Christian Conkle Subject: DG: RE: Re: Names for NPC's The best kinds of names to use are of people you peripherally know. I use a lot of names of people I work with or knew from college. The players don't know of half of them (unless they meet them someday) and when they do meet them or recognize a name, it becomes fun to associate that NPC with the real person. For example, my DG campaign used Rex Hagans, my girlfriend's boss; Warren Glass, my nephew; his wife Courtney, my neice; their daughter Sandi, my sister and their mom. My Cyberpunk NPC's were based on relatively famous people, Helmet Kohl, Fracois Mitterand, Rupert Murdoch, Heinrich Himmler, etc. (can you tell it was a European campaign?) My BGC NPC's were all based on people I knew from High School or College: Eric Sork, Jeff Ludt, Molly Roberts, etc. I even based their personalities and histories on modified versions of the actual people. - ----------------------------------------------------- Christian Conkle Web Development Specialist Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory work: conklec@nwrel.org home: conkle@europa.com - ----------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 12:31:36 -0500 From: graemep@immagene.mcg.edu (Graeme Price) Subject: Re: DG: Names for NPC's Phil-I-WRD-1 showed his pitiful Infra-Red Clearance when he wrote: >> You mean apart from "Dolly" and "Cumulina"? >> ...He said pedantically. > >OK, I know who/what dolly is, but I've obviously been slack >on my reading of late. Just what is "Cumulina" a lone of? Hot (ish) off the presses in last week's Nature (available free [for the moment] on line at www.nature.com or soemthing like that) was the news that: A.) Dolly the sheep _is_ a clone after all (there had been a big scientific debate about this... unbeknownst to most people: I forget the argument though. Perhaps Jerry knows more on this?) B.) The first mouse clone from adult cells (they used cumulus cells [which surround an unfertilised oocyte] as the source of the DNA, hence the name cumulina). Beleive it or not, this was done (mostly) at the University of Hawaii. I just hope and pray that MiB wasn't involved in this one. The outcome could be too freaky (Mutant Cloned Killer Mice from Hell - in Black: Special attack mode: rectal penetration and intestinal burrow. Just picture the hideous scene as the MCKMfH-iB chews it's way out of the victim's abdomen squeaking "eeep! eeep!" [which loosely translates as "Damn! The SOB got blood on my shades. Now where did I put my flashy-thing?"]) Sorry. Too much coffee this morning I'm afraid.... Graeme graemep@immag.mcg.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:13:10 -0600 From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Ricardo_J._M=E9ndez?=" Subject: DG: Re: Ia, Ia, Shub-Wankalot!! >LOL. (Un)holy symbols (geez, that brings back memories of D&D >clerics...ugghh) of the cult include large posters of scantily-clad and >bathing women, a series of publications which must remain nameless >(although the name Guko'neh has been connected with one) with curiously >immobile pages, and a pile of videotapes of cult gatherings which are >curiously unlabelled... You forgot that one of the avatars of Shub-Wankalot is a Red Ferrari (maybe a Black Porshe) upon which the scantily-clad female cultists are either laying or superimposed. And please, let's not go into the relationship with Shub-Niggurath being a fertility goddess.... Cheers, Ricardo J. Méndez rmendez@geocities.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 12:57:08 -0500 From: graemep@immagene.mcg.edu (Graeme Price) Subject: Re: DG: Academic ranks Jacob wrote: >Excellent stuff. I stopped off at BSc. level and never really knew how the >upper echelons fit together. Just one thing - how do honourary degrees (Eg. >Nelson Mandella) fit into this scheme? Honorary degrees tend to go to the great and good (have shown acheivement in an academic or business field, or public service, or whatever). They tend to gete "elected" to a degree by the university council for whatever reason: viz. "Oh shit, it's almost graduation time again and we're expected to give someone an honorary degree... quick, who's left?". Normally the degree is awarded, the recipient makes a nice speech, has dinner with the nobs and their wives at the university reception and goes home, never to return to the place. Whilst the University puts him/her on their list of alumni and waves it at the press to impress people. As for the value of the honorary degree... it looks nice in a frame and is impressive on a CV (but by this stage the recipient shouldn't actually need his CV improving!). It is of no practical value, and when it comes down to it is just a piece of paper. Graeme graemep@immag.mcg.edu ------------------------------ End of deltagreen-digest V1 #192 ********************************