John Wilson

The Hive

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

The Hive is a game set in a world that has been taken over by mobs under the control of an alien mind. Sometime in the late 196s, London Transportundercovered an alien spacecraft while excavating an extension at the Hobs Lane underground station. There was a lot of publicity about the discovery of Martians in London. However, it ended when a force in the craft awakened. The force took over the minds of those nearby, and welded them into a mob dedicated to killing any who would not join them.

At some point it all fell apart… I don’t know how. One day, everyone was normal – the next day, the mobs had arrived. Blank, mindless and with strange powers: they roamed the streets, killing everyone they met who wasn’t one of them.

A few of us are immune, but there are less of us everyday. The mob takes us. Some of us think that the controller lives in the structur e thay have been building in central London. Some of us think they’re Martians …
Just like poor Bernard did.
– Diaries of Professor Roney

His is the Hand

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Although Dr Alphonse Moreau perished on Noble’s Isle sometime in late 1887, his work did not. In 1891, an expedition was sent by the British government to salvage what they could and return any papers or specimens that were still alive. Although the expedition was publicly reported as a failure, it did succeed in bringing back enough information for scientists to replicate Dr Moreau’s work – the surgical hybridisation of Man and Beast.

A small laboratory was established somewhere in the bucolic conutryside of England. The scientists at the laboratory successully reproduced all of Moreau’s techniques and added page after page to their new bestiary. The new creations were studied, both physically and mentally, to see what use they could be in the new century.

Another one page RPG, in which the players are hybrids created for experimentation. Do they try and prove themselves useful to their masters, or do they find freedom?

In “His is the Hand”, the players take the part of the Beast-Men: hybrids created from the legacy of Dr Moreau. When creating a character, the player should decide what animals have gone into their creation.

Characters have the following abilities:

TRAITS – These are what describe the character’s abilities. A character may have any number of Traits provided they have at least one point in every Trait. Traits should be neither too narrow, nor too wide. The referee is the ultimateauthorit y on whether a Trait is suitable and what its effects are. The score assigned to a Trait indicates how good it is.

DRAWBACKS – Whereas Traits are generally positive, Drawbacks are negative. A Drawback must have a score, like a Trait. The score indicates how badly the Drawback affects the character. Again, the referee is the ultimate authority on the extent of a Drawback.

HUMANITY -This represents how spiritually close characters are to the ideal of Noble Humanity and how well they can resist the bestial side of their nature. A high Humanity score indicates that the character thinks rather than reacts.

Players have 1 points with which to create characters. These points should be assigned to Traits. If a player decides to create a character with Drawbacks, they receive extra points for Traits equal to the number of points they have in Drawbacks.

Search and Destroy

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

“Here’s your man, Marshal. The warrant said dead or alive.”

I dump the corpse of my quarry in front of the marshal’s desk. The marshal recoils in shock, but recovers quickly. He reaches into the desk and pulls out a stack of credits as thick as the powerpack on my blaster.

“There y’are. 2, credits blood money, mutie.”

I tip my hat to him as I walk out into the harsh actinic light of the twin suns. A woman hides her children behind her as I walk past. Someone spits at my shadow.

Sometimes I wonder who they think are worse. The bounties, or the hunters?

Still … It’s a job.

Search/Destroy is a RPG set in the Strontium Dog comic universe. Players are mutant bounty hunters in the far future.

INTRODUCTION

It is the far future. A series of devastating wars has forced Mankind to leave Earth and settle the stars. However, the rule of Law does not quite reach as far as Man’s grasp. The frontier is often lawless, and settlers are often prey to vicious thugs, scheming criminals and fierce aliens.

Earth, however, has not forgotten her children. Where the Law does not reach, money brings the Search/Destroy Agent. These are not men. Instead, they are the bastard children of Earth’s wars – mutants. They roam the colonies, tracking down criminals with a price on their heads and exacting revenge.

Wherever they go, the Search/Desroy Agents are feared and hated. Their mutations mark them out from other men, and they are shunned for their profession. Some are cruel, some are noble. All of them will kill you for a credit.

School Dinners

Saturday, March 18th, 2006

School Dinners is a roleplaying game set in Kidling’s Academy for the Culinary Arts. PCs are students aspiring to become master chefs. The game system involves feeding the GM. The game text was written in 24 minutes and typeset in the following hour and a half. Bon appetit.

System

Morsels are a suitable foodstuff ? I favour marshmallows. Use morsels to perform actions beyond your PC?s normal abilities. Morsels must be served to the GM (Gourmand Majeur).

The GM awards morsels to players as his appetite dictates. If a PC has an appropriate ability the player need not serve a morsel to act, but may choose to do so to curry favour.