Whispers Beyond The Stars is set twenty-five years from now in one possible future. I wouldn't bet on that being the actual future, history being such a squirmy and chaotic thing, but I’m always interested to hear forecasts of what life is going to be like. Elon Musk claims to think that money won’t matter by 2036. I don’t think he really believes that, but he might think he believes it. Quite possibly he was thrilled as a teenager by Star Trek’s depiction of a post-scarcity society. Adult Elon probably doesn’t realize that the Federation is a socialist utopia, socialism being a term that makes him lose his shit, but the dreams of teen Elon are still sparking away dimly in the depths of that ketamine-treated brain.
Ten years might be a stretch, especially to attain super-intelligent AGI, so let’s stick with Whispers' longer horizon of 2050. With advanced robotics and very good AI, labour might be effectively free. Even energy might be free if (a big if, this) we have controlled fusion. What won’t be free? Living space for one. That apartment overlooking Central Park will still be beyond the means of most. Minerals that only need labour to extract would be more or less free, but unfortunately the rare earths needed for electronics aren’t among them, so your household robot won’t be free unless it has a very different kind of electronic brain from those we can build now.
So this is post-scarcity with a jagged edge. And by the way we in the developed world already have a post-scarcity society from the perspective of the poorer nations. Elon Musk talks about “universal high income” -- no mere UBI for him, you see. Hang on, though. A billion people live on less than $3 a day while the Western World has a median income more than twenty times that. We’re not distributing the world’s wealth fairly now, so why would that change by 2050?
If robotics really takes off, there might be a vast workforce that’s effectively slave labour. There might also be a vast slave army. Those robots will be owned by the likes of Musk and/or by the governments of the major powers. Will they dole out UBI? That depends on who controls the weapons. You’re an absurdly rich person with a private military and you only have to reach out your hand for anything you need. How much money will you throw to the masses to spare yourself the inconvenience of waging continual war on them?
In Whispers Beyond The Stars we used a different template for our future world. Not Roddenberry’s Federation but Ancient Rome. There you have wealth concentrated into the hands of a few, labour (but not warfare) largely carried out by slaves, and UBI in the form of the dole. Bread and circuses keep the people acquiescent while the oligarchs enjoy all the luxury.
What about Elon Musk’s prediction that artificial intelligence will exceed human intelligence by 2031? “There really won't be anything that AI can’t do better than humans apart from being human.” And he thinks (or claims to think, or believes he thinks) that means AI will be in charge: “In the same way that if the difference in intelligence between AI and humans is vastly greater than the difference in intelligence between AI and chimpanzees, it's hard to imagine that the chimpanzees would be in charge.”
Is that so? Intelligent people don’t run this planet. Really they don’t; just take a look at it. The US has a government that opposes vaccination and mRNA research. Russia is drilling for self-replacing oil on the basis of a theory barely less barmy than some of the Nazis’ pseudoscience ideas. Politicians get elected without even trying to make any intelligent arguments, knowing that flattery, lies and hatemongering will stand them in far better stead at the ballot box than reason ever could -- or else they seize power by force and install dictators who are never chosen on the strength of their intellect. Meanwhile the vast majority of smart people have no chance of doing anything with their intelligence because they belong to the two-fifths of humanity that has to make do with 1% of global wealth.
I sound like I’m disdainful of Elon Musk’s theories, and I certainly wouldn’t call him a genius, as Zanny Minton Beddoes has, because I don’t use the term genius so promiscuously. (Shakespeare, Newton, Einstein, maybe a few others; that's it.) Most of my friends are at least as smart as Elon seems to be, and with the added bonus that most of them know what they don't know. But I agree with him when he says, “The most important thing for AI safety is [for it] to be maximally truth-seeking and curious. If that's the case I think it will foster humanity.”
One remark Elon Musk made I found especially revealing: “I've said many times I think work is going to be optional. Maybe a good comparison would be gardening. You don't have to grow vegetables in in your garden. You can go to the store and they're going to be pristine vegetables, or you could grow vegetables in your garden and they will actually be less perfect. Your tomatoes are not going to be as plump and juicy as the ones at the store. They’ll look a little artisanal. But if you go to a friend's house and they make dinner with vegetables from their garden, it's a nice touch.”
I know people who grow their own fruit and vegetables in the garden. They are much, much tastier than anything I can buy in any of the stores that I can afford. So presumably Elon Musk’s cook has access to stores where they can source vegetables even better than that. There’s no better illustration of how detached from everyday reality you can get if you have three-quarters of a trillion dollars.
My roleplaying group used to cut loose up to four times a year with seasonal one-shots. It's a tradition that died out in the pandemic never to fully resume, though we still try to fit in a special around Christmas -- almost the only roleplaying I get to do these days.
Fifteen years ago I ran a scenario called “A Long Time
Dying”. The idea was based on another Christmas tradition, at least of my
childhood Christmases, when there would always be a James Bond movie on TV between Christmas
Eve and Boxing Day. I don’t think it’s essential for Christmas movies or
Christmas one-shot games to be set at Christmas, although for this scenario I
buckled. Cold War stories always benefit from a touch of frost.
The game is set in 1962 and the player-character
cast list will give you the general idea:
I thought that would tell my players what to expect,
but I’d forgotten that most of them weren’t born until the 1970s, so probably
only Smiley meant anything at all. That may explain why the game veered off
into a rather Roger Mooreish arched-eyebrow take on Cold War espionage, but –
well, these one-shots were never fully serious. I know a lot of people prefer silly games, but for me there's no point in roleplaying unless you're going to take it seriously. Specials like this, though, are just for fun.
I've changed the scenario title to justify a Shirley Bassey theme song. So here's
(This is a
“pre-title” sequence that is presented to the players without them being
present in character. Normally I’d have no truck with such metafictional
malarkey, but it’s a one-shot. Come to that, I don’t normally include music
tracks in my scenarios either.)
A railway station
near Haskovo, southern Bulgaria. It’s the early morning, just before daybreak. Troops
from the nearby 4th Fighter-Bomber Air Base wait in the cold. Gritty
snow falls, skittering like dust over the icy cold platform.
Then: the sound of a
train horn. Lights appear out of the blue pre-dawn dusk. The train pulls into
the station. Red Army soldiers jump down and the two commanders salute each
other.
A tarpaulin is
removed from one of the carriages to reveal a large bomb, about 8m long by 2m
wide, with the single word царьpainted on the side.
Sergeants shout
orders, their voices sounding short-tempered and nervous. A crane is lowered
and begins to unload the bomb, which swings wildly to one side, the support
frame just missing a row of soldiers who have to throw themselves to the
ground.
The crane sweeps
across the platform, smacking the bomb into the station wall. The frame buckles
and the bomb falls. Absurdly, given the size and nature of the bomb, everyone
dives for cover. The bomb strikes the iron-hard ground –
And cracks, with the
sound of splintering wood. The Soviet colonel picks himself up, sweeps the snow
off his coat, and strides over. In gloved hands he lifts part of the wreckage:
painted wood, filled with sand for ballast.
He looks into the
east, where the dull glimmer of dawn barely penetrates the heavy shelf of snow
clouds, and perhaps imagines the gulag where he will be sent for this.
This is the year of the Cuban Missile
Crisis. Both the USA and the USSR are aware of the need to safeguard against
such incidents in the future, so when a new threat emerges only a couple of
months later, the best operatives from both sides of the Iron Curtain are
assigned to an international team to track down the diabolical mastermind
behind it.
NATO
USAPresident:
John F Kennedy
GBPrime
Minister: Harold Macmillan
France:President:
Charles de Gaulle
W Germany:Chancellor: Konrad Adenauer
EASTERN BLOC
USSRFirst
Secretary: Nikita Khrushchev; Chairman
of the Presidium: Leonid Brezhnev
Whitehall on a grey
morning with snow falling outside. Control waits with George Smiley and Colonel
Ross. John Steed arrives and
the introductions are made. A few minutes later, Harry Palmer looks around the door – “Late as usual, Palmer,” says
Ross irritably, waving him to a chair.
Control relates what
Smiley has found out from his Bulgarian contacts about the stolen bomb. Control
and Smiley have made an approach to the KGB to assist them in looking for the
bomb. The Soviets have agreed, but on the condition that their man will head up
the joint operation. Steed, Palmer and Smiley are to fly to Berlin, where they
will meet up with two more international operatives codenamed “Tailor” and
“Thief”.
London to Berlin: flight 2 hrs.
Paris to Moscow: flight 4hrs; train 36 hours; car 72 hours averaging 60 mph.
Berlin to Moscow: flight 3 hrs; train 27 hrs; car 49 hrs averaging 60 mph.
It’s mid-afternoon
when they reach Berlin. It’s icy cold but not snowing. Their liaison in Berlin
is Dr Franz Six, a former Nazi who
now works for British Intelligence.
Smiley, Steed and
Palmer are to make contact with their colleagues at the Adlon Kempinski Hotel.
At reception they are told that “Herr Solo” is in the coffee bar. Smiley goes
through and nods to NapoleonSolo
just as a man coming in off the street recognizes Smiley, sees that he knows
Solo (whom he was coming to meet) and rushes out.
The man is Otto Vessler, an East German spy whom
Solo has been reeling in for weeks. In the west he poses as an industrialist,
but with his cover blown he’s going to make a dash for the Wall. He grabs a
motorcycle and the chase is on…
Halfway through the
chase, Simon Templar turns up. He’s
been tracking Vessler as part of his own private investigation, so may take
some convincing to team up with the others.
Their flight leaves Berlin at 5:30, arriving in Moscow at 11:30 pm (ie 3 hours ahead of Berlin time).
Midnight in Red
Square. Snow on the ground, but a crystal clear sky full of stars above the
Kremlin – and among those stars the small but growing collection of satellites
launched by the superpowers, including Telstar which was put up in the summer.
They are taken to
meet IllyaKuryakin, along
with an academician called Andrei
Sakharov, who explains:
“The bomb is based on
the Teller-Ulam design and has a yield of 100 megatons. That’s three thousand
times the combined yield of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs – or, to put it in
terms of conventional explosive, twenty times the total of all explosives used
in WW2. The explosion would cause third degree burns at a distance of 100 km,
stone buildings would be destroyed up to 55 km. Two such weapons would equal
the detonation of Krakatoa.”
Brezhnev
comes in. He’s wrapped up in a thick fur coat and there’s a waft of vodka on
his breath. “We have a captive spy at the Black Sea facility. He could be
useful and it’s on your way, a bit. You’ll have to spring him, though, as
SMERSH will never give the nod to releasing him.”
Moscow to Odessa: flight 2 hrs; train (HSR) 8 hrs
Odessa to The Village: 2 hrs by car
Berlin to Moscow: flight 3 hrs; train 27 hrs; car 49 hrs averaging 60 mph.
Incidentally this is the first time Solo and Kuryakin have met each other. U.N.C.L.E. is still a few years in the future, and in fact this adventure paves the way for its formation.
They set out from Kharkiv
in the south-west USSR, via Kirovohrad and Chisinau, into Romania at Iasi and
then via Bacau and Brasov.
Just beyond Zarnesti
in Romania, the train carrying the bomb entered a mile-long tunnel through the
Carpathians. Thereafter it went via Bucharest without stopping, crossed the
Bulgarian border at Ruse, and from there via Veliko Tarnovo and Stara Zamora to
its destination.
Investigationinside the tunnel at
Zarnesti discovers an apparatus built
into the tunnel roof. The mechanism has been removed but it was
obviously recently excavated and a large piece of machinery was housed here.
Caves lead off from the excavated area.
Investigation: Some discarded screws. Engineer roll to
conclude they are West German.
Investigation: Part of the
apparatus is found – part of a plate
scraped off against the rough walls of the cave, stamped with “CHIRO-” (from
Chiroptics GmbH).
Investigationby questioning the
driver (Engineer Boris Utkin) or officer in charge (Col Yuri Lagunov) reveals
that the line was blocked by a fallen
tree just after the tunnel, forcing them to stop for about fifteen
minutes while it was cleared.
Investigationfurther along the
track after the tunnel reveals a disused branch linethat has been recently uncovered – the
line towards Yugoslavia, sealed off when the two countries fell out in the
1950s. It leads to Dubrovnik.
Investigationbefore the tunnel reveals a siding where a train was recently (engine oil on ground). Somebody waited
a while (cheroot stubs; Connoiseur roll to identify as 25-cent Marsh Wheeling
stogies).
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:
Boswell Brontë’s mercenaries (all ex-US special forces, led by a stogie-smoking WW2 commando called Major Dugan) swapped the bomb for their fake, then when the train had gone they brought up their own carriage, loaded the bomb, went on and used to branch line into Yugoslavia, hooked up with a train carrying the circus troupe, and smuggled the bomb out as fireworks bound for Venice.
Investigation of ships out of
Dubrovnik into western ports on Dec 18-19: the Suske, carrying the Carobnaci od Vatromet circus troupe, arrived in
Venice on Dec 19.
Monday, Dec 24
Venice. A cold wind
blows across the lagoon. The local CIA agent is Candy Sweetmeat, a young
“swinger” type. She’s eager to please and very nice, so no doubt the bad guys
must kill her at some point. (Or try to kill her, if she’s a player-character.)
Boswell Brontë is
giving a fireworks display on the Grand
Canal on Christmas Eve, which also happens to be the night of the new
moon. If the characters attend, they will see Brontë give a rambling speech
about how he met his wife “here in Europe” seven years ago tonight. That’s
followed by Mrs Brontë lighting a champagne-bottle-styled firework that begins
the show.
One part is
particularly impressive: the Yugoslav acrobat troupe do a trapeze juggling act
over the canal, throwing lit fireworks to each other that are timed to go off
in mid-air at the exactly right moment and orientation to create the highlights
of the display.
If the characters
have been at all indiscreet about their investigations, Miss Hazzard sneaks in
while they’re watching the fireworks and plants a bomb in their hotel suite
(Observation roll at -5 to spot, character involved only.)
OR
They might sneak into
the Brontës’ suite (though in fact they’re going back to the yacht after the
show) in which case they may have to deal with Miss Hazzard and an appropriate
number of mooks.
EITHER WAY
They get to discover
some finely ground glass that
seems to have been trodden into the carpet on somebody’s shoes.
Investigation of the glass factory on Murano owned by Chiroptics
GmbH discovers glass with microcracks (Observation roll) caused by sonic
effects (Physics roll). The sonic equipment itself has been moved out. (This
was where Brontë’s scientists worked out the correct array of parabolic
reflectors.)
If Brontë needs a
rapid departure from the city, either as an outright escape or simply if the
referee wants to create a dramatic moment if the characters are closing in with
a view to confronting him, he leaves by hydroplane on the Grand Canal.
CRUISE TO TUNIS takes48 hours -> arrive midday Friday 28th
Investigation: if they talk to
Boswell, they discover that he is fascinated by Rome’s struggle for supremacy
with Carthage, and how he admires Hannibal – who nearly dealt with “those
upstarts”.
The Jericho leaves Venice at 9am on Dec 26 and arrives in Tunis midday Dec 28.
Investigation:Brontë International
has a facility 50 miles south of Tunis where they are building arches of
various sizes using synthetic rock (similar to sandstone).
Observation
and
Physics/Engineer:
the arches are curved and would fit together to create a large parabolic
surface with a radius of over 50m.
Investigation: the company books
show that enough arches were made here to build hundreds of similar parabolas.
Physics/Engineer
roll at -5:
An array of such reflectors would have an effect similar to one enormous
reflector hundreds of miles long.
Physics
roll at -5:
The size of the parabolas suggests they are designed to focus or reflect sound
of low wavelength.
Investigation:
an Accountant looking into Brontë’s business discovers he
has a network of shell companies in the finance sector. On a roll at -5 they can see that many of these companies
have been shorting US stocks and bonds.
The opening night of
the opera is 8pm on Dec 29. The stage is spectacular, being a floating platform
hundreds of feet across set in the bay, complete with replica backdrop of
ancient Rome.
The opera is attended
by Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba, Foreign Minister Mongi Slim, and King
Mohammed Idris of Libya. (There is talk of the two countries merging into one,
which would signal a rise in the price of oil, but that’s actually a red herring.)
The opera stage is
self-propelled and submersible, docking with Boswell’s undersea base (see
below) in which the bomb is located. Of course, at the time the bomb detonates
(6am on Dec 31) he plans to be safely inland at his villa in Corsica.
THE MASTER PLAN
Boswell plans to
detonate the bomb on the sea bed, where an array of parabolic reflectors will
direct the resulting pressure wave through the Straits of Gibraltar, and across
the Atlantic, where it will create a tsunami that will wreak devastation along the
eastern seaboard of the United States. Boswell has heavily shorted US stocks
and the dollar, and stands to make billions when Wall Street crashes.
THE UNDERWATER BASE
The “stage” docks
with the underwater base where the bomb is located. Brontë plans to detach from
the bomb housing, return to the surface, escape by helicopter, scuppering the
stage so that it sinks to the sea bed with the characters trapped on board.
The characters will
need to break out of the stage, survive the pressure (luckily they’re on the
saddle of seabed connecting Tunisia and Sicily, not on the deep bed), get to
the bomb base, gain entry, disarm the bomb, and return to the surface.
THE CORSICAN VILLA
Visitors arrive by
helicopter. It’s a replica of Nero’s palace in the Bay of Naples.
Monday, 11pm, New Year’s Eve: FINAL JEOPARDY IN MONACO
Three of the circus acrobats come to kill whichever
of the characters is “man of the match” – so out-of-game it’s kind of a reward. Think of the final jeopardy
scenes traditional in 007 movies.
That character is
taking a shower while the others are waiting in the casino. He notices a slight
ruffling of the shower curtain as the balcony door is opened and closed.
Game notes:
The players were all characters in our long-running Immortal Spartans campaign, although this tongue-in-cheek one-shot was not canonically part of the "real" campaign. That explains the title, "A Long Time Dying", which felicitously both sounds like a Bond title and describes a 2500 year lifespan.
Being Spartans from Thermopylae, all the characters were male even though the players were not. But that fits with the assumptions of high adventure in 1962. If you have players who prefer female characters there are some from the period who you could use, eg Dr Cathy Gale from The Avengers.
The scenario originally appeared on my Patreon page; you can join as a free member if strapped for roubles.
The stats are given in GURPS 4e terms because that's what I used originally, but it should be simple enough to adapt the scenario to any system. (Other options: Classified, Cold Shadows, and Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes.) I usually don't care for what are now called narrative games (it's good that they encourage improvisation, but I prefer character-playing to storyteller-playing) and the only capers I enjoy are the sort that go on pizzas, but I recently played in a Blades '68 one-shot that was a real hoot and a thorough pleasure, a kind of gaming crossbreed of Spy and Hudson Hawk, and I can't deny that those Forged in the Dark based rules deliver a lot tighter and brisker gaming experience for one-shots. Given that you're only going to be playing these characters the once and they're all daft caricatures of the classic fictional originals, it's barely roleplaying anyway. So why not?
Regarding the music, if you're not a purist then there are some funked-up versions of some of the tracks here.
Finally, if your players attempt to defuse to bomb at the bottom of the Mediterranean, as mine did, here's the track for that.
"Japanese folklore is not especially interested in fitting itself into tidy categories. Gods resemble spirits. Spirits become monsters. Animals become people. People become considerably worse things. And an object that exists long enough may well develop awareness, resentment, and maybe a grievance about how often it has been used to boil socks. Some of these tales are terrifying. Some are ridiculous. Quite a few are both at once. There are umbrella monsters, lamp monsters, haunted tools. There are foxes with very, very complicated private lives. There are creatures whose principal supernatural power appears to just be scaring you and running away. Such is Japanese mythology."
And:
"Ninja are not being treated as a separate species of magical black-pajamaed elf -- or anything. There aren't really ninja. There are shinobi, but the legend of the ninja is always useful. Espionage, infiltration, sabotage, disguise, and assassination are things that characters can learn to do regardless. The black trousers are optional, and they don't cause a class transformation."
I love everything Jim Desborough is saying about Stray Crows and I'm backing it to the katana hilt. If a Japanese RPG designed with real love for the subject matter appeals, you'll probably want to jump over to Kickstarter and join me. The game was fully funded within a couple of hours of launch and Jim has written all the books already, so you can be sure that this is one of those Kickstarter campaigns that really will deliver.
The kappa of The Eye of the Dragon, which eventually found their way into Dragon Warriors, owe very little apart from their watery habitat to the creatures of Japanese folklore. For one thing they live in the sea, whereas Japanese kappa haunt ponds and streams. Not to mention the unhealthy obsession with mortal posteriors, as in the illustration above where a kappa is looking at an bow trap baited with a corpse whose arse is positioned directly under the arrow tip.
The way it came about was this. I probably first came across kappa (the original variety) either in Richard A Lupoff’s Sword of the Demon or the roleplaying game Bushido. As the setting of The Eye of the Dragon is vaguely Graeco-Egyptian, at least architecturally, and kappa is a Greek letter, some circuit tripped in my brain. That combined with The Tempest’s “of his bones are coral made; those are pearls that were his eyes” and gave us the DW kappa.
For our Tetsubo book (I won’t recap the story here, there are enough old posts about it) Jamie and I naturally had to include to genuine Japanese kappa, supposedly spawned from the ghosts of the Heike after the clan’s destruction at the sea battle of Dan-no-ura.
According to the Morokoshi Kinmō Zui, these creatures resemble a small child or monkey with a back entirely covered in scales, look like a tiger when resting on the sand, and have long claws that they keep hidden in the water. But folk tales, like dreams, are elusive and protean; another description claims the kappa has the body of a tortoise, the limbs of a frog, and the head of a monkey. Just to confuse things even more, the Suiko (a Bugaku theatrical mask) depicts the creature with flat ears, a pointed eagle nose, and a coxcomb covered with tiger's skin.
In the river of Kawachi Mura, a kappa was once caught in the girth of a horse. After being rendered harmless by spilling its fluid, it was forced to sign a bond promising never to attack a man, woman, child, or beast again. Another tale tells of Rokusuke of Keyamura, a retainer of Taiko, a strongman who captured a kappa. In prints he is seen surrounded by a number of these creatures.
Poems by Sugawara no Michizane were held in great esteem in Kyushu as protection against the kappa. Before departing for exile in Kyushu in 901 AD, Michizane cast a final glance at his plum trees and composed the following verses:
“Kochi fukaba Niwoi okoseyo Ume no hana Aruji nashi tote Haruna wasurezo.”
The sources translate this as:
"When the eastern breeze passes, load her with perfume O blossoms of my plum trees; even though the master is far away, never forget the spring."
According to legend, the poem was so powerful that one of the plum trees uprooted itself and miraculously flew to Chikuzen to be with him. This tree became known as Tobi Ume, or the "jumping plum tree". In exile, Michizane was crossing a river when a kappa seized his horse’s bridle and tried to drag him underwater. Michizane sliced off the creature’s hand. The mummified hand can be viewed to this day at the Kitano Tenmangū Shrine in Kurume, Fukuoka.
That’s all a long preamble to the Tetsubo entry for kappa, which (like the baku and gaki) I have converted to Dragon Warriors rules.
Kappa
Kappa are amphibious goblins that inhabit the rivers, lakes and ponds of the Ikaido islands. Honourable but vicious, they prey on the blood of land-dwelling creatures -- not just mankind, but also cattle and horses. Their favourite sustenance, however, is the blood of human children. They drink this through the rectum, so if a drowned corpse with a distended anus is found this is always blamed (on the whole justifiably) on the kappa. These creatures are ferociously proud of their martial ability. They will sometimes challenge a person to single combat, and if the kappa is bested it will undertake to teach secret skills to its opponent. It is important to be very exact about the terms of a duel, as kappa are sticklers for the letter of an agreement and if they can gain any advantage (such as by insisting the duel take place underwater) they will not hesitate to do so. Kappa are not communal. Always encountered singly, they are the Oriental equivalent of the kelpie of Elleslandic folklore: a genius loci, really a water sprite rather than a simple water-dwelling animal.
Physique: Kappa are spindly beings rather like monkeys, except that they have no fur but instead are covered with silvery-grey or yellow-green scales, like those of a fish. Their hands are webbed and, in some cases at least, a carapace like a tortoise’s shell protects the kappa’s upper body. Kappa have a bowl-shaped depression in the top of their heads. This is used to carry water when the kappa emerges on to dry land, as otherwise it would quickly lose its strength.
Behaviour: Kappa fear fire, which desiccates their bodies. A kappa faced with brandished flame must roll 6 or less on d20 or give ground. Any fire-based attack which strikes a kappa, whether or not it inflicts damage, dries its body; it loses 1 Health Point and suffers a cumulative −1 from ATTACK until it can next immerse itself.
Special Rules: Kappa breathe underwater and are excellent swimmers. Either through sorcery or stealth, they are seldom seen on their excursions to human settlements. Renowned for their fondness for cucumbers, they can be bribed or distracted by an offering of them; the kappa resists the temptation only if it rolls 17 or more on d20.
They are able to survive short forays onto land by means of the hollow on their heads, which holds water to sustain them. If this water is spilled, the kappa quickly becomes too weak even to move. It is possible to trick a kappa into spilling its water simply by bowing: kappa are so polite that they almost invariably bow back. Roll d20 against the kappa’s Intelligence of 6; on a success it realises the danger and keeps its head level as it bows, otherwise the water spills out and the kappa can be caught. (As with most creature vulnerabilities, players should not have their characters make use of this ploy without first checking to see if they know it. Obviously anyone can read it here, but the Tetsubo rulebook is unfortunately not available in Yamato! A character must be versed in Shinto doctrine and make a successful Intelligence check at difficulty factor 13 to remember this weakness and exploit it.)
Kappa invariably know Unarmed Combat, Kawashi, Koppo, Atemi-Waza, Heal Wounds and Surgery (skills defined in the Tetsubo rules), and in most cases they are better at these skills than humans. They are also innate spellcasters, casting without gesture, incantation or ingredient — though their magic, like their strength, fails entirely while the water is spilled from their heads. Each kappa has 3d4 Magic Points and commands the following: Curse, Lesser Healing, Command, Tangleroots, Peer, and Illusion (all as the Sorcerer spells of those names, at the usual Magic Point costs); Wave Mastery (as the Water Elementalist spell; a kappa uses it to part or still the waters of its pool, 2 Magic Points); and five lesser dweomers of its own, each costing 1 Magic Point and lasting until a Spell Expiry Roll: marsh-lights (a drift of pale flames that wander where the kappa wills, luring or misleading travellers by night), the zone of cold (a clammy chill within 10m of the kappa, numbing fingers: −1 from ATTACK for all within), the zone of silence (no sound carries within 10m of the kappa), the reek (a concealing fog rises over water within 50m) and dousing (every open flame within 15m gutters out).
As Tetsubo is not going to be out before next year, anyone looking for a good RPG of the Sengoku and early Edo period is advised to check out Stray Crows from Portmortem Studios. The Kickstarter is launching soon and there's a free preview on DriveThruRPG.
That right there is why I couldn't be doing with The Lord of the Rings. I grew up in England's stockbroker belt, and far too many of our neighbours were smugly insular like those hobbits -- gossip-loving, distrustful of outsiders, and appalled by people who didn't live the way they did. The hobbits of the Shire would all have voted Tory -- or probably Fascist if they got the chance. I didn't mind if Sauron did invade and shake up their lives.
It's what Andy Serkis was trying to say in the recent interview that has caused such an uproar in Guardian-reading circles: "The Shire feels very, very much like a very, a very white, you know..." Mr Serkis mumbled, probably sensing the Damoclean threat of cancellation above his head. "They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of the Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in."
And he's right. That casual xenophobia is what I disliked about the damned hobbits, but it is at the heart of Tolkien's story. If the Shire and every other region of Middle-Earth featured the same multi-ethnic mix as 21st century California then it would be a very different place (quite likely better) and you'd have a different story (quite likely more boring) to tell.
Ten years back, Jamie and I had a TV show that we were developing for the BBC when a partner absconded with all the BBC development money, scuttling our production partnership with Andy Serkis's company. (Small world; Mr Serkis's involvement was just a coincidence.) We needed to come up with a new show in a hurry, and Young Asgard was born. Wanting to give decent opportunities to today's actors, we had a different ethnicity for each realm: Asgard, Jotunheim, Alfheim, and so on. What we didn't do was make every realm the same racial mix, because that would suggest a universe without borders, and therefore free of fixed cultural attitudes and the perpetual knife-edge of conflict.
Personally I want to live in the 23rd century of Gene Roddenberry, not the 21st century of people like Victor Orbán. And I guarantee you Andy Serkis feels the same way. He didn't present us with an ethnically homogenous Shire because he's a nasty old racist. He did it because that's true to the story, and he didn't want to infantilize his movie just to pander to America's pathological issues regarding race. (Though he needn't have made the hobbits white; they could just as well all have been Hausa, or Han, or Inuit, or Tuareg, or Tamil.)
I won't be going to see the movie because I don't give a fig for Gollum or any of those narrow-minded hobbits. But movie-goers aren't interested in seeing Roddenberry's utopian, colour-blind vision of society any more, so I guess we're stuck with endless Tolkien spin-offs.
Around the start of the millennium, Leo Hartas and I pitched a series of educational books to Dorling Kindersley, a British publisher. The idea was to package the books with a CD (that was the format that games came in back then). Parents would think, "Ooh, this book comes with a computer game." The kids would play the game and treat the book as a manual with useful hints. The point of it was that people learn best by doing something, getting hands-on, not by sitting down with a book and just reading about it.
It was not to be. (Find out why here. It's a microcosm of why Britain keeps losing out in innovation and influence.) But one of the projects we worked up for the series was The Odyssey and, that poem being back in the bestseller lists for some reason, this seems like a good time to show you what might have been.
IMMERSIVE WORLDS #1: THE ODYSSEY
The Adventure
You start as the Greek adventurer Odysseus, thrown into perilous quests and looked down on from the heavens by wrathful gods . You will find yourself faced with the reality of terrible mythical monsters brought to life. You will be faced with navigating the treacherous waters of the Gulf of Charybdis, resisting the Sirens’ call and toppling the mighty Cyclops? Will you emerge victorious to become a hero of legend?
Odyssey is part role playing game and part survival adventure. You lead a hand picked band of adventurers on a series of quests set by the gods or found amongst the eerie inlets and abandoned temples of a hundred Aegean islands. You will have to assess the skills of your comrades, choosing the right man for different tasks, and decide on equipment and strategy.
The Game
As Odysseus, you are faced with the day-to-day decisions of a sea captain of ancient Greece. You decide where to sail your galley, surviving natural hazards, avoiding sea monsters, and battling pirates. When you make landfall you can send ahead scouts who report back with visual images of their sightings. You equip and prepare a shore party, carefully picking the skills the situation requires from exploration, survival, combat, stealth, communication, combat and prophecy.
At the heart of the game are the richly detailed and eternally popular stories of the Greek myths, brought to life for a modern audience. Where previous generations have only read about these times, now it’s possible to experience them in a virtual recreation of the past that will enthral, involve and educate.
Game book, book game.
Immersive play brings a completely new concept to learning.
The game transports you to ancient Greece as though travelling back in time, and the book is the guide you would take with you on such a trip. You will learn about history, metallurgy, archaeology, mineralogy, military tactics, music, geology, geography, languages, literature, mythology, nature, society, religion, sports, seafaring, meteorology and survival skills.
However, this is not mere theoretical knowledge. Thanks to the virtual world you are exploring, these are things you will need to know. You will use everything you have learned in the book to find success in your adventures. Read how you can use the stars to navigate or how an alloy works to create stronger metals, then see the effects when you apply your knowledge in the game. No other entertainment title uses the fun, thrills and challenges of game play to stimulate learning in such an innovative way.
Immersive - Put the facts into action.
Design
Visuals for the book will be taken from the game, allowing seamless integration between the two. Current game technology can deliver lavish, rich and detailed imagery including 3D maps, aerial views of the major city-states, cutaways of buildings, ships, etc. and beautiful images of the characters. Because everything will be modelled in 3D we will have complete flexibility to choose the best angles, poses and views for the book.
The text of Homer’s Odyssey will run as a narrative thread throughout the book written in a fresh modern style. This is “the past in the present tense” as we see what it is like to really live in the eastern Mediterranean in 1190 BC. The world is presented just as it would have seemed to a Greek of Homer’s day looking back on those times.
Other information will appear in boxouts or as annotations to illustrations, maps and diagrams. Information will be described wherever possible in terms relevant to the game. For example, a cutaway of a galley would be annotated with its sailing speed in different weathers, its ramming speed, armour rating, cargo capacity, durability and operational range. Seeing these stats at work in the game will give the reader a real sense of the comparative strengths and weaknesses of different units, characters and even economic and political systems.
The Oracle
An example of how the book and the game work together.
In the game the player can consult the Oracle, which in simplistic terms supplies game hints. The Oracle creates short stories that prophesize events so that you, Odysseus, can plan accordingly. You can use it without reading the book but will learn the hard way that what it says is ambiguous. However, once you read about it in the book you will understand how to correctly interpret its information and make good use of its predictions. Along the way you will have learned about the importance of prophecy in ancient Greece and how information can be interpreted in many different ways.
CONTENTS
Coming to Life
Getting started
Step into the sandals of your alter ego, Odysseus, and pick your crew from the colourful mix of 12th century BC Mediterranean seafarers standing before you on the dockside.
Gear
Learn about ancient forging, metalworking and blade sharpening at the armourer so you can pick the best weapons and armour .
Skills
How different skills can be used and combined for different tasks.
Combat
On the beach near Troy, before setting out for Ithaka, you can practice the martial arts of spear, swordplay, wrestling, and pankration.
Deities
Choose your god. An Achaean hero’s relationship with the gods is all important affecting the whole course of your life. Odysseus begins with Athena as a friend and Poseidon as an enemy.
Crew
How to carefully select a dependable, loyal crew with the right mix of skills to accompany you on your adventures.
The Achaean World
Map reading and navigation
See Mycenaean Greece through the eyes of Homer long before the classical ideas of philosophy and democracy. Find out how to use the unreliable fragments of stories and myth to build a map of Ancient Greece.
Narrative thread: Episodes taken from The Iliad.
The Achaeans
The known cities of Achaean (or Mycenaean) Greece.
Culture & history
How to navigate the, clans, customs and traditions of a typical city-state.
Exploration
Find out how you can profit from your adventures by exploration and trade.
Diplomacy
How to use diplomacy to manipulate relationships between kings and ultimately, entire states.
The prince of Ithaka
Odysseus himself – your persona in the game and the one through whose eyes you will explore the Achaean world. 3D cutaway of an Achaean royal palace.
“Troy Once Was”
The background to The Odyssey, the game world.
The Achaean states united to topple the magnificent civilization of Troy, a tale of both the grandeur and the horrors of war.
Narrative thread: Further excerpts from the later books of The Iliad.
The topless towers of Ilium
Troy, real and imagined. 3D models show Troy as it may really have been, and as it is in the game through the filter of Homer’s imagination.
How the war started
Investigate the origins of the war and the abduction of Helen of Sparta.
Army life
Experience the food and living conditions of the typical Greek infantryman. Who these people were (aristocrats and gentry, not lower classes).
The battlefield
Military theory as it is currently applied in the 12th century BC. Find out in the game how to use chariots, battle formations and the early Greek phalanx.
The siege
Inside Troy as the war goes on.
The fury of Achilles
The greatest sulk of all time. The feud between Achilles and Agamemnon brings tragedy to the Achaean forces.
Funeral rites
Understanding the Achaean obsession with honour, even in death.
Fall of a civilization
The sacking of Troy.
The aftermath
The once-glorious endeavour dissolves into bickering, vengeance and jealousy among the Greek heroes.
The adventure begins
You, Odysseus, set sail. You are destined not to return home for many years.
Gods & Heroes
Playing with superpowers
Old stories, recounted over generations in the form of epic songs, have transformed historical war-leaders into semi-divine heroes. To the Achaeans these legends aren’t fiction, they’re the way things really happened.
Narrative thread: Odysseus and his men arrive on Calypso’s island.
Mount Olympus
Visit the home of the gods. How they can interfere with your life and how you can manipulate their power
The family of the gods
Learning about Zeus and the other Olympians. Their strengths and weakness and how their unashamed behaviour sets the standard for Greek kings.
What lies beneath
The underworld. The chthonians, or Earth-deities (Hades, Hecate, the Furies), are vestiges of an earlier, animistic religion.
Heroic ancestors
Glorious traditions of Jason, Perseus, Theseus and others. A sketch of their adventures gives hints of what to expect in the game.
Challenges to single combat
Codes of behaviour that regulate the morality of the battlefield. No hero can afford to lose face by refusing a challenge from someone of equal status. Handling challenges in the game.
Consulting the Oracle
Prophecy and its importance in the Achaean world-view. Using the Oracle in the game to find clues about your future.
Rituals of worship
Sacrifices, priests and prayers. How Achaeans worshipped the gods and how you can gain favour with an individual God. Accompanying 3D cutaways of a temple of Apollo.
The Twelve Tasks of Heracles
The archetypal adventure hero. Tips for approaching your own tasks.
Patron deities
Many heroes have divine patrons (Odysseus’s is Athena) but being watched over by a god is often a mixed blessing.
Wrath of the gods
Greek gods are given to sulks, rages and petty jealousies that would be outrageous for a two-year-old. Getting on the wrong side of a god can launch you into a series of incredible adventures – if you survive.
Mystery cults
Special adventures infiltrating mystery cults. Secret ceremonies form a bond between cultists that can drive them into a state of ecstasy – witness the Bacchantes tearing Orpheus limb from limb.
“Across the Wine-Dark Sea”
Adventure on the open sea
Greece is a land united by the sea. Three thousand years before James T Kirk, Odysseus was part of a great tradition of “seeking out new worlds and new civilizations”.
Narrative thread: King Aeolus and the bag containing the world’s winds.
Seafaring
Navigation is primitive at this time, making it risky to lose sight of land. (Although, with Poseidon as an enemy, you may not get a choice.) Speeds and effective ranges under sail and oar.
Ship types
Statistics of small sailing ships, galleys and penteconters, illustrated with in-game 3D models.
Naval combat
Use of bows, javelins, fire-pots, ramming and boarding.
The sailing season
Sea captains almost never put to sea in winter – unless brave or foolhardy. What weather you can expect; how to read and use the prevailing winds, tides and currents.
Life on board
Food and living conditions on board a typical Homeric galley.
Ports of call
Protocols for arrival in a new port, acquiring supplies, etc.
Shipbuilding and repairs
Maintenance of your vessel is paramount if you hope to make the long journey back home to Ithaka.
The City State
Small kingdoms are unified around a patron god and a small urban centre (the polis) which is home to the aristocracy and gentry of Achaean civilization. Familiar names in Odysseus’ world include Thebes, Sparta and Athens.
Narrative thread: The assembly on Ithaka, the suitors ambush Telemachus.
City layout
The principal zones of a “typical” city-state, using a full 3D map of Athens as a basis. City based adventures and quests.
Government
The royal family and the aristocratic assembly. Sidebars detail how this evolved into the Athenian model of citizenship and democracy.
Social classes
Status from slave through to nobleman – and how the true picture is never that simple (some slaves being more influential than some freeborn men). Explaining character levels in the game.
The family
Tribe, clan and family. 3D illustrations look inside an Achaean townhouse.
Daily life
The economy, markets, pastimes, early drama. Using shops you buy weapons and resupply your ship.
Architecture
Assembly halls and other city buildings, both as they may really have been and as Homer’s audience visualized them.
Law
The laws of the Achaeans overlap with religion, creating a complex web of “right” behaviour that as a cunning hero like Odysseus you can twist to your advantage.
Crime & punishment
Judgement by peers, by royal decree, by ordeal and by contest. Punishments, both mortal and divine. Exile and blood-price.
The Panoply of War
Strategy and tactics
A hero’s most prized possessions are his arms and armour. Treasured items have been handed down from ancient ancestors and are thought to carry the favour of the gods.
Narrative thread: Imprisoned by the Cyclops.
Weapon technology
Iron weapons are rare (only the Hittites at this time can work iron) and regarded as magical. Tables compare the toughness of different weapon types.
Melee weapons
The shortsword, sword and spear. Also the unarmed combat skills or pankration (= “all-powers”).
Ranged weapons
The sling, bow, javelin and discus.
Shipboard weapons
Naphtha sprays, ballistae and rams.
Armour
Different types of armour and shield, comparing weights and effectiveness.
Equipment costs and fabrication.
Contest of Champions
Competition and prizes
The Ancient Greeks love festivals and contests, and these two pursuits come together in the Games. The Games are an opportunity to let off steam, to honour the gods, and at the same time gain glory and wealth.
Narrative thread: Odysseus is a guest at the games of the Phaiakians.
Greek festivals
Each of the great city-states has its annual Games, part-competition and part-religious ceremony.
Sports
The athletic ideals of the Ancient Greeks have their basis in warfare. As a war hero, you, Odysseus, are expected to excel. In The Odyssey Book VIII: Euryalos says, “You do not strike me as an athlete” – a challenge which angers Odysseus and stings him into action.
Wagers & prizes
How to wager treasure on the outcome and still come out on top.
Winning glory & status
Flashback to Book XXIII of The Iliad as an illustration of how the Games became contests for wealth and power.
Other Lands, Other Peoples
Exploration in the ancient world.
The Ancients Greeks discovered several other lands populated by new cultures strange to them. Some became allies and trading partners, others became enemies.
Narrative thread: Odysseus’ experiences among the Lotus-Eaters and the Laistrygonians.
The etiquette of strangers
Hospitality is governed by elaborate rules, including guest-gifts and safe conduct, and the gods punish those who fail to obey.
Commerce
How trade is handled in a barter economy and using it to survive in alien cultures.
Sung with the voices of gods
Honour and glory are the real coinage of the day. Bards, inspired by the spirit of gods, publicize the reputation of their patrons. The game records your adventures and sets them down in stories you can print out and keep.
Diplomacy
Rules governing the delicate balance between the promise of alliance and the threat of war. Ambassadors (proxenoi) are not sent out, but are natives of the city-state in which they live who have family and business ties to the state whose interests they represent.
Plunder & the spoils of victory
How booty should be divided to repay the loyalty of your crew – and how royal prerogative will sometimes allow you to get around that.
Stealth & trickery
An overview of the career of Odysseus, “the man of many wiles”, provides the player with a master class in cunning.
Amazons & warrior women
The role of women in the society of Achaean aristocratic warriors.
Beyond the Hellenic world
Sequel adventures amongst the Egyptians, Thracians, Hittites, Babylonians and the Kingdom of Solomon.
In the Wilderness
Survival
Beyond the outlying fields of the city-states, the countryside is seen as a primordial, dangerous place.
Narrative thread: Odysseus passes Skylla, is becalmed, then shipwrecked.
Wildlife
To survive in open country you need to know about plants and animals.
Weather effects
The game engine evokes a believable world by simulating details of the environment. Rain spatters in puddles and corrodes your armour; cold shows in billows of breath and blue, pinched skin; sun will give you a tan.
Natural hazards
Earthquakes, plague, sandstorms, floods and lava flows can all impede the adventurer’s progress. This is the Bronze Age equivalent of outdoor survival tips.
Travellers
Universal rules of communication. How to talk to the barbarians of the hinterland.
Ruins
The remnants of older civilizations are shunned and thought to be the home of ghosts. You’ll visit the ivy-grown labyrinth of Knossos, Santorini’s mossy wreck, and the rubble that is all that’s left of Troy.
The Forests of the Night
Adventures at the edge of terror.
Greek mythology is filled with stories of witches, monsters and strange beasts.
Narrative thread: The voyage to the land of the dead.
Creation myths
The Titans and the birth of Zeus.
The underworld
Chthonic gods predate the Hellenic pantheon and were probably worshipped by the original inhabitants of the region before the arrival of the Achaean aristocratic class.
Into the labyrinth
The story of Theseus and the Minotaur, with both in-game 3D screenshots and modern archaeological images of Knossos.
Darwin’s worst nightmare
The whole menagerie of lesser Greek myths, including Stymphalian birds, Diomedean horses, the Nemean lion, harpies, hydras and chimeras and tips on how to defeat them.
The eyes that fossilize
Perseus and Medusa.
Omens and divination
Omens are all around. Lightning, clouds, wind, comets and flocks of birds are all interpreted as the gods giving us clues as to what is to come.
The first stirrings of philosophy
The early myths reflected the Greek obsession with making sense of the world, applying names to the constellations and beginning to query the forces behind natural processes.
The End of All Exploring
At last Poseidon tires of trying to break Odysseus’s spirit and allows him to reach home. Athena visits him in a dream and tells him to disguise himself as a beggar. He gets inside the palace, kills his wife’s suitors, and reclaims his throne.
Epilogue: What the future will remember of these times
A final cut scene in the underworld shows the slain heroes of Troy learning of Odysseus’s exploits from Amphimedon and the other ghosts of Penelope’s suitors, whom Odysseus has killed:
As when bats in the depths of a vast cave flitter and gibber, When one of them has fallen from his place on the ceiling, So they went gibbering with Hermes leading them. Along mouldering pathways they descended, Past the gates of the Sun and the country of dreams, And presently arrived in the meadow of asphodel That is the dwelling place of the dead. There they met the soul of Achilles, son of Peleus, And the souls of all the Danaans, with Agamemnon sorrowing. And first of these to speak was the soul of Agamemnon: Amphimedon, what befell you, that you come under the dark earth?”
In game: we fade from the story into a fast succession of images of relics from that era as we know them today, in the 21st century. The foundations of a Mycenaean palace, corroded fragments of armour, a reconstructed chariot, bits of pottery showing epic scenes. That was the life of Odysseus that we have just lived, but with the colouring of myth stripped away.
We look towards the peak of Mount Olympus. As the sun rises behind the summit, a blaze of dazzling light washes all the images away. It is the light of the imagination that has inspired poets, artists and scientists since Greek times. And slowly it all fades away.
