by Charles Ryan | Jan 5, 2015 | Recursions
The monster movie is a concept nearly as old as cinema itself, but the genre hit its stride in the 1930s and arguably reached its peak of popularity in the 1950s. At least, movies of that era are the source of fictional leakage that produced the Creature Feature recursion. At a glance, Creature Feature might be indistinguishable from an Earth of the 1950s–albeit an Earth almost entirely lacking in color. While it isn’t a truly black-and-white world, brilliant colors are non-existent; almost everything is painted in desaturated shades of near-gray. Dense fog or the darkness of night, often more common than it seems it should be, sometimes conceal this oddity from newly-arrived recursors. The inhabitants of Creature Feature dress, speak, and follow the cultural norms of ’50s. More accurately, they follow the norms of American society in that era–in non-American regions, cultures generally reflect a 1950s Hollywood version of themselves. Although the geography of Creature Feature is greatly condensed, its inhabitants generally believe they live on Earth. Creature Feature is ruled by the laws of Magic and Mad Science, though in a very low-key manner–so much so that their presence isn’t generally obvious. Indeed, while a researcher might labor away at a device that harnesses the power of a brain in a jar, or a creature of the night (or a lab escapee) might terrorize those it comes across, most inhabitants of Creature Feature find such occurrences as astonishing as Earth’s inhabitants would. 99.9% of day-to-day activity is completely compatible with standard physics. While the majority of Creature Feature’s inhabitants live what appears to be mundane lives, there are always expeditions setting out to...
by Michael Baumann | Jan 2, 2015 | Foci
“Stand and deliver! Your money or your life!” How many times have these phrases passed your lips? Not nearly enough. The gentry continue to enclose the land, forcing peasants into the city to be preyed upon by merchants. Agents of the crown raise taxes and send their swaggering soldiers about to deprive good men of the few rights of liberty they have left. You are a knight of the road – highwayman to those with a less poetic frame of mind. Like a modern day Robin Hood, you steal from the rich and give to the poor, taking just enough for yourself to keep whisky in the jar. Tier 1: Undaunted Robber. You are practiced with pistols, and trained in Stealth and Riding. Enabler. Know the Back Roads. You are familiar with all the roads, tracks and shortcuts in the county. Travel time takes you 20% less to get anywhere. Enabler. Tier 2: Both Barrels (3 Speed points). If you have two ready pistols or a double-barreled pistol you may fire both barrels at your opponent. Make a single attack roll. If you hit, you inflict damage with both weapons plus 2 additional points of damage, and because you made a single attack, the target’s Armor is subtracted only once. Action. Tier 3: Sense Ambush. You are never treated as surprised by an attack. Enabler. Quick Load. It takes you one less action to reload a firearm. Enabler. Tier 4: Ambusher. If an opponent you attack has not acted on the first round of combat, the difficulty of your attack is modified one step to your benefit. Enabler....
