Technology and the Supernatural
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:15 pm
When it comes to Palladium games, usually when someone talks about robots, cybernetics and powerarmor, people automatically think about Rifts or Heroes Unlimited. If we're talking about a contemporary setting than of course they must be talking about Heroes Unlimited.
Ten years ago I would have been one of those people. Heck, even five years ago. But the world is quickly changing and the pace of technology is not slowing down for our perceptions of how things should be. Just a little research on the internet will show things like military and medical powered exosuits in development and in use. DARPA is developing a humaniod robot that can walk, run and climb. There are DIY robotic kits available online in a number of different body shapes and configurations. EOD experts use robots to keep their people out of harms way. Over battlefields drones fly relaying real time intelligence to their superiors. Other drones carry weapon payloads and operate alongside human soldiers. In laboratories, amputees are making bionic hands move using neural implants and recieving touch stimuli in return. Bionic eyes are being worked on that will help the blind see while in other labs artifical organs grown on scaffolds using stem cells will soon be redefining how we practice medicine.
All of this stuff exists, today, in the real world. Right now. Some of it already available commercially, if expensive. If you want to run a truly contemporary game, then you have to take these things into account. This includes games involving the supernatural and elements of horror. If you are fine with only basing your campaigns in the past, then you can stop reading here.
I will also add the caveat that while I am a fan of the supernatural in a contemporary setting, I'm not a horror fan. There's no sense getting into why since that's not the purpose of this post or this thread. However it is relevant because my comments and views to not exclusively reflect the horror aspect of Beyond the Supernatural. It will include that but it will be biased from a more neutral view of the supernatural existing and interacting in the modern world.
Some GM's and would be GM's will read this and automatically start thinking about ways to nerf the available (and soon to be availble) technology. They are thinking this because they think that they need to in order to make their horror games work. This makes me sad. If you have to nerf reality to make your horror work, than your horror isn't working. Why? Suspension of disbelief is why. An audience may be willing to buy into the idea that ghosts and vampires exist but when you start messing with how real world things work, their mind will begin to balk. If they start to lose that suspension of disbeleif over real world things, then they might no longer buy into your supernatural elements as well. Besides, it's just not required.
So how can you use cutting edge technology in your Beyond the Supernatural game?
1. False sense of security. Someone wearing a powered exosuit might feel superpowerful. How is it going to help them at all against something that is insubstantial? Imagine the horror when it's the dude in the exosuit that gets possessed! Now imagine an entire special ops team that is possessed and it's up to the civilian heroes to stop them somehow. Preferably without murder and being on the hook for destroying government property.
This holds true against physical foes as well. How well is an exosuit going to fair against a vampire if they don't have silver weapons? Not very. Even with silver weapons, the suit only provides a limited benefit to the wearer. That vampire is still a supernatural horror that has psionics and may also have magic on its side. If it's smart, it will hit the suit, back off and heal, then hit the suit again. The vampire will continue to heal while the suit takes damage and is slowly worn down. The player may have started out cocky but when they're down to their last few SDC on the suit and the vampire is back for round sixty, as fresh as he was in round one, then the player is going to sweat. Especially if their character paid for the suit out of their own pocket.
2. Technology = Horror. Ever see the first Terminator? How about the recent reimagining of either Battlestar Galactica or Robocop? The first Terminator movie is the first movie that ever really scared me. Because while most horror relies on things that don't exist, the monster in the Terminator could someday exist (and probably will)! That to me is far more horrifiying than any sparkling vampire. Battlestar Galactica has many of the similar qualities. The last survivors fighting to survive against a vastly superior robotic force and to make it worse, some of them look like us! Finally, the latest rendition of Robocop. In one of the first scenes we see robot drones inspecting people who have to corralled out into the streets. If this doesn't scare you, then you haven't thought it through to the horrible conclusions I have.
I almost forgot the Alien series of movies. Those aliens were relentless regardless of the technology used by the heroes. Sure the heroes take some of them down but like was said, "Nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." Such a callous attitude towards nuclear weapons should always be scary.
None of these franchises have supernatural elements to them (Well Battlestar a little bit, but that's not what makes it scary). They are all scary however. That's not even touching on the theme of losing ones individuality to technology as represented brilliantly by Star Trek's Borg antagonists.
3. Your tinfoil hats won't save you! Big brother here today and is watching you! Technology should accelerate the fears of every conspiracy theorist going. Let the sheeple be herded, we're not going to allow ourselves to be depopulated! As crazy as this might sound, there are people out there who believe it. They have websites.
What if they're right?
4. Genetics are the new nukes. We can engineer life how we want it. We can make it better, stronger, tougher... more obediant...
Is that a werewolf the farmer saw or some experiment gone horribly awry? And why are they experimenting with these things anyway?
Along with genetics comes the study of disease. Many zombie stories start with a virus.
Genetics and virus engineering can be horrifying on their own. Combined with a supernatural element, they can reach new heights. Why limit it to zombie plagues? Perhaps some mad mage-scientist has found a new way to spread lycanthropy.
5. Aliens. They're here. They're real. And no matter how advanced your technology is, theirs is more so. Check out the upcoming Edge of Tomorrow movie for some ideas. They've taken a day after tomorrow setting and thrown in a new twist on Clairvoyance.
This post is getting a tad long so I'll add more later.
Ten years ago I would have been one of those people. Heck, even five years ago. But the world is quickly changing and the pace of technology is not slowing down for our perceptions of how things should be. Just a little research on the internet will show things like military and medical powered exosuits in development and in use. DARPA is developing a humaniod robot that can walk, run and climb. There are DIY robotic kits available online in a number of different body shapes and configurations. EOD experts use robots to keep their people out of harms way. Over battlefields drones fly relaying real time intelligence to their superiors. Other drones carry weapon payloads and operate alongside human soldiers. In laboratories, amputees are making bionic hands move using neural implants and recieving touch stimuli in return. Bionic eyes are being worked on that will help the blind see while in other labs artifical organs grown on scaffolds using stem cells will soon be redefining how we practice medicine.
All of this stuff exists, today, in the real world. Right now. Some of it already available commercially, if expensive. If you want to run a truly contemporary game, then you have to take these things into account. This includes games involving the supernatural and elements of horror. If you are fine with only basing your campaigns in the past, then you can stop reading here.
I will also add the caveat that while I am a fan of the supernatural in a contemporary setting, I'm not a horror fan. There's no sense getting into why since that's not the purpose of this post or this thread. However it is relevant because my comments and views to not exclusively reflect the horror aspect of Beyond the Supernatural. It will include that but it will be biased from a more neutral view of the supernatural existing and interacting in the modern world.
Some GM's and would be GM's will read this and automatically start thinking about ways to nerf the available (and soon to be availble) technology. They are thinking this because they think that they need to in order to make their horror games work. This makes me sad. If you have to nerf reality to make your horror work, than your horror isn't working. Why? Suspension of disbelief is why. An audience may be willing to buy into the idea that ghosts and vampires exist but when you start messing with how real world things work, their mind will begin to balk. If they start to lose that suspension of disbeleif over real world things, then they might no longer buy into your supernatural elements as well. Besides, it's just not required.
So how can you use cutting edge technology in your Beyond the Supernatural game?
1. False sense of security. Someone wearing a powered exosuit might feel superpowerful. How is it going to help them at all against something that is insubstantial? Imagine the horror when it's the dude in the exosuit that gets possessed! Now imagine an entire special ops team that is possessed and it's up to the civilian heroes to stop them somehow. Preferably without murder and being on the hook for destroying government property.
This holds true against physical foes as well. How well is an exosuit going to fair against a vampire if they don't have silver weapons? Not very. Even with silver weapons, the suit only provides a limited benefit to the wearer. That vampire is still a supernatural horror that has psionics and may also have magic on its side. If it's smart, it will hit the suit, back off and heal, then hit the suit again. The vampire will continue to heal while the suit takes damage and is slowly worn down. The player may have started out cocky but when they're down to their last few SDC on the suit and the vampire is back for round sixty, as fresh as he was in round one, then the player is going to sweat. Especially if their character paid for the suit out of their own pocket.
2. Technology = Horror. Ever see the first Terminator? How about the recent reimagining of either Battlestar Galactica or Robocop? The first Terminator movie is the first movie that ever really scared me. Because while most horror relies on things that don't exist, the monster in the Terminator could someday exist (and probably will)! That to me is far more horrifiying than any sparkling vampire. Battlestar Galactica has many of the similar qualities. The last survivors fighting to survive against a vastly superior robotic force and to make it worse, some of them look like us! Finally, the latest rendition of Robocop. In one of the first scenes we see robot drones inspecting people who have to corralled out into the streets. If this doesn't scare you, then you haven't thought it through to the horrible conclusions I have.
I almost forgot the Alien series of movies. Those aliens were relentless regardless of the technology used by the heroes. Sure the heroes take some of them down but like was said, "Nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." Such a callous attitude towards nuclear weapons should always be scary.
None of these franchises have supernatural elements to them (Well Battlestar a little bit, but that's not what makes it scary). They are all scary however. That's not even touching on the theme of losing ones individuality to technology as represented brilliantly by Star Trek's Borg antagonists.
3. Your tinfoil hats won't save you! Big brother here today and is watching you! Technology should accelerate the fears of every conspiracy theorist going. Let the sheeple be herded, we're not going to allow ourselves to be depopulated! As crazy as this might sound, there are people out there who believe it. They have websites.
What if they're right?
4. Genetics are the new nukes. We can engineer life how we want it. We can make it better, stronger, tougher... more obediant...
Is that a werewolf the farmer saw or some experiment gone horribly awry? And why are they experimenting with these things anyway?
Along with genetics comes the study of disease. Many zombie stories start with a virus.
Genetics and virus engineering can be horrifying on their own. Combined with a supernatural element, they can reach new heights. Why limit it to zombie plagues? Perhaps some mad mage-scientist has found a new way to spread lycanthropy.
5. Aliens. They're here. They're real. And no matter how advanced your technology is, theirs is more so. Check out the upcoming Edge of Tomorrow movie for some ideas. They've taken a day after tomorrow setting and thrown in a new twist on Clairvoyance.
This post is getting a tad long so I'll add more later.