Two Eighties Cultclassic Sci fi Films & Their applications For A Hostile Rpg Campaign universe & A Mini Review of Zozer Games Roughnecks By Paul Elliott

 One of the things that I inherited from my uncle were not only his campaign notes & some of his Traveller rpg supplements. But back in the 70's there were lots of other lesser known 'bad'  sci fi films & believe me our group of players in the 80's sat through lots of them on Beta Max. Case in point is Saturn 3 & Disney's The Black Hole. But from these my uncle weaved a very dark Traveller universe. Let's get a very different perspective on Disney's villain  Dr. Hans Reinhardt. Earth is in shock after his theft of the long-lost USS Cygnus. He leaves Earth with some of the the incomplete  formula for hyperdrive & leaves for the remotest part of the solar system. But Reinhardt has been an iconoclast in the universe of the  Hostile rpg.  For  Reinhardt decades has advanced space research for the benefit of mankind. He's basically wunderkine  & the corporate governments of the Hostile rpg are very much for funding these rogue scientists because of the incredible breakthroughs they provide the corporations. But the theft of the USS Cygnus shakes the corporations to their core. This theft was not only a headline on every major screen  at the time. It also represents an act of rebellion that can't go unpunished as the history books remember Reinhardt in the same breath as Hilter & Einstein. The hunt for the wreckage of the  long-lost USS Cygnus is the hunt for the 'Flying Dutchman of space's ship' in our campaign universe of the Hostile Rpg. 

The USS Cygnus is a cathedral space craft, a testament to the everlasting  power of the corporations as much as a space craft for exploration. And then its stolen.. The Earth mourns, the history books have a footnote not knowing the true horror of Reinhardt's madness. Here are three reasons why the film  'The Black Hole' works as 70's space campaign inspiration: 

1.    The Black Hole is a very dark film & the loss of the USS Cygnus is going to put corporate relations back twenty years at least. Not to mention the brain drain on the world of space exploration. 
2. The Black Hole universe uses psi without any problem so it fits the Cepheus Engine Rpg rules. 
3. Experimental psi robotic programs are evident with the V.I.N.C.E.N.T incarnation of the cybernetic entities we see in the Black Hole. 
4. For a recent viewing in preparation for this blog post indicated that there were other historic ships in the Earth's database of the spacecraft USS Palomino. Where are those other lost space craft?
5. The spacecraft USS Palomino joins that data base later on. And that's where our Traveller rpg crew picked up the trail. 
6. The technology of the Cynus was decades ahead of the rest of the Hostile rpg universe. 

And this is where Saturn 3 picks up from the ground running, very recent viewings indicate several things that the Roughnecks aesthetic of the Hostile rpg universe. 

These folks are good little corporate scientists doing the company's work out in the middle of Saturn three. And its the Saturn three wiki entry that gives a nice detailed view point; "In the distant future, an overcrowded Earth relies on research conducted by scientists in remote stations across the solar system. Contact is maintained by spaceships shuttling between the stations and large orbiting space stations. Captain James is preparing to depart from one of these stations when he is murdered by Captain Benson (Keitel). Benson, who was rated "potentially unstable" on a mental exam, steals James' cargo ship and departs the station for a small, remote experimental hydroponics research station on Saturn's third moon. Arriving there, he finds the station run solely by Adam (Douglas) and his younger colleague and lover Alex (Fawcett). Adam, Alex, and their dog, Sally, enjoy their isolation far from an overcrowded and troubled Earth. The couple have been on Saturn 3 for three years, but Alex has spent all her life in space, and knows little of the habits and mores of humans who live on Earth." 
Bang right off the bat we've got all of those 70's space highlights, overcrowded Earth, spacers on the outer edges of the solar system, & corporate scientists doing cutting edge research. Then we've got the Captain Benson (Keitel) & his robot — named Hector — is one of the first of its kind, a "Demigod Series", relying on "pure brain tissue" extracted from human fetuses and programmed using a direct link to Benson's brain. 

And its the fact that at the end of the film Alex  (Farrah Fawcett) makes it back to Earth & we roll credits. But we've got a corporation whose going to want to recover the remains of Hector. Hector has the brain scans of both Captain Benson & scientist Adam. Their going to want to know what went wrong?! And speaking of what went wrong. Our group always placed Saturn 3 in the same universe as Outland & Silent Running.. How & why?! There are five reasons: 

1. The hydroponics research conducted on Saturn 3 is highly exerimental & the corporate time table is really 'iffy' at best. 
2. Hector's neural interface with Captain Benson is something we see in Space 1999 season one's episode "Guardian of Piri". And it's cutting edge perhaps leading to insanity & worse something we see in the Space 1999 character  Kano. Only he's able to handle it far better then Captain Benson. 
3. Alex the scientist of Saturn 3 has been rewarded with his service to his corporation with his posting on Saturn three. 
4. Saturn 3 is far too valuable a piece of interstellar property to leave unclaimed & this is an opening for another corporate entity to send miners in to claim it. 
5. These research outposts are as much propaganda for Earth citizens as they are a tax write off for their corporate masters. 

As I said the remains of Hector the first of the demi god series of robots is far too valuable to leave on Saturn 3. And sending in a bunch of miner's to do a pick up & delivery is smart & easy as they reclaim the moon from another rival corporation. Hector's destruction could signal to another corporation that there's research to be plundered. 

Zozer Games's Roughnecks is a supplement that you can just about feel the 'Outland' vibe coming off it. The whole book fits the asthetic of Alien & Eighties sci fi so well. The PC's are not your typical heroes of 'Luke Skystalker' mode but working stiffs and miners at that. And lay out & production are so well done. Roughnecks works so well with Far Horizons that its not even funny. These two books together brings exploration of the outer solor system home. Zozer Games puts out fantastic products & again this is brought home with Roughnecks. You get everything you could want as a dungeon master for running Hostile Rpg Eighties sci fi hard core mining operation. One  where you can run your people hard & they can play harder in the wastelands of space. And Roughnecks fits in with the asthetic of Eighties sci fi that I'm going for with our group of players coming up. 

1.  Roughnecks works because it gives the PC's the tools to actually pull a profit from their operations. 
2. The DM has a a mini mining book to play out within the Hostile campaign. There's far more going on below the surface of the solar system that can be pulled from for the corporations. 
3. The solar system is last great frontier before the alien worlds of beyond but our own solar system is dangerous as Hell. 
4. Roughnecks presents mankind as their own worst enemies when it comes to the making of a profit. The corporations do what they do & even here their still faceless. 
5. There's a good chance for heroics even within Roughnecks but watch out for your fellow miners & bugs. 

Weird Wednesday OSR Film Inspiration - Disney's The Black Hole Film from 1979

I actually saw this movie at a drive in back in 1979, I was nine years old. It pretty much screwed me up for life. The movie plot is as follows: It is the year 2130 A.D. An Earth exploratory ship, the USS Palomino, discovers a black hole with a lost ship, the USS Cygnus, just outside its event horizon. Deciding to solve the mystery of the Cygnus are: the Palomino's Captain, Dan Holland; his First Officer, Lieutenant Charlie Pizer; journalist Harry Booth; scientist and ESP-sensitive Dr. Kate McCrae, whose father was the Cygnus's First Officer; Dr. Alex Durant, the expedition's civilian leader; and the robot known as V.I.N.CENT. The Palomino attempts a dangerous fly-by of the darkened ship. As they come within close range of it, the buffeting they experience (due to the black hole's gravity) suddenly ceases. They bring more instruments to bear on the derelict, but do not even realize the gravity-free zone is artificial; slipping outside it, they are almost drawn into the black hole, an abyss from which no one can escape...

.There are a few things about the movie that just jump out at you The black hole is one of them. To my mind it was like a bath tube drain on reality. Crushing, sucking, eating everything around it. It might have been a new god if there ever was one. It was relentless. The thing was like a red hued hell mouth. The soundtrack brought this right in.
  Then there are the robots but maximilan is the one that really stands out in my mind's eye. This evil red thing looks like a robot designed by Satan himself. This multi tooled thing of evil  is straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare. I've seen all kinds of theories about Max on the internet. The bot was the devil watching over the Doctor, the bot was actually the doctor & the mad scientist was simply a clone,  & Max was the embodiment of the doctor's genocidal evil in robot form. The list is pretty endless. 

 Then there's the The U.S.S. Cygnus. WOW!!! What a beautiful ship.That holds more then a few deadly secrets!

Vincent & Old Bob are great little bots & somewhat in the vein of R2D2 & C3PO but they have their own charm. As can be seen from this scene.
Robert Forster is the quietly authoritative captain of an exploration ship that stumbles across the seemingly derelict ship, and Anthony Perkins, Yvette Mimieux, Ernest Borgnine, and Joseph Bottoms fill out his crew. 

 Then we've got this guy! Dr. Hans Reinhardt is the heart & evil soul of this outfit. He is both the past of the Cynus & its present. He's a Dr.Nemo, Mr.Spock, & Victor Frankenstein all rolled into one. Only he's got the ego to wrestle with the black hole & the will to develop the technology that allows him to survive amid the most destructive force in the universe! At a price though.

I'm not mentioning the crew because well  go watch the movie.. The influences on another film like say Event Horizon are pretty clear 


The Black Hole & The OSR 


One wouldn't think that there's a lot to work with here. One would be wrong. Let hit the highlights.. 

• The Cynus - This ship has megadungeon all over it. Seriously this monstersity has a number of decks plus hydroponics, factories, drones, abandon sections, etc. The ship is made to be explored! Do you think that the crew of the Palomino is the first aboard this haunted derelict of a ship? What other secrets are aboard. The gravity generators keeping the ship away from the monster black hole, the incredible reactor systems, the secret note books of Hans himself! 
•  ESP-sensitive scientist Dr. Kate McCrae & here relationship with the rest of the crew. Hans treats her as if Psionics isn't that big of a deal. Perhaps its not in 2130 A.D.
• What's up with this future world of 2130 A.D.? The world seems pretty exploration happy. We're expanding outward into the universe in this movie & not all of space is a happy place at all. What's up with those other ships that the Palomino goes through while identifying the Cynus? What happened to those other ships? Maybe there's an adventure waiting in the wings right there. 
• The movie tests the boundaries of reality at the edge of the event horizon. There's an atmosphere here. What's up with that? Perhaps the black hole touches the outer darkness between the stars? Who knows what might emerge from some planar nether world
• Could there have been a few survivors of the Dr. Hans Reinhardt mutiny? Perhaps their still out there in cold sleep. There  might be an adventure right there. 
• Perhaps the hell that the crew of the Cynus reaches isn't entirely closed off & there may be those willing to serve vs working in the strange hell like place. 
• Perhaps a rescuae ship is sent after the Palomino & encounters the remains of the ship. The trail leads to the black hole where the Max/Dr. Hans Reinhardt entity are still trapped. Things might go from bad to worse.
• How did  Hans Reinhardt  build all of those robots & Max plus those anti gravity generators, the reactors etc. Where might he have gotten those types of technology? May be he found an artifact of this type & had his intellect boosted Here

Black Hole Links 

• 
  One of the best break downs & reviews of the movie
• Concept art of the robots from the black hole
• An Atomic Rocket Site for those inspiring impulse engine designs
• Space 1970 Black Hole Comic Book
• Great Model of the Cynus

Officer's Special Pistol From The 1979 Film The Black Hole For Your Old School Science Fiction Campaigns

Original prop picture found right over HERE

  The 'officer's special' as it become affectionately known is the logical evolution of the twin action pistols seen over HERE. The officer's special has become the standard side arm by 2130 & reflects the adventurous aesthetic and dangers that early interstellar explorers faced out in the void. The laser mechanism and artificial focus crystals have been centered around the small power generation system and the resulting beam is tighter and more accurate then gun's predecessor. The gun's system sacrifices the output of the weapon for its more accurate and powerful blasts, giving this system only an eight shot capacity before the gun's systems need 2 rounds to charge up again.
The system uses an ergonomic grip and thought trigger system based on Grey blue prints recovered from the second  1952 Roswell New Mexico UFO crash. Making these weapon systems descendants of pistols used in Lemuria and still found across space and time.



   These weapon systems do 1d5 +6 points of damage and gain a +2 to attacks because of the thought trigger system that use the telepathic circuitry that has been retro engineered into the pistols. The simple zero loss energy cell rig that is used to charge these weapons is missing leading to the limited number of charges when they are found. Often times these weapons systems have been seen in the post apocalyptic wastelands and are very rarely found and these weapons  do 6d6 and have a range of 400/800 ft but also gain a +1 due to the 'thought trigger' system. These weapons are seen in the hands of mutant warlords,wizards, and other viable threats in the post apocalyptic wastelands. Many collectors enjoy the officer's special because of its unique design and features. The pistol design has also been seen in various alien museums,vaults, and in use in ancient Lemurian armies. The weapons bring a cool 560 to 600 gold pieces among energy weapon enthusiasts and adventurers. And 400 credits among the interstellar jet set who enjoy the weapon's mysterious history and dangerous reputation.

This is a fan based work and homage to the Disney film the Black Hole for educational  & entertainment purposes. There is no infringement of trade mark or challenge of copyright intended. All text and background of this weapon has been done by the writer of this blog. 

USS Cynus Laser Pistols From 'The Black Hole' 1979 For Your Old School Science Fiction Campaigns

The twin action laser pistol in common use during the golden age of space exploration was one of the most common side arms seen from the 2100's and beyond. A common ten shot weapon capable of delivering a twin laser shot to its target even over a distance of forty yards with the weapons set to not disrupt or punch holes through the hulls of space craft. Yet, deliver a lethal set of shots to their targets.

The weapons do 1d5 + 6 points of damage per strike with some models having a +1 to damage to superior laser crystal manufacture. The pistols are usually found in twin pairs in special fusion battery recharging boxes. There is a 5% chance of this charging box being damaged and the pistols having only a limited number of charges.
These weapons have been seen in the post apocalyptic wasteland where they do 6d6 and have a range of 400/800 ft respectively. They weigh two pounds each and have a simple low yield energy cell which gives them ten shots on average.



There is speculation that these weapons are based on ancient Lemurian technology recovered from the Roswell saucer crashes of 1945 and '52 respectively. These weapons have appeared throughout time and space as well cropping up in variations well into the 24th century  and a bit beyond.

 

These double barreled laser weapons hearken back to a far more robust and dangerous time in the annals of space exploration and adventuring. The twin action laser pistols have earned a legendary and somewhat strange reputation among collectors, adventurers, and energy weapon enthusiasts across the spectrum of time and space. They are easily worth a cool two hundred gold pieces each and four hundred for the pair. Some collectors are willing to pay 1000 to 3000 credits for certain collectible series of the Twins as they are known.