Blue Ghost's thoughts on sci-fi

[Blue Ghost]

Why do I like science fiction? Why am I posting here for the umpteenth time? Heck, I don't even belong to a Traveller gaming group. So why come here at all? Why post? Why waste my time?

I guess it's the adventurer in me. Maybe it's also my boyish fantasy as well of desiring to travel among the stars dodging LASERs, performing various feats of derring do, setting foot on worlds fascinating and mundane alike. I don't really know.

But, cruising Youtube, I was reminded of why I watched programs like Doctor Who, Star Trek, Cosmos, or read things like Tolkien, Bova, Heinlein, and all the rest. In a sea of misery with TV of the likes of "Dallas", "Family Crest", and, my perennial least favorite, "Family" with Kristy McNichol, I wonder why more people aren't fascinated with what's out there?

I think of TV shows like "Eight is Enough" or "Family", or books like "The Good Earth", "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and other forced literature ... you know, stuff that's supposed to be good for you, I often wonder what the benefit is to domesticated life. What does marriage, kids, a house with a white picket fence and good neighbors have over exchanging high energy broadsides with some Zhodani baddie?

The mysteries of scientific and political intrigues are a roaring fire compared to picking up the kids after school. But, alas, the flame is only immaginary. It's not real (mostly anyway), so we come up with exercises to play out what we'd like to have done in dangerous situation X.

But, thank goodness most of it is imaginary. I'm not sure I'd like my life to really hinge on that next mercenary ticket on some far flung world that had been cratered by orbital bombardment, nor would I REALLY want to go down to that planet inhabited by intelligent insects to bust my best friends out of the bug-kitchen before they're turned into bug bait, much less participate in a real running gunfight with some stolen data tapes to a mega-complex-super-sized battle-station. Heck... I could get hurt!

Still, it's nice to think about every now and then.

 

[aramis]

As someone who has been involved in running gunfights (from the standpoint of both bystander and target), due to poor choices of associates, I can say that the chinese are dead right in pointing out that "May you live in interesting times" is a curse.

Great fun to game, kind of fun to return fire in real life, but the post-combat let-down really REALLY sucks. And the realization that people you've never met are trying to kill you REALLY bites. I'm glad that chapter of my life is well more than a decade ago now. (Aramis gets post-combat shakes.)

What I really want is a nice nest egg, a quiet place in the country with gaming buddies in like condition within walking distance, and lots of free time to game. Heck, what I really want is a retirement community of gamers.

 

[Vargr]

I can say that the chinese are dead right in pointing out that "May you live in interesting times" is a curse.

Truer words have seldom been spoken. Bad news is...we live in really interesting times, and they'r getting more interstinger..huh, more interesting.

Great fun to game, kind of fun to return fire in real life, but the post-combat let-down really REALLY sucks.

What do you mean? I'm not sure I understood what you were trying to say here. What is a post-combat let-down? A rapid decrease of adrenaline levels following the rush that happened during combat?

And the realization that people you've never met are trying to kill you REALLY bites.

Is this something that happens on the first time(s) where one is on such a situation and then eventually gets used to? Or does it happen every time after such an event?

What I really want is a nice nest egg, a quiet place in the country with gaming buddies in like condition within walking distance, and lots of free time to game. Heck, what I really want is a retirement community of gamers.

You and most of us I believe. We should set up an international trust fund or something similar to build that retirement community. I suggest we set it up in a tax heaven. :smirk:

 

[fiat_knox]

What do you mean? I'm not sure I understood what you were trying to say here. What is a post-combat let-down? A rapid decrease of adrenaline levels following the rush that happened during combat?

It's somewhat akin to the crushing sensation of petit mort after the conclusion to a seduction. Only, since the matters preceding it have been more to do with imminent death abated for another day, the intensity is much, much greater.

 

[WarriorKnight]

You and most of us I believe. We should set up an international trust fund or something similar to build that retirement community. I suggest we set it up in a tax heaven. :smirk:

I'm having visions of The Village from the Prisoner.:rofl:

 

[Vargr]

I'm having visions of The Village from the Prisoner.:rofl:

Hmmm...come to think of it, The Village could serve as inspiration for some sort of Zhodani ubber social experiment using captured Imperial agents. I guess Rover would then be some kind of TL15 psionic robot.

A Number 2 with a turban is the cherry on top that makes me crack up laughing. Oh my word! And he's drinking milk!


Someome has to write a Traveller adventure based on the last episode, that was the ultimate TV mindf**k of all time.

"Them bones, them bones, them...dried bones..." " Hip, Hip...HURRAH!!"

Ok, I'll stop now for the sake of our collective sanities...

 

[fiat_knox]

Hmmm...come to think of it, The Village could serve as inspiration for some sort of Zhodani ubber social experiment using captured Imperial agents.

A Number 2 with a turban is the cherry on top that makes me crack up laughing. Oh my word! And he's drinking milk!

Ok, I'll stop now for the sake of our collective sanities...

It's okay.

Some of us lost our sanity long ago. Others sold it for a stack of LBBs.

And some of us, like moi, never had it in the first place ...

 

[aramis]

I can say that the chinese are dead right in pointing out that "May you live in interesting times" is a curse.

Truer words have seldom been spoken. Bad news is...we live in really interesting times, and they'r getting more interstinger..huh, more interesting.

Unfortunately, we can't go down that road until Hunter reopens the pit.

Great fun to game, kind of fun to return fire in real life, but the post-combat let-down really REALLY sucks.

What do you mean? I'm not sure I understood what you were trying to say here. What is a post-combat let-down? A rapid decrease of adrenaline levels following the rush that happened during combat?

Not Rapid. It's three specific periods.
Period 1: you're still in fight mode. But you've realized you are out of targets.
Period 2: Still adrenaline filled, but not in fight mode; the faster depleting chemicals have faded, the brain races, and in many cases, the shakes start
Period 3: The adrenaline wears off, the pain hits, and the "OH S***! WTF!!!" starts. Shakes for some continue for some time.

And the realization that people you've never met are trying to kill you REALLY bites.

Is this something that happens on the first time(s) where one is on such a situation and then eventually gets used to? Or does it happen every time after such an event?

Not every time, and not just the first time. Doesn't matter if it was guns, knives or fists, when I've taken hits and the adrenaline flows, I almost always get the shakes.

I've been in over a dozen real fights with live steel and/or other melee weapons, and literally hundreds of rebate SCAsword duels. I get post combat shakes with all the above. There isn't much difference, but there is a difference. Same with paintball.

I've been shot at a number of times. I've been hit a couple times; .25 ACP, didn't even penetrate my field jacket. Hurt, but didn't break anything. Anemic round... about 50j. Returning fire is fun while doing it; quite the rush. Not terribly accurate, either; it's a skill that range practice doesn't translate well to. (Urban assault courses do, as does paintball, tho not as well.)


I've lived in 2 of the 3 worst neighborhoods in Anchorage... I've been a bystander in several drive-by shootings. They also trigger the post-combat shakes.

So did witnessing a kid hit by a semi. Kid ran out; semi slammed on the brakes, still kicked the kid some 15 feet. I rendered first aid. I got post-combat shakes just as the police arrived, about 5 minutes after the paramedics took over from me.

What I really want is a nice nest egg, a quiet place in the country with gaming buddies in like condition within walking distance, and lots of free time to game. Heck, what I really want is a retirement community of gamers.

You and most of us I believe. We should set up an international trust fund or something similar to build that retirement community. I suggest we set it up in a tax heaven. :smirk:

Would be nice. But I also mean a place where I don't feel the need to keep lethal force to hand. Hell, a nice bunker.

 

[fiat_knox]

And yet you're a proponent of a game where us violent humans manage to reach the stars, spreading the love of violence everywhere in the Universe.

But there's no sex.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Sex and Violence.

Dear Mister Knox,

There is sex, it is just that we follow the Vision of Honor Cleon left us and we do all sorts of naughtiness, we just don't brag about it.

EDIT: And does it have to be in the country, I hate rural. Had to live on a farm once and I hated it. Sorry straight city kid. No concrete and steel and I get twitchy.

 

[aramis]

How about a nice Plascrete bunker with grasphault in a central dome, and nice private suites surrounding it... buried under a mountain, and with high speed to the shopping center of the nearest city....

 

[Icosahedron]

Would be nice. But I also mean a place where I don't feel the need to keep lethal force to hand. Hell, a nice bunker.

Just come across the pond, Aramis.

Since RPGs started in the mid-seventies, I reckon somewhere around 2015 - 2020 should see those retirement communities start to sprout.

You just have to stay alive that long.

 

[aramis]

Just come across the pond, Aramis.

Since RPGs started in the mid-seventies, I reckon somewhere around 2015 - 2020 should see those retirement communities start to sprout.

You just have to stay alive that long.

Yeah, but over there, the Law Level is 8+; where I live, it's about a 4. I like the option of having said lethal force.... (Yes, I can hear it now... "Bloody Yanks!")

 

[Madarin Dude]

Well I prefer less violent sci fi more exploratory but I feel the same way. I do try to live like that in a sense too. Visited 23 countries lived in 4 foreign countries for years. I do prefer sci fi for reading but can read other stuff it involves family it would have to have a twist to it to pull me in.

I like reading new ideas and trying to implement them in some form.

 

[kafka47]

My vision and reading habits of Science Fiction is operatic in which ordinary joes like myself are taken out of the ordinary and given the chance to be heroes.

Sometimes, the job is small but it grows ever larger as the campaign or novel progresses.

I tend to like Anti-heroes or at least flawed characters as a way of bringing an unsavory element that lurks beneath the surface of the veneer of civilization whether it is 2010 or 5610.

Certainly, part of the reason why I read/game is wish fulfillment, however, I know that I am not as talented as the characters that I wish I could be. However, it does not stop me from trying hence a mood for exploration needs to be always present in my fiction.

Like the organization man of the 1950s, I love and detest the white picket fence life for it forms the bars of the cage but also the security and comfort of home. I love my family and my life but still there is a yearning for a greater role. Perhaps, that is part of the appeal of Traveller, as we age the roles we take on are not younglings but mature fully formed people certain of our identity. If not wiser, certainly older.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Great fun to game, kind of fun to return fire in real life, but the post-combat let-down really REALLY sucks. And the realization that people you've never met are trying to kill you REALLY bites. I'm glad that chapter of my life is well more than a decade ago now. (Aramis gets post-combat shakes.)

"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."
- Churchill

The time to worry is when it stops bothering you.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Yeah!

How about a nice Plascrete bunker with grasphault in a central dome, and nice private suites surrounding it... buried under a mountain, and with high speed to the shopping center of the nearest city....

I can dig on this. But for real, I am ok with some real grass. Then when the robomowers cut it we get that neato fresh grass smell in the dome.

 

[Vargr]

Yeah, but over there, the Law Level is 8+; where I live, it's about a 4. I like the option of having said lethal force.... (Yes, I can hear it now... "Bloody Yanks!")

Well, you will hear no such cry from my lips. If ever pay visit there I'll go out into a field range and get some proper firearms training. But I guess I'm just nutty!


Icosahedron's suggestion has my seal of approval. You should really hop over here. The Law Level is not a factor because it is all so peaceful, civilized and non-violent!

I mean sure, there's a few oddities, but you can just ignore them.

You know; things like the Paris riotings, indigenous terrorists in Ireland and Spain, the Cosa Nostra in Italy, a knife crime capital in Scotland, a few ethnic/cultural getthos you better avoid if you want to keep your physical integrity, foreign turists being targeted for violent crime in southern Spain and Portugal, rising social and racial tensions across much of the board, the huge expansion of Eastern European organized crime networks, loss of national sovereinity and a pseudo-federal-government-thing shoving a constitution down its citizens throaths...and...

Er..

Hmmm...Aramis, how hard is getting one of those "green card" things again? :rofl:

 

[fiat_knox]

EDIT: And does it have to be in the country, I hate rural. Had to live on a farm once and I hated it. Sorry straight city kid. No concrete and steel and I get twitchy.

A nice place for me, with lots of open air restaurants and writing studios, and large, open spaces with good acoustics for Larpers and other theatrical types to play in.

 

[the angle]

Well, as Winston Churchill said, "nothing is quite as thrilling as being shot at ... and missed."

For me, much of the appeal of SF comes from its 'visions of things to come' aspect. I really enjoy imagining where mankind is going, even if that often leads to a great wistfulness that I won't be here to see all the wonders that lie ahead. Where we'll be a hundred years from now is interesting; where we'll be a thousand years from now is fascinating.

Or, as Wood Allen said, "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by never dying."

Steve