One of
the things that appeals to me about the pulp adventure genre is that
it’s straight-forward, meat and potatoes stuff. Always trying to
entertain, seldom dwelling on the details for longer than a scene. At
its best, pulp adventure is rollicking good,
uncomplicated fun. There was that element to SEVEN STARS OF ATLANTIS,
but it also had a flip side that was high in drama and romance. It
worked for me, in the same way that old Hollywood movies like THE
AFRICAN QUEEN work – it was a crowd-pleaser, with a little
something for everyone.
Let’s see if I can map the romantic entanglements out for you. See,
Margot broke off her romance with Teddy because she had been stricken
with an Egyptian Curse which had killed her mother, and she feared it
would kill him too. Of course, Margot couldn’t
just tell Teddy what was happening – he’d never leave her alone
to die. So she simply told him he bored her, and dropped him like a lead
weight. Heartbroken and angry (not least because he was just about to
propose marriage), Teddy headed off for more
adventure with the redoubtable Rex Powell, and that led him to capture
by Dr. Song.
After Margot (who hadn’t come to Song’s fortress for Teddy, but
clues for some kind of cure), Teddy, Rex and Su Li escaped, things
became much more complicated. Not only was there still a flame there
between the two of them, Su Li was not shy about her
interest in the handsome blue-haired reporter. Margot still couldn’t
speak of her feelings, so she had to suffer in silence for a long while
as Teddy and Su Li danced and flirted with each other and Rex muttered
his disapproval for how she was treating his
sidekick. And when the secret did come out, and Margot could no longer
deny Teddy her feelings, Su Li made a play for Rex. And, by the end of
the game, confessed to Margot that all of her flirtations had probably
really been proxies for her true love… Margot
herself.
Whew. That’s one complicated love, er, polygon.
The Curse, by the way, turned out to be a kind of exotic poison
employed by the Egyptian branch of Dr. Song’s criminal empire. That
didn’t stop me from introducing an honest-to-gosh Egyptian mummy
defending the Star gem hidden in Egypt, of course, but
by and large all the fantastic elements of the game were supposed to be
misunderstood technology – specifically, technology that came from
Atlantis. Song’s alchemical skills came from his Star gem, which could
rearrange matter at the molecular level. Pretty
handy if you want to devise a complicated poison. Song also was able to
project his thoughts into his sons and daughter after exposing them to
another exotic compound that created an affinity between them.
The Seven Stars were intended to act as components of a whole, each
providing a component ability that, combined with others, provided the
abilities of an Atlantean computing device. One served as a library of
Atlantean knowledge (complete with a surly
artificial intelligence to protect that information from uppity humans
that might come across it), one served as a battery of enormous power
(which could be used to project energy sufficient to cause the likes of
the Tunguska blast), one served as a hard light
projection system, one allowed the user to clairvoyantly see things at a
distance (or through time), one had the ability to teleport matter, and
one served as a telepathic communication device able to override the
thoughts of mere mortals (a “mind control”
gem). I had the idea that the gems “bleed” off excess energy, something
that can accumulate in cells over time, allowing Rasputin and Anastasia
to survive their murders using the energy of the “battery” gem (their
cells supercharged with energy much the way
Superman’s cells store solar power). The mummy that protected the gem in
Egypt had been exposed to the same effect, absorbing low levels of
power for centuries, allowing it to briefly reanimate when the tomb was
breached.
When the heroes finally reached the extradimensional Atlantis, they
discovered that the tall, pale Atlanteans had small versions of the
Stars implanted in their foreheads – “constellations” of tiny gems that
could duplicate the effects of the Stars on
a small scale for an individual Atlantean. When they are active, the
constellations orbit around the head of their users, a nod to one of my
favourite D&D magic items, the fabled Ioun Stones.
Atlantis itself was placed inside a pocket dimension outside space
and time, the better to serve as a base for Atlanteans to conquer
poorly-developed worlds like Earth. From their extradimensional
headquarters, which look a lot like a “Hollow Earth” setup
– a vast city that stretches along the inside of a great sphere with an
artificial sun – they’ve been waiting for their earthly Custodians to
signal them that it’s time to invade. The Stars draw their holders to
the Temple, which rotates out of our dimension
to Atlantis.
I know at least one of my players was happy with the inclusion of
science-fiction elements, including the big “planetary romance” finale
where they stormed Atlantis. Like I said, a crowd-pleaser; something for
everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment