GURPS Monster Hunters 5: Applied Xenology

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Langy

BTW, I really like the aliens this book has in it. Great stuff. The only alien race I'm not keen on is the Nordics - I'm just not a big fan of Aliens Who Look Like Us.

I haven't looked over the book yet, but "Greys" and "Nordics" and "Reptoids" look to be heavily based on actual (or "actual") UFO encounters. Greys came to dominate after they featured on Close Encounters of the Third Kind... er, by coincidence, I'm sure. But before then, you had a pretty rough split between little grey men, little green men, big snake people, big lizard people, giant bugs, giants with mouths on their heads, little furry men that seemed hollow and metallic under their fur, giant moths and, of course, impossibly beautiful blond men who liked to condemn us for nuclear war and/or environmental disaster (They seemed to have been a buncha hippies).

Black Ops was all about killing all of them, naturally. Kenneth Hite would approve.

(If you already know all of this, I apologize. I don't mean to be condescending, I'm just taking an opportunity to talk about something that has fascinated me since childhood)

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'm currently on a bicycling vacation, so it will take me a few days to take a look at this.

Still, I am very curious how well this would work as a "Delta Green+" game - elite teams covertly fighting forces of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The usual fantasy tropes of the Monster Hunter genre - vampires and werewolves and demons, oh my - were at best an awkward fit for the Cthulhu Mythos, but aliens fit right in.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

The usual fantasy tropes of the Monster Hunter genre - vampires and werewolves and demons, oh my - were at best an awkward fit for the Cthulhu Mythos, but aliens fit right in.

I realize you probably can't do this now, but if you get a chance to look at the preview PDF, be sure to read Decisions, Decisions on pp. 3-4 of it.

To summarize, this book includes guidelines and rules for altering some of the supernatural assumptions in the MH series. Let's say, for example, you want to remove demons and undead from the game. That's easily done, but then it causes a ripple effect, which is what MH5 addresses -- for example, do you keep the crusader? If so, you'll need to alter Mysticism in specific ways to account for the lack of demons and undead. Will there still be creatures who possess people? If not, the brother and crusader require further tweaking. And so on.

The alien races herein are definitely conducive to a Mythos-oriented game. (Though actual TMWNMTK are not part of this book, only because I feel that Ken nailed them so well that the best I could do would be to copy his stuff from GURPS Horror verbatim and slap a "GURPS Monster Hunters" title page on it!) The experiments of the Greys, the conspiracies of the Nordics, the strangeness of the Phasites, and the sheer evil of the Reptoids will all fit such a game perfectly. None of them are so tough that the PCs cannot defeat them, though, which means that any "cosmic horror" overtones should come from higher up.

[Sassy Psionic Space Squid]

The usual fantasy tropes of the Monster Hunter genre - vampires and werewolves and demons, oh my - were at best an awkward fit for the Cthulhu Mythos, but aliens fit right in.

Well, zombies are easily recast as being caused by body-warping alien parasites, like in Dead Space.

You could do the same with vampires too, like in Peeps (though the parasites are earthborn AFAIK), which has both a mindless "zombie" strain and rarer strain "vampire" that retains their intelligence.

Interestedly (spoilers), the parasite actually acts as an "immune system" for humanity, the purpose of the peeps is to defend humanity against their ancient predators, giant worms who live deep underground and come to prey on humanity once an era.

That seems like it'd fit in perfectly with the Cthulhu Mythos.

[johndallman]

Having read the Technomagic chapter, there's another kind of device that can be used at TL8.

High-powered digital cameras have similar processing power to smartphones, and take flash cards (they mount them much faster than laptops do). It is possible to write software for them, although not many people do this, and they're terrible for doing coding on.

They also provide excellent aiming tools, and provide a natural way of recording information about the target of a magical effect. And people tend to think they're "just cameras".

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by johndallman

They also provide excellent aiming tools, and provide a natural way of recording information about the target of a magical effect. And people tend to think they're "just cameras".

Reminds me of the basilisk camera from the Laundry.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Reminds me of the basilisk camera from the Laundry.

Glad you spotted it.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Back from the trip and browsing this before going to bed:

- Hey, Chryssalids!

- And Predators!

[PK]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Back from the trip and browsing this before going to bed:

- Hey, Chryssalids!

Chrysalis meet Xenomorphs, IMO. :)

And Predators!

Manic-depressive ones who swing from the trees (and flagpoles, etc.).

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by PK

Chrysalis meet Xenomorphs, IMO. :)

Well, Chryssalids were inspired by Xenomorphs, but these seem to be more the former than the latter - the "venom zombie" in particular.