TV series with ideas for GURPS

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by scc

I think the worst problem with the entire Mad Max franchise is the problem of where the bad guys get their fuel from, the foundation of the series is that there is basically no more fuel in the world

I thought the foundation of the series was that a nuclear war happened. Fuel isn't gone, it's just highly-prized and hard to distribute.

They actually address where it comes from in Fury Road, in typically-minimalist fashion: Guzzeline is produced in Gas Town, which is run by a guy with awesomely-freakish deformities called the People Eater for reasons we can probably infer. They engage in a triangle of trade with Immortan Joe for water and with the Bullet Farmer for ammo, and they seem to have some kind of treaty that lets them summon each others' forces to engage in personal disputes.

[Culture20]

Roadwarrior showed a community that pumped and refined oil. And Bartertown ran on methane. Biodiesel conversions are pretty easy (but getting the bio part in a desert wasteland isn't).

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

And the explanation for all the humans [the Visiters] were keeping in stasis was?

Not an official explanation, but: breeding stock for the future. Their scientific advances presumably do include some farming know-how.

[Skarg]

What's wrong with the Road Warrior version where they are clearly scrounging and taking from anyone who has any, and so it makes some sense they are trying to deal / extort / capture from the local existing working oil facility? Seems like that could make some sense if it hasn't been all that long since the war, and if there are a few remaining producers here and there, which seemed to be about the case (also since the first Mad Max established that even before the road, gangs of homicidal drivers were starting to develop).

[tshiggins]

I think you guys are taking the Mad Max franchise entirely too seriously, really.

It's not meant as an intellectual drama about survival and reconstruction of society in a post-nuclear holocaust setting.

It's a series of kick-butt action flicks that wholly operate on the Rule of Cool. To the extent it has any more intellectual depth than is required for a Rule of Cool kick-butt action flick is a bonus, because the lack of such depth is what one should expect.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

I thought the foundation of the series was that a nuclear war happened. Fuel isn't gone, it's just highly-prized and hard to distribute.

I always thought it was 'the war was fought over lack of resources (one of which being oil) and then went nuclear'.... but it's been a long time since I watched the original 3 movies.

[simply Nathan]

Everything after the first movie is taking place in Max's head

and everyone is Jesus and the events are a metaphor for purgatory

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I think you guys are taking the Mad Max franchise entirely too seriously, really.

Not me.

I just felt the movie went too far down Critical Thoughts Are For Losers Road on it's way to Rule Off Cool Town.



I mean there's a vast difference between my dislike for Fury Road's plot holes and inconsistencies and friend of mine leaving The Matrix* over the wrong ammo (.223 REM) casings ejecting from a Škorpion.




* He didn't actually leave the theatre... but he felt like it and has since regretted having stayed to finish the movie.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I always thought it was 'the war was fought over lack of resources

“My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams. This wasted land. But most of all, I remember the Road Warrior. The man we called “Max”.

To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time. When the world was powered by the black fuel. And the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing. They built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked. But nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled. The cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men.

On the roads it was a white-line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed. Men like Max. The warrior Max. In the roar of an engine, he lost everything. And became a shell of a man, a burnt out, desolate man, a man haunted by the demons of his past, a man who wandered out into the wasteland. And it was here, in this blighted place, that he learned to live again...”

-- "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", opening narration

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Anders

Anyone remember "V"? How about playing the A-team?

My friends and I actually played a no-dice V RPG for years--so inspired we were by the show. It worked great! I'd certainly run it again in GURPS. Various posters have brought up different issues with the show...some of which aren't that big of a deal to me...for example, Visitors actually aren't cross-fertile with humans. The only way the Robin was able to become pregnant was because Diana (the chief science officer) did high-tech medical experimentation to make it happen. That pregnancy was the only one that occurred--and it wasn't a natural occurrence.

As for Visitor motives, there were a lot of different elements brought up in lore. As a GM you go with the combination that works well for you and your group. But V is also not a hard science sci-fi show. If your players are into hard sci-fi...and not into the conventions of space opera...then V might not be the universe to play in.

I think cop, lawyer, medical shows would be no brainers to translate into GURPS, I'm not worries about the "iconic character" program...because the players just make iconic PCs and off we go. Those procedurals certainly provide ideas for GURPS.

Other shows I think provide ideas for GURPS? 1980s night time soaps, a la Dynasty & Dallas! One day I will run something like that when I can find the right player group.