Real-Life Weirdness

[WingedKagouti]

Not sure this counts as actually weird, but a company providing physical security for several banks, government agencies, airports, nuclear plants and other high profile locations was "hacked" into, blueprints were stolen and made public.

The kicker?

Someone used "password01" as their password.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/10/...-firm-gunnebo/

To me the main point to take from this is that getting access to something that is supposedly highly secure isn't always going to be as difficult as it may seem at first glance.

[L.J.Steele]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I expect for a good game you need a fairly exotic setting, and one or more reoccurring threats that can be defeated over the course of several patients. Examples might be:

• A team of medical researchers during the early stages of a zombie outbreak.
• The quarantine team for for a stargate-like setting (infinity unlimited probably counts).
• A counter-biowarfare unit during an active biological war
• A hospital staff on for a colony on an alien planet (that has some especially exotic biology)

There was a MASH rpg at one point. I think I have the pdf.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I wonder if you could make a game out of medical personnel in a sufficiently bizarre and experimental situation, where you have to figure stuff out, and every failure is a life.

GURPS Sector General. James White got twelve books out of it.

[Irish Wolf]

Parthenogenic mutant crayfish have escaped custody and taken over a cemetery in Belgium.

Which of course means it's only a matter of time before Dread Cthulhu becomes involved...

[Anders]

Houska Castle, in modern-day Czechia, is a castle which is allegedly built upon a gate to hell (a Hellmouth?).

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Animal-human hybrids were reported to have crawled out of it, and dark-winged, otherworldly creatures flew in its vicinity. Legend has it that when construction began in the castle, all of the inmates that were sentenced to death were offered a pardon if they consented to be lowered by rope into the hole, and report back on what they saw. When the first person was lowered, he began screaming after a few seconds, and when pulled back to the surface he looked as if he had aged 30 years. He had grown wrinkles and his hair had turned white.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by Anders

Houska Castle, in modern-day Czechia, is a castle which is allegedly built upon a gate to hell (a Hellmouth?).

Bonus roleplaying hook: The Nazis apparently checked it out during WWII, so you can have a Weird War campaign or a Gothic campaign around the same locale.

[Anaraxes]

Inspirational material for Nazis visiting haunted castles during WW II: The Keep (1983). Hey, it has Ian McKellen. (Not to mention Bruce Payne, "Damodar" in the D&D movie. Just to bookend the Geek Culture connections.)

[L.J.Steele]

Whale Sculpture prevents train crash

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/w...gtype=Homepage

How much luck did this involve!

[Kale]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

Whale Sculpture prevents train crash

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/w...gtype=Homepage

How much luck did this involve!

Plot twist: Sculpture's artist is a time traveller; whale tail prevents train from crushing **********

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

Not sure this counts as actually weird, but a company providing physical security for several banks, government agencies, airports, nuclear plants and other high profile locations was "hacked" into, blueprints were stolen and made public.

The kicker?

Someone used "password01" as their password.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/10/...-firm-gunnebo/

To me the main point to take from this is that getting access to something that is supposedly highly secure isn't always going to be as difficult as it may seem at first glance.

Yeah, real security tends to be less...efficient...than fictional. It only takes one weak link, after all, and one person to be lazy or foolish.