Real-Life Weirdness

[Johnny1A.2]

Okay...I can think of several different 'angles' whereby this could have gaming applications, as a site for activity, an inspiration for a space hab or a secret base, or just an instance of absurdity for the PCs to marvel at.

Tropical Resort in Snowy Germany

Note that the story is from 2013, so I don't know if this still exists, but it's definitely weird.

In essence, somebody converted an old blimp barn in Germany into a pseudo-tropical resort, complete with beaches, tents, etc, all indoors. Outside it's often icy-cold and snowing.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Note that the story is from 2013, so I don't know if this still exists, but it's definitely weird.

Still there, attracted 1.3 million visitors last year. Now with "special security measures" because of Corona.

The perfect meeting place to sell this old artefacts you "liberated" from the cultists.

[William]

From today's xkcd I learn of the existence of the 26-second microseism, a seasonally regular pulse detectable to seismometers around the world.

It emanates from an unknown effect in the Gulf of Guinea, the bight of Africa which contains -- surely a complete coincidence -- the 0.0 N 0.0 E point where the Equator and the Prime Meridian cross.

That is not dead which can eternal lie, especially if it has a detectable heartbeat of one per 26 seconds... is Null Island less a fiction and more of a cage for something we would rather be mythical?

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Maybe this is Germany's biggest mystery.

What we know: In 1807, in the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, a mysterious woman appeared, took residence in a mansion in the deepest German Province and stayed there until her death 30 years later. Without ever showing her face.
She always tried to avoid other people, and the very few people who met her stated that she was afraid of noises, and maybe insane.

During her time, she was taken care of - guarded? imprisoned? - by an almost as mysterious man, who was later identified as the Dutch Diplomat van der Valck. The couple got the nickname "Dunkelgrafen" (dark counts) by the residents of the area.

After her death, van der Valck claimed that her real name has been Sophia Botta, but no birth registers showed that name. Van der Valck stayed at in the small province town until his own death a few years later.

Of course, rumours spread. Who was she? How could she and her companion / guard / keeper afford their lifestyle? Why was she never disturbed by Napoleon or the various German rulers? Who held his hands above her? Who or what was she hiding from?

A popular theory was that she was a French Princess, switched against a double after she turned mad. This theory was disproved a few years due DNA tests of her skeleton.

So, who was she really? A time traveller? An alien? A former pawn of the Illuminati who turned against her masters and landed in some kind of witness protection program (run by whom?)? Or just a poor woman on the run from a cruel husband?

It's up to the GM. Dust of Gurps Time Travel and/or Age of Napoleon and let the pc find out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkelgrafen

[Luke Bunyip]

A vault deep in the mountains of an isle above the Arctic Circle, containing an encoded record of as much of human knowledge as possible. Just the place for a bunch of adventurers to break into...

[L.J.Steele]

I don't care if you critical'd your Survival roll. No you can't make a knife from that!

I’ll bet this comes up on Wait..Wait… in the next couple of weeks. If only Mythbusters were still around….

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...GsBm1CKW4ualGw

Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work

Highlights
• An ethnographic account states an Inuit man made a knife from his own frozen feces.

• We experimentally tested knives manufactured from frozen human feces.

• Knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Cromarty Firth, were old offshore rigs go to die ...

In a bay in Northern Scotland, old or at the time unused oil rigs are collected / stored. As the price for oil goes down, more rigs are put of business and end here.
Most of them will probably scrapped, but when the oil price rises again, a few could be tugged back and put to work.

This is a great setting. The rigs could contain anything - valuable data, criminals on the run, terrorist cells or strange cults. A rig could harbour a modern-day dungeon crawl, or could be a McGuffin for an espionage / black ops game when somebody wants to stop a rig put back in order. And if Scotland would leave the UK, things could really become interesting.
Another possibility could be an after-the-end campaign. Imagine a Mad-Max-Style game with motorboats and rag-clad survivors, armed with harpoons and assault rifles.

(Water World? Never heard of that.)

[Johnny1A.2]

I'm not sure this has many direct gaming applications, but it might inspire some, and it's definitely at least unusual, if not full-on weird:

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/1...f-highway.html

A working farmhouse and sheep meadow in the median of a major highway, more or less. The official explanation is ground quality, but suppose there was some other real reason...

[dcarson]

You can fly direct to downtown NY City. https://aviationhumor.net/gta-thomas...trick-edition/

[Anders]

Zombie cicadas return to West Virginia.

West Virginia, almost Heaven
Take me home, zombie fungus...