From: Mike Czaplinski [mikec@busworks.com] Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 12:28 PM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - The Culture & Blue Planet...(Spoilers at end) At 08:25 PM 10/12/01 -0400, Darren King wrote: >How is the Culture relevent to BP? The technology is too advanced to have ANY >bearing on the setting... I mean, I love the books, and would reccomend them >to anyone into sci-fi, but I just can't see a connection. Ringworld and >Starship Troopers are also great sci-fi, but not good background material for >BP. The main thing about the Culture books have to add for a BP GM on how to deal with a society with ubiquitous biomods. And there is some similarity between BP's 'smart' technological items with embedded computers and the ubiquity of items that have AI's embedded in them in the Culture books (in the book EXCESSION, for example, one of the main characters has a continual running battle of words with the AI running his spacesuit). Even if there aren't any AI's in the BP universe (as far as anyone knows), I do recall that the embedded computer in, say, a gun is fairly sophisticated and can be spoken to in English, which might make for an interesting interaction if a GM is feeling a bit frisky. Plus: the Culture would also make a good source for the Belters of the BP universe (almost as good as the works of Larry Niven, arguably the King of asteroid belt culture creators). >And for background to the Culture, reading the books in the order they were >published is the best source. The stories have no connection other than the >setting, but Banks slowly elaborates on it. Frankly, I picked up EXCESSION because I found the hardcover at a church flea market for $1. I had heard of Banks, and though I was intrigued by what I'd heard, I wasn't intrigued enough to seek his books out new. As far as the 'right' order to read the Culture books: according to the Iain M. Banks FAQ (drawn from the Usenet fan newsgroup discussions), there really isn't any right order, although as you say, each book builds on the background delineated by the previous one. >********ACCESS DENIED***********GMs ONLY PAST THIS POINT!****************** > > > > > > > > > > >I mean, even the Aborigines... even the CREATORS... would be toast if they >ran up against the Culture! how can a civilisation that powerful have any >relevence to BP? Maybe the Creators WERE the Culture. Even though they don't go out for terraforming now, (due to a philosophical commitment to maintaining the integrity of natural environments), there are factions within the Culture that would probably love to tinker up a little world like Poseidon. As I mentioned above: just because the technology is almost absurdly advanced (I mean, c'mon: being able to change your sex AT WILL thanks to genetically engineered glands is just too silly) doesn't mean it has no relevance to an enterprising GM. MikeC *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Dominic Mooney (iB) [dom@cybergoths.u-net.com] Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 9:41 AM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Long John and 'Psi' powers.... At 01:10 -0400 12/10/01, "Charles" wrote: > Yet again, Peter F. Hamilton comes to the forefront on the BP list. > For those who haven't read any yet: It's good stuff. His Night's Dawn >tril has already been mentioned more than once (starting with The Reality >Dysfunction) with relevance to BP (particularly the worlds of Lalonde and .. >was it Atlantis?). I didn't really think about the Mindstar stuff, because >it's not exactly the same style of material. But hey, it's still good >anyways. > So, again, also for the newer folks on the list: Peter F. Hamilton, "The >Reality Dysfunction".. The total trilogy is about 6 normal sized paper >backs, or 3 larger hard covers. Good stuff. Just don't expect the ending of the 'Night's Dawn' Trilogy to live up to everything trailed in the first two books. It was a major let down when I read it. I think he wrote himself into a corner, and it just didn't deliver compared to the earlier volumes. My feelings about him only improved when I read 'A second chance at Eden', his collection of shorts set in the same background,. This book feels far more relevant to BP to me, and was very good, especially the novella which is the volume's namesake. If you like the background, I recommend you have a look at 'The Confederation handbook', which is Hamilton's writer's notes detailing the back ground done up as a standalone volume (like an RPG sourcebook but without the stats!). Dom ----dom@cybergoths.u-net.com---- *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: S. Ben Melhuish [sben@pile.org] Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 8:39 PM To: blue_planet@lists.ient.com Subject: Re: [BLUE PLANET] - Movies On Friday, October 12, 2001, at 12:49 PM, Adam Ward wrote: > This has certainly been done before but its been a dull day and I got > to thinking about movies that capture the spirit of Blue Planet. This isn't really what you're thinking of, but every time I try to come up with a campaign to run, I keep thinking of "The Maltese Falcon" (the Dashiell Hammett book or the movie starring Humphrey Bogart; the movie follows the book very closely). A private eye, based in Haven, friend to the natives (possibly a native himself, though that doesn't feel right), works on the cases the police don't care enough about, or don't have the right contacts to solve. A wily GM could lead a PI-style campaign towards some of the key mysteries of the setting. -- S. Ben Melhuish *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.