Need Help Developing an Idea: Mythology meets Sci-Fi

[Weirdlet]

Hey, all- got another question for the people of GitP. Ordinarily, I think this is the sort of thing one puts in Homebrew, but I need to develop it more to get it to that point first.

Watching Pixar's WALL-E and Hellboy II: The Golden Army one after the other, I thought the two combined could make a pretty cool setting- the humans have left their world behind to be cleaned up while they explore the galaxy, only to return centuries later and find that in their absence, all the mythical things that were driven underground before have sprung up, renewed- and they aren't about to let their home go again without a fight.

The thing is, I'm not sure what to do with the idea past that point- old-fashioned mythical lords of Faerie are stomping around on Earth's surface again, playing mead-hall kings over primal woodland and toxic wasteland, and tech-savvy humans are trying to recolonize their first home after having traveled the stars. They're both likely to try and annihilate each other once they become aware. Depending on how it plays out, the fae could foresee or sense the approach of their enemies and lay out a welcoming battle for them, or both sides could simply take exception to each other on finding a newly-minted prefabricated city being plopped down in the middle of revirginized wilderness.

I have two general questions to anyone who reads this- what would you do with this idea, and what system would you use to back it? I get the feeling straight-up D&D isn't quite right.

[NPCMook]

There is a game like this already, but for the life of me I cannot remember what is was called... I only remember it started with an "H" :smallfurious:

It was Greek Mythology meets Sci-Fi Tech, Gorgons were an Alien race from another planet

[Anxe]

I'd use Shadowrun for this.

And if you're into mythology+technology you should read Ilium by Dan Simmons.

[NPCMook]

http://www.hellasrpg.com/ Found it! :smallbiggrin: Website doesn't seem to be working for me...

[PairO'Dice Lost]

And if you're into mythology+technology you should read Ilium by Dan Simmons.

And Olympos--the two are a duology.

[BillyJimBoBob]

Roger Zelazny handled the mix of technology and mythology well in several of his novels, especially Lord of Light. He poked fun at himself once saying that all he wrote about was immortal protagonists and obscure mythologies.

Lord of Light isn't quite the setting to represent your concept, however, as the greater mass of humanity does not have access to technology, and are ruled by an elite who keep that access to themselves.

[dragoonsgone]

Don't forget about stargate where all the ancient Egyptian gods were really evil aliens and Thor was a good alien.

[TricksyAndFalse]

And Olympos--the two are a duology.

I really liked Ilium, but I hated Olympos. It's hard to recommend just reading the one, though.

[Weirdlet]

Thank you for your suggestions. Humans I imagine as- almost a Vorkosigan-saga level of technology, while the fae are high-LA types, ruling over tribal warriors and flocks of goblins and monsters, barring one of them pulling a Nuada and getting organized, at which point we might see a mix of tech and magic.

(I'm kind of thinking serious versions of those goblin cannon-balls from Labyrinth)

[Freejack451]

There is an old animated movie you should watch called Wizards. I think it will give you a good idea for the "what was left behind" part of your world idea.


Freejack

[HamHam]

This idea is awesome, and I think the following thought experiment should illustrate why:

Imagine, soldiers in power armor with cold iron vibro-swords and chainsaws make their way through a dark forest.

Suddenly, one of the trees whips out a limb and sends one of them flying into a another tree. As his broken body slides to the ground, the commander starts yelling orders. The men begin to furiously hack at the surrounding foliage with their weapons, while others break out the flamethrowers and light up.

But none of that helps them when a Werewolf leaps into their midst and starts tossing them aside like toothpicks.

[quick_comment]

Its a really terrible game, but Legendary is a fps that does this. Your character accidentally opens pandoras box, and you go around killing minotaurs and werewolves with your rifle.

Honestly, I would just put this game in an eberron-esque setting, and refluff psionics as advanced technology. Sort of like mass effect actually.

[chiasaur11]

This idea is awesome, and I think the following thought experiment should illustrate why:

Imagine, soldiers in power armor with cold iron vibro-swords and chainsaws make their way through a dark forest.

Suddenly, one of the trees whips out a limb and sends one of them flying into a another tree. As his broken body slides to the ground, the commander starts yelling orders. The men begin to furiously hack at the surrounding foliage with their weapons, while others break out the flamethrowers and light up.

But none of that helps them when a Werewolf leaps into their midst and starts tossing them aside like toothpicks.

Flamethrowers tend to work fine on Werewolves.

Fire: Man's real best friend.

[SirKazum]

Sounds like a great idea, and I'll second the vote for Shadowrun. Not only it's a very interesting system, it's also made to have both advanced technology and magic / supernatural creatures, in one single integrated system.

[Weirdlet]

The thing about Shadowrun is that I've heard it's heavily cyberpunk-ish, and that's not really what I'm going for- is it possible to just use the mechanics and refluff everything, or is that too ingrained?

[Woot Spitum]

You might have to reflavour a few things, but Exalted is a great system for larger than life heroes and deities that take an active part in the world. While a lot of the high tech stuff has been lost, there are still a few crazy mechanical devices lying around, especially in Lookshy.

As far as inspiration goes, try watching Samurai Jack. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world that seemlessly mixes high and low technology.

[NPCMook]

The thing about Shadowrun is that I've heard it's heavily cyberpunk-ish, and that's not really what I'm going for- is it possible to just use the mechanics and refluff everything, or is that too ingrained?

www.Hellasrpg.com, unless you mean a different kind of mythology

[Weirdlet]

I was thinking more Celtic/British and old fairy-tale type myths, although since it's basically Entire Planet versus Galactic Colonizing Operation, I should probably figure out a little more of the world's mythology rather than just the one small subset of it.

[NPCMook]

I'd check out Hellas then, its has exactly that, only its based on Greek Mythology, while you may choose something different crunch-wise, it couldn't hurt to see how they do the fluff

[shadow_archmagi]

Go read Terry Pratchet's Strata, too.

It's by terry pratchett, what are you waiting for?

[Rasilak]

Well, Shadowrun is probably fine (especially since it has - IMHO - great rules for firearms and at least ok rules for close combat). You'll probably have to ditch most of the fluff/setting (that's really cyberpunkish) and won't use most of the stealthy equipment, but the rules support very well what you want to do. Basically it's just a Merc/Critter-Hunter campaign in another world. You've got modern weapons, cyberware, stats for monsters and magic in one setting - what else do you want?
Also, SR4 is more Sci-Fi than Cyberpunk IMHO, so that might fit better than SR3 (though I hate to admit it...).

Of course you could also use GURPS if you don't mind some Homebrew (you'll probably need some anyway). I'd reccomend High-Tech, Ultra-Tech, The Bestiary, Technomancer, perhaps Cyberworld/-punk or Creatures of the Night and maybe one of the many Vampire-Books.

And STAY THE FRAG AWAY FROM RIFTS! No, really, it's a trap.

[ZeroNumerous]

Mythology meets SCIENCE! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Human) Poorly done, but it's there.

[Mando Knight]

Flamethrowers tend to work fine on Werewolves.

Fire: Man's real best friend.

Of course you should fight it with fire (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KillItWithFire). You should fight everything with fire. (http://magiccards.info/8e/en/224.html)

[Eldan]

I see one logical problem you'd have to adress:
The way you explain it in your first post, the faeries and other mythological creatures were driven underground by humans, who, all things considered, would have to been medieval or bronze age technology humans. Now the humans have super-high-tech. How do the creatures stand a chance?

There are a handful of explanations I could see for this:

a) They are bound to a certain periodic cycle: magic waxes and wanes over the years. About a thousand years ago, it collapsed almost totally and is only now coming back.

b) Humans used to have magic as well, and drove the faeries back using that against them. Now they don't, so the fae figure they have a chance.