This is my gaming circle minus my ACKS players. I am such an asshole. Since they're in the big city now, the players really wanted to know if there were any magic weapons for sale. ACKS ain't 3e or 4e though. There is exactly one magic weapon for sale. I rolled randomly to see what it was and... ...it's a cursed -2 sword. So I told the players there's a weapons dealer/fence who's looking to get rid of a magic sword he's gotten ahold of...cheap. Only 6,000gp when usually a +1 item would be 10,000gp. So far they are not suspicious. They're going to be so pissed at me. I can barely contain my excitement.
Nice.
ReplyDeleteHow about an effing personal jetpack, then? :P
ReplyDeleteLIES. Back to the Future, arsehole.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I grew up with the Jetsons, too. Maybe those aren't "promises" but they were close enough.
Blade Runner gets you both.
ReplyDeleteFifth Element is semi-dystopian. The mood isn't but the villain and the world (lavish space cruise aside) are.
ReplyDeleteExcept it's nowhere near as badass as all those oppressive cyberpunk dystopias. We live in the worst possible timeline.
ReplyDeleteWe live in Robocop's world but there aren't any cool robots. Just stupid drones.
ReplyDeleteStephen Holowczyk When I was growing up, I figured I'd be a victim of nuclear fire before the turn of the century. I didn't figure there was any way humanity would be armed like we are and not render our world inhospitable to us. I think we're incredibly lucky to make it this far. =)
ReplyDeleteCasey G. And real cops turn out to be worse then facist Judge Dredd, who actually carries out the law regardless of the person's wealth or race.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Shields On the other hand, we all could have been driving souped-up muscle cars with spikes on them in the vast irradiated wasteland. It's a wash.
ReplyDeleteStephen Holowczyk I'd never make it. I flunked out of the cult of competence, and I'm short sighted with exotic health problems. =p
ReplyDeleteStephen Holowczyk and at least ED-209 murders a corporate executive.
ReplyDeleteWhen people point to works of fiction as their promise of flying cars, I start worrying about how they distinguish between fiction and reality.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me. I grew up reading picturebooks from the 70s which promised clean energy and orbiting space colonies.
ReplyDeleteIt was you fucking Gen-Xers in the 80s who had such a hardon for Dystopia.
Incidentally, while some of the predictions seem far fetched, more than half of the things they predicted for the 80s and 90s happened in some way or another, even if some were a decade or too latter.
But yeah I do agree that with the exception of like, 1984, most sci-fi dystopias are actually more optimistic than the real world. I think in a way Cyberpunk and Post Apoc is anti-dystopian because it shows a world where nobody can really be in control and the underdogs always have a chance to overcome their limitations. These days people seem to be afraid of the wrong things.
Emily Vitori Yeah, still want my jetpack dude.
ReplyDelete