Where I work we have a TV screen above the sales floor that connected to a DVD player. We're allowed to play most any Sci Fi or Fantasy shows/movies - as long as its somewhat family safe for casual browsers when they walk in.
With one of my left over Holiday Gift Cards I bought the first two volumes of
"The Outer Limits" on DVD.
The original show is surprisingly literate compared to how I remember it. Most of the episodes are closer to "Hard" Science fiction when compared to
"The Twilight Zone" - even if it is circa 1963/1964.
The episode "Second Chance" has an interesting idea in it that I thought might be a good one-off or campaign starter.
Take a look :
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chance_(The_Outer_Limits) (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chance_(The_Outer_Limits))
The plot description:
QuoteA frustrated wanderer has found a temporary job - operating a mock-up of a spaceship at a carnival. However an alien modifies the attraction into a real spaceship, and, passing himself off as a giant talking chicken, invites aboard a group of misfits each of whom is refusing to face realities in their lives. Trapped aboard the spaceship, they are offered the opportunity to colonize a planet that would other wise threaten both the alien's own planet and Earth in the near future. To succeed, however, they must overcome their own deep-seated unwillingness to face their own true natures.
In the episode, the alien said that the alien object will crash into Earth in 82 years. The people 'abducted' or recruited will have a chance to save their home planet.
Interesting idea.
Start a colony and save your race - but you have to leave home and settle in a strange situation to do it.
- Ed C.
I loved Outer Limits--there are so many interesting moral tales. How do you plan to use this in a game?
Giant Talking Chicken... WTF?!
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;284837Giant Talking Chicken... WTF?!
RPGPundit
It didn't play that way in the actual episode.
The Alien had bird-like features.
Most of the characters assumed it was a carnival performer in costume....til halfway through the episode.
Nowhere in the actual episode did I hear him referred to as a "walking chicken".
BAD synopsis writer for wikipedia in this case.
Oh and the alien ? He was played by character actor Simon Oakland, Better known to some of us as Pappy Boyington's commanding officer on the the old
"Black Sheep Squadron" TV show.
- Ed C.
I found the episode posted on YouTube, in parts:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLWGhwp8m5g&feature=related
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsgFJNrUWqU&feature=related
Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cvzcOgBuDo&feature=related
Part 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7bG0ECsYQA&feature=related
Part 5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3autNZoYQCM&feature=related
Part 6:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK-w2-xi6c4&feature=related
Take a look especially at parts 5 and 6.
- Ed C.