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SLA Industries

Started by Biscuitician, August 12, 2017, 02:11:39 PM

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Voros

#30
August 13, 2017, 04:13:49 PM
Not quite. It's actually a fair bit more complex than that but not in a too convoluted way. The background is actually reminscent of the Legion TV show in some ways. I think it is actually an interesting idea, in some ways more interesting than the SLA setting itself but not really a good basis for a RPG setting.

Nexus

#31
August 13, 2017, 06:17:29 PM
Quote from: Voros;982859Not quite. It's actually a fair bit more complex than that but not in a too convoluted way. The background is actually reminscent of the Legion TV show in some ways. I think it is actually an interesting idea, in some ways more interesting than the SLA setting itself but not really a good basis for a RPG setting.

Could you PM me with gist of it when you have the time?
Remember when Illinois Nazis where a joke in the Blue Brothers movie?

Democracy, meh? (538)

 "The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn't even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."

Simlasa

#32
August 13, 2017, 10:45:42 PM
Quote from: Dumarest;982646Paranoia actually only works well if played straight. It's like the Adam West Batman. Nothing about it would have been funny if all tbe characters weren't taking it seriously.
One of the first things I learned in improv classes was to never try to be funny.
In any game the humor is going to come regardless, but it generally seems like a bad idea to tell gamers that they're meant to be 'funny'.

Anyway, that was my take on it... play it as straight dystopian weirdness. But I only had the first edition and none of it's expanded content. I had THX-1138 in mind while reading it.

Dumarest

#33
August 13, 2017, 10:54:42 PM
Quote from: Simlasa;983120One of the first things I learned in improv classes was to never try to be funny.
In any game the humor is going to come regardless, but it generally seems like a bad idea to tell gamers that they're meant to be 'funny'.

Anyway, that was my take on it... play it as straight dystopian weirdness. But I only had the first edition and none of it's expanded content. I had THX-1138 in mind while reading it.

Yep. When people try to be funny, they seldom are. I've seen some painfully bad comedy improvisation troupes trying so hard to be funny...

TrippyHippy

#34
August 14, 2017, 02:55:34 AM
Quote from: Dumarest;983126Yep. When people try to be funny, they seldom are. I've seen some painfully bad comedy improvisation troupes trying so hard to be funny...
If you ever have to stand up in front of a group, as in a speech or something, and you want to come across funny, start reading out a poem and then deliberately take offence at anybody who starts to laugh. Even if it starts of small, keep shhh-ing people or glare or break off into some sort of speech about how 'you need to pay attention' and so on. The longer you keep reacting angry, the more they will laugh.

I'm not kidding, it works every time.
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Thornhammer

#35
August 14, 2017, 08:51:28 AM
Quote from: Dumarest;982760ST. ELSEWHERE : THE ROLE-PLAYING GAME?

Tell me that's just a joke.

"Kinda-sorta if you look at it with your head at the right angle and squinting just right" and "no, not even a little bit a joke."

It's material you'll never, ever find discussed in-game.  There is vague mention in the game of "The Truth" and how damaging it is and the lengths SLA will go to protect it, but it's never laid out for you unless you go looking for that specific document.  For good reason, too - yours is a pretty standard reaction to it.

Just Another Snake Cult

#36
August 14, 2017, 05:05:27 PM
Serious question: Why does "The Truth" get such a visceral reaction out of some people?

It's a semi-serious, borderline-parody, grimdark science-fantasy game full of broad Anti-Thatcher satire, almost-impenetrable-to-foreigners Scottish humor, weird aliens, drugs, ultraviolence, absurd weapons... why does it sting to find out it's not "Real"?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Exploited.

#37
August 14, 2017, 05:07:48 PM
Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;983444Serious question: Why does "The Truth" get such a visceral reaction out of some people?

It's a semi-serious, borderline-parody, grimdark science-fantasy game full of broad Anti-Thatcher satire, almost-impenetrable-to-foreigners Scottish humor, weird aliens, drugs, ultraviolence, absurd weapons... why does it sting to find out it's not "Real"?

It's a creative cop out and a creative cliche. I mean, it's in the same vein as. 'It was all a dream... He had a twin brother'.

It just seems creatively lazy to me.
https://www.instagram.com/robnecronomicon/

\'Attack minded and dangerously so.\' - W. E. Fairbairn.

Voros

#38
August 15, 2017, 01:39:46 AM
Yet everyone seems to love the bullshit twist in Fight Club??

The Exploited.

#39
August 15, 2017, 08:40:52 AM
Quote from: Voros;983580Yet everyone seems to love the bullshit twist in Fight Club??

That's true... But in fight club, he gets the job done even though it's through his alter ego. So everything happened in the movie. Where you could say in SLA that the whole game was completely meaningless because none of it ever took place. So any of the player's actions were useless (and actually could never achieve anything).

Still a great game tho' despite some of its foibles.
https://www.instagram.com/robnecronomicon/

\'Attack minded and dangerously so.\' - W. E. Fairbairn.

Spike

#40
August 15, 2017, 09:20:52 AM
Its weird to say that tho, given how tightly under wraps The Truth was for years. Imagine if the famous episode of St Elsewhere had never aired, or had the last... minute?... clipped in editing, and only die hard fans ever heard about the twist years after it had gone off the air? Still a cop out?

What's more, there seems to me to be a clear intent in the writing, once the curtain is pulled back (eg Reading The Truth), that the game, the characters etc, are meant to take full advantage of all that.

Spoiler
Its not that the world of SLA Industries isn't 'Real'. It is real, its a new universe created in the mind of someone from 'our' universe. Slayer and the rest are immortal only because they aren't actually native to the SLA Industries universe... and player characters, in theory, could cross over to our universe (possibly being just as improbably powerful here as Slayer and Intruder and the rest are in THEIR universe), retrieve a weapon of 'our universe' and take it back to their universe to kill Slayer with it.
At least that was the impression I got back when I read The Truth... but then I've probably read just about every word published for SLA Industries (several times), at least up until 2007 or so.
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Nexus

#41
August 15, 2017, 09:42:37 AM Last Edit: August 15, 2017, 09:47:10 AM by Nexus
Quote from: Spike;983653Its weird to say that tho, given how tightly under wraps The Truth was for years. Imagine if the famous episode of St Elsewhere had never aired, or had the last... minute?... clipped in editing, and only die hard fans ever heard about the twist years after it had gone off the air? Still a cop out?

What's more, there seems to me to be a clear intent in the writing, once the curtain is pulled back (eg Reading The Truth), that the game, the characters etc, are meant to take full advantage of all that.

Spoiler
Its not that the world of SLA Industries isn't 'Real'. It is real, its a new universe created in the mind of someone from 'our' universe. Slayer and the rest are immortal only because they aren't actually native to the SLA Industries universe... and player characters, in theory, could cross over to our universe (possibly being just as improbably powerful here as Slayer and Intruder and the rest are in THEIR universe), retrieve a weapon of 'our universe' and take it back to their universe to kill Slayer with it.
At least that was the impression I got back when I read The Truth... but then I've probably read just about every word published for SLA Industries (several times), at least up until 2007 or so.

Seems some thing that could be used in The Strange.

Spoiler

The PCs are from a large Recursion (The setting of SLA Industries) but don't the nature of the world and eventually become Quickened and come to the 'real world' and other Recursions looking for help
Remember when Illinois Nazis where a joke in the Blue Brothers movie?

Democracy, meh? (538)

 "The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn't even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."

Simlasa

#42
August 15, 2017, 11:24:07 AM
I was a big fan of St. Elsewhere as a kid and when the ending came I thought it was pretty great. The show had always seemed a bit off kilter and had surreal moments... so I thought the ending fit.
Same with the ending of the Bob Newhart show (the one with the Darryls).

When I finally read 'The Truth' of SLA... after I gave it a bit to sink in... I thought that kinda fit too, seeing as how vague the books had been about the wider setting (other worlds) and the leadership being 'Mary Sue' types... and my never really feeling I'd understood the setting despite being impressed by it.

Nexus

#43
August 15, 2017, 01:45:36 PM
Quote from: Simlasa;983734I was a big fan of St. Elsewhere as a kid and when the ending came I thought it was pretty great. The show had always seemed a bit off kilter and had surreal moments... so I thought the ending fit.
Same with the ending of the Bob Newhart show (the one with the Darryls).

When I finally read 'The Truth' of SLA... after I gave it a bit to sink in... I thought that kinda fit too, seeing as how vague the books had been about the wider setting (other worlds) and the leadership being 'Mary Sue' types... and my never really feeling I'd understood the setting despite being impressed by it.

Agreed. It was all a dream/fantasy/illusion can be done well (I think the final issues of Warren's Gen13 did so) or poorly and come across as a cop out (usually undoes poorly received changes like that one season of Dallas, I think?) or pointless.
Remember when Illinois Nazis where a joke in the Blue Brothers movie?

Democracy, meh? (538)

 "The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn't even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."

Voros

#44
August 15, 2017, 09:37:39 PM
Quote from: The Exploited.;983636That's true... But in fight club, he gets the job done even though it's through his alter ego. So everything happened in the movie. Where you could say in SLA that the whole game was completely meaningless because none of it ever took place. So any of the player's actions were useless (and actually could never achieve anything).

Still a great game tho' despite some of its foibles.

I don't think it means none of it took place. He created a recursion/world with his mind.
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