Random NPC: Mavlor

Since it is close to Halloween, I thought at least one classic monster themed write up was in order. Since Doctor Who has already had multiple flavors of vampires, werewolves, mummies, and at least one Frankenstein's Monster, it seemed Universal's classic Creature from the Black Lagoon seemed like an appropriate addition.


Mavlor, the Gill Creature of the Dark Basin
Recently awoken Silurian


Mavlor is a member of a Silurian subspecies that was much more amphibious than most of their cousins (Sea Devils excepted.) They lived in and around swampy estuaries and deep river backwaters.

Like the rest of his people, Mavlor went into hibernation when the planetoid that would become the moon came close to the Earth, threatening their survival. When he awoken in the middle of the 20th century, he found he was the only one of his community to survive the millennia.Thinking himself alone, he resigned himself to a solitary life deep in the Amazon. He was aware that the ape creatures they used to keep had become these humans now roaming about. Mostly he's ignored them, the locals are fairly primitive and seem to fear him.


Though recently, some scientists from far away have come up the river looking for the so called "Fish Man". Mavlor is uncertain whether he should try and talk with these humans, or just try and frighten them off like the locals.


Awareness  4 Presence 4
Coordination 4  Resolve  4 
Ingenuity 3  Strength 5

Traits
Alien, Environmental (Amphibious), Natural Weapons (claws) , Alien Appearance [major], Weakness [minor-cold], Last of My Kind

Skills
 Athletics 4 (AoE: Swimming) Convince 1, Fighting 4, Knowledge 3, Medicine 2, Subterfuge 3, Survival 4, Technology 1

Movie Review: History of Future Folk

The History of Future Folk is a low budget indie sci-fi comedy that's been screened at various film festivals and recently came out on DVD and VOD. It's a charming little movie  based around a fun and quirky idea.


The story revolves around General Trius (Nils d'Aulaire) the most decorated warrior of the planet Hondo. He has been sent to Earth to unleash a deadly plague that will wipe out the human race and allow the Hondorians to colonize. 

When Trius lands on Earth, he discovers music, a concept completely alien to Hondo. Falling in love with music and the planet that created it, he chooses not to go through with the planned destruction. He marries a human, gets a job and starts playing bluegrass at a local club. 

Later, when the Hondorians send an assassin to try and deal with their renegade, Trius uses the power of music to sway his would be killer named Kevin (Jay Klaitz) to his cause. Soon they join up to become the Alien Bluegrass Folk Duo Future Folk.

While the movie is clearly low budget in an almost classic Whovian manner, the charm of the story and the characters make it a fun ride in spite of the limitations. Did I mention the music? Yes, the original songs by the duo are quite fun. Here are the guys in character singing "Space Worms", it does very well to sum up the nature of the movie.

From a gaming perspective, I could easily see having the Hondorians and a younger General Trius as a recurring villain in your campaign. He's a competent soldier and his advanced technology could be a threat. In general he might be played less outright villainous like the Sontarans and much more of the dedicated soldier doing his duty. When he suddenly turns up on Earth as a musician, it ought to make the players really wonder what the heck is going on.

Book Review: Star Trek: From History's Shadow by Dayton Ward

From History's Shadow might remind a lot of Doctor Who readers of David Bishop's Who Killed Kennedy. Both stories serve to tie together a number of plot threads into a cohesive continuity.

While the original crew is part of the story, it's the parallel tale of Captain James Wainwright that really drives events. He was a minor character in the Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men" where the Roswell incident is the result of the Ferengi accidentally time travelling to 1947. Wainwright becomes part of Project Blue Book and throughout the 50's and 60's has run ins with the other time travelling incidents in Star Trek lore.

The book in general has an X-Files feel to it. With Wainwright and his partner Allison Marshall playing Mulder and Scully as they try to track down a group of time travelling aliens who are trying to interfere with Earth's history.  They also have to deal with the lack of support from the military and government, who regard Blue Book as a waste of time.

Gamers running a period Torchwood or UNIT campaign would find lots of interesting ideas out of this book. It plays heavily with the Temporal Cold War idea that was introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise (and honestly making it much more interesting here than the show ever did.) It's feasible the Temporal Cold War might be an extension of the Last Great Time War into the Star Trek Universe. And the book providing a look at events both through the eyes of locals trying to grasp what is happening and the time aware agents who are trying to alter events to their own advantage.