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Craig is spectacularly unimaginative, looking at young Graboids wanting to tread the boards & see their names in lights.
Tonya imagines a world ruled and changed by Graboids, with scattered pockets of humanity making their homes in zoos, the last islands of non-graboid life.
Kev considers a Graboid-infested New York in The Days After Ragnarok, then moves on to the strange events aboard the colony ship “Manhattan”.
Ben, who has been working All Of The Hours, suggests The Graboids Take Las Vegas, and has some thoughts upon the difference between pitching a game and spoiling an idea.
Report On An Unidentified Space Station ~ J.G. Ballard
Comparing “Report On An Unidentified Space Station” to “The Parking Garage”
The Muppets Take Manhattan
Family Ties
Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico
Slither
War Against The Chtorr
Night Of The Creeps
Pitch Black
The Day After Ragnarok
The Legacy of Heorot ~ Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes
Now that’s an interesting idea, I have yet to listen to the podcast but I’m already thinking someone transplanted them onto the island and somehow they escaped were let free or maybe even unknowingly released say in some fossilized remains that the scientists didn’t check properly… maybe even eggs?
I remember the sequels some have very interesting adaptations worth considering like flying graboids or the blind but use heat to hunt graboids maybe I’m thinking of the wrong series but Tremors was good to watch!
That’s a great starting mcguffin for a lower-stress game than any of us went for. I think we ended up a little more Traveler:TNE/ Apocalypse World, so a game that could start a bit more gently is a Very Good Thing.
Let us know what you think once you get to the show!
Edit: Craig says his idea started gently, but I’m not sure I believe him.
Hmm maybe a crossover between Tremors and the Relic is in order?
Except the merging graboids are in land mode to explain the slaughter aboard the freighter and they used the coal line to enter the city lairing underneath the museum.
Throw in an aquatic mutation where they can travel through water allowing for a scene later when they’re electrocuted and maybe the discovery they’ve adapted to walk on water like certain insects if viable thus allowing the characters to dive underwater where they’re safe even if submerging in sewer water may not be such a good idea!! (Eww!)
I had to get someone to tell me about The Relic, and I think I am now richer for the experience. The idea that there could be evil soup that might turn a body into a Graboid is down-in-the-bones motivation. If I was playing in that game, I’d want to put a stop to that right fast.
Making use of the Graboid’s tendency to mutate as part of the game … would you be using it to mark the edges of story arcs? Because that would be awesome. I think there is a risk that players might feel a GM was changing the game on them every time they thought they had a plan, but it could be done well if used sparingly.
No I still think some idiots (scientists) picked up the graboid eggs and they hatched in the cellar and burrowed underneath manhatten preying on the homeless and anything wandering in the parks and grassy areas but noone realises they’ve laired in the basements they can penetrate leading to the possibility of sequels because their eggs lie all across Manhatten and due to the wet weather and the fact its an island makes it difficult for them to leave at least not for quite a while!
Now imagine if the Graboids are domesticated as attack guards and gatherers for a mad scientist or even better a rival species is rediscovered and the graboid is the only hope to save Manhatten from complete devastation as their buildings collapse and there’s no safe place wait that could happen if the graboids take to the air but seriously why would they stay when California beckons?
Wow! That was some concentrated idea-fuel right there.
Would the game be about domesticating Graboids, or about finding out who is domesticating them? I’m getting a SuperVillain vibe off that one, so maybe a slightly 60’s Batman Superhero game there.
The bit with the Rival Species might need a bit of unpacking. Two species of Graboid-like life fighting it out sounds like we might be right back at War of the Chthor Apocalypse territory again and I’m not quite getting my head around the concept. Are we domesticating one to fight the other, or are we finding an intelligent Graboid to cut a deal?