I just read that QLI/RPGRealms is releasing an Honor Harrington RPG later this year. Are you involved with this one Bob?
Link:
www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/news/pnews ... 58&h=4&s=tJeanne

First, this song has absolutely GOT to be good for something, espescially considering that the Geofront is supposedly the actual garden of Eden, rediscovered and excavated.
Woodstock
Written by Joni Mitchell, performed by
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, 'Tell where are you going?'
This he told me
Said, 'Im going down to Yasgur's Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
'Well, then can I walk beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning.
And maybe it's the time of year,
Yes and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We caught in the devils bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Given the lyrics, it suggests getting hints about the secrets of the universe and what's really going on, a teleport or otherwise difficult to block transport into the Geofront itself, or maybe even the gate song that drops him in the geofront to begin with. Eh, I dunno.
Second, at some point Doug is bound to get really frustrated at the fact that for all his song powers and all the advising he can do in the sidelines, he can't be much more than a few seconds distraction to an Angel with even his biggest guns. At that time, would be a great point for a scene to end with him going to bed, and then the next scene is an angel attack... but he knows this 'angel' and that it's not anywhere near as bad as it seems. The command staff are set up in a mobile facility like they did against the D8 of Doom and for some reason no one is objecting to his being there, kibbutzing as they try various things to fight the angel, but no one is paying attention to his repeated attempts to tell them what he knows. Finally, the angel's head gets snagged on something, and pulls off to reveal that it's a mask, ala Scooby Doo, and after a few seconds of stunned silence, the angel lets out a discouraged "Buhkwock?" and wanders off into the sunset. "I told you he was a giant chicken!" Doug grouses, and wakes up humming the character's theme from the cartoon:
o/~ You wear a disguise/to look like human guys/but you're not a man/you're a chicken, Boo o/~
- CD, ba dada ba dah, BAH BAH!
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

--at the time, I thought an apt power would be an area effect (around Doug) where anyone felt like they were walking on broken glass - whether or not they had shoes on.

Annie Lennox
"Walking On Broken Glass"
You were the sweetest thing that I ever knew
But I don't care for sugar honey if I can't have you
Since you've abandoned me
My whole life has crashed
Won't you pick the pieces up
'cause it feels just like I'm walking on broken glass
Walking on walking on broken glass
The sun's still shining in the big blue sky
But it don't mean nothing to me
Oh let the rain come down
Let the wind blow through me
I'm living in an empty room
With all the windows smashed
And I've got so little left to lose
That it feels just like I'm walking on broken glass
Walking on walking on broken glass
And if you're trying to cut me down
You know that I might bleed
Cause if you're trying to cut me down
I know that you'll succeed
And if you want to hurt me
There's nothing left to fear
Cause if you want to hurt me
You're doing really well my dear
Now everyone of us was made to suffer
Everyone of us was made to weep
But we've been hurting one another
And now the pain has cut too deep...
So take me from the wreckage
Save me from the blast
Lift me up and take me back
Don't let me keep on walking...
Walking on broken glass
Walking on walking on broken glass
--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel

The Crystal Method - "Born Too Slow"
Effect: Slows people down in an area around Doug (maybe something like 15 ft radius?). Also slows their perceptions down so when Doug combat hypes to them he's even faster. For the bad side people outside the area of effect still move at normal speed. So they can fire weapons into the area of effect without penality.
While this song just came out it might make a handy one to play in the role playing sessions. Lyrics at last.
www.gotmeth.net/music/born_too_slow.html
The lyrics seem a little off then from what I think of them. Maybe if I had bought the album in a stores instead of iTunes I might have liner notes.

Shawn Earl

What about Doug dropping into the world of Read or Die? I bet that would be a trip. Particularly if it is set during the TV(which is still ongoing right now, but by the time this would be written, I expect, it would be wrapped up.)
It would be a trip, I think, to see Doug trying to parse Yomiko's abilities(and getting a glimpse of how utterly lethal she is. Do NOT piss this girl off)
"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you....
Shining FINGER!" -Domon Kashuu, Mobile Fighter G Gundam

It's been bugging me for a long time, but how would Doug's metatalent interpret "the song that never ends"? One idea is that the next song he plays, he gets stuck with that power for 24 hours, unable to access any other ones. Obviously, the most sinister version would cause a permanent lock-up on his metagift.

This came up over in Future Steps, when someone asked about DW crossing over with Twister's metaseries.  I noted that DW was originally intended to do just that, in the version of the BGC world visited by both Twister and Ed Becerra's Legion.

I realized that I had the following material still handy on an archive disk, and pulled it off.  It's the original first (fragmentary) draft of the opening of the story, and it predates Lisa Vanette's role in the story.  In the wake of the other discussion, and in light of how close we are to the end, I thought it would be fun to share some of the earliest beginnings of the story with you.

(And despite the major changes it's undergone, would you believe that outline for the part I'm writing right now has been virtually unchanged since the middle 1990s?  Talk about keeping your eye on a goal...)

Anyway, enjoy.  Ed, I'm at work, otherwise I'd've called and check that this was okay; I'll probably call tonight and confirm.  If you object for any reason, I will delete this thread, okay?

-- Bob

Part I:  Here We Are in MegaTokyo, With All The Clams We Can Eat

"Carry on our wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest; Don't you cry no more..."  
-- Kansas, "Carry On My Wayward Son"

MegaTokyo, Japan.  June 28, 2036.  8:17 PM Local Time.

Edward Anthony Becerra (called "Ed" by his friends, also known as
Anthony Edwards, Legion and -- to his immense disgust --
Goldeneyes) was indulging himself in one of his favorite vices:
the company of beautiful and intelligent women.  This particular
evening (like many others) he was sharing dinner in one of
MegaTokyo's more expensive French restaurants with the two women
who were arguably his favorite neighbors. Sylvie and Anri ran the
"Flights of Fantasy" art shop several doors down from his own
bookstore. Like him, they also made their home above the shop they
operated.  

And like him, they were far more than they seemed.  But secrets
shared -- as theirs were -- make for strong friendships, and the
pair had befriended him almost immediately upon his arrival in
MegaTokyo.  It was a friendship that knew no debts to one
another, but Ed had kept up the pretense of "owing" them dinner
for many months now.  Tonight was yet another episode of
"payment" that the two ladies gracefully accepted without
believing the supposed "debt" at all.

Ed's lady, Minerva, was absent from this meal...

...

Legion doing dinner with Sylvie and Anri.  Use this to fill in
some brief background to identify the world to the readers.  They
discuss transfictionality and dimensional travel...  prep some
kind of "what else could happen now?" setup, the payoff being
Looney's arrival.  Maybe something like:

...

...Anri studied her silverware nervously. "I mean," she began,
"after all, Darlene showed up, and then you arrived a couple
years later. How long until the next visitor? And what if it
isn't someone as nice as you two have been?"

Ed absently chewed on his mustache as he gave his answer some
thought. "I don't think you have anything to worry about," he
replied. "It was pure chance that Minerva and I ended up here,
and so soon after Twister did. There are an infinity of
universes out there, so the odds of there ever being another
extradimensional visitor to MegaTokyo are infinitely small."

*Right, baby?* he added silently to Minerva, who was at the
moment in orbit on board Ed's ship, the Calypso.  This Earth's
Clarke orbits were littered with decades worth of space junk,
and as much from her own urge for neatness as for the safety of
the ship, Minerva had been slowly and unobtrusively cleaning
them up for months.

*Actually, your math's off bigtime, b'wana,* she answered
immediately.  *Sure, there's an infinity of destinations for a
visitor, but there's also an infinity of universes for a visitor
to come from.  It evens out, boss.  Elementary calculus --
otherwise the area under a curve would always be zero.*

*Math's not my strong point, Min, but if that were so, we should
be up to our hips in otaku avatars and other cross-time visitors.  
So why aren't we?*

He "felt" her grin.  *That much is obvious -- they're almost
certainly evenly distributed across the size and lifespan of a
"typical" universe.  Any way you cut it, it's a sucker's bet to
expect you to be the last visitor this universe'll see.  But the
odds that another one'll land in this here-and-now?  Close to
nil.*  There was a pause, and then she said, *Oh, no.*

*Min?*  Ed sent.  *What is it, baby?*

*You'd think, lover, with all that we've gone through, I would
know when to keep my big mouth shut.*

*Huh?*  He must have said it aloud, because Sylvie and Anri were
gawking at him in puzzlement.

In orbit, Minerva sighed.  *Boss, I'm detecting a spike of energy
similar to the one that heralded Twister's return.  We've got a
new visitor in town.*

                             * * *

At that moment, over a mile away, in a garbage-strewn alleyway
near the base of the Tokyo Tower, a speck of rainbow-colored
light suddenly appeared in midair.  Almost as soon as it had
become visible, it expanded into a ring surrounding a flat black
disk, nearly ten feet across, floating a less than a yard above
the grimy pavement. A moment later, a human figure dressed in
gray was dumped unceremoniously out of the disk, and it vanished.

In an office high atop GENOM Tower, a lavender-haired woman
jumped, startling a subordinate, when a dramatic and unexpected
pulse of psionic energy washed over her and all her psychic
metasenses shouted "DANGER!".

In a fractally-complex cavern deep under the outskirts of
MegaTokyo, a petite, red-haired girl felt the lattices of magic
in and around the city suddenly warp, and just as suddenly
rebound, leaving her with a migraine that lasted several hours.

Sylia Stingray found herself leaping from her armchair to stand
staring tensely out of the great glass windows of her penthouse
home atop the Silky Lady building.  

At AD Police headquarters, an officer named Bochinski felt a
brief, vague sense of unease and turmoil.  After a moment's
puzzlement he shrugged it off.

And Edward Anthony Becerra held his head and groaned as an
ominous sense of foreboding filled him.

                             * * *

And after this point, the scene of Doug's awakening from chapter 1 begins, and is almost word-for-word identical with what was released.

-- Bob
---------
There is no spork.

Okay, as I said elsewhere, this is incomplete. It's also in a pretty arbitrary order, based on the sequence in which things were asked in the other thread. I also was pretty random about choosing questions to answer, based on how I was feeling when I looked at the file. Have fun.
Q: What's a Warrior?A: In Doug's home universe, the United Nations (which, because it was perceived as being powerless, was being used by various governments as a dumping ground for dangerous idealists) saw an escalation of strategicweapons and metahuman military forces during the late 1970s and early1980s as a literal threat to the future of the world, and decided to dosomething about it (incomplete -- finish)Q: You mean Doug can't just 'call home'?A: Nope. In general, his powers cannot reach beyond the universe he'sin. Q: What's the story about Haven? I liked that series! 1) Can Doug get powers from music he makes (singing, playing an instrument, etc)2) Does the power match what the song lyrics really say, or what Doug thinks they say?3) If Doug's perceptions create the power, can the power change if his perceptions of the lyrics change? Or is the power "locked in" after it manifests for the first time?4) Can Doug get more than one power from one song?5) Can Doug get different powers from different versions/covers of the same song? If so, are the different powers related or can they be totally different?6) Just how powerful can a song make Doug? Can Doug simulate Superman with the right song? In HERO-speak, is there a character-point limit on Doug's powers?What is Warriors International?Who are its members?What is Doug's role there?Q: What is 'Combat Hyping'?A: This is covered in the concordance, which I'll quote here:One of the things I was trying to do in the narrative was carry overas much of the sense and feel of the original V&V game and itsmechanics as I could. This is one instance of that. As players of mostroleplaying games will tell you, there are usually two kinds of time --"regular time," in which you do most of your talking, negotiating,hanging about and whatnot, and "combat time", during which you areusually fighting for your life. In V&V, characters with high initiativerolls (usually as a result of heightened Agility levels), often move,act, think and react several times faster than the normals around them.But outside of combat, they still interact with others at the usual rateof time. In Doug's case, I decided it was a kind of adrenal overdrivesuch as has actually been reported a few times in the real world.Q: What's this 'techno-magical' stuff? I thought technology and magic were mutually exculsive!A: Says who? If they were, you couldn't have magic swords or anything --forging steel into weapons is a technology, after all. If magic couldn'twork with technology, then a wizard would have to live naked in a cave without even fire (starting fire with flint is a technology, too). The thing is, most people associate magic with medieval fantasy, and think that means magic is by its nature incompatible with or even hostile to "high" technology. (See Shadowrun for a good gaming example.) But there's no reason at all to believe that except decades of assumptions and prejudices. Magic works just fine with technology if you pick the correct axioms -- for example, the GURPS magic system includes an entire college of magic designed to deal with technology, including such spells as "analyze machine" and "repair".Doug comes from a world where magic and technology are two different, butnot incompatible, paths by which the world can be manipulated. Magicoperates by rules (it has to, if spells can be created and cast reliably)that can be investigated and discovered with the same scientific methodused for other laws of the universe, with the same success. Researchers in the last century have even proved that there can be a large degree ofprofitable synergy between the two paths -- something that the firstenchanters of manufactured items discovered centuries earlier.Q: Why does Doug have a problem with gods?A: Doug is at his heart a frustrated mystic. He wants there to be something Big and Meaningful behind the veil of the world. Discoveringthat the gods really, truly existed, that they weren't just figments ofhuman imagination, at first seemed to the answer to what he was lookingfor. Unfortunately, almost every god he's ever met has been a disappointment -- humans writ large, undisciplined children with toomuch power, beings he feels are not deserving of either the power theywield or the influence they have in human lives. Ultimately, though, he feels betrayed by the gods, all gods, because they are (as he sees it)too busy playing sadistic games with the lives of mortals and not doinganything to give meaning and purpose to those lives. He respects and admires Hexe, maybe even loves her a little, for her integrity and self-restraint, for choosing to put herself -- all of herself -- in a mortal shell and *be* a mortal, to have mortal concerns, with something close to mortal limits; this alone, in his opinion, makes her far superior to the vast majority of gods. But paradoxically, in Hexe he cannot find the true transcendance that he yearns for, because she has become *too* human. So he's stuck looking for something other than the all-too-mortal Hexe and the ineffable brats he's come to see other gods as, in the hopes that he will find a divine spark that proves there's more to the multiverse than nihilism and self-indulgent deities. In the mean time, he takes out his frustration and anger on those deities.Q: What, exactly, does Doug need to get a power from a musical work? (music + lyrics, music + some words, words + a beat, etc.) Q: Where can I learn more about Warriors World and the Warriors themselves.You might want to cover some of material that would have been presented in DW1 that gets referenced in DW2 (and presumably later stories). Although it's been at least 10 years, I'm sure there are still plenty of folks who don't know about Heralds and Whites and other things from that universe. Or you could just include a list of books to go read : )Alternately, a brief (point for, or a paragraph or two, that's all) plot run down on what happened to Doug while he was there, if that doesn't violate Lackey's Law.Q: What happens if Doug was to play "The Song That Never Ends" on a loop in his helmet? (April Fool's Edition, surely)Q: Where can I find official IST World merchandise/materials?A: Good question. Both IST and IST Kingston are long, long out ofprint. No additional materials were ever written for the world.(SuperTemps and Super Scum predate IST, and I incorporated them intoit; they are not really IST materials.) I have, of course, a page ofIST material here on my site, but they aren't "official". If there are any other official materials, I don't know about them. You can always write en masse to Steve Jackson Games and demand them,of course.Q: Will IST ever get a second edition?A: It doesn't seem to be in the cards for the foreseeable future.However, if you send your cards and letters to Steve Jackson Gamesasking for a new, expanded edition, maybe we can get somethinggoing.Q: Is there an official IST World version of Doug?A: No. Many of the characters from Warriors' World made guest appearances in on form or another, but Doug is not one of them.He's pretty impossible to build in GURPS Supers without creatinga new power expressly for him.Q: Have you done that?A: No.Q: Why not?A: I've never needed to play Doug in GURPS.Q: What Warriors' World characters appear in IST?A: A fair number, including some not mentioned in Drunkard's Walk (at least as of early 2004). Argurous Astraph is Silverbolt. Witchwindis inspired by Hexe, but isn't really terribly close to her. Warrior isa character initially created by Joe "Dwimanor" Avins. Drifter was playedby John D. Gold. Patchwork was an NPC I created as a "villain who isn't"plot mcGuffin. Similarly, I created The Void as a villain for the campaign; she was even more dangerous under V&V.Q: Is Doug an author avatar?A: No. My "avatar" in Warriors' World is a superhero by the name of "Quasar", who works with a private team named "StrikeForce" based in New Jersey. He and Doug were freshman year roommates in college, but neither had any idea the other was a mutant with metahuman abilities. Q: Can I write Drunkard's Walk stories? A: I'm not going to come to your house and make you stop, if that'swhat you're asking.Q: No, no, I mean I want to write a Drunkard's Walk story and show it toyou and maybe share it with other readers.A: Oh. Sure. I'd be a hypocrite if I said I didn't want people doingfics based on *my* fics. Besides, I think it's a hell of a compliment.Anyway, you wouldn't be the first -- I have a page set up for fan-writtenadventures (the Fanficsquared), and I'm happy to post things people write.I'll warn you, though, that I vet what goes up there -- I'm not going toaccept something that's grossly out of character or inappropriate.You can also post it directly into my discussion forums, but then you riskimmediate and direct criticism on your efforts by people who may not be asnice as me. Q: Can I use Warrior's characters in some story I'm writing?A: Ask first. I don't own most of the WW characters, and am using them with the permission of their owner/creators. If you want to use them,you should get the same permission.Q: How many licks does it take for Doug to get to the center of a tootsie pop?A: Three. He could never resist biting.Q: What's the deal with Wetter Hexe being a god?A: The same deal with Marvel's Thor being a god. Sorta. The differenceis a little complex. Gods as manifested in a particular universe are actually a "timeslice" of vastly more powerful, extradimensional creatureswho operate in many different universes simultaneously; think of them as"inserting" themselves into many different "stories" at once. So all the Thors that exist in various universes are just "faces" -- avatars --of a single being who can manage them all simultaneously. However, theBeing who is Hexe wanted a different experience of a mortal world, andpoured *all* of itself into a human child. That Being no longer existsin the "metaplane" where all the other meta-level gods live, and no longerhas active avatars in any other universe; its entire existence is now bound into the mortal form which is Hexe. It is by no means mortal now -- whenHexe dies (and she will, eventually), the Being she is will return to themetaplane with all its experiences intact.Q: Okay, Hexe's a goddess. *Which* goddess is she?A: I'm sorry, citizen, that information is not available at your securityclearance. Seriously, although we in the campaign know what pantheon she belongsto and in what way, Helen has asked me not make that information public.She *has* laughed, though, at the idea that Hexe's Athena, particularly the version from Saint Seiya.Q: Just how powerful is Hexe? A: Very very. Using V&V rules straight out of the box, Hexe can: control the weather in an area of several hundred square miles, run at nearly 200 MPH, fly at supersonic speeds, survive being at ground zero for a nuclear explosion, take on a noncorporeal spirit form, and use the air for dozens ofyards around her as a single massive sensory organ. She can lift close to1400 pounds, and does about a third of a Fuzion Kill with her bare hands.(Unlike Doug, none of that is martial arts prowess -- that's all pure power.)And that's with almost all of her "true" nature's power throttled down!Q: Do you accept artistic renderings of Doug's adventures or the characters he interacts with?A: You bet! I even have a Gallery page to put them on.Q: Can I be a prereader? Q: If Doug was a big furry animal, what kind would he be? A: An extraordinarily large wombat.Q: Has Doug ever learnt to play any musical instruments? A: He tried his hand at the guitar during his early teens, before his metagift manifested, but found he had not talent for it. He hasn'tseriously tried any other musical instrument, although he has managed toget a recognizable tune out of a harmonica a few times. This fact secretly pleases him to a degree totally out of proportion with the difficulty of the task.Q: ... and can he play and sing such that he'll get a power? A: Well, since he can't play anything, no. But even if he could, it'sunlikely he could play, sing, *and* fight all at the same time.Q: Does Doug get any powers from instrumental versions of songs?A: No.Q: Do ballad songs trigger Doug's power, or are they safe?Q: Has any song ever automatically triggered Doug's power (is this possible?), or does it always take a conscious decision on his part?A: All the time. That's the power's default mode -- Doug can onlychoose to listen to or avoid music. Most songs then have a radiuseffect, or some other undirected expression. Doug, naturally enough,has chosen to focus a lot on songs whose effects he gains some limited ability to direct.Q: If Doug hears a song he's heard before (and had a positive connection to, and therefore, has a power for it), does it trigger his power?A: Yes. He had no voluntary control -- other than avoiding music --over the activation of his song power.Q: What was Doug's first use of the power, and what happened? (Ie: What was his origin story?) What happens if Doug hears a song while he is unconscious?What is forcing a song? (explained in story, but still...)What is mana, how does it arrise, how does it get tapped, can it be traced, etc....Is there such a thing as counterspell or antimagic?What happens when doug starts listening in the middle of a song? Or if a part of the song starts looping?Q: What happens the first time Doug hears a song?A: His subconscious mind takes it all in and evaluates (for lackof a better word) it. He gets a sense (not always accurate) of whether or not the song will have a magical effect.Does the same song in different languages have different powers?What about a song in a language Doug can't understand?What can and can't the chaos field surounding Doug do?How much control does Doug have over his powers?If the Godzilla song (you know the one by the Blue Oyster Cult) didn't work in his magic poor homeplane, could it work on a more magic rich plane, or if he tapped a node?When is the nex chapter/walk/whatever coming?How can I help?


-- Bob
---------
There is no spork.

I may have asked this before, but does Doug as a general rule stick to rock music, or is his musical taste more wide-ranging?
I'd love to see what he does with "Gateway to Faerie" by Elvendrums (www.elvendrums.com) (massive plug for one of my favorite Faire bands) or possibly Gilbert and Sullivan's "Modern Major General".
Let's not even consider the effects of listening to all 18+ hours of Wagner's "Ring"...

the theme from Sakigake Cromartie High is fun, and it would also be fun to see Doug doing a Great Teacher Sangnoir with the kids there. It might end up being too similar to Child's Toy, though, in being a 'wierd school story' show... Cromartie makes Furinkan look GOOD, but it still just another schoolkids anime.
- CD, who's been on an anime binge
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows