"Where would you drop the Lovecraft bomb?" Topic

In my obsessive quest to ruin the Earth just enough to make it interesting without losing all hope for survivability I have come to this point…a point of dimensional convergence, a rift of sorts.

Yes I know, nothing all that original or awe inspiring, but there is more.

After this gate opens this establishes a series of events.

The first being an equal exchange of matter and energy…a vast amount of here goes there and there comes here.

Second is the fringe effects of the exchange…water table being tainted, new flora and fauna taking a foothold, and the related ebb and flow of (super)natural exchange.

Third…and the fun part, is the slightly altered physics…large portions of rock/earth where the fringe points meet begin to float and drift, the air itself thins or thickens without notice, there are pockets of altered gravity and magnetism, storms that spin out of the zones and cause dramatic change to the surrounding environment, the flora and fauna, and yes even the people…that which survives the alteration is forever changed.

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My initial thought is "how cool is this!", so I share.

My second thought is in regards to the actual point of contact…that spot that the Lovecraft bomb or gate/rift starts…and on this I open the table to my fellow TMPers.

Now of course if this happened anywhere it would have a dramatic and significant effect…but for the sake of including the masses as well as a general opinion, where would you start the fun?

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Point of interest…the size of the affected zone is roughly the size and shape of Alaska USA with a few arms to create a basic hurricane shape

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a fun state size comparing site alaska.org/bigalaska

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Now of course in the center of the Ocean would be quite interesting as would the center of North or South America…but as we are a global community here on TMP I would like some input other than my own.

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The idea of the game setting would be that the world and people are the same as they are today except for the zone of change.

How we would deal with said zone and the plants, animals, people, weather, dust, microbes, and things that come from the tainted area is the game.

Middle East. Could it get any crazier?

Gracias,

Glenn

Take a page from the old GURPS book and have the rift open at the White Sands Proving Grounds. Oppenheimer was a cultist, and "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds" was an incantation, not a pithy saying.

Some potential scenes around and in the zone

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I am considering the impact value of the start point.

In the ocean could be just horrific…a sea of monsters and altered physics…which would be most interesting to be sure.

In the Amazon jungle…it is already fairly difficult to cross on the ground/water…this would be a great adventure starter.

In Antarctica makes sense, duh Lovecraft, but the exchange value would be minimal…mostly just give and not so much take…an alien Amazon basin in central Antarctica along with altered weather and climate…egads.

So much potential.

Maybe it would be better to spread the wealth with thirteen smaller impact zones? Just a chaotic sprinkling of change and interest?

I think this has already been done. Admittedly on a far smaller scale. I will have to go there 9.00am Monday, stay there to 5.00pm.

Hmmmm

I would say probably not on North America/Europe/China as this would have a big impact on people from outside being able or interested on coming in – but should be close

So – Central America (like the movie Monsters)

Middle East

Central Asia

Indonesia

Definitely go with more,smaller events. The adventure opportunities would be limitless.

According to Dr. Who there is a rift in the center of Cardiff, Wales.

I used my random generator had made for an asteroid strike (another vision of ruining the Earth for gaming fun) and here are the results.

A single Alaska sized zone (rolled three times…just to have a choice)

Algeria (Northern Border)…so the affected range would cover:

Algeria
Morocco
Portugal
Spain
Western/Central Mediterranean Sea
Tunisia
Libya
Italy

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Pacific Ocean (west of the Galapagos Islands)

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Russia (South central near China border)

Central Russia (Southern)
Kazakhstan (Eastern)
China (Northern)
Mongolia (Western)

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Then I dropped thirteen smaller ones (instead of the big one situation)

(figuring the size right around the same as South Korea)

Greenland (Southern Cape)
Gulf of Alaska
Mexico (South)…I know right, just like the Monsters movie :)
Chad (Northern)
Pacific Ocean (Central)
India (Central)
China (Western)
Pacific Ocean (Central)
Russia (Western)
China (Eastern)
Indian Ocean (Eastern)
Atlantic Ocean (South Eastern)
Canada (Southern)

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Did I hit anyone out there :)

Am I really bad for thinking 'Lovecraft Bomb' sounds like a sex toy?

"Cubicle three, Forty-two-yr-old male, Foreign Object Insertion (battery-operated Lovecraft Bomb). Usual explanation – getting out of the bath, slipped and 'fell on it.' As long as the X-rays are okay, it's just a matter of seeing who's got the smallest hands."

…wow… YouTube link

Middle East a lot of angry people there.

Am I really bad for thinking 'Lovecraft Bomb' sounds like a sex toy?

Considering Ray Bradbury did that joke way back when he wrote Farenheit 451, I'd say you're safe.

Drop it on Canada. They think they are so awesome let them handle it. ;)

I've just bought a housebrick-sized collected edition of Ray Bradbury stories.
The prospect of smutty gags is merely a bonus.

Drop it on Sunderland. It would cause untold millions of pounds-worth of improvements.

Belgium

Well this I did not anticipate.

I was not looking for input for political or personal reasons…but rather for gaming setting interest.

Sigh…never mind :(

what about the Bermuda triangle? might be an interesting way to tie in the strangeness happening there. the "veil" between dimensions/realities was always thin there, and some event happened that triggered the rift.
and the area affected could be mostly water with a little bit of affected land(Florida Azores, Cuba, Bermuda, etc)

another good one for little impact on hte existing populations are any of teh major deserts around the world (australian outback, Sahara, Gobi, Pentagonian, Mojave/Chihuahuan Desert areas etc)

@ 28mm Man: I was somewhat serious. Canada would be great. If it landed in the northern less populated areas governments could still keep it a secret. Better still, weird aquatic creatures could slip into Hudson Bay and in the oceans.

Stick it on the moon and have tendrils of lightning/weirdness strike the Earth wherever you want pockets of new "conditions" to take effect…. ;)

@Scatha…that does sound good.

@Zephyr…having it erupt on the moon…massive overgrowth in mere months…maybe even some erratic lunar movement…establishes an improbable atmosphere…bits of the tainted moon bits being pulled down to Earth…a new race to the moon…hmmmm sounds as good as YouTube link no really, I like it!

Carhenge, Nebraska.

carhenge.com

It is a symbol of Technology and Magic, probably on a Ley Line. It could be a 'Island of Tranquility' surrounded by the vast changes of terrain, weather etc. It splits North America, creates the Great Nebraska Sea, boiling, rip currents, seamonsters. It can affect the Slipsteam so its definitely a difficult fly zone. And can generate vortices that reach out into other areas leaving the same change and destruction in their wake.

Have the Morrow Project wake up to that…

Either coast of the USA

Singapore. That place is just too damn normal.

Demons? Tentacles? It has to be Japan. The good news is that China, the Koreas and Russia would also catch a bit of it, and everybody there hates each other's guts…

The good news is that it's all-out mecha vs. Cthulhu action with improbably named weapons.

The bad news is that we get magically powered schoolgirls, whiny emo mech pilots and incomprehensible plot lines.

EDIT: If there's any Lovecraft Bomblets left over, send some to Milton Keynes and Melbourne (what could be better than mutant koalas).

Hollyweood. After a 15 minute Media Hype Rush, it would be ignored.

"It has to be Japan"…yikes, too soon :(

But yes I agree that the end result would be interesting.

I am leaning towards one of these (input most welcome):

Canada/USA border

Columbia

Morocco/Algeria

India

buffalo,ny
or palermo,sicily
which I have heard referred to as the armpit and crotch of the world(by my wonderful father)
maybe a small bomblet could target the TMP dawghouse

Singapore. That place is just too damn normal.

In Singapore, you're normal … or else.

You just have to "near miss" Singapore. Get a colony of Deep Ones offshore…

I like the "Moon plus bomblets" idea. Something strikes the Moon and it begins spinning relative to Earth. Each revolution we can see more and more of the airless surface being subsumed. As the strike point rotates into view, weird lightning arcs from it to the Earth, striking apparently random spots. Most miss major population centers, and the rest of the world sighs in relief when the lightning strikes stop after a few months. Then the spots struck start to change…

"Take a page from the old GURPS book and have the rift open at the White Sands Proving Grounds. Oppenheimer was a cultist, and "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds" was an incantation, not a pithy saying."

Seems like a good starting point…

I vote for the multiple rifts opening seemingly at random (we *are* talking about the likes of Cthulu, Hastur, Yog-Sothoth, and the rest of my old drinking buddies, right?).

I say we pop 'em off in all sorts of interesting places, from a ruined temple in Mesopotamia to some obscure mountain peak in Central Asia, from Kim Jung Il's private bungalow to The Great Mall in Milpitas, CA.

Just pick your favorite site of historical evil, depravity, and desolation, and we're good to go.

Leland R. Erickson

I'd start with the semi-mythical Sodom and Gomorrah (already happened once). The Pyramids, centered on the Sphynx (a center of Cthulhu-worship). Ireland (the veils are already really thin). Bermuda Triangle (ditto). Halfway between Hawaii and the Aleutians, there should be something there and there's *not*. The "devil's vortex" in Oregon (that place just ain't right). New Jersey Pine Barrens (ditto).

Australian outback (veils are thin there, too). Ankor Wat.

Someplace in south-central africa (should be an ancient city there). South America, up in the headwaters of the Amazon. Mexico City (err, Tenochtitlan). And the Nazca plateau.

Target: Washington D.C.

Oh wait a moment…a Lovecraft Bomb has already gone off there.

Ground Zero can be found at 3014 Cambridge Place.

It did land in Northern Canada – we just kept it a secret

Where do you think Justin Bieber and Celine Dione came from?

So the Event would explain Charlie Sheens' rants. HE's a Prophecalyptic Holy Man!

I appreciate all the relevant input :)

Let me rephrase the question to better figure my next step…

I am going to establish multiple points on contact with this exchange process.

The location is the issue at hand…so I am asking for this particular input:

specific locations with a purposeful intent (lay lines, arcane focus points, etc.)

or

completely random as if the dice of change were throw

Both have their charm, but the Pacific is large enough to soak up more random results than you may want. I would consider a short list of places that you really want to affect based on inspiration. Keeping those in mind, generate your list of randoms, and compare the two. If the randoms hit your inspiration list you're good. If not, add or replace (based on the number of hits you want) to get your inspired hits on the final list.

Going on Lovecraft's own writings and the writings of others in his realm, I'd be looking at a wish list that included New England, Ventura-Tehachapi, Egypt, remote Canada, eastern Europe, and at least one remote oceanic island.

Specific multiple locations allow you to channel events/players in the direction you want. A lot more interesting than random hits which may be geographically useless for what you want to emphasize. Easier to make areas more colorful and dangerous than random ocean hits.

Euro-Disney.

Thanks guys, those are some good responses…well not all, but with the exception :)…I am curious about the Ocean impacts…I think these would be much more damaging than the same land coverage, in relative exchange…assuming that the incoming exchange was capable of being in our salt water.

The big if, IF the new alien environment could survive the ocean location then bad things would happen…especially if these locations were in the fishing or shipping lanes/zones.

The currents spreading the chaos much faster than air borne weather conditions.

The creatures passing through the zone…the little critters eating the microbes, the little critters getting eaten, etc. then in the end the top of the food chain gets involved…sharks, whales, us…egads.

On ground zero of the Madison, WI protetsts?

(Note, that is NOT a political statement at all)

I merley believe that the situation there has everything but Cthulhu appearing incarnate, so why not make it interesting?

:)

If ocean, the Pacific Island chains could have a variety of conditions, island groups could be land-bridged, little semi-isolated Deathworlds etc.

Naval Skirmish Rules like sjg's Boatwars could work, too.

You could redo the 'Lost' tv series with a better ending.

The way the "Lovecraft Bomb" seems to work is very simular to the experiments that the "Arrowhead Project"( see Stephen King's "The Mist", both film and story) was working on when they lost control of it.

@28mmMan

"It has to be Japan"…yikes, too soon :(

Well, this is a hypothetical scenario so it's really anytime Japan. During the 80s would make for the best chaos, just before the yen revaluation and ensuing stock market collapse. Add in Cold War paranoia and it's a heady pre-apocalyptic mix :-)

People are much too sensible these days.

28mmMan:

specific locations with a purposeful intent (lay lines, arcane focus points, etc.)

LITS:

Someplace in south-central africa (should be an ancient city there).

Great Zimbabwe is associated with "vortices" or ley lines or other mumbo jumbo.

link

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More food for the ravening conspiracy, the Giza Pyramids and Great Zimbabwe are almost in North-South alignment with one another (about 31 degrees E).

"Arrowhead Project"

That was the thing that came to my mind as well
t.w.

Ya know, with all of the conspiracy theories surround the HAARP contraption, there's yer in for *how* and *what* has been triggering the rifts to open up and let the lil' darlins come a-slitherin' through…

BTW, has anybody seen DWW/Bartentacle on Duty? This is right up his alley!

Leland R. Erickson

Paris!

After all, it's been hit by asteroids and aliens so many times, what's one more?

South Central Africa, along the Great Rift Valley.
Weaselhoffen.