Dreamscaping

This post is a sequel of sorts to a far older one. Just as then, I will consider common characteristics of my dreams, but also how some of them have changed since.

There is still water-based settings like public pools but in more of them I'm looking for the loos. There is still walking but possibly less now that I walk somewhat less in reality. In contrast there is as much human interaction as there always was despite me having less of that in waking life. Sometimes pets seem to talk and all non-humans have the same 'mind feel' for me. There is still crazy architecture and now also more concern over machines.

There always was some tech-anxiety in the form of me needing to drive cars too small for me. Now I am evidently concerned by things like smart phones. In one of them I have accidentally triggered the opening of a whole new device on my existing one. This is like accidentally opening an application but an entire new phone manifested right on top of the first and I cannot seem to turn it off. Waking logic says this has given me another smart phone to sell but in the dream I only wanted to get rid of it by collapsing its function.

In most other cases I'm concerned to keep track of a limited number of possessions. Sometimes it is looking for something in a room. Other times it is just checking and re-checking what I have stowed in my backpack. I'm never so fussed by this in reality than I am in dreams.

In some dreams I have the recurring theme of living as an eternal student. I seem to be vaguely aware of essay due dates passing me by but never bother to act on them. I only go to some seminars and have never been to the faculty offices. This was never me in reality but I suppose it could have been. It embarrasses me a bit but it seems like I'm always enrolled in my course anyway.

A similar thing happens with me as an office worker who never does much work at all. I go to work and sit at a computer and do some things but never get into the nitty gritty data entry and nobody seems to mind. The interesting thing here is it tends to be a small company I worked for in reality but lost the job because they were giving more roles to the relatives of the company co-owners.

I sometimes suspect that dreams are getting more vivid. Or possibly I am remembering them more because I am more likely to wake (with a need to find that loo). I sometimes even wake with a particular tune or phrase still in my mind. One classic line I recorded was me telling someone to "sit your Gershwin down" - apparently that name had become slang for bottom.

There are still fantastical moments that seem to arise from the nature of dreams to be anything and everything. In one dream I was looking at a map of an inlet and then transitioned to wading with friends in that same inlet. Patches of the watery surface were still map-like cloth but were rapidly dissolving. We gleefully gathered as much as we could because it was apparently a rare thing to find.

Excitement and even contention also seem more common in my dreams. I wonder why and one speculation is that some of my getting older conditions or medications play a role. Thankfully most of my dreams are still rather relaxed.

I will end with a blending of dream elements into one narrative snippet...

I'm travelling home and chatting with strangers on a bus - this is perfectly normal behaviour by-the-way. The bus gets stuck in a pond so I have to walk the rest of the way. Nobody is much bothered by this and just get on with life. I'm the same but do take extra care to make sure I have my jacket and backpack.

I get back to the area in which I live. A multi-storey cark park has been converted into many dwellings with the insertion of a bunch of internal and external wall panels. There are shops on the ground floor and I think my room is accessed via a buy-and-sell record store. The back streets have become parks or food-growing community gardens. Do I know that person hanging sheets to dry across from my window? It hardly matters because we act as if we do.

Life seems to have become some sort of shabby yet cheerful solarwave postcard but then I get into an argument with someone who prefers what we have lost. It is more a past-time since everyone tolerates different opinions as personal expression rather than dissention. But I cannot banter for long because I have something to attend.

Friends are gathering at an outdoor pool located next to a derelict amusement park. The roller coaster structure casts shadows on the water as afternoon passes into evening. We chat, waft about in the water, then move onto an indoor party.

The hosting home has zigzag-arranged levels and cozy recovered retro furnishings. From the centre of each level we can look diagonally into two other floors and different groups yell cheerful hellos across the gap. Do I know you and would you like to know me better? Let me put your address into this old phone cover that I now use to keep a pocket notebook.

The Shoes

I'm house-sitting right now and had imagined it allowing me to work on a rather complex short story concept I have been mulling over for months. But all the change-of-scene has done is disturb my routines. The next best thing is transcribing a very old and short snippet of creative writing I found recently in my concertina file...

Damn, these new shoes hurt. The first step I take is always the worst. It feels as if my Achilles tendons are being torn apart. Each successive step is a bit more tolerable, till about the sixth, from which the pain is barely noticeable. Every time I stop, at a busy road for instance, the whole process starts again. I suppose it's a bit like life - the pain is still there but one grows accustomed to it with time.

They are new shoes, which is why they hurt. I'm breaking them in, but just now it feels like they're breaking me in! Problem is, dead leather don't feel, but flesh does. Anyway, these shoes will provide me with months of leak-free walking, but to gain that I must first suffer. Anything new can hurt. Change can hurt.

As one gets older, life does not get better or worse, it just gets bigger, more complicated. What I'm carrying tells me that. A few years ago it would have been a small bag with a few exercise books in it. Now I wear a large backpack full of folders and books and I also carry my saxophone case in one hand. Today I had two essays returned to me. I got an A for Literature but only a C for Economics. There was a time when I got straight Bs. Oh well. There are more interesting things than study just now anyway.

Had band practice today. We are still a bit rusty, but it's fun, and we get out of classes for it sometimes. The bassist is really cute and we seem to get along well. We only meet so far in band practice. I need to do something about that. But how? I've never asked anybody out before. Maybe I could do it covertly and get the whole band together socially to go to the cinemas or have a picnic or something.

Or maybe I could phone once I get home. I can take off my shoes, have a cool drink, and take my life into my hands while letting my fingers do the walking. Hope that doesn't hurt too much.

I wrote those few paragraphs (very barely edited here) in my twenties but - as you can tell from its content - the character is a teen. At the time I only shared it with a few uni friends. Much of the experience described is familiar to me and yet I have never played the sax or been in a band. Maybe the genesis of my imaginary band Encore is hinted at here. One thing I'm thankful for is how I barely if ever need to wear leather shoes these days.

Cooking With Logan

This is barely creative writing and barely a cooking post but it will have to do for now. Call this the third instalment in my Logan trilogy if you like. In it I examine what our solitary old fellow does on his Sundays at home. Much of it is defined by meals.

It was a Sunday and Logan Mallee started it by splashing cold water in his face then drinking some with his morning tablets. Next, he got to work on a breakfast of grilled mushrooms on wholemeal toast accompanied by a glass of diluted mineral water. Yes, Logan was frugal, but in this case he was just taking the edge off the sharpness of the bubbles. So far, the elderly pensioner had been working in his pajamas, slippers and dressing gown, but now he took a quick shower and got dressed.

Logan was staying around home today, but could not resist taking an ambling walk around the block, in the hope of running into some neighbours walking their dogs. That done, he returned home and got in some gardening while the morning was still cool. He had never been much of a gardener, and the condition of the yard showed it, but these days he managed to keep to within neighbourhood guidelines of acceptability, and his few cultivars added interest to his cooking.

Next thing Logan knew, it was morning tea by his own reckoning, and he returned to his kitchen for some coffee, a handful of cashews and an apple. Following what seemed like a short rest, he got onto some household chores, while listening to radio news and talkback. Logan did the dishes, put clothes on to wash, dusted and sorted the clutter of the past week, all the while muttering at whatever somebody was saying over the airwaves.

Lunch for Logan was satisfying yet easy to prepare. He simply dumped a small tub of pre-made potato salad into a bowl along with a small tin of smoked salmon and threw in some finely chopped herbs he had grown. He chased this with more diluted mineral water. Next, Logan went into the living room and opened a window that had long ago been enclosed by the back extention of his house. Now it simply allowed music to flow into the study behind it. He put something on the record player and got to work at his desk.

There was always something to sketch or resketch. Local sites arrayed around the walls included some shops, a milkbar, the library, his favourite eatery, a community hall and a sports field. Right now however Logan was reworking an old sketch of his last and, he had to admit, favourite dog. He wondered whether he should get another one or if he was just too old to ensure its welfare beyond his own lifespan. Putting such musing behind him, Logan remembered that he had planned to sort some paperwork but, on glancing at it, decided to put it off till another day.

Anyway, it was time for afternoon tea, and Logan had a hot cuppa with honey and lemon to go with some crackers topped with soft cheese and dill pickles. Following that, it was time for a nap, so he returned to his bedroom and settled in for an hour or so of scrambled sepia-tone memory. Some time later, the sounds of lawn mowing and muffled chatter woke Logan and, gathering his hazy wits, he got clothes in from off the line.

It was getting cold so he put on the living room heater and set to work once more in the kitchen. For dinner, Logan found that baked beans from two tins was so much better than from just one. He combined diced tomatoes with cannallini beans in a pot and added spring onion and garlic. Once more, he had the weakened bubbles to wash it all down. Logan had nobody but himself to blame for a hearty fart as he rose from the table.

In his warmed living room he watched some telly. A game show and a situation comedy entertained him. They were a window onto a wider world he spent less time in now and, even as he knew it was fluff and fiction, it still helped him feel more connected to something. A lot of the shows he had enjoyed in his prime seemed to be back in re-hashed form, and the small changes were interesting. Everything old is new again, he mused, except for Logan himself. Possibly he should ring someone to share that joke with.

Eventually, it was time for a mug of hot chocolate, a handful of almonds, and some blackberries from the back yard. Following that, he prepared for bed and washed down more tablets with water. Logan read a few chapters from the spy thriller he was currently reading. With that reminder of the past settling his mind, he drifted off once more, wondering what the coming week would bring.

The meals described here fit my image of 'old codger food' while also fitting notions of what I enjoy. I have play-tested this one-day diet and it can just about satisfy me at my current age.

Trolls

In running a new role-play game I have chatted with players on the topic of creating settings and scenarios. One thing I noted is that such creativity involves mixing the creative concepts of others and the more you mix the more distinctively yours a concept can become. To illustrate this I will focus on just one thing - Trolls in The Lands. I can discern something like five influences that went into my imaginary trolls. These concepts played back-and-forth concurrently in my mind. Here I shall present them in a sequence that moreorless fits my own discovery of those various conceptions.

The oldest encounter I had with trolls was in the fairy tale The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I'm sure this is true of many a childhood. This troll lives under a bridge and I had always imagined it therefore as something semiaquatic. Now I look back into the story and see some ambiguity. Many images depict the troll as standing under a bridge but on some enbankment. The story itself sometimes ends with the troll swept away by the flowing water once pushed in by the biggest brother goat. Nonetheless I decided that my trolls would be something that lurks in shallow waters and busts forth to accost shocked travellers.

I met the trolls of Middle Earth as a tween. Tolkien drew from creatures of Norse lore that are somewhat vague in description and his too vary over time. The three trolls in The Hobbit, while large and stupid, are rather humanlike. Their only fantastic characteristic is reverting to stone once exposed to sunlight. In Lord Of The Rings they become more monstrous and seem akin to the orcs they fight alongside. This impressed upon me the importance of having such creatures in a fantasy world but that role eventually went to my version of ogres (which for me are a cross between orcs and hill giants).

Next came Grendal and Grendal's Mother. I read a translation of Beowulf for young readers which may have named one or both as trolls. This Old English tale comes from a time in which its Scandinavian characters were experiencing a transition from Norse to Christian religion. It shows in the various ways these lethal monsters are described. The words and behaviours fit the older religion but they are reconceived as descendents of the wicked Biblical Cain. My trolls lack any supernatural significance but I do try to convey a sense of gloomy foreboding that came from this story. The abode of these two creatures is a grotto in a swamp and that entrenched for me the connection of trolls to water.

Eventually Dungeons & Dragons came into my teenaged life and its core rules describe a rather different monster from the influences thus far named. These gaunt creatures had rubbery hide with the ability to regenerate rapidly (even recombining with severed body parts). I think this was influenced by some pulp fiction author the D&D creators were into. I digress now into a bit of speculation of how to link this troll back to the mineral troll of Tolkien. Apparently silicone rubber can self-mend with the application of heat. What if D&D trolls were a living version of this? Fire would then become a boon rather than a bane to them. But back to my trolls and what I took from D&D was that regenerative ability.

Nature is my final and most important inspiration for trolls in The Lands. Salamanders are amphibians. They are carnivorous. They can even regenerate. My trolls are basically massive predatory salamanders. To emphasise this I call them freshwater or saltwater trolls. A tiny tip-of-the-hat to stone is given in them swallowing gastroliths to help in digesting stubborn armoured prey. Only problem is salamanders look cute to me.

In my imaginings and drawings I try to make my trolls more scary. In drawing them something emerged which reminded me of Ymir by Ray Harryhausen. Admittedly that alien is still a bit cute. However the vestigal gills I describe as looking like a mane of lank tendrils are reminiscent of the Hellhound from Hell Boy and that is more the level of creepiness I was aiming at. For specifics on my version of the troll click here (then scroll down three quarters of that page).

Representative Cast

I often use the word 'representative' and usually I'm referring to the trustees or delegates elected to represent the citizenry of a polity. Here however I refer to it in the statistical sense of a small group whose demographic composition hopefully reflects that of wider society. And my focus will be its use in fiction.

I longed for a variety of looks in fictional characters long before I understood such concepts. As a kid I watched old black-and-white repeats alongside newer full-colour programs. In a story you have to rapidly understand who the various characters are and that got easier with the newer shows. Gone were the identical unforms of masculine and femine grooming and dress. Gone was the need to focus solely on who was blond or brunette and who was fat or thin. Suddenly the distinct looks of sub-cultures and the recognition of diverse origins made it easier to keep track of who was who.

Incorporating this into storytelling tends to be haphazard. Who one wants characters to be and in what proportions is personal. That is how I have usually done it. But what if such decisions were informed by population statistics? I did this as a footnote to my description of a spaceship. Its eight person crew were international and so I looked at population figures by continent. This gave me a framework of two east Asians, two south Asians, one other Asian, one African, one South American and one person that I called 'North Trans-Atlantic' in origin. Within that I developed a specific set of origins which also included religion and gender-specific names (as described in the first comment to Momentum).

A whole Earth spaceship is one thing but what of other more mundane settings? In a globalized world you can find anybody of any ancestry in any story. And yet locales still have distinct population profiles. The largest minority in the US is Latin while the largest in the UK is Desi. Do the core casts of television shows reflect that? I suspect they could do better and census data could be something that is worth writers glancing at.

How old is globalization? How long is a piece of string? We are the walkers and humanity has been travelling slowly but surely over the planet. Even in ancient times we occupied all but one continent. Trading centres have long been cosmopolitan and the largest of nations were defined by shared culture and language rather than by a common ancestry. And yet distance and natural barriers do play a role.

I got thinking about this while watching an historical fiction inspired by Scandinavian lore. Characters (as represented by those acting them) looked like they originated in particular parts of the world. Most were from north of the Alps as was apt for the setting. One or two characters however were from south of the Sahara. This in itself was fine but what jarred for me was what was missing. Why were Mediterraneans absent? It was this georagphic gap in demographics that stretched credulity. What was needed was more diversity rather than a kind of tokenism that feels lumpy rather than smooth.

And yet the size of a cast affects how much it can reflect diversity to a finer degree. Most shows will have an ensemble of just five to ten regular cast members - it gets difficult to remember more. Am I suggesting then that a demographic can only be represented if it commands a tenth to a fifth of a given poluation? Hardly. It is merely a method. In my spaceship I took whole continents and then narrowed in on national origins that are in some cases small (Iceland is a tiny part of the combined North American and European sphere). Groups of friends consist of unique combinations of individuals. Creators will draw on both personal anecdotes and imagination to design such groups. But if ever they are at a loss then a bit of empericism can come in handy.

The Hex Home

During my recent holiday I mostly looked out the coach windows but, during one stretch of our journey, I did some doodling of a concept in which a floor plan is defined by an array of connected hexagons. Been watching reviews of mid-century architecture and that influenced this. Each hexagon is either a structure or the space between them. The result is a quick-and-dirty plan for a home distributed across three structures and four yards - The Hex Home.

Each structure is a two storey hexagonal prism topped with a roof shaped like a hexagonal pyramid. Both brick and timber will go into these forms (with brick providing the internal framework and the outer walls on the ground level). You could fit one home into such a stucture but I'm using three to form a bigger home with a total of eight bedrooms (the two on the ground floor functioning as guest rooms). There are many shared spaces of general or specific purpose. The centre of the home is a courtyard sporting a saltwater relaxation pool. The dining room and two living rooms face onto this yard and glass concertina doorways allow these to become one unified space. Likewise the three structures each sport a balcony overlooking that same space (with shade cloths positioned in such a way to allow this view).



1. Entry Yard (gravel) - 2. Pool Courtyard (decking and planters) - 3. Side Yards (lawn and garden beds) - 4. Dining Area - 5. Kitchen - 6. Living Areas - 7. Laundry - 8. Walkthru Bathrooms - 9. Library - 10. Arts & Crafts - 11. Bedrooms - 12. Landing (toilet and shower closet to each side) - 13. Covered Balcony - 14. Shade Cloths

* Storage (including walk-in pantry, storeroom, wardrobes etc).



From the courtyard one can walk into two lawned gardens (including food growing patches) and one gravel yard. The last is also the first area that guests step into on visiting the Hex Home. Here vehicles can be parked but there can be a garage close by (in the same position as the banner saying 'Hex Home' in the sketches) and can be of conventional shape. The two living rooms can be differentiated by furniture selection (for instance to be for lounging and rumpus respectively). From the three indoor common areas one can access another three shared spaces - the kitchen, the library, and an arts-and-crafts room. Dining and kitchen are spearated only by a bench. The living areas and beyond are only partitioned by decorative shelves. Those common spaces share bathrooms with the guest rooms.

Inside the lower levels one can walk around in a circuit. This cannot be done on the upper levels (unless you installed secret communicating doors between the bedrooms). Each upper level is identical in floor plan. The landings access small separate shower and toilet chambers to either side. From each covered balcony one can enter two bedrooms. More concertina glass panels allow each balcony to be shut away from the elements. Spiral staircases save on space. There is a store room close to the laundry while the kitchen has a walk-in pantry. Bedrooms and some common rooms have inset storage too.

Such an extended family home or holiday house would be awesome to share with others and play host to many fine gatherings. For me it was even fun just to imagine and plan.

Monster Mash

I was invited a while back to participate in an online role-play game. It would have been a free-form with a setting inspired by schlocky old monster movies. These plans evaporated (as often happens in role-playing) but I did develop a few characters that I potentially could have played. May as well describe the fictional critters here.

Thuban Of Alpha Draconis

Thuban is one of the reptilian aliens that secretly rule the world. This specimen has lived for a thousand years, often hibernating, shedding skins periodically and, with them, human-seeming guises of whatever sex. Currently, Thuban can appear as a mild-mannered office clerk named Ian. Ironically, he was very much that within Draconian society, till he became impatient with the slow progress of the group project he was directing. The task was to give the gift of telepathy to humans, a boon that had helped the aliens themselves advance, but it was something very few humans could develop. The next best thing, then, was mobile Internet. Ian fast-tracked its introduction before safety evaluation was complete, and within a decade it had caused a marked regression in the functioning of both human groups and individuals. In consequnce, Thuban was exiled by the Schematic Hegemony, and now lives full-time among the Terran primates. Refusing to repent his mistake, Ian now lurks online, contributing exposés to the Reptilian conspiracy theory, with a focus on the minutiae of Draconian internal politics. Human conspiracy theorists find it insufficiently sensationalist, so his missives have little impact. The Schematic Hegemony consider Thuban a minor problem, even though he is mind-controlling a few humans to commit petty crimes for him.

The Lumpy Peril

The colloquially dubbed Lumpy Peril is a large, abstract, modern sculpture located in a public plaza, made of cement and purposely rusted iron. At night it animates and stalks the lanes and alleys off the plaza. It is relatively docile but also very clumsy. Its movements cause damage to property and scare petty criminals. However, security cameras malfunction in its presence and nobody has yet proved the existance of this shambling oddity. Nor do those who know the truth about the Lumpy Peril understand how it functions. Thuban speculates that its animation is the product of some nanites that escaped from a Draconian project facility. Reneer however assumes a rival occultist has turned the work of supposed art into a golem of some sort. Both characters think they could make use of Lumpy.

Reneer The Relatively Revived

Reneer was an alchemist and aspiring necromancer who, in 1500s Amsterdam, felt sure he had discovered the combination of ingredients and incantations that would preserve his life indefinitely. Something went amiss, however, and it took decades for Reneer to discover that he never died but still aged. He was an undead corpse with a malevolent cunning and a host of dire potions at his disposal. He worked on embalming himself to preserve bodily function in his new state. He periodically replaced body parts with substitutes he fashioned for himself. Nothing however could prevent his mind from degrading beyond its natural term and the result was a profound insanity. Reneer now believes that he is the narrator of the story through which he walks, with gnarled cane and wheezing breath, a habit he never abandoned despite no longer needing oxygen. His favourite activity is watching late-night horror movies in the cinema a block from the plaza, enshroud in the illusion of a living gentleman of indeterminate age and fine couture. Beyond that, he is attracted to any kind of calamity or mishap, and will hang about describing the situation like some skeletal reporter.

* * * * *

I can see these three characters all crossing paths in some scenario and it could be a lot of kooky or creepy fun.

Free-Ranging Friends

In this satirical post I describe some anthropomorphic animals as inspired by both the Jethro Tull spoken word track The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles and the tradition of Aesop's Fables.

It was a mild sunny day, and the Hare had just found and put on his spare pair of spetacles. Just then, he noticed the Tortoise emerging from foliage and immediately removed his seeing aids, hiding them behind his back. This was because the Tortoise had recently chastised him for lacking pride in his own natural state of short-sightedness. The act of wearing glasses, the plodding reptile insisted, was an insult to all others with supposedly abnormal vision. The anxious Hare knew by now to never argue with the Tortoise. After all, the shelled creature was a firm believer in the adage 'my space my rules' and, as someone who carried his home with him, could dictate terms where ever he went.

The Hare had only one course of action in the face of such a judgemental creature - make small-talk and then find some excuse to be elsewhere. He suddenly remembered that he had a lunch date with his terrific friend, the Fur Seal, down by the salty lakeshore. The Tortoise grunted, then sat down on the warm grass for a well-deserved nap of the righteous.

The Fur Seal had left the water to look for a bit of conversation, and made towards the gnarled tree at which two other animals regularly convened. Those two were the Owl and the Kangaroo, who engaged in a never-ending argument over nature versus nurture. The Owl, a layer of eggs, was firmly in the camp of biology determining behaviour, while the marsupial Kangaroo was all for socialization and conditioning. The specific subject matter changed from day to day, but the fundamental argument was always the same. Tail thumping and feathers fluffing, they both held forth, but stopped once the Fur Seal waded into the argument. She very reasonably asked if both nature and nurture played a role in matters.

The Owl and the Kangaroo agreed on just one thing - that pesky sealion could take her complicating statements and go away - for they would rather bicker than admit that a messy world deserved considered discussion. Crestfallen, the Fur Seal shuffled back to the waterside, passing a cluster of reed-lined ponds on her way downhill.

The Newt burped hello to the passing Fur Seal, knowing that the huge mammal posed no threat, sated as she was by a regular diet of salt-water fare. Newt was a shrewd fellow who rarely made hasty judgements - the fish pond had shown him that. Big Fish lived in that small pond and seemed like a most magnanimous character. She was charismatic and bold and made sure all the smaller fish got a share of fish food. But there was another aspect of Big Fish hiding below the surface. She always got the most food and ensured the passivity of the other fish with wild tales of far-distant freshwater sharks. Every now-and-then a small fish asked if these sharks they never met were such a danger. The next day that inquisitive fish would be missing. The Newt was pretty sure he knew why - the closest predator is the one best feared and Big Fish was his prime suspect.

Big Fish played the role of best friend to the pond-hopping Newt, for he was popular with the fish. She also lived in secret fear of him because he knew the truth of the world beyond her small pond, and could dash her carefully crafted tales of its perils. Know someone well and you can practically tell what they are thinking, and so the Newt never made too many ripples in that small pond, and deftly stayed just beyond the reach of fishy jaws.

The free-ranging Hare, Fur Seal and Newt got together that evening to enjoy relaxing company among some secluded boulders, the games and maneuvers of the day behind them, as the shadows slanted and the bees buzzed about. They knew how much time to spend with whom.

Familiar Fictional Streets

I enjoy imagining all sorts of things. Sometimes they are what you would expect of an imaginative person - there are haunted fortresses and warp-drive ships. But sometimes they are far more mundane and today I will expand on the Shop Street Shops to describe the setting of an entire neighbourhood.

The Shop Street Shops are across the road from a small community park called Nextvale Square which sits at the centre of an old housing commission development of nine-by-seven blocks of residences. The seven shops are somewhat wider than many other such backstreet shops but also shorter from front-to-back. A narrow laneway separates the shops from the houses behind them and if you look over the back fence of those houses you can discover that they share one large back yard. The houses on this block are occupied by retired members of the Worldwide Order of Oddballs (WOOB). The separate front yards mask a very shared way-of-life for its occupants.

Nextvale Square itself features some shady trees, park benches, picnic shelter, drinking fountain (the new kind that includes a dog bowl) and a passive rain-driven water feature. Small public conveniences are open during the day. The shops are across from its southern perimeter. Across from its western perimeter is the Nextvale Primary Shool which occupies its entire block. Its library and basketball court face the park and after school hours are open to the general public (just ask the librarians for basketballs). Across from the eastern perimeter of the park is Nextvale Medical And Health Centre. This block includes a small indoor swimming pool overlooked by a gym. The eastern side of the park also sports a bus shelter for the one public transport route that connects this precint with larger centres. Across from the northern perimeter of the park are the only homes that face the park and the centremost of these is the Nextvale Neighbourhood House. It runs a number of short courses and hosts the meetings of a few local community groups. The rest of the homes on that block are small rental units still owned by the state.

Walk three to five blocks in any direction from Nextvale Square and you will come to the borders of the neighbourhood. Among these many houses are a few that offer professional services like lawn mowing and clothes alterations. There is even a canny accountant who realized shop hire is wasteful. The western boundary of this productive neighbourhood is the Tarmacadam Highway. Here are the westernmost homes of the neighbourhood but also a service station (including tool shop) and a pool hall (including band room). There may be warehouses or offices across the road but they are beyond the confines of this description.

The southern boundary is the Sluggish Creek track while the northern one is the embankment of the Herevale railway line. One can access bordering neighbourhoods via a foot bridge (south) and a pedestrian underpass (north) respectively. The creek and railway line run parallel to each other for most blocks but then gently curve inward to intersect some distance past the easternmost street of the neighbourhood. That arch-shaped parcel of scrubby land is the site of a former scout hall that now serves as home of the Herevale Naturalists (whose work takes them to open spaces in many locales beyond Nextvale) who tend a community garden there. The hall and its car park hosts a monthly swap meet and car-boot sale. Among the houses across the road is a bed-and-breakfast for the few visitors to the neighbourhood who cannot crash on the couch of a friend. The retirees who run it do so as a labour-of-love and for some extra income.

This makes reference to a Herevale that I name in some older posts. It draws on my past experience of wandering suburbia and visiting the neighbourhoods of friends. I was too lazy to draw a map but I think this tested my descriptive writing. What is it for? For its own sake I suppose. However it could always come in handy as the setting for an adventure of the kids-on-bikes sub-genre that has recently had a resurgence.

The Jagged Tooth

The Jagged Tooth keep was a key setting of The Fox And Hare adventure that started my long fantasy role-play campaign of some years ago. Here I discuss that adventure and give a blow-by-blow description (complete with illustrations and floor plans) of the abandoned hill fort. This text can serve as a game module and I could even re-use it in future gaming. The adventure is for a party totalling a maximum of 20 experience levels (such as four characers each at fifth level). Beware! If you ever want to play it then consider skipping this entry.



Too Much Walking

As described here The Fox And Hare advenenture starts at the Welcome Inn. In The Lands that inn is located in the village of Overcrossing but I could always move the opening scenes closer to the action. My games have a tendency to go over-long and that is partly because I have characters walking from site to site. It is enriching to describe the experience of traversing rural landscapes but it can go to far. It takes a few days to go from Overcrossing to Roburg - capital of Rolania - and then another few days to the village of Muddy Gully in the Brethic Hills. Then the characters hike another day into the Dire Swamp to enter the Jagged Tooth. This could be too much walking.

I do feel that a well-rounded adventure includes the three classic settings of town and wilderness and dungeon. This adventure can still offer that with the following outline:

* The adventure starts at an inn located outside the city walls of Roburg. That evening (of whatever season seems apt) the adventurers (who could be strangers) gather and then meet the envoy that will entice the party into adventure. The famed bard Lura Flana could be visiting this inn from her own home inn and provide the necessary back-story of the Brethic Royal Dagger in an act of musical serendipity. However its implicit warnings are best glossed over. Short sense descriptions can be offered to help immerse players in the setting - this can include the diverting smells and tastes of a bustling tavern at night.

* The envoy is one Keelan the Halfling who acts as factotum for Ackerley The Sage. The next morning the slick-talking and street-wise Keelan can guide the party to the townhouse of his employer. That elderly scholar thinks he has pieced together a historic puzzle regarding the location of the long-lost Brethic Royal Dagger. He will pay them generously for retriving it and will provide them with the information they need to do just that.

* While they are talking something is watching them from outside the study window - It is a familiar (possibly an exciting one like a Homunculus or Mock Dragon) which flies away the moment anyone notices it. The intention of this encouter is to show that the lost artifact interests a number of actors and provide explanation of a later scene. Ackerley will say the spy serves his rival Roscoe (also a sage and mage) and it is vital they act quickly lest they become competitors in a race to find the Dagger.

* If they agree then the party can do some basic supply shopping (funded by Ackerley) and depart Roburg by lunchtime with the maps and advice they need. Keelan may accompany them to ensure they get to Muddy Gully. The journey is punctuated by camping under stars. Or sometimes there are wayfarer cabins (former woodcutter constructions that are now maintained by the state and which travellers keep stocked with donations of preserved foods). For an extra cost the journey can be shortened by taking a River Rolling beaver-drawn barge some of the way. As they travel the characters can share tales of past adventures.

* The party will pass a border toll house. Here they will be observed by a well-armed Paladin (who Keelan may recognize as the stern Madame Greer of Elmshire). As the meadows of Rolania cede to the rugged Brethic Hills they could discuss the differences between the Eriman and Brethic kin. If the players seem itching for action then they can be accosted by a small gang of bandits (who they should best with scant effort).

* By nightfall they will arrive in the vale and village of Muddy Gully. I originally located an inn here but the backwardness of the locale could be communicated by saying that the village elder Brewster has some room for visitors in his house. He enjoys cooking and will offer grilled mushrooms on toast, pond cress and pinenut salad, and scrambled egg with roast parsnip chunks. The party know they must spend the next day in Muddy Gully so they can be at the local hilltop stone circle at sunset. That night they can have separate dreams relevant to the backstory or aspirations of each character but also united by a shared vision of a shadowy figure on a hillside staring at them.

* In the morning the adventurers and Keelan can pass the time wandering the small community and admiring its chalk hill carving of the Fox. This day could be an excuse to incorporate other games into this role-play game involving cards or dice or chess pieces. Villagers inform them that events are never held at the stone circle at dusk or dawn - a local practice at odds with usual Druidic custom. At dusk they visit the stone circle and witness the setting Sun silhouette the location of a stony formation on a distant hilltop beyond the chalk carvings on closer slopes. However they are also visited by the local Druid. The careworn and sombre Kendra warns them that they court doom if they decide to follow that path. Her distortion of standard religous practice (having practically abandoned her commitments to the villagers) can serve to negate such warning in the minds of the party.

The Dire Swamp

One could even start the adventure in Muddy Gully with the adventurers already having accepted their mission (a few flashback scenes could be informative and some players even enjoy reciting prepared dialogue). A progression of Muddy Gully then Dire Swamp then Jagged Tooth Keep could serve as a sampler of town - wilderness - dungeon and be inserted with small changes into any fantasy setting (the Dagger for instance could be a wholly distinct Celtic fantasy device rather than the fragment of an even more ancient Proto-Germanic one) using rules other than mine. But on with the quest as it plays out in The Lands:

* The party can set off the next morning. Keelan however will depart for work back in Roburg. They take a path from the vale of Muddy Gully to another narrow vale that is filled with wild foliage and strewn with boulders. Here they see the somewhat neglected chalk hill carving of the Hare. Following a few hours of hiking they abandon paths for a climb into the next and usually overlooked valley. As they do so they feel as if someone is watching them.

* The next valley is different from others - it is a circular basin filled with the marshes of the Dire Swamp. In its centre is a low yet steep hillock on which sits the Jagged Tooth keep. The wetlands are effectively a natural maze. Muddy pathways wind between stands of matted grasses and vines and are criss-crossed by tiny backwaters. Everything is damp and the atmosphere seems oppressive. Here they will finally meet monsters!

* The party will encounter a few wafting Will-O-Wisp. If they follow the misty glowing spheres they will be lead to a sunlit waterside clearing. The pool is mostly lined with reeds but under a willow tree the characters can easily access the water. At the far side is a pile of boulders and careful observation will suggest that the water flows towards it. Anyone getting too close to the water will be startled by a Freshwater Troll seeking to grasp and pull them underwater while the energy-scavenging wisps patiently await the moment of death. Whether the wisps partake in combat depends on how challenging one wishes the encounter to be.

* If the party slay the Troll they may then discover that a semi-waterlogged cave hides among the boulders. For extra challenge and revulsion they can encounter clusters of rubbery eggs that may hatch into ravenous trollish tadpoles. A natural stone shelf at the far end of the cave is above the normal water line and here the bones of past victims can be found along with their lost possessions. This could be a chance for the party to get some useful items (Holy Water will be a boon later on).

* It will take hours but finally the party will reach the hillock. On its sides grow pine trees and small ferns. They may momentarily be surprised by what looks like a squirrel with small horns. As they climb the hill the sense they are observed will return. Eventually they will meet Kendra but something is different about her. The maverick Druid demands they turn back or she will force them back. If combat occurs then she will throw off her robes to expose an artful infestation of parasitic Mistletoe has granted her extra limbs with which to fight. The Druid is also assisted by other Mistletoe that detach from the trees to try and graft themselves to the traspassers. Kendra is bound by an inherited oath to prevent anyone reaching the Jagged Tooth, is resistant to negotiation, and will fight to the death.



The Jagged Tooth

The top of the hillock is cloven by a narrow crevice. On the closer side is a gatehouse. On the further side is a walled yard and the keep itself. A draw bridge crossing the crevice collapsed long ago but this is a scant barrier to inventive adventurers. The whole thing is very apparently long-past its prime and yet in amazing condition if one considers it has been standing for almost two millenia. Its design is similar to far more recent structures and possibly even influenced them. Such musings may only cross the minds of historically-minded adventurers. Others will be far more interested simply in the lie of the land.



Characters can use the upper level of the gatehouse to camp in or store items. There is nothing of danger here but they may feel a sense of cold shivers from looking across to the keep. What they cannot yet see is what is on each level of this ancient complex. But we can.



My hastily drawn cross-section was arbitrarily numbered from top to bottom - ten levels from watch tower to caves in the hillside. In practice characters will most likely enter the keep at level six - the great hall - and then move up or down from there. However the objective they seek can best be accessed by travelling all the way up and then down. Here are the functions of each level:

1. Watch Tower - sits atop the furthest north-west corner turret of the keep. This turret houses a secret stairway that can only be accessed from the private floor (top) or the crypts (bottom).

2. Private Level - this level includes a solar, a study and a royal bedroom. The solar (a shared living area for solitary and relaxing past-times) is now partly exposed to the elements by collapsed walls in the north-east corner. This level is accessed from below by the south-east turret.

3. Guest Level - this level includes corridors accessing four guest rooms. The north-east corner is exposed to the elements. This level is accessed by south-west and south-east turrets.

4. Banquet Level - this level includes an l-shaped banquet hall and a kitchen. It is accessed by both north-east and south-west turrets.

5. Balcony Level - this is simply a balcony running around the walls of the twice-tall grand hall. There was a platform for minstels in the north-west corner. Part of the walkway is collapsed on the eastern wall and other parts may be at risk of future collapse. It is accessed by both south-west and north-east turrets. At this same elevation are also the tops of the yard wall turrets but they are of zero interest.



6. The Great Hall - This room occupies the entire floor area (25 yards square minus wall thickness). It is lined with columns supporting the balcony level. In the north-west corner is a somewhat raised platform on which a timber throne decays. This floor accesses other levels via the north-east and south-west turret spiral staircases. It is entered via broken double doors and external steps at the south-east. Narrow windows bring wan light into this shadowy space as they do on other floors above. At this same elevation is the few rooms of the upper level of the gatehouse with its drawbridge mechanisms turning to rust and sawdust.

7. The Basement - This floor is in fact level with the walled yard and gatehouse entry way. However it is the keep foundations and accessed from the grand hall above it. It includes cellers for storing food (long-since decayed) and what were once servant quarters. There is also a well in the south-west corner which draws on water from caverns below. It is accessed via north-east and south-east turrets. The walls are thicker at this level. In the yard are a few scattered bones and stonework and the southern wall is collapsing.

8. The Dungeon - This floor was once locked away but now anyone can push past its iron gates to discover guard room and cells for onetime prisoners. There is evidence of ancient punishment and death in its detritus. It is accessed via the south-east turret spiral stairs which are centred on its southern wall.

9. The Crypts - This hidden level can only be accessed in two ways. One is via the long spiral way of the private turret of the watch tower. The other is via a rambling fissure to the natural caverns also located in the hillock. There are three chambers here. The oldest is lined with irregularly fitted stones while the newest is lined with precicely hewn blocks. Thus the three generations of tombs show both degrees of age and technical advancement.

10. The Caverns - These natural caverns include a pond from which the well-water was once drawn. They can also be accessed from a fissure connecting to the crypts. Furthermore they connect to a tunnel opening onto the crevice far below the gatehouse and another opening onto the steep vegetation-shroud western hillside.



The Encounters And Puzzles of The Jagged Tooth

The levels were described from top to bottom as per those sketches. Here however the adventurous elements of the keep will be described in a likely narrative sequence. Of course players have a way of messing with such order but this is the most optimal path:

* In the Great Hall is a peculiar fungal growth - a Growler - and if one gets within a yard of it the slowly-moving life-form will emit a buzzing vibration. This will in turn attract the attention of a Troll which spends its time wandering between the cavern pool and the keep via the old well shaft (or if we are sick of those amphibious monsters then maybe Kendra enticed a small family of Goblins to occupy the lower floors).

* It is here that description should start to make it apparent that the north-west turret cannot be accessed level after level. Is there something important in this architectural peculiarity?

* The party suspect that the Dagger will be among grave items and so it makes sense to work downwards. They find nothing of much interest in the Basement but in a Dungeon cell something is scawled in the old Brethic mode. Those understanding it will read "you gotta get up to get down" and can ponder this message.

* On the Balcony above the Great Hall are some fading and fraying textile wall-hangings. How do these still exist at all? Some show hunting scenes or members of this ancient court. One shows an even older timber-framed keep that the party can suppose once occupied this site in the days of Lord Brennan.



* As the party climb the north-east turret to the Banquet Hall they will be startled to hear raucous conversation and astounded to find a banquet in full-swing! A score or more revellers are quaffing drinks and ripping into foodstuffs. It is as if the adventurers have stepped into the time in which this keep was inhabited. At the head of the table sits a haughty and regal woman who will ask the party to honour her by partaking in merriment. Here an ancient and permanent illusion (third level) combined with a joy enchantment (first level) entices visitors to consume imaginary food and drink while engaging in talk of daring deeds in the presence of Lady Fenella. Anyone can try their luck at resisting this Bardic magic and keep trying. Overcoming the spell is like focusing past the reflection in a window pane to the scene beyond it. Some never bother as is evidenced by skeletons occupying a few of the positions of seeming revellers.

* In the corridors accessing the Guest rooms wanders a Gelatinous Mass with assorted rodent and bird bones embedded inside it. A dagger within the jelly cell colony will momentarily excite the party but it is evidently nothing of any value or importance. However the creature will consider the party food and they will have to contend with it.

* In the Private solar a trap has been set (possibly by Kendra). A trip-wire extends from a loom to a statue of Lord Galvin. If triggered the loom will fire arrows at anyone walking towards the study. They may even be toxic.

* Beyond the study is the bedroom and in its fireplace a fire still flickers! This is yet another ancient illusion (keen observers will notice the firelight cast is more garish pink than warming amber) and if disbelieved the party can find that behind it is access to the Watch Tower. Its sprial stairs allow descent far below to what the party seek.

* The Crypts house three tomb chambers. The first holds only the crumbling bones of Brennan. The second holds the mummified corpse of his daughter Fenella. The third is home still to the Wraith of her son the despotic Galvin whose phantasmal eyes now glare with a jarring pale blue light. He wafts above his tomb and directs one or two Wight minions to attack the party. He taunts them that if they slay his followers they may then be worthy to replace them as his servitors in eternity. The Wraith may even enter the fray with its life-sucking kiss. If they vanquish these Undead they will find the Brethic Royal Dagger in his tomb among decaying armour and finery.

* Parts of the connecting Caverns are home to clusters of Cavern Conches making it difficult to pass safely.

An Ending Or Continuation?

Once they retrieve the Dagger they may experience odd whispered notions of how wonderful it would be to keep for themselves. Nonetheless they will wish to depart the Jagged Tooth Keep and Dire Swamp and can do so by back-tracking. If they look back from the hills overlooking the marshy basin they will see the ancient fortress crumbling as if it has suddenly been freed to experience the embrace of passing time.

Back in Muddy Gully they will find other visitors to the village. Keelan is there in the company of Madam Greer and her small retinue of troops. They have sturdy tents so Brewster can still offer room to the party. Keelan has a tale to tell of his own. One night Ackerley and his arch-rival Roscoe clashed on the rooftops of Roburg in a nasty but somewhat inept spell-slinging duel which drew the attention of the City Guard. It transpired that the mages had been fighting over information on the Dagger and soon the Protector of Rolania himself was interrogating them. The state has an historic and political interest in the artifact and has undertaken to pay the party everything they had been offered for its possession. Greer can remunerate them now and Keelan suggests it is an excellent offer.

It is for the party to decide what to do next. If they hand over the Dagger they will be well-rewarded and free to do whatever they wish. There the adventure will end. However they are yet to even say that they successfully took it from the Jagged Tooth. An alternative is for them to try and keep the fateful relic and become fugitives from Rolanian authority. What fate they choose only the players can decide (but either way they may now advance a level).

Momentum

I designed a fictional spaceship for its own sake but if it needs context then nominally it may fit into my rudimentary Five Civilizations setting. If so then the Terran Civilian Ship (TCS) Momentum has been re-fit with contemporary technology derived from the contact of the Five Civilizations and is maintained as a heritage craft for historical appreciation tours. It has all the lastest technology like graviton plating but its historic design reflects a time in which centrifugal force was still utilized by Terrans to simulate gravity. The description provided here will refer only to its original more basic form...



The Momentum was designed to run mid-range missions such as taking passengers, cargo and data between Sol and Proxima Centauri. Such a journey takes it two standard weeks. The vessel is almost 100 stellar metres long and cannot land but it can dock with space stations such as Midway Port (which maintains a position halfway between these two named stars).

The central habitat module is a three-layered centrifuge bookended by two cargo hemispheres onto which the warp rings are mounted and also sports a number of other components. Behind the habitat module are fusion energy generation and plasma propulsion units that are together referred to as the engine. At the front is a lander component that can visit planets and while attached to the whole ship is a continuation of the habitat mid-level (accessed via command). The interface between the two allows for docking with other vessels once the two parts are separated. The surface of the ship is covered with radiation-absorbing gel insulation, an ablative hide, transparent solar generation laminate, sensor net and thermal venting pores.

The ship has space for 24 occupants which includes a crew of 8 (see comment). There are also various robots and drones. Everyone inside is issued with discreet devices inserted into the ears to regulate sense of balance while experiencing centrifugal forces. In the habitat module on the professional level the wearing of muscular tension harnesses is recommended to compensate for the low gravity. On the utility level the same attire is compulsory and includes magnetic soles.



Habitat Module Residential Layer

The outer layer or lower level provides simulated gravity similar to that of Mars and has the largest floor area. It is the location of residences and shared recreational spaces. The six shared areas are an ornamental courtyard, a food garden, a kitchen, a dining area, a lounging area and a games space. A central hallway known as the hamster wheel extends the entire circumference of the outer layer and allows inhabitants to promenade as far as they wish. The six common areas are effectively extensions or very large alcoves of this hall. There are three star wells set into the floor allowing views onto outer-space. One is set under a shallow pond in the ornamental garden, one into the central dining table, and one into the floor among lounges. Two domestic robots frequent this level and tend the garden, prepare basic meals and provide challenging games of billiards.

This layer has surfaces emulating pale grey stone matched with warm brown timber fixtures (which extend into double-height spaces shared with the professional layer overlooking the three star wells). Handholds are moulded into surfaces in case of artificial gravity loss. The hallway is truly circular but the spaces off it together describe a hexagon and that difference results in the need for a few steps between the hallway and those spaces. Some walls on this and the other two levels slope inward from floor to ceiling (due to the diminishing outer to inner floor area of each level).

There are six clusters each comprising four private bedrooms and one bathroom escape pod (for a total of six bathrooms and twenty-four bedrooms). A short passage in each cluster accesses its five doors. The six bathroom escape pods are marvels of compact technology - most of the time they are simply a shared bathroom for four but in an emergency can eject from the ship - this ensures sleepy occupants quick access. They can put occupants into temporal stasis if too much time passes lost in space.

Each private room contains a bed with wall-inset nooks and under-bed drawers, a desk with communications interface overlooked by display shelf, an auto-robe which can wash and dry the clothes it stores, and a window looking onto the hallway or other shared space which has transparent, opaque, animated pattern and calming landscape settings. The twenty four bedrooms are of almost identical size and similar shape. Officers choose which rooms they occupy (the commander for instance may want to be closer to the elevator and further from the more raucous shared spaces).



Habitat Module Professional Layer

The middle layer or mid-level provides simulated gravity better than Luna and is dedicated to professional and self-development activity. It has a somewhat greater circumference than the centrifuge seen on the spaceship in the ancient documentary 2001 A Space Odyssey with a much wider floor space. It accesses the other two levels and the lander module (the last via command). It allows accesses to both cargo hemispheres even if these are usually only occupied by cargo drones - indeed it extends somewhat into the forward hemisphere. This level includes command centre, sickbay, gym, change room, meeting rooms, offices, class-rooms, workshops and labs.

The command centre comprises a u-shaped reception floor (providing access to both the lander module airlock and professional layer corridors) overlooked by a compact semi-circular command platform. The sickbay includes a tiny medical office. There is a spa that can only be accessed from the gym once those in it have done mandatory scheduled excerize. This level is characterized by white polymer alloy with black silicon interfaces and hexagonal patterning.



Habitat Module Utility Layer

The inner layer or upper level simulates barely any gravity and has by far the smallest floor area. It is the location of life-support and vital ship processes including the central computer. Crew refer to it colloquially as either the attic for its raw utilitarianism or the core for its position within the three-dimensional structure. It extends somewhat into the aft cargo hemisphere to better draw power from and convey commands to the engine. It has a livery of gunmetal grey with polished steel fixtures. This is the only layer to lack a complete ceiling and anyone in its elevator access passage looking away from their feet will see the ladder access passage and anyone also standing in it. There is however sufficient distance between these to prevent occupants bumping heads. Computer core modules serve effectively as ceiling in other parts of the layer.



Lander Module

The lander has two levels connected by two sets of steps set into its curving walls. It conforms to the centrifugal design of rest of ship while attached but then abandons this once it detaches. While still attached the crew only use its lower level which includes airlock and spacesuit nooks, auxiliary command and spare multi-purpose rooms. The upper level includes common room with observation windows, bunk and wash rooms, and a garage complete with hover-rover. Rooms in the lander module have the same look of gunmetal grey with polished steel as does the utility layer. The exceptions are auxiliary command, which has the same white and black look as primary command, and the common area, which has the stone grey and timber brown of the residential layer.

Externally the lander has its own directional thrusters, thermal cladding, electromagnetic deflection net, ion blaster, signals and sensors, airlock and garage doors. Its own computer core is sandwiched between the two floors. The ship can be operated remotely from primary command or vice-versa. The lander can be mounted on the habitat module with an extended connection to its airlock from the professional layer via cargo hemisphere tunnels.



Cargo Hemispheres And Warp Rings

The fore and aft cargo hemispheres house space for cargo units and for the drones that move them. They also house gyroscopes for manoeuvring the ship. There are both external cargo hatches and doorways into the habitat module. The drones from time-to-time will move cargo to and from hemispheres via channels between habitat module levels to ensure a desired mass distribution along the ship. This is important if the lander module is detached. The drones can securely crawl along the hull to make external repairs. Both hemispheres also sport signal transmitter-receivers, gas collectors and exploratory probe launchers (which in an emergency can function as explosive torpedos).

The warp rings use sophisticated design and exotic processes to circumvent the universal speed limit of light. In distorting local space they serve as deflectors and dampners - the same warp zone that surrounds the ship also deflects smaller objects and the excessive forces of a fast-moving vessel. Thus the rings are always run at minimum power while the ship is in open space even if it is only using its conventional plasma drive. One ring would generate a spherical distortion but the ship sports two and thus moves within an ovoid warp zone. The support struts for the rings also sport fore and aft attractor-repulsor emitters.



That was something fun if fiddly that I did during some spare time in recent months. It may be nothing more than it is. However if I ever want a hero ship for some space adventure then I have the floor plans all set to use. More info on floor plans can be seen via the linked images.

Titans Of Titan - The Game

What follows is fiction and much of it is a fiction within a fiction. It expands on what was described here.

The Titans Of Titan Role-Play Game was hastily written to try and revive flagging interest in the toy franchise and a small run was published in 1988 by Aquila Publishing (producers of quality books on cookery and wine-making). It came as a boxed set comprising a game book (including a colour insert of images drawn from the telemovies), a card-paper Game Programer screen with cellophane windows, some dice, a plastic hex-map approximately scaled to the toys, and a pad of player character record sheets. That pad included pre-filled sheets for characters depicted by the toys.

Games such as Dungeons & Dragons were controversial in the 80s. The Duchess Gloriana XIII and her Ducal Minister for Trinkets the Professor Dom Woodlock were aware of this but figured that the rather matter-of-fact science-fiction story-telling of Titans Of Titan as shown in the telemovies would escape the scare. After all, there was nothing supernatural or pagan in its content. You cannot please everyone however, and the rather occultist Grand Fenwick chapter of the Worldwide Order of Oddballs (WOOB) objected to this very lack. How could such cold and clinical story-telling ever prepare the hearts and minds of Alpine youths for the wonder of transcendent oddness? Woodlock attempted to placate this influential group, with whom he regularly shared drinks at the Fenwick Grand Coffee House, by reminding them that key Titans Of Titan characters were named for immortals of antiquity. Gloriana went one better, however, by hinting to them that there were coded occult messages hidden within the text and illustrations of the boxed set. To this very day, Fenwickian WOOBs argue over the true meaning of the game.

The telemovies were all set on Earth but the Titans Of Titan game proposed storytelling on the technological homeworld of the Titans. The game simply called it The Homeworld or 001 (which orbited a neutron star with the designation 000). It was a setting of clashing factions, side-switching mercenary crews and non-aligned energy shelters. Several elements of back-story were described only in the game book. The homeworld was of immense age and the Titans themselves told tales of its design at the hands of an utterly impersonal and clock-work obsessed prime mover. They went onto say they were the oldest existing sentient species and that it was they who had created organic life as an aberration of nanotechnology. Despite this, key aspects of the Titan body plan were distinct from those of other life-forms. They had what looked like heads but only sensors and a sense-coordination processor were housed within. The central computer of a Titan was located well inside its vented torso and as such the head was technically an extremity.

Titans were far from self-sufficient however and needed external technology and energy. The ability to assume fresh camouflage was renewed by ancient and sophisticated installations called Progenitor Kilns. Likewise new Titans could only be forged in these same devices. The only way to activate a Progenitor Kiln was for two existing Titans to work in tandem. This ensured a degree of collaboration and negotiation in the fabrication of such powerful robots. Each Titan was programmed with a code-key that interfaced with Titan technology. Titans possessed either an electronic or a positronic code, the former more common than the latter, and activating a kiln required the involvement of both keys.

Woodlock regarded robots as neuter but Gloriana insisted that they be masculine or feminine for the sake of character appeal. Only in the pages of the game book was a compromised explanation given. It was important for long-term Titan survival that they identify who possesses which of the two code-keys. Automatic translation of Titan communication into human languages usually rendered this distinction by utilizing gendered pronouns. Among the few Titans met by humans the electronic coded ones tended to be bigger and had more bass-toned vocal simulations. Humans went onto regard electronic and positronic code-holders as masculine and feminine respectively. Titans responded by saying this was a flawed understanding and one that overlooked the role of the kilns themselves. Some Titans advised humans that they wished to be known as 'it' but others were happy with and adapted to the human perception.

Only some of the game book was given over to such esoterica. Most of it was dedicated to character generation and game-play. The rules were rudimentary and had many gaps which players were left to fill. Some of its game mechanics were the work of an original mind but others were very derivative. The most blatant of these borrowings was that the concepts of Strength, Intelligence, Speed, Endurance, Rank, Courage, Firepower and Skill were taken directly from rival Transformers brand toy packaging.

Rank And Ability Scores

Rank is separated from the others characteristics as the equivalent of experience level in the game. Characters start adventuring at Rank 1 and can advance as far as Rank 5. Promotion is awarded by the Game Programer (the referee-narrator) following successful missions. Every promotion beyond Rank 1 results in an improvement of 1 to each of seven Ability Scores (and consequently the re-calculation of other derivative scores).

To generate Ability Scores players are allocated 35 points to distribute as they wish among Intelligence, Skill, Courage, Speed, Firepower, Strength and Endurance. However each initial score cannot exceed 10. The maximum Ability Score of 15 is the result of additional bonuses described herein. A Titan named Template (the most average of all alien robots) at Rank 1 has a score of 5 in each ability.

- Intelligence determines access to a list of computerized super-powers. Each super-power has a value of 3 Intelligence to compute. So far Template can only use one super-power but at Rank 2 once it has an Intelligence of 6 it will have access to two.

- Skill determines how well one performs functional tasks. A 20-sided dice is rolled and Skill score is added. An 11 or better total is needed for a task to succeed. Template rolls a 5 and even with its bonus of 5 still falls short of success in a chosen task.

- Courage determines position in the sequence of turns taken in combat. Template takes its actions after someone with a Courage of 6 but before someone with a Courage of 4.

- Speed indicates how many actions can be taken within ones turn. Actions include mode-changes, using a super-power, performing a duty, attacks or seeking shelter. A character can take one action for every 3 increments in Speed. So far Template can only take one action but at Rank 2 once it has a Speed of 6 it will be able to take two actions.

- Firepower is added to damage done by all projectile and energy weapons. Template can add 5 Life Force damage to what its energy blaster automatically inflicts.

- Strength score determines damage dealt in hand-to-hand combat and is added to damage done by melee weapons. Template can punch or kick for 5 Life Force damage.

- Endurance indicates how much damage is regenerated per turn. Template has a total of 5 Life Force restored to it per turn (assuming it has taken that much damage in combat).

Size

All Titans fall into the sizes of Small, Medium, Large, Huge or Massive (only the Game Programer can operate characters of the last size which tend to be gestalts or armoured augments). Each limits what a Titan can camouflage themselves as. Among Probots a small Titan could be a motorcycle, a medium Titan a car, a large Titan a truck, a huge Titan a passenger helicopter.

Small characters get a +1 bonus allocated to Speed but a -1 penalty to Endurance. Large characters get a +1 bonus allocated to their choice of Strength, Endurance or Firepower. Huge characters get bonuses of +2 to allocate to one or two of those same scores. Massive characters get bonuses of +3 to allocate across any of those same scores. In all cases however a total score can never exceed 15. Template is Medium in size so nothing changes.

Life Force

Life Force denotes the energy store of a Titan but this score factors both armour and dodging into overall survival. Its score is generated by multiplying Speed and Endurance scores and is re-calculated at every Rank promotion. Damage is deducted from Life Force. If it is ever reduced to 0 then the character is deactivated. If half of ones total Life Force is deducted due to just one attack then it results in the loss of a robot or camo-mode extremity. Template has a Life Force of 25. If it is promoted to Rank 2 then that will be recalculated to a Life Force of 36. If it takes 13 damage from one attack (half of 25 rounded up) then Template could lose its head!

Camo-Charges And Camo-Modes

Camo-Charges are expended by Titans to assume Camo-Modes in addition to the default robot mode. Expending one charge gives a character one form of camouflage to use as much as they wish. Expending another allows either the replacement of that form with a new one or the adoption of modularity. Modularity allows a character to combine into a new form with fellow Titans as a gestalt or to itself be composed of separate modular components with limited autonomy. A character can only be using two Camo-Charges at a time. A character is given a maximum of three Camo-Charges at a time by a Progenitor Kiln. Template has so far expended one so has just one rather pedestrian Camo-Mode of a utility vehicle (but also two spare charges to use later).

Factions

The game lists the Factions that a character can belong to as the Probots and Kronotons. It also provides suggestions on how to devise new factions and sub-factions. Probots and Kronotons tend to assume civilian and military Camo-Modes respectively.

Belonging to a faction can convey particular super-powers to a character free of the limitations of Intelligence. Krontons have Short Range Flight and Signal Blocking for free. Probots have Magnetism and Pressure Resistance for free. Note that Template is a Probot.

Functions And Tasks

A character can choose to fulfill one of the following roles known as Functions - Warrior, Scout, Engineer. Occupying such roles determines which functional Tasks a character can perform. Massive characters can only be Warriors. Characters of Rank 4 or 5 can occupy two of the three functions. Template is yet to choose a function. Each Function can perform the Tasks unique to it on a successful Task check as described under Skill.

- Warriors must have Courage of 6 or better and either Firepower or Endurance of 6 or better. They can (i) Anticipate And Deflect one attack from the turn of a following opponent if they choose to use one action of their current turn. Warriors reduced to Life Force 0 can still have one more turn to perform a (ii) Drone Attack - a final instinctive berserk assault.

- Scouts must have Courage and Skill of 6 or better. Smaller ones tend to act as spies. Scouts can (i) Detect Energy And Minerals (including metal and therefore fellow Titans) within as many kilometres as they have ranks. They can (ii) Hack Security Protocols. And they can (iii) Secretly Store Sensitive Data.

- Engineers must have Skill and Intelligence of 6 or better. Larger ones tend to act as labourers. Engineers can (i) Multiply Life Force Regeneration by 2 for themselves or another robot. They can (ii) Modify And Maintain Machines. And they can (iii) Design And Construct such structures as shelters and energy stores.

Super-Powers

All Titans can perform the sorts of technological acts one would expect of sophisticated robots. This includes direction and altitude sense, short range remote communication, recording and relaying sense data, infra-red and ultra-violet vision, super-and-sub sonic hearing, universal translation and whatever operations arise from particular Camo-Modes. They can also choose extra super-powers within the limits of one per every 3 increments of Intelligence from the following list. Which super-power should Template choose?

- Armoured Camo-Mode allows one to take one-half damage from any attack while in camo-mode. One cannot use robot mode weapons while in this mode.

- Force Field Generation forms a barrier that has half the total Life Force of the robot that generated it and can be utilized in the service of that and two other Titans of the same size. It can last as many turns as the user has ranks or till it is extinguished.

- Holographic Projection can produce an illusion within line-of-sight that includes visual and audial components and lasts as many turns as the user has ranks.

- Invisibility can deflect light around the user for as many turns as the user has ranks. This allows one surprise attack before Courage scores are arranged for combat sequence.

- Long Range Remote Communication exceeds the limit of short-range communication (as many kilometres as the user has rank) and can extend to an entire Earth-sized planet. It can be performed once within a turn.

- Magnetism allows the user to move ferromagnetic objects at a distance of as many meters as they are tall. The objects cannot be bigger than something that the robot could move by handling them. It can be performed once within a turn. Probots have this automatically.

- Pressure Resistance allows Titans to survive in environments of significant pressure such as dense atmospheres or oceans. All Titans can survive thinner atmosphere or even space. Probots have this automatically.

- Program Override allows one robot to temporarily take over the actions of another within as many meters as they have ranks. The potential victim can resist by rolling its own Rank or lower on a 10-sided dice. The effect lasts as many turns as the user has ranks and the victim can make a resistance roll every turn. Also acts of self-destruction cannot be forced by this power.

- Signal Blocking prevents short range remote communication and reduces Long Range Remote Communication to only short range. It can be performed once within a turn. Kronotons have this automatically.

- Short Range Flight allows flight in robot mode within as many kilometres as the user has rank. To fly long range a character must possess an appropriate Camo-Mode (such as a plane). Kronotons have this power automatically.

Weapons

All Titans can punch or kick but can only interface with one weapon. Warriors get an additional weapon. Huge or Massive characters also get an additional weapon. An oversized warrior therefore has three weapons. Template however only has one. Weapons themselves determine chances of hitting on the roll of a 20-sided die.

- A Punch or Kick (only at close range) successfully hits on a roll of 11 or better and does damage equal to attacker Strength.

- Melee Weapons such as Electro-Blades and Vibro-Maces (only at close range) successfully hit on a roll of 11 or better and do damage generated by one 6-sided die.

- Machine Guns successfully hit on a roll of 8 or better and do damage generated by one 4-sided die.

- Energy Blasters successfully hit on a roll of 11 or better and do damage generated by one 8-sided die.

- Explosive Projectiles successfully hit on a roll of 14 or better and do damage generated by one 12-sided die. They also inflict half damage to any characters standing next to the character hit.

Any weapon incorporated into a Camo-Mode (such as explosive projectiles of military vehicles) does half the damage that an equivalent weapon would wielded in robot mode. Remember to add Strength or Firepower bonuses. With these and other rolls round up or down in whichever way benefits the player characters the most.

Despite these rudimentary game mechanics (or possibly because of them) the role-play game managed to survive and is still played as a novelty now-and-then. Complete boxed sets are very rare but the basic Titans Of Titan rules have been preserved online so anybody can play them. And if you are very lucky you may crack the code of its alleged esoteric lessons.

Titans Of Titan - The Telemovies

What follows is fiction and much of it is a fiction within a fiction. It expands on what was described here.

Three Titans of Titan telemovies were made which blended live-action human actors, stop-motion robot models, different sets scaled for both humans and robots, and tilt-shift photography rather than standard stock footage. Much of the work was done using Swiss facilities and staff. These were the first Grand Fenwick Radio And Television productions aimed specifically at tween and teen audiences and were more popular than the toys they promoted. The first even got public screenings at the Grand Fenwick Theatre as Titans Of Titan The Movie.

That first movie drew the ire of Grand Fenwick’s sole morality campaigner, Marika Weisshauser, who objected to both its action violence and some very skimpy clothes that featured in its nightclub scene. Weisshauser had a lobbying method that was as unusual as it was effective. She would visit the Grey Goose Pub frequented by Fenwickian parliamentarians and sing her favourite arias until they gave her what she wanted. The Duchess Gloriana XIII and her Ducal Minister for Trinkets the Professor Dom Woodlock quickly mollified Weisshauser (even if they wished they could immolate her). In the two Titans Of Titan sequels nobody was destroyed and everyone was modestly-dressed.

Only the first movie was released for home consumption. Some fans suspect that the other two have been erased but Grand Fenwick Radio And Television have never confirmed this. They could have been lost, along with many other records, in the Fenwick Fondue Incident of 1990. Scripts and still images did survive however, partly thanks to the Titans Of Titan role-play game. Story descriptions of the three telemovies follow. More information on the alien robot characters can be seen here.



Titans of Titan (1986)

In the year 2000 a staffed expedition to the Saturnian moon of Titan discovers something startling inside its icy surface. Two very large and geometrically shaped objects are detected. Some speculate that they are two portions of a crashed spacecraft while others say they may in fact be two separate craft.

Excavation finds two much smaller objects closer to the surface. They seem to be large statues. The closest is successfully removed from the ice and transported to Earth for further study at the Alpine Institute of Human Advancement (establishing shots for this and other urban settings imply that they are set on Lake Geneva). Due to its long incarceration in ice the relic is named Kronos for the ancient Titan of longevity.

Next the survey crew work on freeing the other seeming statue from the ice and notice its vibrant red livery. This prompts the explorers to name it Prometheus for the ancient Titan who gifted humanity with fire. They are disrupted by a sudden attack from a flying saucer. All the crew present are killed off-screen while automatic cameras film the attacker altering form into another 'statue' and proceeding to dig its way to one of the entombed structures. This robot dubbed Charon had been hibernating in the rings of Saturn but was awakened by a passive homing signal transmitted by Kronos.

The two huge ice-encased structures are the spaceships of the rival Kronotons and Probots. Charon makes his way into the Kronoton ship and starts the process of re-activating its crew. Soon he has revived the espionage specialists and gets the teleportation chamber operating. A ship with the power to cross interstellar space also has the power to teleport crew members within interplanetary distances but takes time to recharge and has a limited capacity. The Kronotons who journalists will soon name Specteron, Waveform and Crookbook are sent to Earth to find their leader - none other than Kronos - while Charon continues to thaw others from hibernation.

Much closer to the surface Prometheus is revived by exposure to the atmosphere of Titan. He digs his way to the Probot spacecraft and in his turn starts reviving his followers. Soon the Probots that will be called Hornet and Ace Rider are revived and teleported to Earth on a mission to make contact with the locals and find a safe haven for the Probot crew.

In Europe, the Kronotons are teleported to a warehouse but cannot get a more accurate fix on Kronos, whose signal has ceased. They assume he still functions but that the signal has been blocked by humans who are hiding him. They study Earth media and decide to kidnap the European President and use him as leverage to free Kronos. Specteron thinks he can do this alone and so visits a Geneva television studio at which the statesman will be giving a speech. Specteron, like all Titans, can assume new camouflage (known as a camo-mode) to fit the local environment. They can adopt fresh camo-modes a limited number of times, and Specteron takes on the form of three interlinked TV cameras. However, the security service of the President is surprisingly effective and manages to get their leader away from the marauding alien robot, who flees in panic.

Hornet and Ace Rider teleport onto a traffic island and quickly adopt the forms of a sports car and a street bike before speeding away. However they startled several motorists and caused a minor crash. Both a roadside mechanic and a local traffic reporter attend the scene. Andrin Gupta and Talina Werner soon get hot chocolates together at a late night cafe to compare notes on the odd things several witnesses told them. Hornet and Ace Rider park at a nearby drive-in and watch a movie in the hope of understanding Earth culture. They see an advertisement which declares that 'Autobahn Nightclub is the centre of the universe' and assume it is the seat-of-government. There is also a glimpse of what looks like Transformers The Movie, suggesting that it exists as fiction within this setting.

Waveform and his pet Crookbook devise a new scheme to leverage human power structures. They have discerned that the European President’s daughter, Letizia, is an avid clubber with a far smaller security compliment than her father. The two Kronotons assume the form of a speaker stack with DJ booth and a laptop at the Autobahn Nightclub and attempt a kidnapping. However, Hornet and Ace Rider had just parked outside and come to the rescue. The Kronotons, who can fly short distances and jam surveillance, escape. The Probots make contact with Earth authorities, aided by a grateful Letizia. A frustrated Talina, accompanied by Andrin, gets there too late to witness any of the action.

Back on Titan, Charon revives Astra who then takes over operations. She loves Kronos and so is far more motivated to succeed. With Cloudwrench and Stormburst she teleports to Earth with a new and more ruthless plan. The warrior trio arrive at a British air base and destroy it once they take on new military plane forms. They fly to and terrorize an Alpine sports stadium, while a soccer game is underway, and hold all humans present hostage.

Hornet and Ace Rider send a report to Prometheus who decides to bring reinforcements himself, taking Panega and Argus with him and leaving his lieutenant Epimetheus in charge of more revivals. The three newly arrived Probots assume the forms of emergency service vehicles outside the stadium, enter to take on the Kronotons and allow the humans to escape. Waveform, Crookbook and Specteron arrive, however, and outnumber the Probots. Hornet and Ace Rider try to get into the stadium but panicking crowds hamper them.

All this time Kronos has slowly been reviving and discovers he is in a secret military and scientific bunker. In his own rush to escape he uses his last camo-mode charge to assume the form of the first vehicle he encounters - an experimental tank. Had he held off even minutes longer he would have seen an experimental hover-jet and could have mimicked that, however the robot can still fly a short distance and follows the signals of his minions to the stadium. Around this time, Talina and Andrin also arrive, and narrowly escape their vehicles before they are destroyed by falling debris from a crumbling light tower.

Back on Titan the teleportation device is recharged and Epimetheus makes the rapid decision to bring all those currently revived with him to help on Earth. There are only two others and they set the teleport to automatic transmission, hoping it will successfully home in on the other Probots. They are separated, however. Epimethius appears on the roof of a truck stop, which collapses, and then assumes the form of a prime mover sans trailer. Phantom appears on a Formula One racing track and assumes the first form she sees. Tracker finds himself in forested hills and, coming to a road, models himself on an abandoned four-wheel drive parked there.

All three Probots converge on the stadium just as the Kronotons, now lead by Kronos, destroy Penega and Argus. Prometheus and Kronos are fighting hand-to-hand while Hornet and Ace Rider are in a pitched blaster fight with the rest of the Kronotons. The Probot reinforcements get into the action and, suddenly, human military forces arrive too. Astra and Specteron are both destroyed and at this, Kronos calls a retreat.

Talina, with help from Andrin, managed to get much of the action on tape. Later, the European President and his daughter present the Probots with medals for helping save the lives of so many sports lovers, and welcome them to Earth, offering to house them in a secret Alpine bunker.

The Progenitor Kiln (1987)

These are some key scenes from the second telemovie:

- Ace Rider and newly revived Dusty are racing each other along a lakeside beach. A drunk notices these cycles have no riders and throws his booze away.

- Newly revived Atlas and Waves rescue a recreational fisher stuck in stormy conditions - he is Dr Ito from Japan who is a visiting fellow at the Alpine Institute of Human Advancement. The scientist is delighted to discover the helicopter and jet-ski are in fact the famed alien robots.

- Waveform and Crookbook destroy an old abandoned mansion overlooking the lake after finding evidence in it directing them to the ancient lost progenitor kiln that the Titans were aiming for when they got into a fight around Saturn.

- Ace Rider, Dusty, Waves, Atlas and Dr Ito meet at the burning structure and manage to salvage some evidence from its even older cellars. Atlas informs Dr Ito that a progenitor kiln is a device that can both generate new Titans and imbue them with the fresh ability to assume camo-modes.

- In a flashback depicting some long-since destroyed progenitor kilns, the dead characters Specteron, Astra, Panega and Argus are seen. It is shown that the installations can only be activated by two Titans working in tandem.

- In separate scenes both Prometheus and Kronos are shown giving orders to discover the progenitor kiln or prevent others from finding it.

- Newly revived Streetslick and Spanners recently assumed camo-modes to compensate Talina and Andren for the vehicles they lost in the stadium battle and now work with them as undercover operatives.

- The five newly revived Democrons are in work vehicle camo-modes at a seeming construction site, but they are really excavating for the lost progenitor kiln. Streetslick, Talina, Spanners and Andren discover this. Groundhog, Dirtdigger, Flatchat, Forks and Doze attack the interlopers.

- Hornet, Phantom and Tracker are all transported to the firefight by Epimethius using his new trailer. They convert it into the Probot defensive stockade at some distance from the excavation in which the Democrons shelter.

- Prometheus and Kronos arrive and have a deliberate collision in camo-modes and follow it with fighting as robots.

- Atlas has a dog-fight with Charon who had lead Cloudwrench and Stormburst into battle over the impromptu battleground. The three Kronotons threaten to overwhelm the big Probot.

- The Democrons combine into the gestalt Demolizor and clash with an stockade-armour augmented Epimetheus, who eventually gets the upper hand, and shatters their unity.

- Members of both factions attempt to take control of the progenitor kiln - Waveform and Crookbook for the Kronotons and Hornet and Ace Rider for the Probots. In struggling to do this both Hornet and Crookbook accidentally activate the device.

- However at that same moment human military jet fighters blast the progenitor kiln in a desperate effort to end the urban conflict. The explosion sends a peculiar burst of energy across the city.

- The Kronotons retreat and the Probots are left to help tidy the damaged site. Talina and Andren ask if there is any way to restore the progenitor kiln but the Probots think this is a very long shot.

Portal To Andromeda (1988)

These are some key scenes from the third telemovie:

- Dr Ito has been studying Titan technology and developed his own innovative new machine - a wormhole generator located in a secluded Alpine ravine guarded by Probot stockade. Prometheus says that the Probots could use it to return home to the galactic perimeter in the constellation of Andromeda. He even suggests negotiating with Kronos so that the Kronotons can also go home and let humans live in peace once more.

- The energy wave from the activated then destroyed progenitor kiln resulted in the random metamorphosis of some local works of artifice into Titans - some animatronic Mesozoic reptiles in the Alpine Museum and some arthropod sculptures in the nearby lakeside plaza. These have been living secretly for some time but then the two groups clash one night and suddenly all the world is aware of them.

- Atlas, Streetslick, Spanners, Dusty and Waves intervene and manage to end the clash. The arthropods escape into the sewers. The reptiles however stand firm and the Probots manage to convince them they can be friends. The new allies (who by now have lost rubbery hides to combat damage) are named Mesobots.

- The arthropods exit at a rubbish tip but are confronted there by the Democrons. The new Titans are so awed by the combined form of Demolizor that they offer to ally with them and so become the Invertocrons.

- Both Mesobots and Invertocrons have issues integrating into the factions. They also express a desire to live in a world that belongs to them rather than one that is dominated by organics.

- In a surprise to all, Prometheus and Kronos come to an agreement to work together on perfecting the wormhole generator.

- The new Titans known as Grindstone, Whirlpool, Wingspan, Locus, Scorpio and Slator all volunteer to test the wormhole generator.

- The volunteers are gated away from Earth and the final scene shows they are indeed on another planet. However it is a barren world rather than the technological marvel they were expecting. The two trios glare at one another under the light of a garish binary star and wonder how well they can get along.

- The end credits inform viewers to 'prepare yourself for the coming Cold-Blooded Clash'...

The only thing that ever came of this promise was new packaging for the few Titans Of Titan toys sold in 1989. The telemovies soon became the sort of faded memory that aging Gen-X Fenwickians would half-think they had imagined rather than seen.