Tuesday 6 September 2016

This is the voice of the Mysterons

We know that you can hear us, Earthmen

For anyone who isn't a Captain Scarlet fan, the title and headline of this post make up part of the introduction to each episode of the classic Gerry Anderson TV series.  Spoken in a deep, gravelly voice, the Mysterons would always make a threat to destroy something or assassinate someone at the beginning of the show; it would then be up to Spectrum, Earth's defenders, to try to thwart the aliens' plans.  Since the threats were sometimes quite cryptic, this wasn't always easy or even successful...

The Mysterons never appeared as corporeal beings, but rather would only ever be seen as 2 rings of (usually) blue or green light that would pan over the various heroes and ultimately, some poor victim.  The aliens had the power to create almost exact duplicates of objects or people, but only if the object was destroyed or the person killed first.

I've been wanting to put on games based on Captain Scarlet for many years.  This stems from enjoying the TV show as a child and, more recently, watching DVDs with my own children.  However, the great enabler for this is undoubtedly the release of Captain Scarlet models by Crooked Dice.  Oh, they're called something else, but it is quite obvious that these are based on the Spectrum agents and Angels.

There's a problem, though.  Other than using one agent to represent the evil Captain Black, all the rest of these models are for the good guys.  I can (and will) use models of generic civilians, guards, scientists or the like to represent Mysteron agents, but I wanted to show the 2 rings as well.


Hence the model shown above.  If you can't work out what it is by now then there's no hope for me!  I'll need to create a suitable profile for Mysterons in 7TV2; I'm thinking that the "Ghost" card would be a good starting point.  Possibly they should have some form of suborn/seduce/hypnotise ability to represent their power to take control of people or vehicles, but that should really only happen if/when they're killed/destroyed.  Hmm, how might this work?

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like a cunning plan Hugh, and the Mysteron base looks spot on!! Great idea and I for one am already looking forward to a BatRep or two featuring "Captain Scarlet" :-)

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    1. I've still to find enough suitable civilians and vehicles, but I have high hopes for such a game

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  2. Looking forward to seeing some game reports!

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  3. SIG.
    Ghost might be a good term after the destruction of the peaceful Mysterons moon base There is a thought that they may now all be undead and living in the bodies o humans which they take over. This is of course a preposterous idea. However Timpani Angel has voiced that option and will continue to look into it as an idea.

    (Sorry I just got into roleplaying character)

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    1. Timpani is another musical term which could be an angel name, ..... well better than Cacophony Angel!

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    2. An interesting notion - and who am I to question Timpani Angel :-) ?

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  4. Spectrum is Green!
    Big fan of Captain Scarlet, look forward to seeing more pictures & reports.

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    1. Thanks, Jack. This is a fairly slow-burn project, but I'm still hopeful that I'll get in a game soon.

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  5. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this develops as I have plans of my own for a 7TV2e game featuring Captain Scarlet. Good work on the Mysteron rings.

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    1. Well, I'm making it up as I go along, Bryan - so I wouldn't hold your breath. Still, if there's enough viewer enthusiasm then it might spur me on to greater efforts...

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  6. Nice objective/Mysteron C6. Love captain Scarlet and look forward to seeing more of the project.

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    1. Thanks. I'm still wondering how to do this - after all, most of the show's episodes only had 2 or 3 characters on each side of a fracas. A game probably needs rather more than that.

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  7. Nice marker. Bounce some ideas around the forum and facebook groups and see what gets turned up idea wise.

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    1. Thanks, Simon. I might just do that (though I'm not quite ready to go there yet).

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    1. Thanks, HW. Actually, I'm a bit disappointed with the rings. I'm pondering whether it would be possible to do some fibre optic lighting effects instead...

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