Martians everywhere

[Le Noir Faineant]

This summer will be the perfect time for WotW RL, since Steven Spielberg is going to release the movie in... July?

*Could really be a project that draws public attention on it*

[Coan]

Bah that movie will be terrible and has nothing to do with the book save:

There are aliens.
They attack Earth.
The name.

Let us hope the 'true to the book' movie of War of the Worlds will be better.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Maybe Wiccy could insert a Spielberg and a Cruise character as special villains for the players to *have fun with*...

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I liked the apppearance being completely nonhumanoid but I found that they were not interesting enough. Perhaps they need more variety. An upper and lower caste just didn't seem enough - perhaps they could be more physically diverse? Small and smart mechanics, huge and strong laborers, gaunt and thin scouts, and bloated and immobile leaders?

The trouble with the "caste system" idea is that it detracts from Wells' original premise for the Martians' anatomy, namely that they'd become so good at designing machines to do all the work, they didn't NEED anything more to their bodies than basic life-support (circulatory system & lungs), a big fat brain, and a few tendrils to operate control-panels with. Having Martian castes designed for various functions would violate this premise that the Martians don't DO work, they just direct machinery to do it.

OTOH, if you'd like to add variety, you could concoct a whole range of mechanical devices (and biological? they did bring their red weeds along to Earth....) which the Martians could direct, as alternatives to tripods. If the Martians are in it for the long haul, they may also begin brainwashing or intimidating human captives into acting as Judas goats -- hunting and betraying their own kind, in exchange for their own or their families' exemption from becoming living blood-bags -- much as that soldier from the original novel had speculated they might. Or they might have brought along some Judas-goat versions of those frail humanoids they'd used as a blood source on Mars, which they've trained as attack-animals and which can pursue humans into tight places where Martians can't go.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Hey, that's not bad.

A variety of machines would be a neat touch with the death machines, wling wings, and some other devices added to the martian arsenal - perhaps a burrowing machine?

As well, I like the idea of the humanoid death squads. As potential conquerers, the martians might want to tap human resources and outfit squads of collaberators to round up humans and organize them into orderly slave camps - segregating those able to do work for their martian masters from those who are good only for their body fluids.

This might lead to some interesting situations for players:

The characters grow up in a small isolated village in the English countryside, where life is quiet and ideal. They know nothing of the outside world, except for some sniptes of conversation amongst their elders. When they are old enough, they are taken out by their fathers for a mysterious innitiaon in a place called Lon-Dun.
There they see how the rest of humanity lives - as slaves and cattle for the martians. They now realize that the ideal life they enjoyed was bought with the betrayal of the human race. Worse still, as the spawn of the original collaberators, they are required by the Martian overlords to join the Death Squads and assist in the war against the human race. If they refuse, not only will they suffer, but their family's life of privelege will be revoked.
After basic training the characters are taken to the Front, perhaps Russia, or the US - there their squad is cut off from the army - which is thereafter obliterated. Now MIA and free, the players are free to make their own path.
Will they side with humanity and rebel against the martians, running the risk of being discovered and exposing their families?
What have the other humans become in the ages of war? Perhaps in their stuggle to survive, humanity has turned to black magic, cannibalism, or even vampirism?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Hey, whatever floats your boat! I'd recommend going back to the original source (i.e. Wells' novel), and checking out the soldier's speculations on how the future would have developed, had bacteria not stepped in as a deus ex machina and shut down the invasion.

FWIW, I've got a pet theory that you could tie "War of the Worlds" to "The Time Machine", if you assume that the Martians eventually discovered a defense against Earth's microorganisms, and successfully took over the planet on their second attempt. Some humans would've become their domesticated bloodstock -- bred to be docile, stupid vegetarians -- while others that remained free would've retreated underground, retaining a marginal knowledge of machinery, and evolving into the "human rats" of the WotW soldier's predictions. As Martians dominate the surface, they'd be unable to farm crops, and would eventually get so desperate for food that they'd even resort to eating the discarded, blood-drained carcasses of the Martians' livestock. Fast-forward 800,000 years; the Time Traveler arrives, long after the Martians have died out or evolved to a state where they don't need their humanoid livestock any more. He meets two species: docile vegetarians with the minds of children, and the subterranean carnivores who've continued to prey upon them....

[Coan]

If you want an idea on what would happen if the Martians had taken over read 'The Tripods' series of books. It was also turned into a BBC TV series that was really good.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Not really. I remember the Tripods series, and the aliens in those books were much less malevolent than the Martians. The whole brain-wire thing was awfully ColdWar-ish, too, making the stories' threats ring hollow due to cheesiness (much like "A Wrinkle In Time" unfortunately does).

Unless, of course, we're talking about different Tripods. Wells did turn them into such a cliche, I wouldn't be surprised if there's been more than one series like that.... :-/

[Coan]

But the tripods created a sociological control device by making their leadership of humanity into a pseudo religion. They were worshipped as gods by the people of Earth.

There are features I think could be incorporated into a 'Surviving the Martians' story.