Whatever happened to Sir Robert?

[Belz...]

Mostly Doctor Who hybrid, with a detailed and extensive history of odd happening, mysteries, meddling by various groups and various factions interacting.

That does sound like the best setting for the sort of stories you're posting.

 

[PursuedByABear]

They don't actually have to be "lying". They can, and often are, "mistaken". The more amusing part is where, after having been given a definitive explanation, they persist in believing.

They don't have to be lying, no. But if they could be, there is no point, for me at any rate, wasting any more time on it. I really don't care whether they are lying or mistaken, and have no interest in findiing a prosaic explanation showing they could be mistaken if it can be explained by them simply making it up.

When you have a situation where a random group of 40 or 50 people would all have to be lying simultaneously, that option probably becomes a bit more interesting.

 

[RolandRat]

But the woman claimed that during the two minutes she was unconscious, she spent two weeks in a heaven-like garden, conversing with a spiritual figure who tutored her on all sorts of things, and then indicated (as in so many of these stories) that it was her choice as to whether to “go back” or not.

Did she actually mention what she was tutored in?

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

They don't have to be lying, no. But if they could be, there is no point, for me at any rate, wasting any more time on it. I really don't care whether they are lying or mistaken, and have no interest in findiing a prosaic explanation showing they could be mistaken if it can be explained by them simply making it up.

When you have a situation where a random group of 40 or 50 people would all have to be lying simultaneously, that option probably becomes a bit more interesting.

You want witnesses? I'll give you 30,000 / 40,000 / even 100,000 witnesses.

Miracle_of_the_Sun^WP

Don't stand out in the hot sun, soaking rain without any food for hours. And in particular Do Not Stare at the SUN. You're welcome.

 

[theprestige]

When you have a situation where a random group of 40 or 50 people would all have to be lying simultaneously, that option probably becomes a bit more interesting.

Maybe. But groups aren't usually random. Most are at least self-selected on some basis of commonality.

And there is a well-known characteristic of human behavior, that people will go along with an untrue narrative if the people around them are also going along with it.

Show me a group of fifty people all claiming to witness a physical impossibility, and I'll show you a group of five people taking the piss, forty people bowing to peer pressure, and five people who are legitimately confused.

 

[CORed]

The events as describes happened; Goddard claimed to have travelled in time, seen a dead man in a photograph, witnessed a prophetic dream, the Zebrina's crew disappeared et cetera.
They feature in my collection of such oddities, several hundred atm, that I use for gaming inspiration.

It strikes me that Goddard is a good story teller who wouldn't let a little thing like the truth get in his way.

 

[PursuedByABear]

You want witnesses? I'll give you 30,000 / 40,000 / even 100,000 witnesses.

Miracle_of_the_Sun^WP

Don't stand out in the hot sun, soaking rain without any food for hours. And in particular Do Not Stare at the SUN. You're welcome.

I am not sure, from the tone of your reply, what you thought I was saying. If we have witnesses in numbers we need to find an explanation other than simply consciously lying for the hell of it, and that can be interesting in what it says about people and mass delusions. What in that makes you think your example is somehow revelatory to me?

 

[PursuedByABear]

Maybe. But groups aren't usually random. Most are at least self-selected on some basis of commonality.

And there is a well-known characteristic of human behavior, that people will go along with an untrue narrative if the people around them are also going along with it.

Show me a group of fifty people all claiming to witness a physical impossibility, and I'll show you a group of five people taking the piss, forty people bowing to peer pressure, and five people who are legitimately confused.

Indeed, most groups are self-selected,which is why I said "random".

And my point is that when we have a number of witnesses we can look for some explanation as to why they say they saw something strange, and if that is peer pressure, self-delusion or misinterpretation of a natural phenomena, then that can be interesting. Forty people bowing to peer pressure on account of five taking the piss is interesting in what it says about human behaviour.

One person, not so much. They are almost certainly just lying for attention. Nothing interesting in that.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I am not sure, from the tone of your reply, what you thought I was saying. If we have witnesses in numbers we need to find an explanation other than simply consciously lying for the hell of it, and that can be interesting in what it says about people and mass delusions. What in that makes you think your example is somehow revelatory to me?

I reread what you posted. Your are only interested in situations where a number of people are simultaneously lying? OK; ignore what I said.

 

[PursuedByABear]

I reread what you posted. Your are only interested in situations where a number of people are simultaneously lying? OK; ignore what I said.

No, you are still not getting it.

One person telling a stupid story is not interesting. They are almost certainly just an attention seeking liar. This happens a million times every day.

Two hundred people telling a stupid story is interesting. This happens more rarely. We can learn something about human behaviour from it by looking at what might have caused them all to tell the same stupid story, whether lying, deluded or mistaken. Or, we might be able to learn about some phenomena they have all misinterpreted. At any rate, there might be something there of some value that is worth spending a little time digging for.

One person, not even worth digging. They might not be lying, and there might be something real and interesting that has caused them to have their delusion, but the chances are so small that the reward to effort ratio just isn't there.

 

[Spektator]

Goddard apparently was a Spiritualist who also told stories of ghostly encounters. He argued that UFOs were not spacecraft, but paranormal apparitions, and he told a story about a precognitive dream about his making an emergency landing, but it was evidently uncorroborated.

As for time travel, the concept is called "time slip," a trope in which a character somehow without intending to travel in time finds himself/herself either in the past or future. An early example is Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). Sometimes the time traveler is somehow transported in time by an Earthly vehicle--an early Twilight Zone episode was "A Stop at Willoughby," story by Rod Serling, 5/6/1960. A New Yorker upset by the pace of modern life discovers he can board a commuter train that travels back in time to 1888 and the quaint Ohio town of Willoughby. After a trip there and back again, he determines to go back to Willoughby and stay there. Similar concept--a train instead of a plane, but the vehicle travels in time as well as in distance.

In 1948, the radio show Quiet, Please broadcast the episode "One for the Book," 11/21/1948. In 1948, an Aemerican pilot takes off, flies through a strange part of the sky, and lands in 1938.

The Twilight Zone often used this trope. "The Last Flight," script by Richard Matheson, was from the story "The Flight" {pub 1950) by Richard Matheson, 2/5/1960. A British pilot heading for his aerodrome passes through "a strange cloud, like a vacuum" in 1917, and emerges in California in the 1950s, where he lands at a USAF base. In the end, he takes off again and he and his biplane vanish.

And also from TZ, "The Odyssey of Flight 33," original idea and script by Rod Serling, 2/24/1961. In 1960 a British airliner flying from London to New York passes through a vortex and emerges first in the Jurassic, where the crew and passengers see dinosaurs, and then go around again but are low on fuel and emerge over New York in 1939.

The point is not that Goddard imitated these stories. It is that in 1951 the concept of a time-slip activated by an airplane flight was not new and that Goddard spun other tales that sound more fanciful than real.

 

[Matthew Ellard]

Two hundred people telling a stupid story is interesting. This happens more rarely. We can learn something about human behaviour from it by looking at what might have caused them all to tell the same stupid story, whether lying, deluded or mistaken. Or, we might be able to learn about some phenomena they have all misinterpreted.

Fascinating.....so those 1.2 billion Hindus who talk about Hunuman, the monkey king are misinterpreting a real phenomena.

 

[PursuedByABear]

Fascinating.....so those 1.2 billion Hindus who talk about Hunuman, the monkey king are misinterpreting a real phenomena.

That's absolutely not what I said at all, is it.

I gave that as one potential possibility. Are the words "or" and "might" new to you?

(Besides which few of those claim to have seen Hanuman. If 1.2 billion simultaneously claim to have witnessed him, I would find that interesting.)

 

[carlitos]

Mostly Doctor Who hybrid, with a detailed and extensive history of odd happening, mysteries, meddling by various groups and various factions interacting.

This is off-topic, so I apologize. I googled "Dr. Who hybrid game" and only got results about the TV show. Are you developing your own game and trying scenarios out on the board to see how they go? That sounds fun.

 

[catsmate]

This is off-topic, so I apologize. I googled "Dr. Who hybrid game" and only got results about the TV show. Are you developing your own game and trying scenarios out on the board to see how they go? That sounds fun.

Not exactly. The base game is AITAS by C7, and our main campaign has been going for nearly ten years. However in the same way that the Whoniverse has expanded far beyond the TV series (hundreds of audioplays, books et cetera) and it's spinoffs (of which there are many), the campaign has added new elements; such as the Hourglass Club (mine), the Alexandrian Society (Jez Miller) along with many new characters, devices and bits of background.

The AITAS forum (of which I'm an active member) has developed a series of unofficial sourcebooks covering the deuterocanonical works (which you can find here if you're interested). Currently were working on a book oif scenario seeds/ideas, one for every day of the year.

Late last year I started a new campaign, with a slightly different premise, but set within the Whoniverse, called The Thing in the Basement where a group of UCB students in 1998 find an abandoned time portal project and are swept up in events while trying to work out what's happening, and experiencing the complications of time travel in a manner rather underused in Who.
This campaign has moved online due to certain unforeseen events but continues apace, with "season one" about to come to a rather explosive finale in August.

Currently on hiatus is the Evil Doctor Chronicles, a twisted version of the Whoniverse with a simple premise.

If you;re interested there's an incomplete list of my historical ideas here.

Feel free to drop in an join the forum.

 

[carlitos]

Thanks. I’m trying to wrap my head around how this works. My only concept is something I saw on Big Bang Theory where they were rolling dice and moving through scenarios.

 

[catsmate]

Thanks. I’m trying to wrap my head around how this works. My only concept is something I saw on Big Bang Theory where they were rolling dice and moving through scenarios.

It's 'Lets Pretend' with rules. Develop a simulated character and have them proceed through a scenario/adventure. Dice (or other methods) introduce a level of chance.

ETA:

Roleplaying games are shared storytelling. You playthe part of your character, but you don’t need to dress up and leap about (well, not if you don’t want to). You get together with a group of friends and create your own Doctor Who adventure, taking the heroes to any location in the universe, at any time. The action takes place in your imaginations, and the story is told through your interaction. You’re in control and you can do anything, go anywhere, be anything. All that limits you is the power of your mind… and, if you’re a Time Lord, that’s a lot of power!

 

[Apathia]

Fascinating.....so those 1.2 billion Hindus who talk about Hunuman, the monkey king are misinterpreting a real phenomena.

Yes. Monkeyshines.