What an interesting concept. This is an excellent seed for a plot. Go to Comment

Why the name Bachsel? Go to Comment

31. The Slob

The Slob follows the comically depressing life of a Joe Everyman who has just about every socioeconomic problem imaginable. The Slob stumbles through life, cracking crude jokes, groping strangers and generally being the asshole that everyone really wants to be but is either afraid to be, or too considerate to be.

32. Pastville

A time travel machine malfunctions and sends a comic buffoon everyman back to the days before the Resource Wars, where he tries to fit in and live in a society that he doesn't fit in. The residents of Pastville are cartoonishly puritan and offensively militaristic/Christian while keeping up the common trope of the Petroleum era being computer free. 

33. The Man with the Mop

The Man with the Mop is a eco-crusading janitor who fights evil polluters and waste dumping industrialists. The show is heavy on action and violence and features caricatures rather than characters. The villains are little more than fat versions of Snidely Whiplash, twirling waxed mustaches and rolling in money in pushbutton empires. 

34. The Psi-Men

A group of parapsychic misfits, the Psi-Men are men and women who could pass for fashion models who fight evil parapsychic baddies. A fair number of their parapsychic powers revolve around stripping clothes off and seduction. Robots are frequently blown up for seldom if any reason.

35. The Sharks

The Sharks are an aquatic gang of well meaning canal punks who venture between the beach life, night clubbing, and fighting serial killers and monsters that threaten said coastal areas. They are augmens and have shark tattoos and are surfers.

36. Rita's Cosmic Life

A transition story, Rita is a Federation citizen who makes the move to a big swanky space habitat and deals with the translation from planetdweller to space woman. Rather than being a situational drama, it has been called Rita's Dating and Sex Life in Space. Regardless it remains a popular show for a largely fashion conscious female audience.

37. The Bert & Sledge Show

The gross out show Bert & Sledge follows the misadventures and criminal activities of drug fiend and hyperactive sex addict Bert and borderline retard genetic accident Sledge. The two are obnoxious, racist, hyperviolent and endorse negative sexual behavior. The show routinely gets high ratings.

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I've thought about laying out some guidelines and seeing if anyone would be interested in adding to the Cosmic Era
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I've never made any point about hiding the 80s and 90s nostalgia in the Cosmic Era setting.

One of the things I have been pondering is where the moral middle is, and what is liberal and progressive version what is conservative and traditional. But, the points I come up with is that the liberal and progressive values are tied up in clone and machine rights, and the Conservative values are tied to religion.

You do think much more deeply and critically on the Cosmic Era than I do, but this is something i do for fun, not to write a doctorate thesis.

Another thing I was pondering was the impact of media and entertainment on culture in general. Go to Comment

Interesting programs. Go to Comment

This definitely helps give a solid feel for the social mores and interests of Arcologies in the Cosmic Era. I feel like I understand the average sheeple of that time period much more after reading this. Go to Comment

I would pay good money to watch Dino-Knights.

As with your other Cosmic Era material, this is some great color stuff that demonstrates what society has come to in the period. Go to Comment

I really like the idea of presenting the culture through its media rather that just bluntly listing facts about the culture. But what do we learn about the cosmic era from your re-wrties of Tailspin and Ducktails? From what you write about the cosmic era I would assume that stuff like Tomatoes and Call of Duty: Kids would not be protested or censored. However this makes thinks you want their to be a silent majority in your universe that longs to a return to the 1980s or is that just you? Where do the people of the cosmic era ground their morality? What are the conservatives seeking to conserve or resurrect? Go to Comment

Birth

This popular reality show takes excess women from the arcology, forcefully impregnates them and drops them into a wilderness or unpopulated area.  The women are followed using VR implant chips, micro drones, and satellite surveillance.  This series is praised for exploring and tackling the problems of excess population as well making child birth appear interesting and visceral again.  Women who are able to raise their child to one year of age are removed from the series and integrated into their source arcologoy's population structure. The show has won many industry awards for editing and presentation, a typical 15 minute episode, which often has no dialog outside of the pop music sound track, will successfully capture the magic of birth, the bond of motherhood, the tragedy of loss and the primal fear of living alone outside of an arcology. 

Burn Unit

This unproduced and unstagged reality channel is available 24/7 and follows the activity of the Burn Unit in the Proto-Corp Military Hospital located outside of Kinshasa.  The home audience can select between any of 280 cameras in the burn unit and can download the footage to a personal device for later viewing if desired. The channel was originally sponsor by Proto-Corp but has achieved finical independence by selling pop up ad bombs that will enter the screen while viewing.

Father Knows Best

This scripted comedy follows the adventures of successful arcology housing planner Dutch Leopold. When Dutch isn't masterfully making space and distributing rations for the population of his arcology he is advising his teenage sons on their sexual adventures. The story inevitably ends with his sons unable to satisfy their partners and Dutch coming into the bed room to take the reigns and show the younger boys how it is done.  The show is both praised and panned (depending on one's social leanings) for its championing of conservative values. Father Knows Best is said to set forth this unrealistic or idealistic father son dynamic where in the father has lots of time to spend with his children, a strong interest their well being and there are no inner family conflicts.

 You're Beautiful 

This channel can be streamed while walking anywhere in one of its client arcologies.  It super imposes an image over the surroundings and represents all the objects around the viewer in the arcology but removes unsightly trash, ware and tear or graffiti.  Furthermore it superimposes images of attractive and healthy individuals over the visage of the people in the viewers immediate vicinity.   The channel also adds a layer of interaction, in which  the super imposed icons are all gazing at the viewer with lecherous and desirous expressions. 

Hunley

This loosely scripted comedy follows the adventure of Ben Hunley, a man who won his arc Lottery and now joyously passes his days in his archeology compartment. Viewers watch him watch broadcast programs, watch him play video games and watch him have sex with prostitutes all the while looking at the camera critiquing the product he is using.  Hunely has proved an excellent platform to promote new media and new sexual service providers.  The original Ben Hunley was only streamed in single Lancaster Arcology in England, but since then almost every Arcology has produced its own version of Hunley.  Just one episode of Hunely and you feel a lot better about living in an arcology.

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"Considering the saturation of the media now with sex and violence, what can the Cosmic Era hold?"

Ducktails?

I also call B.S. on you saying you don't want to write a dissertation on the cosmic era. ;)

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Ctesibius Hard Suit

The Ctesbius hard suit was developed originally in Japan, where it was used to respond to natural disasters and fires. The hard suit was fully enclosed and had a breather system to protect the occupant from fire and debris as well a ventilation system to keep the suit bearable  when fighting fires. It was discovered that it could rapidly overheat the firefighter inside it. 

The Ctesibius, or C-Tes hard suit has a mounting system to carry a conventional fire hose, as well as the ability to carry compressed chemical canisters. The best model of the C-Tes has a double nozzle pump system mounted in each arm and a wide bore hook up point for a water supply umbilical. 

The Yakuza appropriated several of these suits and retrofitted them with weapons and oni masks. The few that survive are museum pieces, or trophies in retired oyabun mansions.

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Prefect Chu and Prefect Jin

The Prefect series of hard suits was pioneered by China, which would go on to become the core of the ACPS. The Prefect was created as a police and law enforcement power suit, and carried substantial ballistic armor against small arms. The design was quickly exported/stolen to other countries where the power suit would be put into production, usually with cosmetic modifications. The Chu model is a standard form and can use paramilitary firearms, but can also use manual tools with both of it's hands. It was the more common model outside of China. The non-Chinese Chus were commonly given cosmetic upgrades to their appearance, with the most obvious and perhaps over the top going to the British 'Bobby' which while effective, was ruthlessly mocked for basically being a power suit with a hat.

The Jin model was used by paramilitary police organizations and it carried an offhand armor shield that was able to stop almost all small arms fire as well as some vehicle scale weapons. The main arm had a hard mounted forearm grenade launcher that had a variable loader system and could swap between two different types of grenades. Flash bangs and gas grenades were the main types used but in several riots there are horrific videos of Jins using what are obviously concussion and fragmentation grenades against rioters.

The two types of police hard suit are still in use, though no longer the Chinese sources Chu and Jin. There is a common Patrol type and a paramilitary SWAT type. Unlike the non-modular Chu and Jin, most modern police armors can chose to equip a shield and anti-riot and pacification systems are now generally shoulder mounted.

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With a cruel axe made of remorse and ice tempered steel slung over his shoulder, the red coated demon chants as he glides past the moon, "Ho-ho-ho. On Hildaera, Gunnir, Hrista and Gondale! Let us go collect some more children this night" Go to Comment

Rather charming, I'd say. I wonder how long it will players take to call 'Santa? O.o' on this one. Go to Comment

I really like how you've turned the Christmas stuff into a menacing fantasy location. The imagery is great, and there's a lot of stuff about this post that's just neat - ghost bears, collecting children, the Eternal Flames... and so on. It all reads very well.

I have some concern for how well this would actually work in play - it just seems a little too out of the way, though the Lord's travels make it easier to bring him in.

But all said and done, top notch. Go to Comment

This was a joy to read! Plus what they all said. Go to Comment

The transformation was so good I didn't catch it until the end. You captured Mr Howard with this one. Nicely done! Go to Comment

Very useful. Go to Comment

A solid list, with some good ideas for personal-spells as well. Some of those would be just as useful for regular people. Go to Comment