The Mean Streets of Modern Magic: Membership Drive Update

[Ares]

Might I believe that this setting's version of Conan has a much lesser distrust of magic and wizards considering his friendship with Shazam?

Well, during the time he knew Conan, Shazam went by the title of 'Champion' and was much like Captain Marvel: a physical powerhouse combined with wisdom and a few extra abilities. And like Cap, the Champion used his abilities mostly to a) Talk his opponents down, b) Beat them up, or c) Out smart them, usually in that order. So as far as Conan was concerned, Shazam was his kind of warrior, beating his opponents through raw might or cunning. And since his powers came from the gods, Conan had little problem with him. Basically, Conan saw the Champion the way most Greeks would have viewed Heracles/Hercules: powerful, with a link to the gods, but not necessarily 'magical' the way wizards were.

Now, this version of Conan was more willing to work with wizards, given that one of his friends, Greywolf, was one of the most powerful spellcasters of the day, as well as a member of the city of Xanthis, the Hyborian equivalent of the White Council. However, Conan never really got over his innate distrust of magic. For a guy firmly rooted in the physical world, magic is something that never stops freaking him out.

The best analogy would be to compare Conan with a modern day soldier that hates big explosions. They freak him out, make him nervous, he doesn't understand how they work, and there's always the chance something'll go wrong with them and he'll get his face blown off. But he's got a really good friend who is an expert on explosives, and uses them all the time to complete their missions. He likes his friend, but every time said friend puts down a bomb, he gets a little nervous. But at the same time, he has the satisfaction of knowing the thing that freaks him out is going to be doing worse to his enemies, so he takes some comfort in that. Nothing freaks him out worse than coming across an unfamiliar bomb, but likewise he's comforted knowing he's got a friend that knows how to deal with them.

It's basically the Vader Principle as applied to magic.

And this better should have happened once.

http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/12ada00b4099ff1e51b1a5dadc074143/http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c385/epoy04/MY%20COLLECTION/predator_classic_Conan.jpg

It's certainly happening now.

[Voltron64]

Might I believe that this setting's version of Conan has a much lesser distrust of magic and wizards considering his friendship with Shazam?

Well, during the time he knew Conan, Shazam went by the title of 'Champion' and was much like Captain Marvel: a physical powerhouse combined with wisdom and a few extra abilities. And like Cap, the Champion used his abilities mostly to a) Talk his opponents down, b) Beat them up, or c) Out smart them, usually in that order. So as far as Conan was concerned, Shazam was his kind of warrior, beating his opponents through raw might or cunning. And since his powers came from the gods, Conan had little problem with him. Basically, Conan saw the Champion the way most Greeks would have viewed Heracles/Hercules: powerful, with a link to the gods, but not necessarily 'magical' the way wizards were.

Conan of course, being the Odysseus of that age.

[Ares]

Conan of course, being the Odysseus of that age.

More like if Odysseus took DNA from himself and Achilles and spliced them together Superboy style, but who then got nabbed by the Spartans and trained by them before A-killa-dysseus decided the Spartans were too wussy and left to go find some real challenges.

[Libra]

You could have just called him 'Odysseus, only proto-Scottish' and conveyed that with far fewer words!

[Ares]

You could have just called him 'Odysseus, only proto-Scottish' and conveyed that with far fewer words!

Yeah, but where's the fun in that?

[Voltron64]

Obviously since we have Yaujta, does this mean we have Xenomorphs and Engineers too?

Also, just to be clear this is all now, we have;

-Dresden Files
-TMNT
-Spectacular Spider-Man
-Gargoyles
-Captain Marvel and other Fawcett elements
-Lovecraftian Mythology by way of Lovecraft-Lite
-Conan the Barbarian
-AvP/Prometheus

Should we just go ahead and throw in Solomon Kane just to be safe?

[Libra]

I don't know if Master Kane keeps the World safer, but I suspect he certainly keep it's monstrosities quiet as the grave.

[Ares]

Obviously since we have Yaujta, does this mean we have Xenomorphs and Engineers too?

Weird as it might sound, I'm not going to be including anything from the Aliens or Prometheus films here, as that collective franchise is going to exist as their respective films in this universe. This is partially due to Harry having fought a Fetech pretending to be one from the films, but also because I generally think the Aliens franchise works best as its own thing, rather than trying to mix it with other settings. I know it might seem off for me to not try to include as many things as possible, but while I could see the Predators as existing in this setting and being good opponents for heroes, I can't really see the Aliens fitting in as well. I also realize that Harry has referenced the Predator films at least once, but I'm just considering that line non-cannon for this setting.

And besides, Prometheus was crap.

Also, just to be clear this is all now, we have;

-Dresden Files
-TMNT
-Spectacular Spider-Man
-Gargoyles
-Captain Marvel and other Fawcett elements
-Lovecraftian Mythology by way of Lovecraft-Lite
-Conan the Barbarian
-AvP/Prometheus

Should we just go ahead and throw in Solomon Kane just to be safe?

Well, you can scratch off AvP/Prometheus and replace it with just Predator, with Predator 2 and some of the Predator crossover works (Batman vs Predator, the various Predators showing up in Comic's Greatest World, etc.) acting as inspirational material. Likewise, I consider the Lovecraft mythos to be mostly intact, just tweaked slightly to fit into this world (such as Lovecraft's take on Ghouls and the Mountains of Madness story being purely fictional), and the 'Lovecraft was working for the White Council ala Stoker' bit was confirmed in one of the Dresden Files RPG books. You can also include the 2010 Splatterhouse game and Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth game well (albeit the latter has a few tweaks to fit in), and Solomon Kane was definitely killing monsters during 15th/16th Centuries as well.

There are definitely going to be more franchises, characters and settings to be included in the Mean Streets setting, but I consider the 2003 TMNT, Dresden Files and Gargoyles settings to be the 'core' settings that define the overall universe. Dresden Files set the tone for the supernatural side, TMNT the more sci-fi/martial arts/superhero side, and Gargoyles acts as a sort of bridge between them. Anything that gets brought in is going to be tweaked to fit in with the above trio than anything else. Spider-Man and Captain Marvel lead very little translation because Weisman worked on both of them, and the other stuff has enough similar thematic elements that they need only minor tweaks to fit in.

Basically the goal has always been to make a sort of mini-Crino-verse, just one with a smaller list of what's included, and more clearly defined themes and/or tones regarding what does and doesn't fit. And likewise, no franchise that would completely overwhelm the current setting is going to be included, which is why only Spectacular Spider-Man and Captain Marvel are included, rather than all of Marvel and DC.

[Libra]

Fair enough!

[Voltron64]

A typical belief of the White Court ever since the Triceraton Invasion.

"Maybe I'll be an astronaut... yeah. I'd be the first motherf***er to see a new galaxy, find a new alien lifeform... and f*** it. Then people will be like, 'There he goes. Homeboy f***ed a Martian once.'"
— Jay, Clerks II

[Ares]

A typical belief of the White Court ever since the Triceraton Invasion.

"Maybe I'll be an astronaut... yeah. I'd be the first motherf***er to see a new galaxy, find a new alien lifeform... and f*** it. Then people will be like, 'There he goes. Homeboy f***ed a Martian once.'"
— Jay, Clerks II

Samuel Peabody: "Aliens. Really. The things these mortals will believe in. Oh well, back to my research on the Erlking, the Wild Hunt and his goblin minions."

[Voltron64]

A typical belief of the White Court ever since the Triceraton Invasion.

"Maybe I'll be an astronaut... yeah. I'd be the first motherf***er to see a new galaxy, find a new alien lifeform... and f*** it. Then people will be like, 'There he goes. Homeboy f***ed a Martian once.'"
— Jay, Clerks II

Samuel Peabody: "Aliens. Really. The things these mortals will believe in. Oh well, back to my research on the Erlking, the Wild Hunt and his goblin minions."

Harry Dresden: "...you do realize how much of a double standard that comes off as?"

[Libra]

"Wizard Dresden, I have never seen an alien (therefore they cannot POSSIBLY exist), but can point you out to any one of the extremely dangerous individuals mentioned above".

[Ares]

Samuel Peabody: "Aliens. Really. The things these mortals will believe in. Oh well, back to my research on the Erlking, the Wild Hunt and his goblin minions."

Harry Dresden: "...you do realize how much of a double standard that comes off as?"

Thank you Ted . . .

[Ares]

And frankly, I'm surprised noise wasn't made over the Army of Darkness reference under Abdul Alhazred's listing in the Lovecraft section.