Atomic Horror.pdf

Alien invaders! Giant lizards from another age!

Flesh-eating zombies! Colossal insects! Mad

scientists! Blobs! Only you can defend humanity,

civilization, and the American Way from these

terrible horrors.

GURPS Atomic Horror contains everything you

need to roleplay the science-fiction and horror

movies of the 1950s. The campaign can be as

scary as The Thing , as dramatic as The Day the

Earth Stood Still , as strange as Little Shop of

Horrors or as goofy as Plan 9 From Outer Space

– the choice is yours. Characters can be

square-jawed scientists and military men, heroic

explorers, misunderstood teenagers, cold-war

spies, G-men, gangsters . . . or just ordinary folks

caught up in unearthly weirdness.

GURPS Basic Set, Third Edition,

Revised and Compendium I:

Character Creation are required

to use this supplement in a

GURPS campaign. GURPS

Atomic Horror can also be used

as a sourcebook for any

roleplaying system.

THE MAD SCIENTISTS:

Written by Paul Elliott

and Chris McCubbin

Edited by Andrew Hackard,

Susan Pinsonneault,

and Jeff Koke

Cover by John Zeleznik

Illustrated by Paul Daly,

Dan Smith,

and Ramón Pérez

GURPS Atomic Horror contains:

A comprehensive guide to ’50s politics, society, and

attitudes suitable for any campaign – not just

science fiction/horror.

Five new alien races, completely described and

ready to invade the Earth. In fact, some of them are

already here!

Guidelines for creating more than a dozen different

kinds of movie monsters, from gill-men to

carnivorous plants to living human brains in jars.

Alternate world campaign ideas, like a ’50s where

the Nazis won World War II, or a futuristic ’50s

where our own flying saucers conquer space.

A detailed filmography listing dozens of ’50s

science horror films, from the classics to the turkeys.

S ECOND E DITION ,F IRST P RINTING

P UBLISHED J ULY 2001

9!BMF@JA:RSTRRRoY`Z]ZgZnZ`

ISBN 1-55634-533-X

www.sjgames.com

SJG02295 6065

Printed in the

USA

Science Runs Amok in B-Movie Adventures!

Second Edition

Written by Paul Elliott and Chris McCubbin

Additional material by Kenneth Hite and Bob Huss

Second Edition edited by Andrew Hackard

First Edition edited by Susan Pinsonneault and Jeff Koke

Cover art by John Zeleznik

Cover design by Alex Fernandez

Illustrated by Paul Daly, Zach Howard, and Ramón Pérez

Additional Illustrations by Pat Ortega and Dan Smith

Production by Remi Treuer with assistance by

Alex Fernandez, Jason Caton, and Philip Reed

GURPS System Design

Steve Jackson

Managing Editor

Alain H. Dawson

GURPS Line Editor

Sean Punch

Production Manager l

Gene Seabolt

Print Buyer

Paul Rickert

Phil Reed

Errata Coordinator

Andy Vetromile

Sales Manager

Ross Jepson

Playtesters: Aaron Allston, Al Hattlestad, Kathy McClure,

Scott McClure, Laurel Schippers, Bob Schroeck,

Marlin Stout, Theresa Verity, Todd A. Woods,

Dustin Wright, Stephen Zieger, and the Illuminati BBS.

GURPS , Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Pyramid and the names of all

products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license.

ISBN 1-55634-533-X 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

STEVE JACKSON GAMES

Art Director

CONTENTS

B IG B UGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

B LOBS , S LIMES , AND G UNK . . . . . . . . . 92

B UG -E YED M ONSTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

B RAINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

D INOSAURS , S EA M ONSTERS , AND

O THER C OLOSSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

T HE E NEMY W ITHIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

H UMAN Z OMBIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

K ILLER C RITTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

M AN -M ONSTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

T HE M ISSING L INK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

P LANT F OOD ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

R OBOTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

S PACE M EN AND S PACE G IRLS . . . . . . 100

S URVIVORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

V ICTIMS OF S CIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

7. A TOMIC A DVENTURES

. . . . . . . . . 101

C REATING THE U LTIMATE H ORROR . . . 102

The Supernatural Smokescreen . . 102

Pollution and Mutants . . . . . . . . . . 102

Strange Energies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

S ETTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

The Big City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Small-Town America . . . . . . . . . . 103

Wild Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Undersea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Underground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Outer Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

T HE S CENARIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Stellar Catastrophes . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Global Calamities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

A-Bomb Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Meddling Scientists . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Contactee Cults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Discoveries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Space Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

T HE A LIEN I NVADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Cyber Implants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

UFO Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Invaders in Control . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Panic and Martial Law . . . . . . . . . 111

U NEXPLAINED P HENOMENA . . . . . . . . . 112

Loch Ness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Los Angeles NPCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

The Bermuda Triangle . . . . . . . . . 112

Nazca Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Other Unexplained Phenomena . . 113

L AT E N IGHT F RIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

DOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Island of the Crawling Terror . . . . 116

Other Adventure Seeds . . . . . . . . . 118

Silly Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

O THER C AMPAIGNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

T HE F RONT P AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Wars of the Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Building a Brighter Future . . . . . . 121

Player Character Roles . . . . . . . . . 121

F ILMOGRAPHY . . . . 122

I NDEX . . . . . . . 128

I NTRODUCTION . . . . . 3

About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1. L EARNING TO L OVE

THE B OMB . . . . . 4

R OLEPLAYING THE F ILMS OF THE ’50 S . . 5

T HE “B” M OVIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Who Are the PCs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Antihero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Legends of the Bs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

A TTITUDES AND I LLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Invasion as a Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . 8

When Were the “Fifties”? . . . . . . . . . 8

Attitudes Toward Women . . . . . . . . . 8

S ETTING THE S CENE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

“F UZZY ” S CIENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

S PACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Early UFO Sightings . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2. C HARACTERS . . . 13

C HARACTER T EMPLATES . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

A DVANTAGES , D ISADVANTAGES , AND

S KILLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

S AMPLE C HARACTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

P ERSONAL E QUIPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

T YPICAL V EHICLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

E CONOMICS , J OBS , AND W EALTH . . . . . 28

J OB T ABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3. T HE T HEORETICAL S CIENCE

F OUNDATION . . . . 30

H ISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Fact vs. Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Ryan Oakland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Gene Driscoll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

O RGANIZATION AND S TRATEGY . . . . . . . 33

Alien Artifacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Project Janus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Experimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

W ORKING FOR THE TSF . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

The FBI Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

T HE TSF C AMPAIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Secrets of the Foundation . . . . . . . . 40

Space Ark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4. T HE R EAL H ISTORY

OF E ARTH . . . . . 41

GURPS S PAC E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Alien PCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Timeline: The Real History of the

Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

T HE A RENDIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

PCs Who Lose Their Minds . . . . . . 45

T HE L OI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Lauranis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Flying Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

T HE M ETARANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Metaran PCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

T HE A LPHANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

GURPS Illuminati . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

T HE V ORTUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

UFO S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

UFO Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Mother Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Abductees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Scout Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

The Biefeld-Brown Effect . . . . . . . . 58

UFO Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

P REHISTORIC S URVIVORS . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

E ARTH ’ S N EAR N EIGHBORS . . . . . . . . . . 59

5. E NEMIES OF F REEDOM

. . . . . . . . . . 61

T HE W ORLD OF THE ’50 S . . . . . . . . . . . 62

The War’s Not Over . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Atomic Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Draft and Demobilization . . . . . . . . 62

T HE C OLD W AR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

The Power Blocs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Spy vs. Spy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Intelligence Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Danger From Within . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

The Hot War – WWIII . . . . . . . . . . 68

T HE F OURTH R EICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Occupation and Extraction . . . . . . . 69

Nazi Remnants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Nazi Refuges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

The Holy Lance of Hapsburg . . . . . 70

Nazi Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Secret Nazi Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

W ORLD O VERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

F INAL F RONTIERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Rocket Into Space! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Space Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

UFO Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

The Briny Deep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

USS Prometheus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Top Secret Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

T ECHNOLOGY IN THE ’50 S . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Atomic Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Land Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Air Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Products of the Decade . . . . . . . . . . 81

Atomic Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . 82

T HE S OCIAL U PHEAVAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Major Personalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

T HE A MERICAN D REAM . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

C OPS AND R OBBERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

The Police Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

6. A TOMIC M ONSTERS

. . . . . . . . . . 89

The Sympathetic Monster . . . . . . . . 90

A MPHIBIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Keep watching the skies!

– The Thing (From Another World!), 1951

Horror descends from the stars. It crawls from atomic test

sites and slithers from black ocean depths. In the 1950s, the

Earth came dangerously close to being overrun by alien enti-

ties. GURPS Atomic Horror recreates the science-horror

movies of the Fifties and puts the PCs in the unenviable posi-

tion of protecting the Earth from alien invasion. Besides the

fear of invasion from space, the people of ’50s Earth are

threatened by out-of-control experiments, primeval monsters,

and astronomical disasters. Not to mention fears of Commu-

nist subversion and atomic annihilation.

This campaign setting includes alien races, monstrous

menaces, and a plethora of adventure seeds and ideas. The

players can be a heroic team of scientists and soldiers, a ring

of steely-eyed cold-war espionage agents, or even a gang of

happy-go-lucky teens caught up in events beyond their under-

standing. GURPS Atomic Horror is fixed firmly in the USA,

but other parts of the world are not ignored.

An expanded filmography maps out the important

movies of the decade, and others that are still part of the genre

although they were released prior to, or following, the ’50s

proper – both remakes of classic Fifties movies and new pic-

tures in the same spirit. On whatever level they’re appreciat-

ed, the films of the ’50s are just gloriously fun. GURPS

Atomic Horror seeks to capture this spirit and turn it into a

playable, exciting game.

Remember, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

They’re out there, and it’s up to freedom-loving humans like

you to keep our planet safe for democracy. Good luck, and

God bless.

– Paul Elliott & Chris McCubbin

A BOUT THE A UTHORS

Paul Elliott is an amateur game designer, with plenty of

works in progress and at least one roleplaying game published

on the Internet. After reading GURPS Illuminati he started

doing some major research and combined his fascination with

cults and secret societies with his B.A. in ancient history. Now

he writes books on fringe religions, cults, and terror groups for a

living. He moved to the east coast of Yorkshire, England, a few

years ago where he lives in satisfied seclusion with his wife,

Christine, son Bradley, and four carpet-hopping house rabbits.

Chris McCubbin is a Nebraska native and a non-graduate

of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, in English. His other

books for SJ Games include GURPS Callahan’s Crosstime

Saloon, based on the award-winning science fiction classics

by Spider Robinson, and GURPS Fantasy Folk, winner of the

1991 Gamer’s Choice Award for best roleplaying supplement.

He’s into good movies, fun books, decent restaurants, alterna-

tive rock music, and BBSing. He lives in Austin with his wife,

Lynette Alcorn, and the two stereotypical cats, Polychrome

and Clipper.

A BOUT GURPS

Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of the

GURPS system. Our address is SJ Games, Box 18957,

Austin, TX 78760. Please include a self-addressed, stamped

envelope (SASE) any time you write us! Resources include:

Pyramid ( www.sjgames.com/pyramid/ ). Our online

magazine includes new GURPS rules and articles. It also cov-

ers Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, World of Darkness,

Call of Cthulhu , and many more top games – and other Steve

Jackson Games releases like In Nomine, INWO, Car Wars,

Toon, Ogre Miniatures , and more. Pyramid subscribers also

have access to playtest files online!

New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to

grow, and we’ll be happy to let you know what’s new. A

current catalog is available for an SASE. Or check out our

website (below).

Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we

do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata sheets for all

GURPS releases, including this book, are available from SJ

Games; be sure to include an SASE. Or download them from

the Web – see below.

Gamer input. We value your comments, for new products

as well as updated printings of existing titles!

Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at

www.sjgames.com for an online catalog, errata, updates,

Q&A, and much more. GURPS has its own Usenet group,

too: rec.games.frp.gurps.

GURPSnet. This e-mail list hosts much of the online dis-

cussion of GURPS . To join, e-mail majordomo@io.com with

“subscribe GURPSnet-L” in the body, or point your web

browser to gurpsnet.sjgames.com .

The GURPS Atomic Horror web page is at

www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/atomichorror/ .

Page References

Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the

GURPS Basic Set, Third Edition. Any page reference that

begins with a B refers to the GURPS Basic Set – e.g., p. B102

means p. 102 of the GURPS Basic Set, Third Edition . Page

references that begin with CI indicate GURPS Compendium

I . Other references are AE for GURPS Alternate Earths , CII

for Compendium II , HT for High-Tech , PM for Places of

Mystery , S for Space , UT for Ultra-Tech , WT for Ware-

house 23 , WWi for Who’s Who 1 , WWii for Who’s Who 2 ,

and Y for Y2K .

For a full list of abbreviations, see p. CI181 or the updat-

ed web list at www.sjgames.com/gurps/abbrevs.html .

INTRODUCTION

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