This appears to be a good time to be watching TV. Between the BBC, Amazon Prime, and Netflix there’s a lot of really decent stuff on. We’ve just finished blitzing Haven from start to finish (and if that wasn’t someone’s off-beat Cthulhu Now campaign at some point I’d be very surprised), have just started Lucifer… Stephen Moffat and Peter Capaldi are leaving Dr Who – don’t get me wrong, Mr M has written some superb episodes in the past and he’s not quite as guilty of pushing the big reset button as RTD was, I’m just happy the show is being handed over to someone else. And it will be new lead writer, new Doctor. Not been the biggest fan of Mr C’s Doctor.
We’ve got Stranger Things, The OA, Sneaky Pete, Timeless, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man and a few others racked up and ready to roll as soon as a gap in the schedule emerges (usually known as “Summer”)
And then there’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Excellent books, great audio adaptations, a decent TV show starring half the cast of Elvenquest. But the Americans got their hands on it.
I was sceptical. But it was on Netflix, which I didn’t have, so plenty of people got a chance to watch it first and opine in my general direction. I heard positive things – it’s good. It’s funny. It’s a complete story. It leaves enough threads dangling to make you want a second series (which has been green-lit already). And there’s a kitten. You’ll love the kitten.
And the kitten (amongst other things) is why this post is here in the gaming section.
Now. Spoilers, darling. If you’ve not seen past Episode 5, “Very Erectus”, there are some details about the kitten you may not have worked out yet. I know I hadn’t! So go and watch the series now, come back as and when…
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Back? Good. Were you surprised? So here’s the kitten:
You can see the kitten, just inside the tail of what I can assure you is a hammerhead shark. They describe this as a “weaponised soul”, or “weaponized soul” as they’re American. Well, Dirk isn’t. But the body-swapping bad guys (and the occasional time travelling sort-of-good-guy) are. Mostly.
So. What you need is a spell, magic item, piece of technology capable of taking the soul from Creature A and swapping it with the soul of Creature B. Lydia and the corgi. The kitten and the shark. The bad guy and the rock star. That sort of thing. Seriously, go and watch the series again! Think of the fun you could have with a troll that thinks it’s a hamster! Or a frog with the soul of a Koru Behemoth… You could frame a whole session around the PCs body-swapped with meercats!
The soul inside the body can make it’s presence felt in times of stress – kitten gets tossed towards the bad guys, shark soul emerges and deals with the problem. Permanently.
The whole series is full of ideas you can rob for your gaming. The Holistic Assassin – basically kills anyone they feel like it but everyone they’ve killed has deserved to die for some reason – who can’t be hurt as long as she’s true to her mission. The Rowdy 3 (4? 5?). Project Blackwing. Estefez and Zimmerfield, pottering around in the background, slowly piecing the clues together from their Missing Persons department (hey, I would not have killed them off – or maybe just bring them back with no memory of ever being killed). The Mooks!