The Strange

The Strange is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) set in multiple alternate dimensions, written by Bruce Cordell & Monte Cook.

Game

Setting

The Strange is set in modern day Earth but allows a GM to take their stories through many different "recursions", worlds based frequently on literary creations.

Character Creation

Character creation has been simplified by having players fill in the blanks to the statement:

Game Mechanics

The Strange uses the Cypher System, developed for Numenera and is played primarily using a d20, but is used to determine if the player has beaten the difficulty of the task. The GM sets the initial difficulty and will relay that to the player prior to the roll to help them determine their course of action. A player uses their training and/or may apply "effort" to lower the level of difficulty prior to the roll, rather than heavily augmenting the result of the roll to beat a target.

The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It

The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It is a 1977 comedy starring John Cleese. It is a low-budget spoof of the Sherlock Holmes detective series, as well as the mystery genre in general.

Plot

The film begins aboard a luxury aircraft as Dr. Gropinger (Ron Moody) (an obvious parody of Henry Kissinger) travels on a goodwill tour. He misplaces his diary and is thrown into a panic as, without the diary, he no longer knows where he is or is supposed to be next. Stepping off the plane, he is shot dead after extending greetings in Hebrew to a congregation of Arabs. Soon after, the U.S. President (Joss Ackland in a caricature of Gerald Ford) receives a threatening letter signed only "Moriarty", claiming responsibility for the death. The letter also claims Moriarty has set in motion a plan that will allow him to gain control of the world. The president dispatches a top agent to London to work with the world's top law enforcement officials and find a strategy to combat Moriarty.

Civilization

A civilization (US) or civilisation (UK) is any complex society characterized by urban development, symbolic communication forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment by a cultural elite. Civilizations are intimately associated with and often further defined by other socio-politico-economic characteristics, including centralization, the domestication of both humans and other organisms, specialization of labor, culturally ingrained ideologies of progress and supremacism, monumental architecture, taxation, societal dependence upon farming as an agricultural practice, and expansionism.

Historically, a civilization was a so-called "advanced" culture in contrast to more supposedly primitive cultures. In this broad sense, a civilization contrasts with non-centralized tribal societies, including the cultures of nomadic pastoralists or hunter-gatherers. As an uncountable noun, civilization also refers to the process of a society developing into a centralized, urbanized, stratified structure.

Civilization (Star Trek: Enterprise)

"Civilization" is the ninth episode (production #109) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and was written by Phyllis Strong and Michael Sussman. Mike Vejar served as director for the episode. TrekToday gave the episode a positive review.

Enterprise investigates a pre-industrial civilization of about 500 million people. They discover that there is another warp-capable species among the unsuspecting inhabitants. After Captain Archer, Commander Tucker, Ensign Sato, and Sub-Commander T'Pol arrive, they discover a local scientist who believes a local merchant is causing the sickness in the town.

Plot

Enterprise locates a planet inhabited by pre-industrial humanoids. Scanners also detect technology which does not correspond with the planet's technological level. Against Sub-Commander T'Pol's recommendation, Captain Archer decides to visit. Going in disguise, T'Pol suggests a distant rural landing site. Once in the Akaali city, Ensign Sato notices inhabitants that appear sick. Scans lead them to an old curio shop, but they encounter a force-field blocking the way. They are then confronted by a local apothecary, Riann. T'Pol stuns her, and when she awakens, Archer persuades her that he is an investigator from another city.

Civilization (board game)

Civilization is a board game designed by Francis Tresham, published in the United Kingdom in 1980 by Hartland Trefoil (later by Gibsons Games), and in the US in 1981 by Avalon Hill. The game typically takes eight or more hours to play and is for two to seven players. The Civilization brand is now owned by Hasbro, but it is no longer published in the US.

Civilization introduced the use of the technology tree (or "tech tree"), variants of which have been implemented in numerous later board and video games.

Overview

The Civilization board depicts areas around the Mediterranean Sea. The board is divided into many regions. Each player starts with a single population token, and attempts to grow and expand his empire over successive turns, trying to build the greatest civilization.

As each nation grows, adding more and more population to the board, players can build cities in regions they control. Each city grants a trade card to the owner, which allows trade with other players for any of eleven commodities, such as iron, grain and bronze. Along with trade come eight calamities such as volcanoes, famine and civil war, which destroy population and cities. Trade cards are combined in sets to purchase civilization cards, which grant special abilities and give bonuses toward future civilization card purchases. The civilization cards grant access to abilities such as agriculture, coinage, philosophy and medicine.