Wednesday 29 July 2009

Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night

Top 5 Tom Waits lyrics you could base a game around:

1. We sail tonight for Singapore/don't fall asleep while you're ashore/cross your heart and hope to die/when you hear the children cry. A horror campaign set, obviously, in Singapore. Preferably 1920s Singapore. With Star Spawn of Cthulu.

2. Theres nothing sadder than a town with no cheer/Vic rail decided the canteen was no longer necessary there/no spirits, no bilgewater, and 80 dry locals/and the high noon sun beats a hundred and four/there's a hummingbird trapped in a closed down shoe store. Clearly Dogs in the Vineyard.

3. He went down, down, down/and the devil said "Where you been?". Paladins in the Seven Hells or the Abyss, anyone?

4. I plugged 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six/and a black crow snuck through/a hole in the sky/so I spent all my buttons/on an old pack mule. Nomads travelling the wastes of post apocalyptic Cyberpunk 2020 Australia.

5. Well I pulled on trouble's braids/and I hid in the briars/out by the quick mud/staying away from the main roads/passing out wolf tickets/downwind from the blood hounds. Escapees from a chain gang or prison breakers on the run, using Deadlands.

8 comments:

  1. When we played Carnival of Tears I started playing Tom Waits' Black Rider as soon as the transformation had begun.

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  2. Great topic—I love Tom Waits, and his lyrics have more than once figured into my characters and campaigns. "Black Wings" is another one that seems very evocative...maybe In Nomine, or Nobilis?

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  3. We are Gwar!
    and we'll go far!
    we've got guitars!
    we'll eat your car!
    Gwar! Gwar! Gwar! Gwar!

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  4. To paraphrase a wise philosopher:

    “There are two types of people in this world…those whom prefer Tom Waits music, and those whom prefer Randy Newman. The key to happiness is to discover which one you are, be that, and be unapologetic about it.”

    Then, of course...there are the Gwar fans...

    word verification: graefibr
    (what Gwar fans want to suck out of your skull)

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  5. "Filipino Box Spring Hog" from "Mule Variations" is pretty much the theme song of my old Gamma World campaign.

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  6. -"I heard he
    Has an ex-wife in some place
    Called Mayors Income, Tennessee
    And he used to have a
    consulting business in Indonesia...
    but what is he building in there?"

    whatever he's building, he;'s obviously a Cthulhu npc.

    -"Just like those bamboo babies
    Down in the South Sea tropic zone
    T'ain't no sin to take off your skin
    And dance around your bones "

    'nam Zombie thriller.

    -"Excuse me while I sharpen my nails. Who are you this time?"

    Changeling: The [Whatever-It-Is]you;re in love with a changeling who does bad things. You have to keep finding it and stopping it from doing bad things all over the world.

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  7. "The ocean doesn't want me today
    But I'll be back tomorrow to play
    And the stranglers will take me
    Down deep in their brine
    The mischievous braingels
    Down into the endless blue wine"

    Sung from the shores of lovely Innsmouth, MA.

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  8. I think the clear conclusion to all of this is that Tom Waits and Call of Cthulu are a marriage made in R'lyeh.

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