Anyone know of any books that add to the mood? I travel a lot and spend lots o'time in airports. Always looking for something to read.

Movies - the first thing that comes to my mind are Blade Runner (one of the best) and 5th Element.

Two that are fairly obvious are

Do Androids dream of electric sheep (the book that Blade runner is based off) By Philip K Dick and Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Another good one is The Mindstar books by Peter F Hamilton. They aren't such gritty cyberpunk as the others but they are good set in a semi-decaying Britain with a private detective who is an ex soldier from Her Majestys Mindstar Battalion (aka the psychics). The three books in that are Mindstar Rising, A quantum murder and The nano flower.

Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero, some of the stories in Burning Chrome, and to a lesser degree Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

You're best bet is probablly to just search for Cyberpunk novels in google or some such.

Ghost in the Shell

Its a must.

Many of the Japanese Comics (Graphic novels) fill this gap nicely. Also the books by Peter F. Hamilton deal with cybernetics and mind powers.

Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

I agree with Lord Wormwood, Ghost is a definate must, also just look through most of the Cyberpunk anime from the early 80's i'm sure there are lots of others you could use to get into the mood. Also the book "someone to watch over me" Is a good cyberpunk story, unfortunatly Ileft my copy in England when I moved to the US and I cant remember the authors name

- Kat

Hi Kat

Tricia Sullivan I believe. Which part of England did you come from? Just curious, I'm a Brit who moved out here 8 years ago.

Tony

Tricia Sullivan thats right I remember now - DAMN thas a good book

I'm origonally from Telford, Shropshire. Dunno if you were around the West Mids but it's located about 30 mins drive from Wolverhampton and about 30 mins from Shrewsbury in roughly the opposite direction, settled nicely on the River Severn

And I was going to ask when I was at the booth at Gencon if the bulk of you guys were brits as I heard a lot of very british accents around there when I visited.

- Kat

Hi Kat

I know the area, not well but I've been to Telford and stayed in Dudley (which if I remember correctly is not far from Wolverhampton) for business a long time ago.

I am from Flitwick in Bedfordshire, between Bedford and Luton, all my family are from London. Simon is also from across the pond (with a name like Mackenzie where else. . We were the only 2 Brits at the con, Anthony is from Canada and Rene is American. A very multi-national bunch although us brits definitely outnumber the rest.

What day were you at the booth? Who did you talk/Demo with?

Cheers

Tony

Not that it adds anything to the discussion, but man, half the time I think you Brits make up half your city names. Its cool though, Wolverhampton sounds better than Hicksville anyday.

I haven't been much down that end of the country, mostly because I've had no reason to travel down that end much - and I thought i'd heard the accent on Simon but I wasnt entirely sure.

I was there (at your booth) Sunday (rest of the time I was working at the PP booth), I didn't play a demo myself, but my wife Himani did (The indian girl who opened a painfully huge can of beatstick with the APAC) I spent most of my time at the booth chatting with Simon and you about lots of different stuff (mostly fluff and your plans for the future) Especially while she was playing her game.

Then I showed off my modified Female Arashi to Rene and Simon, and that was about it really. Was hoping to play a few games of Rez when I was at the con but I turned out being busy most the time - oh well, I'm aiming ot play at Kublacon next anyway

Peace,

Kat

Ps. Yeah I'm pretty sure we invent random names for most of our towns and cities as well, however if you want completely random names just look at some of the names of the smaller villages around the Midlands, sadly some of them are unrepeatable on a public forum, but they're quite fun

Hi Kat.

OK, must be my age but I remember you now. (takes a while for the memory cells to kick in ; ) ) Yep we talked for a long time about lots of different things, different games, forums, Rezolution, the whole nine yards while your wife demoed with Anthony. Talking is definitely something I can do well.

As far as place names go, try going down to the West Country where my wife comes from. Villages called Langton Mattravers and Worth Mattravers, then there is always Wales for strange names.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Yep, believe it or not everyone, it is a name of a village in Wales.

Tony

Roughly translated it means something like the village in the valley by the river across the brook.

Loads of fun

- Kat

Just watched, The Breed, on Sci Fi Channel the other day. Not a spectacular movie, but seems to strike me as a bit Rezolutiony. Not really cyberpunk, more near future vampire flick, complete with some attempts to do some John Woo'ish gun-fu and wire-fu stunts. Not a spectacular movie either but just caught my eye.

The faded color look, and the gritty retro-50s with some fascist overtones seems to strike some similarities with the Rezolution artwork in the book. Secondly the idea of vampires, whom had some extra-dimensional origin, living amongst humans and now coming out into the open seemed to strike a chord as well.

Not that I don't trust you guys, but I had to make sure http://llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndro...iogogogoch.com/

Anyways, back on subject. Here's the site I used to find most of the Cyberpunk stuff I read when I first started playing Rez: http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/literature.html

Most of the stuff on it has already been mentioned, but there's plenty there to keep someone busy for a while.

And I finally found the name of a book I wanted to bring up: Glass houses by Laura J. Mixon. Not exactly guns blazing cyberadventure, more of a mystery story, but its got some good cyberpunk elements, and its descriptions of the enviroment, and the differences between rich and poor, is almost exactly what I think of when I read about that stuff in Rez. Its a short book, too, and goes fast.

Hi GhostandDarkness

Come on, be honest, we can take it, you didn't trust us did you? It is a strange name and totally true.

Glass houses sounds good. Not heard of that one. Just looked it up an Amazon. Looks like Laura J Mixon has a couple more books out. Proxies sosounds like a good one as well. Might have to put and order in to Amazon for these.

And there is always the next Rezolution book as well, we are working on that now.

Cheers

Tony

Man, you used a reply to my post to tease us over the next Rez book, now I feel bad for not trusting you. I'll never doubt you again... but I think my penance should be you give me details on the new book and I'll suffer through not being able to tell anyone else about it (yeah, that's the ticket! )

I love films and mostly read historical non fiction, so I'm not your expert on books. But for a couple of off the wall movies: The Imposter(2002), Gattaca, Brazil, Minority report and then there is this amazing asian film called Casshern, story ok, visually beautiful. I guess I could go on and on with films...but there are a couple for ya that I think fit well...for films that is.

Have not seen the Imposter, will have to pick it up. Love Brazil. Thanks.

Perhaps a couple of otherones...

The Red Specticels Trilogy--Japanese films about the Special Panzer Armor Divisions. Basically a lot like the CSO.

Jin-Roh The Wolf Brigade- Same type of stuff, same armor. Anime, talking about making a man into a Wolf, once he is a wolf he can never be a man again.



Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence, and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, and 2nd GIG.

Nice try Ghost, 10 out of 10 for effort, -10 for results.

Tony

Could not find this one on NetFlicks. Guess I will have to go down to the local video store.

IMDB..one of the best sites ever...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160399/

Found it searching for Gary Sinse (who I enjoy watching). Helps to spell impostor correctly (not imposter)!!!!

thanks

Watched Equilibrium this past weekend. Highly recommend it. Looking for a copy to buy. Love those clerics.

in a strange way the matrix fires me up to play. There is also the Van dam flick cyborg and its sequel with Angelina Jolie (major hottie). And the flick where Keanu Reeves is a borg hacker with spike lee I think it is Johnny Neumonic.

And then there are those awesome movies/novels like Dune that just fire you up for a sci fi encounter.

I keep seeing Equilibrium at the local Best Buy. It is a very cool flick.

It's where I picked up the name for my first Marshal, 'cause I thought the sculpt looked a little like Sean Bean from the movie. I couldn't remember the character's name, and was too lazy to pull out our copy that day, so he became Sean.

Any chance this could be better organized and made a sticky? It's just going to keep coming up over and over, and it is a handy reference.
a.

I have been going to You tube and and putting on Ghost in the Shell AMVs to getme in the mood.

I've just read the 2nd issue of a new comic called Sharkman.

It's got a cyberpunkish retro Batman sort of feel to it.

It takes place on this futuristic city/island called New Venice. Sort of a utopian city built on an artificial island. The architecht of the island is also the secret protector of it, sort of a Bruce Wayne kind of guy. He has lots of high tech gadgets (all with a shark theme to them). He has a cyborg butler who does his computer hacking. His suit allows him to 'fly' through the water and even in the air, shoot darts (shaped like shark's teeth), produce claws on the back of his hand, and has nanites that patch up his wounds. Sort of a TADS type of thing.

The city has been plagued by raids from pirates. Usually prowling about attacking nearby ocean liners and submarines. One pirate tribe is run by a supervillian known as the Sea Witch. Sort of an arashi type. Many of the pirates even have gill modifications. They run about in personal subs but sort of resemble the Smokers from Waterworld. The Sea Witch also has some sort of 'demon' that can move through computer networks, overcome security systems and manifest itself as a ghostly demon and attack people.

I laughed when I read the title for the first time, but was drawn in by the incredible artwork. After reading the 2nd issue I really got the feeling of a Rez sort of setting with a bit more of a nautical feel to it.

Definitely worth looking into.

IMHO
Johnny Mnemonic,Fast Jack, Vanilla Sky are good movies to set the mood.
For me Blade Runner, The Ghosts of Mars, Species, and Outland w/ Sean Connery(showing my age) are the best.

Books
Do Androids Dream of Elecrtic Sheep, any of the first series of Shadowrun Books and all Gibson titles.

Newer and better Hammerjack.

Yeah, I have that movie on DVD. It's like the Sci-Fi version of High Noon. I guess I'm showing my age too...




Definately!

I also like the Ghost in the Shell series (Anime) for inspiration for Rez as well.

Ghost is a staple I saw it a long time ago it made an impact, but not as lage as the titles I mentioned.

Also try (book) "Altered Carbon: A Takeshi Kovacs Novel" by Richard K. Morgan. I'm a big William Gibson fan, but this book blew me away.

"This fast-paced, densely textured, impressive first novel is an intriguing hybrid of William Gibson's Neuromancer and Norman Spinrad's Deus X. In the 25th century, it's difficult to die a final death. Humans are issued a cortical stack, implanted into their bodies, into which consciousness is "digitized" and from which-unless the stack is hopelessly damaged-their consciousness can be downloaded ("resleeved") with its memory intact, into a new body. While the Vatican is trying to make resleeving (at least of Catholics) illegal, centuries-old aristocrat Laurens Bancroft brings Takeshi Kovacs (an Envoy, a specially trained soldier used to being resleeved and trained to soak up clues from new environments) to Earth, where Kovacs is resleeved into a cop's body to investigate Bancroft's first mysterious, stack-damaging death. To solve the case, Kovacs must destroy his former Envoy enemies; outwit Bancroft's seductive, wily wife; dabble in United Nations politics; trust an AI that projects itself in the form of Jimi Hendrix; and deal with his growing physical and emotional attachment to Kristin Ortega, the police lieutenant who used to love the body he's been given. Kovacs rockets from the seediest hellholes on Earth, through virtual reality torture, into several gory firefights, and on to some exotic sexual escapades. Morgan's 25th-century Earth is convincing, while the questions he poses about how much Self is tied to body chemistry and how the rich believe themselves above the law are especially timely."

Caught Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society the other week, and man, it may be my favorite of all the GitS movies or shows.

Throw the Matrix series in there and you have the inspirations behind my CyberNet RPG and Universe 87 gaming soundstracks!

Morgan has written 3 book in the Kovacs series and 2 other non-Kovacs books.
All of them are superb. I was a big Gibson fan until I read Morgan's writing. IMO, he does what Gibson did 20-30 years ago.
He blows the other cyberpunk/ near future sci-fi writers out of the water.

The flooding of NYC in "The Day After Tomorrow" is what I envision happens in 2050.

Wow! I didn't know he had two more Kovacs books. Off to the library!

===================================

#1: Altered Carbon
#2: Broken Angels
#3: Woken Furies

He also has Market Forces (a near future story in which company rivalries {both internal and external} spill violently into the streets) and he just released Thirteen (the 22nd century has just begun and a genetically enhanced former soldier returns to Earth and starts killing people. It's up to the hero to stop him)
All of the books are well worth the read.
Market Forces and Thirteen have a very strong Rezolution feel to them, while the Kovacs series is a bit more sci-fi than Rez... although it still has a Rez vibe to it, just a bit more high tech.

Looks good, here's a review:

Market Forces is at once an anti-globalization treatise and anime fantasy meets The Road Warrior. Morgan employs the graphic-novel imagery of his two previous novels to create a disturbingly brutal picture of slash-and-burn capitalism run amok. There are times when Faulker's moral quandries seem hollow in the face of his actions but this isn't Crime and Punishment. Enjoy the ride and "come back with blood on your wheels or don't come back at all."

Off to get me a copy

I've been meaning to post this for a couple days now but I've been busy with Adjudicator stuff... anyhow, the Father of Cyberpunk, William Gibson, highly recommends this one...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/044...ownandoutint-20

I haven't read it yet - but if Daddy recommends it... I'll get around to it eventually.

Hi Bryan,

Not heard about that one, sounds interesting. Might have to put that one on the to be read pile. Currently reading the classic Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land. Good book for a Rezolution feel.

Cheers

Tony

Heinlein is always perfect. Good choice!

Although I have yet to read Woken Furies (everytime I go to buy it the stores tell me it hasnt been released yet, as recently as yesterday when I picked up 13) I think the TK novels are still pretty rez... With the martian themes in Broken Angels, and the idea of space travel being done by uploading/downloading your personality on the net... Morgan is one of my favorite Cyberpunk authors at the moment.

Market Forces was arite... not his best piece of work. You know what else I might reccomend, although its not exactly rez is Jennifer Government by Maxx Barry. Great piece of Cyberpunk Fiction (and you gotta love the part when McD's and Burger king go to war, literally with machineguns across the mall foodcourt)

I'm reading a book now that was loaned to me by my brother that just screams Rezolution to me...

It's called "The Electric Church" by Jeff Somers.



It almost has it all... Robots and the Church, the SSF, Psycics, Mercs for hire, technology, I just can't help but see rez in everything that goes on, from the Undercover SSF forces making me think of Rangers, the Main char and his buddys being Ronin, the Church and their machines as the Vatacina...

Hi Zombie,

Sounds like an interesting book, have to take a look at that one,

Cheers

Tony

Personally I'd like to hear from Tony and the rest of the gang what your inspiration has been, I think that'll get to the core of the matter.

Hi Pyreos.

The thing is a lot of influences can be seen in Rez and in Warlands for that matter and they will not all be science fiction related or futuristic in nature. Between us, Simon and I bring a lot of different influences, likes and loves to the mix, that's why we both work so well together.

Everyone, especially writers and creators of stuff to put it bluntly, are a product of their upbringing and influences from childhood, you can always find influences whether you acknowledge them or not. So in essence it's not an easy question to answer.

To illustrate.

I am a big horror fan. I love all the old 50's and 60's British horror movies from Hammer studios and Amicus. I also am a big literary fan like H.P.Lovecraft, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, James Herbert, George R.R. Martin (fevre Dream, best Vampire novel ever written). Modern movies like the Halloween series, Exorcist. The new Masters of Horror series are great movies. Simon has also introduced me to a lot of Asian horror, so much better than the Hollywood remakes.

I also like SciFi. Some of the old 50's and 60's SciFi movies are classics that should never be remade. Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth, War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Quatermass and the Pit, Them. More modern (well 70's owards) SciFi and horror including things like The Matrix, Bladerunner, Silent Running, Dark Star, Esacpe from New York, Mad Max (not the third one. ), The Thing. SO many movies.

On the SciFi literary front, Henlein, Arthur C Clarke, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury and so many more.

I also like pulp stories, stuff set in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Adventure stories H Rider Haggard, Robert E Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Stories about Doc Savage and The Shadow. My all time favourite film is not a SciFi film, a horror film or a fantasy film. It is a film called 'The Man Who Would Be King' starring Michael Caine and Sean Connery (two of my favorite actors). It an adventure story set in India under British rule originally written by Rudyard Kipling. Not the sort of film you'd expect someone who writes horror, Scifi and fantasy stuff but I love that movie.

I am also a big fantasy fan. My first ever stories I wrote as a teenager were all fantasy stories, full of teenage angst I might add and stuff that will probably never see the light of day but I am sure their influence is in my writing. I am a big fan of J.R.R Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Stephen Donaldson, George R.R. Martin, David Eddings to name but a few.

I am a huge fan, some would say obsessive fan, of Doctor Who, old and new, my office is full of Doctor Who stuff, so are there influences in my writing from that? Probably.

So in summary, anything and everything influenced Rezolution.

Cheers

Tony

Let me just clarify that when Tony was writing as a teenager... it wasn't called "fantasy". It was more accurately considered "contemporary" since everything was medieval in nature...

Yep, and I learnt a lot about torture techniques so watch out when join us at GTS. You will need to learn to sleep with your eyes open.

Note to self, scrub Bryan off of the Christmas Card list, oh that's right he wasn't on it.

Tony