Tuesday 30 June 2015

The Terminator

With a new film in US cinemas with the James Cameron seal of approval, The Terminator is back. Five films, a TV series, lots of comics, books, video games, somewhat reminiscent RPG settings, references in the likes of Mage: The Ascension and Demon: The Descent, a miniatures game and more later, what could it bring to the game table?

At its core it features two major SF elements, time travel and androids, mixed with existential discourse on fate and free will, and really big explosions.

The machine assassin that could look like anyone (but usually Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a great techno-horror monster, especially as its skin tears away to show the steel skull beneath. How do you stop it? Can you?

And the threat from the future, forcing characters from the present to go off the grid to avoid leaving records, also forces questions of what choice we have in anything we do.

In the end, there is “no fate but what we make”... but the Terminator keeps coming.

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