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Post by boxer01 on Oct 2, 2011 13:59:55 GMT
Perhaps like many, I'm a fan of the Weeping Angels. The whole idea of the quantum lock being an evolutionary development for a species fascinates me, not to mention they are pretty darn scary. I'm not trying to deconstruct them or bring too much scientific rigor to a TV show and an RPG that work best by not being too rigorous but as a roleplayer I do find myself wondering how best to view and deal with them. (This is complicated somewhat by their varying portrayals in Blink and Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (and to a lesser extent, the book Touched By An Angel)). To that end, here are a few thoughts and questions . . . Just how intelligent are they? In Blink they seem largely motivated by a need to feed but in the two parter I'm not sure whether "Angel Bob" is a reflection of an intelligent being or a fusion of Angel and human that enables it to do more than it normally can. What is the maximum practical speed of an Angel? We've seen lights blink off for a moment and an Angel has moved this far. Clearly they tend to move at the speed of plot but would they be vulnerable, for example, to automatic weapons fire from someone hiding behind a wall who looks away momentarily while firing? Can they fly or are they just really good climbers? (Or are so fast they're like comic book speedsters running up buildings?  ) That's probably s good starting point. And let me close by saying I realize that the Weeping Angels are really meant to be scary monster types that serve the needs of TV show plots, but you know how roleplayers get . . . |
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Post by garethl on Oct 2, 2011 14:19:47 GMT
I haven't encountered nor used Weeping Angels yet!
I think they are intelligent. At least as intelligent as other highly evolved races(they are ancient) but they don't care about science and technology. Angel Bob was just a means to an end.
Tough one! They must be as fast as vampires, though that doesn't answer the question. They must be vulnerable when moving. Why else would they quantum lock?
I always imagined them as really good climbers.
Oh ...
And ...
Don't blink
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Post by Rel Fexive on Oct 2, 2011 21:31:34 GMT
Now, here's the one complaint I have about the Angels, the one thing that is always wrong, the one thing that is always mentioned but that is never, ever demonstrated. And no one ever picks up on it.
Their speed. They seem to move about as fast as my grandmother.
So seriously, don't worry about how fast they move, because they're about as nippy as an asthmatic glacier.
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Post by garethl on Oct 4, 2011 17:38:20 GMT
I don't remember them as slow. They can move a fair distance in the time it takes you to blink. 300-400 milliseconds(an average blink).
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Post by Rel Fexive on Oct 4, 2011 18:57:56 GMT
But look at how far they move over much greater intervals. It's not much more than walking pace, at best.
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Post by cliffordjones on Oct 4, 2011 23:45:26 GMT
There almost seems to be an old joke here...
Q. How fast can a Weeping Angel move?
A. As fast as it wants to.
I think in meta terms the answer is however fast the writer needs it to. If it is dramatically interesting that an Angel's outstretched claw is two inches from someone's face when the lights go back on then that's how fast it moves.
Other random thoughts...
I'm sure they have been described as being incredibly fast by The Doctor.
They mostly weren't at full power in The Time of Angels.
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Post by da professor on Oct 5, 2011 8:43:44 GMT
Possibly Weeping Angels cannot see in the dark themselves so can only move at high speed if going in a straight line with no obstacles. This would seem to fit their crossing impressive distances in an eyeblink but having a slower speed over long distances.
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Post by garethl on Oct 5, 2011 13:41:17 GMT
They do that to scare you. They want you to know that they don't need to be fast.
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Post by Rel Fexive on Oct 5, 2011 19:28:15 GMT
Heh. Could be!
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Post by garethl on Oct 6, 2011 14:02:11 GMT
Suppose a group of Angels has lived somewhere(from 1900 to 2200) and:
Year 2101: Angel Fred sends Alice into the past, feasting on her potential energy.
Year 2001: Angel Fred sends Alice into the past, feasting on her potential energy.
Year 1901: Angel Fred ... you get the picture.
Would this be possible?
I just came up with a little adventure for the Weeping Angels.
The Crying Cemetery
Introduction: The group is asked to investigate what is supposedly an rift becoming active again. For hundreds of years people have been disappearing and there are a few mentions of strangers with strange names and clothes appearing.
Things To Do: Find out the real reason behind the disappearances and getting away from the danger.
Antagonists: The Weeping Angels of course!
Action Scenes: Running away, after finding out that the statues of mourning women were in fact Weeping Angels.
Visuals: A cemetery, full of statues, pyramids and old trees. Strange epitaphs: Run away, Get out, Behind you, It is al right, don't come looking for me and ... I am sorry!,
Problems: What do the warnings mean. How to stop the Weeping Angels.
Things To Prepare For: A map of the cemetery might be useful.
Continuing The Adventure: Meeting people that were sent back in time.
A UNIT officer, whom the party trusts, asks them to investigate a cemetery where a rift is located and if possible close it. The cemetery is known for its weird collection of statues and monuments. The officer insists the group should be accompanied by a few soldiers.
Describe the place: You see an old cemetery: lots of graves, a lot of statues and two grey pyramids. If the players ask what the statues look like, say mourning women. Hopefully the players will think the pyramids are the whatever that's in connection with the rift.
Then one by one the UNIT-soldiers start disappearing. If the players scan, there is temporal energy but not enough.
The soldiers, upon realising they would never be found, made sure that there were warnings for the remaining group in the cemetery. This accounts for the weird texts on the graves.
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Post by boxer01 on Oct 6, 2011 16:23:39 GMT
Wow, cool idea for an adventure!
When Alice is sent back from 2101 to 2001, won't she have already lost her potential energy and therefore would be of no use to the Angel? (And could the Angel detect that fact?)
And practically speaking, it's actually easier for Angel Fred to just find another victim rather than specifcially pursue Alice. Having said that, Angel Fred has no foreknowledge that it'll send Alice back so it won't know where to show up to bop her again, right?
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Post by boxer01 on Oct 29, 2011 12:55:07 GMT
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Post by Rel Fexive on Oct 29, 2011 14:12:44 GMT
One thing to remember when considering the Angels is that the group from Blink and the group from Time/Flesh are very different in their goals and the methods they employ. This is because they are different - the former were a small group of (apparently) desperate scavengers stuck on a backwards planet, the latter an organised group with a definite plan and an abundance of nourishment (energy from the ship's reactor and from the Crack).
Animals, especially predators, can have very different modes of behaviour in times of plenty and times of scarcity. The Angels have not been changed: it is not that they are portrayed differently (i.e. 'wrongly') or that they have been retconned, but that they act differently in different situations. This is to be expected, and has the added benefit of giving them some variety so the series doesn't just repeat the same story again and again.
For example: why did taking photos of Angels in Blink (or just looking at them) not pose the same risk it does in Time/Flesh? Perhaps because they wanted to limit their numbers and so a) avoid the risk of exposure, and b) keep their population down to prevent spreading their 'food source' too thin between them.
So, come up with a new situation for the Angels to appear in and devise ways in which they might act differently to how we've seen before without going too far from previously established details.
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Post by garethl on Oct 29, 2011 14:58:27 GMT
I like it but the text "Direct from the ringside at...etc" is a bit hard to read.
Imagine a group of well-fed Angels, who've made a deal with some businessperson. A one way ticket to the past for only 20 million pounds. They would be connoisseurs, sending people with interesting potential energy back even when they haven't paid.
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Post by da professor on Oct 30, 2011 10:05:57 GMT
Imagine a group of well-fed Angels, who've made a deal with some businessperson. A one way ticket to the past for only 20 million pounds. They would be connoisseurs, sending people with interesting potential energy back even when they haven't paid. An interesting way for a criminal from the future to escape justice if he lacks access to a more 'conventional' time machine. |
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Post by Curufea on Oct 31, 2011 0:13:40 GMT
It would be something the Shadow Proclamation would be trying to crack down on - as the Time Lords aren't around to enforce the laws of time anymore.
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Post by zebaroth on Nov 1, 2011 1:09:02 GMT
It would be something the Shadow Proclamation would be trying to crack down on - as the Time Lords aren't around to enforce the laws of time anymore. what i want to what could timelords do the weeping angles to stop them or anyone to stop them besides tricking them to look at each otter or throwing them in a crack in time |
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Post by Curufea on Nov 1, 2011 7:54:37 GMT
It would be something the Shadow Proclamation would be trying to crack down on - as the Time Lords aren't around to enforce the laws of time anymore. what i want to what could timelords do the weeping angles to stop them or anyone to stop them besides tricking them to look at each otter or throwing them in a crack in time Usually the Time Lords either cause the race to have never existed, or they time lock their homeworld |
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