Okay. I just got done watching the two movies back to back. COR gets better every time i watch it.
Before i get to my Intel report, i have a couple comments.
First, i have only the Original Pitch Black and COR. I do not have the director's version, the cartoon, or the video game.
Riddick as a superhuman
There is evidence to support this. But its all evidence thats on the borderline. The only things that truly stand out to me in both the movies is his supersenses and his endurance.
In Pitch Black he can smell people, the tools and what kind of cloths they have on them. He can smell blood from ridiculous distance and can tell that a girl is on her period. He can also detect invisible air elementals right before they materialize in COR. It goes way beyond "i've got good Spot bonus" for me. The strength feats he pulls off is within human range (barely! We're talking captain olympic here), but its the endurance that is mindboggling. Regardless of dragging 400 lbs of power cells across a desert, only stopping for mortal combat with alien creatures. But in COR he is absolutely non stop, regardless of his wounds or running a 30 kilometer trek and then fighting a company of necromongers, etc. The "its an action flick!" will only take me so far before i start handing out bonus abilities. He takes a
truly superhuman beating at the hands of the Lord Marshall and it doesn't really seem to concern him. I think this is tied into the Furyan energy thing, he is an everlast battery. I think that makes sense for the Furyans, since the Purifier also pulls off the crazy walk of fire thing. Thats was too cool, btw.
So i'd give Furyans Scent, spot/listen bonus/class skills, endurance, and the mental bonus (will save). Mayyyyybe even some outright damage reduction! sheesh. Riddick makes John McClain (Diehard) look soft!
Okay onto the stuff. This is the info that i pulled out of the movies and special features on the DVD.
Races/Monsters
-Night Raptors (PB) - ya know...this is off the wall, but these things don't look all that different than the xenos in aliens...
-Hellhounds (COR)
-Furyans (an extinct race that had many survivors apparently...)
-Elementals (Air, Earth, Ether, Fire, and Water)
-Necromongers (quasi-dead, quarter dead, and half dead. Also, those wierd tracker guys, who seem like failed converts or something to me. More of a template really.)
Planets/Systems
-Sol System (surprise!!)
-Tangea System (one of the destinations of the Hunter Gratsner in Pitch Black)
-Helion System (First planet is Helion Prime, home of New Mecca)
-Lupus System 1-5 (seems pretty much like a merc hangout system. A definite Mos Eisly vibe. fitting name LOL)
-U.V. System (6th planet is the one Riddick was hiding on)
-Achelon System (9 planets. People here are not very "chatty")
-Underverse (a distant constellation of Dark Worlds...vague.)
-Coalsack System (a system destroyed by the Necromongers)
-Aquilan System (another necro victim)
Slams
Slams apparently in three variety: Single, Double, and Triple Max.
-Butcher Bay (its a dark place is all i know!), don't remember if they said what max level.
-Corovan Penal Facility a single max prison that riddick made jokes about.
-Ursa Luna - a double max slam that keeps a cell warm for riddick for when he visits...
-Crematorium (After Tombs and his mercs capture Riddick on Helion Prime after the intitial Necro attack, Riddick says that Crematorium is the only one of three slams in the
system that the ship could reach. So that would mean that the Crematorium is in the Helion system. Which makes sense since Jack took off from HP and then got into some trouble and got sent to slam at Crematorium) - Triple Max. 52 hour days. ugh.
Culture
-This definitely a major merc/bounty hunter culture in this setting. Rife throughout both movies. Good gaming there!!
-Religion plays a big part in both movies. Both good guys and bad guys.
-Space Travel is not in hours, but days to weeks to months. The Hunter Gratzner wasn't due to its destination for another 22 weeks (!) when it crashed in PB. But then it was "coach". In COR, travel takes days to planet hop, so to system hop would be significant. Thats for fast ships, bot the cargo ships like in PB, which are slow enough to need sleep chambers. I think the travel time is largely glossed over, but the Necros had time to convert and indoctrinate Jack before Riddick caught up to them and got medievel on the Lord Marshall. There are definire space lanes, with some places being off the main routes (like the Acheron system). One space lane is called the Sol Track, i can only assume thats the main route for the Sol system.
Necroism
Despite some of the tongue in cheek names like Underverse and the like...this is a really cool religion! It reminds me of the death cult in Mage the ascension (the Thanatos or something). There is a lot of material a gm could work with here.
It had 6 Lord Mashalls (not entirely sure if the one in the movie was the 6th or not).
The 1st LM was Khovu the Transcended, who discovered the Underverse and started it all.
The 3rd LM was Naffamill the Navigator
the 5th LM was Krill who created/discovered the quasi-dead (the mind readers).
There was also a Necromonger hero Baylock, who used the quasi-dead for a great victory. Don't know if he was a LM though, but he definitely came after Krill.
Whew. I'm tired now. goodbye.
