D20 Apocalypse: Other Ways to End the World?

[John Q. Mayhem]

ANother weirdy is Williamson's Humanoids series, where the robots exist to 'serve man, and keep man from harm'. No Billy don't play with those wooden blocks, use these foam ones, they are less likely to hurt you. I am sorry Dave, I can't let you drive the car at more than 40 miles per hour, it is too dangerous. No Alice, you cannot be allowed to climb that mountain... one of the scarier uses of robots in science fiction.

Is that the one where the humanoid robots are designed by a genius scientist, who then sees the error of his ways and tries to stop them, and you find out right after he builds the device to stop them that the device is actually what the robots need to keep functioning forever, and that they would've died out if he hadn't made it?

If so, then yes, that story freaked me out mightily when I was a kid. Scary.

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Wouldn't that basicaly be alien invasion with terraforming as the weapon?

I guess so. Did someone already mention that? If so I must have missed it.

Jack

 

[The_Universe]

Well......uh......THERE THEY ARE RIGHT OVER THERE! *points behind The Universe and thens runs away when he is not looking*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! RUN!

But seriously, what about the alleged "supervolcano" beneath yosemite national park in the US? That's supposed to put Krakatoa and Mt. St. Helens (combined) to shame...maybe add in the weird sub-fault line that runs through Tennessee in the US (and then sprinkle with the obvious spots, like California) and you could have one seismic event that set North America immediately back a few hundred years, and could probably (with hanging volcanic dust, economics, etc.) have a slower but still disastrous effect on the rest of the world.

 

[Gomez]

I remember reading a book called The White Plague. Basically a scientist released a virius that only targeted women. It ends up killing about 90% of all the women on the planet.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Wouldn't that basicaly be alien invasion with terraforming as the weapon?

Also one of the tools used by the aliens in War of the Worlds...

 

[C. Baize]

I remember reading a book called The White Plague. Basically a scientist released a virius that only targeted women. It ends up killing about 90% of all the women on the planet.

That was a good one.
Classic example of "Careful what you wish for, you just might get it."
Although, it would make for some interesting Post Apoc stuff, with women living for upwards of 5k years....

 

[Sir Brennen]

I remember reading a book called The White Plague. Basically a scientist released a virius that only targeted women. It ends up killing about 90% of all the women on the planet.

Jame's Triptree, Jr.'s "Houston, Houston, Do You Read" had the opposite storyline - a solar flare kills off anyone with a Y chromosome. A group of male astronauts travelling around the sun at the time of the flare get time-warped into the future, where earth is ruled only by women. No, this is not the late-night cable male fantasy it sounds like; the social ramifications of these men appearing in this female-dominated society are well done and thought provoking, which is why the novella won the Hugo in '77.

 

[Gomez]

The White Plague by Frank Herbert.

 

[Lorgrom]

Imagine this -

The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!
Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...
A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery.


SunSword, Strength, Corage, Hot princess at your side, and one Large Ogre-like body guard. hehehehehe

 

[The_Universe]

Imagine this -

The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!
Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...
A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery.


SunSword, Strength, Corage, Hot princess at your side, and one Large Ogre-like body guard. hehehehehe

I think this reference has already been made TWICE in this thread!

Thundarr must totally rock.