Thulean Archives

Today, there's a solar eclipse, but it's raining, so I'm not able to see it anyhow. And the weather is so wet, it's so grey, that I came to think of Stalker, the sci-fi roleplaying game.^[1][2] I first came into contact with the Stalker universe, when I watched the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky.^[3][4] My wife has a very interesting interpretation of the Stalker film, where she believes that the three main characters are supposed to represent the logic, the passion and the willpower of man. So, rather than the zona, it's not a place, but it's within your mind, a place you go to when you're experiencing the metaphysical vertigo. Then I saw that a computer game was being made, based on the same universe.^[5] It's a great game, but very different from both the film and the RPG - and from the book they are all based on too. Finally, I came into contact with the Stalker universe through the book, which everything else is based on, namely a roadside picnic.^[6] And the book is sci-fi, it's not very deep, it's good, but it's nothing like the film, the film is much more philosophical. The book is interesting in the sense that it shows how, perhaps, if aliens visit us, they might even not take notice of us, so they just come and they leave, and then leave something behind, and we're not important, that's the point of the book. The Stalker sci-fi role-playing game is based mainly on the book. In Stalker, the sci-fi role-playing game, you play a Stalker who goes into a zone where all these strange phenomena occur, and you are probably going to look for artifacts, which is different things with very special powers that the aliens left when they left the earth.^[7][8] The dice-less system is not my cup of tea, I am more of an old-school gamer, I like dice, I like to have this random factor. And you can perfectly well play Stalker the sci-fi role-playing game using dice, you can just either homebrew something or use another game system for the Stalker setting. It's illegal to enter the zone, so it's highly dangerous, it's protected, and it's very dangerous inside as well.^[9][10] Stalker the sci-fi role-playing game is an excellent game, I highly recommend it, and please support the developers, go buy the game, it's a great game. www.thuleanperspective.com

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1. See link in video information below.
2. "Stalker the SciFi RPG" is a game by "Burger Games".
3. The world in both the film and the RPG is very dark and alien.
4. In a sense everything is in decay, disintegrating around you.
5. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
6. "Roadside picnic" Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
7. Stalker the SciFi RPH has a diceless system, called FLOW.
8. Rather than let the dice decide the outcome of your actions, your role-playing is main factor
9. Inside the Zones, everything is falling apart...
10. ... just like in our very real world.