Another hazard of writing Mad Science is keeping ahead. I published an RPG scenario centered on a Mad Science "Fear Projector." DARPA issued an RFP for one a few years later.
Huh, last time I replied to a restack, it ended up on the article. Repeating myself:
Sadly, they only got a failed Brown Note system....
That’s why you need to throw out the laws of physics. That way I can have a microwave laser “Heat Ray” that at lower levels interferes with brainwaves for various effects. I even have an excuse for throwing out the laws of physics. The Tranh Event sucked up all of these unknown exotic particles a century or three in either direction and blew them up, and they were kind of necessary....
The fun thing about reading many fairy tales is that you keep running across the Mad Wizard's Beautiful. All right, he need not be a wizard. Ogre, devil, whatever. And she need not be his daughter. She could be a servant, or a captive.
The big difference is that the Mad Scientist does not have all the knowledge he craves and is looking for it. (Though I have heard scientists complain that he's really a Mad Engineer. He does not have a theory about destroying the Moon, he actually wants to do it.)
But the beautiful daughter is definitely a sideline worth throwing in. ISTR there was one in Dr. Moreau, who was basically the liason between the MC and Moreau's research. The real character fork is if the scientist is mad enough to sacrifice his daughter, or if he's trying to protect her.
Another hazard of writing Mad Science is keeping ahead. I published an RPG scenario centered on a Mad Science "Fear Projector." DARPA issued an RFP for one a few years later.
Huh, last time I replied to a restack, it ended up on the article. Repeating myself:
Sadly, they only got a failed Brown Note system....
That’s why you need to throw out the laws of physics. That way I can have a microwave laser “Heat Ray” that at lower levels interferes with brainwaves for various effects. I even have an excuse for throwing out the laws of physics. The Tranh Event sucked up all of these unknown exotic particles a century or three in either direction and blew them up, and they were kind of necessary....
The fun thing about reading many fairy tales is that you keep running across the Mad Wizard's Beautiful. All right, he need not be a wizard. Ogre, devil, whatever. And she need not be his daughter. She could be a servant, or a captive.
The big difference is that the Mad Scientist does not have all the knowledge he craves and is looking for it. (Though I have heard scientists complain that he's really a Mad Engineer. He does not have a theory about destroying the Moon, he actually wants to do it.)
But he does it... With Science! :-)
But the beautiful daughter is definitely a sideline worth throwing in. ISTR there was one in Dr. Moreau, who was basically the liason between the MC and Moreau's research. The real character fork is if the scientist is mad enough to sacrifice his daughter, or if he's trying to protect her.
I also note the fairy tale daughter generally knows enough magic to protect the hero. Less so with Science!!!