More Fortean stuff...

As a follow-on to my previous Fortean timelines (here and here), I thought I'd list my sources and provide some links to other useful Fortean bits and bobs that can be found on-line. I'll also include some more eccentric stuff.

Books

The Fortean timeline in Players Handbook for the Call of Cthulhu RPG was the main inspiration for the creation of my timelines. I have a fair few books that cover various aspects of the Forteana from different angles, but those listed below fed directly into my research:

'Modern Mysteries of the World' by Janet & Colin Bord - this gives  a good overview of various subjects (UFOs, sea monsters, Bigfoot, etc). The most useful thing about it is the 'Gazeteer of Strange Events' that sits at the back of the book. Countries are listed alphabetically and then a variety of events are listed and given an outline description on a place-by-place basis. Some countries (i.e. the US) are divided up into states and the events listed within that structure. This results in an interesting chunk of Forteana. Here's an example, picked at random:

Venezuela - near Chico - Four small hair-covered entities from landed UFO attacked two young men in a kidnap attempt; they were very strong and broke a rifle; 10 December 1954.

'A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies - Primary access to observations of UFOs, ghosts and other mysterious phenomena' by George M. Eberhart - this 1114-page book is probably only for completist Fortean nerds like myself. It's also pretty rare, and therefore expensive (my copy set me back 80 bucks). The aim of the book is to provide a reference source for Forteana based within the North American continent between 1880 and 1980, and so it doesn't read like a standard book. Instead, it can be used to find information for a specific location and then give details about where the report was originally published. This means that overall details are scanty - for more information you'd then have to then find the original source material. Eberhart uses a wide variety of sources, and the amount of work involved with this is staggering. Here's a few examples picked at random:

Kentucky - Louisville - flying humanoid. 1880, July 28/C.A. Youngman. Louisville Courier-Journal, 29 July 1880

Manitoba - Winnipeg - fall of metallic object. 1947, April 24. 'At the same time' Doubt, no. 19 (1947): 290, 291

'Science Frontiers - some anomalies and curiosities of Nature' and 'Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena', both by William R. Corliss. Corliss died a few years ago and was a modern-day Fort. Like Eberhart, he engaged in a wide and far-ranging trawl through various sources in order to find and catalogue various Fortean events. Like Fort, he found the majority of such reports within scientific journals. This tends to refute the idea (from certain wings of Forteana) that the scientific community either ignores or suppresses data that could be anomalous as far as our current understanding of things is concerned. 'Science Frontiers' is part of the 'Sourcebook Project', a huge catalogue of various anomalies that has been created and published over many years. These two books by Corliss read more like conventional pieces, especially the Handbook. Science Frontiers contains a variety of short excerpts from various sources, which gives more information than the Bord's Gazeteer and Eberhart's Geo-bibliography.

'Weird America' by Jim Mallon. Another rare book (mine was a second-hand find and is very dog-eared), this is a travel guide for anyone wishing to visit places of Fortean interest within the US. As with the other books described above, it deals with these on a state-by-state, place-by-place basis and has small description of the events that took place, along with Mallon's take on it. It also contains some interesting black and white photos.

You should be able, if interested, to track down copies of the above via places such as Amazon, Bibliofind, etc.

On-line sources

Fortean Times - the magazine has been around since the 70s but blossomed from the early 1990s. The website itself contains a variety of interesting articles, and it's forums include discussion of a wide variety of subject areas (yours truly has been involved in lots of interesting 'debates' there over the years).

The Anomalist - this is your one-stop shop for various other on-line bits and bobs about Forteana. Different reports, discussions and articles appear on-line all of the time, and the Anomalist is a good place to get an overview of things.

Magonia - Magonia has been around even longer than Fortean Times, and it's on-line presence is a source of some great articles. It takes a healthy sceptical psychological approach to the subject.

The Sourcebook Project - you can access a great deal of Corliss' work here, and buy any of his books that are still in print. The 'Science Frontiers On-line' section is particularly interesting.

Bad Archaeology - it's not hard to guess what this is about. Archaeology - or what some try to pass off as such - is used by various wings of book and web-based Forteana to shore up their arguments. This site tries to address and dissect some of them. That said, such arguments could serve as plot seeds for scenarios.

Humanoid Sighting Reports - this is a huge database of reports dealing mostly with UFO-related entities.

The Paranormal Database - should you ever wish to set an adventure in the UK, this would be a great place to start. It's helped me to add more colour to my Call of the Cthulhu adventures and created adventure seeds for some future projects. It covers various areas, such as ghosts, folklore, UFOs, etc.

A Blast From the Past - although not so much about Forteana in a direct sense, this site has many interesting articles on a variety of odd or though-provoking events, people and places.

The Fringe

It could be said that Forteana is a fringe subject. If so, that fringe has it's own fringe. Forteana has permeated the internet in various different ways. Before the internet came along or became widespread there were always a certain amount of books being published from a variety of fringe areas of the subject, but the internet has amplified this to the nth degree. In short, this means that all sorts of ideas can be found out there and as a whole the subject has been absorbed, adapted and bastardised by various different parties and interests. What also tends to happen is that one site copies another site in terms of the information it uses, so things can get samey. This is actually less useful to someone digging into any areas of Forteana as very few websites state their sources. Because various odd or incorrect assumptions have percolated from various books into on-line sources, there are many people out there that hold such assumptions to be truths - or worse still, absolute truths.

Not that this is entirely the fault of the web - for example, the 'ancient astronaut' theories that have been around for decades are guilty of the same lack of care and attention to detail. Various authors simply copy other authors from book to book - the same thing now happens on-line. Errors reported in books have simply been copied wholesale onto the web.  In the 1960s and '70s, those writing about such subjects tended to have a rather dodgy view of ancient cultures - along the lines of 'They were primitive, so therefore couldn't have built X' and then jump to the idea that 'Aliens from outer space did it'. As with conpiracy theories, these sorts of views tend to work along somewhat misanthropic lines - the general view being that people are stupid. In this case, they were even more stupid in the past. Similarly, they make various errors because they make very large assumptions from the perspective of thinking that 'if something looks a bit like X from the modern world, then it must be X but made in the ancient world'. This is why some people still believe that the Nazca lines are runways for ancient spaceships. Another problem is that those positing certain assumptions aren't usually qualified in the subject they're objecting to, which tends to fuzz the issue. Objections to their line of reasoning and offered proofs has been around for quite some time - take, for example, this programme from 1977. This has not stopped such ideas in their tracks, despite the authors being caught for being somewhat 'flexible' with the truth. Daniken and others are still making a living out of such stuff, and are amply supported by various websites.

Anyway, here's a taster...

Ancient American - I have various books which chase this theme, but the debate over such things is still on-going- at least, in some quarters. The date for when humans first came to the Americas has been pushed back in recent times, but others think that more modern humans came from China, Rome, Phoenicia and other places. This is, of course, not the standard model of American history.

There Were Giants In Those Days and Forbidden Archaeology - one wing of alternative archaeology takes it cues from the religious outlook of various proponents. Some are Christians, others have other beliefs. This means that some think that modern humans have only been around for thousands of years (without any ancient ancestor species), whilst others think that modern humans have been around for millions of years.

The Montauk Project - some offshoots of the UFO phenomenon have created their own offshoots, and this is a good example.

Don't get me wrong. I love the idea of ETs visiting Earth in the distant past. After all, the Cthulhu Mythos rests on this premise. I love the idea of armoured giants or ancient cultures living in the US well before Columbus arrived. Nazi time machines and Nazi UFOs are wacky and interesting at the same time. It's just that the reasoning of the various proponents of such ideas strike me as being particularly iffy. If anomalies are thrown up by scientific literature, then to my mind that's more convincing than one that simply crops up in the mind of someone who may not actually understand what they're looking at or reading about. At the end of the day, the reason I enjoy reading about such things (despite not being a true believer) is the because of the imagery they conjure up. They're a great source of ideas for RPG stuff, if nothing else.

New issue of Frontier Explorer

Issue 4 of Frontier Explorer - a fanzine for the Star Frontiers RPG - has just been released.

A Timeline of Forteana - Part Two

Further to my previous edition of the timeline (1900-1925), here's 1926 to 1950:

1926 – child sees ‘upside-down saucer’ with lights off the north coast (Cornwall, UK).

1927 – boys saw disc-shaped domed object fly along valley and land nearby. Circle of scorched grass found at site the next day (nr. Fernvale, New South Wales, Australia); ‘round globules of fire’ seen at night during gale (Upstreet, Kent, UK).

1928 – trapper abducted by ‘Sasquatch’ (Conuma River, British Columbia, Canada); toad found entombed in rock (Eastland,Texas, USA).

1929 – haunting at Borley Rectory first reaches public notice via newspaper reports and investigation by Harry Price (Borley, Essex, UK); pillar found in limstone rock (Menominie, Wisconsin, USA).

1930 – 80-foot long sea monster with long neck seen (Scarborough, New South Wales, Australia); small, glistening, hairless, human-like creature entered house and terrified family (Madura, Western Australia); man saw and shot at ‘thick-set black figure’ which he thought was a ‘Mapinguary’ (Wild Man) (Urúbu River, Brazil); partly fused metal bar fell from sky during violent thunderstorm (Hunchstanton, Norfolk, UK); aerial object like a ‘massive sheet of shining metal’ seen. It was revolving and after 40 minutes it shot upward at speed (Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa); sighting of phantom elephant (Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA).

1931 – giant reptile seen by opal prospector (South Australia); large, low, slow-moving cloud emitted continuous rumbling sound, without lightning, rain, hail, etc. (Cache Lake, Ontario, Canada).

1932 – boy saw 12-inch disc object which hovered nearby and made humming noise, with white mist around it (nr. Nambour, Queensland, Australia); zoologist saw giant bat or pterodactyl-like creature (Assumbo Mountains, Cameroon).

1933 – ball lightning fell with purple streak and struck barn with loud noise and flash (Stouffville, Ontario, Canada); ball of fire seen bouncing along hedgetops at night (Vale, Guernsey, UK); body of Saint Catherine Labouré found undecayed, 56 years after her death (Paris, France); water monster seen in marshy area linked to sea (nr. Perugia, Italy); 11-foot reptile seen and killed, carcass later burnt (nr. Syracuse, Sicily); water monster seen at river mouth (River Ticino, Italy); 90-foot creature seen in water – later, a similar creature seen ashore (St. Lucia Lake, Natal, South Africa); man saw landed craft and opened door to see room full of instruments lit by violet light, but with no occupants (nr. Chrysville, Pennsylvania, USA).

1934 – sea monster with 3 humps covered with scales and barnacles seen by fishermen off of coast (Townsville, Queensland, Australia); long-necked creature with blue back and yellow stomach seen in water (River Doubs, Switzerland); shrieks, wails and other weird noises heard near small lake and wooded area. Sounds moved around whilst being investigated (Langhorne, Pennsylvania, USA); farmer saw dragon-like creature, tracks also found in mud (Campbell Lake, South Dakota, USA); huge sea creature with horse-like head seen in Black Sea by fishermen (Yevpatoria, Crimea); sea monster, 60-80 feet long with 6 humps seen by passengers on ocean liner (St.Thomas, Virgin Islands).

1935 – 8-foot long carcass of unidentified animal with horse-like head found (Boyd Town Beach, New South Wales, Australia); witness saw landed craft and small silver-suited entities. Square imprints and burnt area photographed on following day (Nipawin, Quebec, Canada); fishing boat crew saw ‘merman’-like creature, which had shiny eyes, broad smooth forehead, with dark hair on head and around chin (nr. Shasta, California, USA); 48-foot long sea monster shot and killed by lighthouse keeper (Mutton Island, County Galway, N. Ireland); 8-foot long green and yellow reptile seen (Monterose, Italy).

1936 – Bigfoot threw rocks at men travelling in canoe (Morris Creek, British Columbia, Canada); 200-foot sea monster with 60-foot long neck seen (Port-Au-Port, Newfoundland, Canada); showers of stones and unusual lights seen by prospector (Howells, Arizona, USA); woman saw flying man, clad in black, wearing helmet and ‘backpack’, accompanied by rumbling noise (Pavlodar Region, Kazakhstan).

1937 – reconnaissance unit shot dead 2 man-sized ape-like creatures that were covered with reddish hair (Mongolia/USSR border); mine workers saw lights underground and saw faceless ghost (Bankfield and Little Long Lac gold mines, Ontario, Canada).

1938 – ‘fireballs’ fell from overcast sky, killing one person and badly burning others, and some houses were destroyed or damaged (Parajaeva, Lappland, Sweden); 3 foot long greenish-grey object seen in sky and then suddenly vanished (Juminda, Estonia); huge black cloud caused daytime darkness lasting several hours, over a wide area (Gulf of Ob, Siberia).

1939 – sighting of giant lizard, several yards long (Ossum, France).

1940 – ‘fiery cartwheels’, accompanied by rumbling sound, seen rolling along hilltops (Bata, Hungary); lake monster seen, black with 4 short legs (Lackagh Lake, County Kerry, N. Ireland).

1941 – tall, hair-covered ‘wildman’ captured. It did not speak, eat or drink, and was later executed as a ‘spy’ by partisan firing squad (Caucasus Mountains).

1942 – ‘Phantom Barber’ removes hair from several female victims over the course of several nights (Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA).

1943 – domed object seen which flew 15 to 20 feet above ground and gave off bright white light (Qing Xian, Hubei Province, China); 6-foot long snake, yellow-brown in colour seen in water, and attacked witness (River Gudenaa, Jutland, Denmark).

1944 – RAAF bomber crew flying at 4500 feet saw ‘dark shadow’ flying alongside, which had flames coming from one end. Plane’s radio and direction-finding equipment did not function until the object accelerated away (Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia); hair-covered humanoid shot and killed (Tashkurgan); sighting of giant bird (Possum Kingdom Dam, Texas, USA).

1945 – various white objects (clothes, walls) burst into flame, with 400 separate incidents (Almeria, Spain)

1946 – ‘Ghost rockets’ seen in sky on many occasions over Sweden, some seen crashing into lakes (i.e. Lake Kölmjarv); fall of lignite (Racine, Wisconsin, USA).

1947 – survey worker saw craft 150-foot wide, from which emerged several 7-foot tall entities. He hid after they tried to take him on board, and watched as they leapt about and threw large stones (Barú, Brazil); 5 ‘birds’ with leathery bodies seen (Manuos, Brazil); fossil hunter saw landed craft and 2 small entities with green skin, large round eyes and slit mouths. He shouted to them and was knocked to the ground by smoke that issued from the belt of one entity (nr. Villa Santena, Italy); ‘pygmy’ covered in reddish hair seen (Adiopodumé, Ivory Coast); passengers of ship ‘Llandovery Castle’ saw huge metallic cylinder, c.1000 feet long, hovering over sea, onto which it shone searchlight (Straits of Madagascar); sea monster seen on several occasions, which had ‘eyes like red searchlights’ and made loud braying noise (Tiger Rocks, Natal, South Africa); airline pilots saw aerial object like metallic cylinder with ‘cockpit’, ‘windows’ and exhaust, which carried out several controlled manoeuvres (Montgomery, Alabama, USA); sea monster seen ‘looping through the water’. Another sighting of this creature described it as having a cow-like head and a fin on its’ back (Security Lake, Alaska, USA); 2 Bigfoot-like creatures seen crossing road by couple in car, and one creature looked through car window (nr. Shasta, California, USA); 3 witnesses saw object like inverted pie plate, with flames issuing from it’s sides and making a swishing sound as it flew through canyon (Snake River Canyon, Idaho, USA); Captain Mantell killed after his F-51 fighter plane crashed following pursuit of silvery object at high altitude (Goodman Air Force Base, Kentucky, USA); small ‘flying wing’ shaped object seen in sky (nr. Cave Creek, Arizona, USA); object looking like shiny aircraft propeller, with 10-12 cups protruding beneath each blade, seen by two witnesses as it crossed road in front of their vehicle (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA); ship ‘Santa Clara’ collided with sea monster and water was stained with blood (nr. Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA); pilot Kenneth Arnold saw group of shiny unidentified craft at some distance from his aircraft (Mount Ranier, Washington, USA); archaeological find - site dated to c.7000BCE (Plainview, Texas, USA).

1948 – fall of hundreds of fish, from cloudless sky (Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire, UK); 3 witnesses saw 40-foot long sea monster, with head and neck 8 feet above water. Body was greyish-green in colour, with pinkish neck, and green glassy spines on its’ back (Carmel River, California, USA); ghost of headless man seen at night near railway tracks (Maringouin, Louisiana, USA); flying man seen, who had long silvery wings fastened over his shoulders and controls on his chest. Sighting accompanied by sizzling or whistling noise (Chehalis, Washington, USA); 3 flying men seen, without wings but wearing helmets, accompanied by engine-like sound (Longview, Washington, USA); green fireballs seen in sky (Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA).

1949 – creature seen in water which had long shaggy ‘ears’, with which it propelled itself along (Laurisoir Reservoir, Keynton, Victoria, Australia); pilot saw 7 delta-shaped objects which flew in formation and made co-ordinated manoeuvres. The engine of his aircraft ran rough during sighting, and upon landing it was found that spark plugs had been burnt out (Mountain Home, Idaho, USA); object like silver dollar with fin seen by 5 witnesses (Rouge River, Oregon, USA).

1950 – man walking along coast saw oval object rise from sea and fly into the air (bt. San Sebastian and Rio Grande, Argentina); ‘ghost light’ seen in forest (nr. Woodbridge, Manitoba, Canada); two aerial objects seen to hit water and sink (Inchon, South Korea); object seen in air and on radar, travelling at 1800mph (Kodiak, Alabama, USA); 6 to 12 objects shaped like aircraft bombs seen in sky, making noise like wind blowing through trees (Marrowbore Lake, Tennessee, USA); DC-4 aircraft destroyed when flying on stormy night, preceded by sighting of ball of fire by witnesses on ground (Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA); policemen saw jelly-like mass fall from sky into field. It gave of purple glow and evaporated (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA).

A Timeline of Forteana - Part One

'What is Forteana?', you might be asking yourself. Well, it's a term used as a sort of catch-all phrase that deals with anomalous phenomena as discussed by Charles Fort. Fort was a collector of data about such phenomena which he gleaned from newpapers and scientific journals, eventually writing it all up  into several somewhat eccentric books. Being interested in such things myself from an early age, when I first bought the Call of Cthulhu RPG I was pleasantly surprised to see a Fortean Timeline included with the 'Sourcebook for the 1920s'. Over the years I've created dribs and drabs of my own timeline and am gradually stitching it all together.

What follows below is a timeline which covers 1900 to 1925, and 1926 to 1950 will be added in a future post. This may come in handy as adventure seeds for Call of Cthulhu (as scenarios don't always have to revolve around the Mythos), or may be of interest just as a general reference. Do I believe any of it? Hmm. Well, I can't say that I do. That said, what interests me a great deal is the sort of imagery that such reports conjour up, and I find the descriptions fascinating. Sources for the entries come from various books, such as 'Modern Mysteries of the World' by Janet and Colin Bord and 'A Geo-bibliography of Anomalies' by George Eberhart. I'll include a full bibliography in a future post.

1900 - Man was dazed when ball lightning exploded nearby (Telemark, Norway); Sherman Church was seen entering mill building, but was never seen again. There was an extensive search, but no clues were found to his whereabouts (Augusta Mills, Battle Creek, Michigan, USA).

1901 - Fall of substance smelling like glue (Sart, Belgium); showers of stones fell on village over several days (Harrisonville, Ohio, USA).

1902 - Sea monster seen by steamer crew: 30-35 feet long with four 5-foot high fins, head bigger than seal's (Ram Head, Australia); sea captain saw big black sea monster which dove and surfaced under his boat (City Island, New York, USA); ice-skaters were chased by an 8-foot tall hairy creature wielding a club (Chesterfield, Idaho, USA); 'ghost light' seen west of town (Hebron, Maryland, USA); crew of SS Fort Salisbury saw a strange submarine object 'between five and six hundred feet in length. It had two lights, one at each end. A mechanism of some kind, or fins maybe, was making a commotion in the water'. The craft 'appeared to be scaled', and it was sinking slowly (Gulf of Guinea, South Atlantic Sea); over a period of one week, five men inexplicably disappeared in separate incidences (Buffalo, USA); people in yacht saw humped sea monster, 60 feet long (Oslofjord, Norway).

1903 - Fishermen at bayside saw set of fins 20 feet and 50 feet apart, later saw head with huge green eyes (Conception Bay, Canada); small stones appeared and fell slowly in room (Sumatra); miners on night shift saw creature with 'horns and long hair, great big eyes and an inhuman look, although standing erect like a man' (Iola, Kansas, USA); fishermen saw snake-like sea monster, 120 feet long with head 20 feet above water. It had round eyes, was brown with white-brown throat, and covered with long hair that ‘looked like seaweed’ (Hermanus, Cape Province, South Africa).

1904 - Children saw ghost of a man believed killed in 17th century Battle of Sedgemoor (Honiton, Devon, UK); body of Curé of Ars found in state of undecay, 45 years after his death (Ars, France); child touched ball lightning with foot, resulting in explosion which killed nearby cattle but left child unhurt (Deux Sevres, France); steamship Mohican enshrouded in strange vapour, which glowed like phosporous and played havoc with ships compass. Decks were magnetised and ship glowed as if on fire. After half an hour, cloud lifted and moved out to sea (Philadelphia, USA); unnatural daytime darkness lasted for 15 minutes, causing widespread panic (Memphis, USA); large round lights seen, over 7 or 8 years (Lough Erne, N.Ireland).

1905 - Sea monster with large head seen, coil seen 30 feet away from head (Fernando de Noronha, Brazil); woman in white, without wings, seen flying over town by many witnesses. Some heard 'singing' (Voltana, Spain).

1906 - Lightning struck woman and left figures on her arm resembling pheasant, snake and Chinese characters (Unionport, New Jersey, USA); officer on merchant ship saw sea monster about 180 feet long, with large dorsal fins. It overtook ship at great speed (40 miles off coast of Pernambuco, Brazil); find of 'Norse axe' (Sawyer county, Wisconsin, USA).

1907 - Fishermen saw sea monster 200 feet long (Gulf of Porto, Corsica); fall of hailstones with portrait of Virgin Mary inside (Remiremont, France); burnt body of woman found, with no damage to her clothes or objects in room (Mannar, India); ball lightning entered house and moved around in circles, smashing holes in walls (Alpena, Michigan, USA); men saw torpedo-shaped object, 6 feet long, approx. 50 feet above buildings. Tongues of fire issued from it and it was surrounded by a halo (Burlington, Vermont, USA); live toad found in rock 200 feet down in silver mine was shaft was sunk. There was no fissure in rock (Butte, Montana, USA); explorer Colonel Fawcett shot 62-foot long snake, known locally as 'Sucuriju Gigante' (Rio Negro, Brazil).

1908 - Bright spherical object flew slowly at great height over city (Sofia, Bulgaria); people on board ship 'Livingston' saw sea monster at least 200 feet long, dark brown with 6-foot long head, and it made loud rattling sound as it moved away (Gulf of Mexico); prisoners claimed jail was haunted, with faces seen the dark. Jailers admitted strange noises had been heard (Ashville, N. Carolina, USA).

1909 - Body of Saint Bernadette Soubirous incorrupt 30 years after her death (Nevers, France); man saw grey, torpedo-shaped craft in sky with 3 occupants, one of whom shouted to him in an unkown tongue (Waipawa, New Zealand); poltergeist outbreak in railway telegraph tower (Dale, Florida, USA); winged, ram-headed monster 'Jersey Devil' seen (Trenton, New Jersey, USA); fishermen saw object fly over city and fall into sea (Dong Hoi, Vietnam); red-hot metal pellets fell from sky onto beach (Santa Cruz, California, USA); mystery objects seen in skies over state (Massachusetts, USA).

1910 - Ghost ship seen, in area where many giant squids have been sighted (Conception Bay, Newfoundland, Canada); large black bird-like object fell into sea and disappeared (off Normandy Coast, France); sea monster with 6-foot long neck and brown and hairy body seen (Kilkerrin bay, Eire); over 2 hours, stones shot upward from ground accompanied by loud detonation (Cantillana, Spain); white stone cylinder fell from sky (Westerville, Ohio, USA).

1911 - 3 witnesses saw black humped sea monster travelling at speed, which was joined by similar creature (Cotes-du-Nord, France); 2-foot long live alligator fell from sky (Evansville, Indiana, USA); unnatural daytime darkness lasted for half an hour and terrified city (Louisville, Kentucky, USA).

1912 - Sighting of 'Yowie' (a large hairy humanoid) drinking from creek (Bombala, New South Wales, Australia); ship's crew saw sea monster with long neck and humps (Matapan, Greece); loud detonation followed by fall of stones, with 14,000 being collected later (Louisville, Kentucky, USA); sighting of 'Palatine Light' during heavy gale, possible ghost ship (Block Island Sound, Rhode Island, USA); fall of frogs (Comanche, Texas, USA).

1913 - Children saw little green man, which dogs then killed (Farmersville, Tennessee, USA); fall of fish from tornado-like cloud (Quirundi, New South Wales, Australia); sighting of 4-legged sea monster on west coast shore by several witnesses (Tasmania); following electrical storm, boy's presence caused objects to fly around (Jordan, Canada); remains of Blessed Maria Assunta Palotta were found perfectly preserved 8 years after her death (Tong-Eul-Chou, China).

1914 - Colonel Fawcett and companions threatened by hairy 'savages' known locally as Maricoxis (Cordiheira Dos Perecis, Brazil); 8 witness saw strange craft on surface of sea and entities manipulating hose in water. They saw witnesses and all but one went inside, who stayed on as it took off (Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada); sighting of long-necked creature with black, looped body like gigantic snake, also seen crawling out of water (Lough Abisdealy, Eire); woman saw two men with silvery objects on their backs, who flew away. Also seen on following day by other witnesses (Leon, Spain); man saw cigar-shaped craft with lighted windows in a field near his house, which had several 'dwarves' nearby who went aboard when he approached (Hamburg, Germany).

1915 - During severe storm, 'balls of fire' issued from plugs on switchboard at telephone exchange (Freeland, Pennsylvania, USA).

1916 - Sea monster seen about 5 miles from island, at least 40 feet long with large head. It came close enough to be struck on head with oar (Melville Island, Northern Territories, Australia); man in boat saw ‘periscope’, 5-6 feet out of water, moving too fast for contemporary submarines (Thasos, Greece).

1917 - Large number of stones materialised in house, seen falling after sudden mid-air appearance (Helsinki, Finland); officers and men of 'HMS Hilary' saw sea monster with neck 15-30 feet long, with black glossy head and triangular dorsal fin (70 miles south-east of Iceland); 3 children saw angel, the Virgin Mary (13th May), on 13th October, many witnesses awaiting appearance of BVM saw disc moving across sky and sun 'dancing' (Fatima, Portugal); two days after leaving Falmouth, the ship 'Zebrina' was found deserted. Weather had been excellent, ship was in good condition, but crew had vanished (between Falmouth and St. Brieux).

1918 - Poltergeist outbreak, with physical attacks (Cherbourg, France); 3 children had total of 65 visions of the Virgin Mary (Muzillac, France); hunter saw mammoths in forests (Siberian Taiga); fall of grey powder (Farmersville, Texas, USA).

1919 - Boy carrying oil back to stranded car saw 20 small humanoids walking along road (nr. Barrow, Wisconsin, USA); poltergeist outbreak, with messages from the dead (Suri, India); 40-foot long snake seen by hikers (Broad Top Mountain, Pennsylvania, USA); large fireball struck building, showering balls of fire around which floated away (Salina, Kansas, USA); two dissimilar stones, fused together, fell from sky (Cumberland Falls, Kentucky, USA); long black object flew over Madison Square, with many witnesses (New York City, USA).

1920 - Two planes searching for missing schooner saw lights. One plane flew into large cloud and vanished. Schooner never found (Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia); fisherman saw shiny blue translucent egg-shaped object land nearby. After 15 minutes, it flew slowly away (nr. Mount Pleasant, Iowa, USA); china-like fragments fell from sky (Portland, Oregon, USA); ball lightning bounced among houses, demolishing one (South Australia); ball lightning seen, with comet-like tail and saw-tooth streaks of light. Rolled up incline, struck wall and exploded, leaving acrid smell (Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa).

1921 - Poltergeist outbreak centred around dying woman (Hopfgarten, Germany); thousands of small fish fell during thunderstorm (Gibraltar); giant lizard 'Tatzelwurm' seen (nr. Rauris, Austria); ‘Yeti’ footprints found at 20,000 feet by climber (Lhakpa-La, Tibet); Stratigraphic anomaly - two Cretacious limestone formations which transgress time diagonally (Austin, and also at Fort Stockton, Texas, USA).

1922 - 2nd officer of the 'Bali' saw sea monster with 15-foot long neck, grey-green in colour (Gulf of Mannar, Sri Lanka); during heavy snowstorm, exotic insects looking like spiders, caterpillars and huge ants fell and soon died (The Alps, Switzerland); gold prospector saw monster in lake which had long, large neck (Argentina); sighting of phantom wolf (LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA).

1923 - During violent thunderstorm, ball of fire descended and set haystack ablaze. Later several tons of glassy slag found in ashes (Quetta, Pakistan); 2 witness in boat saw large dark seahorse-like creature, with head 30 feet above water. It spouted water, made long whistling sound, and struck surface of water with it’s tail (Nouméa, New Caledonia).

1924 - Disembodied voice heard in cemetery - it seemed to move through the air and follow people. Moans, pleas for help and demoniacal laughter heard (Butler, New Jersey, USA); Albert Ostman claims to have been kidnapped by 'Bigfoot'-type creature (British Colombia, Canada); policeman and other witnesses saw creature that 'had a head like a deer, that ran like a rabbit, and had fiery eyes' (West Orange, New Jersey, USA); crew of British reconnaissance aircraft vanish in desert, their tracks stopping abruptly 40 yards from aircraft. No other tracks found despite search (Libya, North Africa).

1925 - Farmer killed unidentified animal which was killing his chickens: it had crouched posture, four webbed toes on hind feet, yellow eyes, unusual pronged molar teeth (Greenwich, New Jersey, USA); sea monster with 8-foot long neck and body with 5 loops, dirty yellow in colour, seen from steamer (Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia); 2 men saw object like a pair of saucers face-to-face standing on legs in paddock. It had oval windows and shimmered (nr. Moora, Victoria, Australia); captain of fishing trawler saw sea monster like gigantic eel, longer than his 136-foot boat (off Boston, Massachusetts, USA); 50-foot long corpse of unidentified sea creature washed ashore (Santa Cruz, California, USA); during storm, men sheltering in barn saw ball of fire enter. One man was knocked unconscious for 8 hours, the other thrown 15 feet (Gatineau Point, Ontario, Canada); limestone ball containing marine shells and fossils fell from sky (Bleckenstad, Sweden); following accident and 2 deaths aboard 'SS Watertown', pair of phantom faces seen following ship for several days. Photos taken (between US Pacific Coast and Panama Canal); Colonel Fawcett disappears during expedition (Amazon jungles, Brazil); poltergeist outbreak centered on Eleanor Zügun, with physical attacks that continued for 2 years (Romania), climber saw ‘Yeti’ and found footprints 6-7 inches long, at height of 15,000 feet (Zemu Glacier, Nepal); sighting of man-like creature, covered with brown fur and with ‘monkey-like’ face (nr. Alton, Missouri, USA).

In Praise of... Twilight: 2000

Twilight: 2000 is an RPG born out of the Cold War. I was born in 1969, and the Cold War started to come into focus for me in the late 70s and early 80s – and I didn’t like it at all. The one thing that really terrified me was the threat of nuclear war. I grew up near a major air base (RNAS Yeovilton) and a principal aviation factory (Westland Helicopters), so I knew that I would be vaporised should the Cold War turn hot. Because of this, life did sometimes feel like there was a lid on it – sure, I carried on with things (going to school, playing RPGs, listening to heavy metal, watching a lot of bad straight-to-video movies, etc), but there was always this nagging sense that somewhere in the background things could get nasty very quickly. Various themes from the time fed into that sense – the Falklands War, the Soviet Army fighting in Afghanistan, the Lebanese War and various other conflicts covered by the news on TV. TV also did much to add to my fears by showing programmes such as Threads...

To this day, watching it still makes me uncomfortable. The US attempt at such scariness, The Day After, was (to my mind, then and now) somehow watered down and almost more like sci-fi. British TV was once very good at creating gritty, stark programmes and I don’t think anyone really topped their output.

I remember reading an issue of White Dwarf at school in 1984 and seeing an advert for Twilight: 2000, deciding then and there to buy it whenever I got the chance. I liked the idea of a game where you had to try and survive after World War III. As with my recent Ebay trawling for Car Wars, I’ve just gotten my hands on a pretty decent copy of Twilight: 2000...

I've included the FFE compendium (top right) as I'm a completist. Note the original game dice.

If you’re not familiar with the game’s back story, there’s an overview here. What follows is an overview of the 1^st Edition rules that I’ve played the most – I’ll state here and now that this version does a better job than later reworks. Over the years I’ve read various articles slating it as both a game and a system. Some think that nowadays the game seems ‘unrealistic’ (and this is coming from people who probably don’t use the same critiques for D&D etc), because the world it creates no longer seems plausible. Others think that the system is clunky. I don’t share the view of either point. Firstly, I don’t think people are really judging the game for its ‘What if...?’ value. Like all RPGs, the game works from a certain premise. Sure, real world events overtook the premise of Twilight: 2000, but that doesn’t make it defunct. You could still play it for the story it’s trying to tell. Nowadays, it’s simply a fantasy that has links to certain realities.

As for the game system, one of its strengths is the way it tries to model some quite complex concepts (combat, illness, survival, radiation), and I don’t think that any other RPG has topped the way things were done in Twilight: 2000. Skills are easy enough – your character (some form of military personnel) starts with some, and you can buy others on a point for point basis. As these work around percentile values, there’s nothing difficult about it. These percentages affect the outcome of an action or event, and are modified on the basis of whether they are Easy, Average or Difficult to carry out. This covers anything from riding a horse, to making things, to firing weapons. At the same time, even high level skill values don’t make you some sort of god. Your rolls are always modified by the difficulty of the task at hand, so success isn’t necessarily a given. As the game is strongly based around its combat system, some may feel that it’s a bit complicated. On the surface, this is true – especially so of modelling the effects of rounds striking vehicles. However, some basic familiarity with it soon pays off. If anything, things can happen fast and can be resolved quickly, especially as the game seems more geared towards firefights. You just have to take various factors into account – range, whether you can fire before the other guy, etc. At the same time, combat very much has the potential to be lethal and players who understand this have to think and plan what they want to do, certain in the knowledge that resorting to combat has some stark consequences. Death is somewhat likely, and surviving with wounds isn’t a given. The environment is just as likely to finish you off as a bullet if you get things wrong.

To my mind, this forces players to be a bit more cerebral about combat. The same can’t be said for many RPGs. As I was the referee for our Twilight: 2000 sessions, it was always interesting to see my gang of players trying to figure out consequences before the fact. This was especially so because when playing other RPGs they tended to have a much more cavalier, gung-ho approach of the ‘shoot first...’ variety. On top of all of this, the world setting in the game pitched the players against odds which were never in their favour. They were, after all, trying to survive in a (probably) foreign country that had come off the worst for nuclear exchanges and many years of bloody fighting. As soldiers, no-one was telling them what they should do – the last radio message from their HQ was ‘Good luck. You’re on your own, now’. The game, sensibly, provides no moral compass for what they should do. Because of such factors, it was a challenge to play and referee as an RPG.

We played Twilight: 2000 a great deal. As it was a GDW game, it was strongly supported by reference material and scenarios and these did much to add flavour to the experience. My guys managed to survive quite well over the years. Most of them were from the US infantry (i.e. Rasche, a giant Yiddish-speaking Spec 4, and Markowitz the medic), although we had one or two Warsaw Pact deserters - all being led, in a way, by a British combat engineer. Nomadic for most of the time, they teamed up for a while with a NATO-friendly Polish commander who was trying to rebuild his area of control. They finally managed to rejoin a more organised NATO force, only to then be moved to the Middle East in an effort to secure Iranian oil fields...

I decided to get the FFE compendium of the 1^st Edition stuff because it seems to have some interesting extras (i.e. details of the games sales figures, various scenarios) and it’s handy for me to have everything bundled together. At the same time, it’s great to have the actual 1984 issue of the game back in my hands again. It’s actual approach to the subject (and I think this was lost in later editions) is sobre and measured. This is particularly true of the interior artwork, as there’s no attempt at going for clichéd approaches to the subject matter. One other factor of note is that it features women on the box cover who aren’t in silly poses and are depicted as sensibly as the male figures.

Could it still be played today as an RPG? Well, you may have to explain the Cold War to players born after 1990 – or research it yourself if the same time-frame applies to you. Even if you narrow your approach to the way things were in the 1980s, taking some time to research the period would pay off. To be honest, if you’re more familiar with the idea of ‘The War on Terror’, the idea of the Cold War isn’t all that different – it could be said that the latter is just not as nebulous and as open to interpretation as the former. It would also be possible to abandon the idea of playing in the post-apocalyptic world of the original game and instead use the rules to play in some other setting. There are conflicts, old and new, in which the game system would still work.

One thing to always bear in mind, however, is that is first and foremost a game about survival...