Er ... no, not always. Mutants can be criminal scum too. And the SD's that hunt them aren't necessarily any better. You can be a mean guy with a noble streak, or just an out-and-out complete bastard if that suits you.
"Men ... if I
can call you that ... you are now Search/Destroy agents.
Don't let the fancy title fool you -
it's just another way of saying Bounty Hunter!!"
"Hunting men
like animals is a scummy job. That's why we're offering it to
scum like you.
It is also a dangerous job. Many of you will be
killed ... and that can't be bad!"
SEARCH/DESTROY
AGENTS ... THE NORMS SOON CAME TO CALL THEM
STRONTIUM
DOGS
(Portrait of a Mutant, chapter 18, 2000AD prog 220)
Uh, so what is
Strontium Dog, then?
A comic strip, originally in Starlord, later moving to
2000AD. Largely written by Judge Dredd stalwarts Alan Grant and
John Wagner (aka John Howard, T B Grover) and drawn by Dredd
co-creator Carlos Ezquerra.
So what kind
of character would you be in a SD rolegame?
A mutant, warped from birth by radioactive fallout.
You're a freak - scum - vermin - the lowest of the low.
Oh. Wow.
You're also a licensed bounty hunter carrying lots of
lethal weapons as you hunt fugitive criminal scum along the
galactic frontier. And you're a tough bastard that nobody in
their right mind wants to mess with...
Aha...
... which you need to be, because the frontier's a
pretty rough and lawless place, full of renegade hoods, pirates,
slavers and assorted rogues - all with a price on their heads!
Right. Lots of
action, then?
You betcha!
| And the mutants
are the good guys? Er ... no, not always. Mutants can be criminal scum too. And the SD's that hunt them aren't necessarily any better. You can be a mean guy with a noble streak, or just an out-and-out complete bastard if that suits you. |
|
So, how
mutated is your average Strontium Dog?
It varies. Some hardly at all, others very much so.
Johnny Alpha, the strip's focal character, had nothing more than
'alpha eyes' that could see through solid walls. Others just had
curious features - tusks, extra limbs, some rearrangement of body
parts - whilst others had animal elements. Some were very
bizarre, like Egghead - a sort of Humpty Dumpty with attitude!
That doesn't
sound terribly plausible, scientifically...
Nope, and it ain't meant to be. SD is starblazing, riproaring,
shootemup science fantasy, like Star Wars only bleaker, darker
and stripped of all the moralising twaddle.
Star Wars, eh?
Sounds a bit like a spaghetti western in outer space to me.
No, it's not a bit like that. By which I mean it's not 'a bit'
like that, it's exactly like that. Take the Dollars
Trilogy and the Sabata movies, replace the six-guns with
blasters, the horses with grav bikes, throw in starships, aliens
and other high-tech widgets, but keep the attitude, the ironic
non-sequiteurs, the casual violence and ludicrous posturing. That's
Strontium Dog!
Hmmm,
sounds good, but I like to play female characters once in
a while... Okay.
So what would a typical scenario be like? |
 |
And that's
all?
That's all?The target might be a challenge to track
down. And there might be rival SD's on his trail. Suppose your
mark is really an innocent man, a victim of prejudice (eg The
Doc Quince Case) or innocent bystanders get involved (The
Moses Incident). You could get dragged into local politics,
or find vengeful relatives putting a price on your head.
Nothing need be straightforward.
Fair enough.
But where do all these mutants come from?
Nuclear wars in the first half of the 21st Century created lots
of them. In New Britain, the bigoted fanatic Nelson Bunker
Kreelman tried to have them exterminated in death camps. A Mutant
Liberation Army fought back, forcing Kreelman's resignation from
the government and the founding of the Search/Destroy Agency.
Those mutants who remained in New Britain were herded into
ghettos, like the huge one called Milton Keynes.
So they're British
mutants?
Mainly, yes. It was a British comic strip, after all! But that
needn't stop mutants from elsewhere being a Strontium Dog. What
matters more is being distinctive, flamboyant, unmistakable. You
want a character you can ham up to the hilt and beyond. Take
Middenface McNulty with his 'mucker' slang ("Dinnae
fash, Big Yin! I'll gi'e the scunners laldy and nae
mistake!"). Or the Torso From Newcastle (aka George
Moore) - no head or neck, just one eye staring out of a bump
between his shoulders. Use outrageous accents, even more
outrageous puns, and camp it up for all it's worth.
This is
starting to sound a bit silly...
Because it is! It's a total power trip, what the feminist critics
would dismiss as 'unrestrained yet legitimised violence'. Not
unlike most roleplaying games actually, but with SD it is
integrated into the premise of the game, right from the start.
That said, there is a serious side. The strip deliberately made
most of the central characters marginalised in some way - working
class, from Real World regions blighted by economic recession.
Issues like race/class prejudice were woven into the strip
without getting analytical or propagandist. Johnny Alpha often
stood up for people who were, like him, oppressed for no good
reason - aliens, other mutants, victims of injustice.
 |
Sounds cool. Is
there an official Strontium Dog Roleplaying Game, then? No. You'll have to adapt some other system. Any fast-and-loose SF system that allows for the creation of bizarre characters will do. The Star Wars RPG is probably your best bet, since it's designed to accomodate customised aliens, though GURPS should be able to handle it. |
And where can
I find out more?
The best thing to do is read the original strip, in back issues
of 2000AD, or the reprints in Best of 2000AD Monthly. Titan Books
also reprinted some of the classic stories in big glossy book
form, and Eagle comics ran a reprint series. Can't help you in
getting hold of them, though. Sorry.
Oh. So if I
can't get them, what do I do now?
Dunno. Just go back to my roleplaying home page, I guess...
***
*Yes, Strontium Dog is the perfect SF rolegame setting - if you want to play a socially excluded freak with a licence for violence. And let's face it, you do, don't you?