Ectozone :: Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative

I loved this story a lot, and not for the part that got Fritz "flamed and accused of writing porn".

The story is great and epic and well written, and the combat part - something that woulda looked cool in a cartoon, especially if combined with the original RGB score by Shuki Levy - is breathtaking.

On an unrelated note - I also love how the story starts with an almost random ghostbusting scene unrelated to the main plot. Reminds me of a few classic RGB episodes (The Boogeyman Cometh and Cry Uncle are the first that sprung to mind) that had the same thing.

By the way - I remember being surprised at seeing a character named Fallagar in the story, as one "Falagar" is a "Warlock" hero in one of my favourite games, Heroes of Might and Magic II (from 1996).

Rover wrote:

I loved this story a lot, and not for the part that got Fritz "flamed and accused of writing porn".

The story is great and epic and well written, and the combat part - something that woulda looked cool in a cartoon, especially if combined with the original RGB score by Shuki Levy - is breathtaking.

Levy's score is so good that not only do I hear snippets at times while writing or reading Ghostbusters stories, I sometimes hear it when reading other stuff.

Quote:

I came up with the scene of the Ghostbusters on Letterman years ago, about the time, well, all of the jokes I made would have been current. It was kind of fun to actually use them in a story at last.

Author:	Fritz [ September 9th, 2007, 1:10 pm ]
Post subject:	Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative
Thread at the old board: http://ectozone.proboards31.com/index.c ... 1090364919 Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative, Part One June 1991--Timeline Year Nine Something is brewing in the skies...something that draws the unease of the Prince of Warlocks and many others. As a relationship takes a fateful turn...the Imperative is beginning... Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative, Part Two The Prince of Warlocks and the Archmage of Wind try to stop the Imperative, but more avatars are chosen: including some shockingly familiar faces... Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative, Part Three The Ghostbusters and the Inquisitors come together, as the mysterious wizard Zandrik Fallagar tells them the truth about the unfolding horror. Plus one more shockingly familiar face comes into the scene... This chapter got me flamed and accused of writing porn Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative, Part Four The Ghostbusters, the Inquisitors, and Fallagar throw everything they have at the Avatars of Zodiac. But what if it's not enough? What if saving Victor, Shannon, and the entire world is beyond even their capacities? Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative, Part Five This is it. The Ghostbusters against the Zodiac Lords, without even proton packs...can they even hope to defeat these creatures? And if they do... And the wierd little epilog: Children of Zodiac; An Epilog to Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative 1991--Timeline Year Nine A circle of mysterious beings discuss the effects of the coming of the Zodiac Lords...and what it means to the future of the Ghostbusters, and their own enigmatic "Ascension"... This was me putting some guns on the wall. Some of them were fired during "Gemini Rising". But some are still sitting their, tantalyzingly loaded... Let me give you a few extra things to chew on: I don't have any belief in Astrology as a precognitive tool in Real Life (but maybe that's just my practical Taurus Sun talking ) but I do find it a fascinating subject of study. It's rich in symbolism and, if nothing else, it can certainly provoke some thought about deeper issues. Which is why I've ended up building a lot of fake mythology around it, such as the religion of ancient Atlantis (in "Chronciles of Gozer"), the Zodiac Lords in this story, and of course the still murky mystery of the Children of Zodiac. "The Zodiac Imperative" was one of my first forays into the ideas. I actually wrote the very first version of the story back in 1991 as a "this is happening now!" story with a bunch of original characters, in a more superheroic continuity. Like the Ghostbusters version, it ends up being a key event in the mythos of that continuity (in GBOT, it's one of the stories written to help "justify" the breakup of the Ghostbusters indicated by EGB) I even spun off some of the characters posessed by the Avatars into their own super team, called the Zodiac Squad, and it figures into the mystery of Lord Aries (the missing Childe of Zodiac in that continuity). Zandrik Fallagar is one of my "franchise characters", and makes his GBOT debut here. I first created him twenty years ago, as a Magic User for the very first Dungeons and Dragons campaign I ever participated in. A lot of ideas have gone into the character (and quite a few later jettisoned); the earliest version was probably way Mary Sueish. The current concept has been stripped down, and what advantages I kept aquired some unpleasant twists. (I sometimes toss the idea in my head of doing some stories of his early days, c. the turn of the Thirteenth Century, under the umbrella of Ars Magica fan fics. Maybe some day...) In his earliest adventures, he was rather foppish and at times drunk. That sillyness is still part of his character, but as even "Zodiac Imperative" makes clear it's more of an act. Doctor Who was something of an influence on his character--more than one Doctor has acted like a bumbling fool or a cheerful moron to throw his enemies off guard. Probably the hardest decision to make in this story was to kill off Phineus Eventide. I don't like killing off anybody, and Eventide being a character from the Now comics (which I think everyone here knows I have a great affection for) made it all the more difficult. But there were sacrifices in the original non-GB version of the story; and certainly, as a character I had no future plans for, and as someone who's loss would be felt not only by the Ghostbusters but by the mystic community at large (Vincent and I later defined him as, in our continuity, a Primus of one of the Houses of the Order of Hermes) I did what I felt needed to be done. (Though, hey, we are talking about a universe where death is not necessarily the end , after all...)

Author:	JECrazy [ February 12th, 2008, 2:55 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative
[quote="Fritz"] Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative, Part Three The Ghostbusters and the Inquisitors come together, as the mysterious wizard Zandrik Fallagar tells them the truth about the unfolding horror. Plus one more shockingly familiar face comes into the scene... This chapter got me flamed and accused of writing porn Oh jeez! If you copped all THAT from those few subtle scenes, I'd hate to imagine what you copped from Egon's dream scene from Nodus, Fritz. When will some people learn to grow up?!

Author:	Rover [ November 29th, 2010, 10:26 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative
I loved this story a lot, and not for the part that got Fritz "flamed and accused of writing porn". The story is great and epic and well written, and the combat part - something that woulda looked cool in a cartoon, especially if combined with the original RGB score by Shuki Levy - is breathtaking. On an unrelated note - I also love how the story starts with an almost random ghostbusting scene unrelated to the main plot. Reminds me of a few classic RGB episodes (The Boogeyman Cometh and Cry Uncle are the first that sprung to mind) that had the same thing. By the way - I remember being surprised at seeing a character named Fallagar in the story, as one "Falagar" is a "Warlock" hero in one of my favourite games, Heroes of Might and Magic II (from 1996).

Author:	Fritz [ November 30th, 2010, 1:27 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative
Rover wrote: I loved this story a lot, and not for the part that got Fritz "flamed and accused of writing porn". The story is great and epic and well written, and the combat part - something that woulda looked cool in a cartoon, especially if combined with the original RGB score by Shuki Levy - is breathtaking. Levy's score is so good that not only do I hear snippets at times while writing or reading Ghostbusters stories, I sometimes hear it when reading other stuff. Quote: On an unrelated note - I also love how the story starts with an almost random ghostbusting scene unrelated to the main plot. Reminds me of a few classic RGB episodes (The Boogeyman Cometh and Cry Uncle are the first that sprung to mind) that had the same thing. I came up with the scene of the Ghostbusters on Letterman years ago, about the time, well, all of the jokes I made would have been current. It was kind of fun to actually use them in a story at last. Quote: By the way - I remember being surprised at seeing a character named Fallagar in the story, as one "Falagar" is a "Warlock" hero in one of my favourite games, Heroes of Might and Magic II (from 1996). Hm...I created the guy in 1987, so it's probably just coincidence.

Author:	Rover [ December 1st, 2010, 3:19 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Ghostbusters: The Zodiac Imperative
Fritz wrote: Rover wrote: I loved this story a lot, and not for the part that got Fritz "flamed and accused of writing porn". The story is great and epic and well written, and the combat part - something that woulda looked cool in a cartoon, especially if combined with the original RGB score by Shuki Levy - is breathtaking. Levy's score is so good that not only do I hear snippets at times while writing or reading Ghostbusters stories, I sometimes hear it when reading other stuff. As do I, especially with TZI. I could have given you the whole layout complete with timings if you had asked. Quote: Quote: On an unrelated note - I also love how the story starts with an almost random ghostbusting scene unrelated to the main plot. Reminds me of a few classic RGB episodes (The Boogeyman Cometh and Cry Uncle are the first that sprung to mind) that had the same thing. I came up with the scene of the Ghostbusters on Letterman years ago, about the time, well, all of the jokes I made would have been current. It was kind of fun to actually use them in a story at last. But that's what I find so cool about it - gives you the immersion into the story and the time it happens; after all it's not some temporal limbo, it is set somewhere... I kind of think of that "NO CONTRAS AID" graffiti seen in one RGB episode as another, though much more subtle, example.

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