Game ideas

[BigRedRod]

Maybe it's the loss of brain cells, maybe it's the lack of sunlight, but it's time for another thread!

I think most of us DMs have a few game concepts sat around gathering dust. And it'd be nice to share those grand ideas you never got around to doing anything with, or the ones that you realised would suck off goats and so wisely decided to kill. This will possibly inspire other DMs or at least give them a source of casual theft ;) And it's nice to see ideas being used

The soul-capturing one
This one could be used, I don't know...
I don't really have time to DM it with running 4 other games, I may use it should I return to the RPG deally at uni
This idea has formed a little more since I spoke with Cad this morning
Set in everyone's favorite era, that of pirates and cannons
The souls/spirits of creatures harbour ancient secrets and powers. Those with the means hunt for these souls and use them to increase their own power
As for a specific plot, there are ideas but I'll keep them quiet in case this ever happens and it's nothing concrete enough to post, just a few elements
My inspiration for this game from the Onimusha series, Castlevania : Aria of Sorrow and my love of pirates. None of those are the traditional pieces of anime that go towards a BESM game, but when I imagine it it's animated, so BESM it is ;)

The one with all the digging
The players are tresure hunters.
could work with pretty much any system
Really, this one is just very vague and empty at the moment. It would involve plenty of ancient ruins and such, possibly even stealing back artifacts from other hunters and such.
I'm assuming I'd throw in a reason, possibly like megaman legends, with something in the ruins that is needed (a power source or maybe some kind of medicine to fight back a plague. There are a few possible options)
I'm tempted to throw in high-technology under the guise of an ancient magic in this, but I'm undecided
This one will most likely not be run until I actually have a think about what it would be :). And it could well merge in to the above game idea.

The one that I think most have in the back of their heads
Like a free-form but not really
There are players
There's a DM
The DM runs the world with all it's events, however, the player would have more control about direction than in a typical game (which uses clues to provide path choices)
The "party" may not meet up often but their actions impact one another (assuming they were grand enough of scale)
The main problems with this are needing a great DM (i.e. not me) and good players (i.e. who can have their own goals, wouldn't sit around waiting, but at the same time would be open to follow the waves of events so that some kind of plot could take place)

The one with the Gods
Haven't thought about this one in ages
BESM might fit very well to run it, or maybe dX with a nice big dice-type
Inspired by Princess Mononoke (which shares a few bits and pieces with American Gods)
The players are Gods but not omnipotent beings. They're (mostly anyhow, you might get a player wanting to do something different) corporeal beings with more power than a mortal, whether it's over a particular aspect or whatever I'm not sure
Other Gods roam, they form coalitions, they force people to work for them, others encourage people to worship them.
Now I'd like technology to be a rising "evil" (ripping off the source to an extend that causes small children to cry), i.e. it is stopping the worship of the players. So it's a world where the Gods exist but people don't care so much anymore as they can do things on their own
Again, this one requires a good amount of thought, thought I haven't put in yet


The one with the seven seas
Think water world but without the bad acting and such. In fact don't think water world, it'll just make you angry...
Think earth with a much higher water level: The few regions of land are farmed extensively and protected by the owners. Usually a floating town will spring up nearby the farm-island (which allows for as much of the land as possible to be used for farming)
Most materials are salvaged from wrecks and such, with people diving into the limitless seas and pulling up whatever they can
Now, this is going to have more of an x-men on the high seas feel, as I want whatever caused the raised water-levels (people may not know) to have caused a tiny proportion of the surving population to mutate
Countries still exist, although they are just seats of corruption. Mutants are unclean and quite possibly demons, and so most will run away or kill them if they happen across one
Again it's sketchy, but I know what I want
As for the tech level, I'm not sure, clearly it will have dropped since the flooding, so I'm thinking of having it far in the future, but now much more primitive. Or possibly something like fallout. This could also merge with either (or both) of the first two ideas should I put any further thought in to this.

The one that is links to my other games
My games typically employ a selection of distant Gods. Distant due to the two Elder Gods possibly being destroyed and the rest sealed a little further than they'd like from the world of mortals. This is because in my first ever bash at running a game of D&D (back in the AD&D games) we gave up as we realised that playing for the short periods we could manage was an exercise in futility. As such I wrapped up the game with the players essentially failing and the sealing occuring.
I'd quite to like to run another game just after the players screwed up investigating the world immeditely after shit hit the fan
Although that's held back for if my old 2e kids ever get back together to play.

[Saint Alphonzo]

Legend of Zelda (BESM)

Not much interest for this one when I was looking for players, but I still am kicking it around in my head. Absolutely no Link or Zelda involvement, basically the game's just set in Hyrule. Players would be Goron, Hylian, Zora, Deku, etc.. Wanted to have a very action/puzzle-oriented game, try to capture the feel of the console games.

Giant Monster Battle Rampage Onslaught!!! (Tri-Stat dX, X=20)

Players would create giant monsters and battle for supremacy amidst the screaming population of a huge city. Watch out for the Army and lone groups of know-it-all kids! Players would probably not work together on this one, instead having an all-out rumble.

League of Ordinary Gentlemen (Tri-Stat dX, X=6)

Using Lee's (Useless) Super-Hero Name Generator (http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/herogen/), the players would be given a set of 5 random superhero names, from which they could pick one and gen their character. For example;

White Virtuoso
Dynamo Gorilla
Alien Lad
Gamma Nimbus
Brunette Crusader

Would be run very light-hearted, as the superheroes would, undoubtedly, be not-so-super. Inspiration for this one comes from "The Tick" cartoon and the "Mystery Men" comic and movie.

[Dust]

Originally posted by BigRedRod
The one with the Gods...

I've thought about this kind of thing a lot myself, where the players might not be full on gods but perhaps the children of gods (paragon template, no aging).

I always wanted to play a Highlander RPG with those kind of rules. The only problem... there can be only one! All the PCs would have to kill each other eventually... Mmmm... :evil:

[SponkleofInfini]

I like the idea of a gods one...with players nto being to work with each other at leats from the beginning. I like an idea Cad was telling me about awhile ago about a reputation like stat for BESM, this could be used to gain followers etc.

I want Cad to either run his iea which was similar but not god like entities....or someone to run something like in the BESM system ;)

[Cadogan Trahem]

Here is your Map, Here is your Adventure Kit. Have fun!

A huge fantasy world created, the adventures set, but whats the tale? YOU TELL ME! I was thinking about making a game based around the idea that the players actually choose their own adventure/destiny type thing. So you heard rumours about a group of bandits are attacking caravans in a secluded path. Do you volunteer for a caravan guard and help the merchants reach the shining city beyond? Or do you set out to join your brother of blades in the pilliging? Its up to you.

(the downside is it requires alot of work)

[LeeCHeSSS]

How about some Call of Cthulhu with MORE than 2 players?

[Spoon]

Hey cads has 3 players, although if you want me to kill itches character i will. Infact i'll throw in Sponkles characters execution for free.

[Cadogan Trahem]

Don't worry Danny, we're nearing the end of the first "adventure" so you can be prepared to join in on the second one.

[Saint Alphonzo]

And on a more serious note;

Vampire Intrigue (Vampire: the Masquerade)

Called for players for this one, too, with little success. Characters are considerably powerful Sabbat Kindred, sent to infiltrate a Camarilla-held city. Modern-day, lots of intrigue. And with the preset limitation of having to be able to function in "polite Kindred society", hopefully we'd avoid all the pitfalls of trying to run a pack of bloodthirsty, hell-bent miscreants. My Sabbat games in the past have pretty much turned into Diablerie contests and Demon summoning parties.

Follow that Artifact! (Call of Cthulhu d20)

Yes, a d20 game! I'm not totally opposed, you know. This one is, basically, a series of short games, spanning thousands of years, following a specific artifact with dubious properties. Each episode would have some tie in with the artifact in question, but not necessarily focus on it. Of course, different characters would be used for the different episodes, so that might turn some players away.

Big Dungeon, Small Torches (BESM)

Dungeon crawl, pure and simple, using the BESM system.

Most Dangerous Game (Tri-Stat dX, X=8)

A wealthy eccentic lures the characters to a secret locale with the sole purpose of hunting them down as trophies. But the locale has a deadly secret that neither the hunter, nor the hunted, know about. Can the hunted turn this to their advantage, or get swept up in the carnage that ensues?

[SponkleofInfini]

Follow the artifact sounds alot like Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem ;)

[BigRedRod]

Big Dungeon, Small Torches (BESM)

Dungeon crawl, pure and simple, using the BESM system.

I couldn't think of a less suited system ;)
but I am looking forward to BESM : Dungeon
so if you do run this I could be interested


Most Dangerous Game (Tri-Stat dX, X=8)

A wealthy eccentic lures the characters to a secret locale with the sole purpose of hunting them down as trophies. But the locale has a deadly secret that neither the hunter, nor the hunted, know about. Can the hunted turn this to their advantage, or get swept up in the carnage that ensues

sounds good
I need to use my tri-stat to learn it
so again I could be interested :)

[BigRedRod]

Follow the artifact sounds alot like Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
I thought that
then I noriced that game rocked
shame i'm not really a fan of coc

[Saint Alphonzo]

huh, never heard of Eternal Darkness before now, but it sounds very similar to the premise i set forth. the reason for CoC is threefold. first, the Cthulhu Mythos provided the initial ideas for the artifact and the various plots of the episodes. lot of work already done for me. second, the "everyman" background built into character creation is kinda what i'm going for. people who get swept up in the wake of this... thing. third, the Sanity rules are better, IMO, than the variant in BESM. also a big facet of the initial design work.

Rod, is it the inherent difficulty of incorporating "treasure" into a BESM game that turns you off from the dungeon crawl idea? 'cause i think i got a way around that.

so, nobody seems to want light-hearted games, like the three i mentioned earlier. or is it just the concepts of those three games that are undesirable?

[BigRedRod]

Yeah, treeasure doesn't work with BESM
unless you just force it
or what I've heard suggested in the past (give out an IoP pool, which kinda represents going tot own and selling what you find and buying magic)
But if you have a way , then super :)


As for the first three

I hate link with a passion
I want the people that made Ocarina of time and the following games killed. Despite how everyone loved them, I hated them
So I'm far too bitter for anything related

As for the giant monsters, I can't see it panning out
so we destroy a few cities, and then kill one another. It'd all be over so fast

I like super heroes
I like the idea of basing ourselves off names
tick was funny, but it's a shade too silly for me :)
I could try
but I seem to have this reptuation for being a grumpy old man, and it may not be too undeserved :fun:

[Saint Alphonzo]

Re: Zelda

a valid complaint, really. i hate the Forgotten Realms, and will not play in a game set there. i won't even consider a game where the stuff (Prestige classes, magic items, spells, etc.) from the Realms is available no questions asked. If the DM stipulates that some things may be used, with his/her approval, that's fine.

Re: Giant Firebreathing Monsters

the initial seed for this idea came from thinking about how to run a TriStat game with 20 as the die. what could the characters possibly be, that they'd be so above the normal human average? two things came to mind immediately, demigods, or giant Tokyo-devouring monsters. It would be a short game, granted, and expected.

Re: Not-So-Super-Heroes

embrace your silly nature, nurture it, and it will grow. besides, you're a pirate, what could be more silly? :P

[BigRedRod]

i won't even consider a game where the stuff (Prestige classes, magic items, spells, etc.) from the Realms is available no questions asked.
*cough*
not like my games
not at all
*cough*
:)


And, I am not a silly pirate
I'm a very serious one
I may make you walk the plank for that comment :)

[SponkleofInfini]

I hated the zelda games aswell...don't understand what was so good about them. However a BESM version might be better, which is why I was up for it the first time Saint brought it to the attention of the boards.

The super heroes games sounds good, I would be especially up for that particular game :)

I myself have been thinking about making a game based around the card game Magic. However as to the specifics of game mechanics I am not completely certain yet. However keep an eye out I might post some stuff soon.

[BigRedRod]

I myself have been thinking about making a game based around the card game Magic. However as to the specifics of game mechanics I am not completely certain yet. However keep an eye out I might post some stuff soon.

about he card game? the plot behind the game? or just inspired by reading the little quotes on the cards and looking at the pictures?

[Aka-Chan]

As for the giant monsters, I can't see it panning out

Dude...don't you know anything about Tokyo??? They have The. Best. Restructurization. Program EVER. I mean, it can be totally leveled, and it'd be rebuilt with the people going about their lives the next day. Another famous place like that is the City of Townsville. LoL

As long as you stick to "big monster movie" reality, there's no reason a giant monster game shouldn't work. >^_^<

[SponkleofInfini]

It will not be based on magic's storyline, infact quiet far from it. However I am still thinking over a few possible storylines I could use for it.

It will probably end up being something along the lines of Yu-Gi-oh/Cardcaptor Sakura in style.

[BigRedRod]

The Guild
Another one that clearly jumps out and says "D&D is the system for me!"
The players will begin as low-level players (say 3rd) who have come across a nice piece of property in a large town surrounded by adventure (the aquisition of this propety may or may not be part of the actual game, depending on the players I suppose)
Essentially it would be set in the generic D&D world I try and avoid. The one with dungeons everywhere, roving monsters, and adventurer as a profession.
Rather than sell the building and use the cash to buy bigger weapons the group decide to set up a "guild" ... and they're off.

Essentially revolves around securing jobs, contacts, recruiting/screening applicants, sending them off on adventures. And of course the characters' of the players themselves would be encouraged to lead their recruits on these missions.

The idea is that it would be much more loose than most games, so that if one player decides to play a kingpin type crime lord who doesn't get this hands dirty he can sit in his secret base and control the city.

Very fuzzy, but I can see potential in it.

[SponkleofInfini]

That sounds cool :)

[BigRedRod]

Originally posted by SponkleofInfini
That sounds cool :)

my main problems are time synch
which I think I should be able to get round with planning

although I think it could be a game which if it was gonna run would need a co-DM, or "little-bitch" as I like to have them known :)

LB would handle some of the missions, provide creative input etc. etc.
meaning that the game should be able to be controlled when it goes from all the players sorting out the guild with one band of NPC members investigating the runes in the sewer system, to two of the players out on seperate missions, oe trying to get an alliance with the premier mage guild and three other NPC bands doing missions, while something is invading the guild hall

I'm glad to see someone agrees with it being a good idea
I may start fleshing it out

[itches]

although I think it could be a game which if it was gonna run would need a co-DM, or "little-bitch" as I like to have them known

Ah, I thought I heard my name being said :)

[stealthbanana]

Saints "Find the Artifact" idea sounds alot like Soul Calibur! Throughout history, watch the little humans get screwed over and over again by a stupid sword!

Although i like that idea :P.

[The Alcotroll]

I had an idea. Why red, by the way?

Anyway, I had an idea based on a book called Fallen Dragon, by some bloke called Peter Hamilton. The characters are veteran mercenaries, part of a larger mercenary army maintained and fielded by a merchant state which has several splinter colonies and trade-cities. The mercs are sent as enforcers on 'Asset Realisation Missions', siezing valuable goods and trade profits and transporting it back to their masters; simple piracy in fact, but on a national scale.
Jaded, cynical and disillusioned with their rather ignoble role and the reckless profiteering of the Merchant Princes and their incompetent, corporate officers, one squad (the characters) line up a little Asset Realisation Mission of their own...

[Cadrius]

Originally posted by Saint Alphonzo
League of Ordinary Gentlemen (Tri-Stat dX, X=6)


That's probably the best out of the bunch.

[elpresidente]

after some poking from BRR to finally do this i shall recite the ideas i can remember off hand. (their all written down somewhere in paper trails around the house. What helps is the fact that im not in the house.).


AD&D 3.5
That one where people ride reptiles
I More design worlds than adventures but this one entails some of the worlds more elite orders riding dragons to war, With all the elves dead (or are they?) and a particuarly land hungry set of empires with differing ideals and their eyes set on one particular land mass. Being the one with the demons waging constant eternal war on each other (and everyone else) and the city of the heavens etc. Theres more but a) i can't remember b) the stuff i can would give things away if i ever was to do it.

The one after the apocalypse
The ancients ruled the world and were masters of all then they blew eachother all to hell. Set in a post nuclear apocalyptic world where the new races have risen and seek the endless knowledge of their ancient gods. Tho Humanity and the dwarves have found much, they obviously haven't found quite as much as the goblin legions comming from under that strange looking mountain with funny metal sticks with AK-47 written on the side that make thunder of the gods.

The one where the living are second class citizens
The one where the living are ruled by their undead masters and live to die and have their bodies become the clay for the eternal empress to sculpt her Immortal warriors. (lots more ideas for this one but i can see huge ndead empire being prominent, especially with the city made from the dead of it's enemies and the endless fields where live is ended to feed the supply of undead flesh for the Empresses war factories to turn into big ass bone robots).

D20 modern
That necromunda RPG
If any of you hve ever played gamesworkshops game necromunda I essentially wanted to do an RPG based around that universe, the adventurers being a gang trying to survive in the underhive or industrial waste, always aiming for fame, fortune, that cool looking gun and a meal that doesn't involve Giant mutated Rat in the recipie.

There are many other game but their hidding somewhere, tho they may be casualties of alkyhol :)

[The Alcotroll]

Go Necromunda.

[elpresidente]

One day when i can afford books.

[BigRedRod]

Yes afford...

On a related note D&D no longer carries an A
I think they calling things "advanced" died out in the 80's (anyone remember Advanced Heroquest? No? Thought as much)

[Zae]

*reads the Necromunda idea*
Actually... there's a little system called "Geneseed" that it could work for. Geneseed being a D20 system set in the WH40K Universe, designed by DWARF (Dandenong Wargamers And Roleplayers Federation), Victoria (watch me plug the club I'm in). They're actually going to release it for sale, they just need to dig up $40K (I see the humour here) to pay GW. I have a copy of the rules right here though ^_^

That could really work for Necromunda. And more importantly, what is wrong with giant mutated rat?

I was thinking of running a CoC game based on Eternal Darkness, ever since I played it. Of course, I was half-tempted to run it as Pokethulhu, thus removing that "seriousness" thing people talk about.

Or here's an idea. Ever seen those Living games by the RPGA? The D&D ones where people don't understand the concept of roleplaying without masses of dice? (Ok, that's a generalisation, I don't care.) Well, a new game... "Living Life". It's basically the Sims as a game.

Just me clearing my head of ideas for the day.

[The Alcotroll]

I saw a Discworld RPG in a shop the other day. Any fanciers before I spend my hard-earned?

[SponkleofInfini]

I had thought about a CoC game based around Eternal Darkness, soon realised if I were to do something like that I wouldn't do the story justice and moved away as fast as the Ancients could whip me ;)

[The Hive Custodian]

Here's a campaign idea I came up with, meant for a traditional D&D or similar setting. It could go well with this forum's title theme:

Undead Freedom Fighters

The world of the living is a totalitarian dystopia ruled by enchanters (wizards of the school of Enchantment) and has been this way for generations. The enchanters hold power through a mixture of propaganda, intimidation, and enchantment of key individuals when necessary. This power structure is so effective that outside forces stand the best chance of defeating it. Enter the undead. Being immune for the most part to enchantments and largely separate from the society of the living, the undead have remained outside the tyranny of the enchanters. Many undead have banded together to form a clandestine organization dedicated to bringing about the downfall of the enchanter regime, ranging from power-hungry liches, to ghostly protectors sworn to protect some people or another, to any other type of undead that might be imagined. Needless to say, they have a difficult task ahead of them. Although they are immune to mind-affecting spells, the populace they are trying liberate is hostile to them and at the moment firmly under the control of the enchanters. But they are the undead, and they are unplacable...

[Wired*Nun]

Risen Puppet Masters

The idea is from the Risen Empire books by Westerfeld. Delicate immortals rule the empire (pick your genre - sci-fi, fantasy) because they alone are immortal. The immortal aristorcracy owes immortality to the Emperor, who elevates a few per year based on various subjective criteria. Once elevated, access to money, power, and privilege become a right. Almost everyone aspires to this status, by various achivements.

However, the immortals are very delicate. They can die, easily, by violence. Thus, assassination is an everpresent problem. If the PCs were the immortals, they would have to be the type of players that like manipulating and intrigue; they can't go on adventures. Or, more conventionally, the players could be the aspirants, vying to achieve immortality (at which point, the PC wins and is retired).

The People: No Different Flesh

PCs are members of a different breed of humans living in secret among the everyday populace. They have psychic powers, but have to hide because of the fear their presence would generate. Then, a crisis comes...(pick your crisis - alien invasion, Ghostbusters-style supernatual invasion, sciento-facist-genetic-manipulator-empire-with-supersoldiers) and they become the last, best hope for humanity.

[Benicus]

The Wayfarer's Guild

The PC's, for whatever reason, come to belong to a guild of guides and informants known as the Wayfarer's in one of the major cities of a nation. Soon after a misadventure or two the Wayfarers are called by the Grand Lord of the Nation to guide him and his enterouge (sp?) through a deep dark jungle to a forbidden temple to rescue his estranged half-brother who has gone mad. The PC's travel through traps, cannibal villages and hordes of monsters and dinosaurs to discover something ominous and deplorable about the mage-brother and their host ends up betraying them and leaving them for dead. Can they survive the trip home?

Thought of this but haven't had the time or inclination to flesh it out more. Might be fun but my groups seem to much the hack'n'slash type to go for a campaign where your guides and musn't kill everything in sight. Plus...being guides doesn't seem all that fun unless you make every mission a guide through hostile territory. But in a D&D world that might actually happen. Meh.

[BigRedRod]

Two more have been on my mind as of late

Immortals
A combination of things led to this idea:
1) I'm playing Lost Oddyessy now that my xbox is in the "can be used for games" section of the its breaking cycle
2) I always have a problem with injury systems in RPGs

So what I came up with here was an attempt to work with the latter using the former and setting it in roughly the present day (maybe). This is more of a concept than an idea, as none of the specifics of the setting exist. Immortals have sudden shown up, some claim to have exists for aeons, others don't. Such things would of course be the topic of the game. One group of immortals would be the players, possibly escaping from captivity (as if you can't kill it, you may as well lock it away for all eternity).

The key point is that I think the idea of immortal PCs works really well with the D&D 4e ruleset. As the players can be shot, stabbed and exploded but if you give them ten minutes they can be back on their feet and ready to fight. The badguys follow slightly different rules, which is actually good, as you can just apply injuries as you see fit to any non-immortal recurring villain.

I've a few plot ideas buzzing around, but I want to keep them under my hat, but I wanted to post this as I think it's good to look at using systems in slightly different ways.

Brave New Mars
This was kind of the proto-idea which eventually became DK (http://online-roleplaying.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1492). It has changed so significantly that I feel I may as well explain where I was originally coming from.

Having read the Mars trilogy I was in the mood for some kind of game about colonising a new world. Like Mars! Or some other more distant planet. Earth is about to explode for some reason so a number of arks are built each containing a few thousand people and they are shot off toward neighbouring stars in the hope that some of them manage to find planets which can support life so that the human race will not die out. The stars were all supposed to be unexplored, and manned missions have never before left the solar system due to time constraints. But this time, blam, into suspended animation and away to be woken up when the computer finds something it thinks it can work with.

The players are upon one such ark, and they'd get to choose the loadout of their ship (in terms of the rest of the citizens aboard and the equipment). I couldn't think of a justification of this, and it was what led to me giving up on the idea as I wanted there to be two sides to the game - personal roleplaying and impersonal colonisation. Perhaps I could have toned down the latter and had aeverything driven by the former. Or just make them leaders of some kind from the off.

Anyhow, the idea was that they would find a planet with lots of handy ice and start terraforming. And they would quickly discover they were not the first people to set foot on the planet. Queue a conspiracy theory type game, featuring secret governments, megacorps, AIs and possibly aliens.

It sounded fun to me anyhow.

[Linklegacy77]

I'm playing through Lost Odyssey right now. Would it work the same way that you don't lose unless the whole party is down for the count at the same time?

[BigRedRod]

I don't think there is even any need to include something as arbitrary as that. The limits of immortality would be explored in the course of the game, but I think most of the time "dying" would just slow you down (being stripped of your possessions and left for dead at the roadside for example if you were just being mugged allowing the party to get back moving within a few hours, just sans equipment, or waking up chained to a cave wall if they suspected you might be an immortal, which could add years to the proceedings.).

[Cadrius]

Brave New Mars seems ideal for a small, but colorful cast. If each colony is roughly a few thousand people it would put a very interesting dynamic on the individual.

The Immortals game seems ripe for a bunch of assholes. I'm not using that as a derogatory. If you can't die, why wouldn't you shoot your mouth off to that big guy behind the bar? It would certainly allow an interesting perspective on what life is.

[BigRedRod]

Both are very true, in fact it might be better for Brave New Mars to be the kind of freeform that has no DM. The main worry is that there would be too much of the players being separate and just doing their own thing, so maybe everybody could play a character and whatever "NPCs" are needed for scenes they don't feature in.

As per usual when you think about how to do these things it starts to crumble.

[Linklegacy77]

Hmmm, with regards to the immortals, it might be a good idea to mix in some mortals (probably NPC's) so that 'dying' has permament consequences of some kind.

[BigRedRod]

I don't think it would be necessary to always have a mortal tagging along, there are permanent consequences, it just isn't the end. Part of the point is that it changes one of the fundamental game dynamics. Getting knocked off a cliff during combat produces an extra challenge rather than the need to roll a new character, getting killed by somebody who is aware of the party's immortality could lead to them being encased in concrete and dropped into the ocean depths (which is more or less a TPK).

Turning the game into the constant babysitting of a mortal would be self-sabotaging. If your players have powers it is best to allow them to use them without them being the solution to all problems, rather than just finding a method of rendering the power mostly impotent.

[Cadrius]

Turning the game into the constant babysitting of a mortal would be self-sabotaging. If your players have powers it is best to allow them to use them without them being the solution to all problems, rather than just finding a method of rendering the power mostly impotent.

I agree with this.

Both are very true, in fact it might be better for Brave New Mars to be the kind of freeform that has no DM. The main worry is that there would be too much of the players being separate and just doing their own thing, so maybe everybody could play a character and whatever "NPCs" are needed for scenes they don't feature in.

As per usual when you think about how to do these things it starts to crumble.

I disagree with this. While I think either could be done in freeform, I think BNM could also flourish under the eye of a GM who loves attention to detail. As I said, if there are only a few thousand people in a colony each individual matters a great deal more. Death and life takes on an even higher significance.

You could introduce all sorts of fun elements for personas that are used to a global society and are thrown into something much more intimate and much less structured.

In my mind's eye I see the technology level being not too far along beyond ours. If you wanted to up that a bit then the dynamic would change.

I think the game would be less challenge-focused. There aren't any monsters to fight (not in my mind anyway). The game is about personalities and survival. You could devise a number of interesting scenarios when there are food shortages or equipment starts to malfunction and the order within the tiny colony begins to break down.

[BigRedRod]

Cadrius, put down whatever it is you are doing. Walk to a bookshop. Buy Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Read it. It's the first book in the Mars trilogy and it is what started this game idea swirling around my head and it is exactly what you describe.

The problem is that I can't think of a way of translating it to mechanics. It would have to be more like a boardgame in some respects (something I'm sure I've rambled on about before).

[Benicus]

Use d20^ yo.

[BigRedRod]

How? If I was just torn about the size of dice to use then I would not be having problems.

[LeadPal]

I haven't read Red Mars, but if it's as interesting as the game idea it inspired...The players are upon one such ark, and they'd get to choose the loadout of their ship (in terms of the rest of the citizens aboard and the equipment). I couldn't think of a justification of this, and it was what led to me giving up on the idea as I wanted there to be two sides to the game - personal roleplaying and impersonal colonisation.Have a long pre-game discussion about what the nature of the ship: cultural mix, major families, important persons, machinery onboard, whatever might matter. Everyone works together to create the ship.

When the game begins, all of the information that is stated outright in the opening posts become canon. Information that hasn't come into play, however, is "imaginary canon", potentially subject to re-negotiation later on. That way, regardless of how thoroughly the ship is detailed, there's room for modification in case players change or the game has a shift in focus.

This should work with or without a DM.

Perhaps I could have toned down the latter and had everything driven by the former. Or just make them leaders of some kind from the off.Perhaps the PCs could run across multiple generations. Each chapter focuses on a different turning point in the history of the colony; between every chapter is at least ten years, sometimes more. The PCs are always the major heroes (or villains) of whatever conflict happens to be the subject of the current chapter. The players have the choice of either creating a new character for the new chapter, or of aging their current character to match, until they die of old age after being run through enough chapters.

This keeps the focus on the stars of the story, while still allowing the players to shape the growth of the colony. As a bonus, it also accomodates player turnover nicely, since no character needs to exist outside a single chapter.

[Cadrius]

Red Mars. Seems vaguely familiar.

Perhaps the PCs could run across multiple generations.

A generational switch every couple chapters would make for a different change of pace. It would also allow the game to grow from a gritty quest for survival, to colonization, to a new global order, to whatever else you want (space opera, etc).

I imagine some players would get a kick out of playing descendants of the first colonists and being able have throwback conversations with mom or grandpa.

It'd be quite an undertaking, to be sure, but I think it would be a fascinating way to approach the game.

In terms of mechanics, well, I can't help you there. I've never been terribly good with rules. I imagine there are some more open-ended systems that could help*.


*Gral, this is your cue to plug FATE.

[Gralhruk]

FATE is perfect for this sort of thing!*

*Disclaimer: I've never actually played FATE or the kind of game you describe, although really that does nothing to alter my opinion.

[-J-]

If you're looking for game mechanics that can scale effectively from a personal scale to a superhuman scale I'd check out Hero.

[Bad Luck Charm]

I was once thinking of trying a game where your goal is to take over the world before the other players do. Each player starts off as a high level character with a good supply of resources/money/whatever, and has to use it to grow an empire to take over the world.

[Cadrius]

No Rest

The premise: There are no superheroes here. There are but men and women who don masks to fight the grit and filth of humanity. Their villains don't wear costumes, they run drug cartels and prostitution rings. There is no Man of Steel, only a man with a kevlar vest and a hole inside of him that is only filled for a brief moment when his fist shatters the jaw of a pedophile.

The Measurables: The level of heroism involved would be intimate. No one is saving the world. They're saving lives, and ruining others. Few, if any, have actual powers beyond their wits, athleticism, and whatever technology they can get their hands on.

This isn't the set of the Punisher, but it does ask a question: Can heroes kill? How many can die at their hands?

The point of the game is to explore why a human being would do this. And does staring into the abyss really cause it to stare back into you?

[Shoelip]

Also that quote about fighting monsters and becoming one. Don't forget that one!

Sounds cool though. I'd want to give it a try. I like playing the hero in a dark world. Makes you feel like you're actually doing something heroic instead of breaking into people's homes and murdering them to take their stuff just because they're reptilian and live in a filthy cave.

[Shoelip]

Arx Fatalis Rip off

The sun is dead. The surface is a barren frozen waste, lit only by the light of distant stars, but life continues. When astronomers realized that the world's sun was dying a great project was undertaken. The peoples of the world banded together in their moment of need, and the great cities were each moved underground into the abandoned mines of the Dwarves. Now the only contact between the great fortresses is made by the Guild of Travelers, men and women who have undertaken strange magical treatments to allow them to survive in the frozen wastes. You were born in one such fortress city, many years after the darkness began. You do not remember the sun, neither did your parents. Few alive today do.

Most of, if not the entirety of this game would take place underground. Though it's possible that there could be some surface travel, there really isn't much left up there besides ice, and perhaps some ruins. It isn't a good idea to wander too much though. I guess this is more of a setting idea than an actual idea for a game to play. Mostly it would be about exploring the fortress and interacting with it's denezens. The old rivalries that were cast aside for the sake of survival have slowly returned as their reason for existence slowly fades from memory. The fortress is a perilous place outside of the city, and even inside there is danger to be found.

The 80s Style Slasher flick rip off

You're a dimwitted photogenic teenager and so are your friends. You're all in an isolated area, fairly far from civilisation. You and your friends procede to do what any typical group of dimwitted photogenic teenagers from an 80s slasher flick would do in this situation, only you are being watched... and for some stupid reason you forgot your cellphone!

The game would be about the PCs' and friendly NPCs' feeble attempts at survival in the face of a pair of horrible foes, specifically, their own stupidity, and the crazy masked man in the wilderness who wants to chase them naked through the woods with a machete, or skewer them while skinny dipping, - or well, you get the idea. Characters would still have skills and stats and whatnot, but XP would be awarded mainly for roleplaying and survival. The goal of course would be to defeat the killer, and save as many of your friends as possible. I'm thinking players would create multiple characters who would then be the NPCs while they chose one to play. They could then take over another one if their PC died or was otherwise rendered unplayable. Don't forget you're a drug addled nymphomaniac though!

[Shoelip]

I don't think it would be necessary to always have a mortal tagging along, there are permanent consequences, it just isn't the end. Part of the point is that it changes one of the fundamental game dynamics. Getting knocked off a cliff during combat produces an extra challenge rather than the need to roll a new character, getting killed by somebody who is aware of the party's immortality could lead to them being encased in concrete and dropped into the ocean depths (which is more or less a TPK).

Turning the game into the constant babysitting of a mortal would be self-sabotaging. If your players have powers it is best to allow them to use them without them being the solution to all problems, rather than just finding a method of rendering the power mostly impotent.


"What can change the nature of a man?" :fun:

I really like this game concept! I wanna play!

[Benicus]

No Rest

The premise: There are no superheroes here. There are but men and women who don masks to fight the grit and filth of humanity. Their villains don't wear costumes, they run drug cartels and prostitution rings. There is no Man of Steel, only a man with a kevlar vest and a hole inside of him that is only filled for a brief moment when his fist shatters the jaw of a pedophile.

The Measurables: The level of heroism involved would be intimate. No one is saving the world. They're saving lives, and ruining others. Few, if any, have actual powers beyond their wits, athleticism, and whatever technology they can get their hands on.

This isn't the set of the Punisher, but it does ask a question: Can heroes kill? How many can die at their hands?

The point of the game is to explore why a human being would do this. And does staring into the abyss really cause it to stare back into you?

Would play in this.

[Shoelip]

I'd really like to see some thoughts on my game ideas if anyone has any.

[hedgeknight]

I like the Arx Fatalis rip off, Shoelip.
Reminds me of one of my favorite comic book mini-series, Winterworld (Epic Comics...I think). I've often thought of that type of campaign too. Could start out simple with the players hunting for food in a cavern and discovering lost lore that would lead them to explore the surface for perhaps a "pocket of sunshine", preserved by some means in case of such a cataclysm.
Good work.

[Palanthias]

The one with "the COMPUTER is your friend".

I played this game called Paranoia in the late 80's and I loved it. I saw the posts where someone was going to start up a session. I was a player and kept dying so I never reached a very high clearance. If someone has the rules I would love to get into another one of these. It is mostly based on rules you are not allowed to know untill you go up in level/clearance. You are constantly kept in the dark. If you do learn something then if you are killed or you fall in clearance then you're character has to act like they only know the stuff from their clearance or they will get punished by either other characters or the computer. Its both intriguing and hilarious.

The be yourself game.
The premise is there is a Ravenloft like teleport event that sends a character that is an honest assessment of yourself into the D&D world. Remember the D&D cartoon. I tried it once in bootcamp with d6 made of towlette paper. Despite the make shift dice and improvised rule set it was quite enjoyable.

[Mercutio]

The be yourself game.
The premise is there is a Ravenloft like teleport event that sends a character that is an honest assessment of yourself into the D&D world. Remember the D&D cartoon. I tried it once in bootcamp with d6 made of towlette paper. Despite the make shift dice and improvised rule set it was quite enjoyable.
I did this once in high school in 2E rules. We went to the gym and did presses, lifts, etc, ran speed and long distance, took IQ tests based on the idea that each point in INT was IQ/10, etc. It was actually a lot of fun.

[Shoelip]

Wow P. You really like dying in games don't you?

Paranoia, or as I call it, "the game where you make new characters."

It would be kind of entertaining to play a D&D game with a character that was yourself, but it unless you started out in a safe place and were given some sort of magical enhancement the first combat encounter would likely be a TPK, not to mention that some folks in reality are pacifists...

[Palanthias]

I think it made the whole experience a little more thrilling. A kobold seemed much more of a threat. The 3 players made quick work of it with the clubs they made from the supports from the barracks bunk beds that teleported with them. The real advantage was the modern knowledge put to use in the fantasy world. I stand by this game idea. I am looking forward to using it in a futuristic setting.

[Shoelip]

I meant average civilian gamers, soldiers have a distinct advantage in a D&D setting compared to most nerds.

[Tashalar]

Haha, Shoelip is right. If you've got weapons training and survival skills, you're much better off than a WoW survivalist. :roll:

[Bad Luck Charm]

The one with "the COMPUTER is your friend".

I played this game called Paranoia in the late 80's and I loved it. I saw the posts where someone was going to start up a session. I was a player and kept dying so I never reached a very high clearance. If someone has the rules I would love to get into another one of these. It is mostly based on rules you are not allowed to know untill you go up in level/clearance. You are constantly kept in the dark. If you do learn something then if you are killed or you fall in clearance then you're character has to act like they only know the stuff from their clearance or they will get punished by either other characters or the computer. Its both intriguing and hilarious.


They released a new version in 2003. There's also several source books and such available now, including one sourcebook for each clearance level, and various other items of interest. The new version has psychic abilities (and since a psychic is a Communist you have to kill any party members on sight that are psychics, but they add a very interesting flare to the gameplay).

It's a very messed up system, but very entertaining. I don't think I could see myself playing in a campaign, but a single game session one night would be a lot of fun.

"The Computer is Your Friend"

[Palanthias]

Ahh... but here is where inside knowledge is key. Soldiers are just people too. The same primal fears and inadequacies as everyone else. And many are nerds. You would be amazed how many are afraid of spiders. Runaway squealing like a little girl afraid. So when asked to truely imagine a 4 foot, dogfaced, snarling and shrieking lizard person jabbing a 24 inch rusty blade at you. Things take a different tone than Bob the Barbarian chops the little creature with his greataxe. I think it was one of my most memorable and exciting D&D experiences.

[Shoelip]

Ok, but that applies to civilian nerds as well. Only they probably aren't strong enough to pull the legs off a bunk and use them as a bludgeon, and once they get over the initial shock of seeing a real life kobold they don't know how to fight. Also, they can't run away from it as well so they might not even have a chance to get over it at all.

[Bad Luck Charm]

Super Smash TV
The next generation reality television show! Contestants are put into a maze of traps, foes, and treasure and have to work their way out or die trying. You'll find useful equipment along the way like rocket launchers, flame throwers, machine guns, baseball bats, grenades, and other useful items! You'll also find wads of cash, diamonds, gold, and other very expensive loot! All filmed before a live studio audience!

Based on the SNES game from the 90's. What they don't tell the audience is that the "contestants" are actually just people they kidnapped off the street. So you could be a lawyer, librarian, student, or just about anything else with no skill at all and you get tossed into a death match-style game. They also don't tell you that the endless waves of useful mobs that are trying to kill you are actually bums and prostitutes they kidnapped as well (so some of them will be coming at you with dirty syringes!).

Whoever walks out of the maze alive and with the most money in loot is titled "Champion" and gets to walk away. Everybody else dies.

If I wasn't overloaded with other games I would actually run this right now :)

[Shoelip]

I'd enjoy messing that game up.

[Bad Luck Charm]

It's entirely doable with d20 Modern. No time to do it though :(

What do you mean you don't have Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Rocket Propelled Grenade)? Well that's a -4 on your attack roll...serves you right for studying English Literature all these years!

[Shoelip]

Yeah, I'd want to play like, a kung fu movie stunt man or something. That would be fun, and I'd actually stand a chance of survival.

I mean, all real kung fu movie actors are also stunt men, but obviously if a famous guy was kidnapped they'd realize something was up.

[Palanthias]

Super Smash TV sounds like the play yourself game only instead of the real you no skill having putz it is some made up no skill having putz.

Sounds like fun.

[Shoelip]

I really would enjoy messing up that game if I could.

[Bad Luck Charm]

Night of the Living Dead

Same sorta setup as the classic movies. You're a level 1 PC in a small vilage that has a massive cemetary. Through some sort of mixup from the local gnome mage, a cloud of vapor spreads through the cemetary and casts a massive raise dead spell. Of course, you could make it more interesting by having the characters start at level 5-10 and make the zombies more interesting (i.e. zombie dragons, zombie giants, zombie giant spiders, etc).

I've always wanted to try it and maybe i will if any of my other games die out.

[Palanthias]

I would play it if the characters where made from the NPC classes. Like warrior or artisan, noble etc... Then the regular zombies become pretty scary. I would have the zombism also spread like Lycanthropy ...a bite or a slam. That way you could build some suspense as the whole town starts to become zombies.

[Shoelip]

Ugh... no... don't mix necromancy zombies (btw, it's Animate Dead that animates the dead. Raise dead just brings them back to life, and only if they've only been dead for one day per caster level, and it requires 5000 gp gem for each... though animate dead requires material components as well so...) and infection zombies... You could easily have an alchemist create something that has the same effect and is internally consistent. Also, the one with the cloud that animates all the zombies is Return of the Living Dead, the one with naked Linnea Quigly and sentient zombies who ate brains specifically instead of just flesh because it dulled the pain of being dead. It was a partial parody as well.

Night of the Living Dead is the one where the last survivor is Ben the black guy and then he gets shot in the head by a bunch of rednecks and they string him up to a tree in an obvious allusion to racism.

Anyhow, it could be cool. Especially naked Linnea Quigly.:fun:

[BigRedRod]

The one with the endless fighting
Every so often I get this weird craving. A craving for combat and I ponder starting up a new game to satisfy my hunger. It's happened so often that I've even got a basic framework of how it would be run.
Essentially it boils down to finding an exciting map of a dungeon or what have you and each of these little mini adventures would have a very clear goal and the idea would be to organise them in such a way to avoid sluggishness in the posting. Possibly rootling through those old WotC map archives would be the gentleman's solution.
"But BRR", I hear you cry, "Surely endless encounters without roleplaying is not fun" and to that I answer: Possibly, but I don't want to remove the roleplaying. Instead after each chapter the idea I had was for each player to propose a short bit of story which connects to the next chapter. And then there's a vote to see which is the one true reality and bonus XP.
So the players have almost complete control over the story and the game is fast. So it's a little like a freeform in some respects.

Sadly, the feeling passes as I realise that this most likely would not work.

[Mercutio]

I think a straight dungeon crawl would actually be kind of cool. That's the reason I really liked X-Crawl, beyond the fact that I liked the story behind it, because it is essentially a frame-work to do nothing but crawl through dungeons.

[Gralhruk]

Randomly connected one shots actually sounds like it could work. My only suggestion would be that when the adventure is over, you have to write a blurb of what you do afterward and where you go. When the next adventure comes up it's your job to write yourself to the starting point.

[Gibberish]

Would people actually have the attention span to playout something like that? Wouldn't you get a little bored after a while?

[BigRedRod]

Randomly connected one shots actually sounds like it could work. My only suggestion would be that when the adventure is over, you have to write a blurb of what you do afterward and where you go. When the next adventure comes up it's your job to write yourself to the starting point.
Hmm, I prefer my writing and voting idea as it moves the group as a group and lets them dynamically make up roleplaying ideas as they invent little details of the intermediate periods.

[Gralhruk]

The issue I see with writing and voting is that three out of four ideas get left on the curb, which means that three people wind up feeling like they've invested their time and energy only to get shown up by Cadrius.

[-J-]

A military/paramilitary themed game would work well. You have the mission of the day, when mission is over then return to base. In a fantasy setting an organization like Morgrave University from Eberron would work. Every "session" the players are hired to go plunder....i mean search for antiquities from the fabled ruins of [insert dungeon name here].

[BigRedRod]

I suppose you do have me there Gral, I just quite like it being some kind of between-round game which provides the bones of the plot. Damn that Cadrius for spoiling things.

A military/paramilitary themed game would work well. You have the mission of the day, when mission is over then return to base. In a fantasy setting an organization like Morgrave University from Eberron would work. Every "session" the players are hired to go plunder....i mean search for antiquities from the fabled ruins of [insert dungeon name here].
That is what I want to avoid. The idea was that while the game is indeed episodic, that there is an overall joint narrative, like a freeform.

[Gralhruk]

So, are you thinking the GM would just explain the basics of the next adventure and the players would provide the setting rationale for it?

[BigRedRod]

Exactly.

[Gralhruk]

I don't know. They might need to know quite a bit about the adventure itself to come up with something concrete. I was thinking more along the lines of keeping the adventure the purview of the GM, while the players are more or less free to make up the specifics of what goes on between adventures - including what their world is like.

[BigRedRod]

I think part of the game would be retrospectively cementing details.

As I said though, this just came out of a desire to kick down some dungeon doors and stab some goblins in the head while acknowledging the fact that such a game would be ultimately unsatisfying. And then it got to where I am now, which is posting it in the "Games I'll never get around to running" thread.

Moving narrative control around a bit (and removing the linear restricts which PBPs cause) is very appealing however.

[Gralhruk]

I'm actually thinking of the old "Pit" games that were run a while back. The idea was simply to build a character so you could battle other characters. Players were transported to the world of the Pit magically. They found themselves in a town, and every once in a while 6 characters were spirited off to the Pit to battle it out to the death. After the match was over, they'd all reappear back in their rooms none the worse for wear.

The idea itself sounds like the bane of RP, but the RP between the various PCs in and around the town was actually quite good.

I'm thinking of basically taking a page from that and applying it to the format you suggest. That is, the adventure becomes the Pit, and adventure there is controlled by the GM. He is free to lay some ground rules on the world itself and the limits therein, but those should mostly be related to the precepts of the adventure (ie. 'you all must find yourselves at such and such an inn on this date', or 'there are no gnomes, damn it!') while the players are free to make up everything in between, hopefully having some fun RPing with each other in the meantime.

[Mercutio]

Gral-that's essentially what X-Crawl sets up, albeit it uses a sort of Shadowrun future where crawling is an extreme sport. You can RP outside of the arena, but the DM I had when we first started playing pretty much ran it exactly like you laid it out.

[LeadPal]

Moving narrative control around a bit (and removing the linear restricts which PBPs cause) is very appealing however.You might like this one, then.

The one the players designed
How much player input is it possible to use, without making the DM superfluous? One of the major benefits of a freeform campaign is that no one person has to suffer the DM's heavy workload. Unfortunately, a freeform can easily become aimless and incoherent if the players aren't very strongly motivated.

There have been a few games where the players helped to write the setting: Inceptum (http://online-roleplaying.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=950) and Dünya (http://online-roleplaying.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=887) did so, and DK (http://online-roleplaying.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1492) still does. That does take some trouble away from the DM. Yet I've found that the story itself is far harder to write than the setting, and this remains strictly the DM's job.

So why not let the players help with that, too? What I'm imagining is a truly open-ended campaign, where the DM gives the world its vision, and the players decide what's in it. Eidolon (http://online-roleplaying.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=141) with a DM, in a sense.

The DM creates the broad overview of the setting, with a few parameters and details already filled in, and perhaps a point of conflict to spark the plot. From there, the players decide what happens; they build the setting, decide how their characters fit into it, and create the hooks and structure of their own adventure. The DM would then develop and run the challenges that the PCs have to overcome.

The DM remains the final authority on what goes, by being able to veto any player ideas that they don't like. This, plus the fact that the DM sets the basis of the setting, prevents them from being required to run an adventure that they have no interest in. At the same time, the DM isn't allowed to introduce any new elements.

Obviously this is a delicate balance of power, and requires a lot of cooperation. However, I expect that this take pressure off the DM and keep player participation strong, while preserving enough of the DM's authority to maintain the campaign's structure.

Can it be done? Has anyone ever attempted something like this?

[The_Friendly_Fiend]

Way back when the 1200 baud modem was uber, I used to play on an electronic bbs. The foundation was laid down and the players and sometimes DMs would basically make stuff up as we went along.

We created a town with a couple of streets. Added a few homes, shops, inns and other setting pieces where one could post. Imagine on this forum, each thread is a different location that you could roleplay from. There were other places outside of town or even under it where your primary "adventures" took place.

Some of the characters were adventure hungry, coming to town to look for a starting point and then going off to quest. Other people took on the roles of the tavernkeeper or store owner. These people were usually the ones who created quest ideas. They'd pass along ideas to the other players and DMs who would actually run off and make it happen.

Character creation was very free-form. You didn't really roll up a character, but instead created an identity, appearance and background. From that, the other players and DMs would be able to roleplay off that.

It was loads of fun to play. We even grouped up in person to do stuff. I remember going to see Robot Jox with a bunch of the board and we were the only ones in the theather. Ten-minutes into the movie, we were all MST3King the thing. Of course I think that was well before that show ever hit the air.

[Gralhruk]

Gral-that's essentially what X-Crawl sets up, albeit it uses a sort of Shadowrun future where crawling is an extreme sport. You can RP outside of the arena, but the DM I had when we first started playing pretty much ran it exactly like you laid it out.
So, what system is X-Crawl?

So why not let the players help with that, too? What I'm imagining is a truly open-ended campaign, where the DM gives the world its vision, and the players decide what's in it. Eidolon with a DM, in a sense.
It isn't a bad idea, but players are generally a very lazy bunch - ask BRR how much input he's gotten about the setting for DK (and he's giving away experience as a carrot). In a normal game, a very motivated GM can generally keep a game moving. In a game like this, you need a few players to be motivated in order to keep things moving - Eidolon, for example, actually requires quite a bit of work from a those involved to keep the game on track. If one player drops the ball it tends to throw things out of whack, because we're all depending on each other as opposed to everyone depending on the GM.

Edit:
That said, BP seemed pretty successful getting player input for Dünya, so maybe he can share some of his secrets ;).

[BigRedRod]

So, what system is X-Crawl?
It's 3.5e D&D


It isn't a bad idea, but players are generally a very lazy bunch - ask BRR how much input he's gotten about the setting for DK (and he's giving away experience as a carrot). I
Edit:
That said, BP seemed pretty successful getting player input for Dünya, so maybe he can share some of his secrets ;).
Yeah, it worked in Inceptum to an extent too. I think I'm just doing it wrong.

[LeadPal]

It isn't a bad idea, but players are generally a very lazy bunch - ask BRR how much input he's gotten about the setting for DK (and he's giving away experience as a carrot). In a normal game, a very motivated GM can generally keep a game moving.Ah, right. You can normally push along even if the players are completely reactive. Still, it seems that putting less pressure on the GM and more on the players could be helpful: it could reduce GM burnout, the leading cause of death for PbP.

Perhaps it just hinges on finding the right sort of players.

Way back when the 1200 baud modem was uber, I used to play on an electronic bbs...Cool. That sounds like nearly the same idea, taken in another direction. How long did it last?

[The_Friendly_Fiend]

How long did it last? Several years I think. The bbsysop was using scavenged parts to keep the computer up and running. People would donate old hard drives, monitors, etc to help keep it going.

Oh fun story, I also remember the Festering Green Ale that the main bar in town used to serve. We created it for real when we gathered for our fun events. We'd fill a mug or gobblet with Green River soda and add dry ice. It would bubble and froth, aka fester. Good times, eh?

[Black Plauge]

That said, BP seemed pretty successful getting player input for Dünya, so maybe he can share some of his secrets .
The only input I really got was the stuff I required for the players to join and stuff related to that. Once the game got underway, player contributions really fell off. Occasionally a spark of inspiration would strike and I'd get something new, but for the most part new material only came in when I got new players (who had to submit something in order to join too).

[Croaker]

I ran a game where I just handed each player an index card and told them to write their characters name and physical attributes and personality. They listed whatever "powers" they had on the back and I kept track of the whole thing until the curtain was raised and I revealed that we were playing Nobilis (they had never encountered it before).

It worked very well and kept a lot of meta-game out of the prelude. The whole game started with "create a completely mundane-but-interesting alter-ego from modern-day Earth". Then we crept along and supernatural things were discovered and slowly they got pulled in to their future master's anchoring ritual (started out as a murder mystery) and eventually became full demi-gods.

[elmer_jok]

I was digging through some dusty tombs and found this idea that I really liked...


The Guild
Another one that clearly jumps out and says "D&D is the system for me!"
The players will begin as low-level players (say 3rd) who have come across a nice piece of property in a large town surrounded by adventure (the aquisition of this propety may or may not be part of the actual game, depending on the players I suppose)
Essentially it would be set in the generic D&D world I try and avoid. The one with dungeons everywhere, roving monsters, and adventurer as a profession.
Rather than sell the building and use the cash to buy bigger weapons the group decide to set up a "guild" ... and they're off.

Essentially revolves around securing jobs, contacts, recruiting/screening applicants, sending them off on adventures. And of course the characters' of the players themselves would be encouraged to lead their recruits on these missions.

The idea is that it would be much more loose than most games, so that if one player decides to play a kingpin type crime lord who doesn't get this hands dirty he can sit in his secret base and control the city.

Very fuzzy, but I can see potential in it.


I wonder, did this ever pan out into a game?

[BigRedRod]

Oh heavens no, this is essentially cold storage for game ideas.

[Gralhruk]

The only input I really got was the stuff I required for the players to join and stuff related to that. Once the game got underway, player contributions really fell off.
So basically, we're back to "players are a lazy bunch".

[Cadrius]

The one with the endless fighting
Instead after each chapter the idea I had was for each player to propose a short bit of story which connects to the next chapter. And then there's a vote to see which is the one true reality and bonus XP.
So the players have almost complete control over the story and the game is fast. So it's a little like a freeform in some respects.


This was my favorite part of your passage. The combat, others have covered. You could do it as an A-team setup, or in a supers game. Whereas the narrative being driven by forking versions of reality is really compelling. But I like to write, so take that for what it's worth.

[elmer_jok]

This was my favorite part of your passage. The combat, others have covered. You could do it as an A-team setup, or in a supers game. Whereas the narrative being driven by forking versions of reality is really compelling. But I like to write, so take that for what it's worth.

I too was intrigued by this style of gaming.

Reminds me of this Labrynth Island setting that I played in for many years f2f. We started playing in 2nd edition then upgraded to third after taking a year or two off to get aquainted with the system through other adventures I DMd. Then we handed the reins back to my friend our resident expert DM and gave it another go. Great setting. I've thought of running my own spin off of it...

[Shoelip]

I don't know if I mentioned this yet but here's my latest greatest idea.

Medival Mutants, or The Tainted

Europe, the Middle Ages... The course of history has been fraught with strive. Since the fall of the Roman Empire Europe has been been plunged into darkness and chaos. The only light is that of the Catholic Church, and it is a dim one fueled by religious zeal and fanaticism. Disease, and violence take thousands of lives. Rumors spread of children, cursed by satanic forces' appearing throughout the land. Many of these children look no different from others, but they are able to do things beyond human ability. Monsters, born of human mothers. Some say it is divine retribution. Some say it is witchcraft. Some say the end times are nigh. Regardless, it is nearly universally agreed that these children are an abomination, and must be cleansed.

The basic idea behind this game is that superpowered genetic mutants(think X-Men) start to appear in the middle ages. These are the intended PCs. The mutants, the "Tainted" are shunned by almost all of society, and most are slaughtered as soon as they're discovered. The powers usually manifest during puberty. The gameplay would most likely involve trying to survive in the dark and brutal world of medieval europe, while trying to hide what you are from the majority of the population. My basic hook was France in 1431. Joan of Arc is on trial for heracy, her power to inspire men and lead them to battle is considered witchcraft, but really she can't help it, it's in her genetic makeup... the visions on the other hand... well who knows what those are, maybe just too much lead.

[BigRedRod]

The Lookouts

This does not count as my idea, because it is not mine.

The world of the Lookouts is a wild one. The majority of it is covered in a dense magical forest called the Eyrewood. Human settlements are few and far between. Learning to navigate and live alongside the forest is a necessity. Men must protect the few roads they have through the woods and as the Lookouts' creed says, "What men must know a boy must learn." Young boys in this world join the Lookouts and are taught the ways of the forest.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090610.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d49/PASG/lo_sketch.jpg

(It's from a potential series of Penny Arcade comics. I really hope they follow through with these, then again I have not seen the other options, but it really did just scream PBP to me)

[Gralhruk]

I'm sure I've proclaimed my love of Dark Sun a few times, but I was thinking on the environmental challenges. The intriguing part is that you have a few small bastions of civilization separated by large tracts of very inhospitable land. In Dark Sun, it's desert but it could just as easily be forest or water or snow.

[Mercutio]

The Lookouts
<snip>
I had the same reaction when I first saw that. It looks awesome. I wish these guys had the time to put together a setting like this for real. I'd buy it in a heartbeat because this just screams out to be played.

[Cadrius]

They are wrong things. And I will show you how to put them right.

Best line by far.

Speaking to the idea of the environment being a constant challenge, I wonder how you can keep it fresh and entertaining. For Dark Sun, the first times the players go to leave an outpost or oasis, the threat of dehydration and starvation will be ever-present, but at what point does it become mundane or, worse yet, irritating?

How do you present the world itself as an enemy? And how many times can you sabotage someone's canteen or food stores before it's played out? And will it actually translate into fun?

[Gralhruk]

One possibility is to choose an element to harp on for the gaming session - maybe today it's dehydration, but next time it could starvation, poisoning, dust storms, sun stroke, carnivorous insects, etc. Not that it needs to always be a life or death thing, but just something to keep in mind when describing things.

[LeadPal]

It might be acceptable to leave the environmental challenges somewhat mundane. The characters have lived in this inhospitable world their entire lives, after all, so it's not as if they'd find its dangers particularly surprising. Unless, of course, the world is inhospitable because of the apocalypse last week.

The environment shouldn't always be a threat, but it should always seem like a threat. The characters don't run short of water on every adventure, but they might usually come close; when, one day, they finally do run out, the players will take extra notice based on the foreshadowing. On the next adventure, when they start running low on water again, they'll know you're not kidding, and will worry about it without having to actually treat it as a challenge.

[Mercutio]

Another excellent game idea from the Penny Arcade fellas.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090612.jpg

[BigRedRod]

Might have been worth including the blurb:
The second concept is Automata (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/6/12), nineteen-twenties crime fiction which unfolds in a time where "machine intellect" has been outlawed. It wasn't always, certainly, and the problem of what to do with the existing "stock" of fully sentient, mechanical citizens endures. Detective Regal and his stenophone Carl Swangee traverse the margin where these worlds overlap

This one does nothing at all for me whereas the other one has me making my little empty plans for games that will never happen.

[Gralhruk]

It sounds sort of like a retro style Bladerunner.

[Mercutio]

Yeah, I guess I should have included the blurb.

Maybe it's just that I'm an Eberron fan and this has shades of that. I definitely like Lookouts a lot more, but I thought Automata was interesting enough that I'd be likely to pick up a setting book. Probably would work well in an OGL Modern campaign.

[BigRedRod]

I can see it being interesting, but I'm not sure how well it'd come across in a PBP. This could, of course, be tempered by the fact that anything none fantasy tends to die a bit of a death (in my experience).

[Gralhruk]

Write what you know - fantasy means you can make a lot of stuff up and get away with it. It's harder to write convincingly of the 1920s without having some reasonable knowledge of those times.

[Black Plauge]

I just read the Emerald Sea by John Ringo and I think that said world would make for an interesting game. Anyone else read the book?

[LeadPal]

I'd say the second concept is more interesting than the first. Gral's right, though--it would require a lot more research to write with confidence, probably enough to suck most of the fun out of such a game.

I know of John Ringo, but not of that book. What's the world about?

[Shoelip]

I can see it being interesting, but I'm not sure how well it'd come across in a PBP. This could, of course, be tempered by the fact that anything none fantasy tends to die a bit of a death (in my experience).

Everything I play in dies a bit of a death... The longest running games I've been in keep losing characters over and over and getting new ones. I'm amazing Lando doesn't just give up on them, but I guess he's just stubborn. Which is fine by me. I rather like his games.

One of them is a wild west game with no magic.

Hm, I'm kinda disappointed that a whole month went by before someone else posted in this thread and still no one commented on my idea. :( Maybe it needs more naked Linnea Quigly?

[LeadPal]

The one written in first-person omniscient

I've always been irritated by how point-of-view works in PbP: third-person, with access to the thoughts of the PCs bouncing randomly as posts go up. I recently got this odd idea as a sort of explanation.

The game is told in first-person, from the view of a psychic able to hear a person's thoughts as easily as their voice. Each player writes their posts as if the psychic is turning to focus on their character, writing their thoughts and actions as the psychic sees them. Actions beyond what the psychic can see are handled normally, save for the fact that they're entirely OOC, barring something like clairvoyance.

As players could quit unexpectedly or be seen as favourites, hinging the POV on a PC is just asking for trouble, so the psychic is treated as an extra character played by the entire party together. The character would be designed not to be particularly useful in combat, to avoid outshining the true PCs, but would be given special treatment to avoid being killed.

Since the psychic would presumably also be reading the minds of NPCs, this would require a close understanding between players and the GM, if any.

[Black Plauge]

I know of John Ringo, but not of that book. What's the world about?
It's a post-apocalyptic world. Human society had advanced to the point where technologically just about anything was possible. Summer home on the sun? Weekend resort on the Moon? Become a mermaid or dragon? It all happened. This high level also enabled the creation of an AI, called Mother, which had been programed to provide for all the needs of all humans and prevent conflict. As a fail-safe, Mother had 13 programming keys and those were provided to a council who had the responsibility of "fixing" Mother should something go wrong. Ambition on the council, however, leads to a split that leads to war, tapping most the technological resources (especially power) and plunging the majority of the world into a state which mimics your standard fantastic medieval setting. Magic is replaced by high technology, but is rare as most of the power needed to run them is still being used in the larger global war. Everyday tech is limited essentially to physical power (human or animal muscle) as higher technology violates the restrictions against war technology that Mother still enforces.

Intelligent creatures come in just about all imaginable forms, but all are ultimately humans transformed by genetic engineering (or descendants thereof), with a few rare AI exceptions. Monstrous creatures are the result of similar processes with animals.

Basically the world provides an alternative logic behind your standard setting, allowing you to use most of the mechanics as is. The difference comes in the flavor and kinds of stories you tell.

[Shoelip]

Ok, here's an idea I just had. It's based on the computer game The Ship.

It's set in the twenties... I think... sort of an alternate twenties with much more advanced electronics. Security cameras and live video feeds and stuff, but the aesthetic is 1920sey. Anyway, each player is one of a group of individuals taking free a cruise on a massive ocean liner that has all the amenities one could imagine, a grand ballroom and multiple dining halls. Both in door and out door swimming pools, hot tubs, saunas. Several bars on different levels. Even a museum and a small shopping mall. Several days into your trip, you find a note inexplicably placed upon your bedstand, reading it you each find that you have been requested at the aft dining hall at 1:00 pm tomorrow for a special event related to your free tickets.

When you arrive the next day you find several others who are there for the same reason. You all gather around a small projection screen and are greeted on screen by a strangely dressed masked man in a top hat and mask who introduces himself as Mister X. He explains that the cruise is far off course and that it is now time to fulfill the condition of your free trip. You are to play a game. Each of your will be given the name of another passenger. That passenger is your quarry, and you must kill them, stealthily, so as not to upset the other passengers. However, you will each have someone else seeking to kill you.

Well, that's the basic idea. What do people think?

[Rimmerdal]

Anyone ever read the Comic "Global Frequency"? It is a story about Miranda Zero and a civilian rescue organization called the Global Frequency. The 1001 operatives are group of specialist, individuals with skills and back grounds in diverse areas such bio weapons engineering, La parkour* and a Magician among other skills who deal emergencies too sensitive for conventional forces to manage. Most keep day jobs and only when there needed do they go into action.

(a "La Parkour" is like Tarzan only with the urban terrain.)

[BigRedRod]

I think your post got half eaten there. What I'm getting is something like Thunderbirds where the players have free reign to make new characters to suit certain situations.

I've never even heard of the comic, so I couldn't comment further.

[Cadrius]

Ok, here's an idea I just had. It's based on the computer game The Ship.

What do people think?

I think if the characters involved were otherwise normal people there would be a lot of freaking out, refusal to participate, threats to go public, and a general spirit of un-cooperation.

That said, if you can suspend disbelief or provide a big enough stick to enforce participation (horrible skeletons in the closet, etc) you could set yourself up with an intrigue/stealth scenario which should cultivate a very paranoid group.

[Shoelip]

Well they'd obviously be compelled to cooperate somehow.:P

[Rimmerdal]

Yeah it did get eaten up partially. But the idea would be a game based an group rescue and Covert specialists.