eddyfate

This topic came up on Twitter, so now I'm kicking around a very informal poll. Feel free to cross-post this link wherever relevant.

As an RPG writer/designer, how much of your RPG collection is JUST for research and reference?

http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1710788/

* Signed up for iSweat. It's reskinned Twitter (and even syncs with Twitter), but it's also an easy way for me to be more honest about my workout schedule, such as it is. The idea is to "break one sweat every day," but I'm not there yet. Now that we have a smith machine as well as the elliptical machine in the condo, I can eventually build up to alternating between weight training and cardio.

* Quick Media Whore bit: Avoid Fringe. People who liked Lost may like it (I didn't like Lost either), but it comes across as a slow-moving, refried X-Files. I mean, props to J.J. for juggling a ton of creative projects, but this looks like it could have used more work, or at least a better set-up. Usually I try to give new shows four episodes, but nothing about this show clicks for me.

* In the process of reading Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. In some respects, it's kind of a counter-argument to the relationship between RPGs and games posited in Rules of Play, so I'm intrigued by the philosophical tension (although SP seems to be aligning with my interpretation of RoP's view on RPGs anyhow). I may have to see if I can dig up First Person as well at some point, but I'm still only about a third of the way through SP.

* Slowly making some changes here at work, between physical office move and subtle changes to my workflow. Trying to move administrative stuff to Mondays and being more selective about how I spend my time at work, but I'm still spending about 40-60 hours a week working. One of the downsides of being in a part of the company that touches on a little bit of everything is that it's harder to juggle when "everything" keeps getting slowly bigger.

* Wedding this Saturday, and more Victorian Mage this Sunday. Hopefully things will get rolling now that we've seen the so-called "ghost."

Between recent conversations with drucifer13, caillile, atekes, and banzaigrrl, I've come to the conclusion that part of the reason why I dislike Changeling SO MUCH is because beneath the broken rules, ham-fisted background, and inconsistant world concepts, there's something under it all that's really cool, and seeing that potential obliterated at every step by just about every element of the game is frustrating [1].

So, let's pretend WW hired me to write a new version of Changeling for MET (set in the new WoD). What would you have me change? (Make as many comments as you need to fully express your points...)

[1] The other part being, of course, the rabid vehemence that the typical Changeling player defends their broken rules, ham-fisted background, and inconsistant world concepts. Oh, and pedophilia.

After watching the second half of the utterly cheesy movie The Phantom and having watched The Shadow about a month prior, garchangel and I talked about doing a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-style game that would use pulp heroes from the 1930s. Original pulp characters such as The Shadow, The Phantom, and Doc Savage could be teamed with "modern pulp" characters like The Sandman and The Rocketeer, or even with less "superheroic" characters from that time-period such as The Saint.

garchangel recommended Cartoon Action Hour (which I would be inclined to use if I ever decided to run this), but Adventure! and Two-Fisted Tales would also work quite well.

Robin Laws is, as always, entertaining and insighful.

Economics of D&D

Possibly something of substance later, if this day stops sucking.

Note: For those who aren't familiar with this irregular feature, these are RPG game ideas that I think would be really cool to run, but likely will never get the time to actually do. A list of past GILtR lives here.

Marvel Noir

In the vein of recent comic lines that "reimagine" entire comicbook universes in a historial reference (such as in the Victorian era or the 1600s), Marvel Noir is the Marvel Universe set in a film noir post-WWII New York. Some characters could be used pretty much as-is in Marvel Noir - Frank Castle's family was still murdered in a mob hit, and Matt Murdock is still trying to bring down the negarious Kingpin both in the courtroom and as the masked hero The Daredevil. Other characters would have to only be tweaked a little to become darker - Captain Steve Rogers is a nearly forgotten war hero addicted to the experimental Super-Soldier syrum, while Dr. Stephen Strange meddles in dark arcane powers in a hopeless attempt to keep demons from taking over the world, and Nick Fury starts to uncover a conspiracy to keep select Nazi war criminals alive and safe within New York. This isn't pulp or a four-color comic - this is more in the vein of The Shadow or Sandman Mystery Theater.

The most obvious system I would use is Mutants and Masterminds in conjunction with the Noir sourcebook. However, there's a certain appeal to a slightly powered-down Marvel Super Heroes system (the one put out by TSR in the late 80s), but any superhero system that offers a good use of street-level gaming would be fine. Also, I would certainly have a copy of Mean Streets at my side for reference material.

Edit - Ideadump: Seems a lot of people like this idea, so I'm going to dump some of the hero ideas here for easy reference.

Captain America - Steve Rogers is a former Army captain returned from World War II. He now lives in New York, and is starting to hit the skids due to his addiction to an experimental Super-Soldier serum.

The Punisher - Frank Castle is an ex-NYPD officer that had his family killed in a mob hit in retaliation for shooting a Don's son. Castle is now a vigilante out for revenge.

The Daredevil - Matt Murdoch is an assistant to the DA's office, and is looking to put the mob boss known as the Kingpin in jail. Unfortunately, the corruption in the system blocks his attempts, and he's left no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Dr. Strange - Stephen Strange is an occult researcher who uncovers an attempt by demons to invade this dimension. His only hope is to strike a deal with another demon to give him the power to stop them...

Jim "Wolverine" Howlett - A private detective originally from Canada, Howlett is known for two things - being as tough as boot leather, and following a case to the ends of the earth. He's the best there is at what he does.

Cyclops - A nickname given to him by Jim Howlett, Sgt. Scott Summers is an NYPD cop that tries to do the right thing and play by the rules. He lost an eye in an attempt to apprehend Frank Castle. Summers and Howlett can't stand each other's methods, but they have worked together on cases more than once.

The Man of Iron - Tony Stark is a millionaire battling his inner demons (usually with the help of his good friend Jim Beam). He often drives in his giant metal car full of technological wonders, trying to clean up the streets as the Man of Iron, hoping that it will help him sleep easier at night.

The Hulk - Bruce Banner was a scientist on the Manhattan Project when something went wrong. Now he turns into a rampaging beast the newspapers call The Hulk. (NPC only.)

The Avengers - To protect America from the "Red Scare", the Avengers were formed - the best and the brightest of America's superheroes. In order to preserve the identities of the Avengers, however, they often work in secret, and have full autonomy to do whatever it takes to unearth Communist supervillains.

The Avengers (alternate) - Formed by Capt. Rogers and Tony Stark, the Avengers are a group that works together to keep American secure by any means possible. Inspired by a short story by naamaire. (Not necessarily incompatable with the previous idea.)

This is a flame zone. I ask you to try to keep your comments sedate, but I do understand this is a hot topic (and I ain't talkin' about a clothing store, yo). ( Caution! )

So, combined with a recent acquisition of mine (a Transformers RPG written by a Transfan and mailed to me with a cool box and GM screen) and a statement from greebotrill that she would try a Transformers RPG again got me thinking about Transformers 2.0, which I would like to run as a grittier, darker, and generally less campy/cartoony take on the Transformers universe. It's an idle debate, nothing more, but it also caused me to think about all of the different (and better) system options I have available to me (in no particular order): ( Cut for system babbling )

...dark mirror...
Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0./Night's Edge/Delta Green crossover

I found my notes for this, a campaign that I almost ran in 2001 but ended up scrapping (mainly due to the insane patchwork of systems I created to try to pull it off). Basically, a former "black book" government agency has gone rogue, what with the US government collapsing, and has started working with professional mercenaries (so-called "Edgerunners") towards their original secret goals of dealing with the supernatural and aliens, while working against another former government agency that has been acquired by Militech. Gritty futuristic military conspiracy under a layer of cyberpunk flash and style.

When I first tried to run this, I used the original Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. system. I had an old article on converting Call of Cthulhu to the CP2020 system, which I used to port Delta Green over. Then I tossed in the old Night's Edge sourcebooks that added supernatural creatures and powers to CP2020. The result, while technically workable, was really a complete mess, and the game never got off the ground as a result. If I were to do it all over again, I would probably use the CP2020 books with Delta Green as inspiration, and port the entire thing over to one cohesive system. Assuming I didn't lose my mind and try to develop a whole new system to use, the top four contenders (in no particular order) would be:

Call of Cthulhu D20 - With the upcoming revised Delta Green sourcebook for CoC D20, I could probably use something like Digital Burn to cover the cyberpunk elements, and CoC D20 is sufficiently action-adventure oriented. Plus, most people have played some sort of D20 variation in my potential gaming pool.

GURPS - I have GURPS Cyberpunk, GURPS Cthulhupunk, GURPS Horror, and GURPS Illuminati. If I picked up Special Ops and maybe Ultra-Tech, I should have everything I would need for the series. The only real drawback is that I'm not that familiar with GURPS, but at least the system components would play well with each other (probably more so than trying to mix D20 suppliments).

FUDGE - The next option is to go minimalist and just port the whole thing over to FUDGE, making design decisions as I needed to. While this would offer the maximum flexability, my inexperience with FUDGE means that I would end up tweaking the game system as we played, which is not the best solution for the players ("Wait, we could do that before, why not now?").

Savage Worlds - I've been looking for a reason to try this out, and the Savage Worlds system seems to be a good, solid, lightweight system. However, it might be a little TOO lightweight, but if I wanted to make the game more miniatures-oriented, this would be the only way to go.

I haven't done one of these in a while, but with some other requests in of games people would like me to run (Mutants and Masterminds, Deadlands, and Midway City), I'm probably not going to get to this. But damn it's cool.

World of Darkness: Vice City
Based in the fictional city of Vice City (setting for the computer game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City), this World of Darkness chronicle is set in the mid-1980s. Vice City is a fictional version of Miami overrun with the underworld manipulations of the Mafia, the Columbians, and a number of aspiring freelancers all wanting a piece of the action. The game could be based around an Anarch gang or a Sabbat pack trying to get money and supplies for their war against the Camarilla (perhaps based in GTA's other fictional city, Liberty City). Perhaps a city-based Garou pack of Glass Walkers, Bone Gnawers, and Ronin, with maybe a corrupt Shadow Lord or Silver Fang, hoping to clean up the city of its Wyrm-taint... or perhaps falling prey to it. Hell, even a down-and-out Mage cabal or Changeling circle trying to dig their way out of the muck could be based in Vice City. Demon or Hutner would also work, but you'd have to move the timeline up to the modern day.

Recommended books: Any WoD core game. Destiny's Price and WoD: Mafia are almost musts. Also, the free RPG Steal has a lot of good ideas for this style of campaign.

Here's another Game I'd Like To Run.

Transformers 2.0 is a complete revision of the Transformers universe. Taking the best parts of the original cartoon and comic, the Generation 2 comic, and even shows like Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise, and Armada, this would be a complete "reboot" of the series. The original continuity would be gone, and the characters would start off as an exploratory expedition of Autobots that crash lands on Earth. Optimus Prime would still be on Cybertron, but available for communication via a Space Beacon and Teletran One, but the only reinforcements the Autobots can expect to have on Earth is themselves. This is intended to not only cut through the tangled mess that is Transformers continuity, but also make it more appropriate to an RPG campaign by "writing out" the big guns like Optimus Prime and Megatron.

The system I would use would obviously be Cartoon Action Hour with the upcoming Metal Wars suppliment, although RoboMACS (a PDF game for sale on RPG.now) could also be used successfully.

Okay, this is driving me crazy.

Some time ago I mentioned that I had a lot of ideas for RPG campaigns that I would never get around to running. They keep pounding away at my brain, so I decided that I'm going to just start posting the ideas that I have and will probably not do a whole lot with.

The first is War of Houses, which is part Dune, part Shakespeare, part Mechwarrior, and part Robotech. In a distant future, the Earth has expanded into a huge galactic empire, and the various worlds are all ruled and controlled by vast noble houses. These houses are constantly on the verge of civil war, as intersteller politics and arranged marriages dictate from week to week what allegiance a certain world holds. The passion and fury of select nobles can shake the galaxy apart, and frequently does in this galactic soap opera.

War of Houses can be run with Big Eyes, Small Mouth, BESM d20 with the d20 Mecha book, the d20 mini-game Mecha Crusade in Polyhedron 154 (which requires d20 Modern), Mekton Z, the upcoming 1PG from Deep7 called Exosuit A-OK, or maybe even Cartoon Action Hour. I might write up a more "cartoony" version of this idea for After These Messages..., but the original idea as presented is intended to be high melodrama with lots of giant robot military action.

I've rewritten quite a bit of this game, so take another look if you were interested in it before. The core system hasn't changed too much, but I cleaned a lot of it up, moved some things around, and generally made it more consistant. I'll also be offering a PDF version shortly. ( Click here to read it, but I warn you that it's a bit long )

This time, I'm wasting your valuable time asking for your opinion on RPG mechanics.

Poll #69423 Preferred Mechanics
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

What kind of RPG mechanics do you prefer?

"If you have a well-crafted plot, the players will wander away and destroy it. If you have no well-crafted plot, the players will sit there. You make a plot so the players can be motivated enough to ruin it. It's very Zen."

- Kyle Marquis