One system, many ways to play?

[daMoose_Neo]

Noticed the variations on MlwM and suddenly didn't feel so bad about my wandering mind.
My Imp Game (http://www.neoproductions.net/imp/) is wrapping up and my mind continues to wander, but I'm having a freaking blast with the die mechanics, I love the whole system to pieces! Quick, easy, and nearly effortless.
So, I was wondering what the effectiveness would be of a collection of settings/alterations on one system?
In my case, the IG mechanics work for situations highly prone to failure, especially of a comedic kind. I've kept my eyes open and I've found some awesome examples to illustrate in such a book, but I'm for some reason very keen on this one right now.

"Eurotrip"- just saw Eurotrip and all I could think of was my Imp Game. Perfect scenario: four greatly different people, one goal, and a lot of wrong turns in the pursuit of that.
Changes? Mostly to characters:
- Name, of course
- Stereotype - These kinds of shows are based on highschool graduates and or new college students, which are often in comedies broken into very stereotypical groups. Each stereotype would grant some kind of social drawback, but some cool bonus (IE stereotypical Jocks big & strong, but slow, stereotypical Smartass intelligent and quickwitted, not the strongest). This replaces the Imp's class
- Traits - Major/not so major change here. These are core attributes about the character YOU WANT TO CHANGE. Chosen the same way as Imps, group picks one, you pick two. How you do so relates further on...
- Flaws - replaces fears, unless the player chooses "afraid of..." These are things your character needs quite a bit of help at. "Poor German" for example ("Scotty doesn't know, scotty doesn't know..."). These should be hinderances.
- Unique Contribution - what your character brings to the roadtrip. Connections, knowledge of landmarks/history, etc. replaces the Imps Ability.

Now, for the major chunk addition: three new values, partly inspired by Tony's thread on "That ain't an RPG!" - Goals. Following in the teen movie tradition, we have:
Sex
Drugs
Personal

Sex & Drugs are self explanatory, while "Personal" requires a definition: they're a threshold you, as a PLAYER have to reach. Your character could care less, and can: Contemplating a second set of stats representing a character's interest in the goal as well. So you could have a stat of "Sex 3/1", which means you really want the character to get it on while the character could care less. Thus you have situations like Jamie (the uber geek brother) getting laid after stopping by a camera store.
Anywho- meeting the goal allows you to change one of your Traits.

I want to keep the same Imps function: 2d6 less than or equal to the universal TN, while using the Goals as a way to influance effectiveness. Still toying with that. I'm liking Tony's process of stating Goals for a scene and playing those out over individual actions, as Imps plays out.

But, to pose my questions:
1) Do such deviations catch peoples attention or are they typically viewed as another part of the "supplement treadmill"?
2) As it stands, would hauling the mechanic over work?
3) What might possibly work for the above Die function & goals?
4) Have I really lost my mind or could I stumble into something?

[Jason L Blair]

To answer your first question, I wouldn't see these type of variations as part of the "supplement treadmill." If you look at Sorcerer's mini-supps, they're this (hell, Sorcerer is a framework for just this). My own mod for Dust Devils (RONIN) is this.

If you introduce a new way of viewing mechanics (even if, or especially if, the core system remains the same), then you're adding depth to a system not just piling on history or extraneous rules (that are generally out of the original system's ability or focus). Those things are part of the "supplement treadmill."

Of course, this depends on who you're defining as the "people" in said question. General gamers? The focused-play gamers such as those that frequent this site? You have to define the audience before you can suppose their viewpoint.

[Bankuei]

Hi Nate,

The big issue of "Supplement Treadmill" is if you have to keep pouring money in and get diminishing returns.  Hopefully you wouldn't be planning on printing all of the variants, and continuing to do.   If you're doing PDFs, then the only concern is the time and money towards art/layout that your pour in.  If you decide to physically print the options, then consider if its going to be a one-time thing("Big collection of optional rules") or if its going to keep going ("Splatbook 29").  

A one-time thing lowers your risk, but the continuous print issue is the treadmill's failing.  Unlike comic books, serial rpgs have little to draw people in "mid-way" through the line, and the costs for buyers give it a sharper drop-off than comics.

Chris

[daMoose_Neo]

Production is iffy.
Depends really on how much comes out of it. If it isn't much more than this, then yea, I have a few other ideas that'd go into a collection with this, otherwise it could possibly be a standalone with some additional material.
As per print copies, only if it (the single or the collection) were well liked enough to warrent it. Thus far, only two books are slated: Mischief & Mayhem (The basic rules) and Imp's Guide to Dungeons (rules to running a dungeon including traps, monsters, hero parties & more), both of which will be playable by themselves.

I do have a number of places I can go with this.
- I have the Eurotrip/teen trip movie genre
- Comic Strips - ala 8Bit Theatre (which is too perfect for this system) or my crew Neo's old strip Backstage
- Horror flicks (Start with a dozen people, kill them off one by one)

Each variation would have their own tweaks, or additions, such as ET's Goals and the concept of changing the traits as opposed to simply rolling with them. The comic strip, especially one close to 8Bit, would swap "Fears" for "Obsessions" (and thus work opposite- always run towards instead of away from), and feature villian or opposing characters as fleshed out as the player characters, such as the Dark Warriors of 8Bit.
Horror would almost strip the game down, possibly to Profession/Archetype (Class), Traits, and "Feature" (Ability).

Mood and atmosphere text would be a huge chunk aside from these simple mechanics. The Trip would require some background/overview of say the US and Europe, while the Horror clip would have quite a bit of information on the technique of developing the horror, or carnage if that was what was preferred (Jason != Horror, but slasher/carnage, but could still fall under same kind of system)