A Shot in the Past.

[FzGhouL]

This idea is based on a dream I just woke up from that I thought was totally awesome.

Players (1-4) and one Memory Keeper are needed.

So, basically the jist of the scenerio is like this:

A group of Sharp Shooters once led adventerous lives, they were loosely or sometimes intimiately connected to each other. Eventually, they all age, settle down, and have children. They all settle in a neighborhood, dedicating one house to be a place for all of their families to spend time, an empty house.

Some get married, some have Children, some meet new friends and invite them into their life.

Each sharp-shooter is of legendary status in their little group, each with his distinct personality, abilities, and traits. But the one thing they have in common is that they are all kind-hearted (thus thats how they settled down).

The game is narrated by the MK, he describes the activity of the children, and what is happening at the "present" time in the game.

Through the Children, out-side friends, or other mediums, memories of the Legendary Shooters are created as scenerios, with the Outside person as the teller of the story (MK), and the players playing as the Legendary Sharp Shooters involved.

Each Memory then will contribute to the "present" time scenerio, because the players have played through and defined the memories. Since the memories are mostly by the children, the Legendary shooters will mostly have settled down in the memories.

Memories by outside friends may also unlock memories from pre-settling down of the shooters.

The MK will use foreshadowing by using the Children's present lives to give hints to what the scenerio was like. The children will have metaphoric value, some may take their parents footsteps, or some may not know anything about their parent's past except a few memories.


Example: A small portion of a dream I had.

This young girl is playing with two of her male friends in the house, when she hears other boys break into the house, boys she doesn't know. The two boys she was playing with, throw her in a closet and try to fend off the other boys. While in the closet she remembers that exact closet from when she was much younger.

In her memory, her father Victor, was a kind-aged man. He was dressed nicely that day, for it was her birthday (at this point her name was revealed to be Maria). He took her to the house to play and so he could celebrate. Victor was extremely weary that day, feeling something was off, so at the house he did not have his usual alcohol binge.

Victor then sees a van in front of the house, a van he doesn't recognize, so he shoves his daughter in the closet. The house intercom informs him that two men have come to visit him. Victor is unarmed, but extremely calm. He walks to greet the guys, but immediately loses his temper, then asks them for a gun "to make it a fair fight." The two men laughed, refusing to hand him a gun, one shot him in the hand, and so he sat down.

Victor's main abilities: He is extremely charismatic and friendly, he acts like he is ignorant of his own actions but is extremely calculated, he never shows his fear, he accepts his death for his deeds in the past yet would only die in a worthy situation, and he is known for his legendary ability to steal an opponents gun in the middle of a gun fight, easily.

I could narate the rest of the dream, maybe some other time. All I can say, is it was extremely badass.

So, the game would be non-turn based, narrative, from the perspective of outsiders. Mostly chronicling the loving side of these once killers. It focuses on the fact that they are legendary, but are no longer at peak skill, yet still have the motivation due to their new lives, to excel at what they do best.

The setting would be modern day, suburbs, no magic, mostly based on gangs and rival factions as enemies. The heros don't have to live, their relationships must though.

[komradebob]

You know, this might be a very cool game to break the mold with, and simply make a cast of characters that the players choose from rather than create their own.

[FzGhouL]

The MK makes 20-30'ish Characters, defines a few simple traits, a brief bit of information on relations. That would be about it, maybe 30 minutes prep.

Then, in game the MK would develop the characters slightly, then a player or multiple players would play through a memory.

Some characters may be dead in the setting, only alive in the memories. The main focus would be to develop the relationships between the characters and the character personalities. The players would get a hand in molding various characters and thus the future of the story.

Say a player sees a character he/she is currently playing as a threat to the character he/she has secretly focused her/his bias and energy into. They may cause the character they are playing as to be harmed just by role-playing in such a way.

It would focus on the details of life. Memories need not be just pure combat, they may have a memory of a wife remembering how her husband acted on their aniversary, and thus the player playing the husband could mold the details of the relationship.

[Mike Holmes]

You know, this might be a very cool game to break the mold with, and simply make a cast of characters that the players choose from rather than create their own.

I've called this the "Scooby-Do RPG"  concept. As in a theoretical game of that name where the characters would always be Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne.

But for this one, to have any replayability to it, you'd need new characters each time. For the Scooby-Do game, the replayability is actually sort of a joke - each game would be practically identical ending with "And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!"

OTOH, is the game intended to have any replayability? If not, then pregens that had been tested thoroughly to see that they ended up fun to play would seem to me the best option. Eliminates much of the prep. Just to be sure that every player got somebody that works for them, you could have a cast of about 20 characters to choose from.

Mike

[FzGhouL]

Replay-ability is always a plus. New Characters, new settings, new relationships. Or you could add them into one story and continue to build up an extremely complex society. Either way, I guess its up to the players.