LoserQuest: Slowly destroying all tolerance for others.

[Suvordaeus]

Hello, everyone.  I'm pretty new here, but I have lurked on the boards for a little while.  Anyways, I have created a system (see signature) and I'm working on a setting that should offend some people: LoserQuest.  The idea is, in the near future, the Earth is so over-populated and polluted that almost everyone who isn't poor or annoying buys passage onto a spaceship into outer space.  Those who remain are the losers and their rare masters, the success stories.  The losers fight constantly over the right to work for a success story, and diplomacy rarely gets past, "Give me your job or I will shoot you (or stab you, or burn you, or yell very loudly at you, or spatula-tize you, etc.)."  After all, these people live in a wasteland and sleep in piles of junk.  Because of the constant fighting, the system is based almost entirely on combat resolution; everything else is done ad hoc or resolved with an OoC discussion (and I wouldn't have it any other way).  The setting does not have magic, but instead focuses on ridiculous exaggerations of the character's occupation (the File Clerk can throw a razor-sharp invoice, for example).  This brings me to the point of the title: making fun of people who are not like us (well, there are a few geek classes, so that counts me as a loser too).  The loser classes include the Illegal Immigrant, the Televangelist, the Vegan Pagan Hippie, the Sleazy Politician, the Liberal Coffee-House Poet, the Conservative Gun-Nut Hick, and many others (a total of 50).  There is the option to play as 2 weak characters because some players don't want to bring out the personality of one and would rather be flip-floppers and choose two.  A player can also choose one strong character.  There are exactly as many strong characters as weak ones.

This is all going to be put in a book (70-100 pages) and sold.  Once I am able to finish it.  I am planning on having a page for each loser, a section on the COR system, a large section on the setting, strategy tips, and a few brief "action shots" establishing what the characters can do in an ideal game.

With all that out of the way, I can ask my question.  This game is aimed at beginner RPG players, so I should probably include an intro for beginner players and GMs.  However, I am terrible at writing this kind of thing.  If anyone here has good advice for beginner GMs (and a little for players), I would greatly appreciate it.  The game also needs playtesters for long-term balance; I could supply you with all the rules you need if you are interested.

Thanks for reading.

[Robin Hood]

Dude, your post made me laugh. But I have to be frank here - I can't see many people wanting to play this game, let alone shell out their hard-earned cash for it.

I have had many similarly stupid ideas, and laughed a great deal about them with my mates, but they went further than that. Reason? They are just note saleable.

I hope I am not being too harsh, but you have to think of the end-user when taking your much treasured ideas to the next step.

[contracycle]

There is the option to play as 2 weak characters because some players don't want to bring out the personality of one and would rather be flip-floppers and choose two.  A player can also choose one strong character.  There are exactly as many strong characters as weak ones.

This is the most interesting element of the game you have proposed.  Would you expand on what you want this to do, and how you aim to achieve it?

[Suvordaeus]

Wow.  I am surprised that this got a response after so long (and thank you, by the way).  Robin Hood, I honestly don't care if the game sells a single copy.  It was (and still is) fun to make, and Lulu dosn't charge anything for start-up or have a minimum print run...thingy.  You're definitely right about the money part, though--so I'll make a free version with less features.  I could probably release it in about 2 weeks, if I got some playtesters to check the bugs (hint, hint).  And if people like the idea, they've played LQ Lite, and they're still laughing, then they could choose to buy the big one.  Besides, the COR system is pretty friendly to developers, so even with the free one, you could make your own losers or aliens or dragons or furries.  The big one will just make that a little easier.

Contracycle, I'm glad to hear that you're interested.  The focus of LoserQuest is the characters, and the fact that they're so stereotypical makes roleplaying them much easier.  For example, Francisco the Illegal Immigrant only speaks Spanish, so he must communicate his ideas via pantomime.  An "Ay-ay-ay!" occasionally also helps.  Compare this to the former saint Francis, who has an intricate backstory, the ability to summon demons (though he doesn't understand how he does it), and enough inner moral conflict to make Beelezebub weep.  Seeing as roleplaying one is easier, it makes roleplaying two reasonable for a player.  Also, it makes sense from a rules standpoint.  There are several "spells" that cause a target to lose an action (or several), which sometimes disables a character for a full round.  If a player has two characters, one will still be able to act; the result is more fun (yay!).  Also, on every playtest attempt I've done, at least one player can't decide between two characters.  I figure, if a player likes the game and is enthusiastic about playing, he's going to be a good influence on the rest of the group.  If he likes two characters, and it would ruin his fun if he could only choose one, why rain on his parade?  Rules-wise, the PC party strength rules are directly related to NPC party strength rules.  The rough draft I am currently using lets 2 20-pt. characters substitute one 25-pt. character.  2 20-pt. characters have significantly less hp, making them less of a challenge, but they can fill 2 specialty roles in a party, allow better strategic placement (Teamwork bonus, if you've read the rules) and act more frequently, leading to (hopefully) a balance in power.  Currently, there seems to be an advantage given to a party with more weak characters, one which I hope to correct.
The game is not aimed at hard-core roleplayers, but more at casual gamers who play to relax, often spontaneously.  The rules are simple enough that you can just pull an NPC party out of a hat, at the drop of a hat.  Still, most characters have some strategic depth, mainly in character creation, but also in special attack and defense options.  I'm trying to reach a balance between speed and strategy, and it's leaning more towards strategy the more time wears on.
Geez, I'm really rambling.  Thanks for reading all that.

[Blankshield]

A couple suggestions on things to read:

Your description of the setting made me immediately think of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.  (made famous in movie form as Bladerunner)

Your description of the characters immediately made me think of H.O.L by Black Dog press.

If you haven't already, you might want to check out those two sources.

James

[contracycle]

The focus of LoserQuest is the characters, and the fact that they're so stereotypical makes roleplaying them much easier.

Or frankly racist, as the example seems to suggest.

Do you mean that you specifically intend for each player to have one powerfula and one useless character?   I was specifically interested in your remark about their numbers being equal.

[Suvordaeus]

Sorry if this wasn't clear, but a player can choose two 20 pt. characters as an option, or instead choose one 25 pt. character.  There are twenty-five pre-made 20 pt. characters, and twenty-five pre-made 25 pt. characters.  Two 20 pt. characters have roughly equal power to each other.  

The rough draft I am currently using lets 2 20-pt. characters substitute one 25-pt. character. 2 20-pt. characters have significantly less hp, making them less of a challenge, but they can fill 2 specialty roles in a party, allow better strategic placement (Teamwork bonus, if you've read the rules) and act more frequently, leading to (hopefully) a balance in power.

I admit I was rambling, so it was probably hard to catch that.  On the topic of racism, I do not favor any race, I do not believe I am racist, and I consider the Illegal Immigrant to be just a joke.  I failed to mention that the Illegal Immigrant is modeled after those from the movie Bowfinger, who are the only people in the entire movie who don't have ridiculous neuroses or huge egoes, and are actually skilled, hardworking people.  They were just chosen at random from a bunch of people running over the border and shooting at the INS (Ven aqui, ven aqui!).  
Also, it is my opinion that the purpose of roleplaying is to relax by escaping into a world where things are different, and to be someone who can do things that you never could in real life.  (This may just be a Simulationist view.)  I think that stereotypes are funny, even though I don't believe them.  If it helps me to escape by going into a world where funny stereotypes exist, then I'll make and play a setting with stereotypes.
Blankshield, I saw the Bladerunner movie, and I can definitely see some parallels.  The "sprawling dystopian metropolis" feel isn't what I envision LoserQuest as, though.  I see it more as a "Road Warrior"-type setting, but I think that a few urban areas could exist, in the shadow of the Success Stories' spires.
In other news, I am working on the demo.  The classes it will include are:
Conservative Gun-Nut Hick, Hobo, Ice Cream Man, Liberal Coffee-House Poet (those were all 25 pt.), Anime Voice Actor, Day Care Lady, Fisherman, Used Car Salesman, and Vegan Pagan Hippie.  Still working on how to get it to look like a real .pdf, though (I am using pdf995, a free converter program).  Thanks for reading all that.

[Larry L.]

So, um, will Game Designer With Axe To Grind be one of the templates here?

[Blankshield]

Given your clarification on what feel you wanted, allow me to strongly suggest another source:

octaNe by Jared A Sorenson.

Buy it, read it, play it.  You won't be a better person for it, but you'll have hella fun.

James

[Suvordaeus]

Blankshield, I read the octaNe intro, and now I will labor day and night to get a monkey into LoserQuest.  I figure that it's halfway between Psychotropic and Grindhouse (is that even possible?), because characters take obscene amounts of damage (the Liquor Store Clerk can get shot by a 12-gauge shotgun twice and still fight well), but character death just doesn't exist unless the player whines about it.  The idea is, as long as the player can narrate what's happening to his character, how he just sneezed on the guy standing over him with a gun, and how getting sawed in half by a Lumberjack relieved his heartburn, he won't kick the bucket.  LoserQuest actually does seem to be pretty similar (in some respects) to octaNe, so I am hoping to buy it whenever possible.

The free demo is...harder than expected.  Being a one-man design team, the only skills I have to draw on are my own.  I do, however, have a number of illustrators willing to do their part, and the responses on this thread have been helpful.  Still, the illustrators have thir own issues, and that means that an illustrated version is a month or two away.  
I don't know how important people consider illustrations to be (I really don't care, but some people must), so feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for continuing to read.