Adversarial RPG

[Jack Spencer Jr]

If you haven't seen The Emperor's New Groove you should.  It's a hoot.  It starts a little slow and David Spade is a little annoying at first, but after he becomes a lama it picks up (you don't here that every day).

Anyway, it gave me an idea for a great RPG.  I would write the RPG and then wow you all with my cleverness, but screw that.  Writing is too much work.

Besides, I'm stuck.

The idea (and this is why I suggested watching the movie) involves dividing the players into two teams.  One team plays the heros while the other side plays the villians.

Using TENG as a model, you'd have four players, two playing Kuzco and Pacha, two playing Izma and Kronk.  The game would unfold with the "heroes" trying to get back to the palace, with the ensuing laugh and trills while the "villians" are out searching for the heroes to do away with them.

I'm stuck because I do not wish to make a TENG RPG, and not just because of possible lawsuits.  I mean there's only so much fun you can have with a lama.

So what I need is an angle.  A premise to allow for this sort of dichotomy RPG, perhaps even allowing for the concept of main hero, main villian and henchmen/sidekicks.

I am considering having one side GM the other sides scenes, so a stance need to be applied to make sure the other side is impartial.  It isn't about winning, after all.  G.I. Joe never completely beat Cobra.  Or they shouldn't've anyway.

Well, is there already such a game?
Any pointers?
Thanks.

[Damocles]

I liked the movie too. And I think you've got a good concept there. However, I think you don't need to have a good/evil dichotomy there. You could have just rival villages scheming for control of a contested field, for example. Or you could have something like a race or a scavenger hunt, rival scientific expedions who sabotage each other, business rivals, stuff like that. If you want to have a good vs. evil thing I'd make it fairly lighthearted. Thinking back to the movie, while you wouldn't want to use it directly you could easily employ a similar type of humor. As I recall, it did a lot with anachronisms and occasional fourth-wall breaking, didn't have any violence, but had just a little bit of an edge to it, occasionally. That kind of seems the right approach to me. A bit in the vein of Asterix or Lucky Luke, perhaps.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

This is really, really interesting.  I think we've all seen adverserial role-playing games before (many RPG's strike a PvP tone from time to time, others are built around this relationship).  But I've never seen a game (aside from LARP) where "teams" are used -- characters are paired or whatever.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

On 2001-07-31 04:52, Damocles wrote:
However, I think you don't need to have a good/evil dichotomy there

Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  The idea is it gives a player a chance to play the villian w/o necessarily being the GM.  Why?  Because being the GM is fun.  Most of the reviews of Burton's Planet of the Apes comments on Tim Roth's performance.  At least one review I have read states that he looks like he's having a good time.

I'll bet he is.  It's fun to be deliciously evil.  

And going back to TENG, the villian's sidekick Kronk stole the show.  It can be fun to be the second banana, too.

This sort of thing had been attempted before, most notably or widely released in TSR's Indiana Jones.  But this concept wasn't well received.  It may have actually been ahead of it's time since most gamers were bent on playing the hero at the time.  Who would play Short Round when you can be Indiana Jones?

I suppose these are the two concepts I'm toying with in this idea.

[Le Joueur]

pblock wrote:
If you haven't seen The Emperor's New Groove you should.  It's a hoot.

Anyway, it gave me an idea for a great RPG.

Besides, I'm stuck.

The idea (and this is why I suggested watching the movie) involves dividing the players into two teams.  One team plays the heros while the other side plays the villains.

Using TENG as a model, you'd have four players, two playing Kuzco and Pacha, two playing Izma and Kronk.  The game would unfold with the "heroes" trying to get back to the palace, with the ensuing laugh and trills while the "villains" are out searching for the heroes to do away with them.

I'm stuck because I do not wish to make a TENG RPG

So what I need is an angle, a premise to allow for this sort of dichotomy RPG, perhaps even allowing for the concept of main hero, main villain and henchmen/sidekicks.

I am considering having one side GM the other side's scenes,

This is very cool.

so a stance needs to be applied to make sure the other side is impartial.  It isn't about winning, after all.  G.I. Joe never completely beat Cobra.  Or they should not have anyway.

I think you may have already found your angle somewhat yourself.  Try thinking cartoons in general.  The set-up you are referring to is a result of an old script technique used to cut down on the diegetic narration (and a little overused in animated movies).

In film, thoughts, plans, motives and stuff often are communicated by dialogue.  The technique involves splitting a 'side' into two parts to allow conversations that speak what the moviemaker cannot show.  Hero and sidekick, villain and crony, these diads drive the narrative forward (The Great Race does this very well with the Lemmon/Falk and Curtis/Wood pairs and is directed by another notable Edwards).  Looked at from this point of view, very many animated movies fall cleanly into your 'angle.'

I would be really fond of it, if you were to write this 'Adversarial Role-Playing Game' rendering down the good versus evil 'buddy' animated movies down as delightfully as InSpectres game renders down the Murray vehicle Ghostbusters.

Good luck!

Fang Langford

[ This Message was edited by: Le Joueur on 2001-07-31 12:58 ]

[Jack Spencer Jr]

On 2001-07-31 12:49, Le Joueur wrote:

I would be really fond of it, if you were to write this 'Adversarial Role-Playing Game' rendering down the good versus evil 'buddy' animated movies down as delightfully as InSpectres game renders down the Murray vehicle Ghostbusters.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I don't think this idea needs to necessarily reflect an animated or even a humorous film.  I think this could work for a serious (that is, not humorous).  I just re-watched X-Men and the heroes & villians of your typical comic book would work on this level.  Pity the title Villians & Vigilantes is already taken.  It'd fit this idea better.

Cold war espionage would work, too.  Opposite side mission impossile, perhaps.

RPGs are a mostly untapped medium, aren't they.