a pair of fantastic ideas

[signoftheserpent]

Here are some ideas i am tryting to develop; some feedback would be appreciated.

1. Martian Book fo the Dead - a steampunk horror game. the premise revolves around the planet Mars being the home of the lands of the dead which are themselves a kind of shadowlands-mets-arabian nights setting. in the 19th century members of the Royal Society for Extraordinary Phenomena dsicover a means to travel to the lands of the dead, known locally as the Red Empire of the Scarab, This is the fables source of the wisdom held within the occult holy grail known as the Atlantean Book of the Dead (a recording of channled information taken from the lands of the dead). Through their investigation into the Red Empire the society members discover that something bad is brwwing in the underworld as the evil former ruler of the Empire seeks to overthrow his grandson in a quest for conquest that thretens the earth. the idea is ghostbusters meets cthulhu meets buffy (in terms of pulpy style) meets the mummy meets falkenstein. its implausible, fun horror with wierd science and b movie/steampunk sensibilities.

2. Olympus' Shadow - a war between the Band of Superheros and their enemies, the Crime Syndicate, reaches a cresendo as the two sides fac off aboard the Band's 'Olympus Alpha' space station; but in a blinding flash its all over as everyone is knocked out by an alien force. they awake to find themselves transported aboard a massive worldship amidst a lifelike replica of the earth that has since been destroyed. they were rescued by aliens who were unable to stop earth being destroyed. the heroes and villains learn these aliens have spent centuries tracking down the destructive aliens whom they regard as bitter enemies since theirt world shared the same fate. they have recruited the humans in order to preserve their culture and help save others with the hope of one day defeating these marauders. now the humans must put aside their differences in order to survive together and preserve their heritage and hopefully help other races.

***

what thinkest thou?

-S

[Andrew Martin]

Welcome to The Forge!

[signoftheserpent]

48 people have looked and only 1 reply, and that wasnt even regarding my ideas. perhaps not the place to post ideas then.

s

[Roy]

Hi and welcome to the Forge!

perhaps not the place to post ideas then.

Personally, I find the Forge to be a great place to discuss game design and actual play issues with a bunch of very opinionated and interesting people.  

We're also blessed with the presence of several great independent game designers such as Ron Edwards, John Wick, Mike Holmes, Ralph Mazza, Jared Sorensen, Scott Knipe and many others (sorry if I missed you).

I've noticed that specific questions generally get the best responses while general "what do you think" threads don't get as many responses.  

What type of feedback do you want from the community on your ideas?

Roy

[jrients]

what thinkest thou?

1)  Looks interesting.  I think it would make a great Adventure! campaign.  As a standalone game, I'd like to hear more about mechanics before passign judgement.

2)  You say "world ship" and I think "Synnibarr", so I guess that part at least is a big turnoff.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I'm Ron - the Forge administrator who exercises authority about the boards' content. I'd like to welcome you here, as others have done, and to ask you to bear two things in mind. (1) Most people here take some time to think about a reply, rather than to type immediately upon reading a post. (2) Many people also like to let a discussion develop slowly before pitching in - this is not a "fire and forget" site, but a slow-paced symposium site. Therefore, for both these reasons, the number of "read" hits tends to skyrocket relative to replies. I suggest that you not pay much attention to the "read" hits, and also that you consider two to three days a reasonable window for replying, rather than a few hours.

As Roy pointed out, no really strong reply is possible because we don't have much to work with. It's hard to guess and then ask something.

Are you discussing these ideas in terms of ...

a) Publishing them for sales or wide-distribution purposes? If so, in what format?

b) Playing them among acquaintances only?

c) Making them available in a grassroots, non-distributed manner? (e.g. download on a website)

Providing an idea of the games' intended basic "identity" in these material terms will help me a lot, at least.

Best,
Ron

[signoftheserpent]

these are just ideas for setting that i have had (amongst others) that are wotht exploring. whether anythign will come of them is another matter. i would like to develop them as fully fledged games, but whether they will become professional products or remain just for my own enjoyment is also another matter.

i habe no idea what synnibarr is or why it would have any connection to concept 2 either.

thanks for the welcome.

s

[Shreyas Sampat]

s-

I like "Martian Book of the Dead."  It's a really weird, exciting idea.  Full of neat colour - the Red Empire of the Scarab's just cool.  That said, I don't think you've told us what makes this a horror game; it looks like pure fantastical steampunk to me.  Is there something Horrible in the Deeps of Space?

On the flip side, "Olympus' Shadow" turns me off.  The whole benevolent aliens safety net, the worldship, superheroes, randomly evil aliens with no motivation...
...it's a lot of stuff, and I don't feel like everything works for everything else.  The superheroes bit, especially, seems very much tacked onto a fairly workable space opera situation.
That said, I like the idea that the aliens only saved the humans to use them in their own petty vengeance war.  (Okay, that's a highly unfavorable interpretation.)  I see a lot of opportunities for the "nice aliens" to use their human buddies as ignorant pawns, or shock troops that make abig mess before they're shit down.  Maybe that's what they do - throw civilizations at their counterparts to slow their pursuit.
Maybe they're really having a weird kind of civil war.
Maybe everything you know is wrong.

[Drew Stevens]

1. Der Martin Book of the Dead thing sounds like it would actually be a rolicking good Call of Cthulu by Gaslight game, if you removed the more pulpy elements.  That'd be a great suprise to spring on the players at the end.  
'You stand alone on the rocky red wastes of Mars, having traveled here to end the influx of horror to your home.  From the mists and gravel, a low moan arises... as a thousand thousand thousand shades rise up.  You recognize some faces- you dead mother, an old elementry teacher, a favorite friend who drowned a year ago.  And, with dawning apprehension as the ghosts close in, you realize- there is no heaven nor hell for the dead.  Nor do they even wander the earth or be reborn- only the dust trackless face of Mars, forever.'

Hell, I might steal that. ;)

Or, if you want to keep the more pulpy bits, then yeah- it virrtually is Adventure! campaign.

2. Eh... I'm more ambivelent about this one.  Can't explain terribly well why, but it radiates unappealingness.

[signoftheserpent]

The Book of the Dead originated from a Vicotiran take on ghostbusters which is in itse;lf Lovecraftian (complete with supernatura;l literature). the people opf the Red Empire and Mars in general are the soul of the dead who now exist in a strange arabian nights style setting. they interact with the living through conventional hauntings and ghostly phenomena. the real demon and horrible monster types exist outside the Scarab Lands across somethign called the river of souls, which is a vast deep and wholly impenetrable canyon filled with fast flowing and turbulent soul energy. The Book of the Dead itself was the result of channeled messages from the Scarab Lands as set down in ancient atlantis.
the motive for the game derives from the formerly deposed King of the Scarab Lands, Imhotep, who became evil and power crazed and bent on preserving his rule forever. he was deposed by his son, Prince Anekh, who banished him to the river of souls. however imhotep survived and now marshals his forces in the hinterlands with armies of demons ready to strike at both the lands of the living and the Red Empire. he still has allies loyal to him in the Imperial court and has caused his on to be banished.
the players are members of a London based scientific organisation committed tyo studying the paranormal. they have met with a woman called Madame Blavaria who is a gifted if ill-reputable clairvoyant and the last remaining descdant of the atlantean tradition. she has made contact with a myseterious individual known as Anekh and they seek the scientists help in location the Book which anekh needs to defeat his father before it is too late.
as with ghostbusters, strange things begin manifesting all over the world as the forces of evil begin gathering. however the scientists are betrayed as one of their own, an inventor knwon as Edward Argossy Darklite, succeeds in inventing a means (thats the steampunk angle) to travel between the worlds. here he meets with imhotep's allies and offers his services to the deposed evil tyrant in order to himself gain immortaility.

thus the players fight monsters and ghosts through the fog shrouded streets of Old London town while their allies (those with the gift and other senstivies, including the mysterious Yogis of Swama Vishanti) work to find the Book and fight the denizens of the Red Empire (and beyond).

s

[szilard]

Actually, the second setting could be very interesting. A lot depends on the tone and themes you go for...

If I were developing it, I'd emphasize character motivation and conflict. Develop characters as superheroes or supervillains with standard motivations (Defend Justice, Punish Evildoers, Take Over The World, etc.) and then throw them into a situation where those motivations don't quite fit. How do they cope? Do they adjust their outlook (trying to fit their world-view onto an alien world)? Do they cling to their old goals no matter how irrelevant they are? Do they hold to their old rivalries or do they work together?

I think I might also leave it open as to whether the Earth was actually destroyed. Some may not trust the aliens (are we sure they even tried to save they earth?). Some might try to find their way back (to what?). These are potentially interesting options and probably shouldn't be automatically precluded.

I think that this would also work best if the player characters (who should, ideally, include both heroes and villains) are the ONLY survivors (as far as they know, at least... there may turn out to be other "teams" like them...). Otherwise I would find it very unlikely for the heroes and villains to work together.

~szilard

[signoftheserpent]

>If I were developing it, I'd emphasize character motivation and conflict. Develop characters as superheroes or supervillains with standard motivations (Defend Justice, Punish Evildoers, Take Over The World, etc.) and then throw them into a situation where those motivations don't quite fit. How do they cope?

thats really what its meant to be. the characters are meant ot be almost copies of exisitng comicbook types and the group of pcs meant to be made up of heroes and villains who are thrown together by circumstance as never before. there also needs to be some system whereby they are forced to act 'human' otherwise they wil lose their own identities. tnhis is why its important that earth doesnt exist anymore: they are the only living memor of their homeworld and their own internal conflicts could destroy that.

>I think I might also leave it open as to whether the Earth was actually destroyed. Some may not trust the aliens (are we sure they even tried to save they earth?). Some might try to find their way back (to what?). These are potentially interesting options and probably shouldn't be automatically precluded.

the aliens only ever preserve superhero types from whatever worlds they encounter (such as earth). they do not immediately admit this, but when interacting with other tlaiens this will become clear (interaction will have to happen as the aliens want them to become a cohesive force to beaet thir enemeis). the worldshp environemtn is meant to be a corss between the holodeck, the tardis and the fortress of solitie. it is a surrogate earth that cna be used for adventures, but not a complete gameworld and certainly not the focus of the setting.

>I think that this would also work best if the player characters (who should, ideally, include both heroes and villains) are the ONLY survivors (as far as they know, at least... there may turn out to be other "teams" like them...). Otherwise I would find it very unlikely for the heroes and villains to work together.

thje only stumbling block is in finding material for varying adventures. its too easy to have every adventure the same: pcs aboard ship help save another world from the marauders and bring them aboard the ship while their planet is destroyed.

s

[Roy]

the aliens only ever preserve superhero types from whatever worlds they encounter (such as earth). they do not immediately admit this, but when interacting with other tlaiens this will become clear (interaction will have to happen as the aliens want them to become a cohesive force to beaet thir enemeis).

Perhaps the aliens don't just preserve those with superhuman powers, but also make them through a selective breeding program.

Roy

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

S, given your answers to my questions, I'm afraid that your ideas needed to be baked a bit more before presenting here.

It's fine to start with setting, as you've done. That would be a fine discussion here.

However, there doesn't seem to be anything in your mind about all this but setting. Unless I'm mistaken, you aren't working on games at all - you're chatting about neat ideas that could be a game, someday, if someone were to build a game around them.

Discussing settings as ideas, without reference to a game system or other aspects of real role-playing games, isn't useful here. At best, it's a creative idea-fest which is better held elsewhere (e.g. private email, discussion lists). At worst, it can go on forever and ever, with no actual ground gained toward the existence of the game itself.

However, I could be wrong. Maybe you are interested in setting up a more cohesive set of concepts about all aspects of your games, but aren't sure how to get started. In that case, here's my question for you: why not use GURPS? These ideas are very much like the stuff that used to fill the GURPS fanzines back in the 1980s. Or if not GURPS, why not use JAGS? Or D20? Or Fudge? Or any number of other useful game-engines specifically designed to plug-in settings?

In other words, I don't see any particular reason why these ideas merit building unique role-playing games around them. That reason may exist - I'm not saying it doesn't. I am saying that it's not showing up in this thread.

Best,
Ron

[signoftheserpent]

they are ideas for possible game settings, just the same as any other set of ideas. people will either like them or hate them or not give a hoot either ways. seems a bit odd to say that this isnt the palce to discuss such ideas, however i wont bother then if thats the way it is.

s