Heliopolice

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I had a dream.

Last night, I mean.

In the dream, I was a forensic investigator...kinda like CSI or something. 'Cept instead of investigating crime scenes in order to determine cause of death and catch the perp who did the crime, I was working for Death. My mission? Find out if the death was supposed to happen...was it planned or was it the result of some accounting error?

I woke up.

In the shower, I came up with the name Heliopolice. The Egyptian afterlife, Heliopolis, plus "police" -- Death's own version of CSI. It made too much sense...the Egyptian afterlife, the balance, the feather of truth weighed against the deceased's heart...

So the game is this: you are a member of the Heliopolice. You serve Death. Your task is to investigate mortal deaths to determine if the death was "justified" and "by the book." Then you put in your recommendation -- the death either happens as planned or it's never carried out (this is possible because Death exists "outside of time").

Oh, and Mummies are the result of beauracratic errors.

It'll be an InSpectres supplement...something else for the pile.

[Matt Snyder]

You know, it's one thing when his games beat mine in Ken Hite's Outies.

It's a whole other thing entirely when his dreams are better than mine.

And I quote:

"YOURS ARE BETTER THAN MINE I HATE YOU." -- Jared A. Sorensen, RPG.net post

[Ron Edwards]

I'm thinking that it's the shower. Jared always puts it all together in the shower.

Do you think we all might ... you know ... try Jared's shower? Or does Jared have to be in it? And that would mean ... you know ...

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Best,
Ron

[Bankuei]

Why do I get the feeling that Jared's shower is not very different than the magic closet out of Being John Malcovich?

Chris

[Derek Devlin]

At least Jared can turn his dreams into an RPG. I only remember stuff from dreams like Leonard Cohen singing a James Bond theme about the head of a snake cult or the whole dream being in comic panels where Linus is called in to investigate serial killings in Riverdale(the clues point to Reggie, but Archie was the real killer).

Not much RPG goodness to be derived from that, I reckon.

Derek Devlin

[Maurice Forrester]

serial killings in Riverdale
....
Not much RPG goodness to be derived from that, I reckon.

Are you kidding?  I'd love to play in that game!

[jburneko]

See, I almost never post in the design forum because I always feel like I'm intruding in someone's creative space.  Now, I'm posting in YOUR forum which makes me feel like I'm intruding even MORE.  However, this idea is just so damn cool I can't help but comment.  You can charge me with breaking and entering latter.

1) This idea is SO cool, I think it's deserving of it's own system.  Sure it's investigative and InSpectres is designed to do investigation, but it's got it's own moral meat to it that I think is deserving of it's own ground up treatment.

2) I also think this idea might benefit from a design philosophy similar to that of The Riddle of Steel.  That is, a fairly "traditional" (I hate that word) Simulationist motor driving a Narrativist mode of play, particularly with regard to Situation.

See, the way I see this working is that the GM is entirely responsible for front loading Situation or more like Backstory (ala R-Maps and stuff).  But unlike a Call of Cthulhu game where there's some really big nasty FORCE-OF-EVIL behind it all which MUST be stopped, instead, it all ends up being one big sticky moral knot which the players must then pass judgement upon and decide if poor Joe who's cheating on his wife but regularly paying his daughter's tuition really deserves to be shot by that mugger, who needed the money for his grandmother's operation.

But that's just the way I'd like to play this game.  

Jesse