Going outside the village

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

The only non-canonical My Life with Master setting I'd consider is the surreal, modern corporate, Dilbert but even more evil one.

Why is my imagination so limited? I don't know. But that's the only one, aside from an isolated Central European town in 1805, that I'd play.

Best,
Ron

[iago]

The only non-canonical My Life with Master setting I'd consider is the surreal, modern corporate, Dilbert but even more evil one.

Damn, I thought I would have cinched ya with the subverted Arthurian one.

[Bryant]

The Master: The Don
Minions: Mafiosos
Townspeople: The Big City
Outsiders: FBI, other crime families

Yeah, I'd been thinking about something like this since I picked up the game, but -- well, the romantic/reason conflict is too important to me to drop, so I didn't see it quite like this.

Ever seen The Grifters? John Cusack as a small time con artist, Annette Bening as a small time con artist with delusions, but they aren't as important as the utterly visceral small time crime boss Bobo Justus played by Pat Hingle. There's a scene where he demands obedience out of Angelica Huston that seems to me to be the essence of the Beastial Master -- and if the last scene isn't demonstrative of a Minon using Desperation I'm not sure what is.

And there's something about the con as romance, while seeing through it is rationality. I dunno.[/i]

[joshua neff]

The Master: a designer & promoter of independent RPGs
The Minions: the people who work his booth at a celebrated RPG convention
The Town: the various gamers at the convention
The Outsiders: the judges of the Diana Jones Award

Hey, Ron, would'ya play this one?

Heh, heh, heh...

[Mike Holmes]

you could set it in a banana republic...

Master: el Presidente

Minions: Henchmen (his "cabinet"?)

Townspeople: the oppressed subjects

Outsiders: um... I'm lost here right now, but I'm sure someone will fill in the slack

Ohmigod! This is the game Junta! The Outsiders? Yer kidding, right? It's so obvious. They're the superpowers with their "foreign aid" money!

Hey, Josh, can we switch to that for tonight's game?!?

Mike

[Bob McNamee]

Oh man...

Banana Republic rises from the ashes...

MLWM is another game I want to get. Maybe set up a game for Halloween.

Think it would work over IRC for the rest of my gaming needs?

[Mike Holmes]

Think it would work over IRC for the rest of my gaming needs?

Absolutely certain of it. I think the written style would actually have some improvements over the FTF version. I can only recommend trying this.

Mike

[Bryant]

I kicked off some MLWM via MUSH and it worked like a charm. (More on it once I've gotten another couple sessions under my belt.)

[John Harper]

During our game session the other night, we were riffing on MLwM settings, and someone said, "My Life with Dungeon Master." Everyone stopped and stared. "Dude. You could totally do that." Followed by, "I think I have done that."

[Mike Holmes]

lol

[iago]

The latest bit to spring into my head involves the master being a tyrranical two-year-old (Beast Feeder!) and the minions being parents, babysitters, and relatives.  Lots of domestic household horror to be had, adults helpless in the face of the child's desires, etc.  Haven't quite figured out the Outsiders angle yet, but it'll come.

[Mike Holmes]

Dude, I'm living that one right now!

The outsiders? Easy. Grandparents. I don't even want to get into it. :-)

Mike

[Lxndr]

So it occurred to me that the Phantom of the Opera could be a Master story template.  Going off the musical because it's fresher in my mind than the book, you could have the Phantom as Master (a Beast Teacher?)...

the minions would likely include Christine Daae and Madame Giry...

the "townsfolk" are the minor employees and the opera-goers...

...and the outsiders are, oddly enough, the major staff at the opera house, the patrons and the prima donna and the other stars

(he doesn't want to impress Christine, really, he just wants to KEEP her...)

[Lxndr]

Another idea:

My Life With Bernie

Based on "Weekend at Bernie's", My Life With Bernie would involve a dead Master, and a bunch of minions who have some stake in convincing the Outsiders that the Master is alive.

[b_bankhead]

God I've got to get this game.  I want to run a Cthulhu Mythos version of this so bad I could taste it:

Master: Wilbur Whateley
Minions: Cultists
Townfolk: Dunwich Residents
Outsiders: Investigators

Master: Herbert West
Minions: Medical Students
Townfolk: Miskatonic U
Outsiders: Investigators

Master:Obed Marsh
Minions: Half Human Deep Ones
Townfolk: Innsmouth residents
Outsiders: Investigators

I've been working on the idea of games that repair what I think is wrong with Call of Cthulhu, Inspectres was one, now I can add another to the list...