My game: Retro Generis

[Bart Kubera]

Hello, it's my first post on this forum. I'd like to introduce to you the basic assumptions of my setting. The main idea was to mold together the atmosphere of such films as "Metropolis", "City of the lost children", "Dark city", film noir and a little bit of sci-fi flavour.

Imagine a world where people live in societies organised like greek polis ruled by a group of mysterious persons, who call themselves "Constructors". They rule with an iron hand and don't let anyone step out of the line. Their line. To keep everybody in place they've found the Agency. The Agency has numerous spies and its hit teams posses incredible powers that make them almost unstoppable. The city itself is inspired by the architecture of Prague, art-deco style, the thirties and the films I've mentioned above. Yes, there is some kind of "magic" in my setting, but do not suspect fireballs or lightning bolts. In Retro Generis we have spiritism and oniria (a specific form of dream magic allowing it's user to communicate with other dreamers, modify the reality and so on). There is also new technology based on spiritism. People learned how to put a soul into a container and transform it into energy. The result are easy to tell. We've got weapons firing soul-taking energy bullets, hovercars powered by this new form of energy, home advisors (a radio-like box with speakers containing a ghost of an ancestor, allowing the owner to talk to him when help is required), special machinery to literally change bodies and many more. The culture? Like in the twenties-thirties. Jazz, absinth, cabarets, philosophical discussions, opium smoking and so on :-) Although the players will usually play a role of some kind of a rebel against the system, I want to put the main stress on mystery, intrigue and nightmarish atmosphere.

I want to create something even a little bit original, so I'd like you to tell me, if there's already something like this on rpg market. And what do you think about this whole idea?

Sorry about bad english, I'm not very good at it. When the english version of the site is ready, I'll let you know.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Bart,

..."Constructors"....The Agency has numerous spies and its hit teams posses incredible powers that make them almost unstoppable....art-deco style....dream magic allowing it's user to communicate with other dreamers, modify the reality and so on...put a soul into a container and transform it into energy...weapons firing soul-taking energy bullets, hovercars...home advisors (a radio-like box with speakers containing a ghost of an ancestor, allowing the owner to talk to him when help is required), special machinery to literally change bodies and many more....the main stress on mystery, intrigue and nightmarish atmosphere.

I like it a lot. Dark City is a fantastic film. I like the Home Advisors and the body changing stuff a lot.

My recommendation to you is to take http://indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1896">Roy Penrod's advice, and rather than devoting all of your initial development work on detailing the setting, start by writing an example of play. You know where you're headed with the setting, so start getting a feel for how you want the game to play.

Christoffer http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1926">tried Roy's method, and I was pretty impressed with how well it worked to expose what his priorities were and get people talking about mechanics that support them.

I want to create something even a little bit original, so I'd like you to tell me, if there's already something like this on rpg market.

Have you seen W.D. Flores' http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=6932">Iron City? It has similar sensibilities.

I think you should let go of originality as a driver though. Do you remember when Leviathan, The Abyss, and Deep Star Six all came out within a few months of each other? When I was writing http://www.halfmeme.com/master.html">My Life with Master, Steve Dustin was working on http://homepage.mac.com/zoombaba/RPG/CF.html">Creature Feature, and Jonathan Nichol was working on http://www.deepsheep.com/">Frankenstein's Monsters. And sure, it gave me pause. Knee-jerk, I felt like I had poachers on my acreage. But upon reflection, I realized that was irrational. I'm convinced that games benefit from comparative reviews. Any review of of My Life with Master that mentions Steve's game or Jonathan's game, is good for their games. And any reviews of their games that mention mine is good for it. There's absolutely no downside. Originality is a pride thing, and way insignificant to what you're trying to do. Focus instead on creating a game that's excellent. I think you have a real good start.

If it was me though, maybe I'd write the example of play before reading about Iron City, just to mentally lock down my priorities before exposing them to strong outside influences.

When the english version of the site is ready, I'll let you know.

Definitely.

Paul

[chadu]

Hello, it's my first post on this forum. I'd like to introduce to you the basic assumptions of my setting. The main idea was to mold together the atmosphere of such films as "Metropolis", "City of the lost children", "Dark city", film noir and a little bit of sci-fi flavour.

(snip)

Yes, there is some kind of "magic" in my setting, but do not suspect fireballs or lightning bolts. In Retro Generis we have spiritism and oniria (a specific form of dream magic allowing it's user to communicate with other dreamers, modify the reality and so on). There is also new technology based on spiritism. People learned how to put a soul into a container and transform it into energy.

(snip)

I want to create something even a little bit original, so I'd like you to tell me, if there's already something like this on rpg market.

Well, some of the bits above sound a little like my newly-released RPG, Dead Inside (available now at RPGNow and RPGMall!). But a good chunk of what you're talking about seems interesting... especially the cultural aspects.

CU

[FredH]

Another couple of sources of possible inspiration, btw:

_Alphaville_ (the Godard film; French noir filmed on location in Paris, with only the dialogue turning it into a hardboiled space-detective movie about a computer-controlled city)

_The Monitors_ (American 1960s sf movie about aliens in trench coats who've made everything better and Run Everything; I actually found it boring and turned it off early on, but your mileage may vary)

FredH