So, Bliss Stage was the first game I demoed at GenCon, and also my first purchase of the con. As a result, I was thinking about it whenever I wasn't thinking about anything else (or being comatose) all weekend. But it wasn't until I was driving home that I wondered if the giant mecha fighting bizarre aliens in a warped/ruined cityscape flavor could just as easily be done as knights in armor fighting bizarre mythical beasts in a warped fairyland flavor. Not that I don't love the mecha thing, cuz I totally do. But I don't see any reason why you couldn't have knightly armor made from your relationship with your Anchor, your girlfriend as a loyal steed, your best friend as a lance, and your sister as a shield, for instance; and have the aliens manifest as dragons, manticores and whatnot, or other knights, or evil wizards, or whatever.

Basically I guess my point is that since battles are fought in the Dream Dimension, what that looks like is pretty flexible. Although, giant dream mecha are pretty friggin' sweet, and the anime feel is totally appropriate to the teen-violent-romantic-melodrama thing.

So, um, yeah. That's all.

Ben, thanks for writing another winner.

Cool idea. I do find that the game almost by stealth actually incorporates loads of elements from the adolescent mecha melodrama sub-genre often in not so obvious ways that may cause difficulties when translating to new sub-genres. You would need to play a few test games before rooting these out, is my guess.

Actually, had I seen this in Ben's blog: http://swingpad.com/dustyboots/wordpress/?p=171, then I'd have known how completely redundant this post was and not posted it.

Heh, sorry. But that Ben posted it way back then just proves that it's a cool idea! ^_^

In a complete non-sequitur, I wonder if Ben has read Shade's Children, by Garth Nix? It's very, very similar, complete with extradimensional alien invasion and adult "survivor" (well, sort of) leading a ragtag group of young refugees after all adults have been removed from the picture. The flavory bits are a little different, and the kids are a little younger, but all in all it's pretty close. And a fun, quick read.

Nope, haven't read the book.

I'm not really interested in alternate settings, because of the amount of re-writing of the rules necessary, but don't let me get in your way.

yrs--
--Ben

Hi, Ben!

I have no plans to rewrite anything, heh. I was just thinking that the trappings of the dreamworld seem flexible enough to handle other color-schemes, as it were.

Although, actually, I'd like to play with the default giant-mecha color myself. At least the first few times.

If you get a chance to read the book, give it a shot. Like I said, it's pretty short, so no major commitment is required.

Thanks again!

D.