hello there everybody.

i was listening to william shatners spoken word version of rocket man about 10 minutes ago and i got an idea for a game were you pick a song lyric, maybe underline a few words or sentenses and voila you have a character for a free form rpg.

the system would be pretty simple and probably be more about scene resolution than whatyacallit? -ordinary resolution?

hitpoints could maybe be the verses or something. or maybe hitpoints arent that important?

"Go on now go walk out the door
just turn around now
'cause you're not welcome anymore
weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
you think I'd crumble
you think I'd lay down and die
Oh no, not I
I will survive"
obvously this character will survive :p

and the setting and villlian could also be defined by a song lyrics. maybe the players could be up against bob dylans "man in the long black coat"
or they could play a western/horror game by the steady country beat of johnny cashs "ghost riders in the sky"?

I've done this before with games based around aspects, starting with a concept and using the lyrics to evoke it. But using aspects "just cos they sound cool" and then making them into a coherent character? That could actually be pretty fun! I'd probably work out their basic appearance too and then put them in some appropriately surreal setting, perhaps using other lyrics to set up their relationships to npcs!

Once you have these preposterous PCs you could use their overlap and the initial ideas they spark off to design setting, adjusting it to insure "party coherence" or just insuring every element has a mixture of the characters themes.

Bruno,

You definitely need to check out The Pool, which uses a descriptive paragraph to create your character, and Ribbon Drive, which uses music to inform and create the scenario, characters and plot of the game.

what if you create your character using the pool rules and your song of choice, than you create the setting based on everyones characters?

the pool is awesome, and the crazy settings created from the mixing of cool characters...also very awesome.

or maybe you could just choose three pieces of the song and mark them in different ways.
one part (could be the last vers or the bridge, just any part of the song) could be about your characters history.
the secound part would be about were your character is when the adventure begin and the last part would obviosly be about were the character is going.

could you make a system out of that? maybe reward the character when he takes the story towards his goals as stated in his song?

You should include a mechanic that allows you to say, do magic by playing different bits of song or something, you know this reminds me of the upcoming video game Brutal Legend, though obviously it'd be more then just metal, heh, you could have different genres of music be like different kingdoms, a downside though is that it'd take a lot of work getting all the music, but then again most people have way too many songs on their Ipods as it is and I could see this as a system that'd allow people that normally wouldn't be into rpgs to get into it.

Mechanics that require players to sing = instant ticket to awesome design Valhalla.

(I say Valhalla in particular because it will in fact scare most players away. Also, Wagner and, well, you know.)

you would not actually need to sing the songs though. all you need is the internet.

Btw (oh shit i just realised that you could make a great Six String Samurai game out of this idea.)

another thing that also just acured to me. maybe it's easyer (and more encouregin) to make creative characters if you have the setting done before you create the character? so if you first agree to a song that will define the setting. everyone takes a minute (or 2. i don't know:p) and places there song in context. they are alowed o change or add to the setting when it's apropriate (for example placing the "rocket man"  in "ghost riders in the sky" could justify that you change the little western town to an intergalactic mars colony with sixshooters, space banditos and loonely rocketmen burning out there fuses out there alone....maning some sort of solo rocketship...iguess it would also justify a cowboy william shatner, but that's just silly).

i don't know it just seems simpler, anyone inclined to disagre?

BrunoDeLaBomba wrote:
iguess it would also justify a cowboy william shatner