Trying to make everybody happy around the gaming table I once thought of a joke campaign for a d20 game with all the pretty things my players wanted.
What was it that they wanted? Well... to name a few: Survival/Gothic Horror, Lovecraft Horror, Samurais, Western/Steampunk, Pulp/Noir and Cyberpunk. It was a challenge. I started thinking about how the hell could I be able to mix all of the above into one setting, one long walk after, I had the base idea for a game, wich can be both serious or humorous.

Project Eclectic setting is divided into various geographical zones, each one supporting different kinds of games genres.

A federation of allied industrial steampunk level nations wich suports pulp/noir kind of games for detective players or even a mimic of the cyberpunk games abot break, enter and steal information from a corporation. If you feel more action oriented you can join the military, the police or black ops.

A nation ruled by wizards that depends on slaves for resources production, you can have mid to low fantasy adventures in this area.

A desert like zone full of rich minerals for those who need a western like adventure

A mysterious dark land land ruled by nobles fighting off the children of the night for those who love the gothic horror genre

Marshes full of eldritch abominations hiding beneath the land and among the suspicious villagers if you need some lovecraft on you or even some survival horror

A gulf with the occassional pirate for the swashbucklery and the roguish.

A far away land with oriental flavour based on ancient China and Japan for the honourable samurai and the sneaky ninja lovers.

And tight political relationships between various of the countries that form the main continent of the game and even between factions inside each country for those who like to play diplomacy focused games

Some areas I've dedicated more thought than others as you can clearly tell from my descriptions, but my current problem is  that I dont know how to approach to mechanical design. I want dice rolling since I always find it entertaining as well as my players, but I cant decide if I should go for something like GURPS or d20 in wich you have a target number and you roll, apply modifiers and compare or if I should opt for something like WoD or Shadwrun in wich you roll various dice and see if any of those equals or beats the TN.

I'm slightly biased in favour to the second option, since I recently though that at character creation players could chose a genre in wich they are "Genre Savvy" wich gives the a die pool for tests related to said genre.

I think the game should encourage cinematic actions by rewarding with extra die or by lowering TN if the actions of the players are awesome/funny/surprisingly good enough to work telling from the description of the action by the player.

Lately I've been thinking that narration of the result of the character's action should fall upon the player, each one can participate that way, the GM can be entertained by good narrations as well as everybod else in the table.

So, with all of the above said, can you help me finding the way I want to follow through the design of the game?

Your setting kind of reminds me of RIFTS. That's not a bad thing, just try to have a better rules system than RIFTS.

Yes, this mash up things ussually dont end well, but this is mostly intended to be played by me and my friends.

Rules wise, I seems to always get to something similar to shadowrun or burning wheel, yet I never seem to be able to decide, after all, I have dice of various kinds and it would be a shame to waste them.

My intention is to have a somewhat simple rules set, some of my friends have trouble understanding d20 even after three years of game!

Have you tried the Ubiquity system for Hollow Earth Expedition?
It's a nice, simple universal system. It would probably work for this.

Never heard of it, I'll look it up. Thanks!

setting reminds me of TORG.
If done right can be very interesting.

As far as mechanics go perhaps you could design something that can be used in both ways (1d.vsT#/d.pool vs T#) you describe?,then let the individual groups decide what they prefer.

Skofflox wrote:
setting reminds me of TORG.
If done right can be very interesting.

As far as mechanics go perhaps you could design something that can be used in both ways (1d.vsT#/d.pool vs T#) you describe?,then let the individual groups decide what they prefer.

I just had an idea, so I intend to create a multi genre game, right? Obviously, different genres are associated with different skills, so maybe there could be a standard and a simplified way to use some skills in the game. Use the standard when needed, the simplified if it´s a just for flavour skill or rarely used.

yes! I thought so

Coplantor wrote:

Skofflox wrote:
setting reminds me of TORG.
If done right can be very interesting.

As far as mechanics go perhaps you could design something that can be used in both ways (1d.vsT#/d.pool vs T#) you describe?,then let the individual groups decide what they prefer.

Let me check if I understood, by "(1d.vsT#/d.pool vs T#)" you mean 1 die vs target number as in d20 and dice pool vs target number as storyteller, shadowrun, etc, right?

Unless you want a three hundred page rule book, you'll be keeping everything simple/light on - not too heavy on the realism, although it sounds like you've already got that covered. (Re-reads the thread so far) yeah sorry, I'm typing my train-of-thought, so apologies in advance for anything stupid/already covered. Just some system questions -

How will your system cope with a wizard launching magical bolts at a hacker in cyberspace?
Will there be cross-over between regions?
How will a ninja compete with a battle-mech-outfitted demon?
Etc.

Well, the first part by not having a cyberspace and the second one by not having mechs and demons =P

But I understand what you say. Yes, regions are supposed to cross over, sometimes your federal agents will have a  ission in the far west or in the lovecraftean swamps.

I'll go with an atribute, skill and special ability kind of stats, WoD had something like that right? You use X dice and try to roll over a target number. X equals your skill rating + your atribute, that way you could use Combat + STR to make an attak, Combat + Perception to spot a weakness in your enemy's style, etc...

As for atributes, I was thinking of Strength, Agility, Endurance/Stamina, Intelligence, Perception and Charisma.

Is anyone here familiar with the framwerk system of Cthulhuteh? Seems fun and apropiate, but I dont think it makes a good curve and sometimes it might be a bit complex, specially when playing tired.

chronoplasm wrote:
Your setting kind of reminds me of RIFTS. That's not a bad thing, just try to have a better rules system than RIFTS.