I am Not An Elf, I Just Play One On The Weekend: Stuff I Want To Run/Play
So, I've been sifting through all my RPGs a loot lately, for reading material at work and what-not, and at this point I've got a pretty big list of random ideas for stuff that sounds fun. So I'm going to try and straighten them out by trapping them on digital paper. So here we go, presented in descending amount of 'God, I want to try this!'
Monsters and Other Childish Things
This is at the top of my list. Found out about it from RPG.Net, grabbed a copy at Gencon, love the everloving hell out it.
It's like Pokemon. Except your Pokemon is a fractal representation of a ninth-dimensional space squid, with tentacles that can reach through time. And your best friend has Einstein as Shiva, with crazy hair, four arms, and a third eye that dispenses atomic wisdom and atomic death in equal measure. And that girl that you have a desperate crush on and can't talk to without feeling like you're going to throw up has a swarm of zombie rats that disguises itself as a smelly hobo with a baggy old coat and floppy hat. And last week Albert the Destroyer got feisty during PE and blew out one wall of the gym, so you've all got detention, and she's crying because her rats ate her sister's poodle when it tried to chase them this morning and she's going to get yelled at when she gets home, and you're trying to think of something awesome to say to her to make her feel all better and maybe even notice you, but that bully that always picked on you is sitting two seats over and your squid is whispering to you dark paeans of vengeance and asking to be allowed to rip of all his toes and fingers and you're pretty sure that'd be bad but he keeps looking over at you and sneering and you're thinking about saying yes.
And that's before you add in cliques, wizards, family, mad scientists, grades, Men in Black, the angry vice-principal that hates you, and unknowable creatures from beyond the stars that feed on your misery.
Seriously, if you can't dig that, we can no longer be friends.
I don't really have any particular campaign in mind for this, but I don't think I'd really need one. Just have the players make some kids, give them each a monster (or maybe have them make their own, or for the terribly cruel, each others'), grab some 10-siders, and go wild with the crazy (Hey, my preferred GMing style!).
On the bright side, I may actually get to run this one soon. Got some vacation time set aside to go to Tokyo in Tulsa with some friends this year, and I'm going to see if they're willing to give it a whirl. I think they'd have a blast with it. One can hope!
D&D 4E
I never got into 3rd edition enough to buy any of the books. I got by using other people's books, the SRD, character generators, and... other sources. When I started hearing about the way they were changing D&D for 4th edition, I was intrigued. It sounded like it'd be pretty cool. So when it came out last year, I went in whole-hog and bought the box set of the first three books and it was, indeed, just as need as I though it would be, and now I own almost every single book they've put out for the line.
The problem here is that most of the people in my current gaming group don't share my enthusiasm for this edition. They're all 3rd and 3.5 fans, they've been playing in the same world for as long as those editions have been around, and they're comfortable there. The relative lack of enthusiasm they have for the new ruleset filters into their actions at the table, and it makes the game a bit less fun. (It's also less fun, for me anyways, because we're playing in their world, which means that the half of the table who hasn't been there through everything can sometimes feel like an accessory to their story. But we'll see how that goes.)
All that aside, I still enjoy messing around with the rules and plotting out various character ideas, and I do have a couple of game ideas I'd like to flesh out and try running.
All-Dwarf Party: If you can get a group to go along with a theme party, you can play with some ideas that wouldn't work well in a mixed group. I'm pulling a lot of inspiration from the Roanoke legends, Tolkien's Moria and the image of dwarves as surly isolationists here. The PCs would be members of a exploration party sent forth to begin reclamation of the ancient stronghold of dwarven kings, lost to darkness centuries ago. Play up a lot of distrust between races, and have the PCs' actions shape race relations for the whole world.
Scion
I love the concept: you play the children of the ancient gods fighting the reawakened titans in the modern day. The books are well-done and they've got a pretty good spread of pantheons all written up to use. (Greek/Roman, Egyptian, Norse, Japanese, Aztec, and Voodoo in the core, Irish, Hindu, and Chinese in the companion) There are a few problems with running the game, though. The big one is that if you're going to GM, you'll want to know your mythology so you can tie in a character's pantheon to make it feel appropriately mythic, and the more players you have, the more of a chance you'll need to know about 3 or 4 different bodies of myth. The other problem is that it's sometimes hard to think up a good storyline to use. Nothing wrong with beating up centaur bikers and shooting medusae in the face, but you've got to have something to tie it all together, and it gets trickier when you hit demigod or god levels of power.
Whatever Happened To The American Dream: In the Companion, they've got a little alt-setting where you play Scions during WW2. Part of the setting is 'pantheons' for the Allied Powers: folklore heroes that became so iconic they ascended into Godhood, or were already the children of Gods themselves. (The Axis powers don't get their own pantheons; the Norse gods are backing the Germans at the behest of Loki, the semidivine Caligula and Romulus have drugged Zeus and are getting the Greek Gods to support Italy, and the Japanese pantheon is making a power grab.) I saw the writeup for the American pantheon and came up with this. The characters are approached by Hermes or another messenger, told of their divine nature, and that their help is needed. Uncle Sam is missing, and if he's killed using the proper rituals, it will spell the end of America. The characters have to figure out who has him, if they plan to do this, and save him if they can. Basically, for inspiration, go grab everything by Neil Gaiman and maybe Tim Powers and read it all, then burn it and freebase the resultant ashes. It'll work, trust me.
Of course, that's just the big three. With all the books I read/buy/*cough*, I accumulate a lot of things I want to try.
Anima: Beyond Fantasy
Fabulously pretty book, semi-crunchy ruleset, complicated-yet-comprehensive character creation. I could not make my current group play this if I had a doomsday device.
Unhallowed Metropolis
Fighting undead, mad science, and your own inner demons in a Neo-Victorian post-apocalyptic world. You'll be the death of yourself, if the zombies aren't, but you'll look stylish in gas masks and rubber corsets all the way down. I may have to put toogether a one-shot for this some day, just for kicks.
Cthulhutech
Fight against a cold, uncaring universe and the horrors within with giant robots, symbiotic battle-armor from beyond, and magics and psychic talents that may drive you mad. Because the only thing better than hitting Cthulhu with a steamboat is hitting him with a 50-foot war machine. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone else in the group shares my unholy love for giant robots.
Well, that's everything that's catching my eye on what I can see of my bookshelf. I'll try to post more of my gaming thoughts and ideas as they come to me. (I mean it, I really will try to post more, honest! Stop laughing!)
Monsters and Other Childish Things
This is at the top of my list. Found out about it from RPG.Net, grabbed a copy at Gencon, love the everloving hell out it.
It's like Pokemon. Except your Pokemon is a fractal representation of a ninth-dimensional space squid, with tentacles that can reach through time. And your best friend has Einstein as Shiva, with crazy hair, four arms, and a third eye that dispenses atomic wisdom and atomic death in equal measure. And that girl that you have a desperate crush on and can't talk to without feeling like you're going to throw up has a swarm of zombie rats that disguises itself as a smelly hobo with a baggy old coat and floppy hat. And last week Albert the Destroyer got feisty during PE and blew out one wall of the gym, so you've all got detention, and she's crying because her rats ate her sister's poodle when it tried to chase them this morning and she's going to get yelled at when she gets home, and you're trying to think of something awesome to say to her to make her feel all better and maybe even notice you, but that bully that always picked on you is sitting two seats over and your squid is whispering to you dark paeans of vengeance and asking to be allowed to rip of all his toes and fingers and you're pretty sure that'd be bad but he keeps looking over at you and sneering and you're thinking about saying yes.
And that's before you add in cliques, wizards, family, mad scientists, grades, Men in Black, the angry vice-principal that hates you, and unknowable creatures from beyond the stars that feed on your misery.
Seriously, if you can't dig that, we can no longer be friends.
I don't really have any particular campaign in mind for this, but I don't think I'd really need one. Just have the players make some kids, give them each a monster (or maybe have them make their own, or for the terribly cruel, each others'), grab some 10-siders, and go wild with the crazy (Hey, my preferred GMing style!).
On the bright side, I may actually get to run this one soon. Got some vacation time set aside to go to Tokyo in Tulsa with some friends this year, and I'm going to see if they're willing to give it a whirl. I think they'd have a blast with it. One can hope!
D&D 4E
I never got into 3rd edition enough to buy any of the books. I got by using other people's books, the SRD, character generators, and... other sources. When I started hearing about the way they were changing D&D for 4th edition, I was intrigued. It sounded like it'd be pretty cool. So when it came out last year, I went in whole-hog and bought the box set of the first three books and it was, indeed, just as need as I though it would be, and now I own almost every single book they've put out for the line.
The problem here is that most of the people in my current gaming group don't share my enthusiasm for this edition. They're all 3rd and 3.5 fans, they've been playing in the same world for as long as those editions have been around, and they're comfortable there. The relative lack of enthusiasm they have for the new ruleset filters into their actions at the table, and it makes the game a bit less fun. (It's also less fun, for me anyways, because we're playing in their world, which means that the half of the table who hasn't been there through everything can sometimes feel like an accessory to their story. But we'll see how that goes.)
All that aside, I still enjoy messing around with the rules and plotting out various character ideas, and I do have a couple of game ideas I'd like to flesh out and try running.
All-Dwarf Party: If you can get a group to go along with a theme party, you can play with some ideas that wouldn't work well in a mixed group. I'm pulling a lot of inspiration from the Roanoke legends, Tolkien's Moria and the image of dwarves as surly isolationists here. The PCs would be members of a exploration party sent forth to begin reclamation of the ancient stronghold of dwarven kings, lost to darkness centuries ago. Play up a lot of distrust between races, and have the PCs' actions shape race relations for the whole world.
Scion
I love the concept: you play the children of the ancient gods fighting the reawakened titans in the modern day. The books are well-done and they've got a pretty good spread of pantheons all written up to use. (Greek/Roman, Egyptian, Norse, Japanese, Aztec, and Voodoo in the core, Irish, Hindu, and Chinese in the companion) There are a few problems with running the game, though. The big one is that if you're going to GM, you'll want to know your mythology so you can tie in a character's pantheon to make it feel appropriately mythic, and the more players you have, the more of a chance you'll need to know about 3 or 4 different bodies of myth. The other problem is that it's sometimes hard to think up a good storyline to use. Nothing wrong with beating up centaur bikers and shooting medusae in the face, but you've got to have something to tie it all together, and it gets trickier when you hit demigod or god levels of power.
Whatever Happened To The American Dream: In the Companion, they've got a little alt-setting where you play Scions during WW2. Part of the setting is 'pantheons' for the Allied Powers: folklore heroes that became so iconic they ascended into Godhood, or were already the children of Gods themselves. (The Axis powers don't get their own pantheons; the Norse gods are backing the Germans at the behest of Loki, the semidivine Caligula and Romulus have drugged Zeus and are getting the Greek Gods to support Italy, and the Japanese pantheon is making a power grab.) I saw the writeup for the American pantheon and came up with this. The characters are approached by Hermes or another messenger, told of their divine nature, and that their help is needed. Uncle Sam is missing, and if he's killed using the proper rituals, it will spell the end of America. The characters have to figure out who has him, if they plan to do this, and save him if they can. Basically, for inspiration, go grab everything by Neil Gaiman and maybe Tim Powers and read it all, then burn it and freebase the resultant ashes. It'll work, trust me.
Of course, that's just the big three. With all the books I read/buy/*cough*, I accumulate a lot of things I want to try.
Anima: Beyond Fantasy
Fabulously pretty book, semi-crunchy ruleset, complicated-yet-comprehensive character creation. I could not make my current group play this if I had a doomsday device.
Unhallowed Metropolis
Fighting undead, mad science, and your own inner demons in a Neo-Victorian post-apocalyptic world. You'll be the death of yourself, if the zombies aren't, but you'll look stylish in gas masks and rubber corsets all the way down. I may have to put toogether a one-shot for this some day, just for kicks.
Cthulhutech
Fight against a cold, uncaring universe and the horrors within with giant robots, symbiotic battle-armor from beyond, and magics and psychic talents that may drive you mad. Because the only thing better than hitting Cthulhu with a steamboat is hitting him with a 50-foot war machine. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone else in the group shares my unholy love for giant robots.
Well, that's everything that's catching my eye on what I can see of my bookshelf. I'll try to post more of my gaming thoughts and ideas as they come to me. (I mean it, I really will try to post more, honest! Stop laughing!)