Assuming you could get the rights to design an RPG based on any existing property you wanted, which one would you pick? And why? Would it be a 'genre property' (fantasy, sci-fi), or something unusual (a soap opera, a Pink Floyd album, the Bible)?
Would you have to make new setting material from whole cloth, or has the creator of the original property already taken care of that for you? Would you leave the setting as it is, or would you have to change a lot of things to make it accessible for gamers to set adventures there?
Would you create your own system, or convert it to one you like (D20, Hero, GURPS, etc.; assume you can get that license, too)? If you designed your own engine, what would be your priorities, design-wise? Simulation, genre emulation, avant-garde experimentation, or something else? Would the type of people who enjoy the property influence your system design/selection? If so, how?
Would you market your licensed game only to fans of the property, or would you try to expand beyond that base to convert new fans?
Who are the major NPCs you'd have to stat up, and how would you do it? Would you suggest them as PCs, strictly background NPCs, or something in between? Or would you excise them entirely?
Oh, and what would you call it? Would you keep the original property's name, or come up with something new?
Quote from: laffingboyAssuming you could get the rights to design an RPG based on any existing property you wanted, which one would you pick? And why?
CJ Cherryh's Alliance/Union/Compact Space, because it rocks my world and fits my system to a "T."
-clash
I'd redo Books of The New Sun. Doubt there be a system. Just essays on the kind of rpg stuff I think gamers could do, with the source material.
Regards,
David R
Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson and its sequel Operation Luna...
In fact the first game I ever tried to write was inspired by the original work (Chaos), and similar "Modern day world but with magic instead of technology" type stories.
Amber.
Or Dr.Who.
Or Rome (either the HBO series, or Roman history in general, though I know the latter is not a "license" as such).
Or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
RPGPundit
Oh yeah, and the Legion of Superheros.
RPGPundit
Pundit: Rome HBO? That's kind of a crazy-intriguing idea!
Myself, I'm aiming straight for the obvious and would love to do:
Middle Earth
The Matrix (just give me the first movie and Animatrix)
The Incredibles
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I know I could never do it justice. I'd also like to do something that encapsulated the feel of the Victorian British Empire in the works of Kipling to the more irreverant (but amazingly well-researched Flashman books of George MacDonald Fraser) without getting too silly.
QuoteWould you have to make new setting material from whole cloth, or has the creator of the original property already taken care of that for you? Would you leave the setting as it is, or would you have to change a lot of things to make it accessible for gamers to set adventures there?
I'm a BIG fan of
a song of ice and fire, so I'll take it as an example to propose my point of view of the current "adaptation" thread, as this is done today. This serie of novels has already been adaptated, but what do I get ?
In one corner, I have excellent books with a great setting and plots. Can I use it directly into play ? Not really, since it hasn't been written for the rpg.
In the other corner, I have an "adaptation" : a BIG book, with a lot of useless information and very, very boring to read. And absence of plots there. Can you use this for play ? Well, I suppose so, but still, I have no plot. I'll have to refer to the novels for that !!! And then again, if I enjoy the novels, do I really need a lot of details about economic structure and small towns to play in this setting ? I don't really need them.
So, here's what I would propose if I had the rights to "adapt" it :
- Remove half, if not two third, of the novels, leaving all the details aside, going straight to what happens where and when. Each chapter would come to one or two pages long. You want the details ? Go read the book !!!
- Add in the same straight format all events occuring into the world that you don't have in the books (what's happening in Dorne or with the Greyjoy at the beginning of the first book).
- Make extract of the novels of everything that allows the description of an element related to the plots (main characters, cities, cultures ...) : that's your setting
per se.
- Illustrate all of it (chapters and elements involved in the plots)
I think THAT would be useful for play. :pundit:
Now, about systems ? I would leave it somehow "open", by putting more than one to describe the characters/generic members of organizations.
QuoteWho are the major NPCs you'd have to stat up, and how would you do it? Would you suggest them as PCs, strictly background NPCs, or something in between? Or would you excise them entirely?
That would be up to the people who play it. But I would stat out main characters and generic member of organization/culture.
Beside that, Rome (from HBO) would be nice to do too. And BattleStar Galactica.
Riverworld
I would take Discworld off the GURPS system, and make it heavy into storytelling, with the only dice rolls pertaining to topics of pure abstract luck.
Shadowmarch by Tad Williams. With the Dangerous Journeys system of course. But, focusing on the world of the books, and not the events.
So much to choose from here.
I think I need to think on this for a while.
Dr. Who I would like to do. Perhaps using the Troupe style play that was talked about in Ars Magica and an early issue of White Wolf magazine.
Neuromancer along with a few other William Gibson novels. Cyberpunk has always been in my heart.
and finally with the cyberpunk still strong in me...
Max Headroom: Twenty Minutes Into The Future. Perhaps one of the best television shows to come out of the eighties. To bad it died an early death from bad time slot placement.
Abhorsen.
I know I'm going to get chased out of Dodge, but I'll design a game based on Hill Street Blues. Maybe I'll shop around for an existing system ....maybe I'll try to come up with something new. Oh, and there will be a whole campaign for it - done in the style of The Enemy Within.
Regards,
David R
Guy Ritchie's English underworld.
Berserk or Michael Mann's
HEAT.
Quote from: Christmas ApeGuy Ritchie's English underworld.
:eek:
Incredible.
Here's another one; Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling. GURPS.
Quote from: David RI know I'm going to get chased out of Dodge, but I'll design a game based on Hill Street Blues. Maybe I'll shop around for an existing system ....maybe I'll try to come up with something new. Oh, and there will be a whole campaign for it - done in the style of The Enemy Within.
Regards,
David R
I'd play
Hill Street Blues in a minute. Dibs on Renko!
I'd like to do a game based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels. Of existing sytems, GURPS would probably do just fine. It's the adventures that'd be the hard part. I might want to create some kind of system where the PC's actions and deductions have a direct outcome on 'whodunnit'. Maybe multiple solutions, so that
any of the suspects can be the guilty party. I don't know how I'd do it.
Holmes fans would be an obvious target audience, but they're a breed who make
Star Trek fanboys look positively
easygoing about what is and isn't canon. They'd be a hard bunch to please.
Holmes and Watson would probably be best left as an NPCs. Maybe the campaign could center around the adventures of the detective's network of Baker Street Irregulars, handling the cases that Holmes doesn't have the time for (though he'd be available to get the PCs back on track should they wander too far afield).
I'm not sure what I'd call it, though obviously I'd want to get the 'Sherlock Holmes' name on the cover for marketing purposes.
Magnum P.I.
Actually, I'd expand this to something called "The '80's Detective Agency" so that I could incorporate "Simon & Simon", "Remington Steele" "Rockford Files (all right, I'm cheating with that one)", "Wiseguy", "The Equalizer" and maybe even "Moonlighting"...
It would have some detailed rules on how to set up an episodic mystery to solve, blah blah, etc. etc.
Quote from: fonkaygarry:eek:
Incredible.
Is that a good thing?
On consideration I think that I'd like to see Dan Dare done as a roleplaying game. I'm not sure what system I'd use (or if I'd create my own) but ti would need to be something that ephasised a high-action, pulp feel. Heavy on the science-fiction and adventure, light on the science-fact and realism!
I'd love to design a game around Orson Scott Card's "Red Prophet" series (Alvin the Maker, et al.)
I love the integration of native spirituality, hedge magics and knacks, set in the age of American expansion, and the opportunity to meet and interact with Tall Tales legends would be really interesting.
Strontium Dogs. I'd want to design this game. But really, the person who should design this game is Sam Peckinpah...
Regards,
David R
Quote from: David RStrontium Dogs. I'd want to design this game. But really, the person who should design this game is Sam Peckinpah...
Regards,
David R
I want to see Strontium Dogs in the Vinyard. That could be fun!
-clash
Quote from: flyingmiceI want to see Strontium Dogs in the Vinyard. That could be fun!
-clash
I would run this...
Regards,
David R
English farce in the style of the 'Carry On..' films.
'Carry On Roleplaying', I can see it now.
Thanks
Frank
New Crobuzon
Sinister Dexter
Nemesis the Warlock/ABC Warriors
Rogue Trooper
Scarlet Traces
Heechee series
Gor (No, I'm not kidding, I think it would be fantastic fun to try and make a game out of that mess).
Barsoom
Humanx Commonwealth
Amtrak Wars
John Courtney Grimwood's two main series of novels.
Peter F Hamilton's Mindstar or Night's Dawn series (I actually had the rights for a year but no company would pick it up).
Hi Grim:
I think Gateway would make a rockin' setting, but the other Heechee novels not so much...
-clash
Quote from: flyingmiceHi Grim:
I think Gateway would make a rockin' setting, but the other Heechee novels not so much...
-clash
I'd want to get into the post-life intelligences, which don't come until later.
Dibs of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Been done. Damn.
I'll go with Lost. Or the Cube series (Evil GM Laugh). Or both. Together.
The "80's Detective" show idea would be fun. The one I would cook though would have to be "Red Dawn". I've already built the setting for my own nefarious purposes. My group has had a lot of fun with it.
Imajica by Clive Barker springs to mind, as well as the French Valerian comics by Mézières & Christin.
Quote from: RoninThe "80's Detective" show idea would be fun. The one I would cook though would have to be "Red Dawn". I've already built the setting for my own nefarious purposes. My group has had a lot of fun with it.
You know there actually was a Red Dawn rpg, yes?
Quote from: BalbinusYou know there actually was a Red Dawn rpg, yes?
Links or it didn't happen.
Quote from: fonkaygarryLinks or it didn't happen.
It turns out there were two, bizarrely enough, both blatantly inspired by, rather than acquiring the licence, but:
Freedom Fighters
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=12&products_id=888
http://www.waynesbooks.com/DeltaForce.html#freedomfighters
Price of Freedom
http://www.waynesbooks.com/DeltaForce.html#pf
I think there was a Freedom Fighters supplement called Red Tide, but I can't find it so I may be wrong on that one.
I remember reading about Price of Freedom years ago. It was the one where it was 'better dead than red', yeah? Was it not kind of like Twilight: 2000, only set in the USA rather than in Europe?
Thanks
Frank
Quote from: One Horse TownRiverworld
There was a gurps 3e sourcebook for riverworld.
As for me, I'd like to do a battlestar galactica rpg, but wouldn't be sure what system to use. My first thought would be gurps, but I couldn't stand working with that arrogant asshole jackson. Instead I'd try to use the system chaosium used in Ringworld.
I found another Red Dawn rpg, scroll down to Invasion US http://www.waynesbooks.com/MorrowProject.html
Thanks for the link Balbinus. :)
I got a hankering to write the game for The Prince of Nothing (http://www.princeofnothing.com/) books. I'd also love to get my hands on the The Walking Dead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead). I always thought that All Flesh Must Be Eaten was a poor zombie game...