Are there any shared narrative games with engaging, interesting and imaginative settings, and if so what system would you use to convert them into RPGs? Ghost Lines is quite interesting, that's where you get to be a supernatural train conductor exorcising ghosts who mess with the electrics, silva had a few good ideas in his thread on the game which shall be stolen for other games. System wise to me it just screams Fading Suns.

A brief description of the setting would be nice as well. Or a completely in depth description the more the merrier really.

In most of my Star Wars or Traveller games, I encourage the Players to create their own homeworlds for their characters (which I then incorporate into the setting background).

While I have gotten some great input from Players by using this method, I have also gotten some absolutely game-breaking crap out of it. As referee, I have to act as editor to ensure that the game-breaking crap percentage is kept to a minimum.

One of the most common things that has come up is Mary Sue-ism. With freedom to create not only their character, but the world that they come from, has allowed the temptation to create a black hole PC to become reality. A black hole PC is one whose backstory is so expansive and filled with gravitas that every aspect of the game campaign gets sucked into its narrative gravitational field and ends up revolving around that character. A black hole PC may be great for the Player who has it, but it just about forces all of the other Players into secondary supporting roles.

Thanks Jeff but not exactly what I'm looking for, which is existing shared narrative games which can be converted to RPGs, and which RPG system you would use to make them into RPGs.

Name a shared narrative game so I know what kind of game to look for that might convert to RPG?

Have you tried Dust Devils? Bit like RPG and Poker combined with the highest hand becoming the narrator.

Earthly Walker

Quote from: EarthlyWalker;660500Have you tried Dust Devils? Bit like RPG and Poker combined with the highest hand becoming the narrator.

Earthly Walker

This doesn't have much to do with what I'm looking for here, unless you can supply a little more information and suggest a replacement system. Another example, dogs in the vineyard, wikipedia tells me

"The game is set in "a West that never quite was" - loosely based on the Mormon State of Deseret in pre-statehood Utah. Players are "God's Watchdogs" (Dogs), who travel from town to town delivering mail, helping out the community and enforcing the judgments of the True Faith of the King of Life. This may involve anything from delivering new interpretations to the town's Steward to executing heretics. Dogs have absolute authority within the Faith, but not within the laws of the Territorial Authority, and so their actions can lead to conflict with the government in the East."

I would rip out the rules there and replace them with Deadlands: Reloaded, using the Savage Worlds system. A brief glance at the setting itself doesn't really inspire me however, it seems a bit thin and not terribly well thought out. Anyone have any more information on this setting? Are there any settings with depth to them?

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;660425Name a shared narrative game so I know what kind of game to look for that might convert to RPG?

I've an example above there, Shawn.

Have I got this wrong or is that all there is to DitV? A bunch of mormons versus the taxman? May as well call it Scientology: The Emulation. Please someone tell me there was a modicum of further depth to the setting, restore a tiny sliver of my faith in humanity.

I love the "Cold City" setting. I hate the system. Ran a short online game of it using microlite 20. (Came apart because of my commitments/work)

Second Cold City.

The Mountain Witch has an awesome premise too (despite not a setting per se).

Ghost Lines was already mentioned.

Everway is pure multiverse goodness with a mythic bent.

Early Dark is pure mythic goodness. (you level up by getting epithets to your name).

Unknown Armies is psychedelic good.

Artesia is cool or so they say.

Nobilis is interesting with its mythc vs prosaic aspects.

Oh and there is POLARIS too.

Quote from: The Traveller;661010Have I got this wrong or is that all there is to DitV? A bunch of mormons versus the taxman? May as well call it Scientology: The Emulation. Please someone tell me there was a modicum of further depth to the setting, restore a tiny sliver of my faith in humanity.

I dont think Dogs have a setting per se. Its pretty similar to Baker other games really. The  setting is just an almost empty canvas for the players to paint their worlds in. What is strong is the premise, I think.

Quote from: Ronin;661014I love the "Cold City" setting. I hate the system. Ran a short online game of it using microlite 20. (Came apart because of my commitments/work)

Quote from: silva;661027Second Cold City.

The Mountain Witch has an awesome premise too (despite not a setting per se).

Ghost Lines was already mentioned.

Everway is pure multiverse goodness with a mythic bent.

Early Dark is pure mythic goodness. (you level up by getting epithets to your name).

Unknown Armies is psychedelic good.

Artesia is cool or so they say.

Nobilis is interesting with its mythc vs prosaic aspects.

Oh and there is POLARIS too.

Thanks lads but can I get a little more information about the setting. Just saying 'Cold City' means nothing. Also UA appeared many years before the forge and so can hardly qualify as a shared narrative game, high touch, low touch, or pervy.

Quote from: silva;661028I dont think Dogs have a setting per se. Its pretty similar to Baker other games really. The  setting is just an almost empty canvas for the players to paint their worlds in. What is strong is the premise, I think.

Aya. So this golden child has no actual setting? What on earth do you think people pay for whether it be the Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, or Bladerunner? Good god, is it any wonder Vinnie is still scraping by with his unshop.

Anyone can make up rules, that's simple, real creativity, real invention, that's hard. If DitV is as empty as it appears, anyone that paid money for it has been had.

Cold City

Berlin, 1950: World War 2 has been over for five years...

...but another war carries on in the shadows.


As the Cold War rages in the full glare of the world media, the Underground War is fought in ruined bunkers, dank tunnels, building sites, and bombed out apartment blocks.

In the divided city of Berlin, the Reserve Police Agency hunts down monsters left over from sinister experiments and twisted technology. Things from beyond our space and time, strange creatures altered by bizarre machines, the decayed corpses of undead soldiers, things that hide in the darkness.

But the Reserve Police Agency itself is riven by suspicion, mistrust and political ambition. The four occupying powers of Britain, France, the USA and the USSR all see the need for the RPA, all contribute personnel, all have their own agendas.

In 'Cold City' you take the role of a member of the RPA, those secretive Cold War monster hunters. Characters are defined not just by who they are and what they are like, but by the views of the other characters and the trust that they have in them. For each character is, at the outset, seen as a national stereotype, a cliched representative of their chosen nation. But is this really the case? Do they live up to the stereotype or do they show themselves to be wholly unique individuals? And how does this affect the trust that the other character have in them?

Link to preview

The system is story game shit. But the setting is really sweet. Swap out the story stuff for traditional mechanics. You've got a winner straight up. (Sorry Malcolm (If your reading), just how I feel. But I think we have had this discussion before.)

Oh man, Cold City is awesome.

And Im still waiting for Sunshine. (Malcolm, if youre reading this, finish it already).

Quote from: Ronin;661033The system is story game shit. But the setting is really sweet. Swap out the story stuff for traditional mechanics. You've got a winner straight up. (Sorry Malcolm (If your reading), just how I feel. But I think we have had this discussion before.)

That sounds like an awesome setting, I will be checking that out further. What system would be best for it though?

Vampire the Masquerade? Hmmm.