Been on a 1980s kitsch movie kick and wanted a comedic, dystopian future with a continuous supply of playable material. Don't know the system yet, maybe an iteration of Gamma World, or X-Crawl (very Smash TV, tho do not want the 3e-isms). However TORG or Rifts might work, as gates of TV Hell opening up into our world.
Idiocracy, albeit newer, has a large enough world to sandbox and an almost cohesive structure (it's obviously falling apart). Also sets a happier atmosphere for a blatantly hostile world. And it comes with a built-in PC entrance, as cryogenically frozen victims to a questionable future. So I like the foundation.
What I really need are quests, and that's where The Learning Channel (well, reality TV in general) and tabloids come in. Sure there'll be adventuresome violence around, but I like the voyeuristic exposé excused with 'advancing tolerance & understanding' glaze. I think I want my players to be paparazzi or Xtreme reality TV contestants strapped with Go Pros (or 'squids' from Strange Days) on them. Like, they have to be Investigators exploring the lowest common denominator, muckraking the tragic for fun and profit, without dying or before their prison parole gets canceled due to lack of viewers.
... I think I just made a Nybbas focused campaign (demon prince of media, IN SJG).
So, horrible TLC + tabloid mashup quests requested!
Go watch A Shot Of Love With Tila Tequila from Mtv, there is enough horribleness in those two seasons of reality TV that you'll swear it marks the downfall of Western Civilization.
I only saw an episode of it and it was an erratic mess. She'd vacillate from flirting and laughter to tears and rage. And the crew of male and female love contestants looked like they were so fame hungry they just needed a lone broken bottle for a bloodbath.
...! :D
Quest! Be the camera crew and bring a 24 pack of long neck beers. Love contestants all flirt for the star's love — as she flirts with everything that moves — and the last one's standing with an unbroken glass bottle move onto the next episode!
Moar quests!
Obviously one mission would be to rescue President Honey Boo Boo after she ran off with bikers at a State of the Union Address Party.
Quote from: RPGPundit;833796Obviously one mission would be to rescue President Honey Boo Boo after she ran off with bikers at a State of the Union Address Party.
:eek:
With Big Mama and Dog the Bounty Hunter crew? And the bikers were Santa Muerte worshippers smuggling the POTUS over the border for ransom? Brilliant!
MOAR!
You stumble upon a plot by contestants on The Biggest Loser to kidnap someone from My 600 Pound Life. Do you help the TBL crew with the logistical nightmare they've begun or the 600# right to be "free"?
The party is recruited by Jaime Hynemin and Adam Savage (dressed as the Blues Brothers) who are trying to get the original cast of Mythbusters back together so that they can borrow Carl Sagan's Starship of the Mind from Cosmos and travel back in time to prevent Star Trek TOS from going off the air.
All of the incarnations of Doctor Who will be trying to stop them.
(If you are going to go, then go all the way!)
Quote from: Almost_Useless;833800You stumble upon a plot by contestants on The Biggest Loser to kidnap someone from My 600 Pound Life. Do you help the TBL crew with the logistical nightmare they've begun or the 600# right to be "free"?
Can we have Jillian Michaels screaming at them the entire time? Like chasing them like the Terminator, with an entourage of health nuts out of Mad Max?
Quote from: jeff37923;833803The party is recruited by Jaime Hynemin and Adam Savage (dressed as the Blues Brothers) who are trying to get the original cast of Mythbusters back together so that they can borrow Carl Sagan's Starship of the Mind from Cosmos and travel back in time to prevent Star Trek TOS from going off the air.
All of the incarnations of Doctor Who will be trying to stop them.
(If you are going to go, then go all the way!)
And everyone will travel back to the counter-culture 1960s! Jet-setting from London, Paris, SF, NYC, LA, to make sure Gene Roddenberry's
Star Trek gets dreamed, written, funded, and made. While FBI and MI5 collaborates with the Doctors in trying to stop them.
Go-Go Dancers, Beatniks, Factory Girls (Warhol), and Flower Children dancing in each and every background -- Be Ins infiltrated by COINTELPRO, swinger parties with a quarter calling themselves just 'Doctor', clean-shaven, short-haired men wanting to be 'in the know' & 'be cool' -- and a never ending groovy soundtrack!
Quote from: Opaopajr;833911Can we have Jillian Michaels screaming at them the entire time? Like chasing them like the Terminator, with an entourage of health nuts out of Mad Max?
Then we need to have Guy Fieri pull up in a sandwich truck and say, "Come with me if you want to live."
It's tremendously ironic, and sad, that if "Idiocracy" is the world you're looking for, you need not look any further than the terribly-inaccurately-named "The Learning Channel".
Quote from: RPGPundit;834296It's tremendously ironic, and sad, that if "Idiocracy" is the world you're looking for, you need not look any further than the terribly-inaccurately-named "The Learning Channel".
Shh! Just because reality consistently outproduces our most fantastic madness doesn't mean we have to take it lying down. Instead, we can dance!
We can dance if we want, we can leave your friends behind/
Because your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance/
they're no friends of mine...
Reminds me, I need a mash up of "Dancing with the Stars" or "So You Think You Can Dance" and something terribly inappropriate from either TLC or supermarket tabloids. Ooh, something about secret love children, "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," and the Lambada, the Forbidden Dance! Now a premise to include PCs and tie it all together in an adventure...
Quote from: Almost_Useless;834005Then we need to have Guy Fieri pull up in a sandwich truck and say, "Come with me if you want to live."
I love this.
Quote from: Opaopajr;834315Shh! Just because reality consistently outproduces our most fantastic madness doesn't mean we have to take it lying down. Instead, we can dance!
We can dance if we want, we can leave your friends behind/
Because your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance/
they're no friends of mine...
Reminds me, I need a mash up of "Dancing with the Stars" or "So You Think You Can Dance" and something terribly inappropriate from either TLC or supermarket tabloids. Ooh, something about secret love children, "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," and the Lambada, the Forbidden Dance! Now a premise to include PCs and tie it all together in an adventure...
Go One Step Beyond!!
The televised political debates in the USA will have an interpretive dance section, a comedy section, IQ tests, a quiz show, and a talent section.
The entire show will end in a WrestleMania style Smackdown Supreme.
You could do a face-to-face biggest-pervert challenge between the Duggars and Honey Boo Boo's family.
The war between the Thirst Mutalator and Water, like from the toilet. 'Nuff Said.
... I never thought about advertisements, let about wars between them. :jaw-dropping:
I feel wicked ideas this way come. :D
Quote from: Opaopajr;833491I only saw an episode of it and it was an erratic mess. She'd vacillate from flirting and laughter to tears and rage. And the crew of male and female love contestants looked like they were so fame hungry they just needed a lone broken bottle for a bloodbath.
...! :D
Quest! Be the camera crew and bring a 24 pack of long neck beers. Love contestants all flirt for the star's love — as she flirts with everything that moves — and the last one's standing with an unbroken glass bottle move onto the next episode!
Moar quests!
My wife is a smart woman with a professional career - gawd, she has entire SERIES of "Say Yes to the Fucking Dress"and "Nineteen Fundamentalist/Abuser Kids and Counting" saved on the satellite box...
There's an old Paranoia adventure called Miami Lazer, where the troubleshooters are basically sent to film an episode of Miami Vice. Points for style and camera presence; surviving the stunts is just a bonus really.
Your idea sounds like a fine 21st Century update to the whole idea. There are so many concepts to choose from too... you just have to watch TLC for a week. Consumption of psychoactives will help...
Quote from: Almost_Useless;833800You stumble upon a plot by contestants on The Biggest Loser to kidnap someone from My 600 Pound Life. Do you help the TBL crew with the logistical nightmare they've begun or the 600# right to be "free"?
Reading this I had a vision of a future where the biggest freaks, the losers and the reality stars are a resource fought over, like medieval slaves or serfs. TV networks hire slick looking young men and women straight out of business school as interns, arm them with fast cars, chick MP5s and bad suits (no bullet proof vests, they'd clash with their look) and let them carry out raids on other networks to kidnapping celebrities, sabotage filming of the popular shows or generally cause mayhem.
Of course with interns of no military skill there are going to be a few failures. And that's where you hire adventurers, free agents who don't care about network loyalty and do audience capture and raids for a living. And their exploits can be filmed and run as authentic murder-hobo action/comedy!
Add a rebel faction of insufferable pseudo-intellectuals who refuse any electronic entertainment and commit sepukku if they even gaze on a TV monitor and you are good to go.
Call me a wuss, but I think I just hang around with Swamp People and just hunt down gators all day. Sure that is all they do, but for some reason you just keep on watching. It is like fishing, but with gators without letting the gator go. It is just safer that way because if the humans become idiocity it would be the safest place to be.
Quote from: Snowman0147;835170Call me a wuss, but I think I just hang around with Swamp People and just hunt down gators all day. Sure that is all they do, but for some reason you just keep on watching. It is like fishing, but with gators without letting the gator go. It is just safer that way because if the humans become idiocity it would be the safest place to be.
Ah, but will the Swamp People be Naked and Afraid? And what will they do if they get visited by Paris & Nicole?
This thread lacks:
World Star Hip Hop (//www.worldstarhiphop.com/)
Rap music
The Wire (//www.hbo.com/the-wire)
Inner City Riots (based entirely on protester misapprehensions)
This Guy (http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/06/05/oprahs-own-network-scraps-reality-show-about-father-of-34-kids-by-17-women/)
The First 48 (//www.aetv.com/the-first-48)
All My Babies' Mamas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_My_Babies%27_Mamas)
Kim Kardashian, Bruce Jenner, OJ Simpson, and Kanye West (run a search for OJ Simpson and Kim Kardashian for some truly funny prison stories)
Telemundo & Telenovelas
Et cetera. Way too white. Needs a lot more diversity.