According to Jason Durall, author of the Big Gold Book, Tales of New Crobuzon will utilize a customized version of Basic Roleplaying adapted to the setting.

Mr Durall's post at BRP Central.

Quote"I've known for a while that this was in the works (I even sent Gareth the original text files), but it's nice to see it get announced, even if in an annoyingly contentious thread on rpg.net."

I had to laugh at the disclaimer.

Excellent news!
I knew there was a Mieville game coming but I hadn't been paying much attention lately. Never dreamed it might be BRP!

That RPGnet thread is pretty annoying... I've been happier since I've (mostly) stopped visiting there.

China Miéville + GMS = Instant no-buy from me. GMS would have been enough, mind you.

Once again, an RPG based on a franchise that almost certainly came out of a D&D campaign.

(Darth Vader voice): ...the circle is now complete.

Not a Mieville fan, but that RPGnet thread is a riot. Vintage GMS.

Fuck yeah!

dsivis> Mieville's never played, but New Crobuzon draws some inspiration from a copy of the Monster Manual he owned as a kid.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;453460Fuck yeah!

dsivis> Mieville's never played, but New Crobuzon draws some inspiration from a copy of the Monster Manual he owned as a kid.

What?

Mieville has spoken at length prior about playing Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. He claims he grew up on RPGs. He has also spoken at length about how he drew a great deal of influence from Call of Cthulhu.

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/mievilleinterview.htm

QuoteCM: Probably one of the most enduring influences on me was a childhood playing RPGs: Dungeons and Dragons [D&D] and others. I’ve not played for sixteen years and have absolutely no intention of starting again, but I still buy and read the manuals occasionally. There were two things about them that particularly influenced me. One was the mania for cataloguing the fantastic: if you play them for any length of time, you get to know pretty much all the mythological beasts of all pantheons out there, along with a fair bit of the theology. I still love all that—I collect fantastic bestiaries, and one of the main spurs to write a secondary-world fantasy was to invent a bunch of monsters, half of which I’m sure I’ll never be able to fit into any books.

The other, more nebulous, but very strong influence of RPGs was the weird fetish for systematization, the way everything is reduced to “game stats.” If you take something like Cthulhu in Lovecraft, for example, it is completely incomprehensible and beyond all human categorization. But in the game Call of Cthulhu, you see Cthulhu’s “strength,” “dexterity,” and so on, carefully expressed numerically. There’s something superheroically banalifying about that approach to the fantastic. On one level it misses the point entirely, but I must admit it appeals to me in its application of some weirdly misplaced rigor onto the fantastic: it’s a kind of exaggeratedly precise approach to secondary world creation.

I’m conscious of the problems with that: probably my favorite piece of fantastic-world creation ever is the VIRICONIUM series by M. John Harrison [The Pastel City (1971), A Storm of Wings (1980), In Viriconium (1982), and Viriconium Nights (1984; rev. 1985)], which is carefully constructed to avoid any domestication, and which thereby brilliantly achieves the kind of alienating atmosphere I’m constantly striving for, so it’s not as if I think that quantification is the “correct” way to construct a world. But it’s one that appeals to the anal kid in me. To that extent, though I wouldn’t compare myself to Harrison in terms of quality, I sometimes feel as if, formally, my stuff is a cross between Viriconium and D&D.

JG: You mentioned being drawn to the systematization in RPGs. How do you see that in your writing?

CM: I start with maps, histories, time lines, things like that. I spend a lot of time working on stuff that may or may not actually find its way into the novel, but I know a lot more about the world than makes it into the stories. That’s the “RPG” factor: it’s about systematizing the world.

But though that’s my method, I don’t start with it. I don’t start with a bunch of graph papers and rulers. When I’m writing a book, generally I start with the mood and setting, along with a couple of specific images—things that have come into my head, totally abstracted from any narrative, that I’ve fixated on. After that, I construct a world, or an area, into which that general setting, that atmosphere, and the specific images I’ve focused on can fit. It’s at that stage that the systematization begins for me.

I hope this doesn’t sound pompous, but that’s how I see the best weird fiction as the intersection of the traditions of Surrealism with those of pulp. I don’t start with the graph paper and the calculators like a particular kind of D&D dungeonmaster: I start with an image, as unreal and affecting as possible, just like the Surrealists. But then I systematize it, and move into a different kind of tradition.

Quote from: Benoist;453455China Miéville + GMS = Instant no-buy from me. GMS would have been enough, mind you.

So I'm taking it you're not a fan of Mieville?... and what's the bad rap on this GMS fellow? I'm not really aware of him...

Quote from: Simlasa;453463what's the bad rap on this GMS fellow? I'm not really aware of him...

You're not missing much, but if you want a sample, you can always check out the RPGnet thread linked on the page linked in the OP. Read through it from about page 8, and you'll get a sense of the guy.

Quote from: jdurall;453461What?

Mieville has spoken at length prior about playing Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. He claims he grew up on RPGs. He has also spoken at length about how he drew a great deal of influence from Call of Cthulhu.

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/mievilleinterview.htm

Whoops, must've misread it then. NVM.

Quote from: Simlasa;453463So I'm taking it you're not a fan of Mieville?... and what's the bad rap on this GMS fellow? I'm not really aware of him...

He has developed a very hostile and angry online voice and comes across as taking pride in his contempt toward RPG players. His main triggers seem to be a sense of entitlement he sees in his customer base or when players argue there is not a fundamental difference in what a game designer does for money and what game players do in their spare time.

Quote from: Benoist;453465You're not missing much, but if you want a sample, you can always check out the RPGnet thread linked on the page linked in the OP. Read through it from about page 8, and you'll get a sense of the guy.

Well, I've read through most all of that thread now and I'm not really seeing any problem with the guy... there are some 'fans' pestering him for updates/snippets of the work and he keeps telling them he can't do that yet. I don't see where he's crossed the line into arrogance or insults... he's just standing his ground against, what seem to me to be, typical internet geek entitlement issues 'we're fans of ______ and you owe it to us to let us in on what's going on'. Meanwhile he owned up to having made a mistake in announcing the license too early... which seems to be a pretty common mistake from what I've seen of RPGs, movies, video games.
Still, Benoist and Cole are usually pretty solid on their read of things... so I won't send the guy any flowers just quite yet. I hate that 'exalted game designer' crap.

Quote from: Simlasa;453488Well, I've read through most all of that thread now and I'm not really seeing any problem with the guy... there are some 'fans' pestering him for updates/snippets of the work and he keeps telling them he can't do that yet. I don't see where he's crossed the line into arrogance or insults... he's just standing his ground against, what seem to me to be, typical internet geek entitlement issues 'we're fans of ______ and you owe it to us to let us in on what's going on'. Meanwhile he owned up to having made a mistake in announcing the license too early... which seems to be a pretty common mistake from what I've seen of RPGs, movies, video games.
Still, Benoist and Cole are usually pretty solid on their read of things... so I won't send the guy any flowers just quite yet. I hate that 'exalted game designer' crap.

I can understand frustration with a customer "you owe me" mindset and he's not behaving all that badly in the thread linked, but he is consistently an acerbic and combative voice. It's not that he's obligated to suffer entitled attitudes or anything like that, but I don't see what he gets out of harping on it as much as he does.

Yeah, the thread in question is not too bad I agree. Notice I said it would give you an idea, not that it would make it into the top 10 of lunatics on the internet, or top 10 of the worst posts of the guy, or anything like that.

But you know, you shouldn't feel obligated to do like I do or not get the game if you want to or whatnot. I just won't purchase anything with GMS's name on it. He doesn't want money from those filthy needy gamers who've got to know their places and stay there, under his designer pedestal, and I'm more than happy to oblige.