If you had the Rights to do Whatever You Wanted with your Favorite Game?

[TristramEvans]

All cool.

The heavy lore games never really were my cup of tea. Tekumel, RQ, Jorune, Rifts. Could never wrap my head around the system and background complexity.

Just making sure I'm not missing out on something radically different than what I remember.

RQ6 didn't have any lore, it was a unique fantasy system not connected to Glorantha.

It is also the best fantasy system ever written.

 

[sharps54]

Well the best after Barbarians of Lemuria if you are going for sword & sorcery or DCC if you like high fantasy. Since you seem to want a genetic setting I’ll leave out Palladium Fantasy

 

[TristramEvans]

Well the best after Barbarians of Lemuria if you are going for sword & sorcery or DCC if you like high fantasy.

 

[chuckdee]

Madness Meters/Shock Gauges

I'm not sure if that came from Nemesis or if Nemesis borrowed those, but I love the fact that different forms of trauma induce different effects.

 

[chuckdee]

Well the best after Barbarians of Lemuria if you are going for sword & sorcery or DCC if you like high fantasy. Since you seem to want a genetic setting I’ll leave out Palladium Fantasy

 

[TristramEvans]

I'm not sure if that came from Nemesis or if Nemesis borrowed those, but I love the fact that different forms of trauma induce different effects.

Nemesis "borrowed" it from UA

 

[ReluctantGM]

I've always wanted most of the setting lines from the AD&D 2E era to be BRP publications, so making them all BRP Mythras would be the absolute cherry on the cake. I often read the Dark Sun and Planetscape boxes, and think of doing them with Mythras.

Classic Fantasy has everything you need in it to run Dark Sun, Planescape, and anything else 1E or 2E. My longest running CF game has bits from Planescape, Spelljammer, and Metamorphosis Alpha and it all plays wonderfully. That's the beauty of Mythras (well, really any flavor of BRP but Mythras is my favorite). Once you have gone down the BRP rabbit-hole it becomes easier and easier to just wing it as necessary and just take notes while you go.

When it comes to Mythras, I'm definately not the only one in this forum who thinks that the game mechanics are perfectly suited to Conan/Hyborian Age and also to The Witcher.

Ossian was running a online Conan game using Mythras and it was fantastic. The combat was fun (and often funny!) and the baddies were gloriously bad. Alas! It went the way of all good online games: conflicting schedules, busy lives, and all that.

However, if my wishes came true, I would love to see Mythras be the game engine for The Elder Scrolls.
Tamriel is such a huge sprawling classic fantasy setting with moments of both high fantasy as well as sword & sorcery, a near-endless sandbox for adventure modules and such. Yes this would be a dream setting for Mythras in many ways.

There is a BRP hack of Elder Scrolls out there. Google will lead you right to it. It's pretty well done and I think could easily be massaged into Mythras. I had the intent to do that with a third Mythras campaign but the group never really coalesced into a regular thing.

I also believe that the current RuneQuest line would have been much better if it had kept RQ6/Mythras as its core engine. That horse bolted, but in this wish list things are different, with RuneQuest 7th edition using the Mythras version of the BRP game engine, keeping all the other trappings of the current RQG publications. Glorantha is very well presented with the current RQG products, so I imagine all that artwork and lore around the Mythras engine would be a match made in heaven.

I totally agree! I've got all the official RQG releases with the intent to eventually go all Mythras on them. I'm waiting until I have a solid face-to-face group before I got there. I've been disappointed so many times when a really awesome online game ends on account of life and awkward scheduling.

Regarding what I want from the Mythras corebook, it's probably a bigger font and more colour. I love b&w artwork, but the chapter title pages would look great with gorgeous colour plates, and the chapter titles need to be in colour as well.

I ended up printing individual sections/chapters from my Mythras PDF enlarged to fit 11x17 so I could more easily read them at the table. It's not ideal but it beats having to do the "reading glasses shuffle."


EDIT - I have so much love for Bilharzia's Mythwrack. I use it for my CF game to great effect. I use the regular rules for my 2nd Mythras game. Both are great and I find it depends on the players for which I'd use.

 

[ReluctantGM]

*cracks knuckles*

Alright, Mythras. I love it, but it has some stuff I would change

• Movement rules are rewritten entirely and it's clear that it is TotM and what that means. A lot more examples of this. This also will get an optional section for MythWrack, Bilharzia's wonderful little hack for a more action packed fight. There are quite a few other places where it will be more explicit in the rules. I won't go quite with total rewrite, but I will say edited for less is more and more examples and being quite explicit. No inferences, and if you mean GM's choice, just say it

Yes, please, this!

• Mythic Polynesia gets rewritten, the Maori stuff is pulled out and made into a new book. This is a far larger portion of money here, because this is going to be a no expenses spared sort of thing. There is a HUGE gap in the Polynesian space, and it needs to be done absolutely right. It should make Maori weep with joy and given the cultural stamp of approval. Essentially, when someone says "I want to do island hopping Polynesian style" this should be the only answer on reddit. It gets published in Polynesian languages. Somehow, with all my phat lootz the premise of this thread is based on, I will survive the slings and arrows I will get for this.
• Some material from nuMP above gets reused to do an Archipelagan book for Thennla.
• Monster Island gets its long awaited lizard skin edition. The savages word gets written in a few spots, and a bit of verbiage so you know that the tribal natives are the real heroes here. Ironically, I'd keep the font in this one, as it is large enough and also works for the text. There is a stand for the book available, made out of faux bones.

I have long wanted to run a game using Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea series as setting. I was sad to see how the release of Mythic Polynesia went. It could have been avoided with some foresight and planning. I did end up getting the book when it first came out and found it not quite what I was looking for.

A version of the book rewritten to fit Thennla would be very welcome.

 

[AsenRG]

All cool.

The heavy lore games never really were my cup of tea. Tekumel, RQ, Jorune, Rifts. Could never wrap my head around the system and background complexity.

Just making sure I'm not missing out on something radically different than what I remember.

...what is there to not understand about RQ's system? I mean, you have skills, which is how good you're at different activities, and resolve them with a d100 roll, which is expressed in percents of "chance to succeed". It's probably one of the most intuitive systems ever created!

But in a way, Mythras actually improves on it, especially in the combat department (I've heard it improves on the magic as well, but I never dealt with BRP's magic - even after running games of BRP - so I can't really comment.
But in the combat department, Mythras gets the feeling of "you make your move, the opponent makes his, and whatever happens, happens, you act on reflex" better than most other games - any other game that I can think of at the moment*, that is.

Admittedly, I like complex games and games with complex backgrounds, so maybe I'm just not seeing something.

*ORE and Legends of the Wulin come real close, though. If I manage to think of something else, that post might need to be updated, too.

I buy D&D and cancel it.

...I'll allow it!
The grinding of teeth afterwards, as well as the bitter tears, shall be delicious (with a bit of lemon, maybe, for the tears)!

Well the best after Barbarians of Lemuria if you are going for sword & sorcery or DCC if you like high fantasy. Since you seem to want a genetic setting I’ll leave out Palladium Fantasy

View attachment 56440

I'm with chuckdee in my response!

I mean, I like both BoL and DCC, but I don't consider either of them to be superior to Mythras.

A version of the book rewritten to fit Thennla would be very welcome.

...yeah, I guess fantasy would be the only safe bet for living cultures, these days!

 

[Illumisar]

1. Buy back the right to the Tricode System from 1st edition Prime Directive, clean 'em up and release the thing as an open universal system à la Genesys.

2. Buy the rights to the old Avalon Hill RGP Powers & Perils, clean them up, and rerelease the game as an open source rpg.

3. Claw back the rights to all 22 of the original Metagaming Microgames and release them in a deluxe, big-box compendium set.

You may say I'm a dreamer...

 

[Doc Sammy]

I'd buy the IP rights to both World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness and start clean. V5 would be officially jettisoned and discontinued and the metaplot declared non-canon while the franchise would be reset back to the 1e/2e days with a remake of Masquerade.

Requiem and the New WoD/CofD would get a similar reset though it wouldn't be quite as stringent and some 2e stuff would be kept up on DTRPG for sale for those who wanted it.

On the other hand, WoD 5th Edition would get the Damnatio Memoriae treatment.

 

[Armchair Gamer]

I've always wanted most of the setting lines from the AD&D 2E era to be BRP publications, so making them all BRP Mythras would be the absolute cherry on the cake. I often read the Dark Sun and Planetscape boxes, and think of doing them with Mythras.

Have you seen Chaot's work on BRP Ravenloft?

 

[TristramEvans]

The next time Chaosium puts out a generic rulebook for the Basic Role-Playing system they should call it "BuRPS"

 

[chuckdee]

One I forgot is that I'd like to get the tri-stat system out of the hands of the GoO guy.

 

[Armchair Gamer]

I'd buy D&D and cancel the OGL.

There are far less expensive ways of tarnishing your reputation and committing suicide, you know...

One I forgot is that I'd like to get the tri-stat system out of the hands of the GoO guy.

This one might actually be doable with only a large chunk of money, as opposed to the gargantuan chunks required for most of the plans here. As I understand it, White Wolf still holds the rights to the GoO properties, and MacKinnon is just licensing them.

 

[rumble]

RQ6 didn't have any lore, it was a unique fantasy system not connected to Glorantha.

When I was introduced to RQ, it was in the context of Glorantha. It was a LOT to take in as presented, and quite... unfriendly.

And when we say unique system, how is it any different from BRP if you remove Glorantha? Again, just ignorance talking here.

...what is there to not understand about RQ's system?

I lost my gaming baby teeth with CoC, so I'm pretty familiar with BRP. It's not difficult at all. But once you get into narrative interaction, my frustration goes up. My main gripe is the skills bloat and the percentile increment. It's a love-hate thing. The detail is great. The excruciatingly slow mechanical character growth is...not.

 

[TristramEvans]

And when we say unique system, how is it any different from BRP if you remove Glorantha? Again, just ignorance talking here.

Hmm, I'll have to let someone more familiar with the original RuneQuest system (as published by Mongoose these days I think?) answer that, as my experience begins and ends with 6th edition, which struck out on it's own as Mythras as of RQ 7th. From what I can tell, just based on my familiarity with other Basic System games, the biggest differences are the combat and magic systems.

 

[Stumpydave]

40k...
...I'd ditch or reboot most of the lore written since 2nd edition. Primaris are the real space marines, first born are just normal humans in Astartes style armour.

In addition to the above I'd make it so the Human factions were embroiled in a galaxy-wide, yet undeclared, civil war.

Imperial Guard vs. Planetary Defence Forces for bragging rights of who's in charge. Astartes of one chapter vs Astartes of another chapter for long forgotten slights. Pretender marines vs everyone 'cause "that's what Astartes do, innit."
Sisters of Battle finding and punishing heresy regardless of who it is.

I'd also make the Astartes closer to Thunder Warriors, so in terms of combat they're undoubtedly shit hot BUT there's every possibility they might suffer mental breakdowns, psychotic rage fuelled frenzies and sudden organ failure during the battle. Candles, twice as bright, yadda yadda yadda.

(I'm undecided whether to make Sisters of Battle female Space Marines as despite my thinking that should have been done right at the start, they have carved out their own unique niche and it would be a shame to drop that in favour of just making them distaff Astartes).

 

[PolarBlues]

Here's one. I would dearly like to see a Marvel roleplaying game based on ICONS. It would feature:

• The more streamlined, original ICONS rules with only a few thing pulled from the expansions and the newer edtion
• Art by Tim Levins who does rather good Bruce Timm impression
• A perpetual, unrevocable Marvel licence because it's just annoying when licences run out.

I think it would be great but I suspect that might upset ICONS and Marvel in equal measure, which is why it's a good think I don't wield that sort of power.

 

[TristramEvans]

Here's one. I would dearly like to see a Marvel roleplaying game based on ICONS. It would feature:

• The more streamlined, original ICONS rules with only a few thing pulled from the expansions and the newer edtion
• Art by Tim Levins who does rather good Bruce Timm impression
• A perpetual, unrevocable Marvel licence because it's just annoying when licences run out.

I think it would be great but I suspect that might upset ICONS and Marvel in equal measure, which is why it's a good think I don't wield that sort of power.

eh, it'd be fine, but it'd be like having enough money to get the Dark Sun License in perpetuity, but then using Tunnels & Trolls for it instead of D&D, when you could just use D&D

 

[chuckdee]

I'd ditch or reboot most of the lore written since 2nd edition. Primaris are the real space marines, first born are just normal humans in Astartes style armour.

Yeah, not on board what that. I like the Geneseed and such and all of the lore around that.

 

[MoonHunter]

3. Claw back the rights to all 22 of the original Metagaming Microgames and release them in a deluxe, big-box compendium set.

You may say I'm a dream, ...

You could get everything except ogre, gev, melee, and wizard. And you should then make every microgame a game ap to play with an AI, play with the tablet/computer as the board as PvP, or a match up and play with someone else (somewhere else) (Oh and a community board and a leader board and leagues... and small blip adds to pay for the site... and DLCs because we could do a lot with Chitin units and Boppers... all while not gouging people but just enough to keep it afloat)

 

[finarvyn]

If I had the rights to Amber Diceless I would take the core book, Shadow Knight, and probably Jason's Rebma sourcebook and reorganize. I would try to keep Erick's words the same (and Jason's) wherever possible, but change the order of the material.

Basically, I'd take character information and maybe general campaign stuff and group it into a Player's book. All of the NPC material, GM advice, and so on... make that the GM guide. Essentially, three books worth of material into two volumes.

And it would be nice to introduce some sort of optional "diced" mechanic into my ideal 2E Amber rules. I'm not entirely certain what that mechanic would be yet, but something that could handle both mundane and supernatural.

 

[MoonHunter]

I played Amber a couple of times, even with the R.Tal people (Hi Lisa, hope you are doing well.) The rules came down to... "how much do you trust your GM and are they willing to work with you on the story." I had a great experience with that and a I was screwed by my GM (as he changed his mind on how things worked - the things my entire character was based around - after we agreed on how it worked... and I had no rules to fall back on) story. So had the spectrum of responses. So diceless is a nice idea, but it needs more support to prevent arguments.

I agree - the story/ source material is all GOLD.

An Amber Game is basically a super hero game, with a tweaked power listing. So you would need to be able to handle all of those to handle Pattern, Logris, and all those cool magical powers, with limits as to where things can be used.

To be honest, PbtA might be a better dice mechanic and controllable system for Amber. Not required to play in the PbtA style (though in many ways that works), but something like that.

 

[Vile Traveller]

I've always had a hankerin' to buy up Judges Guild, re-release all their stuff in a facsimile edition, and also in a completely updated edition.

 

[Moonglum]

I'd transform myself into an Intellect Devourer, use my psychic abilities to take over the brains of Steve Jackson and the rest of the SJG crew, and then force them to release the following things for the in-print edition of The Fantasy Trip:
- A mega-dungeon worthy of the name
- A big book of magic spells and items that expands the magic system into more flavorful, darker, spookier directions
- A setting book for gladiators that parallels the recent one for a wizarding school
- Several setting books that give you TFT treatments of some classic archetype settings (feudal japan; hyborian age; etc.). Basically conversions of the best-of subset of the 3E GURPS setting books

 

[chuckdee]

"how much do you trust your GM and are they willing to work with you on the story."

That's what most (every?) RPG is though. There's just rails on others. I've never had a problem with Amber in that way... largely because all of this is settled before hand, and all of ours have been able some of the same tenets as PbtA games and their ilk, i.e. be fans of the characters. So you don't make those types of interpretations that hobble them.

 

[ffilz]

I buy D&D and cancel it.

Why? That seems just mean. If you think another game has potential to replace D&D, buy that game instead and pump it up. D&D has a certain level of first mover advantage, but the truth of it's popularity is that it delivers something that the masses want.

I'm glad it's popular. It means lots of people are familiar with RPGs which makes it more likely I can find people interested in the games I enjoy.

 

[ffilz]

I've always had a hankerin' to buy up Judges Guild, re-release all their stuff in a facsimile edition, and also in a completely updated edition.

Now that seems like a good path. The trick is to somehow purchase it without giving money to bad people...

 

[Fenris-77]

Something else that occurred to me was to write Paranoia for the Trophy Gold rules. While I don't own the rights to Paranoia I think I'm going to go ahead and do this one anyway.

 

[Stumpydave]

Yeah, not on board what that. I like the Geneseed and such and all of the lore around that.

Oh i'd keep all that but it only gets grafted to the tall bastard's. The human sized ones insisting they're space marines don't have it.

 

[Fenris-77]

Oh i'd keep all that but it only gets grafted to the tall bastard's. The human sized ones insisting they're space marines don't have it.

 

[Bunch]

Now that seems like a good path. The trick is to somehow purchase it without giving money to bad people...

There is a counter to that which is give money to people who have limited their buyer pool such that the amount you're giving is a pittance to what it would have been if they made different choices. Sometimes that's life valuable lesson.

 

[ffilz]

There is a counter to that which is give money to people who have limited their buyer pool such that the amount you're giving is a pittance to what it would have been if they made different choices. Sometimes that's life valuable lesson.

True.

 

[Triumvir]

I would re-do Classic Traveller with more of the right kind of stuff, and a tidy-up and light reworking of the core, and divorce it from the Official Traveller Universe (although it would remain a great ruleset for doing OTU if you wanted).

The reworking would be mostly focused on chargen. Bring in (most of) the careers from Supplement 4 and make them consistent with Book 1 so that skill lists overall make sense across careers. Retain tight discipline on total number of skills in the game (I'm looking at you, Gravitics). Then have expanded chargen for all careers as in Book 4. Expanded chargen gets flak for bringing in skill bloat both in terms of overall skill levels and the range of skills, but this is mainly a Books 5-7 thing. Book 4 characters are not so overskilled.

Bring modern SF tropes like cybernetics or genemod into chargen without breaking the ageing vs power tradeoff. You can offset ageing with modifications, but at some broader cost.

I would also expand world generation and make it "system generation". Not the way expanded system generation usually goes of calculating the atmospheres of each of the 8 moons of the 3rd gas giant or whatever, but in terms of multiple settlements in a system. I know Book 6 does this but I want more, and I want it to break away from the "mainworld" paradigm. It would be modular so the Ref could stop at a single world if needed, or it could drill down into factions in each settlement.

Somewhat expanded starship design rules but focused on playable options, not internal consistency of the engineering. I want to have meaningful choices about using different sensor types, for example. Heat should be a thing too.

Trade rules based on Book 3 but more elaborate and with a wider range of trade goods. I want to trade Pharmaceuticals (so to speak), not a consignment of anonymous TL-9 Industrial goods. Again, give the Ref the option to drill as deeply as required - a consignment should be capable of being defined until it almost becomes a character in its own right.

More detail on ship encounters, with a dial to turn from "rare ship" to "busy cosmopolitan universe".

Lots of random tables for patron encounters, rumours etc. in best OSR style.

This is difficult to explain but I still want the detail to emerge from rationalising a combination of dice throws, and not come pre-packaged as world traits or tags, like in Stars Without Number. I really like SWN but the whole tags thing leaves me a little cold.

Core mechanics would remain much as is, with the "rulings not rules" philosophy more clearly articulated. Your PC can do (or have a shot at) whatever seems reasonable even if they don't have a skill listed on the character sheet. The Referee will come up with throws on the hoof. More play examples of how say a system survey or trade run work in practice.

That ended up longer than I wanted, but there it is.

 

[PolarBlues]

Better still, I could buy all versions of Traveller. Reintroduce the chance of death during character generation increasing the chances of a fatal result to near certainty. It may not make the game any better, but it be funny.

 

[Triumvir]

Better still, I could buy all versions of Traveller. Reintroduce the chance of death during character generation increasing the chances of a fatal result to near certainty. It may not make the game any better, but it be funny.

Not to derail the thread too far with a discussion about Traveller, but it took me a while to realise chargen in CT stops once you roll up your six stats. At that point, you start play. You can opt for the career lifepath minigame (with chance of death), but you don't have to. Even as a fresh 18 year old, your PC has a level 0 in all weapons (avoiding the unskilled penality that affects NPCs). PCs also have the potential to enter into a training programme to boost weapon skills or stats. With the Ref's consent, they could also discover ways to acquire other skills. They can also attempt plenty of tasks, as CT doesn't often rule out trying something unskilled, although you may incur a penality.

 

[migo]

I'd take the SAGA System (Dragonlance 5th Age, Marvel Super Heroes) and re-do it with Star Wars, of course using the original SWEU and not the new garbage from Disney.

I think the SAGA hand size for character power idea works really well with a second hand that's only fueled by the dark side. So there's a quick and easy path as temptation that's mechanically represented to get players to flirt with the dark side, and potentially get consumed by it.

 

[chuckdee]

Oh i'd keep all that but it only gets grafted to the tall bastard's. The human sized ones insisting they're space marines don't have it.

The human ones go through the whole testing thing and get put in the b-team when they first get their gene seed grafted and their modifications done a bit at a time. After reading the Space wolves novel about how all that happens, I'm sort of attached to it. Anything else is:

 

[Toadmaster]

I would re-do Classic Traveller with more of the right kind of stuff, and a tidy-up and light reworking of the core, and divorce it from the Official Traveller Universe (although it would remain a great ruleset for doing OTU if you wanted).

The reworking would be mostly focused on chargen. Bring in (most of) the careers from Supplement 4 and make them consistent with Book 1 so that skill lists overall make sense across careers. Retain tight discipline on total number of skills in the game (I'm looking at you, Gravitics). Then have expanded chargen for all careers as in Book 4. Expanded chargen gets flak for bringing in skill bloat both in terms of overall skill levels and the range of skills, but this is mainly a Books 5-7 thing. Book 4 characters are not so overskilled.

Bring modern SF tropes like cybernetics or genemod into chargen without breaking the ageing vs power tradeoff. You can offset ageing with modifications, but at some broader cost.

I would also expand world generation and make it "system generation". Not the way expanded system generation usually goes of calculating the atmospheres of each of the 8 moons of the 3rd gas giant or whatever, but in terms of multiple settlements in a system. I know Book 6 does this but I want more, and I want it to break away from the "mainworld" paradigm. It would be modular so the Ref could stop at a single world if needed, or it could drill down into factions in each settlement.

Somewhat expanded starship design rules but focused on playable options, not internal consistency of the engineering. I want to have meaningful choices about using different sensor types, for example. Heat should be a thing too.

Trade rules based on Book 3 but more elaborate and with a wider range of trade goods. I want to trade Pharmaceuticals (so to speak), not a consignment of anonymous TL-9 Industrial goods. Again, give the Ref the option to drill as deeply as required - a consignment should be capable of being defined until it almost becomes a character in its own right.

More detail on ship encounters, with a dial to turn from "rare ship" to "busy cosmopolitan universe".

Lots of random tables for patron encounters, rumours etc. in best OSR style.

This is difficult to explain but I still want the detail to emerge from rationalising a combination of dice throws, and not come pre-packaged as world traits or tags, like in Stars Without Number. I really like SWN but the whole tags thing leaves me a little cold.

Core mechanics would remain much as is, with the "rulings not rules" philosophy more clearly articulated. Your PC can do (or have a shot at) whatever seems reasonable even if they don't have a skill listed on the character sheet. The Referee will come up with throws on the hoof. More play examples of how say a system survey or trade run work in practice.

That ended up longer than I wanted, but there it is.

This brings to mind the idea of Traveller with a different Chargen system. Something other than the term / service based it (and many later GDW games ) used. Not that it would be better, just an interesting alternative to think about.