IP's that ought to have their own RPGs

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That's not making things up, though. That's just having more information than everyone else to build upon. Not a bad thing, quite opposite in my opinion.

Ah, but here's where you touch on the important thing: Information. WEG had the basics of the setting, how travel works, how the force works, examples of how things are, both politically and technologically.

Not entirely. One thing a setting bible (even one that the rest of the audience never sees) creates is a box. Now, a lot of people always go on about 'thinking outside the box', but the box itself is what allows a setting to have the one thing we humans like in our stories:

Consistency. Rules about how things work, it doesn't have to be realistic, just plausible. But rules as to hang our ideas and stories on and expand out from.

Because without that 'box' you end up with situations like the current Star Wars sequel trilogy, wherein key elements of the setting are completely different than how they were portrayed before. Like the oft self-mentioned Hyperspace travel. JJ Abrams didn't bother doing due diligence on the lore before turning it into another form of light speed travel from a previous franchise his' production studio (Bad Robot, along with their new subsidiary, Secret Hideout) have the rights to, Star Trek. Both methods are very different, which creates a conflict in how things work in the world.

Imagine if you would, that suddenly, your car could fly because it uses Gasoline. Wouldn't you question what happened, why your Ford Escort suddenly buzzes the seagulls and flight towers of the world? And wouldn't consequences of such an ability send ripples around our world? Like suddenly, being able to send a small cruiser crashing into and destroying most of a fleet of much larger ships using a method that no one was able to?

Consistency within the setting keeps your players from questioning and arguing why a certain thing happens, and allows them to focus on what to do within the game.

My two cents.

I could not care less about fan invented notions of ‘canon’ especially when it comes to RPGs where the entire notion is anathema to good gaming.
 
I could not care less about fan invented notions of ‘canon’ especially when it comes to RPGs where the entire notion is anathema to good gaming.
So you're totally fine with breaking a settings underlying and basic 'rules' of how the world functions? How the NPC's of the setting react to situations due to past experiences? Huh, OK.
 
So you're totally fine with breaking a settings underlying and basic 'rules' of how the world functions? How the NPC's of the setting react to situations due to past experiences? Huh, OK.
Or he doesn't think that consistency and it being the original author writing the material are necessarily related.
 
Didn't they do an animated thing? Like an animated matrix? I can't remember what it's called, but it was pretty decent.
The Animatrix, really liked the one by Shinichiro Watanabe about the detective and The Second Renaissance about the rise of the machines.
 
So you're totally fine with breaking a settings underlying and basic 'rules' of how the world functions? How the NPC's of the setting react to situations due to past experiences? Huh, OK.
If I'm running, frex, a Star Wars game, I don't care about the canon at all. I'll take the building blocks that make up the setting. The Force, blasters, X-Wings, hyperspace and so on. But I will then say that we are playing say, in the era immediately after Return of the Jedi. At which point, the setting becomes ours. I refuse to be bound going forwards by somebody else's story.

The same is true for a game with heavy metaplot. Say, L5R. I' might say we're playing in the so-called 1st Edition era. The starting situation is X, Y and Z. And then after that, the players take the stage. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if you can dance. By which I mean, what the players do is what matters. Not what some book tells me should happen next.
 
They never did any sequels either ...
Actually there's a free Matrix game. It's based on Wushu, so it fits the Matrix like a glove:smile:.

I'd say Dune, preferably something based on the Great Game:wink:.
 
I know, I was trying to be funny... But yeah, the Animatrix was certainly better than those other movies with the word "matrix" in the title.
Man it's actually obvious reading back over it, I'll need to get this dunce cap fitted! :errr:
 
They're not really IPs but I'd like to see Flashing Blades expansions for Elizabethan England and El Siglo de Oro Spain (suitable for Alatriste, I suppose), and maybe the Dutch Republic (or instead of the Dutch Republic a general Thirty Years' War campaign sourcebook). Were I knowledgeable enough I'd make them myself but I'm afraid my ignorance would make them merely superficial overviews at best. I could maybe put together a not-entirely-embarrassing booklet for El Siglo de Oro.
externo-db4b438ea660a2b7a9baaf76cc8dfce2.jpg
 
It's endemic in the 2010s as well. Here's looking at you, 2d20...

Yeah, there was a time that I believed in one system to rule them all, but I've come to appreciate variety. Some game settings work great in a generic rule set, some really benefit from a very specialized set of rules developed specifically for the setting.

Even with the generics there are genres and settings where I prefer BRP, HERO or GURPS even though any one of them could theoretically do it..
 
If I'm running, frex, a Star Wars game, I don't care about the canon at all. I'll take the building blocks that make up the setting. The Force, blasters, X-Wings, hyperspace and so on. But I will then say that we are playing say, in the era immediately after Return of the Jedi. At which point, the setting becomes ours. I refuse to be bound going forwards by somebody else's story.

The same is true for a game with heavy metaplot. Say, L5R. I' might say we're playing in the so-called 1st Edition era. The starting situation is X, Y and Z. And then after that, the players take the stage. The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if you can dance. By which I mean, what the players do is what matters. Not what some book tells me should happen next.
Ah, OK. I was using the term 'canon' wrong in this instance. I meant in terms of potential interactions. If I'm running a Star Wars game and my players HAVE to interact with a canon character, I'll play that NPC as per how I understand them, but it IS my player's GAME. They are the stars of it. They may not be the ones who deal the death blow to Vader (I've had a few groups that prefer to interact, but not change the canon of a setting) but they are still the main focus of my games. Or they could kill Vader and the Emperor, it all depends on what they want. I am an arbitrator and facilitator.

But in this instance, I'm only using the parts of canon that are useful to them. I can understand not wanting to be beholden to a story that came before, it's part of the reason why I personally do not like Historical gaming. History is effectively the same thing as Canon, so if you can't change it, why bother playing?
 
But in this instance, I'm only using the parts of canon that are useful to them. I can understand not wanting to be beholden to a story that came before, it's part of the reason why I personally do not like Historical gaming. History is effectively the same thing as Canon, so if you can't change it, why bother playing?
I dont like historical gaming for much the same reason. That said, I have nothing against mythic gaming. Ancient Greece, Ray Harryhausen inspired Arabia, it's all good. Bit if you try to beat me over the head with canon, or historical accuracy, I'm not going to be happy.
 
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So, obviously there's a TON of IP properties where I would jump on an official RPG just because I sadly retain a collector's impulse, as much as I've tried to let that go. There's still a few things that are instant buys for me. I would really love an Overlord RPG, which is likely to be a system that I have no interest in (I'm just not the target audience for the majority of current trends in the industry ), but I would still be chuffed because it was the intersection of a hobby I love with an IP I immensely enjoy (despite it admittedly being a ridiculous power fantasy with a fair share of fan service and an anime adaption with very low production values).

But that list would be long and pointless. So intead here's a few specific IPs whose concepts I think would translate perfectly to an RPG:

First however, here is a list of IPs that had RPGs at one point, but I think should recieve a modern edition: Hellboy (obviously),Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Masters of the Universe, Farscape, Ghostbusters, Buffy/Angel Whedonverse. and Dallas (just because of the system, I've never even seen an episode of the show).

Galaxy High

Teenagers From Outer Space was sort of the unofficial RPG of this highly under-rated 80s cartoon. The premise of Galaxy High is that a peaceful co-federation of Aliens decided to invite Earth to participate in a cross-species attempt to foster a universal society by having two adolescent-equivalents from every "peaceful" sentient species attend a school in space together (and wow, yes the 80's was a much more optimistic time). In the case of the cartoon it's two high school students representing Earth. Doyle, the star and also sort of foil of the show, who is basically a "dumb jock", and Amy, a bookish nerdy girl, but the kind of "hot librarian" type - Velma in the Scooby Doo movies as opposed to Thelma in the Hanna-Barbara cartoons. The show was all about Doyle growing out of that stereotype and becoming the sort of sensitive guy who valued learning and intelligence. Or maybe that was just Amy's Machiavellian plan to shape Doyle into the sort of man she wanted to marry. I never quite trusted her, because she was the willing participant and even initiator of most of the "learning lessons" (read: pranks) Doyle was subjected to each week. Anyways, I digress.

So why would this make a good RPG?
The very premise of an intergalactic high school that could feature any sort of alien one could imagine, along with humans stuck in the middle, is a great set-up for gaming. You've got the usual high school drama (a goldmine for role-playing that I'm genuinely surprised has seemed largely ignored by the hobby with a few indy and foreign exceptions- and TFOS), you've got space exploration (quite a few episodes featured Doyle encountering hostile xenospecies on nearby planets), you've got intergalactic politics, I have, in the few times I've gotten the right group together, ran some epic, thoroughly entertaining and surprising games of TFOS as Galaxy High. You get the right group dynamic for this one, and it is a party.

GI Joe
Specifically, of course, the Larry Hama iteration.

So why would this make a good RPG?
A premise that allows outlandish concepts but still within this structured framework that provides the perfect set-up for mission-based adventures. GI Joe deserves a system that caters to it, capturing that wonderful mix of realistic para-military action with over-the-top superscience and villainy. It's like if James Bond was an organization, and Spectre was run by supervillains (actually it kind of is already, thinking about it, but these guys have a Snake theme!). I think D6 might handle it well, circa WEG's first edition Star Wars (credit where credit's due, I think Endless first suggested a D6 GI Joe adaption many threads ago). Though, as Dumarest mentions upthread, Victory Game's 007 RPG system would be an easy fit as well.

The Venture Bros
I'm so behind this being a thing, I wrote my own..

Venture Bros RPG


Being a hack of Phillipe Tromeur's wondurful Wuthering Heights RPG, an English translation of the French role-playing game Rene le jeu de role romantique
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"This show... If you'll permit me to get 'big picture,' This show is actually all about failure. Even in the design, everything is supposed to be kinda the death of the space-age dream world. The death of the jet-age promises." -Jackson Public

CHARACTER CREATION

Qualities


Throw two 10-sided dice and add 39 to obtain your amount of Rage.
Throw two 10-sided dice and add 39 to obtain your amount of Angst.
Throw three 10-sided dice and add 10 to obtain your amount of Oldness.
Throw two 10-sided dice and add 20 to obtain your amount of Batman.

Traits

Throw one 10-sided die and divide by two (rounding up);this is how many Traits you have. Determine each Trait by throwing a d100 and referencing to the Traits Table. If you roll the same Trait twice, you should either double the effect, or roll another. You may refuse a Trait ; each time you do that, you must roll 2 Traits in its stead.

Choose a Name and you are ready to start playing.
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TRAIT TABLE
01 - you are a "pedestrian". (add 10 to Oldness and Age)
02 - you are a clone. (remove 10 from Oldness and Age)
03 . - your parents are dead.(add 10 to Angst and Batman)
04 - you are an invalid.(add 10 to Angst and Rage)
05 - you have a physical deformity.(add 10 to Angst)
06 - you are hard-of-hearing. (add 10 to Oldness)
07 - you have bad eyesight. (add 10 to Oldness)
08 - you are mute. (remove 10 from Angst)
09 - you have a cybernetic limb. (add 10 to Batman)
10 - you are or were a rock star(remove 10 from Angst)
11 - you are a damn, dirty hippy. (remove 10 from Rage)
12 - you are an ego-maniac. (remove 10 from Batman)
13 - you are bi-sexual. (add 10 to Angst)
14 - you have huge tracts of land. (remove 10 from Rage)
15 - you are a transvestite. (add 10 to Angst)
15 - you are a technophiliac. (remove 10 from Oldness)
16 - you are a necrophiliac. (add 10 to Oldness)
17 - you are in love with someone from your family. (add 10 to Angst)
18-19 - you are a foreigner. (remove 10 from Angst)
20-21 - you are a fugitive. (add 10 to Angst and Batman)
22-23 - you have a secret identity.(add 10 to Batman)
24-25 - you are naive. (remove 10 from Rage)
26-27 - you are a goth.(add 10 to Angst)
28-29 - you are a slacker.(remove 10 from Angst)
30-33 - you are a geek. (remove 10 from Batman)
34-35 - you have an arch-enemy. (add 10 to Batman)
36-37 - you are completely insane. (remove 10 from Angst)
38-39 - you are gender diverse (add 10 to Angst)
40-41 - you smoke.(12 hours a day)
42 - you are a magic user. (4 hours a day)
43 - you gamble.(2 hours a day)
44 - you are a Christian.(2 hours a day and Sundays)
45-46 - you are an alcoholic.(5 bottles a day)
47 - you are a drug addict.(1 hour a day)
48 - you are a sex addict. (once a day)
49 - you are unhealthy (double Oldness but not Age)
50-51 - you are old. (double your Oldness and Age)
52-53 - you are young (half your Oldness and Age)
54-55 - you are bald. (add 10 to Oldness and Rage)
56-57 - you are fat. (add 10 to Angst)
58-59 - you are thin. (add 10 to Angst)
60-61 - you are small. (add 10 to Angst)
62-63 - you are ugly. (Hideously so, not "Hollywood Ugly")
64-65 - you are a bad dresser. (remove 10 from Rage)
66-67 - you are obsessed with the occult. (remove 10 from Rage)
68-69 - you are obsessed with revenge. (add 10 to Rage)
70-71 - you are in love with your boss's wife. (add 10 to Angst)
72-73 - you are evil. (remove 10 from Batman)
74 - you are an albino (without a big sword)
75 - you have a licence to kill (add 10 to Rage)
76 - you read comic books.(add 10 to Batman)
77 - you are or were a superhero.(add 10 to Batman)
78 - you are a robot. (add 10 to Batman and Oldness but not Age).
79 - you are or were a costumed miscreant.(remove 10 from Batman)
80 - you are or were an assassin. (add 10 to Rage)
81 - you are or were a quiz boy.(add 10 to Angst)
82 - you have an evil twin. (add 10 to Angst)
83 - you are or were a bodyguard.(add 10 to Batman)
84 -you are or were a ninja. (add 10 to Batman)
85 - you are or were a detective.(add 10 to Batman)
86-87 - you are or were a henchman (remove 10 from Rage and Batman)
88-89 - you are or were a super-villain (add 10 to Rage)
90-93 - you are or were a boy adventurer
(remove 10 from Oldness and Age or add 10 to Angst)
95-97 - you are or were a super-scientist (add 10 to Oldness and Age)
98 - make up your own Trait (remove 10 from Batman)
99 - you are or were a secret agent (add 10 to Batman)
00 - Mecha-Shiva!Mecha-Shiva! (add 10 to Batman, Halve your Angst)

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SYSTEM

"It's about the beauty of failure. It's about that failure happens to all of us...Every character is not only flawed, but sucks at what they do, and is beautiful at it and Jackson and I suck at what we do, and we try to be beautiful at it, and failure is how you get by." "It shows that failure's funny, and it's beautiful and it's life, and it's okay, and it's all we can write because we are big fucking failures." - Doc Hammer

Basic Rule

You hay two ways to Check a Quality: roll above it or roll below. If the roll equals your Quality, it's a Fumble.

Rage Checks
A violent action requires the character should roll below one's Rage. To refrain from reacting too violently, one should roll above Rage.

Angst Checks
To make an important decision the character should roll above Angst. To be honest, one should roll under Angst.

Oldness Checks
To test a character's wisdom, one should roll below Oldness. To test a character's physical well-being, one should surpass Oldness.

Batman Checks
If a character wants to do something that benefits another but not themselves, the character should roll below their Batman.To screw over another for personal gain, one should roll above Batman.
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Fight!
Both characters should roll below their Rage.
Should one succeed and the other fail, the latter gets a Wound (see below)
Should both succeed, both lose 1 Rage point and the fight keeps on, if both would agree.
Should both fail, they stop the fight and become friends, or something like that.
Whatever the other's result, a Fumble shall give you a Wound.
If both Fumble, both are Wounded.

If a character is fighting for the benefit of another, they may substitute Batman for Rage during a fight.
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WOUNDS

A Wounded character should roll above their Oldness. The die roll is modified by the kind of weapon:
punch (or a 2 meter fall) d100 + 20
knife, stick (or a 5 meter fall) d100 + 10
sword, pistol (or a 10 meter fall) d100
rifle,ray gun (or a 20 meter fall) d100 - 10
cannon, laser (or a 50 meter fall) d100 - 20

A failure means the character is Dying.
A fumble means Death, after the death speech, of course.

DYING

A Dying character must try to roll above their Oldness every night. Two successive successful nights bring you back to life. Two successive failures kill you. The roll is modified by +25 if the character is in a hospital bed.

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Suicide
Once Angst reaches 90 or above, a character will try to Murder themselves. To commit suicide, a character must roll above Batman. If one fails, they lose 1d10 Rage.

Mania
If Angst reaches 10 or below, the character is happy and spends the days doing useless but funny things; afterwards gaining back 1d10 Angst.

Madness
If Rage ever reaches 90 or above, the character must try a very risky task, after which losing d10 Rage.

Zen
If Rage ever drops to 10 or below, the character loses all energy and must spend the day reading, meditating, dreaming...afterwards gaining back 1d10 Rage.

Delusion
If Batman ever reaches 90 or above, the character is overwhelmed with love for their fellow man, and must commit one completely ludicrous and selfless act...afterwards losing 1d10 Batman.

Tantrum
If Batman ever drops to 10 or below, the character becomes mired in selfish desires, and will throw a fit if they don't get their way, afterwords gaining 1d10 Batman.

Emotional Shocks
During a Tragedy (an 'adventure'), characters will go up and down Rage, Angst and Batman scales.
A strong shock (death of a friend ...) will make you gain / lose d10 points in Rage, Angst or Batman. An important event (love success / failure, death of someone ...) make you gain / lose d10/2 points.
Some events / situations may make you gain / lose 1 point (good / bad weather, small success / failure ...).

Aging
Every Christmas, the Persona must roll above his Oldness ; a failure means he shall be Dying d10 x d10 days later.
A Fumble means a heart attack (death).
Every September 12th, the Persona has 10% chance of gaining a new Problem.
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GHOSTS
If a character dies before the end of a Tragedy, he might become a Ghost, 2d10 minutes of gameplay later. A Ghost may act on the physical world by rolling below their Rage and losing d10 points of Rage after that. A Ghost may appear and speak to one other character by rolling below their Angst and losing d10 points of Angst after that.Ghosts can fly slowly, but can't go through solid objects. They disappear when their Rage or Angst reaches 10 or below, or at the end of the Adventure. They never gain Rage or Angst.
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Rewards / Evolution
Should some persona survive an Episode (a gaming session), give one of them the possibility to lose a Problem.
If a persona's Rage, Angst, or Batman is greater than 55, they lose d10 points.
If a persona's Rage, Angst, or Batman is less than 45, they gain d10 points.
Add 1d10/2 to your Oldness (1d10/2 years pass).

This great. Will play it with my wife who is a big VB fan.
 
The only reason Thundarr does not have an RPG, is the IP holders want too much money. I know of two people who've attempted to approach them on the subject. Hence why I don't bring up the heartbreak there...

I recently found out that Thundarr was created by Steve Gerber of Howard the Duck and Man-Thing fame.
 
Any good games about playing in pre 1492 America's?
 
What's wrong with the 2d20 system? It doesn't seem to be very popular in most places I've seen. I don't know a thing about it really.
 
What's wrong with the 2d20 system? It doesn't seem to be very popular in most places I've seen. I don't know a thing about it really.
I've only played the Star Trek variant, and there were so many different pools of points that you had to track, and every die roll was an exercise in tracking and spending those points. Just remembering what points did what was enough of a strain without even thinking about actually applying them. We played about half a session and the GM just kind of lost interest in the middle of adjudicating my attempt to use a tricorder.
 
What's wrong with the 2d20 system? It doesn't seem to be very popular in most places I've seen. I don't know a thing about it really.

I've never played it or even read a game featuring it, but it came out in an earlier Dune thread that many Pubbers are really not fans of it.

Though to be fair, I've got no frelling clue what Fallout is either
 
I've never played it or even read a game featuring it, but it came out in an earlier Dune thread that many Pubbers are really not fans of it.

Though to be fair, I've got no frelling clue what Fallout is either
Fallout is a video game series that takes place after a nuclear war. The aesthetic is ... I believe the term would be retro fifties futurism. There's remnants of stuff like diners and classic cars alongside advanced weapons and radiation mutants. It's very Mad Max meets Happy Days.
 
I've never played it or even read a game featuring it, but it came out in an earlier Dune thread that many Pubbers are really not fans of it.

Though to be fair, I've got no frelling clue what Fallout is either
Fallout is a computer RPG series that began in the '90s.

Watching the intro videos for the first two games should give you a pretty good feel for the tone.


 
Truth, I have not played it. I have Conan, and I just kind of went..l why do I need a new mechanic for this? Why new dice? It sounds very get if my lawn of me, but I am very over new system mechanics, especially when they add a lot of complexity for no particular reason.

  • Dice pools ala Shadowrun and world of darkness
  • Fixed dice bell curve systems (ala traveler and more dice based ones)
  • Fixed dice linear systems ala d20 and d100 (with some nuances)
Over the last decade, the only new dice mechanic I’ve found worth a damn was cortex, and largely because the die size itself was important. You made a d10 asset, a d8 complication, and I particularly liked it because it scoped abstract things quite nicely.

I’m pretty negative towards fancy dice too.

I do like fate of the Norns, but that’s not dice at all, and totally different math.
 
Over the last decade, the only new dice mechanic I’ve found worth a damn was cortex, and largely because the die size itself was important. You made a d10 asset, a d8 complication, and I particularly liked it because it scoped abstract things quite nicely.
When I played 2d20, my feeling was that it wasn't doing anything that Cortex couldn't do in a much simpler fashion.
 
When I played 2d20, my feeling was that it wasn't doing anything that Cortex couldn't do in a much simpler fashion.
not too surprising - there are a lot of light systems that cortex does exceptionally well. I look forward to Cam Banks Cam Banks finishing it up and pushing it out with examples of how to build things. You can toss together thematic games very simply with it. I did up Scion for my group and it was quite excellent - better than Scion itself, I think.

anyhow, IP - John Wick I think could use one. there are several good systems, depending on your crunch level. Fast and the Furious franchise as well, though it is getting progressively more ridiculous (not that I mind). American Gods is something I dearly love and feel like it should get, though there are several systems with modern day gods. Scion works pretty close though.
 
They're not really IPs but I'd like to see Flashing Blades expansions for Elizabethan England and El Siglo de Oro Spain (suitable for Alatriste, I suppose), and maybe the Dutch Republic (or instead of the Dutch Republic a general Thirty Years' War campaign sourcebook). Were I knowledgeable enough I'd make them myself but I'm afraid my ignorance would make them merely superficial overviews at best. I could maybe put together a not-entirely-embarrassing booklet for El Siglo de Oro.
Nice! I'll back that idea. And add a similar one: expansions of Behind Enemy Lines for the Pacific, north africa and the eastern front.
 
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