What was the je ne sais quoi that really grabbed you?

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Take your favourite game, movie setting, novel, TV series or comic - or even just something within that medium. What was so cool about it? What resonated with you? What was the je ne sais quoi that really made it?

Put a bit differently, What made it stand out? What was the lightning that the author captured in the bottle?

I see a lot of role playing game material that's just flat and sterile. Compare Palladium's Beyond The Supernatural with Call of Cthulhu, for example, or Runequest's Glorantha with the zillion other fantasy 'verses that just fall flat. Glorantha was an interesting setting that had its own atmosphere and way of doing things. It worked where a legion of heartbreakers failed.

Take a setting or some other property that spoke to you - what was it that did it for you, why do you think it caught on?

It's not really je ne sais quoi (literally, "I don't know what") if you know what's cool about it, is it? :grin::clown:

But let's not allow language to stand in the way of gushing enthusiasm. God knows we need it these days.

The D&D Rules Cyclopedia was the book that kicked the doors off the dungeon and showed me that there was a whole world beyond, with urban and wilderness adventures, strongholds and domains (something of an obsession of mine to this day), and even Immortality. And of course a slew of badass monsters.

Rifts first came to my attention with the Dragon Magazine bullet-point ads (which later I'd also find in comics). There were monsters, and magic, and lasers, and giant frickin' robots, and bad guys with skull helmets; everything a 14-year-old might ask for in a game. I haven't played in decades, perhaps in fear of crashing that perfect youthful enthusiasm against a system and a setting that don't make a lot of sense. Growing old is a bitch.

The Classic World of Darkness loomed large in my late teens and early twenties. We played until late and then spent more time debating the finer points of canon and whether one's favorite NPC would beat up another's favorite NPC. More than a game, it felt like a fully realized fandom. Good times.

Tékumel I had heard about, also by way of Dragon, but it was chancing upon tekumel.com that really opened the curtains of this fascinating world for me. Exotic yet familiar in the right measure, and so thoroughly realized without feeling overwrought. Genuine worldbuilding gold.

That's just off the top of my head. I've got to go now and I am certain to do another post.
 
From having played only D&D (mainly B/X), the first book that really grabbed me was the first D&D gazetteer, Grand Duchy of Karameikos. It showed me what a fleshed out world could look like between the dungeons and expanded my world view of what an RPG could do.

There is only one game that really lightning bolted me and it was 1st ed Shadowrun. Still mainly a D&D player with an exploration into Gurps 3rd ed (too slow and complex for the pay back). I had missed the whole cyberpunk boat until I saw and bought Shadowrun, after that I didn't really play any other RPG for the next half a dozen years and still have dozens of game books and about 40 novels.

It is still one of my favourite games and though it has many issues, it will create epic gaming moments out of the most random of situations. 'I cast levitate on the cybershark so that Rocky can hose it with the autocannon' being a phrase that works in very few other games.
 
I’m going to mention one that rarely comes up in these kinds of threads...

Rifts.

No, seriously.

I remember picking it up in the store (The Worldhouse in Toronto) when it first came out and looking at those colour plates just fired my imagination. Then I got it home and read about the various classes (yeah, yeah, OCCs and RCCs, completely different from classes, sure), and I was hooked. I loved them all, even the lower powered ones like the Headhunter and the wilderness scout (or whatever it was called).

Of course, I eventually dug into the actual rules and that’s when the wheels came off. But I still ended up buying a ton of Rifts books as they came out because of the sheer gonzo-osity (that’s a word now), the pure enthusiasm of the setting text, and all the crazy/fun ideas.

I eventually ran Rifts using a heavily modified Star Wars D6 system, but no one in the group was into that gonzo-osity (there it is again) as much as I was, so it didn’t last very long.

But man, the adventure ideas I had back then when the game was brand new...so much fun.
 
I've recently been acquiring and reading the Rifts books for Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. I expected to find that gonzo-osity mildly amusing, but instead I am finding it extremely fun and inspirational.
 
I see a lot of role playing game material that's just flat and sterile. Compare Palladium's Beyond The Supernatural with Call of Cthulhu,

Not quite sure which one you're saying is flat and sterile here, but I'm going to assume it's BTS. I used to love some BTS.

To be fair, I've never actually read CoC, the game or the novels. I've just had it explained second hand, and I always found their descriptions to be extremely nihilistic and proud of that nihilism. They'd always explain it that everything was hopeless, and the best you could wish for was a quick death or being driven mad. They would revel in the absolute impossibility of optimism or anything resembling even so much as temporary victory. Horrors were unexplained, unexplainable, and all you can do is crumble before them.

BTS isn't like that. In BTS there are horrible things out there. But screw those guys, because we're not going to give up without a fight. BTS doesn't just say "it's unexplained and therefore unexplainable." BTS and the characters therein are going to take a stab at making sense of it, and maybe they can. BTS doesn't start with the forgone conclusion that you are fucked no matter what you do. It's actually pretty positive, which is honestly unusual for a Palladium product.

BTS is like an expanded Ghostbusters with most of the incidental comedy stripped off. I guess the best comparison is, what if Stargate SG-1 was about ghostbusting instead.
 
To be fair, I've never actually read CoC, the game or the novels. I've just had it explained second hand, and I always found their descriptions to be extremely nihilistic and proud of that nihilism. They'd always explain it that everything was hopeless, and the best you could wish for was a quick death or being driven mad. They would revel in the absolute impossibility of optimism or anything resembling even so much as temporary victory. Horrors were unexplained, unexplainable, and all you can do is crumble before them.

lol, well, that's perhaps not the best sell on Call of Cthulhu. I actually think the game has a underlying tongue in cheek sense of humour that's quite subtle and rarely discussed. Perhaps I'd go so far as to say it's "the Edwardian gentleman's version of Paranoia".

 
JC was Luke Skywalker long before Star Wars. As to the Dresden Files, I've enjoyed pulp detective stores like Chandler for years, but when Butcher combined the noir detective with supernatural beasties it really hit a spot in my heart. The Dresden Files is up to something like 16 books and I re-read them all often.

Superman is just inverted JC, if you look at the first stories.

Have you read the latest DF yet?
 
I'll second Rifts. It was the first RPG, other than D&D, that really grabbed my imagination by the ears and shook it hard. Even just the cover art fired me up. I can't stand the rules, maybe more now than when started playing, but itbstill grabs my imagination. That crazy fusion of post-apocalyptic-fantasy-scifi is pretty tasty. If I were going to play it now I'd use the SW rules for sure.
 
I’m going to mention one that rarely comes up in these kinds of threads...

Rifts.
Actually, I'd say I first learned about Rifts from a thread like this. Now, if you'd put Rifts in the "settings that fascinate you but you're unlikely to ever run", that would have had me surprised:grin:!
 
To be fair, I've never actually read CoC, the game or the novels. I've just had it explained second hand, and I always found their descriptions to be extremely nihilistic and proud of that nihilism. They'd always explain it that everything was hopeless, and the best you could wish for was a quick death or being driven mad. They would revel in the absolute impossibility of optimism or anything resembling even so much as temporary victory. Horrors were unexplained, unexplainable, and all you can do is crumble before them.
I enjoy the nihilism of the Cthulhu Mythos, but I admit that I kind of want to play a gam where the human race cuts a swathe through the Mythos beasties by being clever, careful and patient. We may be ants before them, but people are well-advised to retreat from an advancing swarm of army ants.
 
I enjoy the nihilism of the Cthulhu Mythos, but I admit that I kind of want to play a gam where the human race cuts a swathe through the Mythos beasties by being clever, careful and patient. We may be ants before them, but people are well-advised to retreat from an advancing swarm of army ants.
At some point I may make up Splatter-Thulhu, the game of eldtritch cosmic horror vs. heavily armed rednecks. Lots of gore and explosions guaranteed, maybe not so much in the way of patience or cleverness, though.

Of course it has stats for a chainsaw.
 
I enjoy the nihilism of the Cthulhu Mythos, but I admit that I kind of want to play a gam where the human race cuts a swathe through the Mythos beasties by being clever, careful and patient. We may be ants before them, but people are well-advised to retreat from an advancing swarm of army ants.

I wouldn’t call my CoC games nihilistic. Fatalistic, definitely.


At some point I may make up Splatter-Thulhu, the game of eldtritch cosmic horror vs. heavily armed rednecks. Lots of gore and explosions guaranteed, maybe not so much in the way of patience or cleverness, though.

Of course it has stats for a chainsaw.

Sounds like regular CoC with extra steps to me. :grin:
 
I enjoy the nihilism of the Cthulhu Mythos, but I admit that I kind of want to play a gam where the human race cuts a swathe through the Mythos beasties by being clever, careful and patient. We may be ants before them, but people are well-advised to retreat from an advancing swarm of army ants.
You and me both:thumbsup:. In fact, I usually make that an IC thing, so my investigators usually assume they have a chance.

The only way to disprove them is to kill them, of course. But then they can't deliver a message of hopelessness, because well, dead is dead (usually, I know:devil:).

Cosmic whatevers obviously don't know what a small pebble can do to a huge cart, when strategically placed:shade:!
Bottom line, I kinda do that every time when I manage to rope a GM/Keeper to run a published adventure for me. It's one of my most guilt-free pleasures, too:grin:!
 
I'll second Rifts. It was the first RPG, other than D&D, that really grabbed my imagination by the ears and shook it hard. Even just the cover art fired me up. I can't stand the rules, maybe more now than when started playing, but itbstill grabs my imagination. That crazy fusion of post-apocalyptic-fantasy-scifi is pretty tasty. If I were going to play it now I'd use the SW rules for sure.

If I was to run it these days, I’d probably use:

1) Mutants and Masterminds 2E - pretty easy to assign PL to various OCCs/RCCs and simply grab whatever powers replicate the Rifts abilities.

2) Marvel Heroic Roleplay for a group that doesn’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of all the various skills and gear and stuff. I wasn’t a backer of the new Cortex book, so I haven’t seen what would be available for options.

3) Advanced Marvel Super Heroes for the old-school feel to go with that original Rifts feel.

Of course, all those require some conversion work, but it’s the kind of work I enjoy.

Actually, I'd say I first learned about Rifts from a thread like this. Now, if you'd put Rifts in the "settings that fascinate you but you're unlikely to ever run", that would have had me surprised:grin:!

I’ve seen a fair number of people on forums over the years who loved the setting but never actually got around to running it due to the system. So it works in both threads!
 
Cosmic whatevers obviously don't know what a small pebble can do to a huge cart, when strategically placed:shade:!
Bottom line, I kinda do that every time when I manage to rope a GM/Keeper to run a published adventure for me. It's one of my most guilt-free pleasures, too:grin:!
Now I'm thinking of an SF setting that all begins with us sinking a well into Cthulhu's brain to extract dreamstuff.
 
If so, I guess we'd have to go looking for other dead-but-dreaming Great Old Ones.
I can see myself playing this, then:grin:!

"Damn ecologists, man! Can you imagine, protesting against the Greatoldonescide? WTF do they think the Great Old Ones would do to them, if it wasn't for us:shade:?"
 
This thread got me thinking about Rifts again for the first time in a long while. I have the SW Rifts stuff, but I'd never really spent much time with it. I had a thought to run a Rifts game that, sort of, mashes up Deadwood and the Mandalorian. A group of Tomorrow Legion types assigned to law and order duty in some remote Mos Eisley type location. Acting maybe more like Marshalls than straight Sheriffs, so bounties are in play. The game would be a balance of maintaining order in their town, with some different factions in play (the Deadwood part) plus some monster hunting, bounty hunting, and maybe mystery solving in the surrounding territories (the Mandalorian part). This is probably more PbtA sandbox than linear, but with clocks for threats that don't get dealt with.
 
lol, well, that's perhaps not the best sell on Call of Cthulhu. I actually think the game has a underlying tongue in cheek sense of humour that's quite subtle and rarely discussed. Perhaps I'd go so far as to say it's "the Edwardian gentleman's version of Paranoia".


Points for the Lewis Carroll. I think I'm in love. :heart:
 
Rifts and Shadowrun - Both of them were in the future, and had that "what if all the old myths and legends were true?" but in different ways.

Rifts it was the combination of Long's art and Siembieda's madness, it just gives it...something that grabs you.
Shadowrun, the art, the Cyberpunk, the Natives kicking ass...it's just awesome.

Dragon Age is a true je ne sais quoi in that I really don't know. There's nothing new in it, it's all derivative, but the blend, the recipe...it's just a place I want to adventure in.

Realms Greybox I guess I have to chalk it up to the worldbuilding. The Realms seem like a lived-in world, and a world where D&D shit happens. Adventurers are a thing.

Westeros I guess it's the combination of historical reality based on horrific shit people actually do to each other to get power, with the mysterious magic of the Red Priests, the Night King, the Children of the Forest, the Qartheen Warlocks, Valyrian Dragons, etc. It's so grounded and yet so fantastical. Despite all the potential for magic, People are People.
 
I loved the Realms Grey Box. I have become less and less of a fan as the map has been filled in. Except Waterdeep, i love having a well developed large urban sandbox.
 
With Runequest II, I think it was that the lore (at the time) had just enough depth that you could feel some immersion in the world, but it was a decade or two before it had online discourse to be dominated by obnoxious canon-mongering grogs. Ergo, it had flavour and a je ne sais quoi. Traveller had a similar effect for slightly different reasons. I was still in high school when it was coming out and I would go to the bookshops that stocked it, and when new adventures or supplements came out I'd read through them. There was a process of revelation as you saw a little bit of new material, and it left you wanting more.

That experience with Traveller makes me quite like the idea of publishing a universe incrementally in bits - sourcebooks for specific regions, adventures with worlds fleshed out, supplements with starships or whatever. Make something that covers a topic in enough detail to be interesting but leaves the punters wanting more. It wouldn't take a lot to convince me to release a game as a series of 48-64 page splat books, although one would have to publish the core rule set first.
 
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The internet has made many a lore set less palatable. The grogs are a plague on the hobby. A particular sort of grog anyway, I think we all know of whom we speak.
 
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