#RPGaDAY Question 2: What is an RPG you would like to see published?
It’s August and that means that the annual #RPGaDAY ‘question a day’ is here to celebrate “everything cool, memorable and amazing about our hobby.” This year we’ve decided to join in the fun and will be canvassing answers from the ENWorld crew, columnists and friends in the industry to bring you some of our answers. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too… So, without further ado, here’s Day 2 of #RPGaDAY 2017!
#RPGaDAY Question 2: What is an RPG you would like to see published?
Morrus: I would love to see a kids' game (which adults can enjoy too!) based on the greatest secret agent who ever lived - Dangermouse! "He's the greatest! He's fantastic! Wherever there is danger he'll be there!" I can imagine a simple game where you create secret agents based on any animal, and try to outwit the schemes of dastardly villains. It would be a great introductory game for kids, and a great, fun, fast-playing nostalgic piece for grown-ups.
Christopher Helton: I would like to see a Paranormal Romance role-playing game published. I am a big fan of the works of authors like Kelley Armstrong, Devon Monk and Patricia Briggs, and I while I would love to see games in their actual settings I would settle for something that supports that mode of storytelling. I've played in a Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition game inspired by Briggs' Mercy Thompson books, but we ended up having to alter so many rules that it ended up being counter productive.
Angus Abranson: I’d love to see a properly supported, and widely available, Dune RPG range. It’s such a shame that the original RPG was only a short limited run with no support as the setting is so rich and ripe for roleplaying. I’d also love to see a Harry Potter RPG as the world has so much unexplored potential, apart from being able to introduce thousands of people of the hobby. Another property I’d love to see made in to a RPG is Mortal Engines (Predator Cities in the States) by Philip Reeve – a dystopian steampunkish future where Cities and Towns roam the desolated wastelands as giant constructions attacking and recycling other Cities for spare parts to keep themselves working.
Darryl Mott: “War... War never changes." That's the tagline of the Fallout series, but war did change a lot after the bombs fell, didn't it? The Fallout series has had two major brushes with tabletop roleplaying. Originally, the game was intended to be a GURPS video game until creative differences between Interplay and Steve Jackson Games caused the deal to fall through. Later, when developing the canceled Fallout 3 "Van Buren", designer Chris Avellone ran a tabletop campaign set in Fallout to "playtest" the rules of the video game to hammer out balance between skills, traits, weapons, and more while also further developing the game's lore using dice and minis instead of wasting programmer and quality assurance time in far more expensive video game testing. While we've had many spiritual clones of Fallout in the tabletop roleplaying space, I think there's something to be said for having the real New California Republic, Brotherhood of Steel, Enclave, and all the other varying regional factions. The setting is well-defined in both tone and space, but still wide open for exploration and finding your own niche to carve out in the wastelands.
Mark Rein-Hagen (Vampire: The Masquerade; Make Believe Games) : I would love to see a Harry Potter RPG. It’s an amazing world with an absurd amount of depth for a young adult book series, it’s perfect for a RPG. However, I bet the license would be incredibly expensive so the designer would have to find a way to make it appeal FAR beyond the normal roleplayer who "also" happens to like Harry Potter. In other words a true storytelling game that families and younger kids could easily play together. Amazing challenge to try to pull it off.
Dennis Detwiller (Creator of Delta Green, Arc Dream Publishing): I would love to write a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy RPG.
Phil Brucato (White Wolf; Laughing Pan Productions) A high-fantasy RPG based in Classical Hindu Indian myth and culture. I'm still waiting on a great steamfunk and/ or Afrofuturist RPG, too.
Sarah Newton (Mindjammer; Achtung! Cthulhu) : The best future RPG is always the one no one can predict - that makes a space for itself that no one knew even existed before. That said, if there's one RPG I'd like to write myself if I had the time, then it'd be a historical fantasy RPG set in ancient world Bactria, about 200BC. It's an *awesome* setting - roughly around modern-day Tashkent, in central Asia, but back then it was a thriving nexus, much less arid, full of clashing cultures, Alexander the Great's heirs and their Indo-Greek civilisation in Bactria, the Yueh-Chi to the north and east where modern-day China is, the Maurya Indians to the south and east, Sogdiana to the north. Constant conflict and adventure, the great toings and froings of history. These clashing cultures all have their own myths and traditions, so you'd have warring gods, loads of different monsters, languages, magics, treasures. And, it being historical fantasy, species too. I've researched the period myself, always thinking how to do it properly - it would be a labour of love to get it just right, but if you did so it'd be like Qin meets RuneQuest meets Wushu meets Unknown Armies. So much antiquity, so many secrets, so much at stake, and oh so exotic! General, bring me my war elephant, we ride to battle!
Dave Chapman (Doctor Who RPG; Conspiracy X 2.0) : The obvious answer for me has to be Harry Potter. It's the perfect RPG setting, rich in detail and character, great to get new players interested in the hobby. Alas, I've tried a few times to get somewhere with that - no luck so far, but I'll keep trying. To satisfy my want for a college/school for magic, I'd love to see an RPG based on Lev Grossman's "The Magicians". The TV series is really cool, with plenty of scope for an RPG - like a sweary, violent, sexy Harry Potter. That'd be cool too.
George "Loki" Williams (Kobold Press; Jon Brazer Entertainment; Savage Mojo) Buckaroo Banzai, and I'd kill to be on the design team.
Laura Hoffman (Black Book Editions; Polaris RPG) : The RPG I’m most hoping for would be an official Magic: The Gathering adaptation. Even if it is simply with DD5 rules. I know they did a bunch of free guides on recent sets lately but a beautiful hardcover book with a complete rules adaptation and lots of Magic lore, OMG… On a similar note I would also really love to see Horizon - Zero Dawn adapted as an official RPG. That would be gorgeous and epic.
Ed Jowett (Shades of Vengeance) : I would love to see an officially licensed Final Fantasy game.
Final Fantasy is the defining game of a genre for me - it is the first game of its type that I played and it opened my eyes to a new kind of story, which I had never really encountered before.
Mechanically, each game in the series has had its own quirks and uniqueness and I think the ability to choose which version to play in any given campaign is a very appealing one!
Unfortunately, the copyright owner is very unlikely to license it, so it may be something that never happens!
Michael E. Webb (Alliance Game Distributors, Game Trade Magazine) : I am a sucker for Dune. OK, yes, there was a DUNE RPG published by WoC after they acquired Last Unicorn Games, but at collector's pricing it is tough to run a campaign. Dune, though, is a world rich with possibilities. It has all of the political intrigue of Renaissance Italy. It is full of interesting areas to explore from smugglers, courtiers, assassins, Jongleurs, and fringers. As more and more material has come to market in the continuations of the original series, the sandbox of Arrakis and beyond has grown.
James Gantry (FeralGamersInc) : I have always felt that the Drenai books of David Gemmel would make a great RPG, dark and low fantasy, they could cover the different time periods and the different kings of the Drenao from the days of Waylander to those of Druss and then the reign of the Nadir etc. Its a really rich world and I always loved the books.
Ryan Schoon (Modiphius Entertainment; Loremaster Games) My biggest dream is to play an officially licensed Mass Effect RPG. The world is an amazing sandbox and ripe for stories to tell - more stories than the video games will ever manage. There are many great systems that can support a homebrew Mass Effect game, but having an official, universal version would be amazing. Bioware, I hope you're listening!
Paul Mitchener (Age of Arthur; Hunters of Alexandria) : For ages I've been hankering for something set in and around the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century AD, during or just after the reign of Justinian. Constantinople would make an excellent RPG setting for historical urban fantasy, and there's all sorts of potential for power politics.
Ian Stead (Moon Toad Publishing; Traveller) : The Hyperion Cantos. I've read the books far too many times. It is a setting that I would love to play in or even work on. The scope is big and encompasses many themes, such as horror, environment, human evolution, cyberpunk, war, the far future and AIs for example.
Rod Edwards (Peachstate Hobby Distribution) I heard somebody talking about a powered by the Apocalypse hack called Tears in the Rain, I believe. It's based on the movie Streets of Fire. That sounds very intriguing to me.
Garry Harper (Modiphius Entertainment; The Role Play Haven) : Dune
Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment; Esper Genesis 5E) : Mass Effect or Final Fantasy. The lack of these genre types is why I started my current project.
Simon Brake (Stygian Fox) : If there was a game that could mimic the weirdness of David Lynches imagination, without simultaneously alienating 50% of the players, that would be brilliant. Something that allows the characters to build some strong connections and empathy with each other but puts them in a surreal and somewhat threatening situation without being whimsical and/or pretentious. I was always a fan of Vampire: The Masquerade and Wraith: The Oblivion, with their ancient backstory metaplots that suddenly became important as the end of the world drew closer, but arguably the player characters didn’t feel centre stage unless you reigned that stuff back. Games like Lacuna Part 1 (The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City), Alas Vegas and Insylum all feature surreal cityscapes where players slowly find out about themselves and the world around them – I’d like to do something like that but in a way that the players feel a strong sense of their identity (I did create a game like this a while back but it’s been in development/publishing hell for over a year and might not see the light of day for a long time).
****
Originally created by Dave Chapman (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space; Conspiracy X) #RPGaDAY os now being caretakered by the crew over at RPGBrigade. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too!
It’s August and that means that the annual #RPGaDAY ‘question a day’ is here to celebrate “everything cool, memorable and amazing about our hobby.” This year we’ve decided to join in the fun and will be canvassing answers from the ENWorld crew, columnists and friends in the industry to bring you some of our answers. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too… So, without further ado, here’s Day 2 of #RPGaDAY 2017!
#RPGaDAY Question 2: What is an RPG you would like to see published?
Morrus: I would love to see a kids' game (which adults can enjoy too!) based on the greatest secret agent who ever lived - Dangermouse! "He's the greatest! He's fantastic! Wherever there is danger he'll be there!" I can imagine a simple game where you create secret agents based on any animal, and try to outwit the schemes of dastardly villains. It would be a great introductory game for kids, and a great, fun, fast-playing nostalgic piece for grown-ups.
Christopher Helton: I would like to see a Paranormal Romance role-playing game published. I am a big fan of the works of authors like Kelley Armstrong, Devon Monk and Patricia Briggs, and I while I would love to see games in their actual settings I would settle for something that supports that mode of storytelling. I've played in a Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition game inspired by Briggs' Mercy Thompson books, but we ended up having to alter so many rules that it ended up being counter productive.
Angus Abranson: I’d love to see a properly supported, and widely available, Dune RPG range. It’s such a shame that the original RPG was only a short limited run with no support as the setting is so rich and ripe for roleplaying. I’d also love to see a Harry Potter RPG as the world has so much unexplored potential, apart from being able to introduce thousands of people of the hobby. Another property I’d love to see made in to a RPG is Mortal Engines (Predator Cities in the States) by Philip Reeve – a dystopian steampunkish future where Cities and Towns roam the desolated wastelands as giant constructions attacking and recycling other Cities for spare parts to keep themselves working.
Darryl Mott: “War... War never changes." That's the tagline of the Fallout series, but war did change a lot after the bombs fell, didn't it? The Fallout series has had two major brushes with tabletop roleplaying. Originally, the game was intended to be a GURPS video game until creative differences between Interplay and Steve Jackson Games caused the deal to fall through. Later, when developing the canceled Fallout 3 "Van Buren", designer Chris Avellone ran a tabletop campaign set in Fallout to "playtest" the rules of the video game to hammer out balance between skills, traits, weapons, and more while also further developing the game's lore using dice and minis instead of wasting programmer and quality assurance time in far more expensive video game testing. While we've had many spiritual clones of Fallout in the tabletop roleplaying space, I think there's something to be said for having the real New California Republic, Brotherhood of Steel, Enclave, and all the other varying regional factions. The setting is well-defined in both tone and space, but still wide open for exploration and finding your own niche to carve out in the wastelands.
Mark Rein-Hagen (Vampire: The Masquerade; Make Believe Games) : I would love to see a Harry Potter RPG. It’s an amazing world with an absurd amount of depth for a young adult book series, it’s perfect for a RPG. However, I bet the license would be incredibly expensive so the designer would have to find a way to make it appeal FAR beyond the normal roleplayer who "also" happens to like Harry Potter. In other words a true storytelling game that families and younger kids could easily play together. Amazing challenge to try to pull it off.
Dennis Detwiller (Creator of Delta Green, Arc Dream Publishing): I would love to write a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy RPG.
Phil Brucato (White Wolf; Laughing Pan Productions) A high-fantasy RPG based in Classical Hindu Indian myth and culture. I'm still waiting on a great steamfunk and/ or Afrofuturist RPG, too.
Sarah Newton (Mindjammer; Achtung! Cthulhu) : The best future RPG is always the one no one can predict - that makes a space for itself that no one knew even existed before. That said, if there's one RPG I'd like to write myself if I had the time, then it'd be a historical fantasy RPG set in ancient world Bactria, about 200BC. It's an *awesome* setting - roughly around modern-day Tashkent, in central Asia, but back then it was a thriving nexus, much less arid, full of clashing cultures, Alexander the Great's heirs and their Indo-Greek civilisation in Bactria, the Yueh-Chi to the north and east where modern-day China is, the Maurya Indians to the south and east, Sogdiana to the north. Constant conflict and adventure, the great toings and froings of history. These clashing cultures all have their own myths and traditions, so you'd have warring gods, loads of different monsters, languages, magics, treasures. And, it being historical fantasy, species too. I've researched the period myself, always thinking how to do it properly - it would be a labour of love to get it just right, but if you did so it'd be like Qin meets RuneQuest meets Wushu meets Unknown Armies. So much antiquity, so many secrets, so much at stake, and oh so exotic! General, bring me my war elephant, we ride to battle!
Dave Chapman (Doctor Who RPG; Conspiracy X 2.0) : The obvious answer for me has to be Harry Potter. It's the perfect RPG setting, rich in detail and character, great to get new players interested in the hobby. Alas, I've tried a few times to get somewhere with that - no luck so far, but I'll keep trying. To satisfy my want for a college/school for magic, I'd love to see an RPG based on Lev Grossman's "The Magicians". The TV series is really cool, with plenty of scope for an RPG - like a sweary, violent, sexy Harry Potter. That'd be cool too.
George "Loki" Williams (Kobold Press; Jon Brazer Entertainment; Savage Mojo) Buckaroo Banzai, and I'd kill to be on the design team.
Laura Hoffman (Black Book Editions; Polaris RPG) : The RPG I’m most hoping for would be an official Magic: The Gathering adaptation. Even if it is simply with DD5 rules. I know they did a bunch of free guides on recent sets lately but a beautiful hardcover book with a complete rules adaptation and lots of Magic lore, OMG… On a similar note I would also really love to see Horizon - Zero Dawn adapted as an official RPG. That would be gorgeous and epic.
Ed Jowett (Shades of Vengeance) : I would love to see an officially licensed Final Fantasy game.
Final Fantasy is the defining game of a genre for me - it is the first game of its type that I played and it opened my eyes to a new kind of story, which I had never really encountered before.
Mechanically, each game in the series has had its own quirks and uniqueness and I think the ability to choose which version to play in any given campaign is a very appealing one!
Unfortunately, the copyright owner is very unlikely to license it, so it may be something that never happens!
Michael E. Webb (Alliance Game Distributors, Game Trade Magazine) : I am a sucker for Dune. OK, yes, there was a DUNE RPG published by WoC after they acquired Last Unicorn Games, but at collector's pricing it is tough to run a campaign. Dune, though, is a world rich with possibilities. It has all of the political intrigue of Renaissance Italy. It is full of interesting areas to explore from smugglers, courtiers, assassins, Jongleurs, and fringers. As more and more material has come to market in the continuations of the original series, the sandbox of Arrakis and beyond has grown.
James Gantry (FeralGamersInc) : I have always felt that the Drenai books of David Gemmel would make a great RPG, dark and low fantasy, they could cover the different time periods and the different kings of the Drenao from the days of Waylander to those of Druss and then the reign of the Nadir etc. Its a really rich world and I always loved the books.
Ryan Schoon (Modiphius Entertainment; Loremaster Games) My biggest dream is to play an officially licensed Mass Effect RPG. The world is an amazing sandbox and ripe for stories to tell - more stories than the video games will ever manage. There are many great systems that can support a homebrew Mass Effect game, but having an official, universal version would be amazing. Bioware, I hope you're listening!
Paul Mitchener (Age of Arthur; Hunters of Alexandria) : For ages I've been hankering for something set in and around the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century AD, during or just after the reign of Justinian. Constantinople would make an excellent RPG setting for historical urban fantasy, and there's all sorts of potential for power politics.
Ian Stead (Moon Toad Publishing; Traveller) : The Hyperion Cantos. I've read the books far too many times. It is a setting that I would love to play in or even work on. The scope is big and encompasses many themes, such as horror, environment, human evolution, cyberpunk, war, the far future and AIs for example.
Rod Edwards (Peachstate Hobby Distribution) I heard somebody talking about a powered by the Apocalypse hack called Tears in the Rain, I believe. It's based on the movie Streets of Fire. That sounds very intriguing to me.
Garry Harper (Modiphius Entertainment; The Role Play Haven) : Dune
Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment; Esper Genesis 5E) : Mass Effect or Final Fantasy. The lack of these genre types is why I started my current project.
Simon Brake (Stygian Fox) : If there was a game that could mimic the weirdness of David Lynches imagination, without simultaneously alienating 50% of the players, that would be brilliant. Something that allows the characters to build some strong connections and empathy with each other but puts them in a surreal and somewhat threatening situation without being whimsical and/or pretentious. I was always a fan of Vampire: The Masquerade and Wraith: The Oblivion, with their ancient backstory metaplots that suddenly became important as the end of the world drew closer, but arguably the player characters didn’t feel centre stage unless you reigned that stuff back. Games like Lacuna Part 1 (The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City), Alas Vegas and Insylum all feature surreal cityscapes where players slowly find out about themselves and the world around them – I’d like to do something like that but in a way that the players feel a strong sense of their identity (I did create a game like this a while back but it’s been in development/publishing hell for over a year and might not see the light of day for a long time).
****
Originally created by Dave Chapman (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space; Conspiracy X) #RPGaDAY os now being caretakered by the crew over at RPGBrigade. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too!
