What IP would you like to see as an RPG?

[LuisCarlos17f]

Fortnite: Save the World. The cooperative survival against the husks and mist monsters, not the battle royal.

 

[ART!]

This is a tough one!

The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman? Similar problems to a James Bond rpg, but more drama-based systems could handle a group of supporting characters around a titular hero. Mostly, I'd want a system that emulates the kind of threats that heroes in '70s tv shows had to face, i.e. mostly mundane criminals and enemy agents. Steve Austin and Spider-man were mostly fighting bad guys that Charlie's Angels could take down. Yeah - give me a system that makes facing '70s primetime tv villains fun!

 

[payn]

This is a tough one!

The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman? Similar problems to a James Bond rpg, but more drama-based systems could handle a group of supporting characters around a titular hero. Mostly, I'd want a system that emulates the kind of threats that heroes in '70s tv shows had to face, i.e. mostly mundane criminals and enemy agents. Steve Austin and Spider-man were mostly fighting bad guys that Charlie's Angels could take down. Yeah - give me a system that makes facing '70s primetime tv villains fun!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Harry Turtledove’s Darkness novels are a nifty retelling of WW2‘s events in a fantasy realm. It would make for a nifty campaign setting.

Ben Bova’s Grand Tour setting covers man’s early explorations of the Solar System. Another good series worth licensing.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Retrieval Artist series would be good. It’s a Sci-Fi series in which Earth is just now entering the greater galactic society, and there’s all kinds of legal issues that can lead to serious consequences for clueless humans. Think of it as an expanded version of the STNG episode, “Justice.”

David Brin’s Uplift novels also explores a setting in which humans are a relatively new member of galactic society, but on a more equal setting than in Rusch’s books. Earth’s a big mystery: how are there so many species on one planet that are either fully intelligent (like humans) or that could be raised to that level trough a process called “uplift”? And with all the other galactic species being able to point at species that uplifted them, who uplifted the humans?

 

[Dioltach]

I was about to suggest The A-Team. Rules have to include everyone always making their Reflex saves and always rolling at least 1 lower than the target's AC when using any kind of firearm. The only way to hit someone is by engaging in unarmed combat or grappling.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

David Brin’s Uplift novels

There was a GURPS splat book for the Uplift universe.

 

[Fenris-77]

Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, by a country mile.

 

[Jer]

There aren't a lot of IP franchises that I'm interested in that haven't had an RPG released for them at some point. And of the ones that don't have one either it's obvious how to do it with an existing engine or I wouldn't really want to see it except maybe as a theoretical exercise (for example, while I'd be interested in a Brooklyn 99 RPG as a thing to see how some great designer would put it together, I'd likely never actually play it. It would be a curiousity like the Dallas RPG).

So given that the three I can think of that I'd like to see that haven't been done are Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, and Agatha Christie's Poirot. Zelda I guess could just be a D&D setting, but in Zelda advancement is much more often about item acquisition rather than gaining abilities, so it would need some tweaks. A Mario game could make for a fun lightweight RPG. And for Poirot, an unbranded system that truly gives you the feel of a drawing room mystery would be great, but while I've looked at so many of them over the years none of them really work very well IME.

I would also have included Columbo on that list, but actually the two-player GMless narrative "One More Thing" rpg does Columbo really well so I don't need an actual branded version of it. One More Thing - ndp design | DriveThruRPG.com (It doesn't work for Poirot because the style of a Columbo story is that you know who the murderer is and it's a psychological cat-and-mouse scenario between the cop and the killer. For a good drawing room mystery you'd need the killer to be unknown at the start, so you need different mechanics).

 

[payn]

There aren't a lot of IP franchises that I'm interested in that haven't had an RPG released for them at some point. And of the ones that don't have one either it's obvious how to do it with an existing engine or I wouldn't really want to see it except maybe as a theoretical exercise (for example, while I'd be interested in a Brooklyn 99 RPG as a thing to see how some great designer would put it together, I'd likely never actually play it. It would be a curiousity like the Dallas RPG).

So given that the three I can think of that I'd like to see that haven't been done are Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, and Agatha Christie's Poirot. Zelda I guess could just be a D&D setting, but in Zelda advancement is much more often about item acquisition rather than gaining abilities, so it would need some tweaks. A Mario game could make for a fun lightweight RPG. And for Poirot, an unbranded system that truly gives you the feel of a drawing room mystery would be great, but while I've looked at so many of them over the years none of them really work very well IME.

I would also have included Columbo on that list, but actually the two-player GMless narrative "One More Thing" rpg does Columbo really well so I don't need an actual branded version of it. One More Thing - ndp design | DriveThruRPG.com (It doesn't work for Poirot because the style of a Columbo story is that you know who the murderer is and it's a psychological cat-and-mouse scenario between the cop and the killer. For a good drawing room mystery you'd need the killer to be unknown at the start, so you need different mechanics).

Nice write up. No idea why, but I now want a Garbage Pail Kids RPG.

 

[Fenris-77]

Both Poirot and something like Columbo could be handled really well by the Brindlewood Bay chassis without to much faffing about.