What Property That Has Never Had A TTRPG Adaptation Deserves one?

[Voadam]

With ranger magic the way it was intended!

High level 1e rangers already can cast burning hands.

 

[Iosue]

The 90s cartoon Dark Water.

 

[aramis erak]

There is a Cowboy Bebop RPG.

Two, actually, tho' the older one, Bounty Head Bebop, isn't licensed.

 

[James Gasik]

There is a Cowboy Bebop RPG.


While not licensed, there are some short RPG adaptations for a number of these in the Fat Goblin Games' 8-Bit Adventures line of PDFs for Pathfinder 1e and 5e.

Sweet, I wonder why I'd never heard of it!

 

[kronovan]

I'll ditto the Elder Scrolls - it's the setting I'd most like to see get an official adaptation. But oh man, would I ever NOT want it to be adapted to D&D 5e as some of the Bethesda Softworks staff already attempted. Thankfully -in an ironic way- their efforts were guilty of plagerism and got pulled. I would also not like it to be adapted by Modiphius. A week ago I finally got their 2d20 adpatation of Dishonored to the table and running and playing it just felt awkward. While I've become a fan of Modiphius' Strar Trek Adventures, I can't envision 2d20 working particularly well for the Elder Scrolls. There's a terrific fan-made adapatation of the Elder Scrolls to Savage Worlds Deluxe by Will Herrman. I helped my son run some adventures with it about a decade ago and it played very well. It needs to be updated to SWADE and I've been tinkering with it a bit.

I'd also really like to see an adaptation to Pirannha Bytes' Gothic videogame series - I'm a shameless fan having played all 3 games at least twice. I have the beginnings of an adaptation of it to Savage Worlds, but in the midst of it I got my hands on a recent edition of The Dark Eye TTRPG and immediately felt it'd be a better choice. IMO the character archetypes (especially the Mages) and the Eye of Innos theme that underpins Gothic II, reveal some inspiration from the TDE. Both companies are in Germany and only a stones throw away from one another, so it seems likely. The problem is that TDE isn't that conducive -if at all- to home brewing. While its Professions align nicely and playable Races in Gothic are Human only, those 2 character features mostly invlolve just reskinning. Creating Gothic appopriate Cultures on the other hand, requires some heavy lifting. Basic Roleplay or Mythras could probably do the setting justice too, but the idea of doing it with TDE really bit me and stubbornly won't let go.

 

[Reynard]

I'll ditto the Elder Scrolls - it's the setting I'd most like to see get an official adaptation. But oh man, would I ever NOT want it to be adapted to D&D 5e as some of the Bethesda Softworks staff already attempted. Thankfully -in an ironic way- their efforts were guilty of plagerism and got pulled. I would also not like it to be adapted by Modiphius. A week ago I finally got their 2d20 adpatation of Dishonored to the table and running and playing it just felt awkward. While I've become a fan of Modiphius' Strar Trek Adventures, I can't envision 2d20 working particularly well for the Elder Scrolls. There's a terrific fan-made adapatation of the Elder Scrolls to Savage Worlds Deluxe by Will Herrman. I helped my son run some adventures with it about a decade ago and it played very well. It needs to be updated to SWADE and I've been tinkering with it a bit.

I'd also really like to see an adaptation to Pirannha Bytes' Gothic videogame series - I'm a shameless fan having played all 3 games at least twice. I have the beginnings of an adaptation of it to Savage Worlds, but in the midst of it I got my hands on a recent edition of The Dark Eye TTRPG and immediately felt it'd be a better choice. IMO the character archetypes (especially the Mages) and the Eye of Innos theme that underpins Gothic II, reveal some inspiration from the TDE. Both companies are in Germany and only a stones throw away from one another, so it seems likely. The problem is that TDE isn't that conducive -if at all- to home brewing. While its Professions align nicely and playable Races in Gothic are Human only, those 2 character features mostly invlolve just reskinning. Creating Gothic appopriate Cultures on the other hand, requires some heavy lifting. Basic Roleplay or Mythras could probably do the setting justice too, but the idea of doing it with TDE really bit me and stubbornly won't let go.

I love SWADE but I don't think it is a good fit for Elder Scrolls. I would want something definitely crunchier. But I agree about the not-5E part. Maybe if not 2d20 it would be a good candidate for AGE or even BRP?

 

[Tonguez]

I still have nightmares from the first series. "Upstairs and downstairs, upstairs and downstairs..."

it was the man without a face that gave me nightmares, still remember the refrain of “Last night, as I was walking up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today, I wish, I wish he'd go away.”

 

[kronovan]

I love SWADE but I don't think it is a good fit for Elder Scrolls. I would want something definitely crunchier. But I agree about the not-5E part. Maybe if not 2d20 it would be a good candidate for AGE or even BRP?

My primary criteria for the rules for an adapatation of The Elder Scrolls, is something that's skills based/focused. IMO SWADE definitely meets that criteria, as skill-traits are at its core. Will Herrmans's adaptation uses one of Zadmar Games' variations on powers to implement the Magick of the ES verse. It works well and does a decent job of capturing the pervasive and plentiful nature of magick in the setting, as well as trapping the flavor. As I said above, that adaptation was homebrewed for the Deluxe edition of the rules and it needs adjustments for SWADE; power modifiers in particular need a rethink. In one of my own homebrews, I made power modifiers only available via those learned from NPC trainers or from the discovery of uncommon artifcacts like scrolls - worked well to decelerate power creep. The limited impact on PC advancement that classes gave in ES III and IV, does seem to align well with SW professional edges, as compared to the classes of a heavily class-driven TTRPG like 5e.

Of the 2 latter systems you listed...IMO they do meet the criteria of being skills based. AGE's focuses only being able to be advanced once beyond initial selection, makes it much less so; albeit Ability advances being fairly frequent help somewhat. Personally, I've run a few too many AGE campaigns and are too burned out on the problems intro'd by HP bloat, unsaveable spell power values and auto-hit from poor defenses, to really consider it. Modern AGE did intro Modes to address 2 of those, but I don't think enough to suit an Elder Scroll adaptation. BRP would do it better; I'm just not convinced it'd do it better than either the SWD or SWADE editions of SW.

 

[Journey Mountain Studios]

Count me in for Mass Effect.
I'd add Ghost In the Shell too, but apparently that is already in the works. Which version would they do I wonder.
An official LEGO one would probably be successful. They dipped their toes into rpgs with Heroica and Ninjago, but haven't yet gone all-in as far as I can remember.

 

[Wicht]

I am a bit surprised no one has yet asked for an RPG set in the John Wick universe. For good measure, one could get John Wick (the designer) to contribute.

I was going to suggest an RPG set in Narnia, but apparently that has been done, albeit only in German. It doesn't actually look too promising, and I would be semi-interested in seeing a better one developed. Perhaps using something like the One Ring rules.

A horror, survival RPG based on Pumpkinhead might be interesting. Have a set up where each player represents someone marked for death. The players have to create characters by creating a story wherein they have wronged someone. The GM then has the fun of trying to kill them off one by one while the characters try to survive, and/or make peace with the one who summoned Pumpkinhead. It might make a good halloween game if done right.

Alternately, a Nightmare Before Christmas RPG, with the characters exploring holiday related lands (as nightmare creature/monsters) and saving various holiday heroes (Santa, Easter Bunny, Leprechauns, Cherubs, etc) from a variety of holiday threatening disasters.