This grew out of a conversation with my girlfriend. We were talking about how a few one-offg our group had ran recently had been very obviously "us" even when playing in pre-established settings - and it got me thinking about "Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating...", a DC comics series a wee bit ago where the big Marvel man reimagined lots of major DC characters. (For more info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Imagine...)
So I'm going to ask you to pick an RPG, any RPG, and think about a game at it's most basic elements and redesign it anyway you want. You can fiddle with the mechanics, the backstory, whatever: just tell me more about how you would take the general idea of a game system and do it your way.
Hopefully, we'll see some interesting views that distill down the "essential" stuff to an RPG, and maybe make people reconsider some RPGs they wouldn't normally play by showing them what you would do with it!
To start with, here's a few I've been considering:
* Call of Cthulhu. I think that it's a shame that even the staunchest fans of this game almost always play one-shots, and that lnog term campaigns seem taxing to maintain with the rules as written. I think that, like Paranoia, this game coudl do with a concrete system within itself for playing "Bloody Murder" short term games or "Slightly Less Brutal" long term: perhaps even some hints as to damage modifiers?
* Vampire: The Requiem. I have a very specific idea of what a vampire should be, specifically "blood junkie": I see all that crushed velet and dancing to classical music stuff an act by creatures who, if they don't get their fix, are just savage animals. I'd probably run this game with that sort of principle in mind, keeping a strict count of blood intake and forcing players who go any time without to try and control their urges.
* Discworld RPG. GURPS has its charms for this setting's many unusual races, but I wonder if WFRP might be a better fit for those who want to stick to the "normal" races and some of the blacker feel of the earlier books.
So I'm going to ask you to pick an RPG, any RPG, and think about a game at it's most basic elements and redesign it anyway you want. You can fiddle with the mechanics, the backstory, whatever: just tell me more about how you would take the general idea of a game system and do it your way.
Hopefully, we'll see some interesting views that distill down the "essential" stuff to an RPG, and maybe make people reconsider some RPGs they wouldn't normally play by showing them what you would do with it!
To start with, here's a few I've been considering:
* Call of Cthulhu. I think that it's a shame that even the staunchest fans of this game almost always play one-shots, and that lnog term campaigns seem taxing to maintain with the rules as written. I think that, like Paranoia, this game coudl do with a concrete system within itself for playing "Bloody Murder" short term games or "Slightly Less Brutal" long term: perhaps even some hints as to damage modifiers?
* Vampire: The Requiem. I have a very specific idea of what a vampire should be, specifically "blood junkie": I see all that crushed velet and dancing to classical music stuff an act by creatures who, if they don't get their fix, are just savage animals. I'd probably run this game with that sort of principle in mind, keeping a strict count of blood intake and forcing players who go any time without to try and control their urges.
* Discworld RPG. GURPS has its charms for this setting's many unusual races, but I wonder if WFRP might be a better fit for those who want to stick to the "normal" races and some of the blacker feel of the earlier books.
Last edited:
