Modern Setting Genre Conventions?

[jgbrowning]

It's not ok to make up new countries in a modern game. It's ok to make up new buildings/corporations.

It's not ok to make up new cars. It's ok to make up new computer technologies.

I'm always amused by genre conventions. Can ya'll think of other things that are ok/not ok to make up in modern games?

joe b.

 

[Umbran]

I dunno - sometimes, it is okay to make up those things.

The best exampels are in the supers genre: DC has Metropolis and Gotham. Marvel has Latveria and Wakanda. I think it depends on exactly what you make up, and where it fits in the scheme of things. Small cities or nations buried in the morass of an area the players aren't intimately familiar with is probably okay.

I've never had a player quibble with me over the make of cars. I've gotten more quibbles with "computers can't do that" if what i'm doing isn't blatantly sci-fi.

 

[Dark Jezter]

It's not ok to make up new countries in a modern game.

I don't know about this one. I've seen several games and movies that take place in fictional countries. For example, the XBox/PC game Full Spectrum Warrior takes place in a fictional middle eastern country called Zekistan.

 

[Hor Kai Lan]

Yeah, I have to agree with the first two responses... I think you can create anything...

Back when I ran a Spycraft 1.0 game, I enlisted the group's thoughts and we decided that pretty much anything was fair game. I was worried that if I used any real person or place my *version* could be very different than a player's. Especially if that person, place or thing (thank you Schoolhouse Rock) was special to a player. Even with the carte blanche given my players I did attempt to avoid things that were extra knowledgeable about.

So my answer is I think you my find that you'll actually have more "freedoms" in a modern setting than a default fantasy setting. IMO and all that jazz. I believe modern has waaaayy fewer conventions.

 

[EdL]

It's not ok to make up new countries in a modern game.

How do you figure this? As has already been observed, comics and movies do it all the time. Even more to the point, who can keep up with all the name/border changes of countries in the RL?

 

[Dark Jezter]

Oh, and who could forget Latveria; the fictional Eastern European country ruled by Doctor Doom?

 

[jgbrowning]

Obviously I'm in the majority here.

joe b.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

It's okay to make up implausible technological devices ... if you read about a mythical base technology in the news beforehand.

It's NOT okay to make up plausible technological devices if they're based on something you haven't heard of.

Thus people don't blink too much if you have a "laser" weapon. People blink if you introduce fully holographic TVs in a non-scifi setting.

But, personally, I think you're more likely to watch a TV screen in the air than get shot in the face with a laser gun in the next ten years.

--fje