The Great Conjunction (RPG DESIGN CONTEST)

[Khuxan]

I've been thinking about this for a few days, but haven't come up with anything substantial. I'll share with you some of the ideas that have been floating around in my head:

• Magic is only magic when the player characters don't have it. A sword & sorcery setting where the PCs only have swords presents itself, as does a more medieval setting where the PCs are witch hunters and dragon slayers equipped only with steel and fire.
• The city of Heaven collapses into an Eden-like world. In a sudden end to their innocent lives, the hunter-gatherer natives realise that their own "morally pure" unclothed and nomadic existence was a simple ploy to keep them powerless by treacherous and decadent gods. They proceed to loot the city and remark the world in their own image.
• In a magic-less ancient setting, the PCs are armed with bronze weapons and flaming torches. They face linnorms - giant centipedes - and dragons - crocodiles - and are pursued by the fey - primitive humans dwelling in the universe. But at some moments during the story, the world shifts and heroes become mythic heroes equipped with mighty blades twice their height, slaying fire-spitting wyverns and illusionist fairy princes.
• A patchwork city on the edge of time, built from cities that are no more. Wayward travellers here find themselves blessed with sorcerous powers - but these wizards are closer to superheroes in terms of form and ability.
• Children slip into the realm of the fey, become transformed by an encounter with the fairy folk, and then must return to their own lives and make sense of their capricious blessing.

As you see, there are a few ideas floating about in my head but I haven't been able to tame them into something workable. I think the biggest problem I'm running into is how to make magic seem magical, instead of another tool for an adventuring party.

 

[Wik]

Children slip into the realm of the fey, become transformed by an encounter with the fairy folk, and then must return to their own lives and make sense of their capricious blessing

I like this one. It's different from what's already detailed, yet not so "gonzo" that it wouldn't work.

 

[EP]

What the hell, I'll chime in with mine. The mechanics haven't been worked out yet (too much Christmas stuff to do and I promised the little woman I would wait until the January 1st start date to get writing), but the setting and concept have been.

It's called Ignition and involves the discovery of a new form of radiation 40 years from now that is harnessed to create magic. Casters wear a biomechanical suit to process the surrounding radiation and convert it to radiant energy. The idea is that magic will be new and free-formed, so it will be presented as individual groups which can be used in any way imaginable to the player. Characters can use a certain number of spells based on their suits and can learn to create their own unique spells and master them for easier use as time goes on.

And now that I've said it out loud, I have to work on it. No choice.

 

[pawsplay]

My entry (no title yet):

Dreamers, each wielding a special magic Sceptre, do battle with the King of Nothing and his shadow things in a ruined city that seems to have doors to everywhere. The King of Nothing will stop at nothing to find and capture them, for it has been foretold that one from the waking world will one day cast him down.

 

[Aeolius]

My campaign already utilizes standard D&D magics, psionics, warlocks, the Dreamscape (Heroes of Horror + Manual of the Planes), incarnum, and Tome of Magic.

I have given some thought to adding ley line magic, "sponsored" hag rituals (similar to the Fiend of Blasphemy in Fiend Folio), and adding a bard variant that accesses a "universal song" in a manner similar to the game Loom .

 

[Jack7]

It's called Ignition and involves the discovery of a new form of radiation 40 years from now that is harnessed to create magic...

That kinda reminds me of the book, the Light Ages.

Dreamers, each wielding a special magic Sceptre, do battle with the King of Nothing and his shadow things in a ruined city that seems to have doors to everywhere. The King of Nothing will stop at nothing to find and capture them, for it has been foretold that one from the waking world will one day cast him down.

I don't know how exactly you'd make a game out of it, but it sounds like it would make one helluvah good short story too. You should write that up.

I have given some thought to adding ley line magic, "sponsored" hag rituals (similar to the Fiend of Blasphemy in Fiend Folio), and adding a bard variant that accesses a "universal song" in a manner similar to the game Loom .

That Loom game sounds really fascinating. I did a paper not long ago about encryption techniques using environmental encoding as a method for transmission of covert data. Sub-encoded music was one avenue I was exploring. Never heard of that game before but it sounds worth looking into. Be interested in seeing how you translate it to play as an RPG technique.

Well, now that I've eaten I'm heading out.
Sounds like an interesting set of projects.

 

[Wik]

Well, I for one am really excited about everything going on. Personally, I've got many of the kinks in my system figured out, and I've got a baseline mechanics system written up on paper - I'm really looking forward to the 1st so I can get stuff done.

I like seeing that someone else has touched on a "Dreamlands" idea, though Pawsplay has taken it much further than I have. I'm still trying to find a way to allow characters to explore the dream realms as a group, so I don't have to split the party.

(The other option would be to have dreaming come up as a skill check or some minor point of play that could have in-game benefits, or maybe make it like the Astral in Shadowrun

Actually getting started on writing is going to be fun.

 

[Jack7]

I went to see two old buddies of mine and their families tonight.

We did and discussed a lot of things together, in general, literature, the war, Intel matters, science, history, the RBN and Georgia, Lovecraft, Lost, etc. but one thing we discussed was in relation to games and so forth. (Both of them - they're brothers - and I used to play D&D together when we were kids. Now their kids also play as does one of mine.)

Anywho our conversation eventually ranged over matters of design and we discussed analogical thinking, digital thinking, human behavior, mechanics, psychological bio-mechanics, playability, rules, simulations (I sometimes design training simulations and scenarios as part of my work) and what I call game-devised genre-based "Counter-Realism."

Anyways it made me really rethink some of the things I was already thinking about doing, and now I'm seriously considering incorporating some of the things we discussed tonight into my design.

 

[fuindordm]

Rules and Contestants

I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday! I spent time in a tiny village in the southwest of France, where 42 church bells woke me up every morning at 8am sharp. We were even lucky enough to get snow on the day after Christmas, something we don't see a lot of in Paris.

Anyway...

Here is a Word document summarizing the rules and openly declared contestants to the Great Conjunction. If a setting description was too long, I took what seemed to be the most representative paragraph.

Enjoy the contest, and keep thinking!

Ben

 

[Jack7]

Some of the things I'm working on thus far: Developmental Proceedings