What IP would you like to see as an RPG?

[beancounter]

Does the Green Ronin game not have ship to ship combat rules?

I had no idea someone already made an RPG out of the Expanse.

 

[Undrave]

If that's the gameplay experience your table wants this is true. The thing is that Brindlewood Bay assumes a particular style of player who wants to write a mystery narrative - the game expects the whole table to come up with the mystery as a collaborative experience. Which is great when you have players who want that kind of experience - I actually enjoy that play style and would love to play in a Brindlewood campaign.

However the players I have who would like to play a parlor room mystery game (and its a small number of them to be sure) want to play the part of the detectives in the story. They want to be gathering clues, making deductions, and otherwise have the game be about trying to solve the mystery, rather than trying to construct it. And Brindlewood is not built for that. (Not that you can't do that kind of game with PbtA mechanics - Monster of the Week essentially has that framework except in the genre of a Supernatural or a BtVS mystery rather than a Poirot or Murder She Wrote - but the issue with most non-Brindlewood mystery games that I've run across is that they presume that at some point the experience will devolve into a fight or an action scene and that that's where the action/drama will build to and ... that's not how a parlor room mystery works. My attempts to make GUMSHOE work in a setting that doesn't presume that eventually there will be action or violence flounder on the same rocks).

Feels like you wouldn't need much rules to run a Parlor Mystery Game if you don't expect much action. Maybe a perception stat to spot hidden clues, some knowledge skills you can tap so the DM can give you some info, maybe a generic 'Athleticism' score so you can climb up somewhere or more heavy objects, and possibly get into a scuffle. I think you go for a bespoke minimalist approach and maybe even find a system that lets you play without a table.

The real challenge is building the mystery but you could just steal a story

 

[Jer]

Feels like you wouldn't need much rules to run a Parlor Mystery Game if you don't expect much action. Maybe a perception stat to spot hidden clues, some knowledge skills you can tap so the DM can give you some info, maybe a generic 'Athleticism' score so you can climb up somewhere or more heavy objects, and possibly get into a scuffle. I think you go for a bespoke minimalist approach and maybe even find a system that lets you play without a table.

You'd think so - but the big thing in a mystery scenario is gathering clues. And in most mysteries of this style the clues come from people, not just from searching. So unless you want to just wing it (which is a choice, but turns it into less of a game and more of a structured improv session - not that there's anything wrong with that) a game like that needs some decent social mechanics to determine when and how your witnesses/suspects/cops are going to give up or withhold information, how they react to a pushy detective, etc. You could do that just with RP, but while IME that's satisfying in a game where you know you're going to get to break out the dice and throw some punches or exchange gunfire with some Azathoth cultists eventually, it feels a lot more like playing cops and robbers in a playground if the big dramatic event of the evening is going to be a drawing room accusation that is built on a foundation of the GM making things up.

(There's also the "what do you do when the players get stuck and can't figure out the clues" mechanics, but I think I have pretty good mechanics for that part that seem to work across systems).

The real challenge is building the mystery but you could just steal a story

Good artists borrow, great artists steal. Same is true for GMs

 

[Mezuka]

Does the Green Ronin game not have ship to ship combat rules?

Yes it does. It also has a book with the ship plans.

 

[AverageMojito]

Like the show, they probably haven't figured out a way to make THOSE zombies a believable threat to humankind.

I mean seriously, shambling speed.

Sheer number. IIRC, 0.3% of humankind didn't succumb to the virus in the 48 hours or so of the outbreak. In a city like L.A., some 12,000 people found themselves trapped by 3,988,000 walkers in the span of 2 days. That's a lot of biting. Combine that to the fact no-one knew what the hell was happening (no Z films in that universe, and, in all honesty, we're just badly prepared for such scenario) and a lot of biting did happened in those first couple of days. Perhaps 2,400 people in said L.A. would survive the outbreak: virus, bites, and chaos combined. Close to 4 million walkers looking for a snack: you.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Naked Lunch. Lacuna almost gets there, but a real Burroughs RPG needs to include more openly aggressive LGBTQ+ content and a deeper system for pharmacology.

Over the Edge is somewhat of a paean to William Burroughs' chaotic novel.

Over the Edge

The roleplaying game of surreal danger.

www.atlas-games.com

 

[jdrakeh]

Over the Edge is somewhat of a paean to William Burroughs' chaotic novel.

Over the Edge

The roleplaying game of surreal danger.

www.atlas-games.com

It's definitely written in that vein, yes. But it's like a PG-rated adaptation of Burroughs' fiction, which is a Hard-R.

 

[aramis erak]

Masters of the Universe - hi-tech swords & scorcery

Official is Cortex Prime powered. Legends of Grayskull: The Masters of the Universe Roleplaying Game | Fandom Tabletop

Galaxy Rangers/Silverhawks - space cowboys, cybernetics, genetic supersoldiers

Possibly Eclipse Phase, MongooseTraveller 2E, Bounty Head Bebop...

 

[aramis erak]

I'd genuinely love to see a Chronicles of Riddick RPG. Some great lore and amazing visuals in that movie series.

Too bad it ends on a cliffhanger....

Oh, and Free League essentially has it covered... Coriolis is similar in tone, tech, and tropeset.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

Also the Chronicles of Prydain. I’d play the butt off that.

Beyond the Wall may not be official but the Chronicles of Prydain series was a major inspiration. The Heroes Young and Old expansion even includes playbooks for 'The Assistant Beast Keeper' and 'The Nobleman's Wild Daughter' - very Taran and Eilonwy! There's a nice interview with the creators at Summer Special: Beyond the Wall | fictoplasm