What Licensed RPG Do You Wish Existed But Doesn't?

[The Shadow]

Now I want to see a Hogwarts-style RPG about 40-year-old adults who are, through some bureaucratic nightmare, still stuck in high school together. They can romance other adults and it's not creepy, right?

...Then you realize that this is essentially how life canonically is for D&D 5E elves. They physically mature at the same rate as humans, but they don't get respect from adult elves until they're a century or so old. Imagine being stuck in high school for a century.

That's more undiluted horror than anything Lovecraft ever came up with! I lost SAN just reading that!

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Bloat Games is making monster manuals for multiple systems already. I imagine that with the hardcover Hyrule books published by Dark Horse a few years ago, that would get you pretty far.

Still, hardly the same as Nintendo licensing out a ttrpg.

Thanks - there was also a well-done 3E fan version.
But honestly, more than the RPG, I want a "reconciled" map of Hyrule and the other worlds of the Zelda series. I've really delved into the question of how-or-if the maps line up from game to game...and it's quite a mind-bending exercise, with many different fan-developed theories.

Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, apparently each subsequent Zelda game's design team just took geographic "motifs" (names + a few localized features and orientations) and slapped them together with new stuff, in a way that served the gameplay, rather than any sense of overall continuity.

However, it could be reconciled! There are ways to do it! That's what I'd like to see: a Legend of Zelda Atlas showing every location in every game and timeline (with a bonus TRPG thrown in).

 

[glass]

…Are you making the assumption that any adult playing a teen in a romance is a creeper? Or are you going on something else?

I don't want to put words in @Enevhar Aldarion's mouth, but I think they were suggesting that they usually can assume that at the game table, and they do not like any game setup where they cannot because it gives the creeps plausible deniability/a place to hide. Not everybody has the luxury of a stable creep-free game group that they have known for years.

 

[Hriston]

Something I've been contemplating is an RPG based on Tolkien's Ainulindalë where the PCs are Ainur, so in character creation each player creates an ainu. Gameplay would then be broken up into two large phases. The first would lead up to the creation of the music and the vision of the world. The second would consist of entering into that world and accomplishing/overseeing its creation and unfolding history. I'm imagining a game with lots of player agency that doesn't adhere strongly to Tolkien's IP, so probably only possible as an unlicensed product if that could be accomplished.

 

[Hriston]

As far as a licensed product, something based on the Quenta Silmarillion would be cool.

 

[TheHand]

My favorite is Issola, the action-packed epic fantasy story which mostly consists of introspective conversations between the characters about topics such as history, languages, food, and the nature of courtesy. And I'm not even joking, it is action-packed despite that, yet somehow the conversations are the best part.

Yes, I 100% agree with you there. I've probably reread Issola 4-5 times.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

However, it could be reconciled! There are ways to do it! That's what I'd like to see: a Legend of Zelda Atlas showing every location in every game and timeline (with a bonus TRPG thrown in).

I thought that was one of the volumes that Dark Horse published a few years ago. (Minus the ttrpg, of course.)

 

[DrunkonDuty]

My problem with settings where adults pretend to be teens is they can get away with being creepy about romancing other kids. That is such a red flag about the person in real life that I would stop being friends with them.

That is a very long bow to draw.

 

[Hex08]

My problem with settings where adults pretend to be teens is they can get away with being creepy about romancing other kids. That is such a red flag about the person in real life that I would stop being friends with them.

Maybe I am misinterpreting what you are saying but if not that seems like a pretty unfair assessment. I am currently running a Savage Worlds game set in East Texas University. All of my group are currently in their early 40s to early 50s and all are playing typical college age students (except one who went back to college later in life) and a couple of their characters have or had age-appropriate girlfriends in game. No one is creepy about it. I have known all of them for a long time and I am pretty sure they wouldn't be cruising college campuses in real life looking to pick up girls that young, let alone high school girls.

 

[Payndz]

Was there a game based on Space 1999? If not it would get my vote.

I've had an idea for a Space: 1999 game (or expy thereof - Moon: 2099? ) for a while, using the different staff divisions (sleeve colours) effectively as classes. Now that I've got my retroclone finished, maybe I should give it some more thought...