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View Full Version : Live a Live RPG - Could it work/Has it been done?



blalien
2009-05-22, 03:01 AM
Short story is, Live a Live was an SNES RPG from Squaresoft that never made it out of Japan. I'll spare you the details. I was just playing through that game the other day when I had an idea for a campaign.

The premise is, the players all create a character with as generic a backstory as possible. Then the DM runs a number of mini-campaigns equal to the number of party members. Each mini-campaign takes place in a different time period (prehistoric, medieval, present, future, etc.). The players play as the same character but in different eras (think Blackadder or Legend of Zelda) and each time period's storyline is a parallel of each other. In other words, the players play through the same module several times, using the tools available to them, to defeat similar enemies through different perspectives. For example, what was once a saber tooth tiger is now the dark knight Sabre Tooth, or the Tiger Mk 3 warmech, or the T1G3R renegade AI.

At the end, the players choose one incarnation of their characters (each one coming from a different time period.) These MVPs are pulled from time as History's Greatest Heroes and are united to defeat an evil that has permeated throughout history.

GURPS is basically tailor-made for this campaign, but D&D would work just as well with a little work. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to pull it off. The biggest problem is that it absolutely requires that the same players stay active throughout the entire campaign, which as we all know never happens. What do you think?

Swordguy
2009-05-22, 03:21 AM
That's...actually an incredibly cool idea.

And yeah, I hate (hate) GURPS, but it's clearly the best system for this. You'd have to have VERY strict character creation controls, but really it comes down to have X number of points (fixed in each historical era) and pick a GURPS splatbook for each mini-arc.

I rather like
1) Saber-toothed tiger
2) (There's an Indian general with the nickname "the Tiger" from the medieval era - can't recall the name though. Gr)
3) Tiger Tank
4) Tamil Tigers
5) Sabre Tooth (as in, X-men)
6) Cyberpunk Tiger theme
7) Sci-fi tiger theme
8) Kitty Climax

as a progression, myself. Something for everybody.

Satyr
2009-05-22, 05:50 AM
If you want to take a compromis between Gurps and D20, take a look at the Unisystem games like All Flesh Must Be Eaten or the free Witchcraft (http://www.edenstudios.net/witchcraft/WitchcraftCorebook.zip).

RTGoodman
2009-05-22, 06:17 AM
Reminds me of Moorcock's Eternal Champion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champion) theme/idea thingy. I've never actually seen the Elric RPG (I know there is one though), but maybe it'd have something for you?

arguskos
2009-05-22, 06:38 AM
Damn you rtg, I was gonna mention the Eternal Champion! :smallamused: Anyways, this would be an AWESOMELY cool game. I'd play it in a heartbeat. :smallbiggrin:

As for system, yeah, GURPS is the best one I can think of. There's a time-traveling one though I heard about sometime back that involved jumping to different timelines and things, it might work too. Can't recall the damn name though... :smallmad:

Bulwer
2009-05-22, 06:58 AM
Damn you rtg, I was gonna mention the Eternal Champion! :smallamused: Anyways, this would be an AWESOMELY cool game. I'd play it in a heartbeat. :smallbiggrin:

As for system, yeah, GURPS is the best one I can think of. There's a time-traveling one though I heard about sometime back that involved jumping to different timelines and things, it might work too. Can't recall the damn name though... :smallmad:

Continuum, I think you're thinking of. I've got a friend who's trying to hunt down a copy, but it's hard to find.

arguskos
2009-05-22, 07:03 AM
Continuum, I think you're thinking of. I've got a friend who's trying to hunt down a copy, but it's hard to find.
Yeah, maybe. I wanna say it started with a "P" though, but I can't freaking remember. I'll have to ask my friend, next time I see him.

herrhauptmann
2009-05-22, 02:03 PM
Wasn't this sort of campaign mentioned in the back of Unearthed Arcana?

But yeah, it's cool. You just need to be able to have a set of rules that spans from stone age to cyber punk, so you don't have the level 9 cyberpunk character be vastly overpowered compared to the level 16 stone age character. So I guess Gurps might be the only thing that fits. Is there a Starwars or Startrek gurps?

blalien
2009-05-23, 12:23 AM
Swordguy: I am really impressed. I wouldn't actually use a tiger as a recurring theme, but still, you are awesome.

herrhauptmann: You're right, Unearthed Arcana has a similar concept. Oh well. Every single idea has been done before, am I right? Also, there is GURPS Ultratech, which covers everything from next Sunday (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture) to sufficiently advanced humans (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SufficientlyAdvancedAlien)