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8BitNinja
2017-03-08, 08:24 PM
What ideas for an RPG have you had that was crazy? It would also be nice to tell us why it's both cool and crazy.

Here are mine

An Accurate WWII Game
Why it's cool: I've never seen an RPG that encompasses all of the second World War. You could also write campaigns based on actual campaigns
Why it's crazy: So much stuff happened during World War 2. Besides, even if you focused on the main participants (America, Britain, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and Japan) you would have a total of 6 different starter kits for just one class. Also, not that much room for you non-combat fans.

Counter Strike
Why it's cool: Okay, hear me out for this one. Sure, Counter Strike is not a video game exactly known for story, but there is actually quite a bit of lore behinds the different terrorist factions. There was also a story added in CS: GO during the Operation Wildfire about the Phoenix Connexion, which is told from both the sides of the Phoenix Connextion and the SEALs. Besides, you don't need to make up weapons, just adapt them to RPG format
Why it's crazy: It's Counter Strike. It's a game that's played in an arena, not exactly a world made to be explored. Would need a lot of adapting.

Knaight
2017-03-08, 08:32 PM
An Accurate WWII Game
Why it's cool: I've never seen an RPG that encompasses all of the second World War. You could also write campaigns based on actual campaigns
Why it's crazy: So much stuff happened during World War 2. Besides, even if you focused on the main participants (America, Britain, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and Japan) you would have a total of 6 different starter kits for just one class. Also, not that much room for you non-combat fans.

WWII games are there, though they tend to be more specialized than a game about the entirety of the war - and some of them absolutely aren't there for people who are in it for the fights (Grey Ranks being the obvious example). As far as the concern of needing a bunch of starter kits per class, that's not necessarily a problem at all. Games are varied, and classes are not in all of them, nor are starter kits.

ngilop
2017-03-08, 08:49 PM
I feel the biggest challenge for trying to get an accurate WWII game is trying to market a game to RPG fans and getting them convinced of the idea that no matter what they think, do, achieve, or attempt nothing at all is going to impact the story.

Something I feel that is going to be most difficult.


an crazy RPG for me is a game about being librarians and the dewey decimal system is like your main focus attribute of your character. I mean there is a game about being a maid and cleaning houses.. why not ne about making sure a library is working efficiently.

Cluedrew
2017-03-08, 08:52 PM
I have a text file on my computer dedicated to this. OK it also has some not so crazy ideas, and generally a lot more on each system than this.

Wild Ride: Welcome to the New World
Why its cool: You play as normal people who have been thrust into the new world (which is actually just our world after some cataclysmic event). Where alien/mystic/psych powers run wild. There is a massive range of characters you can play, from alien sleepers to hive minds.
Why its crazy: Its completely random. The entire project was to take the type of random and unbalanced character creation people often hate and see if I can make a proper game out of it. ... I might have done it but at the same time if I ever played it the system might fail spectacularly.

Best & Brightest
Why its cool: ... I'm not sure if it is. It is a point buy system where you have to spend negative points. Its about playing people with disabilities.
Why its crazy: OK, besides the challenge of making that fun, accurately and politely laying out rules for living with disability would be a nightmare.

Adventure (Actually made this one, one play test version.)
Why its cool: Whole system is two pages (including the character sheet) and a deck of cards. Plays super fast and is easy to pick up. Also involves no math beyond counting.
Why its crazy: Have you tried making a system with 3 paragraphs of rules and no numbers? Its tricky and massively open to interpretation.

Teamwork
Why its cool: A game based around team work and interparty synergy. Every character can support every other character and are often at there best when doing that.
Why its crazy: I have a few rambling paragraphs... but really no idea how to make this work.

I am
Why its cool: Anything you can say about your character can become a stat. Strength can come from a muscled frame, combat training or cybernetic implants, its all the same. Classed by strength, purpose and mechanical effects.
Why its crazy: Played FATE? Tear up aspect throw the piece into the air and look at the scattered pieces, that is what we are taking about here.

And the one with the XP system based on food didn't even make the list. ... Also I realized a couple don't even go by these names anymore.

NichG
2017-03-08, 09:52 PM
Memoir: A game where the present causes the past. All the characters are amnesiac, but can rewrite time by forcibly regaining the memories they want to have. They have to become the people whose existence would have prevented the apocalypse that shattered time in the first place, sometimes by e.g. literally remembering having been the person who pushed the button and not pushing it. One conceit of the game was that this rewriting was only possible because the game took place in a realm whose nature was defined by the absence of certain knowledge. If you learned too much about what was really going on, you'd tend to break free of the realm and thus lose the ability to change things. But things you suspected but didn't know were okay.

I actually ran this one. It was tricky. The players were sort of encouraged by the mechanics to figure things out but to not openly reveal that they had done so, even to other PCs, since that would cause them to 'enlighten out'. So it was sort of a race to figure out enough before you lost the opportunity to use it.

Ephemera: Idea for a game whose rules text is entirely of the form of what characters can actually perceive in character. This would be an experiment to see what happens when players aren't told hard limits and uses of their powers, but instead have to explore them and figure out how they can be used. So for example, the rules text for a fire manipulation power might be something like 'when you concentrate on a part of your body and imagine things vibrating, that body-part becomes warmer; you experience this as just a comfortable toastiness, but after awhile that body-part becomes glowing hot', and there might be another power for extending awareness out of body 'when you close your eyes and imagine a point in space, you gain mental impressions of sounds from that area; sometimes, if that point contains objects or people, you get other impressions of senses particular to the thing at that point - images, touch, even thoughts or emotions'.

Then a player might e.g. realize that they can combine the two to heat up an arbitrary point in space. Or they might try to heat up someone's emotions (which would either splatter that person's brain or get them angry, but hey, 50/50 is good odds right?). They wouldn't know what would work or not, but they could discover by doing, and there'd be a hidden underlying set of explanations guiding how interactions work that the GM would use to make things self-consistent.

Player buy-in would be tricky on this one. You'd need the right group, a combination of people who like to mess with interactions and rules but at the same time aren't too picky about having all those rules written down explicitly.

Cluedrew
2017-03-08, 10:07 PM
Ephemera: Idea for a game whose rules text is entirely of the form of what characters can actually perceive in character. [...] Player buy-in would be tricky on this one. You'd need the right group, a combination of people who like to mess with interactions and rules but at the same time aren't too picky about having all those rules written down explicitly.The other one seems more of a thought experiment (might work that one time), but this sounds like you could really have fun with it. It also sounds like the best reason to bother with a separate player's handbook I have ever heard. I think you could get it to fly in my group, which has people who play D&D and Roll a Bunch of Dice or Roll for Shoes, not to mention I think only the GM has read the rule book of our main system (just reference sheets). Although I can see myself trying to recreate the rulebook I can't read... maybe I would do it in character, that might be an interesting twist.

Pauly
2017-03-08, 10:27 PM
I'd like a WWI flying system. Have a mix of military missions, espionage or just shennanigans in inter squadron rivalry. There are a number of systems that could handle air combat.

Alternatively a Porco Rosso type setting. Air piracy was a apopular vein of fiction in the 1930s.

2D8HP
2017-03-08, 10:44 PM
... Ephemera: Idea for a game whose rules text is entirely of the form of what characters can actually perceive in character...


Why aren't games like that?

Cluedrew
2017-03-09, 07:57 AM
To 2D8HP: I can think of a few reasons, most of them revolve around the fact that the hard out-of-character mechanics still have to be resolved out of character. If the players aren't doing it than that means that the GM is doing it, which puts extra work on them and pushes the minimum trust level up (which shouldn't be an issue but can be). It also completely destroys the generic systems that use a single set of broad mechanics and lets you apply them how you need to.

Metahuman1
2017-03-09, 08:09 AM
A Little Adventure: Game would center around having a party of honey I shrunk the kids small characters running around having adventures. Probably in some kind of fantasy setting. And the twist would be they'd mechanically be able to keep up with what's being thrown at them.

Why it's Crazy: Mechanics would be a nightmareish pain in the butt to make work and to reinforce the ideas at the same time that the PC's are highly capable and not desperately in over there heads every time they begin to interact with anything remotely not on there scale, but still impress there scale at the same time.

Why it would be awesome: Every character is a stealth expert. Battles viewed form the outside as unseen forces disable there foes. Riding a massive Corgi into battle! Do I need to keep going with the kinds of insane things you could potentially get away with with this idea?

JustIgnoreMe
2017-03-09, 08:09 AM
WWII games are there, though they tend to be more specialized than a game about the entirety of the war - and some of them absolutely aren't there for people who are in it for the fights (Grey Ranks being the obvious example). As far as the concern of needing a bunch of starter kits per class, that's not necessarily a problem at all. Games are varied, and classes are not in all of them, nor are starter kits.

GURPS had an entire line of WWII supplements, all well researched (as GURPS sourcebooks tend to be). Yes, there were lots of splatbooks covering the different theatres of war.

My terrible idea:
Band of Gold:
Using Steal Away Jordan (a game about being a slave in pre-Civil War United States of America) to run a game inspired by the TV show Band of Gold. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_of_Gold_(TV_series))

Why it's cool: exploring the "player-characters are property" aspect of SAJ while changing the setting to something modern-day that non-US players will be familiar with, providing a challenging role-playing scenario where the options the players have are limited by the position they find themselves in.

Why it's crazy: I'm not sure I could do it properly, or that I could find people willing to play it. Much like Grey Ranks or Sunshine, it takes a very particular group of emotionally mature players.

SimonMoon6
2017-03-09, 08:35 AM
Zero Sum. In a point buy system like GURPS with lots of possible drawbacks and disadvantages, your character always remains a character who costs 0 points. Anytime you improve a skill, you have to balance that by losing something else (forgetting a different skill for example). So, sure maybe you want to jump into that pool of radioactive ooze to gain superpowers but you'll also possibly become horribly mutated. Or maybe you don't mind being blinded by the villain because then your other senses will become twice as sharp.

Crypts & Cthulhu. Instead of a standard "Dungeons & Dragons" game, this would be a game using D&D rules, but the only monsters would be those from the Cthulhu Mythos (and humans of course). Clerics and Paladins (etc) would gain no powers that rely on divine sources since there are no gods other than the Cthulhu Mythos deities. Summoning spells would be very different as there are no "celestial tree frogs" or anything like that, no elementals, etc. It would be set in a pseudo-historical Europe, where Christianity is in full bloom and any non-Christians are persecuted (so druids who might still have power are burned at the stake), even though Christian Clerics (like all Clerics) would have no special powers. Also, wizards would be viewed as witches in cahoots with the Devil, so they also would be burned at the stake. The only remotely magical class that is accepted by society is the Bard... as long as they don't try telling people that the Earth travels around the Sun or anything else heretical like that.

weckar
2017-03-09, 08:37 AM
I once tried to play an RPG about witch hunters, and hunters of the occult in general. The twist was that it was a paradise island setting (think hollywood Hawaii). It lasted one session.

2D8HP
2017-03-09, 08:46 AM
Crypts & Cthulhu. Instead of a standard "Dungeons & Dragons" game, this would be a game using....


Maybe you'd like:

https://www.rpg.net/pictures/cache/picthumb1737-medium.jpg

Cthulhu Dark Ages (http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-dark-ages-pdf/)

Drakeburn
2017-03-09, 01:39 PM
A Grand Theft Auto Role-Playing Game
I believe what it says alone is self-explanatory for the pros and cons this kind of game may have.

Of course, you can pull off this kind of game with D20 Modern or Fate Core.

A Hollywood Role Playing Game
By that, I mean a game where players take on the roles of actors for movies and tv shows.

Though, it kind of comes off as more of a stupid idea rather than a crazy idea (at least in my own opinion).

Why?

It would only work well if you treat game sessions like tv shows or movies, and the genres of these things may depend on what you want to play. Whether it be a Western, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, etc. Though I'm not sure if anybody would be interested in a Soap Opera game.

jayem
2017-03-09, 02:42 PM
A Grand Theft Auto Role-Playing Game


A Hollywood Role Playing Game
By that, I mean a game where players take on the roles of actors for movies and tv shows.
...
Though, it kind of comes off as more of a stupid idea rather than a crazy idea (at least in my own opinion).

I don't know. The your player is Harrison Ford playing Han Solo, variant where it's more or less in nested character, (with some kind of Fate/coolness XP?) would allow a certain amount of over the topness, and episodic nature.

Alternatively:
Casting elements would form a natural inlet for (literally acting bit of) role-play. You'd need some form of judging though.
While there's plenty of scope for a game based on influences, and budgets and the like. I'd imagine rather than die, you'd have cards that you 'call in', and secret objectives that you want.
I'd imagine it would have severe PvP elements in it, though, and be of limited duration. And not sure how they'd mesh together.

veti
2017-03-09, 03:54 PM
An Accurate WWII Game
Why it's cool: I've never seen an RPG that encompasses all of the second World War. You could also write campaigns based on actual campaigns
Why it's crazy: So much stuff happened during World War 2. Besides, even if you focused on the main participants (America, Britain, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and Japan) you would have a total of 6 different starter kits for just one class. Also, not that much room for you non-combat fans.

If it's really about "the whole of the war", there's a lot of scope for noncombat games. Technological development (think of the Manhattan Project, or the development of jet and rocket propulsion, or... well, it's a long list); spying and counterspying; propaganda, POW escapes, sabotage, smuggling (of contraband or people)... well, it was a big war.

But the war as experienced from the hull of a U-boat, the cockpit of a Spitfire, the slopes of Monte Cassino, or a hut in Bletchley Park is - very different things. I don't see much sense in trying to combine them all into one game.

My suggestion would be "an accurate medieval/crusades game".
- Lots of mud
- No magic
- Rampant disease and infection
- Watch your paladins torching villages and slaughtering noncombatants.

Or "an accurate Reformation-period game". I tried to run one of these once, set in Antwerp in 1560, but it never really got past the character generation stage. The idea was to have the players juggle for their own (and their family's) position and safety in the chaos of the reformation, leading up to the Spanish invasion.

erikun
2017-03-09, 06:28 PM
I am
Why its cool: Anything you can say about your character can become a stat. Strength can come from a muscled frame, combat training or cybernetic implants, its all the same. Classed by strength, purpose and mechanical effects.
Why its crazy: Played FATE? Tear up aspect throw the piece into the air and look at the scattered pieces, that is what we are taking about here.

And the one with the XP system based on food didn't even make the list. ... Also I realized a couple don't even go by these names anymore.
I've played an older version of FATE (perhaps 2nd edition) which did basically this. It had players make up their own skills, and make up abilities with a positive and a negative, so that they could be tested against the character.

The HeroQuest RPG, specifically 2nd edition, works in much the same way. In fact, the character creation rules involve writing a paragraph about your character, then picking out key words to use as their skills. The system also has a method of resolving a broad skill vs. specific skill when it comes up in play, so the "weaponmaster" character doesn't immediately outperform another character which took different skills for various martial weapon stances, for example.

bulbaquil
2017-03-10, 07:17 AM
A Little Adventure: Game would center around having a party of honey I shrunk the kids small characters running around having adventures. Probably in some kind of fantasy setting. And the twist would be they'd mechanically be able to keep up with what's being thrown at them.

Why it's Crazy: Mechanics would be a nightmareish pain in the butt to make work and to reinforce the ideas at the same time that the PC's are highly capable and not desperately in over there heads every time they begin to interact with anything remotely not on there scale, but still impress there scale at the same time.

Why it would be awesome: Every character is a stealth expert. Battles viewed form the outside as unseen forces disable there foes. Riding a massive Corgi into battle! Do I need to keep going with the kinds of insane things you could potentially get away with with this idea?

I had a vague idea of running a shrunken adventure once. The easier way to do it from the standpoint of, e.g., Pathfinder seems to be to upsize the monsters rather than scale down the PCs (i.e. a shrunken elf PC is still "Medium-size" even though they're only 1' 5" instead of 5' 8", it's just the normally-Tiny housecat is now also Medium).

Cluedrew
2017-03-10, 08:23 AM
The system also has a method of resolving a broad skill vs. specific skill when it comes up in play, so the "weaponmaster" character doesn't immediately outperform another character which took different skills for various martial weapon stances, for example.Cool, that is one problem I was wrestling with when I was working on the system. Thanks for the input, I should keep those in mind if I ever go back to work on it. My current project is sane enough to not make this list.

Belac93
2017-03-10, 10:24 AM
Right now I'm working on a WWI rpg with bio-engineering, primitive robots, and frankenstein monsters. PCs play as soldiers working in an army.

malachi
2017-03-10, 10:48 AM
Right now I'm working on a WWI rpg with bio-engineering, primitive robots, and frankenstein monsters. PCs play as soldiers working in an army.

So, basically Iron Kingdoms?
You've got rifles, chain gun emplacements, mortars, trains, bipedal robots, etc. in the main kingdoms, then there's another kingdom with frankenstein zombies, ghosts, non-frankenstein zombies, franken-robots, etc, and then another faction that is giant humanoid pigs and giant humanoid frankenstein pigs. (Plus several other factions)

Amphetryon
2017-03-10, 11:25 AM
Memoir: A game where the present causes the past. All the characters are amnesiac, but can rewrite time by forcibly regaining the memories they want to have. They have to become the people whose existence would have prevented the apocalypse that shattered time in the first place, sometimes by e.g. literally remembering having been the person who pushed the button and not pushing it. One conceit of the game was that this rewriting was only possible because the game took place in a realm whose nature was defined by the absence of certain knowledge. If you learned too much about what was really going on, you'd tend to break free of the realm and thus lose the ability to change things. But things you suspected but didn't know were okay.

I actually ran this one. It was tricky. The players were sort of encouraged by the mechanics to figure things out but to not openly reveal that they had done so, even to other PCs, since that would cause them to 'enlighten out'. So it was sort of a race to figure out enough before you lost the opportunity to use it.

First, shut up and take my money. Seriously, I would buy that game/back that Kickstarter in a phemto-second.

Second, I am reminded of the legend of Osmodeus the Paladin.

NichG
2017-03-10, 12:11 PM
First, shut up and take my money. Seriously, I would buy that game/back that Kickstarter in a phemto-second.

Second, I am reminded of the legend of Osmodeus the Paladin.

Here's the player's guide (http://games.urbanhermitgames.com/memoir/memoir.pdf) for it. Let me know if you give it a try.
There's also an updated version for a different campaign using the same rules base, but very different premise here (http://games.urbanhermitgames.com/dynasty/dynasty.pdf).

The GM side of things is random scattered text files (this (http://games.urbanhermitgames.com/memoir/memoir_dmg.tex) is the most consolidated version I have for the mechanical bits and pieces, and this (http://games.urbanhermitgames.com/memoir/setting.tex) for setting notes), weird Javascript-based props, etc, but unfortunately is pretty relevant to the experience. For example, this (http://games.urbanhermitgames.com/memoir/powers/) is the powers tree associated with the side-effects of absorbing/consuming/destroying shards of history. Those powers were initially hidden, and as players bought them the tiles were revealed. Then later it was discovered that the powers tree has actual cosmological correspondences to planes/demiplanes/etc, and became a map for planar travel. This (http://games.urbanhermitgames.com/memoir/blueprint/) was the headquarters of the PCs, a building that literally could be reconfigured on the spot by folding it's blueprint in different ways.

Drakeburn
2017-03-10, 03:09 PM
An Anthropomorphic Role Playing Game
Another idea I've had for quite a long time is a tabletop role playing game where players are anthropomorphic characters. Nothing like furries, but rather the kind of characters you'd expect to see in Zootopia, Redwall, or Disney's animated film Robin Hood (raise your hand if you ever wanted to play a Redwall Role Playing Game).

Why it works: For anybody who might be getting sick and tired of playing generic fantasy races (dwarves, elves, halflings), this idea may offer some new options for everybody to try out. A party of adventurers consisting of a bear fighter, a fox rogue, a wolf rogue, a turtle wizard, and a rooster bard sounds more interesting than the usual adventuring party, doesn't it?

You could play this with Fate Core, or even Dungeons & Dragons if you don't mind making homebrew races for it.
I'm sure that coming up with mechanics for this game won't be a big issue.

As for issues, I'm not sure if there are any major ones (though a few minor ones come to mind).
But if there are, feel free to point them out.

ngilop
2017-03-10, 04:10 PM
An Anthropomorphic Role Playing Game
Another idea I've had for quite a long time is a tabletop role playing game where players are anthropomorphic characters. Nothing like furries, but rather the kind of characters you'd expect to see in Zootopia, Redwall, or Disney's animated film Robin Hood (raise your hand if you ever wanted to play a Redwall Role Playing Game).

Why it works: For anybody who might be getting sick and tired of playing generic fantasy races (dwarves, elves, halflings), this idea may offer some new options for everybody to try out. A party of adventurers consisting of a bear fighter, a fox rogue, a wolf rogue, a turtle wizard, and a rooster bard sounds more interesting than the usual adventuring party, doesn't it?

You could play this with Fate Core, or even Dungeons & Dragons if you don't mind making homebrew races for it.
I'm sure that coming up with mechanics for this game won't be a big issue.

As for issues, I'm not sure if there are any major ones (though a few minor ones come to mind).
But if there are, feel free to point them out.

this actually exists.

It more pirate based than fantasy based and it could be called something as awesome as bunnies and buccaneers.

but taking the theme away from the mechanics should be easy enough, and slapping in some sort of magic rule-set.

in all honestly though there are scores of RPGs where the selection of races include anthropomorphic animals, just a glance at the local store should show 1 couple, unless D&D, Pathfinder, and the newest Starwars RPG is the only thing sold like at the one at the nearby barnes and nobles. oh yeah they have a mouse guard book too I think.

Xuc Xac
2017-03-11, 12:58 AM
I feel the biggest challenge for trying to get an accurate WWII game is trying to market a game to RPG fans and getting them convinced of the idea that no matter what they think, do, achieve, or attempt nothing at all is going to impact the story.


Why not? A lot of people bought tickets to see "Titanic" even though they already knew the boat sank. Stories are a journey, not a destination.

Before watching Rogue One, everyone knows they succeed in stealing the Death Star plans. The story isn't "the plans get stolen. The end!" It's "who" and "how" and "will they live through it?"

Metahuman1
2017-03-11, 05:01 AM
An Anthropomorphic Role Playing Game
Another idea I've had for quite a long time is a tabletop role playing game where players are anthropomorphic characters. Nothing like furries, but rather the kind of characters you'd expect to see in Zootopia, Redwall, or Disney's animated film Robin Hood (raise your hand if you ever wanted to play a Redwall Role Playing Game).

Why it works: For anybody who might be getting sick and tired of playing generic fantasy races (dwarves, elves, halflings), this idea may offer some new options for everybody to try out. A party of adventurers consisting of a bear fighter, a fox rogue, a wolf rogue, a turtle wizard, and a rooster bard sounds more interesting than the usual adventuring party, doesn't it?

You could play this with Fate Core, or even Dungeons & Dragons if you don't mind making homebrew races for it.
I'm sure that coming up with mechanics for this game won't be a big issue.

As for issues, I'm not sure if there are any major ones (though a few minor ones come to mind).
But if there are, feel free to point them out.

There is at least one dedicated system, 3-5 highly adaptable/universal systems, and rules for 3.X to do this.

I was almost in one once for Pathfinder, but the DM told me Path of War was overpowered and unbalanced but was going to allow a wizard, a summoner, a Shamen and an Oracle among the applicants and I didn't bother paying any attention to anything he said after that as he clearly either was in favor of caster supremacy or didn't know the first thing he was talking about.

Milo v3
2017-03-11, 05:02 AM
Why not? A lot of people bought tickets to see "Titanic" even though they already knew the boat sank. Stories are a journey, not a destination.

Before watching Rogue One, everyone knows they succeed in stealing the Death Star plans. The story isn't "the plans get stolen. The end!" It's "who" and "how" and "will they live through it?"
You'll note that the audience has no agency in a movie. Tabletop games generally encourage players to have agency and feel like there is a point to play.

Jay R
2017-03-11, 10:36 AM
Why not? A lot of people bought tickets to see "Titanic" even though they already knew the boat sank. Stories are a journey, not a destination.

Hilarious example. The Titanic had a journey, but no destination.

Cluedrew
2017-03-11, 05:38 PM
Hilarious example. The Titanic had a journey, but no destination.{Claps} Although I suppose she did have a final destination, just not the one she set out for.


You'll note that the audience has no agency in a movie. Tabletop games generally encourage players to have agency and feel like there is a point to play.Although I agree that there is a difference there, I think that the general idea, that great fun and enjoyment can be found in the little details (observing or creating them) still holds. Not that "you are soldiers in a war" removes all player agency, I don't even think it removes all the agency of the characters although much more of that.

8BitNinja
2017-03-12, 01:33 AM
WWII games are there, though they tend to be more specialized than a game about the entirety of the war - and some of them absolutely aren't there for people who are in it for the fights (Grey Ranks being the obvious example). As far as the concern of needing a bunch of starter kits per class, that's not necessarily a problem at all. Games are varied, and classes are not in all of them, nor are starter kits.

You are correct, but it would seem weird that a soldier would go out unarmed. For example, every soldier no matter what, is armed with a sidearm (M1911 for America, Webley for Britian, TT-33 for Soviet Union, Walther P38 for Germany, Nambu for Japan, and Baretta Modello 1934 for Italy), three frag grenades, and a primary weapon based on class.

For am example, an American Light Infantryman is armed with 3 grenades, an M1911, and an M1 Garand with a bayonet. He also gets light armor, a helmet, and 2 ration kits which each some with 3 food rations, 1 chocolate bar, and 1 pack of cigarettes (for those who don't know, they used to put cigarettes in ration kits).

Jay R
2017-03-12, 09:17 AM
Years ago, I thought about writing a game about being a student. The working title was Eraser Fight.

Xuc Xac
2017-03-12, 01:27 PM
You'll note that the audience has no agency in a movie. Tabletop games generally encourage players to have agency and feel like there is a point to play.

If you play a soldier in WWII, you know how the war end but you're not going to win or lose the war by the actions of one group of soldiers anyway. Unless your PCs are Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, and so on, they aren't operating on that scale. Their focus will be on individual missions. The Axis being defeated by the Allies isn't a PC objective; it's just the setting in the background. The ongoing war isn't a problem for the players to solve. It's just the excuse for their adventures: you have to do these important missions because it's part of the war effort. Who wins the war doesn't matter while you're still in the battle.

Spoiler alert: No matter what you do with your life, you'll be dead in a matter of decades. In a blink of geologic time, all traces of you will be gone. Eventually the dying sun will engulf the Earth and destroy everything. Nothing you can do will change that. You probably still get out of bed every day and live your life like there's a point to it because you focus on a much smaller time scale where your actions matter.

8BitNinja
2017-03-12, 06:28 PM
If you play a soldier in WWII, you know how the war end but you're not going to win or lose the war by the actions of one group of soldiers anyway. Unless your PCs are Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, and so on, they aren't operating on that scale. Their focus will be on individual missions. The Axis being defeated by the Allies isn't a PC objective; it's just the setting in the background. The ongoing war isn't a problem for the players to solve. It's just the excuse for their adventures: you have to do these important missions because it's part of the war effort. Who wins the war doesn't matter while you're still in the battle.

Also, I doubt that one squad of soldiers is going to win any war.

Cluedrew
2017-03-12, 06:42 PM
For am example, an American Light Infantryman is armed with 3 grenades, an M1911, and an M1 Garand with a bayonet. He also gets light armor, a helmet, and 2 ration kits which each some with 3 food rations, 1 chocolate bar, and 1 pack of cigarettes (for those who don't know, they used to put cigarettes in ration kits).Rife, handgun, grenades (limited), armour, rations (limited). Done.

There are lot more things you can do other than list off every thing on the character. I could probably condense it further, maybe even drop the equipment list entirely and make "out of X" an effect you slap on if you run out of some finite resource.

I've looked at a lot of different systems and there are a lot more ways to accomplish a task than mimic wargames. I suppose there is a certain irony in that I am recommending that for a game about war but I think it is more about the feel you are going for. You could probably specialize a generic system, if you build your own you can go rules light or heavy, narrative or simulation, gritty and dark or make it like some action movie, the choice is yours.

Jay R
2017-03-12, 09:15 PM
There are a lot of immediate goals prior to winning the war.

Hiding the plans for next week's battle. Blowing up the bridge before the other side uses it. Saving a bridge so you can use it. Protecting the family you find hiding. Preventing the other side from lootiong. Looting the tavern before the battle arrives.

And ultimately, even if a soldier knows his side will win, he also hopes that he will survive today's battle.

raygun goth
2017-03-12, 10:17 PM
There is at least one dedicated system, 3-5 highly adaptable/universal systems, and rules for 3.X to do this.

I was almost in one once for Pathfinder, but the DM told me Path of War was overpowered and unbalanced but was going to allow a wizard, a summoner, a Shamen and an Oracle among the applicants and I didn't bother paying any attention to anything he said after that as he clearly either was in favor of caster supremacy or didn't know the first thing he was talking about.

Ironclaw, Jadeclaw, and Furry Pirates are the unfortunate holders of that title. Ran a heavily modified Jadeclaw setting (cut out everything that wasn't on the zodiac, made the campaign relatively short) and it worked out alright, but the people who write those books do not know how to build a setting as diverse as the one they wanted. As examples, bats are the only things that can fly in Ironclaw (and every single one of them can fly), but they don't have literally unassailable fallback fortresses in the sides of cliffs or mountains. Foxes are nocturnal, but their peasant-level business is described as operating on the same hours everyone else is. Apes have prehensile feet but they all wear shoes instead of foot-gloves. Armadillos, badgers, and wolverines can all burrow but they don't build homes underground. It's like they took this huge step in giving every tiny little culture in mainland Europe a different animal suit. Jadeclaw suffers from the same problem, and they all suffer from the problem (which D&D used to) whereby particular races (usually the "icky" animals) are evil by default (always bad: Centipede, spider, scorpion, toad, and viper). All toads are sneaky, slimy, and backstabbing. All scorpions are jerks. Snakes are mistrusted and feared (you know, despite actual Asian cultures viewing them as the living things that are closest to their Buddha natures). I've had people in my groups play anthropomorphic animals and it's always shorthand for an imagined trait of an animal - i.e. foxes are sexy, snakes are sneaky, birds are inattentive, etc. This happened so often with not just animals, but other races that I eventually, when building my own setting, axed everything that wasn't a human and made everything cultural. Weirdos living in the woods with ancient knowledge of arcane power? Humans. Stoic, clannish folks living half-underground? Humans. It worked out great.

Have tried to and also ran Furry Pirates for a little while. PCs were agents of the crown trying to track down the evil Cambrian pirates, which was really just a long, complicated plot to use the phrase "Avast, ye scleritized scalawags!"

Anyway.

Trauma-mon!
Your traumatic backstory event is a pet monster. You're part of a support group that knows that unresolved trauma can turn into thoughtform creatures and rampage around. Not you guys, the PCs, though. The good news is that you've all managed to face yours and bring it to heel. The bad news is that only a trauma-monster can kill a trauma monster. The worse news is that you have to mentally re-live the event every time you summon the thing.
Why it's Crazy: One (1), I hate masquerade settings so this would either require me to bite my tongue and work it out somehow or build the setting from the ground-up with its caveats in place, and two (2), obvious potentially exploitative reasons.

Western Fantasy From the Point of View of the Locals
A bunch of weird, dangerous, fanatics are moving into your land, pouring coal dust into your rivers, stealing your food and your land and calling it theirs, misunderstanding basic concepts that even a child in your culture can get right, and reneging every deal they have ever made. Their magicians bargain with dark powers, kill your magicians for perceived evils, and steal your rituals and symbols, scrubbing them of all meaning and purpose. They dig up dragon bones and grind them up to use them to make magic items that help them do this faster and more efficiently. What do?
Why it's Crazy: In most RPGs, it's fine to have potatoes without having an America equivalent. It's perfectly alright to have complex stitched jackets and armor. It's cool to have cranberries, blueberries, pumpkins, and strawberries in your setting. It's okay to go to places that are "unexplored" and meet the locals. But the instant you flip the narrative or point out that in the real world all those things came at a blood cost and are the results of exploitation and violence you've gone too far.

You Are Big
You're a kaiju, or a guy piloting a huge robot, or you have the magical magatama bead that summons Colossasaurus, defender of children! Battle aliens, mutants, and defects of science in a bid to save the world! Possibly working with Ars Magica style mechanics; you have an "on foot" character sheet and a "giant monster" character sheet and swap between them.
Why it's Crazy: Obvious reasons. You tend to be big. Plots all pretty much break down to "oh no that giant starfish is attacking the city!"

A Lovecraft RPG That Actually Follows the Plot of a Lovecraft Story
On the previous note - there's a lot of transhumanism in Lovecraft's works. Sure, he was deathly afraid of it, but it's still there. Randolph Carter becomes powerful and awesome. Dr. Munoz had figured out the secret of immortality. The man in the cave became something else. The Elder Things are ultimately described as capable of understanding humanity, and vice-versa, given time and depth. This is a really cool angle. The PCs are young and unknowing of the dark and dangerous world they inhabit, and as they move along, they only go crazy from the viewpoint of people from the outside. In reality? They're learning about the true depth and nature of reality and alien machinery and potentially becoming like eldritch beings themselves, facing threats they could have never imagined as normal, unassuming humans... and perhaps that's what the Elder Things were trying to do with Earth all along.
Why it's Crazy: Investigate things until you die from it or go crazy is basically the common conceit of these things and it is monstrously difficult to get across to people that there is no magic in Lovecraft's universe. There are no gods. Period. Only aliens and technology you don't understand.

UserClone
2017-03-12, 10:40 PM
So it's an RPG where you're all superheroes. But in a world where only people who are LGBTQIA+ ever gain superpowers. To clarify, only a subset of these people gain powers, not all.

As a result, there are both queer heroes passing as ordinary humans/straight, and straight people who use technology/training to try to pass as real superheroes.

Still working on a system, but it's going to be a single scenario, a lá Lady Blackbird.

There is a guy who has telepathic control over technology, kind of like the T-X from Terminator: Rise of the Machines. He's got an entire evangelical mega-church hostage, on live TV. He's going to start executing hostages soon.

Milo v3
2017-03-13, 12:04 AM
Trauma-mon!
Your traumatic backstory event is a pet monster. You're part of a support group that knows that unresolved trauma can turn into thoughtform creatures and rampage around. Not you guys, the PCs, though. The good news is that you've all managed to face yours and bring it to heel. The bad news is that only a trauma-monster can kill a trauma monster. The worse news is that you have to mentally re-live the event every time you summon the thing.
Why it's Crazy: One (1), I hate masquerade settings so this would either require me to bite my tongue and work it out somehow or build the setting from the ground-up with its caveats in place, and two (2), obvious potentially exploitative reasons.
So persona 4 the RPG :smalltongue:

raygun goth
2017-03-13, 06:49 AM
So persona 4 the RPG :smalltongue:

Not exactly, Persona 4's entities are the components of your personality that you sweep under the rug because Japanese society's concept of face makes you bury any personal habits or beliefs that would make you unique. "The nail that stands up gets hammered down" is the philosophy of the day over there, every day. Persona 4 was about facing those parts of yourself and accepting what makes you an interesting person.

In this case, it's a mon based on a single event or series of events, an egregore composed of the rush of depression, sorrow, and fear you feel whenever that moment is brought up - the car crash that killed your parents but left you alive is a mess of broken glass, the distorted faces of your folks locked in eternal agony, the smell of burning rubber, oil, and grease, spidery limbs made of blood and metal, and its voice is the sound of your own scream. The trauma takes the shape of your mental picture of the events.

Cluedrew
2017-03-13, 07:38 AM
Western Fantasy From the Point of View of the LocalsAn unpleasant story to be sure, but one we probably shouldn't forget.

daniel_ream
2017-03-13, 12:55 PM
What I find amusing about this thread is that many of these "so crazy no one would ever do them" RPGs actually exist and I own copies.

Cluedrew
2017-03-13, 01:15 PM
"The difference between insanity and genus is success." In which case they are only our crazy ideas because we haven't gotten them to work yet. Or you know... crazy is fun.

Still any in particular that have been done? If anyone has already done my ideas and saved me the effort I wouldn't mind seeing the result.

8BitNinja
2017-03-13, 04:37 PM
Also
There are a lot of immediate goals prior to winning the war.

Hiding the plans for next week's battle. Blowing up the bridge before the other side uses it. Saving a bridge so you can use it. Protecting the family you find hiding. Preventing the other side from lootiong. Looting the tavern before the battle arrives.

And ultimately, even if a soldier knows his side will win, he also hopes that he will survive today's battle.

Also, most soldiers didn't fight in the entirety of World War 2. For example, even though Germany lost, if you are participating in the invasion of Poland, you are on the winning side.

Arbane
2017-03-13, 07:38 PM
An Anthropomorphic Role Playing Game
Another idea I've had for quite a long time is a tabletop role playing game where players are anthropomorphic characters. Nothing like furries, but rather the kind of characters you'd expect to see in Zootopia, Redwall, or Disney's animated film Robin Hood (raise your hand if you ever wanted to play a Redwall Role Playing Game).


I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. :smallbiggrin:

Personal Crazy Idea:

Some sort of RWBY-like game.
Obvious problem is that RWBY is a really visually-based series, so just narrating the over-the-top fights wouldn't work nearly as well.
Second problem (If it's actually based on RWBY, not just a ripoff) is that there's still a lot of plot that hasn't been revealed yet.

8BitNinja
2017-03-13, 08:04 PM
Some sort of RWBY-like game.
Obvious problem is that RWBY is a really visually-based series, so just narrating the over-the-top fights wouldn't work nearly as well.
Second problem (If it's actually based on RWBY, not just a ripoff) is that there's still a lot of plot that hasn't been revealed yet.

I actually have shotgun gauntlets in a TRPG I made in reference to RWBY.

Arbane
2017-03-13, 08:14 PM
I actually have shotgun gauntlets in a TRPG I made in reference to RWBY.

Well, those are pretty simple. How about shotgunchaku? :smallbiggrin:

(I actually played in a RWBY Savage Worlds game that worked moderately well. So of course I'm mulling over how to make it work BETTER...)

Oh, another one: An Exalted hack for RuneQuest.
why it's crazy: The sheer amount of RULES I'd need to come up with...:smalleek:

Metahuman1
2017-03-14, 03:07 AM
Ironclaw, Jadeclaw, and Furry Pirates are the unfortunate holders of that title. Ran a heavily modified Jadeclaw setting (cut out everything that wasn't on the zodiac, made the campaign relatively short) and it worked out alright, but the people who write those books do not know how to build a setting as diverse as the one they wanted. As examples, bats are the only things that can fly in Ironclaw (and every single one of them can fly), but they don't have literally unassailable fallback fortresses in the sides of cliffs or mountains. Foxes are nocturnal, but their peasant-level business is described as operating on the same hours everyone else is. Apes have prehensile feet but they all wear shoes instead of foot-gloves. Armadillos, badgers, and wolverines can all burrow but they don't build homes underground. It's like they took this huge step in giving every tiny little culture in mainland Europe a different animal suit. Jadeclaw suffers from the same problem, and they all suffer from the problem (which D&D used to) whereby particular races (usually the "icky" animals) are evil by default (always bad: Centipede, spider, scorpion, toad, and viper). All toads are sneaky, slimy, and backstabbing. All scorpions are jerks. Snakes are mistrusted and feared (you know, despite actual Asian cultures viewing them as the living things that are closest to their Buddha natures). I've had people in my groups play anthropomorphic animals and it's always shorthand for an imagined trait of an animal - i.e. foxes are sexy, snakes are sneaky, birds are inattentive, etc. This happened so often with not just animals, but other races that I eventually, when building my own setting, axed everything that wasn't a human and made everything cultural. Weirdos living in the woods with ancient knowledge of arcane power? Humans. Stoic, clannish folks living half-underground? Humans. It worked out great.

Have tried to and also ran Furry Pirates for a little while. PCs were agents of the crown trying to track down the evil Cambrian pirates, which was really just a long, complicated plot to use the phrase "Avast, ye scleritized scalawags!"

Anyway.



You Are Big
You're a kaiju, or a guy piloting a huge robot, or you have the magical magatama bead that summons Colossasaurus, defender of children! Battle aliens, mutants, and defects of science in a bid to save the world! Possibly working with Ars Magica style mechanics; you have an "on foot" character sheet and a "giant monster" character sheet and swap between them.
Why it's Crazy: Obvious reasons. You tend to be big. Plots all pretty much break down to "oh no that giant starfish is attacking the city!"



I just recall seeing an Indie system for it once at a Con. I didn't buy it at the time cause I didn't have the spare cash given that there were other things that I deemed a higher priority at the time.

That said, there are rules in 3.X for doing such a game as well, and one could probably do something with that. And I'd imagine Savage Worlds, GURPS, Fate, Hero's system/Champions and Mutants and Masterminds could all be used for such a game as well.








That game kind of sounds like the other side of the coin from my suggestion. Maybe we should work together on getting them online?


Also, as a means of going about it, have the PC's have a couple of Cohorts who's job it is to figure out the alien tech that's being used to contain you or something (just an off the cuff example there are a number of things you could do.) as the plot/prelude to the Massive Kaiju/Giant Robot fights.

raygun goth
2017-03-14, 03:59 AM
That game kind of sounds like the other side of the coin from my suggestion. Maybe we should work together on getting them online?

Also, as a means of going about it, have the PC's have a couple of Cohorts who's job it is to figure out the alien tech that's being used to contain you or something (just an off the cuff example there are a number of things you could do.) as the plot/prelude to the Massive Kaiju/Giant Robot fights.

Honestly, I have a decent chunk of setting material for some kaiju business. I'd work on it more if I wasn't trying to run two games already and therefore reserve sixteen hours each a week to prep.

Metahuman1
2017-03-14, 04:03 AM
File it away for future use then? Figure one or both of those games will come to there natural end in time, and it will be time to run a new game or two. =)

8BitNinja
2017-03-14, 03:56 PM
Well, those are pretty simple. How about shotgunchaku? :smallbiggrin:

(I actually played in a RWBY Savage Worlds game that worked moderately well. So of course I'm mulling over how to make it work BETTER...)


A shotgun that takes shells that contain sword chucks

SimonMoon6
2017-03-14, 07:16 PM
Trauma-mon!
Your traumatic backstory event is a pet monster.

At first I misread this and thought it was going to be this: You're a pet monster with a traumatic backstory. Because after all, it's gotta be traumatic as a sentient being to suddenly become someone's pet or, realistically, a slave who has to fight gladiatorial battles involving large amounts of violence on a regular basis. And your "owner" acts like he loves you to make it even weirder.



You Are Big
You're a kaiju, or a guy piloting a huge robot, or you have the magical magatama bead that summons Colossasaurus, defender of children! Battle aliens, mutants, and defects of science in a bid to save the world! Possibly working with Ars Magica style mechanics; you have an "on foot" character sheet and a "giant monster" character sheet and swap between them.
Why it's Crazy: Obvious reasons. You tend to be big. Plots all pretty much break down to "oh no that giant starfish is attacking the city!"

I actually owned a game system that was all about this. Actually, it was only about monsters fighting monsters. It had lots of little paper miniatures that I assembled and then slowly lost over several decades. I was actually going to run the game once, butI was changing it so that each monster was going to be paired up with a human character (that the player would also control) to give it more grounding in reality. The human character could be a person who knows how to summon the monster or the monster's alter ego or the mech's pilot or anything along these lines. The plan was to have problems on the human scale as well as problems on the monster scale, and maybe the hero monsters have to hold off the villain monsters until the humans can save the day... or it could the other way around, with the humans having to accomplish a goal in order to help the monsters save the day.

I don't think it's any more crazy than the generic superhero setting of "here comes a villain, defeat him, oh, look, here's another villain".

Illogictree
2017-03-16, 03:54 AM
I have a bit of a soft spot for strange RPG settings (I'm sadly more a settings guy than a mechanics guy).

There was one I almost ran using a hack of Fate Accelerated. It was ... well, best way to describe it was a mashup of Shadowrun, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Zootopia. Sadly drama happened and it never got off the ground.

Another one was what I called "The Axiom", which is kinda deliberately designed as almost like an MMO game setting, and heavily inspired by the more recent Final Fantasy games. The Axiom itself is a hub world connecting via portals to all kinds of imaginative, physics breaking worlds, like the Nebula Maze (an ever-shifting dungeon made of solid gas clouds), Antikytheria (basically Mechanus), or the Arid Ocean (a desert populated by flying undead sea life beneath a sky made of water). These worlds are littered with strange artifacts and pieces of machinery, and prospectors can make their living exploring these new worlds and collecting these mystery artifacts. These prospectors band together into guilds, there are plenty of inter- and intra- guild intrigues, and there's the overall mystery of the Axiom's purpose and all that going on.

The ...strangest, maybe? is what I called "Saucer Men". The idea is that at the close of WWII, the Germans cracked the secret for making psychic-powered flying saucers. The Americans and Soviets both get their hands on the technology and secretly become involved in a secret flying saucer arms race for about 20 years. Then remnants of the Reich make their return with a fleet of flying saucers of their own, striking from their hidden base in Antarctica. Or on the moon. (And that's not even getting into the complications of the invaders from the Hollow Earth.) The twist is that the reason the saucers are secret is because they only work if their psychic crews have no idea that there is no way that the saucers can actually work. So the secrecy is all to prevent people from asking too many questions. I kinda abandoned this idea since I couldn't think of a good mechanism for simulating the saucer crews / players trying to work together to psychically control a flying saucer, but it's a fun, stupid, pulpy idea.

indianawalsh
2017-03-16, 12:49 PM
It never went anywhere, but at one point I was going to run an Ozzy and Drix style game where players take the role of microbes and cells inside a human body.

There was also Tokyo Hulkhunters, where players play a crack team of agents tasked with investigating and preventing crimes committed by Incredible Hulks in Japan.

8BitNinja
2017-03-16, 10:05 PM
I thought of one once based on the world of another RPG I made. The world is basically a medieval high fantasy world where a secluded race with advanced technology shares it with the world, creating world that is a mix of cattlepunk, dungeonpunk, and steampunk. The kingdoms broke up into four alliances who are fighting over dominance of the world.

The problem was mostly balancing and the fact that archaic weapons were underpowered.

Mutazoia
2017-03-17, 12:29 AM
You'll note that the audience has no agency in a movie. Tabletop games generally encourage players to have agency and feel like there is a point to play.

Titanic: the Role Playing Game.
You have one class: Cruise Ship
GM: *rolls dice* Surprise round! You are attacked by a Giant Dire Icebergh. *rolls dice* Critical hit!. Including sneak attack damage you take *rolls dice* 846,253 points of damage. You sink.

Gravitron5000
2017-03-17, 08:43 AM
Titanic: the Role Playing Game.
You have one class: Cruise Ship
GM: *rolls dice* Surprise round! You are attacked by a Giant Dire Icebergh. *rolls dice* Critical hit!. Including sneak attack damage you take *rolls dice* 846,253 points of damage. You sink.

I would say that that's a total railroad, if it wasn't obviously a cruise ship.

DigoDragon
2017-03-17, 10:34 AM
A fairly recent idea I wanted to try out on a group was to run Expedition to Castle Ravenloft as a space sci-fi--

Ravenloft is a star system, the castle itself is a science starbase orbiting the ringed gas giant in the system. Barovia is a cargo ship that attempted to deliver supplies, but was attacked by the base's autonomous defense satellite for unknown reasons. The cargo ship is currently in orbit around one of the outer moons. Life support systems are stable, but the jump drive is badly damaged, they don't know if the autonomous defense satellite is looking for them, and the starbase is the only feasible place it could be repaired. Except, it won't answer their calls.

The party is a group of explorers/soldiers/etc. that receive a distress call from the cargo ship Barovia. The PC's small ship doesn't have the equipment to repair the jump drive, but they embark on the quest to board and disable the defense satellite, and then reach the starbase to find out why no one is answering. What they'll find is a huge complex that took on a mind of its own.

Why it's crazy: Strahd and the denizens of Ravenloft could now be anything from aliens to mutant experiments gone wrong to inter-dimensional horrors. Strahd could be a powerful computer AI that went rogue, or perhaps a genius scientist that learned his funding was gonna be cut so he unleashed his experiment on his fellow crew in an act of mutiny. Fans of Dead Space will probably get good mileage from the kind of atmosphere you could vent into this adventure.

Pugwampy
2017-03-17, 05:17 PM
I had a wacky idea involving Snakes and Ladders .

Basically players are in a tavern and an elven wizard offers them a high risk / reward game . He waves his wrist and virtual entertainment for everyone

Players put their minis on a snakes and ladders board . Instead of d6 they travel rolling the D20 . everytime they climb a ladder they get a magic goodie. Everytime they fall down the snake a large constrictor is summoned and attacks them.

The players all roll first before magic goodie or snake is unleashed . players also have an option of throwing away the magic goodie to unsummon a snake .

8BitNinja
2017-03-17, 06:21 PM
I had a wacky idea involving Snakes and Ladders .

Basically players are in a tavern and an elven wizard offers them a high risk / reward game . He waves his wrist and virtual entertainment for everyone

Players put their minis on a snakes and ladders board . Instead of d6 they travel rolling the D20 . everytime they climb a ladder they get a magic goodie. Everytime they fall down the snake a large constrictor is summoned and attacks them.

The players all roll first before magic goodie or snake is unleashed . players also have an option of throwing away the magic goodie to unsummon a snake .

Thanks for a Lady of Pain maze idea. The only difference is that no magic goodie comes from ladders

DigoDragon
2017-03-17, 07:56 PM
Thanks for a Lady of Pain maze idea. The only difference is that no magic goodie comes from ladders

It's just more snakes, isn't it? :|

DuctTapeKatar
2017-03-17, 09:29 PM
VEGGIE TALES: RISE OF SATAN

Play as a Christian vegetable with a face and limited telekinesis to replaces arms and legs. Your mission is to hunt down demons that attack the town of Bumbliburg and beyond.

I don't think anyone would try that. I mean... Veggie Tales. What kind of stats would a tomato have? Does Tomatoes even count? Aren't they fruits?

DORA: THE EXPLORER

Rules
#1: Whenever you come across a problem, your characters stop, turn to face the camera, and ask what they should do.
#2: The characters do whatever the majority said. No matter how stupid or suicidal. They will do it.
#3: You play combat in a 2-D plane, similar to Darkest Dungeon. Without the Darkest. And it probably won't be in a Dungeon. It's not even Dungeon.
#4: Sessions/Campaigns end after 3 events, with small events in between.
#5: EVERYTHING IS G-RATED. ANY ATTEMPT TO CHANGE IT WILL RESULT IN SUDDEN BURSTING OF THE STOMACH OF THE CHARACTER OFFENDING.

EXCEL SAGA

The world is corrupt! You must join the ranks of ACROSS and under the brilliant guidance of Lord Il Palazzo, you must undergo secret missions to disrupt your enemies' plots and end the current regime!

Also, you have -5 intelligence, wisdom, and/or constitution, and must use these stats as often as possible, and if the DM permits, at random times for no reason at all.

If anyone has any questions about Excel Saga, look it up. Preferably the weirdest images you can find.

8BitNinja
2017-03-17, 10:08 PM
It's just more snakes, isn't it? :|

You and I know the Lady of Pain, and she doesn't mess around.

And on that note, I'm never letting anyone planar shift me to Sigil ever again.


VEGGIE TALES: RISE OF SATAN

Play as a Christian vegetable with a face and limited telekinesis to replaces arms and legs. Your mission is to hunt down demons that attack the town of Bumbliburg and beyond.

I don't think anyone would try that. I mean... Veggie Tales. What kind of stats would a tomato have? Does Tomatoes even count? Aren't they fruits?

As someone who has seen VeggieTales (what else is there to put on for kids while they wait for the deacon meeting to be over after church?) I find this incredibly hilarious. The one problem is that combat would be incredibly strange due to the vague telekinesis rules of VeggieTales.


DORA: THE EXPLORER

Rules
#1: Whenever you come across a problem, your characters stop, turn to face the camera, and ask what they should do.
#2: The characters do whatever the majority said. No matter how stupid or suicidal. They will do it.
#3: You play combat in a 2-D plane, similar to Darkest Dungeon. Without the Darkest. And it probably won't be in a Dungeon. It's not even Dungeon.
#4: Sessions/Campaigns end after 3 events, with small events in between.
#5: EVERYTHING IS G-RATED. ANY ATTEMPT TO CHANGE IT WILL RESULT IN SUDDEN BURSTING OF THE STOMACH OF THE CHARACTER OFFENDING.

This would be painfully boring, but amazing as a satire book.

Also, combat? What combat? The show lied to kids by telling them that they can prevent themselves from getting mugged by saying "swiper no swiping." Dora needs to learn some self defense techniques or carry a Taser or Gun. Instead of making swiper run from "swiper no swiping", make him run from the Glock that Dora just pulled on him.

:smalltongue:


EXCEL SAGA

The world is corrupt! You must join the ranks of ACROSS and under the brilliant guidance of Lord Il Palazzo, you must undergo secret missions to disrupt your enemies' plots and end the current regime!

Also, you have -5 intelligence, wisdom, and/or constitution, and must use these stats as often as possible, and if the DM permits, at random times for no reason at all.

If anyone has any questions about Excel Saga, look it up. Preferably the weirdest images you can find.

I looked it up, and the images I saw are probably irrelevant to the show.

Or am I wrong and it's actually that weird?

DuctTapeKatar
2017-03-17, 10:43 PM
I looked it up, and the images I saw are probably irrelevant to the show.

Or am I wrong and it's actually that weird?

It makes less sense as it goes along, if that answers anything. The main character is an idiot, her roommate has serious health issues, dying only to come back to life, and their boss wants to kill them both, but can't afford to because they are his only employees. That's how it starts off.

raygun goth
2017-03-18, 01:11 AM
You Are Big
You're a kaiju, or a guy piloting a huge robot, or you have the magical magatama bead that summons Colossasaurus, defender of children! Battle aliens, mutants, and defects of science in a bid to save the world! Possibly working with Ars Magica style mechanics; you have an "on foot" character sheet and a "giant monster" character sheet and swap between them.
Why it's Crazy: Obvious reasons. You tend to be big. Plots all pretty much break down to "oh no that giant starfish is attacking the city!"


Because a couple people mentioned it, I'm going to start world-building over here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?518651-Monstrous-(Kaiju-Worldbuilding)).

Pugwampy
2017-03-18, 06:02 AM
Thanks for a Lady of Pain maze idea. The only difference is that no magic goodie comes from ladders

The worst DM ever Lord Pug says . You is a bad meanie .:smallbiggrin:

Doorhandle
2017-03-18, 07:22 AM
What I find amusing about this thread is that many of these "so crazy no one would ever do them" RPGs actually exist and I own copies.
Name 'em. I'm now curious...



DORA THE EXPLORER
Maybe not as a game, but it sounds great for a forum adventure...


EXCEL SAGA
I believe that could be run. It's called "refluffing paranoia."
You don't run out of clones, it just the Will of the Macrocosm running out of patience. :smallbiggrin:


A Lovecraft RPG That Actually Follows the Plot of a Lovecraft Story

I'd play the piss out of that. How many deep-ones must I eat before I can usurp c'thulhu?

As for my maddened ideas.

Pathfinder: Mad Skillz edition:
As pathfinder normal, but base attack bonus, saving throws, and basically anything else that would fit would would scale the same way other skills scale. Damage would be by check result, (maybe with some modification by-weapon), and a lot of combat cruft would be cut out.
The Catch: Not sure how spells would work: a lot of the game's complexity comes through them. Plus, it does nothing to the massive arrangement of modifiers, and I can't think of any good reason for people NOT to max BAB and all saves.

Deck of many plot hooks:
Every player character, and no small number of NPCs, will each be in a room and will draw a card from the deck of many things. The rest of the campaign is cleaning up the collateral damage.
The Catch: It's the deck of many things. It'll eat the campaign before we even start!

Elder Evils
As the name suggests It's a setting where an elder evil is attacking...Or rather, every elder evil has been awoken at once. It;s a race against time to prevent the apocalypse(s)
The Catch: that's a lot of random charts and modifiers you have to keep track of...

X-com: Medieval edition
As the name suggests, it would be like X-com: the players would be a crack team sent to investigate crashed UFOs, and occasional make counterattacks against aliens bases, motherships, and inevitably their temple-ship on mars. As time passes they would getter better and better equipment, but to start they're as powerful as gasoline-soaked toilet paper.
bonus points: use actual D&D creatures instead of the X-com aliens. I'm thinking the denizens of Leng want to pay us a visit...
The Catch: I'm not sure how the greater strategic game which made X-com so famous would work. Would I need rules for aircraft attacks too? Likewise, I'm not sure if I/my players are up to a game with a military setting and all those foreign concepts like "duty" and "all due respect." Plus, a lot of people hate having guns/sci-fi in fantasy.

Stall for Goku:
The hero is all-powerful, able to save the day no matter what. There is no force he cannot defeat, not disaster he cannot upturn, no day too dark for him to brighten. The problem is, you're not him: and the villain is unrelenting, unstoppable, unescapable. The hero is on his way... but will there even be a city to save by the time he gets there?
Bonus points for refluffing it as a kaiju setting. You're the Japan defense force, and Unit-01 is still 50 miles away...
The Catch: The players generally enjoy being able to actually win. Plus, the Hero is kinda a GMPC by default, (always a risk) and it's probably better as a board game than anything else.

Knaight
2017-03-18, 07:55 AM
X-com: Medieval edition
As the name suggests, it would be like X-com: the players would be a crack team sent to investigate crashed UFOs, and occasional make counterattacks against aliens bases, motherships, and inevitably their temple-ship on mars. As time passes they would getter better and better equipment, but to start they're as powerful as gasoline-soaked toilet paper.
bonus points: use actual D&D creatures instead of the X-com aliens. I'm thinking the denizens of Leng want to pay us a visit...
The Catch: I'm not sure how the greater strategic game which made X-com so famous would work. Would I need rules for aircraft attacks too? Likewise, I'm not sure if I/my players are up to a game with a military setting and all those foreign concepts like "duty" and "all due respect." Plus, a lot of people hate having guns/sci-fi in fantasy.

I've basically done this, although it was less medieval and more late stone age, and the "aliens" were an invading force with all the sophistication of the early middle ages.

Cluedrew
2017-03-18, 08:15 AM
On Stall for Goku: I can think of two possible solutions to the GMPC problem:
The hero is well meaning, but impulsive and not that bright. Keeping them on track is part of the game. Besides building in player influence on the character it also gives them a slightly antagonistic role as well, I think that would help.
The PCs have rules that let them jointly control the big hero. The big hero is then shared between the players, a group PC. Maybe even a set of abilities for it, class/relationship (techno-geek/rival, trickster/student, brawler/love-interest) so it is part of your character concept.
These are tuned to the single hero version and not the elite military unit version. There I don't think it would be as much of a problem. If you think it is, let the elite unit (once it arrives) be controlled by the players as well. Maybe it could even be you play versions of the regulars cranked up to 11. The guy who plays a tank unit can pilot a mech in the final round, the scout is now a cyborg and the medic has a full medical team on wheels at there disposal. OK, three possible solutions.

I have sympathy for the support, though. My second largest story idea was about the cook/medic/translator/map-reader for the big heroes that saved the world.

noob
2017-03-18, 08:17 AM
I did try to make skill based spellcasting in pathfinder.
But 1: either the player will have to make choices other than taking skills or I have to put tons and tons of skills.
2: It also risks to allow people to freely multiclass in various spellcaster classes without problem
The intent was also to give some spellcasting to all the mundane classes taking ranks in spellcasting skills in order to reduce the gap between mundanes and casters(basically it would be skill rolls to do magic instead of having class features for it)
also for the number of spells per day it would either use slots or truenaming like mechanics but with the latter it can allow people to cast 200 spells with ease due to the helping rules.
(ps: spellcasting classes instead of getting spellcasting gets bonuses to the casting skills that grows with level which makes it hard to prevent the aspect "I will not lose much from multi-classing like crazy between multiple caster classes")

About not maxing saves it makes sense: you could put nothing in them as well since if you specialize on an skill you can easily have 60 more than anybody else and then the defending people can not possibly succeed their save(unless they were insanely super specialized on saves but then they were useless in the first place)

Crazy rpg idea:
A rpg about managing a company in a real life like setting with real life laws.
Why is it cool: it is not.
Why is it crazy:People do not want to fill real life paperwork for a rpg

Arbane
2017-03-18, 10:03 PM
EXCEL SAGA

The world is corrupt! You must join the ranks of ACROSS and under the brilliant guidance of Lord Il Palazzo, you must undergo secret missions to disrupt your enemies' plots and end the current regime!


Run My Life With Master as a comedy game?


Crazy rpg idea:
A rpg about managing a company in a real life like setting with real life laws.
Why is it cool: it is not.
Why is it crazy:People do not want to fill real life paperwork for a rpg

To make it a little more interesting, remember that RPGers have been drawing cartoons of monsters playing Advanced Papers and Paychecks since at least 1979. Just sayin'....

8BitNinja
2017-03-19, 04:09 PM
Alamo: The RPG
Shiroyama: The RPG
Thermopylae: The RPG

I'm pretty sure that you guys can tell why they would all suck if you were playing as the defenders.