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Old 08-27-2017, 12:24 AM   #37
DreadDomain
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: The Dungeon Fantasy box set is great! But now I hunger for more...

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericbsmith View Post
Monster Hunters is another excellent choice with a lot of potential. I'm not sure it's the best choice, monster hunting and dealing with the paranormal weirdness is certainly something that still lives heavily in the zeitgeist.

I'd love to see a Space Opera. On the one hand now would be the perfect time to do a Traveller box set - if only the license weren't lapsed. On the other hand, a more galaxy spanning high-tech space opera, with blasters and force fields, bug eyed monsters and some interesting alien races would be really nice to see.


I mentioned the After the End/Reign of Steel crossover in the other thread. I think it has a lot of potential, setting it in the mid-west somewhere and leaving the RoS as a bit of mystical backdrop that can be explored with the RoS expansion if desired (and, you know, planning an actual RoS expansion). I also mentioned that you could carve out some other good niches in the RoS, which would make great additional box sets. A Cyberpunk Box Set with a RoS backdrop in some of the Asian, Russian, and American cities that have been left partially intact by the various zoneminds. And, of course, you can have an ultimate Robot Hunters Box Set where the goal is to wage war against the robots.

Another interesting niche you could carve, depending on how much you want to bend the RoS timeline and world, is a Mars Colony Wars. I'd set it in the RoS timeline as a loose backdrop, but any sufficient disaster to destroy Earth civilization would work (nanovirus plague, super-volcano eruptions, asteroid impact, etc).

Before the rise of the machines some self-sufficient colonies had been planted on Mars by America, Europe, China, and Russia. Then the awakening happened and the colonies are completely cut off, but for various reasons their computers are not affected (time lag delay prevented the original awakened zonemind from infecting the Mars ones, they caught the infection in time and shut down their megacomputers, whatever). Now you have four vying powers on a Mars they need to explore and conquer, either working together or fighting one another. The zoneminds are too worried about fighting each other to worry about Mars, and the colonies are completely cut off so they are effectively on their own.
This would be fantastic. Reign of Steel could easily support a few flavours of After the End plus Cyberpunk, plus, like Eric points out, an early space exporation, colonist survival, politico-military intrigue. With strong visuals/art, this could be a winner.

Space Opera is also a fairly popular genre but unlike Dungeonn Fantasy, it needs a setting to hold together. Of the options, it might require the most work.

Four-colour Super is currently an obvious pop culture darling. Its setting requirement is very low and it has fairly well understood tropes and strong, various distinctions between different character types. It is also a genre where the GURPS rules clearly underperform, which is either a barrier or an opportunity.

Monster Hunters is already well covered and setting requirements can also be fairly low. I suspect of the lot, it would require the least amount of work. It is also the genre that interest me the least.

In order of interest, (for me) it would be a very close call between Super, RoS/AtE and Space with Monster Hunters clearly behind by a wide margin.
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