TV series with ideas for GURPS

[lachimba]

Edit (original or amazing ideas obviously preffered)

1st off the bat.

Sense8 i'm not the biggest fan, but the being able to perceive send your senses, take over the actions of another, communicate with each other, and/or lend them your skills feels like it's almost made for an RPG where the party splits up.

Be great to use in a game where none of the PCs ever meet in person or just any appropriate game.

I'd design the ability package based on GURPS abilities them just add power modifiers to fit the campaign

[Mailanka]

Sliders is essentially Infinite Worlds

The Man in the High Castle certainly inspired my girlfriend to explore GURPS Infinite Worlds (and Chrononauts)

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

The Man in the High Castle certainly inspired my girlfriend to explore GURPS Infinite Worlds (and Chrononauts)

I await the show to fall apart when Infinity turns up.

But yeah it's good enough for a copy of it to become Reich X in GURPS infinite worlds

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Building the protagonists of Sense8 is more than doable with GURPS, on a high budget. Other systems, probably not-so-much. I liked the first season and have kicked around ideas for a write-up myself. It's basically a supers setting, where they all get global Mindlink, sensory Telesend, and a high budget for multiple Modular Skills limited to what anybody else in the gestalt who is Concentrating on the individual using the skill can do. Establishing new Mindlinks with any psi they make eye contact with is probably more Feature than Advantage, given how it is exploited by the show's villain.

[mhd]

The new "Into the Badlands" TV series seems like a pretty fun Martial Arts campaign. It's no Six String Samurai, but it does have a postapocalyptic antebellum filled with kung fu and deadly stiletto heels.

[Anders]

I would love to play in the Ash vs. Evil Dead world. Groovy!

Xena Warrior Princess may also be a viable alternative. Although with more sensible armor.

[Gigermann]

Terra Nova. It's a terrible show, really, but it's RPG gold—dinosaurs and ultra-tech. I'm still working on that campaign for my group; I expect to run it next year sometime.

[Not]

M*A*S*H, TV or movie.

[Nymdok]

When discussing GURPSable TV shows the limiting factors are normally small cast, overly iconic characters, and uneven character balance.

Other key points to look for are large casts, welll built worlds, and a fairly high level of internal consistency especially where abilities are concerned.

I know Buffy/Angel, Xena/Hercules and Doctor Who gets a lot of love from the fans, but Id never game in those worlds, because they have centerpiece characters and everyone else is kind of along for the ride. Good for TV. Not so great if your a character in the supporting cast. This eliminates ALOT of the Superhero TV shows we see these days (DD, JJ, Flash, Arrow, but not necessarily GOTHAM or Agents of Shield)

Star Wars is a big wide open world, but for my taste its a mess and I would have to apply so many external restricitions that it would quickly diverge from what star wars is to many people which is largely just a 'Plot calls all shots' imagination playland.

Farscape was an amazing show, but its SO character driven (as opposed to world driven) that once you try to insert your own characters it quickly looses alot of its charm. Add to that there's alot going on in the world, but little if any of it ever gets explained and again, you have to bring so much to the table that it rapidly changes the setting and is bound to disappoint.

Vikings for example is a great show, but its also so character driven that if those characters are removed (or even changed just a bit) then it completely hollows out the world and you dont really have a lot left.

Most Cop, Doctor, and Lawyer shows, Id probably dismiss out of hand as being too repetitive and mundane but the REAL problem again is the overly iconic characters.

Nymdok

p.s. You didnt really think I was going to post without saying Exo Squad, Visionaries, Mission Impossible/The Man From UNCLE, Warehouse13, Alien Nation, Firefly, did you?

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

Terra Nova. It's a terrible show, really, but it's RPG gold—dinosaurs and ultra-tech. I'm still working on that campaign for my group; I expect to run it next year sometime.

Lots of horrible TV shows have gaming goodness.

Ever seen Parallels, on Netflix? You could tell it was written as a pilot that never got picked up. Neat concepts, although I'd want to position the building out in the boonies, somewhere, and make it a bit less obvious. A sprawling warehouse, maybe, with some underground levels?

You'd also want it to shift a lot less frequently than every 36 hours, or you'd run into the same problem as Sliders -- all your good ideas about alternate realities are used up by halfway through the second season.

Primeval also has time-travel, cross-dimensional goodness, and has SAS spec ops versus dinosaurs (fun) and highly-evolved future creatures (deadly).

I've posted elsewhere about The Last Days, a Spanish-language post-apoc film. I think it's a unique setup for a exploration and rediscovery campaign, in which the characters are the teenage children of those stricken by the agoraphobia virus.

Also, speaking of "bad" TV shows, I know Farscape has a strong following, here, but after watching the first four episodes, or so, I'm struggling pretty hard. Does it get any better? Or, at least, less hackneyed?