Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

I present to you... Mad Max: Out Of Gas

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

This could be brilliant, but any of the gems would have point values well into the thousands. And how would you even begin to build a fusion ability?

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Heh. How very true.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

There are action flicks which make some kind of sense, at least a fair amount of the time, in which the choices and actions taken, and their results, tend to make sense or at least are somewhat plausible.

There are other action flicks which frequently, persistently, and/or in crucial places show choices, actions, and results which would never happen for any established reason other than because that's what is shown in the film. Where in reality one would be certain of very different results, unless some divine miracle or paranormal phenomena or cosmic force (not explained in the film), or if crazy luck or comic-book logic or ignorance or apathy or deus ex machina hand-waves the outcome.

There are viewers who notice and whose suspension of disbelief and/or interest are ruined by the abandonment of sense-making. There are other viewers who are bored by realistic violence and those who embrace zany unrealistic action. And there are many who don't really notice or care.

Mad Max and The Road Warrior seem to me actually to stay remarkably self-consistent and be more or less (dare I use the word? yes) realistic, within the established alternate-world settings and situations. I very much appreciate the realism of the vehicular mayhem in those films, for those reasons. The action does a good job of showing what the given situation would be like. Practically everything happens the way it does for some reason that makes some degree of sense, and without super-human acrobatics.

In fact, I don't really care much for the other aspects of those films, except that the background seems to know it's just there to give a context to the violence, and it nicely stays almost entirely out of the way.

In Fury Road, the reason that most of the action happens the way it does, seems to be "because it's most extreme and visually exciting if it happens this way", and almost never "because if we have it make sense and be believable, it will be far more interesting and immersive".

Returning to the topic of this thread, I am inspired by Mad Max to want to play in a game that plays like Mad Max. In fact, I bought GURPS Autoduel wanting to do exactly that (whoops - I didn't know what I was in for with the Car Wars setting, but I tried). Mad Max also inspires me to play the Fallout games (which I then get sick of when I find out how much less realistic their combat system is than GURPS, as people shrug off multiple gunshot hits to the head and exchange hitpoints - groan). Mad Max of course also inspired me to watch Fury Road (groan again).

And again, Fury Road inspires me, almost, to play it out in GURPS realistic tactical combat, in which case, as I said before, I'm sure there would be people picking off drivers with guns, and the silly people climbing on the outside of cars would be falling off and accomplishing little. I like the idea of playing Fury Road in GURPS because of how it would tend to automatically illustrate everything wrong with Fury Road's action logic.

But I get that there are other players who don't care, such as a recent person somewhere suggesting that the way to resolve naval combat and pirate action in 0D&D would be to just give all the ships hit points and armor classes and resolve it like a land monster combat. Doesn't inspire me, except to want to play something else.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

To contribute a little to the thread:

Lost Girl. While the setting is not terribly original, it is detailed enough to work as campaign backdrop, but not so set in stone as to make original content difficult. For example, the main characters are (as of the first season) not so central to the setting that everything revolves around them.

Defiance also has an interesting setting, with multiple races with distinct cultures and a schizo-tech post-apocalyptic world that allows for everything from political intrigue to treasure hunting.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

The animated show Star Wars:Rebels currently on DisneyXD. It's a really clever example of how to put together a PC group and set adventures in the Star Wars universe without treading on any overly familiar ground.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Like Nazis, the leaders of the invasion were racist and wanted to smash humanity but couldn't be overt. But the alien home command just wanted empire extension without inefficient nonsense aka war crimes.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

That merely lampshades the problem. It would still be orders of magnitude easier to crossbreed pond algae and a human than either with an extraterrestrial.
Besides, the girl hybrid was a messianic figure, so mere biological hindrances mattered not.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

However, if players/GM can accept that messianic figures with supernatural powers can exist, I don't think the cross-breeding of Visitors with Humans through medical experiments would be a problem.

By extension, if one can accept messianic figures with supernatural powers, I think aliens whose motivation is to strip mine the planet of its resources (water/humans) with as little resistance as possible (hence the ruse and all the mind control) to bring back home to an empire that is at war with a larger and more dangerous foe (the humans being a resource both for food and canon fodder) should be too big of a problem either.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

I will not entertain any suggestions that either of the two zombie shows have any 'new' ideas for t.v. let alone ideas for GURPS.

(Ill actually give one to walking dead everyone is infected and that's it, but you already had that in the comic book)

I suppose the other other zombie show (izombie) might be full of ideas though. I'm yet to see it.


Likewise none of the superhero shows have much of anything for GURPS that you can't find in the comic books or movies

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Your loss.

In my opinion based on the first 15 minutes of the first episode: It had nothing new.

The comic has some old ideas presented in a 'new fashion, but then... we've wrung out most ideas long ago. We live in the age of retreading.

If you want to go that route we haven't had any new ideas in a long time.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Meh both shows are absolute garbage, but that's a different thread and garbage tv can be great for role playing (garbage movies too and you can hear Ken Hite discuss House 2 and why it's so bad, but so good for RPGs)


If you mean no new ideas in general that's completely untrue. Breaking Bad, Better call saul, Mad Men etc are very original tv shows. I just think that there isn't much new for GURPS there.
A lot about The man in the high castle (the detailed alternative world building) is original for tv if not fiction. (Its also detailed enough to apply to the paragraph below)

If you mean no new ideas for RPGs well as in OP I think sense8 gives you a pretty original game type where the party is split for the entire tv show with one member meeting just once in the finale. Name me one published GURPS scenario with that premise. I can now think of dozens of adventures for THS, a psis campaign etc. As Kromm pointed out it would be a good game for drop in players because their characters are offscreen much of the time anyway. I think it's great for when players want to jump in to take control because their character concept is perfect for the scene.

Anyway other shows. I've thought for a long time the Law and order investigation is good for the kind of group that doesn't enjoy investigation. Its basically scene to scene strung together with a roll or two by the players inevitably they'll fail a roll for the red herring then make the roll to get back on the right track. The show doesn't have big fights or action, but given how long that takes in GURPS you could probably have your gun fights and chases take up 50% of the time at the game table, but just a few minutes of the episode.

Also I think GMs like me often run investigation as you find the clue or not. In Law and Order the plot never hinges on clues being found they always find exactly what they can in any scene, they'll just misinterpret the clues (more like in Gumshoe). It's a good example of alternative investigation.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Arrow has a good cast that could all be PCs of similar point level.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

The original post didn't say anything about "new" ideas, just about ideas ... and everything is new to somebody. I don't see this is an issue.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

What makes The Walking Dead work is that the main characters are all pretty compelling (well, except for Carl, who is pretty boring...), and the writers understand that the real enemy is not the zombies (presented as a background hazard, albeit a serious one that complicates everything), but the other survivors.

I've seen that in the movies, but the fact that it gets presented so clearly in a TV show is pretty nice. The Walking Dead provides a good model for any zombie apocalypse game, IMO.

Z-Nation is just silly, and not in a good way. I couldn't make it past two episodes. I haven't watched any of the others -- I'm just not a fan of the genre, really, and would avoid any long-term campaign. (G&AInc's one-shot zombie-culls are a lot of fun, though....)

As for superhero shows, I do watch the Marvel ones, and I enjoy Gotham. I tried to watch Arrow, but got sick and tired of being preached at. Every. Single. Episode.

Gawd.

The fact that Oliver Queen is in The Flash put me off that one, too, but I understand it's much better.

That said, I generally avoid superhero RPGs. I've never been a huge fan of the four-color versions (with a few exceptions -- Simonson's run on Thor was outstanding), and much prefer the darker, lone heroes.

See my avatar.

Unfortunately, as wonderful as The Shadow and his philosophical descendants may be, they're not really all that great for RPGs, in which the party needs to work together as a team.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

iZombie is largely Zombie = Low Powered Superhero with Dependency:Brains. Whether or nto thats bad, is up to your individual tastes. Sub blood for brains and its another vampire show.

I dont hate it. Its fun to watch. Is it doing anything 'new'? I wouldnt say so, but the characters are likeable enough.

For Zombies as supers though Im more partial to the variants in Left 4 dead. At least they have different power sets.

Also worth mentioning is Zombie Island. Communication through the Edih, zombies eating zombies, and other little bits are fairly fresh takes on the genre and the book USED to be free on the guy's website.

Nymdok

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

I wouldn't want to play with that sort of premise either, but that's not necessarily the case for all episodes of all of those shows. Esp latter seasons of Buffy have the Scoobies gaining agency.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

I think most of the discussions is about playing in the series as opposed to playing in the world.

I've played multiple Star Wars games with completely different PC's. Generally I go forward in time and move the world logically forward based on a few circumstances and allow the new PCs to be the center of the new quest.

DragonLance is similar for me -- though I got rid of most of the stuff presented it after Time of the Twins and replaced it with a different reality.

I have a few ideas for Buffy/Angel world games. Admittedly I would probably focus on equal power characters. Even have a ready to go game set in Space Opera solar system adventures where Vampires run the government and businesses from the shadows.

Flash and Arrow are similar. I admit I don't have a lot of interest in playing Flash's second bananas as much as I enjoy watching them. But a game set in the world with a few less powerful supers trying to be good. Now that would be fun and a Trope styled Arrow world game in another city that is suffering their own problems. Both of those could be good.

For me I always focus on the feel of the world and the tropes that are common. For instance:
Buffy is all about friendship and working together to solve problems that are larger than any of them. How many compelling stories could you tell in with characters that fit that world with those ideas?
A character that I would really enjoy playing would be a young adult who was a kid who grew up too close to the Hellmouth. Kept getting captured, involved, etc so he had been changed in various ways until he was a full point character with odd supernatural quirks.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Bill Stoddard did a campaign along those lines, and highly recommended the BtVS RPG as the system, IIRC.

Apparently, it has a clever way (akin to fate points or drama points, or something) to balance the vastly disparate power levels between the Slayer, the sorcerors and magical beings and the monsters they face, and the regular "Scoobie" types.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Its a lot like the GURPS spend points for successes strategy in Impulse Buy with the regenerating pool of points option switch. It allows the Scoobies to shine sometimes when the spend the points but the points go away and refresh more slowly.

I'm not totally against it though I still think you could come up with balanced power characters if you chose.
Just in the Buffy series we had: A cyberwarrior, a robot, a really powerful witch, a trained watcher who was also a wizard, a character that dressed up as soldier at the "wrong/right" time and got full Movie Action soldier capabilities combined with the senses of a Hyena, two friendly vampires for various reasons, a gadgeteer. Then a newly opened slayer potential waking for everyone.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

I disagree with you there. I found very few of the characters compelling.
Again we disagree. It's not serious, which is different than silly.

The reason I enjoy Z Nation and dislike Walking Dead is based on that manner in which Walking Dead demands it be taken seriously (it presents as serious, as if everything matters all the time) and thenfails to have the characters act intelligently, purely for the sake of drama and plot.

Z Nation conversely is not all serious (it has moments), often takes shots at the genre and it's own production company, and thus if a character acts stupidly for the sake of plot/drama (which happens far less often than on WD ironically) it's easier to overlook.


The reason I mention Z Nation as mineable as it has several Action! switches inherent in the setting that I feel would make for a fast paced 'back to the dungeon' style game. Like I said, It's DFed with a bunch of "not as important as in DF" switches (ammo count, rations, fuel, working vehicle, etc all serve the episodic adventure, as well as the overarching theme of 'survival').

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

While that could be a good game, I would really much prefer to play Xander. He almost dies all the time, yet frequently plays a key part in the success of the mission.

It's perfectly okay with me to let other members of the party fight off the Big Bad and his minions, if I get to chuck a rock at its head to distract it at the right moment, or pour holy water in the Black Cauldron, or scrape away part of the magic circle, or rescue the (hopefully young and beautiful) sacrifice -- and then run like a bunny, spending drama points like crazy and describing exactly how the heck I didn't die this time.

That would be fun!

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

No accounting for taste. I suffered through Gotham until Supergirl started and after 1 episode of that I dropped Gotham like a bad habit.

It might mostly be because villains bore me. I kept watching mostly to see those few scarce instances where you could see Batman incubating inside Bruce Wayne's eggshell. Well, that and scenes where Penguin suffered pain and humiliation but that would e a gag reel and not a TV series.

These things touch on why the show is probably poor RPG fodder. Who would your PCs be?

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

At character creation, there's a tradeoff between (in GURPS terms) the number of CP you have to build your character, and the number of impulse buy points you're going to have. More powerful characters get few drama points; Scoobies get lots. Overall, then, you might consider all the characters equally powerful in some sense, some via in-setting abilities and others via more meta influence.

It's also somewhat like FATE, where character builds start with N "refresh" points which are like CP; cool powers cost build points; and any leftover build points become the number of FATE points you have at the start of scenes. Characters with more powers have fewer FATE points; more ordinary characters have more.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

This, especially the bolded.

My addition would be Harsh Realm by Chris Carter. I always thought that both worlds were just loaded with things that should be in a RPG.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

I would have thought some degree of originality was implicit, but I'll edit 'new' in for you if you like.


I actually thought of some things you can get from the super hero shows.

The set pieces are usually pretty good both in DD and JJ. so you could steal them. The other shows occasionally have ok ones but not so much.

Also, and I (and many others before me probably) was already thinking about a similar villain, Kilgrave makes a pretty good example of a street level villain for a low powered Madness Dossier game. That's useful to have realized on TV.

Don Draper from Madmen is probably good to go as character in that street level campaign too.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

The new Jekyll and Hyde has a lot of re-imagined monsters. The Edwardian (?) setting brings cliff hangers to mind. Any one into monster hunters in a historical era might find M.i.0 an interesting patron organization.

One aspect of the show that really brings GURPS to mind is the fighting style used by the protagonist when his alter ego is in charge. All exuberant all out attacks, some of which are massively telegraphed. While this is not necessarily the most effective way to fight it matches the character perfectly.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Hands down, he was the only true hero of the show. He fought insurmountable evil not because of destiny, super powers, indoctrination, etc. He fought evil because it was the right thing to do.
(Too often he had as little story purpose as Heart in Captain Planet, despite having arguably the most powerful ring.)

Being the only pure mundane human could easily have interesting usefulness in games.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Jessica Jones is a street level Madness Dossier game.

Mad Men is the 'office level' equivalent.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Any detective or police drama can be adapted to Traveller: Starports. I was thinking of Magnum PI but any can be really.

Robin Masters Estate fits the aristocratic nature of the series. Masters can be an eccentric Noble, while Higgins is his Seneschal. The sleazy-glamourous night clubs full of sailors are just like a Startown. And all the other favorite elements of Magnum can be fitted in to Starports.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

As I have finished hinting about it in another thread I can mention it here now. The Almighty Johnsons might be a good source of ideas about powers of a divine nature and gaining powers in general. Issues about how well it comes across in a U.S tv cultural environment are arguments for and against it all rolled into one. Simpler to say it's different so fresh ideas and a learning curve.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Something a bit off the wall, but having watched much of the first season of The Doris Day Show, I think that a number of the episodes could easily be used for some more interesting rping scenarios in a contemporary setting, well maybe best set in the late 60s.

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"Inventions that changed the world" is a good source of ideas for divergent technological development and even divergent history due to technological change

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As has been suggested in the past in other threads, Kolchak: The Night Stalker has possibilities for a GURPS Horror or related game, or a single-shot in another kind of campaign. It can be varied, too, imagine a reporter on the trail of aliens instead of magic and monsters, if you want an SFnal setting.

The Fugitive in its endless variations (The Incredible Hulk, Werewolf, etc).

Johnny Quest. An entire GURPS campaign could be built, from an adult POV, around Benton Quest, Race Bannon, etc in a world were Dr. Quest is the U.S. Government's chief investigator of weirdness, and primary consultant for oddball scientific matters. This is another one that can work at various levels of grittiness.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

One of the episodes in the original Kolchak series was about aliens.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

The Night Stalker would be a good inspiration but you'd want to keep characters low powered. Translating it into a team game might be a little trickier.

The Venture Brothers started out as parody but is in a lot of ways a grown up, fleshed out Johnny Quest 'verse. A somewhat more serious take might work for a super agents and low powered superhero campaign including explanations for a lot of the traditional tropes. The Sphinx trademark is currently up for grabs...

I couldn't find any mention of Leverage in the thread which surprises me - it seems tailor made for a GURPS Action campaign. You've got high powered specialists who all get a chance to shine each adventure and you have a lot of good examples of PCs dealing with unexpected problems and having to work outside their comfort zone.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

Just remembered on TV series I swiped some ideas from. The Antiques roadshow (uk) of all things. Good ideas for quality interesting historical loot that adds flavor without adding to power levels.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

It's also good for why loot turns out to be not as valuable as their escorted "expert" says.

Letters from a leutenants of the dreaded lich wars mentioning the artistically sub-par painting along with them is what jacks up all of their value. Providence and unity is what it's all about.
And Makers' Marks. Every episode seemed to have something hinge on its presence or absence.

I love the idea though... and the show. My GF calls me an old cat lady with what I sometimes enjoy.

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I know it's come up before, but I wanted to chip in a word for SG-1.

I think it's great for ideas, not because of the material, which has some fun in it, but the format. It's near ideal for a new GM. The PC's are pre-organized into SG teams. They have support staff to handle the "boring parts" and let PC's establish a place in the party where they can shine. The adventures are clearly outlined; go, do, return. It's not quite on rails, but the Stargate does confine things, as do the limits on movement. "New Tech" is turned over to researchers at the end of the adventure, leaving the GM the option of if, when, and with what modifications, the items are reintroduced.

Seems like a pretty good starting template for a new GM or an experienced GM starting into a new setting.

Re: TV series with ideas for GURPS
 

The inspiration I would draw is for a DF, MH dungeon or villains of the week type game.

Its episodic with an overall theme (and an overarching story, but I wouldn't emphasize that).

The PCs turn up go on an adventure and end up home. Special guests can pop into your regular gaming group without explaining why they turn up in the wilderness.

You can introduce ideas and if they turn out to be dumb you just don't go back to that place and there's no worry of those ideas infecting the rest of the story