The things we do not talk about!

[Embassy of Time]

I recently posted something in the GURPS forum that got zero interest, and I think I phrased it too narrowly. I am doing a lot of work on my GURPSian homebrew system, and it will mainly focus on... cooking! With advanced rules for taste, effects, cuisines, and so on, it goes for an angle I never expected to take on RPGs. And after the first test this holiday, I was motivated to expand into other things we tend to ignore when playing, or designing, RPGs. One is fashion, which will allow players to design complicated outfits for characters, to impress, intimidate, soothe, confuse, or otherwise influence their surroundings.

I was thinking, what other things do we usually overlook that could make for interesting expansions in an RPG, preferably something that would fit the GURPSian rule structure (point-buy, etc.)? I am trying to imagine how to involve home design, at the moment...

[whswhs]

It seems rare for RPGs to portray dancing as a social activity, but I had a very worthwhile session of one campaign focused on the PCs (a bunch of young people from houses of magical aristocrats) going to a dance that was intended to help them look over potential spouses.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Embassy of Time

I was thinking, what other things do we usually overlook that could make for interesting expansions in an RPG, preferably something that would fit the GURPSian rule structure (point-buy, etc.)? I am trying to imagine how to involve home design, at the moment...

How about active duty campaigns in paramilitary or military settings?

Star Trek is the most common such, and whether it's military or paramilitary is much argued... but the fact that they have courts martial...

It's a common mode in Star Wars, too.

I've used the active duty mode a couple times in Traveller. For good effect.

It provides a framework and reason for travel and the adventures, and largely, results in immediate buy-in on the adventure... not always in a good way, but almost always engaging with it.

[L.J.Steele]

Originally Posted by whswhs

It seems rare for RPGs to portray dancing as a social activity, but I had a very worthwhile session of one campaign focused on the PCs (a bunch of young people from houses of magical aristocrats) going to a dance that was intended to help them look over potential spouses.

Kidd's _Lace and Steel_ is the game you want for that sort of social thing. Also for fashion as part of your social combat modifiers.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

Kidd's _Lace and Steel_ is the game you want for that sort of social thing. Also for fashion as part of your social combat modifiers.

I'm aware of the treatment in Lace and Steel. But I wrote rules for similar things as part of GURPS Social Engineering, including the use of Dancing as an Influence skill. And the campaign where I ran the large dance was actually run in the second edition of Big Eyes Small Mouth. We used a hex grid and cardboard heroes to keep track of who was dancing with who.

[Embassy of Time]

Originally Posted by whswhs

It seems rare for RPGs to portray dancing as a social activity....

I love it, tell me more!

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

How about active duty campaigns in paramilitary or military settings?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean?

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Embassy of Time

I'm not sure I understand what you mean?

Outside certain fandoms, the idea of PCs being subject to chains of command, formal discipline, and not able to determine their own choice of missions is consideren bad form, if not anathema.

Steve Cole, creator of Star Fleet Battles, once quipped that there is no room for roleplay in active duty... (Noting that he's a GURPS licensee, I'll just say he's been short sighted and not willing to actually give the fanbase the tools to play the setting the way they want... GPD having no ship combat, nor even tie-ins to SFB/FC, for example...)

And yet, almost every other trek game but his has had simplified ship combat with strong skill tie-ins... Heritage's is the other licensed one without; FASA, LUG, Decipher, and Modiphius all provide for a character driven ship combat experience. Likewise, the Paramount fan-license games, Where No Man Has Gone Before and Far Trek do so, too; Alpha Quadrant doesn't, but it's a Traveller adaptation, and Traveller has a bunch of different ones. The "We Couldn't afford the License" Starships and Spacemen was purely active duty in 1E, and yet still managed to incorporate sandbox mode...

But few discus playing active duty non-wartime campaigns... even in games where it is explicitly discussed in rules, such as Castle Falkenstein, Space 1889, Deadlands, CORPS 1e, Traveller, Space Opera...

the only franchises where I've seen active duty campaigns discussed much are Star Trek (Starfleet, KDSF, Romulan Imperial), Star Wars (mostly Rebel Alliance, but some do run Empire games), Babylon 5, and Judge Dredd.

Almost no one talks about playing police other than detectives, and even detectives are usually some special unit with relaxed supervision, such as in Blade Runner. (Police are paramilitary in the US - ranks, uniforms, near-military discipline, but still technically not military. Similarly in most European nations since the end of post-WW2 occupation.)

Not being a GURPS fan anymore (I am conversant in 1st and 3rd rev), I don't know if there's much duiscussion of the WW2 setting for it.

There are lots of great stories to work with in these modes... but many reject them because of the lack of certain freedoms. And few discuss them outside those genres.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Embassy of Time

I love it, tell me more!

I'm not sure I understand what you mean?

Well, that's really frustrating. I had typed out several paragraphs about the scenario, but my browser seems to have jumped to a different page and lose them.

In brief, Manse was a campaign where each player had four characters: A senior aristocrat, a cadet aristocrat (aged 15-25), a castle guard, and a castle servant. The players got to make up sorcerous/aristocratic Houses, each with its own kinship system, status hierarchy, lifeways, and magical style; I made up a fifth House. The dance took place early in the campaign, with the theory that the Manse's Council scheduled it to encourage the cadets to look over potential spouses and to meet such spouses from the younger members of the guard and the village gentry. So all the cadets attended, along with seven NPC cadets, and so did the four PC members of the Wilderness Squad (one of them in the role of chaperone for the three younger members), among the other younger members of the Guard. As a result, each player had effectively two cameras roving about the event. There were also attendees from the village gentry, who were also potentially eligible to marry in, and thus were suitable invitees to an event that was intended to encourage the young mages to pair up.

I started out with dice rolls to see which group of attendees arrived in what order, from the very early Houses of Light and Truth to the fashionably late House of Darkness. This was enlivened by Viollea, an NPC from the House of Life, panicking at the door and having to be coaxed into coming in by her cousin Camlo, one of the PCs. Then we had a succession of line dances and couples dances, plus scenes of various characters sitting dances out. We ended with two of the PCs being acclaimed as King and Queen of the dance and leading the final dance. We did end up with several possible pairings, many of which developed further in later sessions—and one that only emerged in those sessions: Somena, from the House of Light, the oldest of the cadets (an NPC), decided that Suoma, a member of one of the Guard squads who was attending as a chaperone (a PC), seemed more appealing than any of the young Exalted, which led to his being formally invited to call on her House.

I wrote about this topic in a Pyramid article, "Invitation to the Dance," published, I think, in 2005. I'm not currently having any luck finding my copy of that issue; it seems to have gone to ground. I can tell you that I provided distinct GURPS mechanics for three types of dance: couples dances, line dances, and circle dances.

Manse was one of my more experimental campaigns, with strong player participation in worldbuilding and with each player having four characters to give us a panoramic top to bottom view of the setting, but my four players rose very well to the challenge; I feel that this was one of my most successful campaigns ever. The dance scenario helped. In retrospect, I rather wish I had set up a second such near the end of the campaign, to show how things had changes . . .

[Embassy of Time]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I can tell you that I provided distinct GURPS mechanics for three types of dance: couples dances, line dances, and circle dances.

If you remember _anything_ about the mechanics, don't hesitate to inspire me! I am thinking couple, group and solo dancing as the major types, but it seems to be on a similar wavelength!

[Embassy of Time]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Outside certain fandoms, the idea of PCs being subject to chains of command, formal discipline, and not able to determine their own choice of missions is consideren bad form, if not anathema.

Interesting... Since the campaignis on a campus and overall silly, I get little ideas of fraternity or administrational hierachies.... But maybe there is even more to this concept....