draft prospectus

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

1. Pirates
2. Martial Arts/Asian Fantasy

What kind of scenarios do you have in a martial arts/Asian fantasy campaign? Or what kind of storylines, if you don't do scenarios?

Bill Stoddard

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by whswhs

What kind of scenarios do you have in a martial arts/Asian fantasy campaign? Or what kind of storylines, if you don't do scenarios?

Probably splits evenly between Chinese Kung-Fu films (especially older ones from the seventies and eighties) that influenced games like Feng Shui and Wushu, and Japanese Samurai films (especially Kurosawa's canon) that influenced games like Legend of the Five Rings. Of course there's the synthetic versions like D&D's Oriental Adventures.

A general skeleton of a scenario from those sources is bad martial artists (usually with supernatural and/or political power) oppress the innocents and good martial artists (the PCs) come to save them.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Probably splits evenly between Chinese Kung-Fu films (especially older ones from the seventies and eighties) that influenced games like Feng Shui and Wushu, and Japanese Samurai films (especially Kurosawa's canon) that influenced games like Legend of the Five Rings. Of course there's the synthetic versions like D&D's Oriental Adventures.

A general skeleton of a scenario from those sources is bad martial artists (usually with supernatural and/or political power) oppress the innocents and good martial artists (the PCs) come to save them.

Back in the Eighties when a friend of mine ran Hong Kong movies in a borrowed cinema at midnight on Saturdays I used to call these "noodle Easterns".

If I were doing a noodle Eastern campaign now I would take a lead from the Once Upon a Time in China series. The PCs would be fighting to keep their community safe from bandits, corrupt officials, extremely dangerous Westerners, Imperial loyalist fanatics whose schemes amount to poking the extremely dangerous Westerners with a stick, greedy smugglers selling priceless national treasures to the extremely rich extremely dangerous Westerners…. I'd do a gradual reveal some sort of Tim Powers struggle for supremacy in the World of Martial Arts of which only the Illuminated understand the importance. The big reveal might be that there are a few, a very few, unbelievably dangerous Westerners who actually do know about the prize, and plan to seize or destroy it, a loss to China worse even than if supremacy in the world of Tai Chi fell to an evil Taoist wizard.

A little while ago, in a context that I cannot for some reason recollect, the thought occurred to me of running this in the USA, with the Chinese, the Native Americans, the Voudun etc. contending for a mastery that the rich and heavily-armed whites didn't even know existed. Mostly.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Probably splits evenly between Chinese Kung-Fu films (especially older ones from the seventies and eighties) that influenced games like Feng Shui and Wushu, and Japanese Samurai films (especially Kurosawa's canon) that influenced games like Legend of the Five Rings. Of course there's the synthetic versions like D&D's Oriental Adventures.

A general skeleton of a scenario from those sources is bad martial artists (usually with supernatural and/or political power) oppress the innocents and good martial artists (the PCs) come to save them.

Hmm. I've never heard of Wushu; I've heard of Legend of the Five Rings but never looked at it; I borrowed a friend's copy of Feng Shui from a friend some years back, read it, and concluded that you could not pay me to run it or play it. I've seen both Chinese wuxia and Japanese chambara, but I'm not quite sure how I'd turn either into a game. Any thoughts?

Bill Stoddard

[Not another shrubbery]

Oh! I had forgotten the prospectus games. I'll play.

Originally Posted by whswhs

___ Eloi. Near future social science fiction. Run in GURPS. Source material: Transhuman Space and its supplements.

0 - TS (for gaming purposes) kind of bores me...

___ Fronteira. Science fiction noir. Run in GURPS.

1 - ...as does science fiction in general. The "noir" adjective makes this seem a bit more interesting.

___ Shadowlands. Postapocalyptic dark fantasy. Run in Big Eyes, Small Mouth or classic World of Darkness.

1 - Fantasy is more my thing, but I'm uncertain about this one. I associate dark fantasy with gothic fiction but maybe you mean something else.

___ Tapestry. Historical fantasy. Run in Big Eyes, Small Mouth or GURPS.
Set in a GM-defined fantasy world inhabited by a number of intelligent humanoid races, each with its own magical style, culture, and preferred habitat. Technology will be mainly bronze age; magical traditions will be largely spirit-based. Player characters can belong to any race, or can be of mixed ancestry, though hybrids are rare and often sterile. The point of departure will be one of the world’s first cities, from which player characters will go out on quests, which they should be competent and motivated to undertake. The main focus will be on exploration, encounters with other races and cultures, and magical traditions.

4 - It's got a Glorantha feel to it, like combatmedic seemed to sense. I'll always try a game that calls that setting to mind.

___ World Class. Superhero drama. Run in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. Source material: The Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man I–III, Thor.
Player characters will be original superheroes, perhaps the only ones in the world and certainly among the first to appear. Character concepts should be suitable for group or team efforts but need not preclude disagreement and character conflict; the ethical abstraction that a character embodies will be as important as their powers or skills. Players will have a substantial role in defining the campaign setting, by establishing supporting casts, because the sources of their special abilities will define the possibilities for other superbeings, and because their character concepts—which need not follow the traditional formula—will define what it means to be a “superhero” in this world. There will be a lot of action, but the campaign will also look at investigation, political and cultural influence, and interpersonal relationships.

4 - Sort of a prototypical supers game? That sounds interesting, and it is one of my favorite genres. Is the source material meant to evoke the atmosphere of the setting?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

4 - Sort of a prototypical supers game? That sounds interesting, and it is one of my favorite genres. Is the source material meant to evoke the atmosphere of the setting?

The key thing about the source material is that it's a world where there are only a handful of supers and a small number of origins. That's very different from American comics, which characteristically present "universes" crammed with supers with a wide range of origins. That's the key feature I want to port over.

Bill Stoddard

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Single sessions, or mini-scenarios, could be inspired by movies such as "Ronin" or "Sneakers". Or if you ignore the solo hero aspect, "Die Hard" or even "The Saint". Or various (other) heist movies. Most of that may be slightly less violent than what's good for GURPS Action, but GURPS Action is only a subset of "modern action".

By the way, Peter, I did specify what systems I thought of for each proposal. Do you have preferences among them? Just idly curious. . . .

Bill Stoddard

[whswhs]

Well, if I were doing this with you guys for real, and I were going to run one campaign, it would be Fronteira, the only one that all of you rate higher than 0. For two campaigns, the second would be World Class: it gets high scores from dcarson and shrubbery, the two who like Fronteira least, and one of Vicky and Frost could bring it up to three, leaving the other in Fronteira with combat medic and Roger.

Bill Stoddard

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by whswhs

___ Eloi. Near future social science fiction. Run in GURPS. Source material: Transhuman Space and its supplements.

2. A different kind of THS campaign would be interesting.

___ Fronteira. Science fiction noir. Run in GURPS.

1. Sounds playable, but not terribly attractive.

___ Shadowlands. Postapocalyptic dark fantasy. Run in Big Eyes, Small Mouth or classic World of Darkness.

1. "Postapocalypse" doesn't attract me the way it seems to for many people.

___ Tapestry. Historical fantasy. Run in Big Eyes, Small Mouth or GURPS.

6. This I like: different world and challenges, sensible reasons for doing things, a sense of accomplishment.

___ World Class. Superhero drama. Run in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

0. Classic superheroes don't work for me; heavily deconstructed ones might.

[SCAR]

I haven't played the prospectus game before, so here goes.

2___ Eloi. Near future social science fiction. Run in GURPS. Source material: Transhuman Space and its supplements.

While the starting point sounds interesting, I'm not entirely clear what this would involve, especially on a long term basis.


4___ Fronteira. Science fiction noir. Run in GURPS.

I like the down to 'earth' (mars) view of a science fiction setting.


0___ Shadowlands. Postapocalyptic dark fantasy. Run in Big Eyes, Small Mouth or classic World of Darkness.

This concept just doesn't appeal to me, and I'm not a fan of WoD either (BESM is cool).


4___ Tapestry. Historical fantasy. Run in Big Eyes, Small Mouth or GURPS.

I've done a fair bit of design work on a multi-racial spirit-fantasy setting, so the concept and setup are of particular interest.


0___ World Class. Superhero drama. Run in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. Source material: The Avengers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man I–III, Thor.

Four-Color Supers doesn't appeal to me as a game genre. I love the movies and I've played and run Exalted and Scion, which are essentially Fantasy-Supers and Mythic-Supers (where exactly I draw a distinction between Thor and Scion is a mystery to me, but there you go!)


As for other genres with long term scope - how about Police/Detective Investigation? Not necessarily contemporary.
They seem to be some of the longest running TV series outside of Soaps, often with multiple spin-offs; CSI, Law and Order, NCIS.