OK so I was watching Lexx, and reading the Butlerian Jihad, and thinking about Buck Rodgers, and I had this Idea. Well OK, its more of a proto-idea as of this moment, but here gos. I have attempted to design Role playing games in the past, and failed to complete them. Usually the design falls apart at the alpha testing phase. See I am basically antisocial and so it becomes difficult for me to approach people about games, let alone broach the subject of introducing a new game that probably has a great many problems. So my designs peter out at that point.
I have decided to design a new game. I will probably only take it to the alpha testing phase, but maybe someone will read this and be interested enough to want to test it, we'll see. The working title for this will be War In The Heavens. This is going to be a space opera. So on to the parts I am looking at copying/stealing/emulating. There are going to be both story elements and mechanics as at this point I am just brainstorming.
Buck Rodgers: I like the first season of the TV show. The earth is run bya robot council. They are not evil robots, I found that to be interesting. I also like the Han, evil space empire with giant attack ships and such. This gave the show a feel of rebellion against an opressive empire without having everything fall within the empire.
Lexx: I fell in love with the first season(by this I mean the four movies) and will probably use only this within the confines of the game. His Shadow is an evocative and dominating villain. It(he? She?) controls a massive empire that’s both grungy feeling and very advanced. I like the cool bio-tech and such. The whole setup in that first movie was amazing. In a few short scenes you get the feel for the way the entire cluster is run. Also undead assassins, that's all I'm sayin'. Think about it, zombie ninjas.
Dune: another setting that just feels awesome for gaming. Now I am talking about pre Paul here. After the first book everything changes. I really like the way the feudal system works in there as well as the CHOAM corporation. Also I like the reasons for the technology to be what it is. Never let a machine take the place of a man and all that. The weird eugenics programs and the mind powers and such are also going to be harvested for my game.
Fate 3.0: I love aspects and the fate point economy. I think I will end up doing something more akin to what John Wick did with them in houses of the blooded, make them more specialized. Also really like the variable refresh that occurs in the Dresden Files Roleplaying Game. This allows for growth of characters which I think is crucial to draw in certain types of gamers. Also it pushes forward the narrative arc which is also good.
Deathstalker: this book series by Simon Green is totally worth checking out, because it has a lot of things that I love in it. Truly alien aliens are a must. I like my aliens to have motives that are beyond anything humans can truly grasp. Decadent noble class serving at the whim of a power mad empress, oh yes I will have something like that. Ancient alien machinery that you cannot even study or you go mad is so Lovecraft that I have to put that in there.
D6 System, WoD, ORE: Dice pools, I love 'em. If they had legs I'd take 'em dancing. That's how well I get on with dice pools. While I love the ORE I am not onehundred percent certain this is the rout I want to take. I think I may be able to do more with a count successes modle. Maybe allow a you to move dice from accuracy to effect...or something. The short version is there will definitely be dice pools in my game.
OK, so there is my first brainstorming session, I will work on this and post more as I come up with new ideas and such. Though just looking it over right now I feel I am missing something...I know! Space Dwarves! OK seriously I will have to think on this a bit. I am going to try and split these posts up into rules posts and fluff posts, but we'll see how it goes.
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