It’s been a while since I thought very long about role
playing. Although keeping up with my
group, I’ve been working full time and have been without the time for so much
day dreaming. Nevertheless, it always
provides me with my greatest, most original writing, so I should really
continue this commitment with more diligence.
Okay, so about the new inspiration. I’ve been on a Big Bang Theory kick recently,
and the thought has occurred to me that this program has so much of the
awesomeness both desired and absent modern roleplaying – flawed characters,
power tripping. Admit it! AD&D brings out the Sheldon in all of
us. But is there any way to bring these
concepts into greater alignment?
And so began the thought process of this new world. It looks a lot like our Blue Earth, but in
many important ways it resembles the fantasy worlds common to roleplaying. The following is a quick sketch, while I hope
to return to the concept tomorrow.
1) Streamlined
emphasis on Geekdom in the fantasy kingdom setting. This tends to recommend a technology level
where brains are favoured as much as or over brawn, such as Ancient Rome/China,
Modern America, or the Renaissance/Late Medieval Europe. It tends to decide against Early Medieval or
Dark Ages settings, and while funny, Conan-Age geeks would be quite impossible. Yes I’ve seen Year One featuring Jack Black and Michael Cera. Not for me, man.
2) With
an emphasis on Geekdom, the broader multiverse is something of a
distraction. Broader, and far older
discussions of Heaven and Hell persist in this world, themselves forms of Geek
obsession with faith, that is real, non magical powers faith, keeping the ideas
in play. There is no plane of shadows or
the hunt, no Chaotic Evil or Neutral Good planes. There’s the world. No one knows what happens after death, but people
talk of divine punishment and reward. And
then, there are the worlds of imagination…
3) Eberron
is a campaign setting that intrigues me.
Magic is used to make peoples’ lives easier. Magic already has a complex set of rules in
Open Source D20. Why not use it under
these terms. What I think is missing is
a “rarity” system, as not all spells are as commonly known. That’s just what I would add, and shouldn’t
contradict the D20 system at all.
4) I
need to think about the worlds of imagination and the vectors of
communication. This is “media.”
a. Consider
this: a troupe of performers can put on a play, so can an Illusionist, much
cheaper. But do you get the same
experience from both? The troupe of
performers can only be on one stage – they would need something else to
broadcast this performance to others.
Illusionists as created don’t fill this role, but I can see them being
remade to do so.
b. The
copy spell is a level 0 spell that replicates non magical writing
instantly. An army of Magewrights can do
this four times per day (equivalent of zero level sorcerers). Not quite that impressive, eh? What about a magical device with a level zero
copy spell in it. Now that could be
impressive.
c. Bards
can control sound, as can high level wizards.
Bards would be cheaper. Could
they distribute music? Sort out the
monetization, and the Bard class could be the most profitable around.
5) I
wanted this game to center on the player characters, who are human (or races
like as human) and geeks (obsessive characters with fictional worlds intruding
into their real lives). I believe that
this would create some complicated and hilarious role playing, so it should be
stated that I’m picturing a whimsical setting rather than a serious one – or a
setting where you make fun of serious players!
That’s always cool!
a. The
question becomes how to incent the players to obsess. The requirements I can anticipate are:
i. Cool
options for gaming, illusions, and social distractions.
ii. Open
rules accepting Science Fiction, within limits (consider who Jules Verne saw
Science Fiction; adopting a kind of Renaissance influenced MMO should be far
greater than just including an outlet for World of Warcraft).
iii. Every
fantasy has to have a publisher behind it.
This means rolling up NPC founders and visionaries to interact with and
be served restraining orders by.
iv. Loose
day jobs. Big Bang Theory takes the
University as its backdrop for much of its narrative, where the Geeks
(is boys more or less offensive, okay wait) where the Cast earns a stipend then
engages in all sort of Geek flavoured conflicts. That would be cool.
v. I
am on the fence about Dragons. If
Dragons exist in this world, they are well hidden and unlikely to serve and
Smog; that is to say unlikely to sit on treasure until you traipse in and kill
them for it. Other monsters and enemy
types should be explored to serve the same job, such as Pirates (arr, sunken
treasure), Pack Rats (follow the thief through urban dungeons until you can
reclaim your pocket watch, and the hoard it was keeping to itself in the
process), or others as I think of them.
So, yeah. This is the barebones of the setting. Much like Earth, limited technology, magic used in its place, faith and geekdom, obsession about fantasy dreams conveyed by fantasy media. That's what I've got so far. It needs more details, I know, but that's the awesomeness of doing this on the blog. I can spread this out over time and hopefully get more done, thinking through more of the problems that arise, than if I simply did it in a sitting. For now, I envision using D20 from the OGL, mainly for the magic system. But the fantasy universes, the types of conflicts and enemies, and the complications of binding this to a day job, all of these things promise to make this setting a world onto its own, and in my hope, much more real than the AD&D worlds that I've been adventuring in.
Once again, this has been a creativity exercise. Let me know if what I'm working on tickles your fancy at all. Until next time, True Believers!
Links in this document.
I’m
trying something new, where the links in the document lead you here, where all
of the links to places outside my blog are contained as a kind of stripped down
Works Cited. Trying to look
professional. Lemme know if it
works. Now, the links:
Year
One movie on the imdb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045778/
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