I'm having a hard time picturing the alternate history where killing Nazis in WwII is weird.I am pretty sure you can make killing Nazis weird with the right alternate world background. And you can give them ridiculous outfits. Wait... I don't think they would qualify as Nazis without Hugo Boss uniforms.You're right, it isn't weird or ridiculous at all actually ;)For a long time I kind of wanted a ridiculously cathartic historical WWII FPS where you go kill members of the NSDAP as a character you create yourself, but now I realize that it might work out well as a tabletop game, possibly even better as it can have more depth.
Pathfinder or d20 wouldn't be the right systems for it, though. Gurps maybe? Possibly?
Wait, killing Nazis is a weird or rediculous campaign element now?
Three of my last four games have been about killing Nazis. Including my Stargate SG-1 game.
Nazis are pretty much the only "safe" bad guys left.
Easy, make them the good guys. The Jews are actually mind controlling lizard people. The Nazis are just trying to save the world, but nobody else believes them, so they have to conquer the world to save it. The snazzy Nazi uniforms are the only way to resist the mind control.
^Please do not take this as a serious belief.
I am pretty sure you can make killing Nazis weird with the right alternate world background. And you can give them ridiculous outfits. Wait... I don't think they would qualify as Nazis without Hugo Boss uniforms.You're right, it isn't weird or ridiculous at all actually ;)For a long time I kind of wanted a ridiculously cathartic historical WWII FPS where you go kill members of the NSDAP as a character you create yourself, but now I realize that it might work out well as a tabletop game, possibly even better as it can have more depth.
Pathfinder or d20 wouldn't be the right systems for it, though. Gurps maybe? Possibly?
Wait, killing Nazis is a weird or rediculous campaign element now?
Three of my last four games have been about killing Nazis. Including my Stargate SG-1 game.
Nazis are pretty much the only "safe" bad guys left.
well most national socialists these days don't have any hugo boss uniforms, i imagine they would be kind of on the expensive side.
Although I did encounter this one tool who owned a stahlhelm with 'SS' on it.
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One where adventurers and magic and all that nonsense is simply a part of life, and laws and such have accounted for (although mostly distrusted) it's position in society.
"Delvers, eh? Well, the Brickabrack Stipulates, well...stipulate that if you clear out this old crypt, you get everything you can find. Considering we saw several wights in the region, that means you're eligible for..."
or
"Y'all are delvers? Damn, lost my cousin to a group of you mad bastards a while back. Get out of my shop, and if I see you so much as LOOK at any of the children of this town, I'll kill you with my own bare hands, I will!"
One where adventurers and magic and all that nonsense is simply a part of life, and laws and such have accounted for (although mostly distrusted) it's position in society.
"Delvers, eh? Well, the Brickabrack Stipulates, well...stipulate that if you clear out this old crypt, you get everything you can find. Considering we saw several wights in the region, that means you're eligible for..."
or
"Y'all are delvers? Damn, lost my cousin to a group of you mad bastards a while back. Get out of my shop, and if I see you so much as LOOK at any of the children of this town, I'll kill you with my own bare hands, I will!"
There's a few stories around that have this as a theme. Two that spring to mind immediately are Yahtzee Croshaw's Mogworld, and the new anime Overlord.
Interestingly, both are based around MMOs (though the NPCs are sentient in both, so it's more like a real fantasy world with the game as a framing device).
I'd recommend both, the latter more than the former.
I am pretty sure you can make killing Nazis weird with the right alternate world background. And you can give them ridiculous outfits. Wait... I don't think they would qualify as Nazis without Hugo Boss uniforms.You're right, it isn't weird or ridiculous at all actually ;)For a long time I kind of wanted a ridiculously cathartic historical WWII FPS where you go kill members of the NSDAP as a character you create yourself, but now I realize that it might work out well as a tabletop game, possibly even better as it can have more depth.
Pathfinder or d20 wouldn't be the right systems for it, though. Gurps maybe? Possibly?
Wait, killing Nazis is a weird or rediculous campaign element now?
Three of my last four games have been about killing Nazis. Including my Stargate SG-1 game.
Nazis are pretty much the only "safe" bad guys left.
well most national socialists these days don't have any hugo boss uniforms, i imagine they would be kind of on the expensive side.
Although I did encounter this one tool who owned a stahlhelm with 'SS' on it.
The grandfather of a friend of mine in high-school had one of those he brought back from the European theater as a trophy.
I don't think that's what you mean though.
yep, I'm afraid not. The guy identified as a "green national socialist" and he studied and sincerely believed in the ideas of mussolini. Not to mention that he was extremely, incredibly, disgustingly, mindbogglingly racist. But that comes with the territory.
I learned a lot about what goes on in the minds of modern nazis from reading his blog. The one selfie he took was in that stahlhelm, with his face covered.
Dude is just a year older than I am. And it's not like he had fascist parents either. He actually said his parents were "liberals" (his words) and that he used to be "liberal" himself and something of a "social justice warrior" before he decided it was all stupid. And he wasn't the only one with that sort of background, I encountered others.
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Some people go and join Islamic State. It's people like that that fuel the theory that evil is a type of madness. It's not that easy, because evil is just as rare among people with mental problems.
It's more likely that some part of their life is horrible to them and they found a scapegoat.
Back on topic, you could play a modern game where the characters found out extra dimensional aliens are bombarding the world with mind control rays that make humans turn against each other. This weakens us against their coming invasion. For extra fun, they are responsible for the persecution of wizards because they are vulnerable to magic. Hybrid spies are -4 to saves vs spells. Their aberration masters are subject to banisment.
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Someone on twitter posted,"Is there a game where you run away or talk your way out of everything?" :)
stupid campaign idea: a party of level 1 commoners.
another stupid campaign idea: characters with randomized starting conditions: roll 3d6 stats in order, no rerolling. roll for race. Choose your class and build your character around the randomized stats and race, good luck.
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I have a table for random race and class, that's how I ended up with a Dwarven Oracle, one of my favorite characters. :-)
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Someone on twitter posted,"Is there a game where you run away or talk your way out of everything?" :)
Planescape Torment
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another stupid campaign idea: characters with randomized starting conditions: roll 3d6 stats in order, no rerolling. roll for race. Choose your class and build your character around the randomized stats and race, good luck.
I have a table for random race and class, that's how I ended up with a Dwarven Oracle, one of my favorite characters. :-)
I set up a random race and class table, too, and have generated several characters using it and Paizo's background generator when I need creative stimulation. It's actually a fun exercise. :)
I don't usually include stats in that, though - I tend to create interesting characters and stories first in order to have an arsenal at hand, then build them later depending on the parameters of what I'm using them for. The couple of times I've rolled stats first have been fun as well, though, although I haven't rolled in order for a character yet. Maybe that'll be my next challenge. >:)
Someone on twitter posted,"Is there a game where you run away or talk your way out of everything?" :)Planescape Torment
There's still about four compulsory fights in the game. :p
stupid campaign idea: a party of level 1 commoners.
Been thinking of trying that one myself. Having folks "earn" their calling as they gained levels. Start as NPC classes but gain PC class levels around 4th level or so.
Assuming that they survived, of course ;)
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Ok, so I had this dream once, where I was going to run a d20 future campaign, that after a few sessions involved time travel, where you then multiclassed into pathfinder fantasy characters in the pre-tech society, that could loosely be described as renaissance-era Europe at war. It was amazing.
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I've been tinkering with an all Anthropomorphic Animal setting called Fablewood. But as I tinker questions start building in my head. If animals are anthropomorphic then what do they use for beasts of burden, animal companions and familiars.
My first thought was Dinosaurs, but then I realised Anthropomorphic Dinosaurs would make for awesome stand ins for Giants. Then I thought bugs, but dammit if I wouldn't want to use Dromites for ant people. I really don't want to have to make up a bunch of animals to fill out the ecology (aside from not wanting to force players into learning all new names for beasts filling basic ecological niches, I don't really want to do a bunch of unnecessary stat-blocks).
It's a conundrum, and the only solution I guess is that there are unawakened versions of animals that exist. Like distant cousins, the way humans see other apes as distant relatives of our own species. I'm not 100% happy with this solution, but it's all I got.
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It's a conundrum, and the only solution I guess is that there are unawakened versions of animals that exist. Like distant cousins, the way humans see other apes as distant relatives of our own species. I'm not 100% happy with this solution, but it's all I got.There are no "unawakened animals" and everyone is a vegetarian while all transporation is people-powered. This is the solution used in Kung Fu Panda. It's probably still not what you want, but I thought I'd mention it.
I can't help but think something cool is lost when you make a tiger-person a vegetarian.
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I can't help but think something cool is lost when you make a tiger-person a vegetarian.It's a conundrum, and the only solution I guess is that there are unawakened versions of animals that exist. Like distant cousins, the way humans see other apes as distant relatives of our own species. I'm not 100% happy with this solution, but it's all I got.There are no "unawakened animals" and everyone is a vegetarian while all transporation is people-powered. This is the solution used in Kung Fu Panda. It's probably still not what you want, but I thought I'd mention it.
It's true. We herbivores are decidedly uncool. With my rugged beard and broad shoulders, I'm amazingly masculine, but it all falls apart at the seams when I order the steamed tofu with Jasmine rice in brown sauce. Instant dorkitude. I was 40% cooler back when it was curry goat.
But what if the vegetarian tiger people get their first taste of blood:-)
Fish?
Fish?
That's what they did in Madagascar.
In Disney cartoons, some dogs are people(like Goofy) while some are pets(like Pluto).
I can't help but think something cool is lost when you make a tiger-person a vegetarian.It's a conundrum, and the only solution I guess is that there are unawakened versions of animals that exist. Like distant cousins, the way humans see other apes as distant relatives of our own species. I'm not 100% happy with this solution, but it's all I got.There are no "unawakened animals" and everyone is a vegetarian while all transporation is people-powered. This is the solution used in Kung Fu Panda. It's probably still not what you want, but I thought I'd mention it.
cats are obligate carnivores. how would that work?
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Fish?In Disney cartoons, some dogs are people(like Goofy) while some are pets(like Pluto).
This has always bothered me.
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Why not have creatures of the Plant type as beasts of burden? Shambling Mounds as waste disposal for example.
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My friends and I are running multiple Paizo APs in a shared universe via PbP at the moment. When a decent number of them are finished, I'd like to write an adventure in which someone screwed with time, prevented the PCs from completing the APs, and has caused utter dystopia. Then a friendly NPC (who I've already got planned out, the kid of two of the characters in Jade Regent) also uses time travel to reach back and pull heroes into the present. Every player picks a character from a completed AP, gets to rebuild a little bit (since they'd be scaled back in levels from the end of the campaign and I don't expect everyone to remember everything perfectly), and then they fix the world.
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Fish?That's what they did in Madagascar.
In Disney cartoons, some dogs are people(like Goofy) while some are pets(like Pluto).
For those of you who can't see the page to which I linked (because it's blocked at your place of work, for example,) here are the key quotes:
FISH: Help! Help! Cannibals! How come you fryin' me? Fishes is animals too!
OWL: That's true! But it gettin' harder to catch human-beings all the time!
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Sliders in Golarion
Started a thread on it here to get some advice on trying it.
The basic idea is that the players end up traveling from one reality to the next, usually staying in the same general area. There's a meta-plot dealing with a race that is invading multiple realities and the party needs to find the means to stop them while also trying to get home.
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Hah, you said sliders and I thought mini hamburgers...
About the carnivore/anthropomorphic thing, the easy way out is just to not mention it, and either hope nobody notices or come up with a joke response; like when the cow waiter says "actually, I never thought of where these steaks come from." And of course the characters don't know either.
Or make it into a distopian horror plot hook.
SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE OF SHEEPLE!
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One of the first free-form games I ran (about five years before the show Sliderscame out) was based around the premise of a bunch of Navy vets getting together a few years after they were all done serving for a reunion and suddenly getting swept along in a battered old Volkswagen van-bus with the device used to transit realities being a Braun shaver.
Yes. A Braun shaver with 'normal' batteries. And if players got tired of a given spot, they could indicate their desire to 'change the channel' by turning it on.
And then the rest of the adventure was them cleaning up the messes that they didn't know they'd started on their inter-dimensional tour. The only skills they had available were related to their work and any reasonable extrapolation of those work skills.
No magic, no super-powers, just four guys trying to keep all of reality unweaving because when they first went at it, they were like imitation Captain Kirks spilling beer on the controls. (Thanks to Tom Smith for that catchy line!)
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2. "The Banzai Institute," also utilizing Savage Worlds. Again, PCs play characters in modern day America, with the only background requirement that they all work at the Banzai Institute in New Jersey. They are brought into a closed door meeting with Toichi Hikita, who informs them that the upper brass at the Institute have gone missing - Buckaroo himself, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, all of them. They've been reassigned to try to track down what happened to the Cavs. They have some leads across America, dealing with strange tech advances and quasi-scientific research that Buckaroo was investigating, but nothing solid.
Love this idea.
-- BBI Patch, Blue Blaze Irregular, Cascade Rangers unit---------------------------------------------------------------
I downloaded Occult Adventures last week, and now I want to play in a campaign using only those classes for magic-users. The other classes would be the non-caster classes from the Advanced Class Guide. Races would be everything non-standard: nagaji, grippli, catfolk, wayangs, vishkanya, vanara, etc. No elves, dwarves, humans, orcs, halflings, or gnomes.
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For Hell's Rebels we have a Elven Medium, Elven Mesmerist, Human Pyrokineticist and Sylph Aerokineticist.
Honestly it's going to be f~#*ing epic :-)
A cyberpunk Person Of Interest. So the PCs would be a team of detectives on the Future Crimes Division, and they'd get a few vague details on what was going to happen, and have to figure out the rest before the crime is actually committed.
Sounds interesting, I say as I watch season 2 of Person of Interest on Netflix as I type this.
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stupid campaign idea: a party of level 1 commoners.Been thinking of trying that one myself. Having folks "earn" their calling as they gained levels. Start as NPC classes but gain PC class levels around 4th level or so.
Assuming that they survived, of course ;)
I've often wanted to run a game where a bunch of nobodies find a collection of powerful artifacts and it's up to them to deliver the artifacts to the actual heroes. Their only assets are their basic NPC class abilities and the artifacts themselves.
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I've often wanted to run a game where a bunch of nobodies find a collection of powerful artifacts and it's up to them to deliver the artifacts to the actual heroes. Their only assets are their basic NPC class abilities and the artifacts themselves.stupid campaign idea: a party of level 1 commoners.Been thinking of trying that one myself. Having folks "earn" their calling as they gained levels. Start as NPC classes but gain PC class levels around 4th level or so.
Assuming that they survived, of course ;)
So there is a game concept for that girlfriend who wants to play an ordinary baker. It would be fun if you had 5 pony OCs trying to bring lost parts of friendship to Ponyville. The symbol of unconditional optimism would be meant for Derpy.
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A cyberpunk Person Of Interest. So the PCs would be a team of detectives on the Future Crimes Division, and they'd get a few vague details on what was going to happen, and have to figure out the rest before the crime is actually committed.Sounds interesting, I say as I watch season 2 of Person of Interest on Netflix as I type this.
I haven't watched a single episode, but I like the premise.
I've often wanted to run a game where a bunch of nobodies find a collection of powerful artifacts and it's up to them to deliver the artifacts to the actual heroes. Their only assets are their basic NPC class abilities and the artifacts themselves.
That sounds somewhat similar to the plot of Alan Garner's novel, Elidor.
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I said it earlier upthread, but I've been working on a Fallout conversion for Savage Worlds.
I have a friend who's getting excited and really wants to play it, but we have no other players.
...I just finished statting Cazadores. I may be making these things a bit too powerful. Cazadore poison gives fatigue if you fail a vigor roll any time they shake or wound you. That can lead to death really fast if there's more than one nearby. Just like in the game!
The rules for weapon degradation and repair took a while to think up, but I think I jury rigged something sufficiently quick and dirty for the spirit of SW.
The hard part will be making unique creatures for Florida wasteland. I can make the Cazadores a mosquito variant instead of wasps, have the poison be blood drain, and Deathclaws are pretty much universal, but...
Well, I have an idea for a monster gator in the Everglades. Like behemoth size, with scales so thick its pocketed with slugs that never pierced the skin, and even Deathclaws steer clear of the swamp.
And yes, of course there are hillbilly ghouls.
I f~+!ing hate Hillbilly ghouls! Motherf&$@ers be everywhere down there!
I've often wanted to run a game where a bunch of nobodies find a collection of powerful artifacts and it's up to them to deliver the artifacts to the actual heroes. Their only assets are their basic NPC class abilities and the artifacts themselves.That sounds somewhat similar to the plot of Alan Garner's novel, Elidor.
It's basically the plot of a number of animated kids' shows from the 90s, too. Also: Lord of the Rings. :P
A friend and I have the idea of playing something using stuff from the "Tales of" franchise (stuff like the spells, abilities, items, monsters, spirits, etc.), but it seems like a nearly impossible task to adapt the Artes into a tabletop game without both bringing combats to a grinding halt while martials decide on what to use or calculate the effects and also straying out of our experience with tabletops.
The thing is, the franchise seems like it would be perfect for making different campaigns and settings for, as all but a few of the games are self-contained with their own worlds and having no relation to others besides the overall themes of the franchise and the aforementioned "stuff" (kind of like how Final Fantasy does it, but I've heard that more of those are related to each other than it would initially seem, whereas Tales of makes it impossible for most of them, especially when some or most games' settings have completely different metaphysics than others; I'm not joking: for example, Tales of the Abyss is largely based around the application and effects of the quantum physics of its setting, Auldrant).