Missed Settings
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I helped run a Zombie game awhile back because it really was a dream setting of mine. The reality was the constant threat of ZOMBIES EAT U combined with a lack of meaningful systems for resource gathering kinda made the whole thing get old rather quickly? Like, either you are fighting zombies, or you’re running from zombies, or you’re talking about how scared you are because you just fought / are going to fight zombies, and it’s just a rinse & repeat.
That’s the issue with a lot of themes, IMO. The setting seems cool, but there’s just nothing to do.
My missed setting? Cowboys.
It’s never going to happen. -
@bear_necessities I remember seeing one and wanting to join it and of course procrastinating too long.
I think that’d be a setting where factions could be great and fun – if it goes like The Walking Dead, and there’s these various small groups who’ve worked out different methods of survival and they merge or break apart as RP goes. But there would be a lot of wall-building and gardening type stuff.
Most zombie stories are set with the apocalypse very recent, so there’s probably not a big problem with resource scarcity, resources are dangerous to get but not scarce.
A Mad Max sort of setting with finding water and fuel being the big deal could be fun.
Cowboys? Do you mean a western? There’s one going.
"This is Liberty Hall; you can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard!"
– A. Bertram Chandler -
@bear_necessities I loved when The Network did their cowboy thing. It was so much fun!
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Would a zombie game discussion go in Game Gab or Helping Hands?
Or I guess even Rough & Rowdy. -
There was that Legally Distinct Not-Really Zombies game set in Canada where people got infested with worms instead of your usual virus and/or Last of Us Fungus. But it was tricksy.
Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
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Not sure if “Weird West” cowboys hit the same spot, but Deadlands could be pretty cool.
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Valdemar.
Valdemar is really made for MU*s. You’ve got several different kinds of magic powers, Heralds are canonically pretty promiscuous, there’s light lords-n-ladies action, with familiars and Companions and bondbirds you get all the special magical animal friends you can stand, and it can be as adventurous as you want, depending on when in the timeline you set it.
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@somasatori said in Missed Settings:
The same as above, but leveraged towards The Strange and some other Monte Cook projects as well. Even stripping away the Cypher system altogether, things like The Strange or Old Gods of Appalachia seem like they’d be great MUSH fodder and you could probably do OGoA with something like FS3 given that the main characters are rarely supernatural themselves. Some of those other radio play style podcasts would be cool as well: the White Vault, Magnus Archives (also a Monte Cook project), and so on.
I was, at one point, actually actively working on an Old Gods of Appalachia game with the full intention of using FS3 and then stealing some of the inspiration available to me in the OGoA game system. (There is a published one. I backed it on Kickstarter awhile ago.)
My plan was to set it in a mining town to allow us to both mix the eldritch horrors aspect along with some of the politics of the labor movement so players could contrast the ancient horrors beneath the earth with just, y’know, people? Kind of the way 28 Days Later has zombies but those soldiers are also just as scary and threatening?
The thing is, the first person that I brought the idea to was like, “But what about the racism, Aria?!” and I was like, “Well, if I’m asking players to imagine a world in which the bones of the earth are full of unknowable monstrosities older than mankind itself, maybe even older than the world itself, I’m pretty sure I can ask them to imagine a world that’s just not inherently shitty to people of color.” And they were like, “But people will be confused without the racism because of historical accuracy.” And then I pointed out a whoooooooole bunch of examples of coal miners in Appalachia banding together across racial lines and they were still like “BUT PEOPLE. HISTORICAL ACCURACY.” and I took that to mean “BUT THE RACISM.”
And then I decided that if I couldn’t persuade one single person that we could probably just, y’know, not include 1920s style racism and generally be fine, with less people being offended by the erasure of it than the allowance of it, this was actually a terrible idea and promptly gave up.
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Bujold’s Vorkosigan books, but mostly that’s a surprise to me because @Tat and I looked at doing it but never really got it rolling.
I’m tagging you everywhere today, Tat. Sorry.
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I kinda loved that Zombie one, though.
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Moved some posts before Ashkuri kills me
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@Tez YEAH YOU BETTER
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T Tez referenced this topic
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@Solstice said in Missed Settings:
…Cosmere…
I’ve actually just received the Stormlight material from the Cosmere RPG Kickstarter! Very excited to dig into it.
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@Aria said in Missed Settings:
My plan was to set it in a mining town to allow us to both mix the eldritch horrors aspect along with some of the politics of the labor movement so players could contrast the ancient horrors beneath the earth with just, y’know, people?
I know what you meant here, but my mind immediately went to noting that Rusty’s Rules are definitely horrific enough to carry a game.
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@bear_necessities Crap, I lied. It’s ‘Dry Gulch’ on Ares, but it’s listed as ‘In Development’ and has been for quite a while.
Really, Westerns seem like a very easy setting to run. It’s weird that there are not more of them. And now I’m tempted to make one just 'cause.
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@Gashlycrumb said in Missed Settings:
Really, Westerns seem like a very easy setting to run. It’s weird that there are not more of them. And now I’m tempted to make one just 'cause.
DO IT I DARE YOU.
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@bear_necessities Hehe! Where do you want it set?
"This is Liberty Hall; you can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard!"
– A. Bertram Chandler -
@Gashlycrumb said in Missed Settings:
@bear_necessities Hehe! Where do you want it set?
In the WoD. As a joke. (Unless…?)
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@Gashlycrumb every time I set out to do something in the Western world, I either go Wyoming or Colorado.
