Assuming you could get the rights to design an RPG based on any existing property you wanted, which one would you pick? And why? Would it be a 'genre property' (fantasy, sci-fi), or something unusual (a soap opera, a Pink Floyd album, the Bible)?

Would you have to make new setting material from whole cloth, or has the creator of the original property already taken care of that for you? Would you leave the setting as it is, or would you have to change a lot of things to make it accessible for gamers to set adventures there?

Would you create your own system, or convert it to one you like (D20, Hero, GURPS, etc.; assume you can get that license, too)? If you designed your own engine, what would be your priorities, design-wise? Simulation, genre emulation, avant-garde experimentation, or something else? Would the type of people who enjoy the property influence your system design/selection? If so, how?

Would you market your licensed game only to fans of the property, or would you try to expand beyond that base to convert new fans?

Who are the major NPCs you'd have to stat up, and how would you do it? Would you suggest them as PCs, strictly background NPCs, or something in between? Or would you excise them entirely?

Oh, and what would you call it? Would you keep the original property's name, or come up with something new?

Quote from: laffingboyAssuming you could get the rights to design an RPG based on any existing property you wanted, which one would you pick? And why?

CJ Cherryh's Alliance/Union/Compact Space, because it rocks my world and fits my system to a "T."

-clash

I'd redo Books of The New Sun. Doubt there be a system. Just essays on the kind of rpg stuff I think gamers could do, with the source material.

Regards,
David R

Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson and its sequel Operation Luna...

In fact the first game I ever tried to write was inspired by the original work (Chaos), and similar "Modern day world but with magic instead of technology" type stories.

Amber.

Or Dr.Who.

Or Rome (either the HBO series, or Roman history in general, though I know the latter is not a "license" as such).

Or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

RPGPundit

Oh yeah, and the Legion of Superheros.

RPGPundit

Pundit: Rome HBO? That's kind of a crazy-intriguing idea!

Myself, I'm aiming straight for the obvious and would love to do:

Middle Earth

The Matrix (just give me the first movie and Animatrix)

The Incredibles

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I know I could never do it justice.  I'd also like to do something that encapsulated the feel of the Victorian British Empire in the works of Kipling to the more irreverant (but amazingly well-researched Flashman books of George MacDonald Fraser) without getting too silly.

QuoteWould you have to make new setting material from whole cloth, or has the creator of the original property already taken care of that for you? Would you leave the setting as it is, or would you have to change a lot of things to make it accessible for gamers to set adventures there?

I'm a BIG fan of a song of ice and fire, so I'll take it as an example to propose my point of view of the current "adaptation" thread, as this is done today. This serie of novels has already been adaptated, but what do I get ?

In one corner, I have excellent books with a great setting and plots. Can I use it directly into play ? Not really, since it hasn't been written for the rpg.
In the other corner, I have an "adaptation" : a BIG book, with a lot of useless information and very, very boring to read. And absence of plots there. Can you use this for play ? Well, I suppose so, but still, I have no plot. I'll have to refer to the novels for that !!! And then again, if I enjoy the novels, do I really need a lot of details about economic structure and small towns to play in this setting ? I don't really need them.

So, here's what I would propose if I had the rights to "adapt" it :
- Remove half, if not two third, of the novels, leaving all the details aside, going straight to what happens where and when. Each chapter would come to one or two pages long. You want the details ? Go read the book !!!
- Add in the same straight format all events occuring into the world that you don't have in the books (what's happening in Dorne or with the Greyjoy at the beginning of the first book).
- Make extract of the novels of everything that allows the description of an element related to the plots (main characters, cities, cultures ...) : that's your setting per se.
- Illustrate all of it (chapters and elements involved in the plots)

I think THAT would be useful for play. :pundit:
Now, about systems ? I would leave it somehow "open", by putting more than one to describe the characters/generic members of organizations.

QuoteWho are the major NPCs you'd have to stat up, and how would you do it? Would you suggest them as PCs, strictly background NPCs, or something in between? Or would you excise them entirely?

That would be up to the people who play it. But I would stat out main characters and generic member of organization/culture.

Beside that, Rome (from HBO) would be nice to do too. And BattleStar Galactica.

Riverworld

I would take Discworld off the GURPS system, and make it heavy into storytelling, with the only dice rolls pertaining to topics of pure abstract luck.

Shadowmarch by Tad Williams. With the Dangerous Journeys system of course. But, focusing on the world of the books, and not the events.

So much to choose from here.

I think I need to think on this for a while.

Dr. Who I would like to do.  Perhaps using the Troupe style play that was talked about in Ars Magica and an early issue of White Wolf magazine.  

Neuromancer along with a few other William Gibson novels.  Cyberpunk has always been in my heart.

and finally with the cyberpunk still strong in me...

Max Headroom: Twenty Minutes Into The Future.  Perhaps one of the best television shows to come out of the eighties.  To bad it died an early death from bad time slot placement.

Abhorsen.