Has something been done about modern-day piracy? RPGwise?

Quote from: BalbinusHow so?  What went wrong?

I could not inject enough escapism to counter the bleakness of the setting. Players need to see some results for all their efforts. Maybe I was pushing the verisimilitude pedal a tad too much but the reality of what these folks do and the realpolitik of the situation did not leave me much room to manoeuvre.

The rules aspect was okay...as usual I was using a watered down version of GURPs, but this setting just didn't take with my players. It's strange there was more action with this attempt than in my current OtE campaign, but like I said, my players (all players maybe) want to feel as though they are making a difference in the "game world" and this normally translates to "seeing" some results because of their actions.

Regards,
David R

Not to threadcrap, but the idea of playing a sports, business, or commercial fishing RPG bores me to tears. So maybe a lot of people feel the same way, ergo these have never been published. Just sayin'.

Now a Hussade game OTOH...I'm in! I want the computer game though, complete with a Shierl gallery...

TheShadow

Balbinus,

There´s a big problem with unorthodox tropes: lack of a library of generally known situational building blocks.

D&D did that for Fantasy-themed games. The list and interaction of monsters (which are really factions of conflict oftentimes), magic items, spells and class abilities and traps are the building blocks for challenges and conflicts lots of people have digested in one form or the other.
Same with combat oriented games.

Good games provide their own building blocks for new topoi: The matrix/cyberspace stuff is now just as common as the D&D building blocks.

So, new games need new building blocks. At least there must be one game that codifies these building blocks, and make them popular and easy to extrapolate from. And to enable creative derivatism (look at all the fantasy rpgs that do stuff just a little different than D&D).

If nobody creates a set of building blocks to get us all started, it´ll not happen.

The great difficulty lies in the fact, that there´s a pitfall of making these building blocks too much like the D&D baseline building blocks: again, most cyberspaces are really dungeons in neon-drags.

There are gaming-niches, where the user himself provides the building blocks.

Crime stories (plethora of examples in popular media to derive your stuff from)
Historical Gaming ("Venice tries to sabotage The Knights privateering efforts via shamusing them to the Ottoman Empire")

For example.
But to break new grounds, an enlightened effort would have to be made to create and codify that stuff, so that users would have something and someplace to go with it.

The rescue genre could be expansive. I'd like to have sort of a Thunderbirds rpg, with big rescue mechs. I get tired of mechs just hammering at each other. I like when they have other jobs. When we play Victorian steambots, I insist mechs have some industrial application. Then, if they need to fight, they have an interesting tactic of employing non-weapon gear for defense.

Quote from: The_ShadowNot to threadcrap, but the idea of playing a sports, business, or commercial fishing RPG bores me to tears.

Likewise.  I think you can have interesting stories about those types of protagonists in those types of worlds, but...

...I don't wanna tell them at a table.

That's not to say that it's a bad idea; just one that won't get my game dollar.  I don't spend a penny on rap music, either, and look how freaking popular that is...

Quote from: The_ShadowNot to threadcrap, but the idea of playing a sports, business, or commercial fishing RPG bores me to tears. So maybe a lot of people feel the same way, ergo these have never been published. Just sayin'.

Now a Hussade game OTOH...I'm in! I want the computer game though, complete with a Shierl gallery...

TheShadow

Awesome! Hussade is the sport of the future!

Where are we going to find virgins for Shierls, though? :O

-clash

Quote from: lukeNeat ideas.

Is there a game out there in which you play contemporary police? No magic, no aliens? I'd love to play a game about the thin blue line.

-L

Gurps 3e has a supplement called Cops which is actually pretty good and also has Swat supplements and the like.  Gurps 3e of course is by its nature pretty good at low key gritty stuff so it's a natural fit.

Otherwise, there is an old semi-rpg called something like Police Story or Crime Story but I've never seen a copy.

Frankly, I'm surprised the indie community hasn't addressed it, that approach isn't quite my bag but there's a lot of really meaty thematic stuff in there about loyalty, partnership and what you're willing to compromise to keep order and when you cross from being part of the solution to maybe part of the problem.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Likewise.  I think you can have interesting stories about those types of protagonists in those types of worlds, but...

...I don't wanna tell them at a table.

That's not to say that it's a bad idea; just one that won't get my game dollar.  I don't spend a penny on rap music, either, and look how freaking popular that is...

Hey, I don't think it would ever appeal to everyone, professional sports rpgs don't appeal to me in the slightest but they were way popular in the thread that sparked this idea for me.

Thing is though, I don't get mecha, I just don't see the attraction.  Same for furrys, it just doesn't interest me.

But it's a big gaming world and you know, diversity is cool and all.  Which I know you know, but for the lurkers it seemed worth saying (won't somebody think of the lurkers?).

My utter lack of interest in mecha games don't make mecha games a bad thing, some other guy's lack of interest in rescue operation rpgs don't make them bad neither.

Quote from: SettembriniBalbinus,

There´s a big problem with unorthodox tropes: lack of a library of generally known situational building blocks.

D&D did that for Fantasy-themed games. The list and interaction of monsters (which are really factions of conflict oftentimes), magic items, spells and class abilities and traps are the building blocks for challenges and conflicts lots of people have digested in one form or the other.
Same with combat oriented games.

Good games provide their own building blocks for new topoi: The matrix/cyberspace stuff is now just as common as the D&D building blocks.

So, new games need new building blocks. At least there must be one game that codifies these building blocks, and make them popular and easy to extrapolate from. And to enable creative derivatism (look at all the fantasy rpgs that do stuff just a little different than D&D).

If nobody creates a set of building blocks to get us all started, it´ll not happen.

The great difficulty lies in the fact, that there´s a pitfall of making these building blocks too much like the D&D baseline building blocks: again, most cyberspaces are really dungeons in neon-drags.

There are gaming-niches, where the user himself provides the building blocks.

Crime stories (plethora of examples in popular media to derive your stuff from)
Historical Gaming ("Venice tries to sabotage The Knights privateering efforts via shamusing them to the Ottoman Empire")

For example.
But to break new grounds, an enlightened effort would have to be made to create and codify that stuff, so that users would have something and someplace to go with it.

I think this is absolutely right, and I think the difficulty is part of why it hasn't happened.  Making a game like DnD, whether you make it a fantasy game or an sf game or whatever, is easy in part because DnD gives you some fundamental conceptual building blocks.  That is in part why most rpgs are fundamentally like DnD (that and that the basic concepts of DnD are fun concepts that we know work).

But a thing being hard don't make it a thing that can't be done, and I think there are cool adventures in this stuff.  I, like most, just need a bit of help with a game that's set up to help me do so.

By the way, topoi, I don't know that word.  What's it mean?

I'm gonna de-lurk for a second just to chuck this idea at you, Balbinus.

A little while on rpg.net there was a discussion of - I think - a skateboarding rpg, with various levels of enthusiasm. I didn't think it was a great idea* but it made me a think about a sports rpg, and then I thought of the perfect modeL: En Garde. Regiments become teams, you have the "seasons" mechanic built in, and it's all about reaping in money and WAGs. Maybe you need to throw in a sponsorship mechanic somewhere.

Anyway, just wanted to mention that idea I had as it seemed particularly relevant to this thread and to you.

Ned

* My main objection was "just buy a fucking skateboard" but I think that was refuted in interesting ways and my anti-skateboard rpg stance really just amounts to "LAME!" Not an especially convincing position.

Quote from: BalbinusFrankly, I'm surprised the indie community hasn't addressed it

Some things in this line have appeared. There's Contenders, which deals with boxing, and carry, which is about ordinary soldiers in Vietnam. I guess you're just going to have to wait for the designer who has a thing about cops.

Quote from: droog...just going to have to wait for the designer who has a thing about cops.

I'm not sure what worries me more, that you didn't intend a massive double entendre which means that I have an appallingly dirty mind or that you did mean it which just means we both have massively dirty minds.

Just assume the worst; it saves time.

Quote from: Ned the Lonely DonkeyI'm gonna de-lurk for a second just to chuck this idea at you, Balbinus.

A little while on rpg.net there was a discussion of - I think - a skateboarding rpg, with various levels of enthusiasm. I didn't think it was a great idea* but it made me a think about a sports rpg, and then I thought of the perfect modeL: En Garde. Regiments become teams, you have the "seasons" mechanic built in, and it's all about reaping in money and WAGs. Maybe you need to throw in a sponsorship mechanic somewhere.

Anyway, just wanted to mention that idea I had as it seemed particularly relevant to this thread and to you.

Ned

* My main objection was "just buy a fucking skateboard" but I think that was refuted in interesting ways and my anti-skateboard rpg stance really just amounts to "LAME!" Not an especially convincing position.

There was a wonderful En Garde variant idea launched once in which the characters were actors, regiments were studios and going to the front was something called the Summer Sweeps, brilliant but sadly never got run.

But yes, I think EG could easily do this.  Hell, Emma's EG game Vatican En Garde which is currently on hold was about our being scheming Renaissance priests intent on advancement and although it had humiliation mechanics which lost you your character it didn't even have combat rules (no need, we didn't kill each other, we disgraced each other which was if anything more effective and just as permanent).