David Johansen, I choose you!

Seriously.

I stopped by your site last night.

This morning, instead of loading up on RMSS, I loaded up on GURPS 4e.

Why?

GURPS Awesome!

So. . . tell me of GURPS Awesome.

I know that it is (awesome), I'm just a little stuck on how I might use it run a campaign

First off it's not just Awesome it's AWESOMEREST!

Well, it just started as the silly notion I had that GURPS 4e could do a better job of the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny than Rifts could.  And I started posting material on the SJG forums and rpg.net open and it just took off like crazy.  More veiws in less time than anything I've written.

So I put in a proposal for an e23 book to SJG and they said no*.  Since I was doing the comics by then I decided to back off on the GURPS aspect of it to avoid any IP issues.  I want to do more with it.  More than just funny dinosaur with guns comics anyhow, but I'm a bit at loose ends as to what.

I need more hours in the day sometimes.  When I was trying to do a comic weekly I was up to 2:00AM three nights a week.

*probably related to Steve Jackson thinking I'm a knife wielding looney

There's a lot of campaigns you can run with it.

Scavenger survivors fighting government forces and canibal cities.

Atomosaurs and Nazi Good Guys? trying desperately to hold off invaders and cosmic entities.

Two bit super heroes trying to save their home town from a world gone mad.

Assemblers sales technicians trying to make sure they turn a profit before the light goes off and they have to answer to their bosses.

Volunteers, trying to get the lights working right so the world is worth devouring.

Incidentally I don't know if I ever mentioned it but there actually aren't parallel universes where the heroes succeeded.  They were just that screwed.  Rebecca Von Braum even had contingencies to prevent heroes from going back in time to stop her.  Those who tried all died trying.

Quote from: David JohansenThere's a lot of campaigns you can run with it.

Scavenger survivors fighting government forces and canibal cities.

Atomosaurs and Nazi Good Guys? trying desperately to hold off invaders and cosmic entities.

Two bit super heroes trying to save their home town from a world gone mad.

Assemblers sales technicians trying to make sure they turn a profit before the light goes off and they have to answer to their bosses.

Volunteers, trying to get the lights working right so the world is worth devouring.

Incidentally I don't know if I ever mentioned it but there actually aren't parallel universes where the heroes succeeded.  They were just that screwed.  Rebecca Von Braum even had contingencies to prevent heroes from going back in time to stop her.  Those who tried all died trying.

How SJG said no to that, I'll never know. This is like the sci-fi equivalent of GURPS Fantasy II. All strange. All the time. All AWESOME!

I suspect it goes back to me being pretty vocal about the absence of space ships in GURPS Space and the 16 wasted pages in the GURPS basic set.  There was also a thread where they wanted questions for the pod cast and I asked a couple that made Steve think I was a knife wielding looney.

It's a shame because I quite like GURPS even if it is more open to abuse than Rolemaster.  I think the reason I've never been able to get into narrative game designs is that I've just seen too many abusive players and DMs to ever believe that looser is better.  Besides which, it's always easier to ignore rules than add them in later.

But in the end, without substantial system redesign Rolemaster just doesn't handle 50 metre long cyborg dinosaurs with blasters all that well.

How hard would it be to work up your ideas in a more IP friendly system like JAGS?

I keep hearing good things about JAGS I'll have to have a look at it.  It depends, I have weird criteria for what I want in an rpg.

I'm just about done Galaxies in Shadow right now and grinding away at the vehicle and weapon design rules.  I may use that, but honestly it was never intended to handle superheroic stuff.  If anything it's significantly grittier than Rolemaster or GURPS.  (Damage is pretty fixed and lethal and there's no dodging)

AWESOME is very cinematic.  And decidely uninfluenced by real world physics.  That makes it a hard thing for quite a few games.  HERO could do it, or Mutants and Masterminds.  Villains and Vigilantes certainly could though the Atomosaurs are a little twinked out considering the rules for hitpoints and damage draw on the character's weight.

If it was about the money I'd go d20.  It probably should be about the money because I'd have more time to design games, write, and draw comics that way.  But I'd have to eat a pretty big crow.

One other detail I don't think I got around to, which wasn't going to make an appearance in the SJG version.

The Mysterious Mystery Man isn't exactly a Phantom Stranger knockoff.  He's an overweight hairy guy dressed in a wifebeater and jeans who drives around in a dirty white cargo van and tries to get teen and child heroes to save the world.

Quote from: David JohansenThe Mysterious Mystery Man isn't exactly a Phantom Stranger knockoff.  He's an overweight hairy guy dressed in a wifebeater and jeans who drives around in a dirty white cargo van and tries to get teen and child heroes to save the world.

I think that I've seen him on Dateline!

There's just something about a stereotypical child molester in the role of Professor Xaviar that just appeals to my twisted sense of humour.

From my uninformed perspective (never played GURPS), I would put it this way... the genius of David is to have done the utterly unthinkable: to put the gonzo into the GURPS.

That's why it really really should be a GURPS Awesomerest, not some Generic Awesomerest. The two belong together! I mean they don't, and therefore they do!

Also, David, check out James's latest (I think) creation, Kumquat Tattoo. You two share a wavelength, I realized that months ago.

Illuminati University is pretty Gonzo as was GURPS Fantasy II.

James and I like each others work, though he's more rules lite and I'm more rules heavy generally speaking.

Anyhow, I can't help but think that a Rolemaster based game with shades of Marvel Superheroes might be the very thing.  You could have the following columns on the attack table

Puny
Weak
Mediocre
Ordinary
Exceptional
Amazing
Incredible
Fantastic
Awesome
Awesomer
Awesomerest
Awesomerest!!!

Unfortunately, ICE really doesn't need someone bringing out a new version of their rules right now.  They've got a painfully divided fanbase with very divergent ideas of what would or wouldn't be an improvement.

Quote from: David JohansenJames and I like each others work, though he's more rules lite and I'm more rules heavy generally speaking.

I've been moving toward more rules, lately. My biggest purchases this year have been a load of d20 fantasy material and the six GURPS hardcovers that I paid for this morning. That said, I'm keeping a bit of 'rules light' in reserve

QuoteUnfortunately, ICE really doesn't need someone bringing out a new version of their rules right now.  They've got a painfully divided fanbase with very divergent ideas of what would or wouldn't be an improvement.

You know, while I was browsing the ICE shopping cart, I couldn't help but think that continuing to sell five different variants of the same system (i.e., RM2, RMSS, RMFRP, RMC and HARP) is a huge mistake (for the reason you mention).

Quote from: Pierce InverarityAlso, David, check out James's latest (I think) creation, Kumquat Tattoo. You two share a wavelength, I realized that months ago.

David is one of those people whom I only know online but who I'm certain that I'd get on quite well with in real life. We seem to like a lot of the same stuff (insofar as games are concerned) and pursue the same brand of 'outre' in things that we write.

That said, I'm afraid that my latest side project may a bit of a disappointment -- it's merely a lethal, low-magic, Risus fantasy game. Of course, earlier this week I thought "You know what this needs? It needs hair metal musicians using The Power of Metal to foil evil!"

Look for the term "battle axe" to take on a new meaning this Summer.

Quote from: jdrakeh... You know, while I was browsing the ICE shopping cart, I couldn't help but think that continuing to sell five different variants of the same system (i.e., RM2, RMSS, RMFRP, RMC and HARP) is a huge mistake (for the reason you mention).

You're overstating things.  ICE is actually 'only' selling three fantasy games right now.


RM2 = RMC (and ICE isn't selling RM2 anymore, aside from the limited edition compendium).

RMSS = RMFRP (at least 99% -- there are some very minor rules differences).

The real split is between RM2/RMC fans and RMSS/RMFRP fans.  I think ultimately a new edition of Rolemaster will draw more on RM2/RMC than RMSS/RMFRP, mainly because it's less intimidating to new players.  

I like HARP, but I think that ICE would have been better served by producing a game more directly compatible with RM.  They're doing this now with Rolemaster Express (which is based on RMC, but could easily lead into RMSS as well, with some conversion work).

Anyhow, nitpicking aside, I agree with your overall point that ICE is pushing too many FRPGs for such a small company.

Ummm ... sorry for the tangent.

Quote from: AkrasiaYou're overstating things.  ICE is actually 'only' selling three fantasy games right now.

3 similar games is still quite a bit.