Well, I for one prefer to transpone historic eras/ conflicts into a traveller planetary setting. That takes the vinegar out of the worst stuff, and let`s the players see the underlying conflict much clearer without being aggressive to their actual real life political beliefs.

Quote from: RPGPunditIts curious that we don't have more games on these two decades (especially the period between 1963-1974), or more people running campaigns in that time.

Now that the Baby Boomers are turning 60, it's almost non-stop commercials for retirement funds with nostalgic pictures of hippies trying to  comfort the aging Boomers by telling them that they'll have exciting retirements that won't end in shuffleboard and Bingo.  Frankly, I'm tried of hearing how important the 1960s were and how special the 1960s are.  I'll pass.

Quote from: John MorrowFrankly, I'm tried of hearing how important the 1960s were and how special the 1960s are.  I'll pass.

Won't it be funny in twentyyears when they show commercials highlighting the 80s like that?

Quote from: RPGPunditCall of Cthulhu in the 60s.

Scooby-Doo

Quote from: RPGPunditSuperheros in the 60s.

Adam West's Batman

Quote from: joewolzWon't it be funny in twentyyears when they show commercials highlighting the 80s like that?

No, it will be just as sad.

Of course by then, all of those 60 year-old Baby Boomers will be 80 and will finally understand why shuffleboard and Bingo appeal to old people.

I wanted to create an LSD based psychedelic superhero game set in the 60's and 70's.  While I was putting my ideas together 2000AD published Storming Heaven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_Heaven_%28comics%29

So I put it all on hold.

The 70s was a very bleak period, in Italy they are referred to as the anni di piombo, the years of lead - which is a reference to the number of terrorist and state (back then in Italy a fine distinction) killings.

I would love a good 70s game dealing with the themes of the time, but instead all we ever get is warmed over disco crap which far more to do with nostalgic ideas of what it was like than what it actually was like.

The 70s is the cold war, unemployment, the dream bubble of the 60s having popped, disillusionment, Vietnam, the Red Brigade, mass industrial unrest, as Col Hardisson correctly notes the dramas of the time reflect that and are by and large dystopic and bleak.

That is what I want to play in, the 70s I remember as being a totally fucked up and shitty decade, a massive hangover after the optimism of the 60s.  That and I know quite a lot about Italian politics, which at that point was horrifically bloody and corrupt, culminating of course in the government planting bombs in Bologna station and blaming it on terrorists - a defining moment in post-war Italian history once the full story came out.

The TV series The Professionals, is how I would like to do a 1970s game.

The characters worked in teams of two, but nobody headed the team, it was closer to partners with cops.  They were part of an intelligence outfit that outranked the police and had considerable training and resources, they were profoundly undemocratic - a secret police in a way - and the program routinely addressed that issue and whether their existence was itself a threat to Britain in the same way as the things they fought.  They contested terrorist threats, foreign powers, organised crime and the occasional lone wacko and the tone was very gritty.  In one, a hero has a broken arm and there is a genuine concern if he can guard some prisoners without passing out.

Great stuff, dark, fast moving, characters have authority and autonomy.  Almost tailor made as an rpg setting, and you would not need a licenced rpg as it is simply Britain in the 1970s with a quasi-secret police organisation added in.

The funny thing about the Professionals is that it was clearly meant to be like Spooks; all swish and glamour and a bit high-tech.  But looking back on it now it's just horribly bleak and full of men wearing ugly clothes working in what look like disused office blocks when they're not out being the secret execution squad of the British state.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalThe funny thing about the Professionals is that it was clearly meant to be like Spooks; all swish and glamour and a bit high-tech.  But looking back on it now it's just horribly bleak and full of men wearing ugly clothes working in what look like disused office blocks when they're not out being the secret execution squad of the British state.

I think part of that was intentional, there are episodes where they discuss how Britain has gone wrong or whether it is right that they should have the powers they do.

Like any TV series it is a bit inconsistent, but I think the writers were aware how ghastly the world portrayed was.

Quote from: BalbinusThat and I know quite a lot about Italian politics, which at that point was horrifically bloody and corrupt, culminating of course in the government planting bombs in Bologna station and blaming it on terrorists - a defining moment in post-war Italian history once the full story came out.

Ah yes, the infamous Strategy of Tension. Is anyone surprised that Berlusconi was/is a big supporter of it?

Being British there is a whole set of TV I remember my Dad watching (and then watched myself as re-runs in the 80s) that presents a great roleplaying setting of paranoia and agency intrigue with a dash of the supernatural.

The Avengers would stand out here (both the original version and the campier version from Season 2 on) as the gold standard. We also have the Jon Pertwee Dr.Who years (the good Doctor was exiled to Earth during this period and couldn't swan about through time and space).

Of course (a little later) Sapphire and Steel would make a great game: All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

Really pessimistic Brit shows like Callan and The Wicker Man(both starring Edward Woodward -if I'm not mistaken) and Staw Dogs for example would set the tone for my games set in these eras. The feeling of something dark this way comes, would definately be a major theme running through the game.

Regards,
David R

I'd forgotten about Callan; the credits with the swinging light bulb were great.

So do we have consensus that a gaming version of the 60s/70s would be a dark or a light world to play in? Would it tend to be about confronting the possibilities of the future or watching the light dim?

It's rather like playing 1920s CoC isn't it? No matter how many monsters/cultists you stop you know as a player that really, really bad things are going to happen soon and you cannot stop them (not mythos stuff just the gloomy disasters of the mid-twentieth century).

Quote from: MisterPunchI'd forgotten about Callan; the credits with the swinging light bulb were great.

So do we have consensus that a gaming version of the 60s/70s would be a dark or a light world to play in? Would it tend to be about confronting the possibilities of the future or watching the light dim?

It's rather like playing 1920s CoC isn't it? No matter how many monsters/cultists you stop you know as a player that really, really bad things are going to happen soon and you cannot stop them (not mythos stuff just the gloomy disasters of the mid-twentieth century).

My consensus is a dark world, watching the light dim.

I would guess many of the light and cheery 70s crowd don't have direct memories of the period.