Okay, since Pundit is asking a bunch of questions, I decided I want to play too. Let's say I'm writing an OSRish something, and that I have a really good idea of the rules I want to build for it. Let's also say that the inspiration for said game came by accident (I have a thread where I ramble about it). Okay, that's great and all but writing up an OSR which is just rules is going to make people yawn. My Bible is the Rules Cyclopedia, because it is solid and it's sitting right in front of me. Though I am not averse to consulting other editions, particularly 1e and some 2.5e material from Player's Options. Maybe kinda sorta. My philosophy is minimalist. I'll write a bunch of stuff and forget I wrote most of it. In any case, I would like to avoid writing a giant book.

That said, I need to decide on a setting that will keep me interested, but it would be nice to know what other people would like to see. My personal preference is Science Fiction leaning on the hard side. Before I got into D&D my favorite authors were Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, and Robert Heinlein. I'd love to do an homage to Buck Rogers XXVc. I mean, it's really easy to file the serial numbers off. After all, solar system bound science fiction without FTL travel has existed for quite some time. I think out of the nine novels, only three had Buck Rogers in them. The charm of the setting really had nothing to do with the IP attached. It's a well thought out future with technology which we may achieve much sooner. Anyhow, the problem with the setting is that it would take around 200 pages to cover that and rules.

Starting out something on a smaller scale might work better. Planetary Romance could work. Mars is an attractive option because for one it is something I am familiar with, and for another I have a base map of a Mars with water in Fractal Terrains that I can modify and import into Fractal Terrains.  However, it doesn't have to be Science Fiction. I do like fantasy, though I am more partial to Urban Fantasy as well as Gaslight Fantasy/Gothic Horror... Basically stuff on Earth.

As I mentioned, I have Fractal Terrains and Campaign Cartographer and do have basic worlds I have generated that I may want to use. Basically you randomize seeds until  the lumps you see floating in the water are pleasing. So making the visual representation is not a problem.

All that aside, I am not averse to other settings. I like High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Historical Settings. I like stuff. Okay I don't like everything. I don't really like Tolkien, and yes I bought hard copies of both the AIME Player's and Judge's Guides. I like his world building, but not so much his prose. I much prefer the works of Michael Moorcock and Robert E Howard as inspirations if I wanted to go in that direction. Also when I was about 14, my mom's boyfriend laid a stack of Heavy Metal Magazines on me, and I quite liked Moebius, Phillipe Driullet, Richard Corben, Vaughn Bode and Bilal.

But the question is what you would like to see in a setting, as broad or specific as you like. If this includes genre specific rules that is fine. I am more interested in knowing what sort of setting, and maybe what aspects of that setting you feel are key or important. Maybe I have something I can refluff or maybe not. Odds are pretty good that someone will suggest something I never even considered. I appreciate any reply. Thanks.

Alternate timeline where the space race never ended, and the USA has had lunar colonies since the nineties.

Buck Rogers sounds like a great idea. Are the rights still held by the estate? The original comics have to be very old at this point.

I would buy a properly detailed Old School Planetary Romance setting, Mars is ideal (but please include jungles & swamps as well as deserts, I don't want to have to go to Venus!) . I want hex maps at eg 8, 12 15 or 24 miles to the hex, lots of 3e Wilderlands-style keyed locations, and encounter tables for various zones.  Moorcock + Heavy Metal mag sounds perfect. :cool:

Quote from: S'mon;966629I would buy a properly detailed Old School Planetary Romance setting, Mars is ideal (but please include jungles & swamps as well as deserts, I don't want to have to go to Venus!) . I want hex maps at eg 8, 12 15 or 24 miles to the hex, lots of 3e Wilderlands-style keyed locations, and encounter tables for various zones.  Moorcock + Heavy Metal mag sounds perfect. :cool:

I had considered Venus as well considering that Mars has been done many times.

Quote from: Krimson;966725I had considered Venus as well considering that Mars has been done many times.

I referred to "the jungles of Mars" in a game awhile back and got a double-take from my players... please include that!

Vis-a-vis the rights to Buck Rogers: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-rejects-film-producers-bid-877683

I'd like something anime-influenced. Sort of like an OSR version of BESM D20.

Quote from: S'mon;966747I referred to "the jungles of Mars" in a game awhile back and got a double-take from my players... please include that!

I guess that would depend on how warm it gets. I could certainly imagine deciduous and evergreen rainforest.

Quote from: Doc Sammy;966785I'd like something anime-influenced. Sort of like an OSR version of BESM D20.

I have a setting based on Haruhi Suzumiya and the Toaruverse, which I could certainly do with the system I am working on though my latest iterations have been without the anime tropes. I have also considered something along the lines of Gatchaman and once in a while I play with a Magical Girl setting on a 19th century Earth similar to Gothic Earth.

One of the things that always kept me away from sci-fi RPGing was the lack of an easy motivation for the players. In fantasy, you've got the accumulation of treasure combined with occasional "save the day" type adventures. The PCs as heroes works best here because of the lack of communication and transportation in a medieval setting means that often times the PCs are the only ones around that can help (Star Trek often uses this scheme due to their slow as molasses warp drive). Accumulation of money does works in a sci-fi setting but it is a bit overdone at this point.

That being said, I'd like to see a planetary scifi adventure that has survival as the core theme. Not just as a hook, but central to campaign. The PCs crash land (or get transported) to the Swamps of Venus and have to fight to survive; hunting for food, distilling clean water, recharging their ray guns, etc. Also, rather than a small group of PCs, have an entire crew (20-30 people) that need to be protected. [the nebulous "crew" is also the source of replacement PCs in case of death]. So, sort of a combination between planetary romance, post-apoc survival, with Battlestar Galactica-like leadership decisions. All the while, fighting dinosaurs & primitive sub-humans, rescuing the occasional Venusian, and matching wits with the evil, silver-skinned, Queen of Venus.


Either that or something based on Power Rangers/Super Sentai. The structure of Super Sentai always seemed to me to match the general flow of an RPG campaign: a group of random (but above average) people join together to fight the bad guy while constantly accumulating new fantastic powers.

@hedgehobbit I was considering a setting inspired by some of those survival games, notably Planet Explorer, with a similar theme. I can post more details when I am home. My main concern was that I might have to do stuff like resource management and crafting.

Your Super Sentai isn't much different from Gatchaman, which may well be the Ur example of the Sentai team. More later.

Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon style pulp sci fi planet & rocket ship adventure would get my vote. Rocket packs, ray guns, humanocentric.

Wild Weird West is my vote. Something on par with Deadlands but different and OSRish.

Quote from: hedgehobbit;966804One of the things that always kept me away from sci-fi RPGing was the lack of an easy motivation for the players. In fantasy, you've got the accumulation of treasure combined with occasional "save the day" type adventures. The PCs as heroes works best here because of the lack of communication and transportation in a medieval setting means that often times the PCs are the only ones around that can help (Star Trek often uses this scheme due to their slow as molasses warp drive). Accumulation of money does works in a sci-fi setting but it is a bit overdone at this point.

That being said, I'd like to see a planetary scifi adventure that has survival as the core theme. Not just as a hook, but central to campaign. The PCs crash land (or get transported) to the Swamps of Venus and have to fight to survive; hunting for food, distilling clean water, recharging their ray guns, etc. Also, rather than a small group of PCs, have an entire crew (20-30 people) that need to be protected. [the nebulous "crew" is also the source of replacement PCs in case of death]. So, sort of a combination between planetary romance, post-apoc survival, with Battlestar Galactica-like leadership decisions. All the while, fighting dinosaurs & primitive sub-humans, rescuing the occasional Venusian, and matching wits with the evil, silver-skinned, Queen of Venus.


Either that or something based on Power Rangers/Super Sentai. The structure of Super Sentai always seemed to me to match the general flow of an RPG campaign: a group of random (but above average) people join together to fight the bad guy while constantly accumulating new fantastic powers.

Yeah, I really really like the idea of a setting based on crash landed sci fi ship, survivors exploring/repairing tech/finding new strange tech, etc. Campaign ends when they get off the planet, or similar.