Underused settings or themes?

[Edward_R_Murrow]

I'm totally in agreement with a zombie apocalypse type of setting in a CRPG. The only problem would be making a plausible reality without screwing over the gameplay. Like if you set it in a city, the shopping center would become the biggest Monty Haul ever. Hit the grocery store and grab a bunch of food. Hit the sporting goods and pick up some improvised armor, and maybe hit the hardware store for some heavy weapons.

As long as they could make it so there is a scarcity of easy to use, "powerful" resources (read: guns, explosives, chainsaws, MREs, tanks, APCs, cars) but have a decent amount of improvised resources (read: PVC pipes, ridable lawnmowers, metal pipe, food found in abandoned houses, cooking utensils) it could work out nicely. The previously mentioned Dead Rising game was at it's best early on when you couldn't carry many items and had to improvise with things constantly.

Another thing would be a decent amount of survivors to allow for some diplomacy. Or maybe make the zombies partially intelligent to totally flip the entire zombie genre on it's head.

 

[mister lamat]

the grindhouse zombies were intelligent, they just liked eating people. bit of a social faux pas.

 

[Fez]

If they didn't go for the standard elf and orc shit then they wouldn't be able to put elf titties on the cover.

 

[JarlFrank]

If they didn't go for the standard elf and orc shit then they wouldn't be able to put elf titties on the cover.

If they go SF they can put Klingon titties on the cover.
If they go Horror they can put Vampire titties on the cover.
If they go Post Apoc they can put titties of a girl wearing ripped clothes standing in a wrecked city on the cover.
If they go Planescape they can put Succubus titties on the cover.

You get the picture.

 

[Fez]

Elf titties are 14.5% more marketable and effective than alternative brand titties. They won't accept second best.

 

[JarlFrank]

Elf titties are 14.5% more marketable and effective than alternative brand titties. They won't accept second best.

Klingon titties are also good.
I'm just trying to find that Klingon porn site I once found...

 

[Top Hat]

I think an early 20th century detective RPG might be interesting.

 

[JarlFrank]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/ ... ln_005.jpg

Let's not post NSFW pictures openly, it's not good for your karma - VD

 

[kingcomrade]

wow

 

[Fez]

They've just photoshopped a wrinkly forehead on to normal porn. I had expected so much more.

 

[JarlFrank]

They've just photoshopped a wrinkly forehead on to normal porn. I had expected so much more.

About a year ago I found better stuff. Strangely it's a lot harder to find now.

 

[Romanian_Dude2005]

The holy Inquizition. Imagine what it would be like to play a judge or an advocate in those times and you had to choose between being the churces bicth and earning bags of money by supporting their corupt and fals claims or protecting truth, but risking being burned has a heretic.

 

[Bluebottle]

Napoleonic please - either super historically accurate or loosely themed around (as AoD is to Eastern Rome).
Sean Bean could do all the voice acting too - he's into that shit isn't he?

If they didn't go for the standard elf and orc shit then they wouldn't be able to put elf titties on the cover.

I'm picturing a buxom wench in bodice with heaving bosom. If sales are low for the first few months we can always photoshop in pointy ears - can't be too hard. Cover all bases and all that.

 

[Fez]

You could go one better, every month or couple of weeks you can slowly undress the buxom cover girl on the packaging and change all the boxes over. Over time more and more sweaty nerds will break and buy it. It will help boost flagging sales.

 

[Greenskin13]

Can't leave; cave adapted.

Brilliant, Fez. Pure marketing genius.

Also, Klingon women are ugly. Can't they use Vulcan breastesess instead?

 

[United Nations]

The western rpg got me thinking about other underused genres that are really fucking awesome. In particular horror. In general there's a distinct lack of good horror rpgs in my opinion, but maybe I'm wrong.

Name some good horror rpgs.

Name some good horror rpgs that were made within the last ten years.

How about an rpg set during a zombie apocalypse?

Lovecraftian horror rpgs?

I'd really like to see a cross between survival horror and rpg using a system similar to Fallout's where you have to build a balanced group to survive (perhaps set during a zombie apocalypse), but I'm probably the only one.

What other genres or themes do you think are underused in rpgs since 90% of them either rip off Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons?

An rpg in a Red Dawn type setting seems like a pretty awesome idea.

I too would love to see a good horror RPG. One with a Lovecraftian theme would work nicely, but I'm not a big fan of survival horror at all. Maybe this is because survival horror games are usually released by Japanese developers, who draw from Anime as source of inspiration for their graphics and characters.

Horror is possibly the last untapped theme in RPG's that has never been pulled off correctly or even efficiently for that matter. Bloodlines was good as a RPG, but included too much Matrix/S&M crap even attempt being scary. The Diablo franchise is another series that could have been horrifying, yet relied on cartoonish violence to win appeal.

 

[Top Hat]

You could go one better, every month or couple of weeks you can slowly undress the buxom cover girl on the packaging and change all the boxes over. Over time more and more sweaty nerds will break and buy it. It will help boost flagging sales.

Also, for the Collectors Edition, you'd have a bigger box, so there could be TWO girls!

 

[Fez]

Naah, make it one of those cardboard boxes with the flap on the front that you could open for extra info. Tape the flap shut and promise a "double page spread" of extra elf goodness inside.

 

[Claw]

I recall my Cyberpunk rulebook having some nice illustrations. Unfortunately I misplaced it.


Restricted Area was such a disappointment. I long for a good cyberpunk RPG.

 

[Dpayne]

A good Shadowrun RPG would be nice.

Taking the setting of Bioshock and actually making an RPG out of that would be pretty awesome.

This thread makes it clear to me that people who play games are clamoring for some new settings (we're not all 12 year olds that want to be golden dark elves of the sunmoon).

A lot of these settings would work much better with a turnbased type of game. It really is a shame that developers gave up on that even though it was far from dead.

 

[Jed]

I would go head over heels for a really well done Wuxia or Chambara cRPG. And no, Jade Empire doesn't count. Prince of Qin was too much of a Diablo-borefest. Maybe one of these days I will sit down and design a rogue-like or something ...

 

[JarlFrank]

You could go one better, every month or couple of weeks you can slowly undress the buxom cover girl on the packaging and change all the boxes over. Over time more and more sweaty nerds will break and buy it. It will help boost flagging sales.

Also, for the Collectors Edition, you'd have a bigger box, so there could be TWO girls!

You'll have a tin figure of an elf chick in the Collector's Edition which you can use for your pleasure.

 

[Slaytanic]

Bestest idea evar : Heroin !

Seriosly, has this ever been discussed ? I saw Trainspotting being mentioned in another thread, and I thought, why couldn't you make some sort of rpg/sim in that kind of world.

You could beat up hookers, be a hooker, just so you can score. Then you got guns, shootin people, stealin car batteries, w/e just so you get your fix.

Although if you really took your time I am pretty sure you could have a whole setting based on this that would kick people in the teeth.
Somethin like the atmosphere in Bloodlines maybe, although done better.

Anyone got any fuckin idea what I'm talkin about ? I mean, I'd love to find a pnp rpg related to drugs too, but it could make one hell of a crpg.

 

[The Dude]

I agree with the Napoleonic setting, or maybe even a bit earlier (renaissance). Exploration, duels, wars, religious and political unrest, revolutions, court intrigue. It's pretty much a setting ripe with adventuring possibilities.

When it comes to survival horror in a RPG, would it be the character, player, or both that should get the scares? I think it would be pretty hard to make a "true" CRPG that was able to scare the player. System Shock occassionally scared the shit out of me, but it was more a blend between CRPG and FPS. However, the thing is that a big part of the scariness in that game came from the limitations in combat ability put upon you due to the character system. People here whine all the time that an FPS should be WYSIWYG in that you should hit stuff you point at. In System Shock it was beneficial to the experience that you missed stuff and did shit damage when you had bad skills. You knew you were a weak POS, which made things scarier.

A totally stat driven CRPG with survival horror theme would be pretty interesting too. Psychological effects on characters and people going mad with fear aren't really very well explored in CRPGs.

 

[kingcomrade]

Needs to be more Navy games. With ships. And submarines. And stuff.