Un(der) used game settings

[octavius]

A narrative that switches back and forth between multiple characters, with their stories often meeting and inter-twining(perhaps indirectly) holds much promise. It is a common device used in books, so why not RPGs?

It worked well in the maps Angelic Pride, Demonic Pride and Titanice Pride that someone (Jason something) made for Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
Can't remember something similar in a CRPG, though.

 

[Grim Monk]

Why the hell did we let this thread Die?

Someone in this thread posted the idea of a Cyberpunk reinterpretation of the Arabian Nights:

"executive heir jasmine struggling in the corpo-court market intrigue of a cyberpunk neo-arabia and then a scruffy street decker called Al/Addin gets his hands on a mysterious LAMP program that changes everything”

Pretty cool idea, but I can't seem to find the whole post only a partial excerpt in "google search cache".
I assume the user got nuked for some reason...



Also LibertyRansom's suggestion of a Post Civil War Southern setting is very interesting.

I like the idea of a restoration era RPG.

I myself thought out an original setting that was similar. It is might be a mature/rustic/gritty RPG where the setting takes place during the last months of the civil war. You play as a deserter from the Confederate army who tries to make his way down to Louisiana. The game would be a "low magic" setting but small elements of a dark sort of Vodoo or Demonic magic.

You'd work your way through burned out raided southern towns and plantations, army camps, Indian reserves and the swampy strange landscapes and towns of Cajun/Vodoo Louisiana. Just to name a few.

The player would have to fear both confederate and union troops. The game would be dark and use the reoccurring theme of failure, sacrifice and fighting one's own demons. Musket bullets back then were molded by the rifle men themselves so "crafting" certain bullets could be a feature. You'd have to use a combination of Firearm and Melee Skill, because the majority of rifles were one shot.

A 20-30s Lovecraftian, or 30-50s Film Noir/Hard Boiled ("Diesel Punk?") setting would also be good...
Also this:

Which is partially related to the "30-50s" above.

 

[ColCol]

People go most of what I wanted, but:

I would like to see some type of aliens conspiracy rpg.

some type of proper sports rpg

A take turned based (and squad based) teenage mutant ninja turtle rpg. I doub that will happen. So, I'm making one.

 

[Luzur]

 

[Severian Silk]

A NASA space-race RPG would be pretty cool. A Buzz Aldrin RPG maybe.

 

[suejak]

All the African-themed RPGs I can think of have you as a white man exploring the Dark Continent. Would be nice to explore non-white experiences too, so the guys with those ideas get my vote.

I also am really interested in Arabian stuff... anything along those lines would be awesome, as well. A Crusades game within the Islamic world would be so great.

Of course, my Mass Effect character was a skinny Indian with acne scars, but the game didn't know that. I'd like a setting that handled race in an interesting way. Only games I can think of that touch that shit at all is the Grand Theft Auto series -- pretty good explorative narratives, too.

 

[ColCol]

wait, what african-themed rpgs are you talking about?

 

[Kukulkan]

Mesoamerican settings dealing with the Aztecs or the Mayans. None of this weird almagation of the two along with the Inca shit. This setting would have interesting environments, weapons, and magic system dealing with Nahualli. There's alot cosmological stuff in the indigenous religions that can be thrown in to make the hypothetical game more distinct.
Another is one I'd like is one taking place entirely within some sort of Orwellian dystopian dictatorship like 1984 but not cyberpunk.

 

[suejak]

wait, what african-themed rpgs are you talking about?

Quest for Glory III.

All the others I can think of are pure adventures...

 

[deuxhero]

A narrative that switches back and forth between multiple characters, with their stories often meeting and inter-twining(perhaps indirectly) holds much promise. It is a common device used in books, so why not RPGs?

It worked well in the maps Angelic Pride, Demonic Pride and Titanice Pride that someone (Jason something) made for Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
Can't remember something similar in a CRPG, though.

Lots of of jRPgs do this to introduce new party members, though the only one that switches back and fourth I know of is Breath of Fire 4, which I haven't played yet.

Fire Emblem 10 does it, though it's an sRPG at best and it's not very well implemented, with one of the characters having minimal development and the difficulty being really unbalanced (One side struggles to find useful units and has very punishing levels, the other has some of the best in the game and can disregard tactics entirely a lot of the time.

Now I would like to see more (Wild) Western games

 

[Kukulkan]

The Wild West too is a great setting. However a sheriff would be more interesting than the cowboy. Unless you go with the fictional presented in movies.

 

[Gurkog]

A blaxploitation style setting where your character is a PI in the decaying inner city full of corruption and crime. Plenty of guns, drugs, martial arts, sex and funk.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I always found it interesting that when you enter a bazaar or a shopping area in certain games, it acquires an Oriental or Middle Eastern style. And then, this style is not seen anywhere else.

In Fallout, when you enter the Hub, this post-apocalyptic game suddenly changes its music theme and look to that of some bazaar in Egypt or a mall road in Sudan. Out of the Hub and Fallout is back to normal, the grim austere mode.

The first time I played BG2, upon entering Waukeen's Promenade, seeing the sandstone architecture and hearing the Middle Eastern style music, I assumed that Athkatla would be an Arab-themed city. Having met Yoshimo earlier and having seen katanas in the area below, my assumption was that Amn was some Oriental D&D area. Then I left the Promenade and discovered that the rest of the city was usual late medieval European stuff.

It's funny - bazaars exist in a separate Arab/Oriental sphere, distinct from the rest of the world in some RPGs.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Well, everyone is tired of those eurocentric settings.

True, the world is a big place, and 90% of the CRPG production only inspires itself in 30% or so of the world. To be fair, 100% of the CRPG production is on that world. The rest is console and jap crap.

I always found it interesting that when you enter a bazaar or a shopping area in certain games, it acquires an Oriental or Middle Eastern style. And then, this style is not seen anywhere else.

In Fallout, when you enter the Hub, this post-apocalyptic game suddenly changes its music theme and look to that of some bazaar in Egypt or a mall road in Sudan. Out of the Hub and Fallout is back to normal, the grim austere mode.

The first time I played BG2, upon entering Waukeen's Promenade, seeing the sandstone architecture and hearing the Middle Eastern style music, I assumed that Athkatla would be an Arab-themed city. Having met Yoshimo earlier and having seen katanas in the area below, my assumption was that Amn was some Oriental D&D area. Then I left the Promenade and discovered that the rest of the city was usual late medieval European stuff.

It's funny - bazaars exist in a separate Arab/Oriental sphere, distinct from the rest of the world in some RPGs.

Maybe Jew (or equivalent) Merchants gain their money there?

Get your genuine goods from Far-Away-Place-That-Has-Cool-Exotic-Shit!

 

[suejak]

There are Korean and Chinese CRPGs as well. It's just that people on these boards tend to be uninterested in their stuff

To be fair, 100% of the CRPG production is on that world. The rest is console and jap crap..

This is actually a shockingly ignorant thing to say. Of course, ignorance and general dumb is pretty popular on the Codex, so you keep on rockin it.

 

[OlivettiFever]

A 20-30s Lovecraftian, or 30-50s Film Noir/Hard Boiled ("Diesel Punk?") setting would also be good...

Seconded. Diesel punk has such a neat aesthetic; deco is really underutilized in games in general. A noir PI RPG set in a retro-futuristic New York would be awesome.

I'd have to put my chip in for gritty, "low-tech" space opera. A dozen or so planetary systems, dangerous and time-consuming interstellar travel, a collapsing interplanetary federation.

 

[Kukulkan]

There are Korean and Chinese CRPGs as well. It's just that people on these boards tend to be uninterested in their stuff
.

Are there crpgs developed in South America or Central America?

 

[Luzur]

A NASA space-race RPG would be pretty cool. A Buzz Aldrin RPG maybe.

kinda like this one:



but more RPG´ish instead? i still got a CD somewhere with a demo on this game.

 

[JarlFrank]

There are Korean and Chinese CRPGs as well. It's just that people on these boards tend to be uninterested in their stuff

It's just that those games aren't translated and nobody can speak Korean or Chinese.

 

[Kron]

Reality is, the premise of the setting means shit. It's THE WAY IT'S EXECUTED that matters.
"Original" settings are mostly completely ruined by the game's creators' inability to make a human, realistic and interesting world. AoD is to me a glaring example: how can a world inspired by the downfall of the Roman Empire feel so absolutely boring and generic?
Norse-heavy settings are actually still pretty rare: Skyrim supposedly made something like that, but pulled it off in such a shitty manner that we're left with the same old generic aftertaste.
A tolkien-esque setting intertwined with folk stories, characters and factions moved by human motivations could actually turn out pretty good.
A post-apoc setting, which has to the day been done to death, can give birth to a world like the one the original Fallouts had, or something as crappy and inconsistent as F3.

I, for one, would love to see an RPG/Adventure game set in a realistic Greek mythos setting, with the presence of those motherfucking gods, stories, heroes, poems and philosophy, and most importantly, GODDAMN ARCHITECTURE.

 

[Maiandros]

VOTS mentioned half of what i dream of in page 2..
The other half being that depending on what qualities your character has (see psychological chracteristics rather than the typical 'stats'), a procedural generation engine (or maybe some programmer slave having finished plenty of vignettes from scratch?) spawns a bare plane that fits to your emotional panorama (if you have a high empathy you get less of a solid environment, so at start, it would be harder for you to progress through it, though you would receive 'lore' otherwise unavailable, helping you later on down the road..if say you had a high force of will, the world would have been more solid, but you would be forced to interact with it as a mere brute would..maybe longer to go through it)..you start the game with your character, you, dreaming, the landscape slowly starting to take a more of a concrete form as you begin to explore the outcomes of your choices, world-interaction wise..things add up based on your actions/observations, so you need go back and check what has been inserted after some significant choice; you are allowed to go through it but without any gratification of 'closure', because nearing its end (consider it stage/phase/location one) it begins to unravel once more..this is you dreaming after all..next cycle commencing is a world that retains what you 'made' of the previous one, but with a twist, like a mirror..your first glance into perhaps the key behind the whole game scenario..it being that in the end you will have cycled through multiple variations of the exact same variant/phenomenon. This is a dream where a deranged, mentally ill person is attempting in vain to come to terms with the source of his trauma. The entities he gets to fight against during it are (you get to find out in the end) but physical extentions of things/ideas that are related to his trauma (hence the 'endless' loops). Those attractive, ephemeral bright aura-ed beings where his nurses, the big slow dark sludges where clones of the dark skinned janitor on his floor, etc etc

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

A Lovecraft's "Dream-quest of unknown Kadath" setting, that would be great. That or Gilgamesh mythos under the sea with computers and monster trucks.

 

[Creamy Muffin]

Cthulhu mythos setting would be swell. Was pretty disappointed when Cyclopean fell through.

Also a setting that's underwater - dealing with an underwater civilization, alien structures, or anything really. Or on a similar note, an rpg that plays out on a fresh space colony (Mars or wherever).

 

[SCO]

A narrative that switches back and forth between multiple characters, with their stories often meeting and inter-twining(perhaps indirectly) holds much promise. It is a common device used in books, so why not RPGs?

It worked well in the maps Angelic Pride, Demonic Pride and Titanice Pride that someone (Jason something) made for Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
Can't remember something similar in a CRPG, though.

It's because it's impossible in general ('paradoxical') if you want it interactive.

X see Y do something ->
Y must do something on later game

It's railroading, unless you have really really funky story/game mechanics, like that RTS, and create 'alternative dimensions' or something. You can do it if there is no time travel, and the player just cedes control to the AI. Could be cool on strategy games.

Also on a rpg, you could make a strange 'game' that would record your avatar goals of previous playthroughs and 'repeat the game' as a npc, sort of like 'cutscene: the game'. Would probably break often if the player is malicious thou, and it doesn't sound fun. Would also require pretty sophisticated AI (to resume a interrupted goal because of combat defeat, or if the guy is dead or Armageddon is cast or something)
Frankly the (horrible) idea made me think of ultima 7 for some reason.

Or that fucking strange MMO SCI interpreter with dozens of Larry's waiting to fuck the prostitute. That was weird. Thank god i don't play MMO's.

 

[SCO]

On topic:
Charles the Hammer. The original muslim apocalypse.
(well, actually that was in the Iberian penisula... kinda cool too, to do it there in either age)