What kind of a gameworld would you like to see?

[Talby]

Post-apocalypse (sort of) aboard a space ship, in the style of the short story Universe. Whole generations of people live and and die aboard a massive starship, believing it to be the entire world. That is, until someone finds a window.

Also, an RPG set in the world from 1984. Victorian England where you play a Sherlock Holmes-esque detective. Modern day Earth alien invasion.

There's lots of settings I can think of for RPGs, but nobody ever makes the interesting ones. It's just generic fantasy, or more recently the knee-jerk reaction opposite; generic sci-fi.

 

[santino27]

I would like to see a RPG set in Zelaznys Amber setting, Garret's world (from Glen Cook) or something set in Malazan Empire.

Of Glen Cook series, I'd rather see something set in the world of the Black Company, myself. Maybe during the time of the Domination... could be fun.

 

[mondblut]

I wish somebody would make a game based on "A dragon never sleeps". Best space fiction evar.

 

[Aikanaro]

Three things:

Something completely alien:
Think The Dark Crystal, or perhaps more like Memoirs of a Spacewoman by Naomi Mitchinson. A setting where you can't take anything for granted because everything is different from Earth.

Bronze age superheroes:
After the silliness of the silver age and before the grimdark dark age, there was a nice point in between where the stories were intelligent, positive, and heroic - while still having weird shit as a sideboard.

Magical-feeling fantasy:
This one's a bit hard to pin down, but I'll rattle off examples:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Phantastes by George MacDonald, Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin, The Land Behind the World by Anne Spencer Parry, The Summer Birds and Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer.
I couldn't say exactly what it is that makes these feel 'magical' as opposed to other fantasy, but it's definately something I'd like to see in an RPG.

You'll notice that my list lacks anything 'dark and gritty' - I'm really fucking tired of dark and gritty, and the idea that it's more 'mature' than a positive setting is brainburningly stupid. I'm honestly finding children's stories to be more intelligent and mature than most of the grimdark genre.

Not that I don't like a good apocalypse now and then - but come on, do we have to have one *all* the time?

(Okay, I guess this is less of a problem in RPGs given that RPGs are stuck in generic fantasy - but in general I think we could do with less utterly miserable settings)

 

[Qwinn]

I'm really fucking tired of dark and gritty, and the idea that it's more 'mature' than a positive setting is brainburningly stupid. I'm honestly finding children's stories to be more intelligent and mature than most of the grimdark genre.

+++eleventybillion

Qwinn

 

[Humanophage]

Eastern Europe during the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Probably with some magic thrown in to avoid excessive historicism (either in a V:TM-fashion, or more openly). There's a formidable amount of P&P RPG books on the subject, and tons of ordinary fiction, but the PC gaming world is completely oblivious to this comparatively popular and interesting setting. I'm only aware of a comedy adventure series that deals with it. The setting is rife with political and national hatred, brutal, diverse, and absolutely lawless. Certainly quite dark and gritty. Small groups of people may realistically play important roles there. A great opportunity for interesting large-scale choices and consequences, too. Not as obscure to the wider public as the overwhelming majority of other historical settings.

 

[bhlaab]

"Where the Red Fern Grows"

 

[Saxon1974]

I would like to see a setting in a Medieval period, say the 15 century where you could explore medieval England and France and can be what you want to be.

It's such a great timeframe for an RPG. If you want to be a thief you can, if you want to be a tourney knight you can, if you want to be a mercenary, if you want to be a merchant you can.

That's what I would like to see. And yes I played Darklands.

 

[RK47]

Star Trek

I think Bethesda has the licence for Star Trek games. You're sure you want it ?

oh shit

 

[Kron]

World War I. Those trenches had to be a shitty place with all the rats, running mud, stuck tanks and poison gas.

Also, still waiting for a well done nordic setting.

Nordic, Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek mythologies are so rich in material, I really can't believe more games haven't been made about them. Seriously, with barely some research you already start getting some good ideas.
For the record, I'm not in favor of historical mish-mash/anachronism stuff like that present in God of War.

 

[Luzur]

World War I. Those trenches had to be a shitty place with all the rats, running mud, stuck tanks and poison gas.

what was the name of that FPS that was based in a 60 year long WW1? Irondream? Ironhand?

oh well anyway, a WW1 RPG would be refreshing to play.

 

[1eyedking]

A well done middle-eastern RPG would be nice, though I recon it's not the time.

Soviet Russia would be awesome too.

Also, a brazilian favela a la "Cidade de Deus" movie would be very interesting.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Something with an emphasis on air travel and lots of war. Like Last Exile without the victorian honour and monocles.

 

[Redeye]

Post-apocalypse (sort of) aboard a space ship, in the style of the short story Universe. Whole generations of people live and and die aboard a massive starship, believing it to be the entire world. That is, until someone finds a window.

Metamorphosis Alpha

Official Site

 

[Redeye]

What I would like to see is maybe something set in the 70s/early 80s with secret wars enabled by technology which is ahead of its time in a realistic way.

Think of the what-ifs and changepoints in R&D that could have resulted in alternate/faster development paths.

"Retro Techno-thriller"

Plasma Torches... what if they were miniaturized/supplemented by better field control... then maybe we get carbon deposition into wafers... super microchips

hypertext?

mouse and windows?

GPS

mobile phones (scroll down a bit)

older than you might think!

If smart people with will, money, time combined with advanced analytical and conceptual modeling skills were to put their minds to it, prototype gadgetry could have been produced much earlier than in our dimension.

There would be competing groups with various extra-advanced tech maneuvering in the shadows.

Much fun.

quick example of a combo vector which could provide basis for retro techno-thriller action:
These along with this.

Perhaps also:

1948 satellite ideas and this scroll down 1/3 of the way.


All sorts of goofiness.

 

[MisterStone]

I'd like to see a game that is post-apocalyptic, but where the pre-apocalypse culture is based on cheesy '80s stuff, especially action movies, Cold War era political stuff, etc.

Also, don't you want to see a game based on Medieval Pakistan or something Andhaira? Are you really Pakistani? I find myself doubting this constantly.

 

[Bluebottle]

Naive silver age sci-fi. Something along the lines of Buck Rogers. Art style would be reminiscent of movie posters of the time (domes, rockets of comically typical shape, green bug-eyed-monsters). In terms of complex morality, it would be typically lacking - gameplay would consist of flying about, taking massive heroic risks, crotchpunching evil, then fucking hot space chicks and smoking cigars.

Imagine Mass Effect, but with a decent art style and replace Shepard with Kirk, modern po-faced seriousness with 60s can-do-no-wrong confidence and blue non gender specific aliens with Barbarella.

 

[denizsi]

A well done middle-eastern RPG would be nice, though I recon it's not the time.

When the subject is middle-east, there will never be a right time. You gotta do it when you can.

 

[Talby]

Metamorphosis Alpha

Official Site

Ain't a cRPG, though. I don't give a shit about pen and paper games, so it doesn't count.

 

[Redeye]

Metamorphosis Alpha

Official Site

Ain't a cRPG, though. I don't give a shit about pen and paper games, so it doesn't count.

What I meant was that it could be a decent cRPG.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Oh, many.

Wild West
Medieval Japan
WWII
Cold War (spies)
Jules Vernian (e.g. Captain Nemo or The Mysterios Island)
Lovecraft / Stoker
Mafia

etc

But it won't happen anyway. There won't be any more RPGs that aren't Tolkien or Star Wars.

 

[Haba]

Alternative reality, where there is no violence or crime. People are well behaved and always try to do the good thing.

The player character is transported from our "reality" into this alternative reality.

And then you get to fuck it up.

 

[JarlFrank]

Naive silver age sci-fi. Something along the lines of Buck Rogers. Art style would be reminiscent of movie posters of the time (domes, rockets of comically typical shape, green bug-eyed-monsters). In terms of complex morality, it would be typically lacking - gameplay would consist of flying about, taking massive heroic risks, crotchpunching evil, then fucking hot space chicks and smoking cigars.

Imagine Mass Effect, but with a decent art style and replace Shepard with Kirk, modern po-faced seriousness with 60s can-do-no-wrong confidence and blue non gender specific aliens with Barbarella.

I'd really love that. It would have potential to be awesome.

 

[Talby]

A naive silver age sci-fi RPG would be great. I think it would be good to keep the costumes and environments in line with the production values of those old programs - uniforms like those crummy old Star Trek suits they wore, and every planet is a badly made set with green/purple/orange sky.

 

[Lemunde]

Still waiting for a decent RPG done in the Dragonlance universe.