So before I lose it from my clipboard, here’s a setting pitch for Apocalypse world that isn’t Mad Max with psychic powers.
**Ironwall
**
Post-apocalyptic survival/scarcity drama
Elements of The Postman (book), Hellboy II, Blade, I am Legend (movie), Matrix (movies), Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (comic), The World Without Us.
Makeup and faerie character design by the same crew as Pan’s Labyrinth.
SETTING: Semi-near future, in which society has collapsed in the face of the return of Faerie (and a very angry Fae to boot), overrunning the world in aggressively accelerated fecundity. Protagonists are survivors who live in a semi-agrarian settlement within the ruins of a major city with some natural borders (Manhattan is easy - I’m sure there are others) - the iron in the city keeps them somewhat safe from the Fae.
CONCEPT: We follow the survivors as they try to to maintain the settlement and deal with the fae and the Maelstrom that overran humanity.
I’m quite happy with goofy scifi, for what it’s worth, just that most of the space/scifi game systems I’ve heard mentioned are more on the Traveller/Firefly side of the house.
It’s also pretty easy to get high-action scifi with another game system, just change the scale, e.g.: The Host are alien parasites on the borders of the Middle Kingdom, humanity’s interstellar dominion. They can infect and corrupt a human being, using them as a vehicle for an invasion. Those who cultivate their chi are immune to possession, and the Host can be driven out with Taoist alchemy and sorcery. In a world of fragile domed space stations and hostile planets, fighting against friends or in places where guns and blasters are a bad idea, the Emperor’s chosen pit their immortal kung fu against an invisible enemy.
Having just finished “Hilda” on Netflix, I’d be pretty happy with an Ironwall where some positive and mundane activities were part of the action too.
And just to get it out of the way: there’s something between Killjoys and Guardians of the Galaxy in my head, using Masks, maybe, or really any of the spacey games, with children of the Big Players trying to get by in a galactic, kitchen-sink hodge-podge bracketed by the Void Collective on one side, the Concordance on the other, and guys like Dominus and the Farlander doing their thing in the middle.
Could be Masks. Might also be one of the other PBTAish games like Impulse Drive or Scum and Villainy to make the big bads even bigger and badder.
I don’t have a cool name for this one, though. Feels like the the community building aspect could be socketed in.
I’m quite happy with goofy scifi, for what it’s worth, just that most of the space/scifi game systems I’ve heard mentioned are more on the Traveller/Firefly side of the house.]
Some of that comes down to narration, I think. The scale of action is really all the separates Killjoys from GotG, imo. Takes a bit of level-setting, I guess? Maybe.
SETTING: Semi-near future, in which society has collapsed in the face of the return of Faerie (and a very angry Fae to boot), overrunning the world in aggressively accelerated fecundity. Protagonists are survivors who live in a semi-agrarian settlement within the ruins of a major city with some natural borders (Manhattan is easy - I’m sure there are others) - the iron in the city keeps them somewhat safe from the Fae.
With the exception of the “iron” part, I am 99% certain I read several issues of a comic that used this premise. Can’t remember if it was indy or Vertigo or what. I’ll have to ponder. (That shouldn’t discourage you, mind you – it just sounds really familiar.)
For what it’s worth, if memory serves, the premise was much more interesting than what the creative team did with it. So there’s that. Nice PTA write-up, though!
It’s a premise I always thought could have benefited from a second season. We talked several times about revisiting it using different game systems. I think I was considering using Fate’s Dresden Files rules at one point… until they actually came out and I realized I didn’t like them.
I don’t know enough about it to recommend it for play, but Demihumans by Robert Bohl is being playtested successfully right now. The summary:
Demihumans is an Apocalypse World hack where the apocalypse is the death of everything and everyone magical in a fantasy human empire.
In the game, you play a group of people living in an enclave; a place within a human-controlled city where non-human people are allowed to live, and perhaps gain some autonomy. You’re the movers and shakers of the enclave. The citizens of note who are trying to keep the place alive in the face of inevitable doom.
I don’t know enough about it to recommend it for play, but Demihumans by Robert Bohl is being playtested successfully right now. The summary:
Demihumans is an Apocalypse World hack where the apocalypse is the death of everything and everyone magical in a fantasy human empire.
In the game, you play a group of people living in an enclave; a place within a human-controlled city where non-human people are allowed to live, and perhaps gain some autonomy. You’re the movers and shakers of the enclave. The citizens of note who are trying to keep the place alive in the face of inevitable doom.
While I did not spot the Traitor playbook (which fills me with dread), what occured to me about it is that it manages to scratch several itches, including “Fantasy tropes in a non-standard setting.”
Given the previously noted insufficiencies of the Roll20 forum system, at such time as we proceed to some other game that might have need for forum space … does anyone have a better forum tool suggestion? Something that can handle everything from schedule notes to general discussions to longer form work, searchable …