| |
| The 'Before I Take This Concept And Run With It' Thread |
« View previous topic :: View next topic » |
| Author |
Message
|
| Zild |
 Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:45 am Post subject: |
  |
|
GREEN
Joined: 09 Sep 2004
Posts: 1812
|
I am liking some of these suggestions  From prisons to cruise ships? Brilliant!
Castaways
Players are stranded on a desert island and must work together towards goals that are vital for their survival - typically tasks on the road to building a ship on which to escape, a settlement in which the community can live out its days, or a means to signal for help.
Of course, not everyone in the community agrees with this goal. There are those who would rather live in peace than die on a deathtrap ship in the cruel seas that claimed their last, far more seaworthy boat. Or those who prefer the middle ground of building a radio, hoping for an eventual safe return to their families. There are those who favour repopulating now (deliberately or otherwise), and those who do not want the extra burden on rations. Those who think criminals still have rights and those who, quite frankly, would rather just eat offenders. If these opinions conflict with that of the "ruling body", they are best kept secret, as the ruling body fears interference...
The "ruling body" is a loose term at best. It may vary from popular opinion to elected elders to whoever recovered the shotgun from the cargo hold (or whoever beat him to death in his sleep and then stole it). It may be non-existant. It may change on a daily basis.
As well as being part of conflicting factions, players may have their own individual secrets to hide. It was they who killed the meddlesome preacher, or they who sabotaged the last ship, or they who stole the last of the shortbread (by far the most heinous crime!) Maybe they are in league with the ruling body and are spying for (or feeding false information to) them?
And why were the players assigned these special duties? Are they the most skilled survivors? The most expendible survivors? The most hated survivors? Is this a punishment duty, perhaps?
The community itself could be of any age and any size, and with any appropriate goals. Perhaps there are just the players relying on their own abilities, or perhaps there are thousands of people - men, women, children - all relying on them. The game could be set immediatley following the accident that caused them to be stranded, where the community's goals might be finding food or shelter, or set generations after, with players hunting a rashion thief or still building that damned boat. Again.
As for time period, it could be any time from the invention of boats through modern day, to the far future.
Of the many possible names, I plumped for "Castaways" because of a possible second meaning - the community could be people cast out from "civilised" society, perhaps along the lines of European "settlers" in Australia. This could add new dimensions, including some form of authority (that could help but generally chooses not to) and occasional boatloads of newcomers.
A similar concept would be colonists deliberately trying to live in a new region but facing unexpected difficulties. Likewise the same but in space, either at the new colony or still on the transport taking them to it.
_________________
Blog: [DELETED FOR SECURITY REASONS] Is A Compliment |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
| Silent |
| Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:52 pm Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 2885
Service Group: HPD&MC
|
| Quote: |
| Of the many possible names, I plumped for "Castaways" because of a possible second meaning - the community could be people cast out from "civilised" society, perhaps along the lines of European "settlers" in Australia. This could add new dimensions, including some form of authority (that could help but generally chooses not to) and occasional boatloads of newcomers. |
Like in Brave New World. The book had dissents exiled over to islands to live a solidatary life...but Hulxey wrote that he thought of an alternate ending where dissents would be exiled into the Free Zone, with all the other savages. He thought that would be a much more better ending.
_________________
| Phial, in ARC wrote: |
| I know I'm a dummy but, I realised as recently as yesterday why the IC game is in PLN sector. |
Silent-B-PLN-6
Chief of Security(pending)
Works in: HPD&MC, Internal Security
Wearing: BLUE Jumpsuit
Silent-V-PLN-10 (deceased) Runs XAI Subsector |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Aratos |
| Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 4622
Service Group: Power Services
|
Huxley also wrote that the whole thing was a mess and listed everything he should have done differently.
Worst. Foreword. Ever.
_________________
Episode 5 info for Aratos-B-SCO-7
Wearing: Trenchcoat, blue jumpsuit, Esoteric Order of the Needlessly Pretentious Subnet Idiots Pin, Reflec
Carrying: Energy pistol and force sword |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Silent |
| Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 2885
Service Group: HPD&MC
|
On a unrelated note, hm, I've seen that few people commented on the other alternate PARANOIA settings. One of the beniefts of this thing is having other people comment with ideas, but we seem unwilling to 'rock the boat', as it is. I'm guilty of that too, so before moving onto detailing the Open-Source Complex, I'm going to comment on all the other PARANOIA settings out there.
Also: I know that, in retrospect, I can't really make "Miskatonic University" because I don't know much about CoC Canon (but the GM's always right). It could be changed into a generic Occult university, with all the insanity involved in that.
_________________
| Phial, in ARC wrote: |
| I know I'm a dummy but, I realised as recently as yesterday why the IC game is in PLN sector. |
Silent-B-PLN-6
Chief of Security(pending)
Works in: HPD&MC, Internal Security
Wearing: BLUE Jumpsuit
Silent-V-PLN-10 (deceased) Runs XAI Subsector |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Scalene |
| Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 1814
Service Group: Power Services
|
| Silent wrote: |
| Also: I know that, in retrospect, I can't really make "Miskatonic University" because I don't know much about CoC Canon (but the GM's always right). It could be changed into a generic Occult university, with all the insanity involved in that. |
Ah, it was Call of Cthullu you were channeling there. I thought you'd visited my uni.
(On that note: elitist university setting? Backstabbing is based on sabotaging a student's grades.)
_________________
¬_¬
  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| No.5127 |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:50 am Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 03 Aug 2007
Posts: 1060
Service Group: Technical Services
|
Not being so original...
(sometimes, if ever, I refer to 'me', when say "we")
Still, there are some 'pop' genres, so, to make up something truly specific theme is not the solution. Maybe we should concentrate more not on the universes, but on plots and situations?
My mind can't create something "out-of-the-box". What I could write down about settings is not makes me encouraged enough. There are
- Fanstasy settings,
- Star travels,
- Westerns,
- Cultists and Elder Gods,
- Games about Pirates,
- Games about Ninja,
- Hackers and The Net,
- James Bonds,
- and so on.
My eyes say to create a world (a setting like listed above) you do the following: 1) timetravel; 2) choose a profession; 3) write a book; 4) sell it to publisher
But it will lead to dead end of clishes (or creating another boring rpg). 'Paranoia is a state of mind' (tm). So, I had a thought, why we concentrate our power (i mean minds) on Paranoia book of 80-s? What we love in games? It's not the timeline where our characters act. It is not the weapons and gadgets PCs get. It's not the process of solving puzzles. It is not the plot, Gm has been written since he was ten.
The game it is not only the summ of these elements. We love "battle in the Moon Temple" because our characters were intrapped, because clerik (medbot) was helpfull, because warrior and wizzard protected us while rogue worked with the gate doors. We love the situation itself; our teamplay, how we, i mean our characters reacted to what had happened.
Once again, we like "Mr. Bubbles" (or the other missions) because it feeds us interesting scenes; not because PCs have laser pistols and everything happens in the far, far, far galaxy...
We love Paranoia because it offers "strange" expirience of betraying, it has The Friend Computer and games fly with fun.
My main question here is why we try to make up something similar. Lasers, teleportation, service groups, mutant powers, totalitarian state, cloning... I propose to switch to scene-creating. If you change Alpha Complex to hive, or 1920-30ss Capone's Chicago, it all will stay as it were. It will be only change of decorations. Not a core change.
Switch to sutiation. To the scene. Like in theatre.
In usual Paranoia game we have 6 Troubleshooters and a mission they should fulfil. Why not to change IT? (I know, this may sound as a Satan-worphiper entered a Church) Make a change not the surroundings, but the concept itself.
Paranoia is the state of mind, remember?
When I clicked 'post a reply' I didn't even know I would type the text You have just read. I just wanted to wonder why nobody mentioned such popular themes as, for instance, Zombies?
'Left 4 Dead' is a popular video-game. PLN forum had many ideas of Zombie-invasion: Moto42's Rom-R-ROW Nanospray; similar Repelent of ressurection; couple of missions, like Aratos' Zombie Ninja Communists from HEL Sector , or Night of the Living in the Dead Sector; plus plot and characters in Forum Game... and so on.
I remembered the talk with Aratos about Zombie!!! table-top game.
So, you know the origins of this 'idea'.
State of Zombies. Zombies are everywhere. Two weeks have passed since the first infection. In a several days Zombies captured whole world. Small groups of survivors fight their lives. And sometimes they sucseed.
Players are the survivors. They hide from the hoard for 2 weeks. But today morning they've received the radio message. It says there is a military camp. They got food, medicine, electricity, water and other stuff.
The coordinates of the place are...
The game begins in the place, well baricaded from the Zombies. But the case is... there are several groups of survivors who had the information. Or to be exact, there were several groups.
You are as the player is the only scout (or survivor) from your group. The others are dead (or barricaded in the deep bunker waiting for approval of radio's information). So, you forced to work together with other players to find out if the message is truth.
In the Zombie!!! table-top game the winner is the first player who jumped to the helicopter. So, there might be only one seat ('it is very convinient to be the only troubleshooter in the mission debriefing') in the helicopter.
And so on... just recollect some zombie-movies clishes. And remember - "there can be only one".
Zild's Castaways and his mention of 'cruise ships' is another "oh, i've remembered something". Battlestar Galactica TV series. The humanity is almost destroyed. The only survived spaceships are pursued by Cyclones (human-made race, which wants humans dead). But the Paranoia part is that some people are 'sleepr-agents' for Cyclones.
Everything you have read -> IMHO.
And nothing (as I think) may be asumed as spoiler, Zild. Yes. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Adam-R-LON-1 |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
INDIGO
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3852
Service Group: HPD&MC
|
| Quote: |
State of Zombies.
[etc.] |
This outline bears no similarity to the PARANOIA mindset whatsoever. Firstly, the enemy is not an ambiguous invisible one that you're not sure even exists; it's a very real and obvious one that you are mounting an organised defence against. The obligatory big overbearing authority that the players must blindly obey is absent; the survivors have more or less free will. There is no fundamental conflict of interest between the players; they have to actively rely on each other for survival. Your 'first person to get in the chopper wins!' seems tacked-on to what is a completely different game to PARANOIA.
_________________
For the Glory of Friend Computer! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Aratos |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 5:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 4622
Service Group: Power Services
|
| Adam-R-LON-1 wrote: |
| Quote: |
State of Zombies.
[etc.] |
This outline bears no similarity to the PARANOIA mindset whatsoever. Firstly, the enemy is not an ambiguous invisible one that you're not sure even exists; it's a very real and obvious one that you are mounting an organised defence against. The obligatory big overbearing authority that the players must blindly obey is absent; the survivors have more or less free will. There is no fundamental conflict of interest between the players; they have to actively rely on each other for survival. Your 'first person to get in the chopper wins!' seems tacked-on to what is a completely different game to PARANOIA. |
No, no, I disagree. The mentality of survival at all costs to the point of not being able to trust your fellow surivers is in line with the Paranoia mindset. A fundamental conflict of interest is creatable: just check out the films of John Romero. I particularly reccomend Diary of the Dead as a fantastic example.
As for the authority figure: maybe we can remove that and keep Paranoia. I'd like to see it tried.
_________________
Episode 5 info for Aratos-B-SCO-7
Wearing: Trenchcoat, blue jumpsuit, Esoteric Order of the Needlessly Pretentious Subnet Idiots Pin, Reflec
Carrying: Energy pistol and force sword |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Adam-R-LON-1 |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
INDIGO
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3852
Service Group: HPD&MC
|
How would you not be able to trust your fellow survivors? Would they all be undercover researchers for biological weapon developers?
_________________
For the Glory of Friend Computer! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| mungo |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
RED
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 84
Service Group: R&D
|
If I might throw something else this whole zombie thing...
I hesitate to throw this out there, because there's direct overlap with an RPG I've already written (currently done, just waiting on art and layout, should be release Octoberish). But I think that you could get more mileage out of Paranoia and Zombies if the players are the Zombies (that's the general thrust of my RPG).
It means you have to back away a bit from some of the more traditional Zombie stereotypes (mindless cannibals shuffling openly through the world trying to eat you). But you get quite a lot in return. Consider:
1 - You got bitten and died and now you're a zombie. But nobody knows and if they find out they will certainly kill you, or at the very least freak right the hell out.
2 - You are decomposing. That makes it really hard to keep the whole 'I'm dead' thing a secret.
3 - You have an uncontrollable drive to consume human flesh. That also makes it hard to keep the whole 'I'm A Zombie' a secret.
4 - EVERYONE wants a piece of you (the government, misguided zombie fanatics, etc)
5 - You can withstand damage that would easily kill a living human (properly managed this could be used in place of clones).
It's a very different way to look at Zombies. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Aratos |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 4622
Service Group: Power Services
|
| Adam-R-LON-1 wrote: |
| How would you not be able to trust your fellow survivors? Would they all be undercover researchers for biological weapon developers? |
Limited food, limited weapons, limited chance of escape, to name but a few.
_________________
Episode 5 info for Aratos-B-SCO-7
Wearing: Trenchcoat, blue jumpsuit, Esoteric Order of the Needlessly Pretentious Subnet Idiots Pin, Reflec
Carrying: Energy pistol and force sword |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| No.5127 |
| Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 03 Aug 2007
Posts: 1060
Service Group: Technical Services
|
Moreover, if you want a powerful force, let the Horde be The Friend Computer. I don't think that this transformation is very hard. 'Not avaible at this clearance' = controlled by the zombies; 'you need to take a medicine' = some zombies spread new infection (zombie flu); 'please, attend confession booth' = a sudden zombie attack.
You do the same thing as you do playing normal Paranoia, but 'justifying' a FC's action by 'logical' and mindless zombie behavior.
Yes, now troubleshooters have the only goal, but every game session will not be the same. While escape your team might pursue the traitor ('the guy, who 's stolen the last can of water'), deliver a message ('oh, please, give this letter to my daughter, i've been bitten and have no chance to meet her again'), test weird equipment ('whooa, look, MC truck, what's inside?') and so on.
Clonning process may be replaced by founding new survivors. Barricaded priest in the church, or just a guy who 've heard the shots and came closer to see... Technically you just cross over the name of your dead survivor and write new name above it. Gm still have imagination. I don't know if it is harder that making up pervercity modificator's results.
And you always can limit a player that he may found only 5 new survivors. Degradation rules from Big Red Book on further clones works here.
Where is Paranoia? As always, in deep secrets of character sheets.
Let's just rename secret societies' goals to 'personal flaws'. And mutations works good too. It's like side-effect to live in post-zombie world. Imagine, would you shut down the fellow (a mutie) after you discover he's just cropped zombies with his (like Wolvereen's in X-Men) claws? Or an innocent girl, sticked to the ceiling in attempt to escape deadly zombies?
Like Aratos said, food, weapons, limited hope.
Plus the main paranoia that any person WILL hide a bite. Nobody knows that a guy in the yellow cap has a scare scar because his girlfriend fired at him several days ago. Nobody will listen to him. Survival is the idea. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Silent |
| Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 2885
Service Group: HPD&MC
|
| Quote: |
| Firstly, the enemy is not an ambiguous invisible one that you're not sure even exists; it's a very real and obvious one that you are mounting an organised defence against |
Yeah, the enemy being those organized looters and biker gangs taking advantage of the chaos to form their own fiefdom and kill off all rival humans that stands in their way. The enemy being the paranoid military personel ordered to kill all suspected zombies...and that includes you. The enemy being the insane, the crazy, the lunatics, all who has lost their minds and will stop at nothing to enforce their delusions onto you.
I heard that in Romeo's movies, the villians are not the zombies...but your fellow Man.
_________________
| Phial, in ARC wrote: |
| I know I'm a dummy but, I realised as recently as yesterday why the IC game is in PLN sector. |
Silent-B-PLN-6
Chief of Security(pending)
Works in: HPD&MC, Internal Security
Wearing: BLUE Jumpsuit
Silent-V-PLN-10 (deceased) Runs XAI Subsector |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Scalene |
| Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 1814
Service Group: Power Services
|
If you've ever played Left 4 Dead on a public server, you'll know that your fellow survivors are even more deadly than the zombies.
EDIT: You can solve the problem of making the threat nameless by making zombies rare.
Chuck the players in a room that loses power, have screams of a zombie horde... then watch the horde run past the dark room. They can just see the massive dark shape, and any blood spilt will attract them.
The entire time the team's trying to resist the urge to kill each other - because if they do, they'll die as well.
Can't think of anything more Paranoid than that.
_________________
¬_¬
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Aratos |
| Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:14 am Post subject: |
|
|
BLUE
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 4622
Service Group: Power Services
|
| Silent wrote: |
I heard that in Romeo's movies, the villians are not the zombies...but your fellow Man. |
Although the zombies are the greater threat, in terms of chance of horrible death and zombification.
Good films.
_________________
Episode 5 info for Aratos-B-SCO-7
Wearing: Trenchcoat, blue jumpsuit, Esoteric Order of the Needlessly Pretentious Subnet Idiots Pin, Reflec
Carrying: Energy pistol and force sword |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting new topics in this forum is not available at your clearance
Replying in this forum is not available at your clearance
Editing new topics in this forum is not available at your clearance
Deleting your posts in this forum is not available at your clearance
Voting in this forum is not available at your clearance
|
|
|
|
