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Dumb gaming idea?
Oct. 29th, 2012 01:40 pmOr awesomest gaming idea EVAR?
So, you have Palladium's Rifts, a postapocalyptic roleplaying game of man meets magic and machines, only pumped up to ridiculous proportions. Originally the setting was built as a "if you use Palladium rules you can dump your characters here," but the fluff for the setting itself wound up being childlike in its infectious energy and compelling in a way many Palladium settings meant to dump in were not.
Chicago is the capital of a human supremacist empire which sends its skeletal-fashioned minions out to strike at the magic-using interdimensional nations to the north. Atlantis has risen and weird eyeball-fixated creatures do a snappy trade in human slaves when they're not trading magic with ley line walkers or getting shot at by gleaming power suit armor. The southeast is now a giant swamp infested by dinosaurs and Mexico is full of and ruled by vampires. Juicers are chemical fueled supermen for a few years until that faustian bargain completely overloads their system, and some of them have started a revolt.
Sadly, the crunch part of it is kind of obscure and subject to rules creep. Most everyone I've met is familiar with the setting and would never play it. It's sort of a bad joke, which is too bad - it really is a fun setting.
But what if there were already some sort of system built to handle the convoluted mess of man meeting magic and machines, with a swift and smart way of handling gunplay and magic and even vehicular combat, and robust enough to handle players wanting characters who were anything from elves to wereseals to bizarre mutants? (And if the system can do elves, wereseals and bizarre mutants, why not aliens, Wolfen, Coyles and Kankoran?).
Why, by sheer chance, there is 4e Shadowrun.
So, you have Palladium's Rifts, a postapocalyptic roleplaying game of man meets magic and machines, only pumped up to ridiculous proportions. Originally the setting was built as a "if you use Palladium rules you can dump your characters here," but the fluff for the setting itself wound up being childlike in its infectious energy and compelling in a way many Palladium settings meant to dump in were not.
Chicago is the capital of a human supremacist empire which sends its skeletal-fashioned minions out to strike at the magic-using interdimensional nations to the north. Atlantis has risen and weird eyeball-fixated creatures do a snappy trade in human slaves when they're not trading magic with ley line walkers or getting shot at by gleaming power suit armor. The southeast is now a giant swamp infested by dinosaurs and Mexico is full of and ruled by vampires. Juicers are chemical fueled supermen for a few years until that faustian bargain completely overloads their system, and some of them have started a revolt.
Sadly, the crunch part of it is kind of obscure and subject to rules creep. Most everyone I've met is familiar with the setting and would never play it. It's sort of a bad joke, which is too bad - it really is a fun setting.
But what if there were already some sort of system built to handle the convoluted mess of man meeting magic and machines, with a swift and smart way of handling gunplay and magic and even vehicular combat, and robust enough to handle players wanting characters who were anything from elves to wereseals to bizarre mutants? (And if the system can do elves, wereseals and bizarre mutants, why not aliens, Wolfen, Coyles and Kankoran?).
Why, by sheer chance, there is 4e Shadowrun.