User:BenofZongo
My Games:
BWWWWAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! GAMES!:
The House of Usher (no! No violate the copyright! Bad Ben!)
For one shots, etc. once the rules are actually released and found to be adequately "good": Unhallowed Metropolis [1]
High Fantasy: I know that Jason hates this genre, but I wonder if it could be done right. The answer “probably not”...but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in giving it a shot. I do not know details of how I would try to pull this off, but the bottom line would be: it's all fair game: dwarves, elves, mages, priests, clerics, rangers, Dragons, gryphons, undead, etc. Obviously, dramatic tension in this world would have to come from somewhere else than surprise. I have this sneaking suspicion that this could make for a fun setting though.EDIT: my current working idea for this genre is a world war kind of situation. stay tuned for wtf I mean by that.
New thoughts: This game would be run as another take on the "roaming ship/firefly" type of game. In the game world as I have started constructing it, the open sea is essentially monopolized by one group, who let no one else leave coastal waters. Similar to Antares darkeye and the wormhole, the group has a navigator and a ship capable of at least partially circumventing this monopoly. This gives them a considerable edge in trading/carrying information/etc. Also, the game, in the spirit of the game Jason used to play in, would have players making members of the crew: but since the crew would be 30+ in total, each player would be allowed to make, at the beginning of the game, likely one high powered (3rd tier, in WHFRP), two mid tier (completed 1st tier, or possibly partway through 2nd tier), and one low tier (beginning character) character, with the option of spontaneously making new members of the crew as situation demanded, until the full complement was reached. Obviously, the higher the level of the character, the more "baggage" the character would have: more enemies, more rivalries, more debts unpaid, more obvious in a crowd, etc. Also, the ship being a joint enterprise, all monetary rewards would be evenly split among the entire crew (thus abrogating the danger of letting low level characters suddenly jump up to ridiculous gear). Finally, another mechanic I think I would try is that all earned xp would go into a "pool": the players could then jointly decide which members of the crew they would like to spend xp on. Limits on how much xp a given character could receive per session would be based on their tier (low level characters could get at most 1-200 xp a session, the maximum increasing based on the power of the character). Thus, the group could just be egalitarian, or in certain circumstances (such as when faced by a certain type of job they want to take requiring X skill base), they could communally dump 500+ xp a session into one crew member to get them "up to speed". Also, i think certain types of gear would have "specialist weapon group" requirements, and possibly minimum stat requirements.
BWWWWAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! NEW GAMES!:
3.)I've alluded to this before, but I've been working on a system which basically mirrors the “world of darkness” of white wolf. The major difference with my system is that there are no hard distinctions between mages, werewolves, and vampires, etc: all supernatural creatures just manifest their abilities and their “hunger” as it were, in different forms (read “night watch”, the book, not the movie). This game would use the Gemini system, with an exchange of storytelling for a "magic" characteristic that would be a catch-all for any special abilities you might want. Characters would fall into 3 "classes": Corpus (body), Mens (mind), and Cor (heart): Corpus characters have innate, instinctual abilities that are part of their body (ie, vampires, werewolves, likely daemons). They would be limited in how much magic they could take (without increased cost), but their magic points would reset every scene. In addition, they would generate "hunger" of some sort by using their powers and have certain weaknesses (silver, crosses, whatever). Mens characters consciously manipulate energy (ie mages/spellcasters) and have no limit to their magic characteristic, and also pay slightly less per magic point, but must roll for their effects and their magic points only reset at the beginning of each session: also, they have the risk of burnout. Cor characters manipulate energy through emotions or when in their element (such as the swordmaster who is totally average until he picks up a blade). These characters always pay a premium (ie 2x cost) for their magic points, but they reset whenever the character wants (even within a scene). Cor characters would also have to roll for their effects, but do not suffer burnout.
4.) Bring back the Iliadic Game, albeit with different characters. The game would still be set in the Greek Dark Ages, circa 1000 BC. The world is in chaos after the fall of the last great heroes at Troy, and chaos and darkness is beginning to envelop the civilizations of the world. There are still some who have the favor of the Gods, albeit much less favor than the heroes of old: such are the characters, defined by a "path" which both restricts how they must act to appease their patron deity and which gives them strength when attempting acts in the name of their god. I think that if I ran a new version of this game, it would be set in the island nation (a nation composed of several large and small islands) of Atlantis
5.) Another idea I've had recently, which is still in the earliest stages of conception, is a setting in which two parallel fairy-tale worlds, one being the "tragic" fairy tale world and the other being the "happy" fairy tale world, merge, leaving a disoriented new world which has elements of both. Currently what I'm working with on this idea is that there would be different levels of heroes and villains from both worlds, which would sort of function as "classes": how you build your character would be based on this. THis game would likely use a highly ambiguous system like DitV, with a cooperative "casting" system in which members of the group could "power up" each others' spells/abilities as well as adding a bit of their own flavor to these effects.
6.) I'm starting to really want to run a game set in the WH40K universe. this is something that has come up time and time again, and it always ends up getting shot down or disappearing (both Matt and I, I know for a fact, have thought about creating games in this setting before). This game would use one of two systems, either SMitV (cause I really liked how it ran when dieter and I played it) but more likely straight up, nearly unmodified Cyberpunk/Gemini. This game would be high combat (reminiscent of the cyberpunk game I ran) with mission style game play in which the group gets objectives that they have to achieve. Large combats (the group would be at the head of some sort of small battlegroup of 10-50 soldiers) would be resolved using tabletop warhammer, with slight modifications. Players would get to make their own characters, but after my Gemini experience, the bar would be set much higher in terms of what I would and would not allow, so put some effort into making a group-functional character (we all know each others' play styles, so that's something worth taking into account...) In this scenario I would strongly advocate for space marines as characters: I think this group would make for the most stylistic and interesting game play, especially if set in the first edition universe.
This game would be set on a planet largely overrun by a chaos cult supported by the Heart Ripper Chapter of Khornate space marines. The characters could play as part of one of three groups of marines on the planet: a large group preparing to assault an important religious stronghold in the hands of the cultists, a very small group moving covertly across the planet running interference and engaging in guerilla combat, or a mid-size group surrounded and engaged in a "last stand" defence of the planet's main armory. In the first case, the characters would probably have 1-2 officers above them, in the other two, the characters would represent the ranking officers. Also, only one player would be permitted to make an "auxiliary" (ie, librarian, techmarine, dreadnaught, non-marine support staff, etc.): which types of auxiliaries would be available depends on which group you pick (for instance, in the first and second case librarian would be available, but not in the third, while dreadnaught would be available for #3 but not 1 or 2.)
players could choose one of the following chapters:
1.) Hydra Warriors: motto: e pluribus unum (one out of many): a chapter famed for its tactical flexibility and broad based approach
2.) Iron Reapers: motto: mors omnia vincit (death conquers all): seige and trench warfare specialists.
3.) Legio Mortis (legion of death): motto: Caedo (Kill): strategy/tactics experts.
4.) Angels of Mercy: motto: mors clementia imperatoris (death is the mercy of the emperor): pious but generally less bloodthirsty chapter.
5.) Lamentors: motto: imperatoris lamenteant inimici (let the enemies of the emperor mourn). Grim and determined, the lamentors are known for unshakeable resolve and a willingness to utilize any means necessary to destroy the foes of mankind.
My Current Characters:
My past characters:
