Game Interest: Several Ideas!

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MrTweedy
Posts: 281
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2019 8:56 pm
Location: England

Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by MrTweedy »

Hi there!

So, I've been going over this system for a while, and I am now looking to try my hand at gm'ing a game! I'm wrapping up another game at the moment, so will be able to start something up here soon. So a little bit about me: I may have never gm'd this system, but I do have a couple of years of gm experience. I've been running a few games with the star wars FFG system (two in person and something like four on the ffg community board). I may be a little rusty on some of the finer points of the games, but I am confident I'll learn the full details quickly enough, and with a little help here or there it should be running fine in no time. In terms of posting speed, I usually aim for once or twice a week, so there's plenty of time for people to stay involved.

I usually like to play games with a nice mix of humour and seriousness, so there will hopefully be something for everyone. One of the things I love with this game is the sheer scale of possibilities. The freeform style means you can do pretty much anything, run any setting so there are a lot of options for different games. The problems here is that I am unsure of what game to run, so I thought I would put it to you lot! If anyone is interested in playing with a gm new to the system, please let me know what kind of game you would be interested in! From there I can makes a choice that will hopefully please the most people. I have narrowed it down to a few different options, so hopefully some of these will be appealing:
  • The Frontlines: Power Level, 8-10. Scale, multi-regional (several countries). Setting, Historical. Style, greyscale leaning to dark. The basic concept for this game would be that the pc's would be soldiers fighting for the allies during the final years of WWII. This would probably focus on the European conflict, but other theatres of war could be the pacific, Africa etc. There would be a mixture of mass combat, large battle both on the land and in the air (maybe at sea depending on the region) as well as commando style missions of just the pc's taking on the axis's own elite. This would be a high power game, by which I mean you would come across many officers and elite soldiers on both sides with powers and special abilities. The darker scale is to represent the violence that would probably be seen in battle (war is not glorious). There would be an overarching objective for the players, set by officers etc. but what you guys do is largely up to yourself. The pc's may decide to push onto Berlin, or go after a group of civilians that need saving. Maybe you decide to hunt down the scientist producing all the high-tech for the axis, or simply choose to go rogue and do a 'Kelly's Heroes'. The possibilities are pretty wide, and can be focused down if people are interested.
  • The Suits: Power level, 8-12. Scale, global. Setting, Historical. Style, greyscale. So this idea is coming from settings such as X-Com, Hellboy, MiB, Warehouse 13 etc. Pc's would be playing as agents in a shady international body looking to contain the strange and the supernatural. Either by containing it or destroying it, just so long as the public don't know the truth. In terms of characters, this game would be using super hero types less, and using more 'regular' people working with high-tech gadgets and weapons to deal with there problems. Of course there may be a couple of players who do have powers (low level heroes such as hellboy or a character with psi abilities). This setting would be a lot more focused, with players responding to anomalies and investigating strange reports. Of course there is still plenty of freedom for player to do what they want outside of work, dealing with family and other activities they are involved in. This game would focus a lot more on personal life as well as missions compared to the above game, so there's plenty of time of opportunity for character development. In terms of the setting, I'm thinking that the cold wars would be a great choice, plenty of espionage and butting heads with other agencies looking to make a prfit on the strange occurences.
  • The Education System: Power Level, 8-10 (hero high scale for power level). Scale, local. Setting, Modern. Style, light. This idea is pretty straight forward. The players would be students going to a local high school for heroes. This would be a setting where powers are pretty common (hence the need for hero schools), where having powers is an everyday thing for many people. Of course not everyone can go to places like Claermont. Sometimes your local school is the only option. This game would focus on learning the be a hero, using powers and generally learning the skills needed to be an adult. There would be a lot of opportunities for character developments and forming relationships with other students and people outside of school. I would also like to try out the idea of one of the interschool style competitions (see in almost every films focusing around a school), pitting students against each other in tests of power.
  • Ancient China: Power Level, 10-15. Scale, Regional. Setting, Historical. Style, greyscale. Ancient China has always been an interesting setting, full of mysticism and conflict, so it could be a very interesting setting for this game. I'd plan to set this game during the 1200's and the Mongolian invasion. This game would be fairly freeform with the players being able to give the opportunity to investigate the wonders of the land around them. The overarching theme would be trying to defend the region from the Mongolians pushing into the Jurchen Jin Dynasty. This game would see a wide variety of settings and scenarios, ranging from sieges to investigating ancient temples to fighting ancient sprits or kungfu masters.
  • The Borderlands: Power Level 8-10. Scale, Global. Setting, Futuristic. Style, Greyscale. Inspired by Borderlands 3 coming out, this setting would actually take place ont he planet of Pandora from the game. My idea for this game is to set it before the first game during the 'corporate wars'. I like the idea of Pandora being one of the many planets effected by the various weapons manufactures battling for dominance in the galaxy. I was thinking for this the players would be agents for the companies sent to Pandora for various reasons, but are brought together for a goal that would interest all parties. This would be a little different to the other games, as you guys would not be the heroes, if there even are heroes in the game. The characters would range from mercenaries to treasure hunters and corporate stooges. The possibilities are pretty wide. This game would involve a lot of exploring, killing and looting, but would be a little different to the games. For example, although there will be loot, I can't recreate the system the game uses, so it will be on a lesser scale. As you would expect from any Borderlands setting, you can expect a vault of some kind.
So, if any of these take your fancy, please let me know! I do have some other ideas, but these are my main ones.
Last edited by MrTweedy on Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hoid
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by Hoid »

M&M2e? M&M3e?
MrTweedy
Posts: 281
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Location: England

Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by MrTweedy »

Sorry, forgot to specify. This will be M&M3e because that's the only one I know how to play.
Hoid
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by Hoid »

Ok.
jmucchiello
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by jmucchiello »

A couple of them interest me. Suits and ancient china. Although my knowledge of ancient china is probably horribly conflated with other ancient Asian locales.
Flynnarrel
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by Flynnarrel »

Welcome to the boards and to M&M!

Frontlines, Suits, and Education System interest me most.
"Something pithy this way comes."
MrTweedy
Posts: 281
Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2019 8:56 pm
Location: England

Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by MrTweedy »

jmucchiello, thanks for the interest! I would say don't worry about too much about knowledge of the setting for the ancient China game. I will be able to give a basic overview of the key information at the start. Plus this is not a historically accurate game, the players could very easily shift the course of history with their actions, so historical knowledge is not a prerequisite for the game.

Flynnarrel, thanks for the welcome! So currently this puts the Suits at the top of the interest list. I'm wrapping up the final scene of the current game, and then I will be setting up the one here. This should give anyone interested a chance to put forward their choice. I'm hoping it won't be much more than a week or so till I can get things running.

If anyone wants further details on any of the game options above, please let me know and I'll get some more information out!
CaptainKaulu
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by CaptainKaulu »

I'd be up for any of these except The Borderlands. The Frontlines or Ancient China would probably be my top 2 votes.
Spectrum
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by Spectrum »

Welcome to the playhouse!

Frontlines sounds like a lot of grim fun.
The two historical are closely tied for second.
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
jmucchiello
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by jmucchiello »

Frontlines is my least favorite right before Borderlands. The student one could also be interesting even though I'm already in a Hero High game.
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Shadowmask
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by Shadowmask »

I like the Suits idea though PL 8 to 12 seem a little overpowered.
MrTweedy
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Location: England

Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by MrTweedy »

CaptainKaulu, thanks for the input! I'll make a note of your choices.

Spectrum, thanks for the welcome! I'll write down your choices as well to keep track.

Shadowmask, it's a fair point. My reason for the power level was to represent to increase in technology etc. that the players would be able to gather other the duration of the game. I may lower it to 10, but I'll see closer to the time.

Currently the Suits is the most popular game, with Ancient China and the Frontlines are very close seconds.
Plan b
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by Plan b »

Interested in "education system " and "front lines"
MrTweedy
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by MrTweedy »

Thanks for the interest Plan b! This brings the Front Line and the Suits equal in terms of interest.
jmucchiello
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Re: Game Interest: Several Ideas!

Post by jmucchiello »

Curious about Frontline, are you planning to do anything to up the lethality? M&M makes it difficult to kill someone as written.
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