Jumanji

[Thymos]

Jumanji

I was watching Jumanji on the TV the other day and it occurred to me that this would probably make for a pretty good one-shot RPG system. So to follow Frank's Flowchart to at least get the ball rolling:

Name the PCs

My suggestion is "The Players" since they are playing a board game.

Step 2: Write up a Six Person Party

I'm just doing this on the fly.

The Cheater- This player has cheated before the game starts, or must cheat asap. They assume a cross form between animal and human. This gifts them with a few advantages depending on the animal, but at the same time causes other humans to look at them with fear, disgust, or even hostility.

The Survivor- This person knows how to survive in the wild. Whether from being trapped in the game or experienced in the real world, they know how to survive in the wild. They contribute knowledge and skills, but suffer in knowledge of the modern world.

The Adult- The Adult ties the team together and has common sense on their side. Whether the team needs someone to drive a car, or to remind them what they are doing is fundamentally stupid, the Adult is the one with common sense.

The Riddler- The Riddler does exactly what you think they do in their spare time. They solve riddles. While this person may not being really helpful at anything else, they also aren't useless either. Their real strength though is in helping solve or at least generate a clue about the riddles the game gives before the turn takes place, giving the players valuable forewarning.

The Child- The Child is a lucky one and a jack of all trades. The Child tends to be forgotten by some of the threats presented by the game, written off. This is a mistake, because they child is generally helpful, and above all lucky. If you need something in a pinch to go right the Child can make sure luck is on the team's side.

The Cop- The Cop doesn't always need to start as one of the Players, perhaps stumbling onto the people playing already. Still, once they know their help is needed the Cop can provide valuable help. Knowing how to use a gun and police training can give the players a valuable edge.

Step 3: Write up a Three Person Party

The Survivor, The Cheater, and The Riddler. Between the Riddler's forewarning, the Survivors knowledge, and the Cheaters mutation, they can tackle the challenges with preparedness and skill. While they won't be able to rely too much on the outside world or others for help, they can make due by themselves.

Step Four: Outline an Adventure

Once you start playing Jumanji, not knowing what your getting into, you need to finish. The goal of the adventure is to beat the game and undo all the horrible havoc it's wreaked on the players lives.

The Players would take turns. They can have set up time between their turns, but hopefully as the game progresses past challenges will urge players to take their turns quicker to beat the clock. Whenever the players take a new turn, the board presents the clue before the next event happens. The one-shot of course ends with the players having learnt valuable lessons from their ordeals, or having given up on finishing the game after some horrible losses.

All of the players should be able to contribute somewhat to most of turn's problems. While some every player won't explicitly be able to help with every problem this should only last until the next problem or the one after that.

Step Five: Write out a campaign

Since this is intended as a oneshot, this really isn't needed.

Step Six: Choose a Base System

I'm not really sure. It would preferably have all the players at human level but able to withstand the problems and slowly be worn down.

Tables would also have to be created for generating the turns that players have to suffer. This would be easily ported to any system though, and mostly consists of stretching our imagination.

Step Seven: Do the Math

I don't even have a base system in mind.

I just had this idea and wanted to get the ball rolling if anyone else is interested (like the aWoD stuff where one person isn't generating everything).

[koz]

Something based on Shadowrun or WoD might be what you want system-wise.

[MartinHarper]

I think this would work well as a Black Forest scenario. Cursed with Furry is a class you pick up when it's narratively appropriate.

[Mask_De_H]

What MartinHarper said.

[Josh_Kablack]

Sounds like a great trial run for Black Forest.

But I'm curious about The Other Cursed Game(s)..?

Seriously, this should be expandable from just the Jungle-Based Jumanji to the Space-Based Zathura to various other setting/trope based games (Pirates, Egypt, and Dinosaurs come to mind).

In that case, The Cheater needs to be broadened beyond animal hybrid

[Judging__Eagle]

The Cheaters turn into whatever the game throws at the players.

The Cheater is more "actor" than they are "Cheater"; able to change into a pirate, space robot, Egyptian Monster-man, Cave man what hunts dinosaurs, etc., and are treated as if they are natives to whatever setting they are in.

[Thymos]

I like the idea of making it portable to all the different Genre's. I was thinking that some vague rules about where the people are playing would be cool too. Something like Mansion, Forest, etc.

How complex do the Board game rules need to be?

In the Movie surviving was the challenge, the actual game consisted of rolling the dice and trying to be lucky.

[Judging__Eagle]

You need have the whole campaign pre-written as phases. Yes, it's a campaign. Each scene is it's own adventure, and they all string along, or can be shuffled.

This... sort of sounds like Betrayal at House on the Hill.

The players literally "play" as players around a game, and get sucked into it each time they play a new game.

You have the...

-Intro Phase, the "players" find out what crazy game they're playing next
-Entry Phase, the players enter the game's world and meet a native, or see some sights

-Exploration Phase, the players start looking around, discovering cool things, meeting helpers, finding an item, etc.

-Terrible realization, the game has some side effects, either elephants attack your town, or your house is now in space, or you're all on a merchant ship about to be attacked by pirates; or you're on a pirate ship about to be attacked by the royal navy.

This is basically the "haunting" phase in a Betrayal at House on the Hill game.

-Immersive adventures, join the natives and kill the elephants; help a robot gain freedom from their creator; fight on the high seas

-Try to undo the problem, try to get out of the game

-Fight a big bad that is chasing you, or stopping you

-Get the item, achieve the goal, that will get you all out.

-Escape to the real world

Those are the elements that most of those stories have. This isn't just Jumanji, it's also Peter Pan, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Basically, this is the "Hero's Journey". Calling it "Heroic Journeys" is probably more apt than Jumanji is.

Which makes this idea really fucking GOOD. i never thought of turning the hero's journey into an actual game. Most games start with the characters somewhere along the line in their own hero's journey. While this one is meant to go full cycle more than once with the same characters.