A new challenge (Hard Mode)

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:23 am

It's a big picture, so...

Originated on /tg/, where you don't know what you roll until you post - the benefit here is that nobody will ever know how many times you re-rolled because the results were too stupid/boring/already done.

There is a version somewhere with Bonus Points options ("include some art that you did", "No dice", "No GM", "No Players") and things to spend Bonus Points on ("Extra page" and similar), but whatever.

It's worth looking at just for a chuckle, not necessarily for actually doing anything. But as a time-waster project because you're bored? It has potential.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:50 am

I got Destruction, Central Asia, and Modern World.

So in the spirit of saying fuck you to the conceits of the system, I would hypothetically design a game around A meteor crashing into Central Asia and giving birth to Star Children who you play as, where your job is to marshal your Star Children into Wiping out Humanity.

It would be one of those "you gain arbitrary power source by wiping out humans and their artifacts, which you can in turn use to destroy more of them." And of course, the more you destroy, the more they turn against you.

So you begin with a single Star Child who vaporizes people at a touch and tries to kill enough in the starting area that by the time the Police show up you've bought energy shields, and by the time the Military is involved, you have an army of lazer eyed hyperspeed Star Children, and then when Nukes are involves, you are already all over the world, and you secretly trick them into Nuking places to give you more power while you teleport your armies out at the last minute.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 8:57 am

That's at least kind of cool. I got elves, beauty and madness. That already exists, it's the Elf Book for AD&D.

A re-roll gives us a good one though: Beastmen, Arson and Convention

So the players are attending a convention of some sort - this gets hammered out at the start of the game. It could be a business convention, in which case their skills are all related to their specialist field in BusinessCorp Pty Ltd. Or it could be an anime convention, giving them powers from their cosplay, or whatever.

But it's under siege by vicious beastmen, which are trying to burn the convention hall down. Thanks to the brickwork outdoors, the monsters are trying to force their way inside so they can start the fire from within. Players need to try to keep them out, Tower Defence style, and then once the beasts get in, they need to rush around putting fires out and trying to use their wits to defeat the (significantly stronger) monsters.

That could make a decent convention game - it has about enough material for a one-off, has the meta thing going by being a convention game about a convention, and then if people at the actual con are dressed as monsters, the players will with no encouragement from you flee from them or tell everyone to attack them.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:01 am

Ham Radios, Dragons, and Piracy. I swear to god, I didn't cheat.

After some kind of mysterious cataclysm in the 1970's, the Earth now consists of chunks of ground mysteriously floating in an endless, albeit breathable, void. No-one knows what lies beneath. Settlements have sprung up from the wreckage of the previous world, and given the vast distances involved and lack of elecromagnetic interference (or something), the preferred method of communication between settlements has become small radios, both scavenged and jury-rigged. As such, given the tiny industrial bases of the tiny island-nations, the preferred method of trade has become large dirigibles.

Apparently as a byproduct of the cataclysm, large, fire-breathing reptiles have started appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, and attacking settlements and shipping. Much to the dismay of dirigible captains everywhere, some groups of pirates have figured out how to tame these dragons, and use them to raid and plunder settlements and shipping. Even worse, certain individuals appear to be able to bond empathically with these creatures, and appear to gain strange powers, along with some kind of sympathetic bond with the dragon in question.

I guess the idea is you'd play a bunch of people, either pirates or just dudes working for a shipping league/settlement, who have manged to bond with a dragon and therefore gain freaky powers, ranging from awesome physical capabilities to minor psychic powers. You'd have social interactions with various powers, scavenging expeditions to find relics of the old world, badass aerial combats between dragon-riders and dirigibles armed with scavenged machine guns, and so on. I'm sure someone with actual talent could do a better job, but at least it's something.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 1:58 pm

So I rerolled three times because its 1am and I'm tired and confused and took that long to realise I wasn't actually rolling a d500.

I respectively managed to roll a d3 and 2d10 and got Magnets Tanks Electronics

Then I rolled a 1d4-1 plus 2d10 (ahah! now I'm rolling a correct d400! no.. wait...) and got Clones Umbrellas Submarines

Then I rolled 1d6-1 plus 2d10 (oh crap what have I done this time, screw it reroll anything over 500) and got Water Madness Public-Transit.

PS I actually own a god damn d5...

I respectively envisage BattleZone 2, which is already an awesome PC game from back in the day. Then basically just wacky James Bond Villians, which I actually ran for over a year as an RPG campaign already... totally had all those things in it...

... and something very weird and possible spooky involving flooding mass insanity and probably a subway train. I will call it 'This will end badly"... the RPG.

edit: or alternatively the EU inexplicably decides to solve it's public transport problems with the worlds biggest and fastest super sonic jet rocket hydro foil nuclear turbo submarine called "Titanic 3". I will call it... 'This will end badly"... the RPG.

But a 1 Page RPG? Everyon'es god damn rules end up being basically the same plus a bullshit variant dice mechanic, you barely have space to write a paragraph per word, explain your bullshit variant dice mechanic and spend another paragraph explaining WTF a rules lite RPG is.

I mean once I point out that say Kaelik basically just rolled up "Play as Godzilla the RPG" and Koumei rolled up "A furry convention that got a bit out of hand and burnt the evidence... the RPG" you basically know the entire contents of the pages already.

Hell that table is bigger than one page.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:34 pm

469 – Theoretical Physics
370 – Money
100 – The 50s

Advanced Research!
It's not stupid... it's Advanced.

The year is 1958, and November is cold. Cold War that is! The Ruskies have launched Sputnik-1 and the world is paralyzed with fear. After all, if you can send something into stable orbit, you could send something into an unstable orbit, perhaps dropping a nuclear warhead on Emporia, Kansas – or any other extremely specific location you cared to name for rhetorical effect!

What this means is that the defense department is in an absolute tizzy attempting to find some sort of super weapon that they can wave at the Soviets in order to show them that America is still the strongest. And that's where you come in: you're a theoretical physicist. With enough funding and graduate students, you could probably design and build a super weapon that would show the Ruskies what-for.

But more importantly, generals are willing to authorize a lot of funding for your projects. And that means that you could finally drive fancy cars and maintain a mistress as befitting your station.

The Department Head and the Doctors

The game is played with one Department Head (DH) and one or more Doctors (PhD). The PhDs play themselves and order around their graduate students. The DH plays everyone else. The DH wears a lot of hats and is also the final word on how events in the world go down. However, it's important to remember that the game is taking place on the fringes of science that no one actually understands, so the way advanced projects work and don't work should be handled cooperatively as much as possible. If someone at the table has a really cool idea on how a device should fail, the DH should probably just roll with that rather than have it burst into realistic but boring flames.

Action Resolution

Most tasks are handled by role playing and the expedient of magical teaparty declarations. A PhD tells the Department Head that they want to do something and the DH tells them how that goes down. The DH presents a situation, and a PhD tells them how they respond to it. And so on. But sometimes it isn't obvious what would or should happen in a particular scenario. And for that, there are random generators that the game uses. Adavanced Research! uses a deck of cards and two six sided dice. The usual way of determining whether a task succeeds is to roll 2d6 and add them together. If you get lucky number 13 or higher, you succeed! Now, you don't have to be a theoretical physicist to note that you can't ever roll a 13 or higher on 2d6. Fortunately, you also add character competency and situational modifiers to the roll. An easy task might be rolled at +2 or even +4, and especially difficult tasks get a penalty assigned by the DH. And character competency averages 7, so it's not really all that bad.

DARPA

The Advanced Research Projects Agency exists to fund fringe research like yours so that the United States will never get caught with its pants down by Godless Communists again. In this capacity, the generals can authorize up to 15 million dollars to fund projects that seem especially promising. But really this means that there are three different generals who can all be convinced to rubber stamp up to five million dollars each. Each general has a card that determines what they are interested in and how interested they are in it. The higher their interest in their primary focus, the less they care about pitches that can't be tied in to it in some way. PhDs are encouraged to try to attempt to find out what a general's interests might be before crafting their pitch to the general. A good way to do this is to take the general or members of their staff out to dinner and strip clubs and such, but of course that costs money!

♠: Rockets
♥: Guns
♦: Communications
♣: Explosions

Graduate Students

You were not put on this Earth to do manual labor. You are a Doctor of Theoretical Physics, and it is your place to think up “big ideas”, drink, smoke, and push graduate students around. Nevertheless, there are doubtless lots of calculations that need doing and also various physical... things... probably need to happen too. It's all quite horrible when you think about it. For all those... things... there's graduate students. You have to pay $5000 for each graduate student you keep on staff each year. And almost half of that money goes to the students so that the greedy bastards can eat and stuff, while the rest goes to the University somehow. Some sort of oppressive government agency that might be in league with the Communists won't let you work any specific graduate student more than eighty hours a week, so you may need to hire more than one.

Each graduate student also has their own competency, interests, and their own thesis they are working on. It's important to give graduate students enough encouragement to keep them from quitting, but not so much that they actually get their degree and leave to go postdoc somewhere. Each graduate student has a single card that represents how good they are and where their interests lie. Draw a card for each graduate student, with the value representing their competency, and the suit representing their interest. If you draw a Jack or King the graduate student has a competency of 10 but is a total asshole. If you draw a Queen, the student has a competency of 10 but is a woman. With a pull of Ace, the student is an arrogant jerk and you draw again to find out what their actual competency is. Interests are:
♠: Space
♥: Radiation
♦: Computers
♣: Really big energies

Demonstration Projects

Every quarter, the big brass is going to tour your facility and you are going to need to make some sort of demonstrations to make them feel like your research might go somewhere cool. You need to make demonstrations that will impress each general sufficiently that they will agree to continue funding. And if the generals like very different things, you may have to construct different demonstrations for each one! This is by far the most expensive (potentially) thing you have to do as a PhD.

Worse, sometimes the general assigned to check in on your progress will be changed, and they could have a different interest card, which you might want to find out by taking members of their staff to dinner before crafting a demonstration to keep them interested.

Getting Rich

Of course, the real goal of all this is to get rich. Every dollar you don't spend wooing generals, performing demonstrations, and feeding your graduates is a dollar you get to keep. If you keep enough dollars, you'll be rich!

But... Does It Work?

To a certain extent, it doesn't really matter whether your mad science projects would ever actually produce anything practical. That's a problem for engineers! Determining whether these things are at all practical is a question for campaign play, which comes on a different piece of paper.

~1200 words, so it's one page, front and back. Necessarily telegraphic and rules light, but it should work for either a group of players or a single player and an MC (sorry, a DH).

-Username17

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:34 pm

Random.org is your friend.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:40 pm

Frank, do the interests of the grad students correspond to the interests of the generals? That is to say, does having a grad student be good at Space automatically make your projects more appealing to Rocket-focused generals, or is that a contingent relationship?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:52 pm

Yes, Random.org is good for this shit. Also, rolling FATAL characters.

So, I rolled twice, first getting Mecha, Square Grid and Badassery then getting The 40s, Superheroes, Southeastern US.

So, the first is probably best as some kind of Robot Combat League (think WWE+MMA with Robots), possibly with "combat styles handed down by the masters, known as 'the forms of badassery'."

The second is just a Godlike game focused on countering propaganda spread by the Axis amongst the the SE US.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 2:57 pm

Korgan0 wrote:Frank, do the interests of the grad students correspond to the interests of the generals? That is to say, does having a grad student be good at Space automatically make your projects more appealing to Rocket-focused generals, or is that a contingent relationship?

They don't necessarily correspond. Your space-loving graduate student could probably be motivated to help you with ICBMs, but they might also like to work on an Ionosphere Tuning Fork to impress a Communications-focused general.

Basically, your main task is to juggle several different lies where you're trying to convince a group of squabbling generals and a group of idiot savant grad students that your pet project is actually whatever the fuck those assholes think is important. And then you make various demonstration pieces to "prove" it four times a year.

-Username17

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 3:04 pm

Prak_Anima wrote: The second is just a Godlike game focused on counter-propaganda spread by the Axis amongst the the SE US.

Alternatively, Superpowered Axis conquers Britain and the Soviet Union, launching an amphibious invasion into Florida.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:27 pm

Despair, Eastern Europe. and Rapscallions.

The great, evil, Soviet Magocracy has, in a tide of fire and blood, with thaumaturgically enhanced monstroties leading hordes of demons, washed over the bastions of civilization, order, and technological progress in the West, leaving behind nothing but the wails of widows, desecrated cathedrals, and the embers of palaces.

Caught unawares by the great threat in the East, the few bastions that remain in the West must, in their search for desperately needed operatives to infiltrate the conquered lands of Eastern Europe, turn to those elements formerly shunned by these governments: thieves, con artists, assassins, and smugglers. These former criminals, promised amnesty and a sizable monetary reward, are given the latest and greatest gadgets that the factories of New London can turn out and sent deep into hell-ravaged Eastern Europe to unearth what the Magocracy can be up to.

Kurama314 · Post by **Kurama314** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:29 pm

I got The 80's, Current Events, and Dragons.
I'm thinking the Illuminati are actually dragons and have orchestrated all the major events of the 80's.
The players are obviously a group of high school students brought together for detention one saturday morning. Unlike The Breakfast Club though these students have been given magical dragon fighting powers.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:43 pm

I got Amnesia, Cars, and Pacific Northwest.

"Road Trip for Conspiracy!"

Kurama314 · Post by **Kurama314** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:54 pm

Okay I just got a much better one. Luchadores, Neckbeards, and World War 2.
Once America had entered the war and the Third Reich had begun to fall the German high command hatched one last desperate plan. This plan was the second Zimmermann Telegram. Once again Germany appealed to Mexico asking for allies and hoping that providing a homefront for the Americans would lead to a withdrawal from Europe. Unlike in the in Great War Mexico agreed and the Mexican-American border erupted in conflict.
On either side of the border, however, there were fiercely patriotic individuals who for one reason or another (mainly failed psychological evaluations) were not allowed to join the army. This didn't stop them from fighting though. Against the orders of their respective nations these para-military outfits fought a secret war. A war between neckbearded Texan hicks and fearsome Luchadores.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:07 am

I would watch luchadores fighting neckbeards.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:01 am

"EL GRAPADORA!"

"OW! SO GAY! YOU DID IT WRONG! A REAL EL GRAPADORA GOES LIKE...this isn't working."

This reminds me. I need to shave...

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 6:09 am

I would only watch it if the neckbeards had secret ancestral martial arts named after breeds of cow and types of moonshine that they used against the fearsome luchadores.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:31 am

TEETH CRUNCH LABRATORY

Well that was easy.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:32 am

I have the feeling that when they say "neckbeard", they mean in the context it is used on /tg/: a neckbeard is a roleplayer or wargamer who has grown said type of beard as one of many aspects of their terrible grooming and hygiene. They weigh around 800lbs each, do the whole basement-living man-child thing, and although they could tell you all about warfare stuff they've read about, the fact is they're not winning a fight against anybody.

So basically it's watching Mexican wrestlers throwing the worst elements of roleplayer/wargamer society through tables. That are on fire.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:37 am

Big Damn Heroes, Mining, Musicians

cool, didn't know there was such a thing

Trenchcoats, Theatrics, Curiosity

Detectives investigating a theater case become curious about their sexual identity.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:45 am

Koumei wrote:I have the feeling that when they say "neckbeard", they mean in the context it is used on /tg/: a neckbeard is a roleplayer or wargamer who has grown said type of beard as one of many aspects of their terrible grooming and hygiene. They weigh around 800lbs each, do the whole basement-living man-child thing, and although they could tell you all about warfare stuff they've read about, the fact is they're not winning a fight against anybody.

So basically it's watching Mexican wrestlers throwing the worst elements of roleplayer/wargamer society through tables. That are on fire.

That's reality TV I'd pay to watch.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:18 am

Oh, dear god, no. The horror.

Hobos, Hammers, & the Orchestra.

All one wishes for on a genteel Tuesday evening is one's rightful walk along the boulevard to see the Orchestra. Many of your peers will already be seated, your own lateness no doubt the fault of some bumbling servant who couldn't see to button your jacket for the tears. Not to mention traffic on the journey from the country house, your driver unresponsive to the sharpest of witticisms, as usual. Incompetence abounds.

Yet, despite your clear and obvious urgency, carried with undoubted station leading your dear niece (in that delightful new blood-red dress), there appears to be a ponderous expanse of filthy malingerers and wastrels immediately in your path, or at least all too close for the comfort of a true gentleman.

Considering, for a moment, a more circuitous route, the rousing sound of the orchestra beginning it's first stanza reminds you of your father's passing words: "don't let the bastards drag you down".

... Roll 1d6 for the number of hobos you murder with a hammer on your way to the orchestra. On a 6, the bastards try to drag you down, so you have to roll another d6 and add it to the total. There is no limit to the number of Hobos. Players who forget to clean the hammer on their young companion's dress at the opera house stairs lose, everyone else wins. Good luck, and don't spare the brandy.

Nachtigallerator · Post by **Nachtigallerator** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:35 am

Point 233 is actually mixed marital arts. I wonder if that was on purpose, but I think it would make a fun game.

Aryxbez · Post by **Aryxbez** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 12:00 am

I had used "The Gaussian Dice Roller", from what I later looked at the suggested "random.org", it seems to indicate Gaussian is high quality as a RNG, so I guess this site's good then?

Results I got were: The 80s (360), Entropy (291), and Insomnia (411).

I did a reroll for kicks, and gotten: Historically Accurate (98), Dungeon Building (268), and Tanks (265)

I guess one could find these both to be rather generic, for the former, didn't that kinda describe the 80's?

Currently, only have an idea for the latter, which I took to mean, as Actual historic Tanks going into custom Dungeons battling it out. Though, I could find issue with the "historically accurate" part, on count of dungeons, as that would both limit your options, and pretty much make Tank-Dungeon Delving impossible. So, I would guess, either a DM (funny, DUNGEON MASTER, would be fitting here...maybe Dungeon BLASTER instead?), or each opposing player, creates their own side of the dungeon FOR THEIR OPPONENT to have to deal around in. With 1-1, it'd be simple enough, or a DM planning it out before the session, but if it's a multiple player, imagine dungeon building part can get a little complicated. As even with 4 players, 1p building a dungeon to hamper 2p, might not hamper 4p, and so on.

On the bright side, there's quite a list of historical Tanks, and that "World of Tanks" game, has shown there can be quite a variety of different tank types for players to choose from, and strategy to employ. Alternatively,since Dungeons are probably allowed to be exotic, it could be like, Fighting in Dracula's castle, Underground city?, and even a bunch of Military carrier planes close knit/stitched together in some way.

Also that, if going with 1-4p free for all, instead of DM v. Players so to speak, then each player would probably have a way to manipulate their portion of the dungeon they created,even when it's not their turn, if not especially!

...Unfortunately, I kinda forgot this describes more of a miniatures game, and forgot the ROLEPLAYING part. So perhaps we take a page from the Metal Saga games, and players are post-apocalyptic treasure hunters, who drive Tanks, fighting off ancient Monsters (mutated creatures, robots) in Dungeons to grab forgotten relics to add to their tanks. In regards to Free-for-all, could be the Treasure Hunter idea, and it's a "first come, first serve" mentality for resources, and each player has rigged the area the opposing player comes in at, so to deter any new hunters coming in to impede their scavenging.