Because others I respect have been writing about these, here is my current four in no particular order. Most have five, but I really one have four games I'd really be up for right now. I'm running the other one I'd be up for already.
1) Gamma World - using the setting from 1e/2e Gamma World, pulling partially from Metamorphosis Alpha and seen a little through the eyes of Paranoia.
Probably unfrozen special operations troopers (always a winner), or using an alternative method like the one suggests in The Best of Dragon 1, called "An Alternative Beginning Sequence for Metamorphosis Alpha" by Guy W. McLimore, Jr. of Microtactix, which basically has the PCs generated as clones dispatched to effect repairs. Either way, probably not the usual primitive tribesmen approach, although I like that too.
Obviously, I'd use GURPS. I think GURPS does Gamma World better than Gamma World did, having played the setting with both rules sets.
2) Dungeon Fantasy Gamma - As #1, but with a drop-in group of DF characters. If only to get the players familiar with Gamma World through something they are very familiar with.
It would have to be somewhat powerful DF guys, but wouldn't need to be crazy powerful. Plus, it would really be "depend on what is on your sheet" and not "depend on buying up replacement gear and consumables in town and come back later when the odds are better." You are stuck in Gamma World, deal with it. Use your magic to find out what those pre-loaded hypodermic needles do, and hope one heals 1d HP or restores 1d FP lost to spellcasting.
3) Immortals - our very long discussed but never run game with Immortal characters, run as episodes across history. Inspired by The Highlander and this article in Roleplayer magazine.
4) A short retro-clone campaign. S&W Complete, Labyrinth Lord, or Basic Fantasy. Just to remember what I like about those games and remind me of what I like about GURPS when we get back to it. Maybe even D&D, as in Moldvay, with d6 HP thieves because D4 HP thieves seems like a crazed slap to a class that barely is able to do what it does anyway. It's only +1 HP per level to all of the NPC thieves, anyway - easy enough to implement. Either that or a massive ramping up of their actual thief abilities, so they don't suck at their own job. One of those.
I would like to run Mutants and Magic like it is mentioned in AD&D Dungeon Masters guide. Maybe somehow the world is destroyed by nuclear war and now has mutants but it also sucked in magic, magic items and magical creatures too.
ReplyDeleteYeah. The DMG really brings it up as a side crossover sort of deal, and a way to inspire players to either play or run Gamma World. But full-on Thundarr the Barbarian would work, too, with the right sort of players and GM. GURPS is ideally set up to run it, too - all of the tools are there, and written with the expectation that they should work together. Personally I would go mutants over ported in monsters, even if you just reskin and repower them, to get a more "mutants and magic" and less "blasters and dungeons" feel.
DeleteI would much prefer to have elves, dwarves and trolls be from magical worlds while badders and grens are mUtan humanoids.
DeleteThundarr would be cool. If you run Immortals I'll be playing an Immortal Burmese Jinghpaw headhunter with a brace of kukris.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but Thundarr isn't on the list. :)
DeleteI am not a fan of the d4 thieves.
ReplyDeleteAs for #1 - I can help you scratch that itch :) assuming you can replace "run" with "play". Say the word. As for #2, I'm game!
ReplyDeleteI'd play more Gamma Terra. 2/5ths of the players are basically out, though - Barbie and Caveman. And several new players would need to get added in (but probably wouldn't want to just run Barbie and Caveman.)
DeleteBut I also have a hankering to run games on it.
We may need to discuss splitting up Gamma North America and co-run off of it.
I was very close to running a game with immortals (I talked about this on the GURPS forum check the "Phoenix Imperative" tag). We finished character generation, but it basically fell apart because of logistics. I plan to blog soon about the two games I was going to run but ended up not.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading about those!
DeleteYeah, thief skills and their low % chances of functioning were supposed to be extra abilities that kick in after mundane stealth-by-RP approaches fail. But apparently the designers failed to convey that assumption.
ReplyDeleteThe thief's abilities are supposed to be to _move silently_, as in actually not making sound rather than stepping softly. To _hide in shadows_, as in just a little shade lets him go invisible as though immersed in trued darkness, and to _climb sheer surfaces_, walls too smooth and vertical for everyone else (who are presumed to have adventurer-normal climbing ability, whatever *that* is).
Personally I would love to play or run GURPS DF, GURPS DF starting with the 125 point Henchmen templates and adding a huge growth speed boost for the first few "levels", or some similar variant.