Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc)
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Pray tell, Six, what exactly is Three Letter Agency?
Three Letter Agency is a game about those entrusted to investigate that which lies just behind the curtain. Set in the present day in various locations (and the same location simultaneously) around the world, agents are tasked with investigating reports of paranormal activity. Depending on what they find, unusual objects must be secured and properly contained, and ill-meaning opposing forces (composed of unknown persons and the strange unnatural beings that they unleash for motives that will be discovered through roleplay) must be stopped.
The Agency is not a police force, nor a branch of any particular nation’s military. It operates in a number of countries around the world, by dint of the fact that it resides in an unusual building that simultaneously exists in many places at once. In New York, the building looks like a nondescript skyscraper. In Berlin, a post-WW2 apartment building. Other places, a simple house in a suburban neighborhood. Transportation between these places is as simple as walking through a door. That said, the building has a way of protecting itself - it’s a place that you’d never think of looking at twice, let alone trying to go inside, unless you’re explicitly seeking it out. And that’s only the start of what makes the building so unusual. Things get a little House of Leavesy in there.
Okay, sure, but what else do you think players will want to do besides ST run events?
When not out on expeditions, other opportunities for roleplay may include: paranormal objects and previously contained creatures acting unusually and needing dealing with (including attempting to harness their abilities), socializing in common areas, pre/post expeditions, research, and unusual events occurring within the building as a result of its paranormal nature. Expeditions would typically be storyteller/staff run events happening several times a week with small groups in typical five minute rounds, or 3-per for larger groups, but after action reports, player run plots, and other small stakes scenes would fill in the gaps, including slower scenes as desired.
Okay but now I have a really specific question!
The game is intended as a PvE scenario in a modern horror setting, though largely without access to modern technology. Initially, all approved player characters will be investigatory agents (or taking up other positions within the Agency, such as researchers, building maintenance staff, etc), but this could change as the plot develops and the game grows. I plan on running it on Ares using the FS3 system, but I’m not wedded to it. I’m willing to consider other game systems (Conspiracy X/Unisystem was suggested in another thread), but the task of creating an Ares module to support something else would take me a considerable amount of time, starting with learning Ruby. It will lean closer to full consent, but not without consequences for the actions of characters - think explicit warnings in storyteller run events. Don’t expect PC death to be a regular thing, and certainly not without the express consent of the player in question. NPC death, on the other hand.. Influences include X-Files, SCP, Fringe, and Control (the 2019 video game by Remedy).
I’m not in any particular rush to launch this. I’m thinking sometime after the holidays before an open casting call would go out, but I’d be wanting to bring on staff, storytellers, and other plot collaborators over the next few months and maybe chat on Discord or some such in the meantime before building on Ares. In the meantime, however, I'm very open to any feedback that anyone has. Feel free to call this a dumb idea, pitch your own idea that fits, pledges of fealty if this actually becomes a game, whatever.
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I think a game like this sounds really fun. Here's my suggestion, don't get hung up on code. You could set up server with Ares, create a custom tab to display a PDF file, and just use PDF character sheets. If people want to use the system for RP Ares does have a dice system that can be used in-game or through the web portal.
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Not my kind of game but I think your 'pitch' sounds really neat and touches on the important bits, like game focus and what there is to do.
As @ZombieGenesis said - keep in mind that Ares doesn't require FS3. You can turn off the skills system entirely and just go freeform. There are also several other skill systems already coded; maybe one of them will suit your needs better. But yeah, like you said - making your own custom system will be considerable amount of work no matter which codebase/system you choose.
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Yessss. I would play this forever.
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I'm not entirely sure why you would need an entire customized system. Are the PCs in this game not "normal"? i.e. do they have supernatural powers?
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If you decide not to go F3S, then it sounds like Fate is already coded, and IMO does freeform/flexible supernatural things very well.
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@Pyrephox
Not sure why Ares' FATE plug-in isn't more widely-used, all things considered. It'd be fun to see something done up with it. -
@bear_necessities said in Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc):
I'm not entirely sure why you would need an entire customized system. Are the PCs in this game not "normal"? i.e. do they have supernatural powers?
No supernatural powers out of the box, per se, but I'm considering a stat that may allow PCs to temporarily 'borrow' particular powers from objects secured by the agency. For example, the Agency may receive a report of some object that flies, or perhaps floats - this item might be secured, and a given PC at a time may be entrusted with that power, and their ability to use that power would be dictated by an encompassing paranormal/supernatural stat. A thought that I had along these lines is that this might be something randomly turned on or off during chargen by way of code and tested/explored through roleplay, but I could see this being disappointing for players who want to be able to do Cool Things and not end up being able to do them. Using supernatural powers isn't the overall focus of the game, regardless.
I have no intention of a fully creating a system from the ground up so much as potentially adapting something paper-bound into an Ares module, but as Faraday suggested, it would be a whole lot of work.
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@SixRegrets You can customize stats and attributes on FS3 pretty easily so I think that would work for what you want.
Anyway, this sounds fun and I would play.
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Borrowing elements from Warehouse 13 wouldn't be amiss. It would also pair nicely with seasons 1-3 of Fringe, and inject a bit of levity into something that could become extremely oppressive rather quickly if people take it far too seriously.
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@Three-Eyed-Crow said in Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc):
Not sure why Ares' FATE plug-in isn't more widely-used, all things considered. It'd be fun to see something done up with it.
Isn't it still missing a web interface (at the very least for Chargen)? Pretty sure that's been the deal-breaker for most people.
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@krmbm said in Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc):
Isn't it still missing a web interface (at the very least for Chargen)? Pretty sure that's been the deal-breaker for most people.
It has the sheet display on web but no chargen.
But like... we haven't had web chargen on games for the last twenty years. That strikes me as a pretty bizarre deal-breaker if the system is otherwise a good fit for your game
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@faraday said in Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc):
That strikes me as a pretty bizarre deal-breaker if the system is otherwise a good fit for your game
Oh, I agree, but I really think that's what the hang-up is. $0.02
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@faraday Once you've had a taste of how user-friendly something CAN be, it's very hard to go back to doing it the other way.
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@Pyrephox said in Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc):
@faraday Once you've had a taste of how user-friendly something CAN be, it's very hard to go back to doing it the other way.
Until the option disappears (which it sometimes does) and it takes a relatively short time to get back into the old swing of things.
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@Coin For some people! For me, honestly, I found it almost impossible to fire up a separate client and do things the old way when I tried to go back to a 'regular' MU*. It was just constant, low-level frustration that made the experience a lot less pleasant.
And, I mean, I'm someone who started MU*ing with a raw telnet connection (and did that for about a year or so until someone introduced me to clients), so it's not that I haven't 'roughed it', before. I just don't want to NOW.
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@Pyrephox said in Game Pitch: Three Letter Agency (modern horror setting - X-Files, Fringe, Control, SCP, etc):
@Coin For some people! For me, honestly, I found it almost impossible to fire up a separate client and do things the old way when I tried to go back to a 'regular' MU*. It was just constant, low-level frustration that made the experience a lot less pleasant.
And, I mean, I'm someone who started MU*ing with a raw telnet connection (and did that for about a year or so until someone introduced me to clients), so it's not that I haven't 'roughed it', before. I just don't want to NOW.
My point is that there's a difference between 'trying to go back' and 'not having a different option'. If there's still Ares games around offering the possibility, that may be enough to make using a client or whatever too uninviting for some. But if web-based functionality disappeared again altogether, I think a lot more people would be willing to eventually go back to clients than we think --and some would not, obviously.
Not saying it will happen, just a hypothetical.
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The last few posts should probably be split off maybe into a To Web Chargen or Not To Web Chargen thread so we're not hijacking the game pitch... ( @mietze @Arkandel ?) ... but here's the thing...
Ares already supports several different skills systems with the in-game commands, and it's not a gigantic hurdle to add a new one.
But making anything on web is an order of magnitude (at least) higher than making the corresponding game commands. Expecting every game to have web chargen is just not realistic IMHO.
Unless everyone's willing to accept FS3 and nothing but FS3 from now until the end of time (which I'm not advising since it only really fits a certain specific style of game), y'all kinda need to get over the web chargen as a dealbreaker thing.
Side note though - I'm not convinced that the lack of Fate games has anything to do with the web chargen. There was a whole thread on here awhile back about why folks disliked Fate for MUs.
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Even FS3 didn't have full web support until...what a couple of years ago? It got it because enough people were using it and wanted it that they either coded it themselves or it became clearly worth supporting.
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@Three-Eyed-Crow For FS3, it was planned from the moment I started seriously considering a web portal for Ares. That was in 2017.
The other skill systems were added later, because folks kept equating FS3 and Ares, and I wanted to make it clear that Ares wasn't actually tied to FS3. So I whipped up a few alternate skill systems just for demonstration purposes. They're functional but pretty bare bones.
It's never been my intention to personally code up support - especially not on web - for endless varieties of skill systems. It's just too much work, and I don't have the interest. I created FS3 because I don't think most TTRPG systems are a good fit for MUs.
