Nightvale Inspired Game
-
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Why didn't I think of this earlier? So I've been going back and forth lately "Open that shifters game, or open GMC Changeling again." And then I had a thought just now: What would I really love running? A world like the one out of Welcome to Nightvale. Probably not actually Nightvale itself, but something along the lines of it. Where the world is fucking weird and the people from the city treat it as normal, but have to deal with weird crap all the time. (Also kind of like Haven).
My thought was I could this as a M/M+ game, where things are just weird. Or I could this as a Mage game where Paradox and the Abyss has gone completely bonkers.
Would anyone play it?
-
I would be more down with the mortal+ over mage.
-
Shifter thing seems funner to play to me, but if you're running something you ought to run whatever's funner for you,
-
@Cobaltasaurus said:
. Where the world is fucking weird and the people from the city treat it as normal, but have to deal with weird crap all the time. (Also kind of like Haven).
Magical realism!
I have long enjoyed imagining One Hundred Years of Solitude MUSH where it's pretty much like the real world except every character can have one stupid, useless, magical power, like butterflies keep crawling out of his hair and flying away, or a bag containing her parents' bones follows her around wherever she goes, clattering annoyingly, and everyone acts like this shit is totally normal. In the meantime, there are random wars over things that nobody understands or gives a fuck about, the mayor sometimes orders everyone to paint their house blue or some other meaningless fuckery, and there is an evil banana plantation.
I don't know that Mage could really reflect that, or Nightvale's take on it, very well, but I'd totally be into a game with that sort of theme.
"... you'll find the story doesn’t end how you think, and the most important characters aren’t who you expect.” - Penny 40 to Derek, The Magicians S04E07 ‘The Side Effect’
-
@il-volpe One long running plot line of Welcome to Nightvale is "The Dog Park", which neither dogs nor their owners are allowed in. In fact, you should not look at or acknowledge the dog park. Or there was another city below the bowling alley, that came to fight against Nightvale residents.
-
Yeah. I am behind on Nightvale, I haven't listened to several months of episodes, but I love it.
Part of Nightvale, like OHYS, is that the people, if they are magical at all, are not very magical. They just live in this bizarre world where magic-y things happen all the time. Mages create Glow Clouds, they don't just start hailing them. I'd think it would fit better with something like a CoC system, except make the monsters non-deadly and take away almost all the insanity rules. (Except for, oh, just a little. "If you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.")
-
@Cobaltasaurus
I think there'd be interest; but I think The Shift Life is probably more of a draw at the moment, and more unique, especially in the MU* crowd, since a lot of people would like to be able to play their takes on shifters.
-
I'm going to admit this. I have no clue what Nightvale is.
-
-
Hain't nothin' wrong with never having heard of Welcome to Nightvale before!
...unless you don't rectify that asap. Then you're sad and you make me sad.
-
I would have to recode weather to drop links to Dispirition songs. Hhhhmmm.
-
They also use The Tiny a few times, which was a cool band before people started getting into them.
Edit: That knee-jerk reaction brought to you by living in Portland too long. Jesus.
-
@somasatori Dirty hipster.
-
@Cobaltasaurus (I'm late to the party) But I would so play Mage here. Gimme.
-
@Catsmeow It's basically equal parts Prairie Home Companion and Douglas Adams.
-
I know FATE's been mentioned a few times elsewhere, but I actually think it would be a fantastic fit for a Nightvale adaptation, what with the ability to alter the narrative with points and weird-ass Aspects and whatnot.
-
How about:
Nightvale* is a remote little town where Mages who have gone batshit crazy from magicin' it up too hard (I can't remember the proper term for this phenomenon) go to heal or die or just be nuts or go catatonic. It's actually under some dome of ward thingies that prevent the rest of the world from noticing this, keep it (relatively, under the circumstances) safe, and make it easier for ordinary mortals to cope with all this crazy shit.
PCs are mortals, but every so often, in turns, players get a chance to take over an NPC batshit Mage and make her do looooopy shit with her awesome powers.
*replace with name of game's town
"... you'll find the story doesn’t end how you think, and the most important characters aren’t who you expect.” - Penny 40 to Derek, The Magicians S04E07 ‘The Side Effect’
-
-
Heh. That's why it would be a limited-time-only thing, not your regular PC.
@Ganymede is, in my opinion, spot-on about the too-powerful characters. I do not find them fun to GM or play. Drama is dependent upon the weaknesses of characters. Characters without weaknesses are a bore.
-
You're conflating having power with not having weaknesses, which is not the same thing, though. Just saying.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
