Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?
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@Bobotron Like Spelljammers different?
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@ZombieGenesis said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
I'd love to see something utilizing Dragonlance or Masters of the Universe personally. I kinda get why there are not MotU games but I'm shocked at the lack of Dragonlance games.
Dragonlance Mux ran for a decade or so until early 2ks, played out. Only so much good vs bad dragon one can do, anything beyond chronicles of the lance is to specialized for average players, or too specialized for general theme mu/play.
It was followed with a Tales of Krynn sort of game that started around 98 or so, featured story arc style play. A few weeks to a few months was one time period of great crisis around war of souls to start, when an arc was played out, the grid paused for two week. They would advance a generation or tolwo to the next war/crisis. Fills reapped, used prior timeline for new chars. The current arc was influenced by previous arc, recognizing stories and legends and taking influence from prior arc. That went 3 or 4 years.
A few handles here seem to be players and staff from the original mux, late period staff/long time players; or just coincidence. The handle thread ... Lotherio was my original bit in the original Dragonlance Mux.
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@ZombieGenesis said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
I'd love to see something utilizing Dragonlance or Masters of the Universe personally. I kinda get why there are not MotU games but I'm shocked at the lack of Dragonlance games.
ArcticMUD was huge when I was starting out, and it was based on Dragonlance.
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@surreality said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
Nightbreed. ALL THE FUCK YES. (The weirdass homebrew system I've been working on was originally to make a game along these lines.)
Haha! I made a clumsy homebrew table-top to play Nightbreed, when I was in HS. We had fun. Want. I wonder if anybody cares about it enough to get players now.
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@Arkandel American Gods.
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@Botulism Sure, but why?
I want to ask that of the thread in general - it's not just to list which of our favorite shows or books 'would be cool to see as a MU*', but maybe let's try to think of ways it'd actually work.
What kind of PCs would people play? Are they opposing each other or the environment for the most part? Are they placed in the timeline of the original work or before/after the events depicted in it?
And a big one is... how much difference/impact would you want them to be able to have? For a Battlestar Galactica MU*, positioned before the TV series should PCs be able to strike a truce with/destroy the Cylons? In a Walking Dead MU* should they be able to find out what the cause for the apocalypse was (or cure it)? Etc.
Let's stretch our design muscles a bit here. What's a sacred cow and what rules can we bend or break to make a better MUSH?
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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This is an out of left field suggestion but a setting I have always wanted to see an RPG made for and one that would offer interesting possibilities for a MUSH. Robert Aspirin's Myth/M.Y.T.H. Inc series of books. Now the books are mostly comedic and that exact tone might not work for a MU* since comedy is very hard to write but I think you could alter it a bit to lighthearted adventure times. Set it in the Bazaar at Deva(an entire dimension that is urban market place.) You have a central location with a reason for anyone to be there and easy access to other dimensional travel where plots could take place, also you don't have to worry about the content of plots happening in other dimensions since you can literally destroy another dimension without affecting the Bazaar you can let plot runners run wild and still preserve the base game world.
Not sure what system I would use, I mean fate could work as a default and I think anything too crunchy would bog down the setting but i know there is a significant anti-fate crowd. WoD would not be bad from a mechanical point of view but i am afraid using the system would also import a darkness to the setting that would not fit. (Though the book series does have a vampire fashion designer and a pair of werewolf authors the Wolf Writers that pare pretty obviously based on the Pini's of Elfquest fame.) Anything mechanically heavier then WoD would likely be too crunchy to keep the lighthearted feel. -
@Arkandel Apologies! I meant to, but got abruptly yanked RL-wards.
AMERICAN GODS: The perfect antidote to WoD. Modern-day urban fantsy/horror with a far more fascinating backstory and mythology, if you'll pardon the pun. You can play pretty much anything. Characters are broken into Mortals, Legends, Myths, and Gods. The first is self-explanatory. The second would be Johnny Appleseed, Sir Lancelot, etc. The third would be Vampires, Unicorns, Leprechauns, etc. The last are, well, Gods.
I actually have the Newsfiles written for an America Gods-inspired game, but we decided to go with GMC nWoD and make Fear and Loathing instead because more people know it and play it. We all talk about wanting a non-WoD game, but few ever make it. People think they need to read a book or books to play there. People don't like the rules system you decide to go with - FATE, GURPS, homebrew. Or you go statless, and people who don't like full-consent games complain.
For better or worse, people end up playing what they know, not what they profess to want.
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@Botulism said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
For better or worse, people end up playing what they know, not what they profess to want.
Absolutely. Or alternatively - tell me what you think of this - people sometimes will know what they want once you give it to them..
And you know, this whole thread's topic (which yeah, is a theoretical one so who cares) has a glaring problem which many game-runners who based their MU* on an existing property know - you're limiting your players to folks who've read/watched whatever the original work was.
That's a hell of an issue sometimes, since some will want to stay super loyal to the material and others won't know it enough (or at all) and just read your wiki or ask questions to figure this out.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Arkandel Right. We decided that an nWoD game had a better chance as more MUers probably play or have played WoD than read American Gods.
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@Botulism said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
more MUers probably play or have played WoD than read American Gods.
Thus predicting the downfall of literature. This should be fixed right goddamn now.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
@Three-Eyed-Crow said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
A buddy of mine got me to watch The Expanse, finally, by recommending it as 'everyone of these idiots could be a MU character'.
He wasn't wrong.
This makes sense, because the Expanse actually started as an online RP game, albeit forum RP rather than a MU*. The Roci crew are apparently all based on PCs from that. The original players are the folks in the acknowledgements for Leviathan Wakes.
(I like to imagine that after a certain point, every time Holden's player was like "I open a comm link" all the other players were OOCly groaning.)
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Into the Badlands could be pretty dope. I'm pretty sure there's a crowd around who are always talking about wanting a post-apoc game. The problem is they probably want more Fallout-y?
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@Seamus said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
My 0.02...
- The Hollows Series By Kim Harrison - Living Vampires, Werewolves, Pixie and Fairy wars... And an unhealthy fear of tomatoes.
Surprised this hasn't happened yet, when Anita Blake stuff has happened. I loved this series (am a few books behind though).
I'd guess maybe the problem was that descriptions of 'powers' never got super detailed, that I recall?
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@Thenomain Far more people have read American Gods than MU*, though. Just saying among the MU* subset, WoD is more widely known.
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@Tempest said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
Into the Badlands could be pretty dope. I'm pretty sure there's a crowd around who are always talking about wanting a post-apoc game. The problem is they probably want more Fallout-y?
One of the many, many, many issues that fragment our community (but also make it great in a way, take your pick) is we're so hard to please and won't compromise easily.
Sure, I want a post-apocalyptic game, but not Fallout, and no no, The Walking Dead isn't it either, I want Badlands - exactly that, nothing else will do. Or... sure, I want a DC Comics game but set in the post-Rebirth Universe not the New 52. What do you mean the Flash is Barry Allen? No no, I'm out.
It's just how we're wired.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Tempest That I think is the problem mostly. There were no clear lines other than Earth Witches did charms and Ley Line Witches used the ley line power. Then Rachel Morgan being what she is... I think a system could be cobbled together, but it would be clumsy until it was fine tuned. And yeah. I LOVED the series.
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I know I've said it before, but to reiterate, if there's an Into the Badlands MUSH, I am there with bells on.
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@Botulism said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
@Thenomain Far more people have read American Gods than MU*, though. Just saying among the MU* subset, WoD is more widely known.
It depends on your goal. I think a staff who put energy into advertising and running plots could get a small but active game out of American Gods (20-30is players).
Is that what every person who starts a MU wants? No, though I'm not sure why. Big games are filled with terribad. Small ones are harder to sustain, but I find them a hell of a lot more rewarding to play when I hit on one that sticks.
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@Three-Eyed-Crow said in Which canon property/setting would be good for a MU* ?:
Is that what every person who starts a MU wants? No, though I'm not sure why. Big games are filled with terribad. Small ones are harder to sustain, but I find them a hell of a lot more rewarding to play when I hit on one that sticks.
I agree with this so much.
In the earlyish days of Reno1, it was about that size. It was just small enough that people had to more or less behave themselves and cooperate (containing their drama and nonsense) if they wanted to have anything to do.
It was amazing how effective 'we're small' was at keeping people civil, and that's in addition to the workload and plot stuff.
