North Sea Atlantis / Mage: the Awakening chronicle idea ahoy

Doggerland

It's a massive stretch of land, now submerged, that linked Britain to mainland Europe.

The Forbidden Corner / Changeling: the Lost LARP waiting to happen

It was my little boy's 4th birthday this weekend gone, so we took him to The Forbidden Corner in North Yorkshire (UK). I'd been there before, whilst he was still gestating in my wife's womb (4.5 years ago, date fans), and loved it then. I still love it now.

The place is a four acre folly in the Yorkshire Dales. It's am eccentric maze that doubles as a treasure hunt. It is brimming with character.

The entrance to
the maze

When I visited four years ago, I had not read Changeling: the Lost. This is an important point.
Whilst walking through the hedge mazes, wooded paths, tunnels and corridors, my overriding thought was:

This would be a fantastic location for Changeling: the Lost LARP

Now, I'm not into LARP anymore, but I would play a C:tL live game if it were run here. I just need somebody within the UK to organise it. 

The game would be very Hedge-centric, with occasional forays into the edges of Arcadia and Dream spaces. There is a great potential for Hollows, Freeholds, Gateways, Goblin Markets and fucking scary encounters with the True Fae and Hobgoblins.

Part I of a water
tunnel that leads to
the Greek Underworld

Logistically, the site would need booking for an entire weekend, with each attendee paying for at least a full day, maybe two. 

There are cottages on site, which is good, and a possibility for camping for everybody else. 

There's also a cafe on site. 

These steps ultimately lead to the Greek Underworld

The Gates to Hell
or something

A submerged dragon mural

Gates leading to an offshoot of the grounds - a long path of trees and wild boars

A representative wooded path

The view from the edge of the grounds

A gateway to the Hedge
or something worse

There are a fair few gateways and arches

The entrance to another off shoot from the main grounds
This one leads to a graveyard and a herb garden

Another wooded path

A warning to anybody who would meddle in the affairs of the Fey

This, and many of the following photos, reminded me of the insignia from Changeling: the Dreaming

An exit
Also a point of No Return
(in real life, it leads to the toilets)

One shot game Ideas / Alien vs Predator

My last post was primarily a brain dump in response to a friend telling me he's running his first WoD game, which he intends to be a zombie holocaust-esque game (of the Dan O'bannon variety rather than the Romero type), and was looking for ideas.

Having written the post, I find that I like the idea of sharing ideas. Especially ones I'll no doubt not get round to running.
Sorry for the double negative there...

So, let me tell you about my Alien vs Predator idea. In World of Darkness game terms, it's Werewolf vs Azlu, or, more specifically, a Predator King vs a swarm of Azlu, with humans in the middle.

I kind of see the start of the game in two threads. I'd have the players create two characters each, and split them up into two teams.

The general set up would be an archaeological expedition to the rain forests of South America and some recently uncovered Aztec ruins.
The cast would range from guides and jungle survivalists to archaeologists and documentary camera crew to security and porters.
To maintain the parallels with the AvP film (there was only one, right... la la la I can't hear you), one group will uncover some ancient sealed pottery jars that, when opened, contain large, soft eggs.
These eggs hatch into the immature Azlu, which quickly grow into obscene spider type things.
Azlu can do a number of things. When small, they can burrow into a persons brain and take full control.
When larger, they're massive, horrific spiders the size of dinnerplates (or face huggers) and can encase a human in a web cocoon and transform and take over their body, becoming a humanoid insect (like an Alien).

I hope you can see where I'm going with this.

I opted for a Predator King Pure Tribe Werewolf because these are the tribe with the most disdain for humanity and most likely to hunt and kill humans for the thrill.
There's little danger of a Predator King allying itself with humans, even if it's life counted on it.

So, why have the players stat two sets of characters? Glad you asked. I'll tell you why.
Having a bunch of parasitic aliens invade the bodies of the expedition is horrific in itself, and even more so if it happens to the players characters.
The down side is, those characters are dead and our of play very quickly.

My solution to this is the doubling up of characters and then splitting them off into two separate groups.
During the initial exploration of the ruins the narrative will jump between the two groups.
One will find the sealed pottery jars. The other will find a repository of ceremonial silver daggers. One group will open the jars back at base camp, the other will discover evidence of recent blood sacrifice. One group will be infected by the Azlu. The other group will have to fight to survive as their colleagues turn on them and lone hunter starts killing everybody.

It's probably worth including some supporting NPCs like local porters and tribesmen, faceless jungle guides and sexy college interns who can all die as the need arises.

One shot game ideas / Brain dump

I often walk around with game ideas gestating in my head, most of which never come to term, and those that do are often born baring little or no resemblance to the inspiration that conceived them. The bastard offspring of necessity and circumstance rather than the planned child of vision and inspiration.

So, after that rather turgid and overly long metaphor, what I intend to do with this post is record some of these game ideas for future generations. Seeing as the practice rarely resembles the theory, I'm not too worried about potential players getting advance warning. They usually cause deviation and upset within half a session without prior knowledge.

Summary: zombies lay siege to a gated community
Here's what I'm talking about when I say 'gated community'
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gated_community
One of the virtual fortresses with defensive walls, full time security staff and exclusive residents.
The set up: It is Bob and Lorrain  Danver's silver wedding anniversary. They are having a massive party at their home in Range Point Gated Community, and have invited dozens of guests - friends, family, work colleagues, country club tennis buddies, water buffalo lodge members, mothers circle members, neighbours and local businessmen. It's a huge blow out with professional caterers and a free bar, a jazz band, string quartet, ice sculptures and a guest appearance by a pro golfer.
As the party goes on into the night, the normal dramas and exchanges play out: family politics, illicit liaisons, business networking, drunken brawls, tears and laughter, before finally coming to a sudden halt when Bob keels over from a massive coronary.
Everybody stares. Everything stops. Somebody screams and Lorraine rushes to his side. One of the guests, a doctor, examines Bob and finds no pulse.

As people start to dissipate, and as several guests attempt to call cabs or an ambulance, several things come to light.
There is no mobile phone service. Network error. Network error.
The gates to Range Point community are locked, and the security guard is missing.
There are several homeless people milling about outside.
TV news stations are covering mass riots and gang violence across the country.

Shortly afterwards, Bob gets up and attacks Lorraine.
The dead have risen and are attacking the living.
The residents of Range Point, the party guests, party staff and community security are trapped in the community. They are safe for now, but have limited supplies of food and water and medical supplies.
What do they do? Wait it out or leave the safety of Range Point.

Players can play a resident, a party guest or staff.

The game would use the World of Darkness rules

Edit...
If you're planning a zombie holocaust, then see if you can get a copy of Hunter: the Vigil, which has a whole chapter on Morality and killing monsters.
My tips for dramatic Morality tests would include:
Accidentally killing a human being Having to kill somebody who's been bitten but not yet turned
Having to leave someone behind to die horribly to save someone or something else
Stealing supplies from other survivors. They need it. You need it. You're not them...
Having to kill somebody who's been driven mad by the horror (like Tim Robbins in War of the Worlds)
Not destroying a zombie, and learning that zombie has killed somebody close to you

Fighting Talk

I was reading Gameplaywright on my mobile phone on the way home from work, and they, in turn, pointed me to this blog entry by Ryan Macklin, which talks about how games that focus on story rarely focus and skills tests and vis versa.

Macklin's comments about 'beats' within combat got me thinking about RPG combat resolution mechanics. 

As you do.

His point was, kind of, that RPG combat often loses that cinematic flow and excitement due to the artificial interruptions of dice rolling and rule deliberation. Yes. I see that. 

Then I thought of something. 

Wouldn't it be great to have a combat that's narrated between players without the interruptions of dice rolls, but still took the abstract concept of skill points etc in account?

Here's my idea. 

Characters have a 'Combat' score. This score equals the number of 'Combat Moves' the character can perform in a round of combat.

A round of combat lasts an indeterminate length of time, and is best described as a flurry of activity within the combat - the participants circle each other, enter into a short burst of activity in which they attack and evade, then fall back to safer distance to plan their next move.

The character with the highest Combat Score goes first. If the scores are tied, then the GM arbitrates using such criteria as they find appropriate.

The players take it in turns to describe the combat, and are able to describe one Combat Move per point they have invested in their Combat Score. In an ideal combat, the players will react to and build upon the Combat Moves described by each other.

Once all Combat Moves have been described, the players roll their Combat Score + 1 Die. 

They then split their total between Damage and Defence - e.g. One player may roll a total of 9, and opt to allocate 5 points to Damage, and 4 points to Defence. This would allow them to apply 5 Damage to their opponent, and evade 4 points of Damage in return. Their opponent also splits their total in this way. Probably best to write the split down before declaring it. 

Anyways. 

It could play out like this:

Classic Fantasy example

GM: Your characters are gambling in a tavern when you have a disagreement about the legality of concealed cards. Words are exchanged and it becomes clear you must fight. 

You leap up from your seats at the table and quickly take in your surroundings. The tavern is dark and smoke filled, with tightly packed tables and chairs and is currently incredibly busy. A set of aged wooden stairs against the far wall lead to a narrow balcony. There are chandeliers about ten feet above your heads. The bar is a plank of wood laid across a collection of barrels, and is next to the doors.

[Player A has a Combat Score of 4. Player B has a Combat Score of 3. Player A goes first. Player A can describe 4 Combat Moves, whilst Player B can only describe 3]

Player A: I kick the table towards the cheating bastard, hoping to knock him off balance, and draw my sword!

Player B: I still have my flagon of ale in my hands, so I throw that in his face and reach for my daggers.

Player A: I swing my sword wildly at him, laughing and wiping the cheap ale from my face.

Player 2: I try to fall back into the crowd. Hopefully he'll hit an innocent bystander instead of me.

GM: Player A, you connect with somebody. You don't think it's the right person. Chaos erupts around you both.

Player A: Charge towards him, sword raised high, and land blows all around. One or more will hit him.

Player B: Dive forward, tackle him at waist level and sink my dagger into his side.

Player 1: Bring the pommel of my sword down on his head again and again and again.

[Both players have now described the combat using their assigned Combat Moves. Now they must determine their Combat Totals and decide how many points to assign to Damage and Defence.  

Player A rolls a 3, which he adds to his Combat Score of 4, giving him a Combat Total of 7.

Player B rolls a 5, which he adds to his Combat Score of 3, giving him a Combat Total of 8.

Player A decides he was more concerned with attacking than evading, so assigns 5 points to Damage and 2 points to Defence. 

Player B decides he gave as good as he got, so splits his total in half, with 4 points assigned to Damage and and 4 points assigned to Defence. 

Player A's 5 points of Damage are partially countered by Player B's 4 points of Defence, meaning he only delivers 1 point of Damage to Player B. 

Player B's even spread means that Player A suffers 2 points of Damage, and blocks 2 points.

After the first Round of combat, Player A has taken 2 Damage, and Player B has taken 1 Damage.]

All the numbers used are off the top of my head, and don't reflect what a balanced and well designed system would require. Probably. With these Damage totals, a characters hit points would either have to be very low, or we'd have to beef up the damage a bit.

Anyways - This post has been a bit of a tangent. I just had this idea, and really wanted to put it down before I slept. Any comments or improvements are more then welcome.

Game design by idiots, part II

Oh, how I love the way that Google Buzz doesn't link into Google Blogger...

Sam H - System wise, I like the idea.
In terms of implementation, perhaps have x number of skill slots, and the player can fill them as they first come across the need. This allows relevent skills to be useful early on (and thus preventing early death). For character advancement, new blank skill slots?

Stats - I'd let Strength apply both physically and mentally. How do you envisage the bad things for running out of a stat?

I like all the settings apart from 01A, because like you I don't see how it works

Good feedback, Sam. The idea of having instantly assignable skills is interesting, and i've seen something similar used for languages in Gumshoe games (in which you just state that you know X number of languages, and assign them as and when the need arises). 


My thinking behind the free form skill system, which I didn't articulate in the last post, is that there exists a contract between player and GM. As a player, if I buy a skill, I want, no, expect, the opportunity to use it, otherwise I expect the GM to have a quiet word and tell me to spend my XP on something else, and possibly suggest an alternative that the group may require in the next couple of sessions.
I also expect GMs to tailor challenges within a game so that they are challenging to a party, and don't require specific skills the party do not possess to overcome.
Let me rephrase that - that don't require specific skills the party do not possess to survive. There's nothing wrong with non-essential encounters that require a specific skill set to beat, as long as the main plot or the characters survival do not depend on success.
Failure builds character.

I digress.
A contract between player and GM. 
I have started writing up my system, and in it I explicitly state that a player and GM must agree on a skill as it is chosen - what it is, how it works, what it covers and most importantly that the player character is allowed to take it. 
By buying the skill, the player agrees not to take the piss, and by allowing it, the GM agrees to give the player opportunity to use it. 
This is a bit deus ex machina, but plays out like a TV serial in which a new mcguffin, fact or ability is introduced at the beginning of the episode, and oddly becomes crucial to the resolution of the plot about ten minutes from the end.


So, at character creation, I have specified that players should initially choose two skills, one which they think would be useful to the group, and one which they think is cool.
The GM then designs the game sessions to call upon these skills. All other actions should then be achievable through a basic die roll or through the expenditure of Strength, Sanity or Luck.


Also, failure on a dice roll does not have to mean that a character does not perform the action - they could still scale the wall, but twist their ankle as they climb down the other side, or hack into the bad guys computer and access his files, but download a virus at the same time.


The uses of Strength and Sanity are pretty interchangeable, you just have to come up with a reason why Sanity is applicable to the physical action you are attempting, instead of the default Strength. 


Strength also acts as a characters hit points / health levels, so it's best not to burn the one stat at the expense of the other. 


What happens if you run out of either stat?
Here's an extract from my notes:

Running on Empty

What happens when a character exhausts their reserves of Strength, Sanity or Luck?

A character can lose Strength due to two reasons - they can burn it, or they can sustain damage. If a characters last point of Strength is lost due to damage, the character falls unconscious for 1d6 minutes. After this time they regain consciousness, but are weak and in great pain. They can only walk slowly, or crawl, and any sudden or vigorous exertion will cause them to pass out again for another 1d6 minutes. Any further damage sustained whilst on zero Strength permanently reduces the characters maximum Strength score. Once a characters maximum Strength score is reduced to zero, they die. Trying to burn Strength whilst in this state counts as physical exertion. If this is attempted, the character does not gain an additional d6 for their roll, and passes out upon completion.

If the final point of Strength is burnt, the character does not immediately lose consciousness, but is totally exhausted, and does not have the energy to run or exert themselves. If they sustain any damage whilst exhausted, then the character will pass out for 1d6 minutes and lose a point of their maximum Strength  score and all affects described above will take affect.

When a character loses their last point of Sanity, they become emotionally exhausted, tired and unfocussed. They are quick to tears and quick to anger. 

If a character suffers further Sanity loss whilst on zero Sanity, they can develop and suffer from any number of severe phobias, extreme rage, obsessions, compulsions, ticks, delusions, experience paranoia or fall into a catatonic or fugue state, depending on the situation that caused the Sanity loss.

Running out of Luck does not impose any mechanical penalties, and a character can still function as normal, they just cannot benefit from burning Luck points. The Narrator, however, may wish to torment the character with a run of bad luck, unfortunate coincidences and fickle fate until the character regains at least one point of Luck.

I do like the concept of 01A, I just think it would work better as a hack of another system rather than shoe-horning it into this one.
Conceptually, it's a sci-fi mystery thriller. It's almost a superhero game, where all characters share the same origin - their mothers were artificially inseminated by the same alien/enhanced/bio-engineered/non-human (delete as appropriate) donor. The characters slowly realise that they are more than human, that they can do things and that there are numerous secret organisations - Government agencies, scientists, corporations, religions etc - that want to use, study, understand or destroy them.
So, setting wise, it would be a struggle to remain hidden whilst being hunted, not knowing who to trust, and trying  to discover the truth behind their parentage.
I know what I mean.
I think it would run better if the players didn't know they were playing it.

Anyways, good feedback and questions. Cheers Sam.

Game design by idiots

I've been toying with various game ideas - both setting and mechanics - for years now. The first game I ever ran, back in my halls of residence in 1996, was one I 'designed' myself.
It was rubbish, of course. You couldn't even say it was a good first effort.


Anyways, since then I have always felt the urge to design my own game, and have attempted to do so several times in the past. I have posted links to examples of these failed designs, such as Ghost Britain and the first attempt at Modern Mythic, in previous entries. Feel free to go back and have a look. 


At the moment I am mulling over a system and have started trying to pin it down on paper. 
It has a few (hopefully) simple core concepts. 
There are no defined skills. A character can attempt anything that the GM and player agree is theoretically possible, and the action is resolved by rolling a dice (any dice) with an even number being a success, and an odd number being a failure. 
My rudimentary grasp of maths tells me that this is a 50/50 chance. 


A player can add more dice to the roll in the following ways:

• They can possess a relevant skill. Skills are not defined, and are free-form instead. Therefore one character could use their Murder skill to fight with, whilst the other could use their Bitch Slap skill (these are off the top of my head examples). Possessing a relevant skill allows the player to roll an additional dice
• They can burn a point of their characters Strength or Sanity, which are slow refreshing resource pools. Strength is commonly used to augment physical actions, and Sanity for mental and social actions, although exceptions exist for compelling arguments (I burn a point of Strength to stay up all night researching this ancient language). Running out of Strength or Sanity are bad. Burning one point of either allows the player to roll an additional dice. Only one point of either stat may be burnt at a time.
• A player can burn a point of Luck after a roll has been made to change the result of one dice. Luck can be spent to alter another players roll and even the GMs roll. Only one point can be spent at a time. Luck is a slow refreshing resource pool, like Strength and Sanity. Running out of Luck is also bad.
• Certain bits of equipment may add a bonus dice, although these should be rare. I'd like to keep the number of dice rolled down with a cap of 3, making Luck a powerful stat.

Strength and Sanity also act as measures of a characters physical and mental health, whilst Luck can be used as a plot tool to get characters in the right (or wrong, if they've run out of Luck) place at the right time.


Damage drains either Strength or Sanity, and weapons do a set amount of damage.


I've been trying to draft up a basic intro to the rules, along with a character sheet and develop some settings for awhile now. Hopefully i'll be in a position to publish soon. Although probably not


I have a number of settings in mind, some of which feature rules variations.

• Modern Mythic - the Vanilla setting, using the basic rules. Maybe with the addition of magic. Not sure yet. The setting is street level struggle between competing secret societies to possess and comprehend the secrets of the universe. These secrets are found in unexpected places, such as junk DNA, statistical data (such as the frequency of fatal to non-fatal car accidents in Calcutta) or audio recordings of one second of every single telephone conversation happening at midnight on Christmas Eve slowed down and played backwards. 
• Danger Illustrated - A title i've had knocking around for over ten years. High adventure. Tomb robbing. Assassinations. Espionage. Danger Illustrated is an exclusive magazine available only to a select few (although it's probably a website in this day and age) that details where adventure can be found, for those brave enough to seize it. The system variation is that characters can burn multiple points of Strength, Sanity and/or Luck in one go, equal to a new Stat, Courage. This could also be applied to a pulp Sci-Fi setting as well.
• Legend - A fantasy setting, in which all the characters have a great destiny, and are capable of performing legendary deeds related to that destiny. There's a new stat - Legend - that allows the character to perform one legendary deed per point of Legend a day, as long as it relates to their destiny. For example, a character with the destiny 'Greatest swordsman ever' would be able to automatically succeed at a number of legendary sword related feats each day equal to their Legend score, whilst a character with the destiny 'Powerful Archmage' would be able to cast a number of spells per day equal to the Legend score
• 01A (Zero One Alpha) - A Sci-Fi setting, in which the characters discover that they are all related, that they all share the same biological father (but separate biological mothers), and that there are hundreds of them, scattered across the earth, all with a tattoo somewhere on their body with an alpha-numerical code that ranges between 01A and 99Ω. There are several possible explanations posited for this, from cloning to alien DNA, divine intervention to eugenics, with any number of motivations potentially driving them. The system variation would include psychic abilities and a stat called Potential, or maybe Perfection. Still not quite sure how it would work though.

Lost / Changeling / Fear Itself

In an earlier instalment I mused on the idea of using the Changeling: The Lost rules and setting to run a game based on the Lost TV series.  This may or may not have been influenced by the two things having semi-similar names. Who knows...

Now, having read Fear Itself and had a little time to think on it, I have decided that it would be a far superior setting for any theoretical Lost inspired games.
Why? The book itself features only two antagonists - Mystery Men and the Ovvashi. The Ovvashi are demons that torment tramps (for that popular 'homeless urban survival horror' genre), whilst the Mystery Men are Q-like, god-like beings that can alter reality and do so with the sole aim of tormenting innocent humans. The only real weakness that Mystery Men have is that they adhere to various rules - either because they have to,or because they choose to.
The Fear Itself rules also make use of flashbacks during play, and require all players to define The Worst Thing (their character has) Ever Done as well as deciding which of the other PC's they like the best and dislike the most, which are all familiar devices used in Lost itself.

So, in this theoretical game, we have the following:
The PC's are caught in a contest between two Mystery Men (Jacob and the Man in Black/Smoke Monster) who use their powers to inflict various limitations and benefits upon the local environment (such as how to find it, how to leave, how to arrive, how certain bits of technology work, how people recover from illness, how time works in relation to the rest of the world etc) and to set various tasks and responsibilities for the PC's (press this button every x minutes, or something really bad will  happen). They also engineer coincidences and enigmas to madden an confuse the PC's.
The game itself would attempt to feature a flashback per session that focuses on one character and allows for development and plot progression.
Sessions would be driven by either investigation into the local environment and the unusual properties it possesses, or by a task imposed by the environment or by conflicts between characters. At times one of the Mystery Men will step in to progress their agenda against the other Mystery Man or to torment one of the characters.

The best game I never played

Geek books are like crack. I see them. I want them. I do morally repulsive things to get them. Then, after I have them, and the euphoric buzz has faded, I feel a little guilty and maybe regret the purchase.
I can normally rationalise the purchase away though...
It's well written, so it's like buying a regular book
It's a good system that's got me thinking, so it's a mental exercise, which is good
Oh, I will use it, it's fucking awesome

Then, months or years later you look at your book shelf and realise that the literally hundreds of pounds you've spent could have gone on something more worthwhile, because you've never used the damn things.

Example
When my wife moved in, I showed willing and cleared out a load of my old RPG books. I sold off about 30 Mage: The Ascension books that I had never used.
I gave away about 15 Exalted books, 6 Orpheus books, 20+ Vampire: The Masquerade books, 1 Mummy: The Resurrection book, 20+ Ars Magica books and 4 Hunter: The Reckoning books that I had never used.

One of the rationalisations i used was that I was clearing house of everything I didn't use and was never going to use again.
I would start again.
Rebuild.

As of now, I have 22 New World of Darkness books, including core rule books, most of which I have never used. I've not used Mage, Vampire, Changeling and a number of supplements.
I have Ars Magica 5th Edition, which I have never used.
I have Exalted 2nd Edition, which i have never used.
I have Trail of Cthulhu, Fear Itself and Star Wars Saga Edition. I've not used any of them.

This is kind of depressing. A lot of these are great games (the exceptions being ArM5 and Exalted 2, which appear to piss all over the previous, stronger, editions).

Unfortunately i don't see an opportunity in the near future for play either, which is a real shame.

I'd really love to do something with Changeling: The Lost, which is a really rich game chock full of opportunities and creativity.
I have about three or four Star Wars games I could run, and could pull off a respectable Vampire: The Requiem game.
I think i'd prefer to play Mage instead of run it.

Now, if only my children would age about 5 years, i'd have a bit more time...

Lost?

Well, TV has now ended - Lost, Heroes, Flashforward, all consigned to the great DVD box set in the sky. Even Big Brother is about to end, although that's mercifully outside the remit of this blog.

Anyways, I, like many right thinking people, was disappointed by the resolution of Lost - i.e. there was no resolution, just a break for a spin off that will never happen and more questions.

So, I've been thinking about how I would have ended it, which tailed into how would I run a Lost game.

I'd always presumed that the World of Darkness / Storytelling System would work well, and stand by that presumption, however recently I started thinking about about using Changeling: The Lost the run a Lost type game.

Obvious puns aside, it kind of works. The player characters find themselves in a strange woodland environment, which could easily be an island, following a disaster / accident.
The Jacob / Man in Black (smoke monster) cold war works well in the context of two Fae beings engaged in an endless contest governed by strict rules, manipulating the players as pawns in their struggle.
The Man in Black (smoke monster) works especially well as a Fae, with Jacob kind of being a bit too benevolent (although he does display a fairly cavalier attitude towards the lives of the survivors, so he works ok).
The time delay and circuitous means of entering and exiting the island / hedge work within the setting, as do any bizarre electro-magnetic disturbances, walking dead people, misplaced animals and anomalous statues.

I'm less sure how to include the time travel and people like Desmond. I guess the hedge could allow for some degree of temporal dislocation, or the illusion of time travel.
I'll have to think more about it.

The major incongruity between Lost and Changeling: The Lost is that the survivors in Lost are human, and the player characters in C:TL are not human. You could use human PCs in the setting, but they'd die very quickly if you use the canon rules and antagonists. That's easily fudged though.

I think i'd like to do it, and see how it turns out. I do believe that the writers of Lost pretty much made up the lower level detail as they went along - I mean, it's kind of telling that they created the character of Hurley because they liked the actor, and Hurley became the 'new' Jacob at the end - so I think that a GM should be able to wing the individual sessions as long as they adhered to a main story arc.

Tom Cruise vs Emperor Palpatine

I would like to start this post with an assertion: Star Wars is ace!
I mean, don't you just love the imagery, the look and feel, the cross genre cool.
I mean, check this out and tell me that you're not stirred.

Star Wars is awesome. Specifically, Star Wars Saga Edition Roleplay Game is also awesome. It's award winning, for one (Ennies 2008 Gold Winner Best Rules, Best d20 Product, Best Game. Silver Winner Product of the Year), and rightly so.

Wizards of the Coast Star Wars RPG products have traditionally been used as a testing ground for new D&D rules, which is a little odd considering Lucas Arts charge through the nose for the license, so you would have thought that the rules used would be tried, tested and definitely not experimental.
However, WotC have been using SWRPG as a testing ground. The 2nd Edition was a bridge between D&D 3rd Ed and 3.5, and resulted in some aberrations and jarred a little in places.
Saga Edition is no exception, and straddles 3.5 and 4th Ed.

The only difference is that it rocks!
They've kept all the stuff that worked in 3.5, and introduced all the stuff that works in 4th Ed. The result is a really easy rules system, multi classing options that make sense and Jedi that don't piss all over the other classes.
I love it.

The only downer is that due to the RPG market being in some form of vegetative state, and Lucas Arts demanding so much money for the license, WotC have decided to drop the game.

Not to worry though, there's still stock on Amazon, and my wishlist includes many Saga Edition books. Buy them now before they become rare.

However, onto the the actual point of the post, hinted at by the title.
Hands up if you've seen Valkyrie. It is also ace.
After I watched it, my immediate thought was 'Wouldn't this make a great Star Wars game?'
And it would.
Concept: The players are all high ranking Imperial officers - Moffs, Admirals, Generals etc. The Emperor has just dissolved the Senate, disintegrated Alderaan and allowed the largest, most expensive and most ambitious space station ever built to be destroyed by rebel fighters.
These are dark times, and Emperor Palpatine is leading the galaxy down a path of madness and destruction. He, and his enforcer, Darth Vader, must be stopped. The Empire must be preserved.
The players plot to assassinate the Emperor and Vader, and to take control of the Galactic Empire.

I originally saw it as a letter writing campaign, but wouldn't really know where to start with that, let alone run it.
It would have to be high intrigue and involve meticulous planning by both myself and the players.
It would also be fantastic.

Edit/Update: Well, WotC have now discontinued their Star Wars RPG pages. It's the end of an era. Everybody hand their heads during a moments silence...
On the topic, Will Hindmarch has blogged a post (is that the correct terminology?) regarding why Sci-Fi doesn't sell, which is kind of relevant to this topic.