Reference Interest Measurement Thread

Me and Draco are looking into it, too. But not as a "rip off" from the movie, but to take the basic idea and try and give it our own twist and push it into a new direction . . . I think the movie, as any good Sci Fi movie . . . opened a world to play in we never saw before . . .

 

Since I'm new here, its my duty to introduce myself. Hello, I am Celesti, pleasure to meet you all. I've been Roleplaying On and Offline for four or more years on forums solely for that said game. I thought I'd join to test the ground here.

I was planning to make my first post here in the Game Designer's Group, but I now see the topic of Inception, and how could anyone pass that topic up?

Anyways, back to the Inception topic. I think it'd be better to not have Cobb and the rest involved, because its more than certain that there are more extractors in that world. So I think there would just be more fun with an all new setting somewhere else, maybe not in the Star Wars universe for that could be a scale of megalithic proportions. Inception in SW would lean towards a vast amount of setting, perhaps more dream levels, and as BobaMatt stated for an Earth Inception based game, for Star Wars it would have to be Brilliantly GMed (that is Game Mastered, right?).

For an Earth based one I think it would be a great game if it was pulled off correctly. I don't know about one or more threads, or how to go about it, but maybe just have the GM state what level of the dream the character's are on. Even then it could get drastically confusing to both the GM and Player. Thus, maybe a smaller amount of players, and limited levels. No idea. BUT, If the GM(s) could pull all this off, it would be a fantastic game.

Hope I didn't spoil the whole discussion,
~Celesti

 

First of all, let me clarify that I linked to that graphic as an aid for understanding the way dreams are structured in Inception, not as a guide for any GM who wants to simply copy the plot of the film. That would be a pretty pointless and unoriginal exercise.

Now...Celesti. First of all, welcome to the boards! And don't worry, you didn't spoil our discussion! I struggle to imagine how you could have. (And yes, GMed is Game Mastered )

If I were running an Inception game, I would simply colour-code my GM posts. Dream level one, two, three, etc. I don't actually think it would be confusing at all, as each character is only awake on one level at a time.

The major difficulty I foresee is that an Inception game is uniquely vulnerable once players start disappearing. For example, what happens if the player administering the kick on Dream level two suddenly vanishes? Then you have characters stranded on the level below. At what point does the GM take over? And how does that affect the co-ordination of kicks all down the chain? And so on.

 

There are actually some very clever in-universe ways to cover up players leaving, in my opinion. One player has to withdraw from the game? Then they were like Mr. Charles, a projection of the dreamer's subconscious.

And as far as Cobb and Co. go, well...certainly there are other extractors in the film's world; Cobb states as much about three separate times.

 

The sotS Team doing an Inception? Count me in dreaming! Think actually from the whole idea of "multi-layered" storytelling it is a pferct match for a next project, although I am not so much in love with the movie as others are. But don´t you dare to let SotS II suffer from it, Fin! Don´t you DARE!

 

On dream levels: GM updates would have to be regular and staggered due to the nature of time passage in each dream level. Perhaps two levels would be enough, to keep things simple and fair, and also since the movie seems to feel that pulling off a job in three dream levels is unprecedented. What's more, it's possible that the majority of a plot can happen in dream level two, while trusted oldbies manipulate the game from dream level one.

 

Y'all can have your Star Wars Inception - I'm gonna work on my homebrewed Nolan Inception game in secret with bunsen burners and a hunch-backed assistant called Igor (pronounced EYE-gore)

 

Bunsen. It's spelled bunsen.

 

Ignore the bright red name in that message's header. There was no edit made.

Anyhow, I'm of the opinion that a Star Wars version of Inception is unnecessary - the film left well-enough alone just how strange our dreams can become, and I think that's something that can be easily tapped in to.

 

Not to mention how easy it'd be to have one dream that tied into Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who at the same time... or something. I dunno. Speaking as someone who's not seen the movie, how would you attract RPers such as myself? Would we even understand what was going on?

 

Most likely. The concept isn't terribly high-minded, but the film's plot could be considered such.

 

Mine was intended as a joke...

 

A game I've been thinking about. You don't have to be familiar with the Revelation Space series, obviously. Tell me what you think guys and gals.

It is the year 2348 and Jacob LlRal is an Ultra who has been down on his luck. Fired off from his last crew, he has been travelling the Glitter Band doing odd jobs to make ends meet. But his fortune changes for the better when he stumbles across a titanic Lighthugger called Flowerbird. Normally, this would be no cause for concern in the very large and buzzing Glitter Band, except that this ship is abandoned and has no owner.

The Glitter Band's Panoply quickly took control of Flowerbird because of all the different habitats that wanted to assume control of it, whether to use it to increase the size of their respective organization or to use it as a trading ship. Jacob, however, demanded that since he had been the one to discover the ship that he should be given a stake in the ownership of the Flowerbird as well. After months of constant polls and deliberation, Panoply gave itself, Jacob, and four habitats a stock in the ship. The ship is being sent on a voyage to gather resources and bring more business to the Glitter Band by travelling to distant and unknown planets on the edge of human expansion.

------

The Factions

Jacob LlRal's Crew - Jacob's crew are mainly just down on their luck adventurers who find that the Glitter Band doesn't have as much to offer to them. They are a motley crew of outcasts, but are hard workers under Jacob and are loyal to him. Attracts: Mercenaries, engineers, thieves, and pilots.

KOKE-Yuslav Family - The KOKE-Yuslav family are those people who spend their lives in abstraction. "Abstraction is the process by which humans with neural implants gain access to wireless data networks, the data rate of which is far beyond anything current technology can offer." KOKE-Yuslav's leave their minds in abstraction and interact with other habitats through robot bodies. They handle most if not all trading that is done on Flowerbird.

Panoply - Panoply is the police force of the Glitter Band. On board the Flowerbird, their main job is to make sure that voting and polls are done fair, to settle disputes, and to keep the factions from going to war.

House Observatorius - House Observatorius is a group of Conjoiners that monitor the Conjoiner Drive engines that run the ship. It is unsure why they expressed such an interest in joining the voyage, but it is suspected that they are simply trying to uncover the mystery behind Flowerbird's abandonment.

Kor-Lurine Family - Politicians and Scientists who, under the leadership of Paul Kor-Lurine, are attempting to colonize and build new settlements on the unknown worlds that Flowerbird is bound to come by. There is an air of distrust between between the Politicians and the Scientists, but Paul Kor-Lurine is the only thing keeping them from infighting.

DaBaLis - A fringe corporation that works on cutting edge technology. They hope that by going on this voyage that they will be able to gather technology from other settlements, recruit, investigate the remains of alien civilizations, and to try and make contact with any other alien entities that may be in the galaxy.

-b

 

Noted at the time, but considering Inception became a touchstone of discussion I decided to ignore the joke and simply take it literally. Hope that's okay by you, because it happened.

Also, Blubeast - that post is more appropriate for the Game Designer's Group or RPG Introduction Service.

 

Okay, Pengy.

I am still very persistent in the pursuit for a NSWRPF racing game and I have wanted to try it again for some time now. So I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a new Midnight Club game.

Another idea was a sort of hardcore (scifi) steampunk game. I think I have a pretty good idea for a storyline.

-b

 

Take it easy boss, I was just clarifying my position.

And I also agree that a true to form non-Star Wars Inception attempt is the only way to go

 

Your position was and is clear so no worries.

 

Would anyone be interested in a RPG that basically was all about one battle? My idea is this: To have a RPG that encompasses one battle of the Clone Wars, from the player/character point of view. The players are given objectives to accomplish in the game and they basically go after it. Then after the entire battle finishes, the players chronicle what their characters have been doing until they are sent out on another battle.

Since this would be set in the Clone Wars, almost any character is feasible and can be involved. It would be very action oriented, but the in-between battle posts would make it more personal. I developed this idea because it creates a war setting where, as seen with Skywalker/Ventress, Kenobi/Grievous, Jedi/Bane, rivalries could be formed and chronicled throughout a series of battles that could, ideally, cover the entire Clone War.

Likes/Dislikes?

-b

 

I'm posting this to try to resurrect the Mass Effect buzz.

I have some ideas and when I get one I like I'll throw it at the GDG. But would people like to play an NSW game in the Mass Effect universe? Still? Now?

 

I would.

 

Having just finished playing Mass Effect (yes, I know--I was horribly late to the party), I'd be curious to see what form it would take. No guarantees though. If you have further details, I'd be interested in discussing them privately if you'd rather not do so here.

 

MASS EFFECT!

I'd be in. I have a mild ME obsession that demands feeding now and then.

 

To resurrect the ME buzz, the discussion in Jocasta's regarding predestination and fates got me thinking about an ME game again. Considering you have the Asari Consort in ME1 who talks to Shepard about what she sees, one could consider pairing some aspect of predestination through someone with abilities like the Consort to the ME concept and having a squad of people go through the galaxy with this knowledge weighing on their minds as they try to save the galaxy and whatnot. Simply an idea to be thought about or discarded as appropriate.

 

I like the idea, Trieste.

Could she be predicting a certain consequence of an objective the players are trying specifically to avoid and that might alter their decisions when it's all on the line?

 

That's definitely possible. I'm trying to remember the words of the Asari Consort in the original ME...and of course YouTube comes to the rescue. Here's one of the things that she can say to the player.

Obviously what we see here is a little more backwards looking than heading towards the future, but let's not forget that there are a number of different beings who work under Sha'ira, providing similar comforts. It's entirely possible that someone studying under her might develop gifts of her own, of a different nature. These abilities could look more towards the future.

I think that there are many ways for this to go. The consort's forward looking abilities could be prophetic in nature--she could be a seer and warn of a certain future based on the actions of the party. They could also be individual, which is what my understanding of the Man Cubs game was (though admittedly I did not play). How much stock the players would put in the accuracy of these predictions would be dependent on the characters themselves. Some could brush it off without a second thought. Others could feel very bound by the prediction. I think the concept could be made to fit whatever sort of game the GM wanted to run, and what sort of situation the GM felt like putting his players in. After all, someone born on Earth in his first tour with the Alliance would likely view the Consort's words very skeptically, whereas an asari might take them with much higher reverence.

Maybe the application here would be a little hard, but I have to say that the idea of roleplaying with a "destiny" to move things forward intrigues me. The ramifications of that also have my interest. How does someone act when they have a certain destiny weighing on their shoulders? Is it shrugged off...only to become true in the act of doing so? Or does someone in attempting to realize that destiny fall woefully short of it, fulfilling predictions in a way completely different from what he thought?

Just throwing stuff on the wall and seeing what sticks.