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Different RPG Concepts

PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 10:05 am
by Onix
I've been playing with ideas of taking out the core of RPGs and replacing them entirely. You may have seen me write about this before on occasion. D&D started with modifying a wargame into accommodating more character development. What if we took a game like Monopoly, or Sorry, and added more character development?

I kind of think this has been at least partly done with card games, something that I'm not particularly interested in at the moment but still could be useful ground to cover.

So what about a board game RPG in the style of Monopoly? I don't mean using a Monopoly board directly, just using the circular nature of the board, the ability for players to move tokens, place markers and use resources to modify game play.

I imagine a series of blocks with event descriptions. I'm not entirely sure how to structure that yet. Maybe things like physical, social, or technical actions could be distributed around. A player could land on them and place markers to "own" them, signifying skill. Each revolution around the board gives you experience points (or something) that you can spend on different types of actions you have purchased.

Different boards that are genre specific would obviously make sense. You'd tailor each to signify the game you'd like to run.

One question is, would this be GM less? I think it could be, but the downfall of it would be that players run through the board mechanically. A GM or, in effect a narrator would drive the narration of the game and prompt the players to respond in kind.

If each block is vague, it allow the players to come up with a larger range of actions. However, it would introduce a lot of choices for the player, meaning a greater difficulty for starting players. Having more specific actions means the game is easier to pick up and play, but may not offer as wide a set of actions and could stifle player input.

So what if, players, when the place tokens on a block, get a card that gives them a more specific action they are able to perform. Each card type can be selected by the player when they place a marker.

The big problem is that a board with actions on it is essentially random. Even if there's a pattern on the board itself, it would make the story difficult to follow.

The other option then is to have the blocks on the board, follow a progression of an unfolding conflict. Starting off with maybe verbal sparring and then progressing to threats, then to intimidating actions. Each series might be skipped by a dice roll, so the conflict wouldn't play out in the same progression each time.

The problem with that is, the board could only handle one type of in game challenge. Character vs. char, char vs. environment, char vs. technical. That is, unless there are multiple concentric tracks around the board. Seeing as there's a lot of unused space on a monopoly board in the middle, running multiple tracks would be feasible but would introduce weird issues, like the inner tracks are shorter than the outer. That could be explained, or maybe it doesn't need to be.

Anyway, that's my current concept of a different RPG. What other systems would you like stretched to create an RPG?

Re: Different RPG Concepts

PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:13 pm
by kylesgames

Re: Different RPG Concepts

PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:03 pm
by Onix
I wasn't, but looked it up. I think I'm going for something more open than that. I'm considering the board as a resolution and advancement mechanism rather than a specific story.

Re: Different RPG Concepts

PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:49 pm
by kylesgames

Re: Different RPG Concepts

PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 2:16 pm
by Onix
Having a GM arrange the board would make things more customizable. It may also complicate things. I think I'd like to try a static board first, and then move to a modular board to see what changes.

Re: Different RPG Concepts

PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:53 pm
by kylesgames