Game designers, design this!

[Anastylos]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I'm not familiar with Finnish comic books, so I can't do much with the Moomins. Nor do I know much about Italian horror movies. Dario Argento seem to be in sort of a pulp-fiction/gore exploitation so most games that could handle that would be fine. Perhaps one of those narrative systems that let characters earn points in one scene to spend in the next. Gain cinematic power by describing lurid murders and horrible demons, then use those abilities to try to keep the PCs alive when they meet. Or perhaps a system like Mecha/Zodia Sunset/Vensa Thaw where the player's attributes are somehow interconnected with the monsters' attributes.

Minecraft already is a role playing game. The notable part is the unique level up system. Rather than gaining new skills or extra HP at some arbitrary level up or game session stopping point, the character's power increases based on their knowledge of the world and the materials they have access too.

Base characteristics would remain fairly static, though we might allow some variation so that players can fit classes or otherwise be unique. In turn your pools of ore would enhance these abilities or be dynamically crafted into tools to assist in a skill attempt. The pools are refreshed by going farther from home and exploring. To some extent XP, is based on where you go, not how you get there, so fighting enemies and sneaking past have the same reward.

From more of a setting and psychology point of view, we can do some interesting things as well. Gravity and structural limits only seems to apply to living creatures, sand, and gravel - floating islands and castles in the sky are a pretty much required setting element. The re-spawning and flat yet mostly infinite plane of the world seems to speak of some sort of purgatory or matrix like environment. You can't leave, there are few other sentient creatures little direction to go in...

Hell is other Creepers...

BSG could probably be handled decently well in Jovian Chronicles by Dream Pod 9 or some other hard SF RPG. from the 1km1kt.net archives would be an excellent fit, since you can become a Cylon, even if you weren't one before.

Next on the block: an RPG based on a real time strategy game like Command and Conquer.

[Evil Scientist]

[koipond]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I found a game at a used book store, and just had to buy it for the premise. The game is called "Starchildren" and is pretty easily summed up as "Ziggy Stardust vs 1984". Aliens have come to earth, and almost all of what they know of society comes from music videos. However, while they were enroute, a new totalitarian government took over, which among other things - banned rock music. Enter the Velvet Underground a coalition of humans and psychic aliens trying to overthrow the Ministry of Music and restore freedom with the power of glam rock.

Now, go for a game that replicates something like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" where the various player characters might not share the same laws of physics.

[Evil Scientist]

[Onix]

I have to admit to having a hard time thinking of any good systems for the last batch so I was just lurking.

For example, Minecraft would be exceptionally difficult to model in a tabletop RPG. The building process would have to be abstracted if it's going to fit in a game book less than 2000 pages long and would therefore have little meaning. It's also for the most part a solo RPG which has it's own problems.

In this case the game is mostly in the man vs environment category and RPG traditionally have difficulty with that.

The other part of Minecraft is that it's all about grinding for the materials and novel combinations thereof. Grinding in tabletop RPGs is normally considered passe. Although slogging through dungeons is a form of grinding (to get to the next level, to gain treasure) most games have moved away from that.

Maybe that's the wrong attitude though. Would there be fun in rolling dice to see what the character could make of common ores? Wrought iron, cast iron, mild steel, hardened steel, stainless steel. The player goes for one and maybe normally gets something that middles out? That way, having an accomplishment of gaining a lot of materials to make what you want is still possible. It's still easy to cheat. The computer keeps you honest.

There's also something to the story being told. Again, if there was some way of recording the events and making them interesting to share with others.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[Evil Scientist]

Adapting it is one part of the question. The other part is making it fun... So even with Chainsaw's and Onix' combined efforts, I'm not sold on the idea of the possibility of a Minecraft (pen&paper) RPG. I don't really see it happening, functioning. What are the players and GM telling each other? Hell, are there BLOCKS?

(Off topic:)


Or maybe it's just something I wouldn't find interesting.

Maybe it should be a GM-less system? About collective world building?

[Anastylos]

Maybe you dont have stats but you have materials that you can use. Two ore and a stick to gain an advantage concernig attacks. Maybe it would be even more fun its not minecraft but a postapocalyptic setting. Combining a shard and a Stick and some rope to get an axe. Gathering resources and defending them against other suvivors could be fun. Maybe I will design something like that. There are not enough cardbased roleplaying games.