# Define some genres



## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

Edit:  I love this old thread, and I can't help but revive it every couple of years . . . 

I've always been fascinated by the concept of "genre" in music and fiction, and a lot of my weirder RPG ideas start with genre --- either by wanting to emulate a specific genre [say, Bondian '60s espionage], or by wanting to define a genre that is maybe not widely recognized as such [like "Hijinx" --- the game of Rock & Roll Mystery-Solving Cartoons], or by cobbling together a genre of my own out of various bits and pieces.

So I want some ideas about the last two --- define a genre [or maybe "quirky subgenre" would be a more accurate term] suitible for gaming, citing examples of your inspiration/source material and otherwise explaining its characteristics.  

It can be a twist on a recognized genre, or a set of common elements running through various films/shows/books, or something that you more or less made up.

[And give it a catchy name and write it in caps, so it can become the next big thing.  If you're stuck for a name, I heartily approve of the inappropriate use of the suffix "-punk."]

To name one --- TWEENSPY.  Been seeing a lot of this lately.  Agent Cody Banks, Catch That Kid, Spy Kids.  Adolescents get caught up in PG-rated James Bond adventures, oftentimes getting to rescue Mom and Dad, and always outsmarting the grownups.  No real violence, but plenty of thrills, and a big scoop of suspension of disbelief.  

[You could argue that Jonny Quest was the founding father of tweenspy...I'd almost rather save him for TWEENPULP, along with the Goonies.]

MEXIPUNK.  "Desperado" meets "From Dusk Til Dawn" meets Santo.  High-octane action, south of the border.  Luchadores are the martial artists of the setting, every guitar player might also be a gunslinger, and horrors from before Cortez still stalk the night.

EIGHTIES NEOPULP.  Buckaroo Banzai, Big Trouble in Little China...and you can stretch a little to include Predator, Rambo, and the A-Team.  In the Big Eighties, Big Heroes have Big Adventures.  New Wave action heroes confront everything from those damn Russians to alien invasions.   

Any takers?


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

Oh, I got another one...a year or two back, I wanted to run STEAMPUNCH, a Victorian Era martial arts tournament game.  For inspiration, Van Damme's "The Quest" [actually set in the 1920s, but it had that feeling that a trip to the Orient was truly an adventure into exotic lands], Jackie Chan's "Shanghai Noon" and "Shanghai Knights" [although I'd want a tad more historical accuracy], any number of martial arts films set around the Boxer Rebellion and dealing with the tension between East and West...and strangely enough, "Far and Away" and "Gangs of New York", for the 19th century boxing.


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## DanMcS (Jun 8, 2004)

CASTLE-FU:  The Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Musketeer.  Kickass action featuring people in medieval times.

Medieval Supers: the 1602 comic series.  Kickass action featuring superheroes in medieval times.

Detect a common thread?  I want some kickass action.  Our 2nd level D&D game is making me sad.  The ogre hits you.  You are unconscious again.  Hope the cleric can stabilize you before you have to roll up another lame low-level hero.  Bleh.


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## Bloodstone Press (Jun 8, 2004)

1948 

 A brief blurb from the upcomming press release: 
1948 is Lovecraftian horror + modern conspiracy theory + pulp sci-fi from the 40s and 50s + WWII history + metaphysics + ancient legends + a certain popular 80s cartoon series about an elite paramilitary team that I can’t mention by name. 1948 features witches, psychics, ninjas, commandos, demons, aliens, snipers, mad scientists, mutants, Japanese mega-monsters, secret societies, and much, much more. Ray guns, jet packs, lost cities, eastern mysticism, impossible science, and alien horrors are the stock elements of this setting. Although it is “modern,” it also features organizations of knights (Templars, Teutonic Knights, and others), wizards (occultists, mystics, and others) and priests (voodoo shaman, Catholic bishops, and others). There are also plenty of roguish associations available in the setting including Muslim assassins and spies from every nation. 

 You'll be hearing a lot more about it in the future, so I'll stop for now.


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

Well, technically, the examples you cite are later than medieval...mostly Renaissance, with BotW being Enlightenment, as I recall.  And I'd call it "rapier-fu", just to get the time period nailed down.  But good call...swashbuckling meets martial arts.

The first several issues of Avengers Volume 3 had a great medieval superhero setting, drawn brilliantly by George Perez.

I got another one...

TEAMPUNK...action hero adventures starring professional athletes.  References:  The Harlem Globetrotter episodes of "Scooby-Doo"; the 1991 cartoon "Pro Stars" starring Jordan, Gretzky, and Bo Jackson; old-school Marvel Comic "Kickers, Inc."; and motion picture masterpiece "Gymkata."  

A possible subgenre would be TEAMPUNK XTREME, drawing upon Vin Diesel's "XXX" and snowboarding favorite "Extreme Ops"...oh, and Action Man, and "Gleaming the Cube."  And those guys from the Mountain Dew commercials...y'know, if they fought crime.


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

Bloodstone Press said:
			
		

> 1948
> 
> A brief blurb from the upcomming press release:
> 1948 is Lovecraftian horror + modern conspiracy theory + pulp sci-fi from the 40s and 50s + WWII history + metaphysics + ancient legends + a certain popular 80s cartoon series about an elite paramilitary team that I can’t mention by name. 1948 features witches, psychics, ninjas, commandos, demons, aliens, snipers, mad scientists, mutants, Japanese mega-monsters, secret societies, and much, much more. Ray guns, jet packs, lost cities, eastern mysticism, impossible science, and alien horrors are the stock elements of this setting. Although it is “modern,” it also features organizations of knights (Templars, Teutonic Knights, and others), wizards (occultists, mystics, and others) and priests (voodoo shaman, Catholic bishops, and others). There are also plenty of roguish associations available in the setting including Muslim assassins and spies from every nation.
> ...




Sounds a little Hellboyish to me, which is a good thing.


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## d4 (Jun 8, 2004)

TURBANPUNK?

SCIMITAR-FU?

my one great dream for many years has been to run a campaign based on the _1001 Arabian Nights_ and the Ray Harryhausen _Sinbad_ movies -- remade today as high-octane wire-fu computer graphics FX-laden action movies.

flying carpets, mad genies, creepy Assassins, power-mad eunuch warlocks, whirling dervishes, alluring harem girls, and lots of flashing scimitar action.


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## bodhi (Jun 8, 2004)

Would TEAMPUNK include the old WWF saturday morning cartoon series?   

Also, EIGHTIES NEOPULP should include the Indiana Jones movies.

1948 falls into what I like to call HIGH WEIRDNESS. Forteana, UFOlogy, cryptozoology, the Principia Discordia, the Illuminatus! Trilogy, Nikola Tesla, Warehouse 23, and Space Nazis from inside the Hollow Earth! Oh, and of course, the Weekly World News.


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

d4 said:
			
		

> TURBANPUNK?
> 
> SCIMITAR-FU?
> 
> ...




See, that would be good stuff.


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

I'm arbitrarily limiting eighties neopulp to stuff that actually takes place in the eighties.

Rock n' Wrestling is certainly a fine example of teampunk, and demonstrates the trickiest part of a teampunk plot:

A.  Hulk Hogan and friends are wrestlers, and they don't like the evil wrestlers.  And the space station is in danger.
B.  ?
C.  Hulk Hogan and friends save the space station, despite the bumbling/scheming of the evil wrestlers.

You just gotta get past B, man.  That's the tough part.


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

FUGIPUNK.  The Fugitive, The Incredible Hulk, Kwai Chang Kaine...Benji...it's all about walking the earth helping others, then moving along, searching for your One-Armed McGuffin and staying one step ahead of the Man.

Tough to do as a multiplayer RPG, although "The A-Team" is an example.


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## barsoomcore (Jun 8, 2004)

This is my new favourite thread!

TEEN MONSTER

I think that's pretty clear. Teens as monsters. I mean, more than usual. Teen Wolf, you know.

HYPER-EPIC

This is the genre of Steven Erikson, George R R Martin and even Robert Jordan -- extraordinarily long tales with dozens of characters and intrigues and history history history... My Barsoom campaign is sort of hyper-epic. Usually very gritty, and people going insane, getting vengeance, fighting last desperate stands...

I've got another called 

SWASHPUNK

Which is swashbuckling fun (rapiers, witty repartee, swinging on ropes) but with that cyberpunk feel (AIs, artificial limbs, designer drugs). I know, rapiers and cybernetics, who knew? This is related to

KATANAPUNK

In which "street samurai" is what it's all about.


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## barsoomcore (Jun 8, 2004)

I just want to say that 

katanas + black motorcycles in the rain = cool


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## Hand of Evil (Jun 8, 2004)

DinoMod = Dino in modern time, Jurassic Park.  

Weird Techno = Sci-fi and horror, Re-Animator. 

Pulp Fantasy = Action heros in a fantasy setting, with sci-fi in the mix.  Star Wars.


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> I just want to say that
> 
> katanas + black motorcycles in the rain = cool




May I suggest Trenchcoat: The Katanaing.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?threadid=102839&perpage=10&highlight=katanaing&pagenumber=1


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

I got another one for you:  ANGELPUNK.

Modern dark fantasy built around Judeo-Christian angel lore [and demon lore]. Plenty of movies to draw from, starting with "The Prophesy" starring Christopher Walken...plus the RPGs "In Nominie" and "Demon."  The war between Heaven and Hell [or is it just in Heaven?] spills into the world of man.  The human/angel hybrids called the Nephelim may be the key to victory.

Everyone wears a trenchcoat.  Many can summon flaming swords.  And you can play one of those Enigma CDs with the trippy Latin dance music while you play.


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## barsoomcore (Jun 8, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Blah blah blah
> 
> Everyone wears a trenchcoat.
> 
> Blah. Blah. Blah



Done. Sounds great! Everything I ever wanted!


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## d4 (Jun 8, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Everyone wears a trenchcoat.





			
				barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Done. Sounds great! Everything I ever wanted!



i don't know... i'm still on the fence. tell me, is it raining ALL THE TIME?


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## JPL (Jun 8, 2004)

d4 said:
			
		

> i don't know... i'm still on the fence. tell me, is it raining ALL THE TIME?




In Angelpunk, you never know whether it will rain blood or frogs or locusts or regular water-based rain.

It's a sensible precaution.


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## Desdichado (Jun 8, 2004)

I dunno.  Naming my little slice of genre heaven?  My game's a combination of _Pirates of the Caribbean_, John Carter of Mars, Robert E. Howard's Conan, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying, Lovecraft and _The X-Files._  Sprinkled with a few steamy "loans" from stuff like Iron Kingdoms.

What the hell kind of genre is that, anyway?  It probably doesn't need the gratuitous -punk, but -pulp works well.  SWORD & SORCERY STEAMPULP (otherwise known as SSSP, not to be confused with the USSR/CCCP...)?


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## Chaldfont (Jun 8, 2004)

THE GOTHFATHER

I was thinking of running an adventure pitting wiseguys versus vampires. Wouldn't it be fun to play Anthony Soprano beating the heck out of pretentious angsty Anne Rice/WoD blood suckers? Or maybe the gangsters just mistook Vampire LARPers for real vampires. Ooops...


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## Gadodel (Jun 8, 2004)

I really can't seem to classify my campaign.  The setting is Earth.  There is a fair amount of Time Travel involved.  Every session is written to be one shot or self contained, as we visit a different era/year each time.  The characters are created with the plan to be able to cope with all sorts of missions/quests.


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## barsoomcore (Jun 8, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> a few steamy "loans"



Mm, steamy.

Oh, wait. Never mind. I think "steamy Iron Kingdoms stuff" and all I can think of is the Satyxis. Mm, steamy.

It all sounds tasty to me....


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## Tonguez (Jun 8, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> This is my new favourite thread!
> 
> TEEN MONSTER
> 
> I think that's pretty clear. Teens as monsters. I mean, more than usual. Teen Wolf, you know.




I once played in a game where the PCs worked for a detective angency and where all dead (2 ghosts, a vampire and an earth elemental. I also had an transparent ooze familiar which could attach itself to objects and became our 'bugging/tracking device).

I also remember a comic series (can't remember the name) which featured Medusa, Frankenstein and a Werewolf as 'good guys'-um...


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## exile (Jun 9, 2004)

Magical School/University Adventures- well represented by Harry Potter and Redhurst: Academy of Magic. I also like the idea of a more mundane (or at least less magical) D20 modern game based around a University, sort of like a CoC campaign based around Miskatonic University, but not by necessity so "cosmic horror". PCs could start the game as members of the same campus culture class. Adventures could be found in class activities, work-study, road trips, Spring Break, study abroad. I am particularly fond of the idea of using old 1E AD&D modules (anything involving a hidden cavern or a lost temple) as trouble the PCs might get into on an "archaeology/anthropology class trip". Steve Jackson's GURPS IOU does this genre very well with a hefty dose of comedy.


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## Kaleon Moonshae (Jun 9, 2004)

*doom patrol*



			
				Tonguez said:
			
		

> I once played in a game where the PCs worked for a detective angency and where all dead (2 ghosts, a vampire and an earth elemental. I also had an transparent ooze familiar which could attach itself to objects and became our 'bugging/tracking device).
> 
> I also remember a comic series (can't remember the name) which featured Medusa, Frankenstein and a Werewolf as 'good guys'-um...





Pretty sure that was the dc series Doom Patrol, dracula was in it too, and some army officer of something was given the job of keeping them in line, ala dirty dozen


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## Samothdm (Jun 9, 2004)

Kaleon Moonshae said:
			
		

> Pretty sure that was the dc series Doom Patrol, dracula was in it too, and some army officer of something was given the job of keeping them in line, ala dirty dozen




[THREAD HIJACK]_Doom Patrol_ back in the '60s was Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and the Chief.  I don't remember a team with werevolves and such.[/THREAD HIJACK]

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.  Good topic!


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## bodhi (Jun 9, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> I'm arbitrarily limiting eighties neopulp to stuff that actually takes place in the eighties.




Ah, okay. So set in the 80s, not produced in the 80s.



			
				JPL said:
			
		

> Rock n' Wrestling is certainly a fine example of teampunk, and demonstrates the trickiest part of a teampunk plot:
> 
> A.  Hulk Hogan and friends are wrestlers, and they don't like the evil wrestlers.  And the space station is in danger.
> B.  ?
> ...




Well, the great thing about that era in pro wrestling is that you had heels from every possible background. Nikolai Volkoff, and the Iron Sheik, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Bobby "the Weasel" Heenan. And you could always introduce US-bashing heels from any other nation. France, Canada, Britain, Germany, they've all been done. You could even do pseudo-alien wrestlers. Or Nazis. Nazis _always_ make for good villains (see previous Indiana Jones comment).

That's one of my favorite things about HIGH WEIRDNESS. You can pull from _any _ source. Novels, movies, video games, the guy who hangs out at the bus stop and always wants to tell you about the power of lithium, whatever. HW does tend to lean towards the absurd, but I kinda like that.


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## bodhi (Jun 9, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> This is my new favourite thread!
> 
> TEEN MONSTER
> 
> I think that's pretty clear. Teens as monsters. I mean, more than usual. Teen Wolf, you know.




IMHO, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a good, fairly current example of this.

In a similar (but slightly different) vein, how about HERO CITY 90210 (or maybe ALTER-EGOS & ANGST), superhero soap operas. Lois & Clark and Smallville are the two examples that leap to mind.


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## Prince of Happiness (Jun 9, 2004)

*What about...*

Punkpunk?

Gritty urban (or rural) setting where punks battle Nazis, corrupt police, Commies, Leftists, Rightists, Middle-of-the-Roadists, other punks, other urban "tribes," bystanders innocent and not-so-innocent, posers, artists, rich people, poor people, saints, angels, demons, devils, and monsters, er, anything that walks...basically, all to the sounds of Punk Rock(TM).

Punk: The Curbstomping.


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## Fate Lawson (Jun 9, 2004)

d4 said:
			
		

> TURBANPUNK?
> 
> SCIMITAR-FU?
> 
> ...




d4, that sounds just like the Dog House Gangs weekly fantasy game. A little something we call "The 5 Sultanates". Flying carpets (check), mad genies (check), creepy Assassins (check), power-mad eunuch warlocks (check), whirling dervishes (check), alluring harem girls (check), and lots of flashing scimitar action, PLUS animistic spirits galore, katana-wielding barbarian elvish totem warriors, cloud-walking wuixian rogues wielding twin-ancestral-swords, foo-lions, Rocs, crazy sultans, giants with mechanical familiars,  power-mad rakshasas threating world domination, long dead lizard-man mummies, and one large raging, talking dog with a fervent wish to fly.

Think Gregory Keyes Waterborn/Black God novels meet the 1001 Nights of Harryhausen.


Ohh, and 500 yrs later is an era we have dubbed "The Pulpinates". Fewer spirits and less magic, but add in Zeppelins and Firearms and sprinkle with late-victorian and roaring twenties style culture.


Loads of fun!


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## Nuclear Platypus (Jun 9, 2004)

How about a rebirth of masked Mexican wrestling movies? El Santo! Mil Mascaras! Rey Misterio! El Tigre y La Piramede de Destruccion! Make 'em into a new Scooby Doo Detective Agency or monster hunters or international superspies.


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## Prince of Happiness (Jun 9, 2004)

Nuclear Platypus said:
			
		

> How about a rebirth of masked Mexican wrestling movies? El Santo! Mil Mascaras! Rey Misterio! El Tigre y La Piramede de Destruccion! Make 'em into a new Scooby Doo Detective Agency or monster hunters or international superspies.




HELL F***IN' YEAH!!!


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## Tonguez (Jun 9, 2004)

Where would something like Surf/Skate Punk fit - you know urban youth (with machine guns) against the system who just wanna catch some tube or grind a curb dude!

You know the genre that spawned *Surf Nazis Must Die!* and games like *Skate or Die!* I suppose *Rollerball* could be squeezed into the Genre too (at a stretch maybe)

Actually TROMA could pretty much be its own genre too

oh as to the Wrestling Genre - try the TROMA movie *Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters *  



> Reni and Mia live in the violent world of illegal gambling and female wrestling, a world which is ruled by an evil syndicate. Beaten, abused and ravaged by their captors, they’re now Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters!!!
> 
> Organized crime, female wrestlers and gun battles. Who could ask for anything more?


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## Dark Jezter (Jun 9, 2004)

I think we need to start a petition demanding that WotC hire JPL as the designer of their next campaign setting.  Between Dinopirates of Ninja Island and Trenchcoat: The Katanaing, this guy is a creative genius! 

Here are a couple of genre ideas of my own:

*Gunfight at the Kung-Fu Corral:*  In the Old West, cowboys have gunfights with the outlaws using high-flying wire effects and bullet time.  The participants of these old west shootouts backflip, cartwheel, run along walls, jump from rooftop to rooftop, shoot while standing from the back of a moving horse, and employ martial arts moves when their guns run out of ammo.  When swords are used, they are cavalry sabers rather than katanas.

*Wigpunk:*  Jane Austin meets William Gibson.  In a dystopian Victorian England, fractious youths with spiky wigs and purple blush serve as countercultural antiheroes who seek to overthrow the aristocracy.


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Tonguez said:
			
		

> I also remember a comic series (can't remember the name) which featured Medusa, Frankenstein and a Werewolf as 'good guys'-um...




That would be "Creature Commandos."  It was given a Stargate-flavored modern revamp a few years back.


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Prince of Happiness said:
			
		

> Punkpunk?
> 
> Gritty urban (or rural) setting where punks battle Nazis, corrupt police, Commies, Leftists, Rightists, Middle-of-the-Roadists, other punks, other urban "tribes," bystanders innocent and not-so-innocent, posers, artists, rich people, poor people, saints, angels, demons, devils, and monsters, er, anything that walks...basically, all to the sounds of Punk Rock(TM).
> 
> Punk: The Curbstomping.




Heh.

Reminds me of the eighties videos like Quiet Riot's "The Wild and the Young", where Big Brother / The Man was trying to stop us from rockin' out in this Orwellian dystopia.  Damn you, Tipper Gore!

Having just watched "The 40 Greatest Hair Bands" and "100 Greatest Metal Moments", I could totally imagine a campaign like this, maybe set in an alternate 2087 where the Man has been trying to stop us from rockin' and make us conform for 100 years.  But the Metal Underground keeps hope alive, and sings the sacred songs of freedom and rebellion...


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## Asmor (Jun 9, 2004)

Chaldfont said:
			
		

> THE GOTHFATHER
> 
> I was thinking of running an adventure pitting wiseguys versus vampires. Wouldn't it be fun to play Anthony Soprano beating the heck out of pretentious angsty Anne Rice/WoD blood suckers? Or maybe the gangsters just mistook Vampire LARPers for real vampires. Ooops...




Actually, Vampires can make pretty good mobsters... Clan Novel: Giovanni was quite a good read (The Giovanni are essentially the mobster clan of V:tM Vampires, hailing from old world Italian blood and having their hand in all sorts of organized crime).

How about SUPER TEEN! Inspired by such cartoons as Teen Titans and X-Men Evolution, a group of super-powered teens not only fight crime and come to grips with their burgeoning power, but also fight acne and come to grips with their burgeoning hormones!


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## Desdichado (Jun 9, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Heh.
> 
> Reminds me of the eighties videos like Quiet Riot's "The Wild and the Young", where Big Brother / The Man was trying to stop us from rockin' out in this Orwellian dystopia.  Damn you, Tipper Gore!
> 
> Having just watched "The 40 Greatest Hair Bands" and "100 Greatest Metal Moments", I could totally imagine a campaign like this, maybe set in an alternate 2087 where the Man has been trying to stop us from rockin' and make us conform for 100 years.  But the Metal Underground keeps hope alive, and sings the sacred songs of freedom and rebellion...



Dude!  I totally remember that video, now that you mention it.  Hehe, that sounds like fun.


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Asmor said:
			
		

> How about SUPER TEEN! Inspired by such cartoons as Teen Titans and X-Men Evolution, a group of super-powered teens not only fight crime and come to grips with their burgeoning power, but also fight acne and come to grips with their burgeoning hormones!




Very nice.  You can dig out your old issues of "New Mutants", too.  If you have old issues of "New Mutants."  

And I do.


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## Mallus (Jun 9, 2004)

Dark Jezter said:
			
		

> *Wigpunk:*



I'm fairly sure Wigpunk would have to involve transvestites in some fashion...

Anyhow...

How about *Gnostic Pop*? Like Morrison's _Invisibles_ and _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ and hmmm, well, like them. 

You know; the secrets of creation revealed by gun-toting bald British anarchist mystics, teenage giant robot pilots, competing malevolent secret societies, explosions, impenetrable exposition, time-travel, sex magic and super-science.


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## Prince of Happiness (Jun 9, 2004)

*How About*

Q: Are We Not Gamers? A: We Are Devo!

Your gang of beautiful mutants must battle the downward spiral of the ninnies and the twits to bring The Truth of De-evolution to the Masses. Duty Now for the Future spudboy!

Maybe like X-Files but funnier, weirder, and featuring distinctly un-sexy heroes and heroines. It's a Beautiful World!


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## Prince of Happiness (Jun 9, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Heh.
> 
> Reminds me of the eighties videos like Quiet Riot's "The Wild and the Young", where Big Brother / The Man was trying to stop us from rockin' out in this Orwellian dystopia.  Damn you, Tipper Gore!
> 
> Having just watched "The 40 Greatest Hair Bands" and "100 Greatest Metal Moments", I could totally imagine a campaign like this, maybe set in an alternate 2087 where the Man has been trying to stop us from rockin' and make us conform for 100 years.  But the Metal Underground keeps hope alive, and sings the sacred songs of freedom and rebellion...




We're not gonna take it, no, we're not going to take it. We're not going to take it, anymore.

This also, come to think of it, reminds me of "Starchildren: Velvet Revolution," the glitter rock RPG that came out a few years ago.


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## Tonguez (Jun 9, 2004)

Asmor said:
			
		

> Actually, Vampires can make pretty good mobsters... Clan Novel: Giovanni was quite a good read (The Giovanni are essentially the mobster clan of V:tM Vampires, hailing from old world Italian blood and having their hand in all sorts of organized crime).




Back over at TROMAville there is a movie called *Wiseguys vs Zombies * 



> Freddy Six Times and August Mirabella are two of New York's most feared hitmen, delivering a package to Miami. But the package contains a deadly secret. After inadvertently releasing a plague in the form of the walking dead, the hitmen must rely on their wit and their new cache of firepower to defeat the nemesis, and complete the delivery before the Mob and the Cuban Mafia target them for death.
> 
> It's Al Capone to the bone!
> 
> Goodfellas fight the deadfellas!


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## d4 (Jun 9, 2004)

Fate Lawson said:
			
		

> d4, that sounds just like the Dog House Gangs weekly fantasy game. A little something we call "The 5 Sultanates". Flying carpets (check), mad genies (check), creepy Assassins (check), power-mad eunuch warlocks (check), whirling dervishes (check), alluring harem girls (check), and lots of flashing scimitar action, PLUS animistic spirits galore, katana-wielding barbarian elvish totem warriors, cloud-walking wuixian rogues wielding twin-ancestral-swords, foo-lions, Rocs, crazy sultans, giants with mechanical familiars,  power-mad rakshasas threating world domination, long dead lizard-man mummies, and one large raging, talking dog with a fervent wish to fly.



awesome.  i knew there was a reason why i loved you guys. first *Sidewinder: Recoiled* and now this!

as if it needs to be said, i would _love_ to see your Five Sultanates setting as a DHR product, whether print or PDF. *hint hint*


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Oh, I got another one....PULPSPLOITATION.

Pulp meets blaxsploitation.  Black heroes in the 1930s.  How does Indiana Jones, or the Shadow, or Doc Savage, change if we make all the lead characters African-American?  A blend of high adventure with the actual historical realities of being "colored" in the first half of the last century.  

As with seventies blaxploitation, there would be some social commentary --- but also other cultural elements, like the music and fashion.    

There's an obscure comic book character called Blackjack who fits the genre perfectly, and another indy press is developing a black John Carter-type character.  "Harlem Nights" and Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" would be interesting reference points, too.


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## Desdichado (Jun 9, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Pulp meets blaxsploitation.



Hell, _anything_ combined with blaxsploitation is cool.  After all, I like my women like I like my coffee -- hot and black.


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Hell, _anything_ combined with blaxsploitation is cool.  After all, I like my women like I like my coffee -- hot and black.




Then I can dig it.

Test that hypothesis, JD.  Gimmee a f'rinstance.

Oh, here's one --- COWSPLOITATION.  Black Western.  "Posse" with Mario Van Peebles is the best example --- cowboy action, but also some social and historical commentary, and with an "outlaw" feel that John Shaft would appreciate.

[Now that I mention it...Richard Roundtree has played a cowboy a time or two...]


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## Asmor (Jun 9, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Hell, _anything_ combined with blaxsploitation is cool.  After all, I like my women like I like my coffee -- hot and black.




Wuxiasploitation? A bunch of kung-fu-kickin' Shaft-Bruce Lee amalgamations? Hell yeah.


----------



## Gomez (Jun 9, 2004)

*Horror Noir*

 Have a hard nosed flatfoot from the 30's and 40's and throw in some supernatural elements. Think Sam Spade meets Lovecraft. There was a couple of movies made with this style: "Cast a Deadly Spell" and "Witch Hunt".


----------



## Desdichado (Jun 9, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Then I can dig it.
> 
> Test that hypothesis, JD.  Gimmee a f'rinstance.



I was thinking something more along the lines of _Enter the Dragon_ but having Bruce Lee be the minor character and Kareem Abdul Jabar being the hero.  Set in Harlem or Detroit, of course.  BLAXSOCKY.

D'oh!  Not fast enough apparently...


----------



## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> I was thinking something more along the lines of _Enter the Dragon_ but having Bruce Lee be the minor character and Kareem Abdul Jabar being the hero.  Set in Harlem or Detroit, of course.  BLAXSOCKY.
> 
> D'oh!  Not fast enough apparently...




Jim Kelly, from "Enter the Dragon", is the epitome of the blaxploitation-kung fu connection.  In a just world, he would've been a much bigger star.


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## barsoomcore (Jun 9, 2004)

Guys, you're freaking me out. It's like you're having all the good ideas I haven't got around to having yet.

How can I possibly run all these games? It's unfair!

Mm, New Mutants. I used to have Sienkiwicz' entire run of that book. Cannonball. Sunspot. Wasn't Illyana in there, too? Geez, and then the Arthur Adams crossover where they went to Asgard? And didn't Longshot show up at some point?

Sheesh.

But for more Teen Power goodness, check out _Volcano High_, one of the coolest films ever made. Korean teens with super-powers battling to see which club gets to be in charge -- only to be overpowered by the substitute teachers! Man.


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Mm, New Mutants. I used to have Sienkiwicz' entire run of that book. Cannonball. Sunspot. Wasn't Illyana in there, too? Geez, and then the Arthur Adams crossover where they went to Asgard? And didn't Longshot show up at some point?




Illyana, yes.  And Warlock.  But no Longshot --- he showed up in X-Men awhile later.


----------



## barsoomcore (Jun 9, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> In a just world, he would've been a much bigger star.



Yeah, but so would John Saxon. No, wait...


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## shadow (Jun 9, 2004)

I've been working on a homebrew campaign for some time.  The campaign is pulp/sci-fi and a genre that I call GAS-PUNK. 

GAS-PUNK is essentially steampunk with the pseudo-technological timeline moved foward about 30 or 40 years.  Imagine all the fantastic inventions of steampunk powered by the internal combustion engine rather than steam.  It is basically steampunk style inventions using 1920s and 30s technology.


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## Desdichado (Jun 9, 2004)

How about a combination of Robin Hood and the Duke's of Hazard?  Little John jumping Friar Tuck's cart over the river while the Sherriff of Nottingham and his deputies continually don't make it and cause slow motion splashes, to much cliched hilarity.  You could call the genre MEDIEVAL KNIEVEL.


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> How about a combination of Robin Hood and the Duke's of Hazard?  Little John jumping Friar Tuck's cart over the river while the Sherriff of Nottingham and his deputies continually don't make it and cause slow motion splashes, to much cliched hilarity.  You could call the genre MEDIEVAL KNIEVEL.




I like that.  And it reminds me of another unjustly neglected genre...STUNTPUNK.

Characteristics:  The adventures of stuntmen / daredevils doing daring deeds of derring-do, both for Hollywood/giant stadiums of screaming adrenaline junkies, and in the furtherance of real-life adventures.  As in TEAMPUNK, it's all about providing a plot where the deed of athleticism and derring-do becomes essential.  Very cinematic --- anything that would look good in a movie --- pre-CGI! --- is fair game for the PCs     

Examples:  "The Fall Guy," the old Hanna-Barbara cartoon "Devlin", the seventies Marvel Comic "The Human Fly."  

Jackie Chan movies are great inspiration too --- just imagine a campaign where the heroes are members of a "Jackie Chan Stunt Team"-type organization, and do action movie stunts in Hong Kong and L.A.  You got your martial arts, your crazy stunts, and potential for big-city private eye-type adventures.

[Someone call Ray Park and Russell Wong --- I think I got a pitch for a TV show here.  Sounds like the perfect thing for Saturday afternoons on WGN.]


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## barsoomcore (Jun 9, 2004)

Heck, watching you two bat this ball back and forth is more fun than any TV show.

And the statement "Jackie Chan movies are great inspiration" is ALWAYS true. Word.

What about

TRUCKER: THE CAVALCADE?

Players aren't necessarily truckers (though full stats for Mack and International Harvester trucks of course will filll pages in the sourcebook), but they're on the truckers' side as honest, ferociously independent citizens' band radio using folk cruise the highways of 1970's America, keeping the Bandit at bay.

"10:4, good buddy."

Available feats obviously include "Primate Companion" and "Distracting Anatomy".


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## Desdichado (Jun 9, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Players aren't necessarily truckers (though full stats for Mack and International Harvester trucks of course will filll pages in the sourcebook), but they're on the truckers' side as honest, ferociously independent citizens' band radio using folk cruise the highways of 1970's America, keeping the Bandit at bay.



And it's only a step away from Cannonball Run d20.  I like it.


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## Desdichado (Jun 9, 2004)

How about combining Lovecraft (always a good start) with John Hughes 80s teen flicks?

PRETTY IN THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE.

Make a Sanity check; James Spader just tried to convince you that he's a teenager.


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## Dark Jezter (Jun 9, 2004)

We could always combine "The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert" with our favorite RPG system to create...

DUNGEONS & DRAG QUEENS

What luck!  The random treasure roll just gave Hugo Weaving a +5 sequined pettycoat.


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## barsoomcore (Jun 9, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> And it's only a step away from Cannonball Run d20.  I like it.



It's just damn spooky at times. I meant to include a note about how it can include "Cross-Country Improbable Race" expansion sets...


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## Turanil (Jun 9, 2004)

GRIMM TALES:
Hensel is a strong hero (albeit a very young one) and Grethel is a dedicated heroine (albeit a very young one). Beware of the hag who lives in the cake and candy mansion, because they could have to make a sanity check when discovering that she really is a spawn of Shub Niggurath. Fortunately, Hensel was able to trade his shortsword for a shotgun.


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## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> It's just damn spooky at times. I meant to include a note about how it can include "Cross-Country Improbable Race" expansion sets...




Have you seen Polyhedron's "Thunderball Rally" minigame?

Some great genre notes, and a Suggested Viewing list full of orangutans, redneck sheriffs, and old-school seventies-style blondes.


----------



## JPL (Jun 9, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> How about combining Lovecraft (always a good start) with John Hughes 80s teen flicks?
> 
> PRETTY IN THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE.
> 
> Make a Sanity check; James Spader just tried to convince you that he's a teenager.




LOVECRAFTIAN RINGWALDPUNK.

Or HUGHESTHULU.

Somewhere in the Chicago suburbs dwell Things High Schoolers Were Not Meant to Know.

The Breakfast Club looks like a PC group to me, man.

Now someone cross blaxploitation and Lovecraft.  Think "Tales from The Hood", I guess, but with more tentacles.  And remember, Lovecraft's writing is full of racism and "impure bloodlines" and such.  It writes itself, boys.


----------



## Kaleon Moonshae (Jun 9, 2004)

*you're right*



			
				Samothdm said:
			
		

> [THREAD HIJACK]_Doom Patrol_ back in the '60s was Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, and the Chief.  I don't remember a team with werevolves and such.[/THREAD HIJACK]
> 
> Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.  Good topic!





[thread hyjack]

You're right, Ialways got these two groups mixed up when I was a kid because of the robot. The comic he is thinking of was "The Creature Commandos" from DC. It was hard finding info on them since they were not very popular. They were soldiers in world war II.

Hope this helps someone out there, I spent a couple hours at work trying to figure out exactly what that comic was if not doom patrol.


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## Mister Underhill (Jun 9, 2004)

This thread rocks.  

GUN FOOD
_Iron Chef_, John Woo style.  Sort of a spin on TEAMPUNK, as each chef’s team, besides creating inventive culinary creations, would also fight crime/demons/robot gourmands/what have you.  Slo-mo slicing and dicing.  Sizzling saute in the rain.  Gun-battles blasting ingredients into the air.  Foes circle in a Mexican standoff with cleavers poised at each others’ throats.


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## Out Cold (Jun 9, 2004)

Here's my small contribution :

Lovecraft + Muscle Car =

*1976 : The stars are right* 

In the bleak retro-future, Chtulu minion  have finally arrived  around the great midland of the USA. Brining devastation,madness and somehow learning to drive cars. Battle horrid thing that should not be with your souped-up, home tuned  Chevy Cobra or Orange Mustang.  Try to outrun Azatoth growing destruction. Bust Deep one hybrid and their fish minivan with .50 machine gun fire. Rocket Galore in the face of Nyarlathotep. Investigate the mystery of devastated city or take part in the eternal quest for gas ! Spells that repair engine at the cost of sanity ! Hand to hand fighting against punk Yog Shottoth worshipper ! All mixed up on a soundtrack of great rock and roll. 

Leave your tires skid marks in the face of the ancient gods.


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## Tonguez (Jun 9, 2004)

*JunkYard Wars * (or Scrapheap Challenge, or even Monster Garage)

Have you seen the show? Two teams in a Junkyard compete to salvage junk and build machines so that they can face off in a final showdown. Now imagine that the War is real and the Junkyard is the whole world!


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## d4 (Jun 10, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> The Breakfast Club looks like a PC group to me, man.



oh totally. they all start off having absolutely nothing in common and not liking each other, but they all stick together and help each other out anyways. 



			
				JPL said:
			
		

> Now someone cross blaxploitation and Lovecraft.  Think "Tales from The Hood", I guess, but with more tentacles.  And remember, Lovecraft's writing is full of racism and "impure bloodlines" and such.  It writes itself, boys.



Boyz 'n tha Mountains of Madness?

this reminds me of a game they used to play on the old GURPS newsgroup. take any three GURPS books at random and make a campaign out of them.

some are easy: GURPS Japan + GURPS Dinosaurs + GURPS Atomic Horror = GURPS Godzilla!

others are a lot harder: GURPS Aztecs + GURPS Vikings + GURPS China = the weirdest "alternate history" Americas ever, as Cortez discovers Leif Erickson and Cheng He got to Tenotichtlan first!

and i'm not even going to attempt GURPS Bunnies & Burrows + GURPS Autoduel + GURPS Voodoo.


----------



## Asmor (Jun 10, 2004)

Tonguez said:
			
		

> *JunkYard Wars * (or Scrapheap Challenge, or even Monster Garage)
> 
> Have you seen the show? Two teams in a Junkyard compete to salvage junk and build machines so that they can face off in a final showdown. Now imagine that the War is real and the Junkyard is the whole world!




Ooh! I like that! A tinker's paradise!

How about SPORT PUNK! Inspired by the Tony Hawk series and similar games like Matt Hoffman's BMX, Toxic Grind, etc. Spend your days tricking around and showing up your rivals.

And for some real spice, SPORT JUNK PUNK! In a post apocalyptic world covered in the wreckage of past glory, the talented few able to rebuild things create junk constructs and tyrannize the people. The defenders, no match for the things in hand to hand combat, rely on their specially made (possibly enchanted) skateboards and their wits to fight the man!


----------



## Chaldfont (Jun 10, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> What about
> 
> TRUCKER: THE CAVALCADE?




Ever since I played a martial artist trucker loosely based on Jack in "Big Trouble in Little China" in a one-shot game, I have wanted to have a campaign where each trucking company has it's own dojo and all the truckers are secretly blackbelts, protecting the world from evil.

Of course there would be ninjas. And smokies. And fights on top of moving semi trailers. All at the same time.


----------



## Asmor (Jun 10, 2004)

Chaldfont said:
			
		

> Ever since I played a martial artist trucker loosely based on Jack in "Big Trouble in Little China" in a one-shot game, I have wanted to have a campaign where each trucking company has it's own dojo and all the truckers are secretly blackbelts, protecting the world from evil.
> 
> Of course there would be ninjas. And smokies. And fights on top of moving semi trailers. All at the same time.




Very nice! But set it during the Cold War and, of course, Russian Spy Ninjas!


----------



## Nuclear Platypus (Jun 10, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> How about combining Lovecraft (always a good start) with John Hughes 80s teen flicks?
> 
> PRETTY IN THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE.
> 
> Make a Sanity check; James Spader just tried to convince you that he's a teenager.




Ooo! Mix it with Mexican wrestling tho CoC already did that in Blood Brothers 2(?) with the El Tigre adventure. 

'My gawd! My gawd! El Tigre just powerbombed Cthulhu through the Spanish announce table! It looks like Little Missy's going for her top rope finisher, the Sweet 16!'
'PUPPIES!'
'Oh grow up King. She's young enough to be your daughter, maybe even your granddaughter.'
'So? It didn't stop Jerry Lee Lewis or J. Howard Marshall. Besides, you're only as young as the woman you feel.'
'You need a cold shower. Uh oh. Business is about to pick up. Something cleared out the lockerroom and everyone's rushing towards the ring, screaming at the top of their lungs.'
'Oooo. No wonder. Here comes trouble. Ol' Squidhead's posse, the Elder Gods.'
'We're in for a real slobberknocker.'
'With all the sanity loss, there'll definitely be a lot of slobbering going on, JR.'

Ok, maybe not.  

Edit: Changed the dialogue a tad.


----------



## Impeesa (Jun 10, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Then I can dig it.
> 
> Test that hypothesis, JD.  Gimmee a f'rinstance.
> 
> ...




You know, that reminds me of an idea I came up with not too long ago for a game.... GRAND THEFT HOSS. Shoot hookers, run from cops, and steal horses... in the wild west. 

--Impeesa--


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## barsoomcore (Jun 10, 2004)

Nuclear Platypus, you're my kind of messed up. That's violently brilliant.

Chaldfont, ditto.

Now THIS is some creativity.


----------



## JoelF (Jun 10, 2004)

There's a RPG (out of print I believe) which covers lots of the genres mentioned.  IT CAME FROM THE LATE, LATE SHOW.  The game is a RPG set in the world of bad movies....it's a ton of fun, and can be used to simulate any of these genres that are based on B-movies.  Only copy I could find online just now was on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1183&item=5902511513&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW


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## bodhi (Jun 10, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> Oh, here's one --- COWSPLOITATION.  Black Western.  "Posse" with Mario Van Peebles is the best example --- cowboy action, but also some social and historical commentary, and with an "outlaw" feel that John Shaft would appreciate.




How could you not mention Blazing Saddles here?


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## bodhi (Jun 10, 2004)

Asmor said:
			
		

> Wuxiasploitation? A bunch of kung-fu-kickin' Shaft-Bruce Lee amalgamations? Hell yeah.




You mean "Bruce Leroy". (The Last Dragon)

You possess the power  / of the glow!
THE GLOOOOOOOOWWWOWOWOWOW!


----------



## bodhi (Jun 10, 2004)

Nuclear Platypus said:
			
		

> 'My gawd! My gawd! El Tigre just powerbombed Cthulhu through the Spanish announce table! It looks like Little Missy's going for her top rope finisher, the Sweet 16!'




I want to see the Revenge of the Spanish Announce Table.


----------



## JPL (Jun 10, 2004)

POSTMODERN PULP.

Planetary + other trippy comics by Ellis, Morrison, and Moore [Doom Patrol, Tom Strong, Animal Man, Invisibles] + Buckaroo Banzai + various Kenneth Hite Suppressed Transmissions.  21st century Doc Savage on acid.

Larger-than-life action heroes vs. truly weird threats --- sentient streets, reality quakes, the wreckage of the First Creation, sinister memetic engineers, word viruses, and vril-powered Antarctic Space Nazis.


----------



## JPL (Jun 10, 2004)

Chaldfont said:
			
		

> Ever since I played a martial artist trucker loosely based on Jack in "Big Trouble in Little China" in a one-shot game, I have wanted to have a campaign where each trucking company has it's own dojo and all the truckers are secretly blackbelts, protecting the world from evil.
> 
> Of course there would be ninjas. And smokies. And fights on top of moving semi trailers. All at the same time.




http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075783/

In my opinion, "Lone Wolf McQuade" is still the best karate trucker movie ever made.

I always liked the idea of combining that late seventies / early eighties CB radio craze with "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Black Dog" and a thousand Johnny Cash and Jerry Reed songs [and a big dose of FUGIPUNK, and a little Lone Ranger] to tell the story of a trucker [maybe two --- a big rig team] who travel the highways of this great nation, righting wrongs in every town along the way and then hitting that long, lonesome highway once again.

And maybe they could fight aliens and stuff.  Except you're not sure whether they were really aliens or if the heroes were just hallucinating because they hadn't slept for five days.


----------



## Artos (Jun 10, 2004)

Fate Lawson said:
			
		

> d4, that sounds just like the Dog House Gangs weekly fantasy game. A little something we call "The 5 Sultanates". Flying carpets (check), mad genies (check), creepy Assassins (check), power-mad eunuch warlocks (check), whirling dervishes (check), alluring harem girls (check), and lots of flashing scimitar action, PLUS animistic spirits galore, katana-wielding barbarian elvish totem warriors, cloud-walking wuixian rogues wielding twin-ancestral-swords, foo-lions, Rocs, crazy sultans, giants with mechanical familiars,  power-mad rakshasas threating world domination, long dead lizard-man mummies, and one large raging, talking dog with a fervent wish to fly.
> 
> Think Gregory Keyes Waterborn/Black God novels meet the 1001 Nights of Harryhausen.
> 
> ...





Do you use d20 for this?  And if so, how?  I'd love to see how it's done.
-Chris


----------



## Prince of Happiness (Jun 10, 2004)

bodhi said:
			
		

> You mean "Bruce Leroy". (The Last Dragon)
> 
> You possess the power  / of the glow!
> THE GLOOOOOOOOWWWOWOWOWOW!




Naaah, it's all about Sho'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem

Sho'Nuff: Am I toughest?

Goons: SHO'NUFF!

S: Am I the meanest?

G: SHO'NUFF!!

S: Am I the prettiest?

G: SHO'NUFF!!!

S: Am I the the baddest mo'fo' _lowdown_ 'round this town?!?!

G: *SHO'NUFF!!!!*

S: Yeahhhhhhhh...


----------



## JPL (Jun 10, 2004)

ELFSPLOITATION.

D&D meets blaxploitation.  This is a tricky one, because "race" is important in each, yet carries a very different meaning.  

But take one fantasy race [doesn't have to be elves] and put them in an urban environment where they has suffered a long history of segregation and oppression by another fantasy race.  They maintain a unique culture, but lack economic and political power.  But a new spirit of self-empowerment and pride is spreading, and it's making some people nervous.  

The heroes walk a fine line, battling threats from outside the community [The Man.  Or The Dwarf.  Or whatever.] and from within [those members who collaborate with The Man, or who prey upon their own people, or adopt techniques worse than the oppressors themselves to further their goals].


----------



## barsoomcore (Jun 10, 2004)

I'm trying to picture gnomes fighting the power. Without giggling. And I'm failing.

Pamdinkle Grierfinder, three feet of badassssssssssss woman.

Am I a bad person?


----------



## WayneLigon (Jun 10, 2004)

The single weirdest thing I've ever _actually played in:_ Call of Cthulhu + Bunnies and Burrows. With some Winnie-the-Pooh thrown in for just plain weirdness. 

*Bunnies and Barrows. *

We were a small warren on the edge of a great dark wood. Towards Sun Goes Down was The Rocky Place, what humans would call a ruined monestary. A little further on were The High Stones, a high bald hill with standing stones on it; blind mole sorcerers lived there.

We feared the Wood, because deeper in, the trees moved when the stars were right. The stargazer of the warren went mad long ago (he became a meat eater and roamed the edges of The Green Place; the farm) and we just had to guess The Times now. 

There was a time when a Man came to the area and set up a thing so he could watch the warren. We were curious about him as well, and we'd stand up on our little haunches and watch him. This made him nervous. Sometimes we'd dance for him to cheer him up and this made him _very_ nervous. So nervous he brought a shotgun. 

We saw him kill a badger with it, and an entirely new world opened up for us. It was obvious that The Thing went BOOOM and the badger, he wasn't even in one peice anymore. We had to have that thing! So we waited and watched, and snuck into the blind and tried to steal the gun. We failed, and he stared at us for a long time afterwards, wondering what we'd been doing with the gun. Then he set it far from himself and pretended to go to sleep. 

We tried again and he suddenly screamed when we all worked together to drop one end of the gun on a mass of soft moss we'd brought, so The Thing would not make the noise it made the last time. He grabbed the gun and pointed it at himself, laughing, and there was this BOOOM and he was like the badger. So we dragged the gun back to the warren but then it didn't work anymore, so we left it by the farmers house. People came and took the farmer away and we could eat all his lettuce we wanted. But then the next year there was no more lettuce and a quarter of the warren starved. 

There was also the great black snake with the white anhk on it's flaring hood. We stayed away from it.


----------



## Desdichado (Jun 10, 2004)

WayneLigon said:
			
		

> Bunnies and Barrows.



Clever name.  Clever game.  Despite the fact that we're probably not supposed to, I could actually take this game seriously.  A supernatural horror version of _Watership Down_.  Not bad at all.

I like the suggestion above of taking two or three GURPS sourcebooks at random and combining their themes into a single setting.  Is there a tool that could select GURPS sourcebooks at random, I wonder?  I suppose I could always put a bit list in Excel, generate random numbers and pick them...


----------



## Samothdm (Jun 10, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> ELFSPLOITATION.
> 
> D&D meets blaxploitation.  This is a tricky one, because "race" is important in each, yet carries a very different meaning.
> 
> But take one fantasy race [doesn't have to be elves] and put them in an urban environment where they has suffered a long history of segregation and oppression by another fantasy race.  They maintain a unique culture, but lack economic and political power.  But a new spirit of self-empowerment and pride is spreading, and it's making some people nervous.




This is exactly what I did in my current campaign world with the dwarves.  They're oppressed by the predominately human religion of the area.  All of the other races have "fallen into line" (as the humans see it), but the dwarves are the last hold-outs.  They're secluded into ghettos and not allowed to work in the higher-paying jobs, to hold office, etc.  

However, they're excellent musicians and also good at crafts, especially working with jewels and gems and precious metals, so people tolerate them for these skills, but at the same time are jealous of them for it.  

It's weird.


----------



## Desdichado (Jun 10, 2004)

So, sjgames has a list of all 258 GURPS sourcebooks; maybe not all of them.  I imported the list into Excel, generated two random numbers between 1 and 258 and got _Traveller: Alien Races 2_ (Aslan and K'kree) and _Martial Arts Adventures_, the sourcebook for 70s Hong Kong Chok Socky.

This would be fun for Gamesdays and other things with one-off type of stuff.  Pick up an extremely rules lite engine (so you don't have to make up rules to get started, mostly), pick two sourcebooks at random and create a one-off game about it.


----------



## Dark Jezter (Jun 10, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> ELFSPLOITATION.
> 
> D&D meets blaxploitation.  This is a tricky one, because "race" is important in each, yet carries a very different meaning.
> 
> ...



 As awesome as that idea is, the elves don't have anybody as awesome as Isaac Hayes or Barry White to create the soundtracks for this genre.


----------



## JPL (Jun 10, 2004)

Dark Jezter said:
			
		

> As awesome as that idea is, the elves don't have anybody as awesome as Isaac Hayes or Barry White to create the soundtracks for this genre.




Well, the elves in this setting would've had a native music similar to Celtic, which eventually developed into a improvised form analgous to jazz.  

The current popular music typically features a lot of elf-jazz flute solos, but has more hand drums playing complex polyrhythms, and many of the lyrics deal with the themes of rebellion, oppression, and elf-pride --- sometimes through subtle double meaning and metaphor [necessary in earlier days]...but lately, the call to power is being voiced openly.


----------



## d4 (Jun 10, 2004)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> I like the suggestion above of taking two or three GURPS sourcebooks at random and combining their themes into a single setting.  Is there a tool that could select GURPS sourcebooks at random, I wonder?  I suppose I could always put a bit list in Excel, generate random numbers and pick them...



i know someone had a webpage at one point with a script that would do it. can't find a working one at the moment, though...


----------



## Kaleon Moonshae (Jun 10, 2004)

WayneLigon said:
			
		

> The single weirdest thing I've ever _actually played in:_ Call of Cthulhu + Bunnies and Burrows. With some Winnie-the-Pooh thrown in for just plain weirdness.
> 
> *Bunnies and Barrows. *




That is the most twisted, sick and exciting game i've heard about in a long time, Ifeel dirty and sated at the same time, I'm just a weirdo. I can see pulling in Watership Down, Secret of Nymm, and peter rabbit with the mouth of madness and horror of insmouth all together.....wow


----------



## Fate Lawson (Jun 10, 2004)

Artos said:
			
		

> Do you use d20 for this?  And if so, how?  I'd love to see how it's done.
> -Chris




Yep. d20 all the way. We started with 3.0, migrated to 3.5 (for the most part), and when the current story arc concludes (which should be shortly) we will be switching to a d20Modern base.

We really haven't made any sweeping changes to the basic rules, but (and this may sound weird) we have toned down the "common spellflinging" and the "magic as a technology" a bit. When you actually have to make a deal with a spirit through roleplaying to access the big magics, it gives a whole different flavor to the world. The fighters and rogues come into their own during melee (flashing sword action) and the shaman's, clerics and wizards come into their own outside of combat (political maneuvering, long-term planning etc.).


----------



## Desdichado (Jun 11, 2004)

Someone quite off the wall once asked if I preferred _Watership Down_ or _Blackhawk Down_.  I say, give 'em both to me at once!


----------



## beta-ray (Jun 11, 2004)

JPL said:
			
		

> I like that.  And it reminds me of another unjustly neglected genre...STUNTPUNK.
> 
> Characteristics:  The adventures of stuntmen / daredevils doing daring deeds of derring-do, both for Hollywood/giant stadiums of screaming adrenaline junkies, and in the furtherance of real-life adventures.  As in TEAMPUNK, it's all about providing a plot where the deed of athleticism and derring-do becomes essential.  Very cinematic --- anything that would look good in a movie --- pre-CGI! --- is fair game for the PCs
> 
> ...




What? How dare you leave out Marvel's "Team America" and Mr. T's cartoon in the 80s!


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## Mister Underhill (Jun 11, 2004)

Not to mention Hooper in which Burt Reynolds, Brian Keith, and Jan-Michael Vincent rock the house and Terry Bradshaw doffs his bridge in a kickass cameo.


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## Starfox (Jun 11, 2004)

Genre-bending anf genre-mixing has always been a favourite of mine, with games like TORG and Feng Shui being favourites. 

My personal genre mixes pulp-style action and things man was not meant to know - I have GM:ed a 1930:s dogfight over the risen ruins of Rlyeth. - and this was at an early stage in that campaign.


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## Nuclear Platypus (Jun 12, 2004)

beta-ray said:
			
		

> What? How dare you leave out Marvel's "Team America" and Mr. T's cartoon in the 80s!




I PITY DA FOOL!

How about mixing the A-Team with the Jackie Chan Stunt Team?

"Sentenced to a federal penitentiary for a stunt they didn't commit..."

Basically the same but instead of being a commando squad, they're formerly members of one of the best (if not THE best) stuntmen / martial artists in the world. Heck, Jackie's used almost everything as a weapon (especially liked his use of a ladder) and the A-Team's done basically the same.

But I'd wonder about a Knight Rider + Jackie Chan blend. Ooo! What about a remake of Wild Wild West series with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan as the new Jim West and Artemus Gordon? Or a new Green Hornet and Kato but switch it so Jackie is the Hornet and Owen is the sidekick. Drifting futher offtopic would be to remake Kung Fu but actually use an Asian like uh.... Jackie Chan? 

Back ontopic, I vaguely remember a site that had a cross between Call of Cthulhu and Star Wars. Ooo! Steamtech + Oriental Adventures / Rokugan = early versions of mecha.

Star Wars or other sci fi game + Aaron Spelling = Bevery Hills 90210 (as in the year 90210).


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## barsoomcore (Jun 12, 2004)

There's no such thing as too much Jackie Chan. There just isn't.

Too much _Gorgeous_, yes. Jackie, no.


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## tecnowraith (Aug 29, 2004)

How about this mix? Steampunk set in the Wuxia style movies? Simialr to the one that someone that mention kung fu in the wild west but mine would be the revese.


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## JPL (Feb 2, 2005)

Pardon the thread necromancy...I just reread this, and I think it is my favorite thread in the history of the Interweb.

SPACE COWBOYS
Take my love, take my land,
Take me where I cannot stand...

[Oh, and "Bravestar."]


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## Desdichado (Feb 2, 2005)

It is a good one.  Every so often I search it out and reread it myself.


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## maddman75 (Feb 2, 2005)

Chaldfont said:
			
		

> THE GOTHFATHER
> 
> I was thinking of running an adventure pitting wiseguys versus vampires. Wouldn't it be fun to play Anthony Soprano beating the heck out of pretentious angsty Anne Rice/WoD blood suckers? Or maybe the gangsters just mistook Vampire LARPers for real vampires. Ooops...




One day, I will run a Vampire game where the PCs spot a group of mortal teenagers, huddled together on a streetcorcer, dressed in black trenchcoats and mirrorshades playing rock-scissors-paper.


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## JPL (Feb 2, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> It is a good one.  Every so often I search it out and reread it myself.




No surprise...after all, you're the father of Lovecraftian Ringwaldpunk.


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## Desdichado (Feb 2, 2005)

JPL said:
			
		

> No surprise...after all, you're the father of Lovecraftian Ringwaldpunk.



One of my finest hours...


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## maddman75 (Feb 2, 2005)

One game I've fantasized about running I think I'd call Viva le Buffy.  It would be a Buffy game set during World War II in occupied France.  The Slayer and her friends would all be members of the French Resistance, trying to get aid and info to the allies and stop Hitler's elite Vampire SS from finding lost artifacts of occult treasure in war torn Europe.


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## redhawk (Feb 2, 2005)

Dark Jezter said:
			
		

> *Wigpunk:*  Jane Austin meets William Gibson.  In a dystopian Victorian England, fractious youths with spiky wigs and purple blush serve as countercultural antiheroes who seek to overthrow the aristocracy.




I give you _The Difference Engine_ by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson.

Redhawk


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## WayneLigon (Feb 2, 2005)

JPL said:
			
		

> Very nice. You can dig out your old issues of "New Mutants", too. If you have old issues of "New Mutants."
> 
> And I do.




And Power Pack, and New Warriors, and DNAgents, and The Intimates, and and and...

A subgenre of that is, of course, PS238.


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## WayneLigon (Feb 2, 2005)

redhawk said:
			
		

> I give you _The Difference Engine_ by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson.




One time I did a CoC Campaign involving a working Difference Engine being used to decode and play the 'Music of the Spheres'. The spheres unfortunately turning out to be the soap-bubble-esque 'body' of Yog-Sothoth.


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## JPL (Feb 2, 2005)

PIRATE FU
Pirates and capoeira.  So simple.  So elegant.  And you can add voodoo, too.

Or...actual kung fu, with the pirates based in the South China Sea instead of the Caribbean.


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## barsoomcore (Feb 2, 2005)

JPL said:
			
		

> pirates based in the South China Sea instead of the Caribbean.



And it gets better, because you can have Brigitte Lin as your lead bad guy:

http://www.crosswinds.net/~campamazon/cheng_sao.htm

http://www.arthur-ransome.org/ar/literary/lilius.htm

Frickin' AWESOME.


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## Qlippoth (Feb 3, 2005)

Dark Jezter said:
			
		

> We could always combine "The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert" with our favorite RPG system to create...
> 
> DUNGEONS & DRAG QUEENS
> 
> What luck!  The random treasure roll just gave Hugo Weaving a +5 sequined pettycoat.



Sorry, it's been done...
...with SWISHPUNK!!!

Combine the theatrics of Edwardian Theater with the glittery weapons of the late Liberace!


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## MoogleEmpMog (Feb 3, 2005)

*Pokepunk*

What are pet monster trainers, after all, if not an violent itinerant subculture largely comprised of underage runaways?  Sounds like a perfect setting for -punk adventures.  The PCs wander the world capturing dangerous monsters (perhaps the result of genetic expirimentation by evil megacorporations) and competing in a brutal underground bloodsport.  Of course, they have their own reasons to stick it to The Man, namely getting their hands on the latest military-industrial pet monster.


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## Doug McCrae (Feb 3, 2005)

FANG SHUI

Vampire: The Masquerade meets Feng Shui. Non-angsty vampires do stunts on motorbikes and have kung fu fights with cyborg werewolves from the future.


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## arwink (Feb 3, 2005)

Doug McCrae said:
			
		

> FANG SHUI
> 
> Vampire: The Masquerade meets Feng Shui. Non-angsty vampires do stunts on motorbikes and have kung fu fights with cyborg werewolves from the future.




One of my friends actually runs this game.

For me, the most fun cross I've seen was a con game called "Crouching Tigger, Hidden Piglet."


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## Dr. Strangemonkey (Feb 3, 2005)

Mennippean Satire:

But it's a huge ol' bad ass meta-genre in literature as well as one or two specific genres that describe my very favorite books minus one or two epics.

So it doesn't really fit the tone of this thread, but I will use The Confusion, book II of the Barock trilogy, as just about the most bad ass idea for a long term campaign ever.


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## Impeesa (Feb 3, 2005)

Man, I can't believe I didn't mention this the first time around (and I know I saw the thread, because I posted):

One of the defining elements of cyberpunk (or really, any of the ***punk genres) is the monolithic corporations that stand on par with governments. But why set it in the future? Ask yourself - what was the first modern corporation to really control a whole country? Zero points for saying Microsoft. No, I'm talking about the Hudson's Bay Company. It's been a few years since high school history, so my fur-trade era knowledge is a little rusty, but as I understand it, in the early 18th century the HBC opened up Canada with its trading posts. Picture this, if you will: the company leverages its power, and by the mid-19th century owns and actively controls most of what would be modern-day Canada. Half a continent is a savage wilderness, populated by voyageurs,  rebels, and beavers bred to the size of a full-grown man - only trading-forts-turned-fortresses provide some semblance of civilization. The rest is little better, having been devastated and parcelled out to the highest bidders following the War of 1812. The 'old country' is no place to run to, as new companies, old estates, and whole empires consolidate holdings to maintain an oppressive grip on what they do still control.

I call it... FURPUNK.



--Impeesa--


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## arscott (Feb 3, 2005)

someone had a thread describing a cthulhu/supers game, but I lost the link in the server move.

Ancient gods living modern day lives, a la Neil Gaiman's Amercian Gods, would make a great campaign.


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## JPL (Feb 3, 2005)

MYTHOLOGICAL DUSTBOWL

Magic and myth in the 1930s South.  Carnivale, The Green Mile, and O Brother Where Art Thou.


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## jmucchiello (Feb 3, 2005)

Doug McCrae said:
			
		

> FANG SHUI
> 
> Vampire: The Masquerade meets Feng Shui.



I thought you meant Feng Shui, the decorating style. Vampires meet Trading Spaces. You have one night (and only one night) to redecorate you neighbor's coffin.

...

I missed this thread the first time around but as I was reading I kept wanting to add ... The Musical! to each of the genres. I've always wanted to make a game system where "combat" turned into a song and dance number but I have never found a good way to simulate this with dice.


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## CarlZog (Feb 3, 2005)

*Grim Tropics*

Grim Tropics. 

South Florida. The world of Carl Hiassen and John D. MacDonald -- the underbelly of paradise -- with a little Dark Matter thrown in. Played in d20 Modern, Spycraft or Alternity.

This is where homeless drifters fleeing northern winters mingle with dictators fleeing Caribbean revolutions.

Drug smugglers and modern pirates wage war under the weary, but watchful, eye of government agents.

Itinerant boat bums and opportunistic beach bimbos ride the coattails of tropical luxury -- always ready for the next rich sucker to come along.

Immigrants from the islands beckon the unseen forces of voodoo and santeria to the sweltering urban sprawl.

Modern treasure hunters comb the reefs for spanish galleons, while on the shore white-collar scam artists are filling their own chests.

This is where everybody is from somewhere else, and nobody really cares.

But surrounding them all is the deep water of the Bermuda Triangle, waiting for its secrets to be revealed.....


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## Desdichado (Feb 3, 2005)

CarlZog; that only works for me if Sonny Crocket and Ricardo Tubbs are involved. 

And a themesong by Jan Hammer.


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## Mallus (Feb 3, 2005)

I just thought of two (related) genres...

*Steamcrunk* hip-hop + liquor + booty-shakin' + industrial dystopia (Victorian England). sample character: L'il Jonathan.

*Cybercrunk* hip-hop + liquor + booty-shakin' + post-industrial dystopia (Atlanta 2050AD). sample character: L'il Tron.


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## CarlZog (Feb 3, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> CarlZog; that only works for me if Sonny Crocket and Ricardo Tubbs are involved.
> 
> And a themesong by Jan Hammer.




I guess there's no way around that. If you lived in Miami in the 80s, the impact Vice had the town and the culture was pretty unbelievable. Talk about life imitating art....


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## JPL (Feb 4, 2005)

Mallus said:
			
		

> I just thought of two (related) genres...
> 
> *Steamcrunk* hip-hop + liquor + booty-shakin' + industrial dystopia (Victorian England). sample character: L'il Jonathan.
> 
> *Cybercrunk* hip-hop + liquor + booty-shakin' + post-industrial dystopia (Atlanta 2050AD). sample character: L'il Tron.




Very interesting.  I don't know much about crunk per se*, but let me propose

CRUNK FU
Martial arts meets urban / hip hop.  Def Jam Vendetta, Wu Tang Clan, Ghost Dog, The Last Dragon, Cradle 2 Grave, Romeo Must Die.

* Probably the first use of the phrase "crunk per se."


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## Desdichado (Feb 4, 2005)

Doesn't that genre already exist in the form of several really bad movies, though?


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## JPL (Feb 4, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Doesn't that genre already exist in the form of several really bad movies, though?





True*, but then a lot of the ideas on this thread are more about applying a name to something that's already out there.  TWEENSPY**, for example.

*Although I thought Romeo Must Die was alright.


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## barsoomcore (Feb 4, 2005)

Impeesa said:
			
		

> I call it... FURPUNK.



AWESOME!!!

What a brilliant notion. My brain just sped up several hundred operations per second...


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## Impeesa (Feb 5, 2005)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> AWESOME!!!
> 
> What a brilliant notion. My brain just sped up several hundred operations per second...




Glad someone likes it.  I have no idea what inspired that, but I still love the idea and am sorely tempted to give it a serious treatment. 

--Impeesa--


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## barsoomcore (Mar 11, 2005)

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=124280


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## barsoomcore (Mar 11, 2005)

Oh, and this is the greatest thread in the history of ENWorld. I promise to try and do it justice.


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## JPL (Mar 11, 2005)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=124280




Sweeet.

What's on deck first, B?


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## barsoomcore (Mar 11, 2005)

If I'm writing the first bad boy, I'm thinking either the legendary, the one and the only, the much-loved and long-anticipated

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND

or, because my brain is contrary and sometimes just wants its own way,

GUN-FU: BALLETIC BULLETICS


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## Committed Hero (Mar 15, 2005)

maddman75 said:
			
		

> One game I've fantasized about running I think I'd call Viva le Buffy. It would be a Buffy game set during World War II in occupied France. The Slayer and her friends would all be members of the French Resistance, trying to get aid and info to the allies and stop Hitler's elite Vampire SS from finding lost artifacts of occult treasure in war torn Europe.




William Stoddard ran a game called "Boca del Infierno," set in Sunnyvale during the time of Zorro.


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## barsoomcore (Mar 15, 2005)

I can't believe that wasn't an actual Buffy episode. It seems so obvious.

Oh, and JPL, when you call me "B", I get an image of you as Faith. And me as Buffy. And it frightens me. So stop that.


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## Desdichado (Jun 13, 2006)

JPL said:
			
		

> Heh.
> 
> Reminds me of the eighties videos like Quiet Riot's "The Wild and the Young", where Big Brother / The Man was trying to stop us from rockin' out in this Orwellian dystopia.  Damn you, Tipper Gore!



Every once in a while, this thread needs to be bumped so an entire new generation of ENWorld posters can discover it.

Plus, hey, here's a link to that video mentioned above.  Isn't that just totally begging to be made into an RPG setting?


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## barsoomcore (Jun 13, 2006)

Yer darn tooting.

But all my love right now is for those wacky DINO-PIRATES and their beloved NINJA ISLAND.


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## Desdichado (Jun 15, 2006)

Nifty little thread on that in the d20 subforum, by the way.


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## jaerdaph (Jun 15, 2006)

THE SPY WHO SHOGGOTHED ME

H.P. Lovecraft meets Cold War Era James Bond

Edit: Or Austen Powers for the not so serious


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## Agent Oracle (Jun 15, 2006)

Cheer'emon!
Wherever it is not the main character who is doing the actual fighting, but rather some subordinate beast which they coach towards voctory with such helpful phrases as "use agility to dodge!" and "Thundershock! Now!" (pokemon, Digimon, beyblades, any of a zillion silly game-based TV shows.)


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## Desdichado (Jun 16, 2006)

Is JPL still around, by the way?  Haven't seen him in a little while...


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## barsoomcore (Jun 16, 2006)

J-Dawg said:
			
		

> Is JPL still around, by the way?



Yeah, he posted on the DINO-PIRATES thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=163904

Still kicking.


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## JPL (Sep 14, 2007)

Forgive my thread necromancy.  

This is the greatest thread ever, and I want all the kids to see it and learn from it.

WOLDPUNK

From Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton.  Planetary would be a contemporary example, as would League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the Anno Dracula series (and various other works) by Kim Newman.  Various characters (or analogues) from different classic pulp, sci-fi, detective, and adventure fiction all coexist in the same continuum, and modern heroes and villains are often the literal or spiritual descendants of the classic heroes.  My own INFINITE: Epic Modern is an RPG example.


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## Tinner (Sep 14, 2007)

*What's a little thread necromancy among friends?*

Here's two that I've had some fun with recently.

*SPAGHETTI & SORCERY*
Wild Bill Conan rides the plains of Hyboria hunting for desperados.
With his trusty six-shooter on his hip, he faces off with the Man with No Name, the Outlaw Josey Wales and other western varmints. By Crom those cattle rustlers will pay!

Basically Grim & Gritty Fantasy mixed up with a Spaghetti Western. Start with a little D&D, a little Shane, stir in some High Plains Drifter, and season with some Warhammer Fantasy.

*GUYS & DAMSELS*
It's 1939 in New York City, bullets fly over Broadway. The Oldest, Established, Permanent, Floating, Crap Game in New York offers all the action a fella could want, but to get in, you'll have to know the secret roads through Faerie. Changelings wearing a red carnation know that knocking at the Save-A-Soul Mission will open a hidden trod into the sewers with the nobles of the faerie court go to gamble, carouse, and play tricks on foolish mortals.

Part Changeling: The Dreaming, part Guys & Dolls. Mix Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Eve with the period fiction of Damon Runyon. Cast a young Marlon Brando ne'er-do-well Puck slowly falling in love with the mortal missionary Sister Sarah, Mix in Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit, sidhe prince of the city of New York, beset on all sides by demands from his rabble-rousing subjects. Throw in a little of Bill Willingham's Fables, and spice it up with the urban legends of NYC, and centuries of fairy tales - all kinds of fun!


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## GreatLemur (Sep 15, 2007)

JPL said:
			
		

> Forgive my thread necromancy.



Ah, man, glad you did it.  There's some very cool stuff in here...


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## JPL (Jan 14, 2009)

I've been thinking a little bit about the "tweenpulp" genre and how it hasn't been represented in RPGs. I'm speaking of action/adventure with kids [say, ten to seventeen] as the heroes. Johnny Quest is the main model, but I'd throw in Goonies and Spy Kids and the Hardy Boys and the Young Indiana
Jones Chronicles, too.

Most are the offspring of agents for one of those fictional "cool stuff" government organizations or think tanks, tasked with fringe scientific research, investigation of unexplained phenomena, and espionage work relating to the same [no moral ambiguity here --- this is a genuinely good bunch of people, a la MacGyver's Phoenix Foundation]. In addition to keeping the kids near Mom and Dad on long missions, the Foundation is also consciously trying to give these gifted kids a unique education, and therefore lets them participate in all kinds of neat stuff...which occasionally crosses the line from "cool field trip" into "exciting adventure."

Other PCs are the orphaned children of other agents, or "friends of the family," or gifted children that the Foundation has recruited for what amounts to a travelling "school for gifted youngsters" --- except in this case, the gifts are not mutant powers, they are simply the potential to excel in the field of Adventuring [due to natural leadership skills, or scientific genius, or whatever].

We encounter enemy agents and sinister scientists, travel to exotic foreign lands, track the Yeti, etc., usually with our ex-Spec Ops tutor trying to keep a close eye on us.

So...some expanded rules for playing kids as PCs...maybe some quasi-"occupations" to handle the kid archetypes [the Smart Kid, the Tough Kid, the Troublemaker, etc]. Some modified rules to keep things rated PG, especially the violence [probably including the M&M damage save]. Plenty of stats for tutors, parents, bodyguards, and rival kids. And maybe a one-shot style adventure with some loose ends to accomodate further adventure.

Throw in some conversion rules so you have the option of running the same kids as adults under the standard d20 Modern rules [just because the goons were stupid and no one ever really got hurt when you were 12 doesn't mean the same rules apply at 22]. In the alternative, you could set up a generational thing --- the kid PCs in an eighties adventure [they learn karate and find a pirate treasure!] are the grownup NPCs in a campaign set twenty years later.

Any thoughts?


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## JPL (Jan 14, 2009)

A couple of lessons I've learned about RPG genres:  I think you can cross anything with H.P. Lovecraft, and I think you can cross anything with "tournament fighter."  But I've never been 100% convinced of the viability of crossing tournament fighter with Lovecraft.  

Maybe start with some 1920s boxers fighting in an underground bareknuckles circuit, and gradually make things weirder until the PCs are punching Things Man Was Not Supposed to Punch in a surreal otherworldly gladiatorial arena.


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## roguerouge (Jan 14, 2009)

Or you could The Venture Brothers...


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## The Green Adam (Jan 15, 2009)

Tried to check through the thread to avoid duplication but its pretty big. Here goes some of my personal favorites...

*SUPER and SUPERSCIENCEPULP*
Pulp with the super powers knob turned up higher then normal. Represented less by particular series then by particular characters...The Question, Dr. Occult, Tom Strong (especially with his more superhuman allies). Venture Brothers could fit if you focused on Dr. Orphius, Dr. Impossible and his group, etc. The more caped and cowled Venture crowd.

*SUPERSHAG*
60's Superspies and Shaggedelic Costumed Crusaders. The Adam West _Batman_ TV meets _Agents of Atlas_.

*SF - SCIENCE FUNNY*
Nothing is quite as humorous as the complete annihlilation of one alien species by another. Or the end of the universe! Always good for a chuckle. _Futurama, Galaxy Quest, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Red Dwarf, Tripping the Rift_, etc. SciFi Space Opera and comedy go hand in hand.

I'm sure I'll think of more. These are pretty tame considering some of the stuff I've run. If I can find it, my old thread '30 Years of Weird - Unusual Campaigns' had s cool ones.

AD


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## barsoomcore (Mar 8, 2009)

Wow, awesome to see the life come back here! I think it's worth pointing out that Hobo's current PbP game I'm basically exactly resembles his first post in this thread: Warhammer + Iron Kingdoms + Cthulhu + Edgar Rice Burroughs + Ribald Sex Comedy.

Well, he said "steamy"...


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## The Green Adam (Mar 8, 2009)

*SATASUPE ReMix*

One of the coolest and most unusual Japanese Table Top RPGs is a little number called SATASUPE ReMix. Its a gun-fu, wire-fu, asian crime, hip-hop bloody action comedy. Oh yeah! Described as both funny and bleak simultaneously.

AD


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## JPL (Oct 10, 2017)

JPL said:


> Forgive my thread necromancy.
> 
> This is the greatest thread ever, and I want all the kids to see it and learn from it.
> 
> ...




Man, me from ten years ago had some really great ideas.  Good stuff, 2007 JPL.


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