Back when I started this column, I swore that it would contain absolutely NOTHING about Game Design. After doing design columns for nearly two years, I felt that not only had I reached my limit, but, given the number of such columns that have since proliferated, I felt that a large number of readers are probably sick of them as well. So, I vowed, no design content.
Despite the title of this week’s column, I am sticking to that vow.
This week’s column is not about game design, but is instead a wish list of projects that I, as a game designer, would give my left lung to work on…my personal “holy grails” of game design assignments. Pretty much all of them are licensed properties—which I suppose makes a certain amount of sense, since if they weren’t, there would be nothing stopping me (or anyone else) from doing them.
First up: Buckaroo Banzai. This 1984 Sherwood Productions film is just dying for an RPG adaptation. A new wave updating of the Doc Savage archetype, this film is almost unknown outside of the gamer/sci-fi/fantasy community—and so you’d think that the license would be fairly easy to get. Nope. If it was, you’d have seen an RPG a long time ago. I personally worked some connections to get a conference call with the lawyer representing the current rights-holder, only to be told that they’re not interested in licensing the film, since they’re working on a new TV series for Fox. I also know of at least two other game companies that tried as well. Ah well. Since an RPG is pretty much unlikely, a Banzai-themed campaign could probably be run using White Wolf’s Adventure!, albeit set in the mid-eighties.
Number two on the wish list: Doctor Who. There have been two previous commercially-available RPGs based on the longest-running science-fiction series of all time. The first, published in the mid-eighties by FASA had some great adventures and supplements, but a unnecessarily complicated rules system which didn’t “feel” like Dr. Who. The second system was released by Virgin books in the early 90s (and is available for free download now. Just check Google…I’m too lazy to look up the URL)—it featured a much cooler system, but was marred by three factors: no true character creation system (players were supposed to play the Doctor or one of his companions), no supplements or adventures were ever released, and it was released through the book trade, rather than the hobby market, meaning that it pretty much came and went without most gamers noticing. This is a property that has thousands of devoted fans, despite the fact that the show hasn’t been on since 1989 (plus a TV movie in 1996)—and a great number of those fans are gamers. GIVE ME THIS GAME.
Along the same lines (a property with lots of fans, which once had a RPG of its own) there is James Bond 007. The Victory Games version from the early eighties was brilliant, and remains one of my favorite designs of all time. Now that the Bond films are back up and running again (after the seven year delay between License to Kill and Goldeneye), there needs to be a James Bond RPG again. Let the players role up their own agents and save the world. AEG seems to think that there might be some leg left in the super-spy genre, as evidenced by their forthcoming SERIES ARCHER line. In the meantime, though, if you want to play in this world, track down an old copy of Victory Game’s Bond RPG.
Planet of the Apes. No, not the latest Burton-ized monstrosity, the original 5 films and accompanying television series from the seventies. That’s where the true adventures lie. Pick up the old black-and-white marvel comics magazines from the seventies, or the revival comics from the late eighties and early nineties, and see the potential oozing out of every pore of this concept. Play a human (if you set it during the time of the TV series, humans can talk), a chimp, a gorilla, or an orangutan. The only hope for this to happen is for the current, over-hyped film to die a much-deserved death, freeing up the older property for licensing (since 20th century fox told me that they’re currently only issuing new licenses based on the current film)—and at that point it will apparently become a race between myself and Chris Pramas of Green Ronin to see who gets to it first!
Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, OK—so I’m on a seventies sci-fi kick. Sue me. I grew up in the age of polyester and science fiction. I’ve actually come close on this one. Event Horizon, the company that published the first edition of HONG KONG ACTION THEATRE went after the license, and actually got it—Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo) was ready to provide some fiction pieces for the rulebook (he has since gone on to publish a couple of BSG novels)—but Event Horizon ended up deciding against continuing for too many reasons to go into here. Still and all, I think that a game set in this universe would kick much ass—especially if it ignored the horrible “Galactica 1980″, and also gave the option of setting the game on a Battlestar of the players creation (either another one that escaped the destruction of the colonies, or perhaps by setting the campaign BEFORE the destruction). Vipers, Cylon Raiders, Borellian Nomen, cool big-buckled brown suede jackets….sign me up.
I could go on…there are tons of properties that fit into this category: Kurt Busiek’s Astro City, The Sopranos, Twin Peaks, Blakes’ 7, and more. I guess it just comes down to the fact that if it’s a book, movie or television program of which I am a fan, then I would jump at the chance to design the RPG. I think most designers are the same way.
This week’s recommendations—I’m reading THE LORE OF THE FOREST by Alexander Porteous and I’m listening to —, a collection mixed by Lisa Lashes.
See ya in 7.
