RPGaDay Triple Shot: Revolutionary Rules Mechanic, Inspiration, Mash Up

Right, since RPGaDay is sort of meant to finish at the end of August... um yeah, we're running over.

I've decided to round the month off over the next two days in a couple of big posts. This post will cover topics 25 to 27 and then we'll round it out tomorrow with the others.

So, 27:  Favourite Revolutionary Game Mechanic 

For me this has to be UA's Madness Meters, if only because they break all the sanity stuff in the game into categories, allowing for a more precise consideration of how horror effects people. The other thing I like about the game's madness mechanics (brushing over things like 'choose your own skill lists' and the flip flop dice for skills you're obsessed with) is the fact that passing your madness check isn't actually that a good thing. It hardens your character against that kind of influence, until eventually you're a sociopath who doesn't feel anything at all. This seems to only reinforce how much the game is about being human and fucking up, something I really like.

It reflects a very different attitude towards madness, a more compassionate approach in some respects, that seems to shift everything away from it being just a bundle of points the way Call of Cthulhu does, to something more like Warhammer's rules where you flip flop your dice to determine hit location in combat.

28: Favourite Inspiration

So, I don't have a current game going to draw on, but I find inspiration isn't really something you can pin down. I get inspired by comics, films, radio shows, books, and conversations with friends. I tend to be a touch omnivorous in my gaming influences, but at the same time I'm more drawn to spy films and things like Suicide Squad or The Manchurian Candidate than I am Five Go Mad in Mordor or something like that.

The most recent game idea I've had, a game of Night's Black Agents, focused on Carmilla and Warren Ellis' Global Frequency but for vampires.

29: Favourite Idea for Merging Two Game into One

The idea that's haunted me for a long time for this is to cross Fading Suns and Legend of the Five Rings, making a samurai space opera where Feng Lu is trying to steal the power of the stars to make an age of darkness. I'm not sure what engine I'd use for it, but I like the imagery of samurai in space, the complexities of Rokugani politics and society against the stars. There'd be lots of opportunities for monsters and other shadowland nasties to prosper, hidden planets where the Lost take up residence, not to mention the mysteries about the jump gates and the problems with the xenos.