The Medium #16:

Games I'd Like to See

by Karrin Jackson
September 8, 2003

Lately, I've hit a slump that happens to many players who have been at this hobby for several years. It just seems like everything has been done. When you're looking at yet another [insert genre here] game, and it looks just like the previous one, only the names have been changed, it's hard to dredge up the enthusiasm and objectivity to look at it as anything new and interesting -- especially when it draws the same players, with the same types of characters and the same old plots and motivations.

It doesn't have to be like that, though. We've only scratched the surface of the potential for this medium, not only in terms of code use and staff structure (check out Unused Potential, the second article in this series), but also in dealing with themes, settings, and the way stories are told. In the search of the perfect game, I've realized there is no such thing, but it did bring to mind a lot of ideas that I'd love to see get used. Some of them may already exist out there, and if so, all the better. If they do, let me know. It'd make a certain columnist very happy -- these are my personal favorites among the ranks of nonexistent games.

Discworld

Terry Pratchett owns me. If you've never read his Discworld series, then as soon as you finish this article, log out and go to your local library to check out The Colour of Magic. It's the first in a long and ongoing series of brilliant humor. To my knowledge, there has never been a MU* set in Discworld. This is a crime. I don't think the reason for this is that the Discworld is all that obscure. I've met many players who are familiar with it. So if there are so many Discworld fans out there, why isn't there a game based on it?

Well, first of all, it would be difficult. The setting itself isn't the heart of the material. It's Pratchett's wit and insight that brings it alive. The challenge for anyone making a game like this would be capturing Pratchett's gift of parody while keeping the scope of the game within the realm of playability for the common player. I'd like to think that there are enough witty people out there in MU*dom to make a go of it, though. Set aside the established storylines and characters from the books; there are a million untold stories to be explored. With a group of original characters, a storyteller could draw plot material from the setting and go with it. That's the beauty of the Discworld; you can take a handful of characters, thrust them into one uncanny adventure after another, and still stay perfectly within theme. Forget realism. It's the Discworld.

A well done Discworld MU* would have me there in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, a badly done Discworld MU* would call for nothing less than to burn the machine it's on to the ground, pour the ashes into a lead lined box, and bury them somewhere in the Antarctic, then taking an oath to never speak of it again. It's a risk I'm willing to take. If I ever see Ankh-Morpork by Night, I'm there.

Original Modern Horror

I'm a fan of modern horror. You might therefore guess, and be absolutely correct, that I've spent a good portion of my RP time on games set in the Word of Darkness system by White Wolf. It's not necessarily a bad setting, and there was a time when it was cutting edge and brand new, but that time has long past. Not only have I not seen anything new and exciting coming out of WoD MU*s in a long time, but I haven't seen many players who even want something new. They want an established setting they know, where they can play types of characters with which they're familiar, in an atmosphere they understand. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but it's not what I want.

I want to see modern horror done from the angle of the hapless mortal. Forget supernatural politics and trying to understand the monster within, I want to get scared as hell by the monster within, and then go after the monster without armed with a stake, a gun loaded with silver bullets, a flamethrower, and a super-soaker full of holy water. I want my character to worry that staking a vampire, decapitating it, burning it to ashes, and scattering the ashes over a twenty mile radius might not be enough to stop it. There is a delicious sense of fear and paranoia that goes along with well done horror, and I'm just not seeing it in World of Darkness these days.

In part, I think this is because that's not why most people play WoD anymore, if in fact that was ever a motivation to begin with. In WoD you are the monster, and you're one of many monsters who bicker and politic in the shadows while the mortal world goes on unaware. I enjoyed the angle in Vampire: the Masquerade, where your character was a relatively young vampire in danger of losing what's left of his/her humanity. There was a struggle there, and the stakes were high -- so to speak. I haven't seen that played in a long time. Anymore, it's all about the power fantasy. Being a monster isn't tragic, it's a good excuse to have 133+ p0w3rz and throw your weight around.

I want to be scared by horror again. I want monsters to be more than just a set of rules in a gaming supplement somewhere. Part of what makes horror interesting is the element of the unknown, and that's been lost in the WoD, because there aren't anymore unknowns save for what you make up yourself. I figure if you're going to do that, you may as well just start from scratch. There are a dozen different ways to interpret vampires, werewolves, fairies, and ghosts: White Wolf's take is merely one of many. Since WW's take has been explored so thoroughly, I wouldn't mind seeing someone else's version for a change.

Lovecraft

Speaking of horror, I would love to see a game based off the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. While modern horror is good, I'm also interested in recent past horror. Something out of the turn of the century, the 1920s, or even as late as the 1950s would fascinate me. The idea of setting a game in a quaint little East Coast town in the mid-1920s -- where beneath the thin veneer of civilization lurks horrors untold -- makes my shriveled, jaded gamer's heart all aflutter.

The problem is that the elements that would make this setting fascinating would also make it difficult to play. This is a problem any historical setting runs into -- values were different way back when. Players are dealing with a set of moral and social consequences with which they aren't familiar, and some of them go against the grain of the values that have been instilled in us. Not only are these historical values difficult to grasp, but the idea of playing them might not appeal to a conscientious player.

Racism and sexism, for example, were the norm in the olden days of ignorance and repression. Speaking out against authority was a dangerous thing to do, and the freedom of speech and religion only applied if you were saying and believing the right things. Not everyone is comfortable playing this, but to lose it would be to lose a distinct flavor of the setting, and an essential part of the social makeup that made these periods in history what they were.

Of course there have always been people who have resisted mainstream ignorance and injustice, but to make a setting like this work, characters would have to tread carefully. Not only are there monsters lurking under the city by night, but there are monsters lurking in government offices and police stations by day. With the right group of players, it could work, but they would have to understand the historical context and be willing to immerse themselves in it for the sake of bringing the period alive.

In Conclusion

This is just a small sampling of what I'd like to see. I could write a column unto itself dedicated to game ideas I'd jump on in a heartbeat. Though I show a distinct favoritism toward horror settings, there are a wide range of genres and themes that perk my interest. A fantasy theme that deviates from D&D, for example, would rock my world. More original settings of any stripe would be a breath of fresh air. In these jaded days, anything that hasn't been done to death would look good. The point is that there are endless possibilities, and I think the medium would benefit from veering away from what's been done and venturing into uncharted territory.