A New Setting

[Duke Bushido]

17 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

And let's face it: would you rather live, work, and adventure in Millennium City, or Detroit?

 

 

Detroit, obviously.  If you are going to something well, you need lots of practice.  If you are going to make it a career, you need plenty of demand. 

 

So if you're going to be a crime fighter.... 

 

Well, Detroit has more than enough of everything you need. 

 

Really, that seemed pretty obvious.

[Duke Bushido]

27 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

imagine the world of the old Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon, only treated seriously, 

 

Wait wait wait wait wait--! 

 

I'm not understanding something. 

 

 

Are you....? 

 

Are you implying that someone doesn't take Thundarr _seriously_?! 

 

Is that even _possible_?!

 

 

[Lord Liaden]

I love Thundarr, but its tongue was firmly in its cheek. That's one of the things I love about it.

[Scott Ruggels]

6 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Hmm... interesting observations, Scott. What you describe sounds less like specific genre, and more like style and tone. Rather than focusing on metaplot or pushing people into combat-heavy adventures, the setting should perhaps emphasize setting up the stable framework for a range of opportunities for character interactions and advancement, in social situations as well as "murder hobo" adventures. That could be arranged for almost any genre.

 

Almost any, yes.  The problem for HERO, is that it is, at it's heart, a supremely tuned Combat system building kit.  Conflict does not necessarily mean combat, but the system can be "tuned" to things like  a sports competition, or something a bit more abstracted.  What is necessary is to find characters and relationships (Romance seems to be very important to the younger generations) that will motivate the new players to stick with this crunchy system.  That's where the background comes in.

 

6 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Another example would be the Game of Thrones television series, and the Song of Fire and Ice novels it derives from. There is an overarching metaplot, but it takes a long time to build and coalesce, with many other developments taking center stage in the meantime. A while back I suggested a loose campaign premise inspired by GoT, utilizing Hero's Turakian Age setting: Besruhan Intrigues.

 

 

Those adventures seeds are very good for describing the  turmoil of a series of strong and weak  kingdoms around. The senatorial  intrigue seeds may be a little closer to  the direction, in some ways, but it comes across more  "House of Cards, than Game of Thrones.  Also I think what many of the younger crowd is looking for is "softer" than GoT, or House of Cards. They want more "ship". and less stabbings, but not the elimination there of.  Palace Intrigues may interest them, as long as the palace is full of pretty pretty people. More soap opera, and less warfare.

[Doc Democracy]

13 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

If I ever have twenty grand or so to spare, it's been my ambition to approach our former forum colleague and Hero Games ace cartographer, Keith "insert relevant clever comment" Curtis, to publish his magnificent original campaign setting, The Savage Earth. This is a magical post-apocalyptic Earth thousands of years in the future -- imagine the world of the old Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon, only treated seriously, given internal consistency, and expanded over a continent-sized area. The material on Keith's website linked above features world history, geopolitics, cultures, many distinctive races and creatures, a large roster of NPCs, a unique detailed magic system and artifacts (for Hero 5E), numerous maps, gorgeous color artwork, and copious campaign logs easily translatable into adventure scenarios.

 

At least 75% of the work needed to make it publishable is already done. It would only require editing and updating game stats to 6E. And AFAIK there's nothing else like it available in the hobby.

 

Surely it is exactly the kind of thing Kickstarter et al, is designed for.

 

If you have some stuff that can be used to trail and show, all you really need are 1000 people willing to pony up $20...

[bluesguy]

16 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

If I ever have twenty grand or so to spare, it's been my ambition to approach our former forum colleague and Hero Games ace cartographer, Keith "insert relevant clever comment" Curtis, to publish his magnificent original campaign setting, The Savage Earth. This is a magical post-apocalyptic Earth thousands of years in the future -- imagine the world of the old Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon, only treated seriously, given internal consistency, and expanded over a continent-sized area. The material on Keith's website linked above features world history, geopolitics, cultures, many distinctive races and creatures, a large roster of NPCs, a unique detailed magic system and artifacts (for Hero 5E), numerous maps, gorgeous color artwork, and copious campaign logs easily translatable into adventure scenarios.

 

At least 75% of the work needed to make it publishable is already done. It would only require editing and updating game stats to 6E. And AFAIK there's nothing else like it available in the hobby.

 

I just spent some time on the website.  The material is amazing.  I would support a Kickstarter to see it published. 

[bluesguy]

Crap it published twice....

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, bluesguy said:

 

I just spent some time on the website.  The material is amazing.  I would support a Kickstarter to see it published. 

 

Thanks for your vote, bg. Cumulatively I've probably spent a couple of delightful days' worth of time just reading everything. But AFAIK Keith has never expressed a desire to publish the Savage Earth, and since he'd still have to invest his time to do much of the work, I'd rather not approach him about it unless and until I can say, "If you're willing to do it, here's the money up front."

[Scott Ruggels]

 

[Doc Democracy]

17 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Thanks for your vote, bg. Cumulatively I've probably spent a couple of delightful days' worth of time just reading everything. But AFAIK Keith has never expressed a desire to publish the Savage Earth, and since he'd still have to invest his time to do much of the work, I'd rather not approach him about it unless and until I can say, "If you're willing to do it, here's the money up front."

 

Would possibly be worth the question, "If I had the money, would you be interested in doing the work?"  If the answer to that is yes, then crowdfunding probably becomes an option...

 

I would probably drop $30-40 on a kickstarter of this nature...

[Diamond Spear]

So upon further reflection I was thinking that a semi-pulp sci-fi setting might be fun and that put me in mind of the Mageworlds books. They're on the line between pulp and space opera and there's an established setting that's almost begging to be fleshed out. Done strictly as a fan project I think it has great potential. Thoughts?

[Duke Bushido]

Holy Hell you're in Savannah!

 

Do you miss the Comic Box as badly as I do?

 

Sorry. I was actually going to say "I'm not ignoring your question; I am simply totally unfamiliar with the books you reference."

 

Then I saw "Savannah" and thought "Yes!  Another semi-local gamer!" and got all excite--

 

wait.

 

Are you in SCAD?

 

 

[Diamond Spear]

Nope not in SCAD. A bit old for that. Moved here about a year and a half ago for work. 

[Duke Bushido]

Excellent!

 

Hope you enjoy it.  Stay out of Yamacraw if you can help it, and the South Side at all costs, at least until February.

 

Honestly, I'm simple people.  We lived right on the edge of Thunderbolt just north of Victory Drive.  Loved it there, but wasn't going raise kids anywhere _near_ it.   I hope it suits you well in the time to come.

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

On 11/26/2018 at 11:48 AM, Scott Ruggels said:

 

Kind of defeats the feeling of Pulp, doesn't it?  Pulp doesn't survive Post Modernist attitudes and more's.

Don’t see why it has to.

[Scott Ruggels]

20 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Don’t see why it has to.

 I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but "Pulp" is "Problematic".  sure we love it, but the themes represented within it, are an anathema to today's college age customers. I could list off the reasons why, but it would depress us all, Suffice it to say the Culture as it is, is allergic to pulp themes.

 

The goal is to attract new blood and new customers, so marketing would have to be aimed at the customers we have, not the ones we wish we had.

[Ninja-Bear]

2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

 I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but "Pulp" is "Problematic".  sure we love it, but the themes represented within it, are an anathema to today's college age customers. I could list off the reasons why, but it would depress us all, Suffice it to say the Culture as it is, is allergic to pulp themes.

 

The goal is to attract new blood and new customers, so marketing would have to be aimed at the customers we have, not the ones we wish we had.

Watching too much news? Oh there are squeaky wheels out there for sure but it’s probably not a problematic as those wheels would have you believe it is.

[Lord Liaden]

Hey, the thread started off with Diamond Spear asking for suggestions for a new setting because he wanted to be creative. I was under the impression it was about doing something cool that hadn't been done to death before. I'm not sure when the priority turned to publishing something aimed at drawing in newcomers.

[Jmonty]

If we want to attract younger people one of the trends for them is still the Harry Potter universe. I was thinking of something in this style, only a bit more adult, or teenager. Not strictly for kids. May be something between Potter and The Magicians. Strict rules for magic (fixed lists of spells at first, for a quick start), a hidden world, some foes and conspiracies, real problems from the real world of a teenager (like in the Spiderman comics) and not just magical problems.

 

[Scott Ruggels]

13 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Watching too much news? Oh there are squeaky wheels out there for sure but it’s probably not a problematic as those wheels would have you believe it is.

 

Possibly, but I don't think any company wants the negative twitter storm about products that could be generated.  Squeaky wheels get the grease. 

 

13 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Hey, the thread started off with Diamond Spear asking for suggestions for a new setting because he wanted to be creative. I was under the impression it was about doing something cool that hadn't been done to death before. I'm not sure when the priority turned to publishing something aimed at drawing in newcomers.

 

 Sorry. I was thinking that it got into speculation about HERO producing a new setting, and my thinking was something that would benefit the company, and it's limited resources. I had not understood this was a "personal project".

 

11 hours ago, Jmonty said:

If we want to attract younger people one of the trends for them is still the Harry Potter universe. I was thinking of something in this style, only a bit more adult, or teenager. Not strictly for kids. May be something between Potter and The Magicians. Strict rules for magic (fixed lists of spells at first, for a quick start), a hidden world, some foes and conspiracies, real problems from the real world of a teenager (like in the Spiderman comics) and not just magical problems.

 

 

I do think that this is an excellent idea.  

[C-Note]

On 12/5/2018 at 5:27 PM, Scott Ruggels said:

 

Possibly, but I don't think any company wants the negative twitter storm about products that could be generated.

 

I'll take a negative tweetstorm against Hero Games any day.  What's it going to do? Hurt sales?  At the very least, it will raise Hero's profile.

 

Love the idea of a 6E Pulp Hero setting.  Would also love to see a Champions 3000 science-fantasy setting.  Everything from battling space-orcs in a black hole debris field, up to defending the galaxy from evil, extra-dimensional space-gods.

[Doc Democracy]

A default pulp setting would be useful as it would provide the backdrop for campaigns which can often be the most difficult thing for folk that have not grown up with Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tarzan and Fu Manchu...

 

My experience is that the younger folk (I am talking teenagers here, around 14-17) I run games for, love the ambience once they are introduced and most especially love the homework (go home and before we meet next week, watch three episodes of Gangbusters and the film Angels with Dirty Faces; or watch three episodes of Tarzan with Johnny Weismuller and She with Charlton Heston). 

 

It would be good to have The Adventurers Club actually made into a real thing with NPCs, maps and some setting decisions made for you.

 

Doc

 

 

[Brian Stanfield]

12 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

A default pulp setting would be useful as it would provide the backdrop for campaigns which can often be the most difficult thing for folk that have not grown up with Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tarzan and Fu Manchu...

 

My experience is that the younger folk (I am talking teenagers here, around 14-17) I run games for, love the ambience once they are introduced and most especially love the homework (go home and before we meet next week, watch three episodes of Gangbusters and the film Angels with Dirty Faces; or watch three episodes of Tarzan with Johnny Weismuller and She with Charlton Heston). 

 

It would be good to have The Adventurers Club actually made into a real thing with NPCs, maps and some setting decisions made for you.

 

Doc

 

 

 

I've found that using the Empire Club from Justice, Inc. is a great home base to introduce the pulp genre. You can check in after an adventure and then go see a new area (Hey, great job on the African safari. Now the Nazis are up to something in Tibet. Go check it out. Etc.). Each trope can be added in time without the need to provide it all at once. I even modified Hudson City to be the base for the Empire Club, and can use that city as a basis for the first adventures that get the players used to Model T's and tommy guns, etc., and to decondition them to instant access to information and communication that they're used to nowadays. 

[Old Man]

 

On 11/25/2018 at 2:37 PM, Cygnia said:

Asiatic setting that's not China or Japan?

 

On 11/26/2018 at 11:04 AM, Scott Ruggels said:

Okay, then what new setting, or perhaps license would attract new players to Hero?  Currently hot shows on Netflix might work, like The Dragon Prince, or the new She-Ra reboot might be good examples, if not candidates. I have a fair amount of online interaction with younger generations, in the circles Intravel (artist mostly), and while many are gamers, not all that many of the folks I know are asninto the “Murder Hobo 4 Life” game style that I am so fond of. Most of them are heavily influenced by anime, and for the readers, YA novels. Both influences are heavy with character inter-relationships, and rivalry and romance. Many individuals are very experienced with chat, or text based role play. As such they are far more narrative focused than I (usually) am. These are just my observations but they might be useful for figuring out what might be a setting to help HERO along. 

 

killsixbilliondemons.com

[Spence]

On 11/25/2018 at 11:15 PM, Lord Liaden said:

 

 

And let's face it: would you rather live, work, and adventure in Millennium City, or Detroit?

 

Hudson City or Vibora Bay for me.  I mostly use Hudson City because it has an actual map.  One that can actually be used.  I'd kill for a similar map of Vibora Bay.  I've started making my own a couple times with CC but stalled.  I guess I really should see if I can start again.