I'd like a game where we start playing as children dealing with something fantastic/mysterious/horrifying. After some time, we jump forward 20 years and refocus on our characters as adults.

This is actually two games, one as kids and one as adults, the second half basically dealing with the fallout of the first and looking back at the children's world through adult eyes.

Ideally the "children" portion wouldn't be just a prelude, but a whole self-contained game of its own. It might cover the events of a single year or a single summer and then jump ahead to adulthood... or we might skip and jump from childhood to adulthood gradually. There could be a childhood "adventure", then a young teen adventure, a teen adventure, then an "adult" phase. We might continue jumping ahead or just treat the "adult" era as ongoing.

Possible permutations:

1. A world of darkness game. It could be a Vampire/Werewolf/Mage game, though there should be a convincing plot reason as why this group of friends all happened to be embraced/awaken/etc. A Mortals game would be easier to justify.

2. A superhero game. Maybe we were normal kids growing up in a world with superheroes who gain powers -- somehow -- as adults. Or maybe we got our origins as kids, and were a kid-hero team, then we deal with how that affects us, and how being an adult hero is more serious/deadly/less glamorous. I would vastly prefer a postmodern sort of supers game rather than a gold/silver age sort of thing, though maybe when you're a kid you THINK it's all just like the comics.

3. A fantasy game. We grew up in the same village or castle or town, having "adventures" as kids that are little more than play, but when adulthood comes we're forced to become adventurers for real.

4.Sci fi game. The kids grow up on a starship; when we're adults we can go to Space Academy and serve on a ship of our own.

5. Sci fi game. Like above, except we grow up on some backwater planet. When we grow up we can buy or finance our own ship and get off this miserable rockball.

Etc.

Core to this is the ability to portray children accurately, both mechanically and as characters. I'd prefer a system that supported this: GURPS, nWoD, Fate, maybe Mutants and Masterminds 3e or Savage Worlds, and a GM/player group who gets what it's like to be a kid, and not the stereotype of a kid.

Unless it's a situation like kid-superheroes, the game should start out fairly low-level. Power level might ramp up after we become adults, but this should be part of the game we play out.

Inspirations: It, Star Trek: TNG, Harry Potter, Stand By Me, etc.

I'd show interest in playing if it's Fate, maybe nWoD too in a pinch (I know the system but not so much a fan anymore). Especially if it takes inspiration from It and Stand by Me.
I'd say for other another cool inspiration, Battle Royale. That really gets how peers in a school class react to each other, cliques, rivalries etc.

Several years ago I wrote and ran a CoC trilogy at Origins under the umbrella title Hunger of the Hills. The characters began as ten year olds in the first episode, progressed to 15 year olds in the second, and ended as twenty year olds. (All ages give or take a year.)

The youngest kids were types -- the Brain, the Bully, the Tomboy, the Snoop, the Tinkerer, the Priss. As teens they had become more mature versions of those types. As adults traces of their earlier character still remained.

Since it was a Call of Cthulhu scenario and a con event, most had perished or gone insane (or both) by the end of the third act. It was a lot of fun.

I could play Call of Cthulhu too, now it is mentioned.

Only ones I could see working out of my selection of games would be either Marvel Heroic Roleplaying or Star Wars WEG or Saga.  Its an interesting idea.  Might have to give this some thought, but don't wait on me.

Not really systems I'm interested in, sadly.

I'd play if it was Fate, like I said above.

Yeah, I'd be all for fate. I'm having a fight with BRP right now, and I've never really liked Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Star Wars WEG or Saga.

I think that GURPS 4e, M&M3e, nWoD, or Fate would work best.

ORE, On the Edge, Unknown Armies, Savage Worlds, PDQ, or AFMBE/Cortex would probably work, too.

I know MHR and I like the system, but don't see it working better than Fate for this type of game unless super powers get involved, then I would recommend MHR.

I know both nWoD and AFMBE, but I like nWoD less and less nowadays and AFMBE is a great game, but if we're using that system, I'd like to see it used. To many GMs on rpol use it for char gen but a die hardly gets rolled in a game and things stagnate for me.

I would certainly be interested if it was a Supers thing, especially using Mutants and Masterminds. If it is, count me in as a player.

Still looking for a GM.
This message was last edited by the user at 01:14, Tue 26 Mar 2013.

There is a world of darkness game called Innocents, where you are kids facing your worst fears.  You could go from there to a regular WoD mortal game.

Yeah, that would be perfect if someone wanted to run that.

I'll throw in my interest as a player as well. I'm not in a position to be GMing anything right now.

To add to the list, I'd recommend something like Little Fears of Monsters and Childish Things. They are designed around playing kids, so they might fit well into the horror-ish slot. To reinforce the original suggestions, a fantasy game could be quite fun. Super heroes works very well with younger characters.

Here's hopping a GM appears.

Yeah, but the kids eventually grow up. That's core to the idea.

Although it's outside of the purview of the game, characters from Little Fears could have their adventures in Closet Land then grow up, only to be dragged back into the supernatural (possibly taking your comment about separate games literally, and transitioning to WoD or something similar).

Food for thought, but no preference. If an idea is hammered out, it might be easier to find a GM.

Yeah, but if there are any twists I don't want to know about them as a player. As far as we know, we're normal kids living normal lives, and then SOMETHING GENRE RELATED HAPPENS.

Still looking! Still hoping!

I have a Fate Core game like this with seven year old characters, but it's supposed to revisit them twice. Once when they're 14, and finally when they're 21.

I've been trying to put some ideas on paper, but I'm not able to take on a long term game like this as a GM. I was mostly sharing possible ideas, in hopes that it could inspire another GM.

@airellian: That could be cool. What kind of game is it?

link to a message in another game

This game is rated Mature.

Bump.

Bump

Interesting. Although I'm skeptical on how accurately any of us can portray children. In my experience, with very few exceptions, they're just tiny sociopathic bastards.  Very rarely will you actually get interesting kids, and those tend to be interesting because they act with wisdom beyond their years while still being overtly childish in their actions.

That said, I do like the time skipping idea and seeing how the characters advance.

Not one for rule/dice heavy games so it'll be Fate accel.  I'm thinking low-magic war-ravaged world.

Every player (3-6) will start as kids.  Take your pick, war orphan, guild brat, privileged elite, political hostage, what have you.  You start as seemingly passive observers in the war, and as your characters age, your influence on the world will increase.

That's the premise anyway, I'll make it so that seemingly innocuous decisions made when your characters were 10 will alter the political landscape 10-15 years down the line.

Moreover, if we get 5-6 characters, I'll probably split the groups into two.  One for each opposing side of the war.  Allegiance and fortunes will change with each transition and people will get brought together and split apart.  You're free of course to try and find your former friends on the other side of the war, it'll just take some effort on your part.

Thoughts?

People can probably portray children about as accurately as they portray elves or dwarves or assassins or ninjas.

Difference is, most of us have actually been children at one point or another.

Regarding the setting; are you thinking medieval-european-ish or something else?

Fair enough.

Late-middle ages to start, progressing into early Renaissance.  European with a strong dose of Middle Eastern influences.  Not earth, not historically accurate, but this gives you a good sense of the tone.

Sounds cool. Again, I don't want to emphasize the kids part, but starting at the beginning like that turns the game into an exercise in character development; rather than starting with the adults we want to be and extrapolating backwards, we grow into the characters we are to become as a result of the experiences we have at various points of our life.

In theory, of course. This depends on a strong player-base willing to see where it goes.

Bump.

I keep thinking about this as it's a really intriguing idea. This is the best I've come up with so far;

Starting on a backwater planet that's rapidly running out of resources a group of kids are sent to summer camp/special school to learn the skills needed to build a new civilization somewhere else.

Jump to a starship where the early teens are working alongside the adults to hone their skills (while getting into usual teenager-y scrapes).

Jump to a space port where the early teens must decide to stay with their original ship, stay at the port or go with another ship.

Jump to a new ship/ planet where the adults are trying to survive.


My main issue with this is that even if you cut it down it's still going to be quite a long running game with the probability of high player turn-over and drop out rate. While this isn't necessary a huge problem it does have the potential to slow down or stop a game altogether if people get bored of playing the one character for so long.

It'd be good to work in a good rationale for a rotating cast. Kids move into the area, families move away, etc.

In reply to Tortuga (msg # 30):

I've got a present day CtD (OWoD) game with the characters starting as kids in a scout troop. I plan on taking the childhood phase slow. Game start date is July first. Do you like Changeling? Do you want me to send you a PM if anyone drops out?

Not a fan of the oWoD mechanics, but thanks for the suggestion. :)

I don't know about nWoD

But cWoD having kid changling(fae) or wraiths can be interesting.

Bump

I'm certainly interested, but I'll have to see if I have the time for it.

I'm for either of the sci-fi variants. But I'll only be sure if I can commit in august, when camp is over.

I am very interested in this.

NWoD is all I have of the posted roleplay cores and so I would be restricted to only being able to play as such. I'm also a WoD virgin so I'm not sure how eager everyone would be to have me in a game such as this with no prior background. Ill keep lurking nonetheless

Anyone interested in running it?

Basically, a version of It? Where the second half of the story picks up where the first left of, just told in sequence and not at the same time?

Well, it doesn't have to be small town horror, but yeah. Something fantastic happens when we're kids that shapes who our adult characters become, then we have to deal with similar or related whatever as adults.

It could be horror, sci-fi, fantasy, whatever.

Any RPG plotline could be shaped to fit the general idea, though some are more suited than others.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:21, Fri 11 July 2014.

Intriguing idea. I'll see if I get an idea for this. I have a vague idea of something I started writing up a few years ago but I need to locate it on my HD.