I have a lot of game ideas, but I often find that creating games is much easier than actually pushing them forward. What I'm looking for is a GM who'd be interested in taking my premise and doing something with it. I have...just so many. Even so, here are a few ideas I've never been able to get off the ground under my own power. So I suppose what I'm looking for here are either GMs or co-GMs to turn these concepts into games.

Shadowrun Leverage - Shadowrun is a very interesting setting, combining elements of cyberpunk with elements of fantasy. Unfortunately, the systems it's used have never done it for me. The Leverage RPG is a licensed game for the Leverage TV series, using the Cortex Plus rules. It lets you play out heists pulled by hyper competent superthieves and easily wing the shenanigans they get into when a job goes inevitably wrong, then retcon the ending such that all those things going wrong became the plan. It's basically Shadowrun but not cyberpunk or fantasy. Fortunately, it's easy enough to just slot those elements into the narrative and you're ready to go. I'd like to see somebody run this, but I am terrible at the level of improv necessary for a Cortex Plus GM.

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - I've got an idea for a campaign that starts out in Edge of the Empire, moves into Age of Rebellion, and then has a grand finale in Force & Destiny, but I'm kinda terrible at running the system. Other Star Wars systems just haven't felt right for the idea, especially since EotE inspired it. Basically, the heroes come from a world abandoned by the Empire after the loss of the Death Star and have to figure out a way to defend it from the vultures that come in to take what's been left behind: pirates and crime lords, mainly. I've got several adventure ideas and all, but the problem is how difficult it is for me to create NPCs and adjudicate things.

Legend of Zelda - I had a thought to set a Zelda game some time after the events of Zelda II, trying to retake the ruins of Little Hyrule and fight back the darkness. The plan would be to use the Fate Accelerated game Masters of Umdaar, a game already into the idea of traversing weird terrain to reclaim lost artifacts of unknown power. It wouldn't be a high magic and out there as games based on other Zelda games, but I think it could be a really fun adventure. Exploration, very focused dungeon crawls, and community management would be the main areas of interest.

Star Trek - A look at what the Next Generation era looks like through the lens of the Kelvin Timeline (the official name for the timeline of the new series). I'm envisioning the Federation and Romulan Empire being tentative allies due to the awkward state of things between them after the films, both of them being at war with the Klingon Empire, and the players needing to handle a combination of border patrol, colonial aid, diplomacy, and still keeping up the ideals of exploration amid all that. I'd also still like to see that new Star Trek Adventures system in action, but it's a bit intense. I'd be just as happy retooling the Doctor Who RPG ever so slightly.

Anime Fantasy - D&D through the eyes of Shonen Jump. Elves with exaggerated long pointy ears, catgirl priestesses, magic gun-like exploding crossbows, ridable golem suits, super awkward romance subplots, all that good stuff. I tried doing it in 5e, but it just didn't come out feeling right. I'm looking at using Open Versatile Anime instead.

There are more, but these popped to mind immediately and most prominently. Anyone interested?

In reply to Nintaku (msg # 1):

I've run the Shadowrun setting in a Cortex Plus hack before. Oddly enough, the trickiest part is that the "sleuthing and prep" phase for a Run requires the players to come up with and roll to create the assets they want with them on the Run.

I've also looked at running an anime-esque fantasy in Cortex Plus using the Exalted setting. You might want to look up Exalted: Blood and Fire for that.

If you're interested, too, I tried setting up a mild PvP Arena game for anime-style mecha combat racing, but there didn't seem to be much interest, people are a little skittish around a PvP game, it seems.

But I love Cortex Plus, so if there's enough interest in any of the above, I'd seriously look into running a game.

I never did much like that phase of Shadowrun, and am really into Leverage RPG specifically because it doesn't exist: to determine what the players brought with them and how much they know the layout and stuff, they spend Plot Points to create those assets during scenes, probably right before they make the roll in which they need it. Works just like the show, with flashbacks to when they did the thing. Also means there's no six hour session of sitting around planning a plan no one's going to stick to. :P

And that's why I'd prefer to specifically use a Leverage hack rather than any other C+ hack.



I'll try to take a look, but I've never been able to understand Exalted in ten years of people trying to ease me into it. Still, maybe setting elements can be taken out of that and put into something I'd be more interested in. Was thinking more along the lines of Record of Lodoss War, Slayers, and maybe the tiniest hint of Fairy Tale.



Yeah, PvP makes me anxious in all the bad ways. Not just the "I don't want to upset people who might be my friends someday" thing, but also the "I want to win and that doesn't happen when humans are my opponents" bit. But honestly the next time I play any mecha-related game, I want it to be Mecha RPG. Preferably with the game surviving to the second episode.



I love it too, but really the only one of these settings I'd wanted to use it for were Shadowrun, specifically using Leverage (I call it Leverage 2075), or maybe Star Trek. Also using Leverage, but adjusting the Roles to suit Starfleet.

In reply to Nintaku (msg # 3):

There's nothing in the rules saying you can't make those prep rolls mid-stream, like you're saying. My players just didn't invent much on their own, in terms of fluff/worldbuilding type details. So they'd assess a mark's defenses, and not bother naming how they'd deal with those defenses, or roll for specific gear assets.

Looking over the Leverage version of the system, it's kinda bare-bones compared to my own hack, or the other versions of C+ out there. If your biggest gripe is cutting out the planning phase, I wouldn't mind doing that if you'd put up with my version of C+. It'd look a bit more like the Blood and Fire, with everything re-themed for the Shadowrun setting, of course.

I'm right with you on the Exalted bit. Loads of people love the setting (trying to recruit others b/c it's so damned cool), and loathe the system (because of the massive array of Charms and rules bloat). Cortex Plus seems to handle the setting well, while remaining light enough to "fit in one's head".

I really dig the bare-bones element of it, honestly. More complex versions of C+ defy the very reason I like Cortex Plus in the first place, it's elegance and simplicity. With Leverage, you don't even really need to adjust much for the Shadowrun setting except to make sure characters have Distinctions to define their metatype and use of magic or the Matrix. Everything else fits perfectly already.



Oh, I meant the setting is the thing I've never been able to wrap my head around. It's well beyond my ability to untangle, and everything I've seen of it is very much not what I want out of anything. I never even got far enough to look at their incarnation of the Storyteller system. What I want is very much not that.

I enjoy both playing and running the FFG Star Wars game. I am a bit of a Legends nerd, though, and would use the old EU Canon if I ran.

With that said, it would be odd for the Empire to just walk away from a system they owned. More likely would be either a corrupt governor or Moff taking orders and money from a crime syndicate. The world would still be nominally Imperial but would still be a crime ridden cesspool.

Alternately perhaps a super backwater world of no value declared independence when Palps looked weak (or was killed depending on which Death Star) and they are trying to skate under the radar. Are they quiet and remote enough to be ignored, or will they be crushed in due time as an example?

Either of those tickle your fancy as a seed?

I would love to play in the star trek game but I don't think I could run it, I have not seen a system I thought was truly good for it yet.

but I love the idea of a tentative alliance between Romulans and Federation, actually I have been wanting to play a tng style game following the flagship of the romulans or Klingons (obviously romulan make most sense for the game you talking about) I think it has a lot of potential

It might seem odd, but the idea is that the Empire abandons a planet with little value to them to better tighten defenses around the Core worlds. This particular planet then goes from being a Mid-Rim world to an Outer Rim world, and most of the populace blames the Rebellion for their problems: it keeps the Empire as obviously evil (except to many of the people of this world, who grew up knowing the safety and security of the Empire and now have to deal with things themselves), it keeps the group from being able to join the Rebellion immediately (since their benefactors won't agree to it), and it gives the heroes a heroic goal to work toward (keep the people of their planet safe from pirates and crime lords).

If the problem is a corrupt governor and the planet is still under Imperial control, then there's an Imperial presence and the game's tone and goals become totally different. The problem then becomes getting rid of a corrupt official, and it becomes a Rebellion game from the start with no Edge of the Empire distance from that political front. If the problem is a planet rebelled, then that again puts the players in the shoes of the Rebellion and short circuits the first third of this game's overall plan.

They're really good plot seeds, but they're not what I've been trying to run and not what I need help with.

Again, I've got these ideas in mind, and am really looking for a GM to help me make them work. When I ran this particular Star Wars game before offsite, a problem player killed it about halfway into the Edge of the Empire chapter. I simply need help getting the game to go all the way.



That does sound pretty cool, and might work well as a later campaign. For now I'm really most interested in viewing the alternate TNG era through the eyes of the Federation.

Bumperino. Still looking.