The idea that it starts with exploring some weird old house is kind of an interesting one. Our heroes could discover a lot of secrets that way, or maybe it was originally some kind of base or something for an order of monster hunters?

Maybe it's not exactly a normal fraternity, more like a collection of misfits who couldn't get into a normal fraternity/sorority?
This message was last edited by the user at 15:21, Mon 13 May 2019.

That was the "yet." If this discussion goes in a direction I'd want to join, I'll buy the core book.

That said, college students don't appeal to me much, so I'll see what else develops here.
This message was last edited by the user at 15:26, Mon 13 May 2019.

Try this:

Young adults in a late 21st century setting where Earth has solved her energy crisis through the use of sea colonies devoted to mariculture and energy production via Open-cycle Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion.

It is an optimistic future where high-speed mag-lev trains and solar powered blended-winged airships move people and goods from place to place, where humankind is working toward building their first permanent colonies in LEO and GEO, and expansion out into the greater Solar System is continuing apace.

So where's the conflict?  Humankind is still tied to the concept of nation-states.  Regional conflicts still happen, mainly over dwindling resources needed to support the presence of those various nation-states in space.  The United Nations, while apparently powerful, is in most respects a paper tiger, and is becoming more irrelevant by the second as humankind expands to the Moon, Mars, and other places beyond their reach.

Large  multinational corporations fund the majority of humankind's explorations in space and manage the energy output of the sea colonies now powering Earth's electrical infrastructure.  They have powerful influence over the decision making processes of the nations, and are winning autonomous independence for the colonies, making of them corporate states.  Wealth is moving outward with this wave of expansion, and Earth, while still on center stage, is seeing its influence over human affairs start to dwindle.

Conjure with that a while, and endless possibilities for adventure will be seen to exist.

God I wish I had room for more games. @Horus: That setting sounds right up my street!

In reply to horus (msg # 14):

Very interesting!

Find and read the book The Millenial Project:  How to Colonize the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps by Marshall T. Savage.  While you're at it, check out The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey.

Both of these were heavily influenced by the non-fictional but speculative works of T. A. Heppenheimer (Colonies in Space) and Gerard K. O'Neil (The High Frontier).

In a possibly related vein, look at the anime' Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo (English Title:  The Girl Who Leapt Through Space)  Not as straighforward a setting, but interesting nonetheless.

In reply to horus (msg # 17):

I'll do a kindle search for the scifi books later today and add Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo to my growing list of anime recommendations (behind Cowboy Bebop).

I'd be cool with that and it's in keeping with the idea that clubs and fraternities are separate entities. If we still go with that idea, the university could be dangling frat-hood if the group explores and/or cleans up a property that the university's trying to disassociate with. They find some secrets, and the university suddenly takes interest in the property.


Your idea wasn't out of the question either, we may just have to hash that out separate from the main core of this thread since it seems to have somewhat taken hold here, all the better if you can get several people interested. I do have to ask though: Is it just the college student aspect of it? Because the idea could still be tweaked so as to make it more satisfactory to all involved if there's room for it.


Sounds like a very interesting onion. I think you would be a better cook for it than I would. If you were to set up a separate IC for it, and decided to run it in Modern AGE, I'd be probably interested, but I do think it's a little on the deeper side for me. My various physiological problems prevent me from thinking too deeply except in rapid spurts.

Oh, yes. I'd be up for a tweaked variant of it where there's a broader age range in the "club." Frankly, I'm old and that's not a time of life I care to revisit, even fictionally!

I personally like the college club/fraternity/sorority idea. Having characters with a more common bond and a more intimate shared setting is generally a good thing.

The broader the group the less they start to have in common...
This message was last edited by the user at 18:00, Mon 13 May 2019.

I don't think that I can ask you a question here, because I think if you answer it, that would count as calling a character, but I think there might be a workaround even if the majority of the group is still club/frat members.

There are possibilities for going out of that age group, especially if a character is a teacher or sponsor.

I still think that most of the characters should be part of the same 'scooby gang' as it were though...
This message was last edited by the user at 18:15, Mon 13 May 2019.

In reply to CaesarCV (msg # 23):

I'm in full agreement about the desirability of a common bond, especially in PBP.

A wizard has died. (This is a rare and terrible thing.)

It wasn't in a Duel Arcane or anything, he just... died. Here's the thing: there is such a thing as an inquest (seeing how he died, basically if it was murder or not and who was responsible) but that's not our business, today at least.

Our business, today is that there are rival claims on his mansion, his sanctorum, his ongoing projects, any golems, automata or simulacra on the property, his Book, and so on.

We work for one of those claimants, a legal party who has maybe a 50-60% claim on the goods. There is an argument going on about that. We're just going to go in quiet-like and nab the most important things. Posession being most of the law, our boss might end up with it, or just have a bargaining chip for something else.  The odds of finding material that could be used to blackmail someone is non-zero. There might be evidence of some kind, too.

We're also going to make sure any pending Deals he made aren't going to implode or end up causing some sort of invasion. Several of his projects might also be... delicate.

We are almost certainly not the only group doing this.

Other than the above, it's the modern world. If we make too much noise, the police are going to get involved, and that's the worst-case scenario for everyone.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:56, Mon 13 May 2019.

In reply to Smoot (msg # 25):

I like it!

Plot Twist: It's a Megadungeon... I dunno, I'll be honest, that sort of game could go multiple different directions, anything from political intrigue (which I'm not as good at per above) to--as noted--a megadungeon. Or even just a dungeon. Seems like if it's just a regular sized dungeon, the only way I could avoid making it a one shot is to force people out of the mansion from time to time through arrest or what have you. The idea is still a possibility, I'd just need to think on it.

Other than that, are there any reservations about the paranormal investigators?

Good by me.

In reply to steelsmiter (msg # 27):

If you need any input, I've been sorta jamming on the idea for a bit, and would be okay giving you what notes I've got.

In reply to steelsmiter (msg # 27):

I like the idea of paranormal investigators. I'd personally like to include the college/scooby doo thing too though. Just give it a little more flavor. That's just me though ha ha.

I mean that's pretty much the entire conversation, and I'm reasonably certain the one person who didn't want it to be in the college said something about being ok with the idea that not everyone's an actual student... what I'm looking at so far is

1. Not actual Scooby Doo, or a parody, they were just used as an example
   
2. Either club or frat. There was some discussion about preference to a club, and some about how a frat has the advantage of a house... I'm not sure which way everyone preferred to go on that. I know you said club because of something about diversity, but I only ever saw like 2 frats and 1 sorority that didn't have much in the way of diversity I'd hazard that the diversifying agent is that not everyone who believes in something bigger than horoscopes is rich white folks, and not everyone who doesn't believe has zero curiosity
   
3. There was some discussion about mundane vs. actual paranormal activity, but I think both can be facilitated with the exploration of a house
   
4. There was "not an actual frat" and the notion that the university could be bribing the not-frat with frat status on the condition that they explore the building and report back about its viability to house their fraternity (which I can also pepper with intrigue and some horror aspected hostile intent on the part of some NPC in admin)

Am I missing anything? Anything you would like to add? are the assumptions above acceptable, or any of them not?
This message was last edited by the user at 23:28, Mon 13 May 2019.

In reply to steelsmiter (msg # 31):

I like those ideas.

I like those ideas a lot! Although I admittedly wont' be able to do much until next week...

Two more things I'm thinking about before I post the game

1. I'm thinking about making the game straight pulpy
   
2. I probably want to do Extraordinary Powers as Specializations (meaning they require 4th level).

Any objections?

With this many posts in the thread, it shoul be clear by now whether or not there is sufficient interest in this idea to warrant moving on to creating a game based on it.

Please save all further discussion for the game itself, created by steelsmiter, and linked to in the post immediately following this one.

Thank you.

Ok. I went with an adult rating. link to another game