Just what the title says - what role-playing games would you like to see get a video game made of them?
Personally, I have two I'd like to see.
First up - Shadowrun. Yes, I know; it's gotten a few games already (even if you count the latest one which the RPG's developers have said is Shadowrun in name only) but one based on the 4th edition of the rules, with current gaming tech behind it would be awesome.
The main problem with it would be that you'd have to have three worlds running simultaneously. The real world (which would have another half-a-world overlayed on it thanks to the prevalence of Augmented Reality in Shadowrun), the Matrix - not the thing from the movies, it's basically just the Internet 3.0 - and the Astral. And because of how the Matrix and Astral don't have to follow the laws of physics (or even Euclydian geometry) you'd have to design three whole worlds and have a way for events in one to affect things in another. So if a mage goes into the Astral and starts scouting around, the game would have to keep track of where his Astral form is and what he sees before he returns to his body. If a hacker uses a VR interface to go right into the Matrix, the stuff he does would have to affect things in the real world.
The Matrix wouldn't be overly hard - there's a HL2 mod that does something similar - but it would be on a much larger scale and sometimes a computer's internal space may look nothing like the one in the office cubicle next to it. A hacker might go into one and see bland, TRON-like architecture while the one he visits right after that might look like a tranquil, Japanese garden with the firewall represented by a kimono-wearing kitsune asking if you have permission to be there, while the next might be a street in Victorian London with a trace program represented by Sherlock Holmes.
It'd be a hell of an undertaking, but it'd be awesome if it could be pulled off.
The next one I'm thinking of is Exalted. Epic fantasy on a scale that would make Hercules feel like an act on Greece's Got Talent. There's even a pretty easy way to use a small number of campaign openings for almost every kind of Exalt, using something similar to what Dragon Age: Origins did with its Origin Stories. You design your character at first, choosing Exalt type and Caste and then pick from a couple of Origin stories and then you can play through your character's Exaltation.
For example, let's say you make a Dawn Caste Solar - the origin you choose could be something like you're a soldier in the army, maybe an officer. You're sent to deal with Wyld barbarians or maybe invading Fair Folk and at some point in the fight, you do some courageous act that causes you to Exalt as a Solar of the Dawn Caste where your newfound might leads the force to victory, but your men see you as a demon now (the Immaculate Order teaches that any Exalt other than a Dragon-Blooded is a demon) and you're forced to leave. Cue main campaign plot.
Now let's rewind and say you decided to go with a Dusk Caste Abyssal instead. This time, during the fight, your character is killed. They hear the voice of one of the Deathlords offering them new life and power and your character accepts and they come back to life in a few days time as an Abyssal.
We go for a third time, and this time you decide to go with a Slayer Caste Infernal. Now, during the fight - you lose your composure. You see the battle going badly and flee for your life. A few days later, you hear the voice of one of the Yozi offer you the power to never fail like that again and you accept. A demon appears, carrying the Exaltation and merges with you, becoming your chrysallis. Five days later, you break out as a Green Sun Prince, ready to aid the Yozi in freeing them from Malfeas.
Now for anyone not familiar with why all of these make sense - an Exaltation only bonds with a person if they have the will to use the power they recieve. If they die before Exalting, but have met the criteria, they can recieve an Abyssal Exaltation (a corrupted and inverted Solar Exaltation) from the Deathlords. If they fail at the critical moment of Exaltation, like losing their nerve or cursing at The Unconquered Sun for causing their death instead of praying to him to save their life, the Yozi offer them an Infernal Exaltation (a heavy corrupted and modified Solar Exaltation).
You could change the trigger in the scenario to something that matches the Exaltation they receive. Someone Exalting as a Lunar might have to survive hardship or work hard to protect someone they care about while a Sidereal may do something related to their Caste. Dragon-Blooded would probably start off Exalted since they normally Exalt somewhere in their early-mid teens.
The main problem I see with this is implementing the RPG's stunt bonus system. Basically, you get bonuses and regenerate motes of Essence (the magic used to power your supernatural abilities) by describing your action as awesomely as possible. If you just describe it as more than "I attack that guy with my sword" then you get a small bonus to the attack and a couple of motes of Essence back. If the description also uses some part of the environment, like ploughing through a wall to get at the enemy, you get a bigger bonus and more Essence back. If the description is so awesome that everyone at the table says "Holy shit!" or some other exclamation of awe and shock - something that the whole table can agree is ridiculously awesome - then you get an even bigger bonus and even more Essence back, or you can forgo the Essence and get experience points instead. How you'd get this system to work in a computer game, I don't know.
So what RPGs would you guys like to see hitting the shelves of EB Games and such? CthulhuTech? All Flesh Must Be Eaten? Maybe Feng Shui for a bit of John Woo-style action?
Personally, I have two I'd like to see.
First up - Shadowrun. Yes, I know; it's gotten a few games already (even if you count the latest one which the RPG's developers have said is Shadowrun in name only) but one based on the 4th edition of the rules, with current gaming tech behind it would be awesome.
The main problem with it would be that you'd have to have three worlds running simultaneously. The real world (which would have another half-a-world overlayed on it thanks to the prevalence of Augmented Reality in Shadowrun), the Matrix - not the thing from the movies, it's basically just the Internet 3.0 - and the Astral. And because of how the Matrix and Astral don't have to follow the laws of physics (or even Euclydian geometry) you'd have to design three whole worlds and have a way for events in one to affect things in another. So if a mage goes into the Astral and starts scouting around, the game would have to keep track of where his Astral form is and what he sees before he returns to his body. If a hacker uses a VR interface to go right into the Matrix, the stuff he does would have to affect things in the real world.
The Matrix wouldn't be overly hard - there's a HL2 mod that does something similar - but it would be on a much larger scale and sometimes a computer's internal space may look nothing like the one in the office cubicle next to it. A hacker might go into one and see bland, TRON-like architecture while the one he visits right after that might look like a tranquil, Japanese garden with the firewall represented by a kimono-wearing kitsune asking if you have permission to be there, while the next might be a street in Victorian London with a trace program represented by Sherlock Holmes.
It'd be a hell of an undertaking, but it'd be awesome if it could be pulled off.
The next one I'm thinking of is Exalted. Epic fantasy on a scale that would make Hercules feel like an act on Greece's Got Talent. There's even a pretty easy way to use a small number of campaign openings for almost every kind of Exalt, using something similar to what Dragon Age: Origins did with its Origin Stories. You design your character at first, choosing Exalt type and Caste and then pick from a couple of Origin stories and then you can play through your character's Exaltation.
For example, let's say you make a Dawn Caste Solar - the origin you choose could be something like you're a soldier in the army, maybe an officer. You're sent to deal with Wyld barbarians or maybe invading Fair Folk and at some point in the fight, you do some courageous act that causes you to Exalt as a Solar of the Dawn Caste where your newfound might leads the force to victory, but your men see you as a demon now (the Immaculate Order teaches that any Exalt other than a Dragon-Blooded is a demon) and you're forced to leave. Cue main campaign plot.
Now let's rewind and say you decided to go with a Dusk Caste Abyssal instead. This time, during the fight, your character is killed. They hear the voice of one of the Deathlords offering them new life and power and your character accepts and they come back to life in a few days time as an Abyssal.
We go for a third time, and this time you decide to go with a Slayer Caste Infernal. Now, during the fight - you lose your composure. You see the battle going badly and flee for your life. A few days later, you hear the voice of one of the Yozi offer you the power to never fail like that again and you accept. A demon appears, carrying the Exaltation and merges with you, becoming your chrysallis. Five days later, you break out as a Green Sun Prince, ready to aid the Yozi in freeing them from Malfeas.
Now for anyone not familiar with why all of these make sense - an Exaltation only bonds with a person if they have the will to use the power they recieve. If they die before Exalting, but have met the criteria, they can recieve an Abyssal Exaltation (a corrupted and inverted Solar Exaltation) from the Deathlords. If they fail at the critical moment of Exaltation, like losing their nerve or cursing at The Unconquered Sun for causing their death instead of praying to him to save their life, the Yozi offer them an Infernal Exaltation (a heavy corrupted and modified Solar Exaltation).
You could change the trigger in the scenario to something that matches the Exaltation they receive. Someone Exalting as a Lunar might have to survive hardship or work hard to protect someone they care about while a Sidereal may do something related to their Caste. Dragon-Blooded would probably start off Exalted since they normally Exalt somewhere in their early-mid teens.
The main problem I see with this is implementing the RPG's stunt bonus system. Basically, you get bonuses and regenerate motes of Essence (the magic used to power your supernatural abilities) by describing your action as awesomely as possible. If you just describe it as more than "I attack that guy with my sword" then you get a small bonus to the attack and a couple of motes of Essence back. If the description also uses some part of the environment, like ploughing through a wall to get at the enemy, you get a bigger bonus and more Essence back. If the description is so awesome that everyone at the table says "Holy shit!" or some other exclamation of awe and shock - something that the whole table can agree is ridiculously awesome - then you get an even bigger bonus and even more Essence back, or you can forgo the Essence and get experience points instead. How you'd get this system to work in a computer game, I don't know.
So what RPGs would you guys like to see hitting the shelves of EB Games and such? CthulhuTech? All Flesh Must Be Eaten? Maybe Feng Shui for a bit of John Woo-style action?
