I was thinking now that RPG games are becoming more and more popular what other themes could be used besides swords and sorcery and Sci-Fi? I know you can pick a period in history and use it as a theme ie Romans, westerns, 20th century gangland, cave man, but what other themes can we think of? Here’s one off the top of my head Evolution You play a creature and build up skills, traits to help you survive, when you breed or morph these skills and traits become exaggerated and you now play the offspring building up skills to pass on again.

hmm...

* Feudal Japan
* players are owners of a small business, and try to manage it into a large one (modern times)
* a cartoon world
* modern setting, but add in some mythology. The players could then choose to play as elves(little ones, to get away from Tolkien-esque elves), leprechauns, dwarves, gorgons, Santa Claus, gremlins, bigfoot... hiding this identity from human NPCs could be a requirement...
* everybody''s a paranormal investigator(hehe...Dib). "Quests" could involve aliens, bigfoot, government conspiracies, lake monsters...I guess this has lots of everlap with the previous idea
* Pirates! let the player join a crew aboard some pirate ship. players could work their way up to captain, upgrade the ship, buy/steal equipment, raid towns, attack other vessels, swordfight...look at Sid Meier''s game "Pirates!"
* City of EverOnline''s Call: Dark Age of Galaxies. just parody MMORPGs

It''s not exactly what you are asking for, but it occurred to me that a MMOG set in the Paranoia universe could potentially be enormous amounts of fun.

(Paranoia is a kind of tongue-in-cheek cyberpunk RPG)

A true virtual world, ala Tron.

Player controls a character in a future Earth setting, sitting behind a computer desk, controlling a virtual avatar in a high-tech virtual world.

You can get a lot of themes from the movies, such as post-acolyptic settings (Waterworld or Mad Max) or sci fi (Johnny Mnemonic or V). You can also set your game in a historic war, such as one of the world wars or the american civil war, or why not just use an old civilization (the indians or old pharao empires).

etc etc



My Stuff : [ Whispers in Akarra (online rpg) || L33T WAR (multiplayer game) || The Asteroid Menace (another game) ]

Microcosm!, the cartoony world of insects a la Antz and a bug''s life.

All insects are human controled. Depending on the group you chose to get born, ants or butterflies or whatever, you have different needs, you experience different social structures, different enemies and friends. You grow your insect old and go through life with the ultimate goal of setting your race further, giveing birth to newcomers of your sort.

Liberty City! Inspired on gta3''s city, you enter the game as a young adult. The city is organized by player created functions like cops, firdepartement, court, politics. You can become gangster, dealer, hooker, barkeeper. You can become rich buy, drive expensive cars and buy luxurious appartements.

Project Soc! A cartoony funny world set in medieval funny setting with little houses to be able to build (and destroy!), farming, building a village with other players, organizing thyself into groups, making social agreements among other villagers, competing for a partner, making children (again new players!),taking up leadership roles, specializing in a craft, farmer, fighter, trader.

And ofcourse in all these settings: no skills, stats, quests or leveling.

A lot of these have alread been done:

post-acolyptic settings: Fallout series
historic war, such as one of the world wars: Another War (WW2)
sci fi: Deus Ex


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Not sure from the subject+post whether you''re talking bout a regular CRPG or a MMORPG. I''m assuming the latter. Here''s a few ideas (some are expansions on previous posts):

* Post apocalyptic. Like the sound of this one. I''m sure there''s at least one in development. Some kind of survival/rebirth type thing - players work together to try and restore the world to its former glory, etc. Near-future setting perhaps, the usual mix of crude/improvised tech and leftovers from previous age. I think Asheron''s Call 2 is taking an approach like this in a fantasy setting - world starts out in ruins, players rebuild cities/towns, etc.

* Stargate(the series). Might adapt nicely to a MMOG setting.

* Cityscape. This is an idea for a CRPG setting I''ve been throwing round for a while. World (fantasy) consists of a vast urban environment - stretches as far as anyone cares to travel. Could make for some interesting dynamics, not sure how well it would adapt to a MMOG. Plenty of politics+machinations. Resource harvesting + demand might be different in this kind of world, wars would be different, farming might be rooftop/underground, etc. Must start a thread on that one.

* Survival horror. Maybe a Hell-like world - hostile environment, very hostile locals. Players must work together simply to survive - contstantly on the run, constantly terrified. Would need a bit of work, but might make a nice variation on the usual fairly laid-back settings of MMOGs.

Having just read a review of Arx Fatalis, another setting springs to mind:

* An entirely underground fantasy setting. Ultima Underworld/Arx Fatalis as an MMORPG, or maybe the Underdark setting described in D&D RPGs. Could be interesting. Light/water/heat might become valuable commodities, trade/access routes might be easier to secure/strangle, etc.