"While I don't necessarily hate fantasy RPGs, I would definitely like to see some in different settings. Western, modern, sci-fi, cyberpunk, political, super hero, or stone age settings are all relatively untapped. And there are definitely many more available." - Derickdong This is something I've thought about for a while now. Fantasy RPGs are fun and all, but I'd like to play something a little more modern every now and then. Primarily, I've been thinking about how to put mix magic and scifi into an RPG set in modern times. I looked into Urban Arcana but didn't like it, so I figured I'd start fresh. In our world, there are various forms of religion, magic, and science. This should be the heart of a modern scifi/fantasy story. There are various forms of magic, such as Enochian (Angelic), demonolatry, Shinto, Voodoo, necromancy, Seid/runic, evocation, shamanism, Kabbalah, and Chaos Magic. (Granted, each will be exaggerated for the game.) You could have diverse wizard, witch, sorcery, sorceress, and warlock classes. Each type of magic would be different, so no two types of magic would hold the same role. An interesting concept would be to allow magic users to combine their powers for different effects. As far as the scifi side goes, you could have your mutants, mutates, psions, psychics, pyrokinetics, electrokinetics, and so on. In the same way, different mutants or whatever with different powers should play differently. Each should be somewhat unique and fun to play. For normal people, you could have scientists, chemists, alchemists, police officers, cheerleaders, thugs, and so on. A high school chemistry nerd could learn different combinations for different chemicals and use that for offensive weapons. An engineer could take apart your enemy androids and whatnot. You could turn your local drug dealer into a class that would confuse enemies with cocaine, get them stoned, or make them trip balls on LSD. An interesting thought about this is that your main character could be a high school jock, some punk teenager, a police detective, or whatever you'd prefer. Your villain could be a mayor or CEO of a company or somethin' evil like that. The setting could be a high school, a college, a state capital, a corporate headquarters, et cetera. The options are there, as long as someone tries something new every once in a while. [Edited by - orionx103 on March 31, 2007 1:15:50 PM]

Vampire: Bloodlines is modern era. The X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance RPG's are modern era. The Pokemon games are arguably modern era. .hack is sort of modern/sci fi. Earthbound is modern era. Shin Megami is modern. And those are just the RPG's I pulled up by a quick browse through Gamespot. There are other RPG's and a bunch of other genre games in all of the settings you've mentioned.

But it's likely you didn't buy any of those games, and instead bought Oblivion, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XII. As long as people buy those games and ignore the other settings, there isn't going to be much incentive for developers to try to make those games.

It may sound cool at first to say "What about a stone age RPG", but if you are really going to be completely honest with yourself, as a consumer and not a would-be developer, are you going to buy the weird caveman RPG that you've never heard of, or the sequel to one of your favorite fantasy games?

This is an idea I myself have been experimenting with.

And yes, I KNOW that sci-fi and magic mix is not unprecedented, so no one bug me about it.

But I thought that it would be interesting to see how a magical world would advance through the ages. I mean, it has to reach the technological era sometime! When it does, I would love to see your ideas on how it would look.

I also am really interested in your magic sources, drawing from all kinds of religions and practices, instead of the classic 'fireball', and elements of earth, fire, water, and wind.

I think it has potential to turn out very well. Keep it up.

Quote:

Original post by Humble Hobo But I thought that it would be interesting to see how a magical world would advance through the ages. I mean, it has to reach the technological era sometime! When it does, I would love to see your ideas on how it would look.

Arcanum might be something you're interested in. It's pretty much like 'what would happen if traditional fantasy world would advance to the 19th century'.

Arcanum on wikipedia

Actually there's more variety out there than you might think.

The Fallout series deserves an honorable mention here; it's probably the best non-fantasy RPG series out there. Fallout 3 is currently being developed by Bethesda, which means it's on a lot of people's watchlist. There's also "The Fall: Last Days of Gaia", which is 3D, though it's a bit short and simplistic; and if you happen to buy the unpatched version, the patch is over two gigabytes.

You could also argue that the original System Shock is an RPG, and System Shock 2 did have some RPG elements. Then there's the Deus Ex series, definitely SciFi. As is Aiken's Artifact, as well as the Knights of the Old Republic series. Also, there's Another War, a World War II themed RPG.

There's also some oriental-themed RPG's. I've played one China-themed and one Japan-themed, though I can't recall the names right now. The China one had an interface ripped off from Diablo ^_^;

These are only the games I've played; I'm sure there's more non-high-fantasy stuff out there. But at the end of the day, there's still more fantasy RPG's in stores, possibly because that's what the market wants. So there's definitely potential here. Stone Age themed sounds interesting, though I believe it would be more suitable for an adventure game due to the lack of a sophisticated economy in that time period. Personally I'd like to see RPG's set more concretely on Earth though, maybe in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, or the Roman Empire. We have a rich and interesting history, and it feels like a shame to not fully exploit it in this genre.

The mix you describe takes things from the various settings that you like. That's understandable, but it sounds a bit diluted at the moment. Can you elaborate on how those concepts would mix together and interact?

If you want to explore new RPG settings, why drag magic along for the ride? why center it around combat?

A few years ago Square produced a raceing RPG called Raceing Lagoon:

It had a story with adventure and exploration aspects (CHECK)
It had a way to beat opponets by raceing them (in other words a contest between opponets, the simplest abstraction of traditional RPG combat)
It had ways to "level-up" through improveing your car and raceing skills (CHECK)

But if you can't beat a foe with a sword, shoot them with a gun, or even ignite them with a magic fireball...then the RPG players won't consider it part of thier favorite genre.

Really when you get right down to it a RPG has you gather a party of diversely specialised individuals whom journey on a quest for fame and fortune...

Which happens to be the modern equivalent of a rock band ventureing out on tour <- yet another unexplorered RPG experience...a RPG set during 1950s and the birth of rock and roll would definetly be interesting...but alas, just like most people, traditional RPG players would rather complain about the lack of innovation then actively take a role in the few games that do address thier concerns.

Well since RPG stands for "Role Playing" Game, all it really needs to do is allow a person to play the role of someone other than themselves...

[ disclaimer - these are theoretical ideas, not suggestions ]

- Let the player roleplay the identity of someone who has a physical disability and see how they can solve problems that are designed to specifically target that disability. Would allow someone to understand the problems these people go through every day.

- Let the player roleplay the identity of a character with a different sexual orientation - most likely the player will be straight, require a *cough*Jack Thompson field day*cough* homosexual playing style. Would teach understanding and tolerance.

- Let the player roleplay the identity of a politician where they are required to lie and bribe to get into the white house - teaches the political system and how it works (educational, oooh).

There are obviously thousands more, care to take a guess?

I think that one of the main reasons that RPGs tend to be fantasy is that they are all about combat. And what better way to have combat than to have the players fight things in a cave (a cave also lends its self to a linear/controlled plot too).

What lives in caves. Monsters. Monsters are fantasy. Therefore fantasy becomes an easy path (and an expected path over time too).

One of my favourite RPG games (it might not have been created to be an RPG, but to me there is more Role Play in this game than any dungeon crawler) is "Sword of the Samurai" (and if you have read my other posts about RPGs, I know I do bring this one up a lot, but for a good reason).

SotS is a Japanese themed game where you take on the role of a Samurai who seeks to become Emperor of Japan. You have to manage the attitudes of your peers (other Samurai) and seek favour with your lord (until you become powerful enough to sand on your own and make a bid for Emperor). There is some "dungeon crawls", where you can sneak into an enemies house for mischief or even rescue a family member that we kidnapped, and some where you have a top down melee fight with many opponents. But there are other aspects (like an RTS and Beat-em-up sub games).

This game was written in the old DOS days, so there is no reason that such a system could not be created with today's computers (in fact with today's computers we should be able to make a far more detailed system).

Imagine a Cyberpunk game where you are a Street gang leader and you have to take your gang up to become the crime boss of the city. You could have an RTS where you pit your gang against another in a street fight, or you might have to sneak into enemy territory on some mission (plant some incriminating evidence, steal something, assassinate someone, etc). You might have to defend your honour/reputation in a direct challenge (in a FPS or beat-em-up sub game). You might have to ally yourself against other nearby gangs, cut deals with corporate executives (for money, weapons, protection, etc). You can manage your own finances (protection rackets, money laundering, drugs, weapons, stolen goods, etc). You would be able to enhance your gang members (and yourself) with various cybernetic implants, employ "Doctors" to make these (illegal) surgeries.

I think this could make an excellent RPG and it would have both a different setting and general gameplay.