I honestly haven't done one of these posts since 2011 since ideas for new campaigns and mini-series have largely come up organically within my player groups, especially since the Lockdown (since my Torg Eternity game is a sequel to my GURPS Shiftworld game, you could say I've been on the same run for four years). But for the past 2+ years (THAT long?!), I've been involved in a monthly Call of Cthulhu game as a PLAYER and with my PC finally going insane, we're talking about starting something new to fill that slot (he was the last remaining tie to the original group/premise). While Ian likely stays the GM for whatever new game - and it's therefore up to him, what games he own, likes and is comfortable with - I've also thrown my hat in the ring to do it. We BOTH have other games on the go, and we are BOTH control frea--I mean, Forever GMs, so there's no difference there. Obviously, if I WERE to do it, it would have to be a system I know well, that's easy to pick up, and that I could reuse material from. Dream Park hits all those marks, for example, as would DC Heroes (even if I've publicly sworn off superhero gaming). But that's not going to stop me from dreaming of games I MIGHT run or play...
Mission statement: Whether or not Ian or I do the deed, we have three players - largely focused on role-play more than rule-play - and are playing online once a month. One of the things the monthly slot has taught us is that long, involved campaigns are difficult at that pace. We can be pretty bad at remembering what happened before in the larger plot. So I think we're actively looking for something that's more episodic, favoring one-and-done scenarios (extending to lavish two-and-dones from time to time), like TV shows used to be before the advent of binging. And after being powerless victims for two years, more heroic gameplay is definitely indicated.
GURPS Space: My "small ship" Star Trek variant is still percolating in my head and it's all because I love the GURPS Aliens book so much. Force ships to be small and have party-sized crews, replace the Trek aliens/political set-up with the aliens from that book (which changes everything), and I still think you'd have a pretty cool adventure set-up. Doesn't really have to be played with GURPS either. In fact, I'm not married to any of the systems these settings come with.
Bond's Bastards: This is the James Bond 007 game I proposed long ago, possibly using the Leverage RPG as a system (again, not fussy). The players play the progeny of James Bond with various Bond girls (à la "The Illegitimates" comic series, and me running all those great JB007 boxed adventures that twist the movie plots into new shapes. Mission-based games are the easiest way to achieve the "episodic" format, though the game products probably stretch to at two sessions per.
https://siskoid.blogspot.com/2013/12/bonds-bastards.html
GURPS Alternate Earths: Using GURPS to its fullest extent is a puzzle I am always working on because there are so many books! One way to do this is to engineer a campaign in which the players either willingly or accidentally travel to parallel worlds. GURPS Time Travel has a whole "dimension police" setting for this, and the Sliders TV show is a model for the "Lost in Space" set-up. Either way, GURPS not only produced two books full of cool alternate histories, but one could use the rest of the collection to provide more settings to play in.
Time Master: In a similar vein, the old Pacesetter game (again, not married to the system) mixes Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories with Simon Hawke's Time Wars novels, with a mix of straight historical time travel and mythological shenanigans. It's a little old-fashioned, but it's got a cool "did you change history?" mechanic, and in this day and age, you could conceivably give online briefings to players who would then be responsible for their own historical research. So if not Time Master, I would still be interested in some kind of time travel game. TM just happens to be the one I've got the most published material for (give or take the Doctor Who RPGs, but that's a whole other animal - and yes, I'd be quite happy to run it again).
Dungeons & Dragons: But with a TWIST! Consider - the last campaign I ran was all bards and they acted like a rock band and could power magical effects based on their (very modern) song choices. Planescape is still my favorite of the settings, and I've often pitch Spelljammer (of course, these require an older version of the game, but even when using AD&D 2e, I still make a bunch of changes). Now, it doesn't have to be a while WORLD of difference, but if a fantasy game (again, doesn't have to be any specific system), I'd want it to be 1) focused on role-playing more than fighting and looting; and 2) not what you think of when someone mentions D&D (dungeon crawls, for example). So hit me with thieves' guild shenanigans in Waterdeep, or humans from our world transplanted to another (à la GURPS's Banestorm or the Guardians of the Flame novels), or a piece of the Forgotten Realms based on Inuit culture (that great big glacier on the map) where survival and community-building are the whole game, or possibly some comedy premise. Then, I'd be game.
Space 1889: I was a Jules Verne kid, so the idea of putting Victorians on the Moon, or coasting down Martian canals appeals to be.
Indiana Jones/Savage Worlds Daring Tales of Adventure: The weakness of my two other player ideas is that they're not truly episodic. This idea, however, is. Pulp will always be very action-based and heroic, but also thrilling. Chase after the treasure of the week, and when the chips are down, there's always a way out of any cliffhanger. Nazis in the background are ready-made villains. There's usually a bit of supernatural. Is it too much like Call of Cthulhu except for the fact we win? Maybe I'm just showing how I'm more of a Gamemaster by failing to propose engaging games in this section.
Now, if I DIDN'T have any of the mission statement requirements to contend with, you might see horror fare on here like Tales from the Crypt (had such a great time with Hong Kong Action Theater, this has been on my short list for a long time), or one of my non-heroic classics, Paranoia. As a player, I might have begged for Unknown Armies or even its ancestor, Over the Edge, but we really shouldn't jump into another investigative supernatural game. While I'm not against some of the easy slots I mentioned in my intro, I couldn't possibly play DC Heroes/Adventures without a solid twist to it, and haven't come up with one.
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