RPG Creation Contest III: From the Public Domain

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

RPG Creation Contest III:
FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN



Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’ (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket , and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In the RPG Creation Contest, you don't create content for an existing roleplaying game, but a full fledged roleplaying game of your own. It can be as rules-light and simple as you want, so long as it is playable and has a coherent rules set. It can be done in 24 hours, so a month should be plenty of time.

This month's theme: adaptations of public domain works.

RULES

You will be creating an original RPG based off a public domain work. Whether it draws from Pride and Prejudice, The Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island, or something else, it must stay at least 75% true to the source material. It may differ from the mood and genre of its source material, like how American McGee's Alice was a horrific version of Alice in Wonderland. There will be a different theme next month.

You must explain the rules. After reading through your game, it must be clear how to play. You can assume that the reader knows basic RPG concepts and has played D&D or something similar.

The entry must be between 3,000 and 10,000 words. This length is short enough to be readable in a small amount of time, but long enough to sufficiently describe the setting and rules.

The game must have been created for this contest. No submitting creations of other people, or games you have made earlier.

THE CONTEST WILL BE CLOSED AND VOTING WILL BEGIN ON NOVEMBER 30TH. GOOD LUCK!

[IcarusWings]

Hmmm, this is a very interesting twist. The only concepts I can think of are for Alice and Wonderland, which I don't want to do as you already used it as an example and I feel unoriginal.

I'll think of something up

EDIT: Does the thing we base it off have to be fiction? I have an idea for basing something off of the works of Marco Polo. Exploring strange exotic lands an' stuff.

[SheepInDisguise]

could you provide a link to some sort of database of public domain works? I found one, but it kept getting 500 errors 1/2 I searched something.

[BarroomBard]

TVTropes has a list of some public domain works. Wikipedia has a list of public domain films, but not of literature or stories.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Originally Posted by IcarusWings

Hmmm, this is a very interesting twist. The only concepts I can think of are for Alice and Wonderland, which I don't want to do as you already used it as an example and I feel unoriginal.

That, and I'm working on my own Alice in Wonderland game. There is also an Alice in Wonderland RPG called JAGS Wonderland.

[Noctis Vigil]

Public domain is stuff that the copyright ran out on, aye? If that's the case, you can use any title found here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Project Gutenberg, a source for good reading, and now great RP material. Hope this helps people!

Once again, I fear I shan't be able to enter; life is to hectic. That won't keep me from trying, though. If you're lucky, you'll see an entry from me.

[abk108]

I think I will try to put som3ething together based on Dante's Divine Comedy, more specifically the Inferno.

PS: shouldn't we expect a rough idea of the setting, as we expect a basic understanding of roleplaying?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Due to NaNoWriMo, I definitely can't do it this month, but somebody had better use Dumas to make a swashbuckling RPG.

[flabort]

Ouch. The TVtropes list of PD books is virtually nil... and that gutenberg site has way too many to look through.

Once more, odds are I won't be able to write anything. Just too much work , and the odds of my finding of an interesting book that's a little more obscure are pretty much nil.

Apparently Public Domain is a little more than just stuff the copyright ran out on, as it somehow includes the English Language (And I assume most others).

[Knaight]

Originally Posted by flabort

Once more, odds are I won't be able to write anything. Just too much work , and the odds of my finding of an interesting book that's a little more obscure are pretty much nil.

Same here. I didn't get around to the second, because I wasn't really interested, and this one I don't care much at all. Admittedly, I have a grand total of one public domain work in easy access, due to being in Japan for the time being, and I am not writing a game on Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Originally Posted by abk108

PS: shouldn't we expect a rough idea of the setting, as we expect a basic understanding of roleplaying?

No. You must assume the reader has no familiarity with the source material.

[abk108]

A short teaser of Redemption RPG:
Based on Dante's Alighieri Inferno, first part of his Divine Comedy, the epic poem wrote between 1308 and 1321 ad; it is considered one of the greatest works of world literature and it describes the voyage of Dante through the three Realms of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, while offering an allegorical vision of the afterlife.
In my game, the players take on the role of souls that meet up at the gates of hell, but struggle to avoid eternal damnation: they will live the infernal journey of Dante trying to escape from Hell, maybe obtaining their redemption through virtuous deeds along the way.
Souls won't have the physical and mental attributes that are so common in RPGs. They will be defined by their 7 Virtues & Sins, and the success of each action depends solely on the force of will, moral power and integrity of the soul.
The driving force of the game is the effort the souls make to improve themselves, to get rid of their sins and reach the highest level of virtue.

We'll be using a d% system, trying to score less than your attribute to be successful. Sins have a negative score, such as -45, and the d% result is turned negative as well, so that for example a roll of 60 would mean a success against any Sin score of -59 or more (because -60 is LESS THAN -59)

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Originally Posted by abk108

A short teaser of Redemption RPG:
Based on Dante's Alighieri Inferno, first part of his Divine Comedy, the epic poem wrote between 1308 and 1321 ad; it is considered one of the greatest works of world literature and it describes the voyage of Dante through the three Realms of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, while offering an allegorical vision of the afterlife.
In my game, the players take on the role of souls that meet up at the gates of hell, but struggle to avoid eternal damnation: they will live the infernal journey of Dante trying to escape from Hell, maybe obtaining their redemption through virtuous deeds along the way.
Souls won't have the physical and mental attributes that are so common in RPGs. They will be defined by their 7 Virtues & Sins, and the success of each action depends solely on the force of will, moral power and integrity of the soul.
The driving force of the game is the effort the souls make to improve themselves, to get rid of their sins and reach the highest level of virtue.

We'll be using a d% system, trying to score less than your attribute to be successful. Sins have a negative score, such as -45, and the d% result is turned negative as well, so that for example a roll of 60 would mean a success against any Sin score of -59 or more (because -60 is LESS THAN -59)

Cool. If you get the mood and imagery right, you have my vote.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I might join with a darkgrim Wizard of Oz game that focuses on tactical combat. It would have a system based loosely on PoxNora and D&D miniatures game.

[IcarusWings]

Originally Posted by abk108

A short teaser of Redemption RPG:
Based on Dante's Alighieri Inferno, first part of his Divine Comedy, the epic poem wrote between 1308 and 1321 ad; it is considered one of the greatest works of world literature and it describes the voyage of Dante through the three Realms of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, while offering an allegorical vision of the afterlife.
In my game, the players take on the role of souls that meet up at the gates of hell, but struggle to avoid eternal damnation: they will live the infernal journey of Dante trying to escape from Hell, maybe obtaining their redemption through virtuous deeds along the way.
Souls won't have the physical and mental attributes that are so common in RPGs. They will be defined by their 7 Virtues & Sins, and the success of each action depends solely on the force of will, moral power and integrity of the soul.
The driving force of the game is the effort the souls make to improve themselves, to get rid of their sins and reach the highest level of virtue.

We'll be using a d% system, trying to score less than your attribute to be successful. Sins have a negative score, such as -45, and the d% result is turned negative as well, so that for example a roll of 60 would mean a success against any Sin score of -59 or more (because -60 is LESS THAN -59)

That sounds awesome, essentially like Dante's Inferno (the game) done right. I'd almost definitely be up for a game, depending on how the system turns out. Are you considering doing the other two parts of the Divine Comedy too?

[abk108]

Originally Posted by IcarusWings

That sounds awesome, essentially like Dante's Inferno (the game) done right. I'd almost definitely be up for a game, depending on how the system turns out. Are you considering doing the other two parts of the Divine Comedy too?

I played Dante's Inferno, sometime last year, and I always thought it could've been a wonderful rpg, instead of a God of War rip off.
Unlike Hyperdrive!RPG, my entry for the first contest, I decided to put more emphasys on the fluff and storytelling, instead of the rules and the cruchy bits.

I mean, as it is now, a character is just its level, its 7 attributes( ranging -100/+100) and the equivalents of HP and Action Points. I really hope I can keep combat and its crunchy bits out of the system: there is combat, but its very simple and focused on storytelling; fighting a demon will be pretty much like a complex check for disarming a trap in D&D, if you get what i mean.

I'm sorry but I don't plan on doing part 2 or 3, because while I've studied the Inferno thoroughly at the University, I've never touched Purgatory and Paradise. I don't want to write about stuff I really don't know. In this game, Purgatory and Paradise serve only as "retirement" system for a Soul no longer playable. A player that gets rid of all his soul's sins, can opt to retire the soul and send it to Purgatory. A soul that also gets 100 in two or more Virtues will be granted access to Paradise, should she wishes to go there. A player could want to keep messing around, helping the damned in Hell and stuff but when a Virtue gets to 99 it's basically an auto-success. I don't think the game would be playable with ubersouls, so a player is expected to retire it, sooner or later.

[EccentricCircle]

This does sound like a really intriguing game. i'll be very interested to see the result!

[abk108]

I hope it won't be a delusion for anyone

[abk108]

Sadly, I couldn't find enough time to write anything worth of the contest. I will, probably, get the game on paper sooner or later, as the bare skeleton of rules is already there, it just needs a lot of fluff and proofreading. Sadly, it won't happen anytime soon. Thanks for all who expressed their interest.

[BarroomBard]

Well, that one didn't work out....

I propose that we hold the next contest until January, so everyone can get over the holidays.

Maybe we can use this space in the meantime to brainstorm what RPGCC IV's theme should be?

[Jeriah]

Aww, this is the first time I've seen this thread. I would have loved to take part and even know exactly what I would have done too.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

There won't be a contest this month, but I'll try again next month. I can't tell you what the theme is because you might be tempted to get a head start, but I do have something in mind.

[flabort]

Even without a theme, some of us might be tempted to get a head start. Some groundwork, basic stuff that doesn't need a theme.

[Knaight]

Originally Posted by flabort

Even without a theme, some of us might be tempted to get a head start. Some groundwork, basic stuff that doesn't need a theme.

The groundwork varies by theme in many cases.

[Noctis Vigil]

Why not extend this one through the end of this month, since no one actually got a game done for it? Just a suggestion.

[Knaight]

Originally Posted by Noctis Vigil

Why not extend this one through the end of this month, since no one actually got a game done for it? Just a suggestion.

Odds are nobody actually got a game done for it because of lack of interest in many cases.

[Sgt. Cookie]

Pity this is over with. I would have loved to have created a game of biblical proportions.

[EccentricCircle]

Well, just because the contest itself is over doesn't mean that people can't make cool games based around the theme and post them here. I think that the comments and reviews are as useful as the votes in many cases.