Digging through my old Fallen City rules from 20+ years ago makes me want to revisit the genre and theme described in that game. The concept of a massive world city that is churning with overpopulation and crime. Judge Dredd is similar with their “megacities”, especially the recent Karl Urban movie Dredd (2012) which opens with:
“
America is an irradiated wasteland. Within it lies a city. Outside the boundary walls, a desert. A cursed earth. Inside the walls, a cursed city, stretching from Boston to Washington D.C. An unbroken concrete landscape. 800 million people living in the ruin of the old world and the mega structures of the new one. Mega blocks. Mega highways. Mega City One. Convulsing. Choking. Breaking under its own weight. Citizens in fear of the street. The gun. The gang. Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos: the men and women of the Hall of Justice. Juries. Executioners. Judges.
“
In addition to that element I really want to explore the trio of transhumanism paths: cyborgs, genetics, and cloning. I remember finding a rulebook about 3 or 4 years ago called Transhuman Space that dealt with some of those topics, and I found it fascinating. So maybe throw in a bit of Bladerunner and the recent Westworld TV show.
Now I have a few options for this. I’d like to try Fickle RPG to see how truly flexible the rules are. So instead of my current/default theme of parasitic zombies, I’d go to a sci-fi theme.
The other option of course is to make a completely new RPG game. Or maybe not even an RPG. Because what I think my focus and main interest would be asymmetrical rules, specifically having cyborgs, genetics, and clones play and function differently. All three are a path for human improvement, and have a lot of depth and brain bending concepts associated.
I could see Clones as being cannon fodder, with a numbers advantage but less skill and personality. Cyborgs would be the opposite: powerful, expensive, and outnumbered. Genetics would likely fall in the middle, and be more about modifying existing humans.
I have no idea how I’d make each type (faction?) feel different, or if a skirmish game, RPG, boardgame, or other rules approach would work best. I honestly just like the idea overall, and thought I’d write it down here to collect my thoughts.
:: Horizon Games :: 