Subject:
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Re: Elements of a brick oriented RPG
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming
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Date:
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Tue, 14 May 2002 15:52:10 GMT
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Viewed:
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3409 times
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In lugnet.fun.gaming, Frank Filz writes:
> I've been thinking about combining my hobbies of The Brick and Role
> Playing. The question is what is the best way to go about it. Some
> questions I've been asking myself:
>
> 1. Do I go with an existing RPG and just use LEGO bricks to build sets?
Probably the simplest, but I suspect difficult to capture the "feel" of a
brick built game. My wife is in a 7th Seas campaign that routinely uses my
LEGO projects as sets and backdrops; it seems to work quite well, although
they use metal minis.
> 2. Do I use LEGO minifigs, or do I use standard metal miniatures
If you're using the brick to supplement an existing game, I would say go
with the flavour of the system. If it's a game that would be hampered by
the feel of minifigs, go with minis. If you're building a new RPG, go with
minifigs.
> 3. Do I use a rules light system, or a heavy system, or something in
> between?
I would suggest something in between. It's been my experience that light
and heavy rules systems each need to have the setting carry them, or they'll
only really appeal to the (relatively smaller) chunk of gamers that like
that extreme of system.
> 4. Do I use a canned setting, or build my own setting which is keyed to
> a LEGO theme?
Would it really be a LEGO setting if you didn't build your own? :) Canned
settings are ok, but most of them have already been done about 3 times. I
would suggest going for a generic-ish high fantasy setting populated by LEGO
Castle factions, instead of trying to map something else to the existing
sets and figs.
> 5. If I key the setting to a LEGO theme, do I try and maintain purity,
> or do I just use the theme as a starting point?
Starting point. There isn't enough detail in the bits we have from LEGO to
turn into a solid setting.
> 6. If I don't go with an existing game, do I build from scratch, or do I
> start with an existing game, and adapt it?
Building from scratch is always a lot of work, in design and playtesting. I
would suggest starting with another system that you like, or that has the
right "feel", and strip it down to it's basic mechanics and then build up again.
> 7. What is the intention of the game? A game for one off con events? An
> alternative RPG to give a break from something else? A long term
> campaign as a primary game?
I would suggest the latter two; a well-built game is certainly adaptable
enough to be either a short break from other games or a long running game in
it's own right. For con events, I would suggest that the Pirate Game and
Brick Wars are probably better suited, although a appendix that would gave a
conversion formula to Brick Wars would be neat.
> I'm very strongly thinking that I want to use LEGO elements for scenery
> and miniatures. This will limit the inhabitants of the setting to those
> easily representable by LEGO elements. A reasonable number of creatures
> exist, and many more can be built from bricks, so a wide range of
> settings should be possible. I'm mostly leaning to a fantasy setting
> since I find that is what I enjoy gaming the most. Science Fiction also
> works well and could be fun with LEGO.
>
> There is some consideration of a Pirate themed game to interact with
> Evil Stevie's Pirate Game.
If you wanted to go with something like this, you could fairly easily run
"parallel" games, where the Pirate Game governed interactions on the sea,
and the RPG governed what else went on in the setting. Look at how FASA
split Battletech and Mechwarrior.
> I've been looking at FUDGE, http://www.fudgerpg.com for one possibility
> of a game basis. My gut feel is that I want a game of modest complexity.
> It should be skill based, and have enough detail in the skills to allow
> for interesting characters. I would like to be able to run a moderately
> long term campaign, but probably won't play too often, so character
> development should be granular so something can improve at least every
> few sessions, if not more often. On the flip side, there has to be
> enough depth that a years worth of gaming doesn't result in unplayable
> characters.
Something like the Pendragon system might work for this, where you mark off
the skills you use (successfully) in the games and once every X sessions,
you can attempt to improve those skills. Or look at a system like Star Wars
where you can usually gain enough points in an adventure or two to raise a
skill, but need to save if you want to raise something you're already very
good at.
> I'd like to base the game heavily in an existing rules set to make it
> easier to recruit players (this makes me wonder if I should look at D20,
> though long ago I got tired of many of the elements of D&D).
Sounds like you need GURPS LEGO. :)
> I had been thinking of trying to use LEGO pieces to build the character
> sheet, but I think that wouldn't really work out (you'd be constantly
> looking at the rules to determine just what skills you had).
Have the character generation be a building process, and then put on plain
paper. There's a lot of graphical possibility for making a character sheet
look "LEGO". Skills are listed with a number of bricks above them that are
shaded in as you go up in skill, as an example. Include a sticker sheet (or
printable file) that has all the skills etc. for a character. This would
let the die hards make their own sheets by stickering tiles. Lego offers
some neat possibilities for 3D character sheets.
> It might be interesting to produce printed tiles for all the equipment
> used in the game. Then you can just stick the tiles onto a plate and
> have an easy record of your equipment, and encumbrance could even be
> based on the space taken on a plate by all your equipment. Things like
> arrows could be represented by bricks where different colors represent
> different quantities (though don't use too many colors). An alternative
> would be to just assume the quiver is the main encumbrance, and just
> keep track of the arrows separately.
Or have something on your sheet (virtual or otherwise) that indicates
"quiver", and have a 4x6 plate with 1x1 dots to indicate arrows. A little
side board similar to the hit points.
Also, I'd suggest producing stickers, not printed tiles. Stickers you can
make more of fairly cheaply; if you have a playing group that is all
archer-crazy, you may run out of "quiver" tiles and want to get more. That
kind of supply control should be in the game masters hands, not the RPG
producer.
> I think I would set up the campaign to be strongly centered on a modest
> town for which the important buildings and their neighborhoods could be
> constructed as permanent sets. I've got some ideas on modular dungeon
> pieces which would make it easy to set up dungeons for exploration (the
> ease of this compared to building wild expanses of wilderness suggest a
> return to the dungeon oriented campaigns, but with care, plenty of
> outdoors can be done also).
I would agree with you on the set design aspects, although I'd add that it's
quite easy to have a landscape that's very mutable by having it on baseplate
sized chunks. Having a few baseplates each of "heavy forest" "light forest"
"plains" "ruins" "rocky/hilly" can give you a lot of variation in outdoors.
> I welcome additional thoughts and ideas.
No problem. This brings three of my hobbies(1) together, I'd love to keep
brainstorming.
thanks,
James
1:Lego, gaming, and kibitzing. :)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Elements of a brick oriented RPG
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| (...) Having got interested in 7th Sea about the same time as LEGO, I certainly considered a connection there... Actually, I think my interest in LEGO Pirate ships may have been an influence on checking out 7th Sea (a demo game which I was actually (...) (22 years ago, 15-May-02, to lugnet.gaming)
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