Here at Derailed, we want our blog posts to be informative and riveting for our readers. We want to show the world our perception of the gaming industry. However, this will not be one of those blogs.
What do we say to the God of Death?
Not today.
Rather than giving our lovely readers some sort of insight into gaming, this post is simply what games I really want to play. They are all RPGs (rather than board or card games) and no matter how much I beg, no one will run them for me. I’ve tried bribery, trickery, and I’ve even said “please.” No matter how many favors I call in, these games just don’t happen.
Readers, these are the games.
An Avatar: The Last Airbender Fate game
I’m starting out with this game because instead of being flat-out told “no, I will not run this game,” Nick has actually agreed to run this game; it just hasn’t happened yet. Additionally, please note that this is The Last Airbender, not the blue people Avatar.
I really like Avatar. I dislike Korra, but that’s another blog post for another day. Before we were Derailed Games, Nick actually ran a few Avatar games. They were super fun. The PCs didn’t travel with Aang and co. If I recall correctly, the setting actually took place when Aang was still in his underwater bubble. That intrigued me the most about this system. I feel like we would have been quickly overtaken if we had been set during the same time as the first show. While it would be cool to meet past Avatars, Aang is so well known that it would be easy to make the whole goal of the campaign to meet and fight with him. Instead, we got to have our own, entirely original adventure.
My character in this game was a Kyoshi Warrior. Her name was Li and she was super awesome. I would probably bring Li back for another campaign. I liked all of the characters, but I would change the system. We were using Pathfinder and it was overly complicated. Don’t get me wrong; I adore Pathfinder, but it just didn’t work for this game. I also didn’t feel like the system meshed well with the spirit of bending. Plus Earthbenders were pretty useless. Fate is a much more simple system and it would allow the PCs a lot more options. Instead of constantly looking up specific homebrew rules and running into balance problems, the players can just roll a few dice and combat can go much more smoothly.
A Pretty Little Liars Fate game
I have fought tooth and nail for this game and everyone who is interested wants to play in it instead of run it. I know that a lot of people dislike PLL, and, having watched the show, I totally get it, but it would be so fun to play a Fate game where you try to catch A.
I have a group of friends who I would play this with. I would be Spencer and everyone else has their roles as well. However, it would have to be just the four characters in the main cast. Maybe Allison if someone else really wanted to play. No one can be Melissa or Ian or Toby. It would just get messy. I imagine this as a girl’s night one-shot session. It would take place after the latest season. I imagine that the girls would be torn up by whoever has died most recently. They are still getting the threatening messages from A when they get a new clue. This, with other hints shows that one of the characters has to be A. They catch him or her in the first session. But wait! At the very end, when everyone is packing up their dice and character sheets, our phones vibrate and ring. It is a message from none other than A! We’ll all lock eyes and silently agree that we need to meet again next week to take down A.
I want a Fate game for this pretty much for the same reason I wanted a Fate game for Avatar. It’s streamlined. When you’re three glasses of wine and one mani-pedi in, that’s pretty important. Again like the Avatar game, it keeps with the spirit of the show.
An Everything is Cats Everything is Dolphins game (or really just an Everything is Dolphins game)
I think Everything is Dolphins is the greatest thing since sliced bread. If you don’t know what it is, it’s exactly what it sounds like.
How do you take an awesome system and make it more awesome? Add cats! Instead of dolphins, everything would be cats. I want nothing more than to go on catventures and catfight catvillians. It can even be a normal campaign, but with amount of cat turned up to 11.
Honestly though, I would be pretty satisfied just playing Everything is Dolphins game as it was originally intended. If the PLL game is a wine and mani-pedi night, this game would be an absinthe and arson night.
Okay, maybe that’s not how the game was originally intended, but it’s certainly the only way I can imagine the session ending.
A Disney DnD game
I’ve made a blog post about this before, but I still have no biters on my Disney-themed DnD game.
Dungeons and Dragons, as we all know, is the crème de la crème of tabletop RPGs. DnD has integrated itself into our culture. Even people who have never played a tabletop RPG have at least heard of DnD. That’s pretty extraordinary for any game. It’s classic, and, with each edition, it gets better. This, mixed with a few other reasons, makes it perfect for a Disney-style game. A few of the people who read “Game Like A Girl” showed me some other systems that have the elements I would want already built in. However, DnD, like Disney, is a classic.
The Disney game I want is a bit more modern. I want an ass-kicking princess and big battles a la Mulanor Brave. Unlike the other games, I think a really in-depth system works for that. Even the DnD setting lends itself to a Disney game. The movies are nearly always set in the past, so a medieval princess wouldn’t be that far fetched.
The game would be somewhat predictable, but that would be part of its charm. The players would take on traditional roles: princesses, princes, knights, mythical creatures, etc. They would fight an evil queen or witch or something along those lines. There would be lessons on tragedy, friendship, true love, and we would all go home having learned something.
To many, this sounds like a pretty typical DnD game, but it really wouldn’t be. First of all, though I would likely be the biggest offender, we would have to omit the cussing. Everything would have to be PG. Then, we would need to have all good characters. Even if a PC makes a questionable decision, they would have to pretty much be good. NPCs can do whatever, but the PCs must be squeaky clean by the time the credits roll. Additionally, everything would need to be more whimsical than your average DnD game. Taverns would need to be less medieval and more quaint bed-and-breakfast. The dwarves would need to sing merry working songs instead of drinking songs. And some of the armor would need to be reworked. I really want a +2 ballgown.
What games have been rejected by your RPG group? Tell us in the comments!
