DungeonPunk XD6 Concept
I took a bit of beating on my Matrix idea. I humbly admit that I was a little drunk at the time. Here's a concept I've been working on as a side project. Many thanks to Feng's Savage TV, which provided several ideas for the game. Please provide feedback and help me make this game not suck.
Background
To the teeming millions who inhabit the decaying hive cities of Satycus XD6, the promises of technology have proved empty. Wide boulevards are crowded with shanty's and sheet metal shops selling illegal tech and paltry pleasures. Grand parks have become the haunt of mutants, technoscavengers, and nanofiends. Justice is harsh and life is brutish. Meanwhile, the rich live in monolithic towers, never setting foot on the world below. But the rich, the poor, and the in betweens all share one passion - DungeonPunk.
Overview
DungeonPunk is the premier sporting event / reality entertainment of the future. Every planet has its aspiring DP teams, waiting for the pro tour to come to their world so they can compete for a spot on the circuit.
In DungeonPunk, teams of players battle against human opponents, robots, and other players to pass a gauntlet of challenges modeled on an ancient form of drama known as "role playing games." Teams compete to win points and valuable prizes.
Some General Concepts
DungeonPunk players are outfitted with an array of cybernetic implants, special weapons, and hi-tech gadgets to help them complete the gauntlet.
A general map of the gauntlet showing all non-secret areas is provided before the event begins.
Each player has a "class" which determines what sorts of equipment they can bring. For example, warrior class players may have cybernetic powerups and nanotech programs that allow them to do amazing physical feats. Caster class characters have a number of highly flexible but limited use nanotech programs at their disposal. There are also rogue class and ranger class characters (and maybe a bard class?).
Each player also has a "background" which reflects their personal play style and determines what edges they can get. Backgrounds (for now) include hacker, athlete, true fan, crowd pleaser, and grunt.
Periodically in the gauntlet there are treasure kiosks where the players can gain prizes, heal up, and adjust their spell or ability loadouts.
Ever challenge will be "blitzable" (including puzzles). This means that players can attempt to overcome the challenge by pure speed, brawn, or guts, though the price of failure may be high.
The goal is a dungeon crawl environment that includes the classic elements of the genre with a cyberpunk twist. Strategy will be important, but within the context of a single encounter, there should be lots of room for fast and loose swashbuckly play.
System will probably be Fudge, since it's crazy easy to customize and run.
I'll post more details on the character system later.
Sounds very cool, Tony. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of character and system stuff you have in mind.
Also, "nanofiend" is my new favorite word.
Posted by
John Harper |
9:42 PM
I like the background, that's just the right amount of detail (as opposed to the 50+ pages of history that XCrawl has).
I'm confused why you're considering a bard class, but don't list a cleric class. Although looking again, I guess you're rolling "wizard" and "cleric" together into the caster class.
The background idea makes a lot more sense now that I see it in context.
Also, I'll second John's appreciation for "nanofiend". That term makes me think of Babylon-5's technomancers, and I wonder whether you should look at the d20 supplement on technomancers for some ideas. However, it's d20, so the usual caveat applies: "magic is hard, so we limit you here, but we don't want it to be easy, so we limit you there."
Posted by
Philip |
10:45 PM
ha ha, I actually had that very phrase "magic is hard..." ringing through my mind in your voice as I designed this. It is oddly tempting to double-limit spellcasters.
The reason there's no cleric: there's already free and abundant healing. I've always been ambivalent about the "walking first aid kit" aspect of the cleric character.
On the other hand, I do want a fighter/magic user archetype. I'm using Ranger right now, but it's only so-so. Cleric might make a comeback. I'll comment more on this in a blog post in a minute or two...
Posted by
Unknown |
10:07 AM