Got it.
Star Trek RTD where the heroes are redshirts, Zap Brannigan in command. Not quite Hero Caddies, but probably somewhere between there and Einsteinian Roulette.
Alternate version: Roll to Serve the Incompetent Evil Overlord. Players are villainous mooks of a powerful but very clearly incompetent evil overlord battling much less incompetent heroes. Instead of being ordered to bring their captain green women or negotiate with that nonsentient carnivorous plant, players must execute doomed plans from someone who can't quite seem to grasp that execution only discourages failure up to a point.
I guess I might as well go into more detail on this, actually.
-Brannigan Trek RTD-Premise: Journey the stars, making contact with new lifeforms, exploring new worlds, and discovering new phenomenon, all under the command of your illustrious captain.
Leader: An illustrious captain who probably shouldn't be entrusted with command of a toaster. Lusts after women and glory, makes unreasonable demands and offers lazy and/or incompetent solutions. Default solution to anything going wrong is to throw ensigns at it, often with completely useless instructions.
Challenges: With a vast new galaxy out there to explore, there's no shortage of strange and sometimes dangerous forces. New lifeforms, intelligent or not, strange anomalies, and new places to explore can offer everything from a primitive but psychic tribe curious about the concept of love to a slavering space-worm that devours all in its path. The captain's whims and "assistance" can create further challenges where none existed before, such as demanding a rare fruit for a cocktail or a cavern of death entered so a flag may be placed within.
Example: The ship discovers a strange anomaly- a glowing blue cloud in space. The captain immediately orders a landing party, despite protests. The players must then decide whether to attempt to explain to the captain that it's a
cloud and there's therefore nothing to land on, or just get in the damned ship and decide not to open the door and fall out into the depths of space once they're in there, then report back that they couldn't land and hope that means they can come back inside. Of course, who knows what they'll find in there, or what effects the cloud might have...
-Incompetent Overlord RTD-Premise: Crush all who stand before you and take over the world, or some other nefarious plot, all under the command of your dark master.
Leader: A mighty overlord whose management and command skills are on par with those of a particularly malicious turnip. Attempts to solve everything through brute force and/or schemes with glaring holes in them, and makes utterly unreasonable demands and accusations of his subordinates. Default solution to anything going wrong is to throw a hissy fit and possibly have someone executed over it, usually without the slightest understanding of why it went wrong or what to do about it next time.
Challenges: Mighty heroes bar your path, and even some common folk and certainly many of your "allies" might prove a thorn in your side if they can manage it. Heroes tend to be theoretically weaker in combat than the forces of darkness, but are often bewilderingly resourceful; defeating them often means pulling off your own convoluted scheme without a hitch, which is certainly no small task. The whims of your overlord can create further challenges, such as placing stringent time limits or unnecessary penalties on failure.
Example: Word reaches your ears that an important priestess will be traveling to a bastion of good for an important ceremony, and more importantly be carrying a noble artifact with her. Your master commands you to waylay this fool and take the artifact, despite the fact that you've only got a week to prepare, a high priestess of light on an important mission is likely to be a hardass escorted by other hardasses, and the artifact in question burns evildoers like the light of the sun. Players have to figure out how to either distract their master with something "even better," or successfully pull off something that renders them competent and successful in their master's eyes- or at least, more competent and successful than whatever inept fool he's going to execute if things don't go properly. Of course, who knows what the players' rivals and the more familiar heroes intend to do about this event...
So, yeah. I think in either case, allowing player advancement while keeping things relatively high-fatality or at least high-maiming might be good; one option for the latter is to say that horrible, horrible disfigurements can be cured, among other ways, by using horrible, horrible mutations or similar, so someone who crushes their hand under a forklift mech or has their legs chopped off for failure can try to get them healed normally, or pay some guy who's totally a doctor to throw alien DNA or magic squid tentacles at it and hope it gives them a nice claw or wicked jumping distance instead of cancer or an insatiable appetite for fresh coral. The result, ideally, would be that players would become more powerful from their successes and more interesting from their failures.
Author
Topic: Roller's Block (RTD Brainstorming Thread) (HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY) (Derm is 5k) (Read 699523 times)