Who runs "Themed" games?

[RiftJunkie]

My group was getting together to make characters for a PFRPG setting when we were informed that this would be a "themed" game. The setting is still PFRPG, but the GM wanted the characters to be based off of a character from something else: (Tolkien, Star Wars, Comics, etc.). Take the character and figure an acceptable PFRPG OCC/PCC/RCC whatever..... that fits the profile. So far, this has been fun and it gives a pretty good standard of how to roleplay your character. Anyone else done this?

[drewkitty ~..~]

There are optional martial arts OCCs in one of the rifters (don't know which one off hand) but combine one with a gnome and you could get a char from SW. Or just use the Mind Mage PCC with gnome for that char.
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The only game I ran that was even sort of themed was to have modern day (hu/ns/bts) chars who get transported to a fantasy world.

[Rimmerdal]

I've thought of theme games too. Had one where the Titans were immortal Mutants who had an empire and were over thrown.

The second major idea was a campaign where PC's are cursed Mythical heroes tied to a monster of legend. To defeat the monsters would free them of there curse or kill them. never ran that one. should though.

[flatline]

Back when we were playing regularly, most of our games started with themes if only to set the power level expectations for the campaign.

It was usually pretty obvious after a session or two if a particular theme had legs or if it was a dud. If it was a dud, we would drop the theme, change the theme, or abandon the campaign to start another. Sometimes we came back to a dud to try it again and sometimes it wasn't a dud the second time around. However, there were several themes that looked good on paper that never went well for us.

All of our best campaigns started out theme based. Some examples:
1. non-combat oriented Supers
2. no characters with opposable thumbs
3. put the black market out of business
4. cleanse wormwood

As you can see, some themes dictated what kinds of characters were allowed, other themes dictated the goal of the party. Some themes did both ("feral dog boys vs the CS").

--flatline

[Alrik Vas]

Stat yourself in real life, insert palladium setting, kill all your friends. Profit?

We did this a few times.

[The Dark Elf]

I ran a fantasy adventure once where the encounters were based on the wizard of oz. scarecrow, golem, manticore, witch, wizard, hsigoes and a dwarven town.

[Alrik Vas]

I'm okay with that, Dark Elf. I've also had fights, in a row, versus xenomorphs, then predators, then terminators, the final challenge was a guy who does leap kicks over and over and he has to do the spilts in the air everytime (i got sick of my GM's terrible Van Dam accent...oh being 17).

[The Dark Elf]

Stuff like that is exactly what to use the dream stream for!

[Myrrhibis]

I'm okay with that, Dark Elf. I've also had fights, in a row, versus xenomorphs, then predators, then terminators, the final challenge was a guy who does leap kicks over and over and he has to do the spilts in the air everytime (i got sick of my GM's terrible Van Dam accent...oh being 17).

Have you been in our group's games (in the VA area)? lol

Since so many of us play/are familiar with much of the same stuff, in various types of gaming & SF/Fan books - we have a lot of games like that for enemies...

Was awesome.

[RiftJunkie]

[quote="drewkitty ~..~"]There are optional martial arts OCCs in one of the rifters (don't know which one off hand) but combine one with a gnome and you could get a char from SW. Or just use the Mind Mage PCC with gnome for that char.quote]

That's exactly what the GM did for an NPC.

I made a ("The") SW bounty hunter and will be working on tricking out his armor. Two others made samurai/ninja assassins from different anime they saw. My fiancé is playing a faerie from a popular Disney cartoon movie.

Just starting out, been fun so far. It'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Glad to hear there are other "Themes" running out there!

[flatline]

One of the more interesting themed games that we had was a game where we were told to make vagabonds but the GM secretly told each of us that we were going to be the single non-vagabond character in the party. I don't remember all the details, but he had a super secret mission for each of us and told us what kind of under-cover character to make. I was a Chaing-ku Dragon. I think the others were a cyberknight, a demon (rakshasa?), a super hero, and an archie robot of some kind. I don't remember what the missions were, but I do remember that the GM had designed the missions so that we could all be successful. There were some NPCs in the group that really were vagabonds.

It actually went for two or three sessions before someone blew their cover.

--flatline

[Alrik Vas]

That's pretty cool, Flatline. When i started my most recent rifts campaign EVERYONE wanted to be a dragon hatchling, but they didn't want the other players to know they were.

I said, "okay, sure fine. I'll even give you magic item that lets you stay human form indefinitely." and they were like, "Wow, thanks man! That's really awesome!"

Then they leave and i was like, "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

[Myrrhibis]

That's pretty cool, Flatline. When i started my most recent rifts campaign EVERYONE wanted to be a dragon hatchling, but they didn't want the other players to know they were.

I said, "okay, sure fine. I'll even give you magic item that lets you stay human form indefinitely." and they were like, "Wow, thanks man! That's really awesome!"

Then they leave and i was like, "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

Yeah, experienced players know to watch out for quickly-capitulating GMs ^_^

[Rimmerdal]

That's pretty cool, Flatline. When i started my most recent rifts campaign EVERYONE wanted to be a dragon hatchling, but they didn't want the other players to know they were.

I said, "okay, sure fine. I'll even give you magic item that lets you stay human form indefinitely." and they were like, "Wow, thanks man! That's really awesome!"

Then they leave and i was like, "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

Yeah, experienced players know to watch out for quickly-capitulating GMs ^_^

LOL! Genius...

[Cyrano de Maniac]

It seems like the thread is drifting away from the original topic, but I thought I'd thrown in something along the lines of where it's drifting to.

An incredible GM ran a D20 Modern game but did a massive amount of work to add rules/mechanics to implement the world of The Matrix, both the plugged-in and unplugged sides of it. When the campaign was getting started he only told half of the players what we were actually doing, and had them design both the plugged-in and unplugged versions of their character. The rest of the players just thought we were going to be playing a stock D20 Modern game, with no clue that we were going to be playing The Matrix. The GM's plan was that around the 3rd or 4th session the awakened characters would help bring the un-awakened characters out of their slumber.

It was absolutely priceless to see the facial expressions of the various un-awakened characters' players when they finally caught on to what was happening. Amazement and giddiness doesn't begin to describe how psyched they were to discover that the rabbit hole went much deeper than they thought. Both the players and their respective characters were awakened together, which was a very unique experience.

The only downside is that we ended up burning a week of playing time for the newly enlightened players to learn the additional custom rule set, design the unplugged side of their character, and update their plugged-in side with new training and abilities.

[Alrik Vas]

Always great to pull the rug out from under the PC's man. gives them a real sense of wonder, or at times, a sense of OMG, OH CRAP...POR QUE!?!?!?

[Colt47]

My favorite type of themed game has always been town/community builder games, largely because they are a good way to introduce new players to the organizations and dangers of Rifts North America without running into the typical problem of wondering aimlessly or getting mauled by an unfair encounter. In the Wild West, for example, someone is going to see T-Rex tracks long before running into a T-Rex.