Big Red Couch Podcast - Turning Bad Ideas Into Games

[Burning]

I've been doing a chronological re-listen to the podcast and just hit the first one I listened to "live" (i.e. when it was the latest one available). Episode 39 as it happens. It's an interestingly nostalgic experience. Also I noticed that I tend to consider myself a late-coming member of the audient, and yet I've been around for the latter 2/3 of the life of the podcast. Trippy.

[Pruthian Caveman]

I've been doing a chronological re-listen to the podcast and just hit the first one I listened to "live" (i.e. when it was the latest one available). Episode 39 as it happens. It's an interestingly nostalgic experience. Also I noticed that I tend to consider myself a late-coming member of the audient, and yet I've been around for the latter 2/3 of the life of the podcast. Trippy.

I am both pleased and horrified that you're re-listening; It's very confusing. ~ grin ~

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Burning]

The main drawback of binging is the sheer volume of I'd-love-to-play-in-that ideas.

[Pruthian Caveman]

Episode One Hundred And Nineteen – “Home Improvement / Ghostbusting T.V. Show”



Audient Contribution! InSpectres hacked into a renovation contest show.

Will you race to repair and exorcise a spooky fixer-upper to sell it on, or…

…rejuvenate a legitimately haunted dwelling, taking both the needs of the living and the dead into account?

In a fusion of a reality TV shared house and an escape room, the contestants must work together to succeed. But there seems to be one more contestant than expected and more questions than answers.

Tune in to a local cable TV show about enthusiastic amateur exorcists. Is it comedy parody or a stealthy spiritual defense outreach program?

Battle Junky Vampires on the Mean Streets of Monstertown!

[Pruthian Caveman]

Episode One Hundred And Twenty – Levitating Blue Whale



Behind The Screens At An Ageing Arcade, Videogame Characters Try To Keep The Machines Running & Cover Up Glitches Before Anyone Notices.

In Desperate Times, A Psychic Blue Whale & A Team Of Sea Creatures Take To The Skies.

A Group Of Strangers Awaken, With No Memory Of How They Got There & Plenty Of Supplies, In A Tranquil & Cozy Environment Named Alitulo

[zircher]

Levitating Blue Whale

Just to riff on Ryuutama, since the GM PC is an elusive dragon, it would be so easy to hack that. Imagine a modern day version of Ryuutama but the creature that is snooping on the PCs is a levitating blue whale. After all, no one believes in dragons any more. Of course, your whale is a master of disguise and/or has powers like chameleon skin. Perhaps only the PCs can catch the occasional glimpse or hear whale song from time to time. As they begin to doubt their sanity, things become far from normal and they realize that they're fated to be Heroes with a capital H, whether they want to be or not.

[kedamono]

Levitating Blue Whale

Just to riff on Ryuutama, since the GM PC is an elusive dragon, it would be so easy to hack that. Imagine a modern day version of Ryuutama but the creature that is snooping on the PCs is a levitating blue whale. After all, no one believes in dragons any more. Of course, your whale is a master of disguise and/or has powers like chameleon skin. Perhaps only the PCs can catch the occasional glimpse or hear whale song from time to time. As they begin to doubt their sanity, things become far from normal and they realize that they're fated to be Heroes with a capital H, whether they want to be or not.

You didn't say he has the ability to change his size... So he can disguise himself at a cloud, a poodle, or whatever... of course, they are all Blue Whale sized...

[zircher]

That 'oversight' might have been deliberate.

Of course, that sparks a new idea. Maybe something like Everyone is John... But instead of voices inside your head, the players are spirit animals that only appear (and are optionally tangible) to their host. So, your typical levitating blue whale may be only a foot long but likes to casually swim around their charge's head. I'm also reminded of the therapy scene from Penny for your Thoughts and the game Monsters and Other Childish Things.

[Pruthian Caveman]

Episode One Hundred And Twenty One – It’s promotion time for the Royal Gardeners of the Emperor. Only one will advance.



Becoming the Imperial Gardener is a huge honour, but maybe not a welcome one when all you really want to do is work alongside your colleagues to tend plants and create a beautiful space.

The Royal Gardeners don’t prune plants, but people, working in secret to weed out disloyalty. To stop them from getting too powerful, they’re sometimes ordered to find and eliminate another gardener.

Garden Royale: A team of intrepid gardener-adventurers seek to make THEIR garden the best, even if it means going to dangerous places to bring back exotic & predatory botany.

Garden Royale Fiasco: A game of lofty horticultural ambition and (probably) terrible outcomes.

The Emperor’s New Grove: Teams of Royal Gardeners have been out there terraforming worlds, creating new habitable planets for the Empire. It’s promotion time, and the Court is touring the new worlds, deciding which one will be the new Imperial Capital.

The Royal Gardeners are responsible for directly interfering with the time line to ensure the future of the Emperor, pruning timelines which could bring the Empire down. Promotion time is the moment where the Emperor needs to choose which future to pursue.

[zircher]

I originally drew a blank on this theme, but your discussion did spark an idea or two. Running with the Gardeners as shapers of the Emperor and the Empire, I wondered what system would work with that and what kind of threat or challenge would actually matter to a coven of prescience manipulators? Simple, the Emperor is dead. Assassinated. Who could have seen that coming? Well, YOU. That was your job and someone has out-maneuvered your group. The only way to salvage the lineage is to insure that the heir survives.

My go-to tool for stories of betrayal and trust is The Trouble with Rose with its built-in traitor mechanic. Each of the PCs are Gardeners and built into the characters are the seeds of their power and distrust. After all, it takes a Gardener to fool a Gardener. What's delicious about using Trouble for the game system is that three of the four hidden agendas (Romance, Greed, and Death) are against the Gardener's creed and only the Defender is truly loyal to the cause.

Because of the highly narrative nature of Trouble, it is perfect for precognitive hi-jinks and improbable coincidences ("I jump out the window and land on the passing truck that I knew was going to be there.") The control of the ending scene is also very appropriate for the winning Gardener to tell how their version of the future will play out.