Big Red Couch Podcast - Turning Bad Ideas Into Games

[zircher]

I've been guilty of that as well.

[Burning]

Finally got caught up after a bit of an absence. Lots of good episodes which deserve better comment than I am able to give after bingeing. I will say that the description of "The Xi Effect" from Die Farben had me ranting (at the author, not you guys) about the bad physics. Seeing from Wikipedia that it was based on an entirely made up theory briefly mollified me until I saw that the guy who wrote it was an astronomer. This is why I don't like most hard science fiction.

[Burning]

I did have an idea for Sailor Noir. A big part of the Noir vibe is being caught in a world where you have no hope of beating the system, but you're going to try anyway. So I pictured a former magical girl team. They fought the good fight for years against mad scientists and alien invaders. All the while, crime bosses and corrupt politicians gobbled up the world the team worked so hard to save. When they realize that there is a very real problem that they can't solve with a literal magic wand, it breaks them. They split up and go there separate ways. Years later, there is an inciting incident that makes it personal. Death of a mentor may be a cliche, but it's a pretty good option or at least gives you an idea. And so they get the band back together. By Damn, they're going to fix things even if they have to burn everything down to do it.

[zircher]

I wonder if you can hack (or even need to hack) John's Magical Mom Force for that game.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242483/Magical-Mom-Force

[Pruthian Caveman]

I did have an idea for Sailor Noir. A big part of the Noir vibe is being caught in a world where you have no hope of beating the system, but you're going to try anyway. So I pictured a former magical girl team. They fought the good fight for years against mad scientists and alien invaders. All the while, crime bosses and corrupt politicians gobbled up the world the team worked so hard to save. When they realize that there is a very real problem that they can't solve with a literal magic wand, it breaks them. They split up and go there separate ways. Years later, there is an inciting incident that makes it personal. Death of a mentor may be a cliche, but it's a pretty good option or at least gives you an idea. And so they get the band back together. By Damn, they're going to fix things even if they have to burn everything down to do it.

scribbles notes

[Pruthian Caveman]

Episode One Hundred And Eighteen – The Winter of our Discotheque



Genre-themed Librarians battle the forces of evil. Quietly.

A venue shared between the Summer & Winter Courts of Faerie transitions from a generations-long reign of summer into an unexpected winter primacy.

A nightclub which serves as a refuge from the dark.

Plucky clubbers work together to save their beloved nightclub, without 100% understanding the backstory as to why it’s being sold.

Strange happenings at the all-ages venue need to be investigated, even though that place is totally lame. Also, that super-hot new kid might be there.

Is there a space for a Meddling Kids vs. Criminals game where harming the kids is simply not done, and the surprisingly ethical mobsters instead use social pressures to keep the little brats in line?

Richard III in the 70’s

[Burning]

Now is the winter of our discotheque made glorious summer by this son of Funk.

[Pruthian Caveman]

Now is the winter of our discotheque made glorious summer by this son of Funk.

Damn!

How did I not see that as a possibility?

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[kedamono]

Now is the winter of our discotheque made glorious summer by this son of Funk.

Damn!

How did I not see that as a possibility?

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Yeah, it's a scenario perfect for QAGS: Funkadelic Frankenstein on the Mean Streets of Monstertown!

[Burning]

I might be late for the recording, but I've got an idea for the Home Improvement/Ghostbusting TV Show.

Recently I've been reading some of the Carnacki, the Ghost Finder stories of William Hope Hodgson. These aren't exactly great stories, but they're entertaining enough yarns. Thomas Carnacki is this dilettante supernatural investigator, who regales his friends with stories of his latest investigations. These nearly always take place in stately homes that are having their property value diminished by some sort of "haunting." I put in the scare quotes, because one interesting thing about the Carnacki stories is that only sometimes is there a supernatural cause to the whole problem.

So I started picturing "Thomas Carnacki's the Apprentice". The players are would-be supernatural investigators. Week after week, they get carted around to old mansions. Carnacki has already diagnosed the source of the haunting, but he's not telling. Your job is to figure out what's going on and how to fix that, whether that's performing an exorcism, arresting creepy Mr. Johnson next door (who probably thinks there's oil on the property), or repairing that leaky flue. Since having his contestants dragged off to hell would make bad television, Carnacki always takes precautions to nullify malign entities (while still leaving them detectable) in the case of real hauntings.

That's the background. And some might just enjoy the reality TV concept, but I wanted to give it more of a plot. My brainwave came from the realization that while the reader is supposed to find Carnacki charming, I suspect I'd personally find him quite annoying in real life. So the inciting event is that for this week's show, Carnacki has got it badly, terribly wrong. There is a very dangerous specter in the house, but Carnacki has put the disturbances down to a family of squirrels in the attic. As such, his precautions consist of a dozen have-a-heart traps and a registered nurse with a supply of rabies vaccine. The players are then faced with a situation that is supposed to be a safe way for their characters to get on TV, but turns into a fight for survival against a powerful supernatural entity.