Okay, this is going to sound geeky-beyond-geeky, but …
Scott Kurtz, who draws the webcomic PvP, came up with the idea for a Role Playing Game about … Role Playing Gamers.
It all started as a strip joke right about here (“Sim Nerd”), but Kurtz (encouraged by the e-response) has latched onto the concept as a D20 book, to be called “Gamers: The Game, The Game about Gamers” (or GTGTGaG).
GTGTGaG is going to be a D20 suppliment. I can see a ton of different ways to use this to spice up any regular gaming session:
1) Roll up fictional players for your existing characters and play a game within a game
2) Roll up stats for yourself and use your “player skills” and “player feats” to effect your regular gaming sessions.
3) Use it as a stand alone d20 RPG setting, and immerse yourself into roleplaying the amazing world of gamers.
4) Use it as a form of therapy to show your gaming friends just how stupid they look when they act like complete dweebs.
We’ve already come up with some base classes, prestige classes, skills , feats and spells.
The strip has some ideas, too.
I can’t decide if this is absurd, hysterical, full of potential, just too damn creepy, or a combination of the above. But if it’s priced right, it sounds like it would be a hoot. Get John Kovalic and the KenzerCo folks involved, too, and you’d have a true hit.
Get John Kovalic and the KenzerCo folks involved, too, and you’d have a true hit.
Wow, this is a meme whose time has come. Apparently, the KenzerCo folks have already written a game about gaming, and it’s called “Hackmaster.” See here for info.
I’d not thought of Hackmaster in quite the same way, but more of, as the article describes, a paean to Olde Style Hack-n-Slash D&D, perhaps with some metagaming concepts, but that not being its primary focus.
Steve Jackson’s Munchkin — usually, and most successfully, with illustrations by Kovalic — might also be considered in this realm. Indeed, any of Kovalic’s Dork game tie-ins — Dork Frag, for example — might be seen the same way (since the characters are comic stereotypes of gamers).
I have an impression of these being different from what Kurtz is trying, though I’ll admit I don’t know enough (about any of it) to say why or how or even possibly whether.
Thanks for the 20×20 link, though. Interesting article. I agree that genre hobby comics are of limited interest — but to those who are tied into those hobbies, they are great fun. I mean, look at things like Tank MacNamera, which is a sports hobby comic, and has been around for eons. (And, not being sports-interested, I find it utterly dull).
Or, for that matter, any other niche — political comics, science comics, etc. You could argue the same for any comic — those that include humor about subjects that you find of interest, or humor-worthy, are ones that you are more likely to enjoy; ones that sometimes (or always) address issues you find irrelevant (or reverent) are a lot less likely to draw a chuckle.
Daaaamn! They need to release that. I’d buy/run/play that in a friggin’ heartbeat.
Finally, a way to blend d20 with ADRPG!
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