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Out of all the miniature games, role playing games, card games, and board games, what sort of "Theme" is missing?

With all of the GW legal crap going on tainting my tastes for buying GW stuff, I've been considering trying to write my own game. Perhaps a combo role playing/miniature tactics game. I've come up with a couple of themes and storylines by myself but nothing has I've come up with has really GRABBED me yet.

What sort of theme would really exite you in a miniature/role playing type of game? Some different ideas...

Plain old Victoriana. No Steampunk involved, it was a fascinating time in it's own right without adding what I consider to be a tired, lazy bit of fantasy.

The Victorian era is covered by Colonials (The Sword And The Flame) and mid to late 19th century wars such as the ACW and Franco-Prussian War.

Cthuhlu By Gaslight can be used as a straight RPG by excluding all the Mythos material.

High sci-fi is missing. Asimov, The Culture etc.

Modern warfare is somewhat under represented also.

I'd also love to see some gaming based around the most original fantasy background I've ever seen, China Meiville's world of Bas-Lag.

More of these chaps discovering temples filled with dinosaurs and savages please! Pip pip, tally ho.
Anyone ever play Waddington's Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs?

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Tabletop Game.

Or how about a racing game with highly customizable cars...like the kind you'd see in Death Race. Missiles, guns, spikes and armor plating, etc.

Traveller
Future War Commander
Hammers Slammers
Full Thrust, etc.
FAD

Operational Manoeuvre Group
Combat Storm
Cold War Commander
Warzone Modern Battles
Harpoon
By Fire And Movement
FNG
Fireteam II
Search And Destroy
SOF Warrior

.45 Adventure
Chaos in Carpathia
All Things xxx...

Car Wars
Dark (Ptui!) Future
Checkpoint Omega

Actually, just have a read through this website.

http://www.caliverbooks.com/catviewer.php?cat=Wargames&subcat=76&subcode=J

Also do some Googling. It is astonishing how many rulesets there are out there, many of which are even free!

If you want to talk about some periods/genres being underrepresented, it is probably fair to say that a lot of periods are grossly over-represented. The limits of a wargame or should also be considered. There may not be a specific RPG based on Bar Lag, or Riverworld, or The Culture, but I bet you could use the background material within the rules of GURPS, d20 or whatever.

Some periods are less amenable to role-playing or wargaming. The Culture, for instance, provides its members with almost unlimited amounts of power and thereby rules out many forms of games. You can't have a skirmish wargame in which every figure is armed with a weapon capable of turning the local star into a Supernova. Role-playing in such a milieu would have to take a different approach.

Car games are thin on the ground for different reasons. Firstly, IMO because the chance to drive a car is in most people's grasp anyway, and it isn't very interesting. Secondly because highly detailed racing and combat rules are probably too complex for the tabletop (rather than computer simulation.) Thirdly, Car Wars arguably wrote the book on tabletop car combat games and can't be bettered.

Dune.

I want an army of Bene Gesserits, Bene Tleilaxu and an army of Face Dancers.

That's all in 40k with suitable name changes.

Modern warfare is a very under represented setting for a mini-wargame. An alternate timeline where the soviet union didn't collapse but instead invaded western europe/USA would be a great wargame. (Basically world in conflict!) http://worldinconflict.us.ubi.com/

How about stone age miniatures combat?

Platuan4th wrote:How about stone age miniatures combat?

A game centered around the movie 10,000 BC would be cool, except that I'm sure that the game wouldn't suck as much.

I would like a tabletop game about superheroes which doesn't suck.

Cops, Hookers, and Johns.

Own your street corner, turn tricks, pay off the cops or send them away with gonorrhea.

Plenty of diorama options there as well.

Its a winner.

Geezers "Shut It!" and 'Vice Palms' from Killer B Games.

http://www.killerbgames.com/onlinestore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3&zenid=e88cf78a83b25c622c818c2ab5b4705d


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Anung Un Rama wrote:I would like a tabletop game about superheroes which doesn't suck.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Task-Force-Games-Ultra-Warrior-Sealed-New_W0QQitemZ110462872235QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20091127?IMSfp=TL091127191007r32575

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6215

Not exactly superhero games but the soldiers have powers equivalent to superheroes.

There are also various superhero RPGs of course.

Thanks KK. Though what I'm looking for is something I can use all the old heroclix minis I have with (I've put most of them on normal bases).
I was thinking about modifiying the StarWars miniatures rules because that one's already full with special rules and overpowered characters. The hard part is figuring out how much they should cost.

A tabletop game about tabletop gamers.

Well, here's an idea that I myself have been playing with, but, with so many other projects on the go, I have had no time to develop it further....so if you like it, feel free to use it.

Name: Blockade Runner. Star Ship Skirmish game.

Basic Idea:

The player(s) each command a space vessel of their chosen class. Each class of vessel has a certain crew requirement, including engineering, control deck crew, and security. The game takes place onboard the ship, and is centered around the commands issued to each crew member in a bid to beat your adversary.

The table layout would comprise a number of pre printed ship interiors (scale to be determined) with each vessel type having its own distinctive interior layout. Lets assume a game involving four players, therefore four ship variants....

So, in front of each player is a printed layout of a ship, with various miniatures representing the crew, placed at their respective battle stations. You, the player would be represented by the ships captain. in the middle of the table would be smaller (Epic sized) reditions of the class of craft the player owns, and this section of the table is used for ship movement, etc.

The main idea for the interiors, is to give the player a more "in game" feel for captaining the vessel, and a more "realistic" feel when crew members are lost, or certain sections of the ship are damaged! Not to mention the most enjoyable part! Boarding enemy vessels!!

The game could just be a set of printable floor plans, where the gamer can buy miniatures from any source to use! Or if you are feeling more ambitious, you could develop your own printed gaming boards and specific miniatures. Obviously the gaming engine would need to be created, turn sequence and degree of expansion!

One expansion this could have.....Space Stattions!! Pirate Strongholds, defence platforms, mining operations....the only limitation I would put on it would be Planetary control....as it is unlikely that the crew of a Star Ship is large enough to take on a planet!!

Obviously trying to fit the full concept here, is proving to be a bit of a handful, but if you want more details, just let me know.

Mr. Burning wrote:...pay off the cops or send them away with gonorrhea.

Interesting choice for an example, given your user name...




DISCLAIMER: The following commentary may sound antagonistic or argumentative. I promise you, it is not meant to be.

Deadshane1 wrote:...I've been considering trying to write my own game. Perhaps a combo role playing/miniature tactics game.

Deadshane1, what do you know about tactics? Have you studied military tactics in school? Maybe studied wars/conflicts/battles in history? If all you have to go on is your experience playing games like 40k, you'll not likely make a very convincing "tactical game".

Designing rules for gaming is a very tough thing to do. Let me re-phrase that; designing decent or better wargaming rules is a very difficult endeavor. I have written rules sets for various skirmish level games and they were long, arduous processes. In some, I was taking video games and porting them over to the tabletop for minis wargaming. In others, I was adapting something somebody else had started. No matter what, if you're REALLY contemplating this, you will need help.

98% of the population (according to a survey I just made up for this post) cannot successfully create a good set of miniatures rules by themselves. This is why you see companies behind all the commercial games; GW, WM, FoW. Even the defunct games like Warzone, Battletech, and so on were created by teams. A staff of writers, designers, playtesters, and more. If you delve into the "beer & pretzels" wargames rules, like Nuts!, BAPS, BattlegroundWWII, (and others found online) you'll find that the overwhelming majority of games are designed by at least two or three people.

If you're serious about designing a stand-alone game, the first thing you'll need is a partner. At least one. Somebody who will bounce ideas back and forth with you. If you try to go it alone, I hate to say it but... your rules will probably suck. Most people's do. Many of mine did. There are so many vagaries that need to be well-thought out before you can pen your first rule.
What scale minis will this system use? What size tables will the game be meant for? Do you want to avoid scale issues with mini size vs. table size vs. ranges? What kind of combat mechanic do you think you will want to use? D6? D10? D20? A combination(s) of several? Do you want realism or abstraction? Will there be die roll modifiers? Squad-level combat? Platoon-level? Company-level? The list can go on and on before you even write any rules at all.

The biggest reason you should have at LEAST one more person (three or four would be better) is so you have somebody to disagree with, somebody that will disagree with you. Look in the Proposed Rules forum here on Dakka for a plethora of examples. The sheer volume of poor rules writing, ranging from unbalanced to the completely Pan Fo (read: ridiculous) should be evidence of what I'm saying here. Many of these proposed rules are just for an Independant Character or a new scenario for the pre-existing game of 40k. Despite ALLLLLL the solid years of rules for 40k, sometimes people still come up with the most slowed ideas for their general or a new vehicle or whatever.

Dude, get help with your idea. It's a great one. Writing a wargames ruleset is fun, fun, fun. It is also very time-consuming and difficult. There's a lot of resources on the net (a lot right here in Dakka) that you can absorb to help you create some good rules. I'd like to see what you eventually come up with. I would LOVE to see something that was actually pretty decent. Failing that, a complete uber-fail of a ruleset would be pretty awesome for me, too, if for nothing else but the sheer 'make-fun-of-things' factor.


Good luck man!



Ghidorah

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Modern warfare is somewhat under represented also.

Battlefield Evolution.

Dead & buried.
____

Some genres aren't represented because maybe they don't sell?

Battlefield Evolution is pretty good.

If you really want to get into TTG creation, your best bets are to ethier learn to sculpt and start creating your own miniatures and then eventually make a game from them (Ala Wyrd, Avatars of War, etc), or get together with some friends and make it a group effort, or try to get a gig with one of the smaller gaming companies, which will of course require you to have some sort of useful asset.

Grand Theft Auto the Role Playing Game. GTARPG. You could use actual races as the games races (making giant racial stereotypes along the way). The starting classes would all be various parts of the criminal underworld, ranging from simple thief to smuggler to corrupt official. The game could develop into more of an RPG if the party takes more non-combat classes or more of a skirmish game. Easy expansions could include things like expanion from a local prison gang, to vehicle combat, to industrial espionage.

Something anime that's better than Anima Tactics (a strange game I felt from the little
I've played it). Still, I love the minis.


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Here's another idea:

A game that integrates standardized specialized terrain pieces as a part of
army building.

malfred wrote:
A game that integrates standardized specialized terrain pieces as a part of
army building.

That will actually be a part of something we're announcing next week...

Cyporiean wrote:

malfred wrote:
A game that integrates standardized specialized terrain pieces as a part of
army building.

That will actually be a part of something we're announcing next week...

If you guys are building and selling the terrain in question, you have my interest.

All six seconds of it.

We'll be producing whatever is needed for the game in question.

Well aside from the things where we put an guide up on how to build it, like catapults from Balsa wood.

I'd like to see a modern plus 10 to 20 years themed game. The few modern themed one's I've observed are still Desert Storm and Early OIF/OEF themed.

I want something with cutting edge small arms (FN SCARS, and MASADAs for those who follow guns) UAVs up the wazoo, M1A3 Abrams, F35s.

Basically Tabletop Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

Is there a game kind of like DoW? Making Buildings to produce units and such? Im not sure if there is or if its been mentioned yet but if not I think that would be interesting!

Titan (Avalon Hill)
Bases the units collected on the kind of terrain tile you moved you army into.

Rivets (Metagaming)
Had resource collection to build different types of units.

Several near future skirmish rulesets feature near future skirmish gaming.

There really is a game or ruleset for nearly anything.