I come up with a lot of mad game ideas that I want to run, but given the amount of gaming I currently do as it is, there just aren't enough days in the week to accomplish it all. Plus, the stuff that usually gets priority is whatever happens to get a wild hair up my ass. So, I figured I'd keep a running list of my game ideas, in case anyone else wants to try them and let me know how they work. Plus, it helps me keep track of them myself. =)

Last Updated: December 6, 2002

Games in Progress

Name: Unto Each Generagon
System: d20 Star Wars
Genre: Space Opera
Description: This is a game I'm running for a group of 12 year olds. It's set during the "Sith Wars," and the children will be attending a Hogwarts-style Jedi Academy. I'm blatantly ripping stuff off from all sorts of places, from Shaft to Cowboy Bebop. We'll see how it goes. Status: Going well so far.

Games on the Near Horizon

Name: Arkham High
System: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Horror/Teen Drama
Description: When I bought the Buffy rules, I did it largely as a whim, not thinking I'd ever get anyone to play it. But when I linked it in my head with my idea to convert everything, including Call of Cthulhu, into a teen setting, this seemed like the ideal venue.
Status: I was going to run this just after the holidays, but my go at one-shots, mixed with my top secret project, are indicating that I just don't have the focus for it. I'll likely have to do it after my top-secret project is either completed or suspended, or I get it to a point where it's not a huge resource commitment.

Games on the Shelf

Name: Koko wa Shadowrun System: Shadowrun
Genre: Cyberpunk/Teen Drama
Description: Not sure how into obscure anime you are, but there's neat four-episode anime called "Koko wa Greenwood" or "Here is Greenwood" that is comedic, bordering on surreal, about a group of high school students living in a dorm at a private high school. It was based off a manga series that has never been translated to english. Anyway, that combined with the "college game" that a friend played in for a while (which was basically World of Darkness characters going to college), plus the "superheroes in high school" he played in made me want to do a game set in the Shadowrun universe, but has nothing to do with "shadowrunners". You're just middle-to-upper class high school students attending a private high school in the Seattle Metroplex.
Status: No one has voiced any interest in this little project of mine, so I'm shelving it.

Name: One Damn Thing After Another
System: Amber Diceless
Genre: Cross-Genre/Fantasy/Alternate Realites
Description: My last Amber game, Damn Your Eyes, was basically putting players in the Corwin series. It opened during Corwin's imprisonment/Eric's reign, and progressed from there. Managed to keep most of the story intact even. So the sequel will be set during the Merlin series, and progress out through the short stories.
Status: Need to reread the Merlin series to find a good place to set it. Currently have no motivation to run this.

Name: Dungeon Crawl
System: D&D 3rd Ed.
Genre: Fantasy
Description: Basically, I got ahold of a copy of the old Ruins of Undermountain for D&D, which sparked a lot of nostalgia for the really shitty job I did running it in high school. So I'm doing it again. The intent for it is to be super detail oriented, focusing on whether you can carry all your supplies well and have enough food until you get back out of the dungeon, and probably a little low on the roleplaying. Drinking is allowed, and perhaps even encouraged.
Status: My last attempt at running this was a disasterous failure, and with the response to one-shots of late, I'm bagging this until I feel suddenly inspired by my players, or a miracle happens.

Name: Nothing, Nothing, Tra-La-La
System: Nobilis
Genre: Mythic Fantasy
Description: I have the vague rumblings of a Nobilis game in my head. I was going to run it for my house, but between laziness and politics, it never happened. When the current run of Amber games tidies up, I may try and foist this on my Sunday Amber group.
Status: Too many Amber games going on.

Vague Ideas for Games

Name: Battle of the Bands
System: Possibly Starchildren
Genre: Rock and Roll/Cyberpunk
Description: I'd like to do a cyberpunk/rock band game, due in part to my continued absurd fascination with Jem and the Holograms. I don't know anything more than that.
Status: None

Name: Even Bounty Hunters Get the Blues
System: Big Eyes, Small Mouth
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Anime
Description: Based off the anime series "Cowboy Bebop", I want to run a game set in that world. Likely set in the world after the anime series. Will likely avoid the manga.
Status: Glimmer in my mind.

Name: The Blue Rose Files
System: Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green
Genre: Conspiracy/Horror
Description: The latest, and strongest, idea I've had for "How can I make Twin Peaks a roleplaying game?!". This idea draws off the notion of Gordon Cole's "blue rose cases", which are mentioned in the movie Fire Walk With Me. So, my current theory is to do an X-Files style game, with surreal and horrific elements.

Name: Children of the Revolution
System: Changeling: The Dreaming
Genre: Undetermined
Description: After seeing Moulin Rouge, I found myself deeply interested in the early 20th century. In part because I never before realized that there was anything interesting about that part of history. I hadn't really realized where the bohemians and that sort come from. So, naturally I wanted to run a game set in that world. In trying to find a game that fits this setting, I've settled on a period Changeling game for the moment. Prior to that I was thinking of a Shadowrun varient. May still change my mind.
Status: Pending me learning an assload more about the fin de sicle era.

Name: One Hit Wonders
System: Various
Genre: Various
Description: This is not so much a game idea, but a game event. I'd come up with this originally nearly a year ago, but it never came together. Mainly because unemployment, followed by a suck job situation, killed it. I'd still like to do it, though. The basic idea is that I have a butt load of games that I've bought that I will never run a campaign for. Paranoia, Tales From the Floating Vagabond, Brave New World, etc. They're all a little limited in scope, and perhaps only worth a game every once in a blue moon. Likely why they aren't in print. Paranoia is one of the coolest damn game books I've ever read, but I've yet to convince anyone, including myself, that I want to create a long-running campaign with it. So, the idea is that I create a bunch of pre-gens, cook up a simple adventure, and run the game. If we find we love it, then we'll play it some more.
Status: I maganed to get a game of Bunnies and Burrows run. That's about it. Despite initial enthusiasm for one-shots, life has conspired against me.

Name: Orion Slave Girls-A-Go-Go
System: Star Trek (Last Unicorn Games)
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action, with a dash of pulp thrown in.
Description: I got a copy of the old Last Unicorn Games Star Trek game, and want to do a Star Trek game based off the original series. Major goals for characters will be beating up Klingons and seducing exotic alien women who all look startlingly like humans.
Status: In Development

Name: Stories That Are True
System: Possible Amber Diceless varient, maybe even Everway reworked for modern day.
Genre: Modern fantasy/multiple realities Description: Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy just begs to have a game run in it. I tried to do a hybrid game with Amber at one point, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. What I'm currently thinking of doing is a game set in the time after the series, when Will Parry is an old man in his own world, and the players are all his disciples.

Name: Unnamed
System: GURPS
Genre: Cross-Genre Extravaganza
Description: One thought I'd had for the use of the big chunk of GURPS books I own was to do a massive cross-genre game where players could be just about anyone (within point constraints), all linked by an artifact that has singled them out and dragged them out of their realities to help other realities, a la Sliders/Quantum Leap/Voyagers.
Status: None. Appears to be a nightmare-load of work if I want to create a unique world for each adventure. After having played a game based off of Zelazny's Roadmarks, I may shift the focus to that.

Name: Unnamed
System: Unknown, possible Amber Diceless Varient
Genre: Superhero
Description: I've been toying for some time with the idea of doing a superheroes game inspired by "Rising Stars".

Name: Unnamed
System: Feng Shui
Genre: Kung-Fu/Action/Fantasy
Description: Fred Meyer's Photo/Electronics department was playing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for weeks on end, and as I spent a fair chunk of time there, I got exposed to it a lot. It engendered within me a desire to run a game set in ancient China. Feng Shui looks to be an ideal system for it, and I may allow some of the time travel inherent in the default setting as well.
Status: In Development

Name: Unnamed
System: Stripped down d20 Call of Cthulhu
Genre: Children's Fantasy
Description: With the new Harry Potter movie, and me reading Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone to my girlfriend, I'm back on the notion of wanting to run a game set in Hogwarts. I'd originally thought of purging this desire by running either a Jedi Padawan game, or with my unnamed Rising Stars-inspired game. But, I think ultimately I want to do straight-out, pre-Potter Hogwarts.
Status: In my head.

Other stuff: I'd like to do a World of Darkness game. Mainly as an apology to the universe for the last World of Darkness game I ran. I'd also like to be able to play some of the games I have floating around my shelf. Like Dark Matter, Fading Suns, Jovian Chronicles, Nobilis, Castle Falkenstein, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, etc.

Completed Games

Name: Janus Only Had Two Faces
System: Star Wars (d20)
Genre: Sci-Fi/Space Opera/Action
Description: This was my d20 Star Wars game. I had a few main themes going on in the background. One was exploring different facets of the Force. So I had not only other Sith factions, but also an apologetic view of Palpatine and Vader (why it's really important for them to control the Universe), a band of rogue droids that used advanced technology to simulate the Force, the Charon from Otherspace, a Force lich and his Force vampire minions. However, all this was nothing compared the the MacGuffin that I provided for these forces, and the PCs, in the form of Ianua. It was billed as being a powerful object which could rewrite reality as people wished. Instead, it was the operating system behind the virtual reality everyone was in. God bless William Sleator and his Interstellar Pig.
Status: Finished.

Name: [Classified]
System: D&D 3rd Ed.
Genre: Fantasy
Description: My current game I'm actively running is one that I'm a little hesitant to talk about. It's a playtest for a d20 book I may co-author. I don't want info to get out about it, in case someone decides to gank the idea.
Status: Game spontaneously combusted. May find time to work on book on my own, as my co-authors seem to have disappeared.

© 2000 Jeremy Zimmerman, unless where noted. All rights reserved. Comments, complaints, death threats, and flaming chickens may be sent to bolthy@bolthy.com.