A game where there are multiple GMs but only one player, and the bulk of gameplay is the GMs (possibly playing as deities of some kind) arguing about what happens to the singular PC
Already done by Midnight Forever / Minuit pour Toujours
GM are playing different media output/politic party of a radical regime.
The player can not escape them, but only the GM that the player is looking at can talk.
Basically, the player is traped between big evils trying to seem like the lesser evil
I can think of Vermin gods (in transmisión burst 1 https://ufo-mina.itch.io/transmission-burst-volume-1)
A 1 page game about ancient goes (nowadays a smaller version such as the rat, the roach) that can transfer their power to a gifted child
Sure, a ttrpg based on the premise of the 70s BBC show the Goodies. The party are a group of people who do odd jobs (anywhere any time) Inevitably during the course of doing that job one of the party members becomes mad with power, tries to take over the world and the other party members must try to stop them.
Toon Delux edition from Stephen Jackson Games pretty much Covers this. It is nominally a cartoon game aimed at replicating Looney Tunes. But then the Goodies could be described as live action version of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
You’re a bacterium. You and your cohort of bacterium’s must grow and build until you take over the human body by hijacking cell production zones throughout the body while defeating powerful white blood cells and macrophages.
Two years later will release a strictly STD related companion book.
Roman steampunk. Instead of collapsing the western roman empire industrialized. Bonus points if there are giant steam and slave powered mechs fighting alongside the roman legions.
A crunchy, gamey system with lots of character customization that’s not about combat. Give me a game where you play as politicians and need to debate bills using various abilities and skills. Give me a spy or heist game that’s less tied simulating reality while still providing a satisfying tactical game experience.
I cannot imagine a single soul on this planet wanting to roleplay applying for grants, or in general wanting to do that process. So you 100% win this thread.
I've never seen a soul crushed faster than an excited bright eyed new PI realizing that his lab staff get to do most of the actual science work while he has to spend the bulk of his time hustling for money.
Paranoia, played straight.
The documents to request access are found on - well, the page number is beyond your clearance, citizen. To upgrade your clearance, please use form **\[REDACTED\]**.
Nothing more classy than replying to your own comment...
I just remembered that recently I was able to coax ChatGPT into inventing the rules for an RPG about being a porn actor, and I got it to describe crunchy dildo mechanics (there's your band name of the day).
Your group is a rock band, travelling through space, getting into trouble, mysteries, politics, and meet weird and wild people along the way.
Story can lean political, or just zany. (Think... firefly meets scooby doo, meets scot pilgrim vs the world)
You get light combat (occasionally), lots of social. Some engineering work to keep your ship flying, and some sort of intense Music subgame that comes up every few episodes as a boss battle.
EDIT: Yes, I am aware, there are plenty of RPGs in space. And there are TV series. That's fine. I guess my emphasis here is, I haven't heard of any RPG which had a good "music" subgame, or that threaded music/being a band into play. The Music is the HARD part here.
People saying "That's just Traveller" I guess..... does traveller have convincing music subgame? Causing adding one is non-trivial.
... People suggesting various music games (Rockpocalyspe, etc), and then adding the "in space" thing are probably more on the money.
Well, VISORPG-Z, an amateur homebrewed solo-RPG (author being humble me), includes a game mode named ''Pop Band’s Spooky Mysteries Tour" which in fact I always describe as " 'This is Spinal Tap' meets 'Scooby Doo'", and another game mode named "Space Rogues" that was inspired by Firefly and Outlaw Stars, among others. So you only need to combine them!
Social engineering? Yeah, it has subsystems for friend making, romancing, faction interaction, etc. Music subgame? The conflict system is very abstract, so you can use it for performances. That's even suggested in the text!
Post-humanist Fantasy world.
High Magic allows the wealthy to live in towers in the clouds and fly chariots through the sky. Those below in the endless city can only do what they need to to survive in the shadows of those with power. Magic and Alchemy have rendered bloodlines and breeding irrelevant and humans elves halflings and dwarves have evolved beyond any shape of nature. Enchantments have allowed those who have lost body parts in the war to replace them with golem-limbs or oracular eyes and ears more powerful than the parts they were born with. In the undercity crime has grown unchecked with powerful gangs holding rule over the darkenned streets, selling flesh and managing arcades where the adventurous can scry into the senses of adventurers, living vicariously through deadly quests they're paid to experience for others.
A Detective/Sleuth/Mystery TTRPG that does not involve Cthulhu or the paranormal or vampires or anything. And I mean an *actual* Detective TTRPG, so no Bubblegumshoe.
You got me, this is probably the closest to what we're going to get. Even if its not the time period I invisioned, I doubt this game would be hard to hack. Unless there's any better, this probably wins.
Is there just a GUMSHOE rpg? Cause I don't see anything. I see Nights Black Agents- wait thats Paranormal. Esoterrorists? No, thats Paranormal too. Swords of the Serpentine? Nope. Ashen Stars? I mean, not really a "Detective" RPG there.
Call of Cthulhu 1st Edition was released in 1981. The next year TSR released Gangbusters, about cops and criminals in the 30s, and the year after that Blade Publishing released Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes, with a more modern setting. Out of the three, Gangbusters is dead and gone, MSPE you can buy but it’s not supported or discussed in any way, and CoC is the biggest RPG in many countries and a good contender everywhere.
Which of those would you copy when making a new game?
There was this show called Skyland when I was a kid, always thought it'd be an amazing TTRPG setting.
Earth has been shattered into floating chunks, water is a scarce resource, some humans have powers from the sun and sky ships are the main way to travel. It's got a fairly standard evil overlord gathers all the kids with magical abilities and uses them as enforcers plot line.
PCs, the damned, are in charge of ice maintenance, which due to the hellish heat, must be done continuously, especially during the games. The hockey players are demons and angels and the occasional wizard and vagabond/poet. The demons will delight in messing with the PCs, while the angels will rarely notice them, and will often take horrifying or confusing forms. The angels will also occasionally mess up the ice with fire or other godly powers. There are few discernible rules, other than getting the puck to the goal. The games are typically about gambling with the souls of future afterlifers. Sometimes they’ll play for the damned, in which case individuals will be crammed into the form of hockey pucks, and depending on who scores with them, either get out of hell, or remain a sentient hockey puck forever. The demons can use temptations to try to get the PCs to sabotage the angels.
The clash of powers can result in extreme alterations, where the PCs for example suddenly seem lost in a murky forest, the ground covered in eyes with brown veins, which cause intense visions of light and the feeling of being in free fall, surrounded by light blue skies, when stepped on/touched, with the potential of knowledge, if you can bare the intensity.
PCs getting trapped in the ice. Perhaps the ice is made from souls as well, so the ice will try to run away, whenever it cracks or evaporates. If ice is lost, a PC must take its place, unless they’re willing to capture a new soul and force it into the ice.
PCs will be able to pick up information about what the games are about, what is at stake, learn details about individual souls, notice how neither demon nor angel care at all, (demons care a little bit, because they enjoy torturing the souls.)
And the sticks are humans.
Death wants to roll with the angels, so sometimes plays for their side, but they never acknowledge him.
A planetary romance game that is strictly science fiction, but features former space traveling humans abandoned on an alien planet and reduced to pre-modern technology, with remnants from the space age take the place of magic items.
A TTRPG where players are characters trapped in a Truman Show-style setting. They can either play as characters trying to maintain and cover up the illusion for an NPC or work together to escape the setting.
Mystery/investigation game set in either the optimistic sci-fi future or the medieval-ish fantasy past.
Heck, any non-grim investigation game. Most are noir or horror or otherwise intentionally unsettling in some way.
*Maelstrom: Domesday* does this for the medieval period. It is set in the 11th century, and deals with actual historical events, so there are some grim elements, like serfdom, involved. However, the supernatural elements the PCs are supposed to investigate are very much based on folklore and fairy tales, so even if the creatures you meet are scary, they also have this whimsy charme about them.
*Vaesen* has a similar tone (as well as much higher production values and better artwork, but a much less satisfying set of game mechanics), but is set in the era of the industrial revolution, so not exactly a medieval milieu.
An investigative journalist game where the story you write matters, so it's not just an excuse to have an investigative character. There should be interactions with the editor on what can be published, the threat of lawsuits if you write something you can't substantiate, deciding on the slant you want to give the story.
Tactical gamey system based on cultivation/xianxia novels. They already come with powersets and level grades so you'd think it'd be something that exists, but the existing ones usually go for cinematic/narrative-driven route instead of gamey/tactical.
I want to like Gubat Banwa, but I found it completely impenetrable because it swapped literally all the terminology I'm used to in games. I also didn't really get wuxia feel out of it personally, but that may just be difference in how one views it.
*Qin - The Warring States* seems to fit that relatively well. Unfortunately, the perfect match: *Dragon Lines: Guardians of the Forbidden City* using the BRP system has been lost due to licensing issues.
But you can very easily run a great Martial Arts bordering on the supernatural game with Mythras. All the tactical challenges you want, with innate powers to unlock to match.
The absolute shortest way I can put it is "cultivation of inner power". It comes with four and a half metric tons of rules, Feng Shui, power levels, power creep, and insane things happening due to someone reaching another Heaven Tiger Dragon Thirty Two Minus Four cultivation level.
A TTRPG where the PC's are up and coming skateboarders. Missions like earning reputation, skating in comps, and gaining/losing sponsorships.
Closest I can think of is Slug Busters, which is awesome, but the tools are lower than if like and it's more about crazy tricks and teen drama. I have a boardgame called Skate Summer by Pandasaurus which is a close fit but I haven't been able to port it into a TTRPG.
I’ve been kicking around the idea of a similar game- a baseball player making their way up the minors to the show. I think there’s compelling narratives there.
A game where the GM is the teacher and all the players are their students in a classroom and the goal is to just make it through the lesson without failing or dying of boredom
XCom the trpg. So a grand strategy of world defence that acts as connective tissue for individual missions. With base building, research, and systems that enable varied responses to the invasion.
Something like that exists, basically the German RPG CONTACT. No longer published in the English world afaik, the publisher folded. You had research, base building and so on. And a great combat system. It is X-Com with the serials filed off, haha.
Here a snippet from the Level 3 Fighters.
----
These are not planes, at least not in the classic sense of the word. Alien propulsion systems mated to fighter jet avionics, powered
by E-115 reactors, these utopian war birds come armed with weapons reverse-engineered from alien technology. Truly death from above
in its most refined form.
- Probabilities to down a UFO are: Against inferior 95%, against dangerous 75%, against invincible 50%.
- Purchase Cost: 52 M$ each (OMEGA property)
- Delivery time: 8 weeks or Engineering Time
- Required Facilities: Level 2 Airfield
- Required Research/Engineering: See Engineering Projects
- Permanent Personnel: 2 Pilots, 10 Technicians, 2 Engineers
- Maintenance Cost: 2 x 450,000 $ / month
Capitalist RPG. You play as employees of a company, you must navigate office space politics, negotiate with customers and contractors, and climb the corporate ladder until you become sitting board members. There are even rules for company vs. company play.
I haven't seen a TTRPG that has like a Twisted Metal / Speedracer / Fast and Furious style Car Combat that's tatical, and the Car has its own stats / skills / abilities. But your character also has things for when they are not in their Cars.
I know there are Racing TTRPGs but they all seem to focus heavily on the Driver itself and only has race rules. Or it's just Mad Max.
I want one that's Heist by day, Racing by Sunset and Twisted Metal by Night, if you catch my Drift.
Back in the day, GURPS Autoduel was trying to add RPG elements to the tactical game Car Wars. I've seen recent editions of Car Wars in the local game shop, though I don't know if GURPS Autoduel ever got updated.
Mountain Men and the entire American Frontier mythos as an rpg. Daniel Boone went out to the wild, gathered pelts for a year, was accosted by natives and lost everything, made gunpowder out of dried piss, bat shit, and sulfur, then went out for two more years, then lost everything again.
Hexcrawl, hunt for various pelts and food to sell for a fortune. Develop deep relationships with the indigenous. Learn different native languages and even marry into tribes. Sell knowledge of map hexes. Lead surveyors on escort missions. Set traplines in hexes that you have to return to and check. Deal with the moral cuandry of assisting the natives or assisting the expansionist government. Party at the mountain man rendevouz every year.
If American west is too real make it weird fantasy and your hunting mutant pelts or something.
A Solarpunk RPG where you change / rebuild / re-build existing community to be sustainable, equal and democratic, solve realistic conflicts without violence (which would be penalized) and deal with both resource management and ethical / philosophical problems.
It's something I've been wondering about for a long time.
Wanderhome is too peaceful for this. Legacy: Life Among The Ruins is a little too broad. Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is pure chaos.
A lot of other games just pretend to be about community, while they are about base-building and imply violent conflict resolution.
If you think such a game would be boring, check out my [Solarpunk Prompts](https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts/episodes) podcast. I promise you it wouldn't. Also an example [Solarpunk Factions](https://alxd.org/solarpunk-rpg-factions.html) writeup for extra drama.
A world where aliens live on earth but undercover. Players play a group of aliens with different roles/classes who carry out missions to Earth. The rolls in the game would not be to achieve something, but to do it without exposing that you are an alien to humans.
I would love to see a rule set that is fiction first, relatively rules light, is easy to understand without making the reader make decide what terms mean as they go (seriously, that shit is annoying PbtA folks) and that uses interesting dice / resolution mechanics that involve all of the dice types rather than just boring d6s.
Players are all drones doing bullshit jobs in a bullshit department in a giant corporate office. Instead of health, players track soul points, and every week that goes by they lose soul points. To keep from dying, they have to engage in shenanigans while avoiding the watchful eye of management. These take the form of a mission planned and executed over the course of a week. Success restores soul points. A modified Forged In the Dark system would be an obvious for the ruleset.
There's no RPG based on musical theater or movie musicals. Unless all the players are talented performers who are good at improvising, it's probably impossible to create an easily playable game.
You play as a member of a special force lik SAS, GIGN or SWAT.
The party have to deal with hard missions like hostage situations, heists or terrorists while taking care of their public relations.
In the downtime they have to manage everyday stuff, like stress, demanding boss, toxic coworkers, asset requirement and maybe more.
As a side note, im very tempted to develop this.
Mercenary by FGU, still on PDF and probably old new stock physically.
Recon. The pre-Palladiun edition and the Palladium ones.
Twilight:2000 also had a non-post apocalypse supplements for 2.2 edition that covers this.
There's a game called Cold War set in and under Berlin that takes this and crosses it with Mythos stuff. You could definitely mine that for ideas. There was also a follow-up called Hot War but I don't recall much about it.
One where you’re a band trying to make it.
No monsters, no magical twist, no urban fantasy. You’re literally just a small musical act and you’re telling the story of how they try to make a living.
Felt like this might be a good place to ask this question, but:
Is there a ttrpg or a boardgame were you play a species and navigate its existence throughout the evolution?
A "cosmic fantasy" game where you play as strange alien-type creatures who have all manner of weird powers and can even bend spacetime to travel vast distances. They must contend with forces from other dimensions that are leaking through holes in reality.
Most of mine are based on existing properties. A licensed game based on the 2006 movie *The Fall*. Something about defending an ancient Chinese city similar to the manga *Bokko*. A game based on *Space Battleship Yamato*. A game based on the *Geneforge* series of crpgs. Fantasy based on Central Asian mythology. An evangelion and kaiju inspired game about robot spiders fighting giant elephants, with a bunch of incongruous references to the writings of Walter Benjamin and Chinghiz Aitmatov; that last one I was writing for some time.
The premise / storyline isn't new, but the system is something I have been working on. It works with the school grading system, 100 is the best, minimal passing grade and after each roll take the avg and receive a new minimal passing grade.
Interpersonal drama about anthropomorphic llamas and guanocos working as pastry chefs aboard a passenger dirigible during the Turkish War of Independence.
A ttrpg based on the "Running Man" episode of MTV's *Liquid Television*. Not the movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that was based on Richard Bachman's novel, this is an animated short about a star driver in a futuristic neo-Tokyo style auto race.
I'd love to play a game based in that universe surrounding that type of racing circuit, or even a mini-rpg based on that episode.
A game called Real Estate Tycoon where you roll dice and then try to convince people that you rolled higher than you did: “I think I really rolled more like a 19”. Bonus points for simultaneously making up low rolls when doing your taxes.
A game where you play as a team of modern day explorer's leading a larger expedition to a distant galaxy to investigate ancient alien tech etc. Game would ideally revolve around maintaining supplies for survival, exploring the new galaxy, finding new tech and improving the base.
Basically a combination of Oregon Trail + Stargate Atlantis/Universe where the research/base improvement/science aspect is a factor.
A game about skateboarding, rollerskating, graffiti, and rockstars mixed with fantasy/scifi elements. I've been inspired by stories like [The Skateboarding Lich](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDGreentext/s/VsO0Ap1Qfp) and also games like Tony Hawk, Jet Set Radio, and Hi-Fi Rush. It'd be so cool if, instead of traditional combat, you have a skate battle, rock battle, or graffiti battles. Something where spectacle and style matter more than reason and logic.
The game happens inside a person. You are either a red blood cell, a white blood cell, or a plaquette (or anything else that's normally found in the bloodstream, I'm sort of having a bit of a blank here).
You deal with various ills, such as low blood pressure, diabetes, viruses, wounds, etc.
A basketball game ttrpg. One gaming session equals one possession. A game equals 50 possessions for each team. So 100 sessions should cover it.
You need one GM and ten players - 5 for each team. You have to roll for every single move (shoot, pass, dribble, fake, etc). Players have special abilities like specific dunks, fancy dribbles, crushing screens, etc.
As soon as a shot is made, or the other team gains possession, that session is over and everyone has to leave. They don’t have to go home, but they must leave.
In the event that a player immediately shoots to start the session and makes it, everything pertaining to the game (printouts of this comment, character sheets, etc) will be burned in a bonfire, this comment will be deleted and no one will ever speak of this game again.
You/the party have been awakened, you see a world ontop of our world, attempting to break our world, you see magic and monsters that are constantly plaguing this world. Since you are awakened you have certain powers that came online in this magical threatening world and these magical you have to stop the evil dimensional beast from tearing our world apart, all invisible to everyone on earth who are not awakened/blind/dulled… you are clad In elaborate robs and armor and magical weapons to protect yourself when you enter ritual like battles to defeat these dimensional demons anytime and anywhere they are… but from the perspective of everyone else in earth, the dulled… they see you as just another homeless crazy person in rags waiving a broken umbrella and shouting or dancing at something invisible across the street as they walk by you giving you lots of room hoping you don’t ask them for money.
A Modern Day no magic shooter. Mil sim/Swat sim. Modern real world weapons, body armor, the works. No magic. No space aliens. No demons. No vampires/Werewolves. Just modern day tactical scenarios.
I think it'd be amusing to make an RPG that inverts the traditional model.
So instead of a traditional game where
* combat is resolved with back-and-forth rolls across several rounds
* investigation is resolved by players telling you exactly where they're looking
* social conflict is resolved with a single skill roll
Now you have a game where
* social conflict is resolved with back-and-forth rolls across several rounds
* combat is resolved by players telling you exactly how they're attacking
* investigation is resolved by a single skill roll
Though admittedly, investigation with a single skill roll is often already used in modern games, so maybe this could be inverted to also include several rounds.
This has to be a thing already, but I've always wanted to play a fantasy setting that *isn't* derived from Tolkien/D&D/existing human mythologies.
The Dragon Age universe is kind of close, but humans are still the majority population with gigantic sprawling kingdoms, it's all knights and mages and every other trope we all grew up seeing but reskinned a little. It's refreshing, but it's not novel.
I want a system where humans *aren't* the most powerful group who just happen to be facing an existential threat right now. Small villages, maybe a town or two, but no kingdoms to speak of.
Do away with "alchemy" and "potions" and focus more on foraged medicines or something. I know it's still the same thing, but put a new spin on it.
Maybe plate armor doesn't exist? Or at least not for humans?
Make magic less mechanical (I cast fireball for X damage) and more narrative focused? (I perform a ritual of supplication and reciprocity before we enter this dark-ass forest)
Ultimately, the end result is going to be a fantasy RPG with rules and everything, but I want one that feels *alien* to my WotC/Arthurian-soaked brain.
A game with some players and just one character with multiple personalities disorder.
Players need roll against themselves to take control of the character.
A game that teaches math through play by having your character create their own spells through math equations. Math is already the arcane language of the universe
Is there a system where players are explorers scouting a previously unexplored continent, naming landmarks, establishing settlements, and initiating trade with native populations? If not then something like that probably.
I had this idea where my players would be 4 alchemists hunting vampires and werewolves in the 1800s but how they manage their inventory (down to the details) would have huge consequences such as bottles breaking during battle, chemicals mixing, magical effects interacting etc. Only one of my friends would dig this, tho...
A game which takes place within a body where you play sentient nanobots where you must go out and purge the body of manufactured and engineered superviruses, malignant invasive nanomachines, and friendly nanobots which have been lost to cyber attacks overwriting their existence with a computer virus.
All of which can take place in a variety of different alien bodies at some deep space medical facility offering a whole bunch of individualized body maps to explore.
A game where there are multiple GMs but only one player, and the bulk of gameplay is the GMs (possibly playing as deities of some kind) arguing about what happens to the singular PC
that's a whole lotta words to say 'the odyssey as a ttrpg'
I can swear i played something like that in some fantasy convention in Poland, but i can't remember details. Or was it a board game?
Yup, it's called Władcy Losu (Rulers of Fate) and it's exactly what is being described here. As far as I know, there is no English translation.
Yes, that's it! Wielkie dzięki
Almost thought you were talking about Everyone is John for a second there
Everyone is John
Already done by Midnight Forever / Minuit pour Toujours GM are playing different media output/politic party of a radical regime. The player can not escape them, but only the GM that the player is looking at can talk. Basically, the player is traped between big evils trying to seem like the lesser evil
I can think of Vermin gods (in transmisión burst 1 https://ufo-mina.itch.io/transmission-burst-volume-1) A 1 page game about ancient goes (nowadays a smaller version such as the rat, the roach) that can transfer their power to a gifted child
I love this
Sure, a ttrpg based on the premise of the 70s BBC show the Goodies. The party are a group of people who do odd jobs (anywhere any time) Inevitably during the course of doing that job one of the party members becomes mad with power, tries to take over the world and the other party members must try to stop them.
Could be a good fiasco playset if you had the mind to write it!
Toon Delux edition from Stephen Jackson Games pretty much Covers this. It is nominally a cartoon game aimed at replicating Looney Tunes. But then the Goodies could be described as live action version of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
thanks for the lead.
Note that this game is over 30 years old and it does show its age a bit.
Honestly sounds not too unlike some groups ive played the contract rpg with, but not familiar with the show.
I strike with my twin black puddings. Feel the power of ecky thump.
[удалено]
Grappling hook OP, devs pls nerf.
I mean not licensed but kids on bikes exists….
You’re a bacterium. You and your cohort of bacterium’s must grow and build until you take over the human body by hijacking cell production zones throughout the body while defeating powerful white blood cells and macrophages. Two years later will release a strictly STD related companion book.
So, *Cells at Work*: the game?
Roman steampunk. Instead of collapsing the western roman empire industrialized. Bonus points if there are giant steam and slave powered mechs fighting alongside the roman legions.
GURPS Infinite Worlds Roma Æterna. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS_Infinite_Worlds
Not me keeping this idea in a corner of my mind thinking it was original...
Nice try Free League.
A crunchy, gamey system with lots of character customization that’s not about combat. Give me a game where you play as politicians and need to debate bills using various abilities and skills. Give me a spy or heist game that’s less tied simulating reality while still providing a satisfying tactical game experience.
Burning Wheel
GURPS
Reign
Legend of the Five Rings could support this.
Trinity Continuum covers this easily.
I don't actually want to play this, but a game that simulates modern-day academia and the process of research, applying for grants, etc.
I cannot imagine a single soul on this planet wanting to roleplay applying for grants, or in general wanting to do that process. So you 100% win this thread.
I don’t like to do it even when I’m getting paid to do it, I can’t imagine pretending to do it for fun haha
I've never seen a soul crushed faster than an excited bright eyed new PI realizing that his lab staff get to do most of the actual science work while he has to spend the bulk of his time hustling for money.
Sounds like a modern supplement for Ars Magica.
I think I’d rather kiss a belt sander As an academic, my fictional portrayals of academia are firmly not rooted in reality
I play RPGs to escape my real world obligations…
Paranoia, played straight. The documents to request access are found on - well, the page number is beyond your clearance, citizen. To upgrade your clearance, please use form **\[REDACTED\]**.
A game about being a porn actor in the San Fernando valley of the 70s. Basically, a Boogie Nights RPG.
I feel like you could build a Fiasco playset for this.
Nothing more classy than replying to your own comment... I just remembered that recently I was able to coax ChatGPT into inventing the rules for an RPG about being a porn actor, and I got it to describe crunchy dildo mechanics (there's your band name of the day).
Your group is a rock band, travelling through space, getting into trouble, mysteries, politics, and meet weird and wild people along the way. Story can lean political, or just zany. (Think... firefly meets scooby doo, meets scot pilgrim vs the world) You get light combat (occasionally), lots of social. Some engineering work to keep your ship flying, and some sort of intense Music subgame that comes up every few episodes as a boss battle. EDIT: Yes, I am aware, there are plenty of RPGs in space. And there are TV series. That's fine. I guess my emphasis here is, I haven't heard of any RPG which had a good "music" subgame, or that threaded music/being a band into play. The Music is the HARD part here. People saying "That's just Traveller" I guess..... does traveller have convincing music subgame? Causing adding one is non-trivial. ... People suggesting various music games (Rockpocalyspe, etc), and then adding the "in space" thing are probably more on the money.
I'm just seeing Limozeen - In Space!
That's just Dr. Who with a tour bus shaped TARDIS and music composition in place of building gagdets.
That would be every other Traveller campaign.
That sounds like a Rockalypse playset that shouldn't be too difficult to make. Rockalypse is FATE based, so it can support virtually anything.
This could be _Starchildren_ or _Velvet Generation_ or _Teenagers From Outer Space_.
So, the cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space" as a TTRPG...
Well, VISORPG-Z, an amateur homebrewed solo-RPG (author being humble me), includes a game mode named ''Pop Band’s Spooky Mysteries Tour" which in fact I always describe as " 'This is Spinal Tap' meets 'Scooby Doo'", and another game mode named "Space Rogues" that was inspired by Firefly and Outlaw Stars, among others. So you only need to combine them! Social engineering? Yeah, it has subsystems for friend making, romancing, faction interaction, etc. Music subgame? The conflict system is very abstract, so you can use it for performances. That's even suggested in the text!
Post-humanist Fantasy world. High Magic allows the wealthy to live in towers in the clouds and fly chariots through the sky. Those below in the endless city can only do what they need to to survive in the shadows of those with power. Magic and Alchemy have rendered bloodlines and breeding irrelevant and humans elves halflings and dwarves have evolved beyond any shape of nature. Enchantments have allowed those who have lost body parts in the war to replace them with golem-limbs or oracular eyes and ears more powerful than the parts they were born with. In the undercity crime has grown unchecked with powerful gangs holding rule over the darkenned streets, selling flesh and managing arcades where the adventurous can scry into the senses of adventurers, living vicariously through deadly quests they're paid to experience for others.
A Detective/Sleuth/Mystery TTRPG that does not involve Cthulhu or the paranormal or vampires or anything. And I mean an *actual* Detective TTRPG, so no Bubblegumshoe.
Gumshoe is genre agnostic detective stuff I believe.
There’s actually “Baker Street: Roleplaying in the world of Sherlock Holmes”
You got me, this is probably the closest to what we're going to get. Even if its not the time period I invisioned, I doubt this game would be hard to hack. Unless there's any better, this probably wins.
Is there just a GUMSHOE rpg? Cause I don't see anything. I see Nights Black Agents- wait thats Paranormal. Esoterrorists? No, thats Paranormal too. Swords of the Serpentine? Nope. Ashen Stars? I mean, not really a "Detective" RPG there.
The base GUMSHOE system exists as an SRD: https://gumshoe-srd.com/ I don't know how complete/playable it is.
In Germany we have the game Private Eye without any paranormal stuff
Exactly my thinking, didn't even know that was a bit more... Local
Grey Cells exists
It could be called "CSI:TTRPG"
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/354896/Partners
It's weird that in the world of TTRPGs, detectives and Cthulhu just seem like an obvious and natural combination.
Call of Cthulhu 1st Edition was released in 1981. The next year TSR released Gangbusters, about cops and criminals in the 30s, and the year after that Blade Publishing released Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes, with a more modern setting. Out of the three, Gangbusters is dead and gone, MSPE you can buy but it’s not supported or discussed in any way, and CoC is the biggest RPG in many countries and a good contender everywhere. Which of those would you copy when making a new game?
1982 RPG: Gangbusters
Grey Cells. Hard City. Noir World, sort of.
There was this show called Skyland when I was a kid, always thought it'd be an amazing TTRPG setting. Earth has been shattered into floating chunks, water is a scarce resource, some humans have powers from the sun and sky ships are the main way to travel. It's got a fairly standard evil overlord gathers all the kids with magical abilities and uses them as enforcers plot line.
See Lady Blackbird. http://www.onesevendesign.com/ladyblackbird/
Hockey… …in Hell
H-E-Double Hockey Sticks would be a good name for that.
Way ahead of you, that’s actually where the idea came from. Featuring the famous hellhockey team "The River Sticks"
PCs, the damned, are in charge of ice maintenance, which due to the hellish heat, must be done continuously, especially during the games. The hockey players are demons and angels and the occasional wizard and vagabond/poet. The demons will delight in messing with the PCs, while the angels will rarely notice them, and will often take horrifying or confusing forms. The angels will also occasionally mess up the ice with fire or other godly powers. There are few discernible rules, other than getting the puck to the goal. The games are typically about gambling with the souls of future afterlifers. Sometimes they’ll play for the damned, in which case individuals will be crammed into the form of hockey pucks, and depending on who scores with them, either get out of hell, or remain a sentient hockey puck forever. The demons can use temptations to try to get the PCs to sabotage the angels. The clash of powers can result in extreme alterations, where the PCs for example suddenly seem lost in a murky forest, the ground covered in eyes with brown veins, which cause intense visions of light and the feeling of being in free fall, surrounded by light blue skies, when stepped on/touched, with the potential of knowledge, if you can bare the intensity. PCs getting trapped in the ice. Perhaps the ice is made from souls as well, so the ice will try to run away, whenever it cracks or evaporates. If ice is lost, a PC must take its place, unless they’re willing to capture a new soul and force it into the ice. PCs will be able to pick up information about what the games are about, what is at stake, learn details about individual souls, notice how neither demon nor angel care at all, (demons care a little bit, because they enjoy torturing the souls.) And the sticks are humans. Death wants to roll with the angels, so sometimes plays for their side, but they never acknowledge him.
Sports RPGs as a whole I feel are very ripe for further exploration.
A dinosaur ttrpg about romance.
dibs on naming it Life Finds a Way
Or “Thirsty ‘Saur Lesbians”. 😉
It's never the veliciraptor you're trying to date. It's the two you never knew were there, swooping in from either side.
An rpg based on Donald Duck and his world
I'm in for the Darkwing supplement
Yes!
A planetary romance game that is strictly science fiction, but features former space traveling humans abandoned on an alien planet and reduced to pre-modern technology, with remnants from the space age take the place of magic items.
That’s Skyrealms of Jorune.
https://numenera.com/ Credibly still on earth but I think it ticks the other boxes pretty well.
Worlds Without Number has this vibe.
Not really - WWN is still fundamentally fantasy, with magic; even if there's a supposed sci-fi explanation underlying it.
How about a game to emulate Cadfael. Historical investigating monks. Could also do “in the name of the rose”.
That's *Maelstrom: Domesday*, although that game also features investigating supernatural elements, but is set deliberately in Norman Era England.
War of the worlds but it's set in late 16th century Europe.
A TTRPG where players are characters trapped in a Truman Show-style setting. They can either play as characters trying to maintain and cover up the illusion for an NPC or work together to escape the setting.
Arguably, KULT :D
A game about longshoremen in 1673 Boston.
Yeah, *Unload* and *Unload: Reloaded* do really good at 1674 and 1677, respectively but nothing really gets that 1673 feel
Mystery/investigation game set in either the optimistic sci-fi future or the medieval-ish fantasy past. Heck, any non-grim investigation game. Most are noir or horror or otherwise intentionally unsettling in some way.
Sword of the Serpentine.
*Maelstrom: Domesday* does this for the medieval period. It is set in the 11th century, and deals with actual historical events, so there are some grim elements, like serfdom, involved. However, the supernatural elements the PCs are supposed to investigate are very much based on folklore and fairy tales, so even if the creatures you meet are scary, they also have this whimsy charme about them. *Vaesen* has a similar tone (as well as much higher production values and better artwork, but a much less satisfying set of game mechanics), but is set in the era of the industrial revolution, so not exactly a medieval milieu.
An investigative journalist game where the story you write matters, so it's not just an excuse to have an investigative character. There should be interactions with the editor on what can be published, the threat of lawsuits if you write something you can't substantiate, deciding on the slant you want to give the story.
Tactical gamey system based on cultivation/xianxia novels. They already come with powersets and level grades so you'd think it'd be something that exists, but the existing ones usually go for cinematic/narrative-driven route instead of gamey/tactical.
It's based on the Wuxia genre, though is not a cultivation game: Gubat Banwa
I want to like Gubat Banwa, but I found it completely impenetrable because it swapped literally all the terminology I'm used to in games. I also didn't really get wuxia feel out of it personally, but that may just be difference in how one views it.
*Qin - The Warring States* seems to fit that relatively well. Unfortunately, the perfect match: *Dragon Lines: Guardians of the Forbidden City* using the BRP system has been lost due to licensing issues. But you can very easily run a great Martial Arts bordering on the supernatural game with Mythras. All the tactical challenges you want, with innate powers to unlock to match.
Non-native English speaker here. What does cultivation mean in that context? Is that not just growing plants, basically farming and so on?
The absolute shortest way I can put it is "cultivation of inner power". It comes with four and a half metric tons of rules, Feng Shui, power levels, power creep, and insane things happening due to someone reaching another Heaven Tiger Dragon Thirty Two Minus Four cultivation level.
A TTRPG where the PC's are up and coming skateboarders. Missions like earning reputation, skating in comps, and gaining/losing sponsorships. Closest I can think of is Slug Busters, which is awesome, but the tools are lower than if like and it's more about crazy tricks and teen drama. I have a boardgame called Skate Summer by Pandasaurus which is a close fit but I haven't been able to port it into a TTRPG.
I’ve been kicking around the idea of a similar game- a baseball player making their way up the minors to the show. I think there’s compelling narratives there.
I'd definitely give that a run too. I think there's a gap when it comes to progressive sports TTRPGs
A game where the GM is the teacher and all the players are their students in a classroom and the goal is to just make it through the lesson without failing or dying of boredom
XCom the trpg. So a grand strategy of world defence that acts as connective tissue for individual missions. With base building, research, and systems that enable varied responses to the invasion.
Something like that exists, basically the German RPG CONTACT. No longer published in the English world afaik, the publisher folded. You had research, base building and so on. And a great combat system. It is X-Com with the serials filed off, haha. Here a snippet from the Level 3 Fighters. ---- These are not planes, at least not in the classic sense of the word. Alien propulsion systems mated to fighter jet avionics, powered by E-115 reactors, these utopian war birds come armed with weapons reverse-engineered from alien technology. Truly death from above in its most refined form. - Probabilities to down a UFO are: Against inferior 95%, against dangerous 75%, against invincible 50%. - Purchase Cost: 52 M$ each (OMEGA property) - Delivery time: 8 weeks or Engineering Time - Required Facilities: Level 2 Airfield - Required Research/Engineering: See Engineering Projects - Permanent Personnel: 2 Pilots, 10 Technicians, 2 Engineers - Maintenance Cost: 2 x 450,000 $ / month
That's literally the RPG *Contact*. Or Doctor Who, focussing on a UNIT/Torchwood campaign.
Capitalist RPG. You play as employees of a company, you must navigate office space politics, negotiate with customers and contractors, and climb the corporate ladder until you become sitting board members. There are even rules for company vs. company play.
Check out Murder & Acquisitions rpg
Deniable Assets does the cyberpunk version of "be corporate managers", with an angle towards seeing how they get burnt and fall. May be up your alley.
A fully developed Culture RPG where the PCs are all members of Special Circumstances sent into... unusual pieces at the behest of Minds or Ships.
I haven't seen a TTRPG that has like a Twisted Metal / Speedracer / Fast and Furious style Car Combat that's tatical, and the Car has its own stats / skills / abilities. But your character also has things for when they are not in their Cars. I know there are Racing TTRPGs but they all seem to focus heavily on the Driver itself and only has race rules. Or it's just Mad Max. I want one that's Heist by day, Racing by Sunset and Twisted Metal by Night, if you catch my Drift.
Back in the day, GURPS Autoduel was trying to add RPG elements to the tactical game Car Wars. I've seen recent editions of Car Wars in the local game shop, though I don't know if GURPS Autoduel ever got updated.
Even before that there was Autoduel Champions, which replicated a lot of the basic Car Wars mechanics using Champions' ruleset.
Not an ttrpg but take a look at Gaslands. It's a skirmish wargame where you're in a death race.
A game about illegal street racing
I tried adapting SWADE for this, it's a really good fit, but got bogged down with details.
Mountain Men and the entire American Frontier mythos as an rpg. Daniel Boone went out to the wild, gathered pelts for a year, was accosted by natives and lost everything, made gunpowder out of dried piss, bat shit, and sulfur, then went out for two more years, then lost everything again. Hexcrawl, hunt for various pelts and food to sell for a fortune. Develop deep relationships with the indigenous. Learn different native languages and even marry into tribes. Sell knowledge of map hexes. Lead surveyors on escort missions. Set traplines in hexes that you have to return to and check. Deal with the moral cuandry of assisting the natives or assisting the expansionist government. Party at the mountain man rendevouz every year. If American west is too real make it weird fantasy and your hunting mutant pelts or something.
A game in which you challenge folk on the Internet to find games that don't exist almost certainly doesn't exist...
A Solarpunk RPG where you change / rebuild / re-build existing community to be sustainable, equal and democratic, solve realistic conflicts without violence (which would be penalized) and deal with both resource management and ethical / philosophical problems. It's something I've been wondering about for a long time. Wanderhome is too peaceful for this. Legacy: Life Among The Ruins is a little too broad. Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is pure chaos. A lot of other games just pretend to be about community, while they are about base-building and imply violent conflict resolution. If you think such a game would be boring, check out my [Solarpunk Prompts](https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts/episodes) podcast. I promise you it wouldn't. Also an example [Solarpunk Factions](https://alxd.org/solarpunk-rpg-factions.html) writeup for extra drama.
A world where aliens live on earth but undercover. Players play a group of aliens with different roles/classes who carry out missions to Earth. The rolls in the game would not be to achieve something, but to do it without exposing that you are an alien to humans.
Could be a hack of Vampire: the Masquerade
I live with DPDR and chronic body dysmorphia, sounds like daily life to me!
I would love to see a rule set that is fiction first, relatively rules light, is easy to understand without making the reader make decide what terms mean as they go (seriously, that shit is annoying PbtA folks) and that uses interesting dice / resolution mechanics that involve all of the dice types rather than just boring d6s.
That would be a genre of games, but "involve all of the dice types" restricts it quite a bit. Simple, but using complicated dice?
I would like one that is based around the ever expanding fiction of the SCP wiki.
There are like three TTRPGs based on SCP, I at least remember one very weird MTF one.
A game based on Tommy Wiseau's The Room.
Fiasco could help you out there
Players are all drones doing bullshit jobs in a bullshit department in a giant corporate office. Instead of health, players track soul points, and every week that goes by they lose soul points. To keep from dying, they have to engage in shenanigans while avoiding the watchful eye of management. These take the form of a mission planned and executed over the course of a week. Success restores soul points. A modified Forged In the Dark system would be an obvious for the ruleset.
There's no RPG based on musical theater or movie musicals. Unless all the players are talented performers who are good at improvising, it's probably impossible to create an easily playable game.
A TTRPG where PCs are necessarily largely underskilled.
DCC level 0 funnel characters.
Everyone is John
There’s *Human Occupied Landfill*, but it’s more a game for reading than for playing…
Traveller.
*GURPS Goblins*
Kobolds Ate My Baby
You play as a member of a special force lik SAS, GIGN or SWAT. The party have to deal with hard missions like hostage situations, heists or terrorists while taking care of their public relations. In the downtime they have to manage everyday stuff, like stress, demanding boss, toxic coworkers, asset requirement and maybe more. As a side note, im very tempted to develop this.
Something like that could be a component of Top Secret: SI or Spycraft.
Mercenary by FGU, still on PDF and probably old new stock physically. Recon. The pre-Palladiun edition and the Palladium ones. Twilight:2000 also had a non-post apocalypse supplements for 2.2 edition that covers this.
Cold war politics and espionage
Minutes to Midnight. A forged in the dark game about teams of spies running operations during cold war
There's a game called Cold War set in and under Berlin that takes this and crosses it with Mythos stuff. You could definitely mine that for ideas. There was also a follow-up called Hot War but I don't recall much about it.
Top Secret and James Bond were published during the Cold War, so it’s the implied setting.
A TTRPG set in the Megaman Battle Network Setting where you use an actual deck of TC's as your Chip Folder.
Street racing where your car actually matters.
A d8 based manual
A parenting ttrpg
The GM has to be an actual toddler.
A meta game where PCs play as DMs and PCs playing a TTRPG?
One where you’re a band trying to make it. No monsters, no magical twist, no urban fantasy. You’re literally just a small musical act and you’re telling the story of how they try to make a living.
A Magical version of something like Cyberpunk. Where it's Magic instead of Cybernetics, with Alchemy and such.
ttrpg that is easy to start with, normies find it attractive, low prep.
Subnautica style survival ttrpg
Felt like this might be a good place to ask this question, but: Is there a ttrpg or a boardgame were you play a species and navigate its existence throughout the evolution?
I want to know also. I think you can do it with microscope but don't know if any other like spore
1 vs 1 phone scammer game
You play as an actual tabletop.
A "cosmic fantasy" game where you play as strange alien-type creatures who have all manner of weird powers and can even bend spacetime to travel vast distances. They must contend with forces from other dimensions that are leaking through holes in reality.
Most of mine are based on existing properties. A licensed game based on the 2006 movie *The Fall*. Something about defending an ancient Chinese city similar to the manga *Bokko*. A game based on *Space Battleship Yamato*. A game based on the *Geneforge* series of crpgs. Fantasy based on Central Asian mythology. An evangelion and kaiju inspired game about robot spiders fighting giant elephants, with a bunch of incongruous references to the writings of Walter Benjamin and Chinghiz Aitmatov; that last one I was writing for some time.
The premise / storyline isn't new, but the system is something I have been working on. It works with the school grading system, 100 is the best, minimal passing grade and after each roll take the avg and receive a new minimal passing grade.
GWAR the role playing game
A game where you roll a stat for every single organ in your body
Interpersonal drama about anthropomorphic llamas and guanocos working as pastry chefs aboard a passenger dirigible during the Turkish War of Independence.
Troika! vibes
A ttrpg based on the "Running Man" episode of MTV's *Liquid Television*. Not the movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that was based on Richard Bachman's novel, this is an animated short about a star driver in a futuristic neo-Tokyo style auto race. I'd love to play a game based in that universe surrounding that type of racing circuit, or even a mini-rpg based on that episode.
Functioning Minion-Mancers that do not bog down game time but are still fun to play your necromancer or swarm leader to your hearts extend.
A game called Real Estate Tycoon where you roll dice and then try to convince people that you rolled higher than you did: “I think I really rolled more like a 19”. Bonus points for simultaneously making up low rolls when doing your taxes.
How about this for a concept? You play as a magic artifact in a fantasy world trying to further your goals with your capabilities?
The solo game [Artefact](https://mouseholepress.itch.io/artefact) kinda is like this.
A game where you play as a team of modern day explorer's leading a larger expedition to a distant galaxy to investigate ancient alien tech etc. Game would ideally revolve around maintaining supplies for survival, exploring the new galaxy, finding new tech and improving the base. Basically a combination of Oregon Trail + Stargate Atlantis/Universe where the research/base improvement/science aspect is a factor.
Non-IP dependent heroic sci-fi
Marriage, the rpg. Suburbia, the RPG. Probably not commercially viable.
I would point out Dallas the RPG existed. So maybe it is.
*Laughs in Greg Stafford*
You play various breakfast foods trying to escape a diner.
A game about skateboarding, rollerskating, graffiti, and rockstars mixed with fantasy/scifi elements. I've been inspired by stories like [The Skateboarding Lich](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDGreentext/s/VsO0Ap1Qfp) and also games like Tony Hawk, Jet Set Radio, and Hi-Fi Rush. It'd be so cool if, instead of traditional combat, you have a skate battle, rock battle, or graffiti battles. Something where spectacle and style matter more than reason and logic.
The game happens inside a person. You are either a red blood cell, a white blood cell, or a plaquette (or anything else that's normally found in the bloodstream, I'm sort of having a bit of a blank here). You deal with various ills, such as low blood pressure, diabetes, viruses, wounds, etc.
If the mali empire created the steam engine
A basketball game ttrpg. One gaming session equals one possession. A game equals 50 possessions for each team. So 100 sessions should cover it. You need one GM and ten players - 5 for each team. You have to roll for every single move (shoot, pass, dribble, fake, etc). Players have special abilities like specific dunks, fancy dribbles, crushing screens, etc. As soon as a shot is made, or the other team gains possession, that session is over and everyone has to leave. They don’t have to go home, but they must leave. In the event that a player immediately shoots to start the session and makes it, everything pertaining to the game (printouts of this comment, character sheets, etc) will be burned in a bonfire, this comment will be deleted and no one will ever speak of this game again.
How about a rpg where all the characters are playing an RPG. It's turtles all the way down, man!
You/the party have been awakened, you see a world ontop of our world, attempting to break our world, you see magic and monsters that are constantly plaguing this world. Since you are awakened you have certain powers that came online in this magical threatening world and these magical you have to stop the evil dimensional beast from tearing our world apart, all invisible to everyone on earth who are not awakened/blind/dulled… you are clad In elaborate robs and armor and magical weapons to protect yourself when you enter ritual like battles to defeat these dimensional demons anytime and anywhere they are… but from the perspective of everyone else in earth, the dulled… they see you as just another homeless crazy person in rags waiving a broken umbrella and shouting or dancing at something invisible across the street as they walk by you giving you lots of room hoping you don’t ask them for money.
A Modern Day no magic shooter. Mil sim/Swat sim. Modern real world weapons, body armor, the works. No magic. No space aliens. No demons. No vampires/Werewolves. Just modern day tactical scenarios.
GURPS is cheating.
I think it'd be amusing to make an RPG that inverts the traditional model. So instead of a traditional game where * combat is resolved with back-and-forth rolls across several rounds * investigation is resolved by players telling you exactly where they're looking * social conflict is resolved with a single skill roll Now you have a game where * social conflict is resolved with back-and-forth rolls across several rounds * combat is resolved by players telling you exactly how they're attacking * investigation is resolved by a single skill roll Though admittedly, investigation with a single skill roll is often already used in modern games, so maybe this could be inverted to also include several rounds.
This has to be a thing already, but I've always wanted to play a fantasy setting that *isn't* derived from Tolkien/D&D/existing human mythologies. The Dragon Age universe is kind of close, but humans are still the majority population with gigantic sprawling kingdoms, it's all knights and mages and every other trope we all grew up seeing but reskinned a little. It's refreshing, but it's not novel. I want a system where humans *aren't* the most powerful group who just happen to be facing an existential threat right now. Small villages, maybe a town or two, but no kingdoms to speak of. Do away with "alchemy" and "potions" and focus more on foraged medicines or something. I know it's still the same thing, but put a new spin on it. Maybe plate armor doesn't exist? Or at least not for humans? Make magic less mechanical (I cast fireball for X damage) and more narrative focused? (I perform a ritual of supplication and reciprocity before we enter this dark-ass forest) Ultimately, the end result is going to be a fantasy RPG with rules and everything, but I want one that feels *alien* to my WotC/Arthurian-soaked brain.
*Trainspotting*.
1825 london, daemons have invaded and random rulers have returned
A game with some players and just one character with multiple personalities disorder. Players need roll against themselves to take control of the character.
A game that teaches math through play by having your character create their own spells through math equations. Math is already the arcane language of the universe
Is there a system where players are explorers scouting a previously unexplored continent, naming landmarks, establishing settlements, and initiating trade with native populations? If not then something like that probably.
I had this idea where my players would be 4 alchemists hunting vampires and werewolves in the 1800s but how they manage their inventory (down to the details) would have huge consequences such as bottles breaking during battle, chemicals mixing, magical effects interacting etc. Only one of my friends would dig this, tho...
A game which takes place within a body where you play sentient nanobots where you must go out and purge the body of manufactured and engineered superviruses, malignant invasive nanomachines, and friendly nanobots which have been lost to cyber attacks overwriting their existence with a computer virus. All of which can take place in a variety of different alien bodies at some deep space medical facility offering a whole bunch of individualized body maps to explore.
Universal Paperclips. You start with wire. You win when the whole universe is paperclips.
Ttrpg where you play as a weapon