RPG of Gunnerkrigg Court

[miett]

Hallo!

I'd like to run a role-playing game set in the world of Gunnerkrigg Court. It will be a challenge because...er, I've actually never run a game before, and I'm using a setting that isn't just in a source book.

What I'm thinking is that I might use Burning Wheel for the game mechanics (if any of you are familiar with it--really neat "one roll" engine") but I've got to come up with various "classes" or types of people the players could be, with skills and abilities for each, along with some story arcs and god knows what else.

Here are some possible classes so far, (though I'm not sure about making fairies or ghosts playable.) I'm not even positive whether I want players to be students or faculty. What do you think?

medium - mediation skills (obviously) and mental abilities
scientist - tech related skills
guardian - swordmastery and physical type abilities
fairy - the power to annoy! Just kidding. I'm not sure on this one.
ghost - illusions and manipulations
...?

I've just started making notes about it, so any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Yin]

I believe Tom mooted this idea some time back.

[miett]

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to publish a game, or do anything official. I just want to run a private game with some friends who also love the comic, and figured there might be some more experienced people with ideas about how we might do that.

[Count Casimir]

Here's where and what was nixed. Dunno if it's similar to what you're trying or not.

[miett]

Thanks for the link! It's a little different, though... In that post, Tom is talking about a massively multi-player online computer game, (or alternately, as some people mentioned in that thread, a text-based online game. )

What I'm talking about is a pen and paper tabletop story-telling game that has nothing to do with computers or the internet or people who are not actually sitting at my table while we are playing it...

[monkeybucks]

So this isn't even for people on the forum?

[aijuan]

That should be made online somehow. There's just not enough GC fans.

[miett]

Okay. Well, after some thought, I'm going to just run a game of "Monsters and Other Childish Things," and maybe I'll alter the boarding school module to become the the setting from the comic.

I'm getting the impression there aren't many people who play table top role playing games in this forum since I can't seem to explain it in a way that makes people understand what I was thinking of.

I'm not sure what you mean by it being "for the people in the forum," monkeybucks. The question was for people in the forum, yup. I figured people might find it interesting to discuss how to create a game out of the world, and might have some good suggestions. If you were referring to the game itself--- I can't very well run a table top game for everyone in the forum. Unless you can all be to my house by 7pm. ^_^

Aijuan--It would be really cool to see a text role playing game of GKC online, but that's one of the things Tom specifically nixed in the post linked above. That's why I was wanting to do a real life game with friends at my house instead.

Thanks for the input. I think with the "Monsters and other Childish Things" module, I'll be all set.

[Mezzaphor]

There is a "Tabletop Games" thread further down the first page. EDIT: Here it is.

We came to the conclusion that GC and DnD won't go together without seriously tweaking one or both of them, then we started talking about character alignments.

[AluK]

As I said on the other thread, I think WoD (specially nWoD) is way better suited to handle a setting like GC than DnD. It focuses way more on setting exploration and character interaction than battles.

nWoD got a 1 roll-fixed-difficulty system going that's quite nice, also. The simplified battles makes for faster (and easier) gameplay.

There are some nice and helpful supplements already out. Second Sight (focusing on non-Mage magical characters and other quasi-super-powered entities), Innocents (focusing on 13 y/o or less characters) and Ghost Stories (focusing on ghosts and hauntings) come to mind. I was thinking myself of running a Innocents-based Stand By Me/It (movies based on Stephen King stories) ish game for a few friends, with ghosts and haunts. GC might be another good idea.

[miett]

Ah - Good idea! I'll look into the WoD stuff.

I've actually found that some of the smaller independent games that have come out in the past little while seem to be pretty conducive to narrative and "sandbox" exploration. If you poke around Indie Press Revolution there's some really interesting stuff.

You might get a kick out of "The Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor." It's basically A Series of Unfortunate Events: The roleplaying game. Not so much about combat as about interesting interaction, exploration, and stories unfolding.

[dep]

If anyone does try to make a GC RPG, please consider using the following thingy and possibly a d6 to determine what a character's goal(s) in the Court are.

-

Proficiency-

You want to be the best that you can be. It doesn’t matter how good everyone else is, or even if anyone but you notices your ability; you just want to fulfil your true potential. This desire is usually specific to one skill or set of skills, but your love of perfection tends to affect everything you do at least a little.

Gain points: when you develop skills, when your grades improve, when you get anything exactly right.

Win: when you have maxed out your chosen skill.

Superiority-

It’s all about being the best. The strongest, the most intelligent, the one with most authority . . . whatever. At the moment, the best you can hope for is getting influence with the Court staff, and maybe becoming the head of a small gang. But as you become mature enough to be entrusted with more important positions . . . the sky’s the limit.

Gain points: when you develop skills, when you integrate yourself with your teachers, when you win and everyone knows it.

Win: when you gain an official, important and (reasonably) permanent position within the Court; for example, becoming a medium or senior teacher.

Friendship-

Can’t we all just get along? You may or may not have had some trouble making friends in the past, but it doesn’t matter; you can start over here in Gunnerkrigg. You actively seek out new companions, but you’re aware that a few trustworthy, competent, true-hearted buddies are worth more than any number of passing aquaintances.

Gain points: when you make new friendships and strengthen existing ones, when you protect and help your friends, when you find true love.

Win: when you have a small group of extremely close friendships that could conceivably last through to adulthood.

Survival-

You’re becoming increasingly concerned about your prospects of surviving your time at Gunnerkrigg, at least with all your appendages and your sanity intact. You’re worried about falling to your death in your own dorm, you’ve overheard teachers muttering something about a war and a wolf-tree, magical clowns want your eyes and that quiet redheaded girl brought a Minotaur into history class last week. Paranoia is the only reasonable response, really.

Gain points: when you discover good hiding places and stock them with useful stuff, when you make alliances with creatures and fellow students, when you get new ways to defend yourself.

Win: when you leave Gunnerkrigg safely at the end of Year 11, find out that there's actually nothing to fear, or become powerful enough to be practically invulnerable.

Understanding-

What is the Court? Who built it? What was its original purpose? Who is Coyote? What’s with all the robots? And why does that grey-skinned girl you think is kinda cute seem to be missing her eyes? Curiosity overwhelms you; though finding out the answers to these questions will help you survive and aid your friends, they have also become ends in and of themselves.

Gain points: when you find things that will help you find answers, when you find answers, when you find answers to the questions that those answers bring up.

Win: when it all makes perfect sense, and no major mysteries remain.

Altruism-

Maybe you’re trying to make up for something you’ve done in your past. Maybe you’re too numb inside to be happy right now and therefore focus on helping others. Or maybe you’re, you know, just nice. Though even people focused on superiority and survival will at least make a token effort towards the happiness of others, for you, taking care of both dear friends and perfect strangers is a significant part of your purpose in life.

Gain points: when you help people, when you help things that aren’t people but should be treated like people, when you place others before yourself.

Win: when – thanks, at least in part, to your efforts – Coyote has been appeased, the Court is safe, disaster has been narrowly averted, the Robot Uprising has been prevented, exams are over, etc., etc. Basically, when the quintessential happy ending has been achieved.

-

I think that most students in GC will have two of these goals. Annie is Understanding/Altruism, Kat is Proficiency/Friendship, Parley is Superiority/Friendship . . . not completely sure about the others.

[Count Casimir]

Maybe I'm only thinking of DnD, but it doesn't really seem like a Table Top RPG is something you win; it's just something you eventually stop playing.

[jubal]

Definitely medium, guardian and scientist classes. Allow a player robot class as robots are essentially sentient, and a shadowperson class.

As for an online game, I'm working on a small low-detail/text based multiplayer engine to run on javascript at the moment. I could try and make a small GKC themed area if I can get the coding fixed.

EDIT; Just saw Tom's ban on such things. Would it be OK do you think if we made something similar without any specifically GKC features (but still with robots,mediums, and the alchemy refernces and stuff) or would that suck too much?