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[generic] Untapped RPG IPs

Guvnor

Guvnor

The Guvnor
Staff member
Which untapped IP would you love to see, or even write?
It's ok if someone replies and points out and actual conversion, official or otherwise.
It's ok to discuss theme, style, problems, system or something else.
 
I had this conversation earlier in regards to the fact there has never been an official roleplaying game for the Dragonriders of Pern, which is surprising.
 
Nathan said:
I had this conversation earlier in regards to the fact there has never been an official roleplaying game for the Dragonriders of Pern, which is surprising.
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Yeah I would have bought that in a microsecond.
Maybe Anne McCaffrey wasn't interested in RPGs?
Or maybe all the unofficial but sanctioned by McCaffrey fandom MUSHes and MOOs scratched that itch?
Maybe conservative publishers backed away when they realised that green dragon mating flights means there's an awful lot of gay sex baked into the setting?

I have a notion that a Last Fleet hack would be good fit for Dragonriders of Pern.
 
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You beat me to it.
 
Mission: Impossible: Probably due to the licencing costs that would be incurred.
Harry Potter/The Wizarding World: Costs again possibily although I've also read that Rowling doesn't want anyone else playing in her sandpit (not sure how true that is but given the "feedback" she's been giving about some of the casting of the Harry Potter TV series I'm inclined to believe it).


Not untapped but I believe could be tapped again:

Indiana Jones: I know there were a couple of previous versions (TSR and WEG) but surprised Modiphius or Pinnacle haven't had a go.
Babylon 5: I own all the previous versions but I would still buy a new version. The problem is it's an old IP that probably has no value now.
 
One I would like to suggest is the anime Ninja Scroll. The film pretty much inspired The Matrix and is considered to be one of the most influential anime, next to Akira and Ghost in the Shell.
 
IMHO a lot of the potential IPs are tightly structured to tell one specific story, which limits what you could do with them as games; the only game I know that does that is Seven Worlds. Most of the ones which interest me have already been done; Dune, Known Space, the Expanse, the Demon Princes, the Vorkosigan Saga, Conan, the Lord of the Rings...

The Dumarest Saga, the Polesotechnic League, and Flandry's Terran Empire, although arguably those are Classic Traveller prior to the introduction of the Third Imperium (or, in the case of Flandry, after it).

CJ Cherryh's Alliance/Union universe; as I understand it there was talk of this at some point but it didn't work out. 2300AD felt a lot like it to me, though.
 
Erikson & Esslemont’s “Malazan” setting.

Leigh Bardugo’s “Grishaverse” setting.

Jonathan Stroud’s “Lockwood & Co” setting (and or building on the Joe Cornish Netflix adaptation).

Chris Wooding’s “Tales of the Ketty Jay” setting.
 
Sablemage said:
CJ Cherryh's Alliance/Union universe; as I understand it there was talk of this at some point but it didn't work out. 2300AD felt a lot like it to me, though.
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We pitched it to Steve Jackson Games if you recall, CJC was up for it, but they didn't want to consider it.
 
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Nick Middleton said:
Erikson & Esslemont’s “Malazan” setting.

Leigh Bardugo’s “Grishaverse” setting.

Jonathan Stroud’s “Lockwood & Co” setting (and or building on the Joe Cornish Netflix adaptation).

Chris Wooding’s “Tales of the Ketty Jay” setting.
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Tell me more, do me an elevator pitch!

In fact, go on all of you! Elevator pitches!
 
Nick Middleton said:
Erikson & Esslemont’s “Malazan” setting.

Leigh Bardugo’s “Grishaverse” setting.

Jonathan Stroud’s “Lockwood & Co” setting (and or building on the Joe Cornish Netflix adaptation).

Chris Wooding’s “Tales of the Ketty Jay” setting.
Click to expand...

I swore there was a Grishaverse RPG.
 
For the Honor of the Queen: The Honor Harrington RPG
A high-intensity game of intergalactic diplomacy and warfare. You have two characters; one is an officer on a ship belonging to one of the great star Navies defending their homeworlds from all comers, and a diplomat fighting on another front, the cutthroat field of politics and detente. Huge multi-ship battles, intense personal duels and cutthroat intrigue are central to the game, with the fate of the galaxy on the line.
 
I did at one point have a go at getting Jo Clayton's Diadem universe to the table, but it fizzled. Space opera with a strong science fantasy element as there's the science setting universe and the fantasy setting universe.

The other things I would have loved to have seen is Brian Daley's A Tapestry of Magics and Dave Duncan's A Rose Red City. Both multiplanar fantasies.
 
Is there a Game of Thrones RPG? Not sure what it would look like, or if it would be my cup of tea, but I can't think of one.

I can imagine an Emily in Paris game using FitD - the "missions" involve solving some sort of fashion marketing problem, with downtime for Emily (and her friends') turbulent romantic lives.

Relatedly, freeforms have a long history of mining odd IP for games. (Serial numbers filed off, of course.) So I've written PG Wodehouse Blandings and Father Ted-inspired games (those are different games, not a weird mashup of the two), and played in games inspired by 'Allo 'Allo, Are You Being Served?, Dollhouse and Slow Horses.
 
Absolutely no chance of this ever being made but I'd love to see someone do something with Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind. It'd also be nice if we had more material for Gene Wolfe's 'Book of the New Sun' series, beyond a GURPs supplement.
 
Nick Middleton said:
Erikson & Esslemont’s “Malazan” setting.

Leigh Bardugo’s “Grishaverse” setting.

Jonathan Stroud’s “Lockwood & Co” setting (and or building on the Joe Cornish Netflix adaptation).

Chris Wooding’s “Tales of the Ketty Jay” setting.
Click to expand...
Malazan is a fictional treatment of the authors' GURPS campaign, so ought to be easy to do if they and SJG were interested.

I don't know Lockwood & Co, but I'd be up for the Grishaverse or Tales of the Ketty Jay.
 
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