Books/shows/movies/settings you'd love to make a game out of, but have no idea how to do it. We've all thought about it, right?
So, I've been on a bit of a nostalgia kick lately, and suddenly, it came to me, what would a game based on pic related be like? Hell, even just a game based on Gerry Anderson's work in general. Cheesy, outdated technology presented as cutting edge, outrageous disregard for reality when it gets in the way, and of course, explosions and spectacular disasters that miraculously manage not to actually kill anybody. How would I run it? Assuming I'm not the only one who remembers the show.
I saw a few episodes once. It was very confusing. There must have been something funny going on with that world's geology, because it seems like things were always falling into giant sinkholes. Everywhere you look, from the jungle to the bottom of the sea, the bad guy was usually a sinkhole hundreds of feet deep that suddenly opened up and trapped some kind of giant vehicle.
International Rescue were essentially paramedics. They were completely nonviolent and apolitical and basically just saved people when their giant vehicles fell into sinkholes. So why the hell did they act like spies? I know, I know, it was the Cold War and that kind of shit was cool, but it's just kind of mystifying how they took every measure to hide the fact that they were available to help you if you needed them, up to and including chasing down journalists to destroy their recordings.
And why the fuck were they all brothers? With a name like international Rescue I was expecting a Star Trek kind of thing where they recruited the best and brightest paramedics from every country (or at least every country on their side of the Cold War.) Instead all the main characters are near-identical and I can't tell them apart.
Isaiah Jackson
Oh dear, I feel a sperg-out coming on...
>Everywhere you look, from the jungle to the bottom of the sea, the bad guy was usually a sinkhole hundreds of feet deep that suddenly opened up and trapped some kind of giant vehicle.
To be fair, there was more content than that. Terrorist attacks on airliners, a literal towering inferno, impending meltdown at a nuclear plant. But yeah, giant vehicles getting trapped somewhere did play a big part, because giant vehicles were kinda the creator's thing. They were the main thing I watched it for.
>but it's just kind of mystifying how they took every measure to hide the fact that they were available to help you if you needed them, up to and including chasing down journalists to destroy their recordings.
From a game perspective, that could make things more interesting, a break from rescue operations. In setting, if I remember correctly, it was because they had this idea that their technology could be used to do a lot of damage if it fell into the wrong hands. Such as The Hood's.
And that's something that could make it interesting as a game. It's clear that The Hood has a lot of underworld/terrorist connections, but we don't get much detail about it. Expanding on that and perhaps occasionally forcing International Rescue to use those sidearms they carry might be interesting.
Then again, I don't know how much has changed in the reboot. I don't know if I can bring myself to watch it...
John Moore
>Books/shows/movies/settings you'd love to make a game out of, but have no idea how to do it.
Well, might as well continue with the 1960's thing. Running this would take better GMing skills than I'll ever have, but damn it'd be a great campaign if done right.
Samuel Morris
I would love a game of Car Lesbians with the mechanics and setting of Mad Max.
Carter Bennett
Because their equipment was far more advanced than anyone elses and so could be used for evil purposes.
Dylan Brown
...
Carson Hernandez
I'd just love to be able to pull of Chesterton's absurdism in a game.
Brayden Green
i would love to do something based on COD nazi zombies and/or wolfenstien
It's a world where super-vehicles are common. Their stuff seems roughly on-par with stuff in the private sector, and not even that far beyond what was possible in the real 60's.
Wyatt Moore
>atomic super jet that kills you if you spend more than a few hours in it
The FAA really dropped the ball on that one.
Andrew Taylor
The reboot is pretty close. They got rid of the super-racist shit. The dad is dead, but the Hood is still around and still devoting so much energy into stealing technology that he could have just developed it independently by now. He also already has global-scale superweapons, so there's really little point for him to try to get more. I guess he just collects them.
Luke Murphy
>Hell, even just a game based on Gerry Anderson's work in general Captain Scarlet would basically be Nights Black Agents.
Asher Parker
We broke the sound barrier way back in 1947. Jets that could kill you with G-force had long been a reality. A jet that kills you even when it's flying level and not changing velocity is a step down.
Gavin Brooks
To be honest the secrecy hurts them here.
Think about it, if you don't know what International Rescue is then Jeff Tracy looks suspiciously like a supervillain.
Their craft are faster than almost every other aircraft by a fairly significant amount, there's a scene in one episode, or was it the movie, where the navy clocks Thunderbird 2 as being faster than an aircraft but slower than a missile and tries to splat it with an aegis cruiser.
Dylan Collins
It was even sillier but I have a soft spot for Stingray.
Jordan Jones
Then I also wonder how the British and American governments feel knowing that the fastest aircraft (and most advanced space station) in the world belongs to an NGO run by a pathologically secretive madman who spends untold billions of dollars fishing logging equipment out of sinkholes and doesn't hire outside his own family. In a peaceful world where the US appears to be an uncontested superpower (it's easy to forget that it's not actually set during the Cold War) it really does look like the biggest threat to the world is him.
How does Jeff fund all that nonsense, anyway? Presumably by patenting and marketing inventions to the public, but that goes against his philosophy of hoarding tech so that nobody can use it for evil.
Kayden Flores
>Your GM will never begin a session with, "Stand by for action! Anything can happen in the next [length of a session]!"
Nathaniel Sanders
As I say, if you don't know what Tracy Island really is it pings supervillain
>island base >frequent rocket launches from hidden silos >neverending supply of rocket fuel >One of the greatest scientists ever apparently lives there 'of his own free will' >family cult of secrecy >undisclosed income >private satellite >constant overflight by mysterious aircraft >mountains of presumably heavily encrypted radio traffic >truly ungodly concealed industrial facilities
if I were in MI6 I'd be shitting myself and trying to get a mole onto the island ASAP.
Logan Hill
Best Call of Cthulhu setting ever.
Nicholas Young
>Their stuff seems roughly on-par with stuff in the private sector
Except that IR's aircraft can go just as fast as Fireflash without killing the crew. Yeah, the private sector may have this tech, but it seems to fail spectacularly on quite a regular basis.
Which raises the question, if IR has managed to develop that technology to make it safe enough to use, doesn't keeping it to themselves go against their goal of saving lives? Why keep letting Fireflash go down over the ocean when Brains can apparently find the fault just by looking over the blueprints?
Angel Price
>if I were in MI6 I'd be shitting myself and trying to get a mole onto the island ASAP.
Who says they haven't already got one? It'd be interesting to find out she was playing both sides.
Luke Anderson
But user, if it were publicly known how to make a giant vehicle that doesn't instantly collapse into a sinkhole, the Hood could build giant vehicles that don't collapse into sinkholes! And there'd be no one to stop him except the same guys who always stop him and also the military of every nation on earth that would now also be equipped with sinkhole-resistant giant vehicles.
Blake Lewis
It is odd that the Tracys are American and yet only seem interested in gathering intelligence in the UK.
Thomas Davis
Well, I don't remember the exact episode, but it does get established that they do have other agents around the world. Penelope is just the one who gets all the screen time.
Noah Long
Hey, if I'm ever gonna be in a game about being locked up, this is how I'm doing it.
Angel Ramirez
Why not just reskin Car Lesbians with Mad Max stuff. I did it for an Ork red sunz game.
