Genesys Collaborative Home Brew Game

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Jul 4, 2020 9:08 pm
Hello all, I've decided to float a game concept and see what shakes out.

I'd like to run a Genesys game that is built completely off collaborative world-building and player input. I do mean completely. I normally do collaborative world-building for all campaigns I GM, but I typically come to the table with some seed ideas; a genre or theme at the very least. This time, I am coming to the table with my hands empty and outstretched to my (currently hypothetical) players. I am open to any genre.

I know we have a broad player base here, and many varied interests and play styles, so...

You should join this game if:
-You enjoy collaborative world-building and would like to build a game and world with a group of players, with me acting as guide and facilitator
-You are familiar with the Genesys system, or at the very least, the FFG Star Wars system (this style of game will not be ideal for teaching a system, I'd prefer folks come to the table with some basic knowledge)
-You enjoy character driven, RP heavy TTRPG campaigns
-You are prepared to come to the table with ideas, and prepared to be flexible with how those ideas shape up in a collaborative environment
-You are willing and able to post at least twice a week

If you're interested, please reply to this post with one random idea. It can be a world-building idea, a character concept, a villain or NPC concept, anything goes.
Jul 5, 2020 5:30 am
So literally starting from scratch? I'd like to see a villain, or maybe more of a rival, that is not combat related. That way you have to think of different ways to 'win' against them. You get to a store, and they are already there, and have bought what you needed. You got to an in, and the entourage has booked the entire place.
Jul 5, 2020 11:44 am
I enjoy Genesys a lot actually and also like World-Building too. I would be down for this and as for ideas, I like WWI Weird War where the Central Powers have opened a rift to another world and have allowed all sorts of magic and evil monsters into Europe. I also like the Fantasy versus High Technology, where one realm is High Magic and the other is High Science. These are just some ideas that I have thanks.
Jul 6, 2020 12:57 pm
I love Genesys and I have soooooo many ideas so would love to be part of this. Couple of the ideas I've been thinking about doing in Genesys but haven't had the time yet to put any work into are a Pirates/Swashbuckling setting (think very Pirates of the Caribbean or 7th Sea) or a more Vikings mythology themed setting (the dragon prows on the longships granting the ability for ships to sail through the mists to other realms)
Jul 6, 2020 2:13 pm
I'm interested in a bit of a hard pivot - the Twilight Imperium setting in Genesys (and the board game) really makes me interested to see if the system could be used for actual grand Space Opera, with a focus on fleets and interplanetary nations and the larger-than-life characters in positions commanding and governing them.
Jul 6, 2020 2:33 pm
GreyGriffin says:
I'm interested in a bit of a hard pivot - the Twilight Imperium setting in Genesys (and the board game) really makes me interested to see if the system could be used for actual grand Space Opera, with a focus on fleets and interplanetary nations and the larger-than-life characters in positions commanding and governing them.
Space Opera is one of the setting styles built in to the core game. This system is a generic version of the system used in FFG's Star Wars games. Star Wars is arguably a Space Opera.

I guess I'm saying that Space Opera is probably the best supported setting option in this system. There is a wealth of Star Wars content that could easily be reskinned or hacked to fit. All other setting would require a fair bit of homebrew on the GM side.
Jul 6, 2020 3:15 pm
I'm specifically interested in widening the scope - "grand" Space Opera - fleet battles against starfighter duels, or planetary invasions against individual combat. But even Dune ended in a knife fight I guess.
Jul 6, 2020 4:01 pm
GreyGriffin says:
But even Dune ended in a knife fight I guess.
Well said, lol.

For myself, that is fun and beauty of a true sprawling space opera. Huge starship battles, galactic scale, wars involving millions over multiple planets...but it all comes down to a knife fight between two individuals.
Jul 6, 2020 5:44 pm
"The fate of democracy will always come down to a fistfight"
Scott Westerfeld
Can you easily use the mass battle rules from Star Wars in Genesys?
Jul 6, 2020 5:59 pm
crazybirdman says:
Can you easily use the mass battle rules from Star Wars in Genesys?
I don't know. I've never used, nor even looked at, those rules.

To be perfectly honest, mass tactical combat is not an area where I thrive as a player or GM. I'm a narrative GM, and I tend to get bored very quickly as soon as the game becomes all about the rules. I use the rules of a TTRPG as results engines and randomizers.

As I sort indicated above, I also think the interesting part is the PCs. I like to have big, world altering stuff going on in the game, but all of it is background to the main story we are telling, and that story should always be focused on the PCs.

I'm all about having some epic battle happening in which the fate of the entire known world is at stake. But, I want to resolve that battle with an intimate small scale fight full of personal stakes.

If LotR was one of my campaigns, I would be way more interested in Frodo and Sam's struggle with Gollum than I would Aragorn and Gandalf's epic battle scenes. Even as the last armies of the Gondor face off against all the accumulated might of Mordor...the real battle is being fought between three beleaguered, exhausted and desperate characters in the heart of a volcano.

If the players playing Aragorn and Gandalf don't like it well...that's what you get for splitting the party, lol.
Jul 6, 2020 6:04 pm
So, as there seems to be some interest, I started a more or less blank game template.

If you're actually interested in participating in this and would like a game invite, please Message me.
Jul 6, 2020 7:19 pm
Not sure I have the time to dedicate to this now HOWEVER, I think a Rock Star/Musician themed setting could be fun. You are set in the real world/semi-real world and the group is part of a touring rock band. Maybe an emphasis on collaborative "combat" and time based quests "We gotta get the venue before 8 o clock or we will be late for the show"

I dunno, just a thought.
Jul 7, 2020 1:34 pm
valdattaMadun says:
Not sure I have the time to dedicate to this now HOWEVER, I think a Rock Star/Musician themed setting could be fun. You are set in the real world/semi-real world and the group is part of a touring rock band. Maybe an emphasis on collaborative "combat" and time based quests "We gotta get the venue before 8 o clock or we will be late for the show"

I dunno, just a thought.
I ran a Star Wars game with this theme via PbP on another site, but it fizzled out. It was great fun. My inspiration was The Get-Down, about young kids trying to make it big in 1970s New York as hip-hop is born, but it could work in other time periods. This would also work well with a sort of Josey and the Pussycats structure, with the band having to solve mysteries in addition to performing.

OK, enough thread derailment. Just indicating that this sort of thing can be done. :)
Jul 7, 2020 1:53 pm
SavageBob says:
valdattaMadun says:
Not sure I have the time to dedicate to this now HOWEVER, I think a Rock Star/Musician themed setting could be fun. You are set in the real world/semi-real world and the group is part of a touring rock band. Maybe an emphasis on collaborative "combat" and time based quests "We gotta get the venue before 8 o clock or we will be late for the show"

I dunno, just a thought.
I ran a Star Wars game with this theme via PbP on another site, but it fizzled out. It was great fun. My inspiration was The Get-Down, about young kids trying to make it big in 1970s New York as hip-hop is born, but it could work in other time periods. This would also work well with a sort of Josey and the Pussycats structure, with the band having to solve mysteries in addition to performing.

OK, enough thread derailment. Just indicating that this sort of thing can be done. :)
I was thinking Jem and the Holograms; superhero glam rockers.
Jul 8, 2020 5:47 pm
So I have two invites out to folks. If I can get one more player, we will begin! Any takers? Please message me if so!
Aug 9, 2020 4:24 am
This sounds interesting and I’d like to throw my name in. World building idea: Cities or locations that actually choose who can live or travel through them.

So every city is alive in some way, and all those living in them, the city in some way shape or form
Interviews and accepted. Some cities really don’t care who is in them and have millions of people, others deeply care and somehow can function with only a few hundred people. What are the criteria and when did it start happening? Who knows.
Aug 9, 2020 2:13 pm
Ill throw my hat in. I have the Genesys rules and am eager to lean them. No experience as a player. Since i am an newb i would be happy lurking but prefer playing.

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