Interest Check - Drama focused RPG

Question: How much interest would there be in a game focusing on the dramatic interplay between a group of player characters rather than another dungeon delve, battle vs. ultimate evil, or quest to save the princess/world/etc.? This is based on the observation and notes below:


Observation: Although there are exceptions, most TTRPGs focus on procedural scenes over dramatic ones.
Setting and premise: TBD by group consensus.

System: possibly Cortex Dramatic (as seen in Cortex Plus Smallville), DramaSystem (as seen in Hillfolk), or something else focused on character interaction vs. physics.

I would be very interested in something like that. Though purchasing a new rpg system is kind of a non-option for me right now. Maybe some FKR approach could work? Or maybe use Ironsworn? It would have the advantage of providing a setting.

I wouldn't expect anyone to purchase a new game to play; I don't even think the Smallville game is available anywhere. I can explain and share enough of the rules of a system to play. Cortex is very simple to learn and use.

For similar games we've used various, very minimal systems, sometimes as simple as 3 stats, one roll vs a target difficulty when a test is required. My goal for something like this is to promote character-driven drama over tactical or crunchy simulation.

That being said, if I were to run a game, I would want to use a rule framework that I've run before, one that promotes narrative gameplay.

Sounds good to me.

Do you have any ideas regarding the setting? I am pretty much up for anything besides contemporary soap-opera. Though I would probably prefer some sort of aristocratic intrigue kind of setting.

I have a million ideas for settings, but I was hoping to wait for a group and get consensus. Ultimately, it would have to be a setting I feel comfortable running. I'm not very interested in a contemporary setting unless there was a fantastical element involved. We wouldn't have to use any of them, but some of my previous (unused) ideas include:

- Members of a recovering supervillain support group try to avoid relapse, which is only an evil cackle away.
- Uploaded human minds, androids, AIs, and other variations of transhuman tropes must survive in a world that doesn't recognize their rights.
- Players are the disparate members of a distant human colony who make apparent first contact with an alien intelligence.
- The King has died, and sibling rivalries, hidden alliances, and old betrayals come to the surface as the players vie for power or try to prevent a civil war.
- Old grudges, romantic entanglements, and differing philosophies on survival clash as survivors on an isolated space station are forced to work together to repair the station.
- Lost in the universal unconsciousness, the crew of an experimental dreamship search for reality.
- A group of time travelers returns to their original timeline only to discover that their relationships have been altered by their journeys. Friends may have become enemies, lovers may have never met, and personal bonds are threatened as they try to unravel the timeline without erasing each other.
- Players are part of or drawn into the drama of a crime family and their web of money, power, and blood.
- At the court of a pantheon of gods, lesser gods and demigods and must deal with the politics of immortality, personal grudges, forbidden romances, and the dangerous intrigue of divine power struggles.

Me. I am interested and believe me when I say that my chacters' inner voices can be very chatty.

Liking the concept a lot, if you decide to go for any of the settings quoted, I would be interested to play!

As for myself, I find the second option (dreamship) to be the most attractive.

Absolutely love that one.

This sounds like it could be interesting. Love the Cortex system in the Firefly and Superhero genre. I haven't played Smallville specifically, but I feel like Firefly isn't far off.

As for story ideas...the court of gods to be interesting, but would probably be happy with anything that's not too mundane, as I come her to get away from the mundane and explore certain levels of fantasy.

Most of those prompts sound interesting to explore.

I might be interested, depending on the setting ultimately decided. I'm most drawn to:

- Old grudges, romantic entanglements, and differing philosophies on survival clash as survivors on an isolated space station are forced to work together to repair the station.

or perhaps...

- Uploaded human minds, androids, AIs, and other variations of transhuman tropes must survive in a world that doesn't recognize their rights.

Love all this high concept stuff! Great to see games like this on GP!

I'm a sucker for transhumanist stories. Some of my favorite things to explore in fiction and games is what defines a person, what makes an intelligence "alive", etc. I'd love to play something set in an Alex + Ada type setting (one of my favorite comics from a few years back)

Sounds interesting, the setting that king is dead, the the crime family drama or the pantheon of gods, are the ones more appealing to me. But i never played cortex system, i read the core of cortex on their site, doesn't sound to difficult, but i guess there are more mechanics involved

Base Cortex is really just dice pool vs. target number. The part that feels weird to newcomers is not having Ability Scores or Skills in the Dramatic version. Replacing your Str, Dex, Cha and Skill Lists with Values, Relationships, and Distinctions can be a bit weird at first.

I'm leaning toward DramaSystem because I've never run it before and I'd like to stretch my GM range into something new. But also, maybe a system I use often for a group of new players would be better.


As a warning to those with low tolerance for those things:

There's also the fact that the best way to get players really invested in the setting in both game systems is a lengthy, pre-game setup that can lose players fast in a forum-based game. Around a table it's usually the entire first session. If you ask anyone who's toughed it out through setup and actually got into one of the games, it's absolutely worth it, but I've also seen a few attempts wither and die during the character/setting creation phase...

Just wanted to throw my interest in. I love cortex as a system, it's one of my favorites. I've also been eyeing Hillfolk and it's system as one I'd like to learn.

I like the concepts. Aside from the pantheon one, I'd love to join into any of them because they rock.

Since I responded on discord I think I've got enough information to respond here, I'd be interested depending on the setting but looking at them I think there's only one or two I'm not interested in.

As I said on discord I'm not particularly Interested in a relationship map, but I Imagine that in addition to the relationship map I can still format things in a way that I'll be more easily able to follow.

In Cortex the map is just for the initial setup, then you translate what's on there to your character sheet, or really any format that works for you.

The beauty of the pathways map in Cortex is that every player adds elements, then other players can link those elements together. It creates a shared world that feels like the people and places there have realistic connections, and often connections you wouldn't think of on your own, but it makes it feel realistic, and it gives everyone creative input.

I haven't used DramaSystem, but it seems very similar.

Oh wow… so I’m in a Starfinder PbP that’s been active since 2019. My Solarian is technically three-quarters goddess.

If you do the Pantheon of lesser/demigods, I would love to play as this character. I’ve got five years of material (and counting) to work with, and I’ve often contemplated what her future would be like. This game (if I’m so fortunate) could offer an opportunity to play that out!


EDIT - and it occurs to me that Pantheon is on someone else’s top-three list and another potential player’s top-one list!

Both of these systems really shine with characters custom made for the game/setting. I'm not saying that you can't port characters in from other games, but the way the Pathways steps work in Cortex and character creation/relationship mapping work in DramaSystem, you sort of create your character, the NPCs and locations, and the world they live in together with all the other players. They have a shared history and shared backstories, so it's hard to bring in a character with their own backstory. It works best when you're all collaborating and you're open to letting your character idea be modified by the ideas of the group when creating the setting.

I've seen people try to shoehorn in character ideas ported directly from other media and other games and have them simply not fit with the rest of the characters/setting. The last two I saw like that ended up 1. leaving because they weren't having fun and 2. being removed from the game for constantly trying to impose a storyline that did not fit the concept everyone had agreed upon at the start.

I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's not recommended.