Pitch the game you don't have time to run

That looks intriguing.

Space Opera Savage Worlds is four words that go great together. I'd love to help you put the setting through it's paces.

I once ran a F2F GURPS Time Travel game in which the characters played themselves. We had a lot of fun with that one!

Nice! With Steve Jackson's GURPS Time Travel? We waited -years- for him to finish that, and it's amazing!

A westmarches hex crawl. I ran one for a while and it fizzled out. I'd like to give it another try sometime.

The very same! It was a convenient book to have, as were Horror and Cliffhangers, for our campaign. On the subject, it's a little dated, and if you can find a copy, GURPS Timeline is a very useful book as well.

I'll keep your willingness in mind. I'm still a ways from being finished right now.

Hey, I have plans for something like this at some point in the future! Only, add in people who can turn into animals 🙃

This is why I don't go to parties since after a few attempts during school years. Never found the appeal of that.

Says the spider

But I behave like a human at parties!

But you don't go to parties.

Not anymore, because of those humans that turn into animals.

That sounds fun!

Ipso facto: You behave like a spider. Q.E.D

Domesday.

Set in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England and the commencement of the Domesday Boke census, the characters are people who had normal medieval professions, but then witnessed something weird that turned their friends and families against them, as they blamed them for the occurrence. Down on their luck and looking at a miserable (and probably brief) existence, they have each been chosen by a representative of a powerful Norman lord to form a small group to investigate further supernatural events.

Think Anglo-Norman England meets the X Files.

System would be a custom-built engine using either PbtA or Year Zero as a basis.

I have my own game system called Fables & Foxtales that has been in the works for years. I recently completed the 'Beta' in January, and to playtest that, I've been working on a game that I plan to run in the future, but in typically Kae-fashion, I severely overdid it. Its massive in scope and way too ambitious for me to manage with my current workload because of the breadth and freedom it allows for.

The idea in question is called Grimoire Hart Academy, which is a school in my homebrew world where aspiring adventurers and delvers go to learn the trade. So not just a 'magic academy', but a school for all kinds of adventurers. Players will be first year students in the incoming Class 1-B, and can choose from 6 degree majors (Combat, Liberal Arts, Science, and more!), 9 degree minors (specializations include advanced combat tactics, necromancy, dungeon stewardship, culinary arts, and more!), and over 50 classes, 8 clubs, and 4 extracurricular organizations (sports and leagues). 25 members of staff, most of which are instructors, 28 other first year students, and at least 20 more NPCs in the school and outside of it, all with ready-made bios that include their class lists, schedules, backstory elements, and interests. And the campus currently has 35 pre-made and ready to explore locations, including specific classrooms, training fields, remote facilities, and secret areas! Not to mention there are at least major settlements in the immediate region, 3 active 'dungeons', and a ton of places to explore beyond that.

This is meant to be a sprawling, sandbox academia that focuses on school life and all the fun misadventures that go with it. There is a story plot and major events that happen, but players can investigate it at their leisure and otherwise enjoy mostly-free reign to explore the campus, nearby locations, and even beginner dungeons for extra credit and experience. You can get to know NPCs, stir up drama, get into trouble, and participate in school events, club projects, or pursue quests for some pocket change.

That and you can effectively pursue any kind of trade you want, whether you want to be an adventurer or delver, or if you want to work in support services, like as a guild coordinator, a merchant, a private agent for freelancers, or even as a scientist studying dungeon ecology or a caretaker who helps maintain dungeons!

Setting-wise, it is a blended anime fantasy, with elements of both medieval high-fantasy and some modern concepts and magitek. GHA takes place in a country called the Ecclesian Empire, which has recently introduced a number of new laws granting rights and citizenship to tons of new non-human species, and players can, in theory, be whatever they want. The rest of the first year students, for instance, consists of a variety of different folks with lots of identities, including Snow Elves, Anima (anthromorphs), Half-Dwarves, Dhampir, L'dopterra (moth people), Demons, and Oni! There are even some isekai'd humans mixed in here and there that have come over from Earth!

Players get a Student Handbook (Google Sheets) that serves to help give them info on the game and setting, record their character details, and keep track of their classes and schedules.

Here are some snippets from the aforementioned Student Handbook!

Rime of the Frostmaiden
The game starts in Icewind Dale during the Summer of 1485 DR.

This phase of the campaign would be to help the PCs embed themselves in Icewind Dale using the Legacy of the Crystal Shard module, with some additional content from King of the Wolves.

The goal would be that PCs can interact with some of the Icewind Dale lore, and anyone who'd read the Crystal Shard novel might find it rewarding to see what had happened to the place in the last century.

After a couple of levels here (and if the game hadn't fizzled), we'd timeskip a couple of years for the PCs to experience and influence the events leading up to the Rime.




The campaign would then transition into the main Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure and Icewind Dale's slow, cold, dark death.

---

I've tried running Rime of Frostmaiden three times on GP, and none of them have made it to the conclusion.

I've cheated a little with the question 'Pitch the game you don't have time to run'. It's not a question of time, it's a question of experience. I think of this as the game that's doomed to fizzle (one might even say 'go cold'). I suppose I always think of it as a game where the time will be better rewarded spent on other games.

Rime is slow, introspective, and dark. I like that, but it doesn't have the flashy special effects of Hellrider - Descent into Avernus. So until I run out of heroes to send to hell, this one will have to stay on ice.

I really want to give traveller 2300 AD a crack sometime. And do some kind of mix of geo (I guess galactic politics) mixed in with space colony management. That particular branch of Traveller is a bit lacking in supplements that way though.

@Delta The Traveller:TNE supplement World Tamers Handbook has a chapter on "Colonial Economics and Infrastructure." I never played 2300 so I don't know how compatible the two systems are, but back in the 90s, GDW was trying to have a uniform rule system across product lines. You can probably find the pdf on DriveThruRPG or eBay.