Like so many role-players, I like to consider designing and publishing my own RPG(s) or RPG materials. These days, between crowdfunding and "Print on Demand" publishing, as well as all of the software and knowledge resources available, there are no barriers in making this dream come true really, aside from your own perseverance and talent. In fact some of my friends that I play with have Kickstarted and published material through Superhero Necromancer! As for myself, I put together a fan made 20th Anniversary edition of Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game back in 2015, which I'm proud to have completed, but isn't actually my own game.
One thing personally working on SF20 taught me, however, was just the grind of getting something completed. Ideas are nothing without the willingness to put in the grind. It's strange to me, what has personally driven me to engage in the grind. I did it for SF20, to an extent I'm doing it for this site or the Traveller game I'm playing in now. Here is just a giant list of my RPG ideas I've idly had. For the most part, they don't have strong rules reasons to exist so far. I don't know if I'll ever be willing to put in the grind for any of them, but they are fun to think about regardless.
That's ultimately the question, right? What sets any RPG apart from any other, and can you quantify that or explain it for your own ideas? Most of the ideas I consider border on clone territory. They shuffle some chairs around. Below is a list of the ideas in order of how much work has been done on them, followed by a more complete summary of what each is in alphabetic order, with a logo.
My initial thoughts on this one are "Is it possible to do a TMNT & OS / Ninjas & Superspies type thing right using Kevin Crawford's Cities Without Number as a base?" Basically just crazy cartoon and comic action. Mutants in the Now and AMP: Year One also play into my thoughts, along with MSH, d20 Modern. In Cities Without Number, characters have Backgrounds, Edges and Foci. One Edge and certain Foci give characters budgets towards certain things, like cyberware, a vehicle, drones, etc. In a way... this is like using money to buy powers, or could be made analogous to BIO-E in TMNT. CWN also has that Foci for people who don't get cyberware, kinda reminds me of that Skill type advantage DC Heroes has. Could be a solid hook to hang some things on. Might also want to check on other OSR-type games that fiddle with supers, like Vigilante City.
Take Palladium's Systems Failure & Road Hogs, cross it with Car Wars. Add in some "Zombies Ate My Neighbors", "They Live" and maybe some "Beavis & Butthead." It's an American Pseudo-Post-Apocalypse. Cities are more isolated. Behind the scenes, 2 alien races vie to control America. Lizard folk and their dark conspiracies and Bug folks, zombifying the populace. You have actual zombies, then you have just folks believing in dead notions, televangelists, etc. Cities are classic post-WW2 America, each a bit different. In between are dangerous wastelands. Some folks with dreams of the open road roam the wastelands. Car Wars/Mad Max style auto-combat happens out there. It's been romanticized by some and is done as sport in some of the cities, kinda like Monster Trucks were in the '80s. A bunch of cheap messages and shallow old social critique are sprinkled in for fun. For the core system, I'm thinking something a bit like Traveller, but with funny setting-evoking careers. The "funny careers" thing is reminding me of a silly idea we had back just after High School where characters were made based on slapping a couple words together. Also, even some of the silliness of that Gamma World based on the 4e rules.
Classic Horror in the sense of Chill 1e, Hammer Horror, basically most of that pre-slasher stuff. No Cthulhu, no slashers or real torture porn stuff. Ghosts, haunted houses, Halloween. Really, this needs some thought given as to what actual play could look like. In addition to Chill 1e, some of the more grounded WoD stuff is cool here too. Currently thinking a d10 mechanic I've read about attached to something a lil like the GDW House system.
This is just a name, and more than that, just a logo. I don't even really like the name. If I had to choose vibes: Maybe this would be my '80s fantasy one. Inspirations would be, like, Bluth's artwork, or The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Dragon's Lair, Willow. Wonder. Small people/children can really matter to the story. Kinda fairy-tale vibes to some extent.
Mostly just a name. If I had to choose vibes here, it would be more of a classic fantasy vibe. Castlevania fantasy? Harryhousen fantasy? If everyone needs to make something that is their own DnD, this would be mine.
I kinda like the logo for something I was previously calling "Blue Gear", which was broadly concieved of as "Heavy Gear meets Blue Planet" or maybe like, if Heavy Gear was centered on Atlantis rather than Terra Nova. I also remember a David Brin novel I read that was on an ocean planet. Stick with all of this, make the planet more fun. Create an external threat. The rules I'm thinking are that 3d20-ish system I have that combines to-hit/effect into the single 3d20 roll. The system itself needs some work, but is very loosely based on Blue Planet
The original idea for Excelsior Endeavor was to do something like Marvel Super Heroes using a d6 mechanic I have. Another thing I considered was somehow using all of this for a G.I. Joe inspired game. As I work on it, it does feel more and more like a super hero system. Still considering how much it leans MSH vs. DCH. I'm liking the ideas and mechanics getting cooked up here.
Originally just a name. Now I'm thinking of something a bit inspired by Xenozoic Tales/"Cadillacs & Dinosaurs", maybe crossed with some stoner metal/70s hippy psychedelic imagery? Similar set up of a post-apocalpse, and people re-emerging into a world that is lush and retaken over by nature of all kinds. Themes have to do with rationalists vs. romantics, individual vs. collective, etc. etc. There are mystics who engage with "The Foreboding Green", and old school "rugged man of action" types. Domination vs. cooperation. For the system, it is leaning towards a d10 system inspired by both GDW and James Bond 007 via this "Foresight" game I've been hearing about. Also would like to maintain the old school encounter rules, etc. as found in Cadillacs & Dinosaurs to maintain that wild feel. The setting naturally supports a lot of things you might think of as old-school DnD-like, but in a different context.
Western RPG! The initial inspiration is early Boot Hill, but made easier on the gun-slinging front. Should somehow steer play towards addressing classic Western themes, while maintaining rules minimalism. Maybe include review of some movies, or if not, review them personally to firm up concepts to be included. Riddle of Steel type passions? Or, leave out any such "story" type mechanic? Ideally find a way to evoke the themes minus story rules, I think. Needs much further elaboration
A game meant to work with horror in the Twilight Zone/Outer Limits kind of area. Maybe kinda Story-game-ish? Basically, it is pretty reliant on play-sets kinda like Fiasco. There is a GM/Primary facilitator. There is probably 1, maybe 2 main protagonists. Other PCs are a bit more constrained. They all have goals, or behaviors or general ideas they seek to convey or enact. The idea is to force the protagonist to address the theme, which is done through some Twilight Zone kind of pseudo-morality tale. Could be tricky. Maybe the various players/roles can even earn some sort of score for fulfilling their role well? I'd like if it could be non-wishy-washy in that regard though. The idea is almost like everyone is playing in order to really provide an experience for the main protagonist's player. Maybe an exaggeration to say it, but, like, "What if an RPG had many GMs running for 1 player, instead of vice-versa?"
The basic idea is total Space Opera, inspired by Star Ace, some silly CYOA books I read as a kid, etc. Try to avoid evoking Star Wars if possible. Probably using something like Excelsior Endeavor as the base right now? Still early. Skills definitely inspired by Star Ace, but needs to maintain that d6 style "seat of your pants" simplicity.
More African inspired Sword & Sorcery style. Seems like this niche could use a better game. When it comes to rules, I don't fully know. Maybe someting in the Heroic/Excelsior Endeavor/TSR Conan/FASERIP style mechanics (Traveller -3 penalty) vein?
Could you make a compelling RPG based on something like real life? There are RPGs that are interested in simulating things (mostly combat...), but could you make something like "The Sims: The RPG?" Real people, real struggles, done in more of a simulation and random events kind of way and not a mechanically narrative or story kind of way?
Setting-wise, I'm inspired by something like Pirates of Dark Water meets... other Sword & Sorcery, maybe the video game Joust. Rules-wise, I'm leaning "TFT done how I'd do it"
MURPG 2e
This idea is pretty simple: A retroclone / 2nd edition of White Wolf's Street Fighter RPG. It uses d6 rather than d10, has more of a DC Heroes/nWoD attribute layout. I actually have a pretty OK amount of work done on this and I really should bring it further along.
Originally was an idea for a somewhat different, maybe a lil stripped down Street Fighter clone, focused more on Beat 'em Up games, to be done for a game jam. Now it is just a name, as the concepts in it just as easily fit into Rising Forces, without any reason to split the ideas between two games that I can see. If I were to "Deluxify" Rising Forces, maybe this would be the Street Fighter Clone instead of Rising Forces?
I want this to somehow be a down-to-earth, humble humanistic golden age sci-fi RPG. PCs are regular people, not bad-asses (in the cinematic sense). Kinda inspired by Traveller, at least somewhat in tone. Currently, the 3d20 "Blue Gear" system I'm considering for Dive Runners is what's here now. If I stay with that though, what makes this different from Dive Runners aside from vibes? This means I'm also strongly considering the exploding d10 system under consideration for the Foreboding Green. Would like at least the option of a Traveller inspired life path system, with maybe a bit more story juice. Real people in space deciding to do this for real people kinds of reasons.
Basically a Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game clone, with the cards.
It's another sword and sorcery type game name. I'm thinking I'll use this for my "What if you used Rising Forces/Street Fighter as the basis for a fantasy RPG?" game.
Could you make an entertaining, stupid game about Monster Trucks? If so, you should name it this. I have no idea beyond this.
Not a well developed idea, but not unlike TRUX or even Street Fighter/Rising Forces: You're big time wrestlers, but somehow you also end up in regular ol' adventures. A satisfying wrestling RPG that isn't too meta. Like, your wrestlers basically fight for real most of the time. It is big on cartoon gimmicks and fun, less so on sleaze or darkness. Needs its own new kind of combat system! Right now rules thinking goes with either a variation of the Excelsior Endeavor system, or maybe something inspired a bit by MURPG. Needs gambling and exhaustion.