I Can't Get This Out of My Head - UFOs

So ends my attempt to discuss Anime/Manga gaming...for now.

I simply can't maintain the enthusiam if there isn't much of a response. I can do it if I am talking about something I am currently working on or an idea I love that just hit me but for a general discussion I need feedback or I get distracted and want to talk about some else.

There are a number of something elses on my mind as a matter of fact. Some of them, I can't seem to stop thinking about.

Other than the Dogs, Faerie Folklore, Muppets, Smurfs, Star Trek and Superheroes, there are a handful of other things I am obsessively fascinated by.

One of them is UFOs.

I had an idea last year for the NaGaDeMon Challenge but wasn't really feeling it and because of other circumstances during that period of time, I couldn't drum up the strength of will or creativity to push forward. While the idea was new the subject matter was not. Not for me anyway.

I have long since wanted to create, run and/or play a RPG in which the PCs are the crew of a UFO, visiting Earth and creating all sorts of mayhem as extraterrestrials on a modern day Earth. Exactly what that would entail I don't know. Rather, I have some ideas but they keep twisting and changing.

One key factor would be the idea that the aliens have advanced technology but are really just run-of-the-mill joes. I see them as very blue collar people but with a Masters-of-the-Open-Road attitude and mystique, like truck drivers or the guys on Deadlist Catch. They could also be scientists but less Mr. Spock and more the people who try to tag wild life in the rainforests to follow their migratory patterns. Smart, highly skilled professionals but in the end, just doing their job.

I want to incorporate as well as parody the troupes of UFO reports, stories and movies, including everything from mysterious power failures to abductions, cow mutilations to crop circles. I want to examine the 'REAL' reason these things occur in a fashion that is both sensible and humorous.

I have read Chariots of the Gods waaay too many times. I have seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind even more often. I love reading about and watching all those Discovery Channel and Nation Geographic shows where they search for answers and after an hour of television say, "So, we still have no freaking clue".

I want it to be, all at once:

Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Destination Truth, E.T., The Extraterrestrial, Escape from Planet Earth, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Hunter Planet, Men in Black, Paranoia, Planet 51 and Teenagers from Outer Space.

And more than that.

Right now it's just an idea.

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Barking Alien

NaGa DeMon Versus Barking Alien - Day 2

CONSPIRACY THEORY!

 

 

 

Everything you know is a lie.

 

What? You knew that? Well, then not everything I guess.

 

I can tell you that I told a little white lie yesterday. I am not really feeling Visitors From Space. The POP! I was hoping for, the one I got from some of my previous projects (The Muppets, The Smurfs, my Expanded Extended Mission campaign, etc.), didn't come full force. Not like it did for those others. This was a bubble wrap pop and not a huge, loud...I'm thinking more BOOM Tube BOOM! than a mere pop here people. That's what I am waiting for. That's not only going to get the office light to go on, it's going to keep it on.

 

Several nefarious elements have conspired to make me want to drop this project (Visitors From Space - Not the whole NaGa DeMon challenge).

 

Broken hearted and depressed, it's hard to generate a comedic RPG.

I like the concept, I don't love the concept. To finish and play it in a month, I need to LOVE it.

Some things challenge organizer Nathan Russell posted recently.

 

I really need to rethink this. To re-feel this. I seem to be out of tune with the force.

 

Bare with me...

 

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Barking Alien

 

 



NaGa DeMon Versus Barking Alien - Day 1

IDEA INVASION!

When I design a role playing game, I do it in a way that some find unusual.

Unlike a lot of creative people, I dislike 'the process'. The idea of coming up with a concept or two, mulling it over and writing pages upon pages of material just to edit them down, tweak them, fiddle with it, do away with some parts, bring them back, add new parts, change things...the entire litany of events leading up to the finished product drives me utterly bonkers. It bores me to tears. Somewhere less than half way through the whole thing I lose interest and either abandon the project totally or completely restart it in a wholly different direction. Not every time but often.

That stinks for a "Do a game in a month" concept like the Nation Game Design Month Challenge.

It's a good thing then that the way I do some of my best work is that the entire game, from setting to system to adventure scenarios, usually pop into my head wholecloth. Yep. One day I'm sitting there thinking, "Hmmm, that movie was cool. Kind of reminded me of that book I read years ago. Makes me think about...and if you added this...hey, this would make a great..." *POP!* At which point I scribble a few pages of notes in my personal shorthand (which looks like html crossed with cuniform) and proceed to type it up.

While The Muppets RPG* was actually developed over time in the near-traditional way, it sort of wasn't. The idea for a Muppets based role playing game had been in my mind for a long while and I certainly forget about it and remembered again later more than once. Every few years I would write up a page or two of notes, absolutely. When I finally posted it on this blog however, it had been essentially reconstructed from the ground up just a week or two before I went 'live'. I was sitting there one day, thinking about it and the light flipped on and the all the ideas and mechanics came rushing in. Same thing with the Smurfs*.

It's like...There is a little office inbetween my ears where the light is usually off. It is largely empty and it's so tedious and difficult to write or type in the dark with no office supplies or files for research or furniture that I get very frustrated even trying. Then one day, inspiration will strike, I will turn on the light and...HOLY HECK IN A HANDBASKET! While I wasn't paying attention, someone snuck in and constructed a state of the art office with a computer, phones, supplies, file cabinets with files and the whole nine yards.

Yeah, it's like that.

So how does all that apply to the NaGa DeMon?

Well, I had this idea...then I didn't. Then I hoisted it back up on the table and took a closer look at it and it was pretty small and weak. I tried pumping it up but I realized I was forcing it. Nothing was coming from it that inspired me. I had no real reason to turn the light on in the office.

So I tried another idea. And another. And another. It wasn't happening. There was no rapid build up to the sudden POP I'm used to. I panicked a little. What should I do?

I started to think back to the game I want to publish. It's good. I feel it's really good. It deserves time even though it sort of popped into my head a long time ago and is sorta the kind of thing you do want to work on carefully. I remembered that I chose that idea over another one. A good one. One I would certainly put together quickly once I really thought about it. One I would love to give out for free...

So here it is...my entry into the NaGa DeMon Challenge...

Visitors From Space is a rule-light, situation comedy, science fiction role playing game about UFOs, what they are and why they are really here. It uses six sided dice which you can snag from any of the boardgames in your house and is designed for both one shot play and short campaigns, although ideas for long term play are coming to me. I just haven't worked out all the details.

More to come so stay tuned!

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Barking Alien

*I am very proud of my work on my Muppets and Smurfs RPGs. While the Smurfs one could use some additional fleshing out, I have run it for others and it works very well. The Muppets game has been run several times now at NerdNYC's RECESS Game Day Event and has been wildly successful.

If you are new to my blog, please feel free to check out the Muppets and Smurfs tags or go to March of 2011 for my March Muppets Madness Month, detailing the whole thing plus a few surprises.

Thanks for your time.