I would like to start a new game that is not D&D based. It will be quasi free-form, with an emphasis on role playing more than anything else. The game will be need 4 to 5 players, and it will run from a beginning to end, not run a continuous story. I’m hoping for a short adventure, but we all know that once you get posting, nothing is short in reality

My dilemma is this: I have a number of ideas that I like, and I can’t decide which is best. So here are four of my ideas, and I would like you to tell me which one you like, and if you would be interested in joining. I have summarized each one to give you a feel for the concept, but there is much more to each game.

Castle Rautenberg
It is February 1944 and deep within Nazi occupied Europe, a valuable double agent for the Allies has been discovered and captured. Codenamed Sparrow, this agent has worked for years deep within the Axis command and passing information to the Allies. Sparrow has been taken to Castle Rautenberg, an SS headquarters in Southern Bavaria. The location is very remote and intelligence has discovered that a special interrogator is being sent from Berlin to question Sparrow.

The Allies command can not allow the Germans to find out what Sparrow knows, so they have to move fast. A small group of soldiers are to be selected by Intrepid and the OSS. The team is to be assembled and airdropped deep into enemy territory tonight. There you will have to destroy a bridge to delay the SS officer. Make contact with a contact man within the nearby town and secure his assistance, and then you must move into Castle Rautenberg and rescue Sparrow. If it is not possible to rescue him, then ….

Please note – this is a WWII games based on Hollywood movies like Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, etc and games like Castle Wolfenstein. If you are a history buff, please understand I have no desire to keep to “official” history.

The Lost and Profound
It is 2790 AD.The world is 100 kilometers in diameter (a disc), flat and the sky is made of metal.The sun and Moon are hexagonal in shape. The stars all twinkle at regularly timed intervals. “Earth” is a myth. An ancient fable told to little children. It never really existed. The world has always been like this. (Like Atlantis to us now)

You live in a farming community governed by the Elders. The Elders answer to the creator who speaks to his people from temple’s bell tower. The Creator tells you who you will marry, what you will do as a vocation and all other important decisions in your life. Everything else is decided by the elders. Refusal to obey is a sin, punishable by stoning. Inside the temple, deep within its subfloor, is the creator’s machine – where all that dies is placed so the Creator can accept you back into his arms. The Creator’s device is operated by the Elders using a round metal control with six coloured buttons and a slot in it.

To this world, the players have been born. Basically an Amish based society in a metal bubble. The characters will be 4-5 people from this society. All of you are orphans, due to a fire where all your parents were killed when you were quite young. Raised by “Auntie Edna” a kindly blind woman who took you in after the fire, you lacked the stringent upbringing that most kids got causing you to become what the elders refer to as “troublemakers”. You ask questions, you demand answers and you are not very obedient. You don’t believe in the rules or the notion that everyone must be obedient to the elders. You don’t like your lives being structured the same way, day after day.

Your behaviour has reached the point where the elders are calling for stoning all of you. You flee to the forest to hide and while you are hiding, one of you trips over a round metal control with six coloured buttons and a slot in it. You manage to activate it somehow and the ground opens up at your feet. All of you fall through the iris opening into a metal tunnel with blue lights, and as you do, the door closes above you….

Five Seconds to Save the World
Imagine a world, much like our own, but there are individuals with powers hidden amongst our midst. They hide for government operatives, corporate agents and criminal bosses who would exploit their powers for their own purposes.

They are called Espers.

With the power of the mind unchained, Espers have untapped powers. They are categorized as follows:

Energy Manipulators (Spark) – These Espers control a single element force at their command. Some can hurl fire, others use electricity, air, water and some even use pure force itself.

Reality Controllers (Bender) – People who can slip themselves a few seconds into the future – appearing to move super fast. A few can create illusions that seem so real that no one knows what is real. Some can walk through walls. Others can control plants or animals. A few have been said to create undead servants or animate inanimate objects.

Mind Settlers (Psyche) – The standard one expects from an Esper, and about 70 percent of all Espers are in this category. Reading minds, controlling thoughts, forced domination, predicting the future and telekinesis are all the powers of the psyches.

Computer Melders (Surfer) – Those people who can leave their bodies behind and channel themselves through the world of computers. Some can harness the power of computers, others can surf the net for hidden data and a few can use their brains a storage for vast amounts of data.

You are a group of of 4 to 5 Espers living in hiding from those who would seek to exploit you. You were brought together and your secrecy maintained by Gabreille – a dead woman. Gabrielle was a Surfer who could merge her mind with computers. Her father and herself were killed a number of years ago by assassins when Gabrielle refused to join a mega-corporation to serve as an industrial spy. Before she died, she transferred her conscious into the computer.

Now, she surfs the computers of the world finding out what the agencies and corporations are doing so she can fight them. She can only do so much without a body so you are her “seconds”. In exchange for a safe haven, security and protection, you go on missions to help rescue other Espers targeted for “hire”. Sometimes you are sent to eliminate those Espers that are using their powers for evil actions. Either way, it’s a living and you get to use your powers as you see fit.

Subway
The world ended in six seconds. The people of the past build great machines, beautiful artwork, wondrous medicines and they threw it all away in a flash of nuclear fire. No one has seen the sun in their lifetime, only grey clouds that light poorly filters through. It is always cold now.

You are part of a tribe struggling for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Your tribe has a compound built from the wreckage of the past. Survival is hard with all the monsters and creatures that hunt anything that moves, but you manage as best you can. Then there are other tribes wanting to take what you have for themselves. If that wasn’t enough there was the mutations developing in every child born. Some mutations were of benefit, but many were – vile.

Some devices from the past still work, if you can find Pcells for them, but they are few and far between. What Pcells you have are used for the security fence and the water purification. You have a solar powered recharge unit for Pcells, but there isn’t enough solar energy getting though the clouds to recharge a single Pcell in less than a month time. There is a legend of a big Pcell, one that would power a huge city back in the civilized days, but few believe it.

Two days ago, a regular patrol was doing a long range sweep from the compound – making sure no one was sneaking around, when one of the men fell into a hole in the ground. When they went in to rescue him, they discovered a set of ancient stairs leading downwards. They followed then down as far as they could go but turned back when they found a metal gateway blocking their way and a sign above in the old language “SUBWAY”. Far in the distance, they could see a glow, like from lights similar to the ones used on the security fence.

The elders decide to organize a team for 4 to 5 members to investigate the glow and this “subway”. Players may choose to be pure blood or they may have mutations that will aid them or hinder them in the mission. Where there is light, there is Pcells….

Please note - this is not in recruitment because I want to see the interest level first. So mods, please do not move this thread for now.

In order of interest to me, (from highest to lowest) I like:

1st - I can't decide between Subway and Five Seconds to Save the World
2nd - The Lost and Profound
3rd - Castle Rautenberg

I already have the seeds of a character in mind for the number 1 ones... I just have to decide between Surfer and Sparker for the Five Seconds to Save the World

EDIT: Alright, I decided on a Spark, and with that, the two seeds are ready to be sewn

I'm thinking.......

1-Five Seconds to Save the World is my favourite I think
2,2-Second place is awarded to both Subway and Lost and Profound. I love stories about propeganda and defying tyranny, so I couldn't decide of the better of the two.
3-Finally, Castle Rautenberg takes up third place for garnering my interest.

Five Seconds to Save the world seems to be the most intriguing to me, with the Lost and Profound next on my list. Castle Rautenburg comes next, with Subway following suit.

I like all of the ideas, Alacrity; very well thought out. My vote is for Five Seconds To Save The World. I'd be honored to play.

I've always liked your storytelling, Roger (one of these days we'll have to start the writer's group up again). All of these sound very interesting; so unless you're sick of having me in your games I can't resist the invitation. Only catch is that I like all of them similar to the way a parent loves their children.

The lost and profound really didn't do anything for me. All the others though look like great ideas! Though I'm afraid 5 seconds might be a bit too standard fantasy-ish. Subway looks like it could be some serious fun.

Are you planning on more than one?

Subway would be my firt choice. Kinda like Gamma World ...

Five seconds would be next. I like the idea of using "abilities" from the shadows while evading the "establishment" ...

Castle Rautenberg sounds like it would be interesting for the wargaming type, but that is not me.

Lost and Profound also sounds interesting, but at the same time leaves me a little wanting in the curiosity department ...

I would be interested in playing, so I'll throw in my ante ...

I may have not done justice to that concpet in my write up. The problem is that it is a "strangers in a strange land" concept, so to explain what is going on, I thought would ruin the appeal.

However, I think I need to explain further to garnish interst. The characters are on an Ark traveling thorugh space. This ship is huge with thousands of "biodome" all containing individual cultures from earth. The ship has been travelling for hundreds of years, on its way to a star system where scientists believed a habitable planet would be.

But something went wrong. Along the way, something happened. The bridge is destroyed, the crew is dead, communication between domes is gone, and the ship is way off course. In fact, it is heading directly towards a star.

The PCs find this out early in their exploration of the ship. The makers of the ark built in a computer system designed to be used by anyone, through a holographic interface. They also find out there is an auxilery bridge where the course can be corrected. But they do not know how to do that. They need to find help somewhere on the ark, and find the other bridge.

Does that help?

I don't believe that I will be joining any new games.... and for that matter, Alacrity might well have me blacklisted due to flakiness, so this post may be moot. That being said, here are my two bits.

These are all good ideas, and I'm certain that Al would do them all justice. But the man asked for opinions as to what you'd find appealing. Lost and Profound strikes me as a unique, thought-provoking concept. Right down my alley, no doubt.

But I have to say, the Subway concept takes the cake for me. I love the post-apocalypse genre, anyway (curse you, Fallout!), and any new take on it is very much welcomed. Mutants? Dude, you already had me, now you're just making me blush!

Oh go on then...I rarely venture out of Free Form or post much but I do like the sound of Subway.

I doubt you will have trouble recruiting whatever story you decide but I do love a good post-apocalyptic story and even if I do not join it is one I would follow and read with interest.

I will definately have no time to play in any of these. But "Five Seconds" takes it for my vote.

Subway's in second. Because I love zombies, and that half reminds me of a zombie movie.

If it includes zombies then I will send you one of my kidneys.

'Castle Rautenberg' has my vote, and seconds for 'Subway'.

Rautenberg sounds like warmovies mixed with a touch of Indiana Jones in it

Seems like Five Seconds and Subway are the two leaders so far. I would have thought the WWII would have been more popular. Just shows you never know.

Although hearing that Grugg won't be joining is a bummer. I thought I might actually get to DM you for once. Zombies? Would you take mutant zombies for 1000 Alex?

Utan, you are correct, Subway is based on a Gamma World module I ran back in the 80's. Didn't get to play GW much as my friends were die-hard D&D fans.

Ooh, I have to say I like 5 seconds.

And what's this about a writer's group?