Brad Brooks
The movie Westworld starring Yul Brynner. It’s an exotic amusement park where guests get to interact with androids in 3 different worlds – actually I only remember 2 of the worlds – a Roman world and a Western. The Western was the featured world in the movie. The conflict comes from the androids malfunctioning and the safety controls which were programmed into the androids fail and guests get seriously injured even killed.
The novel-turned-film, The Maze Runner. The synopsis, as taken from the official movie site, reads:
When Thomas wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape.
I envision a shifting maze, a social negotiating mechanic, and time-sensitive decision-making.
I can think of a lot that I’d like to make an RPG out of: Avatar the Last Airbender, Steven Brust’s Taltos series, Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. As far as an IP for a tactical game, Starship Troopers would be cool. There’s a lot of potential there. But the original Starship Troopers, not the silly movie.
I would love to see a Ghostbusters game. Perhaps when mobile devices have evolved enough to project tabletop holograms where we can witness the ghost sucked back into the “trap”. But aside from the teamwork required to capture ghosts, I can see the final boss battle being a blast. Everyone might have to discard cards from their hand, freeing their mind of any possible “thoughts” that could destroy them. Whatever cards you cannot part with risk becoming the form of the destructor!
Charles Stross’s The Laundry Files book series, revolving around a secret British government agency dealing with occult threats, combines Lovecraftian horrors, 007 spy antics, computer hackery and office bureaucracy. There’s apparently an RPG in print already – a variant of Call of Cthulhu – but I’d like to see a board game where agents must navigate the red tape of The Laundry to obtain information, personnel and materials necessary to hold back the threat of incursions from other dimensions.
I can’t answer this, because I’m actually designing it now with intentions to gain the IP someday. But my second choice would be Star Trek. I could design a ST game like I’ve always wanted to play.
YOUR TURN!
What intellectual property would you love to get your hands on? Let us know in the comments.
Peter Vaughan
