Creating a RPG like the TV Show, Supernatural.

I wanted to create this like the show and make it free to anyone wanting to play. Any and all ideas will be welcome. 

My idea for the rules are to use the rules from James Bond-007. It has modern vehicles, weapons and fits into our time better than most fantasy games. Movement is good and it's not too far off the beaten track.

I wanted to create this like the show and make it free to anyone wanting to play. Any and all ideas will be welcome. 

My idea for the rules are to use the rules from James Bond-007. It has modern vehicles, weapons and fits into our time better than most fantasy games. Movement is good and it's not too far off the beaten track.

Is this game the one help was requested for on Reddit? If so, I am able to offer ample assistance as I have plenty of urban fantasy RPGs from which we can draw reference. Of course, if you've elected to use a pre-made system that is perfectly fine as well.

I wanted to create this like the show and make it free to anyone wanting to play. Any and all ideas will be welcome. 

My idea for the rules are to use the rules from James Bond-007. It has modern vehicles, weapons and fits into our time better than most fantasy games. Movement is good and it's not too far off the beaten track.

Is this game the one help was requested for on Reddit? If so, I am able to offer ample assistance as I have plenty of urban fantasy RPGs from which we can draw reference. Of course, if you've elected to use a pre-made system that is perfectly fine as well.

Yes. Sorry for the delay in responding. My wife has Stage 4 Cancer. The treatments and illness affect her, and sometimes it takes a few to get back on the forum. I was stunned by the number of people wanting to join. I didn't expect it. I'll leave this open now and try to stay up to date. As for the game... 
The premade seems the better solution. We don't have to reinvent the wheel here. Easy to learn and play, and then players can suggest changes to the intro game. It makes it a group effort instead of one or two people deciding everything. And all of the work isn't on one or two people. It's open source for everyone. Back in my day (I'm 65), D&D was expensive, making it prohibitive for many people. I don't want that for people playing the game. I want to get together in a space and share company like we did back then. That was a lot more fun. Anyways, that's the game plan (sic).

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's condition, I hope things are not too stressful for you given the circumstances.

I understand the concern about the cost point for an RPG, releasing a free or open-source one would be a great idea to mitigate that. But that does raise a slight issue, the James Bond RPG is over $200 for the core rules if you can locate it on Ebay. Do you have any particualr elements that make that system especially appealing beyond it having more modern vehicles and weaponry?

I have a large library of modern day/industrial era RPGs that I am very happy to go through if an alternative core is desired. I'm a system tinkerer by nature so I don't mind going through and doing some research if it would be useful for the project.

If we do decide to go with the James Bond RPG would it be a case of scooping out the core rules and using it as a base for our own system, or would we be using it effectivly as is and adapting our project to the rules presented?

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's condition, I hope things are not too stressful for you given the circumstances.

I understand the concern about the cost point for an RPG, releasing a free or open-source one would be a great idea to mitigate that. But that does raise a slight issue, the James Bond RPG is over $200 for the core rules if you can locate it on Ebay. Do you have any particualr elements that make that system especially appealing beyond it having more modern vehicles and weaponry?

I have a large library of modern day/industrial era RPGs that I am very happy to go through if an alternative core is desired. I'm a system tinkerer by nature so I don't mind going through and doing some research if it would be useful for the project.

If we do decide to go with the James Bond RPG would it be a case of scooping out the core rules and using it as a base for our own system, or would we be using it effectivly as is and adapting our project to the rules presented?

Thanks for the reply and asking about my wife. 
The 007 game was the first one that came to mind. I liked it; however, we would be fine using the rules from any RPG with modern vehicles and weapons. Or for that sake, maybe doing a western theme game before the Winchesters. Set it around the ancestors of the Winchesters during the Old West / Victorian era. That simplifies things considerably. What's your opinion? And nothing is set in stone at this point. We can do anything we want. Feel free to think outside of the box. 
Mike

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's condition, I hope things are not too stressful for you given the circumstances.

I understand the concern about the cost point for an RPG, releasing a free or open-source one would be a great idea to mitigate that. But that does raise a slight issue, the James Bond RPG is over $200 for the core rules if you can locate it on Ebay. Do you have any particualr elements that make that system especially appealing beyond it having more modern vehicles and weaponry?

I have a large library of modern day/industrial era RPGs that I am very happy to go through if an alternative core is desired. I'm a system tinkerer by nature so I don't mind going through and doing some research if it would be useful for the project.

If we do decide to go with the James Bond RPG would it be a case of scooping out the core rules and using it as a base for our own system, or would we be using it effectivly as is and adapting our project to the rules presented?

Thanks for the reply and asking about my wife. 
The 007 game was the first one that came to mind. I liked it; however, we would be fine using the rules from any RPG with modern vehicles and weapons. Or for that sake, maybe doing a western theme game before the Winchesters. Set it around the ancestors of the Winchesters during the Old West / Victorian era. That simplifies things considerably. What's your opinion? And nothing is set in stone at this point. We can do anything we want. Feel free to think outside of the box. 
Mike

I think the best idea is to come up with a loose plan of how we want the rules to look. I’m presently going through my urban fantasy, investigative horror and monster hunting focused RPGs to shake out any nifty ideas we might be able to use for inspiration. I’m a bit of a system magpie so have a lot of different options, which can be beneficial in that we have a lot of research material but also a bit of a drawback in that we have a lot of research material!

My proposed outline is as follows:

Priority tasks
Core Rules (Making a roll)
Combat (Fighting monsters, recovering from damage, equipment)
Investigation (Finding information, using information, mechanics for the hunting and researching of a monster)

Secondary Tasks
Character generation (How to make your hunter)
Monsters (How to make them, how to run them)

Tertiary Tasks
Bestiary (Stat blocks, lore, story hooks)


Optional addons
Hunter support (Calling in favours from other hunters, having NPCs turn up to help on a hunt)
Magic (Magic system, rituals and spells hunters can use in their hunts)
Non-human hunters (playing as monsters or modified humans)
Social interaction rules (Rules for using social skills to help in the hunt)
Vehicles (Driving them, using them as weapons, complications arising from vehicles)
Different Settings (Wild West)
Modules (Pre-made hunt templates and adventures).

Right now I’m working on the core resolution. I’m very much a more crunchy traditional RPG designer, though, so I tend towards systems that define things in mechanical terms instead of narrative ones.

So, with that in mind, I'm thinking of having the basic dice mechanic be Roll 1d20 and add/subtract modifiers, comparing the result to the target number to determine success. Anyone who has played D&D should be familiar with this one. It’s relatively fast and efficient as long as we don’t get bogged down in modifiers.

I’m open to suggestions on any front of course. I’m very happy to hear other ideas, this is a collaborative project and I’m excited to work on it in a collaborative fashion!

As for the historical setting, I think that could be an interesting one for sure. We could easily make this game applicable to differant eras as we work on it, perhaps as setting guides or linked modules.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's condition, I hope things are not too stressful for you given the circumstances.

I understand the concern about the cost point for an RPG, releasing a free or open-source one would be a great idea to mitigate that. But that does raise a slight issue, the James Bond RPG is over $200 for the core rules if you can locate it on Ebay. Do you have any particualr elements that make that system especially appealing beyond it having more modern vehicles and weaponry?

I have a large library of modern day/industrial era RPGs that I am very happy to go through if an alternative core is desired. I'm a system tinkerer by nature so I don't mind going through and doing some research if it would be useful for the project.

If we do decide to go with the James Bond RPG would it be a case of scooping out the core rules and using it as a base for our own system, or would we be using it effectivly as is and adapting our project to the rules presented?

Thanks for the reply and asking about my wife. 
The 007 game was the first one that came to mind. I liked it; however, we would be fine using the rules from any RPG with modern vehicles and weapons. Or for that sake, maybe doing a western theme game before the Winchesters. Set it around the ancestors of the Winchesters during the Old West / Victorian era. That simplifies things considerably. What's your opinion? And nothing is set in stone at this point. We can do anything we want. Feel free to think outside of the box. 
Mike

I think the best idea is to come up with a loose plan of how we want the rules to look. I’m presently going through my urban fantasy, investigative horror and monster hunting focused RPGs to shake out any nifty ideas we might be able to use for inspiration. I’m a bit of a system magpie so have a lot of different options, which can be beneficial in that we have a lot of research material but also a bit of a drawback in that we have a lot of research material!

My proposed outline is as follows:

Priority tasks
Core Rules (Making a roll)
Combat (Fighting monsters, recovering from damage, equipment)
Investigation (Finding information, using information, mechanics for the hunting and researching of a monster)

Secondary Tasks
Character generation (How to make your hunter)
Monsters (How to make them, how to run them)

Tertiary Tasks
Bestiary (Stat blocks, lore, story hooks)


Optional addons
Hunter support (Calling in favours from other hunters, having NPCs turn up to help on a hunt)
Magic (Magic system, rituals and spells hunters can use in their hunts)
Non-human hunters (playing as monsters or modified humans)
Social interaction rules (Rules for using social skills to help in the hunt)
Vehicles (Driving them, using them as weapons, complications arising from vehicles)
Different Settings (Wild West)
Modules (Pre-made hunt templates and adventures).

Right now I’m working on the core resolution. I’m very much a more crunchy traditional RPG designer, though, so I tend towards systems that define things in mechanical terms instead of narrative ones.

So, with that in mind, I'm thinking of having the basic dice mechanic be Roll 1d20 and add/subtract modifiers, comparing the result to the target number to determine success. Anyone who has played D&D should be familiar with this one. It’s relatively fast and efficient as long as we don’t get bogged down in modifiers.

I’m open to suggestions on any front of course. I’m very happy to hear other ideas, this is a collaborative project and I’m excited to work on it in a collaborative fashion!

As for the historical setting, I think that could be an interesting one for sure. We could easily make this game applicable to differant eras as we work on it, perhaps as setting guides or linked modules.

This is a good plan. The narration is handled by the GM to keep the game moving and fill in gaps. Maybe the GM reads the story so she/he knows what's going on then dishes out info as needed. Otherwise the game is moving a a fast pace. I loved D&D but some people take forever to make a decision.

My apologies for the delay in response, I did not get notified of the reply until just now.

So, regarding core resolution, I think it best that we focus on a fast-moving and streamlined approach. We can always add more complexity as the project evolves!

My recommendation for fast play would be to use something simple, like a d10 plus modifiers vs static target number system. My own system uses this as during playtesting I found rolling a single dice and working with smaller numbers is pretty quick in play. Determining the modifier is a bit more complicated as most systems like to use attribute + skill, which can be easy enough to add up on the fly but it adds an extra step to the rolling process but with some noting down of commonly used roll types it should be realtivly easy to speed up. Ideally I'd like players to just have to roll and add a single number to the roll for most tasks.  

Now, if that sounds good to you the next step is combat I believe. This being about hunting monsters means combat will be a bit of a feature point. I'm going to do a bit more research and write up some ideas around the combat system.

If you'd prefer a different core resolution I'm happy to keep doing research from here and write down a summary of other systems if it would help out the project, but I'm also eager to get cracking into the meat of it and not bog things down in the research phase too much.

My apologies for the delay in response, I did not get notified of the reply until just now.

So, regarding core resolution, I think it best that we focus on a fast-moving and streamlined approach. We can always add more complexity as the project evolves!

My recommendation for fast play would be to use something simple, like a d10 plus modifiers vs static target number system. My own system uses this as during playtesting I found rolling a single dice and working with smaller numbers is pretty quick in play. Determining the modifier is a bit more complicated as most systems like to use attribute + skill, which can be easy enough to add up on the fly but it adds an extra step to the rolling process but with some noting down of commonly used roll types it should be realtivly easy to speed up. Ideally I'd like players to just have to roll and add a single number to the roll for most tasks.  

Now, if that sounds good to you the next step is combat I believe. This being about hunting monsters means combat will be a bit of a feature point. I'm going to do a bit more research and write up some ideas around the combat system.

If you'd prefer a different core resolution I'm happy to keep doing research from here and write down a summary of other systems if it would help out the project, but I'm also eager to get cracking into the meat of it and not bog things down in the research phase too much.

No problem. This is a project that will take time. We all have stuff to do. I'm dealing with work and my wife's cancer treatments. This is something fun to visit and contribute to as time goes. I don't want any credit for it. It's for everyone. 

Your thoughts and ideas are sound and have a good foundation. I like where you're going with this. I agree, combat should be next. Well done, and thank you for the work you're doing.

I'm about to publish my solo wargame book and there's so much editing needed. That's what I mean by "my work". I'm retired but I'm not. And next year I'll be back to teaching again thanks to the tarriffs. 
Mike