Someone once asked me if I could acquire the license to any movie, TV show or piece of intellectual property and develop an RPG system out of it what would it be. It's one of those conversation starters, something a bunch of us ('us' being gamers) could sit round and wax lyrically on for hours.
The assumption of course is that it can't already be in RPG form. That's too easy. Everyone wants to have a go at reinventing their favourite system, from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons to World of Darkness. For me there are several contenders, from a variety of genres and ranging from small and insignifcant to potentially huge.
I'm already developing ideas for an Elizabethan RPG system that I think could do well with a LARP component built into it, but that's something that doesn't require a license, just hours upon hours of detailed research, and then I get to actually do some writing. No, if I could take any single license it would have to be the license for the world of Gerry Anderson. Who? I'm sure many of you have no idea who he is. Remember the TV programmes Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet & The Mysteron's? what about the program Space 1999?
Both Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet (along with the lead in series like Fireball XL5) were 'set' in and around the years 2065-2068. The first involves an organization called International Rescue who miraculously turn up when things go wrong to save the day, and the second is about a mysterious security agency called Spectrum that exists to thwart international terrorism and fight the war against a race of Martians called The Mysterons.
The high-tech, yet bleak future appeal of these two shows would make an excellent pseudo-cyberpunk setting in which you could have players playing both Spectrum agents and individuals that exist in the murky and shadowy world they live in. I keep abreast of the state of the Gerry Anderson properties on a regular basis, but to date nobody has ever even attempted to put an RPG system together. Considering Gerry no longer owns the rights to the show and has recently been battling Carlton Television to secure them again so he can do an upated Thunderbirds, it seems hardly likely that such an RPG project would never see the light of day. Still, it's an interesting idea all the same.
3 comments:
After CyberGen and Cyberpunk I've learned that licenses are hard and not always worth it.
I love Gen and the Punk stuff but that's as far as a license I'll go. I can't understand the companies that take on more than that.
Blows my mind!
I know, there's a lot of frustration associated with holding a license,still think it's something I will pursue even if it's only as a background task. I've found someone who did some conversion work of the Gerry Anderson universe to Mutants and Masterminds and he's interested in seeing if Carlton Television will come to the party.
What's your advice in that regard? Should I just approach them and ask whether its something they would consider or should I actually put together some detail and send that along as representative of what could be done and that I'm fairly serious?
Ultimately, just ask. If it's a well sought out license then the better plan you need.
To be fair, the better plan you have the better chance you have of getting the license but the first part is asking.
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