TrippyHippy
Emperor Mongoose
Should Mongoose attempt to get a James Bond licence, in order to do a modern spy game - which could also provide a generic system to account for other 'modern-day' titles and licences?
There was an old James Bond game, which was considered successful before the game company simply decided to give up on the RPG business altogether. It was well recieved, did in fact win some awards in the 1980s (Origins), and was probably one of the first relatively light, action orientated RPGs that prefigured titles like Feng Shui and others by about a decade. You can read about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_007_(role-playing_game)
(Type it all in, to get the RPG page - the URL won't come up properly.)
James Bond has a universally recognised brand, that continues to have successful movies being made about it. Although a concern would be over the narrative structure of games in a genre that tends to concentrate on individuals rather than groups. However, if this can be overcome, the notion of producing supplemental adventures based upon the movies could be quite lucrative. It has certainly been done before in other games.
There is always Spycraft, by Crafty Games, but my issue is that it is too complex as a system. What you would want for James Bond is a much more simple, fast playing system. Feng Shui is a model of sorts, as indeed is the original James Bond game from the 80s, if the system can be stripped down a bit in character generation.
If Mongoose could do it right, they could create a third 'house system', alongside RuneQuest (fantasy) and Traveller (sci-fi), that could used as the basis of any modern/action game. It could be a very significant and successful licence, if done right.
Thoughts, anybody?
There was an old James Bond game, which was considered successful before the game company simply decided to give up on the RPG business altogether. It was well recieved, did in fact win some awards in the 1980s (Origins), and was probably one of the first relatively light, action orientated RPGs that prefigured titles like Feng Shui and others by about a decade. You can read about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_007_(role-playing_game)
(Type it all in, to get the RPG page - the URL won't come up properly.)
James Bond has a universally recognised brand, that continues to have successful movies being made about it. Although a concern would be over the narrative structure of games in a genre that tends to concentrate on individuals rather than groups. However, if this can be overcome, the notion of producing supplemental adventures based upon the movies could be quite lucrative. It has certainly been done before in other games.
There is always Spycraft, by Crafty Games, but my issue is that it is too complex as a system. What you would want for James Bond is a much more simple, fast playing system. Feng Shui is a model of sorts, as indeed is the original James Bond game from the 80s, if the system can be stripped down a bit in character generation.
If Mongoose could do it right, they could create a third 'house system', alongside RuneQuest (fantasy) and Traveller (sci-fi), that could used as the basis of any modern/action game. It could be a very significant and successful licence, if done right.
Thoughts, anybody?
