Sin City RPG

[Travire]

With R Talsorian shooting themselves in the foot with Cyberpunk 3rd Edition changing the setting, and Shadowrun 4th Edition being badly received by fans there is a gap in the market for a decent noir style RPG.

A few small independant games companies have made an effort ( Corporation and Haven spring to mind ) but the Sin City license holds a lot more promise. Apart from the wealth of background material written by Frank Miller the movie has put the setting into main stream conciousness. With a sequal on the way it would be an ideal time to create a game based on the setting.

Run down tenaments, sleazy bars, dishonest cops, corrupt officials, gun toting hookers, mercenaries and the occasional weird stuff. Its almost begging to be turned into a game.

 

[Slightly Norse John]

Shadowrun I never liked- genre jamming just for the sake of it- but Cyberpunk contained one fascinating broken promise that made me spend a lot of time playing with it.
There was always a social- commentary side to Cyberpunk. The world- gone- wrong vibe, the outright evil of some of the big players, the Empathy- devouring cybernetics- the world was set up in such a way that as heroes, you were supposed to go out and start solving it's problems; the Tarnished White Hat ideal.
Instead, the actual game mechanics and the characters' need to survive meant that you almost invariably became part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Oh well.

As a license tie in, maybe, although I have to wonder if the interest a game would gain would be worth what the use of the name would cost. When you take away the style of the comics and movie, though, and put it in a GM's hands, what substance do you have left?
How do you avoid it turning into a saga of low- rent, no-hope bottom feeders in a world that doesn't even have a big picture for the characters to see, never mind interact with?
Where's the payoff in this concept?

Besides, you could almost certainly do it already in Violence, the roleplaying game of street thugs, by 'Designer X' (we're only pretending that we don't know it's Greg Costikyan). Worth picking up if you can find it; it's basically an extended rant by a veteran games designer about everything that's wrong in gaming. He did not just get up on the wrong side of the bed, but on the wrong side of the 11-brane. The game itself is surprisingly playable, the writing is acidically funny.

 

[Finarvyn]

Well, I'd like to see Sin City as a role playing game. I agree that the "hopeless bottomfeeder" concept sounds a bit lame, but I wonder if a person could mix in some Raymond Chandler-style noir detective stuff along with a gangster theme and a corrupt and decadent city. Sort of add to the background so that we have the heart of Sin City but also additional plot elements to follow.

Also, it would be a fun sourcebook to read even if I never got to play it. 8)

 

[ccorniuk]

Sin City could make a great game, but I'm not sure that FM would easily sell the rights. He's from a world where most products he creates never belong to him, but was also among the first to gain creator-owned material. It would be a blast, though. The hopelessness and bleakness of the world is ready-made for a number of different RPGs, but the lack of magic and sci-fi and most things that drive a number of games does call out for something new. It could be done with say a D20 Modern and a creative GM and group of players, but a book dedicated particularly to the noir and decadence of the game would surely draw in a crowd, if done properly. This is actually the next project I have slated, although I've had to go rather generic to avoid the licensing fiasco.

 

[Anvil]

Slightly Norse John, is this what your talking about.

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_2187.html

Well, I half agree with that. Though I also happen to think that a good old voilent role playing game is damn good deterrant against those bloodthirty urges.

 

[Anvil]

Wow, these look like I found the rules here.

http://www.costik.com/Violence%20RPG1.pdf

 

[ccorniuk]

I've never seen that before, but it's en enjoyable read so far. I think the satrical nature and humor is taking it in a different direction than what people were hinting at. I know it's completely off base from what I had in mind. Nonethless, I found it to be a good break from the humdrum of RPGs out there.

 

[Rurik]

I once posted in the RuneQuest forum that RQ is a great fit for Sin City. It is flexible in how you run it, but it is entirely possible to create characters that can take the punishment Marv and Hartigan take.

Frank Miller is very wary of licensing his work as until Sin City he had been basically burned every time. Rodriguez went to get lengths to convince FM to let him do Sin City. It is a great setting though.

You gotta love a world filled with lowlifes, ex-cons, and killer prostitutes - and that is just the good guys!