IC: Stargate, Harry Potter, Cthulhu, and WoD, oh my!
The basic pitch is as follows: The world is exactly like our own, except most conspiracy theories are real. More than that though, the world isn't just Illuminati and Templars and Lizard people. Its secrets go far deeper: there's a wizarding world, a bit like the one in Harry Potter. Vampires roam in great and ancient houses, while werewolves stalk in clans. Aliens from other worlds have visited, some have even infiltrated, and their super-tech can be found behind closed doors in well-fortified military bases. Companies buy-out or silence inventors that threaten their business, and corporate vaults contain world-altering inventions! Meanwhile a war between heaven and hell rages in the shadows, with angels and demons vying for the souls of mortals everywhere! Governments employ off-the-books police and paramilitary organizations to battle, or to fight for, any one of these supernatural and super-tech threats!
In this grand world of hidden wonders, what are your secrets?
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I'm looking to maybe run a semi-freeform game, possibly using the FATE system, that includes many of the elements I mentioned in the title of this thread (and more!). I want to keep the exact nature of the world a bit fluid, allowing for elements from all sorts of different concepts, so that players feel more free to create the characters and stories that they most want to explore. That isn't to say that this world is exactly like its inspirations. Harry Potter doesn't actually roam the land, and there isn't a school called Hogwarts, or a stargate under Cheyenne Mountain... but something like those things could potentially exist, if that's what players wanted. The more divergent the players are, in many ways, the better: it would add to the world, and make their eventual meetings (and possible team-ups) even more interesting!
The only thing all of these fantastic elements have in common, is that they're kept secret. It is a world the looks like ours, but beneath it, is a wonderful, dangerous, and mind-blowing cacophony of lies, magic, death, and wonder!
The players would begin as... whatever they wish to be, as long as it makes sense for the setting. They would begin mostly alone, or in small groups or pairs, and eventually they would be brought together by a larger narrative. A threat that potentially effects them all, for good or ill!
The structure would be semi-free-form, with guided elements that relate closely to character backstories. Ideally, the world will act on players, as much as they act on it!
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I'm open to suggestions, ideas, and tips regarding the game system and setting, and would especially like to get a read on the kinds of stories that people might want to tell!
Are people more interested in Vampires or Aliens? What if the something like 'The Force' actually existed, and there was an organization of supernatural monks that looked and acted a lot like Jedi from Star Wars? Would some players like to be dragons, centuries-old and recently roused from their slumbers? How interested would people be in how any of these elements might interact with each other? What would happen if the Wolfman met the Men in Black? Or if a Selene-like character from the Underworld series was suddenly faced with a servant of the Old Ones?
Not all of these things have to be 'real' in the context of the game, but they potentially could be... or, would people be more keen if I sat down and hammered-out the world more thoroughly before they wrote-up their characters, so they have a better frame of reference?