Servants of the Dark Lord [FATE or Maid]
Millenia ago, the Gravelord, an elder lich whose dread power called armies of the undead from their fated rest and challenged the gods, retreated from the world. It was an age of myths, an age where legendary heroes walked the earth, weaving sorceries to shake the heavens and wielding weapons to carve the earth. Sealing his great tomb palace deep beneath the earth, the Gravelord slipped into the slumber of ages, leaving his trusted servants, lieutenants, and majordomos to guard his crypt against invaders, content to wait out the ages until his old foes had fallen to father time.
Now, the great tomb of the Gravelord has been breached, and as hapless adventurers stumble through its depths, his dark forces are roused from their torpor. The world beyond the walls of his dungeon home has changed beyond recognition, fading as the light of legends has vanished. In this new, diminished land, will the Gravelord's servants finally secure their master's rise to power, or will his great tomb kingdom fall to bickering and infighting?
* * * *
A serious sounding premise, I know, but I'm presenting this game as something that aims to blend dark and humorous stories for something I think could be quite fun. Taking inspiration from "Overlord", "Disgaea," and more, players would take on the roles of powerful (but flawed and unruly)fiends in service to the ancient necromancer, as united by their loyalty to their master as they are divided by their egos and individual natures. Tasked with establishing his empire in the new world, they'll have to overcome their petty squabbles lest their masters ambitions fall to zany hijinks.
This'll very much be a dark comedy, and while I think the premise matches closely the (heavily modified) premise of the japanese rpg "Maid," it's a system I'm only passingly familiar with. FATE is something I know much better, and a system I think would well handle the largely narrative concerns of the various dark personalities struggling more with themselves and each other than the largely pitiful resistance of this new world.
I'm eager to hear what sort of ideas or thoughts people have regarding this premise. While it's lovely to hear that people are interested, I'd vastly prefer more substantive posts with suggestions to make something like this work. Ideas for more source material to draw from would also be appreciated.