Jhonen Vasquez themed game..

[Prak]

I'm thinking of running a Jhonen Vasquez themed game at some future point... and would like some opinions on system.

Jhonen Vasquez, for those who don't recognize the name, is the artist who created Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee, I Feel Sick, and Invader Zim. Invader Zim being his most widely known creation, and also the tamest, as it was created as a kid's cartoon.

The basic theme of his works is a dystopian look at humanity and society, wrapped up in a sick, twisted, sometimes immature, sense of humour. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is a comic book about a serial killer whose 'god-given' purpose is to kill. He destroys the hateful, small-minded, pieces of shit that ruin the world. It's extremely gory, but also quite thought provoking... and Jhonen actually made a point of regularly making fun of those people who read the comic solely for the gore and senseless violence.

most of Jhonen's main characters seem to suffer some form of mental disorder... Johnny is bipolar, schizophrenic, and quite possibly suffering from several other disorders... Devi suffers from, well, the same, but to a lesser degree, and actually seemed to have been able to control her schizophrenia... though she's still paranoid of leaving her apartment... Squee, being only 6 years old, is the main character that suffers from mental disorders least, though he will surely have them as he grows older... he's already scared of most everything, and has a teddy bear which will likely eventually become a "Walking Insanity".

Walking Insanity is my term for an entity that originated as something related to a person's mental disorder, such as a voice in said person's head, that was associated with an object and eventually gained a sentience of it's own. For example, Johnny actually has three walking insanities, Mr. Eff, Psycho Doughboy, and Nail Bunny, each was a voice within Johnny's head that he began associating with an object(Eff and Doughboy were associated with styrofoam Pillsbery Doughboy statues which Johnny repainted, and nailbunny is a voice of reason associated with a small pet rabbit Johnny bought from a petstore, fed once, and then nailed to a wall.) this association gave the objects sentience and animation.

anyway... I was thinking about running it with either d20 or Palladium, but am not certain which I should use... I was wondering if any of you could give me some input on system, and anything else I might need... such as stats for things like Irkens...

[Hey_I_Can_Chan]

Unkown Armies sounds so right for this game.

1. Official Web Site
   
2. Manufacturer's Web Site
   
3. Wikipedia Entry

[Username17]

When deciding upon a game system, you should probably start with what you want the players to be able to do and how much the players should be able to understand about what they can do.

That is, a more transparent game has less "mystery", but is easier on the game master and more empowering to the players. A game where players have a wide breadth in potential abilities is more work to run but potentially more interesting (or frustrating if done poorly, remember that).

Vasquez's work turns on surprise more than anything and in most of it the protagonists can't really do anything. They are merely passive observers of a system gone to hell where people around them are killed by monsters and apathy and they are powerless to do anything about it. That sort of screams "Cal of Cthulhu" - except that the system doesn't really work at all.

And of course there are empowered characters in the man's portfolio who are able to accomplish quite a bit - from destroying people with their mind to growing robot arms out of their backpack and going on a rampage.

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What you're mainly going for is a "feel" rather than a specific game effect, and that could be done pretty much anywhere. You can introduce horrific and surrealistic elements into any game. A simple game of D&D where the players spent almost no time throwing fireballs or gathering information and spent a lof time having surreal conversations with Bone Devils that wanted to harvest some livers because the last ones were the wrong color is entirely workable.

But if you wanted to ground it more firmly in the meta-setting of JtM, Squee, and the Shut Me Up video, then you'd probably want to have things be set modern or future. Which pretty much screams Champions or Shadowrun I should think, depending upon desired power level and ability disparity.

-Username17

[Prak]

first, thanks for responding, I mean, at all...

especially frank(I'm not surprised you know vasquez, especially the obscure MSI video, and very glad you do...).

anyway, yeah, mostly what I'm looking for is a feel, however, because, I personally feel, playing characters that can't do anything(ie, commoner number 13, down the road) is no fun... I was thinking more that the players would be playing those people that can do something. As far as I've determined, Vasquez's works take place within the same universe, obviously for the comics, though IZ is the question, and certainly seems to take place in the same universe, one that is generally about the same in technological advancement, but that all kinds of weird science exists, along with the very beginnings of the next level of technological advancement. This means that certain characters will have access to stuff like shrink rays and possible mechs... other characters from alien civilizations would have personal space craft, obviously. Other characters might be capable of using minor magics(ie, Gaz... c'mon, we all know she's some manner of supernatural...).

I, and the rest of the people I know are unfamiliar with Shadowrunner and Champions. I was mainly looking at d20 cause we all know it, or will soon be learning it in one young lass' case, or palladium because, more or less, it's d20's older brother... I myself have d20 modern, future, cyberscape, futuretech.... pretty much everthing I'd need... that's another reason I'd considered d20...

my other question is how? I mean, the theme is the easy part... but the story... now that's difficult... hmm... I once had an idea for a story in which fanatics in our world had captured Jhonen in an attempt to silence him and prevent him from publishing his stories. The hook for the characters would be that they manifested in our world so as to rescue Jhonen and thus protect their own existance...
While this makes story line rather easy... it's not very in line with the theme of Jhonen's stories... though, it easily could be...

[RandomCasualty]

1168039873[/unixtime]]That sort of screams "Cal of Cthulhu" - except that the system doesn't really work at all.

What version of CoC are you talking about anyway? And what issues do you have with it, such that it doesn't work.

[Username17]

1168225797[/unixtime]]

1168039873[/unixtime]]That sort of screams "Cal of Cthulhu" - except that the system doesn't really work at all.

What version of CoC are you talking about anyway? And what issues do you have with it, such that it doesn't work.

Well, the ones I'm familiar with are the Chaosium version and the d20 version. Both have... problems.

The skill system of Paladium is bad, and the CoC version is not enough of an improvement to go anywhere with. THe flat percentile success rate was shit when RuneQuest whipped it out, and it's still shit now. Just the fact that languages are expressed as a low percentage means that dumb stuff happens. Constantly.

And of course the game isn't survivable. It's not even intended to be survived. Your Sanity and Power go down and they don't particularly go up. The game is about having your finite resources stripped from you one by one until you make a new character. That's the point - and that doesn't make for a good campaign.

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The d20 version is basically just like d20 Modern (which doesn't work) plugged directly into the spellcasting system from the Epic Level handbook (which doesn't work). So it... doesn't really work.

-Username17

[Prak]

so then what do you think about d20 modern/near future for the game? I'm really more concerned about using a system my friends know, or can easily learn(which is part of why I was looking at palladium, also, I personally like the skill system) than using a system that would be absolutely perfect...

why would champions or shadowrunner be perfect? and how different from d20 are they?

[RandomCasualty]

How would you go about adapting Shadowrun to a modern setting though? Just not allow magic or cyberware? I'm curious if that would throw the balance off somewhat, as there really isn't much to spend karma on after that.

You max firearms, you max dodge and your agility and then what do you do?

It seems like you'd peak very quickly.

[Prak]

actually, magic would kinda need to be left in... there is actually a substantial amount of it in the source material of this occasion... the future tech would need to be taken out though...

[RandomCasualty]

1168328336[/unixtime]]actually, magic would kinda need to be left in... there is actually a substantial amount of it in the source material of this occasion... the future tech would need to be taken out though...

That would probably be a real problem if PCs got access to magic at least. The thing is that in SR, you either get your power from magic or from cyberware. If you take the magic and the cyberware out, then I figure things may stay more or less balanced (though admittedly character choices are a lot more dull). Taking out only the cyberware basically means everyone has to be a mage.

I suppose you could force PCs to be either magicians or adepts and do it that way, but I don't know if you want that much magic in your game.