I've got a question about OTE. I mean, what year it is supposed to be? If I read it, it's not too modern feel. It's something like 60s or 70s. How have you usually thought?
So, as you've already figured, I'm planning to run a OTE game at some point. So, since it would be my first OTE game ever, I'm going to ask some tips on the themes I'd like to play on:
The Great Britain in the 1960s with its fashion manners and technology (but I wouldn't mind general informantion about USA and other regions as well)
no supernatural, but surrealistic themes later on
criminal organisations
some Cold War and secret angencies
each of the players stumbling onto something that gets them to meet (more throughly) in The Village from The Prisoner (I have the GURPS book and loved the series)
and if the manage to escape (somehow) then they might wind up on Al Amarja
Does anyone know a preferrably rpg-resource that would cover some of this? Points 5 & 6 are covered but I'm especially worried about Britains cultural references and secondly, about technology (cars, electronics etc.).
I'd like to have some comprehensive reading about the 3 & 4, but I certainly wouldn't mind any references on 2 also.
And after watching Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, I was thinking of making Peace Force similar to Kerberos Panzer Cops to make them even more creepier. Has anyone used something alike? I'm still a bit blown away by the movie and cannot grasp the possible downsides of it.
What do you think of the Kerberos idea? But of the overall theme set in general? Any feedback would be appreciated.
I can't really speak to anything other than the time period — I don't have any good suggestions on your other ideas and questions.
I've always pictured OTE as a modern-day setting (although it's sort of stuck in my mind in the early to mid '90s, I guess, since that's when the game came out, IIRC). However, I like your take on it as a Cold War–era phenomenon. It somehow seems easier to keep all those secrets secret prior to cell phones and mass availability of the Internet.
However, it might also be fun to mix-and-match different eras of modern history. That is, you never specify a date, and grab themes and technology of different decades and mix them all together. For example, The Departed, Scorsese's recent movie, is obviously set prior to the modern day — the '70s, I'd guess it's going for — but cell phones are also completely ubiquitous. It makes for an interesting, quirky vibe that's totally in keeping with OTE.
That was my thought exactly. Infrmation isolation (especially on the field) seems an excellent theme.
The technology? I was going to do that anyway, but I was hoping of getting some list that was missing in the 60s, that we consider as common today. The cell phones and internet are the obvious ones, but there might something that's not so obvious. Or on the contrary, something that most of us would think that it didn't exist, but it actually did.
I was thinking of fashion too. I couldn't pick that from different eras. Or, I could, but I wanted to keep it "stylistically clean" at most times. At least I thought it would be cool.
It never struck me that in the game the GM is supposed to be keeping any secrets. Blab about them in character. Look at the long lists of "what you've heard", and "what you know". How much junk is in them, even at the highest levels of awareness? The point isn't "where is the truth", because a lot of it is staring right at you.
The Internet is actually a powerful tool in my games. I use it to feed the PCs leads, possibly false ones, get them in contact with certain others, etc. I also use it as a major infrastructure for the Underground itself - indeed, I've been working off and on to get some new Adept Powers for the digital age (Dictomancy, for instance, the power of meaning).
When truth and falsehood are indistinguishable, the Internet acts to preserve secrets, rather than reveal them.
Well, that wasn't exactly what I meant. I was thinking more like what's the point of searching down a mysterious antique book store to find out about some alternate views on biblical theme if one can always check out Wikipedia? The internet IS a powerful tool of course, but I'd rather keep that theme for my post-cyberpunk ideas.
But if anyone has anything to say on my original questions, I'd still be thrilled.
Or someone could just guide me to a OTE community which isn't as ... dead as this place. No offence.
The odd thing is, I have used the OTE system many times, but rarely set in Al Amarja.
I have found that this is one of the easiest introductions to rpgs going -- I have taken at least four groups of utter gaming neophytes on advantures using this system and they all grokked it immediately.
I have run (or seen) this system used successfully for...
Al Amarja
X-Files
Pulp Adventure
Suerpheroes
Generic Fantasy
Modern Action (primarily a la Hong Kong double-45s-to-the-temples style)
Atlantis (of a rather specific nature)
Film Noir-esque
And it could probably be used in other settings as well.
The core system is pretty darn flexible. The one drawback is that it works less well where everyone would have the same core skills (e.g. The Three Musketeers), simply because differences between characters make the game run best.
An RPG is sometimes not just an alternate spin on "our" world, it's an alternate world altogether.
Ever watch the movie Blue Velvet*? Remember it? That, too, is a world without any clear decade attatched- there are elements of modern times, and of the 50's, and every decade in between. But none of that matters, because "Frank is a very dangerous man", and that (and the candy colored clown) are all that matter.
It would take a bit of set-up to get everyone on the same page, and lock in the reality you want to exist, but then it should be accepted pretty quickly so long as you remember to toss out some reinforcement every now and then.
(*If not, DO! It's a great pic, but accept that you'll be very disturbed, in a fun roller-coaster of the human soul sort of way.) 8)
I picture myself doing exactly the same thing, but I've been running a game using Storytelling System (nWoD) for about two and half years now and I wasn't aware of OTE before that. I didn't like the mechanics for combat though, so, I've written a homebrew mix rules for that upcoming game (and hopefully for every game beyond that) consisting bits of OTE (character), nWoD (dice), Godlike (wounds) and TROS (combat). Sheet is going to be something like this (terms in Estonian, sorry).
Oh, how could one ever forget! This is definetly one of my favourite movies, but my problem is that I know how people dressed an what technology was used in my country in 80's and after, but I'm not really knowledgeable about the previous times and the other stuff I asked about.
So, does anybody know some preferrably RPG material about Cold War/Espionage/Criminal Organisations?
