Thursday, July 14, 2011

the Occult Research Bureau

Creating an Organization for RPG Campaigns Part 1

I've been giving some thought to my next campaign, and I really want to run GURPS again.  Now I haven't discussed it with any potential players, but I'm really interested in running a horror based campaign.  A campaign in which the player's characters are members of an organisation that deals with supernatural threats.

One of my inspirations are the novels, Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta., written by Larry Correia.  Both are very entertaining, and would make a great campaign. Larry also writes a very entertaining blog, Monster Hunter Nation, and is a self-admitted nerd.  He's also a gamer!

When brainstorming about this new campaign, I wanted a cool name for the group, and I came up with, Occult Research Bureau.  The next thing I did was do a google search, and like I suspected,there was already an O.R.B. website with that name.  Now, I'm not sure if it's some kind of entertainment website to promote a haunted house/mansion, or if it really is about researching the occult. The website hasn't had any recent activity.  They also have a facebook page, but it hasn't had any recent activity either. Not that it matters, I like the name, and I feel that it falls under the concept of fair use. ( I didn't see any trademarks anywhere. ) So unless I come up with something better, O.R.B. is the name of the group.

The next decision would have to be whether or not the groups is a private organisation, a corporation, or a government agency.  In the campaign I plan on having more than one group, and they might be rivals, or have some level of cooperation.  A group could focus mainly on research, and gathering data.  It could also deal with supernatural threats, with appropriately armed response teams.  I'm sure this is the main direction the campaign would take, but you never know.

I would want it to be somewhat of a sandbox campaign,  but in the case of a highly organised group, the missions would have to be more of a railroad, i.e take out the cabal of wizards, or they summon the most horrible of horribles.   ( Especially if the group is a government agency, or with strong ties to the government. ) There would be definite nasty repercussions as the result of mission failure, i.e civilian deaths or a zombie apocalypse, which I guess would result in civilian deaths as well.  Mission failure is not an option!

On a different, but related note, I want to have a Cthulhu theme park in the campaign.

3 comments:

  1. Goodness I do love me some GURPS. Such a great game with so many possibilities. Hmm..I am reminded that I should perhaps call it a "toolkit" as it's endlessly customizable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ORB is fair game. Like you said, no trademark.

    Ah. the trials and tribulations of GMing! I love reading about that. (No sarcasm, honest.)

    In your theme park, you should have a concession stand called the NecroNOMNOMNOMicon. And they sell uh...Miska (Gin &) Tonics.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chrisitan, yeah it's a toolkit alright. I need to purchase some GURPS 4E books.

    Phil, I meant to write, Cthuhlu themed AMUSEMENT park, but I guess I was tired. I think everybody understood what I meant. The more that I think about it, a traveling carnival might be a better option. One of the games is Pick a Duck of DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

    ReplyDelete