The Idea:
A simple print-and-play RPG about surviving an apocalypse...
...Where you play as yourselves in your hometown/neighbourhood/etc...
Questions:
Would you find this more or less interesting than playing in a fictional world with invented characters?
How many playthroughs do you think you could get out of this system before it becomes repetitive?
Most importantly, has this been done?
Personally I don't want to play myself in an RPG.
Playing in a local and familiar setting could be fun, and I have played such games in the past, though those scenarios were always custom created by the GM. How would *you* create a game so that I would play in *my* home town?
It really depends. If this is a board game as much as an RPG, replays could be fun. If it's more of a "pure" RPG, why would you want to play the same story multiple times? Though, I suppose, if there were different types of disaster to survive there might be something in it... Nuclear war, zombies, meteor impact, etc.
I am certain it has.
Frankly, I think this is the least important question. Something having been done before is no reason to not do something similar yourself. You'll learn as you go, and your work will end up being different anyway unless you are copying all the time rather than thinking, and listening to your playtesters. If a game concept interests you, make it and see where it takes you.
Thinking on this a little more, there is probably mileage to be gained from this as a little indie RPG. There's a whole scene out there of games that do interesting and unusual things. While there are probably people on BGDF who know the indie RPG scene, you're probably better off discussing something like this on a different site, where the focus is more on that sort of thing and you'd get more relevant expertise.
Yeah, I think it's probably outside the realm of bgdf at this point...
Do you have any recommendations of sites where I should discuss this?
Sorry, I don't know the RPG sites. Maybe someone else here can help.
No worries, I'm sure I can encourage my lazy self to do some research. :)
Most of my actual group could survive a real SHTF situation.
Hahaha, most?
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Thanks for putting some thought into this!
Yeah, I think the fact that you play as yourself could be a polarizing factor for sure. I don't see the generation of the setting as being an issue, since if you play in an area that your friends all know, everyone will be familiar with the setting without the GM having to do much work to set it up. For example, "let's go to the hospital". Everyone can visualize where the hospital is and how they might get there.
In general, I see this as an interesting little simulation of whether or not your gaming group could survive an apocalypse. The adventure could even start out with, "you were all sitting down to play an RPG, when..."
I don't think the idea has much replay value to be honest. In my opinion, the fact that this is a print-and-play makes that okay though. (Think Lady Blackbird.)
Thanks for your advice regarding originality. I'm not too worried about copying someone else's idea, just interested to see examples of it in action.