Have you ever wanted to get involved in running tabletop roleplaying games and thought “But I have no ideas!”? The Big Red Couch is designed to show exactly how easy it is to get from random notions that stick in your mind to playable concepts, all through the medium of the kind of casually weird spitballing that gamers engage in at the best of times. In every issue, the intrepid contributors to the Big Red Couch brave the noisome wonders of The Mystery Box to produce a randomly-selected seed idea, then return Some Time Later to share what they came up with and discuss how those concepts might work as games. If we can do it, anyone can: that’s the whole idea. Along the road, we discuss what RPG systems might work for implementing different concepts, together with reasons how or why. This frequently involves adaptation of systems from their original settings to the point where they creak under the strain.
https://hoarde.net/bigredcouch
Episode One Hundred And Six – Survivors of WW III living on an Abandoned Colony
A handful of children explore the crumbling, deserted ruins of a world torn asunder by conflict.
Returning to an evacuated orbiting O’Neill colony after the “hot” war finally cools, it’s original inhabitants find it overgrown… …and overrun?
Would-be diplomats from space recount their escape from the doomed planet below, and the sacrifices of the people that helped them return home.
In an ash-smothered nightmare world, those preparing to survive on other planets have the best chance of saving this one.
O’Neill Cylider
TV – Stargate SG1 and Colonel Jack O’Neill
Carter J Burke from Aliens (1986)
The definition of colony
International Space Station
Scott Base and McMurdo Station
Whittier, Alaska – a town in a single building
– John’s pitch
RPG – Kid’s Last Tour by John H Reiher Jr
Anime – Girls’s Last Tour
Warhammer 40k Hive Worlds
Kettenkrad
“Suspent”
– Craig’s Pitch
TV – Lost
Novellette – “A Colder War” – Charles Stross – Read It Here
Project Pluto – section of “Mors Ab Alto” by Rodford Edmiston
“Interestingly, the exhaust turned out to be not particularly radioactive. In fact, chemical poisoning from erosion in the exhaust of the beryllium oxide ceramic used would have been about as toxic as the radiation. Of course, the exhaust didn’t need to be particularly dangerous, since the vehicle had an essentially unshielded half-Gigawatt reactor as the power source. The flight plan was to launch with solid rocket boosters to ramjet speed then start the reactor to climb and accelerate to cruise conditions. It would move to a Go/No Go position and wait to be sent into battle, or to the bottom of the deep ocean. If it did go on the attack, as SLAM approached the enemy’s border it would dive to barely above treetop height to avoid radar, while flying to its targets at about Mach 3. The sonic boom alone would have pulped most living things under its path, while the radiation and heat from the reactor would sterilize everything.”
Video Game – Kerbal Space Program
YouTube Channel – Scott Manley – KSP SLAM Build
Novel – What Niall Saw by Brian Cullen (though the author might be being mis-attributed around the internet)
1950’s Sci-fi Style
Seasteading
Bioshock
– Ben’s Pitch
VG – Battletech
Scott Manley’s Battletech LP
RPG – Zombie Cinema by Arkenstone Publishing
The Ship of Theseus or Theseus’s Paradox
RPG – Questlandia by Make Big Things
Novel – Ben Bova’s Grand Tour series – featuring Moonrise and Moonwar
Novel – Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn
– Craig’s Second Pitch
HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) -NASA’s 8 month simulated mission on Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii
Venusian floating bubble (Aerostat if you’re fancy) colonies
RPG Kickstarter – Journey Away
Venusian probes
RPG – 10 Candles
– General rambling
Milton Keynes
Comic Strontium Dog – 2000 AD
RPG – QUAGS
Podcast – The Gutter Skypes – search the page for “Session 136” or “Funky”
RPG – Red Markets
Poe’s Law
VG – Monkey Island series
Spike Milligan – The Bed Sitting Room – Play and Film
Trailer
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