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 Sixty Two And A Half – The Audient Mailbag
Hero Roadies – Your job is to make the Hero look good & to not get noticed, which gets more difficult the more heroic their actions become
Just Make Me Look Good – Maybe the Hero’s power is fading, maybe their powers are drastically oversold, or maybe they were just lucky at the right time.
No matter what, they need you to keep them in the spotlight, to keep them relevant, and to keep them alive
Laser Plated Hero – What condiments do you want on your enormous high-tech sandwich?
Hearts & Minds On Mars – Trying to effect political change in a high-tech serfdom
Episode Eighty Seven – Canadian Mind Beams
Episode One Hundred And Sixty Two – Ruins Of The Ancients
Episode One Hundred And Sixty – Laser-Plated Hero
Sky High
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Speed Racer
Episode One Hundred And Forty Two – Power Drift
Masks
Apocalypse Engine
Dread
Star Crossed
Episode Six – Food Court Wars
Star Trek: Discovery
The Uplift War, by David Brin
Paranoia
Episode One Hundred And Sixty One – Cognitive Dissidents
Fate
The League Of Super Redundant Heroes comic John mentioned
Diaspora
This may not be available anymore – I couldn’t find a link which leads to a place to buy the thing ~ T. Jones
Blades in the Dark
Ayn Rand
Kubla Khan – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:”
…or maybe these lads?
Marooned In Realtime, by Vernor Vinge
Green Boots
The Expanse
Inside Out
Dashiell Hammett
The Emperor’s New Groove
Starfleet Battles