Ok, so I've been away for quite some time here. Just crazy times around here, with lots going on.
Anyway, I'm getting geared up for "The Prisoner" - AMC's reimagined miniseries version of the insane yet incredible late-'60s British TV series, which begins this Sunday night. The original is one of my all time favorite TV shows. I'm a bit nervous about how this new take will turn out, but still I'm planning on watching it, and giving it the chance it deserves. Hope it rocks, actually.
On that note, I started thinking about The Prisoner as an RPG. Was there ever such a thing? If so, how did I miss it? Have folks run their own take on it, just house-ruling stuff, using their favorite system(s)?
I poked around briefly on teh interwebzz, and only saw one official product which was for the GURPS system.
Here is some discussion on the idea in general at RPGnet forums, which actually includes some talk of the GURPS supplement.
And here is the main review entry for it (the GURPS one) over at RPGnet.
I've never played GURPS. I do have one GURPS product - the Conan Solitaire Adventure, which I have yet to try. But other than that I never got into GURPS as a system. Anyone ever use this GURPS Prisoner product?
Or even better, anyone ever run any other RPG, involving ol' Number 6?
I mean, the map/world is pretty well-defined already.
I wonder what the stats on a rover might look like.
And man!, the NPCs are sa-weet! Plus they are pretty easily indexed...ha!
"Be seeing you!" 
11 comments:
And so I see my good blog-buddy (and online B/X-er) JB over at B/X Blackrazor posted on the same subject right at the same time I was. Although I think he beat me in the submission race, because as soon as I hit "view post" on my screen to check my own, I saw his update in my bloglist...ha!
No doubt his is far more interesting (dude rocks! - go check out all of his stuff if you haven't yet), but I'm not gonna remove mine...after all I already typed it...heheh.
Sorry, bro...for the dupe. Not intended whatsoever.
I actually ran it twice in my Marvel Super Heroes RPG's.
First time, it was called 'The City' and was populated by many 'multiversal' versions of Batman. (We had one player who loved playing Batman and drove the other players crazy with it. Everyone wanted to play a Batman/Batwoman and when The Batman fell into one of Kang's Dimensional Traps, they all had their chance.)
The second time was truer to the actual Village, when another group of players were banished there by an unknown nemesis.
Ciao,
Grendelwulf
Y'know, I was thinking about a map for a village for a fantasy sandbox. I wonder if any players would notice I list re-labeled The Village for that purpose?
I mean really, "Palace of Fun", "The Green Dome", "Chess Lawn" and "Citizen's Advice Bureau"? There's adventure to be had right there *in* town...
Ha. I was just on JBs blog and saw you had one on the Prisoner also. The map looks great and I t hink it would be a blast to do a short campaign.
I've got the GURPS book and have been kicking around a Prisoner-themed con game for years. I think I finally hit on a basic premise that would work: everyone is Number 6. Part of the adventure would involve working out which number 6 is the real deal.
Jeff that sounds like a lot of fun. All this blogging about The Prisoner has got me jonesing to break out my DVDs. Hmm, but I can't find my 7th DVD.
Jeff Rients said...
"Part of the adventure would involve working out which number 6 is the real deal."
Want another idea to go with that?
Throw an NPC(s) in looking/acting like one (or more) of your player's number 6's. The trick is to play him true to form as the player would do.
I managed to do this with a few players and they didn't know if the characters they were playing were their original characters or if they were playing clones of their characters.
To further confuse things I separated a few of the characters among duplicate groups with NPCs. No one knew which was the real group, who were imposters, or how to tell the real ones apart inside the game.
The best part was they wouldn't take the chance of killing their other selves in case I was running their 'real' characters.
Talk about Paranoia...ah, but THAT's another game...
Ciao,
Grendelwulf
I recommend GURPS Prisoner highly, if you can get a copy for a decent price. I found mine at a used book store for just a couple bucks, but I understand that it's currently going for $50.00+ online.
Not as bad as the Castle Zagyg boxed set I bought just last year already fetching $100.00+, but still!
Just realized that's probably not too useful an endorsement.
More specifically, the book has almost nothing at all to say about the GURPS rules, as Prisoner is very lacking in combat and most other stuff that RPG rules are concerned with.
Instead, it's almost all descriptions of the Village and its inhabitants along with copious advice on making a workable game out of a very surreal premise.
Especially useful is the extensive discussion on how each GM can customize "his" (or her) Village, by coming up with different answers to the many mysteries that were never resolved on the show. Lots of tantalizing "what if..." scenarios are presented.
The author is clearly a mega-fanboy. There are quotes from the show in the margins of EVERY page, and the last chapter is an bona-fide episode guide, complete with synopses.
Great purchase. I can't see myself getting rid of it no matter how collectible it gets.
Jeff, if you ever run that con game, let me know what Con you run it at - that would totally be worth it if easy enough to get to! :)
Robbo, have you been watching the new AMC series? Whattya think? Would love to see a follow up post about this incorporating what elements might be worth including from the new series. Caught the first few episodes and I thought while quite different from the original there were some cool newer elements tossed in.
You ever read the old 2nd edition AD&D Ravenloft adventure called 'Bleak House'? It's got a heavy Prisoner influence throughout.
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