Turning an RPG idea into an RPG concept

The river Themes

Where we last left off, reader, I had an idea — adventurers in the world's biggest party. But that's not enough to make our end goal — a document that generates the kinds of stories that fit our themes.

Themes give us narrative through lines and expectations in our stories. They're one major way we know when something feels "off" in our stories. In RPGs, themes give players expectations and consistency.

So what themes did I want to explore in this party to end all parties? I went back to the original song - love. excess. self-expression. art. We see plenty of excess in RPGs, but the other three are something I’d like to see more of. What happens when each go too far? What are their virtues within reason?

But there are assumed themes when we play games. The rules themselves convey these themes. If we're playing Fiasco, we assume themes of grand ambition and horrible impulse control. Mothership will bring us alien stress and hopelessness. 

While 2 goblins and a pile of 25 coins in a bare 15x25 room was enough for Gygax, we live in a world that has more options. Context and ecology make our imagined worlds feel more alive. 

A setting to fit the themes

This was more difficult. I turned back to the song that kicked off the inspiration. My initial concept involved the party finding their way into this huge party and overcoming weird bacchanalia only to be cursed by the Invisible Light! Whatever that meant!

Ok. How’d the party get there? Uhh…. it appeared there? It happens every thousand years and phases in from another dimension? it’s always going but the doors only open every 100 years? It came from another world and doesn’t want to be stuck here?

Ooh. That might be something.

Goals and desires make for interesting monsters. They’re a form of potential narrative energy. SO what if we gave this party an agenda. And what if it was huge?

Eons ago, interstellar races partied on a magic-powered, space-faring island under a collapsing star’s supernova. A party to end all parties, filled with painted whores, sexual gladiators, fiercely old party children. The guests all brought art and structures and camps to fuel their revels. But they never made it home. They crashed here on our world, in the ocean. Now, millions of years later, the ocean floor’s a surface desert. The winds have shifted the sands enough to reveal a strange door. Inside, the PCs will find everything in stasis, a safety mechanism from when the ship crashed. These artists from beyond our stars and morality have been frozen for countless ages, and the actions of the PCs have begun to wake them up. Why did the ship not make it home? What caused them to crash? How did the inhabitants spend their remining hours before the freeze? What old grudges will the PCs awaken?

Wait… a huge art party out in the desert with alien wonders you can’t begin to imagine that offer a potentially life changing adventure for those brave enough to dive in?

Shit, I’ve made Burning Man.