The RPGs I'm not running
I always have a list in the back of my head of RPGs I'd like to do. With most of them, I lose interest, or my interests evolve, before I can make time or find a group that's willing to go with it, so the games I wind up running are just a fraction of the whole list... not always my first choice, but whatever is most viable for whatever reasons.
Here's my current list:
Mafia. I want a game that feels like the Godfather movies... at least the first two. It's about family, duty, vendetta, and it's multi-generational. And player characters die, and it hurts. I envision this being a series of short campaigns. One starts in the late 19th or early 20th century, with immigrants arriving in America and making a place for themselves, like the flashbacks in Godfather II. The next is during Prohibition. The third is set in the '50s, full of post-war prosperity, like the first Godfather. Finally, it's all about drugs in the '70s, like the later parts of Goodfellas. Each mini campaign builds on the previous one, but the PCs are different... they die, and you get to play their descendants.
Horror. I've never experienced a horror RPG that I thought captured the horror genre in any meaningful way, and part of me wants to figure out how to make it work. On the other hand, D&D is hardly a faithful representation of how fantasy stories are structured, so maybe I'm asking too much of the RPG format. But there's something about the tingle of good horror that makes me think a really great RPG horror experience could be amazing.
Spellslinger. It's d20 fantasy plus gun-slinging Western, with a really unique, flavorful magic system that brings in it's own dose of tension and conflict. Am I the only person in the world who thinks this is awesome with a capital hell yeah? This is the one I would really rather play than run, but I think it's the one I'm least likely to convince someone else to run.
Clone Wars. There's a new edition of the d20 Star Wars RPG out, and I'd really love to give it a spin with a Jedi-centric Clone Wars campaign. Young Jedi and the clone commandos who obey them, leading legions of loyal clone troopers against the Separatists. That's a game I want to both play and run.
Eclipse: Special Maintenance Ops. This idea's been in my head for several years. Elite janitorial troubleshooters aboard a massive interstellar ship face danger and humiliation. Shades of "Red Dwarf" and "Paranoia." I actually ran a session once, using the old d6 Star Wars rules, and it was crazy fun. I'd love to run it for a couple of months.
Knights of Tempest. This one's been rattling around my head for several years, too. It's our world, but mages have always been part of it. They've always taken a leadership role. They're very powerful, and as far as they're concerned it's all about them... the plebes are just playing pieces in their big old conflicts. And they've shaped entire nations to suit their whims, created monsters that prowl the marches, and established rules for their own conflicts. I envision a magic system that's built around the mage's relationship to the source of her power.