Shoot me a (Modern AGE System) idea

[steelsmiter]

So I've been following the Adventure Game Engine since it showed up on Tabletop (Dragon AGE/Ashes of Valkana). Started off having that nice appeal of being modeled after a video game I liked, but it was originally a bit restricted with the 3 class system. When Modern AGE came out they threw that idea out the window and in my mind made a broader, superior game, at least in comparison to the other AGE games. I became enamored.

Modern AGE is set up to create characters of a variety of backgrounds, professions, talents, and whatnot. It's designed so that you can place your game wherever you want on the Gritty>Pulpy>Cinematic continuum, including whether there's such a thing as magic or psychic power. I really like this game, but it seems to be a bit less mainstream so it's not as easy to find players. So here I am sort of fishing for Modern AGE ideas from players interested in playing

Books I have:
Basic Rulebook
Companion (so using Custom Characters is on the table)
Threefold (Even if I don't run a threefold game, Ancestries may be on the table. I like how they're presented)
World of Lazarus

Personally I would prefer not to run a canon World of Lazarus game (or really a canon game for any franchise due to the fact that I don't think I could honor an existing franchise), but technically any Modern AGE game could theoretically qualify as canon Threefold.  Leaving that reservation aside, there are a few games I'm willing to run even without whatever feedback I get from this thread:

   
• Gritty horror with potential for cinematic slasher killers
• Pulpy Police Procedural or Crime Family
• Cinematic Buddy Cop Movie (With Lethal Weapon being the only exception to the No Canon rule since I've had a headcannon for the 5th installment killing off everyone except Nick Murtaugh and the son of Riggs who I've named Jack for years)
• Cinematic Special Forces: Not sure what era/battleground the game would take place, but probably no earlier than 1963. Also magic or psi would make sense in this setting.
• Unexpected Origin of Humanity: The creationists were right about one thing, humans didn't evolve on earth... Whether they were right about the other, and how this lack of evolution manifests is up for grabs
• Post apocalypse, using a supplement I wrote
• [insert idea here]

So I put it to a vote. The numbers are included for convenience of being able to just say whichever number you want, but in votes with extra options you should include details (Like whether victims and killers of 1 are the same mode, which side of the law players of 2 are on, whether 3 is Lethal Weapon or not a franchise, how "real world" 4 is, and so on). Also if you vote for the final option, I want to hear what game you want me to run you in, but be aware that I'm not likely to be prepared to run games in preexisting franchises except as noted.

[steelsmiter]

Someone PM'd me with a premise of an intergalactic war which actually works well either on its own, or as a modifier on 4 or 5.

Someone else proposed a western game where they play indians. They wanted to see about me testing a system of mine, but it's valid for this game too.

Apart from that game of Indians, I'm also willing to run either Gold Rush era or 1895 as another idea with Modern AGE. The primary caveat would be that some vehicles and firearms that exist in Modern AGE wouldn't exist in a western game (with the gatling gun being equivalent to an Automatic Rifle that can only be used mounted)

[steelsmiter]

So I had a hard drive failure, and I've let people on my discord know. I'm just dropping in here to say that the failure didn't affect my Modern AGE stuff since GRP has it on record. I also have some homebrew AGE documents... some are out of date and will need working on if interest is sparked.

[steelsmiter]

I just got the Enemies and Allies book for the system, so my ability to run games just broke right open. I'm also considering a "hidden magic" game where normal every day citizens "see what they want to see" when an ogre goes on a murderous rampage in times square everyone just sees a rather tall (but naturally so) man in a mask. Only the players connect the dots. They've become adepts at finding out what really happened with these kinds of stories, sorting them out privately, and spin doctoring it so regular people are none the wiser.

[steelsmiter]

So I've been working on a document I'm calling Fallen AGE. I now feel like I can run an approximation of Modern AGE that makes more sense in a post apocalyptic setting, so if there's any interest in post apocalypse (in addition to the above) I'll be glad to hear it.

[DracoNeurosis]

Interest registered!  Especially for #4 and #5.

[steelsmiter]

We had a discussion elsewhere in which I detailed a previous story I attempted to run with those ideas:

Redacted CIA Datafile on Project Edenia

Long ago, there was a spaceship called The Edenia that was fleeing combat with some aliens or other, and they warp to a planet called Nod. While cloaked, they send an away party equipped with nanobot communicator implants to investigate the planet because it appears habitable. They're only sent to investigate, but someone decides to physically try to eat some of the food, and the Edenia quarantines them. Partly because of food consumption, partly because there was an emergency situation. They lose touch, and have to make do on the planet without the help of their communicators accessing the ship's crew.

On very rare occasions over the next 6,000 years people were born with the ability to reconstruct the nanobots genetically, most prominently, those who can "talk to god". But those weren't the only nanobots in the away party. Some had telekinetic ability and a few other minor psychic phenomenon generated by the nanobots that were very easy to disguise or conceal entirely. We do have reason to believe that certain biblical figures survived longer than normal lifespans, along with the story of Lazarus. We have yet to recreate nanobots or see them spontaneously originate in others that would allow complete resurrection though. And we are capable of tracking them even without having built them. Joint efforts from the highest of the highest intelligence agencies worldwide eventually created what you would think of as the illuminati, though we are not Lizard people as you may have heard. We are fighting them though.

We're not perfect though, we never built the ISS orbiting around the Earth. We found it. The Edenia had been destroyed in a battle with another ship, probably the one chasing them, and they lost. But they kept good records. Encrypted records that it was a stroke of luck to ever discover. The alien spacecraft that crashed in Roswell turned out to have encryption software on board compatible with The Edenia. The Roswell ship itself was sent in response to the Edenia's emergency beacons. We don't know where they came from, and it's not simply a really hard math equation.

We have a moonbase and a Mars headquarters. In addition to finding the Edenia's creators, it is our goal to protect the people of earth from a massive space war. We are somewhat newcomers, but we have been able to duplicate the Edenia's technology. The people of earth can't know.

If I were to run that particular variant, everyone would start at 1st level and gain Arcanas or Psychic Powers as Specializations. The first few levels would be really fast experience gains (on the order of each creature granting full encounter experience, and lots of Instant Experience awards) owing to the fact that I've found experience gains in forum play to be quite a bit slower than I'd liked (Less than a level in 10 months). So anywho, that game will be cinematic in general, but we'll still need to discuss what extra bells and whistles to include. In particular I'm thinking:

   
• I feel like the Freeform Character Creation listed on p. 6 of Modern AGE Companion is preferable to randomly rolling for attributes, backgrounds, and professions.
• I don't feel like Ancestries or other non-humans make much sense, but that can be discussed for a character who doesn't know they're not human (because they look identical to a human in every way)
• This list will be amended as ideas come