"That World Where Apes have Jetpacks" the RPG

The other day someone posted about " 'Friends' but all the characters are ducks and two of them have a tiny human as a pet." I remembered that I had some notes about a post human world. I was all excited about it and scribbled out some of those notes here at this blog. At work, during some down time, I started working on the setting afresh. Got some more pages and more details on the species (that's "racial" for all the 'Nards reading this) listed. Then I worked out some locales and campaign specific cultural details. After some five pages of typing, I was very proud of myself.

While I was prepping for a Wobble session on-line the other night, once again at work during downtime, flipping through some pages of a print, I rediscovered that the setting was in print in somewhat less detail but still already published. Well, that was fresh. For decades, at least since I was nine, I have been making notes in notebooks and themes and titles and phrases would slip from one to the other while their meaning or context would change. And now I am riffing on works already published. Of course with Wobble, I shouldn't be too surprised. But I am.

I tend to over classify things. Other GMs, most recently Jay Murphy, have talked about how their on-going games were becoming more and more mixed genre. I haven't had that dilemma. Perhaps it was my Wobble sideline as opposed to my other games. Running/playing in campy horror scenarios, Spacers sci-fi and superheroes and then listening to other people's FRPG sessions; my hobby experience is full of genres falling into proper (maybe niche) categories where I as a GM or player perform within my expectations of them.

But it really wasn't all Omegans Vs Radio-Apes Vs Space Nazis. I was often angry at myself at working on Wobble. I had so many other things to be working on, and then it occurred to me I could fit in the campaign settings that I really wasn't doing anything with.  Boom that was one of the key points towards my decision to go forward with it. Bought but unused art. Pages worth of RPG notes never going to be played if not put somewhere.

Flipping through the Xi Verse, my 1.5 Million A.D. (now there's a catchy title) "FFFFRPG" setting, I was at first embarrassed. I even posted about it in my Adventure-gaming Aware meet-up places (A.A. meetings). I said something like "If you wrote a roleplaying game with about a score of mini-places to be AND then found yourself writing a couple of the spots with even more details as their own RPG, um... Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I am asking for a friend." The only reply I received was " I look forward to 'That World Where Apes have Jetpacks' the RPG". I suddenly realized that I don't have any jet-packs listed in Wobble. 

Mildly reassured, I got back to work on next month's table-topping session. I detailed my "Nixon World" setting a bit more for about ten pages in its own file, clarifying as well as revising the setting as presented in the print up. No where near the original Nixon World game concept I had envisioned in 'o8 at a T&T forum, but its evolving. Whether it is turning into a printed scenario for Wobble or its own game one day, I can't say.

I just know that I have notebooks scattered about everywhere these days.