Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A Strange Dream

I woke up this morning thinking about how to resolve a problem I'd had in an earlier OD&D-related post I'd made this week. As it turns out, I'd made no such blog post, which, if I'd not been so fuzzy headed when I woke up, I'd have realized immediately.

You see, I'd dreamed that I'd come up with, for lack of a better word, a "Muppet hack" for OD&D. Instead of the familiar quartet of Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, and Thief, I had created new character classes based on the various types of Muppets. There was a class for "Humanoid" Muppets like Guy Smiley or Bunsen Honeydew, a class for anthropomorphic animals like Kermit or Miss Piggy, and a "Monster" class for characters like Grover or Oscar.

The problem I woke up attempting to resolve was twofold. First, what would be the fourth class to complete the set? I was toying with the idea of including those giant "suit" Muppets like Big Bird or Sweetums, but I wasn't convinced it was a strong enough archetype to be a class. Second, I was trying to figure out which ability scores ought to be the prime requisite for each class and I was thinking that Charisma rather than Strength should be the prime requisite for the Monster class, since not every Monster was strong but all had strong personalities, even Grover.

Of course, if I hadn't been in a haze for a minute or so upon waking up, I would have realized immediately that this whole thing is absurd, but I was and so I actually tricked myself into believing that this was a worthwhile way to spend my time for a few more minutes. And then, as often happens, my head cleared, the dream faded, and I found myself wondering what could have possibly inspired this bit of nonsense.

I still have no idea.

30 comments:

  1. That... actually sounds kind of awesome...

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  2. Yeah, gotta second David here. Some people dream in color. You apparently dream in AWESOME!

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  4. Fourth class: Snufflupagus. He gets his own class.

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  5. The fourth class is Actual Human, of course: Gordon, Mr. Hooper, Weekly Guest Star, etc.

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  6. "I found myself wondering what could have possibly inspired this bit of nonsense."

    Pizza too late in the evening? :)

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  7. The Muppets were huge amongst the game geeks a couple of years after I got into D&D. I've never been a huge fan of puppets or Muppets in general, although I enjoyed the Muppet Show to a degree, but not in any life long way like a lot of people do.

    Having said that, I have a quick story full of dorky goodness. The old owner of Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica, Gary, had a Grover puppet (with moveable arm and all) hanging on the wall. I was going to a small Doctor Who con near Beverly Hills, and I don't remember why but I borrowed the puppet from Gary to take with. I put a scarf on him to make him look a bit like the Doc, and believe it or not it was a huge hit at the con. My one and only puppet triumph.

    Anyway, after looking at a thread on DF yesterday where dudes were talking about having flying ghosts of Black Puddings in their games, and troll mummies that breathed gas and other crap, I can promise you that Muppets are not the most retarded thing you can include in a D&D game.

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  8. Too New School!

    I prefer the Original, predating the Sesame Edition by 7 years. I speak of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

    It had an actual Magic Kingdom afterall. Look at King Friday XIII. Now there's a real Grognard if there ever was one; He is relatively egocentric, irrational, resistant to change, and temperamental.

    ;)

    Ciao!
    GW

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  9. Now you're telling us about your *dreams*?? That's worse than telling other people about your D&D campaign! And once again, despite that, awesome.

    But how far are you going push this? Vacation slideshow? Wife giving birth?

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  10. You have been given a dream quest. Fulfill it. I must have the Muppets Go to Greyhawk.

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  11. What about just "human" as a class? There always needs to be a bit of balance there I think (Bob, or Mr. Hooper).

    I also like Snuffy as a class--as "imaginary" or an unseen class that can shapeshift depending on the character make up of the rest of the party. Snuffy could balance a party if they need a different class, or it could act as a gestalt of several characters.

    Also, some possible alignments:
    Optimist (Kermit), Worrier (Telly), and Grouch (Oscar)!


    /A muppet RPG is about neatest idea I've heard this year!

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  12. @Luke Fleeman Martinez: Thanks, now I have to make an NPC Muppet party!

    Sir Khermitt, paladin
    Bertenkainen, magic-user
    Erniestro, magic-user
    Birdicus the Big, cleric
    Oscarde, fighter/thief
    Groveron, barbarian
    Elmonica, bard

    Ciao!
    GW

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  13. With a little bit of leeway in interpretation, isn't this the breakdown for character types in Gamma World/Mutant Future? Human, Mutated Human, Mutated Animal.

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  14. Sunflare Day
    Burnin' the clouds away
    Warm ash blowing into my face

    Can you tell me how to get,
    How to get to Sesame Base

    Come and play
    RAD Levels are A-OK
    Friendly mutants there
    A whole new human race

    Can you tell me how to get
    How to get to Sesame Base

    It's a nuclear aftermath
    Where you can make your own path
    To happy people like you--
    Happy people like
    What a beautiful

    Sunflare Day . . .

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  15. Don't make me break out my Sesame Street LP! Rubber Duckie Rocks! Heh

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  16. "I found myself wondering what could have possibly inspired this bit of nonsense."

    Possibly this?:

    http://jrients.blogspot.com/2010/07/and-now-words-of-wisdom.html

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  17. "Ya gotta put down the Duckie if you wanna learn the saxophone!"

    From Kermyt the Kameliod:
    "It's not that easy being green;
    Adapting each day to the color of the leaves.
    The tingle in my skin turning red, or yellow or gold-
    or something much more colorful like that.
    It's not easy being green.
    It seems you stand out against the urban debris and carnage.
    And people tend to align their laser-sites on you 'cause you're standing out like a christmas tree in the middle of the desert . . ."

    Ciao!
    GW

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  18. @Matthew: Zoot made 'im do it! That crazy ol' Zoot!

    Ciao!
    GW

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  19. and The Count, so ol skool it hurts !

    Cookie Monster as the new cleanup crew

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  21. I also call awesome.

    The overall waking-up-dream-hazy resolving problems that don't exist is very familiar. And sometimes they do exist and it's extra awesome.

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  23. Would anthropomorphic letters, numbers and inanimate objects be considered monsters? Or a seperate class for Supplement I: Sesame Street?

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  24. Jamie Albrecht said...
    Would anthropomorphic letters, numbers and inanimate objects be considered monsters?


    Chamberlain: "Sire, this very important message has just arrived from our ambassador on in the Dark Kingdom"

    King: "Where is the messenger?"

    Chamberlain: "It was brought to us ... by the letter "D" and the number "5" . . ."

    Ciao!
    GW

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  25. The whole premise of Greg the Bunny and Warren the Ape was that puppets (err.. Fabricated Americans as they say) were real with their own language and such.

    So why not a living puppet class for D&D?

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  26. Fraggle Rock or The Dark Crystal would probably be easier to do in D&D, but there were various films (possibly straight to video) with the Muppets acting out fairy tales, Treasure Island etc.

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  27. The thief class would be the Robber Ducky.

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