Doc Sammy
White Trash Weeb
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So, I was on the Basic D&D thread and I mentioned this idea there, but I figured I'd turn it into an actual workable campaign template instead of just a one-note joke idea that goes nowhere.
The premise of Blue Box is essentially a love letter to both old-school D&D of the 1970's and early 1980's as well as the wacky and rather infamous Sonic The Hedgehog fandom, in particular the phenomenon of Sonic Fan Characters, also known as Sonic Original Characters or OC's.
The vast number of these Fan Characters and the rather dubious quality of the majority of said Sonic Fan Characters is so well-known it has become a meme within not only the Sonic fandom but the greater video game community as a whole. Then there's the very fragmented nature of Sonic's fandom which is due to the fragmented nature of the Sonic canon and its different universes and continuities (I mostly know Sonic through the Sonic X anime, and to a much lesser extent, the Sega Genesis games), which as an aspiring role-playing game developer, is very useful as one doesn't need to pay heed to the canon closely. The Sonic canon is so fragmented and varied that it is practically non-existent, which is partially responsible for the peculiar phenomenon of Sonic Fan Characters and why they are so extremely prevalent in the Sonic fandom compared to other video games and their fan bases.
Much like there are a lot of Sonic OC's that are merely recolors, there are a lot of OSR games that are merely renamed versions of TSR-era D&D. Don't get me wrong, I love the OSR and the more generic retro-clones are my favorite games within the movement as they give the most creative freedom, but a lot of the criticism that is directed at the OSR by its detractors is similar to the logic used in the criticism of Sonic Fan Characters (though the OSR's works generally don't infringe copyright and are usually of higher quality)
Essentially, I want to create an old-school D&D campaign where the PC's are essentially Sonic Fan Characters in a D&D context. In other words, YOU are the Original Character. In a lot of ways, Blue Box is the collective id of both DeviantArt and the OSR Movement combined and then both epitomized and made manifest.
Now, onto the outline of the game itself.
Original Character, Do Not Steal: Player Character Generation in Blue Box
So, for the rules of character creation, combat, and general gameplay mechanics, we are using White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventures Game by Seattle Hill Games with some modifications to adjust to a Sonic-themed setting.
There are three core character classes: Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric and they mechanically function the same as they do in White Box. I may also add the Thief in as well, but I am not sure yet.
Alignment is the standard three-point alignment of OD&D, but I am currently torn between Good vs. Evil or Law vs. Chaos.
Races are a little different. Instead of Races with mechanical differences, you have character templates that are largely cosmetic and are loosely based on the appearances of established Sonic characters. Here are the core "races" and sub-templates available for gameplay and keep in mind that they are largely cosmetic and have little to no effect on gameplay mechanics, as Class is the more important part of the game.
The races are listed in bold, with their optional character-based sub-templates listed below in italics. The sub-templates are nothing more than a general outline of the character's physical appearance and has no bearing on gameplay.
Hedgehog
The World Has Moved On: Campaign Settings in Blue Box
The world of Blue Box is my own personal rendition of the world of Mobius, re-imagined as a Sword & Sorcery-inspired gonzo fantasy world. Using the bestiary from White Box, along with the map from Outdoor Survival and various ideas cribbed from Initiative One's "Implied Setting" for OD&D, I have made Mobius a vast and wild setting, one that is almost post-apocalyptic and anarchic. It is up to the PC's to tame this wilderness through adventuring. The PC's goals are to acquire treasure as well as acquire followers and eventually build a barony or stronghold.
The weird thing is that in this iteration of Mobius, Sonic and all of his canon characters are implied to exist or have existed, but are long disappeared, assuming to be either dead or missing. Even the evil Doctor Eggman is missing in action, and the Chaos Emeralds are long gone as well, disappearing around the same time as the Sonic canon characters in the cataclysm that has made Mobius the world that it is in the Blue Box. Now it is the Fan Characters' time to shine and make their own destiny in this vast world. A world half-empty (or half-full, depending on your perspective), a world that has moved on....
I would really love to playtest these ideas for Blue Box in the form of a campaign, either as a Play-By-Post or as a small-scale IRL series of one-shots. If neither of these ideas gather traction, then I could make it a fanfiction to be posted on this forum's Media sub-forum.
I have never felt more inspired to run one of my campaign ideas before in my life, now that I have actually explained and enumerated the outline of Blue Box.
I will post more setting details and other supplementary ideas in future posts as well.
As always, feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.
The premise of Blue Box is essentially a love letter to both old-school D&D of the 1970's and early 1980's as well as the wacky and rather infamous Sonic The Hedgehog fandom, in particular the phenomenon of Sonic Fan Characters, also known as Sonic Original Characters or OC's.
The vast number of these Fan Characters and the rather dubious quality of the majority of said Sonic Fan Characters is so well-known it has become a meme within not only the Sonic fandom but the greater video game community as a whole. Then there's the very fragmented nature of Sonic's fandom which is due to the fragmented nature of the Sonic canon and its different universes and continuities (I mostly know Sonic through the Sonic X anime, and to a much lesser extent, the Sega Genesis games), which as an aspiring role-playing game developer, is very useful as one doesn't need to pay heed to the canon closely. The Sonic canon is so fragmented and varied that it is practically non-existent, which is partially responsible for the peculiar phenomenon of Sonic Fan Characters and why they are so extremely prevalent in the Sonic fandom compared to other video games and their fan bases.
Much like there are a lot of Sonic OC's that are merely recolors, there are a lot of OSR games that are merely renamed versions of TSR-era D&D. Don't get me wrong, I love the OSR and the more generic retro-clones are my favorite games within the movement as they give the most creative freedom, but a lot of the criticism that is directed at the OSR by its detractors is similar to the logic used in the criticism of Sonic Fan Characters (though the OSR's works generally don't infringe copyright and are usually of higher quality)
Essentially, I want to create an old-school D&D campaign where the PC's are essentially Sonic Fan Characters in a D&D context. In other words, YOU are the Original Character. In a lot of ways, Blue Box is the collective id of both DeviantArt and the OSR Movement combined and then both epitomized and made manifest.
Now, onto the outline of the game itself.
Original Character, Do Not Steal: Player Character Generation in Blue Box
So, for the rules of character creation, combat, and general gameplay mechanics, we are using White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventures Game by Seattle Hill Games with some modifications to adjust to a Sonic-themed setting.
There are three core character classes: Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric and they mechanically function the same as they do in White Box. I may also add the Thief in as well, but I am not sure yet.
Alignment is the standard three-point alignment of OD&D, but I am currently torn between Good vs. Evil or Law vs. Chaos.
Races are a little different. Instead of Races with mechanical differences, you have character templates that are largely cosmetic and are loosely based on the appearances of established Sonic characters. Here are the core "races" and sub-templates available for gameplay and keep in mind that they are largely cosmetic and have little to no effect on gameplay mechanics, as Class is the more important part of the game.
The races are listed in bold, with their optional character-based sub-templates listed below in italics. The sub-templates are nothing more than a general outline of the character's physical appearance and has no bearing on gameplay.
Hedgehog
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Amy Rose
- Shadow the Hedgehog
- Silver the Hedgehog
- Tails the Fox
- Knuckles the Echidna
- Tikal the Echidna
- Rouge the Bat
- Cream the Rabbit
- Vanilla the Rabbit
- Blaze the Cat
- Big the Cat
The World Has Moved On: Campaign Settings in Blue Box
The world of Blue Box is my own personal rendition of the world of Mobius, re-imagined as a Sword & Sorcery-inspired gonzo fantasy world. Using the bestiary from White Box, along with the map from Outdoor Survival and various ideas cribbed from Initiative One's "Implied Setting" for OD&D, I have made Mobius a vast and wild setting, one that is almost post-apocalyptic and anarchic. It is up to the PC's to tame this wilderness through adventuring. The PC's goals are to acquire treasure as well as acquire followers and eventually build a barony or stronghold.
The weird thing is that in this iteration of Mobius, Sonic and all of his canon characters are implied to exist or have existed, but are long disappeared, assuming to be either dead or missing. Even the evil Doctor Eggman is missing in action, and the Chaos Emeralds are long gone as well, disappearing around the same time as the Sonic canon characters in the cataclysm that has made Mobius the world that it is in the Blue Box. Now it is the Fan Characters' time to shine and make their own destiny in this vast world. A world half-empty (or half-full, depending on your perspective), a world that has moved on....
I would really love to playtest these ideas for Blue Box in the form of a campaign, either as a Play-By-Post or as a small-scale IRL series of one-shots. If neither of these ideas gather traction, then I could make it a fanfiction to be posted on this forum's Media sub-forum.
I have never felt more inspired to run one of my campaign ideas before in my life, now that I have actually explained and enumerated the outline of Blue Box.
I will post more setting details and other supplementary ideas in future posts as well.
As always, feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.
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