Your craziest ideas for a setting?

Very true, and just starting to think about various locations gets my imagination racing, for example Aztek-themed, with lots of warring factions -
or a story-driven RPG set in the Inca empire, hell they even had running couriers!

Not to mention Africa, such as Songhai Empire, or again, something more story driven set in any remote African location, like deepest Congo or Zulu lands

(And of course, middle eastern locations, as have been mentioned before, my favorite setting being Sumerian)

 

It's not exactly what you're looking for, but there was an adventure game based on the books Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II (though it's sort of like a reboot in that it takes place during Rama II and the ship in question is Rama II, but the first Rama ship, and by extension, Rendezvous with Rama, didn't come to our solar system and Rama II is treated like Rama I.)

Here's Ross Scott of Freeman's Mind fame covering the game.

RAMA RAMA RAMA RAMA

 

Fantasy Noir?

 

More like neo-fantasy

 

Pretty much yeah.

 

The idea you mentioned sounds a lot like World of Darkness setting.

 

Discworld Noir? While it is not in the real world, it is "Detective Noir style" inspired. A bit old now.

 

Would love to see a modern update to the Spelljammer game setting. Would love to play a new video game set in Spelljammer. Like ( a modern XCom meets Pirates) take on this old gem for example.

 

I have this thing where I innately dislike fantasy worlds where it is obvious that the setting is on a planet, and from which stem many of the problems I have with fantasy setting in general. I know that sounds weird, bear with me.

Since I was a child, whenever I'd (role)play a fantasy game, with toys etc, none of the characters in my game were aware that the world is a planet - because fantasy games tend to be medieval-themed (or are often inspired by pre-medieval times, rarely periods after that), and people back then didn't really know that the planet was a sphere (I know that the knowledge of Earth being a sphere is thousands of years old, but it wasn't exactly popular knowledge back then). Besides, people's beliefs (whether ancient heathen practices, or dogma of organized monotheistic religions) were far more prominent in the world's understanding and interpretation. Whether or not gods actually exists is of no importance - they did exist back then. So did the creation myths, the legendary heroes and beasts, the whole mythologies...
For whatever reason, a "modern" knowledge such as that of Earth being a spherical object is a sort of anachronism - not really, but I tend to view it as such and I find it jarring oftentimes.

So to go back to my original thought, I'd really love to see a game that's set in a world that is so tightly interwoven with mythical and legendary, and not just be a typical pseudo-medieval-Europe with an occasional dragon or something.
A sky is an arc that was created by the top half of the egg from which the world was birthed, the sun is pulled by god's chariots to the sky every morning, the world is a plate floating through cosmos, sitting atop a world tree etc. You can take whatever you want from any mythology and make it like that.

And I guess the focal point of that is that I need the world to be a flat earth, or whatever fits the mythology of the world. I don't know of a mythology which states that world is a sphere. There is some out there, probably, I guess, but I haven't heard of it.

Not many games have fulfilled this criteria of actually mythical, and I guess that's the setting I'd really love to explore. First Dark Souls game kinda fits this concept, which partially prompted my adoration of it.


Edit:

To ilustrate a point:



This is an illustration of Yggdrasil. For those that don't know about it (but I assume pretty much does), I encourage some reading about it.

 

Playing as a group of teenagers and/or kids that have been sent to live in a small space station orbiting earth and must survive (managing their oxygen levels,Food/water supplies and what not) and having to deal with some of the (preferably toned down a little) drama that might occur while also maybe having to defend against "space scrap collectors" trying to take chunks of the space station.

 

That reminds me of Space Colony, although different (not just teens, not a space station but planetary colonies, etc) it also has some similarities.

 

Teen wakes in a world without adults and after some confusion starts partying hard with his friends. After few days power goes out. City is now run by a bunch of scouts, military fans and amateur survivalists. Protagonist falls in some debts with them buying smokes, booze and power generator. They take his younger brother to work on a farm to repay their groups debts. Then you take control. You have to use stealth to loosen groups grip on town. You do this kinda like in Mafia 3. You have to hunt for resources ( hunt in nearby woods and by scavenging).

 

Somewhat reminded me of this.
I haven't played it, tho, just saw the game.

 

Contemporary America where you play as a guy trying to destroy the government.

No dev team will ever have the balls to do it. But damn would it be interesting to see.

 

Now for a crazy idea:
A game where the player controls a detective and there are various scenarios and missions. But instead of the detective having to find a killer, it has to find the "real" gender of every suspect. Instant success!

 

Or alternatively play as a resistance fighter in a foreign country being invaded by the US, you have to kill all the gun ho CoD gun beard men. You accomplish this by hit and run attacks, road bombs, taking out American commanders and etc. You fight behind enemy lines in order to help the army fighting off the coalition armed forces. You can make contact with places like Russia, Iran, China and etc for support like agents, weapons and etc.

But then again the alt right murica first and "support the troops" crowd are gonna throw a shit fit for being called out as imperialist war mongering dickheads.

 

...We're not that bad, as much as some people would like to think...



On the topic of unusual settings, how about a game where one takes the role of Vlad III (a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler) over the course of his rather infamous life? I've seen the subject get some mention in other games, but never be the main focal point of a game itself. Admittedly it could be a little... grisly for some people's tastes, not to mention a bit of moral dissonance with modern audiences.

I'm talking about the Historical figure, not some cooked-up demonic/vampire fantasy-counterpart

 

I was once a participant of one Rusdian forum RPG, where events took place in the Land of Oz, but in American MgGee's Alice style - i.e. the same land, but all went dark, old classical characters kinda grew up and adapted to the new environment - each one in one's own way, of course - some went insane, some grew old and tired, some...well, as crazy as you could imagined. "Untale", or "Not Tale" or smth like that was rtat RPGs name, and I played Tin Man, which has become kinda hi-tech freak - his house loaded with weapons, upgraded his tin frame to literally power armor, booby traps everywhere, and he has got totally paranoid, always waiting for the war to come...which was pretty likely, but not that easy...Well, the idea itself isn't new, but it just might work)
Also, some historically-based RPG. I would love ancient Greek setting, but without any Gods incarnations, just visit some temples, make gekatombas, talk to priests when necessary - but all fully realistic. Player might be a simple greek soldier, for example, recruited for the Troyan war, or even one of the Odysseus crew, or an Argonaut - but stop, here goes mythology, hurts realism, stop.

Or some kind of Arcanum sequel - man, I just love that universe, where magic and tech struggle to co-exist, with limited sucess sometimes.