Would the movie "Cube" make good roleplaying? | Tabletop Roleplaying Open (2025)

Hi,

Not sure how many of you have seen Cube; what i'm wondering if whether or not something inspired by the film would make a good, playable adventure.

Suggestions on systems, mechanics, and why it would (or would not work) would be appreciated.

For those of you who haven't seen it, spoiler below...

There was a second film made, Hypercube, but I didn't think it was as good.

Thoughts?

It might do for a one shot or short term campaign but really there is not a lot in the movie that gives itslef to a long campaign unless the cubes and solving them is going to be a lot more complex or the players do something once they've escaped it all.

THe second one is in a theoritical 4th dimensional cube and it is not as good though has some intesteing ideas in it. There is a third one I have not seen.

Crothian said:

It might do for a one shot or short term campaign but really there is not a lot in the movie that gives itslef to a long campaign unless the cubes and solving them is going to be a lot more complex or the players do something once they've escaped it all.

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Government vigilantes? *evil grin*

Crothian said:

THe second one is in a theoritical 4th dimensional cube and it is not as good though has some intesteing ideas in it. There is a third one I have not seen.

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How would you even begin to make mechanics or rules that would work for the 4th dimension? I haven't seen the third one, either.

daemonica said:

Government vigilantes? *evil grin*

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I think you'd have to come up with a lot of answers like why did the Government do this, how, why these people...RPGs lots of times need to be a little more fleshed out for the GM for background info that just isn't there in these movies.

How would you even begin to make mechanics or rules that would work for the 4th dimension? I haven't seen the third one, either.

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I think a lot of it would be just effects (many deadly) and window dressing of what the players encounter and have to deal with. Its not like they ever get control of the 4th dimension they just have to try to figure out what's going on in it.

crothian said:

I think you'd have to come up with a lot of answers like why did the Government do this, how, why these people...RPGs lots of times need to be a little more fleshed out for the GM for background info that just isn't there in these movies.

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So more of a conspiracy theory-type game. Characters are all in the Cube for one specific reason or another, government has a specific (or not-so-specific) plan.

I could see it as being an interesting one-shot, mixing an old fashioned dungeon crawl with shiny tech and giving you a chance to do the a Lifeboat style character study.

But I don't think I'd want to try to make it into a campaign setting.

daemonica said:

Hi,

Not sure how many of you have seen Cube; what i'm wondering if whether or not something inspired by the film would make a good, playable adventure.

Suggestions on systems, mechanics, and why it would (or would not work) would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Would it make a good RPG? Only if you are a sick and sadistic GM Like me

I think you would have to allow each player to create two or three characters that can be picked up as you go along so that the high body count doesn't leave anyone out of the game.

My game of choice is always Fudge these days so that is what I would use. If you wanted more crunch then BRP would be my next choice.

Mitch

I think that it is a perfect scenario for Paranoia (XP, except that it's not technically XP anymore... maybe Vista). It is good because:

1. You can kill characters and they'll still have leftover clones.
2. Delivering clones to the cube would be a fascinating exercise in logic-bending.
3. Paranoia already has many inexplicable effects which can be emulated with its random nonsense tables. Adding cube traps to it would actually leverage this system.
4. While Paranoia can do longer campaigns, it's exquisite for one-shots.

Running Cube as a "Straight" game of Paranoia seems a perfect use of the system and premise.