MARP: Advice Needed on Complexity

[J. Campbell]

First things first, MARP stands for Modular Anime Role Playing. Yes, I know that Anime is a rather sweeping generalization and that quite a few people don't even like Anime, but this is meant to be sold at Anime conventions as an impulse buy.

Anyways, on with the game system!


Task Resolution

Task resolution is fairly simple, since Anime characters tend to be absurdly skilled and lucky when it comes to the Heroes. Players roll 1d10, adding a bonus if they have an appropriate Trait (rated between 1 and 5), and they have to try to beat a target number based on the difficulty of the task.

An Easy task is rated at a 5, a Moderate task is rated at 7, a Difficult task is rated at a 9, and an Extreme task is rated at 11.


Traits

Traits are simple and Genre specific. The Modular aspect of the Product is what will eventually produce Genre-specific traits, as well as a basic core of traits which are generic.

Character creation is equally simple. Players choose 10 points worth of Traits to define their character.

For example: In a fantasy anime setting, one character has the generic Trait Athletic rated at 4, the generic Trait Charm rated at a 3, and the Fantasy Trait Swordsman rated at 3. Another character might have the Fantasy Trait Magic rated at a 4, generic Trait Connections at a 2, and Problem Solver rated at a 4.

In general, the Traits will be fairly broad and all-encompassing, giving each character a set of skills all in one instead of just one skill. The players must select one Combat Trait as their Occupation.


Special Abilities

These will be Genre-specific, as well as including (once again) a few generics. Characters begin with 3 Special Abilities. Again, these will be fairly broad in nature. To use more fantasy examples:

The character with the Swordsman Trait above might very well have Tough (+2 to Damage Resist), Determined (May get up after taking a hit which would normally Incapacitate the Hero), and Really Damned Good: Swordsman (Player rolls the d10 twice and chooses the better result when using his chosen Trait).


Damage

Anime characters seem to soak up punishment like puppies. As a result, no simple Hit Point system would work to accurately cope with the feel of an Anime, so I'm using a Damage system instead.

When a character attacks another, both characters roll a d10 and add any appropriate Trait for the result. The player who rolls higher is the winner.

For example, if the Swordsman were to attack the Magic User, the Swordsman would roll his Swordsman Trait versus the Magic User's Magic Trait.

Now, subtract the losing character's roll from the winner's. The losing character must now make a roll versus this number, only adding to this roll if they possess a specific ability or piece of equipment which would allow them to do so. If they lose, they are Wounded, and have a -1 Penalty to their rolls. They continue to take penalties as they lose these rolls, and if the penalty overcomes the bonus from their Occupation Trait, failing a roll means they are Incapacitated, and are out of the fight.


Alright, that's pretty much it. Keeping in mind this is mainly going to be aimed at Anime Convention goers who may have NO experience whatsoever with gaming at all, have I made this too complex for newbies to follow, or is it perhaps too simple and needs to be made more complex?

[TonyLB]

It is far too simple for newbies to get a grasp on.  Their first question is going to be "So, what do we do first?"  And your text flatly doesn't answer that.  In fact, you go through all sorts of contortions not to answer it.

Frankly, I'd say dump the whole idea of letting them customize to a particular genre.  Pick one that you like and write the roleplaying game for that.  Then you can make the system strongly reinforce your message.

Want to do Neon Genesis Evangelion?  Then you may want a system where you distribute your character-creation points between Self-Hatred, Arrogance and Coldness.  Players would be instructed in how to build these attributes up (through personal scenes) to the point where they can have a personality breakdown at the right time to save humanity (again).  They would know, as soon as they finished reading the game, what sort of thing their first scene should be.

Want to do Macross?  Completely different thing.  Then you need a group-game where teamwork between members at all different points of the compass (in a fighter-veritech, on the command deck, performing music to broadcast to the troops, etc.) meshes together naturally to form an unstoppable synergy, but only when personal relationships between the characters allow them to work together with passion and resolve.  Again, players would know from the very outset what they need to be doing (i.e. building up the mesh of relationships and specialties that will let them achieve that synergy and save earth).

Those two are close, in anime genre terms.  Both are militaristic, giant-robot, coming-of-age stories.  And a system that works well for one will be pure poison for the other.  Trying to make a system that will do a stellar job running either Fooly Cooly or Kare Kano?  Forget about it.

Plus, honestly, I think a specific system will sell better than a generic one.  Seriously.  If I were walking through an anime con, I wouldn't glance twice at a "Generic Anime System".  But if you're selling "Golden Boy, the RPG!" then you get my interest... not even because I'm a fan of the Golden Boy series (meh) but because you've instantly communicated to me that you have a plan for how the game is supposed to play.

[daMoose_Neo]

I might say your "Really Damned Good: X" strikes too much of a BeSm chord with me.
Add to that I'm starting to see "generic anime" pop up like direct D&D knock offs used to, and you're entering an odd market.
I've recently been forced to endure CBS's "Wickedly Perfect" tv series, but one piece of advice a judge gave works - "If you're going to do apple pies, you better knock it out of the park"- if you ARE going to do something standard (ie a universal system), you better really have something going for it.
I'll second Tony's recommendation with the idea of a focused game. Anime offers a lot of story premise and some very unusual ones are the ones at the top of the heap, which is quite fitting considering how much standard stock is out there. Besides, I'm a huge anime fan as well, but theres certain genres I love and ones I can't stand, and working on one of those I like would be much more enjoyable than doing all of them ^_^

[J. Campbell]

Hmmm, I'm watching a lot of Witch Hunter Robin. Something with similar themes would be pretty cool, and could sell really well, too. Hmmm... Maybe keep a similar task resolution system, expand on the abilities, make a divide between Mundanes and Supernaturals...

Thanks, guys! You've given me some fodder for creation!

[Tony Irwin]

Task resolution is fairly simple, since Anime characters tend to be absurdly skilled and lucky when it comes to the Heroes. Players roll 1d10, adding a bonus if they have an appropriate Trait (rated between 1 and 5), and they have to try to beat a target number based on the difficulty of the task.

An Easy task is rated at a 5, a Moderate task is rated at 7, a Difficult task is rated at a 9, and an Extreme task is rated at 11.

Hey J. I agree - but I'd also say there's a pattern to their success/failure that your dice mechanic doesn't demonstrate.

The Read Or Die mini-series is a nice example with its stretched out action sequences. Watching  Yomiko Readman "The Paper" it seems that things often go something like this for her:

Success, fail, success, fail, success, fail, overwhelming success

or...

Fail, success, fail, success, fail, success, overwhelming fail

What you get is a series of attempts one after the other that build up to a climax. The climax takes account of everything that has happened before. At every step Yomiko has to do more and more impressive things because the situation keeps getting tougher and tougher.

Dominion Tank Police has nice sequences like that as well, taking out the bad guy requires a whole high-speed sequence of different attempts, each one getting more imaginative and risky for the girl and her driver (can't remember their names).

Of the top of my head, one way of getting that feel of build up and climax is by starting the player with having to beat difficulty 5, then difficulty 7, building their way up to whatever difficulty the task is.

So for a difficulty 5 task its just one roll (I want to break into the computer network) but for really complex stuff (I want the psychic insect cyborg to surrender to me alive) you have to work your way up to difficulty 9 or 11 step by step, announcing cooler and more imaginative actions on the way. I'd suggest also making them having to use a different trait/skill/power at each stage so you get lots of variety. Failing one of the rolls results in the kind of "double fail" or "overwhelming" fail we see in anime where something goes badly wrong and they get taken off the squad and their boss shouts "You're a loose cannon! The chief is furious!", or their buddy takes the hit and is hospitalised, you know the stuff I mean...

I wouldn't worry too much about whether something like this (you'll be able to think up a better mechanic than my suggestion in no time) makes it more complex or not - I think the trick is

1) Does it really feel like anime?

- Yeah I think some way of progressing or connecting tasks is needed to give it an anime feel.

2) At each step in the mechanic do the players know what's expected of them next?

- Yeah the players know that they next have to think up something even more imaginative/violent/intense in order to progress in getting what they want.

I think if you can achieve 1) and 2) then that's simplicity. You'll create a game that is instinctive and memorable, which the players can play and really get involved in instead of having to sit around waiting for the GM to tell them what to do next.

Anyway its looking good, hope to read more about it.

Cheers,

Tony