Tamers: Gotta {pick one: capture, grab, acquire, snatch, get, obtain} em' all!

[Elberon]

Hi there,

Any news on how you're getting on with this one?

BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) have a suppliment called Super Fuzzy Animals which, if memory serves right, tweaks the superhero rules to fit in with furry critters, it is very closely linked the normal BESM rules, I've never really clicked with them but might be worthwile taking a look. 
It might also be worthwhile taking a look at Streetfighter RPG (yes I know its not all that but) it has X number of combat manouvers that when played in a sequence your character has 'trained' for gets better results but of course your opponents can find out about them.

A possible different tact could be have the critters as the main character and the tamer in the sidekick role?

Chris

[whiteknife]

Well, I had put this project on hold for a while, but I recently came back to it and made some changes. I had been having trouble with a lot of things, especially mapping the source materials to an RPG, especially considering that they were kind of diverse and didn't fit well with a group dynamic (for example, almost all fights in shows such as pokemon are one vs. one, which doesn't fit well in an RPG). Anyways, in order to iron out some of these issues, I decided to take a step away from the source material somewhat and create a new setting that promotes a different kind of play. Anyways, here's what I've got so far as to the new setting:

Man and monsters have never been on good terms. Monsters didn't like how man abused nature and man didn't like how much stronger the monsters were than them. For a very long time, man and monsters existed on uneasy terms, with the monsters keeping man inside a few isolated towns, and man trying to take as much land as it could from the monsters. However, one day all this changed when man invented a device capable of capturing monsters and transporting them into an artificial world where they could be reprogrammed into obedient pets and servants.

Almost overnight, man's dominion grew to include the entire world; with monsters no longer an impediment to its progress. Hundreds of years later things have changed- with monsters no longer a common enemy to unite it the various peoples of man became isolated and split into various factions and nations. But even worse than that- a new problem has surfaced: vicious monsters (dubbed alphas) bent on destroying everything have begun surfacing, which while bad wouldn't be much of a problem except that these "alphas" all share one vital trait- immortality. Whenever they're killed they simply come back in a few days (or even hours) to wreak even more destruction. In order to combat this menace, teams of tamers have begun springing up, devoted to capturing these alphas in order to stop their rampages. But even when captured, alphas remain resistant to the mind control technology used to make normal monsters obedient, and are almost more likely to eat you than they are to do what you say.

Players play tamers- using pet monsters, heavy weaponry, and whatever else it takes, their job is to make things safe for the masses by taking out rampaging monsters, evil societies, or whatever else comes their way- hopefully without dying in the process.

So one of the things would be that you'd have your basic set of abilities- your guns, regular monsters, or whatever, and then you'd have the dangerous stuff- the big monsters you can barely control, but have power that far outstrips that of your regular stuff. So the question becomes- can you risk using the big monsters? Can you risk not using them? Other questions arise too, like: are these monsters really evil, or are they just (justifiably) angry that man has basically enslaved their race? Why are you a tamer? Is it a sense of duty? Do you want fame? etc.

So anyways, that's what I've got, I guess. The game changed a lot since I first came up with the idea, but I think that this version is a keeper. I'll probably post up some rules in a few days once I get it all together. Anyways, anyone who wants to leave a comment, good or bad should feel free, I always appreciate it.

[neko ewen]

Yeah, I was just about to suggest checking out that BESM sourcebook. It only adds a tiny handful of things rules-wise, but it does explore different possibilities within the genre a lot, including crazy stuff like kids confronting government conscription of their beloved monsters.

There's also S. John Ross' game Pokethulu, which is now available as a free PDF. It's a simple, traditional RPG. Its setting is basically Pokemon, but with a bit of Cthulhu mythos thrown in. Take note of the Aspects, Weaknesses, and Attacks of the monsters.

Pokethulhu's monster special attacks basically have a number of dice and an aspect, and that's it. I don't know how much detail you want to put into the monsters' special abilities, and in turn how much you want to get into tactical combat, but I definitely like using different elements, perhaps combined with attack types (melee, beam, cone, blast, entangle, shield, etc.).

I too would suggest not bothering with collectible stuff. That kind of product pretty much only makes sense if you're a company with enough marketing leverage to create a decent-sized fanbase. Non-collectible spinoff games might make sense, but unless you're overwhelmingly inspired I'd definitely concentrate on the RPG first. Besides, Digimon, Monster Rancher, and of course Pokemon already have CCGs.

(And then the forum told me there was a post while I was typing up this post)

So if I'm understanding this right, the game is going to be about people using trained monsters to protect humanity from more dangerous monsters? That does sound neat, and as you say, sounds like it would work better for the group dynamic of an RPG. Do you still want to include Pokemon-style one-on-one duels? It might not be a central thing to the game, but it might make sense for monster tamers to do that kind of thing to train for the real battles.

[whiteknife]

Yeah, I've checked out pokethulu. I thought they did a very good job on the attack/monster desgin system and something of that level of complexity (probably a bit more though, since this is less of a comedy and more action-y) is probably what i'll end up with.

Although I do enjoy me a good CCG, I'm not going planning to make any sort of collectible stuff, especially since I want you to be able to basically make your own stuff (or steal from an existing source if you're so inclined). Although I suppose that a non-collectible card game might be a possibility, it's not in the works or anything.

I would indeed like to include pokemon style one on one battles as at least a side thing, but I have no idea as to how to make that interesting for anyone other than the person fighting. If anyone has any ideas for that, they would be much appreciated. Also, if anyone has any ideas on how to handle training in between fights that would be cool too.

[neko ewen]

Yeah, handling duels would be tricky. At least within the source material, the monsters don't really do much beyond what the trainer tells them to do (and if they do, it's probably enough for the GM and/or some die rolls to figure out what), so having other players be the monsters doesn't seem terribly effective to me.

The only other thing I can think of is to do something like Fan Mail in PTA, or Dreams in the Japanese game Yuuyake Koyake. Dreams are like Fan Mail, but there's no limit to how often you can give them out (just one Dream per "thing" that happens in the game), and you spend them to improve connections rather than to be more effective per se. Still, in my limited experience with Yuuyake Koyake, it did give the other players an incentive to pay attention to the game even when they weren't participating. Maybe the other players could represent the crowd watching the duel?