[suts] Anime/Maga Based RPG

[tj333]

Strongest Under the Sun is the name for my game.
       The idea behind the game is to emulate anime/manga stories like Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach, Shaman King, and most other fighting/action shows.
       Its all the fun of punching someone through a mountain and pushing yourself as hard and far as you can. In the end you may prove yourself the Strongest Under the Sun or fall before an other's ambition.

       The game system is a modified Dogs in the Vineyard. Some of the changed parts that I want to run by everyone are injury, advantage, and Ki/fatigue. Most of the stuff below is to simulate the source matereal.
       For those who know the source matereal, Do you think this works?
       For those that don't know the source matereal do you think it will make a good knock down and throw them around kung-fu movies/comic book type of game?

       In addition to fallout you can take injury. To take injury your see must be lower then his raise. The difference between the see and the raise is either subtracted from your dice dice in play or recorded as injury. Injury is added to your fallout total at the end of the conflict to determine the fallout level.
       You can do a sacrifice attack for 4 injury direct to the injury pool to raise with 3 dice.
       I thought this was an appropriate mechanic since it allowed the character to take injury in order to make a big attack. Injury is for really pushing yourself in a dangerous way.

       AN advantage is gaining a mechanical reward for your actions in the game. It is dependent on thinking up a way to claim the advantage as well as making the required number of  die rolls without taking injury, fallout or having your raise reversed.
If you can do it you gain one of the following:
3 successes - Give a character in the conflict a d6 to roll.
3 - Remove a belonging from a player.
2 - Pick up a belonging that has been removed from anyone.
5 - Add one a "use" to a trait on any character (Blocking, stopping or "defeating" a trait).
5 - Cause another player to take 2 injury everytime their character uses a chosen move.
       Do you think call the advantage and see if you can make the required rolls or keep a running tally of consecutive successful raises and sees by players that can cashed in at any time would work best?
       This came about from Naruto mangas and the one guy that was not particularly powerful but he would out plan his enemies as well as instances of reversals in fights. Also I felt that more options for combat would be a nice touch but I wanted to keep it simple.

       In Dogs traits can only be used once per conflict. In Strongest you can spend 1 Ki for each time the Trait has already been used to use it again (1st use of a trait is free, 2nd use is 1 Ki, 3rd use 2 Ki, etc.). You start with 3 Ki and it goes up somehow during play. You can also set a Trait up to have extra dice by giving it a starting Ki cost.
       Relationships can give you 1 Ki per non-d4 die (Or should d4 recharge Ki as well?) once per conflict that the relationship has been rolled in.


       This weekend is looking like a playtest that will be reported.

[oreso]

By coincidence, I've had a similar idea, but I've since decided against it.

If you're interested, have a looky here at my proposal for a Naruto DitV setting.

My reasons were that I was really more interested in the fun tactical side of the genre, and i think it is easier to add 'push yourself for what you believe' mechanics to a tactical system than add tactics to DitV (which is what you seem to be doing). Now, Naruto tactics are more complex than Bleach tactics for instance (they dont rely on clever applications of skills to overcome their foes*), but the fact that you are trying to mash in tactics at all makes me think you should reconsider the base for your system.

Then there is the point that the genres are fundamentally different. In DitV, the Dogs are expected to Give at some point, because some things are just not worth their life, and the mechanics demand this I think. But here no one ever Gives, ever. Everyone fights to the death for people they hardly know, just on principle. Now, changing this so that the heroes are encouraged to act like normal humans might actually be more interesting, but its certainly against the feel of the genre methinks.

All this of course says nothing about your actual proposed changes**, which may well be exactly what you are looking for, I'm just concerned that you are looking for the wrong thing. If you're sure though, then thats fine ^_^

Cheers!

*Except Ganju... but thats only cos he's rubbish otherwise.

** I'm sure someone with more play experience with DitV can help you out here

[oreso]

Sorry for the double posting, but another quick note on the genre.

When are things resolved through talking? Or resolved through any other non-violent means? Or through the heroes not trying their best (as in, using lethal force)? I'd say never, fighting is always the answer even if neither side wants it, and the heroes are always giving it everything they've got.

It seems that to remain accurate, you have to do away with escalation as it is used in DitV. 

[tj333]

       I would say that violence is almost always present in the conflicts but it is not always the focus of the conflict. In Rurouni Kenshin a fight or two has been around the philosophies of the fighters and who would yield on that point first rather then physical harm.
       Your reply is certainly a good view of the other side of the argument on using Dogs as a base. That's something I'm going to have to think about in the escalation and fallout section a lot more then expected. I think(hope?) I can get a lot more of the genre expectation there.
       I like the format of the Dreams you have in your linked thread. I will become ____ so I can ___. That's a good way to phrase it.


       Just how mashed on do the tactics feel here?

[oreso]

lol, I didnt mean 'mashed in' to imply that they wont work or anything, i honestly have no idea.

Aye, i think the Dream sums it up nicely. ^_^ Just give em some extra dice if they narrate (or if it is obvious) that they are acting towards their Dream.

Focus of conflict.
This seems to be handled by setting the stakes intelligently. Ie. if you lose, you admit that i am better. Perhaps you could have a form of escalation where the stakes are increased. I'm thinking particularly here where the hero is fighting someone much harder than them, at first the baddy will hold back and teach the upstart a lesson "if you lose, you are humiliated" and things progress until the hero is willing to sacrifice his life and the baddy is fighting for survival.

Off the cuff, i'd say:
Fighting to prove a point. (fallout d4)
Fighting to win. (fallout d6)
Fighting to save yourself (or an ally). (fallout d8)
Fighting without regard for your own life. (fallout d10)

Like DitV, this escalation doesnt have to be linear. For example, you could start out fighting without regard for your own life, and then gain a fresh batch of dice when you realise that you must actually prove something to your opponent.