Topic: Panty Explosion Test
Started by: Jake Richmond
Started on: 6/15/2006
Board: Connections
On 6/15/2006 at 9:11pm, Jake Richmond wrote:
Panty Explosion Test
I've been working on a new game called Panty Explosion. It's a psychic Japanese schoolgirl game. We (my co-writer Matt Schlotte and I) feel like we've gotten to the point where we need to ask people to read our manuscript and see if it makes any sense. We've had a few people look over it and give us some very helpful feedback, but I figure the more people the better.
If any of you can spare an hour to look over our game and give us feedback of any kind it would be greatly apprecieated. Even better, if you had a spare evening to try a game and let me know how it went I would love you forever. I know it's a lot to ask, but your efforts would be very much appreciated by both myself and matt.
Panty Explosion in it's current form is a 36 page PDF. It's just straigt text and a character sheet. Nothing fancy at the moment. Here's the link: https://jakerichmond.wordpress.com/2006/05/22/panty-explosion/panty-explosion-v1/. Theres also some art for the game on my blog, if anyone cares.
Thanks. Very much.
Jake Richmond
On 6/16/2006 at 2:02am, Ron Edwards wrote:
Re: Panty Explosion Test
Dude. Best game title ever.
Downloading, captain! I say, downloading!!
Best, Ron
On 6/16/2006 at 2:20am, Ben Lehman wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
I'm reading it now.
If I don't get back to you in a couple of days, poke me with a stick.
On 6/16/2006 at 2:58am, Jake Richmond wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Thanks guys. Be harsh.
On 6/16/2006 at 1:39pm, Filip Luszczyk wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
I don't yet know what the game is about, and I'm already your greatest fan ^_^
In a few hours I'll examine it closer.
On 6/16/2006 at 2:40pm, Eero Tuovinen wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Feedback it is. I'll start with a small, but potentially significant thing. This is by no means the only thing that has to be discussed, but let's start light.
Adding bite to psychic powers: as written, the "disadvantage" of having psychic powers is that using them is never wholly beneficial. This is not a disadvantage to having psychic powers, it's a disadvantage to using them. Under this system I see no reason not to have psychic powers, as I can always just decide not to use them. You should have some real disadvantage to having powers, even if you don't use them. Then it wouldn't be so easy to make the choice. Furthermore, just saying that "powers are disturbing" is so weak! Put in some rules to enforce that claim, otherwise you're leaving it up to the players to narrate the powers being disturbing, which they might or might not do. Some ideas:
- To ensure that powers are disturbing: make it so that the Rival will narrate even on success when powers are used. This will drive home the point about making the narration darker, and it lessens the connection between the character and the Best Friend, which is nice - using your powers lessens your connections.
- To ensure that having powers costs you: make it so that the Demon is always foremost interested in devouring or corrupting the psychic girls; this is the normal pattern in the genre, after all. Others might be targets as well, but only for temporary reasons and usually just as means to get to the psychic girl. (Compare to Elfs, which uses this same idea with magic-slinging elfs.)
And yes, I noticed that antagonists get extra dice for psychics being in the game, but that's rather far from those dice actually biting the psychic girl in the ass, as they should.
On 6/16/2006 at 11:35pm, Filip Luszczyk wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Great stuff. Makes me regret that I didn't design my angsty gothic-lolita magical girls game last summer, when I had similar idea ;)
I like it. In about 3 weeks time I'll probably give it a try.
But I have some questions and comments:
1.Either I missed it, or there is no way to increase your elemental dice or otherwise change your elemental arrangement. While the way to increase these stats doesn't seem to be necessary, I think players could use some elemental dice transfering rules (e.g. to reflect character changes due to story development).
2.It seems to me that the game wouldn't work fine with less than 3 Students + GM. What to do with all this rivalry thing if I wanted to run it for 2 players (what I often do)?
BTW - I can imagine the game played GM-less. Every aspect of scene framing decided by the player with highest corresponding element. Some special narrative rights to the unpopular girl. Something in these lines.
3.Is it perfectly ok for the GM to try to kill a Student or permanently or semi-permanently remove the character from play? A rule regulating this could be usefull, I think. Mind you, I have no concerns with a possibility of PC killing another PC here. Seems to be in place.
4.Would it be legal if I wanted to react for every action of another player by trying to help the Student? There is always some chance that I win Paper/Rock/Scissors contest and strip the opposition from its action.
5.It's not possible to increase die size more than once due to having more than one relevant trait, right?
6.I'm not sure if I understood the Demon thing perfectly. GM has a pool of dice for the whole session, and it runs dry unless psychics use their powers? Does GM use the dice from this pool for every single conflict, or only for those connected with the Demon (giving unconnected opposition normal elemental dice and traits)?
7.What is the importance of Principle and Home Room Teacher on the character sheet? (Well, is there any importance at all?)
Eero:
I wrapped my mind around it and the way powers work looks perfectly fine to me. Keep in mind, that others won't like it when you bring them trouble. Your Rival won't like it. Your Best friend might not be forgiving.
On 6/16/2006 at 11:44pm, Filip Luszczyk wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Umm, sorry for double posting. Restricting psychics from being chosen as the most popular could be a good way to reflect that the powers are disturbing, and makes the player use powers more often (it would be the only way to roll d10 for psychic players). This could actually work better for game balance.
On 6/17/2006 at 6:52am, Jake Richmond wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Thanks for the feedback. i am... very tired at the moment. I'll respond tomorrow. But thank you very much.
On 6/17/2006 at 10:38am, Grujav wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Yay! People found problems.
Hi, I'm the other author of PE. Jake and I knew we sucked and got something wrong but we kept getting positive feedback, which is wonderful in its own way, but we were waiting for the other shoe to drop.
About psychics. We had considered putting in a rule to state they couldn't be the most popular. This at first seemed too arbitrary however thanks to Filip and Eero we will certainly look at psychics and balancing issues again.
Having the Rival always describe the outcome is cool in concept but then what do Psychic best friends do? Could have best friends narrate non-psychic successes while Rivals describe positive and negative psychic outcomes. There were certainly more suggestions given, however I'm tired as well but will ponder them and discuss them with Jake tomorrow.
There is no way to increase or change your elemental dice. Instead you increase the amount of Traits you have. Perhaps not as satisfactory as being able to increase a stat we think it works.
I think the game could be run without a GM if you have a trusting group and I certainly have no problem with that. We were planning on having a section of alternate ways of play in the back of the book. Playing without a GM would probably be my suggestion for the less than four particapants games.
There is no importance to the Home Room Teacher, just part of the flavor of the game.
The Demon dice are for the GM to use when doing contests with demon stuff, you use other dice entirely for made up altercations with fellow students, teachers, etc that have nothing to do with the main "demon" plot, but instead following any of the subplot (agendas) or other altercations that come out of natural RP.
It is legal to react to every action, especially if you are playing a spastic character who often freaks out and then faints from over exhaustion. :)
There is a lot more here for me to consider, talk to Jake about and answer, but this was my lame bleary eyed attempt to at least cover a few of the issues brought up. And sorry I did so completely out of order. G'night.
On 6/17/2006 at 2:38pm, Filip Luszczyk wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Hi, I'm the other author of PE. Jake and I knew we sucked and got something wrong but we kept getting positive feedback, which is wonderful in its own way, but we were waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The thing is, I usually find something I don't like in the game during the first skimming. Here, I had to dig into the rules to actually find any potential problems. Maybe it is partly due to the good first impression, but the system is rather elegant and straightforward. Practically no complications that could create problems, and no visible bugs I'd say. If something really doesn't work, it needs to be found in the playtest. I've seen complete commercial games that were much, much more flawed.
For me, you've hit the jackpot.
[quoet]About psychics. We had considered putting in a rule to state they couldn't be the most popular.
Aha. I'm not sure if I follow your design reasoning, but I like the way your minds work. E.g. elemental dice - I've been playing with mechanics that do something similar (i.e. promote taking different approaches to the problem, based on character's spiritual qualities) for almost two years now.
Having the Rival always describe the outcome is cool in concept but then what do Psychic best friends do?
Exactly.
There is no importance to the Home Room Teacher, just part of the flavor of the game.
Then I suggest including Club Membership on the record as well.
The Demon dice are for the GM to use when doing contests with demon stuff, you use other dice entirely for made up altercations with fellow students, teachers, etc that have nothing to do with the main "demon" plot, but instead following any of the subplot (agendas) or other altercations that come out of natural RP.
But the Demon dice do not replenish in any other way than the use of psychics? And Students and normal NPCs elemental dice replenish after each conflict, right? It seems to me that the Demon isn't actually very big problem in comparison with "subplot" potential problems.
I'd suggest regulating it a bit more, and possibly giving the GM another pool of dice similar to that of the Demon, which he could use in "subplot" and everyday conflicts. It could be figured and replenished differently than Demon dice. Also, you could add a third pool for non-personal conflicts so as not to put everything but the Demon into one "subplot pool".
Or maybe something like Demon dice, School dice and Life dice, for three distinct sources of problems (and no traditionaly stated NPCs)? Three dice pools and trait groups that would be figured and replenished differently. I see some potential here, but this issue and the death problem should be regulated mechanically I think.
On 6/17/2006 at 9:36pm, Jake Richmond wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Alright. Thanks for all the feedback so far. Matt already took a stab at this but let me try to address some of the stuff you guys have brought up. Starting with an easy one:
Dude. Best game title ever.
Thanks Ron. we've gotten a huge amount of flak for the name, but Matt and I both think that the people who the game is intended for will get it. A number of people have suggested we're shooting ourselves in the foot with the name, but if that's the case then it really can't be helped. the game IS Panty Explosion. To change the name would be a betrayal of the idea of the game.
Adding bite to psychic powers: as written, the "disadvantage" of having psychic powers is that using them is never wholly beneficial. This is not a disadvantage to having psychic powers, it's a disadvantage to using them. Under this system I see no reason not to have psychic powers, as I can always just decide not to use them. You should have some real disadvantage to having powers, even if you don't use them. Then it wouldn't be so easy to make the choice. Furthermore, just saying that "powers are disturbing" is so weak! Put in some rules to enforce that claim, otherwise you're leaving it up to the players to narrate the powers being disturbing, which they might or might not do
This is a good point. We talk about Psychic powers being horrible and unsavory, but theres no clear downside when a character actually uses them. What I wrote in the book was "It’s important to remember that the use of Psychic Powers is never a good thing. While the results may be temporarily beneficial, the powers themselves are disturbing and unsavory, and always result in great hardship for the girls that use them." and " When Psychic Powers are used to enhance normal actions the description of that actions success or failure must always include strange or supernatural elements." What I want, and this is not clearly stated here I realize now, is for the description of the use of the powers to always be unsettling or horrific. Or at least spooky. In addition to that the results of using the psychic powers should always have a downside. Again, this isn't communicated well. If a player uses her powers to push an attacker away, she may accidentally end up killing the attacker. If she uses her powers to try to read someone mind or alter their emotions, she may end up causing them immense pain.
However, I really do believe that it should be up to the other players to narrate the results of these actions. While it is true that players might "go soft" and not describe the results of psychic actions as harshly as I might, that's certainly okay to me. It's important that the players set the tone of the game, and even more important that Best Friends/Rivals have the freedom to describe the results of actions as they see fit. It is clear to me now that we need to put in more information on how these events should be described. more examples, more guidelines.
The tangible disadvantage to playing a Psychic is that your Psychic actions feed the Demon that you must later face. It should be evident that the demons are drawn to the psychic girls and will always go after them first. Need to fix that I guess. The less tangible disadvantage is that will probably effect your popularity. No one is going to like the Psychic girl. he causes trouble and she's creepy. And she attracts demons!When it comes time to vote she'll probably end up being least popular. Of course it sounds like this wasn't explained clearly in the text. so I'll look into that as well.
1.Either I missed it, or there is no way to increase your elemental dice or otherwise change your elemental arrangement. While the way to increase these stats doesn't seem to be necessary, I think players could use some elemental dice transferring rules (e.g. to reflect character changes due to story development).
That could be interesting. I'll put some thought into that. It would seem natural that if you started to solve more problems thru dialogue then aggression that you would see a shift in your dice pools. I think the main reason something like this has never developed is that we intended this to be a game of short adventures. You play 1-3 games with the same characters and then move on to new characters or (more likely) a new game. It's flattering to think someone might want to play this game for an extended number of sessions. We're working on a section that has alternative ways to play the game, including playing for more then a few sessions. It was suggested by someone that it would be nice if girls could grow their dice pools as they progressed thru games, but I don't think that would work well. Switching round your pools might be better, but you run the risk of everybody having the same "ideal" dice pools (if such a thing even exists). I'll put some thought into it though. In the meantime you can "improve" your student by completing Agendas. Not only d you get the satisfaction of accomplishing one of your students personal goals, but you also get to choose a new Trait.
2.It seems to me that the game wouldn't work fine with less than 3 Students + GM. What to do with all this rivalry thing if I wanted to run it for 2 players (what I often do)?
I think you're right. 4 players seem to be the minimum, while 5 I think s ideal. I would suggest playing the game without a Superintendant if you only had 3 players available. There will be rules for doing so soon. I think it will work pretty well. It's my guess that once your familiar with the game the role of Superintendant becomes something that can be a shared responsibility of the players.
3.Is it perfectly OK for the GM to try to kill a Student or permanently or semi-permanently remove the character from play? A rule regulating this could be usefull, I think. Mind you, I have no concerns with a possibility of PC killing another PC here. Seems to be in place.
I think it's okay, but maybe something should be written about it. It's very much part of the genere that at least some of the students die horrifying deaths. On the otherhand, not everyone will want to play the game that way. I think death deserves a little more attattention in the book, if only so players can decide if they want it to be part of their game. So far I believe the only ention of character death in the game is "If the character is incapacitated, bound, dead or otherwise unable to take part in the conflict then they may no longer take part in the conflict." To me there was never a question that an action, from either a student or the superintendant, could result in a students death. But I suppose that should be expanded upon.
It's not possible to increase die size more than once due to having more than one relevant trait, right?
We hadn't intended it to be. I could see a situation where you had two traits that over lapped. For example: I'm fighting the Korean transfer student and I have the traits "I always kick ass in a fight" and "I hate the new Korean transfer student". Something like that could work, where a combination of traits like "I'm really strong" and I'm rteally, really strong" obviously wouldn't. But for the moment you cant combine traits to increase the die size more then once, and that probably won't change.
I'm not sure if I understood the Demon thing perfectly. GM has a pool of dice for the whole session, and it runs dry unless psychics use their powers? Does GM use the dice from this pool for every single conflict, or only for those connected with the Demon (giving unconnected opposition normal elemental dice and traits)?
The idea is that the Superintendant has to budget their dice for the game. This dice pool is for the Demon and things related to the demon. There plenty of opportunity for other encounters and conflicts in the game and these do not draw upon the demons pool. looks like this could use some clarification as well.
What is the importance of Principle and Home Room Teacher on the character sheet? (Well, is there any importance at all?)
It's all flavor. I figures that these we're things that we're likely to be important to the students so I went ahead and put them on the sheet. They do not tie in to any mechanic. theres a good chance that the homeroom teacher will be the most important adult in any students life though, so I thought it was worth putting on. Also, since I based this off an actual Japanese highschool record from the mid 70's I thought I'd include as much "real" info as I could. Both principle and teacher appeared on the real records, as did grade, school year and some of the more mundane stuff like name and bloodtype.
Restricting psychics from being chosen as the most popular could be a good way to reflect that the powers are disturbing, and makes the player use powers more often (it would be the only way to roll d10 for psychic players). This could actually work better for game balance.
You may be right. In my mind the psychic girl will never be the most popular because shes creepy and has destructive psychic powers. She probably keeps to herself and seems troubled or strange. If shes able to hide her powers, to suppress them (which would mean not using them at all during the game) then she could certainly be a candidate for most popular girl. but I figure the moment she uses her powers her chances at popularity drop away.
That being said, there are a few genere examples of popular Psychic girls, the most prevalent one being the girl who uses her powers to force everyone to like her.
Quote
Having the Rival always describe the outcome is cool in concept but then what do Psychic best friends do?
Exactly.
Also, I think it could be fun to be able to describe bad shit happening to your best friend. A change of pace.
I suggest including Club Membership on the record as well.
Good suggestion.
But the Demon dice do not replenish in any other way than the use of psychics? And Students and normal NPCs elemental dice replenish after each conflict, right? It seems to me that the Demon isn't actually very big problem in comparison with "subplot" potential problems.
I'd suggest regulating it a bit more, and possibly giving the GM another pool of dice similar to that of the Demon, which he could use in "subplot" and everyday conflicts. It could be figured and replenished differently than Demon dice. Also, you could add a third pool for non-personal conflicts so as not to put everything but the Demon into one "subplot pool".
See, the idea is that you plot out how you want to use you demon dice throughout the game. Save half of them for the final conflict, and use the rest for 2 smaller conflicts earlier in the game? Save all of them for the end?? blow most of them in a big conflict in the beginning and save just a few to use for small tie-up conflicts at the end?
You have the freedom to introduce non-demon conflicts into the game in the form of other students, teachers or whatever. these don't rely on the demon pool and give you freedom to create more opprotunities for conflict without going into your demon pool. I think having a separate pool just for these conflict would be confining. As Superintendant I know I have limited resources for my demon conflict, which is the games main conflict and provides the adventure with it's structure.Being able to introduce other non-related conflicts gives me te freedom to explore and encourage other scenarios without worrying about dipping into my demon pool.
I think that covered everything.
Jake Richmond
On 6/18/2006 at 12:46am, Filip Luszczyk wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
I think the main reason something like this has never developed is that we intended this to be a game of short adventures. You play 1-3 games with the same characters and then move on to new characters or (more likely) a new game.
I'm not saying that I would like to play/run the game for more than, well, 1-3 sessions for the same characters. Still, it doesn't mean that I don't see place for character development in terms of elemental dice changes here. Consider two things:
1.Even in 1-3 session mini-campaign there is some place for personality changes. Especially if we are talking about very conflict-intense sessions. And these are teenage girls after all, and under constant pressure too. Sudden dramatic personality shifts are practically intrinsic to them ;) Elemental ratings switching rules would be very "in genre" here.
2.In fact, in short campaigns there would be more place for increasing stats than in longer ones. In 1-3 sessions play you don't have to worry about characters getting too powerfull and breaking the game - because no matter how fast they advance, you are going too conclude everything in 1-2 meetings anyway. But keep in mind that I don't really see any actual need for elemental dice increasing rules - static pools should work just fine here. This is something that could make an useful optional rule. (And I don't think it's possible to min-max your elemental pools - they simply don't work that way. As I see it, you could theoretically use any pool to achieve anything - it's mostly the matter of proper approach. So no ideal dice pools.)
I think you should look at Dogs in the Vineyard and examine the way and pace of character development there. Lots of dramatic situations gets reflected in lots of changes on the character sheet. Things change all the time during play.
5 I think s ideal.
Ouch, way too many players for my taste. I never run games for more than 4 players, and even 4 players is a bit much for my taste. With 2-3 players I get some nice interactions, but every additional player always slows the game down and increasingly reduces the screen time everyone is going to get. I simply can't imagine getting to any meaningful conclusions in 1-3 sessions with 4+ players.
Players number requirements make the game very restrictive. Unfortunately, this is a flaw that many new games share.
Additionally, I suppose there can be some problems with playing more than one session for groups in which not every player attends every single session. Another restriction, unless you allow to change Students' Best Friends and Rivals every session.
I think it's okay, but maybe something should be written about it. It's very much part of the genere that at least some of the students die horrifying deaths.
Still, I think that GM should be restricted for killing or otherwise removing Students from the game (e.g. expelling from the school or being forced to move to another city for the player could effectively be the same as losing the character). Note that GM is completely independent from the rivalry thing and always narrates for NPCs. I don't think that giving him any possibility of killing PCs fits this game.
When I was reading the game it occured to me that it could actually easily turn into a Blood Opera, after one single spark. All that rivalry thing going on when it's so easy to narrate your Rival (or Best Friend) dying or make another Student's head explode :) I think it would be just perfect if the Students life was actually only in the hands of other players, not the GM. Builds nice rivalry/trust tension, possibly something similar to the Mountain Witch.
And ultimately with all these voting you have something like The Survivors going on. Now add some conflicting agendas, and make the GM throw constant temptations for betrayal at the Students ;)
It's possible that the game could use some reward system that would heat up the rivalry. E.g. in conflicts the Rival could regain one or two dice for actually hurting other Student in narration, and three or more dice for killing her. That should encourage Rivals not to pull their punches.
But for the moment you cant combine traits to increase the die size more then once, and that probably won't change.
Good. Dice scale is not large enough to leave much place for combining traits. Even combining two traits together could already be too much, since it gives Student of average popularity d12. Using powers or striving for popularity would have not much sense.
That being said, there are a few genere examples of popular Psychic girls, the most prevalent one being the girl who uses her powers to force everyone to like her.
Yes, but unless I'm wrong, powers can't be used to affect players popularity votes. And affecting NPCs with such powers gives GM more Demon dice, generating trouble. Nothing is for free.
The idea is that the Superintendant has to budget their dice for the game. This dice pool is for the Demon and things related to the demon. There plenty of opportunity for other encounters and conflicts in the game and these do not draw upon the demons pool. looks like this could use some clarification as well.
As you probably already figured out, I'm completely in for that budgeting thing on GM's side. I prefer when there is as little place for GMs fiat as possible in the game - and that requires regulating such things. So I generally like how the Demon works. What I don't like is that now I don't see any sense on putting characters against the Demon. Compare:
-For Demon I get 15 dice to challenge the players every session, plus, say 8-10 for unresolved agendas, plus some more for psychic usage (but this is very uncertain). Gives me 30 dice at most. I have to split it for non-climactic conflicts, so I get at most 10 for conflict. And I lose these dice when I use them.
-For other conflicts I get 15 dice per participant. Assuming 1-3 opposing NPCs in an average conflict, every scene I can throw 15-45 dice at the players. Possibly more, since I could pit whole class against them if I wanted to.
-I'm not sure how it goes for non-personal opposition, but I assume that earthquakes and exams count as one NPC when it comes to dice, so 15 per conflict.
-Every player has 15 dice. This gives 45-75 dice on players' side, fully replenished after every conflict.
60 dice versus 10 dice doesn't seem to be much of a challenge. That's it for any tension. So there is currently no reason to use Demon at all.
On the other hand, nothing constrains the GM when it comes to other conflicts, so basically players are at his mercy.
You have the freedom to introduce non-demon conflicts into the game in the form of other students, teachers or whatever. these don't rely on the demon pool and give you freedom to create more opportunities for conflict without going into your demon pool. I think having a separate pool just for these conflict would be confining.
Not at all. Paradoxically, there is no freedom at all. This only means that the GM must willingly confine himself and pull his punches, because if he goes all-out with non-Demon conflicts, he will simply crush the players, effectively spoiling everybody's fun (especially, if he can simply kill PCs - then he must also keep himself from doing it).
Personally, I hate being made to pull punches by the game. I like having rules that regulate such things and allow me to go all-out and throw everything I have at my disposal against the players, without having to worry that it's too much. Paradoxically this is not confinement - it's a license for freedom.
Having separate pools would actually give the GM clear suggestions as to how far he can get without damaging the game. It's just a matter of balancing the size of those pools, so that the opposition wouldn't be too weak or too challenging, and creating ways to replenish them during the session (like power usage for Demon pool).
As Superintendant I know I have limited resources for my demon conflict, which is the games main conflict and provides the adventure with it's structure.Being able to introduce other non-related conflicts gives me te freedom to explore and encourage other scenarios without worrying about dipping into my demon pool.
The thing is, currently the main conflict is a piece of cake, and "minor conflicts" can be way too challenging, depending on GM's whims.
As for the structure, think about resource economy that would actually help GM create it. You are running low with your Demon pool? Throw some difficult School conflicts to make psychics generate some Demon dice for you. School pool runs dry? Switch to Life conflicts and replenish it. And so on. This could work very well if you had good conditions for regaining dice - e.g. if getting into some kind of activities automatically generated some additional dice for the other pool. For example, Student could generate Life dice (everyday problems) by spending time on school and club activities, and generate School dice (problems connected with school) by slacking off. Or something like that - these are only loose suggestions.
This is where I see potential for additional development in your game. You have good basis in the form of Demon dice, you only need to expand the concept of pools a bit.
On 7/10/2006 at 2:45pm, Andy Kitkowski wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Hey guys, chiming in late here.
Nothing substantive to add, but for one thing: Why the elements again? They seem kinda played out, or misplaced on the otherwise awesome character sheet. If you're being vague with the meanings of the stats and all, why not really tap out the sheet to look like a Report Card, and have the stats be their grades in various subjects?
P.E. = Physical
Science = Logic, Deduction
Math = Intuition, Sneakiness(?)
Kokugo (Japanese) = Social rolls, Manipulation
Social Studies = Social power/status? Manipulation revisited?
English = Anything not covered by other areas, including "weird stuff" (firing a gun, knowing a few words of Russian, etc)
Aftershool Club = other side-skills and status depending on the kind of club (note: No one really gets graded on afterschool clubs in Japan, but still could be thrown in there)
It might be too late to rework the game in that way, but to me the elements felt a little jarring/out of place with the rest of the theme of the game.
However, the premise is pretty cool.
BTW, you might want to add somewhere:
Quick conversion for money purposes: Drop the decimal and that's the yen price. $50.00 = 5,000 yen (well, it gets that way every 4 years or so, so it's not too far off). 70000 yen = $700, etc. That way it will be easier for players to throw around money terms.
Also, average price for panties, worn (even just once): 4,000 yen. 6,000 if there are... ahem... menustral stains on them. Places to make such exchanges include large train stations and the like. Takada-no-baba is apparently big for that: Guys will ask high school students for panties. Some girls will buy tons of panties and wear them once, taking them off right there and gettign money, and keeping a spare in their bag to change into right after that in a restroom so they can go to school.
Enjou-kosai you addressed well in the book. The average price for that is a few hundred dollars (30,000 to 60,000 yen). That whole world is pretty freaky, but there you go.
-Andy
On 7/11/2006 at 4:29am, Jake Richmond wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Thanks for the feedback Andy. We decided to go with the 5 elements, 12 animals and 4 bloodtypes as the base of our system because we fealt it was flavorful. We had talked about classes or clubs to represent dice pools instead of elements, but really we just like it the way it is.
Did you know you can buy those used panties in vending machines?
Anyway, thanks to everyone that replied here and shared your thoughts and feedback. There was alot of great ideas presented here, many of which have helped shape the game into something I feel is stronger. I'm sorry I havent had the time to address tghe most recent suggestions. My work and recent medical problems have kept me otherwise occupied. Matt and I are currently putting together a version of the game that we will have available at Gencon. I hope we'll see many of you there.
Thanks,
Jake
On 7/11/2006 at 12:47pm, Andy Kitkowski wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Jake wrote:
Did you know you can buy those used panties in vending machines?
Heh, I think that's kind of a myth though. The only place I've ever seen that is outside Kyoto station's main exit, three blocks forward, two blocks to the right. It was there every time I passed that area (a period of over 7 years), and sat next to a porno video vending machine and alcohol vending machine (prompting my friend to come up with his "I'll just have one of each of these here" joke). Though I don't doubt that there may be one in Tokyo or somewhere else in Japan, they're pretty rare.
-Andy
On 7/25/2006 at 5:42pm, Jake Richmond wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Just an update, Panty Explosion is now on sale. www.atarashigames.com
Thanks for all the fedback guys. The game is definetly better for it.
Jake
On 7/25/2006 at 6:20pm, Andy Kitkowski wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
That is fucking awesome, man. Congrats, and I'm totally having my buddies pick me up a copy at GenCon.
-Andy
On 7/25/2006 at 6:22pm, Jake Richmond wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
matt and I will be at the Key20 booth at Gencon. Have them come by.
On 7/31/2006 at 4:37pm, mudron wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Hey Jake, I'm still willing to knock out some artwork for this game sometime. Feel free to hit me up when you need some doodlin' done.
http://excelsiorstudios.net/portfolio.html
On 7/31/2006 at 9:10pm, Jake Richmond wrote:
RE: Re: Panty Explosion Test
Tanks Bill. I didn't get to do all the art I wanted for this book, and Matt and I keep coming up with more ideas for things to put in it, so we'll probably be doing an expanded edition after we sell out the initial print run. I'd love to have you do some art. Thanks.