I’ve been thinking that BitD’s format is quite perfect for anything episodic… in particular, shonen fighting anime.
Below is a link to my outline for the proposed mechanical approach to reskinning the game to fit something akin to shonen fighting anime.
Be advised that this is only an outline for now… I plan on putting the real work into the hack once the full game is released and I can see how other, brighter folks are hacking the game successfully.
As for now… What do you folks think? Am I missing any important bits that need to be reskinned? Have I missed something integral to this playset? Any thoughts would be welcomed.
I like the new names for Heat and Wanted level, along with what they do in the story. I may have to steal this idea. I am waiting for the final book before I start typing up my hack for Super Sentai.
Glad you like it. 🙂
Recovering stress gives you XP. Is the only way to advance taking stress? Or do you get XP for your montage regardless of whether you actually have stress to restore with your training?
Attune needs to be remade into Meditation, clearly.
Actually, IÂ could see it as a Magical Girl anime game!
Generally, the system with the factions probably works better with a sandboxy setting where the enemies stay the same. Some shonen/mahou shujo animes have (mostly) fixed enemies, some varying or unknown threats or factions.
You can also gain XP during missions by RPing your heritage/background. Also, I might add a bit where you gain 1 XP for each lasting effect gained from a mission. I’m trying to reward aggressive, proactive activity that often results in stress/lasting effects.
The actual numbers will have to be hammered out in play, of course.
I haven’t actually put any real thought into how I am changing the Action terminology. Attune is the mystical Action so I might leave it as a multi-choice one. So, during character creation you choose between Aura, Magic, Curse, Ki, Chakra, etc… Mostly for narrative flavor and narrative leveraging? What do you folks think?
BeePeeGee RPG That’s a good point. I think my setup lessens the sandboxiness of the game a bit. But that might be okay?
Excellent Matthew Miller. Thanks for starting this. Immediately after getting into BitD, I’ve been dreaming up a One Piece re-skin. So far that has just meant keeping mechanics as is while creating the Strawhats, considering Upgrades, Abilities, and especially XP triggers for a Pirate crew, and considering what would fun to do with the faction loadout.
What you have here are some great ideas for really attaching mechanics to theme and tone (Techniques! Mentors! BBEG Influence!). Do you expect your hack to retain the crew sheet? I don’t see mention of it except about crew xp.
The part I’ve been hung up on is how best to manage arcs with a main BBEG for the arc, while simultaneously working arcs into bigger picture faction arcs.
I think I like the idea of freeform advancement, although then you lose the creativity foundation of “choose from these 5 thematically appropriate options”
Very cool Matthew Miller. I’ll be watching what you develop and eager to discuss thoughts with you. 🙂
BeePeeGee RPG Matthew Miller The sandboxiness could be retained at the meta-arc level, even if each arc is more of a linear mini-game toward the final battle? What if there’s a mini-boss whenever Influence peaks and boosts Ascension?
I am seeing Ascension as more of the general scope of the opposition and therefore the game, not necessarily a specific individual’s rise. In One Piece, entering the Grand Line, the Ennies Lobby bit, the time skip, the New World, etc. would all be great scope milestones.
Part of what could make that less linear and more sandboxy is if the players (or the GM?) don’t know the details of final battles per se, such as when, with whom, where, or what about. On the other hand, why use Influence in a general sense, instead of having what would be Heat from Scores turn into advancing factions’ agenda clocks? I do like, however, the elegance of using Influence as a general measure of the threats and entanglements the players face, and the constant fight the players have to keep the influence and power of the BBEGs in check.
This is epic work! I’d love to get to the point where I’m experienced enough to do stuff like this.
Adam Minnie Thanks, man! It is really encouraging to see interested folks chime in. 🙂
Crews will be changed into the Supporting Cast. It won’t be identical to the way Crews work but there will definitely be a sheet dedicated to ’em.
Yeah, I’ve been contemplating the Tier, Hold and Faction rules quite a bit. One idea that could add more sandboxiness to the playset is a less vague concept. The one I’m considering is that the PCs and some/most of the factions are rival dojos vying for supremacy. This is a pretty big shift in focus but the basic saga structure should still work just fine. I’ll have to think on it a bit more… I have another 7 months to do so anyways.@_@
I agree with you on freeform playbooks. I’m not terribly confident in my ability to make a set of cohesive playbooks that do justice to shonen fighting anime tropes. At least I’m crafting a pool of stuff for folks to choose from which should hopefully spark creativity in the place of a strong playbook identity.
I like the idea of a mini-boss with each rise in Ascension. Consider it added to the outline!
When the final text is written – a long time from now – I could absolutely include alternative progressions. But the original idea was that there was a single BBG per Saga (which spans the time from 0 Ascension to 4) and that he is growing stronger in some way with each level of Ascension.
Generally, I like the fiction to emerge collaboratively between everyone at the table. It is part of that ‘play to find out’ approach that I am familiar with via Dungeon World. But generally there is some kind of idea of what the final battle will be since that what each mission is based on preventing. One thing I haven’t considered is giving the players the ability to actually stop the BBG without beating him up. But that doesn’t feel right in this genre.
At this juncture and without considering the ‘rival dojos’ idea above, I might not alter the Faction rules much at all. Given that the heroes’ opposition will always be something from a faction… Influence could do just as you say, Adam, and increase a faction’s Hold. Then when Entanglements are rolled we simply determine which faction and roll… adding Ascension if they are working for the BBG.
Lots of stuff to consider here… I’m excited to hear everyone’s thoughts and continue bouncing ideas off of one another.
Thanks Ben Liepis! I actually have very limited experience with Blades so far. All I did was go through the Quickstart and pull the mechanical terms out, put them in a list and start brainstorming how to convert each one into what I wanted. The real work now involves tying to all together and coming up with some unique stuff.
Nice. While considering the Supporting Cast instead of gangs, I think I’d sad to see the loss of flavored crew types with varying growth conditions/agendas, but I understand the difficulty of boiling a whole genre down to general core tropes. For instance the competing dojos could be a crew type, mercenary guilds could be another, pirate crews, etc, if only to provide XP triggers and crew upgrades that support the game theme. I’m eager to see what more you have in mind to fill out the Supporting Cast (especially what sort of effects they can have). I love the idea of players using allies and such strategically in challenges.
Thinking of the Epyllion kickstarter, perhaps the ‘crew’ sheet in this game (Supporting Cast) provides a selection of ideals or virtues that the crew is pursuing. Those then form the XP triggers (ie Courage: diving into risks against superior foes, Duty: protecting the weak, Glory: Being seen as the best, Freedom: Resisting authority and breaking oppression, etc. etc.). With advances you might gain “upgrades” that are new allies or friends (perhaps people you’ve helped or bested), new assets, or new abilities (advanced ways to pursue your ideals, or better yet, new synergistic ways to work as a team).
Not to rush or anything, 🙂 I’m also extremely interested in any more ideas you have about what you’re envisioning for Techniques. Like a gear list, giving narrative trappings (and of course cool names!) to various combat interactions/styles?
I’m not entirely against thematic crew types for this playset. However, the reason I’m not married to the idea is because XP is slightly more abstract and free form than advancement as written. I like this mostly because it is a centralized bookkeeping method, which I prefer over the scattered but more flavorful/directed as written method.
With you mentioning those triggers I’m realizing that I haven’t explicitly put anything down that promotes the heroic nature of shonen fighting anime. Perhaps virtues/ideals are selectable from a pool during character creation to be paired with Heritage/Background for XP triggers? Then perhaps specific cast members may have special XP triggers of their own.
I fully intend on the Supporting Cast to have their own advancements. The scale is smaller than Blades as written… so instead of your crew doubling in size, you advanced by adding a whole new cast member. Then each member has their own advancements. This added complexity should be fine since buildings, vehicles and gear are simple narrative affairs. Plus, a good shonen fighting anime always has a weird cast of folks following the main hero around. Their screen time and story development can sometimes be a match for the main hero.
Initially I was going to have Techniques be player defined… but now I’m thinking a pool of evocative names with no descriptions to allow each player to build their own narrative onto. The complexity won’t be any higher than what is placed on Items.
Matthew Miller Sounds excellent. This is in good hands.
I like how you describe Supporting Cast advancing with important NPC individuals with their own goals and sometimes stories.
Techniques could be somewhat like effects, but much more extensive, where you pair two words from a list, perhaps an attack type and perhaps a how or style. Precise+Shot, Wild+Pummel, Controlling+Blast, Hampering Ray, Demoralizing+Strike, Power+Blow, Furious+Rampage, Distracting+Defense.
This way, characters would use similar themes  (since you’d often want to use the words with more pips on them rather than those that have fewer) but not the exact same named move every time. You could limit them by power tier: Each word can only have a single tick until your crew/story’s power level changes. Then perhaps, on special occasions you could add a third word, or perhaps Characters could synergize (Set Up) by linking words into a joint technique.
Words could come from archetype lists (Brawl, Blades, Support, Magic, Shoot, Hindrance, etc) or style lists (Brash, Calm, Flashy, Sexy, etc)
Just some thoughts. Love all you wrote in the message above.
Oh yeah, I love the idea of combining two words to form a technique. Combining with allies is brilliance in simplicity!!! That is the sort of thing that this playset really needs. Now I’m imagining battle allies with a few tech words as simple techniques but which really come into power when combined with the hero.
I’m really glad I created the OP. So many good ideas!
Adam Minnie, I think when this thing happens that you and I should collaborate on the playset, if you are interested in such a thing. My focus and creativity end up hitting a wall when I work solo.
Matthew Miller I can’t much see myself losing interest in it anytime soon. 🙂 I’ve been toying with these thoughts regarding a specifically One Piece pirates re-skin even before the full game releases, but the ideas in this thread about a deeper mechanical conversion to better embrace the tone get me very excited.
That said, I’m not as widely versed in many examples of the genre, so I may not have as complete of an image of the desired outcome as I would hope.
At least One Piece is the most prolific shonen fighting anime I’ve ever encountered. I think it must even rival Naruto!
If you come across some free time and want to research the genre… I recommend Toriko, Soul Eater, Hunter x Hunter and Yu-Yu-Hakusho.
I had two or three ideas.
I’m wondering if Ascension for a single BBEG is too slow, primarily because I’m thinking of One Piece’s scope where they go from one arc’s BBEG to the next, some taking longer or recurring while some are short.
What if the GM assigns the BBEG of an arc an Ascension clock, and that becomes the route to the final battle, a bigger clock usually means a stronger or more complicated/insidious foe, and a longer arc to get there, but a filler arc could be 2 segments. Whenever the crew would normally increase Ascension, they mark off a segment instead. Segments completed + Current Influence(Heat) could then determine the rank of entanglements (similar to the current Ascension but with variable caps available).
Whenever the crew defeats a BBEG or ticks off an Ascension segment, they roll something like a Development roll based largely on the BBEG’s total clock size or the segments completed so far, and how they have gone about things. The roll results could be crew XP (instead of coin) and hold. This means bigger BBEGs have bigger rewards and you make NPC friends and allies by opposing the big boss.
Hold then, could represent Resolve or Will, and could be spent to create those classic anime moments when everyone’s nearly beat and the situation is dire but then they come back for the win out of sheer resolve or drive. Similar to how BitD allows hold to be spent for additional downtime actions, perhaps players could spend the crew’s supply of Resolve to 1) instantly remove 4 (or all) stress from a single PC, 2) add a die to a single action roll for every 2 stress taken, 3) allow PC(s) to ignore so many segments of a lasting effect (like a more powerful successful Stitch action), or maybe some other similar rebound effects.
Tiers could represent power levels, and could increase after defeating a BBEG. Roll dice equal to the BBEG’s clock segments -4 and use the following: 1-3 stay on your tier, 4,5 stay where you are OR increase tier but start the next arc at negative hold, 6 increase your tier, Crit increase your tier and start and make another Development roll for more XP and starting Hold. Tiers could be technically infinite, or, in One Piece they could be renown. Meanwhile, individual PCs need some way to track personal bounty/renown, perhaps replacing personal stash
Just some thoughts.
Fantastic stuff. Honestly, text can’t express how excited I am for this project to actually happen.
I can’t really even put into words for this post to express what I’ve done with your suggestions. To put it simply I think you’ve given me a stronger sense of how to structure the game and retain the sandbox in full. But yeah, check out the document and the changes I’ve made and tell me what you think. The organization is a little nightmarish but it is still fairly legible.
Awesome, I’m excited to check it out! Thinking about this stuff got me so amped up I had hard time focusing on my adjustment to family time 🙂
You may want to check this other post too that discusses the idea of discovering the factions in play as the game progresses, starting with your small corner of the world, then expanding your awareness as you grow. https://plus.google.com/u/0/115461089224580644294/posts/UUcb5WMz28x?cfem=1
Very awesome how it’s taking shape! Would you mind setting the share settings to allow me to add comments to the doc?
I like the BBEGs and others as factions, with tiers and Influence as Hold. I also really like the progress rolls, though I’m not quite sure how the results are calculated yet, and i also like the events/entaglements roll. That all brings it back toward the sandbox approach of starting small and eventually discovering the wider world.
I’m very intrigued by the further details of flavor mechanics like the virtues, bonuses from training methods, supporting cast types, advancement options, etc. as well as sources, techniques etc. Examples will make this thing really sing. If you don’t have any details for these in mind, I’d be happy to brainstorm down a host for each, but I’m very curious what your envisioning, especially regarding supporting cast and friendly factions.
I of course have some questions. 🙂
I like the power of vigilance, but I’m curious why you went with that name. I think of many anime heroes like Luffy who aren’t particularly observant or vigilant, but have loads of resolve and determination. Making it a solo currency rather than pooled for the group is also a good move rather than having to negotiate it all the time.
What do you see happening in the fiction when an Ascension clock fills up? What causes the PCs to have to face the BBEG in final battle? How much time do they have at that point to delay or prepare? What sort of events in the story do you imagine ticking off an ascension clock? Stuff like invading the BBEG’s turf or harassing his goons, or getting in the way of his agenda? If those are the kinds of things, then why wouldn’t they actually slow down or turn back the ascension clock in a tug of war fashion? Or, are Ascension ticks permanent, and that’s why they are separate from a BBEG’s Influence, because then the PCs can tear down the BBEG’s hold on a region while simultaneously earning the boss’s attention.
I like this latest option. Even further, since these stories excel at recurring villains that give the heroes a roller coaster of triumph and defeat, perhaps somehow the mechanics could enable the BBEG to be virtually invulnerable until the Ascension clock completes, whether that’s because of loyal allies, some power gimmick that the PCs have to understand, or some other reason the GM has to let the BBEG be scary when he/she appears earlier in the clock, but ultimately get away and go on with the agenda until the final moment comes. That might seem cheap, but I don’t know. The PCs maybe shouldn’t know about it so they still try to defy the boss. Maybe the mechanic can be that the BBEG causes nearly constant desperate situations or -1d or -2d penalties for Resistance rolls. That way, PCs may try to face down the boss before ascension completes, but the time has not come, and it will be very dangerous to do so at the moment. Then, it may be all the more satisfying to regroup and finally face the boss without such penalties when the moment arrives.
Another random thought: higher PC tiers should unlock access to new options for PC and supporting cast advancements. One of my favorites could be taken once per tier, and basically be the Cutter ability that lets you ignore one higher level of scale. Therefore PCs may eventually multiply that effect to face down 100 or 100,000 standard (unnamed) foes as if it were just one foe.
What is cash used for? I see its for more montages, but is that it? Is cash really a big deal in this genre? Don’t they always just make do unless being poor or rich is a valuable plot device?
I like the Events as a means to show that the world is dynamically evolving while the PCs are busy fighting. Are the Events the only way factions influence each other?
I’m totally behind slowly revealing the world. It is more manageable and I think it fits the source material perfectly.
You should be able to comment now. I think! If you want to brainstorm some stuff I’m absolutely not going to put a stop to it. Every little bit of ideas that formed now is less creativity required when the real writing begins.
John Harper said that he is slowly going to update the QS and that some hacks may release before the full game arrives… so this thing may happen sooner than I thought! 🙂
Thinking about it, it was a sort of off-the-cuff choice when I chose/wrote vigilance. Will should work just fine. Plus, it’s a bite-sized word which is always nice.
Progress provides a bonus equal to a base (1-4) with a modifier (fail -1/partial 0/full +2/critical +4) based on the result of the roll. Then, after that, the players divide the total value between Cash, Will and Influence penalties.
I’m absolutely with you regarding the BBEG being basically invulnerable and extremely dangerous until the final battle has come. I envisioned the clock progressing as a pretty basic pacing mechanism without required fictional triggers. Initially, I wanted the trigger to be whether or not a Mission involved the appropriate faction. That way, the players could have some control over when they engage the final battle. This helps when the heroes have high Stress and low Will.
I included Cash because Items are still a thing and that covers buildings and vehicles. It feels important to the sandbox even if it isn’t for the genre. Old habits, too. I use to run a homebrew Dragon Ball Z game and for some reason my players always ended up opening businesses and running worlds. Still, Cash could very well get removed if it feels weird or off in play.
I think because tier isn’t as important in this playset as it is in the base game that I would like to make it a resource often spent. In addition to using Influence as a sort of currency and to advance tiers, I think the GM could spend Influence to alter the setting. Basically, they would be able to initiate an Event by paying for it.
The bit about the Cutter’s special ability… Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if that was built into a PC’s tier. Tier is supposed to represent scope and I feel like that hits on it pretty solidly.
These are my quick comments as I’m off to work! But thanks for sticking with me, Adam!