I'm not going to dump it all into this one post, but suffice to say there are some interesting games on my horizon. Let's cross our fingers, and hope they work out.
Coming down the pipeline we've got...
The Masked Age '66
Bell-Bottoms, Tie Dye, The Beatles, Vietnam, Gemni 8, Luna 10, Star Trek, The Monkees, Capes, Masks, and Superpowers!
Using a doujinshi (self-published small press) Japanese tabletop RPG about Western-style Superheroes, I am going to run a campaign for 'Dan's Group' set in New York City, NY with an in universe starting date of March 11, 1966!
The premise will start out as a classically Silver Age Superhero romp, with spandex clad villains and crazy capers, then slowly introduce the trials, tribulations, and turmoil of the late 60's.
I'm really looking forward to this and already think the [PC] characters are fantastic. They lend themselves easily to both action packed comic book adventures and the possibilities of deeper pathos.
Next...
I have two ideas for my next RPG project with my Barking Alien Gaming Group. Before I talk about them, I need to update you all a little on what's been going on with them.
As it stands, I haven't run anything for them or with them in over a month. I ran a one-shot/test game of Star Wars Traveller* and while it went over pretty well and I definitely felt the system worked, it didn't really inspire me the way I was hoping it would.
I could fall back on regular Traveller again and honestly a part of me is tempted to do so, another stronger part of me wants to do something different.
Different, as readers of this blog may know by now, is difficult with the Barking Alien Group. Everything is a little harder to run with this group than I feel it should be. Many, many times I've assumed that it's me but I know it's not only me. As a matter of fact, one of the players let me know quite clearly it definitely isn't just me.
Anyway...I've taken enough time off from the group and I really want to get back to a regular game with them so I've come up with two concepts...
Wares Blade
You want different from Traveller? I got different from Traveller!
Wares Blade, the Japanese TRPG set in a world of Medieval Fantasy and Giant Robots is a favorite of mine that I have not run in a long time. I'd love to get an ongoing campaign of Wares Blade going and I think the group is a good fit as many of them are into Anime/Manga (though not necessarily Mecha Anime/Manga)**.
Space Opera Adventure / Comedy
I have a really fun idea I'm having trouble locking down.
I am seeing a game heavily inspired by the French comic book krrpk, the Anime Space Dandy, and the games Hunter Planet, Star Frontiers, Starships and Spacemen, and Teenagers from Outer Space.
I'm thinking of a group of space adventurers who perform some sort of job (maybe explorers, maybe salvage, maybe they're Galactic Patrol) with a slight tongue-in-cheek nature to the whole thing. Kind of like my old Galaxy Quest game but not exactly.
I can see it clearly but I'm having a little trouble putting it into a pitch. I think once I can explain what the PCs will be doing I will have a better idea of how to 'sell it'.
OK, off to work. Expect to see more on these and other subjects very soon.
Ta-ta for now!
AD
Barking Alien
* More Star Wars Traveller posts are going to be dropping out of hyperspace in the very near future. I am also hoping to incorporate material from the upcoming Rogue One film when more information on it is released.
** Which in my opinion is un-Japanese the way not liking Superheroes is un-American. That's the most political any post of mine will ever be
What is this small press Japanese Superhero RPG you talk about, sir?
ReplyDeleteThe success, and popularity of American Superhero films has increased the interest in Western style Superheroes in Japan over the past several years.
ReplyDeleteThis was first evidenced in such Anime and Manga series as Tiger and Bunny, My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, and a number of others.
The Japanese tabletop RPG 'Double Cross' (translated into English by Ver. Blue Entertainment) focuses on a world where superpowered people are part of a covert, clandestine world in the shadows, not unlike the American TV show HEROES. A supplement for the game, 'Masked Heroes', deals with more traditional Western/American comic book style Superheroes, as well as Tokusatsu/Sentai type heroes.
Another interesting RPG from Japan is 'Trinity vs. Venus'. I don't have much info on this one, but as I understand it, it's more like AGENTS of SHIELD. The game focuses on a covert SHIELD type organization fighting a Hydra-like organization in a world where superpowered people exist. At some point in the game you either gain powers, recruit people with powers (and then play troupe style - sometimes you're your agent, other times you play your super-agent), and start facing superpowered enemies.
'The Masked Age' ('Masuku No Jikan', literally 'The Time/Age of Masks') is a game my friend picked up in Japan that he, and I find really neat, and he's translating so I can use it with my friends in 'Dan's Group'.
It seems strangely similar to a game called Masks: The New Generation, that was recently on Kickstarter, at least superficially.
More as it gets played. :)