You May Be Right, I May Be Crazy

Last December I ran a series called '31 Questions for Barking Alien' in which readers of the blog sent inquiries on various subjects via Comment, Email, or social media (such as Facebook) to yours truly and I proceeded to answer in as effectively and entertainingly as I could.

LET'S DO IT AGAIN!

I had a lot of fun doing this last year and I think some of the response posts were pretty good. Comments were decent, with some nice interactions between you all and the blog which I really do appreciate. 

To this end, please send any questions, queries, or inquisitives to this blog via Comment on this posts or any other going forward, my email at barkingalienATgmailDOTcom, or you can contact me via Facebook Messanger as Adam Dickstein. 

I am really looking forward to this so throw those questions my way! In 2024 we got to 15 questions. Can we beat that? We shall see...

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Barking Alien

Woe, Is Me - I Want to Run Fantasy

So, there's this guy I know...

He really doesn't like Medieval Fantasy of the type you see in Fantasy RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. He really doesn't like the game mechanics the majority of Dungeons and Dragons style RPGs use to facilitate running campaigns in that genre. At the same time, he really, really wants to run a Medieval-ish / Sword & Sorcery-esque Tabletop Roleplaying Game campaign.

Me. I'm that guy.

Beginning next year, I plan on running a [vaguely] Medieval Fantasy RPG campaign with the intent of making it a fairly long term mainstay for one of my groups. 

No, you read that right. No, this isn't a practical joke, I haven't gone mad, nor am I a Parallel Earth doppleganger of Adam from some twisted Mirror Universe. I just...let me explain..

I am Feeling Inspired

There are a lot of reasons for this including but not limited to: 

• I haven't run an ongoing Fantasy campaign for a while and I’m feeling nostalgic.
• I've been inspired by a blog project I am working on to appear early next year.
• I've been inspired by other bloggers discussing Dungeons and Dragons and it makes me what to do something different.
• I've been inspired by various Fantasy Anime, Manga, and RPGs. 

I Love a Challenge

I've had a great year running and playing Ghostbusters, the Wizarding World, Smurfs, Star Trek, Star Wars, and various Superhero games. All things I'm [generally] good at. I can reliably, more often then not, create a good time for my friends and I playing and Gamemastering these genres, settings, and games. 

Fantasy is not so easy for me. It requires a lot more thought, creatvity, research, and patience. Patience with the game, the genre, the players, and myself. The toughest part is always keeping myself interested. 

I really want to give it a go though. It's been a while since a have in a long term, open world fashion the way I once did.

I also want to find or create a system for running this type of game that I don't despise*. 

I Have Some Ideas

I actually have some thoughts on what would make for good 'adventures' or rather, NPCs and happenings going on in a Fantasy world. Many of my ideas are still in the early stage and will need some fleshing out before 'going live'. 

I also need to see what kind of characters the players come up with, as I usually try to intergrate the PCs into the world, the world into the adventures, and therefore the adventures into who the PCs are and what they're all about. 

I'm Driven By Spite (In a Good Way)

I must admit that I have a negative personality trait that makes me want to do a thing after encountering or experiencing that thing and thinking 'that could have been better'.Few things get me as fired up about running a particular game as finishing a bad game and believe it could have been really good.

That said, its not like I've been in any bad Fantasy games lately. In fact, I participated in a short, good one not long ago. Fun as it was, it ended up feeling just like every other Fantasy game and the rule mechanics of the RPG, while functional, eventually felt a little flat. I also vastly prefer running Fantasy to playing it [unless we're talking Smurfs, which I find really fun to play]. 

Then there are all the blog posts out there talking about the various incarnations of D&D. Each one I read makes me want to do it differently, do it my way, and to veer away from the kind of things that made me grow to dislike D&D in the first place. 

I know, it's a terrible reason to want to run a game but sadly it often works for me.

That's it for now. I'll probably be discussing this on and off again as we approach 2026 and the launch of whatever this ends up being.

Later days,

AD

Barking Alien

*OK, that's a little hyperbolic. I don't despise all Fantasy games. Just ones with Classes, Levels, Hit Points, Miniature/Wargame Based Combat, Treasure Based Experience, and Inflexible and Uncreative Magic.

So...a lot of them. 

The Trouble with Aliens

Yet another Japanese TRPG I've been obsessed with for some time now (18 years to be exact) is the UFO Conspiracy RPG Trouble Aliens. 

Created by Akira Waguri and published by Hobby Japan TRPG in 2007, the game has had but a single expansion/supplement entitled Aliens Paradise, which was released in 2008.

In Trouble Aliens you play as an Extraterrestrial in Human guise, called a Mask, who is trying to either Conquer Humanity, Eradicate Humanity, or Protect Humanity. You can also play a Human but you must also choose one of these motivations. I seem to recall additional drives from either the game's expansion or Japanese TRPG magazine articles. One I remember ckearly was Study Humanity, which had a particularly humorous twist.

There are twelve major Alien Species described in the game, designated 'The Majestic Twelve', though only 11 are defined. The mysterious '12th Species' is unknown at present and there are numerous theories and conspiracies as to who they are and why this is. In addition to these twelve there are many other Aliens with lesser domains of power and influence and they too have visited Earth (GMs and players should work together to create new Extraterrestrials if a player has a particular type of being in mind).

Thanks to their Masks most Aliens look indistinguishable from normal Humans. Players do not reveal  the Alien Species or goal of their Player Characters to the other players or their PCs, creating a atmosphere where no one know who is really who and what they're up to. 

Trouble Aliens is therefore not a traditional cooperative RPG, though it can certainly be played that way (See below) . It's default style of play is more akin to Paranoia, with each PC having their own agenda that often runs counter to those of the other PCs. The Player Characters can form alliances, break them, and team up to thwart another PC's plans as needed.

One can also play Agents of The Organization, a secret group dedicated to defending the Earth from any and all invaders from beyond this world. Agents my be of several types as well, from Super Geniuses to Cyborgs to Psychics! If playing an Agents style game, all the Player Character would be on the same side with the same objective (or would they?). 

As a Science Fiction fan fascinated by the 'Aliens are among us' premise, this one goes hard and I absolutely love it. At the same time, what makes it even cooler is that is isn't tied to only that idea. Sure, you could run it as 'Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?', the classic Twilight Zone episode, but you could play with themes from Alf, Mork and Mindy, People from Earth, Resident Alien, They Live, and so much more. 

The game contains obvious homages to Blade Runner, Men in Black, Superman, The Terminator, War of the Worlds, and so much more. This is ripe for adapting ideas from Anime and Manga like DanDaDan and even FLCL as easily as Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Alien Earth! 

The blend of comedy and drama, action and romance, mystery and suspense makes this right up my alley. 

The Invasion Has Begun!

Wait...no...sorry...false alarm. They're just making a coffee run.

Anyone want anything?

The game has a somewhat unusual publication history. It came out in 2007 as noted and did fairly well in the Japanese TRPG market. As with many games that aren't Call of Cthulhu or Sword World, it was very popular with a small niche within the hobby. It did well enough to warrant a supplement/expansion a year later, Aliens Paradise, which is actually half rulebook and half Replay Manga* collection.

Sometime between 2013 and 2015 the game went out of print for a while but came back to renewed interest. This happened a couple of times. I am told it is because the publisher, Hobby Japan TRPG, produces so many titles that some of them get rotated. This unusal publishing schedule made it so it has been very difficult for me to get a hold of a copy. In addition, the 169 page book costs quite a bit in shipping, making getting a book I'd have to tear apart to scan for my translation software not at all cost effective.

Recently I noticed the book pop-up again on Conos, a Japanese webstore similar to our DriveThruRPG. There was a big announcement related its return; it was finally available on PDF for only $20 US. SOLD! I pick it up this weekend and I'm going through the process of translating it now. Aliens Paradise is also available for $11 I think. Will likely get that too very soon. 

I played a session of it at an Anime Convention back in 2007 or 2008 and absolutely loved it. In that game, the GM referred to it as 'The Trouble with Aliens' and to this day, even though I now know the correction translation, I still call it that from time to time.

Wow, I finally have it after all these years and I'm really excited to dive into it. Expect to see more posts about this game as I figure out how to play.

Until next time...Watch the Skies...

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Barking Alien

* 'Replays' or 'Replay Manga' are Japanese Comics depicting someone's game in Manga form, often with sidebars or notes explaining how what you're reading happened according to the game mechanics. It is a huge market in Japan and games that don't have Replays attached to them - such as many American imports - don't do very well. Replays are an easy way, at least for the Japanese, to learn a game's rules, what kind of characters are appropriate, what the setting and genre is, etc.

My Bluebird of Happiness

Saturday I got the chance to smurf the Smurfs Roleplaying Game again and I couldn't be smurfier. 

The Bluebird of Happiness

I have greatly missed running and playing this game something serious. I'm not kidding! I absolutely love this game.

Once again my friend Stephen (The Smurfs and The Palace of the Silver Princess) ran the adventure, an original one-shot of his own design, and I got to play my Smurf girl alchemist, Smurfcornflower once again. 

Left to Right: Frontier Smurf, Smurfcornflower, Helpful Smurf.

The other two Player Characters for this outing were Frontier Smurf (played by a clever fellow named Emilio) and Helpful Smurf (played by a really funny guy named Bob).

Frontier Smurf reduces the Difficulty of his Action Roll by 1D6 when foraging for supplies or making something out of foraged supplies. He does not get a Difficulty reduction when using the things he finds or makes. Luckily, Helpful Smurf gets a +2 Bonus to the appropriate Attribute when helping another Smurf with a task. This bonus only applies when helping another with what they want to do and does not benefit Helpful with anything he decides to do on his own.

Frontier Smurf's Item is what he called his Foraging Axe (more a tool then a weapon) and Helpful's is a Bindle full of small, useful items (like a length of string or an empty jar).

For this adventure, Cornflower got to make three Potions: A Potion of Healing (Restores Brawn Effort), a Potion of Invisibility, and a Potion of Reflecto Reverso (.Based on the Spell Smurfo Reverso in the Core Rules but a slightly tweaked - Magic Spells and Item effects are reflected back at the sender. Doesn't reflect Potions or their effects). 

The scenario was called 'The Smurfs and The Bluebird of Happiness' and revolved around the Smurfs encountering an injured bird while picking the last Smurfberries before Winter set in. The little avian in question identified itself as the Bluebird of Happiness, on its way to visit a man desperately in need of joy. Unfortunately it was unable to continue on its mission as a Cat scratched its wing badly while it was sipping water from a stream. 

To summarize, we all aidied in healing the little bird and proceeded to accompany it in the direction it was going until its wing fully healed. Gargamel and Azrael showed up to catch us but then turned his attention to the Bluebird, assuming it was magical and important since we were escorting it (not incorrect).

As it turned out, it was Azrael that injured the bird. A few scenes of dodging the pair, followed by a brief battle of wits and wizardry, and we managed to escape and leave the two of them rethinking their life choices for that day. The Bluebird noted what sad individual Gargamel was and how she should probably add him to her list of people to help. 

Eventually, the healed Bluebird bids us farewell and flies on to her destination as we wave it goodbye and head back to Smurf Village. The Bluebird travels to Gargamel's Hovel/Tower, as he was the sad man it had come to cheer up, but seeing no one home it flew on to bring joy to the next person on its list.

THE END

Incredibly fun, lots of funny dialogue, and some narrowly avoided danger made for a great time. Thanks to Stephen, Emilio, and Bob for a wonderful game and I can not wait to run Smurfs again myself sometime soon.

Hoping you are all visited by the Bluebird of Happiness yourselves,

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Barking Alien

 

Cutthroat Planet

The Tabletop Roleplaying Game hobby has had more than a few tales of 'Games-That-Never-Were'. Games that were designed, developed, and sometimes even announced but for one reason or another didn't come to pass. Essentially, we're talking RPG vaporware. 

Japan's TRPG market isn't immune to this phenomena. Of particular note in this category is a game I've been obsessed with for many years; Cutthroat Planet. 

Cutthroat Planet is, or would have been, a Retro-Futurisc Space Opera TRPG focused on the PCs as heroic Space Pirates in a galaxy ruled by an evil empire . The idea is reminiscent of Space Pirate Captain Harlock, with the pirates as rebels against a tyrannical imperium.

The game, and its failure to materialize, has quite an interesting history.  

The game was the brainchild of Hayami Rasenjin, a prolific artist and writer who has worked in the fields of Manga, Anime, and Japanese TTRPGs for over three decades. Rasejin is a fan and advocate of Roleplaying Playing Games himself and has done a great many illustrations for the Japanese TRPG industry over the years. His works include being the main artist on SATASUPE, the 'Asian Punk' RPG that remains a favorite in Japan and of yours truly.

Honestly, I'm a big fan of Rasenjin and have been since before I really knew his name. I would see his artwork in various Japanese Roleplaying Games and Roleplaying Game related magazines and eventually started following him on Social Media. During my search to more project he'd worked on, I came across the the subject of this post, Cutthroat Planet.

Sometime around 2001, Hayami Rasejin came up with an idea for a Tabletop Roleplaying Game in which the players are freedom fighting Space Pirates flying between Earth and 'The Second Solar System' preying upon the unjust and overly bureacratic Terran Empire. Set in a Retro-Future Space Opera universe inspired by Flash Gordon and early Science Fiction Anime and Manga, the game had a wonderful setting but no rules.

He eventually tried using a few different systems, even testing them out at Sci-Fi and Gaming conventions but wasn't satisfied with any of them. One magazine article suggested the game was going to be released as using the rules of SATASUPE, which I personally think would have been awesome. In the end, Rasenjin just couldn't find or create a set of mechanics that he felt were right for the idea and so it went on the backburner.

An RPG Convention program from November of 2001

featuring a listing for a Cutthroat Planet playtest.

Special Guest Greg Stafford of Glorantha and Pendragon fame!

Fast forward to sometime in late 2025 or early 2026 and the game design studio known as Adventure Planning Bureau had come up with a new system they planned on using for an upcoming project but no setting had yet been developed. Designer Toichiro Kawashima had created Saikoro (Dice) Fiction and Rasejin, who was familiar with APB, met with him to discuss applying Dice Fiction to his Cutthroat Planet idea.

After writing began on the Cutthroat Planet game, a second Dice Fiction game went into development, Neighborhood Fairy Tale RPG Peek-a-Boo, sometimes referred to by the nickname Peek-a-Boo Horror (another game I really love). Peek-a-Boo was written and created by Toichiro Kawashima himself, with the help of illustrator (and later Kawashima's wife) Nagomi Ochiai, and the staff of APB  For unclear reasons, Cutthroat Planet was delayed, while Peek-a-Boo continued on at a solid pace.

When Peek-a-Boo was complete, Advanced Planning Bureau decided to release it first and it did very well. Eventually, the popularity of it lead other creators and designers to contact Kawashima and APD about using Dice Fiction for their ideas, creating a sort of 'universal system' and making APD the biggest of the smaller design studios.The company and its system now supports over a two dozen titles, including InSane, Kill Death Business, and Uncle Gap.

By late 2006, after announcements and magazine articles indicating Cutthroat Planet was scheduled for a June 30th release, the following statement was sent out by Adventure Planning Bureau to retailers:

(Translated from Japanese)

Thank you very much for your support.

We have announced that the release of 'Cutthroat Planet' which was scheduled for June 30th,
has been postponed.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The official release date has not yet been decided, but we are aiming for an early next year release.

The game itself is currently being produced under the direction of designer Hayami Rasenjin
but we are currently in the final stages of adjustment to further enhance the game's quality and are therefore unable to release it.

Repeated announcements of release delays have led to rumors from various quarters that the
game may not be released after all but we are making every effort to ensure that as many users as possible can enjoy this wonderful title.

We apologize for any concern and inconvenience this may cause and we ask that you please wait a little longer.

We will contact you as soon as the release date is finalized.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

We would like to once again apologize for any inconvenience caused.

We look forward to your continued support.

June 26, 2006
Kokusai Tsushinsha Co., Ltd.

An issue of the Japanese TRPG magazine R.P.G. Gamer had an article on the game in the Vol. 4, October 25th 2007 issue accompanied by Rasenjin's art. I am unable to find any further references to the game. Well...sort of...

A Japanese gamer blog that has what has to be the best name for a blog ever, 'Only The Dice Are Honest: Possibly the most pointless TRPG blog in Japan', posted a congratulations on the release of Cutthroat Planet finally coming out in 2010, only to reveal that it was an April Fools joke on the blogger's part. 

So what went wrong?

Sadly, I can find no official confirmation of what happened to this project, though some clues to its failure to launch can be found in the blog entries of various APB personnel and Rasejin himself over the years. 

It would seem that other projects drew Hayami Rasejin's attention away from his writing and overseeing Cutthroat Planet, including his work as a Design Assistant and Consultant in the Anime industry. Higher paying and more immediate turnaround meant these sorts of professional gigs took precedent over his personal passion project. 

In addition, his popularity as a Manga writer and artist blossomed and would later do quite well in the medium with a series called 'A Galactic Journey Worthy of a Baron', many elements of which seem to have been influenced by ideas he had originally created for Cutthroat Planet. 

A Galactic Journey Worthy of a Baron, By Hayami Rasenjin. Volume 1

Finally, while not said out right, I get the impression that Rasenjin wasn't entirely happy with the Dice Fiction system version of the game. Blog posts by those who followed the project through the early days and convention playtests mention his use of D20s in some versions, D10s in others, and I get the impression he never found the mechanics that quite matched his vision. I've been there so I get that. 

I lament that this TRPG never truly happened in a way that fans of Rasenjin, Science Fiction Space Opera, and Roleplaying Games had hoped it would. It is a path not taken and a missed opportunity that could have been an excellent addition to any collection of Japanese TRPGs.

 

Later Days,

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Barking Alien