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 for more projects he'd worked on, I came across 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 he 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 2003 or early 2004 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 APB about using Dice Fiction for their ideas, creating a sort of 'universal system' and making APB 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 work 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 he 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

Take A Walk on the Wild Side

The country that gave us MAID and Kill Death Business is clearly no stranger to weird RPGs.

Strange, high concept Tabletop Roleplaying Games are all the rage in Japan...sort of. They aren't necessarily popular with the majority mainstream TRPG hobbyists - that spot goes to Call of Cthulhu - but they absolutely abound in the fan lead doujinshi market. 

Doujinshi RPGs are a major producer of tabletop gaming products, with numerous sites dedicated to selling amateur made games, supplements, scenarios, and (perhaps my favorite concept) 'standing picture material'. The latter are full figure character illustrations that can be used as PCs or NPCs, often accompanied by close-up portraits and/or variations in the character showing alternate clothing or different expressions. 

Old Man from Togenkyosha's Mob NPC 100, Vol. 1.

There are currently 5 'volumes' each with a total of 100 illustrations

including all variations on a character.

Like other aspects of doujinshi, you can expect to see unofficial games based on known IPs but more and more you come across really creative original works. In some cases you have games being made by the equivalent of a Creative Commons or Open Gaming License type situation, such as the Saikoro Fiction games in this post. Other times you will have someone produce a completely original, indie game that so impresses the big boys that a major publishing company offers to produce it professionally, as with Kadokawa Corporation and Mamono Scramble. 

Additionally, many of these games and their supplements are available in stores. As Japan isn't big on PDFs and e-books yet (they're getting there), the doujinshi games are produced in physical books of good-to-high quality and placed on the shelves of stores that sell Manga, Light Novels, and of course dedicated gaming shops and cafes just like their mainstream cousins. 

The inclusion of indie and small press 'amateur' TRPGs in the Japanese game market in such a big way really diversifies the options of a Japanese gamer. It is easy (perhaps even easier than in the West) to get people together to play something other than Lovercraftian Horror or an ampersand game. So jealous. lol

On to the main event...

Mamono Scramble 

Throughout Human history there have been people who claimed to have seen ghosts, faeries, and other supernatural beings and phenomenon. No definitive evidence that the paranormal even existed was ever documented until...'The Great Stop'.

One day in the Winter of 2019, everyone in the world closed their eyes at the same time and when they opened them, they could see the monsters all around them. These wonderous and terrifying creatures were just as surprised as we were. 

Now it's a few years later and a comprise has been reached between Humanity and the bizarre entities that share our world with us. The weird live among us; your dry cleaner is a vampire, the delivery boy is an oni, and that really attractive woman in accounting is very likely a dragon. Unfortunately, not every monster is down with this whole 'living as equals with Humans' thing. In addition, having flaming spectres, giant ogres, and even wilder beasties walking around has its own inherent problems. 

That's where you come in. You are a Mamono, a Non-Human Being, and it's up to you and your tribe (an organized group of friends and/or allies) to help out when your neighbors are in trouble, be they mundane or mythic. Is there a lost Yeti child who can't find their parents? Is an out of control sake-guzzling Yokai loose in Shinjuku? What can we get our friend for her birthday since she's a Polynesian Goddess? It's time to get the gang together and solve this! MAMONO SCRAMBLE! 

This gives you the basic premise and what the PCs do in the game but it only scratches the surface of the world and how scenarios can be played out. Situations can range from heart-warming and humorous to serious and scary. The role of one's 'tribe' and the city of Tokyo itself are just some of the interesting elements of this RPG.

It also features a few intriguing differences from what one tends to see in modern Japanese TRPG design. For one thing it uses D12s instead of the ubiquitous D6s or less common but still very popular D10s. The clearly defined phases and scenario structure popular in many other games is much looser here, as are the skills or 'Characteristics' of the PCs. Mamono characters possess Magic Powers utilizing Mana or 'Spirit Energy'. While these powers have specific rules for their natures and functions, it seems like any characters can take any power. Your form doesn't define what you can do but rather you figure out what you want to be able to do and then describe your form. 

I am going to be talking about this game again very soon. I'm kind of obsessed with it. Hmm. Maybe I'll make up a Player Character like I did for Deadline Heroes. 

Weirdness Factor: 8

The idea is fairly Japanese, while the execution is VERY Japanese. To run and play a game like this I feel like you'd have to be familiar with the Anime and Manga that cover similar themes. Sadly, those aren't commonly known to a large number of Western gamers. I could be wrong of course and the idea isn't as weird to most people as I think it is. 

Desire to Run It: 8-9

That said, this game is right up my alley. I actually own a physical copy of this one. I love Chainsaw Man and other 'Monsters Among Us' stories as well as 'Slice of Life' Anime/Manga. Combining them sounds charming, possibly creepy, and potentially really exciting. 

Past Future Paradox

In this original Time Travel game by TRPG Circle Behavior Judgment Club (just rolls of the tongue don't it?), the players are cast as Time Travelers from one of 6 eras of Earth history who work together to prevent potentially devastating alterations to the Time-Space Continuum. They must be careful however, for as they attempt to maintain the timeline their actions can have detrimental butterfly effects of their own. 

Characters can be from Primitive Times, Ancient Times, Medieval Times, Modern Times...

How Time Travel is achieved by the PCs and other characters can differ dramatically and from one scenario to the next. Perhaps an alien 'Time Lord' is taking your group on a journey via a Police Box larger on the inside then it is on the outside. Maybe an eccentric scientist has built a Time Machine into a limited edition, rear engine, two-passenger sports car. There is a legend in the mountains of Northern Japan of people disappearing from a natural hot spring only to reappear moments to days later. It's like every book, TV show, and movie Time Travel gimmick exists together. So many possibilities! 

...The Super Information Age, and The Space Age.

Right Top: The Big Bang Goddess

Right Bottom: The Ruler of Time

In addition, the setting has an interesting 'cosmology'. There is a female entity known as 'The Big Bang Goddess' who may or not be the universe itself. It is she who allows Time Travel to occur but also blesses those who travel with positive intentions. She is countered by Chronos, the self-proclaimed 'Ruler of Time', who seeks to twist history to his own purposes. 

The game uses the Saikoro Fiction (Dice Fiction) system but like all the RPGs that utilize these mechanics the rules differ slightly to customize things for the premise and setting in question. 

Weirdness Factor: 6

Perhaps the least bizarre game in this post. What's crazy is that we in the West didn't think of this game first!

Desire to Run It: 6-7

I love the idea and it sounds super cool but I need to learn more about the rules before I can give it serious thought. Also, I see it as better for a series of one-shots or a short campaign. Time Travel is often tricky to maintain over a long...um, heh...period of time. 

The Adventures of Horai Academy!!

The Adventures of Horai Academy! (note the use of only 1 exclamation point!) was a popular play-by-mail game created and written by Kazuma Shinjo and produced by Yuentai in 1990. In 1991 a tabletop RPG was created, with the title being given a second exclamation point to differentiate it from the PBM version. 

The Player Characters are high school students attending the titular Horai Academy, an exclusive private learning institution on an island nation just off the coast of Japan. Yes, the island is independent of Japan and the school is considered its own country. It has over 100,000 students and many of its upper classman and faculty handle the politics, military defense, and infrastructure maintenance of the island. 

The Island of Utsuhojima (likely a replacement for real life Oshima Island)

The game takes an absurdist view of Japanese high school life and students get involved in everything from typical teenage drama to crazy conspiracies, giant robot battles, fighting off Kaiju attacks, uncovering lost civilizations, and unlocking ancient mystical secrets. This is handled by the school's 100+ Clubs, of which PCs can belong to up to four. You could be in the Fishing Club, the Cooking Club, The Eldritch Book Club, the Mecha Building Club, or practically any other mad thing you want to dream up. 

The island and the school have been developed in great detail by the original writers and then further expanded by the fans. The setting is rich but the rules are relatively simple, making for one of my favorite kinds of games - rules light but concept heavy. It's an anything goes Anime/Manga influenced RPG that was accurately described by my friend Ray as 'Crazy Japanese High School, The Roleplaying Game' and really, how can you top that?

Horai High School Life Encyclopedia.

A sourcebook released in 1995 along with

a revised edition of the base game.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention...while the PBM is long gone and the original TRPG out of print, the game has been resurrected by a Doujinshi fan group. Starting in 2020 a group of fans independent of the original publishers updated the game and are now in talks to produce a 3rd Edition! Wild right? SO COOL!

Weirdness Factor: 8

As noted, Horai Academy!! is absurdist in the extreme but its the kind of oddball setting that has its own internal consistency and I just adore that. Like the Wizarding World, Superheroes, and Star Trek it doesn't reflect real world logic but it makes sense to itself and that's the most important thing. I would also contend that's it's the kind of weirdness that one can wrap their head around without too much effort. It's easy (for me at least) to see this world and how to game it. 

Desire to Run It: 9

I actually ran this game for much too short a period of time back in 1994. We only had about six sessions spread out over three months or so. It was so fun but the players' schedules and various real life issues got in the way. My next 31 Day Character Challenge entry will feature a character from our Horai Academy!! game. 

Damn but I'd love to run this again. It was so nuts, funny, atmospheric, and just over-the-top awesome. Don't be surprised if you see more posts on this game as well in the near future. 

Uncle Gap 

(Sometimes translated as Gap Uncle or The Uncle Gap)

To explain what this game is about, you first need to understand what an 'Uncle' is in Japanese culture. As a slang term, Ojisan (less formally Ossan) is a middle-aged salaryman with a tired, overworked appearance and attitude.

Additionally, the term has spread to imply that said Uncle is a man with few prospects, someone who isn't going anyway in particular, financially and/or socially. This might be a fellow who is an Otaku (a fan obsessed with a particular hobby), an especially anxious or shy individual, a conspiracy theorist, etc. For lack of a better term, the Uncle is a loser. A loser who's not married, has no kids, maybe not even a girlfriend...they're perfect!

These men are just what the world needs to fight against cultists, monsters beyond Human comprehension, alien invaders, and all sorts of other weirdness. While they may look like under-achievers and washouts to the rest of society, they and they alone know the truth; Uncles are all experts in something. Maybe they're masters of martial arts. Perhaps they're proficient in creating make-shift weapons. It's also possible they know ancient arcane secrets mankind wasn't meant to know. It could happen.

This game is definitely built around a Japanese cultural phenomenon and as such might be difficult to get across to your players. At the same time, we definitely see people like this in our Western society. I'm divorced, no kids, make OK money, and I am an actual uncle. It would be great if I was secretly able to contribute to protecting the Earth from a hidden 'world of darkness'. Sounds neat! 

Weirdness Factor: 8

It is really the gimmick of the 'Uncle' concept that makes the game weird. While we're use to playing characters in their teens or their prime, here's a game where the PC protagonists are possibly balding, likely have some lower back pain, and complain about the music kids listen to these days. Why, back when they were in high school...

Desire to Run It: 7

This is definitely a game I'd like to take a stab at. Mechanically it's another Saikoro Fiction game but otherwise I don't know much about its specifics. I would need to do more research before I felt comfortable bringing it to the table. It's also another game that I think would work best as a short series campaign. 

Luckily I do have one group that knows the tropes of this idea and I think they could pull it off to great effect. 

Anyway, these are just some of the wild and wacky tabletop RPGs Japan has to offer and definitely the ones most interesting to me at the moment. Sure there are Dating Sim RPGs and Baseball RPGs and maybe I'll talk about them in the future but I'll finish here for now. 

See you soon,

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Barking Alien

Voices in The Dark

As stated in my previous post, Call of Cthulhu - the American born Tabletop RPG by Chaosium based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft - is the most popular Role Playing Game in Japan.

There are numerous reasons for this (see Mountains of Madness) but chief among them is Japan's love affair with the Horror genre. That fondness has led to the development of numerous other TRPGs, some derivative of the 'Great, Old One' and some that do things very differently. The more recent, 'small press' takes on the subject do some things I find very interesting and would love to discuss and explore further. 

To that end, here are a few of Japan's most notable Horror TRPGs that aren't Call of Cthulhu:

From Left to Right, starting with the Top Row and we have...

Ghost Hunter The Role Playing Game

Author: Hitoshi Yasuda (founder of Group SNE) and Tsuyoshi Shirakawa.

Studio: Group SNE

Publisher: ASCII. Later Enterbrain and Kadokawa.

Published in 1994, Ghost Hunter is one of the first, if not the first, Horror TRPG produced by a Japanese company for the Japanese game hobby market. It was created by the founder of Group SNE, a creative studio best known for Record of The Lodoss War and all related Forcelia titles (the Sword World TRPG, the Legend of Crystania animated film, and many more).

In addition, Group SNE is responsible for the translation of a number of Western RPGs into Japanes, as well as the continuation and expansion of those games in Japan. Currently they handle GURPS, Shadowrun, Tunnels & Trolls, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. 

I don't know a lot about the game beyond its general premise and a little bit about its rather unusual system. Ghost Hunter is set around the 1920s and 30s and focuses on the Player Characters fighting off incursions of supernatural entities into our mortal world.

Various aspects of your character are named for the constellations of the Western Zodiac and the rules system uses traditional playing cards as random number generators [instead of dice]. Truth be told, it might use dice as well. I am not sure as I haven't read through it completely. 

Oh yes, sorry, you can read a fan translation of this game thanks to the incomparable Claydonian, a fellow Japanese TRPG enthusiast who actually speaks and reads the language and lives in Japan. Check him and his awesome works out through his twitter.

Peekaboo Horror - The RPG of Neighborhood Spirits

Author: Toichiro Kawashima and Nagomi Ochiai (the Illustrator and Kawashima's wife)

Studio: Adventure Planning Bureau

Publisher: Shinkigensha Co., Ltd. 

One of my favorite Japanese Tabletop RPGs and the first game to use the Saikoro or 'Dice' Fiction system. In my past posts on Dice Fiction (see tag below) I completely forgot that Peekaboo was a Saikoro Fiction game. 

In this Horror/Comedy game, the players take the roles of Elementary School children (called Innocents) who investigate supernatural mysteries with the help of a Boo or Spooky, a paranormal entity that is linked to the child. Each player plays both an Innocent and a Spooky but you don't play the Spooky attached to your Innocent. The players play each others' spirit companions so as to maximize player to player interaction. You can also play where one Player is the Innocent and one is the Spooky, working off a single character sheet 

Some of the most intriguing rules govern what a Boo can and can't do without its Human partner and when each of the characters is active in the story. For example, Spooks can operate at night while the child is sleeping, Innocents can do things during the day when a Spooky is at its weakest, and then there are times the two work together. 

The horror is along the lines of things like Goosebumps crossed with the classic Japanese Anime/Manga GeGeGe no Kitaro. A bit less goofy than the two of these can be believe it or not but definitely imbued with a sense of tongue-in-cheek humor. 

I was able to run this some time ago with students at the tutoring center where I used to teach and it was an absolutely blast. I am really looking forward to running this again sometime in the future, likely influenced by some of the ideas I've had for Ghostbusters; a little creepier and scarier than is standard yet still very funny.

Nechronica - The Long, Long Sequel 

Author: Ryo Kamiya

Studio: Patch Works

Publisher: Tsugihagi Honbo

This one...Whoa Nelly. Those with sensitivity to...well...a lot of things...should probably skip this game and its description. Continue reading at your own risk. 

Ryo Kamiya is quite a talented individual and their talent varies widely as far as subject. They are best known as the creator of both MAID, the first Japanese Tabletop RPG ever translated into English and Golden Sky Stories, translated and published in the USA by Ewen Cluney and Star Line Publishing. 

Nechronica is a very difficult game to describe. It's not that I can't tell you what it's about but rather that in doing so I will paint an inaccurate picture of the game. It reminds me of trying to explain Neon Genesis Evangelion; I could tell you the story is a classic alien invasion by bizarre Kaiju-sized monsters and that the Earth attempts to repel them using Giant Robots. The robots are developed from the body of the first of these aliens to crash on our world. That is both a completely accurate description and not even close to scratching the surface of what Evangelion is about. 

OK, here goes...

In a post-apocalyptic world of damnation and ruin, mysterious Necromancers animate the dead bodies of girls to battle other such minions of other Necromancers. These doll-like Zombies are often cobbled together from multiple people 'Frankenstein'-style and may have mismatched parts. Additionally, when one zombie beats another they may take a part of the defeated and use it to upgrade themselves going forward. Often inorganic matter is incorporated into these bodies as well, from plastic skin armor to machine guns for legs. 

Nechronica is a game about being physically strong but emotionally vulnerable in a world of the dying, the dead, and the undead. This includes your PC and her 'sisters'. The PCs are all Dolls - thinking and feeling undead girls who fight against the Necromancer and his minions, even though it is the Necromancer who created the Dolls in the first place, for simple amusement or as a decoration for this rotting world.

Sounds fun, no? Ahem...

The mechanics are largely concerned with creating the patchwork zombie characters, body horror, and combat for engagements between these undead girls. There is also a detailed Madness system which revolves around complex emotional connections between the Player Characters and sometimes their foes, who are more often then not in the very same situation and condition they are.

In order for a Doll to stay stable and sane, it/they must rely on and manage their complicated, often conflicting emotional state and their relationships with their fellow Dolls. Nechronica is a game about the cheapness of life but also its beautiful fragility. Likewise, it is darker than the darkest dark but really a game of hope and holding onto positivity in a world of decay and doom. 

I'll be honest, this is both too grim for me and absolutely fascinating. I would love to run it or play it just once to understand it better. It really feeds my desire for esoteric, high concept genre gaming at its wildest. 

An unofficial fan translation of the game can be found online. 

inSane - Multi-Genre Horror RPG

Author: Toichiro Kawashima

Studio: Adventure Planning Bureau

Publisher: Shinkigensha Co., Ltd. 

A 'cult hit' in Japan, inSane is not a sales powerhouse but it is much loved by those who play it. Additionally, it seems the game gets a fair amount of fan-made doujinshi love, much like the industry leader that likely inspired it. 

inSane is another Dice Fiction game, this one covering a wide range of Horror subgenres. I mentioned in my prior entry that the Japanese use Call of Cthulhu for a variety of different types of Horror beyond the default mythos. That obviously wasn't the intention of that game's designers but here that was exactly what the creator of inSane had in mind. 

Though the game is set so that Gamemasters and their groups can create their own Horror settings, five pre-made settings have been developed. The default setting in the core rulebook is a really scary modern day Japan. The additional sourcebooks cover America in the Roaring Twenties, Victorian England (titled, 'Dark Victoria' or 'Victoria in The Dark'), Parallel Worlds or 'Loops' (Events repeated but in alternate ways, called 'Deadloops'), and finally a book based on the SCP Foundation milieu. 

As far as the rules go, the game has a 'Fear Check' mechanic that I find quite cool. Every Player Character has Sanity Points. At the beginning of the game, players choose three Crazy Cards, all placed face down. Bizarre and frightening information and events can drain these points. A character with only one point remaining has a Shock condition. With a zero, no Sanity left, the player turns over one of the Crazy Cards, each of which describes a madness that is inflicted upon the PC once a certain trigger is met.

I really love that last part. Imagine that you get 'Go Catatonic' but only 'If the entity addresses you directly or the situation or entity follows you when you try to escape'.

Kill Death Business - Hell TV Reality Show RPG

Author: Takayoshi Saito

Studio: Adventure Planning Bureau

Publisher: Shinkigensha Co., Ltd. 

This is probably the game I am most fascinated by and intrigued to play. Really run. When I say 'play' what I really mean is run. 

I've discussed this game already in a previous post but basically we're looking at an Action/Adventure, Dark Comedy, Horror about Contestants (the PCs) on a Reality Show/Game Show hybrid that airs in Hell. The Contestants earn points on the show by defeating, capturing, or destroying renegade Demons and other unpleasant folk on the run from the authorities both Above and Below. The points can earn you a transfer to Heaven, a better spot in Hell, or maybe, just maybe, a return trip to the world of the living. 

Imagine combining the Good Place with Guns Akimbo. Mix Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel with a kind of reverse Running Man. I love the idea of PCs caught in a demented, infernal entertainment industry version of a very surreal 'Reality Show'. Tons of opportunities for crazy combat sequences, offbeat characters, world-building, and more. 

I am currently in the process of deconstructing and translating the Character Sheet as a means of figuring out how the rules work. Plus, I've been able to find additional rules notes across the 'net. It should be noted that this is also a Dice Fiction game. I guess I'm really into their stuff. 

I'd love to give this a try.

 

Novice Novice Table Talk Role Playing Game - The Horror

Author: Takashi Konno

Publisher: Arclight Games

Here is another game I don't know a lot about but what I've seen of it is very promising as an introductory game for those new to Tabletop RPGs. 

This game is the second in the Novice Novice series [I believe], with the first being a traditional Western Fantasy game and a third installment being Steampunk. All the games share the same basic mechanics and play style: The players draw cards that give them a pre-generated character template which I think can be customized by other, additional cards. The characters than go on an adventure who has a very tightly structure sequence of phases; this is common in many Japan TRPGs.

In each phase players draw a card to determine the direction the adventure will take or the outcome of various decisions. Meanwhile, they can role a 6 sided die against a score on their Character Card to perform an action within the scene. From what I understand, the cards don't so much tell you what is happening as much as they provide context for the events unfolding. 

Clearly more research on this one is needed. If anyone knows more about this game or any game in the Novice Novice series, please share. 

Finally...

The Castle in Gray - Haunted Palace Gothic Horror RPG

Author: Karikari Ume

Publisher: Unknown - Available through Conos

An independent, small press game created by a designer with a few other interesting game credits under their belt, The Castle in Gray, aka 'Gray Castle Mystery', is the game I know the least about. As far as I can tell the game is only available through a website called Conos, which is essentially a Japanese version of DriveThruRPG, with both official and unofficial/Doujinshi products being available from the site. Curiously, as with most Japanese book and TRPG products, you can only buy physical copies. There are practically no e-book or PDF versions of anything (though this is slowly changing). 

Why the Japanese don't do more PDFs is rather confusing. As I understand it from friends who know more about copyright laws and the Japanese market than I, the publishing companies of Japan fear that people will buy PDFs and then just make copies and give it to all their friends/players. At the same time, they have no issue with someone making money selling original material based on a product they didn't create, unlike in the US. So strange. 

Anyway, the key thing that makes The Castle in Gray interesting is that the PCs are all drawn to a single location, a mansion or other large, old building, and from that point on they find themselves inexplicably back at the location time and again. The edifice is Haunted and may simply be creepy and spooky or down right Amityville depending on what the players and GM want. 

While at the 'Palace' they will receive word of various ghastly goings on and if they investigate and solve the morbid mysteries they are confronted with the house will ease up on them, allowing them to go home, see their family, and friends, etc. Only by solving the mystery of The Castle in Gray itself will the curse be lifted and the PCs lives return to normal. 

Love that as a campaign concept and goal. 

Well, that's all the time we have for now. I have a real surprise in store for my next post. To see it, you'll need to look to スペース...最後のフロンティア.

See you soon,

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Barking Alien

Project A-Game

It is my intention to run a truly special, truly memorable RPG campaign this year. Something that is elevated above the run-of-the-mill work I feel has made up the bulk of my endeavors over the past 12 months or so since the pandemic began.

True, the Red Dwarf/Yellow Sun game was on point and pretty amazing but other than that it has felt like I've been generating a lot of mediocre content. 

In order to bring my 'A-Game' to the virtual table though, I need to go with campaign concepts I truly feel passionate about. Likewise, I require a group of players eager and invested in these concepts as well, to the point where they aren't just saying, "OK, I'll play" but rather 'That sounds awesome! I'm all in!".

That later part maybe a little harder to pull off at present and with these particular ideas. That said, here is what I have:

[Stay tuned at the end for a rather unusual offer.]

Idea #1

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Flood 

Set a little before the original Anime series and using a merged original and 'Rebuild' continuity, the flooded city of London-2 is the site of attacks by invading aliens. To thwart these devastating creatures, a subdivision of NERV, Project: NIMUE, battles the monsters with their own EVA Units. These Units are not derived from The First Angel, 'Adam'...so where do they come from? 

Players would play 14-19 year old pilots who need to get in their &*$%ing robots and protect England and the European Union from the Absolute Terror that are The FALLEN ANGELS. 

Adapting the rules found in Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood, I would love to run this creepy, angsty, action-packed story which I've had in the back of my mind for over 15 years.

Idea #2

The Kill Death Business:

Tonight on Hell TV we tune in to everyone in the Underworld's favorite unreal-Reality/Game Show, 'The Kill Death Business'! Contestants (the PCs) are Souls sent to that realm of eternal damnation over relatively minor sins but given the chance to earn points towards being forgiven and moving on to a better afterlife in Heaven! If you are willing and able to reach the Bonus Round, you will be given the choice of the land of eternal happiness or returning...to Earth!

Contestants earn points by hunting down and eliminating even worse Souls, those that have become so corrupted they're now Demons! These foul entities are trying to wreck havoc in the mortal realm and only you can stop them AND win lovely parting gifts!

There is some fine print in your contract of course; nothing you need concern yourself with. In order to take down some of these truly terrible foes, you need to be a bit terrible yourself. While this earns you points on the show, Heaven isn't going to want awful, violent people skipping through the Pearly Gates. Of course, big time Devils might see your handy work and offer you a better job if you stay but wait, what about the chance to return to Earth?

A darkly humorous Action/Comedy that mixes The Good Place with Battle Royale.

Honestly, as much as I really, really want to run this game, I don't think I could assemble a group of players out of my entire current talent pool who would be completely behind this concept. It is a little too dark and easily misunderstood.

Much like another game I deeply love, the All-Australian Sci-Fi Comedy RPG Hunter Planet, it's hard to get everyone involved on the same page for something like this. If you're lucky, you start out with a bunch of people who just hear about it and instantly say, "Oh man, what an AWEsome concept! I totally get it!", then you start making characters and playing and discover that no...no they don't. 

This game is a TRPG that comes from Japan and utilizes the Dice Fiction system I discussed near the end of February. Another game using a variant of Dice Fiction is Idea #3... 

Idea #3

Yokai Hunters Society - Dice Fiction:

Original Version Cover

During the Meiji Period of Japan (possibly switched to the Edo Period - haven't decided), a secret organization of ghost and demon hunting heroes from all walks of Japanese life band together to protect their land and people from supernatural menaces. 

In addition to Anime and Chanbara style action, there will be drama and even humor stemming from the 'secret identity' lives of the individual YHS members. Since each wears a Mask their true identity is unknown even to others on their team (at least initially). Players may be nobles or beggars, peasant girls or retired soldiers, and no one would know who was what until the story unfolds. 

Rules would be based on my adaption of Dice Fiction, mentioned in posts last month (check out the tag below). 

Honorable Mention:

I have two other ideas - One which I have been really interested in for a long time and one that I've only recently felt an inclination to try out. Both are inspired by both Anime and Manga and game concepts of partially American origins. These two ideas...will open April.

Check back to fine out! 

There is a reason Dungeons and Dragons is the most popular RPG in the Western world. It has broad appeal and is (for some reason) easy for a large number of people to understand mechanically. It is the American Football of RPGs. It is the McDonalds of gaming.

I am not a Sports fan. My comfort food is Spicy Ramen. I often feel like I'm at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to selling people on my ideas.

So...

If any of these ideas really appeal to you, you aren't busy on a Wednesday or Sunday evening, and you favor character, story, and setting over rule mechanics, contact me via Twitter and let me know. I might be able to add you to a game. No guarantee but let's talk shall we? My Twitter ID is Barking Alien @alien_barking. 

Be sure to indicate which of the game ideas you would be most interested in and what your second choice would be. The game with the most interest will likely be the one we do. 

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Barking Alien

Oh and it probably doesn't need to be said that I'm also always up for...