No RPG No Life

First and foremost I want to thank everyone who came by to view the blog last month and participated in my deep dive into Japanese Anime and Manga related gaming. I would like to especially thank those who commented as I rarely get the kind of feedback I am hoping for when doing something like this. The discourse is very much appreciated.

Views here on Barking Alien have hung around the 5,000 to 6,000 mark per month for the past few months - almost the past year actually - but this month I have over 8000 views!

Since I didn't manage to work on my new game Mecha System Variant / MSV game very much this month (hardly at all), that is still going to be considered a work in progress. What I mean to say is that you will definitely see entries on it pop up from time to time going forward until its completed. 

As noted in the previous post, I have some very solid RPG ideas that I am very passionate about. I might even get to run them.

The issue is I am not sure which individuals out of my current crop of players would be as into any of these ideas as I am. These aren't your run-of-the-mill campaigns, though I don't think any of them are so off beat and avant garde that people couldn't wrap their heads around them. Rather, the idea may be too out of the ordinary to evoke a clear understanding and strong investment in them. 

That's a shame. Here's hoping the current pandemic situation improves to the point where enough people have their vaccinations and maybe, just maybe, I can get a group together in person this summer. Selling people on an idea in person is considerably easier than doing it over the internet for some reason.

Coming up I've got some alternative ideas - one of which might be even weirder than those and one that might be easier to digest...maybe kinda. I will be writing up the second idea first and I think it will surprise you.

Before I go, here's a guide to the titles from last month's posts. All of them were parodies of Japanese Anime and Manga titles, save one which was a book/RPG parody, though Anime was still involved.

Japan's Bizarre Adventures is a reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Full Metal Milieu and Full Metal Milieu: Neighborhood is a reference to Fullmetal Alchemist and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Things from the Second Impact is the only title that is not an Anime/Manga title parody. Instead it is a reference to Things from the Flood, the book and RPG sequel to Tales from the Loop. The Second Impact is a key event in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

MSV - The Origin is a reference to Mobile Suit Gundam - The Origin, while MSV - Dice in the Pocket references Gundam:0080 - War in the Pocket. 

A Certain Animated Role-Playing Game is a reference to A Certain Scientific Railgun. 

Is It Wrong to Try and Put Anime in Dungeons and Dragons? is a reference to Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

Project A-Game is a reference to the classic Project A-Ko. 

No RPG No Life, the title of this final post for March of 2021, is a reference to No Game No Life, which funny enough is actually an Anime focused on board games. 

Wait'll ya see what's coming up...Onward to adventure!

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Barking Alien

MSV - Dice in The Pocket

I created and developed my homebrew Anime/Manga Mecha game, Mecha System Variant, for the purpose of running various IP based games - Macross, Gundam, and even Japanese TRPG based settings like Wares Blade. The goal was to have a system that would accurately emulate the feel of these well established Mecha series where both the players and the GM (myself) knew, generally speaking, what the robots and their pilots should be capable of.

While this has worked extremely well for each outing I've run so far, it means that I've ignored a crucial element of Mecha Anime gaming. I don't have a Mecha Construction System. I never designed rules for players to create their own Mecha as we were generally using our favorites from whatever franchise we were playing in.

Heheh. My bad.

All joking aside, this is indeed a problem.

I'll be honest, I feel pretty foolish that it never even occurred to me to create a system for players to create original robots. I mean, what is this Marvel Heroic? 

Now that I want to make this into a game others beyond myself and my groups can download and use, I need to flesh out the system in ways I never really intended. Originally, I made only what I needed and wrote it all down in a way that worked for me, no more no less.

What you're going to see over the course of a few upcoming posts is a man reverse engineering a game he himself created. Yeah, kind of nuts but it's the only way I can think of to make this work. 

To begin, let me lay out the basic structure of the game as well as the why of that structure. 

I'll be honest and upfront with you, what I had determined to be a finished game before the month started is looking more and more like a work in progress. Part of the reason this post - this whole month - has taken so long to put together is that I continue to make changes to the details of how this game functions on an almost daily basis. *Sigh*

The main ideas are thus:

When performing actions with their Mecha, a Mecha Pilot adds their stat and skill to the connected capacity of their Giant Robot. At present, you roll 2D6 and try to get under that number. That is not how it originally worked. Originally, you rolled a 1D10 and added the the combined Pilot Stat, Pilot Skill, Mech Stat and tried to beat a target number or an opposed roll. Unfortunately, that seems to close to Mekton for me. Another option I am toying with is that the combined total is the number of 6 sided dice you roll and attempt to get 'successes', I style of game design I have been really enamored with these past few years.

Mecha are structurally similar to Characters. 

Computer Control is Brains

Hydraulics is Brawn

Maneuverability & Handling is Agility

Power Systems is Cool...Sort of. 

Sensors is Perception 

While some of this is self explanatory, others need a little clarification. Brawn is Physical Strength, used to fight hand-to-hand, push open doors, or lift things. Cool for a Character is your default Social Skill and I am likely to switch up that term for something else before the game is complete. For Mecha, its replaced by Power Systems and governs Special Moves or Effects that don't easily fall into any of the other categories. Basically, when your Mecha needs to do something 'Cool' you tap Power Systems.

The other key element is, as noted in an earlier post, there are no hit points or anything quite like that. Instead, under Software and Hardware (as well as Weapons) you list the various components that make up your Mecha; Software includes Targeting System, Database, or Energy Scanner, while Hardware are physical parts like Right Arm, Head, and Jetpack. 

When you successfully hit an opponent or are hit by them, weapons do 'Rolls of Damage'. Let's say a Laser Rifle does 3 Rolls. Each Software and Hardware component is numbered and you roll 2D6 (or originally 1D10) for each Damage roll. An attack might hit your Left Arm, Left Leg, Sensors. Each hit reduces the function of that component, dropping it's dice/effectiveness. You can opt to spend a Drama Point (possibly a Reactor Point) to say, "I land all three hits on the Sensors" or "the Left Arm". This effectively disables that part until repairs can be enacted.

If  your Mech's Arm is holding a Beam Sabre and that Arm is disabled, you can't use that Beam Sabre. If your Sensors are down you can't see, flying blind and suffering a major penalty. If the region is randomly struck again after being disabled, it is destroyed - the arm is blown off and goes hurtling through space or lands as a heap of burning wreckage. 

As I write this I realize I am rethinking parts of the game more and more. Part of the reason for this is I am currently running a game with a similar system to the 1D10 variant that feels, well, a bit mechanically tedious. Rolls of the dice aren't particularly engaging or exciting for some reason and I need to figure out why or how I can get them to feel more interesting. 

As you can probably tell, I am struggling a little this month, even though I am totally jazzed about this idea. I have a number of strong concepts for games, including this one, bouncing around in my brain but my anxiousness over real life stuff and frustration over some of the other games I'm running is making it difficult to get this done. 

As is often the case with things I truly love, want to do, and believe, I am too dumb to give up. 

The quest to complete MSV and discuss Anime/Manga Gaming continues...

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Barking Alien

MSV - The Origin

In 2009, Game Designer Jim Clunie created a game for a 24 Hour RPG Challenge called Extended Mission. I originally found the game through the website 1KM1KT but as of now neither that site nor Extended Mission seem to exist. I will update this if they become available one more. 

A rules-lite, resource management game, the focus was on playing satellites trying to get information about an abandoned Earth for the Humans living on Mars before their batteries ran out and/or they burned up in Earth's atmosphere. I was intrigued and inspired by the system and concept and began to tweak the rules to work with an idea I'd have for years; a game in which players would play Artificially Intelligent robots. 

The result was something I initially called Extended Mission Expanded. I ran it for several sessions and those sessions were pretty damn great. I forget why it ended. Scheduling most likely, the ultimate enemy of good games. 

From there I made some changed and pushed the game even further, thinking that if it could handle robots of the Star Wars Droid and WALL*E variety, maybe it could handle Giant Robots. Maybe, just maybe, I had a potential Anime/Manga Mecha game on my hands that could solve what I felt/feel is the key issue with the Mecha games that have come out so far...

They aren't, generally speaking, very Anime like.

Before I get into that though, let me finish with the origins of my new RPG. Where was I? Ah yes...

Over the years that followed I tinkered with the game further and further, eventually transforming it from Extended Mission Expanded to Extended Mecha and finally its current incarnation - Mecha System Variant or MSV*. 

Now here's where I give my unpopular opinion:

While there have absolutely been some awesome Mecha RPGs over the years, especially Mike Pondsmith's seminal game Mekton, most American Giant Robot games focus too heavily on tactical, wargame oriented combat. Pages and pages are dedicated to range, armor, damage, and the specific mechanics of missiles vs lasers, size and weight, and other such details that don't really matter. 

That's right, you heard me, these things don't matter. 

Very few Anime or Manga make a distinction between different weaponry beyond what that do. Is the opponent in range? Don't pull out a hex map and measure the distance - they don't do that in the medium. Are you and the target on screen at the same time? Was the enemy approaching before a jump cut to the hero? In either case, they're in range because that allows for action. You shouldn't slow down a Mecha Anime game with crunch and I feel that's exactly what most Mecha games do. 

There are no hit points in Anime. Mecha rarely loose armor points, though sometimes their armor gets blown off.  Animation and Comics are visual and visceral and they focus on what happens, not on abstractions. Gundam robots don't take 3 points of damage, they lose targeting or visual sensors. When the EVA-01's arm is cut off the important thing for the audience to know is that the pilot, Shinji, is afraid and in terrible pain, not that it adjusts his hit modifiers.

To this end I set out to produce a Mecha game with no hit points and armor that reduces the level of negative events. I wanted rules that added drama and built to climaxes. It was important that the action move the story and vice versa, avoiding action for actions sake. This doesn't mean action isn't a major element of the game; far from it.  Mecha Anime and Manga are solidly a subgenre of Action Adventure. It's just that the goal in making this game was to create sessions where you can see and feel what is going on in the game and not spend too much time calculating numbers. Decisions you make are character, story, and scene driven and less tactical in nature. 

30 Minute Mission Alto Custom

by ICHI [いち]

At least that's the plan. 

Here goes nothing...

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Barking Alien

*The name MSV actually comes from a series of books put out in Japan called 'Mobile Suit Variations' which detail designs and variations on those designs for robots featured in the Universal Century and One Year War timelines of the franchise.

Many of the designs never appear in any Gundam series, having been created purely for merchandising (models kits mostly) or for a planned series that was cancelled. Nonetheless, as the books were put out by Bandai/Sunrise - the company that owns Gundam - and designed by the writers and artists of the series, all the Mobile Suits in these books are considered canon. 

I used to collect these whenever I found them and loved pouring over the various designs again and again. When I started thinking up names for my own Mecha game, MSV was the first thing that popped into my head and it kept coming back. Defining it as Mecha System Variant, an alternative to traditional Mecha RPGs, sealed the deal.