Lupin III for HERO

[Michael Hopcroft]

I recently got to rent a few episodes of the anime series Lupin III, which ran for about 250 episodes and alos spawned numerous theatrical films (including the legendary Castle of Caglisotro, one of the first feature films directed by Hayao Miyazaki.) As I saw the various capers in the episodes, I thought "This would make a smashing RPG campaign, but it may be hard to handle".

The setup: Arsene Lupin III, grandson of Europe's most famous thief, travels the world searching for the bigger and bigger scores, not to mention hot babes. He is assisted in his crimes by Jigen, a master gunfighter, and Goemon, who can cut through anything with his sword and is a deadly martial artist. He is sometiems aided and somtimes hindered by his One True Love, the gorgeous and mainpulative Fujiko Mine. And an Interpol officer, Inspector Zengiata, has devoted his life to bringing him to justice and follows him everywhere he goes. Although Lupin's heists never turn out quite the way he intended (more often than not the prize slips through his fingers at the last minute), he has over the years managed to put a lot of much nastier criminals out of their misery and even bring down powerful crime syndicates, all in the pursuit of the one score that will make his name forever.

Lupin's main abilities are unyielding determination, the ability to come up with extremely clever and audacious plans, and the ability to think on his feet faster and better than almost any man alive. To Zenigata's endless frustration, he is able to slip out of restraints the way most people take off gloves.

The inteerelationships, while not as complex as in many other anime adventure series, are quite interesting. Jigen can't seem to decide when Lupin is his best friend or an annoying jerk. Fujiko leads Lupin on outrageously, but is always working to her own advantage. And Zengiata has an almost symbiotic relationship with Lupin, because without the goal of putting him in prison his life literally has no meaning, and Lupin in turn feels that no job is compkete unless it ends with Zenigata hot on his trail.

[tkdguy]

Lupin can dislocate his thumbs to get out of Zenigata's cuffs. He definitely has his Presence, and should take the Psychological Limitations: Easily manipulated by Fujiko (all the time, it seems). However, he is occasionally able to turn the tables on her schemes. He's also a bit of a prevert, so you can also give him a psychological or social limitation.

Fujiko has high Presence and Comeliness. She obviously has a few skill levels in seduction and conversation. She is extremely greedy and her overdeveloped chest is definitely a Distinctive Feature.

Goemon and Jigen should have several skill levels (and Damage Classes) with the katana and the pistol respectively. They don't seem too fond of Fujiko, but they put up with her for Lupin's sake.

Zenigata often throws his handcuffs at Lupin, although he doesn't always hit. Maybe you can write it up as an Entangle.

[tgrandjean]

... Not to mention Lupin's Super skills of disguise and gadgetering....

[Jinx999]

I've only seen the Castle of Cagliosto movie, but IIRC, there are several psychological differences between him there and in the TV series, roughly "Sucker for a pretty face" instead of "Lecherous".

Not much Com (8?), but plenty of Pre (18?). He doesn't look it, but he should have high Dex (18?) and OK strength (14?). High Con as well, he takes a significant beating in CoC and keeps going. Enough Fast Talk to choke a horse and he should probably have the highest lock picking skill in the campaign world.

[GaryB]

What I miss most about all the spawns of Lupin III is the laser disc game "Cliff Hanger". I wish they would release that to PC like they did Dragon's Lair and Space Ace.

But back on subject...Lupin III would make for some HERO gaming honestly. [raise a glass to Anime HERO at some point].

[Michael Hopcroft]

Zenigata is easy to underestimate because of all the times Lupin has slipped through his fingers. However, Lupin can do it because he's, well, Lupin. Many criminals have ended up tied up in the carefully designed net Zenigata had weaved to catch Lupin. (which is the irony of the character -- a lot of people who are much more evil than he is have met their downfall because of his involvement, when all he wanted was a prize.)

Lupin's greatest characteristic is his sheer audacity. There was a toime when a mad scientist was holding Italy hostage, and Lupin ended up foiling him. However his goal (which he did not acciomplish) was to take the two-billion-lira ransom for himself. Only Lupin would think of doing something like that given the stakes involved.