GEM Fighters

[UltraRob]

I don't remember if I posted this before, sorry if I did...But I thought it might of interest to some here...

 

I just finished a HERO Campaign not to long ago based loosely on an Anime called Ikitousen, where all the characters were teenagers who had become what I called "GEM Fighters" in that they had bonded themselves to these small quarter-sized magical gems which functioned as followed:

 

The gems themselves each started out as 10pt Variable Power Pools which the players did not pay for, instead they were given to the players who were 100pt (50+50) teenage martial artists. The GEMs were supposed to be pools of "ki energy" which the characters could draw upon to perform "ki tricks" such as the usually martial arts stuff, and boosting their stats for combat, etc. All powers which came from them had to have a reasonable "martial arts" theme to them.

 

These GEMs had no Active Point limit on them, with a "Gem Use Skill" roll (at -1 per 5pts of active cost) the players could change the points configuration as a 1-phase action to any combination that fit within the real cost of the power. (ie 6D6 Energy Blast at a -2 total limitation would fit in nicely, as would +10" Running at a -1 limitation, etc...I primarily encouraged "Extra END" to be the limitation of choice and gave them a list of options to choose from when picking limitations.)

 

When a GEM Fighter defeated another GEM Fighter, the winner's GEM rating (VPP) increased by 1pt. and the loser's went down by 1pt. This was the only way to improve the Gem's rating.

 

Of course, these GEMs had their downsides...

 

Every time a character defeated another character in combat, they would not only get a point of power, but a massive high that went with that power. Thus fighting became incredibly addictive to a GEM-Fighter. (15pt disad, GEM Addiction.) They had to make EGO rolls for each day not to start a fight with someone, and even more limiting was that they could only defeat a single opponent and have it "count" (the GEMs were semi-intelligent) one a month. Fighting them again would not result in energy transfer.

 

If a GEMs rating went down to 0, it would shatter, and the character's stats would all drop to 1/2 normal and recover over a period of months. (They are out of the game...) The same would happen if a character chose to break the gem, ending the addiction, but causing no small amount of pain.

 

 

 

 

SO, in the setting (my province of Canada), these GEMs had spread like wildfire among althetes and wannabe because of their booster properties and the addictive effects. The end result was that tonnes of secret societies had been formed in high schools (for some reason, they only bonded to teenagers...) and there was a huge underground fighting circuit going on, with it usually being team vs team instead of one on one. There was even rumours of a tournament in a few months at a hidden location...(which the campaign ended before it reached...)

 

My players ended up being members of the school Anime Club, and fought many duels against such opponents as the Poster Club, the Soccer Team, the Baseball Team, and others...all the while looking forward to facing the ominous Student Council....And having to keep these fights and the GEMs secret from the authorities since this was the "real world".

 

The idea, of course, was that they'd work their way up through the school ranks, then the city schools ranks, and then hit the provincial tournament...And of course there was the mystery of what the GEMs were and why they did what they did....(theories included Alien Eggs, Evil Soul Gems, and Demonic Spirits...) And those who tried to use the GEMs publically tended to disappear....

 

 

The campaign itself burnt out after a few months due to a) the repetitive nature of the game (everything leading to fights), and the unforseen event of some PCs losing more points than they gained, while others poached opponents during fights and became powerful really fast! Which made the team unevenly powered.

 

But, it was an interesting experiement, and one of the things I did learn from it is that using Variable Power Pools with no Active Point limit, but really low numbers of points in the pool makes for really creative use of those few points.

 

Anyways, just something to add to the pool.

Rob

[BlackSword]

Re: GEM Fighters

 

Interesting scenario. I understand how it can get repetitive and discourageing once you start to lose points (while other are able to get them quickly).

 

Was the campaign leading to the GEMs having a negative effect and the PCs being forced to track down the cause? I could see the campaign starting as a bunch of fights then negative effects causing the players to try to avoid fights and discover what the GEMs are doing to them and who is behind this.

 

This might be a neat starter campaign as well. It would have many opportunities to learn the combat system and add more complex comabt rules as the PCs became better comatants, and eventually lead into an interesting role play scenario. Just have to avoid the repetitiveness of every session is a combat and somehow work to keep the PCs from becomeing too spread in their VPPs.

[Earen]

Re: GEM Fighters

 

Kind of a cool idea ... maybe if the campaign were resurrected, give the players a motivation to "bond" their gems together and share power. A collective boost or what have you ... but keeps everyone more even.

[UltraRob]

Re: GEM Fighters

 

Interesting scenario. I understand how it can get repetitive and discourageing once you start to lose points (while other are able to get them quickly).

 

Was the campaign leading to the GEMs having a negative effect and the PCs being forced to track down the cause? I could see the campaign starting as a bunch of fights then negative effects causing the players to try to avoid fights and discover what the GEMs are doing to them and who is behind this.

 

It was heading in that direction, what was actually going on in my version was that the GEMs were pieces of a massive mana-stone which had been shattered before an evil sorcerer could use it to do nasty stuff with it. Left without a way to repower all his shards, he hit upon a new way of collecting the energy he needed: let other people do it for you!

 

He was basically counting on the "highlander effect" of a small group of people becoming uber-powered who he would then capture, reform the gems and voila! One mega mana-stone recharged and ready to go!

 

He did have agents as well, and in the campaign the players just got to the point where they'd had an encounter with a pack of demon-dogs who were hunting a football player who used his powers during a game in front of everyone....Then the game ended and we switched to something else because I, as a GM was getting really frusterated with my PCs inability to RP High School students with anything resembling initiative. One or two members of the group were generating all the storylines while everyone else just watched...The campaign was just too narrow for this group, who are used to something a little more broad, to handle.

 

This might be a neat starter campaign as well. It would have many opportunities to learn the combat system and add more complex comabt rules as the PCs became better comatants, and eventually lead into an interesting role play scenario. Just have to avoid the repetitiveness of every session is a combat and somehow work to keep the PCs from becomeing too spread in their VPPs.

 

Actually, this was this group's first major experience with HERO, and HERO combat, and exactly as you said, it started simple but things got more and more complex. Also, since they had no experience with HERO powers, they kept things simple at first (+10 to STR for the duration of the fight, +5" running, +5D6 HA, etc...) but eventually things evolved into more complex power stunts as they got more comfortable with the system.

 

You pretty much hit the nail on the head, it was a great HERO starter compaign, but it just proved to be too narrow for me to handle with this group as an "unlimited duration" campaign. I had originally planned for it to be a 3 month long campaign ending at the tournament, but they were crawling through the story and power levels at a snail's pace and by the 2 month mark hadn't even gotten out of the minor leagues of their own school!

 

If I were to do it again, I'd either plot the hell out of it, or maybe start them at a higher power level so they could jump through the story quicker...

 

On the plus side, I followed this up with a WuXia Fantasy HERO campaign which is running to this day and the players love to death. And they could handle that because I hit them with this first!

 

Rob

[UltraRob]

Re: GEM Fighters

 

Kind of a cool idea ... maybe if the campaign were resurrected' date=' give the players a motivation to "bond" their gems together and share power. A collective boost or what have you ... but keeps everyone more even.[/quote']

 

Hmm, not a bad idea. Nobody ever asked me if they could combine GEMs, but it might have worked...of course I'd make them do some complex martial arts routine in perfect sync to let them do it...^__^

 

Rob