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Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions


Michael Hopcroft

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For the anime fans on the board, a little thought experiement in character design and storytelling: the girls of Azumanga Daioh -- with superpowers!

 

The setup is that the gang has gone to a theme park to unwind, only to have a dimensional rift open only for them. Suddenly the girls are supers.

 

The first stage of the experiment is to write up the girls as they appear in the anime. The second stage is to give them enough powers, enhanced Characteristics and super-equipemtn to bring them up to standard Champions starting characters (200+150).

 

The rules:

 

1. The Stage 1 writeup should not give the girls any talents they did not posess in the anime/manga.

 

2. The Stage 2 writeups should not contain anything that would signficantly alter the personality of the character. No fair giving powers to Tomo that would cause her to be angst-ridden and moody, for example. You should be especially careful about altering mental characteristics -- turning one of the "blockheads" into an uber-genius would not work, for example, or making Chiyo stupid.

 

The base characters for the experiment:

 

Chiyo Mihama (Chiyo-chan): Precocious eleven-year-old genius going to hgih school instead of the fifth grade. Smart, incredibly cute, extremely rich, too naive and trsuting for her own good. No one person has the right to be this adorable.

 

Yomi: An intelligent, bespectacled girl who is more attractive than she believes herself to be. She cannot shake her "best friend", tomo, no matter how hard she tries. Always trying to drop a few pounds.

 

Tomo Takino: "the Wildcat High School Girl", an electric little ball of energy whose enthusasm for new tasks is matched only by her utter incomeptence at them. Always challenging people to contests she has no chance of winning. Alarmingly proud of her own stupidity. Sticks to Yomi like a bad penny.

 

Sakaki-san: She's never told anyone her first name. Sakaki is quiet and cool, but would much rather be cute. She adores animals, but animals (particualrly cats) are usually violently hostile to her. Very athletic and smart, but doesn't belong to any school sports clubs. likes hanging around Chiyo, partly because Chiyo's dog (a huge good-natured Pyranees names Mr. Tadakichi) actually seems to like her.

 

Kagura: A good all-round athlete who competes on the school swim team, Kagura insists that she is Sakaki's rival, even though Sakaki doesn't really care. Likes hanging around with Tomo and competing with her to see who can get the poorest grade.

 

Kaorin: A plain, quiet and painfully shy girl who has a massive and unnoticed crush on Sakaki. the bane of her exostence is Kimura-sensei, a Classics teacher who is in the profession because he likes being around high school girls and who has for some reason become fixated on Kaorin.

 

Ayumu Kasuga (Osaka): She seems to be in tune with the Universe -- it just happens not to be the universe anyone else happens to live in. A transfer student from Osaka, she is the opposite of the typical Osakan by being quiet, shy and not at all fond of spicy foods. Unfocused and somewhat scattered, Osaka-chan tends to take naps in class. She is prone to wild fantasies, particualrly concenring Chiyo-chan and her "detachable pigtails" and "Chiyo-tachi" -- an enormous and near-omnipotent cat-like creature that she dreams is Chiyo's father.

 

Any thoughts?

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

Any thoughts?

No access to HD or my books, but immediate thoughts...

 

Chiyo-chan - Size change: Growth, Super-cuteness (linked to Growth)

Yomi - Mass control (increase/decrease)

Tomo - Speedster

Kagura - Hydrokinesis

Kaorin - Invisibility (poor Kaorin... :( )

Sakaki - Strength, durability, even more "super" physique (poor Sakaki... :weep: )

Osaka - Illusions; uncontrollable (now everyone *can* see what's going on inside her mind... Kowai!!! :eek: )

 

...basically, each of them becomes more of what they already are. :D

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

Must Resist!

 

Must Not Admit To Having Watched Whole Series With Wife And Children!

Why? It's an awesome series. ^ v ^

 

Tomo - Speedster

You'd make Tomo the speedster? Hm. She's far from the fastest of the girls, and runs out of breath easily. She just THINKS she's fast.

 

I'd give her sonic powers, I think. Along the lines of shattering glass whenever she yells. And maybe high END, so she can still be bouncing around causing damage LONG after people are sick of her.

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

You'd make Tomo the speedster? Hm. She's far from the fastest of the girls' date=' and runs out of breath easily. She just THINKS she's fast.[/quote']

The only people a non-powreed Tomo could beat in a race are Chiyo and Osaka. The main reason is that her conditining is terrible -- she's energetic for short bursts but tires easily.

 

I'd give her sonic powers, I think. Along the lines of shattering glass whenever she yells. And maybe high END, so she can still be bouncing around causing damage LONG after people are sick of her.

Tomo with sonci powers. What a frightening throught. Poor Yomi!

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

You'd make Tomo the speedster? Hm. She's far from the fastest of the girls' date=' and runs out of breath easily. She just THINKS she's fast.[/quote']

Well, I never did specify that she runs fast, now did I?? :winkgrin:

I see her as "the speedster" in that she would become super-hyperactive. As M.Hopcroft mentioned, she's a bundle of wild energy normally -- taken to super-levels, that just screams "speedster" to me. Besides, think of the humor value of the "speedster" who doesn't run fast... :D

 

[Note: In my "serious" Champions campaign, I actually do have an NPC (Mach) who was built with a ridiculous SPD (12) and all the speed tricks I could wedge in - - but I left her at the standard 6" of running and a DEX of 16. Her metabolism is hyper-accelerated; she does everything faster than normal. However, she can't actually propel herself to traditional speedster speeds (though 72"/Turn is better than Olympic athletes :) ).]

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

Sakaki maybe Beast Master like abilities, but wouldn't work on Domestic Cats.

 

Tomo i agree with other posters she should have heightened abilities, speed, dex, etc but only for short bursts, maybe a bit like Roger Ramjet with the strength of 20 atom bombs for 20 seconds.

 

Yomi stretching abilities?

 

Chiyo super intelligence, and the teams sponsor with her multi billion dollar wealth.

 

Kagura super strength and aquatic abilities like the sub mariner.

 

Osaka unquestionably the teams psychic/mystic her unique perspective on all things allows them to face foes most other superheroes can't even comprehend.

 

Kaorin animal abilities (like animal man) and becomes Sakaki's sidekick, thereby achieving her life long dream.

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

No access to HD or my books, but immediate thoughts...

 

Sakaki - Strength, durability, even more "super" physique (poor Sakaki... :weep: )

 

Poor Sakaki maybe, but a win for the rest of us (male) readers!

 

:winkgrin:

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

Tomo could be built as a VPP with the limitation on the VPP of x5 END Cost for all powers. She can do' date=' to a degree, just about everything, she just can't do it for very long.[/quote']

 

That's an awesome idea! And yes, Tomo needs "scatter-brained" (or some such) as a psych lim. Of course, she also needs international police powers, as she is a member of InterPol now (right?).

 

I like the idea of Sakaki as super-athelete, possibly of A-ko proportions (i.e. brick with high DEX and lots of Running).

 

Chiyo should be the Braniac of the group -- the Reed Richards super-scientist with gadgets, base, and vehicles.

 

I'll go with Kagura as the Sub-Mariner clone. Super-strength, super-swimming, with secondary athletic skills nearly on-par with Sakaki's.

 

Yomi showed herself to be fairly flexible in one gym scene, and did "death chop" Tomo, so she could be the team martial artist (with a weakness for food).

 

Osaka "thinks different" and is a natural to be the mystic sorceress of the team. Heck, you'd barely have to change her dialogue.

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

 

"Chiyo-tachi" -- an enormous and near-omnipotent cat-like creature that she dreams is Chiyo's father.

 

it's actually Chiyo-chichi. Chichi is the familiar form for father.

 

Chiyo has to be able to fly, using the power of the detachable pigtails. (also usable by others, she has spares)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

it's actually Chiyo-chichi. Chichi is the familiar form for father.

And if Chiyo-chichi actually appeared in the game (probably in such a way that only Osaka could see him) things would get even weirder.

Chiyo has to be able to fly, using the power of the detachable pigtails. (also usable by others, she has spares)

This would be even funnier if Osaka was the only one who knew about the detachable pigtails and was the only one who had actually seen Chiyo fly, even after the group is endowed with superpowers. It would be a super-version of the Snaffulupagus effect -- the character reports incredible things which nobody else has seen, and thus nobody else belives, but that are in fact absolutely true.

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Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

Judging from one sequence, Tomo needs a Mimic Pool to gain other people's abilities. (Of course, if your abilities are actually weaknesses ...)

 

Chiyo should have a hefty PRE bonus, only for 'cuteness' PRE attacks. And Sasaki a Vulnerability to said attacks.

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  • 8 months later...

Re: Thought Experiment 1: Azumanga Champions

 

Update/Thread Necromancy: I will actually be running this game at Game Storm, so this has ceased to be a theoretical project. Unfortunately I won't have time to do the characters up in HD because I won't have a working copy until, at the very earliest, the Monday before the convention.

 

So some help would be appreciated in that respect....

 

Incidentally, the players will not know in advance what set of powers they're getting. Which should be interesting.

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