Zatch Bell

[SKJAM!]

A manga/anime series (Konjiki no Gash Bell! in Japan) now coming out in America.

 

Basic Story: Booksmart but socially inept (and horribly bullied) junior high student Kiyomaru Takamine one day receives a present from his traveling father. Except that this present is a little amnesiac boy named Zatch (Gash), who has bizarre powers. It quickly emerges that Zatch is only one of one hundred mamono (demons/monsters) who have been sent from Makai (demon/spirit world) to battle for the privilege of becoming King.

 

For reasons that are not at the beginning entirely clear, each mamono must work with a human partner. The mamono's primary powers are locked by a spellbook, which the human must read out of to activate the "spell." The human's emotions fuel the spells and influence the way the mamono's power and personality develop. As the pair becomes more skilled, new spells appear.

 

This setup looks like it might be a bit tricky in Hero System. Most of the partners (at least in the early going) are normal humans, but they have to take actions to read the spells. (Kiyo's an exceptionally useful partner, with a high INT, plenty of KS's, and very quickly picking up Tactics.)

 

I like Suzy (Suzume), the Incompetent DNPC who at the start of the series is Kiyo's only friend (even if he won't admit she's a friend.)

[Badger]

Re: Zatch Bell

 

I dont know. I've never been able to bring myself to watch it. Zatch looks too much like a ventriloquist dummy for me. Me no like ventriloquist dummies.

[Spence]

Re: Zatch Bell

 

I'm with you Badger. I love Anime and have a fair collection. But ZB just feels "not right" I never finished an episode and after trying twice never looked back. Kinda like Pokymon (or however it is spelled). I may be much better as manga though.

 

Good luck SKJAM

[csyphrett]

Re: Zatch Bell

 

I think a mamodo would have some armor, some strength, and speed, and a multipower that was restrained by the spell book, with appropriate disads and spfx.

 

I don't know if the partner would be a follower, or a separate character.

CES

[UltraRob]

Re: Zatch Bell

 

Well, the best way I can see to simulate this situation would be the Follower approach. The follower is the Mamono, not the human, the human is the character and the Mamono should be an NPC. All the Mamono's magic powers (probably a multipower which starts out with 1 slot if this were a campaign character, more slots can then be "unlocked" through experience by buying more slots with XPs, since they're only be 2-3 points each anyways) should be bought with the limitation OAF (Spellbook -1), Incantation (Incantations must be read by partner -1/2), and probably some limit on Range or something that requires the partner to be in line of sight to activate the powers. As noted, the Mamono should probably have a couple points of armour and maybe other minor abilties.

 

The human should just be bought as a normal human, he pays points for the follower, and then blows the rest on skills and whatnot for himself. If you want the human to be able to boost the Mamono's abilities through his "raw emotion", then have the human buy an AID to the Mamono's Multipower and require it to have an EGO roll (or something similar) to activate. (To reflect the character putting all his will into helping his friend.) Another odd alternative might be to require the AID to cost Long Term END, to reflect the character transferring his/her energy to their partner. This would also serve to keep the character from using it unless absolutely necessary, and keep the cost down.

 

Rob

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Zatch Bell

 

Reminds me of a series called Ninku about this boy who looks like a badly-designed ventrilousit's dummy but is really an ultra-powerful martial artist leading a rebellions against a Napoleonic-stylized empire. he wanders around the world with a penguin in tow (seems to be an ordinary, if expectionally temperature-tolerant, penguin).

 

Evidently a lot of people in Japan really liked it. But then again I have yet to find an adequate explanation for how Naruto begame a mega-hit either.

[Lethosos]

Re: Zatch Bell

 

But then again I have yet to find an adequate explanation for how Naruto begame a mega-hit either.

The Japanese, in general, are a wierd, repressed lot. It's like Hollywood--high expectations, low results, and not one whit of caring anyways.

 

But on occasion you get a good gem from over there--it's like how there's always one brillant individual in an asylum full of madmen.