Anime series as a campaign

[BNakagawa]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Not to mention all sorts of mystical weirdness as well; Ataru is the very model of a Weirdness Magnet. It also features Shutaro Mendou' date=' a handsome and arrogant rich kid (his private Army is larger than Japan's -- and probably [i']China's[/i]) and Shinobu Miyagi, an ordinary schoolgirl who can, when provoked, hurl a skyscraper into geostationary orbit.

 

IIRC, Shinobu's family name is Miyake.

 

On another note: The long-term benchmark for violent anime series

 

You're already dead. / Omae wa mo - shinde iru.

 

Fist of the Northstar / Hokuto no Ken

 

when I was younger, it was showing on cable (in hawaii)

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

1. Record of Lodoss Wars

2. Gun Smith Cats

3. The Dirty Pair

4. Beldandy

 

a few others, some might be a bit too 'overt'

[Tamashii2000]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Tenchi Muyo - Umm cause.. I love harem animes.. I am a sick pup

Tenchi GPX - the Galaxy police are just to funny

Howls Moving Castle - Thier take on magic is just fasinating.

[SKJAM!]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Patlabor is a "realistic" giant robot series, and might be a good campaign background. (Basically, a bit of Hill Street Blues, a bit of Barney Miller and a large dash of mecha.) The three movies get away from the mecha for the most part, dealing with the scary criminal/political implications of the world setting.

[Pyre-Archer]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

I'll add my vote for Patlabor; What I saw of it looked like it would be a lot of fun, same for Appleseed.

 

I'll also throw in a vote for the Brave saga for a somewhat comedic campaign. Just add in a rule saying that all attacks require silly names and have to be shouted, and you're set ;-)

 

And Tsubasa would be a blast, but a lot of work for the GM, creating all the worlds to go to, and the cast to go with it.

 

Noir might be fun. Definitely a Dark Champions style game.

 

-Pyre-Archer

Well, Kirika's a lot cuter than the Harbinger.

[Doug Limmer]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

And Tsubasa would be a blast' date=' but a lot of work for the GM, creating all the worlds to go to, and the cast to go with it.[/quote']All a GM would have to do is pull out character sheets from previous campaigns, maybe give them a few cosmetic changes, and it's good to go!

[Susano]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

4. Beldandy

 

???

 

Do you mean Oh, My Goddess!?

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Thank you Mike, that is what I ment.

[BNakagawa]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Sakura Taisen would be an interesting format for a campaign, too.

 

A lot of interesting ingredients to mix and match to taste.

[Susano]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Sakura Taisen would be an interesting format for a campaign' date=' too.[/quote']

 

 

Sort of steampunk Silent Mobius/Patlabor.

[Spence]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Sakura Taisen would be an interesting format for a campaign, too.

 

A lot of interesting ingredients to mix and match to taste.

 

 

Sort of steampunk Silent Mobius/Patlabor.

 

Curse you all!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

sigh............

 

writes down yet ANOTHER title to find and watch

[Susano]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Curse you all!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

sigh............

 

writes down yet ANOTHER title to find and watch

 

Read. The anime seems to be scattered across several titles.

[Spence]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Read. The anime seems to be scattered across several titles.

 

 

:weep: WWWwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! :weep:

[novi]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Anime series as games? Here would be my top choices, in no particular order.

 

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: A great show, currently my favorite Cyberpunk media. By and large friendly for translation into a game, though the main characters are pretty experienced. And there are Tachikomas. How can you argue with that?

 

Slayers: Never been a fan of straight D&D, but I love the mockery this show does of it. Another show where the main characters are high-end, but it's probably for the best if lpayers can't cast Dragon Slaves willy-nilly.

 

Cowboy Bebop: Maybe it was just the Yoko Kanno music, but it's a neat Star HERO setting limited to the solar system. Other than keeping a stream of outlandish characters coming, one of the easier to develop into a game.

 

Full Metal Alchemist: The steampunk and magic combo is always fun, and Alchemy is a fun system of magic. Have fun trying to write-up a standardized way of doing it, though.

 

Full Metal Panic: I can see this one working out fairly well. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to replicate the situation of the show with High School hijinks and Mercenary action, but YMMV.

 

Avatar: The Last Aribender: Not technically anime as its being made for American TV, but I don't think anyone really cares. A rich setting, balanced magic systems, and evidence that one can succeed as a mundane, it sounds like a fun time. Though honestly, I'd probably just run it in Exalted. Why get away from what it really is?

 

And I agree, the style of anime is more important than the substance.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

More campaigns from the anime-inspiration wish list:

 

Gunsmith Cats -- Dark Champions -- This was a very fun anime miniseries based on a long-running manga about a highly unlikely pair of female gunsmiths / bounty hunters in (a Japanese impression of) Chicago as they do battle with a gang of weapon smugglers and a female Russian assassin from hell. The opening credits sequence's homage to The Streets of San Francisco was worth the price of admission for me, but the rest of this woefully short series was fun, too -- I would offer this one up to Hollywood for a live-action makeover.

 

Patlabor (several series) -- Robot Hero / Dark Champions -- A near future rendering of how mecha ("labors") are introduced into human society and what roles they might play. The series focuses on the trials and misadventures a police unit equipped with two "Patrol Labors" as they battle gangsters and outright nuts armed with labors of their own. The officer in charge of the unit (whose name escapes me) is a quirky, cool, sleepy-eyed leader who takes a laid-back approach to managing the group's problems, yet cares deeply for the team. (And yeah, he's my favorite character.) Mecha are on the scale of five-stories tall and are generally unarmed or have upscaled versions of firearms the labors can hold in their hands.

 

Heroic Tale of Arslan -- Fantasy Hero -- An epic tale spun from one of the Japanese writers' AD&D campaigns. This particular anime (IMHO) was made to be converted into a Fantasy Hero campaign -- the heroes are decidedly larger than life and the scale of the story is epic as a prince attempts to reclaim his realm after its defeat by a tyrannical empire. Excellent character renderings and portrayals make this series a rare find, especially since the series is now over twenty years old.

 

Gunbuster -- Robot Hero -- Here's some absolutely classic Giant Robot vs. Cosmic Invaders story told in six episodes. A young girl trains to become a mecha pilot after her father's starship disappears in a confrontation with alien invaders. Our heroine is decidedly unheroic during the first part of the series, unprepared mentally for war, but matures rapidly as the hard price of failure begin to hit home. One of the more interesting aspects of the series are the "educational bits" at the end of each episode, explaining the handwaivium of the science of the series. There is a bit of eye candy in this series as well, especially during the early episodes.

 

Matt "Just-another-drooling-fanboy" Frisbee

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Gunbuster -- Robot Hero -- Here's some absolutely classic Giant Robot vs. Cosmic Invaders story told in six episodes. A young girl trains to become a mecha pilot after her father's starship disappears in a confrontation with alien invaders. Our heroine is decidedly unheroic during the first part of the series, unprepared mentally for war, but matures rapidly as the hard price of failure begin to hit home. One of the more interesting aspects of the series are the "educational bits" at the end of each episode, explaining the handwaivium of the science of the series. There is a bit of eye candy in this series as well, especially during the early episodes.

 

 

Which was one of the many mecha tropes satirized deliciously in Martian Successor Nadeisco (although there is a rather different sort of bunny suit Yurika-chan would have looked very nice in.....).

 

Nadesico would still be a really interesting Hero campaign; you can never be sure what is part of the joke and what is deadly serious, and the characters range from "angst-ridden to the point of excess" to bad-**** crazy.

[Susano]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Which was one of the many mecha tropes satirized deliciously in Martian Successor Nadeisco (although there is a rather different sort of bunny suit Yurika-chan would have looked very nice in.....).

 

Nadesico would still be a really interesting Hero campaign; you can never be sure what is part of the joke and what is deadly serious, and the characters range from "angst-ridden to the point of excess" to bad-**** crazy.

 

While the art was nice, I found the manga to slowly become unreadable.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Another one that I have dredged up from the depths of my memory:

 

Maburato -- Fantasy Hero / Teen Champions -- Set on an alternate earth where both technology and magic exist side by side, people have the ability to work magic, though the amount of magic an individual person can wield varies due to parentage and genetics. Each person can only cast so many spells in their life -- exceed the limit and you turn dust! The show focuses on the misadventures of a 17-year-old male student at a Japanese high school academy of magic and three pretty female students who are after his highly desirable genes so they can sire the world's next great sorceror. The twist is that our hero is such a nice guy, they all fall in love with him (to varying degrees). While the first few episodes are a hoot, the latter stages get much darker as he tries to return to material form (with the help of everyone he has helped) from becoming a ghost. Still, it is a solid world full of family rivalries, teen romance and magical high school hijinx! (You can watch it on youtube.com, too.)

 

Matt "Yuuna-is-sooooo-kawaii" Frisbee

[Edsel]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Slayers: Never been a fan of straight D&D' date=' but I love the mockery this show does of it. Another show where the main characters are high-end, but it's probably for the best if lpayers can't cast Dragon Slaves willy-nilly.[/quote']

I am working on it. I have a rough write-up of all the sorcery spells and the shamanist air spells. I am working on shamanist astral spells right now. It is going to take a while to balance the high power magic though. I have to rig it so that some of the spells are awfully powerful and yet make the player not as fragile. Tons of spells to do and each time I finish a school I have to review my previous once to be sure they work with each other.

 

More campaigns from the anime-inspiration wish list:

 

Gunsmith Cats -- Dark Champions -- This was a very fun anime miniseries based on a long-running manga about a highly unlikely pair of female gunsmiths / bounty hunters in (a Japanese impression of) Chicago as they do battle with a gang of weapon smugglers and a female Russian assassin from hell. The opening credits sequence's homage to The Streets of San Francisco was worth the price of admission for me, but the rest of this woefully short series was fun, too -- I would offer this one up to Hollywood for a live-action makeover.

Of course Rally, Minnie-May, Becky and Misty are already running around in my Weekend Warriors campaign. So is Satella from Chrono Crusade.

[Susano]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

I am working on it. I have a rough write-up of all the sorcery spells and the shamanist air spells. I am working on shamanist astral spells right now. It is going to take a while to balance the high power magic though. I have to rig it so that some of the spells are awfully powerful and yet make the player not as fragile. Tons of spells to do and each time I finish a school I have to review my previous once to be sure they work with each other.

 

 

Of course Rally, Minnie-May, Becky and Misty are already running around in my Weekend Warriors campaign. So is Satella from Chrono Crusade.

 

Speaking of which, Gunsmith Cats for HERO: http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationsanime/animechar.html#GC

[steriaca]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

I've had a notion to run a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure campaign for some time now, but I've enough on my GMing plate as it is. Still, sometimes I find myself coming up with Stand user ideas...maybe someday...

 

Mike

 

Ah, like Jhon Melencap and his stand Couger. Or some oddball named George with his gender changing stand Boy. Oh, and don't forget the evil harman assasion Wu Tsung Chan (Wu Tang Clan...get it?).

 

I guess it is easy to get ideals for stands and there users...but hard to write them up.

[steriaca]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Im surprised nobody mentioned Sailor Moon (Teen Champions in a romantic blender).

 

Or Coyotie Ragtime Show (Sci-Fi).

[BNakagawa]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

Another one that I have dredged up from the depths of my memory:

 

Maburato -- Fantasy Hero / Teen Champions -- Set on an alternate earth where both technology and magic exist side by side, people have the ability to work magic, though the amount of magic an individual person can wield varies due to parentage and genetics. Each person can only cast so many spells in their life -- exceed the limit and you turn dust! The show focuses on the misadventures of a 17-year-old male student at a Japanese high school academy of magic and three pretty female students who are after his highly desirable genes so they can sire the world's next great sorceror. The twist is that our hero is such a nice guy, they all fall in love with him (to varying degrees). While the first few episodes are a hoot, the latter stages get much darker as he tries to return to material form (with the help of everyone he has helped) from becoming a ghost. Still, it is a solid world full of family rivalries, teen romance and magical high school hijinx! (You can watch it on youtube.com, too.)

 

Matt "Yuuna-is-sooooo-kawaii" Frisbee

 

I think you mean Maburaho.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

I think you mean Maburaho.

 

Um, yeah, you're probably right. ooops. I guess I was distracted by Yuuna's cuteness...

 

Matt "Yeah-she's-that-kawaii" Frisbee

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Anime series as a campaign

 

There is a similarly titled series with the subtitle Heartful Days that I always confuse that with. Oddly enough, the latter is the only one I've actually seen any of. I don't know how gameable it is though; it's essentially a sweet little love story about a young man and his apartment manager, complicated mainly by her severe case of Multiple Personality Disorder (she has three completely different personalities that will switch places with no warning) and by the other weird tenants (in one memorable scene, the little daughter of his next-door neighbor is shocked by the wastefulness when she sees someone drinking orange juice straight out of the bottle -- her mother always diluted theirs).