Anime

[Polaris]

Hiya all,

 

I just picked up HeartQuest and upon first look through, it looks like a pretty good book. It got me thinking about the anime genre, and was curious if anyone out there uses the Hero system to RP in anime? I know that Guardians of Order has an anime game (Big Eyes, Small Mouth), but have not tried it yet.

 

Polaris

[Sketchpad]

Check out Mike Surbrook's site ... he's the king of anime, especially when in regards to Hero

 

http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/

[MoonHunter]

In addition...

 

Except for one or two things, anime is mostly a style of play, just like it is a meta-genre, rather than a single genre.

 

So you need to make sure that you and your troupe are all on the same page about the genre and what they expect in it. Also, the GM has to be very clear about which genre elements are going to be present in the game.

 

Anime is a very visual genre, so your narration and action descriptions have to be intense, fluid, and very visual. As a GM, practice some random ones infront of the mirror, just so you can get the feel down.

 

Every Anime Story and Game Sessions must have the following for ingredients:

 

1) Action. More Action and exciting stunts than any game you normally play. This hyperactive caffinated boy/kid as target audience. If they would be satisfied, then you are right on.

2) Cool Tech/Magic: Makes it detailed and crunchy.

3) Soap Opera: There needs to be a great deal of interpersonal conflict and relationships. There needs to be drama and melodrama. Think 16 year old girl as the larget audience.

4) Real People: No flat characters. Everyone has depth. Every one has needs/ motivations/ fears/ doubts. No teflon heroes in anime. They are not heroes in the western sense, they are everyday people attempting to overcome these difficult events.

 

You need to make sure that you are including all the great genre conventions, including the visual ones. Not only does this include mecha, cute girl school costumes, cat girls, and so on, but tear drops, fish going through the ears, baka mallets, and so on. Accept the occasional odd things that is part of the genre.

 

The rules we added.

 

Kurumijitsu, the Japanese art of leaping/ tumbling is a genre convention. Everyone should have acrobatics as an everyman skill (and should take it as a skill) AND twice the base leaping distance.

 

MoveBy, when leaping, should get a +2 OCV/ DCV. This change increases the number of jumping attacks to match the genre.

 

Mutual MoveBy: It is a response action to someone doing a moveby to you. You can do an MB back. Both characters meet in the middle and the attacks are resolved in DEX order. This is for all those classic slashing attacks people make while jumping at each other.

[Jinx999]

Anime Laws

 

There is an important point that I think needs to be mentioned here. There is no one set of Anime laws of physics, in different series, different rules apply. It's not just power level. In some series, the characters can give and take blasts capable of leveling a mountain, in others a 9mm pistol is potentially deadly, even to the world's greatest assasin. In some series, people drop like flies, in others nobody dies, even if the level of scenery damage is the same.

One other point, the central characters are powerful for the setting. If it's a martial arts show, any character worth naming can plow though untrained thugs, even if they have to travel the world training for 24 episodes before they can take on the big bad. If it's a high school romance, they are among the best looking, star athletes, brains of the school.

At the same time, they have weaknesses that either have to be overcome or constantly chalenge them. Anime characters can be monumentally screwed up.

[lemming]

I think most of the important points have been made.

Just more information: Micheal Hopcroft lives in the portland area and his last post here was 10/21.

[Evil Steve]

OH OH OH!!!

 

I did. Years ago. It was a lot of fun. All of us are big anime fans, and easily entertained, so an RPG was natural.

 

Each player selected one character from an anime and we wrote them up as best we could for 250 pts with room for personal and campaign adjustments. What we got was:

Dark Schneider (Bastard;Destructive God of Darkness)

Guyver-6 (Guyver)

The Beastmaster Zoinoid (Guyver)

Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon)

 

As GM I wedged these lunatics into High School. The campaign was based on the series, adapted, interpreted and adjusted by myself as GM. It was intended to be light-hearted and a little silly at times.

 

It worked. Probably the best campaign I've ever run and in the top three for campaigns I've ever been involved in. (and not 'cause I was GM, but because it did exactly what it was supposed to)

[BNakagawa]

Rivalries - everyone needs a rivalry. Maybe two.

 

Presence attacks - remember that you can haymaker a PRE attack. I've seen this done countless times in various anime series. (I've also seen people leave before it went off)

 

Addition by subtraction. Many an anime character is defined not only by what they're really good at, but also by what they're REALLY bad at. Ryouga Hibiki's incredibly bad navigation skills, Lum's horrible singing voice (especially funny given that her seiyuu was a singer) Akane Tendou's cooking - the list goes on and on.

 

Plot induced Vulnerabilities - If you say something rude enough for you to get smacked, expect it to hurt, even if you are a brick and she isn't. Alternately, use megascale knockback.

[tkdguy]

I'm starting a BESM campaign, hopefully soon. Here's my list of essentials:

1. Pictures, lots of them. Anime needs visualization.

2. Anime cliches: Boys get nosebleeds when sexually aroused; People develop a single gigantic bead of sweat when uncomfortable; People's heads get ten times bigger when they're yelling at someone, etc.

3. Action, of course. Since my campaign will be heavy on combat, I've given the characters some combat skills free. Of course, they have to yell out their special attacks. An old issue of Dragon magazine had a random name generator for martial arts maneuvers. That would work well here.

[tkdguy]

BTW, the issue of Dragon is #289 (Nov. 2001). The article is "Playful Phoenix Fist vs. Four Scholars Boxing." The article also has information about ninjas and wuxia movies that you can incorporate into your anime campaign.

[Susano]

If you can get it, one of the past Digital Hero issues had a really long (as in 17,000 words) article by yours truly on anime and the HERO System. It also features two sample characters, a mecha pilot and a magical girl.

 

I intend to pitch an e-book expansion to Steve in 2004, making it around 100,000 words, and modeling it after the layout of Fantasy Hero.

 

I hope to put stuff on anime magic, espers, mecha, and so on in there, along with about a dozen archetypical characters: catgirl, magical girl, mecha pilot, martial artist, magician, supernatural being, and so on.

 

Naturally, I'd be asking for input from this board on things to include.

 

Oh, and if it hasn't been mentioned, my website has a lot of anime-related material on it, written both by me and submitted by readers (hint! hint! )

[Sketchpad]

Originally posted by Susano

I intend to pitch an e-book expansion to Steve in 2004, making it around 100,000 words, and modeling it after the layout of Fantasy Hero.

 

I hope to put stuff on anime magic, espers, mecha, and so on in there, along with about a dozen archetypical characters: catgirl, magical girl, mecha pilot, martial artist, magician, supernatural being, and so on.

 

Naturally, I'd be asking for input from this board on things to include.

 

Oh, and if it hasn't been mentioned, my website has a lot of anime-related material on it, written both by me and submitted by readers (hint! hint! )

 

I'd be all over that! And for the record, I pimped the site already

[Tamashii2000]

Originally posted by Susano

I intend to pitch an e-book expansion to Steve in 2004, making it around 100,000 words, and modeling it after the layout of Fantasy Hero.

 

I hope to put stuff on anime magic, espers, mecha, and so on in there, along with about a dozen archetypical characters: catgirl, magical girl, mecha pilot, martial artist, magician, supernatural being, and so on.

 

Naturally, I'd be asking for input from this board on things to include.

 

 

 

Gee if we start sending in orders for the book now will that help with your sales pitch for it?

 

 

If so..I want one!

[Susano]

Well, you can bug Steve Long about it. Since he decides what to contract out for based on what people want, that's the best advice I can offer you.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Did i hear HeartQuest?

 

Did i hear someone say they picked up a copy of HeartQuest? I should be blushing and would be were I Chiharu or Yuuko.

 

I don't talk about my own work much on this board because, well, it's the HERO board. I stayed away fro a while over the last couple mponths because I was really busy, but now I'm positng again and I was surprised to see my game mentioned in this thread. What did you think of it?

 

I wish Mike good luck on his pitch to Hero Games. From what i've learned talking to Steve Long, he has his own ideas on the subject of anime, none of which are printable.

 

Since I am asking about opinions of my work, by the way, I might as well mention that Seraphim Guard's mecha game is coming out in early 2004. I'm expecting the manuscript in tonight, in fact. And HeartQuest is already going into its second edition, which is called HeartQuest Revised Edition for the record. later on we're doing an anime fantasy game called Spell-Slingers & Sword-Saints and a cyberpounk game called Cyberaktive is due in the second half of the year. Thank the heavens for Print-On-Demand and PDF or we could never be nearly so active.

 

for the record, I'm trying to figure out a way to bring Lina inverse in under 500 points and make her at least theoretically possible as a HERO player-character.

[Susano]

Re: Did i hear HeartQuest?

 

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

I wish Mike good luck on his pitch to Hero Games. From what i've learned talking to Steve Long, he has his own ideas on the subject of anime, none of which are printable.

 

Well, all I can do is ask.

[Mark Rand]

I don't recall seeing much anime here in Pittsburgh. My favorites are Robotech, Voltron (lion force only), and, assuming they're anime, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers and Voltron, the Third Dimension.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Originally posted by Mark Rand

I don't recall seeing much anime here in Pittsburgh. My favorites are Robotech, Voltron (lion force only), and, assuming they're anime, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers and Voltron, the Third Dimension.

 

Galaxy Rangers was an Ameritoon, and a darn good one. I don;t know anything about the other show you mentioned.

 

Given your tastes a smentione, you enjoy any one of the Mobile Suit Gundam series. Gundam Wing blew me away for a cartoion that could get shown on American television with its shades-of-grey morality. In fact, I doubt you could show Gundam Wing on American television after September 11th.

 

P.S. Stay away from SD Gundam Force, though. i watched part of an episode of that tongith while caught oin a snowstorm. My brain still hurts...

[Michael Hopcroft]

Just to gte back ont opic, we are open to anime games in all systems (including HERO) at the Seraphim Fan Network and would like to invite all of you to participate in this free servce.