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View Full Version : Which RPG, asides from BESM, do you think best handles Anime?



Ragitsu
2011-01-17, 06:32 AM
I know "anime" can be a pretty broad term, but I am asking about it in the most general sense.

potatocubed
2011-01-17, 06:49 AM
Leaving BESM aside...

Rifts? It's certainly got the 'kitchen sink' thing going on, and a hefty selection of giant robots, spellcasters, and aliens. Good for shounen series.

Maid? For a given genre of anime...

I hear good things about Prime Time Adventures, too, but I haven't played it. This is probably suitable for a more shojo (sp?) series which focuses on character interaction rather than blowing things up.

Ragitsu
2011-01-17, 06:55 AM
What is Maid?

Attilargh
2011-01-17, 07:02 AM
A rules-light roleplaying game where you play a maid in a dude's household and havy wacky adventures.

To answer your question, any system you care to name. "Anime RPG" is about the vaguest descriptor you can come up with, so I'll just recommend the generic systems GURPS, Mutants & Masterminds and HERO. If you can't emulate your favourite brand of Japanese animation with those, something is wrong with the world.

Aik
2011-01-17, 08:07 AM
Your question doesn't make a lot of sense. 'Anime' isn't a genre and it doesn't bring to mind anything coherent to emulate on its own - it's just animation from Japan. You could emulate certain genres that anime has and have anime tropes in it, but there's a fairly wide variety there and there's no common thread except that they're animated TV shows ... so yeah, maybe Primetime Adventures would work as a generic 'anime' system but only because it emulates TV shows.

Maid emulates wacky hijinks harem anime. Bliss Stage does emotionally flaying mecha. Panty Explosion emulates violent magical girls (I think - haven't looked that closely).
I've had success using Archipelago II to emulate slice of life (aimed at being Aria-in-space).

Tengu_temp
2011-01-17, 08:13 AM
Mutants and Masterminds. Especially if you get the Mecha and Manga expansion, which is exactly what it says on the tin. I actually never played a normal superhero M&M game, all of them were/are anime-like.

Beelzebub1111
2011-01-17, 08:13 AM
depends on the anime

Evangelion = Cthulhutech
Berserk meets Dragonball = Exalted
Pokemon = Pokemon RPG
Slayers = Dungeons and Dragons
Naruto = Dungeons and dragons using only Tome of Battle classes (mostly arcane swordsages, with a few unarmed mixed in)

Reynard
2011-01-17, 08:21 AM
depends on the anime

Evangelion = Cthulhutech
Berserk meets Dragonball meets Gurren Lagann = Exalted
Pokemon = Pokemon RPG
Slayers = Dungeons and Dragons
Naruto = Dungeons and dragons using only Tome of Battle classes and Totemists.

fixed. :smalltongue:

true_shinken
2011-01-17, 08:22 AM
Anime is not a genre, so not one system can do it all.

FelixG
2011-01-17, 08:32 AM
Mekton zeta is a great anime based game. Very simple to learn and use and has great rules for mecha and other vehicles!

raitalin
2011-01-17, 08:41 AM
Gonna second Mutants and Masterminds 2e here. The Mecha and Manga supplement has the information to make monster trainers, card captors, earth-shattering martial artists, giant robots, giant robotic suits, teenage ninjas, scantily-clad streetfighters, schoolgirl defenders of the planet, schoolgirl assassins, catgirls and giant robots that turn into regular sized cars.

Gnaeus
2011-01-17, 08:45 AM
Torg. All genres, very cartoony feel.

Ecalsneerg
2011-01-17, 08:53 AM
Actually, it recommend not using Mecha and Manga. It's essentially the core rules, repackaged in a mathematically weird form (especially the battlesuit rules, which are entirely pointless compared to normal Devices), and a handful of unbalanced feats.

MnM 2e, still good though.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-17, 08:57 AM
Risus.

I'm gonna say Risus.

true_shinken
2011-01-17, 09:07 AM
Actually, it recommend not using Mecha and Manga. It's essentially the core rules, repackaged in a mathematically weird form (especially the battlesuit rules, which are entirely pointless compared to normal Devices), and a handful of unbalanced feats.

MnM 2e, still good though.

Mecha and Manga has good ideas, though. And lots of information on the anime/manga media. It's still a good book even if you cherry pick from it.
All M&M sourcebooks are meant to be cherry picked anyway.

Exarch
2011-01-17, 10:05 AM
Never got a chance to play it, unfortunately, but it looked like Anima could handle some pretty anime-esq campaigns. I statted up Gatsu, for instance.

Tengu_temp
2011-01-17, 10:30 AM
Actually, it recommend not using Mecha and Manga. It's essentially the core rules, repackaged in a mathematically weird form (especially the battlesuit rules, which are entirely pointless compared to normal Devices), and a handful of unbalanced feats.

Oh yes, Mecha and Manga has some really overpowered feats. I primarily use this supplement for mecha rules, which on the other hand are well-written, if somewhat more complex than normal M&M.


Risus.

I'm gonna say Risus.

Risus is too rules-light to handle well anything that's not silly comedy, if you ask me.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-17, 11:17 AM
Risus can totally do serious, if you insist. But since when were people who look for "anime" games after completely serious? Completely serious anime don't use traditional anime conventions, as a general rule.

(Because traditional anime conventions are kinda silly.)

true_shinken
2011-01-17, 11:21 AM
Because traditional anime conventions are kinda silly.

There is no such thing as 'traditional anime conventions'. There is 'widespread shoune/shouje anime troupes' and that's all.
But yes, I believe the OP is looking for what you suggest.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-17, 11:35 AM
If something's widespread for long enough, it becomes traditional. :smallwink: Nowadays a lot of stuff is done just because it's always been done. (And it's useful shorthand for certain emotions and such.)

Tengu_temp
2011-01-17, 11:40 AM
Risus can totally do serious, if you insist. But since when were people who look for "anime" games after completely serious? Completely serious anime don't use traditional anime conventions, as a general rule.

There are other points on the scale than "completely silly" and "completely serious". Most of my games are somewhere in between and are sometimes light-hearted and funny and sometimes dramatic and tense. The most serious one, where light moments are rare, is still anime-inspired though.

And no, I can't really see how Risus works for a serious game. Its main system is extremely simple and assumes that the players will try to do silly stuff with the cliches they have, or else things will quickly become mechanically boring. In fact, truth to be told I don't see any appeal in this system other than its simplicity and speed of character creation - it's good for a very rules-light game, but I prefer something more mechanically interesting.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-17, 11:42 AM
Why does "rules light" have to mean "silly"?

Have you ever heard of "The Window"? Incredibly rules light and incredibly, pretentiously serious.

I don't see why you need complex mechanics to have a serious story, but eh, diff'rent strokes and etc.

Tengu_temp
2011-01-17, 11:52 AM
I'd say that a serious game does not need a rules-heavy system per se, but it does need a system where you have various options and strategies during conflict resolution - a system where you know that if you messed up, it's at least partially your fault. Risus, when you take out all the silly elements that don't fit a serious campaign, is pretty much just rolling dice until you win or lose. No strategy, just luck.

Artanis
2011-01-17, 11:53 AM
Heavy Gear would probably work quite well for a mecha-based anime.

Mr.Bookworm
2011-01-17, 11:53 AM
Why does "rules light" have to mean "silly"?

Have you ever heard of "The Window"? Incredibly rules light and incredibly, pretentiously serious.

I don't see why you need complex mechanics to have a serious story, but eh, diff'rent strokes and etc.

Well, you could take, say, Dark Heresy and use it to reenact Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You could use Exalted to run a game about a bunch of Sidereal teenagers and their pet Celestial Lion investigating ghost stories in the Lap, only it turns out it was mean old Mr. Faffles all along using wires, a mask, and some stage lighting. You could run Paranoia as a grimdark game where you are a helpless insect in the face of a all-ruling insane computer, and there is no way out.

You could do any of those things, and they might make awesome games, but usually, they won't be used for such things. Risus could be used to run a very serious game, and it could be a very interesting one, but most Risus games seem to run far more towards the humorous end of the scale.

Prime32
2011-01-17, 12:07 PM
Mecha and Manga has good ideas, though. And lots of information on the anime/manga media. It's still a good book even if you cherry pick from it.
All M&M sourcebooks are meant to be cherry picked anyway.
Mecha & Manga has rules for "comedic damage" which let you KO world-shattering supermen with a harisen to the head if they say something stupid.

That alone makes it worth the purchase. :smalltongue:

woodenbandman
2011-01-17, 02:53 PM
Wushu.

The whole premise is "the more animu you are, the better you are." google it.

Ragitsu
2011-01-17, 04:10 PM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimeTropes

Skorj
2011-01-17, 04:13 PM
I'd sat that a serious game does not need a rules-heavy system per se, but it does need a system where you have various options and strategies during conflict resolution - a system where you know that if you messed up, it's at least partially your fault. Risus, when you take out all the silly elements that don't fit a serious campaign, is pretty much just rolling dice until you win or lose. No strategy, just luck.

Ahh, this depends entirely on what else you bring to the table. My group did a combat-heavy game with tactics-heavy combat that lasted for more than a year with a system about as complex as Risus (Risus would have been better than our somewhat-improvised system). It was "silly" only in the meta-game, the game itself was pretty grim, and rapid character creation was essential because the death rate was so high.

So let's say you're being charged by an elephant-sized creature 300 yards away, moving pretty fast, and you have a heavy rifle, rested, and the critter is in your covered arc - what's your chance to hit? And your buddy, who's snap-firing a pistol at the same target? On the one hand, Risus doesn't give you the detailed rules for this stuff; on the other hand, we didn't need them! We'd been playing detailed combat simulations for so long that GM and players could agree on the appropriate mods with no more arguing than we always have over everything.

You don't need any more mechanics than Risus provides, but you do need to already understand how to simulate your combat or personal interactions to the desired degree of fidelity before you go in (the way old-school games would work - it's up to the DM to assign the modifiers). What Risus doesn't have is a high degree of presicion. What we discovered is that worrying about 5% here or there doesn't actually make the game any more fun - at least for us.

UserClone
2011-01-17, 04:59 PM
I'm astounded that Wushu took 26 responses to come up. It's essentially perfect for anime in all its variations, from serious and realistic to complete wacked-out, shounen lunacy.

Also, i'd like to point out The Princes' Kingdom, a distillation of rules from Dogs in the Vineyard (the latter of which I haven't actually even read, much less played) which really captures that "modern kids trapped in fantasy Japan/digital magic world" feel (i.e. InuYasha, Digimon, etc.).