[PEACH] Anime Fightan' Magick (new rules light system)

[Elricaltovilla]

ANIME FIGHTAN MAGICK!!
Or
How to be a Shounen Hero


The Goal
The goal of this project is to create a simple, rules light system that enables players to live out the high intensity action and awesomeness of Shonen Fighting Manga. So the primary design goals are:

Simplicity
Awesomeness
Speed of play




CHARACTER CREATION

Name: Your Character's Name
Appearance: What your character looks like
Personality: How does your character present themselves to others? What are their habits, their drives, their goals?
Backstory: How/where did your character grow up? What was their childhood like?
Power Stat: Where does your character draw their inner strength from?
Techniques: Each Character starts with 6 Maneuver Points worth of techniques. Each Maneuver Point is equal to a Power Cost 1 technique. You can combine these maneuver points to make as many or as few starting techniques as you like (I.e. one 6 Power Cost Techniques, two 3 Power Cost Techniques, three 2 Power Cost Techniques, one 4 Power Cost Technique and one 2 Power Cost Technique, etc.)

You start with 10 points to divide between 3 Key Stats: Brawn, Savvy and Charm. These stats start at 1 each and can be raised to a maximum of 10.

Brawn- Your character's physical ability/skill. This covers everything from raw strength to agility to stamina. Just because a character has a high Brawn rating doesn't mean they're super strong, they might be extremely dextrous and agile, or a mountain of immovable flesh. It's up to you.

Savvy- Shonen heroes aren't always known for being smart, but they are often capable of flashes of insight and observation that others simply don't realize. Savvy is a measure of your character's intelligence, wits, cunning and creativity.

Charm- Every Shonen hero is a master of making friends and influencing others. There are degrees of difference though, and this stat measures how "pure" or "righteous" or whatever your character uses to beat the power of friendship into others.

There are two other important stats. Power and Nakama, although it might be better to call them resources. Both of these Stats start at 10, and can be raised as high as you like, even... OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!

Power/mana/chi/riatsu/whatever- This is the key stat to power all of your Anime Fightan Magicks. It'll be referred to as Power in this document, but feel free to call it whatever you want.

Nakama- Shonen Manga are about friendship, and no matter how powerful your character is, they can never truly succeed without their friends by their side. Your Nakama rating is a measure of both teamwork and the strength of your character's bond with their friends.


FIGHT!!

Combat in AFM is a battle between the souls of its combatants. Special techniques, ancient martial arts moves, advanced technology, and magical spells are all just pretty sparkles dressing up the sheer awesome that is two shonen heroes clashing on the field of battle.

When two characters clash, they show off their techniques and duke it out until one or the other is declared the victor.

At the start of combat, each player rolls 1d10, the player who rolls highest goes first. Characters then take turns using their techniques and trying to defeat their opponent.

Each Combat lasts a number of rounds as determined by the GM (I recommend 5 for a basic fight), during each round the character who succeeds in overpowering their opponent gains a Victory Point. The first player to gain Victory Points greater than 1/2 the number of rounds is the winner of the combat. If the rounds run out before someone wins the necessary Victory Points, the fight ends in a draw.

Techniques

Each character starts with a number of techniques that their character can use, determined at character creation. What these Techniques are and how they work is entirely up to you, the player! However, they must all fall into some basic categories:

Offense:

Offense Powers are abilities used to attack and hurt an opponent. They use a dice pool equal to the Key Stat of the technique, multiplied by its Power Cost. All Offense powers have a corresponding Defense Key Stat, that an opponent rolls to resist the power. Defenders can choose how much Power to spend on their roll, and multiply the Defense pool by the Power they spent.

If your Offense Technique rolls more successes than your opponent's defense roll, you gain one Victory Point.

FORMAT:

Name:
Key Stat:
Defense Stat:
Description:
Power Cost:


Defense:

Defense Powers are used to protect a character against an enemy's technique. They use a dice pool equal to the Key Stat of the technique, multiplied by its Power Cost. When a Defense Power is used, you add the successes of the Defense Power to the successes you roll against your opponent's next Offense, Counter, or Debuff.

If your defense roll against an opponent's Offense, Counter or Debuff roll gets more successes, you gain a Victory Point.

FORMAT:

Name:
Key Stat:
Description:
Power Cost:

Surge:


A Surge is a type of Technique that boosts the power of the person using it.They use a dice pool equal to the Key Stat of the technique, multiplied by its Power Cost. The successes rolled are added to your next use of the Boosted Ability. A surge can be sustained every round by spending 1 Power on it after its activation cost. This does not use up your action.

FORMAT:

Name:
Key Stat:
Boosted Ability: (Choose from Brawn, Savvy, Charm, Offense Techniques, Defense Techniques, Counter Techniques, OR Debuff Techniques)
Description:
Power Cost: (1 Power to sustain)

Counter:

A Counter Nullifies an enemy's technique. They use a dice pool equal to the Key Stat of the technique, multiplied by its Power Cost. Your successes are subtracted from your opponent's dice pool for their next Technique.

If your opponent fails to roll any successes after your Counter, you gain a Victory Point.

FORMAT:

Name:
Key Stat:
Defense Stat:
Description:
Power Cost:

Debuff:
Debuffs Temporarily reduce an enemy's Key Stats or Power. They use a dice pool equal to the Key Stat of the technique, multiplied by its Power Cost. The successes rolled are subtracted from your opponent's targeted Key Stat for 1 round.

FORMAT:

Name:
Key Stat:
Defense Stat:
Targeted Stat: (Choose from Brawn, Savvy, Charm or Power)
Description:
Power Cost:

Teamwork:
Teamwork Techniques are special techniques that rely on two characters working together, they can be any of the above types. They use a dice pool Equal to the total of each Character's Key stat, multiplied by the Power Cost of the technique. In addition, each character participating in the technique can donate a Nakama point to increase the Power Cost multiplier. So: (Key Stat + Key Stat) x (Power Cost + Nakama Points)

In order for characters to use Teamwork Techniques, they must both have the technique.


Recharge:
Recharge is a special action that all characters have. When you use this, you restore 1/2 of your Power Pool.


USING TECHNIQUES

Techniques rely on a Key Stat and the expenditure of Power. Whenever you use a Technique, you roll a number of D10's equal to the Key Stat's rating X the amount of Power spent. Each D10 that rolls 7 or Higher is a success.

Some techniques have a defense stat, which is what your opponent uses to roll against your technique, the only difference is that they can choose how much Power to spend on a defense roll. The successes they roll are subtracted from your successes. If you end up with zero successes because of this, your technique fails to affect them.

Nakama
The Nakama stat can be used to urge on a combatant and give them a fighting chance in an otherwise losing battle. By spending 1 point of Nakama, your character can make a rousing speech that can accomplish a number of things:

Fully refresh an ally's Power Stat
Reduce an Enemy's Victory Points by 1
Add +2 to the Power Cost Multiplier of a character's next Technique


All three effects are applied when a Character spends a Nakama Point.

Each character can only spend 1 Nakama point this way per battle, and they refresh at a rate of 1 per day.

After the Battle:

After a battle ends, the Victor regains 5 Power, and can make a demand of the loser. Typically this demand involves surrender or retreat, only bad guys would ever kill someone.

The loser of the battle does not regain any spent Power, and must abide by the winner's demand. The loser may also ask to join the winner, if they do so, and the winner accepts, the demand is null and the loser regains 5 Power.

If the battle ends in a draw (neither character achieves the necessary victory points) then the characters can either choose to restart the fight, or end the conflict there. If the conflict is ended, both characters regain 5 power, just as if they had won the fight, but they cannot engage in combat with each other for 24 hours.


Multi PC Combat

Generally speaking, combat in shonen style action is one on one. And when sides are uneven, it is generally the enemies who outnumber the heroes. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and so these rules are meant to cover those exceptions.


Conservation of Ninjitsu (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu)

The larger the size disparity between groups, the less effective each individual member of the larger group becomes and the more effective each member of the smaller group becomes.


Different Sized Group Combat Situations

Masses of Mooks

When dealing with large groups of low level, low power mooks, it's recommended that you treat them as one single unit which is roughly equivalent in power to a standard shonen action hero (PC). This is the first and easiest way to deal with group size disparity and is recommended when you have only 1 PC fighting at a time.

PC Party vs. Band of Baddies

When you have two groups of roughly equal size facing each other, the best way to handle things is to have characters pair off into 1 on 1 fights. This still allows characters to use Nakama Points and Teamwork Techniques, or even switch opponents in the middle of the battle.

A PC who uses a Nakama Point to aid an ally while they (the PC spending the Nakama Point) are engaged in combat gives up their turn for that round to do so. This means that they open themselves up to possible attack in order to help their friend succeed.

When two PCs engaged in separate battles use a Teamwork Technique they select one opponent to target that turn. The attack is made as normal for a Teamwork Technique against the targeted opponent. The battle against the opponent that was not targeted by the Teamwork Technique is suspended for one round, and the opponent is allowed to recover 5 Power Points by taking advantage of the short respite.

If PCs decide to switch opponents in the middle of combat, each character keeps their current number of Victory Points, but must meet the new Victory Point Goal for combat (the Victory Point Goal is carried by the NPC or Enemy). In the case of Player Vs Player combat, a new Victory Point Goal is determined by averaging both player's VP and adding 2 (rounding down if necessary).

Herd of Heroes Vs. Enemy Elite

In the rare cases where multiple PCs are fighting against one enemy, battles can get a little complicated. Battles like this have several significant changes:


The PCs all share a single Victory Point Pool, no tagging out to reset your Victory Points.
The Enemy may choose to attack any one of the PCs engaged in the combat, doing so forcibly tags that character in for the next round.
PCs share the same initiative score.
PCs can tag each other out at any time during their turn.
When Tagging In, the PC may only use a Counter, Defense or Surge Technique on the round in which they tag in.
PCs who are forcibly Tagged In are free to use any technique they choose on their first round of combat.
Characters who Tag Out do not regain any Power Points, but may still spend their Epiphanies if their side is losing.
Teamwork Techniques can be freely used provided that at least one character with the technique is currently engaged in combat with the enemy


Other than the above changes, treat fights like this as if they were still 1 on 1 combats, but keep a careful eye on the combat so that things don't get out of hand. Ultimately, it's up to the GM or the Players whether or not they want to fight 1 on 1 or try to gang up on an enemy.


GETTING STRONGER

All Shonen Heroes increase in overall strength at incredible rates. They are legendary for their ability to pull off insane turnarounds and go through hellish training to become strong enough to defeat their opponents. WFM emulates this with two levelling opportunities:


Epiphany
Each character starts with 3 Epiphanies. These Epiphanies represent a Shonen Hero's ability to suddenly come up with new techniques or strengths in the middle of a fight. As such, Epiphanies can only be used in combat, and only if your character is currently losing the fight. When a character uses their Epiphany several things happen:

Their Power stat refreshes to full
The Victory Points of both sides of the Combat are reset to 0
They develop a new Technique (must be approved by GM)
They add 1 point to any of their 3 Key Stats


Gaining more Epiphanies

Characters regain 1 epiphany whenever they undergo a Training Montage. They can also be awarded with Epiphanies whenever they engage in risky actions and survive. Lastly, completing a major story event/arc restores all 3 of a character's epiphanies.



Training Montages

Training Montages are the other way characters can improve their skills. These are plot related events, such as finding an ancient master, completing an important quest or a group decision to get stronger after being defeated by the Big Bad.

When the characters engage in a training montage, they roll a number of D10s equal to the total of their Key Stats (Brawn+Savvy+Charm). They then recieve a number of Training Points equal to the amount of successes they rolled. These points can be spent to improve Key Stats, Power, Nakama or to develop new Techniques


Reward|TP Cost
Key Stat| 3 TP
Power| 1 TP
Nakama| 1 TP
Technique| 2 TP

Each time your character engages in a Training Montage, the roll needed to count for a success increases by one. That means the first Training Montage requires 7 and up for successes, the second 8 and up, the third 9 and up and any Training Montage beyond that requires 10s to count as successes.



NON COMBAT STUFF

Non Combat Stuff is boring and nobody cares about that. Seriously. This sort of stuff is best handled by roleplay. After all, this is rules light, so don't rely on the rules. If you really want, you can use Brawn rolls to solve physical problems, Savvy rolls to solve puzzles and mental challenges and Charm to help with social stuff.

--------------------------------

I think that just about covers it. Please Review and destroy my self esteem tearing this apart!:smallbiggrin:

Changelog:

8/20/13-
-Using an Epiphany now resets both side's VP to 0 instead of adding rounds to the fight.
-Clarified that spending Nakama Points add all benefits, not just one.
-Added Rules for non 1 on 1 fights.
-Rearranged some sections.

7/29/13-
-Added Recharge Technique

7/3/13-
- Clarified how Defense rolls work in technique section.

7/2/13-
-Training Montages now use the Total of Key Stats instead of 1/2 the total to determine their dice pool.
-Starting Points for Techniques are now called Maneuver Points (until I think of a better name) and hopefully clarified how they were spent.
-Added Victory Point conditions to Offense Techniques, Defense Techniques and Counter Techniques.
-Added Draw condition for combat.

6/27/13-
-Changed how Starting Techniques works.

6/27/13-
-Reworked Techniques, added new technique types. Buffed Nakama Point spending. Added effects to victory and loss.

[Grinner]

It's thorough. You've got the character creation, combat, and advancement mechanics, with a note on non-combat actions.


Haven't checked the math for game-breakers. I hope you've done smoke-testing?
I'm not entirely sure what the point of Nakama is, since it can be used so little.
Some example techniques are in order. In fact, creating a full catalog of them wouldn't be a bad idea.
This was obviously designed for a duel between two combatants, but what about three or more? How does the system handle multiple attackers? Could Nakama see some use here? (I need to read more thoroughly.)


Edit: I realize I may sound a little discouraging, but please don't take it that way. It's very well-written. :smallsmile:

Edit 2: Also, what about non-heroic opponents? How would you handle a horde of mooks?

[Elricaltovilla]

It's thorough. You've got the character creation, combat, and advancement mechanics, with a note on non-combat actions.


Haven't checked the math for game-breakers. I hope you've done smoke-testing?
I'm not entirely sure what the point of Nakama is, since it can be used so little.
Some example techniques are in order. In fact, creating a full catalog of them wouldn't be a bad idea.
This was obviously designed for a duel between two combatants, but what about three or more? How does the system handle multiple attackers? Could Nakama see some use here?


Edit: I realize I may sound a little discouraging, but please don't take it that way. It's very well-written. :smallsmile:

No, no, I appreciate the questions. They're what I need to polish things up.


Haven't checked the math for game-breakers. I hope you've done smoke-testing?

I'm not sure what you mean by smoke-testing. But I'm not a very good statistician. I did a rough measure and things seemed balanced, the raw mechanics are really straightforward.


I'm not entirely sure what the point of Nakama is, since it can be used so little.

I think I left it a little underpowered because I expected multiple people to be using Nakama in a battle. But it could probably use a power boost. I just didn't want people making rousing speeches every round or something. It seemed kind of annoying.


Some example techniques are in order. In fact, creating a full catalog of them wouldn't be a bad idea.

Example techniques will be forthcoming. A full catalog kind of defeats the purpose of the system, which is supposed to allow for players to really easily
create their ideal Shonen Hero.


This was obviously designed for a duel between two combatants, but what about three or more? How does the system handle multiple attackers? Could Nakama see some use here?

In most Shonen series, even a battle between dozens of people almost always ends up being a series of one on one duels. I didn't account for multiple people fighting at once because that's not usually portrayed in the series I'm trying to emulate. However, if I was to write up something like that, it would be Hero Vs. Mooks, and I'd probably treat the Mooks as all one person for the purposes of fighting. They'd have special Mook powers and stuff, but the Law of Conservation of Ninjutsu (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu) says they're just really not worth statting out.

[Grinner]

Example techniques will be forthcoming. A full catalog kind of defeats the purpose of the system, which is supposed to allow for players to really easily
create their ideal Shonen Hero.

One problem is that there's a lot of powers that don't neatly fit into the paradigm. On one hand, I'm imagining something like Ichigo's Hollow mask-thingy, which is fairly straightforward. Then, there's the Fusion Dance from Dragonball Z (GT?), which doesn't fit neatly into the ruleset. Going out a bit further, there's the Devil Fruit users from One Piece, whose powers are usually innate and require little in the way of special effort.

I'm all for a rules-light BESM or M&M, but it would be nice if the more exotic powers got some representation as well. To me, an optional catalog with special rules seems to be the best way to do that.

[Elricaltovilla]

SO! A sample Character, with some Sample Techniques:

Name: Yuan Yi
Appearance: Yuan Yi is a small girl dressed in ragged blue trousers and an oversized orange duster. She wears a white blouse underneath her coat. Her hair is light blue and spiky, her left eye is green, and her right eye is red.
Personality: Yuan Yi is a rambunctious youth with a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. She talks a mile a minute and doesn't seem to understand that there are subjects that people consider off limits. She often gives adults insulting nicknames.
Backstory: Yuan Yi grew up on the streets of Neo Tokyo 3, living off of scraps and leftovers she stole from the garbage of the fabulously wealthy. Her exposure to the dank sewers and nasty chemicals led to her developing psychic powers, which she now uses to steal, confuse and overpower people.
Power Stat: Yuan Yi's Power Stat is called PSY, it's a measure of psychic potential, which she believes she gained from exposure to the toxic wasteland of lower Neo Tokyo 3.

Brawn- 3

Savvy- 10

Charm- 2

Power(PSY)- 10/10

Nakama- 10/10

Techniques: 6

Neon Strobe Flash

Key Stat:Savvy
Description: Yuan Yi uses her Psychic abilities to overload the target's optic nerves, blinding and disorienting them.
Defense: Savvy
Cost: 1 PSY

Psy Surge

Key Stat:Savvy
Description: Focusing her breath and drowning out all unnecessary information, Yuan Yi draws more of her psychic energy for use.
Effect: Surge
Cost: 1 PSY

1000 Needles of the Dream

Key Stat:Savvy
Description: Yuan Yi summons hundreds of needles made of psychic energy, these needles surge towards the opponent, and can overload their nervous system if they hit.
Defense: Brawn
Cost: 2 PSY

Whispers In The Dark

Key Stat:Savvy
Description: Yuan Yi cloaks herself from other's perception. She vanishes from sight, hearing, and all other senses.
Effect: Defense
Cost: 1 PSY

Mind Melt

Key Stat:Savvy
Description: Yuan Yi forces all of her willpower into a single target attack that can overwhelm almost any foe. The killing intent behind this attack is so great that targets simply drop dead. For some reason, those with stronger ties to others are better able to resist though.
Defense: Charm
Cost: 10 PSY

Many Minds, One Body

Key Stat:Savvy
Description: Yuan Yi reaches out with her psychic powers to draw on the latent psychic energy of those nearby.
Effect: Surge
Cost: 1 PSY

[Elricaltovilla]

One problem is that there's a lot of powers that don't neatly fit into the paradigm. On one hand, I'm imagining something like Ichigo's Hollow mask-thingy, which is fairly straightforward. Then, there's the Fusion Dance from Dragonball Z (GT?), which doesn't fit neatly into the ruleset. Going out a bit further, there's the Devil Fruit users from One Piece, whose powers are usually innate and require little in the way of special effort.

I'm all for a rules-light BESM or M&M, but it would be nice if the more exotic powers got some representation as well. To me, an optional catalog with special rules seems to be the best way to do that.

If you're talking about subsystems, there might be a place for them. But other than one or two examples of each type of Technique, I don't want to start developing beyond that.

To my mind the Fusion Dance would probably count as a Surge. The Devil Fruit would be a power stat and the techniques that Luffy uses would be more specific like his Gear Second (Surge), Rubber Rubber Pistol (Attack), and Rubber Rubber Balloon (Defense).

EDIT: I realize it's not a perfect transferrence, but there has to be some allowance for the system to work. If I tried to allow for every possibility and permutation I wouldn't have a rules light system anymore.

[EdroGrimshell]

You need a playtest? I have a character I've been DYING to play but doesn't fit most systems. If you ran a playtest for this I'd be willing to make up a character or ten :smalltongue:

[Elricaltovilla]

You need a playtest? I have a character I've been DYING to play but doesn't fit most systems. If you ran a playtest for this I'd be willing to make up a character or ten :smalltongue:

Oh, I'd love to run a playtest of this. I just want to see if there's some more stuff I need to add/change before I do so. I'll put up a recruitment thread for it on Monday, PM me if I don't.

Also, have you got any suggestions for ways to improve the system? I was toying with the idea of splitting techniques further, or trying to improve what the Nakama power can do.

[EdroGrimshell]

Well, with a system like this it's easy to change or alter rules on the fly, which is what playtesting is for.

However, for Nakama, maybe allow for joint uses to make combined techniques that require expenditure of both Nakama and Power to fuel it. It'd probably require very little in the way of rules, same as normal techniques but with a nakama cost and requiring more than one person with the same technique to perform it. It's a staple in a lot of Shonen Manga. It'd also give you something to do with the resource other than just temp power ups from rousing speeches and gives a real feel of teamwork.

For splitting Techniques, you've already done some of it by giving effects, Offense, Surge (I'm guessing a buff), and Defense, but you could probably add in Counter (Offense and Defense) or Debuff to the mix, like they do in One Piece d20. Simple things really, but they can make a lot of difference in a game like this.

Only other criticism I have is the number of rounds/victory points needed, they seem rather low. Say to have it so the number of rounds vary based on the GM and victory points win based on you having more than half the number of rounds in VP (So a 10 round fight would need 6, a 15 would need 8, and a 23 would need 12, that sort of thing), that way you can have extensive boss fights or need to strategize to survive rather than just powering through with your strongest attacks.

I think that's it for now, otherwise this system looks absolutely fantastic in its simplicity.

[Elricaltovilla]

I think those are all some great ideas Edro. On going to do some reformatting on the techniques and buff the Nakama stat a bit. Variable rounds will definitely be a thing, but I think I'll keep the standard at 5 rounds, just for expediency's sake.

The only subsystem I can really think of needing is like a "monster trainer" one. Because they rely a lot more on teamwork.

That'll all happen after work today though.

[Elricaltovilla]

OK! I've made some changes to how techniques work, and buffed Nakama Points a bit (I hope), as well as added a changelog.

Assuming there are no major problems with the game rules, I'll be setting up a playtest recruitment tomorrow.:smallbiggrin:


SO PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW HOW HORRIBLY I SCREWED UP!!!:smallbiggrin:

[Grinner]

Sounds fun.

So...how will this work, anyway? Is there a setting you have in mind, or do we all just wail on each other till one emerges victorious?

[Elricaltovilla]

Sounds fun.

So...how will this work, anyway? Is there a setting you have in mind, or do we all just wail on each other till one emerges victorious?

I have a setting in mind. It even has plot! But I might ask you all to do specific things to test the system from time to time.

[A Rainy Knight]

This looks really cool! But I'm feeling a little freaked out, because right now I'm coincidentally working on a pretty similar idea myself - a rules-light, quick-playing, manga-styled system with a lot of opposed rolls and Victory Points. :smalltongue: Mine just happens to be about harem comedies instead of shounen action.

I don't know if I'll join as a playtester, but I might spectate your test game for fun sometime. :smallbiggrin:

[Elricaltovilla]

This looks really cool! But I'm feeling a little freaked out, because right now I'm coincidentally working on a pretty similar idea myself - a rules-light, quick-playing, manga-styled system with a lot of opposed rolls and Victory Points. :smalltongue: Mine just happens to be about harem comedies instead of shounen action.

I don't know if I'll join as a playtester, but I might spectate your test game for fun sometime. :smallbiggrin:

So. Much. Want.

Maybe we should collaborate? Lol

[A Rainy Knight]

Heh, maybe do something like Rosario+Vampire where the girls fight over the lead in one scene and do battle with monsters in the next? :smalltongue:

That's actually not a terrible idea... it might be a little hard to combine two game systems, but in mine, it would actually be pretty easy to work a bunch of battle scenes between the girls into the overall framework.

[Elricaltovilla]

Heh, maybe do something like Rosario+Vampire where the girls fight over the lead in one scene and do battle with monsters in the next? :smalltongue:

That's actually not a terrible idea... it might be a little hard to combine two game systems, but in mine, it would actually be pretty easy to work a bunch of battle scenes between the girls into the overall framework.

Well if its something you want to try and do I'm down with it. I guess PM me?

[A Rainy Knight]

Hmm... I'll consider it for the future, but I think we might both want to run a playtest of just our own systems by themselves and iron out the kinks before we try anything like that.

[Elricaltovilla]

Hmm... I'll consider it for the future, but I think we might both want to run a playtest of just our own systems by themselves and iron out the kinks before we try anything like that.

Might be a good idea, I'll be looking forward to your system.

[Elricaltovilla]

OK, I have created a recruitment thread for playtesting. Here is the LINK (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15515460#post15515460) Sign up if you're interested!

[Grinner]

Techniques

Each character starts with a number of techniques that their character can use, determined arbitrarily. What these Techniques are and how they work is entirely up to you, the player! However, they must all fall into some basic categories:

Fixed. whitespace

[Elricaltovilla]

It's not arbitrary though, I updated how the techniques are made. You can have up to 6 points worth of techniques. How you assign those points is up to you.

[Grinner]

It's not arbitrary though, I updated how the techniques are made. You can have up to 6 points worth of techniques. How you assign those points is up to you.

"Arbitrarily" seems like a better word for that, though. When I read "randomly", I immediately started looking for what dice to roll, and then I wondered why I was trying to roll dice. It's your call, really. I'm just sorta proofreading it as I go along.

[Elricaltovilla]

"Arbitrarily" seems like a better word for that, though. When I read "randomly", I immediately started looking for what dice to roll, and then I wondered why I was trying to roll dice. It's your call, really. I'm just sorta proofreading it as I go along.

It's not randomly either. I forgot to change it from when you rolled 1d6 to determine your starting techniques and all techniques had a Power Cost of 1, but you could spend more than that to make them stronger.

Now that Techniques have set costs, I had to change how the creation of them worked, but I didn't finish proofreading I guess. It's fixed now though.

[OhMyGodImOnFire]

My oh my, this is interesting... I've been trying to bring D&D to my friends at the local anime haunt - this would be a perfect gateway drug way to get them started! Subscribed, and looking through your playtest thread at the moment.

[OhMyGodImOnFire]

Sorry about the double post, but here's a list of issues I have thought of that you might want to address:

1. Starting Techniques - I'm still a little confused with this - you start with 6 Power Points that you can put into Techniques, and you can choose to allocate the Power Points however you want… Where is this expressed? Is the allocation of these Power Points the determinant for that Technique's Power Cost? If it is the expression of of the Power Cost, why can't I just make a megablast 10 Power Technique right off the bat? (though this last question I can understand, in that no Shonen hero ever starts with a be-all end-all ability) Please clarify.

2. Putting a cap on the stats - what happens when you reach 10 in every stat? You become all-powerful, all-knowing, and are able to charm the pants off any regular person? What happens when two 10/10/10 characters are pitted against each other? Does it just come down to the luck of the dice then?

3. I assume Power Points refresh at a certain speed - how fast is that?

4. If you're rolling half the number of D10 equal to an odd total of a character's key stats, are you gonna round up or round down?

5. The fact that you need to roll d10's to determine how many TP you get for a Training Montage will cause imbalances across characters very quickly. What if for the first Montage, one party member gains 4 TP, while another person only gets 1? Also, how do you explain that the difficulty of getting points stops at 10? Moreover, rolling at 10 only has a 10% chance (obviously). This means that at a certain point the chances of you getting any TP points at all is extremely low. And I'm sure the events described in triggering a Montage are going to be fairly few and far between. How will you fix this?

6. I think Grinner means you should make a decent sized bank of cookie-cutter skills that give a solid crunch-based example of how to create abilities. That said, I would also like to ask you to write up a list of "Debuffs" or "Status Effects" that are commonly encountered. For example, Yuan Yi's Neon Strobe Flash - what does that inflict? Blindness? What's the mechanical change?

7. Finally, if you could please clarify the combat sequence? So the attacker MUST use an Offense Technique, and the defender MUST use a Defense Technique? What if they just want to wail on each other, how will that be handled?

That should be all. At least, these are some of the glaring things that I noticed right off the bat. If I misinterpreted or misread anything, please feel free to make me feel stupid about it :smallbiggrin:

[Grinner]

1. Starting Techniques - I'm still a little confused with this - you start with 6 Power Points that you can put into Techniques, and you can choose to allocate the Power Points however you want… Where is this expressed? Is the allocation of these Power Points the determinant for that Technique's Power Cost? If it is the expression of of the Power Cost, why can't I just make a megablast 10 Power Technique right off the bat? (though this last question I can understand, in that no Shonen hero ever starts with a be-all end-all ability) Please clarify.

The effectiveness of any given Technique is generally (Key Stat * Power Points invested). The game also follows a rock-paper-scissors design. That means you could dump all of your power points into a single Attack and max out its Key Stat, but that would leave you extremely vulnerable to other forms of attack. Plus, if you put all of your eggs into one basket and then someone drops a Debuff on your Key Stat, you're screwed.

Edit: Also, you only get six Power Points for Techniques. I think you're thinking of the Power Stat, which starts at ten and can be spent to improve Defense (not Defense Powers?) rolls.

It's an elegantly designed game, but the terminology is a bit confusing.

Edit 2: Wait. Now I'm confused. You spend Power Points on Techniques, which determines that Technique's Power Cost. To use that Technique, you need to spend Power from your Power Stat equivalent to the Technique's Power Cost?

So the only difference between a basic Defense roll and a Defensive Technique is that you get to choose which Stat to roll off with the latter?

[OhMyGodImOnFire]

The effectiveness of any given Technique is generally (Key Stat * Power Points invested). The game also follows a rock-paper-scissors design. That means you could dump all of your power points into a single Attack and max out its Key Stat, but that would leave you extremely vulnerable to other forms of attack. Plus, if you put all of your eggs into one basket and then someone drops a Debuff on your Key Stat, you're screwed.

Edit: Also, you only get six Power Points for Techniques. I think you're thinking of the Power Stat, which starts at ten and can be spent to improve Defense (not Defense Powers?) rolls.

It's an elegantly designed game, but the terminology is a bit confusing.

Perhaps it's a clerical error then? Because the RAW (from what he's got now) says "They use a dice pool equal to the Key Stat of the technique, multiplied by its Power Cost"

Power Cost, as I understand it, is taking points away from the Power stat, no? So what is it about a so-called "3 Power Technique" that uses the Power Points that's better than a "1 Power Technique"? Why wouldn't I just get six 1 Power Techniques?

EDIT: OH I see. So the Power Points invested when creating a technique dictates the fixed Power Cost of that technique, which then utilizes the resource of the Power Stat whenever said technique is activated. That makes sense, but would be better if you used a different term for Power Points - perhaps Creation Points or Maneuver Points?

[Elricaltovilla]

Sorry about the double post, but here's a list of issues I have thought of that you might want to address:


1. Starting Techniques - I'm still a little confused with this - you start with 6 Power Points that you can put into Techniques, and you can choose to allocate the Power Points however you want… Where is this expressed? Is the allocation of these Power Points the determinant for that Technique's Power Cost? If it is the expression of of the Power Cost, why can't I just make a megablast 10 Power Technique right off the bat? (though this last question I can understand, in that no Shonen hero ever starts with a be-all end-all ability) Please clarify.

You could make a megablast 10 in the first draft, now you can make a megablast 6 ability to start with, but you can only use that ONCE per battle (if that) and most battles last multiple rounds. That means that if your ability costs too much, you're making a big risk.

EDIT: I say Once per battle because to start you only have 10 Power Points. After training and epiphanies, you could very easily have more.


2. Putting a cap on the stats - what happens when you reach 10 in every stat? You become all-powerful, all-knowing, and are able to charm the pants off any regular person? What happens when two 10/10/10 characters are pitted against each other? Does it just come down to the luck of the dice then?

It comes down to their techniques, Power Stat (which doesn't cap) and Nakama. Techniques have varying power costs, which do more to determine the dice pool of the attack than the actual Key Stat. A Power Cost 3 technique would roll a maximum of 30 dice, but a Power Cost 10 technique would roll a maximum of 100 dice. So at the super high levels, it comes down to who is better at selecting and using their techniques.


3. I assume Power Points refresh at a certain speed - how fast is that?

5 Power Points are regained after every battle you win. If you go for an extended period of time without battling, they refresh fully, but I left that exact length up to the DM. I'd recommend 24 hours.


4. If you're rolling half the number of D10 equal to an odd total of a character's key stats, are you gonna round up or round down?

Where in the system are you rolling 1/2 of a stat? I'll look through and see if I can find what you're referencing so I can give you a solid answer. But since this is shonen, I'm inclined to say round up for now.


5. The fact that you need to roll d10's to determine how many TP you get for a Training Montage will cause imbalances across characters very quickly. What if for the first Montage, one party member gains 4 TP, while another person only gets 1? Also, how do you explain that the difficulty of getting points stops at 10? Moreover, rolling at 10 only has a 10% chance (obviously). This means that at a certain point the chances of you getting any TP points at all is extremely low. And I'm sure the events described in triggering a Montage are going to be fairly few and far between. How will you fix this?

Then you have one character become Yuuske Yurameshi and the other one become Kuwabara. Or Goku and Krillin if you prefer.

The difficulty of getting points stops at 10 so that there's never a point where a character can no longer benefit from a Training Montage.

The time between Training Montages is entirely dependent on the DM. I might be the oddball out, but I think that if someone is lagging far behind, their DM will be a good enough person to throw them a bone.

Every training montage you complete also gives you 3 Epiphanies which you can use in battle to boost stats, learn new techniques, etc. A character who rolls poorly is going to be more likely to use their epiphanies, meaning that they can regain some of what they lost from a bad training montage. Its not a perfect balance, but I wasn't trying to make it perfect.


6. I think Grinner means you should make a decent sized bank of cookie-cutter skills that give a solid crunch-based example of how to create abilities. That said, I would also like to ask you to write up a list of "Debuffs" or "Status Effects" that are commonly encountered. For example, Yuan Yi's Neon Strobe Flash - what does that inflict? Blindness? What's the mechanical change?

Yuan Yi's abilities weren't updated to the new technique system. I'm working on some cookie cutter skills but I have real world obligations that detract from my ability to do so.

Any Debuff lowers one of the target's Key Stats or Power. How they do that (whether through blindness, hallucinogens, smells, Ki blocking or whatever) is up to the player. That's fluff, not crunch.


7. Finally, if you could please clarify the combat sequence? So the attacker MUST use an Offense Technique, and the defender MUST use a Defense Technique? What if they just want to wail on each other, how will that be handled?

There isn't an attacker or a defender. Each player says which technique their character is using, and one character goes first. All the abilities that target an opponent have an Offense Key Stat and a Defense Key Stat built in to the technique. The guy who goes first could spend his first round using a Surge Technique (boosting his Brawn) and the second guy could use a Defense Technique, and then nobody would hit anybody and they'd just stand there going "GRAAAAGH!" for a round.


That should be all. At least, these are some of the glaring things that I noticed right off the bat. If I misinterpreted or misread anything, please feel free to make me feel stupid about it :smallbiggrin:

I try not to make anybody willing to help me feel stupid. This isn't done yet, obviously, but I think some of what you've listed has already been dealt with.

I will admit to needing to do some line editing. Which I hate.:smalltongue:

[Elricaltovilla]

Edit 2: Wait. Now I'm confused. You spend Power Points on Techniques, which determines that Technique's Power Cost. To use that Technique, you need to spend Power from your Power Stat equivalent to the Technique's Power Cost?

So the only difference between a basic Defense roll and a Defensive Technique is that you get to choose which Stat to roll off with the latter?

Defense Roll:
Key Stat (Opponent's Choice) * whatever Power you spend on it.

Defense Technique:
Key Stat (Your Choice) * Power Cost, add successes to your next Defense Roll.

When your opponent attacks you after you use a Defense Technique, your roll ends up looking like this:
(Key Stat(Your Choice)* Power Cost) + (Key Stat(Opponent's Choice)*Power Points Spent).

You know how many successes you rolled already, so if your opponent doesn't beat that with their attack, then you can just spend 0 Power Points on your Defensive Roll and walk away with your Victory Point for that round.

So I guess not much difference, but you can use your strongest stat for a Defense Technique instead of (possibly) your weakest.

[Elricaltovilla]

The following has been updated in the system, and recorded in the changelog.

-Training Montages now use the Total of Key Stats instead of 1/2 the total to determine their dice pool.
-Starting Points for Techniques are now called Maneuver Points (until I think of a better name) and hopefully clarified how they were spent.
-Added Victory Point conditions to Offense Techniques, Defense Techniques and Counter Techniques.
-Added Draw condition for combat.


P.S. If anyone was offended by the title I was using for this system I apologize, I wasn't aware of the offensiveness of the term.

[Mithril Leaf]

I hate to be the one to tell you, but WotC already published this system near the end of their 3.5 run under the legal name of Tome of Battle.
In case someone didn't get the joke.

[Elricaltovilla]

I hate to be the one to tell you, but WotC already published this system near the end of their 3.5 run under the legal name of Tome of Battle.
In case someone didn't get the joke.

Do you have anything useful to add to the conversation?
never explain the joke. First rule of comedy.

[OhMyGodImOnFire]

For the Debuff technique, wouldn't it be entirely possible to completely destroy the target key stat for 1 round, even their main stat? For example, if I had a Savvy of 10, and I had a debuff technique with a power cost of 3. That gives me 30 dice to roll, which could more than likely result in ten successes, completely crippling them for the next round. Is that what you were after with the debuff skill technique?

Unless… they roll a defense roll against the debuff rolls, and you subtract the number of defense successes against the debuff successes, and the net (down to 0) is what you subtract from their stat?

EDIT: Oh and in terms of the Changelog - bolding the dates and making the updates from newest to oldest may make it easier to read.

[Elricaltovilla]

For the Debuff technique, wouldn't it be entirely possible to completely destroy the target key stat for 1 round, even their main stat? For example, if I had a Savvy of 10, and I had a debuff technique with a power cost of 3. That gives me 30 dice to roll, which could more than likely result in ten successes, completely crippling them for the next round. Is that what you were after with the debuff skill technique?

Unless… they roll a defense roll against the debuff rolls, and you subtract the number of defense successes against the debuff successes, and the net (down to 0) is what you subtract from their stat?

EDIT: Oh and in terms of the Changelog - bolding the dates and making the updates from newest to oldest may make it easier to read.

Yeah, you're reading that correctly with your unless. I'll see what I can do to make it clearer. It's also important to note that you can't change which stat you target with your Debuff. If you want to target a different stat, it requires a new technique.

[Elricaltovilla]

There is a new recruitment for playtesting going on, so if you're interested follow this finely crafted link (www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15754779) and apply

[Milo v3]

Going to hopefully play this soon with a few friends, but I want to make sure I actually made my character correctly. So... umm... can someone take a look to see if I made a mistake.

Name: Desmond Grey
Appearance: A pale youngman with long straight white hair stands before you. He is donned in a long brown coat which has way too many pockets, blue black skinny jeans which make him look like a living stick. Lying in the grip of each hand is a sleek pistol, though the figure doesn’t appear to have anywhere to holster his weapons. A grey raven tattoo lies on his right shoulder, some people say that it’s been seen moving while others see only a normal tattoo; desmond can’t say whether it’s true because he can’t really get a good look at the back of his shoulder.
Personality: Desmond is a sarcastic fun loving fool. He is smart enough to know if something would be a bad idea, but does it anyway because otherwise he’d be bored (which is effectively death to him). He is even willing to brake or mess with the law to slate his boredom, which while he sees it as innocent fun has given him abit of a reputation. Despite being abit of a jerk, he is still loyal to his friends ‘cause what’s the point if you’re the only one having the fun. He is often described as hyperactive, childish, and impulsive; those would be rather appropriate descriptions.
He has a bit of a fear of ravens and graveyards, cause by a traumatic experience when he was a kid (goths always creeped him out abit so nothing’s changed there).
Backstory: When he was younger, Desmond liked playing around in the graveyards since no-one was there to tell him to stop doing stuff. One day he decided to mess around with a group of angsty teen goths, little did he know that they actually did know abit of occult magic. Long story short; desmond ended up being shoved through a portal to a place he could only describe as a void filled with giant ravens. Before he could escape back through the gate he was shoved through, one of the ravens bit a chuck out of his shoulder.
Once he returned to the world, he found the bloody wound had it’s flesh restored but now he had a raven tattoo upon his flesh (which was really hard to explain to his dad) and the ability to create rifts in space which could be used by him as temporary portals before they collapsed.
Power Stat: 10
Nakama Stat: 10
Brawn/Savy/Charm: 5/6/2
Epiphanies: 3
Techniques:
Name: Bullet Rain
Type: Offensive
Key Stat: Brawn
Defense Stat: Brawn
Description: Desmond fires off all the rounds from his pistols, tosses them aside, then continues firing with new pistols that he pulls from a pocket dimension.
Power Cost: 2

Name: Dimension Step
Type: Debuff
Key Stat: Savy
Defense Stat: Brawn
Targeted Stat: Brawn
Description: By teleporting around the enemy swiftly over and over, desmond negates the benefits of the foes quick reflexes and strength because of repeatedly needing to readjust their attacks or movements.
Power Cost: 2

Name: Portal Shield
Type: Counter
Key Stat: Savy
Description: Desmond quicky attempts to generate a portal infront of the enemies attack. The attack then goes into the portal rather than hitting him.
Power Cost: 2

[Elricaltovilla]

Going to hopefully play this soon with a few friends, but I want to make sure I actually made my character correctly. So... umm... can someone take a look to see if I made a mistake.

Name: Desmond Grey
Appearance: A pale youngman with long straight white hair stands before you. He is donned in a long brown coat which has way too many pockets, blue black skinny jeans which make him look like a living stick. Lying in the grip of each hand is a sleek pistol, though the figure doesn’t appear to have anywhere to holster his weapons. A grey raven tattoo lies on his right shoulder, some people say that it’s been seen moving while others see only a normal tattoo; desmond can’t say whether it’s true because he can’t really get a good look at the back of his shoulder.
Personality: Desmond is a sarcastic fun loving fool. He is smart enough to know if something would be a bad idea, but does it anyway because otherwise he’d be bored (which is effectively death to him). He is even willing to brake or mess with the law to slate his boredom, which while he sees it as innocent fun has given him abit of a reputation. Despite being abit of a jerk, he is still loyal to his friends ‘cause what’s the point if you’re the only one having the fun. He is often described as hyperactive, childish, and impulsive; those would be rather appropriate descriptions.
He has a bit of a fear of ravens and graveyards, cause by a traumatic experience when he was a kid (goths always creeped him out abit so nothing’s changed there).
Backstory: When he was younger, Desmond liked playing around in the graveyards since no-one was there to tell him to stop doing stuff. One day he decided to mess around with a group of angsty teen goths, little did he know that they actually did know abit of occult magic. Long story short; desmond ended up being shoved through a portal to a place he could only describe as a void filled with giant ravens. Before he could escape back through the gate he was shoved through, one of the ravens bit a chuck out of his shoulder.
Once he returned to the world, he found the bloody wound had it’s flesh restored but now he had a raven tattoo upon his flesh (which was really hard to explain to his dad) and the ability to create rifts in space which could be used by him as temporary portals before they collapsed.
Power Stat: 10
Nakama Stat: 10
Brawn/Savy/Charm: 5/6/2
Epiphanies: 3
Techniques:
Name: Bullet Rain
Type: Offensive
Key Stat: Brawn
Defense Stat: Brawn
Description: Desmond fires off all the rounds from his pistols, tosses them aside, then continues firing with new pistols that he pulls from a pocket dimension.
Power Cost: 2

Name: Dimension Step
Type: Debuff
Key Stat: Savy
Defense Stat: Brawn
Targeted Stat: Brawn
Description: By teleporting around the enemy swiftly over and over, desmond negates the benefits of the foes quick reflexes and strength because of repeatedly needing to readjust their attacks or movements.
Power Cost: 2

Name: Portal Shield
Type: Counter
Key Stat: Savy
Description: Desmond quicky attempts to generate a portal infront of the enemies attack. The attack then goes into the portal rather than hitting him.
Power Cost: 2

It looks very good to me. Everything is where it needs to be.

Any thoughts on the system itself? Anything you think needs clarification?

[Milo v3]

It looks very good to me. Everything is where it needs to be.

Any thoughts on the system itself? Anything you think needs clarification?

Hm... looks fine to me... The rules seem pretty clear and freeform enough that you can fit any setting rather easily.

[Elricaltovilla]

Hm... looks fine to me... The rules seem pretty clear and freeform enough that you can fit any setting rather easily.

Well when you test the system, let me know how it goes.

[Elricaltovilla]

Major Rules Update! New Multi PC Combat Rules Added!

[Milo v3]

Love how Conservation of Ninjitsu is an actual rule. :smalltongue:

[Elricaltovilla]

Love how Conservation of Ninjitsu is an actual rule. :smalltongue:

Its more of a design goal really. No matter the size disparity, both sides should be balanced.

Or something like that...:smalltongue:

[Milo v3]

Its more of a design goal really. No matter the size disparity, both sides should be balanced.

Or something like that...:smalltongue:

Unless it's a plot related curbstomp to put the players in their place of course. :smalltongue:

Both sides don't need to be balanced then.

[Jadev]

So, since I'm launching the Arena thread, I was thinking about themed arenas and environmental hazards. I figure it would be interesting to throw in hostile environments like lava spew, soul-sucking atmospheres, and other stuff, so I had this idea: certain environments could launch attacks against both parties (for fairness' sake) and if they beat one of the opponent's defenses then that character loses a victory point (since the environment can't very well gain a victory point. Plus that way people who are already at 0 aren't hurt more, allowing for comebacks if the current victor gets hit. Or should I just leave it to roleplay?

[Elricaltovilla]

So, since I'm launching the Arena thread, I was thinking about themed arenas and environmental hazards. I figure it would be interesting to throw in hostile environments like lava spew, soul-sucking atmospheres, and other stuff, so I had this idea: certain environments could launch attacks against both parties (for fairness' sake) and if they beat one of the opponent's defenses then that character loses a victory point (since the environment can't very well gain a victory point. Plus that way people who are already at 0 aren't hurt more, allowing for comebacks if the current victor gets hit. Or should I just leave it to roleplay?

I think that's a decent setup for environmental hazards. Personally, I'd leave it to roleplay, but for this kind of thing I think it does a good job of adding some risk to the fight.

How would you determine when/where/how people would get attacked by these hazards? There's no distance mechanic in the game as is.

[Jadev]

Just a kind of random thing. I may not end up using it at all. But hey, it's an idea.

[Moonbeam Funk]

I think this system is shaping up well, though something odd caught my attention. Nakama is pretty damn potent, and with the way you have it written it's hard to actually exhaust it all in my opinion. Once per battle use per PC, and everyone starts with 10. That daily regen per person honestly seems enough to easily keep up with the uses. Even if it gets spammed as much as possible in a group, most "days" would have maybe 4-5 fights max I imagine. Maybe 6 or more, but even then the players have a supply of (10 x PCs) Nakama that replenishes at an okay rate.

I dunno, maybe I'm wrong and Nakama is a lot easier to deplete than I make it sound. After all, I haven't personally tried the system myself yet.

[Milo v3]

Not sure if this counts as thread necromancy yet, but is there a reason the amount of Power gained at the end of a battle is 5?

[Elricaltovilla]

Not sure if this counts as thread necromancy yet, but is there a reason the amount of Power gained at the end of a battle is 5?

Because its 1/2 the amount of power the character starts with.

[kidnicky]

I'm thinking about using this as a mecha vs. Kaiju game.

[kidnicky]

I know this is thread necromancy, but.......
I want to start playing this game. Here's my question, though. My character rolls lower than the DM enemy. So the DM enemy decides to use an attack. MUST I use a defense technique, or can I defend normally then attack in that same round?

I guess what I'm saying is, is normal, "holding back in Streetfighter" putting your hands up blocking, a free action, or is it your action that round? And then if he kicks me, and I block it, I get a victory point? Or I have to land a hit to get one?

[Elricaltovilla]

I know this is thread necromancy, but.......
I want to start playing this game. Here's my question, though. My character rolls lower than the DM enemy. So the DM enemy decides to use an attack. MUST I use a defense technique, or can I defend normally then attack in that same round?

I guess what I'm saying is, is normal, "holding back in Streetfighter" putting your hands up blocking, a free action, or is it your action that round? And then if he kicks me, and I block it, I get a victory point? Or I have to land a hit to get one?

Well... that's sort of difficult. No, you don't have to block, or use a defensive technique, but it will cost you the victory point for that round. You could take a hit in order to get off a Surge, Debuff or Counter for the next round, which might clinch you a victory. But the only way to "block" an attack within the context of the game is to use a Defense Technique. Does that answer your question?

[kidnicky]

So is this a correct play example?

Pc rolls 8, dm rolls 6

Round 1:
Pc has initiative so he uses (offense) and rolls 47.
dm uses (defense) and rolls 38
Victory point goes to pc.

Round 2:
Dm uses (offense) and rolls 50
Pc uses defense and rolls 33
Victory point to dm.

Round 3:
Pc uses (offense)
it doesn't matter because dm surges and takes the loss
victory point to pc

Round 4:
Dm uses a surge assisted attack and rolls really high
pc can't roll high enough to block
Victory point to dm

Round 5:
PC attacks, dm fails to block, victory point goes to PC and since that's 3 points, the pc wins.

Is that right?
Follow up questions:
if the defender blocks the attack, do they get a victory point? It seems odd to score without hurting your opponent.

If the guy with initiative surges, and the other guy attacks, it's an auto victory point, right?

Must you have /use a defensive move to block, or can you just roll the key stat the attack targets? I realise you can't win that way, but I'm thinking like saibamen or mobile dolls, characters that basically exist to waste time or weaken the heroes before Vegeta or Epilyon show up.

Most importantly, if the guy with the initiative attacks, the other guy CANNOT use an attack, right? He MUST either defend or use a counter,debuff, or surge for the next round, sacrificing the victory point.

Anyway, I had a lot of real world issues that took me away from these boards for awhile. I realise I'm dredging up something old hat to you, but I appreciate the response. My group's "anime game" was going to be Chris Perrin's mecha, but it's so crunchy, and there's miniature placement and you roll a hundred die to see which direction you move and blah blah blah. We like anime because you scream"HUNDRED LEAVES CUTTING BARRAGE" and do massive damage,not because we like match homework. So we need a new anime game and frankly this looks better than what's commercially on the market.

[kidnicky]

Ugh I meant we don't like "math homework".

[Elricaltovilla]

So is this a correct play example?

Pc rolls 8, dm rolls 6

Round 1:
Pc has initiative so he uses (offense) and rolls 47.
dm uses (defense) and rolls 38
Victory point goes to pc.

Round 2:
Dm uses (offense) and rolls 50
Pc uses defense and rolls 33
Victory point to dm.

Round 3:
Pc uses (offense)
it doesn't matter because dm surges and takes the loss
victory point to pc

Round 4:
Dm uses a surge assisted attack and rolls really high
pc can't roll high enough to block
Victory point to dm

Round 5:
PC attacks, dm fails to block, victory point goes to PC and since that's 3 points, the pc wins.

Is that right?

Yes, that all looks correct.

EDIT: Except that all [Offense] type powers have a corresponding defense roll that the opponent can use. So it would look something like this:

Rd1:
PC uses [offense] and rolls 47. DM rolls NPC defense, and rolls 25.
DM uses [defense] to increase roll, adding result (20) to NPC defense.
47 vs. 45, victory point goes to PC.


Follow up questions:
if the defender blocks the attack, do they get a victory point? It seems odd to score without hurting your opponent.

From the Offense Technique description:

All Offense powers have a corresponding Defense Key Stat, that an opponent rolls to resist the power. Defenders can choose how much Power to spend on their roll, and multiply the Defense pool by the Power they spent.

So you have a chance to block the attack without wasting your own action, but you won't gain a victory point.

Using a Defense Technique allows you to gain a victory point by successfully negating an attack. However, if they don't attack you, then you've just wasted a round. Its an opportunity cost.


If the guy with initiative surges, and the other guy attacks, it's an auto victory point, right?

Not necessarily, see above.


Must you have /use a defensive move to block, or can you just roll the key stat the attack targets? I realise you can't win that way, but I'm thinking like saibamen or mobile dolls, characters that basically exist to waste time or weaken the heroes before Vegeta or Epilyon show up.

I would recommend using this rule:

All Offense powers have a corresponding Defense Key Stat, that an opponent rolls to resist the power. Defenders can choose how much Power to spend on their roll, and multiply the Defense pool by the Power they spent.

in the described situation.


Most importantly, if the guy with the initiative attacks, the other guy CANNOT use an attack, right? He MUST either defend or use a counter,debuff, or surge for the next round, sacrificing the victory point.

No, he can attack. If both attacks succeed, then both players gain a victory point.


Anyway, I had a lot of real world issues that took me away from these boards for awhile. I realise I'm dredging up something old hat to you, but I appreciate the response. My group's "anime game" was going to be Chris Perrin's mecha, but it's so crunchy, and there's miniature placement and you roll a hundred die to see which direction you move and blah blah blah. We like anime because you scream"HUNDRED LEAVES CUTTING BARRAGE" and do massive damage,not because we like match homework. So we need a new anime game and frankly this looks better than what's commercially on the market.

I'm more than happy to answer your questions. It's nice to know that people are out there using my stuff, no matter how old it is. I'm glad that you consider it worth using, and I'd love to hear about the sessions and how they go.

[kidnicky]

Ok so a round can go attack, defend, attack defend, and both guys can earn a point? Got it.