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ShadowMist
2018-10-16, 12:29 PM
I am looking for a system (or more specifically some basic mechanics) to run a Digimon game. Now, I don't have a problem with doing some work, or a lot of work, so it doesn't have to be "play-ready".

PTU/PTA has a good idea thematically, but it's waaaaaaay too complicated, and I'm looking for something simple. The game is going to be based on Cyber Sleuth games, so it's more of a pokemon style game then "one partner digimon per character" kinda game.

Anyone have any idea?

weckar
2018-10-16, 01:22 PM
Pokemon Tabletop United is still a thing, somewhere.

ShadowMist
2018-10-16, 01:44 PM
And it's still too complicated. I would consider 2.0, but it's pretty unfinished.

weckar
2018-10-16, 02:23 PM
So... FATE, then?

ShadowMist
2018-10-16, 07:27 PM
I don't really speak FATE. I know everyone says it's one of the simplest systems ever, but I just don't get it...

Rockphed
2018-10-16, 09:44 PM
What do you want the system to do? Also, which Digimon do you want to emulate? I think there are something like a dozen different versions.

ShadowMist
2018-10-17, 04:24 AM
Basically, I am looking for a very simplified version of PTU. The game is going to be Cyber Sleuth style, mostly going around fighting other hackers/wild digimon/all kind of creatures and sometimes following the plot.

Lvl 2 Expert
2018-10-17, 04:44 AM
Digimon might actually be a setting for which some version of D&D could work. Either 5th edition for the more interesting feats or 3.5 for plain power. It's about massive monsters with world ending powers that also interact with other creatures going all the way down to roughly real world human power levels. Maybe limit the humans to a few levels, E6 style or something, but allow the monsters to grow? Digivolution might be handled by setting physical capabilities in stone every few levels. So a 17th level digimon can always revert to its 5th level rookie state. Or now that I think about it, it might be better if they had a way to acquire new base templates. So you have this character that can be an elf, a minotaur or a frost giant basically, but all with the same modifiers and skills and such.

It will take a lot of homebrewing especially on the magic side and on the leveling system, so if anyone out there designed any kind of Digimon specific system you should probably use that. But purely the power scale puts this franchise in D&D territory.

Of course, nothing about that idea is any kind of simple. So... you could just try GURPS?

ShadowMist
2018-10-17, 04:57 AM
Of course, nothing about that idea is any kind of simple. So... you could just try GURPS?
I would actually pick 4E over 3.5/5e, if I was to go D&D. Heck, 13th Age would be even better, but that's still too complicated.
I'm not really sure I could make GURPS work, but that's a nice idea.

the_david
2018-10-17, 05:02 AM
Pokethulhu comes to mind. While it would let you play as both the digidestined and the digimon, it wouldn't allow for digivolution. I'm not sure it's what you're looking for.

Knaight
2018-10-17, 05:03 AM
There aren't really any good -mon games, at all. If you have the one single companion options start popping up en mass (Monsters and Other Childish Things being the standard recommendation), but get much bigger than that and your options quickly become adapting your favorite generic or near-generic (generally sticking to the lighter side); or playing a pretty terrible mon game (PTA/PTU, neither of which seemed to have spared a moment of thought for how a game where you control 7 characters might benefit from characters being individually simpler than a game where you control 1).

The big trick here is not falling into the traps seen when this tends to happen. Trying to do direct mechanical conversions of videogame mechanics PTA/PTU style is basically always a mistake. Instead, pass through a conceptual stage, and preferably try to shake off concepts that seem like sops to the prior set of mechanics. Then you can make this happen in Fudge, d6 Open, Ubiquity, Cortex Action, Anima Prime, Savage Worlds, or whatever.



I don't really speak FATE. I know everyone says it's one of the simplest systems ever, but I just don't get it...

Bolding mine.

Hahahahaha no. Fate being called rules light, at all, is dubious. One of the simplest systems ever? Not remotely. This isn't RISUS, or Wushu, or Roll For Shoes, or Everyone is John (which only even qualify because "one of" is a blurry enough term to allow a pretty huge tie).

Rhedyn
2018-10-17, 09:35 AM
I am looking for a system (or more specifically some basic mechanics) to run a Digimon game. Now, I don't have a problem with doing some work, or a lot of work, so it doesn't have to be "play-ready".

PTU/PTA has a good idea thematically, but it's waaaaaaay too complicated, and I'm looking for something simple. The game is going to be based on Cyber Sleuth games, so it's more of a pokemon style game then "one partner digimon per character" kinda game.

Anyone have any idea?
Well what I would do is have the Digimon be Superheroes in Savage Worlds with the Gimmick Hindrance on how they unlock powers and the Dependent Hindrance to represent those silly humans they have to lug around. If you want the humans to actually be capable, I would represent them with the side-kick power. That would give your players a choice between stronger digimon or a human that isn't dead weight.
I would use the race builder to make up the base digimon.

I would have each Form be represented by a different build of super powers and part of how they do their Gimmick selects which form they go to. Hand out fatigue to limit form use as needed. I would have the new forms unlock with Story accomplishments and the increase in Form power points depends on what you want to do.

If this sounds complicated, it can be, because Super Heroes Savage Worlds is a more complicated version

I have also heard good things about ICONS if you want something more rules light (I heard ICONS is a Fudge fork, but idk how true that is). I do think Digimon are best represented as Super Heroes/Kaiju, mainly because I think you only get like one Digimon most of time. So the "heroes" aren't really trainers, they are vulnerable power sources.

weckar
2018-10-17, 09:40 AM
I mean, perhaps controversial, but why do you need a system at all? Simplest would just be theater of the mind, seat of the pants, rock of the paper scissors style gaming.

ShadowMist
2018-10-17, 09:44 AM
There aren't really any good -mon games, at all. If you have the one single companion options start popping up en mass (Monsters and Other Childish Things being the standard recommendation), but get much bigger than that and your options quickly become adapting your favorite generic or near-generic (generally sticking to the lighter side); or playing a pretty terrible mon game (PTA/PTU, neither of which seemed to have spared a moment of thought for how a game where you control 7 characters might benefit from characters being individually simpler than a game where you control 1).
I agree, almost every system can be adopted to "one character, one partner digimon" style, but as soon as you add more then one digimon per character it get very messy. I am thinking of treating digimon as equipmnet, with each character being able to equip X digimon and each digimon grants you different powers.


The big trick here is not falling into the traps seen when this tends to happen. Trying to do direct mechanical conversions of videogame mechanics PTA/PTU style is basically always a mistake.
Been there, done that, did not want to buy the t-shirt...


Cortex Action
That could actually work. I don't have much experience with Cortex, but the basic mechanics are simple enough to work with.


Hahahahaha no. Fate being called rules light, at all, is dubious. One of the simplest systems ever? Not remotely.
Glad to know it's not just me.

ShadowMist
2018-10-17, 09:53 AM
Well what I would do is have the Digimon be Superheroes in Savage Worlds with the Gimmick Hindrance on how they unlock powers and the Dependent Hindrance to represent those silly humans they have to lug around. If you want the humans to actually be capable, I would represent them with the side-kick power. That would give your players a choice between stronger digimon or a human that isn't dead weight.
I would use the race builder to make up the base digimon.

I would have each Form be represented by a different build of super powers and part of how they do their Gimmick selects which form they go to. Hand out fatigue to limit form use as needed. I would have the new forms unlock with Story accomplishments and the increase in Form power points depends on what you want to do.

If this sounds complicated, it can be, because Super Heroes Savage Worlds is a more complicated version
My only experience with Savage Worlds is one game that was 5+ years ago that lasted about 5 minutes, so I'm not really sure it can work, but I'll check it out.


I have also heard good things about ICONS if you want something more rules light (I heard ICONS is a Fudge fork, but idk how true that is). I do think Digimon are best represented as Super Heroes/Kaiju, mainly because I think you only get like one Digimon most of time. So the "heroes" aren't really trainers, they are vulnerable power sources.
That's how it works in the anime. In video games you have a team of digimon (usually 3 active and the rest in the back row) and your tamer is never in danger. Especially in Cyber Sleuth, where the characters are in cyberspace, and you can't attack their avatars until you shut down their digimon.


I mean, perhaps controversial, but why do you need a system at all? Simplest would just be theater of the mind, seat of the pants, rock of the paper scissors style gaming.
Because I want this game to be heavy on Domination battles (from Hacker's Memory), and that won't work without rolling some dice.

weckar
2018-10-17, 10:20 AM
Considering encounters in domination battles are always between two people only, they are basically a slightly overcomplicated game of Love Letter. Just play cards that trump others and leave the dice in the box.

ShadowMist
2018-10-17, 10:33 AM
Actually, Domination Battles are 3v3 and they have a focus on unit positioning.

Rhedyn
2018-10-17, 10:42 AM
My only experience with Savage Worlds is one game that was 5+ years ago that lasted about 5 minutes, so I'm not really sure it can work, but I'll check it out.


That's how it works in the anime. In video games you have a team of digimon (usually 3 active and the rest in the back row) and your tamer is never in danger. Especially in Cyber Sleuth, where the characters are in cyberspace, and you can't attack their avatars until you shut down their digimon.


Because I want this game to be heavy on Domination battles (from Hacker's Memory), and that won't work without rolling some dice.
I am unsure on Cyber Sleuth. Savage Worlds in general is good for action focused games. It has mechanics and plenty of stuff for non-action, but that is not the meat of the game (You know how games like God of War have puzzle sections? The puzzle sections could be really great, but you don't play God of War because you want to solve some puzzles).

One of Savage Worlds unique accomplishments over other kinds of traditional RPGs like D&D or Pathfinder is that each person can control lots of "Extras" or allies without the combat slowing to a crawl (it does slow a little bit though). If you want whole teams to fight, then that would be useful.

As for what sounds like a purely Pokemon situation? Oh geeze. Well you could still do Savage Worlds with the Superhero companion, but I would houserule that the characters can only take the minion power, but each minion is treated as a separate power (for the max power points per power rule). These minions are then Digimon.

Just using the core book, you would just have each Digimon be it's own character that the player controls. Use the race builder and the powers section as appropriate. Whether or not you need the Super Powers companion for this depends on how powerful the Digimon are supposed to be.

Shinizak
2018-10-17, 04:44 PM
I don't really speak FATE. I know everyone says it's one of the simplest systems ever, but I just don't get it...
Meh. The system works, no doubt. It's just incredibly arbitrary and (in my opinion) doesn't feel good, especially while in combat.

DataNinja
2018-10-18, 01:41 AM
And it's still too complicated. I would consider 2.0, but it's pretty unfinished.

I'm not sure when you last looked at Journeys (which is what 2.0 is called now, as there's been even more significant divergence in the name of helping to streamline things), but, from what I understand, the system and classes and whatnot is more-or-less functional, it's just the PokéDex that is incomplete. And if you're needing to stat up everything yourself anyways, then that isn't as much of an issue.
(Disclaimer: I haven't been paying super-detailed attention to the progress, mostly just seeing the conversations in the background, but it's probably worth another look-at if you can't find anything else that suits your needs.)

ShadowMist
2018-10-18, 04:16 AM
I'm not sure when you last looked at Journeys (which is what 2.0 is called now, as there's been even more significant divergence in the name of helping to streamline things), but, from what I understand, the system and classes and whatnot is more-or-less functional, it's just the PokéDex that is incomplete. And if you're needing to stat up everything yourself anyways, then that isn't as much of an issue.
(Disclaimer: I haven't been paying super-detailed attention to the progress, mostly just seeing the conversations in the background, but it's probably worth another look-at if you can't find anything else that suits your needs.)
When I say it's unfinished I mean there are a few (or a lot) things that are missing. It is never explained how DB and attack/defense work and there are plenty of things that are undefined. What the hell does the "Smite" keyword mean anyway? I admit I haven't gone through it for a few weeks, but I don't think they did a major update for a while...

weckar
2018-10-18, 08:51 AM
So, not to push the nail into the wood with my bare hands here, but you seem to be looking for a simple system to simulate something relatively complicated and specific. I am not sure, on those grounds, that what you want exists.

DataNinja
2018-10-18, 01:05 PM
When I say it's unfinished I mean there are a few (or a lot) things that are missing. It is never explained how DB and attack/defense work and there are plenty of things that are undefined. What the hell does the "Smite" keyword mean anyway? I admit I haven't gone through it for a few weeks, but I don't think they did a major update for a while...
Ah, right. I forgot that they've mostly just used the PTU glossary for a majority of terms that carried over while it's still being developed, before they pull everything together into a full document. (So, "Smite" is that even on a miss, it still deals damage as if it's resisted.) But that's all fair enough. It's rather a pain to have to try and grab things from even more documents.

SleepyShadow
2018-10-21, 10:22 PM
What about Big Eyes Small Mouths? It's a point-buy system specifically designed for emulating anime.

Rockphed
2018-10-22, 02:10 AM
What about Big Eyes Small Mouths? It's a point-buy system specifically designed for emulating anime.

My experience with BESM is that it is not a simple system to bend to your will. I suspect that, once you have a handle on it, it works very well and is slightly better than GURPS for anime representation, but I could never get a handle on it.

Rynjin
2018-10-23, 09:19 PM
Mutants and Masterminds could work well. Everybody would essentially have a Summon power with several Alternate Effects (one for each Digimon).

ShadowMist
2018-10-26, 05:51 AM
I decided to go with PTU 2.0, it will need a lot of work, but it's doable.
Thanks to everyone who gave a suggestion, feel free to continue the conversation, I got quite a few interesting ideas from this thread.

Becca Stareyes
2018-10-26, 08:19 AM
I actually used BESM 2.0 for a Digimon game 15 years ago (wow, I feel old). It was much more for a human with Digimon partner style game, so the human character basically spent a lot of his/her points on their Digimon partner, and the Digimon had a significant number of points in a transformation to their larger form. (I didn't want to deal with anything more than one evolution).

It was long enough ago that I don't have the notes from it, even the ones that would have been digital.