Fist of the North Star

[scsimodem]

I'd like to skip to the point, so just pretend I spent a paragraph gushing over the raw machismo and style of the series. So, my question is, what would be a good way to mimic the setting on the tabletop? I've seen good to middling post-apocalyptic games (d20 apocalypse, for one) and decent ways to mimic the various martial arts styles without having everybody one shot bosses by punching their faces off or gently liberating their forearms from their elbows. I've just never seen them combined. Any tips? Anybody else ever do this before?

[Manly Man]

GURPS is probably your best bet. It's so adaptable, they've even managed to make Discworld fit in there. I'm pretty sure that Fist of the North Star should be no problem.

[Arbane]

Feng Shui might be good for this. The martial-arts aren't QUITE Hokuto Shinken-level insane, but that's easy enough to houserule. Just remember you can't use your instant-death move until your opponent's already on their last legs, but most enemies are one-HP mooks.

Alternately, Mutants and Masterminds. If making someone explode by poking them isn't a superpower, I don't know what is.

[Red Fel]

GURPS is probably your best bet. It's so adaptable, they've even managed to make Discworld fit in there. I'm pretty sure that Fist of the North Star should be no problem.

Seconded. In a high-power GURPS campaign, I used some cinematic advantages (scroll down to Truly Bad***) along with the core rules, and came up with a martial artist monster. He could one-shot mooks, and started one combat by ripping the spines out of two mooks, weaving them together, and proceeded to fight the remaining enemies with his spine-chucks.

GURPS easily accomodates over-the-top martial arts.

[CombatOwl]

I'd like to skip to the point, so just pretend I spent a paragraph gushing over the raw machismo and style of the series. So, my question is, what would be a good way to mimic the setting on the tabletop?

Fate if you hack it for Martial Art Badasses (which isn't even remotely hard to do, I can offer advice if you need it). GURPS with high CP and player agreement to keep it to martial arts. I guess BESM or something along those lines? It's really more geared for comedy though. Mutants and Masterminds could probably be hacked to work, but it would be more work than any of the aforementioned options.

With GURPS, I would caution you to be very careful when reviewing characters. Because it allows such a wide range of stuff, a lot of the content isn't suitable for something like Fist of the North Star. I mean, if you want space ships, laser guns and aliens in it, that's totally doable, but it's important to make sure people build characters that suit the tone.

I don't know if you've ever played GURPS before, but it's not like D&D where characters get defined by classes built at least broadly for the same setting. You can play Cavemen and Space Rangers with GURPS if you want.

I've seen good to middling post-apocalyptic games (d20 apocalypse, for one) and decent ways to mimic the various martial arts styles without having everybody one shot bosses by punching their faces off or gently liberating their forearms from their elbows. I've just never seen them combined. Any tips? Anybody else ever do this before?

Honestly? Mashups like that usually work best in some generic system, usually one that emphasizes style and drama over rigorous simulation. I would point out that GURPS combat rules can be quite complex, and it may be hard to model Fist of the North Star level martial arts insanity in a system that's intended to be more grounded in simulation than style.

Fate's kind of made in the opposite way. Because of how it scores damage you can do extreme gory violence without offing characters until it's dramatically appropriate. Again, I can explain how to setup Fate for Martial Arts Badassery if you're interested.

[Isamu Dyson]

GURPS, Mutants & Masterminds, and HERO 6th Edition are all fine generic RPGs that can handle a "Fist of the North Star" type setting.

[Hida Reju]

Spycraft 2nd Edition with the World on Fire Source book covers most of it.

You get feat trees like Punching Basics or Grappling basics and work your way up to mastery.

Mix and match to make your own style each with tricks and special abilities that can be blended together.

Uses a Vitality/Wound point system so Crits hit wounds and mooks cant crit. So you can bash mooks down but they can not one shot you.