I'm a guy with too many ideas for games and not enough time. Some people claim they got groups running weekly or twice a week and have been running and playing in multiple games for years on end. Me? I ain't so lucky because I can't align my schedule with anybody and it fucking sucks. Anyway enough ranting into the void of the internet.
Monster-Slaying Videogame/Anime
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| The God Eater 3 cover. |
There's a certain genre that's been present in videogame and anime which I find is quite gameable as a concept. This is the genre found in the likes of God Eater, Attack on Titan, Kabaneri, Terraformars or even the likes of Persona 3, Symphogear or even X-COM (for a non-Japanese partial example). These are the 'monster slaying organizations' and its very much a genre when it come to anime and videogame. The key elements of the genre are:
- Humanity is under siege from some force, which is (usually) monsters of some kind.
- This battle is near hopeless, with humanity constantly losing ground or achieving at best some kind of stalemate to fight another day. The overall tone is either bleak or one of defiance. "Rage, rage against the dying of the light...."
- There is an established organization which hunt and destroy these beings. This organization is a useful plot device to justify why humanity has access to gears and the infrastructure to even put up a fight.
- In Japanese media, the characters are teenagers because that's just what anime does. Usually there's some in-setting justification. Which brings up the next point.
- Often the characters are enhanced in some form, possibly at the cost of their humanity and/or lifespan. There is often a risk of some form of corruption.
Its both a very specific genre but also one which has quite a bit of breathing space within the concept to allow for some interesting elements. What we have is a pre-existing, built-in reason to fight monsters and risk one's life. There is also a built-in method to allow characters to join together and even have something akin to hirelings (in this case, rookie squad members) and an easy way in for replacement characters when someone dies. Now in anime, usually the protagonist has impossibly thick plot armor but in tabletop this doesn't apply and make things more interesting.
The concept itself is quite interesting while at the same time very much drawing from similar roots to the many games I've ran before, ranging from Dungeons & Dragons (hunt and fight monsters, get loot) to Dark Heresy (investigation, horror, madness and dying to keep the light alive) to Adeptus Evangelion (same thing but with more anime and giant robots!) and of course that mecha game I ran last year. In many ways it is the non-mecha successor to that game, refining on what did and did not work there.
Game Concept
Playing God Eater Resurrection and XCOM2 has really given me ideas on what I'd want to do with such a game and how it might work and play out. The above points are more or less unchanged, with the following additions:
- The character's weapons are somewhat ridiculous, making use of the admittedly insane imagery found in the likes of God Eater, Monster Hunter or even RWBY (even if that show is garbage and has some of the dumbest shit ever). These are big, stupid impractical weapons driven purely by a juvenile sense of 'cool' and that is okay. Its the point.
- The initial batch of weapons are semi mass-produced and while they function off the same absurd principles which the monsters (and the player character) abilities use, the initial batch of weapons are relatively basic mechanical contraptions which can be produced in enough quantities to allow a squad to be armed and for any new character to get his or her starting weapon.
- More powerful and/or unique weapons fill a role similar to magic items and are created from the remain of monsters, intertwining their flesh and/or essence with technology to create a more powerful weapon. These weapons could end up 'locked' to a player character but I'm not sure yet.
- Weapons make use of the mode-switching found in God Eater and the likes. By default, this could be ranged and melee but I could see other options such as a mix of melee or ranged with a shield mode or maybe even a mode that become a static weapon emplacement.
- Basic abilities (granted what count as these is still up for debate) are simply part of the characters while more advanced abilities and even gear require resources harvested off monsters. Presumably this would mean adding a small 'tithe' to a squad's action as some of it is donated to their organization both for a mixture of research, fueling as well as making a small stockpile so other squads (or even the same squad) can use it later.
Character classes (or their equivalent) would probably be built more around fighting style rather than something closer to Fighter/Mage/Thief even if there might be an option or two more geared toward skills, I suppose. In general, each character should be at least able to do the basic stuff and hold their own against the weakest enemies when separated from the group.
Monster Design
One clear deviancy from the more bare bone, basic statblock of (most) OSR games is that I'd take more cues from the more abstracted or crunch-heavy statblock of monsters found in games like D&D 4e or 5e, with abilities less geared toward being basic and more being about what that technique does within the limited confine of a battle. This wouldn't be for every monster of course, but anything big enough to be a decent challenge to a squad is going to have more going for it than just an attack bonus and some damage.
While the premise sounds better suited to 4E, I think I have a decent idea for how you might approach this:
ReplyDeleteI would take OD&D as the basic framework, then toss on a "chop til you drop" function, to help with showing down the ability to mow down lower function monsters (the trash mobs of MH - and since this applies both ways, it also means the monsters can mow down your low-level hirelings). Rather than classes, you could take leveling specifically in weapon skills, and then allow multi-classing in the OD&D fashion - except here, you choosing to function as X class is essentially the weapon you take. Your highest level would dictate hit dice/saves, which would be universal between classes.
The weapon is where I think 4E design idea can be implemented. Where 4E would give your character at-will powers, encounter, and so forth, I could see giving increasingly complex weapons more or better free-use functions. As per old-school resource management, keeping track of ammunition, as well as the charges for these functions, would be a requirement - if you only have one missile, you need to use it well. Your level with a specific weapon type would dictate your attack ability, but also your ability to even use the best weapons.
For monsters, rather than 4E-style statblocks, what you could do is borrow a bit from Supplement II and treat each section of a big monster as having its own HP pool, as well as its own attack. This goes into the whole MH limb-removing direction fairly nicely. It also means, in conjunction with a called shots mechanic, having certain weak-points. That way you still keep the old-school "puzzle-solving" aspect, except here, the puzzle is very large and trying to kill you.
Because of the lower power-scale of OSR vs. 4E, I think it might even be better to hold off on the mechanical weapons and big name stuff until later, and start off with the smaller scale things - more Goblin Slayer, in that regard. Then once characters start getting to "Hero" or "Super-Hero", they can start going after the big things. It also helps with contrast - if you jump right into the big game, it's just not quite as "big".