A post where I rip off someone's post and mashup some tabletop RPG with bad(?) anime stuff

One thing I sometimes like to joke and self mock is being a not-so-closeted weaboo, albeit one who generally tries to keep his anime tastes separate from the general fantasy focus of the blog. However Gundobad Games wrote a pretty amusing post on some unholy setting/games mashup. This got me thinking about my own tables for unholy mashups. Some of these are random tables, some are observations and most of it is quite incoherent since 'anime' is not a genre, its a medium. Albeit one steeped in a variety of its own unique twist on certain genres and others mostly unique to it.

I know posting this one on the OSR MeWe will give people cancer. I'm sorry. Except not really.

Of course, making things anime-like requires more than just genre-blending. At a face value, if described in their simplest terms quite a few anime appear to be much more basic than they really are. The truth, in my opinion at least, is that what makes anime as amazing (and as reviled) is how so many of them have such utterly corny or balls to the walls insane presentation that floors people. Sometimes, that presentation isn't always obvious and just how insane, corny, bizarre or flat out trashy/raunchy can vary immensely from show to show. Some can be legitimately amazing works of fiction deserving of praise, others are utterly terrible and corny. Most exist somewhere in the middle and just become weirder from there. Take the classic shonen fighting manga and grandfather to the genre's entire modern formula, Dragon Ball. It's simply, at least initially, a retelling of Journey to the West but somehow its in a world which is bizarre and anachronistic, where advanced technology coexist with humble farmlands. Where the King of the World is a dog-man and talking, shapeshifting pig-men exist. And then it spirals into wuxia and space opera territory. Anime and manga often laughs at the idea of genre conventions.

Option A: Isekai

The cancerous genre which overtook anime and is only just slowly, maybe, ever so slightly dying down. Now as a concept, what is labelled as Isekai is a perfectly valid concept for a fantasy game and has roots in older works such as Alice In Wonderland, the John Carter novels or even Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. However, the modern 'Isekai' genre which is total ass cancer was born of the boom in popularity of Light Novels. They are cheap, the barrier to entry is low and the lowly trash of this world will eat up that garbage like I eat a box of Cheez-It when depressed. Isekai is simply, overall as a genre, the transposition of someone from one world to another, generally our world to a generic fantasy land. As a result here are some settings one could use for Isekai. The second table, called 'Set Up or Modification' combines one or more Isekai trend and/or quirk of its (more often than not crappy) writing to spice up the setting and add a level of anime-ness, for better or for ill.

1d8	Setting/Game	Set Up or Modification
1	D&D Setting: Could be Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Greyhawk or even Athas.	Chosen Hero: The characters (or just one of its a solo game) have been chosen to become great heroes and given powers/tools to help defeat a great evil of said setting. The PC are either really powerful by setting standard or more easily eased into/instantly raised to the higher tiers or levels.
2	Exalted
3	Wolves of God	The Overlord: Like the above, except instead of being heroes the player characters are cast into the role of a great evil which must destroy that world for one reason or another. Alternatively they are just overpowered assholes.
4	Tekumel
5	Talislanta	Bringer of Modernity: For whatever reason, the player characters are allowed and/or encouraged to bring in their knowledge or technology and somehow apply it or they have means to use advanced technology in the setting.
6	Pendragon
7	Legend of the Five Rings	The Waifubait: For some reason, a sizable portion of the cast are now cute girls and lovely women (more of the latter if you don't want jail time), including possibly a few major NPC now gender bent. They are both as cute/sexy as it gets yet somehow retain any badassery and skill of their canon counterpart no matter how implausible their age or gender may be within the setting rules. Reroll on this column and combine. If you rolled Exalted for this one, just increase the amount of waifus instead.
8	Go to your book/PDF dump and start looking for something you'd never expect to run!

Option B: The 'Legally Distinct Dungeon Fantasy' Mashup

This one is more directly in line with Gundobad's post. I call it the 'Legally Distinct Dungeon Fantasy' as a joke but what I really and, obviously, mean is Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, OSR and any and all games which are at least partially derived from the original games designed by Gygax and Arneson, which generally involve the Fighter/Mage/Thief archetypes, a group or 'party', monsters, dungeons, traps (not the anime kind, hopefully! Then again...) and generally a lot of fighting if or when things go sour.

Imagine D&D, but with elements of...
1d8	Genre A	Genre B
1	Fighting Shonen: If you are even vaguely familiar with anime you know this genre all too well as it's one of the most famous. These are your Dragon Ball, One Piece or Naruto. If you’re a bit older, it's Fist of the North star. People fight. A lot. They get stronger to fight more and fight more to get stronger.	Idols
2		Mecha
3	Monster-Hunting Organization: Also a fighting genre, but it generally involves humanity under threat from a specific type/category of monsters, a special organization which fights them and usually a ton of grim secrets. This genre can range in style/genre combination from Neon Genesis Evangelion to God Eater or even, arguably, Attack on Titan.	Slice of Life
4		Magical Girls
5	Death Game: There is a big event, tournament or whatever where the characters are involved (by choice or not) where different individuals or teams of individuals fight each other to the death for a prize. Technically Highlander would count in this category.	Urban Fantasy
6		Pseudo-Historical
7	Magical School: Okay, I honestly HATE this genre but it's so damn common it needs to be put in here. While the word ‘magical’ may imply fantastical elements, technically there are plenty of these which overlap into scifi, cyberpunk and even superheroes. Oh and don't forget to add some harems in there to be as cancerously anime as possible.	Cyberpunk
8		Reroll on this column and combine, ignoring this result. Alternatively reroll on Genre A too, I don't know?

The Result: Magical Dragon Idols & Cybermagical Dungeons

So I made those half-assed tables and tried to see what abominations I could come up with. By themselves many of these results aren't that weird, so keep in mind it required me to stretch the premise by taking time to develop what sort of anime insanity and awful/amazing nonsense could exist under said premise, possibly even character concepts.

In the end, I settled on a single concept. Its stupid.

"Imagine D&D...but with elements of Monster-Hunter Organizations, Idols and Cyberpunk"

Okay this one is kind of easy, but still a bit weird. The thing which immediately just to mind, at least to me, is the Symphogear franchise. In a world combining fantasy and dystopia future, the player characters belong to an organization which hunt down a specific threat to mankind. Now, perhaps the best way for this to go is to go down the darker path that Idols are very corporate and make them an Idol group which is back by a mega corporation or some shady organization with ulterior motives.

In a grim, gray and neon-lit far future world where mankind learned to tap into higher/lower dimensions for near infinite power and technological advancement, bubbly and nice idols exist as a ray of sunshine which bring hope and joy to those living in this gray and gloomy world. Yet under the surface, things go run much deeper. Reality is shattered by the multiple cataclysm which mankind endured and self-inflicted. Thaumaturgic Technology was once so advanced as to functionally make humanity's overlords nearly gods but mankind's greed and despair grew too much and many cataclysm endured. Humanity in the current age is still trying to advance but the government and medias keep a tight lid on the true historical origins of why cities were built upon layers and layers of ruins, why the the few non-arcology forests are cancerous masses of living trees and why dimensional wastelands exist. Beyond the grey and neon-lit cities, the world is a techno-magical wasteland.

The monsters from beyond the veil are drawn to despair and negative emotions, which are naturally plentiful in such a depressing world filled with salarymen with little to live for. And so young girls trained as idols are given the ability to tap into supernatural powers. In between their bubbly antics and idol shows, they repel the darkness just as much as they dive into the cybermagical ruins to recover artifacts so mankind is able to sustain itself and, hopefully rebuild.

Some random thoughts about all this:

• Do the fantasy races exist and, if so how do they fit into the setting? One option is they are similar to the Meta-Humans of Shadowrun and born of human tampering into Thaumaturgic Technology over the centuries.
• Perhaps the fantasy races, being mutants or reincarnation of beings from the 'other side' are the only ones with innate magic of some kind? Perhaps they exist outside the human arcologies. In that case, the idols may in fact be recruited from these changed people and given a new chance at life and luxury (at a price) inside the much safer arcologies in exchange for their services. Its possible some races may exist and be integrated into human society, possibly as elites or in secret. Elves come to mind.
• Perhaps the Magical Girls can hide their true race somehow, if needed? And if such an angle is pursued then each race is suitably redesigned to be more anime-like and this is where the so-called 'bad' races of modern D&D can come in handy. Tiefling are just cute anime people with little Oni horns which tend to produce delinquent idols. Halflings are stuck looking small and cute their entire life, be it as looking underaged or alternatively being shortstacks. Same and more so with Dwarves. If one is degenerate as shit this could easily escalate into monstergirl territory.
• Is there an Idol class everyone must take levels/be a hybrid of? Is it more like a Bard. That doesn't seem all that great when one think about it. Instead perhaps the Idol class is more like a form of singing-focused Paladin, complete with some Idol Code about always being bright, shiny, happy and all that?
• I'm going to hell for writing all this.

A Quick Look At Anime-Ish RPG (Some Actually Japanese!)

Just a quick post to look at a few games which are 'anime'-like because, let's face it, in spite of having mostly posted content for games compatible with old school, D&D-derived stuff it has been no secret that to some degree I am a filthy fucking weeabo. Not a particularly loud one, mind you: I never ran around with anime t-shirt saying 'kawaii desu' or other cancerous shit. I'm already pathetic enough as is.

Doublecross

Status: Legally available and translated. Can be bought on DrivethruRPG.

Closest Equivalent: Anime X-Men meet A Certain Scientific Railgun meet NEEDLESS, I suppose?

Let's start with one I actually ran a full campaign with, Doublecross! This is an even rarer beast, which is to say a Tabletop RPG where I own a physical copy of the damn thing and not just a PDF. These are indeed few and far between but Doublecross, for some reason, is a game I own the core rule book in physical form. In DX you play as an Overed, which is the mandatory fancy word they use for 'person with bullshit anime mutant powers'. What can make or break DX is that, for one thing, it's mechanics and settings are quite tied together as your character's powers also act as a corruption meter of sorts where the more you use them the stronger you get but also risk permanently losing said character. The fact this ties into an XP penalty can be quite annoying. The game also suffers from that very Japanese TTRPG 'thing' of being overly structured toward extremely railroad-heavy play with extremely rigid scene structure and combat/non combat dissonance. You can make a vampire loli or a catgirl if you're a degenerate.

Kamigakari

Status: Fully fan-translated but also has a completed Kickstarter. There's a bit of an issue over which version is 'better'.

Closest Equivalent: The Nasuverse (Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, Kara No Kyoukai)

In many ways, I'm told this is the 'rival' to Doublecross. Both games are fairly similar in their 'modern day anime fighting stuff' focus. The key difference is that Kamigakari is a lot more focused on urban fantasy. I haven't played KgK yet but I can definitely see both games as trying to a appeal to a similar market and demographic. There is a lot in there that can make it even come off as an 'off brand' Nasuverse, especially once you piece together all the options from the various supplements. I'd say one key thing with KgK that's superior to DX is that the various race/classes options are a lot more evocative in terms of fluff that a syndrome with some connected and disconnected powers. You can make a vampire loli or a catgirl if you're a degenerate.

Valor: The Heroic Roleplaying System

Status: Can be bought on DrivethruRPG.

Closest Equivalent: Any mainstream Shonen Jump title about people hitting each others.

This one, unlike the previous two wasn't made in Japan so right away you can expect the art to look a lot more amateur-ish like those terrible 'how to draw anime' books. That said, given its not a Japanese system its not as much of a nightmare to work with and homebrew so that's a plus. Whereas the previous two were setting-specific, Valor is genre-specific meaning it focus a lot more on the 'shonen fighting manga' genre. That's your Dragon Ball, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto Boruto's Dad, Bleach or, if you're a little kiddie, Black Clover and Demon Slayer. Anything which focus on fighting and getting stronger to fight even stronger stuff is 'shonenshit'. Wait. Does....that mean D&D is actually shonenshit? In any case, there is a system to create your power (what it does, usually a mega punch or a laser or something) and you can add things which make it stronger and reduce the cost with flaws, not unlike other games like M&M or even GURPS. Much like the others you can make a loli vampire or catgirl if you are a degenerate, provided that's what fit in the campaign.

Battle Century G

Status: Can be bought on DrivethruRPG.

Closest Equivalent: Any mecha anime. Or, more accurately, Super Robot Wars.

Okay now we're talking. Giant. Fucking. Robots. Do I need to explain this genre? It covers anything from saturday morning cartoon toy commercials in both the east and west (Transformers anyone?) to war drama (that sell toys) to weird pseudo intellectual existential nonsense (that also sell toys). There have been many mecha RPG but one thing I've tend to notice is that most games tend to focus more on the harder scifi take rather than having any mechanically feasible option to play the oversized action figure with rocket fists and combining. BCG can be a bit clunky but it has these options right from the get go, in the core book and that's all you need to know. This one is the least likely to have the vampire loli or the catgirl but you never know.

Big Eyes, Small Mouth

Status: Can be bought on DrivethruRPG.

Closest Equivalent: Deviantart?

The grand daddy of 'anime' RPG probably doesn't really need any introductions. Its a non-genre specific RPG system with point buy powers and isn't technically limited to doing 'anime'-styled games. Not much else to add because I'm going to assume people already know about it by now.

Game Concept: Monster Slayers(?)

Oh look, its yet another Amateur Dungeoneer post where Bob Something outline a pretty cool concept for a game and odds are end up never running it. That's my life people: too many unbaked ideas and even those that I do end up baking there is a good chance I'll never run them. Especially what with being (as of writing this) busy with both urban fantasy and my attempts at learning to run modern D&D just for the sake of it. Granted once I'm happy with that one and got a good-sized group that mean the JRPG game will start so...wish me luck?

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

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.

I Need To Play "Monsters Destroy All Cities"

This one is pretty new so it hasn't really collected dust as much. Well, what can I say about it? A DIY oldschool-styled wargame entirely centered around Kaijus: those giant, city-stomping rubber suit monsters of Japanese television and movies sounds pretty damn cool plus I happen to have a few monster Transformers action figures I could use in my collection, either as a kaiju or a monster-themed mecha. While it hasn't been the focus of this blog much I'm an absolutely fanboy of kaiju and mecha stuff so this one would be pretty fun to play.

As an added bonus, here's some fun ideas for unorthodox miniature ideas for all your Kaiju and mecha needs.

Breakout Beasts

That's totally a Red Dragon.

These are made by MegaConstrux formerly known as Mega Blox. They come in eggs filled with goo and the egg is reusable and have primarily a theme of dragons, which is very fitting since the most iconic kaijus are reptilian and/or draconic. They are also customizable as you can swap parts and with some point one could build their own custom critters. They are also roughly the size of a 'Large' miniature in D&D, meaning their size is fairly spot on for any young draconic monster or perhaps the mighty and terrifying steed of some black knight or evil sorcerer.

They come blind-packed in their egg but don't worry, you can at least avoid duplicates with a simple trick. Each different model has a code molded somewhere on the plastic egg so you can tell each of them apart if you're really interested. Of course, duplicates aren't a bad thing and you might want them if you plan on making a small squad of monsters.

Transformers Generations

In particular, the Battle Patrol already looks like
their alternate mode exist to shoot at Godzilla!

The long-going Generations line of Transformers is basically a 'classics' line, with modern updates to all the classic characters from the most basic and iconic to the utterly obscure. At smaller price points they currently have guys who are very small but still articulate. In particular the currently-being-released (as of this post, anyway) Micromasters, who are two-packs of tiny robots. Their vehicle mode make them well-suited to be used as regular army vehicles when you don't need robots. Meanwhile, the Battlemasters turn into weapons but they make good mechs and can hold their own guns. Same for the predecessor, the Prime Masters (who also happen to look like tokusatsu monsters!)

There is also, as mentioned, quite a few Transformers who look like mechanical monsters unleashed by some mad scientist to fight a cartoonish robotic superhero every saturday morning.

Mythical Realms (and other) figures by Safari

This guy totally look like he's going to fight Mothra
or something.

I've written about these guys before and even statted the Alien Dragon for shit and giggles. What else can be said? They're nice enough, they're a decent size and they look good. If one take time to browse their inventory they will find some suitably unorthodox and weird critters which is perfect because, for kaiju, the stranger the better. Sadly some of the cooler ones are sold out in many online stores you might need to hunt them down a bit. They also have figures of actual prehistoric beasts, including dinosaurs so that's also neat, since dinosaurs are a staple of Kaiju designs.

The Shin Megami Tensei Franchise and Tabletop RPG

Something I've been wondering now that I've gone on a serious Shin Megami Tensei binge is: why don't we see people in the tabletop RPG circles talk of that franchise? Especially around the OSR this is a bit puzzling as there is a lot in the Shin Megami Tensei that can be ported wholesale or used as inspiration. However it hit me that its very likely a sizable chunk of the OSR blogosphere is a bit too old to have gotten into that franchise. While it is an old JRPG franchise it has only (officially) made its way in the western world in the past decade or so which would explain why grognards who haven't touched a console since the SNES era wouldn't know of it. Which is unfortunate.

The cover to the original game for the
Famicom (NES)

Shin Mega-what?

Now maybe I'm wrong and short-sighted to assume people don't know about it. But my gut tells me that, with its niche status in an already increasingly niche market (classic-styled JRPG aren't really found among AAA productions who tend to favor action-RPG or games-with-RPG-elements) and its rather underground status until relatively recently.

The Shin Megami Tensei franchise is a series of vaguely-connected Japanese RPG produced by Atlus, with the first game in the series, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, being released in 1987. That game was based off a Japanese Cyberpunk/Fantasy novel called Digital Devil Story by Aya Nishitani. There was a direct sequel, a spinoff and a remake/re imagining and these games formed the core of the franchise's identity as a whole. Where (most) JRPG of the time focused on fantasy worlds, Megami Tensei focused on the then-present and near-future, blending science fiction and urban fantasy.

One look at the plot and setting and you can immediately tell why these games never made it to the United States in the 1980: focused on demon summoning, the occult and post apocalyptic themes it was just way too saucy and controversial for the Western World. The fact that God is a recurring antagonist in those games and Satan is sometimes on your side didn't help. With its strong occult themes, darker and more mature themes and tackling of religious and philosophical matters this was just a game that was never going to get  chance outside of Japan. No one wanted to touch and with good reasons.

This is God/YHVH and HE is (usually)
not your friend.

The SMT franchise is also a bit of a predecessor and ancestor to the Pokémon games, as a central game concept is the summoning of Demons to serve you. These demons have a variety of trait, skills, elemental weaknesses and resistances. They can be recruited to your cause by talking to them in combat and negotiating. Demons don't level up as fast your human character(s) and as such must be fused together, sacrificing both of them but creating a new and more powerful demon who can inherit the skills of the demons sacrificed in the fusion. The exact details and mechanics of this has changed a lot over the years.

This is a sprawling franchise and talking about each individual game is impossible but I'll try to give quick descriptions of (some of) those legally available in English for those interested:

• Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: The first mainline SMT available outside of Japan and forever made infamous for featuring Dante from Devil May Cry! The world end, creating a nightmarish post apocalyptic world full of demons. Your character is transformed into a half-Demon and left to puzzle out wtf is going on. The game is fairly low on dialogue and very harsh, creating this foreboding sense of utter loneliness and isolation.
• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: A game which should have been the fourth game in the franchise but was eventually called a spinoff. SMT:SJ draws inspiration from American action and horror movies with the classic SMT formula. You play a marine sent to Antarctica  as part of a team hoping to reverse an anomaly which will end the world.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV: After years of spinoffs, SMT IV is released for the Nintendo 3DS. Unlike the other games it take place in a (mostly) peaceful, pastoral medieval-ish world and....yeah obviously ten minutes in you'll notice a suspiciously high amount of technology around indicating things are not what they seem.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse: A spinoff/side-story/alternate telling of SMT IV.
• Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 1 and 2: These games are a duology meant to be two games played back to back. More post apocalyptic weirdness which is hard to explain without spoiling quite a bit. This one has no recruitable demons and focus on your party members more like a classical JRPG.
• Devil Summoners: Soul Hackers: You play as a hacker in a near-future (for the '90, anyway) city. This is by far one of the oldest and most 'retro' of the legally-available SMT titles as it is a remake of a 1997 Sega Saturn game for the 3DS.

Those who are already aware of this franchise history know I'm leaving out a very, very famous and popular spinoff series. One which has become so popular it has eclipsed the mainline series all around the world. A series which needs no introduction to anyone vaguely into JRPG and/or anime: Persona. The Persona series is an SMT spinoff but it has become so different in style, tone and concepts that it isn't covered by this basic guide.

Gameable Material

There is a lot to take from the SMT franchise, so here's a few key points I would definitely take note of and make sure to include if I was to run an SMT-inspired game:

• Law vs Chaos (and Neutral) Alignment: With so many cues from tabletop RPG, it is no surprise that SMT features an alignment system in most games which can vary from an actual game mechanic to simply which side you choose which affect your ending and maybe final boss encounter. Law is usually associated with YHVH while Chaos is associated with Satan. The Neutral routes range from anything between balance-of-both-sides to the main character giving the middle finger to both sides and siding with humanity. If one like their Moorcockian-ish cosmic struggle, then the SMT alignment should be appealing.
• Its a monster mash: In SMT, just about every creature from myth and pop culture exist, implied to possibly be made manifest and born from the human psyche. Its the kind of world where Oni, ghosts, angels, Cthulhu and Thor can meet. And most likely fight, too.
• The Setting(s): From modern day Tokyo with demons to the future to the past to post-apocalyptic cybernetic hellscapes the SMT settings are always interesting, especially the post-apoc ones. Good for sandboxing and exploration.
• Reaction Tables and Talking: An SMT-inspired game would definitely benefit from a reaction table, as some demons are more likely to want to have a chat with you while others will want to rip your face off. Sometimes it is a matter of alignment (yours and the demon) and sometimes it depend on other factors. Demon negotiation make for a valid random encounter, as not every encounter is combat-related: some demons will want or give info as well as items. Of course, if something goes poorly then the fight is one.
• Its Hard: The older the SMT the harder it gets. These games have punishing combat and, infamously, quite a bit of Save-or-Die type spells.