31 Questions For Barking Alien - Phase II - Question 10

Its 1974. Everyone is Kung-Fu Fighting. Everyone! Especially Kelvin Green, largely thanks to Question #10.

Have you encountered a system that fits Feng Shui better than Feng Shui does? How would you handle Hong Kong style action movies in a role-playing game?

Here's where my knowledge of and experience with Japanese TRPGs is both a boon and a burden simultaneously. Yes, I definitely know of some games that I feel handle Asian Action Movie Martial Arts and Gun-Fu in a cooler way than Feng Shui but they are not available outside of Japan.

The first one that comes to mind is Burning Spirits, a game that to my knowledge was printed up in one or more articles of the Japanese gaming periodical 'RPG Magazine'. I played it only once at an Anime Convention in 1994 but man-oh-man, it left a major impression on me. I loved it! A better version of White Wolf's Street Fighter game, it played like a simplier, faster Ars Magica (kind of), both easier and more evocative of the genre than Feng Shui.

Characters have a few Attributes, one of which is Speed. Your Speed determines how many Actions you can take in a Round (defined very differently from the traditional D&D meaning) and how quickly you.can get off said Actions (which effects not just initiative but whether you can defend against your opponents Attacks). Battles begin with each PC and named NPC taking a Stance that influences your approach to the fight; an Attack Stance adds to your Attack rolls and Damage throughout the engagement, while a Defense Stance makes you harder to hit and reduces the Damage you take from successful Attacks against you. This was really awesome because you could go into a fight with a Defense Stance but take an aggressive approach to your Attacks if you wanted to.

Martial Arts moves are built out of Attacks (like Punch, Kick, Hold, Throw) or Defenses (Block, Deflect, Redirect, and at least one other) and Techniques. This last category defines how the Attack or Defense is executed. Examples include Force to cause extra damage by spending two Actions at once, Position to change where you are located in the bout, or Rapid to get multiple hits in a single Attack or block a flurry of blows. Styles can be added to your moves to give additional modifiers or effects to your Action. 

My character in the game I played was a big, Native American bruiser type with wrestling moves. Among his best was an Attack Stance Hold Attack that used the Clutch Technique to ensure my opponent couldn't move. What did that look like? Basically it's a mighty Bear Hug that lifts the other combatant off the ground. By combining it with one of the three Wrestling Styles I could then slam the enemy to the ground or with a different Wrestling Style, throw the other fighter across the battle area. I mostly used the throwing version and called it 'Bear Hugs and Throws the Great Salmon'! The other version was 'Bear Hugs and Hits the Great Salmon Against a Rock'. lol

My friend's character had this 'Leaping Dragon Punch' that would knock an opponent 10 spaces away, dividing that distance between vertical and horizontal movement. He hit a bad guy up 1 space and back 9 spaces, sending the thug flying out of a window. Another time he punched a crook 7 spaces up and 3 spaces back so he would hit his head on the ceiling and then go backward into a chandelier. 

It was such a cool game. Sadly, I don't have that issue of RPG Magazine and I was never able to get an English translation of the rules. In fact, its almost like the game never existed. I can't find information on it anywhere, including my various Japanese contacts. Very sad panda. 

The other game I really like, which is available in English (unofficial fan translation) through Scribd I believe, is SATASUPE (Saturday Night Special), which I've spoken about before on the blog. It leans more towards the Gun-Fu, over-the-top Crime Thriller side of Hong Kong and Japanese Action Films. Think Chow Yun Fat in Hard Boiled instead of Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon. That said, the game has a number of supplements that expand the game to include Street Fighter Martial Artists, Kill Bill/John Wick type Assassins, and other elements that fit right in with the Feng Shui vibe.

This RPG is a little on the crunchie side but not overly complex. The added material fits in well with both the mechanics and setting already established. Overall, if you want to include everything Feng Shui includes and not just the classic Hong Kong/Chinese Martial Arts movies, SATASUPE would make a really good choice.

There are others, also Japanese, that I can think of but they're not truly in the vein of Feng Shui. 

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay 2024 - Barking Alien Edition - Day 4

What makes a character in an RPG a hero? Have you ever seen a PC or NPC worthy of the title?

I've seen lots and I'm sure most of you have too. Hard to pick just one. In fact, most of the PCs run by my good friends David Concepcion, Keith Conroy, and certainly Selina Wong would more than qualify.

Today though, I'd like to tell the tale of a hero I've not mentioned before. To make things even more difficult for myself I want to avoid games where being a champion of true and justice is par for the course such as Superhero games, Star Trek, or Star Wars.

Hmm. OK, I got it! Let me set the scene...

Summer Camp, 1980. Six Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st Edition) adventurers levels 5 to 7 have been exploring The Ruins of Castle Fengest* in search of the fabled Ghost Sword of Apotrop**. Each intends on finding the sword and turning it over to the rightful heir in hopes of gaining a great reward. 

I am the Dungeonmaster. The party consists of:

Dwarf Fighter - Rightful heir promised to ally with Dwarves against Goblin Invaders.

Elf Fighter/Magic-User - Fulfill an oath to the original sword wielder to avenge their death. 

Halfling Thief - Earn enough riches to pay off family debt.

Human Druid - Secure a region of the heir's woods as a Druid Sanctuary.

Human Fighter - Earn his place as a Knight in service of the rightful heir.

Human Ranger - Rid the roads around the ruins of bandit attacks to ensure safe travel.***

The group is most of the way through the haunted ruins of the castle and things are tense. The Dwarf is dead, the Human Fighter (toughest PC they have) is really low on HP, and everyone has taken some damage. The Human Druid has revealed himself to be a coward and mostly self-interested. 

The party is at odds on what to do. Three want to turn back or at least find a 'safe' place to heal up and two want to keep going as they're sure the sword is close. The Dwarf's voice can sometimes be heard echoing the halls, spuring them on. Is it encouragement from their departed ally or a trick of the Ghost Lord of Fengest****? 

A rousing speech by the Human Ranger [and the rest of the group threatening the Druid with bodily harm] gets the team to continue forward. Their next encounter is a boon, defeating several very tough skeletons and gaining a couple of healing potions.  They don't help much but its better than nothing. 

Finally, after besting a riddle trap with the help of the Dwarf's spirit, the party comes face-to-phantom with the Ghost Lord of Fengest, wielding the Sword of Apotrop! Now, the team was up against some major obstacles:

The Ghost Lord could hit the PCs with his Ghost Touch (see below under Ghost Lord of Fengest****) or very solid sword but he was intangible and the PCs couldn't do the same. Only certain spells and magic weapons could hit him and most did little damage (see below as noted).

Anyone killed in the Ruins of Castle Fengest would become a disembodied spirit, trapped within its halls forever, such as the Dwarf, the magic sword's original owner (friend of our Elf), and all the adventurers who'd come before.

The Druid went full @$$&*%#, refusing to heal anyone but himself, barely helping, and mostly hiding. 

The entire team was still low on HP, Spells, and pretty desperate. 

The Human Fighter made a decision and asked the Elf to cover him. The Fighter then downed a Strength Potion and on his next action ran straight towards the Ghost Lord and tried to physically rend the Sword of Apotrop from its ghastly grip. Doing so allowed the Ghost Lord to touch him, draining away his lifeforce as he struggled to remove the sword from the spectre's hand. Finally he managed to pull it free and tossed it back to the Ranger as the Fighter collapsed to the ground. 

The Ranger lept forth and struck the Ghost Lord with the enchanted blade, doing massive damage! The Ghost Lord relatiated but the Sword of Apotrop gave the Ranger protection against the phantom warrior's attack (in the form of a saving throw bonus to take no effects). Everyone in the party (expect the Druid) forfeited their next moves so the Ranger could strike again. And strike he did, mightly and true, destroying the Ghost Lord once and for all! 

With the Ghost Lord gone, all the trapped souls were free. The party could see many of them passing upwards through the floors, walls, and ceilings toward the great beyond. The Ranger and the others gathered around the Human Fighter but it was too late. The brave hero managed to say, "Someone was going to die today. It was either me or all of you. Fair trade I'd say", and his spirit departed skyward as well. 

The team returned to the rightful heir with the sword and their was a great celebration. The Human Fighter was posthumously awarded Knighthood. A plaque with his name adorned the barracks of the City Guard. The heir become Duke and fulfilled all his promises...save one. The Druid was given no land in his woods and was banished from the province, never to set foot on the Duke's soil or stone lest he suffer the blade. 

David P's Human Fighter. A true hero in the truest sense. 

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Barking Alien

BONUS FEATURE: Day 3 of the official RPGaDay 2024 Prompts:

From medieval heroes to modern criminals...

I get bored with the art in most RPGs these days. There's a sameyness to a lot of it. Some games do have their own more individual look and I do like those particular RPGs as a result. ALIEN, Star Trek Adventures, and Tales of the Loop (a game specifically based on the artwork of Swedish painter Simon Stålenhag) are good examples though I do wish ALIEN and STA would change up their styles a little once in a while. 

One of my favorite RPGs with great art is the Japanese TRPG 'SATASUPE', Saturday Night Special, the Asian Punk Roleplaying Game which I've discussed on the blog in the past. Not only is the art cool but its unusual. It has that Japanese Anime/Manga look and yet it doesn't. It's got a street art, funky vibe that is perfect for the game.

While a handful of artists worked on the product, the lead illustrator most commonly associated with SATASUPE is Hayami Rasenjin. Rasenjin (a pen name) is a really interesting fellow (look into him some time) but what I want to focus on is that he's drawn for dozens and dozens of Japanese TRPGs. He wrote what would have been the first Dice Fiction game (but that's a story for another time) and was a playtester on many as well. He has been a major figure in the JTRPG scene.

Anyway, I love his art in SATASUPE. Here are some examples:

SATASUPE Cover Art

Current Edition

More talk about SATASUPE in the near future.

Twice As Thorough Thursdays : SATASUPE

UPDATED: 03/17/2024

I missed last week's Thorough Thursday, so this week I'm giving you two!

Welcome back to the program.

During the commercial Barkley and I were talking with the audience about genres that are difficult to identify or more accurately, name. Since you can breakdown most genres into subgenres, it's funny when you find it difficult to pinpoint a genre at all. There are very few undefinable [or extremely difficult to define] genres but they're out there.

My next guest, who comes to us all the way from Japan, represents one such difficult to pinpoint genre.

While not a name known here in the United States, my next guest has been a star in the field of Japanese tabletop RPGs since the late 1990s. Its revised edition, essentially it's second edition, came out in 2003 and remained popular all the way to its next revision in 2008. The 2008 version of the game is still being played and remains popular to this day.

Let's have a big round of applause for SATASUPE.

SATASUPE

The Asian Punk RPG

1st Edition Cover

Prior to this post I have only tagged SATASUPE, the Japanese 'Asian Punk' Role Playing Game produced by Adventure Planning Service, twice before. Both previous blog entries refer to a single game idea I would like to explore using SATASUPE but don't really discuss the game itself.

That's just wrong.

SATASUPE - the original edition depicted above - was one of the first Japanese tabletop RPGs I ever played and it remains a favorite of mine for reasons I will go into in a bit.

First, a little in the way of introduction...

I am not entirely sure when the first edition of the game came out as I recall seeing ads for it in Japanese RPG magazines prior to 2000 but I can only confirm that an edition of Satasupe was published in 2003 and became the definitive version of the game until a new, even further revised edition came out in 2008. My current research indicates the first edition was released in 1996.

As with many Japanese pop culture product titles, Satasupe is actually a play on English words. In this case, 'Saturday Night Special'.

The game was created by Touichirou Kawashima and as noted above, published by the game design studio and publisher known as Adventure Planning Service for book and game company Shinkigensha, Hobbybase.

The game is set on an alternate history Earth, where World War II and its aftermath went very differently. The default setting of the game is therefore a fictional version of Osaka that has been divided up by the numerous government superpowers that exist in the game's modern era. Among these are:

The District of Kinki - Under the control of the United Nations. Considered neutral territory.
Huogeshan - Controlled by the People's Republic of China.
Osten Schloss - Under the control of Nazi Germany.
The People's Democratic Republic of Japan - A pro-Soviet government in Northern Japan
The Republic of Japan - A pro-American government in Southern Japan.

(Personally I think those last two should have their names reversed or at least the word 'Democratic' dropped from the Soviet group but what the hay, right?).

Curiously, when I've played and/or run the game, I did not use the RPG's default setting and neither did my GM. We tended to set our games in an indeterminate Japanese city, not exactly Tokyo but not not-Tokyo either. Basically, we simply ignored the specifics of the story's location for ease of story telling. Likewise, the stories didn't take place on an alternate history Earth but rather a hidden in plain sight world of action, intrigue, and shadowy organizations akin to Men-In-Black, Harry Potter, or more appropriately John Wick; a world wherein more-than-normal events occur but most people are unaware of their existence. 

The game is relatively simple, using pools of six-sided dice (Sorta. Keep reading). In some aspects, the mechanics are no different from many RPGs that use a 'number of successes' to determine the outcome of tasks. What makes it kinda different is that your score in a particular attribute isn't the number of D6s you roll but the number of pairs of D6s you roll. 

Satasupe REmix Character Sheet

Translated into English

The rules were originally explained to me by a friend who spoke, read, and wrote Japanese but whose command of English left a little something to be desired. I will say that their English improved over the course of our friendship much more than my Japanese. Luckily, a fan translation of the game was done by Notepad Anon/SPRUG Workshop. It can be found here. 

Your character is largely defined by stats such as Crime, Life, Love, etc. Your Profession, which felt a bit like a class but more akin to a [LUG Star Trek] Character Template, gave you your skills, starting equipment, and access to various abilities particular to your job [like special class features or feats only someone of your Profession would have].

If I remember correctly, having a Crime of 4 for example means you are rolling 8 dice.You're rolling four sets of two. If you need to beat a 9 and two dice total 6, two roll an 8, two total a 10, and two total up to 11, then you have two successes, a Success Level of 2. 

Anyway, the thing that makes this game special for me (aside from a few nifty mechanical bits) is that it covers a genre or more accurately a related series of genres that are rarely covered in Western RPGs.

The Japanese sometimes refer to it as 'Yarou', which translates roughly as 'bastard', 'tough guy', or occasionally 'macho'. The game itself is labelled the 'Asian Punk' RPG (a term coined by the game's creator).

The genre basically covers all those films, TV shows, and Anime and Manga in which the hero is just thoroughly badass. Examples include: Swallowtail, Ichi The Killer, the animated film The Professional: Golgo 13, and animated series and manga Wild 7. At the same time, it certainly fits American films like The Warriors, Die Hard, Ocean's 11, and Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

Interestingly, if you look up the links for the American films, you'll see that they can't even decide what genre they are. Pulp Fiction is noted as a 'black comedy crime film'. Reservoir Dogs is a 'neo-noir crime thriller'. Warriors is listed merely as a thriller. A thriller? I guess. It's a lot more than that in my opinion.

Over the years, SATASUPE has expanded into other genres and subgenres, all the while maintaining the themes of action, suspense, crime, honor, tradition, rebellion, and a healthy dose of 1970s cool. Supplements for the game add John Woo style Gun-Fu, Rockers, Street Fighter style Martial Arts, Magic, Advanced Technology, and even the Undead (mainly Demons, Ghosts, Vampires, and Zombies).

Now here is the real kicker...

It could be argued that SATASUPE is a comedy game. Well...it is. A very dark, overly dramatic comedy game. Bullets fly easily and often. Expect to get hurt. It's a comedy like Pulp Fiction is a comedy.

Combat is cinematic but extremely deadly. Themes and subject matter are pretty mature. And yet, it is definitely funny in a darkly humorous way. The art, by popular Japanese tabletop RPG artist Hayami Rasenjin, contributes an oddly whimsical feel to the game's otherwise dystopian atmosphere.

Without its sense of humor, SATASUPE would be a very depressing game and probably not nearly as popular as it has been. The vaguely comedic, quirky nature of the game is part of what makes it so unique, even if that isn't the main focus.

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 27

Now this one is interesting...

Favorite idea for merging two game together, huh? Favorite idea.

I like the wording here for once. This is not necessarily the best merging of games you've ever done, but rather the best idea you think you've had for doing so.

Nice.

A tough question too. I've merged many ideas together, crossbred some games from story to system, and at the same time, I'm not a fan of subjects that seem to hodge-podged, and thrown together needlessly.

As a genre junkie, I feel one must be careful when mixing together two very strong ingredients. What seems like chocolate and peanut butter could in reality be oil and water, or worse, acid and bleach.

With that, there is still the desire to combine two of my favorite ideas together, like Space Adventure and Superheroes (Did that), Space Adventure and Mecha (Done), or Mecha and Superheroes (Yeppers).

These are genres however, not 'games'. For two games I'd most like to merge, things definitely get a bit trickier. I've had the idea of the Traveller universe with giant robots a la' Mekton, which I dubbed 'MechaTraveller', That's one I particularly like.

Favorite idea though, hmmm..

I think I'd have to go with an idea I came up with about a year ago, but haven't had the chance to do anything with. Attack The Block, The Role Playing Game. Combining Japan's Asian Punk. Tarantino-esque Crime RPG SATASUPE Remix, with the All-Australian Sci-Fi Comedy game, Hunter Planet, and based on the awesome film of the same name, I think this thing would rock as a one-shot, or maybe even a short campaign.

Well, that's my answer for Day 27.

"Are we there yet?"

Almost kids. Almost.

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Barking Alien

Inner City vs. Outer Space

I haven't had a gaming epiphany in a long while.

Had one today.

You start with SATASUPE REmix, the Japanese 'Asian Punk', Crime/Action RPG.

You add Hunter Planet, The All-Australian, Sci-Fi Comedy RPG.

You get:

Truth.

(Drops the mic).

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Barking Alien