A thought just ran across my mind.
Is sense the superhero genera and the shonen an anime general are practically the same.
Why don't we have an table top rpg that can properly do both at the same time?
Practically one of the same but yet so different?
GURPS
Not until GURPS gets around to making that Vehicles splat book.
One of the main writers already has a fetish for cat girls. He has put them in several slat books alread. Not to mention the furry split book.
Which table top games fail to adequetely represent both genres?
We don't have a anime split book for mutants and masterminds.
Besm is a time and a half since you're going to have banned half the book.
Ova is ok-ish ...
>We don't have a anime split book for mutants and masterminds.
Sure we do. Mecha and Manga for 2e.
I think he means mechanically. Mechanically any system that can build Superman can build Goku. Any System that can do Captain Marvel can do Sailor Moon, Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. A good supers system, like M&M, Hero or GURPS can do Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen or Yu Yu Hakusho.
Thematically they're different, but a good generic or semi-generic system doesn't care about themes, that is on the players and DM.
Both are awful ideas for TTRPGs
>Is sense the superhero genera and the shonen an anime general are practically the same.
If you define them as "comics containing people with supernatural powers" then any system will do, really.
They have a lot of overlap, but don't make the mistake thinking all shonen are super hero stories, or all super hero stories are shonen.
But a lot of shonen protagonists happen to be super heroes.
>superhero genera and the shonen an anime general are practically the same.
I'm not having a long-winded conversation but not really despite the cross-pollination when both genres were picking up. Shonen is derivative of martial arts stories and there's always a theme of growth and improvement and self-discovery, while capeshit is more rooted into pulp stories and cares more about what choices the hero makes with his powers/responsibility, testing the mettle of the hero etc
True. There can be cross-over, but they seem to care more about different things.
The difference is Any Rand.
any rando can make a difference? like it doesn't matter who you are but the choices you make? deep...
In superhero comics, society as we know it is just a trickle down result of ubermensch being kept weighted down by the masses. Once any of them shrugs, we get a multi-issue, multi-character event that will ultimately require and result in a total reset of the universe.
>that will ultimately require and result in a total reset of the universe.
That’s more of a DC thing. Marvel has famously never had a setting-wide reset event in the vein of Crisis or Flashpoint. The closest it gets is something like One More Day, and that was focused on a specific character (and is so universally reviled that we’re unlikely to ever see it again).
>That’s more of a DC thing. Marvel has famously never had a setting-wide reset event in the vein of Crisis or Flashpoint.
Marvel too has the issue of every new writer working on the main universe starting a completely new AU that barely can be arsed to pay lip service to what came right before it.
The only reason DC earth isn't ruled by immortal God king Kal-El is because ma and pa Kent did a good job raising that boy.
Almost any superhero game could probably cover some shonen as well. It's just that shonen often focuses more on progression, while superheroes tend to be within a specific bracket.
I feel like the big difference is a Shonen system should have a tension mechanic similar to Battle Century G, well it's kind of a cointoss on if Supers should or not.
>Shonen system should have a tension mechanic similar to Battle Century G,
How would that work? And why is it necessary for Shonen systems?
You could add some kind of a training mechanic. Like your character needs to train X amount to spend XP points?
It's weird how many people think you can run basically anything with DnD 5e rules that includes Superheroes and Shonen.
Stay Mad LOL.
>You could add some kind of a training mechanic. Like your character needs to train X amount to spend XP points?
You don't really need a mechanic for that, or at the very least not anything complex. If people spend points between sessions to improve and you have the time between adventures be for weeks or months in-game, then it's just a matter of stating that they spent some of that time training.
If anything I think what you'd really need to change mechanically speaking is how much XP is gained. You'd want to be giving the players more generous XP rewards so that they can go from destroying walls to destroying moons in a reasonable amount of time.
>How would that work?
Tension level starts at one and goes up by one after each round of combat. The tension level value is added to every offensive dice roll made for both sides.
>And why is it necessary for Shonen systems?
It isn't. But it certainly helps facilitate the "powering up as you fight" idea that is present in many shonen animes. The longer the fight goes on, the faster it is to end.
Tension is something the participants experience naturally as a result of playing the game. It's not a mechanic.
We do.
Average Shonen Protagonist
health 12, edge 10
12d might, 12d toughness, 6d agility
2d intellect, 4d perception, 12d willpower
2d academics, 4d charm, 2d command
2d covert, 2d investigation, 2d medicine
2d professional, 2d science, 2d streetwise
2d survival, 2d technology, 2d vehicles
12d strike - deflect, reach, sweep
12 flight
12d blast - block, area, zone, penetrating
7d teleportation
Which system is that?
prowlers and paragons
Thanks
Tri stat/Big Eyes Small Mouth? With besm being the "anime" side of the system while "Silver age sentinels" represents the superhero version of the system. The difference between them being the dice they roll (2d6 for BESM 2d10 for SAS) and the fact that the latter game uses bigger numbers.
It’s one AND the same, you illiterate.
I see it a bit more like comparing Samurai Ronin movies with Spaghetti westerns.
Which both inspired firefly (a Space western) and star wars. (The actual good shit)
Despite the powerscaling arguments that shonen is known for I feel like there's a lot more narrative bullshit that people in that discourse like to account for, and why it's hard to just translate the genre over to a trpg. Putting aside that shonen is overtly broad of course.
There's also the fact that some settings have 'absolute' powers that always work and it'd be hard to balance around, and that a character's strenght tends to fluctate wildly.
Most superhero games have you start at 100% from get the get go and slowly dwindle in strenght, and ability to survive a fight. When shonen characters are always getting second winds or transformations that make them overtly powerful.
So, while you can probably brute-force it with say GURPs. If I ran a Shonen game I would lean more on systems that lean onto GM Fiat, like say Amber or Everway (which gets bonus points for the cards adding randomization).
Since the main resolution for both of those cames is that the character with the biggest number will always win in a straight contest, you can try to emulate the mind games of the genre. With the GM abjucating for when characters use their weird powers. Still, this does put a lot of work on the GM and not all people would like this style of game.
I know this is a shitty b*mpgay thread but still
>Most superhero games have you start at 100% from get the get go and slowly dwindle in strenght, and ability to survive a fight. When shonen characters are always getting second winds or transformations that make them overtly powerful.
Seems like the kind of thing you can address by adding "hero points" or other such meta currency. You get the points by role playing as your character well, and then you get your second wind moment by spending the hero points
Possibly. Not too hot on them because of my brand of autism but most people can probably grok it.
Now that I think of it, M&M (2nd edition I think?) had an option where you could succeed on a check, and spend a hero point to get access to some bonus character points and an increase in power level for a scene. Which was used to represent your character being inexperienced with your powers but I thought it was a better form of doing super modes.
Yeah, it's called Resolve. This isn't a new idea.
Yes, they both suck ass
they tend to be thematically, systemicaly, and formulaically pretty distinct.
shonen tends to have a single longform story with gradual elevation of stakes and powers. while superheros tend to have more oneshots or contained archs.
I feel like you would lose a lot of the “anime”ness or “superhero”ness by trying to do both in one system.