What's a good system for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure? I'm mostly interested in the creative power usage aspect, where you're trying to figure out how your opponent's bullshit power works in order come up with a strategy to defeat them. I hear stuff like Chainsaw Man and JJK have this sort of dynamic as well, if that makes recommendations easier to make.
I did find Overarms, but there were a couple things I didn't like about it.
- It's pretty poorly balanced, which is weird given how light it is. Two of the four classes are just OP RAW for really obvious reasons. HP values are really low, leading to two tap combats. You could argue that some of the stats are less useful than others. It makes me wonder how much this game was playtested.
- Not a lot of ruling on how to balance/adjudicate ability usage in combat, which is weird because of course you're going to use your psuedo-Stand shit in combat.
The out of combat stuff is fine, and I might just steal some of the ideas.
I'm pretty sure the best JoJo system exists in pieces; you take the best parts of the ones you like and stitch them together with the power of my stand, Monster Mash
If you don't come up with a Japanese transliteration of the stand name you are not a true Jojo fan
Post stand designs
I found it fun to raid the D&D 5e spell list for Stand abilities. A lot of them work out of the box, but for more powerful stuff you might should come up with drawbacks to make them work in a game format.
Making one up on the fly, rate it.
「Slaughterhouse Destiny」
>A stand that takes the form of a large pig with porcelain skin and an oversized coin slot on its back. Bold seams run across its body in the manner of a butcher's meat cut diagram. If something is fed to「Slaughterhouse Destiny」via its coin slot, the most similar object within a 10 meter range appears in its mouth.「Slaughterhouse Destiny」can spit things out from its mouth with great force.
Power: B
Speed: C
Range: C
Stamina: D
Precision: D
Potential: C
I dunno, I'm kind of shit at deciding stats.
Examples of usage:
>Find an item in a pile by feeding 「Slaughterhouse Destiny」a similar object.
>Snatch a bullet from mid air by feeding「Slaughterhouse Destiny」a bullet. Bonus for having「Slaughterhouse Destiny」shoot out the stolen bullet.
>Snatch a wallet from someone by feeding「Slaughterhouse Destiny」a wallet.
>Disposing of an item, not caring about the second part of 「Slaughterhouse Destiny」's ability.
>Snatch object from a secure container by feeding 「Slaughterhouse Destiny」a similar object.
「99 Luftballoons」
>"99 Knights in the Sky": When 99LB touches an object, it can stamp a number anywhere from 1 to 99. This is the percentage of how much lighter the object is. The less it weighs, the more rubbery and flexible it becomes.
Power: D
Speed: B
Precision: A
Durability: E
Range: C
Potential: B
「Desert Prince」
Turns the user into a werehamster, giving them the characteristics of a hamster. While the most obvious change is the addition of cheek pouches, other hamster attributes like scent glands and sharp incisors are also included.
Power: C
Speed: B
Range: E
Stamina: B
Precision: C
Potential: B
in my limited experience id use OVA. It has rules for summoning supporting characters with wildly different stats than yourself, transformation and a bunch of other bullshit that you really shouldnt be able to get away with. You'd need some retooling to make it work though
Mutants and Masterminds.
This system by design wants you do absolute bullshit. Particularly one of the uses for Bizarre points is "Place some object, item, non-player character or event in an area." and frequently makes a point of saying that anything justifiable is fair game. vampire body manipulations only have the restriction of "Anything that can be remotely justifiable from the standpoint of managing the body’s processes can be a Vampire attack."
It also has a secret action system, which will require you to have some sort of note-card system if you aren't playing in person (in this case, just use notecards). It's very freeform and encourages players to think further ahead than the immediate next turn or two.
Have actually run a campaign in this system, it's fantastic, fits the vibe of JJBA like nothing else.
This one is fantastic. Also played. They nailed the feel of JoJo. Hype man is OP and bullshitting powers in the middle of a fight or high-tension scenario is beautiful.
I think this is the newest update. Digging through the old docs, you can find the "supplement" for non-stands, but the supplements appear not to be updated to 2.0 yet.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ReSnZDUvIhpCG0X_8S5C-7P5vBRUb0P08gedAvs0oMc/edit%3Fusp%3Dsharing&ved=2ahUKEwj4o_DRqqGFAxVCJUQIHcDJDzYQjjh6BAgwEAE&usg=AOvVaw3IZ2U9sNiyF8vEkJ9veKyQ
I miss Super Stand Sunday
Fudge works. We used stand ratings as they are but the difference between each letter is +2 scale instead of just one. Also just skipped the rules that give you negative modifiers when you're hurt. A JoJo hero gets stronger when his back is against the wall.
To simulate outsmarting, try this: players declare actions - NPCs declare actions - players can change their actions - simultaneous resolution.
Behold my stand, 「State of Mind」 Act 1 to 4
I put together a light system for my own jojo campaign. I've run two sessions and it hasn't flown to pieces yet.
If the thread is still up tomorrow I'll post a bit more.
Several friends of my swear by Tendencies, if you like PbtA games - it's explicitly Jojo-inspired.
Unironically FATE.
It's a bad system, but fits Jojo's bullshit like a glove