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[Persus13]

Hey did anyone see the last episode of saturday Night live? I thought this sketch would make a perfect RTD.

[Wwolin]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So You Want to be a Magical Girl, a Madoka RTD
Warning: Puella Magi Madoka Magica spoilers everywhere. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you do. And don't spoil yourself, cause a ton of the enjoyment from watching it the first time is the perfectly timed reveals and surprises.

[spoiler=plot]So Madoka is a darker sort of Magical Girl anime. There are constant battles against random and varied enemies, labyrinths to navigate through beforehand, and a very high mortality rate. It would be an excellent RTD setting, I think.

It would take very good roleplayers though. Wishes have noticeable effects on a Magical Girl's powers, such as Sayaka's healing wish causing her to heal faster than the other girls. You'd have to make sure people knew how to roleplay their wish and its results rather than just picking things to get the powers they want. In addition, people would have to deal with being outright weaker than other girls (Sayaka, for example, is on the weaker end while Madoka is ridiculously powerful).

But if it's done right then I think it could be ridiculously fun. Surreal dungeon crawls, girls dying and becoming witches that have to be dealt with, and all sorts of other fun shenanigans.

Mechanically, it wouldn't be too hard to deal with most of the stuff in the anime. I'd use a modified version of Sean Mirrsen's skill system (here) as well as experience levels that would allow players to rank up their skills and attributes. They'd also have Soul Points that would measure how full their Soul Gem is. SP would be depleted through casting spells or taking damage, and if it hits 0 the girl will die if she can't restore her gem quickly.

Spoiler: soul gems (click to show/hide)

A girl's soul gem literally contains her soul. She has to carry it somewhere on her body, which would be relevant with hit locations. If a girl takes a critical hit to a location with her soul gem, it's destroyed and she dies immediately. Think Mami dying by Charlotte in episode 3, or Kyoko dying by Mami in episode 11.

The girls would not be aware of this initially, as Kyubey doesn't want them to know for various reasons. They'd probably react to secrets like this pretty negatively when they found out. Kyubey doesn't tell lies, but he won't tell them about this if they don't ask the right questions.

Power Level
When creating their character, they would be assigned a random magical girl power level. Some magical girls are just stronger than others - this is a big roleplaying element for the weaker girls. The power level would give them a natural modifier to attributes (not skills, those are all learned) and to their max SP. This would also have an effect on their wish - very powerful girls can cause great changes while weaker girls could only do minor things.

In this example I'm assuming Soul Points for newer girls would be around 30 and they'd start with something like 12 attribute points. They would also gain 1 attribute point every even level. I'm not sure if these numbers are balanced at all, but I'm just throwing them out there for the sake of example.

These would be chosen by a roll on a 2d6, making most magical girls stay closer to the middle. This allows for more dramatic effects on both extremes.

2. -5 base attribute points, -12 max SP, -1 attribute point every 6 levels
3. -4 base attribute points, -8 max SP, -1 attribute point every 8 levels
4. -3 base attribute points, -5 max SP, -1 attribute point every 10 levels
5. -2 base attribute points, -3 max SP
6. -1 base attribute points, -2 max SP
7. No change
8. +1 base attribute points, +2 max SP
9. +2 base attribute points, +3 max SP
10. +3 base attribute points, +5 max SP, +1 attribute point every 8 levels
11. +4 base attribute points, +8 max SP, +1 attribute point every 7 levels
12. +5 base attribute points, +12 max SP, +1 attribute point every 5 levels

Ideally I'd come up with more interesting effects on 2/3/11/12 than just stat changes, but that'll take some more brainstorming.

Witches
Most witches' attributes would be chosen from a random table. This would affect the witch herself, the ways she tries to harm normal people, as well as her labyrinth and familiars/minions. I'd hope to get something like Sean Mirrsen's random space monster table, though it would obviously require a lot of heavy modification.

Spoiler: spoilery witches (click to show/hide)

If a Magical Girl dies in any way except for her soul gem being destroyed, she turns into a witch. This pretty much demands that the party go in and take care of her. More powerful girls would turn into more powerful witches. Madoka's was powerful enough to decimate a good portion of the planet, but once again she's on the extreme upper end of the power spectrum.

Witches and their labyrinths often have motifs of the girl's desires and secrets. This is where good roleplaying comes in handy - a girl with a good backstory and a well played wish will create a great witch encounter. Player witches would trend towards the more difficult end of the spectrum, but would also be more rewarding than your average witch. They'd be pretty big campaign milestones even if they're mostly unrelated to the main plot.

Gameplay
The GM would be Kyubey. In the beginning I wouldn't start out with a full party because wish making is fun and I'd want to roleplay as many wishes as possible during the sessions. For example, you could start out with a duo of experienced girls who have been witch hunting for a while, but then some unwitting schoolgirls get exposed to witch stuff and become magical girls to help fight it. Pretty similar to the anime. Or the girls could make their wishes separately from the party (either in backstory or RP'd separately) but would come to the experienced girls for help. Replacement players would be treated similarly.

A chapter/session would typically revolve around a witch encounter. The girls would find and enter the labyrinth, progress through it if necessary, then defeat the witch in a boss battle. There's a lot of room for variation. There could be more mazey or puzzley labyrinths or innocent bystanders to consider. Maybe a hostile magical girl could move in and compete for grief seeds.

When the girls defeat the witch, they get a grief seed that can restore a certain amount of SP to their soul gem (in addition to experience). They'd have to divide it amongst themselves as they see fit. Once it's drained, they give it to Kyubey and he eats it. This is the only way to recover SP. If a girl runs low early on, the rest of the party would basically have to escort her through the labyrinth. Unfortunately this would cause them each to use up more SP, resulting in an ever-increasing burden until someone dies.

It'd be pretty easy to just create an open-ended campaign with randomly generated witches, and even in more structured campaigns the random ones would make up the bulk of the story. There could be larger events like Walpurgis Nacht to prepare for and/or a storyline like the one in the anime (or the spinoffs I guess? I haven't read those). The girls would learn the secrets Kyubey keeps from them and react accordingly.[/spoiler]

This sounds amazing. I would definitely play it.

[monk12]

You are all now aware that this song is about a certain character in Magi Madoka.

Or in other words, I'd be quite interested in a Madoka RTD

[Yoink]

DAMNIT I COMPLETELY FORGOT UNTIL I CHECKED THIS THREAD JUST NOW.
Sheesh, thanks for nothin', guys! D:

I'll have to make said RTD when I don't feel utterly exhausted. (Playing Uncharted 3 multiplayer through the night until like 6 or 7 AM does that to me, apparently.)

[Kadzar]

I have nowhere near enough experience to properly run such a thing, but I feel there needs to be a pro wrestling rtd . Players would be the wrestlers, of course and everything would be kayfabe (which means we act like it's all real), so anyone with powers actually has powers (although, from what I know of the genre, these tend not be reality-altering; rather, they're more often just very useful tricks). Players would decide how many points they want to spend towards being either a heavy-hitter, a speedster, a trickster, or some combination of three (or possibly more, but I can't think of any others right now) and pick or maybe build their moves.

So, anyway, the basic idea is that you'd have some players competing in matches with each other, probably there'd b several matches going on at once so more happens on a turn, and then anyone who isn't currently participating in a match engages in backstage drama (which entails things like insulting each other, picking fights, creating alliances, bringing up dirty secrets, etc.) or can try to interfere with an on-going match.

Now, I'm not sure how long matches themselves should last. They should be long enough that players have time to execute all their cool moves and people can interfere with a match without influencing it too much, but not so long that they drag on and there isn't much opportunity to fight a lot of different opponents. Also, I'd like the game to support fatigue, which prevents one from easily partaking in multiple matches in a short order of time and defending against attacks outside of the ring when tired, and injuries, which negatively impact one's performance in the ring and can be exploited or exasperated by certain attacks and take time to heal. Though, I suppose, if matches don't run too much longer or shorter than each other, the time between them can be skipped ahead.


While writing this, I realized this idea could alternatively be retooled as a worldwide fighting tournament. Actually, it might even work better. You'd just have to get rid of fatigue and make matches fights to the death or just defeat leading to banishment from the tournament (maybe the winner could decide the loser's fate, so long as other players are able to try to intervene in any impromptu executions).

Either way, the focus of the game should not be solely on the fighting, but also the drama behind the fighting. Players should be encouraged to come up with backstory that links them to other players, giving more meaning to grudges and alliances. If possible, the match-up system should make it more likely that players get to fight someone they are currently feuding with.

[SeriousConcentrate]

You forgot Technical, bro![/RobbieE] But seriously, just rip off Piecewise's Einsteinian Roulette model. Have a 'Backstage' thread for players to wander around, talk to other players, form or break alliances, steal each others ring gear or set traps, politic with the GM to try and get higher profile matches, etc. and then a "(X)day Night (Y)" thread where you throw two or more players out to have a match. As the only person on Bay12 who's actually a wrestling fan (or so it seems ) I would so be in it.

The 'Backstage' thing may be partially influenced by Raw 2 for the original Xbox, which provided me with many hilarious memories of dropping safes on/jumpkicking Scott Steiner backstage and stealing Triple H's gear. XD

[Kadzar]

Unfortunately, I'm not really an expert on pro wrestling. In fact, I haven't actually watched it since high school, other than the occasional Youtube clip of a match. Most of my knowledge of the terms and history of the genre (which I do find rather fascinating) come from Wikipedia and TV Tropes, so any advice on proper emulation would be appreciated. I think if I can get a proper system set up, I should be able to handle running the thing well enough.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and what exactly is a technical wrestler? I know I've seen the term before, but I can't really find a proper definition.

[SeriousConcentrate]

I'll throw a few names of technical wrestlers out there. Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Austin Aries (to an extent; he's kind of a mix of a Luchadore and Technical), Bret Hart, Ric Flair... Chris Benoit, even though people don't like to admit he ever existed. >.> In wrestling game terms they're the guys who are great with submissions and tend to wear down their opponents with holds - usually focusing on the body part of their preferred submission - instead of using slams and punches. They're also generally better at reversing or countering moves than wrestlers like Strikers (Daniel Bryan and Samoa Joe are good examples of a Striker/Technical combo), Hardcores (pretty much the antithesis of Technical since they specialize in using weapons, like Raven (see Raven's Rules matches) or Al Snow), or Luchadores (for the uninitiated, Luchadore generally refers to Mexican wrestlers, many of whom wear masks, but I use the term to apply to a specific style of wrestler, such as Rey Mysterio, Amazing Red, or the Motor City Machine Guns).

[penguinofhonor]

.

[miauw62]

Hmm, what about the Methamorphica RTD?

[Digital Hellhound]

Hmm, what about the Methamorphica RTD?

We have a lot of planning done for that, but I'm not sure if I'll start that yet (over an exciting scifi trans-dimensional elite strike team RTD I've been working on like a madman. I've got an amazing, tactical combat system for once, guise). I'd like to run both, if possible.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Have you considered actually submitting it to the Foundation? Because it sounds like it'd work quite well (with some editing and proofreading), just make the object a physical six-sided die. Just being in possession of it would be enough to manifest the effects.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Digital Hellhound]

Hmm, what about the Methamorphica RTD?

Aaaand it has begun. Enter at your own peril, or be dragged in screaming!