Whereas the extensive manga seen in the first post on GURPS Ringdream set the scene for roleplaying with its wonderful fluff, the rest of the book's manga is put to use for the system's love of crunch. And oh what glorious crunch it is! Each wrestling move gets its own illustration, from Kick and Headbutt...
... to Elbow and Stomping...
...onto Double Foot Stamp and Lariat...
... don't forget Dropkick and Knee Drop...
...lest we omit Guillotine Drop and Hip Attack...
... Water Level Kick and Kneel Kick...
... Palm Strike and Rolling Sobat (?)...
... Spinning Elbow and Backfist (yawn)...
... Flying Meya (?) and Body Slam...
... Arm Whip and Waterwheel Drop...
Seriously, there's another ten pages like this, with art getting progressively porny. It could be manga fan service for fellows who like comic femdom, but it is equally plausible the creators were rabid wrestling otaku, considering the intricate descriptions of each move and its skill mods, damage, conditions of use, etc. I can imagine a group of rpg and wrestling otaku in the early 90s, visiting Tokyo pro-wrestling dojos and watching videos in preparation while taking copious notes.
But just when us laymen can take no more, they change the art style to suck us back in. There's the Can Burner (?) and Hanging Ceiling Lock...
... Flying Dropkick and Bodypress (see why I said porny)...
... Face Crusher and Flying Body Attack...
... and more but that's enough for me.
Then there's this little hex diagram of pre and post flying move positioning. Talk about excessive!
I turn to the character sheet, which has also been manga-ed up. Since many Japanese prefer playing with pregens, this statting of the introductory manga characters could let play progress right away.
What is interesting from a mechanics standpoint is the unique calculation of hit points visible on the sheet. Hit points are broken up into four limbs, head, and torso, which EACH part getting hit points equivalent to Health, except the torso, which gets HT x 2!! This would allow the massive give-n-take of damage of the genre. I dunno GURPS well enough to know if such rules exist in English versions, but they are intriguing.
Well, that's it for Ring Dream! I may post more manga rpg stuff, but expect some of my regular pop sociology and gaming over the next few weeks.
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