GURPS Ring Dream & Manga Part Two - Piledrivers and Money Shots

Welcome back to ringside!

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.

GURPS Ring Dream & Manga - Part One, Comic Life (UPDATED)

Here is another installment in my Dungeons & Manga series. However, this time I'll be going as far from D&D as you possibly can, both in terms of system and use of manga-style art.

Today I'll be looking at GURPS' Ring Dream: Women's Pro-Wrestling RPG.

Funnily enough, in my old bookstore scavenging, I have come across a fair amount of GURPS material. On the one hand are translations of books like GURPS Magic or Martial Arts, all with manga art boiled down into the pocket size versions that are still popular here. On the other are 'Japan-only' games created for the home audience. The same phenomenon happens for video games, where dating games or JRPGs might sell on the PS in Tokyo, but are never intended to go beyond Japan's borders, for both gaming niche and cultural unintelligbility reasons.

GURPS Ring Dream is one such Japan-only GURPS product. It would be interesting to see how the license was obtained...

Anyway, GURPS Ring Dream is described as a Women's Pro-Wrestling RPG, a genre represented in video games by Rumble Roses. Whereas English RPGs usually start with a blurb of fiction to set the scene, from the first page Ring Dream uses manga as the fictional underpinning to the game. The manga introduces us to Chika, the orange-haired girl who dreams of being a pro-wrestler. Allow me to translate:

Chika: (carrying two ice creams) Here I am older sister!
Sister: Look, it's starting! Hurry up! Did you get my coffee-flavored ice?
Chika: And my brown rice, green tea, and strawberry-avocado ice. It's delicious!
Sister: Chika, watch out!

(A lady pro-wrestler falls onto Chika) KER-SMASH!
Sister: Watch out! (guffaws at Chika smeared in ice cream)
Chika: (notices ice cream is all gone from her cone) Hunh?
Ring Announcer: Kumano has grabbed Ajihara's hair and thrown her to the center of the ring. Here comes the starting gong!

Downed wrestler: (groans)
Ring Announcer: Uh oh, Ajihara is completely pinned! Sonic is still outside the ring!
Chika: (spies the ice cream on top of Sonic's head) If I can just grab the scoop on top... it's do or die!
Ring Announcer: Ajihara is in a pinch!
Sonic: (jumps to her feet) Hiya!
Sister: Chika. what are you doing?
(sounds of battle as Sonic jumps in the ring and throws around her opponents)

Ring Announcer: With a Plasma Sonic Bomb and a Lobster Hold, Sonic and Ajihara win the match!
Chika: (outside of wrestler's dressing room) Thanks for your time!
Wrestler: No problem, sorry about what happened.
Sister: I was surprised that you went to Sonic's dressing room, Chika!
Chika: I've decided!
Sister: On what?
Chika: I'm going to become a pro-wrestler!
Ajihara: Sonia, who was that girl eating that load of ice cream?
Sonic: No idea...

I don't know about you, but this set up goes far beyond the pale of my GURPS experience. How would you GM this?? It sounds more like a storygame, or a Japanese storygame like Yuyake-Koyake than GURPS.

The manga fiction does not end there. After these 2 splash color pages, an entire manga chapter details life in the women's pro-wrestling dojo. Let's see what Chika goes through:

Chika: (carrying a bucket of water) I've brought back the water.
Girl 1: OK, let's clean this place up and go for breakfast!
Chika: Today's breakfast is dark seaweed broth with cucumber pickles and rice with a raw egg on top! (slobber slobber)

Chika: (notices the bucket she has spilled) Hunh?
Girl 1: Ack! We haven't gotten anything done!
Chika: I'm sorry!
Girl 1: Nothing! (smacks Chika in the ribs) Do you really wanna be a pro-wrestler or not? Unbelievable.
Girl 2: Hold it! Just because you like eating doesn't mean you don't have to hurry up and do things...

(sounds of girls scrubbing floor)
Chika: (gets slapped by both girls) Ouch!
Girl 1 & 2: Too late, we missed it! I don't want to get another convenience store meal...

Older Woman: (puts a tray laden with food down) Tah-dah!
Chika: Thank you ma'am!
Older Woman: I put aside enough for you three.
(girls hug her)
Older Woman: Cut it out you three.
Girls: I could marry you!

Girl 2: (grabbed from behind by Ms Yamaguchi) Ms Yamaguchi?
Yamaguchi: You're so slow! Eating is a part of your work, you three! OK, once you've finished let's go to the practice mat. Take your time but hurry up, chew slowly, and only have two refills or else you'll barf.
Girls: We understand!
Girl 1: (looking at Chika gobble down her food) I don't care either way, but you ever seen this girl puke?
Girl 2: She's already on her 3rd plate.

THUMP!
Yamaguchi: Hey! You there, do a proper breakfall! A breakfall!
Girls: (seeing Chika flop on the mat) Wow!

Girl 1: Chika did a true breakfall!
Girl 2: That's a first.
Yamaguchi: (grabs a girl from behind) Beginners shouldn't laugh at other beginners, or they'll learn a painful lesson! (throws the girl on the mat) You try a breakfall too! Who's next?

Yamaguchi: Next is neck muscle training!
Chika: (has girl pushing down on her head) Ack ack ack!
THUMP
(sounds of heavy breathing, running)

Yamaguchi: (breathing heavily) Ok, let's do some light stretches and end MORNING practice!
Girl 1: Chika seems to be keeping up with practice recently, even though she's still the slowest.

Girl 2: So what?
Girl 1: That girl, when she came here, she couldn't do nothing. She still can't do much even now. I thought of the ten who joined here she'd be first to quit. The only thing she is good at is running.
Girl 2: And Chika...
Girl 1: What?
Chika: (thought balloon) I feel sick but it'll be a waste if I puke...
Girl 2: She was a long distance runner in junior high.

Girl 1: Long distance runner? That is no help in pro-wrestling.
Girl: Yes, but it means she's tough.
Girl 3: It means she's had a more normal existence than us tough fighter-types.
Yamaguchi: Shall we put Chika under Eriko for training?
Manager:  Don't be stupid! It's only been a few years since Eriko debuted as a pro.

Manager. (speechless for a second) If you say that, it means you have something up your sleeve. Tell me what.
Yamaguchi: Just seems interesting.
Manager: We've decided to put Chika under you for training today.
Eriko: But...
Manager: It's decided!
Chika: (bowing) Looking forward to learning from you!

This manga is a snapshot of the Japanese apprentice system used to educate craftsmen and martial artists. Shit rolls down hill, but with a reason - to toughen you up. Unlike western RPG fiction, this manga concentrates on what would normally be downtime training to set the scene for play. Still, as nice as it is, it leaves me scratching my head on how to use this in a game.

The manga doesn't end there, but continues in set piece spreads throughout the book. I'll skip over these, however, to take a look at something far more interesting - the mangatized descriptions of pro-wrestling moves and GURPS character sheets.

But that is a tale for another time...

Next up - Ring Dream Part Two: Piledrivers and Money Shots!

Don’t Need No Steenkin D&D ‘March Madness’ Blogfiesta Day 18 & 19

Other blogs can be found HERE.

The questions can be found HERE.

18 What is the crunchiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?

There is good crunch (i.e. rules and mechanics) and then there’s bad crunch. Palladium crunch is bad because it is ill-explained (i.e. how AR works) and half-conceived (i.e. the skill system), but I have heard that Siembieda changes rules and runs things differently in person. Using houserules I have had a blast with Palladium games, but heaven knows I couldn’t run or play them RAW (Rules As Written) anymore.

GURPS can have terrible crunch if you have a GM and players who don’t know where to draw the line, but good crunch if they do. Honestly, all you need for a decent GURPS game is the free sample plus the corebook of whatever genre you play and voila, great game with the right amount of crunchy rules. For us non minmaxers, I made up random roll matrices for the GURPS games I ran, where players could get one drawback for every two advantages they randomly rolled.

Good times.

19 What is the fluffiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?

Sadly, the few homebrew games I have played in have all suffered from highly detailed worlds in the DM’s mind that never translated well on the table. I think this is why IP (Intellectual Properties like movies or books) do so well – players and DMs already have a shared image of the gameworld and how it works. It is probably why I love Stormbringer so much, and would play d20 if it were one of the many IP games (i.e. Slaine, Aliens, Judge Dredd, Predator, etc etc) kicking about.

Nope, Nope, Nope D&D ‘March Madness I Say’ Blogaria – Day 9

Other blogs can be found HERE.

The questions can be found HERE.

9 What superhero RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

Once again, my ignorance shows – I’ve only played 2 games, and none of the ‘big’ superhero games either. I have a dim recollection of a GURPS Supers attempt that collapsed under its own weight in uni. Characters were made with a Herculean effort, one session was played in which the characters trounced a rogue ice mutant who just wanted to be left alone, then the GM realized the rules had been misunderstood and things would have to be redone.

That was enough of that.

Inevitably, the next was a successful game of Palladium’s Heroes Unlimited. Characters were rolled, and they almost made sense being overpowered by the game’s clunky system in a way that set them apart from the common man which was perfect for the genre. An invasion of aliens who were after our banks was fought off, only to discover the ‘aliens’ were robots created by an evil genius.

Good times. Although I never played the original DC or Marvel RPGs, I have read criticism that the range of attributes didn’t provide a fine enough granularity, especially for street level characters. Palladium’s old SDC system does street level heroes very well, and might conversely fail to emulate cosmic heroes. I think adding some lethality in the form of my houserules might make for a great, gritty game of Heroes Unlimited a la Watchmen.

Non-D&D Blogging Challenge 'March Madness' Day 2

And the Non-D&D Blog Challenge train rolls on. Kelvin Green chimed in with another great set of complete answers HERE referencing two of my faves, Death’s Head and Small But Vicious Dog. Catacomb Librarian has also given a complete set of answers HERE with some great insights about the history of the hobby. Give them a read.

If you want to see all the questions, they are HERE.

If you want to see a list of participants it is HERE.

Question 2 - What was the first character you played in an RPG other than D&D? How was playing it different from playing a D&D character?

In the aforementioned GURPS Fantasy I played the bard Emile, who was the dethroned king of Wallachia and performed song magic so that I had to make up rhymes on the spot for a bonus to my rolls. The fact that I remember his name and back story vividly when every D&D character I had up to then was merely called by their class should tell you how impressive GURPS characterization was to me.

I couldn’t actually afford the creation points to be a king, so the GM ruled Emile was deranged but that if I could gather the points I could buy the social status and reveal Emile’s delusion to be real.

Alas (did I just write that?), it was not to be, as a minmaxing fellow player who gamed the system to create an unstoppable assassin took umbrage at my roleplaying and did his job on poor Emile. He was later responsible for derailing the game and steering it back to D&D, which I skipped out on.

The experience with Emile points out the good and bad points of GURPS. On the one hand, it provided such a tailored and detailed characterization system that players could hang their hat on a character in ways that promoted really satisfying roleplaying, especially if the GM cooperated in the player’s concept. Alternately, GURPS combat is always lethal and any character even partially maximized for combat will chew up and spit out any geared for roleplaying.

I get the feeling that many OSR people have skipped GURPS because it is not shiny and new, it is out of print though available digitally, and it seems overly crunchy. This is a real shame, as the amount of crunch is totally scalable to the GM and players’ wishes, and the game codifies character generation and promotes roleplaying in a memorable way that D&D leaves undeveloped. By all means, download the free trial (3e and 4e are both out there on the web), track down any one of the excellent GURPS supplements and give it a whirl.

Non-D&D ‘March Madness’ Blogging Challenge Day 1

Welcome to the Non-D&D ‘March Madness’ Blogging Challenge!

If you want to see all the questions, they are HERE.

If you want to see the first kick ass participant who finished ALL in one fell sweep, his or her blog is HERE.

Other participants are as follows (contact me if you want your blog listed):

Mesmerized by Sirens

Barking Alien

The Savage Afterworld

What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse

The Other Side

The RPG Corner 

Crit This 

Timnits & Trolls (The one who has gone ahead and finished the challenge already! BRAVO!) 

Aieee! Run From Kelvin's Brainsplurge 

RPGames.be 

Back to the Keep 

Cross Planes

I myself will be knocking off a question a day, starting with this one:

1 What was the first roleplaying game other than D&D you played? Was it before or after you had played D&D?

A: It was GURPS, probably 3^rd edition if not 2^nd (early 1990s). We started a GURPS Fantasy campaign, and later played some Space after years of D&D.

After the straightjacket nature of D&D’s class system, the open skill lists of GURPS and its open character generation were almost too much. We spent hours or even days making a character, so the GM (DM no longer!) could not kill with impunity. Even though the GM had lured us with the promise of having the ability to make ANY character we wanted, we soon realized with a 100 point limit our characters were just as weak as any OD&D newb.

Sad trumpet sound.

I suppose the greatest thing we took away was that one game system could indeed be used to run any type of game, from Conan to Star Trek. BRP has since expanded in this direction while GURPS has contracted to a mostly online PDF version. The OSR has also clued in, with retroclones based on the D&D engine for sci fi (Terminal Space, X-plorers), superheroes (Hideouts & Hoodlums, Mystery Men!), oriental adventure (Flying Swordsmen, Ruins & Ronin), and even westerns (Blood & Bullets, Go For Your Gun).

Although the concept of a generic or universal system may be old hat (see Unisystem, FATE, FUDGE, Cortex, etc ad nauseum), it was GURPS that did it first and, as many blogs contend, the best.

And GURPS sourcebooks were always the highest quality, regardless of what system you preferred.

30 Day Challenge 9 & 10

And the train rolls on!

Day 9 – Favorite character you haven’t played

Wow, this question is really indicative of gaming. Everyone has had the experience of rolling or ruling up a good character, then have the game or campaign evaporate without a session.

We all feel that pain.

I’d have to say that my Retro Spacer from a GURPS Space vaporgame back in the day was the biggest disappointment in this regard. While all the other players made up cybernetic enhanced, Traveler style spacers with fission powered spacecraft, my guy was from a colony that had developed a 1950s style futurism. Fedora hat and suit in a big clunky diving-suit style spacesuit, with a computer that took up half his rocket’s compartment space. He made up for this by having mad engineering skills and ray guns.

Day 10 – Craziest thing

Where to begin? I think anyone who’s been gaming any length of time has a boatload of crazy stories – it’s half the reason why we play games.

In D&D, we had a year long (in real time) game derailed when the PC who drew lots to get the Divine Magic Weapon Thingy (I forget, maybe a Bow of Light?) needed to defeat the Destroyer of World had, unbeknownst to us, drawn from a Deck of Many Things the day before. His card? Next magic item is destroyed. The player couldn’t tell us, and so his PC touched the bow, it went poof, and we switched to Rifts after that, I think.

Chaosium games have also given us some memorable craziness. We had a group TPK in Stormbringer after an ill-conceived raid on a fat merchant with 2 Weeping Waste bodyguards, which ended in our Swordmaster with a broken sword, our Hunter with a broken Bow, and a Sorceror who fumbled with a demon sword and got run through.

Crazier still, we switched to Call of Cthulhu and the same group of players had a TPK after an ill-conceived raid on a construction site to steal dynamite ended with a merciless fusillade from the night watchman whose dinky pistol let him shoot twice as many rounds as the PCs heavy guns. Even a pop gun is dangerous if it has double the chance to hit and do damage.

los jeugos de rolas sont locos...

30 Day Challenge 7 & 8

Lucky 7! What edition do you prefer?

Easy! 4th edition is the best!
The old Games Workshop green cover with the great painting of Elric atop ruins as he destroys the Young Kingdoms. You have some rules clarifications from preceding editions (demon summonings & skills), and it adds in the material from the Companion.

Oh. We're not talking about Stormbringer? D&D? Oh, then definitely NOT 4th edition.

I played 4e once. ONCE. Two hours to build a character. Made me want to cry.

I've read 3e, seems needlessly complicated. The Midnight campaign setting I'd easily poach, though. Damn good. Easily portable to Basic Roleplaying, hell there's even a BRP retroclone called 'Age of Shadow' that tacitly does this.

I played a whack of 2e games back in the day. Lots of fun, and tons of great settings. Planescape is basically the Multiverse. Spelljammer and Dark Sun were nicely gonzo and deserve retro-clones. Mazatlan and Al-Qadim were interesting experiments. You could also play a whole campaign out of the Vikings, Celts, or Rome splatbooks. I dunno why they didn't do one for every major culture's mythos. Even Lankhmar got some adventures & sourcebooks.

Never played 1e - by the time I was gaming in earnest, people had moved on to the cleaner 2e rules.

I started with D&D, but I'll be damned if I know which book. Most probably a mishmash of BX and BECMI.

I'm dying to try Swords & Wizardry Whitebox, maybe with Age of Conan. Peanut butter and chocolate.

I'd have to say my favorite edition is whatever I'm playing at the moment. The differences before 3e seem really inconsequential to me. My recent Labyrinth Lord experiences with Vaults of Ur felt the same as all that came before, and markedly different from the 4e I suffered through. And I'd have to chuck in some houserules (mainly skills) anyway, so it's all good.

8 - Favorite Character You Have Played

Funnily enough, all D&D characters I have played were ill-defined, probably because 'world-building' was never a big thing back in the day. The gameworld in the late 80s and 90s was more like that endless loop of scenery in the background when Scooby and Shaggy were hightailing it from some suited goon - just a means to get to the dungeon.  I noticed how things had changed when I played in Vaults of Ur last year - Justin's gameworld was incredibly vivid and detailed. It takes a bit more player investment and GM work, but I think it is a great development in the art of gaming.

Enough digressions - my favorite fantasy character I ever played was Emile (Eh-meel), deposed King of Wallachia and Bard.

It was in a GURPS Fantasy campaign back in the day. While everyone maxed out fighting skills, Emile was good at rapier, but a master in singing, dancing, storytelling, and just about any other social skills. He also was deluded and believed he was deposed king of the non-existant kingdom of Wallachia, which appeared on no maps. He seduced barmaids and queens, sent minions into dungeons while he lounged around the tavern, and was finally assassinated by a powergamer who HATED the way I subverted the game.

I consider that a thing to be proud of.