[Game] Bakuhatsu High

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Koumei
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Post by Koumei »

Chamomile wrote:There must be a better way to phrase the way Magical Girls get to upgrade either strength or speed by one step every year. On a similar note: The exact phrasing of the Magical Girls' fourth year progression rules out taking, say, Enhanced Speed at level I if earlier all your upgrades went into Enhanced Strength. Is this intentional, or an artifact of the clumsy phrasing?
The clumsy phrasing. Honestly I'm tempted to just lock them onto one path right from the start.
On a similar note, are the Spirit Binders intentionally unable to get both ESt and ESp?
Yes. It made it easier to write, and they can just focus on making Dragonite superfast or Pikachu superstrong.
Cross-cultural note: This is not how it works in American high school (or at least, not in my part of America). We also do the playing different sports for a few weeks at a time thing. We also incidentally have football teams as an extracurricular thing, but that's not part of gym class.
Ah, okay, I had no idea. My knowledge of American schools comes from the news and crappy TV/movies, so I assumed you had:
[*]Football
[*]American History
[*]Patriotism
[*]Nationalism
[*]Shooting
[*]Coping With School Shootings
After finishing the clubs section I found myself unable to continue reading, because of Mediafire problems. I should probably just download it.
Yeah, you really should download mediafire things.
EDIT: The character sheet needs more circles.
I wanted to have nice boxes, personally (such as to separate the subjects and have a big old square to write the grade in) but Word was being stupid. I'll try to fix it because I want it to look awesome.
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Post by Whipstitch »

Dedicated football coaches and associated Serious Business is mostly a southern thing. Cultural reasons aside, it's partly because of the weather and lower land values make it relatively easy to have year round facilities and practices but it's also because the same things that makes poor rural southern schools super shitty at education makes them perversely good at putting together a bitchin' football team. Basically, many districts have students spread out across a wide enough area that planners threw their hands in the air and gave up--many districts seriously only have one or two big fuckin' large high schools that they make all the kids commute to. So class sizes are kind of stupid and you spend an hour and a half on the bus each day but the coach seriously has a pool of like 600 young men to cherry pick big competitive galoots from in his quest to make it to the state game.
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Post by Koumei »

Some additional notes based on IRC feedback:
[*]The section on difficulties should have a pretty table to make it easier to read Done
[*]The intro has a typo No it doesn't
[*]Messiah doesn't mean Saviour, it has a very specific meaning, but then again, this is a game for an anime that doesn't exist, and anime butchers the fuck out of Abrahamic terms. I don't care
[*]Ex-students in the world should cover the fact that this school has taught them social norms that don't exist in the real world (like the caste system of year levels) and leaves them fucked up, likewise the probably PTSD of those who survived Abomination attacks Done
So add to that the feedback from here:
[*]Just set Magigirls to being Speed or Strength, no mixing Done
[*]More circles (see: fix up the character sheet to look more awesome) Done
Also:
[*]Derp, character sheets should have Hit Points Done
<PurpleXVI> Also you're already setting up a more interesting world than Bliss Stage and CTech.
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Post by Chamomile »

<PurpleXVI> Also you're already setting up a more interesting world than Bliss Stage and CTech.
This is kind of what a lot of the nationalists we have over here are fundamentally arguing. America: At Least We're Not North Korea. I wouldn't let that particular comment go to your head.
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Post by Koumei »

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Post by Koumei »

Right, so here's some more feedback with things to consider:
[*]Some characters have to transform, some have to summon their weapon (and risk getting Blocked if it breaks), some have battle aura, some have to summon friends to fight. Should the psychics have some kind of power expenditure thing? Limit: they have to focus on the one thing they're doing.
[*]Should include a thing specifically encouraging people to make excuses to use their best stats, along with suggestions for how to BS using ___ to attack. Maybe not? I dunno.
[*]Include notes on how the gun club actually expects you to return any borrowed firearms and you have to account for the ammo you used. Fixed a few club entries
[*]Include more choices in the "This is what you get" sections for those situations where three people want to be Lotus Fist or whatever. Done
[*]The possibility of having specialisations - a Grade Boost/Partial Grade Boost for certain sub-categories of X grade. It's now a Trait, and various things will now hand this Trait out.

There was also criticism in the form of "stuff I liked", such as the stats-as-grades and the way vehicles have fairly low HP but decent resistance.
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Post by Whipstitch »

Koumei wrote:Right, so here's some more feedback with things to consider:
[*]Some characters have to transform, some have to summon their weapon (and risk getting Blocked if it breaks), some have battle aura, some have to summon friends to fight. Should the psychics have some kind of power expenditure thing?
I was thinking quite a bit about psychics at one point but sort of got distracted from this li'l project. Mostly I think it'd be best to make their power set more interactive for other people to deal with and include some non-murder countermeasures to some of the subtler stuff they can do like people detection. For example, you could go the tinfoil hat route and have some gadget based countermeasures or you could have Psychics and maybe even some Ghost Sight pets be capable of "jamming" passive psychic radar. Yet another route might be that Psychics may not be able to multi-task very well--I don't think it's unreasonable if psychics can't tell that someone is searching their locker from a half mile away because they were too busy using their telekinetic powers to fight off a cat's paw.

Koumei wrote:Include notes on how the gun club actually expects you to return any borrowed firearms and you have to account for the ammo you used.
What kind of notes are we talking about here? Because if it involves actual book keeping, I think that would be terribad in an anime murder school game. On the other hand, "The Gun Club is broke because of your escapades, and now the Club Prez needs your help convincing the Student Council to approve a funding boost" is as good a plot seed as any.
Grades-as-stats and BS based stat substitutions
Subjects as stats may very well be more trouble than it's worth since you're saddling yourself with some fairly arbitrary limitations on what governs some rather important abilities. I don't think routine bullshit based stat subbing for meat-and-potato abilities is a very good option either--such things can slow games down if you have a sufficiently ambitious bullshit artist in your group and it can really obscure what a characters effective strengths and weaknesses really are. Just rolling some dice from a pool that's close enough to pass the sniff test is fine as a bandaid solution to situations the MC didn't see coming, but in my experience it's much smoother if you keep such things to a minimum.
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Post by Koumei »

Whipstitch wrote: I was thinking quite a bit about psychics at one point but sort of got distracted from this li'l project. Mostly I think it'd be best to make their power set more interactive for other people to deal with and include some non-murder countermeasures to some of the subtler stuff they can do like people detection. For example, you could go the tinfoil hat route and have some gadget based countermeasures or you could have Psychics and maybe even some Ghost Sight pets be capable of "jamming" passive psychic radar. Yet another route might be that Psychics may not be able to multi-task very well--I don't think it's unreasonable if psychics can't tell that someone is searching their locker from a half mile away because they were too busy using their telekinetic powers to fight off a cat's paw.
I'll give it some thought.

Koumei wrote: What kind of notes are we talking about here? Because if it involves actual book keeping, I think that would be terribad in an anime murder school game. On the other hand, "The Gun Club is broke because of your escapades, and now the Club Prez needs your help convincing the Student Council to approve a funding boost" is as good a plot seed as any.
I was thinking "You borrowed a shotgun last week, where the fuck is it?" or "Okay, you borrowed an assault rifle (for assaulting people!) with three clips, you returned it with one clip. You'll need to pay for the other two."
Subjects as stats may very well be more trouble than it's worth since you're saddling yourself with some fairly arbitrary limitations on what governs some rather important abilities. I don't think routine bullshit based stat subbing for meat-and-potato abilities is a very good option either--such things can slow games down if you have a sufficiently ambitious bullshit artist in your group and it can really obscure what a characters effective strengths and weaknesses really are. Just rolling some dice from a pool that's close enough to pass the sniff test is fine as a bandaid solution to situations the MC didn't see coming, but in my experience it's much smoother if you keep such things to a minimum.
Honestly, I don't see it as being any more arbitrary than Concentration being linked to Constitution and "seeing stuff" being linked to Wisdom. You're likely to get arbitrary stuff no matter what you do, so that doesn't really worry me.

Now, as for the bullshitting aspect, I dunno - that's something I loved about Maid. If you rolled one good stat you were totally expected to run about using that stat for absolutely everything you do. Someone pointed out that, unless players really are meant to sub whatever stat in, then when it inevitably comes down to violence time, Gym is automatically a superimportant stat.
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Post by Whipstitch »

I'd prefer to address that by making gym less good or breaking it up somewhat rather than trying to use rampant subbing. Unless you're telling people that they can't use Gym or Language Arts as a substitute for the weak sister stats you're only really compounding the Gym>You thing by allowing subs--I'd rather try and bs an MC into letting me use Gym or Health (Surgeons have steady hands and know stitches) to do needlework than try and get Home Ec to work for neurosurgery or infiltrating the Forbidden Abandoned Dorm. Maid minimizes that sort of issue mostly by ignoring it and making you roll for super broad stats so there's no character generation or opportunity cost quibbling about whether they're better off having high Skill or high Athletics. Also, by not being a game anybody plays.

Anyway, as far as the arbitrary bit goes that was a poor choice of words on my part because I actually don't give a shit about how arbitrary stat divisions are as long as it is arbitrary in a manner that is way convenient and kills trap options with fire. Like in After Sundown I'm fine with Frank making all mundane combat one skill that is seriously just called Combat. But that's not what's really going on here; in this case, you have stat divisions that are based in part on recognizable class subjects, and no teacher has ever devised their curriculum with TTRPG parity in mind and I think that rather shows.
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Post by Koumei »

Well, the grades-as-stats isn't something that's going away. Because I want the character sheet to look something like your end of year report card, and people who see that system think it's awesome and puts them in a scholastic mood for the game.

So basically, we'll look at the things people would typically be expected to do:
[*]Resist mental influence, whether magical or verbal, and also concentrate and "pass Humanity checks to not do bad things":
[*]Punch people in the face, run races, sword fight: Gym
[*]Look pretty, survive demon fever, not pass out from a punch to the face: Health
[*]All forms of talking people over to your side: Language Studies
[*]Stealth: this is the only annoying one, really. As such options are slapped down for Science, Hunting or whatever.

Honestly, I think those are the main things that will crop up in a game. One of those is a sort-of-messy kludge rather than including an Espionage class, but the others are happily covered by specific things. Things rocking up that don't really fit shouldn't be very common.

And people totally play Maid. It probably ties with "Houseruled D&D 3.X" for my favourite game.
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Post by Username17 »

You could have all forms of stealth, lockpicking, and bald-face lying be lumped under "Behavior Assessment". The better you are at sneaking and deception, the better your behavior is graded.

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Post by Whipstitch »

I rather like that; it's amusingly perverse and it poaches some of its power from two of the stronger grades. Besides, I like the idea that you can be a slick snake without necessarily being just as good at making friends and giving inspiring speeches.
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Post by Koumei »

Behaviour Assessment is totally happening. People can just have a single elective and that's fine.

Incidentally, I'm sort of on the fence regarding Hit Points: I'm wondering if it'd be better to give everyone a base of, say, five hit points (+/- 2 from Health Grade) per year level, modified by Traits/Powers. This means that, with the exception of House Monstrosity, everyone has the same ball park of HP and it scales. Not sure - it doesn't bother me too much that some people are seriously wandering around with fuck-all HP and can be one-shotted, but maybe it's a good idea.
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Post by Koumei »

Right, Behaviour Assessment is now in. NPCs have also been updated to reflect this, along with Spirit Creature Creation and Abomination Creation. Added a nice logo (using Naruto font), added more traits, and am in the process of changing hit points.

Someone pointed out that the "Messiah are totally the bad guys" thing means the game is sort of railroaded towards a confrontation - that it's just going to happen. He suggested instead giving several plot hook options, like:
[*]As above
[*]They created them, but the things are out of their control so now they're trying to clean it all up without their secret being exposed
[*]They actually are the good guys
[*]Abominations were a failed supersoldier project (now out of control) by Messiah or a rival company

Is that better, or is it better to put a story down and stick to it?
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Post by Whatever »

Put down all the stories, but suggest that some of them are lies or propaganda by various parties. It's up to the players to figure out the "real truth" if they even care.
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Post by Whipstitch »

I'm a big multiple options guy. As a player it's more fun to not know for certain and any MC is going to have to embellish things and create a lot of their own fluff material anyway so I think it pays to go in with the attitude that when it comes to mysterious megacorporations table experiences trumps book fluff.
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Post by Koumei »

Here we go
Version 0.3 with:
-the HP system changed
-More damage on Hyper Attack due to high-year characters having more HP
-Various typos fixed
-More possible plot hooks
-The power schedules moved to the start of the Powers section
-Behaviour Assessment
-Other stuff I can't remember
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Post by Whipstitch »

I don't know when you did it, but I'm glad you upped the trait cap given that while I'll probably never be particularly fond of Super Genius at least now when people take it they can still afford to take a goofier flavor positive trait as well.
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Post by Koumei »

That's right, I did that this time as well, partly for the Genius/Abysmal thing and partly because 7 has always been the magic number for merits and flaws (see: White Wolf, Warp Cult)
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Post by Chamomile »

Is there any particular reason that Behavior Assessment means you only get one elective rather than just increasing the total number of classes you have by one?
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Post by Koumei »

The main reason is so it all fits on one page on the character sheet.
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Post by Whipstitch »

So, one thing that's been bothering me is that as things currently stand there's sometimes a mild incentive to rule out joining a particular club if its primary mechanical benefit happens to be that it bolsters things your character can likely already do thanks to having great associated grades. Now, on the one hand, I'm 100% behind your decision to keep the RNG within a pretty tight band, so I'm certainly not thinking in terms of moar vertical enhancement here, but on the other hand it would be a touch weird if PCs with S grades in Gym rarely join the Soccer team. So I'm thinking that characters could perhaps get a Secondary Club selection that doesn't provide them with any outright mechanical benefits but offers the usual assortment of roleplaying hooks and contacts that typically goes along with club membership.


Other thought: If you've already got an A or S in Gym when the third Year monstrosity boost rolls around (Or when taking Body Shaping II when you already have an A in Health, for that matter), should you get a consolation prize or do you just pat yourself on the back for having already been way awesome the whole time? I personally don't mind either way despite rather wanting to play an Inhuman, but I can sorta see why someone might sperg out over it.
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Post by Koumei »

Whipstitch wrote:So, one thing that's been bothering me is that as things currently stand there's sometimes a mild incentive to rule out joining a particular club if its primary mechanical benefit happens to be that it bolsters things your character can likely already do thanks to having great associated grades.
I can't really bring myself to care enough.
Other thought: If you've already got an A or S in Gym when the third Year monstrosity boost rolls around (Or when taking Body Shaping II when you already have an A in Health, for that matter), should you get a consolation prize or do you just pat yourself on the back for having already been way awesome the whole time?
Yeah, a pat on the back.

And given this won't be sold for actual money, I'm currently putting a whole bunch of anime screencaps in for various pictures. They may be replaced later. Some other art will be my own from the very start.
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Post by Koumei »

...actually, so far Nichijou is working for heaps of the pictures. For something so incredibly un-superpowered, it really does work well for this, and probably was a bigger inspiration than I thought.
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Post by Whipstitch »

Moe should be mentioned as working for bishies or people who are viewed as inexplicably awesome winners. Not because I think it's necessary, but because I feel like you could get a cheap Gary (Motherfucking) Oak joke out of it.
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