BONUS: Playdate Not-Review

I pre-ordered a Playdate a while back and it finally arrived a few days ago. It's an awesome little device, toyetic and whimsical in the way that videogame consoles used to be, yet still feeling premium. It's yellow, it has a beautiful lo-fi monochrome 1-bit un-backlit screen, clicky little A and B buttons and a responsive D-Pad, and a Crank. It uses wifi to download games and has an online store, a web account integration, and the ability to Sideload games which you can buy off itch.io or wherever else, or make your own, but it never lets those features get in the way of the simplicity of the device.

It's also very developer friendly and seems like an accessible way to learn some game development and programming, and I hope to tinker around with it eventually.

It's not going to replace my Steam Deck or PS5 or Switch, and it's nowhere near as expensive as any of those but for what it is it isn't cheap either, but I'm glad that I have it. It's kind of nostalgic, but it also has a kind of alternate universe, speculative, retro-futurist, anachronistic appeal to it, like the clam-shell phone from It Follows. What would a world look like where we had network technology but still only lo-fi displays? What would a world look like where the original Gameboy had a crank?

The first "season" of games unlock week over week. So far I only have the first two starting games, and two free games from the Catalog (their game store), and I'll probably buy one or two more games and Sideload sooner or later.

Whitewater Wipeout is an awesome game. It's tricky to get the hang of at first, it relies mostly on the Crank, and it doesn't do a whole lot to teach you how to play, so you have to be patient, but even though I still suck at it, it's super addicting and fun and a perfect demonstration of exactly what this console is about, Crank and all. I can see why they made it among the first games you receive.

Casual Birder is a cute, fun, funny, open-world bird photography adventure game. It's a little meatier than Whitewater Wipeout, but nothing too Epic. It's the kind of game I might not necessarily have played if it were on Steam or PSN, and I don't know if I'll actually finish it, but I'm enjoying my time with it.

The two free Catalog games I have not been as impressed with, but I still appreciate having a couple more options in my first week until more games unlock, without having to make additional purchases.

Recommendation Dog is basically a matching game. You work at a temp agency and have to match agents given descriptions by the employers. There's nothing wrong with it, I gave it a playthrough, but I dunno it didn't do much for me.

Reel Steal was an interesting and surprising premise, I wanted to like this game, but I just wasn't feeling it. You're modern-day Robin Hoods infiltrating buildings owned by billionaires and robbing them, Cranking your way up and down the facility. It's a cool idea, but ya in practice I just found it tedious.

Post Apocalyptic Science Fantasy Mecha (CROSSOVER) Game: Gundam, Evangelion, Mazinger

EDIT: Not sure why the majority of the images I tried attaching didn't work upon initial posting, will see if I can fix...

Setting

A Super Robot Wars style crossover! And also post apocalyptic science fantasy! What if, hear me out, instead of a post apocalyptic science fantasy world of warriors and wizards, instead it was mecha and kaiju? The evil wizard overlords have "Super Robots" like Mazinger Z or Gurren Lagann, and our scrappy OSR-esque underdogs have "Real Robots" like Ichinana or mass-produced Gundam GMs. But over time, they may scavenge or steal Super Gear and Mods to empower them further.

I couldn't think of a good "Real Robot" alternative to Getter Robo but I'm including this pic anyway.

System

The system is a stripped down version of Into the Odd or Maximum Recursion Depth, with the Mecha Concept Crafting mechanics from MRD Vol. 2. I've mostly moved away from Get into the Machine, Shinji!, it was a decent proof of concept but now I use basically just MRD + Mecha Concept Crafting.

Most recent MRD Vol. 2 Play Report with a Mecha Battle for additional reference.

Into the Odd Compatibility

Each Ability Score is its own HP Pool. Additional HP is just a buffer if you take additional damage after depleting an Ability. Ability Score damage does not affect Saves.

Karmic Attachments listed for each PC are character goals. You can treat like a Milestone XP thing, or just a suggestion.

Maximum Recursion Depth Compatibility

Karma is not demonstrably real in this micro-setting, so Karma and Karmic Attachments actually are just an abstraction (unlike MRD). You can replace Karma and Karmic Attachments with something like Gilgulim and Nazarite Vows from MRD Vol. 2, or with an HP buffer and Milestone XP like explained above for Into the Odd Compatibility.

Brief Recapitulation of Mechanics

• Just Ability Scores, HP, etc. for Pilots.
• Each Character is assumed to be able to deal d6 Damage of any Ability Score in or out of Mecha as contextually appropriate, unlike MRD where it varies by Item, Feature, or Nazarite Contract in MRD Vol. 2.
• Saves are roll-under Ability Score or MRD style: roll-under Ability Score and roll-under Karma for degrees of success/failure.
• Each Mecha has a Core and three Gear, each consisting of two words (WORD1+WORD2).
• Swappable Mods can be added to a Gear ((WORD1+WORD2)+WORD3) and expand the scope of what they can do.
• Use of Gear is freeform; maybe it deals d6, maybe it requires a Save, maybe it just does whatever it does based on GM rulings.
• When Gear are disabled, they lose a Word. Mods are destroyed permanently, but regular Gear compounds can be repaired outside of Conflict. Again, how they are disabled is freeform.
• Enemies can be defeated either by depleting HP (most enemies just have a single pool, PCs have separate pools for each Ability Score), or by destroying Mecha Gear and disabling the Mecha, if in Mecha Conflict.

Koji Kabuto in Z Armor.

Pre-Gen PCs

If you want to make more PCs, just generate an Into the Odd character, reflavor or tweak it as you see fit, and make a Mecha with Mecha Concept Crafting.

Pilot

Shiro Kabuto

Even after his brother's death, and well past the end of the world, Shiro still lives Koji's shadow, the hero pilot of Mazinger Z.

Karmic Attachment / Milestone Goal

Shiro wants to find a Super Robot of his own and become an even more famous hero than his brother. Sometimes he's more concerned with being recognized as a hero than actually being a hero...

Ability Scores (ITO/MRD)

STR: 11, DEX: 14, WIL: 11

NAT: 12, WIS: 10, PRO: 13

Unique Skills

Super Science: Trained under his Grandfather and "The Three Scientists", Shiro has exceptional science and mecha engineering skills.

Starting Equipment

Z Armor: +1 STR/NAT armor. Helmet allows for limited remote controlling of Ichinana Blanc.

Photon Gun: Typical lasergun.

Mecha

CORE: Ichinana Blanc (BLEACH+AMBITION)

An all-white mecha with a red visor. The Ichinana were mass-produced units designed off of Mazinger Z.

GEAR 1: Assault Rifle (ASSAULT+RIFLE)

A mecha-sized assault rifle useful for general purposes.

GEAR 2: Breast Fire (BREAST+FIRE)

Chest-mounted plasma blaster. Extra-powerful but requires charge-up time leaving Ichinana Blanc vulnerable, and uses a lot of energy.

GEAR 3: Mazinger Blade (SUPER+SWORD)

Magic sword made of Super Alloy Z, originally wielded by the Super Robot Mazinger Z. Unwieldy for Ichinana Blanc, but capable of cutting through that which would be otherwise insurmountable.

Starting Mods: HURRICANE, WING

Like this except all white and with a red visor.

Pilot

Rei Ayanami

This Rei clone was activated when the world ended in order to enact Human Instrumentality. She knows she is a clone, and knows her instructions, but otherwise knows very little else.

Karmic Attachment / Milestone Goal

Rei was created with a specific purpose, to protect the developing Evangelion within her Mecha, and enact Human Instrumentality. But, as far as she knows, SEELE is no more, the world as it once was is no more, and despite these obligations thrust upon her, she seeks to find her own purpose.

Ability Scores (ITO/MRD)

STR: 8, DEX: 10, WIL: 14

NAT: 9, WIS: 15, PRO: 10

Evangelion didn't really have special items besides the plug suit and this Rei's Mecha isn't a typical Eva, so I had to get creative...

Unique Skills

AT Field: Rei can produce a psychic field protecting herself against physical and mental attacks once per Conflict.

Starting Equipment

Plug Suit: Although not piloting an Evangelion, the Plug Suit still gives Rei enhanced environmental protection and the ability to breathe the LCL fluid in the incubation chamber of Jet Alone Duo.

Lancer: A communication device with an orbital weapons satellite. Rei can summon a bunker-busting "Lance of Longinus" once per scenario (however you're defining it in your game). Risks alerting whoever remains of SEELE any time it's used.

Mecha

CORE: Jet Alone Duo (JET+ALONE)

A Jet Alone mecha with a swollen belly. It carries an incubation chamber for gestating an Evangelion.

GEAR 1: Giant Hammer (GIANT+HAMMER)

A giant hammer, good for close range impact.

GEAR 2: Wrist Ring (ELECTRIC+RING)

Wrist-mounted ring capable of electric discharge. Not especially powerful and minimal range, but good for area of effect.

GEAR 3: AT Field (ABSOLUTE+TERROR)

The incubating Evangelion coupled with Rei can produce a psychic field providing momentary protection.

Starting Mods: SHIELD, POSITRON

The one on the left, except if it looked pregnant. Jet Alone didn't do much in the anime so some of its Gear are inspired by Jet Alone Kai, but I prefer the simple design of the original Jet Alone.

Pilot

Quattro Bajeena

An infamous mobile suit pilot during the Universal Century wars, thought dead, now lives under a (not-so-)new alias as a restless and guilt-ridden wanderer.

Karmic Attachment / Milestone Goal

Quattro once held great ambitions for the Space Colonies and the course of humanity, and he nearly changed the world. Living in the wreckage of the world at least in part of his own doing, Quattro seeks atonement, but he isn't quite sure yet what that means.

Ability Scores (ITO/MRD)

STR: 14, DEX: 11, WIL: 11

NAT: 15, WIS: 11, PRO: 11

Like this but Old Man Logan aged.

Unique Skills

Newtype: Quattro is a low-level Newtype, someone with exceptional human abilities and psychically enhanced mobile suit piloting skills.

Starting Equipment

Rapier: Quattro is an exceptional fencer and swordsman.

Psycho-Frame: A handheld, T-shaped device allowing him to pilot mobile suits as though they were an extension of his body. With the psycho-frame enhancing his natural Newtype abilities, he can empathically "read" other pilots.

Mecha

CORE: Hyakku Shiki Retrograde (GOLD+RETRO)

A once cutting edge golden mobile suit, rusted and well past its prime.

GEAR 1: IDE System (IMAGE+ENCODE). Image Directive Encode System. High-resolution real-time data streamed from Hyakku Shiki's visor. Only a Newtype like Quattro could process it effectively.

GEAR 2: Beam Saber (BEAM+SABER). Lightweight melee solution, requires a lot of energy.

GEAR 3: Clay Bazooka (CLAY+BAZOOKA). Slow but effective long-range explosive.

Starting Mods: VULCAN, MEGA

Like this but rustier and more of a rose gold color.

If there's interest (or if I have interest), I might make a future post with a campaign setup, small sandbox hexcrawl, or some encounter tables, basically a primer for getting the ball rolling with a campaign or short adventure of this.

Worldbuilding with Pokemon

An earlier version of this post was first shared on The Cauldron. I've fallen behind a bit and digging into my backlog, but I do have a few upcoming blog posts in mind that are more directly RPG related.

Pokemon is obviously a huge decades-long phenomenon of a franchise requiring no introduction. Yet despite this fact, I am surprised by just how little impact it has had on fiction, how little regard is paid to the fact that it is a unique science fiction or fantasy sub-genre. My intention for this post is to describe what I think makes Pokemon unique as a sub-genre, and using that as a case example for how to go about thinking about works of fiction and how they might be extrapolated into new kinds of sub-genres, which can then be explored in tabletop RPG form.

I am aware of the rash of Pokemon knockoff videogames or anime and manga, some of which have come into their own, or for that matter Pokemon-inspired TTRPGs or unofficial Pokemon fan TTRPGs, but that's not really what I mean. Yes, there is a unique gameplay aspect to the monster collection / monster battler genre, but I'm speaking more to the setting aspects.

Pokemon is a world of magical creatures that are not quite animals but also not quite human, even when they have human or superhuman intellect. They're more like nature spirits or fey creatures from mythology. The Detective Pikachu movie characterized it really well, such as the interrogation of Mr. Mime, where it could only communicate through mimery. It made really salient the way that, even when they look humanoid and seem to have human-like intelligence, they operate by a different, magical kind of logic. I had been interested in exploring the concept of Pokemon much earlier, such as the Monsters & Madmen micro-setting from my old micro-setting post (I'll come back to this later), or even when I was ~10 years old or so first playing the videogames and watching the anime, but Detective Pikachu was where this idea that they're more like magical creatures really hit me.

People have of course talked about the questionable ethics of monster collection and battling, and I don't think this idea of them being magical creatures totally mitigates that, but it does put an interesting alternative perspective on it. Pokemon are magical creatures, metaphorical extensions of humans; they can be examined from a human-centric approach and the monster collecting and battling can be recontextualized as a form of ritual and reverence towards nature and humanities place in it, as is often the case in animist religions and hunting in animist cultures.

There are a few not-obvious equivalents to this I can think of. Another series that I am shocked has not had more longterm resonance, is the Megaman Battle Network videogames (the micro-setting I-Cons in that micro-setting post linked above was inspired heavily by MMBN), where the internet is basically a virtual reality space where human operators use AI avatars called net navi to traverse the internet as if it were a physical space, and where the net navi usually reflect and exaggerate the characteristics of their operator. The manga/anime Shaman King also did a similar thing, where the ghost or spirit companions of the Shaman usually reflect some aspect of their personality or identity, and in this case the mythological elements are overt and literal. There's actually a recent ongoing Netflix remake of Shaman King, but sadly it's kind of mediocre (maybe Shaman King just doesn't hold up as well as I remember :(?).

So as I'm listing it out, I guess there were some other settings, it seems almost exclusively from Japan, around the early 00's, that either consciously or unconsciously got at these same sorts of ideas, but it was like a flash in the pan- maybe more exists out there, but not much I can think of, and nowhere near proportional to the continued popularity of Pokemon as a game or singular franchise.

So let's return back to Monsters & Madmen. That name is not great, it was always a placeholder, and I still have not developed this setting much or done anything with it, so here we're just using it to examine the thesis of this discussion.

The big war; the cities bombed and nations EM-pulsed; civilization as we know it is on the way out, but adults still cling to the old world from only a few years ago. On the other hand, the children wish only to leave their homes, to travel the empty, broken roads, and to collect and battle the monsters that have surfaced (or, perhaps, resurfaced) in the wake of humanity's decline. The world is in anarchy. Some of the magical creatures the children geas are intelligent, some infinitely more so than humans. They bide their time as anarchy ensues and humanity dissolves under its own weight.

I was inspired by fan theories discussing "The Pokemon War" that canonically exists in the setting, and how a world could exist where 10-year old children travel the country or world alone, towards this seemingly frivolous goal of becoming a Pokemon Master, where the protagonists are missing fathers (who likely died in the war).

I was also inspired by Mad Max. Not Mad Max: The Franchise as it is popularly conceived, but the first Mad Max movie, the one that still looks and feels mostly like the real world- where an apocalyptic war occurred, but where there is still conceivably a chance of a return to "normalcy", where the adults still remember "normal", but the children live in a very different world.

One can imagine why I was thinking about this in 2018, but it is perhaps an even more relevant idea post-2020.

On the surface of it this could be a dark and dystopian setting, and that was more so the idea at the time that I first conceived it. But even then, I wanted there to be that possibility of hope- again, it's no Mad Max Fury Road, it's Mad Max 1. But also, adding in this human-centric approach of the monsters as extensions of people, as a part of nature- it's still a bit half-baked within the context of this setting, but I believe this has legs.

So this is just one example of how Pokemon could be extrapolated into something fairly novel, and gameable, and how one might approach thinking about extrapolating other popular series into new kinds of sub-genres that have not been seen before.

Weird & Wonderful Wavelengths (Variety Show s1e2)

We interrupt this broadcast of the normally scheduled Weird & Wonderful Worlds blog to traverse the other WWW (the Weird Wonderful Wavelength decomposed like an overzealous cockroach in an empty kitchen from the spectrum of nutrient deficient fluorescent white light that is the World Wide Web). Let us begin with an interactive spacetime courtesy of Leenalchi, from the past, present, future, and sidetime of Korea. But watch out... TIGER IS COMING!

Link here if you don't see the embed on mobile

That sure was something folks. Reminds me of my conversation with Gearoong. Horrific psychedelic Scooby-Don't and the Gang hunting Poltergeists in Maximum Recursion Depth (poor Frieda is already an Ashura).

Moving on to RPGs, because that's why you came here... Right? Or maybe not, sound off from the bleachers!

Here's an UNFINISHED Martian Bestiary for TNT which I never posted (Tunnels & Trolls for those of you folk not in the know ;)):

Martian Bestiary

If more than one MR is listed, it is intended as Trivial, Serious, and Deadly, similar to the TNT deluxe book. These are relative, of course. Even a "trivial" dragon is a tough monster.

Psychomancer (Acolyte):

Psychomancer (Vancelord):

Thark (Brute): Often slaves or gladiators, fighting for the chance at freedom, or just for the sake of fighting. Usually they fight with their bare fists or gauntlets, although some ride lizard-horses and other beasts and wield spears and shields. MR 30 / 50 / 75 

Thark (Myrmeleodon): Gladiator champions, warlords, and berserkers. They utilize traps like a huntsman, preferring to create pit traps to shock and separate enemy forces and overpower them by brute force (like an ant-lion). MR 35 / 75 / 110

Radium Legionnaire (Shocktrooper):

Radium Legionnaire (Zeta-Force):

Orange Agent: These martians manipulate Hyperbolic Orange Light to change their appearance, making them excellent spies. The illusion holds along all senses, and their true form may only be revealed in presence of magic fire. MR 15 / 30 / 50

WotW-style Cephalopod Martian:

DC White Martian / Xenomorph:

Tripod: (see Martian Gear) MR 135 / 160 / 185

Flying Saucer (Fighter Class): (See Martian Gear) MR 45 / 135 / 235

Flying Saucer (Destroyer Class): (See Martian Gear) MR 98 / 185 / 400

And now, here's a 5 Minute Challenge I did forever ago and never posted!

The Danger

Tachyons: Particles moving backwards in time. The tachyons were weaponized. Their presence creates butterfly effects, culminating in chaos fields, paradox-like masses of entropy, spacetime violently correcting for itself in a recursive loop that outpaces itself.

Psychofields: Electromagnetic wave transmission, specifically engineered to tamper with human consciousness. The signal is not subtle, but when cognition itself is altered, it doesn't matter one way or another. It is a collective madness, one which cannot be falsified. It may as well be real.

Antiwaves: Inverse frequency waves. The mathematical imaginary plane actualized in physical spacetime. Like realizing you've been seeing in two dimensions your whole life, discovering the third, only to realize you can't perceive the second dimension anymore.

I only came up with three of them, and I feel like they dip into themes I've explored before, and the writing is mediocre at best, but I guess it's something. What can you expect in 5 minutes?

Alright Alright let's wrap this up, the children need to be put to bed and the babysitter's getting antsy. Let's end with an open-mic poem and a song for the road.

so much to think about and do and see

an itch to scratch and tear until it bleeds

and yet its all so stifling to me

to bring in brief relief to unmet needs

to nonetheless deny the way this feels

it would be nice to rid myself of this

to win is not to spin again my wheels

instead of hell to dwell in love and bliss

What utter beauty, I am moved to tears, TO TEARS! Well folks, it's been fun as always. Maybe the next Weird & Wonderful Wavelength will be less than a year away. Anyway, just so we can enjoy these final moments together a little longer (and wipe away those tears), how about a coffee break?

Super Robot Wars-style Mecha

Super Robot Wars is a videogame series of tactical RPGs where a bunch of Mecha anime cross-over, and it's delightful. Many of the recent games have been translated into English for the Singapore and/or Hong Kong regions and PS4 is not region-locked (they're also available on Switch and I believe are also not region-locked), so I finally get to play Ray Amuro / Nu Gundam, Shinji Ikari / Evangelion Unit-01, and Space Battleship Yamato, all together, in one of my favorite game genres. Childhood dreams do come true.

I'm not familiar with all of the series represented in the games I'm playing (so far I've beaten Super Robot Wars V, am working through Super Robot Wars T, and I've already got Super Robot Wars X and OG ready to go!), but even for the series I am not familiar with, by virtue of being a cross-over of All-Stars, even some of the off-hand Mechas I've never heard end up becoming my favorites, and I've since gone on to start watching several of the series I was introduced to through these games.

There's something interesting and understated about it- good design is rare, and it seems like good Mecha design is especially rare, let alone to make a new property where every Mecha feels distinctive, classic, and stands out. But by being a cross-over, where like half the characters are all main characters from their own series, and many of those series are standouts and classics, it makes for an entire game of standout characters and Mecha.

I'm still searching for my ideal Mecha TTRPG (perhaps it will be Get into the Machine, Shinji!), but in the meantime, here's a Weird & Wonderful Table of Mechas. The schtick here is, there is a meta wherein all of these Mecha are assumed to be the star of their own series in some fictional reality, but now crossing over in a series where in-universe they co-exist and in most cases always have co-existed.

One tricky thing with Mecha is that it's hard to describe them, and much of the appeal is visual, which I think is part of why Mecha written fiction is not as prominent as Mecha visual fiction e.g. comics, anime, or videogames, and also part of why it's less common in TTRPG where there are fewer pieces of public domain art for Mecha (in addition to the difficulty of designing rules for Mecha games that allow for in and out of Mecha gameplay, as described in the previous link for GItMS!). I hope I have done a reasonable job here, please let me know what you think!

In addition to these, you can find more entries by other creators (or share your own!) in my Let's Build: Mecha posts on The Cauldron (must be a member of the NSR Discord server to join) and The OSR Pit.

Weird & Wonderful Mecha

Arsenic: Black. Tripod legs on a humanoid core with clawed hands. Its head is a long metallic tentacle with a Tesla Coil at the end of it.

Razzle-Dazzle: Surprisingly mobile "walking weapons platform" with a core that looks more like a tank than a humanoid Mecha. Black and white clashing stripes or other holographically overlayed camouflage make it difficult to track in cluttered environments.

Chimera: Quadrupedal but ape-like, somewhere between a lemur and a wolf, with a long snout. Its high-frequency maw glows with ultraviolet. White with purple trim. Long thin tail tipped with a snake-like "head" consisting of rear sensors and laser beam weapon.

Dogu: Alien craft like if Jack Kirby made a psychedelic Celestial inspired by the eponymous Jomon-era figurines.

Rebis: Neon yellow bio-"Mecha", a genetic hodgepodge of non-human animal, fungus, and bacteria in a humanoid form. Keratin plates that look like sleek near-future body armor. Shimmers with a bio-engineered tardigrade film for environmental protection. A fungal/bacterial microbiome can excrete through the skin weaponry such as sphaerobolus (aka artillery fungus). Retractable silken wings that work as solar sails for space travel. The pilot operates The Rebis via an umbilical cable that connects to their spine like in the Cronenberg movie Existenz.

Matrioshka: A supermassive starship, wherein the command deck is an ejectable battle cruiser, piloted by a Mecha whose cockpit is designed to fit a Power Armored pilot, all of which is entraining on the brain waves of the unborn child of the pregnant pilot.

Psycho Baku: Minimalist trunk-nosed Mecha using sensory-scrambling technology, psychophysical illusions, and even psychoactive gases, to create large-scale illusions, mirages, and hallucinations.

Panic Slug: Wrist-mounted shotgun sprays “slugs”, autonomous AI missile drones that seek to infiltrate enemy Mecha and hack them or physically disable them from the inside. As the slugs infest Mecha, they exhibit behaviors like myoclonic jerks.

Murder Crow: Head like a plague doctor mask. A “field medic” Mecha with two autonomous crow-like drones for surveilling disabled/damaged Mecha or for defense, while primarily equipped for Mecha field repairs or ad-hoc constructs.

Mazu: The rainbow dragon Mecha of Pirate Queen Prismasha, Empress of Space. The cockpit of the Mecha is Platina, a dolphin/sea serpent-esque space fighter craft. Mazu and Platina are demigod/AI from an ancient spacefaring civilization. They each dueled Prismasha in “hand-to-hand” combat for her love and hand in marriage, and in their respective failures, vowed to serve as her guardians.

Mecha-Buster Squad: Wear light power armor and utilize mobility tools such as rocket packs, magnetic grappling wires, and solar sails, weaponry such as RPGs, high-impact "one-shot" sniper rifles, and vibro-lances, and various kinds of immobilizing or debilitating traps, to take down significantly larger and more powerful Mecha.

Gacha: The corporation that makes this series of Mecha sells them exclusively in capsules where the specific model inside is not revealed until after purchase. While an expensive and potentially risky way to build a fleet, one lucky Gacha capsule can justify the purchase of dozens of other overpriced and lower-quality Gacha Mecha. Some are desired solely for their rarity, as a status symbol, or for their value in the speculation market, as opposed to actual combat utility.

"Final Fantasy" Worldbuilding

Originally posted on The OSR Pit

This post is probably not about what you think it’s about, it was just fun to troll :p. But it is, loosely, about Final Fantasy.

While nearly all of the Final Fantasy games take place in their own universe (or effectively so, even if they’re technically, loosely connected in some way or another), spanning all sorts of genres, from closer to traditional fantasy, to steampunk, cyberpunk, science fantasy, and even off-brand Americana, they have many overlapping elements.

You’ll see recurring character names like Cid and Gilgamesh, or summons like Ramuh and Ifrit, original creatures like Moogles and Chocobos; in some games, you see recurring original character classes, or semi-consistent class art design, even some recurring art design for more traditional fantasy monsters.

I tend to do this in my worldbuilding as well, if I build out a world long enough. On this blog, my first focus was on my science fantasy setting Phantasmos. More recently I’ve been focusing on Maximum Recursion Depth. I had already introduced one recurring character name, Doctor Lovesmenot, and I’ve been considering rolling over some other ideas from Phantasmos and possibly some of my other settings into MRD.

I go back and forth, between feeling like it’s creatively lazy, or too self-indulgent, to on the other hand thinking about how Final Fantasy, Zelda, Dragon Quest, and many other franchises, all do that too, and that’s part of what makes them endearing. It’s “part of the brand”, and while I could imagine the concern of being too tied to that brand, if I’m ever successful enough for people to be concerned with whether I’m straying too far from my brand, that’s just an entirely different set of problems.

I try not to get too precious with my ideas, something I discussed in a retrospective of my very first blog post, but at the same time, one of the hardest parts of focusing almost singularly on one setting as I’m having to do right now with MRD, is that I hate to abandon all of these other ideas from other settings that I’ve created. I find some comfort in the idea that somehow, all of my settings are connected, and they have these shared threads, and it’s ok if certain characters or names or concepts recur between them, or even if in some cases they contradict and in other cases they’re implied to be continuous. I guess in that way it’s a bit like Lovecraft’s anti-canon, before it got all mucked up as a “mythos”.

In any case, so I think rather than doing it half-way, or feeling a little ashamed for doing it, I’m just going to lean into it and own it, and really double down on the idea that there are going to be recurring elements across my settings, and hope that others see it as part of the charm as well. I haven’t given it too much thought yet beyond Doctor Lovesmenot, Mr. Smiley, and Hopscotch and Honeybee maybe, but I’m excited for what I come up with now that I’ve kicked down this door and accepted this as a thing I’m willing to do. Obviously, I don’t want to go so far that MRD and Phantasmos blur together, let alone some of my other settings, but they’re all different enough that I’m reasonably confident I can do this without that being a concern.

Anyway, what do you all think about “Final Fantasy” Worldbuilding?

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Not-Review

13th Sentinels: Aegis Rim is really good and I want to talk about it. This was originally posted on The OSR Pit, with some changes now that I'm further into the game. I took a break from it for a while or else I probably would have finished it by now, but I believe I'm a little over halfway through the game, whereas the original post I was only a few hours into it.

This game is really good and more people should know about it. It’s sort of a visual novel, point and click adventure game, except laid out like a 2D brawler, with super-duper-high quality 2D hand-drawn character models and backgrounds (maybe they’re not actually 2D hand-drawn, but they have that look) and butter-smooth animations. Also, despite describing it like a point and click adventure game, for the most part, the puzzles/item management type stuff is pretty minimalist; there were only a few times I had to look up online how to do something.

BUT it’s also a mecha tactical RPG. But even then, not quite like any other I’ve played before. First of all, it has this really unique art style, where it’s like you’re watching from a tactical monitor, like a radar or something, so it’s almost more like a hi-fi space invaders (and I think that this is intentional). It’s really evocative, and it’s a clever way to cheat around not having to develop super detailed assets for both game modes. I was worried it would get confusing, and sometimes it’s hard to see certain things, but for the most part, it seems to work. I think that’s in part because, kind of like into the breach, the goal is different than in a standard tactical RPG, and so it’s almost more like a puzzle, and the visuals mostly facilitate this successfully. In this case, you’re trying to defend a base from waves of aliens, most of which go down pretty easily, so it’s really about area control and energy management (so you can use your maneuverability or range moves, or your area of effect moves). I’m not describing it well, but it’s unique and fun.

Also, despite what the name may lead you to think, it’s really nothing like Pacific Rim, or only in the loosest sense. Or, at least so far, anyway. I assume the name was intentionally evocative of Pacific Rim though, but maybe not.

It also has a really interesting story. In some ways, it seems like your traditional teen mecha anime, but it’s got some cool timey-wimey stuff, a non-linear narrative to go along with it, and it feels a little bit more in the vein of something like Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, or Darling in the Franxx, where it seems to me like there’s some subtext here, but I’m not far enough into the game to know what that is yet, or in any case it’s got some cool high concept ideas. As it goes on too, you realize that it is homaging so many things, like War of the Worlds, Terminator, magical girl genre, cyberpunk, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I don't want to spoil. Some of it is explicit, some of it not, but it homages all of these specific works or whole genres, while still feeling cohesive.

Also, while the prologue organizes things in a tight loop between VN sections and tactical sections, once the game actually opens up, it becomes much more non-linear. Because you follow different characters, you can play the different characters’ VN stories somewhat freely (some things get locked until you’ve completed other stories), and it seems that even within any given chapter, there are potential branching paths, and the narrative also seems to support the idea that these branching paths and non-linear story developments are co-occurring. But also, while there are incentives to intersperse story and tactical, it actually separates out those modes, which I thought was a really cool idea. So if you’re not in the right headspace for tactical gameplay, you can push through the story, and if you’re not in the right headspace for a narrative and just want to fuck up some aliens, you can push through the tactical gameplay. It actually feels like it should have been a handheld game; I usually play my switch docked anyway, but if it did come to switch, I’d probably recommend buying it on switch just to have the option to play it handheld. Both the tactical sections and VN sections, at least as far into the game as I’ve gotten, are fairly bite-sized, it feels like it was designed with this in mind, like maybe a few years earlier it would have been a Vita game (RIP Vita).

I was saying, I think it was on an RPG discord, how I think it’s interesting that mecha anime has fallen out of favor in recent years, with a few high profile exceptions, so this was a pleasant surprise. I still don’t have any deep insights about that… maybe one day.

I don’t off-hand have anything tabletop specific to say about this either, besides that, I’m enjoying the game on multiple levels and am finding it creatively inspiring. Perhaps the way it integrates the non-linear story with player choice, separates the modes, and uses visuals to unique effects, could be analogized to tabletop… I dunno, if I think of anything I’ll follow up.

Check this game out.

Integrating Videogames into Tabletop RPG Conflicts

I drafted this post a loooong time ago, like way before people were even using the term "diegetic" and other related concepts, so I sort of make up some language here like "meta-narrative" or "meta-component". For whatever reason, I never felt quite right posting it, but I shared it on the OSR Pit just to see what people thought, and it got some positive reception on it, so I figured I'd finally post this, in lieu of a more "proper" post to come hopefully soon. It may also be a decent companion to my recent Pixels & Platforms Retrospective.

Most resolution mechanics in tabletop RPGs consist of player ingenuity, character ability, and some kind of dice roll or card draw. Generally, these resolution mechanics are used for their probability distributions, convenience of use, availability, to be a meta-component of the setting (e.g. poker chips and poker card mechanics for Deadlands), or just because they're fun.

Let's lean into those latter two. You know what else is fun? Videogames! So the obvious thing to do would be to use a turn-based RPG, tactical RPG, or "Infinity Engine"-style game, especially if it has a custom game editor, and literally simulate the tabletop. That's fun in its own right, but at that point why even have the tabletop? Also, that's too obvious. No, this isn't about a digital simulation for resolution, this is about using videogames as an abstraction, like dice or cards.

It would be best to choose a game that is fast, relatively easy, and that your players have roughly even skill or familiarity with, and is customizable. I'm going to use Super Smash Bros. as my example here, but it doesn't have to be a combat game, it could even be a competitive puzzle game like Puyo Puyo.

So with smash, by default, you would pick a character which is most like your character (you don't have to do this, but it might be better this way meta-narratively). Depending on your level relative to your opponent's, you could give yourself or the opponent handicaps (e.g. extra lives, higher starting damage, w/e else can be customized). To simulate spells or special abilities, you could only include certain items on the stage, and artificially impose a rule that only a character that should have that ability can use that item (for this reason, you wouldn't want to play against a bot). I haven't played smash ultimate yet actually, but if it has customizable fighter stuff, which I believe it does, you may be able to simulate character stats even more directly. 

You probably want to have a very short time limit, or a low-stock game (even one stock), and want to play on a smaller stage (ideally one most like the environment of the conflict), or with a high starting damage, to keep things snappy. If there is a major imbalance in player skill, the player can allow someone else to play for them, or the GM could have one of the players play in their place, but if this is going to regularly be the case then you probably want to play a different game. 

You could make each RPG conflict turn a videogame match, where the winner of the match then rolls their damage dice, or simulate an entire one-on-one encounter this way, where the loser of the match dies / is defeated in the RPG conflict.

You could even replace tabletop RPG combat altogether with this, having a team fight with all players against all opponents (although this would only work if you have a few extra people around to help the GM, or are ok with pairing the GM with bots who might not follow the item rules). Depending on the game (both tabletop RPG and videogame), you could use this for not just combat conflicts but potentially other kinds of conflicts as well.

This is maybe a bit of a novelty idea, but I think it could be fun. Here are some reasons why you should try this:

• Videogames have a degree of inherent fun. 
• It's potentially a lower barrier to entry for new players. 
• If the videogame is a good meta-narrative fit with the campaign setting of the RPG then it could add to immersion. 
• It adds a unique kind of player skill that you don't normally see in tabletop RPGs. 
• It's a different kind of engagement with the game, if your players sometimes struggle with staying focused.
• If you find the right game, it can be faster than usual tabletop conflicts.
• It requires less prep / can be done on the fly.
• You can get more people involved in the game, even if they aren't playing the RPG directly.
• You could build a whole campaign setting around this, with different games as in-universe challenges and different characters in those games as avatars or champions of the players / PCs.

High Level Games: Five Settings To Pilfer For Your Game

I wrote another article for HLG! This one is Five Settings to Pilfer For Your Game. It's about a handful of books, shows, and games I've experienced relatively recently that I think would make for good tabletop RPG settings, or at least settings to pilfer from. One of them should be obvious given the image below ;), but hopefully one or two of these will be new to you.