Do I Role Play? Ask Rather, Do Ever I Stop? — Part Two (The Dream Game)

Indeed, I still play role playing games. I usually invent my own dice mechanics for each game I run, based roughly on the Chaosium system. I find using percentile dice is intuitive: I have a grasp of what 75% means, but I do not have a grasp of what rolling a 14 or better on 3d6.

Just this month, I had a dream about a role playing game, where my character had to overcome an enemy’s resistance roll, in order to use my special power to copy his superpowers. And when I told my children, they insisted I invent the game and run it.

Let me give you a taste of the rules and background I am using.

The children and I decided to use a system of five stats, taken equally from the EVERWAY game and the NARUTO  cartoon: stats are  Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Dream. There is also a ‘Rank’ stat that defines your caste, fame or social rank.

Earth power controls ‘taijitsu’ which is the ability to increase strength and speed and fighting prowess to superhuman levels by releasing ‘chakre’ through one’s nerves and muscles; Air controls ‘ninjitsu’ which uses ‘chi’ to create any number of special effects or magical attacks; Water controls Kekkei Genkai (Bloodline Limit), which are abilities passed through the clan and family by birth, and which uses ‘ghost energy’ or ancestral spirits to control the elements of the world; Fire controls Kenjutsu (Sword Lore) the ability to focus an energy called ‘spiritual pressure’ into weapons and tools, and awaken them into fantastic and astral powers.

Dream power controls ‘genjitsu’ which is the illusion-casting ability, especially the illusions cast by Fox Spirits and Beast Gods; but Dream also commands Jikukan-jutsu, the Timespace Technique, which is the ability to summon familiar spirits or monsters from the Spirit World, or to travel via the spirit world to fly, bilocate, or teleport.

Each player has fifty points to spend, each stat costs 12 points. The player has the option to lower a stat to the subnormal range, below average, and gain a bonus of 12 more points. Zero is normal (the cabbage guy or Usopp) 12 is Olympic athlete level, highest a muggle human can reach (Kato); 24 is a level of superhuman skill (Rorrano Zorro or Ty Lee); 36 is supernatural skill, which breaks at least one law of nature (Naruto or Prince Zuko); 48 is legendary level, what demigods can do (Arjuna or Aang). Other points can be spent on minor abilities, like flight or amphibious breathing, or on special weapons and gear.

Rank is the esteem which the laws of your home nation rules or the custom of chivalry in neighboring land, as well as the spirit world regards you. Subnormal is a slave, serf, or orphan (Naruto) whom the spirit world regards as worthless, or even a monster; normal is a peasant (Karna or Kikuchiyo); 12 is a rich man’s son or shamed noble (Prince Zuko) or someone virtuous enough to be on speaking terms with the Other World (Mei and Satsuki); 36 is a noble, with relatives among the fox spirits (Abe no Seimei) or animal gods (Mononoke) or an ancestral heritage now lost (Sheeta); 48 is a Daimyo, whose realm heaven and earth will avenge if not conquered in fair combat (Yu the Great) or, contrariwise, powerful enough to defy the vengeance of heaven (Ozai).

Anyone of level 12 or above can have henchmen and military equipment at his service, such as a cat-bus or gigantic automated drills but if they are permanent or on call, then they must be bought with points. A starting Daimyo, for example, would only begin the game with 2 shinobi at most, that is, instead of the massive Village Hidden in the Leaves, the starting Daimyo would have the Village Hidden in the Basement, or the Village Hidden in the Woodshed.

Some background:

In the time of long-ago, the World Emperor wed the Sun Goddess, and brought forth a race of demigods.

The world is post-apocalyptic one where relict of an ancient civilization have left behind traces of immense magical and technological powers, including God Soldiers, deadly robots, the empty but still-operational flying castle of Laputa, and so on. The devastation in the Western Blue Sea has left behind a vast area of poisonous plantlife called The Toxic Jungle. Only rumors remain of the Seven Days of Fire.

All the world is out of balance, and only the greatest heroes can restore it.

The cursed continent in the West Blue Sea is where giant boars and talking wolves have emerged from the spirit world. They use their unity with nature to render certain parts of the Toxic Jungle inhabitable, and forbid mankind from using iron tools and weapons. Those humans living under the protection of the god-beasts, the Emeshi, use only stone arrowheads and spearheads.

But iron found in the sands nearby have led Lady Eboshi, and her musketmen, to erect an ironworks there. Other small communities on the coast of the sea retain a higher level of technology, and have giant aircraft and small armored cars, but their weapons are made of hardened ceramic or insect shells.

Then there are smaller and more peaceful islands in the Eastern Reach of the Western Ocean who have lost almost none of the ancient technology, or rediscovered it, and they have zeppelins and the internal combustion engine, and little witches who brew love potions, or using their flying brooms to run a delivery service.

Meanwhile, in the East Blue Sea, The technology here is roughly at the black-powder Seventeenth Century level. They have biotechnological radios in the shape of snails. One of the left-over artificial life forms created by the long-dead Laputans, called the Devil Fruit, granted a pirate named Gold Roger special superpowers. He discovered a great treasure trove of immeasurable wealth and the unspeakably powerful weapons of the Ancients, including Pashupatastra. Gold Roger was executed, but his promise that he left all his treasure in one piece led to the great age of piracy. The World Government claims to be the legitimate heirs to the World Empire of Laputa, but they have about as much in common as the Byzantine Emperors had with the Roman. They barely remain in control of their own terrain.

The Easterners are undergoing an Age of Discovery, and have sent both exploratory ships and warships into the other oceans of the world, established colonies, and are about to start a war with the Northern Daimyos.

Meanwhile the South Blue Sea is an extensive archipelago, where the only techniques recalled are the bloodline techniques, which cannot be taught from one clan to another. Hence, four Shinobi clans have risen to predominance among the Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, Water Tribes and Air Nomads. The spiritual leader of the Laputan Empire has been reincarnated as a being called the Avatar, and attempts to restore to harmony the balance of the world: but mystics foresee that the Avatar is neither dead nor has he been reincarnated.

The four clans, each tutored by one of four beast gods,  have commands of the four elements, but the Avatar, who was the brother and spiritual leader of the World Emperor before the Seven Days of Fire, reincarnates endlessly in the Southern Archipelago. His mission is to keep the spirit world within its bounds, and prevent men from invading each other. The Fire Nation has made recent advancements in smithing and mining, and invented the steam engine, hence reaches Victorian levels of technology, although they lack gunpowder.

In the North Blue Sea, much more of the ancient learning is preserved. Feudal Lords, known as Daimyos, rule the Five Great Shinobi Countries. They are the Land of Earth in the Northwest, the Land of Lightning in the Northeast, the Land of Water in the East, the Land of Wind in the Southwest, and the Land of Fire in the center. Each Daimyo maintains a hidden village where shinobi with powers and abilities rivaling those of the ancient Laputans train and delve into the long-lost arts of destruction and death.

The Daimyos are all descended by blood from the Sun Goddess, and even though they have no special Shinobi powers, mother nature herself, in the forms of plagues and locusts and storm and drought and crop failure, has promised to avenge the blood of any slain Daimyo — and has done so many times in the past. The spiritual world hears and obeys the Daimyos, even if they cannot through fire from their fingers like a shinobi. But there is a legend of a living gateway to the spirit world, a living bridge, called the Avatar, who perhaps has been reincarnated in some other hemisphere of the world, beyond the boundaries where any Daimyo treasure fleets has explored.

Meanwhile by the shores of the underground and sunless sea at the center of the world, the one working remnant of the Laputan spiritual machinery allows for the reincarnation of the dead is guarded by the decayed and secretive descendants of the Laputan royal family. Their royal palace guard, called the Soul Society, attempts to rule the remnants of the broken reincarnation system. Ghosts leak out of the one-whole Great Wheel of Life, and plague the living, and so the Society trains and equips special agents, Shinigami, or ‘soul reapers’ to hunt down the ghosts and monsters of the world.

In short, each quadrant of the world is out of balance:

The imbalance in the West (Nausicaa, Sheeta, Totoro and Kiki) is a struggle between nature spirits and the misuse of technology: the veil between man’s world and the spirit world is too thin. Of the ancient lore, the Western peoples retain various aspects of the Jikukan, the flying and familiar summoning techniques.

The beast gods who roam the poisoned main continent interfere with radio signals, and go out of their way to destroy certain technologies they hate or fear. However, some island away from the main continent, the Westerners retain or recovered or reinvented much more of the ancient technology, including telephone, radio, air travel, internal combustion engines.

In the East (One Piece), the veil between man and spirit is too thick, and therefore both the Marines and the Pirates are consumed with dishonorable desires. Of the ancient lore, they retain only Taijitsu, the art of superhuman combat. The Devil Fruit unlock certain specific techniques that use chakre-energy.

To the South (Avatar) the archipelago there is ruled by Shinobi of four specific clans, and all powers have been lost that are not bloodline powers (Kekkei Genkai) . They do not even retain a memory of having been ruled by Daimyos.

In the North (Naruto), the rulership of the sons of the Sun Goddess keeps the spirit world in balance, for the Daimyo have the power to close gates and gaps leading to and from the spirit world; but this causes an unusually amount of intercourse between the two worlds, which grants certain men and clans abnormal super powers. Hence, the human world is out of balance.

Of the Ancient Lore, the North Ocean peoples retain all five branches. The Daimyos have Shinobi who study Genjitsu (Mind Powers) Taijitsu (Superhuman fighting skill) Ninjitsu (Mystic Arts) as well as Kekkei genkai (Bloodline powers) and Jikukan (Timespace technique) the ability to summon spirits and monsters from the Other World.

The Grand Line is a haunt of ghosts and monsters, particularly giant sea monsters, created by malfunctions in the Great Wheel of Reincarnation maintained by the hidden Soul Society. They have agents and operatives hidden among the mortals, as well as human-shaped vessels they can occupy and operate like bodies. Of the ancient lore, they retrain expertise only in Kenjitsu, which they use to create both superhuman and supernatural effects from their weapons, and seal magic, which they use to allay or entrap ghosts. However, there is the occasional person with odd powers, such a a taijitsu user (Sado) who can deliver punches of absurd and superhuman strength, or a jikukan-witch able to summon familiars (Orihime).

There is more to invent, but that is the basic idea of the dice system and the campaign.

Other questions?

How has role playing influenced my writing?

What am I playing now?