Tokyo Majin. Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Blue Seed. Bleach. Blassreiter. Kamen Rider. Guyver.

In no particular order, these are all obvious inspirations for a JRPG that I recently found a translation for: Kamigakari. Drawing heavily from Japanese mythos (both ancient and modern), Kamigakari is a game focused on what they term as "Awakened," or souls infused with a "shard" of original divinity. These shards transform animals and plants into the awakened spirits that have been known variably as gods, youkai, spirits, and fae, as well as numerous other names throughout history and across the globe. They transform humans (and similar beings) into "Godhunters", people capable of transcendent feats of magical power. In a world born of quintessential "essence," those with a shard are able to manipulate this substance to achieve feats of sorcery, inhuman martial prowess, henshin-style transformation, and more.

The shards also give rise to a false god known as an "Aramitama." Born from the aggregate malice of humanity, these dark spirits exist without form until they are able to form a covenant with a mortal soul. Using their power to fulfill a wish, they eventually devour the soul of their contractor, stealing their body in order to pursue more souls. Should they devour enough, they will transform into an "Avatar of Ruin," and then the world will end.

* * * *

That's a brief overview for a game I've just started reading. For those who are unfamiliar, Japanese tabletop games, while not entirely unlike their western counterparts, are a bit different because of the gaming culture in Japan. Centered around episodic stories that mirror the sorts of things you're likely to see in Anime and local serials, Kamigakari is the story of "magical girls," "Henshin heroes," "demon swordsmen," and many other supernatural people who are hiding in plain sight, defending the world from horrors that mankind cannot possibly face themselves. Their motives run the gamut from altruistic to selfish, and they come from all walks of life, but they are (at least tennuously) united in their struggle.

Kamigakari sets itself apart from some of its contemporaries with a unique (but still relatively simple) dice mechanic/resource system that is lightweight but also makes for hopefully cinematic battles where players have to work their way up to their most powerful abilities. At its core, Kamigakari is just 2d6+stat, but what differentiates it is the "spirit pool," a dice pool refreshed every scene (or every round of combat) that the player can trade dice into and out of to modify their rolls. This smooths the role of chance in your actions, but also provides your resource management system. "Talents" (the game's term for special abilities) are activated by expending dice from your spirit pool (sometimes any dice, sometimes specific numbers) in order to activate their effects.

Naturally, this would be a learning experience for everyone involved. I'm only reading this now myself, and I wouldn't expect any of the other players to be familiar with this, only recently, fan-translated material. Luckily the game comes with a diverse array of pre-generated character archetypes just waiting for a name and face to applied to customize them to a player's liking, though I'm not unwilling to entertain the idea of an enterprising individual trying to create their own character.

I'm opening this thread to see if there's any interest around here in trying something this daring with me. Obviously, this undertaking would be a little challenging because nobody is innately familiar with the material, but I think it could also be a really cool and unique experience. I've tossed around several ideas for the sort of games I'd be interested in starting for the new year, but this one, I think, has the potential to be something special, and allows for me to explore the sort of stories that I've always enjoyed from the land of the rising sun.

I'd love to hear what people think. While a sound-off for interest is nice, it's never quite as helpful as a more thoughtful reply or, better yet, questions.

-Norwood

Potentially interested, but I have a few questions:

• What kind of campaign would you see yourself running with this ruleset? Any particular themes you want to riff off? From my own recollection of early manga there's a heavy elements of high school emergence, psychic mutants and secret societies?
• Any thoughts on how episodes would work with the slower pace of play-by-post?
• What would unite the player characters?

In reply to Jhaelan (msg # 2):

Good questions:

1) I would likely set the game in/around a Japanese university. Players would take the role of students who all belong to the Godbound. Due to the nature of the secret, supernatural world, the players have likely been developing (and hiding) their abilities for sometime, perhaps raised within a secret society or family of like individuals. They are, almost certainly, the most gifted member of their group, though it's not at all out of the question that they might be an otherwise normal person suddenly gifted with extraordinary power as a shard is lodged in their soul.

The game would follow these characters as they investigate supernatural phenomena around the city and their school, fending off youkai and Aramitama as they prey on the people. Whether they want any part in the battle against evil or not, they will find themselves caught in the midst of a rising tide of supernatural predation. Obviously, these sorts of stories are most easily told with characters who have some connection to manipulate. This could be an attachment to a supernatural order, or simply friends and loved ones placed at risk as the situation worsens.

At first, the story would simply be based on proximity and emerging events. Encounters would be episodic as we work out the system, but if interest persists and we enjoy it, then I'll parlay threads into an overarching narrative to carry us forward.

2) I won't lie; The slower pace of pbp is always an issue. I won't be a stickler about posting rate, but everyone involved would need to commit to some sort of timetable. I've had too many games die due to disappearances, so if people stop dropping by without any word, I'll write them out, temporarily or permanently. Other than that, I don't think episodic stories are any more vulnerable to pbp speed than any other game type. Indeed, they have the advantage that there is a higher likelihood of action occurring on a regular basis to hold people's attention.

3) Like I said; Proximity would be the key factor at first. Within the confines of a single area, the emergence of supernatural threats are a problem for everyone. Those characters already indoctrinated in the societies and families that traffic in this "underground" would know what's at stake, and any newcomers would need the sources of information as their world unfolds into a possible nightmare around them. Other than that, I don't generally use (heavy-handed) plot devices to demand party collaboration. If players write a character who wants no part in the story, well . . . I'm probably not accepting a party of anti-social loners. People can have friction and reservations, but I'm not interested in herding cats into the plot.

Thanks. Definitely interested

I'll bite, sure.

Definitely seems like something I'd be into!

I would love to be a part of this.

I do like magical girls.

Color me intrigued.

I would, but I'm incredibly poor, and end up making my own RPGs to compensate.

I'd like to play as well.

Want, isnt the right word. This has grabbed onto me and isnt letting go...

I'm weak for this kind of thing.  If you move forward, I'll probably throw an RTJ your way.

I would like to throw my hat into the ring as well.

I have a couple of questions now that I've taken a look over the rules.

1. Do you intend to use the scene structure, unmodified? In PbP, there might be a problem with that, because each scene will take at least a week (and possibly up to a month for a big one with plot and fighting - not necessarily a boss scene) and scenes are mechanically sequential rather than simultaneous.

We may need to have Backstage time written into the plot rather than given to people who aren't in each scene.

2. Are we using battle maps, or are we handwaving distances?

Good questions:

1) I'm planning to use the scene structure, but there may be some (very slight) modifications. First, I want to say that I think it's important because the genre expects that not all characters will be a part of every encounter. That's fairly core to the source material. I think you're overestimating the duration of some scenes. Ones with combat or major reveals will certainly take a bit longer, but those are also the scenes most likely to have most or all of the characters present. Many scenes, however, will only be short exchanges between a player or two and an npc, or a trip to investigate a strange event. Investigating doesn't need to involve "I'll check the cupboards," then "okay, nothing there, let's look in the other room". As such, I expect a lot of small scenes can be resolved with no more than 3-5 posts back and forth, which is probably a week at most.

Also, while the default assumption is that scenes can't happen concurrently, there are ways to massage those rules mechanically to have simultaneous scenes and to have rest and recuperation occur at other intervals. I'm not averse at all to having threads for characters who aren't (for whatever reason) actively involved in a thread to role-play some of their other activities in.

2) I think there's a bit of space between battle-maps and complete handwaving. I'm considering using battle-maps, but if I don't, I won't completely drop distances, but we won't grid them out. It'll be approximate distances.

All right. I'm working on getting the game up now. Expect the bones to be up tomorrow, but it'll probably take me at least part of the weekend to add enough material for people to make strong RTJs. My goal is to provide a brief overview of the setting (globally and locally), including breakdowns of the broad supernatural archetypes and overviews of some of the factions suggested in the book that I'd like to make use of.

I'm also going to try to compile an "inspirations" thread that will recommend relevant media as references for different features of the game/setting, as well as ideas on "tropes" and general storytelling style to get people in the right mindset for this sort of story. Japanese RPGs tend to assume players will tell stories differently. For one, they have a bit less of an aversion to what some western audiences might see as "railroading." It won't be my intention to do that, but I'm also going to try and cleave to the source material, which means that, sometimes, scenes might be cut "early" as we fade away to let dramatic relationships and problems unfold over the course of episodes, rather than being resolved in a more prolonged conversation.

I'll link the game here when it's ready to start accepting applications.

link to another game

The bare bones of the game are up here. There's a lot of material left to be added, and some of that is probably necessary for people to finish applications, but if people would like to start asking questions or talking about the sort of inspirations they're interested in, I wanted them to have a place to do it.

I'll be trying to post up the rest of the material tomorrow. Other than that, feel free to drop by and leave a message if you're still interested in this. I'd love to hear from people about what they'd like to see out of this.