JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

[Matt]

Abstract: So... Stands. Any advice here?

For the uninitiated, JoJo's is an epic manga more or less about Vampires and pulp/super heroes. In the middle and best known story arc characters develop powers called Stands (either through inheritance or being shot in the mouth with magic arrows... God I love it).

In short, Stands are like magic guardians that manifest and fight alongside their partner, the Stand User. The characters themselves are usually not slouches in combat but Stands blow cars apart and later throw buildings at one another while the heroes might be able to break a few boards or plate glass.

Sometimes they have esoteric powers- miracles work fine for those but it's the guardian warrior/beast aspect that's got me hung up.

They can be fluffed as a special effect/aura of hyper stats but their ability to function at ranges from a few yards to a few miles, the fact that injuries they sustain are passed on to the Stand User (though they are often a lot tougher than a mortal), these are the elements I'm at a loss for.

Using Sidekick as a base seems a good start but it gets really expensive as you stack the ability to fight onto it...

I suppose I could build more or less identical Stand bodies for players and foes and that would "balance" things, but I'd rather not have to sort of ignore the fact we're playing an 800pt "street level" game with these intensely crunched sidekick powers that are essentially just extra characters that can appear and disappear at will... (did I just solve my own problem... Maybe not). In the series Stand powers are supposed to vary wildly, with some only opposable using some trick, others can just have their faces pounded in.

Any help is appreciated!

PS maybe if I just create a Stand Attribute, they can roll it to bring out their Stand, include willpower cost but give it the Range capacity... Include an inhuman stat (Stand) in the archetype then they'd have all those bells and whistles... Include a Curse in the Archetype that 0 Willpower risks death (since Stands in those without Fighting Spirit are deadly). Ok, now I'm feeling it.

Again, any advice is wanted, welcome, and appreciated!

-Matt Conlon

[The Headless Spaceman]

Way awesome man. I've loved the idea of Stands ever since I played the Dreamcast fighter. Sounds like you have lots of angles covered. Because of the wild variability of Stands, and the point totals involved... I would probably consider building them like separate characters (much like as presented in ORE Mecha), with some intrinsics. The over-the-top point totals don't take away from the "street level" flavor, especially keeping in mind other works like Street Fighter, Battle Angel Alita (my personal favorite and a major inspiration for my current cyborg-kung-fu-space-western ORE project) and other martial arts themed games and comics/manga. The Persona series namesakes are similar to Stands with more occult dressing. Also very cool. Both have never quite let go of my interest. I'd like to see what you come up with.

Karl-with-a-K

[Viktor Eikman]

For those who aren't familiar with the series:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/house-of-1000-manga/2010-12-23

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 2:41 AM, The Headless Spaceman
<ironsig...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would probably consider building them like separate characters (much like as presented in ORE Mecha), with some intrinsics.

This is how I'd do it too. The only tricky part is to get the
connection between the real character and his Stand right. Something
very simple, with natural limitations. I'd go with a Useful Miracle
(named after one's Stand of course), range capacity, Willpower Cost
and Duration. The Stand User archetype has just this One Power plus
Hypertrained and/or Prime Specimen and No Willpower No Way.

If there are non-Stand Users in the group, the Point costs need to be
balanced for usefulness somehow. I would suggest that a Stand gets a
copy of the Stand User's budget, with a certain amount of Points
(25%?) from the Stand User transferred to the Stand, imbalancing their
budgets. The player is paying Willpower in each scene for access to
the majority of her Points.

> The over-the-top point totals don't take away from the "street level" flavor,

By the time the Stands enter into it, there is no street-level flavour
as far as I'm concerned.

Viktor

[matt conlon]

I wrote these for a custom setting in which I expect the Stand type rules to be an evolution of combat in the next arc.  Presently the players all have peculiar powers that range from finicky psychic to mind-shatteringly horrific full body consumptions.  When the "true villains" are revealed the characters will have to loose their spiritual bodies to fight them, this strips them of their innate powers but allows their bodies to exceed human limits, I'm pulling from Magical Girl Madoka, JoJo's, Highschool DxD and a few others.  Much of the game has been about how their powers are related to and fueled by their Vice (one of the 7 deadly sins), when the Soul stat is introduced it will be a game change as they must discover a virtue (create a new virtuous conviction) and feed it to purchase more dice in the Soul Stat (though there's a simple Manifestation Skill they can use to reliably loose their Souls on foes).

 

Souls Unsealed Rules

If you're reading this it means you've heard that your powers stem from an effort on the part of Demons to loose the human soul from its bindings, an effort to create the ultimate weapons and warriors in a war that is waged between reality and something else. Fighting with your Soul Unsealed is a deadly business, but it's the only way you will stand a chance against la Santisima Trinidad and the Agency of Change. There's a lot for you the player to understand and adapt to...

At this point in our story the world is at war though most don't know it. Areas are contested as the Agency of Change struggles to keep humanity under the yoke of status quo, destined for a slow march toward environmental destruction-induced suicide. These war-zones undergo radical alterations that suppress human potential, in order to free mankind from the Agency's oppressive boot it falls to you to bypass the Shield-Wards and fight the Agent-Angels and their Faithful. Now that you know what's going on, here's what you need to know and do.

For starters you have a new Attribute- Soul. Like other Attributes it costs 5pts/die, unlike other Attributes it can be raised to 10, Hard and Wiggle Dice can be bought, it has a Willpower Cost to use, and includes the Range Capacity. Whenever there is a major alteration in Reality you roll Soul+Stability to resist its effects. Whenever you encounter a Shield-Ward you can attempt to breach it with a Soul or Soul+Occult roll. You also roll Soul(+Manifest [narrow skill 1pt/d] or Occult) to manifest your Soul Unsealed, Range on the Attribute determines the range at which the Soul can be Manifested.

Building your Soul Unsealed

The Soul Unsealed is supposed to be the ultimate expression of your Character. It starts with a baseline of your Stats and has your skills (sans Soul and Base Will, you share a Willpower pool), you can spend an additional 60pts on Hyper Stats, Hyper Skills or Miracles/Powers.

As a manifestation of your power while the Soul Unsealed is active you lose access to all of your special abilities, however there are some perks. Determine the cost of your power, those points can be spent to purchase new powers that your Soul Unsealed has. These must be thematically linked to your initial power, they shouldn't duplicate it but may compliment it, greatly expanding your original powers at a cost of Willpower and time.

Additionally, while the Soul is unsealed the limiters on the human body are suspended, you may purchase additional dice in your regular physical Stats up to 6 and upgrade them to Hard or Wiggle dice making you an extremely capable physical combatant. Note: using any 6^th Stat die deals a point of Shock to a relevant hit location but sometimes might be your only chance to defend against something.

Soul Unsealed Combat

I mentioned the danger, here it is. Each point of Killing Damage that your Soul Unsealed takes becomes a point of Shock Damage to a corresponding location on your character and vice versa. Extended combat on two fronts can lead to swift death and depending on your Soul's Unsealed powers a greatly depleted Willpower reserve. Should your Soul Unsealed be defeated it disappears and you lose half your current Willpower total. You can attempt to manifest it again the following round and it will appear unharmed but by this point you're probably hurt pretty bad.

For characters with high Soul Stats the Soul Unsealed can operate at great distances, if the Soul Unsealed operates outside the character's perception knowledge of what it did is recovered when it next disappears.

Below is a short list of powers that are common among Souls Unsealed:

Flight, Detection, Extra Tough, Armor, Heavy Armor, Sizemorph, Regeneration, Panoply****

****- This is a custom power that creates signature equipment

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