Action/anime OnePiece-ville
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atminn
Apr 21, 2011, 1:52:09 PM4/21/11
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I've been eager to try hacking SV for the anime/manga One Piece to
match it's distinct style of storytelling (alternating intense
emotional engagement between hope and despair, victory and utter
defeat). In the process I feel like I may have come very close to
something I would want to use instead of 4e for my group's regular D&D
game.
As such, it's interesting that I'm compelled to represent two action
genres rather than drama using SV Core, hence the modifications.
Hacking Smallville, the basics.
*Ambitions*
In One Piece, Ambitions are more powerful than anything, and growth
happens as you have to fight hard to keep them from being thwarted by
others.
Also, Locations don't matter, since chars are always on their ships or
on various islands in the world of seas and islands. The point is to
progress and not sit still.
Thus I'm replacing Locations with Ambitions which work the same way
Locations do, except you use them whenever you're defending your
Ambition. They will work differently in conflict but I'll get to that.
Whenever Pathways lets you add or increase a Location, you add or
increase an Ambition instead. Other players can buy into each others'
ambitions (and are encouraged to do so) just as multiple people can
have a Location on their sheet. When it says "Increase a Resource" you
can increase an ambition, but not when it says "Increase a Resource,
Asset, or relationship"
Whenever you take Stress in a Test/Contest that threatens your
ambition, you can add a die to the Ambition Resource. The more stress
you take, the more powerful your ambition.
Furthermore, whenever the GM/opponent rolls a 1, you can allow another
character (not yourself) to recover one step of one Stress trait. This
way, a character can take tons of stress in the narrative, but still
keep getting up and actually get very strong in their ambitions, with
support from their allies. Even wit strong ambition, a char with d12
stress that doesn't Give In is risking death.
Growth Pool is built primarily by the highest level of Stress taken,
and number of Ambition dice accessed (or Ambition dice used maybe?),
but also less frequently by challenged Values and Relationships as
normal SV rules.
*Relationships*
Relationships matter but not as much as in SV, so I'm going to
compromise them with more standard stats:
In addition to Values, characters have Stats: (Force, Grace, Insight,
Resolve, Panache)
Whenever Pathways lets you increase a Relationship, you can choose to
increase a Stat instead (some chars will have lots of strong
relationships, others will have strong Stats)
For every roll (Tests, Contests, everything), players/GM choose 2
primary dice that best apply to the situation from among Values,
Relationships, and Stats. They cannot use the third even if it
applies.
So a fight action may be Force+Justice, or it might be Force+Luffy,
or even Luffy+Justice.
Does this give players too many choices so they have little reason to
use smaller dice? Should I have rolls always use Stats plus either a
Value or a Relationship? Another idea someone had was only allow
access to using Relationships when your character has had Stress of
the Relationships die size or higher, drawing on emotional power that
may exceed personal power when the chips are down.
*Trouble*
No Trouble pool, but rather Complications like in Leverage. Abilities
that add to the Trouble Pool, instead let the GM create Complications,
or hold that size Complication in reserve for an appropriate time.
What do you think of this? They are pretty drastic changes, but I'm
very intrigued by what they allow, and may be perfect for our D&D
game, and it definitely seems to fit One Piece's storytelling style.
I ran halfway through Pathways with one friend yesterday and it seemed
to work wonderfully. We made it to Life-changing Event and already had
characters that seemed potent and valid as "Level 1" characters. I
hope we can finish and make Seasoned Veterans to see how the power
level lines up with our expectations of powerful One Piece characters
and Level 15 4e characters.
I'd love any feedback on what you think might happen to the system
with these changes, and unexpected consequences I am overlooking.
match it's distinct style of storytelling (alternating intense
emotional engagement between hope and despair, victory and utter
defeat). In the process I feel like I may have come very close to
something I would want to use instead of 4e for my group's regular D&D
game.
As such, it's interesting that I'm compelled to represent two action
genres rather than drama using SV Core, hence the modifications.
Hacking Smallville, the basics.
*Ambitions*
In One Piece, Ambitions are more powerful than anything, and growth
happens as you have to fight hard to keep them from being thwarted by
others.
Also, Locations don't matter, since chars are always on their ships or
on various islands in the world of seas and islands. The point is to
progress and not sit still.
Thus I'm replacing Locations with Ambitions which work the same way
Locations do, except you use them whenever you're defending your
Ambition. They will work differently in conflict but I'll get to that.
Whenever Pathways lets you add or increase a Location, you add or
increase an Ambition instead. Other players can buy into each others'
ambitions (and are encouraged to do so) just as multiple people can
have a Location on their sheet. When it says "Increase a Resource" you
can increase an ambition, but not when it says "Increase a Resource,
Asset, or relationship"
Whenever you take Stress in a Test/Contest that threatens your
ambition, you can add a die to the Ambition Resource. The more stress
you take, the more powerful your ambition.
Furthermore, whenever the GM/opponent rolls a 1, you can allow another
character (not yourself) to recover one step of one Stress trait. This
way, a character can take tons of stress in the narrative, but still
keep getting up and actually get very strong in their ambitions, with
support from their allies. Even wit strong ambition, a char with d12
stress that doesn't Give In is risking death.
Growth Pool is built primarily by the highest level of Stress taken,
and number of Ambition dice accessed (or Ambition dice used maybe?),
but also less frequently by challenged Values and Relationships as
normal SV rules.
*Relationships*
Relationships matter but not as much as in SV, so I'm going to
compromise them with more standard stats:
In addition to Values, characters have Stats: (Force, Grace, Insight,
Resolve, Panache)
Whenever Pathways lets you increase a Relationship, you can choose to
increase a Stat instead (some chars will have lots of strong
relationships, others will have strong Stats)
For every roll (Tests, Contests, everything), players/GM choose 2
primary dice that best apply to the situation from among Values,
Relationships, and Stats. They cannot use the third even if it
applies.
So a fight action may be Force+Justice, or it might be Force+Luffy,
or even Luffy+Justice.
Does this give players too many choices so they have little reason to
use smaller dice? Should I have rolls always use Stats plus either a
Value or a Relationship? Another idea someone had was only allow
access to using Relationships when your character has had Stress of
the Relationships die size or higher, drawing on emotional power that
may exceed personal power when the chips are down.
*Trouble*
No Trouble pool, but rather Complications like in Leverage. Abilities
that add to the Trouble Pool, instead let the GM create Complications,
or hold that size Complication in reserve for an appropriate time.
What do you think of this? They are pretty drastic changes, but I'm
very intrigued by what they allow, and may be perfect for our D&D
game, and it definitely seems to fit One Piece's storytelling style.
I ran halfway through Pathways with one friend yesterday and it seemed
to work wonderfully. We made it to Life-changing Event and already had
characters that seemed potent and valid as "Level 1" characters. I
hope we can finish and make Seasoned Veterans to see how the power
level lines up with our expectations of powerful One Piece characters
and Level 15 4e characters.
I'd love any feedback on what you think might happen to the system
with these changes, and unexpected consequences I am overlooking.
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