Zero Hex

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

So, a few things:

Shonen doesn't have to be over the top just because the latest popular long-running series went through a process of nonstop escalation. Ashita no Joe is an absolute shonen classic and it's a fairly grounded story about japanese street kid finding meaning in life through boxing, the most over the top it gets is having a wild savage that was taught to box. Rurouni Kenshin had flashy fights involving super swordsmanship without going cuhrayzee and ignoring that its characters are humans on some level except when it was a character's gimmick that he was extremely abnormal in some way or another.

It is defeat and the characters being foiled, should it result in death or not, what should always be a possibility or there's no tension and therefore no real meaning to anything. Plenty of works where the characters can lose and not die, but that they fail is what matters. When this is lost it's not a genre feature, it's a common pitfall that takes away from the work. The point of OPM is that Saitama's meant to be a joke and that being overpowered sucks for him. What One Piece does well is make every death matter because they're few, and even without deaths Oda consistently makes the characters' success in the face of difficulty engaging.

I brought up concerns about mind powers and allowing more freedom in materializing abilities for the sake of player agency and variance in powersets, but I feel that if we take those thing into account the set-up as is allows for plenty of variety in character gimmicks. No need to go ham just for the sake of being ham, unnecessary escalation for the sake of trying to make things seem more "epic" is typically where the works start to decline. I feel like the medium proposed is fairly solid and that PVP in these games will always be something of an issue just because of the freeform format, not a lot that can be done about that.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

<Snipped quote by Zero Hex>
(Didn't see this post when I made my last post)

I guess what I'm really saying is that I'm trying to not make it too hard on me. It would just be more stuff I'd have to keep track of on top of all the other GM things I'll be doing. Like I said, I'm willing to bend on the rule, but I will want the weird stuff to be well thought out and reasonable

<Snipped quote by Western Robot>
This is basically what I'm saying, I want it to be more focused. I just don't want it to get too ridiculous or out there, y'know?

@tipssyCalibrator

That's fair enough. I'm just saying it's not exactly "out there" to have characters whose powers are having a super suit or summoning a creature to fight for them in shonen, and that you can have these things as part of the same creation archetype so it allows more creativity for the "smart and weak" types without it stepping outside your worldbuilding. What Western's saying is that he doesn't want to introduce other forms of non-chi magic or super tech, which I've never said I wanted. I'm just saying a materialization power determined by a teen's personality can easily have them tap into fantasy and sci-fi for inspiration and still be the same powerset.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

@tipssyCalibrator
Well yes, you'd have to keep that stuff in check, but that's part of a GM's role after all. Creation of nonexistent things doesn't have to mess with your worldbuilding, it doesn't have to be a wholly separate form of magic. It's just a manifestation of a channeler's power, influenced by their personality and creativity. For a simple character example: a bullied emo kid that wanted some kind of badass protector ends up projecting a "demon" summon/stand as his power. It's not an actual demon from hell, but it looks and might even act like what he thinks a demon would because it's that closely linked to the character's story and personality.

As for where it comes from, this is already a setting hinging around magical inner spirit energy projection, with a subset based around creating something from nothing and even manipulating things similar to the things you create on some level. I don't think there's much of a problem if channelers can manifest their energy as a physical being or object.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

@tipssyCalibrator
You know, I hate feeling like I'm telling you how to run your game or w/e, just offering advice/opinion here, having said that: the "whole having a tiny mech/powered armor" thing could easily fit channelers that specialize in materializing objects and whatnot. You're the smart but weak type and you want to be the smart and strong type, so you literally create a way to do so. It plays into a variety of personalities rather than just "generic smart coolguy", because you're sacrificing a potentially much more versatile power in exchange for being able to compete with the meatheads in their own terms.

As for summons, it feels like limiting creation to something that exists just puts too much of a damper on what people could do with that ability creatively. For instance, it'd take away the ability to create a power armor for yourself. That's a fun and cool concept gone. For shonen show examples, while the main character in S.Cry.Ed was essentially an augmenter (given the way the show worked his powerset was creating a rocket punch gauntlet, another thing that seemingly wouldn't fly), his rival was a cool headed operator whose power was summoning a humanoid creature that used flexible ribbon limbs for attack and defense. That wouldn't be doable either.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

@Zero Hex
The thing with the illusionists is that I wanted there to be a category of channellers that were the "smart but weak" types, the ones that were the opposite of the "strong but dumb" augmenter type. I guess I don't need that, but I was kinda going for that

@tipssyCalibrator

I understand that, makes sense. But wouldn't that work perfectly well for the sorts that are literally creating items or straight up summons out of thin air to cover for their deficiencies? You're smart but weak so you have unique weapons and/or equipment or you straight up create something to do your dirty work while you strategize.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

@tipssyCalibrator
How about having architects be those who specialize in creating actual physical constructs with their energy (arms, armor, attack pets etc) and having a separate category named, IDK, "projectors" (I'm awful with names on the fly) that focus on the genre staple of throwing around beams and fire and whatnot.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

Potentially interested, though leery of illusionists as it seems an archetype that'll be all about taking away agency from other players. They can outright take away the ability to play via mind control, rewrite situations on the spot via illusions, metagaming via mindreading and generally just control how other people play the game. That just isn't very fun except for the person doing it. And making it so that awareness nulls all this also means that it's quite easy to trivialize the entire archetype as well.

The Heroes of Righteousness: A Samurai Jack Universe RP

I'd be up for this if it'll actually keep going, just didn't want to put in the work in a charsheet for a game that looked like it was dead in the water =/

The Immortal Honor: Ghost Serpents of Onan (Fantasy Kung-Fu Epic)

What he said.

The Immortal Honor: Ghost Serpents of Onan (Fantasy Kung-Fu Epic)

Zhan Wu watched with disinterest as the crowd sorted out their business, deciding that time was best spent securing his mount and making sure it was provided for after his journey. He might need it later, after all, and what had gone down or how the locals handled it really wasn't any particular concern of his if it didn't interrupt his coming and going. At least, it wasn't any particular concern of his until fate mandated it be so, when the two names came to light and made him turn around and pay attention. "Ah, the so-called Drunken Master of the Zhang family, yes. You are rather well known amongst escort agencies and the like".

Being the scion of a highly regarded and resourceful family had its benefits. For everyone willing to pay for a serious hit on the rambunctious drunkard, seen as the easiest target of the influential clan, the Zhangs or their friends and allies often reserved the right to match the offer to void the contract before it was signed should they feel Yuo's life was truly in danger. When that wasn't an option, a defense contract was called for instead. Whether he was aware of this or not, Zhan Wu couldn't say and so he wouldn't divulge the information. Instead, he gifted the man a smiling bow that seemed stuck halfway between being mocking and sincere.

"Ah, the heavens do work in funny ways. I am here for the contract indeed, though I must say it seems like something the Iron School should handle", he shrugged, conspicuously not producing a letter as the others. Papers could be stolen and his had been burnt to ash to ensure such a thing would not happen, a common precaution. Instead, a password and reply had been agreed upon with the employer when the Howling Hunters were contacted to deal with the Pale Hunter. Zhan Wu turned to the group once more. "Didn't figure a Zhang would go for this line of work, not even you. In fact, I must say the same for everyone here. First day on the job?".