So, I've really been hankering for a Bleach or Dragonball game using the Bleach D20 classless system. For those who aren't familiar it's a D20 system that eschews class tables for levels and opts for heavy customization with feats. It's an easy to learn, balanced enough for enjoyable gaming, and has an active dev team which continues to improve the game over time. I like the system for the customization, the familiarity of D20, and how you can choose to play as beings outside of Saiyajin or Shinigami and still be more than capable of keeping up.

The game can be found at this link: http://bleachd20.proboards.com/

The PDFs can be downloaded from the left pane. As you can see, they have worked on the system extensively, including several books for running a Dragonball campaign and more.

If someone is down to GM, I'd be willing to contribute to the campaign in two ways: I can write out a campaign for the game, and/or help with mechanics in respect to building NPCs. I like to "marvelize" anime universes to make them more amenable to tabletop gaming. This means fleshing out the universe with hierarchies that allow for more substance which anime universes at times lack. I think that is what contributes to so many anime-based games not having much mileage.

I've had a concept for a campaign called "Dogs of Rukongai" which takes place several decades after the manga ends. The basic idea is that in the wake of Ywach's defeat, soul society becomes more open to change and human culture and technology start to seep into Rukongai. The real world, on the other hand, has advanced significantly technologically. Politically and technologically, the real world would be akin to the Ghost in the Shell setting. As a consequence, the cycle of death moves much slower thanks to humanity improving life expectancy significantly and curing natural death thanks to cybernetics.

With less work to do, soul society has focused its attention on Rukongai. As time passes, life in Rukongai becomes more dystopian as an arms race begins. With the influx of scientific knowledge from the real world, Rukongai has become turbulent as it's denizens pine for a life better than what's been dealt now that humans are living far better than they do. As a consequence, Soul Society becomes more authoritarian which ultimately leads to a rebellion of sorts. Things begin to get crazy when soul society researchers develop "reishites". Nanotechnology composed of reishi which allows for cyberization of shinigami and other spiritual beings.

The players would be the "dogs of rukongai". A group of individuals who express prodigal levels of spiritual power and growth that unwittingly spark a rebellion of sorts. The rebellion would be the first act, but not the sum of the game. Think of it as capturing the spirit of the soul society arc with a strong cyberpunk aesthetic.

The other idea for a Dragonball campaign is a bit more straightforward. It's basically an alternate universe in which beings with the comparable power to Frieza are populous enough(several dozens) to maintain a fragile, yet stable universal balance. Therefore Saiyajins are still around with an intact planet, the GSP is a force to be reckoned with, and whatever killed off most of the life on Namek making it endless green never came to be and the Namekians are a universal player as well.

The Red Ribbon army exists as the Red Ribbon Corporation and is the direct competitor with Capsule Corp. While Earth isn't a major player, it isn't considered a backwater planet and has the technology to compete in the universal economy. Frieza's empire still very much exists but behaves much more like an empire than a de facto controller of the universe. The premise of the game begins with the Namekian Supreme Guru being assassinated, leading to a universal war and the players are recruited by the GSP to stop it.

I would be soooo down for either of these. Love both 'verses

Down to run and/or play? If you are down to run, I can get started on world building right away. :)

I'd like to play. I wouldn't mind running so much, but in my admittedly limited experience it's hard to run a game and play in it. If no one else steps forward to run it I'll be willing to try my hand however...

I like both of these ideas and still offer my mechanical know-how as Co-GM but not the HNIC.

Coolbeans, well we'll see what it do. I think the problem that stems from a GM who also has a PC is trusting the GM to be an awesome individual and the meta-knowledge. If the campaign and mechanics are delegated to other folks, I think it becomes less problematic even if the DM isn't a quite so awesome fellow.

My man! Awesome, you'll be in the loop once I've fleshed out the campaign thoroughly. Leaning towards Bleach for mechanic simplicity. I'll hit you up for some feedback on what I'd like to do to mechanically represent "reishites". It's a pretty simple idea, doesn't involve any extra homebrew or anything like that.

In reply to ultima22689 (msg # 6):

It's the meta knowledge that has me concerned. I've dm'd before and ran a pc, but that pc was in the teacher position to transition the characters into the story which was a bit complex. I don't know how well I'd do keeping the meta knowledge seperated as a regular character that doesn't have that sort of inside knowledge.

Sorry for the delay, I was on vacation last week.

This comes down the honor system no matter how you put it. When you're in that position, you have to ask yourself, what would X character do in Y situation with Z personality? It's part of the reason apps typically ask for personality traits for a character. If your character is presented a problem of some sort which has a logical solution.

For example, the Strawhats meet a squad of marines who are known for being corrupt. Nami might propose buying them off, but your PC is Luffy and it would be out of character for Luffy to comply and pay the marines. So knowing that Luffy would deny if not outright attack the Marines for making the proposal. Think of it like that, instead of "WWJD", think of "WWPCD"?

This is what I always do with my characters, I've played both logical and rather emotional characters. My natural personality leads towards diplomatic moves that evade conflict, but if I'm playing a character that isn't logical or in more complex cases such as being aligned chaotic evil, I try to make sense of what would I do if I had these personality traits. Playing a chaotic evil but highly rational character, I'd be using deceit for the most advantageous situation while simultaneously ruining those I'm negotiating with.

If I have meta-knowledge which I naturally would in this case since I'm writing the campaign, I'd ask myself would my PC know about X thing and how exactly would they know? This keeps you from unwittingly taking advantage of meta-knowledge, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to if you know you are responsible enough to not abuse that knowledge. I've been in games in which there are DMs who handle running a PC and their game without ruining the game. I'm sure you can do it as well. ;)

In that case I'd be down to gm if you and zeone are still down to help out :)

Edit id probably be more inclined torwards the bleach campaign.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:41, Mon 19 Mar 2018.

Word up, sounds good! Bleach it is then! I'll get a thread up today and throw you and zeone a invite.