Touhou RPG

I recall somebody mentioning that Don't Rest Your Head would make a great conversion for a horror themed Touhou game.
Don't think anybody actually made a full conversion, but somebody did come with a great name for it: Can't Sleep, Lolis Will Eat You.

Many have tried and failed terribly. is part of the reason, the other part of the reason is that it takes the ability to simulate modern technology to truely do Gensokyo justice as its set in the 21st century, which puts it into GURPS/d20 modern territory and we all know what everybody feels about that.

The best way it would work would be if you had the ability to roleplay AS actual Touhou characters, like someone controlling Reimu and Marisa and such.

Isn't there a character who's power is "floating" and she can "float" above the rules of physics and just do whatever the fuck she wants or something?

It sounds like a one shot where you give each player power over a 1-3 word concept and just play MAIDrpg.

first you GHOST yourself then you appear there with no penis and no butthole

That's the main character for the majority of the games, Reimu.

Anyway, yeah, games where you just write down a few concepts and then can attempt actions based on those concepts would be best, like MAID or maybe some modified FATE, RISUS, etc.

There's never a "need" to simulate technology. It exists. It works. Do you really want to stat out an M16 instead of just saying "well, it basically a bullet hell of X difficulty with lead instead of magic"?

It takes a special kind of retard to think technology needs to be "simulated"

Name one system that does "modern-day fantasy" correctly.

Call of Cuthulu, which might do an okay job at simulating Touhou so long as you're playing a human or fairy.

For Reimu and Yukari and the Watatsuki sisters you can simply go the route that most fangames (and Zun himself) goes and say "they can't use their powers that way because it breaks the story" with a vague allusion to a higher-tier god coming down and stripping them of their abilities.

GM fiat can fix that. Reimu can't intervene because she caught the measels and the PCs have to fill in her place while she recovers. hat's a good enough start to a plot as any!

If you want to take a Dolls in Pseudo Paradise kind if approch I guess, that would be the way to do it, but I think Gensokyo is more like Exalted where you have fairies and non-miko humans on one side who have to use their wits and creative application of their limited resources and abilities to avoid lethal situations in the first place and youkai and "humans" that are effectively transhumans like Reimu and the Lunarians who are larger than life and can wipe out the former in theory but in practice are bound by the red tape of Gensokyo's political landscape and thus need to use their abilities creatively or get exterminated. This is a demonstrator of why the Spellcard System was originally made, so non-lethal dueling could be an option for those who physically stand no chance against their adversaries, and any high-powered character who refused to follow the system would be hunted down by Reimu and destroyed. But I suppose more people would rather play the youkai with flashy abilities than a bunch of humans that would struggle to take on Rumia 4-1, which is why most games are geared towards depicting the latter rather than the former, though it highlights the problem with Flowers in that it assumes Danmaku is the ONLY type of combat which greatly hampers the type of campaigns you can have.

Really, the only time Gensokyo and the Modern World intersect with each other are the conflicts on the Moon, so just pulling a few statblocks for small arms should be good enough unless you're deliberately including technology in your campaign, which is admittedly a common fan trope and given credance by ZUN from his description of the Outside World of the future being resource-hungry and on the verge of ecological collapse.

Monsters and Other Childish Things

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[INSERT GENERIC SYSTEM HERE], because I have no idea what definition of correctly you're working off.

Can't Golden Sky Stories work?

>2hu
>being nice to people

Doesn't compute. Reimu thinks she got every right to plunder your house after she beat your dog with a stick and she's one of the least monstrous creatures in that dimension...

Okay, this seems pretty legit. I like the guys candor when he says this isn't any groundbreaking shit, its just supposed to do its thing.

Least monstrous, most belligerent. Reimu's the outlier on that one. Poor tojiko got her ass beat, her book stolen, sold at kourindou, and then had marisa steal it again, all because reimu decided "Fuck that girl". Generally speaking, most 2hu's are perfectly reasonable people. Mystia and mokou run food stands, keine and mamizou among others live in the human village, everyone at myouren temple is pro-human/youkai relations.

Frankly, the ones you really need to worry about stick to their own areas. Tengu are somewhat belligerent, but stay in their territory. The SDM residents range from nice to insane, but you could probably hold a conversation with meiling easily enough if you don't try to go in. underground dwellers stay underground usually.

Most fairies are near harmless.

While the "Monstrous beings as cute girls" thing does still leave the monstrous part, they are for the most part reasonable people.

All the PCs are fairies. They're expected to be small-scale and lolrandum because they're basically kids, and also they can't permanently die.

>Isn't there a character who's power is "floating" and she can "float" above the rules of physics and just do whatever the fuck she wants or something?
By nature, Reimu is super in-tune with the world around her. She has amazing instincts and is good at finding the path of least resistance to her problems. However, Reimu is also kind of greedy and lazy, and whenever she gets distracted by that she tends to act really dumb and make a fool of herself. Reimu going into full Serious Business mode doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's terrifying.

That "float away from reality" thing is just Reimu emptying her mind and going into a trance where she follows her instincts completely, to the point where she can dodge things and aim her attacks at you even when it doesn't make sense. In formal duels, she has to set a time limit on it or it's considered an illegal move.

>While the "Monstrous beings as cute girls" thing does still leave the monstrous part, they are for the most part reasonable people.
ZUN was asked which Touhou character he'd go to a hot spring with, if he could. He answered that Reimu and Marisa were the only choices where he could be sure his life wasn't in danger.

In practice most named youkai just act vaguely sinister while trash-talking about eating humans, because they have at least a vague sense of how humans and youkai in Gensokyo are dependent on each other. However, some youkai are either too young or too old to know better, and will genuinely try to kill you. Others will "play pranks" and kill people without meaning to. And if you're an outsider rather than a Gensokyo native (which PCs might be) then you're not protected by the treaties, meaning there are way fewer consequences for attacking you.

As far as the games and extra material go, the only humans being eaten are those Yukari brings in from the outside world, who "won't be missed by anyone".

>that Mystia
The fuck?

The party plays as your standard Touhou characters and have to solve an incident. it would be fun to have all sorts of colorful characters do things.

Maid RPG or Golden Sky Stories would do you well.

Neither really fit Touhou though. Maid RPG is more of a comedy one shot deal, while Golden Sky Stories is entirely non confrontational.

have you read any of the manga?

A lot of those are comedy slice of life shit.

Yeah, but for solving incidents as I mentioned (Not unlike in the games) that wouldn't really work.

i could see it working using maid RPG as a base

Not all incidents are high key enough to actually have people go out of their way to fuck you up.

Maybe everyone is a group of fairies or some shit being led around by cirno, as an example.

I could see homebrew working I suppose, but that system isn't built for incidents like the ones in the games at all.

Just use (insert generic system that supports supers here). The invesgiation process itself is mostly divorced from mechanics (you can lift GUMSHOE's investigation "mechanics" wholesale and adjust to any system) beyond the interpretation of clues which, again, can be boiled down to "roll a skill/an attribute relevant to your training/background, success gives you hints to the uses of the clue." And then you have a more detailed system that can handle superpowers and how they interact with the world. Touhou would be best served with descriptive mechanics for powers in that department. Danmaku would just be a contest of skills, maybe with mechanical assistance from whatever superpowers your character has.

>Maid RPG is more of a comedy one shot deal
You should read the scenarios in the back of the book, they intend for you to be able to drift off from that pretty hard.

Given recent developments, I'd shorten that to just Marisa, as Reimu has gone off her rocker somewhat since that question was last asked.

>mokou run food stands
That was a lie she made up to avoid getting in trouble for burning down a forest during one of her fights with Kaguya.
>everyone at myouren temple is pro-human/youkai relations.
In the sense that they are all youkai supremacists, yeah.

That guy was breaking the rules that keep Gensokyo from falling apart and everyone from killing each other.

Toast pls go and stay go

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I'm saying he's a taoist for slandering myouren temple.

You said Toast, not Taoist. I thought I was being called bread for some reason.

its a joke from a couple images that float around.

One of em says something to the effect of "Buddhism, Butter than toast" or something.

I was unfamiliar with this joke.

wish i had the image, but i haven't been able to find it for a while.

I might be able to if i troll /jp/ long enough, but i'm not sure its worth the effort

Being on /jp/ is never worth the effort. This coming from someone talking about their home board.

...

/jp/ music thread is absolutely fine. probably wouldn't be able to find a couple vinyl tracks without it.

I haven't read this one, hopefully it's not shit, but let me warn you, the other touhou pdf floating around is pretty bad, don't try running it. Or maybe it was just a poor translation

giving it a cursory glance, as a system its not terrible

Its pretty rules light, specifically advises you to smack down special snowflake relations with existing characters, and seems to have a fair grasp on what people latch onto in touhou.

Like i said though, thats with a cursory glance

>specifically advises you to smack down special snowflake relations with existing characters
>seems to have a fair grasp on what people latch onto in touhou.
Those seems to be contradictory, as what draws most people I know to Touhou as a setting IS the characters.

I guess what it means is that you can't start out as Reimu's lover or something equally ridiculous and if you want to build relations with the characters you have to socialize with them in-game.

You misinterpret what i meant.

By special snowflake relations, i mean being satori's other lost sister or some fanfic bullshit like that. Casually knowing someone is fine. Having some integral relation is generally discouraged.

As for the second part, i meant what people latch onto on a character to character basis. Fashion, abilities, things like that.

this is pretty accurate.

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Would Strike! work for Touhou?

It seems like a lot of systems could work as long as they didn't care too much about simulating danmaku.

Actually, yes. It is a broad generic system that emphasizes the crazy fighting. Not exactly danmaku, but it would work.

You could always weld one of the danmaku systems onto an existing one for variable combat scenarios. The issue is blending the two together, like say using danmaku as a distraction while chaining it with lethal attacks.

Wait, are there any rpgs that actually try to simulate danmaku? Tell me more.

The Flowers RPG.

this so much

I used to be a /jp/sie but it was a lot of work, and once I got a job I essentially had two full time efforts (full time job while also full time NEET). I couldn't keep up with it.

I miss talking to Saten-user and wtH-kun though

>Full time job while also full time NEET

You realize those are mutually exclusive right?

>Neither really fit, though.
Come on, Maid would be perfect for playing a group of the fairy maids working at Scarlet Devil Mansion.

This... is actually a very good idea. I wish my friends would be on board with it, but I doubt it.
It just sounds so damn fun. PCs could all be Three Mischievous/Cirno/Daiyousei level fairies, which actually only got to that level of power because they're somehow misguided in the logic that they're heroes from a generic RPG game or something, so they spent a serious amount of time fighting animals and other fairies to get stronger.

And the campaign amounts to doing whatever they feel is righteous while fighting epics battles against very low level people that they think are big game (insert stage 1-2 bosses or custom NPCs) before someone "impossibly powerful" comes along (like Chen or Momiji) and party wipes.

Other fun thing is that they could also be recruited to work for a very powerful individual for "greater good". In essence, they'd be serving as a 3rd~4th stage boss and have to try and fight off everyone that goes to resolve the incident. If they avoided contact with Reimu until then, now would be the time for it to happen.

But I don't think my friends like underdog stories even half as much as I do.

>But I don't think my friends like underdog stories even half as much as I do.
Fairies aren't underdogs, they're fodder. Even the strongest Fairy native to Gensokyo, Cirno, has a losing record, and no other Gensokian Fairy even comes close to her. An underdog story ends with the underdog overcoming the odds and winning. Cirno is Gensokyo's underdog, as shown in Great Fairy Wars where, despite all odds she pulls off a win against Marisa. Anything weaker than her is, as I said, just fodder.

GURPS

Cirno's still fodder. Even fodder gets lucky sometimes as proven by the dice gods hating you. Marisa just got nothing but critical fails and Cirno got nothing but critical successes.

I'm aware of that, fellow user, hence why I said they'd be Cirno-level fairies. Maybe not start as powerful as Cirno - but get to her power level as they gained levels. Honestly, they'd still be fodder even at their strongest.
Thus, it'd be an underdog story. And even then, if they could somehow get to defeat someone as powerful as Marisa, they'd only be able to do it because they would be fighting party vs one battles. And don't even think they could possibly hope to defeat Reimu, nor 6th/EX stage bosses.

I think that if anything, it would be a fun "final battle moment" if they were fighting Reimu on the point they're pretty much as powerful as they can get, and after giving it their all, managed to hit her -
... only to find out all they did was force her to use a death bomb, and she gets rightfully angry for being inattentive and wasting a bomb. She then proceeds to go serious on them.
>Cue to them respawning later, wondering why their memories cut out after she said "get serious"

>Even fodder gets lucky sometimes
No they don't. Nothing that is "fodder" can win in a 1v1 situation against something that isn't. That's why they are fodder.

>hence why I said they'd be Cirno-level fairies
I don't think you understand the difference between Cirno and other fairies. The Three Fairies of Light are some of the strongest not-Cirno Faries in Gensokyo. And Cirno took them out in a 3v1.

> Honestly, they'd still be fodder even at their strongest.
>Thus, it'd be an underdog story.
Fodder exists ONLY to get it's ass kicked. A protagonist like that doesn't make for an Underdog Story, it makes for a Tragedy.

>I think that if anything, it would be a fun "final battle moment" if they were fighting Reimu on the point they're pretty much as powerful as they can get, and after giving it their all, managed to hit her -
>... only to find out all they did was force her to use a death bomb, and she gets rightfully angry for being inattentive and wasting a bomb. She then proceeds to go serious on them.
If that's you idea of a fun final battle, LOSING, I can see why your friends don't agree. Again, Underdog Stories have the weaker character WINNING against the stronger foe. If they try their hardest and still fail, it's a Tragedy.

She has been recognized as strong by both marisa AND a yama, taken on her natural enemy and fucked off to fight a giant exploding doll later, and is also a playable character in the up and coming game.

Like fuck she's just fodder.

>your idea is BADWRONGFUN and I don't like it

I said that labeling a story that ends in Tragedy as an Underdog story is disingenuous, and that I could understand why his friends WOULDN'T find it fun.
I never said he couldn't.

I understand that Cirno is way ahead of all others, mate, I beat GFW's extra too.
Didn't mean to get you angry by listing her alongside Sunny/Star/Luna and Daiyousei. I meant these as examples of above average fairies. Could as well as list Lily White here, too.

I see you're picking on me for the use of the terms "underdog" and "fodder", well then I may have used them incorrectly user. No harm done. Then what I want is a tragedy, the way you put it.

And as I said, I got the idea from the other user in this thread, didn't propose it to my friends yet.
The reason why I think they wouldn't agree with this is because while they want to play a 2hu RPG, powergamers as they are, they want to be on the level of Yukari and Shiki.
They'd disagree with being fairies or common youkai/humans in principle. And managing beings stronger than that is not something I'm comfortable running.

That's all.

It's not really tragedy though. They're fairies. If they fail (and they will), they're just get back up and either try again or do something else.

>they want to be on the level of Yukari and Shiki.
That sounds just as ridiculous to me as playing a bunch of faries.
A touhou game should be about going around solving incidents and SoL shenanigans, and as such you should be on the same level as the protagonists, ie. Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Youmu, and Sanae.

Sure, except he mentioned the fight with Reimu being the FINAL battle. As in the end of the campaign. Losing that may not be a tragedy for the fairy characters, but it would be for the players.

I think we've all forgotten the most important part of running a game in Gensokyo.

...

tenshi a best
yukari a worst

>Implying

She isn't even best sword user

Lots of tea and cookies.

Youmu's sword isn't even a laser, how is she supposed to compete with that boring old thing?

Because she can do slash at eternity without external magical help, or even using myon as a springboard.

Your move.

>best sword user

Excuse me

Tenshi's sword can assume whatever shape give her the greatest advantage against her opponent. She always has the edge in combat, except against cheaters like Yukari.

Furthermore, Tenshi and Youmu have fought two times.
The first time, Tenshi was holding back as part of her plan.
The second time she beat Youmu's ass.
Please, you're barely canon.

>tenshi's sword can assume whatever

no it can't. It's only ever worked like a torch lighter or a lazer. Thats two things and one is a natural progression of the other. It can float on its own, which is cool, but the rest of her crap comes from her keystone.

Besides, tenshi can hardly be called a proper swordsman. She swings the thing more like a club than anything.

If it was a straight up sword V sword fight, tenshi'd lose hands down. Without tenshi's magic bullshit, how well do you think she'd fare?

This, though I don't think you have to necessarily be limited to fairies the only Touhou party I could see working is low-level characters. The actual high-level characters are so powerful that pissing them off would spiral a game out of control into Impossible Spell Card territory (which seemed to actually not work out that bad for Seija since she survived, and just lost all her allies in the process of her rebellion which would probably happen anyway, but unless this is the finale of a campaign I can't see that being desirable for a party).
The right player could handle a higher-leveled character well if they play appropriately and adopt the standard "don't rock the boat" mindset found in Gensokyo, but with the average party of murderhobos you'd have to be weak enough that murderhobo-ing wouldn't be more than a mild annoyance to the characters that can fuck you up like Reimu or the super-powerful youkai. I'm thinking average Stage 3 boss power level at the absolute highest.

Why are you trying to limit it to swords, when no fight in the series is ever like that?

Because i said she isn't best sword user. The only reason i didn't specify "Swordsman" specifically is that they aren't men.

Youmu is slightly better than Tenshi in soku so Youmu is better.

To be honest, I really really like Tashi-sama's light swords.

She can be the best sword user buried under a giant rock.

So, humans and fairies and maybe low-leveled youkai if you can keep them from eating the humans?

I think that misses the point of a Touhou game, which is resolve incidents with vague powers that might be absolute bullshit depending on how you interpret them. If you're not doing that, why are playing in Gensokyo? That is what makes Touhou so unique, trying to downplay it by making the players fairies, or at Yukari level where they don't even have to try, seems like you're cutting yourself off from most of what the setting offers.

It shouldn't be about raw power, it should be about figuring out your limitations and working within them to persevere in your tasks IN SPITE of being weak. What makes Cirno the strongest isn't necessarily anything physical, it's the fact that she takes the time to refine her fighting technique as the situation demands exploits the vulnerabilities of her targets. Oni able to crush you with her pinky finger? Don't fight her in a melee, bombard her from a distance with ice! Marisa able to destroy you with a laser? Since she's human, her stamina is limited allowing her to be worn down through a pitched battle. Hell Raven? Chain attacks to keep her from ever firing her cannon.

For someone who gets called an idiot a lot, Cirno has to fight intelligently in order to actually accomplish anything because the power gap between her and everyone else is just that huge, but it also proves that a "fodder" character is capable of competing with the major players on some level if they're willing to put the effort.

A counter example is the Seven Honest Men (thieves) who were arguably stronger than Cirno who found themselves picked off by a pair of youkai because they didn't act intelligently and couldn't reach an agreement on what to do among themselves. They are how a low leveled party should not act in Gensokyo.

On an additional note, Watatsuki no Yorihime, a Lunarian general who managed to accomplish the otherwise thought impossible task of defeating both Reimu and Yukari in a single sitting, found herself defeated by a simple pit trap; something that just about any human could set up. Along with the fact that the Lunarians were losing ground to fairies, this highlights that nobody is "harmless" in the setting, and a clever person can be as dangerous to the heavy hitters as a high-leveled youkai, if not more because those type of characters often barely register as existing to the them.