Kamigakari Thread

I thought today was Monday but it's actually Tuesday edition.

So in the majority of threads, we've gone over a lot of the mechanical aspects. to the point where there's not much left to talk about until kamigakari user finishes Core 2.0.

So instead, lets talk about the fluff. The beings, the organizations, whatever else have you. There's tons of them, something like 5 big important ones in the main book and several smaller ones that have less impact on the story as a whole.

Baseline stuff
mediafire.com/file/183vmgy8b3w1uj3/Kamigakari.rar

Expansions and errata
pastebin.com/u/RoyalTeaRed

Google Docs Character sheet (for if you play online)
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xY5uiJleOpnlh93SGLq2_iKteOFZnlMH1X-MtEDsWsw/edit#gid=0

Mononoke homebrew Guide, FAQ, And quick rules cheatsheet
pastebin.com/u/HomebrewAnon

So starting off, there's basically around 4 classifications for beings.

Innocents, Mononoke, Godhunters, and Aramitama.

Innocents are people with no "Shard" which is the source of power for all of the others. They are kept in the dark on purpose, and are the ones that will need saved when shit goes down.

Mononoke are various mythological or supernatural beings in their regular state. Some are hostile, others aren't.

God hunters are those humans with shards that take it upon themselves to deal with issue's caused by supernatural BS, since they're basically the only ones that can.

And lastly aramitama. This is what happens when something basically goes through the warp, and doesn't come out for the better. These are warped and misshapen, albeit stronger, versions of godhunters, mononoke, and even innocents on rare occasions.

Pretty standard, overall.

There are 4 "Organizations" and one tentative grouping of freelancers that Fight aramitama and other supernatural BS.

The first is the Demon Hunter society. This is basically a supra-religious faction that has worked to suppress and hide anything having to do with the awakened anyone that isn't an innocent . Buddhism, shinto, and onmyou are all present in this faction, and their goal is to hide the happenings of the awakened away from the world at large. Out of sight, out of mind. Tend to be more magical than physical.

Second is the Knights-Templar. These guys are basically the western version of the demon hunter society, but with a very obvious difference. They don't get along with anyone, take shards and regalia as "Relics", and view aramitama as demons. If you just imagined the christian church, you'd be spot on. These are the physical fighters, said to be unnaturally skilled. Regardless of which faction you are from, if someone is called a patron saint, you'd be wise to give some respect, as these guys are likely far stronger than you are, at least for a long time.

The mages association is next, and to be frank, they're probably the friendliest of the groups. They are something of an overarching support organization for mages of almost all types, who focus on around three things.

Their research, the "Promise of Ascension", and the eradication of all aramitama.

Not really a loose organization, but they do basically just do their own thing. They tend to interact particularly badly with the knights templar, but they will work together for the sake of efficiency.

Obviously their members are almost entirely magic focus'd, but branching out into esoteric uses of magic wouldn't be uncommon.

Lastly is the "Special Provisions Division" of the ministry of the environment, located in japan. Generally called SpecProv for short, these are the guys with government backing. Technically an organization that deals in weather and environmental investigation, this is a cover for what they actually do. Their actual job is to keep supernatural BS under the radar and dealt with in the most efficient manner possible.

Generally speaking, they are probably among the weakest of the groups overall due to a lack of god hunters on their payrolls, but their ability to control information is second to none. If it needs hushed up, SpecProv is the one doing so.

Due to their low amount of actual godhunters on their payroll, they work closely with a large amount of freelancers, Basically acting as a glorified quest hub, and then covering it up and offering legal aid where needed.

What God hunters they do have are probably focus'd mostly on sneaking and intelligence gathering, but thats a guess on my part and has no real basis in the fluff.

I'm not gonna go over freelancers, because they are exactly what they sound like. Guns for hire, mercenaries, etc etc.

Never heard of this, curios to know more

I'd be happy to help you know more. Do you have any specific questions so far, or do you just want the general overview?

Give me the elevator pitch, and I'll go from there if there's more I don't get

The elevator pitch, huh. I'll see if i can't give a good one.

The game mostly revolves around high power shenanigans in a style reminiscent of many kinds of battle anime. Combat is fluid and fast paced thanks to a couple systems that give some degree of control over RNG to the players, allowing things to progress at a generally smooth pace, even during times of duress. As explained above, there's a good many factions, each with vying ideals and goals, but generally the same end goal of stopping supernatural bullshit from harming people it shouldn't.

Your job as the player would be to investigate why some strange shit is going down, find the source, and deal with it in a high-stakes battle that may even put your soul itself on the line. Most of the time this will see you fighting supernatural creatures of all kinds, from insects to supernatural tanks, but sometimes the worst enemy will come in the form of other godhunters.

>Shinobigami

Did that ever get released? It seemed like a neat game.

Backer's draft has been out for at least a year now and the Kickstarter fulfillment surveys were sent out just a few weeks ago.

I think you misunderstand.
First, the list is not exhaustive. There are far more options, such as "unintentional slapstick" (Dungeon World) and "unidentifiable mess" (3.PF, Anima, Exalted).
Second, I mean character development in the narrative sense. In TBZ, you earn metacurrency by conveying your character's goals, motivations and beliefs to your fellow players, but can't spend that metacurrency without changing those very goals, motivations and beliefs. Additionally, the flow of that metacurrency also influences the length of each scene to ensure that they don't drag on. Thus, the rules promote effective and focused roleplaying and accelerate the pace of character development to the point where you can fit an entire character arc into a single session. I doubt Kamigakari has mechanics with similar effects in place.
Third, the question is not what you can do with the system, but what the system itself does. Making your own things out of different game elements is the core idea of most RPGs, so that is not really relevant. Refluffing is usually not mechanical in nature and most decidedly something that a player does to the system and is not emergent from the system. As for over-the-top shenanigans, how does it do those? Exploding dice? Mechanical bonuses for over-the-top descriptions? Over-the-top results described in the rules? Escalating or snowballing mechanics?

well, googling it brings up a site that seems to suggest so, at least. It may be worth looking into.

>Backer's draft has been out for at least a year now and the Kickstarter fulfillment surveys were sent out just a few weeks ago.

Oh. I'm glad to hear that.

Actually, kamigakari does have a system in place that promotes roleplaying, in the "Bond" system. Bonds are basically the people you meet and interact with in any given session, up to a max of 7 Bonds including a permanent bond and one other player. By interacting with people and talking with them, you gain access to higher level abilities from your spirit burn, which is a trump card all god hunters have. It also acts as a baseline for your experience total at the end of each session, so getting up to 7 "Bonds" and roleplaying with said people is actively encouraged. This resets back down to 2 bonds, Permanent and other player, at the end of each session, which encourages the players to talk to and interact with people each session.

It may not be as focused as TBZ, but it is actively encouraged and mechanically rewarded.

In your terms, i'd say its closer to escalating mechanics. It goes about encouraging shenanigans by giving you variety early, and often. You start with two of the "Styles", and mix their talents as you please. You are actively encouraged to stack as many talents as feasible and depending on how you do this you can reach some rather insane damage. As you gain levels you gain more abilities, more control over your spirit pool, and reduce the cost on abilities, making it so you can stack more and more talents.

On top of this, many of the races are very high-tier things, like youkai, vampires, werewolves, cyborgs, and the like, which lends itself well to high powered campaigns. On top of this, all the descriptions and fluff helps this along, as much of it has to do with god hunters, godforged regalia, and other similarly high tier wording. Much of the official art also helps support this, such as pic related.

Goo for you user. Its always cool when things uexpectedly pan out

Can someone who understands the game better explain what exactly the Demon-eyed talent Trace Trajectory does? I asked in a previous thread, but no one seemed certain. I think it may have to do with the translation.
As far as I can tell, it allows you to substitute an accuracy check for an evasion or resist check against a weapon attack, and use "Use on active check" talents instead of "Use on reactive check" talents while doing it. Is this correct?

Speaking of Kamigakari user, Where's he been?

I've been wondering about his progress

From what i can tell, all it does is change the Evasion or Resist check to use active talents from reactive ones.

It doesn't say anything about changing it to accuracy.

Caught my interest

Sweet. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Try to be specific though, the broader the question, the worse i explain things.

Same here. Wonder where he is.

Oh, seems to be if you get targeted by an attack that hits multiple people (dunno if it applies for area attacks), you make a Reactive Check and take no damage if you succeed on it, once per round (or scene)

I'm not sure if thats the case. You automatically make a check to avoid pretty much any attack, even area or combat zone. Evasion also already completely nullifies the damage, though resist does get a boost up from half to null.

The only thing i see that it actually actively changes aside from boosting resist once per round is that you use an active check in place of a reactive one. This can get pretty potent considering how many stat boosts active checks can give you, basically blanketly increasing your ability to avoid damage.

We're getting closer, but we're still a ways off from the intended goal.

>It may not be as focused as TBZ
That's a problem, because the focus is what the original user and myself wanted to know about. Incidentally, Double Cross also has a Bond-like mechanic called Lois, but that doesn't so much promote roleplaying as it just fuels the exploding rolls in a fire-and-forget way. Meet NPC, engage in some token roleplaying, get bonus and return to your regularly scheduled virus-fueled fireworks. As for "actively encouraged", does that mean mechanically encouraged? Do you get actual mechanical rewards for engaging in roleplay with your Bonds after acquiring them or does the book just say "do that thing"?

>It goes about encouraging shenanigans by giving you variety early, and often.
I have two issues with this.
First, it's time we (and by "we" I mean "you") defined what exactly shenanigans are, because you could call them thingamajigs, whatchamacallits or monkeyshines and I would be exactly as smart as before.
Second, variety just means options, without saying anything about what those options do and mean. Other games have variety, too, so you have to qualify that variety. The meaning of D&D 4e's variety lies in its four interdependent combat roles with distinct playstyles, with the different methods by which each class achieves its role further defining the interactions between characters. Double Cross, by contrast, also has variety, but most characters just do their own thing and it doesn't matter all that much whether you have a team of attacker, defender and supporter or just everyone pumping out damage.

(cont.)

>On top of this, many of the races are very high-tier things, like youkai, vampires, werewolves, cyborgs, and the like, which lends itself well to high powered campaigns. On top of this, all the descriptions and fluff helps this along, as much of it has to do with god hunters, godforged regalia, and other similarly high tier wording. Much of the official art also helps support this, such as pic related.
This is pure fluff and therefore has absolutely nothing to do with our question. You could put all that fluff into, say, WFRPG, but that doesn't mean the system would support that fluff.

So far as bonds go, i say its "not as focused" in that its not laser focus'd on that specifically. Besides the spirit burn unlock and general experience, there is one merit to actually roleplaying well. Rather, a demerit to being an asshole. No one wants to interact with or help an asshole, and people won't make bonds with them. So if you douche it up, you will be punished with less experience and a lack of trump card compared to other players. Since bonds reset each session, its in your best interest to actually roleplay well, because someone that was a bond one time may not want to be a bond again. Basically, alienating people is bad, and the system can actively punish you for it.

So far as what "Shenanigans" are, i said earlier "Reminiscent of shounen anime battles". Things like naruto, one piece, DBZ, Bleach. Special attacks, high speed movement, transformations, and whatever else have you. Mind, these are just VERY general, entry level examples that people probably know. Other examples would include rurouni kenshin, fate/stay night, Nanoha, etc.

For variety, what i mean is that there's a total of 24 "Classes" you can take, with all of them paired under a specific name. For example, arc slayer A and B have a similar focus on weapon use, but one focus's on damage and the other focus' on evasion and countering. At the start, you can gain 2 of these styles along with 1 race, giving you a total of 3 pools of talents to start from and the general ones to choose from as well. You can get up to 5 styles at level 15, if you choose to take a new style at each fifth level.

Once you've taken style's, you can use their unique talents to anything it could apply to, even if its not from the same style. While each style only has so many talents, theres a great deal more permutations of combinations of them than most systems normally allow. This allows for variety and depth in combat.

A tabletop without its fluff is like a burger without cheese, veggies, or sauce. Bearable, but bland as fuck.

This may sound strange, but eastern games take their fluff VERY seriously. Appearance is everything in japiland, and separating mechanics from fluff isn't quite as easy as you'd think.

>its not laser focus'd on that specifically.
Then it's not what we were asking about. Our question was about the game's mechanical focus, i.e. the common thread that runs through its mechanics and the central theme that unifies them. NOT the focus of the fluff, because if the fluff and the mechanics happen to coincide, that's swell, but it's far from a given and in some cases even impossible because the system in question lacks any mechanical focus altogether.

>there is one merit to actually roleplaying well. Rather, a demerit to being an asshole
That's a blatantly false dichotomy. You can roleplay being an asshole well. You can also roleplay well while being an asshole. You can also not be an asshole and roleplay badly or badly roleplay not being an asshole. But more importantly, whether an NPC wants to make a bond with you is entirely up to the GM's arbitration. Maybe they want to make a bond with you precisely because you are being an asshole. Maybe they think they can reform you or maybe they've just been conditioned to react positively to verbal abuse. Maybe they don't care that you're an asshole and just enjoy your attention. And none of this necessarily has anything to do with how well you roleplay, only with what you roleplay. TBZ, in contrast, has metrics, tools and rules to create a shared understanding of what constitutes "good roleplaying".

>"Reminiscent of shounen anime battles"
But different shounen anime have very different battles. DBZ's battles mostly have characters punching and shouting at each other over several episodes. Naruto's battles pit characters with various thematic power sets against each other. One Piece's battles feature characters with specific singular powers and non-powered characters that can keep up with them by exploiting the weaknesses of those powers or by being just that good at what they do. That doesn't really tell me anything about how Kamigakari's battles generally play out.

(cont.)

>For variety, what i mean is that there's a total of 24 "Classes" you can take
>theres a great deal more permutations of combinations of them than most systems normally allow
Again, you're only saying that there are options, not what those options do or mean in terms of the overall system or its feel or its flow or anything, really. There is so little relevant information that I can't even ask specific questions to narrow anything down.

>separating mechanics from fluff isn't quite as easy as you'd think
It is extremely easy to do. By accident. In large part thanks to the existence of the SRS.
Most SRS games are all fluff and no mechanics. Their fluff often has about as much in common with their mechanics as an octopus has with the sun. They both contain hydrogen atoms and can occasionally be described as "red".
Just because a game has a very specific setting, it doesn't mean that its mechanics actually support said setting and just because most major localizations of Japanese RPGs we've had so far were of systems that have been hand-picked for how well they mechanically support their own premise (generally considered a sign of quality), it doesn't mean that this is a trait endemic to all Japanese RPGs.

I'm not gonna go over the fact that healing heals, smacking things does damage, or what have you.

If you wanted an overview of the classes, say so, instead of being all high and mighty and beating around the bush.

So far as fluff goes, if you break a game down to its most basic systems, you may as well play chess or shogi. The fluff is what gives you the context, reasons, and the overall vibe of the system.

>I'm going to pick at semantics and goalpost until an user gives up trying to support a game

Having fun screaming badwrongfun, user?

>I'm not gonna go over the fact that healing heals, smacking things does damage, or what have you.
Good, because that has nothing to do with my question. I don't want to know each detail, I want to know how all the details fit together.

>If you wanted an overview of the classes, say so, instead of being all high and mighty and beating around the bush.
I do not. Note that I wrote
>what those options do or mean in terms of the overall system or its feel or its flow or anything
not
>what those options are
I can see what those options are in the rulebook. I want to know how they fit together.

>you may as well play chess or shogi
This is actually an interesting statement.
Now correct me if I'm wrong (I mean correct, not just point out, and I hope I am wrong on this one), but what I understand you saying is that Kamigakari user should not have bothered translating the actual system of the game and should have stopped at the fluff, because the mechanics are about as appropriate to the setting as Tic-Tac-Toe would be.
If that is actually your point of view, then you trying to answer the original question has been completely pointless, because our views of RPGs are so fundamentally irreconcilable that no matter how much I try to rephrase the question, I will never be able to communicate it in a way that you can properly interpret it.

Semantics are a vital part of discussion, translation and basically anything to do with communication, because if you ignore semantics you get situations like that user thinking he's answering a question when he's doing anything but, and the shitshow that is most of public political discussion these days.
And I am not moving goalposts. I am constantly restating the original question in the hopes that I can finally point out the actual goalposts that have been standing in the same place all along while catching the balls that have been flying every which way but the one I'm desperately trying to point to.

Are you just gonna keep misconstruing everything i'm saying on purpose, or are you actually going somewhere with this?

>or are you actually going somewhere with this?
I'm trying. I'm really trying, but I've run out of ways to explain to you what I want to know.

Well then stop arguing like a politician and start as someone that wants to learn.

In the simplest manner you can, what is it you want to know? Broad sweeping generalizations like "Mechanics" and "Rules" don't mean anything, as that could mean everything that isn't fluff.

going off topic, taking shots at me for my choice of examples, poking holes at some particularly bad wording, none of that is helping anyone, let alone you or me.

I'll just overlook your thinly veiled petty insults for now.

The problem here is that I want to know about everything that isn't fluff or purely dependent on GM arbitration.

What, in exact terms, is the discernible overarching goal of the game's mechanical design, meaning the purpose that most of the non-fluff game elements as presented in the rulebooks directly or indirectly work towards, how do these game elements affect play and playstyles in practice, how does this result deviate from the overarching goal and how does this result support or deviate from the themes presented in the game's fluff?

The overarching design goal, if i was forced to put it to words, is to have players start spread out and through the course of the game funnel towards the end goal of a session, or episode in the games terms, resulting in a battle with a much larger foe than average. Think monster of the week type stuff. The over all design tries to keep to one major event and monster per session. Rather than something like DnD where things are consecutive each session, each session in kamigakari usually starts blank with a new monster and event.

The mechanical elements either work toward finding or defeating this monster, or interacting with the NPC's or environment in some way. All of this serves to work towards the goal of getting to the big bad of a session, or giving an advantage while fighting it. These elements tend to cause a lot of focus on the task at hand, rather than getting to know or interact with the world itself. There is always a sense of urgency that keeps the pace up, resulting in play style's being equally fast paced, even for support type styles. The mechanics leave a lot of power in the hands of the player, rather than RNG, so this pace is easy to keep up without breaking the flow too often.

So far as how the results deviate from the overarching goal, not by a lot. The fluff and the crunch both point you towards the goal of defeating a big bad before it has the chance to do something catastrophic, and encourages you to take every advantage you can get while doing so.

To put it in the simplest terms i can, Monster of the week, Friendship is power stuff is the main goal of the system, and most of the games mechanics work towards one of these two things.

Still waiting.

Speaking of rewards, pic related.
I seems like priorities are: do what you are told = fight monsters, deal with distortions >>> Bonds

What is handout exactly?
>Handout provides the player with their PC’s motive or purpose for being involved in the story
Am i understanding this right: GM prepares list of goals for the episode that also include a bond, then Players pick the ones they like?

That and scene progression seems very heavy-handed and honestly pain to GM, as you have to come up with everything from goals to scene by scene scenario, to trouble and distortions, to final boss. Like, come on book, say that GM should ask players to frame their own scenes, and make their own handouts. Outsource those burdens to them.

I like the scene structure though. Albeit it would be cool if you could fuck with occurring events from the backstage in indirect / retrospective ways, instead of just resting/selling.

>I seems like priorities are: do what you are told = fight monsters, deal with distortions >>> Bonds

You are correct. However, distortions might only happen once per session, if that. They aren't reliable, but are a very potent mechanic that can help or hurt you.

The handout is basically just an overview of whats happening in that session. What ill effects are going on, what groups seem to have taken interest, what people are affected, shit like that. Since figuring out the cause is part of the session proper, its not like it tells you anything to detailed. The handout goal is basically just to fix whatever is going on.

Scene progression is probably a big pain to the GM, but it can be played by ear so long as the GM guides it toward the eventual goal of fighting the big bad. Improv can work wonders. If there's anything tabletop should have taught people over the years, its don't over prep. Have a series of loose nodes that connect together, but let the characters and players flesh it out.

I do wish the backstage could do a bit more, i'll agree to that. That said, being backstage will often mean being in the middle of something, when the focus shifts to another player, so its not terribly bad. its like in TV shows where something happens, and it cuts away to whatever another character is doing. It all happens pretty much at once, but it gives multiple perspectives.

...

...

I'm just posting dumb shit because i can, don't let it stop people from talking.

When i get some more time, ill post more of the homebrew mononoke.

I know no one cares, but on the off chamce someone does, they'll be here

Getting back to this, does anyone have questions about the setting or such?

Next on the docket, i guess, is the sariel. These guys are a right pain in the ass in the games, due to floating much higher than average, and not taking a great deal of damage.

>Name: Sariel/ Class: Chaos/ Lv: 4
>Size: 3
>Wits: normal
>Senses: normal
>Speech: no
>Reaction: Hostile
>ID: 7
>Weakness: [Fire] [Cold] [Shock]

>| ACC | EVA | CNJ | RES | CHK
>{Combat Stats} | 3 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 2
>{Fixed Values} | 10 | 11 | 17 | 13 | 9

>HP: 49
>Initiative: 9(5)
>Armor: 5
>Barrier: 2

>[Weapon Attack] : Magical Attack / 5sq/ 1#/ Resist halves
>- [Form: Magic/ Element: Light] 3d6+12 Magical damage to the target.

>«Flying» Prep/ User/ User
>- User gains [Shift: Flight] 1/Round

>«Energy Bombardment» Attack/ 6sq/ Area/ Resist halves
>- [Element: Light] Attacks an area with rays of light, dealing 3d6+12 Magical damage. 1/Round

>«Barrier of Light» Attack/ User/ User
>- [Element: Light] User erects a barrier of light around them, Damaging anyone who attacks them in melee until the start of the users next turn for 2d6+5 damage. Additionally, armor is increased by 10. 1/Round

The first one i've made with a wholly defensive ability, i think. This ability, on top of the sariels already good damage reduction while flying, always made it a pain in the ass. It also has a poison powder ability, but i'm already stretching it on its abilities.

Anyone know of any games that are currently recruiting? I've read over the book a few times, but I'm at the point where I really just need to play the game if I'm going to properly understand it.

Unfortunately i can't say i do. I tried asking a while back, but no one seemed to wanna say anything up front.

In the worst case scenario, you may need to GM it yourself if you wanna give it a dry run.

We've had at least one GM make a post in one of these threads. So it does happen.

Any class or comination that allows for size growth like Ultraman?

Closest thing is Legacy user B with the armor that gives increased "Size".

It can be fluffed as either growth or a mech at your discretion.

Legacy User A and B both have several ways to increase size. Dragon Lords can also use Ancestral Advent to increase their size. Which can be reasonably fluffed as an Ultraman-style transformation.

It's a bit odd that there aren't more ways to increase size. But that may be a balance thing.

Well, there are several ways to increase size, but just taking the common power to increase size by 1 and legacy user B armors base ability and you are max sized without having done anything else. Its the most effective way.

So far as balance goes, size does allow you to force more people to stop moving past you, so there's that. It doesn't strictly give any definition for how many squares you take up depending on your size though, All it actually says on this is that regardless of size, no two people can be in the same square. But i'd argue 3=4 sq, 4=9 sq, and 5= 16 sq, with 2 and less being 1 sq for the sake of argument.

Now that i think on it, its a bit odd that size has no direct correlation on actual size on the grid, by RAW

People are free to ask about it in thread but i've only seen it happen once or twice.

Which really sucks for people that don't wanna GM it

See, my issue is I DO want to GM it, but I don't trust my understanding of the system until I can sit down and chargen/play, to make sure my understanding is correct.

So far as Chargen goes, if you want to you could try making one and link it here. That much i can help with. There's a google docs sheet in the main post you can use.

So far as actually playing goes, you're high and dry on that one.

This is a pretty niche game. I think most players will be pretty forgiving.

Knowing more about the fluff, especially the organizations is something I really look forward to as the Gm sections of the late books are translated. The setting is very impotant to me, the rules seem more solid all the time as we discuss them and I see more things like custom Mononoke being made, but the intriguing background is what brings me into anime, into rpgs and especially into JTRP.

Lots of the questioning about social interaction can be handled easier as players understand the setting. I can totally deal with Bonds being the be driver toward such things because I love stories and most of my players are the same.

Oh SHIT. You haven't been around in a hot minute

To be fair, my first tabletop experience was with DnD 3.5 with everyone being completely new. And its went well, probably because of that.

Thank you all for your answers!

No problem dude. You aren't the first person to ask about giant sizes, so i actually knew the answer off the top of my head.

Its a bit weird Kamigakari user hasn't shown up yet. He mighta been able to give you something, but he's more or less MIA

Oh, I know, the problem is I'd do it for my normal group, but I have a few people who are very "Why should I bother learning a system if we may only play it once or twice"

The player end of the system is extremely easy to pick up. Making a character, playing a character, its all really simple. If you've played most any TTRPG, you could pick it up as you play, easy.

There's almost nothing to learn on the player end besides chargen, how to power and use talents, and how much movement you get, all of which can be explained stupidly easily in less than ten minute.

So tell them to suck it up and at least give it a chance. A good old college try, as they say. If they don't like it, whatever. They won't have lost anything.

i'm gonna be honest here, this is beyond "Niche"

Different user, but I have the same problem. Most people I could play this with are either never available or would rather literally stare into the air doing absolutely nothing than even so much as consider learning how to play a new game, no matter how easy I make it for them.

Had a ton of surgical procedures on my back, three more and I should be back online more. Waiting for insurance approvals and super doped until then. I lurked now and then, but way behind.

sounds like you guys need to find new players then. If they aren't even willing to look at it sideways, find a group that will.

Whats the worst that happens, really? you flub some rules that they probably can't even call you on?

Not gonna lie, I'll probably gravitate towards these guys.

Thats fair. Specprov is the most likely one to start out working with, due to there basically being no requirement, but to each their own.

I just like being a member of a large force of melee combatants.
Also, I figure that since Aramitama are the things we're meant to kill a task-force specifically for murdering them quickly would be absolutely ideal.

See, the thing about that is that all of them are basically after that. The mages association is looking for a way to get rid of them permanently, as an example.

Aramitama are wholly evil, so every group is trying to find a way to deal with their shenanigans.

Yeah but near as I can tell the Templar are the most proactive about it.
Not that the others are slouches but they just lack that certain spark to really be all about hunting them down and eradicating them.

But that's just me, not the type to sit around and do nothing for extended periods of time.
Like that damned mage society.
SpecProv also seem a little passive for my tastes.

To be fair, all of them are reactive by nature because they can't do shit till the issues actually start.

The only reason the church seems the most proactive is the good ol christian zealot meme.

>The only reason the church seems the most proactive is the good ol christian zealot meme.
I like this meme. It makes me laugh, it also lends itself well to "catholic vs. other-worldy creature that needs a good killing" type things.
How effective would a cricket bat be?

As effective as you want it to be, i guess. The game Actively encourages refluffing items if you think it would be more interesting, albeit within the bounds of common sense. Like, there's literally a blurb about it somewhere, though i don't remember the exact page.

You could basically use any Form:Hammer weapon you want, and just call it a cricket bat.

Alrighty, I get ya.
The game basically wants to be more stylised and aesthetic over more grounded combat so just about anything to-hand is viable as long as it's justified.
Expressive is a word I'd use I guess.

Final question, does the core game take place in a single city or are there a good amount of cities?

Default setting is in one city, but that doesn't mean it can't take place in other cities.

Yeah, its definitely more style over hard-coded shit like DnD as an example. Ain't no "Longsword does 1d8 damage" bs here. If you wanna use a cricket bat, you do you.

So far as we have right now, the game takes place in Hisashiro city, and thats about it. There are sanctums, but most people haven't done much with those yet. They're basically Palaces from P5, without the connotations involved with it. If you've ever seen media about weird monsters or powerful being pulling shit into a strange other world, thats basically what a sanctum is.

But besides hisashiro and sanctums, no. there's no other cities currently. Kamigakari user mentioned that the supplements might add more, but i can't verify that.

Right-o.
Might flick through the rules and character creation, maybe see about getting people involved for a game with a shitty GM.
A stress test of sorts.
Not gonna lie, I don't do all that much anime stuff so I may be cautious over how balls-to-the-walls the powerlevels might get.

Thats perfectly fine. Aim for a power rangers/Kamen rider level to start with. Not terribly high to start with, but ramps up as you go.

>Power Rangers.
I can work with that; Mighty Morphin' all the way though.

I've kind of exhausted the local pool of potential players, so unless I move to a new city, finding a new group is mostly out of the question.

Y'know, i just thought it was generic art at first, but you really are posting nioh art. Pic related.

But yeah, the game takes a lot of inspiration from the monster of the week shtick that power rangers and such use, so its a good basis for comparison.

well, that sucks. Wish i could help you, but that'd require me to move to god knows where. You could try roll20, its particularly good for playing this, but otherwise you are SoL.

I've only had negative experiences with trying to play RPGs online.

I've had some issues, but its mostly due to specific people.

On a whole, i've had pretty positive results.

>but you really are posting nioh art.
I am, the game is a gem and needs a little more love.

I'm honestly more surprised there isn't a great deal of waifu art. There's at least 3 hot chicks, 4 if you count hino enma.

Nioh is one game that needs to see more love