So a few friends and I are planning a D&D game based around pic related and I'm wondering how to go about it in the...

We never really had much issues with D&D though, so I don't necessarily see why I have to branch out when it has been serving us well so far. Besides, we already know that martials are terrible, so we avoided most of the issues

I see, it's already too late for you. Well have fun user

Too late? What are you talking about?

Ignore him, some people relentless feel the need to try to bully and shame people for playing D&D. he probably doesn't even understand D&D's issue's beyond parroting bullshit he heard on Veeky Forums.

What edition are you playing(D&D).

What are you hoping to emulate from Darker than Black. Because if it's purely the anime's feel I'd say look into Mutants and Master minds. It's a d20 system built around playing super heroes/people with super powers.

If you use Mutants and Masterminds, instead of the motivasions you can use the condition they have to meet as a Complication.

I'm afraid I have to make short communications to avoid contagion. Must prevent it from spreading to all the board.

DnD issue is trying to play it like it's a role-playing game

That's not an issue with D&D at all. That's an issue with who you play with, and given your attitude a change in system isn't fixing that. Nothing about D&D magically limits roleplaying and nothing about playing some other system is going to magically induce it in those who aren't inclined.

But seriously, fuck off from the thread if all you're going to do is bitch about D&D and not try to help OP find the game he wants.

My first post was recommending M&M. Is obviously the best for him in this case given his experience and needs.
But yeah, keep the sweet damage control going.

He's trying to say that you're falling into a very common trap of starting with D&D and never branching beyond it because that's what you know. The reason it's a bad thing is because it's far more work to adapt D&D to a setting it just shouldn't be handling than it is to learn a different system that actually handles what you want to do well.
tl;dr Just because you can do it with D&D doesn't mean you should

What is saying is true. I also started off with D&D and Pathfinder but if you stay a while longer in Veeky Forums you'll find that many, many problems that you have with your game can be solved by looking for an audience of players that do not play play D&D.

Basically it amounts to
>Have you tried not playing D&D?

Of course, everyone has their own preference, but you have to find it first. Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition is what I would recommend for Darker than Black because it's an Anime about people with superpowers and Mutants and Masterminds has the most flexible approach to powers. You can build 95% of the things that you think of.

A crunchier alternative to this is GURPS, if you are into a more complicated

HERO could be a good medium between GURPS and M&M.

There's also a huge amount of other systems that can support it, because almost everything has some support for "people with powers who fight".

It's honestly really hard to shake off D&D if you started with it and are really nostalgic about it. I also really like high fantasy so that makes it especially difficult although I do want to try playing a high fantasy game in M&M. Seriously D&D isn't as bad mechanically as people make it out to be the worst part about it is giving the players Stockholm Syndrome.

I agree. The main hurdle I see with using D&D to play a game inspired by Darker than Black is that there are no mechanics that inherently state the Complication of having to fulfill the contract or whatever that compulsion was of the characters.

>the worst part about it is giving the players Stockholm Syndrome
Thing with D&D is that it's the go-to system for most games and has an easy terminology to remember.

Subconsciously, even if my character in L5R has Agility and Reflexes, I sometimes confuse it with Dexterity before doing a double take and shaking my head inwardly.

Step 1. Don't play DnD.

>The main hurdle I see with using D&D to play a game inspired by Darker than Black is that there are no mechanics that inherently state the Complication of having to fulfill the contract or whatever that compulsion was of the characters.

To be fair, anime/manga/comic "power systems" are 99% of the time superflous, only used to validate how "smart" a character is when he pulls some sort of rule interaction that we got introduced 5 seconds ago (if at all) out of his ass to beat someone who is "dumb", or how unique/strong/mysterious this guy is because he breaks the rules, omg!

And what exactly is wrong with that? People are always finding ways to exploit the rules that are given, that's partially what tabletop games are built upon and why DM's who introduce impromptu house rules are so shitty to deal with.

It'd be weird if a show introduced a rule and that rule was never broken.

Are you referring to Darker than Black now? I don't understand your point to be honest

Are you resenting Hei because he doesn't have to fulfill a compulsion to use his electric superpowers?

You haven't seen the show haven't you? Contract is basically a superpower that requires some compulsive action or complication for its usage like smoking a pack of cigarettes (that you hate), playing a violin (even if you can't), or looking into water for half an hour.

I see how it could be done in Unknown Armies with a custom power system that utilizes some of its rules.

>And what exactly is wrong with that?

Nothing, what I'm saying is that having binding rules for shit that the source material doesn't care about/only uses as a tool to establish characters/move the plot forward is kinda silly, when you instead could have a game that's simple and plays well.

I'm not even familiar with the source material, it's just a generic observation/grievance I have about the way media seems to handle their own rulesets.

I guess I accidentally hit the mark?

>I guess I accidentally hit the mark?
Not really, which is why I am confused. The deal is that the Main Character doesn't have to fulfill a Contract, while all the other people with superpowers have to, from taking off the boots of the people they kill, to arranging stones in a certain fashion. But that is apparent from the starting episodes, since he is never seen doing such a thing and another character points it out in their conversation.

I think I might be starting to understand what your point is, but could you elaborate it with an example or two? That way, I will probably not misunderstand what you mean.

Well, that still fits into the "establish how special he is" category, but if there's really no other rules established, I guess it sidesteps that.

I haven't really been thinking in the way of concrete examples, more just a feel I get from reading multiple shounen.

The one that I always think of would probably be Hunter x Hunter. It spends a good deal of time on categorizing nen abilities, but all the mechanics of that are largely ignored later on, instead entirely focusing on the specifics of the abilities at hand. Sometimes a character shows up to pay it lip service (like the kid with the chains whose special eyes let him combine every type of power), but overall, it's just backdrop for the people with powers fighting.

Hunter x Hunter is fairly consistent (well, as far as an anime can be anyways) in how its Nen abilities work.

Everyone starts off with a proclivity towards one flavor of Nen, they can also branch out into other flavors but the further it is from their base, the harder it is for them to utilize it. Also, Nen can be augmented through believe and sacrifice, such as Kurapika limiting his chains against the Spiders or Gon sacrificing his potential to gain enough power to kill Pitou.

It's stuff that has been detailed throughout the manga and I haven't really seen too many examples where people have broken the rules, especially since the main character role shifts between Gon, Killua, and Kurapika more often than not.

Kurapika IS breaking the rules by using all the flavors. And my point isn't that it's established, it's that it's mostly ignored; we don't need an explanation of what sort of Nen powers people are using after a while because it really doesn't fucking matter.

Pulling limits (that aren't actually limits) out of thin air like Gon's is also a real nice excuse to get a powerup without buildup to it.

The reason he doesn't need to fufill contracts is
This power isn't granted by the Star BK101, but by his sister bequeathing it to him.
his contract is with HER, and she does not require him to perform any contract to use the power.

Incorrect.

A specialist can potentially use all the powers, but there is a cost - a prohibition he must follow. he can use his conjuration normally, but when he is hunting the Spider, he can use any power.....but ONLY if he is hunting the spider. If he tries to use his chains for anything other than very basic divination or basic attack/defense, he DIES. No second chance, no do-over, he dies. Period.

>Kurapika IS breaking the rules by using all the flavors.
Not really. It is established early on that Nen can allow for all kinds of weird bullshit if you make sure to set limitations for yourself.

Kurapika's limitation is that he a) can only use his abilities on the Spiders, and b) can only use his emporer time when his eyes turn scarlet. It makes sense to his character since his eyes only turn scarlet when he's emotionally distressed and his vengeance arguably turned him into a villain during the end of the Yorknew arc since his actions caused most of the members in his group to end up dead at the hands of the Spiders.
>Pulling limits (that aren't actually limits) out of thin air like Gon's is also a real nice excuse to get a powerup without buildup to it.
There was build up though, have you even watched the anime? After Kite gets killed by Pitou, Gon is obviously unhinged.
For fuck's sake, he was willing to murder a CHILD just to spite Pitou.

I still don't understand why people think theses urban fantasy anime setting are a good for RPGs for the exact reason pointed out in the DnB 2nd season: "neat superpower bro, but I've got a gun."

Shadowrun is just as old as D&D is and it's built on the same urban fantasy premise. Besides, guns suck in D&D anyways, so I fail to see how that'd make a difference.

You can survive being beheaded in Shadowrun, and guns were banned at a lot of tables because they could insta-gib people with there touch AC.

>You can survive being beheaded in Shadowrun
How so?
>guns were banned at a lot of tables because they could insta-gib people with there touch AC.
Maybe in the early levels when people only have like 50-60 HP at max. After that, you'd have an easier time shooting lead B.B.'s at people.

>How so?
Easily.

>Easily.
Then it should be just as easy to explain.

I disagree with the notion that HxH breaks the rules. If anything, it's one of the mangas and anime that is on the more consistent side, albeit it stretches :^) in certain parts. What with Hisoka giving himself a way to start his heart pumping again with his bungee gum.

OP, are you still there?

Yup, still here. What's up?

I also wanted to second the notion of using Mutants and Masterminds 3e: since you already played D&D, it will be more easy for you to get into it than CoC or GURPS.

D&D should work quite well for it.
You actually don't need any rules outside of the CRB to make it like DnB. What you have to do is use your imagination, something you should be familiar with since you're playing roleplaying games.

So the basic premise is that you get cool special powers that you have to "pay" for somehow. Now, since all classes get cool special abilities and powers, you already have those covered.
Now you only need to explain the payment (Renumeration it was called?). Again this is rather easy, since most special abilities have some kind of limit to them, so that must mean they have to have a very costly payment. For example, a wizard only has a limited number of spells, which could mean that his renumeration is similar to that gravity guy from the first episode: He has to break his fingers. Since you only have ten fingers, you only have a limited number of spells - leveling up and getting more spell slots just means that he gets better at gauging his power. If at first he had to break 2 fingers for just one spell, at higher levels he has learned to pop single joints.
On the other hand, a rogue or fighter who can do most of his stuff quite often probably has a simple payment like chewing bubble gum.
See, problem solved, you just have to use your imagination a bit

This is utter bullshit. OP don't do this

Why is it though? Would you rather have a whole system tacked on top of D&D? Or just use another system altogether, when it can simply be solved by being a little bit creative?

Creative my ass.
D&D is way to rigid for this sort of thing and you'd be just better of using a more appropriate system that is probably 9000 times more lightweight and/or flexible.
Fuck sake, just use an appropriate system you madman.
It's like opening a tincan with a granade: technically possible, but not at all practical.

So you're just hating on D&D for no reason, because my solution is independant from the system itself. I guess you missed that

The reasons are self evident if you have more than half a brain cell

I think you're giving this guy too much credit.

It's the game the Veeky Forums has currently memed into being the perfect solution. If you like it, fine. If not, give it three months, and you'll see the stupid picture we post any time somebody mentions the game to signal what a terrible idea it would be to actually play the game.

>D&D is way to rigid for this sort of thing

Man, you trolls are really something else.