How would you guys build a Shin Megami Tensei/Persona tabletop setting. What system would you use? How would you tackle fusion/recruitment?
I have begun to try this kind of thing in Pathfinder, setting it in SMT4's Blasted Tokyo, using elements of dark sun to set the tone, so far this has been working well. I'm not sure how to handle fusion/recruitment, or even how demon skills will work. Im thinking of letting each person have a demon and each demon has a 1/day 3/day /at will skill that they can use.
Pokemon Tabletop United has a lot of stuff in place to facilitate this kind of game nicely, though you will have to tweak some things to be less pokemon specific. The base game was already constructed with a lot of the peculiarities you might face from running this style of game in mind, meaning all you'd have to do is tweak the capture and breeding rules to better represent negotiation and fusion respectively, and replace shit like Type experts with Clan/Element experts. Maybe include a dedicated soldier class and expand the firearm rules, and make "moves" easier to acquire for humans.
Jose Evans
The issue is that you just straight-up can't tackle fusion and recruitment is something that's either too easy to abuse (based on GM and roleplaying) or too easy to game.
In any good SMT / Persona tabletop, you'll work like one of the non-main characters in a Persona or SMT game. You'll make a class that has much more strict limitations on power, or you'll make a single persona or creature that represents your power in order to proceed - I.E. You'll make one persona and you will skip recruitment and fusion, because doing otherwise is a complete nightmare to regulate.
I'd imagine that the best way to do it would be an adaptation of Tenra Bansho Zero or Double Cross, one of those games, where you can pick up lists of moves that use a risk/reward scenario. That way you could pick up multiple monsters or personae or whatever as basically different single powers you have, kind of like picking options from a tech tree.
Ryder Martin
I considered making an SMT game where everyone is a Maniken trying to gather magasuhi for a Reason.
A game where people are demonoids in Infernal Tokyo could work.
They party could work together to negotiate with a handful of demons instead of managing 2+ a player.
Jordan Nguyen
>you just straight-up can't tackle fusion I already did just that for a Persona game I'll be running in MaOCT.
You can recruit shadows through negotiation and then they get added to your possession as "Sub-Personas" (see: Persona Q) with extremely simplified stat blocks. They modify your primary Persona rather than replace them, primarily by adding small amounts of Extras that aren't tied to specific parts (as is the norm for Monsters in MaOCT).
Regarding fusion, you toss two Sub-Personas in and get a new one with level equal to their average and Arcana based on the two that were fused. The exact combination of Arcana is secret since I have players who may or may not be looking at these threads. You can also preserve a number of extras from the fused Personas based on your relationship of that Arcana.
MaOCT's way of handling experience makes balancing difficult, since leveling your sub-Persona would be detrimental in most cases, as powering up monsters is a hefty investment in MaOCT and you'd probably want to just use that experience on your main instead. I also can't make Sub-Personas easier to power up, because otherwise savvy players would just level those up as frequently as possible, so what I did instead was just added another fusion method.
Sacrificial fusion takes two with different numbers of dice, destroys the stronger one, and then adds appropriate extras (I made some tables in advance for this) to the weaker one until it has as many dice as the stronger one did. Such as, say, if a Jack Frost gains 1 extra dice by doing this, he might gain an extra attack element or possibly a Gnarly/Sweet extra.
Grayson Morgan
Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition if you want Persona, something OSR if you want SMT. Recruiting demons is just an intelligence check, maybe randomly requiring tribute for certain races or if you don't share alignments. Classes would probably be Summoner (Nakajima, the Hero, Aleph ), Magic-User (Partner, Beth, Hiroko, every party member from SMT 4/FINAL), Demon-Fused (Dark Hero, Law and Chaos Hero, Flynn and Nanashi), and Persona-Users (everyone except Tammy from Persona). You could have multi-classing with Summoner to represent special cases, like Pre-Final Flynn and friends being Summoner/Magic-Users who can't fuse demons, and Summoner/Demon-Fused to represent characters like Hallelujah and the guy from SMT3.
Nolan Hill
This is good. I'm stealing this and adding it to my WIP on this.
Colton Parker
I actually had the basic combat for a SMT homebrew system I was making written out. I was play testing it with friends, but I don't know how much of it I lost when my computer crashed. I'll see about digging some of it up.
But the general outline was:
-head to head combat to reflect combat in the game. each team has a 9x9 square they can maneuver around to perform actions (think persona 1 but simpler and party members can share spaces). You Each party member can have 1 demon out at a time, human and demon actions were what you'd expect from something like SMT1 (was using it as a basis before I was gonna add elements from other games).
-demon negotiations would be rolled on a table of d100 (maybe d10 would have been okay, but it was all in play testing), you'd get modifiers based on your roleplay, alignments, and previous rolls on the negotiation table.
Leo Hughes
>The issue is that you just straight-up can't tackle fusion and recruitment
Your game design theory is weak and won't survive in the new world.
Nathaniel Stewart
Found what remains, and it's alright. An outline of how combat works, rules on character creation (basic humans all start with the same stats since I hadn't gotten past play testing the gameplay), and rules on how stat works. Can't remember how much I lost but I'm feeling like maybe I should give working on this a try again.
Matthew Harris
Bumping for interest
SMT is my favorite video game franchise. And when I DM I always make nods or refrences to SMT
>First real "boss" of the adventure was a battle mage Minotaur >Second was Medusa (just a Gorgan with the appearance of Medusa from SMTIVA)
Logan Anderson
Fun fact: A chat that I'm involved with made of Veeky Forums users has already been building a Persona/SMT RPG, based off of Monsters & Other Childish Things. Characters I'm using it for include a delinquent biker of the Tower arcana with Dick Turpin as a Persona (pic related, we have an artfag) and a scrappy little homeless terrier mongrel who's Strength and has Fenrir. If anyone's interested I can post the rulebook, the separate WIP sections and a link to our Discord.
Gavin Morgan
>Persona/SMT I dont wanna sound like an elitist, but wouldt a demon summoner, who can summon multiple demons and still be a force to be wrecked with, easily take down SEES/IT/PT? And you using P3-5 rules or P1-2 rules?
Robert Williams
PCs have their own attributes and skills, demons supply spells, powers, and feats
Everyone gets a race (not the PC's race, the demon's). That's basically their class, and determines what demons they can summon. Simple enough. Multiclassing (learning to summon other races of demons) is allowed, where only leveling in your current race gets you faster access to the big name demon summons.
Recruitment: Give demons will saves when they take sufficient damage. Failure means they try to parley. Also, players can try diplomacy checks, but they use their turn to do so and are flat-footed until the beginning of their next turn if combat resumes. Demons won't just join you; you need to convince them that what you're doing is right, or otherwise make them like you. Don't make your players guess what each demon wants though *cough persona 2 cough* Stronger demons might even make you go on a quest before being recruited.
Fusion: Players can learn fusion as a skill (with some steep prerequisites), or, (more likely) find somebody capable of it and hire them. To bastardize the system used in the games and make this a lot easier for you to figure out. Base demon: The first demon selected in the fusion is the Base demon. This determines the fusion's arcana, what spells/feats it is capable of learning, and spells/feats to choose from. Any other demon in the fusion: Adds XP to the demon, as well as allowing the result to pick from their own spells/feats. Easy. Result demon: Make sure the summoner has a level in that race high enough to use said demon, or don't let the summon happen at all. REALLY DON'T let players summon stronger demons just to fight them for XP.
Powerful summons: The archangels, the gods, the names in foreign mythologies that normal people know. They require multiple high level demons to summon, and all of the same race. Hell, write specific recipes that your party has to find while questing. These are the epic-level shit anyway.
Jose Ramirez
Not that guy, but my assumption is that the average persona user is stronger/has more potential than any single demon (since demons don't level up originally), but a summoner has more versatility at their disposal (since the average persona user is restricted by their own psyche).
So it's less a strong/weak thing and more of a pros/cons thing. Persona users are their own source of power with the potential to grow, but are also confined by their own growth. A summoner has to rely on the powers of others, but they have a wider variety of power they can gain via easier methods.
Jaxson Foster
yes but, in the case of SMT 1,2,Devil summoner, you can have up to 5 demons. And you are not half bad, at all in melle or in guns. I dont see any member of SEES/IS/PT being able to go toe to toe with Hero, or Aleph. Even Raioudu who can only have 2 demons out would still have, a whole 3 bodys against 1 persona user. And that persona user, is locked into one tarrot, unless they are to special snowflake or its P1-P2 rules.
But its DnD so who care about balance now that I think about it
I also would not mind the discord link
Jordan Perez
...
Isaiah Martin
>no MTII protag I feel that I am the only one who has played that game sometimes.
Christopher Lewis
You're giving me mixed signals with what you're trying to discuss here. I thought you were talking about a theoretical table top system, but now you want to have a discussion about specific game power levels?
Cause Chie could one shot any character or demon by punting them into orbit. Check mate.
Luke Nguyen
>Demi-cuck god tier
You're kidding right? that pussy has a weakness to gun,GUN!
Every protagonist with a working brain, who uses guns can kill him easily
Brody Miller
P3-5. Mostly P5, we have mechanics for Hold Ups and are using SMT Demons for Shadows rather than weird hands and lumps of rock wearing masks. Also as of yet we have no mechanics for playing a Wildcard/Summoner but some of our GMs are trying to homebrew them in.
Just realised that was an old version of the Shadow Compendium, our new version has all the Arcanas from Magician to Chariot. Folder has been updated.
Jaxson Gonzalez
Generally, yes, but with a few flags. First, most demon summoners have some excuse to not instantly die when a demon lights their atoms on fire. If we assume both Persona users, and tamers/summoners/ect have this basic level of ability, then we can proceed.
Generally speaking, the "weakest" SMT protag is considered to be the Space Marine from SMT. This Space Marine has no magic powers to speak of, relies entirely on the Demonic to not instantly be vaporized, has apparently a less absolute level of control over his demons, and is incapable of some of the nonsense other protags are capable. This is reflected ingame, where the Space marine has earned the affectionate nickname of "The Power-Armored Vending Machine" , due to his ability to use items, and inability to do much else. Now, the strongest Persona universe is likely that of 5. They went up against the biggest fish in the SMT-verse Persona has seen with Demiurge. Now, the ultimate foes of Mr. Vending Machine and Persona 5 can be assumed to be roughly equivalent. Maybe there is some difference, but for the sake of argument, lets say they were. The Persona 5 crew fought Demiurge as a team. Gameplay wise, this means a party, but narratively, it's more likely to assume everyone pitched in. Space Marine basically got a bunch of demons to do the same while he played support to them. 1v1, I think it possible that Space Marine would loose to the P5 protag. Team vs Team however, I think Space Marine wins, though not by very much. The Persona Users fight as a unit, while Space Marine can afford to make his demons take risks. If a Persona User drops, the unit suffers as a whole. If a demon drops, then yes, Space Marine has one less, but ultimately he just summons another from his stock to carry on. They are about equal overall.
This is the best match-up for Persona to SMT. Shit only gets nuttier if we go on. If a persona squad meets up with Demi-Fiend, let alone Nanashi, they won't stand a chance.
Jackson Rogers
I see this is an outdated list. Nanashi tier hasn't been implemented yet.
Colton Garcia
So i just finished the first session with the new mechanics implemented. Each character can find demons throughout the world and recruit them by giving them money, life, spell slots etc
they get 3 slots for demons, each demon has a 1/day skill that takes a full-round action to use. feels like it worked out pretty well, its a bit more like a persona than a demon but oh well
Kevin Fisher
>not equipping the best magatama
congrats
Owen Edwards
>best magatama nulls all >except for gun and earth lmao
Xavier Diaz
I bet one of your players kept flinging fire at it.
Alexander Gomez
Yup...guess for all his edge demi-fiend forgot about bullets
Hudson Ross
I'm currently working on a Persona d20 system that factors in elements from every game in the series. It currently just needs balancing and for me to actually assemble the demon list rather then just asking players to grab them from the wiki
Caleb Smith
To add on it involves arcanas too except the fool and there's no s.links
Aaron Flores
Character progression has 2 set of stats (social and Persona with Persona) and 3 tiers for leveling with your starter Persona, Prime and Ultimate.
Liam Allen
P1-2 have the same rules as P3-5 it's just that Philemon only allows 1 person into the Velvet room rather then giving everyone contracts
Dominic Russell
>d20 system Why?
Henry Gonzalez
It's what I'm most familiar with haha but j can always change it to d6 or something
Zachary Perry
So you're just throwing shit together without wasting any thought on how any of it actually works? I mean, sure, it's basically standard operating procedure for homebrew, but it's also why so much homebrew is crap.
That D6 line was a throw away haha I'm fully committed to d20 right now
Caleb Flores
Are you planning to add S.Links? Because they're kind of the core element of P3-5.
Nathaniel Myers
...so you're just throwing shit together without wasting any thought on how any of it actually works?
Benjamin Gutierrez
I'm considering it but I can't really think of a way to do it properly. That was the last thing I was planning on doing right now I have character creation done and fusing done I already have combat basically done since in using the in-game way of doing damage.
What's with the hate my dude?
Sebastian Thomas
To add on I have it so that in character creation you select your arcana and that defines your starter Persona. My idea for s.links was maybe through role playing what your arcana represents there's a bond system that adds buffs to characters? I'm not too sure yet
William Miller
Do it in GURPS like this:
A Persona is a template, that depending on what game you're trying to emulate, is either an ally or simply an array of abilities. Each persona should have a set progression (that you may or may not have meta-knowlege of, GM's choice). Regardless of it being an ally or no, the template should 'gain' points that can be spent on it's advancement alongside the pc.
But how to handle it for the pc's? First question is if you can switch personas around or no. If not, just slap the template on the pc/buy the ally and call it a day. If yes, then assign each character a pool of Modular Abilities points that is equal to the cost of their starting persona (you can normalize it across characters, example, give everyone a pool the size of the highest-costing persona among the pc's). As a 0% modifier, this pool is only for use with persona templates. This is technically unlimited right now, so they could switch into any persona they can buy with this pool right now, so you also apply a limitation of accessibility: I Can Use This Persona (-10%). How do you handle the acquisition of personas is up to what game you're emulating, negotiation, beating them, personal improvement, etc. The pool size limits the power of personas you can use and can be expanded by spending points, and the limitation enables only personas that are available to you (whatever that means).
This is the basic framework for the persona mechanics, all that's really left is the templating, which could be pretty intensive with so many personas. Instead you should stat up the generic abilities and resistances and apply them to each persona's template. The vast majority of personas don't have unique abilities, so this serve to automatize the templating enough to make it almost trivial.
It's fairly simple really, once you get the abilities done anyways.
Jayden Anderson
You should read the stuff being done with The Velvet Book in this post:
It's quite a sophisticated take on the system (using Monsters and Other Childish Things as the basis)
Gabriel Richardson
Ah I saw that and I didn't like how it didn't have ultimates or swapping Personas in the velvet room
Lucas Peterson
If you're using d20 out of reasons of familiarity, you clearly haven't given this thing any real thought. At the very least not where it matters.
Jack Jenkins
Ah my man if you want to help what dice system does each game use then?
Liam Reed
I'm trying out something with Mutants&Mastermind, but I'm still in high waters. Got the gist of how to handle Demon Summoning by giving the characters a free Summon ability modded with the right modifiers, maybe handling them differently depending if they want to use a COMP (Removable flaw then) or if they want to go Demi-Fiend route. For now, Fusion and Demon Recruiting are still pretty much handled by DM fiat, so huh. I'll playtest it with some friends with a game settled in post-apocalyptic demon Rome.
Nathaniel Lopez
The 'demi-fiend' route was just because he was a demon hybrid. Demons can summon demons if the second demon(s) agree to work under the first.
Xavier Parker
Yep, then I would need to handle it differently. SMT is a game and that stuff doesn't happen, but he does have an advantage over the ones who could lose their COMP/Smartphone/Gauntlet in some kind of incident.
Evan Perry
Ultimate Personas aren't yet a priority because we're designing the game toward long-form campaign play, and Ultimate Personas are things that you'd encounter after playing for weeks or months. It's a textbook case of cart before horse.
Once more important rules are rock solid, those kind of prestige rules will be worked out.
Ryder Evans
That question doesn't even make any sense. First, the d20 system is generally understood to be a set of uniquely terrible rules, rather than a simple choice of dice. Second, choosing a type or set of dice, if any at all, is one of the final considerations in the concept phase, after you have defined your goals and themes for the game and how you intend to represent/execute them mechanically.
Jordan Sanders
I tricked a bunch of my friends into playing a game based on SMT/Persona once.
I ended up using Mutants and Masterminds, but I think most systems work for it. Had everybody stat out their characters, told them they were regular people looking for jobs on this Island nation, and that this was a crime/mystery game. In the end, they were playing regular joes.
Characters were >Single dad, ex-boxer. Trying to find job as a bodyguard for the elite that inhabit the island. >A mid 30s successful business woman who has come to the island to broker a deal for the benefit of her company. >A washed up singer whose alcoholism has driven him out of popularity and out of his home country.
Game began with everyone going to the same small bar, waiting to meet someone or sipping away in a corner and hoping to be forgotten. They passed the time, some of them got to know the Bar's regulars. The business woman, who was the funniest character in the game, ended up flirting with the bartender like crazy.
Until midnight hit, then the Island town was swallowed by the underworld. They awaken to new powers and have to fight their way out to survive.
I had asked my players what their favorite pantheons were and devised a set of demons for them based on the gods/demons/heroes from the pantheons they chose. In the end, all their characters played like mages in, but earned skills in relation to how well they role-played. Put simply, they had limited demon usage that was gained after resting, but their skills were based on how they "instructed the demon to act."
For example, the washed up singer character (ironically enough) got a Bacchus-inspired Demon. He ended up using the Demon in ways that involved sabotage or persuasion, so this ended up with the Demon having powers that reflected a Charisma-driven Rogue type character.
I didn't bother with fusion, as many people pointed out it's a real pain in the ass so everyone just had the one demon to hang out with them.
Cameron Bennett
Already got that my man. My system was supposed to get as close as possible to the modern games system. I just used d20 for testing
Daniel Cruz
>Homebrew is super serious why aren't you super serious
Not that user but why are you being so aggressive to him? Are you one of the guys working on that other Persona table top and you don't want competition?
Caleb Reyes
It nulls Gun in Nocturne - it's just that Dante's guns aren't a special element there.
Nathaniel Brown
Dante and his gun were added in maniax, if he was in the original release gun might have actually been it's own element
Jaxon Long
I feel like they wouldn't introduce an element used for about two attacks in the entire game.
Kevin Jones
>DS1 protagonist is in the God Tier >SJ protagonist is Doomguy tier FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS!
Jason Cook
I suppose I'd use Fate, Cortex Plus, or Mutants & Masterminds. Depends on the sort of apocalypse scenario we would be going for and how the players might want to explore the action. Now that I'm thinking about it I think Persona would actually work quite well as a PbtA game.
>How would you tackle fusion/recruitment? I wouldn't. The way the games all tackle it doesn't usually even make sense, often fracturing important dramatic underpinnings about the nature of spirits, souls, and mythology. Plus it's simply a complex system. Making it function and jibe well in an RPG environment is a whole lot of effort for something that'll only work, even at its most elegant, if everybody accepts the premise of the mechanics, as well as its trappings, at face value and without questioning the implications the whole system carries.
Good fucking luck making THAT work. We can't even get people to agree what magic words are supposed to be like within a single system and setting.
Samuel Gray
>STEVEN my brethren!
Daniel Foster
Fusion could still be a thing, but it would just be an in-game justification for switching out powers and making your demons/personas stronger.
Brody Perry
Tell that to DDS.
James Martin
Don't demons just take on the form of concepts and creatures from the collective subconscious of humanity that best suits their identity? That's why you can fuse them, you just break them down into their spiritual form and mash the forms together. It's also why fusing a human/dog ends up with the new form being controlled by the human/dog because they were the only thing to actually have a physical body between the two.
Of course this is all just conjecture based off of various things from various games.
Dylan Thompson
>Do it in GURPS like this: I would use GURPS but I would handle demons by having preset features (snake body, incorporeal) and make demons by mixing features on the template.
I would not do fusions though.
Matthew Stewart
Speaking of GURPS, a long time back an user came up with some (loose) descriptions of how they'd stat out the COMPS using GURPS. I copypasta'd the text over here:
Funny enough that was me. I really do need to work out a GURPS conversion for SMT1&2 maybe Strange Journey. They are the ones I really care about as far as playable settings go.
Lincoln Ross
Holy shit, talk about a small world!
I don't play GURPS myself, but I remember watching that thread because I knew people who played GURPS.
What made you stop working on it?
Jason Martin
>What made you stop working on it? Being a lazy fuck. I like to muse about making conversions but honestly I can't make my own homebrews for stuff like Shaman King (was going to use FATE) much less a full splat for SMT in GURPS.
Caleb Sanchez
I just learned there is an actual old smt ttrpg system. Found the pdf. But its in finechina or moonrunes. We should try and get the basic mechanics translated
>I would use GURPS but I would handle demons by having preset features (snake body, incorporeal) and make demons by mixing features on the template. That's what I said, yes. But keep in mind that if the demons are not allies that you can summon, those features would not matter beyond increasing/reducing their point cost.
Why not fusions though? It doesn't really require a special mechanic, which is why I didn't mention it. Just 'have the required demons, then you can exchange them for another one' is faithful enough to the source.
Austin Hernandez
>Why not fusions though? Honestly just felt like it was a mechanic not worth doing on Tabletop. Fusion tables, making the criteria for how levels transfer, and having players constantly using the cathedral of shadows all just don't interest me.
I would rather the only fusions that matter are humans fusing to demons which is a one time event. And the rest of demon acquisition is handled by negotiations. In my mind I want have trade-offs between humans with magic and COMP uses as demon summoners. Magic users don't get demons but can progress their magic tracks and learn new skills. COMP users don't get magic, but get a small group of demons they can control (probably only two at a time and a stock of 5) as their perk. Fusions just seem like a reason to not play as a human+magic since fusions give you easier access to larger pools of spells.
I'd rather restrict what demons people can play with by just controlling the types of demons they encounter
Brody Campbell
Bump for interest
Bentley Stewart
...
Josiah Gomez
When did humans ever have magic without demons?
Justin Young
Smt 1 and 2. Main characters had no magic, your human party members did however but at no point do they ever use the demon summoning program.
Thomas Jackson
I'd chalk that up to early installment weirdness.
Carter Powell
Yeah I just went to the SMT wiki in order to check it out because I remember magic using human enemies as well, and there's no info on humans using magic in SMT 1 or 2 so I'm going to have to chalk it up to demon shenanigans.
Michael Russell
I actually like the systems in the early installations. Demons don't level up, some demons have unique spells, and the balance in the party works better for the type of game I would run in this setting. I would also take a page from devil survivor and restrict summoner to at most two active summons. That ways magic users have a separate development track for skills and abilities.
Alexander Stewart
Bump for interest.
Also, nice find user> Rumors say it's shit, I'd still want to have it in english to assess that myself.
John Gutierrez
Megami Tensei, the parent series to SMT, had Witches as the MC's love interests. They had magic, although in MT I's case it was because the girl was the reincarnation of the goddess Izanami (the titular Megami Tensei), while in the second, the girl was a servant of Pazuzu.
SMT rarely if ever allows humans magic, only demons and characters with COMPs. The exceptions are generally not fully human, or give up their humanity, or are possessed by demons.
Thomas Green
At least we have one wizard protagonist
Jaxon Gray
That's Chinese. Why is it Chinese?
Uses a COMP.
Matthew Clark
Humans in SMT IV just summoning with smart phones seem to cast magic fine.
Caleb Price
Still the COMP, not the human. As evidenced in SMT4A, where part of the villain's plan involves shutting down every COMP. Only the MC is unaffected, because he gets his powers from being Dagda's bitch, not the demon summoning program.
Characters who can use magic are pretty much exclusively touched by demons, one way or another. The only mainline game bearing the SMT name where this is not the case is SMT if, which was a spin off that would eventually become the progenitor to the Persona series.
Jonathan Ross
...
Aiden Brown
>SMT rarely if ever allows humans magic That's not true of the side characters (Heroine, Law/Chaos Hero, or other human companions.) in the first two games.They are able to use magic before their inevitable alignment shift or divine augmentation.
Then you hit Nocturne and the demi-fiend is your "touched by a demon" category of MC who can use magic. And later entries give you better equipment to basically allow you elemental damages where previously guns only gave status ailments.
This is all talking of the mainline games. Spin-off series handle things differently regarding whether or not the main character is a magic caster.
Julian Ward
What about punching demons with your manly fists?
Bentley Ramirez
I found it on Baidu. My initial Japanese searches didn't really pull up any other results.
Brody Lee
we need china-fags. We dont need to translate all of it. just the base mechanics on dice rolls then we can move from there.
Adrian Cruz
>just the base mechanics on dice rolls then we can move from there How do you glean any meaningful information about a system from its dice rolls alone?
Jaxon Reed
if the basic resolution mechanic is garbage then we can ignore it and go back to homebrewing our own systems.
Landon Kelly
I have thought about SMT game, but I'm more interested of replicating it thematically rather than mechanically. I would, first of all, just throw away the idea of demons-as-pokemons and all that stuff. Negotiation would be just that, negotiations. Demons can offer different services for variety of prices.
The main thing after all, would be the story of humans in the middle of apocalypse where angels and demons clash in war in middle of modern city.
Blake Moore
...
Cameron Jenkins
Are we sure this isn't some fan game? 1000+ pages for a JTTRPG, plus the choice in page background and lack of illustrations are warning signs to me that this was never meant to be put to print. And I know the SMT rpg's that do exist were in print at one point.
I miss the messian faction. Faceless Zealots with jetpacks were cool.
Zachary Hughes
Of course it's official. In fact, there are several official SMT systems, each with multiple supplementary books. Tokita Yuusuke, who also translated Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, and Eclipse Phase, wrote four of the systems. The Chinese "repackage", for lack of a better word, just looks like they remade everything from scratch except for the text. If you start looking through the demons in the PDF, they all use stuff like existing official art or anime screencaps (Slime just uses an image from SMT IMAGINE).
