Mario RPG General : Super Mario RPG Pipes and Plumbers pen and paper

In which we pitch one-off scenario adventures to undertake.

Mario RPG: Pipes & Plumbers
>Rules
1d4chan.org/wiki/Super_Mario_RPG
>Races, Abilities, Items, Badges, etc. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TNIGww-irrwywHgSCZPgCw_AT9Q5fmwAmyF2_8T0dBk/htmlview#gid=0
>Additional Races
pastebin.com/6HHbLh7c
>Campain RP Archive
akey.ca/gbrp/index.php
>Gameplay Test Log 1
pastebin.com/tqZPyfdz
>Gameplay Test Log 2
pastebin.com/8v8cK2BX
>Super Mario Wiki
mariowiki.com/Main_Page

What kind of short-term adventures and campaigns would lend themselves well to this system for first-timers and testers? More importantly, what new monsters can be added to the bestiary? In what ways can we add rules that fix the system without restricting it or taking away from it? What way is there to improve the experience as it is now?

As far as "improving" goes,
You could really stand to specify movement limits for some races and abilities. Case in point, Bloopers in additional races have the ability to "quickly slide around on he ground" on their own ink, but exactly how quick is quickly? +20ft? +40ft?

I like the idea of players making up their own special attacks to make their character unique, as long as there is some way to limit how game-breakingly effective they can be. I'm sure the GM will be the one to monitor and moderate how much FP goes into specials, at least.

For one, I didn't make the Blooper. Someone else made their own third-party splats, basically, when it comes to additional races and stuff. The things you see in the OP that I am directly responsible for are the 1d4chan article itself and those two gameplay logs from older versions of the game. Everythig else you see was supplied by others.

That said, practically everything in Super Mario RPG is handled narratively. If a Blooper says he's faster when gliding across ink, then that means if a Koopa and a Blooper have a race, assuming they have the same Speed, and assuming the Blooper has an ink trail ahead of him, the Blooper will most likely win the race. The game doesn't make a point of using hard numbers as references, since things like that are in flux.

I'm glad you like the idea of building your own specials or designing them on the fly in a fight. You're right that a lot of the balance and moderation comes down to the GM and player agreeing if something needs to be tweaked.

>Bowser's newest biggest castle is overtaken and overrun by an evil invader, save for the four heroic characters who managed to sneak off from duty that day.

>A team of players have to work together to escape from the giant mansion of a menacing Big Boo

>Discovering and conquering the mystery of the treasure in Dry Dry Ruins in the middle of Dry Dry Desert

>Playing as minions among Bowser's Troop who are tasked with pulling off a heist to steal one of the wedding treasures in Super Mario Odyssey

>A band of street rats living in the slums of Toad City's sewer system decide to find a star who will grant their wish to make their lives better

>Pit of 100 Trials: the Campaign

>Any single chapter from the original Paper Mario or TTYD, tailored and reworked into a scenario of its own.

>If you're that completely lacking in creativity, the team has to beat up Mario and Luigi to keep them from getting that thing they're looking for.

>Alternatively, calling themselves friends of Mario, a group of helpers tries to break Mario out from a holding cell in a castle (possibly being run by one of the Koopalings, ALL of the Koopalings, or Bowser himself)

Sounds like a few good ideas to me, anyway. The Boo one has the most potential in my mind, since traps and puzzles are part and parcel for any ghost house stage in the series.

I remember at one point, someone said something about needing to balance out countering so that it's not "a better attack in attacking and a better defense than defending with none of the drawbacks."

A simple fix to add a balanced drawback would be this:
Due to the player's attempt to cross-country leaving them more vulnerable to attack, should a player fail to counter, they take 1.5x the damage they would have otherwise taken, rounded down.

This sounds fair, since even in TTYD, countering cane at a cost of having less interactive frames for you to counter in than defending frames. I'm pretty sure where the window of opportunity for guarding was 8 frames, countering was something like 3.

>*Cross-counter

Even just skimming through all of the charge rules and sheets, this game sounds like a good time. I'd fucking love to play a Shy Guy with tons of gadgets.
Or as a Mouser. A ninja Mouser.
Hell, have a team of Mousers all with their own Perks and go around town as the titular Squeak Squad from Kirby. If we're talking about homebrew races within a homebrew, why not make a Squeak Squad in Mario World kind of adventure?

>>If you're that completely lacking in creativity, the team has to beat up Mario and Luigi to keep them from getting that thing they're looking for.

How about instead of having to beat them up they just have to keep it from falling into their hands? Cue ridiculous game of keepaway between some poor mooks and the greatest heroes in the universe.

That actually sounds better. With a time limit, some players can even use run and hide tactics if it comes down to it.
It could be a fun game between the GM and his players in a way.

There's already a penalty where if you fail the counter, you lose all defenses barring your core defense stat for that attack.

So if a Counter check fails, do you take more or just as much damage as if you failed a defend/dodge check?

More damage. If you botch a counter, you don't get to use your armor or buffs or anything, only your innate Toughness.

Oh, that makes sense. I didn't take armor and buffs into account.
I was about to say then that it would be good to reduce Toughness in that case to 50% rounding down while resolving damage, but that may be good too.

I don't know how severe that would make the math.

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One more thing:Looking through some of the profiles of other players, I saw this.

Bro Attacks sound fun as shit, and I think there should be some standardized mechanic behind learning a Bro Attack with another character you consider your bro.

Or, who knows, something that can give bonuses to Bros Attacks the more proficient you get with them, like in Superstar Saga.

I'm working on a starter villain for my campaign, a wizard called Mervin the Metagrobolized. He's a prankster who enjoys tricking his opponents more than outright attacking them. What are some ideas for weird, non-offensive spells he could have? So far i've come up with

>Befuddle - Opponent rolls S or C against Mervin’s S and C. If Mervin wins, opponent suffers Blind and Confuse of 2 rounds.

>Shoe Teleport - Mervin teleports to an empty pair of shoes. Cannot be too far away. Mervin must have line of sight or know the shoes are there. Shoes must fit Mervin.

He could have a spell that switches places of two people, one of which can either be himself, or someone else he can see.

Team attacks also fall under the boundary of make-it-up-as-you-go special. Typically, each character contributes a nominal FP cost for the team special to work. The fastball special is a popular one.

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What about potential concepts for PCs?
I had a few ideas for the kind of characters I'd want to make, but realistically want to save them for when I can actually use them.

Let's hear them.

A fugitive princess (not Peach) and a loyal, royal retainer are forced from their castle by an advancing Koopa army (not Bowser's). In a situation where it looks like the baddies are going to win, the two nobles happen upon a small resistance (between 1-3 other players, depending on how big your group is). The underdogs and nobility form an unlikely alliance to take back what the Koopas conquered.

>Campaign opens with resistance discussing their tactics and/or relaxing on downtime.
>Princess and her retainer enter, make negotiations with the resistance, and prepare for the journey.
>Journey spans across grassy hills, deep forests, the desert, and finally a lava land, as the group decimates not only Koopa infantry forces, but airships and tanks alike.
>Lava land was once the lush, beautiful landscape of the princess' capital.

Kinda dark compared to the theme of Mario games, but nobody says there can't be glory and good old-fashioned comedy thrown in the mix.

What is the "rare animal" with "googly eyes" a reference to? Animal Crossing?

Trust me, there's darker out there.

Well, if you insist.

>A Star Shaman who is a descendant of Madam Merlar. As such, he likes telling long-winded stories that put people to sleep. He lacks the discipline it takes to be a true Shaman, and has sought out training from a martial artist to sharpen himself. Incorporating a mix of Martial Arts attacks with his innate magic, he hopes to be a talented Star Shaman one day.

>A Shy Guy who is quite shy indeed. He only ever really communicates with his phone. If he can learn to open up to his team, he might even be able to talk just as loud as a whisper. What he lacks in Coolness and communication, he makes up for in his networking skills. At his stubby fingers is a device at allows him to communicate with the many members of his big family anywhere he goes.

>An old Monty Mole retired from the Koopa Troop after one trouncing too many from the plumber himself. Although he once fought Mario on the battlefield, this mole now holds a great deal of respect for Mario in hindsight. Due to circumstances surrounding whatever the fuck campaign you're doing, this old mole's passion for battle is sparked once again, carrying with him a few rocks, his own strength, and an abundance of smarts in tank warfare.

(cont)

>A Boo who uses his flashy magic to entertain the ghosts of Boo's Mansion, and too scare the wits out of unsuspecting passersby. He unfortunately can't ever seem to concentrate his magic in the presence of the Lady of the Mansion, though. After a particularly spectacular failure one day, the Boo decides to go on a quest to find a star that may grant his wish: to acquire the courage to perform a magic show in front of Lady Bow.

>A Duplighost with an utter lack of self-confidence. He has a desire--a need--to copy someone else, and cowers in fear at the thought of someone seeing him for his true form. When he is able to hide his true face, however, he is a perfect actor sauve and cool enough to handle any situation with panache.

>A Koopa who fancies himself a collectionist when it comes to shells. He keeps a wide collection of shells in various colors and shapes that he finds to be useful in any situation, for any occasion. He may be a tad delusional, as he seems to have a very specific prize in mind for his collection: the koopa shell of Bowser himself. With this lucky collection in tow, who knows what sort of stunts he can pull?
This character might also team up with a Yoshi PC for added fun if Bros. Attacks are to be a thing.

Howzit?

It sounds similar to a plot I've heard bandied about in these threads. It went something like this.
>There is unrest in the kingdom of Sarasaland. With the crown princess Daisy regularly away on "royal business," some of the nobility have gotten it in their head that she has abandoned her country and are attempting a coup of some sort to wrest control of the throne.
>Word reaches Daisy and Peach, and understandably, the tomboy princess will have absolutely none of that.
>She intends to make a loud and powerful statement and assert control over the throne as strongly as possibly by personally marching from the Mushroom-Sarasaland border all the way to the seat of power in the Sarasaland royal palace. The journey will take her across four of the realms: Birabuto, Muda, Easton, and Chai.
>Unsurprisingly, there will be resistance along the way.
>Luigi demanded to come along to protect her, but Daisy insisted he sit this one out. It would defeat the whole purpose if she couldn't do this herself.
>While she has no doubt Daisy could pull it off and probably kick the butt of everything between her and the throne (and, honestly, she could), Peach INSISTS that Daisy take on a royal escort to join her trek, to which the flower girl grudingly agreed.

>As Princess Daisy's personally appointed royal attaché, you - the PCs - must make sure she makes it to the throne of Sarasaland safe and sound and deal with the machinations of the noble class who would try to overthrow her and stop her adventure across her own kingdom.

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Not bad. They're pretty general characters you could slot into anything.

are we gonna get the mario odissey races (fat seals, the mermaids and, like, the fork people) in the google doc anytime soon?

I am not Patrick Stewart.

You'd have to ask whoever maintains that document. That's outside my jurisdiction.

Escort missions tend to suck, be they in video games or tabletop RPGs.

How does this avoid such issues?

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Melvin has more shoes than a rich lady and keeps track of them.

>Monty Mole Tank Pilot
Would a player even be allowed to bring in a tank as a regularly used weapon? I suppose you could if it were a High-FP special or a High-PP cost perk, but either way, that would sound amazing.

For one, Daisy is wildly competent. Not only is she a little tougher and more athletic than Peach, but she also knows Sarasaland and its kingdoms like the back of her hand. She's a font of knowledge when it comes up, and if push ever comes to shove, she can generally hold her own unless she's overwhelmed. Never mind that she was kidnapped by Tatanga years ago, though he had the power of mind control.
For another, Daisy would likely not get in the way of the party when they need to do stuff. A good escort does three things:
>Isn't an excess burden
>Doesn't upstage the party at the same time
>Makes themselves useful
For example, if the party and Daisy are travelling through the Muda Kingdom via sailboat/speedboat and they are set upon by a belligerent Dragonzamasu or some other baddies, Daisy can shout "I'll take the wheel and hold her steady. You guys get up on the deck and clear us a path!" Now she's out of the way and not putting herself in excess danger while supporting the party as they battle the attackers from the deck of the ship. Have her go off and take care of a side objective while the party deals with the main threats.

If all else fails, have a Bullet Bill Blaster be a weapon.

Sounds about five steps better than how most escort missions tend to turn out.

However, if you want the escort to betray the party for whatever reason, do the opposite of all three things so your party gets that wonderful feeling of absolute hatred

anyone knows who is mantaining the pdf updated? i cant find any email/contact on the document itself

What PDF?

i meant google doc gosh dangit

Bitch'n Mohawk.

didnt this game also have, like, a discord channel?

As a matter of fact, yes. Someone made a Discord for this system.

discord.gg/amjucr6

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What about something based on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?

Man I’d love to play another campaign using this.
GMing one was beyond fun, but the group decided to try a different system and switch GMs for our next campaign (which I’m loving, don’t get me wrong)

I was terrible at making the encounters hard, but I was told that I at least made them creative and engaging. What kind of villains/enemies do you guys put together?

Currently trying to run a game that's gonna start Saturday (first time GM so it's probably gonna be shitty). Went pretty off-canon for this game by making my own nations and shit, but here we go. The player's party is: A Duplighost fooling everyone (including the Emperor of random country I made up) that he's actually the princess (ala Peach and Daisy), a Bob-omb who is literally only there to be terrorist stereotype #438895, A Pianta Luchador, and a Pixl who's tool form is a literal magnifying glass because "the life of a useless tool is suffering" (quoted directly from the player).

I'm honestly thinking of starting them off by attacking Not!North Korea over an artifact because this is clearly not going to be a serious game in the slightest.

ayy mr big sky, how's velocity comin along?

Updated it this month. Check it out.

If you get a chance, give your players an Airship to steal. It was the best thing ever to watch them take over and maintain while fighting a transforming robot.

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Pictured: human female with implants trying to disguise as a shy guy.

Somehow while reading the description of this game, I think it was just before I got to the descriptions of the party members, the old TopGear theme started playing in my head.

>Man I’d love to play another campaign using this.
>GMing one was beyond fun

What kind of game was it?

Also was it online or IRL?

>ayy mr big sky, how's velocity comin along?

>Updated it this month. Check it out.

What other systems are you involved in?

I wonder what lead Daisy to stop tanning.

Maybe a friend got skin cancer?

I don't know why she lost her tan, either.

Does anyone else find it easy to imagine Young Daisy wearing waders, but netting, out fishing or bug hunting?

"and netting" not "but netting"

It's not unheard of for royalty to go on hunting excursions, but I'm not aware of a princess ever going frog-gigging.

She probably takes after her dad, kinda like in Star vs when she meets her dad while the two had ditched their royal duties to go fuck up monsters.

The dude was probably somewhat common, if not by blood then by mindset, but managed to win Daisy's mother's heart by being genuine, fun and loving.

>Koopa army (not Bowser's)
But the Koopa are all his subjects. That's why they have his name.

The idea of somebody else raising a Koopa army under his nose is pretty politically interesting, though. You could actually potentially get Bowser on your side, there. He's not the type to let that kind of thing go unchallenged.

A princess that can do well on wilderness survival rolls.

Because Kongs are Mario too.

With the addition of Odyssey, the section on humans needs to be readressed

In what way?

There are more of them now.

you got some sauce for that image?
image search comes up with nothing

The last time someone made a Mario RPG thread someone was discussing this very concept. I think it landed on New Donkers being a separate species.

Not according to the wiki

Well yeah, but more for gameplay purposes. Like how a Koopa Troopa and a Dry Bones would probably be considered separate species and have different stat pools despite being the same thing but Skeleton-ized.

New Donkers have that vastly different design and body style, and might be considered separate even though they’re still ‘human’. It’s all pretty rules-lite, so to each their own?

I'd go with New Donkers being a separate species as well. Every other region in Odyssey lists the species and in New Donk City its New Donkers. Pretty sure the gray clothes are a racial trait.

Lightbulb:

What if there was a sub-species option? You pick from the core seven, but if you want your Human to be a New Donk variation or your Toad to be Paper, you spend one of your starting points on picking a sub-species.

The Racial stat feature would stay the same, but the ability would change to reflect the specification.
I might throw together a chart when I get home, just to see what it looks like.

A sub-species is a viable option for spending one of your points. That's how you get Paragoombas, Paratroopas, etc.

Can't forget the Kremlings are a thing.

I got a question for you, boss man. Say a player wants to go with a larger or smaller size for their character than usual (say, a fatass bob-omb or a minigoomba). What would that change entail, besides cosmetics?

I imagine if you wanted to abstract stat modifiers for size changes, you can go with something similar to that which you get from the actual large/small debuffs. A big character could have some combination of
>+1 Power
>+1 Toughness
>-1 Speed
And vice versa for a small character.

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Can you make a version of the Character sheet PDF where we can edit the fill bubbles without needing to edit it over and over in Photoshop or some shit?