Alpha Write-Up

Together As One An RPG about Kids and the things that fight for them

First off, "Together as One" is a game that is meant to emulate most of those corny settings where you've got some kids and their partner toy, monster, robot, or whatever, and there are lessons about friendship and togetherness and the power of the heart. Think Digimon, Medabots, Beyblade, and those sort of shows. These are sometimes referred to as the Proxy Battle Genre. A type of cartoon where there can still be high stakes, but the lives or well-being of the child characters is never directly threatened, because they do battle by commanding another creature or toy to battle for them, but that creature or toy is also their friend and comrade, so there's often an emotional connection there, as well.

For this game, each player makes a character in two parts: A Kid and their Partner. The Kid serves as the fluff, the personality, and the face of your character. They make friends with other characters, get into trouble, compete tournaments, and pick fights with other Kids. The Partner is, well, their partner in all of this. Depending on the setting, they could be some sort of artificially intelligent battle robot, a digital life form, or some sort of ancient beast spirit trapped in a children's' toy. The Partner acts as the combat equipment for the Kids, standing in for them in battles against other Partners, since it would be in bad taste for the kids to fight the monsters and robots by themselves.

In standard RPG fashion, this game is supposed to have a few players and one person who gets to run the game and decide what sorts of challenges and obstacles the players will go up against. The person running the game is called the Referee (because I like giving unique titles for this sort of role) and everyone else participating will be referred to as a Player while their characters, both Kid and Partner, will be referred to as Player Characters (PCs). As a universal rule, the perfect group size is going to be somewhere between 3 to 5 players and 1 Ref.

The Referee will have control over the world and the characters in it, but not the PCs themselves. To some extent, they might define things around the PCs, but it is not the Referee's place to play a person's character for them. If anything it should be encouraged for the Players to contribute and add to the world by suggesting things to the Ref, like what sort of places are in their neighborhood, who their family members are and what they do, and things like that. Not necessarily full blown narrative control, but some narrative influence.

I'll have to get into the fiddly nature of running a game once I've made you more familiar with the rules themselves. There's only so much hypothetical gameplay I can explain without explaining gameplay. Keep in mind, however, that these rules are largely dependent on what sort of game you are playing. Certain rules and materials will have to be changed or renamed to better fit the setting. The next couple sections will be a basic run down and explanation of the rules, followed by an example setting, and probably a few others to follow that.

What you'll need: A few d6s for each player, some paper, and pencils. This ain't rocket science.

[Character sheet goes here!]

Some shit that needs to be said about all these "points". During the process of creating a character you are going to come across the idea of Points to spend on your different stats and abilities and parts and all sorts of different stuff. There are a

TAO Page 1 spend on your different stats and abilities and parts and all sorts of different stuff. There are a handful of rules that you should keep in mind.

○ All points must be spent. There is no saving points for later or waiting until after game has started to decide if you want your character to have a certain score. ○ Points are non transferrable. Points can NOT be spent between sections. If you have 5 points for your Attributes and 6 points for your Combat Stats, you cannot spend a few on one section and give the rest to the other. ○ Most Scores start at 1. If it isn't explicitly stated, it is assumed that most scores, before points, start at 1 and go up by one for each point spent. This is not always the case, and it should be stated otherwise when things are different, but when it doubt, assume this default set up.

Game Settings Just something to keep in mind is that the sort of setting you end up using can change certain aspects of your game, altering the flavor of mechanics, altering the way you create your character or upgrade your partner, or just what sort of options are available. These aren't drastic changes, but it does matter for reasons that will, hopefully, become more clear the more you read.

PLAYER CHARACTERS

KIDS When it was mentioned earlier that each player character is made up of two parts, I meant that somewhat literally. A kid and their partner will each occupy distinct sections of their character sheet, but they aren't meant to be two separate entities. They are meant to be like to halves of the same whole. A kid and their monster, a battler and their robot, a pilot and their mech. Connected and interdependent, but separate in a way.

Seeing as I'm taking so much inspiration from anime, in particular, it kind of has to be a kid. Those wacky Japanese absolutely love shoving the weight of the world on the shoulders of children. Always sending kids out with naught but toys or cards to stop a world-threatening conspiracy, or to reseal the evil spirit of an ancient tyrant, who also happens to play the same children's game.

But I digress, you need to make up your own kid. One who will have get their own partner, whatever that may be, make friends, fight against evil, probably compete in a few tournaments, and go through some crazy adventures.

THE DETAILS To begin the character creation process it's best to ask yourself just who your Kid is. Formulate some sort of concept for them. This is a good step for any RPG as it always helps the character creation process go a little bit faster. Even if you just want them to be some sort of archetype, like the gutsy shounen protagonist, or the cool, calculating strategist, that works just fine and it gives you something to build from.

In the [char sheet area] you'll find a place to fill out most of these details. Some of these are a little superficial, but they all work towards defining your character, which will make them easier to play.

If you're having trouble coming up with some of these details or you just don't feel like thinking up some on your own, you'll find a few charts on the next few pages to quickly fill out most of this section of the character sheet with just a few rolls. If you want, you can also just browse the tables and pick some that you like, since these are largely superficial elements.

Name: Pick one. A name can say a whole lot or very little about your character. You can pick something with some sort of secret meaning that reveals something about them or you can just

TAO Page 2 something with some sort of secret meaning that reveals something about them or you can just pick something you like. Try not to pick something stupid. Age: Roll 2d6+3 or just pick something you feel would be appropriate. Maybe have the group decide on an age and just have them all be friends in the same grade if that's easiest. Appearance: Roll or choose Hair and Eye Color, then roll twice or pick a few Distinct Features off the chart on page ##. Otherwise, you can just have them look however you want. This is to distinguish your character and give them just a bit more personality.

ATTRIBUTES Next up, you've got something a little more numeric. On this [char sheet area] of the Character sheet, you'll find the spot for your attributes. These are a measure of your Kid's most basic and innate talents and also have a few different applications during gameplay. Additionally, they help you define your character by allowing you to numerically rate some of their characteristics.

These Three Attributes are: Brains, Heart, and Guts. Brains is how smart and clever they are. Heart is how compassionate they are. Guts is how courageous and brave they are.

For Character Creation, you start with 5 points to distribute between these three Attributes, all of which start at 1 and go up by 1 for each point. Meaning you could raise one of them to 6, while leaving the others at 1. And, since we're not a bunch of silly idiots, you have to spend all of your points during character creation. No saving them for the middle of a session. That should go without saying at this point.

A score of 1 in any Attribute would be considered weak or below average, while a score of 5 or 6 would be considered above average or extraordinary. The 2 to 4 range is considered fairly average to great.

When you are distributing these points, consider the personality and character concept you've been working on so far. How bold is your character? How kind and friendly do you think they are? Do they use their head or do they simply rush in?

Attributes are used for special attacks and boosting certain rolls made during combat.

TRAITS Once you've got all your Attribute points spent, it's time to move onto Traits. Instead of a cumbersome list of Skills, your character is more or less expected to be able to do a lot of things without needing to roll dice, but certain extenuating circumstances will come up where your Kid's talents may be called into question. This is where Traits come in. Each Trait describes a certain talent or aptitude your Kid has, while also describing their short-comings and weaknesses.

Some example Traits would be things like Strong, Quick, Clever, Energetic, Naïve, Short, or Timid. Some are positive and labeled as such, denoting a notable strength or talent a character has, and others are Negative, denoting a weakness or flaw that can get in the way or cause problems, creating interesting roleplay.

A character's Traits are meant to be used in a somewhat unusual way, at least as far as most Tabletop RPGs go. Instead of ascribing dice or skill ranks or things like that, Traits are used in a diceless way. As I mentioned before, most actions your Kid is going to attempt are just going to be given with a free pass. It would be silly to roll dice to climb a ladder or jump over a small gap. Likewise, it would be silly to allow a normal kid to attempt to hack a super computer or climb up a sheer cliff. These sort of calls are largely up to the Ref, but a player shouldn't feel that they aren't allowed to argue that their character might be able to do something, especially if they feel that the Traits and other things they

TAO Page 3 character might be able to do something, especially if they feel that the Traits and other things they have might help them accomplish an otherwise difficult task.

ACTION RESOLUTION WITH TRAITS: I'll try and keep this brief. Figuring out if your character should automatically accomplish or fail a challenge is simply a matter of counting up and comparing all the positive factors (Positive Traits, Relevant Gear, Help from friends, etc) versus all the negative ones (Negative Traits, opposition, bad conditions, etc).

If the positive factors are greater than or equal to the negative ones, then your Kid comes out on top and succeeds. If you tally everything up and end up with less positive factors than negative, then you fail.

We'll cover this in depth in the Gameplay Chapter.

For Character Creation, you start with 2 Positive Traits and 1 Negative Traits. You can either choose or roll on Table #.# to get your Kid's Traits.

I want to purposefully leave most of them sort of vague. They are meant to be interpreted and used in different ways. Overly specific traits make them harder to use and if they aren't being used, it would make it a waste.

STRATEGIES Now we're getting into something a little bit more combat related. While the Kid may not be directly involved in combat, they are still the brains behind the brawn of their Partner. They help to turn the tide of battle in their favor by using different tricks and maneuvers to help ensure victory. These are what we're going to call Strategies, and they will help save your butt on a fairly regular basis.

Strategies are set up in a very particular way. Each one is arranged like an IF:THEN statement. This means that a certain condition has to be met before the bonus can be applied. This will make a bit more sense one you start to read through the strategies.

IF: Your opponent has hit you 3 times in a row THEN: Gain +3 on your next Defensive Roll

IF: Your HP is below 50% THEN: Gain +1 Toughness until the end of combat

Some of the terminology use probably doesn't make much sense yet, but hopefully it is a little bit clearer how Strategies actually work. You have to meet a specific condition, then you get some sort of bonus. While the examples above may be more reactive in nature, other strategies can help you with a more active and aggressive playstyle.

The trick to using Strategies is learning how to combo them together. Many Strategies are meant to lead into each other, allowing for bigger and more potent gains and more meaningful maneuvers. The only catch is that you can only use so many strategies in a given turn, so picking which ones to use and when is something worth learning. (This may be subject to change after some further development)

You may want to wait until you've got your Partner fully created before picking your strategies, but it doesn't hurt to start researching available options early.

Sweet merciful fuck, what am I getting myself into with this mechanic? The elements of each strategy combination will be made up of a series of different tiers. Low tier, beginner strategies will consist of fairly easy "IF" tasks that will be easy to trigger, but the attached

TAO Page 4 beginner strategies will consist of fairly easy "IF" tasks that will be easy to trigger, but the attached "THEN" bonus will need to be likewise weaker and lower. The higher in tier the strategic elements go, the more difficult they become to perform, but the more potent their effects become, offering a sort of risk and reward gameplay that encourages players to maybe try things they would otherwise avoid doing, especially if their enemy is also benefitting from more powerful strategies.

RELATIONSHIPS One of the most common themes within the sort of series that inspired this game is the power of the relationships we have with the people around us. It only seems right to include that here, as well. Friends support you and help you to succeed where you should have failed, Rivals push you to fight your hardest, and your Enemies

Relationships are a measure of how well you get along with your Friends, how much you hate your enemies, and how passionate your rivalries are. Mechanically speaking, this is played out through Bonus and Penalty dice. In short, the stronger a relationship is, either good or bad, the more dice you have to use to either boost or penalize that person's roll. For instance, a level 3 Friendship would give you 3 dice per session to spend on another character's behalf to help them out, either by aiding them in a challenge or adding to a roll in combat to help them succeed.

Each Relationship works a little differently, but the general idea is that Friends and Enemies spend and roll their action dice on behalf of the person who their Relationship is target at.

Friendships allow you to roll dice to add to your friend's roll, during a fight. They can also be spent to help them succeed on a challenge, counting as a positive factor for the purpose of figuring out if a Kid passes or fails on a challenge.

Enemies give you penalty dice that hinder your enemy's rolls and actions. Likewise, they can be used to add a negative factor to a challenge they a re attempting.

Rivalries work differently than the others by actually allowing you to spend dice to aid yourself, but only as long as you are competing with or opposed by your Rival. Rivalries have to be mutually established.

For Character Creation, write down the names of the other PCs in your game. Each of these Relationships start at level 1, meaning each player has one die to use for each other. These other characters will probably all be your friends, but that's up to you to decide amongst yourselves. Your characters can still team up and fight alongside each other without necessarily liking one another. If the Ref has added any NPC allies to the group, you can add them to the list, also.

At the end of each session, each player receives a number of points equal to the number of players participating, plus or minus any additional points at the Ref's discretion, to divvy up amongst their Relationships. A Relationship goes up by one level for every 10 points spent on it, thus granting one additional die per session. It costs 3 points to establish a new Relationship at level 1.

ITEMS, MONEY, AND ALLOWANCE Now that we're nearing the end of creating your Kid, there's a few last touches to tie things up. Since your Kid is supposed to be reasonably well-rounded, for an RPG character, there's the usual concern of what sort of things they own and how much money they have. In these usual settings, money is often saved up to buy new and better parts

Not a whole lot to say here, honestly. Some items can just be superficial, like a character having a lucky charm that they carry with them or a portable gaming system, while others might be more functional or useful, like a cellphone or laptop, or something more practical, like a handkerchief or a multi-tool.

TAO Page 5 multi-tool.

For character creation, pick 3 items you'd think your character might need or carry with them. Keep these items simple and reasonable. Remember, your characters are Kids. They aren't going to be carrying guns or owning cars, in most cases. Ask yourself what you might find in their pockets, as in, what kind of things are important enough for them to carry about with them. Things like (non- magical, mundane) toys, clothes, or completely common possessions should not be included amongst these key items.

If you can't come up with anything, that's not the end of the world. Items are something that serve a mostly narrative purpose, giving Kids other ways to interact with each other and the world around them while only occasional operating as a positive factor when you're trying to see if you character will succeed or not.

Some examples: That handkerchief your mom gave you can be used to wrap up a nasty scrape that a friend received falling down that hill.

A pocket fishing rod being used to reel in a distant object.

Signaling your friends from a far off location by holding up your good lucky charm so it glimmers in the sun, catching their attention.

Once you have your items, if any, figured out it's time to move on monetary concerns. Even Kids worry about money for their own reasons.

Wealth is literally how much currency you have to spend on items and other things. Allowance is how much money you receive on a regular basis. At the start of each session of a game, you gain your Allowance in Wealth.

For Character Creation, you start with 10 Wealth and an Allowance score of 2.

You can also gain additional Wealth and increase your Allowance through things that happen during the story and gameplay. Collecting winnings from a tournament or signing some sort of sponsorship contract would net you additional Wealth and Allowance, for instance. I'm still mulling over whether or not I want players to be able to affect their Allowance by taking certain Traits, like "Wealthy" for instance.

The uses for Wealth will vary greatly. You may need to spend a few to afford a bus ride downtown to reach the latest tournament, or you might save up a lot of it and buy new part upgrades and beef up their partner.

Yet again, this game is largely dependent on what sort of setting is being played, so depending on the Module being used, Wealth and Allowance may be renamed and the sorts of items that might be reasonably available might differ drastically for obvious reasons.

SUMMATION So, you're making a basic character. A kid that could, with the right tables and setting information, exist within the world you are going to play in. Make sure, before moving too far into the next section, that you have all of the following.

Details - Who your Kid is and what they looks like. Make up a concept, name, and a few notes on what they look like. You need a Name, and Age, and a few Appearance features like hair and eye color (table #.#)

TAO Page 6 You need a Name, and Age, and a few Appearance features like hair and eye color (table #.#) and a two or three distinct details (table #.#)

Attributes - The basic elements of your Kid. Are they especially smart, brave, caring or some combination thereof? Each Attribute, Brains, Hearts, and Guts, starts at Rank 1. You are given 5 points to distribute between them.

Traits - The things your Kid is good at, as well as what they aren't so good at. Determines the sort of things they can do with ease, and which ones they struggle at. You start with two Positive Traits and one Negative Trait, to start with. You can either work with your Ref and come up your own Traits, or you can choose or roll randomly on (table #.# and #.#)

Strategies - Used in combat to grant different bonuses and stuff. You start with three Novice Tier Strategies of your own choosing or creation, as long as you stick to the guidelines. It's often good to get partially create your Partner character before finalizing this part.

Relationships - Who your Kid's friends, enemies, and rivals are. Th At the start of a game, you start off with a Rank 1 Relationship with every other Player Character at the table. In most cases, every other Player Character will be labeled your friend. No need to make things more difficult than they need to be by picking rivals and enemies before things have even started.

Items - What sort of items does your Kid own? What do they keep in their pockets or carry with them at all times? Pick up to 3 items This is somewhat optional, as you may not need that many items.

Wealth & Allowance - How much money your Kid has saved up and how much money they earn on a regular basis. For an average campaign, Kids will start with 10 Wealth and an Allowance of 2.

PARTNERS Once you have all that other stuff figured out, we are brought to the second half of the character sheet: The Partner.

Seeing as I can't stress this enough, please remember that a lot of this material is largely dependent on what sort of setting you are playing in. For the Kids, certain things may be renamed or specific tailored content may be added, but the Partner is nearly 100% reliant on the setting for a variety of reasons. Most specifically is what your Kid's Partner is.

For reasons I'll get into as we go along, the mechanics and material surrounding Partners needs to be altered a bit to better suit the setting their in. Like, a digital battle monster might function the same as a customizable battle robot, but the monster wouldn't be able to swap out body parts to change their stats, and the robot wouldn't be able to evolve into bigger forms, for example.

I'll do what I can to help this section make sense, but keep in mind that even more so than Kids, the Partner is wholly defined by the setting and the mechanics need to be tailored to better suit that.

DETAILS - THE CORE One of the other most common themes in this sort of genre is also the idea of the core or spirit of the Partner. The idea that no matter what form they may evolve into or what parts may be added or removed to them, that they will always be the same friend to their Kid that they always were.

TAO Page 7 removed to them, that they will always be the same friend to their Kid that they always were.

This section is for defining that part, specifically. Who, or rather, what is your Partner is at it's core. Similar to Details for Kids, these details are somewhat more descriptive than mechanical. It's an extra step to add some extra definition to an otherwise nebulous creature. Name: What's your Partner called? Concept: What is your Partner?.. besides being some sort of monster or an ancient spirit or some sort of artificially intelligent robot.

This is also nice to nail down because having a core concept to build from will make it easier to decide how you distribute your points, what parts you pick, and what sort of powers they'll have.

TRAITS Also like Kids, Partners get Traits that work in the same way, more or less. The available Traits are largely dependent on your setting, because the sort of partner you may have makes a big difference as to what sort of capabilities you'd expect that partner to have.

For instance, a game where Kids are partnered with super powered, evolving monsters might allow for them to ride their monster of have it interact with the rest of the world alongside them. An aquatic, house-sized walrus monster could be ridden across lakes and oceans, for instance. On the other hand, something like a pocket-sized battling robot might not be able to have such utility, and might be restricted to an elemental affinity that is strong or weak against other elements.

At any rate, Partners get both Positive and Negative Traits, though theirs may often have a more combat-oriented slant than a Kid's Traits. It should go without saying that Kids can't take traits from the Partners section. Certain Traits from the Kid list might be considered usable

Keep in mind that much of this is defined by the sort of game being played. In some settings, you won't be able to give your Partner traits beyond

COMBAT SKILLS Combat Skills refer to how well your Partner can perform in a fight. In the case of robotic and customizable Partners, this means that adding different parts or pieces doesn't give them any inherent talent to fight better. A partner who is defensive in nature doesn't automatically become a killing machine just because they are outfitted with Offensive parts. Similarly, a monster that evolves into a bigger form doesn't automatically learn better ways to combat other monsters.

This is not to say that, in either case, that your Partner won't get better at fighting, just that your Partner, regardless of form or parts, has a core set of Skills that aren't overridden by their outer form. Over time, they can improve these skills and their outer forms may grow more powerful in other ways, but the point is that a Partner's Combat Skills are different than their Combat Stats (coming next)

Your partner will have 6 skills, and at creation, you will have ## points to split amongst them. The way you spend these skill points help to define your Partner's fighting style. Do they favor direct, all out assaults or do they try and trick and tire their opponent? Do they prefer to be the attacker or wait for their opponents to come to them?

Your skills are split into two categories, but any at creation skill points you have must be spent between both categories. The Offense Skills are ones used on your turn, when you have to choose what your partner does in battle. The Defense Skills are used on the opponent's turn and allow your Partner to, well, defend themselves.

TAO Page 8 Your skills are the following: OFFENSE Strike: Directly attacking your opponent, with the intent of damaging them. Rush: Charging into your opponent to forcefully push and move them around. Feint: Misdirecting your opponent to lower their defenses and penalize their rolls.

DEFENSE Guard: Bracing yourself against incoming attacks to mitigate and reduce any incoming damage or other effects. Dodge: Attempting to avoid any incoming attacks to completely mitigate any damage or other effects. Leaves you wide open if you fail, though. Counter: Attempting to turn an opponent's attack back on them to damage them in return. Like Dodging, failure leaves you open.

If you fill out your skills and fear that you are too weak in certain areas or don't have a good way to protect yourself against certain attacks, keep in mind that the strategies you choose or create can be used to bolster your weaknesses or improve your strengths even further.

The condensed version of how this works that on your turn, you pick which skill you want to use to attack with, your opponent chooses their skill to defend with. Each side rolls 2d6 and adds the rank of their skill to the result. The defender's result is subtracted from the attacker's roll. If the result is positive, then you play out the effects of the skill used with a bonus in damage or effect equal to the difference in rolls. Example: You roll to attack and get a 12 when you add everything together, your enemy rolls to Guard and gets an 8 with everything added up. You deal your damage, plus an extra four damage from the results of the roll.

If this seems unclear, it will be covered in better detail in the combat chapter. Hopefully, it will become a little clearer as we continue into the next section.

COMBAT STATS This is going to be a little confusing, but try to follow me for a bit. Combat Skills represent the "to hit" part of combat. How well your Partner hits and defends and avoids in a fight. Combat Stats are the second half of that equation, how much damage they deal when they do attack an enemy or how much damage they can naturally soak from each attack. Combat Skills = Base Attack Bonus Combat Stats = Weapon Damage

Combat Stats are as follows: Strength: How much damage your Partner inflicts on a successful attack Toughness: Damage your Partner can soak, when hit. Stamina: How much damage your Partner can take. HP, in other words. Speed: How fast your Partner moves. (Measured in Grid Spaces)

Depending on what sort of setting you are using, the way combat stats are handled in a few different ways to reflect the different ways that certain types of Partners work.

Sum Total - Your Partner's Combat Stats are generated from a singular pool of points, distributed between the four combat stats by your choosing. Often used for singular type monsters, creatures, and spirits.

Component Total - Unlike the above, Combat Stats are generated by either choosing or designing individual components and adding the Stats of each part together, to get your total.

TAO Page 9 designing individual components and adding the Stats of each part together, to get your total. Has the added benefit of being able to switch out parts to tailor to certain fights. Often used for robot and toy type partners that function as a singular unit.

Components Separate - Similar to the above, but instead of all pieces being added together, each part is treated as an individual part that can be damaged and disabled while still allowing the partner to function. Still allows for customization, but adds another layer to combat as you have to choose which parts or weapons to attack with, which ones to sacrifice, and which ones to defend. Used almost exclusively for Robotic Partners (like Medabots)

Setting Modules will specify what sort of arrangement and point values they are using and what sort of point values you might have to work with when designing your partner or picking their parts.

Side Note: Component Tiers and Partner Progression For Partners that have Parts, each piece is built with a certain amount of points. Eventually, you'll run out of effective combinations within the same point range, so for Component-based Partners to advance and become more potent, they get the benefit of better components that are built from more points. A low Tier starter part might only get 6 points to set its combat stats, while a high tier part might get 12 points. The acquisition of higher tiered parts allow for a more gradual progression as the partner is improved one piece at a time, instead of in bursts.

In the previous section it was briefly mentioned that the results of a Combat Clash are determined by a Partner's Combat Stats. What this means is that the amount of damage you inflict is based on your Strength, if that wasn't clear. These Stats are the bare minimum for your partner's performance.

SPECIALS

During combat, a player builds up a sort of charge meter with each passing turn. They put these charges into Brains, Heart, or Guts. Each Special has a cost that is reflective of the type of maneuver it is and in order to pay this cost, you need a corresponding amount of charges of the right type.

Like every other fucking thing in this game, Specials are built with a pool of points that get distributed into different effects, uses, and other thingies.

I've gotta work on this some more.

Brains Specials

Heart Specials Recovery, Aid Guts Specials Damage, Buffs

SUMMATION Core Details - What your partner is. Traits - Varies, but generally the sort of useful abilities your Partner has Combat Skills - How good your Partner is at Fighting Combat Stats - How effective your Partner is when fighting Specials - Super attacks that can deal lots of damage or have additional useful effects.

GAMEPLAY There's really only a few big rules to remember when playing a game of TaO. Firstly, dice are meant for combat and the rare tie-breaker scenario. Roleplay as kids is meant to be light, fast, and relatively carefree. That isn't to say that you can't play out meaningful story segments or that what you do in

TAO Page 10 carefree. That isn't to say that you can't play out meaningful story segments or that what you do in between battles doesn't matter, but it shouldn't drag down the pace of gameplay.

General Action Resolution Simple unchallenged actions pass without issue unless the action relates to Relationship Dice

Buying Upgrades and Inventory Stuff

Combat Initiative Highest speed goes first. In the case of a tie, each player in the tie rolls 1d6 and acts in order of highest roll to lowest. Using Combat Skills. You have two branches of Combat Skills: Offensive and Defensive. Offensive Skills are used on your turn. Defensive Skills are used on your Opponent's turn.

Skills rolls are 2d6+skill rank vs 2d6+skill rank. The Attack must subtract the Defender's Roll from their own. The remaining amount is the margin of success or failure. If the remaining amount is positive, that means the Attacker succeeded and their attack deals damage to the Defender. If the remainder is negative, it means the Attacker failed and the Defender reaps the benefits (usually less damage)

Damage Special meter Being the Ref Setting the Scene Building NPC enemies Awarding XP

TAO Page 11 Notes and Scribbles Wednesday, January 15, 2014 12:58 AM

Sometime last year, I started working on this game that was originally going to be for a Beyblade game, but I expanded the idea for potential use with Medabots, Digimon, and other sorts of settings, because the initial reception was kind of mixed, but the concepts showed promise. So, now I've got something where you've got a kid, your human, and their partner (some sort of robot, monster, or toy thing) playing as a single unit. Kid can't fight without the partner, and the partner is useless and misguided without their kid. That sort thing.

The thing I want to work on now is the combat system and I'd like your input on the mechanics.

First, you've got your Combat Stats, which rate your effectiveness in certain aspects of combat. Power: The minimum amount of damage your partner deals when attacking. Armor: The minimum amount of damage your partner negate when they are hit Stamina: Multiplied by a certain number to calculate how much HP your partner has Speed: The maximum distance your partner can cover with a movement action.

Then you've got your partner's Combat Skills, which cover how good your partner is at the act of fighting. For most skills, you roll 2d6 and choose your offensive maneuver, then your opponent picks their defensive skill and rolls against you. For every point you beat your enemy by, you can additional bonus damage, armor, or effects.

Strike: Deal Power + roll in damage. Rush: Move your target Stamina + roll spaces away from you. Feint: Deal Speed + roll as a penalty to the enemy's next roll.

Guard: Subtract Armor + Roll from incoming damage. Dodge: Negate all incoming Damage, as long as you win your roll versus the attacker. Move + roll spaces, up to your Speed stat. Failing means you take full damage. Counter: Negate Damage and Deal Power + roll to the attacker, as long you win the roll. Otherwise, receive full damage.

I'm seeing a huge issue right now: A player could build straight Strike and Guard, with nothing but Power and Armor and do nothing but hit directly and guard against all attacks, allowing them to negate any incoming damage pretty easily, and deal significant damage with ease.

The main issue is the ability to use one defensive skill to slam down any incoming attacks of any kind. If you get to roll guard versus all 3 kinds of attacks. Things could potentially be made worse by investing heavily in Armor. Rush and Feint need further mechanical tweaking to overcome the potential power of Guard..

As for generating these stats and skills, players are given a pool of points to dump into the skills, and a separate pool or points, or a list of parts to choose from to determine the combat stats.

Combat Skills are like your partner characters innate training or fighting style. Combat Stats are like your equipment, and allow you to convey pain and suffering into your opponents.

So, in combat, we do a speed + d6 roll to determine initiative. Kicking around the idea of having this roll once per round, even. Might be too much extra dice rolling and highly abusable.

TAO Page 12 once per round, even. Might be too much extra dice rolling and highly abusable.

Anyways, on your turn, you have three actions to choose. Use a skill, move, activate a special attack, or maybe some other thing.

You choose to attack and your enemy chooses to guard. You roll 2d6 + Strike 2 vs your enemy rolling 2d6 + their Guard 3

Your result nets you an 10, and theirs only a 6 total.

You inflict your Power 4 plus another 4, because that's how much you beat them by. 8 damage versus the enemy's Armor 2, meaning they take a total of 6 damage, and combat rolls on to the next action.

Does that make sense? Should I explain more?

As a means to keep defensive actions from overwhelming any offensive actions, the ratio of success to bonus could be increased to 2:1, meaning 1 additional armor for every 2 points the opponent is beaten by.

I'm mostly concerned with how the game might play out if a player jump completely pumps one skill and uses it to shut down every incoming attack, or to just completely overrun their enemy by doubling or tripling their damage with every attack.

TAO Page 13 Tables

Colors 2d6 Color 2d6 Color 2 Red 8 Violet 3 Orange 9 Pink 4 Yellow 10 White 5 Green 11 Black 6 Blue 12 Brown 7 Indigo

RANDOM APPEARANCE FEATURES d66 Trait Description Two-Toned Hair Your hair is naturally multiple colors (roll twice for hair color) Heterochromia Your eyes are two different colors, you speshul snowflake piece of shit. Goggles Goggle-head Scarf You wear a scarf. You are an ally of justice. Signature Headwear Your character has a certain kind of hat or headwear that they wear at all times. Gloves Your character likes to wear gloves, for some reason. Fingerless or not. Your choice. Glasses Your character wears glasses. School Uniform You wear your school uniform all the time. Also, your school has a uniform Fanged You have pointy, fang-like teeth Markings/Tattoos You have some sort of visible symbol or mark on you. Vest/Jacket You have a signature vest or jacket that you always wear. Always. Hair that covers eyes Your hair is styled in a way that it covers one or both eyes Huge eyebrows Your character's eyebrows are quite large Gloomy Eyes Dark Rings around the eyes Freckles Your character has freckles. Whether or not they have a soul is unknown. Feminine/Masculine If male, your character often gets mistaken for a girl. If female, your character gets mistaken for a boy.

TAO Page 14 Androgynous Regardless of gender, no one is quite sure what gender your character is, just from looking Piercing(s) Your character has at least one piercing somewhere visible. No. Not down there. Accent Your character has a distinct accent when they speak. Scar(s) Your character has a noticeable scar, or scars, somewhere on their body. Huge Your character is especially tall or large for their age. Possibly a gland thing. Tiny Your character is considered short for their age. Perhaps they just need to drink their milk. Tan Your character has very tanned skin

POSITIVE TRAITS d66 Trait Description

Scrapper Fightan'! Strong Charismatic Fast Wealthy +2 Allowance

Deft Fingers Good and taking shit Sneaky Imposing You are naturally intimidating Smart +1 Brains Brave +1 Guts Friendly? +1 Heart

NEGATIVE TRAITS d66 Trait Description Naive Weak Can't Swim Short Scaredy Cat

TAO Page 15 Scaredy Cat Loud mouth

TAO Page 16 Strategies Tuesday, January 24, 2012 8:37 PM

Written mostly as IF:THEN state, with the potential for other logic pairings. In short, IF a condition is met, THEN a temporary bonus is gained.

During combat, when a character meets the condition(s) of one of their , they may choose to activate the benefits of a Strategy, though there is a limit to the number of strategies a player may use and the way certain strategies line up, they can be triggered one after the other. If I design them correctly, there should be a reasonable decision between which Strategies to use based on immediate bonuses versus risking additional benefits through attempting to string together Strategies

The best way to split strategies amongst tiers is to also limit their effectiveness. Certain bonuses and gains could be limited to certain tiers, meaning a player couldn't have a high level strategy that works off a low tier combination. This could be rationalized by the idea that the simpler concepts behind low tier strategies do not work when constructing higher tier strategies.

There's also the concept of certain kinds of pairing. Instead of simply having a laundry list of IFs and THENs and letting players go wild, it might be prudent to separate them into Offense, Defense, and Utility, restricting players from mixing and matching outright over-powered combinations.

The only trick that remains is coming up enough bonuses, conditions, abilities, and possibilities for this to be a properly interesting system. The biggest issue is going to be making Strategy components fully that reflect the settings they are a part of.

IF... THEN Offense Tier 1 • Land a number of hits • +# bonus to combat skill • + bonus to an ally's skills Hit opponent # times in a row Gain +1 Strike • Deal an amount of damage with a single attack • Deal an amount of damage over several attacks • Extra action Deal # amount of damage in # rounds Gain +1 • Dodge a number of attacks • Heal +1 • Apply a penalty of -# • Take an action in place of an ally Defense +1 • Block a number of incoming attacks • Mitigate an amount of damage Free Attack • Counter a certain amount of attacks Utility Free Movement • Deal an amount of damage with a parry • Push an enemy a certain distance with a single attack • Push an enemy a large total distance in a single battle • Enemy is below varying percentages of health • You are below a varying percentage of health • An ally is below a varying percentage of health • An Ally is within • Don't attack for a certain period • Moved a an amount of distance within a certain number of turns ○ If you moved Twice in a turn >> Get a +1 on next Strike

TAO Page 17 Notes Wednesday, November 23, 2011 11:10 PM

>Owner >>Kid-Battler-Blader-Robattler >Toy >A young kid who is tied up in the world-wide phenomenon of _____ Battling! Where people build their >>Beyblades, specifically. own _____ and challenge one another for parts, glory, and sometimes cash. This hobby is a world-wide >The toys used to battle. Little tops that spin rapidly and bash into one another. Mechanics phenomenon with roots that trace back to ancient times! The most important part of the Beyblade is the Bit Beast, which is the soul of the toy. It responds to the Combat is the center attraction here. Quick, simple, smashy. Archetype - The core personality of the character. Heroic main character, nerdy side-kick, angsty rival, commands of its owner and moves according to the owner's will. They grow more powerful the more that sort of thing. (Effects of archetypes pending) they are used, granting inherent bonuses to the rest of the parts that make it up. Combat can include numerous players, so initiative may likely be based on the speed stat of the beyblade. Highest roll+speed goes first, following in descending order, though Descriptors - Further definition for the character that adds to their personality, abilities, and behavior. The rest of the parts are the Attack Ring, Weight Disk, Core, and Base. Each of them have their own stats launching happens simultaneously, so no player who goes first ends up occupying the For now, lets say that players pick two positive Descriptors and one negative. which stack together to total up to create the stats for the whole beyblade. Parts can be purchased arena alone on their first turn. separately or swapped out in between matches. Descriptors offer different bonuses or uses that will often come into play when not battling. Things like Shoot Roll determines the Beyblade's Spin by adding to the Endurance Stat. Let's say Spin interpersonal conflicts or physical challenges. We may implement rules for designing your own parts in the future. A thought that comes to mind = Endurance x 4 + (2d6+Launcher Equipment). Ex: Large, Mysterious, Naïve, Hot-Blooded, Athletic, Sneaky, Poor, Clumsy involves various tiers of parts, with high tier parts being rarer and costing much more, but also offering much more potent stats, since they would be built with more points than common parts. Spin reduces by 1 point every round, regardless of whether the Beyblade does anything or Owner Attributes lean more towards the mental end of the spectrum. They are the brains behind the not. toy, and their job is to come up with strategies and maneuvers to defeat their opponents. The stats >Attack -- How badly your hits hurt the spin of the things it smacks into. Used to make attacks and deal Each player, on their turn, can take up to 3 actions, Movement, Attacks, Specials, etc. Each >>Guts -- Measuring your courage, will, and BURNING SPIRIT, this stat generally governs how you act damage. action has a different spin cost. under pressure and what crazy moves you can pull. Important for Hero Types of course, and Rivals too. >Defense -- How much you reduce the damage you take when hit. Used to defend against attacks and Movement >>Brains -- Not just general intelligence but how well educated, analytical and technically skilled you are. reduce damage. Brains helps formulate plans and strategies, and tweak and modify your Toy to best effect. Nerds love this of course. >Endurance -- Helps determine how long you can stay spinning. Used as HP and action points, being spent to perform attacks, move around, and stay spinning. >>Heart -- Your empathy, compassion, People Skills, Charisma and the like, this is important for friendship stuff and how you connect with your team- and your toy. Can overlap with Guts occasionally, There is also a need for a 4th stat for movement speed and dodging, as well as a potential fifth stat for but it's more about helping other people through things, and accepting help in return. weight, which would further modify other stats. Pending idea at the moment.

Attributes can be used to earn more techniques and abilities, but also for certain Skills, and in special cases, to boost rolls or something. The current idea is to have players earn new techniques every time >Launching & Spin they increase one of their three attributes. Before each match, players make a launch check which is modified by the kind of launcher, ripcord, equipment, and other miscellanea that the owner is using. This check is used to determine the Spin of Owners probably also need some skills to go with all of this. Tactics, Repair, Tuning, Technique, the beyblade which was mentioned above. If a beyblade reaches 0 spin, it's down and that's considered Knowledge, Intimidate, Boast, and such. Suggestions needed. a loss. Good launches add extra Spin which is further aided by the actual endurance of the beyblade itself.

>Special Attacks We just started touching on this, but we might implement a sort of special meter where players get counters each turn to add to Guts, Brains, or Heart. These counters act as a special meter, allowing them to use the special techniques they've learned . Guts consists of offensive specials, Brains uses tricky maneuvers, and Heart is support and buffs.

>Other Ideas The idea is that the Bit Beast can level up too, adding base bonuses, but also by unlocking more indirect bonuses, like allowing the owner to add their guts score to certain attacks or something.

There's also the need for ridiculous arenas to battle in, which may call for rules that involve difficult terrain, counter-rotating arenas that cost extra spin to move in, and special arena obstacles and shit like ramps (imagine zipping off a ramp and landing on top of your opponent).

As it turns out, /tg/ did want to play a Beyblade RPG, so we kind of started on a simple system that can be used for both toy and monster battling settings, such as Beyblade, Medabots, Digimon, and those sorts of shows.

Since these shows are often ridiculous or outright retarded (especially retarded in most cases) in the first place, the goal is not to fan-wank, but to have fun with the idea, instead. To create something that's kind of stupid, but still offers decent customization and fun combat.

The way this works is you have a character that's broken up into two parts: The Owner and the Toy. Depending on the setting, these titles can be changed to be more fitting like Tamer and Mon or Master and Servant, but we'll stick with one set of terminology for now.

The Owner represents all mental and social aspects of the character. Their stats determine the kind of maneuvers and special attacks they can perform with their Toy. Owners function mostly in a narrative capacity, with a lot of their stats set up for roleplay and the rest adding to the abilities of their Toy.

The Toy contains all of the physical aspects for the character, since combat is meant to be Toy versus Toy anyways. However, since we're talking about cheesy kids cartoons, there is a 'soul' aspect that is usually represented by a magic core piece, medal, or friendship engine or something which allows the Toy to level up as well, gaining permanent stat bonuses and super attacks and that sort of shit. The rest of the stats for Toys are determined by the parts that make them up.

That's the basic idea. When the last thread died, we were just sort of summing up ideas and getting things together. We hadn't even really thought about the core mechanic or applying numbers or anything.

Also, Previous thread: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17000365/

TAO Page 18 Beyblade Basic Playable version Monday, November 28, 2011 1:06 AM

Step 1 - Decide on a setting For this example, we will be using Beyblade as our setting. The rules will more or less function the same at their core, but various Skills and mechanics will change to better suit the flavor of each show or idea.

Step 2 - Core Mechanics Dice Rolling -> Roll 2d6 + the relevant Skill and compare against Enemies roll of Target number. Rolls lower than the TN fail, with consequences, nothing happens on ties, and the action is resolve if the roll exceeds. For certain rolls, the amount that you exceed the TN or your opponent's roll nets additional bonuses and effects (more damage, pushed back further, etc)

*Do we need critical successes and failures?

Randomized Tables -> Throughout the following sections you will find tables for you to roll on to randomly decide on certain aspects of character creation. When rolling on these tables, they will either tell you to roll d66 or d666, which means you designate one die as the tens digit and the other as the ones digit for d66 and an additional die for the hundreds digit for d666. For example, rolling d66 and getting 3 and 2 would be 32, not 5. Rolling d666 and get 2, 5, and 6 would be 256.

Of course, the random tables are optional for those who want more direct control over their characters. It's just a method to streamline the process.

Step 3 - Owner Creation

'''Basic Details''' -> If you aren't randomly rolling your character then determine your character's Name, Gender, and basic fluff and flavor, then continue onto the next few steps to back that up with. Otherwise, just follow the next few steps with some liberal random table use to slap together a randomized character or do a mix of both.

The random tables for this step cover things like appearance, quirks, and other little shit about your character. Extremely optional step that's just meant to add a little something extra. :(Means we need tables for signature clothing items (hats, glasses, scarves, etc), hair color, distinct features (scars, birthmarks, etc) and quirks (accents, habits, and behavior))

Archetype -> What kind of role does your character play? What kind of person are they? If your game sessions were a cartoon would they be the main character or just the side- kick? The Archetype you choose nets you a few small stat bonuses to go

Hero: You're kind of the main character, or at leas you are the hot-blooded, optimistic goon that put himself in charge. +1 Guts / Player receives an extra Guts Point at the start of combat.

Wimpy Nerd: You're the shy character who doesn't do well in the spotlight, but you make up for it with your extensive knowledge and technical skill. +1 Brains / +Repair Skill

Side-Kick/Bro: You're the character who is just kind of up for whatever, as long as its with your bros. +1 Heart / +1 Bonus Friendship Die

Lone-Wolf: You're that guy that's kind of got his own shit going on, but you tend to show up when your friends need you.

The Stoic: You're the character that never seems to get worked up and always takes his work seriously.

(These will all receive heavy revisions over time.)

TAO Page 19 (These will all receive heavy revisions over time.)

'''Descriptors''' -> These cover the other important details about your character that fall outside of their avid Beyblading careers. At creation, players roll (or choose) for 2 Positive Descriptors and 1 Negative Descriptor. Positive Descriptors In many cases, they work as replacement skills and give Owners some extra specialties. 1. Roleplay situations that relate to an Owner's descriptors allow them automatic success in uncontested challenges and a +3 bonus on any related rolls. For example, a Character with the Athletic descriptor would auto succeed when attempting to hop over a tall fence and receive the +2 bonus when running on foot to chase someone down.

Similar rules apply in reverse for negative descriptors, netting auto-failures and -3 penalties on relative challenges.

:Example Positive Descriptors - Wealthy, Handsome, Athletic, Strong, Brilliant :Example Negative Descriptors - Lazy, Naïve, Greedy, Absent-Minded, Small

'''Attributes''' -> During character creation you are given 4 points to split amongst your Attributes. You are allowed to leave any of your attributes at 0, but it is not recommended.

Attributes are used when rolling skills or performing actions that you believe fall within the domain of that Attribute. For each point you put into an Attribute you receive a Special Maneuver of your choosing of that same category. Your score with each Attribute will help determine how effective these Maneuvers are.There will be more on Special Maneuvers later.

Guts - Courage, Will, and BURNING SPIRIT. How well you act under pressure. Brains - Intelligence, as well as analytical and tactical talent. Heart - Empathy, Compassion, Charisma. How well you connect with your friends and your Toy.

'''Skills''' -> You have ## amount of points to distribute amongst the following Skills. Like your Attributes, you can choose to leave certain Skills at 0.

:Bey-Knowledge - Your general knowledge of famous beybladers, tournaments, rules, lore, and legends that involve Beyblading. :Repair & Tuning - Used to fix damage to broken beyblades and make tuning rolls to temporarily move around stats one way or the other to better fit certain situations. :Launching - (Not sure if this needs to be included at this point.

'''Relationships''' -> The way you interact with other players and characters in the game makes a big difference. Having your best friends at your back can make all the difference in a tense battle. Likewise, the most bitter enemies can really fuck up your shit if you aren't careful.

Write down the name of each player in your group

Step 4 - Beyblade Creation

Bit Beast -> An ancient spirit of some kind that is locked away in a small chunk of plastic that fits into a Beyblade. It acts as an intermediary between the Owner and their Toy, allowing them to directly command and control their Beyblade in battle.

Details -> You need a few things

Bit Beast Skills Attack Defend Dodge

TAO Page 20 Parts -> Acts sort of like your equipment in battle. (needs a different Name)Attack Defense Endurance Speed

Step 5 - Roleplay and Gameplay!

Step 6 - BATTLE.

TAO Page 21 Core Rules - Kids and Toys Saturday, December 03, 2011 12:30 AM

To emulate those childish cartoons that exist to shill toys by building a game that puts equal importance on FRIENDSHIP and FIGHTING SPIRIT as well as upgrading, training, and improving your toy or monster.

The Kid determines what you can do. The Toy determines how well you do it.

Depending on the type of game being played, rules will be adjusted to better suit the different styles of gameplay. A medabots game would call for each part having it's own HP, a beyblade game would call for a mechanic to cover spin and losing momentum, while something like Digimon would call for additional rules for digivolution.

Basics

Small numbers - Attributes, scores, stats, points, and so on will remain fairly small. 1 to 5 for the fairly average and 10 is the extreme.

Random control - Certain aspects of the game should be open for random rolls while others should be tightly controlled by player choice. Things like roleplay-centric traits and flavoring can get away with being random, while things like attributes and attack types should be firmly under control. The difference largely revolves around which features make roleplay more fun and interesting, and which ones are more valuable to combat and strategy.

Versatility - Through the addition and modification of the basic mechanics this system should be able to emulate a wide variety of settings. The same core rules and ideas would apply, regardless of setting, but the methods for approaching those different settings would be more or less the sam. For example, adding rules for digivolution, but still using the point buy system for creature creation.

---- GAMEPLAY BASICS

CHARACTERS Firstly, player characters are split into two separate, but connected entities. Depending on the setting this could be a Kid and their Toy, or a Tamer and their Digimon, or even a Pilot and their Mech.

For the following explanation, I will be using the terms "Kid" and "Toy" to refer to the two halves of a player character.

The short version is that the kid determines what the player can do and the toy determines how well they can do it.

STARTING UP Making your kid - First thing you need to do before you can start playing is to roll up your kid, which makes up the first half of your character. This is the human part of this set up, the one issuing the commands and calling all the shots.

Kid Name - Whatever you feel like calling your character. Keep in mind that names can imply a lot about your character like nationality, history, and family.

Appearance - Probably random rolled on a d66 table. This part covers noticeable visual cues for your character, like a signature piece of clothing or a scar or something like that. (Who’s the kid with the Spiky hair?!) Would require additional tables for things like hair color, I guess?

Descriptors - Maybe not random roll because descriptors act like skill substitutes in a way. Each descriptor represents a definitive strength of the character and often represents certain things that they can do without much resistance or difficulty. In most cases they won’t offer a direct numerical bonus, but they grant a variety of roleplay tools that allows a group to have a varied pool of out of battle talents to share and support each other with.

I may turn traits/descriptors into a sort of "skills lite" sort of thing, where each kid has like, 3 talents or so that give them a free pass on certain tasks like climbing or smooth-talking. Likewise, negative traits would add auto-fail elements to a character, such as being naïve or unable to swim.

Attributes - Guts, Brains, and Heart are the key elements of a Kid, rating their courage, intelligence, and empathy amongst other things. As a kid bonds with their partner their strengths will become their toy's strengths, giving them access to greater and more potent abilities. I'm having some trouble deciding where Attributes should be applied, because of the nature of the game, doing a straight Attribute+Skill type thing doesn't quite work.. Player Attribute + Toy Skill to do parts stats in damage, perhaps?

Strategies - Players have a list of Offensive, Defensive, Passive, and Special strategies. Each one that they choose has a certain criteria or limit that must be met or minded during combat in order for their effects to be activated. At creation, players are allowed to pick a few from a list of beginner level strategies.

Offensive - Strategies that usually involve you trying to strike or harm your opponent in some way. CHARGE! - If you have taken 2 consecutive movement actions, your toy gains +1 attack and +1 damage

Defensive - Strategies that focus on avoiding and soaking damage. Hunker down - If your toy hasn't moved since your last turn, gain +1 armor

Neutral- Unlike the others, Neutral Strategies are always in effect, for the most part. If your Toy's HP falls below 50% gain +2 on all defensive rolls. If it falls below 25% that bonus increases to +4 total.

TAO Page 22 increases to +4 total.

Specials - These are the super attacks that are often only used once per match. Often devastating and game changing. Unlike most strategies, these require players to build up Technique Points over the course of the match and then spend them to activate. I had intended to divide specials into different categories that reflect the different Attributes. Like Offense, Defense, and Neutral strategies, Guts, Brains, and Heart would have corresponding specials that capitalize on

Wealth & Allowance - (Potentially moot for certain games, while maybe just being renamed to suit certain settings) Wealth is obviously how much cash a character has. Wealth is used to purchase new parts, upgrades, equipment, and sometimes, little things, like food and taxi fare. When a player purchases something, their wealth decreases by the cost of the item.

Allowance is how much more wealth a player gains at the start of each game session. For most characters, their allowance will be somewhat meager, meaning they will have to save up for those nicer upgrades or find ways to make money (usually through tournaments, battling others, and so on) Upgrading a character's allowance is a little more difficult, because getting more skilled doesn't mean that you will just automatically be given more money. On the other hand, winning tournaments, gaining fame, and collecting prizes could eventually mean sponsorship, all expenses paid for trips around the world to bigger events and battles. (Ex: If Players win National Level tournament they receive 25+ Wealth and a Sponsorship that permanently increases Allowance by + 2) RULE OF 10 Relationships - The different kind of relationships a Kid has with other characters are always an important Leveling up should always cost 10 xp. For Kids, relationships, and Toy Affinity. part of any shounen battler type series, so of course there needs to be a mechanic for it. For Kids, every 10 xp (Earned through gameplay) lets them upgrade a stat, add a new strategy, earn a Depending on the nature of the relationship between characters, the effects can change, but the general new ability, or something. idea is that Relationships give extra dice for characters to spend on behalf of the character that the For Relationships, every 10 points (Earned at the end of each session) gives them another die to use on relationship is aimed at. behalf of another character. Relationships come in 3 types. For Toy Affinity, every 10 xp (gained through victories and training) can be used to likewise upgrade Friends - Those Guys you like. Give bonus dice to their friends. attributes, traits, and unlock special abilities. Enemies - Those Guys you hate. Add penalty dice to their enemies. Rivals - Those Guys who you have a begrudging respect for. Bonus dice for both rivals.

Relationships don't have to be mutual, except for Rivalries. At the end of each Episode (session) players get to distribute points amongst their relationship equal to the number of players in their group, plus a certain number of bonus points for encounters with reoccurring characters. For every 10 points a player accrues on a relationship, it goes up by one level, allowing them an extra die to use per session for that character. Since this feels unclear, the general idea is that characters grow to support and rely on each other more and more as their adventure goes on, making their Relationships more effective and useful. Mechanically, this means that a true friend could help you out in a pinch by throwing some bonus dice your way when you're in a pinch and because he helped you out, you put some more points towards that Friendship and that allows you to throw more dice from them if they ever need it.

TOYS-MONS

For toys, I figure it would have to be a sort of slotted item, dealy, where players have to pick a certain kind of part for each slot that affects the overall performance of the toy. These parts can be swapped out, upgraded, and tweaked over time, allowing the player to specialize for different occasions.

For Mons and creatures, I figure they would be built similarly with a point buy system where players get to distribute points across several stats, but instead of being able to just buy new parts over the course of the game, players have t put time aside to apply different training to their Mon to gather additional bonuses, but they wouldn't be able to outright swap parts and rebuild between fights like toys would.

One shared feature between toys and mons would be a traits system that would allow for further specialization by letting players to pick a few unique features for their partner such as flight or elemental affinity or sharp claws which would offer combat bonuses while also giving them out of combat uses, like having fiery creatures count as a light source or aquatic mons being able to carry their kid across water.

TAO Page 23 Vulgar Draft Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:43 PM

TaO Together as One: An RPG of Kids and the stupid toys they use to save the world

The Big Idea The system is for running games where you have a conflict that is largely fought with players being younger kids who fight each other and bad guys using a certain kind of toy or creature. Something like Beyblade, Medabots, Digimon, or Angelic Layer. Really, any series where you have a character and some sort of signature partner creature of robot or toy or something fighting another character with the same set up.

Each player character is made up of two parts: The Kid and their Partner. The Kid grows more powerful by learning new strategies and tricks while strengthening their relationships with their friends and rivals.

The Partner becomes more powerful by strengthening its affinity with its owner to unlock more of its potential and being customized either with new parts (which act like equipment) or by training with its owner.

The meat of the game is meant to be strategic battle and customization. The roleplay aspect is not meant to be taken seriously, because that's really the last thing you want when dealing with this sort

Basic Mechanics and Concepts In combat is for dice, out of combat is for roleplay.

Average Combat dice roll = 2d6 + Attribute + Skill vs Opposing Roll Your result is then compared against either a target number or the roll of an opposing character. Rolling higher than the opposing number is good, rolling lower is bad. In most cases, the larger the difference between your final total and the target number will net additional results, such as getting a task done sooner, dealing extra damage, and so on.

In some cases you'll need to use dice to get results off d66 or d666 random roll table. Assign one die to be the 10's and another to be the 1's and possibly also a die to be the 100's spot for d666 tables. Roll those dice, consult the table, use the result Ex rolling 4 and 2 on a d66 roll would equal 42, and not 6 while Rolling 1, 5, and 6 for a d666 roll would be 156, instead of 12.

The guy running the game is called the Referee. He controls nonplayer characters and the world around you, and usually drives the plot bus.

Players will control their characters which will probably be referred to as Battlers, or Beybladers, or Digi- Destined, or some shit. They are responsible for getting into shit and beating baddies.

Each session is called an Episode. A string of Episodes with a continuous story is called an Arc. Your whole game campaign can be referred to as a Season or Series I guess.

The long and short of it is each player makes their character by picking out some stats and rolling some dice and then the Referee runs them through their episodes where they will battle other characters, get into trouble, learn the value of friendship, and grow stronger while probably getting tied up in some goofy world threatening plot.

Universal rules Rule 0 - Don't take this shit seriously Rule 1 - The Ref has the final say Rule 2 - Specific Trumps General, you know the drill Rule 3 - When in doubt, house rule. Rule 4 - No, really, don't take this shit seriously

Character Creation You start at level 1. Your character levels up for every 10 experience you earn from completing Episodes Appearance Details of gameplay. When you level up you get to pick out additional skill or attribute or something. Wild hair (Roll on a separate table for hair color and/or if you have double or triple colored hair and what colors) Pick a Name Goggles Sunglasses Roll up some distinct features, or just pick a few (hair style, signature clothing, behavioral quirks) Hat Just for fluff and fun. Fingerless gloves Roll or pick 3 Positive Traits School Uniform These sort of act like Skills and Feats and shit. These often give you a free pass win on certain Scarf things, like running, smooth talking, punchin' jerks in the face. Face scar Roll or pick 2 Negative Traits Fangly Teeth Your character ain't perfect. There's some shit they are just bad at. Evil looking eyes Accent Distribute 5 points between Guts, Brains, and Heart. These affect certain rolls and shit. Cokebottle Eyeglasses Guts - Fighting spirit, Willpower, bravery Brains - Intellect, Education, Smarts Heart - Empathy, Charisma, whatever

Pick 2 starting Strategies from the level 1 list. Strategies work kind of like feats and maneuvers, offering different situational bonuses and tricks to use in combat. They come in three varieties: Offensive, Neutral, and Defensive. Offensive strategies focus on hitting and doing damage while Defensive Strategies are for guarding and reducing damage. Neutral Strategies offer a bit of both as well as some peripheral benefits.

Strategies sometimes have a level requirement, which means your character needs to Level up and gain some battle experience before they are able to learn the higher tier strategies.

Strategies should work with an "If:Then" structure of design. All of them, if possible. This should make it so players can chain together different strategies, using one to meet the conditions of the next. The trick is placing a limit on strategies to keep a player from creating an endless loop of bonuses and extra attacks. Perhaps a numeric limit, on top of certain strats that can only be used once per round or once per combat.

Write down your starting Wealth of 10 and mark your Allowance as 2 Wealth is your money. Things cost money and you'll have to spend money to get those things. You can use it to buy new parts, better equipment, and so on. Allowance is the amount of money you receive per Episode. At the start of each session, you increase your Wealth by your Allowance.

Certain traits can increase your Allowance and over the course of a game, the Referee can hand out permanent Allowance bonuses as rewards for completing difficult Arcs or overcoming big challenges.

Equipment - Not sure how I'm going to do this. Equipment could come in a variety of types and offer different uses, like repair kits or upgrades and shit.

Write down the names of the other players. They are your friends. As you play, you will become better friends, gain enemies, and rivals. Doing this will add various bonuses and maybe even penalties depending on who you piss off. Based on the nature of the relationship and the level of it, you get a number

TAO Page 24 Based on the nature of the relationship and the level of it, you get a number

Now, onto your Partner… This part is REALLY dependent on what kind of game you are playing. The kid is kind of important as the relatable avatar for the audience, but what you really care about are all the monsters and shit, because, face it, they are way more cool than some spiky haired goon with goggles on his forehead.

Roll or Pick a creature or theme of some kind. Roll twice if you feel like making some messed up hybrid creature.

Give it a name. Maybe roll on a table to add some sorta "hyper" or "giga" thing to it.

Roll or Pick a few traits for it. Elements and shit. Maybe not. I think

Pick 1 Special attack to start

Set your combat skills. You have 5 points to distribute and each skill starts at rank 1 Attack - Striking your opponent Successful Rolls deal your Damage rating to the enemy, plus 1 additional damage for every 2 points you beat your opponent by. Failed Rolls get you nothing Feint - Attempting to goad your opponent into lowering and misdirecting their guard Successful rolls penalize your opponent's next roll against you Failed rolls penalize your next roll. Defend - Guarding yourself from damage Successful rolls increase your Toughness by 1 for every 2 points you beat your opponent by Failed rolls still apply your base Armor. Dodge - Avoiding attacks all together Successful rolls reduce all damage to zero. Failed rolls mean you take full damage, no toughness subtracted Parry - Deflect an attack with an attack of your own. Successful rolls deal you Damage rating to the opponent +bonus dmg Failed rolls reduces your Toughness by half when receiving damage for that roll.

Build your parts. This may call for an encyclopedia of different parts and accessories, but it might also be easier to just let players point-buy the stats of each part with the option to switch out parts down the line, and possibly sink a few points into unique upgrades and shit. Alternate approach for creatures There's also the need for something like medabots to have ranged attacks that also have limited ammo. Instead of designing a handful of parts and segmenting the different pieces of the partner, the These things would also be part of the point value and part stats, but optional. Something that could be creature is assembled with a pools full of points to split between it's combat stats, with a few taken in exchange for losing other stats. Like, you've got a long ranged, high powered sniper part, but it's extra points allotted to allow for different traits and special abilities and attacks to be purchased. got low ammo and no armor or something.

This whole section is still largely dependent on the setting, but the ideas are vaguely the same.

Parts - Depending on the setting, you may have a certain number of parts to choose from and each one must be built separately Damage - How badly your attacks hurt Toughness - Armor - How much damage your top can naturally soak Stamina - How long you can stay in the fight. HP in other words. For some settings each part has its own individual Stamina and Armor rating Speed - How quickly you move Range - The max distance you can attack from with a specific part. May be limited dependent on campaign. Ammo - The amount of times you can attack consecutively before needing to reload

In short - Design the creature. In the case of toys, this may be the core, the soul, the medal, or whatever it is that powers the toy. In the case of creatures, this is just the theme it is modeled after, giving t a sort of quasi-description. Then you set your partner's battle skills, essentially creating their combat style. Then you actually build your partner by selecting or building their pieces or just divvying up points into the different combat stats.

Actual Game play! Before even starting, the Ref should make sure that the players are aware of the kind of game he's going to run. This doesn't have to involve the Ref spilling all of the plans and ideas they may have, but it's important for everyone to be on the same page, so as not to betray any expectations and cause issues later on.

So, anyways, Ref takes some input from the players, finding out what sort of characters they are playing and a little bit about their ambitions. Do they want to save the world? Do they want to be the best in the world? Do they have someone they want to hunt down and beat mercilessly? Do they just want to enjoy the sport of it all? These sort of things allow the Ref to better understand how to interest and engage the players. Good conditions The Ref then sets the scene and usually drops a few hooks to get shit rolling. Whether the players jump Break down of task difficulty and resolution -- Essentially, as more and more variables enter the Simple Task on these hooks or take the initiative to go do their own thing is up to them. equation, the less likely it becomes that you can succeed at all. For each additional challenger, negative Unchallenged trait, or complexity added in, the chances of success drop, but for each positive trait, friendship point, or Aided "Can my character do this?" whatever, the chances for success rise. Friendship Dice used When put in a scenario where your character's ability to attempt an action is called into question, it Positive Trait Applies mostly comes down to the plausibility of the action. If it's something simple or relatively mundane, your Opposing character has applicable character can probably do it if given the time and as long as they are challenged or hindered by an Negative Trait opposing character or one of their own negative traits. Useful Items

-5 Failure, AND -3 to -4 Failure -1 to -2 Success, BUT 0 Bad Conditions 1 to 2 Success Complex Task Opposed 3 to 4 Success, AND Opponent has applicable Positive Trait 5 Negative Trait Applies Adverse Conditions (bad weather, exhaustion, etc) Beyblades GM shit - Keep in mind that failures don't always have to be detrimental or awful. Sometimes there can Engine Cores - Specialty equipment that allow you to start matches with a be a silver lining. ("You go the climb the tree, but slip and fall, grabbing and breaking branches on your larger boost to your stats, but your Spin decreases more quickly for a way down, knocking your target out of the tree as well") Likewise, sometimes, you can let characters certain amount of time. succeed on tasks they might otherwise fail, but with a condition. (You have trouble swimming across the raging river, but you manage to make it. Unfortunately, you lost some of the money in your pocket. -1 Idea wealth") For digimon, have Data and Upload Rate instead of Wealth and Allowance. Tamers build up data over time on their Digivices and spend it on upgrades Roleplay in this capacity is meant to progress the story and offer the occasional diversion or bit of for their Digimon. tension to break up what would otherwise be a monotonous slog of constant fighting. This sort of play shouldn't overshadow or overcomplicate things. Permanent upgrades to the digivice can increase the Upload speed, for instance. COMBAT - Fightan shit

During combat, all involved characters take turns making maneuvers, using powers, and trying to disable, destroy, or otherwise defeat all opposing combatants.

When using a skill, a player rolls 2d6 and adds the rank of the chosen Combat Skill to their resulting roll. Their opponent then picks the skill they wish the defend with and also rolls 2d6 and adds the rank of the skill used. The difference in rolls between the attacker and defender determines the outcome of the

TAO Page 25 skill used. The difference in rolls between the attacker and defender determines the outcome of the attempt.

If the attacker comes out on top, this may mean that their strike landed and dealt damage. If the defender has the higher roll, it means they may have mitigated a portion of the damage, avoided it all together, or possibly slipped in an attack of their own.

Combat Skills and how they work are…

Attack

Feint

Guard

Dodge

Parry

CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT

By participating in episodes and completing story arcs, your character will gain experience points. For every 10 XP your characters earns, they level up. When they level up, they are allowed some additional bonuses, like increases to their main stats, new strategies to use in battle, or special traits or some shit.

Likewise, at the end of each episode, each player receives a certain number of points to invest in their different relationships, often equal to the number of players in the game, plus a bonus for good roleplay and interaction. For every 10 points put into a specific relationship, that relationship increases in level, giving you more dice to use for or against that character. These points can also be used to start new relationships for the cost of 3 points.

Also, your partner levels up as well. They gain XP like characters do, but the XP they get is from battling and training and bonding with their partner. Partners receive more XP for victorious battles, but also from defeats as well. As a partner's bond levels up they can also chose between additional skill bonuses, new abilities, and new attacks in some cases.

Lastly, characters can also advance through equipment upgrades, such as buying newer, higher quality parts for their toy (which are built with more points) or enhancements to their Digivice or Medawatch that would allow for multiple Partners or additional features, like the ability to teleport in new parts between battles.

This sort of tertiary advancement allows a player to diversify their playstyle by opening up new options in well-explored areas. A digidestined could purchase upgrades that allow them to create new digivolutions while a Medabattler could purchase a new tin pet to build onto. Or a beyblader could get their hands on a new bit beast, allowing them to build an entirely different combat style.

TAO Page 26 Specials Tuesday, January 24, 2012 8:38 PM

TAO Page 27 Potential Applications Saturday, April 21, 2012 1:27 AM

NecroMon - The kids are budding Necromancers who partner with enslaved spirits. Through a combination of flesh and bone crafting, they create small personal undead familiars, which they battle against one another for fun and profit. Of course, to go with this morbid concept, the world would have to be comically grimdark and gothic, with public graveyards that sell the parts and pieces to children and the like.

TANKS! - Kids are tank Pilots and the toys/mons are mini-tanks. Tanks would lack a "spirit" or any kind of personality, but instead, their stats could be derived from tuning and customization of the parts to create the battle skills for each tank.

Each tank would start with a frame with certain base stats that can be supplemented by required parts (engines, cooling, ammunition, etc) and supplementary parts (targeting computers, auxiliary fuel, etc)

Monster Pulse- Kids are victims of the ARMA ghosts who have had their organs turned into sympathetically linked creatures. Bad guys are Shell corp and other people with Monsters.

DIY Golems- A DIY instruction kit has been making its way around the internet for creating home-made golems out of common household materials. Some people use it for fun and profit.. Others, for villainous purposes. Golem fights!

Language of Blades - The players are normal humans wielding living weapons that bond to them and give them the power to fight against some sort of monsters. The weapons themselves are intelligent, have personalities of their own. In this interpretation, the fighting abilities of the partner character are expressed through the human kid, When point building parts, the total cost of a part can be meaning they fight directly, instead of sending them out to battle at determined by the tier of the part, each of which are built the Kid's command with a certain point total. In addition, players could spend their points on extra bits and features for additional Persona - Kid is a teen school student tied up in a supernatural war effectiveness, although these features would come with an between the beyond and the mortal world, empowered by a increased price-tag. supernatural embodiment of their being known as a Persona. Kids become students. Partners become Personas. Something like an attack ring in a beyblade game with a secondary attack ring (like Gazzly?) that always does 1 pt of Soul Eater - Meisters are Kids, Weapons as Partners, synchonisity damage to any incoming attackers, costing a certain number between them enabling strength and power. of points, increasing the cost, and only being available within a certain tier. Gundam Build Fighters - Stats are moved largely to the Kid end of things, where piloting and building skill determine Gunpla quality and However, I'd also like to keep in mind that the idea of custom power. building parts being limited to certain places. Players could buy pre-made parts from the store, for better or worse, but only in a few certain scenarios (players have won super duper grand championship and gotten sponsored by the world's top manufacturer of parts) would they be allowed to simply build all their parts from scratch.

Digimon - Digivices - Wealth & Allowance

So, with digimon type games where the players might be kids in the digital world, there is a distinct issue of what to do with Wealth and Allowance as mechanics.

TAO Page 28 Wealth and Allowance as mechanics.

In other settings, building up money and using it to purchase new parts, upgrades, and sometimes little fiddly things to keep the kids from building up too much cash, allowing them to just grab the strongest parts they can get their hands on.

In a setting where their aren't shops for buying better digivolutions or new legs for your Agumon, this mechanic becomes superfluous. If things are taking place in the real world, then that's not so much of a problem, but the digital world mucks things up.

The alternative is to refluff them into Data and Upload instead of Wealth and Allowance. Data can be used to create new programs and updates that allow the players to still get more powerful and gain additional benefits for them and their digimon, like additional digivolution paths, the ability to de-volve into smaller or more useful forms, or possibly just exchanged at enterprising digimon merchants for useful items, possibly even other digimon eggs.

TAO Page 29