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fast, though they usually don’t appear in the same series ing youngsters training and caring for exotic creatures as full-sizeOpen mecha, but there are exceptions. A(or in somenim cases machines) that would bee pitted against each other in combat. Th e monsters are usually Modern Powers smart but not sentient, and have not only special pow- Examples: Aquarian Age, Blue Seed, Gatekeepers, ers, but the ability to grow in strength and eventually JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Maburaho, Magic User’s Club, “evolve” into a more powerful form with proper care. Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto, Mai-HiME, Read We won’t even get into the possible implications of Or Die, S-Cry-Ed, Tokyo Underground this being a genre that involves cute anime critters in “Modern powers” is what we’ll call a genre of anime cockfi ghts. that involves characters gaining special powers and try- Anyway, pet monster anime is a close relative of ing to cope with them and live normal lives in spite of sports manga. Training monsters and having them fi ght being confronted with whatever dangers those powers is treated as a sport of sorts, and much like a typical bring to them. In eff ect, it’s superheroes without the sports manga (such as Hikaru no Go or Prince of Tennis) spandex or secret identities – though not a few heroes pet monster anime often revolve around a young boy in thisn genre fi nd it preferable to keep their powers starting out as a novice and becoming a master, growing secret from the world at large. Th e antagonists these and learning along the way. heroes face might be some kind of monsters only they can deal with, fellow power-users, or perhaps a shadowy Samurai organization that’s putting one or both of those to use Examples: Dagger of Kamui, Peacemaker Kuro- for some nefarious purpose. Or the special powers could gane, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Samurai just be another part of their everyday lives. Deeper Kyo, Samurai Shodown Modern powers settings usually involve one specifi c Japan’s feudal era can be compared to the Wild kind of special power, which is expressed in diff erent West, insofar as both have been highly romanticized in ways byditio diff erent characters. If the campaign concerns fi lms and other media to the point where the fi ctional characters with elemental powers for example, each image of the setting has taken on a life of its own. characterE would have control over a specifi c element, Live-action samurai titles range from Akira Kurosawa’s and each would further develop his or her own ways of masterpieces to feudal soap operas to gory sword action, using that power to do diff erent things. Just becauseSample two and fileanime has put its own unique spin on Japan’s fun- characters use water-elemental powers doesn’t mean house mirror image of its history. their abilitiesic will be all that similar; one might rely on Some samurai anime play up deadly sword fi ght- big blasts of water to attack, another might use piercing ing, similar to live-action movies like Zatoichi: Th e Blind attacks with tiny droplets, and a third might not attack Swordsman, presenting fi ghts with razor-sharp swords, at all, n but use water to defend or heal. Th e GM should where human lives are cut down like so many blades defi ne the nature of the power and in general terms of grass. Th e heroes of this kind of story tend towards what kinds of Abilities can be used to represent it. extremes of either being mostly non-combat characters, Magic and Sorcery are obvious possibilities, but nearly or being so skilled that most opponents simply don’t anything is possible. have a chance against them. Others opt for more drawn- out fi ghts, whether with ki powers becoming involved, Pet Monsters or simply through over-the-top superhuman characters, Examples: Beyblade, Digimon, Dragon Drive, allowing for battles to be more along the lines of Fight- Medabots, Monster Rancher, Pokémon ing anime (see above). Pokémon’s success, in Japan, the U.S., and else- Th e feudal Japan of samurai anime and movies is where, is undeniable. Th e video game spawned a long- often about as indeterminate as “Medieval Times” or “Th e Old West” is in the movies we have here. Th at is, runninglectro anime, a manga, a card game, and an endless array of merchandise. It also led to others to try their they’re set not in what we believe was the reality of his- hand atE what would become a genre of its own, featur- tory, but rather a mythical setting that grew out of that history. Th at said, “samurai” as a genre has lots of room 8 for the diff erent eras of Japanese history. Th e SengokuO (Warringpen States) period Anime is an obvious choice since it has many Science Fiction opportunities for confl ict, but even the stable times of the Tokugawa Shogunate One thing that’s sometimes overlooked is that while the have room for swinging swords around. storytelling style remains distinctly anime, many sci-fi anime As Rurouni Kenshin aptly demonstrates, series are based in a premise that seems like it came out of the the Meiji Era, which brought about the tradition of “hard” science fi ction literature. If you’re thinking end of the feudal system and unprec- about having a science fi ction campaign, consider looking to the edented contact with the West, can make likes of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Phillip K. Dick for for a fascinating setting – while sub- inspiration, and then adding a bit of anime fl air to spice things E stantially reducing the need to deal with up. the complexities of feudal society. It’s up lectro to you to decide how much you want to invest into using historical details in creating your own there are plenty of possibilities for just about any type campaign setting. of adventure imaginable. Th is is doubly true when the player characters are traveling around in a spaceship; Space Opera diff erent planets, space stations, etc. allow for massive Examples: Black Heaven, Crest of the Stars, Dirty changes of scenery on a regular basis, and with them Pair, Divergence Eve, Galaxy Angel, Galaxy Frau- the chance to meet new NPCs and encounter new lein Yuna, GeneShaft, Infi nite Ryvius, Irresponsible problems to solve. Captain Tylor, Kiddy Grade, Lost Universe, Martian In terms of “cool stuff ,” vanilla space opera includes Successor Nadesico, MeltyLancer, Outlaw Star, Sol space ships, space fi ghters, and other types of high Bianca, Star Blazers, Stellvia, Tenchi Muyo!, Vandread, technology. How of a tech level really varies, but there’s Xenosaga no upper limit per se. Of course, space opera animen Anime has a long tradition of space opera, over- tend to gloss over details like radio transmissions tak- the-top sci-fi with lots of spaceships fi ring laser beams ing time to travel or how spaceships create artifi cial at each other. It goes without saying that spaceSample opera gravity, file even as they have an eminently recognizableic anime owes a lot to sci-fi TV shows, but the style modern ramen shop using the same methods as today of storytelling – which heavily emphasizes human out in space. Mecha also appear in anime space operas relationships, even in the midst of a war – is distinctly all the time; some series are wholly based around anime. fi ghting in big mecha, while others include them asE yet If the campaign is action-oriented, it pays to take another type of war machine. pains to pay attention to the balance of the diff erent Aliens are a distinct possibility, but in no way aditio types of action. Space opera can potentially involve necessity since nations with nothing but humans are ship-to-ship battles, dogfi ghts between space fi ghters quite capable of getting into confl icts. When aliens and/or mecha, human-scale skirmishes, and the occa- do appear, they tend towards extremes of appearing sional brawl. Each of these requires diff erent skills, and mostly human or oddly inhuman – though most aliens player characters that specialize in one stands a good in anime are still humanoid in their general shape. Hu- chance of being bored if the others dominate the game man-looking alien races open up the possibility of cute too much. alien girls, and even some inhuman races might some- Th e genre lends itself to many diff erent types of times turn out a mostly human-looking alien princess stories and formats. War stories are probably the most as some kind of ambassador or spy. Naturally there’sn common, but freewheeling bounty hunters, spacefar- also the possibility of highly advanced and ineff able ing “super-heroes,” and academy students have all had aliens running around, not to mention extinct ones their place in space opera anime. Likewise, while space who’ve left behind artifacts of their “suffi ciently ad- 9 opera provides options for stuff like cool space battles, vanced technology” that could have a drastic eff ect on works on two diff erent levels: the overall goal of the the relativelyOpen primitive lives of us spacefaring humans. Acampaign,nim and what the player characterse will be doing over the course of each session that draws them close Sword and Sorcery to that goal. Ideally, you should be able to answer both Examples: Arc Th e Lad, Berserk, Dragon Half, facets of this question in one sentence.

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