When a player says something awesome, be it cool roleplay or some blistering exposition, any other player can give that player an Aiki token to acknowledge that awesomeness. (You can use coins, stones, or poker chips to your to track your Aiki count.)

Players can spend Aiki tokens to gain bonuses on a roll, force another PC to be present in a scene (Story Game alert!), and stuff like that. Yeah, they're like the Bennies from Savage Worlds, only with way more ways to spend them.

I first came across the idea when reading Primetime Adventures, and they're called Fan Mail in that game, thus my use of the term. (Old School Hack uses Awesome Points in a similar fashion.) The Aiki tokens in Tenra Bansho Zero flow much more freely though, and you can even award them to the GM who can spend 'em on NPCs.

The specifics of what is "awesome" is totally up to the player awarding the token. Sure, cocks could "game" the currency to earn their characters ridiculous amounts of Aiki tokens, but there's an easy remedy for that, don't play with cocks.



I liked the Aiki fan mail system in play. Acknowledging cool contributions from other players is a good thing, though in most games that generally takes the form of nothing more than a visible "thumbs up", brief applause, or a voluble "dude, that was frickin' awesome!" If you don't dig the "meta"-level play of fan mail systems, where characters get bonuses due to player actions, then Tenra Bansho Zero might not be your bag.

Cheers
Pete

Quote from: Omnifray;599667Those two rules alone rule this game out as something I'd ever want for a campaign game. It might be interesting for a one-shot at a Convention just to try something new but it's just not my style.

Yeah, the setting looks fun but I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to strip out the rules and put something I'd enjoy in.

Quote from: The Traveller;599782Yeah, the setting looks fun but I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to strip out the rules and put something I'd enjoy in.

Depends on what you would enjoy. Most archetypes could be translated to a more simulationist system without a lot of trouble. I could probably run it in Rolemaster if I really wanted to ^_^

(but I won't because I actually enjoy the fun metagamey parts the zero system for once)

Quote from: Future Villain Band;599713At this point, I find the term storygames problematic, because it means pretty much whatever people want it to mean.  I'll say that from my perspective, it's hard to argue that TBZ is a storygame when it predates the storygame movement by years, and is instead the product of a different gaming culture -- whatever's in there that looks storygameish comes from a different place.  

A viable argument; you could say that somethings not a regular rpg without being a storygame per se, as in "created by the storygaming movement".

Quote*I've always said that if you want to see the logical fulfillment of indie genre emulation, you want to go back in time a decade before the first indie game and look at the Victim OCC in Beyond the Supernatural.

Genre emulation is a feature of regular RPGs. Emulation, of genre or world, is in fact one of the main goals of a regular RPG. On its own, its not something that makes for a storygame.

RPGPundit

This does seem very interested. Are there any preview documents to look at and steal ideas from?

Quote from: RPGPundit;600110A viable argument; you could say that something is not a regular rpg without being a storygame per se, as in "created by the storygaming movement".

Just observe that the very definition of "regular rpg" will vary from place to place and group to group, even to the point of some considering "storygames" as such. Tenra here is a nice example of this - another culture's "regular rpg".

QuoteGenre emulation is a feature of regular RPGs. Emulation, of genre or world, is in fact one of the main goals of a regular RPG.

Not necessarily. A lot of rpgs (in fact the very first ones, like OD&D) didnt emulate any genre or world, but a particular variation of wargames where you assume the role of a single soldier instead of an army, while playing a cycle of action and reward around tactical combats and martial progression.

I think the first rpg to really emulate genre was Call of Cthulhu, no? (and maybe
Pendragon was the first one that we could call "emulationist", for raising the emulation to a new level)

Quote from: silva;600162Just observe that the very definition of "regular rpg" will vary from place to place and group to group, even to the point of some considering "storygames" as such. Tenra here is a nice example of this - another culture's "regular rpg".

Is it though? Can we be sure? I know that the Storygame Swine have selectively chosen certain RPGs that suit them (Maid, and this one) to try to create the illusion that Storygaming is some kind of universal phenomenon (and, as FVB pointed out, actually misappropriating these games as "their own"), but I at least can't say for sure that these games are the overwhelmingly popular ones that a significant majority of Japanese RPG gamers are into.  For all we know, the vast majority of Japanese RPG gamers think these games are kind of weird, and prefer to play Rules Cyclopedia D&D.

QuoteNot necessarily. A lot of rpgs (in fact the very first ones, like OD&D) didnt emulate any genre or world, but a particular variation of wargames where you assume the role of a single soldier instead of an army, while playing a cycle of action and reward around tactical combats and martial progression.

There's an appendix in the DMG that would disagree with you.  From the start, D&D was trying to emulate a certain broad range of fantasy style.

RPGPundit

the majority of japanese roleplayers probably play newer games like Sword world which is the game the developer who made tenra wrote after he published it in japan in the mid/late ninties, i imagine we'll one day get that in english though given the timeframe tenra has had it'll probably another 20 years yet

Does anyone know how the page count of the translation compares to that of the original book?  

How much of this is actual translation, and how much is original content or reinterpretation?

Is this a Nephilim/In Nomine, or a Qin?

Quote from: J Arcane;600274Does anyone know how the page count of the translation compares to that of the original book?  

How much of this is actual translation, and how much is original content or reinterpretation?

Is this a Nephilim/In Nomine, or a Qin?

It's a translation of the text of the original RPG plus supplements. There is a lot of added cultural and translation notes, including a sample setting done by Ian Sturrock given that a western audience may not be able to come up with such as easily.

No idea about page count though. Japanese to English is a very different exercise to French to English by most accounts and the original form factor and most of the layout were changed. There are some detailed notes on this on the Tenra blog.

Quote from: RPGPundit;600247Is it though? Can we be sure? I know that the Storygame Swine have selectively chosen certain RPGs that suit them (Maid, and this one) to try to create the illusion that Storygaming is some kind of universal phenomenon (and, as FVB pointed out, actually misappropriating these games as "their own"), but I at least can't say for sure that these games are the overwhelmingly popular ones that a significant majority of Japanese RPG gamers are into.  

Is any of this paranoia actually important in any real world sense?

QuoteFor all we know, the vast majority of Japanese RPG gamers think these games are kind of weird, and prefer to play Rules Cyclopedia D&D.

Food for thought: Tenra Bansho Zero has a "thank you" note to Gygax and Arneson on the first page.

Quote from: vytzka;600283Food for thought: Tenra Bansho Zero has a "thank you" note to Gygax and Arneson on the first page.

Another interesting factoid is that Tenra started as a world setting for TORG (the writer was translating TORG into Japanese).

Quote from: Skywalker;600276It's a translation of the text of the original RPG plus supplements. There is a lot of added cultural and translation notes, including a sample setting done by Ian Sturrock given that a western audience may not be able to come up with such as easily.

No idea about page count though. Japanese to English is a very different exercise to French to English by most accounts and the original form factor and most of the layout were changed. There are some detailed notes on this on the Tenra blog.

You are correct in that page count probably isn't a fair comparison.  Damn me and my culturally normative assumptions!

I just sort of balked at the page count and while it's been a while and I think my favorite English guide to J-TRPGs is offline now, I didn't remember the original book being nearly that large.

Lead me to wonder how much of that 700 pages is embellishment by the translator rather than the original work.

How much of that 700 pages would I actually have to learn to play it?  To run it?  Because that's damned big.

Quote from: J Arcane;600286How much of that 700 pages would I actually have to learn to play it?  To run it?  Because that's damned big.

I has tried to give a sense of the break down in my first post. Though 700 (graphic novel sized) pages, it's a pretty straightforward system.

Basic rules are 20 pages (with about another 10 in the introduction), combat 25 pages and the Karma system 25 pages. So, around 70 pages which are summarised in about 8 manga pages.

There's around 50 pages more detailing scenario creation including advise and mechanics.

Most of the books is setting (250 pages in the setting book) with 200 pages of PC details and specific mechanics and 150 pages of support material (sample setting, names index, inspiration, setting summary, story seeds)

Quote from: RPGPundit;600247I know that the Storygame Swine have selectively chosen certain RPGs that suit them (Maid, and this one) to try to create the illusion that Storygaming is some kind of universal phenomenon (and, as FVB pointed out, actually misappropriating these games as "their own"), but I at least can't say for sure that these games are the overwhelmingly popular ones that a significant majority of Japanese RPG gamers are into.

Eh? Where's the "storygaming" in Maid, unless of course letting players spend points for rolling random events counts for that in your opinion? And the publisher's notes in the book specifically point out that the game is considered an oddity in the Japanese gaming circles as well.