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Author Topic: a little exercise with Kaiju.  (Read 1284 times)

Darrin Kelley

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« on: September 16, 2019, 09:53:14 PM »
This is going to be a fun little exercise. One about scale and how it works in RPGs.

I've seen GURPS do it. I've done it myself with the Hero System decades ago. But positing it here should bring up some interesting responses.

Kaiju. Godzilla. In what game systems would you handle them? And how?

Be as detailed as you want to be.
 

GeekyBugle

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2019, 10:59:03 PM »
Quote from: Darrin Kelley;1104345
This is going to be a fun little exercise. One about scale and how it works in RPGs.

I've seen GURPS do it. I've done it myself with the Hero System decades ago. But positing it here should bring up some interesting responses.

Kaiju. Godzilla. In what game systems would you handle them? And how?

Be as detailed as you want to be.

Kaiju vs Kaiju (or Ultraman/Mazinger) or Kaiju Vs Humans?

Kaiju vs Kaiju same size (approx) so most systems would work just the same.

Kaiju vs Ultraman/Mazinger it depends, are the human identity/pilot important in gameplay? If not same as above, if the human part is relevant in game then you'd need to adjust for size/power level.
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nope

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2019, 11:34:58 AM »
My brother and I have long discussed running a Kaiju campaign (specifically Godzilla and related). Normally I would probably select a lighter or more easily scaled system like M&M for such a game as I have had success with kaiju one-shots in the past with it, but my brother (and I) love GURPS so we would probably end up just using that as we are both comfortable with it and enjoy its quirks.

The main issue for me is not the mechanics, but the campaign structure. I don't just want to run a series of giant monster battles as I feel it would essentially become a strategy board game at that point. I also don't want to run human-only where the players are scientists, soldiers, whatever and basically just have to deal with the equivalent of natural disasters every couple sessions.

My idea is this: each player would have a human (or alien, or whatever) character to play by default. They would likely be a part of the same organization, or closely related to each other in any case. The bonding element would be that these characters would all be psychically sensitive to monsters (ala Mothra's twins); I hadn't decided if they would pick which monster they were 'bonded' to, or if it would be a general sensitivity.

In any case, as problems crop up and the monsters do their thing, characters would be able to make the equivalent of an empathy check or reaction roll towards their/a monster. If successful, they get to temporarily "control" the monster as their human gains empathic communication with the creature. Fail, and the monster either does its own thing/ignores the person, or possibly reacts very poorly and does the rampage/destruction thing. There could be enemy espers as well, vying for control of the monsters for their own nefarious purposes.

This way, you can play both the human elements of the campaign as well as play the big monster fights, and ideally would link the humans to the monsters in an interesting enough way that it makes the impersonal monster/human elements slightly more dynamic, plus create some interesting tensions with regards to conflicting goals and motivations between the humans and monsters.

Anyway, I've never set down anything firm on it, but this to me seems like a plausible way to run a sustainable campaign around such a premise. An alternative would be just humans in mechs fighting giant monsters, but I'm less interested in such a premise and I feel like playing different sorts of kaiju at least some of the time is half the appeal. If I ran a human-mech game I would vastly prefer it be mech on mech violence, either in a military context or something like Robot Jox where it's half game/sport, half war.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2019, 11:44:55 AM by Antiquation! »

S'mon

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2019, 01:41:56 PM »
Quote from: Darrin Kelley;1104345
This is going to be a fun little exercise. One about scale and how it works in RPGs.

I've seen GURPS do it. I've done it myself with the Hero System decades ago. But positing it here should bring up some interesting responses.

Kaiju. Godzilla. In what game systems would you handle them? And how?

Be as detailed as you want to be.


Just to say, the scaling system in WEG d6 would be perfect for this. It was designed for starfighter vs capital ship but it works just as well for human vs kaiju.

Seems like a good one for Mini-6.

nope

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2019, 02:04:45 PM »
FUDGE also seems like it could be a good option. I really like its scale rules.

Pat
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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2019, 10:41:37 PM »
Could do it fairly easily in D&D, third edition's scaling system is pretty universal and can be easily adapted to other editions. Godzilla 1954 would be at the very top end of 2 size categories past colossal in mass or in the middle of 1 size category past colossal in height, while Shin Godzilla would be the low end of 3 size categories past colossal in mass or the middle of 2 size categories past colossal in height. You could scale that up normally, but hundreds of hit dice would become unwieldy. It would be easier to just set a new kaiju baseline, treat that as the new medium, and have a few simple rules for things that fall off the bottom of that that scale (i.e. they get squashed).
« Last Edit: September 17, 2019, 11:46:38 PM by Pat »

Razor 007

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2019, 11:23:37 PM »
Quote from: Darrin Kelley;1104345
This is going to be a fun little exercise. One about scale and how it works in RPGs.

I've seen GURPS do it. I've done it myself with the Hero System decades ago. But positing it here should bring up some interesting responses.

Kaiju. Godzilla. In what game systems would you handle them? And how?

Be as detailed as you want to be.


They already have stats in Pathfinder 1E.
I need you to roll a perception check.....

Pat
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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2019, 12:11:15 AM »
Quote from: Razor 007;1104555
They already have stats in Pathfinder 1E.

Based on their stats (they have less HD than the biggest monstrous vermin), they're at the low end of colossal, so a bit more than 125 tons. Even the tiniest Godzilla (the original from 1954) weighs about 60,000 (short) tons. If Godzilla were a human, those kaiju would be the size of hamsters.

Simlasa

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2019, 01:47:35 AM »
I've pondered doing a Kaiju/Mech mash-up setting that would use the Andersonverse (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlett, Stingray, U.F.O., etc.) along with elements of the Science Patrol from Ultraman. So a mix of espionage (Captain Scarlett), cool cars (Joe 90, Captain Scarlett), gigantic vehicles (ala Thunderbird 2), hostile aliens (U.F.O., Ultraman, Captain Scarlett), and giant monsters (Ultraman).
Both sides would have giant monsters and mecha in reserve, but there'd be a ongoing 'cold war' with agents from both sides skulking around in shadows until open hostilities broke out... and agents would have to climb into giant machines or use 'beta capsules' to hulk into enormous warriors.
A lot of the ground-level stuff would center on schemes to find/subvert/capture the enemy's giant monster/mech force.
I'm not sure what I'd use for a system, but my first choice would be BRP with its Mecha supplement... though that's aimed more at Mazinger-type forces, less at Kaiju and mecha.

Alternatively, I've got magical Kaiju in my homebrew fantasy setting... but so far they've been plot-devices, McGuffins, rather than active participants. If I were to foreground them it would pretty much be a mech vs. mech game, or something like Shadow of the Colossus, with human's trying to exploit magical weak-spots.

Brendan

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2019, 02:56:05 PM »
It's been a long time since I looked at it, but Mekton?

tenbones

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2019, 04:29:38 PM »
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nope

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2019, 04:52:04 PM »
There are some official GURPS stats for a Godzilla-a-like in both Warehouse 23 as well as Atomic Horror for 3e. Then there are the fan stats and pages, often meticulously faithful to the films such as this one.

tenbones

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2019, 04:54:45 PM »
Savage Rifts does Kaiju...

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Azraele

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #13 on: September 19, 2019, 05:05:19 PM »
Quote from: Darrin Kelley;1104345
This is going to be a fun little exercise. One about scale and how it works in RPGs.

I've seen GURPS do it. I've done it myself with the Hero System decades ago. But positing it here should bring up some interesting responses.

Kaiju. Godzilla. In what game systems would you handle them? And how?

Be as detailed as you want to be.


In my own game, I treat colossal monsters the same way they're treated in Shadow of the Colossus: as equal parts environmental threat, outscaled monster, and landscape.
-I took a page from marvel faserip and scale damage into terrain-altering power levels, allowing a punch that can level mountains. Kaiju are given health commensurate to a mountain.
-The system encourages tactical challenges presented by movement and terrain. Kaiju's bodies are segmented the same way a vertical map would be, and players explore it the same way.
-Further, it puts a focus on surviving environmental hazards and natural disasters as an element of challenge; a Kaiju's natural attacks are cataclysms, and are avoided or survived in the same way.

I've never been satisfied by Kaiju in games like D&D with the Terrsaque; just adding more numbers and fighting it like a big orc (what's your teeny little blade gonna do to godzilla?). So I made a game where characters could punch the tops off mountains or tank a hit from a meteor and made the big monsters living natural disasters.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2019, 05:13:27 PM by Azraele »
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jhkim

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a little exercise with Kaiju.
« Reply #14 on: September 19, 2019, 05:09:58 PM »
I had a lot of fun playing the Monster Island game with my son when he was smaller -- but those were really more like one-shot boardgames rather than real role-playing.

https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11151.phtml

I also did a campaign with a mix of dragon and human PCs, based on the Temeraire novels. It's not exactly kaiju, but mixing huge dragons and humans as PCs has similar challenges. There I used a homebrewed version of FATE (from Spirit of the Century at the time), with scaling rules similar to Fudge. Basically, though, what it amounted to was that humans couldn't do jack shit against dragons in combat. So mostly we didn't have to worry about scale interactions - it was mostly two different non-interacting games as far as physical action.

http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/korea/

Even further in the past, I played a combined MechWarrior / Battletech campaign in college. That was fun, but the nature of the setups made it a little linear. These days, I could picture an RPG where the PCs are a team who operate a kaiju-fighting giant robot. So they can have some action outside of the robot, and then have action inside as well.