So /tg/, what would be the best system to run a Megami-Tensei inspired campaign?
>>47664061
Sounds fun enough. Is that a homebrew then, or am I gonna have to track down a rulebook?
>>47664124
It's a unique narrativist *World setting I made just for this thread, with a single playbook and a single rule. I'm thinking of creating a kickstarter for it, it'd hit $100,000 at least.
>>47663755
You are going to have to make your own we get this every week and nobody has a concrete system. There are apparently some systems out there that are already made I've heard that only one or two of them are good but you still have to be able to read moon to understand them. For what it's worth if there's enough information on a week he's out there for stats pick a system of your choice and make a conversion I'd say GURPS but that's just me
>>47663755
Running one in GURPS, but many mechanics of demon summoning were toned down since there's only one PC that can summon demons, and he only has a handful to summon that he had convinced to do a pact with him in the past.
The rest of the characters are just bruisers or investigators a la CoC
>>47664061
>Fuck You And Your Shitty Chinese Cartoons: The RPG
That seems like an odd choice for a game based on a 40 year old fantasy novel.
Id run it within the confines of your own mind, in your childhood basement
>>47664610
How did you do summoning, fusion, and skills?
>>47664804
The summoner player has a COMP just like the characters in the series. Whenever he wants to summon a demon, he has to do a concentration maneuver and roll against his computer operation skill to summon the right demon, and depending of its strength, he gets drained a portion of his FP (I don't use the macca system, so FP points act as the "emotional energy" required to summon a demon). He can only summon one demon at a time and they're subjected to morale, if they're mistreated or heavily wounded.
Demon pacts are related to the plot and the player's skill to convince them beforehand to aid him whenever he needs help, the same for fusions that can only happen when the demons involved agree to it, but those situations are rare and are subjected to the plot as well.
As for skills, GURPS has a load of possible skills, techniques and magic spells, so each demon gets a handful of those, which doesn't take that long to design. For example, a kobold had pretty much average stats but they had a decent mace skill and high pain threshold, which made them a decent fighter in the beginning.
>>47664945
Are you compiling a bestiary and equipment list? If so care to dump it?
>>47665720
Bumping to hopefully get an answer.
>>47664061
But its not a cartoon.
Another bump for GURPS anon.
Help another GURPSFAG out.
>>47663755
You could probably reverse-engineer one of the many Persona games out there and turn it into an SMT game. Try this one on for size.
Use the Spirit Mage rules from Mage the Awakening 2e.
Mix in some Geist and Werewolf as necessary.
>>47672015
Expanding on this, somebody made a Goddess Reincarnation Chronicle (I think that's the name) homebrew based on SMT. Try taking a look at that, maybe?
>>47663755
Black Tokyoo
>>47671830
>>47672015
Both decent starting points. Would still be interested in how >>47664945 handles stats and equipment though. I'm familiar with gurps and would be able to handle monsters and spells pretty easy.
>>47671830
Man I saw a way better Persona PDF once where the anon who made it had like awesome arcana art and had put a ton of work into building the Compendium and figuring out spells. It was glorious.
The Drunk and Ugly podcast did a series called Shin Megami Tensei and Other Childish Things, where they used Greg Stolze's Monsters and Other Childish Things to do a Persona-type game, and it was the bomb. It's a lot more free-form than what you'd expect in an SMT game, but it works extremely well.
For traditional SMT, MaOCT would still be pretty rad, in that you can create your own demons that behave in strange and interesting ways.
GURPS
Your favorite supers game.
Limit summoner power selection / points as appropriate for the game you most want to emulate.
Build demons as supers, they don't level up or gain more points (or do so painfully slowly ) but fusion allows you to combine point /exp totals and make a completely new super (with some power inheritance)
GM can either make all demons, or be lazy and let players make them (with reasonable veto that all supers games need). In theory I prefer the former, but in practice it would depend on how fun I found making demons.
Let's think about what an SMT game would need to be any good. Note that this for SMT, not for Persona.
Foremost are the demons. You need a system for creating playing as or with demons, and you need to be able to do it with minimal effort, because SMT has a lot of them. You could do it just with a massive compendium, but given that SMT's bestiary spans the entirety of human mythology, folklore and religion, you're better off with something where you can make a demon in five minutes-- or better yet roll one up randomly in one minute.
Secondly, the setting is usually post-apocalyptic, and the player characters are usually survivors of the apocalypse, so before that occurred they had otherwise ordinary lives. This is actually a good thing-- you could potentially forgo a complex skill system with a more encompassing background system, like Unknown Armies 3rd Edition's Identities. Beyond that, you need to figure out what kind of skills would be useful and natural to see in the recent post-apocalypse.
Finally, you need to structure the game around having multiple player characters, instead of just one and a party of demons. You could have the players control the demons directly, but the game would be more interesting if the player characters each had control over a limited roster of demons.
The demons themselves need to be able to do a wider array of things than in the SMT games. They should be able to interact with the world in a meaningful way, as opposed to just killing each other.
Those are just some quick thoughts. I'd be interested in developing these further.
Got it in my head to make a series of random demon negotiation tables (I think pure RP would lose the random factor that is part of the charm of the negotiation system ), will post when I get home in a few hours, if the thread us still up.
Random thought about skills from earlier today: the use of IV Apocalypse's affinity system. Attack skills in battle could each work by rolling XdY depending on its power level before being modified by stats and affinity. Affinity adds or subtracts dice to roll by up to +/-8, as well as decreased or increased MP and/or HP cost based on either flat amount or percentage (TBD) per level of affinity. If Bufu, for instance, rolls 5dY as base effectiveness, and Jack Frost has +3 Ice affinity, he'll actually roll 8dY before his Magic stat and other things like (de)buffs are taken into account and would save some MP compared to its base cost. A (fused, presumably) Pyro Jack with a -3 Ice affinity will only roll 2dY as a base for damage as well as having to use more MP than base cost. These numbers are not at all pulled out of my ass with balance in mind.
>>47683226
Bumping for this table
>>47681692
>You need a system for creating playing as or with demons, and you need to be able to do it with minimal effort,
Since SMT already breaks demons down by race, species, and level you could use something like packages in GURPS for races and additional lenses for species or unique individuals. So you would first pick a race and level to get your initial stats and then add on your species to figure out secondary attributes. You can then add any additional traits you feel are needed.
Demonic bump
>>47683226
>>47683733
Wew,
Shit came up when I got home that I had to take care of, and then I decided I hated the formatting and had to make it something only MOSTLY ugly instead of totally ugly.
I don't think the probabilities are CORRECT (even for an SMT game I think they might be a little harsh), but I do like the general ideas I put in there.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y79FWMb5I5TZAR8LU8CnXznGRXzY9qFk8XoGD85Ov40/edit?usp=sharing
>>47686353
Interesting ideas here. Definitely gets across the idea that negotiating with supernatural creatures is never a sure thing.
>>47686353
This seems like it could work pretty well actually. I might give this a try I can get this kinda campaign running.
Also, wanting to do a sort of class system for this game, what would you guys suggest? All I can really think of is summoners and some kind of demon hunter. I'd like to have some variety for character creation beyond that, though.
>>47686753
*if I can get this kinda campaign running
>>47684567
I do not know if that would work for all races. Angels maybe but others? They can vary widely is ability and skill set and role.
>>47686753
I don't know about classes per se, but general archetypes can be pulled from the various protagonists:
-Pure weapon-user summoner, no magic (Hero, Aleph, Not-Kyouji, Hacker) ("Devil Buster?")
-"Devil Summoner" who specializes in working in tandem with summoned demons using combination attacks (Raidou)
-Summoner who learns skills and magic from interacting with demons (Aleph, Nanashi, both Devil Survivor casts)
-Someone who's no longer or never was human, has some way of learning skills and magic depending on how they transformed (most alignment heroes, Demi-fiend, Reason bearers)
Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series mode: work in both Avatar Tuners and Persona Users
So without directly ripping off any of the games from the series, what would be some good story seeds for this kind of game?
For the anon who mentioned that they're already running one in GURPS, what was the gist of yours?
I hope this thread last until tomorrow because I have a cracker-jack idea for how this system could be done with percentile dice.
>>47686818
Maybe it could work for stat/trait generation? Haven't played an SMT game in years but I remember races having enough similar traits to one another that some generalities existed.
>>47687383
Color me curious. I'll try to keep it alive.
>>47687225
So yeah, campaign seeds?
>>47687615
GOD'S A DICK AND THE DEMONS ARE BACK
>>47687680
My god. It's the perfect campaign.
Also, is it just me or does the term "Demon" seem to not always work great for some of the creatures? Does /tg/ have any suggestions for more all-encompassing terms?
>>47687903
Mythical creature.
As for campaign idea that wasn't done in SMT, post-apoc America after the economy crashed
>>47687225
You kind of have too look at the games to a degree. If you mean avoiding a plot where the characters are dealing with determining if Law/Neutral/Chaos are the dominant paradigms you still have options depending on the game.
SMT I
>You are a normal person until demons start to appear on the planet. You can either get the demon summoning program, unlock you're latent magical abilities, or survive by whatever means necessary
>The bombs have dropped and years have passed for the old civilization. There are cults popping up and demons around. Choose a side or try and survive on your own
You have options of forming a faction or working with an existing one, scavenging and exploring the post apoc world, fighting demons and such, and just trying to eke out an existence in light of the world being ruined. Stuff like that.
SMT II
>Living in the slums and trying to earn citizenship in higher class areas
>Being a member of the Center and fighting off demons from populated areas, patrolling the city
>Conspiracy: You are someone who notices something is amiss in tokyo millennium. People getting shipped off to work sites and never coming back. Strange sounds from buildings. Weird instructions for construction or development.
Working out some more for Nocturne and up, but aside from SMT IV you are going to have to address why your characters are stuck in the Conception/Schwartzwalt.
>>47687903
I don't really see what is wrong with using the term demon as long as a person understands that as far as SMT goes it's a catch all term.
Doing a quick search it appears demon is the overall term used which is further broken down into a category like dragon which is further broken down into categories like dragon, snake, and drake.
>>47687962
It seems like the ideas for an SMT I campaign would be really open-ended, which I kinda like. All sorts of wiggle room there. Also kinda seems like players who aren't as familiar with the lore would be most comfortable with this.
>>47688139
I think there is flexibility in the first two games. Tokyo Millenium lends itself to post apoc and cyberpunk campaigns pretty well. There are VR scenarios that can be made as well as an entire lower world populated by demons to setup.
SMT I does well for having people start in someplace familiar and then add demons to the mix.
Strange Journey could also be fun if you make you're own schwartzvalt and have the group act as a strike team that has to manage resources and parts to their vehicle as they try and find the exit and suppress the phenomenon.
>>47689134
I've actually never played Strange Journey. What's the short version?
>>47689416
Dimensional portal is eating the earth starting in Antarctica. Mc is a space marine on a team to investigate the portal. Turns out there are demons on the other side and most of the team dies.
>>47689488
Neat. I could have some fun with that.
You also get a pretty dope suit called the Demonica. It allows you various combat visors and functions as well as acting as your COMP.
>>47689653
How do the combat visors come into play? I feel like anything significant could be fun to try to integrate into the tabletop setting.
>>47689697
For map exploration you had a number of abilities
- The schwartwalt is a dimensional rift and sometimes doorways are invisible or hidden. You gain different types of search functions to help find those.\
- The same applies to the game's versions of item components. They are invisible to the naked eye but once you reveal them you find small cache's of reagents.
- The first time meeting any demon they appear as a floating ball of static. Until you defeat them once and anallyze them with the demonica any time you encounter that particular demon they are still static.
- It acts as you're automapper and at a few points your ship launches probes that highlight key locations you need to reach and they will be displayed on your map.
In combat
-Displays weaknesses of enemies and data on them. You are researching demons every encounter.
-Translator: The Demon Summoning Program is installed on them and this allows you to understand demonic language.
Bump to save a life
>>47687412
Working on drafting up a pastebin now.
>>47664061
>>47691108
>>47687412
Okay here's a quick draft of what I'm thinking. It's super basic but I think it could be fun.
http://pastebin.com/gJpWkM2k
Note that I'm stealing the idea of Identities direct from Unknown Armies 3rd Edition
>>47691964
Neat. Not familiar with Unknown Armies but the background system reminds me of how aspect work with Fate.
>>47692450
Yeah I really like how stuff like that works, and I got excited when I thought about it in the context of SMT, since those games frequently revolve around normal people thrust into the nightmare of the apocalypse and having to cope. Identities work best when they're things that the player can actually relate to, like Police Officer or College Student or Reporter. More esoteric stuff is harder to grok, really.
>>47692885
Would something like that work for adding specific characteristics/bonuses for demon races, like what the DeSu series did with racial skills? That might encourage a high-level player from using all Fiends/Tyrants/Deities/Dragons or something from higher-tier races.
>>47693245
That's exactly how it works. Every Demon has a Race stat which lists the various abilities of that Race. Some of them are combat oriented, others are non-combat. So all Dragons can fly and have some kind of breath attack and some other useful skills, but outside of that each Demon has a (semi) unique set of Skills. So a low level Dragon might have 30% in their Dragon skills, while a high level Dragon might have 80%. They can both do the same stuff, but the high-level one is better at it.
Here's my idea for how attack and defense works.
To attack, you roll under your attacking Stat (Strength for Melee, Perception for Firearms, Int or Wisdom for Magic). On a successful hit you take the damage rating of your weapon or spell and add the 1s digit from your roll to get your Base Attack.
>You get a successful Hit on a roll of 36. Your weapon has a base damage of 8. To that you add 6 from your roll, for a Base Attack of 14.
If you're making a melee attack, add your character's Power to your Base Attack.
If you're making a magic attack, you can add or subtract a certain amount of damage based on whether your target is Weak or Resistant to the element of your spell.
This final amount is your Attack Power, and it gets subtracted from your target's Hit Points.
During their turn, a character can also choose to take a defensive action, like trying to evade an attack with Agility. When they do this, their roll acts as a floor for their enemy's attack-- so in order to suceed, they need to roll under their attacking stat and over their target's defense.
>Example: I roll evade on my turn and get a 40. My enemy's attacking stat has a rank of 65, so to hit me he needs to roll between 40 and 65.
If your defensive roll is greater than your enemy's offensive stat, then their attack fails completely.
>So if I evade and roll a 60 and my enemy's best attack stat is only a 55, I'm completely protected from their attack.
The trade-off, naturally, is that you can only do one thing per turn, so if you evade you're preventing yourself from attacking as well.
Currently at work but i'm planning on a system for COMP's and demon summoning. Will post it later tonight.
>>47695359
Is this for GURPS?
>>47695488
I will be working from that. Never run a smt style game but I can at least work out equipment to get something started.
>>47696082
Fair enough.
My main concern is that combat with a full party of summoners each with their own bench of demons is going to take forever. You're going to need to severely streamline things so as not to have to adjudicate 15 actions per turn.
(hence why in my d% idea they're just extensions of the character)
>>47696111
I'm thinking of reducing the number of summons based on party size and composition.
>>47696111
Could just make it so that each person can only summon one demon at any given time.
>>47696764
Leaning towards 1-3 and controlling that by having STEVEN download new software as the campaign progresses. GURPS combat is pretty fast.
>>47695359
Still hoping for COMPanon to return
>>47701227
Right so COMP's are going to be using some bastardized rules and functions from GURPS Cyberpunk in order to make them more than just a way to cart demons around. Someone upstream mentioned giving demons more ways to interact with the world and I thought the same should apply to the COMP. You use it in various games to connect to terminals and VR environments and it can teleport you around. So logically there should be some hacking for those people who want to give their characters a tech background.
COMP's will be this games Cyberdecks. They have a few main factors (Complexity, Speed Index, and Slots).
First is complexity, this dictates how many programs can be run simultatneously on a COMP At complexity 2 your COMP will be able to run up to two complexity 2 programs or one complexity 2 and 5 complexity 1. There's some math to how that works but basically at any complexity level you can run 2 of the same level or 10 of the next level down. But for this we'll keep them fixed at complexity 2-3 because any higher and we are creating AI like the one used in SMT IV.
Since programs also have a complexity we'll just default the Demon Summoning Program to Complexity 2 and it will be a fixed slot on most COMPS. I will also say that the Demon Summoning Program includes a single storage spot for a demon to be kept digitally. Obtaining the Demon Storage Program will add two more storage slots to a COMP but runs at complexity 2 so a normal COMP with both programs will allow 3 demons to be stored or summoned but no more.
For now I'm going to treat Speed Index as initiative for a COMP only when used for hacking attempts where the system has defenses. I'll put more later.
Slots represent ROM slots where cartridges that may have programs preloaded onto them. I figure I'll use them for Complexity 1 programs that will function similar to the sub-apps from SMT Strange Journey. Minor combat bonuses or hacking bonuses. Nothing serious.
(1/2)
>>47702710
The basic idea is to have players who opt to use a COMP choose between having a larger number of followers, A single demon and other utilities, or strictly utilities at the cost of being able to summon demons. (We can make the language parsing function of the Demon Summoning Program a complexity 1 program that doesn't allow for summoning)
Another thing to note is that the enigmatic STEVEN can show up to give players ROMs for their slots or increase the number of demon slots on the DSP if the party needs it.
The tl;dr of the COMP is how many programs the user can run, now fast they run, and what room for expansion exists.
As for why I would be ok with allowing up to 3 demons to be stored. I'm not sure if having all three out would bog down combat too much, I've never really run a game where players played a beast master class. But at the very least having up to three to summon even if only one can be out give the COMP user options for how they want to prepare for situations.
This honestly needs more thinking through though.
>>47702843
I really like this so far. The customizable COMP set up allows for more varied player archetypes.
