Dynamic D100

[RosenMcStern]

Strangely enough, the French dubbers renamed even Duke Fleed's sister, who is called Grace Maria in the Japanese version.

Anyway, fans of the female protagonists may have some pleasant surprise coming. There will be expanded roles available for them.

[Mugen]

20 hours ago, RosenMcStern said:

Strangely enough, the French dubbers renamed even Duke Fleed's sister, who is called Grace Maria in the Japanese version.

Anyway, fans of the female protagonists may have some pleasant surprise coming. There will be expanded roles available for them.

And she even has a distinct "M" (for Maria Grace) on the helmet and collar of her pilot suit.

Thinking about it, I think the only name that was directly taken from the original work was "Ranch du Bouleau Blanc", a straight translation of Shirakaba ranch.

Edit : They even changed Mazinger Z's "Boss"'s name into Bélier in the 2 episodes he appears... 🤔

Edited January 22, 2020 by Mugen

[Mazinman]

Thank you so much for this! I love all of the Go Nagai robots as my childhood friends. This is instantly the RPG I am most looking forward to this year. 

Seems kind of weird to have to click "I'm not a robot" on the verification considering this topic. :)

[Mazinman]

I was wondering if other robots than the ones listed be made available either in the main book or perhaps in future publications? I am thinking of the likes of Aphrodite A, Diana A, Boss Borot, and the original Getter Robo. If not, will there be a mechanism in the game for us to make them?

[RosenMcStern]

Borot will be there, but not as a player character mecha. 

Aphrodite and Diana are easy to handcraft from Venus, but they are rather weak robots and using them would put female heroes at a severe disadvantage. Note that in both Mazinkaiser and Shin Mazinger Zero Sayaka uses Venus, not Diana. A powered up version of Venus will be available, it will be easy for the players to devise a similarly powered-up version of Diana if they wish. It boils down to what lady they want to roleplay.

The original Getter is not planned, either.  We did not purchase the rights.

Rules for personalisation will be present if there is enough room. But I suspect most players would prefer two extra pages of pre-made kaiju rather than an explanation of how to tinker with the existing stuff. Serial tinkerers usually know how to tinker without assistance.

[Mazinman]

I honestly don't think that Diana A is that bad of a robot. They just wrote her inconsistently in the TV show. Sometimes her Scarlet Beam did no damage at all and other times it did good damage. In Shin Mazinger Zero I preferred Artemis A although Sayaka's costume in that was just ridiculous. While on the subject of female robots, will there be rules for Minerva X? 

Speaking of Kikaiju, do you know how many the rules will come with? I assume the there will be a selection from each series. Any chance one of them will be my absolute favorite Jenova M9 from Mazinger Z?

Thank you so much for answering my questions!

[RosenMcStern]

3 hours ago, Mazinman said:

I honestly don't think that Diana A is that bad of a robot. They just wrote her inconsistently in the TV show. Sometimes her Scarlet Beam did no damage at all and other times it did good damage. In Shin Mazinger Zero I preferred Artemis A although Sayaka's costume in that was just ridiculous. While on the subject of female robots, will there be rules for Minerva X? 

Diana has no flight capability, and this is a huge disadvantage. She is always carried by Venus in the multi-robot shows that we used as a basis for developing the game, and this makes her instrinsically dependant on others to be effective. Not that heroic.

No plans for Minerva atm. 

3 hours ago, Mazinman said:

Speaking of Kikaiju, do you know how many the rules will come with? I assume the there will be a selection from each series. Any chance one of them will be my absolute favorite Jenova M9 from Mazinger Z?

There will be as many as we can fit in the page count. Some are already statted, others we are statting.

One reward level of the crowdfunding will be "Write a *ju and we will include it in the book".

[Mazinman]

You have to wonder why they did not just make a Scrander for Diana like Venus got. I don't think there is any reason why Diana could not use a Scrander like Venus, especially after her power boost in Great Mazinger. Will have to fix that when I run a game. That means I would already be nicer to poor Sayaka than her dad ever was! 

Alright. I suppose it would not be too hard to create a Minerva from Mazinger. 

That sounds like a fun reward! I will have to be on the look out for it! Can't wait to see it active. 

[RosenMcStern]

18 hours ago, Mazinman said:

You have to wonder why they did not just make a Scrander for Diana like Venus got. I don't think there is any reason why Diana could not use a Scrander like Venus, especially after her power boost in Great Mazinger. Will have to fix that when I run a game.

Or even better, let the players fix that. The craft rules of Revolution D100 are very flexible and easy to use and there will be a section about improving one's robot. Here Koji and Sayaka are at an advantage as they have a scientific background that other pilots lack.

[Mazinman]

Nice! Looking forward to reading that part.

Now for a non-Mazinger question (gasp!). How do you handle Getter Robo G? Would one player roleplay Ryoma, Hayato, and Benkei or would three players share the robot?

Almost March!

[RosenMcStern]

Both options are possible. The rules cover "support vehicles" that the associated pilot can control for one round by paying one Karma, otherwise the GM controls them. Borot is treated as a support vehicle that anyone can control if necessary.

If you want to focus on one Getter pilot in particular, you can use the others as support cast not assigned to a player. Alternatively three players can share Getter Robo. The issue here is that only one of them can be involved in battle at a time.

And my favourite Getter Team is the one from the ending episode, not the official one. Expect some surprises.

[Mazinman]

Not surprised considering that Michiru's Lady Command is the only support ship in the image with all the robots. It was nice for her to finally pilot Liger after two series worth of episodes.

I have always found combiners tricky in roleplaying games precisely because only one gets to play at a time. As long as all three players are willing to share it should be ok and a good roleplaying experience (that is a good way to earn Karma) but all it takes is one greedy player to ruin things.

How about the pilots themselves? Will they be presented as humans (not counting cyborgs or aliens) or as the quasi-super human fighting machines they are occasionally shown as?

[RosenMcStern]

All pilots are larger than life in what they can achieve. This is obtained with Karma, as explained in the latest developer journal.

However, Duke, Grace Maria and Hiroshi are in fact superhumans. Their physical prowess is superior. This will show in their statistics (characteristics above 20) and they have powers, too, not just skills.

[Mazinman]

Both make a lot of sense. Really interested in what you do with the villains as well as they had some really crazy and original powers and abilities. Actually that got me thinking. Will the focus of the game be on what you do in the mech, what you do out of the mech, or finding a balance between the two? 

 

[RosenMcStern]

It depends on what the group wants to do. The game supports both mech-combat-heavy and character-interaction-heavy stories, thanks to our conflict system that can handle even a quarrel between Koji and Sayaka as a "battle".

In addition to this, building an involving story before the weekly robot combat generates Karma, which helps a lot in winning said combat.

[Mazinman]

Ok, sounds good. Considering the mecha on the cover image will you also be including rules for the legendary, final attack, the Final Dynamic Special? 

Also, and pardon my ignorance of D100, will combat work better with models? If so, is there any you recommend? I wish I could find a hex map big enough to use my Soul of Chogokin figures. 

We are in March. Is it too early to start "are we there yet" with the launch?

[RosenMcStern]

Three (valid) questions, three answers.

1. What final attack? I can think of no one. "Final" attacks are not a characteristic of Nagai's era of super robots, they came later. The rule will disincentivize them, and we have options to tune down Getter Shine to avoid putting too much stress on one specific robot.

2. Combat can be figure-less and we are trying hard to make it work without maps. But of course, if you have figures it is more spectacular.

3. Second half of March, that is the most I can say now. The English and French text for the campaign is done, I am waiting for the other languages (the Italian translator is late, I should rocket punch hi... ah no, wait...). So we are not far.

[Mazinman]

The Final Dynamic Special is from the Super Robot Wars series of games. It involves different combination of Go Nagai robots combining forces to combat evil. Here is an example with Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Grendizer, and Getter Robo G:

Thank you for the update! 

[RosenMcStern]

We will not use SRW as source. We do not have the rights to that. We will reference the original series, the manga (sometimes) and gaiden dynamic heroes.

What about a little teaser, now ?

It is just a prototype to show you how easy it is to define a mastermind-type bad guy, the final result will be nicer.

[Mugen]

On 2/29/2020 at 12:15 PM, RosenMcStern said:

If you want to focus on one Getter pilot in particular, you can use the others as support cast not assigned to a player. Alternatively three players can share Getter Robo. The issue here is that only one of them can be involved in battle at a time.

Unless you consider each pilot is responsible for one part of the robot.

Or you could use some kind of "Everyone is John"-type rules...

Edited March 9, 2020 by Mugen

[RosenMcStern]

4 hours ago, Mugen said:

Unless you consider each pilot is responsible for one part of the robot.

This is not what happens in the anime. Only when using the Shine Spark do "secondary" pilots act, otherwise they remain passive. And this is true in all series in which the robot comes from an assembly of several sub-units (ex. Voltron). Only the main unit pilot controls the "big guy".

There are several ideas that people have posted that make sense from a RPG point of view, but are not coherent with the original inspiration. We will try to remain as true as possible to the anime. Of course one can then change some parts of the rules and experiment.

[Mazinman]

Thank you for the Dr. Hell preview! I have two questions from it. 

1. I see that Dr. Hell has karma. How is karma used by the villains? Complete newbie question, I know. 
2. What is the thinking behind Dr. Hell's charisma? He was not exactly likable among the good guys but he did have a lot of importance and respect among the villains. Not meaning to start a stat debate, just curious. 

I think that one thing that could work for Getter Robo is that while the current pilot handles the robot the other two pilots basically expand the perception capability of the team. For example, Ryoma is busy fighting the enemy robot in Dragon so he does not notice that there is a civilian trapped in the roof of a nearby building who needs rescuing. Hayato or Benkei, who can afford to be a little distracted as they are not active, can have bonuses to spot that civilian and provide the knowledge to Ryoma. 

Ultimately, I think it all comes down to the GM. I will just have to make sure to provide the players with enemy mechas that have clear advantages over some of the forms and weaknesses to others. If I see that Poseidon is not getting a chance, for example, then I will just bring out a water based enemy. I can also provide them with opportunities to use the individual jet forms before combining.

 

[RosenMcStern]

9 hours ago, Mazinman said:

I see that Dr. Hell has karma. How is karma used by the villains? Complete newbie question, I know. 

When a villain is overseeing the battle, he or she can lend Karma to any of their kaiju. 

Quote

What is the thinking behind Dr. Hell's charisma? He was not exactly likable among the good guys but he did have a lot of importance and respect among the villains. Not meaning to start a stat debate, just curious. 

I would not define Hell as having an "inspiring personality". Only Ashura was really loyal to him. Charismatic villains could be Ankoku Daishogun or Queen Himika (stupidly killed mid-series, but always brought back in OAVs during the following decades). These were really loved by their underlings.

[Mazinman]

Well, I certainly would not say Dr. Hell is as charismatic as Ankoku Daishogun but he did have his moments. Stuff like:

He convinced Dr. Kabuto and the other members of the science team that investigated Bardos island that he was trust-worthy. With a last name like "Hell" even! LOL! 

He was able to convince Duke Gorgon to talk instead of fight when they first meant.

He convinced Mycenae that he would be a good agent to destroy Mazinger so much that they brought him back in Great Mazinger.

He had Ashura and Gorgon constantly competing for his approval.

This got me thinking, what stat would a leader who inspires through fear and not likability use? Will?

[RosenMcStern]

3 hours ago, Mazinman said:

This got me thinking, what stat would a leader who inspires through fear and not likability use? Will?

Guns? Bringing people back from death?