Anime iconics

[Gentry]

I've got a question to throw to the boards here, as all things being equal this is the biggest bunch of freaks I know, where someone knows something about everything. 

Two facts up front:

1. Wichita, KS has its big annual anime fest coming up, and I'm flirting with the idea of doing a demo or two of FC at the con.

2. Last time I ran demos in Wichita I wound up with a six-man table for whom the term "rpg" meant "xbox"--it was surreal, and made me feel really friggin' old. The table had fun, but struggled with some very basic fundamentals about how pnp gaming worked.

With that in mind, I thought I'd create six fresh new iconic characters that blatantly rip off some anime standbys. My thought is that by skinning FC's mechanics with anime tropes that the attendees of this particular con thoroughly grok, I can maximize the potential for fun on everybody's part.

So here's the six I'm contemplating (at 3rd level) :

Soldier: A Cloud-style character--somebody Twilight hawt and hefting a helicopter-blade sword. Greatsword feat chain is a must.

Mage: Yu-gi-Oh-style guy dealing cards to summon creatures and effects (if I get really ambitious, I may rename the spells with something appropriately CCGish, and *might* even actually create his "play deck", just to see if I can pull off a cool tactile prop like that)

Burglar (maybe Assassin): The schoolgirl ninja (sans tentacle rape), with some snazzy knife feats, for both stabbing and throwing

Priest: A Sailor Scout-style magical girl/creepy child?

Martial Artist: A waterbender-style character, flavoring martial arts and tricks with a water theme, and laying the Blessed feat on top with path of Water. This character is essentially already done.

Scout: A Link-style character? A Princess Mononoke character?

As you can see, not all of my ideas are fully formed, and some might not even be good ideas. So I open the concept to y'all. How should I tweak/use FC to suit the tropes associated with the characters above?

Caveat One: My own anime knowledge is spotty (I've never played a Zelda game, for instance, and my knowledge of Final Fantasy comes exclusively from the Advent Children movie). So if you're going to point me to some property or other, please provide a youtube reference. 

Caveat Two: I'm not going to actually name these characters "Cloud" or "Link". The potential for fan rage and pointless fun-killing arguments over who can do what how is too great. The trick here is recognizable rather than obvious ("Sweet! I can waterbend kinda like Katara" as opposed to "Rad! I get to be Katara!"). I'm more interested in the forum's thoughts on how I'm using these archetypes, and your suggestions for expanding the concepts.

If you want to help build these characters, great! I fully intend to put them here on the forums for download once they're done. 

Your thoughts?

[Mister Andersen]

Mandatory Campaign Qualities
Beefy Heroes
Bold Heroes
Dominant Heroes
Fast Attributes
Fast Proficiencies
Luck Abounds
Wire Fu

[Gentry]

While I agree in principle, this is a demo.   Let's try and stick as close to core as we can.

This brings up a side topic, however, and that's "what sort of adventure should this demo encompass?" I was thinking of using Cleansing of Black Spur, as it's a straightforward entrance (wounded scholar asks for help), with interesting combat and a nicely badass boss fight. However, I've also entertained the notion of using just scene 1 from The Darkest Hour, and putting one or more of the special NPCs from the end into the scene 1 action as the leader of the attackers.

Thoughts?   

[Mister Andersen]

You're trying to tap the OTT anime market here, you need to skew it towards their interests then gradually ween them onto something a bit more... sedate. Dominant Heroes and Luck Abound particularly both allow the players to spend their AD on cool Narrative Control (pg 366) options and amusing critical injuries, as well as a number of proficiencies getting a boost.

[Psion]

With that in mind, I thought I'd create six fresh new iconic characters that blatantly rip off some anime standbys. My thought is that by skinning FC's mechanics with anime tropes that the attendees of this particular con thoroughly grok, I can maximize the potential for fun on everybody's part.

So here's the six I'm contemplating (at 3rd level) :

Soldier: A Cloud-style character--somebody Twilight hawt and hefting a helicopter-blade sword. Greatsword feat chain is a must.

That sounds straightforward enough. Perhaps tap into Gourry from Slayers.

Mage: Yu-gi-Oh-style guy dealing cards to summon creatures and effects (if I get really ambitious, I may rename the spells with something appropriately CCGish, and *might* even actually create his "play deck", just to see if I can pull off a cool tactile prop like that)

Personally not a fan of tapping into Yu-gi-Oh, though it would demonstrate how you could re-skin stuff. Samples from more traditional fantasy style anime would be Lina Inverse from Slayers (mainly a blaster/summoner mage, though you might have a little trouble doing that at 3rd level) or Slaynn from Record of Lodoss War (defensive/utility knowledge mage).

Lots of magic using figures in anime have staves; consider one if you go the traditional fantasy route. See my thoughts (and link) under priest below.

Burglar (maybe Assassin): The schoolgirl ninja (sans tentacle rape), with some snazzy knife feats, for both stabbing and throwing

Somehow, I think the social assassin is going to be lost on the typical rpg-newbie-from fantasy, definitely stick with burglar.

As for anime and console game archetypes, Shadow from final fantasy 6 is your pretty blatant ninja (or "Clint Eastwood in Ninja clothes) with an animal companion, or the larcenous Yuffie from FF7. I think Yuffie would make a better archetype, fun to play and fits the burglar class well. Perhaps outfit her with some exotic throwing weapon and the hurled basics feat.

Priest: A Sailor Scout-style magical girl/creepy child?

Not sure what I would do with priest, except perhaps make your airbender character a priest. Going back to FF7, you could use Aerys as a model (who TV tropes tells me is a pretty typical model of a Staff Chick, but looking at the Staff Chick page tells me mage might fit better.

Martial Artist: A waterbender-style character, flavoring martial arts and tricks with a water theme, and laying the Blessed feat on top with path of Water. This character is essentially already done.

Sounds like you know where you are going here, but if you go with the idea of pulling the airbender idea into a priest, you could use Tifa as a model here.

Scout: A Link-style character? A Princess Mononoke character?

Link's more like traditional, but I personally find the idea of a Mononoke style scout more compelling.

Caveat One: My own anime knowledge is spotty (I've never played a Zelda game, for instance, and my knowledge of Final Fantasy comes exclusively from the Advent Children movie). So if you're going to point me to some property or other, please provide a youtube reference.  

Ahhh. So my Tifa reference is probably a good one (her fight scene is the ONLY reason I picked up Advent Children on Blu-Ray), but you probably don't have much good info on Yuffie as a burglar model. And Aerys was dead by AC.

Put shortly, Yuffie went to a ninja school (an idea that shows up in other anime like Naruto, so I'd definitely stick that in the background) but really is a burglar. She is a precocious teenager type, and her schtick was a funky four-pointed star type weapon. She joined Cloud's group initially to steal their magic.

Caveat Two: I'm not going to actually name these characters "Cloud" or "Link".

Good call.

[Aziraphale]

Priest: A Sailor Scout-style magical girl/creepy child?

Not sure what I would do with priest, except perhaps make your airbender character a priest. Going back to FF7, you could use Aerys as a model (who TV tropes tells me is a pretty typical model of a Staff Chick, but looking at the Staff Chick page tells me mage might fit better.

Martial Artist: A waterbender-style character, flavoring martial arts and tricks with a water theme, and laying the Blessed feat on top with path of Water. This character is essentially already done.

Sounds like you know where you are going here, but if you go with the idea of pulling the airbender idea into a priest, you could use Tifa as a model here.

Good call.

I've tried both methods for making a elemental bender type. I found that I preferred the martial artist combined with elemental heritage option.

A lot of what they do combat wise is covered by class abilities like improved reach, combat tricks such as parry and cut arrow and feats. After that it's just down to description. If you go down that route I'd suggest renaming some of the tricks and feats into something recognisable to anime fans, especially if these players are new to pnp RPGs, so that they can recognise what the abilities let them do.

Cross classing with priest or taking force of nature allows you to pick up the paths and area attacks, if you want to expand their abilities in that way.

Other things like water-bending healing can be covered by the medicine skill and the bandage feat.

Out of curiosity what level are you aiming to make them?

Edit: I don't have the book on me, but i seem to remember that i ended up using Elemental heritage Ice over Water as it meant that water and fire benders were very handy against each other.

[Gentry]

Level 3. That way they've got the capacity to have a Supremacy feat if it fits, but aren't drowning in options.

[Dhampire]

My thoughts on the overview:

There's a lot, and I may not be taking into account all opinions stated thus far.

Soldier: A Cloud-style character--somebody Twilight hawt and hefting a helicopter-blade sword. Greatsword feat chain is a must.

I would definitely use this for an Anime con.  It should also satisfy those who like Gutsu / Gatts from Berserk.

The only ones who might be disappointing are the ones wanting a Soul Reaper from Bleach.

Mage: Yu-gi-Oh-style guy dealing cards to summon creatures and effects (if I get really ambitious, I may rename the spells with something appropriately CCGish, and *might* even actually create his "play deck", just to see if I can pull off a cool tactile prop like that)

The only issue with summons I have is that they tend to be 1-hit & gone, when they're a full-round to cast.  A high Health/Con grade and/or a couple levels of tough in a custom summon would go well towards this.

Spell Conversion: Casting Time (Quick Casting) &  Double Cast is also another way to bring out the summons quick.

Coincidentally, this also would work for Charmcaster from Ben10.

I'm against a full blaster, because our Mages do so much else.  Also, Lodoss originally pulled from D&D, so I'd rather not have it be a D&D trope we're showing.

Burglar (maybe Assassin): The schoolgirl ninja (sans tentacle rape), with some snazzy knife feats, for both stabbing and throwing

I would give a "ninja" Burglar tops, over a social-Assassin.

Priest: A Sailor Scout-style magical girl/creepy child?

I don't know about this one.

A Soul Reaper from Bleach.... or any other of the spirit tamer types may work.

Martial Artist: A waterbender-style character, flavoring martial arts and tricks with a water theme, and laying the Blessed feat on top with path of Water. This character is essentially already done.

I like everything that's been said.  Elemental Heritage, Martial Artist, Path of Water, Bandage feat

Scout: A Link-style character? A Princess Mononoke character?

I would go with Mononoke-style.  In a heartbeat.  With a Large wolf (with telepathy to everyone).

[Krensky]

For what it's worth, Roger Conrad from dice's PBP here was based on anime characters (Louie and Orphen to be precise).

http://www.crafty-games.com/forum/index.php?topic=3418.msg56825#msg56825

[ComicJam]

Wow, anime! Right up my street!

Maybe you could look into the Final Fantasy console game series, and the "Jobs" that characters could have, stealing adapting some of the most common ones?

As for story, have a look at the Persona game series (school kid by day, fantasy hero by night), or even something like Mai Hime or X (very good series!) where the heroes battle it out with swords and sorcery in a modern setting.

Cheers!

[Doublebond]

The only ones who might be disappointing are the ones wanting a Soul Reaper from Bleach.

I find this ironic.

[RusVal]

Well, I still don't have FantasyCraft, so I can't help you rules wise, but I do have some knowledge on the subject of Anime.

For one thing, hulu has a goodly collection of series available for free, including some classics like Slayers and Trigun.  There is also a series called Last Exile, which is a good inspiration of an "Industrial fantasy" setting, even though it is technically Dieselpunk.  Two other series I highly recommend are Mahou Sensei Negima (TV Tropes has some good links to manga translations) and InuYasa, the first particularly when the group travels to the magical world, and the second just in general.

As for the pre set characters, some thoughts:
- Technically, any of your characters could be a schoolgirl/boy, since the "trapped in another world" is, from what I have seen, even more common in anime than other media.

- Must have at least one catgirl.  No exceptions.

- Anime is less strict with the "fantasy gun control", as long as the number of gun wielders is still limited.  So yes, one of your characters is allowed a gun.

- If you have a male player cross-playing as a female character, and a second PC who is true female, it is in fact legal for the male player to use his female character to flirt with the female's female character.  Additionally, don't be surprised if you have two female cross-players with flirting characters.

And, that's all I can think about for the moment.  Good luck!

[mathey]

This sounds like real good idea. And I've also experienced that Oldest Person At the Game Table thing at the new game store; its always bracing to discover everybody else in your group looks on Pokemon as a beloved piece of childhood nostalgia.

The chief watchword of anime, to my mind, is Style. Everything must be stylish and stylized, even if it may be otherwise insignificant.

Another thing that could be fun to play with is drawing parallels to the conventions of console JRPGs; little kawaii animal buddies, raptor-chocos, airships, elaborate summoning cutscenes, and Children of Destiny saving the world while also wrestling with adolescent angst.

I'll see if I can give more specific ways to spin this with pregens or an adventure later.

[Dhampire]

Another thing that could be fun to play with is drawing parallels to the conventions of console JRPGs; ... raptor-chocos, airships

I would have Raptors for them to ride, in the style of Chocobos.

The only ones who might be disappointing are the ones wanting a Soul Reaper from Bleach.

I find this ironic.

Oh yeah... I had not remembered that.  Still, it's an expert class, and the level being looked at for the pregens is 3.

[ComicJam]

Here's a story idea being as stereotypical as possible.

Our story begins in a small village where the main characters (usually orphans) get kicked out because of something they unintentionally did (or even because there is something wrong/backward/strange about them). Meanwhile, (one of) the world/zodiac/earth/elemental crystal(s) cracks and/or shatters. The keeper/old man of the crystals hunts for the characters as "Only they can save the world" due to the special lineage (perhaps linked to why they were kicked out?). The remains of the story involves visiting other towns, dealing problems from the past and collecting crystal power.

I know this is more of a campaign, but maybe a story idea could involve an event in the story. If done well, it could make the players ask for more.

Cheers!