What do you want to see in OVA Fantasy/Mecha?

[Shatterclaw]

Its thinking like that that has cursed my games ( mostly from the players) with the Dread Weresheep...

There is some thing to be said for the "Stackable" template. Ae, Okay we have a vampire template, and a gnome template. You now have a Vampire Gnome. Of course this could also be abused horrible.
As one palyer was so found of making the "Vampire + Were ( critter of the month.) +anit paladin + Mermaid." Of course this is just a sad exampel, and one that never made it past the shaking of head and rejection stage.

A few thoughts on each ot these:

Mecha: Most of the really interesting things in a lot of tyhe best mecha series happen well outside the cockpit. Three words: Martian Successor Nadesico (not as a sourcebook, but as a sort of style inspiration and an example, through satire, of the lot of things people expect from mecha campaigns).

Also, a lot of times the PCs mecha are as much plot devices as weapons. The rebel pilots in Gundam Wing were able to cut through hundreds of powerful enemy "mobile suits" like hot knives through butter -- until they came to the worthy foe who was their equal, if not more. Indeed that series illustrates one odf the classic tropes of mecha anime: that heroes frequently find themselves wondering if what they are doing is right, or morally acceptable, or whether the result they bseek is worth the price they and those around them wil;l have to pay.

On Fantasy:

ComboBeasts can be fun if not overdone. as can unexpected forms of lycanthropy ("even a man who si pure in heart, and says his prayers at night, can become a cow when the Cowsbane blooms and the full moon shines bright." or "QUACK! QUACK!" "Wereduck!" "Wereduck?" "There." "What?" "THERE duck. There castle.")

By the way, I get the points. ("Hey, Wise Mr. Owlbear! How many licks does it take to get to the chewey elven center of a Varsuuvius Pop?" "One.")

[Clay]

I wouldn't mind seeing at lest two takes on each Class/monster

Ae, typical depiction of a Dwarf, and a alteritive look at a Dwarf.

Unless I make some about-face design decision along the way, all races/monsters/etc. only have SUGGESTED statistics. There are no flat bonuses or packages or anything of that sort. If you wanna follow the status quo, go for it. But you don't need to fight against a package of predetermined stats to create the character you want.

This also helps prevent infamous were-vampire-elves and whatnot. You don't automatically get a bunch of bonuses for tacking on a few adjectives.

[ComicJam]

Unless I make some about-face design decision along the way, all races/monsters/etc. only have SUGGESTED statistics. There are no flat bonuses or packages or anything of that sort. If you wanna follow the status quo, go for it. But you don't need to fight against a package of predetermined stats to create the character you want.

I'd use them! I think they'd be perfect for "extas/henchmen/mooks" etc. to throw at the party without too much preparation or if you need something instant.

Cheers!

[Clay]

As I said, the average stats are there for you to use as you please. They're just not forced upon you in any way as new "defaults" for characters.

[The Fifth Wanderer]

What I'd most like to see is OVA mecha 'in print.'

[bushido11]

For OVA Fantasy, I'd like to see more Power Perks and Flaws, like Sleep or Heart Attack, for example. That, and how to emulate many popular (and some obscure) effects using Abilities and Weaknesses, similar to what is found in GURPS Powers (they should ditch their skill-based magic system and utilize Advantages to emulate them by default just like they did with psionics, IMO).

[Dreamstryder]

OVA Fantasy deals solely with the Western inspired medieval worlds so popular in anime. Samurai, ninja, and all matters of Eastern spirits and mythology will be handled in a seperate book sometime later (Along with such "genres" as shoujo and shounen)

I keep wondering if it should be called "Tombs, Treasure, & Trolls", "Dreadnaughts & Damsels", or some more expressly Western thing... ("Blades, Booze, & Bandits"?) [Wizard of Oz references intentionally omitted] Nevermind, "Castles & Kniggits" is my best idea....

Some suggestions on making prices for currency or barter (not asking for anything overly technical; I love that OVA isn't overly detailed a system)...I second the additional perks &/or flaws, which I suppose will be connected with the premade spells or made unneeded by them. A rare petpeeve of mine is when monsters are mislabelled (example: a scaley bull with poisonous breath & deadly gaze is a catoblepas, not a gorgon as D&D would have you believe!); it just shows for bestiarians to do some homework. (<-coming from a Castlevania fan)
[PS: Monsters, Maidens, and Magic! HA!]

[Siroh]

How big is OVA Fantasy going to be Clay? I ask because I have always liked the GURPS, and BESM sourcebook aspect where they explain the tropes of the genre, such that you might get both how fantasy animes have traditional western or eastern elements and then some have nothing of the sort and forge their own flavor. Sort of the contrast between Slayers and Twelve Kingdoms or Utawarerumono. If a particular trope, godlike spellcasters (Slayers, Lodoss War), or Super Warriors (Fushigi Yugi, Twelve Kingdoms), needs special treatment, please give it a write-up. Other than that, just lists of typical stuff with pictures or short descriptions would be great. You can make the long list of Arcane spells but for my money, the examination of the different types of common magic users and their power tendencies is more useful. Oh and don't forget the Modern Kids thrown into a medieval world aspect. I'm sure GMs would be happy to have guidelines for what to do about modern hobby skills that are suddenly much less useful in the grimm or whimsical fantasy world.

[Dreamstryder]

I've watched so much anime that explanations of archetypes waste space for me, but I do think a few example NPCs, as in the OVA book, which show off the new facets of OVA Fantasy and can touch on those different tropes or whatever could be useful. *shrug*

[Siroh]

I've watched so much anime that explanations of archetypes waste space for me, but I do think a few example NPCs, as in the OVA book, which show off the new facets of OVA Fantasy and can touch on those different tropes or whatever could be useful. *shrug*

Well obviously my desires are only there if there is enough space. Still, the parts of Hot Rods & Gun Bunnies that was useful for me wasn't the vehicle and gun customization system, it was the pure genre information and how best to simulate that in BESM. That book is still useful for OVA for the same reason. And honestly that is a small genre, fantasy anime make up what I would consider roughly 2/5th of all the anime and manga I've heard of let alone seen, and they are wildly divergent. I just don't want to see the book end up "go get your D&D phb and go watch an anime series, then come back and pick and choose the appropriate gear from this list here." So whether that is information about archetypes or just sample characters and a handful of adventure ideas along with whatever crunch there is I'll be happy, but I would love to see it touched upon at least.

[Dreamstryder]

How to handle all those different tropes and what-not it in the game you're running is great info! I mean, the "angry female strike" rule in OVA & what you said about how modern hobbies apply to a total change of setting, or ideas of how laws of reality can change like in The Twelve Kingdoms: great!

What I was trying to say (& didn't do very well ) was that I didn't want a lot of space given to just identifying "cookie cutters" of the genre that are superficial or would be very straightforward to implement, like "all powerful mages can cast fireball" or "often the girl/boy who falls into another world will have a weakness (ie being a clutz or a glutton), and that will either help in unexpected ways or they will have to overcome it" WHILE ideas on how the odd character trait that the GM may otherwise have no idea how to apply to the genre can become useful to the story by being an asset or weakness or something else (like you said), or ideas on different ways to mesh cultures in your world (which could as examples briefly mention ways it was done before) would be interesting and useful.

Less "easy-to-do cliches defined" [hero wields a sword, has spikey hair, casts lightning] and more "different ways to handle hard/tricky-to-do-well tropes & tricks of the genre" (examples of which may include mention of the easier-to-implement archetypes [a water element companion could be Undine or Nymph], more typical handling of a trope [character personality type determines spell system or element] or even rarer handling of the same trope [some event in character's past memories determine spell element])" so that readers have more ideas that could lead to pre-established ways of handling the genre but could also lead to places notably different.

I hope that makes more sense. PS: so if there were NPCs, their abilities could clarify how you could apply some cool features of OVA Fantasy in normally-unthought-of ways (and while they're at that, naturally touch on a few tropes of the genre like the fireball spell or a method of how bikini armor can actually work (does it at all?)), but it wouldn't be just a cliche from the genre with no ingenuity.

[Siroh]

Then it seems we are on the same page. So... Clay, got any updates or opinions for us?

[Clay]

A rare petpeeve of mine is when monsters are mislabelled (example: a scaley bull with poisonous breath & deadly gaze is a catoblepas, not a gorgon as D&D would have you believe!); it just shows for bestiarians to do some homework.

I haven't decided what I will do with the monster list yet. Though there will be plenty of original baddies, I'm really uncertain whether to revive standbys like orcs and the fire-breathing bulls. On one hand, you can get this sort of thing in 50 other books, probably done better than I can do. On the other, there isn't yet one of these 50 books for OVA...

I think I will go for something in the middle...create baddies inspired by common mythical favorites, but with a twist. As such, you may see gorgons that are not quite the gorgons you know. ^^ After all, the goblin hasn't resembled its actual origin in fairy tales for a very long time...

How big is OVA Fantasy going to be Clay?

Original estimates were 96 pages, but I think I'm going to bump it up to be on par with the original book at 128. Either way, there will be a substantial introduction discussing all the anime archetypes that are important to the genre, as well as how this genre ties into other genres. Most of the material will be the two sample settings including in each book that try to cover the most popular archetypes.

I'm going to try to cover as many bases as I can in the space, without looking like I'm trying to cover all the bases. One setting is more over-the-top fantasy with airships and tons of races and magical creatures and zaniness, while the other is a dark, heavily political, fantasy of warring nations. I think there's room in both for most of what is popular.

Magic itself, as you mentioned it, will have several systems, none of which follow the D&D formula we're used to. Not exactly anyway. One of the main systems involve specifically assigning an element to your character, so perhaps that will be following the tact you wanted, Dreamstryder? ^_^

[DairuggerXV]

I'm really big into mecha (if my chosen name doesn't suggest that already), so I do have a wish list of things I'd like to see in such a book. However, if the Mecha book follows the same style as the main OVA book, then over half of it would be fulfilled anyway. So I won't bother listing them. There are couple of ideas/comments that I feel should be brought up.

1. You might want to bring up the differences between what are sometimes called Super Robots (things like Golion, Mazinger, Getter Robo, Giant Robo, or more recently Big O) vs. real robots (Gundam prior to G Gundam and to a limited extent afterwards, Nadesico, Brainpowrd, etc.). I'm not suggesting game mechanics, there's not really a point to that. I thinking more along the lines of how a super robot should be treated almost as a character himself, and should not go down to the random guy with a gun, unless said gun or the random guy's skill was mythic in proportion. On the other hand, real robots (which would probably ending up more playable in settings with mixed kinds of characters) are going to be treated more like a futuristic tank/fighter jet and someone with the right know-how and/or equipment could take one down. I probably just said a lot more than I needed to.

2. Try not to get too mechanical/technical with mecha. I have Mekton Z and Battletech already. All I really want are some solid mecha rules for easy, quick and fun cinematic play.

[Clay]

Hey Dairugger! Sorry it took me a while to get to this.

1) Because mecha are treated as characters, what capacity they have in any campaign or story can be clearly delineated by its statistics. I know you weren't implying rules, but just the same, a giant robot with a plethora of high-ranked stats makes it very clear this is something not to be messed with.

The main difference, really, is the prevalence of the robots themselves. In Gundam, almost every character has access to a giant robot. On the other hand, Big O and Giant Robo (and heck, let's throw in the Iron Giant for some Western flair) become exceptions rather than rules. This is in much the same way that in one campaign super-heroes are a dime a dozen and in others they are extraordinary. It's not so much that one kind of robot would necessarily beat the other robot...does anyone really know who would win between Big O and a Gundam? Heck, maybe the Gundam would win, despite being an "ordinary" robot. The difference is how accessible the firepower to defeat it is, less than the power of the robot itself.

Or so my take goes.

2) Don't worry. Some people are being thrown off by the fact I am including tactical rules. They are very simple, and flavored like Final Fantasy Tactics and Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars, as opposed to OVA's western contemporaries Battletech and Heavy Gear.

OVA mecha is very rules light, as OVA was, and the tactical component is completely optional. If you choose not to use the tactical board game, as most people probably won't, the game will be the exact same game, with a handful of new mecha-themed Abilities and Weaknesses.

Hope that alleviates some of your concerns!