Thrash 2.0 Beta: GO!

I was originally planning to wait for my local friends to give me some feedback before putting the rough draft of Thrash up on the web, but I got impatient, as I’m sure plenty of you guys have. So:

Download Thrash 2.0 Beta (PDF)

A couple of things to keep in mind about this:

• This is the first draft, so the text is pretty raw and unedited. There WILL be typos and such.
• There’s a list of things I’m concerned about in the game’s design on the very last page.
• I’m trying out some neat indie-influenced stuff, but this is still Thrash, which is a fairly traditional game. My model for this approach is Truth & Justice.
• Although the general approach to the genre is the same as previous versions, the changes are massive, and it’s pretty much an entirely new game cast in a similar mold.

Edit: I should mention, I don’t mind getting feedback here, on the Thrash mailing list, by e-mail (ewen (swirly-a) neko-machi.com), or what have you. It’ll be neat to have the ML start picking up again though…

Also, while looking for Thrash stuff on Google I came across this. Good times.

Tokyo Kung Fu Catgirls

(This is what the subject headings usually look like on my LiveJournal).

The first rough draft of Thrash 2.0 is finished! Seriously! After I get some feedback from my local friends I’ll be posting it up.

In the meantime I wound up poking at some of the other things on my hard drive. I’d forgotten how neat Catgirl: The Storytelling Game (a semi-tongue-in-cheek parody of White Wolf-ness, but with lots of otaku memes thrown in) was looking. It’s going to be a ST-ish Fudge variant, and the point of it would mostly be just to do the setting for the fun of it.

I also wound up poking at Tokyo Heroes a little, finally. Again, with tremendously helpful feedback from Filip. Here’s what I’m working on so far:

• Sessions are divided into four distinct phases: Prologue, Investigation, Battle, and Epilogue
• The Investigation phase essentially involves clearing “gates” set out by the GM for the heroes to find and/or figure out how to beat the monster of the week. Gates can be cleared by using Keys, or just by being in the right place, or by succeeding at challenges. Gates can become improvised, they can be linked, they can branch, and they can provide special advantages against the bad guy.
• The switch to Keys being the basis of investigation stuff has made many of the attributes in the game irrelevant. Tentatively there’ll be three: Courage (melee attack/defense), Prowess (ranged attack/defense), and Kiai/Spirit (for finishers, and encouraging teammates). This neatly does away with having an overpowered Attack attribute.
• I’m pretty much getting rid of Stamina and Resistance. I still need to work out more of the specifics, but basically the heroes have a Blast Gauge that indicates how far the battle has escalated. For sentai heroes it starts at Basic Attacks, and moves up until it reaches Finishing Attacks. The Blast Gauge varies a little bit depending on the type of battle (the version for robots and magical girls doesn’t include a Basic Attack stage). Bad guys cause heroes to accumulate Pain, which can eventually cause them to be de-transformed or incapacitated if they get enough.
• Part of setting up the game is setting up a Budget progression, which determines how powerful the bad guys are and creates a long-term pacing mechanic for the heroes getting handed new robots/powers/etc. Gates are part of the GM’s budget for each episode/monster.