Game Thesis Interlude: Kamen Rider

Welcome to the 20 Sided Tardis, where our opinions are bigger on the inside. Dr.Cid here and while its time for another Game Thesis segment, I'm going to take a break in order to post my thoughts and design ideas for a Kamen Rider RPG. Sorry,but this is going to be a long post. Hopefully the smattering of images and videos will help.



First, a little background on Kamen Rider. What follows is BLANTANTLY jacked from TvTropes.org 's entry on Kamen Rider:

A franchise of tokusatsu series created by Shotaro Ishinomori (who also created Cyborg 009) and produced by the Toei Company. A sister show to Super Sentai. Typically has a smaller main cast than Sentai (the title of each series refers to a single main Rider instead of Super Sentai's Five Man Band), but not always. Some series feature huge numbers of Riders, with the most extreme example being Kamen Rider Ryuki and its 15 Riders (although Kamen Rider Hibiki has a lot more if you count all the Riders seen briefly, or even just briefly mentioned).

Often involves insect-themed armour (concept largely ditched for the Heisei Riders, in which only a minority is insect-themed). And motorcycles. Tragically short on Combining Mecha. (although Kamen Rider Faiz did feature some nice, if non-humongous, mecha, and Kamen Rider Den-O had train cars...)

More recently, the first 10 or so riders have been revived in a manga series: Kamen Rider SPIRITS. As Bad Ass as they originally were, they become even more so.

The Kamen Rider franchise is generally divided into two distinct "eras" by fans, using the Japanese names for the time period in which they were made. The Showa Era consists of:




* Kamen Rider (1971-1973)
* Kamen Rider V3 (1973-1974)
* Kamen Rider X (1974)
* Kamen Rider Amazon (1974-75)
* Kamen Rider Stronger (1975)
* Kamen Rider Skyrider (1979-80; AKA New Kamen Rider; originally called simply Kamen Rider, it was intended as a Continuity Reboot, but the idea was abandoned)
* Kamen Rider Super-1 (1980-1981)
* Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!! (1984 TV special; Starring Kamen Rider ZX)
* Kamen Rider Black (1987-1988)
* Kamen Rider Black RX (1988-1989)

In the 1990s, a trio of movies was made; though produced after the end of the Showa period (1989), American fans typically place them with the Showa series because of Ishinomori's involvement:

* Shin: Kamen Rider Prologue (1992 direct-to-video movie)
* Kamen Rider ZO (1993)
* Kamen Rider J (1994)

Every series created after the death of creator Shotaro Ishinomori is referred to as the Heisei Era:



* Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000-2001)
* Kamen Rider Agito (2001-2002)
* Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002-2003)
* Kamen Rider Faiz (555) (2003-2004)
* Kamen Rider Blade (2004-2005)
* Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005-2006)
* Kamen Rider Kabuto (2006-2007)
* Kamen Rider Den-O (2007-2008)
* Kamen Rider Kiva (2008-2009)
* Kamen Rider Decade (DCD) (2009)
* Kamen Rider Double (W) (2009-)

The first two series were retooled for a Darker And Edgier movie reboot franchise, currently consisting of two films: Kamen Rider The First (2005) and Kamen Rider The Next (2007). The first movie was an action-romance and was received relatively well. The second movie, which traded the romance for horror, was not so well received.

2009 also had Kamen Rider G, a TV special that was an Affectionate Parody of all things Kamen Rider, starring veterans from the show and members of the idol group SMAP. G also served as a teaser for Decade, with Tsukasa and the other nine Heisei Riders showing up to give G a pep talk during the final battle.

One series (Black RX) was brought over to the US, Power Rangers-style, as Masked Rider (1995-1996).





It tanked. Another series (Ryuki) has been similarly adapted as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (2009). While the new adaptation was much closer to the spirit of the original, it didn't fare much better in the ratings.

There's a PS2 game called Kamen Rider Climax Heroes, which is basically a fighting game featuring all of the Heisei-era Protagonists, and Kamen Rider Climax Heroes W, which is pretty much the same as the original Climax Heroes, except it features Double and it's on the Wii instead of the PS2. In the West, the Climax Heroes W engine was Remade For The Export as a Dragon Knight game.

There also exist an arcade game, Kamen Rider Ganbaride, that work by collecting cards and scanning them into the machine.


So, being the giant Tokusatsu fans and RPG nerds that we are, some friends are working on a Kamen Rider RPG, and now I'm adding my thoughts (since I know at least one of them follows this blog).

Do, first off, the game NEEDS to be point-buy. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoy the seemingly endless amounts of customization that Point-Buy systems provide (despite my favorite gaming system [Star Wars Saga Edition] not using it).

Secondly, since both the Rider and the Rider System (hereafter referred to as the character and the Henshin Driver) are two seperate entities that can easily be parted and the Henshin Driver can be used by anyone in some cases (see Kamen Rider Kiva video below), then they need to have seperate point pools and need to almost be built as two seperate characters.



Now, since examples are the easiest way to put forth some of this information, I'll do a theoretical build of Kamen Rider Gale (wind based powers). So, lets say that I've statted up Tobyashi Hiro already, so I only need to focus on Gale.

First thing I want to purchase is 3 alternate forms, knowing that I'll pick up the 4 form later in the campaign. Ideally these alternate forms can then be tweaked as needed.

Gale's alternate forms are F2, F3, and F4 (classification of Tornados on the Fujita Scale), and F2 is faster than his F1 form, but lacks some of the punch, F2 is more defense heavy, and finally F4 is the full on slow but powerful form. Ideally when I get the points later on to pick up F5, he'll be powerful at everything (as Kamen Riders typically get a Final Form that's better all around).

So, each form has to draw from it's own pool to tweak things here and there. So, we need the Henshin Driver to be able to have enough points at the Start to be able to purchase an alternate form (since even the weapon forms can come later than the start of the show).





Also needed is the iconic ability of all Kamen Riders, the Rider Kick (yes,there's a handful of Riders who don't have a Rider Kick, but they're the minority). Now, we need a mechanic so that you can't just spam the Rider Kick every round until your opponent blows up.



Thankfully, D&D has something that we can borrow for just such an occasion.

For those of you who don't know, in D&D 4th Edition,there's a mechanic called "bloodied" which really just means "this d00d is at half their HP!" Now, having a restriction on performing the Rider Kick on a bloodied opponent is a good way to keep the cinematic "Kick,BOOM!" element of the show.

Of course, given that there're exceptions,I don't know if that's necessarily the best option...hmm. I'll come back to that.

Stats should be easy to do. Let's try to limit it to 6 stats, because its a nice round number and been the industry standard for about 30 years. Clearly it's a concept that's working.

So, we should have: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception and Willpower. Yeah, I know that these aren't ground breaking Stats, so let's just move on.

So, given that in universe you can only remained transformed for a certain period of time, and that a strong enough hit can knock you out of your transformed state, here's how to settle that.

You have an affinity rating with your Henshin Driver. As you increase your abilities, your affinity with the Driver will increase. Each round, you roll percentile dice. If you roll more than your Affinity rating, you slide down a step on the Henshin Timer. The Affinity can never get higher than 90%, and you probably should have an affinity for each alternate form you have. That way you can get knocked out of F4,but only revert to your base form for example.

In addition, there should be a Damage Threshold. Let's say it's your Str+Con Scores times 2. (i.e. Str 4+Con 6 x2= 20) and if a single attack deals more damage than that it slides you down the Henshin Timer. And should a single attack deal more damage than TWICE your Threshold,it knocks you out of your transformed state entirely.

Actually, going back to the Rider Kick, you can use the Henshin Timer as a limiting Mechanic. Each time you use said Kick, you slide down the Henshin Timer. I may be on to something here.

Combat needs to be fast, and the game needs to focus on story and character development, because while yeah, there's guys in bug armor kicking guys in rubber suits until they explode, the story is what really keeps bringing people back to Kamen Rider.

Wow, sorry this was so long. See you next Monday, Dear Companions. In the meantime...HENSHIN!