Anime/Manga? l Role-Playing? l Anime Role-Playing l Teenagers From Outer Space l Star Riders l Project A-Ko l Big Eyes, Small Mouth l Tinker's Damn l GURPS Anime? l Usagi Yojimbo l Fuzion Game System l Bubblegum Crisis l Other Pro RPGs l Homebrew Systems l Thrash l The Anime RPG l KOR RPG l FIve-Star Stories RPG l Other Homebrew RPGs l Play By E-Mail l IRC l Mucking

About Anime Role-Playing

What Is Anime?

Anime is a Japanese word borrowed from French, and is used to mean "animation". Outside of Japan, anime refers specifically to Japanese animation or animation that mimics Japanese animation. Manga is the Japanese word for comics or sequential art.
The Japanese attitude to anime and manga differ markedly from western and specifically North American attitudes towards animation and comics. In the west, animation has long been limited to children's subjects, and comics not only to children's or young adult subjects, but specifically to "superhoro" stories. However, in Japan, anime and manga are used for every type of story imaginable and are watched or read by all types of people at every level of society. There are manga, for example, aimed at girls, at young women, at older women, at young boys, and at "salary" (business) men. Manga and anime can cover very serious topics, depict situational comedy or soap opera, involve police or detective drama, mystery, or pornography. In other words, Japanese do not view anime or manga as limited to any particular market or genre.
Western attitudes about comics and animation have been changing over the last twenty years, and Japanese anime and manga have made significant inroads into western culture, especially in the 90's. We haven't reached the level of Japan, where a popular comic's sales can rival those of major magazines and an animated film can become the top-grossing film in national history, but the trend towards greater acceptance and greater availability of anime and manga in the west is very encouraging to fans.

What Is Role-Playing?

Role-playing is, in essence, make-believe with rules. It began with military board games and developed into fantasy-oriented games and, from there, into all genres of gaming. A role-playing game (RPG) allows you to pretend to be someone else. The gamemaster (GM) acts as the storyteller and arbitrator of rules. The GM describes the situation that the player's characters find themselves in, the players tell the GM what their characters intend to do, and then the GM consults the rules and rolls dice to determine what happens next -- and then he describes that to the players, and so the game goes.
Role-playing games can be a lot of fun! You can't really understand what it's like until you've tried it for yourself, so I encourage you to find some friends who are interested or who already play and try it for yourself. There are also a lot of RPG's on IRC, so if you can't find people to game with locally, you should try and find an IRC game to join.

Anime Role-Playing Games!

Teenagers From Outer Space

This is an RPG (Role-Playing Game) by Mike Pondsmith, published by R. Talsorian Games Inc. The first edition came out in 1987. For a while it was out of print, but R. Talsorian Games republished it (3rd edition) in November 1997. So it's actually been around for 10 years!
The original version was marketed as "The Very Weird Roleplaying Game" and did not appear to bear any direct relationship to anime, although some savvy anime fans recognized immediately that it lent itself to a lot of anime shows. In fact, the not-so-secret truth (at least in my opinion) is that TFOS is largely an Ursei Yatsura (LUM) RPG, if not in name then at least in concept. But that doesn't matter, because the game lends itself well to other anime shows, such as Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyou, Ah! My Goddess!, Super Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku, and any number of like-minded non-serious anime and manga series.
For years TFOS has been the closest thing to an all-encompassing anime RPG on the market. In fact, for years it was the only anime RPG game on the market. In recent years anime-style role-playing games have begun to appear, many of them also brought out by R. Talsorian Games. Most of these, however, are Mecha-related games. If you're into this you should check out the Mekton Z, Armored Trooper Votoms, Jovian Chronicles, Heavy Gear, and Bubblegum Crisis role-playing games. Since I haven't played any of them I'm certainly not going to try and review them here.
TFOS is a very loose system, with few rules and a frantic, zany approach to gaming. It has more rules than Toon, but not a lot more. It reminds me of Toon in a way, as it's overall emphasis is having fun over getting bogged down in rule interpretations and comparisons of stats. Although I like that approach to gaming, TFOS takes it to extremes. Not only are there no tables of any kind in the book, there is no organized approach to explaining what few rules there are. Although I read the book cover-to-cover before running my first game, I had trouble locating rules that applied to specific situations (how fast an unconscious player recovers their "bonk", for example). I'm not a fan of rules-heavy games but it's nice to have a few guidelines just to help the gamemaster keep organized and in control of what's going on. But also, as a gamemaster, I always feel free to ignore rules as I like and modify the rules of the game in any way I choose, and I think the TFOS people understand that. Certainly, with as few rules as they have, they can't hope for everyone to play strictly by the book.

This System Is Most Suitable For: Ursei Yatsura, first and foremost, and any really goofy high school anime or manga, things like Futaba-kun Change, Peach Sabbath, or Magical Talruuto-kun. With some work you might possibly use it for Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyou, Battle Fraulin Yuna, or Ah! Megamisama.

Star Riders

I did not originally write up anything for this game, because it's out of print and because, when you get right down to it, this is really just a TFOS supplement. The rules of the game are straight out of TFOS, with the absolute minimum of altering to transform the wacky high school game into a wacky space opera game.
On the other hand, Star Riders contains all of the rules you need to play -- you don't even have to know that TFOS ever existed to play this game! What you do have, along with the TFOS rules, is a very detailed goofy space opera sourcebook. Characters, alien races, weird planets, and a gaggle of game scenarios are included, and you even have some nifty equipment and rules on how to outfit your space ship. The game plays a lot like TFOS -- ie, absolute chaos is standard -- but that can be lots of fun as we all know!
Published in November 1993 by Ianus Games (since gone out of business -- I believe R. Talsorian bought up their back stock), this game can still be found and is worth checking out if you're interested in running a silly anime game set in space. I managed to pick mine up for only $10.00.
This System Is Most Suitable For: Red Dwarf, if you want to know the truth. Tenchi Muyou, especially their space adventures. Irrisponsible Captain Tailor and Nadeshiko are both very good fits to this game as well.

Project A-Ko The Role-Playing Game

This game was published in 1995 by Dream Pod 9/Ianus Publications, in association with US Manga Corps. and Protoculture Addicts. Ianus is out of business, but R. Talsorian bought their backlog and is still distributing what they have. My game store, Amazing Comics, has a copy of this for sale right now for $24.95, but given the situation with it's publisher and the nature of series-specific, stand-alone role-playing games, I would not expect to ever see it reprinted. If you want it, you'd better track it down now.
Project A-Ko is a loosely based RPG with far fewer rules than your typical RPG. This is not necessarily TFOS or Toon, but the designer, Jimmy Mah, clearly was of the same opinion as Paul Pondsmith, keeping the rules light in favor of actual role-playing rather than rules interpretation. It also incorporates a lot of the goofiness and massive destruction found in the original A-Ko series. I've had this game for a while but I've never played it, although I recently sat in and watched someone else's game session. My purpose in buying it was simply to explore the possibility of adapting it to other anime series and genres. In my opinion, it could be done, but it would probably be more work than it's worth. You're better off going with TFOS or BESM.

This System Is Most Suitable For: Project A-Ko, or course. It's well suited for any high-school comedy anime that includes mecha, frequent battles, and massive collateral damage -- for example, All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku would probably fit into this system very easily.

Big Eyes, Small Mouth

One of the most recent entries into the light-hearted, non-mecha anime role-playing genre is something called Big Eyes, Small Mouth. From The Guardians of Order, it was published in July 1997 and consists of one small booklet. They bill it as a Universal Japanese Anime Role-Playing Game. The game designer, Mark C. Mackinnon, buys into the same theory as Paul Pondsmith and Jimmy Mah, namely that, for an anime RPG based on goofy anime series, too many rules get in the way of playing the game.
However, this game is a bit more structured than Teenagers From Outer Space. It includes rules for psychic combat, magic, character defects, a list of weapons, etc. The booklet may be smaller than the TFOS book (which is the standard size for RPG books), but a more detailed game system is packed within.
BESM is a good system. The one complaint I might have is that it doesn't seem so much simple as it does incomplete -- or, perhaps better put, it tries to cover too much ground in too few pages. But it is clearly the best all-purpose anime rpg on the market. The game is based on three simple stats (Body, Soul, and Mind) and an array of character attributes, and allows you to build your character any way you want with the GM's approval. As I said, simple but playable. Best of all, Mr. MacKinnon is agressively seeking to expand his game system and his company, with a BESM-compatible Sailor Moon RPG due out this summer, and other supplements in the works!
For a review sent to me by Patrick O'Shea, click here.

This System Is Most Suitable For: Well, it is a "universal" system, but I would say that a lot of the anime shows that are light-hearted but not extremely goofy (Ah! Megamisama, Tenchi Muyou, Sailor Moon, Magic Knights Rayearth, Slayers, and Fushugi Yugi, to name a few) would probably fit BESM more easily than any other system out there. Especially Sailor Moon, given that a complete Sailor Moon RPG compatible with BESM is on the horizon!

Tinker's Damn

This is an all-purpose anime role-playing game put out by some people in Idaho -- Studio Cranium. Published in 1997, this game is designed to cover multiple anime genres, and as with other non-mecha anime systems on the market, what you have here is a skill-based system that is pretty light on rules, presumably for the same reasons as other anime rpgs... ie, too many rules can ruin things.
On the plus side, this game has more complete rules for magic than you'll find in BESM, but you're still only talking about 3 pages of material, tops. Their magic is mostly psionic or psychic-based, and psychic characters are created using the same rules. This game system also covers mecha, vehicles, and weapons in greater detail than BESM (which hardly touches mecha and avoids vehicles completely). But in the end, you have a system that does not really present you with a lot more information than BESM or TFOS, just different information. My roommate likes it for the retro steampunk capabilities, and that's certainly something that it is far more suited for than are TFOS or BESM.
One of the creators took exception to my saying it had the look and feel of a homebrew system. It's true that I'm being a bit inconsistent in the way I use the term -- but what I really meant is that this is a low-budget, self-published game, from a company that's just starting out and can't afford the production values of a Dream Pod 9 or an R. Talsorian Games. This, of course, does not affect the game's playability one bit, and the game retails for nearly half of some other games ($13 as opposed to $25 for the Project A-Ko game), so that's not necessarily a bad thing. To put things in perspective, it's certainly better looking than the first Chainmail books (the precursor to D&D) and the first Steve Jackson games. For that matter, BESM and the first versions of TFOS share some of the same qualities (in fact, I've come across one TFOS reviewer on the net that lamented the fact that the new book was too slickly produced, and had lost most of it's "homey" feel -- you no longer felt close to the game designer, you no longer felt like he was operating on your level. At least, that was how he felt). Anyway, when all's said and done, it looks like a decent anime game system, although I haven't played it. Their web site is much improved. If anyone would like to send me their own personal review on this game, I'll be happy to publish it as I did with Patrick O'Shea's BESM review (above).
This System Is Most Suitable For: Again, it's a universal system, but it is most detailed in the weapons and vehicles areas. Based on that, I'd say it's probably ideal for cop anime shows like Gunsmith Cats, City Hunter, or even You're Under Arrest. You could make the case for Ah! Megamisama too, since that show involves both magic and vehicles. Also, my roommate likes the "steampunk" capabilities of this system... it should work well for retro technology shows like Laputa, Nausicaa, Porco Rosso, Nadia, etc.

The GURPS Anime Game Supplement

Steve Jackson doesn't have one! They're not even working on one! While we can argue all day whether his GURPS system is really appropriate for adaptation to a manic anime series, I think it's a crime that a supposedly all-encompasing gaming system like GURPS, with supplements for all kinds of gaming backgrounds and scenarios, does not have an anime supplement out yet. I can't believe they're not even working on it! I guess for now there really isn't anything specifically for anime role-playing, aside from GURPS Mecha.
GURPS Mecha is a supplement Steve Jackson's GURPS system (Generic Universal Role-Playing System). It is, by nature, anime-influenced, but it's another mecha-battle game in the mode of the other R. Talsorian games. I couldn't tell you which is better as a system or which is more suitable to an anime comedy scenario like Tenchi Muyou or Dominion Tank Police.

On the other hand, a lot of people have adapted GURPS to their favorite anime series. Check out the 3x3 Eyes GURPs homebrew rules below! They may not be "official" GURPs rules, but if they work then who cares?

The Usagi Yojimbo RPG

It's debatable whether this qualifies as an anime rpg or not -- ask two fans and you might get a definative yes and a definative no. This game is based on the comic by Stan Sakai. Stan is a very nice person (I've met him briefly!) and an american of Japanese descent. His comic is set in an alternate Japan where every person is some sort of anthropomorphic animal. Stan's art and storytelling techniques are probably influenced equally by Japanese and western comics artists, and his style is therefore not really an anime style but sometimes contains influences. Because of this, and because of the setting of the story, it's often embraced by anime fans.
But the important question, from our perspective, is: can you use this game system to play an anime campaign? Of course! The game is geared towards a fuedal, anthropomorphic Japan, but there are a few anime and manga titles I could name that fit that description perfectly.
Again, I only recently picked up the game. It looks like a solid system, built on the Instant Fuzion game system, so I wouldn't anticipate any particular problems in running it. It's put out by Gold Rush Games.
This System Is Most Suitable For: Usagi Yojimbo. But if you want to run a fuedal Japanese campaign that also has some very light-hearted elements, this system could work for you. Inu-Yasha, for example, might work. Anything that also includes anthropomorphic animals is a plus.

The Fuzion Game System!

The Fuzion Game System is an almost unheard-of thing -- a professionally published public domain game system. This is a universal system created by Hero Games and R. Talsorian Games, and both they and some other game companies (like Goldrush Games, above) have been using it to design games.
This is another system that I've yet to become very familiar with, although I understand it's based on a combination of things that R. Talsorian and Hero Games do in their older systems, and I'm familiar with those. I can't vouch for the universality and interchangability of Fuzion-created systems yet, but there are some neat possibilities here. I think it's only a matter of time before someone bases a really good universal anime game on this system.
In any event, you can dowload Fuzion from either Hero Games or from R. Talsorian Games.

The Bubblegum Crisis RPG

I only picked this up recently, so I don't have much of a rundown on it. It's based on the Fuzion system, and unlike Usagi Yojimbo this uses "full blown Fuzion" as opposed to "Fuzion lite". But despite that, you could probably run a crossover Usagi Yojimbo/Bubblegum Crisis campaign if you really, really felt an urgent need to. The Fuzion rules make it easy!
BGC generally falls into the mecha genre, but kind of skirts the edges of it... mostly you have robots ("boomers") who are often the villians or adversaries, and you have a cast of four women with hardsuits, which are not the same as giant mecha (more shapely for one thing). All set in a dark cyberpunk future. Let's just say you don't want to be a cop. ^_^;
The game is by R. Talsorian, there are two supplements, and some really good web resource pages. Here are a few of them:

Bubblegum Crisis Syndey 2033

Bubblegum Conundrum

Bubblegum Crush
This System Is Most Suitable For: Bubblegum Crisis, of course, but also you might adapt the rules to other dark, futuristic shows like Armitage and Battle Angel Alita.

Other Professional Games

Since I so often define TFOS as "nearly as rules-lite as Toon", I thought I should mention this cartoon role-playing game. It's been around for quite a while, and provides for a rather unique gaming experience. How many role-playing games can there be where your character's entire purpose in life might be "to create chaos" and rather than ruin or unbalance the game, this actually enhances it? You are a cartoon character -- you have a schtick and a goal in life, even if it is only "to get some decent sleep". Nobody dies, everyone has fun. This is the one rpg that makes TFOS seem complicated and sane by comparison, and yes, you could probably adapt this game for some of the crazier anime shows, especially if you, for some unkown reason, wanted to run a Samurai Pizza Cats or Sonic The Hedgehog adventure.
Several mecha-oriented games exist which I'm not going to get very much into here. The largerst of these is, perhaps, Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear. There are quite a few gamebooks out on that system. Dream Pod 9 also produces Jovian Chronicles, which is a mecha-in-space sort of game. Their competition in the mecha rpg market is, of course, R. Talsorian Games, which produces Mekton Z and Armored Trooper Votoms, not to mention Bubblegum Crisis (see above).
Any of these systems is probably a better stand-alone system than the GURPS Mecha book... but if you want to bring in a lot of other stuff like magic, psionics, fantasy settings, horror, etc., GURPS is the only way to go.

Homebrew Anime RPG's!

What Do I Mean By Homebrew?

By my definition ALL role-playing games start out as "Homebrew" games. What I mean by "Homebrew" is simply something that you've come up with yourself, a gaming system that is not published anywhere because you made up the rules. It's sort of the gaming equivelant to garage bands, fanzines, and garage kit models. The closer you are to your origins, the less "slick" your production, the more "homebrew" the game (in my opinion).

That said, I place a distinction between systems for which there is a published sourcebook that you might find in your local game store, and systems that you can only find on the net or get from the game designer himself. I really should be calling these games "Public Domain" games, because the biggest distinction is that games found on the net are, in essence, "freeware" -- they cost you nothing! The creator maintains a copyright, but does not charge you for use of the product.

Are These "Homebrew" Systems As Good As "Pro" Systems?

Often the answer is yes. Just because a game can't be bought in a gaming store doesn't mean it's worthless. I ran my own Homebrew fantasy RPG for several years when I was in high school and college, and it worked just fine. My friend Gene has run a Homebrew Superhero RPG for 15 years that is, IMO, a really great system, a perfect combination of detailed rules and simple game structure, allowing you to roll up a player and join the game in only five minutes, but detailed enough to allow for some complex rule interpretations. A Homebrew system is usually a labor of love. You can usually guarantee that, if nothing else, the game designer has very specific ideas about how an RPG should work, and sticks to them. Your biggest concern is whether they've worked at it enough to make it a complete system, and whether they've playtested it enough to work out the kinks -- but often, as in the case of Gene's Superhero RPG, the playtesting has been so thorough as to actually exceed some "pro" games.

Homebrew Anime Games

There are numerous "Homebrew" anime RPGs. In fact, I was designing one before I caved in to the reality that I was too detail-oriented to ever get a working version up. When TFOS came along, I went with that, and now that I've found BESM, I may not have a reason to ever finish my own game.
Or maybe I need more details to be happy. We'll see how things develop. In the meantime, there are lots of people out there that either haven't discovered TFOS or BESM yet or think they can do better, and they're happily designing their own systems. Some of them are paranoid about anyone seeing their game platforms (my friend Gene always held out hope that he could sell his Superhero game, and was very careful about who he allowed to have their own copy of the rules and run their own games). Others, however, really want you to have their system and use it, even if they're getting no money out of the deal. A lot of these people publish online. You can easily download their game system for nothing, and in no time you're running an Anime-style campaign of your own!
On my links page I have links to several "Homebrew" Anime RPG's that have been published online. I call these "Homebrew" only because the creators aren't going through the process of publishing a book and selling it through the game stores. In most respects, these game systems are no less professional than TFOS, Tinker's Damn, or BESM, all of which, to varying degrees, have a sort of "Homebrew" feel to them anyway. To be perfectly honest, the Kimagure Orange Road RPG is every bit as detailed as TFOS, Tinker's Damn, and BESM, and both The Anime RPG and Thrash are both far more detailed than any non-mecha anime game on the market. If you are looking for a truly universal anime rpg, BESM and Tinker's Damn are nice beginings but both have a long way to go. Explore your options, and don't be afraid to adapt rules from different games, modify an existing game, or just make up your own game. TFOS, Project A-Ko, and the Kimagure Orange Road RPG are not intended to be universal anime games, but each can be expanded with a little work to cover a lot more ground than originally intended.
Please note that the gifs of the "gamebook covers" on the right bar of this page are in some cases entirely created by myself just for effect! No commercially available gamebooks for Thrash, The Anime RPG, The Kimagure Orange Road RPG, or the Five-Star Stories RPG exist!!! I built these gifs from images gathered at the online sites or (in the case of KOR and Five Star Stories) from images from the actual anime/manga series. But they look nifty don't they?

Thrash

Thrash is clearly one of the best and most complete "homebrew" systems that you can find on the web. The basic game is designed by Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney and is patterned after Street Fighter, so it is definately heavy on martial-arts combat. However, Ewen has plans to develop source books for other anime genres. You can download three sourcebooks from Ewen's main page, The Official Thrash RPG Page.
Rob Pool has also designed sourcebooks for Thrash, including a complete anime comedy sourcebook and a still-in-the-works mecha sourcebook. You can download these rules, plus several more supplemental Thrash documents, from his Unofficial Thrash Page.
Yet another person designing systems for Thrash is the Learning Lich. Check out his The Good Fight page.
This System Is Most Suitable For: Any martial-arts show like Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, etc., and probably adaptible to such "heroic" shows as Yotoden and the Hakkenden. Thanks to Rob, it's easily adaptible to less serious anime shows like Ranma 1/2 too -- and Ewen, if he ever gets the time, has plans for a full-blown Ranma 1/2 Sourcebook!

The Anime RPG

Designed by Ron Keating, Jonathan Miller, Keith Maddocks, Robert Warren, and Sam Lao, with some help from Aaron Jeffery, Geoff Moores, Tim Cooper, Andrew Warren, Andy O'Keefe, Arurun Kathirgamanathan, and a few others. Jonathan maintains the web page. This is another public domain anime rpg system that you can download and begin playing today. This is also designed to be an all-encompassing anime rpg, with rules for magic, mecha, superpowers, the whole works! All of the rules for this system can be found at Jonathan's The Anime RPG page. I have not explored this game fully yet, but it appears to have rules to cover just about everything.

The Kimagure Orange Road RPG

Published online in 1990, this is a series-specific system designed by Totoro Hunter Leto II, and by any definition one of the oldest anime rpg's out there. This is apparently a complete system that is no longer being worked on, and the original creator no longer has this system available for download anywhere on the web. Fortunately Rob Pool has come to our rescue! His Anime RPG Shrine includes a page containing the entire original KOR RPG document -- and now that I have a copy, I'm ready to back up Rob if his page ever goes away! For anyone who is a fan of this series, this is well worth checking out! Visit Rob's KOR RPG page.
One thing I can say, and given the series it's built around, this should not be surprising, is that this game deals with Psychics in a more complete manner than any of the so-called professional, universal anime games. This is, I suppose, to be expected, given that the "universal" games on the market are not large enough to get very detailed in any particular area. Really, this is a pretty neat little game!
This System Is Most Suitable For: Kimagure Orange Road, of course, but also this system could be adapted to any anime campaign involving psychics such as a Mai the Psychic Girl, Domu, Please Save My Earth, or Akira.

The Five Star Stories RPG

Anyone familiar with Mamaro Nagano's complex, epic manga series or the anime film that was created from it will know that he creates some of the coolest mecha and most incomprehensible plots known to man. Now you can join in the fun! Created by Ed Gomez, this is another series-specific anime rpg that is public domain and available for download from the net. Not reccomend for people unfamiliar with the series! Dowload the rules from the Five-Star Stories RPG site.
This System Is Most Suitable For: The Five-Star Stories, and almost certainly nothing else. This series is far too unusual to have any close parallels.

The 3x3 Eyes RPG

I can't believe I told Henrique to drop by and check out my page, and I didn't have anything written about his game! ^_^ He was nice enough not to mention it... even had some nice things to say about the "book cover" I designed for his game.
Working from GURPs, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh has developed this series-specific role-playing game for Yuzo Takada's popular anime horror series. You can download all the rules from his 3x3 Eyes RPG FOr GURPs site. This is not really a self-contained homebrew game -- you will need some of the GURPs books to play it -- but it is also not an official GURPs supplement either. It is created by fans for fans and not for profit, so I've placed it under homebrew anime rpg's.
3x3 Eyes is a unique fantasy/horror manga with extremely cute artwork (if you can imagine that) and a storyline that is at turns comedic and very serious. Yuzo Takeda is also responsible for the series Blue Seed (and for that matter, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku -- buth that's another story). At this point, it's easier to find the Blue Seed anime in North America than the anime for 3x3 Eyes. Blue Seed contains some of the same elements as 3x3 Eyes -- a horror series that does not wallow in tasteless gore and sex.
Incidentally, 3x3 Eyes is far more popular in Italy than in North America, and there exists an official Italian 3x3 Eyes RPG, which neither I nor Henrique has seen. It would be fun to check out, 'though.
This System Is Most Suitable For: 3x3 Eyes. I'm not sure how successfully it could be adapted to other horror series, but shows in more or less the same vein might include, of course, Yuzo Takada's Blue Seed, as well as Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Devil Hunter Yohko, and The Phantom Quest Corps.

Other Online Homebrew systems:

The Returner Final Fantasy RPG

Final Fantasy, The Role-Playing Game (Dreamlord's version)

Atomik Fuzion Page
A slick Instant Fuzion site with Lodoss Wars RPG and other goodies!

Ranma Nubun No Ichi - The Storyteller Game
A Ranma 1/2 Storytelling Game, requires the Streetfighter Storytelling Game from White Wolf, which is out of print.

Dragon Ball: Saiyan Fury
A homebrew Dragonball Z RPG game, borrowing rules from Rifts for combat and character generation.

My goal is to eventually download and play-test Thrash, The Anime RPG, and The Kimagure Orange Road RPG, and then give my reviews here. I might check out the Five Star Stories RPG as well, since I like the series and a friend of mine is really into it, but it's a very complex manga series and involves big mecha and weird politics, so I don't know. As for the Final Fantasy games, you're welcome to them, I'm still not interested. But if it helps, Rob Pool maintains the Returner Final Fantasy web pages and is a big part of their group, and Rob is a cool guy. Dreamlord seems like a nice guy too. The Shinra site is gone for good. ^_^

Play By E-Mail Anime Games!

If you know what role-play gaming is, then imagine trying to play it through the mail. It's slow. The gamemaster sends out to each of the players a letter describing what's just happened and then the players send in their reply stating what their characters plan to do next. The gamemaster gathers all of the various notes and writes the next letter stating what is happening for this round.
If you want to allow the players to communicate with each other before sending their moves in, you can be waiting several weeks between moves. It's not exactly like being there, in the room, gaming with your friends. On the other hand, you can play with people across the country or all over the world, people you might never get the chance to meet in person, so it has some advantages.
Play By Mail games used to be more popular than they probably are now. The advent of worldwide e-mail has provided a much better forum for doing basically the same thing. You can consult with other players quickly and publish a round/turn/move/whatever you call it once a week if you really want to push things.
Some people aren't even that organized. They just set up a mail list with some server, and everyone types what their characters are doing. The gamemaster is almost more like a topic moderator than anything. Doing it this way can be a lot faster, if the players and the gamemaster are all on the same page, because what a player does gets posted instantly.
I was involved in a game like this years ago on Prodigy. It revolved around the anime/manga Nausicaa (in fact, the gamemaster hadn't read the manga, which was a bit irritating, but anyway). It was a lot of fun!
Currently I'm involved in Chad Burnett's TFOS PBEM RPG, and I'm running one of my own. Both seem to be doing very well!

IRC Anime Role-Playing!

IRC allows you to create a chat room for you and your friends to hang out in. Role-Playing over an IRC channel is the next best thing to being in the same room together! It has the disadvantage of requiring everyone to be online at the same time, but the advantage of allowing you to run an entire game in a few hours -- in other words, in "real time". Your game takes no longer than a normal RPG session.
There are some online anime IRC-style role-playing games out there. I haven't linked to any of them yet but I've explored this a little bit and hope to link to a couple of them eventually. If you're interested, just check out the gaming section of Anime Turnpike, and you'll stumble across them quickly enough.
Here are some links to IRC role-playing sites. They give you information about how to join their game:

Samurai Pizza Cats/Sonic the Hedgehog Soap Opera

hey, I didn't come up with it so don't blame me!

Anime RPG Page
IRC anime role-playing!
Nuku Nuku's Anime Role-Playing Page
another anime IRC RPG!
The Anime Dojo
As far as I can tell, another IRC game!
The First REAL Fushigi Yuugi RPG
As opposed to the other one that isn't real, of course!
The Fushigi Yuugi RPG Zone
This must be that other one!
Skuld & Sasami's Anime RPG
Ah! Megamisama-based IRC RPG!
Vegeta's RPG Homepage
Anime IRC RPG en Espa�ol!

What About Mucking?

Mucking is role-playing too. I don't muck myself, but my friends do. Mucking can work a lot like a chat room, but in addition there are programs running that greatly enhance the whole role-playing atmosphere. A muck, mush, or mud can have rooms, parks, roads, and buildings for you to wander around in, and the architecture of the particular system (muds especially) can even allow you to fight other players or monsters. Mucking is essentially open-ended role-playing without a GM and usually without a fixed storyline. It's also highly addictive.

have been enlightened!
Akane

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Anime Character Types

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Big Eyes Small Mouth Universal Anime RPG

Star Riders TFOS Supplement & Independant Game System

Teenagers From Outer Space -- The Original Cover

Teenagers From Outer Space, 2nd Edition?

For full-sized versions of "fake" gamebook covers, click the following:
Kimagure Orange Road RPG
Thrash RPG
Thrash Anime RPG
3x3 Eyes RPG (basic)
3x3 Eyes RPG (alternate)
The Anime RPG
Five Star Stories RPG
These are 550 x 737 pixel jpg's and print at about 8 x 10 inches from Photoshop (my printer won't print all the way to the border). These are for you to print out as a "book cover" for your printed copy of that game's rules. I designed them AFTER doing the smaller gifs so I had to do some redesigning. I couldn't do the Thrash one the same way because my image of Zankuro is too small! ^_^ Same thing for the 3x3 Eyes...
They don't look quite as good full-sized, sorry!
Others to follow!

Anime Resources

Otakuworld

Geocities Anime Project

Anime Domein

Masato's Anime-Manga Launch Base

Anime Grove

Serpent's Anime Page!

Emiko's Genesis!

Anime Manga Resource List

Wingland - Anime Link

Anime Power

Animecca Magazine

Anime Now

The Haruka Project

Angel's Anime Pavillion

Anime RPG

Teenagers In Cyberspace

The Anime RPG Shrine

Play By E-Mail!

listen.to/akane/
Based on TFOS!

Other Pages

Maison Bellchan's

Belldandy's Anime Shrines

Miko's Tai-Pan Page

Miko's Home Page

Mezurashii's Anime Pages!

This site is a part of the Great RPG Archive
Which links up RPG related home pages

Click here for more info

A Northwest Anime Con!

Write me! please?
� 1998 Akane
Akane images and character copyright � 1998 Rumiko Takahashi. Other characters also copyrighted, naturally.

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3x3 Eyes Title - Fred Gallagher, based on original 3x3 Eyes logo.
Dragon "canvas" - Henrique M. H., postprocessed scan from 3x3 Eyes.
3x3 Eyes original art and characters Copyright (c) 1987-98 Yuzo Takada / Kodansha.
Five Star Stories original art and characters Copyright Mamoru Nagano/Newtype.
More credits as I get to them! Bug me about it!