Tag Archives: RPG

Mobile Gaming Review: “Dungeon Village”

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Mobile gaming is a steadily-growing market. An estimated 50.4% of Americans (as of March) now own a smartphone. But I’ll be honest–when the whole discussion on mobile gaming started, I wondered whether or not it would ever really appeal to me and to gamers like me. Sure, Facebook had shown that social and casual games could be successful for the population at large. My concern was whether or not there would there be games for those who counted themselves as gamers, or whether we’d just be stuck emulating old SNES games.

Gradually though, I saw that the game selection could indeed cater to “gamers”. While there are of course many games designed for a more casual market, we have seen solid products aimed at the more traditional gaming crowd. And perhaps it is little wonder that one of my new favourites was produced where so many of the favourite games from my childhood were: Japan.

Dungeon Village (iOS $3.99, Android $4.99) takes the typical Fantasy RPG formula and turns it on its head. No longer are you the brave adventurer heading into dungeons: instead, it is a town simulation, and you play the guy who runs the town. You offer quests, sell magical items, and eventually (if you’re doing your job properly) host the homes of adventurers. The game itself is not a massive departure from other Kairosoft games in terms of structure or art (you may already be familiar with the first major release from Kairosoft, Game Dev Story).

They definitely are not trying to rewrite the book here, but the formula works and is fun to play. Your adventurers level up and you can spend money to upgrade their equipment or gift them items that they find in dungeons. They also have cheeky names that are references to famous RPG or literary heroes. Clown Stripe and Gilly Gamesh were both pretty amusing.

The town itself is also of great importance, though. Your heroes need facilities to buy weapons and armor, and an Inn (obviously). Later, you can gain access to more advanced buildings like restaurants and combat training areas. These facilities will boost your adventurers’ stats, but they also increase their satisfaction with your town, making them more likely to choose to settle down. Adventurers living in your town generate tax revenue at the end of the year, so keeping them in your town is a good goal to have.

As your town grows in popularity, you’ll find more and more adventurers lining up to defend it. Time to hand out those powerful magical artifacts to complete strangers and pay them to defend your lands and enter strange caves!

The game uses the tried-and-true pixelated graphics from previous Kairosoft titles. I personally love this art style, and as someone who has played through Final Fantasy VI more times than I’d care to admit I am definitely used to it. It fits the genre and feel of the game very well. There’s a fairly good variety of sprites, with different enemy types popping up steadily throughout the game.

The music is repetitive and you will turn it off almost immediately, but that’s essentially par for the course with Kairosoft titles. I recommend cooking up a playlist on YouTube with all your favourite RPG soundtracks and just running that in the background.

As with most Kairosoft titles, you get some excellent first value for your first playthrough, but secondary playthroughs may not be as interesting. Still, for $5 you get your money’s worth in one go, especially if you’re already a fan of the RPG genre. Make no mistake, this game is a gamer’s game. Not only would many of the references be lost on players who are not fans of the genre, but the concept of the game itself is probably not very appealing to them.

I give Dungeon Village a solid 4 out of 5. If it had better replay value and adjustable difficulty levels, I’d bump it to a 4.5. The lack of a decent soundtrack doesn’t really bother me since this is largely something that mobile gaming has yet to anyways.

Have you played Dungeon Village or other Kairosoft titles? Let me know in the comments!

[Guest Post] 5 Greatest MMOs of 2012

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Today’s guest post was written by Evan Fischer, a contributing writer for Sonic Games 365–where you can find the best arcade, puzzle, and RPG games on the web.

If you’ve grown bored with some of the overstuffed MMOs that seem to offer only minute variations on popular themes (Evil wizard holds kingdom hostage! Aliens invade the earth! An apocalypse turns us all into battle-ready soldiers!) then you’re no doubt looking forward to some of the incredible new MMOs being released 2012. While not a comprehensive list, here are just a few that should give you something a little more than the average fare.

Firefall

Expansive open-world environment – check. Futuristic battle zone setting – check. First- and third-person shooter features – check. And it’s free?

Holy crap.

So, this asteroid basically hits the earth, setting off the “Nine Year Winter” (brrrr). Some governments fall to pieces while other nations make alliances, and a new element called crystite is discovered (providing unlimited power, which is a real bonus during asteroid-induced winter). Also, wormholes are created, but they have this unfortunate side effect of creating energy storms that ravage the earth, leaving it largely inhospitable, darn the luck. So the story is a little like a spit-balling exercise that never got pared down. But with lots of groups and classes to choose from (fighter, engineer, medic, etc.), plenty of loot to be captured, and extensive PvP environments, Firefall is one MMO to try this year (and keep in mind, the demo will air at RTX July 7).

TERA

This action/adventure MMO out of Korea is an epic fantasy game of the sword-and-sorcery variety (dragons, magic – all the snacky-treats of the fantasy genre). But thanks to the Unreal Engine, the graphics are breathtaking, and the manual targeting feature gives the game some unexpected oomph that will likely appeal to the hardcore gaming crowd (since it’s relatively rare in the PC world).

Guild Wars 2

Although this game won’t debut until August, it’s already getting a lot of buzz; it’s basically the choose-your-own-adventure version of the MMO world. The success of the first Guild Wars apparently gave developer ArenaNet a desire to take it to the next level, and their plan is certainly audacious. Every choice users make, from character attributes to the weapons they draw, will affect the outcome of individual events and the progression of the game as a whole. If their plan works, this game could just take MMOs to the next level.

The Secret World

Fantasy runs rife in the wide world of MMOs, but this gorgeous game embraces the weird in a different way. Set in modern day (rather than a magical past or apocalyptic future),The Secret World nonetheless offers a touch of the fantastic through the unveiling of the fact that myths, legends, and folklore are all true. Secret societies are out there (you’ll be joining one, too!), there really are hidden cities at the center of the earth, and brain-hungry zombies could be invading the Hamptons as we speak. With an emphasis on character creation and storytelling (and a lack of levels), this isn’t your average MMO.

But that’s what makes it fun.

Diablo III

As MMO video games go, this one may be one of the most anticipated in recent memory; hard-core fans of the franchise have been holding their breath (and slowly turning blue) for the last twelve years, when Diablo II came out. In fact, so many people were eager to get their hands on this game that it reportedly broke pre-sale records and sold more copies within the first 24 hours of hitting store shelves than any other PC game to date.

You might not think that your typical hack-and-slash game would be worth all the hubbub, but this franchise is anything but typical, with stellar storylines, tactical action gameplay, fully-formed, destructible, 3D environments, and of course, the multi-player functionality that first made the Diablo franchise so popular. Sadly, this game is not free (though there is no subscription fee); however, most players will agree that it’s worth every penny.

Did we miss your favorite MMO of 2012? Let us know about it in the comments!

One-shot RPGs for Gaming Groups in Flux

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Recently, my regular D&D group has been meeting very irregularly. A combination of factors conspired to create this situation–among them the release of the D&D Next playtest (very well-received with our group) and some changing work schedules for some of us. Two of our players now arrive much later than we’d like to optimally start, which has led some of us to question if a system besides Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition might be better suited to our current situation, a system which would allow players to kind of “drop in” during the game.

While we may or may not actually change systems, my group’s discussion of doing so made me think about what some great RPG systems for our situation would be. When a consistent narrative is not possible because of the current situation with your normal players, your group usually decides to do one of two things: run some “one-shot” adventures for a few weeks until normalcy can be resumed, or run a system where players dropping in at random points is not harmful to the game’s proceedings.

In my opinion, D&D 4E in particular suffers when players jump in and out, as the challenge presented by the enemies is dependant on a particular number of players. What happens is that if your DM builds an encounter for five people but you only have three, the DM has to either make changes on the fly to the encounter or else risk presenting the group with a possibly-fatal challenge. While this may not bother some DMs too badly, when you combine it with the lack of a coherent narrative, it often ends up being a dealbreaker.

It is for me, at least.

That said, if your normal tabletop RPG group can’t make it, but you still want to roll some dice, here are your options as I see them.

Gamma World (7th Edition)

Gamma World is a great fit for a one-shot adventure or even a drop-in game.

With those unfamiliar with the concept, Gamma World 7E uses Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition rules for the framework of the game system. This makes it a great fit for a D&D group that’s just having an off-week: no rules explanation is required.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic Earth where pretty much everything that can exist, does. Your character’s powers are randomly chosen for you, and you are then burdened with the task of somehow explaining your character. You also get starter equipment of your choosing. For example, my last character in Gamma World was a Wheeled Reanimated, which I decided was the spiritual embodiment of the song “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne trying desperately to find his nemesis Tipper Gore.

In addition, the system is far more lethal than D&D 4E (there is almost no healing), making it both entertaining and not a big deal should your character meet an untimely demise at the hands of a Vorpal Chainsaw-wielding mutant chicken. I’m sure your next character (Pyrokinetic…Plant?!?!) will fare better… or it will be fried by laser-wielding robots.

For your DM, there are several published adventures available. In the event that you go through all those, the setting itself is flexible enough to accommodate basically any post-apocalyptic storyline you could come up with. Mad Max, Fallout and Borderlands await!

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

In case you’ve missed it, I’m a big fan of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. And recently, a new Civil War event that was recently released, which is perfectly suited to to groups with a drop-in playstyle.

The Civil War event itself spans three acts during which the impact of the Superhuman Registration Act (or SHRA for short) is felt by heroes and villains alike. There’s lots of content here, and your group is unlikely to blow through it very quickly. Heroes are encouraged to pick sides and defend either the Pro- or Anti-Registration standpoint. Hero vs. Hero combat could even result! Also, a fortuitous arrival of a hero could easily happen in any comic book, so it’s easy for a newly-arrived player to jump right into the action.

Another great thing about Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is that the Doom Pool and Plot Point mechanics are largely self-regulating, meaning that the loss of a player or two will not mean a radical rebalancing of an action scene’s difficulty.

Such a feature allows for your Watcher (DM) to have a fairly solid game plan in advance, even if you’re not sure exactly how many of your players will be attending.

Finally, the superhero genre is generally quite popular of late, what with the recent release of The Amazing Spider-Man and the upcoming release of The Dark Knight Rises. It is generally accessible, and even someone who is not very familiar with it could play a more popular hero who is well-known to compensate for this.

Trail of Cthulhu (or any Survival Horror adventure, for that matter)

A survival horror game is a great idea for a one-shot adventure, and Trail of Cthulhu is an interesting and easy to learn system to select for such a game. Since characters are not generally expected to survive a survival horror adventure, the fun is in unraveling the mystery and watching the generally terrifying proceedings happen.

Trail of Cthulhu does a good job of forcing players to get into character. At creation, characters are assigned a Drive that represents their basic philosophy. Acting contrary to this Drive can cause a character to become unstable, whereas acting in favor of it can help a character cope with seriously disturbing circumstances.

Everything in Trail of Cthulhu is done using a D6, and the rules are mostly based around making small gambles on your ability to reach a target number. This simplicity means that you can skip the rules explanation and cut right to the fun–a huge asset for a group in flux or for a one-off adventure.

Finally, there is a wealth of player-created content for this system, most of which is very high quality. You aren’t in danger of running out of content here–at least not before the system drives you crazy (har har). (Beej’s Note: tee hee!)

Conclusion

Next time your group can’t meet as normal, consider one of these alternatives to your regular system! A change of pace or a break can be a really good thing for a roleplaying group, so give one of these a shot and see how you fare!

Does your roleplaying group have a “fallback” game that you play on off-nights? Let me know in the comments!

[Danger Room] Marvel RPG Custom Datafile – Setzer Gabbiani (Final Fantasy VI)

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Welcome back, True Believers! In the Danger Room, we’ll look at a custom Marvel Heroic Roleplaying datafile together (either one of my own creation, or someone else’s) and go over the design points of the character.

Last week, I showed you how open the possibilities were in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying for creating a character from another IP. However, Akuma–the character I chose an an example–is from the Street Fighter universe, which has crossed over with Marvel several times. This time, I wanted to try to create something a bit more foreign to the Marvel Universe, while still making an interesting character that could actually be played.

Ultimately, for inspiration I came back to what is one of my favorite video game RPGs of all time: Final Fantasy VI.

Custom Character Example: Setzer Gabbiani (Final Fantasy VI)

Click the Image Above to Download the Setzer FFVI Datafile for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

This custom datafile represents Setzer immediately following his failed abduction attempt of Maria at the Opera, roughly 1/3 of the way through the game. Here’s a brief description blurb for you, if you’re unfamiliar with the character:

Setzer Gabbiani is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. He is a Gambler who lives on the wild side. He is the owner of the world’s only airship: the Blackjack. In the SNES version he is neutral at the beginning of the war, reluctant to openly oppose the Gestahlian Empire after having made profits from their work. (Source: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Setzer_Gabbiani)

When it came to creating Setzer for use in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, I had some pretty simple design goals:

  • Emphasize the risk-taking aspect of the character.
  • Provide a way of representing Setzer’s special ability, Slots, in the game.
  • Give the character the unique ability to pilot his airship, The Blackjack.

Affiliations / Distinctions:

Notorious Gambler can be used for a lot of Setzer’s actions and represents the fact that he is generally well-known to everyone. Daring Airship Pilot is fairly straightforward, I think, and can be used for actions involving vehicle use. Grief-stricken Wanderer refers to Setzer’s past with Daryl. For those who don’t know, he feels guilt for a woman who died in a race with him, and whom he loved dearly. This backstory is further elaborated on in his Limit and his first Milestone.

Power Set:

Gambling was the product of my desire to truly represent the risk-taking of the character. In Final Fantasy VI, Setzer actually makes his physical attacks with various pieces of gambling equipment: darts, dice, and cards. I wanted the SFX names to represent this flavor.

Beyond that though, I wanted the power set as a whole to be high-risk, high-reward and to portray the gambling nature of the character. My idea was to give Setzer the ability to roll many d6s, since these have a fairly large chance of coming up as a “1”–which cannot be used for total or effect dice. In addition, six-sided dice are what are normally used in real life for games of chance involving dice, so it just felt right. The Stacked Deck, Doom Darts and Man of Many Talents SFXs give Setzer access to these d6s.

Having decided that I wanted Setzer to roll many d6s, I went about designing Slots. I thought the best way to represent Slots was to use three dice coming up with the same value. Rather than force the player to make a Slots attempt, I decided it was easier and player-friendly to just let it trigger if it happened, but to have some of the effects key off whether or not the action succeeded and to make it only work on a player’s action and not their reaction.

Running some quick and messy calculations, I discovered that on 5d6 there was about a 20% chance of a single number coming up three times, but that includes 1s, which are useless for Slots as well as for total or effect dice. As a result I tried to make the effects from Slots powerful, but not insanely so. The most powerful effect is on three instances of 7, which is obviously only possible if Setzer chooses not to split into d6s. For the effects themselves, I used Slots effects from the videogame and modified them to work in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, trying to keep them close to the original while making them each different.

I also ended up re-wording Slots so that it stated that it happened after action resolution so that dice re-rolled with the Fixed Dice SFX would be the ones used for Slots resolution.

Setzer’s Limit, Memories of Daryl, is indicative of his emotionally-closed identity. He eventually does open up about Daryl, but not until it becomes absolutely necessary.

Specialties:

These are all fairly straightforward. Specifically though, Vehicle Master was an important addition as Setzer is essentially the only person in the party in Final Fantasy VI who pilots the airship.

Milestones:

The Woman I Loved is all about Setzer’s emotional struggle with what happened to Daryl and how he ends up reacting to other women as a result.

“My life is a chip in your pile. Ante up!” is based on Setzer’s line as he joins your party. I wanted this milestone to be about his commitment to the party and how they deal with his risk-taking nature.

Click the Image Above to Download “The Blackjack” FFVI Item Power Set for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Of course in Final Fantasy VI,  the reason Setzer is recruited by the party at all is his airship, The Blackjack. I felt it would be appropriate to create an item power set for it.

As the Details section indicates, only one hero can be the “pilot” of the airship at any time. The pilot is the only one who can add the power traits to his or her dice pool unless otherwise stated in the SFX.

The SFX for the airship are mostly utility-based, and don’t enhance the power of the pilot, although they can let him protect the people on it. I felt this was in keeping with the airship’s use in the game – it isn’t a weapon, but rather a mode of transportation, a base of operations, and sometimes a battleground.

Obviously, as an airship, staying airborne is a priority. The Airborne Vessel limit means that if you lose the ability to fly, you better fix situation quickly. The Bulky limit was put in place simply to prevent stacking of reflexes when that isn’t very representative of someone who is piloting the craft.

Conclusion:

So there you have it: Setzer and his airship!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this session in the Danger Room. I’d love to hear any feedback you have about either datafile. As always, if you have any custom Marvel Heroic Roleplaying content, I’d love to see it: let me know in the comments!

[System Shock] Customizing Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

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Our final installment of our introduction to Marvel Heroic Roleplaying focuses on customization! The system is very flexible and allows players to play the hero they want to play. This piece will focus mostly on character creation and show you some examples of custom heroes with some design notes on choices I made while making them.

As a disclaimer before I begin, I’d like to thank the fine folks over at Plot Points. The datafile template used below for my custom characters were modified from those they use. They’ve been a source of inspiration to myself and a great resource to the community, and I can’t thank them enough.

Having said that, let’s jump into customization!

Customization:

The Basic Game comes with 22 Hero datafiles (player character sheets), most of whom are very popular heroes in their own right in the Marvel universe. The Civil War Event, just recently released, offers a further 32, some of whom are updated versions of prior heroes for use specifically in Civil War. However, there were some notable omissions, like Thor and Hawkeye (who have both since been released for free by MWP) and Hulk, who has yet to be officially released but has had many fan treatments from the community. Even though the selections included with the game are popular, comic fans usually have their own favourites, many of whom had not been included.

Into this void stepped the fan community.

Even before Marvel Heroic Roleplaying was officially released, prospective players were using what they knew of the rules to create custom datafiles of their favorite Marvel heroes. The system itself has also been “hacked” for use in a more standard sword-and-sorcery setting, a Star Wars setting, the fan-favorite Torg setting, and more.

The interesting part of character creation in this system is that the Basic Game does not provide strict guidelines for how powerful a character can be. This is intentional.

Characters in comic books often vary greatly in power from one another, but that never stops them from working together or against one another. The game doesn’t try to fight this by making all characters the same in terms of power, instead trying to make characters unique enough that not everyone demands to play the most powerful character. This means that in the case of a custom character, you and your Watcher must agree on all aspects of that character. A character that has a power set full of d12 traits with no downsides will likely be turned down by your Watcher. In other words, character customization cannot truly be “optimized” like in other games, because there are no power limitations besides what your Watcher will allow.

I like this system, because of how true it is to the source material. Some of the most interesting characters in the Marvel universe tend to have crippling personality flaws that offset their powers. Hulk might be one of the strongest beings in the Marvel universe, but he has serious anger problems and can cause a lot of collateral damage when he loses control.

Finally, the character building system is specific enough to make each character unique, but has enough commonalities that creating a hero from scratch or depict a character from a completely different intellectual property, making crossovers a very distinct possibility!

Speaking of crossovers, let’s take a look at a custom datafile I’ve created to give you an example of what you can do with the system and how you might go about designing your own character.

Custom Character Example: Akuma/Gouki (Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike)

Click the Image to Download the Akuma/Gouki Datafile in PDF

This custom datafile represents Akuma (known as Gouki in Japan) during the events of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. If you’re unfamiliar with the Street Fighter series, this game is currently the furthest chronologically in the series (Street Fighter 4 actually takes place before SFIII:3S). Here’s a brief description blurb for you, if you’re unfamiliar with the character:

Akuma (literally demon) is a cold and extremely powerful warrior whose sole purpose of existence is to hone his fighting skills by battling and destroying strong foes. He rarely displays any sign of emotions (aside from occasional bursts of anger) and almost never smiles. He takes his training very seriously (and deals brutally with those who dare interrupt him, as seen in his SF3: 3rd Strike ending) and likes to occasionally test himself against worthy rivals (Gen, Oro…) (Source: http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/Akuma)

When it came to creating an iconic character like Akuma, my design goals were as follows:

  • Capture the darkness and obsession of the character
  • Honor the fighting game heritage of the character
  • Give the character reasons to enter into conflict with “allies” due to his methods

Affiliations / Distinctions:

These basically speak for themselves, I think. The previous blurb probably makes these clear to you, even if you don’t know the character.

As always, when designing distinctions, try to make sure there is a potential negative use for them. Obsessed Challenge Seeker gives the player good reasons to chase down opponents, act rashly, or stray from an objective. No Longer Mortal is not strictly true, but he refers to himself this way on numerous occasions and it captures some of the character’s arrogance. Supreme Master of the Fist can refer negatively to Akuma’s inability to negotiate or use diplomacy.

Power Set:

In building Satsui No Hadou, my intention was to capture the essence of Akuma’s fighting game heritage and emphasize the rising stakes as Akuma taps into the Dark Hadou.

Though technically Akuma is extremely powerful and has not yet found his match, he never fights at full strength due to his desire to find worthy opponents. For this reason, I kept his powers a mix of D8 and D10 strengths. Strength, Reflexes and Energy Blast were set at D10 while Durability, Stamina and Teleport were set at D8. My reasoning was that Akuma is normally a low-health, high damage character in fighting games where he is tournament-legal, so it made sense to emphasize his offensive talents.

Besides Berserk and Multipower (which are both flavorful for Akuma and useful for a hero with only one power set), the SFX are all based on Akuma’s moves or Super Arts from the Street Fighter series. The idea I had when looking at Akuma’s powerset was that most of his Super Arts were combinations of his individual powers, so his SFX sometimes allow powers to be used together without having to spend a plot point or step down the dice due to Multipower.

Kongou Kokuretsu Zan was added to give the Akuma player a good way to inflict complications and to isolate opponents at the Watcher’s discretion, while Messatsu Gou Hadou is just Area Attack with an option to bump up the dice at the cost of shutting down Energy Blast.

In particular though, Akuma’s signature Super Art, the Raging Demon (Shun Goku Satsu in Japanese) is well-known and flashy, and I wanted to make it powerful but have a drawback. In most games where Akuma is tournament-legal, Shun Goku Satsu is usually not very easy to land properly–I wanted to get that flavour in the SFX. The SFX has some strong benefits, but in addition to it being usable only once per action scene, it actually causes emotional stress to Akuma if it does not succeed. It also prevents you from getting plot points from opportunities activated by the Watcher for that action and activates one of your limits.

As for limits, Exhausted was an obvious one since Akuma’s powers are based on his physical well-being. Killing Intent was added to reflect Akuma’s inherent darkness, and his style of combat and disregard for life naturally increases the danger around him. Having Akuma around is dangerous for his “allies”, as well. Using Shun Goku Satsu means a serious escalation of the conflict, so after embracing the Raging Demon, things become a lot more hectic.

Specialties:

These are also pretty straightforward, besides maybe Mystic Expert. Since Akuma is able to control vast amounts of ki energy (and do things with it like destroy islands) I felt he warranted the Mystic Expert specialization.

Milestones:

“Weakness is a disease. I am the cure!” is actually an Akuma quote from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. I felt it was indicative of Akuma’s hunt for worthy opponents, and so that is the focus of the milestone. It encourages Akuma to be chaotic, to seek worthy opponents, and to engage in banter with opponents. For your appreciation and inspiration, here is a sample of some of Akuma’s SFIII win dialogue:

  • “A weak shell for a weak soul. It was an easy task to separate the two…”
  • “You’ve fulfilled your purpose in life by allowing me to end it!”

This was the flavor I was going for in this milestone.

“You have the power within you. Unleash it!” represents Akuma’s constant attempts to make Ryu embrace the Dark Hadou. I extrapolated that somewhat to have Akuma attempting to have other allies embrace their darker natures or the darker side of their inherent powers. The final milestone rewards Akuma for defeating someone who is resisting the Dark Hadou or being defeated by someone who embraces it, either of which could mean a serious change of focus for him.

Tips for using Akuma in your game:

Akuma may choose to ally with heroes if he sees enough potential to eventually get to take on serious heavyweights. However, it may take an initial conflict with heroes for Akuma to determine if they are truly gifted enough to get to that point with him. Akuma may be naturally drawn to heroes that have conflicted natures like The Hulk, Moon Knight or Cloak; and he may get along well with aggressive hardliners like The Punisher as long as their goals align.

If you’re playing Akuma, don’t be afraid to cause havoc as you fight enemies. Separate the most powerful-looking foe on the opposing force and go toe-to-toe with him. Using your Shun Goku Satsu early may help you get an early edge, but you’ll be rolling more opportunities due to your Killing Intent limit. If a one-on-one fight is not an option, blast multiple foes with the Messatsu Gou Hadou: collateral damage isn’t your problem.

For common stunts, consider describing them as Tatsumaki Zanku Kyaku (Hurricane Kick) and Gou Shoryuken (Dragon Punch), some of Akuma’s special moves.

Don’t compromise with weakness – destroy it.

Conclusion:

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying has vast opportunities for customization, and hopefully you’ve seen some of those possibilities now that we’ve walked through a custom character design and you’ve seen how vast and supportive the customization community already is. This may be the final installment of our introduction to Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, but don’t worry: I have more thoughts, ideas, datafiles and eventually Events to share in the future.

And don’t forget to download the Akuma/Gouki Datafile PDF for use in your own MHRP games!

Did you like the design for Akuma? Have you adapted a character from another IP to the MHRP system? Have any questions about design decisions I made, or do you have custom content you want me to look at?

I’d love to hear from you–let me know in the comments!