Actually, that might fit well into the Endgame mechanics, as well as
the Gift mechanics. And there's already going to be a mechanic
emphasizing dramatic death of PCs that it might fit into. A lot of
times, people don't use the ultimate weapon until someone important
has died at the hands of the enemy...

As far as personal issues go, the Eyes will be focusing on that. In
essence, you have two Eyes, which are like achetypes or important plot
elements, like "Young Prodigy" and "Inspired by Love". The Eyes change
over time, along certain directed paths. The "Young Prodigy" can
become the "Hardened Veteran", while someone who is "Inspired By Love"
can become the "Jilted Lover".

In essence, there's a sort of game-mechanical path for the way the
character grows, with different possibilities along the way, all of
which have a different game mechanical effect, like Feats or Keys. The
"Young Prodigy" can stay the Prodigy, or he can become the Hardened
Veteran, the Reluctant Warrior, or become Inspired By Love if he isn't
already, or burn out and become a Drunkard, or develop a cold Hatred
of the Enemy, or become the Bloodthirsty Bastard, or develop a Fatal
Attraction for someone on the other side

Plus, it can loop back on itself. Some Eyes, like the Young Prodigy,
can never be returned to, but the Drunkard can become Inspired By
Love, and then end up with a Dead Lover, which drives them to drink,
and they become the Drunkard again. Or they can take a totally
different path. All of the Eyes interlink to each other in a
complicated way.

The idea is to encourage melodrama by setting up a sort of "emotional"
lifepath system.

Each Eye has its own game mechanical effect, either in currency gained
(the Drunkard gains Gift Points when the other players give him Lapses
involving alcohol) or special things you can do (the Young Prodigy can
spend a Gift Point for a spectactular display of sheer talent, above
and beyond what you can normally do with Gift Points), or both (the
Mentor gains GPs when people succeed using his advice, and can spend
GP to help others, above and beyond the normal mechanic).

To fit back in with what you're talking about, moving beyond one's
personal problems is very much a part of the game, though one might
move into DIFFERENT problems. To fit in with your idea, perhaps there
can be a list of certain Eyes, like Drunkard or Traumatic Past, which
no one in the group can currently have active if they're going to do
an "ultimate weapon" sort of thing. That is, everyone has to be in
some of the more "mature" or at least "positive" or self-sufficient
parts of the path, such as "Inspired By Love" or, more cynically,
"Hardend Veteran".

Or, all that might be required is for you to move past problems you
started the game with. Sure, you've turned to drink as a way of
coping, but you're no longer mourning your Dead Lover.

Actually, for that serious Macross feel, perhaps one should require
that everyone be "Inspired by Love" before you can engage the ultimate
weapon. Because Love is the ultimate weapon. :)

Oh, and Gatchaman is defininately on the list that's showing up in the
Appendix, as well as Voltron. Classic shonen fare, that.

On 5/1/06, Mike Holmes <mike_c_holmes@...> wrote:
>
> >From: "Kirt Dankmyer" <xiombarg@...>
> >
> >(all
> >three of which were combined into a single American series known as
> >Robotech), as well as Space Battleship Yamato, which was released in
> >the US as Star Blazers.
>
> What about Battle of the Planets (AKA G-Force AKA Gatchaman)? :-)
>
> So...I'm thinking about this, and there's something about anime that nobody
> has ever touched in a RPG, that I think Unsung maybe could tackle. That is,
> there's this set of rules in Anime about escalation. Things always start at
> a personal level, and then get larger and larger. Till, ultimately, the
> ultimate weapon has to be unleashed. This rarely ever makes sense to the
> plot. Instead it's something ineffably Japanese that I only understand
> second-hand.
>
> For instance, why don't they just go to Firey Pheonix form in G-Force right
> off the bat? Why don't they always just fire the Yamato's spinal weapon? Why
> don't they always just form Voltron? And why, then, not immediately FORM
> BLAZING SWORD? (In fact the whole Sentai tradition seems to almost be based
> solely around this particular convention - power rangers have to start with
> martial arts, then they can escalate to ranger form, then they can pull
> melee weapons, then they can pull ranged weapons, then they can pull
> super-ranged weapons, then they can pull group super-ranged weapons - and
> all the while they can always leap forward to the Zord escalation track if
> and only if the opponent goes giant).
>
> It's because of the kewlness factor of these things, and the absolute
> dramatic requirement in the show for the team to have overcome their own
> personal problems before being able to come to the cataclysmic conclusion
> that these "laws" exist.
>
> So I'm looking at Unsung, and I'm thinking that somehow the Gift mechanics
> can be leveraged to mechanically deal with these conventions. Any chance
> you've done some work of that sort?
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death