For quite a while I have pondered making a podcast talking about the fun old Street Fighter RPG, but a Podcast can be a lot of work, and with so few official books is the effort worth it? So, I decided to focus on the translations of Warrior’s Fist (Punho do Guerreiro) and other Brazilian fan supplements, plus my own projects and fiction. Recently, I nearly started a SFRPG podcast due to a chat on the Facebook group about tutorial videos. Thankfully, I now feel like I don’t need to, since Kris Newton of the MegaDumbCast recently finished a fantastic & funny analysis of the Secrets of Shadoloo.
I first came across the MegaDumbCast in September 2019 via Mage: the Podcast, which I have blogged about previously. Since then they have collaborated again: Making an Archmage Dating Sim with Kris Newton. A fun and interesting episode diving deep in to Mage’s metaplot and characters, plus the game concept sounded great!
The MegaDumbCast (MDC) has primarily focused on Palladium games, such as: Heroes Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Ninjas & Superspies; so Kris is no stranger to fun RPGs focused on Martial Arts. MDC’s Secrets of Shadoloo series is extra special, with each episode focusing on a single page, methodically going through the whole book, and even the covers! Each page was scoured in search of clues, to then ascertain the many Secrets of Shadoloo. Consider the following clues: Ler Drit & Cross Fit, No Bull – a True Crime podcast, Shadoloo & Snacks, the importance of Turnstiles, and so much more is revealed.
The Change prompts a passionate response from me, about exploring how a tiny Change can cause large effects. After playing some games for a while, usually a campaign/chronicle, I love exploring how even a tiny change to a mechanic can majorly changes things. I appreciate that this can cause surprising results. Some players don’t like this. Plus, not every game suits this. To clarify, I am referring to things that change during play, the areas of the environment can change, possibly whole laws of reality. Whilst this is not a common event for games/settings like D&D, it can happen, whereas it’s built into Mage: the Ascension via Reality Zones, likewise the varying effects on Changelings that the different regions of the Dreaming have. Similarly, games that focus on parallel worlds like GURPS Infinite Worlds or Cypher System’s: The Strange, etc.
An old at KJC Games work meeting discussing different designs for Quest, our high fantasy play-by-mail RPG (later PBeM), and how to beat the memory limitations we had; the problem with working with old Pascal code. The aim was to reduce how much human moderation was needed with certain game aspects, so we could spend that time writing more and better stories, providing players more meaningful role-playing choices. The relevancy to tabletop is that I worked on designs to introduce tiny modifiers to achieve large effects on the game. I drew inspiration from RPGs like Mage, WFRP’s Realms of Chaos (Elric setting 😉) and Magic: the Gathering; from the global enchantments to Artifacts like Howling Mine; how different dynamic tweaks in play could change the feeling and maths of a game, without destroying what the game is. I surprised my old boss, who was happy to hear I was improving my ideas and how I explained them; in my first year working with him, I’d typically talked about big sweeping changes; I was still learning how agile the reality of business was and learning the delicacies of balancing the different preferences of each game’s community.
This leads me to my Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG) answer for today. From the 90s I have pages of game notes about adding/tweaking mechanics to achieve different outcomes. Like many role-players passionate about martial arts, real and fake, I was also a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) and Mortal Kombat (MK), etc. When I first saw MK and learned its setting, I pondered how to handle the mysterious Outworld within Street Fighter, maybe borrowing from D&D’s Manual of the Planes, or the various Umbras for the World of Darkness? But… I knew one thing was common for players of SFRPG, the design approach taken resulting in a surprising speed of play, despite the sheer number of maneuvers. So any alteration to combat could quickly bog the flow down.
I ran an alternate SFRPG game that was similar to the TV show Mortal Kombat: Conquest, where characters could receive Blessings and Curses. For example: Shichifukujin (Seven Lucky Gods) Blessing grants +1 Attribute as an Auto Success once per day, which could be allocated before or after a roll! This is not quite the same as a Merit/Advantage or Flaw/Disadvantage, because it can come and go. Although once per day, this is a powerful ability, for example, a botch can be negated, or a character could see how much damage an opponent has done to them and then grant themselves +1 soak, or make their Dexterity one point higher, which could mean they gain that lucky bit of speed to avoid a nasty combo. Crucially once per day is a big restriction; is it best to save it? Luck is a fickle thing, each time they use their Blessing they could lose it, starting at 1 in 10 and raising by +1 each time it’s used. Characters could do things to please the Shichifukujin, doing so could reduce or even reset the counter. Initially, it resulted in players taking more time to decide, but after a short while, most of the time it was quick, thus not undermining the speed of play aspect of SFRPG.
As I’ve nearly caught up on Punho do Guerreiro (Warrior’s Fist) translations, I have been able to see what the team has previously explored. After RPGaDay I can go over my old ideas and work on a series of articles for the fanzine. 🙂 Also I’ll emphasis clarity of presentation, unlike the section above. 😉
Based upon this old temporary blessing idea, I added something similar to my Trophy Gold Incursion entry. I will be breaking down what I did, in a later blog post, the good and the bad.
My current game design fascination is the moment in a story when everything changes. The colour palette switches, or a new piece of information changes everything, or the previously-established rules (of physics, of magic…) are thrown away.
2. Change: Much history of migrant workers can be traced through changes of seasons and traveling, from Alaska packing / fisheries down to the vineyards, temp residence in the cities and so on. How to model / respect this history? How to speak of adventurers in this framework?
2. #RpgADay2020 Change: my favourite definition of story was "things change in resonant ways" Like all definitions this notion has started feeling destructive to me. Rooting narrative in change seems to lead me to trying to center them around quantifiable exchange and control pic.twitter.com/tc0VIdoo49
This is a non-exhaustive list; I still have many posts to read today, so I might be adding more links. I’d recommend searching the hashtag and judge those great answers for yourself: #RPGaDay2020, some people use #RPGaDay.
This is the third article in the series exploring the impact of the game Way of the Exploding Fist (Commodore 64) had on me, the life path seeds that were planted. Because of my dad’s interest in computing, for years I’d had access to decent home computers and a big collection of games, and in 1987 he bought an Amiga 500 resulting in me being given the C64. Due to living in a seaside resort, I had access to many arcades, but I only had a tiny amount of pocket money. So when I visited the arcades with my mates I generally just watched, preferring to save what little money I had towards buying a new RPG or computer game
The first arcade game I felt compelled to play was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), even though it was just a variation on such classics as Double Dragon, it was different, because it was TMNT! So that anomaly was understandable to me, since I was such a fan of the cartoon, but I was quite surprised to be hit by the virtual tsunami that was Street Fighter 2 (SF2) in 1991. The first Street Fighter (SF) looked okay in the arcades, I’d never played it and in retrospect it seems odd that I don’t recall anybody ever mentioning it at school; the 8-bit version of SF on the C64 looked horrid.
After playing a few games of SF2, I was horrified to find out that somebody else could join in beat me and take over; since I had limited funds I was not keen on this design approach. I soon grasped the financial implications of trying to figure out hidden moves. My paper-round money was already failing to cover my three main hobbies: computer games, tabletop role-playing, and wargaming, so I made the sensible but frustrating decision to watch other people play SF2, and like my days of watching Way of the Exploding Fist, maybe I’d learn, but without the financial cost. I got to see some pretty spectacular players who’d said they spent quite a lot of money getting that good. Watching helped me develop a better understanding of the depth of the game, but it also gave me an appreciation of the calibre of opponents that could easily beat me. In 1993 a friend got SF2 for his Sega Mega Drive, so I finally got to play the game for countless hours.
I appreciated the diverse martial art styles that SF2 included. Although the game included mystical abilities, it was cool to see how they had integrated them into different martial arts style, enhancing them without commandeering them. Granted, the plot of SF2 was extremely simple, but it didn’t matter, as the playability was exceptional. In 1992 I saw Mortal Kombat (MK), which was an impressive evening of watching a crowd of people challenge each other. Personally, I preferred the more in depth fighting in SF2, but I quickly became a fan of the MK game and universe; not that MK 1 was an amazing story, but it seemed a bit more fleshed out that SF2, in particular Outworld. Mentioning that SF 2 story was simple is of course obvious, but I mention it because in 1994 a tabletop role-playing company called White Wolf released Street Fighter (SFRPG).
By 1994 the universe of Street Fighter had been expanded, particularly via manga and anime. My friends and I enjoyed Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994). Like a lot of popular settings (IP), more and more things were produced, adding ideas and variety to the original idea; some great, some not.
At the time White Wolf was known for its flagship game Vampire: the Masquerade, one of the many games set in the World of Darkness; I was an avid player and collector of these games. In the various World Darkness games, players could play characters (monsters) with incredible powers. The games tried to focus on storytelling and role-playing; a character’s story was the priority, not their powers; of course some groups focused on the power, not that there is anything innately wrong with that if the group agrees. So I was willing to give SFRPG a go, appreciating the foundations for an interesting gaming world based off the simple SF2 story. I am not claiming that White Wolf had written a masterpiece of world building, instead they had captured the essence of what had made the Street Fighter series so good. Although a gaming group could do whatever they wanted, the base focus of the game was all about a fighter’s journey to improve, set in a world of rampant crime and obscure mystics.
I was the Games Master / Storyteller (GM / ST) for several groups, and I also chatted with several other gamers at my local gaming shop, so I got to talk to lots of people. Typically, the initial response to the RPG was a quick list of surprise comments, followed by ridicule, then questions. My answers highlighted the fast combat, the depth of options, plus how intriguing M. Bison’s Shadoloo was, how similar to other secret societies/criminal empires, asking them what they thought Bison was up to. I’d explain an important game mechanic, that characters used Chi to activate certain powers, they could gain Chi points back by making Honor rolls. So if Bison had no honour, how could he regain Chi? Some role players were willing to try the game, and impressively they generally enjoyed it.
Over the years I have run several SFRPG campaigns, all were fun and some I’d even rate as good. I think it is also noteworthy to consider that the majority of players knew little to nothing about martial arts. What was great was that playing the arcade game had educated its players enough that they know what different styles roughly looked like, as well as what sort of techniques used; granted SF2 added chi powers to the mix, but did so without ruining the martial style. This SF2 education was an interesting bonus, as it generally affected a player’s ability to role-play comfortable and better, since it reduced learning the setting, styles, combat and powers. I loved that many SF2 players trying out SFRPG were pretty much veterans when it came to describing their character’s attacks, plus understanding what was happening in a detailed fight. The combat mechanics in the RPG were effective (but not perfect). An emphasis on streamlined simple mechanics better enabled players to learn how to play. The combat cards could help fights play out quickly, all in all, very efficient just like SF2. Interestingly the combat mechanics had some key differences to the other World of Darkness games, a few years later an optional book was added to the World of Darkness beautifully/amusingly entitled Combat.
I was disappointed with how the Combat book handled Mage: the Ascension. Effectively it did not add anything, suggesting Mages can perform True Magick like Stunts is IMHO pointless, since that is what a Mage game is basically like anyway. I do understand why this approach was taken, I am not saying it is worthless/garbage, just disappointing to me. Whilst there are a few special maneuvers for a character with Do 3+, which was nice, but, since Do was basically an Akashic Brotherhood (now: Akashayana) special skill. I think this approach sadly reduced a setting with infinite potential and options to cliché views of ‘Asians are best at martial arts’, ignoring the numerous world cultures with exceptional fighting systems, and the commonality of violence and the human body. This is partly why I have experimented with various ways of integrating the SFRPG mechanics and Combat Cards with other games, my own games, and for the last few years Mage.
Debates about tabletop role-playing game systems is a major part of that hobby, mechanics matter and add to that so much of what we know is from movies/games/books and not personal practice. The designers of any role-playing system need to acknowledge the fact that truly simulating reality is far too complicated, never mind the fact that so much is not understood, therefore a game needs to be easy to understand, and usually quick to play whilst not sacrificing too much realism. My point, linking back to the previous discussion about game accessibility, reducing player learning requirements, and helping players understand game events, I think overall SFRPG did a great job.
Overall I loved the core rules for SFRPG. Whilst the expansion books introduced many great things, unfortunately it also added some garbage into the game. In interviews it has been explained how rushed the game line was, sadly this shows, which is a shame because if more time had been given to the designers then maybe some of the garbage could have been more great additions. The most famous example is the Cartwheel Kick, in was so clearly broken it took most players only a few seconds to figure out that it was godly. Likewise the magic shoes in Savate. This lack of playtesting stands out, and is a disgrace to the quality of SF2 core game. Fortunately all role-playing game mechanics can be altered by groups introducing house rules, and generally a veteran gaming group can run a good campaign despite any rubbish game mechanics or bad story/world design. Having worked at a games company I have a good appreciation for the difficulties of hitting deadlines, costs of running a company, and how easy it is to miss things, which is why playtesting is so important.
Following on from a previous article mentioning Gene Lebell and Bruce Lee. It is a shame that Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) had not happened decades earlier. So many RPGs could have been fixed in regards to the martial art clichés. This is one of the interesting things about Street Fighter 2, for all the made up and fantasy aspects, the game has a diverse range of fighting techniques shown; granted no ground game, but at least grappling is a core part. I think this has helped SFRPG stand out against other RPGs, for example Palladium’s Ninjas and Superspies. The Contenders expansion added many styles and maneuvers, of particular note is Ground Fighting, but there are other gems like Chi Push.
The SFRPG rulebooks were full colour, which was very unusual for that time. Although the books had a distinctive White Wolf design with the flavour text and story snippets, the layout of the SFRPG books were more exciting/dynamic looking than their other games. The artwork was mixed, whilst some pieces were great, others were less so…
Character creation was straightforward, particularly for players familiar with other White Wolf games. Choosing a character’s special moves list was an interesting and fun part of the process, since it would be a major part of the character’s abilities and development. Interestingly, the game encouraged players to declare the names for their moves, just like Hadoken in the computer game. Whilst not everybody did this, nobody complained about it being silly, I put this down to the fact that SF 2 had taught players that this was a somewhat normal the thing to do.
Even after writing several of the negative points about the tabletop RPG, I still think that overall the core SFRPG was brilliant, providing players with a great toolset to explore the intriguing world of SF2. Along with the animated movie, it is nice to know that some game tie-ins aren’t complete garbage. Whilst there have been other good martial art role-playing games, my players and I still fondly recall many great Street Fighter gaming sessions and rate it as our favourite of the genre. Every few years we play it again, playing with new ideas and house rules.
The Street Fighter series has millions of fans, but a few of us crave more than just the fights. We are also nostalgic about the espionage of the World Warrior circuit, rising up in rank, to more epic stories of training under Ryu, discovering new/lost techniques, and I suspect in a few cases usurping Bison to take over Shadoloo! I’d love a great computer RPG set in the SF world, whilst I doubt that will happen, maybe one day it will?!
From Way of the Exploding Fist to Street Fighter RPG 3 part series
If you are not familiar with #RPGaDay, then please read this page first. For the 5th day of #RPGaDay the question is:
Which RPG cover best captures the spirit of the game?
There are so many amazing game covers I contemplated picking, I’ve listed ones I nearly choose below. Since this question has no correct answer, choosing one was quite difficult. I went with:
#RPGaDay 5 Usagi Yojimbo, also the only game I’ve bought simply due to the cover.
Since any RPG using existing intellectual property (IP) brings with it a lot of sentiment, be it: Star Wars, Trek, D.C, Marvel, Middle Earth, Babylon 5, Street Fighter, etc., could be thought of as having a bonus to any dice roll to help capture what the spirit of a game would be; I’d go as far as claiming that it’s an automatic success. This is why I think it puts any RPG cover for such an IP in to a special category. This is not to diminish some of the amazing front covers for any RPG using a big IP setting; I’m just saying that for me I already have an opinion of what the spirit is.
I had no idea what Usagi Yojimbo was when I bought it, so I am ignoring the fact the game used an existing IP; also it’s clearly not as famous as the IPs mentioned above 😉 I vaguely recall thinking it might be a bit like TMNT, but it looked less zany, more serious. Also my first introduction to Greg Stolze, whose varied great work I’ve enjoyed many times over the years.
I almost choose the stunning artwork used for Tales from the Loop. So many are saying it really captures the spirit of the game, but I have not played it yet so I thought in inappropriate to pick. Whilst the game is partly inspired by Stranger Things, but it does not use the title, so I think it is fair to not treat like the big IPs like Star Wars.
Minimalist Front Cover Shout-Outs
It’s hard make a front cover whilst keeping details to a minimum. It makes sense to make epic fantasy/sci-fi pictures for an RPG, since the fan base is usually the sort of people that will plaster their walls with pictures of dragons and spaceships. So it is understandable that the majority of RPGs use an epic scene for their front cover, especially given how important drama is for any RPG.
Two games that deviate from this norm, that I also think use the front cover to capture the spirit of their game are:
Traveller’s text on a black background somehow works; maybe because it is a gripping short story, atop the black which represents deep space and vulnerability?
Code and Dagger (Cryptomancer) does a great job of encapsulating that game.
Other Shout-Outs
There are so many other front covers that I nearly choose: Cyberpunk 2020, Warhammer 1st Ed, Shadowrun, L5R, Deadlands. Of special note to me is Aberrant, there is a lot going on in the picture that captures the drama of the setting, without it being too busy.
Batjutsu 