High School Harem Comedy (Game System, PEACH)

[GM_3826]

Now that you've created an advantage literally called Murphy's Law, it occurs to me now (since you were going to reuse a character of yours named Murphy) that I completely forgot to give you the time to make a character for my game. My apologies!

As for the archetype itself... I'm probably not the one that should be reviewing this. That said, I'll give my thoughts. The mechanics are fine, I don't think anything is extraordinarily overpowered or underpowered. But the fluff... I've seen this sort of thing done before as a straight Dojikko. It's less of a concrete anime archetype, too, and looks out of place with classics such as Tsunderes and Chuunibyou. The reason as to why I did Servant was because maids are such a stereotypically anime thing, and are rather common in harem series in general, even if they don't typically show up in the kind of series HSHC emulates. So, looking at a couple of examples from the harem series I've actually watched, I came up with a "Servant" archetype with the justification of "this is just any unusually devoted character". Even shoving them in a maid outfit makes sense: anime will look for any excuse to shove a character in a maid outfit. But that's just me.

@Ilven Need Only Say the Word working for a Luck auto-success... actually, that seems like a pretty good idea. I'll change up the wording a bit.

How about this?

Dependable: You're always there if the protagonist needs help with something, and he's more than willing to pay you back for your troubles. Once per episode, you may treat a failed unopposed Luck roll as a success.

[AvatarVecna]

Now that you've created an advantage literally called Murphy's Law, it occurs to me now (since you were going to reuse a character of yours named Murphy) that I completely forgot to give you the time to make a character for my game. My apologies!

No worries, I was kinda taking forever on that character anyway. If you're willing to give me more time to get them together, it'll end up being a lot like Morrigan has previously been (just tons of Luck bonuses stacked together, albeit with a slightly new take on the fluff and personality). If not, though, no worries.

As for the archetype itself... I'm probably not the one that should be reviewing this. That said, I'll give my thoughts. The mechanics are fine, I don't think anything is extraordinarily overpowered or underpowered. But the fluff... I've seen this sort of thing done before as a straight Dojikko.

I'm more than aware that this kind of character can be done okay with Dojikko - that's what I've settled for the last few times I've made Morrigan. While this kind of character isn't super-common, it felt about as common as some of the rarer archetypes (particularly some of the rarer supernatural ones) that I felt it's existence was okay. Mechanically-speaking, the reason I ended up making it rather than just making new powers for the Dojikko (which these can be, if you're fine with the Dojikko having lots of powers, but then other archetypes would need more powers too >.<) was because Dojikko didn't quite fit the idea: a living Jinx is a curse on everyone and everything nearby, bad luck and misfortune plaguing those that cross their path, where Dojikko is merely...extraordinarily clumsy. Granted, being that uncoordinated is a large part of characters like this usually, but it's hardly the only thing. In particular, the die manipulation part of Living Jinx is a mechanic much more closely tied to the idea than clumsiness. I don't deny that it's a lot rarer in harem anime than most other things, though. >.<

[GM_3826]

No worries, I was kinda taking forever on that character anyway. If you're willing to give me more time to get them together, it'll end up being a lot like Morrigan has previously been (just tons of Luck bonuses stacked together, albeit with a slightly new take on the fluff and personality). If not, though, no worries.



I'm more than aware that this kind of character can be done okay with Dojikko - that's what I've settled for the last few times I've made Morrigan. While this kind of character isn't super-common, it felt about as common as some of the rarer archetypes (particularly some of the rarer supernatural ones) that I felt it's existence was okay. Mechanically-speaking, the reason I ended up making it rather than just making new powers for the Dojikko (which these can be, if you're fine with the Dojikko having lots of powers, but then other archetypes would need more powers too >.<) was because Dojikko didn't quite fit the idea: a living Jinx is a curse on everyone and everything nearby, bad luck and misfortune plaguing those that cross their path, where Dojikko is merely...extraordinarily clumsy. Granted, being that uncoordinated is a large part of characters like this usually, but it's hardly the only thing. In particular, the die manipulation part of Living Jinx is a mechanic much more closely tied to the idea than clumsiness. I don't deny that it's a lot rarer in harem anime than most other things, though. >.<

See, I'd argue that "Living Jinx" is not only too uncommon, it's also more of a character trait than an archetype. In the base game, the only non-supernatural archetypes that I'd really argue were as rare in the kind of anime HSHC parodies as a super unlucky character are the Miko and Idol Singer, and both of those are huge parts of Japanese culture and therefore relevant as anime archetypes, even if they're not common in a high school harem comedy. When you add in homebrew, Tech Whiz is equally as rare, but unlike Living Jinx it can't really be done using Archetypes in the base game, and Wingmate was prefaced with "I'm not really sure this is all that common in this sort of series." Supernatural archetypes, meanwhile, require a bit more support than other types of characters: you could just say "this character is a celestial", but racial powers tend to be a part of most RPGs for a reason. It feels kind of half-assed for a character of a non-human race to have no unique mechanics, regardless of how little sense that makes, since races have a tendency to be treated as unique cultures and species with their own unique powers. Universal monstrous advantages are meant as sort of a quick fix to this, but they tend to be treated more like any other universal advantage in supernatural games. So, it's either that you create a variety of balanced universal advantages for supernatural games, which is difficult, create homebrew archetypes for supernatural races that aren't very common in most anime, or play as a monstrous character with no mechanical support... and again, there are problems with that. So, not only is the archetype uncommon and can easily be played by simply refluffing mechanics, it's more of a character trait than an archetype: it's hard to say that being unlucky is an archetype in it's own right. It's a character development trope, not a character trope. I'd argue that it'd work better as a universal advantage that let any character potentially use a penalty power, perhaps with some more flaws than usual since it's a universal advantage.

[Mutazoia]

So, for various reasons, I decided to google "High School Harem Comedy RPG" tonight, and was rather surprised to find a bunch of hits, including THIS little gem:



Not sure if Rainy pays attention to this any more, but LOL

[JBPuffin]

So, for various reasons, I decided to google "High School Harem Comedy RPG" tonight, and was rather surprised to find a bunch of hits, including THIS little gem:



Not sure if Rainy pays attention to this any more, but LOL

Oh man...this is something else.

[JNAProductions]

Okay, take 1, get 'er done.

Naga

Spoiler: Pic

Show

"I don't bite... Much."

You are a snakeman/woman. Towering over ordinary humankind, your lower body trails off into easily a dozen or more feet of snaky tail. Your eyes are distinctly reptilian, and you have a knack for various magics.

Not Quite Human-A Naga, while rather human, still has some distinctly reptilian features. By accepting a -3 penalty to an Allure check, you can gain a +2 bonus on your next Skill or Conflict check.

Big And Imposing-Being something like 10' tall when you're fully raised and having a tail powerful enough to bend steel can sometimes scare others. +2 on Conflict rolls where your size and imposing nature can be to your advantage.

Puff The Magic Snake-Drugs are a rich and colorful part of the Naga history. Their biology, partly magical in nature, allows them to consume copious amounts of stimulants, hallucinogens, depressants, and other drugs without any effects. However, the few brews that CAN affect a Naga are... Well... Something else. By taking a -3 on a Skill or Conflict check (and copious amounts of magical drugs) you can gain +2 on your next Allure or Luck check.

Treacherous Snake-You have a knack for leading others into bad decisions. Twice per episode, you may choose to not participate in an unopposed roll, and instead apply whatever positive modifiers you would have as a penalty to every other participants' rolls (or only some, as you see fit).

---

That feels really unfocused. And in fact, I wouldn't play it! It doesn't fit my style. But hopefully it's not too terribly unbalanced.

Regardless, critique the poop out of this, and offer recommendations to improve it!

[Esprit15]

Not Quite Human should be balanced with things like Colorful Cursing and Now It’s On, which require you fail a roll rather than simply take a penalty.

Big and Imposing should be worded such that it does not stack with Terrifying Presence, or other intimidation based advantages.

Puff the Magic Snake: See Not Quite Human

Treacherous Snake seems interesting. I’d be curious to see it put into effect, though am concerned that a strong Conflict build could take an early lead and then use it to just keep people from participating, since it means that basically 1/5 of scenes could become a wash with it.

[JNAProductions]

I changed them to -3 instead. If you DO think it only proc on a failure, how would you suggest rewording it?

[Esprit15]

The problem is that too much of a negative, or a negative that can be activated at will, serves as fuel for boosts that rely on failing earlier rolls.

[Mutazoia]

Okay, take 1, get 'er done.

Naga

Spoiler: Pic

Show

"I don't bite... Much."

You are a snakeman/woman. Towering over ordinary humankind, your lower body trails off into easily a dozen or more feet of snaky tail. Your eyes are distinctly reptilian, and you have a knack for various magics.

Not Quite Human-A Naga, while rather human, still has some distinctly reptilian features. By accepting a -3 penalty to an Allure check, you can gain a +2 bonus on your next Skill or Conflict check.

Big And Imposing-Being something like 10' tall when you're fully raised and having a tail powerful enough to bend steel can sometimes scare others. +2 on Conflict rolls where your size and imposing nature can be to your advantage.

Puff The Magic Snake-Drugs are a rich and colorful part of the Naga history. Their biology, partly magical in nature, allows them to consume copious amounts of stimulants, hallucinogens, depressants, and other drugs without any effects. However, the few brews that CAN affect a Naga are... Well... Something else. By taking a -3 on a Skill or Conflict check (and copious amounts of magical drugs) you can gain +2 on your next Allure or Luck check.

Treacherous Snake-You have a knack for leading others into bad decisions. Twice per episode, you may choose to not participate in an unopposed roll, and instead apply whatever positive modifiers you would have as a penalty to every other participants' rolls (or only some, as you see fit).

---

That feels really unfocused. And in fact, I wouldn't play it! It doesn't fit my style. But hopefully it's not too terribly unbalanced.

Regardless, critique the poop out of this, and offer recommendations to improve it!

Found a better pic for you...

Spoiler: Everyday life with Monster Girls - Mia

Show

[JNAProductions]

The problem is that too much of a negative, or a negative that can be activated at will, serves as fuel for boosts that rely on failing earlier rolls.

So what would you recommend? I'm all ears for better options.

Found a better pic for you...

Spoiler: Everyday life with Monster Girls - Mia

Show

Nice! Is good.

[Esprit15]

Found a better pic for you...

Spoiler: Everyday life with Monster Girls - Mia

Show

Fixed that for you.

[A Rainy Knight]

So, for various reasons, I decided to google "High School Harem Comedy RPG" tonight, and was rather surprised to find a bunch of hits, including THIS little gem:



Not sure if Rainy pays attention to this any more, but LOL

What on earth.

Nah, I really haven't been paying much attention anymore, but I always feel a little tickled when I check in and see that this thing is still going without me!

[AvatarVecna]

What on earth.

Nah, I really haven't been paying much attention anymore, but I always feel a little tickled when I check in and see that this thing is still going without me!

Pfft, like Illven's gonna let this game die when there's still waifus to woo.

[Lentrax]

Hey everyone. Just thought I’d let you all know I am starting a game here on the forums.

It’s a sports theme game, with the sport being football(soccer).

If you all are interested, the recruitment thread is over here.

[JBPuffin]

A couple weeks ago, I backed the rules onto a Word document on my laptop. Today, I decided to go through and see what homebrew/fixes I'd want to have at my fingertips, and rediscovered my homebrew archetype. Given that I'm a better game designer, and the archetype is in desperate need of an update, I present to you unambiguously: the Witch!

Spoiler: The Archetype

Show

Witch

"So, Protagonist-kun...my friends and I are performing a skyclad ritual up by the lake. Wanna come watch?"

Your friends thought you were crazy when you went goth; in fact, everyone who knew thought it was weird. Then you bought a Ouija board, and a black cat, and some of those crystal things…Now, however, there's that new guy in class, and he's pretty cute. You have a couple spells you'd like to cast on him.

Bewitching: When you’re dressed for the part, you’re less Wicked Witch of the West and more Maleficent. +1 to Allure rolls when dressed in dark clothing and heavy makeup. This bonus increases to +2 if your outfit includes the wide-brimmed hat and broomstick.

Black Sacrament: It's a good thing the school has an Occult Studies course on campus; in your spare time, you whip up a hex that’ll keep the competition off your back. The first PC to roll against you in a scene takes a -2 penalty on their roll.

Entrenched Apathy: Why should you care? Sticks and stones can break my bones, but you’re already damned, and nothing can break through that. Twice per episode, you may take +2 on a Conflict or Skill roll, but you then take -2 on your next Allure roll.

Killer Reputation: Remember what you did to Jimmy in second grade? Nope, but people seem to think you did something to him, and that kind of reputation has its advantages. Besides, you could do that if you wanted to…+2 on Conflict rolls involving intimidation and scaring people.

Occult Enthusiast: You have the books, and you had the time, so why not study up on ancient Egyptian burials, or the sorts of magic druids would perform at Stonehenge? +2 on Skill rolls involving performing rituals or recalling information about ancient religions and occult practices.

And since I wanted one more archetype to make my list a nice round number, here's the Programmer.

Spoiler: The Archetype

Show

Programmer

“There you are, Protagonist-kun! Did that bug fix I sent you work?”

You live in the digital age; unlike most of your classmates, however, you understand how machines work, which makes you the perfect IT girl for the boy who put his wrench in your plans. He doesn’t have to stop with the wrench, though…

Admin Privileges: It’s no secret the school’s computers aren’t the most secure, and being the savvy student you are, you’ve managed to find some very interesting things about Protagonist-kun. +2 on Allure rolls involving influencing the protagonist’s decision-making.

Hackergal: You’re a computer whiz in the prime of her life. +1 to Skill rolls involving hacking or programming computers, and +2 to Luck rolls when the protagonist is having computer trouble.

Malware Detected: You’re used to dealing with digital sabotage, so putting a firewall up around and carrying on isn’t that hard in real life either. Twice per episode, you may nullify all negative modifiers on a roll.

Ones and Zeroes: Luck? You don’t believe in it. Even random numbers aren’t truly random; there’s still an equation involved, and once you have that? Twice per episode, you may substitute a Skill roll for a Luck roll.

Robotics Club: You write the programs for your school’s robotics club projects, and they’re more than happy to help when they can. Once per episode, you may treat a failed unopposed roll as a 4 if having other people assist you would be helpful.

[Illven]

A couple weeks ago, I backed the rules onto a Word document on my laptop. Today, I decided to go through and see what homebrew/fixes I'd want to have at my fingertips, and rediscovered my homebrew archetype. Given that I'm a better game designer, and the archetype is in desperate need of an update, I present to you unambiguously: the Witch!

Spoiler: The Archetype

Show

Witch

"So, Protagonist-kun...my friends and I are performing a skyclad ritual up by the lake. Wanna come watch?"

Your friends thought you were crazy when you went goth; in fact, everyone who knew thought it was weird. Then you bought a Ouija board, and a black cat, and some of those crystal things…Now, however, there's that new guy in class, and he's pretty cute. You have a couple spells you'd like to cast on him.

Bewitching: When you’re dressed for the part, you’re less Wicked Witch of the West and more Maleficent. +1 to Allure rolls when dressed in dark clothing and heavy makeup. This bonus increases to +2 if your outfit includes the wide-brimmed hat and broomstick.

Black Sacrament: It's a good thing the school has an Occult Studies course on campus; in your spare time, you whip up a hex that’ll keep the competition off your back. The first PC to roll against you in a scene takes a -2 penalty on their roll.

Entrenched Apathy: Why should you care? Sticks and stones can break my bones, but you’re already damned, and nothing can break through that. Twice per episode, you may take +2 on a Conflict or Skill roll, but you then take -2 on your next Allure roll.

Killer Reputation: Remember what you did to Jimmy in second grade? Nope, but people seem to think you did something to him, and that kind of reputation has its advantages. Besides, you could do that if you wanted to…+2 on Conflict rolls involving intimidation and scaring people.

Occult Enthusiast: You have the books, and you had the time, so why not study up on ancient Egyptian burials, or the sorts of magic druids would perform at Stonehenge? +2 on Skill rolls involving performing rituals or recalling information about ancient religions and occult practices.

And since I wanted one more archetype to make my list a nice round number, here's the Programmer.

Spoiler: The Archetype

Show

Programmer

“There you are, Protagonist-kun! Did that bug fix I sent you work?”

You live in the digital age; unlike most of your classmates, however, you understand how machines work, which makes you the perfect IT girl for the boy who put his wrench in your plans. He doesn’t have to stop with the wrench, though…

Admin Privileges: It’s no secret the school’s computers aren’t the most secure, and being the savvy student you are, you’ve managed to find some very interesting things about Protagonist-kun. +2 on Allure rolls involving influencing the protagonist’s decision-making.

Hackergal: You’re a computer whiz in the prime of her life. +1 to Skill rolls involving hacking or programming computers, and +2 to Luck rolls when the protagonist is having computer trouble.

Malware Detected: You’re used to dealing with digital sabotage, so putting a firewall up around and carrying on isn’t that hard in real life either. Twice per episode, you may nullify all negative modifiers on a roll.

Ones and Zeroes: Luck? You don’t believe in it. Even random numbers aren’t truly random; there’s still an equation involved, and once you have that? Twice per episode, you may substitute a Skill roll for a Luck roll.

Robotics Club: You write the programs for your school’s robotics club projects, and they’re more than happy to help when they can. Once per episode, you may treat a failed unopposed roll as a 4 if having other people assist you would be helpful.

So witch needs another ability, and Black sacrament is just a poor ability. It actively encourages people to not post after you, because no one's going to want to take a -2 penalty to their roll.

And robotics club is really, really weak. Graceful is a 2/ep choose to roll a 4. Robotics club can be used after a poor roll, but can only be used 1/ep, and only if having other people help would help you. Meanwhile Heir to the dojo would just let you auto succeed on any unopposed roll.

[AvatarVecna]

Witch

"So, Protagonist-kun...my friends and I are performing a skyclad ritual up by the lake. Wanna come watch?"

Your friends thought you were crazy when you went goth; in fact, everyone who knew thought it was weird. Then you bought a Ouija board, and a black cat, and some of those crystal things…Now, however, there's that new guy in class, and he's pretty cute. You have a couple spells you'd like to cast on him.

Bewitching: When you’re dressed for the part, you’re less Wicked Witch of the West and more Maleficent. +1 to Allure rolls when dressed in dark clothing and heavy makeup. This bonus increases to +2 if your outfit includes the wide-brimmed hat and broomstick.

Black Sacrament: It's a good thing the school has an Occult Studies course on campus; in your spare time, you whip up a hex that’ll keep the competition off your back. The first PC to roll against you in a scene takes a -2 penalty on their roll.

Entrenched Apathy: Why should you care? Sticks and stones can break my bones, but you’re already damned, and nothing can break through that. Twice per episode, you may take +2 on a Conflict or Skill roll, but you then take -2 on your next Allure roll.

Killer Reputation: Remember what you did to Jimmy in second grade? Nope, but people seem to think you did something to him, and that kind of reputation has its advantages. Besides, you could do that if you wanted to…+2 on Conflict rolls involving intimidation and scaring people.

Occult Enthusiast: You have the books, and you had the time, so why not study up on ancient Egyptian burials, or the sorts of magic druids would perform at Stonehenge? +2 on Skill rolls involving performing rituals or recalling information about ancient religions and occult practices.

Bewitching is typical for dress powers. No problems here...at least, not any that aren't also systemic problems of dress powers in general, but I digress.

Black Sacrement seems strange. For starters, it almost certainly is limited to Opposed rolls (since that's when players "roll against you"). However, there's not really a turn order as such, merely an order in which people post that doesn't necessarily correlate to mechanics (since people are allowed to change their own posts/power usage based on posts that come after theirs, in case there's massive changes to the mechanics side of things that makes their previous usage less ideal). That essentially makes this either a "-2 to one player rolling anything during an opposed roll" or "-2 to one player rolling the the same roll as you during an opposed roll"; the former should probably have a use limit (since it could apply to anyone; maybe 3/e though since it's single-target), while the latter is reasonable as an at-will power since the other players can dodge it by rolling other things. This is essentially the problem right now: since the power is at-will, depending on what you meant by "rolling against you" it's either incredibly overpowered or incredibly underpowered. My suggestion for the reworked power would probably be:

It's a good thing the school has an Occult Studies course on campus; in your spare time, you whip up a hex that’ll keep the competition off your back. Three times per episode when you are attempting an Opposed roll, you may give a -2 to any one other girl* participating in the roll.

*: The game tends to use "girl" to refer to PCs since that seems to be the expected PCs, so if you'd prefer to clear up the mechanical language further, you could substitute in "player" or "PC" instead of girl to make it clear it can be applied to male PCs as well.

Entrenched Apathy also feels mechanically weird, and I'm not sure how to change it while still fitting the fluff. The closest comparison I can see is the Genki's "Overclock" (although I generally consider that power a tad underpowered). Anyway, on the one hand, Overclock can apply the bonus to any roll, where you can only apply it to Conflict or Skill; on the other hand, Genki applies the penalty to your very next roll regardless of type, while you only apply it to your next Allure roll. Additionally, I'm confused as to why being uncaring would make you better at Skill rolls? I would think apathy would reduce your willingness to put in effort and thought (the basis of most Skill rolls I've seen).

If i was changing up the mechanics to better suit what I think is the fluff you're going for, I'd probably go with a mechanic like Kuudere's "Deep Freeze".

Killer Reputation is a slightly different name for an existing power in another archetype, so no issues here.

Occult Enthusiast seems like it could be a good power, but I'm worried that it might be too circumstantial, if you know what I mean. Like, compare it to some other powers: Bewitching will be giving you a +1 to most every Allure roll and the occasional +2; then you have a skill power like Honor Student that gives +2 Skill whenever knowledge/academics in general would play into things; then you have a power like Killer Reputation, which could easily be worked into most of your Conflict rolls. This power...it's certainly thematic, and is much better in a game that includes Supernaturals, but even in such a game, I'd be hard-pressed to take this power unless I knew cult stuff was gonna come up often enough to make this comparable to other powers like it. At the same time, I'm not really sure how to expand the circumstances without also basically ignoring the existing fluff.

As Illven pointed out, most archetypes have 6 powers. I would like to suggest one of my own for Goth:

When life decides to take a steaming dump on you, you turn that bad luck into anger at the world, and sadness with yourself...and you ride those emotional rollercoasters to victory! Whenever you lose an opposed Luck roll or fail an Unopposed Luck roll, you gain +2 to an Allure roll or Conflict roll later in the episode.

And that's my two coppers on that.

Programmer

“There you are, Protagonist-kun! Did that bug fix I sent you work?”

You live in the digital age; unlike most of your classmates, however, you understand how machines work, which makes you the perfect IT girl for the boy who put his wrench in your plans. He doesn’t have to stop with the wrench, though…

Admin Privileges: It’s no secret the school’s computers aren’t the most secure, and being the savvy student you are, you’ve managed to find some very interesting things about Protagonist-kun. +2 on Allure rolls involving influencing the protagonist’s decision-making.

Hackergal: You’re a computer whiz in the prime of her life. +1 to Skill rolls involving hacking or programming computers, and +2 to Luck rolls when the protagonist is having computer trouble.

Malware Detected: You’re used to dealing with digital sabotage, so putting a firewall up around and carrying on isn’t that hard in real life either. Twice per episode, you may nullify all negative modifiers on a roll.

Ones and Zeroes: Luck? You don’t believe in it. Even random numbers aren’t truly random; there’s still an equation involved, and once you have that? Twice per episode, you may substitute a Skill roll for a Luck roll.

Robotics Club: You write the programs for your school’s robotics club projects, and they’re more than happy to help when they can. Once per episode, you may treat a failed unopposed roll as a 4 if having other people assist you would be helpful.

Admin Privileges, Malware Detected, and Ones And Zeroes all seem fine.

Hackergal...I could honestly think it's okay to upgrade that skill bonus to a +2. Because of how circumstantial both bonuses are, it'd still be relatively worse than Otaku's "Cosplay Enthusiast", which itself is far behind the likes of Poker Face, School Queen, and Connections.

Robotics Club seems really weak. Like, I think Heir To The Dojo is a bit overpowered for the kind of power it is, but the more balanced versions of HttD are still "1/e auto-succeed at an Unopposed {roll type} you just failed". Hell, Illven points out that this is basically even worse than Graceful, and I think Graceful's actually not that great a power (it should be 3/e, IME, but that's unrelated). Additionally, I think with fluff like "you have people who can help you out", you might want to be able to have them help out more often, or on a wider variety of things? My suggestion would be to copy Meganekko's "Contingency Plan", giving you "2/e roll 2d6b1 instead of 1d6 for your roll, and this roll is immune to Dazzling Display and the like". A nice general ability you can call on twice per episode letting your Robotics Club friends aid in you in a variety of ways.

[gemohandy]

Question/Potential Exploit: How do "Foresight" and "Odd Affinity" work if used together?

Foresight: When you’re able to correctly guess the results of your own actions, you can capitalize even on the worst of situations. Twice per episode, when making a roll, you may guess whether the result of your d6 will be even or odd. If you guess correctly, the result is counted as a 6.

Odd Affinity: “Odd” is a word that describes you pretty well. Twice per episode, you may choose to make an Odd Roll, which doubles the value of your die roll if the rolled number is odd (i.e. the possible results are 2, 2, 4, 6, 6, and 10).

If both are used together, which one applies first? Because if Odd Affinity applies first, then the result is guaranteed to be even, making Foresight a guaranteed 6. If Foresight is applied first, then the results become 2, 6, 6, 6, 6, and 10. Both of those seem significantly better than most other abilities, even though this does use two limited-use abilities. However, I haven't actually gotten the chance to play, so I could be wrong about that.

EDIT: Third possible interpretation: Both abilities are based on the original roll, and ignore modifications when deciding whether or not to apply. In that case, the results would be 2, 4, 6, 12, 12, 12 (Guess Odds, Odds get replaced with 6s but are still considered odd numbers for Odd Affinity, those 6s get doubled, producing 12s.)

[Setrin]

What on earth.

Nah, I really haven't been paying much attention anymore, but I always feel a little tickled when I check in and see that this thing is still going without me!

Derenyanni player here and GM for that particular video. We were pretty floored to see our video get found, let alone acknowledged here! :) I brought this to the attention of our players and now we're curious to see if people want to see more of these! Maybe that'll get us some motivation to get off our butts and do another video outside of our usual games.

As for the weird raptor thing, that's some kind of space-yandere raptor species that one of our players made for a sci-fi setting and someone asked to play one when we were all devising characters. We basically pulled an "anything goes" for this one.

[Lentrax]

The background has come up often enough in my games that I decided to make it a full blown archetype. So here it is:

Spoiler: The Mob Princess

Show

Im going to make Protagonist-kun an offer he can’t refuse...

You are the heiress to the family business. You come from noble blood, and are quite certain in your belief that everybody should be groveling before you. Except maybe for your heart’s desire. So long as he understands his place, that is.

Above the Law: Rules are for chumps and commoners. Twice per episode, you can automatically succeed at any Unopposed Conflict roll.

Friend of the Family: Your family has deep connections with the local population, and you can call upon them for aid when you need it. Twice per episode you can gain a +2 bonus to any Conflict roll when you can reasonably call upon someone.

Deep Pockets: You have near unlimited wealth. Twice per episode you can force the other players to roll twice and use the lower result. This power nullifies a use of Dazzling Display against you.

Honor is All: You sit at the center of a complicated business of treachery and deceit, but you also are bound by the laws of the Organization. This gives you tremendous fortitude when it comes to doing your duty. Twice per episode you gain a +2 bonus to a Skill or Conflict roll when your personal or familial honor is at stake.

The Eyes of the Capo: You know how to command respect. Not through force, but through sheer personality. Twice per episode, you can gain a +2 bonus to Allure rolls.

Favor for a Favor: Of course you are willing to help. Don’t worry about the cost. I’m sure you’re good for it. Once an episode, you can give a player a +2 to any roll. On the next roll, you gain a +2 bonus, and they suffer a -1 penalty as they repay your favor.

[Lentrax]

My newest in a long line of crazy theme ideas for a game.

A harem comedy based off of Pokémon trainers. Would anyone be willing to try it out if I set it up?

[Esprit15]

My newest in a long line of crazy theme ideas for a game.

A harem comedy based off of Pokémon trainers. Would anyone be willing to try it out if I set it up?

I would be tempted, certainly.

[IndianaSwede]

Hi! I have a question involving the mechanics of the game, so forgive me if I sound dumb. Do the players pick what to roll from a list of actions that the GM prepares beforehand for the scene and then after they roll the scene plays out (for example, players can choose to use either their allure to convince the protagonist to join the club they joined or luck to be fortunate enough that the protagonist somehow ended up joining their club, they roll, and then the scene plays out)? Or is it meant to be more free flow, as in during the scene a player can choose to roll for an opportunity they come across (for example, the scene starts, one of the players happen to find a watermelon and then roll for skill to win a watermelon seed spitting contest)? I did read the original post, but I wasn’t entirely sure if the former was the intention, since then it feels like the choices for players are limited to a maximum of four, should a scene like that even come across.
Furthermore, unless I misunderstood (and if I have please correct me), it seems like you decide the actions of the players without them having more say then “this” or “that”, which may be fine if your group of players don’t want to consider a large amount of possibilities that they can choose, but if your players like having complete control of their characters, it may be slightly stifling to be given only a select amount of options.
Again, if I have misunderstood something please correct me. I can see how for a GM this takes away a lot of the hassle that comes with planning, especially in that every scene needs to only feature (potentially) just one roll, and for some players, this is a more ideal playstyle. Furthermore, this is also better when you have players who are overly dominant and can overshadow other players, since now everyone gets to make a choice, not just the loudest at the table.
In short, I’m not saying this style of play is bad, nor am I saying it is good. True, I am more biased to a less controlled GM style where players can go and do whatever, and so I have an opinion based against this playstyle, but I can also understand why it’s there. I am just wondering if this is the idea of the game or if this is a simple misunderstanding on my part. Thanks for any future replies!

[Lentrax]

While it is true that players only get to choose which roll to use, tbh, considering the type of story you are telling with this system you probably weren’t going to want to do much else anyway.

Further, in most cases, while the Principal does dictate what rolls are available to use, there really isn’t any solid direction, just more of a vague, “Be the cutest and gain VPs!(to use Allure as an example.)

But like I said. You aren’t playing a game called High School Harem Comedy to play a demon slaying, tavern carousing, wench wooing loner hero.

You’re playing HSHC to write a love story. Hopefully YOUR love story. And yeah, that kind of needs some constraint. Because Protagonist-kun can’t be everywhere at once.

[IndianaSwede]

While it is true that players only get to choose which roll to use, tbh, considering the type of story you are telling with this system you probably weren’t going to want to do much else anyway.

Further, in most cases, while the Principal does dictate what rolls are available to use, there really isn’t any solid direction, just more of a vague, “Be the cutest and gain VPs!(to use Allure as an example.)

But like I said. You aren’t playing a game called High School Harem Comedy to play a demon slaying, tavern carousing, wench wooing loner hero.

You’re playing HSHC to write a love story. Hopefully YOUR love story. And yeah, that kind of needs some constraint. Because Protagonist-kun can’t be everywhere at once.

I see your point and I agree with you, but I think I may have articulated myself incorrectly. Perhaps I should clarify more what I mean. See, I thought more along the lines of when the rolls happen. Sure they’re vague, but I have no problem with that. Neither is there a problem with only four traits. I also somewhat assume the players will WANT to win the heart of this character and will follow him wherever he goes, not the other way around (unless he’s a god which can be anywhere at once, in which case, uhhhh okay, I can see why the players love him). I was thinking that instead of rolling before the scene occurred, why not roll during the scene? Instead of “Yeah, roll luck and see if you succeed then we’ll play out the scene” why not roll luck in the scene and see if that works out then and there. Perhaps that’s the intention the whole time and I have been completely blind to it, in which case I apologize. It just seemed like the decisions of players are somehow predetermined, when there could be more than one way to use skill, or luck, or any of the other traits. Furthermore, wouldn’t it add more to suspense if instead of knowing what is probably going to happen in the scene, you find out as you attempt to take action? Again, if I misunderstood, please correct me, it’s just that it seems a bit strange to me is all.

[Lentrax]

Because like the visual novels the game takes inspiration from, each die roll is like choosing a branch in a story. Succeeding on a roll means you picked the ‘good’ option, and failure means you picked the ‘bad’ one. But failing the roll doesn’t mean the scene is over. You still play through the scene, and you still interact with the protagonist. Just not necessarily in the way you wanted or intended.

[IndianaSwede]

Because like the visual novels the game takes inspiration from, each die roll is like choosing a branch in a story. Succeeding on a roll means you picked the ‘good’ option, and failure means you picked the ‘bad’ one. But failing the roll doesn’t mean the scene is over. You still play through the scene, and you still interact with the protagonist. Just not necessarily in the way you wanted or intended.

Alright, I get it. Thanks for the clarification!

[steelsmiter]

But like I said. You aren’t playing a game called High School Harem Comedy to play a demon slaying, tavern carousing, wench wooing loner hero.

You’re playing HSHC to write a love story. Hopefully YOUR love story. And yeah, that kind of needs some constraint. Because Protagonist-kun can’t be everywhere at once.

Sometimes it's both but admittedly it doesn't handle one of those particularly well. I wrote "Visual Novel World" explicitly for that reason.

[Esprit15]

I think that there aren't girls who want to play such a girl

I think 38 pages of replies and homebrewing have shown that here are at least some guys who were interested.