Archmage MC

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

@VitaVitaAR Well, if thats the case, then why is the GM so worried about character diversity being a balance issue? Only GMs who want people to die consistently worry about such things. Otherwise you do what your saying, kill them off if you need to, but its a story death like how death SHOULD be in a story medium such as this.

Let people make who they want in this universe without watering it down. (Or just don't call it a shonen anime OR list a more tame one instead of showing all the big 'over the top' ones in the title.) With rules of course, but not such restricting ones that make Captain Planet look more interesting.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

Jesus, why does this have to be a debate thread on what truly makes something Shonen?

@Mercurial

Mostly because the OP lured tons of people in here with the idea of a shonen anime, then backpeddled as the IC blew up. I'm fine with him changing the title to something else, but atm this isn't shonen.

@VitaVitaAR

If death wasn't the main point of PvP battles according to how the GM wants to balance things, then we wouldn't be having this dicussion.

That One Punch Man RP that was here a little while ago didn't modify the source material at all and lasted a long time and was super active.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

@tipssyCalibrator@Mr Allen J I still don't think you get the problem. Remove the shonen tag, and you guys are right. But WITH the shonen tag there are very very big problems you need to address or its not a shonen property.

1. Over the topness has to be there. No mild stuff, everything has to be super awesome or fodder for the awesome characters..

2. Choose how you want PvP to be handled as thats the problem here. PvE is the easiest thing in the world to balance around as its the GM vs everyone, and the GM/DM has the most power out of everyone anyway and makes the PvE villains to make the story engaging and fun for everyone.

3. Everyone will be wanting to play the main character. This means that there def wont be any Gokus or Supermans running around when it comes to all in one, but if that means you have to sacrifice stuff that would let someone separate themselves from everyone else, and instead everyone is a copy of everyone else except one punches with lightning and the other with fire, things feel same-y and thats the exact opposite of what most shonen does anyway. (And is a huge no-no for most RPs with a 'diverse' world view anyway imo.)

4. If you want death to be meaningful, then just take the One Piece route like I said and have it only happen if you need it to. Its still on the table, but you can also have awesome over the top and fun battles with it. Luffy hasn't killed a single person in One Piece yet, and you know hes beaten the crap out of lots of them. Other shonen animes where death means something, like I've said, are about the main character who doesn't die but only gets injured. And if everyone is going to be this 'main character' in this RP, you really need to think about how this system works.

Sentai has to actually follow a few of the laws of physics due to it using real people.

With shonen it's optional.

@Silvan Haven

This guy knows exactly what I mean.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

<Snipped quote by Archmage MC>
What I really want is something that's a good medium. Something that's mostly fun and bombastic, but not so much that it can get dumb. If I ever implied that I wanted something other than that, then I apologize for misleading you. This is why I'm willing to bend on the item creation somewhat

@tipssyCalibrator

If you don't want over the top and want something more mild instead of spice, then you might not wanna mention shonen. Sounds like your wanting something more like Super Sentai, where things aren't as over the top and follow a theme, even if the story itself can be very nonsensical.

<Snipped quote>
I don't really like that idea for the same reason I don't like it in those stories, it makes death meaningless and feel like there's barely any stakes

To be fair, death means almost nothing in most shonen animes, even the serious ones. Someone is going to be brought back by alchemy, or by dragonballs, or the like. And your probably going to need a system like this in place if you want a large character RP in shonen, as everyone will want to be the 'main character', and in shonen ones where death means something, the main character never dies or dies at the very end. And that sort of storytelling doesn't work when there will be 10+ main characters running around.

Or go the One Peace route and people are ultra durable and hardly ever die. No matter how bad the situation is. And only save death for a device where you need to progress the story.

Either way, if you want to tone down shonen, I'd recommend picking Super Sentai instead.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

<Snipped quote by Archmage MC>

These are some decent points. I don't know if I necessarily agree on the proposed solutions, but honestly shounen is usually pretty over the top by definition.

@Krayzikk

Yeah they aren't too good for sure. And I can kinda see where the OP is coming from with balance if its too over the top, but then thats why Dragonball has, well, Dragonballs. A nice writer's miguffin that lets you do things in universe that you need to do to rein in the over the topness if you need to for the sake of a good story.

I feel like half of the problems you have there could be solved with a co-gm.

@Silvan Haven

Yeah, I agree here.

You can have something over the top and still have a setting where there are consistent rules that get followed.

In fact, that can make character planning a lot easier if you know what you're working with.

I'll be honest, as much as I love One Punch Man it's not the inspiration I think we should be looking at here.

Neither is making death a joke if we want to have any kind of serious plot.

@VitaVitaAR

I mean, most shonen anime are usually with a single protag or their team of people, so death tends to be a non issue as having the main character die ends a series anyway. and most of their plots tend to be either whimsical or super serious depending on the writing. (Heck, even Hunter x Hunter laughs at death even with all of it happening in Chimera Ants. If you've seen it you know what I mean. Even then it was still super good.) Either way, its usually never in the middle.

Its a tricky thing to balance for sure.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

I'm seeing one huge problem here. For an RP based around 'character interactions and building', your drastically limiting character build options for the sake of pvp 'balance' and making everything super watered down and boring in the process.

I mean, sure if you just want a hunter x hunter sorta thing going, then just say that. But then nein can be used to an extent that is very close if not exactly magic. (Greed island) or borderline alchemy (Chimera Ants) so it seems like that isn't even happening here.

I dunno, just seems like the initial vision, then your refinement of that vision, are two totally different ends of the spectrum. Aren't shonen anime supposed to be fun and over the top? Fist of the North Star being a great early example. Or bobobo, if you want a shonen parody. (I miss that one.)

If your super worried about PvP being unbalanced, you can always just make death an inconvenience instead of a certainty with dragonballs or something. Its not going to happen very often if your trying character development stuff anyway.

OR, and here me out here. Go One Punch Man and just have everything dialed up to 11.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

<Snipped quote by Archmage MC>
Hmm...I like the idea and I'd like to implement it, but I feel like a power that's always active would be a bit OP in a world where most people don't have that, y'know?

@tipssyCalibrator

I'm sure you'll make a decision that works fine. My suggestion is allow powers that act like double edges, with upsides and downsides to live with. Like being a vampire for example.

<Snipped quote>
Yes, it's modern day

Second question, are we only using tech thats not experimental, or also experimental tech? Because thats a huge diff as we do have a good chunk of scifi tech thats in the experimental stages atm.

Oh, and final question. Demon summoning, yay or nay? Like the naruto frog summoning thing and stuff. Except much smaller scale.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

@tipssyCalibrator

You know how Luffy is made out of rubber? Something like that. A power thats always on that the user can't turn off, and can only control. However it takes none of their energy to maintain, hence 'passive'.

What IS the tech level of this RP anyway? If its modern day, there is a LOT you can do.

Shounen Battle School Anime RP - Institute for Young Channellers

I'm interested in this concept. Love character interaction RPs above the combat ones.

Though since its shonen stuff, are you letting passive powers like Devil fruits in, or androids, or anything like that?

The City of Gems

Lol. I forgot Smash bros could be modded for the Wii. Garnet Captain Falcon is so much win. It is really weird seeing her doing a dash combo to a knee to a sacred combo though, but so great at the same time.

hey I'm back from a con. Gotta figure out something for Marry to do. lol.