It could only be from Japan...

[Andromeda]

After getting over the shock of me making a thread here I have something fun to share with those that are willing to let their inhibitions go wild. What you need for this is:

A few hours you aren't doing anything
AIM
Don't mind uncomfortable or awkward situations
Enjoy Roleplaying or at least getting into a character
Enjoy anime, specifically harem genre
And 3 Dice of the D6 variety (like from monopoly, yahtzee, risk, etc.)

For those that have figured out where I'm going with this you have already left or very curious. So here is what is going on. I picked up my very first Tabletop RPG (I've played Tabletop RPGs already, but never purchased one). And well as strange as it sounds it is the first Japanese TRPG to be translated and officially released in the US. What makes it funny is that the first JTRPG to make it over here is a wierd strange game called Maid RPG.

Yup, Maid RPG. I'm looking for a couple people or even more if possible that want to try it out with me. The idea is that you all play Maids in a mansion serving the Master and competing against the other Maids for the Master's favor. It is not meant to be serious in the slightest, it is a complete slapstick comedy like out of Love Hina or Tenchi Muyo. So if you are fine with Roleplaying a girl character that may get into Yuri situations with other maids or whatever ends up happening than give me a post here.

If I can find people for this I'm going to be putting something together for this coming week. It will be a single session and it will be completed in that time. It will be done over the AIM Chatroom and think of it as a normal RP here except you are rolling dice for outcomes. It is very much not like D&D so no leveling, no exp, just crazy wackiness that you could only expect from the Japanese.

Let me know if you are interested and I'll give you the rules.

[Victoria]

Whoever is interested will be playing along with both Andro and I, as I was the first he's notified of this particular game. Haha. It really is very neat. I have the PDF file if anyone is interested in looking it over, to see if they'd be interested or not.

[Lunasa]

SO we have to play a Maid? Sounds interesting. I may give it a go.

Andromeda, whenever I play D & D, I end up roleplaying more than leveling. It's just too much work on pen and paper when you've got comprehensive technologies to do it for you. That, and rolling out of awkward situations is fun. I'm in if you wish.

[T.G. Oskar]

Lol, it could only come from Japan, indeed.

Bell curve? Now, that's one system I rarely see. Well...not that much; most RPG systems either use a d20 for actions or a bunch of d10s and a hit/miss system.

Sounds tempting, but I'd give it a pass. Though...I have to check, but doesn't BESM uses a similar system? I'd be more inclined to do BESM than a specific sub-genre of anime.

It's weird, tho. I know of at least one other Tabletop RPG from Japan (it has to deal with superpowers, last I recall), and that game hasn't been translated already. That the one game they decided to translate tries to pigeonhole the craziness that seems to us inherent to Japan doesn't seem to help them that much.

[Andromeda]

There are additional rules that allow you play as a butler, but this is just the core rules right now. If I get people interested in more than one session, I'll open up the optional rules.

Playing the master is also an option, but as I said I'm going with the core rules and keeping things straightforward for this trial run of things. We can mix things up and do other things if the group wants to continue with more.

There is a lot to try out in the game if you can believe that. It is a 200+ book with the 2 additional books combined in together with it.

Alright, if you are in I'll add you to my AIM list. We'll need to set a date once we see if there are any more takers.

It'll be fun.

[LocoColt04]

If you're going to be using AIM, the program actually has a command to randomize dice rolls for you, thus negating the need to trust peoples' rolls to be accurate. ^^;

Type this command in the chat line:

//roll-diceX-sidesY

For a 3d6 roll, you would type //roll-dice3-sides6 and be done with it.

[Angantyr]

Indeed a lot of stuff is only from Japan... however I wouldn't necessarily consider that to be a bad thing per say.

Is this along the lines of those hentai games? I've never really seen it in action but the idea sounds hot, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

[Victoria]

It -can- be along those lines, if Andro wants to go that far, but not particularly. There can be some steamy situations.. if Andro would want to go that far, haha.

So yeah.. I can't wait to start playing.

[Andromeda]

No it is not a hentai game. Though because it is a roleplay you can however, take things as far as you want. But not in this session or probably any, I doubt people will be very comfortable with going that far. We are going to be keeping it the rough equavilent of PG-13 for anime, which is actually saying a lot. Since they do a lot more. But anyway, the first session is going to be strictly limiting amount of adult/mature content unless all you twist my arm. I want to keep this fun and light without going too far into the deep end.

Though in the end it is the players that roleplay that go as far as they so wish to. I'll let you know when you are getting in dangerous territory or if someone is uncomfortable with it they can quickly speak up and we will stop the actions and move on. I don't want anyone feeling like they are forced to do something that they are not comfortable with.

Who counted how many times I said the root word comfort. >.> But seriously I do want people to be as easy and just have fun. It should be harmless.

I just got overtime today, and there is the chances of it this week. I was ill pleased about this news seeing as I thought we were done with it. But anyway, I am shooting for Thursday about 8pm Central Standard Time. If that does not work Saturday or Sunday would be good days as well. Let me know if you have any conflictions and I will work to find a day that suits us all.

[Lunasa]

Only problem I've got with Thursday is that I'm just getting out of work at 9:30pm EST(8:30pm your time). If the time could be about an hour and a half later, I'd be down, because I'll be home around 10:30(9:30 central)ish depending on the bus. But I'm open all weekend, anyway.

[Andromeda]

Yeah, Shadow said that he had some time conflict with it being 8 as well. I'd like to hear from Shadow's friend that is going to be joining us, through Shadow I'm guessing. And Angantyr I don't know if you were just curious about the machanics or wanted to play. If you did want to play with us let me know if there are conflicts. It does sound like the weekend might be easier to manage.

Oh and so you know, I'm going to be making a jpeg of the character sheet that I'll email out to you. You can use photoshop or paint or whatever to add in the text and notes for your reference or even print it out if you so wish. How you want to do it will be up to you. But I'll hand those out before the session or a day before if you want to print them out.

The rules I'll explain when we actually start, so it will probably be about 5 minutes on that. Thankfully, the rules are brief and simple. The only real parts to understand will be favor and stress I think. The rest is conflict resolution and dice rolls with roleplaying. So it should be easy to grasp that without anything too complicated. It has a surprisingly few amount of moving parts. So it is a good pick up and go game.

[T.G. Oskar]

I assume the game will be AIM-only, right?

Also, the idea of a butler sounds much more interesting. Maids live for their master, butlers defend their master at all costs.

Butler feels more like my taste. Might you be willing to determine the results of the experiment, Andro? Maybe I might not (given that I use MSN almost exclusively, and MSN usually blocks options when another person uses another IM program), but if somehow both things manage to work...

[Andromeda]

Well it is looking like Thursday is not going to be good for me. As I mentioned overtime suddenly popped up for me. And it looks like the weekend even might be in danger as well. I think Sunday will be possible still, but Saturday will probably be difficult since there is a good chance I'll end up working. I'll try to let you know if that changes as soon as I can, unfortunately this is all very fluid so they often just drop overtime on in the last minute.

But planning for Sunday, aside from me waking up around 1pm probably. When would be a good time?

Determine the results of the experiment? Do you mean that you want to know how the first session goes to see if it was successful and may join us so long as you can be a butler. If that is the case then sure, butlers are part of the optional rules and have some added to things to them that do not make them straightforward like Maids. Butlers maintain order in the mansion, so you can't do anything chaotic and you always lose actions against a maid. But you are significantly higher attributes than Maids. There are a few other things.

And yeah it will be AIM only since I use AIM exclusively.

[Lunasa]

Hrm- I'm going on a trip to Great Escape, but that shouldn't take up the whole day. I could definitely be around after dinnertime.

[Andromeda]

Angantyr were you in for the game? and Oskar were you in or waiting to know if you could play a Butler or something else. Shadow's friend is unable to make it for Sunday. And as a result without at least one of you two there won't be enough people to make the game worthwhile to try on Sunday.

I have no problem pushing it back some since Lunasa you said Sunday might be difficult for you to make. Shadow when was it that your friend would be available again 21st or 27th? If Angantyr or Oskar are not going to be joining us we'll have to wait until his friend is available to bring us up to 3 people plus me the GM.

And depending on Shadow's answer Lunasa when would you be available again?

[Victoria]

She'll be back home late the 21st. And I doubt Angantyr is going to play, heh. I don't know about Oskar, though.

[Andromeda]

Saturday as in the 25th? And how late is late? I know that late does not matter to me that much, but I don't know how late others feel. Other than that a weekend is probably a good time to choose. I hear from Shadow and his friend that they are available most days. So unless Oskar or Angantyr are joining us it will be down to your availability that set the schedule.

[T.G. Oskar]

The only problem I find is AIM. It's a bit loathsome to me to have two IM systems just because I need that particular one for a single purpose (and if it weren't because of the programs that require IE I would erase it from my laptop)

I was actually expecting to see how it worked and then see if it was viable to add the butler rules. As I mentioned before, I feel particularly inclined towards English-style butlers. Orderly isn't a problem (the little experience I have on tabletop RPGs usually has been around lawful/orderly characters), and being a support character neither is.

Perhaps if the first session is successful I might go and d/l AIM around just for the sake of attempting IM play once again. MSN isn't player-friendly, that I can tell.

[Andromeda]

The butler rules are meant to work with the game. So there would not be any problem with adding them. Right now I'd like to just work with the core rules though since even for myself I need to get a handle of the game before placing too many things on top that only will makes things a little more complicated. I know Butlers should be pretty sure to play, but they do have some special rules as I said.

And yeah, I feel similiarly as well about IM. I only have one because I don't want to have a whole bunch just to meet a single need. So I can understand. If AIM is a problem and you really want to give it a try. I'm told of some other chatrooms that are specifically for RPGs that we might able to give a try. I'll do some investigation into it and see what I come up with.

[Lunasa]

Sorry about that, Andro. You have no IDEA how far gone I was last night. I'm free this Saturday(the 18th, today) and tomorrow, I have a have a trip, but I reckon by 9pm EST I'll be back.

[Andromeda]

That is what I figured. Unfortunately, unless Oskar or Angantyr join us we won't have enough to fill out a group to do it tonight or tomorrow. As I had mentioned previously, Shadow's friend who is joining us will be unavailable until the 21st Tuesday. So we would not be able to do anything until Tuesday/Wednesday at the earliest.

Two maids and a master is probably not too fun. ^^; Well I guess it could be, but for this to be a good game we need at least 3 maids.

[Lady Rika]

I'd really be interested in doing this Andromeda! I don't get embarassed easily when it comes to characters in writing. So if its alright with you I would love to be a Maid!

Plus it would give me something to do with my time and would be fun if you let me join in on it.

[Andromeda]

You are more than welcome to join us. Not getting embarrassed will be good, but I think it will be more about not getting uncomfortable with a situation more than embarrassment. But this means I have 4 Maids now ^^; *cough* Anyway, it'll give us some flexibility now since if one person is unavailable we will still have three which is the fewest I want to run with.

So then I'll need an idea of your schedule for availability. And then we can knock down a specific time. I'm shooting for middle of this coming week if possible.

Welcome to the mansion.

[Lady Rika]

Thanks alot, and situations are nothing I mean its just writing nothing to take too seriously. But since I go to High School and they trash us with work I think Sundays would be good though im not sure of the times.

[Andromeda]

Sunday might be a little hard to swing since it would be on short notice for the others. I've got no problems with Sunday, but Lunasa and Shadow's friend would need to let me know if they are game for it then.

If you can reply Lunasa soon, in other words before Sunday ends ^^; That would be great. And well Shadow she's your friend. I will leave that to you.

If during the week would be too hard for you Rika we can try for next weekend Saturday or Sunday.

[Lunasa]

I can go probably at 8 o'clock central time. Sorry about lateness, but bleh. Work plagues my weekends. Work plagues my weekdays.

[Andromeda]

Well then sounds like 8 CST is a good time for all around. So Sunday tomorrow or today however you want to look at it we will give this another go at 8pm CST. I'll spend the first few minutes explaining the rules, since they shouldn't take that long and then we will dive in.

[T.G. Oskar]

So...I heard the first session was already done and haven't heard of it.

How was it? Did it worked well?

[Andromeda]

Everyone seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. We had some technical difficulties, but that aside it went smoothly. Though it took far longer to explain everything and do character creation than I expected. ^^; Though I think it will go smoother next time. But from what I could see everyone seemed to jump in knee deep immediately and really had fun with the roles. I know that Shadow really played up his character and Lusana really seem to do well with a lively banter between the two characters.

So I would say that it was a success and everyone had a good time. I want to do another session this weekend. So I'm going to work on setting something up. I don't know if they want to finish up the session we had going or start something new. But I figuring that after a few more sessions I'll actually make a scenario for them to run through. In the meantime I'll work on slowly introducing the new optional elements to the sessions each time we start over.

Which will mean adding in Butlers, the Head Maid, seduction, trauma, comforting and the etc. It will add some complexity to things, but it is also a good way to gain a lot of favor quickly.

I'm even considering running a RP version here to see if it might spark something new a fresh that a little lighter on heavy writing and just the joy of roleplaying a character to the fullest. At its heart you really have to get into the character to bring the best out of the game. If you can revel in it then it shines.

[SOLDIER #819]

Just in case you guys were interested, there are virtual tabletop clients that exist. Having played D&D on AIM for a long time, I know how much of a pain it can be. While it isn't perfect, clients like OpenRPG allow you to setup a game with relative ease. This particular one provides a map (along with the ability to add your own images for character "pawns"), lets you stream music, keep track of HP and abilities, etc. If the system requires any of these, it's a lot easier to keep track of once you get things rolling.