Discussion:Would anime ruin D&D?

What is in your opinion of trying to put anime into D&D?

Eroneko 11:29, 24 December 2007

I read in a forum, I'll try to post a link to it after I find it again, that most anime would ruin D&D cause they're over the top and would be too high level for most campaigns. What do you think?

Eroneko 11:41, 24 December 2007

In my opinion, it could be possible, but would require the players to reach/start high levels (around epic at worst) or alot of tinkering to lower the levels to a more mangable area. Though it is probably more preferable to apply over the top anime in an already high level campaign where the usual kill the goblins, fight the dragons scenario is starting to lose luster with the players or to just use concepts of anime, such as a fighting tourny from any action anime for a more combat oriented party that has a lot of warrior-type classes in it or a ninja-esque clan/village conflict for a more stealth oriented party. You can attempt to add an entire anime, but you better have the determinaton to be able to finish it.

DeadChainer 8:41, 29 December 2007

Yea, anime is weird. Live and let die, is what I say. If people want to play in irrational fantastical versions of reality then let 'em. Wait a minute. Is that an oximoron?

Cronocke  17:34, 5 January 2008 (MST)

Right now, I have an anime/JRPG/SNK-inspired character in a game. He's low-powered (level 2 at the time of writing this), and the nearest thing to a "super move" he has is this flashy effect I do for his critical hits. So, no, I don't think anime would ruin D&D. At least, not well-selected anime. Record of Lodoss War or Slayers would work, but not, say, Dragonball Z or Naruto. As long as it can be adapted to low or mid level play without much effort, it should be fine.

Flession  01:22, 12 January 2008 (MST)

Ironically enough, Record of Lodoss War was based off a D&D campaign the creators were playing. They eventually developed a custom system for it and tried to sell it to TSR. Didn't work out, though. Not to mention Slayers is also based off of D&D. Either way you look at it, D&D helps create anime, not just the other way around.

Dmilewski  05:55, 12 January 2008 (MST)

Oriental Adventures has been part of D&D since 1e. There has been a LONG history of anime, wu xia, and samurai movies influencing D&D. Likewise, there has also been Moorecock's influence in D&D, and that is far more over-the-top than most anime.

((Please tell me how to put this post the correct format.))

Sam Kay 10:19, 12 January 2008 (MST)

Sorted. Just copy the; === ~~~ <small><small>~~~~~</small></small> ===

at the bottom of the page and paste it.

Lord Dhazriel 09:44, 7 June 2008 (MDT)

My player wanted to play a complete animish campaign, based on anime like Naruto, Princess Monoke and other name I don't remember. I don't usually watch anime so I decide being a gentle DM to watch some... I watched over 100+ episode of random anime and after I built a whole campaign. Here is some points I found.

• The Power Gap: Many anime are much more powerful than regular d&d player, some are able to jump over building and other amazing feats... feat this is the solution.

The solution: I added a list of supernatural feats (for "supernatural person" only). They are incredibly powerful feats (like adding +4 to Dexterity) who clearly outmatch common feats. I added the table of abnormal ability score. This table grant benefit for people who have a very score in one of the abilities. These extra benefit are animish, such as afterimage for highly dexterous person. To balance thing, the enemy will also have such power and most trap will empowered. Overall these power clearly don't match those of Naruto and Dargon Ball but I can compare a lvl 8 supernatural NPC I made with weak epic characters of the common setting (except hp).

• I will fight until the end!: In regular animes, the enemy overpower the main character and his friends, the hero get up (or transform) and beat the villain to pulp.

How to do it in a balanced way? For the former (the hero get up) I added a system called heroic points, based on UA action points, these points allow a player to do amazing action (such as complete healing). Like action points, heroic points are limited and once used are gone forever. It is possible however to gain some thought action, extreme (animish) roleplaying or simply level up.

For transformation, I simply give the player the ability to transform into something (depend on the character) when some requirement are met. I simply give them a temporary template.

Behold the power of the SHU FIREBALL!: In anime everyone have powers (or mostly everyone) and a ultimate power.

Solution: Simple give them amazing abilities, such as throwing a ball of energy at will... what a pandora box you say, yeah but check those ability and if the player overuse it simply make it fail. "You have use all of your energy", "You overused your body for today" are sentence than I never needed to pronounce because my player were reasonable. For the ultimate attack, let them design a truly amazing attack (not over powerful... for the setting) and let them use it once per encounter. More the technique is powerful more downside it should have (such as fatigue or even death). Let them use their imagination for their powers, remember balance is in your hand.

The campaign is very fun, I really like designing new power for new villain. Really infinite possibility, the PC are strong as are the villain. And character portraits are MUCH easier to find.

PS: If someone want I can put the entire campaign on the wiki and all it rules.

Eiji 00:15, 14 August 2008 (MDT)

Pfft, ruin? New rules? What?

People, it's all about reflavoring!

First, most anime shows you see, all the characters are epic. If you want to be Goku-He-Who-Has 20th level monk powers 20th level warlock powers, run an epic gestalt campaign. But for other, more focused characters, they can be done even low level, with some reflavoring and a little optimizing.

Let's take Gundam. But how will we do gundam without bringing in Epic Colossus monsters piloted by people?

Why not reflavor the characters INTO the robots. Your 3rd level Fighter with Full Plate is actually 100ft tall, fighting other 100ft monsters. The wizard casting Fireball? Just shot his plasma bazooka. If you want, play warforged for extra robotic flavor.

That, and honestly most anime fighters... Warblades. Tome of Battle has done so much for fixing the melee classes, its not funny, and ALL of their powers are ripe for anime. Setting Sun? Ki blasts! Diamond Mind? Omnislash! Devoted Spirit? Regenerating powers!

Anime, largely, is just a matter of flavor.

Aarnott 07:24, 14 August 2008 (MDT)

To some degree regular D&D characters already do some pretty amazing things, but they don't seem to sound as cool as what an anime character does. For example, a level 1 fighter with 4 ranks in Jump, a +3 Strength mod, and Skill focus (Jump) has a +10 to Jump checks. On average with a 20ft. running start, he can jump 20 feet long or 5 feet high. The record is 8.95 meters (or 29 feet). On a 20 though, he can beat that record with a 30 foot jump. So if a focused level 1 fighter can beat our olympic atheletes' best, consider what awesome things tumble could do: YouTube example of the ownage.

As Eiji said: just reflavor existing rules. All the DM needs to do is describe what is going on a little differently. When I do a game where people are supposed to be able to do some really impressive things even at low levels I give 1 action point per encounter or session (something like that). One time I even had a "Super Action Point", which allowed you to roll three d20s and take the highest value.

S1Q3T3 00:06, 28 January 2009 (MST)

Exactly -- you'd be surprised what the existing rules allow. I created a subpage for the Ultimate Monk optimization on Emulating Legendary Martial Arts Techniques, including wire-fighting-type movement and energy-blast-throwing martial artists a la Dragon Ball Z. Somewhat to my surprise, it was all very doable is the 3.5E rules and not even particularly hard.

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