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fast, though they usually don’t appear in the same series as full-size mecha, but there are exceptions.

Modern PowersExamples: Aquarian Age, Blue Seed, Gatekeepers,

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Maburaho, Magic User’s Club, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto, Mai-HiME, Read Or Die, S-Cry-Ed, Tokyo Underground

“Modern powers” is what we’ll call a genre of anime that involves characters gaining special powers and try-ing to cope with them and live normal lives in spite of being confronted with whatever dangers those powers bring to them. In eff ect, it’s superheroes without the spandex or secret identities – though not a few heroes in this genre fi nd it preferable to keep their powers secret from the world at large. Th e antagonists these heroes face might be some kind of monsters only they can deal with, fellow power-users, or perhaps a shadowy organization that’s putting one or both of those to use for some nefarious purpose. Or the special powers could just be another part of their everyday lives.

Modern powers settings usually involve one specifi c kind of special power, which is expressed in diff erent ways by diff erent characters. If the campaign concerns characters with elemental powers for example, each character would have control over a specifi c element, and each would further develop his or her own ways of using that power to do diff erent things. Just because two characters use water-elemental powers doesn’t mean their abilities will be all that similar; one might rely on big blasts of water to attack, another might use piercing attacks with tiny droplets, and a third might not attack at all, but use water to defend or heal. Th e GM should defi ne the nature of the power and in general terms what kinds of Abilities can be used to represent it. Magic and Sorcery are obvious possibilities, but nearly anything is possible.

Pet MonstersExamples: Beyblade, Digimon, Dragon Drive,

Medabots, Monster Rancher, PokémonPokémon’s success, in Japan, the U.S., and else-

where, is undeniable. Th e video game spawned a long-running anime, a manga, a card game, and an endless array of merchandise. It also led to others to try their hand at what would become a genre of its own, featur-

ing youngsters training and caring for exotic creatures (or in some cases machines) that would be pitted against each other in combat. Th e monsters are usually smart but not sentient, and have not only special pow-ers, but the ability to grow in strength and eventually “evolve” into a more powerful form with proper care.

We won’t even get into the possible implications of this being a genre that involves cute anime critters in cockfi ghts.

Anyway, pet monster anime is a close relative of sports manga. Training monsters and having them fi ght is treated as a sport of sorts, and much like a typical sports manga (such as Hikaru no Go or Prince of Tennis) pet monster anime often revolve around a young boy starting out as a novice and becoming a master, growing and learning along the way.

SamuraiExamples: Dagger of Kamui, Peacemaker Kuro-

gane, Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Samurai Shodown

Japan’s feudal era can be compared to the Wild West, insofar as both have been highly romanticized in fi lms and other media to the point where the fi ctional image of the setting has taken on a life of its own. Live-action samurai titles range from Akira Kurosawa’s masterpieces to feudal soap operas to gory sword action, and anime has put its own unique spin on Japan’s fun-house mirror image of its history.

Some samurai anime play up deadly sword fi ght-ing, similar to live-action movies like Zatoichi: Th e Blind Swordsman, presenting fi ghts with razor-sharp swords, where human lives are cut down like so many blades of grass. Th e heroes of this kind of story tend towards extremes of either being mostly non-combat characters, or being so skilled that most opponents simply don’t have a chance against them. Others opt for more drawn-out fi ghts, whether with ki powers becoming involved, or simply through over-the-top superhuman characters, allowing for battles to be more along the lines of Fight-ing anime (see above).

Th e feudal Japan of samurai anime and movies is often about as indeterminate as “Medieval Times” or “Th e Old West” is in the movies we have here. Th at is, they’re set not in what we believe was the reality of his-tory, but rather a mythical setting that grew out of that history. Th at said, “samurai” as a genre has lots of room

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for the diff erent eras of Japanese history. Th e Sengoku (Warring States) period is an obvious choice since it has many opportunities for confl ict, but even the stable times of the Tokugawa Shogunate have room for swinging swords around. As Rurouni Kenshin aptly demonstrates, the Meiji Era, which brought about the end of the feudal system and unprec-edented contact with the West, can make for a fascinating setting – while sub-stantially reducing the need to deal with the complexities of feudal society. It’s up to you to decide how much you want to invest into using historical details in creating your own campaign setting.

Space OperaExamples: Black Heaven, Crest of the Stars, Dirty

Pair, Divergence Eve, Galaxy Angel, Galaxy Frau-lein Yuna, GeneShaft, Infi nite Ryvius, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Kiddy Grade, Lost Universe, Martian Successor Nadesico, MeltyLancer, Outlaw Star, Sol Bianca, Star Blazers, Stellvia, Tenchi Muyo!, Vandread, Xenosaga

Anime has a long tradition of space opera, over-the-top sci-fi with lots of spaceships fi ring laser beams at each other. It goes without saying that space opera anime owes a lot to sci-fi TV shows, but the style of storytelling – which heavily emphasizes human relationships, even in the midst of a war – is distinctly anime.

If the campaign is action-oriented, it pays to take pains to pay attention to the balance of the diff erent types of action. Space opera can potentially involve ship-to-ship battles, dogfi ghts between space fi ghters and/or mecha, human-scale skirmishes, and the occa-sional brawl. Each of these requires diff erent skills, and player characters that specialize in one stands a good chance of being bored if the others dominate the game too much.

Th e genre lends itself to many diff erent types of stories and formats. War stories are probably the most common, but freewheeling bounty hunters, spacefar-ing “super-heroes,” and academy students have all had their place in space opera anime. Likewise, while space opera provides options for stuff like cool space battles,

there are plenty of possibilities for just about any type of adventure imaginable. Th is is doubly true when the player characters are traveling around in a spaceship; diff erent planets, space stations, etc. allow for massive changes of scenery on a regular basis, and with them the chance to meet new NPCs and encounter new problems to solve.

In terms of “cool stuff ,” vanilla space opera includes space ships, space fi ghters, and other types of high technology. How of a tech level really varies, but there’s no upper limit per se. Of course, space opera anime tend to gloss over details like radio transmissions tak-ing time to travel or how spaceships create artifi cial gravity, even as they have an eminently recognizable modern ramen shop using the same methods as today out in space. Mecha also appear in anime space operas all the time; some series are wholly based around fi ghting in big mecha, while others include them as yet another type of war machine.

Aliens are a distinct possibility, but in no way a necessity since nations with nothing but humans are quite capable of getting into confl icts. When aliens do appear, they tend towards extremes of appearing mostly human or oddly inhuman – though most aliens in anime are still humanoid in their general shape. Hu-man-looking alien races open up the possibility of cute alien girls, and even some inhuman races might some-times turn out a mostly human-looking alien princess as some kind of ambassador or spy. Naturally there’s also the possibility of highly advanced and ineff able aliens running around, not to mention extinct ones who’ve left behind artifacts of their “suffi ciently ad-

Science Fiction

One thing that’s sometimes overlooked is that while the storytelling style remains distinctly anime, many sci-fi anime series are based in a premise that seems like it came out of the tradition of “hard” science fi ction literature. If you’re thinking about having a science fi ction campaign, consider looking to the likes of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Phillip K. Dick for inspiration, and then adding a bit of anime fl air to spice things up.

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nvanced technology” that could have a drastic eff ect on the relatively primitive lives of us spacefaring humans.

Sword and SorceryExamples: Arc Th e Lad, Berserk, Dragon Half,

King of Bandits Jing, Maze, Record of the Lodoss War, Ruin Explorers, Rune Soldier, Scrapped Princess, Slay-ers

Traditional sword and sorcery type fantasy defi -nitely has a place in anime, cemented by Record of the Lodoss War, which was in fact loosely based on an RPG campaign. Th e diff erences between anime-style sword and sorcery and the kind that comes in novels at your local book store can be subtle. Magic is fl ashier, swords can be ridiculously big, elf ears can be ridiculously long, and even less thought is given to depicting a “realistic” medieval society.

Lord of the Rings is well-known in Japan, but con-sole RPGs – especially the Dragon Quest series – are far more infl uential as far as anime is concerned. Magic has a way of consisting mostly of discrete spells whose names are shouted out, heroes tend to fall into distinct “classes,” and societies are based on a very vague image of what medieval societies were like, usually rendered a lot nicer than in real life unless they happen to be run by a villain. Anime fantasy also often has some comedy mixed in, whether as a relief to a serious story (as in Scrapped Princess) or the whole point of the entire series (like with Dragon Half).

Magic is one of the major distinguishing features of fantasy as a genre, and in fantasy novels authors often try to come up with new and innovative ways for magic to work in the worlds they create. Th ere can even be distinct types of magic in the world that operate under diff erent principles and thus have diff erent properties and limitations. Anime can delve into this realm, or just gloss over the details and have generic console RPG style magic.

PremiseTh e genre provides a general milieu, but that’s ul-

timately just a skeleton of clichés waiting to be clothed in fl esh. Just like an anime series, a campaign needs a premise. For the purposes of an RPG campaign, a good way to work out the premise is to answer the question, “What do the player characters do?” Th is question

works on two diff erent levels: the overall goal of the campaign, and what the player characters will be doing over the course of each session that draws them close to that goal. Ideally, you should be able to answer both facets of this question in one sentence.

For example, in the cliché fantasy RPG campaign the heroes are heading out to fi nd their fortune in the world, and while they don’t know it at the start, they’ll probably end up saving the world by taking out the Dark Lord. On the game session level the player char-acters are a team of adventurers, each with a diff erent specialty, and they use their skills in fi ghting, magic, being sneaky, etc. to do things like kill monsters, raid dungeons, protect villagers, etc., making gains in power along the way so that when the time comes they’ll be ready for the Dark Lord. “Use swords and magic and stuff to kill monsters, get more powerful, and eventually save the world.” It’s important to think about this stuff because in reality a fantasy campaign could as easily concern soldiers in a war story, or clerks as a shop selling magic items, and the types of player characters, their goals, and the focus of each game session would be radi-cally diff erent.

LengthAlthough many gamers are in the habit of keeping

a campaign going for as long as possible, it can be useful and rewarding to think in terms of telling an overall story with a defi nite beginning, middle, and end. Th ink of it in terms of an anime series; there are single mov-ies, OAV series with only 2-6 episodes, short TV series with 12-13 episodes, average TV series with 26 epi-sodes, and long TV series with 40+ episodes. Similarly, your game can be a one-shot, a “mini-campaign” of only a few sessions, or a regular campaign of whatever length you fi nd appropriate. And like an anime series, if it goes over well enough it can be renewed later for a “second season.”

FormatAnother question to consider is that of format;

what kind of situation are the characters in, and how does it lead them to have interesting things happen? Th ey could be friends who have strangeness happen in their everyday lives, they could be on a journey that will take them through danger, or there might even be a war

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1going on. A campaign needn’t follow the same format all the way through; it’s not at all unusual for anime characters to have their normal lives disrupted and an epic quest begin over the course of a series.Agency: The PCs are part of an organization that hires its services out to various clients.

Duty: Th e PCs have a job or similar obligation that leads them to adventures.

Everyday Life: Th e PCs have a relatively normal lifestyle of some kind, which happens to include the odd adventure here and there. School is the most obvi-ous place for this kind of campaign.

Quest: Th e characters are out on an adventure. Th is may be a real quest for something, evasion of a pursuing danger, or even aimless wandering.

War: Th ere is a war going on, and the PCs have been caught up in it somehow, whether as soldiers, mercenaries, or simply victims trying to survive.

Th emesLike any other form of story telling, anime usually

involves certain themes – underlying ideas that the story is intended to convey to the audience. Deciding on one or more themes for a campaign can help guide the GM in determining what kinds of adventures/epi-sodes are appropriate. Below are some of the more common themes found in anime.

DestinyAre our lives played out as written in the stars

above, or is destiny the sum of a person’s own choices? Changing the destiny of one’s birth is never impos-sible, but takes a kind of deep motivation to do so. A character that believes that destiny cannot be changed may have some powerful and tragic personal reason to think that way.

One way in which the theme of destiny comes into play is with the notion of “breeding.” Anime often fea-tures characters that come from respected families and come off as being “refi ned” human beings. Sometimes this idea is celebrated, but frequently it’s contrasted with the opposite extreme in the form of a character who’s a “nobody,” but who has the ability to strive as an individual and persevere against trials that a seemingly more qualifi ed character of good breeding would fail at or not even attempt.

FamilyHuman beings are defi ned in part by their expe-

riences as part of a family – or sometimes their lack thereof. Th emes of family often come through in anime in the form of strong contrasts between characters who have a loving family and those who have too long been alone.

FriendshipFriendship is an important and powerful theme

in anime – and often in real life for that matter. Often a character that has never really known friendship is shown some unconditional kindness and aff ection and it changes the way she looks at the world. On the other hand a character to whom friendships are a basic and natural thing is at least as tormented when torn away from her friends by circumstances.

Honor vs. ResultsWhen the competitive spirit is aroused, there are

often two types of competitors; those who engage in the competition for its own sake, and those who do whatever it takes to win. Th e “weakness” of sentimen-tality and fair play is contrasted with the eff ectiveness of a “victory machine.” Anime being the way it is, how-ever, in the end those who act purely for victory fi nd themselves falling behind those who act by following their hearts.

LoveLove – romantic and otherwise – is an extremely

common theme in anime. It is a source of both strength and weakness, and every worthwhile love in anime is one that is hard to come by.Unrequited love is also a very common theme in anime. Not everyone who falls in love has the good fortune to have that person return his or her feelings. Tales of unrequited love are often portrayed tragically and/or nobly; the lover may be lost in despair or even driven to do something terrible, or could turn those feelings into something honorable, however unfulfi lling.

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GenderWhat does it mean to be a boy or a girl? In anime

more often than not we are shown that neither is better than the other – they are two diff erent roles, and step-ping outside of them means stepping outside of normal society.

HumanityWhen non-human characters come into play,

whether because of supernatural or technological ori-gins, the question of what it means to be human arises. If someone isn’t human, does it mean they cannot love a person who is, or is love something above such trivial concerns?

Sacrifi ceOn both sides of the Pacifi c we love tales of self-

sacrifi ce. Heroes are often forced to give up what they want in favor of what their duty demands. Not only mere material comforts, but love, happiness, and even their very lives can all wind up on the chopping block of righteousness. Anime calls us to appreciate the honor of sacrifi ce, even as it shows us just how hard it can be.

Th e Value of LifeSurprising at it may seem, in anime

mercy is often held up as one of the virtues of true heroes. Life is inherently valuable, because as long as someone is still alive they can aspire to something better. For that rea-son many heroes avoid killing even enemies

unnecessarily. At the farthest extreme is a

hero who, in spite of be-ing incredibly pow-

erful, refuses to kill except in the direst need. Th is

road is not an easy one, but in the long

run it is not wholly thankless. Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun, and Galaxy Frau-lein Yuna all feature this type of main hero, someone who would rather make friends

out of his or her enemies than corpses, no matter what the cost. Characters like this will often have the Attack Restriction Disability.

On the other hand anime often reminds us of the preciousness of life the hard way. We are made to wit-ness good people, innocent lives, being cruelly, unjustly destroyed. People of abject innocence, people of amaz-ing potential, and people who, in their own way, are struggling just as bravely as any hero, can all be snuff ed out by cruel fate. In part this is just a good way to make a villain become truly villainous in the eyes of the audi-ence, but it also brings this theme home.

Th e Fate of MankindA number of anime series have at their core a sort

of philosophical dialogue. One side says that human-ity is fl awed and must be either corrected or destroyed, and the other says that humanity may be fl awed, but is also a thing of limitless potential that should exist unconstrained. Someone who questions the validity of human existence and has the means to enforce his or her twisted will is likely a natural enemy of the heroes, whether a well-meaning alien force, someone bend on revenge, or simply a madman.

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