Post by dorkknight23 on Jan 1, 2017 11:53:51 GMT -5
Super Sentai is the name given to a group of long-running Japanese television series which feature a team of multicolored heroes fighting monsters with combining attacks, typically with a giant robot but not always at first (for those curious, the general term for this particular Japanese subgenre, which also includes things like Godzilla, the Kamen Riders, and Ultraman, is tokusatsu or literally ‘special effects film’). Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers used the special effects footage from one such program (Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger) as the basis for their initial program, and borrowed from subsequent programs to reflect their new mecha, monsters, costumes, and so on. While this game is clearly going to probably feel similar to MMPR because of our shared source inspirations, it’s going to be completely unrelated lorewise (I don’t plan on crossing over characters or the like, or including characters like Zordon or the term Zords, I’ll probably use the terms “morphing” and “transforming” interchangeably but that’s just a bad habit more than anything).
What I like most about Super Sentai, and what I’m trying to reproduce in this game, is the over-the-top merchandise/effects-driven powers, the wild incongruities in tone (episodes vary from farcical to intensely dramatic), and how the show finds new variations on the “monster of the week attacks” formula, and the character work that goes into their rubber-suited villains. I also am deeply interested in how these shows play with similar archetypical personalities with the colors, less so on the show’s obsession with their Red heroes, but more in the rest of the team.
If you haven’t seen Super Sentai before, I think you can fake it enough to play, especially if you’ve seen an episode of Power Rangers. If not, I can legally recommend you check out Zyuranger (the Japanese inspiration for S1 MMPR) here, although I wouldn’t call it the most “representative” Super Sentai (from what I’ve seen so far, if there was one show to get that honor, it’s maybe Liveman or Jetman, but I’ve finished none of the three, so take that opinion with a grain of salt). There are streaming services that carry many of the other series, almost always with pretty awesome fanmade English subtitles (including some cultural notes if you’d miss Japanese puns or cultural references), but it’s against the rules of this site to for talk about any such service by name, so… if you’re interested, start looking.
I’m going to be running the game in Marvel Heroic and posting a more “game world specific” recruitment thread discussing the exact details of rules there, but I’m indecisive on the exact theme the team should I have. So, if you’re interested in playing, I wanted to ask you to vote for up to two of these brief pitches below in the poll here. (These ideas also give you a sense of the broad and somewhat ridiculous nature I plan on going for here.) After I feel satisfied there’s a winner, I’ll write something more in depth up and talk about the rules in detail, char gen/recruitment, etc.
1. Radical Sentai Vidranger
Five teen gaming champions are summoned by the Digital Wizard Aiyo to rescue the worlds of video games and modern-day Japan from the invasion of the Dark Dimension Empire GameOver, whose dark ambitions include conquering both the human and video game worlds. Each is given a magical controller/cell phones that lets them travel between the two worlds and to summon their power ups, weapons, and their giant robots which combine into the blazing sword-wielding Grand Vidiaiyo. Can these kids keep their battle with GameOver secret while protecting two universes with their video game prowess?
2. Musical Sentai Spacestars
Five space-faring rockstars are stranded on Earth when their “Intergalactic World Tour” is grounded by the invading Space Empire Voidnoia. Using their colorful Henshin Stars, the Spacestars fight for their right to rock ‘n roll, including their color-coded spandex uniforms, their chrome-and-plastic “Space Instruments,” and the Great Space Beasts, which combine into the powerful Great Spacestar. The Spacestars rock out and fight for the planet Earth, learning about Earth as they learn why they it is worth protecting.
3. Racing Sentai Dinodriver
The Primordial Empire of Queen Riptide again seeks to conquer dry land, their only opponents are their old enemies the Dinodrivers. Five ancient dinosaur-shaped vehicles, the Dinodriver Keys choose five new riders to race their Dinomachines, wield the Dinoweapons, and combine their powers into the blazingly powerful King Dino. The Dinodrivers seek out the other Dinomachines before Riptide recovers them, in the hope of driving her back to the darkness from whence she came.
4. Armored Sentai Dragonknights
The descendants of the legendary Round Table of Camelot are gathered by Merlin’s descendant to wield the color-coded power of their five ancestors. The Dragonknights call on ancient honor and cross swords with the ancient Fey Empire and their Empress Morgan LeFaye, who wishes to conquer the “new Camelot” in Japan in honor of her young son Mordred with a legion of hideous Demonoid monsters. The five DragonMech combine into Sir Dragonknight to destroy any monsters LeFaye or her court make gigantic.
5. Cyborg Sentai Enjiman
Five teenagers on the run with their robot dog friend/mentor REX from the shadowy corporation known only as ABYSS, who are responsible for creating hideous FiendBeasts, but also for transforming the teenagers into cyborg supersoldiers. Now, the teens act from the shadows as Enjiman, stopping ABYSS’s schemes wherever they arise, either using their cyborg superweapons or interfacing with their giant transforming mecha Dai-Enjo.
What I like most about Super Sentai, and what I’m trying to reproduce in this game, is the over-the-top merchandise/effects-driven powers, the wild incongruities in tone (episodes vary from farcical to intensely dramatic), and how the show finds new variations on the “monster of the week attacks” formula, and the character work that goes into their rubber-suited villains. I also am deeply interested in how these shows play with similar archetypical personalities with the colors, less so on the show’s obsession with their Red heroes, but more in the rest of the team.
If you haven’t seen Super Sentai before, I think you can fake it enough to play, especially if you’ve seen an episode of Power Rangers. If not, I can legally recommend you check out Zyuranger (the Japanese inspiration for S1 MMPR) here, although I wouldn’t call it the most “representative” Super Sentai (from what I’ve seen so far, if there was one show to get that honor, it’s maybe Liveman or Jetman, but I’ve finished none of the three, so take that opinion with a grain of salt). There are streaming services that carry many of the other series, almost always with pretty awesome fanmade English subtitles (including some cultural notes if you’d miss Japanese puns or cultural references), but it’s against the rules of this site to for talk about any such service by name, so… if you’re interested, start looking.
I’m going to be running the game in Marvel Heroic and posting a more “game world specific” recruitment thread discussing the exact details of rules there, but I’m indecisive on the exact theme the team should I have. So, if you’re interested in playing, I wanted to ask you to vote for up to two of these brief pitches below in the poll here. (These ideas also give you a sense of the broad and somewhat ridiculous nature I plan on going for here.) After I feel satisfied there’s a winner, I’ll write something more in depth up and talk about the rules in detail, char gen/recruitment, etc.
1. Radical Sentai Vidranger
Five teen gaming champions are summoned by the Digital Wizard Aiyo to rescue the worlds of video games and modern-day Japan from the invasion of the Dark Dimension Empire GameOver, whose dark ambitions include conquering both the human and video game worlds. Each is given a magical controller/cell phones that lets them travel between the two worlds and to summon their power ups, weapons, and their giant robots which combine into the blazing sword-wielding Grand Vidiaiyo. Can these kids keep their battle with GameOver secret while protecting two universes with their video game prowess?
2. Musical Sentai Spacestars
Five space-faring rockstars are stranded on Earth when their “Intergalactic World Tour” is grounded by the invading Space Empire Voidnoia. Using their colorful Henshin Stars, the Spacestars fight for their right to rock ‘n roll, including their color-coded spandex uniforms, their chrome-and-plastic “Space Instruments,” and the Great Space Beasts, which combine into the powerful Great Spacestar. The Spacestars rock out and fight for the planet Earth, learning about Earth as they learn why they it is worth protecting.
3. Racing Sentai Dinodriver
The Primordial Empire of Queen Riptide again seeks to conquer dry land, their only opponents are their old enemies the Dinodrivers. Five ancient dinosaur-shaped vehicles, the Dinodriver Keys choose five new riders to race their Dinomachines, wield the Dinoweapons, and combine their powers into the blazingly powerful King Dino. The Dinodrivers seek out the other Dinomachines before Riptide recovers them, in the hope of driving her back to the darkness from whence she came.
4. Armored Sentai Dragonknights
The descendants of the legendary Round Table of Camelot are gathered by Merlin’s descendant to wield the color-coded power of their five ancestors. The Dragonknights call on ancient honor and cross swords with the ancient Fey Empire and their Empress Morgan LeFaye, who wishes to conquer the “new Camelot” in Japan in honor of her young son Mordred with a legion of hideous Demonoid monsters. The five DragonMech combine into Sir Dragonknight to destroy any monsters LeFaye or her court make gigantic.
5. Cyborg Sentai Enjiman
Five teenagers on the run with their robot dog friend/mentor REX from the shadowy corporation known only as ABYSS, who are responsible for creating hideous FiendBeasts, but also for transforming the teenagers into cyborg supersoldiers. Now, the teens act from the shadows as Enjiman, stopping ABYSS’s schemes wherever they arise, either using their cyborg superweapons or interfacing with their giant transforming mecha Dai-Enjo.
As you can see MMPR started from the middle to present day.