Type-Moon(Nasuverse) RPG

[Nerroth]

Hi.


I've become quite the fan of the Nasuverse - the setting created by Type-Moon and used in games, anime, manga and novel series such as Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai.

It's so named because the author of the three works mentioned above is Kinoko Nasu - he looks like a giant mushroom with a hammer (as shown here, posing with a Nasuverse character nicknamed Hanepin!). Well, not really, but he uses that image as an emblem!


The Nasuverse essentially serves as a means of tying in concepts of sorcery (defined as abilities possessed by magi which can be somewhat approximated or defined in scientific terms) and True Magic (five types of powers which are considered beyond scientific understanding) into a modern-day setting.

It has vampires and magi, Heroic Spirits summoned from a place outside of normal space and time, unusual humans with extraordinary abilities, and a bitter twist to most of the tales set within it.


And it would be hell of a fun place to RP!


What I would like to see would be a core book which covers the basics of role-playing in the Nasuverse, which could be considered the starting point for a number of different types of books:

*Guides to magi, vampires, daemons, and other groups - most magi so far shown in the Nasuverse are part of an organisation called the Mages' Association - which is rife with intrigue, politicking and conflict, be it between member groups, prominent families, or lone magi with personal vendettas. Similarly, vampiresin the Nasuverse have a complex backstory of their own, divided between True Ancestors and Dead Apostles, and have a prominent place in the fate of humanity.

*Books detailing the more prominent events portrayed in T-M works - such as the Fifth Grail War (portrayed in Fate/Stay Night) and the prior Fourth Grail War (currently being shown in the light novel series Fate/Zero), conflicts in which seven magi assume the role of Master, and each summon a unique class of Servant (copies of Heroic Spirits from across the length and breadth of human history) in order to take part in a fight to command an item of immeasurable power known only as the Holy Grail...

*Books expanding upon the areas already shown in film or in print, by covering conflicts and time periods which have yet to be covered in detail (such as the Third Grail War, which took place two generations prior to the events of Fate/Zero, and have a crucial place in the T-M timeline - but has not been written about in detail)



I don't know how many - if any - of you are familiar with any of the works I'm talking about (perhaps the Fate/Stay Night anime?) but to those of you who know T-M, please chime in...

...and if you aren't already familiar with the settings or stories involved, maybe you might find this idea to be of interest?

 

[Nerroth]

I guess it might help to give more info on the games/anime/manga/novel series in particular, to help show what kind of potential might exist in a Type-Moon RPG.


So, I'll start by covering what, to myself at least, is the most compelling of the three settings which T-M have developed so far - that of Fate, the collection of stories set in the city of Fuyuki-shi (a fictional city, which has some similarities to Kobe) and covering a series of bitter sorcerous conflicts known as the Grail Wars.

The most prominent story set in that city is Fate/Stay Night - as told in an anime, a manga, and a game for PC and PS2:

(The cover art shown is for the 2007 release of Fate/Stay Night for the PS2, called Réalta Nua.)


Fate/Stay Night is set around a conflict known as the Fifth Holy Grail War. Seven magi (known as Masters) - some selected from powerful families in Japan, Europe or elsewhere, others nominated by the Mages' Association, still others drawn into the conflict unwittingly, are each called upon to use the latent Grail system to reach into a space outside regular time and space known as the Throne of Heroes, a place where records of famous heroic beings from across human history are stored, and call forth a powerful familiar, or Servant, in the image of a particular hero from the Throne.

Each Servant fills one of a set of various classes, as laid out by the Grail system - most commonly the Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Berserker and Assassin classes - and are tied to their Masters through a trio of perishable Command Seals which appear upon the arm of the Master as the Servant is called forth.

It is common for the hero to go by the name of his or her class, so as to conceal their true identity - but each hero possesses at least one powerful item, known as a Noble Phantasm, which is intricately tied to that hero's legend.

Once the Servants are summoned, the pairs of Master and Servant engage in a there-can-be-only-one battle to win the right to call forth the Grail, and have a wish granted by this powerful object.

However, sometimes Servants can have their own wishes, which may or may not conflict with those of their Masters...

...and more importantly, there is far more going on in the Grail War than it may seem, and far more at stake than the protagonists realise.



While, of course, the RPG could focus on whichever set of characters the RPers want to - or, if they wanted, with their own unique Masters and Servants - the branching stories of Fate/Stay Night focus on a group of protagonists, who play an important role no matter which way the story (which, in the PS2 game, has three major story routes, that all branch out from the same starting point) goes.

Please note that the links for each character contain major spoilers, so be warned...

There is Tohsaka Rin, a prodigy and heiress of the powerful Tohsaka clan - which has a long family tradition of stewardship over the lands upon which Fuyuki now stands, as well as of participating in the Grail Wars held there. Indeed, her father Tokiomi, portrayed in the prequel series Fate/Zero, died in the previous war.

Her summoned Servant is Archer - an enigmatic and totally badass Servant whose identity is unknown at first, but who plays a crucial role in the Fifth Grail War, no matter which story route is pursued.

Another key character is a young man known as Emiya Shirou, who lost his own parents in a terrible fire which destroyed a portion of the city ten years prior to the events of F/SN - a fire which occurred at the climax of the previous war. He was adopted by a man called Emiya Kiritsugu, who was a survivor of that conflict, and who passed on the noble ideals of heroism and self-sacrifice to his adopted son. However, how his ideals fare in the face of the events of the War are a key aspect of the story of Fate/Stay Night.

Rounding off the core group of characters is Shirou's Servant, Saber. A powerful, noble, and graceful knight with a strong sense of honour and loyalty to her Master, Saber has her own dark reasons for pursuing the Grail, which are inextricably linked to her own secret identity.

The 4 are shown on the Character page of the upcoming arcade game based on F/SN, Fate/Unlimited Codes. Also, the site for the North American release of the anime is useful to note - neither of those links are very spoiler-ey, so they are ok.

There are many other characters who play crucial roles - from rival Masters and Servants to others who play important parts of Shirou's life - and their own stories are as worthy of exploration in an RP setting as the four characters I have mentioned.


But whichever group one wishes to RP as, whatever role a player would seek to pursue, no-one involved in the Fifth Grail War - indeed, no-one in the city of Fuyuki - will be left unaffected by the sorcerous conflict...

 

[Nerroth]

While there are a few other Fate stories out there, perhaps the most viable of these from an RP perspective (for now) is Fate/Zero - the tale of the Fourth Grail War, fought ten years prior to the events of Fate/Stay Night:

Fate/Zero is a very different type of story to F/SN - while many of the characters in F/SN have various reasons for building bridges and developing a degree of trust and/or co-operation, F/Z has almost none of that. While a gap of only ten years between Wars made the influence of the past war very prominent in the generation involved in F/SN, the war in F/Z was the first of its kind for almost six decades. (Indeed, one of the odd things about the Fifth War is that it happened so soon - half a century earlier than it should have.)

And in Fate/Zero, the protagonists are more ruthless as a whole, and more well prepared for the conflict.

Top of the list of protagonists is Emiya Kiritsugu, the man who would go on to adopt Emiya Shirou (the red-headed lad from F/SN) - an utterly driven and ruthless magus-killer, one of the few modern magi to rely as much on technology as he does on sorcery, and the Master of Saber - the same heroic figure present in the Fifth Grail War. He fights alongside his clinically effective assistant Maiya Hisau, while Saber works alongside Kiritsugu's wife Irisviel von Einzbern - of the clan of magi who chose Kiritsugu to be their representative in this war.

Also involved is Tokiomi Tohsaka, the father of F/SN's Rin - supported in secret by the supposedly-neutral Church (who have acted as arbitrators in the Grail Wars since the Third War sixty years prior to F/Z), as his family are Christian. His servant is an Archer-class, a powerful, arrogant and independent-minded Servant keen on dealing with the War on his own terms.

Sent as Tokiomi's aide, the son of the man who oversaw the Third War, Kotomine Kirei - who would go on to arbitrate the Fifth War in turn - is a man with many questions, but few answers. His Servant is Assassin, and he has agreed to co-ordinate his policy in the War with Tokiomi and Kirei's own father Risei, to assist the Tohsaka's efforts in winning the War and claiming the Grail.

However, the choices Kotomine chooses to make, and the complex relationship between him and Emiya Kiritsugu, are destined to lead towards a fateful turning point for the city of Fuyuki, and for the Grail Wars as a whole.

Also, mention should be made of Matou Kariya, a young man who carried the banner of the Matou/Makiri clan in the Fourth War, and the Master of an as-yet-unnamed Berserker-class Servant. While some Masters fight for power, others for glory, yet others for wishes both altruistic and selfish, Kariya has perhaps the most personal of reasons to fight and win the war... as a man risking everything on the slimmest of hopes, all for the sake of another.



F/Z has powerful and unique Servants, quirky and eclectic Masters, a whole load of action, intrigue, betrayal and consequence, and is ideal fodder for RP adventuring.

Well, at least I think so.



(Before I go on, does anyone actually care about any of this, or no?)

 

[Nerroth]

I'll do one more for now - and hope that of the people looking at the thread who haven't replied, that the idea isn't a total waste of time...



Several works by Type-Moon have been re-created in other forms of medium - there have been anime and manga adaptations of Fate/Stay Night, and games from Capcom (such as the in-development Fate/Unlimited Codes combat game) but the most recent work to be released as an anime is Kara no Kyoukai - which is currently being released in Japan as a series of 7 movies, detailed here.

Kara no Kyoukai is based around the story of four main characters, who are involved in a group taking on various 'requests' of a sorcerous or otherworldly nature, or are drawn into various conflicts without being asked to do so.

The lead character, the one with the short sword, is Ryougi Shiki - a woman from a powerful family who possesses a unique gift known as the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception (she can visualise lines of existence on a person or object, slice these lines to 'cut' various limbs or attachments, or strike a 'dot' which erases a being from existence) and the kind of skill, dexterity and ruthlessness which allow her to put them to good use.

However, it's not all cake and roses - she's got, well, a few mental issues, which affect her quite deeply, and those around her.

People such as the lead male character, Mikiya Kokutou (the glasses guy in the pic above) - who, in contrast, has no particular abilities, unless you count his uncanny knack at rooting out things via investigation.

He was one of the few people to send time with Shiki when they were both younger, and her relationship with him is somewhat odd, shall we say.

He works at a place known as the Garan no Dou - a hidden workshop of a powerful magus called Aozaki Tohko (the other woman in the pic).

A student of a unique branch of sorcery relating to the development of highly advanced artificial limbs, Tohko is powerful, knowledgeable, and mercurial - though she's not great when it comes to money, much to Mikiya's chagrin...

Rounding out the main cast is Mikiya's younger sis Azaka, who trains under Tohko as an apprentice magus, has a penchant for fire, likes her brother... a lot, and thus despises Shiki intensely! (There's one part on one of the stories where Shiki asks Azaka if she has a message to pass on to Mikiya, and Azaka says to tell him that she wishes him not to have anything to do with that horrible woman!)



In RPG terms, one could play the roles of the lead characters, one of the many opponents or clients they meet along the way, or create new people to use as a basis for interaction.

Indeed, one could tie in the KnK characters with those from (or created for) Fate RPG sessions - while the events of KnK take place between the ten-year gap separating Fate/Zero from Fate/Stay Night, and the cities they take place in are different, one could easily find ways to bridge such gaps as required.

Though whomever your character is, it might be a good idea not to get on Ryougi Shiki's (Or Shikis') bad side(s)!

 

[plaid_knight]

http://www.heavens-feel.com/fate_nasuverse_rpg.html

This is my homebrew Tsukihime and Fate Stay Night rpg project.
Typically it's revised to include one more chapter per week (but if I'm swamped with work it may slow to one chapter every two weeks). The first six chapters have focused on what you need in order to make a character and the rules for combat. The next chapter will deal with sanity and mental health. When it's all done it'll be a huge book and useful fanguide to Fate Stay Night and Tsukihime.

 

[Nerroth]

That looks pretty cool.


Are you eventually going to add Fate/Zero and Rakkyo stuff to it, also?


Also, have you shown it over at BL?


Oh - and it might sound a bit... odd, but have you considered doing a 'lite' version, which would cover the less-serious version of the setting shown in the two Fate/Tiger Colosseum games?

 

[plaid_knight]

>Are you eventually going to add Fate/Zero and Rakkyo stuff to it, also?

I'd prefer to finish the main book first and then do a separate plugin book for Fate/Zero and Rakkyo, but I definitely plan to write up both of them. The nice thing about my file hosting and publishing software is that I can upload a new version when I significantly change something (like adding a chapter).

I've shown it at Beast's Lair, but I think they are going for a rules-free approach for their RP sessions, thus the book has less utility for them.

>have you considered doing a 'lite' version, which would cover the less-serious version of the setting shown in the two >Fate/Tiger Colosseum games?

The trouble is I haven't played those! I'd like to know more about them, though.

And I really appreciated your kind words. Thank you for your support.

 

[plaid_knight]

This is a bit of a side project, but I put together a guide to maid fashion, which is somewhat useful if you want to play a Maid in Fate. You might find it of interest. And now that I have finished a major school project I'll be able to return to work on the Fate book.

 

[Mongoose_Will]

This would be pretty interesting as a fully published RPG in my personal opinion, would do for a very attractive book aswell hehe

 

[plaid_knight]

Thanks!

After I wrap up a project on the 11th I should be able to power on with Fate. I think I will be done with it by the end of December or the end of January.

So you will have some new stuff to look at until then, I have some previews for things you'll find in future chapters here: http://jakeexperience.insanejournal.com/tag/fate_nasuverse_rpg (NPCs, character guides, rules for vampires as antagonists, and running adult scenes in an RPG).

Edit: the correct link is http://www.heavens-feel.com/fate_nasuverse_rpg.html

 

[Nerroth]

Yay, more interest in a Type-Moon book!

 

[plaid_knight]

I've been playing through Heavens Feel with the release of the new translation patch. I've been taking notes as I play, so I'll be able to incorporate the new material into the game book when I finish with my current school project.

 

[Nerroth]

Good, good - but the link you posted a few entries back doesn't seem to work...

 

[plaid_knight]

I'm now in the process of moving to a new webhost. I'm sorry about the wait, but it will be worth it. I'll let you know when the links will be available again.

 

[Nerroth]

Good, good - though it would be nice to gauge what, if any, kind of interest Mongoose themselves might have in it!


(Oh, and there are a couple of new Type-Moon works on the cards. Most notable concerning the so-called 'Nasuverse' setting is Mahou Tsukai no Yoru, which seems to detail a key moment involving two significant characters in the setting - the Aozaki sisters, Aoko and Tohko.)

 

[plaid_knight]

I think the licensing for it would be too expensive. One might think of what happened to Guardians of Order ... too much money going out and not enough going in to cover the cost of operations plus the licenses on top of that.

Oh, and we're back up.

http://www.heavens-feel.com

Just go to the games tab and pick Fate Nasuverse RPG.

After I submit my thesis PDF today I'll bust out a small update to the Fate pdf and steady work on it will resume.

 

[Nerroth]

Nice site!


(You should post a link to it at BL and the MM boards, too.)

 

[plaid_knight]

As soon as I get my comp back from the repair shop, I'll wrap up the book's remaining chapters. In the meantime, let's see what Sakura's stats might look like:
http://heavens-feel.insanejournal.com/457595.html

 

[Nerroth]

Would 'Abusive Sibling' not be a more accurate description for Shinji?


He is not her partner.


Oh, I should say that I've written fics involving her - both having the issue of freeing her involved to a greater or lesser extent, and neither following the HF route for that matter - so I guess I get a bit protective over her...


...but that would still mean that the RPG should cater for those who, while following other routes, might wish to either have pre-existing characters, or newly-created OCs, work to save her in those timelines, too.

 

[plaid_knight]

He is not her partner.

I wasn't trying to imply that Shinji was supposed to be with her forever; I was glad when he got what was coming to him in HF.

Yet I wasn't sure how to phrase what their relationship would be in game terms, and it definitely would be counted as a disadvantage in this game setting. He does act a lot like an abusive spouse (disregarding the wishes of the other partner, emotional blackmail, physical violence, etc.) so I leaned towards terming it "abusive partner". If I say "abusive partner" or "abusive spouse" and then grant extra points for it as a secret, a new Storyteller knows exactly what I am trying to get across in the text.

so I guess I get a bit protective over her...

It's not my intention to be cruel to any of these characters; with that aside, I must discuss the events of the source material, however tragic they may be, and try to describe everything in terms so that people with no experience with the source material can pick up the book and play ... while also including rules for "jumping in" to the story with pre-existing or OC characters.