Survival Of The Fittest

A while back, I ran a game using the Marvel Heroic RPG system. Marvel Heroic is a simple and malleable dice pool system that's fairly easy to pick up in a session or two; it's not built with custom character creation in mind, but several games have been run using it and we've made it work for us with some standardizing.

Anyway, the last game I ran using this system used the setting of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Titled Tropic Storm, this 'part' was set in the state of Hawaii in March, 2018. It involved gangs, hating tourists, a farmer's market, a climactic battle at Dole's pineapple plantation, an honest-to-god vampire and the greatest villain of all: a college professor of history. The story completed its arc and came to a neat close. Thinking back on this game, I would love to have another tabletop game in the JoJos world. There's only one caveat...

If possible, I would REALLY like to play this time around. But if I HAVE to in order for the game to run, I will. I just... pretty please? I wanna plaaaaaay

Anyway, I'm posting this to gauge interest in a JJBA game! It doesn't necessarily have to be a sequel to Tropic Storm (especially if I'm not DMing) but if one wasn't in that game and is curious enough, I could help them set up the story for consistency's sake (without spoiling myself).

So yeah! Interest check. If you're interested, please reply!

This sounds really fun! I don't know the system for the game, but I'd be willing to learn!

The system is fairly freeform and pretty easy to pick up! I'll give a quick rundown of how it works, using some Marvel characters as examples (since that's the setting the system was initially designed for):

You're playing as Spider-Man and you're fighting Green Goblin. On your turn, you narrate your action: you want to try and sling a line of webbing between two buildings to clothesline Green Goblin off his glider. THEN you decide how that looks like in dice form.

Every hero has an AFFILIATION: Are you working alone, as a duo, or with a team? Some work best alone (Wolverine, Black Widow), some operate best in a buddy system (Iron Fist, Luke Cage), or in a team (Captain America, Hawkeye). From best to worst, these three affiliations are marked D10, D8, and D6. Spider-Man is working alone and has a D8 solo die.

Every hero has three DISTINCTIONS: These are three character traits that may sometimes affect them positively or negatively. If it affects them positively, take a d8. If negatively, take a d4 and a plot point (things you can spend for special effects such as activating SFX abilities, adding extra dice to a roll, or automatically succeeding on small tasks without rolling for them). Spider-Man has a distinction named 'Wisecracker' referring to his joking attitude. He might set up his trap and say "Let's hang you out to dry!" Add a D8.



Now, we get to power sets. Every hero has at least one; Spider-Man has two: "Spider Powers" (refers to his wall-crawling, super strength, durability, spidey sense, and agility) and "Web slinging" (take a guess). You can use one die from EACH power set; obviously, you want to use as many dice as possible whenever you can. We'll take the d8 from Web-slinging's WEAPON trait, then reason we're probably using Superhuman Reflexes or at least Enhanced senses to catch Green Goblin midflight. We'll say we're using the D10.

Since we're knocking Green Goblin off his glider, we're creating a complication more than directly damaging him. Complications are hindrances to your opponent (or think of them as status effects) you inflict; tying somebody up with your webbing would be a complication. So we'll use the Grapple sfx (under web slinging) to add a d6 to the dice pool and step up the effect die by +1 (explain what that means in a moment).

Finally, characters have skills not related to their superpowers like science, tech, combat proficiency, etc. Spider-Man is engaging in combat and has a D8 COMBAT EXPERTISE, so we'll add that die to the pool.

Finally, we can roll. We have a d8 affiliation (solo), a d8 distinction (wisecracker), a d10 power (reflexes), d8 power (web slinger weapon), and d8 expertise (combat), plus a d6 from Grapple. Roll 1d10+4d8+1d6.

Roll: 9 (d10), 7, 2, 2, 8 (d8s), 5 (d6).

Select any two values to come up with your total. For instance, the 9 and the 8 add up to a value of 17. To avoid being affected by our attack, Green Goblin must roll 18 or higher. To determine how affected he is, we select another die that we did NOT use to make our total. We want as many sides as possible, so we'll select one of the d8s (the d10, which rolled a 9, is already being used to make the 17 total). We have a '17 on a d8', stepped up to a d10 due to Grapple's SFX. Green Goblin rolls a 15, which means our attack succeeds! He is knocked off his glider and has a d10 complication: 'webbed up' (any rolls made against him get to add an extra d10).


This becomes natural surprisingly quick and there's no real hard limit to what your character can do; just make an attempt at it if you've got the dice. The system has been applied to homebrew Superpower settings, One Piece and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to pretty great success!

I might be interested in playing.

I'd also be interested in trying this out if there's room/you need another person, though my schedule is probably really prohibitive because of work.

I have two players from the old game who are both interested AND readily available and who have reserved slots in the game, those two being Iktor and a friend of mine, Nick. I could take probably up to three more players so...

looking like Aura/Laurels/Jilly perhaps, schedule permitting?

Yeah, if my schedule lets me play, then I'd love to give it a shot.

Yeah, same. The only days I have completely free are Fridays and Saturdays though unless y'all wanna play like in the mid-morning or in the middle of the night like vampires on any of the other days. If either one works I'm down to try at least until I get bored and ghost out but if I'm the outlier with scheduling I'm not gonna be heartbroken if I'll have to pass on trying this out this time.

I'm generally free weeknights after 6 pm EST, barring Wednesdays as I sometimes have biweekly events those nights. Weekends I should be fine.

Friday looks pretty good, then? 4 PM PST/7 PM EST might be a good start time there

I'd be down for that

Wait. Shit. That won't work for Victoria who works M-F until like 6 every day. Jilly, describe your Sundays. (Saturday is also an option)

MK Kilmarnock wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 12:30 am Wait. Shit. That won't work for Victoria who works M-F until like 6 every day. Jilly, describe your Sundays. (Saturday is also an option)

I work Sunday - Thursday from 3 to 11 pm cst along with having to literally be out the door by 2 so p much if we do it on one of those days it'd probably have to be sometime before noon for most of us depending on how long sessions last in a sitting. I'm completely free Saturday but again if I'm the limiting person her when it comes to scheduling I'm totally cool just backing out.

MK Kilmarnock wrote: ↑Wed May 19, 2021 12:30 am Wait. Shit. That won't work for Victoria who works M-F until like 6 every day. Jilly, describe your Sundays. (Saturday is also an option)

I should probably describe my schedule too. Right now I have Sundays, Mondays, and Fridays off, although there's a chance that could change in the future.

Saturdays are free for everybody except Aura, Sundays are free for everybody except Jilly, and Fridays aren't particularly great unless we start at like... 6 PST/9EST because of Victoria. If that's an agreeable time we can do Friday.