Katawa Shoujo Forums

Now that I have some free time, I'm tempted to run a game of Katawa Meido right here on these very forums (6-8 players max)! And on this very section, if it's all right with the mods. Yes, that's right, while you're waiting for the CRPG, why not try a plain ol' RPG? Now, for those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, I'll just repost from here:

Commissar Mecha Milk wrote: On a lonely mountaintop somewhere in Japan, sits Yanmaku Mansion, where the sickly young master Hisao Nakai resides. Gravely ill, his family has put out a request for maids capable of understanding his condition, a request vigourously opposed by his butler, Kenji. Can you prove yourself, and maybe, just maybe, find a little love in the process? Welcome to the world of Katawa Meido!

All Maids start with the Injury SQ to reflect their disabilities.

That said, YOU DON"T HAVE TO PLAY ONE OF THE GIRLS. Just as long as your Maid is disabled, that'll be okay.

But wait- where can you get this amazing game if you don't want to pirate it? Well, you can go here and order a pdf for only US$8, or a dead tree version for US$30 (please do, they're good people). However, if you want to try before you buy (and so I can escape accusations of VIRAL MARKETAN), here's an abridged version of the rules.

First off, you can use the MaidRPG character generator to make a character, or you can roll at Invisible Castle, which we'll be using anyway. If you choose to use Invisible Castle, then I'll need you to roll:

2d6 fourteen (!) times. Make sure you write down the address of your roll
1d6 once

Then give me a name and an age, and leave the rest to me to figure out.

Oh, and why am I running this as a PbP? Because I know many people here are fans, and it wouldn't be fair to anyone if I up and left them behind just because I'm all the way here in Malaysia, and they were in Timbuktu, Nunavut, New Jersey or other such godforsaken wastelands.

BUT HOW DOES ONE PLAY MAID?

TASKS

Simple really. Let's take an example of a simple task in motion:

Shizune is working hard to clean one of the rooms in the mansion. Such a task requires a simple Skill roll, and Shizune's player rolls a die, getting a 4. Now, the way rolls are handled is [Roll x Attribute] vs Difficulty. Shizune's player rolled a 4, and with Shizune's Skill of 3, that's a 12 result (3 x 4). Sweeping a room isn't a hard task, so the Difficulty is 4, which Shizune beat handily. If Emi walked into the room and wanted to assist, she'd roll [1d6 x Skill] as well, and add that total to Shizune's roll (not that Shizune would have needed it).

Opposed Tasks are situations where someone is pitted against someone else. This includes combat, but isn't exclusively limited to it. For example:

1) Misha and Lilly are both trying hard to Impress Hisao with their cooking. Misha's Skill is 3, Lilly's is 2, so things are stacked against Lilly. But wait! While Misha's player rolls a dismal 2 (for a total roll of 6), Lilly's rolls a 6 for a total of 12! As they watch Hisao's eyes cross while eating Misha's chili, and the way his face lights up when he eats Lilly's steak, Misha's player has to divide that 12 by her Skill (12/3), and suffers 3 Stress points in damage! Spirit is determined by a character's Will stat (Will x 10), and once a character's Stress equals their spirit, they suffer what is called a Stress Explosion (explained below).

2) Alien ninjas have invaded the mansion (yes, this is possible), and only Hanako stands in their way! She's facing off against their leader, who uses his Athletics of 3 to attack her! Her eyes widening and watering, Hanako bursts into tears, not because they attacked, but because in doing so, they ruined the poem she had been hand-writing for Hisao (spilled ink all over the manuscript). Basically, Hanako is 'attacking' with her Affection of 5. Ninja rolls 2, for a total of 6, and Hanako rolls a perfect 6, for a total of 30! Since the Ninja used his Athletics of 3, he suffers 10 Stress damage (30/3); had he used his Will of 4 to intimidate Hanako, he'd have suffered only 8 damage (30/4, rounded up). He's only got 10 Spirit, and so suffers a Stress Explosion that causes him to start teasing Hanako mercilessly ('teasing' being one Stress Explosion). Things aren't looking too good for Hanako...

FAVOUR AND STRESS

Each player starts with Favour equal to their [Affection x2] and Spirit equal to their [Will x10]. Favour is used to buy Attributes, start random events, reduce stress and also help one's rolls. Once a Maid reaches 0 Favour, she's in danger- if she loses any more favour, she'll have to reduce an Attribute to get enough to pay off her debt. For example, Iwanako has 0 favour, and for some reason suffers a loss of 4 Favour. She chooses to reduce her Luck of 2 to one, getting 20 Favour [Old Attribute x 10]. She spends 4 Favour to pay off her debt, and is left with 16 Favour and 1 Luck.

Favour can also be used to obtain Random Events that I will roll or pick out, depending on my mood

Spirit determines how much Stress a Maid can take before she snaps with a Stress Explosion. Emi has a Will of 2 and a Stress Explosion of Running. Should she suffer 20 points of Stress or more, she'll take off running. Hanako has a Will of 4 and a Stress Explosion of Seclusion, so if she suffers 40 Stress or more, she'll lock herself away in the mansion somewhere.

Normally, Stress Explosions last for a number of real-time minutes equal to how many points over the limit a Maid got (so if Emi suffers 25 Stress, her player has to role play her running for 5 real-time minutes). Since this is impractical in a PbP game, I've initiated some house rules below in my next post.

HOUSE RULES

1) First off, Stress Explosions. Whenever a player suffers a Stress Explosion, s/he must make a post describing the Maid's Stress Explosion, complete with overwrought drama if s/he wishes. After that, a player may continue playing the Explosion if s/he wishes, but the Maid's Stress Track is reduced to 0. Just don't play the Explosion too long, all right?

2) Stunt Dice. For those familiar with Exalted's Storyteller System, the conditions for a stunt are exactly the same as noted down in the core book, with rewards as listed below. For those who aren't:

+1 Attribute Stunt (Reward, 1d3 Favour)
These stunts are usually just flowery descriptions made to liven up otherwise boring descriptions, and allow a player to do moderately improbable stunts, such as run across the heads of an assembled crowd. These stunts add +1 to an Attribute for a single roll, and the player who makes such a stunt is rewarded with 1d3 Favour.

Example: Her whisk gleaming in the nooonday sun, Shizune grabs an egg from the bowl behind her, and twirls to face the mixing bowl. Time seems to slow down, and in mid-twirl, Shizune cracks the egg one-handedly over the bowl.

As you can see, this is a fairly long-winded way of saying 'Shizune starts mixing the eggs'.

+2 Attribute Stunt (Reward, 1d6 Favour)
These stunts are more than flowery descriptions, and often 'play on the environment'. You might notice that I won't describe every detail in a room or a scene, and this is intentionally done to give players room to make +2 stunts. Falling down a high wall, a player might declare that a hanging banner is present, and so she catches it to halt her fall. Or maybe some washing has come loose, and she grabs a pair of billowing petticoats to use as a parachute.

Example: Her whisk gleaming in the nooonday sun, Shizune grabs an egg from the bowl behind her, and twirls to face the mixing bowl. Time seems to slow down, and in mid-twirl, Shizune cracks the egg one-handedly over the bowl. As she completes her 360-degree circuit, her skirt billowing lightly in the wind, Shizune lets go of the egg shells in her hand, and they fall neatly into the dustbin at the end of the kitchen at the same time the whisk enters the mixing bowl.

Not only does this paint a much more awesome mental picture, it also plays on the environment- assume I never mentioned a dustbin in my original, only a kitchen. Note, these descriptions must make some sense; if Shizune was making a chocolate cake, and her player mentions her taking cabbage out of a fridge, I'll ask why. Of course, if the player provides a good reason, I'll allow it.

+3 Attribute Stunts (Reward, 1d6+1 Favour, -1d6 Stress)
These are truly awesome stunts, done once in a blue moon. If there's any doubt about it being a +3 stunt, it isn't a +3 stunt. A player making one of these must not only combine the flowery descriptions of the +1 stunt and dramatic editing of a +2 stunt, but must also expand upon them.

Example: A giant robot fires a missle at Emi's feet. As Emi watches, time seems to move in slow-motion, while she moves at hyper speed! The missile impacts the ground, and slowly buries itself in the ground, before exploding a split second later- but to Emi, it's all still in slow motion. The ball of fire slowly expands, and a dull roar fills Emi's head as she places a foot on the largest clod of dirt, and as the explosion increases in size, Emi steps from clod of dirt to speck of dirt, riding the shockwave up into the sky on the debris of the explosion. She flies up into the sky, disappearing with a gleam and a 'Ping!', before reappearing a moment later, falling feet first, her prosthetic legs cutting a burning path through the atmosphere. Another split second later, Emi's Orbital Drop Technique slams into the robot.

Geez, need I say more? Moreover, if the player has any points left from reducing his/her Stress, those points are added to their Favour.

I remember reading about this on TV Tropes; we made fun of it on the fora. How exactly would the rules for the disabilities work? I'm curious about the more exotic disabilities like epilepsy, congenital analgesia, or other cool shit you only find out about in House episodes.

Count me in. I've heard of this all over the place, might as well give it a try. I leave the maid generatin' to you.

Maid Name: Abigail
Maid Age: 20
Dice Results: (2d6, 14 times) 10, 7, 5, 8, 7, 3, 8, 9, 8, 7, 6, 2, 6, 6
(1d6, once) 1
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2299634/
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2299649/

Commissar Mecha Milk wrote:Time seems to slow down, and in mid-twirl, her skirt billowing lightly in the wind, Shizune cracks the egg one-handedly over the bowl. As she completes her 360-degree circuit, her skirt billowing lightly in the wind, Shizune lets go of the egg shells in her hand, and they fall neatly into the dustbin at the end of the kitchen at the same time the whisk enters the mixing bowl.

I'd have to rank that stunt down significantly for that. <_<

I'll look into getting the rules, but first I'd need to make sure that you're actually going to be present regularly if you're planning on GMing, unlike a certain other alleged KSRPG GM on the forum. With what regularity are you expecting posting to occur per character?

Goldilurks wrote:I remember reading about this on TV Tropes; we made fun of it on the fora. How exactly would the rules for the disabilities work? I'm curious about the more exotic disabilities like epilepsy, congenital analgesia, or other cool shit you only find out about in House episodes.

Since MaidRPG isn't really a rules-heavy game, such disabilities don't really count for much, though if you RP them well (sometimes to the point of gimping yourself), there might be extra Favour in it for you, or stunt bonuses.

ThreeStep wrote:Count me in. I've heard of this all over the place, might as well give it a try. I leave the maid generatin' to you.

Maid Name: Abigail
Maid Age: 20
Dice Results: (2d6, 14 times) 10, 7, 5, 8, 7, 3, 8, 9, 8, 7, 6, 2, 6, 6
(1d6, once) 1
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2299634/
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2299649/

Okay, here's Abigail's stats:
Athletics: 4
Affection: 3
Skill: 0
Cunning: 2
Luck: 2
Will: 1
Maid Types: Boyish, Pure
Uniform Colour: Gray
Special Qualities: Membership: Cult (Leader/Cultist), Neat Freak
Maid Roots: Business; you're here all for the $$$
Stress Explosion: Alcohol/Drugs
Maid Weapon: Scythe
Power: Super Evasion; for 1d6 Stress, you can avoid a single attack.
Starting Favour: 6
Spirit: 10

And there you have it. Note that you can still do chores and whatnot with 0 Skill (though I'll most certainly reward you if you can come up with amusing descriptions using your Skill, and stunts can increase your Attribute); you can use other Attributes (e.g. Affection, resulting in a terrible looking cake that's obviously a labour of love), or you can assist someone else (e.g. while one maid mixes the ingredients, you use Athletics to rush all over the mansion grounds collecting all the rare ingredients that coincidentally happen to be on the mansion grounds). Of course, if a Maid has high Skill, she can make a damned good cake.

Now come on, everyone! I need 6-8 players for this!

EternalLurker wrote:

Commissar Mecha Milk wrote:Time seems to slow down, and in mid-twirl, her skirt billowing lightly in the wind, Shizune cracks the egg one-handedly over the bowl. As she completes her 360-degree circuit, her skirt billowing lightly in the wind, Shizune lets go of the egg shells in her hand, and they fall neatly into the dustbin at the end of the kitchen at the same time the whisk enters the mixing bowl.

I'd have to rank that stunt down significantly for that. <_<

Whoops. Let my mistakes be your guide, posters!

EternalLurker wrote:I'll look into getting the rules, but first I'd need to make sure that you're actually going to be present regularly if you're planning on GMing, unlike a certain other alleged KSRPG GM on the forum. With what regularity are you expecting posting to occur per character?

Well, I'm at +8 GMT (+13 EST), and I'm online from 0200 GMT to 1500 GMT, so I'll probably respond during that time. As for regular posting, I hope everyone posts at least once or twice a day. That said, if you guys want to RP things out between yourselves complete with wtunts and whatnot, I'm not going to stop you (though you'll have to wait for me to come back online for the rewards).

Commissar Mecha Milk wrote:
Okay, here's Abigail's stats:
Athletics: 4
Affection: 3
Skill: 0
Cunning: 2
Luck: 2
Will: 1
Maid Types: Boyish, Pure
Uniform Colour: Gray
Special Qualities: Membership: Cult (Leader/Cultist), Neat Freak
Maid Roots: Business; you're here all for the $$$
Stress Explosion: Alcohol/Drugs
Maid Weapon: Scythe
Power: Super Evasion; for 1d6 Stress, you can avoid a single attack.
Starting Favour: 6
Spirit: 10

Thanks! That's an...interesting collection of traits. So "Cult (Leader/Cultist)"; is that my choice between leader or member? I'll start thinking up a disability that fits.
I'm GMT -5 (Eastern in the US) and can post at least once or twice a day, probably more at night.

ThreeStep wrote: Thanks! That's an...interesting collection of traits. So "Cult (Leader/Cultist)"; is that my choice between leader or member? I'll start thinking up a disability that fits.

One of the strange charms of MaidRPG is the amazing breadth of strange characters you can cook up. I once ended up with a Chicago Mobster catgirl- who was actually a guy. And as for disability, feel free to be creative!

Haven't looked for the rules just yet (kinda busy for a few days; I hope you're not planning on starting before Thursday night EST), but it sounds like chargen is entirely roll-based. Can we houserule a point-buy system into place? Traits may be more fun when randomly selected, but random stat selections are significantly less fun.

EDIT: Also, which gametype d'ya wanna do?

I looked up "congenital analgesia". That is one /scary/ disability. (I don't know how to do italics)

EternalLurker wrote:Haven't looked for the rules just yet (kinda busy for a few days; I hope you're not planning on starting before Thursday night EST), but it sounds like chargen is entirely roll-based. Can we houserule a point-buy system into place? Traits may be more fun when randomly selected, but random stat selections are significantly less fun.

EDIT: Also, which gametype d'ya wanna do?

Normally, I'd also be leery of roll-based chargen, but trust me, in Meido, they're half the fun!

That said, if you want point buy, then have all Traits at 2, with 3 points to spend, though at this point no Trait can be higher than 4. You then roll Maid Types, posting the roll here, and leave the bonus adding to me. Remember, even if you end up with a Trait of 0, this isn't a bad thing! Use your weaknesses and strengths to portray a quirky character. For example, Affection 0 can mean a cold, emotionless robot, a 'liek totally dark and kewl!' wannabe with an alias like Grimm Shado, or someone who is SO affectionate and whatnot, they take it to extremes- and that's just what I can think of.

As for game type, I'm thinking something light and semi-humorous; nothing really heavy, and what drama there will be will be overblown, at least, from my end. If you want to do something more subtle, be my guest. As for Romance rules, I'll leave those up to the player.

Sgt_Frog wrote:I looked up "congenital analgesia". That is one /scary/ disability. (I don't know how to do italics)

Whao- that is one scary disability- but IIRC, it's mirrored by one special Maid trait, oddly enough. As for italics, just do (i)this(/i) between the word you want to italicize, replacing the () with [].

Well, there goes one of my pre-made characters. You can take the pain-indifferent (or is yours pain-insensitive?) disability if you want. *sniffles* Guess I'll just use one of my many other disabled characters I have made that I haven't had a chance to use yet.

Commissar Mecha Milk wrote:As for italics, just do (i)this(/i) between the word you want to italicize, replacing the () with [].

Other way around. Put the word you wanna italicize between the BB-code tags; don't put the tags between the letters in the word. That would be rather unhelpful. Also, bolding, italicizing, underlining, and doing other things to text in posts should be easy with the helpful interface that'll show up if you're doing a full reply rather than using quick reply. The buttons are right above the message body.

As for gametype, I meant are we doing a favor race, or what?

EternalLurker wrote:As for gametype, I meant are we doing a favor race, or what?

Nah, there'll definitely be a purpose in mind, but in general, Favour isn't mean to be some kind of 'score card'. Try looking to your Maid to see what your end goal should be; Three-Step's Abigail for example, is a Cultist in it for the money, so maybe her motivation would be to raise money to fund/take over the cult/get enough money to summon Cthulhu. Hell, even romancing Hisao won't be an endgame.

That's a pretty good idea/close to what I was thinking. Something along the lines of Abigail thinking she is the Chosen One and trying to spread the word.

Disability-wise, some sort of aphasia caught my eye. Its that or something like deaf/muteness.

EternalLurker wrote:Guess I'll just use one of my many other disabled characters I have made that I haven't had a chance to use yet.

Wow. You sound pretty prepared for this.