Blast From The Past: Teenagers From Outer Space

It's the most horrible thing in the universe: TEENAGERS!

If BESM is the “rules-lite” version of anime gaming, Teenagers is the “rules fat-free” of anime gaming. Seriously. There's not a lot of rules to the game. I wrote up the character creation rules to use for my friends and it was three pages. I imagine that the rest of the rules, with the exception of “mad science,” is probably just as long. It's not big on rules. But, it is big on comedy. And references. And terrible jokes. And koalas.

Originally inspired by books like “Surfing Samurai Robots,” Teenagers (or TFOS) is about aliens coming to Earth because Earth is cool. That's your premise. The later editions switched to a more anime inspired look, with characters that are very close to famous anime of the 1970's and 1980's. Okay, there's a dash of some 1990's stuff in there. We're talking about variations on the “Magical Girl” genre of anime, stuff like Urusei Yatsura, Tenchi Muyo, and so on. This type of anime was about the stranger coming to our world, unlike Isekai anime. If this game was made today, it would probably be about a bland, boring human teenager getting set to an alien (or perhaps fantasy) school. Because Isekai is an all-consuming monster...

Ahem. Anyway. Yes. Let's talk about the game. You can create several different types of aliens, varying from almost indistinguishable from human to a bouncing purple and pink blob that wears sunglasses. Really, we’re talking everything from Spock to Jabba the Hut with a lot in between. You can also play a boring, bland human if you really want to. And someone probably should play a human, at least one, as you’ll have a “native guide” to earth and they can use the one power all humans have: the ability to convince an alien that anything they say about earth is true. But as Uncle Ben has told many a generation: With great power comes great responsibility. And if you get your alien girlfriend to believe that kissing is typical greeting on earth, well, you reap what you sow. The main difference between humans and aliens is the powers they get. Aliens have three different tables of powers they roll for, with some more useful than others. Since the game is suppose to be fun, balance doesn’t really matter. Humans, on the other hand, have one table with powers, which are humorous and not as powerful, in addition to their power I mentioned above. When it comes to stats, there’s eight, which are rolled randomly, but you can shuffle them around if you want. Beyond that, there’s Knacks, which are skills by any other name. Unlike most games, you can make up your own Knacks, but you shouldn’t make them too specific.

When you get into the mechanics, the game is ridiculously simple. Roll a d6, add stats and Knacks, and get your total. However, since the game grades on a curve, rolling too high can have dire consequences. You have been warned.

The last thing you have to worry about is equipment. There are weapons but they’re not lethal no matter what. Your character will get knocked out briefly but you really can’t die. Since the game was inspired by comedies, the gear you can get is out there as well. The infamous Boy/Girl Gun, the Duplicator Gun, Spring Shoes, and Popcorn Grenade to name a few. There’s also the Hyperdimentional Superhammer, something older anime fans might remember. You know that hammer that women in a harem anime would pull out from no where to bonk the bland protagonist over the head when he became horny? Yeah, that’s the one. There’s also vehicles, something teens in America would obsess over back in the day.

Once everyone has their characters put together and all of their gear picked out, it’s up to the Referee (DM by any other name) to give them something to do. And the basic book is actually really good for that. There’s a sample adventure you can use to get things started and give your players a sense of how the game is going to play, based on hunting down a sphere to win the hand of an alien princess. After that, there’s a whole “season” of game ideas they hand you to flesh out on your own. All of these things give the Ref a large amount of things to work with. They also give you tips on how to be funny, something I have used more than once.

In the end, this game is a lampoon of old anime and media that somehow manages to work. However, I don’t know if you can really run a whole campaign of it. I use it as a filler when someone can’t make it to the game and we don’t want to leave them out. If you do want to run a long term game of it, make sure to develop a host of odd, wacky, and weird characters to populate the world and then just let your players run amok. It’s a great game to play when you need a breath of fresh air, especially after you’ve been running something serious and dark. The game is built around the “Rule Of Cool” or “Rule Of Funny” to be more accurate. Just don’t hold your breath for the Hentai Expansion…

Looking Ahead: Stargrave

Howdy, everyone! As you might have heard, there’s a new game coming out pretty soon called “Stargrave” by the creator of Frostgrave and Ghost Archipelago.

 Now, I do like the ideas of these games, more so Ghost Archipelago, but I also like science fiction stuff. More than fantasy for sure. So, I’ve been following the news about this game since I first heard about it and I’ve been looking forward to it. Oddly enough, I don’t have a lot of science fiction minis so it’s given me a reason to pick up some here and there, mostly for fun. Since they released the captain and crew building rules sample, I’m now thinking about what kind of crew I want to make. And I just pre-ordered the book today, so you’ll get a review of it before too long, I promise.

However, maybe some of you aren’t aware of the sample we got or haven’t really looked into this new game. So, I decided to throw a few ideas out there for those of you who aren’t sure what you want to do. Let’s talk.

The first thing is that you’ve got a lot of choices for captains and first mates, which don’t have to be of the same type. And you can recruit up to eight additional members of your crew, choosing between basic crew types and specialists. So far, it looks a lot like Ghost Archipelago, which makes me happy. I like the idea of being able to find a crew that works exactly how you play.

 When it comes to building up your crew, the specialists include flame throwers, snipers, grenade launchers, and some other stuff that’s common to other miniatures games. Already, you can throw together a force using some Warhammer 40k stuff from the Imperial lines. I might actually use that to learn how to play (and play with friends, when that’s possible). That’s a good thing because, if you’ve already spent money on 40k stuff, you can get right into the game. If you haven’t got some of those laying around, you can pick up some NOVA Corp and IMEF stuff in Reaper’s Chronoscope line (which have Bones versions) for a quick and dirty way to start or build a second loaner force. Or you can just pick up the stuff that you like. Personally, I’d like to go for a Raygun Gothic look but they don’t make a lot of those these days. I do have a few but not enough to make a full crew right now.

Looking at the crew creation rules, I am a little disappointed because I was hoping to have some kind of melee monster specialist I could take but it looks like shooting is king in this game. Everyone has a pistol at the least. Yes, it makes more sense to have shooting be more powerful in a science fiction setting but sometimes, you just want to do something crazy. However, it is cool that you can make any member of your crew a robot, so I can use my Cyber Reavers for something. If nothing else, I can use them to fill out the crew while I’m figuring things out. Or maybe make that my loaner crew. We’ll see what happens…

Getting Started With: Reaper Bones

 

Welcome back to Getting Started With, a series where I talk about how to begin with some of the stuff in the hobby.

This week, I'm going to talk about how to get started with Reaper's plastic Bones line of miniatures. While I only have direct knowledge from my experiences with their first Kickstarter, I'll do what I can.

Step One: Figure Out What You Need Them For

This is kind of important as Bones are good for some things but not for others. If you haven't taken a look at them yet, Bones have integrated bases. Some of these are cool, others aren't, and they're not usually round. If you're going to use them for wargaming, you probably want to look at either cutting the bases off or using poster putty to put them on empty bases.

Now, if you're using them for RPGs, that doesn't matter as much. So long as they stand up, you're good. However, not all of the integrated bases are large enough for the footprint they'll have on a gaming mat. A little bit of cardboard and some glue will fix that.

Personally, I use my Bones for RPGs. Since there's such a wide selection and they're fairly cheap, you can find one for just about any high fantasy character and monsters that would appear in your games. Most of the lower level monsters like Kobolds, Goblins, and Zombies come in packs of at least two miniatures, making building up a horde of them inexpensive and easy.

While I mostly use my Bones for RPGs, I have used them for things like Frostgrave, and they work pretty well for it.

Step Two: Ordering

Since we've got a bit of a problem going on in the world right now (note: this is being written in the early part of 2021), going to a store and picking some up might not be possible. So, if you're looking to pick up a few and see how they work, don't be afraid to add a few to an order, especially if you need a certain amount for free shipping. In case you don't know, Reaper offers free shipping AND a free miniature for orders over $40. Just something to think about.

Step Three: Prepping and Cleaning

Now, you've got your little plastic folks and you're looking them over when you discover that a sword or arm of staff is bent. This is pretty common, due to the nature of the materiel. If you look online, you can find videos showing you how to fix them. I've done it myself and I can tell you it's really simple. I take a metal bowl and fill it with water and ice. Then, I set a small pot of water to boil. Once its boiling, I dip the miniature in the water using a kitchen tool (a slotted spoon will work) and hold it in the water for a few seconds. Usually, the miniature will bent back into shape on its own and I just drop it in the cold water to have it set. If it doesn't bent back on its own, I use a fork to bend it back in the boiling water and then hold it in place after dropping it in the cold water. For the most part, this works and doesn't need to be done again. I do have one or two that got bent badly and it just doesn't stick. This is almost literally one out of a hundred.

The nice thing about doing this is that it cleans the miniatures for you as well as fixes them. If they're not bent, cleaning is easy. I use a tiny spot of dish soap (or hand soap), warm water, and a soft toothbrush. Just run it under the faucet, add a drop of soap, and scrub for a few seconds. You do this to clean off any dirt, grit, and mold release that might be left on the model. If you're brand new to miniatures, you'll need to do this for all of them that you buy. Especially these days.

Step Four: Paint Those Bad Boys. And Girls. And Others.

Unlike most other miniatures on the market (I think only Wizkids and one other company do something like this), these miniatures DO NOT need to be primed. Reaper, of course, makes a line of paint that is designed to be used on Bones but most other paints can be used. If you really don't want to shell out the cash, I'm sure you can use craft store paints. I use a mix of old Reaper paints, new Games Workshop, and old P3 paints and they work just fine. You just have to keep your paints a little thicker than you would normally. And you don't have to worry about details because the Bones materiel doesn't hold them as well as other plastics and metals. At some point in the future, I'll try to do some side by side pictures myself but I'm sure you can find a ton only. The loss of detail between Bones and metals isn't huge, just so you know.

And that's about it. I really do recommend Bones, both normal and the newer Bones Black line, to learn how to paint and deal with miniatures, if you've never done it before. For $3-6 for a single miniature, it's a great price and a quality product.