Drop Dice

Tokusatsu is a genre of Japanese film and TV dedicated to special effects. Examples of the genre are Super Sentai(Power Rangers), Godzilla, Kamen Rider(Masked Rider), and even Spiderman at one point. It emphasizes special effects, over the top action and obviously repeated formulas for episodes and movies.

Those formulas are often called tropes. You will find tropes, or common elements, in most every type of game. In fact some games even have it in their name, Dungeons & Dragons. So when ever you start looking to create your own games you should consider the tropes you want and that's what we are talking about today. So the purposes of the game I am making I am only considering the core elements of Super Sentai and voiding those involving the gritty remakes. The remakes are fun but they dont capture the spirit of the game. I will consider gritty rules after establishing the core rules for those interested. Keep in mind Super Sentai is actually more gritty than the American Power Rangers, the characters do not have plot armor and can get seriously injured or die but only if the story is furthered by doing so.

When thinking about the tropes for a type of game I always think about the big five. The big five should come up in almost every game and aspect of the game. 

In a normal game teamwork is mostly a given but in a Super Sentai game it becomes almost mandatory, sure there will be spotlight moments but for the most part teamwork will be needed to over come challenges. As for a world of badass, think about the episodes explosions everywhere, big monsters, big robots, and martial arts. This will be more influenced by the GM and players so it is really more of a mind set for the game. 

For the GM keep in mind that most villains are the card-carrying type meaning they will be evil and let everyone know they are. In almost every season you get one monster of the week who will change the status quo and actually try to be good. The rangers will help, but then the Big Bad will either corrupt him making the rangers fight their new friend or send a monster to finish off the failure, though that later is much rarer. 

"Its all up to you" is another trope that usually shows up in most any game but in a Rangers style game it is even more important your team is literally all that stands between the Earth (or your planet/galaxy/universe depending on scale) and the greatest threat known to man. And every new season the threat is some how considered worse even though the power level doesn't change all that much. For example in starting with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, every new threat was so much more powerful. In each season their powers where considered not enough so they got better powers until they got to Zero which was the most powerful rangers ever and still are for the most part canonically speaking. The following season is Turbo which was a step down in power but they power was specialized to fight their new big boss, and the specialized force motif continues from there with each new season. Super Sentai does the same specialized motif though it never really states which rangers are the most powerful. Thinking of it this way makes it understandable why a bad guy from the previous season could come back in a future season with new rangers and they still have a hard time fighting him.

Color coded/Motif is the blatant use of colored uniforms to mark who and what kind of person they are. In the past the Power Rangers and Super Sentai have been accused of racism and sexism with the color motif, though this has been changing over the last 10 years or more. And in the spirit of good gaming I am not going to focus on those elements, in my rules you will be able to pick a color regardless of race or sex, instead it will be focused on the common personality elements of each color for example Red is usually the leader, but he is almost always an icon of justice, heroism, and what the team should be, but he is sometimes willing to take on more than he can handle to keep his friends away from danger

For this hack I am considering using Blades in the Dark, which just finished a very successful kick starter and will be in final print later this year, or Apocalypse World/Dungeon World for ease of use. I think both systems have their merits but after play through the Quick Start Rules for Blades in the Dark I think that one may end up being the best choice.

Until the next issue of Let's Morphin!