Welcome to the world of martial-artists, aliens, and other high school students. Maniakku Gakusei (maniac student) is an easy-to-use game system letting you play students or undergraduates through stories in the style of Ranma 1/2 or Urusay Yatsura.
The game mechanics are extremely simple and focus on story telling. However, this needs a game master (GM) who is versatile and can improvise.
Every character is defined through his attributes. They are also his trademarks like a high IQ, superman-like strength or the ability to fly. Normal statistics you may know from other RPGs simply doesn't exist.
Example: Peewee has the following attributes: Procuring 7, Cuteness 3, Intelligence 2, Inventing 5. According to these attributes, Peewee is neither strong nor athletic. He is best in class, though, and surely skipped a year. He always wears a fur-cap, in which he kept his stuff (Procuring) and makes him look sweet (Cuteness). His age is set to 12.
Each player character (PC) gets 10 points to distribute on the following attributes:
This is but a small selection of possible attributes. Others are
inconspicuousness, do-the-innocent, cuteness, wealth, inventing,
and many more.
Remember the lack of normal stats. A teacher don't need values in
Math or Physic. He just gets his authority attribute. A lead
singer gets wealth and popularity. That he can a least sing is
assumed.
Additionally a character can have some special attributes. They
can't be developed and have a static cost to acquire them (given
in brackets).
A test on an attribute is resolved by rolling 1d10 and adding the demanded skill to the result. The GM can use every other die type he likes but must consider that the higher the die type, the more luck plays into the rolls. This is best shown at an opposing test on an attribute (see below). A character has an attribute on 5 and another one the same on 10. It is obvious that rolling a d20 makes it much easier for the latter to win than rolling a d6.
As stated above normal stats are not necessary. Normal things succeed always. Every person is normally able to kick open a door or climb a rope. However the GM may always inspect a characters attributes to make a decision. For example a geek or nerd (with intelligence) can be defined as a weakling if you use Option 1. Peewee, the example character from above, is such a guy who will be unable to open doors with such a brutal method.
Now, the GM decides the door is reinforced additionally. This implys that even normal persons are unable to break it open. This is reserved to the ones with strength.
Example: Peewee and his friend Tanaka are both trapped in the haunted house. Their only exit is locked with a bar. The GM tells both players to open this door a successful test on strength is needed with a difficulty of 4. Peewee doesn't have this attribute so he is not able to try it. Tanaka on the other hand has strength 2. He rolls his d10 (7) giving a result of 9. He not only breaks the door but takes it a short distance with him before stopping.
Tests on attributes are neccessary if two or more characters are doing something opposing or exactly the same.
Example: Peewee is competing in an intelligence contest. His opponents have results of 3 and 6. His intelligence attribute is 2 and he rolls a 5. When the first is still thinking and the second just manages to open his mouth Peewee already presents the solution.
The attribute coolness is necessary when one tries to oppose another's attributes. A character can try to resist the effects of looks, popularity, authority, do-the-innocent, and cuteness. Both are rolling a die and add their appropriate attribute. The higher result wins. With restrictions coolness can be used the resist against Focus (i.e. charm or hypnotising spells) and the special attributes C-ko syndrome and reputation. The difficulty is set by the GM.
At the very beginning of a fight all combatants are calculating their combat prowess (CP). It is either their value in combat techniques or optional half (rounded down) their value in strength.
At the beginning of each combat round both opponents announce if the wnat to use a special technique. Then they roll their d10 and add their CP. The one with the higher result wins this round damages his opponent for 1 point. The looser decreases his CP by the damage for the rest of the fight. On to the next round.
If one fights against several the latter add all their CP together and roll only one d10. If the solo fighter wins a round he decides who of his enemies is hit and loses one point CP. If he loses he is only hit once (1 point of damage/CP loss). The group must be careful not to use special techniques together which are mutual exclusive (i.e. one casts a fireball while his companion creates an ice blast). Only techniques which are similar in description are possible to use simultaneously (energy projectiles, punch attacks, area attacks, etc.).
A character whose CP drops to 0 or below is unconscious (it's a student game, remember). After a short period of recovering his CP is fully restored. With a high Strength or combat technique one can break holes in walls or split the earth open but he can't hurt people mortally.
Out of these rules one can derive that even a bunch of people each with a CP of 0 doesn't stand a single round against a martial artist. Even if he has only a value of 1.
Note to special techniques: as in every good anime or manga they can be used only once per fight because they are very strenuous. If a fighter blows his special technique because his opponent has a higher result then this is bad luck for him.
Here you can see an example of combat.
After the successful completion of a scenario the GM grants some experience points. How much is up to him depending on how fast the characters shall progress. Getting a new attribute to 1 costs 10 points and raising an attribute by 1 costs the actual value squared. Again, the GM decides how many new attributes may learn how high they can be raised.
Finally, remember Fun comes before rules. A really good session can be played without rolling the die once.
The copyright is holded by the author. It can be copied freely without fee as long as the original text remains unchanged. Changes are to be reported to me immediately.