Welcome to H-1, set in the lovely city of Tokyo-Earth. Thirty-five years have passed since the events chronicled in "Hunters". It is now 2039, Tokyo has been rebuilt and reconstituted as its own small nation. It is structured as a constitutional monarchy, with a definite tilt towards the monarchy. The magical girls and guys - the Lords and Ladies, Princes and Princesses, not to mention Her Majesty - are an aristocratic class with special rights and perogatives, an automatic seat in the upper house of the legislature, and many, many civic duties. The "becoming" of MG's has not changed significantly in the last forty years. For the most part, girls (and a few guys) simply wake up one morning in their middle teenaged years knowing what they are and what their title is. In the days of the Ningyo war what happened next depended on luck and circumstance. In the modern system of Tokyo-Earth, the teenagers simply go to their school's guidance counselor, who phones the Palace hotline for such things. The training of an MG is rather rigorous, and covered elsewhere. By the time they finally graduate, they are typically 21 or 22 years old. A few may be older, if they became after graduating from high school, but 98% of MG's have graduated and are on their first assignment as a Lady by 25 years of age. The player characters in H-1 all fit into this general age bracket. This is their first assignment, or perhaps they were pulled off of their first assignment. "H-1", also known within the Hierarchy as the Hunters, is a unique and special team. Despite its small size (never more than nine primary agents, sometimes as few as three), it is considered a full-fledged agency within the Ministry of Security. It often works closely with H-2, H-3, and H-4, but at least in principle has the authority to step in and claim jurisdiction from any of those full-sized agencies/services in any matter. In practice, H-1 are the last-ditch troubleshooters, the confidential strike team, the cleaners of weird shit, and very occasionally the internal auditors within Security. Given the degree of responsibility which H-1 carries, it may seem surprising that it is an assignment given to the youngest Ladies available. There are two reasons for that - one entirely practical, one somewhat philosophical: The youngest Ladies are the least likely to have had their "cover" blown - that is to say, their non-magical identities uncovered by the media or by enemies. For most Ladies this is not a big deal, but the Hunters act entirely covertly and the disguise of their normal forms is important in their everyday work. The other reason is more nebulous - it is thought that younger Ladies are actually more trustworthy. The ideal of Lady as Hero is a concept that is deeply ingrained in the culture of Tokyo-Earth, and one that the Hierarchy has subtly worked to foster. Ladies typically start their careers as the biggest believers, but the political and civil-service roles that the majority of their assignments fall into can be corrosive to that ideal. H-1 needs not only the incorruptability of youth, but also the belief that they are doing the right thing for the nation. On the other hand, most of the Ladies assigned to H-1 are not put there because they are the best and the brightest. It is not a "dumping ground for interesting rejects" as the Hunters team was considered during the Ningyo War, but its recruitment is quiet - covert - and the rising stars amongst the Junior Ladies are passed over because they are too high-profile. This fits the general methods of operation for H-1; except for the name of their agency no one outside Security, not even other Ladies, knows much of what they do. The starting game situation immediately follows the events of the source fiction. The old H-1 team has been mysteriously wiped out while on a mission that was not considered particularly dangerous. The Hierarchy has decided to put together a new H-1 team immediately, and the PC's are it. Since this is happening literally overnight, the Ladies they need to choose from are not necessarily who their first choices for the team would ordinarily be. To compensate for that, the new team leader is going to be a veteran, someone who was on the team during the Ningyo war, and who has extensive experience as a commander. There may be a series of minis held prior to the first full session to play out the PC's (startlingly sudden) recruitment to the team. Character creation: (yes this is somewhat cadged from Hunters - it's also rough, and will be expanded) Before you firm up any design, you need to be familiar with the source material. Read the sourcefic and other setting documents for H-1. Reading the sourcefic/chargen for Hunters is probably a good idea as well. Also wise would be seeking out a Hunters player (if you are not one) and getting at least the general details of how the Ningyo War-era Hierachy behaved, what life on the Hunters team was like, and how the Ningyo War is ending. Because Hunters was run on dX, and because I like the concept of larger dice (for assorted technical/statistical reasons), this game will also be run under the Tri-Stat dX system, using d8. If you're used to BESM, don't panic - dX is basically the same thing, with reworked costs, and more customizability. You can download the rulebook for free as a PDF. I can DCC it if you desire. When assigning values to stats, keep the different die sizes in mind. Rolling 2d8 against a target of 8 is about like (really a bit better, though still not to 50%) rolling 2d6 against a target of 6. I also go against the intent of the rulebook (a little) and allow "average human" to inflate to 5 in all three stats. ACV's below 7, even untransformed, are not recommended. ACV's above 9 will need to be negotiated during character creation. Characters can be built from between 75 CP and 85 CP. Ladies on the lower end of that scale will be considered Junior Ladies, and be eligible for (but not guaranteed) promotion (possibly a good plot hook!) as well as upgrades during the course of the game. This may turn out to be an advantage later, as upgrades will likely be better suited for the setting than the guesses that players make in pregame chargen. On the other hand, Junior Ladies will have less rank and thus be subject(ed) to (more) Orders in certain situations. Use the standard stat costs (2 CP per +1 stat), not the variable costs table. Use the Urban Fantasy column on the skills cost table. You must take (at least) two levels of (type 2 (9 CP)) Alternate Form to represent your character's transformed state. The alternate form must include (at least) one level of Regeneration. It is possible to put exotic (magical/superhuman/whatever) attributes on the untransformed form, though these should not be major powers. The game will be played with energy points - thus, you are encouraged to design powers for your character with the linked "Burns Energy" disadvantage. Exactly how the BE table works has yet to be determined - let's just say at this point that I believe the CP refunds given by the table in the book are far too generous, and will be reduced. More to come on this topic shortly, When I originally wrote these rules for Hunters in plain BESM, I had intended to force characters to take a level of Magic. dX lacks this attribute, and on further reflection I don't want to force you to take "spell lists", but remember that the canonical magical girl has just a couple of attacks or powers that are typically specific and announced. Special Attacks are appropriate, of course. Especially with fancy names. They can be of any level, however the damage component of SA's is restricted to Level 2. Level 3 damage may be allowed if the attack is in some way very restricted. Yes, there are tricky ways to generate more damage by using various SA advantages, and some of these may be allowed, but the general purpose of this rule is to keep the damage scaling in hand and to keep the PC's better balanced. I will be reasonable, but not easily persuaded on this matter in chargen negotiations: you have been warned. Each PC will use one of the following skills packages. Gun Combat is broken down into three subcategories - further advancement in any one category costs full price. Melee weapons also break down into subcategories, though this will require some negotiation in the chargen process. Having any level of any category of Gun Combat is sufficient to use any normal firearm with no penalty. (Note that all the packages include some level of Gun Combat - this is deliberately done to match this rule.) Firearms within a category you have skill in get a bonus equal to the numeric level of the relevant skill. (Firing a Glock-9 with Gun Combat (Pistol) 2 would be done with a bonus of -2.) Melee weapons do not require a level of some Melee category to use without penalty, but the bonuses work the same as for Firearms. Assault Firearms package Gun Combat (Pistol, Submachinegun) 2 Gun Combat (Rifle) 1 Unarmed Attack 1 Ranged Defense 1 15 SP elective combat skills 20 SP elective non-combat skills Ranged Firearms package Gun Combat (Rifle) 2 Heavy Weapons 1 Unarmed Attack 1 Ranged Defense 1 13 SP elective combat skills 24 SP elective non-combat skills Melee Specialist package Unarmed (or Melee (specialty)) Attack 2 Unarmed (or Melee (specialty)) Defense 1 Gun Combat (Pistol) 1 Ranged Defense 1 16 SP elective combat skills 16 SP elective non-combat skills Magical Attack package Special Ranged Attack 1 Gun Combat (Submachinegun, Rifle) 1 Unarmed Attack 1 Ranged Defense 1 14 SP elective combat skills 22 SP elective non-combat skills It may happen that you do not spend all of your elective skill points. That's okay - save them for later when you receive more points during the campaign. Highly Skilled may be purchased, but only for NON-COMBAT skills. Skills that are classified as non-combat but that may have some direct bearing on combat rolls may be included, but not in bulk. If you have to wonder whether you're meeting my definition of bulk, you probably are. Consider yourself warned that I generally consider HS to be an abusive, unbalanced attribute. In that vein, I hope not to see strongly-optimized/tweaked character sheets. While combat is going to have a large role in H-1, what happens on the way to combat often has more effect on the outcome of a situation. Interesting and creative attributes which do not add combat firepower or survivability can be invaluable tools for the success of team missions as well as plot hooks. Character advancement in the game will mostly be limited to occasional SP awards and very occasional targeted attribute boosts ("promotions" or "upgrades"). CP will never be awarded. A character description and history are required. This need not be exhaustive (my character sheets often run to five hundred-ish words or more) but small CP and/or SP bonuses may be given for quality here. *** The game runs every Saturday at 1600 Eastern (US) time (veterans of Hunters will tell you that the game usually doesn't really start to 1630, but the expectation is that people will be there and ready to start given five minutes notice at 1600). I'm not fond of excessively long sessions, so in most cases the main session will wrap up in less than four hours, sometimes less than three. On the other hand, combat is a pain to run with large groups in IRC, and combat- oriented sessions may well run longer. I will try to accomodate player needs when sessions go long, calling a halt if necessary. This slot has worked well for Hunters, and a straw poll of Hunters players has approved keeping it... but if there is a strong demand to adjust the starting time, or potentially reslot it to Sunday, I will shop the idea around. For the most part, I don't insist on every player making it to every session and can deal with absences as they occur. Nonetheless, if you sign up for this game I expect some degree of actual commitment. If you don't believe you can regularly make the time slot, I need to know up front.