／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼ Make a contact with me, Madoka!! (Spoilerific)

Still too fucking soon XD

 

Oh come on, it’s nothing to lose your head over.

 

that game was actually pretty fun, if pretty basic mechanics-wise. very much one of those ones where the point is to collect the most pretty stuff.

 

Yeah, that would end up with most (if not all) of the group feeling seriously betrayed and not trusting the DM who pulled that sort of nonsense. And GURPS is...sort of notorious, if I'm remembering right, for being a system that's really fiddly and difficult to work with even if you're used to it. It's not a system that's very favoured as a result, afaik.

 

I did! I quit pretty quickly, though, because I didn't know where to find an English patch for it, and I've only taken two years of college Japanese. I can have a conversation in Japanese, but I need a dictionary to get through text that isn't intended for young kids/people learning the language. So the parts of the game that relied on the text directions were pretty tricky for me. I thought it was visually lovely, but I really had very little idea of how to achieve anything, and I'm not much of a gamer to begin with.

 

The wiki had a picture of all the screens up with translations for which was the gacha and which was questing and what all the cards did, so that's how I got through it.

 

Especially because the developer is weirdly insistent on not allowing any virtual tabletop or computer assistance. According to the Terms of Service (yes, the system has Terms of Service...) you can only play with actual pen and paper. Because??? (I mean, you can ignore this... but that requires you to be able to code your own system).

Moreover, while purported as a universal system, its core mechanics are... very much slanted towards rocket tag (a GURPS character at high power levels functionally has two settings - 'fine', and 'splat'. Nonlethal damage is explicitly not a thing.) Which, okay, maybe that could work, but it would hardly be subtle. Also, the various neuroses of the girls are kind of important in PMMM if I understand correctly, and GURPS represents that kind of thing through Disadvantages which... may or may not be present.

GURPS is also a very explicit system which requires detailed breakdowns of powers and abilities. Its 'freeform' magic system involves dozens of skills!

Also it's generally expected character sheets be y'know, accurate. There's a 'just fuck me up GM' option where the GM secretly picks your abilities for you, but that, too should generally be something the players know they're using.


I'd suggest, if you were to do something like that, explain that there would be a dark twist, but not what. And I'm not sure what system to use but... probably not GURPS? And Definitely not D20 (Modern? 5E? 3.5E? None of the Above?) which is an even more explicit system than GURPS (of the 'every power must be precisely defined) sort. Basically, pick something that lets you build powers on the fly, and maybe has some kind of sanity/corruption mechanic.

 

FATE would probably be the easiest to run it in, given how freeform it is, but if you didn't want to go with an explicitly Madoka-like system (Magical Burst is the one our group has been playing, but I know there's others) PbtA systems might work better.

Especially since the bonds of the girls (growing and breaking) are sort of key to their mental wellbeing and who they make wishes for, so playing with the relationships systems could be one way of doing it.

(Caveat: I've toyed with all of the above + GURPS, but never actually gotten to play a full campaign outside of DND, Magical Burst, and the Dragon Age RPG, so in practice, PbtA might not be as good as I think it could be.)

 

i think PbtA would work best, since it does have an explicit mechanic for ties-to-each-other and versatility re: powers (like, oh you're a fire person, you can probably shoot someone with fire AND fireball AND burning hands all with the same stat, rather than needing an explicit move for each of those,) but I haven't seen any satisfactory magical girl pibtas yet.

 

The Urban Shadows system (which runs on PbtA, I think) might work although you'd need to homebrew a specifically Madoka setting. It's got a corruption mechanic and like Karrin said, it has a mechanic for ties to each other (and debts, too), and it works really well for versatile powers and adjusting things on the fly.

 

I've done a Magical Burst campaign but that one isn't actually out yet so it's rough around the edges.

 

If you've seen my profile post just made, you'll know there's a new madoka anime out called Magia Record, which is an animated side story from pmmm universe! Follows a new girl called Iroha Tamaki and I am most certainly not ready

 

yes!! i've been half-heartedly live-blogging it in my bijou thread and i'm enjoying it SO MUCH, it's distinct from OG madoka but still litters in a lot of tasty worldbuilding

 

Where’s the best place to watch it?

 

Crunchyroll is simulcasting it, but you can see all the episodes even without premium!

 

Movie 4 has been announced. The title is Walpurgis no Kaiten (Turning the Tide of Walpurgis) and it's the official sequel to Rebellion.

I mean, I was fine with the end of Rebellion being the end of the main PMMM storyline, because I honestly loved the ending of Rebellion, but I am super looking forward to this too.

 

I'M SO HYPE

I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE HOMURA IN HER FULL EVIL MODE GLORY

 

I am extremely excited!

 

Not to sound entitled or whatever (I dont even know, it's late here lol) but is there going to be more eps/another season of Magica Record? The place it was left off on Crunchyroll seems...random, even by the standards of this 'verse.

Also, while I agree with some of the sideyes I've seen with the slightly skimpier outfits in MR, early teens Mal would have given their back teeth AND their soul for a cute Cape and crop combo like that. Hell, you should have seen me at sixteen, all mesh shirts and fishnet stockings.

Out of universe its, yeah, pretty gross especially with the Creator-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. In universe, it's... still a little weird, but definitely not out of character for the type of girl who would choose a life of battle for their own price