It's Still on My Shelf: Tenra Bansho Zero

I backed this at about the same time as Torchbearer, about seven years  ago.

Seven years???

No.

I refuse to-

Just no.

I just backed this. A year ago. I promise. Yeah, that's it.

Point is, I still haven't played it. I've always wanted to; the whole game is just so freaking cool, with varying levels of accessibility that scream "I WAS MEANT TO BE PLAYED NOT LOOKED AT". I wish I could say that I have, but I really haven't. Yes, I'm going to blame the Army for this one again, but the truth is that I've been a bit intimidated by the game.

Why is that, you ask?

Well, let's break this down. Tenra Bansho Zero (TBZ) is a Japanese RPG, the first to be translated into English. It's designed to be a four to six hour single session campaign. All the character development that one could possibly have in a campaign gets pushed into that single session. It's hyper intense, hyper focused, just freaking hyper. Everyone has what are called Fates, which are hooks that the players can use to perform so the other players award them Aiki. Aiki is a resource you either use to get a few extra dice for your actions, or you can use it to generate Kiai. Kiai is extremely powerful, but spending it accrues Karma (yes, you have to track it yourself). Get 108 Karma? your character becomes an Asura, a demon enslaved to his desires, and taken over by the GM. You can get rid of Karma by getting rid of or lowering your Fates. You get rid of or lower your desires, you let go, so that way you do not become corrupted.

And then after that incredibly intense session you do a completely different story, in its own session. With different characters.

And you do it again.

And again.

And again.

Each of these stories are supposed to be completely self-contained, jumping from point to point in the really well-detailed setting that the game provides.

In fact, I would argue that the setting is the gold standard for how to make an RPG setting: make a place that needs saving, for whom there is no way out other than the players. Make the players essential. You want people to be heroes? Make everyone else not. Want the players to be a light? Make a variety of darkness they cannot help but feel on their skin. The TBZ setting is so well done that that its quality alone has made me keep the game, just to reference from time to time, to make sure that I'm designing my own settings correctly.

Yes, that was a paragraph-long aside.  The point is that you have to jump around a lot. And, given my own background for preferring long-running campaigns, I found that intimidating. How on earth could I come up with that many campaign ideas, that quickly? That's a lot of campaign work. But ultimately what's won me over on trying this out as a series of one shots is that there are plenty of pregenned characters, all of which are more defined by their Fates (which are player and GM generated) than by their skills, which means that player work is relatively low. And there's nothing stopping you from following the translator's advice and just keep spinning one-shots from the previous session's ending. I mean, all problems were formerly a solution, so that part makes sense.

There's a lot going for TBZ. I really can't wait to finally give it a shot as well. Well, y'know, one day. We'll get there.