Death Note themed game

[Mushine]

I was recently recommended Death Note by a friend. I am currently watching episode 8 and all I could think my entire time watching is what an interesting GURPS game this would make. I cannot decide what would be the best way to do it, however. It seems that there are many ways and they all seem fun. You could have all the players be investigators, all of them searching for the "kira" character. Possibly one of them being kira would be interesting. However both of those possibilities seem like they would take an insane amount of planning and work on my part. A better way, I feel, would be to have a player find a Death Note and let his friends (the other players) in on the secret. This may bend the rules of the show but that's okay because I would prefer to play this with people that have never seen the show. Any ideas or opinions?

[Nemi3e]

Originally Posted by Mushine

I was recently recommended Death Note by a friend. I am currently watching episode 8 and all I could think my entire time watching is what an interesting GURPS game this would make. I cannot decide what would be the best way to do it, however. It seems that there are many ways and they all seem fun. You could have all the players be investigators, all of them searching for the "kira" character. Possibly one of them being kira would be interesting. However both of those possibilities seem like they would take an insane amount of planning and work on my part. A better way, I feel, would be to have a player find a Death Note and let his friends (the other players) in on the secret. This may bend the rules of the show but that's okay because I would prefer to play this with people that have never seen the show. Any ideas or opinions?

To capture the feel of the manga/anime...

Decide on a setting, personally I'd say either school or police officers. Police officers would have one to three Ally Groups (friends, family, co-workers), and likely some Contacts. Students would have two (Family and Friends.)

Encourage everyone to fully flesh them out. To make things interesting you and player1 run some of player1's allies, and players2, 3, and 4 run others, and visa versa; possibly exchanging them every session or so.

At the begining of play you hand out...I'm thinking sealed envelopes, but now that I think about a fully shuffled deck of cards might be better. (One shot advantages possibly on them? Or "reroll" "add two" "discover a clue.")

The person who draws the joker has the death note. Of course, if you use a deck of cards there's a chance that at the beginning of play no one has the death note. With envelopes someone definitely will, unless you play with them.

The person with the Note is encouraged to off the NPCs, PCs have a level of plot armor.

At the beginning of every session thereafter players pass the GM notes for what they do/want to do to the other PCs and their ally groups. The GM then passes out, mmm, folded note cards stating what's applicable. Like if the Note was passed on.

The idea is, of course, to encourage paranoia, and for the NPCs to represent something like hit points.

[Mgellis]

Originally Posted by Mushine

I was recently recommended Death Note by a friend. I am currently watching episode 8 and all I could think my entire time watching is what an interesting GURPS game this would make. I cannot decide what would be the best way to do it, however. It seems that there are many ways and they all seem fun. You could have all the players be investigators, all of them searching for the "kira" character. Possibly one of them being kira would be interesting. However both of those possibilities seem like they would take an insane amount of planning and work on my part. A better way, I feel, would be to have a player find a Death Note and let his friends (the other players) in on the secret. This may bend the rules of the show but that's okay because I would prefer to play this with people that have never seen the show. Any ideas or opinions?

One problem with a Death Note campaign is that people may know the story, etc. However, in terms of campaign design, Death Note relies on a couple of interesting plot devices that can be adapted for other stories...

1) The villain has an unusual ability (or an unusual ally...or both) that is outside the experience of the heroes

2) The villain is seeking something but cannot approach it directly without giving away his identity

3) The villain has unexpected allies...people think he is right and join his cause without him planning on it (but once he knows who they are, he takes advantage of it)

4) The villain is actually someone the heroes know, someone deceiving them

So, perhaps the villain can talk to birds, and use them to learn secrets, and blackmail people, sometimes forcing them to kill themselves. He can also get birds to attack people...useful if they are on a ladder, etc. and could fall and hurt themselves. He knows a task force is after him and is trying to learn secrets like if any of them are corrupt or having affairs but cannot figure out how to do so without revealing his power or his identity.

Or something like that.

I hope this helps.

Mark

[ed_209a]

You will also have to deal with the fact that complex Machiavellian manipulations work a lot better when the same mind is scripting all sides.

If a _player_ was able to do that to other players, he would probably do it in real life. And be just as scary as the people in the anime.

Perhaps if your real brainy guys (like Light, L, Near) had Deduction!, and on a success could retroactively take actions in response to someone else's actions.("I thought you might do X, so I actually did Y.")

Two of them might go back and forth, preempting each other, until one of them fails a roll.

[Sense of Duty (Kittens)]

Perhaps you could have the PCs be Shinigami.