My Beloved Nemesis [NCES probably]

[kongming]

Now, with such a wonderful (possibly even classic or cliché) title as that, I surely have your attention!

At least 100 years ago, someone here posted an idea that was pretty cool. However by the time I saw it and tried replying, they were long gone.

So now I'm selfishly advertising for this idea :D

The concept:
There is a travelling champion of justice. You know, a heroic sort. Specifics don't really matter. They encounter, several times, a villain, one who quickly becomes their arch-nemesis. It seems as though they are drawn together by fate, and must battle several times, never slaying each other, and whenever one is wounded enough, they merely retreat, swearing to best their foe next time.

Except at some point, they begin to fall for one another. Perhaps the battles excite them, with Ikkitousen-style exploding clothes (attacks shredding clothing), grappling and the like, along with the rush of endorphins from battle, all contribute to help them enjoy the experience. Soon, they begin finding excuses to see each other, practically selecting tasks that would ensure the other would intervene. They start resorting to less lethal attacks, perhaps, confused about their motives and hoping to gain dominance over the other.

The original idea was for the villain to have a degree of demonic ancestry, so was acting on hard-to-resist urges, and eventually when they were "together", almost had a sort of "deal" with the heroine, where she would let him/her tie her up, "rape" her, beat her etc. to let the urges out, and she would do the same to him/her afterwards, to help tame the beast. We can go with that angle or not - it needn't be planned out in advance.

The way I see it, their meetings and battles would be handled by game rules, allowing for optimisation, randomness, tactics and the uncertainty of combat. For anything else, rules can be forgotten and the whole thing freeformed. So indeed, if they end up together, as a happy couple, there could be a point where rules stop being part of the game.

So, what system? I'm actually thinking of not using D&D 3.5 for this. Here are possibilities I have in mind:

4E - yes I know I said it's the antichrist. But it could be a nice test, and if we make it level 20-ish, it will safely mean there's no risk of accidentally killing each other... seriously. One can even do the "Knock them down to bloodied, Intimidate to end the fight." trick.

Mutants and Masterminds - the idea is fantasy, but M&M can still work, with a little change of flavour. It'd be a bit odd, I admit, but has the benefits of people being able to be bashed about, knocked huge distances and not get killed from the attacks.

BESM 3E - BESM covers fantasy just fine, after all. This one allows for players to have a pretty good idea of how much of a beating they can take, and allows for customisation.

SO! Takers?

[Darthvegeta800]

How indepth does one need to know the rulesystems?
I am familiar and have used some D20 systems though not those requested.
I do have a degree of understanding of D and D mechanics.

*rubs chin*
Hmmm well best to wait. If nobody pops up who knows one of the systems well, give me a poke miss if you're willing to help a bit out with the rules. If not ;) link me to the thread when it starts as the storyline seems fun and i don't mind lurking.

[Elohim]

Are you set on playing opposite a male,  or could I interest you in a female nemesis?

[kongming]

Oh trust me, I definitely like the idea of a female nemesis.

[GrinningHound]

Oh...my...

This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for...  I love conflict and rivalry and boiling blood!  I was discussing something similar a while ago, but it never panned out.

The idea of that...aggression between the characters, the power struggle as they try to defeat eachother, first at arms, and then sexually...damn.

I like the rules, too.  All the more fun when there's an element of probability and strategy, makes it that much more intense to play!

I haven't played or even hardly looked at 4E.  I know M&M rather well if you want to go with that (as well as 3.5).

Some questions:  Are you more interested in the hero or the villain?  Also, a quick gander at your On/Off's shows that you are not that into men.  How will that work?  Would you like to play a male character opposite a female?  (I am VERY okay with that. ;D)

[Elohim]

Oh trust me, I definitely like the idea of a female nemesis.

Well,  I wish I knew more about DnD 4.0 but...  I still haven't got up enough cash to buy the books.  I'm still working on my exalted collection actually...  but,  BESM is fun...  are you looking to use the Tri-stat system or D20? 

[Paradox]

I have all three core 4th edition books, if you do want to go that route. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss it. I love the idea, and I love the idea of applying actual game mechanics to it as well. It would indeed be a versatile test of high-level mechanics for the new set of rules, which most people wouldn't normally find out about for many months to come because of the time involved in taking a new character to that level.

[kongming]

Wow, so many responses!

Well, call me a glutton for punishment (granted, there are some here who would call me exactly that), but I'm sure I could handle a few at once. After all, it needn't play out the same for different people! I could also handle different systems that way, and play either side depending on what my partner prefers...

Okay, question-answering:

GrinningHound: There are a few ways to handle it. My favourite would have to be f/f however. After all, bondage aspects where a male is being dominated and punished doesn't really do it for me, other than him being forced down and the female sitting astride his face for pleasure. So it could work, and I could play either gender for that, or it could be f/f. I won't be too choosy.

Seraph: I was thinking the Tri-stat version. I have BESM 3rd edition (it was released after the d20 one), and might have d20 and 2nd edition BESM as well somewhere. What variety do you have?

I shall now go about sending PMs to people...

[Darthvegeta800]

Btw what system exactly is BESM 3E? I don't think i have ever heard of it.

[kongming]

BESM is Big Eyes, Small Mouth. It's a game designed to emulate anime, although seeing as that's a very vague definition, it basically just means "It's anime-themed, and lets you recreate most crazy stuff from various anime."

It uses the Tri-stat system, and is handled as a point-buy thing, ala White Wolf, Mutants & Masterminds etc.

Before 3E it was essentially "Spend X points on your stats (Body, Mind and Soul) and Attributes. Attributes are abilities, or a bonus to HP/MP. Stats determine your numbers. Spend Y points on skills. Done. When doing an action, roll 2d6. If it's less than or equal to the stat+skill, it works. If it's higher, it fails."

Now it's "As above, except skills now cost the same points as everything else. Just one big pool. Also, roll 2d6 and ADD your stat+skill, with a standard difficulty of XX" (10 or something).

That basically sums it up.

[Darthvegeta800]

Interesting. Never heard of it. But it does sound like a fun system. And rather easy in use. What publisher prints it?

[kongming]

It's by Guardians of Order. They also have a generic system, the Tri-Stat dX (that's to represent "You can actually use any die type! - d4, d6, d8, d10, d100, d83 etc!" not a reference to Degeneration X). That presumably is like GURPS - it grants you the basic system and the tools needed to customise it to the game you want. I'm not sure though.

It's highly imbalanced, like any point-buy system, but it lends itself to a very fun environment when the GM and players work together.

[Darthvegeta800]

Sounds fun. Never encountered it here though.
But then we tend to only find the 'big ones' in the shops with a few random 'minors'.
So mostly D and D, Star Wars, Gurps and a few lessers like L5R, Conan,... .