Godzilla: Cities Under Siege (Interest Check)

[Capone]

In 1954, a monstrous beast appeared off the coast of Japan and wrought destruction upon Tokyo. This creature would be given the name Gojira in Japan, but due to a communication error was referred to as Godzilla in America. Thanks to the sacrifice of Dr. Serizawa and his Oxygen Destroyer, the beast was defeated. The consequences of mankind's abuse of science and nature to create devastating weaponry lingered on... for a while. Then, in 1984, thirty years after the world had grown complacent and national powers threatened one another with nuclear devastation, the beast returned. Once more we believed him to be defeated, having drawn him into a volcano where he fell into its magma. Still mankind didn't learn, the monster's cells collected by various groups and experimented on. When Godzilla returned in 1989, he was met by Biollante, a plant-based beast created by fusing his own cells with that of a flower.

Upon Biollante's destruction, many of these cells had distributed into the atmosphere and spread across the world. This led to the appearance of several other Kaiju. Anguirus rose from the ruins of Chernobyl in 1991. Manda and Kumonga appeared in Africa and South America, respectively, in 1992. In 1993 Godzilla began to venture beyond the sea of Japan, defeating Kumonga as he made landfall. Godzilla would later venture to Africa in 1995, defeating and killing it as well. For a while, everyone had hoped that the monsters would stop appearing. However, in 1998 Godzilla made landfall in Europe, and soon the dormant Anguirus would trek across the continent to meet with the monster and try and lay claim to its territory. While Anguirus was not killed, the conflict had awoken a creature that had been dormant for a long, long time.

Mothra was birthed upon an island off the coast of Thailand, and through her intervention Godzilla was held at bay and Anguirus was able to flee back to Chernobyl, where he would once again slumber. Godzilla, meanwhile, would make his devastating trek back to the ocean, where he, too, would go dormant. Mothra would then return to her island and also find rest.

For several years there was believed to be a calm peace, but it was at this point that the United Nations had come together to form a defense force against such monstrosities. By 2003 work would begin to assemble the Godzilla Defense Force, or GDF for short.

Unfortunately, the Defense Force was not ready for the disaster of 2005, when Titanosaurus emerged in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. An aquatic creature, it did not stray too far from the ocean, but it managed to wreak havoc throughout the Californian state and triggered wild-fires. Not a single weapon was ready to repel the beast. Rodan would emerge in Mexico in 2006, joined by Ebirah in the Atlantic Ocean.

After the fight of Titanosaurus and Rodan, it became clear that these beasts would frequently return to their nesting territory and slumber for long periods of time. As a result, for the next twenty years the G-Force strategy would be to use their weaponry to steer these creatures into specific territories, minimizing casualties and force them to fight it out. With luck, one of them would slaughter the other, such as Godzilla defeating Ebirah for good. It is now 2025, however, and the world is getting sick of living in fear of Kaiju attacks.

So What's Up With This Godzilla Game

Despite Godzilla's popularity as a slow-motion wrestling match between grown men wearing unbearably heavy monster costumes, every Godzilla movie had a core set of human characters to drive the plot and fill time between the expensive shoots where destruction reigned supreme. In this game, I wanted to focus on that human experience far more than the monster mashing, and to do that I decided to deviate from any currently existing Godzilla timeline or continuity. The only three films that are canon are the original 1954 flick, Return of Godzilla (released in America as Godzilla 1985), and Godzilla vs. Biollante, a film that is unfortunately out of print and harder to find despite actually being pretty decent.

From there on I deviated from what's known as the Heisei-Period, creating my own continuity influenced by Space Godzilla, formed in a Black Hole after Godzilla's cells had somehow ascended all the way into outer space. Instead, Godzilla's cells disperse across the world and different monsters emerge via gradual mutation. The only naturally-occurring creature is Mothra, because otherwise how are you going to have the requisite twins that sing all about Mothra?

While there will no doubt be events where monsters emerge and clash, with monster actions handled by the GM(s), I want that to actually be a rare event within the game. Strange, I know, but inspired by the Heisei and Millenium-Period of films, I wanted there to be a greater focus on human characters and the different human factions that themselves would no doubt be conflicting.

So the majority of players would be intended to fill various roles within the GDF, but there could also be those acting as Ambassadors for the UN or their respective countries, questioning the organization's decisions, arguing over the use of funding, and perhaps even hiding their country's private investigations and efforts to create a more efficient defense force.

To this end, the game would begin in the aftermath of an attack. Perhaps the G-Force is working to complete the finishing touches on Moguera or MechaGodzilla. Maybe the latter is still in development by the GDF while an American military contractor decides to throw Moguera into the mix ahead of time, claiming to be working "in support with the GDF" even though there are clearly tensions at the GDF base between the factions.

There's also the matter of scientists studying the creatures, retrieving samples of their cells after every fight and seeking potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities within the biology of the creatures themselves. Be it illegal or through laboratory accident, this could also result in the creation of artificial monsters such as Orga or Destroyah. Perhaps there's a very irresponsible country experimenting with a biomechanical Kaiju they can control in the form of Gigan.

Then there's the role of the bank-rollers and politicians and supervisors, the people that have to argue about what is and isn't permitted and what the GDF wants to do. There's the element of Public Relations and having to speak to the press after every incident, facing criticism that the attacks don't seem to be decelerating.

Then of course, there's the increased obsolecence and backseat-taking of old technology like the Super X, and the different pilots within GDF, let alone conflict between the organization and the outside.

Ideally, this would allow those that have a mild interest in but not great familiarity with Godzilla to find a place in the story to participate. Rather than everyone rushing into pilot roles and focusing exclusively on combat, it instead emphasizes the drama between the different factions, allowing players to better steer the direction of the plot depending on which faction they belong to. I listed plenty of types of roles above, but I'm sure there are plenty of players that can think of more. Imagine how the GDF Headquarters cook feels about all of this drama?

While I'd love to recommend films for viewing, it's honestly pretty difficult to find the films without spending money. While you can get all the Heisei and Millenium films via the Blu-Ray Toho Collection (minus Biollante), you still need to spend money on flicks you might not even enjoy. I don't know if any of them are available for digital rental, either. Even so, for a sense of tone, the films I recommend the most are Godzilla and Mothra: Battle for the Earth, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II, Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant All-Out Monsters Attack, and Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla. Be prepared for the continuity to make little-to-no sense. If it helps, I'll try and find YouTube clips of scenes that help reflect what I mean, though unfortunately I have a feeling most of what would be online would be the actual monster brawls.

Even so, there is no actual film-viewing required to join the game. It would help, but it's not necessary.

So What's Next?

I sit and wait and see if there's even any interest in the first place. My brainstorming thread was a wasteland, though admittedly not a lot of folks view the "Seeking GM" sub-forum. So until I see the response, I will not be creating a character sheet.

However, I will note that face claims will be photographs/models in order to keep the tone of the films, which are live-action. In regards to smut, I will have a thread open for it, but I'll otherwise let players determine the quantity they'd prefer. You want to play Suzy Slutstein? Go right ahead. You want your character to be a player? Sure thing. Just make sure any other player is consenting to how you approach their character, and make sure your character has other goals. I will operate on a freeform, limited-sandbox over a span of a week or two at a time, at least at first. I'm not certain yet, but I may put a daily cap on number of posts a player can make in a single day. Only one character per player at the start. This game will be LGBTQ+ friendly.

I... think that should be it for now. So, feel free to ask questions.

[Metraxa]

Yes please, yes so much. I even have ideas for it thanks to the assorted IDW comics.

[Capone]

Yes please, yes so much. I even have ideas for it thanks to the assorted IDW comics.

Please, feel free to share it. We may not have character sheets but hearing the sort of ideas people have may give me a sense of what I'm working with.

[Mathim]

Godzilla vs. Biollante, a film that is unfortunately out of print and harder to find despite actually being pretty decent.

I found it fairly easy on DVD at a used store. It even came with two bonus movies.



Is there any room in the game for the much more versatile battle vehicle, the Gotengo, from Godzilla: Final Wars? It might be more fun for some nations to be competing on different measures like Mechagodzilla, Moguera and the Gotengo, keeping each other on their toes but all ultimately working toward the same goal.

[Capone]

Is there any room in the game for the much more versatile battle vehicle, the Gotengo, from Godzilla: Final Wars? It might be more fun for some nations to be competing on different measures like Mechagodzilla, Moguera and the Gotengo, keeping each other on their toes but all ultimately working toward the same goal.

Ah yeah, forgot about that thing.

There will probably be room, but I imagine there will be a GDF division working on the Super X-2 with what scraps they can get from the budgetary dinner table.

[Metraxa]

Please, feel free to share it. We may not have character sheets but hearing the sort of ideas people have may give me a sense of what I'm working with.

Right so it kinda depends on things technologically, but in the IDW comic trilogy the USA had good old Millenium Saga Kiryu, after some hiccups. Now one of the plots by the alien invaders was to pose as a human businessman, managing an international consortium that built the OG bolt metal Mechagodzilla with the missile fingers for sale to less wealthy countries such as those in Asia and Africa, who couldn't necessarily afford such high tech gizmos and didn't want to rely on the US for protection.

Of course he was secretly building an army of the things to go with Mecha King Ghidorah to kill Godzilla, and naturally that didn't work out, but since neither aliens nor King Ghidorah seem to exist yet, the idea itself is still feasible if some of the details are tweaked.

[Capone]

Hrm. Seeing as MechaGodzilla hasn't even been completed yet I'm not sure how that would work, really. I also don't see them at a state where such mass-manufacturing of an old model would be feasible.

[Metraxa]

Hrm. Seeing as MechaGodzilla hasn't even been completed yet I'm not sure how that would work, really. I also don't see them at a state where such mass-manufacturing of an old model would be feasible.

Well, the robot army thing wasn't actually what I had in mind, at least at game start. It was mostly for context.

And that's fair enough. I checked and since the link you posted just goes to the general Mechagodzilla page rather than a specific section I wasn't sure if there was supposed to be a starting point for tech progression. But I will see if I can come up with other ideas.

[Mathim]

Just spitballing here, but since Biollante is canon here, and there was some kind of metaphysical connection between her and the dead wife or daughter or whatever (haven't watched it in a while), and given how Mothra has that connection with a few people, and other precedents like someone mentally linking with Titanosaurus, is it possible for one or more groups around the world working on a means to merge psychically with one or more Kaiju in an attempt to rein them in and use them in the same capacity as a Mechagodzilla, as a big-time enforcer to match physically with the other Kaiju for the sake of protecting humanity? It would probably be similar to how the pilots were drift compatible with their Jaegers in Pacific Rim but this would be more of a remote connection rather than direct physical link with cables and such.

[Capone]

I don't think I mind a telepathic communication since, as you said, there's precedent for it, but for the purpose of doing it to weaponize the monster is going a bit too far.

At the same time, it feels like none of the few ideas thus far are actually interested in the game's stated goal: to focus on the politics of the specific human factions more than the actual fighting of the monsters. Ideas that people have tried in the past and have failed to work. Perhaps if you can present an idea of who is approaching this endeavor of psychic connection and what sort of obstacles they're running into then maybe, but it's like, if you want to pilot a machine then why. Did this pilot grow up when monsters were already commonplace (likely) and therefore may not remember a world before monsters? Does that give them a different perspective? Do they wish to destroy the monsters or merely protect humanity by steering monsters away from populated areas? Did they even wish to pilot anti-Kaiju devices or is that simply where they got placed?

I've yet to be approached by someone trying to think of an actually interesting character.

[Capone]

I'm gonna close this up. Was gonna give it a bit longer but pretty sure there's no one interested in it, at least not my interpretation of how one of these stories should operate.

Maybe I'll try it again some other time.