JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is probably my favorite anime of all time, and with its 7th season, Steel Ball Run, finally airing, I want to gush about it. I'll talk about TTRPGs too, I guess.
Succiently describing JoJo's is difficult. The series follows the descendant's of the Joestar family through a variety of times and places. Along the way they fight vampires, Aztec Gods, Patrick Bateman, that vampire's Catholic boyfriend, etc. You've probably seen memes about it.
But I'm really here to sell you on the "magic" system[1] of JoJo's: Stands.
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| The Stand: Sticky Fingers |
What's a Stand? They're basically superpowers in the form of a fashionably erotic ghost/spirit/guy. Each stand has a unique ability, but have some trends. High power stands are close ranged; long range stands are generally weaker. Automatic stands can have both high power and long range but cannot be directly controlled by the user. Sticky Fingers can put zippers on anything - jump through a wall, hide gold in a toilet, unzip your arm to extend your punching range, etc.[2]
Since every ability is zany, this makes Stand battles closer like combat puzzles than contests of strength.
This means a lot of stand fights are a ton of bullshit that I absolutely love.
Bruno, the user of Sticky Fingers, uses its zippers to hide in the roof of a train and then drops down to unzip the side of the train to hurl someone out. He gets dragged out too, and when the villain (who can hear heartbeats) tries to find him, Bruno's got to unzip his body into pieces to fake his death. I promise it plays much better than I'm describing.
It's all nonsense.
Actually, it's nonsense stacked on nonsense. To a degree, it's kids one-uping each other on the playground. On the other, this is a continuation of one of the oldest games - a transformation chase, or wizard duel where each side attempts to outwit the other. Regardless, it rules. JJBA is great because nothing is a raw numbers check ("Oh, that's guy's stronger because he's lifts more at the gym). JJBA is like rock-paper-scissors on steroids where you can twist your paper into a gun after your opponent threw rock.
But what does this have to do with TTRPGs, which this blog is ostensibly about? Surprise: it's toolbox design. Give your players wacky abilities. Don't give them static +1 bonuses. Adventuring success should not be determined by how big the players' numbers are. There is joy in optimizing for big numbers, but I personally find greater joy and better stories in using creative people use tools that let them be creative.
Rarely in JoJo's the solution is to punch the guy harder. If Star Platinum is in punching range, you have already lost. The interesting part comes in "how can I get close safely so I can punch this guy into oblivion?"
What I remember most are how my players opened a hole above a locked crypt with "Shape Stone," dropped a teleporting rug inside, teleported in, and looted the place. This is a rehash of the OSR principle "The answer is not on your character sheet."
To ground this more clearly, here are some magic items / abilities inspired by JoJo's. Give them to your players during character creation so the hijinks can begin early.
1. Crazy Diamond Hammer - a diamond headed hammer with a button on the bottom of its shaft. When the button is pressed, the last thing the hammer destroyed is repaired.
2. Bouncing Bullets - when firing these rubber bullets, you can ricochet them off of up to two walls/ceilings/floors, etc. to aim around corners, in a blind spot, etc.
3. Void Zone Zipper - A large zipper you can affix onto anything. Unzipping the zipper opens whatever you've attached it if it's less than 5 ft thick. Otherwise creates an inter dimensional space similar to Portable Hole.
4. Sword of Silent Sound - You can store the sounds made with this sword in objects. You can unleash the sound to unleash the action (e.g. you can store a "chop!" sound, which when released produces a "chopping" effect).
5. Tattoo Us - You and your buddies have matching tattoos. Anyone with a tattoo can switch places with another person with a matching tattoo.
6. Bastet's Blessing - You can turn object and people into magnets. The longer they are magnetic, the stronger they become. You must be able to see your target.
7. Wrench of Nuts & Bolts - You can place nuts & bolts into object or person and unscrew them to dislocate that object into two parts (e.g. place a nut on someone's wrist and unscrew to dislocate their hand). Does not damage.
8. Belt of Hustlin' Muscle -You can control your muscles like nobody else. They have extra grip, can catch things, and can shuffle around to minimize damage from blows. You can use your back muscles to climb up walls or hold onto them.
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I'm really excited for Steel Ball Run to air. It's my favorite part with cowboys, dinosaurs, balls, etc. Johnny, the best sidekick main character, is my favorite Joestar and he makes a particularly poignant political message at the finale that I think we can all agree with.
[1] After Hamon is ditched.
[2] Yes, all the stands past Part 3 are named after musical references.
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