Power Rangers The Campaign; Season 2

I’ve been thinking a bit more about that Power Rangers setting and playing with a few concepts since the last time I posted about it. I looked into a couple of systems, a few mechanics, and some narrative structures that I could use for it. Here’s the fruit of that labor.

First off I’d want to use the West End Games D6 Adventure system. It’s a versatile and easy to learn system with the mechanical crunchiness that such a setting would require. I’ll have to design each piece of equipment myself and that’ll take some balancing work, but in the end it won’t be that hard because even if things turn out to be overpowered or even underpowered it can easily be dealt with in a Power Rangers style fashion. Which is of course to say that it ends up never used again, only used against specific enemies, or the enemies get some type of immunity or strength boost from that point on.

I really like the Charge Point economy concept I came up with and will definitely be using that for this idea, I just have to come up with the specific costs and a table for the players/GM to follow. The actual Morphing and power-up structure is going to be a little bit tricky to initially build but should be easy to follow in game. Rangers usually follow a pretty standard pattern for the escalation of their fights in an episode/series: Pure Human, In-between form (think of the Ninja forms they got in MMPR), Morphed, Power Weapons, other special power-ups or vehicles, Zords, summon allies, Megazord/s, and finally the Ultrazord. This pattern makes it easy to setup the escalating costs and what power-ups will be available with certain amounts of charge once I figure out how much that charge may cost.

Character creation should be relatively easy. You make a teenager with attitude, or 20-something with attitude, whatever. You get the standard pool of resources for character creation and make a person. Each character should have a unique set of skills and everyone’s characters should know each other in some way. When they morph into their Ranger forms the characters will get various automatic boosts to their abilities depending upon their ranger color. Some will be generic boosts and some will be specific to their role on the team. Remember, each Ranger is specifically selected for their role based upon compatibility with the color they wear. Oh, and there must be 5 players. That’s a requirement

Now as for how the Narrative will play out, this one is easy. Treat every single session as a single episode of the series, including Theme Music and an introduction of the cast at the start every play session. If the plot of the episode isn’t resolved before the end of game session the GM is required to end the session on a cliffhanger and give a recap at the start of the next session before playing the theme music. The game is based off of a TV show for kids so the sessions will kept lighthearted and cartoony in some ways. Evil is evil, the only gray area villains will be the ones who can change sides or who are under the influence of a spell/plot device. There will always be something that has some type of moral lesson about teamwork that the rangers must overcome.

This shit writes itself!

Villains and monsters are going to be a little bit difficult to visualize without me being an artist, but I can probably find a way to photoshop some things together or find good visuals on the internet.

Now, what would the plot be based around? Each generation of Rangers has a command center and a theme they follow. I’m thinking of reaching back into the Power Rangers lore vaults and pull out some of the unused ideas for the TV show, specifically the Hexagon concept.

The Hexagon was an idea that was being built up to while Power Rangers was still under the control of Saban. It was a new type of command center that was publicly funded and well-defended. The idea was that Tommy Oliver (the former Green, White, and Red-Zeo Ranger) helped to found an organized resistance to the evil in the universe that kept finding its way to Earth. The Hexagon would be the command center for multiple Ranger teams and would be modeled after the Pentagon. Except, y’know, full of giant supertech/magic research departments. It was really going to be a way that they could just use multiple series at the same time, sell more toys, and not worry too much about a constantly consistent plot with a single season of stock footage. It was never used because they decided to go a completely different direction with the series because they were under the assumption they were ending the series.

For me, the Hexagon represents a great alternate timeline option that allows me a stepping off point for the “series” I’d be running. It can be its own thing without running into dealing with canon issues and all that crap. Plus, Tommy Oliver as the equivalent of a Chief of Operations for a military branch.

Of course I could also go with the ultra-realistic interpretation of everything including what access to that tech means for humanity, the death and destruction of such battles taking their toll on the world economy, and all the fun stuff that goes along with that stuff. I’d rather keep it a light-hearted and campy romp with people abusing the shit out of the word “Morph” in more exotic and unlikely ways though. We have enough darkness in all the other settings I pay attention to that this one should be allowed to be enjoyed for what it is.

Power Rangers, the Campaign

I’ve always had a typical for my age and gender reaction to the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers; I watched the episodes religiously, I wanted all of the toys, and thought the entire concept was really freaking cool. I’m a boy who loves his cheesy, Japanese inspired (okay, stolen footage from Japan), shows and movies with people in ridiculous outfits fighting people in rubber suits with their own rubber suited beasts and models.

If you look at the original show while ignoring the extremely cheesy… um… everything… about it, you can see the makings of a really deep setting begging to be exploited by the creative. The original Power Rangers were just some kids with some exceptional talents recruited by a powerful interdimensional being. The Interdimensional being grants these teens access to their Power Coins and Morphers. Each of the 5 members receives a power coin with a totem that complements/is complimented by their own abilities. Each Ranger also has a “DinoZord” of their totem animal for when they have to face down gigantic threats.

The Power Coins seem to have some type of mysticism in their origin while the Morphers, Zords, and other bits and pieces of the command center seem to be based around alien/super tech. The command center has faster than light communications, matter-to-energy teleportation, interstellar starships, advanced sensor technology, and many other examples of super-tech. The Rangers themselves use a combination of technology and mysticism in their weapons and abilities as well. None of it is specifically explained as to why these things appear to be a combination of magic and technology, but who cares. It sold toys.

The lack of explanation was probably really done for the ease of writing convenient plot devices that appear out of nowhere from the original Japanese footage and to pad episodes with unnecessary drama. You would hear references to things like “The Morphin Grid” (Yes, the proper spelling is without a “g”, did you expect any different?) or the Rangers would go on a quest for some weapon they might only use once.

So anyways, the point of this rambling is that I’ve been convinced for a very long time that the Power Rangers would make a wonderful RPG setting. You have a team of people thrust into greatness by powers greater than themselves. They have to struggle against the seemingly endless forces of evil while protecting the innocent. Evil is constantly growing in power and ability which requires the rangers to go on quests for more powerful artifacts or abilities to fight the forces of evil. They also have magic powers and giant super-tech robots. What else do you really need for an RPG?

I’ve been playing around with this concept for quite a while and the biggest thing stopping me from running it was the lack of a way to effectively engage players during a megazord fight sequence. What would you do? Just give the controls of the megazord to a lone player while the others watched? Do you have each of them coordinate a different limb? Do they all have their own turn? Do they have to vote on each move before they perform it? The answer to the question escaped me until yesterday (or a few days ago depending on when this gets published.

The idea is to give a specific role to each of the Rangers when they’re in the cockpit. One ranger controls one of the following stations; sensors, defensive/power, ranged weapons, melee, and the pilot. Each Ranger gets to make a control roll/skill challenge or something similar and depending upon their success or failure can generate what I’m calling a “Charge point”. The charge points can be kept in a pool until the team decides to use them for one of their many uses. Maybe calling the Power Sword requires 15 Charge Points or they can spend a few points for extra attacks and a free ranged attack with some extra damage. Maybe it allows the Dino-Megazord to call up its Shield, or allows them to summon an ally like Ninjor, Titanus, or the Dragonzord. I’m still working out the specifics, but the general concept is sound and now it’s just a matter of refining it.

These charge points can be added to every aspect of a Power Rangers episodic adventure. It helps maintain the pacing of the show and forces the players to mechanically follow the stages of escalation the rangers would have to follow in a story. Why don’t the rangers immediately whip out the Zords against the regular sized opponent? Because they don’t have the Charge points built up yet of course! Fighting the monster with blade blasters first? Not enough points to summon up the power weapons yet. Why is the red ranger not using the Dragon Armor? Lack of Points! Why are Bulk and Skull here? Because your GM hates you. I also think that the Rangers should be able to tap into the Morphin Grid if the need emergency charge points, but it should carry some level of danger and it should be a limited pool.

This pool wouldn’t just be limited to the Rangers though. Obviously the villains have their own pool as well. I was thinking that each of the different levels of villains would have their own ways to gain these points and use them.

You could have minions like the Putty Patrollers sent in to soften the rangers up in the first place be capable of earning charge points, but they can’t use them. They would create the initial pool of points for the Episode Monster to use. The Episode Monster would generate a certain number of Charge Points every turn based upon how powerful a creation it is. Minor Villains (like Goldar or Scorpina) would earn a certain number of points per round and be able to generate/use them in similar ways to the Rangers. Main Villains (Rita or Zedd) would generate their own points and/or suck off the power of the Villain Pool in order to generate their own energy for casting spells, using magic items, sending in minions, monsters, and etc to generally make life far more difficult for the Rangers.

I’m envisioning 3 Charge Point pools, the Ranger Pool, the Monster Pool, and the Villain Pool. The Rangers fill and draw from their own pool. Minions, the Episode Monster, and Minor Villains add to/willingly contribute to the Monster Pool which can be used by the Episode Monster to unleash hell upon the Rangers. The Villain pool is held by the Major Villain and is essentially a tax upon the Episode Monster’s pool, maybe a MV has a Siphon rate or some other specific rate at which their pool increases. The Villain Pool is used by the Main Villain to bring in more minions, monsters, magic items, etc into the battle.

Man, this system sounds awesome… okay, now I need to work on the charts for the things charge points can be spent on.

This charge point system is just a secondary system though. It can really be slapped onto any game system out there to allow a power rangers campaign to be run. The next question is, what system do I use to run the game? This is something I’m going to have to think about. Two immediately come to mind though, FATE and D6 Adventure. Before I can choose though I need to look into a few more systems.