Kamen Rider Zeit (Zayit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuELVozCkcE))
The premise is simple: on an average night in the floating city of the future, you and a group of your female friends head out to have a little get together. And you get to talking over a few drinks, about how your life is going, what your plans are for the future, and what you think about the world. Pouring one glass out after another as you pour your hearts out to each other, still miserable perhaps, but a little elated to know that there’s still people who can understand you in this world. And after you watch some of the others filter by, you all take one last toast to celebrate a renewed friendship, you slam the shot down and everything starts to blur….
Until you all wake up the morning after in a trash pile, or on a roof somewhere, with a strange toy belt wrapped around your waist, a massive headache, sore limbs, and wonder what the hell you were up to last night. Only for a scowling middle aged woman in a weathered light brown coat and a bucket hat to show up with a fresh newspaper to wave about, with a big flashy headline complete with blurry ass photos about strange masked warriors fighting against a vicious monster, and an all too familiar toy on their waists. “Unfortunately,” she says, “We need to talk.”
Kamen Rider Zeit is what happens when you expose your average KR ‘enjoyer’ to Saber and Zero One in all their flaws and glories (mostly the former for Saber ngl) and force them to internalize, critique, and analyze said stories inbetween copious amounts of lesbian romance fiction and history, before then bashing their head in with the existence of Thirsty Sword Lesbians. This RP is both all of those, and none of them at once, as one does.
In KR Zeit you’re not playing as larger than life heroes, hardened criminals, or international superspies, you are playing as regular people granted amazing powers, and saddled with equally amazing responsibilities. In a game that’s as much about exchanging awkward glances with a highschool crush you bumped into in the subway, as it is about getting thrown through several columns of trees by a keyboard hydra’s frantic swinging.
Whether you like it or not, having that BlaDriver on your waist means something to other people. To the common folk it means that you are a Kamen Rider, a masked hero of justice doing battle against the dangerous monsters stalking the streets of City 7, to your enemies it means that you are a thief, wielding stolen powers beyond their understanding, and to the ORG it means that you are an asset, in their ongoing investigation of a globe spanning conspiracy. The question is, what does having a driver mean to you?
The Kamen Rider Zeit System is at its core, not only stolen wholesale from another, more popular game, but also from the concept of RTDs in general. The results of your turn are determined at least in part from a roll of 1d6 that will be opposed by other rolls of 1d6.
Every turn two d6s are rolled for each character, and they can choose one to be their Action Dice and to process their action for the turn, and the other to be their Ability Dice (AbDie), which is used to determine how many Finishers you can use this turn.
An additional Die, called the Reserve Die is rolled for each character at the start of each encounter, and the character can choose to swap out the value of Reserve Die with one of the two die rolled this turn, keeping the swapped result as their new Reserve Die.
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Stats: You have 14 points to freely distribute between player defined stats that represent the capabilities of your Rider as relevant to resolving actual fights. A stat can be anything really, as long as you can think of a snappy name, and write a definition for what it actually represents. You should also note that you can increase the effect of a stat’s number by focusing on one specific aspect, someone with 8 in ‘Martial Arts’ is going to be worse at performing Choke Slams than someone with ‘Pro Wrestling 4-5’ for example. You can have as many player-defined stats as you want, as long as it is below 7 individual stats at the start of the game.
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Struggle: Used to perform particularly anime actions, such as firing off two Finishers in the same round, entering into a beam clash with an enemy to deflect their attack, or having your instincts kick in at the last possible moment to keep a round from tearing you a new one. You can also use a point of Struggle to treat one dice of your choice as a roll of 6 for this turn.
You start each ‘Mission’ with 0 Struggle, but whenever your character suffers a grievous blow, performs an action that suits their Anima and Mundi that is detrimental/inconvenient to the party/themselves, or otherwise causes an interesting conflict, you gain points of Struggle proportionate to how much the triggering action changes the course of the story.
This system is explicitly meant to encourage and reward plot developments and Roleplaying that would suit an actual Kamen Rider show. The final moment when you twist around to land a final roundhouse kick on a monster’s head is inherently more satisfying and meaningful when you’ve spent the past few ‘episodes’ defending a loved one’s honour in a cooking competition against it, and everyone cheers when the hero puts his life on the line to make one final blow against the monster threatening the world, before finally falling down to the ground….
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Finishers: A Finisher represents a…. Special technique, ability, move, or other sort of nonsense that pushes your character to their limits. Each character starts with four Finishers. Each Finisher is tied to a number from 3 to 6, and the higher the number is, the more powerful the Finisher’s effect is. You can always slap a drawback onto any Finisher to make it stronger than it ordinarily would to represent pushing your body past its limits allowing it to move at speeds it was never designed to handle, or a technique that leaves the user wide open for example, but it isn’t strictly speaking required.
Using a Finisher requires a roll on the AbDie that is equal or higher than the number tied to it. It is important to note that a Finisher can be used at the same turn as other actions, and that only one Finisher can be used per turn by default.
Character Name: (Remember that the game is set in Japan. Although City 7 is a multicultural enough corporate enclave town that anything works.)
Age: (Anything between 21 to 45 basically)
Pronouns: (Magical girl laws apply here, if you’re not a girl, you will be…. Unless you’re NB I guess.)
Human Appearance:
Anima: (An Anima is an animal or mythological creature/beast that is a representation of what the character is, who they really are underneath the surface. Outside of serving as a motif and providing design cues for your Rider’s appearance, your character’s Anima also grants them a power related to said anima, from something as direct as a bull’s strength, to something as esoteric as a dragon’s ability to inspire awe. )
Mundi: (A Mundi is a machine or tool related to a modern profession or hobby to represent what they show/seem to be to the outside world. Your Mundi makes up the other half of your Rider form’s design, and provides an additional power or ability that modifies or adds to your Anima’s powers. It can be anything from a captive bolt pistol turned stakedriver mounted on a forearm to a sceptre that allows its wielder to summon faceless simps to serve your every command. Characters are expected to acquire entirely new Mundi as the game goes on.)
Personality: (Ideally speaking your character’s personality is informed by their Anima and starting Mundi, and vice versa. Outside of serving as an easy reference point for your own characterization and a way for me to figure out what your character is most likely going to act, this is also the only semi reliable way of gaining Struggle points outside of intentionally trying to get your ass beat.)
Rider Name:
Rider Appearance: (Self explanatory)
Transformation Jingle and pose: (Optional, but recommended)
Stats: (Remember that you start with 14 points to distribute between up to 6 Player Defined Stats)
Finishers: (You start with 4 of these things.)
Background: (As previously mentioned, the only real restriction is that you’d all know each other well enough to go out for a drink together, and that your character is dissatisfied enough with the way their life is going, and how the world works to be willing to be open minded about being blackmailed by a shadowy organization into fighting against deadly monsters because of something stupid you did on a drunken night out.)
City 7: Where you all live, a floating city built ‘from the ground up’ to exploit offshore rare earth minerals. While it is nominally taxed and administered by the Japanese government, who proudly boasts of the city’s multicultural nature, and its growing superconductor industry. In practice it is a borderline corporate town run by a branch of the international conglomerate known as Avalon Ltd. through its network of investments, and political connections. This is somewhat of an open secret, but so long as Avalon’s interests align with the government’s (and it seemingly has so far), no one’s that interested in rocking the boat, no matter what some of the voters might think.
BlaDriver Design: The exact appearance, size, and location of the Drivers are inherently mutable, they can be a pair of bracers, a holster to sling over a leg or your back, or the classic belt design, but every Rider invariably wields a close ranged weapon, and every Driver works the same way. A Rider slots in a pair of Anima and Mundi into the BlaDriver, and either draw their weapon or turn a key before striking a pose and stating their intent.
BlaDriver Origin: None of your characters are entirely sure how, but your drunken asses stumbled in the middle of an ORG (the people blackmailing you to work with them as Riders) operation months in the planning, and received the shipment of BlaDrivers they had stolen from an Avalon truck, along with an ancient blade that was shipped with it. Unfortunately, none of you have proof that ORG was the ones responsible for stealing the drivers in the first place… but they do have a recording of all of you transforming for the first time….
Anima/Mundi Design: Both Anima and Mundi come in the form of thick RAM sticks, with an outer shell with a side obviously mean to face out that has an emblem of the mythological creature or tool the Anima or Mundi represents. They light up when you slot them into your BlaDriver, and make an actual sound announcing the name of the Anima and Mundi. It’s not super practical, outside of the ease of storage, the fact that they can be mistaken for regular toys/collectables, and how easy sliding one into the BlaDriver is.
Thank you for Empiricist for helping me with the mechanics (more along the lines of giving it really), and thank you to Adwarf, Elfcollaborator, and Doomblade for bearing with me as I continously rant about yuri and Kamen Rider over the past year.
Example Sheets
Build Concept: Weee woo weee woo here comes the fun police.
Designed to be a quintessential dive tank, Satou trades away direct damage capabilitie to hard focus on preventing her target from attacking or meaningfully contributing to a fight at all costs. Using her mobility and stubbornness to forcing them to focus on wrestling her away until her allies wear them down, or she manages to smash them into her extremely limited Gae Bolges, and bind them in place for a final blow.
Character Name: Hoshiko Satou
Age: 25
Pronouns: She/Her
Human Appearance: A quintessential salarywoman with short black hair and a pair of thick glasses.
Anima: Amazing Curruid (Bones of an Idol): An unsung hero, a beast with little more to its name than an embarrassing loss, and a weapon forged from its bones. Amazing Curruid grants Satou the ability to wield a weapon with the properties of Gae Bulg (Nearly impossible to remove once used, projects razor floss, almost certainly lethal), and nothing else save for immunity to its own effects, leaving the exact form, and delivery method of its weapon to the Mundi.
Mundi: Police Car (High Spec Body): Representing Satou’s overbearing attempts at protecting others through her common sense and reason. The Interceptor grants Satou the top speed, acceleration, and mass of a modern day pursuit car, albeit still with the mobility of a human being. With this Mundi, the Gae Bolg manifests as a pair of faux spike strips attached to the back of Interceptor’s legs, that can be easily detached and unrolled onto the ground, but not retrieved, as the strip immediately roots itself to the ground below with its razor floss, extending much of the same into anyone with the misfortune to have the spikes pierce their skin.
Personality: Boring, tactless, and seemingly obsessed with everything that could go wrong in life, Satou nonetheless has an oddly strong sense of selflessness that’s pulled your asses out of the fire enough back in highschool to call her a friend, if not a particularly close one.
Rider Name: Kamen Rider Interceptor
Rider Appearance: Aquatic blue trident shaped ‘eye’ on a matte black and white helmet. Black armor piece with blue sculpted ‘ribs’, and a white underlying bodysuit. Bright yellow spike strips mounted on the back of her thighs.
Transformation Jingle and pose: (Optional, but recommended)
Stats:
Mobility (4): Armed with the physical properties of a police interceptor vehicle, Kamen Rider Interceptor boasts a high top speed, and blistering acceleration which renders it second to none… at heading down mostly clear straight roads at speed, as it is both helped and hindered by Satou’s ‘peak’ human agility and reflexes. The still humanoid form not quite gelling with the phantom wheels it rushes forward on.
Defense (4): While the Curruid/Interceptor combo is theoretically more capable of performing sudden bursts of speed to avoid attacks than ‘taking it like a man’. Satou’s preferred fighting style has led to her relying on her stubbornness to keep her standing on her own two feet more than anything else.
Shoot Wrestling (4): While still lacking in professional polish, Satou’s years of membership in her highschool wrestling club, and continued enjoyment of pro wrestling has paid off. Although only time will tell if her skills will not only derust, but adapt to mesh better with her enhanced strength and heft.
Gae Bolg (2): Powerful, deadly, and almost impossible to escape, Interceptor’s Spike Strips Gae Bolg are hindered mainly by its extremely limited nature, and her near complete lack of control over them. Once deployed, the spike strips will remain embedded into the pavement, and the first unlucky soul pierced by it with long strands of razor sharp metal ‘floss’ that will need to be cut or torn out of the target.
Finishers:
Destabilizing Tackle (3): Interceptor charges forward with a full body tackle, attempting to use her mass and speed to knock her target prone and vulnerable, or away from dangerous threats.
Pinning Maneuver (4): Brushing up on half remembered pro wrestling techniques, Interceptor attempts to wrestle their target’s attention away, using her speed and mass to get right up in their face, and force them to focus on her and her alone.
Deploy Gae Bolg (4): With a single pull from her driver’s lever and a firm press against the ground, one of Interceptor’s Gae Bolg spike strips embeds itself into the ground, and anyone unlucky enough to be pierced by its spikes with a multitude of razor sharp metallic floss that firmly binds and fills its targets.
Rider Kick “Weight of the World” (6): More of a stomp than an outright kick, Interceptor stamps down firmly on a prone enemy before pulling her driver’s lever three times, causing her foot to bear the full weight of a police interceptor car, allowing it to crush anything underneath it. Only works against prone or immobilised enemies as it requires a surprising amount of time to activate.
Background: