HGMO

[benlehman]

I have a playable pile of notes for a yaoi-themed RPG. If anyone local wants to playtest it with me (it takes 2-4 players, and I would like to test at every group size) please let me know.

Yaoi (a Japanese acronym for something like no plot, no morals, no point ...) is a genre of romantic gay pornography (in both soft and hard core) targeted at girls. It features hot, hot men who can't help but express their forbidden feelings for each other. There are a bunch of other genre conventions (tops and bottoms have different personalities, etc.) but you get the idea.

The goal with the game (working title: Hot Guys Making Out, or HGMO) is to make a compact, heavily-genre-themed RPG that can be sold primarily to teenaged girls as the target audience. Basically, I want something to hold up at anime cons and say "this is the yaoi role-playing game."

The game has no GM, a structured narration style, and card-based mechanics. Influences include Bliss Stage, Spione, Misery Bubblegum, Breaking the Ice, and S/Lay w/Me.

Right now it's just a pile of notes that doesn't really work without me there. So only locals (or people who will be around Seattle soon). But as soon as I have a playable draft I will let other people know. Showing enthusiasm doesn't hurt.

Comments

[karjack.livejournal.com]

I would play this. I would play this so hard it would need a vacation.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Cool. I will try to have a playtestable-by-others version by AmberCon. You can probably make Pol cry with it.

yrs--
--Ben

[karjack.livejournal.com]

It's a gift that just keeps on giving.

[tigerbunny-db.livejournal.com]

Not a local, but it makes me gleeful just to know someone's trying to do this.

[xorphus.livejournal.com]

I totally want to play if you hit Portland at some point. I'm just glad to see that someone else understands the magic of Kiss A Dude.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Boys kissing boys is the new girls kissing girls.

Sure, I'll let you know when I'm in Portland.

yrs--
--Ben

[summercomfort]

Oh man. SLASH. You probably have something completely different in mind, but it'd be awesome if there's a game that allows you to role-play the slashing of any 2 characters. Kinda like, "Hey, I wonder what would happen if you slashed Hikaru and Harry Potter?" "Let's role-play this!"

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

The game has fixed characters (Honoré, Gonsalvo, Maria, and Umbert)*. Furthermore, there's a fixed top and bottom, which from what I gather about slash is a bit more of a question mark. Nonetheless, I'm sure you could hack it for slash. Once it's working, at least.

yrs--
--Ben

* Honoré is the top, Gonsalvo is the bottom, Maria is the maid / supportive female character, Umbert is the butler. Who, I dunno, buttles?

[summercomfort]

Maybe he's the buttler, who facilitates buttsecks

this r srs game

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

I feel that you are not taking this srsly enough.

Re: this r srs game

[zamiel.livejournal.com]

SRS BUTTSEHKS!

[zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com]

Ah, just saw this after I posted. This is awesome. More games need fixed characters, I fell in love with the idea after Jason M's... Uh.. I forget the name of it, the one where all the main characters' names start with "A".

-Andy

(Jono here)

[(Anonymous)]

YAY

[zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com]

Slight problem with title: It is very often that in the published yaoi, there is actually little making out: A lot of holding, hand-holding, topless/naked holding, but they milk it so that each kiss happens few and far between. I know because my wife was totally into Yaoi for a while before I met her, and we still have some genre manga lurking about on our shelves (most notably Earthian).

The Doujin yaoi, tho, the guys be fuckin' on page two.

So take that as a suggestion. I hate to make a suggestion without offering an alternative, but there ya go.

Also, I'd love to see what you come up with, especially rules as differntiating between the /seme/ ('aggressive'/'top') and /uke/ ('submissive'/'bottom').

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

You know how in Dungeons and Dragons there's a dragon on the cover but you don't actually get the fight the dragon until you're, like, level 6?

The title should be taken in that light.

[zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com]

Excellent point! I totally concede to that metaphor.

[(Anonymous)]

Ben Lehman, you truly are a RPG-designing hero! Sort of.

Also, our hobby was in sore need of butlers.


--Rafu

[l-the-fangirl.livejournal.com]

I <3 you.

Um, in a totally platonic way.[/jokin]