Okay, so I’m reading the Tenra Bansho Zero book I picked up from drivethrurpg. I like it, but It’s very heavily Buddhist. I get that’s a reflection of the Japanese culture. For what I have in mind.. I’m not sure how to approach a game. I want an Abrahamic faith as the background. So how do I use essential mechanics? Do I bastardize it and take some of the flavor away to suit my own desires? Do I preserve its integrity despite its complications? Or do I somehow combine the two?
In Shadowrun karma is a good thing. It allows you to do extraordinary things, and you can spend some of it to improve your character. Maybe TBS karma is a way of keeping the characters from becoming too powerful too quickly. The mechanics are the way they are for a reason.
I don’t really want to appropriate this culture and make it fit me. I do think I would like to take the mechanics and do a space adventure (karma et al). What does karma mean to a species who has never heard of it? Except for Asura (the bad guys in mine, before I read this book), the good guys (I called devas), there aren’t many people with powers. If there are, they definitely don’t fit these archetypes.
Mutants and Masterminds, by comparison, is very easy, and the content is created by you and your players, unless you’re using a pre-existing setting.
I have some ideas of how to set this up (which I’ll save for my players). It would be cool to do a podcast of us playing, although that should probably wait until we’re established and able to run smoothly and know we can all interact well.
In any case I’ve read a little over half of each book, and think I understand the rules enough to play (and will need to research the rules of whatever my players decide to play). Guess we’ll see. First we’ve got to have a session I can’t rightly call a zero session, but will help us to get the setting and characters together.