Thursday, October 31, 2024

Godzilla RPG

The Best Godzilla movies are a mixture of giant monster fighting and the stories of the humans that are affected by this conflict of titans. In some films it's humans vs Godzilla. In others it's Godzilla vs some other threat where the humans are just hoping to influence a favorable outcome.

I've been thinking about a Godzilla tabletop RPG. This isn't a new idea. Giant Mech RPGs have been able to handle Kaiju. I remember playing Mekton by Mike Pondsmith back in the 80's. Versions of that game are still available if you are so inclined. If you want a modern take on giant monster/mech combat, I can recommend Tiny Frontiers: Mecha & Monsters by Alan Bahr. It's an excellent game for creating Kaiju battles.


However … while Godzilla (aka Kaiju) games are about giant monster battles, Godzilla movies are about the people. I'm thinking that a good Godzilla RPG should be less Mekton and more Call of Cthulhu. Except as frightening as a creature like Godzilla is (and must be) … he is still the hero (kind of.) I mean the feeling of a Godzilla game should be less horror movie and more hero movie. I don't think a tabletop RPG exists that does what I am envisioning. I do think that a person could house rule any number of existing systems to support a Godzilla style campaign, but it would be nice to have a game that is built to give the players and the GM the tools to exist in this kind of world as the central characters. I am sure that I'm not the only person to think about this, and if such a game already exists, I'd love to learn more about it, but for now … I'm letting this idea stew in the back of my mind for awhile.
Jeff

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