Thursday 16 July 2020

The Most Gameable Ghibli Film


Ghibli is in the air at the moment (yeah, yeah, I know, Patrick, Soft D&D is not really supposed to be RPG Ghibli). It coincides with me revisiting some of the old Ghibli classics in recent weeks. Last night it was Porco Rosso, or 紅の豚, to give it its proper title, and it struck me while watching it that, of all Ghibli films and settings, it is probably the one in which I would most enjoy setting an RPG campaign.

The film's story takes place in what is effectively the setting of Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - that strange combination of time and place, the Adriatic between the Wars, coated in a halcyon glaze but caught between a dark past and a bleak, threatening future, like the space which opens up between storm clouds on a summer's day to let hazy golden light gleam through. Sun-bleached beaches and hidden inlets and islets on the Dalmatian coast; deposed nobles and royals from across Europe drinking vermouth or cognac in hotel bars; women enjoying the first flush of newfound liberty; men unsuccessfully escaping grim military pasts; jazz music; spies and outlaws rubbing shoulders; laughter in the air above a background whisper of impending doom. Europe's last hurrah before its final frenzy of bloodletting, made worse because everybody knew what was coming, knew what it would be like, had experienced it first hand, but did it all over again anyway.

For all its sense of loss, it is a time and place which one would like to visit and inhabit. Miyazaki clearly would, anyway. His portrait of it is affectionate, even loving. (And it is one he revisited with similar occidental enthusiasm in The Wind Rises.) The Adriatic has surely never looked much more idyllic on film, and everybody who lives in it - even the villains - seem to share a bond of camaraderie that cannot be easily untied. There are rivalries; there is violence; but there is, above all, fun. This is a setting you really want to explore, full of big personalities who you want to get to know over cocktails. It is the Mediterranean as it can only be imagined by an optimistic Japanese man who by nature sees the best in everything.

What would PCs do in this picturesque setting? Hunt down 'sea plane pirates' in their secret lairs, or become pirates themselves. Escort cruise ships or cargo vessels. Get paid to search for spies, or to spy on others. Protect former soldiers from others wanting to settle old scores, or perhaps get involved in the settling of scores themselves. Maybe, if you wanted to get supernatural, they could pursue rumours of ghosts haunting the battlefields of the Balkans - or perhaps search for ancient Roman burial sites or attempt to track down monsters from folklore or myth. And all of it with sea planes - natch.

24 comments:

  1. I don't know if D&D would be the right system for that. The whole setting calls for something more cinematic, something where heroes don't die as easy. That soft D&D already goes into the direction, but the whole D&D without violence one doesn't. Porco Rosso has fights. They don't ever hurt anyone in these, but there are fights.

    Actually... ok, no, that would make sense. Make hp into Stamina, then you could have "death" at 0hp, but just like in the movie it turns out the hero is not really dead but he lost something important.

    Oh wait, that could work.

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    1. I played in a similar setting with FATE a long time ago. Worked out OK. Did lead to hilarious stuff like my PC tying a rope around his waist and boarding other planes with a sword and then crashing them into the sea because he was a terrible pilot.

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    2. Yeah, I quite like the idea of doing D&D but if your hp go to 0 you just "lose something" or wake up and you're a pig or whatever.

      But I also wouldn't have an issue with making it a more deadly game than the film. I'm thinking more of a setting taking inspiration from Porco Rosso rather than emulating it exactly.

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    1. The problem is D&D rules for planes. And guns. Those need work.

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    2. I think something like troika or probably better Electric Bastionland could work well. Both have guns and EB have light rules for vehicles (not plane, but is not difficult work on that).

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  3. I love that film and have tried to create a similar feeling in my D&D games. A kind of lazy atmosphere, with deep sunlight and beautiful places to visit and rumours of war on the horizon. I've found that if you get the atmosphere right, conflicts of a similar nature to the final fight in Porco Rosso work as well as any terrible monster fight. I had the party get into a *wooden* swordfighting competition in a small town lately, competing for a wooden spoon, and it was one of the most engaging combats I've run. Honestly, I think 5e with its higher survivability might work better than OSR rules for it.

    Anyway, that was all to say that I think you should try it because it will work.

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    1. Yeah, you might be right about 5th edition. I also wonder if somebody has come up with firearm rules for 5th edition. They must have.

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  4. hp is already stamina. as long as hp is above 0, nothing really happens when you take damage.

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  5. have you seen it with the French-language dub?? allegedly that was Miyazaki's favorite...

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    1. No - I've only seen it in the original Japanese. I think dubbed films are the pits, to be honest, but I'm prepared to be proved wrong!

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  6. The Pacific around the same time is also a good setting for this sort of thing, if maybe a bit more pulpy and less cool.

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    1. Yeah, I suppose anywhere which has that atmosphere of (relative) calm before the storm.

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  7. Perhaps a Braunstein-style game setting? Your description kind of evokes the seminal RPG story of David Wesely's game of attempts to stage/avert a coup in a small Latin American republic that prompted David Arneson to incorporate Braunstein role playing rules in Blackmoor.
    Wesely licensed the rules in "Barons of Braunstein" available on DriveThru for less than $2. :~) https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/139125/Barons-of-Braunstein

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  8. Whoops! Barons of Braunstein is NOT David Wesely's Braunstein, only the name is licensed and he new game is "dedicated" to Wesely. I have a copy of the original rules used in the game with David Arneson, but I haven't found where I received them from. I will keep searching...

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  9. A-ha! Found them, the original Braunstein notes posted in relation to a Braunstein game David Wesely ran at GenCon in 2008...
    http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/106/braunstein-memories/

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    1. Interesting - yeah, I had read those notes before, long ago. It does have a slightly Braunstein vibe, now that you mention it!

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  10. The scene with the stream of ghostly airplanes gets me every time. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. It's an incredible movie.

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    1. I like how Miyazaki effortlessly but suprisingly shifts between comedy and tragedy like that.

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  11. That paragraph on Europe between the wars is like music, man. Nicely done.

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  12. Any thoughts on how suitable other Ghibli movies would be for pen-and-paper games?

    Personally, I feel like Princess Mononoke is a good lesson for GMs on making good adventures. The central conflict is divided between two factions, both of which reasonable enough to draw players into the plot and featuring interesting characters (alternatively, the daimyo and emperor offer heterodox choices for greedy PCs). The PCs have enough leeway to make their impact felt in the war, which covers agency. And the film presents good hooks as to why outsiders would be interested in the conflict (Ashitaka and Jiko).

    Also, Nausicaa would make for an awesome setting. Very novel take on post-apocalyptic technology level, with Bronze Age-like weapons & armour mixed with modern vehicles and guns. The first half of the manga would be suitable for a King of Dragon Pass style campaign where the players get to lead a diminute kingdom through a complex political web, coupled with dogfights.

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    1. Nausicaa and Laputa would be great settings for RPGs, I think. I really like the implied setting of Laputa in particular.

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