Monster Hunter STRPG

Monster Hunter Strategy Tabletop Role-Playing Game

Players (2-4 recommended) take the role of hunters assigned to a village or town in the monster hunter world.


Game Necessities:
1.  The game must be combat-focused.  Players should be presented with a diverse set of options to choose from within combat, including offensive and movement abilities.
2.  The game should seek to emulate the 'resource management' system of combat used in the Monster Hunter games.  Players should have to manage Health, Stamina, Equipment Condition, and additional resources.
3.  The game should encourage player initiative in management of the village as well as pursuing certain missions over others.
4.  A primary method of player progression should be equipment-based.
5.  The game should not be difficult to run or require large amounts of pre-session planning save for especially meaningful segments (see 'crisis' events below)

Methods of Achieving Game Necessity
A.  The game will use a 'dynamic' dice system where dice are a resource that has to be spent and managed.  Strict character 'classes' will be replaced by weapon choice, a point-buy system of stat improvement, and 'hunter arts' subclasses.  This game will utilize asymmetric design for PCs and Monsters, for instance a PC might be guaranteed to strike the monster but not to do meaningful damage.
B.  The game's tactical design will focus on encouraging shifting between various tactics to better manage resources and grant players that successfully manage resources with bonuses to performance.  Monster design should be focused on disrupting this pattern of resource management.
C.  The game will encourage a phase-based system of organizing play, with players allotted time to administrate, hunt, and finally deal with crises as they arise.  Administrative management will allow players to improve the village along predefined tech routes to gain group advantages.  Hunts will allow players to pursue  desired upgrade materials by choosing monsters to hunt from a pool.  Crises will represent a threat to the village that must be dealt with immediately, and are meant as the 'boss battles' of a segment of play.
D.  The game will present separate progression trees for every type of weapon.  An additional 'upgrade' system will allow further customization.  Players will be able to choose from mini-classes for each weapon type.
E.  The game should provide a large number of pre-statted monsters at various 'tiers' of play incorporated into tables divided along environment and difficulty.  Players may be offered ways to interact with the tables.


Funkadelic Otou-san: i'll check, not sure if they have costs like that or if you just need to spend a given number of dice
Funkadelic Otou-san: ah, yeah it requires specific die for ability costs
Funkadelic Otou-san: 1~6 for specific numbers, evens or odds, doubles, and sometimes steps for numbers adjacent
Funkadelic Otou-san: so with that pool you might see 4, [4,4], [4,5] and so on
Funkadelic Otou-san: using them exhausts that spirit slot, if you use it to influence a roll you just swap them
Funkadelic Otou-san: so there's a fair amount of depth
Pilz: I might have to think about that
Funkadelic Otou-san: it could be a cool way of handling food and item effects as translating into affecting pools, which might play into the resource management theme you want
Pilz: yeah that migh tbe really neat
Pilz: I'll have to think about that
Pilz: food in particular

Game flow:

Phase 1: Management
   Players will upgrade the village, buy new weapons, socialize among themselves or with locals, etc.  The GM is encouraged to make the social interactions matter, via overarching story plot, random 'gifts' of items, or access to custom upgrades.  Upgrading the village will allow the players to access various buffs or new tiers of items.  Upgrading the village may also be the 'goal' of the game, with players seeking to reach some predetermined development level or progress enough to build some very expensive structure.

Phase 2: Hunt
   Players can explore the surrounding area, seeking out specific monsters.  At the beginning of each 'hunt' cycle, the GM will randomly determine what monsters are available for hunting. A successful hunt will allow a roll on the loot table, as well as award an amount of resource points.  Loot gained can be slotted into weapons and armour to customize performance.  Resource points can be spent in the Management phase.  After every hunt cycle, the players return to the Management phase.

Phase 3: Crisis
   After a number of manage/hunt cycles equal to the 'game level', the GM will randomly generate a Crisis.  A Crisis will require immediate attention from the Players, and failure will result in damage to the village or some other setback relative to Crisis level.  Should the players fail a crisis, they will be returned to the 'management' phase and begin managing/hunting again until the next Crisis occurs.  When players succeed on a Crisis, the game level is increased by one and the cycle begins again.
  (example) D-Team is playing a new game, at Game Level 1.  they choose to forego upgrading the village to save for better upgrades later.  They undergo a hunt cycle, killing a level 1 monster.  They then face a Crisis where a level 2 monster threatens the village.  Succeeding in defeating the beast, they return to the village.  Once again, they forego upgrading and choose to Hunt a level 2 monster.  They then upgrade the village before leaving to hunt a second level 2 monster.  After, they face a Crisis where a level 3 monster is attacking the village.  Defeated, they must hunt two more level 2 monsters before a new Crisis appears.

Sword and Shield, Lance, Hammer, Longsword, Hunting Horn, Bowgun

monsters have engage zones (head, rear, side1 side2, more if necessary) that you can be in.  There's also disengaged zones for backing off. Need to be disengaged to regen stamina).

Blocking = stay in zone
Dodge = move to a different zone

No dice?  No block/dodge

Spend a die to action, roll determines degree of success.  If hitting, a number like 7+ might determine hitting a breakable.  Breakables take X hits from a certain damage type to be broken.  Bonuses from breaking = ???

Base Action System:
1 Die Action/Round (Attack, Use Item)
1 Move (can enter a (random?) monster engage, can disengage, can enter safe distance) (Can spend dice to gain additional move actions)
1 Utility Action (relevant to certain weapons)
Unlimited Free Actions (talking, gesturing, getting carted away by felyines after the monster knocks you on your fat ass)

Weapon