Slay Cthulhu

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My partner got me and herself really into Dandadan, which she described at one point as Mob Psycho for people who go to the club. It's so so so fucking good. Momo and her friends are my queens. Okarun is such a precious squishy boywife. The stories of the monsters they encounter and how others get wrapped into their life pull you by your heartstrings to the edge of your couch. Anyway, I was reminded that the most popular RPG in Japan is Call of Cthulhu, and it struck me how Dandadan is a perfect potential reimagining of that premise: just replace grimy 1940’s investigators with bitchy modern teenagers. Since I tend to center my home game on mysteries anyway, this led me to think about how I would lean further into it and support Dandadan-style supernatural hijinks in the same way that D&D supports sailor guardians and Fortnite supports Sabrina Carpenter.

I think there's two main considerations: possessed characters and psychic characters. Both of these can be represented by a combination of aspects with arcanas. One of my friends has a character in my home game with a JoJo-style stand, which is represented by a magic item thing with which they just spend inspiration to summon their astral self. Transforming into a ghost persona would work mostly the same way, with the possibility that one could collect as many totems as they want to dedicate aspects for transformation (or more, if they want to act without aspect bonuses). Psychic bullshit would probably work the same way? There's actually not much work to be done here!

I don't think in/sanity is something that would necessarily need to be imported. I feel like usual hit points (or here, hearts) get more or less the same idea across without engaging with weird pseudo-psychological notions, and may be even more interesting if there's slippage between physical and psychical well-being (the sorta thing that may turn you into a vengeful ghost in Dandadan and other media). So I'm calling it good on that front too!

The most important thing is playing with characters you care about in situations that interest you and your co-players, which like... duh. It just makes me want to incorporate more supernatural elements into my main campaign world and try out something more modern and urban, substituting pirate towns with college classes for downtime between adventures. Also, although treasure is a useful "carrot" for pirates, it'd either need to be metaphorized or replaced for college students. Maybe inventory represents something mental rather than physical (or both), and the fruits of good deeds are something you carry with you to motivate yourself in normal life—whereas trauma or forbidden knowledge is a burden of which you need to relieve yourself. Much to consider (and this may reflect on my home game; I could consider more bothersome ways to play with inventory!).

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