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Do the characters use or encounter technology more advanced than the present day such as robots or star drives, or meet alien races or have adventures on strange new worlds? See Alien Visitors, Mecha, and Space Opera.

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evil (or each other). These settings often see steam- or gasoline-powered giant robots, submarines that resemble Jules Verne’s Nautilus, and giant armoured locomotives. Magic or psychic powers may also be added to the mix. Of course, it is also possible to do an alternative history campaign set further in the past or with a varying present day.

Anime Examples:Kishin Corps, Nadia, Sakura W ars, and Spirit of W onder are all examples of alternate history anime settings taking place between 1880 and 1938. See also the anime anthology Robot Carnival for some segments with a similar feel.

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The period is the present, the recent past, or the very near future. This setting is the least work for the GM, and easily adapts for genres from adult horror to action thriller. Current technology can play an important role, as can the experience of attending high school. Common elements include: cops and crooks, magical girls, martial arts, teenage romance or comedy, the military, pop music, psychic powers, sports, and supernatural or alien invasions. The modern day period may include full- scale science fiction or fantasy action if aliens visit Earth or characters can travel between dimensions.

Anime Examples:Gunsmith Cats, Kimagure Orange Road, Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, Uratsei Y atsura, Geobreeders, Tokyo Babylon, and too many others to count!

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UTURE

The setting is somewhere in the next fifty years or so. Technology is rapidly advancing, but people still mostly live on Earth, although there may be bases in orbit, on the moon, or maybe on Mars. Some settings may be cyberpunk dystopias, where megacorps dominate the world, pollution runs rampant, cyborgs stalk the street, and corrupt government agencies and the threat of global war keep the average citizen living in terror. Others may be more like our own world but feature the development of new technology that can create giant robots, psychic powers, artificial intelligence, or simply give Earth’s military a fighting chance against invaders from another world.

The GM will have to devote time to thinking about what science fiction technologies exist and, in particular, what “Personal Gear” is available of a futuristic nature.

Anime Examples:AD Police, Akira, Blue Submarine No. 6 , Bubblegum Crisis, Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Dominion Tank Police, Genocyber, Ghost in the Shell, Iczer One, Macross, Mobile Police Patlabor, Serial Ex periments L ain. Interesting examples that combine near-future cyberpunk with magic are Hyper Police and Silent Möbius.

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AR

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UTURE

In a far future setting, our world has changed beyond recognition. A large portion of humanity may now live in space, whether in huge colony cylinders between Earth and the Moon, on Mars, or on the worlds of distant solar systems. The campaign could be set on a single planet (Earth or another world), sprawl across a single solar system, or take place in a star-spanning empire where interstellar travel is a way of life. Humanity may have never even reached the stars. Instead, the Earth may have been devastated by a terrible holocaust (such as nuclear war, pollution, or an asteroid strike). Our cities may be replaced by a barren wasteland or mutant-infested toxic jungle where our once-proud civilisation is but a distant memory. Post-apocalypse settings often have a wide mix of technology with barbarians wandering the wastes, new civilisations rising from the ashes, and high-tech relics of the past that are viewed with superstitious awe.

Anime Examples:For a changed future Earth: Battle Angel (Alita), Cyber City Oedo, and Project A-Ko. For interplanetary futures: Cowboy Bebop, Gundam (any series), and Martian Successor Nadesico. For interstellar futures: Captain Harlock, Dirty Pair, and Outlaw Star. For future alien planets: Armitage III, Macross Plus, and Saber Marrionette J. For the many different anime visions of a post-apocalypse Earth: Aika, Genesis Survivor Gaiearth, F ist of the North Star, Nausicaa, Rhea Gall F orce, The V alley of the W ind, V ampire Hunter D, and A W ind Named Amnesia.

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APAN

The most popular period for historical anime is Japan’s age of the Samurai (although in anime, it is perhaps better titled “the age of the ninja”). The Samurai were the aristocratic warrior class, sworn retainers to their lords. They dominated Japan for over a thousand years, their power finally waning in the 1860’s after Japan was opened to Western influences. Their power was greatest during the “warring states” (Sengoku) period (1467-1558) when bloody civil war was waged between rival clans. They followed Bushido (“the way of the warrior”), a code stressing obedience to one’s lord and personal honour. Samurai warriors wore armour and fought with sword and longbow, although Japanese armies also used naginata and (following the 16th Century) firearms. The mark of the Samurai was hair tied in topknot and possession of two swords, a long katana used for fighting and a short wakizashi.

Lurking in old Japan’s shadows are the ninja: spies and assassins, sometimes servants of the government, sometimes serving individual clan lords. In anime, ninja are depicted as having their own codes of honour as strong as those of the samurai as well as being masters of invisibility, martial arts, and dirty tricks like poison and gunpowder. Not incidentally, the ninja also provide the main “historical” justification for skilled female fighters, as their ranks were reputed to have both men and women as agents.

Other archetypes encountered in a samurai era campaign include: Daimyo (the proud clan lords whom the samurai served); elegant Samurai ladies and courtesans; Buddhist monks (some wise sages or exorcists, some fierce warriors); Ronin (disgraced, masterless samurai, often hired bodyguards or slovenly bandits); Shinto priests and shrine-maidens (sometimes depicted with shamanic magical powers); skilled craftsmen (especially those who manufacture swords); and, of course, oppressed peasant farmers.

Anime Examples:Dagger of Kamui, The Hakkenden, Ninja Cadets, Ninja Resurrection, Ninja Scroll, Ruroni Kenshin, and Y otoden are examples of anime set in samurai Japan or in fantasy worlds that are closely inspired by it.

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ERIODS

There is no need to be limited to Ancient Japan for a pre-industrial historical setting. Anime has occasionally transcended its Japanese roots and set stories in other historical periods. The difference between “anime- style history” and “real history” normally boils down to the introduction of female warriors and the addition of some supernatural elements. Knowledge of actual historical events is useful but not necessary; anime history often has no more resemblance to “reality” than Hollywood movies.

Anime Examples:Nazca (Inca Empire), Rose of V ersailles (pre-Revolutionary France).

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ISTORY

This is the period that starts with the Wild West, Victorian Era, and Meiji Restoration (the downfall of the samurai and rise of the middle classes) in the mid to late 18th Century and continues through the two World Wars up to the recent past. In anime, an increasingly popular period is the 1920’s and early 1930’s, where a vibrant, newly industrialised Japan was just becoming respected as a modern nation and had not yet stained its hands with the crimes of World War II or suffered the trauma of defeat. The Great Kanto (Tokyo) Earthquake (page 135) often figures in such periods. The level of detail and accuracy is in the hands of the GM. Many shows add supernatural elements or a dash of anachronistic technology, sometimes verging on alternate history.

Anime Examples:Doomed Megalopolis, Grave of the F ireflies, Master of Mosquiton, Mermaid F orest, and Porco Rosso .

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ISTORY

In this setting the flow of time has taken a sharp bend into a different reality. One popular genre in anime involves stories in which the Japanese people somehow avoid the mistake of World War II: perhaps demons or aliens invaded, forcing the Axis and Allies to fight together against a greater threat. Other anime settings follow the “steam punk” genre where brilliant inventors develop anachronistic technology to fight

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OMEDY

Amusing, incongruous, or wacky things happen. Comedy is often a parody of a more serious genre (such as swords and sorcery or mecha action), provoking laughs by exaggerating its clichés (such as the angst- ridden mecha ace), or adding anachronistic bits (like a rock star or a tank in a medieval fantasy world), or incongruous elements (such as a hero who is really greedy, clueless, lecherous or destructive).

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OMANCE

The characters will have a chance to fall into or out of love. To make things interesting, the GM should create NPC love interests and rivals, since many players are not entirely comfortable with romancing one another. Elements in romances include Love Triangles, Mysterious Strangers, Childhood Vows, Many Girls Chasing One Guy (or vice versa), and Mistaken Identity. A powerful element is Forbidden Love, where a romance appears doomed by family or societal disapproval of the relationship, such as an affair with a married person, someone of different social status, someone of the same gender, or someone who belongs to the other side in a war or other conflict.

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IXED

A mix of two or three different themes such as action-comedy or drama-romance can often be more fun than maintaining a single tone.

In document FÚTBOL: físico, técnico-táctico moderno infanto-juvenil (página 95-106)