Digimon
Digimon
Welcome to Digimon: Digital Monsters! This is a Tabletop Role-Playing System, ideally played with between three and five players (one Game Master and four Players), based upon the Digimon: Digital Monsters franchise. For those of you familiar with the franchise and Tabletop systems: that's great. But it might not hurt to give this chapter a glance either. If you're not familiar with either Digimon or any Tabletop system, it's suggested you give this section a quick read to be safe.
For those of you not familiar with Digimon; Digimon is a series of the monster taming genre. That means that it's all about humans and monsters working together towards their goals; generally speaking that goal is saving the world, if not multiple worlds. Digimon, or Digital Monsters, are powerful creatures generally formed out of data, who sport incredible power. Most times paired up with a human partner, often referred to as a Tamer or a Digidestined, who the Digimon will protect and fight alongside, growing stronger physically by changing their forms through Digivolving, while their partner often grows into a better person along the way; overcoming their fears and short comings in order to save the day. Digimon will most likely be inhabitants of the Digital World, a chaotic plane all their own with mysterious origins. Digimon stories are tales about growing up, overcoming your fears, and making lifelong friends.
Digimon, Digital Monsters exclusively utilizes multiple D6's (Six-sided Dice) to make rolls. That said; fair warning that if you delve into a game(or campaign) long enough; you might want to invest in additional dice.
Character Creation
A Player's character in Digimon: Digital Monsters is actually two. Players will create both a human and a Digimon partner, both built using pools of points which they can spend to improve their stats, and in the case of Digimon, purchase special capabilities to aid them in their adventure.
Human characters, while often frail and weak in terms of combat when it comes to opposing Digimon(the average human who isn't ready to fight will probably struggle even against Rookie stage Digimon), will be great for making skill rolls, and will often be the point of narrative focus for your campaigns. This doesn't mean that humans can't jump into the fray; far from it, but it just might not be for everyone. That also doesn't mean Digimon cannot make skill checks or even excel at them; in some scenarios Digimon can even start to out perform humans in those fields.
Digimon meanwhile are adept at combat and minor in the field of utility; they're the muscle that moves to protect their Tamers, and defeat any forces who might be a threat to the safety of the party. Digimon don't necessarily have to be big, lumbering brutes however; plenty of them go about fighting in more subtle ways; striking from the shadows, creating barriers which protect their allies, or weakening the enemy with various ailments such as poison or blindness. Even then; not all Digimon are inherently fighters; many of them prefer a peaceful solution to their problems. Be sure to take that into consideration when choosing, and building, your character's partner Digimon.
Humans have six core Attributes (Stength, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom), which are further split up into fifteen Skills (Dodge, Fight, Stealth, Athletics, Endurance, Feats of Strength, Deception, Perform, Persuade, Technology, Survival, Decipher Intent, Knowledge, Perception, Bravery). While it will only be a short time before we delve into these Stats further; it's a good idea to have them in mind already when building a character. The numerical values assigned will change how good your character is at a certain type of action.
Digimon have five core Stats they use as (Accuracy, Damage, Dodge, Armor, and Health) which will effect how they work in Combat. However, unlike humans, Digimon also have the ability to purchase Qualities; a special type of Feature which will make their base points more efficient, or grant them interesting and useful maneuvers for use in combat, or grant them a greater edge when it comes to how they perform out of combat.
Human Character Creation
Humans, at creation, have a pool of points to spend improving their Stats on a 1-for-1 basis, known as Creation Points (CP). The amount of CP you have, and the amount of CP you can spend in a category (Attributes or Skills), varies depending on the character's Age. That's right; how old your character is will have a mechanical effect on how you'll build them here in Digimon: Digital Monsters..
The Age Ranges given on the table below are simply guidelines, so that GM's may allow a wider variety of Age Ranges, while not having to worry about each Age Group (Child, Teenager, and Adult), potentially being better than another in the game. For example, if one GM wants their campaign to use the Teenager template, but the concept the player has has their character at age 18; very little will have to be changed. This can also be justified as everyone maturing and getting stronger at a different rate; not everyone is mentally, physically, or emotionally mature just because they're 18 and not technically a child anymore. Just be sure to ask your GM what the Age Range they want for their game to be. But in the end, GM's have the final say in what Age Ranges are allowed in the setting; be sure to respect their wishes.
In addition; each Age Group has a Cap on how many Creation Points they can spend on a single Attribute or Skill, as well as a Final Cap; a hard Cap which the character cannot go above, even after spending additional Experience to increase their Stats. A character can only have ONE Attribute at their Starting Cap at creation; all their other Attributes and Skills must be at least one point below minimal. So if, for example, your Child character puts 12 points into Constitution, their other Attributes must be 11 or lower. As far as skills their starting cap cannot be more then 3.
Age Group Child Teenager Adult
Age Range 7-12 13-17 18+
Starting CP 40 50 60
Starting Cap Modifier 12 14 16
Final Cap 15 17 19
Skill Starting Cap 3 4 5
Starting Attributes 0 3 6
Inspiration Cap 5 7 10
Attributes
Dexterity
A measure of the human's manual agility and general reflexes. Dexterity covers throwing things, jumping out of the way of monsters or moving objects, and your overall coordination. Dexterity, and the Skills Dodge and Fight are used to figure out a human's Dodge and Accuracy stats later on. Dexterity will also help calculate the character's Movement stat; how far they can move in a single round.
Strength
The sum of the tamer's strength. Strength is often used with skills that govern your physical power. Strength is essentially how good of physical strength the tamer is in.
Constitution
The tamer's physical health and physique. Constitution is used with your endurance skill helping you to endure harsh climates or stave off starvation. It also phigures into how much health you have.
Charisma
Charisma is a character's force of will and persuasiveness. Charismatic characters will be more likable, or just know what makes people tick. If your character has a particularly high Charisma score, they might even be able to talk their way out of a fight, so long as the GM allows them to make the roll.
Intelligence
Plainly put; how smartthe characteris, or how knowledgeable they are. A well-read, bookworm type of character, or one who sports an extensive amount of technical knowledge, will get a lot of use out of Intelligence. Intelligence can also help a character figure out what someone means, or the use of an object.
Wisdom
Wisdom is the human character's overall sense of self, and their focus; characters with a high Wisdom will not back down unless they decide to themselves. Wisdom is also linked to how well the character is able to perceive the world around them in the form of the Perception and Survival Skills.
Skills
Dexterity
Dodge: Used when the tamer needs to avoid being hit.
Fight: Used when the human is trying to hit something.
Stealth: Used when the character has to hide or avoid detection.
Strength
Athletics: Used for acts like climbing, jumping, and swimming.
Feats of Strength: Lifting, pulling, pushing, and so on.
Constitution
Endurance: Used when testing the characters ability to go without, usually without food, water, or shelter for an extended period, or other physical stresses.
Charisma
Deception: Used to manipulate other characters via lying or misdirection.
Perform: Used for singing, dancing, using a musical instrument, or otherwise entertaining.
Persuade: A gauge of how convincing the character is; this is generally more honest than Manipulate.
Intelligence
Technology: The name say sit all; used for skill checks directly involving technology.
Survival: How good a character is at making it on their own. Generally used to find supplies or gather tools in the wild.
Knowledge: A general skill used for book smarts, and their ability to memorize.
Wisdom
Perception: The ability to sense what's around your character, whether by direct sight, or in some cases common sense.
Decipher Intent: Used to figure out what's going on, whether it's how a tool works, or what something or someone is actually up to, or trying to say.
Bravery: Used when a character needs to face their fears, overcome horrifying scenarios, or face overwhelming odds.
Inspiration
One last, powerful tool that humans have at their disposal is called Inspiration. This mechanic not only encourages, but actively rewards good roleplaying. Each character has a potential pool of Inspiration equal to their Wisdom Stat (their Inspiration Cap cannot be lower than 1, even with a Wisdom of 0 or higher then their cap), and every character is given 1 free point of Inspiration at creation.
Additional points of Inspiration can be granted by the GM for rewarding a player being a good role-player, someone who's acting as a character first and foremost. Inspiration may also be purchased by spending Experience (2 Experience for every point of Inspiration you currently have). If a character cannot hold any more points of Inspiration, the GM should grant an additional amount of Bonus Experience instead.
Inspiration may be spent in a variety of ways. Inspiration may be spent freely at any point in the game, whether it's in combat as an Accuracy or Dodge Roll or on a simple Skill Check. The simplest way to do so is to spend one Inspiration point to re-roll one dice. Furthermore, you can bolster the roll by spending additional points of Inspiration to increase or decrease the result of the roll by 1 per additional Inspiration spent. For example, if you spend 1 Inspiration to re-roll, then another two to increase the result, you would now be adding 2 to the roll.
But there are other ways to spend Inspiration too. The more Inspiration you have, the better you can sway the odds in your favor as a Tamer. If you spend Inspiration equal to 1 lower than the Cap for your Age Group (5 for Children, 7 for Teenagers, 10 for Adults), you may add or subtract 5 to any Skill Check, or add or subtract 5 Dice from any Dodge or Accuracy pool. This is known as an Act of Inspiration.
The most difficult type of Inspiration modifier to utilize is known as a Fateful Intervention. By spending the entirety of their maximum potential Inspiration (5 for Children, 7 for Teenagers, 10 for Adults). A Fateful Intervention not only adds or subtracts a bonus 5 from a check, or Dodge or Accuracy pool, but it also allows you to add or subtract your character's Wisdom to the check, Dodge, or Accuracy pool. In addition; you may choose to set the results of each die rolled. If you want nothing but 6's? That's fine. 1's all around? That's you choice as a player. A Fateful Intervention is a powerful tool which takes time to utilize, but it puts the power entirely in the hands of the player, at least for one roll.
Rounding out the Tamers
Just one last section before we can move on to the Digimon themselves, don't worry. Before we go onto the fluff section of Tamers, we've got a few more formulas to figure out for their Derived Stats. These might not all be useful by default on a character, but they're good to have squared away just in case.
- Hit Points (HP): Constitution + Endurance Bonus
- Movement Formula: Dexterity + Survival Bonus. This is how many feet you may move with a Move Action. Five feet is equal to 1 square. Always round down.
- Accuracy Formula: 3D6 + Dexterity Bonus + Fight Bonus.
- Dodge Formula: 3D6 + Dexterity Bonus + Dodge Bonus.
- Armor Formula: Based on Equipment. (Cannot be less then 0)
- Damage Formula: Strength Bonus + Fight Bonus/3
Before moving on, take a moment to think about your character a bit. While these are some of the first questions people normally ask themselves during character creation, but it's never a bad idea to review these at the end of creation either. Just take a quick moment to ask yourself a few questions.
- What does your character look like? Do they have any distinguishing features?
- What is your character's home life like? What are their parents like?
- Does your character have any siblings? If so, what are they like?
- Is your character religious or superstitious in any way?
- Even if your character doesn't excel at school, do/did they have a favorite subject?
- Does your character have hobbies or activities that they participate in? Clubs, charities, teams?
- Is there anything your chracter fears, or anything that causes them anxiety?
- Try to name three items which your character would always have in their pocket or backpack.
- Does your character have a special talent or skill?
- How does your character view themselves? Is it realistic? Skewed? Good? Bad?
- If your party is in a life threatening situation, how does your character react?
Digimon Creation
There's another half to the dynamic duo which will be your two-man team within the game. Digimon are incredibly powerful in the field of combat, and shouldn't be taken lightly. But on the other hand, they have a lot of potential tricks up their sleeves which can also make them valuable partners in terms of utility as well.
Keep in mind that at a certain point, Digimon will probably start to outperform a human character at a certain point from a mechanical perspective. But that's fine; Digimon are also reliant on their Tamers in order to hit a higher stage and Digivolve quickly, and be directed in combat; the duo is stronger as a team than any human or digimon could be on their own.
Digimon are built similarly to humans, having a pool of points called Digi-Points (DP) which they can spend both to improve their raw Stats, and purchasing Qualities, special features which will aid them with all kinds of various mechanical boosts. The most common starting Stages, In-Training and Rookie, will start with 15 and 25 DP respectively. Higher and lower Stages will have different base amounts of DP, as well as other various effects. Be sure to consult the chart for more information on how Stages work.
DIGIMON'S DON'T USE STRENGTH DEXTERITY CONSTITUTION INTELLIGENCE WISDOM OR CHARISMA LIKE THE TAMERS DO.
The following 5 stats below start off at 0 during character creation.
Accuracy
The Accuracy stat determines how intelligent the Digimon is, how many bonuses are gained when it tries to Attack, the effectiveness of its Effects, and the size of its Area Attacks. Each point into this stat raises the to hit of your attacks by 1.
Damage
Damage directly effects how hard a Digimon hits with all of its Attacks. For every two points that are put into this stat. A Digimon's damage is increased by 1D6.
Dodge
Dodge is the exact opposite of Accuracy in combat; it determines how much bonuses in response to the Digimon being attacked. Each point into this stat raises your dodge by 1.
Armor
The defensive counterpart to Damage, Armor will directly reduce how much a Digimon is hurt by an attack. Every 2 points into this stat raises your armor by 1.
Health
Health helps to determine how many Hit Points a Digimon has, as well as how many dice it rolls to recover Hit Points after Combat is over. Health also has a direct effect on the Body stat. Each point into this stat raises your Health by 2 hit points.
You purchase Stats for DP on a 1-for-1 basis; one DP will allow you to put a point into a single Stat. So if you want to buy 10 points of Accuracy, it will cost 10 DP. If you want to buy 10 points into damage your Digimon's basic damage would be 5D6 and if you wanted to buy 10 points into Health your Digimon's Base health would be 20.
Before Qualities, a Digimon must have at least 1 Point in every Stat.
After Qualities, a Stat may not be lowered below 0. This means that if you have a Stat at 0 thanks to a Quality, and wish to purchase another Quality which would lower the stat further, they must first put a point into the appropriate Stat. But before we dive into putting all of our points into Stats, there's a lot more to look over for Digimon Creation. Be sure to make note of some rulings for Qualities; some of them are a bit hard to remember.
Digimon Attacks
The next step to finishing up your Digimon Partner is detailing the Attacks it has. A Digimon has a set number of Attacks based on the Stage it's at.
Stage Attacks Stage Bonus
Fresh 1 1
In-Training 2 2
Rookie 2 3
Champion 3 4
Ultimate 4 5
Mega or Higher 5 6
Your Stage bonus will be added to some abilities and formulas. Add them where it asks for Stage Bonus.
Be sure to give the Attacks cool names, or start off by using Attacks which are shown in other media.
Next, it's time to apply Attack Tags. After reading the Quality section, you might have seen keywords inside of boxes like this: [Damage]. This is an Attack Tag, and it tells you what an Attack does in essence.
An Attack may have either a [Melee] or [Range] Tag, but not both. This Tag is free to apply and does not require any Qualities to apply to an Attack. [Melee] Attacks can only hit an enemy adjacent to the user, whereas [Ranged] Attacks may be used at a distance, but have special rules. And if you're using an Area Attack, be sure to include the specific Area and size that it creates (for example, Cone 5, Burst 3, etc).
An Attack may also have a [Damage] Tag applied for free (which simply means the Attack deals normal Damage), or it may forgo a [Damage] Tag in favor of using a purchased [Effect] Tag of your choice. Be sure to specify which [Effect] you put onto the Attack when you do; [Poison] has a very different effect from [Charm]!
An Attack may further have both a [Damage] and an [Effect] Tag, but this comes at a cost; having both Tags on an Attack means that you have to do 5 Damage minimal in order for the Effect to take place. So if you only just connect or you only deal 1 point of Damage, the Effect is not applied no matter how high you rolled on your Accuracy Check.
Let's see an example of taking a Digimon's Attack and making it fit, using Gazimon.
Paralyze Breath: [Ranged][Paralysis][Cone 6] (the Digimon breathes lightning to stun the enemy)
Pitfall: [Melee][Damage][Immobilize] (the Digimon digs a hole under the enemy)
This is a very basic example, but it should get the idea across of how to properly tag an Attack, as well as a quick example of roughly translating a Digimon's Attacks from another form of media.
Advanced Digimon Creation
In addition to the basic Rookie Stage of 25 Bonus DP, there's a multitude of other Stages which show up in the series: Fresh, In-Training, Champion, Ultimate, Mega, and Super Ultimate, Ultra, or Burst Mode as higher levels than even that (this system uses Burst to make it easiest to differentiate between it and lower stages).
Whenever a Player creates a Digimon, or the GM creates a Digimon, they should refer to the following chart, even if it's just for a new stage of a current Digimon. This chart will also help serve as a guideline during the Evolution section later on.
Stage Starting DP Base Movement Hit Points (HP) Brains Attacks
Fresh 5 2 0 0 1
In-Training 10 4 1 1 2
Rookie 25 6 2 3 2
Champion 40 8 5 5 3
Ultimate 55 10 7 7 4
Mega 70 12 10 10 5
Burst 85 14 14 13 5
Burst+X +15 Per +2 Per +4 Per +3 Per 5
Rounding Out the Digimon
As a last note; Digimon have personalities, dreams, and aspirations too. Now that the big scary math is behind us, let's take a moment to ask ourselves a few questions about the Digimon. They don't have to be as fleshed out as their Tamer partner, but there's a few good things to think on when you make the Digimon.
- What species is your Digimon?
- Does the Digimon have any distinguishing physical features which would make it stand out?
- Does your Digimon have a favorite food? Is it a picky eater?
- Does the Digimon have any specific goals, dreams, or aspirations?
- What kind of personality does the Digimon have? Is it stubborn? Is it caring? Is it shy?
- How dedicated to its Tamer is the Digimon? Would it put its life on the line protecting them?
- What kind of tactics does the Digimon prefer? Upfront assaults? Standing in the back?
support?
- How old is the Digimon? Is it fresh from its Digitama, or is it older? Be sure to ask your GM for help.
- Does the Digimon have a unique talent, skill, or power for its Species?
- How does the Digimon view itself? Does it have self-esteem issues, or does it hold itself in high regard?
- If it were separated from its Tamer, how would the Digimon react?