Boys Kick Ass!

Classroom Deathmatch is coming! Our next round of playtest starts next week, and we’re opening the door for anyone who wants to try the game out and give us some tasty feedback. Interested? Drop me an email or post here!

In the mean time, here’s some more art from the book!

Panty Explosion Actual Play

The Portland indie gaming group recently got together to play some Panty Explosion. Colin Cummins was good enough to post an acual play report on his blog, Shadowcabinet.

“Another cool mechanic is the Best Friend and Rival rule. Basically, another player always narrates your successes (Best Friend) and failures (Rival). For some reason almost all the players chose me as Best Friend, so I ended up doing quite a bit of narration.

Despite the fact that I was Best Friend, I couldn’t overcome the temptation to throw complications into the outcomes I narrated—Like Aoi successfully stealing a mystic tome from the Vice-Principal’s purse, only to have a severed human hand fall out of the purse at the same time!”

Read the full post here. Thanks Colin!

Project C.H.A.I.R.

Nick Smith has been helping Matt and I out ith developing Classroom Deathmatch. Nick is also currently working on his own game, Project C.H.A.I.R.

Nick is one of a growing group of Portland game designers that I’m really proud to associate with. I got to play Project C.H.A.I.R. with Nick, Travis and April the other night and I have to say it was the best roleplaying experience I’ve had in months. Actual play report coming soon! I’m really looking forward to playing again.

Panty Explosion Cheat Sheet now available!

The Panty Explosion Cheet Sheet is now available for download in the Resorce section! The Cheat Sheet contains at a glance info on creating scenes and conflicts,  as well as descriptions of what Traits and Agendas are and what each Godai element can be used for. Several of you have asked for an easy reference sheet for the game, so I think you’ll find this handy. Download the PDF and print it out on the back of your Stuent record!

Give us some examples of this “Psychic Schoolgirl” genre you keep mentioning!

Matt and I often envoke the “Psychic Schoolgirl” genre when we talk about Panty Explosion. People often ask for examples. I put together this list and posted it on RPG.net several months ago in response to just such a question. I’ve been meaning to post an upated version here for awhile as well. This is far from comprehensive, but it’s a good place to start.

Psychics and supernatural stuff (not just girls):

Mai the Psychic Girl (manga)
Oh My Goddess (manga)
Silent Mobius (manga)
Akira (manga)

Horror and Suspense:

Parasyte (manga)
Dead Friend (film)
Whispering Corridors (film)
Wishing Stairs (film)
Ju On (film, remade as “The Grudge in the US)                                                                     Line (manga)
Ringu (film, remade as “The Ring” in the US)                                                                       Cello (film)
Survive Style 5+ (film)
Battle Royale (film, the clear inspiration for our upcoming Classroom Deathmatch book) Daisy (film)
One Missed Call (film)
Red Eye (film, but not the recent Wes Craven one)

Social Interaction:

Genshiken (manga)
AzuManga Daioh (manga)
Boys Be (manga)
GTO (anime)
Shadow Star (manga)
Alien Nine (anime and manga)
Bounce KO Gals (film)
Suicide Circle (film)
Heathers  (film)
Kare Kano (anime)

Panty Shots:

Cutey Honey (the recent live action film)
Najica (anime)

Panty Explosion is about social interaction between a group of girls. The psychic stuff is fun and exciting and gives the game a lot of flavor, but it’s just the back drop. Thats why most of the source material that I was interested in is school or relationship stuff. You’ll also notice that most of the stuff on the list is film or manga. There are a lot of Psychic Schoolgirl animes (from what I understand), but we don’t get many of them over here. The genre, especially what we see ovr here, is far better represented in film and manga.

I buy most of my DVDs from Cine-east.com. They have pretty much every dvd I listed here. Most of the anime and manga I listed is readily available at your local comic shop.

If you have a favorite film or manga that you think should be on this list feel free to post and tell us about it.

New Reviews!

Being both one of the best reviewed games of the year and the most controversial game of the year made Panty Explosion a big hit in 2006. 3 sold out print runs and a flood of 4 and 5 star reviews is a great way to end the year! As 2007 comes around we see two great reviews from two respected publications.

Andres Melhorns took the time to review Panty Explosion for German players. His review can be seen here as well as in an upcoming issue of Envoyer. babelfish gives us a slightly wonky translation of the review:

“Panty Explosion is an excellent play. The rules give all means to the play leader and the players to the hand, without experiencing excessive expenditure exciting evenings. If one comes away to play girls with Teenager Macken (the rules make it easy for one), and likes personal horror stories, one should regard the play.”

Mathew Pook wrote a very informative Panty Explosion review for Pyramid magazine. Here’s a bit of what he had to say:

“Panty Explosion achieves its aim of presenting a storytelling RPG that can be run within the anime horror or j-horror genres”

Thanks to both of these gentlemen for keeping Panty Explosion in the minds and hearts of roleplayers at the dawn of this brave new year!

Classroom Deathmatch Student Records

Here’s a first look at  the revised version of the Student Record used in Classroom Deathmatch. CDM is based off Panty Explosion and uses similar rules, but you’ll notice the Student Record has some important differences. Biggest difference? Look closely and you may notice that Goro is a boy! That’s right, you can play male characters in Classroom Deathmatch! For everyone who said Panty Explosion was way to girly, this game is for you!

More info on Classroom Deathmatch will be available later this week.

CLASSROOM DEATHMATCH: An emotional murder simulator from the creators of Panty Explosion

Classroom Deathmatch is the follow up to Atarashi Games critically acclaimed Panty Explosion. A stand alone rpg for 4 or more players, Classroom Deathmatch uses Panty Explosions innovative rules engine to pit Japanese Students against each other in a viscous and emotional fight to the death.

Tentatively scheduled for late February 2007 release.