| While at a convention, Douglas P. Wojtowicz was
watching some SF movies from Japan... |
Kaiju !!!
Y'know. Godzilla. Gamera. Mothra.
Ghidorah. We're talkin' giant monsters, buddy. You know them
in all of their rubber-suited, model-trashing glory.. but do they lend
themselves to Feng Shui?
You bet they do...
| Exhibit A
: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
Obvious Feng Shui moment:
M11, Emmy, and Hiro (the heroes of the film) battle against
the Futurians, struggling to take over the time machine, Mother.
M11 is either a Cyborg or a human-like Abomination, you take your pick.
His fight sequences used speeded-up film and wirework worthy of a Wuxia
style HK MA film. Emmy was either Ex-Special Forces (hell, she piloted
Mecha-King Ghidorah against the big G herself) and managed to slap around
mooks and go toe to toe with named characters. Hiro was either an
Everyman Hero or a reporter, but regardless, he was a writer.
Potential Kaiju Monster Schtick:
BOTH HEADS BLAZING.
For a creature with the Blast Schtick as a breath weapon,
and multiple heads, like a Hydra, a Chimera, or King Ghidorah, you can
cut loose with more than one head. Damage is Blast damage per head
x Toughness x (Number of heads). For one schtick, this can be done
at -2 AV. Two Schticks is -1 AV. Three Schticks is no Penalty.
Four Schticks takes out Mooks (in this case airplanes or tanks or little
Destroyah/Legion minimonsters) on a result of 4 or more. Five Schticks
(the maximum you can have) takes out mooklings on a result of 3 or more. |
|
|
Exhibit B: Godzilla
vs. Mothra.
Obvious Feng Shui moment:
Godzilla comes upon the Mothra egg as she's hatching,
and starts trying to kill her. Right out of the egg, she makes a
gracefull and very nice slow motion leap into the water as Godzilla's ray
comes slicing right over her. They then begin a battle between their
breath weapons with the barge that held Mothra as cover for both of them.
When I saw Mothra make the slow motion plunge for cover, I just thought
it would be perfect for a Heroic Bloodshed moment.
As well, there was an archeologist who had an introductory
sequence which was right out of an Indiana Jones film, including crawling
up a stone staircase only slightly faster than it would collapse, and a
short, brief running fight to get to the tow controls with a businessman.
(Aso?) There was also the element of kidnapping and selling the little
Mothra girls off to someone willing to pay $1 million for them. An
FS GM could easily have an instance where the Player Characters have to
battle this millionare's hoods and other assorted mooks and named muscle
to retrieve the little ones before the big nasty bugs and that huge
lizard rip up downtown Tokyo or Hong Kong. |
| Exhibit C:
Godzilla vs. Destroyah.
Obvious Feng Shui Moment 1:
Godzilla makes his first appearance in Hong Kong, and
then proceeds to annihilate great parts of the wonderfull Hong Kong architecture.
By this time, I'd been poisoned by the bug (Mothra, Battra?) of making
Kaiju films into FS style material.
Obvious Feng Shui Moment 2:
The Japanese SDF Special Forces in their pitched battle
with the small sized Destroyahs. First off,
the JSDF vans were quite cool with nicely set up gunracks in the back.
With choices from M-16's to HK MP5's to Flame Throwers, I could envision
a "normal sized" Kaiju bug war with the PC's as members of the Global Kaiju
Counter Measures Team. |
|
You could have the Journalist along for the ride, of course
a Techie or an Everyman Hero who traded one of his lowbrows for Information/Science,
maybe a tag-a-long kid, and of course your choice of Maverick, Karate or
Magic Cops, with a Ninja, Medic or Ex-Special Forces operative on the team.
The Everyman Hero can also keep all his lowbrow skills and use his excellent
driving skill as the team pilot. A Killer could easily make
his way onto the team merely by taking down a particularly nasty monster.
Cyborgs, Abominations and Supernatural Creatures can easily be fit into
the GKCMT as well. And, what's a Kaiju film without a tagalong Scrappy
Kid? For further grins, an Old Master would be great for ripping
apart the demon spawn with his bare hands. And, with the Sentai and
Video Rangers, Spectreman, and especially Ultraman, you have a perfect
spot for a Masked Avenger with built-in Weaponry.
Kaiju stats
You can do this either of two ways.
1) Leave the big guys statless and have to use some kind
of focus, like the Wave Motion Gun, or the Sub-Zero MacroMaser take down
the monster... after surviving long enough to get said weapon into action
despite industrial spies, alien enemies, mad scientist goons, and mini-monsters,
let the big busters alone. The idea here is, if you give it
stats, the players will kill it, and for some groups that's most appropriate.
2) Use the Stat K (for Kaiju or Kilo) system. Each
Stat is as normal, and generally the base stats are made off of the Supernatural
Creature Base. However, a Body of 10K should really be 10,000. (Kilo=Thousand.)
This is similar to the Kill System in Fuzion, and the Mega-Damage System
in Palladium, except... um... simpler. This allows your monsters
to ignore and laugh off small arms fire, crush buildings to dust, and make
the only worthy opponents super vehicles or other Kaiju. Abominations
can also fit into this system as well.
Kaiju games can be good for either a battle tournament
just for the sake of flattening a city. Or it can be a parallel storyline
with players playing the monsters and the humans dealing with enemies around
the monsters. Or the characters themselves can be running around
in vehicles which as a team make them a match for a single powerful kaiju.
Examples:
-Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster not
only had a small team of Kaiju fighting one big bruiser of a beastie: Mothra,
Rodan and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, it also had a parallel story wherein
mobsters were trying to kidnap or kill a princess, and the Japanese police
had to fight them off in a nice low key gun battle.
-Destroy All Monsters had a giant monster
team taking on King Ghidorah again, as well as the Monster Island staff
engaging in big setpiece Bondian battles against the Kilaaks and their
agents. Gunfights in the Monster Island control room, on a beach,
and in the Moon Base spring to mind.
-Even without humans getting involved in the ass-kicking,
you have many monster teams. Twin Mothra larvae battling Godzilla
in Godzilla vs. the Thing. A Mothra adult and a larva
battling Death Ghidorah in Mothra 97. Battra and Mothra
teaming up against Godzilla after what seemed to be a free for all battle
in Godzilla vs. Mothra. And the ultimate free for all...
Godzilla vs. Rodan vs. Garuda and Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.
The More Things Change, the
More they Stay the Same
| This is where making your favorite
movie monster is... difficult. Before Toho amalgamated its series
of kaiju eiga with Godzilla vs. the Thing, monsters came in ALL sizes.
For example, Varan was 30 meters tall, Mothra was a 180
meter long caterpillar, and Godzilla was a mere 50 meters tall. In
the original movie, Mothra has a wingspan of 250 meters! The big
butterfly would have squished Godzilla like, pardon the pun, a bug!
Even King Kong got a booster shot before he went toe-to-toe
with the big G, going from 60 feet tall to a whopping 45 meters to better
match Godzilla's 50 meter height. (Gamera himself was 45 meters in height
as well.)
And then in 1984 when Gojira returned, he was a full 60%
taller at 80 meters, and weighed in at 50 kilotons. With Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah (1991), he was made even larger to his current fighting
size of 100 meters and 60 kilotons, with a tail a full 140 meters long.
The current Gamera went up in size
too, a full third increase to 60 meters. I don't have stats on his
weight though.
Quoting special effects director Koichi Kawakita on the
increase of 1/25 scale to 1/50 "A 100 meter scale for Godzilla is
necessary now due to the larger size of buildings which exist today...
Godzilla would not look so impressive or threatening at the old 50 meter
scale." (quote from the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Godzilla, written and
compiled by Ed Godziszewski. Wonder where he developed that Godzilla
fixation... :) )
However, this was quoted before the battle between a 40
meter tall Godzilla Junior vs. the 40 meter tall Destroyah in Godzilla
vs. Destroyah, and of course the 60 meter tall Gamera battling against
Gyaos and Legion. |
Here's some sample heights
and weights below. Take a look at them:
| Monster |
Height (1964) |
Height (Heisei) |
| Godzilla |
50 Meters |
80 M / 100 M |
| Gamera |
45 Meters |
60 Meters / 90 Meters (projected) |
| King Ghidorah |
70 Meters |
150 Meters |
| Mothra(Larva) |
180 M / 40 M |
120 Meters Long |
| Mothra(Adult) |
135 M / 40 M |
65 Meters long (175m Wingspan) |
| Rodan |
50 M x 150 M Wing |
170 m x 150 m (Wingspan) |
Angilias
(projected) |
65 Meters |
135 Meters |
Gigan
(projected) |
65 Meters |
135 Meters |
Projected heights means
the upsizing of monsters to better fit the miniature detailing.
|
Websites abound with Kaiji-statistics, here are a few good places to
start:
So, how do we convert a Daikaiju
(Giant Weird Creature)?
For the original series of Toho's Kaiju
Eiga and the equal scaled Daei Gamera Eija, we do this:
Take the height of the monster and divide by 5.
That gives us our base Body stat. Then, apply Supernatural Creature
Powers, stats and skills as appropriate.
For the Hesei Series:
-Just divide by 10, but add 2 for the "increased" size. (Why?
To keep it fair for those running around at 50 meter scale, like both versions
of Gamera and Godzilla Junior.) Remember, the Body stat is at the Kilo
scale. Godzilla is thousands of times as massive as a human.
Thus, he be bad. It'll take a thousand mooks with rifles to start
hurting him).
this being said, here's some examples (the second
stat is the Hensei update) 
Godzilla, King of the Monsters
1954/1991
Quote: Roaaaaeeeeunk!
Body: 10 K/12K Chi: 0 (Magic = 8)
Mind: 4 (Charisma 2) Ref: 8
Skills:
Creature Powers: 15 Martial Arts: 12 Intimidation:
7 (or 13/15 based off Body)
Schticks:
Tentacle (Tail), Blast (Atomic Ray), Amphibian, Regeneration,
Armor.
Passive Dodge: 15
Active Dodge: 18
Damage:
Punch, Tail Swat: 11K/13K, Kick: 12K/14K. Atomic
Ray: 10K.
Now see? That was simple, wasn't it?
These stats are with Big G as a starting monster. Mind you, we all
know Godzilla's arsenal is much more powerful than that.
How about the other big G-Hero? Let's
see how he turns out.
Gamera, The Real Guardian
of the Universe
(60's series / 90's series)
Quote: Braaaayaaaaaaahhhhh!
Bod: 9K / 12 K Chi:
0 (Mag= 8) Mnd: 6 (Cha:
4) Ref: 6
Skills:
Creature Powers:15, Martial Arts:12, Leadership: 7 (Children
just adore him.)
Schticks:
Plasma Burst (Blast), Armor x2, Flight,
Conditional Escalation: When hit for more than 10 Wound
Points in a single attack (actually, sympathy from children rooting Gamera
on.)
Damage:
Punch: 10K / 13K, Kick: 11 K / 14 K, Plasma Bolt: 10K.
Again, this is with Big Other G as a starting monster.
And who to fight?
Hee hee heee....
King Ghidorah (Original/Heisei.)
Quote: Buraddabat!
Skills:
Creature Powers:15, Martial Arts:12, Intimidation:7
Schticks:
Gravity Bolts (Blast), Flight, Abyssimal Spines (Bite
from any of 3 heads), Both Heads Blazing x 2.
Damage:
Kick: 22K / 19 K, Bite: 22K / 19K, Blast: 10K (doubled
by Both Heads Blazing).
King Ghidorah, who IS supposed to be Godzilla's greatest
foe, is treated here as an experienced monster. In
Godzilla vs. Destroyah, he blowed up Hong Kong pretty good. Hell,
before the title credits, his ray ripped across a three mile stretch of
coastline, taking out an Australian jet. blowing
a fireball easily 200 meters tall into the sky. Then, after that, he stomped
all over Hong Kong for good measure.
After the initial Kaiji posting on the Feng Shui Mailing
List, a few concerned individuals stepped forward with a request for representation
from the Science Police. "What about Ultraman?", they asked. He presents
something of a poser tho. We already have a size scale for Ultraman, from
when he battled a Godzilla lookalike with a frilled neck.so we know that
he's roughly 45 Meters tall. But... wait! He's not a monster and
has human intelligence.
Fortunately, we have the Cyborg!
Eh?
Look at it this way... most people don't play Cyborgs
because of the Arcanowave Device implants. However... change those
Arcanowave powers to Creature powers, and TAAAAAA-DAAAAA!
Ultraman
Quote: Shwa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa.
Bod:6K, Chi:0 (Mag:8), Mnd:5 (Per:7),
Ref:8
Skills:
Creature Powers:11(+3 for Cyborgs with Creature Powers),
Info/Science:7 (Science Police, y'know) Guns:11, Martial Arts:13, Police:9
(Science Police, y'know), Sabotage: 7
Schticks:
Flight, Blast, Transformation, Armor, Hair Trigger Neck
Hairs.
Damage:
Punch: 7K, Kick: 8K, Blast: 10K (Varying SpFX)
and,
correspondingly, from the Toho camp:
Jet Jaguar
Quote: ::waves flags in semophore, requesting
Godzilla assist him against the Seatopians.::
Bod:10K, Chi: 0 (Mag=8), Mnd:
6 (Cha: 4), Ref: 6
Skill:
Creature Powers: 15, Martial Arts: 12, Fix-It:
9 (reprogrammed himself quite a bit)
Schticks:
Flight, Transformation (normal android to Giant Android),
Death Resistance x3.
Passive Dodge: 15
Active Dodge: 18
Damage:
Punch: 11K, Kick: 12K.
| All the above was written and adapted, with the love born of fanaticism,
by Douglas P. Wojtowicz |
 |
Back
to the Main Comrades In Arms index page
Some of the better Daikaiju-links:
