Black Tokyo: Races of Black Japan by GorfZaplen

First Post

posted by GorfZaplen Original SA post

Black Tokyo: The Races of Black Japan
I'd like to point out that in Chris Field's new setting, Heavy Future , there is to be an ero-bot source book soon, not that this robot fetish is surprising to begin with. I'm going to review Heavy Future and it's parent setting, Galaxy Command, after this.


The book wastes no time and gets straight to the races.

The Doujinshi


Doujinishi are literally wank fantasies brought to life. You can actually skip over the rest of this section and not miss a thing because it all points to this.

Doujinishi aren't created on purpose. They just show up in the wild, brought forth by those with the potential to become Harem Mages. They are the product of "wet dreams and Bristol-board fantasies." Most of them don't even know that they're actually fictional, thinking that they're normal men and women instead. When they appear, the universe creates whole fictional histories, their school and work history, and even memories to accomodate the Doujinishi. Their lives are "governed by the logic of hentai, pornography and adventure." "Lustful predators are drawn to the Doujinishi as a favorite prey, because they enjoy feeding on such an unabasadely erotic being"

They look like people, but like a 15-year-old's definition of hot. The women have "fabulous, perfectly spherical breasts that defy gravity". The dudes are either "willowy, adnrogynous bishonen" or muscular manly men, depending on the fantasy that spawned them. All Doujinishi have naturally colorful hair that "seems to writhe and coil and billow in non-existent winds." Their hair is more likely to be colored green or yellow or blue than normal colors. Ordinary people seem to ignore their insane hair color and awful styles, it's as though they see it while simultaneaously not seeing it. Speaking of styles, Doujinishi wear as little as they can get away with, unless it's expensive or fashionable. They favor designer clothes, hand sewn kimonos and "tiny little tops that seem poised on the verge of falling right off."

We are then treated to a poorly-drawn picture of a blue-haired, dark skinned naked woman riding cowgirl on a guy in a red shirt. The woman appears fierce and angered. The man appears to either be confused or fearful, or high as hell. None of their hands are actually touching anything in particular.

Doujinishi are sexually compatible wiht humans and most other forms of life. They like sex and give no shits about social taboos. They "fuck often, they fuck noisily, and they fuck anywhere they want." Their charm and force of personality lets them get away with it. However, they can't become pregnant!!! The only way they can crate more life is to become a Harem Mage.

They love the city. They thrive on "karoke, alcohol and pounding dubstep". They fucking love Shinjuku, they fucking hate the country.


Oh, Jesus, I forgot Chris used Pathfinder as his base system. Okay, they're outsiders with the native subtype. They can be resurrected in the Earth Realm, but if they die in Tatakama they're done for.

They have +2 CON and +2 CHA because they are good at fucking and are sexy, respectively. Their focus on sex makes them dumber, however. Because they are living fiction, they have perfect awareness of our entertainment. They automatically succeed on all Knowledge(pop culture) checks. They are all bisexual by nature and receve +2 racial bonus on sexually oriented Bluff and Diplomacy checks made against members of their own gender because that is how fanfiction works. Because they are "imbued with the soul of a great artist hidden beneath a hyper-sexualized facade" they get one ponus skill point per level if they take the Personality or Harem Mage advanced class.

This is actually a pretty cool idea: the fact that they're living fiction makes them weak against the will of artists and dreamers, so enemies with 5 or more ranks in Craft (writing or visual arts) gain a +1 on attack rolls, saving throws and opposed skill checks against a Doujinishi. Since this is Pathfinder that is basically useless, but it's a cool idea.

Doujinishi get something called the "Pink Zone", which I refuse to read. which is completely fucking awful and negates anything cool that came before it. Basically they can easily convince people into having sex if they're friendly or better, and it makes reference to a book called Sex & Story , so fuck me I guess I have something else to review. Three times a day, a player can dictate the sexual behavior of a Friendly NPC for a single encounter. If it dramatically violates their code of ethics or is extremely taboo, they get a will save to resist Otherwise, "those around you throw themselves into bizarre orgies and random hook-ups with joyous abandon."

They are immune to sleep, fatigue,sickened and nauseated conditions.



Nope. Next one.

Lucky Drop gives them a +1 luck bonus to all saving throws and Profession and Perform checks in exchange for the sleep/fatigue/sickness resistance.

In exchange for bonus skill points in certain Advanced Classes (it's worse than Pathfinder, it's fucking d20 Modern) they get a bonus spell point for each level they gain in the Modern Spellcaster Basic Class and get a +3 bonus on WILL against Illusion.

If you want to get rid of the PINK ZONE you can receive lowlight vision and Darkvision with a range of 60 ft. They also get +2 on Stealth and Intimidate checks made in conditions of dim illumination or worse.

Another thing you can replace Pink Zone with is the ability to have a latex nurse uniform. You receive "Lemon-Pink Hospital" as a racial bonus feat, and I have no fucking idea what that does and have no urge to find out.

NEXT TIME: these schoolgirl undead ensure their bodies will never change, their breasts will never sag,

Second Post

posted by GorfZaplen Original SA post

Alright then, I'll finish it, but I probably won't do any more Field after this.

BLACK TOKYO UNLIMITED - THE RACES OF BLACK JAPAN


The Goryohime are smart, pretty and popular girls who have committed a special ritual suicide that ensures that they will remain youthful forever, or in Field-speak "their bodies will never change, their breasts will never sag, their skin will never wrinkle, their hair will never thin nor grey."

Afterward, some choose to act out their former lives, attending the same high school they did in life, have the same friends (who might end up choosing to become Goryohime themselves) and shop at the same stores. The only clue to their true nature is that they are cold to the touch, and a raspy voice that belongs to ghosts created through strangulation. Others might attend the Hanging Academy, learning the "twin arts of necromancy and seduction". Others might become demon hunters and exorcists, "hunting the oni and human predators that prey on Japanese high school girls."

At a glance, a Goryohime looks like a normal school girl, but upon closer inspection you'd notice that she doesn't breathe, her heart doesn't beat (wait, how close of an inspection is this??), "her milky white skin is cool and smooth." Also, she still has the bruises and rope burns from her suicide. Also, they have long black tongues and "their voices have an instantly recognizable raspy sultriness."

When writing this up I ended up quoting the whole paragraph because it's so terrible, so here it is.

"Guryohime" can't reproduce. The only way more are made is when a girl chooses to do the ritual. 80-90% are Japnaese, though "occasionally a girl from China, Korea or even distant America or Europe might hear the dream-call of the Great Tree." The Great Tree is never explained, although mentioned several more times.

Future Goryohime have "erotic nightmares" of being hanged from a "great tree of light." The nightmares begin shortly after puberty, and most girls fight the compulsion on their own or take meds for it, but every year dozens give in to the "noose-dreams." If a girl reaches her twenties without giving in, they cease happening.

Girls who choose to go through with it instinctively know the steps: "the white kimono, the brown obi, the strangling noose woven with purple thread, the prayer, the song, the final kicking away of the stool..." Relatively few actually succeed in being reborn, and just fucking die. Those who succeed don't mourn those who failed, they celebrate their lives, "eroticie their deaths", and know that they are promised rebirth as "temple miko of the Great Tree."

Most live with their parents and attend the same schools, but some live in that spooky suicide forest in Japan.

Statwise, Guryohime get a +2 to Charisma because eternally-bruised necks, raspy voices, and the faint smell of piss are attractive. They also get lowlight vision. Their first ability made me literally facepalm in real life.



The real point of this ability is that they don't lose levels from being raised from the dead, and if they raise someone else from the dead there's no level loss for that person. Neat! They also have Noose Dreams which give them bonuses to magic skill shit. They also have the immunities common to all Undead player characters, except they are subject to mind influencing effects because they have "true souls."

If you want to become a Goryohime in game, you have to be a Young Adult female with a Charisma of at least 11. Then the gamemaster or player can decide to start having the dreams. The final choice to become a Goryohime is always in the player's hands. Player Goryohime always succeed in being reborn.


This is the closest thing to good artwork in the entire book.

ALTERNATE RACIAL TRAITS

Chaste Goryohime are uh, well,


What does the Goryohime get out of this horrific mutilation? Kick-ass martial arts skills and bonuses against magic perv shit. In my opinion there is basically no reason not to take this regardless of character race if for some reason you're actually playing in a Black Tokyo game. It replaces Noose Dreams.

Dead Daughter of the Tatakama means that the Goryohime was born in Tatakama. She can find any Torrii Gate and gets bonuses on checks to open a sealed Torrii . This replaces the Eased Passage trait.

Glamorous spirit makes them into a seductive spirit, which gives her Charm Person as if she were a sorceror of her character level. If she replicates the ritual that created her, for 24 hours she can case Charm Monster instead. The ritual has to be witnessed by at least one living or Akaname character, which is probably going to be awkward. It replaces Eased Passage.

Peristaltic Magic is really stupid. Basically the Goryohime uses her memories of her pissing and shitting herself after death to fuel magic. She also gets +4 on Will saves against Skatto magic, and if she dies while casting Skatto magic, she casts it anyway. This replaces Noose Dreams.




Of course there are catgirls. Naturally.

They're the results of magic and supernatural crossbreeding, gene-cutting and cosmetic surgery which sounds expensive as fuck but nonetheless they're common sights in Black Tokyo because it's fucking anime.


They were created so rich dudes could have sex with catgirls. Despite the "arcane and hormonol locks on their reproduction" they can still breed, and can produce entire litters of more catgirls. Many become sex workers, while others fight to free their enslaved mothers and sisters.


I think that art is of a dude catperson, despite the race being entirely female by fluff. It's really hard to tell because it isn't good art.

Some cities have packs of feral catgirls as "common pests", although I imagine feral human sized cats with human intelligence would be much, much more dangerous than a "pest".


They also have spongy padding on their feet and their freakishly large and pawlike hands. Finally, "having a harem of attractive and well groomed catgirls is a matter of pride for Black Japan's monied elite", because apparently every CEO is a 1990s otaku in Black Japan.

Reproduction
As stated earlier, they're supposed to be sterile but still give birth sometimes because reasons. Some say it is a gift from Kwannon or Inari, some sa it's a gene-sequencing error, some say it's just a bullshit reason to have there be catpeople on every corner of the street.

They give birth to "liters" of 4-6 catgirls after a six to seven month pregnancy. I know that's a typo, but I imagined jars of liquid nonetheless. The first pregnancy is the hardest and death in childbirth is common. They can only be impregnated by human males, but not with their designated master. "Only adultery, and the lure of true love and freedom allows Nekos to breed." Feral catgirls are basically getting pregnant all the damn time, and dude catpeople are even possible, although they're outnumbered ten to one by women.

Catgirls have a lifespan of about 20 years but reach sexual and emotional maturity in their first 24 months of life. Feral catthings usually die before they reach 8 years.

Most of them live in a cage as a wealthy man's plaything. They spend most of their time shopping or visiting special salons that cater to the needs of magical cat monstrosities, or buying shit at "Fashion Club Nekomini!" Feral Nekos make cardboard palaces or go to a coffin hotel, which thanks to Google I think refers to this but I'd like to imagine they made a hotel out of thousands of coffins strapped together with tape or something.

Stats! There's the obligatory +2 CHA, +2 DEX because they're part cat, and -4 INT because of their genetic ditziness. They have darkvision with 60 ft range, and low light vision. Since they're designer sex toys, they all receive Gifts of Ecstasy as a racial bonus feat, which according to Black Tokyo Unlimited...isn't a thing! So they get nothing. Okay, not nothing, apparently with Feline Nimbus their skin glows a soft amber when they're happy or aroused, and at will the "glamorous feline" can glow as if enchaned by a light spell. This actually does something, in that it gives all felines (not just catgirls, but normal cats, magical beast cats and anthropomorphic cats from Fursona) a +1 luck bonus on saving throws. This lasts as long as they damn well please. This makes the hypothetical coffin kingdom of feral catpeople even more terrifying if GM fiat allowed this to stack. Thousands of glowing catcreatures, all boosted to invulnerability by one anothers presence.

"Nekomusume paws are as stealthy as a ninja's tabi." They get 2 on stealth shit and dancing apparently.

NEKOMUSUME ALTERNATE RACIAL FEATS

Alley Cat replaces their nonexistant Gifts of Ecstasy feat with a +3 on Knowledge (Streetwise).

Bedroom Genius negates the INT penalty after sex for 1d4+1 hours. This gets rid of their stupid glowing ability.

You can take Feral Neko at chargen, which adds another -2 to INT but a _2 to strength, and increases their land speed to 35 ft. I forgot to mention it, but their climb speed is equal to their land speed, so they're better climbers too.


+3 on singing chekcs and you can speak the language of cats as well as you can speak human languages. You can talk to any cats and have a +3 racial bonus to Handle Animal checks with any feline. This replaces the stupid glow ability.

Stray gives you Iron Will as a bonus feat because you're too assertive for a master. This replaces the nonexistant Gifts of Ecstasy.

Student Kitten means that you're not a sex slave, but rather part of a sociological experiment. You're part of a batch of catshits that are adopted by humans and allowe to attend public school. You have to start as a Young Adult age category, but become an adult whenever you graduate highschool or reach level 4, whichever comes first, meaning that a Student Kitten could theoretically murder their way into adulthood. Additionally, they only suffer -2 penalty to their int scores, and this trait can be selected without giving up anything else.

Finally,

Field will never stop pimping this terrible idea for a book

NEXT TIME: I FINISH THIS FUCKING BOOK

Final Post

posted by GorfZaplen Original SA post

Black Tokyo Unlimited - The Races of Black Japan



The Nikusui has some seriously fucking creep-o writing. It's the worst.

Remember this for when you learn what they look like.

Like many fey, the Nikusui have a love for innocence, but theirs is so great that it pushes them to violent action. The Nikusui leave the forests of the

Tatakama to seek violent retribution on those who would harm mortal children. This doesn't sound too bad, until you remember that this is Black Tokyo so "harm" only means "rape".

Honestly, I'm just going to post the rest of this first section in it's entirety because it's so bad.



Nikusui look like a pre-teen human and never age.

The only hint to their true nature are the vengeance prayers tatooed on their backs and bellies. "When a Nikusui drops her pretence of iPhone helplessness," whatever that means, they're cold-hearted murder machines who are "decisive as a drawn katana".

The Reproduction section informs us that they almost never take lovers, not entirely ruling out creepy bullshit. This fucking race sucks.

The Nikusui almost never return to their homelands, since in a Field game children are always at risk for abuse. Their methods are very brutal' "Black Tokyo's newspapers carry regular stories of child pornographers found strangled on their own severed cocks," which is the best sentence in this entire shitshow, Salarymen going out on dates with highschoolers get flayed alive, and rapists are burned alive, one square inch of skin at a time. They are also found all across Asia, Europe and "the worst corners of the American hell."

Nikusui are small fey who of fucking course get a +2 to CHA. Fun fact: All but one race gets +2 to Charisma. They also have a magical pedophile radar which lets them know if anyone within 30 feet of has ever had sex with someone who was a Child or younger at the time. Nikusui also receive bonuses at pretending to be a kid.

A Nikusui can use their Charisma modifier instead of their Strength modifier because they get -2 to strength because they're kids. They also have the ability to make a 5 ft step whenever they kill a pedophile with their CHA modifier. Finally, Nikusui take penalties on skill check attack and damage rolls if they're doing anything other than killing pedophiles while pedophiles are within range of their pedosense.

Alternate racial traits! In exchange for the CHA Bonus and 5 ft step, a Nikusui can transfer any damage taken by children onto herself and gets a 5 ft step whenever this activates, but she must move toward the creature that did the harm.

The Nikusui can also be the ghost of an abused child, which changes their type to undead and they can be harmed by positive energy. They cannot, however, be harmed by clerics who are pedophiles or have otherwise harmed or killed children.

They can get rid of their 5 ft step ability to get the spooky ability to walk on ceilings and walls, but can't use it within 60 ft of any child or pregnant woman.

In exchange for automatic success on imitating a human child, the Nikusui can become a horrifying noseless and blind monster that exists only to murder pedophiles. Aside from looking all spooky , they get blind sense within 120 ft. That is their only mechanical benefit.

I decided to look up the Nikusui to see how much Chris Field was bullshitting here, and as it turns out he bullshitted nearly the entire thing (which should be no big surprise). According to the internet, the Nikusui took the form of a young woman and would suck all the flesh off of its victim's body. The only way to kill it was to show it the bones of those it had slain, which is way cooler than anything Chris Field could come up with.




POETICA androids are androids that have true souls because they are gestated in magic wombs of shimmering energy. Surprisingly, they are not sexbots, but are designed to support people emotionally and tactically. They are often found as the personal assistants of wealthy businessmen, as glamorous high-tech geisha, and have even set off a boom of custom-grown idol singers in the J-Pop industry. Some are even being used in the military.

If you are thinking that this is uncharacteristically noncreepy for Field, that is because they are originally from a different book. As he mentions in a sidebar, they were first introduced as a player character type in his book "Synthetic Heroes II".

Anyway, there are no males because male souls don't "congeal" properly into a working form (in other words, there are no males because fuck you). They have flourescent polymer hair, headphone-like sensor modules, and "utterly perfect, ageless beauty."

Factory POETICA's are infertile, although they can purchase an upgrade that allows them to bear children. If the child is a girl it is a POETICA, if it is a boy it is a smarter and slightly smaller version of the father's species. They are "programmed with both skill and enjoyment of virtually every sexual act and position a potential buyer might ever desire." So close to not being creepy, Field. So close.

POETICA usually live in tiny private apartments in Tokyo's financial district. Some live and work alongside their purchasers, and others live in special dormitories with the rest of their production batch. Rural areas make them nervous if they can't get a reliable wi-fi signal.

Poetica get penalties to Strength and Constitution but bonuses to Intelligence, Wisdom and (of course) Charisma. They have lowlight vision and can pick up and communicate unencrytped radio, cellphone and wi-fi signals.

At chargen, a POETICA chooses a racial ability package that determines their skill bonuses as well as their occupation. There are Creative, Doctor, Domestic, Entreptreneur, Technician and White Collar packages available. They also receive one bonus skill rank at each level and four bonus skill ranks at first level.

In exchange for the skill bonuses, they get an additional Spell Point every level they take in the Modern Spellcaster base class.

There is the DARK POETICA, a POETICA illegally modified to be a torturer, "girl butcher" and predator's assisstant. Instead of one of the other racial skill sets, she gets OCCUPATION: PREDATOR. She also gets an additionaly +1d4 points of damage when attacking a bound, unconscious or helpless opponent. It stacks with sneak damage. This also replaces the skill bonueses.

Again replacing skill bonuses, the POETICA can be a servant of destiny, with the kanji for good fortune hidden "just above her pert left nipple." Three times a day, the POETICA can declare that she gets a minor bit of good fortune out of combat. She'll choose the shortest and fastest line at the bank, a light changes right as she approaches the intersection, she meets an old friend unexpectly and so forth. Mechanically this provides a +1 luck bonus on Profession checks to earn money.

Again in exchange for the skill bonuses, the POETICA can be a cop! They get OCCUPATION: LAW ENFORCEMENT. POETICA prefer non-lethal takedowns. We're taking a minimum-force approach. We're cops, after all.




I'm glad we're to this race. Not necessarily because it's a good race or anything, but because it's the last race and after it I can move on to maybe better things.

That said, this race is the best, partly because I get to use the word "murder" a lot when describing it. The concept is that they can see and know all of their past lives in Black Tokyo, and they're all so shitty and awful that it turns them to the only reasonable action to take when in Black Tokyo: murder, and lots of it. They are out to murder all the evil in Black Tokyo to prevent anyone else from falling victim to it. Basically, they are out to murder the setting itself, making them the best thing. Not murdering is not an option; if a yurei isn't murdering it is more or less a countdown to the next time they do. I can sympathize with this race a lot, actually; if I lived in a world penned by Chris Field I'd want to murder all life too.

A yurei's eyes are literally made of blood, and their teeth are sharp and jagged. When they go into murdermode, they start smiling constantly. Their eyes are hidden behind a mat of scraggly black hair. If they keep their head down they can pass for human.

Yurei can't reproduce. They are born to ordinary human parents, and at a young age are already murderous and hateful. When they reach their teens, their eyes become blood and they wander off to learn murder from elder yurei. They can live as long as a century, but usually die before that in the midst of their murder-fest. No matter how much tactical planning the police or other organizations might do, a Yurei will always murder at least one cop.

Yurei are solitary creatures, but can sometimes be seen travelling with a younger Yurei apprentice murderer. They don't bother with wealth or trying to become happy, instead squatting in abandoned buildings until they decide to murder again. They stay almost entirely in the Earth Realm, where they wage their murder war against the forces of misery.

Yurei rarely settle in the Tatakama. They usually pass by the Tatakama for the Black Else itself, in order to murder an Oni Lord on his own territory.

The Yurei are the only race without a charisma bonus. In fact, they get a charisma penalty of -4. They get bonuses to strength, dexterity, and wisdom (wisdom to know that Black Tokyo is awful and should be killed). They can see only in shades of black and crimson, "the colors of blood."

Yurei are so angry and terrifying that their negative Charisma penalty is reversed for Intimidate checks. Yurei also have access to "Ghost Angles", meaning they can teleport 30 ft + 5ft/lvel as a swift action, so long as it's one of the following: the corner formed by two walls, a television or computer screen for the yurei to step out of, an area adjacent to someone who has inflicted HP damage to the Yurei or one of its allies within the past hour, beneath a staircase, or a bathroom stall or shower/bathtub. Their wicked murder claws do "1d6+STR" points of slashing damage, which if read as raw is hilariously powerful. If they inflict a confirmed critical hit with thier talons, the Yurei can choose to do savage damage, where they roll a d4 and for every 3 or 4 they roll again, adding the damage until they roll a 1 or 2. At 10th level, this becomes 2d4.

Alternate racial traits include trading in the Ghost Angles for the spooky ceiling walk of the Nikusei, or trading it in for Suicide Spellcasting. Trading in the Savage Talons gives the Yurei Spell Points equal to the CHA penalty, and she can overcast necromancy spells at one level higher than normal. The Yurei can also trade in their talons in order to get HUGE HANDS for strangling people.

That's it! That's the book! I don't feel like the murder race was worth the other shitty races, but that's all of the Field from me! I don't know what I'll do next, I've been thinking of doing Superhero 2044, the very first superhero RPG, but it is a very 70s RPG that is kind of hard to follow and very much follows a wargame aesthetic. I'll check my used book store first to see if they have anything else cool and old I can share.