An Unofficial Roleplaying Game
Modern [fan game]
Self Published
2006
Complexity: 3
Hey y’all mind if a go off in an odd direction and review a Dance Dance Revolution fan game? Yeah, well too bad, it’s already been done, so you might as well read it.
Dance Dance Revolution, an Unofficial Roleplaying Game is a bit of an odd beast--I know, shocking--in that it is not a game that takes place in the DDR universe, but is rather a game about playing DDR. It’s also a 24-hour RPG, which is something I’ve done in the past and can tell you isn’t as fun as it sounds. Anyway, now it’s time for me to attempt to take this seriously.
Character Creation: 3/5
Players begin by determining the minutiae of their characters--name, appearance, etc--and dividing 10 points between their Moves and Style attributes. They then select two ‘Perks’ which provide and overall +2 bonus to their attributes--in the form of +2, +1/+1, or +4/−2--chose a ‘Finishing Move,’ and optionally select an outfit which grants an even bonus and penalty to their two attributes, but can be changed later. There’s not really a lot to it, but it’s literally a game about playing a video game so it’s not like there’s a lot that could be there.
Mechanics: 2/5
Gameplay is broken into ten-round matches, players can select one of their Perks for each match. Every round participants roll a d50--which is a thing that exists--and add their Moves score. Whoever has the highest result wins that round, and whoever wins the most rounds wins the match. In the event of a tie, the winner is determined by highest total of all ten rounds, and if that’s a tie, the winner is the character with the highest Style--no mention on what to do if that’s a tie too. Players must also roll a d50 and subtract their Style each round, then subtract the total of all the Style rolls from the total of the Moves rolls to determine the character’s Final Score, which provides a bonus or penalty for the character’s next match. If a character’s Final Score is twice or more their opponents they can execute their Finishing Move to gain bonus points. Honestly, that seems like a lot of maths just to simulate a simulated dance battle, but I guess it’s not like I have any idea how to do it better.
Base Points: 6
Character Creation: 3/5, Mechanics: 2/5, Presentation: 1/5
Adjustments: +0
Setting: N/A, Writing: +0, Content: N/A
Overall Score: 40% (6/15 Points)
Ay Ay Ay, I’m your little butterfly, green black and blue, make the colors in the sky.
Players begin by determining the minutiae of their characters--name, appearance, etc--and dividing 10 points between their Moves and Style attributes. They then select two ‘Perks’ which provide and overall +2 bonus to their attributes--in the form of +2, +1/+1, or +4/−2--chose a ‘Finishing Move,’ and optionally select an outfit which grants an even bonus and penalty to their two attributes, but can be changed later. There’s not really a lot to it, but it’s literally a game about playing a video game so it’s not like there’s a lot that could be there.
Mechanics: 2/5
Gameplay is broken into ten-round matches, players can select one of their Perks for each match. Every round participants roll a d50--which is a thing that exists--and add their Moves score. Whoever has the highest result wins that round, and whoever wins the most rounds wins the match. In the event of a tie, the winner is determined by highest total of all ten rounds, and if that’s a tie, the winner is the character with the highest Style--no mention on what to do if that’s a tie too. Players must also roll a d50 and subtract their Style each round, then subtract the total of all the Style rolls from the total of the Moves rolls to determine the character’s Final Score, which provides a bonus or penalty for the character’s next match. If a character’s Final Score is twice or more their opponents they can execute their Finishing Move to gain bonus points. Honestly, that seems like a lot of maths just to simulate a simulated dance battle, but I guess it’s not like I have any idea how to do it better.
Writing: 2/3 [•]
Rules are overall well written and understandable, they’re fairly concise and to the point without really leaving anything out. I am a little bothered by one thing though, mainly because I can’t figure out if it’s supposed to be a joke. There’s an explanation of what to do “In the likely event that you don’t own a d50,” with the first suggestion being to use a d5 and d10, then using a d100 and subtracting 50 from results over 50, then using 2 d10s to simulate a d100. And that seems like it’s supposed to be a joke--as you are only slightly more likely to own a d5 or d100--but isn’t really presented as being one.
Presentation: 1/5
Okay, I realize that this game was made under a time constraint, but they only used about half that time and the offenses are many. The text is too big and the gutters too small, which makes everything look weird and cramped. Formatting is restricted to some bold text and fairly extreme indents on lists, and manual breaks are ignored even in really obvious places--e.g. a column break after a single line of text when the next column has plenty of empty space at the bottom. There’s also way too many hyphenated word breaks--when a word starts on one line and continued on the next with a hyphen at the end of the first part. Ideally, there should be around zero, but most paragraphs in this document have at least one. It’s a five-page document, I don’t thing some basic text grooming as asking too much.
Final Remarks
Not really much to say about this one, it’s a tabletop game about playing a video game about dancing. It’s a more or less successful attempt at making something absurd.
Rules are overall well written and understandable, they’re fairly concise and to the point without really leaving anything out. I am a little bothered by one thing though, mainly because I can’t figure out if it’s supposed to be a joke. There’s an explanation of what to do “In the likely event that you don’t own a d50,” with the first suggestion being to use a d5 and d10, then using a d100 and subtracting 50 from results over 50, then using 2 d10s to simulate a d100. And that seems like it’s supposed to be a joke--as you are only slightly more likely to own a d5 or d100--but isn’t really presented as being one.
Presentation: 1/5
Okay, I realize that this game was made under a time constraint, but they only used about half that time and the offenses are many. The text is too big and the gutters too small, which makes everything look weird and cramped. Formatting is restricted to some bold text and fairly extreme indents on lists, and manual breaks are ignored even in really obvious places--e.g. a column break after a single line of text when the next column has plenty of empty space at the bottom. There’s also way too many hyphenated word breaks--when a word starts on one line and continued on the next with a hyphen at the end of the first part. Ideally, there should be around zero, but most paragraphs in this document have at least one. It’s a five-page document, I don’t thing some basic text grooming as asking too much.
Final Remarks
Not really much to say about this one, it’s a tabletop game about playing a video game about dancing. It’s a more or less successful attempt at making something absurd.
Base Points: 6
Character Creation: 3/5, Mechanics: 2/5, Presentation: 1/5
Adjustments: +0
Setting: N/A, Writing: +0, Content: N/A
Overall Score: 40% (6/15 Points)
Ay Ay Ay, I’m your little butterfly, green black and blue, make the colors in the sky.
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