While I like almost every approach and design decisions about this game, I think I have to make one criticism to this otherwise very well done system. You need to roll too many dice. In my humble opinion, this create two major problems 1) Challenge Rolls being very cumbersome to roll and calculate, and in unstructured play specifically it can be daunting for GMs to come by ways to justified rolls with many successes with consequences that actually matter 2) Physically speaking at some point you need to roll dice in several waves, and you then need to roll the dice that showed 6.
Mine wants to be a genuine and positive criticism, and this is not to say this game is not good, far from it. I mentioned this only because I truly think that if these problems are being addressed, the game for what it does will become almost perfect 👌
Thank you for the feedback. I do agree that a lot of dice are rolled, and I am looking into some ways to streamline it for physical play (optional or otherwise). I can't promise anything, but I'm grateful to hear your take!
Extremely impressed. Need time to sit down and get a better reading on this, but Dawn feels like the exact RPG I've been looking for. Thank you for such an awesome production!
Dawn is a battlemanga themed ttrpg. Which is to say it's inhabiting a crowded genre. But to its credit, it stands apart. Way apart.
This is the freshest game I've seen in the genre.
Dawn's PDF is 108 pages, with clean layout, tons of appropriate art, good visual organization, and a sense of getting what makes battlemanga enjoyable to read.
Specifically, Dawn draws from works like Black Clover and Magi---the sort of rock-blaring, smash-your-head-against-your-problems, there's-nothing-hot-blood-and-a-can-do-attitude-can't-fix positive thinking white sheep of the genre. And this is a good choice. A lot of battlemanga rpgs try to cover *all* battlemanga with their mechanics, and there's a gulf of meaningful difference between, say, Black Butler, Dragonball, and Akane Banashi. By narrowing in, Dawn ends up being about something, and this strengthens it considerably.
Outside of its choice of tone, Dawn is slightly setting-agnostic. It has three example settings that it references, but it sort of expects you to match it with your favorite series instead.
Mechanically, Dawn uses a d6 pool with exploding 6s, a currency called Influence, open-ended Skill names, and a loose and customizable class system called Archetypes. Relationships are skills, which you can break for currency. There's no granular resource tracking, but combat is tactical and grid-based and cares about positioning, and it's built on a very solid foundation. There are also narrative-y elements like scenes and clocks that aren't oversaturated, which might make players used to Blades In The Dark or Fate more comfortable.
Dawn manages the split between combat and non-combat a little weirdly, having abilities for each that don't carry over into the other. As an example the book gives, if you can time-stop outside of combat, you can't necessarily time-stop inside of combat. However, on the flipside, Dawn's out of combat abilities use a Verb + Noun + Condition system that makes them *really* flexible and interesting to create---you can breathe ghosts while holding a certain memory in your head, or double the heat of any object you made yourself, and the system doesn't break under the sheer variety of options.
For players, Dawn is very clearly explained and full of resources and advance---both for navigating mechanical and non-mechanical parts of play.
For GMs, you'll probably have to do a little work on the setting, but there's a worldbuilding toolkit and a thorough GMing section and a complete bestiary. You'll be well supported.
Overall, I think Dawn is a gem. I've seen battlemanga ttrpgs get very mechanically intensive, and I've seem them get very high-minded and deconstructive, but Dawn hits a rare sweet spot in the middle where it's fun and breezy and still has *plenty* of tactical meat. This is a *good* game. If the phrase shounen manga ttrpg makes you groan, this might genuinely be the system that un-burns you out on the concept.
Thank you so much! I really wanted to get the feeling that this isn't parodying the genre it's based on, a trap I feel a lot of other battle manga TTRPGs fall in to. I'm really glad you like it and that you feel it's a good example.
Yeah! It feels really earnestly written, and like it gets the genre at a not just superficial level (an issue I had with BESM and some other stuff). It's super good!
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Yo
Came here after watching this :3
Also, this could be adapted for mechas ^_^
While I like almost every approach and design decisions about this game, I think I have to make one criticism to this otherwise very well done system. You need to roll too many dice. In my humble opinion, this create two major problems 1) Challenge Rolls being very cumbersome to roll and calculate, and in unstructured play specifically it can be daunting for GMs to come by ways to justified rolls with many successes with consequences that actually matter 2) Physically speaking at some point you need to roll dice in several waves, and you then need to roll the dice that showed 6.
Mine wants to be a genuine and positive criticism, and this is not to say this game is not good, far from it. I mentioned this only because I truly think that if these problems are being addressed, the game for what it does will become almost perfect 👌
Thank you for the feedback. I do agree that a lot of dice are rolled, and I am looking into some ways to streamline it for physical play (optional or otherwise). I can't promise anything, but I'm grateful to hear your take!
Even an optional rule, so that one could choose based on their group preference, would be extremely cool!
Extremely impressed. Need time to sit down and get a better reading on this, but Dawn feels like the exact RPG I've been looking for. Thank you for such an awesome production!
And thank you for reading!
Dawn is a battlemanga themed ttrpg. Which is to say it's inhabiting a crowded genre. But to its credit, it stands apart. Way apart.
This is the freshest game I've seen in the genre.
Dawn's PDF is 108 pages, with clean layout, tons of appropriate art, good visual organization, and a sense of getting what makes battlemanga enjoyable to read.
Specifically, Dawn draws from works like Black Clover and Magi---the sort of rock-blaring, smash-your-head-against-your-problems, there's-nothing-hot-blood-and-a-can-do-attitude-can't-fix positive thinking white sheep of the genre. And this is a good choice. A lot of battlemanga rpgs try to cover *all* battlemanga with their mechanics, and there's a gulf of meaningful difference between, say, Black Butler, Dragonball, and Akane Banashi. By narrowing in, Dawn ends up being about something, and this strengthens it considerably.
Outside of its choice of tone, Dawn is slightly setting-agnostic. It has three example settings that it references, but it sort of expects you to match it with your favorite series instead.
Mechanically, Dawn uses a d6 pool with exploding 6s, a currency called Influence, open-ended Skill names, and a loose and customizable class system called Archetypes. Relationships are skills, which you can break for currency. There's no granular resource tracking, but combat is tactical and grid-based and cares about positioning, and it's built on a very solid foundation. There are also narrative-y elements like scenes and clocks that aren't oversaturated, which might make players used to Blades In The Dark or Fate more comfortable.
Dawn manages the split between combat and non-combat a little weirdly, having abilities for each that don't carry over into the other. As an example the book gives, if you can time-stop outside of combat, you can't necessarily time-stop inside of combat. However, on the flipside, Dawn's out of combat abilities use a Verb + Noun + Condition system that makes them *really* flexible and interesting to create---you can breathe ghosts while holding a certain memory in your head, or double the heat of any object you made yourself, and the system doesn't break under the sheer variety of options.
For players, Dawn is very clearly explained and full of resources and advance---both for navigating mechanical and non-mechanical parts of play.
For GMs, you'll probably have to do a little work on the setting, but there's a worldbuilding toolkit and a thorough GMing section and a complete bestiary. You'll be well supported.
Overall, I think Dawn is a gem. I've seen battlemanga ttrpgs get very mechanically intensive, and I've seem them get very high-minded and deconstructive, but Dawn hits a rare sweet spot in the middle where it's fun and breezy and still has *plenty* of tactical meat. This is a *good* game. If the phrase shounen manga ttrpg makes you groan, this might genuinely be the system that un-burns you out on the concept.
Thank you so much! I really wanted to get the feeling that this isn't parodying the genre it's based on, a trap I feel a lot of other battle manga TTRPGs fall in to. I'm really glad you like it and that you feel it's a good example.
Yeah! It feels really earnestly written, and like it gets the genre at a not just superficial level (an issue I had with BESM and some other stuff). It's super good!
I read this and I love it. It makes so much things very well.
Tysm! I feel like I've done pretty well when it comes to representing the stuff I like.