Digimon: Digital Adventures
Digimon is a franchise based upon a boy-version of Tamagotchi which are like electronic pets, except in Digimon's case, these pets can evolve into a flying cybernetic dinosaur with nipple nukes to ridiculously hot female angels. Oh yeah and Digimon is usually aimed at older kids and young teenagers, so those aspects could be seen as its selling points. Another selling point is its anime which are noted to be one of the most adult and mature anime series that is still aimed at kids. Heck, one series is noted to be so dark it is nicknamed as the Evangelion for kids. So far the franchise has seen a resurgence through a series of animated films called Digimon Adventure Tri which is essentially nostalgia packaged as a film.
Calling it or referencing it in the same context with Pokemon is considered as Heresy to the Digimon fandom and is subjected to immediate Exterminatus.
The Basics
Digimon: Digital Adventures is a roleplaying game based around the Digimon franchise. It is a system still in development (currently at Beta .08 edition for the original version, and at Beta .09 for the edited version). Characters play humans partnered up with digital beings of immense power, with a common goal (generally of saving one if not multiple worlds).
A 'create-a-monster' type system based on Shadowrun, Digimon: Digital Adventures (DDA) utilizes pools of six-sided dice for Skill Checks and Combat. Players (and the GM), create their humans and monsters from scratch using a point-buy set of creation rules.
Character Creation Summary
Disclaimer: the following information is for the edited version.
Humans
Humans are created using a set of Attributes and Skills. Attributes cover general stats (Body, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower, and Charisma). Skills help to cover more specific aspects of the Attribute tree they're assigned to (for example, Body has Athletics, Endurance, and Feats of Strength, and Intelligence has Computer, Decipher Intent, and Knowledge.). Players assign a set number of points at Creation to increase these Stats, based on the age of their character (younger characters start off with less Stat points), and may spend Experience Points to increase these Stats later on, up to a set Cap assigned based on the Character's Age.
Humans also require at least one Torment at creation. A Torment is anything that might haunt the character or be a legitimate hindrance on them and plays a mechanical role in the system, as well as aiding to help flesh out a flawed character concept a bit better. Torments come with three classifications: Minor, Major, and Terrible. Each one has its own set of guidelines.
Humans are also allowed three Aspects, three things that describe them as a person that further helps flesh out a character concept. An Aspect is something that describes a character, such as 'funny fat guy' or 'wise beyond their years'. Aspects not only help create a more rounded character, but also have a mechanical effect. If a scenario would gain a benefit from an Aspect, the roll gains a bonus. Meanwhile, if a situation would be hindered by the Aspect in question, the roll takes a penalty. For example, a character who has the 'wise beyond their years' Aspect, might gain a bonus to solving a difficult puzzle, but take a penalty to trying to convince others to do what they need to do.
Digimon
Digimon have a base pool of "DP" (short for Digi-Points) which they can spend on a 1-for-1 basis on Stats (Damage, Armor, Accuracy, Dodge, and Health), or Qualities. Qualities are more in-depth mechanical bonuses that Digimon can purchase, such as improved Movement, resistance to Status Effects, or other more specialized capabilities.
A Digimon's Stage determines how much Base DP it has to spend at creation. The Stages are Fresh, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega, and Burst, in order from weakest to strongest. This deviates from the main franchise, where Super Ultimate or Ultra is the highest Stage canonically, with Burst Mode only appearing in Savers. This was changed for DDA in order to avoid confusion with the weaker Ultimate stage.
A Digimon's Stage also determines various other factors, such as it's base Movement and Brains, as well as how many Attacks it is allowed to have. Digimon are allotted a Size Tag, which will effect various mechanical aspects, and have three Derived Stats (Body, Brains, Agility), which will effect various rolls they make.
Combat Basics
Initiative is determined by rolling 3D6 and adding the Digimon's Agility Stat. Turn Order goes in descending Order.
DDA uses Pools of D6's determined by the Dodge and Accuracy Stats when Attacking or Defending. The Attacker rolls their Accuracy Stat (and adds in various Bonuses to the Pool) and sets aside the Successful Dice (rolls of 5 or 6 from the total pool rolled). The Defender rolls their Dodge in response and also sets aside their successes. If the Attacker has less successes than the Defender, it's a miss. If the Attack hits, the leftover Accuracy Dice are added to the Damage, determined by the Attacker's Damage+Leftover Accuracy, subtracted from the Defender's Armor Stat. The Net Damage is taken away from the Defender's Wound Boxes (fancy word for Hit Points). If a Digimon is brought to 0 or less Wound Boxes, it is either destroyed, or reverts to its lowest Stage, or into a Digi-Egg, essentially being made useless either way.
Other combat actions includes Clashing, in which 2 targets compare their body score in order to pin one another and get free attacks and Summoning/Conjuring, wherein the user Summons allies or Conjures inanimate objects to help them fight.
There may be additional effects due to Qualities that do things such as add an AOE, a status effect, or other more specific effects.
Humans may also take part in combat, either directly as combatants, or with an incredibly diverse array of support actions. Depending on the GM, Humans may even be able to make Skill Checks to do non combat actions, such as Knowledge to spot weaknesses, Survival to use the environment to your advantage, Bravery to distract the enemy, and anything you can think of.
New vs. Old
The original system creator was the Digimon Emperor, however, ceased production of the system sometime in late 2012. The versions of the system went up to .08.
In 2015, the system was picked up by a new fan, TM93, who is currently working on updating the system, clarifying, and adding in more rules for the system (examples include the addition of Burst level, the addition of Sanity and Inspiration rules, and the Digizoid Quality section, as well as various other fixes and additions). TM93 is still working on updating the system as frequently as possible, and maintaining a blog and forum site for the system. The new version goes up to .09.
As of 2020, the newest system goes up to 1.4, featuring a plethora of improvements and design changes. 1.4 is being developed by RKD, with the system undergoing small changes over time. This is what is currently used by the majority of the community.
Links
- Character Sheets
The Seasons of Every Digimon Anime Ever
It is of no surprise that a franchise going as long as Digimon is bound to have a good number of seasons dedicated to its anime. Most of which are completely different from one another which makes Digimon into a multiverse akin to Marvel and DC. Hence these are are the opinionated belief from the fandom on the season's brief plot synopsis. It may contain some spoilers so you have been warned.
Digimon Adventure
The first season of Digimon and the original OG that started it all. Digimon Adventure started off as your usual run of the mill adventure story of a group of kids being transplanted to a foreign and alien world and must find ways to defeat the main bad guy and go back to their world. Simple and cliche stuff that you will see in quite of number of kids shows of a similar genre. However shit really starts flying after the Etemon arc when the Four Dark Masters make their appearance. Here the whimsical and exploratory themes and attitude of the show start to become darker, more adult and serious for a kids show.
How adult are we talking about? Well we are talking about multiple depictions of public executions, attempted child murder, on-screen deaths of supporting characters, psychological trauma, physical and mental abuse, grief-induced despair, domestic terrorism on public property, actual swearing of "Bitch" and "Damn" and infanticide of Digimon children....Yikes....Ironically, despite these implications that such dark showings of a kids anime may lose public appeal, it actually did the opposite and Digimon soon became a contender and rival to Pokemon. So many Digimon fans owe immense debt and gratitude for the first season's contribution in popularizing Digimon to outside markets.
The first season also had the most iconic characters and Digimons. Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Mimi, Joe, Izzy, TK and Kari are still remembered fondly by the fandom as well as their respective Digimons. So if you talked to a Digimon fan on who is their favorite character is, chances are that at least several of them are going to name some from the first season. Also (in)famous for the Digimon Rap song which will never, ever leave your heads once you hear it. However the Japanese songs are pretty kick ass and has a surprising selection of good rock songs for a kids show.
Digimon Adventure 02
The second season and a sequel of the original Digimon Adventure season. A really contentious one at that, but it was really less to do with the overall plot and more to do with the base-breaking conclusion on which character is shipped with which and the overall characterization of the new cast members. I mean, we can kind of credit 02 into giving us one of the most intense ship battles in history, which is more impressive as it is still aimed at kids...mostly. For those who don't know, shipping usually means the approved marriage/relationship of two characters by the fandom, not actual commercial shipping.
As previously mentioned, the characterization of the new cast of Digimon Adventure 02 was rather divided. Whilst the original Digidestines has already grew up into high school, the new cast save for Kari and TK has proven to be rather unpopular when they first appeared. With the exception of Ken, the new cast has been criticized for either being too similar to the original leads, annoying, boring or completely useless.
Despite the criticisms however, 02 has been commended for creating an incredibly tragic and sympathetic villain and rather kick ass evolution cutscenes. Whilst less dark then the first season, 02 still has its fair share of adult and creepy-as-fuck moments. This includes but is not limited to....attempted child murder (Trust us this is going to be a consistent theme in the franchise), eldritch abominations, rather brutal and violent deaths for the villains, slavery, racial supremacy, attempted public executions on kids, racism, megalomania, mind rape, psychological torture, physical abuse, mental breakdowns and a Cthulhu lookalike who wanted to rape, copulate and sexually impregnate an 11 year old girl...ew....
Digimon Tamers
The third season and the first to be based on a completely separate universe from the OG season. Sometimes labeled as the best season in Digimon tied with Digimon Adventure, Tamers was well praised for its incredibly dark, depressing and adult way it handles trauma and loss towards kids. Often called the Evangelion of 'Mons' for a VERY GOOD REASON, Tamers gained a reputation for its unforgiving and absolutely brutal way of story and character developments. I mean there is a reason why it is in the Grimdark list.
An interesting aspect to take note here is that whilst Tamers is set in a different universe, the season of Digimon Adventures is still cannon within the Tamers Universe, except Digimon Adventures is now seen as a fictional anime series...within a fictional anime series. Anyways Tamers was the beginning of which Humans can merge with their partner Digimons, however thankfully it wasn't done to the excess of diluting Digimon's core principles unlike Frontier which we would get on later. Furthermore, Tamers is noted for being incredibly film noir-esque, with its Jazz background music, grey and black morality, more grim tone, adult themes and bittersweet ending. It is quite unsurprising where it got its depressing reputation from. That and it is possibly one of the few kids shows that does film noir appropriate for its demographic.
Overall whilst Digimon Tamers starts off in a similar light to the previous two seasons, it quickly descends into cosmic horror story. Seriously this is what happens when you give the directive element to a guy who made Serial Experiments Lain. Yes we are serious, we aren't joking here, the guy who made one of the most fucked up psychological horror anime also did the entire plot for a kids show. Holy Fuck. Suffice to say, it gave some kids a lot of nightmares and it gave some kids a ruined childhood. We don't need to list the Grimdark elements as it has already been listed in the Grimdark page. Digimon Tamers is one of those series that can be both watched by kids and adults and it would end up disturbing and scarring both demographics in the process.
Oh yeah, Tamers is also credited for giving us Renamon, possibly the most searched and prolific Digimon within the Furry community. Don't know who Renamon is? Well she is that yellow, bipedal fox lady you see when you search up Furry porn to jerk off. Yep, she is the most sexually drawn Digimon to the point she reached meta status. There is actual people who know of Renamon but do not know the franchise she came from....yeah...on behalf of the Digimon community, we apologize for giving the Furry fandom the equivalent of a Grade A Pornstar.
Digimon Frontier
Wooooboy! Here is the fourth season of Digimon. Digimon Frontier can be safely said to be the beginning of Digimon's decline in the outside world and even in Japan itself. You know the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Yeah this idiom could be a potential life saver of any franchise because what Frontier did was considered as Heresy by the majority of the Digimon fandom. You know how previously we said that Tamers was the first time a Digimon can merge with a Human, but it wasn't done too excessive and still retained the Digimon identity? Yeah...Frontier was the one that went way overboard with the entire concept. Suffice to say, the fandom was PISSED.
I mean it wasn't enough that Frontier has a somewhat slow start and a rather underwhelming ending, the very fact that the core element of Digimon which was the whole 'One Person is partnered with One Digimon schtick'; has been changed which fired off some heated debates. The reason why this caught so much fire was because the whole partner Digimon thing was part of the key pillars that made up the Digimon identity, sure other 'Mon' franchises also has partnered monsters, but for Digimon, they allowed further complex characterization and character development between the Partner and Digimon that made it stand out from the rest.
Suffice to say, the removal of this element and making the Humans into Digimons turned many fans off as it bears too much resemblance to Super Sentai (Power Rangers for you Americans). Sure Frontier had a intimidating villain which is based upon the literal biblical Devil himself and had some mature elements, but unfortunately the villain was seen by many as a wasted potential causing immense Rage among the fandom. By far one of the weakest in the series. Frontier literally single-handedly became the mistake of what not to do towards future Digimon seasons.
Digimon Savers
With the epic Fail that was Frontiers, Digimon took a few years hiatus to come up with the fifth season. Whilst still divisive, Savers was commended for returning mostly back to its roots. Unlike the previous seasons, Savers was noted for giving birth to Marcus Damian, possibly the most over-the-top, badass and hilariously overpowered main character in the Digimon franchise. Even those who hated the season admits that Marcus was a one man wonder and easily stole the show in every fucking episode and would not be so out of place in a Shounen anime. Seriously this is the guy who PUNCHED KAIJU-SIZED DIGIMON IN THE FACE AND BEAT THEM UNTIL THEY GET A CONCUSSION! There is one time when this motherfucker-in-chief PUNCHED GOD TO DEATH! WE AIN'T FUCKING JOKING HERE! This motherfucker was the One Punch Man before One Punch Man existed! Khorne would be so proud of him.
Additionally Digimon Savers was noted to have a radically different art style then previous seasons, possessing a more mature look like those of 'mainstream' anime and having more mature looking characters. The theme was also completely different, unlike the more adventurous theme of the previous seasons, Savers emanated more on a detective/investigative cops-and-robbers style approach. This gave Savers not only a unique art style but a unique and fresh plot as well. Oh yeah and it was also the first time that Digimon has a main villain that was a human too. A very despicable bastard indeed.
Savers also returned with its mature and dark elements with only Tamers and Adventure Tri surpassing it. Seriously it was darker then even the original Digimon Adventure. Savers showcase Nazi-esque "Shoot-to-Kill" genocide, racism, racial supremacy, a fucking race war, bigotry, mental trauma, airstrikes on civilian populations, domestic terrorism and property damage, psychological abuse, PTSD on a child, mass pointless killing, infanticide on Digimon babies, deep seated social problems, child abductions, multiple deaths of supporting and main characters, survival guilt, mind rape, attempted child murder, political backstabbings, really vicious physical violence (95% of which we can thank Marcus for), blood, summary executions and showcasing one of the most disgusting, horrifying and monstrous humans in the entire franchise. Digimon Savers resembles more like a war film with some detective noir elements in it. It was at this time when Digimon started to shift their demographics from young kids to older adult men.
Digimon Xros Wars
Just when you thought Digimon was getting back on track with Savers, Xros Wars came back to fuck everything up. Whilst the first and two arcs of Xros Wars was passable enough, the Hunters arc unfortunately came in to fuck with consistency. Much rage came in from the fandom. The main defining problem with Xros Wars was that it had no idea what it was trying to be.
On one hand, Xros Wars looks more like a kids show especially in contrast to the more mature looking Digimon Savers, with a more childish Digimon design (Seriously one of them is a toy-looking robot dinosaur, the other is literally a toy). On the other hand, Xros wars has way, WAY too many fanservice. Don't get us wrong, we love our fanservice and the Digimon franchise does not shy away from fanservice, but when fanservice has too much focus and starts to distract the plot. Then we have a problem. Poor boys who watched the show would probably have a very confused boner.
Digimon Xros Wars unlike the previous seasons focus on... well... actual wars between combating factions in the Digital World. Making Xros Wars technically even more like a war film than Savers, however in actuality it has less of the mature and dark themes prevalent in Savers to make it resemble the war film it is trying to be. As stated before, the first two arcs of Xros Wars were tolerable, it's only when Hunters arrived did Xros Wars slumped into popularity and, like Frontier, was regarded as one of the weakest in the series.
Digimon Adventure Tri
With the clusterfuck that was Xros Wars came Adventure Tri to save everything. Boy do we get fist full of Nostalgic fanservice of the good kind. The return of the original Adventure cast after a decade of their absence was a warm welcomed change after the disaster that was Xros Wars. Furthermore Adventure Tri gained actual hype that was not seen since Tamers, meaning that Digimon is getting a comeback.
In Adventure Tri, our original heroes has grown up to become almost adults and as Adventure Tri is is aimed towards the original fans of the series who are already adults by now, it creates a very close relationship between the fans and the characters. Additionally since it is now aimed squarely for adults, Adventure Tri is quickly ramping up to become one of the darkest and creepiest of the franchise, rivaling Tamers in some areas and even surpassing it. Adventure Tri and Tamers are both in the list of the Grimdark section for a good reason.
An interesting thing that separates Adventure Tri from the rest is that it is both a movie and an anime series at the same time. It is basically a series of films, each of which are broken down into episodic formats when viewed online. This of course creates pacing issues and inconsistency of plot developments. Despite criticism of the lack teasing of the 02 cast and the overall creepy and sexual predator overtones of one of the series' original mentor and father figure, reviews for Adventure Tri has been largely positive.
Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters
A somewhat weird softcore reboot of the entire franchise, Digimon Universe was a series that came roughly around the same time as Digimon Adventure Tri, meaning we technically had two Digimon series during 2016-2017. Digimon Universe differed from the rest of the franchise by not featuring any Digimon at all...well...technically they are called 'Appmon' now and a particular Digimon did appear as a special cameo for fanservice reasons. As you can tell, Digimon Universe was the biggest change to the franchise since Digimon Frontier and you can just guess how the fandom reacted to it.
Basically, Digimon Universe is set in modern times when instead of Digital Monsters being born from some techno-babble of the Interwebs or from a Tamagotchi game, they are born from digital applications you find on your smartphones. Suffice to say, in terms of reboot, it didn't actually diverged too much, with only the names being switched (Example, AR Field = Digital Field, Deep Web = Dark Ocean, Surface Web = Digital World, Appmon = Digimon, etc.). Hence why it is called a 'softcore' reboot. In terms of plot, it is basically your cliche 'evil A.I. wants to take over the world in the name of perfection', and if you are already feeling bored I can't blame you. One of the biggest criticisms of this series is that it has a slow, SLOW start. Seriously, you can skip all the way up to episode 28 and you wouldn't miss anything important. The villains from the first arc is nothing more than filler and it is not helped that the main characters are pretty one dimensional. Speaking of the main characters, another chief complaint is that half of the cast are barely tolerable, with the other half being so excruciatingly obnoxious it makes the 02 cast seem quite reasonable. This had mostly to do with them saying their catchphrase one too many fucking times, it seriously grates on your ears once you reach episode 4.
Nonetheless, despite its initial flaws, the series does indeed start picking up the slack with various hints on a pretty decent plot twist and it's rather refreshing seeing new Digimon APPMON designs that aren't an abomination of lens flares and rejected Transformer look-a-likes (Looking at you Xros Wars). Furthermore, it is quite the hilarity on how the series tried their best to steer as far away as possible from the heavily hinted closet homosexuality going on between the main characters, only for it to fail big time and ended up making the situation worse. That, and despite being one of the most kid-friendly of the franchise, we can give the series props from not shying away from dark and adult stuff such as betrayal, death, the question of humanity, identity and some seriously fucked up shit during the climax of the show (Hint. It involves humans and a digital blender).
All in all, Digimon Universe was a relatively harmless series. It may take some getting use to as well as skipping half way through the series due to all the filler, but once the ball gets rolling, it holds up quite modestly.
External Links
- http://digimondarpg.proboards.com/ (old forums, currently inactive)
- http://digimondda.proboards.com/ (old forums, currently inactive)
- http://digimon-digital-adventures.tumblr.com/ (Old, currently inactive)
- https://discord.gg/qfn5tu9 (Public Discord, behave or die)
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eWdAab2lSzjP9XAPqYPVbzw4VcsqMUorCJ5UrrpQBto/edit?usp=sharing (Current System)
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dtx1U119L012Iwv-nPouF6DWYcPsqAjnd9jOrcjkCI0/edit#gid=637703777 (Current AutoSheet with Roll20 macros)
Gallery
 | This article contains PROMOTIONS! Don't say we didn't warn you. |
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Did we mention that this was for kids? Talk about giving the boys an 'early roost'.
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How to ruin someone's childhood. Have the series' father figure start sexually assaulting one of the series' main heroines.
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Despite its dark themes. Tamers has its...fairshare of weird moments.
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Yeah....Xros Wars...not sure how you got away with American censorship on this one.
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She's practically a young teenager...not that would matter to some.
