Double Cross

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Double Cross
RPG published by Fujimi Shobo/Ver. Blue Amusement
Authors	Shunsaku Yano, F.E.A.R.
First Publication	2001, 2013 (English ver.)
Essential Books	Double Cross Core Rulebook Double Cross Advanced Rulebook

Double Cross is a Japanese superhero RPG about biological monsters. It is made of random tables and weeaboo. Unlike the other Japanese RPG fa/tg/uys are familar with, the mechanics and fluff largely survive being taken out of Japan even if the books offer zero support for it. Because Japan is a horrible place where fun is considered a sign of laziness, the game is designed from the outset for one-shots over prolonged campaigns, to the point that the players are the ones who gain experience instead of the characters. PCs are random shonen protagonists infected with the Renegade Virus, which gives you superpowers but also drives you crazy and can turn you into a mindless monster if you use them too much. Oh, and approximately 80% of the world's population carries the virus; you're just one of the lucky ones who got to be a Prototype character because of it. It's currently in its third edition, which is also the only edition to have been translated into English so far.

The dice pool system Double Cross uses for checks is a little goofy; you roll a number of d10s equal to your stat, take only the highest result you rolled and then add your skill rating to get your final result. This makes a high rating in whatever skill you're trying to use much more reliable than a high stat, because even with a maxed stat there's still a significant chance of getting fucked by the dice. Rolls of 10 explode, counting as a roll of 10 plus the result from rolling the number of dice that came up 10, which can recurse infinitely until you stop rolling 10s.

Character Creation

Double Cross gives you three ways to build a character, depending on how much you want to customize.

Quick Start

Pick your favorite anime cliche from the list of pregens available and generate Personal Data (see below) for whoever you picked. Boom, you're done. Great for one-shots and trying to convince your group to play this crazy thing.

Construction

The skill-package method of character creation. Choose your Syndromes, Cover (what everyone thinks you do) and Work (what you actually do; gives you free skills and a stat bonus), then calculate your stats based on your Syndromes. Grab four powers, then distribute your five skill points. (Refreshingly, the system admits that being able to paint really well isn't as useful in an action game as shooting guns, so each point in a non-combat skill buys you two ranks.) Generate Personal Data and you're done.

Full Scratch

The GURPS method. You get a big bag of experience to spend however you want, then you generate Personal Data.

Personal Data

Here the tables be. This is where the game generates much of your character's personality for you; fortunately the book fully expects you to pick and choose instead of rolling randomly for everything. The big thing happening here from a mechanical standpoint is that this is where you build your Loises. Loises are the relationships your character has with other people and are composed of a positive emotion and a negative emotion associated with that relationship. Loises are important because they give the GM easy plot hooks and they help keep the virus from taking over your character completely. The different components of your Personal Data are:

• Origin: Your upbringing
• Experience: A defining event in your character's life
• Encounter: A relationship with a setting NPC
• Awakening: What caused the Renegade Virus to activate and turn you into a Bleach character
• Impulse: What the Renegade Virus tries to make you do; this table is full of fun things like drinking blood and torturing people so you want to avoid having to act on your Impulse

Syndromes

Renegade powers are grouped into Syndromes; you can pick one to three of them at character creation. If you only choose one, you are considered "Pure" and can access bonus powers from the Syndrome you chose. If you choose three, your power selection is limited and one must be a "Sub-Syndrome" that's even more limited.

• Angel Halo: You control light, like a non-sucky version of Jubilee. This is where invisibility goes, along with laser eyes and for some reason illusion powers that manipulate senses that aren't sight.
• Balor: You control gravity with little balls of dark matter called "evil eyes." It's exactly as potentially broken as it sounds; you go from fucking with acceleration and momentum to making time and space your bitch.
• Black Dog: You control your own bioelectricity. Shoot lightning at a fool already. This also lets you do super hacking bullshit and make cyberware that actually works, so if you want to be a cyberpunk this is where you go.
• Bram Stoker: Use of this Syndrome comes with a sweet red trenchcoat and the acting talents of Crispin Freeman. Stab a bitch with your own fucking blood or sic your Red Servants on your enemies while you give a dramatic speech about just how irretrievably fucked they are.
• Chimera: A fleshwarper is you. You want wings? Grow some wings! You want scything claws? Go nuts! This is also where the super-strength powers go, and the Syndrome you want to take if you want to turn into a bestial murder machine thanks to the Complete Therianthropy power.
• Exile: This Syndrome is also about fleshwarping yourself, but it's a lot more subtle about it. This is where things like turning your bones into rubber to crawl into impossibly tight spaces or making your nails as sharp as Wolverine's claws go. Combine with Chimera to become za ultimate shingu.
• Hanuman: GOTTA GO FAST! Everything to do with speed and sonic vibrations is in here. An all-Hanuman build is basically the Flash.
• Morpheus: This is where you go to make the law of conservation of mass your bitch. You can create objects from nothing or do things like make any car you drive Formula 1 material. Anything you make is composed of this weird sandy shit, so no 15,000,000 Gold a Day shenanigans for you. And if you want to do that, you're arguably playing Double Cross wrong.
• Neumann: A genius is you. Most of the stuff you can do is support; super mentalism, seeing the weak points in that Renegade Being's carapace, stuff like that.
• Orcus: With this Syndrome you mark out a patch of land as your Domain, and then you can do all kinds of old-school fantasy realm magic with your Domain. Make the animals in your Domain do your bidding, sense the presence of your enemies, bend space and distance to turn your Domain into Escher's wet dream or just make the earth itself stab people. Watch out for Rangers.
• Salamandra: This is where you go to make the laws of thermodynamics your bitch. Burninate dudes, freezinate dudes, burninate and freezinate dudes at the same time. Also deals with emotional control for some reason, so have fun with spontaneously inducing BURNING JUSTICE in your allies.
• Solaris: You make all the drugs. Expel super pheromones to calm down an angry mob, give people amnesia drugs so they forget why they were fighting you in the first place. Also turn the aforementioned angry mob into your drugged-up, brainwashed zombie slaves. Slaanesh approves!