Kaiju Character Discussion

Discuss your character concepts, brainstorm your pack, and ask questions here.


Sentai

Kaiju can sometimes operate in packs called sentai (the Japanese word for "squadron", "group", or "military unit"). I’m assuming your characters have formed a sentai of kaiju, and so they all know each other. That’s probably the easiest thing to do.

The setting is a place called "Monster Island" where a large number of the world’s kaiju make their home. The island is just a plot device to explain why all of your characters might be together. But if some players want their kaiju living outside of the island, that’s fine, too.

For ease of play, my assumption was that your characters are already familiar with each other and have operated as a sentai (pack) before. It’s partly how your characters have survived on Monster Island. But being a sentai doesn’t mean that you all necessarily like each other. It’s more that you’ve been forced by circumstances to work together on occasion. Your kaiju probably treat it as an arrangement of convenience. You cooperate with one another for the sake of mutual protection against more powerful kaiju that might prey on your characters separately. Other sentai exist on Monster Island, and they act like roving prison gangs of giant monsters that target the weaker residents of the Sanctuary. So as a survival strategy, it makes sense to form alliances and have backup.

The members of your sentai likely function as on-again off-again allies much in the same way as Godzilla and Mothra in the movies. You might genuinely like one another, or just tolerate each other in a sort of symbiotic relationship.


Roleplaying Considerations

Verbal communication isn't a thing with most kaiju. They generally can't talk to each other, much less to humans. However, for convenience, and because this is a game, I'm assuming that your characters can convey simple concepts to each other by using body language, vocalizations, and scents. By basic, I mean things like "attack," "retreat," "food," "enemy," "play dead," "mine," "angry," etc.

Complex ideas, on the other hand, won't really be possible for most kaiju to express. That's the tricky thing about this game. But I'm going to try to run it in a way that your characters can communicate enough info while keeping it simple.

In that way, this game is going to be a little experimental. Your characters will have to communicate through actions more than words. Or at least that's how I'm picturing it. Obviously though, if you'd rather simply be able to speak, there is a racial ability called Fully Sapient that lets you do so. However, a group of talking kaiju definitely changes the feel of the game.


Characters

Here is a list of the kaiju that have been submitted thus far...

Name: Paghol, the Scourge from Below
Origin: Mesozoic Superspecies
Motivation: Protection
Size: 16 (approx. 250 ft/76.2 m, and 8,000 tons/7,257.478 metric tonnes)
Morphology: Giant Pangolin
Current Residence: Monster Island

Name: Taclydus
Origin: Mesozoic Superspecies
Motivation: Nesting
Size: 15 (approx. 200 ft/60.96 m, and 4,000 tons/3,628.739 metric tonnes)
Morphology: Giant Pteradactyl
Current Residence: Monster Island

Name: Straj
Origin: Mesozoic Superspecies
Motivation: Curiosity
Size: 13 (approx. 125 ft/38.1 m, and 1,000 tons/907.185 metric tonnes)
Morphology: Giant Squid
Current Residence: Monster Island

Name: Omukade
Origin: Walking Natural Disaster
Motivation: Nesting
Size: 17 (approx. 300 ft/91.44 m, and 16,000 tons/14,514.956 metric tonnes)
Morphology: Giant Millipede
Current Residence: Monster Island

Name: Ink-Drinker
Origin: Living God
Motivation: Hunger
Size: 20 (approx. 600 ft/182.88 m, and 125,000 tons/113,398.092 metric tonnes)
Morphology: Giant semi-humanoid blob
Current Residence: Unknown

Name: Avolu
Origin: Walking Natural Disaster
Motivation: Destruction
Size: 16 (approx. 250 ft/76.2 m, and 8,000 tons/7,257.478 metric tonnes)
Morphology: Giant salamander
Current Residence: Unknown

Just to get an idea of where everyone is... which of you have experience with Savage Worlds and which of you don't? And if you've played Savage Worlds, have you specifically played Adventure Edition? A few of you have already mentioned this in the interest thread.

If you don't have experience with the system, it's not a problem. Savage Worlds is fairly straightforward to learn. It's not rules lite, but it's not terribly crunchy either.

I will eventually be posting a rules summary thread to help new players with the learning curve. It'll be a cheat sheet so you can look up rules as you need to. For the most part, you can learn as you go.

An important thing to note is that, in Savage Worlds, distances and movement are typically expressed in inches. This is because the system is designed on the assumption that you'll be using miniatures and a tabletop. It confuses people, sometimes. Just remember that 1" equals 2 yards/meters, so just double the inch value to get the real world measurement in yards/meters.

First, I am new to Savage Worlds and have begun some of my research.

Initial Character thoughts:

Almost immediately my thoughts went to a Flying Kaiju. Probably Reptilian/Dinosaur in origin. Focus going heavy on flight and maybe a ranged attack described as maybe some kind of sonic scream (maybe using the Cone attribute?) and using the Reduced Dexterity to work with his arms being wings with small claws at the end (maybe this could be described as a Hinderance?)

Basically I am thinking a giant Pterodactyl

I know SWADE fairly well, I used it to run a Lankhmar campaign and I am currently playing in a Savage Mars one.
(although neither of these settings was designed for SWADE, we used the new ruleset to learn it, adapting some of the NPC stats).

Interested in seeing how it adapts to such huge scales and such massive characters. I read that a 1 inch square=20 yards in this Kaiju setting, so a Pace of 6 is 120 yards! Takes a little to get used to the concept...

I’m completely new to Savage Worlds, but I’m reading through the core book as we speak/type. I’m leaning towards some kind of sea monster-esque creature, but I’m still learning and reading over the system, so my ideas are very prone to change right now.

I have made like three Savage Worlds characters, but that was back in The Day. I really need to refresh on the system - I've heard plenty about playing it, but never managed to hit the table with it myself.

My immediate instinct is to go with something like Mechagodzilla meets Evangelion - some kind of cybernetic organism, like a slain kaiju cloned around a war machine, or some attempt to harness the creature gone wrong... building the aesthetics out of that.

Ok, that all sounds good. I'll be posting setting info in the next day or so.

Do I understand this correctly. The cannot speak racial trait basically says we can talk to each other but can't really talk to humans/others?

So verbal communication isn't a thing with most kaiju. They generally can't talk to each other, much less to humans. However, for convenience, and because this is a game, I'm assuming that your characters can convey simple concepts to each other by using body language, vocalizations, and scents. By basic, I mean things like "attack," "retreat," "food," "enemy," "play dead," "mine," "angry," etc.

Complex ideas, on the other hand, won't really be possible for most kaiju to express. That's the tricky thing about this game. But I'm going to try to run it in a way that your characters can communicate enough info while keeping it simple.

In that way, this game is going to be a little experimental. Your characters will have to communicate through actions more than words. Or at least that's how I'm picturing it. Obviously though, if you'd rather simply be able to speak, there is a racial ability called Fully Sapient that lets you do so. If you'd all prefer to take Fully Sapient to verbally communicate, I don't have a problem with that.

Character concept:
Thinking of a burrower character, either worm-like (Dune, Tremors) or like an armoured Kaiju that can roll into a spiked ball like an Armadillo and spin really fast to dig through the ground.

WIP for Panghol (race abilities, origin and motivation choices only, no traits/skills/hindrances/edges yet)

Hey kaiju brethren! Looking forward to playing with you all! :)

I'm mostly new to Savage Worlds as well, and I tend to forget very nuanced rules, so please forgive an occasional failure at playing correctly. Also, I'm a non-native speaker and use incorrect grammar sometimes, but hopefully not to the point of not being understandable. Anyway, here's what I have for a concept (prior to looking for specific Edges).

I wanted to create a squid-like creature with a weak (for a kaiju) constitution and mobility, but possessing some mental powers - specifically fear-inducing, - and paralyse/poison abilities. Mental powers are already out due to rules, but hey, maybe I can find an Edge for intimidation... I'm going to look through the book to see how plausible that is today, and will return with what I ended up with.

Originally I also was thinking about having something like primitive telepathy (like sending everyone a vague image of a building I want them pay attention to, or just a feeling of my emotions to warn them of danger; maybe via touch?), but this definitely won't work without Powers. Are you sure we can't use them at all? >:D Edit: oh, maybe I can make this a Language skill of sorts?

I do have an immediate question, too: can I have Water Dependency, but a minor version? Such as it can function without water for, say, an hour instead of mere minutes?

@LeftyLovecraft, I hope you don't mind another sea monster in the party? I can change to a levitating squid if it fits better! Or we can be a sea tag team. XD

Very nice! I like it so far. Burrowers are always useful.

I am totally down with the low communication, I feel this is going to be pretty Rampage-y anyways. I am thinking maybe if we all try and make sure to word things well it will help

Example
"Kaiju name here" takes a few shorts steps towards the building before turning his head around and motioning to the others to join. Then suddenly starts running toward the structure, claws bared ready to take it down

Basically, doing everything we can to describe what we are trying to say to the others.

Can Kaiju that are not Fully Sapient understand verbal communication?

I have no issue with you taking a minor form of the Water Dependency Hindrance if you want to be able to leave the water for brief periods. That's fine with me.

As for Powers, I'd need to think about that. All of these kaiju rules were taken from a PDF that I own, and the PDF says to prohibit kaiju from taking Arcane Backgrounds or Powers. That said, I'm not against it in theory. Tokusatsu films show kaiju using all sorts of ridiculous powers. For instance, Godzilla apparently could fly, had telepathy, and could magnetize himself. So I might be open to certain powers being available to players if they purchase the Power racial ability. But I want to make sure the kaiju don't become sorcerers, either. Let me get back to you about it.

Yes, as long as it isn't something especially complicated. The simpler, the better.

I am having some trouble getting ideas for my Hinderances/Edges does anyone have any ideas?

Basically giant Pterodactyl,

So far I was thinking Cautious (Minor) but that is about it

Cautious because if you look at Birds, they are fairly cautious creatures. flying dinosaur, would be cautious too

Yeah it’s tough since a lot of the Hindrances don’t really fit, or you can represent them with negative racial abilities.

Cautious works. You could also take Enemy to represent a kaiju rival. Can’t Swim might work, since I bird probably won’t do well in water.

I’ll see if I can find some more and post them. But don’t feel obligated to take Hindrances. Negative racial abilities can work well enough for that.

Yeah maybe Can't Swim.

I was thinking with those two Hinderances maybe Extraction Edge? A flyer, should probably be able to get the heck outta Dodge unless there is some of the setting specific ones you haven't posted yet that would fit better

Hello everyone!

I started GM'ing Deadlands and 50 Fathoms, using SWADE, last Fall until the pandemic hit, first in person and then through Fantasy Grounds. So pretty familiar with the rules. If you have any questions, or need help updating the rules section, let me know.

As for my character, I was thinking of a Living God, w. Human Approved and maybe Vain Glorious. Cliche as heck, but a giant ape or wolf/King Kong type of Kaiju, ala Rampage, would be up my alley. (And I thought SW Rifts was OP lol).