Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
(+2)

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.

(+1)

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!