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Stormfalcon gave a pretty good summary. It's not really my cup of tea (my tastes now lean towards more structures RPGs), but what I always tell people is that OVA is what BESM 1e tried to be and never quite pulled off. It's very much the rules-light, "system doesn't matter" approach of BESM (so you want a group that really brings it for role-playing), but the base rules are put together a little better IMHO. I did use it for an extended campaign, but my players pretty much broke the system, and if I used it again it would be more for shorter stuff.

Incidentally, I wound up talking to Clay the other day on AIM, and he's working on a revised version of OVA, though it's taking time to get the art and such sorted out.

Games that I want brought to America:

Meikyuu Kingdom
Alshard ff

(Tabletop RPGs, by the way.)

[Japanese Tabletop RPGs:]

I have two that I'd like to do:

Japanese Tabletop RPGs: I have the odd distinction of being responsible for Maid RPG being the first Japanese tabletop RPG to come out in English, and by the time FanimeCon 2009 rolls around another one called Tenra Bansho Zero will be out. I'd like to do a panel talking about the (tiny little) Japanese TRPG scene; what kinds of games are out there, what the hobby culture is like, and how all of the above are different from the U.S.

Japanese for Anime Fans 101: I've been thinking about this for a while, but basically it would be a panel on learning the Japanese language, concentrating on tips and tricks to help learners.

Well, if you look at the history of D&D, the original version of the rules was very vague, and people pretty much had to houserule and generally make stuff up. That also meant that the ways people played would vary radially from area to area and group to group. The stereotype is that in D&D you kill things and take their stuff, but some people were actually trying to avoid combat unless it directly furthered their main objective (getting a certain treasure or some such).

With the release of AD&D, Gary Gygax wrote a big long rant in Dragon magazine saying how if you houserule, you're not playing "real" AD&D, but needless to say there's been a tendency towards tinkering that hasn't gone away. These days game designers tend to be of the opinion that a game shouldn't need house rules out of the box to work (which is a no-brainer, really), though that doesn't mean you can't change things if you want.

I'm finishing up an M.A. in Japanese and I'm a freelance translator, so I like to think I'm pretty decent, though I'm better with written than spoken.

I'm going to be attending AX, Comic-Con, and GenCon Indy this year. I have never attended so many cons in one year, and I don't think I want to make a habit of it. ^_^; For better or for worse I have professional reasons for attending all three.

That said I might go to Sac-Anime, if only because I have a friend who lives in Sacramento who I hardly get to see... But it is around the end of August.

[bad]

The blogger here seems to (1) have a vendetta against AX, and (2) be mired in 4chan speak. Neither of which makes me confident that they're being unbiased.

I'm just reminded of my families reaction when I told them about where Fanime was.  Have I mentioned that my family is from San Jose (Campbell specifically) and I was raised there till I was about 8?  Yeah, well when I told them where Fanime was held they ALL flipped out and told me it was a bad area and suggested I make sure I was secure and bring pepper spray.  I've been to Fanime for 3 years now and I've never felt less than safe.

Jeez. I grew up in downtown San Jose. I can't see how you'd find much in the way of trouble around here unless you make a serious effort to find it. There are some weirdos around the Paseo de San Antonio light rail station at night, but in my experience you have to get a lot higher in the numbered streets before you reach anywhere questionable. Immediately around the convention center is like a dead zone where only businessmen tread under normal circumstances.

[every]

I played a little bit of 3rd edition with my friends. We're gearing up to play 4th edition some once we get things more organized. The new edition has a lot of people up in arms, but then every new edition did that. My impression is that it's an incredibly good game for running a combat-focused dungeon crawling game. A lot of people wanted to have a more flexible game, but to me it means that D&D is concentrating on the one thing it actually does better than the other games out there. That's actually why I'm keen on playing it now even though I kind of lost interest in 3rd edition (aside from the fact that it looks like they've drastically reduced GM prep time); it'll be a novel experience for me to play a game that emphasizes combat quite that much.

The main thing I like, apart from the fact that it's much simpler overall, is that the game is very balanced. Every class lets you have something to do all the time. A wizard can use up his big time juju in 4e, but he'll still at least be able to lend a hand with magic missiles and such (since they're now considered an at-will power), and a fighter always has more interesting things to try than just "I slash at him." (Yes there are feats that give more options in 3e, but in 4e it's just not possible to create a fighter without him having some nifty encounter and daily powers to work with).

You can't win? Then how do you finish it?

Tabletop role-playing games are generally open-ended. You get together with your friends and tell stories, moderated by the rules. The game's rules don't tell you when to stop. (There are some exceptions, like My Life With Master, Polaris, Bliss Stage, etc. that have explicit rules for an endgame, but those are very experimental indie RPGs).

I'm still doing some fine-tuning on Raspberry Heaven, but the first playtest went pretty smoothly. I think messing with cards in the middle of the scene lowers the level of immersion, but I think that works to the game's favor in terms of keeping it light and free-flowing. IMO it's actually not a game that would benefit from deep immersion in the first place, so it's purposely tilted away from "my guy" and more towards "our story." I did a revision to make it so that no two Special Moves overlap (and made some more useful), but I want to do something with the turn order for playing cards.

Speaking of Naruto (and its ilk) I've also been working on a fighting shonen manga RPG tentatively titled "Zero Breakers." It ditches a lot of stuff from your typical RPG formula, but I like how it's turning out so far. Here are some of the blog posts about/leading up to it: 1 2 3

(And there's also this thing called Maid RPG...).

I'm looking for a place within walking distance of the convention center where I can get some cookies or cupcakes on Sunday morning.  Any ideas?

Zanotto's supermarket is the best I can think of off the top of my head. It's at 2nd and Santa Clara IIRC.

Sounds good to me. I can borrow a friends' 3.5 books long enough to make a character at least. I'd prefer to play something simple (i.e., without much in the way of spells).

Saturday isn't that great for me since I really want to attend the premiere of Studio Sokodei's new movie (which I helped with!) and the masquerade (whenever that is...).

Also, would anyone be up for giving Maid RPG a try?

I actually started trying to design RPG stuff well before Neko Machi. :3 But anyway.

I think to design a full game you really need to have some idea what the rules are going to do. It also helps to think about what they're going to do that other games haven't done before. The design process always involves coming up with new ideas to accomplish stuff as you go along (that's my favorite part, really), and occasionally tossing stuff out and rethinking the game.

So with Raspberry Heaven I was making a list of different anime genres to try doing in RPG form, and it occurred to me that a game based on Azumanga Daioh and other slice of life anime shows could be fun. After much writing, throwing most of the stuff out and doing a rewrite (focusing on telling a story rather than seeing who succeeds at stuff), and two playtests, it's starting to come together (though it needs more work and more playtesting).

RPG design is like creative writing in that there are few actual rules to follow, but I recommend having a strong concept to guide you, both in terms of the story and the rules. The rules should evolve and the story concept can mutate, but you need some kind of image to work towards for both.

That is an exceedingly broad question, really. The first thing I would suggest is to read and play a variety of games, in a variety of styles. Mainstream stuff like D&D and Exalted, and weird indie stuff as found on Indie Press Revolution. It's kind of like creative writing in that there's no one way to go about it. Also, whatever you might try to design, playtest the hell out of it.

Maid RPG is weird in Japan too. (Japanese RPGs tend more towards anime/manga action awesomeness). But it's also a blast to play. :3

I'd be up for this. I'm not really all that up on D&D (I played 3e a decent amount when it first came out, but haven't touched 3.5), but still, sounds like fun. Pretty much any time that doesn't conflict with the masquerade and such would be fine.

Also, I'm kind of working on translating what will be the first ever Japanese TRPG put out in English, Maid RPG. It's not going to be totally ready until GenCon, but I already have enough done that I could bring a printout of the rules and run a session or two at Fanime if enough people are interested. It's a lot of fun, and not quite like anything you've ever seen.

For figuring out where places are located, Yelp.com is your friend.

I've been wondering if there's any good place to find katsudon within walking distance of the con? I've been dying for katsudon for ages now, and can't find anywhere that serves it where I live.

IIRC Hydration does.

There's also Smile Sushi, which is a decent and affordable Japanese sit-down restaurant.

For Indian food, there's a place called Tandoori Oven near the theater. The portions are big -- a full dinner can probably feet two -- and the chicken wrap is awesome. OTOH, Indian food is never easy on the digestive system...

Actually, in that general vicinity there's the Pita Pit (good pitas), Lollicup (average Hawaiian BBQ), a sit-down Thai restaurant, a Chinese fast-food place, Johnny Rocket's... I'm probably forgetting some, but there's a lot.

Well, I have a heck of a time getting playtesting done myself (the regular campaign tends to eat up what little free time people have for role-playing). Comments informed by playtesting are much *more* helpful, but impressions from just reading stuff can be useful too. (I'd be happy to look at your stuff, but I can't make any promises about playtesting, considering).

Right now I'm trying to get some revisions done to Thrash, Tokyo Heroes, and Raspberry Heaven. And I'm contemplating a zanier cousin to RH that'd be more along the lines of Pani Poni Dash and Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei, called something like "Dandelion Complex". But finals are going to keep me from getting too much done with all of the above for a while yet.

It's a little early for me to commit to anything just yet, but I'm thinking of putting on a panel about Japanese tabletop RPGs, and I may have a game to run in English too.

[Year #15]

Fanime 2008 will be Year #15 for me..  damn, i feel old.   :P haha

I'm only one year behind you. 2008 will be #14 for me. :3

You know, A-Kon actually banned signs (unless they were specifically part of a costume, like if you were dressed up as panda Genma or something) starting in 2005. It was actually more to do with people with signs crowding a narrow skyway (if you saw it, you'd be worried about the fire department shutting the con down). Some people were worried that enforcing it would create all kinds of issues, but no, the con went very smoothly over all, and the lack of fanboy panhandlers and attention whores was a plus.