TEXT: Pure Shoujo RPG
  Mendel Schmiedekamp
  May 9, 2007
  The world is a twisted and confusing place.
  Complex relationships based on misunderstandings
  and hidden passions abound.
  No one seems to
  ever get to the bottom of things and anyone who
  seems to solve all their problems inevitably ends up
  with even more complicated ones. Regretful mis-
  understandings, hopeful pining, and vicious feuds
  abound. However, it could be worse, much worse.
  And in the world of True Shoujo, it is.
  Here love triangles merge and transform to poly-
  gons beyond mortal understanding.
  Here enemy
  becomes friend, lover, and then enemy once again.
  The complications seem driven by the need to con-
  volute anything and anyone. As if some gods where
  having fun at the poor mortal’s expense. And in-
  deed you are.
  The Basics
  Pure Shoujo is a roleplaying game where each player
  plays one or more characters, and they build up
  and break down relationships, friendly, vicious, or
  romantic. In the process characters slowly grow as
  they navigate the stormy seas of their fellow char-
  acters. Unlike most roleplaying games none of the
  players needs to be singled out to provide the plot of
  the game, as the plot is built almost exclusively by
  the interaction of the characters. One of the players
  should be selected as the dealer. The dealer’s job
  is to deal the cards and roll the scenes. As a perk
  the dealer can also tie break for votes the players
  make.
  If everyone agrees, the dealer can have more au-
  thority, selecting scenes rather than rolling them,
  and generally arbitrating.
  This can work well if
  the dealer needs to help keep the peace and oth-
  erwise drive the game. However, dealers shouldn’t
  take this as an invitation to abuse this power, ulti-
  mately you are one of the players, don’t forget that
  responsibility comes with your authority.
  Pure Shoujo primarily uses two types of dice,
  six-sided (d6) and twelve-sided (d12), and a deck
  of standard playing cards (without jokers). A stan-
  dard roll (or just a roll) is simply a roll of a d6 and
  a d12, adding the two numbers rolled. A match is
  when the two dice rolled show the same value. A
  draw is simply a draw from the deck of cards. A
  vote is a majority vote amongst all players present,
  usually by show of hands, counted by the dealer.
  Votes are typically used to decide if a relationship
  between two characters fulﬁlls the requirements set
  out for it and to prevent actions by a character that
  signiﬁcantly violate their concept.
  Making a Character
  First, determine the gender and concept of the char-
  acter.
  This may or may not be predetermined
  by various cards, for example a King requires the
  player to introduce a male character. Optionally
  these restrictions can be waived and characters can
  introduce characters of either gender. The concept
  should be simple and ﬁt the setting, this is meant
  to be the ﬁrst glance we get of the character, how
  does he or she seem to the rest of the world.
  Second determine the starting virtues of the
  character. The virtues are:
  • Honor - ability to hold to a course of action
  and avoid temptations.
  • Cunning - creativity and underhandedness.
  • Discernment - understanding of other’s ac-
  tions and motives.
  • Passion - emotional intensity and drive.
  • Style - how you carry yourself and inﬂuence
  others.
  • Beauty - physical attractiveness and skill in
  using it.
  • Prowess - physical ability and skill.
  There are three ways to determine virtues:
  1
  
  • Random:
  roll four four-sided dice adding
  them together for each virtue. This method
  is fast and allows for a great variety of char-
  acters.
  • Semi-Random: roll two d6 adding them to-
  gether for each virtue. Distribute another 15
  points among the virtues. This allows a little
  more control over the character, no virtue can
  be above 16.
  • Deterministic: distribute 60 points over the
  virtues, none can be lower than 2, and none
  higher than 16. This allows for the greatest
  control, but takes far too long and is not sug-
  gested for novice players.
  Third, choose three specialties, these are areas
  under each virtue which the character excels.
  For example:
  • Prowess specialties like strength or quickness.
  • Honor specialties like calm or resistant.
  • Passion specialties like poetry or fearless.
  Then choose three secrets your character holds
  dear. They needn’t be very important to anyone
  else, but should be at least a little embarrassing if
  revealed.
  One secret should be about his or her
  family, one about how he or she was when grow-
  ing up, and the third should relate to some more
  recent event. If you can’t think of a secret for one
  of these, you can start playing the character and
  write it down later. You can even change the secrets
  during game, especially if one of them becomes re-
  vealed.
  Lastly draw two cards and place them face down
  on the character sheet. These card will describe a
  relationship you had in the past with one of the
  other characters.
  Cutting the Cards
  At the start of each Pure Shoujo game each player
  receives a hand of one card plus one for each char-
  acter they are currently playing. In addition, each
  time the dice roll a match the player who rolled it
  may draw a card. If they rolled 1 and 1, the player
  may give the card to another player, who must take
  it, if they rolled a 6 and a 6, they may draw two
  cards and choose which one they keep.
  Each of the cards indicates an action or change
  in relationships which fulﬁlls the card:
  • King: Introduce a male character.
  • Queen: Introduce a female character.
  • Jack: A character leaves, or if you have only
  one, introduce a character of either gender.
  • 10: Unrequited love - one sided True Love.
  • 9: Best of Enemies - turn an enemy or neme-
  sis to friend or better.
  • 8: This Means War - gain or change nemesis
  • 7: Physical Relationship - acquire SO, based
  on physical attraction.
  • 6: Just Friends - drop an SO to a friend or
  enemy.
  • 5: Budding Friendship - make a friend.
  • 4: Immediate Dislike - make an enemy.
  • 3: Platonic Relationship - acquire SO, based
  on emotional attraction.
  • 2: Going Steady - elevate a friend to an SO,
  or an SO to a True Love.
  • Ace: True Love - go ahead, ﬁnd one already.
  When a player decides they have fulﬁlled the
  conditions of a card, they reveal the card to the
  rest of the players, and they all vote to determine if
  the card was indeed fulﬁlled. During this vote you
  are permitted, and even encouraged to discuss your
  reasons. This can help the player decide whether
  to give up on the card or try again later. For cards
  that introduce a character this vote determines if
  the new character should be permitted in the game.
  If the vote succeeds the card is placed aside and
  a new one is drawn. Also each time a card from Ace
  to 10 is fulﬁlled, the player who played it may raise
  one of their character’s virtues by 1, add a specialty,
  or draw and place a new background card. Usually
  this is applied to the character involved in the re-
  lationship, but it need not be. If the vote fails, the
  player who revealed the card may choose to discard
  the card and draw another in its place, or keep the
  card to try again later.
  2
  
  In the Past
  The background cards are played diﬀerently than
  those in a player’s hand. These cards are left on
  individual characters and can be revealed at any-
  time to introduce a past relationship between that
  character and any other character currently played.
  This relationship is not subject to a vote, and is
  not necessarily something current. The purpose of
  these background relationships is to help ﬂesh out
  characters and to introduce connections which can
  drive later relationships.
  For this purpose, face cards (King, Queen, and
  Jack), indicate miscellaneous relationships, such as
  being related, having worked together or gone to
  the same school previously, or having had a myste-
  rious encounter sometime in the past. Once used,
  background cards are discarded to the same pile as
  the rest of the cards. New characters procured by
  the face cards receive one background card when
  they enter play.
  Rolling the Dice
  When a character attempts an action that is un-
  certain and important, including when in compe-
  tition with another character, the player rolls the
  dice and tries to roll under their virtue. If success-
  ful, the amount rolled under indicates how success-
  ful the character is, rolling under by a one has a
  minor eﬀect, while rolling under the number by 5
  or more entitles the player to describe a signiﬁcant
  outcome. If the player failed to roll under, describe
  instead how the character failed at the action, with
  the eﬀects more spectacular bigger the diﬀerence.
  On resisted actions both players roll under an
  appropriate virtue, and which ever character suc-
  ceeded more (or failed less) comes out on top, de-
  scribing what happens. Actions may also use an ap-
  propriate modiﬁer as listed on the character sheet.
  These range from Cakewalk (+4) to Insane (-8).
  These modiﬁers are applied to the virtue being
  rolled under.
  Multiple modiﬁers listed there can
  also apply.
  In particular are the relationship modiﬁers,
  which add to virtues for actions that further or
  support the relationship, and subtract on actions
  which harm the relationship. In this case, use the
  largest modiﬁer applicable, then add or subtract as
  appropriate.
  Regardless of the outcome of an action, some-
  thing has changed. Rolling the dice means accept-
  ing consequences, either positive or negative for the
  character.
  If you fail, the consequence typically
  makes your action more diﬃcult, so if you wish to
  attempt it again, you must ﬁnd another way to do
  what you wish. For example, if you are ﬁghting an-
  other student in a kendo class and you fail to hit,
  then you most likely are hit instead. And remem-
  ber, for contested actions, both players are involved
  in describing the consequences of the action.
  You shouldn’t be afraid of the consequences of
  your character’s actions. Instead, failure is an op-
  portunity to make things more interesting. Remem-
  ber, you have control of how you fail, baring the
  other players vetoing it, so be creative and look for
  ways to make both failure and success fun for the
  other players as well as yourself.
  As far as combat is concerned, in the normal
  play of True Shoujo characters can only die if this
  is agreed to by their player. Characters who are
  physically damaged get the Hurt modiﬁer until suf-
  ﬁcient time passes for what ever injuries they have
  sustained to be healed. Note, however, character
  death does fulﬁll the Jack card.
  Counting the Votes
  When an action causes some dispute between two
  players, the dispute should be handled by a vote. In
  particular if one character is attempting the inﬂu-
  ence another and the players involved disagree on
  the results, a vote should be held to determine the
  eﬀect. This should be done quickly, and without
  much arguing. Ideally the players involved should
  quickly try to reach a compromise or explain their
  positions to each other. Regardless any player can
  call a vote if a dispute begins to take too long.
  Setting the Scene
  One of the duties of the dealer is to make a roll
  at the start of each scene to determine the loca-
  tion, and any other associated details. These tables
  should be determined in advance. Sample scene ta-
  bles are included in the sample game below. When
  a relationship vote occurs (not necessarily succeeds)
  the scene ends, unless a player decided to call a vote
  to extend the scene, only one such vote is allowed.
  Likewise a vote may be called to cut a scene short
  before a card is played.
  Any player can develop a scene table or a net-
  work of them. As longs as the group agrees to use it
  for the session anything goes. One general guideline
  however is to place events at the more rare scenes.
  Typically these events occur the ﬁrst time the scene
  is rolled, but it could be a consistent event, based on
  3
  
  another roll, or delayed for several scenes. A wide
  variety of options exists, however events should not
  come to dominate the game. The central action is
  intended to be between player’s characters.
  One other aspect of scenes is that while play-
  ers can play any number of character at a scene, a
  player with no characters there may play a Cameo,
  which is a role without any virtues deﬁned. This
  can be a random classmate, or a teacher, or any-
  thing else that is part of the scene. They can play
  them as a normal character, but they always fail
  any rolls they need to make. A particularly inter-
  esting Cameo can be turned into a character proper
  with the appropriate cards.
  A Word of Warning
  The purpose of True Shoujo is to make fanciful,
  bizarre, and genuinely amusing games. The easiest
  way for a player to stop having a good time, is if
  he or she is taking things too seriously. Sometimes
  this is unavoidable, and players should try to be
  conscientious in doing things that are likely to of-
  fend another player. If a player becomes attached
  to a particular character, don’t manhandle it, but
  don’t avoid it like the plague either. Try to talk to
  him or her and ﬁnd a way to handle things, even
  if it requires the character in question to be retired
  or at least placed aside for a time. Likewise, you
  should never expect your characters to succeed all
  the time, and the setbacks can be more fun than
  the victories, provided the character is played con-
  sistently and entertainingly. Always keep in mind,
  that you should have fun and help the other players
  have fun too.
  Appendix 1: Variants
  Shoujo themes often appear in diﬀerent anime gen-
  res. Some are (comparatively) realistic, while oth-
  ers delve into fantasy or science ﬁction. Two com-
  mon genres are Maho Shoujo (Magical Girls) and
  Mecha Shoujo (Giant Robot Girls). Maho Shoujo
  involves transforming super-powered heroines and
  heroes seeking to stop some dark foe. They trans-
  form into a magical form and use strangely the-
  matic powers.
  Mecha are giant robots, from ad-
  vanced power armor suits to giant-sized humanoid
  battle machines. Invariably the pilots are fraught
  with their own emotional and relationship prob-
  lems, a perfect stage for the twistiness of Pure
  Shoujo.
  Maho Shoujo
  Any characters who will be magical should take a
  specialty related to their transformed self. Usually
  this specialty is under a virtue closely linked with
  the transformed character. Transforming takes an
  action, but no roll, and you should describe the se-
  quence the ﬁrst time it occurs. Any magical attacks
  or special maneuvers should also be taken as spe-
  cialties. Most characters will only have two or three
  of these. For villains, these specialties can also in-
  clude summon monster of a given type. This allows
  them to produce monsters of the week, which are
  played as Cameos. Typically, the ﬁrst monster type
  so taken will be defeated by the ﬁrst magical attacks
  the other characters take, and so on.
  Over time
  the attacks and the monsters will improve, usually
  just in the nick of time. For this reason, number
  the character’s attacks and monsters, based on the
  order they are taken. If used directly these special-
  ties provide +2 for each level. So the third monster
  type puts it’s opponents at -6, while a second attack
  type is a +4 virtue action. Monsters may be Hurt
  by any successful attack, but are only destroyed by
  an attack of equal or higher level.
  Mecha Shoujo
  Mecha are treated as a specialty, which may be
  taken multiple times.
  Each level prevents the
  mecha from being Hurt by any attack of less than
  it’s level. Likewise the mecha can be Hurt a number
  of times equal to it’s level, before it is Ineﬀective.
  The virtue that the Mecha specialty is placed un-
  der determines how the Mecha is piloted and what
  is rolled to make attacks.
  Each level the mecha
  gains a special eﬀect attack, this should be noted.
  Each action, the mecha may make any number of
  special eﬀect attacks so that the total is no higher
  than the total level of the mecha. This allows defeat
  of multiple mecha. Cameos may play any mecha of
  at most half the highest mecha in the group (round
  down). They roll on a virtue of 10.
  Appendix 2: Examples
  This is a basic setting for Pure Shoujo, Taniyama-
  sensei’s 10th grade class, including a sampling of
  students and teachers.
  The scene lists provide a
  series of common high school anime events and lo-
  cations.
  4
  
  Characters and Scene Tables
  Suzi-chan: A new student.
  Taki-kun: School bully.
  Honor 10 - Kendo
  Honor 7 - Friends
  Cunning 6
  Cunning 3
  Discernment 9
  Discernment 4
  Passion 12 - Speeches
  Passion 15 - Ignore pain
  Style 7 - Dress Sense
  Style 5
  Beauty 11
  Beauty 6
  Prowess 7
  Prowess 15 - Beat down
  Elie-chan: Best gymnast at the school.
  Nada-kun: Clueless heart-throb.
  Honor 11
  Honor 10
  Cunning 8 - Witty
  Cunning 4
  Discernment 14
  Discernment 5
  Passion 7
  Passion 11
  Style 11
  Style 14 - Attract, Enthrall
  Beauty 7
  Beauty 13 - Eyes
  Prowess 15 - Gymnastics, Dance
  Prowess 6
  Mari-chan: Top of the class.
  Kolder-kun: Kendo Captain.
  Honor 9
  Honor 9
  Cunning 12
  Cunning 9
  Discernment 16 - Exams, Notice Weaknesses
  Discernment 11
  Passion 11 - Poetry
  Passion 13 - Kendo
  Style 2
  Style 13 - Kendo
  Beauty 8
  Beauty 4
  Prowess 9
  Prowess 13 - Kendo
  Taniyama-sensei: Calligraphy and Homeroom Teacher
  Yashita-sensei: History teacher and Kendo instructor.
  Honor 5
  Honor 10
  Cunning 10 - Students
  Cunning 6
  Discernment 15 - Calligraphy
  Discernment 7
  Passion 8
  Passion 16 - History, Kendo
  Style 12 - Innocent Expressions
  Style 9
  Beauty 9
  Beauty 8
  Prowess 4
  Prowess 14- Kendo
  Konyada-sensei: English teacher
  Tanaka-sensei: Chemistry teacher
  Honor 7
  Honor 12 - Honesty
  Cunning 16 - Subtlety
  Cunning 15 - Experiments
  Discernment 13 - Troublemakers
  Discernment 4
  Passion 9
  Passion 14 - Science!
  Style 5
  Style 9
  Beauty 12
  Beauty 7
  Prowess 12 - Throwing
  Prowess 9
  Benshya-sensei: Gym teacher and Gymnastics Coach.
  Tsuyuan-sensei: Substitute teacher.
  Honor 9
  Honor 7
  Cunning 8
  Cunning 16 - Acquiring Trust
  Discernment 7
  Discernment 16 - Emotions
  Passion 10 - Calisthenics
  Passion 12 - Teaching
  Style 13 - Gymnastics
  Style 4
  Beauty 5
  Beauty 5
  Prowess 15 - Gymnastics
  Prowess 6
  5
  
  School:
  2 - School bus to Tokyo (go to Tokyo table)
  3 - Someone’s house (randomly decide)
  4 - Cram School
  5 - a Buddhist Temple (1st time: the caretaker takes one of the characters under his wing)
  6 - Kendo Practice
  7 - Before School (in front)
  8 - History Class
  9 - Chemistry Lab
  10 - Homeroom
  11 - Gym Class
  12 - English Class
  13 - After School (in front)
  14 - Gymnastics Practice
  15 - Under a bridge (1st time: gang of Bully’s, rival school)
  16 - The Diner
  17 - Street Corner (near school)
  18 - End of School (in front, go to Summer Vacation table)
  Tokyo:
  2 - Tokyo Tower (every time: it explodes at the end of the scene, it always does)
  3 - Gymnastics exhibition
  4 - Dark alleyway
  5 - Train station.
  6 - Kendo tournament.
  7 - Aquarium
  8 - Library
  9 - Art Museum
  10 - Bus back to School (return to School table)
  11 - Science Museum
  12 - Hotel rooms and hallway
  13 - Classical Concert
  14 - Gymnastics competition.
  15 - Opera
  16 - History lecture
  17 - Kendo exhibition
  18 - Random weirdness (dealer’s choice)
  Summer Vacation:
  2 - Kendo practice
  3 - Gymnastics practice
  4 - Summer School
  5 - School starts (Homeroom, return to School table)
  6 - At the beach
  7 - Under a bridge
  8 - Street corner
  9 - Dance club
  10 - Someone’s house (randomly decide)
  11 - The Diner
  12 - Burger joint
  13 - Chinese Restaurant
  14 - Party at someone’s house (randomly decide)
  15 - Buddhist Temple
  16 - Train Station
  17 - Library
  18 - Cram School
  6
  
  Character Sheet
  Name:
  Virtue
  Rating
  Specialties
  Honor
  Cunning
  Discernment
  Passion
  Style
  Beauty
  Prowess
  Relationships:
  Friends: (+1 or -1)
  Enemies: (+1 or -1)
  Signiﬁcant Others:
  Ex’s: (+1 or -1)
  (+2 or -2)
  Family: (+2 or -2)
  Best Friend: (+3 or -3)
  Nemesis: (+3 or -3)
  True Love: (+4 or -4)
  Secrets:
  Family -
  Growing-up -
  Present -
  Modiﬁers:
  Having a Specialty
  +2
  Action Diﬃculty:
  Cakewalk
  +4
  Easy
  +2
  Normal
  0
  Hard
  -2
  Heroic
  -4
  Super-human
  -6
  Insane
  -8
  Other Modiﬁers:
  Help from Friends
  +2
  Multiple Foes
  -2
  Hurt
  -2 or +2
  Cards:
  • King: Introduce a male character.
  • Queen: Introduce a female character.
  • Jack: A character leaves, or if you have only
  one, introduce a character of either gender.
  • 10: Unrequited love - one sided True Love.
  • 9: Best of Enemies - turn an enemy or neme-
  sis to friend or better.
  • 8: This Means War - gain or change nemesis
  • 7: Physical Relationship - acquire SO, based
  on physical attraction.
  • 6: Just Friends - drop an SO to a friend or
  enemy.
  • 5: Budding Friendship - make a friend.
  • 4: Immediate Dislike - make an enemy.
  • 3: Platonic Relationship - acquire SO, based
  on emotional attraction.
  • 2: Going Steady - elevate a friend to an SO,
  or an SO to a True Love.
  • Ace: True Love - go ahead, ﬁnd one already.
  7
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Deduped  Shit/Pure Shoujo/Pure Shoujo.pdf