TEXT:  
   
  マスコットたん 
  Mascot-tan 
   
  A Role-Playing Game About 
  The Cute, Disturbing Adventures 
  Of Cute, Disturbed Little Girls 
   
  By Ewen Cluney 
  
   
   
  Distant Star Games Presents 
  Mascot-tan 
  http://dsg.neko-machi.com/ 
  Thanks To 
  My real-life friends, a.k.a. the Neko Machi-gumi, or 
  failing that, “The Group.” 
   
  The RPG.net Forum Community: For making RPG.net 
  a very cool place to lurk, and for katanae (not to mention 
  Snake Gandhi, d02, and a few other… interesting things). 
   
  The 4chan Community: ZOMG Rei!!!!11!1! This site has 
  been a never-ending source of entertainment, and the place 
  where I first encountered many of the mascot girls. 
  Credits 
  Designed and written by Ewen Cluney 
  Illustrations by Thinh Pham 
  Risus-tan illustration by Ewen Cluney 
   
  ©2005-2006 By Ewen Cluney – All Rights Reserved 
   
  All mention of copyrighted works is for references 
  purposes only and is not a challenge of copyright or 
  trademark. 
  
   
   
  Table of Contents 
  Chapter 1: Introduction.............................................................................. 4 
  Notable Mascot Girls.................................................................................................... 5 
  Other Inspirational Stuff .............................................................................................. 7 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation................................................................... 8 
  Step 1: Name.................................................................................................................. 8 
  Step 2: Girl Type............................................................................................................ 8 
  Step 3: Characteristics................................................................................................. 10 
  Step 4: Gimmicks......................................................................................................... 11 
  Step 5: Moe .................................................................................................................. 14 
  Step 6: Looks and Thoughts ....................................................................................... 14 
  Disadvantages?............................................................................................................. 14 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring............................................................................ 15 
  Doing Stuff .................................................................................................................. 15 
  Doing Stuff With Dice................................................................................................ 19 
  Moe............................................................................................................................... 20 
  Setting........................................................................................................................... 23 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls ................................................................................ 25 
  Player Characters......................................................................................................... 26 
  NPCs............................................................................................................................ 30 
  Adventure Seeds .......................................................................................................... 31 
  Appendix: Random Crap.......................................................................... 33 
  
   
   
  4 
  Chapter 1: Introduction 
  In Japan there’s this weird phenomenon that’s been constantly growing among the 
  otaku that’s now called gijinka (擬人化). Literally it means “personification*,” but in 
  practice it means taking inanimate objects, organizations, and even abstract ideas, and 
  making cute girl characters as “mascots” of them. I have a Japanese otaku pen pal 
  (and unlike you, he’s fortunate enough not to be able to read this), and in a 
  discussion of this phenomenon he outright said, “This country’s getting weird.” The 
  most famous mascot girls are probably DiGi Charat and the OS Girls, but all kinds of 
  things have been subjected to gijinka. There are some obvious ones like video game 
  consoles, and some weird ones like cigarette brands. I’ve seen a web site by a train 
  fanatic with detailed information on each model of train used by Japan Rail, and a 
  mascot girl for each†. I’ve also seen a page of girl versions of Kamen Rider characters‡, 
  which is kind of surreal considering that Kamen Riders are known for their 
  exaggerated manliness. 
  Anyway, now it’s your turn! This whole game is based around gijinka. It’s 
  about mascot girls having little adventures that are cute, wacky, and occasionally 
  violent and disturbing (but still in a cute kind of way). The question of why exactly 
  you’re going to play a roleplaying game where all the player characters are cute, 
  mentally disturbed girls named after inanimate objects is not something I can answer 
  for you, but I suspect you guys must have nothing better to do. That’s how this game 
  got written in the first place. 
  Keeping in with the flavor of mascot girls, you can in fact do an ongoing 
  campaign, the long-term goal of which is to become as popular among the weirdoes 
  on the internet as possible, by making them feel that warm, fuzzy, fetishy feeling 
  known as moé. And you thought you had problems with coming up with good long-
  term goals. Anyway, that means that in order to advance your character you have to 
  be endearing to the internet audience by doing cute things and taking part in bizarre 
  jokes, simultaneously if you can manage it. Tapping into their weird (but still cute) 
  fetishes doesn’t hurt either. 
  This game is also really cynical, sarcastic, and self-deprecating in tone. If 
  you’re not sure whether something’s sarcastic, you probably should just assume it is. 
  There’s also Japanese text sprinkled here and there, mainly because I’m majoring in 
  Japanese and damn it, I’m going to use it somewhere. 
                                                   
  * There’s now a Wikipedia article on this phenomenon: 
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_anthropomorphism 
  † http://rail-g.net/ 
  ‡ http://www.geocities.jp/kazuu_hp/ 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 1: Introduction 
   
  5 
   
  What the Heck Is -tan? 
  In Japanese you usually refer to other people with some kind of suffix after their 
  name. Members of certain scholarly professions (most notably teachers, but also 
  writers) get -sensei, and most people get -san. There’s also a diminutive name suffix, 
  which is -chan; it’s usually used to refer to cute animals or cute girls (a boy over the 
  age of 8 or so would probably resent it). Never daunted by the limitations of 
  language or common sense, Japanese otaku have devised a second-stage diminutive 
  suffix; -tan (or たん if you want the Japanese writing) is a baby-talk version of -chan, 
  and the preferred name suffix for mascot girls. 
  -tan is not pronounced like the color that’s a sort of light brown and rhymes 
  with man. The letter a in romanized Japanese always has an “ah” sound. A like in 
  “father.” Got it? Good. 
  What's a Roleplaying Game? 
  It’s something cool people do, using their imaginations and stuff. You should try it 
  out some time. Preferably with some other game, in which the author actually 
  bothered to put in one of those “What Is A Roleplaying Game?” sections. 
  Tools of the Trade 
  This game is a little unusual in that you don’t actually need dice. You’ll still want the 
  usual pencils, paper, this book, friends, and imagination, but provided you don’t mind 
  putting up with a resolution mechanic that involves playing Rock-Paper-Scissors (it’s 
  FLAVOR damn you!) you can get by without dice. If Janken (as they call it in Japan) 
  isn’t your thing, you can use six-sided dice instead. You may also want something to 
  use as tokens to track Moé. 
  Notable Mascot Girls 
  Here’s some info (and links) on some of the most famous mascot girls. Wai. 
  DiGi Charat 
  DiGi Charat appears in anime, manga, video games, and a ton of merchandise (a 
  metric ton, naturally), but Dejiko (as she is nicknamed) was conceived as a mascot 
  for the Gamers retail chain and designed by manga artist Koge Donbo. She and her 
  unwanted yellow ball thing companion Gema were named from the phrase “Digital 
  Character Gamers,” and she’s accompanied (harassed) by her younger sister Petit 
  Charat, her rival Rabi~En~Rose, and her enemy Pyocola Analogue III. The official 
  DiGi Charat web site (in Japanese) can be found at: 
  http://www.broccoli.co.jp/dejiko/ 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 1: Introduction 
   
  6 
  OS Idols 
  As of this writing the OS Idols are one of the most popular and widespread groups of 
  mascot girls. Each of them represents a version of Microsoft Windows; Me-chan is a 
  cute girl in a sort of maid out fit who’s really stupid, 2000-chan is a serious girl with 
  glasses (albeit dressed rather oddly), and so on. There’s an excellent and thorough 
  article about them and their history on Wikipedia: 
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan 
  Ecoco 
  Ecoco is unusual among mascot girls in that she was originally an official mascot. 
  This little penguin girl started off as an official mascot for the Tohoku Electric Power 
  Co.’s “Eco-Ice” line of air conditioners. Ecoco (as the fans named her) was far more 
  popular than the actual air conditioners, plus there were lots of pornographic 
  doujinshi published about her, so Tohoku decided to retire the character… But the 
  fans still haven’t forgotten her. The ecoice pure fan site has some good info on Ecoco 
  in English: 
  http://ecoicepure.tripod.com/ 
  Habanero-tan 
  Unlike Ecoco, Habanero-tan is in an unofficial mascot for a particular product, 
  namely Tohato brand habanero-flavored snacks. Habaneros aren’t the spiciest food in 
  the world, but they’re about as spicy as you’ll find in nature 5 to 10 times as spicy as 
  your average Jalapeno. Tohato was content with Boukun Habanero, a big pepper with 
  a grinning jack-o-lantern face, but a fan artist called Shigatage took it on himself to 
  make his own version, which caught on. She’s a little girl with fiery red hair with a 
  green stem sticking out of the top, red eyes, and a short red dress. Wikipedia has a 
  brief article with some links: 
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habanero-tan 
  Binchou-tan 
  A relative newcomer, Binchou-tan is the mascot for a Japanese game development 
  studio called Alchemist. She’s a teeny-tiny orphan girl (awwww…) who lives in the 
  mountains of Japan and has a piece of charcoal on top of her head at all times; she 
  uses it to do little chores around the neighborhood (like sitting in a rice cooker to 
  make the rice taste better or sitting in a bottle to clean the water). She has several 
  little friends, most of whom also have something stuck on top of their heads, and all 
  of them now appear in an anime series, narrated by Narration-onee-tan (seriously; it’s 
  in the credits). The sites below (in Japanese) have some information and plenty of 
  pictures of Binchou-tan and her friends: 
  http://www.alchemist-net.co.jp/ 
  http://www.picata.net/bincho.htm 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 1: Introduction 
   
  7 
  Other Inspirational Stuff 
  Although not necessarily having mascot girls as characters per se, the following are 
  some titles which in one way or another have some of the same general tone as 
  Mascot-tan. 
  Anime 
  Angel’s Tail 
  Binchou-tan 
  Bottle Fairy 
  Chobits 
  Dragon Half 
  Earth Defender Mao-chan 
  Excel Saga 
  Galaxy Angel 
  Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 
  Idol Project 
  Keroro Gunsou (a.k.a. Sgt. Frog) 
  Kodomo no Omocha (a.k.a Kodocha) 
  Magical Pokan 
  Nurse Witch Komugi-chan 
  Pita-ten 
  Puni Puni Poemi 
  Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar 
  Manga  
  Kami-chama Karin 
  Negima! (Mahou Sensei Negima!) 
  Yotsubato! 
  Webcomics 
  Girly (also CuteWendy) 
  http://go-girly.com/ 
  Our Home Planet 
  http://gdk.gd-kun.net/ 
  
   
   
  8 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation 
  Step 1: Name 
  Pick a name for your character. It can be anything you want, anything at all. Just as 
  long as it’s some kind of object or some other random thing, followed by -tan. If the 
  GM’s feeling really creative he might make up a variant rule that lets you have a name 
  that’s an object or some other random thing followed by -chan or maybe even -san, 
  but don’t count on it. 
  The GM may want all of the players to come up with characters based around 
  a common theme (home appliances, video game consoles, vegetables, etc.), or they 
  could be a random assortment just to mess with people’s minds. You might want to 
  try and come up with some explanation as to why Dresser-tan, Subaru Impreza-tan, 
  and Tomato Soup-tan are hanging out, but there probably isn’t much point. 
  Step 2: Girl Type 
  Okay, so you’ve got “Tissue Paper-tan” or whatever written down on the character 
  sheet. But that doesn’t tell us a whole lot; the next step is to get a better idea what 
  kind of girl it is that’s going to be behind the name. Thus you pick a Girl Type, or 
  maybe two or three, but any more is probably pushing your luck. These are blatant 
  stereotypes with no actual effect on the game mechanics, so feel free to make up new 
  ones. However, keep in mind that certain features (like wearing certain uniforms or 
  being a catgirl) may count as Gimmicks (see p. 11). 
  Airhead 
  You’re the lovable idiot, and probably 
  clumsy too. 
  Angel 
  You’re an angel! Or at least you have 
  the wings and maybe the halo. Actually 
  acting “angelic” is purely optional, and 
  angel wings are sometimes vestigial in 
  the first place. Cute little devil girls are 
  seen from time to time too. 
  Bimbo 
  A Bimbo is a lot like an Airhead, but 
  also really sexy. 
  Catgirl 
  Catgirls, or nekomimi in Japanese, are 
  girls with the ears and tail of a cat. 
  Wearing big squishy paws is optional, 
  but sure as hell doesn’t hurt. There are 
  other types of animal girls around here 
  and there, but catgirls are by far the 
  most dominant. 
  Gothic Lolita 
  The world is a dark and lonely place. 
  Maybe that’s why in spite of being 
  young and cute you go around wearing 
  frilly dresses in red and black, and 
  possibly carry around a partially 
  mutilated teddy bear. Maybe you’re 
  even a vampire or something…  
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation 
   
  9 
  Kimono Girl 
  Kimonos 
  aren’t 
  everyday 
  wear 
  anymore, but seeing a woman in a 
  kimono on the streets of Tokyo isn’t 
  at all unusual. A kimono-clad girl 
  character will usually be very refined 
  and 
  cultured 
  (relatively 
  speaking 
  anyway). Kimono girls tend to go in 
  for more traditional hobbies, like 
  sipping tea, flower arrangement, and 
  going berserk with a katana. 
  Maid 
  For once we come to a fetish that sort 
  of has a following in the U.S.; girls in 
  French-style maid outfits. Whether 
  you wear it because you’re actually a 
  maid, or as a fashion statement is up to 
  you. 
  Mecha Girl 
  Part girl, part machine, all cute. 
  “Mecha” girls can be androids, cyborgs, 
  or just decked out in lots of high-tech 
  gear. 
  Meganekko 
  You wouldn’t think that wearing 
  glasses would be that big of a deal, but 
  the mind of the Japanese otaku works 
  in mysterious ways. Meganekko tend to 
  be the studious, serious type, but we 
  won’t force the issue. 
  Miko 
  Carrying on the tradition’s of your 
  family’s Shinto shrine (or maybe just 
  working at a shrine as a part time job), 
  you wear the garb of a miko or shrine 
  maiden, consisting of red hakama and a 
  white shirt with long swinging sleeves. 
  Some miko were supposedly mediums 
  with the power to speak with the dead. 
  Spooky, huh? 
  Nurse 
  Like maids, nurses wear a uniform 
  that’s been fetishized. You don’t have 
  to necessarily be a nurse to wear one, 
  but it’s likely, and will give you access 
  to needles and such, which have their 
  uses. 
  Schoolgirl 
  Without 
  getting 
  into 
  social 
  commentary on Japanese society let’s 
  just say that otaku like schoolgirls, 
  especially ones in sailor fuku uniforms, 
  a lot. 
  School Swimsuit 
  Although they’re somewhat out of 
  date in terms of real schools, the 
  school swimsuit has become fetishized 
  to no end. The standard school 
  swimsuit is a navy blue one-piece, 
  usually with a white rectangle across 
  the chest in which the wearer’s name is 
  written. Fandom has also started a 
  trend of characters in white versions of 
  this design. Also, although not quite as 
  popular as they used to be, the 
  Japanese girls’ P.E. uniform, consisting 
  of a white T-shirt and bloomers 
  (usually red or blue) also has a 
  following. 
  Tsundere 
  Tsundere (if you’re having trouble 
  pronouncing it… screw it) is a 
  character archetype that’s become 
  popular with otaku. A tsundere girl 
  starts off all tsuntsun (bitchy) and later 
  goes all deredere (meek, loving, gooey). 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation 
   
  10 
  Step 3: Characteristics 
  Characteristics are how good your character is at doing things. For player characters 
  they’re rated from 1 to 4, though NPCs can have them as low as zero or as high as 6 
  sometimes because life just isn’t fair. If you want to know how Characteristics work 
  in the game, see p. 15 under “Doing Stuff.” But for the time being just divvy up 10 
  points among the 4 Characteristics; you have to put at least 1 in each, and can’t more 
  than 4 into any one Characteristic. Choose wisely because they won’t get better with 
  time. If you want to be able to do more and cooler stuff, work on getting more Moé. 
  Broadly speaking, a rating of 1 is Kinda’ Crappy, 2 is Fair, 3 is Good, and 4 is 
  Excellent. 
  Athletics 
  Your Athletics characteristic represents your overall physical ability. Considering this 
  is a game about mascot girls, a high Athletics has more to do with agility and general 
  fitness than strength. So having an Athletics of 4 means a character is very fit and 
  quick and agile, but she’s absolutely not going to be muscular. Get over it. 
  Cuteness 
  Cuteness is probably your most vital characteristic (which says something about this 
  game). Cuteness doesn’t just represent how cute a character looks; it’s also how well 
  she can use it to get what she wants. Be afraid. 
  Determination 
  Sheer bloody-minded determination is often an important trait for a mascot girl, and 
  this is the characteristic behind it. Determination lets you keep on going against the 
  odds, lets you outlast opponents of weaker will, and generally lets you stick to 
  whatever you’re doing. 
  Smarts 
  Intelligence isn’t required or even actively encouraged among mascot girls (and it’s 
  surely not last just because the author is anal-retentive and alphabetized the list), but 
  it definitely has its uses. A high Smarts will give you a measure of book learning, but 
  in Mascot-tan it’s more likely to be used for cunning. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation 
   
  11 
  Step 4: Gimmicks 
  Gimmicks are special abilities and features of a character. Pick up to four of them. If 
  you want less than four that’s fine, but you won’t get anything for it. This isn’t 
  anywhere close to being the full range of possible Gimmicks, so GMs should feel free 
  to invent new ones on the fly. Or you could even do it in advance. We won’t tell 
  anyone.  
  Catgirl 
  You’re a catgirl! Meow! This doesn’t have any specific benefits, but if you work it 
  right you can get lots of extra Moé points. Try to act cute and catlike, but don’t 
  overdo it. If you want, you could be another type of animal girl; bunny girls are 
  pretty popular too, and dog girls have a following as well, but you can be whatever 
  kind of animal girl you want with this spiffy Gimmick. You don’t necessarily have to 
  have the animal features be a part of you – you could be wearing ears or whatever 
  instead – but if you have this Gimmick it means that it’s part of your standard outfit. 
  Flight 
  You can fly! How you do it is up to you; angel wings, a jet pack, levitation powers, 
  lots of balloons, or just twirling bunny ears like helicopter blades (we never said it 
  had to make sense). It doesn’t really help you get places much faster, but it does let 
  you occasionally reach places you couldn’t otherwise. 
  Glasses 
  You wear glasses! There’s a certain segment of the fandom that finds girls with 
  glasses attractive, you know. You’re probably nearsighted, but not so much so as to 
  be horribly blind without your glasses. On the other hand you’re probably the 
  studious type, and either really shy or really serious.  
  Minion 
  You have some kind of ally, pet, or lackey to do your bidding. Most of the time a 
  Minion will take whatever abuse you dish out (otherwise you’d have driven them 
  away a long time ago), but once in a while you might push things too far. Minions are 
  rated at around 1 in all four Characteristics, though they might have a 2 in a single 
  Characteristic. They also might have a single Gimmick if the GM is feeling 
  particularly generous. 
  Minion Swarm 
  Instead of just one minion, you have a bunch of them. The catch is that they’re next 
  to useless individually, and only have any actual value when they’re all working 
  together. And even then don’t count on it. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation 
   
  12 
  Sexy 
  You’ve got sex appeal on your 
  side. While most mascot girls 
  tend more towards the cute 
  side, you’re curvaceous and 
  busty. 
  Special Attack 
  You have some special ability 
  or item that lets you whip out 
  a powerful attack. This could 
  take the form of a gun, a 
  sword, magic spells, or even 
  the infamous Eye Beams. 
  Speech 
  Impediment 
  Wait, 
  you 
  suddenly 
  cry, 
  having a Speech Impediment 
  costs me points?! Well, yeah. 
  Remember what kind of game 
  this is? 
  Teeny-Tiny 
  The character is very small; 
  not merely short, but outside 
  of normal human proportions 
  (or whatever passes for such 
  in the type of anime inhabited by mascot girls). This is sort of a mixed blessing; 
  Teeny-Tiny characters are easily overlooked and tend to move slowly compared to 
  full-sized people, but they can also get into small places, have an easier time hiding, 
  and can get a lot of mileage out of looking adorable by interacting with full-sized 
  objects. 
  Transformation 
  A character with this Gimmick can actually transform into whatever it is she’s a 
  mascot of (and back again, thankfully). How exactly this works is left up to the 
  player and GM to work out, but Mascot-tan takes place in the kind of world where an 
  inanimate object that’s also a character would still  be able to talk and move around, 
  even if the latter is just awkwardly hopping around. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation 
   
  13 
  Twins 
  There are actually two of you, though you can only barely be told apart. Although 
  there are two bodies, they function more or less as one character, having the same 
  thoughts and motivations at the same time, the same abilities, and getting bonked a 
  the same time when a fight happens. Twins should have names that are cutely similar, 
  and only a slight difference in appearance (such as each having a single pigtail on 
  opposite sides) to tell them apart. 
  Uniform 
  You habitually wear a uniform that the fans particularly like (which potentially means 
  more Moé points for you). Uniforms can include sailor fuku, P.E. uniforms, school 
  swimsuits (sukimizu/スク水), or the outfit of a maid, miko (Shinto shrine maiden), 
  waitress, bunnygirl waitress, etc. 
  Very Young 
  You’re extremely young, probably under the age of 6. There are certain kinds of 
  fanboys who go for that kind of character, but the main advantage is that a lot of 
  people will pamper you and be more forgiving when you misbehave or act outright 
  strange. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 2: Character Creation 
   
  14 
  Step 5: Moe 
  All characters start with one point of Moé. That’s right, at the start you suck and 
  barely anyone’s even heard of you, much less feels any Moé over you. What’re you 
  going to do about it? (Hint: Read the section on Moé in Chapter 3, p. 20, to find out 
  how to get more).  
  What the Heck Is “Moe”?! 
  Even in Japan they’re still trying to work out what the hell moé actually means, so 
  don’t feel too bad if you don’t get it. The word comes from the verb moeru (萌える) 
  which means “to bud,” which also happens to be a homonym with the word 燃える 
  (“to burn”). Moé can mean an aesthetic that caters to otaku, with characters that are 
  young, cute, innocent, and energetic. It can also mean playing to the audience’s 
  fetishes or just fanservice in general. According to Toru Honda’s book Denpa Otoko 
  moé is the feeling of love that exists between otaku and their favorite 2-D characters. 
  For the purposes of this game, Moé represents popularity with those freaky 
  otaku on the internet, and Moé points are a character’s star power. 
  Step 6: Looks and Thoughts 
  Sure you could spend a long time writing a detailed character history, but for a game 
  like this that’s just stupid. There are just two things on the character sheet, and a 
  sentence or two will suffice for each. 
  Looks is a quick description of what the character looks like. We already know 
  she’s a cute anime girl, so concentrate on more important things. You know, like 
  whether or not she wears glasses. 
  Thoughts is a quick peek into her tiny little mind. What does she believe, and 
  what does she aspire to? This part doesn’t have to make sense – in fact it probably 
  shouldn’t. 
  Disadvantages? 
  Mascot-tan’s game mechanics do not include Disadvantages, Flaws, Faults, 
  Hindrances, Crosses, Burdens, or whatever else they’re calling them these days. As 
  you know from the text on the cover, this is a game about characters who are pretty 
  messed up to begin with. If a Mascot-tan player character had something so messed 
  up about her as to stand out from her peers enough to be worth some extra points, 
  she would be rendered unplayable in the first place. No disadvantages. Deal with it. 
  Besides, you’ll want your character to have some faults anyway; the trick is 
  finding faults that’ll be endearing to the audience and thereby boost your Moé during 
  play. 
  
   
   
  15 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
  This chapter gives you the basic rules of the game, and also explains a bit about how 
  to go about running the game. 
  Doing Stuff 
  The default method for resolving success and failure in Mascot-tan is by playing 
  Janken (a.k.a. Rock-Paper-Scissors). If for some reason you don’t like this carefully 
  reasoned and thoroughly playtested method, which isn’t the least bit cumbersome, 
  there’s an alternate rule that allows for using six-sided dice instead (see p. 18). 
  If you don’t know how to play Rock-Paper-Scissors… Jeez! Where have you 
  been? Okay, two people each pump their hands three times and then do one of three 
  hand signs. Rock is just a fist, Paper is a flat, open hand, and Scissors is with only the 
  index and middle fingers extended, like a peace sign but sideways. Rock beats Scissors, 
  Scissors beats Paper, and Paper beats Rock. Two of the same sign is a tie, and since 
  life isn’t nice, you have to break ties by going again until someone wins. 
   
  Sign 
  Beats… 
  Is Beaten By… 
  Rock (Guu) 
  Scissors 
  Paper 
  Paper (Choki) 
  Rock 
  Scissors 
  Scissors (Paa)  
  Paper 
  Rock 
   
  For the purposes of this game a “round” of Janken is however many throws it 
  takes to have a clear winner and loser one time. As you’ll see below, when a character 
  tries to do something, it usually involves one to four rounds of Janken, and each of 
  those involves as many throws as it takes to have a result that isn’t a tie. 
  In some games taunting your opponent is looked down upon. In Mascot-tan 
  doing so is not only allowed, but encouraged. It helps maintain the atmosphere of 
  confusion and abuse this game is meant to foster. 
  Even if you have been paying attention and already know how to play Rock-
  Paper-Scissors you might take a look at the Wikipedia article for information, 
  variants, and even strategies: 
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_paper_scissors 
  Unopposed Actions 
  When a player attempts an action where the outcome is in doubt, she and the GM 
  play rock-paper-scissors a number of times equal whichever of the character’s 
  Characteristics is most appropriate to whatever she’s trying to attempt. Every time 
  she wins, she gets a Success. Most of the time a single success is good enough to 
  accomplish something, but the GM may decide that the player is trying something 
  really weird or stupid or hard and demand multiple Successes for the character to 
  actually succeed. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  16 
  Example: Watermelon-tan is trying to climb a tree to rescue Grape-tan, who got 
  stuck up there. The GM decides this will use Athletics, and he and Watermelon-tan’s 
  player start doing Rock-Paper-Scissors. Since Watermelon-tan has Athletics at 2, two 
  rounds of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The first time Mr. GM gets a Scissors to her Paper, but the 
  second time she manages a Scissors to his Paper and nets a Success. The GM has decided 
  that this isn’t too difficult of a task, so the one Success is good enough. 
  Opposed Actions (One on One) 
  When two characters are competing with each other rather than just facing the 
  environment, things get a little tricky, but hopefully a lot exciting. When both 
  characters have the same rating in the relevant Characteristic, they just do that many 
  rounds of Janken; that way one player takes a Success out of each round played. 
  Whoever has the most Successes wins, and if they get the same number of Successes 
  the outcome is a tie. 
  When the two characters’ ratings are different, things get a tiny bit tricky. The 
  players do a number of rounds equal to the Characteristic of the higher-rated 
  character, but the inferior character only plays normally for the initial rounds up to 
  her rating. For the remaining rounds the inferior character is defending; if she wins, 
  she doesn’t get a Success, but she does at least prevent her opponent from getting 
  one. 
  Example: Keitai-tan (a cell phone girl) and Glockenspiel-tan are arm wrestling. 
  By now we know better than to ask why, but it’s probably just to provide you with an 
  example. Don’t you feel special? 
  Anyway, Keitai-tan has an Athletics of 2, and Glockenspiel-tan has an Athletics of 
  3. The players Janken three times, but since Keitai-tan only has a 2, she can only score 
  during the first two rounds. On the third time she’ll be defending and thus won’t gain a 
  Success if she wins. Keitai-tan wins the first round, and Glockenspiel-tan takes the second. 
  The contest is tied, but Keitai-tan has already done the two throws her Athletics of 2 
  allows. For that third round she’ll be defending. As it turns out she wins; she doesn’t get a 
  Success, but neither does Glockenspiel-tan, so they remain tied one to one. The GM 
  declares that the two of them strain against each other but don’t get anywhere, and tells 
  them to have another go at it. 
  Competitive Actions (3+ Characters) 
  But wait, you ask, what if more than two people are competing to do something? 
  Man, you’re a smartass. Luckily, multiplayer Janken is easier than you might think. 
  With three or more people, everyone throws at the same time. If either all three signs 
  or only one sign are played, it’s a draw, and as usual you go again until someone wins. 
  If only two signs are played, everyone who played the winning sign wins gets a 
  Success, and everyone who played the losing sign loses. 
  Example: Steak-tan, Porkchop-tan Rib-tan, and Bacon-tan have been assigned to 
  stand outside of the butcher’s shop and hand out flyers, with a special bonus for whoever 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  17 
  hands out all of theirs first. The GM decides this will be a Cuteness-based Competitive 
  Action. All four of them have a Cuteness of 3, except for Bacon-tan who has 4. 
  The first round Steak-tan and Bacon-tan throw Paper against Rib-tan and 
  Porkchop-tan’s Rock and each of them gets a Success. The second round Rib-tan is the 
  only one who gets a success when she gets a scissors against three papers. The third round 
  takes fully five tries as they keep winding up with one of each sign, until finally Bacon-tan 
  and Rib-tan both get Successes. On the fourth round only Bacon-tan can score and the 
  rest are defending; sadly, she gets trounced three to one with rocks against her scissors. In 
  the end Bacon-tan and Rib-tan both have two Successes, so it looks like they’ve tied. 
  Sudden Death Elimination 
  You probably thought this header was about something really crazy… It’s not really. 
  Sorry to disappoint. Anyway. 
  Sometimes a situation really requires that there be a single clear winner. When 
  a tiebreaker is necessary, it’s time for Sudden Death Elimination. Everyone who tied 
  does a single round of Janken, and the winner takes the lead. If more than two people 
  win, keep doing more rounds until there’s only one. 
  Example: Continuing the above example, the GM informs the players that a tie 
  just won’t do; the butcher has set up the security camera, so he’s going to have it be a photo 
  finish if he has to. Bacon-tan and Rib-tan psyche themselves up for Sudden Death 
  Elimination; they do one round of Janken, winner-take-all. They tie twice before little 
  Bacon-tan brings out a scissors to Rib-tan’s paper and wins! 
  Success Tokens 
  Doing many rounds of Janken in rapid succession can get annoying and confusing 
  when you need to track Successes at the same time. One way to get around this is to 
  use Success Tokens. The idea is to have small something-or-others (different from 
  whatever you might be using for Moé of course) to pass to a player each time she 
  scores a Success. That way you get a tangible representation of the number of 
  Successes, and don’t worry about having to try and remember if it was two Successes 
  or three that 1040EZ-tan had before that hellish string of five draws happened. 
  Initiative 
  Sometimes you might want to know who goes first, whether for a fight (see below) 
  or maybe even for something that’s actually important. “Initiative” order (as they call 
  it in those games that take combat seriously… hah!) is in descending order of the 
  characters’ current Moé. As usual, if you need a tiebreaker for some reason, it’s time 
  for Sudden Death Elimination. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  18 
  Fighting… Sort of 
  Mascot girls live in a world where combat tends to be very simple and silly. If you 
  were expecting detailed combat rules, with a realistic and lethal damage system… you 
  should have your head examined. That kind of combat system is usually longer than 
  this whole game. Mascot-tan takes place in the kind of wacky anime world where 
  attacks either miss or totally incapacitate (but only until the next scene). 
   
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  19 
  Doing Stuff With Dice 
  Instead of that Janken nonsense, just roll a number of six-sided dice equal to the 
  character’s relevant Characteristic; each die that comes up as a 4 or higher is a Success. 
  For opposed and competitive actions, the players just roll individually and compare 
  the number of Successes. If Sudden Death Elimination is called for, the players each 
  roll a die and whoever rolls highest wins. 
  Example: Sun-tan (What?) and Moon-tan (Now you get it…) are having a 
  staring contest. The GM decides that this will be an opposed action using Determination. 
  Sun-tan and Moon-tan both have Determination at 3, so they each roll three six-sided 
  dice. Sun-tan gets a 2, a 4, and a 6, while Moon-tan gets a 1, a 3, and a 5. In the end 
  Sun-tan has two Successes and Moon-tan has one Success. Sun-tan wins the staring 
  contest. 
  Dice Madness 
  If you’re a big fan of randomness you might want to throw open the gates of hell and 
  use this optional rule. Every time a die comes up as a 6 the player not only gets a 
  Success but gets to roll another six-sided die to see if it will come up as a 4 or higher, 
  and on a 6 not only do you get the Success but yet another die is rolled. And if the 
  additional die happens to come up as a 6… Guess what? Another die gets rolled. So 
  theoretically a player could potentially wind up accumulating a virtually unlimited 
  number of Successes. 
  The trick here is to make it so that excessive Successes start to backfire; 
  broadly speaking, if a character gets more than 4 Successes, the action succeeds a little 
  too well. Trying to look cute and influence a person earns a stalker, an attack meant to 
  knock someone out levels buildings, and whatever else seems funny at the time. 
  Example: Cola-tan is trying to wheedle her way into getting a discount at the 
  convenience store. The GM decides this is a Cuteness-based action. With her Cuteness of 
  2 she only gets two dice, but both of them come up as sixes! She rolls another two dice and 
  gets a five and a six. She rolls yet another die and gets another six. She rolls another die 
  again and only gets a four. So in the end she’s scored a stunning SIX Successes! The 
  convenience store clerk not only gives her the stuff she wanted to buy for free, but gives 
  her so much other free stuff besides that she can’t even hope to carry it all, and he starts 
  following her around his every waking moment, and no amount of discouragement (even 
  with a baseball bat to the face) will deter him. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  20 
  Moe 
  Moé is a measure of how favored the character is with the audience. Characters start 
  off with just one point of Moé, but they’ll be gaining and spending them all 
  throughout the game. Moé points can be tracked however you want, but we 
  recommend having some kind of physical counters to track Moé. 
  Competition or Cooperation? 
  In Mascot-tan, players have an important choice to make: Are they going to work 
  with the other players and try to have their characters all reach great heights of fame 
  together, or backstab and sabotage to do whatever it takes to be on top as an 
  individual? If the game’s going to be about being vicious and mean to each other, it’s 
  probably best for everyone to agree to it in advance. As far as what actually works for 
  gaining Moé, either approach can potentially succeed or backfire. 
  Gaining and Losing Moe 
  There are lots of different ways a character can gain Moé… but they all ultimately 
  come down to “whenever the GM feels like it.” The GM can give or take away one to 
  three Moé points whenever it seems appropriate. Keep in mind that the audience is 
  surprisingly forgiving of viciousness; like pro-wrestling fans they seem to only really 
  be put off by boredom or direct insults. 
  Introductions 
  At the start of the game characters have just one point of Moé. The GM may opt to 
  give each player a chance to gain some more by doing an introduction for her 
  character. This is a quick monologue where the character introduces herself to the 
  world at large. I recommend setting a time limit and using a stopwatch to enforce it. 
  Trends 
  The annoying thing about Moé is that trends change all the time. This shouldn’t 
  come as too much of a shock, considering that the audience is mostly a bunch of 
  antisocial Japanese weirdoes. There’s always a certain segment of the audience that 
  will go in for anything you could name, but different things go in waves, so the GM 
  is under no obligation to be consistent with Moé rewards. In fact, he should be an 
  annoying bastard and be totally whimsical about what results in bigger or smaller 
  Moé awards. 
  Overdoing It 
  On the other hand, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. Fans might go 
  for catgirls, glasses, angel wings, school uniforms, and school swimsuits separately, 
  but a bespectacled angelic catgirl wearing a sailor fuku top over a school swimsuit just 
  looks tacky. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  21 
  Moe By Association 
  One of the things about being in a group is that when one character looks good it 
  sometimes helps the group as a whole look good. Even if the characters who are “in a 
  group” completely hate each other. In game terms this means that when one 
  character earns a really big Moé award, her friends might get a teeny tiny one just on 
  general principle. 
  When It Wears Thin 
  Sometimes something just gets old. If a character tries to abuse something too much, 
  it’ll start to become a burden, and she’ll start losing Moé every time she tries to push 
  it too hard. 
  Extra Credit 
  Moé can also be awarded for players who put in some extra effort, whether it’s 
  buying snacks for the GM, drawing pictures of the characters, or anything else 
  generally cool and helpful. If a cute girl is playing (hey, it could happen) and decides 
  to cosplay as her character, she should get a hefty Moé bonus. On the other hand a 
  guy who insists on doing the same should probably be penalized and OH GOD MY 
  EYES! PUT ON SOME PANTS DAMN YOU!!! 
  Using Moe 
  Now we come to the part where your efforts to become popular start to pay off. 
  Being popular gives you influence and confidence; sometimes it manifests as displays 
  of sheer, bloody-minded willpower, and other times as contrived conveniences of the 
  type one expects of a character who’s pulling favors with the director. 
  For all uses of Moé, the player has to describe what she wants to have happen 
  in the game; you never just spend a point and add a bonus to an action. If this seems 
  strict, keep in mind the setting and tone of Mascot-tan; you could easily get by 
  describing a character’s burning passion as she poses in front of Mt. Fuji with 
  dramatically leaping waves around her in exchange for spending a point on a +1. 
  Most games have never even heard of Hokusai*, much less allow you to do something 
  so implausible and cinematic. 
  There are five basic ways you can use Moé. 
  Contrivance 
  Contrivance is your ability to make good stuff happen to your character. This can be 
  used in a couple of different ways, but the most basic is to spend 1 Moé to give a 
  character +1 to a single Characteristic for one action. There’s a catch though (aside 
  from the fact that you still have to succeed at Janken for it to get you a Success); you 
  have to explain to the GM’s satisfaction something happening in-game that would 
  give your character some kind of advantage. 
                                                   
  * The famous Japanese painter, who amongst about a million other pieces did the famous Great Wave 
  Off Kanagawa. Who said you can’t get culture from a roleplaying game? Don’t answer that.  
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  22 
  The other kind of Contrivance lets a character make something happen to 
  help her. This can be a weird coincidence, a handy prop, or whatever else the player’s 
  imagination can conjure. The GM has final say over whether a particular Contrivance 
  is allowed in the game, and sets a Moé cost (usually 1-5). If the player is unwilling or 
  unable to spend the full amount, she has the option of spending only a portion of it, 
  but the results won’t be as good. 
  Gimmick Boosting 
  Usually, Gimmicks are meant to be kind of stupid and useless. Any time you want to 
  make a Gimmick be really useful, you can spend Moé to make it actually do 
  something. 
  Sabotage 
  The opposite of Contrivance is Sabotage, the ability to use Moé to make bad stuff 
  happen to others. Sabotage can put a penalty of –1 onto someone else’s Characteristic 
  for one action. This can put a character’s Characteristic as low as zero, but of course 
  they can spend Moé to raise it up again if they want. It can also be used to create 
  coincidences and such that cause problems for others. 
  Spotlight 
  Sometimes you can grab the spotlight naturally. Other times you have to force the 
  issue. If you spend Moé on a “Spotlight,” you get to hog the scene for a little bit, 
  doing a monologue, a brief song, or just posing to show off a cute outfit. 
  Counterattack 
  Sometimes you just want to stop someone else from having their way. That’s why 
  one of the things you can use Moé for is to stop others from using their Moé. At any 
  time you can spend a Moé point to negate someone else’s Moé point. However, if 
  you do, she can counterattack your counterattack… And so on. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  23 
  Setting 
  The setting of Mascot-tan is whatever you want it to be. The game is geared towards 
  everyday situations injected with that special element we like to call “being 
  completely freaking nuts,” so you can think of planning out the setting of your game 
  much like setting up a sitcom. The characters don’t have to like each other, but they 
  do have to be forced to deal with each other on a regular basis. The DiGi Charat 
  anime did this by having the characters work together in a retail store (and the RPG 
  Girls in Chapter 4 have about the same setup, but with more in-jokes). 
  Stuff To Do 
  The question of where the characters live and why they’re stuck together is up to you 
  to answer, but here are some ideas. 
  Adventuring 
  Not all mascot girls are content to live bizarre satires of normal lives; some feel the 
  need to have bizarre satires of epic adventures. This could be in a setting much like a 
  typical fantasy world only sillier (not unlike in Dragon Half) or just a road trip in a 
  more contemporary setting. 
  Being Idols 
  What with the importance of Moé in this game, it can be fun to make the 
  competition for fame something that happens in-game. Idols will have managers who 
  try to boss them around, vicious rivals who try to insult and sabotage them at every 
  turn and fans who can be outright scary. The life of an idol is also a busy one, with 
  concerts, TV appearances, acting, commercials, public appearances, photo shoots, and 
  a million other things, and if they don’t take up your every waking hour then your 
  career’s probably in trouble. AAAAAH! 
  Living 
  Everyday life has more possibilities for cute adventures than you might think. This is 
  the ultimate sitcom setup, where a bunch of mascot girls live close to one another, as 
  roommates, in the same apartment building, or as neighbors. 
  Quarreling 
  Some mascot girls have a habit of fighting among themselves, or competing tooth and 
  nail at the merest excuse. Unlike most RPGs, Mascot-tan actively encourages player 
  characters to work against each other, though of course NPCs can get into the fray 
  too. 
  Working 
  Apparently life is hard, because some mascot girls have to work, even when in theory 
  they should be underage. Work is a great way to force characters together, and since 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 3: Adventuring 
   
  24 
  it’s likely to be retail there’s also endless wackiness that can be exploited from weird 
  customers coming in. 
  People To Meet (NPCs) 
  NPCs have basically the same stats as player characters, though some of them will 
  have a Cuteness of zero, or have it replaced with Coolness. 
  Master 
  One way to structure the game is to have a central male character that all of the 
  characters are forced to deal with on a regular basis. He might be someone the girls 
  all want to please, but it would be more in keeping with the general tone of Mascot-
  tan if they considered him a jerk and a loser and his popularity (if any) is mostly in 
  his own mind. If you want to satire love simulation games, he should be a tall, slender 
  teenager with white hair that always overshadows his eyes. Assuming he actual has 
  eyes… 
  Rivals 
  Especially if the girls are actively trying to build their Moé in-game, NPC rivals can 
  be a great way to mess with them. Rivals are usually fellow mascot girls looking for 
  trouble. A rival mascot girl might have a vendetta against one or more of the player 
  characters (probably over something completely stupid), or she might just see 
  “defeating” the PCs as a good way to boost her own fame. 
  Other rivals might not even be the traditional mascot girls. Although they’re 
  very rare, one does occasionally come across the “mascot-kuns,” mascot characters 
  who are handsome guys instead of cute girls. 
  Strange People 
  It seems to be the fate of all mascot girls to have to deal with people who are not only 
  complete idiots, but total weirdoes to boot. Secondary characters encountered by 
  mascot girls tend to be weird. Don’t even bother trying to make them rational; put 
  every ounce of effort into making them as strange as you can. Blue skin? No problem! 
  Obsession with cat ears? Come on down, we have a winner! 
  
   
   
  25 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
  This chapter outlines a sample campaign, complete with player characters, NPCs, and 
  some adventure ideas, intended to play a dual role as an example and as an excuse to 
  throw a bunch of stupid in-jokes into the game. 
  Gamings is a small but popular and well-liked gaming store in the mall. What 
  keeps people coming back? The fact that Jim, the manager, is a really nice guy helps, 
  not to mention the convenient location and good selection of games, but there’s 
  more to it than that. Apart from Jim himself, all of the employees are cute girls. 
  They’re kind of strange and quirky, but most people find their faults amusing. 
  What only a few of the customers realize is that these girls are each an 
  anthropomorphic personification of a particular game system. Four of them 
  represent major systems, and there’s also this fifth girl who’s really strange and hardly 
  anyone likes. They spend their days trying to keep the store clean and well-stocked, 
  organizing demos of games, and doing whatever strange promotions Jim has thought 
  up that day. 
  Disclaimer 
  This chapter is a silly parody of RPG gaming; taking it too seriously would be a good 
  way to get yourself pissed off about stuff that doesn’t matter. We happen to be of the 
  opinion that it doesn’t matter what the hell game you’re playing as long as you’re 
  having fun. So there. 
  If you’re wondering why they all have funny names, it’s because we opted to 
  take the anime route in avoiding trademark infringement; make up something goofy 
  that sounds close. Like how in anime a character will have a Sany (or Pony, Sonny, 
  Suny, etc.) CD player, go see a certain Austrian guy playing a killer cyborg in “The 
  Thermilor,” and almost get run over by a Daihaku brand truck on the way home. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
   
  26 
  Player Characters 
  Twenty-tan 
  Representing the newest iteration of the most successful roleplaying game ever, 
  Twenty-tan is the most popular of the RPG Girls, and she’s definitely let it go to her 
  head. She has a definite preference for solving problems by violence, and is seldom 
  willing to listen to her “inferiors.” 
  Twenty-tan has a Minion Swarm called the OGL Horde; no one has ever 
  managed to count them, but they’re a swarm of tiny (about a foot tall) chibi girls, 
  each representing a different Twenty-tan variant. Realistically there’s too many of 
  them for her to control, so they tend to run amok most of the time, rising up as one 
  to answer threats to Twenty-tan when they feel like it. 
  She also has a special Gimmick (which counts as two Gimmick selections) 
  called Irrational Popularity; there’s a significant number of people who prefer her 
  over the other RPG Girls, or who have never even heard of the others, for no 
  particular reason. This has a flip-side of course, since there are also those who hate 
  her solely because she’s the most popular, or for other equally meaningless reasons. 
  As a result Twenty-tan is always walking the razor’s edge; any time Twenty-tan 
  would gain or lose Moé, the amount she gains or loses is doubled. 
  Girl Type: Elf Girl 
  Looks: An elf-girl with medium blonde hair. Wears a short-skirted sort of 
  medieval outfit with light, kind of spiky armor. Wields a mace with a red icosahedral 
  gem as its head, named Moderator. 
  Thoughts: Don’t hate me just because I’m better than you. It’s just network 
  externalities and all that. Hey, SHUT UP! I’m gonna whack you one with this mace 
  of mine! 
  Characteristics: ATH 16 (+3), CTE 14 (+2), DET 17 (+3), SMT 14 (+2) 
  Gimmicks: Irrational Popularity, Minion Swarm (OGL Horde), Special 
  Attack (Twenty-Sided Mace, “Moderator”) 
  Moé: 20 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
   
  27 
  Platinum-tan 
  Platinum-tan comes from a gritty game of post-apocalyptic science fantasy horror, 
  with ninjas and giant robots thrown in for good measure. She’s the kind of person 
  some people find really fun to hang out with and others find really annoying. She 
  likes to have fun, but tends to overreact to criticism. 
  Girl Type: Mecha-Girl 
  Looks: Has messy red hair and glowing blue eyes. Wears high-tech body 
  armor in red and blue (at ALL times), and wields a gigantic plasma rifle. 
  Thoughts: Rock on! It’s time to kick some MAJOR ass! Shut up, I’m talking 
  here! I’M NOT OVERREACTING!!! 
  Characteristics: P.A. 3, P.C. 1, M.E. 4, I.Q. 2 
  Gimmicks: Flight (Jet Pack), Go Psycho, Special Attack (Giant Plasma Rifle), 
  Special Defense (Body Armor) 
  Moé: 12 
  Generic-tan 
  An emissary of the first major universal RPG, Generic-tan is the most intellectual of 
  the girls; although she’s not without a fun side, she likes intelligence and realism, and 
  the faults of the other girls grate on her more than most. 
  Girl Type: Meganekko, Office Lady 
  Looks: Prim and proper and bespectacled. Short black hair, an office lady 
  dress in black with red and blue highlights. Wears two six-sided dice in her hair. 
  Always carrying some books. 
  Thoughts: There’s a proper way of doing things… And then there’s the way 
  most of the girls like to do things. But I won’t let it get to me; I’m too smart for that. 
  Why is that, you ask? Fnord. 
  Characteristics: AT 1, CT 3, DT 2, SM 4 
  Gimmicks: Glasses, Know-It-All, Special Attack (Blow To The Head With 
  RPG Books), Uniform (Office Lady) 
  Moé: 9 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
   
  28 
  Story-tan 
  Story-tan comes from a modern punk-gothic horror that revolutionized the industry 
  with an emphasis on roleplaying over hack-and-slash. At least that’s what she’ll tell 
  anyone who asks, in spite of the fact that she carries two katana (of course, the 
  proper plural is katanae you know*) around and likes to brag about how her character 
  can kick anyone’s ass with his swords. 
  Girl Types: Goth Girl, Wolf Girl 
  Looks: Has the ears and tail of a wolf (white of course). Dresses gothic-punk 
  style (including makeup). Has a massive sword strapped to her back. 
  Thoughts: You know what the problem with this hobby is? Too many 
  numbers, not enough story. Luckily I’m here to fix that. With my katanas if need be. 
  Characteristics: Athletics •••, Cuteness ••, Determination •••, Smarts •• 
  Gimmicks: Angst, Special Attack (Katanas), Special Attack (Wolf Bite) 
  Moé: 12 
                                                   
  * No it isn’t. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
   
  29 
  Mascot-tan-tan 
  A strange and unlikely addition to the RPG Girls is the girl version of Mascot-tan, the 
  very game you have in front of you. Not only is she the mascot of a weird little indie 
  game, but her odd, recursive nature, not to mention the fact that she has -tan in her 
  name twice, have made her become… strange. Most of the customers seem to want to 
  avoid her, but there are a few of… discerning taste for whom she’s the favorite of the 
  bunch. Why that might be the case we couldn’t say, but apparently Gamings has a lot 
  of customers who have nothing better to do. 
  Girl Types: Catgirl, Meganekko, School Uniform, School Swimsuit, Angel 
  Looks: Mascot-tan-tan’s appearance is an example of why this game’s Moé 
  rules include a section on Overdoing It. She has pink pigtails, huge cat ears, glasses 
  (not an affectation; she’s practically blind without them), and angel wings. The wings 
  are huge and have a way of knocking things over, but don’t actually let her fly. She 
  wears a sailor fuku top, a school swimsuit, and oversized boots. 
  Thoughts: No one likes me. Why am I even here? I’ll just do my best and try 
  to keep out of the way. I don’t suppose anyone wants to play Janken? No? Okay. I’ll 
  be over here if you need me. 
  Characteristics: Athletics 2, Cuteness 3, Determination 1, Smarts 3 
  Gimmicks: Catgirl, Meganekko, Uniform (Sailor Fuku), Uniform (School 
  Swimsuit) 
  Moé: 2 
  Others? 
  Just as the OS Girls find themselves joined by the likes of Mac OS-chan and Linux-
  tan now and then, other RPG girls could figure into the game. BigEyes-tan, DeadTan, 
  Fudge-tan, Risus-tan, and Hero-tan are just a few of the possibilities. For that matter 
  the girls might have close relatives representing different flavors of the system. 
  Generic-tan has a baby sister called Generic-tan Lite, Twenty-tan has, in addition to 
  the OGL Swarm, Modern-tan as a younger sister, and Story-tan has Solar-tan, a 
  rambunctious younger sister who’s into wuxia and has one gigantic sword instead of 
  the two katanas. Take whatever systems you know and run with them. And of course 
  there’s also the possibility of encountering mascot girls from other kinds of tabletop 
  games… 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
   
  30 
  NPCs 
  Jim 
  Jim is a veteran gamer who opened up Gamings a decade ago and has continued 
  running it as a labor of love. He’s chummy and single and thirty-something, so even 
  though he knows better he can’t help but feel a bit tempted by the presence of five 
  cute girls in his store. For the most part he’s pretty laid-back, but when he does 
  finally get ticked off Gamings is not a good place to be. 
  The Customers 
  Gamings is in a mall, but it also attracts a lot of hardcore gamers. If you don’t know 
  what hardcore gamers are like, go find a message board on the internet, preferably 
  one that’s only about one of the really popular games, and look for threads where the 
  page count goes into the double digits and it’s all flaming death vitriol. It won’t give 
  you an accurate picture of what gamers are like in person, but at least it’ll make you 
  feel better about yourself for not getting into that kind of crap. 
  The other customers are a mix of more casual gamers, mallrats, and other 
  people who wandered in but don’t know what the store is about. Since these people 
  usually aren’t very interesting, the GM is encouraged to come up with the most 
  irrational weirdoes he can devise. Here are some examples: 
  • Bob (at least, they think is name is Bob) is an older guy who always comes in 
  wearing a smelly trench coat. He never offers conversation to anyone, and 
  tends to go and hide whenever a person of the female persuasion is brave 
  enough to try to talk to him. 
  • Phil actually works at the Warslammer store at the other side of the mall, but 
  because of greater demands for company loyalty he’s been forced to go to ever 
  greater lengths to come to Gamings secretly. 
  • Ryan, a guy who, as far as anyone can tell, lives in the air ducts in the store’s 
  ceiling. Supposedly he’s gotten a bit messed up in the head and is in the habit 
  of stopping by his parents’ house to buy booster packs. Rumor has it his 
  parents have started stocking them just so they get to see him once in a while. 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
   
  31 
  Adventure Seeds 
  Here are some ideas for RPG Girls episodes. They’re certainly not the full range of 
  possibilities, but then if you run a campaign that goes for longer than six sessions… 
  damn. 
  Haterizing 
  Jim is usually good about keeping the girls from arguing about game systems too 
  much, mainly because it never ends well, and for that matter never actually changes 
  anything other than perhaps how long everyone has to stay after closing to clean up 
  the store. But one day while he’s out for lunch two customers start arguing game 
  systems; Twenty-tan and Story-tan are sorely tempted to get into it. Will the others 
  be able to hold them back, or will chaos reign once again? 
  Allegiances 
  Kevin is kind of unusual among Gamings’ customers in that he’s handsome, stylish, 
  and trendy. This exterior belies the fact that he’s one of the most hardcore gamers in 
  town, and one of the store’s best customers. RPGs, miniatures, CCGs, board games; 
  he does it all. And he just got a new girlfriend. The problem is that even though she’s 
  nuts about Kevin, Jessica can’t stand geeks. She’s going to do her best to attempt the 
  impossible task of “reforming” Kevin, and that won’t sit well with the girls. On the 
  other hand he’s so oblivious and far gone that it’s probably useless anyway. 
  Tabletop Gaming Girls 
  The RPG Girls apparently aren’t the only representatives of tabletop gaming out 
  there; there’s also the likes of Magick-tan, Warslammer-tan, and Chess-tan, a 
  threesome who come in search of both jobs and better representation of their 
  respective genres of games. The RPG Girls have trouble on their hands; Jim doesn’t 
  need any more employees, so if any of these other girls get hired, some of them 
  would have to be laid off. Will they work together and sabotage the new applicants, 
  or (more likely) resort to backstabbing to try and get rid of whichever coworker has 
  been annoying them? 
  Mother 
  Twenty-tan’s mother, Dungeon-obasan*, comes to Gamings for a visit. Dungeon-
  obasan is something of an old curmudgeon; she barely tolerates her daughter’s new-
  fangled habits, and regards the other RPG Girls as a waste of skin. Jim considers 
  Dungeon-obasan an old friend, and is completely blind to her faults. 
                                                   
  * “Obasan” is something like “auntie” in Japanese. It’s a good idea not to mix it up with “obaasan,” 
  which is more like “granny.” 
  
  Mascot-tan 
  Chapter 4: RPG Girls 
   
  32 
  Dawn of the Diceman 
  Who he is and why he wears a giant hollow icosahedron on his head is a mystery, but 
  the Diceman cometh, and he wants dice. Lots of them. And if he isn’t satisfied with 
  the selection in the store (and the session would be boring otherwise, so you just 
  know he won’t be satisfied) the store will taste some of this lunatic’s terrible wrath. 
  Black Gamings 
  The Tabletop Gaming Girls are back! And this time they have a new plan; they’ve 
  opened up a game store of their own just across the way. The grand opening of 
  “Black Gamings” could be the death knell of Gamings… Unless our heroines can do 
  something about it! But considering that Black Gamings seems to be offering lower 
  prices and better customer service, they’d better think of something quick. But why 
  is it that even the most loyal Gamings customers seem to be coming back to Black 
  Gamings every single freaking day? Something fishy is going on here… 
  
   
   
  33 
  Appendix: Random Crap 
  This is the part of the book where I ramble a bit and plug other people’s games. 
  You’ll probably want to skip printing out this part. 
  Inspiration 
  I came up with the idea for this game (and for that matter started writing it) at 
  GenCon SoCal 2004. Memento Mori, Wicked Dead, and a couple of other indie RPG 
  types had set up a booth to sell various games, and I wound up picking up most of 
  what they had to offer, which included stuff like octaNe, Shadow of Yesterday, 
  Inspectres, Fastlane, and Run Robot Red. 
  They impressed on me the idea that an RPG didn’t have to be a big, grand 
  production, or even necessarily something you’d keep playing regularly. The only 
  thing an RPG has to be is fun, which is of course subjective as hell. Mascot-tan is a 
  game that’s short in length, small in scope, and probably has a microscopic audience. 
  But more importantly it was incredibly fun to write, and involved trying out some 
  things I wouldn’t have bothered with normally. 
  As for what RPGs specifically helped inspire stuff in Mascot-tan, a partial list 
  would go along the lines of Enemy Gods, Toon, RandomAnime, Fudge, and of course 
  Risus. An anime series called Genshiken helped inspire some of the customers from 
  RPG Girls. 
  Anything-tan: The Mascot RPG 
  So maybe Mascot-tan’s minute system doesn’t do 
  it for you. Short of free-forming it, the only 
  system that I can recommend as an alternative 
  with full confidence would be Risus: The Anything 
  RPG by S. John Ross. Writing up a Mascot-tan 
  character in terms of Risus’ clichés would be 
  pretty easy, and for that matter porting Risus’ dice 
  mechanics into Mascot-tan with the existing stats 
  (i.e., rolling a number of six-siders equal to the 
  Characteristic being used) would be pretty damn 
  simple too. Risus can be found (for free no less) at: 
  http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm 
  Risus-tan, on the other hand, is right here. 
  Isn’t she beautiful? 
  Risus-tan 
  Little Cartoon Bast-, Uh… Girl. (4) 
  Elegant Wacky RPG Mascot (3) 
  Purple Risus Green Colored (2) 
  Irish Shinto Minotaur Astronaut Freemason (1) 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Deduped  Shit/Mascot-Tan/Mascot-Tan.pdf