KAIJU?!?!
Wikipedia: “Kaiju (Japanese: 怪獣, Hepburn: Kaijū, lit.'Strange Beast') is a Japanese media genre involving giant monsters. The word kaiju can also refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monsters.” Well if Wikipedia says it, it must be true!
”Kaiju” is now commonly used in English vernacular to mean “giant monster”, with the special emphasis on “giant”, as in, 100 or more feet tall and frequently hundreds of feet tall.
Kaiju make Fantastic enemies to fight in a game. They could also in some games be played as a hero as long as the physical requirements of coping with a titanic monster on the superhero team are met.
FASERIP is an Excellent system. However for very large creatures, characters and effects it begins to break down. No great sin, comics and movies themselves almost always lose sight of physics or just handwave physics away when it comes to giants and kaiju. However, adding more oomph to giant characters may be desirable, to make them into the kind of threat they are in monster movies and shows rather than being somewhat ineffectual. The classic Silver Age stories of demigods fighting trolls, dragons and gigantic supervillains depicted a fair amount of property damage so this is something worth putting back into FASERIP games. It also makes it more appealing to run a kaiju-centric game, since the monsters who are the stars of the story actually pose a devastating long term threat if not stopped!
The rules provided here are for KAIJU. It is not known if for example a “normal” giant-sized human with Growth power would automatically manifest the physical damage powers of a Kaiju. Perhaps there is something unique about Kaiju that gives them their earth-shaking awesomeness!
Kaiju can be Ground Kaiju meaning they walk, crawl or slither on the ground, Water Kaiju, meaning that they swim and perhaps crawl on to land as well, or Sky Kaiju, meaning that they float or fly whether with wings or through sheer awesomeness. A Kaiju has a primary type. It may also be able to move in one or both of the other ways, for a example a Ground Kaiju might have fins and wings meaning when it wishes to it can fly and swim as well. However, whatever form of movement is the most common and typical for the Kaiju defines it. Use common sense, if common sense applies to monsters hundreds of feet tall…
KAIJU PHYSICAL POWERS
Kaiju range in size (ground to top of head or equivalent or for long or snake like creatures from head tip to tail tip) from Single Shift to Triple Shift. 50% of all Kaiju are Single Shift in size. 25% of all Kaiju are Double Shift in size. 20% of all Kaiju are Triple Shift in size. 5% of all Kaiju are technically “Triple Shift” in size but in fact are larger, for example by having masses of tentacles, multiple heads, enormous wings, or a swarm of smaller monsters living on their body symbiotically.
Kaiju Strength is usually in proportion to their size, with Single Shift size Kaiju having Astounding Strength, Double Shift size Kaiju having Wondrous Strength and Triple Shift and above size Kaiju having Phenomenal Strength.
There is no hard and fast rule for the other attributes of a Kaiju and the other attributes can be chosen or randomized. Not all Kaiju will be godlike in every category nor should they be.
Unless a Power says otherwise or they have some other effect in play, all Ground Kaiju move at Bad land speed. All Water Kaiju move at Decent water speed and Terrible land speed. All Sky Kaiju move at World Class air speed, Terrible ground speed and if they can swim at all (25% chance of not know or decided already) swim at Terrible water speed.
All Kaiju have at least ONE Life Support power.
All Kaiju have Armour at a random Rank. This Armour is their outer skin or shell and cannot be removed or improved. Kaiju with complicated forms resembling turtles, insects like beetles, sea creatures and so on maybe this Armour as their AVERAGE rating with no more than half their body having a +1RS Armour rating and the other half of their body having a -1RS Armour rating.
All Kaiju have at least ONE random super power. If the Kaiju belongs to a race or species, this is the innate power that all members of the race or species are born with. If the Kaiju is an atomic mutant, laboratory accident or growth formula product then the power is a one-off accident as well.
All Kaiju have at least one Limitation. The nature of this Limitation is such that if used correctly against the Kaiju it will either kill it or neutralize it as a threat “permanently”.
Kaiju are immense and immensely heavy as a result. Ground Kaiju moving on land or wading through water will tear up the ground beneath their feet, creating footsteps of a depth of up to 30 feet and in proportion to the size of their feet or paws. The more legs or tentacles a Kaiju has, the less deep these footprints will be. A multi-legged crawling Kaiju or a Kaiju that moves using numerous tentacles will only tear up the ground beneath it to a depth of 5 feet or not disturb the ground at all when it is actively trying not to. A Kaiju that is boneless, such as an octopus, shark or insect, does not tear up the ground at all.
Kaiju can destroy physical structure such as buildings, aircraft, ships, spaceships and physical defences such as walls or other barriers using their Blunt Melee attack. Because Kaiju are so enormous, in addition to inflicting their actual damage they also create a local physical effect equivalent to a weather based storm doing damage to an area around them equal to World Class Rank (7 Areas). Everything and everyone in this radius is subject to damage. This area effect damage for the Kaiju is equal to its normal Blunt Melee damage -2RS so for example if the Kaiju normally does Fantastic Blunt Melee damage within the area of effect it is inflicting Great damage. This area effect is not able to be switched off, it is a natural side effect of a gigantic creature directing its physical force. All applicable rolls and powers can be used by anyone affected in the area to minimize damage, save others, and so on.
Kaiju can deadlift enormous weights, far beyond what the Rank of their Strength would indicate. This is a function of an elemental natural form of martial arts all Kaiju manifest. The deadlifting allows them to pick up and lift over their heads any object or character of Triple Shift weight or less for one round. At the end of the round the Kaiju must either Throw the lifted object or character, or Drop them. Dropping a lifted object or person inflicts Great damage for every 10 feet the lifted object or character from the lifted position to the ground, to a maximum of total Triple Shift damage. All powers that can apply to reduce this damage do so.
Depending on the type of Kaiju, the creature may have a Power in addition to its immense size and strength. This Power is always linked to the nature and origin of the Kaiju in some way. This might mean that an atomic mutant has a radiation breath Blast power or that a living machine Kaiju can somehow use other technology to build itself into an even bigger monster using Growth power and so on.
Standard bonuses to hit Kaiju apply. Their gigantic size makes it very easy to hit them in fact. Most Kaiju don’t trouble themselves to avoid attacks and at the decision of the gamemaster if the Kaiju is so arrogant as to not even attempt to avoid being struck a further +3RS bonus can be given to an attacker.
Accidents of Science are unique Kaiju created by science run amok. Experiments sometimes with good intentions nonetheless end up with a Kaiju forming in the wreckage. It could be something as simple as the Boomfood experiments to create a superfood, or as unpredictable as an octopus being bitten by a radioactive skyscraper to become a gigantic octopus with the proportional fire suppression, architectural design and wiring of a skyscraper.
Atomic Mutants are unique gigantic monsters formed by the sudden Lamarckian transformation of an ordinary animal (or plant) into a Kaiju. After an radiation spill, a toxic waste dumping or an atomic weapon test, some small and usually overlooked living thing is forever changed, transformed into a gigantic destructive Kaiju! 33% of all Atomic Mutant Kaiju can eat radioactive waste and absorb nuclear radiation to heal themselves or even temporarily boost their size or powers.
Boomfood Kaiju are descendants of experiments in the late nineteenth century. An attempt was made to create a super food that would end world hunger. Instead, it made whatever it was fed to turn into a giant. The children of the first affected animals (and people) were even more enormous, until the final stable forms are Kaiju sized. Boomfood Kaiju are literally –Shift sized versions of the “normal” animal or person, uniquely UN-monstrous in appearance other than their size.
Living Machine Kaiju are a Device that someone has Invented – or possibly a member of an alien machine race. They are formed from an enormous and complicated robot body, but somehow their sentience, be it an Artificial Intelligence (AI) or otherwise, is so sophisticated that the Living Machine Kaiju may be treated as “alive” or “having a soul.”
There were once Planetary Kaiju, each of whom has a permanent Growth power effect on their physical forms. These Kaiju were not merely hundreds of feet tall but in some case thousands of feet tall. Fortunately all of these creatures are either dead or Asleep, easily mistaken for mountains, islands and glaciers. The Sleeping Giants hills of Fiji, certain mountains in Scandinavia, various “protrusions” on the ocean floor and other apparently natural features are the last resting places of these Jotunn, Trolls, Elder Gods and Old Ones.
Prehistoric Kaiju were once a part of the natural ecology of the world. However when the atmosphere changed a few of these giants went to sleep on the sea floor, in enormous cave systems, deep under the soil under forests, or buried in damp layers far below a desert. In a form of suspended animation, nothing awakens these awesome creatures now other than the most powerful of magic spells, atomic blasts or widespread pollution of their local area.
Totems are powerful magical Kaiju. Some are animated unliving objects given a strange form of “life” by legendary magic. Others are unique monsters brought into being long ago and enduring ever since in suspended animation until needed. Others still are simply magnificent gigantic animals of a kind not scene for tens or hundreds of thousands of year. Totems have a special Power of Regeneration with the Flexibility of limb and body regrowth. Totems can also be healed and strengthened by worship or by the casting of magic spells.
Venusian Kaiju arrive on earth as meteorites. These small meteorites contain what resembles a geode which when it breaks open on cooling releases a rubbery egg-like spore. This spore hatches within 1d10 minutes into a baby Kaiju. Ravenous, it will attack and kill anything it can to provide it with meat, growing rapidly as long as it can feed. If it is prevented from feeding for a full Earth-day (24 hours) it will die. If not, it will grow to Single Shift (120 feet) height. Venusian Kaiju usually resemble humanoid reptilians with a long tail half the length of their body with several large scales on the end. In addition to being able to walk, Venusian Kaiju can also swim at Phenomenal water speed.
Giant-Size Smashing Things
Any Giant-Sized (12 feet tall or more) character can make a roll on Strength to tear apart an unresisting inanimate object one Rank smaller than itself (or any size smaller than that). Growth Power using characters that do not become at least 12 feet tall can't use this effect. This tearing apart results in the object being ripped into a number of similar sized pieces equal to the height of the Giant-Sized character in feet, for example a 20 foot tall character rips an object into 20 roughly equal fragments. A truly gigantic attacker shredding an object two Ranks or more smaller than themselves can be assumed to tear it into 100+1d100 pieces. The number of pieces may not matter but if it does - now you know. And knowing is half the battle, apparently.