Kamen Rider: Hour of the Void

From the same gang on 4chan's /m/ that brought you Super Robot Wars Quest, Super Robot Wars G, and the Musou Verse comes an observation of what happens when the venerable henshin heroes of the Kamen Rider franchise are succeeded by a bunch of high schoolers.

Kamen Rider: Hour of the Void is a play-by-IRC game concocted on Rizon's family of #kamenridervoid channels (though the IC channel of that exact name has been decommissioned suspended) and logged meticulously at the PBWorks workspace of DM "nazca", played ostensibly using the Mutants and Masterminds engine as combat benchmarks. We say "ostensibly" because combat is regularly eclipsed by freeform Social Link building worthy of the jury-rigged Persona 3 backdrop.

The year is hilariously obscured by Xs, but undeniably in the future beyond the last Great Rider War. Mysterious phenomena signal the macabre encroachment of the Hour of the Void, a time of night where hellish monstrosities join the usual Rider adversaries of unruly kaijin and rogue belts. To counter the threat, a Mega Corp forged from the ashes of ZECT and Smart Brain has pooled its Rider Gears for use by the Shocker Elimination and Execution Squad, operating out of Gekkoukan High on Iwatodai. The ragtag band of students tapped to staff SEES, however, gets far more than they bargained for in the form of personality conflicts, interference by outside forces, and the occasional downright humiliation in-battle.

...They make up for it, however, by slinging Tokusatsu Homages, pop culture references, and pervy innuendo like nobody's business.

Has inspired (to mixed fanfare) a Gaiden Game known as Ride Alone Complex which adheres to the M&M mechanics a little more rigidly.


 * Acting in the Dark: Let's just say the Dark Kiva arc and all its backlash was brought about almost entirely by this and leave it at that.
 * Artificial Humans and Half Human Hybrids: Tachibana/SEES employs, at last count, two each of (moderately) sedate Orphenochs and Fangires.
 * And now Kenoko has undergone the Showa cyborg conversion as circumvention to her Soap Opera Disease (actually implied to be accelerated degradation of her nerves due to copping Yuriko's ghetto Rider Punch when she was younger).
 * Black Eyes Take Warning: In a natural subversion of the usual RETW, the occasional shifts to technicolor eye colors are no particularly dangerous concern. The jet black of an impure Ultimate Kuuga, on the other hand, is not only reason enough to expel mortar from posteriors, but a memetic sign on the IRC channels that someone's REALLY ticked off.
 * And then Haruka transcends this via the development of Black RX Eyes. In character, no less.
 * And suddenly played straight with.
 * Whenever one of Double's forms goes purple-eyed, something is going to be hurting very soon.
 * Bland-Name Product: The setting as a whole is somewhat inconsistent about its Product Placement: console video games are represented by and large by the GameSphere and CompStation 360, but portable systems and franchises are untouched (evidenced by Haruka's Fangire form being recognized as a Gardevoir), ancient (by the setting) consoles are explicitly named, and fizzy soft drinks are also ordered by name (particularly Oranamin C, a drink plugged infrequently by Heisei Riders, and Mountain Dew simply as Haruka's signature drink). Oh yeah, there's also the Sega Sanshiro.
 * Cast Full Of Lesbians: A side effect of a large Yuri Fanboy player base. Ample male interaction still exists, however.
 * But see Fundamentally Female Cast below.
 * City of Adventure: Iwatodai, tailor-made to abuse every stock setting Persona and 30 years of Toku filming used beforehand.
 * Death's Hourglass: Death herself shows off several of these when coming to collect the retcon-killed Wyll. Of particular note are and.
 * Others of interest, revealed in the course of the Time Trippin' Wedding: and.
 * Definitely Just a Cold: Kenoko pulls this act when she suffers a burnout after a combat patrol; fortunately she's surrounded by SEES' more intelligent members at the time, and they don't buy it for a single second.
 * Fight Clubbing meets Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny in the Underground Colosseum. Nevermind.
 * Foe-Tossing Charge and Unstoppable Rage: Invoked by Yuriko when Evil!Jin rescues Kuma mid-Face Heel Turn, prompting her to effortlessly throw Hyper Kabuto, Ultimate Kuuga, and Hibiki Armed aside like ragdolls, only to be nearly killed in a single shot by Black Decade Complete.
 * Foe Yay: Between Yuriko and Evil!Jin; Chiyoko and anyone in SEES; and a Will They or Won't They? variant between Wyll and Faruko.
 * Foreign Fanservice: The campaign's preferred brand of Phenotype Stereotype.
 * Four Is Death: Specifically,.
 * Fridge Horror: The Hour of the Void erases the existence of those who die in it. Now consider that a good chunk of this RP is based off of character interaction. It's been largely agreed that if any of ten characters end up dying, things would get really fucked up. Examples of what might happen can be found on the character page.
 * The actual logic at work here is tenuous at best, but it's a fun what-if scenario.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Fangires: Genki Girl Hamuko and Good Bad Girl Haruka definitely apply, for certain literal and figurative definitions of "friendly" accordingly.
 * Go-Karting with Bowser: Gally's frequent (and several other SEES Riders' not-so-frequent) fraternization with Kirihiko and Chiyoko smacks of this given the latter pair's distrust of them.
 * Good Guy Bar: Wyll sets up one in the dorm after dropping the full-on douche act. Its fate is unknown, due to the core SEES command structure being disappoint and Wyll himself temporarily being stuck in retcon-murder limbo.
 * Gorgeous Garment Generation: For all of Jin's obsession about getting his hands on snazzy suits, he appears to have a techno-closet aboard the Zeroliner tasked to this. Or maybe it was added during the renovation to the "Royceliner." Haruka and Kaoru get Whole Costume Reference wardrobe upgrades from it, regardless.
 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: The Time Trippin' Wedding. Good GOD. Over a month of side-plot railroading, meta tension, and at least one player breakdown ensued upon the debut of Dark Kiva, and the entire B-Plot team finally (albeit over the course of a week) managed to get their revenge. Naturally, Crowning Moments of all sorts appear to be in order:
 * Funny: Haruka busts into the church, sidesteps a thrown sword, and proceeds to take the piss on the entire Fangire contingent NOT by furiously declaring her love for, but.
 * Funny: Mexican Fangire Henshin Standoff ensues. Haruka and Bishop crank the ham - the former with, the latter with.
 * Awesome: the "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight begins in earnest...and ends in.
 * Funny: Jin responds by breaking out this as his pre-Henshin theme.
 * Awesome: The Dynamic Entry of Ingrid...via.
 * Awesome: Phoenix Chronos busts out Liner Form. As G Den-O. And proceeds to release one HELL of a giant laser from his DenKamen Sword.
 * Awesome: ...only to be upstaged by THIS:
 * Awesome: Haruka enacts Mexican Standoff Part Deux...only to play right into 's business sense.
 * Heartwarming: Royce gets called in to get in on the about-to-ensue No-Holds-Barred Beatdown...only to convince all except to stay their hands. Even, who'd demanded Inoue's demise in the first place.
 * Heartwarming: The resolution of the Ingrid/Bishop fight, ironically enough:.
 * Henshin Hero: Well, it IS a Kamen Rider roleplay...
 * The Hidden Hour: The titular Hour of the Void, naturally, given its direct lifting from Persona 3's Dark Hour.
 * Fundamentally Female Cast: Narrowly averted despite the majority of the players being Yuri Fanboys. A smattering of male NPCs helps make up the slack immensely, and the few male PCs play just as dynamically as the ladies.
 * Except that the male characters and their players get nowhere near as much respect.
 * Law Enforcement, Inc.: Mild snarking has been had about SEES being part anti-Void task force and part vigilante army under corporate employ. Tachibana's monopoly on Gears, however, is less than absolute as the existences of the Time-Space Police Department and SHOCKHOUND attest.
 * Level Up At Intimacy 5: Gradual and Midseason Upgrades alike are granted as the result of SL10 Bonuses. As in P3 before it, a degree of More Friends, More Benefits is encouraged to gain and maintain new powers.
 * As seen in the Fundamentally Female Cast and discussed in the opening statement, this aspect of the game has all but eclipsed the rest.
 * Meanwhile Aboard RoyceLiner: The preferred plot split method of experienced, amateur, and probationary time-traveling Riders alike. San Dimas Time is enforced liberally through the present-day characters' links to the endangered past/future.
 * Merchandise-Driven: The Kamen Rider franchise proper's toyetic drive is mercilessly homaged and lampooned through mock CMs concocted to fill "programming gaps" between parts of sessions. These can range from the perfectly plausible (re-releases of DX Henshin Belts) to the demeaning (Aoki-flavored Bitch Tears) to the just plain incongruous (Haruka and Rape Machine-flavored Sausages).
 * Ninja Maid: There sure are a lot of Meido enthusiasts among SEES, from Sacchin adopting it as her uniform of choice to Sae and Kaoru's fixation on the culture...and even Faruko taking on Maid Cafe service part-time as decorum Training from Hell. (To say nothing of .)
 * KRV's Ur Example of this trope?.
 * Noodle Incident: We do not mention just WHAT Royce did in 1984 during her short-lived tenure as New Den-O. The cloud of paperwork is just THAT thick.
 * Wyll and Rape Machine have a similar one with the most hilarious Noodle Implements - a baby, a pitchfork, a fried octopus strapped to a table, and Walt Disney's frozen brain.
 * Off-the-Shelf FX: Word of God and Player alike is that to offset the budget imbalance of Kivat and Kivaara waffling between this and Conspicuous CG, the former is all-CG while the latter is all-toy-on-a-string.
 * The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: SEES has almost zero combat missions for nearly ten weeks of in-game time. When they very occasionally do do something, it tends to end very badly.
 * Polyamory: Chiyoko preaches the benefits of it; about half the PCs are currently embroiled in it.
 * Double Standard Rape (Female on Female): Explored slightly with "the party" and Asuka's efforts to contain the fallout from drunken shenanigans with Sae and Sacchin. Narrowly averted with FangOreo and pals due to the gray area of psy-stimulation.
 * Rape as Drama: Subsequently invoked in and the ensuing race against the act itself taking place.
 * And then moreso with . Right after the B-plot resolved the above.
 * Show Within a Show: Haruka's Dr. Sana-chan's "Body Communication", a love-line radio program ostensibly frequented by many of the other characters.
 * Talking to Themself: More "thinking to themself," but Alex/Alice indulge frequently, as do Hamuko/Aiko as they break out of their shell.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: Generally at least two plots going on at once, as many as four if a given day turns out being productive even after the sole DM adjourns for sleep.
 * Third Line, Some Waiting: Of course, if at least one player has urgent need of the DMPCs and can never manage to log on while said DM is awake...
 * Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World
 * We ARE Struggling Together!: It seems like there are about six different plots to overthrow THI, and nobody is on each other's side.
 * Why Am I Ticking?: Cakeboss threatens Yuriko and Kumatora with this . Yuriko takes this as an opportunity to declare that This Means War.
 * Worthy Opponent: Meta-example; Kenoko's player has this attitude towards Alex and Faruko's players. Since Kenoko's player is the guy who wrote Musou Quest, that shouldn't be surprising.
 * You Gotta Have White Hair: Though anime hair colors have their place, a distressing concentration of albino locks leads the pack - Asuka, Wyll, Haruka, and Phoenix by now being the most prominent examples.
 * And Yuriko dyes her hair to a silver-white shade.
 * Yuri Fanboy: To the extent that one of the late-comers actually altered his core character concept in order to be able to play properly. (To be fair, that character's initial brocon arc was well and truly resolved for half a month beforehand.)