Teenagers from Outer Space (roleplaying game)

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Not to be confused with the 1959 sci-fi movie of the same name (as seen on Mystery Science Theater 3000), Teenagers From Outer Space is a wacky, rules-light, Anime-inspired RPG from R. Talsorian Games.

The concept of the game revolves around the aftermath of mankind's first contact with space aliens. In this case, since all the aliens come from One World Orders, they quickly become fascinated with Earth's cultural diversity. So much so, that sending your kids to high school on Earth becomes the next big thing. Naturally, with all those teenage aliens running around mingling with the locals and getting into Zany Schemes, Hilarity Ensues.

The game was always based on anime, but was originally released in the '80s when anime was still an underground sensation, and so was written as a general comedic sci-fi RPG. After you could watch Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball without having to buy them from bootleggers, the anime basis became the game's main selling point.

The books also come with a list of adventure seeds called "Episodes", many of them based on the plots of episodes of real comedy anime.

Tropes used in Teenagers from Outer Space (roleplaying game) include:

• Animesque
• Bag of Holding: The 4th dimensional purse, which holds six times its apparent capacity by using a miniature time machine to put your items into six different time zones.
  • Also the Warpspace Overnight Bag (can hold dozens of outfits in a 1x1 tote bag, but only holds clothes) and the Black Hole Storage Closet upgrade for vehicles (can hold absolutely anything, as long as you can fit it through the trunk door.)
• Black Widow - According to the sample adventure, Nookians carbon-freeze their husbands after the wedding night.
• Breast Plate - The Battle Bikini item.
• Can't Have Sex Ever - It's a rule. If two characters try to have sex, a hilarious interruption must ensue.
• Captain Ersatz - Rami is totally Lum in a cat girl's body. Lum's body... that's the girl in the illustration on page 7.
  • One of the girls on Page 4 looks a lot like She-Ra.
• Chainmail Bikini: A "battle bikini" which draws equally upon Dirty Pair and Project A-ko is among the equipment you can buy.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Rami, and an inordinate number of plots provided by the game call for one.
• Damsel in Distress: A distressing amount of plots involve this.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: TFOS has the "When too much is too much" rule - roll too well on a skill roll and the success will have unfortunate (for the character) repercussions. The Japanese saying about "the nail that sticks up gets pounded down" definitely applies to this game.
• Earth Is the Center of the Universe
• Everything's Better With Bunnies: A plot involves capturing an escaped rabbit, while its owner starts transforming into a rabbit themselves.
• Evil Twin: Episode 5 involves one of the player characters being visited by their tasteless, lecherous cousin who looks exactly like them.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin
• Flight: a possible superpower for aliens.
• Freaky Friday: The Personality Swappers.
• Gender Bender: The Boy/Girl Gun.
• God Guise and Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Subverted. The assorted aliens have strange and mysterious powers which generally put them into superhuman territory. Sure the humans get stuff like "rich", "smart", typical high school social survival traits, but how do you hold out against an alien "jock" who can bench a tank? Oh wait... humans also get the Human Fake Out. Since the aliens consider Earth to be the Coolest Place in the Universe, most of them will believe practically anything a human says. Which makes encounters with the Green-Skinned Space Babe very interesting when you explain that going to second base is a common human greeting among good friends on their own....
  • There was a fan-made expansion that gave some more "bizarro" powers to humans, to all GMs to add elements of series like old Mecha animes, Ranma ½ and Project A-ko to their campaigns. These included powers like Girl/Guy/Girl Trigger (contact with a specific stimulus caused the character to be affected as though hit by a Boy/Girl Gun, a Gender Bender Transformation Ray), Own a Big Mecha (the character has a piloted robot or super battlesuit made by one of their relatives—which meant they'd get ticked if it got damage) and a human version of the Monster Out power.
• Gone Horribly Right: This will happen if you roll too high.
• Hammerspace/Hyperspace Mallet: The Hyperdimensional Hammer, which can be purchased at your local store.
• Hit Points: Or more specifically Bonk points. Pretty standard, except a) you don't die if you run out, and b) you can lose them by being humiliated as well as getting hurt.
• Humans Are Special: Due to their cultural diversity, humans are considered the coolest beings in the universe, to the point that they can Fake Out aliens with claims like "plaid bellbottoms are cool" or "kissing is a perfectly acceptable way to say hello".
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: The "Monster Out" ability.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Available cheap just about everywhere.
• Mega Neko: Episode 8 involves a giant cat adopting one of the PCs as its own kitten.
• The Men in Black: The Alien Control Officers.
• No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture: Part of the background of the game is that Earth has the best pop culture in the galaxy. There may be some pop culture put out by alien races, but it's our Hat and the reason all the aliens have come to Earth.
• Puny Earthlings: Aliens get all kinds of cool powers; humans can have more mundane 'powers' like connections to important people or loads and loads of money.
• Rule of Funny: The game was designed to run on this.
• Shout-Out: Many to Urusei Yatsura, among others.
• Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The various alien races are given a rough sorting based on how closely they resemble a human form. Near Humans are perfect examples of Human Aliens and the Green-Skinned Space Babe. Not Very Near Humans are defined by having a roughly humanoid form and nature: Rubber Forehead Aliens, Intelligent Gerbils, Petting Zoo People, Little Green Men and The Greys. Real Weirdies are anything else; Starfish Aliens are most common examples, with Insectoid Aliens also possible, but theoretically a Real Weirdy could also be an Eldritch Abomination or even from a race of Energy Beings.
• Space Police: The Benzmen.
• Stock Super Powers: Aliens can get all kinds of neat powers, including freezing things, breathing fire, Super Strength, Super Speed, teleportation, the ability to "monster out" and shapeshift, creating shields, zap people, fly, drain "bonk" (hit points) from others, and telemove objects.
  • Super Intelligence: Probably the only Stock Superpower that Puny Earthlings are allowed to access because of its mundane and unimpressive nature when compared to the rest of Stock Super Powers.
• Transformation Ray: Aside from the Boy/Girl gun, there's also Featherface's chicken gun.