History TabletopGame / BlissStage

The game being a {{Deconstruction}} of ThePowerOfLove, a pilot's [=ANIMa=] is powered by their relationships with other characters, so [[LoveDodecahedron extremely complicated romantic entanglements]] ''just happen'' in this game. In addition, each pilot accumulates Bliss throughout the game, eventually reaching [[OneHundredAndEight 108]] Bliss, whereupon they either die or leave the game. Endings are often [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] or [[GainaxEnding a little more disturbing]].

* OneHundredAndEight: WordOfGod has it that this is the reason the game ends when you go over 108 Bliss.

* HeroicBSOD: the probable result of getting to [[OneHundredAndEight 108]] Bliss in the Endgame.

Bliss Stage is a tabletop roleplaying game written by Ben Lehman and produced by TAO Games on May 29, 2011. It is explicitly intended as his homage to Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion and similar works such as Manga/{{Bokurano}} and Anime/RahXephon. It is available at his website, [[http://www.tao-games.com These Are Our Games,]] with more information at the blog and fansite [[http://www.loveismyweapon.com Love Is My Weapon.]]

Bliss Stage is a tabletop roleplaying game written by Ben Lehman and produced by TAO Games, explicitly intended as his homage to Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion and similar works such as Manga/{{Bokurano}} and Anime/RahXephon. It is available at his website, [[http://www.tao-games.com These Are Our Games,]] with more information at the blog and fansite [[http://www.loveismyweapon.com Love Is My Weapon.]]

[[OneOfUs Troper]] Tropers/TsundereLightning was [[PromotedFanboy tapped by the original author]] for an official VisualNovel adaptation of the game, ''VisualNovel/BlissStageLoveIsYourWeapon'', which launched [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041711353/bliss-stage-visual-novel?ref=category a Kickstarter page.]]

%%* AppliedPhlebotinum: The [=ANIMa=], big time.

%%* YouLoseAtZeroTrust: The TropeNamer.

* ObviousBeta: The rules say that "the stronger your relationships, the stronger your weapon", but the system is flawed: As your mech grows bigger, the successes will remain the same but the damage TO YOU will grow. You must roll a Fate dice (1d6, with a Plus in 1-2, a Blank in 3-4 and a Minus in 5-6). Everytime something, ANYTHING could happen (Cross a bridge, outrun a firewall, fight some enemies) you must roll an amound of dice, equals to the power of the relationships that you used to build your mecha, and assign them into four categories: Success of Mission, Safety of Pilot, Health of Relationship, and Bliss. Only a Plus will save that category, a Blank will harm the category, and a minus will devastate it. 66% of dice will be harmful, you want to roll the minimum of dice, so the blow won't be so terrible.

* {{Animesque}}: An unusual example. While there's no art or animation, [[WordOfGod Ben Lehman]] listed Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion, Anime/{{Macross}} and Anime/RahXephon as influences, and the influence of Japanese tropes is evident.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: the [=ANIMa=], big time.

--> Keenan: Man, Sara is getting all girly and clingy and shit. I don't want to deal with that. Lousy lay, too.
--> Josh: [[AxCrazy Fuck. That. Noise.]]
* LaResistance

* RelationshipValues: There are six stats in the game. Three of them are RelationshipValues - [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 Intimacy,]] [[YouLoseAtZeroTrust Trust]] and [[YouLoseAtZeroTrust Stress.]] [[GainaxEnding And the other three measure]] [[LotusEaterMachine how screwed your Pilot is.]]

* TeenageWasteland

* YouLoseAtZeroTrust: The TropeNamer.

The game being a {{Deconstruction}} of ThePowerOfLove, a pilot's [=ANIMa=] is powered by their relationships with other characters, so [[LoveDodecahedron extremely complicated romantic entanglements]] ''just happen'' in BlissStage. In addition, each pilot accumulates Bliss throughout the game, eventually reaching [[OneHundredAndEight 108]] Bliss, whereupon they either die or leave the game. Endings are often [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] or [[GainaxEnding a little more disturbing]].

* WriteWhoYouKnow: The rules suggest naming Anchors after the players' unrequited crushes from when they were the age of their Pilot characters. It's also pointed out that using the name of someone you still know would be rather creepy, considering [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 certain]] [[DeusSexMachina mechanics]].

[[OneOfUs Troper]] Tropers/TsundereLightning was [[PromotedFanboy tapped by the original author]] for an official VisualNovel adaptation of the game, ''VisualNovel/BlissStageLoveIsYourWeapon'', which launched a Kickstarter page [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041711353/bliss-stage-visual-novel?ref=category here]].

* DreamRealm: The aliens' home turf.

BlissStage is a tabletop roleplaying game written by Ben Lehman and produced by TAO Games, explicitly intended as his homage to Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion and similar works such as Manga/{{Bokurano}} and Anime/RahXephon. It is available at his website, [[http://www.tao-games.com These Are Our Games,]] with more information at the blog and fansite [[http://www.loveismyweapon.com Love Is My Weapon.]]

->'''[[PresentDayPresentTime Right now,]]''' [[PresentDay the moment you began reading this]], [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Humanity is devastated]] [[AlienInvasion by an alien attack]] [[TakeOurWordForIt from the edges of our understanding.]]\\
'''[[CrapsackWorld It is the first blow of a terrible war.]]''' [[TimeSkip Seven years later,]] [[AppliedPhlebotinum armed with technology]] [[BlackBox you cannot comprehend]] [[HowDoIShotWeb and can barely operate,]] [[FinalBattle you will strike back.]]\\
'''''[[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 This is how.]]'''''

BlissStage is a tabletop roleplaying game written by Ben Lehman and produced by TAO Games, explicitly intended as his homage to Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion and similar works such as Manga/{{Bokurano}} and RahXephon. It is available at his website, [[http://www.tao-games.com These Are Our Games,]] with more information at the blog and fansite [[http://www.loveismyweapon.com Love Is My Weapon.]]

* {{Animesque}}: An unusual example. While there's no art or animation, [[WordOfGod Ben Lehman]] listed Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion, Anime/{{Macross}} and RahXephon as influences, and the influence of Japanese tropes is evident.

[[OneOfUs Troper]] Tropers/TsundereLightning was [[PromotedFanboy tapped by the original author]] for an official VisualNovel adaptation of the game, ''VisualNovel/BlissStageLoveIsYourWeapon'', which launched a Kickstarter page [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041711353/bliss-stage-visual-novel?ref=category here]].

* {{Animesque}}: An unusual example. While there's no art or animation, [[WordOfGod Ben Lehman]] listed Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion, {{Macross}} and RahXephon as influences, and the influence of Japanese tropes is evident.

[[OneOfUs Troper]] Tropers/TsundereLightning was [[PromotedFanboy tapped by the original author]] for an official VisualNovel adaptation of the game, BlissStageLoveIsYourWeapon, which launched a Kickstarter page [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041711353/bliss-stage-visual-novel?ref=category here]].

* CompetenceZone: Between the ages of 13 and 17. Before that you can't Pilot: after that you Bliss.

BlissStage is a tabletop roleplaying game written by Ben Lehman and produced by TAO Games, explicitly intended as his homage to Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion and similar works such as {{Bokurano}} and RahXephon. It is available at his website, [[http://www.tao-games.com These Are Our Games,]] with more information at the blog and fansite [[http://www.loveismyweapon.com Love Is My Weapon.]]

* OneHundredAndEight: WordOfGod has it that this is the reason the game ends when you go over 108 Bliss.

-->[[GainaxEnding This is a game about the necessity of war...\\
About the cost of survival...\\
About the desperation of sex...\\
About the pain of betrayal.]]

-->[[PatrickStewartSpeech But more importantly, this is a game about the endurance of humanity.]]
-->[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome About the courage of heroes.]]
-->[[ThePowerOfLove About the power of love.]]
-->[[EarnYourHappyEnding About hope for the future.]]
--> - Ben Lehman

-->'''[[PresentDayPresentTime Right now,]]''' [[PresentDay the moment you began reading this]], [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Humanity is devastated]] [[AlienInvasion by an alien attack]] [[TakeOurWordForIt from the edges of our understanding.]]

-->'''[[CrapsackWorld It is the first blow of a terrible war.]]''' [[TimeSkip Seven years later,]] [[AppliedPhlebotinum armed with technology]] [[BlackBox you cannot comprehend]] [[HowDoIShotWeb and can barely operate,]] [[FinalBattle you will strike back.]]

-->'''''[[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 This is how.]]'''''
--> --Back cover copy
----

BlissStage is a tabletop roleplaying game written by Ben Lehman and produced by TAO Games, explicitly intended as his homage to Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion and similar works such as {{Bokurano}} and RahXephon. It is available at his website, [[http://www.tao-games.com These Are Our Games,]] with more information at the blog and fansite [[http://www.loveismyweapon.com Love Is My Weapon.]]

[[OneOfUs Troper]] Tropers/TsundereLightning was [[PromotedFanboy tapped by the original author]] for an official VisualNovel adaptation of the game, BlissStageLoveIsYourWeapon, which launched a Kickstarter page [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041711353/bliss-stage-visual-novel?ref=category here]].

[[PresentDayPresentTime The moment the game begins,]] malevolent aliens afflict humanity as a whole with The Bliss, a form of stasis locking the [[OnlyFatalToAdults adult population of the world]] into a [[LotusEaterMachine sleep with apparently blissful dreams]], leaving the child and teenaged survivors in a CrapsackWorld ravaged by occasional attacks by [[HumongousMecha alien terror drones]].

A lone, insomniac, and very probably AxCrazy adult manages to [[LaResistance rally the local survivors]] and, to their enduring astonishment, capture one of the drones. They quickly reverse engineer it into the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Alien Numina Inversion Machine,]] or [[FunWithAcronyms ANIMa]], a machine that [[ThePowerOfLove converts relationships]] into a source of PsychicPower [[RuleOfCool taking the form of a]] HumongousMecha: [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 The deeper the relationship, the more powerful its weapons.]] The pilot of this [=ANIMa=] needs to be properly Anchored [[Film/TheMatrix (in a manner similar to the duties of the Operators)]] by a [[InformedAbility "trained psychologist,"]] usually just someone who they have a crush on.

The game being a {{Deconstruction}} of ThePowerOfLove, a pilot's [=ANIMa=] is powered by their relationships with other characters, so [[LoveDodecahedron extremely complicated romantic entanglements]] ''just happen'' in BlissStage. In addition, each pilot accumulates Bliss throughout the game, eventually reaching [[OneHundredAndEight 108]] Bliss, whereupon they either die or leave the game. Endings are often [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] or [[GainaxEnding a little more disturbing]].
----

* OneHundredAndEight: WordOfGod has it that this is the reason the game ends when you go over 108 Bliss.
* OnlyFatalToAdults: The Bliss. Specifically, it's only fatal if you turn eighteen.

* BlackBox: No one knows how the [=ANIMa=] work; the rulebook even speculates that the only functional part of the entire rig is [[NightmareFuel a chunk of alien brain.]]

-->[[PatrickStewartSpeech But more importantly, this is a game about the endurance of humanity.]]

BlissStage is a tabletop roleplaying game written by Ben Lehman and produced by TAO Games, explicitly intended as his homage to NeonGenesisEvangelion and similar works such as {{Bokurano}} and {{RahXephon}}. It is available at his website, [[http://www.tao-games.com These Are Our Games,]] with more information at the blog and fansite [[http://www.loveismyweapon.com Love Is My Weapon.]]

A lone, insomniac, and very probably AxCrazy adult manages to [[LaResistance rally the local survivors]] and, to their enduring astonishment, capture one of the drones. They quickly reverse engineer it into the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Alien Numina Inversion Machine,]] or [[FunWithAcronyms ANIMa]], a machine that [[ThePowerOfLove converts relationships]] into a source of PsychicPower [[RuleOfCool taking the form of a]] HumongousMecha: [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 The deeper the relationship, the more powerful its weapons.]] The pilot of this [=ANIMa=] needs to be properly Anchored [[TheMatrix (in a manner similar to the duties of the Operators)]] by a [[InformedAbility "trained psychologist,"]] usually just someone who they have a crush on.

* {{Animesque}}: An unusual example. While there's no art or animation, [[WordOfGod Ben Lehman]] listed NeonGenesisEvangelion, {{Macross}} and RahXephon as influences, and the influence of Japanese tropes is evident.

* HandsomeLech: As of the beginning of the one-shot, Keenan Caine has snagged all of the girls (judging by their Intimacy scores). Depending on what names and genders you assign to the Anchors, [[GayOption he's also snagged a couple of the guys.]]

* InsistentTerminology: They're a Creche and a Cradle, not a hangar and an [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Entry Plug,]] respectively.

In addition, Tropers/TsundereLightning was recently [[PromotedFanboy tapped by the original author]] for an official VisualNovel adaptation of the game, BlissStageLoveIsYourWeapon, which recently launched a Kickstarter page [[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1041711353/bliss-stage-visual-novel?ref=category here]].

-->[[GainaxEnding This is a game about the necessity of war...\\

-->[[PatrickStewartSpeech But more importantly, this is a game about the endurance of humanity.]]
-->[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome About the courage of heroes.]]
-->[[ThePowerOfLove About the power of love.]]
-->[[EarnYourHappyEnding About hope for the future.]]
--> - Ben Lehman

-->'''[[PresentDayPresentTime Right now,]]''' [[PresentDay the moment you began reading this]], [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Humanity is devastated]] [[AlienInvasion by an alien attack]] [[TakeOurWordForIt from the edges of our understanding.]]

-->'''[[CrapsackWorld It is the first blow of a terrible war.]]''' [[TimeSkip Seven years later,]] [[AppliedPhlebotinum armed with technology]] [[BlackBox you cannot comprehend]] [[HowDoIShotWeb and can barely operate,]] [[FinalBattle you will strike back.]]

-->'''''[[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 This is how.]]'''''
--> --Back cover copy

A lone, insomniac, and very probably AxCrazy adult manages to [[LaResistance rally the local survivors]] and, to their enduring astonishment, capture one of the drones. They quickly reverse engineer it into the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Alien Numina Inversion Machine,]] or [[FunWithAcronyms ANIMa]], a machine that [[ThePowerOfLove converts relationships]] into a source of PsychicPower [[RuleOfCool taking the form of a]] HumongousMecha: [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 The deeper the relationship, the more powerful its weapons.]] The pilot of this [=ANIMa=] needs to be properly Anchored [[TheMatrix (in a manner similar to the duties of the Operators)]] by a [[InformedAbility "trained psychologist,"]] usually just someone who they have a crush on.

* HowDoIShotWeb: The [=ANIMa=] was created six years after roughly "'''Right Now'''". The war began in earnest after another year of deadly trial and error. And it's still very hard to control an [=ANIMa=] without [[ThePowerOfLove the guidance of an Anchor.]]

--> Keenan: Man, Sara is getting all girly and clingy and shit. I don't want to deal with that. Lousy lay, too.
--> Josh: [[AxCrazy Fuck. That. Noise.]]

* ThePowerOfLove: [[WordOfGod Ben Lehman's]] favorite way of describing the [=ANIMa=] is "It runs on weaponized love."

* WordSaladTitle: While it may seem like this, the trope is averted: the name is a reference to the "Bliss Stage" of a relationship - basically, the psychological term for the honeymoon period.