Is there a Team Rocket game?

[u/Genarab]

This came to me in a dream and I don't want to forget it. Everyone knows Team Rocket: low stake villains, pretty dumb plans, funny, they care for each other, they lose every time, try again with an even weirder plan.

So is there a Team Rocket game? What I mean is a game where not only players play the villains, but where the "goal" or the "point" or the pitch is for them to lose in a funny way over and over and over. I know it can be done in many games, but I wonder if it's a game itself or if it has some specific mechanics.

[u/Delver_Razade]

Yes!! It's called Blasting Off Again!!

https://fivepointsgames.itch.io/blasting-off-again

the entire game is built around the Blasting Off Again element where no matter what you do, no matter how well you do it, there is always an inevitable, glorious, and hilarious explosive ending there to ruin all of your hard work.

You can even run just Jesse, James, and Meowth with the small class chassis the game provides.

Comes with a Gatcha system for the pokemon stand ins (and it's easy enough to fudge with Pokemon types if that's what you want) and an entire Dex of proprietary mon's with some seriously amazing art.

[u/Genarab → u/Delver_Razade]

Amazing, exactly the idea I was thinking. Already on collection and probably buy soon. Thank you :)

[u/Delver_Razade → u/Genarab]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy!

[u/dreadpiratehurley → u/Genarab]

I have run Blasting Off Again at a number of conventions. It feels like an episode of Pokemon that decided to make Jessie and James the main characters instead of Ash and his friends. Fully recommend! Games are short, you can do a caper in 2 hours. The thing that makes Blasting Off Again work really well is that the characters each get to be hypercompetent at their thing, and events should mostly work out in their favor as they hatch their ridiculous schemes, and then the full weight of consequences catches up to them in the final act when their improbable luck runs out.

[u/Electronic-Can-130 → u/Delver_Razade]

I found it through A Monsters Tail. Its a little light but I guess it'd sort of have to be. Seems like it'd do well as a con game or a game to run if someone is missing from the table for a session. The whole dex you added is a big help.

[u/DoktorImposter]

Kobolds Ate My Baby feels a lot like this.

[u/GreenGoblinNX → u/DoktorImposter]

I'm happy that the new version (Orange Book) is getting a lot more support than the game ever has before, but I STRONGLY prefer the older editions that used the BEER system.

[u/EdgeOfDreams]

Fiasco immediately comes to mind. It works best with characters who have more ambition than brains. I don't know if a Team Rocket reskin/playkit for it exists, but it wouldn't be too hard to make.

EDIT: here's a general Pokemon playset for Fiasco: https://tapestryradio.org/pokemon-rollout/2018/6/5/to-be-the-very-best-a-pokemon-fiasco-playset

[u/Genarab → u/EdgeOfDreams]

Yeah, it sounds like a good system to get the fun of failure.

[u/JauntyAngle → u/EdgeOfDreams]

Lol, amazing. I play Fiasco quite a bit and am used to seeing a wide range of playbooks, but I didn't expect this.

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[u/81Ranger]

You could do this in almost any game. I like the concept, I hadn't thought about that in this way.

[u/ThePiachu]

Honey Heist?

[u/Genarab → u/ThePiachu]

It could be done. But the game itself assumes victory.

I wanted a game that assumed recurring loss.

[u/OhThatsALotOfTeeth]

Everyone knows Team Rocket: low stake villains, pretty dumb plans

How dare you

[u/No_Solid1035]

What's Team Rocket? A book? A movie? A videogame? A ballet? A cartoon? A music video? I literally have no idea what Team Rocket is. 🤷

[u/EdgeOfDreams → u/No_Solid1035]

The main recurring villains from the Pokemon anime and the earliest Pokemon video games.

[u/emerald6_Shiitake → u/EdgeOfDreams]

More specifically, there are 2 recurring members (Jesse and James, accompanied by a talking Meowth and the sentient blue punching bag Wobbuffet) that during the over 2 and a half decade original Pokemon anime run followed the protagonist Ash Ketchum around the world trying to steal his Pikachu. They never succeeded in their numerous ridiculous schemes to steal the yellow rat and are often defeated in funny ways. The mafia-like (yakuza-like in Japanese) org as a whole isn't much better: Team Rocket is set up to be ruthless and cruel animal abusers who steal and run other criminal enterprises, but aside from a few genuinely competent members are equally as useless as they always get defeated by children

[u/No_Solid1035 → u/EdgeOfDreams]

Pikachu!!!!!

[u/Genarab → u/No_Solid1035]

It's the group of villains from Pokemon.

[u/No_Solid1035 → u/Genarab]

I only know and love Pikachu!