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I assume you already know what a roleplaying game is, or you wouldn't be here. If you don't know what an RPG is (in this context), please visit What Is Roleplaying, by "Dave". (Pop-Up Warning: That page is hosted on GeoCities.) I don't agree with everything said on that page, but it's a decent introduction to the idea of role-playing.
Most of the links on this page go to other people's websites; please don't complain to me about their content.
If you know of any links that should be added to this page, please e-mail me about them - my e-mail address can be found on this site's homepage.
Guradians of Order was extremely agressive in licencing anime to turn into roleplaying games. Starting with the Sailor Moon game, their line included the official games for Dual!, El Hazard, Fushigi Yugi, Hellsing, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Slayers, Tenchi Muyo, and Trigun. In mid-2006, all of these games went out-of-print.
Unofficial BESM material also exists:
Guardians of Order converted their BESM game and their licenced Slayers anime game to the popular d20 System, as well as releasing d20 Mecha and d20 Anime Magic rulebooks.
R. Talsorian Games, the original publishers of the Fuzion rules, doesn't have very many licenced games, but what they do have are reasonably big-name anime: Dragon Ball Z for the newer fans, and Bubblegum Crisis and VOTOMS for the "old guard".
Unofficial Fuzion anime material is difficult to find, if it exists at all (although a very strong case can be made for treating R. Talsorian's Teenagers from Outer Space as an unofficial Urusei Yatsura worldbook, and their Mekton game is useful in any giant-robot Fuzion game).
(One licenced Fuzion game isn't really anime-based, but is close enough to be mentioned in passing on this page: the Usagi Yojimbo game published by Gold Rush Games.)
Steve Jackson Games has a corporate mentality that discourages adapting licenced properties, so there aren't any official GURPS anime worldbooks despite the age and popularity of the system. However, GURPS Mecha comes close in feel for the "giant robot" type of anime, and many games based on historical anime can make good use of GURPS Japan for background information.
Unofficial GURPS anime worldbooks are scarcer than they used to be. In fact, I only know of one complete worldbook currently available on the Web: GURPS 3×3 Eyes is a GURPS Third Edition worldbook based on the manga (which was reprinted in English in Super Manga Blast, published by Dark Horse), so it goes into more detail than if it was based on only the part of the story in the anime (released in North America by Pioneer/Geneon).
Individual characters, on the other hand, are relatively easy to find. Note that the writeups tagged "(3e)" are GURPS Third Edition writeups, and will need to be re-written now that GURPS Fourth Edition has been released. (Even if you are using GURPS Third Edition rules, most of those writeups also probably need to be re-written to be brought into conformance with the rules in GURPS Robots, GURPS Shapeshifters, and other GURPS books released after these characters were written.)
The HERO system has no official anime settings, but some unofficial resources exist (which I haven't yet looked at):
http://www.mactyre.net/scm/deejay/champs/writeups.html
http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/animechar.html
Steve Jackson Games has an anime-style supplement for their In Nomine roleplaying game, logically enough called In Nomine Anime. The book's bibliography includes a short list of anime with angelic and demonic themes, and very short hints at adapting those anime to the game.
In the spirit of that book, I've put together writeups of the megami from Oh My Goddess! (which doesn't quite agree with the hints about the series in In Nomine Anime) and a page of notes on converting Risky Safety to In Nomine.
Living Room Games has licences to publish RPGs based on Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Rival Schools.
Dream Pod 9 published a Project A-ko roleplaying game with fast-paced game mechanics some years ago. They also have some games that are similar to various anime worlds: Heavy Gear is reminiscient of VOTOMS, Jovian Chronicles could easily be a new entrant into the Gundam franchise except for the better technical design, Tribe 8 is horror similar to Vampire Hunter D, Gear Krieg would be a good system for the Hanagumi, and while the Lensman anime was admittedly lousy, Core Command still owes major debts to Doc Smith's original.
Infernal Games publishes RandomAnime.
White Wolf published a licenced Street Fighter RPG some time ago.
Palladium Games released a Robotech RPG a couple of decades ago.
Cumberland Games' Pokéthulhu is almost an anime-related game. (All right - it's a parody. But it's an interesting parody ...)
Some people prefer to use metal miniatures when playing roleplaying games. So far, I've only found one company that sells miniatures of anime characters.
This company, based in the United Kingdom, sells licenced Bubblegum Crisis miniatures and many non-licensed anime figures. The majority of these are listed (with no images, but most of the names are pretty easy to figure out) in the "PandaMonium Anime Figures" section of this company's website. The licensed Bubblegum Crisis figures and more non-licensed figures can be found in the "Characters & Other Miscallaneous [sic] Figures" section - look in "Bubblegum Crisis Figures", "AniMetals", and "Panda's Video Fighters".
The figures are old-style 25mm lead miniatures, and will look small next to modern 28mm or 30mm figures; however, they scale well with the "clicky-base" figures out there...
(One warning: If you order any of their more risqué miniatures, the entire shipment might not get through Customs.)
Company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of those companies. Specifically and non-exclusively: BESM and Tri-Stat are trademarks of Guardians Of Order, Inc. d20 System is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast. Fuzion is a registered trademark of The Fuzion Labs Group. GURPS is a registered trademark, and In Nomine is a trademark, of Steve Jackson Games. Pokéthulhu is a trademark of Squishy Brain Games. No challenge is intended to these or any other trademarks by their inclusion on this webpage.
All characters and settings listed above are the intellectual property of their creators; specific information may or may not (but definitely should) be available on each specific webpage linked above.
This web page is best viewed with a web browser.
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This is http://robkelk.ottawa-anime.org/rpgs/index.html - it was last updated on 1 March 2007
