How would you fit something like the Berserk Eclipse in your current campaign? A quick explanation of what the Eclipse is:

The Eclipse is an event that happens every 216 years. During that time, evil spirits swell en masse. What kicks it off is the activation of a crimson Behelit- which turns a human into one of the Godhand, 4 extremely powerful demons. The Godhand tries to sway the human to the side of the Godhand using their powers. If the human accepts, they must mark a sacrifice- people dear to them. The sacrifice(s) will be hunted down by an infinite swarm of demons until they die.

The crimson behelit activates when the human is in an utter state of despair. Say, all of your friends are dead, your limbs gone, and you are starving. That would be a good cause to make the Behelit activate.

I'd ignore it entirely as;

A) I've never heard of it before and it sounds like some new age anime* BS.
B) it's entirely incompatible with the setting I'm running. ENTIRELY.

* ETA: specifically badly translated anime that uses literal translations that fail to account for cultural differences... ex. the Godhand are demons, whatever the heck a Behelit is...

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 09:01:36 AM
I'd ignore it entirely as;

A) I've never heard of it before and it sounds like some new age anime* BS.
B) it's entirely incompatible with the setting I'm running. ENTIRELY.

* ETA: specifically badly translated anime that uses literal translations that fail to account for cultural differences... ex. the Godhand are demons, whatever the heck a Behelit is...

Greetings!

Yeah, Chris, I agree.

This concept seems very specific and hardwired to a campaign. Lots of campaign assumptions and dynamics required. It wouldn't fit into my campaign at all.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Anime is gay, so I wouldn't include it. Besides, it sounds like a rip off of the Wild Hunt with extra steps.

Quote from: SHARK on July 12, 2022, 09:12:43 AM

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 09:01:36 AM
I'd ignore it entirely as;

A) I've never heard of it before and it sounds like s
some new age anime* BS.
B) it's entirely incompatible with the setting I'm running. ENTIRELY.

* ETA: specifically badly translated anime that uses literal translations that fail to account for cultural differences... ex. the Godhand are demons, whatever the heck a Behelit is...

Greetings!

Yeah, Chris, I agree.

This concept seems very specific and hardwired to a campaign. Lots of campaign assumptions and dynamics required. It wouldn't fit into my campaign at all.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

That's fine.

Quote from: drayakir on July 12, 2022, 09:18:15 AM
Anime is gay, so I wouldn't include it. Besides, it sounds like a rip off of the Wild Hunt with extra steps.

YOUR FACE IS GAY

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 09:01:36 AM
I'd ignore it entirely as;

A) I've never heard of it before and it sounds like some new age anime* BS.
B) it's entirely incompatible with the setting I'm running. ENTIRELY.

* ETA: specifically badly translated anime that uses literal translations that fail to account for cultural differences... ex. the Godhand are demons, whatever the heck a Behelit is...

Also this is a Behelit

Quote from: MeganovaStella on July 12, 2022, 10:03:27 AM

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 09:01:36 AM
I'd ignore it entirely as;

A) I've never heard of it before and it sounds like some new age anime* BS.
B) it's entirely incompatible with the setting I'm running. ENTIRELY.

* ETA: specifically badly translated anime that uses literal translations that fail to account for cultural differences... ex. the Godhand are demons, whatever the heck a Behelit is...

Also this is a Behelit

Okay, so it's made up shit from the Berserk manga which is pretending to tell a story supposedly set in Medieval Europe, but comes off like a twisted funhouse mirror because it's been filtered through late 80's Japanese cultural lens and then translated (badly) back to English. You can feel the fatalism dripping off the concept.

Hard pass.

If I want dark Medieval plot hooks I can just go to the actual myths and legends of Europe, not culturally distorted manga.

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 10:18:42 AM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on July 12, 2022, 10:03:27 AM

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 09:01:36 AM
I'd ignore it entirely as;

A) I've never heard of it before and it sounds like some new age anime* BS.
B) it's entirely incompatible with the setting I'm running. ENTIRELY.

* ETA: specifically badly translated anime that uses literal translations that fail to account for cultural differences... ex. the Godhand are demons, whatever the heck a Behelit is...

Also this is a Behelit

Okay, so it's made up shit from the Berserk manga which is pretending to tell a story supposedly set in Medieval Europe, but comes off like a twisted funhouse mirror because it's been filtered through late 80's Japanese cultural lens and then translated (badly) back to English. You can feel the fatalism dripping off the concept.

Hard pass.

If I want dark Medieval plot hooks I can just go to the actual myths and legends of Europe, not culturally distorted manga.

I think the Japanese perspective gives an interesting twist on Medieval European culture. But if you don't like it, it's fine, I cannot change your tastes.

The concept of behelits does work in a campaign about slaying evil monsters combined with horror. Imagine if one of your friends gives in to one of these things and becomes a demon? Or what if you give in to one of these things? The storytelling potential is outstanding.

Quote from: MeganovaStella on July 12, 2022, 10:39:47 AM

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 10:18:42 AM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on July 12, 2022, 10:03:27 AM

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 09:01:36 AM
I'd ignore it entirely as;

A) I've never heard of it before and it sounds like some new age anime* BS.
B) it's entirely incompatible with the setting I'm running. ENTIRELY.

* ETA: specifically badly translated anime that uses literal translations that fail to account for cultural differences... ex. the Godhand are demons, whatever the heck a Behelit is...

Also this is a Behelit

Okay, so it's made up shit from the Berserk manga which is pretending to tell a story supposedly set in Medieval Europe, but comes off like a twisted funhouse mirror because it's been filtered through late 80's Japanese cultural lens and then translated (badly) back to English. You can feel the fatalism dripping off the concept.

Hard pass.

If I want dark Medieval plot hooks I can just go to the actual myths and legends of Europe, not culturally distorted manga.

I think the Japanese perspective gives an interesting twist on Medieval European culture. But if you don't like it, it's fine, I cannot change your tastes.

The concept of behelits does work in a campaign about slaying evil monsters combined with horror. Imagine if one of your friends gives in to one of these things and becomes a demon? Or what if you give in to one of these things? The storytelling potential is outstanding.

Then you die horribly to the infinite demon swarm that nothing can prevent because it's a fatalistic bullshit setting (coming from the same existential angst that led Japanese filmmakers to create stories of unstoppable radioactive monsters rising from the sea to obliterate them).

There's nothing interesting there unless you're a nihilistic navel gazer trying to imagine all the horrible ways the cosmos could unfairly screw you over (for some reason teen girls seem to love that crap).

Similarly, for me to give into one of those things would require me to abandon my faith in the Christian God and buy into the bullshit lies of some demon. Not going to happen so there's no story there.

Based on your past posts you seem like someone who's entire grasp of storytelling and culture is filtered through recent pop culture/Manga (whose popularity has increased with the degeneration of traditional American comics) and as such have a rather superficial read on what compromises interesting and dramatic conflicts. I suggest reading some or all of the following; Beowulf, Le Morte de Arthur, Song of Roland, the Poetic and Prose Eddas, tales of Robin Hood, The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, Narnia, etc. if you wish to get a real sense of the foundations of European fantasy and why using Berserk just feels like a shallow nothing in comparison.

It's called a beherit. With an R. That's the Syriac word for "devil."

I don't think this can be "fit in."  If you want it in your setting you need to build the world with the berzerk eclipse as a fundamental starting point.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 12, 2022, 11:46:45 AM
It's called a beherit. With an R. That's the Syriac word for "devil."

As I said... badly translated manga/anime (in every sense of the term).

This is what happens when you get someone who hasn't really taken the time to understand a foreign culture decides to write a story set in that foreign culture by basically doing a surface-level read/stereotypes filtered through their own culture's belief systems and bad transliterations... that then gets translated just as sloppily into yet another language using bad transliterations and at best perfunctory attempts at translating concepts from the intermediate culture into something that might make some sort of sense to the third culture (which is mostly the original culture in this case).

If I were to do ANYTHING with Berserk it would be to try and go back and try to reverse engineer whatever the heck the Japanese writers THOUGHT they were borrowing from Medieval European myths/legends/folklore in order to see if some sort of coherent story could be built out of that.

Quote from: Chris24601 on July 12, 2022, 02:28:24 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 12, 2022, 11:46:45 AM
It's called a beherit. With an R. That's the Syriac word for "devil."

As I said... badly translated manga/anime (in every sense of the term).

This is what happens when you get someone who hasn't really taken the time to understand a foreign culture decides to write a story set in that foreign culture by basically doing a surface-level read/stereotypes filtered through their own culture's belief systems and bad transliterations... that then gets translated just as sloppily into yet another language using bad transliterations and at best perfunctory attempts at translating concepts from the intermediate culture into something that might make some sort of sense to the third culture (which is mostly the original culture in this case).

If I were to do ANYTHING with Berserk it would be to try and go back and try to reverse engineer whatever the heck the Japanese writers THOUGHT they were borrowing from Medieval European myths/legends/folklore in order to see if some sort of coherent story could be built out of that.

Have you read/watched Berserk? The demonic invasion only happens well into the story, as a twist. Before that it's a pretty standard military fantasy political thriller story.

While I wouldn't berate people for liking it, Berserk is pretty fatalistic.
Some things are more interesting to read in writing then play it.

Fatalism in fiction can be interesting. Playing pre-ordained things is infuriating.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on July 12, 2022, 03:34:03 PM
Some things are more interesting to read in writing then play it.

This should be an actual proverb in rpg design. Too many rpgs fall into this trap.