The Battle of Tamakyuro Mountain

A game for the MIT Mock Combat Club

By Philip Tan

"The surrounding areas around Tokyo had gone through massive economic growth. To satisfy the insatiable demand for housing, destruction of farmlands and forests took place. In 1967, the government announced the Tama New Town Project. Its total area covered approximately 3,000 hectares. Its planned population was approximately 300,000 plus. Forests and mountains were leveled and fields and historic houses destroyed. The giant construction sites completely altered the Tamakyuro mountain area. This was done to foster a natural, restful environment for the housing project."

- Narration from Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko

Background

The Battle of Tamakyuro adapts elements from the 1994 Studio Ghibli film 'Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko', an astonishing movie which weaves countless Japanese legends into an ecological drama. It also features several violent episodes which feature kamikaze Tanukis (raccoon-like dogs indigenous to Japan) against salaried construction workers. These elements, combined with several new ideas, now present us with the opportunity to thwap each other with boffers.

Teams

The construction workers are regular salaried joes equipped with the latest in 1960's construction technology. Their objective is to ensure that construction can safely continue in this particular area of the mountain in order to provide homes for thousands of families. Construction workers wear red headbands. Power shovels wear white headbands.

The Tanukis, on the other hand, are mystical Japanese creatures that have the ability to change their shape, morphing from scurrying dogs to anthropomorphic combatants with opposable thumbs. They will defend their homes to the death, helped by the fact that they breed large litters. Tanukis don't wear headbands.

Finally, there is a small commune of tree-hugging hippies at the edge of the forest who don't dig the vibe of mankind razing the trees and killing the cute furry animals. Not to mention having a bunch of squares move in and getting evicted from their peaceful shack of love. Hippies wear braided headbands.

Combat

All players have a specified number of hit points (HP) and most weapons do 1 point of damage per strike, although some of the funkier weapons don't do any damage at all. Limb hits and torso hits are effectively the same in this game, thus, do not worry about losing arms or hopping on legs. Either you are alive or you are dead. No head strikes, please. They will not count, anyway.

Body charging, weapon throwing and dangerous play are strictly prohibited from this game. Keep it friendly, safe and fun.

Weapons

There are no secret weapons or shields in this game. All the weapons are listed below with their corresponding physreps and damage capability. Players do not need to drop their weapons at any time and cannot pick up weapons from other teams.

Hippies may fling burning incense sticks around by shouting "Dude!" and throwing a spell packet at any adversary. If a spell packet hits you and you are not a Hippy, you must run back to your team's base before reentering combat. The analog is that the incense is so pungent that Workers and Tanuki alike need to run off to breathe. Hippies can only carry one spell packet at a time, but may regenerate packets by returning to base. A spell packet remains 'active' until it hits the ground, which means that more than one character may be affected with a single throw. Thrower calls the shot.

Number of Characters

Transformation

The Tanukis' magical powers allow them to turn run-of-the-mill tree branches into full-tang, deadly katanas. When not using their powers, they are annoyingly agile critters that are too small and fast to be hurt by weapons. On the other hand, they pose no real threat to anybody in their natural form.

'Natural' Tanukis have to hold their weapons from the blade, hilt pointing towards the nearest adversary. They cannot take damage in this form, and they must stay outside zone-of-control from any adversaries. To transform, Tanuki players shout "Henshin!" (Transform), then change their grip to hold their weapons normally. Anthropomorphic Tanukis are completely vulnerable to weapon strikes. To transform back, Tanuki players step out of anybody's zone-of-control, shout "Kawai'i!" (Cute), then hold their weapons from the blade again.

Tanuki players must always use the same hand to hold their weapon in either form. Although it is okay to use the other hand to aid the transformation, the player may not use an alternate-handed weapon to cause damage. Also, a Tanuki is entirely vulnerable to weapon strikes while transforming.

Resurrections

Tanuki, Hippy and Worker teams have a limited number of rezzes. Each team's base has a sheet of paper with blank squares on them. Use a pen to cross out one box every time you return to the base to be rezzed. When there are no more pieces of paper, you can no longer rez, so sit out the game and cheer on your teammates from the sidelines.

Tanukis and Hippies rez as quickly as they can run back to the base. The workers rez in threes, as the central office only sends up new crews in full truckloads. Thus, when a worker dies, the player runs back to the base and waits until two other teammates die and return to the base. All the workers at the base then rez at the same time, checking off one box from their list.

The Tanuki base can be destroyed. There are two traffic cones located near the Tanuki base and the Power Shovel must tip over both of them in order to render the base inoperable. To do this, the Power Shovel counts "Unsafe for human habitation, one" and strikes the cone with the weapon. Repeat with "Unsafe for human habitation, two" (hit) and so on. The Power Shovel can use the fourth strike to tip the cone over.

As long as the Shovel does not leave zone-of-control of the cone, the Shovel may interrupt the count to defend against attackers, then resume the count from where he/she left off. If the shovel only manages to knock over one cone, Tanukis may stand the cone up again after 3 minutes. Once both cones are knocked over, the Tanuki may no longer rez.

Endgame

The game ends after any team has achieved its primary objective. If more than one team accomplishes its primary objective at the same time, the team that accomplishes more than 1 objective will be the winner.