Review by Claire Mayne
Panty Explosion, by Jake Richmond and Matt Schlotte (What a fabulous name) has been described as:
“The most controversial game of the year – For 4 or more sexy and brave players.”
Um… No. It’s very good – don’t get me wrong, but the above review was obviously made by someone who has read only the title (which we assume is a bad translation of something spookily oriental). It’s not particularly controversial, and you don’t need to be sexy or brave – unless you feel so inclined.
Panty Explosion is an adventure game about ‘mundane’ Japanese schoolgirls battling demons, ghosts, government agents – and, often, each other. It’s also a game about getting through high school, making friends, achieving goals and your characters living teenage life to the full in modern-day Japan.
In Panty Explosion, you and your friends play teenage, Japanese schoolgirls – at least one of you will have psychic powers, while one other player will take the role of the superintendent (For those veteran role-players out there – yes. The superintendent is your average dungeon/game-master/-keeper/DM/GM etc. etc.). For those of you less enlightened, the DM/GM/etc./the superintendent guides the other players through the game’s journey – mapping out the course the game will take, and designing their surroundings.
Panty Explosion is very well-written and explained – although, as a role-player only just branching off of D&D, I must admit to having read the book more than once to fully understand it. This said, although initially a difficult concept, Panty Explosion would be acceptable for first-time players – whilst players may spend hours developing characters for games such as Call of Cthulhu (well if your name is Derek Mayne) and D&D, Panty Explosion makes this entire process quite enjoyable – with little effort. Traits are laid out is a way that makes them easy to see and understand, and are grouped with other traits that it would be realistically linked with (Simply wonderful for lazier than usual role-players).
Moreover, there are plenty of examples and scenarios– from character creation to a first conflict – to guide the players through the game and actively support the superintendent during the creation of the story.
In all, truthful, honesty (Isn’t all honesty truthful?) I simply cannot WAIT to gather the few roleplaying maniacs I know and plan a truly wonderful adventure to torture entertain my minions players with.
It seems that, in the hands of the correct superintendent, Panty Explosion could be a veritable gem of horror and suspense.
