Has anyone tried these before? You know, the whole Korean manwha thing i.e. Portals, hunters, the endless clawing for clout, going from zero to a huge shithead (and possibly a boy-band member) once you get superpowers.
>>94393090Sounds like a typical game of Mutants and Masterminds.
>>94393090I have no idea what "portal hunter" is as a genre, give me a rundown and I'll have a think.
>>94394432A staple of Korean Manwhas is that portals to other worlds open up allowing monsters and such to invade the normal world. In turn, people gain powers then go into said portals to defeat the problem. Since it becomes so commonplace, being adventurer becomes a 9-5 job where you're also economically exploiting these portals as well.Solo Leveling is the mainstay of this idea although it's repeated constantly, that an going back in time with all your memories and experiences from the previous life/timeline and surprising people with how strong you are suddenly.
Isekai>it's a power fantasyManwha>the only fantasy is that you would ever have power
>>94394529It's a reflection of Korean society where your personal value is based upon your power and standing hence why it's the bottom rung loser who suddenly is gifted immense power and everyone goes from being disgusted with them to falling head over toe for them.
>>94394613Interesting, in american movies you usually see a nerd getting powers and then going out of control so others have to stop him.
>>94394613Yeah, and their society is fucked. When you expect the problems created by you and those above you to be fixed by punishing those below you, society suffers. It's a society that disgusts me on a fundamental level, and the explosion of manwha-style media does no good for anyone.
>>94396038Aside from the weebs and k-pop fans I think the only thing they see is the rise of a loser into becoming a hero after they are given a cheat code of sorts.I agree though, looking past that, it's all disgusting because its so obvious with the women suddenly falling in love with the protaganist because most likely because their strength and fame means they'll have money. Which, incidently, is also a staple of Manwhas because everything inevitably goes back to money, making money, and having it and showing off your status. I think the only signs of humility on the part of a Manwha protag is how magnaimous they are with their wealth and willing to give people a slice of the pie after they go and crush everything.
>>94397004Fuck it, you know what? I'll just go ahead and say it. Having read a few manwha, it's really interesting to compare and contrast the average shounen protag vs the average manwha protag, because it feels like:>the standard shounen protag is generally a well meaning but dim meathead, good natured and helpful, maybe with a little edge but not too much>the average manwha protag - at least in this wish fulfilmenty stuff - is an ultra capitalist sociopath. Not to say manga doesn't ever have those, but it feels like a weird number of manwha protagonists aren't even evil in a fun way, they're just genuinely deeply unpleasant people.But you know? I think that's something we need to embrace. A lot of stories in the zeitgeist keep telling guys that, more than anything, they need to be nice, gentle with women, socially progressive, and non-aggressive. Safe to be around, basically.Look at our recent video games like Last of Us and the God of War reboot, where the best thing the wholesome chungus male can do is to protect women and children and then die. Korean manwha generally depicts the very greedy, thrusting, carnivore male who is obsessed with money, status and power as something to be aspired to, and why not? That's truer to life.Even women flocking to me because of their strength, power and virility is also truer to life. I mean, even my DOG doesn't love me unconditionally, he loves me because I fed and raised him from a puppy. Maybe our media needs to embrace cutthroat competition as a virtue more.
>>94394613In EVERY society, your personal value is based on your power. That has always ever been a truism.
>>94395536Well usually when a nerd gets superpowers he becomes a superhero, but that's kind of stupid now.Look at Spiderman, he does all that shit probono and his life is a mess. He's a loser living in his aunt's basement, everyone thinks he's a prime example of wasted potential. More, generally most people are ambiguous about him / hate him.The Solo Leveling guy, Suck Joon Wong or whatever his name is, uses his powers to get rich and stylish and starts dating a half-Korean / half-European blonde swordswoman who is markedly inferior to him in power in any sense of the word.He also starts wearing designer clothing and driving supercars, in every sense of the word he's living the high life. In the cold light of day, superheroics a kind of community-aid seems kind of stupid now when you could get fucking rich.
>>94397507>even my DOG doesn't love me unconditionallyWith that kind of mentality it's easy to see why.
>>94397554Well yeahMy parents wouldn't be as proud of me if I wasn't relatively prosperous. That's an objective fact, if I was a cashier they would love me less.
>>94397541>starts dating a half-Korean / half-European blonde swordswoman who is markedly inferior to him in power in any sense of the wordYou forgot that she's a top-tier hunter, the elite of the elite, except for the small matter of him being the protag and therefore OP.
>>94397558Hearing that makes me appreciate my own parents more. Thanks for the reminder, anon.
>>94397564I honestly forgot about that, because I don't think she was in any fights that counted. She couldn't even beat one of his summons.I think the last guy who could challenge him was the big lion guy, who got superpowers after being lynched by BLM.
>>94397527I'm aware of that. This has always been the case where the hero is defined by not only their physical power but how they use their power in society. The idea of a humble hero who desires nothing but to be good is a recent invention but then I don't think people want to be surfs even if they are by any other metric.
>>94397633I think the point is that most people are doomed to be serfs anyway, so a hero shouldn't have that same slave-mentality.
>>94394449>being adventurer becomes a 9-5 jobBut that's awful. Why would I want to play that?
>>94398541Because you're so mindbroken by modern gook society that you're incapable of imagining a better option?Consider this a chance to appreciate your current situation more.
>>94398541It's more like being a modern celebrity. Those who can't make it are stuck slaying monsters to make rent, but those who can are basically billionaires who are ALSO one-man armies.Their drip is impeccable, and they spend all the time sniping at each other and fucking supermodels.
>>94398541By the sound of it it's just a more modern take on the usual adventurer/thief/anything guild adventures. You see it all the time in our society: you trade your personal freedom for perceived safety, so you have some sort of net if you fall. In this case, since it's a dangerous job, you trade some of your safety as well, to get more cash.
>>94398541NTA but it markedly changes the dynamic of the game in a way that people may find refreshing. Same core combat loop of dungeon delving -> monster fighting -> loot hauling, but with a twist. As a standard DnD adventurer, I and my friends are a group of murder hobos who go from place to place with no real commitments except the ones we choose to take on and half the time leaving the towns we visit worse than we found them and we are relying on the fact that we can outrun news of our misdeeds to the next major town or city and leave all consequences of our actions behind each session because know we are never going back there again.As a portal hunter, all of that changes. You live in the modern world and you have bills to pay, motherfucker. Portal hunting lets you do that and comes with a bunch of risks and dangers. Not just from the monsters in the dungeons, but the fact that you live in a society with laws and can't just outrun the consequences of your actions anymore in a world with the internet and cell phones and you have a mailing address. Meanwhile, you are now operating in a system where there are a ton of other adventurers just like you, in direct competition for the things you do to pay their OWN bills and make money, and many of them are objectively stronger than you are and you're going to have to just accept that for a good chunk of the game.No longer are dungeons a bunch of ruins that someone no one has picked over in the last 12,000 years, instead when a dungeon pops up you are IMMEDIATELY in a race with every other portal hunter in the area to get to it and do the job first to reap the rewards. Portal hunters will be trying to grab the loot before you do, or perhaps even trying to take it from you after you did all the hard work. Or, if you are climbing the ranks, stronger hunters might decide to nip you in the bud before you become competition.Very different setup.
>>94399383It's like some sort of mix between fantasy and cyberpunk in a way.
>>94394449>Koreans are so broken they can only imagine having superpowers as a soulless 9-5Jesus, between this and their insane household debt average no wonder they kill themselves
>>94399444I don't know what's worse, between that and japanese that have to resort to "jump under a truck and hope you end up in some better place"
>>94399444Anon described the concept poorly. What he means to say is that it is a known and accepted profession in the world that isn't treated as being fantastical or weird in nature, but calling it a 9-5 implies a work culture that doesn't apply to it. If you are a portal hunter, you don't have a boss. You don't show up to work in a suit and tie (unless you want, I guess). You are a free agent who happens who sees a portal open up in the middle of the highway and swallow a couple of unlucky cars before disgorging some confused and angry goblins and go "Alright, time to go to work".
>>94399467Are you kidding? Most of the manwhas have guilds who control these things controlled by the most powerful individuals and get everyone else under their boot with contracts.The only ones who can solo are those who happen to be powerful by circumstance (i.e. the MC in most cases) and eve they eventually playing along to get the benefits of doing so. Nearly as soon as its shown they are strong people are willing to bend over backwards with money and resources to get you on their side or are already plotting on your downfall.
>>94397507>>94397558koreans are completely fucked. their little experiment country has been turned into a dystopia theme park experiment, and their society tries harder than anything to turn its people just like this. god willing it'll collapse soon enough.
>>94397965No matter what political/social system you envision there will always be people on the top and those on the bottom. The trick is trying to arrange the blocks so it looks like whatever you say it is when the light shines on it just right.
>>94399444>>94399455Also the Chinese version that is "use your newfound superpowers to kill everyone who offended you in any way"
>>94399444Don't forget that their two genders hate one another to the point that korean misogynists will attack pregnant women since they're easier sport and korean misandrists will poison their sons.
>>94398864But I can already play fashionistas and pompous noble adventurers without soul crushing Korean bullshit.>>94399383I play fantasy games to refresh the boring routine of real life. Adding that routine back is just bizarre.
>>94400619If thats all it takes to crush your soul, your soul is weak.
>>94400153That one's based though
>>94400990based on what?
>>94400619>I play fantasy games to refresh the boring routine of real life. Adding that routine back is just bizarre.Sure, if we're talking actual tabletop RPGs. I could see myself playing a vidya like that if it could grab me with good mechanics (still debatable because fuck MMO cancergrind). The comics are fun to skim for reasons of morbid curiosity though, as a kind of morality play about soul parasites, without the moral. I'm still waiting for one that recognizes and shows the extreme vulnerability of such hosts despite their apparent hyper-competence.
>>94401078The hosts don't care.Getting powers is the best thing that ever happened to them.
>>94400161This is mostly because of the feminist cult that ruled the country for years, after getting their claws into the President.If anything, the issue is that the Korean ricecels haven't got their women back in line yet. Once they have, birth rates will soar.
>>94398541>>94399444It's not really a 9-5.>>94399467This, I wouldn't have said this better.>>94399517In the end it's a power fantasy about being a successful freelancer who doesn't bend the knee to anyone in a world where the most respected and highest paying job is fighting monsters and not some boring shit.Koreans sure are a product of their fucked up environment but they're still dreaming of success.
>>94404528They dream of success through a cheat code, that's hardly different form the fuckers who spend their (not so) disposable income into gambling. At least shounen manga before the isekai craze tried to put the concept that you need contacts and effort to succeed.
>>94404579The thing about shonen manga is that they generally depict people in a fairly positive way. There are some assholes, but by and large society is something you must protect (because people are fundamentally good.) Manwha generally emphasizes the cutthroat materialism, the greed, the petty spite of those around the main character. And they don't even do it as a plot point (or even a morality play) the world had simply always been this way. Of course you can always say "They're comics, they're not reflective of reality", but I do find it interesting that the same themes recur across a lot of manwha, even across genres. There's one - Lookism - about a guy who gets a handsome new body. Before it degenerates into Yakuza-esque fistfights, his new appearance lets him turn his life around completely.True Beauty, about a girl who becomes a makeup expert, is even more pronounced. Every time someone gets fat, everyone keeps talking about how they need to lose a few pounds and visibly treats them worse. It's just the way things are.When a girl worries that her boyfriend is cheating on her, the heroine gives her a makeover to make her more attractive to him.
>>94393090No, I don't know. I've never heard of any of those things, and I'll keep it that way.
>>94397541Not at all. They seem excellent specifically because you could get rich. I know you're not actually as stupid as you're pretending to be.
>>94399345guild adventures? what are you talking about?
>>94399383sounds horrible. where's the appeal?
>>94393090The concept you are describing is a power fantasy.And basically every long-running campaign can fall under that categorization umbrella.Barring systems that are explicitly anti-powerfantasy by design.
>>94411885I'm not pretending to be stupid, I just think being a Western-style vigilante superhero is dumb. Batman and Tony Stark are rich enough that they can be superheroes as their hobby, basically, but the street-level heroes like Daredevil seem perpetually miserable (to the point their lives would be better if they didn't bother.)Yet there's still a taboo against the kind of superhero who uses his powers to get rich, like self-sacrifice and poverty is inherently virtuous.It's the whole "The best thing you can do is to die for the plebs" social conditioning thing again.
