Double Cross (role-playing game)

Double Cross

Double Cross The 2nd Edition cover
Designer(s)	Shunsaku Yano, F.E.A.R.
Publisher(s)	Fujimi Shobo, Game Field
Publication date	2001 (1st Ed.) 2003 (2nd Ed.) 2009 (3rd Ed.)
Genre(s)	Superhero
System(s)	Custom

Double Cross is a Japanese superhero role-playing game released in 2001. The game was the second winner of the 1st Game Field Award behind Inou Tsukai.^{[citation needed]} The theme of Double Cross is solitude and distress of superhuman trying to maintain his or her own happiness.

Premise

The default setting is contemporary Japan, but other various settings are available for play. Player characters are called Overed and possess superhuman powers brought from a virus called Renegade. Overed's supreme powers are classified under 12 syndromes which correspond to character classes of other role-playing games. PCs select one or two syndromes. Characters with one syndrome are called Purebreed, and characters with two are called Crossbreed. Many Overed are changed by the Germ, which results in the loss of sanity. PCs stand against Germ's violence or crimes.

Mechanics

The game uses only 10-sided dice. Two peculiar connection rules named Lois and Titus represent PC's human relationships. Lois (named after Superman's love interest Lois Lane) represents important people whom the heroes protect. Titus is named after William Shakespeare's tragedy Titus Andronicus and represents defunct people or Lex Luthor. Lois maintains PCs' sanity and prevent PCs' lost, while Titus can be used as hero point. Points from Lois can be transferred to Titus.

Alternate setting supplements

• Demon's city - This setting is a blockaded city whose residents are mostly Overed as in s-CRY-ed.
• Heiankyo mononokeroku - This setting is ancient Kyoto called Heiankyo in the Heian Period. Onmyoujis (their magic powers are brought from Renegade virus in this setting) are opposed by mononoke monsters.
• Lost Eden - The game players of fictitious MMORPG confined in the virtual world try to escape to the real world as in .hack.
• Akihabara - Akihabara as the city setting, including maid cafes.
• Rakuin yo, Double Cross ni Asobe (lit. Scar, play in Double Cross) - This setting is based upon Makoto Sanda's light novel ;;SCAR/EDGE series and written by Sanda himself.
• Weird Age - This setting is pre-World War II Europe in 1938. Player characters stand against Nazi Germany that seek occult power for world conquest.
• Kagerou no Senjou (literally. "The Battlefield of Shimmer") - In fictitious small nation of Eastern Europe, mercenary soldiers using superhuman powers fight in civil war.
• The Two Faces of Tomorrow - This setting is named after James P. Hogan's novel fo the same name. Player characters fight against aliens in space colony.
• Masked Heroes - Player characters can become superheroes as in an American comic books or Tokusatsu.
• End Line - It is parallel universe setting. The world excluding Overed had conquered by Germ's evil organization.
• Chaos Garden - A animal fantasy setting. All player characters are intelligent animals infected with the Renegade virus on an isolated island.
• Omokage Jima (literally "Omokage Island") - A suspenseful variant set in an isolated island dominated by old convention and an enigmatic religion such as in Higurashi When They Cry.

External links

• Double Cross Official site (3rd edition) (Japanese)
• Double Cross 2nd edition site (Japanese)
• Products list (2nd edition) (Japanese)
• Official site (Fujimi Shobo) (Japanese)