As a woman who grew up watching Power Rangers and Sailor Moon, I've always been on the lookout for a tabletop system that can do justice to the concept. Most of my prior attempts had been hacks or self-designed, but once Magi-Knights Awakening was in my hands, I had found the perfect system. This system is easily the best 5E-based book I've ever purchased. It captures the thrill of a team of young heroes locked in an epic struggle against the forces of evil, and also the despair when that night job takes a toll on the heroes' daily life. These are just some of the things my Magi-Knights players have accomplished: 1) Saved their city from a giant fire golem as the team's pyromancer absorbed the fire into her body 2) Uncovered a plot by the city's deputy mayor to use human memories as currency 3) Rescued three people who had been pressed into living hieroglyphics by a monster made of spray-paint 4) Survived a day at school where every class was a test 5) Revealed the traumatic memories of one of their own who had lived three previous lives as a Magi-Knight 6) Rescued their Herald from being buried alive 7) Called down a fire tornado and four massive lightning bolts to one-shot a monster. 8) Stood their ground against the Horsemen of the Apocalypse who had been mind-controlled. 9) Defeated a baseball-themed monster and helped a trans girl come out to her family in the same day.

The system is 5E-based, meaning it uses the same attributes and modifier scores. But beyond that, this system is its own wonderful thing.

The first, and most notable change as shown on the character sheets is the Soul Eclipse and Crystalline Fracture system. With Soul Eclipse, you mark off progressive ticks and tallies on a lunar phase chart as your character experiences trauma, fights against unknowable horrors, and makes morally grey decisions. The further along you go, the harder it is to pull back, and while you can go all the way around the chart and perform acts of contrition to bring yourself back to the light, you'll still wind up permanently blocking off spaces on the chart.

Crystalline Fracture represents those moments in shows like this where the hero has been hammered by a strong attack that would kill a normal person. But the hero pushes themselves up from the ground, cleans the blood out of their eyes and gets back to fighting. With Crystalline Fracture, if you get dropped to zero hp, you mark off one of the eight spaces on the crystal and make a choice. You can either go unconscious and take the consequences, or you can mark off another fracture and stand back up with a sliver of health. If you push too hard however, it's possible to fracture yourself to death.

The magic system in this game is vibrant. Covering everything from beam attacks to chronomancy, each table has the mechanics of how the spells work, and leaves flavor to the players. Whether you want to cross your arms like Ultraman, or fire lasers from your eyes like Cure Lovely, that form of flavor is up to the players. However, the magic also feels more potent that in other tabletop games. Where a cleric in D&D might get a d6 for a healing spell to start, a Magi-Knight with Curing can heal 1d10+1d4 at the first level of magic.

Where character bonds in D&D and some other systems are just story hooks for the DM, in Magi-Knights, the stronger your bond with someone, the more powerful they make you when you're trying to protect them. These bonds can be forged with your teammates, the NPCs in the city, or the DMNPC known as the Herald.

Another thing I love about Magi-Knights is how they built in a system for those moments when the hero is confronted with someone they know doing something evil and tries to make them come to their senses. The further along those NPCs are in their evil quest, the harder it gets to plead with them, but successfully doing so opens the door to those same bonds that get stronger as the friendship grows.

Of all the RPG books I've backed on Kickstarter, Magi-Knights Awakening is the best of the bunch. If you want your players to feel the ups and downs of being teen heroes, this is the system for you.

There is a lot going on in this system, so players and GM alike should be prepared for it.

Character Creation has some really good elements to it (creating the squad as a group, and the 4d Fate mechanic). However, it isn't for the faint of heart. Older gamers like me know that D&D without D&D Beyond is like this, so be prepared for it

Personally, I think that once you get into the game you should run the days faster. The Stress/Exhaustion mechanic is fantastic and with multiple days in a single session the players would have to learn to balance those better.

Rewarding the players for getting into character and using their Anime voice worked really well for me when I was tossing around Inspiration. I found that getting the players to play fast and lose with Inspiration is when the table had the most fun.

The sudden tonal shifts between high energy anime, to horror, was great. I loved it when one of my players was bullying a kid one minute, then that kid was being dragged away by some creature from Elsewhere jarring, and fun.

I would love to see this book reach a Crystal/Ruby/Silver edition, either independent of D&D, or with more rules for more classes, more characters, more social games and interactions.

I got to suplex a cultist then go on an awkward date with my character's crush so it's basically perfect.

Seriously, while the character sheet can be intimidating at first, the actual gameplay flows well. The division of the day into discreet phases helps eliminate decision paralysis that can plague certain groups, as well as act as a flavorful reminder that half your day is spent (theoretically) on your studies.

The mix of influences work well together, with any of them able to take center stage depending on group (or player!) preference without breaking the setting. Highly suggested for fans of magical girls, sentai, the Persona series, and/or cosmic horror.

As a fan of tokusatsu and TTRPGs, this book is pretty much the best possible combination of both worlds. While the character sheet is a bit much and it took me longer than I'd like to admit to make my first character, the process was fun enough and the end product was worth it. And actually playing it was exactly what I'd hoped it would be.

A delightful game returning the 90s for nostalgia for those that lived it or just a different world for those that didn't. This avoids the pitfalls of other systems with customization by having weapon types instead of rigid stats for each weapon. Whether the setting is Power Ranger/Sentai, Sailor Moon, Madoka Magica, or similar the rules fit right in and does not detract from the game going on. The flexibility and the provided world are a joy to have. I look forward to more content, whether official or fan made!

Magi-Knights Awakening is an awesome TTRPG with lots of character customization options and plenty of nostalga factor! If you like Anime and Manga, Magical Girls, Sentai, and good ol fasion Eldritch Horror, then this is the TTRPG for you! Its 5e friendly, easy to learn, and the art is fantastic! 5 Stars!

The rule set is very clear and logical, making it easy to get into if you have any experience with a d20 system. Social ecounters are really interesting, and the weapons all feel very different.

Then there's the book itself filled with lovely art of such colorful characters. Definitely recommend.

Finally, an alternative to Dungeons and Dragons that specifically addresses the whack-a-mole healing and murder-hobo issues of that game. I'm usually one who likes to focus on roleplaying so having the Persona style reputation levels and other mechanics that award roleplaying is super satisfying. From the perspective of the DM, it's nice that the Herald character (Think Zordon from Power Rangers or Luna in Sailor Moon) is a DMPC that allows the DM to roleplay directly with the players.

This has been one of my favorite RPGs for a while now. It has some excellent role-play centric mechanics and it handles the anime aesthetic really well! There's this really cool social point system meant for keeping track of your relationship with NPCs, and it's incorperated into the gameplay excellently! Definetly reccomend this one.