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Another important issue in any kind of role-play is of control. There are distinct limits to what you can and can’t put into
the fictional world you and your friends share. This is perhaps easier when you’re role-playing a job interview, because unless
the interviewee happens to be Superman, you can’t start flying or shooting beams from your eyes. In an RPG, the fictional
worlds tend to be more complicated than just an office where job interviews are held, so consistency is important. If you’re a
player of a conventional RPG, you have control over what your character thinks and does, but nothing else. You might well
have a character who can fly or has heat vision, but that will be because you and your friends established his or her superhu-
man powers before you started playing, and not because you just happened to feel like it all of a sudden. Magical Burst
doesn’t quite work like a conventional RPG, but it’s different in very specific ways, which we’ll explain later.
Finally, the most important thing to remember about role-playing games is that their purpose is to be fun. “Fun” is subjec-
tive and personal and so on, but it’s still important. If you’re not enjoying yourself, talk to your friends about why. Some-
times you need to adjust how you’re doing things for your friends, and sometimes the game you’re playing isn’t quite right
for what you want. If that happens, you and your friends can try changing how the game works or play some other game that
works better for you.
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If you’ve decided to give Magical Burst a try there are a few things you’ll need to do to get ready to play. The first thing is that
you need a group of people to play with: one person to be the Game Master and around 2-5 players. You’ll also need to be
able to get these people together either in person or online. You can play once for a few hours, but to get the full effect
you’ll want to play multiple sessions, preferably without too much time between them. The GM especially should be reasona-
bly familiar with the rules, and it certainly helps for the other people to know the rules as well. The GM will also need to do
some preparation for running each session.
There are a few materials you’ll need to prepare aside from having the book on hand.
Some six-sided dice. You’ll need at least two, though a dozen or so is best, preferably in different colors.
Pencils to write things down on the character sheet. You’ll want to be able to erase certain things.
Character Sheets: These are special forms players use to record information about their magical girls. You can pho-
tocopy these from the back of the book, or download them from our website, or just write out the same information
on blank paper. The included reference sheets are also really helpful.
Battlefield Map: This is an abstract map of 5 Positions numbered 1 to 5. You can print one out from the PDF on
our website, or just draw 5 rectangles on a sheet of paper.
Pawns/Miniatures: These are used in combat on the Battlefield Map. You will need one for each character taking
part in a battle, and they should be easy to keep track of. Plastic or cardstock miniatures that are reasonably close to
each character are the best thing, but colored pawns as used in board games also work fine.
If you are playing online, you’ll need digital versions of these tools. The Battlefield Map and pawns can simply be a shared
document or a map in a dedicated online role-playing program, a dice rolling program takes the place of dice, and digital
files or a group wiki can take the place of character sheets.
Tokens, such as poker chips or glass beads or similar, can be useful for a few different things. To keep track of who
has acted in a combat round, you can give each player an “action token” and have them turn it in when they act.
Action tokens need to be things that are highly visible to everyone at the table. For characters who take finishing
moves tokens can be helpful for those too. Using tokens for Overcharge may be a little too cumbersome, but you
can do that as well if you like.