A Walkthrough of Sentai and Sensibility

Disclaimer: I am not a Sentai expert by any means, nor am I well-versed in the Regency era as a historian of any kind.

 The first game we're going to discuss (and the first one I'm going to dissect) is Sentai and Sensibility, a regency era Power Rangers game in the Polymorph system. This will follow a more structured path as I take you through the zine published by 9th Level Games.

The Polymorph System

The Polymorph system is one designed by 9th level games and has 4 major classes, each based on a different die which that class exclusively rolls: the d4, d6, d8, and d10. Additional classes can be made using a d5, d7, and d9. A d12 has been described as being overpowered and a little unpredictable for the system, so it is left out of class design. The specifics of the four classes will be explained down below "Your Station".

On the occasion of playing

The players are referred to as the Gentlefolk, the game master is referred to as Master of Ceremonies, or the MC. The game then explains out your Henshin or transformation device, and your Machina, or giant powered machine creature, both used in typical Power Rangers seasons. You are called to action to fight against Kaiju.

The World

There are two groups the NPCs fall under in S&S: Fair Townsfolk and Foul Syndicate. Townsfolk are kind and helpful people and often separate from the Syndicate, who are the evil organization you fight against. It is up the MC to decide what the Syndicate is comprised of and what they do. Raiders work for the Syndicate as henchmen. Abominations are created by an in-universe evil character called The Malefactor, and are usually accompanied by Raiders. Generals are more powerful, and may be able to grow into Kaiju or have their own Machina.

There are two kinds of encounters: Social Rendezvous and Combat Rendezvous. It is your job as the Gentlefolk to attend social events and keep your standing high, and it is the job of the MC to create combat encounters for your characters to fight in.

The Dance Steps

This is how rolls are resolved. When a Gentlefolk calls for an action, the MC will decide which of the dance steps it falls under, and then a roll will be made on the singular die granted to that character. Success is determined by hitting the numbers listed next to each step. Additional special rolls are referred to as Honor or Hero rolls. Honor rolls are what would traditionally be called a critical failure, and allows you to succeed if what your attempting is based in your character. Hero rolls are traditionally critical successes, and allow you to succeed so long as you are in your Ranger identity.

Etiquette - 2, 3 - Education, mental recall, powers of observation

Footwork - 3, 4, 5 - Ability to move with swiftness and agility; running, swimming, playing games, etc

Dueling - 4, 5, 6, 7 - Swordsmanship and Defense

Vigor - 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - Vitality and strength of heart

Success is if you're in a matching number the step you're trying to resolve, and failure is only if your number is not an Honor, Hero or matching number to the step you're resolving.

table showing the resolving mechanics; honor, etiquette, footwork, dueling, vigor and hero

Vantage

Advantage is given when they receive help from their fellow rangers, something on their character sheet is useful, or if the MC deems it necessary. You roll twice and succeed if one roll matches the associated number. Disadvantage is given if you are injured, through magic, or any other number of reasons. You must succeed on both rolls to succeed at all, otherwise you fail your dance step.

The Queen's Favors

Useful as both a Gentlefolk and a Sentai, the queen's favors can be given for a variety of reasons, including wooing a suitor, tactfully disengaging from a situation, assisting a townsfolk with a task, etc. You gain Advantage on different dance steps at a certain number of favors, pictured in the table below. You can spend a QF for after a failed station roll. Sometimes you may also need to spend QF's to beat the boss. You keep half your Queen's Favors rounded up between each session.

table showing the favors associated with gaining advantage on each of the dance steps: 3 for etiquette, 5 for footwork, 7 for dueling, and 9 for vigor

Perils of the Body and Heart

Here's where the summary gets hard to make, in my opinion, but I will do my best. Instead of straight out HP, you have Marques of Peril, which you can take any time you fail a roll, lose in a battle of wit's, or when your heart is broken. There are many ways to take a marque, but you are safe inside the Colossus, as you are protected by the Armor of the Machina. All marques clear at the end of the session. 

The Vapors

When you take Marques, you roll your station against your total Marques, and if you roll under the total number of marques you have, you become exhausted and succumb to The Vapors. You cannot assist your fellow sentai until the next Rendezvous, or until someone can spend a Queen's Favor to Rally the Troops, which wipes all marques from your sheet. If all Rangers fall to the Vapors, the Rendezvous comes to an end. During a social rendezvous, this could start rumors about the ill-gotten manners of your rangers. During combat, this allows the Syndicate to win in their current plan.

Valor in the Face of Defeat

If your station roll equals your total Marques, you cut through the miasma (love this word in the zine) and overcome whatever obstacle you are currently facing. This could be combat or socially related, and you clear all marque from your sheet. When your Station Roll is higher than your Marques of Peril, you continue on but keep all marques on your sheet.

Filling One's Dance Card

This sections covers how to fill out your character sheet. I will not go into detail of this as it covers a lot of detail and summarizing over it defeats the purpose of understanding what you're dealing with. Essentially, however, you have Your Title, which is comprised of your Temperament, Society, Station, Ranger Color, and Machina; and your Place in Society. There are three types of societies - Conscription & Constabulary, Magic & Science, and Cloak & Dagger. More simply put: cops, witches, and rogues.

table for the different types of societies a player can participate in

Your Station

There are four named options in the book: The Premier, represented by the d4; The Ronin, represented by the d6; The Hussar, represented by the d8; and The Dragoon, represented by the d10. Each class has it's ups and downs, and each one rolls the single die assigned to them.

The Premier is the smart character, known for their quick wits and good Etiquette. They're the most likely to roll their Honor or Hero rolls on the d4.

The Ronin is good at Etiquette and Footwork and is looking for their place in the world. They roll a d6.

The Hussar (my personal favorite) is the well-trained soldier. They roll best at Dueling and Vigor, and are the least likely to take a hit. They roll the d8.

The Dragoon is a tank class, least likely to succumb to the Vapors and the best at Vigor. They roll the d10.

Picking Your Color

Balancing The Humors

Because there are only four classes, there are only four colors to pick from, but you can expand on this if you choose to do so. The four main colors are broken down under the humors: Sanguine (red), Choleric (yellow), Melancholy (green), and Phlegmatic (blue). Under each color are 60 different words to describe your general temperament, and once you pick that, you will choose your season and element. Now, the game has assigned elements and seasons together, but when I was helping my players set up for this game, we did without the charts previous assignments all together. Up to you.

table detailing the colors a character can pick for their ranger suit

Picking Your Machina

The Spirit Inside You

 Once the threat surpasses people you can defeat through the power of martial arts or cunning wits into full blown Kaiju, you need to call upon your own Machina; some type of machine shaped like a creature of your choosing in matching colors. You can make your Machina some kind of mythological beast, a dinosaur or megafauna, a modern vehicle (they note the aerial screw here which is hilarious to me) or a giant automata, like a living statue. There are charts for different machina ideas.

Weapon Mastery

Everyone gets a weapon of some kind. You can use your weapon as you Henshin device if you so choose. The chart is fun so I'm going to include it.

table showing the different kinds of weapons a player can have

Henshin Device

Again, I'm just going to include the chart here. If you choose not to have your Hensin device attached to your weapon, you can pick from the chart below.  

table showing a multitude of items that can be used as a transformation device

To Know Oneself

This is where you pick your name, your pronouns (which can be different for your Gentlefolk and Ranger form), how you look, and your Rival and Confidant.

Rival

This is a person who sucks and whom you do not like. All rolls made against them are made at disadvantage, and they will dislike you as much as you dislike them.

Confidant

This could be your paramour or your best friend, but you have Advantage on all rolls made associated with them.

Sentai Placard

Separate from your gentlefolk name is your title as a Ranger. This will most likely be related to the society in which you are from or part of.

Magnus Aegis

So long as none of the rangers have succumb to the Vapors, you can combine your group weapons into one singular massive weapon. This super attack can only be done once a session, so use it wisely. Decide as a group what the new weapon looks and acts like; it does not need to make perfect sense of the weapons going into it. I.E. a bunch of swords could come together and form a large plasma gun. Have fun with it. Be sure to give it a cool name.

Strike Ad Infinitum

Again, once per session you can overwhelm your enemies with you Strike Ad Infinitum, or the final blow. This will also have a cool name.

The Colossus

When all Rangers have summoned their Machina, they will transform into a Super Machina, called the Colossus. The colossus is typically some kind of humanoid shape, and will also have a cool title associated with your combined power. 

Fighting as the Colossus

Everyone - so long as no one has the vapors - rolls their station against a Dance Step called by the MC. The number of total successes depends on the number of rangers, included in the chart below. If you don't meet the number of successes, someone can spend a Queen's Favor and turn their role into a success. Once you meet or beat the number of required successes, you win that fight as the colossus!

table showing the number of successes needed for the number of players; 1 success for one player, 2 successes for 2-4 players, 3 successes for 5-6 players, and half number of players rounded up number of successes for 7+ players

Takeaways

Overall I'm very intrigued by the polymorph system and have also purchased Mazes, another game, and a free license, so I may make a free to play game using this system in the future! The game itself feels very well mapped out, and I like the balance of encounters as both social and combat encounters. The polymorph system is largely made for just combat, so having social rolls be part of that feels intriguing to me. This is just my walkthrough of the system, I'll come back once we've played and give a breakdown of how it feels in motion!

If you want a more "liveblog" experience, you can follow me over on Bluesky where I will be posting more often about my TTRPG experiences while on hiatus from actually streaming.

Thank you for reading!