The Stand Game:

I have grown dissatisfied with many

previous methods for assigning “unusual”
powersets in systems. Allowing players
and GMs to freely make their own results
in powers that are far too convenient and
coherent to reflect the source material,
and assigning them with some kind of roll
table still limits them to a finite number of
powers proportional to the original
designer’s imagination. As a result, I have
written this process, that is very much
centred on the idea of creating a JJBA
stand. At the beginning, you start with a
(potentially) relatively straightforward
power and over the course of the process
it is warped by the actions of other players
and the whims of chance, growing and
being stunted outside the parameters of
what anyone would have been able to
come up with on their own.
There are 6 steps in this process. At each
of the first 5 steps, you choose one of the modifiers available, which can result in alterations to
the portfolio of your stand and others. For the most part, I have tried to immediately define any
‘keywords’ in the process immediately after the section that mentions them, but confusion is
bound to be frequent nonetheless. Each of the choices you make in the first 5 steps has a point
value. Your goal should be to have a neutral or positive point value by the end of step 5. A positive
point value will award a relatively small amount of bonus XP, with diminishing returns for greater
values, for your character to spend at start. A neutral value is fine. A negative point value is not
fine.

Lastly, Stand users often kill just to keep the abilities of their stands secret. Unlike many other
systems where it is considered good form for party balance to reveal your intentions during
character generation, in The Stand Game, you would be wise to share as little as possible about
your stand. Not only can other players use this information to anonymously screw you over far
more easily than helping you, the amount of information about your stand that is made common
knowledge has implications for how savvy adversaries may choose to fight you during play. At
many stages, depending on people’s choices, incomplete information about other stands at the
table will be revealed to some parties anyway. This is intended to correspond to the fact that
stand users are drawn to each other and often have prior firsthand or secondhand knowledge of
each other’s capabilities, or mysterious insights that allow them to quickly identify substantial
features of a stand from innocuous details.
When it is time to introduce the completed characters to one another, you should reveal no more
than the immediately obvious facts about your stand, such as the appearance of its spiritual body,
common scenarios that it is utilised in, and its name. Ideally, you should be giving just barely
enough away about the nature of your stand that anyone who found something out about it, or
contributed to its features during the character creation process can identify that yours is the
stand they saw, either immediately or within the first session.
Step 1: Trauma
Select one of:
- You define the core concept for your stand’s power, and additionally roll its stats and write up its
initial draft. (-2)

- The GM generates your core ability premise, while you roll your Stand’s stats and write up the
initial draft of your powerset. (0)
- You provide your core ability premise, and the GM rolls your Stand’s stats and writes up the
initial draft of its capabilities. (0)
- You provide nothing but your stand’s name in the form of a musical reference to another player
at random (note: random always includes the GM, at which point a random NPC is aware of this
information), at which point they will generate a core ability premise, roll your Stand’s stats, and
write up the initial draft of your powerset. (+1)

Core Ability Premise:​ This can be *literally

anything*, but entries in the format of powers
that intrinsically make sense, are to the point,
but might be more specific than your average
superpower, such as “Sand manipulation” work
well. If you want to slightly annoy your GM,
something like “Video game creation” is
perfectly fine, but “Video games” is not, as the
premise is not by itself interpretable as an act
that could be perpetrated. “Being video games”
is a grey zone, in that what is happening is only
partly resolvable. Powers which are open to
considerable reinterpretation under unusual
contexts are absolutely fantastic. Something like
“Oil vision” is nearly ideal because while
everyone can immediately imagine what Oil
vision is, whether that is predicting the future
using oil, detecting oil, or spraying a torrent of
oil out of the eyes would very much depend on
who you ask. Stand stats exist to shape and
solidify these possibilities.
The core ability premise also should not suggest
much if at all about how the user utilises the
power, or its limitations, as this is a job for later
stages of stand generation. After all, even a
stand with a relatively unimaginative power
such as “Flinging heavy objects” may end up
with none of the strength that implies, able to
fling objects further the heavier they are, but
barely able to heft a styrofoam cup. A stand
with “Technology destruction” may not even be able to break or destroy anything itself, and
simply informs its user of the available ways that technology around them could be destroyed.

Overly complicated ideas such as “Rearranging weekdays” are acceptable, but it bears warning
that abilities only get weirder from here on out, and an ability that starts out strange may become
especially labyrinthine and confusing by the time it is finished, and stand users are not necessarily
safe from the consequences of their own stand. Time manipulation in general, much as it is not
uncommon for stands in the canon material, is usually going to fall within this category.
*Especially* when consideration is given to the fact that without breaking a stand rule (See ​here​),
the universe’s overall timeline cannot be effected, and with a different stat array, The World and
Star Platinum’s ability of “Stopping Time” might not even leave its user aware of or able to act
during stopped time.

Stats:​ Stands can be anything and do anything, but as a general rule they possess a ​spiritual body
that can freely affect, or not affect, the physical world, but can for the most part only be harmed
by other stands. This body reflects damage onto the stand’s user (and receives damage from its
user), and that body in turn is capable of utilising the stand’s ​signature power in some fashion,
sometimes through touch, projecting it as a wave of energy, firing a projectile, imbuing an
intermediate object that subsequently contacts the target, displaying it upon its own surface, or
even more esoteric means. To summarise the capacity of a stand to act, into a finite number of
simple metrics is difficult but let us proceed on the assumption this is possible.
For each stat, (​Power, Speed,
Range, Durability, Precision,
Potential) roll 1d100, in order.
None​: 01 - 03
E​: 04 - 22
D​: 23 - 41
C​: 42 - 60
B​: 61 - 79
A​: 80 - 97
S​: 98 - 00

Power​: The Strength of a Stand’s

Physical Body, and the Destructive
Power of its signature power.
None​: Incapable of exerting any force on spiritual or physical bodies whatsoever, while being
pushed around by them helplessly. The stand’s signature ability is irrelevant in its capacity to
destroy, makes no physical impact on the world around it, or is usually easily withstood by even
non-stand users.
E​: Exceptionally weak, with a spiritual body strength comparable to a baby. Its signature ability can
only destroy fragile objects, wreaks destruction only over a long period of extended use, or might
be otherwise of little direct consequence.
D​: This stand is weak by human standards, but still generally capable of carrying and operating
objects a human could. Stand users can generally directly resist the action of its signature ability
with a degree of effort. Its signature ability’s gross destructive power is probably comparable to an
unarmed drunkard going wild.
C​: This stand’s spiritual body is of similar strength to a human being. Its signature ability is totally
insurmountable to anyone who isn’t a stand user, and is a dire threat to a stand user if it takes
effect. It is capable of inflicting severe injuries and can dismantle objects and structures when
used craftily.
B​: Under conventional circumstances, this stand is perfectly capable of using immediately lethal
force, either through exertion of its spiritual body upon the physical world, its signature ability, or
both. It is capable of at least making a sizeable dent in almost any mundane structure or material.
A​: This stand is extremely strong, capable of dealing great amounts of damage even to structurally
reinforced objects, it can fling cars like basketballs, or use its signature power to level buildings.
S​: A Cosmologically unstoppable force or infinite energy source. May be capable of damaging the
fabric of the universe or at a conceptual level by simple brute force. Mitigating the effects of the
stand is a futile effort.
Speed​: The speed with which a Stand’s physical body can move, its reaction time, the timescale
over which its signature ability takes place or can be adjusted.
None​: The stand is totally stationary, either absolutely or relative to its host, or it might be an
object that needs to be operated by its user. Its signature ability may need several days spent in an
area just to take effect, or relies on the user to take steps towards the power being in effect.
E​: Exceptionally slow, inching along inexorably at snail like speeds. Its signature ability can only
ensnare the people who are unwary or immobilised, or perhaps creates a condition that worsens
glacially.
D​: This stand is slow by human standards, but might potentially outpace them using shortcuts and
other tricks. Its signature ability likewise can advance or change at a speed that allows it to trap
victims in dead-ends or other circumstances that limit mobility, but is easily escaped on open
ground.
C​: This stand’s spiritual body is of similar speed to a human being. Its signature ability is
inescapable unless potential victims are warned or actively in combat with the stand, in which
case effort matters.
B​: This stand is capable of matching the speed of vehicles such as cars and prop planes, and
responding to threats far faster than a human ever could. Its signature ability can be adjusted
rapidly, possibly even improving the reaction speed of the stand user to compensate if the stand
lacks any autonomy.
A​: This stand is capable of matching the speed of missiles and bullets, and carries out its orders
near instantaneously. Its signature ability is impossible to dodge, the only options are to withstand
it or hope that the ability misses entirely. The latter of which may be possible if its precision is
poor.
S​: This stand’s actions are literally instantaneous, and it can travel faster than the speed of light.
The moment it becomes aware of a need for actions to be taken, they are fully completed. Its
signature ability is always in effect where it would be relevant, in the correct configuration.
Range​: The area within which the stand’s spiritual body and signature ability can operate
effectively.
None​: The stand is not even capable of reaching the exterior of either its user, or the object to
which it is bound. They must be bought inside somehow. It may only be able to effect targets
bitten by its user, or perhaps effects weapons as they penetrate into the user’s flesh. Alternatively,
it may have no need to influence others, providing a purely internal benefit such as structural
reinforcement or improving the health of its user.
E​: Not quite bounded by the surface of its user, this stand can at least guard against mundane
harms perpetrated against the stand master, and allow them to damage stand spiritual bodies
with their own limbs if the stand’s power and durability allow it, but its signature ability cannot
effect anything more than a few centimetres away from the user’s touch, so it is largely
dependent on the user being able to hit targets.
D​: This stand is at least worthy of the name, being capable of standing beside its user and
intercepting threats. That said, it is incapable of leaving its users immediate personal space, and its
signature ability doesn’t reach a whole lot further than that. ​It is able to act at Point-Blank range.
C​: This stand is capable of reaching somewhere between 5 and 10 metres from its host, generally
able to function as a separate combatant, but always within their general vicinity. Its signature
ability generally operates within immediate line of sight. ​It is able to act at Close range, or
maintain control of its power to Near range.
B​: This stand can achieve considerable autonomy. Generally by this point the stand can either
share its senses with its user or has a separate mind able to make decisions, but ultimately it is
able to operate anywhere within the same building as the user, to state an example. On open
ground, its user would still quite visible from the stand unless camouflaged. ​Its signature ability is
capable of ‘Sniping’. It is able to act at Near range, or maintain control of its power to Long range.
A​: This stand can operate several kilometres away from its user if necessary, and its signature
ability can affect anywhere
in the world provided the
conditions are right to
target it. ​It is able to act at
Long Range, or Extended
ranges if highly
autonomous (Possessed of
good precision and
potential, or ignoring the
rule that it is bound to its
user). Its ability can be
maintained anywhere.
S​: This stand can be
anywhere in the universe,
and still follow the
directives of its stand user.
Its abilities meanwhile are
capable of even following
marked targets into the
past or other timelines
should they try to outrange
them this way. It is able to
act or utilise its power
anywhere.
Durability​: The toughness of the stand’s physical body, as well as the persistence or “stickiness” of
its signature ability. The former factor is notable given that stands reflect damage to their body
onto their user, so a stand which is weaker than its user may endanger them by allowing a
relatively weak blow to the stand to completely shatter the user’s body, or alternatively a very
durable stand can be sent into danger without fear, as normally lethal force will not be able to
reflect any injury worse than some surface scratches back to the user.

None​: This stand is potentially a hideous liability for the user to which it is linked, seeing as even
the weakest of stands could destroy it more or less as quickly as they could move through it.
Alternatively, the stand may be bound to a relatively fragile physical object, allowing even
non-stand users to damage it. Its signature power is largely instantaneous, or is disrupted by any
movement of its target.
E​: Exceptionally fragile, this stand’s spiritual body has a consistency akin to cardboard. It is able to
offer some defense against attacks by weak stands, but its only defense is a good offense against
stands with a power of C or higher. Its signature power is easily disrupted by any plausible
complication or defensive reaction, or only lasts for a second or two.
D​: This stand is weak by human standards, but it is no longer a weak point for its user necessarily.
Stand users can generally be effective in a direct struggle against its signature ability, but it takes a
degree of effort. Its signature ability has some persistence, maybe even 10 seconds with effort, or
has some other fairly glaring weaknesses that allow it to be escaped once it has activated.
C​: This stand’s spiritual body is of similar vitality to a human being. Its signature ability might be
able to operate for about as long as its user can hold their breath, or be difficult but hardly
impossible to escape once the trick is figured out.
B​: Unnaturally tough, this stand can survive even stand-based attacks that would be lethal against
a human. It is for example, bulletproof, even if the bullets are stands, albeit it would still be hurt a
little. Its signature ability could only ever be broken free from or disrupted under a handful of very
specific and rare situations, or by defeating
the stand user.
A​: This stand is extremely tough, capable of
bearing great amounts of damage, as if it
were made of an extraordinarily tough metal
or diamond. It can act as a good bulwark
against stand based attacks on its user
without even needing to respond to them. Its
signature ability is probably inescapable
without the use of a stand ability that
specifically counters the ability, even
defeating the user may not be enough.
S​: This stand is totally indestructible, it would
be capable of shielding its user against an
apocalypse if it weren’t for the atmosphere
and all sources of food and water being
destroyed in the process. If this stand is
highly autonomous, it will likely be present at
the end of the world. Its signature ability is
totally irresistible once it has struck home,
and victims will continue to suffer until the
stand user specifically reverses the power.

Precision​: The dexterity and perceptiveness

of a stand’s spiritual body, and the precision
and accuracy with which it utilises its signature power.
None​: This stand is totally unable to control its strength, evade simple obstacles, or accomplish
delicate tasks, as it always applies itself by the most direct path possible to any task while
remaining blind to its surroundings. If its Power is insufficient, this may make simple obstacles
such as a waist high fence totally insurmountable, or indeed if its Durability is insufficient it may be
a great danger to its user. Its signature ability also lacks any finesse, perhaps immediately affecting
every valid target within its range without exception, offering no control over its ability once it has
begun, offering its user absolutely no protection from its effects despite them being the epicentre
of the ability, or perhaps simply being unable to activate or deactivate its signature ability willfully
and relying on external triggers instead that the user cannot reasonably control under normal
circumstances. Fortunately, even the most incompetent stand cannot directly destroy itself with
its own power.
E​: The stand’s spiritual body is extremely clumsy, uncoordinated, barely able to sense the world
around it, and it is unlikely to apply much thought to changing factors in its environment when
executing orders. It is not uncommon for it to make mistakes due to oversights on the part of its
user. Its signature ability can be directional, but that is the most positive thing that could be said
for its precise applications.
D​: The stand’s spiritual body has very diminished senses, but is nonetheless able to transmit these
to its user to some extent and thus operate remotely in a somewhat intelligent seeming fashion. It
has trouble limiting its strength or accomplishing complex tasks but can do so with some difficulty
and focus.
C​: The stand can see, hear, or has other means of perceiving its environment such that it is roughly
equal to a human, and can exert fine control of its force for anything that wouldn’t be difficult for
a human either. It has a degree of control over its signature ability that “manually operated” might
imply.
B​: The stand has very good senses, likely possessing one sensory ability that is well beyond human.
It is capable of coordinating a large number of separate aspects of its signature ability at once, and
is capable of using it to handle delicate situations such as rapidly defusing a bomb with telekinesis.
A​: The stand is exceptionally perceptive, able to perceive details of its environment that no human
being could reasonably identify, such as noticing that some brush strokes of a painting are
different to others, the product of a different brush, painter, or time. Combined with good speed
and potential such a stand would be impossible to ever surprise. The stand’s signature ability is
capable of feats of finesse that stress the limits of complexity, such as using an ability that controls
magnetism to write programs onto a computer’s hard-drive.
S​: The stand has a sensory range that makes it near omniscient, (in which case its user likely
cannot process enough of its senses to benefit from this directly) or is otherwise capable of fully
identifying all possible sensory information about objects it perceives at conventional ranges. Its
signature ability can work at any level of finesse conceivable, using it to reassemble atoms into
different isotopes where necessary, or combined with good speed, rewrite the DNA of entire
lifeforms.
Potential​: The most notably different from the source material. Potential is the analytical
intelligence and problem solving ability of a stand’s own separate mind and thus its ability to act
upon thoughts or other types of orders received from its link with its user, and the flexibility that
the stand has in using its signature ability creatively.
None​: This stand is incredibly inflexible and will only act or utilise its powers under a set number
of highly specific scenarios, in specific ways. The user probably does not even have conscious
control of the stand, or the ability to prevent it activating. Make a list of these scenarios, and
assign them to the GM to adjudicate when your stand activates.
E​: The stand only responds to very simple verbal orders at any given time, and has absolutely no
initiative in their execution. Alternatively, a number of conditions must be satisfied to utilise this
stand, and its powers in turn can only be utilised in a few set ways directly related to those
conditions, which naturally limits its flexibility somewhat. Above all, anything this stand does
should be completely unsurprising to anyone who has seen it used once before.
D​: The stand is of mediocre flexibility, capable of using its spiritual body and signature ability in a
marginally versatile fashion to accomplish other effects not directly related to its portfolio by say,
rolling barrels off of buildings and the like. It occasionally manages to pre-empt its user’s most
obvious orders. The stand can understand many different types of directive, but cannot execute
particularly complicated or multi-step orders. It may well be expressive enough to get very basic
concepts across to its master.
C​: The stand is of considerable flexibility, capable of comprehending orders with the acuity of a
human being, and adding its own creative flair sometimes in accordance with its rudimentary
personality and initiative. Its signature ability can be played fast and loose on occasion, having
some flexibility to accomplish effects outside of the obvious.
B​: The stand has considerable hidden depths, and can execute orders in any form of any
complexity or length as intended, barring unforeseen complications. ​When it is not under time
pressure, the stand and/or its user can burn 6 general ability points and 1 investigative ability point
to innovate and gain a flair, inventing a surprising new application for its signature ability. It may
be capable of holding a proper conversation with its master.
A​: The stand is very unpredictable, and immediately comprehends the intent behind any orders or
communication it receives, and is capable of formulating complex plans under its own initiative if
somehow isolated from its user or faced with unforeseen complications. ​At any time the stand
and/or its user can burn 6 general ability points and 1 investigative ability point to innovate and
gain a flair for the session.
S​: The stand has nearly limitless
possibilities, and constantly
changing and impermanent. ​At
any time the stand and/or its
user can burn 6 general ability
points and 1 investigative ability
point to gain a flair for the
session, or 12 general ability
points and 2 investigative ability
points to gain a new effect for
the session. It is able to transfer
its own conceptions back to its
master as easily as it thinks of
them.
Step 2: Denial Select one of:
- Raise one of your stand’s stats by one, and decrease another by one. This cannot take its stats
above A. Then edit its draft accordingly. (-2)
- Select someone else at the table, either another player or the GM, and task them with assigning
a different core concept to your stand, and writing up a draft in line with its stats that functions as
similarly as possible to the previous draft. (-1)
- Select someone else at the table, either another player or the GM, and task them with rerolling
your stand’s stats and writing a
new draft for its signature
power function in line with
those stats. (-1).

- Select someone else at the

table, either another player or
the GM (In which case they will
substitute your stand with the
most suitable NPC stand), and
swap stands with them. (0)
- Roll 1d6 / 2 to determine
which of the next 3 steps of
Anger, Bargaining, or
Depression you will not
participate in. (+1)
- Elect to be the first to receive
a stand weakness in the event
that the option is chosen by
anyone, rather than a random
player. (+2)

Step 3: Anger
Select one of:
- Assign an extremely common weakness to stands in the setting, (each stand has a 50% chance of
being affected) that only your character knows (-2) (IT MUST BE PLAUSIBLE NO-ONE ELSE NOTICED
THIS)
- Assign a weakness to all stands in the setting (0)

- Assign a weakness to another stand randomly selected at the table (Again, random includes the
GM, in which case a random NPC is affected) (+1)

- Select another player at the table and insert a fight with them into both of your backstories. Both
of you have an elevated chance of your stand abilities becoming generally known as a result.
Reveal your current stand information to each other. (+1)

- Select two other players at the table, scribble on a piece of a paper, and force them to use this as
the basis for a drawing of their stand. If the number of stands who would be depicted this way
exceeds the number of stands at the table, those who selected this do not gain points from having
done so. (+1)
Stand Weaknesses:
Weaknesses are free form, and are simply additional constraints and conditions that need to met
by the stand’s ability draft. They can be an issue with the stand’s spiritual body or signature ability.
Weaknesses for a stand that are made with consideration to its abilities might be fairly lenient,
simply identifying and widening holes in its potential powerset. For instance, a stand that controls
a certain type of animal might be able to be thwarted by the actions of that animal’s natural
predators, and designating this as an actual stated weakness of the stand merely requires that the
stand’s ability either does not stop this from taking place, or somehow seeks to thwart its intrinsic
defenses against this scenario: in the example above, if the stand augments the animals it
controls, it either does so in a way that offers them no protection from their predators, or
augments the predators as well.

Weaknesses which are created blind during the Anger step generally end up being much harsher.
A stand that can set metals on fire that can’t be used in the presence of fire becomes relatively
confusing, but not necessarily incoherent. People assigning such weaknesses should exercise
restraint since there is always at least a chance that their own stand will receive the weakness,
and in applying weaknesses that were made blind onto their stands, player’s should feel free to be
relatively lenient.
Step 4: Bargaining Select one of:

- Both your stand, and another stand randomly selected at the table, gain the same new ​effect of
your choice. Unlike signature abilities, this is not a far reaching or comprehensive power, but
rather operates at one level lower in all stats than the signature ability. It is however, a simple and
separate core concept for what the ability does, potentially offering great versatility. Both stand
users must come up with an explanation for how this new ability is achieved by the same
underlying powerset that accomplishes their signature ability. Examples might include being at
home underwater, flight, invisibility, beam weapons, or other typical superpowers, but something
like “time travelling bomb” that is just as complicated as a Core Ability Premise is also fine.
Examples of how to justify this include such stretched logic as Killer Queen’s ability to explode
things it has touched in the past being related to its ability to blast itself back in time. Whether or
not the effect is subject to any weakness your stand may have is up to the GM during the
Acceptance step. (-2)
- Your stand becomes a combat type stand, which increases the level of its spiritual body by one
rank in all stats, and decreases the level of its signature ability by one rank in all stats. This cannot
take a stat above A. Another stand randomly selected at the table becomes a support type, which
does the opposite (-1)
- Your stand becomes a support type stand, while another stand randomly selected at the table
becomes a combat type. (-1)

- Select one of the rules of stands. Both your stand, and another stand randomly selected at the
table cease to be subject to this rule. The way in which this is true may be determined by each
stand user after the fact, with consideration to their stats and signature ability. (-1)
- Both your stand, and another stand randomly selected at the table, gain a ​flair for their abilities.
Flairs are very minor capabilities that seem to logically follow from the stand’s structure, stats and
signature power, but not necessarily intrinsically. The greater their power, the greater the reasons
for them to be used only rarely. A good examples would be Silver Chariot’s ability to fire its sword
as a ricocheting bullet, or Magician’s Red’s use of flames as rope. Each user decides what flair they
gain. (0)

- Select a statistic. Your stand drops in this statistic by one step. A stand randomly selected at the
table increases their rank in this stat by one step, three times. This can take a stat above A. (+1)

- You have an unknown nemesis. After character generation is over, the GM formulates a future
hostile stand that is designed from the ground up to perfectly counter your own stand. You are
fated to encounter them without the entire party present. (+2)

THE RULES EXIST TO BE BROKEN:

The following is the list of rules that are generally true of stands. Each rule is nearly always true for
stands in general, but for a given stand to break one or two of the rules is not nearly so unusual.
Extremely high or low stand stats, as well as suitable signature abilities, may result in severely
stressing the limits of the stand rules, but only by receiving an exemption as part of Step 4 or 5 of
this process are you truly free. When a stand ceases to be subject to one of the rules of stands,
you must consider carefully what that means for it. In particular, it should not operate with such
creative freedom as to render a stand statistic useless as a descriptor, unless it already possesses
“None” or “S” in that statistic. For example, by ceasing to be bound to its user, a stand should not
still be able to exist anywhere, it should still have some kind of limiting origin point to define its
stand range from.
#1:​ Each user can only have one stand. A stand which breaks this rule may possess features such
as multiple separate bodies, forcibly anchoring other stands to its own user, or forcibly making
other people count as its user for the purposes of shared damage and senses or the like.
#2:​ A stand is bound to its user. Stands are so named for standing ominously beside the user due
to the limited range of many stands, but this is only in most cases. A stand that breaks this rule
might be bound to an object, a place, or even something abstract like a thought, and manifest
from there.
#3:​ A stand is a spiritual body visible only to other stand users that manifests to protect its user,
and withdraws when not in use. Stands that break this rule may have an actual physical body
visible to non-stand users that does not dissipate when their user is defeated, be invisible even to
stand users (In which case this would probably also apply to its own user), have no body at all, or
perhaps assemble one from nearby materials or animals using their signature power upon
activation, in which case only attacks that destroy the bulk material itself deal damage to it.

#4:​ A stand can only be directly damaged by another stand. Stands that come to possess physical
bodies as above generally have some vulnerability to damage dealt to their physical form, but for
the most part, despite observably being solid to much of the world around them given their ability
to effect it, Stands cannot suffer injury and serious consequence from the reaction force that
would imply, unless it is inflicted by the spiritual body of another stand. A stand with low
durability and power may not be able resist bullets fired at it, but if so they just pass through it
harmlessly. A stand which breaks this rule might have a spiritual body that can only be effected by
physical force while being immune to stands, receive injury to its spiritual body only through mean
language (or something similarly ubiquitous, ignoring this rule should not make the stand
functionally undefeatable) or be able to inflict damage on other stand’s spiritual bodies using
physical objects as an intermediate, for instance a telekinetic stand that is still able to injure
stands by throwing normal rocks at them.

#5:​ A stand is a part of its user’s body, and so its user shares its senses, and damage received by
the stand also affects the user. Stands that break this rule might be totally autonomous, lacking
any telepathic or wound sharing connection to their user (and thus likely continuing to act while
the user is unconscious or dead) and acting *only* on verbalised commands, thus possessing an
exceptional initiative and sense of self for a stand, or the stand might only receive information and
wounds from its user and not the user from the stand. In other situations, this might lead to a
stand that controls the movements of its user’s body, not the other way around. ​Stands which
break this rule have higher autonomy.
#6:​ A stand’s power is proportional to its range from the user. Signature abilities for stands are
less powerful the further from the stand user they operate, with range merely defining the upper
limit that the power can be maintained at. Likewise stand’s bodies tend to be smaller and weaker
at large distances from the user. Stands that break this rule may become stronger the further they
are from the user (Up to the limit of their range) or have aspects of their abilities that operate at
the same intensity regardless of range. For example, most time manipulation stands manipulate
time for the entire universe, but have a very small range within which their user and immediate
surroundings can move, or hypothetically, if targeted by a stand which traps victims within new
and bounded areas of space, its time manipulation couldn’t ‘reach out’ far enough to affect the
broader timeline of the universe outside. Another example would be a stand which always looks
as big to the user regardless of distance, resulting in a skyscraper wrecking monster at long range.
Another hypothetical stand might use this exception to make an asteroid from the Kuiper belt
home in on a target, its (limited) range still defines who the asteroid is seeking, but the ability is
still able to exert force on something well outside of that using its stand power.)

Step 5: Depression Select one of:

- Select one of the rules of stands. Both your stand, and another stand randomly selected at the
table cease to be subject to this rule. The way in which this is true may be determined by each
stand user after the fact, with consideration to their stats and signature ability. (-1)
- Select another player. You both reveal your stand’s current stats to each other, and whether they
are combat type or support type. If two or more of your stand’s stats match each other (With
consideration also given to the modifiers applied by types, IE a Power B combat type would match
with a balanced stand of Power A or C, as those match its spiritual body and signature ability
respectively), you should consider yourselves related by blood. If you both agree, view each
other’s current stand ability drafts. Discuss ways in which your stand’s signature abilities could
operate in a more thematically similar fashion and consider adapting your drafts in view of this. (0)
- Choose a potential use of your stand’s signature power. Your character has a great fear of
actually using their stand in this fashion, and will never do so willingly unless their life is at stake,
and even then only with significant further encouragement. If your stand performs this action
under its own autonomy, you are horrified. (+1)

- Make a call for your stand’s name. Every single player will contribute a musical reference to serve
as a potential name, with or without knowledge of what your stand actually does. You must select
one of these as the name for your stand, and render the activation of its power at least somewhat
conditional to match themes of that musical reference. (+1)
- Your stand has a limitation or weakness in its spiritual body or signature ability that even you, the
user, remain unaware of. The GM will be able to dictate situations where your stand’s abilities
function unusually or not at all in light of this weakness. (+2)
- Select another player, not the GM. That player reviews your stand’s current signature ability and
stats. Your stand gains a very significant but not necessarily obvious weakness in its spiritual body
or signature ability that is best exploited by that other player’s stand, of their design. (+2)
Step 6: Acceptance

Finalise the draft form of your stand. This is your last chance to consider further modification of
your stand’s core abilities. Take stock and ensure you factor in every step which has affected your
stand during this process. For instance, if you break one of the rules of stands, your stand MUST
break, evade, or heavily bend that rule. While the integrity of your stand’s physical body can be
easily gauged, now is also the time to verify that your signature ability still makes sense with
respect to all the conditions imposed upon it by your stand’s stats.

For instance, a stand with a core ability premise of telekinesis but a “None” rank in Power cannot
actually use telekinesis in a conventional sense, but may possess the ability to immediately detect
and locate stands or other supernatural phenomena through perception of any forces in its
environment, however small, that seem telekinetic in nature, or it might be able to immediately
determine the steps that need to be taken (by its user, or other stands) to cause certain distant
objects to move in specific ways.
If it doesn’t already have something defining its spiritual body’s (or possibly physical
manifestation’s) appearance, ensure that a depiction, or at least a description, is included, as in
most cases this is the most obvious component of the stand’s action.

At this point, the GM should make a final review of your stand. Besides simply verifying that all
processes have been followed, an important part of this is to ensure that the stand is not
obviously unbeatable contextually speaking. No stand in JJBA has ever reigned supreme over all
others forever, see: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tbc7Zch7-E
Finally, the GM should get back to you to confirm a few important additional factors about your
stand that should have been fairly obvious by now, but the specifics of which are ultimately down
to their vision of the setting:
- The level of ​autonomy your stand possesses (A consequence of Range, Potential, and
other factors)
- How ​communicative your stand is (A consequence of Precision, Potential, and other
factors)
- How ​safe your stand is to use (A consequence of Precision, Durability, Potential and other
factors)
- An example of your stand’s effects on a character in the system (A consequence of Power,
Speed, Durability, and other factors.)t
- How ​subtle the activation of your stand’s ability is (A consequence of Speed, Precision, and
mostly other factors)
- The ​size of your stand’s physical body (A consequence of Power, Durability, Range, and
other factors)

Use of a Stand during play:

You might be wondering at this stage,
how on earth will I use my stand in this
game? What does it roll?

For the most part, stands do not roll.

They simply exist, and they perform at
whatever level they are capable of, in
accordance with the user’s commands
(unless they are very autonomous, at
which point disobedience may become
possible). If they are commanded to
utilise their signature ability, it takes
effect at whatever speed is feasible.

The accuracy of the signature ability is a

function of their precision if that is of
relevance, and this is the only common
time a stand might need to roll, but
even then, only if it is a situation where
precise aim is necessary by a stand with
low to moderate precision, which may
not even be possible given the nature
of low precision abilities. The difficulty in avoiding a signature ability is a function of its speed. To
withstand the immediate effect of the ability and prevent it from disrupting your actions is more
difficult as its Power increases. The difficulty in escaping the ability once it takes hold is a function
of its Durability, but how precisely that is done is likely to vary wildly. In most of these cases, it is
the victim who decides the whims of chance. If a stand’s spiritual body is sent to fight someone,
they can mount very little in the way of defense against it, and so it is entirely down to their ability
to avoid being hit.

But what if a stand is sent to fight another stand? At this point, some modicum of strategy enters
the mix. The situation in which a clash between stands takes place, and the tactics with which they
are ordered to fight, will ultimately determine which stats are important. Even range might
potentially become an important factor if two stands are ordered to engage each other. For
example, if the stands decide to just go wild with ORAORAORA at close range then the stand with
the best overall compromise between Power, Speed and Durability is likely to be victorious.

If this is by a large margin, victory likely comes immediately. Otherwise it might take several turns,
during which the users may attempt to do other things, or focus their efforts on instructing their
stand’s tactics to try and change the outcome. For instance, by setting off a smoke grenade, a
stand that was previously a clear winner becomes hampered by its combination of low precision
and potential, rendering it unable to coordinate with its user and find its opponent, while the
weaker stand is able to share good enough senses through its link to its user to see the other
stand clearly. The other stand user devotes their turn to instructing their stand to use its signature
ability to make a hurricane to clear the smoke. While this is successful, because the first stand user
did not need to abort their stand’s
attack, their stand is able to spend
the turn beating on the opponent
while it is distracted, possibly
making for a much more even fight
once the status quo returns.
If on the other hand, the stand had
been highly autonomous and with
passably decent Potential, it could
have independently arrived at the
decision to clear the air. This would
not save it being beaten on by the
weaker stand, but it would leave
the user free to act, possibly hitting
the enemy stand user themselves.
Even though Stands can be seen as
a minion in some ways, a source of
additional action economy to be
left to its own devices after initial
instructions, their successes and
failures do reflect back on the user
during this process. A stand user
whose stand is in a losing battle can
expect to see a lot of damage
coming their way even if they’ve
done everything in their power to
keep their own body safe. As a
result, high Health is a
recommendation for stand users.

Furthermore, stands that aren’t fully automatic and autonomous from the user are, in some ways,
a manifestation of their fighting spirit. Someone who is severely beaten down generally finds their
stand dissipating, and it is incredibly difficult to bring forth its power again immediately. Unless
the nature of your stand provides a convincing reason otherwise (Entirely possible), in the event
that your character is ​Hurt ​or ​Seriously Wounded​ by an attack, limitations are imposed. Any time
you would need to make a Consciousness roll, you must also take a Stability roll of equal difficulty
or be unable to draw out your stand until either the next time you make a Consciousness roll, or
when you are healed and thus no longer hurt. Once ​Seriously Wounded​, your stand is itself
extremely heavily damaged, and its function is severely limited. Your stand’s signature ability and
spiritual body gain additional weaknesses subject to the GM at the time, and likely decrease their
effective statistics. Subject to the GM, this may be less of an issue for a character following their
drive.
Wait on a second, what was that “Stand” skill you mentioned elsewhere?
The Speedwagon Foundation has become intensely interested in the power of Stands ever since
Joseph and Mohammad Abdul brought them to their attention. And their investigations haven’t
been fruitless: part of the reason you are working with them now. Stands have very little in
common, but the experiences of the Stardust Crusaders were able to provide enough
generalisations to create a fledgling field of study:

Stand-ology (Academic) (Investigative)

You have taken advantage of your opportunity to be trained in a field limited to a privileged few,
that of the nature of Stands. While the Foundation has certain experts who attempt to remain
appraised of this mysterious force that may be behind so many of the world’s stranger
occurrences, those who do not possess stands, and thus cannot see them, will always be at a
disadvantage. Even for those who do enter this field, there is a lot more that remains unknown
than what is known. Your expertise, nonetheless, gives you an edge in investigating the unnatural.
You can:
● Identify objects in your environment that are only visible to stand users
● Identify aspects of a scene that implicate a known stand user
● Identify a stand that is operating autonomously
● Gauge the immediate intent of a stand’s user through the body language of their stand
● Determine the relationship between a non-humanoid stand and its user’s human body
● Quantify stats of an enemy stand as they are demonstrated
HAMON: The Sun’s Golden Ripple
The Speedwagon Foundation has a long history of cooperation with the Hamon monks. Many
people go their whole lives in monkhood seeking to become a master of Hamon and still fail to do
so. Such individuals are occasionally incredibly useful for the Foundation, in times where their
skillset is called for. But as the Foundation is fundamentally an investigative organisation rather
than one which crusades against well known threats, this occasional availability is far less useful
than a wide number of people who know the basics.
To talented individuals with an interest, the Speedwagon Foundation sponsors short, several
month intensive courses in the use of an ancient breathing technique with incredible powers. It’s
great for employee health, and it could save your life in a pinch too. Any company that was as
aware of the secret risk of vampiric infiltration as the Speedwagon Foundation is would be glad to
propogate an art that makes their presence extremely obvious.
Unlike other Special Asset Skills in GUMSHOE, Hamon has many different applications, and in fact
is almost exclusively
utilised in stressful
situations. Anyone
who has seen Part 1
and Part 2 should
have a fairly solid
understanding of
what Hamon is
capable of. What this
skill does not
represent however,
is mastery of Hamon,
or indeed much in
the way of personal
stylings or
technique. Only very
simple and
straightforward
applications fit with
the rudimentary and group oriented training provided, and as there is none of the time or
intensity of training necessary to instill a perfect grasp of breathing technique, these techniques
are exhausting to use and so still use the normal GUMSHOE rules for supernatural abilities, with
the exception that a user’s Health is only at risk once they are forced to spend points from their
Stability pool.

In view of this, to acquire Hamon requires 6 general ability points for the first point, and 1 for each
point thereafter.
To restate the book:
Using a paranormal ability is like any other General ability use: roll a die, add any points you
spend, and compare the result to the Difficulty. However, you ​must spend at least 2 points from
your ability pool if you can. If you have insufficient points in that pool, you must spend points from
your Stability pool instead. Points spent from your Stability pool do not add to the die roll,
however... After using a paranormal ability, you must make a Difficulty 5 Health test or
immediately lose 2 Health ​and become Hurt for the rest of the scene. (If you are already Hurt, you
become Seriously Wounded.) This represents a profound, bone-deep exhaustion approaching
shock, not an actual injury. Paranormal abilities do not refresh until after an operation.
Hamon can be used in the following scenarios:
- To greatly stiffen or pressurise an object or surface capable of conducting it, such as
hair or water.
- To conduct force safely through a conductive object into the other side, or place a
small fissure into a non-conductive object.
- To imbue the user with energy to slay, or defend against, entities which are weak to
sunlight.
- To send a jolt of electricity into something.
- To heal an individual as per Medic, save that the second most recent injury is
affected instead.
The difficulty of tests is determined as follows:

Condition Difficulty
Modifier
The user’s circulation is +2
impeded by strangulation,
frostbite, or being drunk by
a vampire.

The user is holding their +2

breath.

The user is channelling +1

through a solid, inorganic
material.

The user is able to swing a -1

blow directly into what they
intend to effect.

The user is trying to affect a -2

living fiber, the ideal hamon
conductor.

The user is able to breathe -2

deeply several times before
acting.