Using "One Piece" as a Model for Running TTRPG Campaigns - Part 1

How Eiichiro Oda (unconsciously) created the greatest D&D campaign ever

This post might catch some heat from “the old guard” of tabletop roleplaying games for mentioning anime as a boon to the hobby in the same breath. Know that while I too also hold fast to the value of the works listed in the original “Appendix N” (you can read about it in last week’s post linked below), I also happen to be part of a generation that is inspired by different stories. Anime and Manga, especially in the last decade, has inspired many young artists, writers, and game designers in the West. Although horror stories about “Anime-inspired Dungeons & Dragons” campaigns permeating Reddit and YouTube may have purists believe this has been for the worse, there is still a glut of stories and themes in Anime and Manga that could be used to inspire successful campaigns (or concepts for campaigns); D&D itself has in turn inspired Mangaka as well with Goblin Slayer and Delicious in Dungeon being more recent examples.

In this week’s post, I will be discussing how One Piece by Eiichiro Oda can be used as a model for tabletop roleplaying campaigns. I will go over several “arcs”, specifically in the Anime (animated by Toei Animation), and use their structure as examples for how Game Masters can balance creating scenarios for individual and parties of player characters, gradually building up a large world, and managing to keep player characters as the focus of the campaign.

As a note for this post, it will contain spoilers for One Piece up to the Albasta Kingdom Arc, but will not include any references to “filler” plot. I’m currently working my way through the Summit War Arc, so I would ask for readers to avoid spoilers beyond that point if you do leave any comments!

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East Blue Arc: Start With the Party

The first arc of One Piece makes it clear from the beginning that this is a story where just about every character is important in some way. In fact, the characters themselves are given much more attention when it comes to the drawing and animation rather than the world they inhabit with many backdrops of the East Blue Arc having almost “liminal space” qualities. Special attention is given to the pirate crew led by endlessly optimistic, yet naïve, Monkey D. Luffy; they are eventually called the “Straw Hat Pirates” (Mugiwara Kaizoku in the original Japanese) for Luffy’s iconic straw hat. Over the course of the East Blue Arc, Luffy gathers his tiny crew who each have their own skills, tragic backstories, and dreams; they all follow him with the conviction that he can bring them closer to achieving those dreams. He first teams up with “Pirate Hunter” Roronoa Zoro, master of the “three-sword style” of fighting (he wields a third sword clenched between his teeth), who aspires to be the world’s greatest swordsman. The “party rogue” is Nami, an adept thief and expert navigator with the dream of creating a map of the whole world. Usopp joins the Straw Hats under the delusion that he is their captain but better serves the role of sniper and tinkerer with bigger hopes of becoming “a great warrior of the sea.” The last member acquired during the East Blue Arc is the cook Sanji, who is a master of fighting with an entirely “kick-based” style since, as a chef, his hands are too precious to be damaged in battle. He dreams of finding a legendary place known as the All-Blue where exotic fish are thought to be found. Luffy himself holds the power of the “Gum Gum Fruit”, which, upon consuming as a child, turned his body to rubber; he dreams of becoming King of the Pirates by finding the eponymous “One Piece” left by the last King, Gol D. Roger.

(Above: The Straw Hat Crew by the end of the East Blue Arc; left to right: Nami, Sanji, Luffy, Usopp, Zoro)

Most of the East Blue Arc is dedicated to establishing the basics of each initial Straw Hat member; we receive flashbacks to defining events of their childhoods that shape them into the young adults we meet at the start of the show. At the start of any TTRPG campaign¹ that intends to last for a while, players are likely going to create (or be required by their game master) a backstory for the characters they will be assuming the roles of for the campaign. Often these explain how each player character (PC) fits into the world (especially the starting area), how they acquired the basic knowledge of their class (or occupation depending on the system), and their motives for taking up a life of adventuring or pursuing the main thrust of the campaign. Backgrounds may also incorporate different factions, cultures, and specific NPCs the GM has operating in their world. Each Straw Hat character in One Piece is introduced with the aforementioned background elements; we are mostly given the basics of how they acquired their unique skills, important characters and factions they may be affiliated with, and the reasons behind particular habits and their overall goals. The characters gathered in the East Blue Arc are, for the most part, normal by TTRPG player character standards (barring Luffy’s Gum Gum Fruit abilities) in the sense that they are humans with fairly grounded skillsets and backgrounds. For starting a campaign, especially for newer GMs and players, this is ideal as it simplifies both the mechanical character creation process and logically integrating characters into the world. Later, we’ll discuss how more exotic player characters might be worked into a party. An overall theme with the Straw Hats as well is that most of them fit the bills of traditional adventurers in that they are usually outsiders in their own societies who don’t have much promise if they were to stay home or follow traditional paths to success.

In addition to gathering the foundation of the Straw Hat crew, the East Blue Arc dedicates its time to propelling the characters towards their goals that lead them to the broader story (or “campaign” in our case). Each crew member is given a dedicated “mini-arc” that helps them break from any trappings of their background holding them down and prompts them to begin their adventuring career. Usually TTRPG campaigns begin with PCs already in one place, likely having known each other beforehand. Something I’ve heard of more GMs trying out recently is playing one-on-one sessions with players to flesh out their backstories before the actual first session—in imitation of how Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer began the second campaign of his actual play show. The flashbacks of the Straw Hats’ backstories in One Piece could be comparable to something like this method. While this has been called a more “advanced” gaming method, there are some merits to doing this, but I’d say only try it if players are all on the same page with who’s playing who. Furthermore, One Piece gradually introduces each character rather than start them off in the same place. Replicating this in real life might also be tricky, but for players and GMs with busy schedules, this may be an opportunity to have smaller sessions until a full-group session is possible. What matters the most is getting the game off the ground and getting the party on the same page since gaming groups often have limited time to get started.

Luffy, from the start, knows what he wants without a shadow of a doubt and his role in this arc is helping his new friends start the road to their dreams. Zoro begins the story as a notorious pirate hunter, hated both by pirates and the authoritarian World Government, but after losing a duel with a particularly powerful swordsman, he resolves that he will become the world’s greatest swordsman in honor of a late childhood friend. Usopp, with the help of Luffy, Zoro, and Nami prevents a pirate raid on his home village and is given a chance to sail with the trio to begin his journey of becoming a great warrior. His initiation is also how the Straw Hats acquire their very own ship, the Going Merry. Sanji is resistant to Luffy’s offer to join the Straw Hats but is encouragingly kicked off the Baratie (a floating restaurant) by his mentor Zeff to get him to recognize his true potential. Nami’s mini-arc not only literally liberates her from her past, but becomes the catalyst for solidifying the Straw Hats’ trust for one another.

(Above: The iconic “Arlong Walk”)

The “Arlong Park Arc” is an incredibly emotional, cathartic example of storytelling and something like it would serve as a great way to cap off the “introductory” part of a campaign—it has shocking reveals, hints at the challenges in the larger world, an epic boss fight, and a celebration in a small town. Shortly before Sanji’s initiation into the Straw Hats, Nami hijacks the Going Merry along with all the treasure aboard (the currency in One Piece is called “berries”). The others follow her, mostly at Luffy’s insistence to make sure she’s all right and get her back into the crew. They arrive at her home island to find the human village there under the thumb of Arlong and his crew of fish-man pirates. It turns out Arlong had kidnapped Nami after killing her mother and used her cartography and navigation skills to draw maps in order to help him conquer the East Blue. In the meantime, Nami also had been gathering berries to free her village from being extorted by Arlong—which partially explains her kleptomania. In a twist of events, Arlong betrays Nami with the aid of a World Government (more on this faction later) officer. Although Nami had also double-crossed Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats, he has already decided she is his friend and anyone who hurts Monkey D. Luffy’s friends can expect a surprise delivery of a rubbery knuckle sandwich. The arc culminates in an all-out brawl at Arlong’s base of operations, which ends in the Straw Hats “changing destiny” as they put an end to the tyranny of Arlong backed by the World Government.

As I said above, this arc is a great example of how to cap off the end of a campaign’s first adventure. If, somehow, a gaming group is unable to play any further then giving players something akin to this is satisfying enough for a campaign. It gives the PCs a satisfying win and hints at the possibility of them going onto much more dangerous, yet rewarding adventures. What is more is that getting each PC invested in one another’s backstories creates opportunities for bonds between them that might be tested later on in the campaign. The East Blue Arc thrusts a bunch of strangers together and they all come out as friends. Similarly, the first adventure of a campaign could affirm the connection the party has, especially if the players choose to not have any of their characters know one another beforehand. Sometimes GMs might save PC plots for later, and while those could work, try to start off with tackling the threads tying each party member down to get them out the door and into the dungeon.

Alabasta Kingdom Arc: Thrust Them into the Larger World

I was honestly taken off-guard with how quickly the Straw Hat Pirates reached the Grand Line, but I suppose the whole point of the story is finding the One Piece, which is alleged to be in the Grand Line. In simple TTRPG terms, if the East Blue is equivocal to the party’s home village being raided by kobolds, then the Grand Line is the doorstep to the multiverse. The material world that One Piece takes place on is mostly ocean with a few narrow, intersecting causeways that divide the North, East, South, and West “Blues” (the different seas) and innumerable islands making up the land masses. Running around the entirety of the world is a band of sea dotted with islands known as the Grand Line. It is a place where most norms for seafaring and adventuring go out the window; regular compasses don’t work due to the wonky magnetism of the islands, weather is often unpredictable and dangerous, and the Grand Line is home to incredibly powerful people and monsters that have been shaped by the generally hostile environment. To reference The Fellowship of the Ring, it’s the farthest any of the current Straw Hats have been from home.

In the Grand Line, the Straw Hats gather more crew members, face secret societies, and leap headfirst into the brewing civil war of a powerful kingdom. The stakes since the East Blue Arc are raised dramatically as more about the world itself is revealed to the characters. Similarly, in TTRPG campaigns, as PCs level up (or progress depending on the system) and face new threats beyond dire rats in the tavern basement, they’ll encounter new challenges and truths about the world they live in. After they have their bearings, basic gear, and maybe a magic item or two the GM usually begins introducing more exotic enemies, characters, and forces at play in the world. The Alabasta Kingdom Arc is a great example of how GMs can format this in a campaign.

The main “questline” in this arc is preventing a civil war in the titular Alabasta Kingdom, a desert kingdom in the Grand Line. The war itself is orchestrated by a crime syndicate known as Baroque Works, commanded by Crocodile (alias Mr. Zero). Crocodile is one of the “Seven Warlords of the Sea”, powerful pirate captains whose activities are sanctioned by the World Government. The Straw Hats, early on into sailing in the Grand Line, encounter Baroque Works and an important member of the Alabasta royal family—the Princess Nefertari Vivi who becomes one of the Straw Hats for this arc. Sometimes players might want to create a character who is of noble descent, although their “heir to the throne” concept might clash with the backwater village the GM planned to start the campaign in, or might not gel with the rest of the party members. While nowadays there are some mechanical options in game systems for having these types of player characters, it does feel difficult working them into a group of people who might come from more working class or downright poor backgrounds—which is what most adventurers tend to be. A PC that has a royal connection might fare better if they are related to a ruling faction that they have had or will have dealings with in the campaign. Vivi is a “temporary companion”, however, so it would likely be more appropriate to classify her as an “essential/companion NPC” than a full-fledged PC. Even in this sense, she’s a great example of a companion NPC since she sticks with the Straw Hats, progresses their own goals, and becomes a beloved friend by the end of the arc. Initially, she begins as their enemy as operates within Baroque Works under the alias Miss Wednesday. She had infiltrated the syndicate in order to get closer to Crocodile—whose identity is unknown even to most Baroque Works agents—and get the information she needed to save her kingdom. Giving the PCs a companion character with vital information and quest objectives like this can introduce a sense of urgency into a campaign that might otherwise drift from adventure to adventure with few stakes.

(Above: Tony Tony Chopper hiding from Nami [he has a permanent penalty to his Stealth rolls])

Speaking of integrating more unorthodox player characters, the other most notable Straw Hat gained in this arc is their long-waited doctor, Tony Tony Chopper. As seen in the picture above, Chopper is not a human, but a blue-nosed reindeer who ate a Human Human Fruit and acquired the ability to transform from his original animal form into a hybrid human-animal form (shown above) and a human-like form (which resembles Bigfoot, somewhat)—similar to how Lycanthropic characters in D&D function. With the multitude of player character racial options in D&D and other fantasy games, there has been debates about the plausibility of so many races even in a fantasy world. Although I tend to not be as hard and fast with my own worldbuilding, I do restrict most of my player character races to options that make sense in the context of my own world. The world of One Piece is what some might call a “kitchen sink” (from the phrase, “everything but the kitchen sink”) where almost anything imaginable can be found, especially in the Grand Line. My own preferences and what can be found in One Piece aside, if there’s any place to introduce a player character whose race might go outside the standard for races (or even just human) then it would be when the party begins encountering more fantastic ordeals and characters alongside that. Even if a PC is from a more exotic race, their goals should still fall in close to the rest of the party’s. Chopper’s goal as a doctor is to cure all diseases in the world, which he could accomplish by travelling the world with the Straw Hats.²

The events of the Alabasta Kingdom Arc, as stated above, mostly involve the Straw Hats assisting Princess Vivi in halting the civil war and thwarting the plans of Crocodile and Baroque Works. Something I noticed with the longer campaign I ran in college—and likely other GMs with more story-oriented players—is that dungeon-crawling isn’t always everyone’s bag after the first few levels of the campaign. While I, personally, can’t get enough of it there is also opportunities to put PCs in situations directly dealing with the current events and politics of the campaign world. The way One Piece handles this is by having the Straw Hats enter Alabasta (mostly) covertly—their antics draw some attention from the locals, then eventually Baroque Works and World Government officers. While they are working with one of the nobles (Vivi), the rest of the ruling class is completely unaware of their hand in saving Alabasta until the very last episodes. When applying this to a TTRPG campaign, GMs could try a similar approach by having PCs enter a conflict subversively rather than head-on. At this point in One Piece, the Straw Hats are still a relatively “green” crew and quite far from their peak capabilities, so barging into the civil war as if they were would have ended disastrously. It also likely wouldn’t end well by having a level 5 party attempt to throw themselves into the political arena to prevent a war between two kingdoms at each other’s throats. Rather, like the Straw Hats, they could be led into the conflict discreetly, acting as saboteurs to strike at the smaller-scale, more important targets than trying to take on entire armies. That’s not to say this is any less challenging, since it could lead to face-to-face confrontations with the leading antagonist or tense negotiations with a rebel leader to prevent a rash decision that would cost the lives of hundreds or thousands.

One of the ways Alabasta Kingdom ratchets up the tension is the sense of urgency. Even before they reach the island, the Straw Hats operate under the knowledge that they only have a small window to prevent the civil war. Strict timekeeping in TTRPGs is something of a lost art—at least, it’s not an aspect of play that is emphasized in more recent releases of fantasy games—but an adventure can dramatically change if there is the looming threat of something happening after a certain passage of in-game time. While the threat of Arlong was something that more of less could have continued as it was indefinitely, Alabasta’s civil war no doubt would have altered parts of the world itself if the Straw Hats were too late or ultimately chose not to help Vivi. Incorporating events that can change the world with or without PC intervention can help players realize how their choices can matter, whether they choose to act or not, hopefully prompting them to be more active and conscious in their decision-making.

The end of Alabasta Kingdom also incorporates a new, permanent crew member to the Straw Hats: former Baroque Works agent Nico Robin (alias Miss All-Sunday), the partner of Crocodile. Among Robin’s skills of being a powerful criminal and Flower Flower Fruit power-wielder, she also has the unique ability to read “poneglyphs” artifacts dotting the world of One Piece that explain parts of a history that was, for some reason, forgotten within the past millennium. She is another example of a more “exotic” player character in that she is considerably more powerful than most of the Straw Hats at the start of their journeys, has higher level connections than the rest of them, and has had a bounty on her head since she was eight years old. Robin’s general characterization and arc (which I’ll go into deeper explanation in part 2 next week) reminded me a lot of a companion character from BioWare games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect. In the latter installments of these series, the NPC companions begin to resemble paragons of their race or calling, with leaders in their own right deferring to the main player character or accompanying personally on missions. PCs similar to these characters would need a very good reason as to why they are where they are by the time they join the party (most likely being a higher starting level to reflect their experience and keep up with the rest of the party). As such, incorporating a PC like Nico Robin would have to be done with a player who understands TTRPGs very well and is willing to work close with the GM and communicate with the rest of the party to prevent any out of game conflicts. Her ability to read the ancient language inscribed on the poneglyphs is an example of a skill a unique character such as her might have to contribute to a party that would otherwise not be able to parse out the more esoteric fragments of a campaign world’s lore. While lore might not always be on the minds of players, the sentiment of having such a unique skill is something both players and game masters may want to consider when making PCs in the first place—understanding what they bring to the table and how they can engage with the world itself.

Alabasta Kingdom ends with the Straw Hats fleeing from the kingdom before the World Government finds them—despite their help with defeating Crocodile and the top Baroque Works agents, they are still wanted pirates. This instance is a very important point of wrapping up an adventure, especially following one as monumental as Alabasta (up to this point), is figuring out how the party proceeds. The celebration following the defeat of the final boss is fun, but if GMs intend on continuing a campaign then it’s important to figure out where the PCs are going to go next. In the case of the Straw Hats, it’s not specific where their next adventure will take them but the way they leave Alabasta reinforces the type of lifestyle they lead; they are pirates who are unprotected and actively hunted by government officials, and hated by most civilized folk despite their good intentions. Parties of PCs should similarly know and understand what they are and what will carry them into their next adventure. A long-term campaign at this stage might not have them settling down or establishing bases just yet—unless the campaign is centered around a particular hometown or other such site. Most departures the Straw Hats have made up to this point have been bittersweet as the people they have rescued are grateful for their heroics, but those people in turn must answer to the official power of the World Government and thus cannot create any certain or lasting ties with the crew. Unless a GM is running a campaign specifically tailored to outlaws, then the party can create more solid contacts following an adventure or utilize areas they had a hand in assisting as “safe zones” they can rest between adventures or use as way points for travel. In the case that a GM is running an “outlaws-with-hearts-of-gold” campaign (and if you’re reading an article about how One Piece can influence TTRPGs then you might already be considering it) then the PCs might not exactly be exonerated even if they have done an exceptionally a good deed. The small town or kingdom they helped rescue might be grateful, but if they’re part of a faction or culture that is broadly despised then maybe an even more powerful governing force is not going to consider their good deeds. It is most definitely within the spirit of adventuring not to plant roots until most of the world has been explored since where else could adventurers hope to find prospects but rambling into new horizons?

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This post turned out far longer than I originally anticipated, and for that reason I’m going to be splitting it up into two parts! Part 2 will be releasing Wednesday next week, covering the arcs of Skypeia, Water 7/Enies Lobby, and Thriller Bark!

What One Piece arc is your favorite? Is there anything you’d personally take from the anime or manga to incorporate in your own campaigns? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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1. Something I’ve been noticing about the more recent waves of players in the hobby is the way they use the word “campaign.” Often they use it to refer to individual sessions. I chalk this up to how Stranger Things used the term in its first episode. For clarification, when I say “campaign”, I use to denote a series of adventures strung together by a roughly continuous chronicle and featuring the same general party of player characters.

2. Something I didn’t mention in the East Blue section but fits here is that PC goals don’t and likely shouldn’t be complex or over-specific. From my experience, PCs with singular, focused goals might end up wrestling control of the campaign from the GM or just not have anything outside of that one goal to do.