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sexpig by night
Sep 8, 2011

by Azathoth
Hey TG, let's have a little chat.

Are you a bit burned out of games where the best solution is to put a sword through someone's face?

How many games have you played where no matter how well you guys play together, you kinda can't escape the fact that you're a bunch of murder hobos?

Let me tell you, there's a movement in gaming to get away from that, in fact, there's a movement to do the exact opposite of that, and there's no game that better exemplifies this concept than



Golden Sky Stories.

Golden Sky Stories is a game where violence isn't the point, in fact it's highly discouraged, the worst 'violence' you could face in a normal game of GSS is getting snapped at by a mean dog or slugged by a bully. That's because GSS and other games like it aren't about conflict, in fact let me tell you how Ewen Culney, the guy who was in charge of translating this game from its original Japanese, described it in his Kickstarter:

quote:

Golden Sky Stories is a heartwarming, non-violent role-playing game from Japan, by Ryo Kamiya, the creator of Maid: The Role-Playing Game. It was originally published in Japan as Yuuyake Koyake, and we’re very pleased to finally be able to bring it to you in English!

Don't worry it's not near as weird as Maid

Do you hear that? It's a heartwarming game.

Look, I love killing Orcs, it's pretty awesome, but after a while that gets a bit old, after a while you kinda start to wonder if it's good to spend so much fantasy time cutting a bloody path through a world.

That's where GSS and its ilk comes in.

In Golden Sky Stories you play as Henge, a spiritual concept from Japan and other Asian regions of enlightened animals with magical, sometimes godlike, powers. The catch to all this great power? They're not in the world to go lead armies or kill heretics, they're here to help us, the humans, with our stupid bullshit problems.

That's the thing about being an enlightened fox spirit or whatever, when you spend a few hundred years in perfect harmony with the world you realize that the real problem is what is making a little kid cry rather than what the general is saying needs to be killed.

The basic setting of Golden Sky Stories is an idealized rural town in Japan. Think My Neighbor Totoro and other Miyazaki films. One train station that doesn't get used a ton, a bus that comes through for work and not a whole lot else, and generally a peaceful countryside life. This isn't a game where you save the world from unspeakable horrors, or fight mafia families or whatever, because really what's the worst that happens in such a peaceful little town?

In this game players take the role of a wide array of these near-divine animals, the base game includes rules for playing as a fox, raccoon dog, cat, dog, rabbit, or bird, all with their own unique powers and outlooks on the world.

Really I can't praise this game's writing enough. Every animal's entry is a first person perspective done as if he or she is answering some questions about themselves. Every core concept to the animal's outlook on life or quirks or the like are covered. For example the Rabbit gets quite offended when you imply she's got chubby legs, and then casually mentions how fast her legs are and how good they are for kicking. The bird forgets things, and the raccoon dog assures you she'd never do anything UNETHICAL with her ability to make leaves money.

Also for real guys, raccoon dogs have the power to drum on their tummies at night to get people and other raccoon dogs to come over and get filled with child like whimsy, this fukkin game guys.



The system itself is pure simplicity. You pick what kind of magical creature you'd like to be, pick a weakness (or more) and not only do you get the weakness but you get a related bonus power as well (for example a raccoon dog can take the weakness 'glutton' which means exactly what it sounds like, but in return they get a power to make their tummy grumble if they haven't eaten in a bit and anyone who has a protective bond to them feels even more protective because aw d'aaaw she's hungry and so cute).

After that you spend 8 points between 4 stats, all of which are very simple to understand.

Henge is the strength of your magic powers, spiritual lore, and knowledge of other Henge in the town.

Animal is 'primal' abilities, strength, stamina, senses, agility, all that jazz covered by one simple stat.

Adult is how well you...well act like an adult. Hide your true feelings, work with machines, figure out other people's emotions, that stuff.

Finally, Child is how well you EXPRESS those emotions the Adult stat hides, how well you wheel and deal with others, how well you get others to protect you and how well you just in general have fun in the world around you.

Simple, right? It's a balancing act between your enlightened and primal side, and your adult and child side. It should be noted that the book never says any stat is BAD, it's not a BAD thing to have a high Adult score, you just...ya know...are a pretty grown up kid, so it's hard to work with other kids, but easier to work with adults, get it? It's about balancing the two sides, not focusing on one or the other.

After that you pick your human form, most henge take the form of young people of the same gender as their animal selves. It has no bearing on how old the animal is or anything like that though. An old dog could become a rambunctious young boy, an ancient Fox spirit can be a kindergarten student, it's magic we don't have to explain poo poo. The base range, though, is 8 to 18, so pick something in that wide range and you're aces.

That's it.

No seriously that's it.

When you have to make a check you compare your attribute score against the target number. That's it. You got a 4 in Adult and the computer takes a 2 in adult to log in? You're good, keep telling the story. That's what this is, a storygame at the purest.

Oh, you ask what happens if a target number is, say, a 6? That's far too high for our puny stats to pass, at least at the start, this game is broken poo poo!

Well settle down, buddy, that's where you get Feelings in the mix. Feelings is exactly what it sounds like, you draw upon your feelings for others to get a boost.

How do you get Feelings? Why by connections of course, because that's the core point of this game! You're connected to everyone around you, and the stronger this connection is the more Feelings you get. Basically speaking you get Feelings for every point in Connections you have. These Connections can range from anything from 'I like this person', 'they're my rival', or even 'I accept this person for who they are even if others don't', or 'this is someone I trust'. These bonds are your power, for the most part, so in this brilliant system the game tells you to go out and make some loving friends. Your group sees a lonely looking kid? Go be his friend! Why? Well not only do you feel like a decent person and make this fictional kid happy, but you get that connection with them to draw on when you need it! It's a mechanical reward for good roleplay!

These connections also grant Wonder in the same way, and Wonder is how you power your magic. Honestly there's not much more to say there, it's mana, spend Wonder to do cool poo poo with magic. What, not everything has to be the most unique and cool system in the world.

Golden Sky Stories is, in my eyes, the perfect storygame. Every mechanic requires roleplay, you don't get to just say 'this is Joe I have Connection 3 with him give me points please' you have to show why you and Joe are so tight, you and the group have to interact with the world and help the 'little people' that normally we ignore in our games unless they have a flashing quest marker over their head. Little Suzy doesn't want you to kill the Troll that took her mommy, she lost her doll and Billy teased her for crying about it but that's only because Billy is crushing supes hard on her and is just being a dumb kid so now he feels like an rear end in a top hat too, go make feel them better about themselves if you want sweet sweet bonus points.

Why am I talking about GSS? What makes it so special to anyone but me?

The Golden Sky Stories Kickstarter wanted $7,000 to do a translation and limited print run. At the end it got $85,266 from 2,350 backers. It decimated stretch goals, it was such a success the dude behind it had to go 'woah gimmie a bit to work this out' when his original stretch goals got busted down quickly.

There's a market for this stuff. Every one of us who has younger family we want to get into table tops, or hell every one of us who just thinks playing a magical bunny hanging out with their magical fox and dog friends helping people out sounds like a great way to spend time, we need games like this. We need games that remind us sometimes heroes don't cut heads off or save multiverses, sometimes they just make someone who's really sad feel better.

So, this is a thread for those games, those games that make us smile, those games that make us feel good about everything, and those games that we can show to our younger family to get them in the game without worrying 'oh drat is this the book with the picture of the shirtless lady killing a dude?'

Golden Sky Stories isn't even out yet officially, if you backed it you got the drafts and such but this poo poo isn't even on sale yet and it already has me in love.

If you want to check out their free stuff though go here:

http://starlinepublishing.com/our-games/

They have a demo and a complete game as an example of how things are played.

If you guys have also backed and played GSS please share your stuff, or hell, any other game like it that focuses on non-violent, positive stuff, post that too!

sexpig by night fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Sep 2, 2013

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Bedlamdan
Apr 25, 2008

Tatum Girlparts posted:

If you guys have also backed and played GSS please share your stuff, or hell, any other game like it that focuses on non-violent, positive stuff, post that too!

I helped playtest the translation, and it turned out really swell. :neckbeard:

I was really involved for a handful of playtest sessions compared to the others, mind, but yes this game is freaking adorable. :3:

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!
Yeah, the Kickstarter was pretty intense, but it was pretty awesome to find that so many people are willing to give a non-violent RPG a chance. (Also, the fact that companies that can do Kickstarter fulfillment exist is going to make my life so much easier you have no idea.)

For my part I've mainly been wrangling graphic design and writing stuff, both to be ready to get stuff printed and to push ahead on the PDF bonus stuff. I finished my first draft of Faerie Skies (the alternate setting where you play fairies in a town in the English countryside) and started on Fantasy Friends, which is basically GSS set in a village in a D&D/Dragon Quest type fantasy world. It's going to be quite weird, but being able to play as a friendly, heartwarming beholder or gelatinous cube is going to be kind of amazing. (One more setting like this and I'll have made as many GSS character types as the original designer.) Other stuff is coming together too, including adventure scenarios and other fun stuff.

For other heartwarming games, I'm going to take the opportunity to pimp my game Adventures of the Space Patrol. It's a cute retro sci-fi RPG that while not wholly nonviolent takes a lot of inspiration from GSS and aims to be heartwarming. I recently posted up a new playtest draft, a result of updating its custom Fate hack with a bunch of pieces of Fate Accelerated Edition. GSS is one of those games that I'm also excited about for what other games might come about from its influence.

There's also Ryuutama (forthcoming from Kotodama Heavy Industries), and I recently found out about a new Japanese RPG called Utakaze. I don't know much about it, but I'm definitely planning to find out more. The description on the R&R blog mentions that it's about tiny heroes protecting their home from evil spirits, and, well, look at the cover:

Bedlamdan
Apr 25, 2008
Speaking of nonviolent RPGs, I really liked Do: Monks of the Flying Temple. Here's the old Kickstarter page.



You're a group of very young monks, and you can fly, because you're unbound by earthly concerns. Every Monk-In-Training has to go on a pilgrimage, where they get a bunch of letters asking for help from all sorts of different worlds. For example, someone's home island may have been eaten by a whale. Or a wicked baron has sent an army of clockwork soldiers to take over the world! The game is GM-less, with players taking turns being the "Storyteller" or troublemakers, and basically your group's well meaning blundering is supposed to make the situation a lot more complicated before you're finally able to resolve the problem.

Here's a sample letter on Daniel Solis's website.

quote:

Dear Monk(s)
Hi how are you! My name is Melanie. I come from a very small planet.
There is me, my house, my cat, and two trees (see drawing).
I am not so good, because my planet has been eaten by a whale.
It is a very small planet. I woke up and I was inside a whale. I don't want to get (more) eaten.
Please help!
your freind
Melanie (age 8)
P.S. Drawing is on the other side.
P.P.S. I will make you cookies.

:3:

DalaranJ
Apr 15, 2008

Yosuke will now die for you.
As a nonbacker, I badly need to know when GSS will be available to me. Sounds like some time this month or the next (if everything is on schedule)?

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
I backed Golden Sky Stories at the digital rewards level, and I kind of wish I could have afforded to get the one with the print books, because it is really, really hard to hug the poo poo out of a PDF. At least when you're reading it at a desktop machine.

Reading GSS filled me with the same, sweet sense of wonder and things-will-be-okay-ness that I got when a friend showed a very depressed and wrung out me My Neighbor Totoro for the first time fifteen years ago.

sexpig by night
Sep 8, 2011

by Azathoth

DalaranJ posted:

As a nonbacker, I badly need to know when GSS will be available to me. Sounds like some time this month or the next (if everything is on schedule)?

It sounds like either this month or early next for the core book, yea. Not sure about all the extras since he had to make those fresh and all.

The backers got a copy called "Final Book" recently and the update said barring someone going 'hey you somehow totally hosed this page up' that was it, so they're moving along at a brisk pace.

I backed at the physical and art prints level, I woulda gone higher if I could swing it. The art in the book is just lovely.

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!

DalaranJ posted:

As a nonbacker, I badly need to know when GSS will be available to me. Sounds like some time this month or the next (if everything is on schedule)?
I'm hoping to get the core book PDF up for sale really soon, though there are a couple things for it beyond my control so like everything else it's taking longer than I'd like. We're a bit behind schedule for printing (surprising nobody who's backed an RPG Kickstarter before), but we're getting close to being ready to go to print, so while September is looking unrealistic, it's not too far off. The success of the Kickstarter was really gratifying, but it's also been a learning experience, and one of the things I've learned is that anything you commit to do in print is another potential delay to shipping the book.

For the remaining PDF bonus material there's a lot of stuff that we're making from scratch, and while we're making good progress, there's a whole process to go through there.

Mr. Maltose
Feb 16, 2011

The Guffless Girlverine
Would anyone be interested in a game of Adventures of The Space Patrol in The Game Room, say in a week or two? I've been itching to run some PbP, and Space Patrol hits the perfect combination of Fate Accelerated and Feel Good Adventure.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN
I wonder if you could adapt this to the old Callahan's Crosstime Saloon books. I know there was a GURPS version, but the core of the stories was really the "Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased" mantra. Nobody who walked into the bar, no matter how weird they are or what they did, had a problem that couldn't be solved over a round of drinks and some bad puns.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
I... wouldn't. Much like the things Mors Rattus is bringing to light about Xanth, Callahan's is steeped in creepy author assumptions and its 'happy' endings can result from shocking degrees of manipulation. [Edit: Yeah, I'm going to snip specifics here. Really not heartwarming assertions.]

Bieeanshee fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Sep 3, 2013

FewtureMD
Dec 19, 2010

I am very powerful, of course.


Mr. Maltose posted:

Would anyone be interested in a game of Adventures of The Space Patrol in The Game Room, say in a week or two? I've been itching to run some PbP, and Space Patrol hits the perfect combination of Fate Accelerated and Feel Good Adventure.

I am down for some FeelGood Space Adventures! :awesomelon:

InfiniteJesters
Jan 26, 2012
Now part of me wants to make a D&D-esque that has more of a social/moral interaction element a la Ultima IV and less Dungeon Crawling.

Mr. Maltose posted:

Would anyone be interested in a game of Adventures of The Space Patrol in The Game Room, say in a week or two? I've been itching to run some PbP, and Space Patrol hits the perfect combination of Fate Accelerated and Feel Good Adventure.

I'm game!

Gau
Nov 18, 2003

I don't think you understand, Gau.

Mr. Maltose posted:

Would anyone be interested in a game of Adventures of The Space Patrol in The Game Room, say in a week or two? I've been itching to run some PbP, and Space Patrol hits the perfect combination of Fate Accelerated and Feel Good Adventure.

Yes.

ZenMasterBullshit
Nov 2, 2011

Restaurant de Nouvelles "À Table" Proudly Presents:
A Climactic Encounter Ending on 1 Negate and a Dream

Bedlamdan posted:

Speaking of nonviolent RPGs, I really liked Do: Monks of the Flying Temple. Here's the old Kickstarter page.



You're a group of very young monks, and you can fly, because you're unbound by earthly concerns. Every Monk-In-Training has to go on a pilgrimage, where they get a bunch of letters asking for help from all sorts of different worlds. For example, someone's home island may have been eaten by a whale. Or a wicked baron has sent an army of clockwork soldiers to take over the world! The game is GM-less, with players taking turns being the "Storyteller" or troublemakers, and basically your group's well meaning blundering is supposed to make the situation a lot more complicated before you're finally able to resolve the problem.

Here's a sample letter on Daniel Solis's website.


:3:

This post made me go hunt down a pdf of the book and I bought it and oh my gosh the art in it is amazing.

Bedlamdan
Apr 25, 2008

ZenMasterBullshit posted:

This post made me go hunt down a pdf of the book and I bought it and oh my gosh the art in it is amazing.

I did a good job! I am helping! :neckbeard:

grassy gnoll
Aug 27, 2006

The pawsting business is tough work.
Hey Ewen, what are the odds of seeing Mononoke Koyake in some form or another before Halloween?

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!

Desty posted:

Hey Ewen, what are the odds of seeing Mononoke Koyake in some form or another before Halloween?
I'll see what we can manage for Mononoke Koyake. I've been fighting to get stuff lined up for printing and fulfillment, so the PDF extras aren't as high a priority, but it would be cool to get that out in time for Halloween. (It's also just a really nifty book in general.)

In other news, the PDF of the rulebook will be going up for sale for non-backers very soon!

Kwyndig
Sep 23, 2006

Heeeeeey


Ewen Cluney posted:

I'll see what we can manage for Mononoke Koyake. I've been fighting to get stuff lined up for printing and fulfillment, so the PDF extras aren't as high a priority, but it would be cool to get that out in time for Halloween. (It's also just a really nifty book in general.)

In other news, the PDF of the rulebook will be going up for sale for non-backers very soon!

Neat. Is that going to include any bonus material or will the bonus henge be sold separately at a later date?

Bedlamdan
Apr 25, 2008

Ewen Cluney posted:

I'll see what we can manage for Mononoke Koyake. I've been fighting to get stuff lined up for printing and fulfillment, so the PDF extras aren't as high a priority, but it would be cool to get that out in time for Halloween. (It's also just a really nifty book in general.)

In other news, the PDF of the rulebook will be going up for sale for non-backers very soon!

I remember that you were alluding to bears being playable in Mononoke Koyake. I want to be a helpful bear, Ewen. Just, an actual bear that goes around town, delivering mail, taking out the trash, directing traffic. It is my dream and only you can make this possible.

legendaryRev
May 1, 2008

Soiled Meat
This past year I was introduced to "cooperative games," which I guess is a new gaming buzzword, by my niece and nephew by way of Forbidden Island. It stresses the idea of cooperation towards a common goal instead of competing for a singular win situation, and I really love getting kids into rpg elements in this way. The idea of working towards a common goal, having a dialogue at every step, just seems so great in an educational way. The kids are 14 and 10, and super smart, and they're probably ready for their first taste of dice games, but I'm sure that my sister and brother-in-law probably don't have the time or experience to build and DM a campaign, so this is a great start. I'm so glad that tabletop games have gone in this direction, it takes the boring educational part of "educational" games and builds some great life skills. And the fun part is the palpable feeling of tension that they can generate, it makes the win so much more exhilarating.

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!
Crafty Games apparently already came out with The Little Wizards RPG, a game translated from French, aimed at kids, where you play the thing in the title. Has anyone heard anything about it? All I've heard is that the rules are pretty traditional, though from everything I've heard about (non-Scandinavian) European RPG design that doesn't surprise me all that much.

Which reminds me, a while back I did a translation of the free version of the rulebook for Witch Quest, a Japanese TRPG in the vein of Kiki's Delivery Service published in 1992 or so, by Adventure Planning Service no less. They released a print version, but they also put out a free version in text files through the Japanese version of CompuServe. Seriously. There's a doujin circle called Majo no Kai that still supports it too. The game definitely shows its age in a lot of ways (also, you get to see what happens when I translate something and don't get an editor), but it has a bunch of nifty touches to it too. Kamiya thinks of GSS and Witch Quest as two entries in a genre he calls "everyday magic," and went as far as to work with Majo no Kai to do a doujin with a replay for each game and an interview transcript in the middle. (The Majo no Kai guy, South, also wrote the "In the Countryside" piece that appears in translation in the English GSS rulebook.)

e: Oh and I forgot to mention Ben Lehman's Clover, which is basically Yotsuba&! with the serial numbers filed off. It's simple, unconventional, and definitely a happy game. :3:

Kwyndig posted:

Neat. Is that going to include any bonus material or will the bonus henge be sold separately at a later date?
We're going to be making the bonus material available separately later on, though we haven't yet settled on what form it'll come in. Once we finish up all of the PDF material we'll easily have enough material for a book or three.

Ewen Cluney fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Sep 6, 2013

Androc
Dec 26, 2008

Is there any backer-exclusive material for Golden Sky Stores, or is it all eventually going to be made available to nonbackers?

Just gonna say right now, I will be all over the first game of this that gets run on the forums.

Mr. Maltose
Feb 16, 2011

The Guffless Girlverine
Sadly, you've already missed the first game. But you can read it here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3557351.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
All I can recall from the blur of time that represents Gencon is that Little Wizards is, indeed, another nonviolent heartwarming RPG. It's a done-in-one, IIRC, and it isn't going to see any supplements. There was a relatively spontaneous gag at the Crafty seminar where Bill Cavalier, the self-titled Dungeon Bastard, showed up to chew out the Crafty guys for having a game where you couldn't kill anything and it had no orcs (he relented when he found out it at least had critical successes).

In any case Crafty has an extensive preview page for those that want a peek.

Kestral
Nov 24, 2000

Forum Veteran
If you want a little transhumanist sci-fi to go with your nonviolent cooperation-oriented gaming, check out Freemarket.



Freemarket is basically Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: The RPG. It's a game about transhumans who got fed up with Earth's bullshit and built themselves a space station where they could create a utopian society. On Freemarket Station the only currency is flow: your reputation for being a cool person who helps make neat stuff that enriches the lives of other people. The station AI guarantees you enough resources to live decently no matter what your flow is like, but the reputation economy means that joining like-minded people to pursue your shared passions can also let you live the good life - assuming you can pull it off and get noticed. Your work-group (a MRCZ, pronounced "mercy") might be trying to build a park, or make the station's best chocolate, or grow a new kind of drug-plant that gives you a controllable feelgood high with no crash or addiction, but everyone else on the station's got a great idea too, and there's only so much to go around. Freemarket sessions mostly consist of scrambling to secure resources, making deals with other MRCZs, and generating enough flow to keep your MRCZ's collective head above water. It's a blast.

Oh, and since everyone is functionally immortal, so the only use violence has is to make someone temporarily forget something and you get caught your flow will tank. Deathing someone is almost never a viable strategy for getting what you want.

grassy gnoll
Aug 27, 2006

The pawsting business is tough work.

Ewen Cluney posted:

I'll see what we can manage for Mononoke Koyake. I've been fighting to get stuff lined up for printing and fulfillment, so the PDF extras aren't as high a priority, but it would be cool to get that out in time for Halloween. (It's also just a really nifty book in general.)

In other news, the PDF of the rulebook will be going up for sale for non-backers very soon!

I wanted to bend your ear about this a little more, but you don't appear to have PMs or a public email address. Do you have a preferred contact address you can post, or failing that, could you shoot me a line at my SA proxy, destySA at gmail.com?

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!

Androc posted:

Is there any backer-exclusive material for Golden Sky Stores, or is it all eventually going to be made available to nonbackers?
We haven't 100% decided, but I think I'm too much of a completist to let any of the game material stop being available if I can help it. The truly backer-exclusive stuff is going to be mainly physical stuff, like the wall scrolls (which are awesome, but a pain to handle on our end of things) and hardcover books (we're only printing about 200 of them). OTOH backers are definitely going to get stuff a lot sooner.

Desty posted:

I wanted to bend your ear about this a little more, but you don't appear to have PMs or a public email address. Do you have a preferred contact address you can post, or failing that, could you shoot me a line at my SA proxy, destySA at gmail.com?
I went ahead and got the upgrade, so feel free to PM me. :)

e: And the PDF is now up for sale!

Ewen Cluney fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Sep 7, 2013

Hidingo Kojimba
Mar 29, 2010

Hmm. Been around for several days but since no one else has posted, Ewen recently posted the draft for an original-setting Golden Skies supplement "Faerie Skies" (link is backer only) and is asking for Brits to comment on the work and offer up any cultural pointers.

I and a few others have commented, but I know I'm not a natural editor so I figure I'd spread the link a bit.

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!
Oh yeah, thanks for that. The feedback so far as been great. :) I don't know if I made it clear enough in the update but I'm also looking for general feedback on Faerie Skies (especially if it's backed up by playtesting) to help fine-tune the design and such.

DalaranJ
Apr 15, 2008

Yosuke will now die for you.
So, I have a theoretical GSS question.

It seems like it's important to the flow of the game to keep the scope intimate, but as a player my instinct would be to solve some of the issues by pulling in other town members. For instance, in Fantasy Heartbreaker (TM), if I found a magic staff and couldn't figure out what it did I'd go ask a Sage. Likewise in Golden Sky Stories I might want to ask the convinence story owner or the toy maker for help.

What would you do as a narrator in this situation? The two possibilities I'd imagine would be allow the additional NPC but disallow connections, or require the henge to cash their thread out to 'activate' the character.

PixelScum
Jan 21, 2009

I'M GOING BEARZERK
Hmm, as a dude who wants to put out an earthbound hack for GSS; I'm wondering if you'd be willing to upload the in-design files for blank character sheets.

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!
On the subject of Happy Games, Penguin King Games (which is to say David Prokopetz) recently announced Costume Fairy Adventures, which is going to have a Kickstarter soon. You play as adorable little fairies who go on random adventures, with the twist that the game includes a costume deck, and each character gets 3 or so costumes they can change into to get special powers.

DalaranJ posted:

So, I have a theoretical GSS question.

It seems like it's important to the flow of the game to keep the scope intimate, but as a player my instinct would be to solve some of the issues by pulling in other town members. For instance, in Fantasy Heartbreaker (TM), if I found a magic staff and couldn't figure out what it did I'd go ask a Sage. Likewise in Golden Sky Stories I might want to ask the convinence story owner or the toy maker for help.

What would you do as a narrator in this situation? The two possibilities I'd imagine would be allow the additional NPC but disallow connections, or require the henge to cash their thread out to 'activate' the character.
This is one of the things the rules don't really address. The first thing I would do is just emphasize that to make an Impression Check you have to have a substantial interaction with someone beyond just asking them for a quick favor. You could just have "minor NPCs" that aren't eligible for connections too. With the rules as written using a Thread isn't really an opportunity cost though, since you automatically get to turn the connection back into a Thread at the end of the session.

PixelScum posted:

Hmm, as a dude who wants to put out an earthbound hack for GSS; I'm wondering if you'd be willing to upload the in-design files for blank character sheets.
I'd have to talk to the layout guy about it, but frankly behind the scenes the English character sheet was a bit of a kludge. Kamiya and co. weren't really anticipating needing to have the files ready to send out to people making foreign language translations. (Though now a French version is in the works, and someone on Facebook was asking me about getting them in touch with Kamiya to see about a Portuguese version.)

PixelScum
Jan 21, 2009

I'M GOING BEARZERK

Ewen Cluney posted:

I'd have to talk to the layout guy about it, but frankly behind the scenes the English character sheet was a bit of a kludge. Kamiya and co. weren't really anticipating needing to have the files ready to send out to people making foreign language translations. (Though now a French version is in the works, and someone on Facebook was asking me about getting them in touch with Kamiya to see about a Portuguese version.)
Cool, thanks.

Winson_Paine
Oct 27, 2000

Wait, something is wrong.
Golden Sky Stories, I choose YOU.

homullus
Mar 27, 2009

Winson_Paine posted:

Golden Sky Stories, I choose YOU.

This is exciting. I have very little experience with RPGs that aren't about shooting people and taking their stuff, and am very much looking forward to seeing more people talking about and playing this game. I hope to inflict it on my game group after the physical copy arrives.

Roland Jones
Aug 18, 2011

by Nyc_Tattoo
Have the physical GSS things been shipped out yet? If not, I need to change my address, though due to where I'm living I need to know what mail service is being used. USPS doesn't drive to my house and only does the P.O. Box here, while UPS and FedEx are the opposite.

Also, I'm thinking of starting an IRC group for GSS; will post more details in here when I work things out. Stuff's been going on lately.

Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!

Winson_Paine posted:

Golden Sky Stories, I choose YOU.
:japan:

Although it kinda goes without saying, if you have any questions about GSS for me please feel free to ask. :3:

Roland Jones posted:

Have the physical GSS things been shipped out yet? If not, I need to change my address, though due to where I'm living I need to know what mail service is being used. USPS doesn't drive to my house and only does the P.O. Box here, while UPS and FedEx are the opposite.
Not yet. We're getting close to having everything lined up though; the big hurdle right now is nailing down a fulfillment service to use, because handling 1600 parcels ourselves would be insane. We're planning to use USPS though; if anyone needs to update their address go ahead and message me so I can update my spreadsheet. (I've had to do that plenty of times already.)

nomadotto
Oct 25, 2010

Body of a Penguin
Soul of a Hero
Mind of a Lazy, Easily Distracted, Waste of Space

Ewen Cluney posted:

:japan:

Although it kinda goes without saying, if you have any questions about GSS for me please feel free to ask. :3:

...


I played in a game of GSS on Saturday (using the fox scenario). It was a lot of fun, but, I had a couple of quick questions-

1) Henge is supposed to relate to "supernatural stuff" as per: "Henge is the strength of your magic powers" from the OP, but that doesn't seem to be mechanically addressed anywhere. Is it something I'm missing?

2) If you want to make something, is that an Adult check? For example, baking a cake or fixing a shrine?

3) I felt like it was hard to keep the game moving forward at times. It may be have been because of the scenario, but for future reference, how would you recommend structuring conflicts to keep the party together and working towards a goal? Or am I sorta missing the point, and the game is mostly about adorable animal people bouncing off of each other, rather than a more Rescuers-y "we gotta help this person before thing X happens" feel?

It's definitely nice to have a system that focuses on small-scale, non-violent stuff, and I'm looking forward to trying it again!

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Ewen Cluney
May 8, 2012

Ask me about
Japanese elfgames!

nomadotto posted:

I played in a game of GSS on Saturday (using the fox scenario). It was a lot of fun, but, I had a couple of quick questions-

1) Henge is supposed to relate to "supernatural stuff" as per: "Henge is the strength of your magic powers" from the OP, but that doesn't seem to be mechanically addressed anywhere. Is it something I'm missing?
Certain specific powers do directly use the Henge attribute, and normal Surprise is based on your Henge stat as well. Apart from that it's sort of like like a lore skill and a stat representing your status among other supernatural beings, so you might have a player make a Henge check to figure out the right etiquette when dealing with a local god for example.

quote:

2) If you want to make something, is that an Adult check? For example, baking a cake or fixing a shrine?
The game is a bit loose and flexible as to what attributes you use for what purposes, but I would usually use Adult for making stuff, but occasionally one of the other attributes depending on what it is and what the purpose is. (Like, Child for a drawing to cheer someone up, Henge for getting a shrine just so for a picky local god, Animal for say if a bird henge is making a nest, etc.)

quote:

3) I felt like it was hard to keep the game moving forward at times. It may be have been because of the scenario, but for future reference, how would you recommend structuring conflicts to keep the party together and working towards a goal? Or am I sorta missing the point, and the game is mostly about adorable animal people bouncing off of each other, rather than a more Rescuers-y "we gotta help this person before thing X happens" feel?
What I personally tend to do is set up a relatively simple conflict or wrinkle for the henge to resolve, and just kind of see what happens. One of my sessions will typically have 4 or so scenes and run for 90-120 minutes. A lot of the appeal comes from a willingness to sort of take the slow road and find solutions through heartwarming role-play. Which is not to say that you can't have more pressing problems for your henge to deal with, but I do think you need to be sure to allow time for characters to interact and bond.

quote:

It's definitely nice to have a system that focuses on small-scale, non-violent stuff, and I'm looking forward to trying it again!
Yay! :3:

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