Friday, April 8, 2016

One Last Journey Pregen Stuff

For those who might want to try running  a similar Ryuutama game as I did, set during the coming end of the world, you can use the pre-generated character sheets I've prepared, as well as the Promise Cards I created for the game here for free.

I created these sheets  with Adobe Illustrator, and a lot of flipping through pages.  Images were of course found online via Google searches.  Maybe someday, I can afford to have actual original art for my sessions.  But for now, these will have to suffice":

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B41mvRogYK7xZ0ZyQWRyVUkwU0E

The files are all PDFs and are intended for personal use and are not intended to infringe on any copyrights.

Some basic guidelines:
1) All players are to understand the world is ending, and as far as they can tell there is no stopping it.  Given this is a Ryuutama game and not the usual fantasy RPG, the objective of the session is not find a way to stop it.  But rather, to make the most of the remaining time in this final adventure.

2) The Promise Cards are intended to help guide the players to finding direction in the story.  Most people, facing the end of the world, might simply break down or end up emotionally shattered.  The players are not playing a game where their characters are in such a state.  Instead, they are playing characters who believe even with the meager time left, there is no reason not to make the most of it.

3) There is no actual set deadline on when the world finally ends.  In our game, I set it to a real timer, so whatever the scene was, when the timer ran out then it was time to announce that the sky had turned black and the world was ending.

This gave the game an interesting feeling of not knowing when it would happen, and of the desire to make the most of every hour they had.

4) The ending is not pre-written nor set in stone.  Instead, it is tailored to what matches the players' narrative.  In my game, the others seemed so determined to embrace life to the point they chose to let monsters live and walk away.  It seemed appropriate for the Black Ryuujin to still get the proper tale, some other kind of sacrifice was in order.  At first, I hinted at some one having to give up on their Promise to allow another to succeed.   Then later tried making it a matter of one sacrificing a peaceful future for the rest to live happily.

But in the end, the group wonderfully embraced the path they took and it seemed apt to go the route that death does not equal the end.

5) Character creation was done for thematic appeal, so yes I did not actually calculate things so each player character spent "the same amount of cash."  But that's cause I don't believe in game balance being necessary for a good game.  Not when players embrace the importance of sharing the responsibility of everyone having fun.

6) Finally, I'm tempted to come up with four sets of Promise Cards.  Each card can be a quick and dirty method for payers to choose an interesting plot thread that they can explore matching a specific Ryuujin.  I was thinking it might prove to be an interesting tool for new players, and a fun challenge for more experienced players.

I don't know, though, if I can legally do this.  Hopefully I get a go signal to do so.

Have fun!


 Here are the maps our Mapmaker made for the game.  So lovely!  Thank you Carl!






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