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Golden Sky Stories

Started by Kaedia, April 18, 2013, 05:41:42 PM

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Kaedia

So who all has heard of this?

For those of you that haven't it's a work-in-progress tabletop game currently being translated and just hit kickstarter today. It's a japanese tabletop so for people top which means it's not big on dice; you mostly just use a D6 and nothing else. It's a described as a heart-warming game. It's about sentimental things and making friends. Nothing adult rated about it.

Anyways... I'm REALLY happy for this! I've been waiting for two years for them to translate the rulebook! The release date kept getting pushed back for various reasons... and now they actually hit Kickstarter today for real! I'm giddy!

So... anyone else excited or am I the only one? If you'd like to read more about it check out -- http://kck.st/11lNSZ8 -- it gives several links that detail the story and what the game is like as well as a transcript of a game that was played. I can't wait to get my hands on the book and play out a story!

Today is a good day.
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ReijiTabibito

First Tenra Bansho ZERO, now this...seems video games aren't the only thing making their way to the US from Japan, anymore.  Not that I'm complaining!

Kaedia

Tenra Bansho ZERO... I've heard that name...

Oh yeah! That's the game the translating team was talking about when it was on KS. I didn't have any spare moniez at the time or I would have donated to that project. Golden Sky Story really hits my sweet spot. A non-combat tabletop that is just about having fun. Also you get to have transforming abilities! Pretty awesome I say. When I got up today I looked at the calendar... "The 18th... something was suppose to happen today... ... ... Golden Sky Stories!" I had to jump on my computer right away to see if it actually happened! I was so happy to see it had. I actually plan on hosting a session when it comes out so I'm really super giddy to see it finally in the funding stage!
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Chris Brady

Golden Sky Stories, that the one where you're a spirit animal?  Like Kitsune and Tanuki?
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Kaedia

That's the one! Pretty much at least. You play as animals with the ability to take on human forms. You can play humans too but I can't recall if its in the main book or a supplement book coming out later...
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ReijiTabibito

Normally, I'm not one for Kickstarter, but this might be something I support.

Chris Brady

Quote from: Zefie on April 18, 2013, 06:07:28 PM
That's the one! Pretty much at least. You play as animals with the ability to take on human forms. You can play humans too but I can't recall if its in the main book or a supplement book coming out later...
It's a supplement.  They (on another forum) were talking on getting it licensed over to the West, glad it is.  We need more gaming stuff, and frankly some of Japan's stuff is cute and just quirky enough to be worth it.
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So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Kaedia

They were also talking about adding some of the supplement into the translated main book a few months back. Don't know if the idea got scrapped or not. I know they got permission to add one of the supplement henges to the main book but beyond that I haven't heard anything.

In other news in less the KS has been up for roughly five hours if my math is right and it has already reached its goal of $7,000. Anything else added will be toward the stretch goals with 32 days to go. Pretty awesome!
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ReijiTabibito

http://yarukizerogames.com/tag/golden-sky-stories/

Found a page which talks about the canon characters of the setting.  I'm already loving the sound of the Fox character.  ^_^

Chris Brady

If I had the money...  I would.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Blank

Dang it, I didn't want to see this post.  >_< I want to be off my kickstarter kick, not to get back on it.  I've already been resisting the temptation to get a high endurance hoodie from there.

*sigh* I'll sit on this and see how much I want it later.

Kaedia

Just to give an update since I just woke up and checked the project... they are now 25 hours from the time they started. They set out to reach $7,000. They have reached $16,500. There is still 31 days to go.

I'm pleasantly surprised.
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ReijiTabibito

Never underestimate the power of the Internet.  We will sign up for anything.  I'm fully expecting to get to their final goal - $18k - and still have people pledging.

They might have to come up with new goals!

Kaedia

They already are funny enough! In his last update the head of the team said he was vastly underestimating the steam in the engine with this one. He's spent part of the morning contacting people who can help add more to it as well as create a limited $100-200 goal and potentially a limited edition hardcover. He really wanted to hit $15,000 he said yesterday due to printer fees being lessened if he hit a certain amount and... well... it's looking like he got his wish and then some. It's what happens when you tease us with something for a year and a half!
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ReijiTabibito

To a certain degree, I think it's because GSS promises something much different than what your standard RPG is these days.  I'm part of an IRL group, and I recently asked the players around the table what the most important part of their experience is.  If I could do one and only one thing right, what should it be?

Their answer was unanimous: storytelling.

They don't care about combat (in fact, two of my players hate it), they aren't worried about the complexity of a given system (except in one case), what they want are really good stories.

You look at MMORPGers these days (to use Yahtzee's phrase), and it's (mostly) WoW clones wherever you look, with combat as a central mechanic.

Zef, have you heard of Aspirations of Harmony?

Kaedia

That's how I am. Combat is trivial to me when it comes to table-top. I don't even dislike it. I see it as a storytelling adventure. What I hate is having dice dictate if my character succeeds or fails. That grinds my gears. You roll a D20 for this, a D10 for that, oh a D3 for that, etc, etc, etc. It makes it feel more like a game about throwing dice than it does about playing. I was in a RL DnD group for about a month before I had to call it quits. We met twice a week and at the end of the month I knew I couldn't stand another minute of it.

The thing about GSS I really like is it is a non-dice based story. It's about playing out a story between characters. It's not about letting dice dictate your fate. It's a no dice game.

I haven't heard of Aspirations of Harmony. Does it taste good?

Oh! Also found out the character classes in the setting after slapping myself due to my friend pointing it out in the most obvious fashion...

The core book has six classes; rabbit, dog, bird, raccoon, fox, and cat.

One of the latest milestones reached added the first supplement to the mix which includes; Michinoke (Road Monsters), Kappa, Oni, Ghosts, and Visitors (Aliens)
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ReijiTabibito

When I sit down, depending on the system, I always try and have a couple of possible combat encounters for the group in a given session.  This my players know.  They also know that sometimes I'll pull a change-up and have a session with no combat possible.  Either because A: their conflict can't be solved by hitting it in the face, or B: any combat would be irrelevant.  Either the power level of the players is far beyond the enemy, or the enemy is so powerful fighting them is suicide.

Aspirations of Harmony is a fan-designed RPG based on the recent My Little Pony cartoon.  It has combat as a feature, but it's designed to tell MLP stories, primarily.  It's fairly good, and since it's fan-designed, you can download for free.  There are dice involved (though highly limited in comparison to D&D), and a little bit of math involved, though.

And yeah, I actually found a sheet posted online for rabbit-type characters.  Though I want to see the fox, I love their pregenned Fox character.  She's precious!

Chris Brady

I love a good paced combat, but I also enjoy a lot of in character interaction.  Gaming and stories work best with conflict, and conflict can happen from many things, from physical altercations to simple disagreements, but the one thing games and stories need is conflict, a challenge to over come.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Kaedia

Rabbit is one of my favorite as well of the ones I know about. I know absolutely nothing about the fish, pony, witch, mouse, wolf, and anything in the supplement. The witch really has my hopes up. I love playing witches.

Speaking of My Little Pony the $18,000 stretch reward was four alternate worlds created just for the project. One of them includes a My Little Pony version of Golden Sky Stories. That may be interesting though I'm more fond of the Faerie Skies or Fantasy Friends.

You can do slice-of-life stories that really don't have conflict but it's just playing out 'a day in the life of' but all players have to be of like mind and I find most players prefer a degree of conflict in the story. It's not a requirement for me. The GSS conflict is each scene revolves around a single (or sometimes multiple) people who are trying to solve a problem. I know I've done stories before that lack any real conflict and I enjoyed them and the people I played with enjoyed it but we knew beforehand that we would. Conflict adds spice though.
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ReijiTabibito

GSS finished its Kickstarter.  The initial goal was $7,000.  Final total?  $85,266 from 2,350 backers.  It was ~1200% funded.

In your face, D&D!  We don't need no stinking combat to have good roleplaying!

Avis habilis

In a similar vein, I'd like to see an English language version of Ryuutama. In a D&D style world, rootless adventurers wanders the world helping the commoners & fixing their stuff rather than killing monsters & taking their stuff.

Chris Brady

Quote from: ReijiTabibito on May 21, 2013, 01:25:21 PM
GSS finished its Kickstarter.  The initial goal was $7,000.  Final total?  $85,266 from 2,350 backers.  It was ~1200% funded.

In your face, D&D!  We don't need no stinking combat to have good roleplaying!
It's also not a High Fantasy game.  I'd like to point out that E is a prime example of not needing combat to have good roleplaying as well.

Please don't bash other games.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Kaedia

Quote from: Chris Brady on May 21, 2013, 01:44:58 PM
It's also not a High Fantasy game.  I'd like to point out that E is a prime example of not needing combat to have good roleplaying as well.

Please don't bash other games.

Online roleplay is a bit of a special case. It's more story-telling. The western tabletop scene has been dominated by combat based games since what feels like forever with Dungeons and Dragons (and the million clones people create and try to sell off) being the most popular. It has been the public face of table-tops for decades. It has gotten to the point if you want to do an in-person group it's a struggle to find anyone willing to do anything other than a rehash of Dungeons and Dragons or some other form for the meaty combat. What Reiji is saying is you don't have to be a rehash of Dungeons and Dragons to be a success contrary to popular belief. You can break the mold and still be a success as scary as it sounds. The biggest thing to note E and table-tops are two different beasts. I know E does variations of table-top games but it's not the same beast.

I had a talk with the translator of Golden Sky Stories and he said it blew his mind how much support they got. They went in pretty sure they'd get minimal funding and then one month later they had $85,000 of a needed $7,000. It was mind boggling.

It's in no way 'new dawn' for western table tops but it is a demonstration that change can work and people, on some level, want change. I'm glad it happened.

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ReijiTabibito

What Zef said.  For good and for ill, Dungeons & Dragons (and its predecessor, Chainmail) has largely set the tone for tabletop RPGs of the pencil-paper variety.  Not necessarily in the setting department, but definitely in the content (ie, mechanics and what the players to do reach their goals, etc etc).

I belong to an IRL RP group.  When I joined, we did 3.5 every week.  Eventually, though, the GM got worn out and talked about trying to pull back on the campaign a bit.  Seeing a chance (and tired of hearing 'Roll for Initiative'), I stepped in, offering to the group a handful of systems that weren't D&D.  One of those systems - CthulhuTech - is the subject of my current campaign, and one I've been running for a couple of years, whose story is supposed to conclude around this time next year.

Now, the systems I laid out, and have brought to the group, almost always have three things in common.  1: they take place in the modern day or later (though I have one major exception to this rule).  2: Experience is handed out at the end of the night, regardless of what happens (IE, you don't need to kill things to level up).  And 3: conflict resolution with other living beings is usually solved by punching it in the face.  Repeatedly.

Note I said 'usually.'  I'm a big fan of solutions to problems that don't require the player characters to be prime-grade ass-kickers.  My players know that every so often, I'll throw a problem at them that they need to solve without combat.  Usually by telling them that if they screw up, an entire army will be coming down their throats.

The noncombat approach is big amongst two of my players - one because he likes playing the intellectual types that, sure, carry a gun for protection, but they're less the party machinegunner and more the party library; the other because he likes being creative and mixing up his solutions - sometimes you punch it in the face, and sometimes you shank their tires and make sure when he calls the car service the person who picks him up is a "friend."

One guy in my group, who has since moved away (job reasons), came to our sessions for the combat.  We could tell.  If we spent three-quarters of the night between a handful of fights, he was happy.  If we spent less than half the night, he was anxious.  And I've only seen him leave the group happy once when it was a pure roleplaying night.  He was there to kill things, period.

Back when I first started playing, the phrase 'hack and slash' was often used to describe D&D and its various analogues.  Because it so focused on conflict resolution through combat, and not necessarily through other means. 

Now, I'm not deriding D&D.  D&D did a lot to bring generations of RPers to the table (including everyone at my table except me), and that it has withstood time as well as it has (with a few updates) is testament to it.

But it's not what I prioritize in RPing.  Roleplaying is about telling stories: whether it be the thousandth and one rehash of the Hero's Journey (such as Star Wars), or an epic tale of revenge (The Count of Monte Cristo), or a tale about how we can overcome our difficulties and flaws and rise above what we are now (pretty much every spirit-raising movie ever, though I usually cite Remember the Titans).

I am not usually one to do one-off adventures.  When I write a campaign, there is always an A plot and a B plot going through it.  Sometimes a C plot.  And every session, I do something to advance one of those plots.  My table has called me three things: "the J Michael Straczynski of the table," "the guy with all the other systems," and "the blind, backwards-shooting archer."  (Long story, that last one.)

My group knows that I bring stuff that's not D&D to the table all the time.  In my time there, I've brought the following different systems to the table: CthulhuTech; Marvel Universe RPG (NOT Marvel Super Heroes); Final Fantasy RPG (3rd ed); Dresden Files RPG; Adeptus Evangelion; Shadowrun; Exalted; Scion; Eclipse Phase; Remnants; Strike Legion.  That's more than 10 different systems (though you could argue that Exalted and Scion are the same mechanics-wise).

And yet, even with all of this, I got looks when I brought the Kickstarter page to the table.  I even played the little recorded video.  And the best way I can sum up their reactions are in the following phrases: "We'll have to read it when you get your hands on it," and "This is weird, even for you."

I'm not hating on D&D.  I'm not.  But I am saying we need to have a paradigm shift in what we think of as roleplaying.

Blank

#24
I wrote up a big ol' post about indi-developed table top games, but I was worried it would come out as me being a pretentious jerk.  I'll cut it down to the important bit: out of curiosity, what games have you all played outside of D&D?  Because there is a lot of good stuff out there right now that if you look past the behemoth that is D&D.