That makes a lot of sense, actually. Thanks for the insight, Skywalker.  Btw: your father's a douche.  Just sayin'.

But which Skywalker am I? ;P

GURPS America's map.

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Quote from: JesterRaiin;902672

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Mongoose beat you to it:

Quote from: Skywalker;902678My understanding is that in Japan, RPGs are generally played in longer sessions in the weekend as shorter sessions on week nights are less common due to less personal space at home and work commitments. This also means that multiple session campaigns tend to be less common than in the US. The structure to scenarios in both TBZ and DX reflect that reality i.e. episodic 4 to 6 hour sessions.

Say what you want about Japan, they know how to market a product.

Quote from: Skywalker;902681But which Skywalker am I? ;P

Does it matter?  Every generation of Skywalker seems to have utterly failed in the fatherhood department.  The only good one was Uncle Owen, and he was from the Lars branch of hte family, not the Skywalkers.

Hell, look how Leia's kid turned out, and she wasn't even the father... though with the relentless feminist propaganda in the last one, I don't doubt Han left because he got tired of her wearing the pants....

So even if your skywalker father is Leia... still a douche.  Not your fault, but my advice is to never reproduce, lest you turn to the Douche Side.

Quote from: dragoner;902692Mongoose beat you to it:

Jesus freakin' Christ... There has to be some sort of conspiracy that secretly manipulates all world's events. They know.

Quote from: Crabbyapples;902683GURPS America's map.

Totally stealing it.

Quote from: Skywalker;902678My understanding is that in Japan, RPGs are generally played in longer sessions in the weekend as shorter sessions on week nights are less common due to less personal space at home and work commitments. This also means that multiple session campaigns tend to be less common than in the US. The structure to scenarios in both TBZ and DX reflect that reality i.e. episodic 4 to 6 hour sessions.

I am not really sure about that "only on weekends". I have heard about gamers renting karaoke rooms as gaming spaces. I saw the gaming tables at Yellow Submarine (a popular game store in Akihabara) at weekday evenings, and of the seven(?) tables only two were unused.

The adventure structure in Meikyuu Kingdom and Ryuutama supports short sessions.
The intro module "Travel to Ifa" that was part of the very first Ryuutama translation was a really short affair - 7 encouters that hardly last longer than 2 hours.
The standard Meikyuu Kingdom adventure consists of up to 9 (dungeon) rooms or encounters, arranged in a 3x3 grid. (It's less fomulaic than it sounds as the corridors between those rooms can take any form and length.) The first edition of that game came with 2 two-page modules printed on flimsy colored paper. (But I also read actual play reports of Meikyuu sessions that lasted ~7 hours.)

The fan translation of the KotDT-style manga QuickStart!! has one yonkoma ("four panel manga") that suggests that conflicts/sessions/scenarios can be as short as one hour. "You're full of energy! We could play for another hour!" "One more round!" (And the next strip starting with "We played two rounds.")

I really wish we had more translations of replay books. I guess between the lines would be the means to understand how our gaming styles differ, and how that enables or enforces different rule concepts.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;902746I have heard about gamers renting karaoke rooms as gaming spaces.

That is actually an amazing idea. Dungeons and Dragons and Sushi and Soju. I must make plans.

Quote from: Krimson;902775That is actually an amazing idea. Dungeons and Dragons and Sushi and Soju. I must make plans.

It would certainly make it easier to play the bard.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;902623Yes, it's true. It's a common element found in pretty much every cJRPG - heroes wander around, gain experience, then arrive at [CITY] and spend considerable time pursuing next part of the story arc, until they move to another [CITY]. From what I hear, Westerners (I count myself among them) like that part the least, often roll eyes and say "oh great, here we go again".

Here's where Ryuutama steps in - it's is exactly that "wandering" part. Who knows, perhaps it's not that we're missing some point, see it in wrong light, or something, but we simply didn't develop certain tastes in such a way that our fellow gamers from the Nippon did.

I have only gamed with Japanese people a few times, so I wouldn't generalize too much about that - but you could be right. Still though, I think they enjoy a good dungeon crawl. That's still the basis of their computer RPGs. What my gut tells me is that a game like this actually does have deeper 'dungeon-like' encounters when it is actually played, and maybe the creator wanted to emphasize what makes it really different from other games.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;902623The lack of inspirational content is a good observation, though. Technically we have truckloads of "funny things that might happen on the way..." random tables and plot seed generators, but it would be nice to have such a thing written specifically with Ryuutama in mind.

I could see campaign settings for this that transform the game while keeping its core intact, using similar mechanisms.

The first thing that came to mind after reading the book was a Canterbury Tales type setting - the mission being to join a pilgrimage to the great shrines of , guardian angels, devilment, etc - sort of an anime re-interpretation of the Christian spiritual journey.

A more Japanese one might be similar to the Mito-komon TV show in Japan (you don't need to understand a lot of Japanese to understand what's happening in the show), in which the Shogun's retired uncle travels around the country, appearing as a merchant or something similar, then uses his band of friends, ninjas and comic relief to solve local problems and pronounce judgement against people who abuse their authority.

Quote from: Lynn;902782What my gut tells me is that a game like this actually does have deeper 'dungeon-like' encounters when it is actually played, and maybe the creator wanted to emphasize what makes it really different from other games.

Exactly.

Come to think about it, Ryuutama does seem a bit like Eastern equivalent of *.world games where people co-create the setting, and this is vital part of their experience, more a framework, a set of tools than a complete world. Still, it's a guess.

Oh well, until some Japanese roleplayers won't show up and shed some light on how to "properly" use the game, all we can do is to guess and use it however we see fit. In my case it will be always "one of those introductory RPGs, heavy emphasis on children".

Quote from: JesterRaiin;902908Ryuutama does seem a bit like Eastern equivalent of *.world games where people co-create the setting, and this is vital part of their experience

I don't quite think so; I don't recall any shared-world mechanics in Ryuutama.  Golden Sky Stories and Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple absolutely do have them, and they're in the same genre.

The tagline for the English translation was "Hiyao Miyazaki's Oregon Trail", and I think that's a good description.  I'm just having difficulty seeing how to reconcile those two concepts since they're diametrically opposed.

Quote from: daniel_ream;902978I don't quite think so; I don't recall any shared-world mechanics in Ryuutama.  Golden Sky Stories and Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple absolutely do have them, and they're in the same genre.

*.world as in "any game based on Apocalypse World engine", Dungeon World being probably the most famous one.

QuoteThe tagline for the English translation was "Hiyao Miyazaki's Oregon Trail", and I think that's a good description.  I'm just having difficulty seeing how to reconcile those two concepts since they're diametrically opposed.

I'm not sure I understand it correctly: way I see it, Miyazaki tends to tell rather complicated stories, with "road" being of little importance, while Ryuutama is specifically about traveling.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;902570Ryuutama is a bit difficult case. Being a heartwarming, rather peaceful (not non-violent, mind you, merely not "deadly") it seems to be the game made for and meant to be played by children. As such, it's one of those things you keep on your shelf and take out only on special occasions (like when your younger nephew drops by). There's simply little to do here to form the solid foundation for a prolonged gameplay.

"Special purpose game" - that's what it is and I don't think it's a mistake to think it's that way.

Really? This is the sort of game that is potentially great for players who love the travel and interaction part of an RPG. But dont like the combat part as much. Travelling. Doing stuff.  A whole campaign could revolve around such.

Certainly not for everyone though. But yes. There are people who really like this sort of game. Or even those who play other RPGs that way. Think I've mentioned the Star Frontiers campaign that essentially amounted to the PCs running a shipping business.