Ryuutama
Posted: Mon May 27, 2019 8:31 am
So, I'm doing this here, because I appreciate the game design here than in other places.
Ryuutama is a Japanese TTRPG where you play traveling commoners in an anime fantasy setting.
The rules make you care about wearing the right clothing for a long hike. Because you make individual checks each morning and day, the DM has an incentive (explicitly in the book, even) to describe the travel montage specifically to offset the mindless dice rolling.
There's enough support indicating that different towns place different values on goods that being an at least part-time merchant is a good use of your travel for income; thought outright doing quests also works. This doubly emphasizes your character's need to care about their carrying capacity.
The combat system is *there*, but it's so barebones compared to D&D that you're not going to spend a lot of time thinking about it...except that your damage is anywhere from 1d6 to 1d8+1, doesn't increase with level, and monster HP goes from ~12 to 40+. This means that it's comparatively padded sumo, and so if/when combat does happen, you'll be at it for as long as regular D&D combat but with fewer meaningful choices. On this basis, some of the chatter I've seen elsewhere about finding ways to increase damage (or lower monster HP) to speed up combat seems like a good line of thinking.
Other than class abilities, you don't have skills. You just make attribute checks, which range from d4 to d8 each. In theory, you can get some additional differentiation from another player by focusing on gear. But otherwise? There's no rules for stealth, diplomacy (except haggling), investigation, or whatever - you make a straight ability check against a DC or opposed check set by the DM.
So, ultimately, what does Ryuutama have over D&D? Overland travel and inventory management. The DM's ability to frame a narrative is vital, and the setting premise is a near literal railroad. This isn't necessarily bad, but you need to be aware of what you're getting into. Really, what this game needs is more pre-made adventures and scenarios.
The system does spend a notable bit of text mentioning different types of campaigns, with some (but not a lot) amount of rules for promoting said style. This seems like prime splat material - the Red Ryuujin splat would have additional rules for combat, war, etc.
Ryuutama is a Japanese TTRPG where you play traveling commoners in an anime fantasy setting.
The rules make you care about wearing the right clothing for a long hike. Because you make individual checks each morning and day, the DM has an incentive (explicitly in the book, even) to describe the travel montage specifically to offset the mindless dice rolling.
There's enough support indicating that different towns place different values on goods that being an at least part-time merchant is a good use of your travel for income; thought outright doing quests also works. This doubly emphasizes your character's need to care about their carrying capacity.
The combat system is *there*, but it's so barebones compared to D&D that you're not going to spend a lot of time thinking about it...except that your damage is anywhere from 1d6 to 1d8+1, doesn't increase with level, and monster HP goes from ~12 to 40+. This means that it's comparatively padded sumo, and so if/when combat does happen, you'll be at it for as long as regular D&D combat but with fewer meaningful choices. On this basis, some of the chatter I've seen elsewhere about finding ways to increase damage (or lower monster HP) to speed up combat seems like a good line of thinking.
Other than class abilities, you don't have skills. You just make attribute checks, which range from d4 to d8 each. In theory, you can get some additional differentiation from another player by focusing on gear. But otherwise? There's no rules for stealth, diplomacy (except haggling), investigation, or whatever - you make a straight ability check against a DC or opposed check set by the DM.
So, ultimately, what does Ryuutama have over D&D? Overland travel and inventory management. The DM's ability to frame a narrative is vital, and the setting premise is a near literal railroad. This isn't necessarily bad, but you need to be aware of what you're getting into. Really, what this game needs is more pre-made adventures and scenarios.
The system does spend a notable bit of text mentioning different types of campaigns, with some (but not a lot) amount of rules for promoting said style. This seems like prime splat material - the Red Ryuujin splat would have additional rules for combat, war, etc.