Today in Pammu Reads TRPGS: holy shit they were right. Ryuutama is Shopping and Walking: the JRPG.

Okay I guess this is a thread now, I love the Healing Herbs. Also, KNIGHTS OF CLEANING WHAT A CUTE SPELL.

Also also, it's great how the main reason why Ryuujin accompany travelers is to create stories that they can feed to world dragons like whaaaat

Beyond that being such lovely lore for a game, the implications of saying "this is a world that lives or dies by its stories" is hella fucking cool. Cos, I mean, stories are integral to human experience and survival. Every narrative, every perspective, shapes our reality.

Cycling back to the mechanics: I am utterly fascinated at how this book pretty much translates the standard Japanese Roleplaying Video Game into a tabletop experience??? Like on a design level I am admiring the craft behind that on principle alone.

I have some half-formed thoughts thus far about the particular aesthetics of Ryuutama vis-a-vis literary tropes & ideologies specific to Japanese contexts. This is a game about the Journey. Its lightness is v different from what we'd get from a typical Western ARPG.

(Hi this thread is obviously going to be a mess, thanks for following along fam, I do plan on doing things like this more often where I read games and shit and tell y'all about it but idk how formal/cool they're gonna be oops)

So anyway, Ryuutama for me seems like a Japanese interpretation of pastoral narratives. It is its own idealization of the simplicity and charm of travel, journeying, and immersing yourself in the beauty of nature, framed within the both Leaving and Returning Home.

It is also a gamified exploration of mono no aware. Definition provided below from Wikipedia, because it's p accurate. Ryuutama is a game about capturing the moments, living in them, consuming them, fighting for them - and as needed, leaving them behind, because death is a thing.

I'm gonna go back to reading before I weigh in more, cos I want to see how Ryuutama handles combat/violence. You can still get XP for defeating monsters, but it's p clear in the book that the more significant form of advancement is the sort you can achieve through travel itself.

Holy shit tho, I love their take on seasonal magic, and the system in general. You've got two types: Incantations and Seasonal, and the seasonal stuff ties into the cool schtick they have going with the world dragons, and the spells are evocative and cute!!

Some bitches are gonna have those moments where they look at another work and be like "goddamn this is so good, I'm simultaneously admiring how good this is and also hella angry that I didn't think of it!!!"

I'm bitches.

... LAUGHING BECAUSE WHAT IS THIS SPELL HAHAHA

For the non weeb speak folks, "otome" means "young lady". It's connotation are more "a sweet, innocent girl" (vs. "ojou", which is more princess-like). I'm so amused - and now wondering what a FUJOSHI TEARS spell would be.

Eyyyy

Quick note on some of the language use in this book: I highly appreciate the constant allusion to character traits like HP, MP and the rest being "abstract". Ryuutama never says it directly, but it's enough to drive home the point that stats don't equal hard, concrete qualities.

It does make me wonder how this all read in Japanese, and I should look into any translation notes that may exist. My limited Japanese studies knowledge is giving me instinctive cues on why certain words were not translated (like in the case of haha Otome Tears, and also sound

effects, but translation in itself is a narrative art. It would be great to see what they were thinking, and why they did what they did, and how their lens approximates the original voice, cadence, and feeling of the Japanese text.

But anyway, yes, it's easy to fall into the mindset of your stats being direct equivalents of a character's capabilities. So, having the game book itself reminding you in overt and subtle ways that it isn't is helpful, and indicative of the game's intent.