Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 9555162" data-attributes="member: 6680772">Rulebook 2: Scenarios is a 51-page booklet. As it's a little bigger, I'm going to split it up over multiple posts.Before I begin, I think I should review the basic RPG culture in Japan, to provide context for some of the design elements of this box set. The important thing to keep in mind is that the group that meets weekly for an ongoing campaign is relatively rare. Particularly in the 80s and 90s, when TRPGs first blossomed, if you lived in a house, it probably held three generations, and generally wasn't used to host big get-togethers, The vagaries of work overtime also hindered meeting regularly on a weeknight, nor was it conducive to game masters to prepare weekly games. So eventually, the TRPG culture revolved around the one-shot adventure, typically played over 4-6 hours at a session once, maybe twice, a month. Such sessions are typically played at an outside venue, such as a community center, or in more recent years, a game cafe.Accordingly, when you're used to one-shots, you're not generally engaging in sandbox play. You want a relatively linear adventure, with a beginning, middle, and end. That doesn't mean a strict railroad--you might have different paths to the climax. But buy-in of the GM's planned adventure is assumed, and you're more concerned with how you are going to proceed through the scenario, rather than what you are going to do. This basic set, then, is concerned with providing events that happen during a scenario, rather than providing the whole gamut of freedom that a TRPG potentially has.That said, let's look at the book. It opens with a table of contents under which is a short glossary explaining some of the common terms used in the book. The next page is a prologue, describing the setting: a small city of 7,000, called Azel where the PCs have recently registered with a small branch of the local guild. The next couple pages concisely explain the world of Raxia, where the game takes place, and the role of adventurers and adventurers guilds. There are also some guidelines for playing this game: Play fast-and-loose; prioritize fun over rules technicalities; when in doubt, discuss things together; don't complain or belittle another player's description or role-play; and more than anything, have fun.Next comes an 8-page "replay", that is, a transcription of an actual session. It's an example of play on steroids, because it covers an entire session (or at least, one scenario as played with this set). This effectively describes how the box set is used, so I'm going to summarize it here.Our two players from Rulebook 1 are back, now referred to by their character names: Player A becomes Felix, a Human Magic Swordsman (Fencer/Priest/Sage), while Player B becomes Alfred (Al, for short), a Runefolk Warrior (Fighter and Scout). To their surprise, the GM indicates that rather than run the game as a GM, he's going to join them as a player, and they will run the game GM-less. He introduces his character Clyde, a Tabbit Magic-User (Conjurer/Sage). With character introductions complete, Clyde sets out three Job Cards to choose from: Drive Off Wolves, Find a Lost Item, or Drive Off Goblins. On the face of each Job Card is summary of the mission and reward for completion.Al's Reason for Adventuring is to defeat Barboros, which his player had determined during character creation were responsible for the death of his previous master, so Al wants to take the Drive Off Goblins job. The others agree to this, so Clyde becomes the first Reader, and reads out the more detailed introduction to the scenario. Because they playing GM-less, the role of the Reader will rotate among all three players. After reading the introduction, Clyde also shows them the Goblin illustration on the monster card, the PCs make Monster Knowledge Checks to see what they know of Goblins. This introduces Action Checks in general, and the Monster Knowledge Checks in specific. They easily clear the bar to see the stats for a Goblin, and Felix further clears the bar to take advantage of their weakness, meaning the PCs will get a bonus to physical damage.At the bottom of the Job Card is the Progress of the Scenario, which says, "On The Road Event > Intermediate Battle > Pre-Boss Event > Climax." This means that next, they draw an On The Road Event card. Felix is now the Reader, so he shuffles the deck and draws a card from the middle. It's titled, "You Meet Someone In Trouble," and has the following description: Along the way, you have encountered an injured person. Roll 1d to decide the characteristics of that person." The following table consists of Boy, Girl, Young Man, Young Woman, Old Man, Old Woman. Felix rolls 1d and finds that the person is a young woman. Al, the more experienced player, immediately places her in context: "It's dangerous for a young woman to be out here alone. She might get attacked by Goblins." The PCs are given a choice: Option A: To do their utmost to help her, and heal her at least 10 HP, or Option B: Conserve their resources for the fight ahead and heal her for less than 10 HP, or not heal her at all.The players discuss what they want to do, eventually deciding to cast Cure Wounds on the woman, and see how that goes. This allows the game to demonstrate spell casting. Unfortunately, Felix's Cure Wounds spell succeeds in healing her only 5 HP. Felix is reluctant to spend another 3 MP on another Cure Wounds, but one of Al's Pride/Attachments is that he cannot abandon the weak. He uses one of his healing poutices to heal her another 5 HP. Felix, the Reader, then turns the Event card over to see what happens. The result for Option A is that the person is moved by their kindness, and rewards them with 2 mana crystals, each worth 3 MP.Next, Al becomes the Reader for the Intermediate Battle. He draws "Attacked by Monsters". This card lists three different kinds of monsters that attack depending on the average level of the party. This party has an average level of 2, so the monsters are Goblins, one per PC. Here the replay covers the basics of combat: Initiative, positioning on the battle map, how to make an attack, roll damage, and use Special Combat Abilities. Al, as Reader, rolls for the Goblins and keeps track of their HP. Once the PCs are shown having a turn, the replay jumps to the end of combat, where the Goblins have been defeated, but Felix is down. Here the game introduces the basics of the falling unconscious and recovery rules.With the battle over and Felix patched up, Felix becomes the Reader again for the Pre-Boss Event. (Technically, it should be Clyde, but since he is the more experienced player, it seems they delay his turn so that he can handle the Climax.) The card drawn is "Gotten Lost?!" The PCs have gotten lost on their way to their destination. Clyde role-plays that this is due to them following Felix's suggestion of a short-cut (since he's the Reader). Again, they have two choices: Option A is calmly determine their route. Option B is to go ahead, trusting to their intuition. Having role-played that Felix's intuition got them into this mess, Al and Clyde suggest calmly determining their route. Turning the card over, they find that they find their way back on the trail, but have gained a Time Spent chit. This means that the circumstances of the Climax will slightly change.Now they've reached the Climax, so Clyde turns over the Job Card to reveal it. They have arrived at the Goblin settlement, where two goblins (one for each PC minus 1) are training for battle along with their boss, a Bolg (the Sword World analogue for Orcs/Bugbears). Because the PCs have gotten a Time Spent chit, the Bolg has spent time sharpening his blade, giving him a +1 bonus to damage.Here, the replay uses the roll for Initiative to explain two meta-resource rules unique to this box set. PCs start a scenario with a "Divine Favor of the Sword" card. This can be turned in before a roll for either a +4 to one's own Check, or a +2 to someone else's check. Also, there are "1-zoro chits." 1-zoro is the game's term for snake eyes, an Automatic Fail. In the standard game, you get 50 XP when this happens, but because this box set doesn't use XP, per se, instead players receive one of these chits. If they get two, they can turn it at any time, even after a roll, to get a +1 to a Check.The battle is again omitted, and we move straight to the aftermath. The players are shown receiving their reward, and their 2 XP chits, which is enough to advance to the next level of character type card (i.e., their primary Skill goes up a level). The players are having fun, and they still have time, so they decide to move to the next Step, which features new Job Cards...and the adventure continues...In the next installment, we'll take a closer look at these various Event cards.</blockquote>

Verification