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Golden Sky Stories
Jan. 23rd, 2018 05:14 pm Golden Sky Stories is a real oddity of an RPG. There are no combat scenes (okay, someone nearly got a fist in the face last time I ran it, but another character intervened just in time), and the characters don't even have hit points.
There's no treasure to be found, no monsters to slay, no hidden terrors of the deep.
And yet, it is surprisingly enjoyable.
I first encountered it last year at an RPG con. My main role at this particular con is helping babysit Oswin, so I don't sign up for games in advance. When I had a free slot, virtually the only game left with places was Golden Sky Stories - a heartwarming game of helpful animal spirits in Japan.
I tried it and I enjoyed it enough to buy the rulebook.
The characters are animal spirits who have the ability to take human form (usually as children) and they like helping people. All your skills relate to transforming shape, or ways of helping people in emotional distress or other things that are relatively minor by normal RPG standards.
My fox, assisted by some other animals helped a school boy approach the girl he loved and ask her out on a date.
The entire scenario in a nutshell - yet we enjoyed it, found creative ways of helping him and all got a lot out of the interaction between our characters.
The rules are pretty simple (though an index would really help).
I ran a scenario for my husband before this year's convention. He enjoyed it, though he initially only tried it to allow me to practice. (it works solo, but not nearly as well as half the fun is in the character interaction. I gave him two characters and played one of them myself a lot of the time so that conversation was possible)
At con, when Oswin was in bed, I ran a game in our lodge for Lindsey (Oswin's mummy) and Matt. Matt comes along mainly for wargaming, so I wasn't sure how he'd take to Golden Sky Stories. As it turned out, the interaction between his bumbling dog with the mind of a three year old child, and Lindsey's 150 year old and very sedate Scops owl was hilarious. I nearly fell off my seat several times with laughter.
They successfully retrieved an item from the school bully, but Matt's dog managed to frighten the bully's mother into fainting when he changed into human form and they nearly got the dog's owners (children) into a fight with the bully.
They enjoyed it so much, we did a second session the next day by request.
Next day, they tried to undo the damage they'd done to the bully's mother and worked out why she needed help herself (her husband was in prison) and ended up helping her find a job.
My personal tweak to the rules is that I will allow characters to transform into adults as well as children. I can see good reasons for using children - they are less powerful authority figures, and that helps keep the nature of the game as helping rather than controlling - and also gives an anime flavour. However, if the players are in the right spirit, adults can work just as well. Richard's rabbit took the form of an elderly lady and Lindsey's owl was a very old man.
If you want a gentle RPG that's a total change of pace, very easy to write scenarios for, that evolves around whatever actions the players take and has simple short scenarios, then I definitely recommend it. Needs no dice or props.
PS. There is also a version set in England with Brownies, Fairies, etc. I haven't tried it, but it might be worth looking at.
PPS. See here for a game transcript that Igenlode found. It gives a very good feel for a game of Golden Sky Stories.
There's no treasure to be found, no monsters to slay, no hidden terrors of the deep.
And yet, it is surprisingly enjoyable.
I first encountered it last year at an RPG con. My main role at this particular con is helping babysit Oswin, so I don't sign up for games in advance. When I had a free slot, virtually the only game left with places was Golden Sky Stories - a heartwarming game of helpful animal spirits in Japan.
I tried it and I enjoyed it enough to buy the rulebook.
The characters are animal spirits who have the ability to take human form (usually as children) and they like helping people. All your skills relate to transforming shape, or ways of helping people in emotional distress or other things that are relatively minor by normal RPG standards.
My fox, assisted by some other animals helped a school boy approach the girl he loved and ask her out on a date.
The entire scenario in a nutshell - yet we enjoyed it, found creative ways of helping him and all got a lot out of the interaction between our characters.
The rules are pretty simple (though an index would really help).
I ran a scenario for my husband before this year's convention. He enjoyed it, though he initially only tried it to allow me to practice. (it works solo, but not nearly as well as half the fun is in the character interaction. I gave him two characters and played one of them myself a lot of the time so that conversation was possible)
At con, when Oswin was in bed, I ran a game in our lodge for Lindsey (Oswin's mummy) and Matt. Matt comes along mainly for wargaming, so I wasn't sure how he'd take to Golden Sky Stories. As it turned out, the interaction between his bumbling dog with the mind of a three year old child, and Lindsey's 150 year old and very sedate Scops owl was hilarious. I nearly fell off my seat several times with laughter.
They successfully retrieved an item from the school bully, but Matt's dog managed to frighten the bully's mother into fainting when he changed into human form and they nearly got the dog's owners (children) into a fight with the bully.
They enjoyed it so much, we did a second session the next day by request.
Next day, they tried to undo the damage they'd done to the bully's mother and worked out why she needed help herself (her husband was in prison) and ended up helping her find a job.
My personal tweak to the rules is that I will allow characters to transform into adults as well as children. I can see good reasons for using children - they are less powerful authority figures, and that helps keep the nature of the game as helping rather than controlling - and also gives an anime flavour. However, if the players are in the right spirit, adults can work just as well. Richard's rabbit took the form of an elderly lady and Lindsey's owl was a very old man.
If you want a gentle RPG that's a total change of pace, very easy to write scenarios for, that evolves around whatever actions the players take and has simple short scenarios, then I definitely recommend it. Needs no dice or props.
PS. There is also a version set in England with Brownies, Fairies, etc. I haven't tried it, but it might be worth looking at.
PPS. See here for a game transcript that Igenlode found. It gives a very good feel for a game of Golden Sky Stories.
