Ryuutama

Mana series, Etrian Odyssey and basically the comfy cute adventuring in tabletop format

Ryuutama (Japanese for "dragon egg") is a tabletop game designed by Atsuhiro Okada first released there in 2007, and translated from Japanese to English 8 years later, in 2015 via a kickstarter campaign by Matt Sanchez and Andy Kitowsky.

This game maintains a lighthearted and feelgood tone, like a Hayao Miyazaki film. Unlike most other roleplaying games, Ryuutama revolves around travel and exploration, as you journey not in the shoes of heroes, but of NPCs, like farmers, hunters and merchants. There is very little fluff, leaving a lot of space for GMs to create their own. The basic premise of the story is that everyone has a sudden urge to adventure, and every time a party starts to adventure, it is recorded by 1 of 4 types of "Ryuujin", half dragon, half human spirits that record the story of the journey. Each type of Ryuujin represents a different style of story, one for war, one for tragedy, etcetera. The Ryuujin feed the stories to one of the 4 seasonal dragons, which keeps the world existent.

The world

As previously stated, Ryuutama's setting is purposedly left mostly blank to be created by the GM and the players. In fact it features a world generation system to give ideas and guidelines about what things may be in there, but the core concept and backstory can be summarized as thus:

The World was created by 4 chief dragons, each one of them representing the four seasons. Afterwards they gave life to other 20 dragons of the earth and skies to create the chaotic weather and since then nature has been governed by these dragons. There's an ancient custom all throughout the world known as the "journey". At some point in everyone's life, no matter if man or woman or no matter the age, people embark in long arduous journeys for all kinds of reasons. Be it simply wanting to see the sights, to wanting making a fortune, to search for ancient artifacts or to carry out revenge its something that calls to everyone at least once in their lives. These people are known as travelers and they get together in small groups to journey across the lands under the protection of a Ryuujin, who has the duty of looking over them from a distance and record their travels in the form of journals that are used to feed and grow the weather dragons, since they get nourishment from stories. Everytime a maturing weather dragon is fed a journal with the tales of travelers the world becomes a much richer place

Aside from that its all blank and it encourages the entire player group to work together to make the world and rest of the setting as shown in the following sheet in the rulebook:

The characters

The players assume the role of low power characters that are more in line with usual NPCs than of typical TTRPG heroes. The main activity they'll be doing will be travelling from one town to another doing different adventures and sometimes getting in fights fending off monsters that roam the land.

Classes

Each travaller can be one of the seven following classes. The only difference between classes is that each gain three unique skills to be able to do certain tasks, but they are all fairly flexible in what role they can fill in the party, reinforced even more by the fact that at level 5 players have the option to gain a second class with all its skills or to make all the skills of their class stronger.

Minstrel

A traveler among travelers, minstrels trek from town to town while showing off their skill in song or dance. The Minstrel has various skills that can support the party in a variety of situations.

Skill: Well-traveled; Knowledge of Tradition; Music

Merchant

Traveling tradespeople who exchange goods from various locales for gold and jewels. Merchants have skills that allow them to buy goods for cheap and sell them for a higher price. They are also good at negotiation using conversational skills.

Skill: Well-spoken; Animal Owner; Trader

Hunter

Workers who make their living amidst nature, using wisdom and technology to shoot down their prey. Hunters are able to find food in any land or climate while en route to their destination. They can even eat monsters.

Skill: Animal Tracking; Trapping; Hunting

Healer

Medics who earn respect from everyone by curing illness and healing injuries with herbs. You’ll want to make sure you have a Healer with you if you are traveling through potentially dangerous lands.

Skill: Healing; First-Aid; Herb Gathering

Artisan

Craftsmen who make useful things, beautiful things, delicious things, and other varieties of items. Artisans are able to fix things that break along the way to their destination. They can also create the everyday objects they need.

Skill: Trapping; Crafting; Repair

Farmer

Workers who lives in harmony with the providence of nature. In order to procure their food, they’ve got to set their hand to a number of different tasks, giving them practice with a single skill from another class.

Skill: Robust; Animal Owner; Side-job

Noble

A member of a noble house, they are accomplished in both the literary and military arts, and have been instructed in correct etiquette. However, nobles are not quite suited to outdoor life and are not very good at traveling.

Skill: Etiquette; Trivia; Weapon Grace

Types

Players then have to choose one of three Types that determinate mostly how they act during combat but carry benefits outside of it. They can choose to either be an Attack Type, who gets extra health and deals extra damage, a Technical Type who gets extra initiative and carrying capacity or a Magic Type who gets extra mental points and access to spells. Magic is too fairly simple and low power level, with effects being usually handful support to help with the many checks that will happen during travel. As with classes, characters are able to get an extra Type at level 6, or to make the effects of their type twice as strong, like learning double the amount of spells per level.

Roles

Finally, the players must be assigned one of 4 different roles that give them extra responsability, as taken directly from the book these are:

LEADER: The person that keeps the party together. The leader has the last word on any discussion concerning the party. The leader also keeps track of initiative and turn order during battle.

MAPPER: The person that makes sure that the party is heading in the right direction toward the destination. They are responsible for the Direction Check part of the Traveling Check phase and keeping the Map Sheet up to date. A character with high {INT} is recommended.

QUARTERMASTER: This person keeps track of the party’s food and water, as well as takes responsibility for buying the necessary items for the trip. Keeping food and water in barrels and trunks is much easier than each PC holding their own. This person will be responsible for the Ration Sheet. A character with a pack animal is recommended.

DIARY KEEPER: The person who keeps a detailed diary of events that happen in the game, as through the viewpoint of their character. It might also be a good idea to have the diary written by all members of a party, switching off once every day or every few days, to get an interesting diary at the end of the journey.

The Game Master

The GM takes on the role of an actual character of the story, the aforementioned Ryuujin, the human-dragon who records the tales and exploits of the party of travellers to then feed them to the dragons to make the world grow. While it is indeed an important character the game encourages the master to intervene as little as possible or to just not show at all, but even then this character must be built and its race and the artifact it carries determinates the mood and kind of adventures the party will have. This ryuujin levels up with the party and unlocks abilities that give small bonuses to the party or save them from rough spots (basically an in game limited amount of excuses for DM fiat), but once again it is expected that the master does not rely much on these.

While you may notice that the race and artifact really have little to no mechanical effects, Ryuutama is a game that values way more style over substance. As such choosing the artifact the ryuujin carries doesn't matter much and can be changed from campaign to campaign, and even its encouraged for the master to come up with other artifacts to indicate other types of playstyles or campaigns.

Midori ryuu: the verdant dragon

Tales of journeys, pilgrimages, adventure, exploration, and hope are the domain of the Green Ryuujin. While their abilities might be thought of as plain, they are very versatile, and thus a great default choice for a novice GM.

The "vanilla" option. As the description states this ryuujin indicates a regular type of campaign, with the artifacts being a Encyclopedia that signals that the game will be played following the rules as closely, a sextant that indicates that the game will have some homebrewed rules or a torch that makes it so all characters gain double experience for faster pace

Example homebrew artifact: Binoculars that indicate that all players are part of a merchant or adventurers guild

Ao ryuu: the azure dragon

Tales of romance, friendship, heartwarming episodes, human drama, family, and animals all fall under the purview of the Blue Ryuujin. They have powers to strengthen the bonds between travelers and to reward kindness.

The social option, the campaigns under a blue ryuujin are centered around social encounters and not a lot of action, something more relaxed and narrative. The artifacts are a crystal that pretty much makes it so that characters can't die (rising so much the amount of critical damage needed to be taken in order to perish to make it a non factor), a ring that signals that all characters will be relatives or fellow students and friends; and the third artifact is the ryuujin himself becoming a mascot character to accompany the party like one of those annoying and cute anime critters

Example homebrew artifact: Shackles that indicates that the game will have other races besides humans.

Kurenai ryuu: the crimson dragon

Tales of battle, war, growth and experience, monster-hunting, and dungeon exploration are the domain of the Red Ryuujin. They have powers which aids the travelers in battle, as well as increase the chaos on the battlefield.

The action packed ryuujin, made for campaigns filled with combat encounters and battles. Considered one of the two hardcore options because, despite its cute and comfy aesthetics and simple mechanics Ryuutama is a very lethal game and fights are quite hard and dangerous by virtue of the travellers being low powered characters. Its artifacts are a greatsword that makes fights have lots of elements and be more complicated, a longspear that indicates that all characters are members of an army and are travelling to fulfill a mission and a longbow that adds an optional rule to make characters able to dodge attacks for extra depth.

Example homebrew artifact: A breastplate that introduces more options of weapons and armors to the game

Kuro ryuu: the black dragon

Tales of conspiracy, betrayal, assassination, tragedy, corruption, suspense, and the solving of mysteries all fall within the realm of stories the Black Ryuujin controls. They have the power to grand dark pasts to the travelers, and to twist hearts with dread.

The edgy ryuujin, because after all things like made in abyss exist, and cute things can be tragic too. The other hardcore option, obviously, but it is important to note that while the dark ryuujin can certainly make things harder for the players they still have a desire to protect the travellers and continue writting their tales, so they are far from pseudo-villains. Its artifacts are a chalice that indicates that all characters must have a dark past, a dagger that makes it so once per session an NPC will inevitably die and a mirror that adds an optional rule for fear and terror.

Example homebrew artifact: A birdcage that indicates that all player characters have comitted a crime.