Ryuutama
Designed by Atsuhiro Okada
Welcome to Ryuutama!
It’s a Japanese made tabletop RPG designed by Atsuhiro Okada and published by Kotodama Heavy Industries, and, fun fact, its title can be translated to “dragon” and “sphere” from the Japanese words ryu and tama.
So, let’s see what this dragon world has in store.
It calls itself a “natural fantasy RPG”
A vast expanse— the fullness of nature and the wonder of the changing seasons —beckons the intrepid traveler
And what I’ve found that to mean is that it focuses on the natural world that you and your friends explore. The game’s every system is geared around enabling and encouraging travel through a fantastical world that, for the most part, lives in harmony with nature.
What makes it unique?
its world is built on three basic facts.
First, the world’s creation was presided over by four dragons; Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, and following this fashion, every aspect of nature is represented and somewhat created by types of dragons, storm dragons, desert dragons, etc..
Second, every human culture has this idea of “the journey”, where every person is expected to go on a grand travel at some point in their life.
Third, the game master is a Ryuujin, who helps enable these travels and catalogues them so that the stories can be fed to the four seasonal dragons so that they keep living and grow.
The core rule book gives you a lot of freedom and inspiration for making your own version of Ryuutama within these fundamental rules of the world, and frankly it reminds me a lot of studio Ghibli films if you’ve seen those.
if you’re already hooked, check out Ryuutama’s website, and some places to buy a PDF version of the rule book like itch.io and DriveThruRPG.
The core rule book is organized into four “books”, or chapters, based on the seasons. Spring - character creation, Summer - important rules, Fall - game master advice, and Winter - bestiary. So let me highlight some of my favorite things from these four chapters that really help Ryuutama stand out.
Spring, or, Character Creation
In Ryuutama, your characters are called travelers, and it has a system of classes to choose from, similar to DnD, but they’re a bit more pastoral than you’d expect. There’s seven to choose from, with names like “farmer”, “minstrel”, or “merchant”, you’re not quite going into an epic fantasy campaign like DnD.
The most interesting thing to me though is that your stats are represented with dice. you have four stats, Strength, Dexerity, Spirit, and Intelligence. Each of those can range from being a 12-sided die to a 4 sided one. Bigger being better because that’s the die you get to roll when you use that stat to attack a monster or get past an obstacle.
It also has a spell list divided into the four seasons, with fun spells like making dead leaves appear with fall magic, and candy ice cubes with winter magic. The higher level spells are quite terrifying though to be frank, with things like “Cyclone” in fall to whisk away your enemies and “Absolute Zero Clock” to freeze time for a few seconds with winter magic. There’s obviously way more spells than just those but you should check them out for yourself :)
Summer, or, Frequently Used Rules
This section has the obvious rules you need to make an RPG run right, like skill checks and combat. Here’s some interesting things though.
you get critical successes when rolling double sixes or the highest possible numbers one the dice, so you’re more likely to critically succeed when you’re quite good at something.
Combat is based on either being close or far from the enemy, so no need for battle maps and exact measurements, as well as the fact that every combat starts with everyone at the table listing objects on the battlefield, and you get bounes to your attack if you incorporate them into your fighting! Wanna swing from the Chandeliers anyone?
There’s good rules for traveling! The weather and land your group travels through affects how difficult it is to stay headed in the right direction, and it encourages roleplay with everyone taking on roles like “quarter-master”, “navigator”, “mapper” and “journaler”. Also, did I mention every weather type and terrain has a dragon you might encounter in it?
I mean just look at that guy! he’s my favorite. Ahem…
Fall, or the Game Master’s Section
This section gives advice on how to run the game, and most interesting, how to make the GM’s character, the Ryuujin.
That’s right, you get to choose from four different flavors of Ryuujin who guide the travelers in different ways. You can choose from: vanilla, the romance-novelist, the war veteran, and Stabby Mcbackstaber. You should check them out yourself (because those aren’t their real names btw). Also your Ryuujin can level up and gain new abilites to challenge and aid the travelers, which can give them more exp on their journey.
It also has a beginner adventure that new GMs can use right off the bat if making their own adventure is too intimidating.
Finally, Winter, or the Bestiary
I don’t want to spoil too many of the monsters but they range from cute neko-goblins (cat goblins), to ferocious chimeras and evil liches! Also there’s a little section about just… eggs??
These monsters are eggs that seem to have sprouted arms and legs. They are prized for their delicious insides.
I guess that’s just a little Japanese fun weirdness, but like they can walk and ride animals, and adventurers attack them for their delicious insides? very strange.
Conclusion
This system is very neat, and I highly recommend it. With a pinch of salt however, know that I haven’t had the chance to play it with a group. I made a character called Kensha Wisen, who’s an old healer. I’ve written a little short story to give you an idea of what his journey begins with, so get excited to read that. Also, check out this short playlist of the YouTube channel Stumpt trying out Ryuutama, link. Here’s the links for Ryuutama’s website, on itch.io and DriveThruRPG again in case you want to try it now. Enough waffling, here’s the beginning of Kensha’s story.
Fool’s Parade
In the small town of Ridgetop, located on the highlands by the island’s cliffs, sat the old healer’s house. It was old too, built when he got married. There’s a dirt trail in the windswept hills leading to the front door, where his children and grandchildren’s feet tread. A townie with a sprained ankle or burnt hand might come occasionally. But if you were his favorite daughter (don’t tell the other children), you might step up the one cobblestone step and unlock the nice oaken, moss edged, front door. Walk in through the carpeted living room. Pass the ashen brick fireplace. But not go to the kitchen, no, you open the door to the spiraling stairway, creaking every other step. Walk up past the door to the second-floor workshop with its forbidden-to-touch other half. You’d pause before the master bedroom’s door.
Kensha sat on the side of his one-person bed, cane in hand and fully dressed in his favorite green over-coat. His grey beard was upkept. His bags all packed. He had spent the whole morning entranced by the pink swift moving clouds beyond the cliffside just out his window. The door creaked open behind him.
A pretty, middle-aged woman with brown eyes like her mother came in, “dad?” and then she noticed his backpack on the bed, “did you get a letter from the capital again?”
Kensha stood up, “Yes, Sammy I think it’s finally time!” he had not actually heard her question.
“Time for the fool’s parade you mean? Everyone in town thinks you should lead the dragon this year, and I thought you already knew it was happening today.”
“Ah! Right, well I must admit I didn’t pack for that, but I’ll tell you all about it on the walk down to town.” Kensha picked up his backpack and started making some seemingly last-minute decisions on what to grab.
Samantha gave out a sound of disagreement, “what do you mean? Have you even ate breakfast yet?”
“No I haven’t but this journey can’t wait another moment.” his hasty packing now done, Kensha pushed past Samantha with surprising quickness. Sammy had to steady herself for a moment before following his dust, only to have the second-floor door shut in her face.
Kensha’s voice was muffled by the door, “sorry! one more thing then I’ll be right down!” He moved past his vials and potions that stuffed the top of the main table taking up the majority of the first half of the room. He then carefully retreaded his footprints in the dust that covered the other half of the room. Another workshop, full of intricate machines and jewelers tools he didn’t understand. He stood still at the window that flooded the room with light. Under it was a small dresser. He opened the bottom drawer, and took out an urn. He held it with great care. He looked out to the window to the wider world.
“it’s about time I go out on my journey, my dearest. I’ll scatter you from the highest mountain, as you wish.”