Golden Sky Stories is a delightful game of bucolic whimsy in a small Japanese town. It works well as a convention game, particularly in the evening slot where its warm dusk setting complements the lateness of the hour.
Given the mythic quality of the game it seems well suited to a highly narative approach but the system provided is quite mechanicaly heavy. It has at least 3 meta-curencies which act as a gate to using your cool magical animal powers.
This may work well as part of a campaign but seems unecessary for a one-shot. Particularly one to be played as a cozy cool-down after a hard day's gaming.
This work is incomplete and I have not yet had a chance to actually run it. I'm putting it up in this incomplete state in order to park it.
Looking at the character sheet we have 4 attributes between 1 and 4 plus a set of powers and weaknesses. This looks quite a lot like Fate Accelerated with its approaches and aspects.
In light of this I considered a Fate-like system but decided the original system's choice to go dice-less was the correct one. Instead I have combined the two meta-currencies used during gameplay and ignored the experience system since it's one-shot play which is of interest here.
Goals
Setting asside generic systems for the moment, the main purpose of a system must be to support the game. If it can encourage the kind of play the game wants to privilage, so much the better.
Part of the fun of Golden Sky Stories is the childlike enthusiasm and naivitae of its protagonists. As such the system should not get in the way of them being magical animals. In particular it should not limit their ability to use their cool magical powers or to get into scrapes.
Of course this can be achieved by going completely systemless and leaving it to the players and GM to get on with it. However a system can support them in their endevour and maybe take a little load off by providing constructive constraints.
Magical Animals
Naturally magical animals are not all equally powerful. Their power comes from their connections with each other and people around the town.
Total up all your connections (to and fro), you get this many Emotion
at the start of each scene. Unspent points from the previous scene carry across but not beyond the final scene.
The most basic magical animal power (and one of the most fun) is to take on human form. Changing during the evening to a form with your tale and ears showing (full-sized wings for birds) is free. At other times of the day or more complete transformations (only tail showing/small wings) cost one Emotion.
Becoming completely human costs 1 in the evening and 2 at other times.
All the other cool magical animal powers are specific to the kind of animal you are. Using one of these powers may cost Emotion
, refer to its description.
If you see an opportunity to sucumb to one of your weaknesses then you should consider doing so. After all, it will generate at least one Emotion
point for later mischief.
Challanges
A challange may be presented by the natural world, such as trying to spot something out-of-place in a rice paddy, or they may come from interactions with humans or other magical animals or gods.
When the challange is against the world the GM
Surprise
Surprise means no further actions until the end of the scene. Is this too draconian? Maybe just a time, like Boggle in Teenagers from Outerspace.