Meikyuu Kingdom by Bitchtits McGee

1 Welcome to the Million Dungeons!
2 Miscellany
3 Kingdom Making
4 Filling Out Forms and Standing In Lines
5 Meet the Court!
6 What's In A (Second) Name?
7 Fiancee (Again)
8 Gainful Employment
9 Happymancer & Friends
10 The Basics
11 Court Is Now In Session
12 Everybody Delve!
13 blah blah kill blah
14 Anime Death Tentacle Kingdommaker
15 ...and the rest
16 Tour of Data - Advanced Skills (General to Science)
17 Tour of Data - Advanced Skills (Dungeoneering to Esoteric)
18 Tour of Data - Common Items

Welcome to the Million Dungeons!

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Introduction: Welcome to the Million Dungeons!

Okay, see if you can follow me, here. Two-thousand-ish years ago, the world was your standard anime high-fantasy setting. Presumably, anyway. Not much record actually survives of it, because of a global cataclysm of unknown origin that turned everyplace into monster-infested dungeons overnight. Earth, sea, sky, literally everything : literally dungeons. Yeah, "verisimilitude" pretty much isn't a word here. Anyway, humanity was almost driven extinct by the ensuing chaos, but the cataclysm also brought out the Landmakers among the people: superhuman adventurer-kings with the strength of arms to drive back the monsters and the force of will to impose order back onto the dungeons. The present-day world is still largely a deadly, anarchic place, but thanks to the Landmakers, enough patches of civilization exist to create a sort of overall normalcy.

Meikyuu Kingdom , yet another entry from Japan, is a game of two parts, as evidenced by the two core rulebooks: Kingdom and Dungeon. As Landmakers, players start out with a tiny nation the size of a small village and 50 ordinary citizens depending on them for survival and leadership. Your first duty is to the people, managing the growth and direction of your kingdom to create a safe haven. Yours isn't the only point of light in the world, either, and diplomacy must be maintained with the others (well, not must , but y'know). That, broadly, is the "Kingdom" part.


It would be hard for me to overstate how much I love everything about this picture. It's pretty much the reason I bought these books.

The "Dungeon" part should be fairly self-evident: the landscape continues to shift unpredictably, and adventure is practically a universal constant. Anything you gain will likely have to be taken by force; luckily, the Million Dungeons are so diverse that anything you could want to gain can be found somewhere, usually with a nest of monsters sitting on top of it. Kill them, take their stuff, and pawn it to fund your latest civil engineering project! See how it all fits together?


Picnic cancelled on account of dragon attack. Again.

I can't think of a good segue into this part, so I'm just going to digress. The Kingdom Book's actual introductory chapter is rather interestingly set up. It starts with a short comic:


"What? That book is a game?!"

A group of friends are hanging out in a restaurant when one of them spontaneously suggests a game of Meikyuu Kingdom ! Everybody is instantly on board, except for the lady in the blue hoodie, who is confounded by the very concept of role-playing games. The rest of the intro is framed as Blue Hoodie asking a question and Book Provider answering it in very basic terms (the term "other self" is used repeatedly in place of "player character"), a combination of the Game Fiction and Infodump types I don't think I've ever seen anywhere else.

It also establishes Meikyuu Kingdom as a game that can be picked up by anyone practically instantly... a claim which I'm frankly not sure it actually delivers. That's not to say the mechanics are terribly complicated, because they're not. Aside from the character sheets, everything with any sort of stat block, from monsters to items to buildings to skills , is represented by a card (all of which are present in the core books for printing/photocopying), which makes everything easier on everyone. There's also quite a bit of rolling against tables involved, which while nowhere near TORG levels of insanity, could still bring the game to a confusing halt while books are flipped through... except then I remembered after typing out this paragraph that they printed duplicates of every table in their own chapter for easy access. Well, it's just a pie-in-the-sky sort of thing to say, alright?!

That's sort of an odd note to end on, but whatever. Next time: a brief glossary of terms and suchlike that may come up later but don't really fit in easily with any other sort of post! I can't wait!

Miscellany

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Kingdom Book Chapter 0.5 - Miscellany

Dice! Gotta have dice. In this case, though, only six-sided ones, and only maybe a dozen of them at the absolute maximum. Rolls come in two flavors: the standard Xd6 which needs no introduction, and the d66 . d66s are used almost exclusively for those tables I mentioned in the last post (although tables don't use d66s exclusively), and are made by rolling 2d6 and counting the lower number as a "tens" digit. This way, the results range from 11-16, 22-26, 33-36, and so forth. Rolling higher is generally better.

Notations! They show up on the cards. For future reference:

Default setting! There is one, but what I already covered in the intro is pretty much the only definition it gets in the Kingdom Book. It gets a few scattered mentions, but everything beyond a vague outline left in the Dungeon Book. This seemed strange, but now I'm guessing it's because they don't want to unnecessarily color whatever ideas of their own the players might have while still leaving enough for the GM to fill in any blanks or answer any questions. Since that's sort of me here, I'll just get it all out of the way now and define what might come up:

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but then again, I always feel like that. It's usually the case, too. Anyhow! Next time: kingdom creation! For those interested in reader participation, roll up about fifteen d6s and we'll see what sort of place we get! I can't wait!

Kingdom Making

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 1: Kingdom Making!

Before making any characters, you've got to make a place for them to live. Makes sense, right? Of course it does! So, you'll get a sheet rather like this one, only without the helpful notations:



Probably having a hard time reading that, huh. Hence the helpful notations!

① - Kingdom Name. Self-explanatory.
② - Kingdom Level. Determined by total population; more peoples makes for a higher level. Since you start with 50 citizens, that makes for a Level 1 Kingdom.
③ - National Power. Determined by adding the total of four levels, each representative of your Kingdom's general capabilities: Quality of Life (economic prosperity), Culture (education/artistic expression), Public Order (internal security), Military (external security). The starting value for each level is 1. If any one of these levels is ever reduced to 0, the Kingdom is destroyed.
④ - Name of Royalty. Determined in the next chapter.
⑤ - State Religion. 95% certain this field's just for flavor. At least, if there's a single skill or effect that makes use of this, I have yet to see it.
⑥ - Terra Cognita. Essentially, this is the game map. Your Kingdom's Territories are recorded here, along with any other permanent landmarks you've discovered, such as rival kingdoms.
⑦ - Resources. From top to bottom:
⑧ - Notables. Citizens in some way distinguished from the masses. Three columns: Landmakers, Prodigies, and Monstrous Citizens. The PCs are the Landmakers, the other two will be covered in a bit.

The second image is the flipside of the first, and is taken up chiefly by Diplomatic Relations. In the one corner is a blank space for notes, and in the other is a summary of some of the rules we're going to get to later.

With sheet in hand, it's time to start rolling! Pretty much everything in this chapter and the next can be determined by dice tables. Note that I said "can be", because the book explicitly states that using the creation tables is entirely optional - if you've got your own ideas, you are encouraged to run with them - but still strongly recommended for new players still getting used to the way the game runs. They also make for much more manageable examples, so yeah.

First up, rolling for your Kingdom's name. There are three Naming Tables: 1) a governmental type or overall philosophy, 2) a miscellaneous adjective or "personal" emblem, 3) what sort of place you're in. (In English, the end result comes out more like a general definition of the kingdom than a name, really, but it's still handy.) Each table takes a d66 roll, so three players make one roll each for one of the tables. If the final output isn't quite to everyone's taste, any other players who didn't make a roll can change one result apiece.

EXAMPLE posted:

Ryuujin rolls 45 against Table 1, JohnOfOrdo3 rolls 12 against Table 2, and dereku rolls 44 against Table 3. This makes "Imperial Unified Shogunate". Mr. Maltose decides to reroll Table 2, and gets 25: "Kitty". Nyaa decides to reroll Table 3, but just gets another 44... then they notice that, rules-as-written, they're not required to reroll at all, just change the result! So they look over the whole table and pick out "Planet". Final result: Imperial Kitty Planet! welcome to cat planet! oh yeah! (Actually, rules-as-written, they're not limited to picking a result from the tables, either, but as I said, I'm keeping it simple.)


Tower? Tree trunk? Beats me, but it sure is there , man.

Next comes the Kingdom's Environment. No apparent relation to that mystery field on the sheet, "environment" here refers to any unique features of the Kingdom itself or the surrounding area. This time, everybody gets a turn at rolling, including the GM. Environment rolls are in two parts: a 2D6 to determine the type of Environment, and a 1D6 against the appropriate table (sometimes with supplemental rolls for more specific results).

EXAMPLE posted:

Nyaa rolls 9 for a Facility, and a 6 against the Facility Table: "Your kingdom is very remotely situated." Did I cover Facilities in the glossary post? It's been so long, I can't remember. Just in case I didn't, Facilities are special rooms you can build for various beneficial purposes. Each Facility Table result has a supplemental D6 roll to determine a specific Facility; here, Nyaa gets a 5, for a free {Hunting Ground} (anyone who uses it before heading out to the dungeon gets a +1 bonus to hit).

JohnOfOrdo3 rolls 8 for a Resource, and a 3 against the Resource Table: "Your kingdom has struck up a co-existence with the dungeon's monsters." The Kingdom starts with one {Ranch} Facility (allows for breeding more Monstrous Citizens), and an extra 1D6 Monstrous Citizens, whose race is determined by another D6 roll. John rolls a 6 and a 2, making for six Horselizards . Now, the book says that special rules may exist for different types of Monstrous Citizens, but all I've found about them so far in either book is that they can be used as Staff, which doesn't actually set them apart at all.

Mr. Maltose rolls 2 for an Art, and a 4 against the Arts Table: "Yours is an industrial kingdom, famed for the quality of its craftspeople." Start with one {Blacksmith} (raises the Item Level of weapons and armor) and one {Guild} (allows the requisite-free selection of certain Skills) in Dungeoneering or Item Skills.

dereku rolls 7 for another Resource, and a 5 against the Resource Table: "The hidden fortune of a previous ruler was recently discovered in your kingdom." Start with an extra 1D6 MG in your budget. What's MG, you may be wondering? Well, that's a very good question. From context, all I can say is that it's the basic in-game measure of currency, but it doesn't seem to be actually defined anywhere in either of the core books or any of the errata published on the official website. Kind of a weird oversight, but not really a major thing. Anyway, dereku rolls a 6. So, 6 MG.

Ryuujin rolls 5 for a Custom, and a 4 against the Custom Table: "Many retired adventurers and soldiers have gathered in your kingdom." This increases the base value of your Kingdom's (Military) by 1.

The GM rolls 11 for a Bloodline, and a 4 against the Bloodline Table : "Your kingdom was once home to a brilliant alchemist, who created artificial humans to use as servants." This lets the PCs learn a Monster Skill from any Fetish-type Monster of a lower level. The lowest level Fetish Monster is Level 2, though, so this wouldn't come into relevance for a couple of games, at least. Hey, that blank space next to "Environment" on the Kingdom Sheet would be a good place to note this down! Still don't see why they couldn't have labeled it, though...

That's it for rolling in this chapter. The rest of the Kingdom Creation process is adding up numbers and filling in blanks:

Population : Start with 50 regular <Citizens>, and add any Monstrous Citizens and/or Prodigies obtained in the Environment rolls. JohnOfOrdo's six Horselizards brings the total Population to 56, which according to the chart, is enough to raise the Kingdom Level to 2! Huzzah! (You're probably wondering about those "Prodigies". Well, it'll be easier to explain them in the next chapter, so just bear with it for a while.)

National Power : As previously stated, the base value of each level starts at 1. Ryuujin's Customs roll brings the base value of (Military) up to 2, making for a total National Power of 5.

Geography : There's two parts to this one. First, the players have to set up the internal layout of their Kingdom. For that, they'll need a Map Sheet:


Incidentally, this same sheet is used by the GM to map out dungeons, so most of what's on here won't come up until we cover combat in a few chapters.

Like so. Firstly, every Kingdom starts out with one free Facility, a {Royal Palace}:


"If a Kingdom does not possess one a {Royal Palace} at the end of a game, that Kingdom is Destroyed." Also, make a Check against your (Quality of Life) to gain 1 <Vox Populi>, or fail it to lose 1 <Vox Populi>.

This Facility must be placed at B-2. This is inviolable. Any other Facilities gained from Environment rolls can be placed at will in any other unoccupied square. Next, assign one Passageway to each room. Passageways are just what they sound like - doors and corridors connecting one room to another. There's no restriction here, but any Facility without a clear path to the Palace is unusable, so be careful of that. Lastly, place an Entrance, another free Passageway leading out from the Kingdom and into the Million Dungeons beyond. This can be placed on the outer edge of any square except B-2; note also that no map can have more than two Entrances at any time. The end result should look something like this, only hopefully not quite so butts:



The second part of Geography is determining your Kingdom's place on the Terra Cognita. Just roll 2D6 , declare X and Y, and mark it on the sheet. 5 and 4 puts the Kingdom down in the southeastern quadrant. If any other kingdoms had been generated by an Environment roll, their locations would be rolled for in the same way, but as it is, cat planet is alone in a vast expanse of unexplored territory - Terra Incognita, as the game terms it.

Vox Populi : Mentioned earlier, <Vox Populi> is one of two quantified forms of <Hope> in the game. <Hope>, in one form or the other, is spent to power many Skills, effects, and abilities, making it a major part of the gameplay. We'll get to the other form in the next chapter; for now, know just that <Vox Populi> starts at 10, and cannot go higher than [10 + Kingdom Level] at any time. Also, if the <Vox Populi> ever goes lower than the number of Landmakers in the Court, the Kingdom is destroyed.

Budget : The Kingdom's available funds. Unmodified, you start with 0 MG, but dereku's roll gives you a head-start of 6 MG. How this can be used is another subject that will have to wait a while.

Diplomacy : Again, no other kingdoms were generated by the Environment rolls, and the Court hasn't had the opportunity to discover any yet, so there's not much use for this step here. If there were , however, there'd have to be a 1D6 rolled to determine each one's Relationship with your Kingdom: 1, Allied; 2, Friendly; 3 or 4, Neutral; 5, Strained; 6: Hostile.

And that's it! You should now have a Kingdom Sheet that looks something like this, only hopefully less obviously thrown together in GIMP over the course of a song and a half:



Fuckin' finally! Next time: character creation! This calls for another round of audience participation! I totally undercounted the number of dice required for generating a Kingdom, so to be on the safe side this time, give me a total of 25 d6s each! Limit of five examples, first come first served, but at this rate, I won't be posting in this thread again until sometime next month, so hey, no rush!

Filling Out Forms and Standing In Lines

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 2.1: Filling Out Forms and Standing In Lines

First thing you're gonna need for making a character is a Character Sheet. Well, you don't need one, I guess, but it sure makes the process go a lot easier.



Helpful notations, go!!

① - Character Name. Self-explanatory.
② - Level. Starts at 1, goes up by one every time your Character successfully completes a Scenario. Since the PCs will generally be completing Scenarios as a group, this system keeps everyone even.
③ - Gender. There are a few scattered effects that specify one or the other, but this remains largely an ornamental decision.
④ - Age. Even more ornamental than the last one.
⑤ - Background. Self-explanatory. New players, please use the Background Table. Yes, there's a Background Table coming up. The reason for this is...
⑥ - Mission. Determined by your Background. Complete your Mission, gain a Level.
⑦ - Class. Determines your role within the Court. Ideally, by the time you've been handed one of these sheets, you'll have already figured out between the other players which one you'll be taking.
⑧ - Job. Sort of a sub-Class. Grants one unique Skill and determines which Skill Groups you can choose from when gaining a Level.
⑨ - Idiot Kingdom Name. Guess they needed something to fill up this space.
⑩ - Stats. Your stats. Determined by your Class. There's four of 'em, from top to bottom: Wit (mental acuity), Charisma (charisma), Adventure (reflexes and perception), and Valor (fightin').
⑪ - Sub-Stats. Other Stats calculated by your other Stats. From top to bottom:
⑫ - Portrait. I'm guessing you'd be hard-pressed to get a gaming group together in Japan without at least one of you being an amateur manga artist.
⑬ - Skills. List the names here, and keep the cards handy. Start out with one Class Skill and your Job Skill.
⑭ - Equipment. You can only carry six items at a time, including anything you find out in the dungeon that you might want to bring back, so choose carefully. Your <Staff> can't help with this because
⑮ - Materials. Component loot from the dungeon, bring back home and craft into useful items. One Equipment slot can hold 10 Materials.
⑯ - Empathy. Tracks your relation with other Characters. Split into two types, which are in turn split between three values each: <Sympathy> (Loyalty, Friendship, Affection) and <Antipathy> (Anger, Mistrust, Contempt). Each value has a hard maximum value of 5. The values are mostly flavor, but the totals have mechanical benefits which will show up later.
⑰ - Likes. These are a few of your favorite things. For RP purposes only.
⑱ - Dislikes. These are a few of your least favorite things. For RP purposes only.
⑲ - Skill Groups. Mark down which Groups are available to your Character here.
⑳ - Medals. At the end of each Session, award one Medal to one Character. How you choose a Character and why are left entirely to the group. Used to qualify for Advanced Jobs. (There wasn't any room on the sheet to actually put the number, but really, there's only one place left )

There's a flipside to this sheet, too, but it's pretty much packed solid with notes and reminders of rules to be covered in later posts, so I'm omitting it here for clarity. Here's a notation-free one, too, for those what might want one.

The next post's probably gonna be pretty long, so this one's gonna be short. Next time: class in session! I can't wait!

Meet the Court!

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 2.2: Meet the Court!

First thing you do when making a Character is deciding on a Class. Since each Class has a different role to play in running the Kingdom, this should be done as a group. The only restriction here is that there has to be at least one player with the Royalty Class; aside from that, it's up to what everybody wants to play / what everybody thinks could be fun to try.

Royalty


"Aaall right, just leave it to me!" "...do I have to decide it right now?"

Class Stats: 4, 4, 1, 0 free-assignable
Starting Items: {Blade}, {Flag}, {Outfit}

The Big Cheese. Not necessarily actual royalty, just like your Kingdom might not be an actual kingdom, but whatever they are, they're where the buck stops. It's not an autocracy, though (unless it is ), every other Class has their own little domain where they're in charge, but Royalty has the final say in case of disputes. They're also tasked with managing the Court's joint resources, like <Vox Populi> and the National Budget. With free-assignable Stats and a variety of Class Skills, you can pretty much write your own game role, too. Note also that while one Royalty Character is required, it's not a limit. If you've got an idea of why your Kingdom might have more than one (succession dispute, for example), figure out which one is responsible for what and run with it.

Class Skills:

Knight


"Stand back, sire, I shall teach these creatures their place!" "This is it...you shall go no further."

Class Stats: 4 Valor; 2, 2, 1 free-assignable
Starting Items: {Blade}, {Armor}, {Mount}

The Kingdom's sword and shield, a Knight's domain is battle. It's up to them who charges forward and who stays back, distribution of equipment, and other such tactical decisions. Accordingly, whoever plays this should have a strong familiarity with the Combat Rules. Also, have a mind for what sort of army you're leading with your <Staff>.

Class Skills:

Vizier


"These orders come direct from His Majesty. See they are carried out at once." "Hrm...the princess' wasteful spending is still a concern.

Class Stats: 4 Wit; 2, 2, 1 free-assignable
Starting Items: {Dagger}, {Census Book}, {Mobile Phone}

The Kingdom's chief administrator. Matters of diplomacy and finance are their domain. Not the flashiest of roles, if we're honest, but an indispensable one.

Class Skills:

Priest


"All are as one in the eyes of God." "Murmur... chant... pray... invoke!" 1

Class Stats: Charisma 4; 2, 2, 1 free-assignable
Starting Items: {Hammer}, {Liquor}, {Amulet}

The Kingdom's soul. State Religion may not have any mechanical use, but it's one big source of flavor. What sort of god or gods are being followed sets the tone for the whole rest of the kingdom. In-game, they are, as you would expect, the Court's major source of healing in the dungeon. What you probably didn't expect is that they're also about the only way to expand your Kingdom beyond the Grand Zero, so while it's not required to have one around, it's a pretty damn good idea.

Class Skills:

Ninja


"My very life is at your command." "--VANISH!!

Class Stats: Adventure 4; 2, 2, 1 free-assignable
Starting Items: {Shuriken}, {Star Fragment}, {Pet}

The Kingdom's secret eyes. Scouting ahead in the dungeon and disarming Traps are their primary roles, but their high <Evasion> also suits penetrating the enemy's line in combat. The book makes another "what sort of <Staff> have you got" suggestion, but the example given is between Koga and Neguro ninja, which... doesn't help me at all, anyway.

Class Skills:

Servant


"I always worry I've left something behind when setting off." "Anything I can do for you, then?"

Class Stats: All 2
Starting Items: {Spear}, {Backpack}, {Box Lunch}, {Instrument}

The Court's backbone. You can choose who is your actual master/mistress (it doesn't even necessarily have to be one of the other players, either), but at the end of the day, your role is to bolster the Court as a whole. Also, while the basic template is one of butler/maid, there are other sorts of Servants: squires to a Knight, secretaries to a Vizier, acolytes to a Priest, chuunin to a Ninja. Use your imagination, dammit.

Class Skills:

For simplicity's sake, I'm making the example Court from one of each Class. However, I didn't realize until after I'd done it that the randomizer I used to match up the Audience Participation rolls didn't actually save the output at all, so you're just going to have to take my word for it that it came up like this:

Next time: obscure sayings and troubled pasts! I can't wait!

1 - In case you were wondering, no, this is not the last reference to Wizardry we're going to see in this game. As a bonus, the original English name for "Suicide Run" was "Ogg". If you get that joke without Googling it, well, you're a goonier man than I, Goonga Din.

What's In A (Second) Name?

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 2.3: What's In A (Second) Name?

Got your Classes hashed out, now it's time to actually make the character! First step is a name. No real restrictions here, but just in case you get stuck, the book "helpfully" provides a set of tables for you to roll one up! I put "helpfully" in quotes because... well... maybe I'd better just show you.

The first thing you do is roll a single 1D6, the result of which tells you which of the actual tables you'll be rolling on for your name:


Each of the main tables takes a D66, with each result on the primary Name Tables has two options, male and female, and each table following a general trend. "Name A" and "Name B" both draw on the stereotype of Japanese fantasy naming: foreign words chosen at random because they sound neat. "Exotic Names" are much the same, only weirder. "Fantastic Names" are a grab-bag mix of mythological and literary references. Summarizing doesn't really do them justice, so here they are in full:

pre: 
Name A
11: Orange / Jasmine              23: Bamboo / Olive          36: Tuba / Organ
12: Lanternflower / Morningglory  24: Cloud / Climate         44: Naan / Cookie
13: Clover / Thornapple           25: Tao / Snow              45: Willow / Cache-cache
14: Daphne / Mushroom             26: Avalanche / Eclair      46: Scone / Couscous
15: Granada / Primrose            33: Vivacita / Metronome    55: Flask / Clip
16: Radish / Marigold             34: Canon / Bassoon         56: Clavadora / Crayon
22: Cypress / Magnolia            35: Oboe / Harmonica        66: Soap / Broom
pre: 
Name B
11: Age / Wednesday               23: Schwarz / Moegi         36: Zippo / Chocolat
12: Giorno / Noel                 24: Slot / Kirie            44: Ninepins / Lucha
13: Dusk / Mañana                 25: Joker / Dice            45: Decathlon / Lacrosse
14: Winter / Juno                 26: Jigsaw / Domino         46: Kabaddi / Pingpong
15: Hiran / Bianca                33: Backgammon / Marbles    55: Pound / Velvet
16: Walnut / Rouge                34: Cigaro / Cocoa          56: Ruble / Cotton
22: Grey / Scarlet                35: Spichka / Orange-pekoe  66: Schilling / Silk
pre: 
Exotic Name
11: Moai / Cyrstalskull           23: Gogh / Victoria         36: any star
12: Chupacabra / Mbembe           24: Zombie / Onyankopon     44: any weapon
13: Kungfu / Yinyang              25: Getuppah / Carmen       45: any animal
14: Bushido / Miyako              26: Overkill / Sashimi      46: any jewel
15: Champion / Barbie             33: Butcher / Devi          55: any word + Dragon
16: Upanishad / Sorge             34: Bronson / Madonna       56: roll on any Word Table
22: Deathmarch / Intel            35: Gygax / Eroica          66: your name
pre: 
Fantastic Name
11: Adam / Eve                    23: Maharaja / Krishna      36: Xanadu / Yomi
12: Jack / Momo                   24: Kageotoko / Kurotokage  44: Albion / Laputa
13: Oz / Alice                    25: Orpheus / Venus         45: Xenda / Gormenghast
14: Conan / Leda                  26: Solomon / Salome        46: Innsmouth / Ys
15: Arthur / Isis                 33: Watarigarasu / Deedlit  55: Fuunuimu / Yapoo
16: Elric / Glorianna             34: Nyarlathotep / Bast     56: Xanth / Narnia
22: Gilgamesh / Amaterasu         35: Annatar / Fortuna       66: Kalevala / Ihatovo
So! From the provided die rolls, the first names of the example group, dependent on gender, are as follows:

All clear? I hope so. Because it's about to get stranger still.

"Second Names"... I honestly have no solid idea what the fuck these are supposed to represent. Kotobank defines the term basically as "a name one is called aside from their actual name", which makes it synonymous with "nickname" or "alias". So it should be simple, except that all of the "Second Names" provided are actually aphorisms and proverbs, a lot of which could only marginally be considered descriptive. Listing all of these would necessitate explaining their meanings and take way too much space, so I'll just stick to the rolled examples:


Sooo... names? I got nothing. You figure it out.

Next time: the rest of character creation! I can't wait!

Fiancee (Again)

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 2.4: Fiancee (Again)

Backgrounds! Those are always important! They give your character motivation, and provide possible plot hooks for future campaigning. In Meikyuu Kingdom , though, this is actually backed up by the game mechanics. Every Background must include a Mission: some long-term goal for your character to fulfill as a Landmaker, inspired by their past. (For the most part, these Missions are entirely driven and fulfilled by the players' actions, but there are still a handful that require a bit of GM fiat to see through.) When they complete their Mission during an adventure, your character gains a Level at the next Ending Phase of play; this Level not only stacks with the Level you'd usually gain for successfully completing a Scenario (assuming you did so, of course), but it's exempt from the Kingdom Level cap! So essentially, the maximum Character Level for a character who has completed their Mission is [Kingdom Level + 1]. Neat, huh?

Now, as with most things in this chapter, Backgrounds have a series of tables for random generation. Unlike most things in this chapter, though, the book explicitly INSISTS that newbies use said tables for their characters; only once you've played a few times and have a good feel for how the game works are you officially clear to make up your own. The setup for the Background Tables is a variation on the standard D66: instead of rolling both dice simultaneously and counting the lowest rolled number as the "tens" digit, roll them separately and take the first die as the "tens". The reason for this is most likely the significant increase in the number of available options.

Time for examples!

JohnOfOrdo3 posted:

1.3: You originally came to this Kingdom seeking asylum from a neighboring Kingdom. Randomly select a square of Terra Incognita from the map on your Kingdom Sheet; this is the site of your home country. Decide on a name for it, and mark its Relation on the Sheet as <Strained>. Your Mission is to raise your Kingdom's Relation with your home's to <Allied>.

The king's a foreigner! But instead of producing a birth certificate, his Mission is to make peace with his homeland. Rolling additional dice along the X and Y axes of the Kingdom Sheet's Terra Incognita map , he gets 6 and 1, placing it in the southwest corner of the region, further rolling generating its name as the "New Adventure Alliance". C'mon and grab your friends.

dereku posted:

4.5: You are a spy for one of the Great Powers. Roll a 1D6 to determine your home nation: 1, the Dynamite Empire; 2, the Millennium Dynasty; 3, the Metro Khanate; 4, the Capitalist People's Republic of Hagulma; 5 or 6, roll again. Naturally, this is a secret from the rest of the Court, but your purpose is not exactly malicious. Your Mission is to maneuver the Kingdom into becoming a Vassal State of your home nation.

So the king's from out of town and the head of the military is a spy? This kingdom's off to a great start. dereku's next roll is a 6, so they reroll and get a 1. The Dynamite Kingdom has sent him to tell everyone how awesome they are, and convince them that they could be even more awesome together. Well, guess that doesn't sound so bad.

Everything Counts posted:

6.6: You were the slave of a monster or Tyrant (Dungeon Book, p. 64). Select one other character from your Court. This character freed you, and in return, you have sworn your loyalty to them. Start with 1 point of “Loyalty” <Sympathy> with this Character. Your Mission is to die for this Character while possessing at least 1 point of <Sympathy> for them. Whether or not your death was “for” them is at the GM's discretion.

Woo, yeah... this one's kinda tricky. Naturally, with this being a fantasy setting, death isn't necessarily permanent, but still, most deaths occur in combat, and Politicians typically aren't typically built for running into melee range. On the other hand, this also means they trend heavily towards the "squishy" side of the HP scale, so maybe if they just time it right... er, but that's getting way ahead of things. The text doesn't require random selection of the character, so unless EC has their own idea, the first unused roll of theirs is a 4, which comes out to Ryuujin's Priest on my Everyone But That Guy Table. Hmm... this could be interesting (Incidentally, a Tyrant is basically a Landmaker who's gone insane and started ruling over a patch of wild dungeon with an iron fist. Anyone who wanders through is taken prisoner and forced to play along.)

Ryuujin posted:

1.1: For whatever reason, your parents abandoned you, and you spent your early childhood in the dungeons. This experience inspires you to seek out a partner with whom to make your own family, and make it right. Your Mission is to establish a <Empathy> Status of <Lover> with another Character.

Empathy Statuses, which I don't believe I've covered, are attained by maxing out one of the three Sympathy sub-types: Affection, Loyalty, and Friendship. <Lover>, as you might guess, requires full points in Affection. There'll be more detail on what these Statuses actually mean in a later chapter. All that concerns us right now is that Ryuujin's looking to start a family. They don't have to pick any particular Character for this; they could even have several pokers in the fire, so to speak. Still, might make for some good RPing if they went for someone close at hand... someone showing them a bit of Loyalty, perhaps... wink wink nudge nudge

Mr. Maltose posted:

5.5: You can barely restrain your lust for battle. The world is gray to you, only bursting into color for the instant when you take a life. Your mission is to get the killing blow on 100 Monsters.

Well. That's certainly... rather... straightforward. Works out fairly well for a Ninja, too. Might be kind of awkward rolling something like this up for a Politician or a Servant, unless you're looking for a challenge, I suppose. Anyway, not much to say about this one, so let's move on.

goatface posted:

4.2: A rival Kingdom is holding your family hostage and forcing you to act as a spy for them, sowing confusion and passing back whatever information they require. Randomly select a square of Terra Incognita from the map on your Kingdom Sheet; this is the site of the enemy country. Decide on a name for it, and mark its Relation on the Sheet as <Strained>. Your Mission is to establish an <Empathy> Status of <Rival> with another character in your Court.

Great! Another freaking spy! And this one's actually trouble! Still, it's not really their fault. <Rival> is the sole exception to the Sympathy monopoly on Empathy Statuses, being attained by maxing out one of the Antipathy sub-types while having at least one point of Sympathy for the same character; maybe they could team up later for a rescue mission, just like in that one Bruce Willis movie! Random kingdom generation puts goatface's parents/siblings/whatever in "The Third Demon City", at map point 2x4, just a couple spaces north of Kitty Planet.

Next step: Jobs! Apparently, you're born a Landmaker, but you don't actually realize it for a while, kind of like the X-Men . Since life is lived pretty much universally at the subsistence level, everybody's got to pull their own weight. Jobs are handed down through family units, so before you rose to power as a Landmaker, there was something that occupied your waking hours, and the skills you learned from that Job will stick with you forever. Each Job also gives a permanent +1 bonus to one of your Ability Scores, which is quite handy. A detailed listing of the basic Jobs and their attendant Skills will take up my next post (or possibly two, there's rather a few of them), so for now, I'll just leave this here:


Oh, Servants get two Jobs. Did I forget to mention that? Well, they do. It's a balancing mechanic, mostly, since they have such average stats in everything by default.

So now that you've got all your Abilities added up and your Sub-Stats accordingly calculated, what's left? Well, you still have to pick a Class Skill and mark down the starting Skill from your Job. Then, figure out your starting equipment. You've got a pool of Common Items to choose from, combined from the listings on your Class and your Job. You can only have up to six items in your inventory at a time, so anything you don't want or don't have room for can be passed to someone else; any unclaimed Items once the dust has settled are discarded. However, if you find yourself with room to spare, there's a quick 2D6 table you can roll on for some free general-purpose loot. Then, write down the names of the other members of your Court in the Acquaintances column of your Character Sheet, select one person from that list, and give yourself one point of <Sympathy> for them (sub-type chosen at random).

The last step is another one that's a bit unusual: Likes and Dislikes. Every character has two of each, determined by rolling D66 on each of the four Word Tables, which, as the name implies, are all made up of a bunch of words; the results are then assigned at will between the Likes and Dislikes entries. Note that these are purely for role-playing purposes - a Chef who dislikes cooking will suffer no penalty, nor will a Knight who likes martial arts enjoy a bonus.


That's pretty much it for creating a character in Meikyuu Kingdom ! Next time: a big ol' bastard list of employment opportunities! I can't wait!

Gainful Employment

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 2.5: Gainful Employment

Jobs! Everybody's got (at least) one! But I already explained all that. So what do you get out of them?


Enough with that list. On with the list!

Astrologist

I know why the caged star sings...

In the Million Dungeons, Astrologists don't just read stars, they converse with them. Somehow, this allows them to influence the weather and improve agricultural harvests, because "star" seems to mean something different in this game than it does in your average dictionary. For one thing, they're apparently sentient.


Magician

cuteness supremacy

Astrology, Summoning and Science are collectively referred to as "the Three Great Magics". Magicians dabble a bit in all three. However, since the Dungeon Hazard is widely believed to have been caused by an ancient magical experiment gone wrong, the practice of magic is frowned upon in many kingdoms and even actively oppressed in others. Recent generations have begun to shake off this prejudice, however, and it's no longer quite so unusual to find open practitioners holding office.


Summoner

"Kingdom Hearts is light!"

Transport matter across great distances through the use of key-shaped implements called "Unchains". Cool, huh?


Professor

"Remember, I know more than you."

Of the Three Great Magics, Science is a relatively new arrival. Adherents preach rationalism and experimentation above all, huffily disdaining any "fluctuations" which they cannot presently explain... such as Astrology, Summoning, or the Dungeon Hazard. Still, the advent of Science has advanced the understanding of more mundane matters considerably in recent years, making it the fastest growing of the Great Magics.


Medic

"Show us where it hurts, dearie."

Doctors, basically. This is one of those professions that's been helped out immensely by the aforementioned rise of Science, and life expectancy is the highest it's been probably since the Dungeon Hazard. There's some friction with Priests, though, as they tend to think of healing as their job.


Aristocrat

"Ah do declayah!"

Descended from a noble bloodline, your "job" boils down to "being alive", which tends to make you unpopular in smaller kingdoms where time is measured in harvests and everyone lives three-to-a-room. Still, someone's got to keep a touch of class about the place, don't they?


Eunuch

......

Yep. Eunuchs. Advisers and government officials, they willingly have their testicles removed in order to remove the physical distraction of sex from their largely intellectual duties, like a more drastic take on the Mentats from Dune . The flavor text specifies that the process of removal is dangerous, and the possibility of restoration is slim, yet somehow young men are still lining up for the position. Also, there's nothing rules-as-written about gender exclusion, so female Eunuchs are entirely possible. How that works out, I don't even want to know.


Warrior

"......"

Fighter-types who love to fight. You guys can fill it in from there, I'm sure.


Executioner

"That back molar is going to have to come out."

Sometimes, you have to get a little barbaric in order to keep things civilized. Whether they're put to active use or just told to stand there and radiate menace, keeping an Executioner around tends to reinforce the peoples' loyalty to their rulers. The flavor text also mentions some common execution methods in the Million Dungeons, such as portable guillotines for justice on the go.


That's about half of them. Next time: the rest! I can't wait!

Happymancer & Friends

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post

Cardiovorax posted:

It's bilingual.

Just like "Make You Kingdom"!


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 2.6: Happymancer & Friends

Where was I?

Guard

"Watch the skies, traveler."

Your standard militia/police force, with duties ranging from repelling enemy invaders and leading disaster recovery efforts to raiding the local gambling den and carrying kittens down from trees.


Merchant

"Now, how much would you pay for this high-quality potion-bottle set? But wait! There's more!"

Turns junk into cash through a complicated alchemical process known as "browbeating".


Daedalist

What's with the ear flaps?

Craftspeople who can rearrange and reshape portions of dungeon by directly interfering with the "kernel" that serves as the area's core. You might think this would count as a Great Magic, but apparently not. Indispensable on construction projects.


Barkeep

This guy rolled boxcars on the Facial Hair Table.

Keeps the drink flowing and the guests relaxed. Besides, what sort of fantasy game would it be without any inns?


Cook



If it bleeds, they can grill it. Landmakers still gotta eat, y'know.


Happymancer



Anywhere there's a festival, there they'll be, with a song, or a story, or just a bit of conversation, whatever it takes to keep everybody in the right mood. Don't let the clown get-up fool you, either, they can work any sort of crowd: joyful, sorrowful, they'll even fan the flames of anger if that's what's needed.


Worker

bzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Most of the Jobs revolve around using a skill or filling a particular need; this one is all about getting shit done. Whaddaya need?


Hunter

The cheek stripes are absolutely essential.

Rangers. They shoot arrows at animals. It's that simple.


Adventurer

Your classic murderhobo.

Chronic do-gooders, explorers, or just folks seized by wanderlust, anyone who manages to stay alive long enough in this line of work will find a name's been made for them.


Loafer

Hatbird sold separately.

Most of the Jobs revolve around using a skill or filling a particular need; this one is all about not getting shit done. Hey, it can be a lot harder than you'd think!


Thief

Eh, I got nothing. Let's just get this done.

Rogues. Again, just that simple.


And that's it for Jobs. Next time: how to actually play the game! I can't wait!

The Basics

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 3.1: The Basics

Phases of Play

Each game of Meikyuu Kingdom follows a progression of four Phases:


In-Game Time

When everyone has resolved their actions, that is one Cycle . Cycles have two more commonly used sub-terms depending on when the time is being measured: Rounds in combat, and Quarters during the Dungeon Phase. The passage of four Quarters equals one Turn , which isn't actually a cycle but will come up later.

Actions

Characters exist in one of two states: Ready and Spent . Most actions require the character to be Ready, and they become Spent once the action is resolved. At the end of each Cycle, all remaining characters revert to Ready.

There are four main types of Actions:


Action Checks

Roll 2D6 and add the appropriate Ability (predetermined by game data, or else set by the GM); this total is your Achievement Value (AV) . If the AV is equal to or greater than the Check's Difficulty (again, predetermined or else GM'd; typically ranges from 7 to 11), the Check succeeds. A standard, simple enough mechanic that I was for some Godforsaken reason compelled to spend the better part of two months trying to make sound complicated. :spergicide:


Co-Operative Actions

Before another character rolls for a Check, you may make a Co-Operative Action to help them by offering advice or assistance. This counts as a Support-type action, so you must be Ready beforehand and are Spent afterwards; also, you cannot Co-Operate with a character for whom you have more <Antipathy> than <Sympathy>. No roll is required, just describe how your character is collaborating in the target action, and if the GM decides it sounds valid, the Check's AV is increased by the total <Sympathy> you have for the character making it.

National Disasters

If the <Vox Populi> ever drops below the number of Landmakers currently in the game, and every time it's caused to drop further below that number (even if it's already at 0), a representative of the Court must roll 2D6 against the National Disaster Table. As the name implies, this is something you'd generally want to avoid doing: plagues, famine, invasions, and uncontrollable shifts in the dungeon are just a few of the possible results.

...huh, that ended on kind of a dire note. Well, anyway! Next time: play begins! Here's hoping I get it up sometime before November!

Court Is Now In Session

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 3.2: Court Is Now In Session

Once you've got all the characters rolled up and the little details hammered out, it's time to start actually playing the game. The first part of every session will be the Kingdom Phase , which itself follows a progression of four sub-phases: Prologue , Round-Table , Action Resolution , and Departure .

Prologue

By design, a solid chunk o' roleplay. How much or how little your group breaks off is a matter of individual taste, but should at the bare minimum include the GM's background exposition, the introduction of this session's adventure (most typically in the form of a citizen's petition), and the PCs' reaction to same.

Round-Table

Now that everybody knows what's happening, it's time for the Court to put its collective heads together and decide what to do about it. Of course, the answer to this is will probably generally boil down to "strap on our swords and go kill things until the problem goes away", but there's a bit more involved when you've also got a kingdom to take care of (roleplaying not strictly required, but recommended, I mean it's a roleplaying game, what did you even come here for, geez):


Action Resolution

Once the Kingdom's good and prepped, the Landmakers have just enough time before heading out to make some personal preparations. Action Resolution lasts for one Cycle, which means everybody gets just one turn, but there's no mention of any particular order to follow, so fight it out between yourselves, I guess. Your options run as follows:



Excelsior!

Departure

With loins girded, all that's left now is the getting there! Get out your local Terra Cognita map, start from the entrance to your Kingdom and chart a course to wherever the action's been scheduled. For every plot you cross along the way, something happens:


As soon as the Court reaches the spot on the map marked "DUNGEON", the Kingdom Phase ends. Next time: the next phase! Guess what it's called! G'wan, guess!

Everybody Delve!

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post

occamsnailfile posted:

Rifts:™ Dimension Book One: Wormwood

Pretty sure I neglected to mention it at the time, but the idea of the planet itself as a living organism that responds to the presence of sentients by forming itself into structures struck me as an idea with a high degree of applicability.

On a more immediately relevant note, as previously stated, the PDF's shortcut method on the card names left some questions hanging at certain points, so I'll be re-translating those as I get to them. I've also decided to risk coming across as a primadonna and am rejecting their translations for most of the game terminology. In the former case, I'll make a note whenever my translation and the PDF are significantly different; in the latter case, it's just me finding the majority of their word choices unnatural rather than wrong (though if you want to accuse me of just having my own terms stuck in my head and refusing to shift them, I guess there's not really any evidence I could present to the contrary ), so I don't imagine anyone will have any great difficulties in puzzling them out.

ANYWAY,


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 3.3: Everybody Delve!

The next phase of play is called the Dungeon Phase, because it takes place in the dungeon. Any questions so far?

First thing the Dungeon Phase needs is a dungeon. Since making one is the GM's job, all you'll have to show for it at the start will be one of these (which was probably put out on the table after the Prologue in the last phase):


Don't have to worry anymore about getting the sheets labeled up and described. Handy!

The Dungeon Name is, by default, the only part that the GM is required to write down for you. The spaces at the bottom of each room are for the number of Traps (the T that looks like it's surrounded by laurels) and Enemies (the E in the black smiley devil face) present within it; these are only filled in by Gather Information checks. Usually, the same goes for the name of the Dungeon Boss (Ruler), although that may have been revealed by the game's plot (if you're storming a dungeon with a name like "The Lair of Siembieda the Mad", it doesn't take Mycroft Holmes to figure out who's probably waiting at the end). The check box in the corner of each room gets marked when that room has been fully explored. This comes up later.

The Time Tracker in the middle measures how long you've spent in the dungeon. Cycles in the Dungeon Phase are measured in Quarters , with each Quarter following the progression of Move , Encounter and Make Camp , to be detailed shortly. Four elapsed Quarters equals one Turn , which is where things get tricky. At the end of a Quarter, if one full Turn has passed since the last time the Court used at least one of the two food Items - {Boxed Lunch} and {Full-Course} - everyone loses 1D6 <HP> to hunger, and will lose an additional 1D6 <HP> at the end of every Quarter that passes afterwards, until you either find something to eat or the Phase ends, for good or ill. After three Turns have passed in the dungeon, the Court starts losing 1D6 <HP> at the end of every Quarter due to exhaustion; this is separate and cumulative with the loss from hunger, so watch out!

(What the map doesn't remind you of is that if you use three or more of the food Items combined in the course of a single Turn, everybody gets hit with the "Fat" Status Effect, which makes it harder to move around in combat. So, while management of your time and resources is important here, trying to solve the problem with overkill will only hurt you in the end.)

But you can table those concerns for now, because you haven't started even one Cycle yet. C'mon, dungeon ain't gonna explore itself, ya know.


Left: a typical dungeon camp scene. Right: a Priestess falls victim to the dreaded Candy House trap.

Move

First step is the simplest. Pick an open Passageway leading out from the room you're in and move through it into an adjacent room. Entering the dungeon is considered your first movement, so you'll just skip to the next step at the start. If the dungeon is spread out across more than one map, moving from an edge room on one map to another is still just one move, since despite appearances they are still adjacent.

Also, you can freely cross any number of previously explored and cleared rooms in one go, but nothing stays empty for long out in the Million Dungeons. Every time you move into an emptied room, have one of you roll a 2D6. If the result is less than [Number of people in the Court + number of rooms already crossed], the GM rolls on the Random Encounter Table and a group of Monsters appears. If this happens, the move is interrupted, and you must proceed with the...

Encounter

When you arrive in a new room, the GM describes the visible interior features, generally including any monsters/people/other such beings present, the names and numbers of which are written down in the middle of the room's square. What happens next depends on their disposition:


However the encounter winds up being resolved, if you're not ready to stop yet, you can attempt to Press On . Have a representative make a Charisma Check with a Difficulty of [Court's total <Staff> / 10 + 7]. If successful, you may make another Move without advancing the time. If it fails, you just...

Make Camp

Once you've got everyone settled down, the Quarter is essentially over, but there's still a bit you can do before turning in. Each member of the Court may perform one of the following actions; all actions are considered Planning, so you'll be Spent once they're resolved. Who goes in what order is entirely up to you.


But wait, there's more! If any Check made in Camp comes up as a Total Failure, in addition to the normal effects of such a result, you have to roll against the Incident Table for whichever Attribute was being used in the failed Check. Results range from really bad to even worse. Roll high.

Once all actions have been resolved, mark off the time on the map and start again from Move . The Dungeon Phase will continue in this manner until the scenario has been successfully completed, the Court is wiped out, or you give up and return home early. However, note that heading back to the Kingdom does not automatically end the Dungeon Phase; it's possible to head back out and try again, but this carries its own set of risks which will be covered with the Ending Phase.

In between that, though, combat is practically a phase in itself, and this post has taken long enough to get done, so Next time: roll initiative! I can't wait!

blah blah kill blah

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 3.4: blah blah kill blah

Try as you might to get along with everyone you meet, sooner or later you're going to run into the hard truth that sometimes the only way to keep things civilized is to whip out your sword and start lopping off heads. When this happens in the game, the screen goes blurry and zooms in as the music changes into something more uptempo, signaling the beginning of Combat .


No translation necessary. I totally didn't notice the little note in the corner of each side's Encampment until I linked the image, and apparently the PDF guy didn't see it either. Looks like it's just a rules reminder, anyway, not a big deal. I'll just point out which one.

First thing’s first: set up the Battlefield , pictured above. The GM sets up their Monsters and any Combat Traps on the dark half of the board, arranged according to the scenario (if unspecified, they're placed at will); the PCs are set up on the light half according to the formation decided on in the Dungeon Phase setup or the most recent Camp. The book emphatically states at this point that no revisions can be made at all once the Court has restarted the Dungeon Phase. The implication seems to be that, unless rearranged in Camp, PCs start a new combat in the same Battlefield positions they were in at the end of the last combat, even if that leaves them in the middle of the enemy's Encampment. However, even after double-checking the original text, the official errata, and the Meikyuu Kingdom FAQ, I can't find anywhere that actually makes that EX plicit, so either there's something in the Japanese that's flown over the heads of two translators so far, or there's no implication at all and I'm missing something obvious because I'm a big dumb dummy dope.

Whatever the case, there's one more preparatory step, and that's checking for a Surprise Attack . A Surprise Attack means that the enemy gets to take one free Full Action before Combat begins proper. This occurs if either of the following conditions are met:

As with the rest of the Dungeon Phase, time in Combat is measured in Cycles - here called Rounds - which follow a repeated sequence until an end condition is met. The first part of the Round is the Tactical Check , basically a group initiative roll. A representative of the Court makes a (Wit) Check with a Difficulty equal to the highest <Evasion> among the Monsters present; if the enemies are NPCs made using PC data instead of card data, substitute [enemy's highest (Wit) + 7] as the Difficulty (NPC enemies can also make Co-Operative Checks to increase the Difficulty by one point each).

If the Tactical Check passes, the Court gets to take their Full Actions first, and vice versa. Full Actions consist of two parts, a Move and an Action , which must be resolved in that order. Which characters take their actions in which order isn't so rigid, BUT! Once one half of a Full Action has been taken, the other half must be completed before another can start. So you can't say, for example, move your character up, let another one move out of the way, then blast the whole Area with a Skill and let the other guy move back to where they were. Either you go first and they soak some of the damage, or you let them go first and lose the position. Strategy!

(Note: none of what follows from here to the end of the Round is at all mandatory. If there's no other option that looks good, you can Pass either one or both of these steps. Even if you Pass on them both, though, you'll still wind up Spent at the end, so maybe think twice about it.)

Move is exactly what it sounds like: move your character forwards or backwards 1 Area on the Battlefield. However, it's not always as easy as that. An enemy in the same Area will always try to Obstruct you from moving past them. If the number of Allies also present is greater than the enemies' total <Valor>, the line cannot hold and you can move past them freely. If less than or equal to, you're successfully boxed in and can't move past them in either direction, unless you sacrifice 1D6 <Staff> to hold them off while you and the rest Break Through to the other side.

After you've moved (or not), take your choice of Action.

Attack is the most basic, which makes it the most complicated. Follow the steps:


This seems like a good time to discuss what happens when a Character's <HP> is reduced to 0 or less. Depends on the character: Monsters are automatically considered irretrievably Dead, while PCs and Major NPCs get to roll on the Mortal Wound Table for a chance at survival. The odds of coming out of that roll merely Unconscious are pretty good, too, though it'll either cost you something or take a Check to pull through. Unconscious characters are considered Spent, cannot perform any Aid or Interrupt Actions, and have their <Evasion> set to 7; if an Unconscious character takes even one more point of damage, they move down the list to Dead. Dead characters are everything Unconscious ones are (except for the <Evasion>, but who's going to want to hit a dead guy?). Dead PCs or Major NPCs must be revived by using a {Restorative Herb} or {Grail} on them before the Ending Phase is complete, otherwise too much time will have passed to save them and it’ll be time to roll up someone new.


This post is getting kind of wall-of-texty, so here's a picture I found of an Ogrekin dressed up as the guy from the box art of Munchkin .

If you're the non-violent hippy type or there’s nothing near enough to hit, there are a passel of Support Actions , too.


One final option which doesn't fit neatly into any of those categories is effecting a Full Retreat . This can only be done if all Allied characters are present in your own Encampment. Make an (Adventure) Check against the enemy's highest <Evasion>. If it succeeds, all enemy characters are removed from the Battlefield and combat ends (I can't find any official mention of anything particular happening if the Check fails, but common sense would seem to dictate that it would leave at least the character making the roll Spent, and the Round would continue from there). Fleeing PCs must move back to the room they came from, so retreat is flatly impossible if a Trap or somesuch has closed off that Passageway; Monsters, on the other hand, have the home court advantage of being able to scarper off to any room the GM likes. (Incidentally, this is what's printed on the Battlefield.)

After both sides have fully resolved all their Full Actions, it's time to take a headcount. If both armies still have at least one member standing, start a new Round over back at the Tactical Check. If the whole of one side has been removed from the Battlefield due to death, unconsciousness, retreat or surrender, combat ends and the other side is declared victorious. For the purposes of having anything left to talk about, we'll go ahead and assume it was the PCs who won.

The loot you earn from the defeated enemies (surrender counts as defeat, retreat does not) is determined by rolling on the Treasure Tables, which are divided by Level ranges. You can roll one of two ways, which must be decided on before the dice are actually thrown: enemies can be taken individually, and you roll on the Tables whose Individual Level range corresponds to each enemy's Level; or, groups of identical enemies may be lumped together, and you roll just once for each group according to the Tables' Total Level range. Higher Level ranges have a better chance of snagging Rare Items, but if you're trying to farm out some Materials, rolling individually a bunch of times would improve your chances there.

After clearing the loot screen, the game shifts back to the Dungeon Phase at the point of setting up Camp, unless the room you just cleared included the Dungeon Boss, in which case the scenario is cleared and the game moves back to the kingdom to wrap up any loose ends and (ideally) use your newly won wealth to expand your influence. Next time: that stuff I just said! I can't wait!

1 - What the book doesn't tell you here is that the majority of Ranged Weapons have a disadvantage built into their effect text: if the Hit Check is successful and there are multiple characters in the same Area as your intended target, the one you actually hit is chosen at random. I guess this is to discourage players from making a meat wall out of one or more Knights and having the rest of the Court safely plink every threat to death from behind them.

Anime Death Tentacle Kingdommaker

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 3.5: Anime Death Tentacle Kingdommaker

You've spent a hard day bringing the hostile hinterlands to heel and now you're finally back on your own home turf, but don't crack open those brewskis just yet. Landmaking ain't like murderhoboing, after all, where you cash in your bounty and hit the taverns. There are responsibilities to responsibilize, Ts to dot and Is to cross, ducks what need lining up in rows before you can rest. The quacking would only keep you awake if you tried, anyway.

Before you do anything else, though, ask yourselves: are you really done with the dungeon? You set out there with an objective, remember? Well, did you successfully complete the scenario as given to you way back in the Prologue, or have you "tactically withdrawn"? In case of the latter, you'll probably want to give serious consideration to a Re-Challenge . With a Re-Challenge, you turn right back around to try that sucker again, restarting at the Kingdom Phase. This tops off your <HP> and gives you a chance to refill your <Staff>, Gather Information, or any of that other previously-detailed stuff. On the somewhat-less-than-upside, it also ends all continuous effects (such as Facility buffs from the first Kingdom Phase or Bad Statuses) and resets the <Vox Populi> to [10 - total number of Re-Challenges attempted this Game]. A very definite risk involved is the GM taking this opportunity to rearrange or even partially repopulate the dungeon, but as we'll see in a minute, even this pales against the penalty for leaving a job only half-done.

One more thing about this, and it's kind of important so I'll put sirens around it for emphasis: Not all Scenarios will allow Re-Challenges. This depends largely on the threat that's being addressed -- a great slavering beastie made of constellations set to take its rampage right down Main Street probably won't wait around while you get yourselves situated, but a sleeping dragon whose snore-smoke threatens to blanket the sky overhead will be just as evicted in another day or two. Also, unless your GM happens to be Megaduke Douchecanoe of Pricksylvania, they'll have told you outright at the start if this was the case.

If the Scenario has been completed or the Court votes to end the game early anyway, then the last phase of regular play begins, the appropriately named Ending Phase . Just like the others, this Phase follows a progression of sub-phases, as follows: Kingdom Change , Epilogue , Round-Table , and Level Up . ( Re-Challenge doesn't properly fit in this or any other Phase, and is treated the same way as an Interrupt action.)

Kingdom Change

The world doesn't come to a stop while you're off gallivanting about the dungeons, and the events that have taken place in your absence are determined here. For each Character that returns, roll 2D6 against the Kingdom Change Table; however, if the Scenario was not completed, you roll against the Kingdom Downturn Table instead. Most of the results are either shared between them or variations of each other (the people kept working diligently / slacked off while you were gone), just with any possible benefit removed (increase <Treasury> by 1 MG for each Turn that passed) and/or penalty worsened on the Downturn Table (increase <Upkeep> by the same rate). They're not a whole lot individually, but resolving half a dozen Downturn results all at once can really punch a hole in your plans or even leave the Kingdom in ruins.

Epilogue

Just like the Prologue, another mixture of roleplay and exposition that sums up how the situation stands after the events of the game. If the Court was promised a specific reward for completing the Scenario, it's given to them now.

Round-Table

Again, startlingly similar to its Kingdom Phase counterpart, the Ending Phase version consists of the following steps:


Level Up

If the Scenario was completed successfully, each member of the Court may gain one Level, so long as this won't put their Character Level above the current Kingdom Level. Any Characters who completed the mission from their Background may also gain one Level, but the Level gained this way is not subject to the Kingdom Level cap. On gaining a Level, the following effects are applied:


Any Character eligible to gain a Level but prevented by the Kingdom Level cap may instead take part in Retraining : choose any number of the Skills you have learned, unlearn them, and learn a new one from the available pool in place of each. Also, regardless of how the Scenario turned out, you can change one of your character's Likes or Dislikes to reflect the events of the game.

And that's it! Game's over, see you all next week. Write-up's not over, though, and I'm not even going to try and promise a clear estimate on when it'll show up again. When it does: a grand tour of the data cards! I can't wait!

...and the rest

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post

Cyphoderus posted:

There are Bad Statuses as well.

OHSHIT


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 3.uh, something: ...and the rest

In between the Ending Phase and the start of the Skill cards, they stuck all the miscellaneous rules that didn't rightly belong in any of the previous chapters, right where I could forget about them completely until a minute ago.

Bad Statuses

Yep, exact same video-game concept. Exact same terminology, even. You'll usually get these from Traps or Monster Skills. There are several Item or Skill effects which will clear them up, or most of them have conditions attached that let you remove them for "free".


Relationship Scores

I covered these already, didn't I? Only then I called them "Empathy" because vocabulary. Anyway, each sub-type has a maximum value of 5. Max one of them out and you'll more than likely hit upon a Special Relationship :


Unknown Encounters

This is, I believe, as close as the game comes to officially sanctioned GM dickery. The GM may designate a number of Combat Encounters in a scenario equal to the average Level of the Court to be "Unknown Encounters". In an Unknown Encounter, the stats of any or all Monsters involved are hidden from the players; all the GM is required to give are physical descriptions. So not only are their capabilities a mystery, but the Difficulties of any Checks made against them are secret! The PCs may attempt to ferret out their secrets by making a (Wit) Check with a Difficulty of [target Monster's Level + 5] (still a secret!), or by using the Professor's {Monsterology} Job Skill. If either of these are successful, the GM must reveal that Monster's stats.

Splitting the Party

It's a thing you can do. Movement, Encounters, and Camp are all resolved separately, one group at a time. If Combat begins while the Court is split, any PCs not in the room where it's starting may roll against the Dynamic Entry Table to try and burst in. This may be done before the first Round, or at the beginning of any Round after that.

Opposing Checks

Resolve Monsters first, then PCs. In case of two opposing PCs, flip a coin or something.

Falling Damage

No measurements given for how high up you have to be, so I guess it's up to the GM. Damage is a flat 3D6 <HP>, anyway, though the falling Character can make an (Adventure) / 9 Check to halve it.

Thinking On Your Feet

Make your own shit up and see what the GM thinks of it. Not recommended for newbies.

Kingdom Destruction

Yeah, this is a Big One. Your Kingdom and anything in it is destroyed if any of these conditions are met:

Kingdom Restoration

But so long as you're alive, it's not over yet! Once a Landmaker, always a Landmaker, even if you're reduced to ruling over a one-room tenement apartment in an abandoned building. All National Powers are considered to be 1, and you cannot gain any <Citizens> until you've acquired a new Territory. Once you have, though, [2D6 + number of Landmakers in Court] <Citizens> appear to live in it, and you're back in business. (Alternately, you could go make land for some other Kingdom, but where's the fun in that?)

Special Alliances

Oh, I love this one. Special Alliances are when one or more players from one Meikyuu group sit in and play a session with the Court of another group. Why give a fancy name to something like that, you may ask? The answer, of course, is tables: 1D6, rolled during the Prologue, against the Alliance Table corresponding to your Character's Class, to determine what it is they're doing way over in this other Kingdom adventuring with a bunch of strange Landmakers. Results usually imply a sort of mini-sub-quest to be folded into the larger Scenario - a Knight searching for a holy relic, an Oracle lost in a crisis of faith, a Servant on a mission to destroy a cursed object. After the game, if everybody's agreeable to the idea, both Kingdoms may mark the other down as Allied.

Trade and Exchange

I thought this had been covered back in the Kingdom Phase, but apparently it's an optional rule. During the Treasury Meeting of either the Kingdom Phase or the Ending Phase, you may initiate Trade with any other Kingdom on your Known World map with whom you have Diplomatic Relations of Neutral, Friendly, or Allied:

Passing Time

Tempus somethingorother, I forget the words but the basic idea is that time happens. Once during the Setup Phase (oh hey, something does reference it!), the players may elect to advance the game calendar by one year and roll against the Time Passage Table for a quick assessment of their fortunes over that time. Results are evenly split between good and bad.

Ghosts

A player whose Character dies during the game may, instead of being revived (or if they weren't in time, I guess), choose to become a Ghost and continue to assist the Court from beyond the grave. A Ghost Character may reduce either their <Affection> for another Character or another Character's <Affection> for them by 1D6 to make one Plan, Support, Assist or Interrupt Action; also, for the rest of the Cycle after doing this, any Permanent Skills they possess(ed) become active again. The drawback to this is that if the Ghost Character loses all their <Affection>, or if the Court loses all their <Affection> for the Ghost, there's nothing left to tie them to this world and they vanish for good.

Transporting Items

As a Plan Action during the Dungeon Phase, you can send some of your <Staff> back to the Kingdom with Items or Materials that you've found. Treat each citizen as if they had one Item Slot, assign the Items to be transported accordingly, and reduce your <Staff> by however many it ends up taking. Then, make a (Military) / 9 Check. If successful, increase the <Population> by the number of <Staff> dispatched, and mark the Items down on the Kingdom Sheet. If it fails, some of them fall victim to Traps or wandering Monsters en route; decrease the number of <Staff> by [Difficulty - Result] before increasing the <Population> (apparently, the ones who survive pick up the slack, because no mention is made of losing Items this way). On a Total Failure, the transport is a total failure, with all <Staff> and Items lost.

Government Policies

Hey, wait a second, this isn't anywhere in my copy of the Kingdom Book. Huh. I thought the PDF had been made using the same version, but I guess they got a reprint or something. Well, whatever. During the Round-Table of the Kingdom Phase, the Royalty or Vizier can make an Aid Action to enact one of two Policies to increase either the <Treasury> or the <Population>. When they do so, the maximum <Staff> for all members of the Court becomes [(Charisma) + Level] for the rest of the game. Beats me why. Before the Earnings Report of the next Ending Phase after declaring a Policy, make a Check with a Difficulty equal to [Kingdom Level + 5], using either (Quality of Life) for <Treasury> or (Public Order) for <Population>. If successful, increase the <Treasury> by [Kingdom Level] MG or the <Population> by [current Population ÷ 10].

Okay, that's that for the optional/miscellaneous rules. Next: the card data, I mean it this time.

Tour of Data - Advanced Skills (General to Science)

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post

A quick preface before I begin this beguine: the whole rest of the Kingdom Book, and the majority of the Dungeon Book after it, is made up of data cards for all the Skills, Items, Monsters and cetera. The data parts are competently represented in the /tg/ PDF translation, but without the artwork and flavor text, not to mention its usage of the often bewildering official English names, it's not always clear just what each card is meant to be depicting. So, for the rest of this write-up, I'll be giving my own take on the original Japanese card names first, followed by the English version used by the PDF in parenthesis (unless they turn out to be identical), and an ideally brief summation of what they are rather than what they do . Alright? Alright.


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu King WAIT HOLD IT STOP DA MUSIC Maybe this doesn't actually need to be said, but I'm gonna say it anyway just so I'll know it's not gonna come up later: The names I come up with will aim to be more literal than localized, and either way, any similarities that might possibly exist between them and what winds up in the published Lanternworks version will be completely coincidental. Alright? Alright. Okay, for real this time.


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 4.1.1: Tour of Data - Advanced Skills (General to Science)

Skills! They’re what you do. Three kinds, two of which we've already seen: Class Skills , half a dozen specialties for each of the six Classes; Job Skills , a singular ability granted by membership in one of the available Jobs; and Advanced Skills , covering everything else.

Advanced Skills are separated into twelve Groups: General , Melee , Ranged , Astrology , Summoning , Science , Dungeoneering , Negotiation , Handy , Entertainment , Item , and Secret (more precise definitions will be provided in turn when we come to them). Each Job has a list of one or more Skill Groups associated with it, which determines the pool of Skills you can initially choose from when your character gains a level. However, there are some Facilities coming up in a couple of posts that will let you expand on that list or change Jobs and switch it out completely. (Note: when switching Jobs, if your old one had a Group that your new one doesn't, you do NOT lose any Skills you've already learned from that Group, you just can't learn any new ones. Or relearn ones you had at the time but later forgot due to Retraining or some similar effect.)

Every Action has a Type, as well, which determines when and how its effect can be used: Permanent (always "on"), Assist (any time certain conditions are met), Interrupt (as before, but supersedes any and all Actions before it), Support (user's turn to act in Dungeon Phase or Combat, Exhausts on resolution), and Planning (user's turn to act in Dungeon or Kingdom Phase, Exhausts on resolution). These terms aren't limited to Skills, and anything that produces an effect will have at least one of them on the card somewhere. There are also six predefined Targets ( Single , Self , Court , Kingdom , Room and Item ) but they're pretty much self-explanatory so I won't bother.

But enough talk! Have at you!

GENERAL

As the name might imply, Skills from this Group don't require any particular knowledge to pull off. In fact, more than a few of them seem more like the sort of personal traits that might be called "Feats" in some other games, but hey, Skills work too. Jobs: All


MELEE

Techniques and maneuvers for the up-close-and-personal types. Jobs: Warrior, Executioner, Adventurer


RANGED

Techniques and maneuvers for the ones safely behind that last bunch. Jobs: Warrior, Guard, Hunter


ASTROLOGY

No Nancy Reagan stuff, here. You've got the stars trained to jump on command. Haven't gotten to the lore chapter yet, so I still don't know exactly what's up with that, but the cards don't lie. Jobs: Astrologist, Magician


SUMMONING

Teleportation and monster control. Sounds simple, gets fancy. Jobs: Magician, Summoner


SCIENCE


In case you'd forgotten, in the Million Dungeons, science is considered a form of magic. Jobs: Magician, Professor, Medic


Halfway's a good place to stop, seems like. Next time: from walking through walls to hitting your opponent with vowels! I can't wait!

Tour of Data - Advanced Skills (Dungeoneering to Esoteric)

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 4.1.2: Tour of Data - Advanced Skills (Dungeoneering to Esoteric)

DUNGEONEERING

A bit of survival knowledge, a lot more direct manipulation of the world at large. Still can't believe this isn't considered one of the Great Magics. Whose idea was that, anyway? Jobs: Daedalist, Hunter, Adventurer, Thief


NEGOTIATION

One-stop shopping for all your interpersonal and social combat talkyskill needs. Jobs: Noble, Eunuch, Executioner, Merchant, Barkeep, Thief


USEFUL

That is, making yourself useful. Y'see? Jobs: Eunuch, Guard, Barkeep, Worker


ENTERTAINMENT

Showbiz! Jobs: Noble, Happymancer


ITEM

Get the most out of your gear. Jobs: Medic, Merchant, Cook, Thief


ESOTERIC

Practically superpowers , these are the most advanced of the Advanced Skills. In order to learn one, three requirements must be met: you must have an Advanced Job (or in the case of Servants, just one Advanced Job will do); you must know a certain number of Advanced Skills from the Group(s) specified for each Esoteric Skill; and your current Job must provide access to at least one of the specified Groups.


Yeah, it's not the weekend anymore and this is only one post. What can I say, I'm unreliable. Next time: loots!

Tour of Data - Common Items

posted by Bitchtits McGee Original SA post

Ningyou posted:

The lexicon from the intro, the opening fiction, leading into the dumb ~~freedom of the streets~~ thing by asking "why a 14yo girl would suck cocks in bus stations when she could be anywhere else"
[...]
At the other end of the spectrum, though....well, some "whitebread loser" with "his semen still warm in some 14yo boy's mouth" (whyyyyyy does the writer keep coming back to fourteen-year-old prostitutes that's kind of weirdly, frighteningly specific)

They're not "coming back" to them, it's the same prostitute in both examples, a subtle emphasizing of Mr. Minivan's utter cluelessness about the world beyond his Miracle-Gro front lawn where people stop being polite and start being real.

Also who the fuck didn't love stomping through the dead leaves every fall when they were a kid.


Cynical-Pop Meikyuu Kingdom Dungeon Theater

Chapter 4.2: Tour of Data - Common Items

Items! They're what you own. Broadly split into two categories: Common and Rare . Common Items are the mundane things, easily bought with plain old cash money during the Kingdom Phase; Rare Items are the magical artifacts and suchlike, and are generally much harder to get your hands on. Rares are listen in the Dungeon Book, though, so data-wise, it's all Commons for now.

All characters have six Item Slots which represent their inventory. Each Item takes up one Slot unless specified otherwise in the Effect Text, and a character can only use Items which they have equipped in a Slot. So, a Knight equipped with a sword, shield, and a suit of armor would have half of their Item Slots filled just kitting themselves up for battle, never mind anything else they might want to carry along. Space management is essential!

Each Item Slot can also hold up to 10 Materials , of which there are also ten types: Meat , Fangs , Leather , Wood , Iron , Cloth , Reagents , Machinery , Gunpowder and Information . Materials can be used to craft Common or even Rare Items during the Kingdom Phase, and each Item has listed on its card the components required to make it. Any number of an Item can be made in a single action provided you have enough Materials on hand, although you can't make more than the Court has open Slots to carry.

Unless you combine the Items together, creating instead a single Item with an increased Item Level ( unless the Item you're making doesn't have a Level to increase). Crafted or purchased Items always start at Level 0 (though Items looted from Monsters may have some Levels on them already), and can be raised up to a maximum Level of 10 by crafting, special events, or using certain Skills or Facilities. Naturally, higher Levels mean better effects: weapons do more damage, food restores more HP, that sort of thing.

Item effects have the same range of Action Types and Targets as I told you about in the first Advanced Skills post, so go back and read that one if you can't remember because I hate repeating myself. DATA TIME!!

ARMS


LIFESTYLE


RECOVERY


EXPLORATION


That’s it for Common Items. Next time: infrastructure!
The verb “ itomeru ” literally means “to stop with a shot”, with the implication that the target has been stopped by death, but can also be used as a euphemism for capturing another’s affections. So don’t worry, the prince is probably just fine!