Golden Sky Stories

19 February 2016

9 am: Golden Sky Stories

Keith Stetson: GM

Cat Ramen: Hochi the Magnificent, fox, girl, looks 8 years old. My notes are illegible on the subject of her favorite food. She threw various bits of clothing into incongruous outfits. "Humans wear this, right?" She wore earbuds, but had no idea how they actually worked. Apparently, humans got messages or heard music from them? She didn't hear anything. She has a streak of red hair, a long pointed nose, and intense green eyes. I think she always had fur somewhere on her.

Kevin: Maru, raccoon dog, boy, looks 12 years old. Favorite food: Everything. Short, round, bald, big brown eyes. Happy except when he's hungry, and then, he's grumpy. Wears monk robes and considers himself the town protector.

Alan: Chiyaya, dog, girl, looks 6 years old. Favorite food: Caramel.

Kirk: Umi, rabbit, boy, looks 10 years old. Favorite food: Red bean paste. In human form, he always wears a tuxedo.

Me: Kuro, bat, boy, looks 8 years old. Favorite food: Sugar plum. In human form, he wears a cloak with a hood to keep the sun out of his eyes.

Golden Sky Stories is a pastoral about henge, animals that can turn into humans. There isn't actually a bat template, but I brought one of my bat stuffies to the convention and to the table, and Keith said I could play a bat by rechroming the bird template. As part of this, I took the disadvantage of "day blind" instead of "night blind" and didn't take the power to turn day into night that's available for the bird.

Why would a bird want to turn day into night, when that makes the bird night blind? Certain things were easier at night for all the PCs.

The character sheet takes more time to describe than to use or fill out. There are four stats: Henge, Animal, Adult, and Child. You get 8 points to split between them. I forget the limits. I thought it was "Everyone must have at least one point in all stats", but I'm not sure that's correct.

Kuro had Henge 3, Animal 3, Adult 1, Child 1

Characters had connections to and from people and the town they lived in. The strength of the connections your character feels for others determines her Wonder. The strength of the connections others feel for your character determine her Feelings. Each box of Wonder gives a blue chip, and each of Feelings a red one. (Tally marks are equally acceptable, if not as tangible.)

If you take an action that isn't using a power, you need a certain score in one of your stats. Fr'ex, to open a door requires Adult 1. If your Adult is 0, you can't figure out how to open a door. But, you can spend Feelings chips to boost your Adult score high enough to open the door. Well, usually, you can; I gather Chiyaya had a certain disadvantage there.

To use a power cost a certain amount of Wonder chips. Some powers cost more than the number of chips one started out with.

However, at the begin of every scene, you keep the Wonder and Feeling chips you have leftover AND you get a full new set of Wonder and Feeling chips. That is, if I have 6 Wonder and 6 Feeling -- and the number will be the same for both, as the strength of a connection goes both ways -- and I spend 4 Wonder and 2 Feeling chips, in the next scene, I will have 8 Wonder (2 left over + 6 new ones) and 10 Feeling (4 left over + 6 new ones) chips, assuming I did not get any connections increased.

Anyone can give a white Dream chip to any player, including the GM, for doing or saying something really cool. I forget how the GM spends them. Three for a connection? Players spend five to increase a connection (at least until it went up to four, which didn't happen this game), and if someone increases his PC's connection with yours, then yours automatically increases as well, and you both get more chips.

This leads to a nice pacing mechanism where you can't use the big flashy powers early in the game, but by the climax, you will be able to.

In addition to all of this, any character transforming had to pay a cost in Wonder, Feelings, or a combination of the two. It was higher during the day, lower at night, and free in the evening. In addition, it cost to be fully human or to have just a tail. Being fully animal or having both ears and a tail were free.

The town was a small town in rural Japan in the present day. Technology was a little behind the times. Humans could get Surprised by seeing magic, which was not always a good thing. They weren't usually surprised by the more domestic animals. Birds and dogs and rabbits didn't surprise them, I think. But, a fox could be more than a bit of a surprise.

That said, the townsfolk generally understood, on some level, at least, that the PCs were a little, ah, unusual. And they accepted this. Everyone had a connection to the town where the town felt 2 boxes of Acceptance. Kuro felt Acceptance for the town, whereas Maru felt Protective.

Maru and Hochi considered each other Family, as they both lived in the temple, and both had been around a long time. Maru felt Protective of Chiyaya, who was younger than all the others. Chiyaya felt Admiration for Maru and Affection for the town.

• Kuro Accepted the town and was Accepted by the town.
• He Liked Chiyaya. What's not to like? Chiyaya Trusted him.
• He had Affection for Maru. Maru Trusted him.
• He considered Hochi a Rival. Hochi had no idea, of course, and had Affection for him.
• He Respected Umi, and Umi Admired him.

As the game started, it was Evening in a beautiful Spring. The news was that Ichiro had returned to town. All of the characters knew Ichiro, who had been a good friend to them before he went away. Well, to all of them except for Chiyaya, who had not been born then. He acted as if he had some idea of what they might be, and always accepted them.

And now, he had returned, with his new wife. Folks in town were happy. Ichiro had gone away to the big city and made good, but had realized that here was where he belonged, and he had brought his bride to share in the delights of the town.

It was Twilight. There was a ball game going on among the PCs.

Maru's player: I figure Maru is _not_ holding the ball. I figure Maru _is_ the ball.

Hochi: This is a Very Special Day, Kuro...

This was, of course, the lead in to one of Hochi's stories, which, of course, Hochi had told many times.

Chiyaya wandered off and found Ichiro sitting on a rock in a grove, very sad, possibly even crying a little. Chiyaya came closer, in puppy form, and was ignored.

GM: Emergency -- He is Not Petting You!

I think the rest gradually drifted to where they were. I think some question came up about Uni and his kind.

Uni: We're Western. We're imported.

Someone, possibly the GM: Imported Bunnies.

Ichiro finally greeted his friends, absently petting Chiyaya, whom he'd not met before, as Chiyaya, only 6, hadn't been born when he was last in town. Chiyaya was happy. This was much better.

Ichiro was sad because his wife did not like the town. She had been a cop in Tokyo and found the place too quiet. At some point, I think he mentioned something about snacks.

Maru: Ichiro, this is a Very Important question I have to ask you. Do you _have_ snacks?

Ichiro's friends, old and new, hoped his wife would come around. After all, this was a good town.

Hochi: Did you know this town was founded by a single feather from a phoenix's tail?

Ichiro (lying gallantly): I have never heard this story.

Maru: Are you sure? She's told it many times.

Someone mentioned planes.

Hochi: It's overrated.

Kuro (realizing there's a perfect distraction): Hochi, Ichiro's wife has never heard any of your stories!

Hochi's face lit up while Ichiro made fruitless gestures trying to stop Kuro from saying this after he'd already said it. I decided that Kuro has Admiration for Ichiro. I think the GM was the one who decided Ichiro has Affection for him.

My notes mention that Zerko was the town's Night Watchman. I'm guessing he saw the characters who decided to pay Ichiro and his family a visit and tried to protest, but either was convinced they weren't doing anything wrong or decided that these were just the strange folks of the town and that he shouldn't think too hard about this.

Regardless, Chiyaya pretty much walked right in to the house. I think Hochi's name came up.

Chiyaya: Oh Hochi lectures. She's a teacher, and I don't like school.

Ichiro and his wife were rather surprised at her presence.

Chiyaya: I saw that you had food.

Chiyaya's Player: I just sorta roll into the room.

Ichiro's wife: Who are you?

Chiyaya: Chiyaya is Chiyaya.

Maru came in as well.

Maru: Peaches?

By now, of course, Ichiro's wife was awake and not about to be asleep.

Chiyaya: She's not falling asleep because we're having a sleepover.

At this point, we decided that Ogawa was Ichiro's parents' surname.

I think Umi may have been in the house as well. Kuro wasn't. Hochi was -- but she was invisible, and thus not taxing Ichiro's wife's patience further.

My notes say something about "_Clumsiness_ Dream", and I've no idea what that means. But, Chiyaya was clumsy and somehow broke the family's television.

Chiyaya felt badly about that, so she offered 100 yen to pay for fixing it, which was all her money, and, no doubt, she thought it was a lot. As of 26 February 2017, I see that it's actually less than a dollar. That said, one of the Ogawa parents accepted to make her feel good, probably the father, bowing respectfully, and telling her that it would be a great help.

The animals retired for the night, as Ichiro's wife demanded to know what kind of town this was, not locking the doors -- anyone could come in and do, well, anything!

Ichiro's friends returned to the house the next day. As they approached, they smelled machine oil burning. There were men from Ace Locksmith, installing a lock at the insistence of Ichiro's wife, who was either not at the house or who stormed out after seeing everyone. I think most of the group ignored the lock.

Hochi: If you dump Kuro in the river and hold him over a piece of paper, I can do divinations.

I forget the context of that. I think Ichiro's wife, who was named Roriko, had made some incredulous comment about people sleeping with their door unlocked.

Hochi: Locks are unlucky.

Ichiro explained that Roriko had been quite an active cop and had even busted some Yakuza. Kuro repeated this to Chiyaya, I think.

Chiyaya: What's a Yakuza?

Kuro (whispering to Umi): (What's a Yakuza?)

Umi: I think it's sort of a merchant, but they squat.

Kuro decided to find Roriko and talk with her, quietly, without the crowd of his friends. After all, he hadn't been part of the crowd in the house the previous night. He listened to her venting and decided he would show her magic.

Hochi joined him at some point, and Hochi's player and the GM decided that there was a rivalry between Hochi and Roriko.

Hochi: I had a friend who slept for 17 hours.

I think Kuro had a way to share his power of flying with Roriko. He used it when he and Roriko spotted Chiyaya approaching -- wearing Roriko's cop had and carrying her baton!

Kuro told Roriko to trust him, and he would take her flying, just like she did in the city.

Roriko (as she realizes she's left the ground) This is not the way city people fly!

Kuro (I think): I think I'm going to lie to her.

Meanwhile, Maru and Hochi were talking about Yakuza, whom, they thought, were some kind of ogres.

Someone: Keku Hochi -- You know what ogres are!

Maru: An Ogre -- eh?

Hochi: I know where you can find an ogre!

By now, I think, Kuro had Affection for Roriko and she had Trust for him. This was at 2 boxes each way.

Hochi caught up with Roriko and Kuro and Chiyaya if she hadn't already. And when Roriko landed and Chiyaya claimed that she was a cop and Roriko a naughty oni-yakzua, Roriko --

Roriko played along with Chiyaya, pretending to chase her. And she seemed to be enjoying herself.

I think at this point, Hochi created a Faerie Rain, during which the henge could take human form at no cost, and I think it was a very bright day, and everyone was flying.

But, Kuro had problems, being day blind.

Hochi: It's okay, Kuro -- I'll guide you.

And we had the beginnings of a fine eucastastrophe.

Hochi: You know, Kuro, I wasn't sure that was the right thing to do, but...

Meanwhile, Umi was trying to explain the concept of a Yakuza Oni to Maru who was trying to shapechange into one.

Umi: Yakuza Oni -- it's like a regular Oni, but you have to squat down and smoke.

Smoke poured out of Maru.

Maru the Yakuza Oni: Time for School!

Umi played bait, summoning people to the scene where the Dreaded Yakuza Oni was chasing him and perhaps being chased by Chiyaya and Roriko, who was now trying to match Hochi's tales with her own.

Maru beat on his belly, as Tanuki Drumming is a powerful magic effect, and Kuro summoned bats to flock. All the townsfolk had their Adult rating drop to 0. All electronics temporarily stopped working.

Ichiro was flying with his wife, and both of them were happy.

There was, in short, a Crazyass Carnival in the middle of town.

GM: And _that's_ when it gets weird!

Someone: _That's_ when it gets weird?

Well, weirder. There was a Bat Strobe Light. And, Hochi gave Ichiro and Roriko a gift of either flight or float power -- I believe we agreed on float. The gift was a pendant of a fox carved out of jade. Also, Hochi arranged for Ichiro's parents to get a donation of enough money to buy a new television.

A few days later...

Ichiro: So, do you still think this place is boring?

Roriko: Well... it _has_ been getting a little boring lately...

She fingered her pendant, and they smiled at each other.

Hochi: And that was The Adventure of Hochi and Her Friends!

Sidenote: At one point, the GM checked in with us to see how we were doing and if we liked where things were heading.

Me: Yay!

GM: Well, I've no idea how Lisa is feeling! How about the rest of you?

Chiyaya's Player: I'm a walking id.