Feelgood games

I mostly play games for the things I can't do in real life, so I don't really see the point.

I'd play it.

I know that feel so much...

Because if I play someone who is suffering more than I am and they manage to achive happiness I can pretend that it is possible for me to do that as well.

Do more research.

...

>Why are they rare?
>Here's one, do more research.

You seem like a shit.

Golden Sky stories? Possibly MAID.

You seem like someone who doesn't do their research.

I already enjoy life in my boring real-world life, I don't need to play pretend to get that experience.

Exactly. I get to do boring menial stuff with no conflict all day already, and I hate it. Why the fuck would I want to play a game about doing more boring menial stuff with no problems ever?

What do you do? My job is highly demanding and full of conflict. It's nice to have a break from that.

Well it's kinda...
Why do you need /a system/ to play some general feelgoodsy stuff? The whole point of it is to unbiasedly resolve the conflicts as necessary to progress the story.

>le rural life is such bliss meme

If you've lived on the country by working the land you'll know exactly how ''''''''''''''enjoyable''''''''''''''''''' it is

You can play games that are about enjoying life and are relatively low-stakes while still having some amount of action and conflict.

Is this the Animal Crossing of TTRPGs?

Ryuutama is more like a low-impact Oregon Trail, all while the GM has a system-mandated dragonkin GMPC who silenty chronicles the party's story and even helps them out a little from time to time.

Golden sky stories might be more on the mark for that.

without the fear of death there is no reason to live at all

-my tzimisce bard

You can have drama and conflict without going all the way to dark and miserable evil world.

Im actually getting ready to run this, the first session the party are stuck delivering an offering to a local shrine. Only to be challenged to a drinking contest by a dragon if they win they get its favor, if it wins they gotta go steal one scale from the back of its elder brother.

I would counter that without the need to fear death (i.e. without death) there would be far less of what makes efforts to improve life pointless.

Why war over territory when neither of you need as much space to exist? Why war over ideology when you can all just go away to where you'll never see each other, and it won't matter how long it takes? Why war over resources when there's enough for everyone because you don't have to consume them just to keep going? Why act on emotion and impulse at all when you have all the time you'll ever need to think things through?

Mortality is a disease.

>ITT Veeky Forums is awfully edgy today.

>low-impact
Don't underestimate how quickly the terrain can kill you in Ryuutama.

I've been on recieving end and it's not pretty.

Ever played OneShot?
Do it, you'll love it.

Not an argument. You're still a shit.

It's not even that. It's the simple fact a story where nothing bad happens is boring. The basic structure of narrative requires the disruption of a status quo. Characters need bad things thrown against them because that's how they grow and change. This is doubly as important in an RPG where players are ostensibly there to confront and beat challenges. You know, the point of a game?

I know there are ways you can create some kind of conflict or obstacle in a "Feels Good" game like whether you want to buy one pumpkin or two. But I personally need some higher stakes to really get invested. The universe doesn't need to face imminent destruction but I should fee like I'm up against the wall at least a few times to really have fun.

You're living in a false dichotomy if you think "everything is horrible for everyone" and "everything is fine" are the only modes a story can take.

So I'm thinking about running Golden Sky Stories for my group, but pretty stumped regarding just what they should be doing. Backed the kickstarter way back when, have people interested finally, and... no idea for what sort of slice of life conflicts I should present them with. Any suggestions? Please?

>Not an argument.
Neither are "you seem like shit" or "you're still a shit."
And why would his response need to be an argument?

Help a kid catch the biggest, *coolest* cicadas so he can impress his older brother!
His older brother used to catch bugs with him all the time, but now he's doing other grown-up stuff...so you just have to show him how fun it is. Then he'll HAVE to spend time with him, right?

Hmm, that does give me a few ideas. Thank you user, will see how far I can run with that.

Because people enjoy life differently.
My game of enjoying life would involve very real horrifying blood mists that you have to put electric fences up to keep away. Or some other bizzare and terrifying, but manageable, obstacle.
I like being at least a little scurred at least a few times a day.

I think you're half right. A story needs CONFLICT, but not necessarily VIOLENCE. It is my hot opinion that a good story can have conflict without violence. Conflict is what allows a character to grow. They do not necessarily have to offer skulls to the blood god, but if the world or its inhabitants work to change a character. then this is conflict. How the character resolves it can be an interesting story in itself.

I don't think anyone's saying the story needs physical violence to be interesting. But the stakes should still be high enough to be interesting. Especially in a game.

Working up the courage to ask Jenny Oakenmoon to the Harvest Dance might work in a TV show or a book but I have no real interest in playing that out in a game.

the way to make an rpg about everyday life work is you have to run it like a sitcom

Because games need conflict and a substandard havest isn't all that exciting.....unless it's caused by GOBLIN WIZARDS!

Or to alter your definition of "everyday life." See .

Thats cause thats just romance which you arent interested in.

But a entire game where you just play a sports team would run rather similar to what we already have.

Life's already pretty pleasant and simple, roleplaying is for action and adventure!

Sounds like you want MaidRPG. Or maybe that one "High-School Harem Comedy" homebrew RPG I remember from GitP more than a few years ago, but I think that might have gotten weirdly complex at some point.

Visit neighbours, CROPS, build a house, go fishing. Essentially stardew valley.

Anyway, isnt Ryuutama supposed to be a fluffy feel good kind of game?

Some people hate how detached shit is in the city, so they get a sense of fulfillment from keeping flora and fauna alive until they can eat it or reap products from it. This isn't hard.

>If you've lived on the country by working the land you'll know exactly how ''''''''''''''enjoyable''''''''''''''''''' it is
Well it is. It can be tiring and tedious as fuck, but it's also infinitely more rewarding to grow/build something and watch it exist than to do pointless office work.

Not user, but argument went:

>OP: sliceolife games are rare
>OP is fag, here is one example
>user is shit, one or two examples is rare, OP is correct
> You don't do research either
> not an argument

"You don't do research either" is a nonsequitur. Given a universal set of games, user must show that many many more than one or two examples of sliceoflife games exist, to prove that OP is wrong and user is not a shit

I think one of the points is that it's hard to feel content at the little things in a game. Not so much because they are, in of themselves, boring. But rather because the emotions are nuanced and very hard to both portray, and more so to enjoy as roleplay.

It's easy to enjoy rolepaying a big heroic tale where you slay a thousand beasts. Because it's all so extreme. Because everything is happening at the same time, and it's adventurous and strange. If you get only a sliver of that excitement IRL you've done a good job both as a player and a DM.
With being content it doesn't work that way, contentness is less rushy and more prolonged. It's not a feeling you can get in a kick, but rather something that grows on you.

Not play the feel good game like this

Wait, what?
Third user here.

>I already enjoy life in my boring real-world life, I don't need to play pretend to get that experience.
>Exactly. I get to do boring menial stuff with no conflict all day already, and I hate it.
>Exactly, I already enjoy life, and I hate it.
Someone doesn't understand something. Is it me?

Why not bother posting it with the same effort...?

Attention Anons:
Having a feel good system doesn't mean shit if you can't run an enjoyable game with it.

Post feel good campaign plots that don't suck.

#
>A story needs CONFLICT, but not necessarily VIOLENCE.
This
Right again Shas

Whisper of the Heart is about an inquisitive young girl and a voracious reader who chases a large cat, befriends an eccentric antiques dealer, and writes her first novel while intending to find a mysterious boy who checked out all her library books before she did.
That's the entire story, but it's a compelling film.
The big conflict in the story is her pushing herself to write more seriously.
Which fits thematically with this thread.

(OP) #
>Why is it so rare to see a game that's just about enjoying life?
Enjoying life does not necessarily
generate or entail conflict.
Without conflict, there is no challenge.
Without challenge, there is no game.
Making a game about enjoying life while providing challenge is a difficult task for a very niche target audience.

OP's pic is about Harvest Moon, a game where you need to tend to a ruined farm and turn it into a produtive one.
Its pretty hard, menial labour.
Even if the game presents an idealized version of it.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is the proof that slice of life can be amazing.
Its the day to day life of a robot running a coffee shop after the apocalipse.
While humanity did survive the apocalipse it was barely and now people just live their lives waiting for the end.
Its a peaceful sort of postapocaliptic where people just hang out and wait for the extinction of human race.

As most of the thread is going on about, it's hard to have a game that's just about enjoying stuff if there's no conflict. If you want it to be comfy, it probably also needs some fun mechanics that make it go a little weird so that you have something to do.

I'm personally a fan of the concept of doing slice-of-life games where the stakes aren't necessarily high, or at least don't encompass a wide scope. I think the way that you balance this is to create a goal and a means of handling conflict on the way to the goal, and you just try to have fun in all of the space between.
You know, like if Yu-Gi-Oh GX didn't have magical elements.

And that`s why is boring like hell.

Slice of Life / peaceful/comfy enjoyment sessions are great, when included as an option and for variety in an otherwise "normal" game featuring struggle, conflict, etc.
A game about nothing but enjoying life is pretty boring, there has to be some source of drama or opposition to dig into or it just gets bland.

A game about being farmers or merchants just farming and trading and smoking a pipe in their hovel during downtime is boring.

A game about farmers defending their crops from magic beasts, plagues, dodging the king's tax collectors and staving off other jealous farmers or townsfolk from sabotaging their fields or household who want to see their production fail because they slept with their daughters might be interesting.
A game about merchants traveling through exotic and treacherous locales while trying to outmatch their rival's prices and beat them to market days, all while protecting their wares during travel and making the smartest moves possible to amass the most coin and avoid being robbed or eaten, swindled, or even just fall and die along the way, might be interesting.

Those are about as extreme as I would go towards "pure" slice of life as a campaign premise. As I said before, I much prefer a fairly "normal" campaign with drama, intrigue, and danger (as the game warrants it), and then just have pure slice of life episodes sprinkled throughout and allow the players the option to take those pure "comfy" breaks if they want to.

All comfy is boring, the same as all combat is boring, the same as all interpersonal social drama is boring, the same as all intrigue is boring. The best campaigns, IMHO, mix more than one and often all of these (and other stuff too), even if the 'focus' is usually on one or two of them at a time.

Velocity is great

They just don't sell as well OP.

I always wanted to do like a WWE style RP game.

Where stats can determine how 'over' you are with the crowds, the more 'over' you are, the bigger and better matches you get. Higher risk moves if successful, are rewarded with crowd cheers meaning higher stake games. Bigger stunts do the same, but botches result in lasting injuries which if they pile on, lead to early retirement and also boo's which put you back on the list of main eventers.

The GM would also reward RP'ers for promo's and entrances to get the crowd pumped before the action. While having traits such as 'Manager', 'Tag-Partner' etc could result in people coming to save you if you're a 'Face' or people coming to help you cheat if you're a 'Heel' (Distracting the ref, using a hidden weapon etc).

Stats can determine how much the ref notices you, for example, if you're a higher up 'Face', the ref will pay more attention to you and will call out cheating behaviour, if you're lower, you'll be more likely to lose unfairly in matches.

I just think something like this could be a lot of fun.

It's apparently somewhat popular in the japanese tabletop community.

The aforementioned Ryuutama, Golden Sky Stories, and MAID are examples.

How about Adventures of the Gummi Bears RPG?

What do you like about it?

As someone who's living that life yes it is but you know what? I love every minute of it and I'd argue it can be a compelling series of stories in and of itself.

It's a high-velocity game.

WELL YEAH. It's kind of implied in the title.

Can't really have a memento to life without it being sad, if you're not out enjoying life, what would you be doing in it?
Although...

...

I'd argue feelgood is less a system issue and more a GM/player mindset issue. Both parties have to be more willing to slow down and work on a smaller scale and roleplay more. Finding a GM and party that want to do such a thing is somewhat difficult.

Trying to run a Slice-of-life Edge of the Empire Game with my mates, I'm focusing more on a few locales and more session time spent on the players downtime.

You need something to drive the characters. Doesn't have to involve violence. Just tending the farm and walking around becomes boring really quick. A simple task or quest is what makes everything much more exciting.

Travelling to an ancient monastery hidden in the mountains just to get medicine for the village elder or walking to the doctors office two blocks away to get medicine for the village elder. What sounds more fun?

>slice of life doesn't interest people
Not true though, slice of life anime is among most popular anime genres. Also, western sitcoms and similar are extremely popular despite the fact nothing much happens usually.

As for games, I think it's more because games are interactive media where gameplay and challenge is important thing. Slice of life game wouldn't really work very well. As an RPG it might work out though, but likely wouldn't be very interesting. Note that even game in OP's picture has challenge and gameplay.

user likes the blast processing

I don't understand this. You don't get to slay dragons in real life, so if you need that fix the best you can do is a game of pretend. But if you just want to chill or enjoy simple pleasures, how the hell is real life not a more attractive option? It'd probably take less time to set up, too.

People need/want conflict in their game that they feel invested in and it's harder to get invested in conflict that's less clear cut than life and death or dramatic tragedy. Especially in RPGs which have their roots in wargaming and adventure novels. Games that push the boundary of this are getting more common but they're mostly indie games and campaigns tend to become soap opera-ish drama for the sake of keeping people interested.

I've seen few larps that were basically excuse to get drunk in period costumes while pretending to be old time gentlemen and just have fun, so I guess that could be called slice of life gaming.

>Whisper of the Heart
My brother of enhanced melanin!
Also, don't forget how even though he's in practically no scenes, Baron is still the best

Spoony did an entire episode about professional wrestling RPGs.

Game about brutal survival:
1. Beginnings of challenge scenarios are obvious.
2. Victory (you win and enemy is dead) is obvious.
3. Defeat (you dead) is obvious.
4. Success reaps obvious rewards (you take their shit).

depends how those 2 blocks are described, eh?

How I do this?

Why this pic look like old school Pokémon?

Because it's old school Harvest Moon. Either for HM GBC, roughly the same time period, or HM: A Wonderful Life a few year later, can't recall for sure.

I couldn't find exact source aswell but it definitely is an older Harvest Moon game. And yes, it just might be period-piece association as Ken Sugimori never worked on Harvest Moon.

Conflict makes for more interesting/easily written stories.

But there are still plenty of games being made about just enjoying a slice of life.

Because a lot of slice of life games is being someone else. Starting a farm, meeting fantasy people, etc. Stuff most of us don't actually do in our normal lives.

Also I work 50+ hours a week in an ER, so having a happy little world to jump into and forget things is very therapeutic every now and then.

The problem is that once you've done the hard stuff and have a productive farm, it's boring. How many people play harvest moon for a long time just amassing wealth and 'enjoying life'?

...

Almost any slice of life anime would work.

Especially Okami-san and her Seven Companions. That shit is brilliant.

>We need to get funding for all the clubs!
>There's a big feud in school that is about to boil over
>Critical scheduling conflict between the Kendo and Baseball clubs
>Oh shit, its finals!

Only depressed outcasts enjoy the slice of life genre.
Depressed outcasts rarely have friends to play a social hobby with.

....Fenris?

I find it more true the other way around. Outcast hate slice of live because it remembers them of how fucking lonely they are.

Well I'm normal and find slice of life boring as fuck.
Let's say it's just a niche Genre nobody (meaning only a small group) likes.

Maybe you aren't normal?
Now seriously, finding it boring and hating it are quiet different things.
Also I don't think it is so niche, sitcoms are just slice of life with humor, soap operas are dramatized slice of life, reality TV is slice of life, etc...