1447422896573.Pdf

This is a special PDF version of Raspberry Heaven, optimized for playing online or for printing out to play in person. The card version has everything you need to play, but I did take the opportunity to throw in some bonus stuff. Credits Designed and Written by Ewen Cluney (©2015) Artwork by C. Ellis (http://bybystarlight.tumblr.com/) Playtesters: Grant Chen, Dave Empey, Matt Leonard, Aaron Smith, Jono Xia Icons are from The Noun Project and used under a Creative Commons Attribution license: Arcade Game by Derek Palladino, The Big Picture by Matt Brooks, Books by James Keuning, Collage by Claire Jones, Conference by Nicolas Vincent, Cooking by Rafael Farias Leão, Detective by Simon Child, Fish-Umbrella by Michael A. Salter, Party Hat by Minna Ninova, Rain by Ilsur Aptukov, School Bus by Simon Child, Shopping by Juan Pablo Bravo Manga Inspirations: A Channel, Azumanga Daioh, GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Hidamari Sketch (a.k.a. Sunshine Sketch), Ichiroh, K-On!, Kill Me Baby, Love Lab, Lucky Star, Nekomimi Pings, Non Non Biyori, Sketchbook, S.S. Astro, Suzunari, Uraban!, Yotsuba&!, Yurumates, Yuru Yuri Acknowledgements Raspberry Heaven is a game I’ve been trying to figure out how to make for many years. In terms of its structure, this game was heavily inspired by J. Walton’s game Restless, a fascinating freeform horror RPG. Maid: The Role-Playing Game’s random events rules were the inspiration for this game’s Special Moves, and Golden Sky Stories was the game that taught me that heartwarming role-playing is possible in the first place. This game’s thematic inspirations come from slice of life 4-panel manga like Azumanga Daioh, Hidamari Sketch, K-On!, Lucky Star, A Channel, and many others. (It’s kind of ridiculous how many volumes of 4-panel manga I own because of this game.) The characters are American basically for greater accessibility, and they draw inspiration from a mixture of 4-panel manga characters and my real-life friends. Thanks to J. Walton, Ryo Kamiya, Gau, Dawn Davis, Steven Savage, C. Ellis, and all of my Patreon backers: Kyo, M. Alan Thomas II, Lester Cruz, Monkeeman, C. Ellis, Stew Wilson, redfilter, Michael Stevens, Dawn, brian allred, Daniel Thoreson, Curt Meyer, Ilex Opaca, Anthony Wu, Ben Hale, Ada, Julianna Backer, Rob Deobald, Thiago, LilFluff, Scot Ryder, David, Travis B., Sydney Bridges, Veav, Bennett Jackson, Jennifer Coffin, Lester Ward, Ninjatrollet, Ironicus, Will, Stefan Feltmann, Ian Herbert, Kristi Desinise, Paul Arezina, Carly H, Clay Gardner, ARBco, Raechel Coon, Emong, Adam M. Coleman, Matthew, Joshua, Guillaume Carré, Brandon Metcalf, td gam, Max, Joshua Bailey, J.Walton, Phoebe Zeitler, Carl Rigney, Todd Zircher, Dustin Cooper, Chris Chambers, Dave Taue, Sue Mewhiney, Ben Lehman How to Play Raspberry Heaven is a game for 3-6 players about a group of ordinary high school girls and their idyllic everyday lives, in the style of manga like Azumanga Daioh and Hidamari Sketch. There are no genre elements; it’s just about the ups and downs of an idealized version of high school life. They girls go to Jefferson High School (home of the Jaguars), and are sort of friends with their Social Studies and homeroom teacher, Miss Rodriguez. One session of Raspberry Heaven ranges from about 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on how many scenes you decide to do and the pace you set. Set the character cards out where everyone can see them. Take the scene cards, shuffle them, and put them face down. Setting up a Scene When you start a scene, first let each player pick a character card. You can stick with the same character through the whole game, but you’re welcome to switch between scenes if you prefer. Take a moment to introduce your characters to each other. Next, someone flips over the top card from the deck of scene cards, or if you’re playing online you can make a d12 roll to randomly determine which scene to do (reroll any you’ve already done). Alternately, if you prefer you can just pick a scene card that sounds fun to play. Read the first paragraph, and then play out what it instructs you to do. Once you’re done, move on to the next paragraph. Remember to stop reading and start playing at the end of each paragraph. It doesn’t matter who actually reads the paragraphs, but try to switch off at least as often as you change scene cards. When you finish all of the paragraphs on a scene card, the scene is done and you can start a new scene or decide to end the game there. Using Special Moves Each player can use their character’s Special Move once per scene, after the first paragraph of a scene is done. This interjects some random element into the scene; try to integrate it into the action as best you can. Draw a random scene card and check its number (or roll a 12-sided die) and check the table on the character’s card to see what happens. Miss Rodriguez (The Teacher) Miss Rodriguez is the girls’ homeroom and Social Studies teacher. She’s a third-generation Mex- ican-American woman (she doesn’t speak a word of Spanish) in her 20s (don’t ask her where in her 20s though) with long, wavy black hair. She became a teacher to avoid having to let people know her first name and because teachers get a lot of vacation time. She found out the hard way how much work teachers have to do outside the classroom, but she’s sticking with it anyway. Oh, and she and Rose are part of the same MMO guild. No one actually plays as Miss Rodriguez, but she will show up from time to time, so everyone should be familiar with her. Advice Remember that even if they argue sometimes, the girls are fundamentally good friends. Other characters only part of the story from time to time, but the game should be mostly about the girls’ interactions. The world they live in is ordinary, but little idealized, a bit nicer. Your real goal playing the game should be to laugh and have fun. Don’t worry too much about your character getting what she wants. Also, don’t worry too much about being “awesome.” When the game calls on you to make things up, just be natural, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Creating Your Own It’s not too hard to create your own characters and scenes for this game. For the most part, it’s basically a writing exercise. Here are some tips to help you along. Characters A character consists of a name, a simple concept, a short biography, and a Special Move. By default, all of the characters in Raspberry Heaven are ordinary high school girls. They don’t have any special powers or anything, and while their lives aren’t perfect, they don’t have any serious, glaring problems to deal with either. Also, although they should have some flaws, they need to be likable. You can use whatever process works for you, but I find that it’s best to start off with a simple concept consisting of a few words, and then build out some specifics from there. Write about a paragraph describing the character, with an emphasis on how they relate to the people around them. I like to include a bit about what their family is like, but that’s only important insofar as it helps develop the character a little. Don’t be too specific though; leave room for players to put their own spin on the character. A Special Move is basically a table of 12 random things that might happen around the character, following a general theme. These should be things that help strengthen your intended portrayal of the character, which can fit into most any scene, and which are generally fun. Try to avoid things that would be overly disruptive to a scene. Look at some of the scene cards; good Special Move entries won’t throw a scene totally off track. Scenes A scene card as a series of paragraphs that walk the players through an everyday situation, the aim of helping them tell a story that is funny and heartwarming. There is no set number of paragraphs it needs, but 4 to 6 is generally about right. The first one should make it easy to set the scene, and the last one should bring it to an end. Especially for paragraphs in the middle, you need to be clear about when to finish playing it and move on to the next paragraph. A scene should give everyone playing something to do. The most obvious technique for this is for paragraphs to call for each player to contribute or react to something, but it’s also good to just give the girls things to do. This game doesn’t really call for having a plot per se, but a good scene card still has some semblance of a development or revelation, however mundane. It could be that something goes wrong (like with the Cooking scene), or some mystery gets revealed (like in the Weather scene), or something else. The ultimate outcome should be happy, even if it isn’t necessarily success per se. Although to a certain extent this game’s form requires things to be “on rails,” try to give players freedom as much as you can. The Setting In this game you’re going to experience an idealized little version of the high school life.

Load more