neopets soup blogging

My dream with oil paints

My finished trapunto quilted gambeson for Vax! It was so cool to take techniques I learned on my Galadriel gambeson and dial them up further for this design!

The structure of the game manages to hit a remarkable number of features that folks who think "RP forward" actually means something and isn't just a marketing phrase would typically regard as categorically excluding a system from being "RP forward", while looking nothing like the kind of game you'd tend to picture based on those features.

You don't want the mechanics sticking their nose into every little thing? Chuubo's is so intensely preoccupied with mechanising the mundane that forming intentions to do things is a rules-mediated action. There are specific target numbers for stuff like "do it correctly", "look like you actually know what you're doing", and "be happy with the result", and without a relevant skill or resource expenditure, the best outcome you can ordinarily achieve is "make everything worse".

You want to do stuff because it "makes sense for your character", and not because it gives the most points? As far as Chuubo's is concerned, those are the same thing. Just living your everyday life is framed as a kind of quest, with milestones and XP triggers and whatnot; this is a game where you might actively look for excuses to "have a conversation in a poorly lit place" or "gaze contemplatively over a large body of water" because your personal quest line awards XP for doing that.

You want a game that will let you make up whatever character you want and doesn't expect you to faff about with "classes" and "levels" and such? Not only does Chuubo's effectively have both of those things, it's so strongly opinionated about what sorts of characters are appropriate that it recommends you use pregenerated characters until you get a good feel for the milieu. One of those pregens has a character sheet that's twenty pages long – and you might assume that means most of it is just a big tedious lore dump, but it's not.

The only reason to actually play this game beyond novelty is if you have a supreme case of writer's block and are running behind to turn in a manuscript of an azumanga-esque 4koma chapter

Not true.

Would you say the game is fun?

In reblogging this from you, I'm kicking this post into dedicated Jenna Moran fan space, so I wouldn't be surprised to see you get additional, better answers, but I'll at least start:

Prokopetz is, I'm pretty sure, largely framing this description of CMWGE (as it's commonly abbreviated) to make a point challenging how people think about game mechanics in the first place. In practice, though, playing Chuubo's feels tremendously organic, with the greatest difference between itself and other ttrpgs I've played being that, despite not being GM-less, players have way more agency to simply declare that a thing happens because it fits with their character's story.

Indeed, all these described mechanics are a way of keeping story logic front and center with CMWGE: your character does not learn and grow through defeating enemies, and even XP from just attending a session is downplayed. Instead, narrative beats are what concern you—both big milestones and smaller ones. A strange dream or "imagine spot"; a moment where a character tries and fails to voice their feelings; the first time wielding a forbidden power—all of these can have narrative heft to them. You're encouraged to linger in quiet moments, but also to be unafraid in declaring that now is the time for your character to step up and do something incredible.

This is, likewise, why the game measures "intention" strength for actions. (And, to be clear, just like in other games you're used to, you don't need to set intentions for narratively insignificant actions any more than you'd be expected to make a dice check for them. It's just that a much broader span of actions could be narratively significant, in a game like CMWGE.) Intention, as a system, ends up highlighting two things: first, the way that characters who seem mythically powerful in one area may genuinely struggle to do things like "navigate a customer service conversation like an ordinary human"; and second, to show how hope, passion, and the wishing power of the heart can allow even "ordinary humans" to accomplish wonders.

It takes some getting used to, to be sure. But having felt what it's like to have my character's losses and (to be blunt) crashouts be truly leaned into as advancing the story productively? Having my "moss Galatea" character finish her storyline by having her two partners cut out her heart that they might collectively plant it in a forest grotto, allowing her to transcend to a kind of godhood? And it's not just allowed but actively encouraged by the narrative beats of her arc "quest"? Holy shit.