Thread by @ulsairi

Let's do the fourth game, shall we? Tonight's JTRPG is Dracurouge, by Ryo Kamiya. You might know Kamiya from his other games, Maid RPG and Golden Sky Stories! (And many others not translated.) Cover art by the pun-tastic Akira Banpai. pixiv.net/member.php?id=… #JTRPGInfo

Dracurouge is a game about knights. Noble knights, who protect the commonfolk from monstrous horrors in the Everdark, a land of eternal night. They are ageless, immortal, and require warmth from other people. But they are knights. K-N-I-G-H-T-S. Okay? #JTRPGInfo

Once upon a time, the Great Ancestor of these noble knights, Dracul, went and destroyed the hated sun, purging it from the sky. The foul sunlight burned many knights that day, including Dracul himself. But never fear, the knights did not die out. Indeed, they thrived! #JTRPGInfo

The daughters of Dracul formed houses, organizing the knights. Drac, the house closest to the Great Ancestor. Dustheim, the keepers of the knights' history. Hellsgarde, responsible for dealing with the fallen knights. Avaloma, close to the fairies. And Nosferas... #JTRPGInfo

Alas, poor Nosferas. While her knights fight on in her name, the previous ruler of the house fell. And fell hard. A plague took her lands, and her sorrow was such that she tried to turn all of her people into immortal knights. But the strain was too great! #JTRPGInfo

She is known now as only the Dead Queen, and the former lands of the Nosferas are a "hell on earth." The Hellsgarde protect the rest of the Everdark from this blight, but the damage was done. #JTRPGInfo

Later, from the house of Drac came the Rosenburg. Their progenitor, Granz Rosenburg, single-handedly slew one of the remaining slivers of the hated sun, and in so doing, earned a fief of his own. The house has since risen to prominence, and they're very... humble... #JTRPGInfo

There's not much else to the setting. You play a knight, you protect the commonfolk from slivers of the sun and other monsters, and try to earn fame and glory for you and your house. Subsequent books released a lot more info to play around with, but that's the gist. #JTRPGInfo

Now the mechanics of Dracurouge are something special. No real HP, rules for both combat and social conflicts (and final battle scenes where you can do BOTH fight and flirt your rival to death), and genuinely flavorful mechanics. It's a real treat! #JTRPGInfo

The main mechanic is in Bonds, and one's Rouge and Noir towards them. Bonds are basically a relationship with another character. Rouge is positive emotions towards them, Noir is negative. You can and will have multiple Bonds, Rouge and Noir possible with each. #JTRPGInfo

During play, you use Combat and Social actions to inflict Noir or Rouge on others, and in turn have it inflicted on you (or build it yourself). If you get 5 Rouge on a Bond, it's erased and you get 1 point of Warmth. Get 5 on Noir, and you get 1 Thirst. #JTRPGInfo

The Bonds don't go away, of course! So you can build it up again and again. And yes, you read that right. This is true of both Combat and Social actions--a Social action that inflicts 2 Noir is not mechanically different from a Combat action that does the same. #JTRPGInfo

However they *are* differently narratively. Of course they are. Sticking someone with a sword and insulting their honor are two totally different things! And this will shape roleplay. Which is important, and not just because of course roleplay is important in an RPG. #JTRPGInfo

But first, how do you *use* actions? With an Action Check! During your turn, you roll 4d6 before deciding any actions. All of your actions have a Cost, and your rolled dice are used to pay for them. So if you rolled 2, 3, 5, 6 and you have an ability that costs 7... #JTRPGInfo

You can spend the 6 and 2, say, to pay for it (the extra point is lost). You still have a 3 and a 5 too, so if you have two abilities that cost 3 or less and 5 or less respectively, you can use two more skills! Yay! Also, the pictures never seem to last long... #JTRPGInfo

When you roll dice, each time you roll two 6's, or two 1's, you trigger what's called the Pips of Glory. You gain an extra "die" that counts as having a value of 10. So if you roll 2, 3, 6, 6, you end up with 2, 3, 6, 6, 10. Roll 1, 1, 6, 6, you get that and two 10's! #JTRPGInfo

In addition, each round of combat or social scene, you get a point of Noblesse Oblige. You can spend it in order to add 1d6 to your roll. You can also get NOs from "applause points"--when you roleplay exquisitely, your fellow players can reward you with an NO! #JTRPGInfo

Now let's go back to Warmth and Thirst. If you accumulate Thirst, because you're a NOBLE KNIGHT, you gain power from this. Your highest die result gains value equal to your Thirst. So if you have 2 Thirst, your highest die gets +2 value. So, you want Thirst. But...! #JTRPGInfo

What does Warmth do? Ah, by spending a point of Warmth, you reduce your Thirst by 1. Why would you want to do this? Well, you see... once you hit 3 Thirst, you start running the risk of Falling. You don't want to fall. Don't taint your noble soul that way! #JTRPGInfo

Once you hit 3 Thirst, you roll 2d6-Thirst. There's a small table, which has effects ranging from "nothing happens" to "you fall and become a Nightbeast." Your character effectively dies with the latter option. #JTRPGInfo

You do this repeatedly every time you gain an additional point of Thirst. But don't worry, just make sure you have Warmth and everything is fine. Plus, you can use NO to reroll on this chart for better results. #JTRPGInfo

One more thing I'd like to point out about the mechanics is that every combat and social scene involves the same "battlemap" of three areas: the Throne, the Hall, and the Garden. These are important, because your abilities sometimes reference them. #JTRPGInfo

They don't have to physically be those things in the roleplay, it's just an easy way to refer to them. But for example, every character has the "Warm Embrace" social skill. You use it on someone, you both get 1 Rouge to each other. Use it in the Garden, 2 points! #JTRPGInfo

Character creation is done by first selecting a House, which I've already named. Then, each House has a branch, which gives you your first set of abilities. For example, the Rosenburg House has the Rose, Thorn, and Laurel branches, each different. #JTRPGInfo

Once you do that, you select a Path which represents who you are. There's the Nightbeast, the Hunter, the Pilgrim, the Guard, the Lord, and the Sage. Like House, your Path gives you three branches to select to further define yourself. #JTRPGInfo

Finally, you select an Exemplum, which is a powerful but largely passive effect, that truly gives you your personality flare. The options are Courage, Elegance, Honesty, Passion, Scandal, Victory. Like the others, there's a choice within the Exemplum. #JTRPGInfo

For example, Passion has Heart, Flame, Crossed Swords, Spear, Spur, and Hourglass. To show it off a bit, let's say you had Passion: Hourglass. It represents a lost love you've never given up on. You treat yourself as having 1 Thirst higher than you do for checks. #JTRPGInfo

So the sample character I made a long time ago was a Rosenburg, with the branch of Rose. She was a Lord, with the branch of Crown. And had Passion: Flame for her exemplum. I was absolutely not vampire Nero Fate/Grand Order. #JTRPGInfo

One final thing I'd like to mention is a totally mechanically irrelevant thing. When you make those choices? Each one comes with a chevron for your personal coat of arms. I'll show you an example using a sample NPC, Saskia Felsenstein von Dustheim. #JTRPGInfo

Saskia is a Dustheim with the Sage Path. Her Coat of Arms is translated thusly: Sable, the moon proper, between a mullet of six points Argent and a key. (The red moon on a black field, with a silver hexagram and a key) One's fancy, the other's straightforward. #JTRPGInfo

There's advice on how to make your coat of arms unique, even if you were to take a Dustheim Sage like tired Saskia there, since it just provides items to add to your coat of arms. Pretty neat, huh? #JTRPGInfo

So that's Dracurouge. You can't die unless something drives you to fall, which is represented by negative and positive emotions towards your Bonds. You are, after all, immortal. By the way! Warmth? Is just positive emotions--these KNIGHTS don't need blood. How base. #JTRPGInfo

I'll see you next weekend with more JTRPGs! Hope you enjoyed Grancrest and Dracurouge! And to all my new Japanese followers, はじめまして！日本語を話すのは難しいけど、私頑張ろう！ #JTRPGInfo