Rhythm Realm

[Single Page TTRPG]

Artist Statement

The concept of this game is you are a member of a group of musicians who feel lost in life and are searching for purpose and belonging. Together with your band, you go on an adventure across the Rhythm Realm looking for the Lyric Lord, an ancient master of music who has the power to grant wishes to the most passionate and deserving musicians. Along the way, you encounter various challenges like rival bands, mystical sheets of music, and stage fright. Each player is assigned a different musical instrument and these instruments have magical powers that can come in handy throughout your travels. The aim of the game is to fulfill your lost soul, whether that be through performing successfully for the Lyric Lord and having your deepest wishes come true, or finding the answer you are looking for along the journey. The tone of the game is lighthearted and whimsical with some sad elements from time to time, but players are free to change this as they flesh out their story. The game explores the subject of friendship, teamwork, and finding meaning in life in a world that can be very tragic and cruel.

I made this game because I enjoyed playing my first few table-top role playing games with my classmates this term and was inspired to create something that could produce that same effect of fun and intrigue to others who are new to this style of game. I wanted to take everything I learned from our class and make it into a game that I would be proud to show to friends and family. I also wanted to challenge myself, as I wouldn’t consider myself a very creative person in the first place, to create a somewhat intricate and original backstory to the game and to design some cool visual elements to it.

The game was inspired by week eight of my Magpie book where we had to collect a list of things that bring us joy. I found a lot of music-related things in my list such as “people-watching at a jazz bar” and “learning Blackbird by The Beatles on guitar” which got me thinking about a travelling band in a fantastical world. I chose to use these elements from my Magpie book because I hadn’t come across a table-top role playing game based around music yet so I was excited to build on that idea. I also grew up in a very musical household so it was almost natural for me to go for this idea.

The themes I explore in this game are adventure, friendship, a longing for purpose, as well as love and loss. The craft elements I used to support this is first, the characters. At their simplest form, they are just “lost souls”. I keep this pretty vague so that players can develop their character into their idea of what it means to be lost in life. They can explore the idea of finding purpose in a way that caters specifically to them which hopefully makes the game more relatable and meaningful. The concept of a band who have a shared interest and spend lots of time travelling together further explores the idea of friendship and the value of a support system. The setting of this game also supports the themes. A fictional land full of magic and various obstacles allows for action and adventure. Regarding visual design, the map I drew of the Rhythm Realm also world-builds and motivates adventure. Instead of having a guide for the game, the map and the stories behind the band’s “performances” minimizes the possibility space of the game and gives players a guideline to how their story could unfold. The main mechanic of this game is a six-sided die which means the outcomes of the game are based on random resolution. This emphasizes the ideas of adventure and a search for meaning, because you don’t know where the dice (or your journey) will take you next. On the other hand, the set of possible “wishes” for your character incorporates elements of love and loss to the game with wishes like “to be reunited with my true love” or “to bring someone back from the dead”. The use of a six-sided die for character creation and success/failure outcomes was inspired by Grant Howitt’s game called Be Prepared which I played in class. It has similar mechanics. There is also one more mechanic of using a random word generator. This was inspired by how difficult it is to write a song from scratch and I just thought it would be entertaining for players to see the songs that emerge from the most random words.

I hope that players walk away from this game with hope and reassurance that everything is going to be okay if they’re ever feeling lost or unfulfilled in life. I hope they see how important it is to live in the present and to surround themselves with good company. I tried to emphasize these ideas in the rules section of the game where I encourage players to just go with the flow and appreciate the time spent in this creative outlet with others, as well as in the final performance where the band realizes that the friendships they formed along their journey matters just as much as, if not more than, their end goals.