Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough is a GM-less slice of life (and bread) game about surviving the wizard economy by Kyle Weems
Version: v1.1.0
Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough ©2019 by Kyle Weems. All Rights Reserved. Published by Timor Jack Press.
You can find more games at Timor Jack Press (https://timorjack.itch.io/). Kyle is a member of the Goblin Union (https://twitter.com/goblinunion), a Bellingham, WA-based collective of indie role-playing game designers.
Game Design and Text: Kyle Weems
Thanks to Shard. You know what you did.
This game owes a debt to the designs of Hot Guys Making Out by Ben Lehman and Melancholy Kaiju by Ewen Cluney, from which its mechanics are adapted.
| Table of Contents |
|---|
| Blue Wizard Needs Job, Badly |
| What You're Reading |
| The Principles of Play |
| What You Need |
| Making Your Wizard |
| The Crisis |
| Running Scenes |
| The Session's End |
| Design Notes |
| Patch Notes |
"Necromancer: Rise! Rise before me my creation!
Bread: Does nothing.
Necromancer: Bollocks I forgot the yeast." - Shard, 15 January 2019
You graduated from wizard college just in time to see the magical economy collapse. You couldn't find a job in your field, but you still need to pay the rent and start repaying that college loan. What's a wizard to do? In your case, you answered a "Help Wanted" sign at The Necrobakery, a bakery operated by a necromancer, in your small home town. Working at the necrobakery isn't what you took four years of transdimensional theory for, but at least it pays.
Now you, and several other young wizards down on their luck, spend your days helping yeast rise from the dead, box grave rolls for customers, and pick up several dozen basilisk eggs from the farmer's market every morning. It's definitely not what you went to college for, but you're quickly becoming fast friends with your fellow bakers in the misadventures that crop up when one combines the dark arts with baked goods.
Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough is a light-hearted, GM-less slice-of-life RPG. It is intended for between 4 and 6 players, but can accommodate as few as 2. Players take turns narrating the actions of their wizards, who are employees of a bakery, in their daily hijinks as they form friendships and deal with a crisis (almost always light-hearted) that threatens the orderly productivity of the bakery and their livelihood.
As a GM-less game, ROTNS does not centralize the storytelling role in its play. Each player participating not only describes their own actions, but on their turn helps advance the plot around them as well.
It's important when playing a game of Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough for all of the players to be on the same page to insure they're all having fun. The game's setting and system both favor a certain kind of story, and by following the game's principles the players can help one another guarantee they're enjoying themselves:
Be Light-Hearted: You are telling the story of wizards working in a bakery to cover their rent. This isn't a game of bloody violence or Machiavellian politics, but of unexpected friendship, opportunistic magic, and mishaps with sourdough starters. Embrace the spirit of fun and lean into the whimsy.
Be Nostalgic: The adventures of your young wizards are for an idyllic time that never existed in a world that never was. Lean into the notion of nostalgia for a literally magical youth with rose-tinted glasses. Give the world your characters live in a sense of timelessness.
Become Friends: Whether or not they start as friends, your wizards should grow closer together as they deal with incidents and disasters at their workplace. Don't be antagonistic to each other. Be respectful and supportive even if you're rivals. Cheer one another on. Care about each other.
In order to play Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough, you'll need the following:
- An ordinary deck of playing cards.
- Some pencils and papers for your character sheets, or mobile devices, whichever you like the most.
- Some friends. Ideally between 4 and 6. This game doesn't require a GM, so you all get to be players.
- A place to play. Somewhere you can pretend to be wizard bakers without making strangers feel weird.
- Time. You could play a game session in an hour, or you could go several. It depends on how you all feel.
You will also need to make your wizard characters that you'll be portraying.
Your player character is a young wizard who is relatively recently graduated from wizard college. Because the magic economy has tanked, you couldn't get a job related to your degree and ended up taking work in a necrobakery in your village to cover rent. To design the wizard you're portraying, perform the following:
Wizards, like everyone, can have some boring names like Tim. Cooler names like Kass, Dargon Halfgreen, or Morrisa the Smoldering. Decide what your wizard's name is, and write it down.
Also decide on your wizard's title. "Wizard" is a generic catch-all used in the magical community for any spellcaster, and some folks do use the title to describe themselves. But it's a wide world of magic, and many have other traditional titles or nuanced terms they prefer, such as witch, sorcerer, necromancer, or thaumaturgist. What's yours? Write it down.
Finally, note what pronouns your wizard uses so that your fellow bakery employees know how to refer to you.
Choose one of the face cards (the kings, queens, and jacks) that is your personal trump card. Note their rank and suit (AKA the Knave of Hearts or the King of Spades). You cannot have the same trump card as any of the other players, so if more than one of you want the same trump, politely sort out between you who should claim it. Your trump card affects certain mechanics during the game when it is played.
There are four traits that your wizard possesses. Unlike many RPGs, they do not have number ratings, and are instead textual descriptions. These will influence aspects of the story your character is involved in:
- Your Magical Degree: What field did you get your wizard degree in? Is it Applied Necromancy? Industrial Pyromancy? Oneriomatic Science? The degree you possess, which should be described in one to three words, describes the kind of magic your character knows and specializes in.
- Your Insecurity: What is one of your character's most prominent insecurities or fears? Do they have Body Image Issues? Are they Afraid of Lizards? Did they Never Learn to Swim? Whatever it is, it should be capable of coming into play during the story, take up no more than a sentence to write, and will definitely impact them when they least desire it.
- Your Passion: What is a major non-magical talent or passion that your character is defined by? Something their friends and co-workers know without being told. Are they a Lover of Books? Are they a Master Mixologist? Perhaps a Dance Champion? Whatever it is, it bleeds out in their daily life and colors their actions.
- Your Flaw: What is one of the bigger, more annoying flaws the character possesses? This is something that keeps coming up and could, if unchecked, make them unpopular with those around them. Do they Think They Know Everything? Are they an Utter Coward? Do they Have A Drinking Problem? Whatever it is, it has a risk of popping up day to day, making people around them irritated.
What else stands out about your character that others should know? What do they look like? How do they dress? What kind of hobbies define them? If they're in the lives of their fellow bakers, what details could their companions easily determine about them? These aspects have less of a mechanical influence, but are no less important in directing the character's involvement in the story.
Each young wizard baker has a Bravado rating. This is a score that starts at 0 at the beginning of each session and is increased through certain actions in play. Bravado is used by player characters to fuel actions to resolve a Crisis that threatens the bakery.
When playing Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough, you are collectively creating the misadventures of a group of young wizards who are employees of the necrobakery out of financial desperation. The focus of the game's play and storyline is the day-to-day lives of the wizard bakers at the bakery. In each game session, a Crisis arises that threatens the existence of the bakery or the employment of the player characters. A series of scenes unfold, each with its own hook involving the bakers' lives as well as dealing with the unfolding Crisis and attempts to resolve it.
In each scene, players will deal with a central hook involving a problem or desire of one of the player characters, that is either successfully resolved or not by its end. Furthermore, the Crisis has a chance of growing worse, with the player characters needing to actively take part in resolving it.
Once the Crisis is resolved, the session draws to a close and the players reveal a bit about their characters' remaining day.
At the core of every session of Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough is a Crisis. The young wizard bakers of the necrobakery just want to pay their rent and college debt, and try their best to enjoy their job in the process. But the wizard economy is in a bad place right now, and a necrobakery can be a nexus of all sorts of unexpected problems.
The Crisis is a problem that threatens the successful operation of the necrobakery and the livelihood of those employed there. It is the source of tension that drives a session of the game and keeps the bakers from simply zoning out on the job.
The first time that a player plays an ace in the game (learn more about this in Running Scenes below), that player leads the group in devising the Crisis threatening their jobs. This can be as simple as "Madame Crillory found a fly in her muffin and is threatening to tell everyone in the village" or as threatening as "A demon from beyond the Fifth Gate has found its way into the main oven and is trying to break through the seals the necrobaker placed there, which might destroy the entire village."
Regardless of how innocent or dangerous the Crisis is, it should be capable of interacting with the daily lives and problems of the player character bakers. It's important, and needs resolution, but not so much so that they don't have their own issues they're worrying about and working on.
Each time a player plays an Ace, the Crisis gets worse. The Aces played are kept face up on the table to help the players keep track of how bad the situation has become. The number of Aces in play, known as the Crisis Level, affect the danger of the crisis as follows:
- 1 Ace: The seeds of the Crisis has been planted and hinted at, but isn't yet something the player character's are actively aware of.
- 2 Aces: The Crisis has become obvious and can even menace a single player character in the group.
- 3 Aces: The Crisis has caused a serious threat and can actively harm a single player character or menace them all.
- 4 Aces: The Crisis is a full-blown catastrophe and the necrobakery is on the line. It could cause serious harm to any of the player characters.
Characters must spend Bravado while taking their actions in order to reduce the severity of a Crisis. Each time a player character does so, the Crisis Level is reduced by 1. Each time the crisis is de-escalated, the players should determine whether the crisis has been fully handled and is now over. This does not necessarily require it to be at Crisis Level 0 (and may not be the case even if at 0). If the Crisis is fully resolved, then at the conclusion of the current scene the players should bring the game session to it's ending (see The Session's End below).
When the Crisis is de-escalated but not over, an Ace is returned to the deck.
Each game session of Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough is a series of scenes that potray the lives of the young wizards working at the bakery to make ends meet. The necrobaker owner is almost always absent during these scenes due to making deliveries in town, taking a day off to go fishing, or otherwise finding ways to be busy elsewhere while trusting the employees to handle things.
At the beginning of the scene, each player draws and plays a single card from the deck. The highest card determines which player character is the focus of the scene. The focus player will Set the Hook. Once that is decided, reshuffle the deck and deal five cards to each player.
The focus player sets the hook, establishing the focus of the scene: an everyday situation that is occuring at the bakery or elsewhere in the village. This situation should be mostly mundane and/or inane, featuring a difficulty, desire, problem, or opportunity that happens to involve the focus player character somewhat centrally and that the other young bakers find themselves involved in.
Throughout the scene the players should involve themselves in dealing with the hook's focus, as well as potententially the difficulties brought about by the session's Crisis.
After the hook is set, the player to the focus player's left begins play with a card from their hand. In addition to the normal narration that unfolds (see below) they describe how the suit of the card, and it's corresponding trait on the hook-setter's character, plays into the flavor of the scene. For example, if the card's suit is Diamond, the focus player's magical degree somehow ties into or complicates the situation.
Starting with the player on the focus player's left, and going clockwise, each player takes their turn in playing a card (if they are able) and narrating their player's action in the scene and how that moves the story forward.
When it is your turn, you must play a card, or if you are unable to do so, pass.
When playing a card, you may take a normal action, magical action, advance the Crisis, or portray the Crisis depending on the type of card played. These actions will be described in further detail below.
Cards are played face up into a discard pile. You can only play a card that is equal to or greater than the value of the card currently on top of the pile. For the purposes of this game, all face cards (Jacks, Queens, and Kings) have a value of 11 and an Ace has a value of 12.
- If you play a card that is not an Ace, diamond or your trump, you take a normal action.
- If you play a diamond, you take a magical action.
- If you play your trump, you may take either a regular or magical action as desired and gain a point of Bravado. If you take a normal action, it is not limited by your Insecurity or Flaw.
- If you play an Ace, the Crisis advances. Instead of narrating your action you narrate how the crisis becomes more serious based on the current Crisis Level.
- On any card played other than an Ace you may choose to describe how the Crisis causes problems or complications based on the current Crisis Level instead of narrating your character's action.
- You may choose to spend a point of Bravado with any card other than the Ace. In doing so you may either use a magical action regardless of suit or card value, may take a normal action that is not limited by your Insecurity or Flaw, or you may narrate how your character's action helps reduce the level of the current Crisis. If you choose the latter, the Crisis Level goes down by one.
- If you cannot play a card because you have none in your hand or none equal to or greater than the current card on top of the pile, you must pass. When passing you describe additional environmental details of the scene, enhancing mood but not moving the plot forward.
If you have the Joker in your hand, at any point in time you can play it to the discard pile to interrupt the current player's action and narration as long as they did not play the Ace. Politely apologize to the interrupted player, then proceed. You may then proceed to narrate your action, which involves you failing with humorous and potentially catastrophic results. This failure must incorporate your character's fear, insecurity, or flaw. This also must somehow disrupt the progress of the group in the scene. Although you as the player choose the direction of the failure, in character it is an unintentional act. Once you have finished taking your action, player you interrupted gains a point of Bravado and then takes their turn again, playing a new card for a new action.
Depending on the card played, you have different types of actions you can narrate when it is your turn (see above). These action types, and the kinds of events that can occur with them, are:
- Normal Action: Describe what your character is thinking or doing. They cannot use magic with this action or act in a way that overcomes their Insecurity or Flaw during this action.
- Magical Action: Describe how your character takes action utilizing magic. This magic must be related to their Magical Degree.
- Advance the Crisis: Instead of your character acting, you describe how the Crisis gets worse in the current situation. See the Crisis section for more details.
- Portraying the Crisis: Instead of your character acting, you describe how the Crisis complicates the situation, causes a problem, or if the Crisis Level is high enough, causes harm to one of the bakers or someone else.
The scene ends when all of the players have passed in the same turn. The focus player then may narrate a single remaining action if they wish. After this, the players then vote on whether the hook was resolved. If so, the focus player gains a point of Bravado.
At the end of the final scene of the game, when the Crisis has been deemed as resolved by the players, the game session ends its final phase. The players each take a single turn portraying their end of the work day as they finish up tasks and say goodbye to each other. After this they take turns describing a single narrative about their character's life outside of work that evening. This should be a paragraph or less of description, ideally just a sentence, such as "Daragon relaxes for the rest of the evening by reading a romance novel he picked up on the way home from work."
Once this is complete, the session has ended. If you desire, meet again in the future to tell another story about the further misadventures at the bakery with the same wizards or a group of new, underemployed magic users.
First and foremost, it's Shard's fault. Their horrible necromancy yeast pun in a Discord server we share in common led to the creation of this game the very same day. Shard, you should be ashamed of yourself.
When it comes to flavor and mood, Rise of the Necrobaker's Sourdough (henceforth referred to as ROTNS) owes a great debt to the many carefree slice of life animes that pop up for a single season, meander through lovely moments of people's lives with stakes no higher other than friends getting to know each other better, and then quietly fade away. Especially influential are food-related ones such as Sweetness and Lightning, Isekai Shokudou.
The design of the game owes a tremendous amount to Ben Lehman's Hot Guys Making Out and Ewen Cluney's Melancholy Kaiju (which was itself also heavily influenced by HGMO). ROTNS borrows heavily from both and would not exist without their prior designs. When I first saw Melancholy Kaiju, I couldn't help but think that it was almost perfect for a Seinfeldesque sitcom about nothing, which in turn made it a great fit to adapt to a light-hearted story about underemployed wizards trying their hardest to bake a cake.
- Joker is now an interrupting action.
- Added in missing "choose your trump" section to character creation.
- Added "choose your title and pronouns" to step 1 of character creation.
- Some hyperlinks added for readability.
- Some mild textual edits.