Paper Story v1.6

Whew! This one was a lot of work and a long time coming. I've been promising all year on the Discord that 1.6 was "nearly done" and "right around the corner". Then I went and got married and had a hundred other distractions pop up. Suffice to say, it's been a busy year, but I've tried to make time for Paper Story where I could (and wasn't buried in Elden Ring, or Tears of the Kingdom, or Paper Mario TTYD64, or... you get the point).

All of that said, I really think this is it this time. I made a concentrated effort to buff out all the imperfections that have cropped up over the course of this past year, across all the fun games I participated in or heard about. So rather than new content, my focus was on presentation and readability - taking everything that made sense in my head, and getting it to flow as naturally as possible on the page.

This isn't an exact science, so please let me know if I've missed anything, or if any explanations need some work! And of course, if you disagree with any changes I've made, you can house-rule it all away or crack open your favourite copy of v1.2 or whatever your table prefers.

Hopefully, though, there won't be any more changes to Paper Story in the foreseeable future. I'm eager to take my Paper Story energy and put it to work on other tabletop projects, but of course if anything game-breaking pops up just let me know and I can put out some patched documents.

The changelog is truly massive this time around, so I'll spare you all the grisly details here. If you're adapting an older campaign over to the new version, make sure to look over your species and techniques carefully - I've tried to cover as much as I could in the changelog but I'm sure there's a few things that skipped my mind.

For right now, we'll just look at the new content.

• Added new Mechanics:
  • Added Magic curses – straightforward ways to switch off enemy traits.
  • Added the Hustle Status, representing extra actions per turn! Unlike the base game, these extra actions get more difficult as you take them. But this is still an extremely potent and thus rare effect. GM's, be especially careful with this one.
  • Added the Provoked Status, letting you direct enemies to specific targets.
  • Added Elevated, Goop, Lava, Overgrown, Sandstorm and Spikes Terrain to represent some scenarios not currently covered.
  • Added some optional rules to the GM section in the back, including Simple Species and Simple Techniques.
• Added new Species, Subspecies & Personal Traits:
  • Added Bub-Ulbs! The humble Bub-Ulb lives for its garden, but can put up quite a fight when threatened. Think of them as Dayzees with a stronger emphasis on their flowers.
  • Added Coffers! These greedy little things just love the taste of Coins.
  • Added Gulpits! These big bullies are more mouth than anything, but they're dangerous in a fight.
  • Added Lantern Ghosts! These dingy cretins thrive in the shadows, with no one else around. Great at parties!
  • Added Nimbuses! These folk are bright and cheerful, with an innate mastery of the weather – though they can't fly themselves.
  • Added Outsiders! These guys represent a whole host of folk from other dimensions, so they have a few different choices for traits.
  • Added Ravens! These simple little birds are deceptively clever.
  • Added Scuttlebugs! This statblock works for a number of different spider-like critters. Their most interesting trick is lifting themselves up with web!
  • Added Smorgs! These enigmatic creatures act as a hivemind. Effectively, a Smorg player character is a whole bunch of little Smorgs, working together.
  • Added Wizzerds! These weirdos are tricky to pin down – not quite organic, not quite machines. They're mostly Constructs, though, with some magical tricks.
  • Added Yuxes! These bizarre lab-grown creatures are mostly out for themselves, but they can produce a lot of Mini-Yuxes to do their bidding. 
  • Added Blessed-! These creatures have the blessings of the Stars themselves. There isn't a lot of precedent for these creatures, but it gives some more native interaction with Light and Shadow.
  • Added Blooming-! These overgrown creatures take on some of the aspects previously assigned to Terramental-, focusing more on plant matter than the earth itself.
  • Added Marine-! This simple template is like the Para- of the water, covering creatures who can swim better than most but aren't made of water themselves.
  • Added Shadow-! These creatures are elusive, manipulative, and usually up to no good.
  • Added Toxic-! These creatures have the most potent poison in the world, making them masters of damage over time.
  • Added Carrier! This Trait allows you to carry an ally on your back comfortably. Added it to a few Species and Subspecies where it made sense, most notably the dinos and some Aquatic races (but only in the water).
  • Added Elevation! This Trait helps you get off the ground without necessarily flying. This is mostly relevant for certain species, it's a strict downgrade from Fly.
  • Added Sinker! This Trait drags you down to the bottom of the water. Added it to a few Species and Subspecies where it made sense.
• New Technique Traits:
  • Added Burst! This Trait can hit enemies either side of the original target, acting similarly to Strike-Through.
  • Added Divider! This Trait can be used to split up enemy formations into distinct groups.
  • Added Hustle! This expensive Trait adds the Hustle Status onto the target.
  • Added Provoke! This Trait lets you Provoke enemies, directing them to specific targets (if possible). Since it's essentially a weaker form of Confusion, you get some more mileage out of each copy you take.
  • Added Spillover! It's basically MtG Trample.
  • Added Swap! This allows you to more easily reposition enemies (and allies) in the thick of combat.
  • Added Conditional! This way you can make Techniques that get stronger in specific circumstances, like favoured targets or buffs against specific statuses.
• Some new consumable Items:
  • Added Dusty Hammers. I can't say it's very exciting but if you wanted an explicit single-target attack Item with nothing else going on, here it is. Could easily be substituted for rocks, coconuts, or whatever else your players want to throw around.
  • Added Hustle Drink! Given this was never implemented in the base game it's hard to tell how expensive it should be. I went with 40 Coins on the basis that it only lasts 1 turn, but again, GM's will want to be careful with it – especially once people start enhancing them.
  • Added Mystery Boxes! These are very silly but are always fun to have. I couldn't quite get all the effects I wanted, and the odds are a bit skewed, but I thought it'd make the rarer effects more satisfying. I went with them being volatile crafting ingredients to represent how they can be cooked into random Items in TTYD, but if you'd prefer to let players mix Mystery Boxes into other Items instead, that's probably fine too.
  • Added Poison Shrooms! These are super interesting, I didn't even know they were in TTYD.
  • Added Stone Caps! Previously this was overlooked as overlapping with Boo's Sheets, but I think the long-form invulnerability makes them worth adding. They interact with Tanooki- species too, providing a simple shorthand for their statue powers.
  • Added Bubble Storms! Nothing too fancy here, just a water-themed Ice Storm. These can easily be rebranded as Bubble Flowers if you don't mind mixing Items and Power-Ups.
  • Added Carry Clouds! These are a little bit of a reach, but I was looking for Items to act as lesser Power-Ups, and this felt like a cool idea and thematically appropriate.
  • Added Dusty Boomerangs. Again, nothing crazy, but it's nice to have some simpler attack options.
• In addition to some heavily re-tooled Power-Ups and associated mechanics, I've expanded the list with some more thematic options:
  • Added Amp Shrooms! Okay, this one's straight-up fanfiction, but hear me out – I thought if Volt Shrooms are already consumable Items that add some electrical energy, then the corresponding Power-Up should probably just be a Volt Shroom with more power. Feel free to rebrand this as whatever works for your table, it's just a way to get a Shock-based Power-Up.
  • Added Bubble Flowers! Yeah, I wasn't planning on doing anything from SMB Wonder, but the game swept me off my feet as I was finishing this version up. They're functionally an extra way to play around with water.
  • Added Boo Mushrooms! Boo-like body horror optional. These give you a lot of spooky advantages, serving as our Shadow-based Power-Up.
  • Added Cloud Flowers! These can conjure thick clouds to stand on or overwhelm foes. Fundamentally, they're here to give you an Air-based Power-Up.
  • Added Gold Flowers! These things produce blindingly bright light and leave a bundle of Coins in their wake. Fundamentally, they're here to give you a Light-based Power-Up.
  • Added Rock Mushrooms! These give you a lightweight rocky shell that you can use to bowl over enemies. Fundamentally, they're here to give you an Earth-based Power-Up.
  • Added Rotten Mushrooms! These have historically not been Power-Ups, but I thought it'd be a fun way to get more poison to play with – though they have a bit of a bite to them to represent how they're usually hazardous. Can easily be reflavoured as Poison Mushrooms, I just went with Rotten to avoid confusion.
• Gear also saw an overhaul to allow some more flexibility in what they can do, giving you more ways to access Personal Traits and other tricks. To go along with this we've slotted in some codified examples of unique Gear:
  • Added the Legendary Cookbook! With examples of traditional Gear being baked into the book now, I thought it'd be good to provide a reference point for some more unique effects.
  • Added the Strange Sack! Again, it's not an especially complicated piece of equipment, but I figured it'd be better to codify it now so that people aren't just guessing at its value. Uniquely, it doesn't occupy an Inventory slot, making it just as easy to use as in TTYD.
• And some new Badges:
  • Added Medicine Man! Inspired by the Master Quest Badge, this is a much simpler version that leans on the existing Heal mechanics.
  • Added Earth Power and Fire Power! Similar to Ice Power, but for different elements. Also considered Air Power, Shock Power and Water Power, but couldn't think of reasonable use cases for them. Feel free to homebrew the others for your own table if you need them, they're very simple effects.
  • Added Handyman and Marksman! They're similar to Jumpman and Weaponman, but are tooled towards unarmed and ranged attacks respectively.
  • Added Berserker! Otherwise known as "Power of Rage". This one's tricky to balance since it was never officially implemented. I stuck close to the Master Quest effect and took a stab in the dark at its Coin Cost, but given there's no true example to use here, it's up to the GM to adjust for their game.