Suikoden Tabletop RPG Wiki



What is Suikoden?
Suikoden (水滸伝), translated from the Japanese kanji, roughly means “Water Margin Story”. It refers to one of China’s legendary four great novels. It tells a story of revolution and change, where the 108 stars of destiny come together and overthrow the ruling dynasty. The stars of destiny represent all walks of life, from the highest of nobles to the most ruthless of thieves.

They band together for a common cause, namely to usurp the ruler. Skip ahead to the year 1995. Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo releases a video game called “Genso Suikoden” (幻想水滸伝 - “The Illusion of The Water Margin Story”). Basing it off the popular novel, KCET tells its own tale of the 108 stars of destiny gathering together. Creating a unique role-playing game system, the game became a hit amongst gamers. Konami Computer Entertainment America soon decided to release the game in the United States. Shortening the title to simply “Suikoden”, it was one of the first role-playing games released for the Sony Playstation® state-side. It was also a smash hit over on this side of the ocean. The series consists of seven games, three side-stories, and a card game. This information focuses mainly on the Playstation games.

What is a Role-Playing Game?
In a general sense, a role playing game is any game where you assume a persona that is not your own. The premise behind this is that doing so allows you to act in a way different from your own personal enjoyment.

This system, and others like it, are called tabletop games. This is a kind of manual, outlining rules and sharing information about the game and its world. . Players partake in the game sitting around a table, adhering to its rules, and getting to a desired outcome.

Suikoden as a Tabletop Game
Any fan of the Suikoden series will say that the world Konami has built for this game is simply amazing. It is in-depth, fairly consistent, and allows for anyone who takes part to immerse them into an amazing experience. The game world has been explored over the course of five video games, with reoccurring characters and plot lines over the course of different points in a timeline. The games explore political intrigue, interpersonal relationships, and isn't ever compelled to always answer questions it introduces.

So, the idea was to set up a series of game mechanics for anyone interested to be able to tell stories and take part in this elaborate game world. There is a breadth of knowledge available to any and all participants. This book/game is designed to both chronicle the events of the series and to allow players to submerse themselves into Suikoden’s game world.

The Difference Between Suikoden and Other Tabletop Games
Most people understand tabletop gaming as Dungeons & Dragons ®, and to be sure there are similarities between the two. There is a Game Master (GM) that serves as the storyteller and arbiter of the game world. Players build out characters. Players roll multiple, polyhedral dice to determine success with the characters they've built. Players gain experience and money and improve over a period of time.

The biggest difference is that rather than using a twenty-sided die (d20), this game centers around a twelve-sided die (d12). Several Suikoden video games center on specific characters having skills and talents, which are graded. This system incorporates that idea and takes it further. There are twelve grades, and rolling a d12 adds to that grade. Magic also takes people by surprise, as everyone can use magic. This book follows a system called Runes introduced in the video games, wherein players can change which magic they cast based on what rune they have equipped. Everyone gets magic points, though some are more apt to casting magic than others. Nonetheless, there are runes for every type of class.

From a Video Game to a Tabletop Game
At times, playing a game in meat space conflicts with playing a game wherein a computer makes all the efforts and calculations at the behest of developers. That's a fun and wordy way of saying that, at times, the two are incongruous, and there are conflicts.

This book tries its best to come up with predicted cases as best it can. Either it will give hard rules deemed necessary to help with gameplay, or give an opinion because the concept is simply too nebulous or something more relevant for GMs. Worst case scenarios tend to fall onto a simple rule: Do whatever feels most Suikodeny. If you don't know what that might mean, then intercept it as the Gygax rule, do whatever is in the spirit of the game.

What Does a Player Need to Play?
- A blank character sheet, ready to fill out.

- A d12.

- Twelve d10s.

I've Never Played Suikoden Before
First timers to the Suikoden world sometimes get apprehensive since they've never played any of the games before. They feel that, without knowledge of the games, they can't really play this tabletop game.

That's perfectly okay.

This site outlines the games and major players in an effort to get newcomers more familiar with the material. Of course, between the players and the GM, they might come up with something completely new on their own that doesn't relate to any of the games at all.

First timers also get overwhelmed with the idea of being practically any kind of character. Suikoden is unabashed in the gamut of characters in its series. Battle-hardened warriors, to bipedal cats, to exclusively female druids, to ducks, to octopuses, and everything in-between. From the gritty to the absurd, Suikoden accommodates for it all.

Chapters
The World Of Suikoden

Beginning the Journey: Character Creation

Sharing Fate Together: Gameplay Mechanics

Confrontation with Monsters: GMing a Game

Appendix: Runes

Other Appendices

Current Campaign

Past Campaigns