In March, Ehime AJET hosted a little TTRPG event in Matsuyama, playing the game Cozy Town, a chill game about building a happy little place, no negativity allowed! We split into two groups, and here are the accounts of the experiences of players from each of the two groups.
slackslagoon
By Emily Guo
On a bright Sunday afternoon, in a breezy room in the Matsuyama Community Center, new worlds were being created. Sky cats that move the moon. A snake cobbler. Baked goods fueled economies. Turtles with pants holding fashion shows. As my first RPG event, I was immediately drawn to the idea of Cozy Town. We would be creating a landscape where the main aim was wholesome vibes and a welcoming atmosphere. Equipped with a blank sheet of poster paper, a cup full of markers, and a storyboarding team of fellow good vibes-loving folk, we began to construct our little cozy town. Except for a few prompts to get us going and thinking of new ideas to bring to our world, the creative process was very free form. It really felt like our imagination was the limit. A feeling which was echoed by everyone’s openness to and encouragement toward wacky ideas. Like any good improvisation session, things rolled smoothly because of the “yes, and…”s that made sharing our ideas fun and inviting.
Our team created a land called “slackslagoon” where musical turtles donned the slickest slacks around their canal-accessible, luminescent, festival-filled lagoon. Sky cats came down from the, well, sky, and brought mist to keep our lagoon fresh and dewy, and moved the moon for our festival-loving turtles. Hard-working slugs kept our coral healthy and tended to the grasses that our turtles relied on for food, and even provided slime for our slug-skating festival in the wintertime. Seafaring crabs traveling on banana boats brought knowledge of the world outside and became beloved sensei’s (Mr. Kani I’m looking at you ^^) to our young turtle minds. Currents flowing through our musical corals played an underwater tune that add to the cozy ambience and perform as an orchestra during celebrations. Our lagoon has every use of mushroom imaginable – from hut roofs to banana boat docks to shelter for our turtles to shittaiko drums. Our turtles grew up to become clouted dancers, counselors and healers, and world voyagers bringing back wisdom and inspiration for their pants designs.
There is so much more to our world that we could have explored. Only the finite time and our need to draw everything our minds created were our limits. In a world full of rules and conventions and status quo’s that we don’t agree with or that even dampen our abilities to live as we are, coming to a space where we could create anything felt so refreshing. Creating imaginary worlds doesn’t have to be something that only kids can do. But neither do we need to discount all that we bring to the fun as kids who have spent more time on this earth. Creating is meaningful because we are able to create a world we want to see. Our experiences – the good and the bad – form perspectives that shape what a wholesome, peaceful place looks like to us. And with both our boundless playfulness and deeper understanding of the world in hand, we can create some pretty cool stuff.😎
A Heartwarming World
By Andrew Pappas
Cozy Town was a very relaxing and chill game. You start the game by working together with your friends to create a cutesy fantasy village full of colorful nonhuman characters like anthropomorphic animals or fairy folk ala Animal Crossing or The Smurfs. Unlike most other TTRPGs, in this game you play as omnipotent storytellers who effect the town though prompts you answer. It’s more of a world building game than a swords and sorcery adventure. The game is broken into four season, spring, summer, fall, and winter.
During each season, each player draws a card and is presented with two prompts that they must pick from to answer. Examples of prompts could be: “A longtime friend reveals something new about themselves, how does the town welcome this new information and make their friend feel welcome?” or “A traveling sales man has come to town. What are they selling and how does it help the town?” Your job is to answer he prompt in the most comfy and cozy way possible and change the town for the better. You can do this by adding new characters, revealing new lore about this town, or creating new buildings for your townsfolk to use. There are also seasonal events like holidays and festivals you and your friends must prepare for by working it into your stories which adds an extra bit of challenge for your storytelling skills.
If you at any time have a cozy feeling during the game, you will earn a cozy token which you can use at any time to add an element or character to the town without answering a prompt. Once everyone has answered their prompts the next season begins and one you have gotten to the end of winter, the game is over. There are no winners or losers in Cozy Town. The point of the game is to create a heartwarming world, full of talking critters and tea time, not destroying your friends in heated combat. Cozy Town is a refreshing game compared with all of the crunchy heavy combat focused TTRPGs that are popular now or day. It is a great way to have fun with your friends and exercise your storytelling and improvisation skills. The game can be a bit sickly sweet at times, but still offers a lot of depth if you allow it to. I would definitely love playing it again sometime with friends in the near future.
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