The term "cozy game" has been floating around in the videogame world for a while now, to describe stuff like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing: low stakes games which people play more to relax than to challenge themselves.

Meanwhile, I've sometimes used the term "cozy fantasy" to describe things like The Hobbit, Chronicles of Narnia, The Book of Three, Redwall, etc.: heroic fantasy stories where the scale/stakes are a bit lower, violence is a bit less of a foregone conclusion, and the atmosphere is a bit more quaint and homey than your standard fantasy adventure. I quite like this sort of thing, and I've wondered before if it's doable in a roleplaying game.

Just in the last week or so, I've seen a few people (on this forum and elsewhere) refer to "Cozy RPGs" as if it's a movement or recognized style of game. Never heard of this until recently. Is this something that's popped up on other people's radar? Is there particular game that made this a trend? Is it related to what I term "cozy fantasy", or is it a whole different thing?

I do this for kids.

Ryuutama I think might qualify.

Quote from: ForgottenF on February 04, 2024, 06:40:05 PM
The term "cozy game" has been floating around in the videogame world for a while now, to describe stuff like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing: low stakes games which people play more to relax than to challenge themselves.

You mean Chick games. A percentage of dudes enjoy them too, but they're Chick games.

The majority of female video gamers (#NotAll) don't like games that are overly competitive, frustrating, difficult, or that have a likelihood of dying (or even the ability to die.) They like puzzles, stories, safe exploration, tending resources and acquiring cosmetics.

Golden Sky Stories does it pretty well.

I can see a video game like this.  Sometimes you just want to shut off the brain and just craft, solve puzzles, manage resources...etc.  And like Grognard GM mentioned, it caters to girls and women.  And soy boys.  They seem to like it too.

But not for a tabletop roleplay.  It sounds pretty tedious at a table.

Quote from: Grognard GM on February 04, 2024, 09:10:41 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on February 04, 2024, 06:40:05 PM
The term "cozy game" has been floating around in the videogame world for a while now, to describe stuff like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing: low stakes games which people play more to relax than to challenge themselves.

You mean Chick games. A percentage of dudes enjoy them too, but they're Chick games.

The majority of female video gamers (#NotAll) don't like games that are overly competitive, frustrating, difficult, or that have a likelihood of dying (or even the ability to die.) They like puzzles, stories, safe exploration, tending resources and acquiring cosmetics.

Greetings!

*Laughing*! Very true, Grognard GM!

I haven't called game sessions precisely "Cosy Games"--but I have described where in my campaign, the wife, and other women gamers playing in the campaigns--are especially fond of this kind of stuff in the RPG campaign. Roleplaying, making friends, pursuing romance, attending masquerade balls, going to parties at dance clubs, going *shopping", engaging in culture lore, and dealing with resource management, as well as jumping into social and romantic drama involving their circles of friends, as well as family members, henchmen, hirelings, and so on.

The women can do all this kind of stuff for *hours and hours*. With no combat whatsoever, no danger involved, and everything being social and fun. They LOVE THIS.

As the DM, I have even now in my campaigns, indulge the women for an episode or two, to let them do their feminine stuff. It is entertaining, and fun--to a point. At that line, for myself, I've had enough, and it becomes time for blood and steel. *Laughing* The men players, yeah, when dealing with the women, they have kind of recognized that this is an element that is especially appealing to the women, and important for them. So, yeah, we have embraced it for a bit for regular, periodic episodes. Most of the time, though, yeah, creatures are dying and blood is flying. *Laughing*

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

After reading the replies, I think Ryuutama indeed fits the bill. As far as I can remember, the game is about living a story and then feeding it to some kind of a dragon. I guess it's got its own market, albeit quite niche.

  OOOooooOOOOH!  Shopping excursions! Escapades! Quirky Misunderstanding! Goose Chases! Holiday Retreats! Culinary Getaways! Spa Days! Hijinks & Shenanigans! Mysteries + [Insert Craft & Hobby here] Yay!

Those are such nice vacations from the same old, same old "one man (or squad) kills everybody! Hell yeah!"

It's doable in just about every RPG game, if you want it!  I mean, look at "Courage the Cowardly Dog" and how it starts in bucolic cartoon farm life. You can make any RPG have interludes of cozy rainy days, snuggled in a blankie, cradling a big mug of pumpkin spiced hot cocoa!  Mmm, rainy day hot cocoa...

It sounds like "cozy rpgs" would be ideal for people who are easily triggered.

Ryuutama is an odd one.  The GM is represented by a kind of character called a ryujin in the game.  Each kind of ryujin wants a different kind of story and they have various powers to push the story in the direction they want.  The tone of the game depends greatly on which kind of ryujin the GM is using.  The basic green Ryujin tilts the game toward that cozy rpg vibe though the journey system can be surprisingly punishing.  The red or black ryujin produce an entirely different sort of vibe.

Sounds like the tame version of a beer and pretzels version of an RPG.
A game simple to pick up and play and you don't care if your PC dies (after all most board games have a loser and people expect that). Except the Cozy version is nerfed so you don't die, at least not until you agree that would be okay for the story and you can start up a new character with all the old ones hard-earned possessions and memories.

I think the closest I get to that is something like the Persona video games. Half of the game is your usual dungeon crawling, turn-based combat. The other half is a slice of life, school days kind of game where your biggest concern is trying to hang out with your friends.

Otherwise I don't think I'd really be interested in something like that personally. Even in games like Minecraft, I like having monsters on and working towards a goal and struggling to get there. I can't imagine playing something without combat or difficulty.

I do Cozy Grimdark.

The inns are warm and inviting, I go to great lengths describing the food and drink and decor. The NPC's all have these fun innocuous "problems" that can be roleplayed through, some with cross-wired agendas that can lead to hilariously fun hijinks.

then the cute Chibi-zombies smash in the door and eat everyone in slow-motion, as the inn catches fire.

Quote from: Tod13 on February 04, 2024, 08:25:02 PM
Ryuutama I think might qualify.

I remember backing the Kickstarter for this purely for the die mechanic. It's an interesting game but I ended up thinking, "WTF would I ever do with this?" Now my kids are getting older, I think it'd be a decent style of game to play with them, although my daughter is reading The Hobbit and likes Mentzer D&D, so maybe not.