I have never played a Persona game. I gather some of the mechanics I describe in this article come from there. (And likely other games I’m unfamiliar with).
However, I am now playing Metaphor: ReFantazio. 20 hours in. Very much enjoying it. It’s a JRPG set in a fantasy world, where the assassination of the king sets off a quest to stop his assassin becoming the new king.
There is an interesting structure to the game, which makes me wonder how I might incorporate it in D&D.
Day and Night
Each day has two parts (effectively Day/Night), and you can do one major activity in each, in addition to any number of minor activities (for example, shopping). Any dungeon delve requires the entire Day/Night cycle.
These (major) activities tend to be some bonding with a companion, or training in an ability or statistic. The bonding activities give you additional options in relation to the game’s class system. (In addition to being good role-playing bait). So, you might spend time with a friend and thus gain access to a new subclass (since they personify those classes). Or you might do activities that increase your maximum hit points, or one of the royal virtues (tolerance, courage, imagination, etc.)
Dungeons are side quests and major story requirements.
The main effect of this is to give you lots of decisions – and decisions that matter.
Time Pressure
But having a time management system would mean nothing without having time pressure. If you could spend 100 days just doing whatever and then go to the final dungeon, you’d just do that. “Oh, I’ll max out all my stats, then overpower the final boss.”
When there’s a ticking clock, your decisions have weight. And (so far), the game hasn’t hidden the clock from you. You have 14 days until this Really Bad Thing happens. So work out how much time you want to prepare, and how much you want to spend dealing with the problem.
However, it’s far less intrusive than the “you must do this immediately” clock that we often see in games. Knowing ahead of a time that the villain is building up power themselves and you do have time to prepare is good!
Application to Dungeons & Dragons
I’ll be thinking about how all of this could be implemented in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. One thing that would be needed is meaningful non-adventuring activities. D&D has been so focused on the adventuring component that non-adventuring activities that actually aid you get little or no attention. And even when systems attempt to help (e.g. downtime), they often don’t. D&D doesn’t have the dials you need to turn.
The easiest thing to just steal is the idea that it’s okay to tell players they have 14 days until the Big Bad wins, and then see how they spend the time. Even without special rules, you can put useful magic in different dungeons, tell them about them, and then see which they want to go after!
Non Application to Dungeons & Dragons
However, while some of this material would be great to see in D&D, it’s worth noting that it isn’t a good idea to put it all in! Computer games and tabletop games have some pretty big differences – and one is in the speed of gameplay.
I’ve played 20 hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio in about a week. I am lucky to get in 4 hours of a given D&D campaign in a week. In addition, activities such as combat take much, much less time in a computer game than around the tabletop.
So, the class system in Metaphor requires you to reach level 20 in one class before you unlock a subclass you can then attempt to master. In a D&D game, these activities just take too long.
I’ll certainly be thinking a lot about which bits can be adapted as I continue with the game.