A Note: I am in no way shape or form affiliated with Atlus.

This
is a passion project I wanted to work on, and I do not own any of
the properties associated with or pertaining to the Persona
franchise. As such, this document is not for reprint or
distribution. This is for private use only.

1
2
 1. What is Persona

If you’re unaware of Persona, I’m not entirely sure

why you’re here, but, let me explain. Persona is a JRPG
series from Atlus, and has managed to find its
popularity in both Western and Japanese audiences.
Usually based around a group of highschool students,
they have powerful entities they can summon called
“Personas”, but only under specific circumstances.
In Persona 3, it was during “The Midnight Hour”,
a hidden hour of time that only certain people
are conscious during. In 4, there was the TV
World, where there were Shadows and dungeons
based on the suppressed emotions of real
world people.

Persona is not just a dungeon

crawler however; it’s also a Social
Sim. The protagonist builds bonds
with NPCs, and these bonds are called “Social
Links”. The PC builds his bonds and manages his
time, all while going through dungeons,
defeating monsters, gaining EXP, etc.

It was difficult to put these ideas and

mechanics into a tabletop, but I came out with a system
that I think works well.

3
 2. Persona As A
Tabletop
I’ve wanted to play Persona in
tabletop form for a long while now.
Unfortunately, the ones I found I
either didn’t gel with or were not
finished. So, I opted to take
matters into my own hands, and start
working on this project. There isn’t
a usual game system in place, though
it is heavily inspired by the
Powered By The Apocalypse system, at
least during social situations.

The dice used in this game are

d10s, with every roll in the game
being 2d10, take the highest result.
The goal was to make a system that could have quick,
but satisfying combat, while still managing the Social
aspects with make up half of Persona’s identity as a
game. The 2d10 dice system allows the game to not be
cluttered with rules and complicated systems and sub-
systems, and allows the players and GM to focus more on
creating fun combat encounters, and enjoyable Social
Link side stories for the players.

4
 3. Finding Your Own
Identity
Persona is a series that builds itself on its
themes and characters, and as such, when you’re a GM
writing your story or designing NPCs, fitting a theme
is something that’s important to designing a campaign.
Persona 3’s themes are based around Death and coming to
terms with traumatic experiences, and as such the
central story and characters in Persona 3 are based
around coping and dealing with death of those close to
them. When designing you story and
world, these are things you need to
think about. Which leads into the next
section of this chapter.

There’s a concept in tabletop rpgs

called “cooperative worldbuilding”,
which involves you getting together
with your group, before or after you’ve
created characters, (though for this
game you’ll probably want to do it
before) and discussing the world, the
state it’s in, any outside threats,
etc. What I want players to do
beforehand is get together and discuss
the theme of their campaign. The themes
of the campaign can influence many
things; the story, the NPCs, even player’s decisions
about their own characters. The last one being why I
recommend discussing these things with your group
before they make their characters. The characters’
Personas especially should gel with the theme your
campaign is aiming towards (which will be discussed
more in Chapter 2)

5
 1. The Stats
Involved
And now we get into the nitty gritty of any
tabletop rpg: stats. Stats in this game are divided
into two sections: Social and Combat. Or, in a more
fitting way to put it, Character Stats and Persona
Stats.

Social/Character Stats:
Knowledge: Knowledge in its essence, is an
intelligence stat. Remembering a name or face,

6
describing the science behind something, etc. Anything
regarding a player character’s intelligence will use
this stat.

Guts: Guts in its essence, is a courage or stamina

stat. Standing up to someone in a dangerous situation,
trying to keep pace with someone or something, etc.
Anything regarding a player character’s stamina or
courage will use this stat.

Proficiency: Proficiency in its essence, is a

dexterity stat. Dodging a punch, outrunning a fleeing
suspect, etc. Anything regarding a player character’s
physical abilities will use this stat.

Kindness: Some things need a gentle touch. Whether

it’s comforting a grieving person, threading a needle,
etc. Anything regarding a player character’s gentleness
will use this stat.

Charm: Charm in its essence, is a charisma stat. Sweet

talking someone, conning someone into something, etc.
Anything regarding a player character’s charisma will
use this stat.

Combat/Persona Stats:
Strength: This is your Melee attacking stat. Any melee
weapon or skill will use this stat.

Magic: As it says on the tin, this is your Magical

attacking and defending stat. Any spells used to attack
or heal will use this stat, and any magical attacks
lobbed your way will be defended against with this
stat.

7
Endurance: This is your main defensive stat. It
affects your guard bonuses, as well as your HP.

Agility: This is your Ranged attacking stat, your

dodging stat, and your initiative stat. Any ranged
weapon or skill will use this stat

HP: This is your health, and the amount of damage you

can take before you are KOed. This stat cannot be
increased by stat points, and it always double your
Endurance stat.

SP: This your Spirit Points, and it equals to how many

spells you can cast per dungeon run. Like HP, this stat
is always double your Magic stat.

2. Choosing An
Arcana
“The Arcana is the means by which all is
revealed...” - Nyx

The Arcana system is a way to give your character a

little bit more spice and uniqueness. It functions
somewhat like a class or race system in a fantasy RPG,
but dipped in Persona’s style. Your character will get
bonuses based on which Arcana you choose, and these
bonuses can affect your Persona’s stats, your
character’s stats, or even give you certain abilities.

As a sidenote, when I say “usually” or “tends to

be” in the Arcana descriptions below, that’s not to say
you should feel railroaded into roleplaying your
character like that. Just the opposite in fact; this is
just a guideline. If you want to play an incredibly

8
gloomy character with The Sun Arcana, no one should
stop you. If you want follow the guidelines of the
Arcana, go right ahead. This is your character, and
unless you’re running around being a jerk to everyone,
you should play them how you like.

0: The Fool

"The Fool Arcana does not mean that it can be taken lightly. The
Fool is number zero. It is the void from which all other things
begin."

The Fool Arcana is a jack of all trades, and as such the player
with The Fool Arcana gets a +3 to any stat of their choosing, and
may break the initial max of 13.

01: The Magician

"Attaining one's dream requires a stern will and unfailing

determination."

Personas of the Magician Arcana tend to excel at spellcasting,

and as such, the player with The Magician Arcana gets to create
an extra spell at character creation, and gets an additional
Creation point for Spells at level ups.

9
02: The Priestess

"The silent voice within one's heart whispers the most profound
wisdom."

Personas of the Priestess Arcana are commonly associated with

healing and support abilities, and as such, the player with The
Priestess Arcana get to create an extra spell at character,
however it must be based in healing. Additionally, this spell has
an automatic + 2 to healing, and the player may re-roll a healing
spell once per fight.

03: The Empress

"Celebrate life's grandeur...its brilliance...its

magnificence..."

Personas of the Empress Arcana are commonly associated with high

rank and women of great importance, and as such, the player with
The Empress Arcana gets to automatically succeed any social check
once per session (This does not include Demon Negotiation).
Additionally, they can also choose to re-roll any social check
once per scene.

04: The Emperor

"Only courage in the face of doubt can lead one to the answer..."

Personas of the Emperor Arcana tend to excel at physical attacks,

and as such the player with The Emperor Arcana gets an automatic
+1 to both their Strength and Agility. Additionally, they get an
additional Creation point for Skills at level ups.

05: The Hierophant

"It is indeed a precious gift to understand the forces that

guides oneself..."

Personas of the Hierophant Arcana tend to have neither massive

strengths or glaring weaknesses, and as such the player with The
Hierophant Arcana cannot be Knocked Down.

10
06: The Lovers

"There is both joy and wonder in coming to understand another..."

Personas of the Lovers Arcana tend to be supportive and be

outgoing, and as such the player with The Lovers Arcana can take
a fourth Social Link, and any benefits given to the party via
those Social Links are increased.

07: The Chariot

"One of life's greatest blessings is the freedom to pursue one's

goals."

Personas of the Chariot Arcana tend to excel in physical and

speed based attacks, and as such the player with The Chariot
Arcana gets a +1 to Agility. Additionally, the player can choose
to go first in a combat encounter once per session.

08: Justice

"To find the one true path, one must seek guidance amidst
uncertainty..."

Personas of the Justice Arcana tend to be very stoic and

passionate in their beliefs, and as such the player with the
Justice Arcana can choose to automatically succeed a social based
role when it comes to defending their beliefs or one of their
comrades once per scene. Additionally, the player can take an
attack meant for another party member once per combat encounter,
or take all the damage from an AoE attack onto themselves.

09: The Hermit

"It requires great courage to look at oneself honestly, and forge

one's own path..."

Personas of the Hermit Arcana tend to isolate themselves from

society, and as such the player with The Hermit Arcana may remove
themselves from battle for 1 round, while still having the chance
to cast a spell of their choosing. (This ability can only be used
once session.)

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10: Fortune

"Alongside time exists fate, the bearer of cruelty."

Personas of the Fortune Arcana tend to make their own fate, and
have luck on their side, and as such the player with the Fortune
Arcana has a pool of 5 "Fate Points". They may spend these points
at any point to re-roll a single roll (once per roll), add a +1
to a roll, or negate a Critical Fail. The player gets 1 more
every level up, and the points restore at the end of a session.

11: Strength

"Only with strength can one endure suffering and torment."

Personas of the Strength Arcana excel at physical attributes, and

as such the player with the Strength Arcana gets a +1 to Strength
and Endurance, as well as a +2 to Guts.

12: The Hanged Man

"In the face of disaster lies the opportunity for renewal."

Personas of the Hanged Man Arcana excel at surviving harsh

conditions and blows, and as such the player with The Hanged Man
Arcana can survive a single attack that would otherwise KO them
with 1 HP. This may be done once per session. Additionally, the
players gets +10 to HP.

13: Death

"Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who
you are... Death awaits you."

Personas of the Death Arcana tend to be a grim bunch, but use the
inevitability of death to their advantage, and as such the player
with the Death Arcana may sacrifice their own health to benefit.
During combat, the player may sacrifice 5, 10, or 15 HP. The
player may either increase their next roll by 1, 2, or 3
respectively, or restore health to another player by the amount
sacrificed.

14: Temperance

12
"Only those with the purest hearts have the means of truly
finding the answer..."

Personas of the Temperance Arcana tend to be well rounded and

versatile, and as such the player with the Temperance Arcana gets
an extra skill or spell during character creation, and they get a
+1 to any Social stat.

15: Devil

"Making the wisest of decisions requires one to escape from the

desires of temptation..."

Personas of the Devil Arcana tend to be selfish and tricky,

though they still manage to benefit their own party members, and
as such the player with the Devil Arcana can automatically
succeed a Social roll that involves their own self-interest once
per session. Additionally, any roll that involves applying
Poison, Burn, or Silence gets the success threshold automatically
lowered by 1.

16: The Tower

"The Tower of Demise marks is the beginning of the End for all
living things...even you..."

Personas of the Tower Arcana tend to have fallen from grace in

some form, but still have that notoriety, and as such the player
with The Tower Arcana can use their former fame to give them a +3
during Social situations. (This can only happen once per scene.)
However, if a player still fails at this roll, they get a flat -1
penalty to all Social rolls during the rest of this session.

17: The Star

"One's destiny, his fortune, his temperament, and even their

answer, are influenced and determined by the stars."

Personas of the Star Arcana tend to be very talented individuals,

but also very insecure individuals. As such, the player with The
Star Arcana gets a +3 to any Combat stat (cannot exceed 16), or a
+1 to all Social stats. However, the player also gets a -1 to all

13
Social Stats if you picked Combat, or a -2 to a combat stat if
you picked Social.

18: The Moon

"There are always those who cannot let go of their past..."

Personas of the Moon Arcana tend to be incredibly self-conscious

of themselves, and strive to better themselves in any means
possible, and as such the player with The Moon Arcana get 1 less
point to spend on stats at character creation, (Social and
Combat) create 1 less Spell/Skill, and get a -1 to all combat
stats. However, they get to create an extra Spell/Skill, get an
extra point to spend in both Social and Combat at level up.

19: The Sun

"Only a select few can have their place in the sun..."

Personas of the Sun Arcana tend to be very optimistic and have a

bright outlook, despite the situation they may find themselves
in. As such, the player with The Sun Arcana cannot take a penalty
any lower than -2.

Now, there’s no real step by step process for

creating a character for this game. Though I would
recommend you create Spells/Skills last, due to that
being a bit more complex. Otherwise you can really
start anywhere. Next, we’ll be moving onto the nitty
gritty of character creation; point allocation.

3. Allocating Points

14
 As with a lot of tabletop RPGs, point distribution
is what individualizes characters. Here, you have two
sets of stats to distribute points to, so let’s go over
them.

As stated before, Social stats

are Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency,
Kindness, and Charm. Each player
starts out at 0 (assuming there are
no penalties or bonuses) with these
stats, and have 5 points to spend
at character creation. The max for
these stats is 10, and the limit at
character creation is 4.

As for Combat stats, these are

a bit more intricate. Each stat
starts at 10 (again, assuming there
are no penalties or bonuses), and
players get 5 points to spread between all their stats.
The difference between this and Social allocation,
however, is you may decrease your Stats in order to get
more points. There is a limit, however. No stat can go
below 8, and you may not increase any stat above 13 at
character creation. (The exceptions to this being that
Arcana bonuses can increase your stats beyond 15.)

Now that we’ve taken care of your stats,

let’s get into the most free-form and
creative part of character creation: Spell
and Skill Creation.

15
 4. Building Your
Spells and Skills

There is no spell list to pick from in this

tabletop. Due to the vast nature of Persona’s spells,
I’ve opted to take a different solution. Players create
their own skills and spells. If you’ve never played
Persona, the difference between Skills and Spells is
this: Spells are Magic, and Skills are Physical. Spells
cost SP to use, and Skills cost HP to use.

There’s a lot to cover regarding this sub-system,

but most it will be covered in the chapter regarding
leveling up. First off, here is the different
classifications.

Skill Classifications:
Damage

Self-Buff

Other

Spell Classifications:
Damage

Buff

Debuff

Healing

Revival

Status Effect
16
Other

What each of these classifications mean will be

discussed below, in the meantime, let’s go over the
step by step on how to create a Skill or Spell.

1. You have 3 points to spend on each spell/skill. These are

used to increase the damage, number of targets, add
additional effects, etc. Additional effects are up to GM
discretion; always pass the idea by your GM and they’ll add
a point value.
2. Choose what classification it falls under.
3. Chose what you want to put Creation Points into. This will
change depending on what you’re creating, but, the main
options given are Damage, Health Restored, # of Targets,
and Success Threshold. These will be explained in more
detail soon, so, don’t worry about it right now.
4. If it’s a Damaging skill or spell, add an Element.
5. Name it! As said before, there’s a bit more to the actual
Skills and Spells themselves, but, we’ll get to that.

Now, we’ve talked about the

classifications, but, let’s go into
what they actually are.

Damage:
Self explanatory; this is your "hit stuff" attacks. Points can be
used here to increase damage, add additional targets, or add an
additional effect. You may add an element to these for free.

The base for a damage ability is as follows:

Damage: +0
# of Targets: 1

17
As said before, additional effects are up to the discretion of
the GM. However, if the player adds a Buff or Status Effect
attached to the skill, follow the rules of those.

Buff:
Buffs can mean a variety of things. The common use is to increase
a Stat temporarily, but, let your players get creative if they
want. Points can be used here to increase the buff, the buff
duration, or the number of buff targets.

Note: A self-buff in Skills follows the same rules, however, a

self-buff can only be applied on the user.

The base for a buff ability is as follows:

Increase _____: +1
# of Targets: 1
# of Turns: 1

Debuff
The opposite of buff. These abilities are commonly used to
decrease an enemy's Stat temporarily, but again, let your players
get creative if they want. Points can be used here to increase
the debuff, increase the debuff duration, the number of debuff
targets or lower the roll needed by 1 for each point.

The base for a Debuff ability is as follows:

Decrease ____: +1
# of Targets: 1
# of Turns: 1
Roll Needed To Succeed: 9 or higher

Healing:
Again, self explanatory. This is to heal the pesky wounds that
your fellow party members keep getting. Points here can be used
to increase the healing, the amount of targets, or add an
additional effect.

The base for a Healing spell is as follows:

18
Healing: +0
# of Targets: 1

As said before, additional effects are up to the discretion of

the GM. However, if the player adds a Buff effect to the spell,
follow the rules of that.

Revival:
So one of your party members has keeled over. You can either use
an item, or bring them back to the dead with a spell. Points here
can be used to increase the amount of health they come back with
by 3 for each point, or increase the number of targets.

The base for a Revival spell is as follows:

HP Gained: +3
# of Targets: 1

Status Effect:
Who doesn't love a little bit of poison in the bloodstream? This
set of abilities allows the player to inflict Status Effects
(except for Down) onto an enemy. Points here can be used to
increase the number of targets, or lower the roll needed to
suceed by 1 for each point.

The base for a Status Effect skill is as follows:

Type of Status Effect:

# of Targets: 1
Roll Needed to Succeed: 9 or higher

Other:
If a player comes up with an idea that doesn't fit any of the
others, it slides into here. This section is a bit of a wildcard,
so, it's entirely up to the GM and the player to hash this out.As
an example, this can be used to set up "Temporary HP" (or an HP
Buffer), or convert HP to SP.

Hopefully that should give you a good idea on how to

create your characters’ main methods of attack. Now,
let’s take a look at a couple example Skills and Spells

19
to let you see what a finished Skill or Spell should
look like.

Agi (Spell)
Type: Damage
# of Targets: 1
Damage: +2 (2 Points)
Element: Fire
Additional Effect: On a roll of 9 or higher, the target
is Burned. (1 Point)

Dia (Spell)
Type: Healing
# of Targets: 2 (1 Point)
Healing: +2 (2 Points)

Heat Wave (Skill)

Type: Damage
# of Targets: 3 (2 Points)
Damage: +1 (1 Point)
Element: Fire

Envenom (Status Effect)

Type: Status Effect
# of Targets: 2 (1 Point)
Roll Needed to Succeed: 7 (2 Points)

Recarm (Revival Spell)

Type: Revival
HP Gained: +12 (3 Points)
# of Targets: 1

And that sums up that aspect of character creation. The

rest is simple; simply choosing a weapon and other
flavor characteristics. Almost finished!

20
 5. Flavor and
Characteristics
There’s very little left to do with creating your
character. All that’s left is choosing your personal
weapon, and defining your character and Persona.
Weapons are pretty much cosmetic; only your stats
affect your damage. The only thing that’s not cosmetic
about weapons is their range. Melee weapons (swords,
axes, fists, etc.) are based in the Strength stat, and
use Melee skills. Ranged weapons (guns, bows,
slingshots, etc.) are based in the Agility stat, and
use Ranged skills.

Now that all the system based requirements are out

of the way, let’s talk about another part of tabletop
rpgs. Defining your character. Create a backstory for
your character at the start or develop them as the
story progresses, but let your character have...well,
character. This is the basis of roleplaying and
tabletop; playing someone else. Give them a
personality, quirks, etc.

We talked about this at length during the last

chapter; your Persona is an integral part of your
character. This is all flavor and cosmetic, but when
your group is discussing the themes of your campaign, I
want you to discuss a theme for all your Personas. In
Persona 3, the base Personas were all Greek myth
figures. In 4, they were all Japanese myth figures. And
in 5, they were all anti-heroes of folklore. Your
Persona can be anything, as long as it fits the theme
that you and your group has decided.

21
 You might even find yourself influenced by this
when allocating your stats and creating your
Spells/Skills. This is why I highly recommend you
discuss with your group the themes involved in this
campaign, and the theme for your Personas, before you
start getting into the details of stats.

And that concludes character creation! Aside from

the Creation System, I hope you found it simple and
easy to understand. Next chapter we’ll be discussing
rolling dice and your player characters’ social lives.

And that concludes character creation! Aside from

the Creation System, I hope you found it simple and
easy to understand. Next chapter we’ll be discussing
rolling dice and your player characters’ social lives.

22
 1. Social Rolls
Now we get into the game mechanics of the actual
game. As mentioned before, all rolls in this game
are 2d10 – take the highest. However, now we
get to talk about bonuses. For every
point over 0 you have in a stat, you
get a bonus equal to that number. So,
let’s say John Persona has a 3 in
Guts. When he’s rolling dice, he’d
roll 2 d10s, take the higher
number, then add a 3 to it. There
we have John’s Guts roll! Unless
your GM wants you to for randomization factors, or
some other aspect they want to utilize, every Social
roll is done like this; no exceptions.

When rolling, the player is aiming to beat a

certain DC, or difficulty check, set by your GM.
There’s no real standard for these DCs, as a GM, you
need to think about how difficult you want this
particular check to be, and decide from there.
Generally you want to follow these set patterns,
however:

Both Dice Show a 1: Critical Fail. The player absolutely fails at

whatever task they were attempting, and something adverse will
happen to the person who failed.

Dice Are Below the Difficulty Check: Fail. The player does not
succeed at whatever they are attempting to accomplish. Sometimes
something negative will happen to the player due to the failure.

23
Dice Meet or Exceed the Difficulty Check: Success. The player
succeeds at whatever they are attempting to accomplish with no
issues.

Both Dice Show a 10: Critical Success. The player absolutely

succeeds at whatever they are attempting to accomplish. The
player may also get more out of the situation that they were
originally intending to.

Before we end this section, there is one thing I

want to remind both players and GMs of: outside of the
“Shadow World” (or whatever your GM decides to call
it), your characters are not superheroes. They may
excel at a certain stat, but for all intents and
purposes your characters are ordinary highschool (or
college, or wherever you decide to set your campaign.)
students. The magic powers and such your characters
possess do not exist in the real world. I just wanted
to state that, so, for example, the players do not
think they can outrun a speeding car.

24
 2. Gaining Social
Links
As mentioned before, Social Links have been another
key part of Persona since 3. Social Links are bonds you
share with NPCs, and, since 5, have started giving
tangible benefits to your dungeon crawling. Throughout
the campaign, the GM should introduce various named
NPCs to set up plot hooks and potential S. Links. The
reason for this is that players can make S. Links with
any named NPC that is not villainous. However, there
are a couple things to keep in mind when making a
Social Link with someone.

- You have a Max of 3 S. Links.

- You should genuinely be interested in this

character.

An S. Link can be made with someone during any

given day, though it does take up your Social phase.
Additionally, an S. Link has a Max Rank of 5. So, GMs,
keep in mind you’ll
need to create a mini-
narrative surrounding
this character that
needs to be wrapped up
in, essentially, 5
mini-sessions.

25
 In the next section, we’ll discuss the actual
benefits and such to creating Social Links.

3. Benefits of Social
Links
As mentioned before, since Persona 5, there have
been tangible benefits to doing Social Links. Sojiro,
for example, allows you to brew coffee at night, which
gives you more items to restore SP. They used to just
give you benefits to fusing Personas, but, since there
is no Persona fusing in this game, these benefits are
the only benefits for Social Links.

As a GM, you’re in charge of these benefits. As

such, you need to make sure these benefits are
interesting. Something like “having an S. Link with
this character gives you a +1 to [x] roll, in [x]
situation” is not only not very interesting, but it’s
incredibly situational. Below are a couple unique ideas
to give you an idea as to what I mean.

Naoki Tachibana – Baseball Teammate – Rank 3

Once during a combat encounter, you can use the abilities Fast
Ball Special or Pinch Hitter.

Fast Ball Special: By using the ball throwing technique

Naoki taught you, you can amplify the speed and ferocity of
one of your damaging spells by having your Persona literally
toss it at an enemy. This ferocity increases the damage done
by your spell by 2.

26
 Pinch Hitter: You’ve learned the ability to substitute
yourself in place for another person. By using this ability,
you may switch yourself in place with another player who’s
about to be hit by an attack.

Misaki Kawaguchi – Doctor – Rank 2

Due to your relationship with Misaki, she will now supply

your team with two free healing items if you visit her
Clinic during your Social phase.

Yumiko Yamamoto – Yakuza – Rank 4

Yumiko has taught you a lot about the art of “negotiation”.

As such, you have several different abilities during Demon
Negotiation. Once per combat encounter, you may use the
abilities Shake Down or Coercion during Demon Negotiation

Shake Down: By using Shake Down while trying to get money

from an enemy, roll as you normally would. If you succeed at
Demon Negotiation, not only do you get money from them, but
you also get an item of your choice from a pool.

Coercion: By using Coercion during Demon Negotiation, you

automatically succeed. However, due to the fact that you
bullied them into doing what you want, you get less of your
intended goal. (Except for getting them to flee.)

Those are just some examples of abilities you can

use for S. Links. As you can see, the abilities can
fall under several different classifications. There are
things you need to keep in mind when designing these
bonuses, however. Namely, again, fitting the themes of
your campaign, (apologies to keep harping on that
aspect), fitting the character, whether or not it’ll be
beneficial to the character you’re giving it to, etc.
Though that’s not to say you can’t give a Social Link

27
an ability that benefits the entire team, as shown by
Misaki in my examples.

Before we conclude this section, it’s important to

note that if a player hangs out with their chosen
Social Link, you need to make sure there’s some form of
progression to their story. Every time a player meets
with an S. Link, they rank up. You don’t need to give a
new ability, or increase the effect of it, but their
storyline needs to move forward in some way.

4. Breaking a Social
Link
If this is something that’s happened to your
relationship, you’ve screwed something up. Maybe you
said something incredibly rude or mean-spirited, maybe
you accidentally pushed them into doing something that
ruined their dreams. Whatever happened, your friendship
with this person has been damaged. You’ll need to
regain their trust, and whatever that entails is up to
your GM. Until that time happens though, you can no
longer gain the benefits of that S. Link.

If you really want, you can break the Social Link

completely. This should be roleplayed out, however, as
it’s a massive change to both your character and that
NPC, and it should not be done frequently. If you do
break the Social Link, you will now have a free spot,
however you cannot go back and attempt to repair that
Social Link. It is gone forever.

28
 As said, this is something that should taken into
heavy consideration. In universe, these are characters
you’ve found strong bonds with, and as such can impact
everyone who is involved.

1. Designing the
Dungeons
And now we arrive at Persona’s second half, dungeon
crawling. Designing dungeons isn’t easy, and there’s no
real concrete answer as to what a good dungeon looks
like. However, there are several things I would advise
against.

- Random Encounters:
Script your encounters on
a room to room basis.
Random encounters in a
tabletop rpg aren’t very
entertaining, and usually
just end up being dull.

- Back to Back
Encounters: Give your
players time to
breathe. Finishing a combat encounter only to be slammed
into the next one can be boring at best, exhausting at
worst. Spread your dungeon out with treasure, puzzles, and
so on.

29
 - “Chaff” Encounters: While this is a dungeon crawling game,
having encounters that serve no purpose other than just
“being there” have very little point.

- Paths that lead nowhere: This should be obvious, but,

don’t create a path in your dungeon that just leads to a
dead end. If you want to create a dead end that has a secret
in it, or something along those lines, that’s fine.

Now, there are several ways you can go about

creating your dungeons. The first being doing it by
hand. This takes a lot of
effort on your part, due
to the fact that,
depending on how big you
want your dungeon to be,
you’d have to design and
create everything by hand.
This is a difficult task,
especially if this is your
first time GMing this
game, and especially so if
this is your first time GMing in general. There is
another way to handle this, however:

https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/

This is a random dungeon generator. While it’s

intended for d20 games such as Pathfinder and Dungeons
and Dragons, it can be re-purposed for this game.
You’ll just need to ignore the designed encounters,
treasure, traps, etc. and replace them with your own.
However, that relieves some of the burden of designing
the corridors and rooms and all that. While I would say
designing it by hand is the better way to go, this is a
way to get your feet wet without needing go through the
amount of effort required to design a dungeon by hand.
30
 There are a few more aspects of creating a dungeon
that I want to go over before closing out this section.
The first being reward your players. No one wants to go
through a dungeon and come out with nothing. Money,
items, etc. are all good things to give to your
players. The second is make
dungeons long, but not a
grind. Like in the games,
dungeons aren’t meant to be
done in one go. As such, you
should make dungeons take
multiple days or “Dungeon
Phases” (the concept of the
Social/Dungeon Phase will be
explained in later
chapters). But that’s not to say you should make them
annoying to get through; as mentioned before, not
padding the rooms with simple encounters is a good way
to avoid this. Finally, and this is another part where
I harp on themes, make your dungeon fit a theme. I
don’t know what kind of dungeons you’ll be aiming for,
whether based on a person like 4 and 5, or have it be a
mysterious tower like 3. If you’re going for the
former, the dungeon should fit the person. For example,
if the person in question is a DJ, then the dungeon
should follow suit. Club lights, pulsating music, stuff
like that should follow and give your dungeon a nice
atmosphere. If
you’re playing on
an online service
like roll20, you
can even play said
music while your
players are
exploring.

31
 2. Combat

We talked a lot about encounters last section, now

let’s get into how said encounters actually work. As we
went over, you have your main stats that contribute to
combat: Strength, Endurance, Magic, Agility, HP, and
SP. We’ve talked at length about them, now we can put
them into perspective.

My goal for combat is to have it be simple, and

quick. Each player has one combat action they can take
per turn, and that can mean hitting the enemy with
their weapon, cast a spell, etc. Combat can be done in
a traditional grid system, or it can be done more like
the games themselves, with each character and enemy
standing in a line. Ultimately this is a stylistic
choice in the end, as movement is not a factor in this
game.

Now, let’s talk about how rolling attacks actually

works. When a character declares an attack, they’ll
roll their associated stat. (Magic for spells, Strength
for melee, and Agility for ranged.) The character then

32
rolls 2d10 – take the highest, plus whatever bonus
their stat gives (Ex. If you have a 12 in Strength you
get + 2), plus whatever other bonuses your Arcana,
Spell/Skill, etc. gives. This all equals to your base
damage. To put it into an equation to simplify things:

2d10 + Stat Bonus + Misc. Bonuses = Damage

There are no accuracy rolls in this game. You are

always rolling for damage. Now, what does the target of
an attack do to defend themselves? That would be Guard.
Guarding involves the target rolling their Endurance,
Magic, or Agility stat, depending on the type of
attack. You then subtract that roll from the attacker’s
roll, and get the final result; how much HP the target
loses. Let’s put this entire scenario into an equation:

2d10 + Stat Bonus + Misc. Bonuses – Target 2d10 + Stat Bonus

+ Misc. Bonuses = Damage

It might seem hard at first, but it’s a basic attacker

vs. defender roll.
Initiative (or turn
order) is handled very
simply. When combat
begins, each
participant will roll
their Agility +
Proficiency. The person
with the highest roll
goes first, the person
with the second highest
goes second, and so on.

33
3. Demon Negotiation
Those who played Shin Megami Tensei, Persona 1, 2
or 5 are familiar with Demon Negotiation. It’s a
mechanic that involves you
conversing with the enemies,
and convincing them to give
you money, items, or even
become your ally. Since you’ll
have one Persona throughout
this game, the latter is
obviously gone. However, gone
are the dialogue choices, and
in it’s place we have
roleplaying and Social rolls.

Demon Negotiation can only

done once per combat
encounter, can only be done on
a weakened enemy, and can only
be done on non-boss enemies.
This negotiation must role-
played out, with the player conversing with the enemy,
and trying to please them and sway them. Whether or not
the player succeeds is up to the dice...and the GM.
However, if the player does succeed, they have three
options: Get Money, Get an
Item, or Cause the Enemy to
leave.

34
 4. Elements and
Status Effects
Certain enemies are weak and resistant to certain
elements; this happens in both Persona the game, and
other tabletop RPGs. However, as being Knocked Down is
caused differently in this than the actual game, if an
enemy is weak to a certain Element, they’ll take double
damage. However, if an enemy is resistant to a certain
Element, they’ll take half or sometimes even no damage.
Below is the list of elements in this game.

Fire
Psychic
Ice
Nuclear
Thunder
Wind
Light
Dark

Next, we need to touch on Status Effects. These are

negative effects played on your characters enemies that
do a variety of different things. If you’re looking to
add an additional effect to one of your skills or
spells, this would be an easy place to look.

Burn: Victim takes 5 points of damage at the start of their

turn, but can take the turn to put themselves out.

Poison: Victim takes 3 points of damage at the end of their

turn.

Silence: Victim cannot use Spells or Skills.

35
 Enrage: Victim can only use a normal attack, but damage is
increase by 10. The victim may use their turn to roll a die.
On a 7 or higher; the target is cured of this Status Effect.

Stunned: Victim loses a turn. Victim can also not be stunned

again next turn.

Frozen: The victim cannot use a Skill or Spell next turn.

They take 50% more damage from the next attack directed
towards them. This effect only lasts on turn, and victim
cannot be Frozen again next turn.

Down: Victim loses a turn, and also takes double damage from
next attack.

To clarify, Down is a very special Status Effect, and

cannot be added to any Skill or Spell. Down only
happens when one of four things happens.

1. A Critical Hit happens. This means the attacker

rolls two tens on their roll. A critical hit will
always deal at least 1 damage, and the target is
Down.

2. A Critical Miss happens. This means the attacker

rolls two ones on their rolls. A critical miss
means the target takes no damage, and the attacker
is Down.

3. A Critical Guard happens. This means the

defender rolls two tens on their rolls. A critical
guard means the defender takes no damage, and the
attacker is Down.

4. A Guard Failure happens. This means the defender

rolls two ones on their rolls. A guard failure
means the defender takes full damage, and the
defender is Down.

36
It should be mentioned that all the aforementioned
Status effects disappear at the end of battle. No need
for Antidotes, or other status clearing items except
during
battle.

1. When to Level Up
Now, let’s talk about character progression. More
specifically, when to progress the players’ characters.
This is mostly up to the GM, but, the recommended way
would be one of two suggestions.

1. EXP: Assign your enemies an EXP value, and an

EXP cap for your players. When your players reach
that EXP cap, have them level up at the end of the
session. This is slightly more work than the next
suggestion, however, it can give a more “JRPG”
feeling that you or your players might want.

37
 2. Level them Up After a Certain Number of
Encounters: This one allows you, the GM, to decide
when to level up players. This one gives you the
freedom to scale encounters in a certain degree
without worrying about accidentally grinding your
players to a level you weren’t expecting. However,
this suggestion can be a bit tricky, as you don’t
want to go long stretches of time without giving
your players a level.

Both recommended options have their positives and

negatives, so, in the end, pick which works best for
you!

2. What Leveling Up
Entails
So, now that you know when to level up, let’s talk
about how to level up. When a player levels up, they
get 2 points to spend on combat stats, and 2 points to
spend on Social Stats. As a reminder, the maximum for
stats is 25 on Combat, and 10 in Social. As a player,
one thing that’s
important to keep in
mind, is not to dump
all your points into a
single stat. For
example, if you’re a
Magic based character
who puts all their
points into MAG and
ignores the rest of the
stats, you’re going to
38
cast some incredibly powerful spells, however, if you
get hit you’re going to go down very quickly. That
being said, being a glass cannon is a viable strategy,
but not if you go down in one hit.

Secondly, you’ll get to create 3 more Spells or

Skills. However, how often this happens depends on the
GM. The standard for this book is every odd numbered
level, but you can do it however you’d like. Another
thing to note about creating spells on Level Up is that
you get two additional creation points. So, for
example, Level 3 would be 5, Level 5 would be 7, and so
on. This is keep your power consistently growing. For
the standard for this book, the max Level is 10.
However, much like a lot of the ground rules set up in
this book, the end result is up to the GM.

3. Skill/Spell Cards
While in a dungeon or after a battle, you might
want to give your players a little something extra
aside from money, items, etc. To
give them that little bit extra, as
well as give your players a
potential boost, that’s where
Skill/Spell Cards come in handy.
Like in the games themselves, Skill
or Spell cards are items that can
give your Personas a specific Skill
or Spell that’s on the card.
However, since there’s no list of spells like in the
games, what’s on these cards will be up to the GM.

39
 When it comes to the abilities these cards give,
it’s important to keep in mind the makeup of your
party. If your party, for some reason, ends up with all
physical attackers, then handing them a spell card
isn’t going to be very useful for them. Additionally,
if you’re handing them out in loot drops, you don’t
want to single out a single player and make the rest
feel left out. Try and aim for 2-3 players that the
card could go to, and then let them discuss between
themselves who’ll get to use it.

As said before, the GM creates these Spell/Skill

cards. As such, they follow the same rules of creation
as any other spell/skill. The difference being, of
course, that you, as the GM, have to decide the point
value of the spell. You’ll need to think on this when
giving your players this, as you’ll need to make sure
the spell or skill you’re giving them is balanced for
the Level they are currently at.

4. Ultimate Personas

40
 Now that we’ve finished talking about the general
gist of leveling up, we get to talk about the final
stage: Ultimate Personas. Like in the games themselves,
once the players reach a certain point, they get to
completely upgrade their current Personas. There is one
requirement, however. Players must have maxed at least
two Social Links. You can play around with other
potential requirements, but, this is one that should
absolutely stay in. Now, what exactly entails an
Ultimate Persona?

Once you decide to upgrade your Persona, there a

couple things you need to do. First, is your Persona
becomes a new character, so to speak. For example,
let’s say John Persona decides to upgrade his Persona,
Friar Tuck. He’ll have to choose a different person to
represent his Persona when he upgrades it. These
upgraded Personas, however, don’t have to follow the
theme set beforehand.

So, in this example, John Persona upgrades Friar

Tuck into Thoth. He then gets 3 extra points to spread
across his combat abilities, as well as creating a new
Spell or Skill with the same amount of creation points
as he had last level. This is all more or less giving
your Persona an extra level, however, there’s one more
thing to add to this function. When you upgrade your
Persona, you get to take the effects from another
Arcana and add them to your Persona. To compare this to
other tabletop RPGs, you are effectively dual-classing.
This is give your Persona, and your character, one
extra boost of individuality, as well as make you a
more powerful character all around.

41
 I talked a bit about world
building in previous chapters,
and while you you’re not
building a world to the extent
of other tabletop rpgs, there’s
still some things to consider.
Namely ways to make your town
or city lively. You need to
make sure the city in question
is fleshed out, with shops, restaurants, people, etc.
While your players will only see part of the city at a

42
time, making it seem alive is a goal you want to strive
for.

However, your town isn’t the only universe to care

about, now is it? I’m talking about The Shadow World.
The world where your party will doing majority of their
combat and dungeon crawling. Consider how each Shadow
World looked in each of the more recent games. Each one
had a very distinct style to it, and, of course, it a
reason for being there. Discussing why a Shadow World
exists is not something I’d recommend doing with your
group, but, it is definitely something you need to keep
in mind while developing your story.

2. Things to Do
During the chapter with Social Links, we talked a
lot about The Social Phase. Now, let’s get into
actually discussing what this entails. There are two
phases in this game, the aforementioned Social Phase,
where players meet with their Social Links and do
things around the city. The second is the Dungeon
Phase, which involves going into The Shadow World and
going through the dungeon your party is currently
trekking through. We’ve talked about the Dungeon Phase
at length, so, let’s discuss the Social aspect.

If you’ve played the games before, this should be

obvious, but Social Links are not the only things your
players should do during their Social Phase. Your
players should be given the option of doing their
Social Links, or other things around town. Obviously,

43
there should be benefits to skipping a Social Link.
Buffs to rolls, free items, etc. Below are a few
examples of what you could use to benefit your player
characters:

Beef Bowl Shop: The Beef Bowl Shop nearby has a special
challenge: The Big Bowl. A player can roll their Guts to see
if they succeed. If they succeed, they get a +1 to all rolls
during the Dungeon Phase. If they fail, they still feel
accomplished, and thus can re-roll a single roll during the
Dungeon Phase.

Baseball Practice: As a member of the baseball team, the

player can practice pitching or hitting during their Social
Phase. If they practice hitting, they can boost their Melee
attack rolls by +1, and if they practice pitching they can
boost their Ranged attack rolls by +1.

Part Time Job: By working part time at the ramen shop,

players get some extra spending cash, and free Ramen, which
is an item that recovers 15 SP.

Much like several things in this tabletop RPG, a lot of

the side activities are decided by the GM. Hopefully
the instructions and examples give you solid ideas to
build in your own campaign.

3. Items and Shops

Something simple to note, but important
nonetheless. With the lack of weapons and armor in this
game, items are going to be the thing that your players
spend a lot of their money on. Things like healing
items, SP recovery items, etc. are what players are
going to rely on. And shops are the place that your
players purchase these items. The price of these items
44
will be up to the GM, but, below I’m going to give you
a solid list of consumable items to put into your shops
for your players to buy.

Adhesive Bandage: Restores 5 HP to a player.

Medicine: Restores 20 HP to a player.

Bead: Fully restores HP to a player.

Soul Drop: Restores 10 SP to a player.

Ramen: Restores 15 SP to a player.

Snuff Soul: Restores 20 SP to a player.

Antidote: Cures 1 player of Poison.

Cough Drops: Cures 1 player of Silence.

Relax Gel: Cures 1 player of Rage.

Goho-M: Returns you to the entrance of a dungeon.

Lockpick: Allows you to open a locked chest.

Revivadrin: Revives one fallen player with 50% HP.

While this is just a sample list, there are many

more items you could even pull from Persona itself.
This is just a basic set to get you going as you use
your shops and progress through your campaign.

Now, when it comes to shops, the general notion for

pricing is this (least to greatest): Misc. Items (Goho-
Ms, Lockpicks, etc.) > HP Restore Items > SP Restore
Items > Revival Items. HP, SP, and life itself is a
very important resource in this game, and since it’s
half a dungeon crawler at heart, resource management is
an important thing for your players to do. Obviously,

45
these items help mitigate that, but hey, finances
aren’t unlimited.

One last thing to mention in regards to shops, is

that going shopping for items takes up a player’s
Social Phase. So, it might be useful for the players to
keep track of who went shopping for the party last
time, so they get to use their Social Phase doing
something else.

46