If you’ve played Golden Sky Stories many times and become used to par- ticipating in stories, and if the narrator gives you permission, you can partici- pate in a story as a person.
However, people are not as free as henge or animals. Children don’t have the freedom to stay out all night, and they can’t stay home when they have
school. This means that depending on the story, it could be hard on a participant, and there could be a lot of scenes where his or her person couldn’t appear. Still, if you’re well-accustomed to the rules and you’re a little bored with participating
normally, go ahead and give this a try. However, if it’s your first story, or if someone is joining you who’s never played before, it’s not the time to par- ticipate as a person instead of a henge. This rule is just so you can add some- thing a little different when you’re play- ing with a regular group.
You create people the same way as henge, but people can’t transform or use powers. They don’t have any Weak- nesses either. Look at the attributes of a similar type of person, and use those scores. For example, if you want to par- ticipate as a Princess, you’ll have Ani- mal 1, Adult 3, and Child 3. Also, people can only have Henge and Animal at 2 or lower, though in exchange they can have Adult as high as 5.
In any case, if you’re participating as a person, please discuss the matter thor- oughly with the narrator first.
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Golden Sky Stories is not a religious game, or even a game about religion,
but Japanese religion and mythol- ogy definitely inform its sensibilities. However, religious characters are ultimately in the game as potential friends to the henge, just like every-
one else. That means that if you want to have a Buddhist priest appear in a story, what you really need to know is that he’s a wise and kind man in a black robe, and he lives in a temple that has a big bell and a graveyard in the back. That’s much more im- portant than knowing which sect of
Buddhism he comes from or how he sits when he meditates.
Religion in Japan is a curious thing, and doesn’t at all conform to Western ideas about what religion is and isn’t. Very few Japanese people consider themselves religious, but everyone goes to a Shinto shrine on New Year’s Day. Japanese religion is about ideas and rituals that inform people’s daily lives. For Japanese peo- ple, religion is a way to celebrate life
in this world.
Shinto is Japan’s animistic native religion, and it’s all about the worship of the kami. People often translate kami as “gods,” but that’s not quite right. Kami are the spirits that reside in all things, and they’re not tran- scendentally different from people the way gods or angels are. The local gods that appear in Golden Sky Sto-
ries are greater in stature than people or even henge, but they’re still beings you can talk to and become friends with. While Shinto does have greater kami that are more like a pantheon of gods, people tend to offer worship to whichever kami is most qualified to help them. That means that people of- ten turn to smaller, local kami, who are better suited to smaller, local requests. A Shinto shrine is a symbolic dwelling for a kami. It is shaped like
a house, and contains an object such as a mirror or a sword that represents the kami. There are great shrines that are national monuments and tiny, forgotten ones in the wilderness. Priests (kan’nushi) and/or shrine maidens (miko) preside over an ac- tive shrine, performing purification rituals, making offerings to the kami, offering protective amulets (oma- mori) and other good luck charms to people, and performing ritual dances.
Buddhism was very important in Japanese history, and developed dif- ferently from other countries. Tra- ditional Buddhism encourages its followers to lead a solitary, ascetic lifestyle apart from the rest of the world, but Japanese Buddhism has long been intertwined with regular society. In particular, most funerals in Japan are Buddhist ceremonies, and consequently, people tend to think of Buddhism as the religion of the dead. This is one of the things that makes Japanese Buddhism a bit different from Buddhism in oth- er countries, but it also means that Buddhist priests are an important part of the community, even if they’re important for one of the sadder parts of life.
In the present day Japanese people do not take religion all that seriously, but people still commonly engage in celebrations with religious origins that help them feel connected to the world and the community. These in-
clude traditional Japanese holidays like Hina Matsuri and Tanabata, Buddhist ones like Obon and Hi- gan, and even Western celebrations
like Christmas. Just as Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, and so on help us feel more connected to our friends, families, and communities,
these celebrations can bring your henge and the other inhabitants of the town closer together.