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.
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 it’s 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 it’s 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
5
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)

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.

6
Social/Character Stats:

Knowledge: Knowledge in its essence, is an intelligence

stat. Remembering a name or face, 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.

7
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.

Endurance: This is your main defensive stat. It affects

your guard bonuses, as well as your HP.

Agility: This is your Ranged attacking stat, as

well as your dodging stat. Any ranged weapon or
skill will use this stat, and any dodge attempts
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.

8
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 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.

9
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 +2 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.

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.

10
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 or Stunned, but on the flip
side they cannot Knock Down an enemy.

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.

11
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

to their own benefit, and as such the player with The Hermit Arcana
gets a +2 to any dodge rolls. Additionally, the player may remove
themself 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.)

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). 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.

12
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
"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 self-serving, but

manage to still benefit their team in some form, and as such the
player with The Devil Arcana can automatically succeed a Demon
Negotiation once per session, and additionally, the player gets extra
bonuses when they succeed a demon negotiation (this is not applied
when they automatically succeed).

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.

13
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 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 the simple nature of this
system, you can really start anywhere from the requirements
in this chapter. Next, we’ll be moving onto the nitty
gritty of character creation; point allocation.

14
 3. Allocating Points
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

the majority of it will be covered in the chapter regarding
leveling up. For now, let’s take a look at how building a
spell or skill looks like at character creation.

At character creation, you’ll be able to create 3

spells or skills. As this is a bit of a complicated
process, let’s go through it step by step.

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

increase the damage, number of targets, and add additional effects.
Increasing damage/# of targets costs 1 point each. Additional effects
are up to GM discretion; always pass the idea by your GM and they’ll
add a point value.

2. If the creation is a Damaging Spell, choose an Element. This is

important as certain enemies are Strong against or Weak against
certain elements. If the creation is a Skill, you may spend 1 point
to add an Element.

3. Choose whether or not the Spell you’re creating is Damage,

Healing, Buff, or Debuff. There will be different effects depending
on the Spell type, but, things will still go through the same
relative steps. Skills, however, can only deal Damage or Buff the
user.

16
4. Now it’s time to begin allocating points. For Damage
Spells/Skills, you can increase the Damage, # of Targets, or add an
additional effect. (point value for the last one is dependent on your
GM) For Healing Spells, you can increase the Healing or # of Targets.
For Buff and Debuff Spells, you choose the affected stat, then you
can increase the Strength of the Buff/Debuff, the # of Targets, or
the Length.

Skills are the same, more or less. However, as said before, Skills
can only deal Damage or Buff the user. Skill Buffs cannot have it’s #
of Targets increased.

5. Keep in mind the limitations that you have. Aside from the
aforementioned 3 points, you cannot increase a Spell or Skill stat
past your related attribute bonus. For example, if your Magic is 13,
you cannot increase your Spell’s damage beyond +3.

6. To finish your Spell/Skill, you need to calculate the cost. The

cost of any Spell/Skill is double the amount of points that were put
into the creation of said Spell/Skill.

7. Name it!

Your spell or skill is now complete! Let’s take a look at a

couple finished Spells and Skills to get a feeling as to
what they should look like.

Agi (Spell):
Type: Damage
# of Targets: 1
Damage: + 2 (2 Points)
Element: Fire
Additional Effect: Roll a
1d10 after dealing damage. If
it is a 9 or higher, the
target is burned. (1 Point)

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

17
Heat Wave (Skill):
Type: Damage
# of Targets: 3 (2 Points)
Damage: + 0
Element: Fire (1 Point)

And that sums up that aspect of

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

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.

18
 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.

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.

19
 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.

20
 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.

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.

21
 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 7. So, GMs, keep
in mind you’ll need to create a mini-narrative surrounding
this character that needs to be wrapped up in, essentially,
7 mini-sessions.

In the next section, we’ll discuss the actual benefits

and such to creating Social Links.

22
 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, as well as makes the target
take a -2 penalty if they attempt to dodge.

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 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.
24
 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.

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.

25
 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.

- “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.

26
 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.

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

27
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.

28
 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. If you
choose the grid based system, movement is then a factor. My
personal choice would be to base movement on a character’s
Agility, but, ultimately it’s up for the GM to decide.

29
 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, etc.) The character then 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? Well, they have two options. They
can either Guard or Dodge. Guarding involves the target
rolling their Endurance (or Magic if they’re guarding
against a spell) stat. 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 in essence, it’s an

attacker vs. defender roll. Now, let’s talk about Dodging.
Dodging involves the target rolling their Agility stat. If
the number the target rolls is higher than the attacker,
the target takes no damage. To break it down, Guarding
means you take guaranteed damage, but soak some of it.
Agility is a high-risk, high-reward, and you have the
chance to take no
damage, but if you
fail, you take the
full amount of damage.

30
 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.

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.

31
 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

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.

Rage: Victim can only use a normal attack, and must attack a
single enemy until it dies, but damage is increase by 10.

32
 Stunned: Victim loses a turn. Victim can also not be stunned
again next turn.

Down: Victim loses a turn, and also takes double damage from
next attack. Cannot Dodge while down, and any Guard rolls are
halved.

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

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

1. A Critical Hit happens. This means the attacker

rolls two tens on their roll. A critical hit cannot be
dodged, it 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.

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.

And that
will conclude
this chapter. Next chapter we’ll be talking about character
progression and leveling up.

33
 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.

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!

34
 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 3
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 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 2 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
35
 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.

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.

36
 4. Ultimate Personas

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 are requirements,
however:

- Players must have maxed at least two Social Lin ks.

- Players must be Level 7 or higher.

The second requirement you can play fast and loose with,
but the first I would highly recommended sticking with.
Now, what exactly entails an Ultimate Persona?
37
 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.

38
 1. Building a Universe
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 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.

39
 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, 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 also free Ramen, which is an
item that recovers 15 SP.
40
 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 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.

41
 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 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.

42