Ostinato

Welcome to Ostinato, the official website for Rather Peculiar Goings-On (RPGO), better known as the Arpeggio system. Arpeggio is a role-playing game system based primarily on the battle system of the first two Paper Mario games, with additional influences from other video games such as the Fire Emblem series. The Arpeggio system and this Ostinato website are not officially affiliated with Nintendo or any company, and are completely non-profit and free to use. Both are managed entirely by one person—me, the Grate Oracle Lewot—as a simple for-fun hobby, and are not intended to be bought or sold by anyone in any way at any time. As such, while many video games and other media will be referred to by name throughout this site, and information such as character stats will be taken from preexisting games and reused in Arpeggiated form, copyright holders have nothing to fear from any of it since I will never be making any money off of their intellectual properties. Therefore, until one of them succeeds in putting an end to my afinancial pastime despite its fair use of their material, I welcome you, dear reader, into the depths of my psyche, where I celebrate a turn-based battle system ingenious in its simplicity by overcomplicating it ad nauseum.

If you're still confused about what Arpeggio actually is, it's best compared to the notorious Dungeons and Dragons, which is one example of what's called a tabletop RPG, or tabletop gaming system. In truth, however, there is a subtle difference: DnD and other related systems like Pathfinder are actually more like thematic variations on a shared system of base mechanics, and Arpeggio more resembles that base mechanics system than a particular application thereof. What this means is that, while much of the content that you will find here on Ostinato is along the lines of character sheets for Mario enemies and suchlike, Arpeggio does not technically assume a Mario-based setting for its games, or in fact any setting whatsoever. My intention is for the Arpeggio system to be usable for running games with any conceivable setting, although you will find that a whimsically-weird Marioid setting might work better in Arpeggio than a grim and gritty gun-glorifying gorefest or a down-to-earth, introspective interpersonal slice-of-life simulation. But in the end, just as I have done what I like with the Paper Mario battle system, what you do with Arpeggio is up to you. I ask only that, as I have pointedly avoided profiting monetarily off of other people's intellectual properties, you extend me the same courtesy.

The Arpeggio system, while mechanically derived from Paper Mario and all that, was originally inspired by my participation in a game run by hegel5000 using the Fuzion system, and that game, entitled Allo's Town, was based storywise on BlueKara's webcomics, so credit to Hegel and BK where it is due. And, though he really has nothing at all to do with any of this, credit to my cousin, known as Orphic Okapi or A.D. Jansen, for keeping me sane (the existence of Arpeggio and Ostinato as evidence to the contrary notwithstanding).

Getting Started

If you're a player who only cares about what you need to know in order to play, then you'll probably want to start with the Character Creation Quick Guide, although it's not really that quick as it ends up just linking you back to longer pages. If you're looking to run your own game of Arpeggio, then you might want to start with the formal introduction, although it's more pomp than circumstance. Either way, most of the pages in the Arpeggio Info section are more or less required reads in order to fully understand the system, while the Default Data section houses premade enemy sheets and that sort of thing which you can use in your games. To find something specific, you can use the search bar over in the upper right corner, or if that fails you, the sitemap lists every page on the site in a handy collapsible folder structure. (Some browsers may not handle the collapsing properly, instead displaying the entire list all at once.)

Vocabulary

Ostinato

An ostinato is a musical phrase, or a small group of musical notes, that is repeatedly repeated throughout the body of a piece of music. I chose this name for the official site of Arpeggio because both "ostinato" and "arpeggio" are musical terms, and because, throughout the varied information about Arpeggio supplied on this site, I show a definite tendency to repeat myself, as well as to write too much in general. It may be difficult to sufficiently warn you, the readers, about the magnitude of this problem, but by incorporating the idea into the name of the site, it will at least be made rather difficult to suggest that I have not tried.

This concept of infinite repetition is reflected in Ostinato's logo, two sixteenth notes connected to form the infinity symbol. Furthermore, Ostinato's slogan is "Where information is endlessly repeated, and roles are played on a harp"—the second part refers to role playing, the activity comprising Arpeggio, and the Italian verb arpeggiare (the source of the word "arpeggio" in English), the literal meaning of which is "to play on a harp."

Maestro

A maestro (plural maestri) is the conductor of an orchestra (or just any distinguished musician). In Arpeggio, the person running the game, who would normally be called the Dungeon Master or Game Master, is referred to as the Maestro. I stole this idea from aroramage, who called himself the Magnificent Maestro; not considering myself magnificent, I just went with Maestro. Previously, I referred to myself as the Apathetic Arbiter, which was a parody of Hegel's title as the Cruel Regulator (with "apathetic" being used somewhat sarcastically to mean "impartial"). Any of these terms should simply be understood as the person running the game, who is essentially performing the job that the game itself (or "the computer") would in a video game.

Vim and Vigor

In Arpeggio, "HP" stands for "Vim Points" whilst "VP" stands for "Vigor Points." This is understandably very confusing, but due to my synesthesia, I am very fond of the letter V. The easiest way to remember is to think of the stock phrase "vim and vigor," and then to realize that HP tends to be listed before any other stats in the majority of games. While confusion is usually avoided by simply saying "HP" and "VP" instead of "Vim Points" and "Vigor Points," it is beneficial to remember which is which, especially when choosing between PK VimUp and PK VigorUp. (The use of "vim" can also be taken as a reference to Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.)

Recurring Numbers

You'll see certain numbers show up repeatedly in the Arpeggio system, for example in Weapon Level Ups and Support Level Ups. 42 is a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, wherein a computer is built to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, and announces that the Answer is 42, but that it does not know what the actual Question is. 19 is the favorite number of my friend Percivale, who played Levity in Game 1 of Arpeggio and Levantamos in Game 2; its significance originates from Chapter 19 of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. 11 is my personal 19, though I don't use it as much; it, like Vim and Vigor, is based on my synesthesia. You'll also see 21, which is half of 42, and possibly 84 and 168, which are multiples. Note that if a player character spends none of their starting AP on Defense Power, then they will have a total of 14 special attacks when they reach the Level cap of 55, meaning that a team of three such player characters (the average/suggested party size) will have a total of 42 special attacks between them.

RPG

The name of this RPG system is "Rather Peculiar Goings-On," abbreviated "RPGO" and backronymed to "Arpeggio" (much like a team name on RWBY, though it was named several years before that show's premier). The official way to greet a fellow Arpeggio enthusiast is with the phrase "Rather Perfunctory Greeting." RPG can also stand for: