Kamisekai is a Narrative tabletop game system, adapted from a modified version of Dungeon World.

It is built with a few focus points in mind.

Fun!
The goal of the game is not to torture it's players, but instead create a framework for them to have fun with. Moves and Spells should allow for more creativity, not less.

Flexibility
Kamisekai is designed to allow GMs and players to create novel solutions to novel problems. It tries to avoid giving out precise solutions or getting into insignificant details. The abilities and effects avoid describing how they take place (or lore around them) and leaves that up to the players. Players can pick and choose moves as they like, giving them a broad range of customization, rather than forcing them into stiff archetypes.

Speed
The rules of Kamisekai are meant to be easy to read, easy to understand, and to the point. Player actions and effects have quick, obvious resolutions, and are made to avoid unnecessary steps or introduce undesirable complexity into gameplay. This goes with the 'out of the way' design of the system.

Ease of Play
The system is designed to be easy to GM and easy to play. Moves tell you what they do and how they resolve at a glance, following a predictable pattern for readability. Spells have obvious (or easily interpreted) effects. A GM can start a game with very little preparation, and doesn't need to memorize too many mechanics to progress the story or events.

A narritive system is one which sits somewhere between a storytelling game (e.g. World of Darkness) and a tabletop RPG (e.g. Pathfinder). It's primary focus is to act as a guide or framework to tell a story rather than tell the story itself. The GM writes the story, and the system parts of the game do all the hard work to determine the outcomes.

It's Japanese for “celestial world” or “Paper World” depending on how you write and read it.

The proper written form for Kamisekai is either 神世界 “Celestial World” or 紙世界 “Paper World”.

Beyond that simple explanation, things complicated fast depending on how you write or read the words.

Keep reading if you want to experience the linguistic hell of Japanese Puns.

The word is basically two words put together. Kami (a kind of powerful divine spirit) 神 and sekai (world) 世界.

“Kami” can be written a number of ways in Japanese.

• 紙 - Paper
• 神
  • (Normal) God, deity, divinity, spirit or..
  • (Slang) Incredible, fantastical, amazing.
  • (Archaic) Thunder
  • (Archaic) The Emperor.
• 加味
  • Seasoning or Flavoring
  • Addition or inclusion
• 佳味 - Delicious!
• 上
  • Above or Up
  • Superior
  • Source of a stream.
  • Top half of the body.
  • A long time ago
  • A high ranking person.
  • The government or imperal court.
  • The mistress of a restaurant.
• 髪 - (Outdated) Hair

Given all the ways to write the word 'kami', the name lends itself to have a number of meanings when written as “Kamisekai”

Of course you could just as easily interpret “Kamisekai” to read as:

• “Paper World”
• “Better World”
• “Spicy World”
• “Tasty World”
• “Imperial World”
• “Hair World”

Of course, the word “Sekai” (which has only one writing) 世界 can mean:

• World
• Universe
• Realm
• Sphere or circle (area)
• A realm governed by one Buddha (it's etymology)

So with that in mind, there are dozens of ways to read and write the name, depending on the pun you want to make.

And now you know why Japanese Puns are serious business.

Bonus Pun: If you stutter and say “gami” がみ instead of “kami” かみ you wind up with “High Class” or “Graceful”.