06-08-2012, 09:52 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The Athens of America
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
I would echo the advice to start lightly with the rules and then add on as you have mastered the previous set...
In that spirit I would advise (GURPS) Lite Japan 3E (for flavor and rules spirit not rules application...) Basic Characters/Campaigns Martial Arts Pretty much that should be enough to run a pretty good campaign...if you were looking for more I would think... Low Tech (plus LT Companions 1,2,3) Social Engineering Magic Mysteries Mass Combat should fill out the rest of the dance card nicely... Good Luck!!
__________________
My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.-Foch America is not perfect, but I will hold her hand until she gets well.-unk Tuskegee Airman |
06-08-2012, 11:06 AM | #12 | ||||||
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
Quote:
But you've said you do want to include magic. Dig around, and you'll find some perks and options that will let players resist magic or supernatural influences. That'd be a classic thing for someone hip-deep in buddhist lore might have. If you include some of the cinematic skills but make things like meditation and inner knowledge vital to their working, that will also justify a great deal of spiritual knowledge. You could go towards some other directions, though. Poetry is a very important element of my game because I've included "stones" that you can spend to gain bonuses to your rolls. If a player dies, he can grant a one-time major bonus in stones to other players, but how many he can give depends on how good his death poem was. Likewise, I follow the rule that meditation can give a character moral insight. Both of these skills have quickly become very important, and there's nothing supernatural about either of them. Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Seems to me you can get away with GURPS Martial Arts and GURPS Japan. You might be helped by GURPS Magic, GURPS Power Ups 2: Perks. If you have the time, money and interest, Low Tech and Thaumatological Styles MIGHT be useful, but they're a low priority at best. If I were you, I'd get MA and Japan, read up on them, see how many questions they answer for you (both are excellent works), and then come back. I'm happy to help. I really learned a lot running CBR (and my players would very much like to return to it)
__________________
My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
||||||
06-08-2012, 03:57 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: May 2012
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
Take heart, though--the 1700s are also opening into the era of "shinshinto", the upswing in blade quality that followed an era where most katana were mostly decorative pieces and not as ruggedly functional as they were in the Sengoku era. (Mechanically, this likely means that getting a Fine quality katana is feasible again. :D) |
|
06-08-2012, 04:45 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Jun 2012
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
I learnt all this from a very insightful interview with author Luke S. Roberts where he talks about his book Performing the Great Peace: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan. Only just got my hands on the book. Here the links to the podcast and the book for those interested: http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-7544-9780824835132.aspx http://newbooksineastasianstudies.co...ii-press-2012/ P.s I really went off on one there didn't I ha |
|
06-08-2012, 04:55 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
In my experience, its not a good idea to assume "the players will never get military kit, or face anyone wearing it" :) But you certainly wouldn't have to stat it out before it came up.
__________________
"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
|
06-08-2012, 05:07 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: May 2012
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
Koto ("Old Swords"): Considered the best of the best, the pinnacle of Japanese swordcraft. The koto era runs from the invention of the signature curved nihonto in the 900s AD all the way to the very late 1500s, and a lot of these swords remained in use well into the 1600s. Includes *all* tachi (worn as such or having the tang bobbed and the blade refurnitured into a katana), and the first "generation" of purpose-forged katana. Shinto ("New Swords"): The low point in Japanese swordsmithing that doesn't involve machine manufacture (as in the "katana" used in World War II). Blades became more ornamented, but effectiveness and quality declined, aside from a few master swordsmiths who kept the art alive for the next era. Era runs from the mid-1600s to the mid-ish 1700s. The first few Late Katana would be shinto, and probably not able to exceed Good blade quality unless manufactured by one of those few expert swordsmiths--but MAYBE still able to have Fine *balance* quality. Shinshinto (Literally "new new swords", more figuratively "New Revival Swords"): Believed to be not quite as good as koto, but a damn sight better than shinto. Brought about by a desire for a return to form among Japanese swordcrafters. Sometimes also called "gendai-to" (IIRC, "Modern Swords"). Started where the shinto era left off, and nihonto manufactured today using all the traditional methods are considered shinshinto as well. |
|
06-08-2012, 05:08 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: May 2012
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
EDIT: And yeah...if the players are actually samurai, they've honestly got a decent fluff reason to own at least one decent suit of armor--if not necessarily actually WEAR it very often if at all (wearing armor on the road when there's no wars on was a good way to get accused of intent to commit banditry). Last edited by Jukkaimaru; 06-08-2012 at 05:13 PM. |
|
06-08-2012, 07:20 PM | #18 | ||||||
Join Date: Jun 2012
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Last edited by Harry J J Gardner; 06-08-2012 at 08:20 PM. |
||||||
06-08-2012, 07:30 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jun 2012
|
Re: Need help for game set during Tokugawa rule.
Quote:
|
|
Tags |
japan, low tech, martial arts, mysteries, social engineering |
|
|