OOC Discussion

[jemmus]

Nice! I think the shugenja is in your game, not this one. So far we have a ronin or sohei and a ninja.

I gave up on Roll20 games because I can't go for 3-5 hours like most game sessions do. But if you start a Bushido one, I'll give it a shot.

[Marullus]

On the other game, Enoch has the Priest and I have the Shugenja.

On this game, Spanningtree is proposing a Shugenja:

I am thinking about a Shugenja profession with an angle based on discontent with the powerful Buddhist temples that have been lead astray or corrupted by wealth and power. The character would be more of a Taoist/philosopher/ascetic but has respects for religions that follow harmonious paths, hence the distaste for the currently evolving situation. Thoughts?

I don't think that precludes more than one, though, and nobody has proposed a Gakusho priest yet. (I'll be a form of Bushi, Enoch has a Ninja.) Whether you lean to Shugenja or Gakusho may influence my trajectory - if Spanningtree is looking to counter the Temples, I'll probably lean to be a Ronin. If you choose to be a Buddhist Gakusho, I'll probably lean to Sohei and pair with you as a pro-temple team. (A game with a Ronin, two Shugenja, and a Ninja is definitely an interesting group that differs from the other Samurai-centric one!)

All Shigenja or Gakusho share abilities to counter magic, exorcise spirit foes, etc. Having some are good.

As for having two Shugenja - there are five mystical arts and you can each take at most two of them (one free, one with your Bonus Skill pick). You can differentiate from each other by the focuses you pick.

• HI-DO (The School of Fire) - is, well, fire. Blinding others, nightsight for yourself, fire darts, concealing smoke... Hot and Showy, similar stuff at higher levels.
• MIZU-DO (The School of Water) - subtlety and illusion. Low level includes a Mud spell to effect terrain and the equivalents of D&Ds Knock and Mirror Image spells. Water darts do subdual damage.
• HAYASHI-DO (The School of Wood) - life-force and creatures. At low level it offers ability to enchant others to see invisibility, a ranged attack that saps the Strength score over time, and an ability to compel truth from someone at your mercy (uses Torture rules without causing damage). Later it summons creatures to your aid, talk to animals, etc.
• KANE-DO (The School of Metal) - self-combat enhancement and warding circles. At low levels you can summon a mystical weapon to hand and attack with your magic skill instead of its Bugei and it harms magical creatures, you can bump-up your own armor class, you can do a ranged attack of metal flechettes, and you can ward against beasts. Since the combat mods are all self-only, this school benefits someone with attributes balanced for a combatant/caster (i.e. you still need speed, deftness, and health more than a normal caster).
• TSUCHI-DO (The School of Soil) - earth and physical form. At low levels, this provides the ability to heal all types of damage, but 6x more expensive than being a Gakusho. Also, an ability to make unstable ground and a ranged attack that knocks enemies down with a gust of wind.

[ffilz]

Nice! I think the shugenja is in your game, not this one. So far we have a ronin or sohei and a ninja.

I gave up on Roll20 games because I can't go for 3-5 hours like most game sessions do. But if you start a Bushido one, I'll give it a shot.

Sounds like a Shugenja or maybe Gakusho may well be in my future, let me see what I come up with over the weekend.

My Roll20 games have been 2 hours... I'd like to eventually start earlier and maybe hit 3 hours, but could wind up with a 2.5 hour compromise (start an hour earlier, end 30 min earlier) to make them a bit more friendly for East coast folks while still getting in a BIT more time.

[Marullus]

If our "motley band" looks like a Ninja, Ronin, Shugenja and Shugenja that is an incredibly interesting batch and differs greatly from a Samurai-centric model.

I am sure we will have a "small jobs for small heroes" level 1 start, but as we grow on a long term campaign involving the complexity of Jemmus' setup here with warring clans and clan/temple friction, it puts us in a place with narrative freedom not actually being Buke. Can we end up in an espionage type of game of such great powers? Is such a thing possible given that On is required for levels and public acknowledgement of actions is required for On?

[jemmus]

You'll be involved in the political intrigue as minor characters from the start. I would think that On could be gained from a secret mission. The insiders of the power that assigned the mission will know about the success and respect the PC for it. Other NPCs should see that the PC is being accorded more respect by the leadership than before, though they won't know the details of why. But they'll know that the PC must have provided some valorous or valuable service, so On should go up.

Let's not forgot the other source of friction in Nippon-- monsters. Because they haven't forgotten about you.

[spanningtree]

Working on this but will probably need some help. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z28jSK ... sp=sharing

[jemmus]

Working on this but will probably need some help. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z28jSK ... sp=sharing

An interesting Shugenja. Not finished fully reviewing it, but some notes.
-Unarmed Combat Damage for Strength 5 should be 1d3.
-Buke is a group of castes. For Caste, the sheet should list Samurai in Service, Samurai, or Ronin.

Does anyone know whether shugenja can wear armor or not? I don't see anywhere in the rules that they can't. (My deep D&D indoctrination is saying "No spellcasters in metal armor!")

[Marullus]

It doesn't say that they can't. They need To be able to at least whisper and at least gesture with one hand. There is no prohibition on armour than I could find, but encumbrance is debilitating to anyone's attributes and their low STR doesn't help.

[spanningtree]

An interesting Shugenja. Not finished fully reviewing it, but some notes.
-Unarmed Combat Damage for Strength 5 should be 1d3.
-Buke is a group of castes. For Caste, the sheet should list Samurai in Service, Samurai, or Ronin.

Does anyone know whether shugenja can wear armor or not? I don't see anywhere in the rules that they can't. (My deep D&D indoctrination is saying "No spellcasters in metal armor!")

Still working on it, a lot of the values are still based on the original sheet. Thank for the updates.

It doesn't say that they can't. They need To be able to at least whisper and at least gesture with one hand. There is no prohibition on armour than I could find, but encumbrance is debilitating to anyone's attributes and their low STR doesn't help.

Yeah, I did not find anything either but the encumbrance is a killer and I am thinking that allocating points to strength may not be the best. I don't really foresee this mage jumping into melee a lot but who knows. I may move some attributes around and look at lighter armor, the armor on the sheet now is left over from the original sheet.

What do you all think about a background where he was trained as a court scholar or the like? After deeply learning philosophy he decided that his path did not belong "in service". Something along those lines.

[jemmus]

I see, some things on the sheet are still from my character Toshizo in ffilz's Bushido game.

I like the background. Here's some Nippon background, if it will help. There are two sources of scholarship in Nippon: The Court in Kyoto and the Buddhist temples throughout the country.

The Court is made up of the kuge (hereditary aristocrats). They're very sophisticated and generally quite snobby. They see the samurai as boorish upstarts, even the highest ranking and most powerful ones. The word samurai literally means "a servant; one who serves a superior," and the kuge still see it that way. An intellectually brilliant samurai of the right breeding could become a scholar to the Court. But the kuge-born scholars would probably never consider him an equal, share academic ideas with him, or pay attention to his scholarship. He'd never be invited to any haiku-composing, incense-smelling, or Moon-viewing parties.

The temples, on the other hand, have samurai and heimin staff (and in Kyoto and Nara, kuge as well). The temples provide education for the sons of samurai, and a little for the daughters as well. Some of the bigger temples have vast libraries, not only of religious texts, but secular studies as well. A young scholar could find work in one as a part-time educator and part-time student, kind of like a modern graduate school teaching assistant. A high rank samurai scholar could probably avoid pressure to become an ordained monk or priest, because of his attractiveness to tuition-paying samurai parents.

[Marullus]

Noted.

So, a local who still happens to play the Shamisen, then.

Checking back, is okay for me to still play the Samisen? Or do I need to be Okinawan?

I like the musician side angle for developing the character, but I don't like the asthetic for a flute, or other options listed for Nippon. The Samisen is very Kubo of Two-Strings.

From the book, it looks like Shinto are hard-over on avoiding death and bodies but Buddhists are not so much - having him be a Buddhist is okay?

If we need an explanation, perhaps i (or my father) was the madoguchi for that Okinawan delegate, and he's the one who taught me to play the samisen? If you want it to be a "wierd Okinawan" thing I'm okay with that; maybe he's the only guy doing it and as he learns it it can become more of a thing. Maybe it brought the family some prestige, but maybe at the cost of having other Japanese seeing him as slightly "polluted" with foreign ideas...like "that son of theirs carrying that filthy samisen around." As a low Ronin, I am fine with him flirting with some edges.

[jemmus]

He can be Japanese and play samisen. Samisen came to Japan from Okinawa, but they're one of the common instruments now. Others are koto, biwa, fue (flute), yokobue (fife), shakuhachi (recorder) and many kinds of taiko (drum). Drumming is a big deal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZagsLrNzg3I

Yes, shinto is serious about avoiding any kind of pollution-- filth, dead bodies, that kind of thing. About everyone in Nippon is a Shintoist. It's just a belief in the kami that live all around Japan. There's no dogma and no religious texts. People go to Shinto shrines at New Year's to get luck for the year. An odd thing is that the bushi take heads and present them to their lords after battles. Pretty non-Shinto-like.

Buddhism, or course, is a very organized religion with several different denominations. It's very concerned with the afterlife and gaining a good reincarnation. So in Nippon people say, "Everyone just follows Shinto until they get old or sick, then they become a Buddhist."

The two religions get along fine, with no conflicts. The Buddhists are natives of Nippon, so they innately believe in Shinto, while also being devout Buddhists.

[jemmus]

Quick iaido gif https://i.imgur.com/rRQdj6M.gifv

[jemmus]

Taiko drumming is such at the heart of Nippon's hybrid Shinto-Buddhist culture that we're going to have to add it as a playable discipline -jutsu/-do. Taiko-jutsu. Like every other other jutsu, it requires discipline, conquering imposed bodily discomfort and pain, and precision. The result seems to be a kind of freedom of mind to react with no fear, no panic, and no reservations. Very good in combat situations. Of course, other human combatants have similar training.

[Enoch]

Kwaidan ("Ghost Stories"), an old 1965 Japanese film, is great for getting the feel of Nippon of this era. And just a great movie all-around, to me at least. It's four or so short stories that were originally written by Lafcadio Hearn. Lafcadio was an interesting Greek-Irish journalist who had to emigrate to different places around the world, and from 1890 to the end of his life lived in Japan. Not the urban part, but the foggy, chilly, northern backwater part facing the sea to Korea. He married a Japanese wife, lived a rural life, and recorded folk ghost stories as short stories, in English. Kwaidan makes a film of a few of them. Really nice colorful and kind of stylized visuals and acting, I think.

In any event, great stuff for the backstory of Nippon samurai, heimin, and gakusho of Nippon. They got the armor, weapons and clothing spot on. (There's a subtle tricky part in the "Earless Hoichi" segment, where the ghosts themselves get their armor wrong. It's bright steel and kind of pre-steampunk. When the armor turns back to oranges and other bright colors of braided silk, that's when the ghosts went back centuries and got it right....) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwaidan_(film)

It's streaming on Amazon Prime, but $3.99 to rent. But 85% of viewers give it a 5.

Just watched "The Black Hair" from Kwaidan. Very creepy, and reinforces the idea that there are supernatural consequences for behaving dishonorably.

[Marullus]

I got to watch the first three - the mountain woodcutters in the Woman in the Snow are inspirational to my character's ties to the Hida Mountains. It was a busy weekend; I intend to rent it again this weekend and finish the ending.

[jemmus]

You can now watch it for free if you do Amazon's free one week trial for Toku. After that, Toku is $3.99 per month. It's a channel for anime, martial arts, and CG-heavy live action movies/shows.

My favorite from the movie is "Hoichi the Earless." The last story is kind of meh, IMO. I'm not sure why they picked that one to produce, there are a lot of Lafcadio Hearn stories to choose from.

[Marullus]

How I feel stepping into a Bushido game...

[jemmus]

Me too.

FYI, I'll be out of town this weekend and probably won't be able to post until Sunday or Monday.

[jmacatty]

Okay, these two games are my first attempt at this kind of role playing. I could use some help getting into the narrative.