OOC Discussion

[ffilz]

Here we can talk about stuff OOC, logistics, planning, how your day is going, whatever.

[ffilz]

I have posted rule links in the first post in the Rules Q&A thread.

[ffilz]

I've started working on Buddhist and Shinto Clerical Magic. The first pass is here, you both should be able to comment on it:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jZf ... ue&sd=true

You might also want to see the original magic rules to see what spells I stripped out:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q7zaOf ... sp=sharing

I'm still debating whether Shinto Clerics should get healing magic, or at least wound healing. Some of the spells I included for Shinto were magics I could imagine them invoking Kami to get the magic effect.

There may be an array of defensive magic that additionally makes sense.

I also want to think about how to implement some of the following magic from Bushido:

Blessings
Prophesy
Some of the other Yoga Trance effects.
Purify Sin and Purify Pollution may deserve to be spells, or they may just be prayer effects.
I need some work on invoking and exorcising Buddhist spirits and Kami.

I also wonder if I should include more of the protective spells:
Energy resistance
Stone Flesh etc (temporal armor improvement)
Immune Flesh (temporal hit points)
Miscellaneous other protective type magics

I don't think it makes sense for Gakusho to have any active offensive spells other than those affecting spirits and Kami (which probably still refer to undead in the descriptions... I'm re-purposing the standard Cold iron clerical anti-undead spells...).

Also, traditionally, Cold Iron clerics get some spells a level earlier than Magic Users. I haven't done anything in that department yet, but that is one thing that offsets the more limited spell list that clerics get.

[ffilz]

I'm going to be out of town for several days, so I won't be doing too much math or anything until I get back (unless I do end up taking my laptop with - might happen).

Frank

[Marullus]

I just finished a six hour drive and am skimming to catch up. Visiting family for the weekend.

For fantasy magical allegory to Japanese religion:

Buddhism is an evolution from Hinduism, so core beliefs like reincarnation (so souls are in every living thing), Moksha (seeing truth behind reality... detect magic, true seeing, etc.), and Maya (reality itself is illusion magic) are all part of it. For modern audiences, I think this scene was well done to simplify. My Religions of India professor also was grateful when the Matrix was released because she could simply say "Reality is an illusion. You saw the Matrix? It's like that."

Shintoism is an animism base. Spirits are in everything (living or not), ancestors included, and invokable for aid. Elemental magic is the province of these spirits (so I like to think of The Last Airbender). They can bring rain, ensure the harvest, etc.

[jemmus]

Sorry to be so inactive here. I'm having a little trouble keeping up with all of my games. (Tax season, student financial aid applications for my kid, things at home suddenly needing repair, etc.)

[ffilz]

Sorry to be so inactive here. I'm having a little trouble keeping up with all of my games. (Tax season, student financial aid applications for my kid, things at home suddenly needing repair, etc.)

No problem, your character is pretty close, just a few skill picks and then equipment.

The magic of the Google Sheet character sheet really helps. It took me a fair bit of time to put together, but it's awesome. Dynamic encumbrance will be so easy, with quick one field edits to drop/pick up pack, and mount or dismount (and it auto adjusts the horse's encumbrance also...). I'm really pleased with the character sheet...

[jemmus]

Nice, Frank! That's so helpful toward getting set up. My medieval/samurai warfare bushi will be ready to move around before long, I think

[Starbeard]

Hi all! Frank helped me set up a middle class samurai character, a dueling musha shugyo type. Looking forward to playing with everyone.

[Marullus]

Hey Starbeard!

[ffilz]

Hi all! Frank helped me set up a middle class samurai character, a dueling musha shugyo type. Looking forward to playing with everyone.

Yes, please welcome Starbeard. He ran the L5R game that inspired me to dive into Bushido. He's also played in my Roll20 RuneQuest game and various other games with me.

[jemmus]

Hello Starbeard, welcome and good to meet! Please feel free to cause any trouble.

[ffilz]

Does anyone feel like they are waiting for me for anything about their character?

I do owe Marullus an updated spell list on his character sheet and then due to the expansion, there will be more significant choices about what to memorize

I'm waiting for the other PCs to introduce themselves (we can start that while we finalize characters).

[jemmus]

Sorry for the very long hold up. Work and home both exploded at the same time. Back to normal now, at least at home.

[Starbeard]

I think my character is all squared away. I'll have a name and make my first post tomorrow.

[ffilz]

I copied over Kyoshi's equipment except for the Doctor's Kit (from Jemus's PC) to Sean's PC to give him at least a first pass at equipment.

If folks want more equipment, check out the equipment document...

For the Buddhist priest, I added the additional spells and proposed a set of memorized spells. A few bits of reasoning: I picked some decent healing, the base illusion spells, I left out Dispel Magic because Detect Magic I is not enough to tease out specific spells so you are sort of shooting blind. Plus you may not need to deal with enemy spell casters immediately. We do need to have more discussion about Buddhist priests and spirits. It may not make sense to have the anti-spirit spells. I tossed in a couple combat buffs since that is one of your options for contributing to combat.

Other than maybe wanting to pick up a few more items of equipment, I think you're good to go. And of course additional equipment can be purchased after you decide on a direction to go.

[jemmus]

In the movie Kwaidan, Buddhist priests write sutras on a musician's face to make him invisible to ghosts. (He was visiting the ghosts every day and that was causing his life force to waste away). https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2016/cteq/kwaidan/ The movie is based on an old Japanese ghost story. So it seems that Buddhist priests are involved in countering ghosts. I guess if it were me I'd have Buddhists focus more on ghosts and undead-type things. With Shintoists focusing more on evil earthly things (bakemono, kappa, oni, etc.) With some overlap. Not sure how I'd pull that off, though.

[ffilz]

In the movie Kwaidan, Buddhist priests write sutras on a musician's face to make him invisible to ghosts. (He was visiting the ghosts every day and that was causing his life force to waste away). https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2016/cteq/kwaidan/ The movie is based on an old Japanese ghost story. So it seems that Buddhist priests are involved in countering ghosts. I guess if it were me I'd have Buddhists focus more on ghosts and undead-type things. With Shintoists focusing more on evil earthly things (bakemono, kappa, oni, etc.) With some overlap. Not sure how I'd pull that off, though.

That distinction seems to be the basis of the differences in Bushido. I will continue to refine the ideas. The spells will be the same but there will be differences in what is affected.

[Starbeard]

Anyone here conversationable in Japanese? I used to be pretty far along, back in another life, but once I stopped studying everything went away like quicksand. It's just how my brain works, I think, use it or lose it.

A few months ago I gave myself a resolution to relearn it at least back to where I was before, and started using Busuu among other things. I can't recommend Busuu enough, it's a great little piece of software. A great alternative to social media, practicing with other people and correcting each other's language exercises. Well worth the $70 USD a year or whatever it is.

[jemmus]

Interesting, thanks. My daughter's half-Japanese and studying Japanese in college. I'll let her know about Busuu.

I'm conversant in Japanese, I lived in Hiroshima for 5 years back in the 90s and studied pretty hard. Being a samurai history nut, I just had to plan Nobunaga's Ambition (the first one) on Nintendo. To do that I had to first be able to read the rulebook. I learned a lot of useful Japanese from that (tax, movement, harvest, mine, attack, charge, loyalty, castle, drought, flood, gun, cavalry, infantry, etc.) But the real benefit was I got a lot of practice at looking up kanji characters in dictionaries and comprehending longer sentences. Of course, the rulebook was written for Nintendo players of all ages, so not much to brag about.