Sengoku Jidai the Japanese Campaign Setting for FC

[Aragathor]

As discussed before in the new origins thread, here's the topic for the discussions about making the Sengoku period of Japanese history into a working setting for Fantasycraft.
Let's start with origins since it was the main reason this was discussed in the other thread.

Talents as Clan allegiance
Here's an idea, let's make clans into talents that would represent the main warring clans. This way we could get some interesting stuff like Chosokabe Ashigaru or Uesugi Yojimbo.
Additionally we could make some other Talents like Ikko-Ikki or Ronin.

Specialties would need only a few additions since most typical roles are already covered. I would however add some more like Inkyo and the two mentioned before.

PS: Morgenstern offered a Path of Bushido if I opened this topic.  

[Morgenstern]

Indeed I did . I'm having some trouble with the posting interface that is driving me crazy (it automatically scrolls to the top each time I enter even a single character, making typing after the first 12 lines or so all but impossible), but this is short enough I should be able to enter it.

Path of Bushido
Bushido I: You gain a +5 bonus to Resolve checks.
Bushido II: Your lowest attribute rises by 1 and your melee and unarmed attacks gain armor piercing equal to your Bushido step.
Bushido III: You gain the Iron Will feat.
Bushido IV: You may roll twice when making a Tactics check, keeping the result you prefer.
Bushido V: Your Heroic, Military, or Noble Renown increases by 2

[Wolverine]

I'm having some trouble with the posting interface that is driving me crazy....

Copy-pasting from Notepad/Wordpad should make things a little easier for you, it certainly does for me

[Morgenstern]

(That's about the only way I can do longer thoughts at the moment, and going in and adding the typesetting marks afterwards is getting a bit tedious. Cleaning up tables is flat out impossible at this point.)

Back to the topic at hand: I tend to think Iconic Classes and Iconic specialties could be very helpful in creating human Talents for a rigidly stratified culture. I also came up with a new benefit for Talents that could reflect such strong presumptions about upbringing leading into a specific skill set. Right now I'm leaning towards the name 'calling' for the benefit. Here's some examples using a pair of noble houses from L5R (there would be a total of 7 points like normal, this is just showing how I'd use the restriction and the new benefit).

Doji
(1) Calling: You may gain levels as an Gallant or Schemer beginning at Career Level 4 if you meet all other prerequisites for that class.
(-1) Iconic Class: Courtier or Lancer

Matsu
(1) Calling: You may gain levels as a Beastmaster or Golden Lion beginning at Career Level 4 if you meet all other prerequisites for that class.
(-1) Iconic Class: Lancer or Scout

[MugMug]

(That's about the only way I can do longer thoughts at the moment, and going in and adding the typesetting marks afterwards is getting a bit tedious. Cleaning up tables is flat out impossible at this point.)

I draft in notepad, which uses constant-width characters, and then put the table between {tt}{/tt} tags. That preserves the spacing and such.

Walter

[Aragathor]

Since the topic died out so quickly, is there no interest?
Because reading through Clavel's Shogun I must say this period is fun.

[Aldus Vertten]

There's an interest... but somehow i didnt see this one before...

[Aragathor]

Happens.

I'm looking at possible clans, but frankly I'm not that knowledgeable to make a whole list. Any takers? I would only need links to info/proposals.

[OverNinja]

I'm looking at possible clans, but frankly I'm not that knowledgeable to make a whole list. Any takers? I would only need links to info/proposals.

Which clans, L5R?

[OverNinja]

Links to real-world clans in wikipedia, these were also the clans in Shogun: Total War.
Shimazu clan
Mōri clan
Takeda clan
Oda clan
Imagawa clan
Uesugi clan
Late Hōjō clan

[Desertpuma]

Very cool stuff!

[hidajiremi]

Let me say that this topic interests me, but I have two personal conflicts with posting to it.
1) I've already written a Japanese (Tokugawa Period) RPG for d20, and my publisher is considering redoing it for Savage Worlds and possibly Fantasy Craft and/or Pathfinder. I don't want to risk stepping on toes until that's done.
2) I'm considering writing my own FC Japanese-history-inspired fantasy game in the near future if that doesn't pan out, and I don't want to give all of my material away beforehand. As my grandmama always told me, if you're good at something, never do it for free. 

More seriously, I'm keeping up with this thread and watching for things I can contribute without impinging on my own interests. I think the biggest question right now is one that the OP didn't answer: are you trying to make a TRUFAX Sengoku Jidai real-history game, or one inspired by Chanbara movies (like Zatoichi), or one inspired by serious Jidaigeki films (like Twilight Samurai), or a Sengoku Jidai fantasy game (like Death Trance or The Great Yokai War)?


Jeremy Puckett

[Aragathor]

Let me say that this topic interests me, but I have two personal conflicts with posting to it.
1) I've already written a Japanese (Tokugawa Period) RPG for d20, and my publisher is considering redoing it for Savage Worlds and possibly Fantasy Craft and/or Pathfinder. I don't want to risk stepping on toes until that's done.
2) I'm considering writing my own FC Japanese-history-inspired fantasy game in the near future if that doesn't pan out, and I don't want to give all of my material away beforehand. As my grandmama always told me, if you're good at something, never do it for free. 

More seriously, I'm keeping up with this thread and watching for things I can contribute without impinging on my own interests. I think the biggest question right now is one that the OP didn't answer: are you trying to make a TRUFAX Sengoku Jidai real-history game, or one inspired by Chanbara movies (like Zatoichi), or one inspired by serious Jidaigeki films (like Twilight Samurai), or a Sengoku Jidai fantasy game (like Death Trance or The Great Yokai War)?


Jeremy Puckett

Well I must congratulate you, you are the first person here on this board that discouraged me from contributing.
I'm almost moved to remove the medieval stuff I posted, but I posted it as a proof-of-concept to a different audience so it'll stay.

At first I thought to make this a group effort with people dropping what they know into a hat filled with ideas, but now I'll probably concentrate on stuff that I'll be paid for and let this thread go it's own way without me.

[OverNinja]

 

[Aragathor]

I must retract my previous statement. Here's why:

When the former crafty board was up we had a topic there, the Origin Creation game. It was fun, we created a lot of stuff from damn useful to outright silly. Origins like Blaine, Macho, Cultist or Modern Goth, made just for kicks. I think Morg dropped the Ironman specialty when I asked about it and it was the first time, I think, that we got the point cost of DR bound to an origin.
Just like that, we got it for free.

In fact a lot of stuff here is free, not made with the buck in mind. And a lot of it was time consuming to create.
But it's still free, because that's the Crafty way.
This is also how I got a private message one day from Alex which led to me becoming a freelancer, I posted stuff here for free.

hidajiremi I wish you luck with your approach. We had created an origin in the past, a nice talent that sums it up.

Back to the drawing board folks:

The clans-as-talents go, I looked into it and there's nothing that could serve as a springboard here, the clans while different were defined by their leaders like Uesugi Kenshin or Mori Motonari.
Japan has also had a single culture so normal talents fit the bill.

Specialties are a different pair of tabi, we probably will need a slew of new ones:
-Hatamoto
-Ashigaru
-Sōhei (warrior monk)

Need some input here.

I'm going to review a discussion I had with Morg about Japanese weapons and post my thoughts on it later.

Does Wasabi count as poison?