I've been thinking about dipping my toes into Samurai/Chanbara style gaming, just because it's something I've never done. Maybe write up a short Edo or Sengoku period scenario to run my players through for a mini campaign. Since it's not something I've ever engaged with before, a couple questions:

First, how much knowledge of the period tends to be expected for GM-ing in that scene? All the historical roleplaying I've done before was with periods I'm pretty well read in. Medieval and Renaissance Europe and the Crusade-period middle east, for the most part. I'm on less firm ground in Japan. I've seen some Kurosawa movies, played a couple samurai videogames, and watched a few YouTube videos, but that's about it. Am I going to need to do a lot of research here?

Second, what would you recommend for a good  simple Chanbara gaming system? I'd be prioritizing a low barrier to entry, since I'd probably be running a short campaign for a bunch of novices. It wouldn't make sense to go with anything that takes a lot of reading to learn. Optimally I'd want the kind of game where I can make pre-generated characters and explain the basics of how to play during the game.

Curious myself. During COVID I watched all the zatiochi movies and half the tv series and lone wolf and cub and crimson bat and didn't see anything I thought I wanted to play. I considered writing one but wasn't sure there was even a market.

Anyway the best I found in my search was RuneQuest/legend but it was more straight up serious.

If you want Japanese culture in your RPG, while also being rules lite and cheap, there is no such thing. 

For culture, I recommend going to the library and reading a book on that topic. 

As for game rules, I can recommend two or three.

1.  Chanbara RPG.  It's a traditional OSR game based D&D rules with 11 classes (four warriors, three mages, four ninjas), and Vancian magic.  It's got two features I love.

You can customize your character by picking class powers as you level up every 3rd level. 

The second innovation is a second attack and armor class call Tactical attack vs Tactical Defense.  What is cool is that these use Int for Attack, and Wiz & Dex for Defense.  It's used for all the weird stuff like disarming, grappling, escape a grapple, sundering, and so on.  So a smart, wise, and dexterous samurai could be just as effective as a strong one.

Chanbara on DT-RPG for $5 PDF

2.  Kogarashi.  This is a True-D6 based game, which is a roll under system using only 1D6.  Your attributes are 1-4 in size.  Combat Armor is the similar, and can be an unofficial 7th attribute. Damage is also what you roll, so a strength 3 swordsman can do 1-3 damage, with rolls of 4-6 being no damage.  Armor reduces damage if you roll under its number, this time subtract damage received if you rolled equal or under. 

It's got six classes (samurai, Japanese wizard, Japanese cleric, ninja, court noble that is really a rogue, and martial artist), four races (human, dwarf, shape changing animal, and half human), but two of those races (animals & half humans) actually have six sub-races.  So it's more like 14 races.

Everyone gets a list of 20 special abilities, powers, or spells to pick from as you level up, two per level.

That means spells for the wizard and cleric (Onmyoji and Shinkan) are skill checks. They're not Vancian fire & forget spell casting, which I hate.  I prefer non-Vancian.

Kogarashi PDF on DT-RPG for $7.69


If I had to pick a game for you, it is Kogarashi.  It's the simpler game, and you don't roll attributes.  You just assign a 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, & 4, making it a point buy system. Pre-generating a character is not hard, and if a player wants to swap around stats, that's totally ok because that's how it works anyways. 

If you want a preview of the Tru-D6 rules you can get the text-only rules for only $1.

True-D6 text only version

It is all going to come down to just how authentic a game you want, and the era.

There's a channel on Youtube called "Samurai vs Ninja" that has a bunch of movies and samurai dramas from Japan. Some of them can be a little too cozy or cute but there are plenty that pull no punches.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on October 05, 2024, 08:47:08 PM1.  Chanbara RPG.  It's a traditional OSR game based D&D rules with 11 classes (four warriors, three mages, four ninjas), and Vancian magic.  It's got two features I love.

You can customize your character by picking class powers as you level up every 3rd level. 

The second innovation is a second attack and armor class call Tactical attack vs Tactical Defense.  What is cool is that these use Int for Attack, and Wiz & Dex for Defense.  It's used for all the weird stuff like disarming, grappling, escape a grapple, sundering, and so on.  So a smart, wise, and dexterous samurai could be just as effective as a strong one.

Chanbara on DT-RPG for $5 PDF

2.  Kogarashi.  This is a True-D6 based game, which is a roll under system using only 1D6.  Your attributes are 1-4 in size.  Combat Armor is the similar, and can be an unofficial 7th attribute. Damage is also what you roll, so a strength 3 swordsman can do 1-3 damage, with rolls of 4-6 being no damage.  Armor reduces damage if you roll under its number, this time subtract damage received if you rolled equal or under. 

It's got six classes (samurai, Japanese wizard, Japanese cleric, ninja, court noble that is really a rogue, and martial artist), four races (human, dwarf, shape changing animal, and half human), but two of those races (animals & half humans) actually have six sub-races.  So it's more like 14 races.

Everyone gets a list of 20 special abilities, powers, or spells to pick from as you level up, two per level.

That means spells for the wizard and cleric (Onmyoji and Shinkan) are skill checks. They're not Vancian fire & forget spell casting, which I hate.  I prefer non-Vancian.

Kogarashi PDF on DT-RPG for $7.69

If I had to pick a game for you, it is Kogarashi.  It's the simpler game, and you don't roll attributes.  You just assign a 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, & 4, making it a point buy system. Pre-generating a character is not hard, and if a player wants to swap around stats, that's totally ok because that's how it works anyways. 

If you want a preview of the Tru-D6 rules you can get the text-only rules for only $1.

True-D6 text only version

I was aware of Chanbara, but hadn't gotten a chance to read it yet. It does look like a solid game, and as with any OSR, it has the advantage that everyone already knows how to play D&D.

Candidly, part of the reason I made this thread was because I remembered you mentioning a d6 Samurai game a few times, and couldn't remember what it was called, so thanks for that.

The TrueD6 system sounds rules-lighter than I would usually go for, but that's with a campaign in mind. If I'm looking at doing an overgrown one-shot, it might fit the bill, so I'll check it out.

Sadly, neither game has a Roll20 character sheet, so it might come down to what I can more easily jerry-rig for the vtt. TrueD6 does have a system module on the Forge, but I don't have experience running there. Bears some thinking about.

If it will be short and you are not playing with learned Japanese historians, then watching a bunch of Japanese history videos on YouTube should suffice. Linfamy is pretty good, but covers a lot of different eras.

Talk to your players long before you commit to the workload and see where everyone's brain at in regards to Samurai fantasy.

Probably a survey would be useful to get a sense of how Historical vs. Hollywood vs. Manga/Anime they want to play.

Also, how much prep are they willing to do for immersion? Watch XYZ movie or YT video? Or nothing beyond reading one page setting background?

And do you have THAT GUY in the group? AKA, the Egg? The guy who can't shut his piehole in any pseudo-historical fantasy game because he's mistaken the game session for his personal TED Talk about how much trivia he's memorized?

Or the OTHER GUY who feels intimidated by historical fantasy because now he's back in 10th grade getting graded by Mrs. Hinklebottomhof? AKA, anything five feet outside of BOG standard D&D isn't fun for him?

And it's 2024 in Clown World so now there's always the EXTRA DUMB who need to make any historical fantasy session about how oppressed XYZ minority group was in the setting and now your game devolves into a DEI struggle session.

I love historical fantasy campaigns...but there's a reason I don't run them. Good luck with yours!

Grab GURPS Lite for free or pick up an inexpensive copy of 3rd Ed along with GURPS Japan supplement ($9 digital at Warehouse23). It will have everything you need to run any kind of campaign for any period in the Land of the Rising Sun. You can look at the index for it there before you purchase.

You can also of course use the info within its pages for any rules system.

Quote from: Spinachcat on October 07, 2024, 02:50:00 AMTalk to your players long before you commit to the workload and see where everyone's brain at in regards to Samurai fantasy.

Probably a survey would be useful to get a sense of how Historical vs. Hollywood vs. Manga/Anime they want to play.

Also, how much prep are they willing to do for immersion? Watch XYZ movie or YT video? Or nothing beyond reading one page setting background?

And do you have THAT GUY in the group? AKA, the Egg? The guy who can't shut his piehole in any pseudo-historical fantasy game because he's mistaken the game session for his personal TED Talk about how much trivia he's memorized?

Or the OTHER GUY who feels intimidated by historical fantasy because now he's back in 10th grade getting graded by Mrs. Hinklebottomhof? AKA, anything five feet outside of BOG standard D&D isn't fun for him?

And it's 2024 in Clown World so now there's always the EXTRA DUMB who need to make any historical fantasy session about how oppressed XYZ minority group was in the setting and now your game devolves into a DEI struggle session.

I love historical fantasy campaigns...but there's a reason I don't run them. Good luck with yours!

Thanks!

I'm in a somewhat unique position with this. Life circumstances are about to force me to shut down my existing campaign and then stop DMing for like 6-8 months, so I'm advance planning a few things to keep my mind busy in the mean time.

Anything I'm going to be running is going to be run on VTT, which means you kind of have to treat it like a convention game, where you aren't 100% on what players you're going to have until right around when the game starts. I have a few regulars that I can rely on getting, and they run the gamut between couldn't-care-less and historical-know-it-all, but I think out of the group I'm usually the one who cares the most about historical authenticity. The wild card comes from the fact that I usually do open listings for my games if I need to buff out the numbers.

The DEI struggle session problem isn't one I've yet encountered, and given how often others report it, I'm not sure why. I've always attributed it to the fact that wokies tend to be hobby tourists, and I don't run the three or four most popular games. I might be more exposed to it if I advertise a samurai game, though, since there is some crossover between the pronoun posse and the weebs.

In general, I've had good results with more historically influenced games in the past. You can always get wrong-footed by a player knowing history that you don't, but I think the premise itself tends to select for good players, at least if you're basing your game on a relatively niche period. By and large, the hyper-woke aren't interested in history, so they'll just pass the game by. You tend to get players that are either very open minded, or are also interested in whatever period you are. That just might not be the case with historical periods that are also popular fiction genres (samurai, wild west, etc.).

Kogarashi is the better game for one shots.

It's easier to make a character, and gear isn't that detailed.

In fact gear is just light armor, heavy armor, one-handed melee weapon, two-handed melee weapon, short bow, and long/war bow. 

If one ninja wants to run around using iron war fans as a weapon, and another wants to use a short wakazashi sword, go for it.  Rules treat both the same.  One-handed melee. 

I'll post a screenshot of a Kogarashi character sheet later when I can.

Quote from: Spinachcat on October 07, 2024, 02:50:00 AMTalk to your players long before you commit to the workload and see where everyone's brain at in regards to Samurai fantasy.

Probably a survey would be useful to get a sense of how Historical vs. Hollywood vs. Manga/Anime they want to play.

Also, how much prep are they willing to do for immersion? Watch XYZ movie or YT video? Or nothing beyond reading one page setting background?

And do you have THAT GUY in the group? AKA, the Egg? The guy who can't shut his piehole in any pseudo-historical fantasy game because he's mistaken the game session for his personal TED Talk about how much trivia he's memorized?

Or the OTHER GUY who feels intimidated by historical fantasy because now he's back in 10th grade getting graded by Mrs. Hinklebottomhof? AKA, anything five feet outside of BOG standard D&D isn't fun for him?

And it's 2024 in Clown World so now there's always the EXTRA DUMB who need to make any historical fantasy session about how oppressed XYZ minority group was in the setting and now your game devolves into a DEI struggle session.

I love historical fantasy campaigns...but there's a reason I don't run them. Good luck with yours!

Hay, that hurts ! ;-)

I'll admit I do tend to run down historic rabbit holes when in a 'historical' setting. However, I do understand the sentiment there. There is a time for a good historical talk/debate and there is a time to set back throw the dice high and see what happens !

I've always loved the idea of a Japan / Samurai setting, and one of the guys in my discord game group actually has a degree in that area of history and we talked about great movies to watch for it a few weeks ago. however, game wise, I've only played a few one off sessions in the ole Oriental Adventures. I've seen 5 Rings but never played it. I know it has a huge amount of samurai flavor but it always read more like China with samurai sprinkled in than a true focused setting

I would say, you need to define (or talk to your players so you all define together) what the focus will be. Is it street level samurai / ronin / ninja / yakoza adventure play or is it high social level political intrigue "Shogun" type game. Both could be FUN and both would fit Japan /Samurai but both are very different animals !

I suggest subbing and watching the YouTube channel The Shogunate.

Here are the Kogarashi and Chanbara character sheets.

Like I said, a character isn't complex in Kogarashi.

You have six attributes.  Constitution is gone, and honor is in its place.  Yes, Honor is a stat, and you sometimes you have to roll under it.  Your six stats are your savings throws.

Your hit points
Your Armor, which I said is your unofficial 7th stat.  You roll under it to block the amount of damage you just got hit with by the amount rolled.

Abilities.  Everyone gets 20 abilities, and start with the first 2 and your racial ability.  Normal human's racial ability is to pick a class ability.  All the other races get a specific power like Half-breed dragons get magic eye beam ranged attack once per day.

Chanbara is a bit more complex.  They have the normal six stats, as well as five saving throws based on Taoist elements of Earth, Fire, Wood, Water, and Metal.  The game has a second attack type and armor class based on your mental stats for specialty moves like disarm and stun.  Weapons each have their own stats, and there are 3 types of normal, martial, and ninja weapons.

As for game systems, avoid the latest edition of L5R or its 5e conversion like the plague.  Total woke trash.  Others have mentioned newer games; I've checked out a bunch and none are quite what I'm looking for. I even checked out the Rolemaster Oriental Companion, but that system requires some serious investment from players. At this point I'm just using Castles & Crusades with 1e Oriental Adventures to do my Asian fantasy.  I know the mechanics; adding the Asian flavor is easy enough.

The channel Batjon mentioned up thread is pretty solid for historical info. That will depend on your player group and their preferences for authenticity or cinematic/fantasy action or a combination of those. If you want recs on more academic sources on Japan, PM me and I can send you some of my syllabi with lists of readings I use for my college classes.

I've been reading some on the history of the middle ages in Japan due to my own game development.  I'm finding it very interesting and absolutely full of game hooks at every level of possible play.  (Persimmon gave me a bibliography. Thanks. 

There's parallel and competing social structures, parallel and competing governance structures, and parallel and competing religions struggling for dominance.  500 years of power struggles, wars, revolts, and subterfuge for action.  Lost artifacts, lost temples, lost clans, lost books, and thousands of square miles of mountain terrain with very little human occupation to give you places and things to explore and discover.  There's an absolute wealth of fascinating figures to use as NPCs.

At the upper end of society, it was literally a 1200 year Game of Thrones style power struggle.  At the other end, there were slaves that carved a bloody path to prominence as either powerful generals and governors or pirate lords and bandit kings.  There was a full on wizard vs wizard war along the line as well.

At a minimum, you should take a close look at the social structure.  I'm not just talking about the official and unofficial social positions but also the value systems and relationships of the peoples of medieval Japan.  It can be difficult to understand some of the decisions and reactions of the history as well as determining the likely actions of game NPCs until you can get a grasp of these.