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Anybody know any good places to find plots/plot seeds for samurai/bushi adventures in Fantasy Nippon? System doesn't matter much as I can adapt (using either Bushido or RuneQuest) as needed; it's mainly the ideas I'm looking to mine.

Also, does anyone recall if Sengoku or Oriental Adventures had any plots/adventures in them? I have the books but they are not available for me to check at the moment.

Finally, anyone know any good samurai warrior adventure novels? I've read Musashi but don't know any other good ones.

Quote from: Matt;886963Anybody know any good places to find plots/plot seeds for samurai/bushi adventures in Fantasy Nippon? System doesn't matter much as I can adapt (using either Bushido or RuneQuest) as needed; it's mainly the ideas I'm looking to mine.

http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0988818/ (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0988818/)

+

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gintama_episodes_%28season_1%29 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gintama_episodes_%28season_1%29)...and onwards

Yes, I realize what it is and what are you looking for. I still find it relevant to your needs.

Don't mind SF and comedy. See past those elements.

For example, a foreign visitor, who is also a collector of exotic animals, and gets into problem is an useful plot seed. Players might be tasked with assassination/thievery/spying/bodyguarding, etc....

The Runequest 3rd edition supplement Land of Ninjas (https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/48341/land-ninja) had some good scenario ideas. A 1980s version can be kind of pricey and I'm not sure if it is available as a PDF. May be worth checking out both from a system and scenarios standpoint.

As far as ideas, Challenge Focus Strike contests from the L5R (AEG) forum should give you plenty to look into.

CFS are usually short situation to resolve rather than entire scenarios etc.

This will sound odd, but Legend of the Five Rings 1e Clan Books (including Shadowlands and Kolat) are a fantastic source.

The clan books are filled with world fleshing detail, which can be transformed into plot/hook fodder. But more importantly, I think, are the margins commentary. They are often filled with new and legendary items or locations or institutions already sprinkled hooks. Hooks are similarly sprinkled in the chapters themselves, too.

Quote from: Opaopajr;886985This will sound odd, but Legend of the Five Rings 1e Clan Books (including Shadowlands and Kolat) are a fantastic source.

Why would anyone think that sounded odd?

Oriental Adventures had an event generator system. Yearly events like an Ambassador, Famine, Political Plot, and so on. Or monthly events like Bandit Activity, Hauntings, Bad weather, and so on. Combine that with the character background and birthright quirks and you can go fairly far.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;886973For example, a foreign visitor, who is also a collector of exotic animals, and gets into problem is an useful plot seed. Players might be tasked with assassination/thievery/spying/bodyguarding, etc....

Thanks, I will look for episode summaries to see what can be stolen!

Quote from: Omega;887015Oriental Adventures had an event generator system. Yearly events like an Ambassador, Famine, Political Plot, and so on. Or monthly events like Bandit Activity, Hauntings, Bad weather, and so on. Combine that with the character background and birthright quirks and you can go fairly far.

Great, I will have to look at that when I find the book. Haven't used it in ages and didn't realize that was in there.

Quote from: Bren;886974The Runequest 3rd edition supplement Land of Ninjas (https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/48341/land-ninja) had some good scenario ideas. A 1980s version can be kind of pricey and I'm not sure if it is available as a PDF. May be worth checking out both from a system and scenarios standpoint.

Thanks, I didn't realize there are about 35 pages of material of this sort in the back of the book! (Happen to have it right here with me.)

Any other free resources or novel suggestions?

(Haven't any disposable income at the moment so I can't look into anything that I have to buy. Maybe if I get a tax refund...oh wait, the kids want Legos and My Little Pony.)

THANKS TO ALL WHO ANSWERED!

(Also thanks to all who considered telling me the reasons my games of choice suck but refrained from doing so.)

The Oriental Adventures charts are quite good. It was fun to plot out a couple years, and then the PCs could encounter fortune telling and the GM could hint to stuff on the calendar.

We used them for Bushido way back when too.

Quote from: Spinachcat;887033The Oriental Adventures charts are quite good. It was fun to plot out a couple years, and then the PCs could encounter fortune telling and the GM could hint to stuff on the calendar.

We used them for Bushido way back when too.

Sounds like a keen idea I may have to swipe.

Quote from: Matt;887021Any other free resources or novel suggestions?

(Haven't any disposable income at the moment so I can't look into anything that I have to buy. Maybe if I get a tax refund...oh wait, the kids want Legos and My Little Pony.)

THANKS TO ALL WHO ANSWERED!

(Also thanks to all who considered telling me the reasons my games of choice suck but refrained from doing so.)

Try Kurosawa movies. I use plot seeds/hooks from those films for any number of games and settings, because they're so universal. For example, in The Hidden Fortress the "heroes" are trying to smuggle a princess and her treasury past enemy lines. In The Seven Samurai the heroes are recruited to defend hapless peasants from brigands. A new coat of paint and these can be used in everything from westerns to space opera.

Also, don't be afraid to use seeds from other settings, like Kurosawa did when he used MacBeth as the basis for Throne of Blood, and King Lear for Ran.

Quote from: Elfdart;887050A new coat of paint and these can be used in everything from westerns to space opera.

I see what you did there.

Might as well steal Yojimbo while you are at it. It's a Noir Detective novel with a faded Mon painted over it. Which newer coats of paint then turned into a Spaghetti Western, a Military Sci Fi novel, and a Bruce Willis movie. It features two rival factions vying for control of a town and the hero(es) in the middle alternately pitting one side against the other to bring both of them down.

Quote from: Bren;887055I see what you did there.

Might as well steal Yojimbo while you are at it. It's a Noir Detective novel with a faded Mon painted over it. Which newer coats of paint then turned into a Spaghetti Western, a Military Sci Fi novel, and a Bruce Willis movie. It features two rival factions vying for control of a town and the hero(es) in the middle alternately pitting one side against the other to bring both of them down.

Yeah, that was Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. One of the Continental Op stories. So borrowed from him and then passed around quite a lot.

Quote from: Bren;886991Why would anyone think that sounded odd?

Some people don't like Wick's and company's writing. And some don't like the L5R pseudo-pan-Asia pastiche, especially of later L5R . (It was trying to get away from its Not-Japan stigma by trying to mix in more East Asian cultures on the periphery.) And then there's the poor grasp of clan, instead converted into a singular archetype/stereotype. And then there's the perpetually apocalyptic and soap opera-esque metaplot baggage over the years...

But I found the 1e Clan Books very well done in terms of very gameable bits and pieces along the edges. If this is a more faithful rendition to feudal Japan, plus fantasy, some would say such pastiche of garbled translations and baggage would be a poor source to start. However I am not so purist to say there are no good seeds from such a pile.

I think there is plenty of discrete material worth sifting and porting, without worry of "cross-contamination." And more of the periphery seed material.comes with plenty of colorful description to help make it more convertable to elsewhere.

The important question in any setting where interaction with rigid social structure will obviously occur, is to ask yourself who'll be the PCs - are they part of the structure, or as supposed in classic fantasy RPG campaigns, outsiders?

I'll post a few that came to my mind, though most apply to the latter:

• An insane peasant inventor is testing out his new transportation device, that is supposed to circumvent the ban on wheels issued by the Shogun. For obvious reasons, this earns the ire of both local lords loyal to the shogun, as well as samurai in general. The peasants however, are strongly counting on this device to improve their lot., and hire the party to protect the inventor from harm.


• A highly sought noble maiden has fallen in love with a ninja who has accidentally saved her life. She asks the group to find him so that she may profess her love. The time's however running out, as her father's organising a great competition, the prize - being the groom. If the ninja's found, he will perform excellently, but various samurai will attempt to prove falsity of his noble birth (which is actually legitimate) and underhand him, going as far as to try to assassinate him. Of course, the party can help out the ninja, or compete as well.


• A noble lord has been formally accused by his rival of falsifying his heritage coming from unclean family - his great-great-great-grandfather was a tanner. Wishing to avoid a costly war in defence of his honour, he enlists heroes to find proof of his noble heritage - they travel to the village from which the great-great-great-grandfather. There, however, they find a much darker secret, a bloodied past of dealings with oni still alive in the village, haunted by ghosts sacrificed on altar of ambition.


• A string of mysterious murders hits the village, each victim having a symbol painted on their forehead in blood - a Kanji sign for Forest. They have started after a lone ronin arrived into the village. He has aptly demonstrated his skills in murder as he was attacked just outside the village by two drunken robbers (whom nobody misses). The village's innkeeper hires the party as protectors, as for some reason he believes he'll be next - he is obviously terrified. The first night after the party is hired, the inn is attacked by a horrendous force of spirits, and the ronin comes to the party's aid, revealing himself as a ghost hunter, not a ronin. It turns out there's something truly repulsing in village's history, something that now takes revenge on it's inhabitants. The party must find out the details of the curse, and undo it, or else everyone will die, one by one.


• While travelling through a forest, the group suddenly starts to notice the forest is looking a bit too familiar...as they do so, they notice a friendly looking old man preparing tea on the sideroad, who smiles as they approach. And so begins an odd travel through one of the games of oni.


• As war between two Daimyo rages, one of them hires the heroes to find for him a weapon with which he feels he'll be able to topple the scales of the war- Heavenly Cleaver of Musazhi Hanzo, the legendary sword of the founder of School of Four Strokes, a sword fabled to be able to cut through mountains themselves. There's of course a problem - the Katana was supposedly interred along his corpse, in a tomb that has been well hidden by his followers, as they were outlaws in those days, for their school was considered too dangerous for the Shogunate. Of course, finding the location of the tomb is only the first step on the dangerous road through a maze of traps, illusions and monsters, prepared to test the resolve of any that wishes to claim the famed blade.

If you get a chance, check out the trilogy starting with Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn.  It's kind of Japan plus magic and ninjas, but very well done.

+1 for the 1e L5R books.  There's a lot of ideas there.  And speaking of the Challenge-Focus-Strike format, I was going to point you to the Alderac forums for a couple of good threads, but I see THEY NUKED THE FORUMS so never mind.

Quote from: Dave R;887290but I see THEY NUKED THE FORUMS so never mind.

Arg! WHAT?!?

Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;887371Arg! WHAT?!?

L5R's gone off Alderac's forum and nothing's up on Fantasy Flight's.  Google's got nothing.  I knew FF had bought the line, but I hadn't expected the forums to be orphaned this quickly.

I am sure you can find them someplace on the 'net, but the Mito Komon series (http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Mito_Komon), a chambara TV show, is great for the 'wandering into town and sticking one's nose into it' sort of plots.

It's rather tragic keeping up with AEG's downward spiral of the past decade. But it seems they gave up the ghost years ago and have been coasting on rabid fan goodwill. Seems like they had about as much gas as WW, but with stronger CCGs to drag out the inevitable a bit longer.

Quote from: Matt;886963Anybody know any good places to find plots/plot seeds for samurai/bushi adventures in Fantasy Nippon? System doesn't matter much as I can adapt (using either Bushido or RuneQuest) as needed; it's mainly the ideas I'm looking to mine.

Also, does anyone recall if Sengoku or Oriental Adventures had any plots/adventures in them? I have the books but they are not available for me to check at the moment.

Finally, anyone know any good samurai warrior adventure novels? I've read Musashi but don't know any other good ones.

try
Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran

the show is a parody of period drama so there are whole episodes that can have the plots ripped out

Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;886977As far as ideas, Challenge Focus Strike contests from the L5R (AEG) forum should give you plenty to look into.

CFS are usually short situation to resolve rather than entire scenarios etc.

Okay, here's something (http://www.kazenoshiro.com/challenge-focus-strike/) that's still up.

Quote from: Dave R;888513Okay, here's something (http://www.kazenoshiro.com/challenge-focus-strike/) that's still up.

Good find, thanks! At least the rabid fandom can keep some of the worthwhile creations in community circulation.

The Tomoe Gozen Trilogy (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/03/available-as-ebooks-for-the-first-time-jessica-amanda-salmonsons-classic-fantasy-trilogy-the-tomoe-gozen-saga/) by Jessica Amanda Salmonson :

• Tomoe Gozen
• The Golden Naginata
• Thousand Shrine Warrior

There's really good stuff in there, definitely check them out if you can.

Quote from: Dave R;888513Okay, here's something (http://www.kazenoshiro.com/challenge-focus-strike/) that's still up.

Dude, you rock!

Quote from: Dave R;888513Okay, here's something (http://www.kazenoshiro.com/challenge-focus-strike/) that's still up.

On that site when you get to the
CFS Volume 1
CFS Volume 2 etc
part, the links for Volume 3 through Volume 9 all go to Volume 9.  Just change the url.

Foe example...
Changing
"http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-9.pdf"
to
"http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-3.pdf"
will get you Volume 3.


Screw it...
http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-3.pdf
http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-4.pdf
http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-5.pdf
http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-6.pdf
http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-7.pdf
http://www.kazenoshiro.com/fiction/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CFS-Volume-8.pdf
...there you go. :D

Quote from: CRKrueger;888846...there you go. :D

Awesome!

The Water Margin TV series (although tricky to find)  might give you some inspiration.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Margin_(1973_TV_series).

There was a guy working on an rpg but it was never published as far as I know.

http://celestialempire.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/outlaws-of-water-margin.html?m=1

Quote from: Matt;887075Yeah, that was Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. One of the Continental Op stories. So borrowed from him and then passed around quite a lot.

I always thought Yojimbo had more in common with Buchanan Rides Alone -a much better movie than either Kurosawa's or Leone's versions.

The novel Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka, and it's sequel, Autumn Bridge. They're set in the Meiji Era and have an equal focus on Japanese and American characters. I asked the author about them and he said that he wanted to do a samurai book and a Western book, so he put both into one story. It works very well. Slight fantasy elements that are kind of time-travelly. Like the "ghost" in the second book isn't a ghost at all, as Matsuoka explains in the first few pages, but someone from the past, long-dead, who is having a real-time conversation with someone in the novel's present.

Check out the great samurai and swordplay films like Samurai Rebellion, Samurai Spy, Lady Snowblood and Sword of Doom.

Oh, and there is Kaigaku, a game that I wrote. The clan daimyo and almost all of the PCs have problems that need solving, or secrets. Plus there are encounter generators. Each issue of the Kaigaku Chronicle (Henjinmura Village, Chronicles of the Geisha and Chronicles of the Ninja) has lots of adventure hooks, including some solo replayable stories. And I've got more issues coming out.

usagi yojimbo rpg, based in the comic with antropomorph samurais, has a suplement that works as a monster compendium, with a adventure seed, or a complete adventure, in each entry. a lot of the creatures are supernatural (ghosts, etc...)

Quote from: El cuervo;987337usagi yojimbo rpg, based in the comic with antropomorph samurais, has a suplement that works as a monster compendium, with a adventure seed, or a complete adventure, in each entry. a lot of the creatures are supernatural (ghosts, etc...)

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