Hello RPG site,

Found this game courtesy of r/osr, who seem to hate it as the author dared to describe it as "oriental" and well... it isn't going too well for him.

Anyways, decided to pick it up, so far really liking the art style and the system looks pretty elegant. Has honor mechanics and a setting similar to L5R, with a D10 skill system.

Any thoughts on it? Decided to support just to spite the eternally online idiots...

Link to get it here: https://samizdatediciones.itch.io/shimaguni

Forgot to put some of images of the book in my original post. Above is a scan of a print copy, and attached is the in-game setting.

Quote from: PonchoGoblin on April 05, 2022, 12:28:07 AM
Hello RPG site,

Found this game courtesy of r/osr, who seem to hate it as the author dared to describe it as "oriental" and well... it isn't going too well for him.

Anyways, decided to pick it up, so far really liking the art style and the system looks pretty elegant. Has honor mechanics and a setting similar to L5R, with a D10 skill system.

Any thoughts on it? Decided to support just to spite the eternally online idiots...

Link to get it here: https://samizdatediciones.itch.io/shimaguni

How many pages is it?

Quote from: GeekyBugle on April 05, 2022, 01:14:40 AM

Quote from: PonchoGoblin on April 05, 2022, 12:28:07 AM
Hello RPG site,

Found this game courtesy of r/osr, who seem to hate it as the author dared to describe it as "oriental" and well... it isn't going too well for him.

Anyways, decided to pick it up, so far really liking the art style and the system looks pretty elegant. Has honor mechanics and a setting similar to L5R, with a D10 skill system.

Any thoughts on it? Decided to support just to spite the eternally online idiots...

Link to get it here: https://samizdatediciones.itch.io/shimaguni

How many pages is it?

24 pages total, so fairly small, but what is there seems pretty fleshed-out for the page count. It's layed out for duplex printing.

I'm not the biggest fan of Oriental RPGs tbh. But if this was more complete I'd buy it just to support the author.

I'd love a good Asian-themed RPG.  But I've yet to find one I really like and I checked out lots of them, including supplements for other systems like Adventures Dark & Deep.  Some are too narrow.  Some are just too crunchy like Wandering Heroes of Ogres Gate.  Others are too woke, like L5R 5e. 

So I still rely on my trusty 1e Oriental Adventures in all its supposedly racist glory, supplemented with some custom designed classes and stuff from Hackmaster 4e.  Does what I need it to.  I'd love for Troll Lord to put out an Asian themed supplement for Castles & Crusades, but don't see that happening anytime soon. 嗚呼!

We played "Shinobi & Samurai" for a summer campaign when it first came out and a great time with it.  Virtually any other Asian themed game I've played in hasn't garnered the same reaction, including L5R.  However, this game does appear fairly intriguing so I might have to consider picking it up at some point.

"Zhou-shima" seems pretty "Oriental" as in splash some soy sauce on it and bang a gong.

Quote from: rkhigdon on April 08, 2022, 02:53:40 PMWe played "Shinobi & Samurai" for a summer campaign when it first came out and a great time with it.  Virtually any other Asian themed game I've played in hasn't garnered the same reaction, including L5R. 

Tell us more about Shinobi & Samurai.

What about S&S made such an impression with your group?

I own two Japanese themed RPGs.

Sengoku RPG.  Overly complex, but it's worth it for details on medieval Japanese culture information.  Things like currency, religions, class structures, dress, etiquette, etc. 

But, I wouldn't play it.  Like I said, needlessly complex.  IE, your character has 13 stats, and bad guys are chocked full of numbers too. 

The other game is Shinobi and Samurai.  This is more traditional OSR D&D clone, but rebuilt to fit Japapese styled characters.  It's honestly not much different than B/X D&D. 

Quote from: Persimmon on April 06, 2022, 06:28:35 PM
I'd love a good Asian-themed RPG.  But I've yet to find one I really like and I checked out lots of them, including supplements for other systems like Adventures Dark & Deep.  Some are too narrow.  Some are just too crunchy like Wandering Heroes of Ogres Gate.  Others are too woke, like L5R 5e. 

So I still rely on my trusty 1e Oriental Adventures in all its supposedly racist glory, supplemented with some custom designed classes and stuff from Hackmaster 4e.  Does what I need it to.  I'd love for Troll Lord to put out an Asian themed supplement for Castles & Crusades, but don't see that happening anytime soon. 嗚呼!

Troll lord has a historical line they're working on a southeast Asian supplement, they've been talking about it on tlg streams for a while. They scrapped their Native American One out of fear from the Twitter mob

Quote from: Ocule on April 10, 2022, 12:36:49 PM

Quote from: Persimmon on April 06, 2022, 06:28:35 PM
I'd love a good Asian-themed RPG.  But I've yet to find one I really like and I checked out lots of them, including supplements for other systems like Adventures Dark & Deep.  Some are too narrow.  Some are just too crunchy like Wandering Heroes of Ogres Gate.  Others are too woke, like L5R 5e. 

So I still rely on my trusty 1e Oriental Adventures in all its supposedly racist glory, supplemented with some custom designed classes and stuff from Hackmaster 4e.  Does what I need it to.  I'd love for Troll Lord to put out an Asian themed supplement for Castles & Crusades, but don't see that happening anytime soon. 嗚呼!

Troll lord has a historical line they're working on a southeast Asian supplement, they've been talking about it on tlg streams for a while. They scrapped their Native American One out of fear from the Twitter mob

Yeah, I know, but those are just the Codices, which have been "almost finished" since 2016.  And strangely enough, it sounds like Brian Young is starting with Korea & Mongolia, rather than say, China, Japan, and India.  And C&C could still use a full-blown version of Oriental Adventures but that doesn't seem to be a high priority for TLG.

Quote from: Spinachcat on April 10, 2022, 02:20:09 AM
Tell us more about Shinobi & Samurai.

What about S&S made such an impression with your group?

Sorry, missed this reply.  I'll try to jump on when I get home from work to answer the question.

In the mean time, I believe you can still find a copy of the game over on Taxidermic Owlbear

Quote from: rkhigdon on April 11, 2022, 06:09:20 PM

Quote from: Spinachcat on April 10, 2022, 02:20:09 AM
Tell us more about Shinobi & Samurai.

What about S&S made such an impression with your group?

Sorry, missed this reply.  I'll try to jump on when I get home from work to answer the question.

In the mean time, I believe you can still find a copy of the game over on Taxidermic Owlbear

Yeah; it's still there.  So it looks basically like an Asian supplement for Swords & Wizardry, which is fine. 

One minor pet peeve is how they follow Oriental Adventures in differentiating bushi from samurai.  They are the exact same thing.  In fact, the samurai preferred being called bushi, as that is the term they used for themselves.  The term samurai is more popular outside of Japan, but technically it means a servant, as in serving the nobility.  They should use another word to denote generic fighters.

But from a quick look it seems playable enough.

Quote from: Persimmon on April 11, 2022, 07:18:43 PM

Quote from: rkhigdon on April 11, 2022, 06:09:20 PM
Sorry, missed this reply.  I'll try to jump on when I get home from work to answer the question.

In the mean time, I believe you can still find a copy of the game over on Taxidermic Owlbear

Yeah; it's still there.  So it looks basically like an Asian supplement for Swords & Wizardry, which is fine. 

One minor pet peeve is how they follow Oriental Adventures in differentiating bushi from samurai.  They are the exact same thing.  In fact, the samurai preferred being called bushi, as that is the term they used for themselves.  The term samurai is more popular outside of Japan, but technically it means a servant, as in serving the nobility.  They should use another word to denote generic fighters.

But from a quick look it seems playable enough.

I actually remember some debate on RPG.NET (before they went crazy) over the names of several of the classes.  I recall that the original author conceded that point about Bushi, but ultimately didn't come up with a term he liked better so ultimately stuck with it.  Obviously, it would be easy enough to change the name of the class if it really bothered you.

It's basically a stripped-down version of Oriental Adventures / Swords & Wizardry as you say, almost to the point of being minimalist.  There are no ability scores or races (although the GM can add races to the game, they're just not given any guidance on how that would look), which is strangely freeing in actual play.  Since your level 3 Bushi (for example) is no different than any other Bushi of equal level in terms of skill and abilities, it comes down to gear and planning to overcome a foe, which really gave it a good original D&D feel.  My players really took to it and spent a lot of time cultivating alliances and trying to play potential foes against each other, which made it a real pleasure to run.