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Legends of the Samurai is resource for running adventures set in a historical or fantastic version of ancient Japan using d20 fantasy rules as a baseline. This review is based on the hardcover book, though the product is also available in electronic format, either in a collected format or three individual PDFs (The Bushido Handbook, the Mystic Arts, and the Samurai Campaign Guide.) As is the norm for RPG Objects, a discount is offered if you want the hardcopy if you have any of the PDFs. RPG Objects is also offering the hardbound (with or without the PDFs) through the RPGnow website.
RPG Objects’ products can be purchased via RPGnow at:
http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=292
A First Look
The print version of Legends of the Samurai is a 168 page hardcover book priced at $29.95 US.
The cover of the book is a bold red, with a watermark like illustration of a samurai in classic Japanese style, and a sword hilt sans the red hue. The cover is attributed to Jeremy Simmons.
The interior is black-and-white except for the end-leaves, which are color and used to provide maps. The cartography is by Ed Bourelle and the interior art is by Joseph Wigfield.
The inside of the front cover provides two color maps of 16th century Japan, outlining provinces, cities, fortifications, and other features of the age. The back cover has a sword school map, which has an ad for a related product by Skeleton Key games.
Wigfield provides a variety of well done line art. Wigfield has done work for prior RPG Objects books, so the look should be familiar to you if you purchased previous RPG Objects products. The art does a good job of capture the mood of some of dramatic tales of the era.
The layout of the book is straightforward and sensible. I saw no major editorial gaffes.
A Deeper Look
I am something of a fan of RPGs revolving around Asian myth. The original Bushido game and Oriental Adventures presented me with many a joyous night of swaggering samurai, sneaky ninja, and skillful unarmed warriors. As time wore on, my fix was filled by games such as Hero Games’ Ninja Hero, and the 3e Oriental Adventures book. Alas, the poor treatment of Samurai (and other Asian related game elements) under 3.5 left me disappointed, and the harsh backlash against d20 Rokugan by L5R fans doubly so.
So, of course when I heard that RPG Objects was releasing a period book on Japan, featuring their excellent martial arts system introduced in
Blood & Fists, I knew I had to have it.
Just as the book was originally distributed in three parts, it is easy and convenient to think of the book as having three major sections: character creation basics, magic and magical characters, and campaign material (though note that some of this has been rearranged in the book; frex, prestige classes which originally appeared in the campaign guide appears in the character classes chapter here.)
The first section is composed of four chapters covering bloodline, basic and prestige classes, feats, equipment, and special rules used to support them such as honor and allegiance.
Similar to RPG Objects’
Legends of Excalibur,
Legends of the Samurai replaces the race mechanic of d20 fantasy with a bloodline mechanic. All characters are presumed to be human, but ability modifiers, favored class, and starting special abilities are derived from the bloodline, or social class. Bloodline also determines honor and starting cash. Bloodlines include outcast, artisan, farmer, merchant, monastic, noble, and warrior.
Legends of the Samurai includes an Honor system that is central to many other aspects of the book. A character’s bloodline determines starting Honor, and the character’s actions can cause Honor to fluctuate. Honor can provide skill modifiers, and many classes have Honor entry requirements and class abilities that depend upon the characters’ honor score.
This system is similar to many that have appeared in prior game products, and it seems to me a bit giving. It doesn’t use the honor rank of d20 Rokugan nor does it vary honor awards according to how much honor you have. On the bright side, honor is more uniform in nature, making it easier to award honor on the side. On the other hand, the fact that the system does not make honor awards more difficult for characters with high honor makes the system somewhat more giving. If players have a persona in mind and play it to the hilt, the system should work fine, but it seems fairly trivial to ratchet up points if you want to min/max it.
Legends of the Samurai is not assumed to use the alignment system per standard d20 fantasy. Instead, the book uses the allegiance system from
D20 Modern, in which the character selects up to three organizations or codes of behavior to follow. The version of the system presented here is a somewhat brief version of what appears in
D20 Modern, but provides a few new codes of behavior. In addition to being an indicia for the character behavior, some of these codes change the magnitude of some honor rewards.
The basic classes defined in the first section totally depart from those in the D20 SRD. Many are warrior variants of one sort or another. All of the classes appear well researched, and the author takes care to briefly note the historical justification for a variety of class abilities, which grounds the classes pretty well in the campaign setting and gives some little roleplaying “hooks” for the players.
All of the classes have class abilities at every level, and the warrior classes use a combat style arrangement similar to the core ranger. This ties into the martial arts system; the character receives a martial art style appropriate to their class at low level, and related martial arts maneuver feats as they advance. Being fairly enamored with the
Blood & Fists martial arts system, I find this a nifty feature.
The classes are:
- Ashigaru - These are peasant warriors or conscripts.
- Kuge - Warriors of the upper nobility. The class has some emphasis on courtly matters. This is a nice shift from Rokugan in that the class is more playable in a typical game while still fitting the archetype.
- Ninja - The legendary assassin of medieval Japan. This ninja is best take on the class I have seen. Instead of packaging up some assassin skills and calling it a ninja, the class abilities are drawn directly from history and myth regarding the ninja. For example, the ninja’s ki ability are kuji-kuri, the finger motions that ninja supposedly used to invoke mystic powers.
- Ronin - The ronin is a masterless warrior. Making the ronin a core class was an interesting choice. The ronin described here can become thugs that are often attributed to historical ronin, or they can become examples of virtue. One thing I don’t think works well about having this be a core class: it seems as if samurai would frequently multi-class into this class; it seems like the class would have best been made with some built in synergy for this eventuality, such as a level-trading paradigm or at the very least, the provision to take an alternate bonus feat where the class provides feats already provided by the samurai class.
- Samurai - The retainer/warrior of the warrior social caste.
- Shokunin - Master artisans. The class is principally intended as weaponsmiths, and the class ties into the book’s magic item creation system, but it can represent many artisans.
- Touzoku - Criminals and thugs. The rogue of the setting, but more overtly a criminal.
- Yamabushi - “Mountain warrior”, the warrior of the monastic class. Somewhat monkish in nature, it is the class that has unarmed martial arts as a starting martial arts choice.
The classes seem like fairly tight archetypes revolving around some of the heroic tales of the ancient Japan. This is good in some ways; it lets people who are not thoroughly familiar with it to step in and make appropriate characters. Yet it seems that more flexibility in some of the classes would produce more room to make some historical figures that actually existed and would make fore intriguing PCs. For example, during one period, noble women trained with the naginata while training with the sword was all but unknown; none of the classes in here are a neat fit for that.
The prestige classes in the first section are:
- Censor - A spy on the behalf of a powerful court, drawn from the upper echelons of society (i.e., not a ninja.)
- Kensai - The figurative “sword saint”, a character who has a deep link with a weapon. Unlike prior takes on this class, the kensai is not just a weapon master (there is a separate PrC for this). The class has all good saves and gains the ability to cast spells through its sword.
- Martial Arts Master - Similar to the advanced class that appears in Blood & Fists, the martial arts master progresses in a given martial arts styles and gains secret techniques that allow it bonuses with certain moves.
- Otokodate - a champion of the common people. The class features ki abilities that exploit pressure points, and is good at protecting others and using the war fan. Strange, but sort of nifty.
- Sensei - an instructor of martial arts. Has some ki abilities and secrets like some other classes; the most unusual ability mechanically are abilities that let other characters ignore some sill or feat requirements.
- Wako - A pirate of the era; has a sneak attack like ability, nautical abilities, and the ability to frighten foes.
- Weapon Master - Sort of an armed martial arts master. Instead of new martial arts manuevers, the class receives typical additional weapon related feats, as well as a secret technique ability similar to the martial arts master and sensei.
- Yakuza - A well recognized tattoo gangster that crops up late in the era covered in the book; gains some typical rogue capabilities, with bonuses to stealth and dealing with the underworld.
- Yojimbo - Honorable warriors and bodyguards of legend known to take up arms for the people. Has some typical warrior abilities, and additional abilities in protecting others.
The chapter entitled
The Martial Arts includes new skills and feats as well as combat options, primarily related to martial arts. Most of these options are similar to those that appeared in blood and fist, neatly trimmed down to be fit styles of the era.
Pressure points appears as a new skill that can aid in combat, and concentration has new uses as well, some related to combat style. One interesting new use pertinent to the era is that of a psychic duel, a classical “contest of nerves” between two unflinching warriors, resolved with opposed concentration checks. The winner of such a duel receives a concentration bonus.
The new block mechanic allows the character to make an attack roll that can count as AC against incoming attacks. The untrained form is a little expensive for this to be a good choice, but several martial arts maneuvers make this more attractive.
For those not familiar with Blood & Fists martial arts, see my review here. In summary, a basic martial arts style feat gets you a variety of minor advantages including additional class skills, bonuses with certain maneuvers, and the ability to use an alternate ability for attack rolls. You can build on with subsequent feats that have a basic martial arts style as a prerequisite. The final component of the system is a prestige class that keys into the martial arts feats and provide additional options and bonuses.
Magic in
Legends of the Samurai follows in the footsteps of
Legends of Excalibur. It utilizes a spell point system. It becomes possible to use higher level spells earlier, but at great cost. Also, metamagic doesn’t see the traditional caps that it does in the spell slot system, but adding metamagic costs more relative to spell level than it does in the core rules.
The chapter introduces four new classes:
- Kenza - An elemental mage. Has a limited spell selection, masters one of five elements at regular intervals; as they gain elemental masteries, they gain access to new spell lists. The spell list also includes the Importune Kami spells, which are open content drawn from d20 Rokugan’s Magic of Rokugan, which can cast nearly any elemental spell in exchange for a service and bit of XP. The spell option is somewhat narrow compared to the classic D&D mage, but they have better HD and skills.
- Mahoutsukai - A somewhat more subtle, and some would say dishonest, arcane caster. The mahoutsukai gains abilities relating to deception and trickery, and a spell list to support it with many passive, manipulative, or defensive spells. Like the kenza, the mahoutsukai has better HD and skills than the classic mage.
- Senkensha - Senkensha are divine casters with a specialization in divination magic. They gain domain spells similar to clerics and share a spell list with shukke, but their class abilities improve their capabilities with divination spells.
- Shukke - Shukke are scholarly divine casters that gain bonuses to knowledge checks and skill checks in general.
The magic section is sprikled with a few new and revised feats and revised rules for magic items, “Mystic Items”. In
Legends of the Samurai, magic weapons are not solely the province of spellcasters, but skilled craftsmen. Some magical items are repeated here from the core books, be reassigned honor requirements to use.
The
Ancestral Weaponry feat and mechanic is one of the more intriguing new mechanics in the book. The basic concept is one that has been tried a couple of times in various d20 books – making magic items that scale with the user. However, the concept of ancestral weaponry is a lot simpler and less clunky than many similar mechanics. Weapons forged by shokunin can have magical properties, but only in hands of worthy warriors (those with the feat). When wielded, such weapons only possess enhancement bonuses or properties with a bonus determined by character level (basically +1 per 4 levels or fraction.)
The final section of the book is basically a campaign guide. It does two major things: it provides a brief history of medieval Japan (highlighting gaming-pertinent events) complete with location and myths, and it provides a short monster section, both highlighting appropriate creatures from the MM and providing statistics for many new creatures (some apparently drawn from Creatures of Rokugan).
A final appendix conveniently provides a 20 level progression for “stock NPCs” of each of the new classes introduced here.
Conclusions
Legends of the Samurai is a mechanically strong and impressively researched book, providing some great historical grounding for one of the most interesting historical inspirations for fantasy games. Some of the classes here I consider the definitive take on the concept given the strong correlation between the historical concept and the implementation here.
Further, I said back when Blood & Fists came out that I would love to see the concept ported to D&D, and the book did not disappoint.
From an OGL standpoint,
Legends of the Samurai is a welcome addition to the constellation of open d20 products. I appreciate Asian-themed fantasy settings, but the seminal resource for d20 Asian fantasy, Oriental Adventures, has never been opened nor supported in with 3.5 rules in a formal product. Hopefully, this book can serve as a mechanically sound rallying point for future products of this sort.
As mentioned, I felt that some of the base classes could have a bit more built in flexibility and synergy. Further, it seems as if you don’t already have a strong notion of what you want to do with the book, it might leave you a little lost as to actually DO with this marvelous mechanical motzah ball you have been handed. A list of adventure seeds and/or some discussion on how to put together appropriate adventure groups would have gone a long way.
Overall, I consider these minor nits, though, and this appears to be a highly playable product.
Overall Grade: A-
-Alan D. Kohler
