Looking for a Fantasy RPG Set in Japan or Not-Japan

[MGibster]

One of my favorite games from the 1990s was Legend of the Five Rings as I felt it was the perfect combination of rules and setting. I even had a ton of the splat books from 1st edition! Unfortunately, I've had mixed feelings about further editions of the game. Second was a flat out disappointment, the last time I ran a campaign was for third edition which had some problems, and now I own the Fantasy Flight Games version which I'm not so keen to play.

But I've got an itch to scratch and I'd like to play a fantasy game set in a mythical version of Japan. I don't particularly care in accuracy any more than I care Baldur's Gate isn't representative of Europe. I just want a fun game to run. I've never played it, but according to Wikipedia, Bushido is a game where the characters are modestly superhuman but not exceedingly so. That kind of sounds up my alley.

Does anyone have other suggestions?

 

[hawkeyefan]

A Thousand Arrows is a PbtA game set in the warring states period. It’s a game about samurai vying for position and influence. It’s not overtly fantastic, but it does have supernatural elements and options. These can easily be dialed up if desired.

I played in a short campaign of it, and it was really fun. Lots of potential.

 

[Micah Sweet]

One of my favorite games from the 1990s was Legend of the Five Rings as I felt it was the perfect combination of rules and setting. I even had a ton of the splat books from 1st edition! Unfortunately, I've had mixed feelings about further editions of the game. Second was a flat out disappointment, the last time I ran a campaign was for third edition which had some problems, and now I own the Fantasy Flight Games version which I'm not so keen to play.

But I've got an itch to scratch and I'd like to play a fantasy game set in a mythical version of Japan. I don't particularly care in accuracy any more than I care Baldur's Gate isn't representative of Europe. I just want a fun game to run. I've never played it, but according to Wikipedia, Bushido is a game where the characters are modestly superhuman but not exceedingly so. That kind of sounds up my alley.

Does anyone have other suggestions?

The last AEG version of the game, 4th ed, was the best version to my mind, followed closely by 1e. I have every book made for L5R prior to FFG's tenure, and 4e was a near-perfect version of that system.

 

[GMMichael]

One of my favorite games from the 1990s was Legend of the Five Rings as I felt it was the perfect combination of rules and setting. I even had a ton of the splat books from 1st edition! Unfortunately, I've had mixed feelings about further editions of the game. Second was a flat out disappointment, the last time I ran a campaign was for third edition which had some problems, and now I own the Fantasy Flight Games version which I'm not so keen to play.

What happened to your '90s copy of LotFR? It probably hasn't run out of battery power yet.

What's wrong with the subsequent editions? It's hard to make recommendations if we don't know what you consider disappointing.

 

[MGibster]

What happened to your '90s copy of LotFR? It probably hasn't run out of battery power yet.

I honestly don't remember what happened to it. But I no longer own it nor the many, many splat books I purchased for 1st edition L5R.

What's wrong with the subsequent editions? It's hard to make recommendations if we don't know what you consider disappointing.

I don't remember specifically what I didn't like about 2nd edition because it's been more than twenty years since I last read it. From what I can remember, they changed the way the roll and keep method worked in regards to attributes and skills. Third edition wasn't horrible, but there were some balance issues and I remember banning a minor clan's archery school because it was too good. But I could dust it off and use it again. I don't think I ever owned fourth edition, I thought the AEG version was 4th, but it turns out it's 5th. And for 5th edition the rules for using skills are a bit odd. Depending on how you're trying to hit someone with your katana you might use your Water, Earth, or Fire ring when rolling to hit.

Plus, it might not be that there's anything wrong with L5R. It might be nice to have a game with a different setting.

 

[gamerprinter]

Call me biased, but I did design the Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG), granted it was designed for PF1, but it's a setting, with it's own internal rules (variance of the norm). While I can only claim so much expertise, I am half Japanese and as a long term gamer, having played OA, I was disappointed with the latter, and always wanted to create my own. I'm an amateur historian and research folklore, religion, culture - as well as gaining first hand accounts of culture and concepts from my Mom, and my relatives in Japan - giving me a unique perspective, plus a need for attempt at authenticity. Combining a lifetime of gained knowledge, and over a year of deep research as a precursor to Kaidan development. Plus to stand out, I niched it with Japanese Horror, something I hadn't seen represented much in the market. Rather than trying to be comprehensive, I focused on specific concepts - economics, religion, social castes, samurai, yakuza, etc.; yokai (animal based shapechangers or humanoids), the reincarnation cycle. I took a deep dive into those subjects to achieve as much nuance as possible. Then 3 intro modules (of westerner PCs visiting a foreign land), and 4 one-shots of local adventures. There's a GM's Guide and smaller Player Guide. 3 race/specie guides, 2 class/faction guides.

 

[Shardstone]

An AMAZING RPG just came out that is a slightly meatier version of Morg Borg called "Ronin." https://www.slightlyrecklessgames.com/ronin I think it's a pretty slick game and am very excited to try it. In the back two pages, they include all the rules without the layout.

 

[MGibster]

An AMAZING RPG just came out that is a slightly meatier version of Morg Borg called "Ronin." https://www.slightlyrecklessgames.com/ronin I think it's a pretty slick game and am very excited to try it. In the back two pages, they include all the rules without the layout.

Thanks a bunch, I'm going to check this out.

 

[MichaelSomething]

There's always Anime 5E!

Anime 5E: Fifth Edition Fantasy Anime Role-Playing

 

[aramis erak]

Does anyone have other suggestions?

You ruled out my #1, #2, and #3 (L5R 5e, 3e, and 2e) in your first sentence. 5e really rocks. It's even passable using a conversion mat and normal 12's and 6's.

My #4 is John Wick's Blood and Honor. It's VERY much in the storygame clade... In general, it's a d6 dice pool, anyone with a stake can participate in resolution.
The "Risk" resolution sequence:

1. A participant declares an action that another participant feels needs a resolution. The GM can always declare; if player declares such on another player, either group consensus or the GM affirms and starts the process. (We used "no objections?", a somewhat easier to use bar)
2. Determine who has a stake in the outcome. Generally, if the player...
   1. has their PC in scene
   2. controls a targeted NPC targeted
   3. have a fealty relationship with the PC/NPC...
   4. their PC's lands or businesses or reputation is being targeted
3. Everyone with a stake announces the ability being used and by which character (if relevant). Max 1 character per player. GM has to approve the ability choice.
4. All with stake split their dice pool; part A is the sequence pool, part B is the wager. If part A is not at least 2d, drop out of resolution.
5. Everyone rolls their sequence dice; anyone with a 9 or lower total is out of resolution.
6. The high roller determines the basic success/failure of the action
7. in descending numerical sequence, spend¹ 2 wager dice (1 die if the high roller) to give a "yes, and..." or "yes, but...". If you opt not to say something, instead add 1 point to a reputation.
8. Repeat step 7 until everyone's out of wager pool.

1: the actual rule is discard half your wager dice, and all spend 1 die, but it's easier to run by just doubling the cost.
Conflicts (social or physical) work by an initiative risk... but... no wagers are spent initially and their's no question for the high roller to resolve. Each kept wager (pool halved if not the high roller) is one turn in the round. Each turn is narrate until a risk.

The system is very similar to its stablemate, Houses of the Blooded. It's set up to easily enable a PVP situation; each house in play has its own honor pool. Honor gets used for bonus dice, triggering some specials, and such. Seriously dishonorable acts can also cost honor.

Another option, is Burning Wheel's The Blossoms are Falling, and it's much earlier than most samurai games are set. It is beautifully written, but, since it uses Burning Wheel Revised as its core system...

I found the Fuzion flavor of Sengokyu to be almost to Hero System levels, and would rather just use it as a HSR sourcebook with full up hero system 4 rules. (For those who don't know, Fuzion was a toolkit allowing use of a subset of Hero System or a subset of Interlock system (RTG's Cyberpunk, Mekton, etc), and it was a designer's choice of how much of which plus any Fuzion licensed modules to incorporate.

I cannot recommend the old FGU Bushidō rules... much as I'd love to, they're just so typical 80's FGU. The adventures (few as they are) are excellent, tho'.

If you want D&Dish, go with the 3.5OA+d20 Rokugan. At least the guys writing it understood the differences between the clans... and that the game reiforced mechanically the stereotypes of the clans for good effect.

The 5e one doesn't use any of the stereotypes, and the PC races list is a kitchen sink of "it's an intelligent humanoid"... quite literally, the dev's defense for this paraphrases as "we wanted to allow stories in Rokugan that wouldn't be doable under L5R"...

GURPS Japan I don't recommend simply because I have come to hate GURPS and the player culture that dominated its fanbase last century. But it's a great setting treatment.

Ninja Hero isn't a good Japanese setting, but if one likes hero, it's useful.