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

[Micah Sweet]

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.

Which one is 5e? The last AEG version was referred to by them as 4e (which is what I call it too), but is I suppose technically 5e, counting in the d20 version between 2e and 3e. Or are you thinking 5e is the first FFG version?

 

[aramis erak]

Which one is 5e? The last AEG version was referred to by them as 4e (which is what I call it too), but is I suppose technically 5e, counting in the d20 version between 2e and 3e. Or are you thinking 5e is the first FFG version?

It was labeled Legend of the Five Rings Fifth Edition by FFG in the catalogues. But it's not on the trade dress.

Note that the D&D nastiness BS was entirely Edge Studios, nothing to do with FFG other than being owned by the same multinational...

 

[MGibster]

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.

I know. It's like asking for some supernatural cowboy games set in the American west and then telling everyone you're not into Deadlands.

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'm still considering Sengokyu. I like the Cyberpunk 2020 rules, and the rules for Cyberpunk Red are okay, but I wasn't sure how similiar it really was. I might just have to bite the bullet, buy a digital copy, and determine whether it's a game I can run.

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'.

I figured this would be the case for Bushido. I was hopeful it had been updated, because I really don't care to revisit those classic 80s rules for most games.

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.

GURPS is a no go for my group because they hate it. I can tolerate it, but I don't have the patience to use it as a toolset to build my own world with. I generally like their sourcebooks though. Right now I'm seriously just considering going back to Legend of the Five Rings. I might see if I can find a copy of 4th edition.

 

[aramis erak]

I'm still considering Sengokyu. I like the Cyberpunk 2020 rules, and the rules for Cyberpunk Red are okay, but I wasn't sure how similiar it really was. I might just have to bite the bullet, buy a digital copy, and determine whether it's a game I can run.

At least for first printing, It's NOT AT ALL like CP. It's Hero system through and through for the Fuzion edition. Complete with counting the body on the damage dice.

as for 4th ed, it's stripped back just a hair from third - dropping most of the specific skill level bonus abilities. It wasn't different enough to justify rebuying for me. It was mostly making the timeline advances to catch up to the CCG setting timeline.

 

[aramis erak]

Oh, one more hit my brain: Usagi Yojimbō, based upon the comic of same name. The first edition I encountered was Fuzion, but in this case, very CP-like Fuzion.

The more recent one is a bespoke system; the same one used for Jadeclaw and Ironclaw, with minor adaptations; very close also to Albedo: Platinum Catalyst.

Like Jadeclaw, Ironclaw, and Albedo, it's a furry game. As is the source comic. Probably not gonna fly with most people's groups...

 

[MGibster]

At least for first printing, It's NOT AT ALL like CP. It's Hero system through and through for the Fuzion edition. Complete with counting the body on the damage dice.

Thanks for the warning. If my group doesn't like GURPS they're not going to like Hero either.

 

[MGibster]

Looks like I actually own a PDF of 4th edition. I think I'm going to look a bit more closely at 5th edition and see what I can do with that.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Almost a decade ago, Japanese artist and game designer Junichi Inoue sat down to create what was, in his own words, a uniquely and unmistakably "Hyper Asian" Japanese world: a world of magic and technology, of samurai and Taoist sorcery, of powerful mecha and cultured geisha. The world was named Tenra, and the game was named Tenra Bansho, or "Everything in Heaven and Earth."

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Years later, this unique and revolutionary game has finally been painstakingly translated into English for play in the West!

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