Book of Nine Swords: Fitting it in

[szilard]

I like the idea of having the PCs be the originators of the styles.

Other possibilities:

- The different styles come from different races

- The styles are taught in academies that aren't particularly secretive. Forget about hidden monasteries. These are expensive fencing academies in the middle of cities. Perhaps it is near-impossible to gain admission, though, unless you are wealthy or noble...

- The styles require some sort of initiation or inspiration without which people are simply unable to learn them. This might be a ritual... or exposure to some item, substance, or idea. This imposes some strict limits on who can learn them, but they are otherwise available.

- The styles are simply passed down from master to student, and there just happen to be very few masters.

-Stuart

 

[IceFractal]

I'd say ToB is one of the easier books to incorporate. Do people fight in your setting? Do they ever train to be better at fighting? Well there you go.

More specifically, how certain styles could be integrated:
Stone Dragon - Legendary dwarven combat art, anyone?
Shadow Hand/Diamond Mind - Secret techniques of an assassin's guild.
Iron Heart/White Raven - Elite military tactics of a current or past empire.
Tiger Claw - Ancient fighting style of certain totem clans.
Devoted Spirit - Divine inspiration - needs no more explanation than a Paladin
Desert Wind - Fire based techniques, the legacy of an Efreet that ruled a desert kingdom in the past, and was hungry for more territory.
Setting Sun - Created by halflings in their struggle against the larger orcs and ogres.

In most of these cases, the styles are somewhat of a guarded secret, but secrets tend to spread, and there's always outcasts. This could explain why these styles weren't known (to the PCs at least) before.

 

[pawsplay]

The PCs meet an old swordsman, once a knight of the kingdom but he has not been seen in two decades. After slaying a dragon in single combat, he simply disappeared after delivering the dragon's head to his liege with the enigmatic phrase, "Who knows when I will see your face showing such gratitude again?" Now he has returned, dressed in tattered robes and carrying an ancient, mysterious weapon, and the kingdom is a very different place.

The knight has actually gone off and multiclassed to Swordsage, and is now one of the highest level warriors on the continent (that could be level 12 or 25, depending on your campaign). He has decided he is ready to teach others what he has learned... any PC could be a student of his, as well as any former student turned villainous NPC. If you wanted to introduce the Master of Nine, he could well be the first or the most recent.

Apart from that, just slip in a little Martial Training here and there when you make fighting NPCs, and let the PCs be the majority of the martial adepts. A gnoll barbarian with one or two maneuevers is still an interesting opponent for a martial adept, and does not stretch the picture in my mind of what a gnoll barbarian is.

My suggestion would be for the various schools to be exactly that... schools. Some martial adepts might hide in exotic locales, but in general, the martial adepts the PCs encounter are simply exceptionally talanted individuals trained by other martial adepts. For instance, instead of an elf swashbuckler, they meet an elven warblade who wields a rapier.

 

[Glyfair]

I don't want to place a whole load of hidden monasteries in secluded parts of the world.

Why do they need to be hidden? In the martial arts sources these are loosely drawn from, the places to learn the techniques weren't really hidden. Only a select few were chosen to learn the techniques (or even were capable of learning them), but every fighter knew where to find them. The major cities probably had several of the schools in various areas, in fact.

Look at the stories of Musashi. He used to travel around challenging various schools to test their abilities versus his. Start with that sort of flavor and build around it.

 

[Aaron L]

Do as I do, combine Psionics, Monks, and Bo9S Martial Adepts all together and have them all train at the same monasteries (well, I don't actually use monasteries, but they do train in the same academies). After all, Martial Adepts use ki just like Monks do. And I consider ki and psionics to be the same.

I also dislike having "western" and "oriental" cultures in my settings; these places aren't Earth and I don't like Earth culture rip offs every time you turn around. Why does every fantasy planet have to have it's own variant of Japan? If you want Samurai, just put them in. I have a vaguely Conanesque culture that produces Samurai that use longswords and battleaxes instead of katana and wakazashi. Shugenja are dwarven elemental warrior-priests, etc...

 

[kigmatzomat]

In an existing campaignI would recommend making them true prestige classes, meaning they are only taught to prestigious organizations. E.g. the royal families & their bodyguards, guards of the Temple of ButtWhoop, and the Hand of Death assassins.

It's a "secret in plain sight" situation where everyone KNOWS that the guards of Temple ButtWhoop are frighteningly tough but they didn't know they were tough because they were 10th level Martial Adepts as compared to 13th level Fighters. Some Hand of Death Assassins are acquired as child slaves and trained in the rites but they are few and far between.

This lets you ease them into your game as the players earn the right to train with these reknowned warriors. Misuse of their gifts or distributing their knowledge result in the PCs being hunted down and killed in a most unpleasant fashion, allowing you to remove Adepts from your players' hands as well. IME GMs tend to have one or two groups that are common knowledge, internally secretive, and dangerous as heck which are the best portals.

 

[pawsplay]

It's a "secret in plain sight" situation where everyone KNOWS that the guards of Temple ButtWhoop are frighteningly tough but they didn't know they were tough because they were 10th level Martial Adepts as compared to 13th level Fighters.

*cough* 10th level MA versus a 13th level fighter? Yeah, right.

 

[Stormborn]

If there are any eliete fighters in the game, then they are the ones who practice those styles. The king's body guards, a group of dueling bravos, the guardian knights of the inquisition. It works. Anything that is vaguely known and not yet encountered can work. No, you just assumed that famous champion of the god of light was a Paladin, they are really a Crusader. As for those who say "it didnt feel right", that is a subjective opinion. It may not have felt right in your game, that isnt to say it wouldnt work in someone elses. Having said that, I have made the options available in my game by saying that there are people around who know them as well as basic info in books and scrolls, even if the techniques arent normally seen or used. If the PC takes feats and learns one manuever they they can start multiclassing into one of the ToBs core classes. I figure these guys are heroes and they can figure out a new fighting style if they put their minds to it, cant be harder than learning how to do more and more sneak attack damage. Or, they can say "I remeber something my grandfather taught me, he learned it from some hobgoblins when he was a mercenary. Always seemed odd but that incedent back there got me thinking of it and I am going to start practicing some of those old moves." It makes as much sense as someone saying "My inner talent for magic has manifested itself. I am going to multiclass as a Sorcerer."

 

[Wardo]

The PCs meet an old swordsman, once a knight of the kingdom but he has not been seen in two decades. After slaying a dragon in single combat, he simply disappeared after delivering the dragon's head to his liege with the enigmatic phrase, "Who knows when I will see your face showing such gratitude again?" Now he has returned, dressed in tattered robes and carrying an ancient, mysterious weapon, and the kingdom is a very different place.

The knight has actually gone off and multiclassed to Swordsage, and is now one of the highest level warriors on the continent (that could be level 12 or 25, depending on your campaign). He has decided he is ready to teach others what he has learned... any PC could be a student of his, as well as any former student turned villainous NPC. If you wanted to introduce the Master of Nine, he could well be the first or the most recent.

This is along the lines of what I was going to suggest. A single, mysterious teacher who befriends the PCs would be a great source for this new material. Keeping his motives, allegiances and such vague would also keep things open for cool plot twists down the road.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

The way it was introduced into our game was : "ok, the psychic warrior wanders off...meet Bob, the Swordsage.."