Chivalry & Sorcery Returns To Feudal Japan

Land of the Rising Sun, first published in 1980 as a Chivalry & Sorcery setting, is coming back to C&S 5th Edition as a full-colour 320-page hardback on January 11th as a Kickstarter in both standard and a white leatherette special edition.

Chivalry and Sorcery was originally published in 1977 and was designed as a more historical and realistic take on fantasy roleplaying.

The setting covers the years from 850-1500 common era, and includes Samurai and Ninja character options, as long as a range of new Mage types. You can also play Shinto or Buddhist priests.

Land of the Rising Sun is written by Lee Gold (Land of the Rising Sun 1980, GURPS Japan, and more).

Brittania Game Studios sent me along a few previews to share.

Land of the Rising Sun

A Feudal Japanese expansion for Chivalry & Sorcery 5th Edition

www.kickstarter.com

 

[Jd Smith1]

To be clear, I'm not writing the book, or involved with it in any way, nor have I seen it beyond the previews they shared with me above. But that's a very weird inference to choose to draw from the words "and includes Samurai and Ninja character options".

Not weird at all. To suggest a 'Samurai' character option means PCs based solely on station of birth, in literally scores of professions or stations. To say it simpler, it is akin to suggesting 'Dwarf' as a player class.

You see, all Bushi are Samurai, but not all Samuari are Bushi.

In addition, as Enevhar has already noted, the period encompassed by the book would cover two extremely different Bushi philosophies: the archer period, and the sword period, including both the early practical and the later more decorative periods of the latter (I'm keeping this very general).

Either the writer of the blurb, or the writer of the book knows very little about Nippon.

 

[Morrus]

Either the writer of the blurb, or the writer of the book knows very little about Nippon.

The "writer of the blurb" (if by which you mean the original post), as you can see, is me. And no, I know little about this book. I am not involved with the book. Don't confuse me talking about a book I heard about with the text of the book.

 

[Jd Smith1]

The "writer of the blurb" (if by which you mean the original post), as you can see, is me. And no, I know little about this book. I am not involved with the book. Don't confuse me talking about a book I heard about with the text of the book.

I didn't know you had two avatars. If you don't know anything about the book, why did you write a blurb for it? Seems rather unkind to the author.

 

[Morrus]

I didn't know you had two avatars. If you don't know anything about the book, why did you write a blurb for it? Seems rather unkind to the author.

I'm Morrus. I am writing this post, and I wrote the OP, where I talked a little about a book I'd heard about. You can tell because my name is next to it, and also next to this post.

You, on the other hand, need to tone it down before you're asked to leave the thread. This aggressive attitude is not acceptable.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I'm Morrus. I am writing this post, and I wrote the OP, where I talked a little about a book I'd heard about. You can tell because my name is next to it, and also next to this post.

You, on the other hand, need to tone it down before you're asked to leave the thread. This aggressive attitude is not acceptable.

I didn't see it as aggressive. I (and another poster) was just pointing out the mistakes and inferences made in the blurb. As you admitted, you really don't know much about the book.

So I'll leave the thread.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Is it standalone as a game, or a supplement to the C&S core?

No, you need to own the core C&S rule book to use this. This is a setting book.

 

[MGibster]

Well THAT'S brave.

It's always refreshing to see an author create something they're passionate about despite what others might think of their ancestry or alleles.

 

[MGibster]

These day, there is a lot less excuse and stuff like the current Twitter furor over Cyberpunk's Mike Pondsmith require deliberate ignorance.

I was quite surprised when I learned that Mike Pondsmith was black back in the 1990s. Uh, I mean, I'm sure he's still black today. But back in the early 90s, I didn't know of any black gamers and the overwhelming number of people I'd see at my FLGS were white males. But I would have gotten over my surprise and actually spoken to Mr. Pondsmith had I been given the opportunity.

 

[Ace]

I was quite surprised when I learned that Mike Pondsmith was black back in the 1990s. Uh, I mean, I'm sure he's still black today. But back in the early 90s, I didn't know of any black gamers and the overwhelming number of people I'd see at my FLGS were white males. But I would have gotten over my surprise and actually spoken to Mr. Pondsmith had I been given the opportunity.

I've gamed with amazing levels of diversity of all kinds and frankly, its been pretty good .

Now as to Gary. As many good things I have to say about Gary Gygax the father of our hobby the guy was a bit of a eccentric as can be discerned from anyone who met him, read his writing or his FBI report. You'd have to be to create D&D.

Also Gary was born in 1938 and I suspect was even old fashioned for the time. Gary was a Silent generation, , 1 Before Boomers, 2 before Gen X, 3 Before Gen Y and 4 before Gen Z!

Judged by those days, he was just an odd duck. Even though we might be tempted to judge him more harshly now, cut the man some slack. He can't defend himself and as everyone knows he past is a different country.

 

[Dragonblade]

It's always refreshing to see an author create something they're passionate about despite what others might think of their ancestry or alleles.

Indeed, genetic ancestry doesn't necessarily confer any sort of authenticity on any cultural or historical topic. Its absurd that this has become a thing. Especially in today's globally connected world where people of all cultures and ancestries mix freely. Anyone of any background can embrace a culture or educate themselves to become an authority on any topic. This should be celebrated, not condemned.

I speak Japanese, half of my family is Japanese by blood (though I'm not racially Japanese myself, I'll leave that one for others to puzzle out), one of my degrees is in Japanese history, language, and culture, and I lived and worked a portion of my life in Japan. Though, I'm 20 plus years removed from my studies, there are topics related to Japan that I'm more educated in than even many native born and raised Japanese, and at the time would have been better qualified to write about should I have chosen to do so.

Likewise, a gamer friend of mine that I grew up playing D&D with is ethnically Korean, speaks Korean, and grew up in a Korean household, yet loved Celtic culture. Studied the Gaelic language, Scottish and Irish history religiously, even adopted his own tartan.

I considered him a greater authority on Scotland and Celtic lore than myself and anyone in my immediate native family (who actually has Celtic ancestry). If he ever decided to write a gaming supplement on fantasy Scotland or Ireland, you could rest assured that he was an authority on that topic, and his personal genetic ancestry should have no bearing on his qualifications.