Psion
Adventurer
[imager]http://shop.enworld.org/images/engs/product1807/kitsuthumb.jpg[/imager]Kitsunemori is an entry in Dog Soul Publishing’s Folkloric line of products detailing small new mini-campaign settings base on real world history and folklore. Kitsunemori literally means “fox forest”, and is depicts a small valley inspired by the folklore of Japan. In particular, it lends a particular focus to the Kistune, the shapechanging fox-tricksters of Japanese myth.
The book is written by d20 veteran Alejandro Melchor and Matthew A.J. Gregory.
A First Look
Kitsunemori is distributed as a 198 page PDF document, available at the “big three” PDF distributors, RPGnow, Drivethrurpg.com, and EN Game Store. The asking price is $13.95.
The “cover” image of the the PDF depicts one of the titular multi-tales shape changing fox tricksters... plus tails. The interior illustrations are a mix of new art and historical photos and illustrations. Credited artists include Alejandro Melchor, Sarah Gaskill, and Shira Gregory.
The book makes good use of the PDF format, including convenient hyperlinks embedded in the text where important concepts appear.
A Deeper Look
Kitsunemori depicts a small setting, a wooded valley, ready for insertion to an existing d20 system fantasy game. The setting provides some character generation details and options in addition to the setting details, background, creatures, and adventure materials.
The main focus of the character rules is the Kitsune, shape changing fox-tricksters of Japanese legend. The valley of Kitsunemori is a haven and stomping grounds for these creatures.
In Kitsunemori, a kistune is essentially a normal (if clever) fox. If a kitsune can live to 100 years, it gains a second tail and becomes intelligent and gains the power to assume human shape.
Kitsune have access to the same base classes as other races. In addition, two additional classes are available to kitsune: the Myobu and the Notsigune. These reflect two mutually exclusive paths that a kitsune may tread. The myobu are ultimately kind hearted and generally friendly to humans. The notsigune, on the other hand, are mischievous at best, malicious at worst.
The classes reflect these tendencies. Both classes allow the kitsune to extend their fox magic. Myobu gain detection and healing abilities, whereas the nogistune abilities are more focused on trickery and mayhem.
In addition to the details of Kitsune, character options and details are provided for other characters. Human is the only other race described as being part of the Yonhosu valley setting. Both the local culture and the medeival Japan-inspired empire of which it is a part are described at some length.
The only new base class provided as part of the setting is the courtier. Like the rogue, the courtier is a heavily skill based class. The courtier’s class abilities, however, are more tuned to social situations than a rogue. Some class abilities that the courtier receives can be selected from a list, providing a degree of flexibility in character design. This is similar in approach to the courtier class in the d20 Rokugan and Swashbuckling Adventures games.
Other classes are discussed at some length. Though there are no new classes like samurai or ninja, each of the standard d20 fantasy core classes are discussed with an eye towards how they can fit in the setting, including small rules tweaks and “class concepts” to help them better fit the feel of the setting. This aids the portability of the setting to standard d20 fantasy without assuming that the core classes will fit the feel of the setting unaltered. However, it should be fairly straightforward to use alternate classes such as those defined in Oriental Adventures, D20 Rokugan, or Legends of the Samurai.
Perhaps ironically, a base class that does not exist in the setting is the Monk. Though martial arts exist in the setting, they are not considered to be common. The monk class is restyled as a “martial artist” prestige class, lacking the traditional alignment restrictions of monks, but with its own set of prestige class style prereqs.
Similar to the sort of Honor mechanics that exist in many Japan-inspired games and settings, Kitsunemori features a prestige mechanic. The system is similar to many honor systems in that it rewards for certain types of honorable actions and punishes for others. Though it is fluid, prestige is treated like an ability score and produces a modifier. As such, it can be used for certain checks and can modify certain rolls. This includes rolls with other modifiers, which can make it potent in social situations.
Of course, many kitsune actions would bring a loss of prestige if played “in character.” This is handled by making prestige specific to one’s own society. A kitsune loses no prestige for playing pranks on humans (and indeed, may gain prestige); kitsune prestige applies only to dealings with kitsune and other supernatural creatures.
Kitsune prestige is also very important because it determines the number of tails the kitsune have in their natural form. This is not just a cosmetic effect, but dictates what fox magic powers they can use. Notice that in the D20 System, spells are sorted into 9 levels, much like the number of tails experienced kitsune can have? The author apparently did as well, as fox magic is keyed to the number of tails in a fashion similar to spell levels.
Fox magic is divide into three types: enchantment, illusion, and form shifting. The powers are fundamentally similar to spells or spell-like abilities, though some of them are a bit more open ended. The top level powers are probably not as potent as 9th level spells, but the flexibility they grant could be telling in the hands of a clever player.
All kitsune gain more uses of their fox magic as they advance in levels. Though all kitsune start with one fox magic power, gaining more requires that a character expend feats or have levels in the kitsune classes.
Other mechanical inclusions are rules for shrines, geomancy, new feats and skills, hearth magic and wards.
The remainder of the book is setting material. A chapter entitled Kistunemori provides a player friendly version of setting information. This chapter starts in broad strokes, beginning with large scale details like cosmology (including kami, the “deities” of the setting) and politics of the empire. As the focus draws in to the Yonhosu valley itself, more detail is added, including conflicts and persons of note in the valley and the surrounding area, complete with many statistics block for these figures, and two complete mapped location, a sohei temple and a shrine.
This chapter is nominally okay for player perusal. The remainder of the book contains deeper secrets, including a central plot that the GM may use as the basis for a Kitsunemori campaign:
[sblock]
Within the valley is imprisoned an ancient demon. Though the demon was initially imprisoned by the Kitsune, they don’t exactly remember how to imprison the creature again. As efforts of his followers go forward, his prison is slowly splintering, and his essence is corrupting the land.
This adds an interesting horror touch to an otherwise potentially comedic campaign setting.
[/sblock]
The GM section also includes a number of plot and story seeds and a section with new creatures drawn from japanese myth, such as Tanuki (shape changing badger-like fey similar to kitsune), Tengu (malicious crow-headed creatures), demonic oni, and others. Though many of these creatures have received d20 System treatment in other books such as Creatures of Rokugan, Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts, and Oriental Adventures, these creatures appear to be new treatments of the concepts, not OGL derivatives. The treatment of the creatures is satisfactory, providing a good deal of depth and mechanical detail, as well as having the benefit of being worked into the kitsunemori setting.
A nitpicky side note, the author notes that chromatic and metallic dragons don’t exist in the setting because they are derived from “occidental folkloric traditions”. In fact, metallic dragons are conceptually based on the powerful benign dragon of east Asian folklore.
Additional materials in the book include a glossary of terms used in the product, an inspirational bibliography, and an index.
Conclusions
Though not the first setting inspired by Japan history and myth, the focus and concepts presented in Kitsunemori adds a new spin to the concept. The “Samurai Honor Drama” type games realized by Bushido and Rokugan lives on here, but the more central role of kitsune invites a more mythical feel to the subgenre.
While Kitsunemori offers fewer alterations in the d20 System than other entries in the Folkloric line, Kitsunemori still opts for less drastic alterations and new game materials than full blown books like D20 Rokugan, Legends of the Samurai, or Oriental Adventures. In these, the authors achieve a comfortable compromise. One could just as easily swap in elements of one of those books or use the setting alone with D&D as a baseline.
As such, Kitsunemori makes a grand addition to an existing east Asia inspired campaign setting or a new place to explore with traditional D&D characters.
There is a bit of room for improvement. First, while I like the prestige rules, I think that given that Kitsune frequently masquerade as humans, the topic of tracking prestige with respect for both cultures needs a little more attention.
Second, though the product is distributed as a zip file with both a colorful and attractive PDF and a plain word doc, a compromise between the two would have been desirable. Something to the tune of a printer friendly PDF with much of the existing art (or having some of the page watermarks on a layer that could be turned off) would have made it more friendly to the notion of printing out the book and playing with.
Something that, I am proud to report, I am very interested in doing.
Overall Grade: B+
-Alan D. Kohler
The book is written by d20 veteran Alejandro Melchor and Matthew A.J. Gregory.
A First Look
Kitsunemori is distributed as a 198 page PDF document, available at the “big three” PDF distributors, RPGnow, Drivethrurpg.com, and EN Game Store. The asking price is $13.95.
The “cover” image of the the PDF depicts one of the titular multi-tales shape changing fox tricksters... plus tails. The interior illustrations are a mix of new art and historical photos and illustrations. Credited artists include Alejandro Melchor, Sarah Gaskill, and Shira Gregory.
The book makes good use of the PDF format, including convenient hyperlinks embedded in the text where important concepts appear.
A Deeper Look
Kitsunemori depicts a small setting, a wooded valley, ready for insertion to an existing d20 system fantasy game. The setting provides some character generation details and options in addition to the setting details, background, creatures, and adventure materials.
The main focus of the character rules is the Kitsune, shape changing fox-tricksters of Japanese legend. The valley of Kitsunemori is a haven and stomping grounds for these creatures.
In Kitsunemori, a kistune is essentially a normal (if clever) fox. If a kitsune can live to 100 years, it gains a second tail and becomes intelligent and gains the power to assume human shape.
Kitsune have access to the same base classes as other races. In addition, two additional classes are available to kitsune: the Myobu and the Notsigune. These reflect two mutually exclusive paths that a kitsune may tread. The myobu are ultimately kind hearted and generally friendly to humans. The notsigune, on the other hand, are mischievous at best, malicious at worst.
The classes reflect these tendencies. Both classes allow the kitsune to extend their fox magic. Myobu gain detection and healing abilities, whereas the nogistune abilities are more focused on trickery and mayhem.
In addition to the details of Kitsune, character options and details are provided for other characters. Human is the only other race described as being part of the Yonhosu valley setting. Both the local culture and the medeival Japan-inspired empire of which it is a part are described at some length.
The only new base class provided as part of the setting is the courtier. Like the rogue, the courtier is a heavily skill based class. The courtier’s class abilities, however, are more tuned to social situations than a rogue. Some class abilities that the courtier receives can be selected from a list, providing a degree of flexibility in character design. This is similar in approach to the courtier class in the d20 Rokugan and Swashbuckling Adventures games.
Other classes are discussed at some length. Though there are no new classes like samurai or ninja, each of the standard d20 fantasy core classes are discussed with an eye towards how they can fit in the setting, including small rules tweaks and “class concepts” to help them better fit the feel of the setting. This aids the portability of the setting to standard d20 fantasy without assuming that the core classes will fit the feel of the setting unaltered. However, it should be fairly straightforward to use alternate classes such as those defined in Oriental Adventures, D20 Rokugan, or Legends of the Samurai.
Perhaps ironically, a base class that does not exist in the setting is the Monk. Though martial arts exist in the setting, they are not considered to be common. The monk class is restyled as a “martial artist” prestige class, lacking the traditional alignment restrictions of monks, but with its own set of prestige class style prereqs.
Similar to the sort of Honor mechanics that exist in many Japan-inspired games and settings, Kitsunemori features a prestige mechanic. The system is similar to many honor systems in that it rewards for certain types of honorable actions and punishes for others. Though it is fluid, prestige is treated like an ability score and produces a modifier. As such, it can be used for certain checks and can modify certain rolls. This includes rolls with other modifiers, which can make it potent in social situations.
Of course, many kitsune actions would bring a loss of prestige if played “in character.” This is handled by making prestige specific to one’s own society. A kitsune loses no prestige for playing pranks on humans (and indeed, may gain prestige); kitsune prestige applies only to dealings with kitsune and other supernatural creatures.
Kitsune prestige is also very important because it determines the number of tails the kitsune have in their natural form. This is not just a cosmetic effect, but dictates what fox magic powers they can use. Notice that in the D20 System, spells are sorted into 9 levels, much like the number of tails experienced kitsune can have? The author apparently did as well, as fox magic is keyed to the number of tails in a fashion similar to spell levels.
Fox magic is divide into three types: enchantment, illusion, and form shifting. The powers are fundamentally similar to spells or spell-like abilities, though some of them are a bit more open ended. The top level powers are probably not as potent as 9th level spells, but the flexibility they grant could be telling in the hands of a clever player.
All kitsune gain more uses of their fox magic as they advance in levels. Though all kitsune start with one fox magic power, gaining more requires that a character expend feats or have levels in the kitsune classes.
Other mechanical inclusions are rules for shrines, geomancy, new feats and skills, hearth magic and wards.
The remainder of the book is setting material. A chapter entitled Kistunemori provides a player friendly version of setting information. This chapter starts in broad strokes, beginning with large scale details like cosmology (including kami, the “deities” of the setting) and politics of the empire. As the focus draws in to the Yonhosu valley itself, more detail is added, including conflicts and persons of note in the valley and the surrounding area, complete with many statistics block for these figures, and two complete mapped location, a sohei temple and a shrine.
This chapter is nominally okay for player perusal. The remainder of the book contains deeper secrets, including a central plot that the GM may use as the basis for a Kitsunemori campaign:
[sblock]
Within the valley is imprisoned an ancient demon. Though the demon was initially imprisoned by the Kitsune, they don’t exactly remember how to imprison the creature again. As efforts of his followers go forward, his prison is slowly splintering, and his essence is corrupting the land.
This adds an interesting horror touch to an otherwise potentially comedic campaign setting.
[/sblock]
The GM section also includes a number of plot and story seeds and a section with new creatures drawn from japanese myth, such as Tanuki (shape changing badger-like fey similar to kitsune), Tengu (malicious crow-headed creatures), demonic oni, and others. Though many of these creatures have received d20 System treatment in other books such as Creatures of Rokugan, Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts, and Oriental Adventures, these creatures appear to be new treatments of the concepts, not OGL derivatives. The treatment of the creatures is satisfactory, providing a good deal of depth and mechanical detail, as well as having the benefit of being worked into the kitsunemori setting.
A nitpicky side note, the author notes that chromatic and metallic dragons don’t exist in the setting because they are derived from “occidental folkloric traditions”. In fact, metallic dragons are conceptually based on the powerful benign dragon of east Asian folklore.
Additional materials in the book include a glossary of terms used in the product, an inspirational bibliography, and an index.
Conclusions
Though not the first setting inspired by Japan history and myth, the focus and concepts presented in Kitsunemori adds a new spin to the concept. The “Samurai Honor Drama” type games realized by Bushido and Rokugan lives on here, but the more central role of kitsune invites a more mythical feel to the subgenre.
While Kitsunemori offers fewer alterations in the d20 System than other entries in the Folkloric line, Kitsunemori still opts for less drastic alterations and new game materials than full blown books like D20 Rokugan, Legends of the Samurai, or Oriental Adventures. In these, the authors achieve a comfortable compromise. One could just as easily swap in elements of one of those books or use the setting alone with D&D as a baseline.
As such, Kitsunemori makes a grand addition to an existing east Asia inspired campaign setting or a new place to explore with traditional D&D characters.
There is a bit of room for improvement. First, while I like the prestige rules, I think that given that Kitsune frequently masquerade as humans, the topic of tracking prestige with respect for both cultures needs a little more attention.
Second, though the product is distributed as a zip file with both a colorful and attractive PDF and a plain word doc, a compromise between the two would have been desirable. Something to the tune of a printer friendly PDF with much of the existing art (or having some of the page watermarks on a layer that could be turned off) would have made it more friendly to the notion of printing out the book and playing with.
Something that, I am proud to report, I am very interested in doing.
Overall Grade: B+
-Alan D. Kohler
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