Grim Tales-Bushido

[trilobite]

I am working on a feudal Japan campaign like the old Bushido RPG and I want to use the Grim Tales rules for it. I think it would be a perfect fit. I want to steer clear of Five Rings and have a more gritty samurai style game with some fantasy and supernatural elements mixed in. I am thinking of adding some feats from OA and coming up with some new talent trees. Maybe a Ninjitsu talent tree? Also I am going to add a honor system like the one found in Unearthed Arcana.



I am looking for some feedback and suggestions on my idea. Would it work?

 

[Aaron2]

I am looking for some feedback and suggestions on my idea. Would it work?

Ah yes. Bushido. One of my favorites and probably the worst edited game I own.

You might want to try with just sticking with the Bushido Honor points as written. You would want to redo the On/Level table since a 6th level character in Bushido is better than a sixth level character in D&D.

I'm about 50% through converting Bushido's Status system to d20. I'm trying to make it mesh with the Diplomacy rules. Take a look. Its at least a place to start:
http://www.freewebs.com/hedgehobbit/d20_status.doc

Let me know what you come up with.


Aaron

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

You might also be interested in the Mass Combat rules from Slavelords of Cydonia...

For the OA feats, make sure you check out any errata'ed versions that may exist in Complete Warrior first. I think a lot of them got nerfed a bit.

Don't convert OA feats to GT talents. Feats should be feats, talents should be talents.

You could take the class specific abilities from OA and turn them into talent trees or add them to existing trees (ie, Singh Rager "pounce" gets added to Rage talent tree, etc.)

Wulf

 

[trilobite]

Wulf,
What would you think about a feat which allows access to a talent tree?

Example.
Feat: Ninjitzu.
This feat allows character access to the Ninja talent tree. Whenever you are capable of selecting a new talent, you may opt to choose one from the Ninja Talent tree instead.

 

[GlassJaw]

I'm no expert but I believe the concept of ninjas were of Chinese origin. Samurais in feudal Japan were horsemen, archers, and of course, swordsmen. Their fighting had little to do with unarmed combat.

There are a lot of movies you can check out too. Anything by Kurosawa is amazing (Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, etc).

I would probably make some talents similar to the Iaijutsu PrC in OA. That style of duel was fairly common where essentially whoever was able to land the first blow would win. Seven Samurai has a cool scene of a iaijutsu duel.

 

[trilobite]

Glassjaw,
Here is a interesting article on the myths/realities of Ninja.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Glassjaw,
Here is a interesting article on the myths/realities of Ninja.

I find this one more interesting.

http://www.realultimatepower.net

 

[GlassJaw]

I find this one more interesting.

ROFL!!!

I have seen that link before but the way Wulf just blatantly hijacked a serious discussion on the origins of ninjas and feudal Japan was brilliant!!

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

ROFL!!!

I have seen that link before but the way Wulf just blatantly hijacked a serious discussion on the origins of ninjas and feudal Japan was brilliant!!

And by brilliant you mean TOTALLY SWEET!

 

[Vigilance]

I'm no expert but I believe the concept of ninjas were of Chinese origin. Samurais in feudal Japan were horsemen, archers, and of course, swordsmen. Their fighting had little to do with unarmed combat.

Martial arts were more holistic and wide ranging in approach in medieval Japan than now, but that definitely included unarmed combat.

Unarmed forms present at the time would include: Aikijutsu, Jujutsu, Genkotsu, Kempo, Kumiuchi, Sumai and Ninjutsu.

Samurai learned these arts arts as well as monks.

While it is true that Samurai primarily focused on Kyujutsu (archery), Kenjutsu (swordsmanship) and Sojitsu or Yarijutsu (Spear fighting) they also were expected to master "ancillary" bugei (martial arts) as time permitted including: horsemanship, siegecraft, military tactics, naval warfare and unarmed combat.

Chuck