Help Creating a one-off from historial events...

[Castellanox7]

(TL; DR I need pointers on how to make a "real-life" event D&D friendly, scroll down for specific questions)

Afternoon all!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but a book ([ame="http://www.amazon.com/Revenge-47-Ronin-1703-Raid/dp/1849084270"]Amazon.com: The Revenge of the 47 Ronin - Edo 1703 (Raid) (9781849084277): Stephen Turnbull, Johnny Shumate, Alan Gilliland, Mariusz Kozik: Books[/ame]) struck my fancy at a local hobby store (it's a semi-decent read, too). It's from Osprey Pubs (who, AFAIK, does a great number of reenactment books), and revolves around a scenario dubbed the, "Revenge of the 47 Ronin", or Chushingura.

To try to condense the story (I think there are a billion versions of the story, and I'm going by memory):



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Approx. 1701 -- A great many Lords (think medieval land-owners) were summoned to Tokyo(/Edo) to attend and participate in a gift-giving ceremony for the Emperor.

On the eve of the ceremony one Lord (with seemingly no cause or reason) struck down another Lord, wounding him, but not fully killing him. As a result, the attacking Lord was sentenced to commit ritual suicide.

After hearing of the suicide, 47 of the late-Lord's samurai (Now "ronin") debated on their course of action (Japanese law at the time was just as severe for the victim as the aggressor), as the victim Lord got away with little more than a "slap on the wrist".

After a year or so of thought, the ronin decided to take an oath of vengeance: they were going to finish the job that their Lord started.

One winter night, the 47 ronin stormed the manor of the surviving lord, slew the guards, and beheaded their target. The ronin brought the head to the grave of their former retainer, as a trophy.

All but one of them were sentenced to commit ritual suicide.

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I think there's an AWESOME amount of potential here for a small campaign, but I run into a couple problems:

1. Most all enemies are human. I could use wolves, or other "wild domesticated animals", but that can only go so far. Wouldn't that get boring?
2. Despite having great potential for skill challenges, the gameplay path is VERY linear: The assassination attempt -> The planning -> Raid on castle -> the march to the grave. Any thoughts?

Thanks! Have a good weekend!
-CastX7

 

[On Puget Sound]

For this to be a game, there has to be player choice, which means the story may not come off the way it did historically. I think the best you can do is to set up the situation:

The PCs are former soldiers for a cause or lord they believe to be good and just; their leader was slain by a powerful villain who escaped justice. (Hmm, this sounds like almost every Eberron plot...)

As the PCs try to find their way in the world, leveling up through various adventures, the villain continues to be a thorn in their sides. At some crucial point, a spy delivers a map showing a secret way into the villain's castle. They'll figure something out.

If you want the tragic ending, you'll have to set up the political/ social milieu such that this raid will be clearly illegal and seen as treasonous... and accept that, being PCs, their impulse will not be "we must do this, though we will die for it", but rather "how can we do this, and get away with it?"

And no, human enemies don't have to be boring. Robin Hood never fought a monster. Though there's no reason the villain in this story couldn't be a demon summoner or necromancer.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

1. Most all enemies are human. I could use wolves, or other "wild domesticated animals", but that can only go so far. Wouldn't that get boring?
2. Despite having great potential for skill challenges, the gameplay path is VERY linear: The assassination attempt -> The planning -> Raid on castle -> the march to the grave. Any thoughts?

Thanks! Have a good weekend!
-CastX7

Most enemies being human depends in part on edition. For instance, in 3rd Edition, what you can do with each class is pretty "set" but you can still surprise the PCs. If they're expecting samurai to never be stealthy, they will be in trouble when the daimyo hired rogues to help out with security, etc.

In 4e, human NPCs are usually designed as monsters and can have completely unexpected abilities.

For the second, I think most D&D players would be happy about that except for the march to the grave, but you would know them better than we would. Get their vote first; they might like it.

 

[El Mahdi]

Having the PC's as part of the 47, with an NPC Samurai as the unofficial leader, may help bring them along. You can start out with divisions among the Samurai as to what they want to do. Remember, the original 47 took quite a while to decide on their course of action. But once the leader decides have the rest agree to follow, but let the PC's decide if they will follow also (I'm betting they do).

In the meantime, you could even have the PC's do a Seven Samurais type encounter during that period of decision.

During the decision period, you could have the offending Daimyo attempting to influence the Samurai away from pursuing him through political, and more physical means. Perhaps these efforts end up being the thing that tip them in the direction of pursining justice against the Daimyo.

Once they set off on their quest, perhaps the Daimyo has gotten wind of what's happening and makes a pact with infernal powers (Oni) to try and get them to destroy their honor along the way, and ultimately give up the quest. This can open up encounters against non-human protagonists.