Another good if uncommon pick would be Tenra Bansho Zero, which is dark post-apocalyptic fantasy in a magitech version of feudal Japan. It’s (probably) set in a future planetary colony which forgot all about its science fiction origins and devolved into feudalism and warlordism. Taoist sorcerers, biomagical samurai, worm sorcerers who derive power from internal parasites, qi-powered Buddhist monks, and artificial puppet geisha are all viable (and encouraged) PCs.
The world of Tenra is as grimly perilous as any Kurosawa movie - I’m impressed how well the game maintains the serious tone despite the gonzo trappings.
There are several non-human options (mainly the aforementioned puppets and the indigenous population of the planet, the psychic Oni, who are very upset at getting hunted to near-extinction for their magical hearts) assuming you count many of the technically human characters as human, which is honestly a stretch.
Bonus: another thing TBZ does very well is embrace the traditional East Asian four-part narrative structure (kishontenketsu in Japanese) and with it the idea that whatever they look like, all the characters - PC or NPC - are humans with understandable human motivations who deserve respect and empathy, even (especially) when you’re busy trying to cut them in half with your giant magic naginata. Their death at your hands is a tragedy. Ah well, on to the next bandit.
There’s a certain amount of narrative cooperation built into the game at the table to support this, with players acting as the audience and giving other PCs applause (Aiki) for doing thematically appropriate and cool things which the PC can then turn into Kiai (extra successes) to win, but spending Kiai burdens your soul with Karma which you must then atone for.
Basically, if I was going to run a Usagi Yojimbo game again, this is the system I’d use, even though there’s no mechanical support for being a rabbit and too much mechanical support for being a magically warped monster.
The world of Tenra is as grimly perilous as any Kurosawa movie - I’m impressed how well the game maintains the serious tone despite the gonzo trappings.
There are several non-human options (mainly the aforementioned puppets and the indigenous population of the planet, the psychic Oni, who are very upset at getting hunted to near-extinction for their magical hearts) assuming you count many of the technically human characters as human, which is honestly a stretch.
Bonus: another thing TBZ does very well is embrace the traditional East Asian four-part narrative structure (kishontenketsu in Japanese) and with it the idea that whatever they look like, all the characters - PC or NPC - are humans with understandable human motivations who deserve respect and empathy, even (especially) when you’re busy trying to cut them in half with your giant magic naginata. Their death at your hands is a tragedy. Ah well, on to the next bandit.
There’s a certain amount of narrative cooperation built into the game at the table to support this, with players acting as the audience and giving other PCs applause (Aiki) for doing thematically appropriate and cool things which the PC can then turn into Kiai (extra successes) to win, but spending Kiai burdens your soul with Karma which you must then atone for.
Basically, if I was going to run a Usagi Yojimbo game again, this is the system I’d use, even though there’s no mechanical support for being a rabbit and too much mechanical support for being a magically warped monster.
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