Is a Samurai Just a Fighter in Funny Armor?

This past weekend I posted about how I might approach an "oriental adventures" rules supplement, essentially saying that, where the OA book published by TSR was jargon-heavy and skewed more historical (and was heavily weighted towards Japan), I would skew mine more towards Samurai and Kung-Fu movies, and would try to make it more accessible to an English-speaking audience with a limited knowledge of historical Japan and China (and that I would balance it more between the two cultures).

The post generated a lot of good discussion and links, but regular GG commenter (and player in my campaign) Hamlet made the following observation (quoted here in part; go to the original to see the whole thing):

"...all you really need is a pamphlet covering the basics. A glossary of terms, a few pages describing culture and honor and the like, which can be done for Japanese, Chinese, Indian, assorted "other" cultures of the region...

"...for the most part, you have everything you need to run a campaign of samurai and ninja already in the core books. The PHB only needs a very light reskinning, which can be done in a matter of a few pages, to fit the bill. Fighters are now called Samurai or Bushi or whatever. Ninja would probably be thieves or multi-classed if demi-humans"

I found this a very interesting approach, and wanted to highlight it as a counterpoint to my original post. Is a new class beyond fighter (or cavalier) really needed to play a samurai, busei, or kensai? Or can you do it with just a new list of armor and weapons? What's a wu jen other than a mage with a different list of spells? Do ninjas need to be a class of their own, or, as Hamlet posits, can you just use the existing 1E thief (or perhaps assassin) class, wear a mask and hood, take a proficiency in shuriken, and be done with it? And do you really need an honor mechanic?

Any thoughts?

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How the Enterprise Almost Landed in Las Vegas

When I read this story, I was absolutely flabbergasted. I fancy myself a hard-core Star Trek fan, but had absolutely no idea that there were plans to build a life-sized USS Enterprise and put it in downtown Las Vegas as a tourist attraction. Let alone how close they came to actually going through with it.

Apparently they had the plans, the permits from the city, the funding from backers, and the license from Paramount. All they needed was the blessing from the studio CEO, Stanley Jaffe. And he said "no", afraid that if the $150 million attraction was a flop, it would remain prominently in the public mind for years, rather than the few months a movie flop would. I've got to say, that has to go down in history as one of the poorest decisions in history, when one thinks about how successful the franchise has been since 1992. They would have made their money back a hundredfold.

This goes way beyond the Star Trek Experience that eventually was produced (and to this day I am kicking myself for not visiting it while I could). I mean, the actual USS Enterprise! Life sized! The mind boggles.

Read the whole story. It's inspiring in its audacity, fascinating in its details, and tragic in its conclusion.


Hat tip to Aint it Cool News.

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...and feasted on their brains

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. --Matthew 27:51-53

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How I Would Approach Oriental Adventures

I was as thrilled as anyone in 1985 when I got my copy of Oriental Adventures. And instantly a group of NPC adventurers from the West showed up in my Greyhawk campaign for a few sessions, then faded away. I put an OA adventuring party in my Castle of the Mad Archmage, just to spice things up, as well. But on the whole the published OA book was kinda... meh. And I think I know why.

First, it's filled with terms that nobody either recognizes nor understands. Quick! Which of these lives in the water: hai nu, hsing-sing, con-tinh, or bisan? No offense intended to anyone, but the names of the monsters are largely gibberish to dumb Americans like me, and I think that went a ways towards making them less approachable and ultimately less used. Yes, there are goblin spiders and gargantuas (Godzilla and King Kong), but they're a distinct minority.

Now, when you come to the character classes, it gets much better, but there are still things left to be desired. You know what a samurai, a ninja, a yakuza, and a ronin are. Wu jen? Yeah, I can internalize one more class name, and I think I've heard that somewhere else before. Shukenja? Is that the cleric analogue or something else? Sohei? Um... is that the cleric analogue or something else? Is a bushi a fighter? Are there even "just fighters" in an OA game?And a kensai is something like a cavalier, right? But isn't that what a samurai is supposed to be? And why are they all Japanese?

This guy was a Wu Jen, right?

There's points one and two: make it accessible to dumb Americans like me. And make it broader than just medieval Japan.

The good news is that this work is largely done, although not in game format. There are two distinct genres of film that could be mined here: chanbara and wuxia. They are, respectively, samurai movies and kung-fu movies, and they have very distinctive tropes that identify them as such. Any setting or set of rules that would attempt to portray an oriental-based fantasy game would need to have those genres firmly in mind, because they define "eastern" fantasy as Conanesque "Swords and Sorcery" and Tolkeinesque "High Fantasy" define Western fantasy.

And that's point three; it shouldn't just be Dungeons and Dragons with new classes and spells. It should be oriented (pun intentional) towards the specific cultural tropes that define chanbara and wuxia. Where swords and sorcery has its standard themes of a morally apathetic universe, barbarian outsider vs. corrupt civilization, and small-scale stakes, and high fantasy has its themes of universal good vs. evil, everyman-evolving-into-hero, and familiar-world-with-a-twist setting, we see chanbara as exploring the theme of duty vs. morality, the code of bushido, and "invented tradition" that goes beyond the historical model. Wuxia is quite distinct from this, featuring the xia code (roughly a Chinese equivalent of chivalry or bushido), personal loss leading to personal growth (usually through intense martial arts training), and a setting that is at its core corrupt, requiring the administration of law and justice to be handled by heroes because such things are beyond the vast corrupt and distant bureaucracy of government.

Actually a fair representation of Wuxia-style film. No joke.

The point being that there's a huge well of well-established mythology (in bonus visual format) there that's at least somewhat accessible to dumb Americans like me. It's obviously not going to be historical, but it's exciting and accessible. Like Excalibur or Conan.

I should point out that Bollywood also provides a similar framework for yet a third genre of Indian-based non-European fantasy; complicated love triangles (often including long-lost relatives), unrepentant villains who are villains for the sake of being villains, and a self-conscious mixture of action, comedy, and Broadway-style dance numbers. Well, maybe that last doesn't have too much application in gaming...

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11 Years Later, and We're Still Nowhere Close

On this day in 1968, one of, if not the greatest science fiction film of all time debuted. I was but a wee lad of 2, but seeing this movie in the theater is one of my earliest memories.

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Dungeon Crawl Classics: First Impressions

Folks who pre-ordered the Dungeon Crawl Classics game from Goodman Games got their link to download the accompanying .pdf version last night, and I've had a chance to look mine over. Note that I've not done a thorough cover to cover reading, nor have I played the game, but I did glean enough to get some first impressions.

My overall impression is that this is going to be one raucous game to play.

Some of the basics; the rules and appendices are 450 pages, and the book has an additional 38 pages with a sample adventure, some ads, and some additional artwork. Layout is generally two columns, justified, which is perfectly fine for my middle-aged eyes. Sometimes the layout is broken to accommodate some larger or irregularly shaped piece of art, but I didn't have any issue with that. The art itself is numerous and varying in quality, being done by a variety of different artists (including the late Jim Rosloff, to whom the book is dedicated, and whose last 4 pieces of art are found within). There's a mix of serious and silly, including actual cartoons with captions, but not nearly as much artistic silliness as, say, Hackmaster. I love the inclusion of actual cartoons, which harkens back to the old Dungeon Master's Guide.

The structure is fairly conventional; there are sections on the various character classes (cleric, thief, warrior, wizard, elf, dwarf, halfling-- yes, this game has race-as-class), a brief section on skills, then equipment, and then combat. Combat's worth mentioning because it features numerous and graphic critical hit and fumble tables that are quite reminiscent of the old ICE Arms Law/Rolemaster ones. There are also rules for spell duels, where wizards are able to directly counter one anothers' spells in the middle of combat. Then there's a chapter on magic, complete with spell descriptions. There's a section on quests and journeys, judge's rules, magic items, and finally monsters.

The monster section has a particularly excellent section on the difference between "the" and "a" monsters. Does the world have more than one cockatrice? Does it matter to someone who's never ventured more than a few miles from where he was born? Great, short but thought-provoking stuff like that is found throughout the book.

The character classes only go up to level 10, which we are informed is a plateau that should only be reached two or three times in an epoch, and when it does happen, indicates the characters are at the status of a demigod. Level 5 seems to be the normal expected maximum in the game, and requires 490 x.p. to achieve. Given that "an extremely difficult encounter involving multiple fatalities" is worth 4 x.p., it'll probably take most gamers a little getting used to the lower scale of experience points. Sort of like playing a 1960's pinball machine today. There is a nice section on awarding x.p. for non-combat activities, with specific examples for each class.

While there are a plethora of random tables, the real meat of the game are the spell tables, which most people have been talking about. 83 wizard spells (out of a total of 716, we are told) are detailed, plus 36 cleric spells, and 15 "patron spells", which wizards can attempt to cast at the behest of a supernatural patron. Dealing with such is dangerous, though, as they may exact a high price for their assistance.

And that can be said of most magic spells; it's potentially dangerous. Every spell requires a roll on a table specific to that spell. Results can range from corruption (where the wizard is physically deformed by the casting of the spell) to simple failure, and then a range of increasingly-powerful effects. The die roll is modified by the level of the spell and the level of the caster. To take but one example, spider climb can fail and make the caster simply stick to the floor, unable to move, or could cause him to grow spider legs from his back and climb with great agility. Spectacular success means that both the caster and those around him can climb and cast spells like a spider for a day. Spells are semi-Vancian; the caster may or may not lose the spell once cast, depending on the die roll.

Each spell is also customized for each caster by means of what is called "mercurial magic", where the wizard rolls percentile dice the first time he learns the spell, and that determines the effect that spell has when cast. It could be that when my wizard casts spider climb, there is an accompanying clap of thunder, while when your wizard casts it, someone close to him dies. Once rolled, the effect is permanent for that spell and that wizard.

As I say, I've not had a chance to play the game, but I could see it being a tad too random for an ongoing campaign. The wild and woolly randomness of the magic system could be great fun for a one-off adventure or a convention game, but might grow frustrating when you're trying to pull your wizard character up to second level. Or your warrior character, for that matter; some of the spell misfire effects will affect your companions. My fighter could end up with the head of a chicken for three days because you blew a roll. In fact, that's even the subject of one of the illustrations in the rules. I kid you not.

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Happy First Contact Day!

Star Trek lore tells us that on this date in the year 2063, space pioneer Zephram Cochrane, inventor of warp drive, will make first contact with a Vulcan scout ship, leading to the eventual formation of the United Federation of Planets. Well done, Dr. Cochrane.

Of course, in the Mirror Universe, he killed the vulcan crew and looted their ship, which eventually led to the enslavement of the planet Vulcan by the Empire. Well done too, Mirror Dr. Cochrane.

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