Land of Samurai and RQII

[Lord High Munchkin]

Sadly this rejection of "soul" would make forming a Pact with a deva impossible for a dedicated Buddhist.

I am not certain, because I could imagine something that would come ve-
ry close to a kind of pact with a Yidam / Ishta-Deva - provided one would
see the Yidam / Ishta-Deva as a real and independent entity.

Well, as you say it all depends on whether these powerful forces are actually regarded as entities in themselves, or objectified psychological states.

In any case, it wouldn't be with a ishta-deva (yidam being the Tibetan term)!!! As Buddhists, these wouldn't recognise the offering (rejecting it's very existence themselves).

A "sort of" Pact, without the POW offering might be usable as a game mechanic though — hmm, it's a tricky one!

 

[rust]

A "sort of" Pact, without the POW offering might be usable as a game mechanic though — hmm, it's a tricky one!

Yep, and I would not want to use it in a serious campaign, for my taste it
would be a little too close to a child's "I have an invisible friend who can
do magic !" to feel comfortable with it.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Hence the 'Draconic Magic' route.

 

[cerebrolator]

My question deals more with game mechanics. How would you represent Shintoism? Would you use divine magic? Spirit magic? Or perhaps a variant form of sorcery?

I thought of having the different types of kami (place, elements, ancestral, and major) represent different grimoires. The manipulation skill could be replaced by a pact skill. The priest isn't doing the magic per se but the skill rolls represent his ability to persuade the kami to do the magic. This is just a rough idea.

Perhaps I don't understand RQII spirit magic well enough but it doesn't have a Shinto feel to me. Of course, I'm not an expert on Shintoism. The feel I got for it, while living in Japan, was that there were many gods/entities of greater or lesser power. These kami could produce magical/miraculous events within their sphere of influence. The degree to which they were likely or willing to do this depended upon how well the people/person deserved either the good or bad effects they could produce.

Anyway, I'm just looking for some pointers on how to represent it with game mechanics.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

I have to admit that Shinto is not a strong point of mine... Buddhism I know a fair bit about (along with various Chinese beliefs), but Shinto, nope.

 

[rust]

I am afraid I am also unable to help with this. While I know a bit about
Shinto, I do not know anything about RQ II magic - we never have ma-
gic in our historical settings.

From what little I remember of the rules, I would tend to Spirit Magic,
but this is more or less an uneducated guess ...

 

[cerebrolator]

Thanks for all the input. I'll figure something out and I'm sure it will be fun even if it doesn't completely capture Shintoism or Buddhism. None of my players really know much more about Japan other than what they've seen in movies.