Land of The Samurai

[duncan_disorderly]

Got this over the weekend, and it looks mighty fine to me. Lots of background information to help you set up an "authentic enough" campaign, and a nice starting scenario to round it off.

Just one thing I spotted appears to be missing - the section on times and dates says that days don't have names other than the first and last day of the month, but there is no information about how long a month is, or what the months are called. I think, from memory (of other Japanse RPG's) it is 12 30 day months using the same names as the hours/years?

And one layout criticism - the Name and On tables are confusing because the way they are presented suggest that all the information on a line is related . In the former case it should really be one 2 column table and 2 unrelated lists, and in the latter, the information that is the same on every line would be better not in the table but jsut given once.

 

[The Greek]

Re: Multiple entries the same table.

Well the other approach was tried in Traveller and people complain that there are missing entries.

I'll admit it looks inelegant but there is an elemenet of a damned if you do, damned if you don't here, unfortunately.

 

[Loz]

Thanks for the feedback Duncan. Good spot on days/months.

A Japanese month consists of 3, 10-day weeks (roughly). This came into being just after the Heian period was established. Taken from Wikipedia...

January - 睦月 (mutsuki, affection month)
February - 如月 or 衣更着 (kisaragi or kinusaragi, changing clothes)
March - 弥生 (yayoi, new life; the beginning of spring)
April - 卯月 (uzuki, u-no-hana month; the u-no-hana is a flower, genus Deutzia)
May - 皐月 or 早月 or 五月(satsuki, fast month)
June - 水無月 (minatsuki or minazuki, month of water — the 無 character, which normally means "not", is here ateji, that is, used only for the sound "na". In this name the na is actually a possessive particle, so Minazuki means "month of water," not "month without water.")
July - 文月 (fumizuki, book month)
August - 葉月 (hazuki, leaf month)
September - 長月 (nagatsuki, long month)
October - 神無月 (kaminazuki or kannazuki, month of gods, not "month without gods."), 神有月 or 神在月 (kamiarizuki, month with gods – used only in Izumo province, where all the gods are believed to gather in October for an annual meeting at the Izumo Shrine).
November - 霜月 (shimotsuki, frost month)
December - 師走 (shiwasu, priests run; it is named so because priests are busy making end of the year prayers and blessings.)

Dunno if the kanji will reproduce in all browsers, but there you are.

Also, on the On tables... I tried two different formats, each with different issues. As Acolyte says, its the best compromise and a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Thanks Loz.

 

[Daithi O'an tSionnaigh]

I ordered this up and I have to say that I really like the look of this book. Great job!

 

[MongooseCharlie]

Well thank you for the compliment from Loz, myself and the artists! It was pretty much a family affair also from my point of view. the special thanks credits include my boyfriend, my house mate and my best friend, all of whom were experts on one or more bits of historical data within the book.

I have to say out of the books that I have worked on for mongoose so far this is the one that I am most proud of.

 

[Daithi O'an tSionnaigh]

And you should be proud! I picked it up and read the book and loved it! The artwork and overall feel of the book allows for something historical but adds just enough Fantasy to it to make it on par with the L5R series.

I strongly urge folks who don't want to get caught up in all the high fantasy that is L5R but still want to play in a Samurai game then Land of the Samurai is the way to go. It has just enough info to run a game and if you want more it would take nothing to expand on these blueprints. I think having samurai in a Gloranthan campaign setting would also work.

I was shocked to see this book in softcover since others before it (that I own) were in hardcover. But no matter it isn't an issue at all. This was a labour of love? If so it shows. Well done!!

 

[CruelDespot]

The product description here at Mongoose and at Drivethrurpg says "Land of the Samurai is a stand alone RuneQuest game"

What a lie! It is not stand-alone. It is just a sourcebook. Total false advertising. I was expecting a stand-alone game like Elric of Melnibone. Not so. It does not repeat any of the game mechanics. It only introduces changes. One must flip back and forth between this and the regular Runequest rules. I am so pissed about this. There is no way I would have bought this if I had known it was just a supplement.

 

[Osentalka]

I am not working for Mongoose, so it is only my personal opinion...

I have assumed that "stand alone" means that the featured background will not be supported with sourcebooks, adventurebooks etc., but this is the only book that Mongoose will produce for this setting.

A complete setting book INCLUDUNG the rules, would have been "Land of Samurai RPG".

Just my 2 cents, but i don´t see false advertisement on Mongoose part.


Cheers

Osentalka

 

[MongooseMatt]

The product description here at Mongoose and at Drivethrurpg says "Land of the Samurai is a stand alone RuneQuest game"

What a lie! It is not stand-alone. It is just a sourcebook. Total false advertising. I was expecting a stand-alone game like Elric of Melnibone. Not so. It does not repeat any of the game mechanics. It only introduces changes. One must flip back and forth between this and the regular Runequest rules. I am so pissed about this. There is no way I would have bought this if I had known it was just a supplement.

Hi there,

A fair point, we are changing the description.

 

[shotgun-toting chipmunk]

Curious. I remember the writer in another thread saying that you would not need the Runequest book for this game... Did this change?

 

[Loz]

Curious. I remember the writer in another thread saying that you would not need the Runequest book for this game... Did this change?

Umm - I don't think so. Samurai was always planned and executed as a sourcebook for RQ, not as a complete game in its own right.

 

[shotgun-toting chipmunk]

Um, this is from the post where Charlie put up the cover art:

That's low res?! *drool*

This title is definitely getting me interested in trying out RPGs. Gotta ask: Do you have to have the original Runequest book to play Land of the Samurai, or is it a standalone product?

Several questions to answer here...

Ki powers are treated very much like Legendary Abilities...

Land of Samurai is completely standalone...

It has a scenario...

Kami are statted, and although Buddhism and Shinto are treated as different religions, I haven't played down the fact that they are highly compatible.

Could you model Vormain? Perhaps, but this is a 'historical' sourcebook, so I've made no attempt to integrate it with Glorantha.

Now I'm a bit confused.

 

[Loz]

Me too. I have no idea why I said that, because I'd already written the book, so clearly I was wrong to imply that its a standalone game. What I most likely meant, but didn't say, was that, as a supplement its on its own. Whatever - you're quite, quite right to point out the error.

I do apologise if I've caused confusion here.

 

[Daithi O'an tSionnaigh]

I guess I read it for what it was and saw it as a sourcebook and didn't read too much into it considering it looked to follow the same stand alone product as the RQ Pirates (which is also an awesome book). One would think that if it is RuneQuest it would be in need of using the main book of RuneQuest unless otherwise stated as such.

 

[The Claw]

Where could we find a character sheet ?

 

[soltakss]

Well, it's standalone in that it contains enough to run a campaign in medieval Nippon. You don't need anything else, really, except for the standard RQ rules.

Of course, that doesn't preclude supplements for the Land of Samurai setting. It would be a shame to just have the one book.

 

[The King]

Where could we find a character sheet ?

Welcome there.
For a character sheet I suggest you PM directly Matt or Loz (the author). They'll probably fix the issue.

 

[The Claw]

Where could we find a character sheet ?

Welcome there.
For a character sheet I suggest you PM directly Matt or Loz (the author). They'll probably fix the issue.

Thank You !

 

[Jed Clayton]

Hello there,

I put three of my regular RQ players through character generation for Land of the Samurai yesterday.

While doing so, I noticed the following things which may be slight weaknesses of that book and made me want to ask for further info on this forum. I read that Lawrence (Loz) is reading these postings, too, and it would be great to get some insight from him.

Here is what I found:

- It's not clearly stated in the LotS book whether or not player-characters also get the 100 Free Skill Points as described in the RuneQuest Rulebook. To me, it was logical that they should be added on top of Cultural Background and Profession bonuses as normal. If that is not the case, a starting Shinto Priest or Buddhist Monk would only get their INT's worth in Theology and Language, for example. A little too low, if you ask me.

- The table for Gifts & Heirlooms seems to be geared almost exclusively towards fighting Samurai, Ashigaru, and other martial characters, because 98 out of the 100 possible results on the table would give the character a weapon: an extra sword, a daikyu, a yari, and so on. The table is not bad, but maybe not of much use to some characters. One of my players wants to play a Noble (Kuge!) entertainer, a female character to boot, and she rolled a naginata on that table. What is she to do with a naginata?

- Speaking of entertainers, or Togi: The text block for the Togi Profession says that they are "[a]lways of a relatively low rank," but I wasn't sure whether this means they are also always non-nobles by definition. Several pages earlier, the Caste/Class table allows for Entertainers (musicians, actors, poets) to be from the Kuge class. I was immediately thinking, "...ah yes, an exquisite geisha", but I can't say whether the mention of Togi under the Kuge class was intentional, or an oversight.

- Lastly, and I'm sure this has already been pointed out by some readers, the skill of "Courtesy" is always mentioned as a Basic Skill in the char-gen chapter (ppg. 38-41), however the standard RQ character sheet never lists it as such, and the RQ Companion first introduced it as an Advanced Skill. There are no numerical mistakes, and no damage done to the game system, but I just thought that the Basic Skill/Advanced Skill distinction might confuse a new player.

(Note: I'm currently playing with some newcomers who are still very new to RPGs in general.)