While you're here, why not get yourself a gift?

 My blog traffic has been up, by a LOT lately. I'm getting four to eight times the hits I usually get on my posts. Fingers crossed it's not just Russian or Chinese bots. 

If my new readers are actual flesh and blood humans (get those Voight-Kampff tests ready), and you haven't yet, why not check out my RPG store on DriveThruRPG? 

Here's a handy link! 

That's where you can find Chanbara, my OSR RPG of fantasy feudal Japan. 

And Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins, my OSR fantasy heartbreaker. 

It contains the Ruby Players Rules (classes, equipment, spells for Euro-fantasy), Jade Players Rules (the same for Asio-fantasy), Ruby and Jade Bestiary & Treasury (monsters and treasure for both Euro and Asian fantasy campaigns), the Game Master Guidebook (rules to run games for either Ruby or Jade), Ruby and Jade Rules Reference books (handy table lookup books for the two sets). 

And then there are my printable paper minis! I've got character types and lots of monster types, covering the Basic and Expert (BX/BE of BECMI) monsters, including all the dinosaurs and weirdos from the Isle of Dread. 

Chanbara is reasonably priced (digital or print), the paper minis are cheap (digital), and TS&R books are all pay what you want (digital only for now). 

So why not get a gift for yourself and help a brother out? Let's see if I get a small sales spike, or if these really are just bots.  

Mistborn of the Thorn Isles (Appendix N Jam 2025)

 I'm not on itch.io...or rather, I wasn't on itch before last week. So I wasn't aware of the Appendix N Jam adventure writing contest until Justin (of Vaults of Ur fame) told me about it. With his encouragement, and with only a week left to submit something, I applied, got a title, and made a 4-page (A5 size) adventure. 

 You can see my submission here. If you use itch.io, you can log in and vote for it. And check out the other submissions, too. I've only had time to look at a small fraction, but there's a ton of creativity and cool ideas on display. 

 If you're unaware (as I was), the idea is that the guys running the contest pick a title that sounds like it could be a story or novel in Gary Gygax's Appendix N. Something written by Lovecraft, Leiber, Anderson, Howard, Tolkien, Moorcock, Burroughs, or one of those other luminaries of early genre fiction. Then you design an adventure for an old school style RPG with similar flavor. 

There's a cash prize for the two best entries, but I'm not likely to win and don't care much if I don't. It was just a fun way to spend a weekend. I had a few ideas in my head for adventure ideas in the old adventure fantasy style, but when I got my title, Mistborn of the Thorn Isles, none of my preconceived notions fit. But it seemed like the sort of title a Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, or maybe Corum story would have. 

So I came up with an idea for a cursed island, Celtic themed (with definitely a dash of Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man), and with some elements that might be found in Appendix N style stories (a cursed people, pirates chasing damsels in distress, and a treasure map leading to the isle). It's for 3rd to 6th level PCs, and written for BX/BECMI, but should be easy enough to convert to AD&D, OD&D, or your retro-clone or modern OSR game of choice.

Of course, I had to leave some stuff out. With a mock up cover page taking up 1/4 of my page space, that left three pages for background, a map, a time counter, random encounters, placed encounters, and a new monster write up. I had ideas for making a small dungeon, or notes to expand on the adventure, but there was no space for that. Maybe, after the contest is over, I'll expand it a bit. But I think it's good enough as it is. 

Anyway, if you were unaware, check out the Appendix N Jam. I'll be looking over more submissions over the next couple of days. I doubt I'll have time to read them all before the audience judging portion is over. But I'll be downloading a lot of them to look over when I have more time. 
 

Progress on Flying Swordsmen 2E

 In the past few days, I've been pretty busy. My older boy is back in Korea for summer vacation. I'm working on my next research paper. I've also been painting some minis in my spare time to relax. Oh, and I've got the first draft of Flying Swordsmen 2E more or less finished. I still need to add some examples (NPCs, making adventures, a sample of how a game plays). But the basic mechanics for creating characters, training/improving characters, running the game, creating campaigns and adventures, setting rewards, and the setting information are all there. 

I will need to decide if I want to license art this time, or stick to PD images...

 

The past two days, I've been going through it with find/replace to make sure I'm consistent with names of the skills, powers, abilities, etc. including which ones are capitalized, in italics, and so on. I also have used some words too often. 

Ability is used for the six main stats of the game (Prowess, Might, Agility, Observation, Presence, Education) but I also have used it indiscriminately to talk about capacities. 

Power is used for the special martial arts stats (Qinggong [lightness], Neigong [internal], Dianxue [acupressure], Suan Ming [divination], Wu [white magic], and Ku [black magic]) that allow for the use of Techniques (martial arts maneuvers, spells, feats). I also talk about creature powers, power as in political or social clout, etc. 

Luckily, I seem to have stuck to using skill mostly for mechanical skills within the game. 

My document is A4, single column, mostly 12 point font. Obviously headers use larger fonts, and some of the tables and some notes I use 10.5 point font. The document is 147 pages long, including 16 pages with character templates (two per page). No art yet, other than my Zhongyang Dalu map from the first edition.

I've got 41 skills, 108 techniques, around 60 monsters, 25 sample magic items (with notes on how to design more), and detailed but hopefully simple rules for combat including actions, reactions, special maneuvers, improvised weaponry, special types of damage (energy, poison, etc.), and so on. I've got a system for training new skills, and one for learning new Powers and Techniques. These are similar, but not exactly the same. Skills are a little easier to learn than a new Power, but if your Power increases you can learn a Technique automatically. 

Once I get done with the terminology consistency passes, I'll make a separate document with just the player facing information and work up an adventure or two to playtest the rules with my group.

Happy Lunar New Year!

It is the Lunar New Year, known as Chinese New Year in many foreign lands such as the USA. And to celebrate, we did what most Korean families do. Get up way too early, go to my mother-in-law's house, honor the departed family members, then eat a bunch of really good food! 

If you'd like to celebrate, why not pick up a copy of Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins Jade Players Rules on DriveThruRPG? It's Pay What You Want, so pick it up for free and if you like it, come back and give me a tip. If you want to add Asian-style classes like Kensei (weapon masters), Wu Jen (Taoist sorcerers) or Xia (wandering martial artists) to your OSR game of choice, they'll fit right in. 

And if you're the DM, you can pick up TS&R Jade Bestiary & Treasury to get lots of Asian inspired monsters and magic items. Also PWYW so grab it for free or give me a little LNY gift if you like.

Fortune and Glory? Nah, just play some Elfgames.

I had a discussion last night with my older boy about gaming, marketing, and all that. He's got some game ideas (card games, board games, computer games) and was wondering about how successful he might be. 

Interestingly, I'd just finished reading the recent (now pulled) article on how toxic the RPG online community is, and that definitely influenced the direction of our conversation. 

We talked about how easy it is to promote games on DriveThru, how easy it is to run a Kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign, and so on. 

Want some numbers? Flynn did. In the past six years since I released Chanbara, I've sold just shy of 300 copies, and made $1600 from those sales. I've made less than that from the paper minis and TS&R. 

All told, since 2015 when I uploaded my first printable paper minis file, including pay-what-you-want downloads that didn't pay anything, I've sold 2413 products on DriveThru, and made $2338.11. Not exactly the big bucks. 

But then the bigger names in the TTRPG circles (many of them named in that article for being toxic presences in the community) regularly have crowdfunding campaigns that make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. A few have topped the million mark. 

Now, I'm not trying to cast any aspersions on the "big names." And this is not sour grapes. I was just being realistic to my son. Yes, it's possible to make good money by publishing games online, but to do so you really need to work on promotion, really need to get out there and get known, and need other big names to support and promote your work. But the bigger you get, the more of a target you can become. 

So I'm happy to stay a little fish in a small pond. I really do appreciate all of you who read this blog, review and promote my offerings, and everyone who's purchased something I've put out there. But I'm also never going to put in the effort needed to become one of the luminaries of the hobby, because I don't need to. That $2000+ I've made over the past nearly a decade has helped me to buy other gaming goods, and every now and then a birthday or Christmas present. I don't need gaming money to support my family. I'm happy to do this just for the joy of creating stuff, putting it out there, and seeing positive reactions to it. 

That's why TS&R is PWYW and I'll probably never get around to making the second edition of Flying Swordsmen, with actual new art from paid artists rather than public domain and donated art. 

I'm happy with my place in the hobby. 

But hey, if my son can create some board or card games that become a hit, I'll do my best to support him in his efforts. 

And also, if Zak S. is reading this, my apologies. I don't think I jumped on the anti-Zak bandwagon, but I wasn't a big fan of his and took the words of others at face value when I shouldn't have. Looking back at some of my old blog posts, I was pretty much just dismissive of him at the time Mandy was accusing him of some pretty horrible (and not completely believable) stuff. I hope that the word gets out and he gets a chance to make a come-back. 

I never had a negative interaction with him personally, and I should have been more critical of others claiming that they had had negative interactions with him rather than letting those claims color my opinion of him.

Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night...

 ...may become a grognard when the dice are rolled, and the gaming mood is right.

Oh, wait, that's not the way that rhyme is supposed to go. Anyway, I'm going to do something today that I haven't done in quite a while, but should get back to doing semi-regularly. I've got a newish blog that I want to promote. 

Savage Lair of the Weregrognard

It looks like Weregrognard started the blog last year for the Dungeon23 challenge, and now that that has wrapped up, he's been blogging about his take on old school gaming. So far, I've found his posts on the topic to be interesting and entertaining. 

I haven't read through all of his Dungeon23 posts, but of what he's written since then, I'm the only person who's left a comment. And I think he deserves more feedback on his Lessons from the OSR series. It's good.

Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins Ruby Players Rules now available!

I've just uploaded my regular D&D house rules to DriveThruRPG, at my Hidden Treasure Books storefront. 

Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins Jade Players Rules 

It's fully compatible with the TS&R Jade Asian-inspired rules (the Fighter and Thief class are identical in both, just with different suggested examples of each type listed). 

In it, you'll find rules for running a game somewhere between BX/BECMI style and AD&D style games, with mostly the simplicity of the box sets, but with separate race & class, and a few other complexities from AD&D (and a few more modern conventions I like such as ascending AC). 

Ruby has rules for the following races: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, Half-Orcs. As with AD&D, demi-humans have class restrictions and level limits, although a bit more generous than old Gary originally suggested.

And the following classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Illusionist, Magic-User, Paladin, Ranger, Thief. Advancement goes to level 15.

Plus spells up to level 6, full equipment lists, and some handy rules for players to engage in exploration and combat, and some notes for higher level play. 

As with TS&R Jade, this is Pay-What-You-Want so feel free to download it for free, or tip me a few bucks if you enjoy it and can afford it!

Acronyms & Ampersands

So, a little update. I'm just about done with my two versions of the Players' Rules books: Ruby and Jade. 

Ruby is standard Euro-Tolkien D&D races and classes. Jade is my version of Oriental Adventures. 

For the overall game title, I'm going to stick with Treasures, Serpents, and Ruins. The ordering just flows better than reversed, at least to me. 

BUT!

When I abbreviate it into an acronym from now on, it will be TS&R. 

Hopefully that's enough of a change to set my little house rules docs apart from the racist wannabes and their grifting. 

And who knows, maybe a better name will come to me before I release this thing to the wilds. 

Anyway, the game so far includes: 

TS&R Ruby Players Rules: PC races including humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, and half-orcs (half-elves just use the human or elf rules, whichever side they favor). For classes, I have Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Illusionist, Magic-User, Paladin, Ranger, Thief. No subclasses. No multiclassing (I will have optional rules for that in the GM Guidebook). Levels 1-15, with demi-humans capped at 8, 10 or 12 (as in BX and BECMI, but class assortments similar if not identical to 1E AD&D). Spells levels 1-6 (1-4 for bards, paladins and rangers). Equipment lists and some rules for play including some higher level end-game stuff. Still need to add some art to this one but the text is done.

TS&R Jade Players Rules: PC races including humans, koropokuru (dwarves), shenmin (spirit folk), vanara (monkey-men) and yeongno (oni-folk). Classes are Cleric, Fighter, Kensei, Sohei, Thief, Wu Jen, Xia (monk/martial artist), Yakuza. Everything else pretty much the same as in Ruby. Completely done, including art.

TS&R Jade Bestiary and Treasury: Lots of monsters for Asian fantasy games, plus treasure tables and magic item lists, and wandering monster tables. Text is done, just need to add art.

TS&R Rules and Procedures: The small book with how to run a game, including rules for managing exploration and combat, creating adventures and campaigns (still working on writing this section), and to include rules for high level "end game" play (to be written). 

The things still to be created include: 

TS&R Ruby Bestiary and Treasury: I actually just need to edit out the stuff that's too Asian from my current working document that I use for my West Marches campaign. I've already done that for Jade, since I was planning to release the East Marches adventure and wanted something without the Greek/Norse/British/etc. monsters in it to work from. Although a few creatures were just re-skinned (like turning minotaurs into yakmen, or having chimeras with tiger heads instead of lions'). I'll do the same for Ruby fairly easily. 

TS&R GM Guidebook: This is where I plan to stick the (half-baked?) advice for GMs. Rules and Procedures is how to run a game. GM Guidebook will try to explain why things are the way they are, and suggest ways to change things up. Reading back over Flying Swordsmen and Chanbara lately, I think I've got some solid advice that I can include, but every time I get too wordy in my R&P, I end up deleting it as I want that to be just stuff that is needed at the table. So R&P will be the handy rules reference, GMG will be my attempt to out-Gygax old Gary. 

And especially once R&P and GMG are done, it should be pretty easy to make Players Rules and Bestiary and Treasury books for other genres of play. 

Oh, and despite being told it's a bad idea because people will just shit all over it, I've decided that these will all be released Pay What You Want. I make good enough money from work. Chanbara has been a nice little bonus each month, but I'm not gonna get rich from this game. It's just D&D in a different package, after all. Might as well just let people have them and they can throw me a few bucks if they appreciate what I've done.

Playing Black Hack? Need monsters?

Jeremy (been talking about him a lot lately) has been regularly putting out monster books for 5E, OSE, and Black Hack type games. He's currently running a kickstarter for Black Hack conversions of some of his previous monsters. If you're running a BH powered game, and want monster stats, printable paper minis, and VTT tokens, give it a look.

Check it out here.

Gnomish Tarot

Dean, who has been a good friend and fellow gamer for many years now, has always produced some gorgeous art derived from our games, dating back to Justin's Vaults of Ur campaign (see the labels to this post). Through Ur, Chanbara play tests, various games run by Jeremy, and into West Marches, he's consistently drawn a lot of amazingly detailed pieces that illustrate our games. I've posted some of it here before. He also ran a pretty amazing campaign himself, that started as 4E and migrated to 5E along the way. The campaign was a bizarre mix of Oz, Spencer's Faerie Queene, Narnia, Pellucidar, Dr. Who... and tons of fun. 

He's back in Canada now, and producing a webtoon based on his campaign. You can check it out here: 

Tales from the Gnomish Tarot

Dean actually gifted me a lot of his original work that he produced while he lived here in Busan. Here's a couple of illos I have on my hard drive (the originals are in my office, I'm at home right now):

From my Megadungeon games

From Vaults of Ur

Initiation

 Several weeks back, in April or early May, an acquaintance from the local English radio station* started liking my posts on Facebook about my twice-monthly West Marches games. I reached out to her, and yes, it turns out that she was interested in trying out D&D. She'd never played any RPGs before, and when I asked a few questions to see how much I'd need to explain, it seems like she hasn't really had much experience with computer RPG games either. 

We chatted via text, and I explained in fairly simple terms how RPGs play, and made a few suggestions, tried to find out what sort of character she wanted to play. 

Then when the next game session came up, she was too busy. Didn't hear from her for a while. I thought maybe she had lost interest. I did give her quite an info dump, even if I was simplifying things. 

But this past week, she contacted me again. She'd seen some 5E character sheets and a YouTube video about how to roll up a character. I assured her that the system I run is simpler than that.

She still wasn't sure about what sort of character to play, so I ended up rolling four pregens, a Human Cleric, Dwarf Fighter, Elf Magic-User, and Halfling Thief. Yep, hitting the four iconic (stereotypical) characters. Might as well start her with something easy. 

She quickly emails me back, asking if she can play a Half-Elf Ranger. And I'm like, of course! I made a few modifications to the pregens to make that PC for her, and sent it to her. 

At game time, several players were late, and she was also late. So we started the game. She finally contacted me, asking if it was too late to join. I said no, and resent the game links. She had some trouble logging into both Roll20 and Meet at the same time, but we finally got her in the game. 

And she did brilliantly. Granted, she does have some amateur acting chops. She's been in some local plays and short films in addition to her radio work. She got into character, asked good questions, had some good teamwork with the existing players, etc. And of course my usual crew is used to new people popping into our games, so that was no big deal for them. 

She sent me a message yesterday, thanking me for the game and asking if I was running again that night! I mentioned another game that I play in that is next Saturday, but she's already got plans (we'll get her in it eventually, I think). But she's on the hook for the following week when I run West Marches again. 

*Yes, I do a 1-hour radio weekly show. Yes, it's on the internet, but trust me, unless you listen to the other programs on the station, my show won't be interesting at all. Even if you do listen to the other shows, it's still not THAT interesting.

Chanbara Price

I just reduced the price of the Chanbara PDF to $5.00. If you never picked it up because you thought $10 was too much, now's your chance!

The print version is $15, as well.

Get 'em while they're still sorta luke warm!*

*Chanbara has never really been "hot" but I'm happy with it! Hope you all enjoy it, too!

Come on, WotC!

I'm sure you've seen this video. It's obviously making the rounds of the Gamosphere.

If Renault Brazil can make an awesome commercial like this, I think you know what to do, WotC. Hollywood's all about the reboot/modernization of old 70's/80's properties right now. Get Hazbro to make a deal with Disney or Time/Warner or someone and make this happen as a big budget feature film! With the current film culture of big budget CGI spectacle and cashing in on Gen X nostalgia, this should be a no-brainer.

More Paper Minis!

I've just completed another set of paper minis, available from my Hidden Treasure Books storefront on DriveThruRPG.

Linkage!

This set is Expert Monsters Set 2, covering all the creatures from the Mentzer Expert Set that weren't covered in Set 1.

For a refresher, Set 1 contains all the creatures from Animal Herd to Griffon. Set 2 contains all the creatures from Hellhound to Wyvern. This is the bigger set, 24 pages plus cover, mostly because the "Men" entry in the book contains so many types of men, with varying armaments. And I've got figures to cover them, including leader types. Also, most leader types get a male/female version to be more inclusive.

$3 per set, so for $6 you can get all your Mentzer Expert monster love going!

As usual, each image on a page is on its own layer, so you can turn off images you don't need to print. And unlike my Basic Monsters sets (which I'm thinking of revising to match the Expert style), there are multiple copies of most of the creatures that would be encountered in groups. This will save paper if you need to print a bunch of one type of creature.

If you're a BX fan (or a fan of a retro-clone of BX), there are a few monsters in the Moldvay Basic and Cook Expert that aren't in BECMI. I've got the list, and will be starting in on those monsters soon. Plus, I'm going to cover the Isle of Dread creatures as well. Because more dinosaurs is always better!

Paper Minis Expert Monsters Set 1 for sale

You may remember (and a few of you purchased - Thank You!) my fold-up paper minis based on the monsters from the Basic Set D&D. They're still for sale over at my DriveThruRPG page, Hidden Treasure Books.

And now, the first of three sets covering monsters from the Expert Set is up for sale!

Direct Link right here!

It's got all the monsters from the Mentzer Expert Set from Animal Herd to Griffon.

If you purchased my Basic Monsters sets, you may have been less than satisfied that there was only one image of each monster. I've reformatted this set, so there are multiple monsters of creatures you might encounter in groups, like the giants, herd animals, blink dogs, etc. Creatures that are normally encountered solo, like elementals, devil swine, and golems just get one picture each (but I have different sized elementals for each summoning method).

$5 for 20 pages full of Expert Monsters, in full color. Not bad, I think.

Set 2 should be coming out in a few months. Need to finish the images for each monster. Layout shouldn't take too long once the images are ready.

Set 3 will cover the 20 or so monsters in the Cook Expert Set that aren't in BECMI, and if I get ambitious also the Isle of Dread monsters. Who doesn't love more dinosaurs?

Chanbara: Additional Content!

Stefan, who playtested, edited and was there for me to toss ideas around with when making Chanbara, is more into anime than I am. I don't hate it, just never really delved deeply into the waters that are Japanese animation. When he was playtesting the rules, he made a few mods to bring his game more in line with anime (while mine was Lafcadio Hearn stories directed by Kurosawa Akira).

Now, he's developing an alternate spellcaster class for the game -- the Ganshu -- based on the 3E/4E/5E Warlock model. I think it may need a bit of playtesting for balance, and so far he's only got one profile up: the Miko (shrine maiden). The other profiles he's working on are the Tsukimono-mochi, which has a very creepy pact with yokai vibe, and Shotokandoka, which is straight out of Street Fighter II or other 90's fighting games.

And if you don't have Chanbara yet and have no idea what I'm talking about, you can check it out here! Only $10 for the pdf, $20 for print or print/pdf bundle.

Why You Should Buy Chanbara Part 3: About Me

Buy It Here!

Part 3 of why I think you should buy my game.

When I made Flying Swordsmen, I was doing a retro-clone of Chris Pramas' Dragon Fist game. I'm into kung fu and wuxia movies, but it's not my abiding passion. I just thought Dragon Fist was a neat and fun little game that I didn't want to be lost when Green Ronin got the rights from WotC but then it (the updated version Green Ronin wanted to do) got mired down in production hell. So I decided to clone it, even though I am FAR from an expert in the genre, just a guy who enjoys it.

And I think I did pretty well.

With Chanbara, though, I do know exactly what I'm doing with the genre and the game. Many of you probably remember (or your memory will be jogged when I mention it), but I spent 10 years living in Japan teaching English. Before I went there, I took 3 years of Japanese language classes in university. While there, I continued to improve my language abilities, and immersed myself in the culture quite a bit. I almost said "as much as I could" there, but that's not strictly true. I spent plenty of time with other foreigner friends, even after I'd made some good Japanese friends. But I did spend a lot of time with those Japanese friends, and watching Japanese TV/movies, playing Japanese video games, and traveling around the country rather than jaunting off to Thailand on holidays. I've read a fair amount of Japanese history and mythology/legends as well.

Now, there are people in my RPG circles who have spent as much or more time in Japan than I did. There are plenty who speak Japanese better than me (JLPT level 2, but after a decade in Korea I doubt I could pass that if you gave me the test today...I could probably pass level 3 though). I'm not even really into anime, although I've seen many of the 'classics.' I'm not trying to say I'm the best expert on Japan and Japanese legends in the OSR, but I do know what I'm talking about.

And the game's "mythic Japanese" feel is all about my personal interpretation of Japan, and what's important in their history, legends, myths, and modern Japanese takes on their own history, myths and legends. I also think I've got a good grasp on what non-Japanese get wrong about the country, as I've been disabused of many of these misconceptions myself by hard experience.

Here are some of the lessons I've learned that make Chanbara a bit different:

• There is no mechanics of "honor" like in 1E OA. First of all, like in other countries, some people are obsessed with honor/status/face, but not everyone. It's also something that's subjective, so having objective standards of behavior that gain or lose you points in an RPG is constraining. If you want to be an honorable samurai (or whatever type of character), role play it. 
• Social relationships are key. Acting in accord with social norms is approved of, although there is also glorification of the rebel/outsider/anti-hero at times. I devised a three-way system of awarding XP that encourages characters to make their social relationships part of the game, but doesn't overly penalize players who don't want to do so. Players who prioritize social relationships will gain levels faster and also other benefits but also responsibilities and drawbacks. Those who don't will level a little slower, but will be a lot richer and have more freedom at the expense of influence. 
• Japanese monsters can get really weird. It seems like a lot of legends they tell were made simply to creep people out, or to get a laugh. Monsters aren't only there to provide combat challenges. There are also plenty of ways to use the monsters presented for role playing or puzzle challenges. And not every monster is immediately out to attack the players. 
• Even without getting into anime or sentai shows, many depictions of samurai or ninja (and the less common depictions of magicians like onmyoji or yamabushi) are super-heroic. Granted, most are 'street level' if compared to Marvel or DC superheroes, but the focus is usually on people doing things that couldn't really happen - or at least would be very improbable. And I'm not just talking about Zatoichi the blind swordsman. Just like with Flying Swordsmen, it was important that I make a 'heavy' OSR game with plenty of kewl powrz. Yes, you could play an OA style game with just BX D&D, but it would miss some of the feel of the source material because of it. 

Thanks to the people who have purchased the game so far! I appreciate it, and if you have a review of the game, send me a link - I'd love to read it. 

Pleased to Announce: Chanbara is for Sale in Print!

That's right, folks! I just toggled Chanbara as live to print! You can get it in hard copy and PDF for only $20 on DrivethruRPG.com by following this link!

I'm sure there are still a few typos and other small errors in the document, but I went through it with fresh eyes for the final update, and spotted a lot of little things.

I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I did during my play test phase. And hopefully I'll have some companion content (a module called Ghost Castle Hasegawa, a gazetteer of my homebrew setting, and a book of more monsters called Kaibutsu Hyakkaten are my current plans) out soon (as in, maybe one of them will be ready later this year, fingers crossed!).

For everyone who's been following my development of the game over the past few years, thank you for your patience. I understand completely why so many game developers fail to complete their kickstarters and gofundmes. Game development often has to take a back seat to family matters and earning a paycheck 9-5. But I stuck through it, and many of you stuck through it with me so I want to say thank you. The occasional comment saying how much you're looking forward to the game, or asking how it's coming helped keep me from abandoning the idea somewhere along the way.

Why You Should Buy Chanbara Part 2: Class and Profile Inspirations

There are only three character classes in Chanbara: Bushi (warrior), Mahotsukai (magician) and Shinobi (spy). Each class has its own advancement chart providing new levels at certain amounts of XP. Bushi advance the fastest. This is a derivation from standard D&D/OSR, where Fighters are the middle of the road advancement class. I did it on purpose, to encourage more fighters. Chanbara movies and TV (like most fantasies) focus on warriors for the most part.

Sounds boring, right? Well, if you haven't been keeping up with the development (or my previous post), each class gets three or four subclasses to choose from called Profiles. I'll give a taste of each profile here, and a few notes about what inspired me to include each. Also, for the record, early on I had each class idea as its own distinct class, but there was a lot of overlap. So I decided to stick to my Flying Swordsmen roots with only 3 general classes and profiles for specialization. Also, unlike in Flying Swordsmen, I don't offer an option to go without a profile, but I'm sure any halfway decent GM could work something out for that.

Bushi

Bushi (Warrior) is obviously like the Fighter. Instead of magic and lots of cool special abilities, they’re good at combat. The name “bushi” is actually a synonym for samurai. The Chinese characters mean “martial gentleman” (more or less) while the character for samurai means “servant.” It should be no surprise that the aristocratic warriors of historical Japan preferred to call themselves bushi, while others preferred to call them samurai. The Bushi gets four profiles.

1. Abarenbo (rowdy) are usually lower class tough guys. They might be yakuza, they might be ashigaru footsoldier deserters, they might just be the village bully. I give an option for them to be of the Buke (aristocrat) status if they're rikishi (sumo wrestlers). They get powers that make them tougher and stronger, for the most part. They're kind of like the Bushi class of the original OA, but not quite.

The name Abarenbo I got from a TV show, Abarenbo Shogun (where the shogun goes around Edo disguised as a low ranking samurai to help solve problems and get in lots of fights). The profile itself is inspired by Kikuchiyo (Mifune Toshiro's character) in Seven Samurai, the character Rikimaru in the movie Red Shadow: Akakage (played by former rikishi Mainoumi Shuhei; not to be confused with the Rikimaru of the Tenchu video games), and the stock 'big strong (and probably dumb)' member of the 5-man team shows.

2. Kensei (weapon master) were a no brainer. They were in OA (misspelled as kensai), and they're such a trope of the genre. They don't need to master the sword, their main weapon could be anything, but the inspiration usually comes from sword-masters like the historical Miyamoto Musashi. Zatoichi the blind swordsman, and Kyuzo (Miyaguchi Seiji's character) in Seven Samurai are also examples.

As usual, kensei get really good with one specific weapon, and their powers mostly don't work with other weapons.

3. Samurai (warrior-aristocrats) are again a no brainer. This is designed to be the 'default' option of the Bushi class, and can cover both samurai serving a lord and ronin who are on their own. They get a mix of offensive and defensive abilities as they progress. Obviously some of the inspiration for their abilities comes from previous games, like both OA supplements.

4. Sohei (warrior-monk) have also been part of previous OA supplements, and the big question for me during development was whether to have them be more warrior with some magic, or magician with some fighting skill. In the end, I went with mainly warrior/supplemental magician. In fact, gaining spellcasting is an option for the class. Their martial abilities are fairly offensive, but their magic is mostly defensive.

The historical Benkei is probably the number one source of inspiration for the sohei class, but also the actual warrior monks of Mt. Hiei (and the Shi comics I read back in the 90's inspired by those historical monks) and the Ikko-Ikki sects of religious fanatics who fielded armies during Japan's Warring States period.

Mahotsukai

Mahotsukai literally means “magic user” so it's an appropriate name for the spell casting class in the game. It has that nice old school resonance. In Japanese, “mahotsukai” is used for fictional wizards and magicians like The Wizard of Oz. The mahotsukai gets three profiles.

I didn’t want to replicate the old school cleric/MU dichotomy exactly, so the three profiles have some unusual or at least different features. Each is pulled from history and/or source media. Like many cultures, the Japanese connect magic and religion so all three have a religious connotation, but none are quite like the D&D Cleric class. All have spell use as their primary function, but none is a magical scholar like the D&D MU.

1. Onmyoji (exorcist) are historical. The name means Yin-Yang Master and they got their ideas from Chinese esoteric Taoism. They were astrologers and astronomers, in charge of creating calendars for the emperor. They also used Feng Shui geomancy to protect the emperor from evil spirits. Abe-no-Seimei is the most famous onmyoji, and there are lots of legends and stories about him. The Onmyoji movies I reference are about him.

In the game, onmyoji are exorcists and demon hunters. They are better at combat, at least against spirit creatures, than the soryo and yamabushi. In that way they are like the Cleric, but their spell list is a bit more combat-oriented like the MU.

2. Soryo(priest) simply means priest, and for this profile I tried to keep it generic enough that it could cover Buddhist-types as well as Shinto-types, or even foreign religious missionaries (if playing a pseudo-historical game). They are the worst combatants (so in a way like the MU), but their spells are for healing, protection, and interaction, so somewhere between the traditional Cleric and the Bard. Soryo are the “face” class of Chanbara. I didn't have any historical or fictional characters in mind with this profile, it's more of an archetype.

3. Yamabushi (mountain ascetic) are historical, and also known as shugenja (misspelled shukenja in 1E OA). In OA (1E) they are like clerics with martial arts. 3E OA has them based on the L5R setting of Rokugan, where they are court sorcerers. My take goes to the original yamabushi of Japan. They (the real ones – and yes, they still exist) believe that living in seclusion on mountain tops, exposed to the elements, grants magic powers.

In Chanbara, this means they have elemental affinities and magic. Legends connect them to tengu, tanuki, and other yokai creatures. They are the quirky hermit magicians of the setting. This makes them more like the traditional D&D MU in abilities but they are part of a religious group. They are the most “anime” of the three profiles.

Shinobi

Shinobi (spy) – I spent a LOT of time considering whether to call the class shinobi or ninja. They mean the same thing, after all. In the end I went with shinobi because it's the more historical term and it's possible to run a Shinobi class character as something other than the modern concept of the ninja. Especially but not exclusively with the Taijutsuka (martial artist) profile.

And I went with spy for the English translation because that's what they were – spies, saboteurs and guerrilla fighters. Of course, in a game drawing inspiration from cinema, other games and comics as well as history and legend, there are options for REAL ULTIMATE POWER (remember that dumb old website?) badass martial artists, assassins, and flying through the air wailing on guitars decapitate you for looking types. Well, maybe not that last one. Shinobi have four profiles.

1. Kagemusha (shadow warrior) are the profile for magical shinobi. I borrowed the name from the Kurosawa film, which has nothing to do with ninja, and instead is about the death of Takeda Shingen, where he ordered his men to impersonate him after he died to win the battle they were engaged in. Inspiration for the profile comes from the character Dogen in the movies Castle of Owls/Owl’s Castle, pretty much everyone in the anime Ninja Scroll, and what little I know of shows like Naruto. The OA ninja abilities to walk on water or walk through walls are here, and they (like the Sohei profile for Bushi) have the option to cast some spells.

2. Ninja (secret agent) is the next profile, and rely on gear to supplement their espionage abilities, and have a few special abilities to have the right tool for the job even if the player didn’t plan for that contingency. The Tenchu games for Playstation 1 and 2 were big inspirations for this profile, as were the Iga ninja protagonists of Owl’s Castle. Classic Batman Cartoons where he always has just the right tool on his utility belt may have been an unconscious inspiration as well.

3. Taijutsuka (martial artist) are obviously martial artist ninja, and are a lot like the monk in D&D. They are more combat and acrobatics oriented, although they can still sneak around. The legendary Saru-tobi Sasuke (Flying Monkey Sasuke) is one inspiration for this profile. Yes, the athletics competition TV show is named for the legendary ninja. The main characters in the movie Red Shadow: Akakage would probably be Taijutsuka profile, if not Ninja profile. In my play test game, Dean used the Shinobi/Taijutsuka to play a wandering monk rather than a ninja, and it worked well.

4. Finally, the Uragata (infiltrator) is closest to the historical shinobi/ninja. They are masters of disguise and deception. Rather than sneak around in black pajamas, they will pretend to be workers, entertainers, clergy, or soldiers to hide in plain sight and spy on enemies. I got inspiration from the movie Owl’s Castle for these shinobi, as well as historical accounts.

Why You Should Buy Chanbara part 1: How It's Different

I'd like to lay out my reasoning for creating Chanbara, explain a bit about the design process, and show what I did differently from other games that I think will make this game worthwhile for you. I hate 'marketing speak' and I tend to be too honest at times which makes me terrible at sales. Still, I think I'm not just blowing my own horn here, and I am proud of this little game of mine, so I'm just going to lay out what I'm proud of and hopefully that will be enough to excite your interest.

Shortly after Flying Swordsmen came out, I thought about making a companion game for a feudal fantasy Japan setting to go with the fantasy Golden Age China setting of FS. At first, I thought I'd just stick to the Flying Swordsmen system, just with a few different class profile options and a different roster of monsters and spells. And I tried that, but it didn't work so well. To be honest, I had limited myself when making Flying Swordsmen since it was a retro-clone of Dragon Fist. But I quickly realized that a pure a la carte special ability system like in FS wouldn't work well in a game with stronger divisions in what samurai, ninja and the various spellcaster types should do in the game.

The next version had twelve classes arranged in a triangle pattern of combat/trickery/magic abilties. There were demi-human classes with evenly divided abilities (tengu was fighter/mage, kappa was fighter/ninja, and kitsune was nina/mage), one class that was pure (samurai was pure warrior, ninja was pure sneak, yamabushi was pure mage) and a class that was primarily X with a bit of Y (sohei was warrior with a bit of magician, kensei was warrior with a bit of sneak, etc.). There were three separate lists of special abilities, and different types of spells, and... It was a mess. And confusing. The early play test was fun, but I spent a lot more time than I wanted trying to explain things.

So the final version I tried to make as simple as possible. I went back to the idea of a base class with profiles from Flying Swordsmen, with three classes: Bushi (warrior), Shinobi (spy) and Mahotsukai (magician). The demi-humans (with the addition of the tanuki) were relegated to an appendix as optional. Instead of an a la carte list of special abilities divided into power levels, every few levels you get a choice of two special abilities for your profile [which leaves room for myself or others to create more options for each profile in the game]. With the divorce of the idea that profiles needed to partly overlap with other class type abilities (it's still there a little bit), I was able to come up with some different ideas that fit the genre. I'll talk about the classes and profiles, and the inspiration behind each archetype, in another post.

Figuring out the character class options was hard. I figured that would be the hardest part of the game. But it wasn't. Flying Swordsmen has a stunt die mechanic (inheritted from Dragon Fist) where the die size is determined by your ability scores, and increases as you level. You can roll one every round of combat and they have several effects. It's fun and chaotic and works well for Wuxia gaming...but for a chanbara-themed game, it's not what I wanted. I tried several different dice mechanics. I tried having each character (and the monsters) have dice for fighting, magic and stealth/trickery, at different die sizes by class specialty. I tried having decreasing dice (if your Might [strength] die is d8, after you use it once it becomes a d6, and so on). It was also a pain to keep track of. Finally, I decided to simplify the dice. Bushi (warriors) get Combat dice. Mahotsukai (magicians) get Magic dice. Shinobi (spies) get Skill dice. Each character gets a pool of these dice to spend each game day, and many of the profile abilities are dependent on using one. It worked really well in play, and is similar to the 5E Battle Master Fighter's Superiority Dice.

And even harder than the bonus dice mechanic was figuring out how to motivate the players to actually play according to genre tropes. Of course, classic D&D works because the motivation is in the XP system. Kill monsters, get XP to level up. Collect treasure, get XP to level up. It took me a while, but I eventually came up with the Allegiance System. All characters will have some allegiances. They can be to the character's family, lord, temple, gang, teacher, trade union, etc. As long as it's an NPC individual or organization, it's fine. Having allegiances ties the characters into the game world. It helps you as a player define your character. As a DM, it helps you flesh out your game world. It allows for conflicting motivations (your lord wants you to eliminate a distant clan member, but your clan of course does not!). But that wasn't enough. I needed a way to tie it to XP, because it's really XP that motivates players.

Eventually, based on some insightful posts on Japanese fantasy by my friend Ted at his blog, I got the idea that I should keep XP for defeating (not necessarily killing) enemies as in D&D, and use a variation of the 'carousing' rules used by many OSR bloggers. Characters in Chanbara only gain XP from treasure if it's donated to a liege. There's also a third way to gain XP, by playing to genre tropes of choosing humane actions over duty. Since many gamers may find the concepts hard to gauge, I recommend in the book that the group nominate players for this kind of XP bonus, and the group vote if it should be awarded or not. It's a bit story-gamish, and fuzzy, but I think the game will play just fine if players don't worry about this third type of XP (or if the DM just hands it out when he/she feels it's justified). Anyway, the idea that you can advance faster by serving your lieges' interests (along with advice to the DM to use liege conflicts to good effect to inspire difficult choices) makes the game stronger. It's definitely better than the 1E OA Honor System, which is pretty much a straight jacket for roleplay, or 3E OA with advancement based only on combat.

So to sum up, I think Chanbara is different from other Asian fantasy games mainly in its use of the Allegiance System tied to XP advancement. Its selection of classes and special abilities, including the special bonus dice system, is also fun and helps set the game apart from other OSR games.