TEXT: Once Upon a Time in Old Japan…
  
  Written and Designed by
  John Wick
  Houses of the Blooded
  A  G a m e  o f  S a m u r a i     T r a g e d y
  す
  べ
  て
  の
  人
  妻
  は
  妻
  で
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  Art, Cover & Layout
  Jessica Kauspedas
  Editing
  Jason Lewis
  Ben & Emily Woerner
  Project Lead
  Jessie Foster
  Japanese Cultural Advisors
  Neal Fischer
  Dan Waszkiewcz
  Ben Woerner
  (who wrote the “Seven Daimyos” section in the Narrator chapter)
  Kanji Assistance
  Daniel Stolp
  Playtesting & Feedback
  Fabien Badilla
  Neal Fischer
  Jessie Foster
  Jess Heinig
  Jessica Kauspedas
  Surena Pridgeon
  Erik Stant
  Dan Waszkiewicz
  Nick Watts
  Ro Wick
  Ben Woerner
  Ken Long 
  Kelly Th irkhill
  © and TM 2010 by John Wick. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this book 
  may be reproduced without the author’s permission. None of the characters 
  or situations in this book are real except for the Japanese. Th ey’re real. So are 
  the folks who get mentions in this book. Th ose folks rock. Th is game would 
  not be the same without them so they deserve all the credit the author can 
  give.
  Aspects
  From the Fate System
  Fred Hicks and Rob Donoghue
  す
  べ
  て
  の
  人
  妻
  は
  妻
  で
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  す
  べ
  て
  の
  人
  妻
  は
  妻
  で
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  Contents
  BUYER BEWARE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
  CLAN & CHARACTER  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Making a Clan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Th e Mad Daimyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  But I Want to Play a Ronin! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Bigger Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Traditional Meibutsu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Sample Clan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Making a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Sample Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  RISK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  Privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  Contested Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
  Cooperative Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  Cooperative Risk Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
  ASPECTS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
  HONOR AND GLORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
  Cunning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
  Prowess  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
  Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
  Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
  Th e Honor Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  Bonus Dice  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  Adding Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  Adding Honor to the Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
  Losing Honor from the Pool  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
  At the End of the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
  Glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
  Damaging Your Reputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
  
  す
  べ
  て
  の
  人
  妻
  は
  妻
  で
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  VIOLENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
  Duel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
  Historical Accuracy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
  Th e Yowamushi Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
  Firearms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
  Mass Murder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
  MAGIC & RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  Syncretism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  Where are the Shugenja?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
  Shinto  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
  Onmyodo  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
  Buddhism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
  Using Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
  Sidebar: Controversy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
  Miko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
  SEASONS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
  Th e Passage of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
  Season Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
  Provinces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
  Th e Season . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
  Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
  Swords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
  Koku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
  Espionage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
  Local Spies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
  End of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
  Phase to Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
  WAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
  Th e War Rank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
  Escalation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
  War Before 10  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
  Declaring War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
  Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
  Waging War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
  Winning the War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
  
  PLAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
  Bushido . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
  Castes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
  Devil and the Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
  Th e Eastern Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
  Etiquette (Th at Matters) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
  Makoto (Sincerity) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
  Th e Colville Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
  Narrative Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
  Talk to the Narrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
  Failing Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
  Th e Morley-Wick Method of Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
  Women  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
  Musha Shugyo in the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
  Musha Shugyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
  A Final Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
  NARRATOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
  Th e Magician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
  NPCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
  Technique  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
  Films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
  Seven Daimyos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
  If a Singing Bird Didn’t Want to Sing… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
  Ben’s Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
  Using Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
  Apocalyptic Th emes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
  Th e Yakuza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
  Play Dirty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
  SWORD SCHOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
  Th e System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
  す
  べ
  て
  の
  人
  妻
  は
  妻
  で
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  1
  Buyer Beware
  I’m a big fan of samurai. I love the ideas of honor and loyalty and 
  the conﬂ ict of human emotions in extreme conditions. Grace under 
  pressure.
  A long time ago, I designed a game about samurai. You may have 
  heard of it. Th is game is a little diﬀ erent. Th at was a game about 
  fantastic samurai. Th is is a game about samurai tragedy, both historical 
  and fantastical.
  Now, before we go any further, I’ve got to say something right 
  up front. Th is is not a history book. It is also not a reference book. 
  Th ere are plenty of books available to you if you want to know more 
  about Japan. Even some great gaming books. Look at Gurps: Japan, 
  for example. Also, Sengoku. And, of course, if you’re looking for 
  something really fantastic, go check out that Legend of the Five Rings 
  book everybody’s been talking about.
  Th e purpose of this book is to provide rules for playing samurai in 
  Old Japan, not give you a detailed essay on samurai culture, etiquette 
  and history. I am not a historian nor am I an anthropologist. I’m a 
  game designer. I’ll give you a ton of references at the end of this book 
  to learn more about samurai and their world. Th ose sources are a lot 
  more reliable than an amateur like myself.
  Also, I’ve taken a few liberties with “historic” Japan and I ask 
  all you purists for forgiveness. I’ve done so to make the game a bit 
  more accessible to a Western audience—and frankly—to downplay 
  a few of the more ugly aspects of Feudal Japan. I’m not picking on 
  the culture speciﬁ cally: I can demonstrate a whole lot of ugliness in 
  Feudal Europe as well. (And, when given the chance, I did the same 
  thing to Restoration Europe by editing out the uglier aspects of my 
  own ancestors’ history.) Despite my changes, I hope readers ﬁ nd my 
  version of Old Japan retains its authenticity even if it sacriﬁ ces a bit of 
  its historical accuracy.
  Th is is a game about warring Clans. In samurai literature, the 
  heroes are fragile. Always four feet from death. Th ey die to serve the 
  Clan. Every decision a samurai makes is about his Clan. To reﬂ ect 
  that attitude, you’ll ﬁ nd characters in this game are just like their 
  literary counterparts: they are fragile. Don’t get into a ﬁ ght unless you 
  know you can win. Also, the mechanics reﬂ ect the sentiment that the 
  characters are all bit parts in a much larger machine. Identity is almost 
  I n t r o d u c t i o n
  皮
  肉
  二
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  銘
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  し
  ま
  す
  
  2
  smothered by duty. Not entirely—and certainly less than if this was 
  a historical game—but players will ﬁ nd that their characters are truly 
  tiny parts of a larger machine. Your character’s personal identity is far 
  less important than his role in the Clan. Character creation takes a 
  few moments of consideration. Clan creation, on the other hand, is 
  something the entire group should consider carefully.
  Finally, a friendly warning.
  Samurai literature is ﬁ lled with stories of men and women forced 
  to choose between love and duty, duty and honor, honor and honesty. 
  Th ese are the kinds of choices you will ﬁ nd in this game. If you’d 
  rather play a game where your character always makes the right 
  choice, always increases his skills, always comes out smelling like a 
  rose…
  PUT THIS BOOK DOWN 
  RIGHT NOW AND BUY 
  SOMETHING ELSE.
  Don’t say I didn’t warn you. After all, it’s my name on the spine. 
  You should know what you are getting into.
  Hai sensu!
  JW
  皮
  肉
  二
  は
  銘
  記
  し
  ま
  す
  
  3
  Clan & Character
  Like I said in the Introduction, this is a game about warring Clans. 
  Unlike most roleplaying games, in Blood & Honor, your character is 
  less important than his family. In fact, your samurai should always 
  attempt to bury his personal interests and desires under the ﬂ ag of 
  duty.
  Samurai come and go, but Clans remain.
  And so, in Blood & Honor, making a Clan is the primary task of 
  the players. Making individual characters is a secondary step. You 
  still get to play a character—many of them, in fact—but primary 
  consideration should be making a Clan.
  Th ere are two ways to make a Clan:
  C h a p t e r  1
  1. Your group can combine to make 
  a single Clan from which all the 
  characters hail.
  2. Your group can divide into separate 
  Clans, making characters from each.
  Either way you go, the rules are the same.
  If multiple players join the same Clan, 
  they will have more resources to make 
  that Clan more powerful. If players 
  decide to make their own Clans, 
  each individual Clan will be weaker.
  Making a Clan
  Before you make your 
  character, you must ﬁ rst make 
  his Clan. When making a 
  Clan, you provide the basic 
  philosophy and mechanical 
  bonuses available to all 
  members of that Clan.
  • First, who is your Clan 
  Daimyo?
  • Second, what Virtue does your 
  Clan revere?
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  4
  • Th ird, what Holdings does your Clan have at its disposal?
  • Fourth, what Aspects does your Clan have?
  • Fifth, what Meibutsu does your Province boast?
  • Sixth, what is your Clan’s Name and Heraldry?
  • Seventh, what true about your Clan?
  Let’s go through all of those, one at a time.
  Step 1: Choose a Daimyo
  First, you must choose a Daimyo: the Lord of the Clan. 
  Your Daimyo begins as a lesser Daimyo. As he grows in power and 
  strength, his abilities will also grow. Right now, as you start the game, 
  your Daimyo is rank 1. Your Daimyo’s Rank is equal to the number 
  of Provinces he commands. See War for more information on gaining 
  Provinces.
  Pick one of the Daimyos below. Each of the Daimyos has both an 
  Advantage and a Disadvantage.
  Also, the character of your Daimyo greatly inﬂ uences the character 
  of your Clan. An Ambitious Daimyo is known for his ruthless 
  expansion. A Clever Daimyo is known for being an outsider. Each 
  Daimyo has his own eccentricities and beneﬁ ts.
  AMBITIOUS
  While each samurai has at least half his heart devoted to 
  ambition, your Ambitious Daimyo has his entire heart set on 
  it. He is willing to sacriﬁ ce everything and anything to gain 
  more land, more title, more prestige. 
  Th e Advantage of having an Ambitious Daimyo means your 
  Daimyo gains one additional Season Action per Season. 
  Th e Disadvantage of having an Ambitious Daimyo is that his 
  samurai receive the “Ambitious” Aspect, making them less 
  trustworthy. See Aspects for more information.
  CLEVER
  Th e Clever Daimyo makes use of new innovations and does 
  not cling to tradition. 
  Th e Advantage of a Clever Daimyo is all equipment provided 
  to his samurai is considered good quality equipment (see 
  Seasons). 
  Th e Disadvantage of a Clever Daimyo is that he is seen as a 
  non-traditionalist: a high nail that must be hammered down. 
  All of his samurai have the Aspect “Non-Traditionalist” 
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  5
  which may be tagged by other samurai in social situations. 
  See Aspects for more information.
  CRUEL
  Th e Cruel Daimyo does not suﬀ er fools. He is quick to anger 
  and judge but he is feared throughout the lands… as are his 
  samurai. 
  Th e Advantage of having a Cruel Daimyo is that all of his 
  samurai gain 2 bonus dice for any intimidation risks. 
  Th e Disadvantage is that they have the “Cruel” Tag in social 
  situations. See Aspects for more information.
  CUNNING
  Th e Cunning Daimyo has many spies and uses espionage to 
  gain information on his rivals and friends. 
  Th e Advantage of having a Cunning Daimyo is you gain a 
  free espionage action every Season (see Seasons). 
  Th e Disadvantage is that all his samurai have the 
  “Untrustworthy” Tag which may be tagged by other 
  characters. See Aspects for more information.
  DANGEROUS
  Th e Dangerous Daimyo takes risks and rewards samurai who 
  do the same. He is unpredictable, lethal and deadly. 
  Th e Advantage of having a Dangerous Daimyo is you gain 
  two bonus dice whenever taking a risk that may end your life. 
  Th e Disadvantage is the Narrator removes four Honor (rather 
  than three) from the Honor Pool 
  whenever you decline such a risk.
  KIND
  Th e Kind Daimyo treats his peasants 
  fairly. He is known to have a generous 
  heart and takes time when he must 
  make important decisions. 
  Th e Advantage of having a kind 
  Daimyo is you gain two bonus dice in 
  any social situation involving trust. 
  Th e Disadvantage is that all his samurai 
  gain the “Trusting” Tag. See Aspects for 
  more information.
  The Mad Daimyo
  Roll a six-sided die to discover 
  what the Mad Daimyo is this 
  Season.
  1  
  Ambitious
  2 
  Clever
  3 
  Cruel
  4 
  Cunning
  5 
  Dangerous
  6 
  Kind 
  
  6
  MAD
  Th e Mad Daimyo is 
  just that: he’s completely 
  insane. But he’s also so 
  powerful that nobody 
  can do anything about 
  removing him from his 
  throne. 
  Both the Advantage and 
  Disadvantage of having 
  a Mad Daimyo 
  are random: the 
  Narrator rolls a die 
  and determines 
  what kind of 
  Daimyo he will be 
  at the beginning 
  of each Season.
  Step 2: Virtues
  Every Clan reveres 
  one of six Virtues. 
  Your Clan reveres one of 
  these Virtues above all others. Which is 
  it? Again, your choice 
  here will deﬁ ne much of your Clan’s character. Choose one Virtue as 
  your Clan’s favored Virtue.
  BEAUTY
  Beauty is the ability to communicate to others. It may be 
  through poetry or rhetoric or drama or even gardening. 
  Beauty is the most important Virtue because without it, you 
  cannot communicate your ideas to others.
  COURAGE
  Courage is the ability to say “No.” Th e ability to say no to 
  temptation, to fear, to pain, to anything. Courage is the most 
  important Virtue because without it, your character will not 
  be able to refuse any temptation.
  CUNNING
  Cunning is the ability to see the plan within the plan within 
  the plan. Cunning is the most important Virtue because 
  without it, you will not be able to anticipate your enemy’s 
  plans.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  7
  PROWESS
  Prowess is the ability to wield weapons. 
  Prowess is the most important Virtue 
  because without it, you cannot defend 
  yourself against martial attacks.
  STRENGTH
  Strength is all physical actions: lifting, 
  pushing, pulling and even manual 
  dexterity, speed and nimbleness. 
  Strength is the most important Virtue 
  because without it, you cannot swim, 
  climb or jump in dangerous situations.
  WISDOM
  Wisdom is knowing what is true and 
  false in the world. Wisdom is the most 
  important Virtue because without 
  it, you cannot determine facts from 
  falsehoods.
  Step 3: Holdings
  Each Daimyo owns a Province. Within 
  that Province are Holdings that represent his 
  wealth and Vassals who represent his loyal 
  followers.
  Each player who is a part of your Clan 
  may pick one Holding to add to your 
  Daimyo’s lands. You’ll ﬁ nd out how to use 
  these Holdings later in the Seasons chapter. 
  But for your convenience, here is a list of 
  Holdings you may choose from.
  Like everything else, Holdings have 
  ranks. All starting Holdings begin at rank 
  1 and may not be increased except through 
  Season Actions.
  BLACKSMITH
  Men pull iron and other metals from the ground and 
  blacksmiths forge them into deadly weapons. Th e quality of 
  your Clan’s weapons relies on the Blacksmith.
  But I Want to 
  Play a Ronin!
  So… you want to play a 
  wave man, eh? Okay. Here are 
  the rules.
  Make a character. You get 
  no Clan Points. All of your 
  equipment is poor quality. You 
  have no horse, you have no 
  food, you have nothing.
  Oh, and samurai treat 
  you like crap because you’re 
  a coward. You didn’t have the 
  courage to kill yourself when 
  your Daimyo died.
  Playing a ronin is the 
  modern equivalent of playing 
  a homeless person in modern 
  America. Yes, you can get 
  picked up by a Clan as a sword 
  arm, but they’ll put you in 
  the crappiest part of the army 
  and expect you to die quickly. 
  You’ll have to do manual 
  labor for food—remember 
  the samurai cutting wood in 
  Seven Samurai?—and you’ll be 
  scorned wherever you go.
  Th ose are the rules. Have 
  fun with them.
  
  8
  BUDDHIST TEMPLE
  A place for samurai to gain insight and reﬂ ect on the deeper 
  nature of their souls.
  DOJO
  Where your samurai hone their skills in warfare.
  GAMBLING DEN
  Where your samurai lose their money.
  GARRISON 
  A Garrison allows you to hold ashigaru (foot soldiers) in 
  your Province. Each rank of Garrion provides one rank of 
  ashigaru.
  GEISHA HOUSE
  A place of art and beauty.
  RICE FARM
  Where the peasants toil to generate the real keystone of the 
  economy. 
  SAKE WORKS
  Liquid courage. Literally.
  SHINTO SHRINE
  A place to honor your ancestors.
  STABLES
  Where grooms breed and care for horses. 
  Bigger Holdings
  Some players may want to 
  begin the game with a high-
  ranking Holding. If they are 
  all willing to use their Holding 
  slots to increase the rank of 
  a single Holding, I’m not 
  entirely against that. It means 
  their lands will be short of vital 
  resources, but on the other 
  hand, knowingly accepting a 
  limitation is what makes games 
  interesting.
  STONE CUTTER
  To build new Holdings, you will need 
  Stone. Th is is where you get it.
  SUMO SCHOOL
  If you want your samurai to be 
  stronger, get yourself a Sumo School.
  WOODCUTTER
  To build new Holdings, you will need 
  Lumber. Th is is where you get it.
  
  9
  Step 4: Choose Aspects
  Each Clan gains four Aspects that deﬁ ne its character. An Aspect 
  is like a skill, but a bit more broad. It’s more of a cliché—with game 
  mechanics.
  For example, your Clan has the Aspect, None of Us is as Great as 
  All of Us, shown below.
  NONE OF US IS AS GREAT AS ALL OF US
  Invoke: Your Clan is well known for working together. Gain 
  three dice when helping another Clan member accomplish a 
  goal both of you want.
  Compel: You genuinely feel men must work together to 
  accomplish their goals and will do so regardless of the risk to 
  yourself.
  Th is Aspect, as it says, gives your character three bonus dice 
  whenever he takes a risk appropriate to the Aspect. On the other 
  hand, it also has a compel that forces him to act in a way his Clan 
  deems honorable. If, when presented with the opportunity to help 
  another Clanmate, the Narrator adds an Honor Point to the pool. If 
  you ignore the opportunity, you do not gain the Honor Point. More 
  on that in the Aspects chapter.
  Every Clan has four Aspects that deﬁ ne it. Each Clan has one 
  Aspect in common: the sample Aspect above. In other words, every 
  Clan has the None of Us… Aspect. You may choose three more from 
  the list below that further deﬁ ne the character of your Clan.
  Go ahead and pick three more Aspects that deﬁ ne your Clan. When 
  you make a samurai from this Clan, you choose two of those Aspects 
  for your samurai.
  A MERRY COMPANION IS AS GOOD AS A HORSE
  Invoke: Your Clan is known for the wit of its samurai. Gain 
  three bonus dice when using humor in a delicate situation.
  Compel: Sometimes, the fool forgets that he is only a fool. 
  You forget your place from time to time and cause situations 
  that would not have occurred if you kept your mouth shut.
  ALL MARRIED WOMEN ARE NOT WIVES
  Invoke: Th e women of your Clan are beautiful, cunning and 
  deadly. Th e men are dashing, dangerous and sly. Gain three 
  dice for any seduction risk (whether your character is male or 
  female).
  Compel: A charmer is always lured by charms. You often 
  succumb to likewise advances.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  10
  THE BEST SWORD STAYS IN THE SCABBARD
  Invoke: Th ere is the life-giving sword and the death-giving 
  sword. A swordsman reaches a point when the threat of 
  violence is enough to maintain peace. Gain three dice when 
  intimidating others with the threat of violence.
  Compel: You truly believe in peace and harmony. You will 
  only draw your weapon if another samurai draws his ﬁ rst.
  THE DEER HUNTER PAYS NO MIND TO THE HARES
  Invoke: Th is Aspect gives three bonus dice for risks involving 
  hunting and surviving in the wilderness.
  Compel: Th e samurai of your Clan are known for being very 
  clever hunters but not well educated in the delicacies of the 
  court.
  DIG TWO GRAVES
  Invoke: When preparing for revenge, always dig two graves. 
  Your Clan’s samurai are well-known for 
  being ruthless when it comes to 
  matters of revenge. Gain three 
  bonus dice whenever you are directly 
  confronting an issue of revenge.
  Compel: Unfortunately, 
  your samurai are also rather 
  hot-blooded and rush to 
  judgment, seldom listening 
  to reason when oﬀ ended.
  EVEN A THIEF MUST 
  LEARN HIS TRADE
  Invoke: Your 
  Clan’s samurai are 
  knowledgeable 
  in crafts such as 
  blacksmithing, 
  weaving, etc. Gain 
  three dice for risks 
  involving craftsmanship.
  Compel: Your Clan 
  is also known for 
  its fair treatment of 
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  11
  the peasantry and merchant class. You show them compassion 
  and good will.
  FIRST THE MAN TAKES A DRINK
  Invoke: … then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes 
  the man. Your Clan is well-known for its excessive samurai. 
  Gain three dice on any risk when drunk.
  Compel: A drunken man will say anything, do anything. Be 
  careful. Drunkenness is not always forgiven…
  FOG CANNOT BE DISPELLED BY A FAN
  Invoke: Your Clan is exceptionally good at deceiving others. 
  Gain three dice whenever trying to lie.
  Compel: Lying is just like any other source of power: 
  incredibly addictive. You must lie when given the 
  opportunity.
  IF MY DOG KNEW MY PLANS
  Invoke: … he’d be dead, too. Your Clan is incredibly good at 
  discovering and keeping secrets. Gain three dice for any risk 
  obtaining or keeping secrets.
  Compel: You love secrets and you tend to go out of your way 
  to discover them.
  IF ONE MAN PRAISES YOU
  Invoke: … a thousand will repeat his praise. Your Clan’s 
  samurai know exactly how to get attention. Gain three dice 
  for any act in front of a crowd that will bring honor and glory 
  to your Clan.
  Compel: You are a glory hound. You can’t shut up about 
  yourself and you must always be in the spotlight.
  LAUGHTER IS THE FOOL’S HICCUP
  Invoke: Your samurai are deadly serious. All. Th e. Time. 
  Gain three bonus dice to resist any attempt to change your 
  mind once you’ve made it up.
  Compel: You have no sense of beauty. You cannot appreciate 
  poetry or painting or theater or any of the arts.
  Compel: You are rude, brutish and don’t care about etiquette.
  ONE WORD CAN WARM THE WINTER
  Invoke: Your Clan is known for its eloquence. Gain three 
  dice when making speeches or performing.
  Compel: You tend to speak when not spoken to.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  12
  TEN MEN, TEN COLORS
  Invoke: Your Clan understands the need for compassion. 
  When you try to convince another you sympathize with their 
  cause, gain 3 dice.
  Compel: You truly believe in compassion and will sympathize 
  with those in true need.
  THE MOUNTAIN NEVER FALLS
  Invoke: Gain three bonus dice when resisting physical pain 
  or arduous circumstances.
  Compel: You are rude, brutish and don’t care about etiquette.
  NAIL AND HAMMER
  Invoke: “Th e nail that sticks up tallest is the ﬁ rst to be 
  hammered down.” Your Clan knows the proper procedure 
  and etiquette for everything. Gain three bonus dice for any 
  risks involving manners.
  Compel: You must do things the right way. Doing otherwise 
  is disgraceful and dishonorable.
  WAITING FOR LUCK IS WAITING FOR DEATH
  Invoke: Your Clan’s samurai do not hesitate. Gain three 
  bonus dice for any risk that is impetuous, impertinent and 
  spontaneous.
  Compel: You must act without thinking, jump into the 
  situation without knowledge and otherwise throw yourself 
  into danger.
  Step 5: Meibutsu (A Little Th ing)
  Each province in Old Japan boasts the best… something. Th e best 
  sake, the best kimonos, the best katana, the best something. People 
  travel from province to province to pick up meibutsu: the pride of the 
  Province.
  Your province is known for a particular item. Nowhere else in Old 
  Japan can anyone ﬁ nd better. What is that one item your province 
  makes better than any other?
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  13
  Nagoya: Kishimen, Tebasaki, Miso 
  foods
  Aomori Prefecture: Apples
  Chiba Prefecture: Peanuts
  Ehime Prefecture: Mikan, Iyokan
  Matsuyama: Tart, Botchan dango
  Fukui Prefecture: Crab
  FUKUOKA PREFECTURE
  Hakata: Motsunabe, Mentaiko, 
  Torimon
  Gifu Prefecture: Cormorant Fishing
  Hiroshima: Okonomiyaki
  Hokkaidō: Crab, Ikura (Roe), Sea 
  urchin
  HYŌGO PREFECTURE
  Kobe: Kobe Fugetsudo (Gaufre)
  Kagawa: Sanuki udon
  KYOTO PREFECTURE
  Kyoto: Yatsuhashi, Kiyomizuyaki 
  ceramics.
  Nishijin: textiles
  Uji: Green tea
  KYŪSHŪ
  Arita, Imari: pottery, ceramics
  Nagano Prefecture: Shinshu Soba
  Nagasaki Prefecture: Champon, 
  Kakuni
  Niigata: Rice
  Okayama: Kibi dango, muscat 
  grape, white peach
  Okinawa: Awamori, Chanpurū
  Osaka: Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki
  SAGA PREFECTURE
  Arita: Arita (porcelain)
  Shizuoka: Green tea
  Tottori: Pears, Crab
  Yamagata: Cherries
  Shimonoseki: fugu
  Yamanashi: Grapes
  Traditional Meibutsu
  Step 6: Name and Heraldry
  Finally, choose a name for your Clan and your Clan’s heraldry. It’s 
  important to pick a Name that means something. If your Clan Name’s 
  meaning is appropriate to a risk, you gain bonus dice for that risk.
  Step 7: Truths
  Finally, each player gets to say one thing true about the Clan. You 
  can say whatever you like as long as it doesn’t contradict an already 
  established truth. You could say that the Daimyo’s wife is unfaithful 
  or that the people of the province are well-known for their integrity. 
  You could say that the sensei at the dojo is blind, that the geisha in 
  the nearest city are generous with their favors or that a wandering 
  ronin avenges wrongdoings perpetrated on the peasants. You could 
  
  14
  say that ghostly spiders haunt a local forest or that a wise old man 
  lives on a nearby mountain and gives out advice to the worthy. Say 
  whatever you like about the province. It’s true.
  Finished!
  And that’s it. Th at’s everything you need to know to make a Clan. 
  Th e next step, of course is making samurai. Th at’s a whole lot easier.
  Sample Clan
  I have ﬁ ve players making a Clan. Th ey talk about each step and 
  come up with the following choices.
  Step 1: Daimyo
  Our players decide they want a Clever Daimyo. Th ey like being 
  on the cutting edge of things and also like the drawback of being seen 
  as outsiders.
  Step 2: Virtues
  Our players decide that Cunning compliments their Daimyo’s 
  nature. All samurai made from this Clan gain a +1 to Cunning.
  
  15
  Step 3: Holdings
  Looking at the list of Holdings, our ﬁ ve players pick ﬁ ve Holdings 
  they feel add to their Clan’s character. Th is is what they picked:
  Nick wants a Geisha House. He plans on being the Daimyo’s Spy 
  Master (see below), so he wants a place where he can pick up rumors.
  Ro wants a Gambling Den. She feels this will add to the Clan’s 
  wealth because she always rolls lucky.
  Ken wants a Dojo. He plans on being the Daimyo’s Assassin and 
  wants a place to hone his sword skills.
  Kelly picks a Rice Farm. She knows the Clan needs a steady source 
  of income just in case Ro doesn’t roll well.
  Jessica chooses a Sake Works. Courage is an important component 
  of being a samurai and she wants to make sure her samurai always has 
  courage… even if it comes in a bottle.
  Step 4: Aspects
  Every Clan begins with the Aspect None of Us are as Great as All of 
  Us. Our players pick three more Aspects for their samurai to choose 
  from.
  One Word Can Warm the Winter
  If My Dog Knew My Plans
  Fog Cannot be Dispelled by a Fan
  Step 5: Meibutsu
  After a long discussion, the players decide they like the idea of 
  having green tea as their meibutsu. 
  Step 6: Clan Name and Heraldry
  Our players choose the Clan Name “Hashiba.” Roughly, it means 
  “gentlemen.” (I’m often very tolerant of... let’s call them “creative” use 
  of Japanese names. If you want to be more correct about these things, 
  feel free.) 
  Step 7: Truths
  We have ﬁ ve players so each gets to say one thing that’s true about 
  the Province.
  Nick says, “Many of our spies are geisha.”
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  16
  Ro says, “We have many rivers that we use to trade with other 
  provinces.”
  Ken says, “Our samurai are known to be bad asses.”
  Kelly says, “Our Daimyo’s wife is unfaithful.”
  Jessica says, “We have issues with seasonal bandits.”
  Making a Character
  Once you’ve made a Clan, it’s time to make a character. Take it 
  step by step.
  • Step 1: Choose a Name
  • Step 2: Choose a Duty
  • Step 3: Choose Virtues
  • Step 4: Choose Aspects
  • Step 5: Honor & Glory
  • Step 6: Choose an Advantage
  Step 1: Choose a Name
  Your character’s name is important: it adds one die to all 
  appropriate risks. Pick a name and then, pick the name’s meaning. If 
  the meaning is appropriate to a risk, add one die to that risk.
  Step 2: Choose Giri (Duty)
  Now determine your position in the Daimyo’s court. Th is is 
  called giri, or “duty” or “obligation.” Th is is the role you fulﬁ ll 
  for the Daimyo. Th ere can be more than one court oﬃ  cer per 
  court. In other words, a Daimyo may have two yojimbo or 
  hatamoto if he chooses. Your Giri provides three advantages.
  • Your duty gives you three bonus dice for any risks involving 
  your duty to the Daimyo. In other words, if you are the 
  Daimyo’s yojimbo (bodyguard) and you are protecting him from 
  assassination, you gain three bonus dice for that risk.
  • You also gain an Ability you can use during the game. Read 
  your Giri’s speciﬁ c Ability for details.
  • Finally, you gain a speciﬁ c Beneﬁ t during in the game. Th is will 
  usually manifest as an “in-game” beneﬁ t for your character and 
  not a mechanic.
  HATAMOTO (GENERAL)
  You are the master of the Daimyo’s armies. Without you, the 
  Daimyo’s forces have no leader and cannot adequately protect his 
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  17
  lands. You gain three bonus dice when leading other samurai or 
  inspiring them to work together.
  Ability: You may take an action to survey the circumstances 
  of a scene. Make a Cunning + Giri risk. If you gain privilege, 
  every samurai on your side gains one die due to the 
  advantages you found. Any wager increases the number of 
  dice by one per wager.
  Beneﬁ t: You may keep a number of Ashigaru (foot soldiers) 
  equal to your Giri Rank. Your Ashigaru require no koku 
  payments and are always loyal to you, regardless of any 
  other mechanics. Th ese are your men and they will do as you 
  command. No one can spend wagers or use risks to make 
  them betray you. See Violence and War for more information.
  KARO (SENESCHAL)
  You maintain the Daimyo’s lands, ﬁ nances and castle. Without 
  you, nothing happens.
  Ability: Because you are the Daimyo’s right-hand man, you 
  have his authority. Th e Courtier may be the voice of the 
  Daimyo, but when he isn’t around, you are the one in charge. 
  Your Social Rank is considered “Daimyo” when the Daimyo 
  is not present. You may add a number of bonus dice to any 
  social situation equal to your Giri Rank or the Daimyo’s 
  Rank, whichever is greater.
  Beneﬁ t: You have an enterage of Staﬀ  equal to your Giri that 
  accompanies you wherever you go. Your Staﬀ  includes various 
  servants who run errands for you, carry messages and perform 
  other less digniﬁ ed duties. 
  KAISHAKU (EXECUTIONER)
  You are the Daimyo’s personal sword. When he wants someone 
  killed, he turns to you. 
  Ability: You carry the Clan’s Sword. Because of that, the 
  Sword has a number of abilities equal to your Giri Rank. See 
  Swords for more information.
  Beneﬁ t: Your reputation as the Executioner proceds you. 
  If you are ever in an antagonistic position toward another 
  character, that character must set aside a number of dice from 
  any risk against you equal to your Giri Rank. 
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  18
  ONIWABAN (SPY MASTER)
  You are the Daimyo’s master spy. You direct his espionage 
  actions and keep others from gathering 
  information about the Daimyo’s 
  strategies.
  Ability: You have a Spy Network: 
  a number of agents who gather 
  information for you. Your 
  agents give you a 
  number of facts on 
  characters you meet, 
  and each game, you 
  may state a number 
  of “truths” about 
  NPCs equal to your 
  Giri Rank. (If you have 
  a rank 3 Giri, you get to 
  say a total of three things 
  each game; not thre things 
  about each NPC.) You 
  may not use this ability 
  on other player character 
  samurai.
  Beneﬁ t: Your agents 
  allow you overhear 
  or see any 
  discussion or 
  event during the 
  game that you are 
  not present for. You may do this a number of times equal to 
  your Giri Rank.
  ONMYŌJI (SPIRITUAL ADVISOR)
  You are the Daimyo’s spiritual advisor. You do not have the 
  martial skills of a yojimbo or the tactical and strategic mind 
  of the general, but you do have a unique understanding of the 
  cosmic powers that guide the world along its path.
  Ability: At the beginning of each game session, you may 
  make a prediction about a risk that may happen during the 
  game session (based on the astrological charts and other 
  omens and signs). You may be as vague or speciﬁ c as you like. 
  If your prediction occurs, any samurai who participate in that 
  risk gain a number of dice equal to your Giri Rank.
  
  19
  Beneﬁ t: You may give your Daimyo’s Oﬃ  cers a number of 
  Blessings each Season equal to your Giri Rank. See Magic & 
  Religion for more information.
  TAKUMI (COURTIER)
  You are the Daimyo’s private artisan and personal cultural 
  advisor. You ensure that the Daimyo’s court is elegant and 
  reﬁ ned, and you create poems, plays, and works of art to 
  commemorate grand events and the history of your Daimyo and 
  his family.
  Ability: As your Daimyo’s courtier, you may redact, alter, 
  edit, reinterpret or change anything said by any samurai to 
  make it sound more appropriate to the current situation. You 
  may do this a number of times per game session equal to your 
  Duty Rank.
  Beneﬁ t: Every game session, your contacts within the court 
  gain you a number of favors equal to your Giri Rank. A favor 
  represents a boon some other character owes you that must be 
  returned by the end of the game.
  YOJIMBO (BODYGUARD)
  You are the Daimyo’s personal protector. You never leave his side. 
  If any harm comes to him and you are still alive, you will be 
  expected to answer for your shame with your own life.
  Ability: You may take an Injury for any other samurai from 
  your Clan, saving them from that Injury. Reduce the rank of 
  that Injury by a number of ranks equal to your Giri Rank.
  Beneﬁ t: You have a number of Guardsmen with you at all 
  times. You have a number of ranks of Guardsmen equal to 
  your Giri Rank. Th ese men cannot be bribed or bought away 
  from you; these are your men and will serve you to the death. 
  See Violence and War for more information.
  Step 3: Choose Virtues
  You must now assign ranks to the Virtues. Th ere are six Virtues, 
  but unfortunately, you only get ﬁ ve of them. Th e sixth is your 
  weakness. You will have no ranks in that Virtue. Not now, not ever. 
  Well, that’s not completely true. But not now, for sure. And not in the 
  near future.
  Assign these ranks to your Virtues:
  • One Virtue at rank 4.
  • Two Virtues at rank 3.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  20
  • Two Virtues at rank 2.
  • One Virtue as a weakness (write “W”).
  Having a weakness means you have no dice for that particular 
  Virtue. You must ﬁ nd dice elsewhere (in Aspects, Duty, etc.). Having 
  a weakness does not mean you never roll dice for a particular kind of 
  risk, it means that Virtue gives you no dice.
  For example, riding a horse is a Strength risk. My samurai has 
  Strength as a weakness, so if he must make a Strength risk for riding a 
  horse, he gains no dice from his Strength Virtue. However, he has the 
  “Born in the Saddle” Aspect, giving him three dice for riding a horse. 
  He still doesn’t get any dice for Strength, but his Aspect gives him 
  three dice.
  Step 4: Choose Aspects
  You now choose two of the four Aspects your Clan has chosen to 
  deﬁ ne its samurai. Every samurai receives the None of Us… Aspect for 
  free, so you may choose two Aspects in addition to None of Us is as 
  Great as All of Us.
  As a side note, I should mention that the reason None of Us… 
  became a default Aspect was because every playtest group chose that 
  Aspect as one of its Clan’s Aspects. Also, 75% of the samurai created 
  with this system choose None of Us… as one of their Aspects. So, I 
  just made it the default Aspect.
  If you like, you can ditch the rule about None of Us… being the 
  default Aspect and make it a choice rather than a mandate. You paid 
  for the game, after all. You can do with it what you want.
  Step 5: Honor & Glory
  Your character begins with two ranks of Honor. Th is gives you two 
  Honor Points for the Honor Pool. See more about Honor Points in 
  the Risks section.
  Your character begins with one rank of Glory. He is a lesser-
  known samurai without a reputation. Because you have one Glory 
  Rank, you may write a single word of phrase on the line next to your 
  Glory rank. Th is word or phrase represents your reputation. It could 
  be “great sword ﬁ ghter” or “wise judgment” or “rash and impulsive.” 
  Whatever you like.
  Step 6: Advantages
  You may have one Advantage. Pick from the list below.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
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  国
  の
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  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  21
  ANCIENT SWORD
  You are in possession of an ancient weapon handed down 
  from family member to family member… or perhaps 
  you stole it. Regardless, it is yours. See Violence for more 
  information on ancient weapons.
  ARCHER’S EYE
  When using a bow, you do the same damage as a katana. 
  Unfortunately, when you use a katana, treat it as a normal 
  weapon. See Violence for more information.
  BLESSED VIRTUE
  If you have a Virtue at rank 5, you may increase it to rank 6 if 
  you lower another Virtue by a single rank.
  BLOOD OATH
  Your character has made a blood oath. He has vowed to 
  accomplish some important task. Your character 
  will not die until he reaches his goal. Literally. I 
  mean, your character cannot die until he gains 
  the opportunity to accomplish that task. But 
  your character will die if he accomplishes 
  the goal or if he fails. Th e goal cannot 
  be trivial; it must be something… epic. 
  Th ere is no guarantee your character will 
  succeed, but he won’t die until he gets 
  the opportunity.
  BONUS ASPECT
  Your character has a bonus 
  Aspect, something that 
  distinguishes him from the 
  other samurai. You may 
  choose an Aspect from the 
  Clan Aspect list or create 
  your own (with the Narrator’s approval).
  BORN TO THE BLADE
  Your character always gains a free wager 
  on all Prowess risks.
  DAIMYO’S FAVOR
  For reasons known only to you and 
  the Daimyo, you have the Clan 
  Lord’s favor. At the end of each 
  Season, you always get a Season 
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  せ
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  22
  Action. Th is is in addition to any other Season Actions the 
  Daimyo may have.
  FAST HEALER
  You heal faster than other samurai. At the end of the day, 
  you always heal one Injury rank, regardless of your current 
  condition.
  INSIGHT
  You were born to perform your duty for the Daimyo. All your 
  life has lead to the moment when you could serve. You begin 
  the game with a Giri Rank of 2 rather than 1.
  IRREPROACHABLE
  You are renown for your sense of honor and ﬁ delity. Any 
  action you take must be for the greater glory of the Daimyo. 
  One per game session, you may negate one Honor loss.
  LARGE
  Your character always gains a free wager on any Strength 
  risks.
  LUCKY
  Th ree times per game, while taking a risk, you may re-roll a 
  single die that rolls a 1.
  OUTSIDER
  You gain a +1 to a Virtue other than your Clan’s revered 
  Virtue.
  PERCEPTIVE
  Your character always gains a free wager on all Cunning risks.
  PERSONAL ANCESTOR
  You have an Ancestor who looks after you. Your Ancestor has 
  one Blessing that you may call upon once per Season.
  QUICK
  You move with the speed of ﬂ owing water. Gain two bonus 
  dice for any risk involving speed.
  STYLISH
  Your character always gains a free wager on all Beauty risks.
  TRUE BEAUTY
  While most characters are either dramatically handsome or 
  dramatically ugly, your character’s beauty outshines almost all 
  others. Gain two dice whenever speaking to a character who 
  is sexually attracted to you.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  23
  UNSHAKABLE
  Your character always gains 
  a free wager on all Courage 
  risks.
  VISIONS
  You don’t know why, but 
  for some reason, you receive 
  vague and cryptic visions. 
  At random moments 
  (once per game session), 
  your character falls to the 
  ground, helplessly and 
  violently shaking. When 
  he recovers, he may say 
  one thing is true about a 
  future event (like spending 
  a wager—see Risk for more 
  information).
  WAY OF THE LAND
  You always know the correct 
  direction to get to your 
  destination. You know how 
  to get anywhere. You never 
  need to take any kind of risk for navigation.
  WELL-SCHOOLED
  Your character always gains a free wager on any Wisdom 
  risks.
  Sample Character
  I built this character to ﬁ t with the Clan the other players 
  designed above. Follow along!
  Step 1: Choose a Name
  My samurai’s name will be Hayate. It means “smooth.” I’m taking 
  a more fanciful deﬁ nition for Hayate’s name. Whenever he’s trying to 
  talk his way out of trouble, he gets a bonus die.
  
  24
  Step 2: Choose a Duty
  For a Giri, I chose Hayate to be the Takumi (Courtier). His job is 
  to speak for the Daimyo and avoid political diﬃ  culties.
  Step 3: Choose Virtues
  Hayate’s Clan gives him +1 to Cunning. I have a 4, 3, 3, 2, and 2 
  to place in my Virtues. Th is is how it works out:
  Beauty: 4
  Courage: 2
  Cunning: 3 (+1)
  Prowess: W
  Strength: 2
  Wisdom: 3
  Step 4: Choose Aspects
  From the three Aspects (plus the free Aspect, None of Us is as Great 
  as All of Us), I get to choose two. Here are the ones I choose:
  One Word Can Warm the Winter, and
  Fog Cannot be Dispelled by a Fan
  Step 5: Honor & Glory
  All Samurai add two Honor Points to the pool. I’m no exception.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  25
  As for Glory, I choose one Reputation for Hayate. I choose 
  “Clever Negotiator.” Whenever I am in a negotiation, I get a bonus 
  die. As my reputation increases (through Glory Points), I will be able 
  to increase my Reputation’s rank and thus get more dice for any risks 
  involving negotiations.
  Step 6: Choose an Advantage
  I get to choose one Advantage. I’ll choose Irreproachable. Th at way, 
  if I ever take an action that loses the Clan Honor, I can negate that 
  Honor loss. I can only do that once per game session.
  米
  国
  の
  い
  ず
  れ
  も
  米
  国
  の
  す
  べ
  て
  ほ
  ど
  大
  き
  く
  は
  あ
  り
  ま
  せ
  ん
  。
  
  26
  
  27
  Risk
  In this chapter, we discuss all the rules for resolving risks in the 
  game. 
  A risk is a meaningful action taken by a character whose 
  outcome may inﬂ uence the plot and/or other characters.
  If it isn’t meaningful, it probably isn’t a risk. If it doesn’t aﬀ ect 
  any characters, it probably isn’t a risk. If it doesn’t aﬀ ect the plot, it 
  probably isn’t a risk.
  If a player wants to undertake an action and it doesn’t qualify as a 
  risk, the player gets to narrate the outcome of the action.
  If a player wants to undertake a risk, then the narration rights of 
  that action are at stake. In other words, if the player rolls well enough, 
  he can narrate the outcome of his action. If he does not, then the 
  Narrator does.
  Privilege
  Rolling dice in Blood & Honor is not about success and failure. 
  Instead, it is about who gets to say what happens.
  When you want your character to take a risk, you roll a bunch of 
  six-sided dice. If the sum of the dice is equal to or greater than ten, 
  you gain privilege. Th is means you get to say what happens.
  If the sum of the dice is nine or less, the Narrator gets privilege. 
  Th is means the Narrator gets to say what happens.
  I’ll say that again.
  If you beat the target number, you get to determine how your 
  character succeeds or fails. If you don’t, the Narrator gets to say how 
  your character succeeds or fails.
  Target Number
  Th e target number for almost all risks is ten. 
  Th at number never goes up or down. Ten.
  Getting Dice
  You get dice from the following sources:
  C h a p t e r  3
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  28
  VIRTUE
  If a Virtue is appropriate to the risk, you get a number of dice 
  equal to the Virtue’s rank. You may only invoke one Virtue 
  per risk; you cannot gain dice from more than one Virtue for 
  a risk.
  NAME
  If your samurai’s family name is appropriate to the risk, you 
  gain two dice.
  If your samurai’s personal name is appropriate to the risk, 
  you gain one die.
  ASPECT
  If you have an Aspect that is appropriate to the risk, you gain 
  three dice. You may only invoke one Aspect per risk; you 
  cannot gain dice from more than one Aspect for a risk.
  OTHERS
  As you read through the book, you will ﬁ nd other sources of 
  dice.
  Simple Risk
  A simple risk usually involves a 
  single character. A samurai trying 
  to remember details. A samurai 
  trying to lift something 
  heavy. A samurai 
  climbing a wall. All of 
  these are good examples 
  of simple risks.
  All you have to do is 
  roll a number of dice and 
  beat a ten. If you can 
  do that, you get 
  to say how your 
  samurai succeeds or 
  fails. If you roll nine 
  or 
  less, the Narrator says how your 
  samurai succeeds or fails.
  SIMPLE RISK EXAMPLE
  My character, Obu Tsubaki, 
  has been called by his 
  Daimyo to perform a task. 
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  て
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  29
  One of the Daimyo’s favorite concubines has been murdered and 
  Tsubaki’s reputation for having an eye for details is well-known in 
  the court. My Daimyo has asked me to look at the murder scene to 
  determine if I can ﬁ nd anything important.
  Tsubaki enters the room and wants to ﬁ nd clues. Th at’s my intent. 
  Th e Narrator tells me, “Th at’s a Cunning risk.”
  I look at my character sheet. 
  Tsubaki has a 4 Cunning. Th at gives me four dice.
  Tsubaki also has the Aspect, “Investigator’s Wits.” Th e Narrator 
  agrees that’s an appropriate Aspect. Because appropriate Aspects give a 
  player three dice for a risk, I get three more dice. I now have a total of 
  seven dice.
  I make the roll: 6, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1. Well over ten. I gain privilege.
  I tell the Narrator, “I ﬁ nd a clue. A dab of poison on the girl’s 
  lips.”
  Wagers
  As you are about to undertake a risk, you may notice that you 
  have more dice than you need for rolling a ten. If that’s the case, you’ll 
  want to make some wagers.
  Wagers are the real backbone of the system. Th ey make the game 
  fun.
  Usually, when your character succeeds, he has one rank of Eﬀ ect, 
  or 1 Eﬀ ect. But there is a way of increasing the Eﬀ ect of your success. 
  We do this through wagers.
  Consider. About to roll for a risk, you look at your pool. You can 
  easily beat the risk. You’ve got seven dice. Using four is a safe bet. Five 
  is an almost guarantee. So, what do you do with those extra dice? You 
  wager them. Set those extras aside and roll the rest.
  Setting dice aside before your roll is called “wagering dice.” A 
  wagered die does not get rolled with your other dice. If you beat the 
  risk, each wagered die adds to the Eﬀ ect of your success. Each die 
  adds one Eﬀ ect.
  If you make a wager, you get bonus eﬀ ect. Bonus eﬀ ect usually 
  leads to more Honor Points, but it can also be used to take narrative 
  control of a scene and provide additional details.
  Yes, this means the players tell the Narrator what’s happening in 
  the scene. Wagers give everyone the opportunity to be the Narrator, to 
  be in charge, to add to the collective narrative.
  運
  を
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  と
  、
  死
  は
  待
  っ
  て
  い
  ま
  す
  。
  
  30
  WAGERS EXAMPLE
  Let’s expand on the example above: my character, Obu Tsubaki, is 
  investigating the murder of his Daimyo’s favorite concubine.
  I still have a 4 Cunning and the “Investigator’s Wits” Aspect giving 
  me seven dice to roll. Because I really only need four dice to make 
  ten, I set aside three of my seven dice to make three wagers.
  I make my roll: 6, 4, 4, 1. I easily beat a ten. Th at gives me 
  privilege. 
  Because I have privilege, I say, “I ﬁ nd a dab of poison on her lips.”
  My three wagers allow me to say three more things Tsubaki ﬁ nds. 
  I tell them to the Narrator.
  First wager: “I also ﬁ nd a similar dab of poison in some rice spilled 
  on the ﬂ oor.”
  Second wager: “Th e lock to the window is in perfect condition.”
  Th ird wager: “But the window is open.”
  ANOTHER WAGERS EXAMPLE
  I want to know more about the Daimyo’s concubine. I ask the 
  Narrator what I know about her. He says, “You tell me. Make a 
  Wisdom risk.”
  I have a 3 Wisdom. Th at gives me three dice.
  I also have the Aspect, “Courtier,” which means I know about the 
  ins and outs of the court. Th e Narrator agrees this is an appropriate 
  Aspect, but I can only use it to learn things I would know from being 
  a courtier.
  I have six dice. I make two wagers.
  My roll: 4, 3, 3, 2. I make ten and get my intent.
  Th e ﬁ rst thing I know (because I get my intent) is that she was 
  stolen booty from another province that my Daimyo conquered.
  My ﬁ rst wager: “And she was the rival Daimyo’s second daughter.”
  Second wager: “And she was never happy here.”
  Th e Wager Golden Rules
  You cannot use a wager to contradict a previously established 
  element of the scene. You cannot use a wager to say, “No.” You can 
  only use wagers to say “Yes, and…” or “Yes, but…” You cannot 
  simply negate another person’s wager. Wagers are used to add elements 
  to a scene or to deﬁ ne undeﬁ ned elements of a scene. You’ll see how 
  they work in the samples below.
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  、
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  31
  You cannot use a wager to get a free risk. Any action that would 
  require a risk cannot be accomplished with a wager. Th at requires an 
  additional risk.
  Free Wagers
  Every once in a while, you will receive a free wager. Th is is a wager 
  the Narrator gives you because of circumstance, a mechanical bonus 
  or some other reason.
  Free wagers are just that: they are free. Th ey don’t come from your 
  die pool. You can’t add them back into your die pool, either. Also, if 
  you roll 9 or less, you lose all wagers, even the free ones.
  Contested Risks
  A contested risk occurs when two characters want the same 
  thing—even if they are working together. Both players roll 
  simultaneously and the player who rolls higher is the victor. Th e 
  player who rolls lower is the defeated.
  Step 1: Declaring Dice
  Both players announce how many dice they can roll for the risk.
  Step 2: Hidden Wagers
  Each player then secretly makes wagers and reveals their wagers at 
  the same time.
  Step 3: Determine Privilege
  Th e players roll. Th e player who rolls highest is the victor and 
  has privilege. Any and all other players involved in the risk are the 
  defeated and do not have privilege.
  Th e Victor & Defeated
  Th e victor has privilege and may describe the outcome of the risk.
  Th e victor also gets to keep all his wagers.
  Th e victor also gets to say who spends his wager ﬁ rst (himself or 
  another player).
  Th e defeated does not have privilege.
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  32
  Th e defeated also only keeps half his wagers, rounded up 
  (minimum of one).
  Spending Wagers
  Th e victor decides who spends their ﬁ rst wager (he can include 
  himself). Th en, spending wagers goes around the table clockwise until 
  everyone has spent a wager.
  If you like, you can choose to pass when it comes your turn to 
  use a wager. Th is allows you to hear more of what’s going on but also 
  
  33
  loses you the opportunity to spend your wager ﬁ rst and set precedent. 
  Remember: wagers cannot say “No.” A wager can only say “Yes, 
  and…” or “Yes, but…” or some other positive modiﬁ er.
  Less Th an 10
  If any player in a contested risk rolls less than ten, he gets nothing. 
  He gets no wagers, no privilege, no nothing. Don’t throw all your dice 
  away on wagers expecting to keep half of them even if you lose. If you 
  don’t roll at least a ten, you get nothing.
  Example Contested Risk
  My character, Obu Tsubaki, is questioning another character 
  about his whereabouts during the murder of the concubine. After 
  intense questioning (roleplaying), I want to know if the character, 
  Tonuba Asukai, is telling the truth. Asukai wants me to believe him. 
  Th is calls for a contested risk.
  For Tsubaki, I have to roll Cunning (determining truth from lies) 
  plus my Investigator Aspect. Th at gives me seven dice.
  Asukai has to make a Beauty risk (communicating, be it truth or 
  lies). Asukai’s Beauty is three. He also has the Aspect, “Honest Eyes,” 
  giving him three more dice. Th at gives him a total of six dice.
  I tell Asukai’s player I have seven dice and Asukai’s player tells me 
  he has six dice.
  We both make our wagers in secret. We put our hands under the 
  table and put our wagers in our right hand and our dice in our left 
  hand (whichever you prefer). At the same time, we reveal our wagers 
  and put them on the table. I made three wagers and Asukai’s player 
  made only one.
  Now, it’s time to roll. Whoever rolls higher gets privilege.
  My roll: 4+3+2+1=10. A typical John roll.
  His roll: 5+4+4+3+2=18. Asukai’s player is the victor and I am the 
  defeated.
  Asukai’s player gets to determine the outcome of our risk. He also 
  keeps all of his wagers. In this case, he made only one wager. 
  Because I am defeated, I only keep half my wagers, rounded up. 
  Since I made three wagers, I get to keep two of them. (3 divided by 2 
  = 1.5. Rounded up, that’s 2.)
  Asukai’s player says, “You believe me.” Th en, he declares that he 
  can spend his ﬁ rst wager. He does: “And, you also suspect someone 
  else.”
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  と
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  待
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  ま
  す
  。
  
  34
  Now, it is my turn to use a wager. I say, “Yes, but there is a hole in 
  your story I have not noticed yet.”
  Asukai’s player has no more wagers, so I get to spend my last one. 
  I consider carefully how to do so…
  Cooperative Risks
  If two or more samurai are working toward the same goal, they 
  can make a cooperative risk. Th is kind of risk allows everyone to assist 
  (and add details) in some way.
  Step 1: Gather Dice
  All players announce how they are gathering dice and then 
  announce how many dice they have.
  Step 2: Announce 
  Wagers
  All players then announce 
  how many wagers they are going 
  to make.
  Step 3: Privilege
  Everyone rolls. Every player 
  who rolls ten or higher gains 
  privilege. Th at is, every player 
  who rolls ten or higher gets to 
  say one thing true about the 
  outcome of the risk. 
  Th e player who rolled 
  highest keeps all his wagers. 
  Players who do not roll highest 
  only keep half their wagers, 
  rounded up.
  Th e player who rolled 
  highest gets the ﬁ rst opportunity 
  to say what happened at the 
  end of the risk. He then chooses 
  which player goes next. 
  
  35
  Each player who rolled ten or higher can add a detail to the 
  outcome, adding additional details with each wager.
  Cooperative Risk Example
  Two samurai—Soteki and Kenshin—are trying to lift a heavy gate 
  separating them from their Daimyo.
  Both gather dice. Soteki has a 3 Strength and Kenshin has a 4 
  Strength.
  Because they have the None of Us… Aspect, they each gain three 
  more dice. Soteki has six and Kenshin has seven.
  Kenshin decides to spend an Honor Point from the pool giving 
  him four more dice. Now, Kenshin has eleven dice and Soteki still has 
  six.
  Both players announce their wagers. Th ey could hide their wagers, 
  but they feel it is appropriate to show them. Kenshin’s player will 
  make ﬁ ve wagers and Soteki’s player makes two. Th at means Kenshin’s 
  player rolls six dice and Soteki’s rolls four.
  Kenshin’s player rolls 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2. Soteki’s player rolls 6, 6, 4, 4. 
  Kenshin rolled a nineteen and Soteki rolled a twenty. Th at means that 
  even though Soteki rolled less dice, he still gains privilege: he can say 
  whether or not the two samurai lift the gate successfully or if they fail. 
  He also determines who spends their ﬁ rst wager. Because he does not 
  gain privilege, Kenshin’s player only keeps half his wagers, rounded 
  up.
  Soteki says, “We successfully lift the gate…” and he spends the 
  ﬁ rst wager: “but my Strength gave out at the last minute, leaving 
  Kenshin to lift the gate alone.”
  As a Narrator, I add an Honor Point to the pool. Humility (and 
  making another player’s character look cool) is a good source of 
  Honor Points.
  運
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  36
  
  37
  Aspects
  Aspects are deﬁ ning traits. People have Aspects, places have 
  Aspects, and even things can have Aspects. For those familiar with 
  roleplaying game tropes, an Aspect is like a “skill” or an “ability,” but 
  it’s a bit more three dimensional.
  Aspects represent the qualities of a person, place or thing. For 
  example, if you have the Aspect One of Us is not as Great as All of 
  Us, it reﬂ ects a particular quality about your character. He recognizes 
  the strength of unity of purpose. Many hands can accomplish more 
  than two. Other Aspects reﬂ ect diﬀ erent qualities. If a samurai has the 
  If One Man Praises You Aspect, he knows how to draw attention to 
  himself in almost any situation.
  Aspects reﬂ ect not only knowledge, but skill as well. Th ey are 
  broad-based abilities that are open to a little interpretation. Now, you 
  can’t go around with an Aspect like, I’m Awesome! Th at’s just silly. 
  Aspects should be open for players to use, but an Aspect shouldn’t be 
  useful in any situation.
  Invoke & Compel
  Every Aspect has two elements: an invoke and a compel. Th e 
  owner of the Aspect uses the invoke but others can use the compel. (A 
  player may compel his own Aspect as well. We’ll talk more about that 
  later.)
  You invoke Aspects when your character is about to take a risk. 
  When you invoke an Aspect, your character gains three bonus dice for 
  an appropriate risk. For example, if you want your samurai to know 
  the right course of action during complicated issues of etiquette, he 
  should have the Nail and Hammer Aspect. Th at Aspect gives you 
  three bonus dice for any risks involving procedure and decorum.
  Remember: invoking an Aspect gives you three bonus dice for 
  appropriate risks. You may only invoke one Aspect per risk. You 
  cannot invoke more than one. Also, you are the only person who can 
  invoke your own Aspect. You can’t invoke it for someone else and 
  someone else can’t invoke it for their own beneﬁ t, either.
  Invokes are powerful tools that allow you to get narration rights at 
  the end of a risk. But each Aspect has a compel as well.
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  38
  Tags
  You can give a temporary Aspect to another character, a place or 
  even a thing. We call these “Tags.”
  When you give another character a Tag, it works like an Aspect. 
  For example, if someone drops a lantern in a room full of ﬂ ammable 
  material, you can give the room the “On Fire!” Tag. Or, if a Samurai 
  belongs to a Clan with an Ambitious Daimyo, he has the “Ambitious” 
  Tag.
  If you have a Tag, it is an Aspect that you cannot invoke but 
  others can. Tagging doesn’t cost anything; the character only needs to 
  know the Tag exists. Invoking a Tag (or just “Tagging”) gets you two 
  bonus dice. Not three, but two.
  For example, my Samurai comes from a Clan with a Clever 
  Daimyo. Th at gives me the “Non-Traditionalist” Tag. Another 
  Samurai—if he knows my Clan—can use that Tag to gain two bonus 
  dice against me in any situation when my being “non-traditionalist” 
  would be an advantage to him.
  Likewise, if the room has the “On Fire!” Tag, characters who ﬁ nd 
  ways to take advantage of the ﬁ re can Tag that Aspect for two bonus 
  dice.
  Tags do not count toward the total number of Aspects that can be 
  invoked during a risk. Usually, only one Aspect can be invoked during 
  a risk. Because your character is using a Tag (or “Tagging” an Aspect), 
  he isn’t actually invoking it. He’s tagging it. And that doesn’t count 
  towards the total Aspects invoked in the risk.
  Injuries as Tags
  Th e most common Aspects a character may Tag are Injuries.
  If you are facing another character in a physical risk (Prowess 
  or Strength), you may tag any and all Injuries that character has for 
  bonus dice. Th e number of bonus dice you gain is equal to the ranks 
  of the Injuries.
  For example, if a character has a rank 1 Injury, a rank 2 Injury and 
  a rank 3 Injury, you may tag all three Injuries for a total of six bonus 
  dice.
  Whenever your character’s Injuries are tagged, your character gains 
  one Honor to add to the Honor Pool.
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  39
  Honor and Glory
  For a samurai, honor (yo) is everything. For you, as a player, 
  honor will be the key to the game. Honor unlocks all the mechanics. 
  It is the true engine of the game. Without honor, your samurai will be 
  less than nothing.
  But honor is a diﬃ  cult concept. Samurai wrote long essays on 
  honor; all exquisite arguments for what it actually means to be a 
  samurai. What is the best life? What is the appropriate action? What 
  exactly does honor mean?
  Instead of trying to deﬁ ne honor in a categorical way, I rather 
  enjoy the disagreement and discussion. Th at’s why, in this game, 
  honor is not an answer. Instead, it is a question. Your Clan believes it 
  has the answer. And your samurai, for better or worse, will struggle 
  with that answer in his own way.
  What Does it Mean?
  What does it mean to be honorable? Depending on the Virtue 
  your Clan chose, it means diﬀ erent things. Listed below are six points 
  of view regarding honor based on your Clan’s chosen Virtue. You 
  may agree or disagree with this answer, but if you do not conform to 
  your Clan’s deﬁ nition of honor, you will lose. Every time. Remember: 
  samurai tragedy is about conforming. Don’t ever forget the lesson of 
  the tall nail.
  Beauty
  A samurai’s duty is maintaining civilization. Only through culture 
  and art can mankind maintain his dignity. Th e rules of society provide 
  us with two important beneﬁ ts. Th e ﬁ rst is the law and the second is 
  the exquisite.
  Culture provides laws to help maintain balance and order. 
  Every creature in the world has its place in the world and man is 
  no diﬀ erent. We fulﬁ ll an obligation to the universe. We hold a 
  place within it. We must fulﬁ ll that obligation. We must follow the 
  structure and order of law. Justice is what mankind introduces into 
  the world. Without men, there is no justice. It is our duty to maintain 
  order in the world.
  Culture also provides the exquisite. Th e sublime. Art 
  communicates powerful truths that cannot be stated by words alone. 
  Th e recreation of experience. I cannot tell you true beauty, I can only 
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  40
  try to show it to you through poetry and painting and 
  the other Arts. Th is is a vital and necessary part of 
  being human.
  As a samurai, it is your duty to maintain 
  civilization and help it grow. Make it better. Rid 
  the world of injustice and bring beauty into the 
  lives of as many as possible. Th is is the truest and 
  most high virtue of bushido. Th e true duty of a 
  samurai.
  Courage
  Courage is the ability to say “No.” Th ere 
  is no other creature in the world that can do so. 
  All other creatures act on instinct. Man alone is 
  capable of rational thought. Man alone is capable 
  of choosing not to rip oﬀ  his leg to escape the 
  trap. Courage is more than just willpower. It is the 
  recognition that some things in this world are more 
  important than yourself. 
  Duty.
  When tasked with a charge, many samurai say 
  the 
  word as if it were like any other. Th at word is 
  not like any other. It is the only word 
  a samurai needs. It is the recognition 
  that your life means nothing if it is 
  not serving a higher purpose. 
  As a samurai, it is your duty to 
  subsume your personal desires and accept your obligations 
  to society. What you want is irrelevant. Th e Clan always comes 
  ﬁ rst. Th is is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. Th e true duty 
  of a samurai.
  Cunning
  A samurai’s Cunning is his most crucial weapon. Without the 
  ability to discern truth from deception, a samurai is useless. Warfare 
  truly is the art of deception. A true samurai knows this. He is not 
  charmed by the lures of “integrity” or “honesty.” Th e Clan’s enemies 
  use the tools of deception. Choosing not to use them only puts our 
  own Clan in danger and only a fool would do that. 
  A Cunning samurai is not fool. He buries fools.
  
  41
  We will use distraction and deception. We will make our 
  opponent think we are weak when we are truly strong. We will make 
  our opponent think we are helpless when we are ready to attack. 
  When we are caught oﬀ -guard, we will use tricks to keep him from 
  taking advantage of our weakness. Only through these methods will 
  we serve our Daimyo and our Clan.
  As a samurai, it is your duty to use deception to protect the 
  Daimyo from plots and machinations. Our enemies use the same 
  tools. We will use them with even deadlier force. Th is is the truest and 
  most high virtue of bushido. Th e true duty of a samurai.
  Prowess
  A samurai is a warrior. His duty is to defend his Daimyo against 
  the dangers of the world even if that means his own life. If a samurai 
  does not understand the arts of warfare and the sword then all other 
  skills are meaningless.
  A wise man needs only a moment in this world to understand that 
  this is a world of violence and struggle. If we do not know the ways 
  to master it, the world will eat us alive. We must study advantage. We 
  must study strife. We must study violence. Th is is the true language 
  of the world. To live in the world without mastering it is to live in the 
  world like a blind man without full understanding of what is around 
  us.
  Th e sword is the way of truth. Th e sword is the way of peace. Th e 
  sword is the way of war. Th ose who do not master the sword think 
  words can protect them. Th ose who do not master the sword think 
  books can protect them. Th ose who do not master the sword think 
  illusion can protect them.
  What is more real than the sword? Nothing.
  As a samurai, it is your duty to use the sword to protect the 
  Daimyo from the reality of the world. Our enemies use tools—tools 
  of weak men—to take from us what we have rightfully earned. Earned 
  with blood. Th is is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. Th e 
  true duty of a samurai.
  Strength
  A man who cannot lift his own weight… what can I do with that?
  A man who cannot swim. A man who cannot jump. A man who 
  cannot climb. A man who cannot master his own body. A man who 
  cannot master his own ﬂ esh. A man with no discipline.
  A man with no strength. Th is man is useless to me.
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  42
  Your body is your most precious weapon. Without it, you are a 
  weapon that can only be used by my enemy.
  Train your body. Give it strength. A courageous man who is weak 
  wastes his courage. A cunning man who is weak wastes his cunning. 
  All other virtues are wasted if a man cannot master his own body. 
  Th is is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. Th e true duty of a 
  samurai.
  Wisdom
  If a man is ignorant, what good is he?
  Let me ask that again. If a man is ignorant, what use are his other 
  virtues?
  If a man cannot think for himself, if he knows nothing of the 
  world around him, if he acts without true understanding of his 
  actions… he is nothing more than a wild animal who bites and claws 
  without thought, without intention, without meaning.
  It is only the meaning of a man’s actions that matter. Th e truth of 
  his actions. Th e intent of his actions. Otherwise, he is like a storm: a 
  raging and violent whirlwind. Destructive but without purpose.
  
  43
  It is knowing the meaning of our actions that gives them purpose. 
  Without that, we are nothing. Th erefore, a man must study. He 
  must study history to know what came before and he must study 
  philosophy to know what the profundity of his deeds.
  As a samurai, it is your duty to use your knowledge to bring glory 
  to the Daimyo’s name. Our enemies will use the past against us. Th ey 
  will use knowledge against us. Without this most potent weapon, we 
  will be naked and helpless against them. Th is is the truest and most 
  high virtue of bushido. Th e true duty of a samurai.
  The Honor Pool
  In the center of your gaming table, place a bowl. Th is is the Honor 
  Pool. You can use whatever tokens you like to represent Honor Points. 
  At the beginning of the game, ﬁ ll the Honor Pool with a number 
  of Honor Points equal to the total Honor Rank of all the samurai 
  present.
  Before you make a risk, you may draw an Honor Point from the 
  pool. A player may only draw one Honor Point at a time; a single 
  player cannot draw two or more Honor Points for a single roll, for 
  example. Give the Honor Point to the Narrator. You have spent an 
  Honor Point from the Pool.
  You can spend Honor Points 
  in two ways: for bonus dice and 
  adding details to the story.
  Bonus Dice
  When you spend an Honor 
  Point before a risk, add four dice 
  to your pool. Once you have spent 
  an Honor Point, it is gone for the 
  remainder of the adventure.
  Because almost all samurai 
  start the game with 2 Honor, each 
  samurai will add two Honor Points 
  to the Pool.
  Adding Details
  During the game, a player 
  may spend an Honor Point 
  (withdrawing it from the Pool) 
  to add details to the story as it 
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  44
  progresses. Th ink of these like free ﬂ oating wagers. Just as a wager 
  allows you to add details to a risk, Honor Points allow you to modify 
  the story in the same way. You can add details to an NPC, a castle, the 
  relationship with your family or anything else you like in the game.
  Like wagers, plot points cannot be used to say “No.” If I use a 
  wager to say the Daimyo is a drunken fool, you can’t use a plot point 
  to say, “No, he’s not.” You can use a plot point to say, “He’s a drunken 
  fool, but that’s only because his wife drives him to drink.” Th at 
  intimates that if we get him away from his wife, he’ll drink less. Th at 
  isn’t a “No,” it’s a “Yes, but…”
  Adding Honor to the Pool
  You can add Honor Points to the Pool by taking speciﬁ c kinds of 
  risks. See the list below for risk that allow for an Honor Point to be 
  added to the Pool. Each of these qualiﬁ cations are cumulative. Th at 
  is, if you take a risk that fulﬁ ls one of the qualiﬁ cations, that’s worth 
  an Honor Point. But if you take a risk that fulﬁ ls more than just one 
  qualiﬁ cation, it’s worth multiple Honor Points.
  Again, my wording here is speciﬁ c. It must be a risk. Simple 
  actions are expected of samurai and are not worth Honor Points. 
  Only risks are worth Honor Points.
  Th ere may be circumstances where an action qualiﬁ es for an 
  Honor Point, but these should be momentous. Th ey should be few 
  and far between.
  • Take a risk that directly furthers the Clan’s interests (and not 
  yours).
  • Take a risk that upholds the Clan’s dignity and honor.
  • Take a risk that puts your samurai in danger while fulﬁ lling 
  another obligation. (Samurai are men of action and expected to 
  live dangerous lives. Just being reckless is not Honorable.)
  • Fulﬁ ll your Clan’s deﬁ nition of bushido.
  Losing Honor from the Pool
  When a samurai takes an action that is disgraceful, insults the 
  dignity of the Clan or otherwise shames himself, the Narrator takes 
  three Honor Points from the pool.
  As a Narrator, I should note for anyone playing in one of my 
  games that I also take Honor from the Pool for player behavior. 
  Quoting Monty Python, answering your cell phone, talking about 
  last night’s episode of (insert current cool geek TV show here), or 
  otherwise distracting from the game. 
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  45
  Bad form. Lose Honor.
  Note that individuals do not lose Honor. I toyed with that idea 
  for a little while—that each samurai had his own Honor Points and 
  Ranks, etc.—but I quickly ditched it when I realized that Honor, like 
  everything else in this game, is something shared by the players. You 
  aren’t important; the Clan is important. Th erefore, by making Honor 
  a community resource and then adding to it for honorable behavior 
  and subtracting from it for dishonorable behavior added a diﬀ erent 
  kind of ﬂ avor to the whole mechanic.
  At the End of the Game
  At the end of each game session, the Narrator should count up the 
  total Honor Points in the pool. At the start of the next game session, 
  the players begin with the same amount of Honor.
  Glory
  Glory indicates how well known and respected your samurai is. 
  Th e higher your Glory, the more well-known you are. Like Honor, 
  Glory comes in both Ranks and Points, but samurai do not spend 
  Glory Points. Instead, they try to acquire Glory through noteworthy 
  and auspicious deeds.
  All samurai begin the game with a Glory rank of 1. Each 
  Glory Rank has a word or phrase associated with that Glory Rank, 
  indicating the general reputation you earned getting that rank of 
  Glory.
  Glory enters the game in many ways.
  First, if you are about to undertake a risk and one or more of your 
  Glory ranks is appropriate, you may add one die per Glory rank that 
  is appropriate to the risk. In other words, if you have a Glory Rank: 
  Great Swordsman and you are about to enter into a duel, you may 
  add one die to your total. If you have more than one Glory Rank 
  that’s appropriate to a risk (three ranks of Glory: Great Swordsman, 
  for example), you may gain one die for each rank that’s appropriate.
  Second, whenever you perform a risk, you may convert two 
  wagers for one point of Glory. Th e greatness of your deed feeds the 
  story of your life.
  Th ird, you may earn Glory whenever you take an action that is 
  noteworthy.
  Finally, when you reach ten points of Glory, your Glory Rank 
  increases by one, gaining you another Glory Rank and Reputation.
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  Damaging Your Reputation
  You may take actions that damage a Reputation you have earned. 
  If you do, the Narrator may declare that your current Reputation is 
  tainted and must be cleansed before it may be used again. You cannot 
  call upon that Reputation for bonus dice until you have taken actions 
  to repair it.
  To repair a damaged Reputation, you must earn ten points 
  of Glory in actions that are appropriate to your Reputation. For 
  example, if you are challenged to a duel and decline, the Narrator may 
  declare that your “Great Swordsman” Reputation has been damaged. 
  To repair that Reputation, you must earn ten Glory from risks 
  appropriate to “Great Swordsman.”
  
  47
  Violence
  A samurai lives four feet from death. Four feet, of course, being 
  the length of a katana. I’ve said this many times before, but it bears 
  repeating.
  When a sword maker tests a katana, a well-made katana, he tests 
  it on a pile of bodies stacked stomach to back. Th e number of bodies 
  the katana cuts through is the number put on the blade. “Four man 
  blade.” “Five man blade.”
  Now, imagine getting hit with one of these things. Th en imagine 
  asking, “How many hit points do I lose?”
  Th is chapter talks about violence. I won’t be using the kind of 
  terms you hear in other roleplaying games. Th at’s because most RPGs 
  say that they’re all about story, story, story. But then, someone draws 
  a sword, and the game suddenly shifts from “story” to “authentic 
  strategic simulation.” Th e game breaks everything down into arbitrary 
  dice rolls, pointless minutia and endless bookkeeping.
  “Authentic strategic simulation” is not something you’re going to 
  ﬁ nd here. Instead, I present you with an alternative.
  Usually, this kind of chapter is the longest in a roleplaying game. 
  In this case, it is going to be the shortest. 
  Th ere are three circumstances where thehat violence mechanics are 
  necessary: a strike, a duel and mass murder. We’ll discuss each in turn.
  Strike
  A strike is an immediate action. One samurai draws his sword 
  and the other responds. Th is is not a formal, ritualistic action like a 
  duel; this is a samurai immediately drawing his sword and his target 
  responding as quickly as possible.
  Th at’s how violence begins. It starts fast. Almost no time to react.
  Th at’s how our ﬁ ghts begin here, too.
  A ﬁ ght scene begins when someone calls out, “Strike!” and points 
  at another player. No initiative rolls. You call it out and it happens.
  When an attacker announces a Strike, he gains two bonus dice. 
  Th ere is a slight advantage to surprise. Not much, but enough for two 
  bonus dice.
  If both samurai call out “Strike!” at the same time, neither gains 
  bonus dice. Th ere is no surprise, therefore, no advantage.
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  EXAMPLE
  As Ben and I ﬁ nd our characters in a heated debate, Ben’s 
  character says something to mine that my character doesn’t 
  quite like. So, he decides to cut Ben’s character down.
  I declare a “Strike!” Th e violence begins.
  Th e ﬁ rst actions in a ﬁ ght are between the attacker and the 
  defender. No one else can assist. Th e action is too quick. 
  Th e two samurai draw swords and (most likely) one of them 
  dies. After the ﬁ rst strike is over, other samurai can announce 
  intentions to attack, but the ﬁ rst attack and defense are 
  between the attacker and the defender and no one else.
  Result
  After a strike has been called, both opponents gather dice for 
  a contested Prowess risk. You know the procedure. Each player 
  announces their dice, then hides their wagers, then rolls.
  Th e victor (the player who rolls highest) gains privilege and 
  may determine the outcome of the strike. Does the attacker or the 
  defender successfully strike? Do they both miss? Th e victor determines 
  the outcome, whatever it may 
  be.
  If you’ve been struck by a 
  katana, you die. In this case, 
  the victor may be the defender 
  and the defeated may be the 
  attacker. Yes, that means you 
  can draw your sword on a better 
  opponent and get yourself 
  killed. It happens all the time in 
  samurai tragedy and I don’t see 
  why it shouldn’t happen here.
  EXAMPLE
  Ben and I both gather dice. 
  Ben has eight dice while I 
  have six. We both make wagers 
  secretly, then reveal our wagers 
  and roll. Ben made three wagers 
  while I made two.
  Ben’s roll: 5, 5, 2, 2, 1 = 15
  My roll: 6, 4, 3, 1 = 14
  
  49
  Ben gets privilege so he can narrate the outcome of the duel. He 
  could say that I win the duel. He could say that he wins the duel. He 
  could say that we both strike each other at the same time. It’s up to 
  him to determine how the duel goes.
  Other Weapons
  If you get struck with any weapon other than a katana, you take a 
  rank 1 Injury. Your opponent may use wagers to increase the rank of 
  the Injury, but only a number of wagers equal to his Prowess.
  Using Wagers
  If you have a dead opponent and wagers 
  left over, you may convert your wagers into 
  Glory. Two wagers make one Glory Point 
  that you can add to your Reputation. You 
  may do this even if your samurai is dead.
  Using Honor
  If your samurai is killed, you may pull 
  one Honor from the Honor Pool to reduce 
  your death to a rank 5 Injury.
  Duel
  A duel is a formalized, ritualistic contest 
  involving two samurai. 
  Th e two samurai stand apart, hands on 
  swords. Th ey stare for a long moment. Th en, 
  in a brief ﬂ ash of violence, swords slice 
  ﬂ esh. It is a dramatic, immediate event that 
  happens all the time in samurai literature. 
  Here’s how you handle it in the game.
  Step 1: Challenge
  Both duelists gather and announce dice.
  Let us call them the First Player and the 
  Second Player. Th e First Player has more 
  dice than the Second Player.
  Historical 
  Accuracy 
  If you didn’t read the 
  introduction, go back and do 
  that now. If you skipped it, 
  here it is again.
  If you want to know the 
  rules for armor and why a 
  no-dachi doesn’t do more 
  damage than a katana or why 
  a wakizashi doesn’t do less, I 
  have an answer for you.
  Th is isn’t a game about 
  historical accuracy or creating 
  authentic combat simulations. 
  Th ere are plenty of other 
  games doing that just ﬁ ne. 
  Go play those. Th is is a game 
  about recreating samurai 
  tragedy. Too many roleplaying 
  games claim they are about 
  storytelling, but then, as soon 
  as the swords come out, the 
  game stops and it suddenly 
  becomes an exercise in futility 
  as players are forced to keep 
  track of every detail that 
  happens every second.
  I’m not doing that here.
  
  50
  Step 2: Focus
  Th e First Player acts ﬁ rst in this stage.
  Th e First Player sets aside any number of wagers. 
  Th e Second Player must then set aside an equal number of wagers. 
  Step 3: Strike
  Th en, both players roll. Whoever rolls highest gains privilege. If a 
  duelist cannot beat 10, he gains nothing and loses all of his wagers.
  Th e duelist with privilege may narrate the outcome of the duel 
  (including “My opponent dies,” or “I die.”)
  Step 4: Glory
  In a duel, you gain Glory based on your opponent’s wagers. Each 
  wager set aside by your opponent is worth one Glory. Both duelists 
  gain a new Reputation based on the duel. Pick a colorful name for 
  the duel. “Th e Duel at the Rocks” or “Th e Duel on the Crossroads” 
  or something clever like that. Th e duel gives each duelist a new 
  Reputation. 
  Th ere is no Glory in defeating an opponent when the match is so 
  obviously one-sided. Th us, if you can cancel all your opponent’s dice 
  with just spending wagers, you gain no Glory for that duel.
  EXAMPLE
  I have ten dice and my opponent has four. I could easily bid four 
  dice as my wagers. My opponent would have to bid an equal number 
  of dice as wagers, thus removing any dice from his pool. If I ﬁ ght this 
  man in a duel, I gain no Glory.
  On the other hand, if I only bid enough wagers so he can make 
  privilege (with wagers), the duel can gain both of us Glory. In this 
  case, I bid only one wager. Remember, I have ten dice and my 
  opponent has only four. I’m still rolling nine dice and my opponent 
  now has an opportunity to make privilege with one wager, making the 
  total Glory for our duel a possible 2 Glory.
  Th at’s not much, but you shouldn’t expect much. I’m a far better 
  swordsman and accepting a duel with a samurai of such lesser skill is a 
  sign of respect from me. 
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  51
  Honoring Your Opponent
  If you have ten dice and I have six, you can use six of your dice 
  for wagers forcing me completely out of the duel. I have no chance to 
  win. None at all.
  But all of my wagers count for nothing toward your Glory. 
  Because I can’t roll dice (you’ve wagered all of my dice away), I can’t 
  beat ten and that means all my wagers are thrown away. You get no 
  Glory for defeating me.
  If you want a duel with more Glory, you’ll have to allow your 
  opponent an opportunity to keep some of his wagers. Otherwise, I’m 
  the only one who gains Glory from the duel. You get nothing because 
  you gave nothing.
  Th is raises an important point. In many duels, the samurai strike 
  and both agree, “It was a tie.” Th ere is an implicit understanding that 
  one man was the better, but both agree the duel was a tie.
  If you ﬁ ght another samurai (with non-lethal weapons) and you 
  gain privilege, what is the best way to ensure that both of you gain 
  Glory?
  You both won. It was a tie.
  Two samurai (you and I) 
  face oﬀ  in a duel. One of us rolls 
  better than the other. We both 
  know who won. But the winner 
  smiles and says, “A tie.” And we 
  both walk away with Glory.
  Th at’s how most duels 
  should work. Of course, when 
  it comes down to murdering 
  your opponent, that’s a diﬀ erent 
  story.
  The Yowamushi 
  Rule
  Yowamushi are any non-
  samurai characters or any 
  unnamed samurai. Any samurai 
  can kill any yowamushi with just 
  announcing his death.
  “I kill him.”
  Th at’s all it takes.
  
  52
  If there’s more than one yowamushi, a samurai can kill a number of 
  them equal to his Prowess.
  Keen observers will note that if you took Prowess as a weakness, 
  you cannot employ this rule.
  Firearms
  Only a samurai may carry weapons. Remember this.
  Firearms change Old Japan. Introducing them into your campaign 
  will change it forever. Here is why.
  If a bullet from a ﬁ rearm strikes any character, he dies. No dodge, 
  no parry, nothing. Just death. No negotiating the Injury down with 
  Honor. No protection from armor. If a bullet from a ﬁ rearm strikes 
  any character, he dies.
  Only a samurai may carry weapons. A peasant can carry a ﬁ rearm. 
  Remember this.
  Mass Murder
  So, what happens when three or more samurai want to get 
  involved in a ﬁ ght? You’ve got a Mass Murder on your hands.
  (Th ese rules come from Houses of the Blooded, but they’ve been 
  slightly modiﬁ ed to better ﬁ t the samurai genre.)
  After a Strike occurs, if other samurai want to be involved in the 
  violence, the Narrator invokes the Mass Murder rules.
  Step 1: Gather Dice
  All players who want to be involved gather dice as if they were 
  preparing for a Strike: Prowess + Aspect + Giri (if appropriate) + other 
  bonuses. All players announce how many dice they have.
  If Mass Murder directly follows a strike, the winner of the Strike 
  gains two bonus dice for the Mass Murder.
  If a samurai has the Quick Advantage, he may use it during this 
  Step.
  Step 2: Declare Strikes
  On the count of 3, each player points at who they want to Strike. 
  If a player wants to Strike an NPC, he points at the Narrator.
  最
  も
  良
  い
  刀
  は
  さ
  や
  に
  滞
  在
  し
  て
  い
  ま
  す
  。
  
  53
  Step 3: Strike
  Everyone sets aside wagers (secretly) and rolls. Th e player who 
  rolls highest has initiative and privilege. He may declare his Strikes 
  ﬁ rst. No player loses any wagers for not gaining privilege in Mass 
  Murder. All players keep all wagers made.
  In the event of a tie, Strikes occur simultaneously.
  Th e Striking samurai rolls a contested Prowess risk against his 
  target. Th e winner gets privilege. 
  During Mass Murder, a samurai may strike one opponent. Th en, 
  the player who rolled the next highest number may declare a Strike. 
  Th is continues until all samurai involved have made a strike.
  Th en, go back to the ﬁ rst player. He may make an additional 
  strike. Each wager he made allows him to strike an additional 
  opponent. Th is continues with each samurai making an additional 
  strike, in turn, until all additional strikes are exhausted.
  After all Strikes are exhausted, if samurai wish to continue Mass 
  Murder, repeat the process.
  A Note About Mass Murder
  Th ose familiar with Houses of the Blooded will know that Mass 
  Murder is deadly. I designed it that way. Game mechanics should 
  inﬂ uence player behavior. I wanted players to avoid large combat 
  scenes, so I designed Mass Murder to do just that.
  Still, every once in a while, it happens. My second consideration 
  was making it fast. I didn’t want the game bogging down in minutia. 
  Fights in samurai ﬁ lms are lightning quick and lots of folks die 
  (usually under a single samurai’s blade). So, this system reﬂ ects that.
  You’ve been warned. Do what Musashi and Sun Tzu suggest. Don’t 
  get involved in a duel you don’t know you can win.
  Ashigaru and Guardsmen
  Th e General and the Yojimbo both have vassals at their command 
  who can be used during Violence Scenes. Th e Ashigaru and 
  Guardsmen provide similar duties but each also has a unique ability 
  only they can perform.
  Th e Ashigaru and Guardsmen’s eﬀ ectiveness is directly related to 
  their master’s Giri Rank. Th e higher the Giri Rank, the more eﬀ ective 
  they are. Each Giri Rank adds a rank on to the vassals. In other 
  words, if the General is rank 2, he commands two ranks of Ashigaru. 
  最
  も
  良
  い
  刀
  は
  さ
  や
  に
  滞
  在
  し
  て
  い
  ま
  す
  。
  
  54
  Likewise, if the Yojimbo is rank 3, he has three ranks of Guardsmen 
  with him.
  Both the Ashigaru and Guardsmen can take Injuries for their 
  commanders. If the General or Yojimbo ever suﬀ er an Injury, 
  the Ashigaru or Guardsmen can take the hit instead saving their 
  commander. Th e Ashigaru and Guardsmen may do this a number of 
  times equal to their rank. Doing so diminishes their rank, however, 
  leaving the General and Yojimbo with fewere men to command. A 
  group of rank 3 Ashigaru who take an Injury for their master become 
  rank 2 Ashigaru. When they lose all their ranks, their masters have 
  no more men to command. Both Ashigaru and Guardsmen become 
  refreshed at the end of the Season.
  Also, both the Ashigaru and Guardsmen count as a samurai 
  during Mass Murder. Th ey roll a number of dice equal to their 
  commander’s Prowess plus their rank.
  Th e Ashigaru’s special ability gives them bonuses during War. You 
  can read about their bonuses in that chapter.
  Th e Guardsmen, however, may extend their ability to any other 
  samurai under their Daimyo’s command. In other words, they are not 
  limited to only protecting the Yojimbo. Th e Yojimbo can command 
  which samurai they protect during Mass Murder.
  Th e Ashigaru and Guardsmen cannot use their abilities during a 
  duel.
  Th e Guadsmen cannot provide bonuses dice during War. Th ey can 
  protect their charge (the Yojimbo and his fellows) by taking Injuries, 
  but they provide no bonus dice.
  最
  も
  良
  い
  刀
  は
  さ
  や
  に
  滞
  在
  し
  て
  い
  ま
  す
  。
  
  55
  Magic & Religion
  Magic in Blood & Honor is not quite like the magic in most 
  roleplaying games. Despite the overwhelming temptation to try 
  ﬁ tting Buddhism and Shintoism into a codiﬁ ed set of rules, I chose a 
  diﬀ erent path. Japanese magic—like the magic of most cultures—is 
  a mess of exceptions rather than rules. In folk tales and legends, what 
  magic can and cannot do ﬁ ts the story’s needs.
  Also, this is a game about samurai. Samurai feared magic and 
  those who used it. It was not something they could control. Th e 
  power of the stars and the planets, the earth beneath them, the power 
  of the spirits around them, the power of the gods and heavens… all of 
  these things were beyond the reach of samurai. Beyond the reach of 
  most mortals, in fact. A mystic in samurai literature was a plot device 
  to (again) fulﬁ ll the needs of the story, not an active agent. Th e 
  samurai consulted seers and oracles, but these seers and oracles were 
  not the protagonists.
  In most roleplaying games, magic becomes 
  a kind of Swiss Army knife, capable of doing 
  anything at any time. Or, it is an artillery 
  device used to take out boss units on the 
  other side of the board. Such magic does not 
  ﬁ t in an authentic game about samurai. 
  Th e immortal and inscrutable power 
  of the universe is what we’re talking about 
  here and mortal men do not tinker with 
  the immortal and inscrutable power of the 
  universe.
  For those reasons (among 
  others), I have resisted the 
  urge to make “magic rules” 
  and a 
  “magic-user class.” 
  Instead, this 
  chapter talks 
  about the 
  various forms 
  of Japanese mysticism, magic and 
  sorcery and how to use those in your 
  own campaign.
  C h a p t e r  7
  Syncretism
  Syncretism is the attempt 
  to reconcile disparate or 
  contrary beliefs, often while 
  melding practices of various 
  schools of thought. In other 
  words, in Old Japan, the two 
  prevailing religions—Shinto 
  and Buddhism—are practiced 
  with equal respect and 
  reverence. Even though the 
  two of them are completely 
  diﬀ erent—even with diﬀ erent 
  creation myths—the Japanese 
  don’t seem to have a problem 
  with reconciling the two of 
  them.
  
  56
  Shinto
  Shinto is the practice of revering animistic spirits. It is a highly 
  ritualized religion, but at this period of 
  time, it is also highly disorganized. Th e 
  arrival and popularity of other religions 
  (such as Buddhism) forced Shinto priests to 
  get their acts together. Shinto has no popes 
  or bishops or any other formal hierarchal 
  structure. A local priest serving a small 
  ﬁ shing village has just as much authority as 
  a priest who advises the Emperor.
  Kami
  Shinto priests communicate with the 
  spirits of Japan called kami. Now, exactly 
  what a kami actually is presents a diﬃ  culty. 
  Kami are natural spirits, ancestor spirits, 
  guardian angels and just about any other 
  kind of invisible force you can imagine. 
  Every river, every tree, every storm, the sun, 
  the sky, the earth… all of these things have 
  an accompanying spirit. A kami. A Shinto 
  priest’s position in Japan is to communicate 
  to the kami, keep them happy and make 
  them happy again when they grow angry or 
  dissatisﬁ ed. All trouble in Japan comes from 
  dissatisﬁ ed kami. If the invisible world isn’t 
  happy, the visible world feels it.
  Every kami has its own character. Like 
  the gods of ancient peoples (the Greeks, the 
  Norse, the Babylonians), the kami are seen 
  as ﬂ awed characters with incredible power 
  (and hair trigger tempers). If things are 
  going wrong for a village, the village calls 
  upon the priest (kannushi) to deal with the 
  problem. He consults with the local kami, 
  ﬁ nds out what the problem is and goes 
  about setting the problem right.
  Th e standard ﬁ x for such problems is 
  dancing and sacriﬁ ce, although in a heroic 
  setting such as this, more dramatic actions 
  may need to be taken to rectify the wrong.
  Where are the 
  Shugenja?
  When designing the Legend 
  of the Five Rings collectible 
  card game, it became obvious 
  that the complexities of 
  Japanese magic were too… 
  well, complex for a CCG. We 
  thought about the problem 
  and arrived at a simple 
  compromise. We’d create a 
  social caste within Rokugan 
  that covered every kind of 
  mysticism. Yes, that meant 
  we’d have to simplify things 
  a lot, but I felt we could 
  get away with it without 
  sacriﬁ cing authenticity. We’d 
  combine the Shinto priest and 
  Buddhist monk and onmyōji 
  into a single role. Th e problem 
  became ﬁ nding a name for this 
  class of person. After much 
  searching, I eventually adopted 
  the same term as the Bushido 
  RPG: “shugenja.” It wasn’t 
  historically accurate, but it was 
  a word already familiar to most 
  gamers, so we went with it.
  In Blood & Honor, a 
  shugenja would probably ﬁ nd 
  himself most closely associated 
  with an onmyoji. His duties 
  as “mystical advisor” ﬁ t almost 
  perfectly with the role shugenja 
  play in Rokugan (and is more 
  culturally correct).
  
  57
  Purity
  Purity is an important aspect of Shinto. Actions can make a 
  samurai “unclean” (kegare) requiring a ritual to cleanse his spirit. Two 
  good examples of such actions are killing animals for food and actions 
  which further one’s personal power (politically or otherwise). Both are 
  seen as impure actions which require a cleansing ritual.
  Th e samurai avoided eating meat and put the chore of 
  slaughtering animals to the eta. In fact, the entire eta caste consisted 
  of professions who, by the nature of their activities, would be 
  considered unclean. Butchers, leather workers, undertakers and 
  anyone required to touch dead ﬂ esh.
  Also, any action that falls outside the prescribed etiquette or 
  procedure could be considered kegare. Not only that, but impurity 
  could be seen as a kind of contagion: if your neighbor is unclean, you 
  are likewise tainted by his impurity. In this sense, the Great Social 
  Hammer of feudal Japan comes calling to put down that infamous tall 
  nail.
  Shrines
  Once stained, a samurai 
  must go to a shrine to perform 
  harai, the purity ritual. When 
  entering, the samurai must 
  approach the temple with 
  reverence and respect. Often, 
  a particular ritual must be 
  performed. While the rituals 
  vary from shrine to shrine, a 
  typical version looks something 
  like this:
  Th e samurai bows 
  respectfully before entering. He 
  then performs temizu: washing 
  his hands and mouth. Washing 
  his left hand ﬁ rst, and then his 
  right. He then rinses his mouth 
  and feet. Th en, he washes the 
  ladle provided and replaces it. 
  He then rings a bell and leaves 
  a donation. Finally, he says his 
  prayers and then bows again and 
  claps (usually two bows and two 
  claps).
  
  58
  Talismans
  Shinto has many diﬀ erent kinds of talismans providing luck and 
  good fortune and even protection. Th ere are so many; too many to list 
  here. But, I’ve provided a few as examples below.
  Ema are small wooden amulets or trinkets with sacred and 
  auspicious words or phrases written on them. Ema bring good luck to 
  those who wear them. An ema must include the word gani (“wish”) to 
  perform properly.
  Ofuda are talismans of wood or paper that provide protection to a 
  household.
  Omamori are personal protection amulets, usually made of cloth, 
  worn to bring good luck. Omamori provide a speciﬁ c kind of luck: 
  good health, good fortune with ﬁ shing, protection for travelers, etc.
  Omikuji are small random fortunes written on paper. Th e visitor 
  to a shrine leaves a donation and may draw one from a box receiving 
  the good fortune inscribed there.
  Onmyodo
  Onmyōdō could be called “Japanese alchemy,” although that isn’t 
  entirely correct. Like Western alchemy was the predecessor to science, 
  Onmyōdō was the forerunner of many Japanese sciences. Under the 
  ritsuryō system (a Confucius-inspired “duty system”), the Onmyōryō 
  (Bureau of Divination) was required to know koyomi (calendrical 
  studies), onmyō (Yin-Yang divination), and rōkoku (time keeping), 
  and tenmon (astrology); all of which assisted the Daimyo and 
  maintained his position.
  One needs a permit from the Emperor to practice onmyōdō and 
  doing so without one is a serious oﬀ ence. Licensed practitioners 
  were called onmyōji. Th eir duties include serving as a kind of occult 
  adviser, maintaining the calendar, divination and protection from evil 
  spirits.
  Buddhism
  “Th at which can be said about the Way is not the true Way.”
  So, here I go, trying to give an introduction to Buddhism. In a 
  roleplaying game. Speciﬁ cally, the very odd kind of Buddhism that 
  developed in Old Japan: Zen Buddhism.
  I once heard it said that teaching someone about Buddhism is 
  a lot like teaching someone how to bake a cake. I can give you the 
  ingredients list, go shopping with you, pick out everything we need, 
  mix everything together, prepare the frosting together and even show 
  ま
  ず
  最
  初
  に
  、
  男
  性
  は
  三
  振
  し
  ま
  す
  。
  
  59
  you how to pre-heat the oven. But once it comes out of the oven, 
  there’s no way I can prepare you for how the cake will taste.
  Th at is Zen.
  Zen emphasizes direct knowledge rather than philosophical or 
  theoretical knowledge. One must do to know. After that, everything 
  is up for grabs. Every teacher of zen will tell you that each student 
  must go out into the world and experience the world to gain its 
  deeper meanings. Do not be distracted by physical temptations and 
  distractions. You must see beyond what the world is to learn what the 
  world means and to learn your part in it.
  And even by saying that much, I’ve distracted you from the true 
  path.
  Using Magic
  Now, with all that in mind, how does one go about using 
  “Japanese magic” in a roleplaying game?
  Well, the whole Western concept of “spells” is right out the 
  window. Instead, I have some suggestions for how to use all of this in 
  a campaign without (pardon the pun) invoking a magic-using class of 
  characters.
  Wisdom Risks
  Despite these suggestions, one thing 
  remains true: magic is never truly in the 
  players’ hands. An onmyōji can use his 
  Wisdom to say things are true about magic, 
  but he is not a “magic user.”
  If the adventure includes a haunted 
  forest, the samurai turn to the onmyōji. Th e 
  player makes a Wisdom risk and says what 
  is true about the forest. If a castle has fallen 
  under a terrible curse, the player makes a 
  Wisdom risk to say how the curse may be 
  lifted.
  Charms & Talismans
  Most of what constitutes Japanese magic 
  are good luck charms and tokens you see 
  everywhere in the literature (and even on 
  the streets of modern day Tokyo).
  Sidebar: 
  Controversy
  One of these days I’m 
  going to write a roleplaying 
  game where I write the 
  statement, “Christian/Jewish/
  Islamic characters can pray to 
  their god if they like; whether 
  or not he actually exists is 
  another matter.” It’s perfectly 
  all right to question the faiths 
  of people who live on the other 
  side of an ocean, but as soon 
  as I put the God of the Book 
  under scrutiny, suddenly, I’m 
  all controversial and stuﬀ .
  
  60
  Samurai can carry good luck charms if they like; whether or not 
  they actually work is another matter.
  Charms provide beneﬁ ts to characters… some of the time. Every 
  charm has a particular theme: good luck in love, good luck in battle, 
  good luck in farming, etc. A charm may or may not provide a beneﬁ t. 
  Each Charm provides a free wager on a single category of risk. 
  Th e Onmyōji may provide a number of charms to his fellow samurai 
  equal to his rank. For example, a rank 3 Onmyōji may provide three 
  charms to his fellow oﬃ  cers. Charms are only good for one adventure, 
  and then, they must be replenished. A samurai may only carry a single 
  Charm.
  Predictions
  At the beginning of each adventure, the Onmyōji may make a 
  number of predictions equal to his rank. Th e predictions should have 
  something to do with a risk the players may make during the game. 
  If the prediction comes true, the players involved get a number of 
  bonus dice for a particular risk equal to the onmyōji’s 
  rank.
  Zen Meditation
  “Th e archer does not shoot at the 
  target; the archer shoots at himself.”
  Th e “magic” of Zen rests in 
  Meditation. Th ose who are trained in 
  the ways of Mediation may bypass 
  the distractions of the world 
  to reach the inner truth of its 
  beauty. 
  When a samurai practices 
  Mediation, he hopes to 
  escape the trappings of the 
  world to transcend to Luminous 
  Truth. With that Truth in his 
  heart, he can only do Justice. 
  With that Truth in his heart, he 
  can only make Balance.
  A Zen monk can teach samurai 
  the art of Mediation. With a 
  Season Action—and a Buddhist 
  Monestary Holding—a samurai 
  may gain a Meditation Point.
  ま
  ず
  最
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  、
  男
  性
  は
  三
  振
  し
  ま
  す
  。
  
  61
  Samurai may spend a Meditation Point before any roll. Doing so 
  turns that roll into a ten. Th e samurai must roll at least one die, but 
  the Meditation Point turns that single die into a ten. He must spend 
  the Meditation Point before rolling and before declaring wagers.
  Ancestors
  Shinto Shrines provide an opportunity for samurai to commune 
  with the spirits of their ancestors. Ancestors may give cryptic advice, 
  provide ominous omens or bless the samurai in some other mysterious 
  way.
  You may revere your Ancestors at a Shinto Shrine (one of the 
  many Holdings your province may have). If your Daimyo has a 
  Shinto Shrine, your samurai may gain the beneﬁ t of Blessings from 
  your Ancestors.
  Your samurai gain a number of Blessings each Season equal to 
  the rank of the Shinto Shrine in your Province. Th at is, if you have a 
  rank 3 Shrine, your samurai must share three separate Blessings; each 
  samurai does not receive three Blessings each.
  A Province may have more than one Shrine, thus giving your 
  samurai multiple Blessings.
  Listed below are the many Blessings an 
  Ancestor can give his devoted followers. 
  When you pray to an Ancestor, he or she (in 
  other words, the Narrator) will give you the 
  Blessing they feel you need and/or deserve.
  You may only use a Blessing once per 
  Season.
  I HAVE NO PARENTS…
  “… I make the Heavens and the Earth 
  my parents.”
  Invoke this Blessing to ignore one 
  Honor loss.
  I HAVE NO HOME…
  “… I make the Tan T’ien my Home.”
  When another samurai compels one 
  of your Aspects, you may invoke this 
  Blessing and ignore that compel.
  I HAVE NO DIVINE POWER…
  “… I make Honesty my Divine Power.”
  Miko
  A miko is a “shrine 
  woman” who can commune 
  with the spirits of the dead. (A 
  great—and chilling—example 
  of one such woman can be 
  found in the Kurasawa ﬁ lm, 
  Rashomon.)
  A miko may fall into a 
  trance and allow the spirts 
  of the dead to possess her 
  body allowing others to 
  communicate with ancestors. 
  Whether or not the miko 
  can actually perform this 
  miracle—or they are just 
  charlatans taking advantage of 
  a superstitious populace—is up 
  to the Narrator and players.
  
  62
  Invoke this Blessing when making a confession or revealing 
  statement. All in attendance believe your sincerity.
  I HAVE NO MEANS…
  “… I make Docility my Means.”
  Invoke this Blessing after you have rolled dice in a contested 
  Wisdom risk. Cancel your opponent’s wagers in this risk. 
  Success and failure of the risk is unaﬀ ected, but only you can 
  keep your wagers.
  I HAVE NO MAGIC POWER…
  “… I make Personality my Magic Power.”
  Invoke this Blessing after being the target of any magical 
  eﬀ ect. Cancel that magical eﬀ ect.
  I HAVE NEITHER LIFE NOR DEATH…
  “… I make A Um my Life and Death.”
  Invoke this Blessing after you have rolled dice in a contested 
  Courage risk. Cancel your opponent’s wagers in this risk. 
  Success and failure of the risk is unaﬀ ected, but only you can 
  keep your wagers.
  I HAVE NO BODY…
  “… I make Stoicism my Body.”
  Invoke this Blessing after you have rolled dice in a contested 
  Strength risk. Cancel your opponent’s wagers in this risk. 
  Success and failure of the risk is unaﬀ ected, but only you can 
  keep your wagers.
  I HAVE NO EYES…
  “… I make Th e Flash of Lightning my Eyes.”
  Invoke this Blessing after you have rolled dice in a contested 
  Cunning risk. Cancel your opponent’s wagers in this risk. 
  Success and failure of the risk is unaﬀ ected, but only you can 
  keep your wagers.
  I HAVE NO EARS…
  “… I make Sensibility my Ears.
  Invoke this Blessing after another character has spoken to 
  you. You know whether or not that character is lying or 
  telling the truth.
  I HAVE NO LIMBS…
  “… I make Promptitude my Limbs.”
  ま
  ず
  最
  初
  に
  、
  男
  性
  は
  三
  振
  し
  ま
  す
  。
  
  63
  Invoke this Blessing after another samurai has declared 
  surprise upon you. You may cancel the eﬀ ects of surprise.
  I HAVE NO LAWS…
  “… I make Self-Protection my Laws.”
  Invoke this Blessing if you lose a risk. You may either spend 
  your wager ﬁ rst or make your opponent spend his.
  I HAVE NO STRATEGY…
  “… I make the Right to Kill and the Right to Restore Life my 
  Strategy.”
  Invoke this Blessing while meditating on a target (samurai 
  or an object). On your next risk against that target, you 
  know exactly where its weakness lies. Even the weakness of 
  an argument. You gain free wagers equal to your Wisdom on 
  your next risk against that target. You can reveal this weakness 
  to another, but the person you are communicating to does 
  not gain complete understanding. Another samurai can only 
  gain half the your Wisdom in wagers.
  I HAVE NO DESIGNS…
  “… I make Seizing the Opportunity by the Forelock my 
  Designs.”
  When it comes time to make wagers in any contested risk, 
  invoke this Blessing. You may look at your opponent’s 
  wagers before you make your own. Your opponent may not 
  change his wagers after you’ve looked at them. You do not 
  have to show your own wagers. You also cannot reveal your 
  opponent’s wagers to other samurai.
  I HAVE NO MIRACLES…
  “… I make Righteous Laws my Miracle.”
  Invoke this Blessing after dice have been rolled in a risk but 
  before privilege has been declared. You may spend your wager 
  before anyone else.
  I HAVE NO PRINCIPLES…
  “… I make Adaptability to All Circumstances my Principle.”
  Invoke this Blessing before making a risk. You may replace 
  your highest Virtue with your lowest Virtue. You may not 
  replace your Weakness.
  I HAVE NO TACTICS…
  “… I make Emptiness and Fullness my Tactics.”
  ま
  ず
  最
  初
  に
  、
  男
  性
  は
  三
  振
  し
  ま
  す
  。
  
  64
  Invoke this Blessing after privilege is determined but before 
  any wagers are spent. You may spend two wagers in a row 
  (rather than just one at a time). You may only do this once 
  during this risk.
  I HAVE NO TALENT…
  “… I make Ready Wit my Talent.”
  Invoke this Blessing after you have rolled dice in a contested 
  Wisdom risk. Cancel your opponent’s wagers in this risk. 
  Success and failure of the risk is unaﬀ ected, but only you can 
  keep your wagers.
  I HAVE NO FRIENDS…
  “… I make my Mind my Friend.”
  Invoke this Blessing after you have rolled dice in a contested 
  Wisdom risk. Cancel your opponent’s wagers in this risk. 
  Success and failure of the risk is unaﬀ ected, but only you can 
  keep your wagers.
  I HAVE NO ENEMY…
  “… I make Incautiousness my Enemy. “
  Invoke this Blessing and target a samurai. You must be able 
  to name the samurai’s Aspect. Th at samurai cannot use the 
  invoke for that Aspect until next Season. Th e Aspect can still 
  be compelled, but not invoked.
  I HAVE NO ARMOR…
  “… I make Benevolence my Armor.” 
  After taking an Injury, invoke this Blessing. You may reduce 
  that Injury’s rank by three.
  I HAVE NO CASTLE…
  “… I make Immovable Mind my Castle.”
  Invoke this Blessing and pick one opponent during the 
  Gather Dice phase of a contested Prowess risk before any 
  wagers are made. Before you roll for your attack, you may 
  deduct dice from your own pool to force your opponent to 
  deduct dice from his pool, one for one.
  I HAVE NO SWORD…
  “… I make No Mind my Sword.”
  Invoke this Blessing after you have rolled dice in a contested 
  Prowess risk. Cancel your opponent’s wagers in this risk. 
  Success and failure of the risk is unaﬀ ected, but only you can 
  keep your wagers.
  ま
  ず
  最
  初
  に
  、
  男
  性
  は
  三
  振
  し
  ま
  す
  。
  
  65
  Seasons
  Time is an important element in Blood & Honor. It moves forward 
  at a terrible pace. Never hesitating, never resting. Th e passage of time 
  gives characters the chance to grow, to practice, to become more than 
  what they are. Time also allows a Clan the opportunity to grow, to 
  accumulate more land, to gain more honor and more glory.
  Th is chapter focuses on the Seasons mechanic you will use to 
  measure the passage of time in the campaign. As the seasons pass, 
  both your characters and your Clan will grow and change. You can 
  make long-term plans into motion and watch as they come to pass. 
  You will spy on other Clans, build castles, hire vassals to protect your 
  Daimyo, mine metals for weapons, grow crops and prepare exquisite 
  items of ﬁ ne art.
  All of these things require time. More time than is allowed in 
  a single adventure. Days, weeks and months of toil, labor blood 
  and sweat go into a Season Action. Great eﬀ ort for great deeds. To 
  represent the long-term strategies and subtle maneuvers of a Season, 
  we have this chapter.
  The Passage of Time
  When you ﬁ rst sit down to play Blood & Honor, with everybody 
  around the table—character sheets, dice and refreshments ready—the 
  Season has begun. In other words, the ﬁ rst adventure begins the ﬁ rst 
  Season. We’ll assume you’ll be starting with Spring. Remember: you 
  have ninety days before the end of the season. Th at leaves you with 
  plenty of time to get a lot done. 
  Each Season, the Narrator prepares a number of stories (otherwise 
  known as “adventures”). A story, of course, is a ﬁ ctional tale with a 
  beginning, middle, and an end that the characters take part in—for 
  better or worse. Th e Narrator chapter has more information on 
  building stories.
  Characters cannot participate in more than 3 stories per Season. 
  Upkeep of lands and other downtime actions demand attention. 
  If the players take up too much time with stories, the Narrator 
  may determine they cannot spend time handling other important 
  activities.
  Season Actions
  At the end of each Season, the Daimyo prepares his Season 
  Actions.
  C h a p t e r  8
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  66
  A Daimyo has a number of Season Actions equal to the number 
  of Provinces he controls. In other words, as a starting Daimyo, your 
  Clan Lord controls one Province. Th is means your Daimyo has 
  one Season Action. As he conquers additional Provinces, he gains 
  additional Season Actions.
  Th e Daimyo and his oﬃ  cers all have Season Actions they may 
  perform. Th ese represent long-term goals for the Clan.
  Provinces
  Every Daimyo owns his own Province. A Province is an 
  ambiguous amount of land controlled by the Daimyo. Some 
  Provinces are large while others are small. For this system, the actual 
  size of the land is unimportant. Th e fact that your Daimyo owns land 
  establishes his authority and power.
  (I like abstract. Gives players room to be creative with their stuﬀ . 
  If you want to be more precise, there are a ton of other games with 
  similar systems that deal with speciﬁ cs. Use those.)
  Every Province should also have a name. I’m not going to force 
  you to name your Province, but if you don’t, you’ll look awfully silly 
  when someone at a party asks you for your Province’s name and you 
  say, “Oh, uh, we haven’t named it yet.”
  
  67
  Holdings
  Your Province has a number of Holdings that represent your 
  Daimyo’s accumulated wealth. Each Season, your Holdings provide 
  either Resources or Actions (or, sometimes, both). Keep your 
  Province’s Holdings in mind as we go through the Season.
  A Province may only have up to ten Holdings. Once you reach 
  that total, you have to start looking for new lands.
  The Season
  Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. When you ﬁ rst sit down 
  to play the game, you should start in the Spring Season. You’ll play 
  one or two adventures, then move on to the Summer Season. Th en 
  Autumn, then Winter, then back to Spring. Circles, circles, circles. 
  Four Seasons constitute a Year and at the end of the Year, your 
  character ages.
  Th at’s how the Seasons work. Th e slow and inevitable crawl of 
  time.
  Actions
  Every Season, your Daimyo can take a number of “Season 
  Actions.” He can use his Season Actions for the following tasks.
  1. Provincial Improvement: Make your Province a better 
  place by building important structures
  2. Craft Items: Th e Daimyo can direct the resources of the 
  Province to create items of beauty
  3. Personal Training: Make yourself a better samurai by 
  adding further details to your character sheet
  4. Espionage: Your Daimyo can spy on other Provinces in 
  preparation for their innevitable defeat
  Provincial Improvement
  Your Daimyo may construct a Holding in his lands, providing his 
  samurai the beneﬁ t of that Holding when it is complete.
  Building a Holding requires a Season Action.
  A Province may only have a total of ten Holdings.
  A brand new Holding begins at rank 1: a modest structure. 
  However, with further Season Actions, you can improve your 
  Holdings, increasing their ranks.
  A Holding may not have a rank greater than three.
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  68
  Improving a Holding requires a Season Action.
  BLACKSMITH
  Men pull iron and other metals from the ground and 
  blacksmiths forge them into deadly weapons. Th e quality of 
  your Clan’s weapons relies on the Blacksmith.
  With a Blacksmith, your samurai are all equipped with 
  normal quality katana and other weaponry (see Equipment, 
  below). Each Season, your Blacksmith can take a Season 
  Action to provide one of your samurai with a normal quality 
  weapon. Th e rank of your Blacksmith equals the number of 
  normal quality weapons and other equipment your samurai 
  can make each Season. 
  For example, if you have a rank 1 Blacksmith, as a Season 
  Action, he can provide one of your samurai with one katana.
  A Blacksmith of higher rank can produce better quality 
  equipment. Each rank allows him to increase the rank of your 
  equipment by one level of quality.
  For example, a rank 2 Blacksmith can make two normal 
  quality katana or a single ﬁ ne quality katana. A rank 3 
  Blacksmith can make three normal quality katana or one 
  exquisite quality katana.
  BUDDHIST TEMPLE
  If your Daimyo supports a Buddhist Temple, your samurai 
  gain a number of bonus Wisdom wagers, per Season, equal to 
  the rank of the Buddhist Temple. Th e Temple only provides 
  one, two or three wagers for all the samurai to use, so use 
  them carefully.
  Also, a Temple provides your samurai with Meditation Points 
  (see Magic & Religion). It provides s a number of Meditation 
  Points equal to its rank. 
  DOJO
  If your Daimyo supports a Dojo, your samurai gain a number 
  of bonus Prowess wagers, per Season, equal to the rank of the 
  Dojo. Th e College only provides one, two or three wagers for 
  all the samurai to use, so use them carefully.
  Th e Dojo provides another beneﬁ t: it provides a number 
  of free Season Actions for the sole purpose of the Self 
  Improvement Season Action. Th ese Actions do not count 
  toward the maximum number of Actions that may be spent 
  for Self Improvement (see Self Improvement as a Season 
  Action, below).
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  69
  GAMBLING DEN
  If your Daimyo supports a Gambling Den, your samurai gain 
  a number of bonus Cunning wagers, per Season, equal to 
  the rank of the Gambling Den. Th e Den only provides one, 
  two or three wagers for all the samurai to use, so use them 
  carefully.
  Also, the Gambling Den provides additional koku per 
  Season… and may produce more if you take a gamble. Th e 
  Den provides one koku per rank of the Den. If the players 
  want to gamble, they can earn two additional koku if they 
  can roll a 5 or a 6 on a number of dice equal to the rank of 
  the Den. If they do not roll a 5 or 6, they lose the koku they 
  gambled.
  GARRISON 
  A Garrison allows you to hold troops in your Province. 
  A Garrison allows a rank of Ashigaru for each rank of the 
  Garrison. (See War for more information.)
  GEISHA HOUSE
  If your Daimyo supports a Geisha House, your samurai gain 
  a number of bonus Beauty wagers, per Season, equal to the 
  rank of the Geisha House. Th e Geisha House only provides 
  one, two or three wagers for all the samurai to use, so use 
  them carefully.
  Also, the Geisha House provides your samurai with a 
  number of rumors equal to its rank. A rumor is a Wisdom-
  based wager that allows the samurai to say things are true 
  this Season. Like normal wagers, rumors cannot be used to 
  contradict facts already established in the game. If a samurai 
  wants to use a wager from the Geisha House to say the 
  Daimyo of a rival Clan is secretly a drunk, or a coward or 
  even dead (and being portrayed by his kagemusha), he may 
  do so.
  RICE FARM
  Where the peasants toil to generate the real keystone of the 
  economy. Rice Farms produce rice, which is essential to a 
  samurai economy. 
  A Rice Farm produces two Koku per rank per Season.
  SAKE WORKS
  If your Daimyo supports a Sake Works, your samurai gain a 
  number of bonus Courage wagers, per Season, equal to the 
  rank of the Sake Works. Th e Sake Works only provides one, 
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  70
  two or three wagers for all the samurai to use, so use them 
  carefully.
  Also, the Sake Works provides an additional beneﬁ t. 
  Providing Ashigaru with sake (see Violence for more 
  information) increases their morale, making them more 
  eﬀ ective warriors. Using a Season of sake increases the rank of 
  any Ashigaru Troop by one.
  SHINTO SHRINE
  If your Daimyo supports a Shinto Shrine, you gain a number 
  of Blessings (see Religion & Magic) equal to the Shrine’s 
  rank. In other words, if you have a rank 2 Shrine, your 
  samurai share two Blessings among themselves. A Province 
  may have more than one Shrine, thus providing more 
  Blessings for your samurai to share.
  SILK FARM
  Silk is the fabric of the nobility. In Old Japan, there are 
  so many Silk Farm, samurai blow their noses with silk 
  handkerchiefs and throw them away. Every Season, a 
  Silk Farm produces enough Silk to clothe your Daimyo’s 
  Oﬃ  cers… and a little more. 
  If your Daimyo supports a Silk Farm, your samurai gain a 
  number of bonus Beauty wagers, per Season, equal to the 
  rank of the Silk Farm. Th e Farm only provides one, two or 
  three wagers for all the samurai to use, so use them carefully.
  Also, the Silk Farm provides a number of Gifts each Season 
  equal to its rank. A Gift, when presented, adds a number of 
  free wagers to any social risk equal to its own rank. A Silk 
  Farm produces a number of Gift Ranks equal to its own rank, 
  so a rank 3 Farm can make three rank 1 Gifts or one rank 3 
  Gift, as the Daimyo wishes.
  STABLES
  Where grooms breed and care for horses. Your Clan’s horses 
  have a rank equal to the rank of your Stables. Any horse-
  based risks gain a number of free wagers equal to the rank of 
  your Stables.
  SUMO SCHOOL
  If your Daimyo supports a Sumo School, your samurai gain 
  a number of bonus Strength wagers, per Season, equal to the 
  rank of the Sumo School. Th e Sumo School only provides 
  one, two or three wagers for all the samurai to use, so use 
  them carefully.
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  71
  Th e Sumo School provides for an additional beneﬁ t: the 
  samurai may ignore any weapon Injury not caused by a 
  katana. Your samurai may do this a number of times per 
  Season equal to the rank of the Sumo School.
  (Don’t go jumping in front of cannons or perform other acts 
  of stupidity, trying to abuse a rule’s literal text, thus violating 
  the spirit of the rule. Only a wanker would do that. Lose 
  three Honor.)
  Craft Items
  Certain Holdings can produce Equipment. Th is represents your 
  Province spending time, eﬀ ort and resources to create weapons and 
  art that further the goals of your Clan.
  A Holding may make a number of Items equal to its rank. Th us, 
  a rank 1 Holding may only make a single Equipment. All such 
  Equipment are Good Quality; they provide a bonus to any samurai 
  who uses them.
  If a Holding has a rank greater than rank 1, it may produce 
  Equipment of greater Quality than Normal. For example, a rank 2 
  Holding can produce a rank 2 Equipment (Fine Quality) or it can 
  produce two Items of Good Quality.
  Remember: if your Province does not have certain Holdings (the 
  Blacksmith, for example), all Equipment your Province provides are 
  
  72
  only Normal. You must have speciﬁ c Holdings to gain Equipment of 
  Good, Fine or Exquisite Quality.
  BENEFITS OF QUALITY
  Each level of Quality above normal gives the person using 
  the Equipment a bonus die for any appropriate risks. A ﬁ ne 
  kimono, for example, provides two bonus dice for Beauty 
  risks. An Exquisite Sword provides three bonus dice for any 
  Prowess risks.
   
  Normal No Bonus
   
  Good 1 die
   
  Fine 2 dice
   
  Exquisite 3 dice
  Personal Improvement
  Personal Training allows you to add elements to your character 
  sheet. 
  Your Daimyo may use a Season Action to give your character an 
  additional Giri Rank. 
  He can also spend a Season Action to add an Aspect to your sheet. 
  You are limited to the total number of Aspects you may have on your 
  sheet. You may only have two Aspects plus a number of bonus Aspects 
  equal to your Wisdom. No Wisdom? No bonus Aspects.
  Th e Dojo Holding can spend Season Actions for Personal 
  Training. See the Dojo, in Holdings, above.
  Swords
  “If on your journey, you encounter God… God will be cut.”
  — Hattori Hanzo, Kill Bill, Volume 1
  It was said a samurai could see his soul in the reﬂ ection of his 
  blade. It has also been said that the daisho (long sword and short 
  sword) were the only two friends a samurai could rely upon.
  To a samurai, nothing is more sacred than his swords. As such, 
  I think its important to include a section on swords and a few 
  mechanics that make them more than just bonus dice.
  Katana and Wakizashi
  A samurai carries two Swords: a katana (long sword) and a 
  wakizashi (short sword). Both Swords may be considered Quality 
  Swords.
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  73
  Creating a Sword
  Only a Blacksmith may make a Sword.
  Th e Quality of a Sword is measured by the rank of the Blacksmith. 
  • A rank 1 Blacksmith may make a Normal Quality Sword. 
  Normal Quality Swords have no bonus Qualities. 
  • A rank 2 Blacksmith may make a Good Quality Sword. A Fine 
  Quality Sword may have one Quality.
  • A rank 3 Blacksmith may make a Fine Quality Sword. A Fine 
  Quality Sword may have two Qualities.
  • A rank 4 Blacksmith may make an Exquisite Quality Sword. An 
  Exquisite Quality Sword may have three Qualities.
  Quality
  Each point of Quality is a slot that can hold a diﬀ erent kind of 
  beneﬁ t. Here are the beneﬁ ts a sword can carry.
  BLADE
  Th e quality of the handle determines the control a samurai 
  has over the blade. If the Sword has a quality Blade as a 
  Beneﬁ t, it provides a number of Free Raises equal to the 
  Quality of the Blade. 
  CURSED
  Some swords of legend carry a Curse. If your samurai carries 
  a Cursed sword, at the beginning of each game session, the 
  Narrator adds a number of Honor Points to the pool equal to 
  the Quality of the sword.
  Sample Curses include: you may never sleep in the same bed 
  twice, you may never ﬁ nd true love, you will betray the one 
  you love the most, etc. Every Curse must also have a method 
  for removing it.
  A samurai cannot carry any other sword if he carries a Cursed 
  sword. Not until the Curse has been lifted or fulﬁ lled or the 
  sword is destroyed.
  HANDLE
  Th e quality of the handle determines the control a samurai 
  has over the blade.]If you invest in the sword’s Handle, it 
  allows a number of Free Strikes equal to the Quality of its 
  Handle.
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  74
  LEGEND
  Swords can also carry Legends. A Legend is a beneﬁ t from 
  the Advantage list in Chapter 1. A sword may only carry one 
  Legend, regardless of its Quality.
  REPUTATION
  A sword can also carry a Reputation: Reputations from the 
  original owner of the sword carried. For example, if you have 
  the Reputation “Great Duelist,” your sword can also carry 
  that Reputation. If you had the Reputation, “Great Hunter,” 
  your sword can carry that Reputation as well.
  Th e Clan Sword
  A Clan’s Executioner carries the Clan’s Sword. Th e Clan’s Sword 
  has a number of Sword Qualities equal to the Executioner’s rank. Your 
  Daimyo determines which Qualities the Sword has.
  Breaking a Sword
  A Sword breaks if the samurai holding it does not beat 10 on his 
  roll and his opponent spends one wager. So, to break an opponent’s 
  Sword, you must win privilege and have a wager and your opponent 
  must roll less than 10.
  You must spend a number of wagers equal to the Quality of the 
  Sword. A Normal Sword costs one wager to break. A Good Sword 
  costs two wagers to break. A Fine Sword costs three wagers to break. 
  An Exquisite Sword costs four wagers to break.
  Koku
  In Old Japan, the currency is rice. Without rice, everything falls 
  apart. Th erefore, rice is the most valuable commodity.
  A Koku represents enough rice to feed a samurai for one year 
  (approximately 278.3 litres or 73.52 gallons). Realistically, each 
  Province (or han) should generate around ten thousand koku. Th e 
  largest han in Old Japan generated around one million koku. Th at’s a 
  bit much math for a roleplaying game. So, we’re going to pretend that 
  generating koku in the tens rather than the thousands is the standard.
  Each Season, your Province generates Koku—if you have a Rice 
  Farm, that is. I’m assuming your lands generate enough Koku to keep 
  everything running. Th e Koku you deal with (from Rice Farms and 
  一 
  つ
  の
  単
  語
  が
  冬
  を
  暖
  か
  く
  す
  る
  こ
  と
  が
  で
  き
  ま
  す
  。
  
  75
  Gambling Dens, for example) is the excess you can use to purchase 
  additional Holdings, equipment, etc.
  Oﬃ  cers & Koku
  I assume all Oﬃ  cers are well paid, 
  have castles and staﬀ  of their own 
  and are far from impoverished. In 
  their Daimyo’s lands, they have no 
  need to pay for anything. If they 
  need a horse, they take it from the 
  Stables. If they need a sword, they 
  take it from the Blacksmith. Th eir 
  Daimyo provides everything they need.
  But additional Koku provides 
  a samurai with funds above and 
  beyond his needs. If the Daimyo’s 
  farms produce extra Koku, it is the 
  Seneschal’s duty to hand it out to 
  the Oﬃ  cers who deserve it.
  At the End of the Year, 
  Oﬃ  cers can spend any 
  additional Koku they may have 
  on just about anything they want. Want a new kimono 
  and you don’t have a Silk Farm? Koku replaces that need. Want a new 
  Sword and your Blacksmith is busy? Koku replaces that need.
  Oﬃ  cers may also spend Koku to make their own vassals happier. 
  Any Koku spent on vassals (such as the General’s Ashigaru, the Spy 
  Master’s spies or the Bodyguard’s personal guard) gives that Oﬃ  cer a 
  bonus equal to the Koku spent.
  An Oﬃ  cer cannot spend more Koku than his rank.
  HATAMOTO (GENERAL)
  Koku adds to the General’s Troops. Every Koku increases 
  their rank by one until the end of the Season.
  KARO (SENESCHAL)
  Koku adds to the Seneschal’s Staﬀ , adding one rank per 
  Koku.
  KAISHAKU (EXECUTIONER)
  Koku further motivates the Executioner, making him a more 
  threatening individual. Each Koku adds to the dice he gains 
  for intimidation. 
  
  76
  ONIWABAN (SPY MASTER)
  If a Spy Master gets Koku, he can spend it on his agents, 
  adding to the number of times he can learn secrets.
  ONMYŌJI (SPIRITUAL ADVISOR)
  Beneﬁ t: You may give your Daimyo’s Oﬃ  cers a number of 
  Blessings each Season equal to your Giri Rank. See Magic & 
  Religion for more information.
  Donations to the local temples and shrines (through the 
  Onmyoji) gives the Spiritual Advisor more Blessings. One 
  additional Blessing per Koku spent.
  TAKUMI (COURTIER)
  Koku gives the Courtier more bribes, thus earning him an 
  additional favor per Koku spent.
  YOJIMBO (BODYGUARD)
  Additional Koku increases the morale of the Bodyguard’s 
  Samurai Guardsmen. Each Koku increases their rank by one.
  Equipment & Koku
  If a samurai has Koku, I assume he has enough resources to pay 
  for any mundane needs. A night at the inn, a bowl of rice balls, sake, 
  whatever he needs. Remember: one Koku is enough rice to feed a 
  samurai for a year. Th at one Koku represents all of his needs for an 
  entire year. Fiddling over the cost of a night at wayside inn is just silly. 
  If he needs a new kimono, he gets one. It doesn’t give him any 
  bonuses and it is just a Normal Quality kimono, but it will do. A 
  samurai receives his equipment from his Daimyo. He does not have 
  to pay for his sword or his horse or his armor. His Daimyo expects 
  him to ﬁ ght for the Province, therefore, the Daimyo provides him the 
  proper equipment to do just that.
  Usually, your Daimyo provides you with Normal Equipment. 
  Th is provides no bonus or penalty. However, you may seek out 
  ﬁ ner equipment… but you need to know where to look. Famous 
  blacksmiths can provide ﬁ ne or even exquisite swords and armor, but 
  they are often diﬃ  cult to locate. (In other words, it’s an adventure 
  hook.)
  Th e quality of your equipment is important. Equipment comes in 
  four categories, listed below.
  Poor equipment includes anything found on the battleﬁ eld, left-
  over or otherwise scavenged. If your samurai has poor equipment, he 
  一 
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  の
  単
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  が
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  る
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  と
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  す
  。
  
  77
  gains the tag Poorly Equipped. Any other samurai can 
  tag you for two bonus dice on any appropriate risk.
  Normal Equipment provides no bonuses or 
  penalties. A samurai can purchase Normal Equipment 
  as long as he has one Koku. One Koku lasts him the 
  entire year and covers all of his costs.
  Good Equipment provides a bonus of one die to any 
  appropriate risk and costs one Koku, regardless of what 
  it is.
  Fine equipment provides a bonus of two dice to 
  any appropriate risk and costs two Koku, regardless of 
  what it is.
  Exquisite equipment provides three bonus dice to 
  any appropriate risk and costs three Koku, regardless of 
  what it is.
  Finally, all Equipment lasts one Year. Th en, it must 
  be replaced. Th e only exception to this rule is Swords. 
  Swords last until they are broken.
  Espionage
  Your Daimyo is capable of Espionage Actions. 
  Th ese allow you to spy upon and sabotage other 
  Daimyos. When the Daimyo commits an Espionage 
  Action, he sends one or more spies out to gather 
  information and bring it back. Espionage actions are 
  dangerous. You can easily lose your spy if he is caught, 
  or worse, have your spy turn on you, becoming a 
  traitor in your midst.
  Also, to be clear: your Daimyo cannot perform 
  Espionage Actions without an Oniwaban.
  How Espionage Actions Work
  Unlike most elements of this game, I highly suggest 
  all Espionage rolls be made in secret. Th is adds an 
  important element of mystery to the game. Was my 
  Action successful? If you can’t see the roll, you don’t 
  know. If you don’t even know what roll you made, you 
  won’t even have an idea if it was successful.
  Every Season, your Daimyo can use one or more 
  of his Season Actions to perform Espionage. He gains 
  
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  a bonus number of Espionage Actions equal to his Oniwaban’s Giri 
  Rank.
  If you want to perform an Espionage Action, you make a 
  contested risk against your enemy. An Espionage Action is a contested 
  Cunning risk using the Oniwaban’s Cunning as a base. Each rank of 
  Spy Network also adds a die to the Espionage Action.
  To represent Espionage Actions, we use “the ﬁ ve spies” from Sun 
  Tzu’s Art of War. Each Action is represented by a particular kind of 
  spy who performs diﬀ erent kinds of actions and delivers diﬀ erent 
  kinds of information.
  For example, my Daimyo wants to spend all three of his Season 
  Actions on Espionage. He chooses two of these Actions to be Local 
  Spies while the third will be a Doomed Spy.
  Another example. Th e Daimyo decides to commit one Espionage 
  Action to a Surviving Spy, another to a Local Spy and his third to a 
  Converted Spy.
  Th e Five Spies are listed below and detail the kind of Espionage 
  Actions you can commit.
  Th e Five Spies
  “When all ﬁ ve are used, and no one knows their Way, it is 
  called the divine organization, and is the ruler’s treasure.”
  — Sun Tzu, Th e Art of War
  For this Espionage system, we are going to employ Sun Tzu’s “Five 
  Spies.” 
  Each time you use an Espionage Action, you employ one of the 
  Five Spies. Th e information you get depends on which of the Spies 
  you use.
  Local Spies: Employing local members of your own Province to 
  maintain secrecy and intelligence. Th is includes farmers, merchants, 
  samurai and others. It is important that the spies remain ignorant of 
  each other. No spy can know who is also a spy.
  Inward Spies: Making use of our enemy’s oﬃ  cers.
  Converted Spies: Spies we have captured from the enemy who are 
  now reporting to us instead of their former masters.
  Doomed Spies: Spies we send to our enemy with the purpose of 
  getting caught and spreading false information.
  Surviving Spies: Spies who inﬁ ltrate our enemy’s borders and 
  bring back information.
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  Each spy accomplishes a diﬀ erent kind of Espionage Action, 
  providing the Daimyo with diﬀ erent information. Let’s take a look at 
  how to use each of the diﬀ erent spies.
  Local Spies
  Local Spies provide us with information in our own lands 
  that we might not gather otherwise. Th ey also provide us with 
  counterintelligence: an important factor in maintaining our own 
  secrets.
  Th e number of Local Spies we have active at any time in our own 
  Province provides the rank of Security an enemy spy must overcome 
  to gain information about our own lands. For every Local Spy present 
  in our lands, we may roll three dice against any inﬁ ltration attempts 
  by foreign spies.
  Local Spies may make wagers to produce additional eﬀ ects. For 
  example, if we catch an enemy spy in our 
  lands, we may make him a Converted Spy 
  who will send us information about our 
  enemy. Th e number of Seasons he remains 
  in our enemy’s lands (before he is discovered 
  and executed) is equal to the wagers we make 
  at the beginning of the Season.
  Inward Spies
  Inward Spies we use to gain personal 
  information about Daimyos and their 
  Oﬃ  cers. Inward Spies are our “double 
  agents.” Th ey are oﬃ  cers who have been 
  overlooked for promotion, greedy mistresses, 
  jealous wives and husbands and ambitious 
  bodyguards.
  ESPIONAGE ACTION
  You may use Inward Spies to gain 
  knowledge about your enemy’s most 
  trusted samurai—through their character 
  sheets. If an Inward Spy is successful, he can tell us a number 
  of things that are true about our enemy’s character sheets. If 
  an Inward Spy gains privilege, he can tell us one thing that 
  is true about one enemy’s sheet. Each wager gives us another 
  piece of information.
  Local Spies
  Please note that I have 
  taken the liberty to change one 
  of Master Tzu’s Spies: the Local 
  Spy. Instead of employing 
  your enemy’s farmers and 
  merchants, I have transformed 
  them into the basis for 
  which your own security is 
  based. Th is provides a basis 
  for counterintelligence and 
  security in the Daimyo’s lands: 
  an essential mechanic I could 
  not avoid. My apologies to the 
  spirit of Master Tzu and hope 
  he and his admirers—of which 
  I count myself—can forgive 
  me.
  
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  Converted Spies
  If a Spy fails to escape our security, we may convert him to 
  our own side and allow him to return to our enemy with false 
  information.
  If we gain privilege against an enemy’s Espionage Action, we can 
  choose to convert that spy to our own service. Th at spy can return 
  with false information. Also, upon his return to his master’s lands, he 
  can send us information about our enemy. Th e number of Seasons he 
  remains in our enemy’s lands (before he is discovered and executed) is 
  equal to the wagers we make at the beginning of the Season.
  
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  Doomed Spies
  Doomed Spies are sent into enemy lands for the purpose of their 
  capture. Doomed Spies do not know they are being sent in such a 
  manner—their ignorance fuels their authenticity. 
  Doomed Spies always fail to gain privilege and are always captured 
  by our enemy’s security.
  Once captured, our enemy may try to convert them. If he does, 
  they will only feed misinformation to our enemy. If he wants to know 
  what Virtue is our weakness, he will give false information. If he 
  wants to know one of our Aspects, he will give false information. If he 
  wants to know the size of our armies, he will give false information.
  Like the Converted Spy, he will eventually be executed (he’s only 
  good for a number of wagers made by the Local Spies).
  Surviving Spies
  Surviving Spies are those you send into enemy territory to bring 
  back information.
  When you send in Surviving Spies, they roll three dice for each 
  Spy you send. Th us, the more Spies you send, the more likely you will 
  gain privilege.
  If you gain privilege, you can gain information about your enemy.
  If Surviving Spies are captured, they can be made into Converted 
  Spies by our enemy.
  ESPIONAGE ACTIONS
  Surviving Spies can take two Espionage Actions:
  Information: You can gather information about your enemy’s 
  lands. If you gain privilege, you learn one thing about your 
  enemy’s Holdings, production, or Season Actions.
  Sabotage: You can sabotage construction of a Holding or 
  any other Season Action. You must identify which samurai’s 
  actions you want to sabotage. Th e Narrator will then 
  randomly determine (through dice rolls or random number 
  picking) which Action is sabotaged.
  Last Word on Espionage
  As I said above, I highly suggest making Espionage Actions the 
  only secret rolls in the game. If all other rolls are above board, making 
  Espionage a complete secret (the Narrator making all the rolls behind 
  a screen or whatever) makes them unique. Or, if you like, you can 
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  make them above board with privilege like every other roll in the 
  game. 
  It’s up to you.
  End of the Year
  Another important date. Th e End of the Year.
  And, oh yeah, you should know something. Winter sucks.
  Th e winters in Japan are not kind. Cold and terrible. Ah, but 
  Spring will come soon.
  Soon…
  In Winter, samurai mark the end of the Year by looking back at 
  their accomplishments and defeats. But more importantly, each and 
  every one of them take one more step toward inevitable death.
  Age
  On your character sheet, you’ll ﬁ nd a space for Age. When you 
  created your character, you were instructed to roll one d6 and write 
  that number there. It is the end of the Year. Time to add to that total.
  At the End of the Year, each samurai rolls one d6 and adds those 
  Age Points to his Age.
  When your samurai’s Age reaches 60 Points or higher, your 
  character advances to the next Phase of his life. Spring to Summer, 
  Summer to Autumn, Autumn to Winter, Winter… to Death.
  Once you reach 60 or higher, erase that total. You now have zero 
  Age Points. At the end of next Year, roll 1d6 and write down your roll 
  in that spot.
  Sex & Children
  Okay, since we’re talking about long term plans, we have to talk 
  about children.
  Any sexual encounter between male and female characters presents 
  the opportunity for pregnancy at the end of the Season.
  Th e players involved both roll a die. If both roll a 1-2, 3-4, or 5-6, 
  the woman gets pregnant. Th at is, if both players roll a 1 or 2; or if 
  both players roll a 3 or 4; or if both players roll a 5 or 6. Th at makes 
  a 33% chance of intercourse resulting in pregnancy. Two samurai can 
  also use a Season Action (one for each) to produce oﬀ spring. Th at 
  way, you don’t have to roll.
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  Pregnancy lasts three Seasons. At the end of the 
  third Season, the baby is born. Also, the mother adds 
  one die of Age Points to her character sheet. At the age 
  of sixteen, a child can enter play as a rank 1 Vassal, Son 
  or Daughter. Make the usual rolls for Age as an adult, 
  outlined in the section above.
  A Child (rank 1 Vassal) has one Season Action. 
  He can take any Action you can. But, he’s still a rank 
  1 Vassal. He needs training to become an NPC. 
  Children train just like all other Vassals. One Season at 
  a time. As soon as your Child Vassal becomes an NPC, 
  he gains Virtues, Aspects and everything else. Even his 
  own Vassals. All he’s missing is land of his own.
  And who do you think will give it to him?
  Spoilage
  At the end of the Year, any Resources you cannot 
  store are lost: they were used to repair existing 
  structures during the harsh Winter, used for bribes, 
  stolen or spoiled. Either way, they are gone.
  Also, all Equipment the samurai have is gone. 
  Horses, kimonos and everything else. Only Swords last 
  through the years.
  Phase to Phase
  When your character moves from a Spring to 
  Summer or a Summer to Fall or Fall to Winter, he 
  may make certain changes. He can change his Name, 
  change Aspects and even switch his Virtues. Listed 
  below are all the changes your character can make 
  when he moves from Phase to Phase.
  Name
  You may, if you like, change your Public Name. 
  Changing who you are. Changing your Destiny. 
  Taking on a new path.
  Aspects
  When you move to a new Phase, you also gain new 
  Aspects.
  
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  Spring to Summer: gain two Aspects
  Summer to Autumn: gain one new Aspect and one Winter Aspect.
  Autumn to Winter: gain one new Aspect and two new Winter 
  Aspects.
  Winter Aspects
  A Winter Aspect has only a Compel and no Invoke. It must be an 
  Aspect like “Bad Leg” or “Blind Eye” or “Quivering Hands.” When 
  your character moves into Autumn, you gain one Winter Aspect. 
  When your character moves into Winter, you get two more.
  Contacts
  You also get to make a new Contact. Choose anyone you like.
  Virtues
  When your character enters a new Phase, he may switch his 
  Virtues. For example, as your character grows older, he may switch his 
  Wisdom and Strength or perhaps his Prowess and Cunning.
  You may switch your Virtues as you wish, but remember, you 
  always have a Weakness.
  Death
  Winter Phase. You’ve reached 60 Age points at the End of the 
  Year. Time for your character to pass away.
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  War
  Warfare is an important part of samurai tragedy. In nearly every 
  tale, characters are either at war, go to war or suﬀ er the scars of it. Th e 
  system in this chapter provides you with a way to present warfare in 
  a way that is narrative rather than tactical. Yes, tactics can come into 
  play, but more importantly, it allows the players and Narrator to tell 
  the story of the conﬂ ict. Th ere is also an element of arbitrariness in 
  the system—which players can modify—allowing for a sense of real 
  danger and helplessness in the midst of epic struggles.
  The War Rank
  Your Daimyo does not live in a vacuum. He has neighbors. Living 
  on a tiny island with very few resources, each neighbor represents an 
  opportunity for expansion. His lands are rich and well-developed. You 
  could take them and make them your own. Of course, your neighbor 
  is thinking the very same thing about your Daimyo’s lands.
  War is inevitable. It will happen. It’s only a matter of time.
  To represent this fact, each of your 
  neighbors has a War Rank representing how 
  close you are to outright warfare with that 
  neighbor. Th e lower the rank, the further 
  you are from War. Th e higher the rank, the 
  closer you get to War.
  You only have a War Rank with 
  neighbors you meet and interact with 
  during the campaign. If you have no contact 
  with samurai from the Bizen Province, you 
  have no War Rank with that Daimyo.
  Escalation
  Once you have established contact with samurai from another 
  Province, you automatically receive a War Rank 1 with that Province. 
  Every Season, that War Rank increases by 1 unless you take direct 
  actions to stop it from going up. You can also take actions to decrease 
  the War Rank between you and another Province… but the samurai 
  from the other Province may do the same—both increasing and 
  decreasing the War Rank.
  During your game, when you interact with samurai from other 
  Provinces, your actions may (or may not) increase the War Rank 
  with that Province. Listed below are all the ways you can increase and 
  C h a p t e r  9
  War Before 10
  Question: Can you declare 
  War before the War Rank 
  reaches 10?
  Answer: Yes, you can. 
  Reaching 10 means War is 
  inevitable.
  
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  decrease the War Rank with another 
  Province.
  Duels
  A duel with a samurai from another 
  Province can either increase or decrease 
  your War Rank with that Province.
  If the samurai face oﬀ  in a Friendly 
  Duel (see Violence), the War Rank 
  decreases by one.
  If the samurai face oﬀ  in a Deadly 
  Duel (again, see Violence), the War 
  Rank increases by the Giri Rank of the 
  samurai who died.
  Failed Espionage Actions
  If a Province sends a Spy into 
  another Province and fails in his 
  mission, the War Rank between the 
  two Provinces increases by one.
  Gifts
  If you send a Gift to another Province, the War Rank between the 
  two Provinces decreases by a rank equal to the rank of the Gift.
  Gifts can include Resources. If you send Resources, decrease the 
  War Rank equal to the number of Resources you send.
  Insults
  If you insult the Honor of another Clan, the War Rank increases 
  by one.
  Murder
  If a samurai from another Province is murdered in your Province, 
  the War Rank increases by a number of ranks equal to his own Giri 
  Rank.
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  Other Actions
  During the campaign, a samurai may commit an oﬀ ense that 
  justiﬁ es increasing the War Rank. You know those pesky players; 
  always coming up with something you and I never thought of…
  Declaring War
  One the War Rank between two Provinces reaches 10, War is 
  inevitable. It will occur the next Season.
  War is a Season Action. It is the only Season Action a Daimyo 
  and his Oﬃ  cers can take for that Season. All resources and eﬀ orts are 
  dedicated to War.
  Th at is, if you declare War, you may take no other Season Actions.
  Calculations
  When determining the outcome of a War, we must calculate the 
  Advantages each side has. For this, we shall look to Sun Tzu and his 
  Art of War. His wisdom will give us the outcome.
  
  88
  Winning one of the calculations means you gain Advantage 
  Points. Whichever side has the most Advantage Points at the end of 
  the calculations will most likely be the victor.
  Although, some other factors may come into play after the 
  calculations are made…
  THE FIRST CALCULATION: THE MORAL HIGH GROUND
  Whose government is able to establish a moral cause and gain 
  the whole people’s enthusiastic cooperation?
  Th e Courtier of each Daimyo makes a Beauty risk. (Speeches 
  may be necessary from the players. Your choice.) Th e one 
  who gains privilege adds his wagers 
  as Advantages. Th e loser only adds 
  half his wagers, rounded up, as 
  Advantages.
  THE SECOND CALCULATION: 
  GENERALS
  Whose generals are most 
  capable?
  Next, determine the Giri 
  Rank of the Generals. 
  Each General gains a 
  number of Advantage 
  Points equal to his rank.
  THE THIRD 
  CALCULATION: HEAVEN 
  AND EARTH
  Who can take advantage 
  of the beneﬁ ts of Heaven 
  and Earth?
  Now, the Oracle for 
  each Daimyo makes a 
  Wisdom risk (Aspects 
  and other beneﬁ ts are 
  appropriate). Th e one 
  who gains privilege adds 
  his wagers as Advantages. 
  Th e loser only adds half 
  his wagers, rounded up, 
  as Advantages.
  Do Holdings such as 
  the Sake House add to 
  Courage in War?
  Yes. All of them inﬂ uence 
  their appropriate virtues in 
  war.
  
  89
  THE FOURTH CALCULATION: ORDERS
  Whose orders will be carried out most successfully?
  Each General makes a Cunning risk. Th e one who gains privilege 
  adds his wagers as Advantages. Th e loser only adds half his wagers, 
  rounded up, as Advantages.
  THE FIFTH CALCULATION: COURAGE
  Whose army is strongest?
  Add the total ranks of Ashigaru for each side. Each rank of 
  Ashigaru is an Advantage Point. Th e Yojimbo’s Guardsmen do not 
  add to this Calculation.
  THE SIXTH CALCULATION: TRAINING
  Whose troops have the best training?
  All Oﬃ  cers make a Prowess risk (target number 10, as usual). Th e 
  victor keeps all of his while the defeated only keep half. Th e wagers 
  made by each side count as Advantages.
  THE SEVENTH CALCULATION: MORALE
  Which Army’s Rewards and Punishments are Fairest and Strictest?
  All Oﬃ  cers make a Courage risk (target number 10, as usual). Th e 
  number of wagers made by each side count as Advantages.
  Waging War
  Once the Advantages have 
  been calculated, it is time for 
  War.
  Wars occur in Waves. Each 
  Wave is a Season.
  During the Wave, each 
  side uses its Advantages to 
  cause casualties. Each player 
  writes down his orders secretly 
  and hands them to the 
  Narrator. Th e damage done 
  by Advantages is revealed all 
  at once.
  An Advantage can cause 
  one of your opponent’s 
  Ashigaru to lose one rank. If 
  an Ashigaru is reduced to zero 
  ranks, it is destroyed.
  
  90
  Or, if you prefer, you may use an Advantage to cause damage to 
  your opponent’s Province. You can reduce the rank of any Holding by 
  one for each Advantage you use. If a Holding is reduced to zero ranks, 
  it is destroyed.
  Both Ashigaru and Guardsmen may use their ability to protect 
  Oﬃ  cers from Injury. Th ey lose a rank for doing so.
  You may also use Advantages to give Injuries to prominent 
  samurai and NPCs on the opponent’s side. Each Advantage is a rank 
  1 Injury. You may use further Advantages to aggravate Injuries.
  End of the Wave
  At the end of each Wave, either side may surrender. Surrenders 
  must be negotiated. If one side is unhappy with the negotiations, War 
  may continue for another Wave and another Season.
  When all casualties are counted, recount each side’s Advantages 
  and perform another Wave.
  Remember: no Season Actions other than War may be taken while 
  War is declared.
  “Wow. War Sucks!”
  It costs you Season Actions.
  It costs you Resources.
  It costs you Ashigaru.
  It costs you Oﬃ  cers.
  It costs you Holdings.
  War sucks.
  Consider it carefully.
  Winning the War
  War can end two ways.
  First, one side can surrender. If they do, the winner of the war 
  determines what happens to the loser. Th e Daimyo and his Oﬃ  cers 
  place themselves in the winner’s hands. Or, they can all commit 
  seppuku. Th eir choice. Negotiations should be roleplayed, of course.
  Second, one side can be completely destroyed.
  When War is over, the winner claims the Province of the loser.
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  91
  Player
  Th is chapter is for you, the player. We’re going to talk about how 
  to play the game. You already know the rules (if you read the rest of 
  the book, that is), but now, we’re going to talk about how to use those 
  rules to get the most out of your game.
  Th is chapter has speciﬁ c advice on the Blood & Honor game 
  system, but it also has a bunch of advice on how to use things like 
  your Virtues, aspects and wagers to really milk the system for all it’s 
  worth.
  But, it’s also about troubleshooting. Making sure your game 
  works. For many diﬀ erent reasons, it’s diﬃ  cult to keep a tabletop 
  game together. Real life commitments, jobs, family, and that evil, vile 
  temptress the MMORPG have stolen us from our ﬁ rst and truest 
  love. It’s hard enough to keep a game together. We shouldn’t be 
  sabotaging our own eﬀ orts. So, this section is for you, the player. How 
  to keep your game 
  regular, exciting and 
  fun. And free from 
  nutty gamer drama.
  Th ose who are 
  familiar with Houses 
  of the Blooded may 
  recognize some of 
  this advice. Yes, I’ve 
  cribbed myself. But, 
  there’s also a whole bunch 
  of new advice you’ve 
  never seen before. So, 
  players both new and old, 
  enjoy!
  Communication is the 
  Key
  All too often, I hear the 
  same kind of talk from gamers 
  at conventions and parties and 
  stores. I get asked the same kinds 
  of questions and usually give the same 
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  kinds of answers, and out of all those questions, it seems this one gets 
  asked more than any other.
  “Why do games always go oﬀ  track?”
  Well, in order to solve that problem, we usually have to ask the 
  same questions. “Is the group communicating?” Th e typical answer is 
  “No.”
  So, to curtail 90% of the problems gamers have, I’m giving you a 
  lot of advice that seems simple, but in fact, is actually rather diﬃ  cult. 
  Communication is hard. But, if you use it eﬀ ectively, you can keep 
  your game running. Remember that. It’ll come in handy later.
  A Diﬀ erent Kind of Honor
  Blood & Honor is a bit diﬀ erent than most traditional roleplaying 
  games. With the system, players have a lot more control over the 
  narrative, taking the reins and creating the story themselves. I’ve run 
  entire sessions where, as the Narrator, I didn’t say a word. Dice rolled, 
  risks taken, clues discovered, lives lost… and I didn’t say a word.
  Th at’s because the players have a lot of power in this game. As 
  much power as the game master, if they want it. Now, why would I 
  do a silly thing like that?
  Because I trust you.
  Most roleplaying games are designed with cheaters, wankers and 
  munchkins in mind. Designers put guards in place to keep those 
  people from abusing loopholes. After all, this is a roleplaying game. 
  Loopholes exist. So, instead of putting so many limits on the players 
  that they can’t even breathe, I’ve done the opposite. I’ve put the power 
  directly into your hands. Again, you may ask, why would I do such a 
  thing?
  Because I trust you.
  I trust that you understand it isn’t just the Narrator’s job to 
  make sure everybody’s having fun. It’s everybody’s job to make sure 
  everybody is having fun.
  Whenever I ﬁ nd myself on the other side of the screen, as a player, 
  I inevitably ﬁ nd myself playing the role of Pocket Narrator. Th at 
  is, I engage other players in ways that get them to talk about their 
  character. I put myself in a position where the other characters are in 
  the spotlight, and I do whatever I can to make that moment fun.
  Th e Pocket Narrator. Making sure other people are having fun.
  Now sure, I enjoy my moment in the spotlight as much as 
  everyone else, but it’s my hope that if I spend extra time with the 
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  93
  other players, when it comes their turn to do the same, they will. 
  Why?
  Because it’s everybody’s job to make sure everybody is having fun.
  Finally…
  Now sure, you can take these rules and run trucks through them. 
  Find the best way to make your character better than everybody else’s 
  character. Overpower the session with your ego and take over the 
  whole game. You can do that. Nobody’s really stopping you. After all, 
  the other players are your friends and they don’t want to hurt your 
  feelings.
  But see, I’m not your friend. And I really don’t give a crap about 
  your feelings. So, I get to say this for them.
  If you’re gonna ruin everybody else’s fun, go ﬁ nd yourself another 
  game.
  We’re all adults here. Let’s play like we are.
  Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system, on with the show!
  Bushido
  Th is is the heart of it, right here. Bushido. Th e way of the warrior. 
  A set of rules for noble warriors.
  Much like Feudal Europe developed chivalry as a kind of 
  moral code for knights, bushido developed in much the same way. 
  Bushido is a self-prescribed ethic written and reﬁ ned by the samurai 
  themselves. But bushido has one key diﬀ erence that diﬀ erentiates 
  itself from its Western counterpart: chivalry derives its mandate from 
  religion; bushido stems from philosophy.
  In the past, the warrior class of Japan had conquered all and 
  had its way with the “lesser people.” With no wars to ﬁ ght, warriors 
  turned insightful, looking to defeat inner demons rather than external 
  enemies. Th is lead to a code of conduct that would deﬁ ne Japan even 
  unto the modern era.
  Bushido is seen by its practitioners as a practical result of 
  thousands of years of warfare. Th is is the most eﬃ  cient and proper 
  way for a samurai to act. A samurai who ignores bushido seeks to 
  undermine his own success in the world and the success of his family 
  and Clan. Th ose who look outside its precepts are not just immoral 
  but are fools.
  Th is isn’t to say that practitioners of bushido do not recognize 
  the need for innovation. On the contrary, one of bushido’s most 
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  important virtues is the conformity to truth. As knowledge of the 
  world expands, what we know about the world does as well. If a 
  samurai tries to excel without knowledge of the world around him, 
  his ignorance will punish him sooner or later.
  While many have made valiant attempts to codify bushido, it 
  remains a diﬃ  cult task. Bushido is a philosophy: a living process of 
  thought and perception and action. Th e best I can do is list the “seven 
  virtues” of bushido most agreed upon by scholars. Th ese are typical 
  but not exclusive and many would even argue these. But bushido is 
  an argument. It is not an answer, but a question. “What does duty 
  demand from a samurai?” Th at is bushido’s question. Many feel these 
  seven virtues are the answer. 
  How your own samurai interprets these virtues says much about 
  his own approach to bushido. Samurai argue about bushido all the 
  time. No samurai has a casual attitude toward this subject.
  I will give no further words other than the words themselves. No 
  deﬁ nitions. Th e ambiguity leads to questions and questions lead to 
  truth. Following another’s path only leads to where he walked. You 
  must walk there yourself.
  RECTITUDE (GI)
  COURAGE (YU)
  BENEVOLENCE (JIN)
  RESPECT (REI)
  HONESTY (MAKOTO)
  HONOR (YO)
  LOYALTY (CHUGO)
  Questions for Your Character
  What is the true deﬁ nition of bushido?
  Which of the virtues is most important?
  What do the virtues mean?
  Castes
  Old Japan is a divided country. Divided by Clans, divided by 
  castes. 
  Th e three castes in Old Japan are the samurai (the warrior caste), 
  the clergy (those who pray) and the peasantry (those who work). 
  Samurai are on the top, the peasantry are on the bottom and the 
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  clergy are… on the side. Th ere is also a sub-caste among the peasants 
  called the hinin, or non-people. We’ll talk about them separately.
  Samurai
  As a samurai, you are feared and respected. Respected by those 
  who are within your own caste and feared by those who are not. 
  You are among the only caste allowed to carry weapons. You are also 
  permitted to murder those who are below you. Not a serious crime, 
  but it is an action that may carry consequences, depending on the 
  Daimyo of the land. 
  As a samurai, you are the equivalent of a European knight. You 
  have land and title and vast amounts of cash on hand. You never need 
  to pay for anything: everything in your lands belongs to you, anyway.
  Your duty is to protect the lands and dynasty of your Clan. 
  Everything else is ego. Only your Clan matters.
  From a very young age, you were trained to be a warrior. Even 
  if your giri (your duty) is to be a courtier or a spy, all samurai are 
  trained in the martial arts. It is a samurai’s duty to ﬁ ght and die for 
  his Clan without thought to his own safety or security. Th ese values 
  were burned onto your soul from the time you were born. Th is is your 
  duty. Your destiny. Nothing else matters.
  Peasants
  Th e peasants 
  also serve the 
  Clan, but they do 
  so in a diﬀ erent 
  way. Th e heimin 
  (half-people) 
  serve as farmers 
  and ﬁ shermen and 
  tradesmen. Th ey 
  have no legal 
  rights when 
  samurai are 
  concerned, 
  but may 
  appeal to 
  samurai for 
  justice when 
  wronged by 
  another peasant. 
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  Within the caste itself, farmers are regarded as most important. 
  Th ey provide rice and without rice, Old Japan would fall apart. 
  Th ere is a sub-caste among the peasants: the hinin, or non-people. 
  Th ese are people who perform jobs that make them untouchable. 
  (Th e highly derogatory word commonly used in this era is eta, which 
  means “an abundance of deﬁ lement.” Th is word is now considered 
  as oﬀ ensive as “nigger” or “wetback” in American slang.) Any 
  profession that involves exposure to ﬂ esh or blood is considered hinin. 
  Caretakers, tanners and torturers all into this category.
  Clergy
  Buddhist monks and Shinto priests fall into a strange category 
  here. Th ey are not samurai but they are also not peasants. Th is is a 
  blurry region where it is diﬃ  cult to tread. Th ere are no clear cut rules, 
  only a few guidelines.
  Because holy men are not samurai, they do not deserve the respect 
  that samurai receive. On the other hand, they do have access to 
  strange forces which demands a certain amount of respect. Peasants 
  show respect to holy men because they are superstitious and afraid. 
  Samurai show them respect for exactly the same reasons, but they will 
  never admit it.
  No doubt, it is bad luck to harm a clergyman. It is even worse 
  luck to kill one.
  Priests and monks have their place in the order even if it is unclear 
  exactly what place that is.
  Questions for Your Character
  Th e social order of Old Japan demands an almost ruthless attitude 
  toward the peasant class. How does that ﬁ t with the bushido virtue of 
  benevolence?
  Bushido is only expected from samurai because only they have 
  the will and character to adopt such a demanding philosophy. Does 
  this mean the peasantry is actually a lesser breed of human than the 
  samurai? Are they just lesser people?
  Th e philosophers of Old Japan speak of a celestial order of things: 
  everything is born into its place. Does this mean a man of the hinin 
  class may never ﬁ nd the courage of a samurai?
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  Devil and the Details
  Gamers seem obsessed with details. Th ey ask a general question, 
  you give a general answer. Th ey ask a more speciﬁ c question, you 
  give a more speciﬁ c answer. Th en, their questions start getting really 
  small. Like ﬁ t in your pocket small. Here’s an actual example of a 
  conversation I had many years ago with a fan of a diﬀ erent samurai 
  RPG.
  Question: How much does a horse cost in (Old Japan)?
  Answer: You don’t need to pay for anything. You’re a samurai. 
  Your Daimyo provides for you.
  Follow-Up Question: Yes, but it has to have an actual cost.
  Answer: If you need a horse, go to your Daimyo’s stables and take 
  one.
  Follow-follow-up Question: Yes, but it has to have a cost. 
  Everything has a speciﬁ c cost. If I want to buy a horse in a village, 
  how much koku do I have to spend?
  Answer: GAHHHHHH! How much does a car cost? Give me the 
  exact cost right down to the penny. Every car has an exact cost, right? 
  No haggling. No negotiating. Nothing based on your credit at all.
  Follow-follow-follow-up Question: Yes, but it has to have a 
  baseline cost.
  Answer: ADFOIAHPOIHWVPAHDSPGHASPOVNPANV 
  PAURGPOHRGPOH!!!!
  
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  Don’t get caught up in the details. After all, wagers make details, 
  remember?
  Like I said above, there are a lot of ways to abuse the rules in just 
  about any roleplaying game. Th is one is no exception. Th e diﬀ erence 
  is, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time coming up with new rules to 
  cover my ass. 
  See, I don’t believe “good game design” is about ﬁ xing holes. 
  Instead, good game design focuses on making the game fun to play, 
  making sure every element of the game gives the players another tool.
  Why do you think the cost of a horse is so vague? Th e economy 
  just doesn’t work! It doesn’t work!
  Huge gaping holes. Samurai culture is full of them. Questions that 
  aren’t easy to answer. Nor should they be easy to answer. No clean-cut 
  yes or no. No clean-cut right or wrong. No clean-cut good or evil.
  Our own culture is a great example. Take nearly any important 
  issue in modern society. Show me the clear cut answer. Abortion. 
  Immigration law. Taxes. Economy. Th e death penalty. Gay marriage. 
  Okay, that one’s pretty straight-forward, it’s just that the people on 
  the other side of the debate are ignorant and don’t understand the real 
  issues.
  See how easy that is? How easy it is to make the issue simple and 
  one-sided. But, frankly, it isn’t. It isn’t simple, clean-cut, or easy. It’s 
  hard. Messy. Ugly. And people are willing to ﬁ ght for it. Each side 
  convinced they are the Good Guys and those who oppose them are 
  the True Heart of Evil.
  * * *
  Now, excuse me for a moment. I have to take what appears to be 
  a tangential break, but in the end, this will all come back together. I 
  promise.
  I have a lot of historical reenactment friends. You know, the ones 
  who study the Civil War or the Renaissance or Ancient Rome and 
  write huge papers on the subject, create authentic costumes, build 
  elaborate structures. All that kind of stuﬀ . It’s impressive. Th eir 
  knowledge is extensive and they’re a lot of fun to talk to.
  But don’t ever watch Rome with them. All they do is complain 
  about how everything is wrong. Same thing with Dune fans. 
  Watching the movie or the mini-series, all they do is complain how 
  everything is wrong.
  And in some cases, my friends are right. Inaccuracies, 
  anachronisms. Th ese things happen for a lot of reasons. But 
  sometimes, they happen because my friends and the person doing the 
  research on the show rely on diﬀ erent authorities.
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  I hear that capes are wrong. Well, maybe there were diﬀ erent styles 
  of cape. After all, there are diﬀ erent cuts of t-shirts, right? Th ere isn’t 
  just one single style of blue jeans or slacks or even khaki pants. Why 
  should there be only one style of toga? Sure, we’ve only found one 
  style or toga—or perhaps even two—but that doesn’t mean there was 
  only one style of toga in all of Ancient Rome. Right?
  * * *
  Th e point of that little sidewinder diatribe is this. We know next 
  to nothing about the samurai. We have no maps, no illustrations, 
  very few written documents. What I’ve cobbled together here is only 
  a smidgeon of what we do know. Th ere’s still more to be discovered. 
  Universities have documents that have yet to be translated. (Like I’ll 
  ever get my hands on those.) And, honestly, I’ve made some stuﬀ  up.
  I know, I know. It’s an incredible confession, but it’s true. I’ve 
  made some stuﬀ  up. Now, before you ask, no, I’m not telling. Besides, 
  unless you’re a scholar, you won’t know the diﬀ erence between the 
  facts, theories and the ﬁ ction.
  I guess what I’m trying to say here is that there really is no canon. 
  No real authority. Th is is a game of make believe. So, make believe. 
  Add details. I have my own ideas about the samurai, but they really 
  shouldn’t inﬂ uence you anymore than you want. 
  How do the Japanese react to a situation? How does anybody react 
  to a situation? 
  As each of us would, in our own way.
  No culture is a collection of carbon copies. Each is an individual. 
  Everyone responds as they would, given the circumstances, their own 
  personality, their own experiences.
  Make believe. Make the world. Make Old Japan.
  The Eastern Hero
  For many American and European fans of samurai literature, 
  many of the themes and events can be quite confusing. Character 
  behaviors seem out of line with Western values such as individualism 
  and freewill. Th at’s because our own hero—the Western Hero—is a 
  manifestation of those values. We expect our heroes to walk their own 
  path, adhere to their own private code of ethics and buck the system. 
  But the Eastern Hero is quite diﬀ erent. He reﬂ ects the values of a 
  diﬀ erent culture. To most accurately emulate samurai literature, we 
  should take a look at the Eastern Hero and how his values diﬀ er from 
  his Western counterpart.
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  As I said above, the Western Hero’s values focus on freewill and 
  self-determination. Our Hero deﬁ nes his own role in the world. He 
  goes out into the wilderness and makes his own way. He doesn’t rely 
  on others—although he may ﬁ nd other strong-willed individuals 
  who assist him because they recognize strength in each other—and he 
  eventually becomes a king in his own right.
  Th e Western Hero’s adventure begins with a sense of unease. 
  Something is wrong. Th e Western Hero goes out into the world—
  into the wilderness—to ﬁ nd a cure for his unease. Th e adventure 
  transforms him into that cure. He becomes what the world around 
  him needs. Th rough that transformation, he cures both himself and 
  the world. 
  Th e Eastern Hero’s journey is very similar—
  you can ﬁ nd the same trappings, in fact—but 
  the focus is diﬀ erent. Th e Western Hero gains 
  his cure through self-determination, but the 
  Eastern Hero heals himself (and the world) through 
  subjugating his ego. In other words, he buries his 
  desires under the duty that he must perform.
  Th e Western Hero’s courage comes from 
  doing what is right regardless of what 
  the world wants him to do. Th e world 
  is sick and must be healed.
  Th e Eastern Hero’s courage comes from 
  doing what is right regardless of his own 
  personal desires. He must 
  sacriﬁ ce what he wants 
  for the greater 
  good. To quote 
  a famous Vulcan 
  philosopher: “Th e needs 
  of the many outweigh 
  the needs of the few (or 
  the one).”
  Th e Western 
  Hero feels a call to 
  adventure, but this 
  call comes (usually) 
  comes from within. 
  It is his desire to ﬁ x 
  what is wrong. Th e 
  Eastern Hero’s call to 
  adventure is external: 
  
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  the world has a duty for him to perform. Only he can perform this 
  duty and no other. Th e world has a place for him and he must accept 
  that place or the world’s machinery will grind him down. Th e longer 
  he refuses his duty, the harder the world’s punishments will be. 
  Desires and fears will come to taunt and humiliate the Hero, and he 
  succumbs to those fears for a while, but eventually overcomes them 
  and continues on his journey.
  While these diﬀ erences may seem trivial, they are actually a great 
  wall between the East and the West. Th e West who sees the individual 
  as a lone hero who has to defy the world and deﬁ ne his own existence 
  on his own terms and the East who sees the individual as someone 
  who must accept his place in the world.
  To Eastern eyes, the Western Hero is selﬁ sh and egotistical. He 
  thinks only of himself and has no regard for others. To Western eyes, 
  the Eastern Hero is a “yes man” who accepts his fate and goes along 
  with the ﬂ ow of the world. An unquestioning milquetoast who does 
  what he’s told.
  But in the world of Old Japan, the Hero is one who has an 
  appointed duty in the world that must be fulﬁ lled. Th e more he 
  denies this role, the more the world is an enemy, forcing him to 
  ﬁ t. Your character is an Eastern Hero. He has a duty to fulﬁ ll and a 
  higher authority to appease. Society expects him to act and react in 
  certain ways. When he does not, he demonstrates that he doesn’t ﬁ t, 
  and as the old saying goes, the hammer will soon knock his tall nail 
  attitude into place.
  When your samurai views others who put their own ambitions 
  in front of social responsibility, he should act accordingly. In fact, 
  complete disgust is an appropriate response, although even strong 
  reactions are almost always subdued and understated in Old Japan. 
  Strong reactions are kept for the most heinous oﬀ enses (see Sincerity, 
  below).
  But this isn’t to say that the values of the Eastern Hero and the 
  Western Hero don’t show up in each other’s cultures. In the West, the 
  idea of duty resonates through our literature. Th e ﬁ lm Saving Private 
  Ryan is a great example of the values of the Eastern Hero: a squad 
  of men who are doing what they are told and the courage it takes to 
  do so. Likewise, in Japan, the ﬁ lms of Akira Kurasawa make heavy 
  commentary on the American values of the individual.
  Th is is the key diﬀ erence between the Western Hero and the 
  Eastern Hero. For a look at exactly how these two characters clash, I 
  suggest watching a back-to-back double feature of Akira Kurasawa’s 
  Yojimbo and Sergio Leone’s A Fistfull of Dollars. I’ll be talking about 
  both ﬁ lms in the Movies appendix, later in this book.
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  In the end, the virtues of the Eastern Hero are expressed in the 
  behaviors of the characters. How these characters respond to dueling 
  duties and expectations is what causes conﬂ ict and conﬂ ict is what 
  gives us stories. I’ll be talking more about that in the Narrator chapter.
  But for now, let’s take a look at what’s expected of your samurai. 
  Beware! We are about to enter the very complicated and convoluted 
  world of Japanese etiquette…
  Questions for Your Character
  What is your role in the grand design? What is your ultimate 
  destiny?
  What is a suitable punishment for those who put ego ahead of 
  their giri?
  Etiquette (That Matters)
  Authors have spent millions of pages talking about etiquette and 
  custom in Old Japan. I’m not going to do that here. Instead, I’m 
  going to focus on a philosophy I use when running games in Old 
  Japan (and other more fantastical realms that attempt to emulate it). 
  I’m going to focus on etiquette that matters.
  In the world of Old Japan, you could spend an entire game session 
  obsessing over manners. In fact, I could spend a few dozen pages 
  just on the etiquette of bowing. Just bowing. I’m not going to do 
  that. Instead, I’m going to encourage you to focus on etiquette that 
  communicates something to the Narrator and the other players. Let 
  me explain.
  A performance of etiquette should communicate something to the 
  other players. It is only important if a character makes an exception 
  to that proper etiquette; then, he is communicating something 
  important to the players and the plot. For example, we can all assume 
  samurai bow and greet each other with the proper etiquette. But 
  what if your samurai meet a stranger on the road? You are all samurai 
  and there, at a weigh station, is an old monk. Everyone greets the 
  monk and performs the proper bowing ritual, but my samurai takes 
  a moment to bow deeper and longer than the others. Why does he 
  do that? I’m communicating to the others, “I recognize this man and 
  we have a history.” What kind of history? Perhaps the old monk was 
  my samurai’s teacher. Or, perhaps we were friends before he retired 
  and joined the monastery. Or, perhaps he is a family member. Any 
  number of possibilities spring to mind.
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  Th e simple act of bowing a little lower and a little longer 
  communicates something to the other players and adds depth to the 
  story.
  During playtests, one group of oﬃ  cers had a particularly diﬃ  cult 
  Daimyo. Th ey looked through the list and were unsatisﬁ ed with 
  the choices. I asked them what they wanted and eventually, they 
  concluded they wanted an “Inscrutable Daimyo.” Th ey wanted a 
  Daimyo who was always one step ahead of them. 
  At one point, the Daimyo oﬀ ered them gifts. Now, there’s a ritual 
  for accepting gifts in Old Japan: the recipient should refuse it three 
  times to allow the giver an opportunity to prove his sincerity. Th ey 
  began running through this complicated procedure but upon their 
  ﬁ rst refusal, the Daimyo said, in a stern voice, “Accept my gift… and 
  do not question my sincerity again.”
  Th is put the characters in a harsh spot. 
  Etiquette demanded that they refuse again, 
  but their Daimyo just gave them a direct 
  order to break that etiquette. Again, 
  etiquette added to drama of the scene 
  rather than just took up time.
  Th e way you hold your fan 
  when you speak says a lot. Use that. 
  Show your character waving the fan 
  around dramatically. It adds to your 
  character’s ﬂ avor and makes what 
  could be a droll bit of dialogue much 
  more exciting.
  Th e way you hold your sword 
  when you speak says a lot. Use that. 
  When a samurai enters a room with 
  another samurai, what 
  he does with his sword 
  says something. If 
  he pulls his sword 
  from his obi and 
  puts it on his right 
  side, it means he 
  does not feel in 
  any particular 
  danger. Th e sword 
  is diﬃ  cult to reach 
  and unsheathe on 
  your right side: 
  
  104
  you must go through multiple motions to do so. Th erefore, either 
  you trust the other samurai in the room or you don’t feel threatened 
  by him. On the other hand, if you lay your sword on your left side—
  where it is easy to reach—that also says something about your opinion 
  of the other samurai in the room. Just that simple motion—the laying 
  down of a sword—communicates volumes.
  In Old Japan, if two samurai pass each other and their swords 
  come into contact, they have shamed the weapons and a duel is 
  necessary to cleanse the shame. A samurai who wears his sword close 
  to his body says, “I don’t want to get into any duels.” Meanwhile, 
  another samurai who wears his sword perpendicular to his body is 
  daring others to either get out of his way or pick a ﬁ ght.
  Th e katana is often worn with the curved blade toward the 
  ground. But, if a samurai feels oﬀ ended, he may turn the blade up. 
  Th is makes drawing the blade and cutting an opponent easy as the 
  draw and strike are a single motion. Again, a silent movement that 
  communicates your character’s mood to the other players.
  More often than not, exceptions deﬁ ne your character. When your 
  samurai breaks with tradition, that will say something. Jess Heinig 
  likes to say that many of my games force players to choose between 
  the expedient choice and the correct choice. Etiquette in Old Japan is 
  ﬁ lled with these kinds of landmines and bear traps. Your samurai will 
  be faced with many of these choices. How he responds is more often 
  than not a test of character rather than an expression of etiquette.
  Questions for Your Character
  What non-verbal cues do you use to communicate to others?
  A peasant accidentally bumps your sword and immediately falls to 
  his belly and begs forgiveness. How do you respond to the situation?
  Makoto (Sincerity)
  While the word makoto is often translated as “sincerity,” the truth 
  of the matter is, it doesn’t mean sincerity at all. Makoto is a highly 
  valued trait in Old Japan and a diﬃ  cult concept for most Western 
  minds to grasp. For a Westerner, such as myself, sincerity means 
  honesty and genuineness. But for the people of Old Japan, it means 
  something else entirely.
  To speak with makoto means to eliminate your ego to ensure 
  harmony is maintained. It also implies that one should strive to 
  maintain the honor and dignity of all involved.
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  Makoto is a complicated concept and boiling it down to 
  “sincerity” does not do it justice. Makoto stresses harmony. A plea for 
  the most harmonious solution.
  Two samurai present two solutions to a problem. Th e ﬁ rst solution 
  is forthright and presents the facts clearly and plainly. Th ese facts, if 
  they should come to light, will cause many to lose dignity and honor 
  and means a good deal of cleanup will be required to set things right.
  Th e second solution avoids certain facts, presents others in 
  an obscuring light but saves a good many people a great deal of 
  embarrassment and allows everyone to go home without ever thinking 
  about the problem again.
  In Old Japan, the second solution has makoto. A samurai will 
  do everything in his power to ensure problems are solved elegantly, 
  cleanly and without fuss or trouble.
  Questions for Your Character
  How does your samurai view the concept of makoto? Remember, 
  this is not a trivial concept in Old Japan: it is how Old Japan works. 
  Dismissing it means you dismiss a cultural pillar. If you do dismiss it, 
  what price have you paid in doing so?
  The Colville Rule
  My buddy Matt has a rule. When he plays a board game—or 
  any game, for that matter—the assumption is the players are playing 
  a friendly game. Th at is, if I make a mistake, I can ask, “Friendly 
  game?” and if everyone agrees, I can take my move back.
  Th e attitude of a friendly game is just that. It’s friendly. Everyone 
  at the table is friends. We’re learning how the game works, we’re 
  trying diﬀ erent things, we’re having fun. A friendly game. We’re 
  playing for the purpose to have fun. Win, yes, but have fun doing it.
  But, if at any point I ask “Friendly game?” and someone says, 
  “No,” the rules change. Now, we’re all playing to win. Th e diﬀ erence 
  between a friendly game and a not-friendly game is simple: two 
  diﬀ erent goals. 
  Friendly Game: Playing with your friends is fun. 
  Cut-Th roat Game: Winning is fun.
  Both of these are true. Th ey co-exist, are completely opposed to 
  each other, and are both true. (Th ank you R.A.W.)
  You must, before you begin playing, ask this question. “Friendly 
  Game or Cut-Th roat Game?”
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  Friendly Game
  Now, treachery in a friendly game is diﬀ erent, and in a lot of ways, 
  it’s more diﬃ  cult. In a friendly game, treachery is all above board. 
  As the rules already state: no notes, no secret meetings, none of that. 
  Everyone announces their Virtues, aspects and everything else.
  We trust each other to plot against our enemies and ourselves 
  because we want a big, dramatic game full of intrigue and romance 
  and revenge.
  We assume our greatest enemy (one of the other player 
  samurai) will betray us, but because the player sees the betrayal 
  (no secret meetings, remember), he can play into it. He knows the 
  circumstances. He knows the poison is in the wine. He knows when 
  he drinks it his enemy will mock him and kick him and laugh and 
  laugh and laugh… and leave him choking to death. So the hidden 
  servant can come out of the shadowed corner and save him.
  In Old Japan, vendettas last forever. Sometimes even for 
  generations. It isn’t until everything has gone too far that the matter 
  must be settled by Swords. And even then, the children carry the 
  matter into another generation.
  
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  Th e point of a Friendly Game 
  is not to beat everyone else. 
  Th e point is to illustrate a great 
  and tragic life. To be a proper 
  tragedy, your character must die 
  unfulﬁ lled or at the worst possible 
  moment… just when he was 
  about to claim victory over his 
  worst enemy, just when she was 
  about to declare her love, just 
  when he was about to admit his 
  greatest crime… it all falls apart.
  Th at’s the point of the game. 
  Tragedy. And I’m putting it in 
  your hands. If you trust your 
  friends to be your enemies and 
  help you achieve that goal, then 
  the Friendly Game is for you.
  Th e Cut-Th roat Game
  Now, Cut-Th roat Games 
  are usually very short-lived. Th e 
  whole point is to knock oﬀ  the 
  other players and “win” by stealing their power. But tales of samurai 
  revenge aren’t so simple. We don’t want to just kill the man who 
  oﬀ ended us. Oh, no. Our revenge must be complete! Your enemy 
  doesn’t just steal your land. He steals your land, your children, your 
  lover, and then watches you die slowly while he eats your food at your 
  own table, pouring your sake and laughing in your face.
  Th at’s samurai revenge. 
  So, if you want to play that way, feel free. Just go in with the 
  understanding that it’s pretty likely that you’ll be the one lying on the 
  ground, poisoned, getting laughed at. In a 6-person game, you have 
  a one-in-six chance of winning. You’ll probably lose. Go in with that 
  understanding, and you’ll come out the other end just ﬁ ne.
  I recommend making a character you don’t care about. Don’t 
  become too emotionally invested. I know that sounds counterintuitive 
  to why we enjoy roleplaying games, but it works out better this way. 
  Create a character who is doomed to die.
  Now, I have to admit… this kind of game is not for me. I don’t 
  just like my characters, I love my characters. I spend a whole lot of 
  time and eﬀ ort coming up with a character I like, and then even more 
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  time and eﬀ ort ﬁ ne-tuning that character over the course of months. 
  And so, this particular kind of game doesn’t really suit me. I do not 
  enjoy it.
  But, other people do. In fact, I know a few people who won’t play 
  a Friendly Game. Th ey don’t see the point. You play a game to win. 
  Especially this kind of game. You play to win or you don’t play at all.
  Th at’s what this is all about. Th e Cut-Th roat Game.
  A few table rules change here. 
  First, secret notes and meetings are back in. Secrecy is the key to a 
  PvP game.
  Second, players don’t announce their Virtues and Aspects, but 
  instead, just announce how many dice they can gather. Discovering 
  your enemies’ Virtues (and weakness), Aspects and Devotions 
  suddenly becomes a vital part of the game.
  Th ird, everyone signs an agreement. Th e agreement states the 
  following:
  Th is is a Cut-Th roat Game. We agree all but one of our 
  characters will probably die. We agree this is the experience we 
  want to have and will not be whimpering, sobbing little babies 
  about it if we lose.
  So say we all.
  With that understanding done, you can go on to treating your 
  friends like your worst enemies. Good luck. And don’t come crying to 
  me when you lose.
  Narrative Control
  In most games, narrative control ends at the tip of your own 
  character’s nose. You don’t have any authority, you don’t have 
  any narrative control, beyond your own character. Each player 
  has narrative control over his own character and the Narrator has 
  authority over the rest of the world.
  In Blood & Honor, that’s not true. Every player has a degree of 
  narrative control, a certain amount of authorial authority. In other 
  words, everybody gets a moment as game master.
  If an NPC asks you a question about your background, you have 
  the authority to say just about anything you want. Anything you say 
  creates background for your character, but also creates facts about Old 
  Japan. If you talk about a dog you had as a child, that dog existed—
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  and may still exist. If you talk about your father, any detail you say 
  exercises narrative control. Talk about your uncle, your mother’s 
  castle, your older brother’s assassination. You’ve become the Narrator. 
  You’ve become the author of the world.
  Usually, in most roleplaying games, your degree of control ends 
  there. You can’t say anything true about another character because 
  each player has ﬁ nal authority over his own character. In this game, 
  that isn’t necessarily true. 
  In this game, if you want ﬁ nal authorial control over your own 
  character, you have to spend Honor. You have to be open to the 
  idea that other people’s ideas about your own character may be just 
  as valid as your own. Now, you have to trust me on this. I ﬁ nd that 
  pretty diﬃ  cult to swallow myself. I’m a control addict, clinging to the 
  concept that I’m the only person who gets to say what’s what about 
  my own character. But, when I thought about it from a diﬀ erent 
  perspective, things began to change.
  I asked myself, “What if my character was just an NPC? Would 
  I feel the same way?” I had to think about that a lot. I had to think 
  about the way I treated my own NPCs. 
  NPCs are a staple of my own gaming style. NPCs are how I 
  get players to care about a story. Players love my NPCs and hate 
  my NPCs. (Nobody cares about a game because the ranged attack 
  mechanic is cool.) Th ey care about a game because they care about 
  their characters and the best way to get players to care about their 
  characters is to give them other characters to interact with.
  I know, this sounds like it belongs in the Narrator section, and it 
  does to a certain degree, but in this game—in this game—I’m trusting 
  you, the players, to be the Narrator for a little while. Even if it’s just 
  for a moment. And I’m also advocating the concept that every player 
  is the Narrator to a certain degree. And that means every character 
  in the game—even player characters—are NPCs. You have narrative 
  control. And you have to be willing to use it. You also have to be 
  willing to use it responsibly.
  Before the game begins, the players should get together and talk 
  about how much authorial control they want. Should wagers be able 
  to aﬀ ect PCs? To what degree? Find a comfort zone, a place where 
  all the players are willing to say, “Yes.” If you don’t feel comfortable 
  with what’s being said, be sure to say so. I’m assuming you’re playing 
  with your friends. You shouldn’t feel awkward about speaking up and 
  saying, “You know, I don’t think I’ll have fun with that.”
  But this little philosophy—that all characters are free to edit—can 
  be challenging at ﬁ rst. It’s not the most conventional way of handling 
  narrative control, but give it a try. Start small and get more daring as 
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  you go. If it doesn’t work out for you, change how much authority 
  players get with wagers. Th ere is no rule that says you can’t. In fact, 
  this whole section is a rule that says you can.
  Talk to the Narrator
  I can’t say this enough. Communication is the key to a successful 
  roleplaying group.
  If you want to play a particular kind of game, tell the Narrator. If 
  you don’t want to play a particular kind of game, tell the Narrator.
  I know of too many stories that end with a player walking away 
  from a game because it wasn’t what he wanted it to be. Th at’s because 
  he wasn’t talking to the Narrator.
  Th e Narrator is your friend. Not in a metaphorical way, but in a 
  real way. He’s your buddy. You’ve known him forever. Talk to him. 
  But, unfortunately, as much as I say this, you’ll never do it, not 
  unless there’s a rule of some kind. So, I’ve given the Narrator a tool 
  to help facilitate communication. It’s in his section of the book and it 
  gives you an in-game bonus when you use it, but you’re not allowed 
  to read that part of the book, so you’ll have to try a diﬀ erent tactic.
  You’ll have to ask him about it.
  Failing Forward
  One part of this system that knocks players for a loop is the whole 
  idea of narrating your own failure. After all, dice rolls don’t determine 
  success or failure; instead, they tell us who gets to narrate the success 
  or failure. So many players ask me, “Why would I want to say that my 
  character fails?”
  Because failure is half the fun of drama, that’s why.
  When you get to narrate how your character fails, you get to say 
  how he fails. Th at means, you can fail forward. Let me explain.
  In most samurai drama, when a character fails, he does so in a way 
  that moves the plot forward. Unfortunately, in roleplaying games, 
  that doesn’t really happen. If the party is on one side of a locked door 
  and they can’t get it open, the adventure is over. Th ey may as well go 
  home. Th e rest of the adventure is on the other side of that door and 
  if they can’t get it open… well, the GM just has them re-roll until 
  they get the door open.
  Th e “locked door” isn’t always a locked door. Sometimes, it’s an 
  NPC you have to convince. Fail to convince the NPC, the adventure 
  stops. Sometimes, it’s a clue the characters have to ﬁ nd. Fail to ﬁ nd 
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  the clue, the adventure stops. Physical, social and mental locked doors 
  all accomplish the same thing: they stop the adventure.
  As players, when you narrate your character’s failures, you can 
  unlock the door but add complications.
  A physical adversity would be something like jumping across a 
  rooftop to another rooftop. You roll Strength and get privilege. Th is 
  means you can say how your character succeeds or fails. Let’s say you 
  decide to fail and start plummeting down toward the ground. But, 
  you have wagers and with those wagers you can say…
  “My character lands on a balcony just under the rooftop,” and
  “Th e room that I’ve landed in belongs to someone I trust,” and
  “Th at person hides me from the guards I’m running from.”
  With those three wagers, you’ve turned a failure into something 
  else. You could even turn the “someone I trust” into “someone I don’t 
  trust” and now that person will hide you… if you pay their price.
  Another kind of adversity is social adversity: trying to get what you 
  want through dialogue rather than violence. Let’s say you are trying 
  to convince the Daimyo’s (unfaithful) wife to sleep with you to get 
  evidence of her inﬁ delity. You make a seduction risk and get privilege. 
  You can succeed or fail. Success means she goes along with you. 
  Failure means… she goes along with you. But wagers make things 
  
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  interesting. She doesn’t believe you. You failed. But she goes along 
  with you anway because…
  “She goes along with me, but she suspects I’m up to something.” Or,
  “She goes along with me because she wants to kill me in my sleep.” Or,
  “She goes along with me because she’s been in love with me for years, 
  waiting for me to say something.”
  Any three of those things complicate the matter. If you complicate 
  the matter, you’re likely to get Honor Points from the Narrator. He 
  likes it when you complicate things and he will reward you.
  Mental adversities work out in much the same way. Finding 
  clues is a popular Cunning risk. Just what clues you ﬁ nd make all 
  the diﬀ erence. Clues complicate everything, especially when they are 
  inconvenient. You enter a room with a dead body. Do you ﬁ nd any 
  clues? Why yes…
  “I ﬁ nd a clue. It is a piece from my wife’s kimono, torn at the seam.”
  “I ﬁ nd a clue. One of my own wakizashi!”
  “I ﬁ nd a clue. My Daimyo’s son in the corner of the room, tears in his 
  eyes, a bloody blade in his hands.”
  “Does my character succeed or fail?” isn’t an important question. 
  “How dos my character succeed or fail?” Th at’s what you want to be 
  asking yourself.
  Does the result of your character’s action result in moving the 
  plot forward? Does it result in complicating things? Does it result 
  in revealing something new and diﬀ erent about your character? Ask 
  these questions when determining the success and failure of your 
  character’s actions.
  Success and failure are only byproducts of drama.
  The Morley-Wick Method of Gaming
  (When going out to conventions and game stores, one of the 
  things I hear most is, “I loved that essay you wrote about method 
  acting and gaming.” It was a lot of fun to write. Here it is again, 
  slightly edited for content, for your enjoyment.)
  Sheldon was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine. 
  Actually, Sheldon is an actor and a musician. He’s still a good 
  friend of mine. And by “actor,” I mean real actor. Not us wanna-be 
  community theater actors, no, my buddy Sheldon has skills.
  So anyway, Sheldon and I used to go to LARPs. (Th at’s “live 
  action roleplaying” for all you unsophisticated heathens.) A lot of 
  LARPs. But Sheldon and I seemed to have a problem. We were 
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  driving home from a particularly boring LARP, complaining as we 
  usually do. I don’t remember which of us suggested it, but one of us 
  said, “Maybe we’re doing something wrong.”
  But what could we be doing wrong? We had great characters. 
  Characters with history. Deep history. Well-written and easy to work 
  with. We were rich with potential. Untapped potential.
  And yet, there we were. Bored out of our skulls. We’d interact with 
  the other players, but only in a shallow way. Th ere was just nothing to 
  talk about.
  And when we looked around, it seemed to us that the most 
  successful players had the most shallow characters. Th at is, there 
  really wasn’t anything to them. So, again, why were we having such a 
  miserable time when those other folks were having so much success?
  Our ﬁ rst thought was that the other players were playing the 
  game incorrectly and we were playing the game correctly. We were 
  wrong. Our observation had betrayed us. It took deeper analysis to 
  understand our problem. So, we sat at Norm’s (at 2:00 AM) and 
  talked about it. Sheldon came up with the solution.
  “We’re playing the wrong game,” he told me.
  I grabbed the ketchup and Tabasco for my eggs. “What do you 
  mean?”
  “Our characters have deep secrets.”
  “Yeah,” I said.
  “Th at nobody knows but us.”
  Th at made me pause. And think. “Yeah,” I said. Slowly.
  We spent the rest of the night talking about the problem. It 
  wasn’t a problem with the other players. Th ey were playing the game 
  correctly. Th e problem was with us.
  I think Sheldon also nailed down the guy who could solve our 
  problem. David Mamet. Th e director/screenwriter. His books and 
  essays on “the method” approach to acting really inspired Sheldon, 
  which in turn, inspired me. Using Mamet’s critiques, we came up 
  with a solution to our problem.
  From Mamet, to Sheldon, to me. To you.
  What’s Wrong?
  So, after that long introduction, let me explain what Sheldon and 
  I were doing wrong and why it relates to David Mamet.
  “Th e method” is an acting technique. Actors try replicating real 
  life emotions, calling on sense memories from their own past, similar 
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  to the emotions the character experiences. Method actors also create 
  “rich interior landscapes.” Th at is, they create detailed histories for 
  their characters. Th ey know everything about their characters, so 
  when a circumstance arises, they’ll know how their character would 
  respond.
  Rich interior landscapes.
  Watching an actor on stage, watching him respond to something 
  seemingly innocuous with a cryptic sigh or a mysterious glance or 
  some other enigmatic gesture. Th e audience doesn’t know what it 
  means, but obviously, the actor’s done his research. He’s done the 
  work. He’s using the method.
  Unfortunately, the audience doesn’t know what it means. Th e 
  actor isn’t communicating anything to the audience.
  In other words, he’s failing the entire purpose of acting. 
  Communicating to the audience.
  As gamers, we have a similar problem. We come up with elaborate 
  and detailed backgrounds. Rich internal landscapes. And then, when 
  
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  we start playing, whole sessions go by without the other players 
  having a single clue.
  Characters have secrets. Sure they do. Th at’s ﬁ ne. But authors 
  use devices to give the audience clues as to why a character responds 
  a certain way. We get to see that rich internal landscape. Even if 
  a reaction is a mystery, we trust that somewhere down the line, 
  the author will let us in on the secret. We’ll eventually understand 
  all those cryptic sighs, mysterious glances and enigmatic gestures. 
  Eventually.
  But in roleplaying games, we keep secrets. We write the Narrator 
  private notes. We take him aside for a whispered meeting. We keep 
  that 24 page background to ourselves. Nobody else gets to see it. It’s 
  ours and ours alone.
  Th e method. Secrecy. Otherwise known as mental masturbation.
  You are, quite literally, playing with yourself.
  Nobody else is invited. Nobody else gets to know about your 
  character’s past. Th at lost lover. Th at blood feud with your father. Th at 
  secret conversation you had with your mother. Your childhood rivalry 
  with your sister. Your hidden 
  marriage. Th at secret you’ve kept 
  for twenty years and never told a 
  soul.
  All that rich background 
  you’re selﬁ shly keeping to yourself 
  that no other player will ever 
  know. It’s yours and yours alone. 
  And you’re the only one who will 
  ever enjoy it.
  Th is is what’s wrong. We’ve 
  got great characters and nobody 
  knows but us. Why is that? Why 
  do we feel we need to hide our 
  characters’ secrets from the other 
  players?
  Well, most LARP settings 
  are PvP (player vs. player), so 
  we don’t want others to know 
  our secrets. We assume the other 
  players will take advantage of out-
  of-character information. And, 
  sadly, we’re usually correct in this 
  assumption. But at a table top 
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  game, surrounded by friends and people we trust, why do we still 
  follow the same behavior?
  Reﬂ ex perhaps. Maybe just habit.
  Well, let’s break that habit. Let’s get out of the “method” 
  philosophy of character creation and play. Let’s try something 
  diﬀ erent.
  Let’s have open secrets.
  Open Secrets
  Now, I should be up front about this. Many of these techniques 
  are not new—I didn’t invent them—but putting them together in 
  one set, with one philosophy guiding them, I think qualiﬁ es as a new 
  approach.
  I’ll take you through it, step-by-step. Read through them, adopt 
  the steps you like, throw out the ones you don’t, come up with your 
  own. After all, this whole chapter is about modifying things to your 
  own group’s tastes. Step-by-step.
  Character Background
  One page.
  Th at’s all you get. One page. Th at’s all you get. Don’t try writing 
  small or using a
  tiny font.
  One page.
  I know, you’ve got a lot to say about your character. Th is is what 
  I call “Character Control Syndrome,” or “CCS.” You think this is the 
  last time you’re going to have any control over your character, so you 
  want to squeeze as much content and detail in there as possible.
  Relax. Take deep breaths.
  Just write one page. In fact, don’t even ﬁ nish ﬁ lling out the page. 
  Leave a few details open. Figure out what you think is important, but 
  leave the rest blank. Vague. Open. Let me tell you why.
  I was playing a character once. A magic cop. I really didn’t have 
  any idea about his past. I just kind of made him an arcane Columbo. 
  But I bumped into a story involving a kidnapped girl. Something 
  triggered in my head. I had no idea about my cop’s family. Wife, kids. 
  No clue. I hadn’t really thought about it. But at that moment—that 
  very moment—I knew he had a daughter. And he lost that daughter. I 
  didn’t know how or why. I just knew it. I knew it.
  Th at one little detail, a detail I didn’t know until I started 
  playing, changed the entire course of the character’s past and future. 
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  Completely changed him. Turned him from an arcane Columbo into 
  something much deeper. And, in a lot of ways, a lot scarier.
  All because I had kept a detail open and ﬁ lled it during play.
  From that moment on, that little detail consumed the rest of 
  the character’s path. Th at one little detail informed so many of that 
  character’s decisions from that moment on. Something I made up 
  on the spot. If I already had the character’s family detailed out, if I 
  already knew everything there was to know about that character, I 
  wouldn’t have been able to grasp on to that story. I wouldn’t have 
  been able to say, “I lost a daughter, too.” And the character who was 
  nothing more than a cliché gimmick turned into one of my favorite 
  characters.
  Because I didn’t know everything about his past.
  So, one page. Th at’s all you get. If that. You don’t need to know all 
  the details before you roll dice. Some details—most, in fact—you can 
  discover days, weeks, even months after the ﬁ rst session. You’ll bump 
  into things that inspire you to ﬁ ll in those blanks. Keep an eye out for 
  even the tiniest details. After all, like grandma says, it’s the little things 
  that make the soup.
  External Exposition
  Tony is a friend of mine. He has a style of play that’s always 
  intrigued me. Speciﬁ cally, he practices what I like to call “external 
  exposition.”
  He doesn’t just tell you what his character is doing, he tells you 
  why his character is doing that. Like an author, he narrates his 
  character’s action, using his character’s inner thoughts as a guide to his 
  physical actions. For example…
  Tony’s playing a samurai historian. He’s one of the many samurai 
  visiting the Daimyo during a winter party. As the Narrator, I ask 
  Tony, “What are you doing?” Th is is his reply.
  “I stand up,” he says. And he stands up. “And I walk across the 
  room. My pace is slow. My head, hung low. My hand hangs on my 
  katana pommel. Gripping it. Like I don’t know what to do with it. 
  When I get to the Daimyo, I hesitate. You can see there’s something 
  in my eyes that tells you I don’t want to do what I’m about to do. 
  And I think about the promise to the Spy Master I made. And the 
  promise she made me. And then, I say, ‘My lord… I ﬁ nd myself in 
  the position where I must challenge you to a duel.’”
  Tony pantomimes all these behaviors. He pantomimes his hand 
  on the sword. He walks across the room slowly. Uncertainty in his 
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  stride. And when he talks to you, his tone reﬂ ects the exposition he’s 
  giving.
  Th e exposition punctuates the action. Not only does he give you 
  external clues, but he gives you internal clues as well. “I think about 
  the promise…” He even gives a bit more information than he should. 
  “And the promise she made to me.”
  Tony leaves himself wide open when he plays. He exposes his 
  character’s weaknesses, keeps no secrets. Why does Tony do this?
  Because he knows his friends won’t take advantage of him and 
  sabotage his fun. Besides, part of the fun is knowing other characters’ 
  weaknesses. And having other players know yours. We put weaknesses 
  on our sheets because we want them exploited. We want to get hurt, 
  get knocked down, get beaten within an inch of our lives. How can 
  we come back from the bottom if we never even get knocked down?
  You’re probably familiar with the term “Mary Sue character.” 
  Over-idealized characters who never make a mistake, never ﬂ ounder, 
  never ﬂ ub their lines. You see them all the time in fan ﬁ ction. You see 
  them all the time in professional ﬁ ction, too.
  You see them even more in roleplaying games. A lot more. 
  Especially when you run con demos. Oh, Blessed Eris. Flashbacks. 
  Flashbacks!
  Excuse me for a moment…
  It’s okay. I’m back.
  One of the reasons I designed this system with weaknesses was 
  to avoid Mary Sue characters. Now, if you play your character close 
  to the chest, if you don’t let the other players see his foibles as well as 
  his strengths, no-one will ever get to see that great background you 
  developed or hear that inner monologue they’d usually get to hear if 
  they were reading a book or watching TV.
  Use external exposition. You don’t have to do it like Tony does. 
  You can ﬁ nd your own way to do it. But do it. Let the other players 
  in. Let them see the man behind the curtain. Armed with wagers, 
  they’ll be more than happy to let your character live out that tired old 
  Chinese cliché about “interesting times.”
  And you’ll thank them for it.
  Using Fashion
  A good tool for using external exposition is fashion. Now, 
  samurai symbolism, heraldry, use of color and style is ten times more 
  complicated than the most elaborate heraldry systems of our own 
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  middle ages. So complicated, in fact, I could write seven books about 
  it. Instead of going through the elaborate rules, let’s try something 
  diﬀ erent.
  Make it up yourself.
  Use your clothes to tell a story about your character.
  Trust me, if you knew the actual rules, you’d see how completely 
  arbitrary they really are. So, instead, let’s just make them up.
  When your character appears, tell the colors she’s wearing, but 
  more importantly, tell what they mean. If you know some of the 
  rules for Japanese fashion, please feel free to use them, and even 
  teach the other players, but please—please!—don’t be a “fashionista.” 
  Don’t tell the other players what they do wrong and insist everyone 
  do everything “right.” Besides, during this era in Old Japan’s history, 
  fashion rules are changing all the time based on the whims of the 
  elite.
  “Th e brown in my vest and the green in my sleeves means, ‘I am 
  working, but I am also looking for companionship tonight.’”
  “Th e red rose I wear across the blue sash means, ‘I am looking for 
  assistance with my Revenge.’”
  “Th e black swathes in my grey dress means, ‘I should have done 
  more to protect him.’”
  No Passing Notes in Class
  Many players like passing notes and having secret meetings with 
  the Narrator. Especially in a game like this one where everyone has a 
  secret to keep.
  Here’s the news. Th at’s done.
  It’s no fun to sit around while the Narrator goes oﬀ  into another 
  room with another player and has a private chat. For those of you 
  who’ve done this (including in games I’ve run myself), I applaud your 
  patience and your selﬂ essness, but you don’t need to do it anymore.
  Secret meetings get handled in front of other players. You got a 
  note? Say it out loud.
  Once again, we’re all grown-ups. We’re all friends. We all want to 
  have a good time.
  And nobody gives a single ﬂ aming turd about your rich internal 
  landscape if they never get to see it.
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  Share Plots
  One of the side-beneﬁ ts of being open about your character’s past 
  is ﬁ nding parallels with other characters.
  You’ve got a vendetta? I’ve got a vendetta!
  You’ve got a secret romance? I’ve got a secret romance!
  You’ve got a hated uncle? I’ve got a favorite uncle! Maybe they’re 
  the same!
  Th e more connections with other characters you can make, the 
  better. Giving you both something in common, something to talk 
  about, something to commiserate about.
  Trigger Other Characters’ Plots
  Th is takes a lot of trust. Use at your own risk.
  Th e Narrator is a busy guy. He’s got ﬁ ve to six players to worry 
  about, and sometimes, he just doesn’t have the time or focus to hit 
  everybody every session. Sometimes, players get overlooked. Sad, but 
  true.
  With this little trick, you’ll never get overlooked.
  As above, share your backgrounds with the other players. Send 
  them all around the table. Everybody gets a peek. Look for trouble 
  areas. You know, places where you could cause trouble if you were the 
  Narrator.
  When you see an opportunity to cause trouble... do it. You’ve got 
  wagers, you’ve got Wisdom and Cunning risks. Do it.
  When other people know how to push your buttons, they get 
  pushed. And as bad as that might sound, it’s a lot better than getting 
  overlooked by a busy Narrator.
  Flashbacks
  I also allow other players to trigger ﬂ ashback scenes with style 
  points. If another character does something odd, reacts in an 
  unexpected way, or otherwise catches the players oﬀ -guard (even if it’s 
  the player in control of the character), someone spends a style point 
  and we’re oﬀ  to a ﬂ ashback sequence.
  Each player can spend a style point to participate, playing a part in 
  the ﬂ ashback. Th e player with the spotlight can run the scene as the 
  Narrator or let the Narrator do her own job or let another player be 
  the Narrator for a while. We invent a scene, right there on the spot, 
  with circumstances similar enough to the scene we were just playing, 
  adding deeper meaning to the scene and the character.
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  But remember the Lost Rule. Don’t make the ﬂ ashback more 
  important than the current scene. Flashbacks provide additional ﬂ avor 
  to current action. Flashbacks do not eclipse current action.
  Of course, you could run an entire session as a ﬂ ashback scene 
  if it’s really important. An example of that may be Shara reading 
  her mother’s missing diary pages, ﬁ nally discovering who killed her 
  mother. Th ree degrees of cool here.
  1. First degree of cool: the Narrator tells me what they say. Eh.
  2. Second degree of cool: the Narrator makes the prop pages 
  himself and gives them to me to read. Th at’s pretty hip.
  3. Th ird degree of cool. Th e group plays out the events in the 
  pages with all of us discovering together what happened. 
  Yeah, it’ll take me weeks to recover from that.
  Conclusion
  Here’s the big lesson. Keeping secrets 
  is fun. Revelation is fun. Revealing a 
  secret you’ve been keeping for months 
  is a lot of fun. You don’t have to use 
  all the techniques I’ve listed above, 
  nor do you have to get rid of secrets. 
  But keeping everything to yourself 
  isn’t just selﬁ sh, it’s spoiling everyone’s fun. 
  Including yours.
  Women
  Women have less power in Old Japan 
  than men. Certainly, there are women who 
  hold title, but this really is a man’s world. 
  Women must be crafty and cunning to 
  gain power here. Th ey must be stronger 
  than men. In Old Japan, a man is 
  given everything. A woman has 
  to ﬁ ght for it with every ounce of 
  energy she can muster. Th is makes being a 
  woman in Old Japan more diﬃ  cult… but 
  that also makes it more fun.
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  Questions for Your 
  Character
  If your character is a 
  woman, what did she have 
  to do to gain her position? 
  It was not granted to her—
  most samurai positions are 
  granted to men—so what 
  did she have to do to gain it? 
  What sacriﬁ ces did she have 
  to make?
  As a woman, your 
  position is to serve a man: 
  your husband, your brother, your father, etc. Which man do you serve 
  above all others? If you want to say, “I serve myself!” then consider 
  exactly what man you show respect to make him believe you serve 
  him above all others.
  Musha Shugyo
  If a samurai undertakes musha shugyo (“warrior’s quest”), he 
  displaces himself from his family, his Clan and all that keeps him safe 
  and goes out into the world as a ronin with nothing but his sword. 
  Th e purpose of his journey is to hone his skills.
  Undertaking such a journey is not a trivial matter. While most 
  Daimyo will respect a samurai’s need to go on a musha shugyo, giving 
  him a speciﬁ c amount of time in which he 
  must return, others will see such a request as 
  a neglect of duty.
  Any samurai who walks the warrior’s 
  quest must do so without any indication 
  of Clan or status. To the rest of the world, 
  he is a ronin and nothing more. He may 
  visit other Clans and challenge samurai to 
  hone his skills. He may even join another 
  Daimyo’s army (so long as that Daimyo 
  doesn’t turn him against his actual Daimyo).
  Questions for Your Character
  Has your character taken a warrior’s 
  quest? What happened? If not, when?
  Musha Shugyo 
  in the Game
  If a samurai (or even 
  multiple samurai) wish to 
  undergo the musha shugyo, 
  they may do so as a Season 
  Action. A samurai may only 
  perform the musha shugyo 
  once in his career of service. At 
  the end of the term, he returns 
  with his Giri Rank one rank 
  higher, regardless of what rank 
  it was before he left.
  
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  A Final Note
  I just want to say this one more time.
  I trust you. 
  As a Narrator, as a game designer and as a fellow player, and, 
  ﬁ nally, as someone who loves roleplaying games, I trust you.
  I didn’t make rules to stop the wankers and cheaters and selﬁ sh 
  bullies who ruin the game because they’re too caught up in their own 
  ego to notice other people are sitting at the table.
  I didn’t do that because I 
  trust you.
  I trust you to help your 
  fellow players make your time 
  around the table—no matter 
  what game you play—as 
  enjoyable as possible. Th at’s 
  always my goal when I sit down. 
  Maybe it’s because I started my 
  gaming career as the Narrator, 
  and I learned early on that my 
  job was a hard one. Looking out 
  for other people’s enjoyment.
  I trust you to do that, 
  too. And I hope I’ve showed 
  you ways to do that with this 
  chapter.
  And with that in mind, I 
  have one last question…
  … friendly game?
  
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  Narrator
  As you may have gathered from the title, this chapter is for the 
  Narrator. Players can read it if they wish—there are no metaplot 
  secrets or spoilers—but reading this chapter is a lot like learning how 
  a magic trick works. And trust me, learning how a trick works is a lot 
  less sexy than watching the trick as a sucker sitting in the audience. 
  In the audience, everything appears eﬀ ortless. Magic. Once you know 
  about the trap door in the ﬂ oor or the marked cards or the slight hand 
  gesture that hides the bird from plain sight… trust me, knowing how 
  the trick works isn’t as cool as it sounds.
  After all, a Narrator is a kind of magician. Magicians create 
  something out of nothing. Pulling rabbits out of hats, making 
  beautiful assistants appear and disappear, pulling your card out of a 
  deck of 52. Creating something from nothing.
  Th e characters the players own are creations of ﬁ ction, but if the 
  Narrator does his job, he’ll convince you that your character does 
  exist. To pull emotions out of you from pure ﬁ ction.
  When you feel your enemy’s sword pierce your ﬂ esh.
  When you feel the passion of revenge bursting your heart.
  When you feel the cool mist of the morning, looking over the hills 
  of Old Japan.
  Th at is the work of the Magician. Making something from 
  nothing.
  In a dark theater, watching the hero on the screen, and you feel his 
  pain as your own.
  Watching the TV, feeling the heroine’s heartbreak, the pain as real 
  as your own.
  Reading the novel, the suspense in the detective’s chest, pounding 
  as hard as your own.
  Th is is the Narrator’s primary goal. To make the players feel what 
  the characters feel. What they see. What they smell. A hint of danger. 
  Th at whiﬀ  of scented hair. Th e taste of the wine. Th e bliss of new 
  love. Th e cut of steel against ﬂ esh.
  All of these things are possible. Something from nothing.
  Magic.
  I can help you. I wrote this chapter to help you. But if you’re a 
  player, reading any further will ruin the trick. So, stop now.
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  But, if you are the Narrator, keep reading. You and I have a lot of 
  work to do.
  How Th is Chapter Works
  Okay, now that we’ve gotten rid of the players, you and I can talk 
  in earnest. And yeah, I know, you’ve got that one player who’s gonna 
  read this chapter anyway. Don’t worry about him. I’ve got a trick for 
  him, too.
  Th is chapter is sort of a mish-mash of advice. Storyteling is more 
  of an Art than a Science, so I’ve decided to take a less formal approach 
  here. A conversation between you and me.
  First, we’ll talk about some basics. Th ings you could apply to just 
  about any roleplaying game. Narrator techniques that may, or may 
  not, already be familiar to you. Advice I’ve found useful for running 
  games.
  Th en, I’ll start giving you speciﬁ c advice. How to use the system 
  to your best advantage.
  Th e Narrator Toolbox
  Every mechanic has a toolbox.
  You don’t need to use everything. Just the right tool for the right 
  job. Some tools, you never use. Some, you think you’ll never use… 
  until it just so happens to be the exact right tool at the exact right 
  time.
  Every Narrator should have a toolbox.
  You don’t need to use everything. Just the right tool for the right 
  job. Some tools, you never use. Some you use so often, you need to 
  replace them from wear and tear. Some, you think you’ll never use… 
  until it just so happens to be the exact right tool at the exact right 
  time.
  Consider this chapter a kind of hardware store. Full of tools. You 
  don’t have to use all of them. You don’t even have to use some of 
  them. Go ahead and browse through the aisles, try things out, give 
  them a good look, and ﬁ gure out which you want to add to your 
  toolbox.
  By the way, you should get yourself a notebook. Write “Narrator’s 
  Toolbox” on the cover. Start writing things down. Writing ideas that 
  come to you out of the blue. Ideas from other people’s books, blogs 
  and podcasts. Ideas from this book. Write them down. Keep them for 
  that every other Friday when you run your game. When one of your 
  players presents an opportunity to use one of those tools, use it.
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  Th e purpose of this chapter is to ﬁ ll that toolbox. Give you as 
  many tricks and techniques as we can. To keep your players on their 
  toes, to make them feel that magic. As we go along, you may bump 
  into a tool you don’t want to use. Don’t feel compelled to use it. Read 
  through each section, decide if anything is appropriate for your group, 
  then either write them in your book or leave them alone.
  I ran Blood & Honor for many diﬀ erent groups and for each 
  group, I ran it a little diﬀ erently. Diﬀ erent rules for diﬀ erent groups, 
  but the same game. I listened to what each group wanted and 
  modiﬁ ed the game to suit that group. Th at meant I emphasized some 
  rules, de-emphasized others. I even dropped a few rules and added 
  others.
  Listen to your group. I’ll be saying that a lot this chapter.
  The Magician
  I’ve made this analogy before. Th e Narrator as magician. Making 
  something from nothing.
  In order to perform his trick, a magician needs to take certain 
  steps. First, he needs preparation to know what he’s going to do 
  before he gets up on the stage. He needs to know the trick. Second, 
  he needs the proper skills to make the trick look convincing. To fool 
  the audience who is ready to be fooled. To be able to sell the trick.
  Preparation and Performance.
  Let’s take those one at a time.
  Preparation
  Setting up your illusions requires just a little bit of prep work. 
  Fortunately, the best thing about a trick is that the audience is doing 
  all the work. Just a little sleight of hand and their imaginations ﬁ ll in 
  the rest.
  As a Narrator, you’ve got the same advantages. Th e players want to 
  be entertained. Want to be fooled. Th at means you’ve got them right 
  where you want them.
  For most roleplaying games, preparation comes in writing 
  adventures. Sitting down for hours on end, writing up characters, 
  settings, plot twists. Fortunately for you, Blood & Honor doesn’t work 
  like that.
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  Th e Revenge of Lady Shiko
  (Th is was originally a Houses of the Blooded adventure. When 
  playtesting Blood & Honor, I simply converted the details over from “ven” 
  to “samurai.”)
  Writing adventures for Blood & Honor is easy. I mean, easy.
  I’ve run the game for multiple groups. Convention games, house 
  games, no matter. Months of playtest taught me many things about 
  the game, but the one I found most remarkable was this:
  If you let them, the players run the game for you.
  Take for example a particular house game I ran for one playtest 
  group. I’d forgotten I was supposed to show up and was in a rush. I 
  had no idea what to do. So, when the game began, I turned to one of 
  the players…
  It’s early morning and you aren’t quite recovered from last night’s 
  festivities. A servant knocks on the ﬂ oor and you give him permission 
  to enter.
  “Sir,” she says, “it seems 
  we’ve captured a spy.”
  I went ahead and told 
  the player Th ree Th ings 
  about the spy.
  1. 
  She has long, 
  brown hair.
  2. 
  She is 
  Courageous (establishing 
  her highest Virtue is 
  Courage).
  3. 
  She has said 
  nothing since her capture.
  Th e other Oﬃ  cers 
  quickly joined and the 
  servants brought in the 
  spy. When the spy was 
  thrown to the ﬂ oor, one of 
  the players said, “I have the 
  Aspect Knows Everybody. 
  Do I know her?”
  
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  I answered, “I don’t know. Make a Wisdom risk.”
  Th is is very important. Whenever a player asks you a question 
  about the world, about another character, about a ritual, about 
  anything, your answer should be:
  “I don’t know. Make a Wisdom risk.”
  He made a successful Wisdom risk with three wagers. He 
  determined the following things about the spy:
  • She is from an enemy Clan.
  • She is cousin to one of the Oﬃ  cers.
  • She is my close friend.
  • She is sympathetic to our Clan.
  After that, other players started making Wisdom and Cunning 
  risks, further deﬁ ning her character. From those risks, we determined:
  • She was in the castle to gain revenge for her sister. 
  • And a baby was involved. 
  • A bastard child. 
  • But nobody at the table was responsible.
  I took it from there. When they asked her more questions, she 
  ﬁ lled in the details. Her name was Lady Shiko, a Spy Master and 
  neighbor. It turned out their Daimyo took advantage of her sister and 
  one Season later, the consequences came. Birth killed her sister and 
  she came to the castle looking for revenge.
  Th e players then found themselves in a predicament. Here is a 
  legitimate claim of revenge. In their home.
  Th e entire “adventure” wrote itself. Actually, to be correct, the 
  adventure was written by the players. Th ey used wagers and style 
  points, determining the facts surrounding Lady S and her sordid past. 
  Th ey created problems for themselves. Of course, I rewarded them 
  with Honor Points.
  Another example.
  Th e Oﬃ  cers learn of trouble in a village within the Daimyo’s 
  Province. Something to do with bandits. I oﬀ er the opportunity for 
  Wisdom wagers. Th is is what the players come up with.
  • Th e village produces rice and sake.
  • Th e villagers are sympathetic to the bandits.
  • Th e villagers are giving rice and sake to the bandits to sell on the 
  black market.
  • Th e bandits are waiting to trap the oﬃ  cers when they arrive.
  • Th e bandits are led by a general from another Clan.
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  • Our Daimyo destroyed the enemy Clan and now reigns over 
  their lands.
  Th ese are the wagers my players came up with. All I told them 
  was, “Th ere’s trouble in a village.” Th at’s it. Th e players built the rest 
  of the adventure. A trap they were walking into.
  What Did We Learn?
  Both of these “adventures” came from the players. All the 
  Narrators did was set up the circumstances. We put the meat in the 
  stew, but the player threw in everything else. Th e players created the 
  situations. Of course, you have to show them they can do this.
  Th e ﬁ rst couple of times you play, encourage the players to use 
  wagers to deﬁ ne the world around them. Chances are, they won’t 
  know what to do. Th e concept is fairly alien to most roleplayers: the 
  line between player and Narrator ﬁ rmly drawn.
  Get rid of that line. Obliterate it. Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only 
  way to be sure.
  When the players ask, “Is it cool for me to do this?” answer, “Yes!” 
  Enthusiasm. Let them know they can deﬁ ne the world. Th at’s part of 
  the game mechanic. It’s a rule.
  Of course, now that you have a bunch of Narrators sitting around 
  the table, your own style of running the game has to adapt. You can’t 
  set things in stone. You have to be ready to go with the ﬂ ow.
  Don’t make plans. Make contingencies.
  NPCs
  Prepping the game also includes having a long list of NPCs ready 
  for the players to interact with. Now, this really is my favorite part 
  of the game. I love making characters. So much so that I’m a really 
  bad player. I’ve always got new character ideas running around in my 
  head. Because I get to be the Narrator all the time, I get to explore 
  these character ideas, but when I’m a player, I only get to use one at a 
  time.
  As a Narrator, you should keep a whole cornucopia of characters 
  around at all times. Heroes, villains, victims, martyrs, traitors, and the 
  betrayed. Having a good character waiting in the wings makes you 
  look prepared. Having the right character waiting in the wings makes 
  you look like a magician.
  When designing an NPC, start with the Th ree Th ings. Th at’s 
  Th ree Th ings that are true about the character. I usually pick from a 
  short list:
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  1. Th e character’s Clan,
  2. Th e character’s highest Virtue,
  3. A prominent physical feature,
  4. A prominent reputation,
  5. A relationship with one of the Oﬃ  cers,
  6. Married or single
  7. Or just about any other detail that’s important to the group 
  at hand
  Th at gives the players something to work with. If I have a more 
  concrete idea about the character, I list a few other things as well, but 
  I like to keep my options open.
  Sometimes, I even let the players in on the character’s goals. “She 
  wants to get married,” or “She wants to arrange for her husband’s 
  murder.” Giving away secrets like that really isn’t giving away secrets. 
  When the players have knowledge, they use it. Sometimes, they even 
  use it to set themselves up for tragedy.
  Th is is a Good Th ing. We give them style points for stuﬀ  like that.
  Getting involved with a dangerous lover or plotting with an 
  obvious villain makes stories happen. Players who avoid danger and 
  trouble don’t get rewarded. Playing it safe avoids story, avoids conﬂ ict, 
  avoids fun. Makes my job hard. Bad form. No style.
  So, when you make NPCs, make them fun. In fact, when we get 
  to the next section, I’ll show you a little trick your players can use to 
  set themselves up for tragedy.
  Technique
  A magician can have all the preparation he needs and still pull 
  oﬀ  a lousy trick. Th at’s because how you present the trick is just as 
  important as the trick itself.
  Th is section discusses Narrator Technique. What you actually do 
  during the game. How you stand, how you speak, how you present 
  information. Everything. 
  When I go to conventions or game stores, I see a lot of Narrators 
  sitting at tables, hiding behind a screen, a monotone drawl oozing 
  from their lips as they chew on potato chips and suck down soda.
  Now, I don’t use this kind of language a lot, so pay attention.
  Th is is bad. Th is is wrong. Th is is not how you engage your 
  players.
  Instead, I suggest the following.
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  Mood & Atmosphere
  One of the most important things to establish right up front is the 
  mood and atmosphere of Old Japan. Now, some groups may not be 
  comfortable with music in the background, candles lit, costumes, or 
  other things I’ve got listed here. I’ve tried to give you diﬀ erent kinds 
  of ways to establish a thoroughly Japanese feel to your game. Pick the 
  ones you think your players will like.
  To begin, think of your favorite samurai ﬁ lms and novels. Th e way 
  they look. Th ink of the smells. Hot rice. Perfume. Scent is a powerful 
  and underestimated sense. Perfume the room with scented candles. 
  Go to the used bookstore, get some old books and leave them open 
  around the room. Old bibles and those Reader’s Digest books are the 
  best: they’re big and smell great. Nothing beats the smell of old books.
  Dim the lights, but not too much. People have to see their 
  character sheets. Give the table a single source of light. Get one of 
  those paper lanterns and put it right in the center of the table, then 
  turn oﬀ  all the other lights.
  You can also inﬂ uence the way your room feels by baking bread. 
  Th is is really pretty easy and goes a long way to making a room feel 
  diﬀ erent. Freshly baked bread has a distinct smell that invokes speciﬁ c 
  emotions. It just feels old.
  Also provide exotic foods for your players. Finger foods are 
  generally very aﬀ ordable, but don’t get chips and salsa. No, no. 
  Get cheese and those crackers that look home-baked. Cheese and 
  crackers are generally just as cheap as chips and soda—sometimes 
  even cheaper, depending on where you shop. Same thing, completely 
  diﬀ erent feel.
  
  133
  You can also pick up a cheap sake set in most grocery stores these 
  days for twenty bucks or less: about the same cost as a set of plastic 
  cups. Fill up those glasses with your favorite non-soda. Instead of 
  snacking on potato chips, get a bag of edamame. (It comes in cheap 
  boiling bags these days and costs just about as much as potato chips.)
  As for music, I’ve collected and arranged a whole CD worth of 
  music from kabuki theater.
  As for maintaining the delicate mood you’ve set, I recommend 
  using a story candle. Here’s how it works.
  A little ritual of mine (appropriate for this game). Th e story candle 
  sits in a special place in the gaming room. Always in sight. When my 
  friends get together, we chat about all the things we’ve seen and done 
  since we saw each other last. I give them about forty-ﬁ ve minutes or 
  so. Th en, I take down the story candle.
  Everyone knows that as soon as I light the candle, the game starts. 
  I turn down the lights, take out the matches—don’t use a lighter; 
  there’s nothing like the smell of sulfur—and light the candle. I usually 
  also play a song appropriate to the theme of the night. If the players 
  pay attention, they may even get a heaping helping of foreshadowing. 
  As soon as the song is over, I give a brief reminder of what’s happened 
  so far. Th en, the game starts.
  As long as the candle remains lit, the game is on. Monty Python 
  quotes, questions about this week’s episode of Heroes or Star Trek 
  invokes are all bad form. As long as the candle remains lit. Th en, 
  when the game closes, I blow out the candle, leaving everyone in 
  darkness for a few moments. Th en, we turn on the light. I like that 
  last few moments of darkness. Everyone sits quietly and thinks for a 
  moment. Well worth the silence.
  Get Up
  Now that you’ve got the room looking and feeling right, let’s get 
  you into order.
  First, get rid of your chair.
  Stand. Walk around. Talk to the players. Get over their shoulders. 
  Sit on the ground. Invite them to do the same thing. 
  Get up. Move. Get your blood pumping.
  When you ﬁ ll the role of an NPC, take on that role. If he has a 
  limp, then limp. If he’s missing an eye, shut one of your eyes. If he 
  lisps, then lisp.
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  Every NPC you play should have a distinct and unique voice. 
  Lighter and sweeter. Darker and angrier. Moody. Elated. Seductive. 
  Heart-broken.
  When you create an NPC, write down three things (yes, those 
  Th ree Th ings) that are true about the NPC. Make them physical 
  characteristics, vocal patterns, mannerisms… something the players 
  can see.
  So, get up. Move. Show the players something. If they don’t see it, 
  then it doesn’t exist.
  Don’t Look Down
  Not just in a metaphorical sense, either.
  When you talk to your players as an NPC, engage them. Look 
  them in the eye. Don’t look at their shoes or their chins. Look them 
  square in the face.
  Talk to them like they actually exist. Talk to 
  them 
  like they are their characters. And when 
  an 
  NPC gets shot down or humiliated or 
  embraced or forgiven… show them 
  that emotion in your eyes.
  Don’t look at your shoes. 
  Don’t look at your dice. Look 
  at me.
  Show it in your lips, in your 
  voice, in every part of your body.
  Pay attention to the way 
  you move. Pay attention to the 
  words you choose. Pay attention 
  to everything.
  And look at them while you’re 
  plotting their demise. Let them see 
  that in your gaze. 
  Don’t look down.
  Look at them. Show the 
  players something. If they don’t 
  see it, then it doesn’t exist.
  (My editor suggested this 
  cheat. If looking someone else in 
  the eyes makes you uncomfortable, 
  watch the space right below his 
  eyebrows. Don’t be too obvious, but 
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  just make sure you are staring at that little patch of ﬂ esh. Makes it a 
  bit easier for those of us who could use another rank of Courage.)
  Show Me, Don’t Tell Me
  If the ﬁ rst two didn’t get you, this one should.
  I can’t tell you how many Narrators I meet who show me huge 
  notebooks full of “world notes.”
  “How much of this have your players seen?” I ask them.
  “Almost none of it,” they tell me.
  My response is always the same. “Th en what good is it?”
  A Narrator’s primary job is to entertain the players. You do this by 
  showing them the world. Not telling them about it. Showing it.
  Don’t tell them about a super cool and obscure piece of Japanese 
  culture you read about in some archaeological journal. Show it to 
  them. Write it into the adventure. More than that, let them do it.
  Let them feel the wind on their cheeks. Th e cool, cool wind on 
  a hot, hot day. Th e sun beating down, making your breath burn the 
  inside of your nose. But there’s the wind, smelling like the sea, cooling 
  your skin.
  Let them feel the Daimyo’s court. Th e bodies in elegant gowns and 
  robes too hot for such quarters, making everything smell like bodies 
  and perfume. Th e sweat beading down your back. Th e itch you wish 
  you could scratch. Silk, satin and velvet stuck to your skin. Th e seat 
  too small. Th e wine far, far away. And outside… and outside that 
  Autumn breeze and open air. Not the smell of sweat and jasmine.
  Let them feel the raucous party. Th e music overhead from the 
  chamber orchestra playing on the platform suspended over the room. 
  Th e smell of powder in the wigs and on the makeup. Th e smell of 
  grilled chicken and steaming vegetables. Th e cool, biting taste of the 
  plumb wine. And the taste of the hidden kiss you stole in that dark 
  corridor when no one was looking. Th e smell of her hair still on your 
  skin. Feeling her sweat on the small of her back. Th e sound of her 
  whispers in your ear. Promises to be kept when all the ﬁ res are put 
  out.
  Let them feel the winter. Th e winter so cold, it makes your teeth 
  ache. Th e painful numbness of your ears and your nose. Blinking to 
  keep your eyes moist. Your bones aching. Th e wind sneaking through 
  your winter clothes, scratching your skin. Your toes burning. So cold, 
  it burns. So cold, it burns.
  “Th e little things make the soup,” my mother tells me. And I can 
  still taste it. Th e beef she sautés all night. Th e fresh vegetables she just 
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  picked up from the store, crunching between my teeth. Th e broth, so 
  hot it burns, but so sweet you don’t care.
  Show me.
  Faking It
  Sometimes the players will just catch you oﬀ  guard. Th ey’ll throw 
  you a curve you never saw coming and you’ve got two choices: duck 
  or swing away.
  Th is is what divides the men from the boys, my friend. Th e real 
  test.
  Can you improvise? Can you adapt? Can you overcome?
  If you think you can’t, let me persuade you just how wrong you 
  really are.
  Just like everything else, improvising is a skill. Th e more you 
  practice, the better you get. But there are some tricks you can employ 
  to help you out.
  And I’m not going to talk in abstracts. Here’s a real example from 
  a real game I ran.
  Consider this. 
  In my ﬁ rst playtest group, one of the players said that the 
  Daimyo’s wife was unfaithful. As we were playing the game, 
  speculation ran rampant as to whom the Daimyo was unfaithful with.
  During the ﬁ rst game session, the issue came up. Someone called 
  for a Wisdom risk. One of the Oﬃ  cers—the Spy Master—was alone 
  with the Daimyo reporting on her inﬁ delities. She made a Wisdom 
  risk and started spending her wagers. Th e ﬁ rst wager was spent and a 
  young woman said, “She’s unfaithful with me.” Th en, another wager: 
  “And we’re plotting to murder him.”
  Remember: she’s alone with the Daimyo right now. 
  She declares surprise. She makes a Prowess risk. And right there, in 
  the very ﬁ rst session, she murders the Daimyo.
  What do you do now?
  Take a ten minute break. Your players will understand. Th ey’ve 
  just completely derailed what your plans were and you need a second 
  to catch up.
  Me? I told them I needed to run to the bathroom. Five minute 
  break. I locked the door, sat down and started thinking.
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  Five minutes in the bathroom. I’m ready for them now. Of course, 
  things will not go as planned. But I’ve got goals and that’s more than 
  what they’ve got.
  So, there you have it. A real example of improvising. How did I do 
  it? Easy.
  I knew what my players wanted and I gave it to them.
  Th e Spy Master was the new Daimyo. Th at’s ﬁ ne. I let her ﬁ nd the 
  Daimyo’s secret diary. You know. Th e one that details all his dealings 
  with the other Daimyos. She learned his plots and plans and just how 
  delicate the Province really was. Now, she had to deal with all her 
  neighbors who perceived her as a new Daimyo (a weak Daimyo) and 
  were ready to march when Spring thawed all the snow from the ﬁ elds.
  I told her that the diary would allow her to say one thing that was 
  true about each of the other Oﬃ  cers. Some kind of dark secret they 
  were trying to keep that the Daimyo already knew about. I told her 
  there was nothing they could do to stop her. She was the Daimyo. She 
  could deﬁ ne their characters. She grinned and started putting together 
  awful secrets for each of them.
  I also asked her what kind of Daimyo she was going to be. 
  Ambitious? Clever? Mad? As for the other samurai, all the Oﬃ  cers 
  now had a brand new Daimyo to deal with. I also openly told 
  them, “You’ve seen the Daimyo murdered 
  and 
  his 
  position usurped. Now you know 
  you 
  can 
  do it, too...” Obviously, this also 
  inﬂ uenced a lot of things.
  I listened to my players. I 
  know 
  what they want. I give them what 
  they want. Some want mystery. 
  Others want adventure. Some 
  want romance. Th e wimp 
  wants to be the comic relief. 
  I give them what they want 
  and drive them by their 
  own desires. In this case, 
  the players wanted a Cut-
  Th roat Game and they 
  didn’t know it. Or, they 
  didn’t know how to say that 
  openly. Th ey all wanted 
  to compete for the role 
  of the Daimyo. Okay, 
  then. Th ey got what they wanted.
  Oh, boy did they.
  
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  Spotlight
  One concept I’ve been toying with myself is the idea of “the 
  spotlight.” I didn’t think of this one; I’ve been hearing a lot of people 
  talk about it, but I’ve been toying with it for a while, trying to give it 
  my own twist.
  Every session, pick one player. Th at player has the Spotlight. 
  (Capitalizing it makes it a rule.) Th is means that player is the focus 
  of the game. Th e Narrator and the other players work toward making 
  that player’s samurai the center of that session.
  Using the Spotlight allows you to focus all your powers on a single 
  player. Ask the other players to take the roles of signiﬁ cant NPCs
  One character has the spotlight. Other players assist the Narrator 
  in making that moment special. You’ll get your own. You play an 
  important NPC in that player’s background.
  Set your Spotlight on one character per Year. Let the players switch 
  around the focus, helping each other tell their characters’ stories.
  Mix Backgrounds
  If you ﬁ nd a common element in two diﬀ erent characters’ 
  backgrounds, ﬁ nd a way to link those elements.
  For example, one samurai has a favorite uncle and another samurai 
  is looking for the man who murdered her mother. Turns out both of 
  those NPCs are the same NPC.
  One samurai is having a secret aﬀ air with a married woman and 
  another samurai suspects his wife is having an aﬀ air… Guess who the 
  common element is?
  Read your players’ background write-ups carefully. If you look 
  hard enough, you’ll ﬁ nd all sorts of ways to make your players love 
  you. Or hate you. Same diﬀ erence, really.
  Films
  In this section, I’ve gone through my favorite samurai ﬁ lms with 
  the intention of showing how to incorporate their plots, characters 
  and situations into your own game. Many fans of the samurai genre 
  have seen many (if not all) of these ﬁ lms. If you haven’t, I should 
  warn you, there are spoilers ahead. Of course, if you haven’t seen these 
  ﬁ lms… what are you waiting for?
  A quick note: many of these ﬁ lms share the same director: Akira 
  Kurosawa. Th is isn’t to say that he’s the only one making samurai 
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  ﬁ lms; he’s just my favorite. Th ese are the ﬁ lms that inspired me to 
  learn more about samurai and Japan in general. Th ese are the ones I 
  can speak upon with some degree of authority.
  Yojimbo/Sanjuro
  Director: Akira Kurosawa
  Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Ryuzo Kikushima
  Here’s a tale about the plight of a ronin. Always looking for pay, 
  always hungry, always begging or bribing or coercing peasants to 
  give him what he wants. He’s little more than a bandit… and yet, in 
  Kurosawa’s ﬁ lm, he’s the only source of morality. He’s the only one 
  with a code of honor. He lies, he cheats, he murders… and he does it 
  all for a “chance to make some good.”
  Yojimbo is the ultimate example of the samurai apocalypse. 
  Everything is falling apart. Nothing works. Criminals rule everything 
  and scoﬀ  at words like honor and duty. It is only when a samurai 
  comes into their world that they are reminded of the power such 
  words carry. A reminder of what the world was. A better world, 
  perhaps. But only perhaps.
  Pay close attention to the act that is almost Sanjuro’s undoing: an 
  act of mercy and kindness. If he remained ruthless, if he remained 
  dispassionate and detached, everything would have worked out ﬁ ne. 
  Compassion is a weakness in this new world and it almost gets him 
  killed.
   (Whenever I show this movie to friends, they always ask me about 
  the ending: why does Sanjuro give the bandit his gun back? And why 
  does he face down the barrel? Because Sanjuro has won. Death now 
  means nothing. You could also make a diﬀ erent argument, that on a 
  higher level, he knows the gun cannot harm him. I like that answer.)
  On the other hand, in Sanjuro, our ronin faces a diﬀ erent 
  problem. Stumbling upon nine young ronin, our hero has to deal 
  with the idealistic naivety of the court samurai. Th ey know nothing. 
  Th ey have all the virtues a samurai is supposed to have—loyalty and 
  duty—but they lack the cunning necessary to live in the real world. 
  Alone in their plush gardens, they have no idea how things really 
  work. Th e ﬁ rst piece of advice he gives them, to never trust how 
  things look, is a hard one. Perhaps it is a lesson they never really learn.
  ADVENTURES
  Th rowing your samurai into this world—a place where their 
  exalted virtues mean nothing—can really throw a hammer 
  into their faces. Outside their palaces, the yakuza rule 
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  everything. (I’ll be talking about the yakuza a little bit later in 
  the chapter.)
  Imagine this. Th e Daimyo sends his Oﬃ  cers to a large 
  village or small city. He wants to know why the taxes aren’t 
  coming in. Th e Oﬃ  cers arrive to discover the yakuza running 
  everything. Th e peasants won’t say a word: they’re terriﬁ ed of 
  the samurai. Th e locals trust the yakuza because the criminals 
  protect them from bandits and other dangers. Th e samurai 
  are never around. Th ey do nothing. Nothing except collect 
  the taxes. 
  “Th e yakuza protect us,” the peasants may say. “Where are 
  you? Up in your castle writing poems and debating sword 
  techniques while we starved. Now, we eat and sleep well with 
  true protection.”
  What do the Oﬃ  cers do? Kill all the peasants? Where is the 
  honor in that?
  Ran
  Director: Akira Kurosawa
  Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Masato Ide
  By far, my favorite adaptation of King Lear.
  Here’s a look at ambition and honor and why the two cannot 
  coexist. Men gain what they want by taking it from other men. Where 
  can loyalty exist in such a world?
  Th e Daimyo’s decision is so clearly wrong and the loyal son who 
  points this out is banished. Everything that follows results from these 
  two poor decisions. 
  Watch Lady Kaede as well. See how she uses her sex to get 
  what she wants. She perceives weakness and exploits it. If she was a 
  character in a roleplaying game, she never needs to roll a single die. 
  Everything she accomplishes is through roleplaying alone.
  ADVENTURES
  Th e Daimyo makes a poor decision. A blatantly poor decision 
  inspired by lust for an ambitious geisha. She wants to be the 
  Daimyo’s wife and is moving things in the right direction 
  to make that happen. Th e Daimyo has oﬀ ered her special 
  protections—through his Oﬃ  cers, of course—and she is 
  giving the Oﬃ  cers orders. Finally, she makes arrangements 
  for the wife’s death… and she orders the least loyal Oﬃ  cer to 
  do it. He knows if he disobeys, the Daimyo’s wrath will fall 
  upon him. He may even be banished. But if he refuses and 
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  explains to his Daimyo that he’s being foolish and should 
  ignore the words of an ambitious geisha… he’ll be banished.
  Damned if you do…
  (Yes, it’s true that the character of Lady Kaede inspired a 
  rather (in)famous lady from another samurai roleplaying 
  game. If you have not seen Ran, go do it and watch Lady 
  Kaede. You’ll see it all there.)
  Seven Samurai
  Director: Akira Kurosawa
  Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
  While the titular characters are not oﬃ  cially a Clan, the seven 
  ronin hired to protect a peasant’s village certainly make one out of 
  themselves. Each ﬁ lls a speciﬁ c role, fulﬁ lling the requirements set 
  down in this game, at least. Th ey may be ronin, but the home they 
  make for themselves—albeit temporary—is far warmer than the 
  wandering they left behind.
  Like all the Kurosawa ﬁ lms listed here, Seven Samurai takes a deep 
  look at the meanings of honor. Bushido is a simple philosophy, and 
  like most simple philosophies, it ignores the most diﬃ  cult questions 
  or merely answers them with pretty platitudes. Th e most diﬃ  cult 
  choices in life cannot be addressed with idealistic philosophies. 
  Sometimes, there are no good choices. Just choices that haunt you for 
  the rest of your life.
  Th e young samurai who throws away his blades and joins the 
  farmers planting their crops also intrigues me. Th ere is no wedding 
  scene. So eager and so full of notions at the beginning of the ﬁ lm, he 
  has thrown all that he devoted himself to for love. Poor Kambei; the 
  farmers even took his devoted student from him.
  If you watch only one movie on this list, watch this one.
  ADVENTURES
  So many stories base their premise on this one. Th e cinematic 
  meme of “gathering the gang” inspired so many others (and 
  is one of the ﬁ rst ﬁ lms to use the device). A group of samurai 
  protecting a village from bandits is the obvious draw, but let’s 
  dig a little deeper. Let’s ﬁ nd something a bit less… evident.
  Th e deeper theme here is the conﬂ ict of class. As Kambei 
  says at the end, “Again we are defeated. Th e farmers have 
  won. Not us.” Th e lower castes will eventually overthrow the 
  samurai caste. Not because they study warfare but because 
  they control the economy. Most samurai are too shortsighted 
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  to see this. Most samurai regard the peasants and merchants 
  as a vulgar (but necessary) means to a higher end. And with 
  this oversight, you can make all kinds of stories.
  Sword of Doom
  Director: Kihachi Okamoto
  Writers: Shinobu Hashimoto (writer), Kaizan Nakazato (novel)
  Here’s a portrait of genuine evil. A hard look at a cold, violent 
  man. Sword of Doom has to be one of the most unconventional ﬁ lms 
  I’ve ever seen. Th e portrayal of the protagonist leaves me to wonder if 
  there’s any goodness (or even sanity) in his head. If you want a model 
  for a bloodthirsty antagonist in your stories, here’s a good place to 
  start.
  Once again, this ﬁ lm clearly illustrates a woman’s role in Old 
  Japan. She is nothing without a male ﬁ gure to support her. After 
  the murder of her brother—uh, husband—Ohama needs Tsukune’s 
  support or she may as well cut oﬀ  her hair and run to a nunnery. 
  Meanwhile, Omatsu becomes a victim to her cruel husband. Th e roles 
  women play in these stories are those of victims. Seldom do they ever 
  show any strength, and when they do, it certainly leads to their own 
  downfall.
  ADVENTURES
  I didn’t list the option of the Evil Daimyo until now, in 
  the Narrator Chapter, where you and I can talk about him 
  privately. I’ve even hidden him here in the Adventures section 
  so the players can’t ﬁ nd him easily.
  One could make the argument that Ryunosuke Tsukue falls 
  into the category of Mad Daimyo. I disagree. Tsukue is evil. 
  Pure and simple. A man who loves wickedness and revels in 
  making others suﬀ er. Th is is the cruelest trick to play on your 
  players. Give them the Evil Daimyo.
  Th e Advantage of an Evil Daimyo is that the characters gain 
  Honor when they perform genuinely wicked acts.
  Th e Disadvantage of an Evil Daimyo is just the opposite: 
  characters lose Honor from the Honor Pool when they 
  perform genuinely moral acts.
  Rashomon
  Director: Akira Kurosawa
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  Writers: Ryunosuke Akutagawa (stories), Akira Kurosawa, 
  Shinobu Hashimoto
  Not actually a samurai picture, but important for you as a 
  Narrator, nonetheless.
  For me, Rashomon has always been a meditation on the nature of 
  men. Th e director, Akria Kurasawa, wanted the ﬁ lm to feel real. He 
  didn’t want to create a “once upon a time” ﬁ lm, but tell a story that 
  felt as authentic as possible. Why? Because the story he was about to 
  tell was about the impossibility of discerning truth from falsehood. A 
  theme we shall be visiting many times in this chapter.
  Are men wicked and selﬁ sh or can they rise above baseness and 
  achieve a little good in the world? I think this story makes a case for 
  both. Men can thrive on wickedness but they can also do the same 
  with rightness in their hearts.
  Pay closer attention to what is not being said than what the 
  suspects tell you. All four stories sound true but only the Woodcutter’s 
  story is free from motive. He was not involved; he has no shame to 
  hide.
  Th e woman herself transforms into four diﬀ erent women: one 
  for each of the tellings. Th e writing and performance almost give us 
  four diﬀ erent characters who all react to the situation in very diﬀ erent 
  ways. Which is the one that is closest to the actual event? Does it even 
  matter? Men make up their own realities, build their own past with 
  lies and believe what they want to believe… not what they actually 
  saw or did.
  Th e story hammers home all the lies and misery in the world. 
  Lines such as “Dogs have it better in this world!” illustrate how pitiful 
  the lives of commoners actually are. Th e Priest laments, “I don’t 
  want this place to be Hell!” but his wishes seem to be in vain. It isn’t 
  until the Woodcutter oﬀ ers to adopt the baby that a single thread of 
  sunshine breaks through. 
  And it is the Woodcutter who goes through a transformation here. 
  His initial lie comes from the fact that he didn’t want to be involved. 
  He didn’t want trouble. He went into the woods to cut wood and 
  stumbled across all of this. But, in the end, he adopts the child. A 
  stunning observation: to do good in this world, you have to give 
  something up.
  To me, watching the medium was one of the most chilling 
  moments in cinema. Something that has haunted me for years after 
  seeing it. Th e samurai of Old Japan are not capable of such magic—
  summoning spirits of the dead—but others may be. I’ve tried to 
  make the reality of magic as ambiguous as possible. Such testimony 
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  would be damning in Old Japan unless you consider the Commoner’s 
  question: “Why should a dead man tell the truth?”
  ADVENTURES
  For Oﬃ  cers of the Daimyo, dealing with issues like this 
  are almost every day occurrences. Who is telling the truth? 
  Probably none of them. But throw three diﬀ erent testimonies 
  in front of your Oﬃ  cers and have them pick from which is 
  most sincere. 
  Remember, they are Oﬃ  cers of the Daimyo. Th ey could 
  simply make a quick decision and be done with it. But 
  goodness requires sacriﬁ ce. Justice requires consideration. 
  But with four diﬀ erent accounts of the same story—and no 
  evidence to back anything up—the Oﬃ  cers are placed in a 
  situation that has no clean outcome. No justice.
  Th ere is no danger here. No danger at all. Just the Oﬃ  cers 
  making a decision. Th ey will never draw their swords, they 
  don’t need bows or arrows, they will not see a single drop of 
  blood. But their decision changes lives for better or worse. 
  Th ey can be selﬁ sh and deal out arbitrary decisions or they 
  can take their time—
  make a sacriﬁ ce—and 
  deal with the situation 
  correctly.
  But they’ll never 
  know what really 
  happened. Never.
  Seven Daimyos
  Here are seven of Old 
  Japan’s greatest Daimyos. I’ve 
  provided suggestions, but you 
  can decide on their natures.
  Clear credit here: Ben 
  Woerner wrote this section with 
  some minor additions by myself.
  Oda Nobunaga (Cruel)
  He was the great uniﬁ er of Japan, 
  but he was also known to be cruel, 
  cunning, and clever.  Many people claim 
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  that he was mad, but others claim he was just very intelligent.  
  However, it is known that he didn’t care for peasants beyond their 
  usefulness as soldiers, and while he was unifying Japan he was 
  angering many samurai and bringing about the deaths of thousands of 
  peasants. He is infamous for the Battle of Mt Hiei where he 
  surrounded the warrior monks with 30,000 men, and the slowly 
  marched up all sides of the mountain killing, burning, and looting 
  everything until they reached the top. His famous death was caused, 
  perhaps, by his cruel treatment of underlings. In particular, one 
  named Akechi Mitsuhide…
  Akechi Mitsuhide (Cunning)
  He was a well-known famous swordsman, but also known as a 
  brilliant poet who brought about the death of Oda Nobunaga.  One 
  of Nobunaga’s other retainers was besieging a castle and needed 
  help. Nobunaga and Akechi Mitsuhide, one of Nobunaga’s retainers, 
  came to help.  While there, Mitushide brought about a coup d’etat 
  and forced Oda Nobunaga to claim responsibility for the deaths of 
  Mitsuhide’s mother, sister, and lover. He was insulted by many of the 
  Daimyo before this incident and while a good swordsman, he was 
  never seen as a calculating man, but as a simple warrior.  Many claim 
  this is because he was so calculating and cunning that he was able to 
  hide even his desires from the outside.
  Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Ambitious)
  Hideyoshi and Ieyasu were cut from 
  the same cloth, even though Hideyoshi was 
  from peasant stock and Ieyasu was noble 
  born.  Both were very clever, but Hideyoshi 
  was spurred on from birth to be greater.  
  He rose from Nobunaga’s sandal servant to 
  become Shogun of Japan in all but name.  
  He did so by his continued push to achieve 
  despite  the sometimes heavy losses to his 
  soldiers.  Hideyoshi is also famous for racing 
  Tokugawa to the site of Mitsuhide’s coup.  
  Th ey both knew that whoever reached  it 
  ﬁ rst would become the next ruler of Japan.  
  Hideyoshi forced his men to hurry and 
  left behind stragglers (endangering the size 
  of his attack) so that he’d reach there ﬁ rst.  
  When he arrived, despite their being tired 
  If a Singing 
  Bird Didn’t 
  Want to Sing…
  Th ere is a saying in Japan 
  that if there was a singing bird 
  that didn’t want to sing,
  Toyotomi would say make 
  it want to sing,
  Nobunaga would say force 
  it to sing,
  and Tokugawa would say 
  wait for it to sing.
  
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  from their march, Hideyoshi’s men defeated Mitsuhide and secured 
  Hideyoshi’s place in Old Japan’s history.
  Tokogawa Ieyasu (Kind)
  His own patience might have been his undoing, but it was his 
  cunning and cleverness that allowed him to endure and succeed time 
  and time again. He was the man who defeated Ishida Mitsunari at 
  Sekigahara and became the Shogun of all of Japan.  An entire era is 
  named after him and it lasted for over 100 years.  Before becoming 
  Shogun he was known to have been friends with Nobunaga, 
  Hideyoshi and even Akechi Mitsuhide.  He was also defeated many 
  times in many battles, only to come out the better for having lost the 
  battle.  He was a general under Imagawa when Nobunaga defeated 
  Imagawa and then befriended Tokugawa.  He was defeated at the 
  battle of Mikatagahara, by Takeda Shingen’s famous cavalry, but he 
  and his generals were able to survive and escape and devise a way to 
  defeat Shingen’s cavalry later at the battle of Nagashino.  
  After his rise to the Shogunate, he is famous for devising methods 
  to keeping the Daimyo in line and keeping control over them by 
  inviting them to the capital, but also causing them to spend large 
  amounts of money. Th roughout everything despite being known for 
  his cunning and cleverness he is always known for his patience.
  Takeda Shingen (Clever)
  Th e Great!  Still beloved by Japan for his famous cavalry charges, 
  his ruthless ambition when his family was about to pass him over, 
  and his many wise generals Takeda Shingen is only rivaled by his 
  life long rival, the great embodiment of the god of war, Uesugi 
  Kenshin.  Th e two are famous for their rivalry and also their many 
  victories elsewhere, and while they fought each other many times, 
  both were most likely killed by simple peasants.  He is famous for 
  his clever development of cavalry tactics that were undefeated until 
  Oda and Tokugawa lead their musket-armed peasants against him at 
  Nagashino.
  (Takeda appears in the ﬁ lm Samurai Banners. Th e protagonist of 
  the piece is one of his “twenty-four generals,” Yamamoto Kansuke, 
  portrayed by the incredible Toshiro Mifune.)
  Uesugi Kenshin (Dangerous)
  Th e Lord of War! Famous for his retainers’ loyalty and for the 
  claim by the same retainers that Kenshin was the embodiment 
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  Ben’s Choices
  Ben couldn’t decide which 
  Daimyo should get which 
  nature, so he gave me options. 
  Here they are.
  Oda Nobunaga was 
  Cruel, Mad, Clever, and 
  Ambitious 
  Akechi Mitsuhide was 
  Cunning and Dangerous
  Toyotomi Hideyoshi was 
  Ambitious and Cunning
  Tokugawa Ieyasu was 
  Kind, Clever and 
  Ambitious
  Takeda Shingen was 
  Clever, Dangerous, and 
  Cunning
  Uesugi Kenshin was 
  Dangerous, Ambitious, 
  and Kind
  Date Masamune was Mad, 
  Ambitious, Clever and 
  Dangerous
  of the God of War, Uesugi Kenshin was known as the Dragon of 
  Echigo who opposed the Tiger of Kai, Takeda Shingen. Early on he 
  deposed his brother to claim title in his family, so his ambition is not 
  questioned. Although he was the rightful heir, his brother attempted 
  to gain the position, and Kenshin, who did not want to kill his 
  brother eventually took the ﬁ eld. Despite this moment of reluctance 
  Kenshin, who became a Buddhist monk, while still retaining his 
  position and titles, never was reluctant to war against Shingen or take 
  on other enemies. In fact, he became so powerful in northeastern 
  Japan that upon his death Oda Nobunaga 
  famously said, “Now the empire is mine.”
  Date Masamune (Mad)
  Famous for his missing eye, his 
  soldiers in black and gold armor, 
  and his crescent moon helmet, Data 
  Masamune was a Daimyo of ambition, 
  cleverness, and cunning. While it is 
  known that he lost vision in his left 
  eye because of small pox, it is not 
  known for sure how he removed the 
  eye. Legend states that when one of his 
  generals claimed that an enemy might 
  use it as an advantage, Masamune 
  plucked the eye from its socket. A 
  diﬀ erent legend states that Masamune 
  has one of his own trusted retainers 
  gouge the eye out for him. Either 
  way, Masamune’s mother declared 
  that because he was missing an eye 
  Masamune would never become heir. 
  Perhaps spurred on by this declaration, 
  Masamune gathered his most trusted 
  retainers and attacked all of his 
  neighbors, including his own family. He uniﬁ ed Northern 
  Japan and became known as the One-Eyed Dragon.
  Later, when Hideyoshi was unifying the great power 
  blocks of Japan, he forced Masamune and the Northern 
  Daimyo of Japan  to participate in his  campaign to eliminate 
  
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  the Hojo clan. Masamune refused. Even though he had no 
  real choice in the matter, and he had angered Hideyoshi, 
  Masamune continued to refuse until Hideyoshi u was forced 
  to confront him. Wearing his ﬁ nest clothes, and showing not 
  a trace of fear, Masamune faced Hideyoshi and continued 
  to claim he was ‘delayed’ from beginning the campaign. 
  Hideyoshi, impressed by Masamune, spared Masamune’s life 
  and declared, “He could be of some use.” 
  Many years later, Masamune was the ﬁ rst to build 
  a European style sailing ship.  He is also known for 
  encouraging many foreigners and Christians to come to his 
  lands. His  daughter was most likely a Christian convert, and 
  although Masamune remained a Buddhist, he was open and 
  friendly with the Christians even after his good friend, the 
  Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, outlawed Christianity.
  Using Authority
  Once of the most powerful tools you can use as a Narrator is 
  authority. Authority is always a tricky business in a culture like Old 
  Japan. Nothing is ever as it appears. Your players will always be asking 
  you this question: “Who has authority here?” By implication, they are 
  also asking, “Who do I want to oﬀ end?”
  If you play things the right way, setting up conﬂ icts of authority 
  everywhere you go, your players will hesitate at every step. Every 
  action they take should oﬀ end someone. If the Daimyo asks them 
  a question, the answer should oﬀ end one of his other Oﬃ  cers. If 
  the Daimyo shows favoritism to one Oﬃ  cer, the others should 
  demonstrate subtle signs of insult. 
  Whenever your samurai enter a foreign Domain, they will 
  immediately know the overt authority structure. But the covert 
  authority structure will remain hidden to them without roleplaying 
  or Cunning risks. Even then, there will be secrets they do not see and 
  games with rules they do not understand.
  Creating this sense of double meaning to everything in Old Japan 
  is the key to keeping your players oﬀ  balance and on their toes.
  Apocalyptic Themes
  We all know what happened to the world of Old Japan, but the 
  current residents do not. Th eir world is coming to an end. Th e arrival 
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  149
  of gunpowder, the rise of the 
  merchants and the inﬂ uence of 
  the West will force the samurai 
  caste into choosing between 
  transformation and extinction.
  You can use these themes 
  to give your world a dystopian 
  backdrop. Th e system the 
  samurai manage no longer 
  works. Only in their castles, 
  high above such mundane 
  concerns, can the issues of 
  poverty, crime and starvation be 
  ignored. But that’s exactly what’s 
  happening: the lower classes 
  are ignored in lieu of warrior 
  philosophies such as duty and 
  honor. To a peasant, duty and 
  honor are meaningless. Th e 
  samurai don’t care about them. Bandits raid the lands, bribe oﬃ  cials 
  and the farmers starve. It’s only when the samurai don’t get their rice 
  that they pay attention, and when that happens, it’s already too late.
  When the samurai leave their courts and battleﬁ elds, depict the 
  world with as many apocalyptic images as you can. Remember the 
  dog running out of the village at the beginning of Yojimbo? Th at’s 
  what I’m talking about. You are about to enter a world without rules. 
  Where things like bushido don’t matter.
  Dust and wind. Corpses. Th e voices of dying men from dry 
  throats. Buildings are dilapidated and the people are naked and 
  starving. What good is your philosophy here, samurai?
  The Yakuza
  Th e yakuza claim to have a heritage that spans back to Old Japan, 
  so why not include them? Not the historical petty gamblers and 
  merchants of shoddy goods, but the romantic yakuza who protected 
  innocent villagers from wandering samurai.
  Th e yakuza represent everything that opposes bushido. Or, 
  perhaps, they are the logical conclusion of bushido. Both sides believe 
  in honor. Both sides believe in a degree of selﬂ essness. Both sides 
  demand sacriﬁ ce. Both sides reward success and punish failure.
  But the yakuza recognize the need of the poor. Th ey recognize the 
  tyranny of the samurai. And, they’re willing to do something about it.
  
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  Your samurai have to deal with an underground conspiracy that’s 
  protected by the people it serves. Everyone in Old Japan denies the 
  very existence of such an organization, and yet, it’s force can be felt in 
  a real and deadly way.
  Forget ninjas. Th is is where the real danger lies. Not in men 
  jumping around in black pajamas throwing exploding eggs and 
  making magic ﬁ nger gestures. No. Just plain and simple greed and 
  honor and cold-blooded violence.
  Play Dirty
  Okay. Now we’re cooking with gas.
  I promised you a few miscellaneous notes from my experiences 
  running the game. Here they are. In no particular order, in no 
  particular style. Just some friendly advice from me to you, the 
  Narrator.
  Go kick their teeth in.
  What’s It Worth?
  Many times, players have disputes about how things go. 
  Sometimes, these disputes are character-driven and fun, but then 
  there are the times when these disputes turn disruptive.
  If your players have a player 
  vs. player dispute, the best 
  way to resolve it is by asking, 
  “What’s It Worth?”
  Ask each player to give 
  up Honor. Just take it right 
  out of the pool. Such blatant 
  disagreement among Oﬃ  cers 
  is disgraceful. Whoever wants 
  to be right will take the most 
  Honor out of the Pool. Don’t 
  make it a secret, do it right out 
  in the open. Th e player who 
  takes the most Honor out of 
  the pool is right and the other 
  person is wrong.
  
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  Turning Failure into Success
  Another trick. Just because you succeed in a risk doesn’t mean the 
  character has to succeed. Sometimes, failure is better than success. 
  Here’s an example.
  One of the characters in my game has a daughter. She’s engaged 
  to marry a neighbor. Unfortunately, she gets pregnant by someone 
  else’s son. Th at’s all right. Mom comes up with a solution. She 
  starts wearing a fake belly to parties, planting the idea that mom is 
  pregnant. Mom agrees to rear the child as her own while the daughter 
  gets married after the pregnancy is over.
  So, she goes to a party with the fake tummy. Everyone 
  congratulates her. Smiles and embraces. She heads oﬀ  to bed early—
  pregnant women shouldn’t be up too late, after all—and when she 
  enters the dark room, an assassin attacks.
  Our young faux mother is no slouch, but she’s not carrying a 
  sword or a knife. We roll for the risk… and the NPC wins. Th e player 
  expects the worst. After all, I have four wagers ready to aggravate that 
  Injury right up to rank 5. But I don’t do that. Instead… the knife 
  plunges into her belly.
  Her fake belly.
  Th e blade never reaches her ﬂ esh. Th e assassin’s eyes glare with 
  understanding. She can see the hint of a smile spreading under his 
  mask. 
  “Blackmail,” he whispers. 
  Th en, he runs to the window, leaping oﬀ  into the night.
  Turning failure into success.
  Players, Wagers & Style Points
  In many ways, running Blood & Honor is no diﬀ erent than 
  running any other game. More speciﬁ cally, your players will always 
  come out of left ﬁ eld with some wild scheme and lay waste to your 
  best-laid plans. Th e diﬀ erence in Blood & Honor is: we give them 
  mechanics to do it. Th ey use wagers and Honor Points to screw 
  things up. Th ey’ll take your best-laid plans and throw them out the 
  window… just like they do in other roleplaying games.
  But you have an advantage here. You have no plans. You have a 
  kind of outline and perhaps some motives, but as soon as players 
  ﬁ gure out they can assign motives and histories on their own, they’ll 
  start building the story themselves. So, what do they need a Narrator 
  for?
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  Th ey need you to throw surprises in the mix. Th ey have to make 
  wagers and spend Honor to add details. You don’t. You can make 
  things up on your own… just as long as you don’t contradict what 
  your players have already established.
  But this kind of power in the hands of the players is a good thing. 
  It means they can tell you—right up front—exactly what they want.
  When a player turns an NPC into a cousin or a former lover, it 
  means “I want to have a relationship with that NPC.” Th ey don’t have 
  to ask you, they just do it. Same thing happens when a player spends 
  a Style to say, “We’ve been enemies for a long time.” Th e player 
  doesn’t need to spend points on an “Enemy” to add it to his character 
  sheet, he can play the game for a few sessions, ﬁ nd an enemy he really 
  hates (or loves to hate), throw down an Honor Point, and BANG! 
  He’s got a new enemy.
  Power in the players hands gives them the ability to tell you what 
  kind of stories they want, what kind of allies they want, what kind of 
  enemies they want. You don’t have to be clever about it. You can give 
  them exactly what they want because they told what they want.
  Th at’s the advantage of the 
  Blood & Honor system: it allows 
  the players to create characters, 
  plots and mysteries all on their 
  own. You aren’t a “dungeon 
  master” or a “game master.” 
  You’re a Narrator: guiding the 
  story along, working with the 
  players—not against them—to 
  make a story you all want to 
  hear.
  Th e Vach Question, Part 
  1
  I have a friend named Vach. 
  He’s a great roleplayer. I mean 
  a great roleplayer. But Vach has 
  this… thing.
  Vach always asks if he can 
  play something that isn’t in the 
  game.
  
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  If we’re playing Ravenloft, he wants to play a kenku samurai. If 
  we’re playing L5R, he wants to play a gaijin. You get the idea.
  Now, I know Vach is not alone. I know there are tons of players 
  with the same disease. So, we might as well address them right here.
  Yes, Vach, you can play a ronin. I know the game is about playing 
  a Clan, but yes, you can play something that isn’t that.
  I’ve given you all the rules to play a ronin in the ﬁ rst chapter. You 
  get no Honor. You get no Clan bonus. You get no equipment, you get 
  no allies, you get no food, you get nothing.
  But here’s the thing. You’re gonna have fun doing it. 
  So, there you go. You’re the outsider. 
  Have fun. I know you will.
  Who is the Protagonist?
  Th is comes to me, writing about NPCs…
  I recently came across an observation about the roles of 
  protagonist and antagonist in a story. Th e concept that the 
  protagonist of a story is the one who changes and the antagonist 
  is the instrument of that change. For example, in Th e Adventures 
  of Huckleberry Finn, we know that Huck is the protagonist, but it 
  could be argued that Jim is the antagonist. Jim challenges Huck’s 
  assumptions in the world, instigating a vital change in his character.
  Likewise, in the ﬁ lm Th e Shawshank Redemption, one can 
  argue that Red (the character played by Morgan Freeman) is the 
  protagonist—he is the narrator of the story and the viewpoint 
  character—while Andy Dufresne (the character played by 
  Tim Robbins) is the antagonist. Andy is the instigator in the 
  transformation in Red’s character. Red begins the story without 
  hope. A broken man. By the end, his transformation could not have 
  occurred without Andy.
  Likewise, in Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago serves as the antagonist—
  this time a deadly one—but his hatred for the Moor is not what 
  deﬁ nes him as such. Instead, it is the fact that he does not change but 
  inspires change in Othello himself that deﬁ nes Iago as the antagonist.
  Like most observations about literature, I do not mean to say this 
  is an absolute truth in every story—it most certainly is not—but it 
  helped me reﬁ ne the roles of my own antagonists in stories. I hope it 
  helps you do the same.
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  Always Ask for Wagers
  Whenever a player makes a risk, make a habit of asking, “Do 
  you want to make any wagers?” Players forget these things and until 
  they’ve got the habit on their own, keep feeding it to them.
  “Do you want to make any wagers?”
  “Do you want to make any wagers?”
  “Do you want to make any wagers?”
  If you forget, how do you expect them to remember?
  Wisdom Risks
  Whenever a player asks you a question about the world, your 
  answer should be, “I don’t know. Make a Wisdom risk.”
  Th e Vach Question, Part 2
  It’s easy to categorize players as “munchkins,” “actors,” or “rules 
  lawyers,” but that misses the point. Th ere’s a reason gamers act the way 
  they do. I ﬁ nd, most of the time, that reason is as simple as “I want 
  my shtick to work.” Let me show you what I mean.
  Elsewhere in this chapter, I mentioned my buddy Vach. In every 
  game, he always wants to play something completely outside of 
  genre. What I didn’t mention was that Vach is also one of the world’s 
  best munchkins. He can tweak any system beyond its limits, almost 
  breaking it. He completely exploits rules. Completely. So, one day, I 
  sat down with him and asked him why. What I found out during the 
  conversation made sense.
  Vach wants his character to be distinct. He doesn’t want to be 
  “just another samurai.” He wants his character to stand out, to have 
  his own voice, to be something unique. As for the munchkin stuﬀ , 
  Vach also wants his character to work. What I mean is, if his character 
  is supposed to be stealthy, he wants to sneak across a crowded room 
  without anyone knowing he’s there. Even if he rolls like crap, he 
  still wants his stealth to work at least a little bit. After all, if he’s the 
  greatest swordsman in all of Old Japan, shouldn’t he be able to get 
  some level of success from even an abysmal failure?
  I agree with Vach on both points. Players should feel their 
  characters are unique. After all, we’re talking about the samurai from 
  Old Japan! Th ey should have a distinct voice and ﬂ avor all their own. 
  At the same time, I also agree with him on the other point. If he’s the 
  greatest swordsman in Old Japan, he should get some level of success, 
  even if he fails.
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  Th is conversation with Vach inspired much of 
  the system you see in this book. You’ve almost 
  always got at least one wager to play with.
  So, here’s my 
  solution for Vach. 
  (Th is is the 
  actual solution I 
  proposed back when 
  Vach and I actually had 
  this conversation.)
  Dude, I know you 
  want to play a distinct 
  character, so I recommend 
  you play a blind 
  swordsman. I’ll give 
  you mega-bonuses for your 
  kenjutsu and you’ll be the 
  best swordsman in 
  the game. You’ll 
  have insight 
  that no other 
  character has. You’ll 
  be able to recognize sword 
  styles just by hearing the blades 
  cut through the air. You’ll be 
  able to tell a man’s skill just by the way his stance disturbs the world 
  around him. You’ll be awesome.
  Finally, remember that your unique circumstance also puts you at 
  a serious disadvantage. Whatever kind of outsider you choose to play 
  will put you on what Sun Tzu called “serious ground.” You’ll always be 
  at a disadvantage, always be treated as an inferior, always get spit on—
  even if it’s behind your back. I know you like this kind of challenge, 
  but I wanted you to know it is there.
  You’ll need another character to lead you around because you 
  can’t see. You’ll miss important plot details because you can’t see. If 
  you lose your sword, you’ll be helpless. Helpless. I want to say that 
  again. If you lose your sword, you’ll be helpless. And if you think for 
  a moment that little plot diﬃ  culty isn’t going to come up when I’m 
  running the game, then you really don’t know who you’re dealing 
  with.
  You’ll be awesome. You’ll be distinct. You’ll be at an incredible 
  disadvantage.
  I won’t use it to piss you oﬀ , but I will use it to make stories. 
  I won’t use this as an excuse to be a jerk, but your enemies will.
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  What a player does and why a player does it are two diﬀ erent 
  things. Go beyond the cliché. Find the motivation. 
  Just a few questions turned Vach from a “munchkin” to a 
  “storyteller.” It all rests in the motivation.
  Last Words
  An aphorism I learned while writing Legend of the Five Rings: 
  “Japanese ﬁ x the problem; Americans ﬁ x the blame.”
  No roleplaying game will be fun for everyone. No game is perfect. 
  No “generic” system will make everyone happy. It’s an impossible 
  task. Th at’s why we have 31 ﬂ avors of ice cream, that’s why your TV 
  has ﬁ fty thousand channels, and that’s why everyone has a diﬀ erent 
  favorite roleplaying game.
  If you aren’t having fun with a mechanic in the game, change it. If 
  you aren’t having fun, it isn’t my fault, it isn’t your fault. It’s nobody’s 
  “fault.” You and I just like diﬀ erent ﬂ avors of ice cream.
  Change the mechanic to something you like more. Don’t worry; I 
  don’t care. And nobody is going to stop you from having fun with my 
  game. Least of all, me.
  Enjoy! (And make mine mint chocolate chip.)
  
  157
  Sword Schools
  I had a lot of trouble with this. I designed three diﬀ erent systems 
  for sword schools. Th ey’re such an integral part of samurai literature, I 
  felt it was necessary to make them a part of the game.
  But sword training already exists in the game. It’s implicit: 
  reﬂ ected by a samurai’s Prowess. But that’s not explicit. And if a 
  mechanic isn’t explicit, the players don’t notice it and that means it 
  doesn’t exist.
  And so, the ﬁ nal draft of my sword school mechanics are here as 
  an Appendix to the main text. I like them very much, but I also have 
  a little bit of a problem with them. I’ll explain.
  With these mechanics, it’s entirely possible for a Courtier to 
  become a better swordsman than the Daimyo’s Assassin or Yojimbo. 
  I don’t like that. Th e Assassin and Yojimbo always gain bonus dice 
  for their Giri, that’s true, but the Courtier could learn more sword 
  schools than either of them, and thus gain an advantage.
  On the other hand, if the Courtier becomes a better swordsman 
  than the Assassin or Yojimbo… what the hell are the Assassin and 
  Yojimbo wasting their time with? Flower arranging? It’s time for the 
  Daimyo to order them to kill themselves and get better swordsmen.
  I also like the idea of all the Daimyo’s Oﬃ  cers spending Season 
  Actions learning how to become better swordsmen. Th e Dangerous 
  Daimyo would like this very much.
  So, there’s a bit of a disadvantage and a bit of an advantage. Th at 
  seems to ﬁ t the game rather well.
  The System
  While Old Japan has many diﬀ erent sword schools, I give you 
  the option for ﬁ ve types of Sword Schools. Th e full-page illustration 
  nearby shows how the ﬁ ve Schools relate to each other. Each provides 
  a bonus or penalty against a diﬀ erent School.
  Each Sword School gives your samurai bonus dice in a duel. 
  However, if your opponent has also studied under a Sword School, he 
  may gain additional bonus dice because of his studies. Some Schools 
  are better suited to take on others.
  A samurai may learn the techniques of a Sword School with a 
  Season Action. Th is gives him one rank in that Sword School. He 
  gains a bonus die for each rank he learns from that School. Additional 
  ranks and bonus dice may be gained as well, but each costs additional 
  Season Actions.
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  • Increasing from rank 1 to rank 2 in a Sword School costs two 
  Season Actions.
  • Increasing from rank 2 to rank 3 costs three Season Actions.
  • Increasing from rank 3 to rank 4 costs four Season Actions.
  • Increasing from rank 4 to rank 5 costs ﬁ ve Season Actions.
  Each School is associated with a particular Virtue. You may 
  only gain a number of bonus dice from a School up to the Virtue 
  associated with that School.
  For example, if your Cunning is 3, you may only gain three ranks 
  in a School that has Cunning as its associated Virtue.
  When facing an opponent from an opposing School, you either 
  gain additional dice or your opponent gains additional dice.
  You must place your School somewhere on the chart on the 
  following page. It must be an Water School or a Wind School or a 
  Fire School, etc. Regardless of where you place it, some other School 
  will have an advantage over you. No technique is perfect and every 
  technique has a weakness.
  Earth (“Chi”)
  Schools of the Earth teach students supreme conﬁ dence in both 
  mental and physical tests. Schools of Earth give bonus dice based on a 
  student’s Strength.
  Fire (“Ka”)
  Schools of Fire teach students that action and forward motion is 
  the key to success. Schools of Fire give bonus dice based on a student’s 
  Courage.
  Wind (“Fu”)
  Schools of Wind teach students to watch an opponent carefully 
  and deduce his weaknesses. Schools of Wind give bonus dice based on 
  a student’s Cunning.
  Water (“Sui”)
  Schools of Water teach students to be ﬂ uid and ever adapting. 
  Flexibility allows victory. Schools of Water give bonus dice based on a 
  student’s Beauty.
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  Void (“Ku”)
  Also known as “Sky” or “Heaven,” Schools of Void teach their 
  students the philosophy of “no thought.” Reacting without knowing. 
  Emptiness in motion. Schools of Void give students bonus dice based 
  on their Wisdom.
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  ず
  最
  初
  に
  、
  男
  性
  は
  三
  振
  し
  ま
  す
  。
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/FATE (fudge) [multi]/Houses of the Blooded/Blood & Honor.pdf