Inspired by Japanese
folklore as much as its history, the setting of Kaidan – which means “Ghost
Story” in Japanese – consists of a number of islands that have long been
isolated from the rest of the world for three basic reasons. The first is
political, as gaijin or foreigners are forbidden from setting foot on Kaidanese
soil by Imperial Decree; the second is physical, as the islands are surrounding
by a great wall of forbidding fog that few sailors dare to penetrate; and the
third… Well, that will be discovered by the player characters as they play
through the events of the trilogy, beginning with Curse of
the Golden Spear: Part 1 – The Gift. Given the name of the
setting, it is no surprise that it focuses on horror and mystery as much as it
does adventure and combat.
As the trilogy
opens, the political bar that previously prevented entry onto the islands of
Kaidan has been lifted. By Imperial decree, Kaidan’s ports have been opened to
gaijin sailors and merchants; which is why at the beginning of The Gift, the
party is aboard a ship sailing towards Kaidan. It is accompanying a merchant,
Marl Tyro, who has an important gift that he wishes to deliver to Lord
Hachiwara of Tsue-jo, daimyo of Oniba province on Yonshu Island. The player
characters have been hired by Tarl to serve as bodyguards, not necessarily his bodyguards, but bodyguards
for the gift itself, which is contained in a heavy mahogany chest.
Initially, the
scenario focuses on the attempts by Marl Tyro and the player characters to get
further than the “Foreigners’ Port” of Gaijinoshima as the papers necessary to
travel beyond its limits and onto Yonshu Island seem to be unavailable. Mostly
this will involve their dealing with some of Kaiden’s less than savoury
inhabitants, though in Kaidanese eyes, they are only marginally less savoury
than the gaijin player characters! Once off the island and onto Yonshu Island,
the party must make its way by road to the city of Tsue-jo, their journey
punctuated by various odd encounters or harried by bandits and other threats.
For the most part, The
Gift is a “Road Trip” style adventure. For the most part, it
reads and plays as standard Dungeons &
Dragons or Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game scenario, but the author does add elements that impart
the difference of the setting compared to other occidental fantasy settings.
Most notably in the dealings with the actual masters of Gaijinoshima,
in an overnight stop at a cursed inn, and a contest with some of Kaidan’s outré
inhabitants. The second of these, the overnight stop at a cursed inn, is
perhaps the scenario’s set piece and its horror highlight, more than any other
in the scenario, promising a night of bloody terror and nightmarish dread.
Despite these
highlights, The Gift is not wholly
satisfying as an adventure. Its central villain seems wasted, and its
conclusion fails to answer any questions that the events of the adventure have
raised and despite a final confrontation with the adventure’s villain, just
seems to fizzle out. In addition, the adventure leaves it up to the GM to
address the motivations of the individual player characters, The
Gift not only suggesting several, but also working them
into the four pre-generated adventurers that the adventure comes with.
In addition to the
pre-generated adventurers, The Gift also
comes with an array of Kaidanese monsters, a glossary, and an explanation of
Kaidan’s cosmology. The latter is definitely different and it certainly figures
in the course of the trilogy.
Physically, Curse
of the Golden Spear: Part 1 – The Gift is neatly presented
in full colour. The artwork is variable in quality, with some of its feeling a
bit too randomly Japanese. It is a pity that not all of it is in colour though.
The maps are decent though, but in places a little too large given the amount
of information that they have to impart. Overall, the contents feel a little
stretched over the course of the book’s sixty-four pages.
One of the reasons
for examining The Gift was to see if it
was in any way compatible with Alderac Entertainment Group’s Legends of the
Five Rings and its setting of Rokugan. Although Kaidan and Rokugan share
similar sources, the differences between the two are many, not least of which
are the differences in their cosmologies and their effects on their respective
settings, and their respective attitudes towards gaijin. Indeed, the presence
of gaijin on the Emerald Empire’s soil has only been acceptable during very
short periods in Rokugan’s history. Of course, the acceptance, even if only
grudgingly, of gaijin on Kaidanese soil is the exact reason why The
Gift works as a scenario. Nevertheless, there are scenes in
The Gift that would make for interesting
encounters in a Legends of the Five Rings
campaign.
There is no doubt
that the author of The Gift imparts the
cultural differences between the oriental fantasy of Kaidan and the occidental
fantasy of standard Dungeons &
Dragons or Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game. Another pleasing aspect of the setting is that
Kaidan’s isolation makes it easy to slot in a campaign of the GM’s own
devising, and thus would make for an interesting and perhaps lengthy excursion
for a traditional Dungeons & Dragons
style party. Although, moments on the journey are more interesting
and more exciting than the journey itself, Curse of the
Golden Spear: Part 1 – The Gift is a solid start to the
trilogy.
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