tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-995220052347472921.post964306357547501150..comments2024-03-27T09:51:27.618+00:00Comments on Reviews from R'lyeh: A Samurai Hackpookiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09521454715536568847noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-995220052347472921.post-63279624036834411852019-05-22T16:46:22.803+01:002019-05-22T16:46:22.803+01:00Hey, Pookie,
This is the author, Jacob DC Ross. I...Hey, Pookie,<br /><br />This is the author, Jacob DC Ross. I want to say right off the bat that this is a very insightful rreview, and I agree with many, many things that you write. There are a lot of things in Kaigaku that I want to improve. I'm working on a few different projects, including a revision of the main book to bring the rules in line with Black Hack 2E, and several "second editions" that are ports of the game over to new rule systems. Those include Stars Without Number, PbtA and my own Exodus System.<br /><br />The reason for now spellcasters is that I wanted to give people a "mystical" option, but nothing that becomes way more powerful than bushi. Japan was dominated by samurai and courtiers, and I want to reflect that in this game.<br /><br />The artwork. Yes, I get your criticisms. I won't say much about the work that the artist put into it, but I am going to replace many pieces in the revision. The cartography, that's on me. I was trying to make things as blank as possible so that GMs have enough space to insert their homebrew clans and locations. The map turned out bad.<br /><br />As far as the claim of "bringing back dramatic samurai action to the tabletop!" I feel that context is key here. At the time I wrote Kaigaku, in the spring of 2016, there were no actively supported samurai RPGs. The most recently published one was, if I remember correctly, Ben Woerner's excellent A World of Dew. It had been quite a while since that game's only supplement. L5R was gone, with no announced edition from FFG at this point. I love, love, love Japanese history and samurai RPGs.<br /><br />I was an old fanboy of AEG's game. You know that I wrote for it, as you mention in your review. In my mind this was a tribute to the old game, and a way of giving players something new. Porting the game to the OSR rule set was intended to open up all sorts of adventures and content for them.<br /><br />I guess we have to agree to disagree on settings being fleshed out. Yes, the book presents things in more broad strokes than most RPGs, but that was intentional. By the end of 4E and the CCG, Rokugan was packed with all sorts of canon that GMs and players had to keep in mind. I played a lot of L5R and in the majority of games the GMs used canon only as a starting point. I wrote what I feel is the right amoung of setting. You've got the clans, their relationships with others, a few adventure hook NPCs and a description of their philosphy, plus a set of GM secrets. I've never used more than that amount of information from a book in a game. To me everything else is just noise.<br /><br />Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in Kaigaku that harks back to L5R. This was meant to be a tribute. BUt it's not just L5R. A lot of what I want to do with this game comes from Bushido, a game that inspired L5R. I like intensifications. Yeah, raises inspired them. I wanted to make the game a "bridge to the OSR" for folks who were bummed at the demise of L5R's 4E.<br /><br />One thing I want to make clear, though, is that the setting itself is more inspired by Japan. I actually would have just done a straight historical fantasy but I didn't want to be constrained by actual history. The Kakujima clan are a pastiche of the real-world Ryukyu Kingdom (present-day Okinawa). Their daimyo is a gender-swapped Mori MOtonari. The Atsumichi are a blend of Heian-era clans, with a leader inspired by Sengoku-era daimyo Akechi Mitsuhide. The Kondo are the Oda. The Watanabe are supposed to be the Shimazu, and I'm making this more clear in the second edition. The Morimoto are the Date clan. The Shirai are inspired by several "Korean Clans", started by refugee Korean nobles who were granted samurai status. I could go on, but I like to leave things for people to find on their own.<br /><br />Thank you for this review. I'll keep you updated as things progress.Jacob Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10224014810177561780noreply@blogger.com