Translation and Design Opportunity

This notice appeared in issue #68 (December 1982) of Dragon:

Though the notice doesn't explicitly say so, I assume the job on offer relates to the project that would eventually become Oriental Adventures. Of course, it could also have been about translating Dungeons & Dragons (and other TSR RPGs) into Japanese. I recall that the first Japanese edition of D&D appeared in 1985 and was a translation of Frank Mentzer's 1984 edition. The fact that the contact person is Cheryl Gleason, a name I've never seen before, doesn't make the matter any clearer.

Does anyone out with better insight into the history of TSR know any more?

Now Under Construction

Because I did a Retrospective post on Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms last week, I was reminded of how excited I was by the announcement that the long-awaited Asian expansion to AD&D, Oriental Adventures. OA was a long percolating project about which Gary Gygax had talked for years beforehand, in part because he felt the monk class didn't belong in "standard" AD&D, given its inspiration in the legends of the Far East. Despite this, there didn't seem to be any evidence that such a project was likely to happen anytime soon and I largely put it out of mind.

Then, without warning, in issue #102 of Dragon (October 1985), this advertisement appeared:

Now, we'd finally get official game rules for samurai and ninja and martial arts and everything else we fans of Kurosawa and Kung Fu Theatre had long thought should be brought into AD&D. To say that Oriental Adventures was greatly anticipated, at least among my friends and myself, is something of an understatement and this ad, featuring a washed out, black and white version of Jeff Easley's cover painting, is a big part of the reason why. Though my feelings about OA are now a bit more mixed, I still have many fond memories of it – and the long October I spent waiting for November 1985 to roll around so that I could finally lay my hands on it.

Retrospective: Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms

I remember being very excited about the imminent release of the Oriental Adventures in 1985. Aside from the obvious reason – the introduction of playable ninja and samurai into Advanced D&D – I was quite keen to see "the Oriental lands of Oerth," as promised in the "Coming Attractions" section of Dragon #102. However, when OA was released in November of that year, there was no real evidence in that book that Kara-Tur, as its setting was called, had any connection whatsoever to the World of Greyhawk. This fact was further demonstrated when the first adventure module for use with Oriental Adventures, Swords of the Daimyo, came out the next year. Though it included a gazetteer of part of the land of Kozakura, there was once again no evidence that it had any connection to Gary Gygax's campaign setting.

None of this really mattered, of course. Though I was a big fan of the World of Greyhawk, the connection (or not) between it and Kara-Tur had no impact whatsoever on my ability to use the rules of OA or my enjoyment of Kara-Tur. Even so, when TSR finally got around to releasing a boxed dedicated to detailing this vast continent and its peoples, I was more than a little baffled to see it had suddenly – and definitively – been placed in the Forgotten Realms setting. In retrospect, this made sense. In the aftermath of Gygax's ouster from the company, TSR had turned the Realms into the setting for AD&D. Everything that could be (and quite a few things that couldn't) were jammed into Ed Greenwood's brainchild, often to its detriment. 

That didn't stop me from buying it, of course. Even in 1988, I was still very much a fanboy of TSR. Plus, I have always been something of a collector of campaign settings. Consequently, there was pretty much no chance that I wouldn't buy Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms when it was released. Furthermore, it truly was an impressive product, consisting of two 96-page books and four double-sided, color maps of the region, all for $15 (about $40 in today's debased currency) – a steal! In addition, the books were amply illustrated by the late, great Jim Holloway, along with cover art by Jeff Easley. All in all, a terrific package and I'd have been foolish not to have picked it up.

The two integral books are unusual in that they're essentially a single book split into two volumes, right down to sharing page numbers. Volume I covers the lands of Shou Lung and T'u Lung – analogs of China during centralized and Warring States periods respectively – as well as Tabot (Tibet – ugh!), the Plain of Horses (Mongolia), and the Northern Wastes (Siberia). Volume II covers the lands of Wa and Kozakura – analogs of Japan during the Edo and Sengoku periods respectively – along with Koryo (Korea – ugh!), the Jungle Lands (Indochina), and the Island Kingdoms (Indonesia and the Philippines). It's an impressive amount of material, covering nearly every aspect of these lands that you can imagine, from geography and history to religion and politics. In addition, each realm gets NPCs, monsters, adventure ideas, and sometimes even new spells and magic items. 

What's interesting is that Kara-Tur has no single author. Instead, different authors cover different lands, with the whole thing "coordinated" by David Cook, primary author of Oriental Adventures. The authors are a diverse bunch of people, most of whom were not employees of TSR at the time: Jay Batista, Deborah Christian, John Nephew, Michael Pondsmith, and Rick Swan. I'm not sure how common such a practice would have been at the time, but it strikes me as unusual, at least compared to many similar projects, which were usually the work of a single author. Consequently, Kara-Tur has a somewhat uneven feel to it, as if each author had a slightly different vision of what he had in mind while writing. 

This unevenness comes through most clearly when you look at certain lands, whose histories, societies, cultures, and names(!) are lifted almost entirely from the real world, while others are a bit more fantastical. That's probably my biggest problem with Kara-Tur as a setting: it leans to heavily on the real world, particularly when compared to the larger Forgotten Realms, which is largely unmoored from any specific real world inspirations. Some of that, I suspect, has to do with the relative unfamiliarity of Asian history – and fantasy – in late 1980s America. It was probably much easier to look to the real world, file the serial numbers off, add some wizards, and be done with it. Unfortunately, the results are often quite mediocre, not to mention at odds with the overall tenor and feel of the Realms of which Kara-Tur was supposed to be the eastern half. 

It's for this reason that, while I proudly bought and owned Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms, I never really liked it. Compared to many of TSR's other campaign settings, this one seemed to me to be lacking in imagination. That's a great shame, because I feel like the cultures of Asia offer great fodder for the fantasy roleplaying games. Maybe that was a goal that was more difficult to realize almost four decades ago than it would be today, I don't know. Regardless, Kara-Tur falls well far of the mark of what I would have liked back in the day and even more so now. Alas!

Interlude II: The Empire of the Sun

In an earlier post, I drew attention to a Gamma World article that appeared in the pages of the Polyhedron RPGA 'zine. The article described an attack against a major Radioactivist base by a giant fighting machine called an "Aquabot." The nature and origin of the Aquabot are left a mystery, though it is heavily implied that its appearance heralds the introduction of something else into the Gamma World setting.

That something else is revealed in issue #101 of Dragon (September 1985), in two connected articles. The first is entitled "Out of the Sun ..." by James M. Ward and Roger Raupp, whose names are also attached to the earlier Polyhedron article. This article details more "man-machines" like the Aquabot, such as the AATAAV (Airborne All-Terrain Armored Attack Vehicle), along with their game statistics. 

The second article, by Roger E. Moore, is entitled "The Empire of the Sun" and is, in my opinion, the more significant of the two, particularly from the point of view of the setting of Gamma World. This article describes the titular Empire of the Sun as "not so much a cryptic alliance as a true nation, one of the few in existence in the Dark Years." The Empire controls the island of Honshu but has bases across the Pacific Ocean and the coasts of eastern Asia and western North America.

Prior to the appearance of this article, the setting of Gamma World was seemingly devoid of large polities or states. There's the Barony of Horn in Legion of Gold, but it's a very small scale, localized thing. Likewise, there are hints here and there that some of the cryptic alliances (about which I'll talk at greater length in another post) maintain large, city-like strongholds, from which they send out their forces. However, none of these could really be called a state or nation. Thus, the Empire of the Sun is a genuinely new thing within the setting, as is the fact that it appears to be engaging in a campaign of conquest across the post-apocalyptic Earth.

Just as interesting is the fact that the Empire owes its existence to pre-apocalypse military personnel of the Asian Coalition, who "were hustled into suspended animation chambers in a major undersea base off the coast of Honshu, and thus survived the cataclysm." These soldiers "were revived in 2431 and since then have slowly spread across the Pacific Ocean, scouting out the remains of the world." Even more interesting is the goals of the Empire: "to bring order out of the chaos of the world, using the most efficient means possible." 

One can quibble about the wisdom of introducing anime-style mecha into the setting of Gamma World. I must confess that, even at the time this article first appeared, I had some qualms about it. Conversely, the idea of pre-apocalypse humans being reawakened a century later and seeking to restore order to a world gone mad is really quite compelling, but then I've I like the idea behind The Morrow Project, so what do I know? Regardless, "The Empire of the Sun" is, I believe, an important and often overlooked addition to Gamma World, one that strongly suggests its setting is potentially much more dynamic and larger in scope than the popular conception of it. 

Retrospective: Swords of the Daimyo

Japanophilia was a significant pop cultural force in North America and Europe during the 1980s. This manifested not simply in the enjoyment of anime featuring giant robots but also in an increased interest in the history and legends of feudal Japan, an interest that no doubt built upon the already existing 1970s obsession with Asian martial arts. That Dungeons & Dragons would eventually embrace these interests would have surprised no one who had been paying attention to the matter. The first treatment of samurai in D&D appeared in issue #3 of Dragon (October 1976), for example, while ninja appeared in issue #16 (July 1978) – and both of these postdated the monk class from Blackmoor (1975). There was thus never any doubt that TSR would eventually publish a book like Oriental Adventures. The only question was why it had taken the company so long to do so. 

Of course, releasing a rulebook devoted to adding classes, spells, magic items, and monsters inspired by Japanese legendry (and, to a much lesser extent, those of other Asian cultures) is one thing. Illustrating how to make good use of them in the context of D&D is another. Oriental Adventures devotes a mere six pages to sketching a fantasy setting – Kara-Tur – inhabited by the bakemono, hengeyokai, shukenja, and other Eastern additions offered by the rules. Despite its title, there are no sample adventures presented in OA, leaving referees and players alike to their own devices to figure out what to do with all the new material it provides.

That's where Swords of the Daimyo comes in. Written by David Cook, author of Oriental Adventures, and published in 1986, it consists of two 32-page booklets intended to provide referees with everything they need to kick off a campaign set in Kara-Tur – or, more specifically, a small portion of it called Kozakura. The island of Kozakura is a clear analog to medieval Japan's Warring States period, when rival warlords openly vied with one another for control of the empire. This makes it a good fit for the default assumptions of D&D, with adventurers wandering about freely. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say that this sort of situation makes even more sense than many D&D settings, where the social order is still largely intact. 

The first of the two integral booklets details three adventures set in Kozakura. The first of these, "Over the Waves We Will Go," is optional and intended only for referees who wish to transport characters from an existing Western-style campaign into the world of Oriental Adventures. As its title suggests, the scenario focuses on a seagoing journey to the lands of Kara-Tur. As adventures go, it's quite unusual, in that it focuses primarily on the ins and outs of a long voyage across the ocean. There's a large – and somewhat impressionistic – map divided into encounter areas the characters must navigate. The referee then uses their position to determine not only how long it takes them to cross the distance to Kozakura, but also what set or random encounters they may have. Equally important is the "mutiny rating" of the crew, a value that goes up or down based on how well the characters do along the way. 

The other two scenarios can be played by either non-native or Kozakuran characters, with the module providing eight sample PCs generated using the Oriental Adventures rules. These characters are surprisingly useful, even if you're not using them directly in play, since they provide little details about both the setting and what "typical" OA characters might be like, especially when compared to those of standard AD&D. Of most immediate interest is that several of them come from families or clans that are immersed in the Kozakuran setting. They're not rootless wanderers without any social ties and that, I think, is key to understanding how an OA campaign might differ from many, if not most, Western campaigns.

The second booklet provides lots of information on the Miyama province of Kozakura, the location of the adventures presented in the first book. The information includes many of the usual things, like history, geography, and politics. Much more interesting – and useful – is a hex-by-hex gazetteer that includes lots of little adventure seeds for the referee to develop as needed. Coupled with the large number of maps, both large and small scale, it's an excellent primer for a neophyte referee looking to get a better sense of just Kozakura is like and the kinds of scenarios that might take place on the island. In many ways, it's the more useful of the two booklets, since it provides the referee with the tools he'll need to keep his campaign going.

When it was released, I was very happy to have a copy of Swords of the Daimyo, since it offered a solid collection of ideas and aids for use with Oriental Adventures. I'd already had some experience with Bushido by this point, but it was good to have access to the additional resources this module provided. Moreoever, Oriental Adventures assumes a more strongly fantastical world than does Bushido, so the guidance Swords of the Daimyo provided in this regard was quite helpful. I made good use of it when I was in college and ran a short-lived but memorable OA campaign with my friends. Looking back on it now, I recognize that, even at this late a date, TSR was still producing some solid material that hadn't wholly bought into the principles of the Hickman Revolution. Whatever its shortcomings, Swords of the Daimyo feels like a throwback to the Golden Age of D&D rather than a product of the mid-Silver Age and that's more than good enough in my book.

White Dwarf: Issue #57

Issue #57 of White Dwarf (September 1984) features a cover by an artist credited only as Tweddell. The image is certainly an eye-catching one that, for me at least, evokes some of the pre-vanilla strains of fantasy that flourished prior to the 1980s. Perhaps it's the weird mounts of the two warriors that does, I don't know. In any case, I find myself strangely fond of this particular cover, more so than I would have expected. 

Ian Livingstone's editorial uses Games Workshop's release of its Judge Dredd and Doctor Who games as an opportunity to ponder the matter of licensed RPGs. He wonders why there are now so many games based on pre-existing characters and settings when Dungeons & Dragons, a generic and open-ended game without a direct media antecedent, remains the best-selling RPG. The matter of roleplaying games based on media properties is something I've thought a lot about over the years and re-reading Livingstone's brief comments on the matter have brought them to mind again. I may need to write a post about it in the coming days, if only to attempt to organize my own inchoate thoughts on the subject.

 "Mind over Matter" by Todd E. Sundsted tackles the ins and outs of psionics in AD&D and other fantasy RPGs. By and large, the article's intended as advice to the referee and, on that level, is fine if uninspired. Dave Langford's "Critical Mass" is the usual collection of snarky reviews mixed with occasional praise, with the latter being heaped on Frederik Pohl's Heechee Rendezvous and Gordon Dickson's Lord Dorsai. Langford also takes the opportunity to tie his reviews into roleplaying games, when he uses the "Neanderthal ethics" of E.E. Smith's Subspace Encounter as a springboard for discussing the "moral bias" of adventure scenarios. He doesn't dwell on the topic at any length, however. His intent seems merely to have been to get referees (and players) to consider the matter rather than simply ignore it.

"Open Box" starts with a quartet of (mostly negative) reviews of Mayfair Role Aids releases: Elves (3 out of 10), Dwarves (3 out of 10), Dark Folk (3 out of 10), and Wizards (6 out of 10). While there's no question that most Role Aids books weren't very good, I can't help but feel the reviewer, Robert Dale, is being unduly harsh here. Much more positively reviewed is The Traveller Adventure, which receives a well-deserved 9 out of 10. Powers & Perils, a game whose mere existence continues to baffle me, is given a very generous 8 out of 10, largely, it seems, on the basis of how much of its contents might be adapted to other fantasy RPGs. Finally, James Bond 007 is given a mediocre 6 out of 10.

"Sky Rig" by Paul Ormston is a Traveller scenario with a classic set-up: the characters are tasked to investigate why contact was lost with an orbital refinery in a gas giant. It's a fun little adventure in an unusual locale and I made good use of it in my youth. "For the Blood is the Life" by Dave Morris offers up an alternative to the traditional Gloranthan vampire in the form of the vampyr (and demi-vampyr). Morris's complaint is that, mechanically, there's no good reason for Gloranthan vampires to drain blood, which he considers an important part of the lore of the creature, hence the alternative version he offers, whose continued existence depends on blood. 

The second article in the "Night's Dark Agents" series by Chris Elliott and Richard Edwards provides game mechanics for better integrating ninjas AD&D, RuneQuest, and, believe it or not, Bushido. Once again, I note how quintessentially 1980s it is to have an article like this in a gaming magazine. "The Life of a Retired Wizard" by Lewis Pulsipher is a consideration of what magic-users, whatever their level, might do with themselves after they stop adventuring. Though short, it's a thoughtful article whose intent seems to be to encourage referees to give some thought to the question of how magic works and is used in his setting. 

Part 2 of "The Sunfire's Heart" AD&D adventure by Peter Emery is as good as the first part. The scenario has some excellent maps and challenging encounters, as well as some delightfully old school elements, such as riddles that provide clues to the adventurers. This month's "Thrud the Barbarian" introduces readers to Eric of Bonémaloné and his demon sword Stoatbringer, while "Gobbledigook" and "The Travellers" continue to chug along somewhat less memorably. "The Staurni" by Andy Slack presents a version of the aliens from Poul Anderson's The Star Fox for use with Traveller. 

"Majipoor Monsters" by Graham Drysdale details seven monsters for D&D drawn from the works of Robert Silverberg. Having never read Lord Valentine's Castle and its follow-ups, I can't really speak to the fidelity of these write-ups. "Racy Bases" by Gary Chalk and Joe Dever looks at how to improve the bases of miniature figures. I found the article oddly compelling, even though I've never been much of a miniatures user (let alone painter). "Words of Wisdom" by Kiel Stephens concludes the issue with some thoughts on a handful of new and unusual ways to make use of D&D spells, such as using levitate as an attack against an unwilling target or magic mouth as an alarm.

There's a lot to like about this issue of White Dwarf – or so I thought when I first read it all those decades ago. Even now, I think both "Sky Rig" and "The Sunfire's Heart" are well done and could easily imagine making use of them in a fantasy or science fiction RPG I were refereeing. That's more than I can say about many issues of this or any other gaming magazine I've owned over the years.

White Dwarf: Issue #47

White Dwarf regularly featured very striking covers. Whether because of their style, subject matter, or both, I generally can't help but find them much more compelling than those of other gaming magazines from the same period of time. The cover of issue #47 (November 1983) is no exception to this, with its undead samurai as painted by Gary Chalk, who's probably best known for his work on the Lone Wolf series of gamebooks (about which I'll talk more later this week). 

"The Demonist" by Phil Masters is a new character class for use with AD&D, following in the footsteps of the demon summoning rules for RuneQuest presented in the previous three issues. The class is basically a variant (evil only) cleric, with a unique spell list, including some original spells, like soul shield and summon imps. New character classes – or "NPC classes," if it's published in the pages of Dragon – have been a staple of the hobby since 1974. Most of them aren't especially interesting, so Masters deserves some credit for creating one that's not dull. That said, I'm not sure there's much need for the demonist as a distinct class, when simply creating new spells for evil clerics would suffice.

"Open Box" reviews four products this month, starting with FGU's Privateers and Gentlemen, which earns 9 out of 10 – much higher than I would have expected. The Asylum and Other Tales also receives 9 out of 10, while Starfleet Battles Supplement #1 is rated 7 out of 10. Big Rubble, on the other hand, gets a fairly nuanced rating: 10 at best, much 8–9, some scenarios 5–6. Nuanced ratings is nothing new to White Dwarf. Many ratings are divided between presentation, rules, playability, and complexity, with a single overall rating for the entire package. This is the first time, though, that I can recall seeing the "overall" rating (which is what I usually report in my posts) broken up in this way. 

Dave Langford's "Critical Mass" reviews Asimov on Science Fiction, a nonfiction book in which Isaac Asimov offers his thoughts and opinions about the genre and its practitioners. Langford's opinion of the book is mixed. Much of it is clear, lucid, and sensible. However, Asimov's own prejudices and his incessant self-promotion mar what might have otherwise been a solid tome. Fond though I am of much of Asimov's oeuvre, I find it difficult to disagree with Langford's assessment. "Zine Scene" by Mike Lewis is the inaugural column devoted to gaming fanzines. Lewis introduces himself to the reader, along with a handful of 'zines he thinks worthy of mention.

"Extracts from the Travels of Tralk True-Eye" by Ian Bailey presents details and game stats for several types of goblins for use with RuneQuest. The goblins are imaginative and varied, which is nice, though I'm not sure how well they'd fit into Glorantha. Mind you, I often forget that White Dwarf regularly published "generic" RQ articles that were not tied to Glorantha and this appears to be another of them. I suppose it's a testament of how ingrained Glorantha is to my own conception of RuneQuest that I even think to ponder questions like this. "Aliens" by Phil Masters presents two new non-human species for use with Traveller: the crustacean-like Phulgk'k'k'k and the small ape-like Ghashruan. 

The conclusion to Daniel Collerton's "Irilian" gives readers a two-page color map of the entire city. Irilian's main buildings are keyed but, to make full use of it, one must possess the previous five issues of White Dwarf. Accompanying the map is the final part of the six-part adventure, "The Rising of the Dark," which takes place within the city's walls, along with random encounter tables and information on civil and religious law. It's a terrific end to a terrific series of articles. "Irilian" was what finally convinced me to subscribe to White Dwarf after picking up single copies of it for years. That likely explains the fondness I have for the whole series and the city it depicts.

"Rune Rites" presents two very short articles for use with RuneQuest. The first, "Daily Health" by Paddy Barrow is a very odd one. It's a set of random tables to determine "how a player character feels on a certain day." Sub-tables are used if a character feels particularly good or bad, with game mechanical effects coming into play. Perhaps this might be useful on occasion, but it strikes me as a perfect example of the randomness fetishism that frequently afflicts long-time gamers. Much better is Dave Morris's "Force of Will," which codifies a system for measuring a character's ability to resist debilitating/demoralizing effects. The system is simple and easy to use; it makes a for a consistent alternative to the haphazard way RQ used to handle this sort of thing.

"Kwaidan" by Oliver Johnson and Dave Morris is a nifty little adventure scenario for Bushido. As its title suggests, it presents a ghost story set in feudal Japan. It's quite well done, with detailed NPCs, maps of a village, a monastery, and a manor house, and of course the ghosts wreaking havoc in the region. I haven't had the chance to play Bushido in years; reading "Kwaidan" makes me wish I were. "Treasure Chest" presents a mini-scenario based around a couple of weird magic items, including the "Dorianic Portrait," while "Mini-Monsters" offers five small monsters for use with D&D. The issue concludes with the latest installments of "Thrud the Barbarian" and "The Travellers," the former of which is especially amusing.

As I alluded to earlier, this issue comes from the period when I was reading White Dwarf religiously, as a companion and counterpoint to Dragon, to which I was also subscribing. Consequently, I have a lot of affection for these issues. At the same time, it's obvious in retrospect that White Dwarf was changing – becoming slicker, more professional, and diversifying its content. In addition, Game Workshop was itself changing and those changes would soon enough impact White Dwarf itself. This knowledge doesn't adversely affect my delight in re-reading issues like this one, but it does remind that Golden Ages rarely last long, no matter how great their glory.

Different Worlds: Issue #13

Issue #13 of Different Worlds (August 1981) opens with an article entitled "The Land of Faerie" by Scott R. Turner. It's an odd piece, in that it contains no game statistics whatsoever. Instead, it's an overview of a variety of  myths and legends about fairies – mostly from the British Isles – strung together as a semi-coherent whole. There's even a bestiary of sorts, which provides brief descriptions of many fairy creatures. Articles like these baffle me somewhat. They're usually too short to present information that most players of fantasy RPGs don't already know. Likewise, the lack of game-specific information limits their utility.

Strangely enough, Iain Delaney's "The Travellers' Aid Society" follows a similar pattern, being both very short and almost entirely lacking in game statistics. Rather, what Delaney offers is a limited and particular interpretation of the iconic organization from GDW's Traveller game. Even more so than "The Land of Faerie," it's too short to present anything a Traveller fan didn't already know, as well as lacking in game rules that might otherwise make it useful.

 The oddly titled "Role-Playing in the Land of Xanth" by Leonard Kanterman is, for the most part, a book review of first three volumes of Piers Anthony's series of fantasy novels. The review also provides cursory suggestions on how to use Xanth as a setting for a RPG campaign. At the risk of repeating myself, I found the article mostly useless, owing to its short length and lack of game rules. but I suppose it's possible that it might serve as an introduction to the setting to the uninitiated (assuming one considers that a good thing).

Jane Woodward's "The Cult of Erlin the Harper" is a gateway cult for RuneQuest. It's a very welcome counterpoint to the previous three articles, in that it contains a great deal of game-specific information that's useful even in RQ campaigns set on Glorantha. There are not only new music-based rune spells but also details of musical instruments and how they can used in the game. Steven Marsh's "Samurai Swords" follows a similar path, offering lots of details on the schools of Japanese sword-making and the weapons they made. Rather than simply being historical in nature, the article also provides rules for each type of sword, including possible magical powers associated with the weapons. It's more detailed than I expect most people need, but I couldn't help but appreciate the detail nonetheless.

John T. Sapienza reviews "Samurai Figures," focusing on those available from Ral Partha, Archive, and Stan Johansen. The accompanying photographs are quite nice. Lee Gold's Land of the Rising Sun and Dave Hargrave's Arduin Adventure are both reviewed positively, though with a few caveats in the case of the Arduin Adventure. Larry DiTillio's "Sword of Hollywood" looks at two movies, one I've heard of and one I have not. The first is Dragonslayer, which DiTillio liked a great deal. The second is The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire, which he also liked – indeed, he liked it well enough that he wants it to become a weekly television series. Gigi D'Arn's column talks a fair bit about a supposed scramble by various publishers to secure the righs to Conan the Barbarian-related game products, as well as hints of trouble at SPI. 

All in all, issue #13 is something of a disappointment to me. My guess is that the shift from bimonthly to monthly left Chaosium with less quality material to choose from for each issue and it shows. I hope that, as 1981 wears on, things will improve.

Different Worlds: Issue #3

Issue #3 of Different Worlds (June/July 1979) features a positively delightful cover by Tom Clark. It's exactly the kind of weird, "out there" art, neither clearly fantasy nor sci-fi, that I associate with the 1970s. Beautiful! The issue begins with a review of Bushido by Steven Lortz. The review is quite positive, praising the game for providing players with more to do than "kill and pillage." Immediately afterward come the next two articles in the "My Life and Role-Playing" series, this time offering up articles by two truly heavy hitters: Dave Arneson and Steve Perrin.

Arneson's contribution is both long and filled with details, most of which are probably well known nowadays. He states early on that "Blackmoor was not the first RPG that I was in. Not by a long shot." He then goes on to relate tales from earlier campaigns, such as the Napoleonic one set in the town of Brownstein [sic] and his adventures stirring up trouble in South America, two events discussed at greater length in the Secrets of Blackmoor film. The rest of the article is filled with biographical details, insights into Arneson's personal perspective on RPGs as an activity, and additional bits of history. Steve Perrin's article is similar, though the details differ, of course. Of particular interest to me is Perrin's reminiscences about the foundation of the Society of Creative Anachronism in 1966 and his involvement in it – involvement, I might add, that played a role in his development of both the Perrin Conventions for OD&D and the rules behind RuneQuest. 

"Research and Rules" is a short article by Steve Marsh, offering five steps for the creation of good RPG rules: Define the Thing to be Written About, Define the User/Situation, Get Acquainted with the Material, Simulate the Rules in Your Present Situation, and Understand the Whys. The article is brief, so none of these steps gets much attention, leaving the end result less satisfying than it might have been. Mike Ginderloy's "Specialty Mages" variant for Dungeons & Dragons gets a third part, this time presenting lightning, crystal, acid, and wind mages. 

"Role-Playing: How to Do It (An Immodest Proposal)" is a lengthy article by Clint Bigglestone, in which he offers his thoughts on both playing and GMing, with an emphasis on the former. Bigglestone is very interested in the creation of plausible characters based on all the factors that describe him, from his physical and mental game stats to cultural background. He also reminds readers that a RPG is a game and one should never lose sight of that fact, no matter how attached one becomes to a character. Dennis Sustare's "Druid's Valley" is an overview of his Bunnies & Burrows campaign setting. I found it incredibly fascinating, because he not only details the setting and its characters but also talks about events from his campaign and his reasoning as a referee. I love this kind of stuff and continue to find these articles some of the best material in Different Worlds.

"The Three Feathered Rivals Cult" by Ray Turney is, of course, a new cult for use with RuneQuest. "A Letter from Gigi" includes numerous bits of then-current gaming gossip, such as the ongoing lawsuit between Arneson and Gygax. Speaking of Gygax, the column comments on the advertisement from White Dwarf featuring Elise Gygax. Also mentioned is the appearance of "yet another article on pole arms" in the pages of Dragon. Apparently people were making fun of Gary's obsession even back in the day. "Different Views" is a collection of letters from readers, one of whom, John T. Sapienza, provides the issue's last article, "A New Cleric Cure System." A variant for D&D, Sapienza effectively rewrites the cleric class, turning it into more of a flexible healer class than a warrior-priest with some healing ability. I'm not sure I like it, but it's an intriguing take on the subject.

Issue #3 of Different Worlds is another good one, particularly in those articles were writers and designers of the hobby let us peak in on their own gaming. That's a topic of which I never tire and hope that future issues will bring more of this. Though I do appreciate rules options and variants, those can be found anywhere. What Different Worlds offers that I've rarely seen elsewhere is a glimpse of what it was like to play in the early days of the hobby and that is worth a great deal to me.

Imagine Magazine: Issue #25

 Issue #25 of Imagine (April 1985) is the "Far Eastern Special," presenting numerous articles whose content derives from myths, legends, and cultures of Asia. Without context, I'd have assumed that the issue's contents had been chosen to complement the release of Oriental Adventures, but I'd have been wrong. That AD&D hardcover, the last to bear the byline of Gary Gygax, wasn't published until late 1985 (Gary's preface is dated September of that year). Indeed, there's nary a mention of Oriental Adventures in this issue, which suggests there's no connection between the two whatsoever or, if there is, it's an unacknowledged one. 

Graeme Davis opens the special with "Monsters from Folklore of the Philippines," a collection of seven new creatures for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (as well as notes on local versions of standard AD&D monsters). Davis also penned ""Japanese Bujutsu in the AD&D Game." The article presents more than a dozen new weapons of Japanese origin, in addition to brief disarming, archery, and judo. Though brief, the article is one I'd have enjoyed at the time, during a period when I was very interested in Japanese history and legendry. David Knowles, meanwhile, offers "Ogre Magi," an examination of these Asian-inspired monsters with an eye toward fleshing them out both as monsters and as a playable, if evil, character race. What's most interesting to me is that Knowles presents Ogre Magi as Dai-Bakemono rather than a kind of Oni, as would eventually become standard in AD&D. The distinction between the two classes of supernatural beings is a subtle one and I don't claim to understand all the nuances involved but I note it nonetheless.

"Dragonlore of China and Japan" by Carole Morris is a three-page overview of how dragons were viewed in these two Asian cultures. There are no game stats provided anywhere in the article; it's simply a discussion of the topic from the perspective of Chinese and Japanese myths and it's quite good for what it is. "The Words of Go-Guji" is a mini-module by Mike Brunton that's intended for use with both AD&D and Bushido, though it seems to have been intended for the latter. I say this because the text of the adventure provides Bushido stats while an accompanying article, "Using The Words of Go-Guji with the AD&D Game," offers conversion notes for the former. The scenario involves a cursed village terrorized by deathless samurai and I imagine it could serve as a fun kick-off to a Japanese fantasy campaign. "Moshigawa's Homecoming" by Gordon Linzner is a piece of short fantasy fiction inspired by Japanese culture – nothing special but unobjectionable. Graeme Davis provides yet another article, this time "Pentjak Silat: The Martial Arts of Indonesia," which, despite its title, is mostly a list of Indonesian weapons for use with both AD&D and Bushido. 

This month's reviews include Timemaster from Pacesetter, Halls of the Dwarven Kings, and Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure. I find it notable that the latter gets a fair amount of criticism for the inexplicable oddities of the dungeon (such as "traps with no real explanation"). Agree or disagree with those criticisms, I nevertheless find it laudable that Imagine, though a house organ of TSR UK, had sufficient editorial integrity that they published reviews of TSR products such as these. Colin Greenland's "Fantasy Media" tackles The Terminator (which he loved) and 2010 (which he also liked, though he sarcastically notes that the film is "for everyone who was mystified by 2001"). Roger Musson's "Stirge Corner" talks about maps and the difference between modern maps, with their high level of detail and precision, and historical maps that are more vague and situational in their presentation and how these differences can be put to good use in RPGs – good stuff.

This month's Pelinore article treats "The Cornucopia," a gambling den owned and operated by the nefarious Cottonwood family. More interesting is the gazetteer of the County of Cerwyn, location of eth City League. Included along with the gazetteer is a map of the town of Darkmoor, a trading settlement of a few thousand people. The gazetteer is a useful little article, since it fleshes out the wider world beyond the City League, something I find very useful when starting a new campaign.

Issue #25 is a good one, filled with some excellent, if very specific, articles and ideas. As I've noted before, special issues like these are hit or miss with me, as I suspect they are with most readers. If you happen to be interested in the subject matter of the issue, they're amazing; if you're not, they're tedious. Consequently, how much one might appreciate this issue depends, I suspect, on how much you like Asian-flavored fantasy.

REVIEW: Shogun & Daimyo

Shogun & Daimyo is the second volume of Tadashi Ehara's Gamers Guide to Feudal Japan and the companion to his earlier Daimyo of 1867, with which it shares several qualities. For one, it's large (nearly 350 pages in length) and expensive ($59.95 in print form and $29.95 for the PDF). For another, it's exhaustive in its discussion of "the military dictators of samurai Japan," from the 12th to the 19th centuries. I'm not kidding when I say "exhaustive," since this book details 170 daimyo clans and provides biographies of their most famous members, along with descriptions of their holdings and sometimes even a family tree. Also like Daimyo of 1867, it can be a little off-putting at times. There is so much information packed into the pages of Shogun & Daimyo that it's easy to lose the forest for the trees, so to speak, and have no idea what to do with it.

Fortunately, this is a reference work. It's not intended to be read cover to cover in a single sitting, though, if you're an aficionado of feudal Japan it might be hard not to do so. The book begins with a brief overview of its material, along with guides to pronunciation and the romanization of Japanese characters. There's also a history of feudalism in Japan, from 711 B.C. to 1869. The structure of imperial and military governance is also treated, with attention given to how both changed over the centuries. It's little details like this that make Shogun & Daimyo so interesting, because the past, like the present, wasn't static. Seeing the ways that samurai Japan evolved not only helps to differentiate the various eras of its history but also provides excellent fodder for adventures and even whole campaigns. In the same way, the biographies of all the men who held the title of shogun also hits home the diversity to be found just within Japanese history, something easily overlooked by Westerners whose primary knowledge of the country comes from the cinema.

The bulk of the book, though, is given over to descriptions of 170 daimyo clans not included in Daimyo of 1867. The reason these clans were not included in that volume is that these are

the warlords that were defeated, dispossessed, or otherwise discontinued from the annals of history prior to the end of the samurai era.

Of course, many of these clans are also some of the most famous ones in Japanese history and well-known even in the West -- Ashikaga, Fujiwara, Taira, Takeda -- which ensures that their descriptions are usually very interesting. Each clan write-up includes its mon (family crest), territories, castles, revenue, and notable ancestors. In many cases, there are family trees and historical pieces of art depicting important members of the clan. I did say the book was exhaustive! Fortunately, the book also contains a very useful collection of indexes, both of clans and of individuals, and they cover both volumes of the Gamers Guide to Feudal Japan.

The book concludes with several shorter sections. The first of these discusses chanbara movies, which are historical films that focus a great deal on sword-fighting (which is what the word literally means). Chanbara films make good models for RPG campaigns set in feudal Japan, since they're filled not only with samurai but also with ninja, yakuza, and oppressed peasants in need of heroes to defend them. Ehara divides up his overview of these films by period, suggesting the ones he believes most inspirational for roleplaying purposes, in addition to giving details and a brief summary of each one. It's a very handy primer for anyone unfamiliar with this extensive genre of Japanese film making. Other sections provide ideas for campaigns, gazetteers of several areas, and a system for randomly generating mon for a PC's clan, along with illustrations of 100 of them.

Taken together, Shogun & Daimyo, like its predecessor, is a very impressive volume, all the more so because it's eminently accessible even to readers such as myself who have little real knowledge of Japanese history or culture. Ehara is quick to note in his introduction that this is not a scholarly work and perhaps that is so, but both the breadth and depth of the book left me impressed. Make no mistake, though: while readily accessible to individuals without much prior knowledge of feudal Japan, one must still be very interested in the subject matter to make one's way through its pages. Though clearly written and illuminating at times, it can still rough going, reading somewhat like a textbook, albeit an often engagingly written one. Buy it only if you are either very interested in the subject matter or plan to use it in a RPG campaign, preferably both.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're playing a RPG set in historical or semi-historical Japan (or are just interested in Japanese history)
Don't Buy This If: You're not especially interested in historical Japan or don't play RPGs based on it.

The Ads of Dragon: Bushido

FGU had a lot of great ads in the pages of Dragon, including this one from issue #60 (April 1982), for their feudal Japan RPG, Bushido.

This is an example of an advertisement that actually got me to seek out a game and buy it, which was difficult, since, as I've discussed before, FGU games weren't all that common at the hobby stores I used to frequent. It's really a terrific ad, telling you exactly what Bushido is about and the illustration by one of the game's designers, Bob Charrette, was one I found particularly evocative as a kid, perhaps because it's different than the stereotypical depiction of a samurai. There are many ads from my youth that I like, but this one will always hold a special place for me.

Le Samouraï

When I started high school in the Fall of 1983, I began to study French for the first time. Some months prior to this, I recall reading an article in Dragon mentioning that the Moldvay-edited Basic Rulebook had been translated into la belle langue. I must have mentioned this to my father, because, one day, he put a telephone into my hand, telling me that he had "someone from 'that game company in Wisconsin' on the line."

It seems he'd called directory assistance and managed to get through to TSR, where he began to ask people about how he could obtain a copy of the French translation of D&D for me. He was apparently shuffled around the company from person to person until finally he'd gotten hold of someone who could help. Since he didn't know anything about D&D, he passed the phone to me to talk to the knowledgeable TSR employee to whom he'd finally been transferred.

The person to whom I spoke turned out to be none other than François Marcela-Froideval, whom Gary Gygax had brought over from France to assist him on various projects as TSR expanded into the European market. I spoke to M. Marcela-Froideval for some time, who, so far as I can remember, was a very affable fellow. He took -- or at least feigned -- interest in hearing about my D&D campaign and my high regard for Gary Gygax. He also commended me for my desire to learn French and said he would make arrangements for a copy of the French-language Basic Set to be sent to me.

As it turned out, I wound up receiving two copies of the French boxed set. The first was one purchased by my father (who spoke to someone in the Dungeon Hobby Shop, I believe, after my conversation ended) and I was very happy to receive it. The second copy arrived a few days later, sent directly from TSR. This second copy wasn't shrinkwrapped, because Marcela-Froideval had had it autographed -- "May the Dice Be with You! -- Gary Gygax" -- making it one of my most prized possessions as a teenager.

I mention this story because recently, thanks to Matthew James Stanham, I was made aware of the existence of an issue of the French fanzine, Casus Belli, available online at Nicolas Dessaux's website, that contains an original AD&D character class written by François Marcela-Froideval -- the samurai. This immediately piqued my interest, because the original responsibility for the writing of Oriental Adventures had been entrusted to Marcela-Froideval. However, the book that was eventually published under that title, though bearing Gary Gygax's byline, was in fact entirely the work of David Cook. For that reason, many old schoolers have wondered what Oriental Adventures might have been like had Marcela-Froideval written it. We'll never know the answer to that question, but perhaps the samurai class he published in the pages of Casus Belli give some indication.

What follows, then, is my translation of the article into English. I hope its roughness can be forgiven: some of the terminology used in it is odd and the original article is written almost in shorthand, with certain words and phrases being omitted. I've tried to make the translation as intelligible as possible by filling in some of those blanks, but I have also retained its ambiguities and even errors. Since I didn't write it, what follows isn't Open Game Content and remains the property of its author. I present it here solely for discussion.

The Samurai

This legendary figure has not yet been recognized as a specific type of character in Dungeons & Dragons. The class that is closest is the monk. Here is a proposal that will give this kind of fighter a fully-realized existence.

He does not have very good strength characteristics -- Strength: 12 or more, Wisdom: at least 15, Constitution: at least 14, Dexterity: at least 16, Alignment: Necessarily Lawful, with a slight tendency towards Neutral.

Power

Danger Detection: There is no real range for this power. Even so, it is a feeling that has a limit of 100 meters.

Level	Detection Chance
1st-3rd	50%
4th-6th	60%
7th-8th	70%
8th-9th	80%
10th-11th	90%
11th-12th	100%

(This chart is a good example of where the original article has errors -- JDM)

Detection of Good and Evil

When concentrating, the samurai can detect good or evil in a person or in a place. The range of this power is 20 meters and can not pass through doors. The percentage chance of detecting good and evil increases in the same way as the power of danger detection. When the samurai does not focus, the percentage is reduced by 40%.

Kiai

When concentrating and fighting, the samurai can launch the Kiai to cripple his opponents, who are entitled to a saving throw against petrification. If this roll is successful, the opponent suffers a -2 penalty to hit, but, if the roll is failed, the opponent does not attack during this round. The higher the samurai's level, the more the saving throw is affected (-1 for every three levels the samurai has attained).

Concentration

When he concentrates, the samurai can raise his Strength to 18/00, with all the ensuing adjustments, for one round every hour. However, in such a state of concentration, the samurai is forced to push his kiai.

Damage Resistance

At 1st level, because of his endurance and training, the samurai takes only ⅔ the damage he receives.

When he reaches 3rd level, the samurai takes only ½ damage.

At 5th level, he takes only ⅓ the damage he receives.

Number of Attacks per Round

From 1st to 2nd level, the samurai strikes once per round. From the 3rd to 4th, twice per round. From 5th to 8th, three times per round. From 9th, four times per round.

The Samurai can fight with all weapons of Japanese tradition but his weapon of choice remains the sword (katana), which causes 1-12 points of damage. If this katana is of remarkable manufacture, it can strike at +2 on armor.

Level	Armor Class	Experience Points
1	5	4,000
2	4	8,000
3	3	15,000
4	2	30,000
5	1	52,000
6	0	104,000
7	-1	196,000
8	-2	390,000
9	-2	780,000
10	-3	1,170,000
11	-3	1,500,000
12	-4	2,000,000

There can be no more than one samurai of 12th level, 5 of 11th, 7 of 10th.

However, this very powerful type of character possesses numerous inconveniences: his loud Kiai possesses the faculty of attracting wandering monsters.

He gains levels very slowly and, if he fails in a mission given to him by his lord, he must immediately commit seppuku (hara-kiri).

Creepy Japanese Children's Art

Reader Seth Poppy has passed along this link to a webpage showing 30 children's book illustrations by Japanese artist Gojin Ishihara. The first sixteen come from a 1972 book entitled The Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters and would make great inspirations any Japanese-themed fantasy RPG, like Ruins & Ronin or Bushido.

REVIEW: Daimyo of 1867

Although very few historical RPGs have ever garnered a large audience for themselves, many gamers are keenly interested in history. One of the reasons historical RPGs tend not to become wildly popular is that "the past is a foreign country," an epigram all the more true when you're literally talking about the past of another land. Some players already find it intimidating enough to roleplay a character living in a past age of their own culture. Imagine how they feel when they're trying to portray a character from a different culture entirely. And of course many referees feel similarly intimidated -- perhaps even moreso, as they must portray not merely a single character but many and indeed present an entire historical culture in a way that's both "authentic" and accessible to the players.

Feudal Japan is probably one of the most consistently popular historical cultures to serve as the basis for roleplaying games. It has, to Western eyes, a powerful "cool factor" because of its samurai (and ninja), which are similar enough to European knights to be intelligible, yet different enough to appeal to the taste for the exotic and alien. But this cool factor, while important, isn't in my experience enough to support more than a few adventures. If you want to sustain a campaign, the referee needs more. He needs to draw upon the breadth and depth of feudal Japanese society, culture, and myth and that's a tall order for most of us. That's why, despite my love for Bushido, I don't really feel up to running a campaign with it.

Enter Daimyo of 1867, a "gamers guide to feudal Japan" written by Japanese-born game writer Tadashi Ehara, perhaps best known for acting as the publisher and editor of Chaosium's Different Worlds magazine throughout the 1980s. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of and research into feudal Japanese history, Ehara has produced a 336-page softcover book that catalogs each and every one of the 277 daimyo clans in existence in 1867. Each clan includes a picture of its mon or crest, the name of its fiefdom, its revenue, its social rank, ancestry, and more. In many cases, there are photographs of clan castles along with maps of the same. Some entries also include representations of famous personages associated with the clan, as well as brief biographies, histories, and information on connections between the various clans. Just as useful is an extensive collection of resources detailing the geography, history, population, religions, government, and monetary system of feudal Japan.

Of course, any book calling itself a "gamers guide" has to include game-related material and Daimyo of 1867 has about 25 pages devoted to generic gaming notes. These include campaign scenario outlines set in different eras of history and discussion of topics of particular interest to gamers, such as ninja, ronin, vengeance, and the like. In each case, Ehara makes clear what history has to say on these topics but doesn't lose sight of the fact that, in a game, it's often acceptable, even necessary, to alter details slightly to make things fun. In doing so, he manages to simultaneously inform and inspire and I found myself frequently imagining ways to use the information he imparted to create adventures and characters for Bushido. I can't imagine others won't be similarly inspired.

Daimyo of 1867 ends with a "daimyo name generator" to aid in the creation of plausible Japanese names. The generator includes the kanji for the names, along with their meanings. Extensive indexes, glossaries, rosters, and bibliographies round at the conclusion of the book. Taken together, it's an impressive package, one that is scholarly but accessible. The information the book presents is not only engagingly written, but it's also well arranged, meaning that you can easily find your way around the book to locate the details you're seeking. That's a pretty impressive feat, especially in a book intended for use with roleplaying games, which are notorious in their poor organization.

Daimyo of 1867 is excellent but it isn't flawless. First, there's its price: $59.99. That's quite a lot more than most gamers expect to pay for any gaming product, especially one as niche as this one. On the other hand, if one is running a game set in or inspired by feudal Japan, it's money well spent. Second, though the book includes a plethora of details about earlier periods, its main focus is on the latter days of Japanese feudalism. As its title suggests, its baseline is the 19th century, as the ways of the samurai were dying and the flashing swords and clan wars so beloved of gamers were (mostly) a thing of the past. Still, there's enough information on earlier eras here, along with plenty of bibliographic pointers, that it can serve "double duty" as a sourcebook for earlier, more violent times.

Despite these caveats, I daresay that Daimyo of 1867 is the only book about historical Japan that you'll need to run a great campaign, one that is both reflective of Japanese culture as it actually was but also intelligible to non-scholars. That's as strong a recommendation as I can make when it comes to historical RPG source material and I hope that the virtues of Daimyo of 1867 are widely recognized.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're playing a RPG set in historical or semi-historical Japan (or a setting inspired by it).
Don't Buy This If: You're not especially interested in historical Japan or don't play RPGs based on it.

Japanese Stormbringer

One of the things I really love seeing are foreign language editions of English language RPGs. I find it interesting to see how a game I'm familiar with is "localized" in terms of artwork and presentation. Unlike some gamers on the Net, I don't place a lot of stock in the notion that foreign editions are almost always better than the originals when it comes to esthetics -- I've seen too many positively awful foreign language editions to believe that. Nevertheless, there are times when foreign editions look just awesome or otherwise make me wish that they were available in translation. (And Games Workshop often proved, way back when, that it was often possible to produce another English language edition that was better than the original)

Anyway, my world traveling friend (and player of Vladimir the dwarf) is in Japan on a business trip and sends along the following image:

It is, as you can see, a Japanese edition of Chaosium's Stormbringer RPG (the 5th edition from the looks of it). I think it looks absolutely awesome.

Retrospective: Bushido

When gamers talk about "medieval" or "feudal" Japan, they're usually referring to the Sengoku or "Warring States" period of the mid-fifteenth through the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. This was a period of decentralization and destabilization, as power shifted away from the shogunate to local daimyos, bringing with it lots of military conflict and political intrigue. This makes it well nigh perfect for the kinds of mayhem characters in RPGs create, which probably explains the appeal of the era -- well, that and the ninjas.

The difficulty with Sengoku era Japan is that it takes place not only in the past but also in a foreign country. Most gamers haven't the foggiest notion about Japanese culture beyond what's been popularized (typically inaccurately) through comics, movies, and TV shows. To create a RPG set in the era that hits all the right notes is thus a difficult task. Many gamers want their historical games to be "authentic," but don't necessarily want them to be "realistic." That is, they're not content with games that get socio-cultural details wrong, even as they're not so keen for those details to get in the way of creating the cool character of their dreams.

It's a tough line to walk and, in my experience, very few RPGs of this sort ever succeed completely. One of the rare exceptions is 1981's Bushido. Published by Fantasy Games Unlimited and written Paul Hume and Bob Charette (who'd go on to lasting fame with their game Shadowrun), Bushido opted for a what might be better called a "mythic" approach to the Sengoku period. That is, the game's setting, Nippon, is historical Japan -- the place names and geography are the same -- but it's not strictly historical, since it's filled with ahistorical NPCs, events, and, in some cases, supernatural beings. It's a bit like the Ars Magica approach to medieval Europe, albeit subtler, since Nippon is much more "realistic" overall than AM's Mythic Europe. Consequently, Nippon somehow doesn't come across as nearly as intimidating as it might if it were presented simply as historical Japan, thereby making it a far better RPG setting in the process.

As a game, Bushido is very interesting. Its rules are complex, although not as complex as one might expect from an FGU product. Much detail is given to combat, which is both expected for an RPG of the era and for one set in medieval Japan. Of course, Bushido has rules for far more than combat, including skills, ki powers, and magic. As one would expect, the game also treats questions such as honor and status within Nipponese society, as well as how one acquires and loses them. It's here, I think, that Bushido really shines, at least if my experiences with the game are any indication. Players quickly acclimate themselves to the rhythms and values of Nipponese life once they see that many of the usual RPG problem-solving tactics will get them killed or, worse, ostracized. There's something truly glorious in observing this transformation in one's players and it's a testament to good game design that such a transformation is even possible, let alone likely.

I have a lot of fond memories of Bushido, which always struck me as more "serious" than any of its competitors, including TSR's late entry Oriental Adventures. I often call Bushido the "Japanese Pendragon" and I think it's apt: both games treat their subject matter with respect, adopting an approach that's neither too historical nor too fantastical, a middle road that encourages good roleplaying in a culture whose values are often at odds with those of contemporary Western society. That's an impressive achievement in any era. That it was achieved more than 25 years ago is all the more remarkable.

Plus, you've got to love any game whose random encounter table includes almost as many different types of "rude peasants" as the Dungeon Masters Guide does harlots.