The Forge Archives

This is a brief overview post intended to give context to future posts about my game, Musha Shugyo. There is no specific question associated with this post, but feel free to chime in with comments if you have 'em.

Musha Shugyo is a game of wandering ronin in quasi-historical Japan. There are essentially two types of ronin. The first is the samurai who has lost all identification with honor. These ronin usually end up as bandits or other criminals. The second type is the samurai who has no master but still adheres to the samurai ethics and values his honor. PCs are the second type by definition. The only way to "lose" the game is to become the first type by losing honor.

The game is largely inspired by the comic book, Usagi Yojimbo. Readers familiar with that title will know the tone and style of adventure I am going for. The ronin wanders into existing conflicts, becomes involved, and eventually is pivotal to their outcomes.

Characters are defined by Strengths and Flaws that describe how they differ from the generic samurai profile. The assumption is that all characters are samurai and have the same basic set of abilities. Strengths and Flaws are assigned for each of three major categories: Bushido (includes the standard skills of the samurai from swordsmanship to tea ceremony), Personality, and Other (includes basic physical traits, everyperson skills, etc). Players get to assign one Strength and one Flaw to each category at character creation. Characters also have an honor rating (with an associated Strength and Flaw?). In addition, characters have defined relationships, both positive and negative. Character creation is concluded with the expenditure of some discretionary points that can be used to increase existing Strengths or get new Strengths.

Play is largely player-directed. Scenes are framed by the GM, but players have the option to spend resources to frame scenes themselves. Players establish goals for their character's in the game, and conflicts can result in progress toward goals for the PC, the opposition, or both. Whichever side gets to the value of the goal first succeeds.

The core mechanic of the system involves determining the numerical difficulty (from 3 to 15) of a stated conflict by adding together a number of challenge categories (such as environmental difficulty and opposition). The player must match the difficulty of a conflict by assigning points to three risk categories of her choice. Risk categories essentially define parts of the character's story that the player is willing to give over to the GM, they include hindrances (encompassing injury and others), complications, setbacks, and more. The stated outcome of the conflict occurs by default—if the player says that her character is going to accomplish something, he does. The consequences of the conflict are what are in flux. After assigning the risk categories for the conflict, the player rolls 3d6 and assigns one to each risk category wagered. If the die result is greater than the wagered value, no consequences occur for that category. Otherwise, the full effect of the risk category occurs. The character's net applicable Strengths and Flaws add to the number fo dice rolled. If Strengths minus Flaws is positive, pick the greatest three dice results to use, if negative, pick the lowest three.

Players can earn Story Points when they suffer consequences. These can be used for a number of things later in the game, including claiming narrative rights and framing scenes.

Players can take obligations for their characters in play. An obligation is similar to a goal, except that it is usually not resolved as quickly, and its outcome can affect the character's honor.

At the end of each successful goal, players get to describe how their character has moved toward enlightenment and add a point to a strength, or remove a point from a flaw.