4 out of 5

“As usual, some great ideas. I love the new races, especially the Morgane, and the Hidden Folk are a great twist on elves. The Knights of Solomon could make for tremendous antagonists or even an interesting campaign option.”

-Oni

5 out of 5

“A sourcebook just CRAMMED with plot hooks, story seeds, new races and optional rules. Chapter one has enough information to run a whole campaign in an alternate dimension out of it.”

-Oni

I’ve just got the game, and while i think it’s cool and all, i have some problems with chi…

Lets imagine i have a character with 2 yang chi, 2 yin chi and some wushu off levels 2,3,4,5 which is feasible for a starting ninja.

Lets say i get into a fight and want to use my level 4 chi…
I’ll need to burn a permenant chi so i now have 7 chi. I spend the 4 and have 3 left.
Next round i want to use my 2 point wushu and i do. 1 chi left.
The next round i want to use my 3 -point wushu, but dont want to burn another chi.
I could burn stamina - but i only get 1 point so that won’t help.
I could also mold chi, but that would also only give 1 point, and costs me 2 actions!
Surely these gains are too low??

So instead i would have to burn another permenant chi, gaining 5 chi, spending the 3 and leaving me with 3.
Lets say i win the fight. I now cannot spend more than 3 chi for the rest of the day.

If i got into another fight (probable) in a 24 hr period and needed the L5 wushu i would have to mold chi for a round, then use a stamina to be able to use the wushu, and then be left on 0 chi and not be able to mold (since i can only do it once every 6 rounds) and only be able to one stamina point a turn.

Please tell me where i am wrong, because from reading the rules (split across three seperate chapters) i think this is correct, but to me it doesn’t work. I’d basically only be able to use chi once every two days…

Just thought I’d share a bit about the direction I want to take my campaign when it starts at the end of September.

The Empire hunts you, its legions beyond reckoning.

For if you do not, you and all your kind will be consumed by the gathering darkness.

Thats the pitch, and basically I’m going to paint the conflict between the empire and the ninja as a tactic to weaken both. As cliche as it might sound, dark forces conspire to weaken both the legions of the empire and the chi manipulators so as to make a land ripe for the taking.

And who better to carry this out than the Oni princes, True lords of the hundred hells. At the beginning of creation, they were driven into the void by the celestial beasts and sages weilding the forces of creation itself, and they have been biding their time, waiting to strike. Now, they send their corrupted shinobi to carry out their dark purpose (killing the empress, poisoning the princess and ruining the marriage between the snakes and the hounds).

But of course for my PCs its going to be very much Empire vs Ninja for now.

Comments?

prototype00

Initiative
Just take turns. Seriously, the simplest way to change combat is to just forget about the tracker all together. While it does provide strategic options for your game, it can also slow you down (especially if you have players that find it hard to make up their mind on the moves they want to make). So, everyone roll Initiative per normal and then just go in order from Highest to Lowest. Go around until everyone’s exhausted their Actions. Those with more actions still get to use them, giving them an advantage. Next Round, roll again. I might double the penalty for a Strong strike (cause we don’t want everyone’s actions to always be that), but otherwise it’s a no-brainer.

Stamina
Then, we come to Stamina. For a quick game, instead of counting each Stamina point, they can become a slightly smaller pool of points that the player can use at their leisure. This is similar to what was used for Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade. The character would get a number of Stamina points equal to their (VIG+INS)/2 - rounded down. So, a character with VIG 5 and INS 4 would start with 4 Stamina points. And then have the Stamina points be able to do cool things like:
- Give +3 to an Action or Reaction
- If an Action or Reaction requires more than 4 individual points, they now need 1 Stamina point instead
- For Magic, I’d have the character spend a number of Stamina equal the spell level (1 point for level 1, 2 points for level 2, etc.). Give the player the option of sacrificing Health for Stamina in this case on a 2 to 1 basis. That’ll let them take damage instead of draining themselves if necessary.

Thoughts?

-Oni

————
Next thing was Bows (yumi) the damage is listed as being based off Power, but not how it’s determined I ended up just saying it was the same as the grasping shadow had listed. Also I saw Strike and thrown weapons for combat modifiers. After looking at Aim it seemed to me bows were based on Strike and used that which seemed to work, but again I wasn’t sure. Also are bows/thrown weapons able to be performed with the various strike options? I just left it as with a bow the player must use light, I figured that gave a good reason to go into melee. Is Strike the correct bonus? Can bows be used with different attacks?  How is bow damage determined? Also reloading guns, how does that work, speed action etc?
————
For healing there are rules for Holistics being used to treat wounds, but it doesn’t seem to have any affect listed if it is performed. I ruled that it doubled healing times with a DC20 roll (10 with no activity in a day) which was likely a bit high. Without a bamboo character it seemed an expedient way to get a character back in the game after a couple days rather than a week.
————
With currency, I saw weapons had costs like 1, 2, or 3.. But what are they using Yen? I think I missed it in the book.
————

Also I noticed the living scroll pre gen is listed at 4 actions, but it looks like they should have 2 due to their martial arts, if not how did they get so many?
————
I think there were a few more questions, but that seems good for now. Thanks in advance for help figuring these things out we had a good time, but being new to the rule system I pulled a lot out of my back pocket

1.) When a Wushu has no set duration such as eagle eye from Way of Beasts, how long does it last?

2.) When sacrificing a permanent chi to gain effects, it says that you can gain the effect of a “yang/yin wushu”. Is this a Yang or Yin wushu of any level and of any Wushu path? Or is a wushu the practitioner must know?

3.) I notice that there are no stats for snakes in the antagonist section. Is this deliberate, or should there be a snake entry? After all a summoner can have a snake ally.

4.) What does the IQ next to the Reload speed of the firearm mean? Same question for Agy for the Sling and the Yumi.

Thanks for the answers,
prototype00

These following animals are fine and fit for combat:
Bears
Dogs
Large cats (will probably allow ninjas who contract with cats to have a familiar that can switch between the two forms)

Some of the buffs will be a lvl 1 thematic wushu that is constantly on for the animal in question.

Rats will have The unnoticed from Way of the Unseen.
Hedgehogs will have Eagle eyes from Way of Beasts. (The better to find those rings with)
If there are celestial horses in the future they will probably have Surface running from Way of Movement
Ditto for celestial pigs who would have Foraging Technique from Way of Survival (Have you ever seen a pig go hungry? He’ll probably share if you ask.)

Others will be powerful (level 3 or 4) wushu that the animal can use 1/day

Monkeys will have Human form from Way of the twin beasts (Monkey see, Monkey do)
Roosters will have Fire-Breather from Way of fire (Blood of the Phoenix)

Finally, the celestial animal might enhance the combat ability of the ninja themselves

Snakes will allow the user to deliver a poison attack (20 difficulty to resist, choose 1 of +5L damage, weakening or sleep) when striking unarmed (+2 speed if using an unarmed attack so as not to punch the snake, no modifier if using a touch attack)
Rams can be “worn” as a sheepskin cape with massive horns that give the summoner a vicious headbutt. (+3NL damage when using the unarmed strike)

Hmmm, too powerful?

prototype00