This evening, I opened up my Chanbara draft file, and set to work revising and categorizing the Secrets, or magical special abilities.
I wanted to get rid of a lot of the ones I'd created before that were die mechanics tricks. Getting to roll two dice and keep the better, or rerolling if you fail, or whatever is nice and all, but it's not very flavorful.
The new set still keeps a couple of those, but mostly they are now magical things you can do, or protections from magical things others might do to you.
They're also organized into six categories now: Gogyou (the Five Elements), Hikyou (Esoteric), Ki (Life Energy), Tamashi (Spirit), Yang (Active Principle) and Yin (Passive Principle). Yes, Yin and Yang are Chinese, the Japanese for them is In and You. I'm thinking about how much Japanese I should actually use in this game, and most English speakers are already familiar with Yin/Yang.
With these revisions, I'm finished with the special abilities (equivalent to the Martial Arts Maneuvers in Flying Swordsmen), and think they will go a long way towards customizing characters, making the game more fun, and giving it that "mythic Asia" feel.
Next, I'll revise the character class descriptions a bit, then it's time to re-read and edit the spells and "running the game" sections, work on my idea for background abilities a bit, and finally write up the campaign world section.
I'm also considering if I should add a couple more playable races, or if I should go human-centric, and move the yokai races to an appendix as an option.
How about adding the races as an option. That way those who want the races and those who don't have the option to use them nor not.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely the way I'm leaning at the moment, Hoplite.
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ReplyDeleteWill there be stunts in the Chanbarra like in Flying Swordsmen? I played the old Dragonfist rules with a 3.5 game and the character was underpowered as I could only pick one stunt. So, while everyone else had their plus to hit AND damage, or a dex bonus, etc.. I only had one. I felt it would have been better to have the standard stat bonuses and to use additional maneuvers to replace stunts.
ReplyDeleteThere are stunts - or rather now skill dice, which may affect combat, exploration or magic, depending on your class. And at higher level, or with the right special abilities, you can use more than one at a time, or use one class of die as another class (like using your Athletics exploration die as a Melee combat die). Hopefully it's not as complex as it sounds once I get it hammered out and the description in the rules more concise.
ReplyDeleteNo, these characters will NOT compete with 3E/PF level bonuses. But they may be a bit overpowered if you're playing one in an OSR type game.