Putting together a new Chanbara Campaign

This evening, I got out my Chanbara book (one of them, I have several proof copies) and flipped it open to page 41. That has the chart Well-Rounded Nobles, Daimyo, Abbots, Ministers, Clan Leaders, and other important NPCs. Yes, it's a long and convoluted, archaic name for a chart. But it's one of my favorite innovations I put into Chanbara.

I started listing possible types of organizational Lieges that characters might want (or that I'd want them to have in this campaign), and rolling dice on the chart to figure out what each organization's leaders want, what they need, and what they are trying to keep secret. I came up with 10 different organizations and their leaders on the fly.

And the dice made some interesting ideas spring forth. The very first one, the want and need have the same target, and the want makes sense considering the need. Other results later on refer back to this. And different results here and there are easily construed as entangling the various lieges. Other complications arise from outside factions not listed, which gives me ideas for factions that cannot serve as a Liege to the PCs. In other words, groups that the PCs can easily come together to fight against since it won't go against their Liege.

Now I'm thinking of a setting for this campaign. Probably a smallish island with several resources that different factions want, two or three small coastal towns, and several dungeons/ruins/mystical locations around the island that will serve as good places to adventure. The various conflicts within the notes derived from rolling dice on the table can easily play out in a small, confined setting like that.

Sorry for not posting any definite details, but some of my potential players for this game read my blog.