Bushido (role-playing game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bushido is a Samurai role-playing game set in Feudal Japan, originally designed by Paul Hume and Bob Charrette and published by Fantasy Games Unlimited. The setting for the game is a land called Nippon and characters adventure in this heroic, mythic and fantastic analogue of Japan's past. It is thematically based on Chanbara movies, such as those made by Akira Kurosawa, in which the heroes are modestly superhuman but not extraordinarily so.

1 Overview
2 Supplements Published for Bushido
3 Other Oriental-Themed Role-Playing Games
4 External links

[edit] Overview

The Bushido role-playing game was released in 1981 as a two-booklet boxed set. Book I, "The Heroes of Nippon", incorporated the Rules of Play and the Players Guidebook and Book II, "The Land of Nippon", was the Gamesmaster's Guidebook. The game is now sold as a single book in which the two original books are combined (otherwise unaltered).

As with most role-playing games, Bushido players use characters defined by a series of attributes, skills, professions and levels. The professions are Bushi (fighters), Budoka (martial artists), Yakuza (gangsters), Ninja, Shugenja (Taoist-style wizards) and Gakusho (priests, either Buddhist or Shinto). Character progression is implemented by both down-time training and level advancement. There are only six character levels, an unusually small number in role-playing games.

Social aspects are very important in the game. Each character is randomly assigned at birth to a class in the strict feudal hierarchy of Nippon - Samurai, Ronin, various commoner classes, and Eta. For level advancement, honourable behaviour and loyal service to the character's social group (the local lord, the ninja clan, the temple, the gang, etc.) are as important as defeating enemies in battle.

The Bushido system is dice-based, most important rolls being made with a twenty-sided (d20) die. Although the rules system is relatively simple, the cultural setting, the deadliness of combat, and the need to preserve and build the character's honour score encourage role-playing and reduce "hack'n'slash" tendencies. The gamemaster can use the various social obligations of the characters to create dilemmas which cannot necessarily be overcome by violence.

Shugenja and Gakusho can use magic but it is relatively weak in comparison with many role-playing games. The social focus of the game also works to suppress the power of magic-users. At the discretion of the gamemaster, supernatural monsters may feature in the game, greatly increasing the importance of magic-users.