Anyone play Sengoku? Formerly known as Bushido.

[RPMiller]

This thread is for anyone that wants to discuss Sengoku more in depth.

[Gamerprinter]

I downloaded Sengoku awhile back, and I'd have to say it is a very historically accurate version of a Japanese historical based RPG. Sengoku is of course, the Time of War. Prior to the Shogunate when this generalismo provided an iron handed central rule of Japan there was century of constant war between various noble houses, clans, and struggles to place different emperors on the throne.

Unfortunately, my players are fantasy based gamers - they like magic and monsters, more than historical gameplay. So I never could find a group to play Sengoku.

As far as fantasy based Japanese-esque RPGs go, Legend of the Five Rings is popular, though I hate the map, or at least the concept of a land-locked (more like China) Japanese empire. Much of Japan's unique history and culture is derived from the fact that Japan is an island nation. Separated from outside influences by at least the Sea of Japan.

On the same hand, I've never cared for Oriental Adventures, especially since WotC licensed the L5R Rokugan world map - eck!

As an aside, parsing out the name Rokugan (roku is Japanese for the number six.) What does six or Roku have to do with five rings?? "Go" is number five in Japanese, not that they should call it "Gogan", but steer away from vocabular usage to suggest the number six has anything to do with anything.

I agree, though if you want to play an historical Japanese setting, Sengoku is probably the most accurate available. Although the game mechanics rules in Sengoku allow for the katana fights against large odds, like you'd find in Japanese adventure movies - so there's a bit of fantasy element in the game play as well.

GP

[Turgenev]

As an aside, parsing out the name Rokugan (roku is Japanese for the number six.) What does six or Roku have to do with five rings?? "Go" is number five in Japanese, not that they should call it "Gogan", but steer away from vocabular usage to suggest the number six has anything to do with anything.

LOL! Gogan sounds like a Kaiju monster to me. I can see it now... Godzilla vs Gogan.

I checked my Japanese dictionary and 'gan' means 'cancer' - so rokugan could mean 'six cancers'. I also checked the name rokugan on Jim Breen's WWWJDIC (an online Japanese-English dictionary) and the closest match was rokudan which is the name of a koto composition.

[Nomadic]

As an aside, parsing out the name Rokugan (roku is Japanese for the number six.) What does six or Roku have to do with five rings?? "Go" is number five in Japanese, not that they should call it "Gogan", but steer away from vocabular usage to suggest the number six has anything to do with anything.

At least they didn't call it Shigan.

Nah I have never been big into oriental style adventures. That's not to say I wouldn't play one. It's more that I have yet to find one that I enjoyed (but again I haven't played many so there might be a few I just haven't heard of).

[Ascension]

All I ever played were the old Sega Genesis games "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (Risk-like game set in China) and "Nobunaga's Ambition" (same but in Japan). I enjoyed the heck out of those games and still do once in a while (hook up the old Genesis and send my ninjas out).

[Gamerprinter]

Not that I play much oriental RPGs myself, but there is a large fan base for them, and a lacking of content - as in the case of maps and map objects. So why not do a few, since I have the references to them correctly.

GP

[Steel General]

Haven't done any roleplaying in ages, I just enjoy creating stuff for it. I think an RPG like Sengoku would be interesting to try and I would think easy enough to add monsters and other such things.

[Gamerprinter]

As an aside, I am usually not the guy who enjoys watching foreign movies, especially those where I have to read "subtext" at the bottom of the screen since the movie hasn't been dubbed in English, and spoken in the original language.

If you want to learn more about Japanese culture, check out the movie "RAN" I am not a movie buff, but I know that this movie was directed by one of the most famouse (recent) directors of Japan (though he is dead now and I don't know his name.)

"Ran" is basically the retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear, but told through a Japanese samurai family, rather than an English one. Japanese adventure movies are bloody, bloody, gory. When a katana wielding samurai splays open an opponent, blood sprays all over the attacker and the wall behind him, and running all over the floor like a spilled 55 gallon barrel of blood - seriously.

There's a scene of a Japanese castle sitting in a valley, with thousands of flintlock bearing ashigaru (samurai henchmen) on a hill, which you can't see clearly due to volumes of black powder smoke filling the air, except for the flashes of gun fire, onto the castle that is splintering from bullet hits, dead Japanese defenders and rivers of blood flowing out - all the while some classical European musical score for sound - its an awe inspiring scene.

The final battle scene involves three armies each distinctly wearing the colors of their noble house (so you can easily tell who is fighting for whom) with thousands of blades and guns blazing, awesome filiming I tell you!

Like I said, I'm not into subtext movies, but this has got to be one of the best foreign films I have ever seen - and I haven't watched it in almost 20 years. If you want to get the feel for Japanese medieval war - watch this movie (don't know where you can find it, but do it. You won't regret it.)

GP

[Turgenev]

If you want to learn more about Japanese culture, check out the movie "RAN" I am not a movie buff, but I know that this movie was directed by one of the most famouse (recent) directors of Japan (though he is dead now and I don't know his name.)

"Ran" is basically the retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear, but told through a Japanese samurai family, rather than an English one. Japanese adventure movies are bloody, bloody, gory. When a katana wielding samurai splays open an opponent, blood sprays all over the attacker and the wall behind him, and running all over the floor like a spilled 55 gallon barrel of blood - seriously.

That would be Akira Kurosawa. He is also famous for such movies as The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and many, many more. He is considered as one of the best directors worldwide of all time. His samurai films are fantastic! I have to admit I haven't seen much of his other work... well, not yet at least.

[RPMiller]

Haven't done any roleplaying in ages, I just enjoy creating stuff for it. I think an RPG like Sengoku would be interesting to try and I would think easy enough to add monsters and other such things.

There actually are "monsters" and spells in Sengoku, but they are "traditional Japanese" monsters and spells.

We started work on a second edition of Sengoku, but we wanted to use an updated version of the Action! System since that is GRG's RPG system and we felt it would allow us to do a lot more with the second edition of Sengoku including adding in more fantasy elements for those that wanted them. Unfortunately through a chain of events Mark, the owner of GRG, had to put the development on hiatus and my work on the 2ed of of A!S came to a halt as well because of that. We tried outsourcing it, but it was just too expensive and RPG sales have been on a down turn for several years now so you can imagine the minimal amount of sales that would come in from such a niche product line.