My samurai campaign with Mythras/RuneQuest

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Runeblogger

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Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum. Since The Butcher and Dumarest showed interest, I'll tell you a bit about the samurai campaign I'm running with Mythras/RuneQuest:

I'd always wanted to do this since I read old Land of Ninja by Chaosium. I also wanted to try out the new RuneQuest 6 (now called Mythras) and one day the stars got right to fulfill both wishes. I've written some posts about it in my Runeblog. However, most of it is in Spanish, as that's my mother tongue, but if you're interested, you can use the translation gadget on the righ margin to translate the text. It won't give you a perfect translation, but close enough to understand let's say 90% of it. :-)

As I explain in this post, I'm basically adapting Mike Montesa's campaign Shiki for the Sengoku RPG as a the basic frame, and using material from here and there. You can see my campaign map here, since most of the action happens in the province of Suruga. It started in 1540. The campaign is only about 1/3 historical though, so daimyos and lots of names differ from actual historical events to suit my needs. But Takeda Shingen in the north is starting to pose problems, for example. :wink:

I've written some chronicles of the campaign. They start here with the scenario for Samurai of Legend: "Under an Opal Moon" (by Loz Whitaker). I also like writing posts about the rulesy side of those sessions, like this one. We've had already two sieges, and open skirmishes with the rules for mass battles. The players have been in Miyako, in Osaka, Nara, up in Ezo (Hokkaido) and down in the underwater palace of the Great King of the Oceans. They have played through a part of Bushido's Valley of the Mists (also adapted for Mythras - it was old-school hell for them!), and they are still figunring out how to lift the curse that haunts their 9-year-old lord while at the same time doing their best so that the aggressive lord Ishizaki, who conquered half their lands 9 years ago (and killed all their relatives), doesn't get to conquer what's left of Suruga! The campaign is nearing its end...

And still... it won't be near as epic as Pete Nash's samurai campaign! (sigh) :cry:
But yes, we're having fun, anyway.
 
Hey Runeblogger Runeblogger, awesome to see you here!

And damn, I wish I got to play in this campaign, or that I had the chops to run something in that vein.
 
¡Bienvenido! o ¡bienvenida!
 
Ths thread made me curious if therewas upcoming plans for a Mythras Japan supplement, and I came across this post by Loz Loz on another forum:

No, we don't have any plans for a Mythic Japan sourcebook. Both of us love ancient Japan and are involved in a long running Bushido campaign with huge doses of myth, but we're going to resist the urge to do such a book for Mythras for three main reasons:

1. There are lots of Mythic Japan books and games. For RQ, Legend, Burning Wheel, GURPS, D&D, Sengoku, Bushido and, of course, Legend of the Five Rings. We'd want to come up with something fresh, and it's very difficult to do.

2. Legend already has Samurai of Legend (written by me) that is about 95% compatible with Mythras, and set in the Heian period.

3. There are lots of other Mythics just begging to be done that haven't been tackled yet: India, Egypt, Mexico/South America, Polynesia, Yorkshire... we'd rather focus on some eras that haven't received quite as much attention.

We won't say never, but it doesn't figure anywhere in our current or near future plans.

So apparently Loz already authored a Samurai supplement for Mongoose's Runequest that is pretty compatible with Mythras, Samurai of Legend.


samurailegend.jpg

Curious if anyone here owns it and has any thoughts on it they'd like to share? I think Mythras would be perfect for a game set in Feudal Japan, and campaign ideas are already floating in my head, with a mix of Kurusawa films and Princess Mononoke
 
Ths thread made me curious if therewas upcoming plans for a Mythras Japan supplement, and I came across this post by Loz Loz on another forum:



So apparently Loz already authored a Samurai supplement for Mongoose's Runequest that is pretty compatible with Mythras, Samurai of Legend.


View attachment 35009

Curious if anyone here owns it and has any thoughts on it they'd like to share? I think Mythras would be perfect for a game set in Feudal Japan, and campaign ideas are already floating in my head, with a mix of Kurusawa films and Princess Mononoke
It's a great supplement, but Heian is very different from what Kurosawa depicts. A thousand years of history can do that to a culture (Kurosawa usually goes for Edo Japan).
 
It's a great supplement, but Heian is very different from what Kurosawa depicts. A thousand years of history can do that to a culture (Kurosawa usually goes for Edo Japan).


HaHa! I know nothing about Japanese history except samurai and ninja are teh roxxor
 
HaHa! I know nothing about Japanese history except samurai and ninja are teh roxxor
Well, it's got more-or-less distinct ages, like all history for that matter...:smile: Most of what you know about Japanese history is likely based on Sengoku and/or Edo periods, the last ones before the shoguns were abolished and the country went to industrialize after the Meiji revolution.
It simply ain't true in a different age...especially one that predates Sengoku by several hundred years.

Very, very roughly speaking, the Heian age is the time when the samurai aren't the ruling class, though one could argue they're starting to get a legitimate claim by the end of it. There are basically no katanas (the sabers used are different), definitely no daisho set, and the most respected weapon is the bow. The emperor probably has way more influence than during the times of the Tokugawa shoguns, and so on and so forth.
Surprised? Don't be. Judging Heian by the standards of Kurosawa is like expecting a Viking Age jarl to be using an epee based on what a noble in 19th century Sweden is carrying...same difference from historical point of view:wink:.
And I'm not going to get into societal mores any more than that, but let's say those are different as well:thumbsup:.


That said, I LOVE the plans of The Design Mechanism! Mythic India? Hell yeah, baby, sign me up!
Same for Mythic Egypt, Mythic Egypt, Mythic Mexico/South America, and Mythic Polynesia, BTW...and Mythic Greece as well, though it ain't listed. (I mean the Age of Heroes, Mythic Constantinople doesn't cut it by over a thousand years).

Mythic Yorkshire I can get or not, honestly...Though who am I kidding, of course I'm going to:grin:! Just not in hardback, probably...

Loz Loz - got any plans for Mythic Central Asia or at least thereabouts? Mythic Mongols, for example, or whatever:tongue:?
Same question for Mythic SE Asia, BTW! Those are two regions I just love. But alas, never had much luck getting any decent gameable info on them!
 
That said, I LOVE the plans of The Design Mechanism! Mythic India? Hell yeah, baby, sign me up!
Same for Mythic Egypt, Mythic Egypt, Mythic Mexico/South America, and Mythic Polynesia, BTW...and Mythic Greece as well, though it ain't listed. (I mean the Age of Heroes, Mythic Constantinople doesn't cut it by over a thousand years).
My knowledge on these:
Mythic India is being considered but no writing has really been done
Mythic Egypt has not really been entertained, but there is some in the Spanish language Mediterranean supplement
Mythic Mexico was out on hold as the author had another project
Mythic Polynesia is written and going through editing if I remember correctly. It’s on its way for sure.
mythic Greece is actively being worked on by Pete, and is Mycenaean Greece.

as far as I know there are no plans for mythic Yorkshire nor mythic Lithuanian commonwealth. It pains me to be the bringer of these terrible tidings.
 
Sorry to necro-post, but I've been looking for information about this exact thing, as that is my upcoming plan now that my Anglo-Saxon campaign has finished (with glorious death in battle! They went to Wodan with swords, spears, and axes in hand.)

Should be some great help for me in making a samurai campaign (with a Witcher twist to it) with Mythras.
 
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