Hachigoku はちごく 八国: A reworking of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG from both a setting and system viewpoint. I do not claim any ownership of L5R; this is purely a not-for-profit exercise in fun. And you're invited.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Draft: The Bayushi Bushi

Tonight, we tackle the Bayushi bushi. My original problem was that these sneaky bastards occasionally lacked cohesion, being mostly a collection of cheap tricks. That's pretty much their style, though, but as the rules that those cheap tricks functioned under changed wildly (especially, say, Feint) in my revision, the Discipline had to follow suit. And the original, in all its edition incarnations, always lacked both the stealthy and dishonorable edge I felt the Bayushi should wear on their sleeves.

If everyone is going to treat you like a conniving villain, act like it a bit more.

I dropped in an element of the ol' Bayushi Saboteur for good measure to heighten their emphasis on battlefield sneakiness. I'd really like feedback on Rank 2.

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The Bayushi Bushi Ryuu

Basic Discipline: The Bayushi Bushi

Uji/Profession: Bayushi Bushi
Benefit: +1 Intelligence
Honor: 1
Skills: Defense, Iaijutsu, Investigation, Kenjutsu, Kyujutsu, Sincerity
Outfit: Daisho, any bow, any 20 arrows, any 2 weapons, light armor, 1 kimono, traveling pack, 5 koku

Okuden
Rank 1, Way of the Scorpion: A Bayushi's wits must be as sharp and quick as his sting. You gain additional dice to your Initiative roll equal to your Intelligence; these extra dice are not kept. Also, when operating near a large distraction (such as a riot, explosion, natural disaster, etc.), you add your Intelligence to all dice roll totals for attempted actions (such as attack or Skill rolls).
Rank 2, Sharp Sting of Honor: Samurai praise honor; you understand it. It is not a shell protecting you, but a weapon. After you make a successful attack (one in which Wounds are dealt), you may sacrifice any number of Honor Points to force the opponent to lose an equal number of Honor Points; this is not an Act of Vice for you. If the opponent has less Honor Points than you sacrifice or no Honor at all, the excess is taken as Wounds by the opponent.
Rank 3, Pincers and Tail: Through timing and misdirection, your attacks seem to come from two directions at once. When you spend an Action to make an attack, you can also make an additional attack.
Rank 4, Beware the Tail: Learning the tricks of the Scorpion himself fortifies you against the cleverness of others. You have developed a sixth sense against danger; when spotted while attempting to hide, you can always tell and discern from which direction, if not the actual discoverer. Nor can you be surprised in an ambush. When using Defensive Maneuvers in combat, you gain a +Xk0 bonus to your rolls, where X is your Intelligence.
Rank 5, Pincers Hold, Tail Strikes: Distracting techniques gain precious moments before the strike to determine where the blow is deadliest. When making an attack roll, you may declare Raises after the roll is made.

4 comments:

  1. I get the intention with the rank 2, but I'm not so sure about the execution. I'm not really a fan of techniques that are this abstract, to be honest - it's hard to visualise *why* it does what it does. The wounding part would obviously only work against dishonourable opponents, which in my opinion doesn't really fit the Bayushi so well. I'm not sure what changes I'd suggest though...

    On the other hand, I like the rest of the techniques a lot :) Especially the rank 5! with your clarifications to raises, that really allows the Bayushi to pull all sorts of nasty tricks. In fact, I'd quite like to see some kind of bonus to making certain raises earlier on.

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    1. I really wanted to give the Bayushi some kind of ability to sacrifice Honor to force someone else into being dishonorable. I felt that fit the theme of sacrifice that runs through the Bayushi uji. It is a bit abstract, but it's a good opportunity to make those Honor rules work in a different, more forceful way.

      I see it as: "Here's my dirty trick!" "What? That's dishonorable!" "Sure. And you fell for it. Shame!" "Damn your tricky ways!"

      It's a little less justified when it goes to extra damage for 0 and non-Honor opponents, but as a basic Okuden I wanted to have teeth that didn't require only honorable opponents. This may change, however. You bring up a good point.

      I thought of providing specific bonuses for specific maneuvers, but decided to reject other Techniques of the Bayushi from other editions because I felt it boxed in the player's combat choices too much. I could supplement Rank 2 with something broad but flavorful. Any thoughts?

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    2. Off the top of my head, what about something like a free raise on 'dishonourable' manouvers? I'm not really sure what those look like, or if it's even a route you want to go down, but I could see the sense in classing something like a feint as a minor breach of honour. Then of course there would be more obvious examples, such as poison use.

      Hmm, I'm not sure. Anyway, just a thought!

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    3. I don't want to risk making "smart & clever tactics" begin to equal "dishonorable"; down that path lies the Lawful Stupid mindset. I'd rather the "dirty tricks" be left fluid to the imagination.

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