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.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Draft: The Hida Bushi

Tonight, let's address the Hida Bushi. I always think of the Hida as these giant masses armor with huge weapons bearing down on horrible monsters. Well, that's sort of what they are, but of course for my purposes the Hida must be something that is needed to translate throughout Hachigoku as a base Discipline. So when revising them, I focused on their imagery of heavy infantry focusing on defense. That gave them some Battle focus, but still makes them massive monsters themselves who understand pain, take it, and give it back.

I always though there were some anti-Shadowlands stuff in there, but there really isn't in any of the editions. So, good for that. Cool anti-Shadowlands stuff is better suited for Path and Advanced Disciplines, not for Basic Disciplines.

(But what about the Hiruma Bushi, you say? Well... that bit in the Preview may have been premature. You're gonna love the Kitsune Bushi, promise!)

This is perhaps the least altered Discipline compared to all their official incarnations. I got rid of things like added Void Points you could only use for Technique use. Why bother calling them Void Points if they don't act like them? These were later additions made to beef up the Hida withnout actually monkeying much with them anyway, trying to keep up with the Joneses.

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The Hida Bushi Ryuu

Basic Discipline: The Hida Bushi

Uji/Profession:
Hida Bushi
Benefit: +1 Stamina
Honor:
2
Skills:
Battle, Defense, Kenjutsu, Kyujutsu, Subojutsu, Sumai
Outfit:
Daisho, any bow, any 20 arrows, any 2 weapons, heavy armor, 1 kimono, traveling pack, 2 koku

Okuden

Rank 1, Way of the Crab:
The bushi train extensively in their heavy armor, and visualize themselves as mountains on defense, avalanches on attack. They ignore all heavy armor penalties when making attack or Bugei skill rolls, and add their Earth to all attack and damage roll totals.
Rank 2, The Mountain Does Not Move:
A Hida must be hard as stone to tear down. When taking damage from a single source, you can spend a Void Point and attempt to ignore the Wounds. Roll your Earth (TN equal to the Wounds about to receive). If successful, the Wounds (and any other effect tied to the damage roll) are canceled. If unsuccessful, you suffer the Wounds normally (and any other effects).
Rank 3, Two Pincers, One Mind: In battle, your weapon and you become one. When you spend an Action to make an attack, you can also make an additional attack. Also, during a Battle, any Battle Action assigned to you allows you to take an additional Battle Action, but only if it is against a member of a force with greater Advantage.
Rank 4, Fury of Hida: You can spend an Action to conserve your energy and await a perfect strike, exploding like a volcano. If you are successfully attacked and take Wounds before you spend another Action, you automatically attack and hit your foe in return. No roll is needed, but both the original attack and yours must be melee attacks. You roll damage simultaneously with the attacker; if you deal less Wounds than your attacker does to you, your damage roll is increased to equal the Wounds you suffer (calculate this after all other modifiers take effect). You cannot use this okuden if you are Down, Out, or Dead already.
Rank 5, The Mountain Does Not Fall:
Duty is heavy as a mountain, death light as a feather for the Hida. Even when Down or Out, you can spend a Void Point to immediately gain an Action in the current Phase. If Dead, you can still spend Void Points to gain Actions, but only until the end of the Scene. You can also spend Honor Points equal to your Honor Rank to activate both the Rank 2 and Rank 5 okuden instead of Void Points.

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As an additional thing, I'm making a slight alteration to the Rank 3 Okuden for the Akodo Bushi:

Rank 3, Strength of My Ancestors:
The Akodo bushi is never alone. Your ancestors are everpresent, and when you strike, the past echoes into the present. When you spend an Action to make an attack, you can also make an additional attack. Also, during a Battle, any Battle Action you assign to a member of your force allows the target to take an additional Battle Action.

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