Today we’re going to tackle Bushido, a 1980 game set in a fantasy version of Sengoku-era Japan—the period of civil war extending roughly from 1450 to 1600 by Western dating. It’s not entirely clear what the designers’ source material was—the references they provide for players consist of The Book of Five Rings, James Clavell’s novel Shogun, two widely-known books on East Asian martial arts by American judo master Donn Draeger, and the entire genre of Japanese samurai films (though predominantly Kurosawa’s works). I have some concerns, therefore, about their grasp of the cultural context from which this material comes, especially where it concerns the supernatural.*
That said, let’s dig in anyhow.
We begin character generation by rolling a d20 to determine caste. The four “castes” here don’t quite correspond to historical Japanese social strata, but they at least kind of make sense in the context of an adventure game set during a civil war: Samurai, Ronin (masterless samurai), Peasant, and Ninja. I roll a 13 to get “peasant,” which is the most likely result.
Within my caste I’ll also have a rank, which is really the rank of the family I’m born into. That’s a simple high/middle/low split with equal odds on a d6; I roll a 2 for a family of low status among peasants. Fortunately for me, this is an era of heightened social mobility.
My caste and rank intersect to determine my starting on, which is roughly translated as “reputation.” As a low-ranking peasant, I begin with a score of 5. Adventuring will give me plenty of opportunities to increase this number.
Next I must choose a Profession. These are basically character classes: Warrior, Martial Artist, Magician, Scholar-Monk, and Ninja. I can’t choose Ninja; only characters born into the Ninja caste can become Ninja by trade. I’ve been kind of avoiding magic in previous characters, so this time I’ll lean into it and make this character a magician, or Shugenja in the game’s terms.
Now I can determine my Attributes through a point-buy system (which is actually pretty cutting-edge for 1980 RPG design). There are six Attributes, and I have sixty points to divide among them, after which I will apply some modifiers based on my choice of profession. The Attributes are Strength, Wit, Will, Deftness, Speed, and Health. As a magician I expect that Wit and probably also Will should be my most important abilities, but I don’t want to neglect anything too much, and since some of my modifiers will be negative I don’t want to end up with a less-than-zero score anywhere. I’ll get +5 to Wit, +15 to Will, and -5 each to Strength and Health. That’s actually a pretty good argument for buying 10s across the board; I don’t want to be much weaker or sickly than fives would give me, and 25 seems like a goodly large score for Will. Also, it’s easy. So, adjusted Attributes:
STR: 05 WIT: 15 WIL: 25 DEF: 10 SPD: 10 HLT: 05
Next, there are several Abilities that are derived from these Attribute scores. From Strength we derive carrying capacity (6 x STR, in this case 30 lbs) and damage adjustment, which for a score of 5 is -1. I wasn’t planning on getting in a lot of hand-to-hand combat anyhow.
From Wit we determine initial literacy score (2 x WIT = 30, which gives me the ability to read and write). Wit also determines how many skills I’ll be able to improve, which is 15.
Will determines (and is the same as) my initial Spell Power score, ergo 25. Spell Power is a reserve of energy used for casting magic, so it will be spent and regained over the course of play. It also determines the rate at which I improve skills, but it does so compared to the average for my profession, so that 25 only gives me an improvement rate of 2.
Combining Wit and Will provides the base rating for my spellcasting ability: 40.
Deftness determines Base Action Phase, which in other games is called initiative. BAP is half Deftness, or 5 in my case.
Speed determines my Base Movement Allowance (10) and my Maximum Number of Actions (SPD/10, or 1).
Health, plus a die roll, determines my initial Hit Points. For Shugenja that’s a d3, and I roll a 3, which I’ll probably need with my base Health score of 5. That’s 8 HP to start my adventuring career. I’ll get another d3 worth of hit points every time I level up. Health also determines my healing rate: one-fifth my Health score, which comes out to 1. I need to stay out of danger, or at least find some beefy warriors to stand between me and the danger.
Each attribute also has a corresponding Saving Throw, the base number for which is one-third the Attribute score (rounded to the nearest whole number), plus my character level, plus any miscellaneous modifiers. So before I add any levels or other modifiers I’ve got STR 2, WIT 5, WIL 8, DEF 3, SPD 3, and HLT 2.
Then we come to an ability called Zanshin, which describes you ability to take multiple actions in the same turn. (since my starting MNA is only 1, I don’t think this ability is going to matter much to me.) Nonetheless, I add DFT+SPD+WIL and multiply that total by 2/3, obtaining a result of 30. Referencing the accompanying chart, I find that my Zanshin rating is 1 and will not reach 2 until I reach third level.
As I ascend in level I will accumulate Ki or personal energy, but as a starting character I have not had the opportunity to do so, and it starts at 0.
Next we determine my Inheritance. As a low-ranking Peasant I can’t count on much of a stake from my family, though. I set out with goods and money to the combined value of 0-2 gold, 2-7 silver, and 3-30 copper coins. The dice turn that into 1 gold, 5 silver, and 19 copper coins. Not bad! But before we see what I can buy with it, let’s see what else my family has been able to scrape together for me. I can select a weapon that is not a sword (those are reserved for Warriors), but I am advised to put off selecting it until I determine my initial skills. I also have a slim chance to receive some armor and maybe even a horse. 50/50 for some padded armor and 1 in 6 for a horse. Rolls of 5 and 3 on a d6 indicate that I get the padded armor but not the horse, which is still a pretty good deal.
After starting wealth comes starting skills. All characters have starting scores in Literacy (mine is 30, remember), Swimming, and Climbing and Jumping. The initial Swimming score is STR + WIL + HLT, or 35. The initial Climbing/Jumping score is DFT + WIL (what? OK, I guess), or 35.
In addition, my profession permits me an entry-level knowledge of one other martial skill. As a peasant, I get a bonus in the use of the iron smoking-pipe or kiseru. Unfortunately, I need a minimum Strength score of 10 to use it effectively, so I’ll take the dagger skill tantojutsu. My base score is STR+WIL+DFT or 40, and the bonus will equal my level and be applied to die rolls rather than added to the skill score (you roll skills on 1d20, so your skill scores are divided by 5 to determine your target number. My base chance with a dagger is 8, plus 1 for level, which means success on a 9 or less.)
I’ll also get a starting rating in one non-martial skill (in addition to my starting Literacy score). These are not so much practical skills, but rather the Peaceful Arts, many of which are samurai-class markers of refinement: haiku, painting and calligraphy, the tea ceremony, music and hawking, etc. (I would prefer some practical skills, but I will not engage in any Rule Zero antics for this exercise.) I get a class bonus for Astrology, so I’ll take that. My initial score is based on Wit and is a 15. With the class bonus that gives me about a 20% chance of interpreting the stars correctly.
All right, then, now for magic. There are five schools of magic, each related to one of the classical Chinese elements (not implausible, given how much Chinese culture Japan imported over the centuries, but one of those places where I’d like to see the designers cite their sources.) Each School is treated as a separate Skill, with a sixth category for the few general-knowledge spells that all shugenja start their careers with. All other spells after that must be learned in the course of play, from scrolls discovered by the shugenja while adventuring. The “starter-pack” school comprises five spells:
Legerdemain: this isn’t so much a spell as a sleight -of-hand trick, and it doesn’t even cost any magic points.
Light: creates a small ball of energy that sheds light in a 15’ radius.
Exorcism: banishes certain type of supernatural creature. It seems to be relatively ineffective at low levels.
Countermagic: used for dispelling other magicians’ spells, also not very effective at low levels
Detect Magic: What it says on the tin. Usefulness is in proportion to your knowledge of the other Schools.
As a starting shugenja I also get a starting score equal to Wit in one of the five elemental schools. (Though it doesn’t come with any spells, at least I’ll have some small measure of effectiveness in Detect Magic and Countermagic.) Healing spells seem to fall mostly under Earth (well, Soil in this translation), so I’ll start there with a 15.
Finally I can take my cash inheritance and purchase some gear to go with my padded suit and knife. It turns out that 1 gold, 5 silver and 19 copper won’t go that far, though since I don’t need heavy weapons or armor most of the things I might want are pretty affordable.(And the equipment list outside of fighting gear is both short and very D&D-derived.) A knapsack will cost me 3 silver, but I’ll be glad I have it. The gold piece is equal to 12 silver, so I can afford a lantern (4 sp), a water bottle (10 cp), flint and steel (15 cp), and a flask of sake (1 sp), that’s not quite 9 silver pieces worth of stuff. I can afford a length of hemp rope, but it’s kind of heavy and I can only carry 30 pounds comfortably, so I’ll skip it. That should leave me with 8 silver and 24 coppers as I go out into this war-torn land to make my name and expand my magical knowledge.
I still need a name, and the book doesn’t give a lot of guidance for what names are appropriate at what social strata. Well, Hideyoshi’s father was a peasant soldier, and his personal name was Yaemon, so I’ll use that. I don’t think Matsumoto is a samurai-class surname either, so we’ll call our aspiring wizard Matsumoto Yaemon. There’s a space for age on the character sheet, but the rules don’t discuss it. Learning magic is hard, especially when you start near the bottom. I’ll say he’s 40.
All right, then, let’s sum our hero up:
Matsumoto Yaemon, Level 1 Shugenja of Low Peasant Origin
Age: 40 On: 5 Zanshin: 1 Ki: 0
STR 5 carrying capacity 30 damage mod -1
WIT 15 improvable skills 15
WIL 25 Power 25 improvement rate 2
DFT 10 BAP 5
SPD 10 BMA 10 MNA 1
HLT 5 HP 8 HR 1
Money: 0 gold, 8 silver, 24 copper
Equipment: padded suit, tanto, knapsack, lantern, 30’ hemp rope, water bottle, flint & steel, flask of sake.
Encumbrance: 7.1 lb
Armor Class 2
Bugei (martial skills): Swimming 35/7/1, climbing/jumping 35/7/1, tantojustu 40/9/1
Peaceful Arts: Literacy 30/6/1, Astrology 15/3/1
Magic:
Spellcasting 40/8/1
School: Soil 15/3/1
Spells Known: Counterspell, Detect Magic, Exorcism, Legerdemain, Light
*Full disclosure: I have done graduate-level study in Japanese history, though I don’t read the language, and about 25 years ago would probably (in a pinch, mind you) have been able to teach an undergraduate survey on the subject. I haven’t kept up with the reading, however, and I’m more than a little rusty on the stuff I did learn. So I kind of expect to see some cringey stuff in the text, and I certainly expect to miss other stuff that these two Americans of apparent non-Japanese descent got wrong or at least misunderstood the appropriate context for.
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